Ultear is a pale-skinned woman with dark purple hair and brown eyes. How she wears her hair varies from time to time. Ultear has a rather voluptuous figure, and she wears a long revealing dress, sporting a striped pattern. In combat she changes into a tight fitting battle outfit. The battle suit is sleeveless and skin-tight, being divided into 3 sections; the main body of the suit and the legs of the suit from the thigh down are both white with black patterning, with the space between them being a deep brown. The entire suit is trimmed with gold patterns, and Ultear sports a matching white headband. On her arms, Ultear wears long black sleeves, with the section from her elbow down bearing chunky, gray wrist-guards, from which she can produce her characteristic Lacrima. Gray also remarks on Ultear's strong resemblance to her mother, Ur.
By the year X791, the mark of Grimoire Heart, which was tattooed on her back, is now no longer visible, being replaced with that of Crime Sorcière, which, in itself, is surrounded by a rather large X-shaped scar. Ultear also seems to no longer use lipstick. Her outfit now consists of little more than a tabard-like garment that barely covers her front and back, with a sizable slit exposing her cleavage. The attire is open on both sides of her body except for a small attachment at her waist, and she dons long black boots that leave her upper thighs bare.[12]
After using Last Ages, Ultear's body rapidly ages into an elderly woman with gray hair in a bun with her face having gained several wrinkles. She has also become much shorter and uses a cane to walk around with.
Ultear is a manipulative, ruthless and ambitious woman. She regards her mother with cold disdain, classifying her as weak. She is rather calm and considerate when it comes to Meredy, whom she is very close with. However, she does not like it when Meredy calls her "Ur", possibly indicating that she has issues as well as hatred towards her late mother, although later on Meredy claims that because of Ur's death, Ultear has suffered.[19] Ultear has no problem with sacrificing lives to obtain what she wants, even going as far as to control children.
Ultear is determined to find and reawaken Zeref, as he can apparently save her from something that is troubling her. When she found him she even started to cry from happiness, and hugged his unconscious body, claiming that he was hers.
However, it is later revealed that Ultear is not truly evil, but rather, the victim of an unfortunate history. After thinking her mother abandoned her, she found herself under the tutelage of Hades, and through it learned the Magic Arc of Time. From it she was led to believe that once she reaches the Ultimate Magic World, she would be able to complete the Arc of Time, and with it, be able to go back in time to relive and change her past.
This is the reason why she was able to commit all the atrocities she did: because she thought she would be able to undo them once she completes the Arc of Time, to go back and live the life she wanted; but once learning the truth about her mother from Gray, Ultear realizes her mistakes. She finally admits her wrongdoings and confesses her feelings for Meredy, and once forgiven they embrace in mutual love for each other, marking the change in Ultear for the better.
Seven years later, Ultear has become more laid back. She has also shown to have a more easygoing, but still somewhat twisted sense of humor, seen when she explained the workings of opening second origin to Natsu and his companions,[25] as well as when she tormented Jellal during the match through Meredy by comically feeding her hot peppers and tickling her. This also shows that she is still pragmatic, in that she was willing to cost Jellal his match to keep his identity a secret.