| “ | How do you do, people of the Three Great Powers. I’m especially honoured to meet two of the little sisters of the Maous and the former Governor of the Fallen Angels. I am Elmenhilde Karnstein. Please call me Elmen. | ” |
–Elmenhilde introducing herself, Volume 14, Life.2 The Rulers of the Late Night | ||
Elmenhilde Karnstein is a noble pure-blooded Vampire and a member of the Carmilla Faction, a female-dominated Vampire faction, that was previously in a civil war with the Tepes Faction, a male-dominated Vampire faction.
Appearance[]
Elmenhilde has a doll-like appearance with long wavy light blonde hair, deep red eyes, and a beautiful face similar to that of a Western doll. She also has a pale skin tone similar to that of a corpse. Her body measurements are [B75-W56-H80], height is [150 cm], and body weight is [42 kg].
She wears a red dress worn by princesses back in the Middle Ages, with an ornamented headdress. In Volume 23, she appears at the Hyoudou Residence wearing the Kuoh Academy girl's uniform. She also wears light pink nail polish on her fingernails and toenails.
Personality[]
As a pure-blooded Vampire noble, she originally had an extremely arrogant, noble, and selfish personality, often discriminating against those who were not pure-bloods, although she was capable of acknowledging someone's strength, even if they were outside her race. However, sometime after the chaos caused by the civil war in her homeland and Rizevim's actions, her personality underwent a significant change, as she becomes much more calm, sweet, sensitive, and kind, ultimately dropping her discriminatory and arrogant attitude, although she maintains an amount of stubbornness.
Due to the aftermath of the Vampire Civil War, in which numerous vampires from both the Tepes and Carmilla were transformed into Evil Dragons, it is revealed that Elmenhilde harbors a great deal of regret for being unable to help and unwilling to understand the troubles of the male vampires such as her uncle and cousin, which lead them to embrace the offer to be enhanced by the Holy Grail, therefore turning them into Evil Dragons. She hopes by competing in the Azazel Cup, that she can become stronger and not repeat her mistakes.
Elmenhilde is seen to act flustered and embarrassed at the mention of Issei, showing that she has fallen for him, showing a more shy side to her personality. Similarly to Ravel, she previously looked down on Issei, but over time, she developed feelings for him. She can be quite clumsy with trivial things when nervous, as shown when she tripped and dropped a tray of teacups by accident.
Elmenhilde is a fan of Gundam, a hobby she acquired after observing Seekvaira Agares' interest as well as a female Stray Devil who betrayed the vampire country for the sake of creating a Gundam peerage.[1]
History[]
Elmenhilde was born into the House of Karnstein, one of the highest-ranking noble Vampire families of the Carmilla Vampire Faction. At one point, she's chosen as the envoy to recruit Gasper Vladi to their side for the Vampire Civil War.
Powers and Abilities[]
Vampirism: As a Pure-Blooded Vampire, Elmenhilde has the abilities common to one, such as controlling bats and transforming into a flock of them and using them for means of reconnaissance. Their most famous trait is their immortal body, which won't die under normal circumstances, unless it is exposed to elements they are weak against such as contact with sunlight, holy water, Holy Swords, etc.
- Blood Consumption: Elmenhilde can absorb other people's powers by drinking their blood. The effects are strengthened if the blood she drank is a virgin's blood, as shown when she drank both Ravel's and Issei's blood, to gain the former's Phoenix wings of fire and the latter's crimson and black dragon aura. Elmenhilde can shoot enormous balls of dragon aura at her opponents. Issei's blood also allows her to temporarily walk in sunlight, though she suffers intoxication if she drinks too much. She could use this to suck the blood of artificial High-Class Devils until they lost consciousness.
Magic: Elmenhilde can create a Vampire-style magic circle to store away items and summon them back when she needs them.
Flight: Elmenhilde has demonstrated the ability to stay afloat in mid-air.
Equipment[]
Iron-Boned Dolphins: Elmenhilde can summon silver dolls that are fifteen centimeters tall and wield sabers and guns that are made out of silver.
Trivia[]
- Elmenhilde's birthday is on August 28th[2].
- "Elmen" refers to elm wood from an elm tree and "Hilde" means "battle", so the full meaning of her name would be "hard/hardened battle" due to wood being solid. Elmen possibly refers to the fact at first, Elmenhilde had a 'hard' (stubborn) personality due to being extremely arrogant.
- Elmenhilde's last name, Karnstein, is a reference to Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella Carmilla, where it is the main character, Carmilla's family name as a countess (which is parallel to Bram Stoker's Dracula). On that note, Carmilla predated Dracula by 26 years.[3]
- Her family name could imply she is a descendant of Carmilla.
- Elmenhilde's design is a redesign of a heroine named Suzutsuki[4]that Miyama-Zero drew for a game.[5]