Riesbyfe Stridberg is a character from the Melty Blood franchise. While she was appearing briefly during Sion TATARI's Last Arc animation since Re-Act, it was only in Actress Again that she became a playable character. She also appears in flashbacks in the Melty Blood manga.
Profile
Background
Riesbyfe is the leader of the knight's heresy persecution group and an official Shield Knight vampire hunter from the Church.
Three years before Melty Blood, the Church learned that the next appearance of TATARI took place in a small mountain village in Italy. The Church sought the aid of Atlas due to their connection to TATARI rather than the Prague alchemists, and Sion Eltnam Atlasia responded to their request. Riesbyfe Stridberg, along with Sion, intervened when TATARI appeared, but as they only had normal Conceptual Weapons, they were unable to affect the phenomenon no matter how many times they defeated it's materializations. Three days later, TATARI annihilated the village and the dispatched Knights of the Church, and destroyed those who permeated it. Riesbyfe sacrificed herself to save Sion from one of the materializations of the Night of Wallachia.
But Riesbyfe still lived within TATARI, being protected from being completely absorbed by TATARI by her Holy Shield, Gamaliel. Michael Roa Valdamjong, or rather an materialization of TATARI based on him, notes in Riesbyfe's Story Mode in Melty Blood Actress Again she is "alive", making her a TATARI materialization different from the others like himself.
Development
Up until TYPE-MOON created Sion, Riesbyfe was supposedly the main heroine of Melty Blood and would've appeared as Ciel's rival.
Personality
As the leader of heresy persecution group and a Shield Knight i.e. vampire hunter in the Church, Riesbyfe takes her duty very seriously. When she's on a mission, she's a very no fuss, no nonsense type of person. Upon mysteriously awakening in Japan without much idea of how she got there, Riesbyfe doesn't question it initially and merely focuses on what she believes to be her mission: discovery and elimination of whatever anomaly was within the city that she was feeling, likely to be caused by a vampire. It doesn't matter who stands in her way when she acts, whether it be a technical colleague or a rogue mage she couldn't convince to aid her. Riesbyfe takes her job very seriously, and thus can be a very devout and serious person. It should be noted, however, that Riesbyfe is specifically a Shield Knight and not an Executor; in other words, while Riesbyfe hunts down and kills vampires, she has no part in the bloody business of hunting down general heretics and heretical creatures. After her existence becomes dependent on Sion, and she is no longer able to work as a Shield Knight, she still looks for a job and works regularly.
However, that's not to say that Riesbyfe doesn't have her oddities. For whatever reason, she tends to find somewhat strange, gross looking things cute instead, and will often mutter to herself "Gross... cute..." back and forth as if she cannot decide. Whenever she finds such "gross-cute" things, she can end up getting easily distracted as well. On top of that, while Riesbyfe merely uses a weapon that is coincidentally shaped like a cello, she has a great desire to play an actual cello as well. Whether or not she even has any ability or talent in playing the cello, she can easily be tricked into doing something for someone if complimented as a good musician or makes a promise where she will be allowed to play in an actual concert hall. In general, music is very important to her; she often uses musical terms in regular speech, and she even relates people more to music than anything else. Even after pseudo-death and pseudo-resurrection, Riesbyfe still wishes to someday play in a concert hall. Her clothing choice is also questioned at times by other people; while not overtly masculine, some might ask if she purposely tries to look like man. As serious as she can be, she also simply enjoys a good fight; she expressed regret and disappointment at one point at having never gotten to fight a certain person, then happiness at finally getting the chance to do it.
Rather than just a no nonsense person with certain quirks though, Riesbyfe truly cares deeply for her friends. When sent with a squad to defeat a mysterious phenomenon known as Wallachia, Riesbyfe did everything in her power to make sure her friend Sion could escape alive after the rest of the squad was decimated. It more or less cost her life, but even after death Riesbyfe still continued to look after her friend by once again coming to her aid when she was under attack. It did not necessarily last for long, but the fact that Riesbyfe temporarily revived herself for the sake of a promise to protect her friend speaks volumes; she swore to be Sion's shield, and she will fulfill that vow no matter what it takes. Depending on the route, Riesbyfe even stays in a sort of animated-spirit state thanks to Sion; even though her friend ended up becoming a vampire, Riesbyfe remains a loyal friend and never even thinks about killing her despite her duty as a Shield Knight.
In the routes where Riesbyfe lives, she ends up forming a small group of friends with Sion and Satsuki Yumizuka, a group they name themselves as the Back Alley Alliance. While they do get along, Riesbyfe and Sion together end up frustrating Satsuki from time to time. Where as Satsuki plays more of the "straight man", Riesbyfe and Sion end up playing more of the "funny man" routine by virtue of just not making much sense or contributing to anything. Riesbyfe in particular shows off a few unfortunate slacker habits and a general disregard for taking things seriously. When it comes to things not concerned with vampire hunting or playing a real cello, she just doesn't take it very seriously. It's usually only around her friends that this sort of clumsy, rather silly side will show. That said, she does look out for both of her friends and sometimes worry about their future together as they live on more or less the outskirts of society. Outside of vampire hunting and church business, Riesbyfe is really just a simple person who can be happy so long as her friends are happy.
Role
Melty Blood
She is also a friend of Sion Eltnam Atlasia and died rescuing her from Wallachia during her last manifestation prior to Melty Blood.
In the Satsuki Yumizuka and Sion routes of Actress Again, she continues to live after the destruction of the Dust of Osiris and joins the Back Alley Alliance.
Throughout the game, Riesbyfe never truly exists as a live human being, and is either summoned by Dust of Osiris or maintained by Sion as a Defense System Physical Spirit recreated from data of her. Regardless, her existence is dependent on another being.
Kara no Kyoukai
In sixth chapter of Kara no Kyoukai, the headmaster of Reien Girl's Academy is stated to be "Mother Riesbyfe" and mentioned to have a large string instrument case in her office. She is also an acquaintance of Touko Aozaki, and hired Garan no Dou to investigate the suicide of Kaori Tachibana.
Abilities
Equipment
True Apocrypha
The mysterious landscape generated by True Apocrypha.
She uses a Conceptual Weapon True Apocrypha (正式外典, seishiki gaiten?) AKA Spear Key and Gun Shield, a pile bunker shaped like a string instrument. True Apocrypha appears to briefly materialize several glyphs as well as the illusion of a completely deserted ruin bathed in the horizon upon the usage of its power, but details are unknown. It is called the holy shield "Gamaliel" by Zepia and is noted to be the reason behind Riesbyfe not obeying Dust of Osiris in her storyline path. All Conceptual Weapons have the ability to rewrite or damage natural laws, such as overwriting "immortality" in a person to replace it with "natural life"; they can also destroy a soul on a conceptual and spiritual level. In particular, True Apocrypha utilizes glyphs and is capable of generating a landscape resembling a deserted ruin. It is also what prevented her from having to obey the commands of Dust of Osiris as it nullified the commands. True Apocrypha is actually shaped like a cello and closely resembles on, and Riesbyfe usually uses it like a pile bunker.
link of personality: http://gamaliel.dreamwidth.org/312.html