Satella

Satella (サテラ) is the Witch of Envy responsible for the Great Calamity 400 years ago who is currently sealed underneath the Pleiades Watchtower. In reality, the Witch of Envy (嫉妬の魔女) is a separate personality that formed when she took in incompatible Witch Factors. Satella formally debuted in Arc 4 as a supporting character, whilst the Witch serves as an overarching antagonist throughout the series.

She possesses a yet-unexplained connection to both Subaru and Emilia, and was also the one who gave Subaru Return by Death. Throughout the series, the Witch silences Subaru whenever he attempts to talk about his ability. Satella herself did not debut until Arc 4, where she and the other witches helped Subaru accept himself and change his views on Return by Death.

Appearance
Satella, according to legend, was a half-human/half-elf demi-human woman with silver hair and eyes that were amethyst with a bluish tint to them. As a half-elf, Satella's ears were noticeably pointed. When she manifested before Petelgeuse in a realm devoid of light, the details of her face and the shape of her body were both obscured by pitch-black mist. The mist that engulfed her form was so impossibly dark that it blotted out the darkness of the realm. In this state, Satella's eyes glowed brightly in contrast to the rest of her form.

When she attacked the Sanctuary in Emilia's body, Satella's form was once again obscured. Although the contours of her body were difficult to ascertain, the shadows surrounding her made her seem as though she wore a dress of darkness and had long raven-black hair. Her voice was muffled to the point that it was difficult to distinguish whether it belonged to a man or a woman.

In the anime adaptation, Satella's clothing deviated significantly from the description provided in the light novel. In the anime, she wore dark-purple thigh-high socks with golden frills on the top, a dark-purple one-piece mini-dress with golden flower decorations, and a long dark veil that covered a part of her face.

When Subaru encountered her at Echidna's tea party, she wore a black dress made of shadows that seemed to wave in accordance with her heartbeat. Initially, he was unable to see her face because of a black shadow covering her above her neck, which was created out of his reluctance to accept her, however he later accepts her and becomes able to see her face, mentioning afterward that she looked exactly the same as Emilia.

Personality
Contrary to popular belief, Satella and the Witch of Envy are separate personalities, formed when she took in incompatible Witch Factors. The two personalities tend to fight each other. Both personalities love Subaru, though the Witch of Envy personality is much more aggressive about it, while Satella is much more reasonable and cares deeply about his well-being.

Satella
Despite being the Witch of Envy, Satella was never truly an envious person as a good-natured person, resulting in her incompatible with the Envy Witch Factors, creating the split personality Witch of Envy.

In Arc 4, it is revealed that Satella wants Subaru to kill her for some unknown reason.

Witch of Envy
According to Beatrice, Witch of Envy was starved for love before her imprisonment and was incapable of understanding human language. For unknown reasons, the Witch was obsessively in love with Natsuki Subaru, who, to his knowledge, had never met her before in his life. In the realm of darkness she called home, Satella would simply sit idly and monotonously repeat the words "I love you" over and over again, seemingly swamped by her own obsessive feelings of love towards Subaru. She was incredibly possessive over Subaru, as she wouldn't allow him to tell anyone else the secret of "Return by Death." She seemed to have no remorse nor did she pay anyone other than Subaru heed, as she didn't hesitate to execute Emilia when Subaru told her about "Return by Death."

When Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti invaded the body of Subaru, Satella confronted the Sin Archbishop. She was initially disappointed that the man she was face to face with wasn't her beloved, an emotion that grew with every passing second. Eventually her disappointment and despondency morphed into rage, as she was furious that someone would enter the space that was only meant for her and Subaru. The characteristic jealousy and possessiveness she was infamous for flared up and, in her overwhelming rage, the Witch of Envy tore the Sin Archbishop's soul apart. Despite the feelings and dedication he had demonstrated, Petelgeuse proved to be completely worthless and meaningless to the Witch who only cared for her beloved.

If the secret of "Return by Death" was learned by another person without hinderance, Satella would find a method of bypassing her imprisonment and slaughter all of Subaru's allies in that timeline, presumably as a form of strong reprimand fuelled by her possessiveness. Although she usually paid no heed to the words of anyone including Subaru, she would take noticeable offence if Subaru told her he preferred the other Witches of Sin to her.

The Witch of Envy is only in love with the concept of Subaru and wants his love, regardless of what he actually feels.

History
400 years earlier, Satella absorbed Envy Witch Factors she had no compatibility with, resulting in the creation of her Witch of Envy personality. However, this alternate personality was not the reason for her subsequently going out of control and killing countless innocent people and nearly destroying the world. Despite the efforts of many, including the Dragon, the Sword Saint, and the Sage, Satella was unable to be killed and was instead sealed in a shrine that is watched over by Shaula.

Despite being physically imprisoned near the Great Waterfall, Satella somehow maintained a link to Subaru's body and was constantly aware of his actions.

Abilities
Authority of Envy (嫉妬の権能 Shitto no Ken'nō): Satella is able to use the Authority of Envy.
 * The Witch Factors were a set of nine mysterious seeds of power each relating to one of the seven deadly sins (plus the additional sins of vainglory and melancholy). When absorbed by a person, a Witch Factor would metamorphize into an Authority, a power which, depending on its user, would produce various different affects. The potency of an Authority was decided by the personality of its wielder, as an individual who strongly embodied the sin of the Witch Factor they absorbed would have a more powerful variation of the Authority than an individual who embodied the same sin to a lesser extent. Additionally, the bearers of Witch Factors, including Satella, gave off a particular scent that attracted Demon beasts, terrifying man-eating monsters that were created by the Witch of Gluttony Daphne. Satella absorbed the Envy Witch Factor at some point in her past, bestowing her with the Authority of Envy. However, because of Satella's incompatibility with the sin of Envy, her mind cracked, forming an alternate personality that was more in-line with the persona of Envy. Despite her incompatibility with the sin of Envy, Satella's Authority of Envy was superior to the Authorities of all of the other Witches combined.
 * Although the abilities of the Authority of Envy haven't been revealed yet, in the Web Novel, Minerva mentioned during the Witches' Tea Party that Satella might direct her jealousy (妬み Netami) toward her if she stepped in between her and Subaru, suggesting that it's something that affects people remotely.

Authority (権能 Ken'nō): When she devoured six of the other Witches of Sin, it is likely Satella gained their Witch Factors in the process. It's implied that she is capable of using the Authorities of the Witches after she absorbed their Witch Factors.


 * Unseen Hand (見えざる手 Miezaru Te): This is evidenced by her capability to use the "Unseen Hand", a power of the Authority of Sloth that belonged to the Witch of Sloth Sekhmet. The "Unseen Hand" was a technique that allowed Satella to summon numerous invisible hand-like appendages from her body that she could move and extend telekinetically. Her version of the "Unseen Hand" was far more potent than Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti's. "According to Puck, Satella was capable of manifesting over one-thousand shadow hands. She can also make the hands can also go intangible. Satella used the "Unseen Hand" to grasp Subaru's heart every time he told another person about "Return by Death".

Shadow Control: Satella is able to generate and control shadows on a gargantuan scale, though it's unknown whether this is a part of her Authority of Envy. They erode or destroy all life and matter around her as well as taking abstract things like thoughts and sometimes even memories and mixing them together. It's also shown that she's capable of manipulating someone's feelings and emotions, amplifying or fabricating them to her own liking. In Arc 7, Beatrice suggests that her Shadows might have something to do with Shamac as the're able to separate a person from their mind, similarly to how Shamac works. In addition, she was the one who teleported Subaru, Rem and Louis to the Empire.
 * Satella is able to create shadow tendrils which she uses to capture, impale and decimate her enemies. The tendrils are strong enough to hold transformed Garfiel in the air and incapacitate him. She is also able to slip the shadows into someone's body through wounds and disperse them outwards, effectively destroying the opponent from the inside out.
 * In the instances in which she has appeared even though still sealed, just showing up has caused the entire area she was in, to be completely enveloped in Shadows. After covering the area in Shadows, Witch of Envy then began absorbing everything around her–the more she absorbs the more mass her vortex of shadows gains.
 * By creating a veil of shadow over her person, Satella could nullify physical damage directed at her. Even the considerably mighty blows of Garfiel Tinzel merely dissipated upon making contact with the Witch of Envy.

Time Manipulation: The Witch of Envy had the power to manipulate the flow of time to a certain extent. She could reverse the flow of time at least several days back and could freeze time indefinitely. The Witch could control who had perception of the shifts in time, as her beloved Natsuki Subaru could register and quantify whenever she manipulated the flow around him. Her power of time manipulation was most keenly demonstrated in the "Return by Death" ability that she had bestowed on Subaru upon his arrival to her world. Every time he tried to tell anyone about his power, the Witch would freeze time around Subaru while she punished him, displaying impressive chronokinetic ability despite being locked away in her imprisonment.It is unknown whether this is part of her Authority of Envy or a completely different ability.

Yin Magic User: According to Beatrice, the Witch of Envy is able to use Yin Magic. She presumably used a very advanced version of Shamac to split space and teleport Subaru, Rem and Louis to the faraway lands of the Empire. Also, according to Beatrice, the spell was a clump of Yin Magic akin to Shamac that was given a direction.

Miasma: The Sealing Stone Temple where Satella is sealed is covered in Satella's Miasma, which is so thick that it distorts everything in one’s view. The Miasma invades the minds of anyone it touches, annihilates their flesh, and corrupts their soul. During one of the failed loops of Arc 6, Subaru, Ram, Anastasia and Patrasche fell victim to the Witch's Miasma, going mad and killing each other in a bloody spectacle of betrayal.

Possession: Similarly to the Sin Archbishop of Sloth Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti, Satella had the capability to transfer her soul into another individual's body. From the inside, the Witch of Envy would overwrite the body's soul, essentially killing the essence of whomever her victim was and allowing her to take full motor control of what was left behind. Despite the body not belonging to her, Satella was still able to use her powers while possessing a person. However, any body that the Witch inhabited could hypothetically be destroyed unlike her actual body that was completely immortal. The Witch was able to temporarily leave her imprisonment by possessing a person, a capability she demonstrated when she used the body of Emilia to rampage within the Sanctuary.

Immortality: Satella, for unexplained reasons, never physically aged past her prime and as such never withered with the passage of time. She didn't need to eat or drink to sustain herself and there was no known illness that could end her life. Furthermore, although she could be injured and defeated, her body couldn't be destroyed by any external force. Even the Sage Flugel, who was said to be all-knowing, could not conceive a method to bring about Satella's death. Her immortality couldn't be bypassed by even the first Sword Saint Reid Astrea, the Divine Dragon Volcanica, and the Sage Flugel, eventually resulting in her being sealed away. It is unknown whether her immortality is part of her Authority of Envy or a completely different ability. By the time of Subaru's summoning, Satella has been alive for over four-hundred years while still sealed.

Great Power: In her era, Satella was the most powerful person alive whose defeat could only be attained by the combined efforts of the strongest heroes of the time. Among the Witches of Sin who were reviled by the world, Satella was easily the mightiest. Even within the modern era, the Witch remained almost completely unrivalled in terms of power. The only person whose strength rivalled her own was the Sword Saint Reinhard van Astrea, the descendant of Reid Astrea who contributed to her defeat four hundred years ago. According to the author, if Satella and Reinhard were to fight, it would end in a stalemate as she wouldn't be able to land a finishing blow whereas Reinhard couldn't bypass her immortality.

Trivia

 * According to the author, the meaning behind Satella's name will be revealed in the final arc.
 * According to the author, Satella lacks common sense, and the situation is so serious that her dictionary doesn't even have the word common sense.
 * In the anime, Satella received a redesign by Otsuka Shinichirou.
 * Subaru has said the exact same phrase he said to Emilia in episode 1, to Satella at the end of the tea party, with the exact phrase being "I will save you no matter what". In Japanese:-『俺が、必ず――お前を、救ってみせる. 』
 * The author once stated that Satella is the second tallest of the witches.
 * Although Echidna initially stated that she and the other five witches were all killed by the Witch of Envy and "used them as sustenance", it is later revealed that their deaths, with the exception of Minerva, were uninvolved with the Witch of Envy.
 * Satella is the only Witches of Sin who wasn't succeeded by a Sin Archbishop (except for Pandora and Hector). This was because, unlike the other Witches, Satella didn't perish, meaning her Witch Factor wasn't inherited by anyone.

Navigation
Satela 莎提拉