Astharoshe Asran is a character in Trinity Blood
Voiced by: Michiko Neya (Japanese), Carrie Savage (English)
Astharoshe "Astha" Asran, Viscountess of Odessa and Duchess of Kiev, is an undercover agent for the New Human Empire. She is a direct, no-nonsense individual who has a very low opinion of Terrans, referring to them as barbaric and stupid, among other things. Her opinion of humans, however, seems to have primarily been formed through Empire propaganda combined with having little exposure to or understanding of humans. Asthe takes being called a "vampire" as an insulting slur, and only refers to herself as a Methuselah. Astha fights with a weapon called the Spear of Gae Bolg. The most powerful close-combat weapon found among the Lost Technology relics, the spear uses ionized xenon gas to create a high-density, high-temperature plasma blade capable of cutting through anything.
Astha's view of humans begins to change after she is sent to Venice to arrest Endre Kourza, a vampire mass murderer whose newest round of killings in Vatican territory could spur a war. As part of her mission, she is partnered with Father Abel Nightroad from the AX Agency. When the two find Endre, Astha becomes solely focused on killing him because he murdered her partner. She is so blinded by her rage that she destroys the Rialto Bridge, killing and wounding many humans that had come for a festival. Abel also sustains injuries while protecting her from her own sword, which flew back at her in the explosion. She greatly regrets her actions, and keeps a better handle on her emotions when they go after Endre again and arrest him. Though she initially berated Abel for calling himself her partner, a word of special meaning to Astha, at the end of the mission, he earned her respect enough for her to call him her partner. She also became more accepting and tolerating of humans in general. When Ion was framed for the murder of his grandmother, she allowed Abel and his entorage to stay at her estate, and aids Abel in an investigation into the true circumstances of the murder. During the climax of this investigation, she accuses the Duke of Tigris, Süleyman of treason against the Empire, and is forced to kill him after he makes a purposefully unsuccessful attempt on Seth's life. In the manga, she then accompanies Esther to the nuclear launch facility beneath Byzantium. She evidently sees Abel in his 40% Crusnik form, but apparently it does not make any sort of impression on her. She is hit by a fireball when she confronts Radu, and is knocked unconscious, thus she is unaware of both Seth's Crusnik status and her relationship to Abel. She does not appear in this confrontation in the anime.
Her partnership with Abel would become an important step in the secret peace negotiations between the Vatican and the Empire. She would later be assigned to shelter the Vatican diplomats and the Earl of Memphis after the Rosenkreuz Orden's attempt to frame the Earl of Memphis. Through this turn of events, Astha would also become a core Empire representative in the quest to stop the Rosenkreuz Orden's continued efforts to start another war between the Methuselah and Terrans.
In the novels, the partner that Endre killed was the Countess Len Yearnoshe, however in the anime series, her partner is changed to a male and it is implied that they were lovers. In the manga, she owns a very large female tiger named Binas, and cuts her hair short during the conclusion of the Queen of the Night arc because it was singed by a fireball. Her clothing in the manga is much more revealing than in the anime; the portions of her outfit that are absent in the manga are plain white cloth in the anime.