Satella (サテラ) is the Witch of Envy responsible for the Great Calamity 400 years ago who is currently sealed in the Evil Sealing Stone Shrine, located somewhere in the Augria Sand Dunes, close to where the Pleiades Watchtower is currently standing. In reality, the Witch of Envy (嫉妬の魔女) is a separate personality that formed when she took in the incompatible Witch Factor of Envy. Satella formally debuted in Arc 4 as a supporting character, whilst the Witch serves as an overarching antagonist throughout the series, appearing in most arcs so far, one way or another.
She possesses a yet-unexplained connection to both Subaru and Emilia. Throughout the series, the Witch silences Subaru whenever he attempts to talk about his Authority. 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.
Satella, according to legend, is a half-human/half-elf demi-human woman with silver hair and eyes that are amethyst with a bluish tint to them. As a half-elf, Satella's ears are 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 veils made out of 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 can be seen glowing brightly in contrast to the rest of her form.
Beyond the shadows that obscure her appearance, Satella wears 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. Additionally, she also has an earring on her left ear and an orange and black eight-pointed star hairpiece.
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.
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 afterwards that she looks 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. Alec Hoshin described Satella as an earnest, reckless, pure, and honest girl in spite of being burdened with a rough destiny.
According to Beatrice, the Witch of Envy was starved for love before her imprisonment. For unknown reasons, the Witch is obsessively in love with Natsuki Subaru, who, to his knowledge, had never met her before in his life. In the shadow world she calls 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 is incredibly possessive over Subaru, as she won't allow him to tell anyone else the secret of Return by Death. She seems to have no remorse, nor does she pay attention to anyone other than Subaru, as she didn't hesitate to execute Emilia when Subaru told her about Return by Death.
If the secret of Return by Death is revealed to another person, Satella will find a method of bypassing her imprisonment and slaughter all of Subaru's allies in that timeline, presumably as a form of strong reprimand fueled by her possessiveness. Although she usually pays no heed to the words of anyone, including Subaru's, she once took noticeable offense after Subaru told her he preferred the other Witches of Sin over her.
History
In the years predating the Great Calamity, Satella travelled alongside Echidna, Flugel, Reid Astrea, Farsale Lugunica, and Alec Hoshin for unknown reasons, though according to Alec, it was a journey to save the world.
400 years ago, Satella absorbed the Witch Factor of Envy, which 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 First Sword Saint, and the Sage, Satella was unable to be killed and was instead sealed in a shrine that was watched over by Shaula until the end of Arc 6. Currently, the Pleiades Watchtower and Evil Sealing Stone Shrine are being watched over by the Divine Dragon itself, Volcanica.
Despite being physically imprisoned near the Great Waterfall, Satella somehow maintains a link to Subaru's body and is constantly aware of his actions, even managing to manifest in the shape of a shadowy figure of varying sizes multiple times throughout the story.
Abilities
Authority of Envy (嫉妬の権能 Shitto no Ken'nō): Satella is able to use the Authority of Envy.
Although the abilities of the Authority of Envy have yet to be revealed, in the web novel, Minerva mentioned during the Witches' Tea Party that Satella might direct her jealousy (妬み Netami) towards her if she stepped in between her and Subaru, suggesting that it's something that affects people remotely. This ability has been removed from the Light Novel, hence should not be considered as canon.
Immortality: One of Satella's most troublesome and dangerous abilities is her seemingly-flawless immortality. Although she can be injured and defeated, Satella's body can't be destroyed by any external force. Even the Great 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 Reid Astrea, the first Sword Saint, Volcanica, the Divine Dragon, and Flugel, the aforementioned Great Sage, eventually resulting in her being sealed away, despite it being stated that Reid was stronger than her. 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, though this inhuman longevity of hers is most likely due to her half-elf blood.
Shadow Manipulation: 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 or a completely different ability. 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.
Shadow Tendrils:
The Witch projecting a massive amount of shadows at Garfiel Tinzel.
Satella is able to create shadow tendrils, which she uses to capture, impale, and decimate her enemies. The tendrils are strong enough to hold a 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.
Devouring Shadows: In the instances in which she has appeared, even though she is still sealed, just showing up causes the entire area she is in to be completely enveloped in shadows. After covering the area in shadows, the Witch of Envy then begins absorbing everything around her–the more she absorbs, the more mass her vortex of shadows gains. During a failed loop in Arc 4, the entire Sanctuary was enveloped in shadows and everyone else was swallowed by the shadows.
Physical Attack Nullification: By creating a veil of shadow over her person, Satella can seemingly nullify physical damage directed at her. Even the mighty blows of Garfiel Tinzel merely dissipated upon making contact with the Witch of Envy.
Shadow Hands:
Satella holding Subaru's heart.
In some instances, she can also be seen creating hands from her shadows, similar to the Unseen Hand that came from the Authority of Sloth belonging to Witch Cult's Sin Archbishop of Sloth Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti. She often uses a shadow hand to grip Subaru's heart whenever he speaks about his ability to anyone who isn't her. According to Puck, Satella is capable of manifesting over two-thousand shadow hands at once. She can also make the hands go intangible, such as when one hand phases through Subaru's chest to squeeze his heart in Arc 3. According to one passage from Chapter 58 of Arc 5's web novel, Satella's shadow/magical hands and the Unseen Hands produced by the Authority of Sloth share similar properties, such as being able to phase through objects, but are not the same ability.[1]
Time Manipulation: Though the Witch of Envy has yet been seen to freely manipulate time in her favor apart from stopping time around Subaru whenever he speaks about Return by Death or anything connected to it – though even that isn't confirmed to be thanks to her ability to manipulate time to certain extent – she was the one who gave Subaru his Authority, which he named Return By Death (死に戻り, Shinimodori), in order to prevent him from dying. It should also be noted that the Witch of Envy supposedly didn't grant Subaru this ability in order to save his friends, but rather, in order to challenge fate head-on without any restrictions, such as death. Furthermore, the true purpose for her granting Subaru his Authority is yet to be explained and all the information above was only speculated by Echidna in Volume 11.
Magic (魔法, Mahō): Satella is said to be a user of Yin Magic. According to Beatrice and Julius at the beginning of Arc 7, there was a clump of Yin Magic which was akin to an advanced version of Shamak that was given direction. Beatrice theorizes this clump of magic was attempting to teleport Subaru, Rem, and Rui to a different location, but failed. While Subaru was within the shadows of the Yin Magic clump, he heard the Witch of Envy's voice, signaling that she has some sort of connection to it.
Witch's Scent (魔女の香, Majo no Ka): The Evil Sealing Stone Shrine where Satella is sealed is covered in her scent, which is so thick that it distorts everything in one’s view. It invades the minds of anyone it touches, annihilates their flesh, and corrupts their soul.
Possession: During a failed loop of Arc 4, Satella was capable of leaving her seal and possessing Emilia's body so as to physically interact with Subaru.[2][3] In a similar manner, after she lost sight Subaru in Arc 7, when she regained sight of him, she managed to semi-possess his body, producing an incredible mass of shadows from his body which responded to his emotions. The process which she does this by is unknown. However, it is noted that the Evil Sealing Stone Shrine that serves as Satella's prison is unable to completely seal her due to reasons currently unknown and is constantly surrounded by a lethal miasma.
Great Power: In her era, Satella was one of the most powerful people 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. She was able to swallow up half of the world and was said to eclipse the might of all of the other Witches combined. If not for the interference of the Sage, the Divine Dragon, and the Sage's apprentice, Satella would have overwhelmed and defeated the first Sword Saint, despite the Sword Saint being stronger than her in terms of pure damage output. Even within the modern era, the Witch remains almost completely unrivaled. The only two individuals who are said to counter Satella in some form are the current generation's Sword Saint, Reinhard van Astrea, and his legendary ancestor, 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 of Satella's name will be revealed in the final arc.[4]
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.
The author once stated that Satella is the second tallest of the Witches.
Although Beatrice and Echidna initially stated that the other six Witches of Sin were all killed by the Witch of Envy, who "used them as sustenance", it is later revealed that their deaths, with the exception of Minerva, were supposedly uninvolved with the Witch of Envy. It is currently unknown if the Witch of Envy was actually involved with the other five Witches' deaths in any way.
It is claimed that over 400 years ago, someone used a larger group of elves as collateral damage in order to get Minerva trapped. The elves were sent as a suicide squad, and in order to save them, Minerva ran to their rescue and fell under the influence of said trap, where she eventually went mad and subsequently died by the hands of the Witch of Envy.
It is heavily implied that Satella is the one who summoned Subaru to the world of Re:Zero.
In the web novel, during Subaru’s second Trial in the Sanctuary, specifically the potential future of the timeline in which Subaru committed suicide in order to try and prevent the erasure of Rem’s existence at the hands of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, his corpse was apparently overtaken by shadows deriving from either Satella or the Witch of Envy and began attacking everyone nearby. This, however, was cut from the light novel.
Satella is the only Witch of Sin who wasn't succeeded by a Sin Archbishop, discounting Pandora and Hector. This was likely because, unlike the other Witches, Satella didn't perish, meaning her Witch Factor wasn't inherited by anyone.
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。』.
In the IF chapter commonly referred to as Mimagau IF, Satella makes an appearance as a male silver haired half-elf named Luna (ルナ) and he is known as the Warlock of Envy (嫉妬の魔人 Shitto no Majin).
References
↑"When the taboo was triggered, the witch’s magical hand easily passes through Subaru’s body and only hurts his heart. This was an application of that principle. Unseen Hand and the Witch’s magical hand sharing that property, was the only path left to gamble on."Arc 5 Chapter 58; Section 2
↑The Witch had probably manifested in the Sanctuary through taking possession of Emilia’s body. Petelgeuse, a Sin Archbishop, had been an evil spirit able to possess the bodies of others. Knowing of that madman, Subaru could easily accept the possibility that the Witch could take over other people’s bodies as well.Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 12, Chapter 1, Section 6.
↑For the plan to use the barrier, Garfiel had been absolutely certain the Witch had a physical body. Subaru’s memory was also fresh that he had said he was “sorry in advance” just prior to the decisive battle against the Witch. In other words, Garfiel had seen the Witch possess Emilia. That was why he hadn’t given a clear answer as to whether Emilia was dead or alive and why he’d apologized to Subaru for striking down both the Witch and Emilia-turned-avatar.Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 12, Chapter 1, Section 6.
