Bernkastel

Witch of the Senate

"Rika Furude"

Bern

Daughter of The Void Darknest

Multiversal control

Ability to travel through dimensions

Reality selection

Immortality

Summoning

Teleportation

### Goals

Win against Lambdadelta (succeeded).Continue the game to satiate her boredom (briefly succeeded).

Get revenge on Beatrice and Battler for humiliating her in the game (failed).

### Crimes

MurderTorture

Psychological abuse

Mutilation

“ I am the cruelest witch in the world. I will make any opponent of mine surrender without fail. Even if that opponent is the Endless Witch Beatrice. So you must do your best as well. You won't bore me, will you? „ ~ Bernkastel

**Bernkastel**, also known as **The Witch of Miracles**, is the main antagonist of the *Umineko no naku koro ni* series. She is an extremely powerful witch that has lived a thousand years. It is said that she lives in a world where concepts like fate and possibility can be visualized. She can give birth to all kinds of miracles with her immense power but, in compensation for that, her heart ends up breaking a bit each time she uses them.

She is voiced by Yukari Tamura, who also voiced Nui Harime in *Kill la Kill*.

## Appearance

Bernkastel has long steel-blue hair and emotionless purple eyes. It should also be noted that she has medium sized breasts in the visual novel, whereas they appear to be flat in the anime. She wears a black and white Gothic Lolita dress with a blue ribbon. She has black shoes and white socks. She seems to have a cat tail with a blue ribbon tied on it. Her weapon is a long black scythe, which separates miracles from reality. In the original visual novel, she is depicted as an individual around her teens, whereas in the remakes, she is depicted as a child, almost half Ronove's height. In the manga adaptation of *Minagoroshi-hen* of *Higurashi no Naku Koro ni*, she takes on the exact same appearance as Rika Furude, the only difference is that she has emotionless eyes.

## Biography

### Background

Bernkastel's origins are largely ambiguous, but it is believed that she was once Rika Furude, and manifested from the despair that she suffered during the events of *Higurashi*. Rika denounced the Bernkastel side of her persona during *Saikoroshi-hen*, but Bernkastel presumably continued to exist on a higher plane of existence.

In *Dawn of the Golden Witch*, Lambdadelta explains that Bernkastel earned the title Witch of Miracles after being left in a torturous Logic Error created by an unnamed game master (later revealed to be Featherine), and compared Bernkastel's escape to the Infinite Monkey Theorem; stepping on a keyboard for centuries until she typed the word "Miracle", thus correcting the error, and earning the title "The Witch of Miracles".

A character who is presumably a younger Bernkastel appears to Miyo Takano and rewrites her history, preventing her parents being killed, which leads disastrous results for Hinamizawa decades later. It's unclear if this was deliberate, although it's more like likely she was bored and wanted to see what would happen if Miyo Takano stayed as Miyoko Tanashi.

Bernkastel eventually sponsors the Golden Witch, Beatrice, who is playing a logic game with Battler Ushiromiya regarding the mass murder of his family on a secluded island.

### Legend of the Golden Witch

Bernkastel makes her first appearance, briefly appearing in the metaworld, and telling Beatrice that she will be watching the game because she's bored, and Beatrice's story seems interesting.

### Turn of the Golden Witch

Bernkastel appears during Beatrice's Halloween party, wearing a goat mask. Bernkastel gets bored and leaves. Later, when Battler loses the hope to continue fighting Beatrice, Bernkastel appears to him and motivates him to continue.

### Banquet of the Golden Witch

Bernkastel is seen during Eva-Beatrice's coronation ceremony. Bernkastel congratulates her on her promotion, but cynically makes clear that she isn't impressed. Later, Bernkastel appears to Ange in 1998 to recruit her in saving her brother Battler from Beatrice, in an effort to make the game more interesting.

### Alliance of the Golden Witch

Bernkastel's contract allows Ange to enter the metaworld to see Battler, on the condition that she doesn't reveal her identity as his sister to him. When Battler begins to give up, she is forced to break the rule, and is removed from the metaworld as a result. Battler resumes fighting for Ange's sake, while Bernkastel and Lambdadelta gleefully declare that no miracles will occur, and Beatrice will certainly not win.

### End of the Golden Witch

After Beatrice gives up on trying to get through to Battler, she enters a catatonic state. Lambdadelta and Bernkastel take advantage of the opportunity to run Beatrice's gameboard. Lambdadelta, who understands the truth of the mystery assumes the role of game master, against Bernkastel, who inserts "herself" into the game in the form of Erika Furudo, a detective prodigy who fell off of a cruise ship and washed ashore the island just as the murders started. Bernkastel begins to reveal her true colors here, as she is seen torturing Beatrice with Red Truths about things that had no bearing on the mystery, resulting in Battler getting angry with Bernkastel.

When Erika rigs the game to frame Natsuhi as the murderer, piece-Beatrice, and Natsuhi are brutally executed by goats, and Bernkastel bestows Erika with the title "Witch of Truth" as a reward.

### Dawn of the Golden Witch

When Battler realizes the truth of the mystery, he is revived and challenges the victory of Erika and Bernkastel. In a logic battle, Battler manages to tie with Erika, enraging Bernkastel, who becomes physically and verbally abusive to Erika for embarrassing her, and demands a rematch against Battler, who is now able to become the game master due to his understanding of the mystery. Erika uses the abuse to her advantage, and Battler sympathetically allows her to use duct tape in his game, which she later uses to rig the game in her favor. Battler, who doesn't want to kill his family, has them only *pretend* to be dead to play a prank on Erika, however Erika uses a knife to kill them for real, while the rest of the family members are sealed in rooms with duct tape, leaving Battler, who was hiding in a bathroom to create the illusion of a witch, trapped in a Logic Error.

Bernkastel and Erika become greatly amused as Battler becomes comatose, and Bernkastel grants Erika permission to marry Battler's comatose body to become the Territory Lord, and fully avenge the embarrassment she suffered in the previous game. Before the marriage ceremony is complete, a revived Beatrice arrives and challenges Erika. After Kanon saves Battler from his Logic Error, waking Battler back up, Bernkastel, having been defeated twice in a row, wrathfully renounces ownership of Erika causing her to be erased from existence and sent to oblivion.

### Requiem of the Golden Witch

Bernkastel, now bent on getting revenge on Beatrice and Battler for embarrassing her twice, uses her power to create a "miracle fragment" from several other fragments. In this fragment, the Golden Witch does not exist, and a new person named Lion Ushiromiya is set to be the next head of the family. Bernkastel hires inspector Willard H. Wright to investigate this miracle fragment, with Lion as his partner, to find the out the truth behind Beatrice so she can become the game master and destroy the game board. She refuses to allow Will to leave until he provides answers.

Will and Lion question the fragment's version of the family members about Beatrice and how she died, leading to the conclusion that Lion is "Beatrice", but an alternate form of her. The "truth" of the story manifests as Clair Vaux Bernardus, and Will duels with her to solve her logic riddles, finally explaining the truth of who Beatrice is, allowing Clair to be put to rest.

Bernkastel then realizes that Lion is who Beatrice would be in an ideal world where Natsuhi didn't attempt to kill Kinzo's illegitimate child, and Lion is therefore Beatrice's "happy end." Bernkastel then sadistically cuts Clair's abdomen open and rips out her guts, saying she will make sure Beatrice doesn't get a happy ending.

Bernkastel and Lambdadelta then trap Lion and Ange in a theatre-like room, and show them the true events of the Ushiromiya mass-murder, that explain that the people responsible were actually Yasu, Kyrie, Rudolf, and Eva (although the latter's involvement was accidental). The reveal causes Ange to collapse into meat again, much to Bernkastel's joy. Bernkastel then transports Lion into the gameboard seconds before Kyrie murders him, but Will rescues him. Bernkastel attempts to kill them with a swarm of cats, but the two escape with help from Lambdadelta.

With her newfound understanding of the mystery, Bernkastel declares herself the game master.

### Twilight of the Golden Witch

Bernkastel is invited to Battler's party and plays a logic game with him and Beatrice that depicts Battler as being an accomplice to Kyrie in Rudolf in the murders. Ange falls into the game and becomes horrified seeing her brother and parents committing familicide and attempts to leave the gameboard, but is attacked by a swarm of goats. Erika, who has been resurrected by Bernkastel, rescues Ange from being killed and convinces her to retrieve the Book of the One Truth. Bernkastel sends Erika and her companions to launch an attack on Rokkenjima, summoning hordes of goats to devour it.

The Book is retrieved and taken to the City of Books, where Ange reads it and commits suicide upon learning the truth of the Rokkenjima Massacre, much to Bernkastel's amusement. Ange then revives in the Golden Land and heads to the City of Books with Battler and Lambda to retrieve the Book before Featherine can reveal its secrets to the world, which would result in the death of Beatrice and the destruction of the game board, as per Bernkastel's revenge plan.

Lambdadelta, has a change in heart and attempts to help the Ushiromiyas, and engages Bernkastel in a fight. The two are evenly matched until Featherine gets involved and kills Lambdadelta by dismembering her, delighting Bernkastel, who calls her stupid. Featherine returns to her seat as a spectator while Bernkastel continues to guard the Book of the One Truth, and Battler and Ange confront her in a final battle.

Bernkastel initially kills Battler after bisecting him with closed-room mysteries, but he is revived once Ange accepts her role as the Witch of Resurrection. Ange then resurrects her entire family and all of the illusions, who had previously died when the Golden Land crumbled, and defeats Bernkastel with a single strike, reducing her into a simple cat. To show respect for Ange's victory, Featherine resurrects Lambdadelta.

Bernkastel finally accepts her defeat and sews Lambdadelta back together before bidding her farewell, saying they may meet again when something cries one day.

## Quotes

“ A match won't be resolved unless enemies and allies gather. „ ~ Bernkastel

“ Isn't it nice how smart I made you look? „ ~ Bernkastel

“ I'll give you a full body massage in a bath with marshmallows and konpeito sometime soon. Enough to rub your skin off. „ ~ Bernkastel

“ You're nothing but a piece. Your absence wouldn't hinder my progress in this game in the slightest. If you can't think of any other theories in particular, please just go back to the piece tray and gather dust or something. It's painful to even remember useless pieces. „ ~ Bernkastel

## Trivia

* Bernkastel shares many ties with Rika Furude from *Higurashi no Naku Koro ni*.
	+ It has been stated in an interview that she is the personality of the one-hundred-year-old witch Rika separated herself from in *Saikoroshi-hen* and is the crystallization of only the cruelest parts left over from the 100-year-old witch.
	+ Bernkastel's obsession with disemboweling her victims may also be a reference to Rika's death in Higurashi.
	+ Ryukishi07 also stated that he has very detailed scenario about her and the other most powerful witches Lambdadelta and Featherine.
* Her full name is heavily implied to be Frederica Bernkastel due to Erika's duct tape seals reading, "E. Furudo Frederica Bernkastel" in the PS3 version.
* Bernkastel is fond of spoilers and does not hesitate to tell these to any of the game players, but due to the game's rules, she has no choice but to give small hints only.
* It's revealed in *Umineko no Naku Koro ni Tsubasa* that her influence is what lead to Ange's pure hatred for Eva.
* It is possible that Bernkastel is named "The Witch of Miracles" because she knows that miracles can't really happen and that everything is a matter of possibilities, since it's already been explained that she can only make a miracle happen if the possibility isn't 0%. She has also been called 'the witch who knows miracles do not occur'.
* Bernkastel, referring to Featherine as "Au-Au-rora" or "Fetherine... something... Au-au-rora" in the visual novel, implies that Bernkastel knows about Hanyuu and her tendency to mutter 'Au-au', when irritated or scared. This further implies Bernkastel and Rika were once the same person. A scene from the Tea Party ??? scene of EP3 where the witches discuss their ostensible experiences with Santa Claus further strenghtens this possibility.
* During the clash between Bernkastel and Lambdadelta in EP8, it is shown that they are so powerful that their clashes are capable of creating and destroying universes in a flash.