Elsa Granhiert

Elsa Granhiert (エルザ・グランヒルテ) was an assassin working together with Meili for a mysterious organization until her death. She was the main antagonist of the first arc of Re:Zero and one of the primary antagonists of the fourth arc.

Appearance
Elsa had long black hair tied into one tail on the left side along with drooping eyes, giving her a gentle aura. She wore a black dress and wielded bent black kukri knives from the northern lands.

Personality
Elsa was a battle maniac, not even hesitating to injure herself if she could fight strong opponents, which was helped by her abnormal healing rate. This was also shown through her persistence. Due to her blessing, she claimed to be a vampire, though she didn't drink blood, nor did she receive any ill effects when under the sun. Her favorite things were seeing colorful bowels and touching warm looking internal organs. Within combat, she enjoyed cleaving through the abdominal region with the intent of tearing the target's bowels out.

Elsa also enjoyed knitting cotton dolls, especially after a good kill, and mentioned to have over 10 years of experience. Although it wasn't mentioned, she presumably destroyed them later.

History
Elsa once lived in Gusteko, she was an orphan and a thief, who was caught stealing by a seller, she almost got raped, until Elsa grabbed a piece of glass and opened her assailant's stomach. Elsa soon got used to gutting people and was forced to flee from Gusteko. During her escape however, she encountered Mother who took a liking to her and Mother offered her the role of one of her "daughters" in the Assassin Organisation. By kissing the back of Mother's hand, Elsa accepted her proposal.

One day, on Mama's orders, she went to greet Meili, who was living with the Demon Beasts as a feral child in a forest, killed all the Demon Beasts and brought her back. At that time, Meili was in a state where she couldn't speak, so her manner of speech and such was greatly influenced by Elsa.

Abilities
Skilled Assassin: Elsa was an infamous assassin, who was highly talented at manipulating and using blades techniques to overwhelm her opponents. On top of that, she possessed super strength, incredible agility and could regenerate wounds thanks to being a "curse doll" making her a force to be reckoned with.

Equipment: Elsa wielded ornate short blades and throwing needles which she used in combat. In addition, she wore a dark feathered magic cloak that could block magic attacks, however only a single time as the cloak was destroyed afterward. Another drawback was that it only worked against spells intended to harm her physically, thus indirect magic Shamak bypassed it. It was imbued with a yang magic buff based on the theory established by Roswaal K Mathers. Lastly, Elsa had two secret weapons which were specialized blades she only ever used against special opponents whom she aimed to kill rather just seeing their guts.


 * White Blade: A thick kukri with a surprisingly large amount of mass specialized for crushing bone. When swung strange heavy pressure emits from it. The bladed portion can extend a string of blades not dissimilar from a snake sword for mid range attacks.
 * Black Blade: Looks similar to her standard knives but has distinctive serrated edged that gives it an appearance of animal teeth. Created for goring opponents rather than ripping them.

Blessing (祝福): Elsa referred to her immortality as a blessing, though it is officially called curse doll (呪い人形). It is a curse which involves the user carving a curse mark that includes the information of the target they want to kill on someone, and upon activation, the person with the curse mark gains immortality, but as a cost, they lose their sense of self and can't do anything else but kill the target and they die when the target is killed. Also, there seems to be a limit to the immortality. However, there's supposedly a way to cast the curse without the person losing their sense of self, which is what happened to Elsa, though repeatedly dying turned her into a curse doll. People who become curse dolls are mistakenly referred to as vampires due to a curse doll once drinking blood in an attempt to die.

Trivia

 * In her web novel character introduction, Elsa was stated to have a Divine Protection, though this was likely an oversight as the author confirmed she doesn't have one.
 * According to the author, Elsa's birthday is April 29, a play on death and meat.
 * Elsa was actually really weak against magic attacks. So weak, she didn't want to risk running into Subaru's Shamack, when he used it.
 * Tappei hinted at the possibility that Roswaal gave Elsa her magic cape, in order for her to corner Emilia more easily.