Arcueid Brunestud

The White Princess of the True Ancestors. The title Brunestud is given to those True Ancestors who are able to manifest the Millennium Castle Brunestud, and is likened to the royal family of vampires, though this is not entirely accurate. The True Ancestors were a race of beings copied from Type-Moon, a perfect being of the moon, also known as the Crimson Moon. Long ago, the planet's will had no defense mechanism against humanity, nothing to keep them in check. Upon learning of this, the Crimson Moon descended to Earth and offered to aid the planet by creating a race of perfect beings to rule over humanity, resulting in them becoming the "consciousness of the planet."[5] The True Ancestors are similar to phenomena such as earthquakes and typhoons, rather than individuals, as their actions, despite being evil and without reason, were natural to them (Arcueid and the other True Ancestors), just like breathing. However, the resulting race was fundamentally corrupted, possessing the same bloodlust as the Crimson Moon.[6] The True Ancestors had to use most of their power just to suppress the vampiric impulse, and since there was no cure for it, over time the impulse grew stronger, with more and more True Ancestors succumbing to it and beginning to drink the blood of everyone indiscriminately, while others most likely fell into an eternal slumber.

The True Ancestors had no particular reason for creating Arcueid. They typically formed new True Ancestors only to meet specific needs. There was no need for a being as powerful as her, but in the end, she arose from nothingness, simply as a product of the meaningless goal of "the strongest True Ancestor."[7] They used her immense power to fashion her into a weapon, an executioner for fallen True Ancestors and the most powerful Dead Apostles.

Arcueid is a woman with short, neck-length blonde hair and bright red eyes. Her traditional attire consists of a white, long-sleeved shirt, a long purple skirt, and black boots.

She performed her duties admirably, but she was little more than a tool. She was taught nothing beyond what she needed to know to hunt her targets, to the point that she even ignored the fact that she was as much a creature as those she was tasked with eliminating. After each kill, she fell asleep, and any memories unrelated to the hunt were erased.[8][9]

As an executioner, she was immune to the vampiric impulse, and the other True Ancestors believed she possessed none. A priest from the church seeking perfect immortality, Michael Roa Valdamjong, needed to become a Dead Apostle to continue his research, as he had already reached the limits of his human body's potential. Arcueid, unaware of her vampiric nature and the consequences of drinking blood, was easily deceived by Roa. After drinking his blood, she went berserk and destroyed most of the True Ancestors, unwittingly transforming Roa into one of the most powerful Dead Apostles (who also stole a significant portion of her power) before she managed to regain her sanity long enough to chain herself to the throne and fall asleep. Since then, she has had to suppress her bloodlust, like any other True Ancestor. The remaining True Ancestors were destroyed either by Roa or the rest of the Dead Apostles, who turned the hunt for their creators into a game.

Arcueid eventually succeeded in destroying Roa's original body, though she allied herself with the Burial Agency to do so. However, Roa was not completely killed, as he had mastered reincarnation and was continually reincarnated into a new body, chosen before his death. These hosts were chosen based on social status and the body's physical and magical potential. After Roa's original body was destroyed, Arcueid would fall asleep and awaken, only to kill Roa's new reincarnation. But she was never able to completely destroy him.

Arcueid is depicted as a capricious individual who, while understanding the basics of the modern era, seems unaware of social norms. Her behavior is almost childish, due to her solitary upbringing. Despite being over 800 years old, she has spent most of her life asleep and knows almost nothing about the world around her or how to communicate with others. Arcueid does everything in her power to avoid drinking the hero's blood, which nearly happens several times in the game, as he is practically the only person around her at night. After a battle in the city where she meets the hero, she has become dramatically weakened and has trouble controlling her vampiric impulses. She refuses to drink blood because she doesn't want to turn into a monster, feeding on human blood to survive.

Just as humans perceive the vampires who hunt them as "evil," from the perspective of the True Ancestors, "evil" is the people who enjoy nature's blessings while constantly plundering its resources. Born of nature, like any nature spirit, the True Ancestors are essentially copies of the Crimson Moon with minds and bodies modeled after humans, the latter having done so on the principle that it would be better for them to resemble those they were meant to rule. Because the Crimson Moon was their foundation, the True Ancestors not only found themselves disconnected from the natural drive to protect themselves from humans, but also inherited a terrible flaw from the original.

Anticipating that he would be unable to coexist with Gaia or Alaya, Crimson Moon Brunestud decided to create a new body before his destruction. Desperate to obtain a vessel that met the standards of the World, he helped create the True Ancestors, knowing that as Nature Spirits, they would not be targeted for destruction by the Alaya Monster. Since Brunestud failed to create a being of the same purity and magnitude as himself, he taught them how to create one himself, in order to expedite its creation. Since a True Ancestor of his purity was never born, no matter how hard he tried, he began exploring other possibilities. One result was Altrouge Brunestud, but even she did not reach a high enough level to succeed him. Although she controlled the Gaia Monster, which in some ways made her more monstrous than Crimson Moon, she herself was too unstable. It was only centuries after the Crimson Moon's demise at the hands of Kischua Zelretch Schweinorg that the True Ancestors managed to create the perfect body, the White Princess Arcueid Brunestud.[36]

Like other True Ancestors, Arcueid's vampiric impulses drive her to drink the blood of others. To suppress this impulse, Arcueid expends 70% of her power, reserving the remaining 30% for use in combat.[21][46][47] Those who could change the state of the world simply by thinking about it are instead forced to use almost all of these "thoughts" to restrain themselves. However, there is a limit. Due to the inability to address the problem at its root, the vampiric impulse builds until, finally, the True Ancestor is unable to control it with their power alone.[46][47]