History WMG / Castlevania

Seeing as Dracula only revives once a century, he figured that he might as well make the most of his life and take up a day job instead of becoming nigh-useless once Dracula is gone.

[[WMG: Dracula's castle is BiggerOnTheInside.]]

Look at her portrayal in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo of Blood]]''. Anime artwork, blatant TokenMiniMoe, [[{{Dojikko}} sliding and rolling all over the place]], wielding the power of TheFourGods, etc. Despite being ostensibly European, her character is ridiculously Japanese. She's largely considered a LethalJokeCharacter.

This would explain his role in the "final" sealing of Dracula's castle in 1999. As an added bonus, it might also explain why the first phase of Death in VideoGame/AriaOfSorrow was just his scythe -- Julius beat him so badly that even 36 years later he was having trouble manifesting on the physical plane, and thus had to possess his scythe since he couldn't properly focus his power.

Joachim faked his death after being beaten by Leon, who went on to face Walter with the Vampire Killer. In spite of having the completed whip, he lost even after destroying Walter's defenses. Walter became enraged and killed the men he saw as responsible, Rinaldo (explaining why his cabin is vacant) and Mathias, taking the latter's Crimson Stone for himself and making Death his servant in the process. After cooling down he created the Joachim Doppelganger to replace the original and the Leon Fake in a sort of mocking respect to the man who almost did him in. The problem on his side, however, was that the Vampire Killer left a lasting hole in his defense, and Joachim either caught wind of this or chose to take a gamble and raided the castle. Using a new technique to cut down the Guardians including his Doppelganger and destroy the Leon Fake, he ultimately made his way to and defeated Walter and Death. He claimed the Ebony and Crimson Stones for himself as well as the Castle, and became both it and Death's new master.

Walter got bored and decided to make a giant monster. However, partway through he decided that was also boring, and as such just kind of forgot about it. The Prison of Eternal Torture is sealed either because he did have a moment of awareness at the moment he got bored with it that he should probably lock it up because it would make a huge mess of the castle if it got out (whether or not it'd actually give him a hard time is debatable given that he was basically invincible up to Lament of Innocence's events), or because he thought it would be funny to waste some idiot hunter's time by leaving the Unlock Jewel so close to his position, and having them waste their time trying to figure out what it does.

If he was enlisted, he'd have a hell of a time trying to explain to his superiors that he needs to leave the front lines/factory ''now'' so that he can take an unofficial mission deep into enemy territory, because he's the heir of an ancient Romanian family and needs to kill the villain of a classic horror movie. The Morris family is probably still rich from Quincey's time, and they might not want to fight their motherland or their relatives. Years after the war, he and his family was ridiculed as cowards for not fighting, unable to tell them what they were doing.

It's rather strange that a series with a decidedly Judeo-Christian world has never (outside of the Lords of Shadow trilogy and a fan game) had the Devil appear or even mentioned that often. This is actually intentional: Satan is forced to stay in the background at all times since he is stuck in Hell, which is naturally his prison. So he manipulated events so that Dracula could come into being, essentially being Satan's unwitting puppet to wreak havoc on God's world and people. He even allowed one of his strongest servants, Death, to become Dracula's ally. Many events in the series can be attributed to Satan working behind the scenes as well: such as Lisa being burned as a witch and Richter succumbing to Shaft's possession. In the end though, God is the better chessmaster and Dracula is killed for good in the Battle of 1999. Satan tries to salvage his plans by leaving the Abyss and taking Castlevania for himself; but is stopped by none other than Death, who has since become more fond of Dracula as a master and wants to test the new young Dark Lord roaming the castle. In the resulting battle one of his fingers gets cut off, leaning behind Satan’s ring which ends up being found by Soma, Satan is then sucked back into Hell. Later he stirs Celia's cult, who are in fact satanists, into action in a last desperate attempt to create a Dark Lord... It fails and Satan devours Celia soul in anger when her soul enters Hell via the Abyss. He then transforms Dmitri into Menace to try and kill Soma out of spite... Thankfully that fails too.

It's rather strange that a series with a decidedly Judeo-Christian world has never (outside of the Lords of Shadow trilogy and a fan game) had the Devil appear or even mentioned that often. This is actually intentional: Satan is forced to stay in the background at all times since he is stuck in Hell, which is naturally his prison. So he manipulated events so that Dracula could come into being, essentially being Satan's unwitting puppet to wreak havoc on God's world and people. He even allowed one of his strongest servants, Death, to become Dracula's ally. Many events in the series can be attributed to Satan working behind the scenes as well: such as Lisa being burned as a witch and Richter succumbing to Shaft's possession. In the end though, God is the better chessmaster and Dracula is killed for good in the Battle of 1999. Satan tries to salvage his plans by leaving the Abyss and taking Castlevania for himself; but is stopped by none other than Death, who has since become more fond of Dracula as a master and wants to test the new young Dark Lord roaming the castle. In the resulting battle one of his fingers gets cut off and ends up being found by Soma, Satan is then sucked back into Hell. Later he stirs Celia's cult, who are in fact satanists, into action in a last desperate attempt to create a Dark Lord... It fails and Satan devours Celia soul in anger when her soul enters Hell via the Abyss. He then transforms Dmitri into Menace to try and kill Soma out of spite... Thankfully that fails too.

It's rather strange that a series with a decidedly Judeo-Christian has never (outside of the Lords of Shadow trilogy and a fan game) had the Devil appear or even mentioned that often. This is actually intentional: Satan is forced to stay in the background at all times since he is stuck in Hell, which is naturally his prison. His hatred of humanity is too strong however and he wants to incite total chaos NOW. So he manipulated events so that Dracula could come into being, essentially being Satan's puppet to wreak havoc on God's world and people. He even allowed one of his strongest servants, Death, to become Dracula's ally. Many events in the series can be attributed to Death working behind the scenes as well: such as Lisa being burned as a witch and Richter succumbing to Shaft's possession. In the end though, God is the better chessmaster and Dracula is killed for good in the Battle of 1999. Satan tries to salvage his plans by leaving the Abyss and taking Castlevania for himself; but is stopped by none other than Death, who has since become more fond of Dracula as a master and wants to test the new young Dark Lord roaming the castle. Satan is forced to flee, though in the battle one of his fingers gets cut off and ends up being found by Soma. He stirs Celia's cult, who are in fact satanists, into action in a last desperate attempt to create a Dark Lord... It fails and Satan devours Celia soul in anger when her soul enters Hell via the Abyss. He then transforms Dmitri into Menace to try and kill Soma out of spite... Thankfully that fails too.

* Furthermore, the dark orb in the final battle of AriaOfSorrow is actually the Crimson Stone corrupted by Chaos. Chaos intended to use the Power of Dominance itself to control demons and destroy the world, but fortunately Soma is able to destroy the Crimson Stone AND Chaos itself before it was too late.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'': In the game, we're shown that Dracula can also be killed by his own power in the form of the Dominus Glyphs. Even though Shanoa was mentioned to have been forgotten in history, if ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'' is of any indication with the Grimoire that keeps records of heroes who went into Castlevania and beat Dracula, she was evidently remembered and chronicled. She could've possibly passed on her techniques or knowledge to other Vampire hunters (or the Belmonts, if she lived the rest of her life in Wygol Village), which could be invaluable against Dracula.

** [[SarcasmMode Well, that's certainly the less misogynistic path than declaring that she never existed.]]
*** Yes, that was my intention.

[[WMG: The DSvanias each have a hint on how the 1999 games would go, or an important piece used to kill Dracula for once and for all.]]
Given how the series has currently ended (or on hiatus, not counting the Reboots) with the DSvanias being the latest ones, it seems plausible that the DSvanias each had a hint on how Dracula's resurrection can be stopped and to make Castlevania stop appearing. Befittingly (and somewhat sadly), it might've also been the last game in the Castlevania series as a whole.

* [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow]]: It's mentioned in the Sorrow games that it was with the help of a Hakuba Shrine Priestess that Castlevania was sealed away. This would be one of the points of the game.
* [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin]]: Here, we're shown by Brauner that it's possible to separate Dracula from his power, effectively keeping him from resurrecting fully and being able to redirect it to one's own ends. Undoubtedly, Charlotte and Jonathan could live long enough to record and pass this information, making it one way to kill Dracula.
* [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia]]: In the game, we're shown that Dracula can also be killed by his own power in the form of the Dominus Glyphs. Even though Shanoa was mentioned to have been forgotten in history, if [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair]] is of any indication with the Grimoire that keeps records of heroes who went into Castlevania and beat Dracula, she was evidently remembered and chronicled. She could've possibly passed on her techniques or knowledge to other Vampire hunters (or the Belmonts, if she lived the rest of her life in Wygol Village), which could be invaluable against Dracula.

So from his perspective, he's back in Castlevania and fighting his way through to defeat Dracula again. Then Alucard arrives and frees him from Shaft's brainwashing, at which point he realises what he's ACTUALLY been doing and freaks out.

** We know Julius, Alucard, and a Belandes were present at the shrine during the eclipse in 1999, that doesn't mean they couldn't have brought backup. Though I'm thinking they decided against briging soldiers and called the Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}.

* As an added wrinkle, the 1999 solar eclipse took place in Europe, which is where Dracula's castle would have been at the time. The expected total solar eclipse in 2035 will hit Japan, justifying that bit. As for 2017's eclipse... it is centered over the US. Maybe Soma Cruz really ''is'' an exchange student after all!

** We can blame Shaft for his [[{{Lolicon}} dumb fetishes]].

** Or how about this -- ''Legends'' did happen, but in 1431, not 1450. It hasn't been that long since Lisa died and Matthias declared war on the world. Alucard has just defected. And, as part of his campaign, not-Dracula-yet has recently finished the work meant to make him a true Prince of Darkness who will, one way or another, keep resurrecting. However, it doesn't ''work right''. Sonia Belmont kills him, and he reincarnates "normally" as Vlad Dracula, born in that year. As twisted as he gets, it still takes a blood sacrifice to really kick off the spell -- not just any sacrifice, but his own. Thus, in 1476, when Vlad is killed, he finally resurrects "properly" and picks up his battle with humanity, leading directly into the plot of Castlevania III.

*** Every time there has been an assassination attempt against Mina, Genya has been there to intervene. Not even the most powerful Castlevania villains have any history of defeating him.
*** Also, recall that in the good ending of Dawn of Sorrow, Soma mentions, in so many words, that his confrontations with the Dark Lord candidates had all but convinced him that the return of the Dark Lord was inevitable. It's likely that when he confronted Celia, Mina was in fact the only reason he thought he had left to stay human.

Or maybe someone in the family thought [[RuleOfCool it just sounded cooler then "Some old Alchemist made this whip"]]

Dracula and Death seem to have a very close relationship, as the reaper is always around when the Dark Lord and his castle reappear. With such a relationship being condemned as an abomination by the Church, this is the perfect reason for him to renounce God. The entire 'dead girlfriend' explanation is a cover-up by the Church, and the Belmonts are rampant homophobes intolerant of Dracula's very gay existence.

Which also means something must have happened in 1999, as when Dracula-reincarnation Soma enters Castlevania, Death attacks him with the swift remorselessness reserved for Belmonts, and does it again in Dawn of Sorrow, in a castle that isn't even the real thing. This must mean Dracula and Death had a nasty split in 1999, and had his resurrection privileges revoked.

When Kid Dracula defeats Galamoth, Aeon is freed and time and history reasserts itself, stranding Galamoth in the [=SotN=] era where he is put down once and for all by Alucard.

Lament of Innocence explained that most of the Belmont Legacy Weapons, aside from the Vampire Killer, were other weapons that Leon picked up from fallen adventurers during his travels. The only exception is the Stopwatch. Where did such a powerful tool come from? Who else but those with power over time, and who are capable of freezing time by themselves. While they don't directly interfere, it's still within character to leave the Belmonts a tool to aid them in their quest.

Ok, not a WMG so much as my attempt to re-canonize Legends by explaining away all the discrepancies as being due to semantics and an UnreliableNarrator. The actual timeline of the Belmont/Dracula feud goes as such:
* In the eleventh century, the events of Lament of Innocence occur. Leon Belmont and Mathias Cronqvist are BFFs, but then Mathias's wifey croaks and he gets depressed. Leon goes to save HIS wifey from the vampire Walter Bernhard, creating the Vampire Killer whip in the process. After icing Walter, however, Mathias reveals his [[ThePlan plan]]. After the death of his wife, he cursed God and became a vampire, then manipulated Leon to get the Ebony Stone, making him an even more powerful vampire. Mathias and Leon messily part ways, Mathias disappearing over the horizon and Leon vowing that he and his descendants will hunt vampires forever.

* Sonia decides to tell the story of her fight against Dracula but, being a very vain person, she ends up telling a stilted narrative starring a very MarySue version of herself. She de-emphasized the tale of her ancestor Leon Belmont, making it sound like she was the first Belmont to encounter Dracula (which was technically true). She also made up a very Narm-y romantic subplot between her and Alucard which read like bad fanfiction (in reality, they knew each other, but while Sonia was crazy for Alucard, he didn't want anything to do with her), going so far as to suggest that Alucard was actually Trevor's real father. Castlevania: Legends is this story, rather than what actually happened.

There's no way in hell they're mortal. In Kojima's 'Prelude to Vengeance' manga, Hector gets lanced through the lungs by Drac's talons and thrown off the keep, and lives. Isaac gets slashed across the gut and upper thighs, and lives. (In the other manga, he gets cliffed. From a considerable height. And lives.) Dracula has an intense distaste for Mortals, and judging from his attempt to jab Trevor in the eyeball, he's tired of these Belmonts up in his grill already. Therefore what better way to get them OUT of your grill than setting up someone who's as capable and tough and etc. as they are, only, you know, loyal to Drac? One gets the feeling that an awful lot of work went into making those guys what they are. There's only two of them after all!

[[WMG:The kidnapped women in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo]]''/''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheDraculaXChronicles Dracula X Chronicles]]'' were supposed to be a means to resurrecting Lisa]]
Annette, Maria, Tera, and Iris represent the four main qualities Lisa is most known for: being the most important person in someone's life, having absolute faith in humanity and the triumph of good over evil, having an unshaking faith in God, and being a practitioner of medicine. Given Dracula's OMGBFF status with Death and his penchant for mucking around with Alchemy, it's not entirely far-fetched to speculate that he had one hardcore equivalent exchange sacrifice in mind.

This one's a blast from the past that originated shortly after Rondo of Blood became known to a few hardcore fans willing to import it. The opening cinema of Rondo, featuring a human sacrifice as the catalyst to Dracula's resurrection, led people to speculate that the same thing was supposed to happen to Simon in ''Castlevania II'' -- either the townspeople were going to all jump him at the moment he succumbed, or Dracula would just elbow his soul aside and take the body for his own when the curse came to fruition. I've seen this one passed off as canonical (people assuming fanon to be canon since it was relative [=BNFs=] from the early days of yon internet fandom who talked about this theory a lot), but it's more than likely just speculative. ''Curse of Darkness's'' plotline lends it some plausibility, though.

A big deal is made in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia Order Of Ecclesia]]'' that Dominus is the only thing that can destroy Dracula besides the Vampire Killer whip. (And Alucard.) It even plays out that Dracula cannot be destroyed by Shanoa herself. Dominus is also Dracula's Power directly channeled. Perhaps, because of this, the direct use of Dominus on Dracula did far more damage than just putting him down until he gets resurrected again. Given that Dominus is likely related to the Power of Dominance talked about in the [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow Sorrow series,]] it seems that Dominus destroyed Dracula's ability to control all his minions, as well as Castlevania itself, leaving him with only a crumbling castle and a few human and vampire servants in Bram Stoker's tale.

Notice how Richter has a lot of StreetFighter-like moves in SOTN? That's beacuse he invented them.

After SOTN, Richter fled to Japan to get as far away from Dracula as possible. He then took a new identity and decided to train two brothers (Goken and Akuma) in his fighting style. The dark side of the style (like the Raging Demon and immorality) came from when he was brainwashed by Shaft. He was able to live long enough to have Julius as his son beacuse of the immortality thing Akuma has. This would also explain why Akuma and Goken are so badass.

** We can blame Shaft for his dumb fetishes.

** Except that Julius is the strongest Belmont yet (even in his age), armed with the Vampire Killer, and teamed up with Alucard ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Yoko]]) in the [=DoS=] one and his mode is far far harder than [=PoR=] (mostly due to the lack of healing outside of checkpoints...).

[[WMG: Lament of Innocence was the victim of a total rewrite and / or severe timeline error.]]

* As for the times where Dracula is "not fully revived?" Isn't it obvious - only normal Revives have been used on him, and not Max Revives. And the times where you have to get his body parts? They're alternatives, as Revives are hard to come by sometimes. As Dracula's castle can exist without him being revived, Brauner can just use the castle and his power and just be like "not using my revives on Dracula." Or Dracula was revived but Brauner handily beat him in a Pokemon battle.

* Soma as Dracula (in [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow Dawn of Sorrow]]) is like what Staraptor is to Pidgeot - like an expy of sorts. Dracula doesn't come back as normal Dracula as he isn't available in this generation! Soma has similar powers, but his new soul powers (he even has "ability" souls) are what sets him apart competitively. This allows him to evolve and still use soul powers. Soma as a playable character is just restarting and levelling up and learning all his different moves again, and he is holding the Mina Talisman (Everstone) to stop him from evolving into Dracula (looks pretty much the same, like how many Pokemon don't really change much on first evolution, then change drastically on final evolution, which in this case is the re-use of the [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo of Blood]] final form, but again, another expy).

It also might explain the presence of his soul in Aria of Sorrow.

[[WMG: Lords of Shadow takes place snugly with the others]]

Alternatively to the above, it might be that Dracula is simply going through the motions. After SOTN, he might have got bored and fed up of his long feud because it doesn't seem to be helping him much, constantly getting revived and beaten into the ground every time, questioning who he is. He may also show true regret and want it all to be over. The problem is people keep resurrecting him. They are often manipulated by Dracula. Maybe he's trying to revive himself so someone can kill him for real? He's just keeping up appearances, and in Ecclesia in general, he doesn't seem to take the fight with Shanoa that seriously, only not playing around when he decides to use Demonic Meggido. He may want to finally be ended so he can die happily and/or be reincarnated into a better life (read: Soma), as opposed to generally getting weaker (though he might be, if he is questioning his motives).

The main character will be Julius (natch), but it will be like Julius mode in [=DoS=], a homage to Castlevania 3, and star the following characters:

* Lt. Hammer: A GenerationXerox of Hammer, finds love during the game to account for Hammer's birth in 2001, uses knifes, guns and throwing weapons, playing like Grant in the ([[DifficultyByRegion Japanese version]]) of Castlevania 3. Is among the military force that make up the Zombie Soldiers, possibly sole survivor. May be a GenderFlip.

[[WMG: Harmony of Despair did happen in the "real world", in the character's dreams or a dream-like world.]]

[[WMG: Death is actually testing Soma. ]]

[[WMG: The monsters escaped after Castlevania]]
This explains why there are no monsters in Dracula's Castle in Simon's Quest, but they are everywhere else; they got away from the castle. Dracula's influence is needed to make monsters, but they don't die with him; if he dies, the monsters gain free will, and so, they got away, and spread around Romania, to be destroyed by Simon when he looked for Dracula's remains. Without Dracula's influence, no monsters could be created in his castle, and he was re-killed so quickly, that he had no time to make monsters, this explains why he's easy. Next, the monsters in Harmony Of Dissonance were creations of [[spoiler:Maxim's will]], and since Castle B is more or less a creation of his mind, he has more control over its monsters; the Merchant is also a monster, but made with [[spoiler:Maxim]]'s good side. In Symphony Of The Night, [[spoiler:Richter's brainwashing gave him the same will to do this, this is why he could summon the monsters in the Arena]], monsters in Aria Of Sorrow are leftovers from the battle of 1999, and when we get a game featuring the battle, the bosses who were left over shall be {{Bonus Boss}}es. Dawn Of Sorrow has the souls from Soma released and they go to the closest to Castlevania they could find, the so-called replica.

[[WMG:The playable Old Axe Armor in Portrait of Ruin is a suit of armor possessed by a perverted old man that has been symbiotically attached to a young woman who wanted to be a Hero.]]

----

Very plausible for his innocent devil counterpart. He isn't aware that he is actually fighting very evil dark forces of nature evidenced by his jolly singing, dancing and playing about. Apparently he thinks that this whole Dracula scenario is just a game somewhat as the same as the player does. In his mind he there is no conflict going around, everyone is just simply "playing" with each other. When he is fighting(like he is in Lament of Innocence) he in reality is just playing much like [[Manga/DragonBall Majin Buu (fat)]].]]

Explaining why he is always in the more important castlevania games involing the Belmonts (excluding fanon, cell phone manga, handheld games and comics). Even though he has only been seen in two of these games, those games are the only real important castlevania games that place heavy emphasis on the Belmonts.

Dracula finds pretending to be an Angel of Light insulting; so he ''never'' sugarcoats BlackMagic. It's obvious from the get-go that the covens within Castlevania itself are diabolists. He never shows any favoritism to communities that condemn white-magic users; in fact, given his disgust in humanity and what happened to his wife, he probably targets them first. Centuries of this after Sypha's time, and the Church is more than willing to have WhiteMagic witches like Charlotte and Yoko as members.

Aeon failed to prevent Galamoth and the Time Reaper from killing Dracula and creating a Time Paradox. Without Mathias to take his place as the Dark Lord, the world was recreated into one where Gabriel Belmont would be the one to take the place of the Dark Lord.

The monsters from myth and lore (Like Cthulhu, or the Greek monsters, or the Oz monsters) were simply recreations made by Dracula, Death, and the Devil Forgemasters using souls and their magic to... Uhh... Forge demons, based on folklore and their own knowledge, as to better convey fear and submission on mankind through familiar faces of their lore. Like, for instance, to attack Brazil, Dracula would require many Curupiras (A prankster spirit of sorts in my country's folklore), and would demand that Death and the Devil Forgemasters create them and used them as artifices to better convey fear on a region through their specific cultural knowledge. That would also explain why they are submissive to Dracula (He controls souls, and since the monsters are made from souls, yeah...) and why are they so weak compared to their fictional counterparts. They are made to be powerful, indeed, but most importantly, visually threatening. They cannot be as powerful as they are in their home fiction simply because it would require a WALLOP of souls to reproduce such power. So they try making them *strong*, enough to execute supernatural/strong/magical feats.
Dracula's huge library was one good evidence for such extended cultural and fictional knowledge being used as a base for his ever growing army (which came to encompass even Cryptozoology). Proof of this are creatures that were never even hypothesized to exist , not even through legends, created exclusively for fiction, like Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow, or Cthulhu, or The Creature, or Chronomage.
And let's not forget that Devil Forgemasters learned their trade from Dracula himself. On [=CoD=], their power is said to rival Death, so I assumed that it was most logical for this to be one of Death's jobs -- to create an ever-growing army for Dracula using the souls he reaps. (And the explanation for "no more Devil Forgemasters on the franchise" is that when Dracula had two, very early on his first attempt at terrorizing mankind, one of them failed miserably in serving him, and the other was used as a vessel, but was too weak to withstand him, leading him to not trust humans as his so-close partners because they would fail again, prompting him and Death in making them legendary monsters by themselves.)
This doesn't explain how he has access to Cthulhu before Lovecraft was born though, but I'm inclined to believe in a "timeless" library of sorts... Or the souls composing one of his Cthulhus simply influenced Lovecraft in a nightmare or something... Or Death can see in the future, maybe?...
The most common monsters (Zombies, Skeletons, Animated Armors, Bats, Lesser uncategorized demons like Imps) would be just products of necromancy/mind control/magic mutation/wild creatures controlled through instinct, explaining why Dracula has such a big array of experts in the dark arts.

This is why he is hostile to Soma Cruz in Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. He is aware that this is Dracula's reincarnation, his old friend, but he is not the Dark Lord, and as such will not serve him. Graham seemed to be the most likely candidate to become the Dark Lord at the time, and under Chaos' instruction fought on his side. However, should the Bad Ending occur and Soma succumb to Chaos and become Dracula, he will serve Soma until Soma is finally killed for good. Likewise, however, if Dmitri or Dario became the Dark Lord, he would fall under their service as well, despite Chaos being dead (unless the creation of a new Dark Lord also heralds the creation of a new Chaos, whom he will also serve).

The Game itself never says he's Dracula himself remember! Gabriel Belmont on the other hand did. Soma's goodness is a result of[[spoiler: Gabriel's goodness in seeking the destruction of Satan as God's Chosen One.]] Lords of Shadow 2 takes place ''after'' Soma's lifetime upon which Death/Zobek awakened/ressurected him.

[[WMG: The glyphs in Order of Ecclesia are actually [[VideoGame/{{Suikoden}} runes]].]]

The Dominus Glyphs could be actually one of the True Runes. True Runes choose their owner and cannot be obtained simplistically like the original runes, and they have their own will and have said to be godlike.

He gets a tiny bit of soul from every monster he kills. Explains how his BagOfSpilling worked; he is said to lose all of the souls he gained. Works for why he has no special abilities, but if he got stronger from the souls as well...

While it can be argued that Soleiyu was the first Belmont to be corrupted by Dracula in the series (or, before then, Simon with his curse), Soleiyu had ''just'' come of age to inherit the whip, and had not been given it when he was turned (and Simon didn't turn evil through the curse, it just tried to kill him); Richter was the first Belmont to be a full-fledged Vampire Hunter, whip and all, to fall to the Dark Lord's thrall. Also, [[spoiler: the Whip's Memory you fight in ''Portrait of Ruin'' - which was the memory of the last master the whip had - is Richter, not any of the other Belmonts]], meaning that the Morrises gained control of the whip sometime after ''Symphony'', soon enough for Richter ''not'' to be able to give it to his heir in between. The only explanation for why the Belmonts would give the whip to the Morrises for safe-keeping for so long, is that the events of ''Symphony'' corrupted the line to the point where they ''couldn't'' wield it properly, and needed to cleanse themselves of the corruption before they could be "accepted" by the whip again.

** Where did Julius come from, then? Plus, in Portrait of Ruin, it outright says that the Belmonts are prophesied not to use the whip until the Final Battle in 1999- a statement implying a continued existence.

*** ANNETTE PWNZ J00. *cough* Seriously though -- even if Richter didn't have kids (unlikely, in that time period, for this to be the case) -- does anyone really truly honestly think the family doesn't have ''any other'' candidates besdies Richter's theoretical kids to pick up the whip, per generation? It's the 1790s, Richter probably has a bunch of siblings. The whip could be taken up by one of their kids. So, too, would Leon have had a ton o' siblings -- and he ''cannot'' be the firstborn son of his family, because if he were, there would be no way in hell he'd have been crusading! We only SEE one Belmont at a time, but given the family's, uh, fortitude... they're probably pretty prolific too. There's probably several kids per generation who can use the whip, but it's the guy (or girl, depending on if you're pro-or anti-IGA; this troper is ambivalent but has seen giant flamewars oh god) who is the most skilled and has the most clout with the subweapons and so forth who goes to kick Dracula in teh harbl. tl;dr Families back then WERE BIG. The only Belmont who's real likely to have been an only child by birth is Julius. The others may have had siblings die, or whatnot, but the Belmonts we see in games would ''not'' be only children. In the time period we're talking, Fridgery aside, that didn't really happen so much. People took the 'be fruitful' business very seriously back in the day!
** Richter being the last Belmont is definitely Jossed by ''Order of Ecclesia''; [[spoiler: the villagers you save in the game are direct descendants of the Belmonts]]. However, [[spoiler:they ''have'' been kept hidden for at least 50 years (Richter's last appearance was in 1797, and ''Order of Ecclesia'' takes place somewhere in the mid-1800s}]], so it's likely this WMG is viable.

[[WMG: The "Castle B" in ''Harmony of Dissonance" is in Hell.]]

[[WMG:There was no "Castle War" during Dracula's final defeat in 1999.]] There was a battle, but in no way was the world's governments or military involved in it. The official storyline for ''Aria of Sorrow'' doesn't specify who Julius and his gang brought with them against Dracula, but it seems unlikely that any of the worlds' governments or military would believe in the threat of Dracula or his minions enough to help. The church may have formed some sort of army against the Dark Lord, but that's about it. Plus, there were plenty of unrelated armed conflicts going on around the area for Dracula to forge his own army out of, so the undead soldiers you fight in the game aren't necessarily military personnel specifically sent to fight Dracula. There's also the behavior of Hammer when you meet him in the castle; he seems genuinely surprised at all of the weird goings-on around him, like he wasn't briefed at all about Dracula or his castle; if the military ''was'' involved with Dracula's 1999 defeat, and they saw his castle reappear, you'd think that they'd give their soldiers a short disclosure on what to expect before sending them out to investigate.

* This also explains Bloodlines and Portrait of Ruin. Before those times, Humanity never had the capacity for such bloodshed and death in such a short time. So many deaths at once caused an unexpected 'jump' in Evil, letting Dracula come back early.

Bacterians are inherently dark, "demonic" creatures. Now, possibly Galamoth, after several temporal displacements seeking to gain power, ended up in [[{{Otomedius}} Kokoro Belmont's]] universe. After being defeated by her he went back in time to make the Belmont clan not exist by helping Dracula. However he noticed he could be much more powerful if he used his nature as a creature "born from the greed of mankind" and become the Dark Lord, so Kid Dracula happened.

Since Dracula is inexplicably stated to be Vlad Tepes in Symphony of the Night and the games starring the Morris family, yet in Lament, he's Matthias Convqist, what does this mean?

Perhaps it means after a certain time, a Belmont had kicked his ass for good, but the Powers That Be decided to let Dracula be reborn as a Human -- namely, Vlad Tepes. However circumstances worked against him for becoming a decent human being -- between being a Political Hostage as a child, and the death of his wife... ''again'', he manages to find Death and reforge their agreement. Thus, becoming a vampire again.

Later on, in a failed [[ThePlan plan]], he is reborn as the child prodigy Malus, to gain more power and to trick the Belmont to trust him, possibly spurning yet another chance at Redemption.

** In response to the bit about Soma staying good - it's pretty clear that it wouldn't take much to turn him evil. The moment he thinks Mina has been killed, the sheer volume of his hatred calls forth the dark power and makes him the new Dark Lord, and let's face it, it wouldn't be hard for someone to ACTUALLY kill Mina if they were powerful enough to be Castlevania villains to begin with.

Since Symphony of the Night, it has been stated Dracula's main motive is [[LoveMakesYouEvil the death of his beautiful wife]], the first from a plague, causing Matthias to RageAgainstTheHeavens and made [[DealWithTheDevil a deal with Death to become Dracula]], the second by [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the hands of the very humans his wife tried to heal]], turning Alucard temporarily against humans, and cementing Dracula's [[KillAllHumans genocidal tendencies]].

Now, look at Death. He serves Dracula faithfully because he has the Crimson Stone. He was also working with Walter Bernhard up until his betrayal, which just happened to occur moments after Leon Belmont destroyed Walter's Ebony Stone. Clearly he is connected in some way to both stones.

...but... he hasn't been much of Main/TheGrimReaper at all. His appearances have largely consisted of attacking Dracula's enemies (with no visible success) or finding a way to revive his master. With one exception, every time we have seen him kill a character, it led directly to his causing the victim's soul to be reincarnated as Dracula. And that exception is Rosa from ''Castlevania 64''... and ''she'' winds up reincarnated as a human! It's almost like he's ''not ending lives at all''! If anything, he's just reorganizing life!

Not to mention he may be responsible for all the Main/ZombieApocalypse and Main/DemonicInvaders. Both are a result of giving life to things that previously did not possess it.

[[WMG: Death is just a reaper from the Supernatural universe that Dracula binds to him through black magic every time he comes back to life]]

* Apropos of very little, this troper keeps ignoring the retcon in re: that eyeball jab - Trevor seriously has the same eye colour as Lisa, and if Dracula noticed that in battle, he'd know jolly well where the hell Alucard was sneaking off to at night, and go ballistic. Seriously, why his eye? That was CALCULATED.

In Aria, you find Hammer in the library. Right after a BOSS. And he doesn't act at all like he needed to be rescued or anything. And he sells various weapons he happens to find lying around the castle, implying that he's capable of handling the monsters. If he was an [[ShopliftAndDie Easily Angered Shopkeeper]], I'd bet he'd pull an RPG on Soma (or the Positron Rifle) if he tried any funny stuff.

The reason the Belmonts couldn't use the whip for a century is because a Belmont was turned while trying to [[TanzDerVampire rescue the beatiful daughter of an innkeeper who, it turns out, didn't want to be rescued]]. The Vampire Killer would have obviously smelled something wrong, but a naive young adventurer blinded by puppy-love infatuation wouldn't see a succubus under his nose if you dressed her up in a chicken suit. I hear it takes a while to purge vampirism from the blood.
* Wait, wasn't it the brainwashing from Symphony of the Night that left the taint? It ''is'' rather shortly after that, chronologically, that we start getting other heros covering for the Belmonts....

*** Based on the timing, it's gotta be something Richter did -- he was the incumbent at the turn of the 19th century, and only 50 years or so later, Shanoa is covering for the incumbent Belmont. Furthermore, in Portrait of Ruin, the Memory of the whip's last owner is of Richter. Maybe something Richter ''did'' while brainwashed tainted him, and consequentially his testicles and any children produced, with dark thingy?

*** Either that or he's just that badass that he doesn't NEED dark power to control the joint - frankly if I were Slogra or Gaibon, I would not be questioning the authority of someone who very recently spanked my boss into the ground.

[[GodIsEvil God is really evil]], and Dracula was actualy doing the right thing the whole time (be it misguidedly by also blaiming humans). It would be amusing if the final boss in a third Sorrow game was God or another holy being, since all the others have dark-aligned final bosses. Also, what kind of good God can only be good if there is a Dark Lord to offset him?

** That still implies God somehow NEEDS evil to be good or to exist, which calls into question how good or god-like he can be if He requires evil to be that way.

* I, uhh... well, that is... What?

Wall meat? Random useful items laying around randomly? A gothic cathedral? Angels? Alucard once said that Castlevania is a "Creature of Chaos" in reference to how the castle is never ther same. I assume he wasn't simply being poetic. Chaos is [[spoiler:the final boss in Aria of Sorrow and the true source of Dracula's power]]. Perhaps Chaos changes the castle on its own, and even leaves a way for the Belmonts/heroes to win despite Dracula's best intentions.

Annette, Maria, Tera, and Iris represent the four main qualities Lisa is most known for: being the most important person in someone's life, having absolute faith in humanity and the triumph of good over evil, having an unshaking faith in God, and being a practitioner of medicine. Given Dracula's OMGBFF status with Death and his penchant for mucking around with Alchemy, it's not entirely farfetched to speculate that he had one hardcore equivalent exchange sacrifice in mind.

This one's a blast from the past that originated shortly after Rondo of Blood became known to a few hardcore fans willing to import it. The opening cinema of Rondo, featuring a human sacrifice as the catalyst to Dracula's resurrection, led people to speculate that the same thing was supposed to happen to Simon in ''Castlevania II'' - either the townspeople were going to all jump him at the moment he succumbed, or Dracula would just elbow his soul aside and take the body for his own when the curse came to fruition. I've seen this one passed off as canonical (people assuming fanon to be canon since it was relative [=BNFs=] from the early days of yon internet fandom who talked about this theory a lot), but it's more than likely just speculative. ''Curse of Darkness's'' plotline lends it some plausibility, though.

Another old one, and not unique to NA fandom either. Japan beat us to it, but people have been speculating over here about Eric's connection to Alucard since it came to light that he wields the Alucard spear (which funnily doesn't appear in the games again until ''Symphony of the Night's'' Sega Saturn port) and that 'Alcarde spear' was [[BlindIdiotTranslation blind idiot antics]]. The spear is the first hint as to what's up with his ancestry, and it's not the only one. He's skilled with magic. He's a lot more agile than Jonathan. Also, he's absurdly bishounen, with long wavy blond hair and so on - the way he looks is a very possible combo of Maria and Alucard's appearances. His surname, too (whether you call him Lecarde or the Japanese Ricardo), could be a portmanteau smush of 'Alucard' and 'Renard' (and it still works if you use Learned as Maria's surname).
* Ooh shit. That might explain too why his spear ''impales him when he dies'' in the JP and NA games - trying to prevent his latent vampirism from coming out to say yo what's up? Yeah, there's some distance between him and the source, but Dracula is a jerk that way... Either that or he's trying to keep Elizabeth Bartley from snacking on him.

One of few constants of the Castlevania canon is that Dracula is left-handed. In addition, those who use Dracula's powers or are related to Dracula in some way are left-handed. Alucard, [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow Soma]], and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia Shanoa]] are all left-handed, as is the possessed Richter Belmont. The only time this wasn't true was for the Game Boy games, and since Sonia's been retconned out, this leaves Christopher Belmont, who has been retconned into being right-handed as of Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth. However, both [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines John Morris]] and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin Jonathan Morris]] are left-handed, the latter coming out well after Dracula's left-handedness was noticed. Obviously, neither could handle the full power of the whip because they were descendants of Dracula!

Almost every Castlevania game has Dracula needing a boost to get resurrected. Needing the body of a Devil Forgemaster, the spirit of a werewolf, collecting his remains, etc. Even the 100 year resurrections required assistance. ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChronicles'' and ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheDraculaXChronicles Dracula X Chronicles]]'' show a virgin sacrifice. (Well, a sacrifice of a young girl, at least.)

Notice how Ricter has a lot of StreetFighter-like moves in SOTN? That's beacuse he invented them.

After SOTN, Ricter fled to Japan to get as far away from Dracula as possible. He then took a new identity and decided to train two brothers (Goken and Akuma) in his fighting style. The dark side of the style (like the Raging Demon and immorality) came from when he was brainwashed by Shaft. He was able to live long enough to have Julius as his son beacuse of the immortalty thing Akuma has. This would also explain why Akuma and Goken are so badass.

Going off some other bits of info here--Trevor's eye colour is the same as Lisa's, and at some point, the only way to destroy Dracula is with his own power; the Belmonts and in-laws never had to bother with Dominus. Sonia is the first known Belmont to destroy Dracula, but due to a lack of Tepes blood, couldn't hold him down for long (though it should be noted that defeating him at all was quite a feat). Her descendants had a bit more luck.

** Because Judgement's character design ''sucked''. Also note that grey eyes aren't really that uncommon. I have grey eyes, but I'm not quarter vampire.

[[WMG: Dracula is a Pokemon.]]

* Dracula's final defeat in 1999 is where he whited out, and so can't be revived as he is back in the Pokemon centre.

** Now it has, and no it's not. It [[spoiler:can't resurrect people or do anything it's touted as able to do. All it does is let the wearer see through the eyes of God.]] I expected a CameBackWrong, too, but no dice.

This would explain his role in the "final" sealing of Dracula's castle in 1999. As an added bonus, it might also explain why the first phase of Death in VideoGame/AriaOfSorrow was just his scythe--Julius beat him so badly that even 36 years later he was having trouble manifesting on the physical plane, and thus had to possess his scythe since he couldn't properly focus his power.

That, or he isn't taking the trip serious at all.

''Lament of Innocence'' [[StartOfDarkness is the domino that tipped over]], leading to the chain reaction that gave us the current Dracula. Mathias' beloved Elisabetha dies; [[FaithHeelTurn Mathias renounces God]] after years of fighting in His Name. Mathias then whips out the {{magnificen|tBastard}}ce and plays one hell of a BatmanGambit to manipulate ''[[UnwittingPawn everyone]]'' involved in ''[=LoI=]''. When he reveals himself as [[TheChessmaster the man behind the curtain]], Mathias tempts Leon to [[WeCanRuleTogether join him against God]]. Leon ([[ThePromise thanks to]] [[ThePowerOfLove his strong bond with Sara]]) refuses; Mathias sics Death on him, effictively ending his [[HeterosexualLifePartners friendship]] with Leon and culminating in Leon's [[BadassCreed resolve]] to hunt Dracula for all of eternity and have his descendants take up the mantle should he fail. Later on, his SecondLove Lisa (implied to be the reincarnation of Elisabetha herself) is tried for witchcraft and [[BurnTheWitch executed]]. Drac then promptly goes into full-on RageAgainstTheHeavens mode and never looked back.

While she may not be a direct descendant, she has enough strength in it to not get consumed by Dominus, and the villager's power further augmented this ability. This also explains how she can easily use glyphs.

* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'', he has to [[DevourTheDragon absorb Death's soul]] in order to transform.

Failing that, he might want to only die for real in a worthy way - against his old adversary, the Belmonts, as a sort of a post-humous thank you. He's just biding time until the next Belmont comes, in an "only he can kill me" situation. However, Shaft's possession of Richter might have fucked up the Belmonts' ability to vanquish Dracula and resist the darkness (hence the 1999 destiny), so he fucked it all up and now Drac has to wait even longer to be redeemed. One would imagine the 1999 game, if ever made, would have a TearJerker ending for Dracula, regardless of how it happens.

[[WMG: Julius has an sibling, who the Belmont line continues along]]
The reason they weren't the hero of 1999 is not that they were younger, but that they wanted a quite life as [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance an interior decorator]] instead of trying to stop demons from killing them.

This time he had Time Reaper stay behind the scenes. Not only would it TimeParadox Dracula; but it also lead to the destruction of some rival Demon Lords in Hell; Beelzebub, Legion, and Ryukotsuki.

No, not the Scholomance from VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}. This is the one from old European lore. The Scholomance was a super-hyper-mega-ultra-secret school where the Devil taught ten cultists at a time black magic. The price was that one of the ten would have to remain forever afterwards as a servant (whether as a professor or some lesser staff member is not mentioned). More importantly, the castle of both Walter and of Dracula ''are the same Scholomance''. Not only does this explain how the place gets festooned with all manner of horrors as soon as it arises (the demons were there from the beginning, the witches are there for beginning lessons, etc.), it also helps explain its highly variable form without really messing up the bookshelves &c. It was varied ''by the students' experiments''. After Julius trapped Dracula's castle inside an eclipse, demonkind simply got to work on constructing Scholomance #2, which proceeded to become With Light's main base of operations.

So, we know from VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence that Joachim Armster, the vampire who is imprisoned by Walter for attempted rebellion, was once human. So what caused his current predicament? There are two possible theories:

While keeping watch over the remainder of his bloodline--one of whom was Leon Belmont--Gabriel sired Mathias Cronqvist into Clan Tzimisce to save him from his illness. Mathias later orchestrated the confrontation with the Malkavian Walter Bernhard in an attempt to share his power with Leon. Mathias used the power of the Crimson Stone to psychically diablerize Walter, giving him Walter's Malkavian traits.

In 1999, Dracula was defeated and his castle was sealed within a solar eclipse. In 2035, another solar eclipse marks his attempted revival and the beginning of Soma's involvement. 2017 happens to be exactly halfway between those two years, and in addition, since Soma is 18 years old in 2035, he must have been born in that year as well.

So Castlevania the location is alive and it always has a master. The Theory is thus, If you are the master of castlevani for a long enough time then you become Dracula. Dracula is a persona worn by the master of the castle created by the castle itself. That handilly explains how Mathias and Vlad Teppes can both be Dracula. anytime "Dracula" is brought back to unlife that is merely the last body he used becoming the host.

* Post Sot N, Dracula the man once known as Matthias actually did give up after fighting Alucard. However, Dracula the Dark Lord/avatar of evil kept on reviving, resulting in a silted personality and issues with his One winged angel forms (admittedly from a previous WMG, but it fits well enough). Then after the final defeat, the former's soul was freed to reincarnate into someone not locked to the path of evil.

* He took the name after the original passed on in some sense and inspired him to take up the name, and used his time to try out a few things without drawing too much attention but found that the good done even with such harsh methods felt good.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* He took the name after the original passed on in some sense and inspired him to take up the name, and used his time to try out a few things without drawing too much attention but found that the good done even with such harsh methods felt good.
* Post Sot N, Dracula the man once known as Matthias actually did give up after fighting Alucard. However, Dracula the Dark Lord/avatar of evil kept on reviving, resulting in a silted personality and issues with his One winged angel forms (admittedly from a previous WMG, but it fits well enough). Then after the final defeat, the former's soul was freed to reincarnate into someone not locked to the path of evil.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Animated Series]]
[[WMG:([[WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania}} Netflix series]]) The Belmonts were excommunicated from the Church because of their leadership.]]
In the series, it's shown that [[spoiler: when Trevor rallies up the people of Gresit against the corrupt clergy and leads them in fighting the demons invading the city]], he is a capable and charismatic leader as well as a formidable vampire hunter. This capacity for leadership was present in all the Belmont clan, going back to (if the games' canon is taken into account) the very first Belmont vampire hunter, Leon Belmont, who was a soldier in the Crusades (and who, even back then, was disgraced by the Church). This is the true reason the Church excommunicated the Belmonts: fear that they can inspire and lead in a way that challenges the Church's authority. After all, having a vampire hunter under their employ is of nothing but benefit to the Church, so it must take something they see as a MAJOR drawback for them to excommunicate such a powerful asset.

[[WMG: The Bishop in the Netflix series will become [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood the Dark Priest]] [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Shaft]].]]
There's a striking resemblance.
* Honestly, I doubt Dracula - who was willing to accept the death of thousands of innocents - would make the man most responsible for his wife's death into one of his most loyal servants.

[[WMG: The Cyclops was sent by Dracula to guard Alucard]]
When Trevor is angry with Alucard because his traps almost killed them, Alucard retorts that the traps were all mechanical. However, the Cyclops is flesh and blood. He also added that he didn't intent to kill innocent people, which would probably extend to any monsters under his orders. Who else could have placed the Cyclops there? Dracula probably figured out that Alucard was sleeping there, but didn't want to kill him, so he placed the Cyclops there to both keep him safe from angry villagers and to turn Alucard to stone (nonlethally) if he tried to leave.

[[WMG: Contrary to that, Alucard sent the Cyclops to guard him so that no innocent people would die.]]
The Cyclops's stone victims are released if he dies, because he's actively feeding energy into keeping them stone. Presumably, if it wanted to, it could release them. Alucard chose the Cyclops because it would keep threats out, and when Alucard had to leave he could make it unfreeze its human victims. The Cyclops probably didn't intend to kill the statues that weren't Sypha, because it would lose its food source.
[[/folder]]

* Post SotN, Dracula the man once known as Matthias actually did give up after fighting Alucard. However, Dracula the Dark Lord/avatar of evil kept on reviving, resulting in a silted personality and issues with his One winged angel forms (admittedly from a previous WMG, but it fits well enough). Then after the final defeat, the former's soul was freed to reincarnate into someone not locked to the path of evil.

There's a striking resemblance.