Hilde

Story

Hildegard von Krone was born a princess in a small Wolfkrone kingdom on the shore of the Rhine river. At a young age, she lost her mother and brother to an illness but grew up into a remarkable warrior and strong-willed young lady under the care of her father. Her duties as a princess of a warrior nation demanded that Hilde excels in both strength and wisdom. Naturally, staying on top of her training and studies would require spending a lot of time in the castle. However, being a spirited child, Hilde would often slip away and go to the fields to play with children of commoners and would only return when she was utterly exhausted.

For such a small kingdom, maintaining its independence in the volatile political climate of medieval Europe was a challenging task. It demanded the people's complete trust and skillful democracy, but most of all, it required a powerful military that would be able to protect the country from any threat. As such, Hilde was trained from childhood in the Wolfkrone unique martial style that paid respect to its legendary hero, The Wolf, who established the kingdom and fought for it while wielding a spear and a sword at the same time. In due time, she outclassed her peers significantly, shocking even the royal guards and her father. 

Hilde would easily surpass it with her intelligence and might if she were to face any ordinary tribulation. However, the path laid out for her would lead to extraordinary hardships and cruel trials that would shape Hilde into a hero of the royal family and a brilliant ruler.

Personality

Having to take over her father as the ruler of Wolfkrone at a young age had a noticeable impact on Hilde. She is extraordinarily mature and shows no lack of wisdom for one so young. With days of childish frivolities far behind, her primary focus was protecting the kingdom and its people. Despite the burden of extreme responsibility and expectations, Hilda carries herself with confidence, showing strong will in the face of trouble.

Playstyle

Hilde's weapon choice is unusual, even relative to other SoulCalibur characters. Taking the best of both worlds, she sports a sword in one hand and a spear in the other, allowing her to stay effective at both close and long range. Unique to her, Hilde has a charge mechanic and a Regalia mechanic that gives her access to special moves after fulfilling specific conditions. While these mechanics are not strictly vital, they are required to utilize her full potential. Due to the immense versatility of her range and toolkit, Hilde can adapt to a variety of opponents and situations, subsequently allowing much freedom in how the character is played.

Unfortunately, due to her unique mechanics and weapons, she's also a pretty challenging character to learn, requiring a different approach to playing the game. Her weapons, in particular, tend to favor specifically close and long range, with a noticeably worse performance in-between them.

Appearance

Hilde has medium-length red hair with a crown braid, brown eyes, and a mole under her lips. She wears a golden tiara, gold and red suit of armor with decorations that follow a wolf motif, and a long red coat.