Rusalka Schwägelin

"I want live longer. I still haven't had enough. I want to kill, violate, and enjoy myself more and more and more and more!"

- Rusalka Schwagelin

"You can become immortal and live with me. We'll massacre all of humanity and become the new Adam and Eve. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Then we'd have lots and lots of children, and cull them whenever we feel the population grew too big. Oh, I can just imagine the fun!"

- Rusalka makes a proposal to Ren Fujii

Anna Maria “Rusalka” Schwagelin is an antagonist in the visual novel and upcoming anime Dies Irae. Schwagelin was accused of witchcraft by her village in 18th century Germany, leading to her imprisonment and torture. However, before she could be executed, a mysterious benefactor gave her the diary of Elizabeth Bathory, a “Relic” or “Ahnenerbe” fused to her soul with a form of magic known as Die Ewigkeit, allowing her to gain immense power by absorbing the souls of the dead. At the same time the mysterious benefactor encouraged Anna to become the monster they accused her of being. Over the next two hundred years, Anna used her power to torture and murder countless victims, and used sorcery to artificially expand her life span. At some point, Anna took up the name Rusalka, after the Slavic water demon known for dragging men down to their deaths, much as she did. During the Second World War, Rusalka met Nazi occultist Reinhard Heydrich, and was inducted into his occultist organization, the Longinus Dreizen Orden. Rusalka would serve in this capacity throughout the war and would survive the Battle of Berlin, her magic making her body nigh-indestructible by conventional weapons, though she did not “ascend” with Heydrich at the end of the battle. Instead, Rusalka lay in wait with those members of the LDO left behind, killing and torturing more victims until the LDO reunited in Suwahara City in Japan in the year 2006, to conduct the ritual to revive Heydrich and pave the way for him to ascend to godhood. Rusalka’s fate varies depending on the player, but in most routes, she is killed by either Ren Fujii or Shirou Yusa.

Rusalka is a sadist and sociopath, with practically no empathy to speak of. She derives immense pleasure in torturing her victims before she kills them, and has become highly skilled at using her powers to keep her victims alive for an extended period of time. Rusalka’s final goal is to become truly immortal- as her magic is capable of extending her life for centuries, but she still cannot become truly immortal, eventually her soul will deteriorate and she will die.