Sypha Belnades

Sypha Belnades was a young woman who grew extremely proficient with magic and became a self-proclaimed witch. Raised by fellow witches, Sypha was only a child when she witnessed the vampire, Carmilla, darken the hearts of men to the point that they grew fearful and hateful towards witches. This sparked the witch trials, which led to the deaths of Sypha's parents.

"Mature Content" This character has mature themes and concepts, thus those of young age are ill-advised to look through these.
Sypha Belnades
JudgmentCastlevania III “ Do not underestimate me! I am Sypha Belnades, a hunter of the church. „ ~ Sypha Belnades ArtworkIn-Game ModelPachislot No HoodHooded “ Thanks for helping me. I'm Syfa, the Vampire Hunter. I will follow you if you need my help. I hope a Magic Spirit wil give us the power. „ ~ Sypha to Trevor
Articles About Sypha Belnades
Main Continuity - Netflix
Origin
Origin	Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Creator	Hitoshi Akamatsu, Koji Igarashi
First Appearance	Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Actor	Japanese: Ami Koshimizu English: Dorothy Fahn
Characteristics
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Pronouns	She/Her
Sexuality	Heterosexual
Age	Unknown
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown
Status	Deceased
Alignment	Lawful Good
Archetype	Impersonator / The Heart
Occupation	Vampire Hunter
Time Period	1476
Language	English
Homeworld	Earth
Relationships
Affiliations	Trevor Belmont, Grant Danasty, Alucard
Enemies	Dracula

Background

After barely escaping with her life, Sypha found refuge within the Church. For a time, she trained as a monk, in which she learned how to use elemental magic, such as fire, ice, and lightning spells. Seeking revenge for the vampire who caused the deaths of her sisters, Sypha sought to destroy anything tainted by darkness.

Whilst out destroying monsters around the countryside of Wallachia, Sypha noticed a Time Rift appear before her, which wasted no time in pulling her in. Inside, Sypha met a man named Aeon, who beckoned for her help in defeating a powerful and dangerous being known as the Time Reaper. Agreeing to do so, Sypha fought through the Time Rift. Along the way, she met several warriors from several points in time, including a strange man named Trevor Belmont, who seemed to know her.

After several fights to prove her strength, Sypha made it to the Time Reaper and managed to defeat it. With the Time Rift mended, Sypha was brought back to her own time, where she found that trouble was stirring. A mysterious new vampire known as Count Dracula made his presence known, seeking to kill all of humanity for their transgressions.

Sypha was called by the Church to deal with the threat, though she was still wary that the people of Wallachia would kill her for her station as a witch. In particular, a woman named Lisa had recently been killed for suspicions of being a witch, which, unbeknownst to everyone, was the event that enraged Dracula. Because of this, Sypha disguised herself as a man and came to the countryside.

Once she made it there, however, she was quickly captured by a powerful Cyclops, and turned into a statue. Sypha was then rescued by Trevor Belmont, whom she somewhat recalled from her quest through the Time Rift. Sypha joined Trevor, along with two other warriors named Grant Danasty and Alucard, as they set course directly towards Dracula. Using their combined power, the four were able to slay the Dark Lord.

With Dracula defeated, Sypha grew an attraction towards Trevor, and the two fell in love; they would soon have children that would continue on the legendary Belmont bloodline. As accomplices to Trevor Belmont in his fight, Sypha, Grant, and Alucard were titled the "Three Legendary Warriors," which immortalized them through history.

General Information

Name: Sypha Belnades

Origin: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

First Appearance: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Company: Konami

Creator: Hitoshi Akamatsu, Koji Igarashi

Actor

• Japanese Voice Actor: Ami Koshimizu
• English Voice Actor: Dorothy Fahn

Gender: Female (Sypha hid her true self due to her calling and fear of being called a witch)

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Pronouns: She/Her

Age: Unknown

Birth Year: 15th Century

Time Period: 1476

Timeline: Main Timeline

Homeworld: Earth

Residence: Wallachia

Story Role: Supporting Protagonist, Hidden Female

Legacy: Worldwide Legacy (The Belnades are renowned Vampire Hunters, with Sypha's aid in defeating Dracula making her well-known, becoming known as one of the three legendary warriors)

Influence: Event Influence (Aided in the defeat of Dracula, saving the world from his darkness)

Language: English

Classification: Witch, One of the Three Legendary Warriors

Species: Human

State of Being: Regular

Physiology: Humanoid Physiology

In-Universe Creator: God

Occupation: Vampire Hunter

Affiliations: Trevor Belmont (Both her and Trevor fell in love), Grant Danasty, Alucard

Enemies: Dracula

Height: Unknown

Weight: Unknown

Status

• During her Time: Alive
• Modern Time: Deceased (As she existed back in 1400s, she is naturally dead from old age)

Date of Death: Unknown

Alignment: Lawful Good (Sypha is a follower of the church, vowing to hunt down the forces of evil and hunt mankind, despite their continued oppression of her and her sisters)

Protection Level: Global Protector (Aided in the defeat of Dracula, where in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Dracula plans to take over all of Europe, proceeded to amass an army to kill hundreds of soldiers to take over Europe, plagued the beautiful land located in the Southern Part of Romania into darkness by having devils attack it, planned to spread his evil grip to the rest of Europe)

Archetype: Impersonator / The Heart

Codex Statistics

Key: Judgment | Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Key Information

• Judgment: Covers her Judgment story which takes placae years before the events of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.
• Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse: Covers the events of her during Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.

Grade: A | A

Tier: At least 9-A, likely Far Higher. Even Higher with Sheer Will | At least 9-A, likely Far Higher. Even Higher with Sheer Will

Cardinality: Finite

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: At least Room level (Potency), likely Far Higher (Fought and defeated the Time Reaper, who fought against Golem from Castlevania Judgment, who died to a random unknown hunter after his return from the time rift. Golem with his ultimate can shoot out a mouth blast that vaporizes everything it touches as far as the eye can see getting these results. The powers of everyone in Judgment are essentially equal as the time rift is another world where the impossible is possible). Even Higher with Sheer Will (Simon claims that the Belmonts and Morrises did not defeat Dracula because of the Vampire Killer, with the reason behind heroes' capacity to fight against evil lying not in their physical strength but the noble desire to drive away evil and usher in all that is good, the desire to protect the world for all of humanity, with the courage to fight to protect others being the true essence of a hero and a Belmont's strength, with this even applying for other heroes such as Shanoa, Maria, Charlotte, and even Arikado. Alucard notes that having something to protect surpasses the limits of strength) | At least Room level (Potency), likely Far Higher (Aided in the defeat of 1400s Dracula, who serves as the absolute evil, the opposite to God, where for God to be perfectly good, there must be a being of perfect darkness, being the entity opposite to God, with such power making him far superior to Golem from Castlevania Judgment, as he died to a random unknown hunter after his return from the time rift. Golem with his ultimate can shoot out a mouth blast that vaporizes everything it touches as far as the eye can see. Can fight The Creature who can cause the entire room to shake and make parts of the ceiling fall down). Even Higher with Sheer Will

Durability: At least Room level, likely Far Higher. Even Higher with Sheer Will | At least Room level, likely Far Higher (Though her durability is shown to be lower then the likes of Trevor Belmont, Grant Danasty, & 1400s Alucard). Even Higher with Sheer Will

Striking Strength: At least Room Class (Potency), likely Far Higher. Even Higher with Sheer Will | At least Room Class (Potency), likely Far Higher. Even Higher with Sheer Will

Lifting Strength: Unknown: True level. Even Higher with Sheer Will | Unknown: True level. Even Higher with Sheer Will

Travel Speed: Superhuman (Shouldn't be far off from her Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse self, who can outrun a room where all the blocks start collapsing). Even Higher with Sheer Will | Superhuman. Even Higher with Sheer Will

Attack Speed: At most Faster Than Light (Can tag 1400s Dracula, who serves as the absolute evil, the opposite to God, where for God to be perfectly good, there must be a being of perfect darkness, being the entity opposite to God, making him faster then enemies such as the Sky Fish who moves so fast that it appears as a beam of light and is only slowed down when time is stopped and the White Demon, who can move at the speed of light at short distances). Even Higher with Sheer Will | At most Faster Than Light. Even Higher with Sheer Will

Reaction Speed: At most Faster Than Light. Even Higher with Sheer Will | At most Faster Than Light. Even Higher with Sheer Will

Stamina: Superhuman (Alongside Trevor, Sypha travelled the entire Transylvanian countryside for several days fighting against Dracula's forces, without any rest)

Range: Standard Melee, Extended Melee with Belnades Staff, Tens of Meters with magic spells (Sypha's ice can instantly freeze an entire river), Universal with Time Stop

Intelligence: Supergenius Intelligence (Sypha is a practicioner of magic, where magic requires one to have a deep understanding of Quantum Physics to utilize it to its fullest, requiring understandings of theories such as "Curse Amplification". Able to utilize sub-weapons that possess great attack and power which in Castlevania requires one to have a high intelligence to be able to do)

Knowledge: Grandmaster level (Can fight and defeat Dracula, where he was a genius tactician as Mathias, who they called "Cronqvist the Wise")

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Powers and Techniques

Innate AbilitiesWith Equipment

Standard Abilities Granted From MagicUnique Abilities

• Magic (Through utilizing magic, one has to have a deep understanding of Quantum Physics to utilize it to its fullest, requiring understandings of theories such as "Curse Amplification")
  • Alchemy & Principle Manipulation (Magic comes from alchemy, a field that experiments with the principles of God's creation of the world, along with being said to be as great a task as recreating God's creation of the Earth)
• Non-Standard Interaction (Extra-Planar Interaction; Magic is able to interact with beings such as Camilla Fernandez, Physical attacks are difficult to land as Camilla lives in the Astral plane, and her earthly body is completely ethereal)
• Limited Immersion & Dimensional Travel (3+1-D; Magic users can align their magic with the magic of another to enter into painting worlds)
• Summoning (Magic can be used in order to summon weapons and items inscribed in grimoires)
• Soul Manipulation (Yoko through the use of magic discovered a new ability to draw the monster souls out and use them)

• Superhuman Physical Characteristics
  • Superhuman Strength
  • Superhuman Speed
  • Superhuman Lifting
  • Superhuman Reaction
  • Superhuman Energy Efficiency
• Weapon Mastery
  • Staff Mastery: Asides from using it for magic, Sypha can also use her staff in direct combat.
• Sheer Will (Simon claims that the Belmonts and Morrises did not defeat Dracula because of the Vampire Killer, with the reason behind heroes' capacity to fight against evil lying not in their physical strength but the noble desire to drive away evil and usher in all that is good, the desire to protect the world for all of humanity, with the courage to fight to protect others being the true essence of a hero and a Belmont's strength, with this even applying for other heroes such as Shanoa, Maria, Charlotte, and even Arikado)
• Magic (Sypha is directly noted to be a witch)
• Extrasensory Perception (Sypha is able to sense the energy one radiates, believing Shanoa to believe a vampire when she came across her)
• Non-Standard Interaction
  • Elemental Interaction: Can interact with creatures of the night made of fire.
  • Metaphysical Interaction: Can harm and kill spirits and ghost.
• Nullification
  • Energy Nullification: Sypha can negate energy projectiles with her staff.
• Energy Absorption (Sypha can get hearts out of objects and enemies, where hearts are a measure of one's stored energy, thus one is absorbing energy when gaining hearts)
• Summoning (Sypha can summon the grimoire to use for her special attack)
  • Subjective Reality (Sypha can utilize the grimoire to send out different magic attacks, With the real world and world of grimoires being considered the same or "equal", compared to the like of Brauner's painting worlds that are quantum multi-layered spaces requiring understandings of theories such as "Curse Amplification")
  • Text Manipulation & Forcefield Manipulation (Uses the Grimoire to cause a barrier made out of the text from the grimoire to trap her opponent in and proceed to use a massive blast)
  • Plot Manipulation (As Sypha can utilize the grimoire to control the forces of nature, to where she can manipulate the text within it, she can rewrite it. Where overwriting the contents of the Grimoire can change history to things such as Jonathan Morris is now at a disadvantage in battle, or Charlotte fading from existence due to them messing with the history of the Grimoires, Maria starting to fade because Richter's history is being rewritten, where if the contents of the book change the creatures magic will keep growing and eventually overflow into reality, causing the grimoire to fall into chaos and even more monsters materializing into the real world. Though it should be noted that it is unknown what exactly is contained within Sypha's grimoire, thus she is only limited to what is in her grimoire)
• Mortality Manipulation & Elemental Manipulation (Sypha has harnessed the power of the dead in order to control the elements)
• Ice Manipulation & Absolute Zero (With the ice magic, can freeze things instantly. Sypha's ice can instantly freeze an entire river. Along with this to protect against ice attacks in series, one normally wears rings that help them resist against absolute zero), Fire Manipulation (With the flames spell, Sypha wields fire magic allowing her to burn enemies to nothing), Electricity Manipulation & Homing Attack (With electricity spell, shoots out three electrical orbs that home in on targets)
  • Regeneration Negation (Sypha's freezing and then attacking the red skeletons can negate their regeneration, who endlessly regenerates, from any kind of damage due to it absorbing blood).

Standard ResistancesCastle Resistances

• Resistance to
  • Petrification (Can take hits from Medusa heads, who can turn one into stone upon contacting them)
  • Mortality Manipulation (Can take hits from Death and his scythes, who is noted to govern the fate of death, being noted to have the power to govern the end of all living things, and can use his scythes to kill abstractions such as distance and sound. Death decides who lives and who dies)

• Resistance to
  • Dracula's Castle's Abilities (Sypha is able to enter Dracula's castle without any adverse effects done to her). The Castle Abilities Include:
    • Reality Warping (The Castle does not work on standard logic, where changing rooms can have one view a completely different background, such as room with a blue sky that is reflecting up and downwards and having the clouds rotate at a fast speed)
    • Transmutation (Beings that come near are subject to the castle's influence, such as a local barnyard owl which was mutated just from flying near it)
    • Possession (The castle possesses objects with its magic, such as a ouija table)
    • Sealing (Dracula's magic captured Aguni, a primitive god of fire. The Castle has doors sealed off without solving puzzles. This can extend to walls being sealed off where explosions will not affect it until the seal is gone)
    • Mind Manipulation (Everything that enters the castle is under the control by the power of Dracula's castle, the ghost of Eric Lecarde needed to cast a magic barrier to bind himself so he could be free from the control of the castle. The Castle corrupts the minds of those who enter it, such as making Maxim Kischine feel strange ever since coming to it. It also corrupted the mind of Hugh turning him against Nathan with Nathan noting he's being controlled by Dracula. The castle increases one's dark desires, allowing Dracula to easily control them. The magic of Dracula's power that empowers the owl enemy also spurs it to violence)
    • Madness Manipulation (The Castle warped Gergoth, a once-gentle beast and drove it mad)
    • Size Manipulation (Magically enlarged a toad through the use of demonic baptism)
    • Fear Manipulation (Even while far away, Curtis and Michelle felt malicious intent from the castle where their bodies seemed to squeal "run away". Michelle even being at the entrance to the castle had her body telling her to not go in and her leg muscles being petrified like stone)
    • Curse Manipulation (The Curse status that spirits inflict comes from them absorbing the magic power around the castle. The Castle cursed a human to turn into a lizard man)
    • Mortality Manipulation (The castle can bring inanimate statues to life to attack. Can cause the glass murals to come to life and attack)
    • Soul Manipulation (Those that die in the castle become one of the floating spirits that wander the halls of the castle for eternity)
    • Abstract Manipulation & Hell Manipulation (The castle can create a core of evil made from hatred, envy, anger and other dark emotions)
    • Text Manipulation & Plot Manipulation (The vital souls are noted to be apart of the Castle's power, where is noted by Lucy that the "vital soul" of a monster is the cause of the grimoire chaos where creatures of the night's dark powers allowed them to rewrite the Grimoires to strengthen their dark powers greatly, along with their vital souls causing the grimoires contents to be overwritten changing history to things such as Jonathan Morris is now at a disadvantage in battle, or Charlotte fading from existence due to them messing with the history of the Grimoires, Maria starting to fade because Richter's history is being rewritten, where if the contents of the book change the creatures magic will keep growing and eventually overflow into reality, causing the grimoire to fall into chaos and even more monsters materializing into the real world. The text alterations also make the monsters stronger. With the real world and world of grimoires being considered the same or "equal", compared to the like of Brauner's painting worlds that are quantum multi-layered spaces requiring understandings of theories such as "Curse Amplification". Death was going to use Dracula's magic to rewrite Dracula's defeat to Trevor making it where Dracula defeats Trevor Belmont instead where Dracula would go on living in the rewritten grimoire with each grimoire being its own world and the grimoires influence extends into reality)
    • Law Manipulation (The vital souls are noted to be apart of the Castle's power, which alter grimoires, which do not adhere to the laws of reality)
    • Power Modification (The vital souls are noted to be apart of the Castle's power, which the vital souls cause alterations of the Grimoire that can greatly limit the powers of those far stronger than them, such as Jonathan Morris' power being limited due to the alterations. The Chaos of the Grimoire destabilized the magic of the others)

With SubweaponsWith Items

• Time Stop
  • 1-T: All characters in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse can make a stopwatch. With the stopwatch, stops time. With time in Castlevania being so potent that not even eternity can withstand time, along with even artificial life being subject to the laws of time.

• Healing (With meat, restores some health)
• Intangibility & Invulnerability
  • Phasing & Metaphysical Invulnerability: With the invincibility potion, turns one intangible and invincible to attacks.
• Holy Manipulation & One Hit KO (With the Rosario, kills all enemies on screen in a single hit)

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Equipment

EquipmentSpellsItems

• Belnades Staff: A treasure of the Belnades Clan, which functions as Sypha's main weapon. It can be used for melee attacks, though she normally uses it to channel through her magic spells.
• Holy Water: A jar of water that was purified and blessed by the Church. When it shatters out of its container, the water erupts into powerful flames.

• Flames: Sypha launches a ball of fire at her enemies.
• Frozen Crystals: Six icicles form around Sypha, and spread outwards as dangerous projectiles. If they collide with an enemy, they will be frozen in place.
• Goodness Gracious Great Bolts of Lightning: Sypha forms three spheres of electricity that home-in on her opponents.
• Jagged Earth: A large and sharp formation of rocks appears in front of Sypha, acting as a sort of shield.
• Gale Force: Sypha launches a powerful green gust of wind to damage opponents.
• Disintegrate: Summoning a gigantic spell book, Sypha preforms an incantation that traps the enemy in a barrier of energy. Spheres of fire, ice, and electricity then surround them, before the entire barrier explodes with them within it.

• Invisibility Potion: Invisibility potion that makes Sypha both invisible and invulnerable to attacks, phasing though enemies, for a limited period of time.

• Rosary: A powerful holy item that destroys all enemies on screen instantly.

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Notable Techniques

Castlevania III: Dracula's CurseCastlevania Judgment

Fire

A swift yet strong burst of fire is unleashed at medium range directly in front of Sypha. The flames are very powerful as they annihilate everything in its path.

Cold

Six ice crystals will fan out in front of and above Sypha, capable of freezing both enemies and projectiles. Enemies that are frozen can serve as stepping platforms. Additionally, if the crystals make contact with a body of water, it will freeze completely for a short duration.

Lightning Bolt

Three electrified spheres will spread out in front of Sypha, possessing minor homing abilities and delivering significant damage. The lightning bolt launches zapping spheres in three different directions.

Neutral Combo

Sypha swings her mace overhead, follows up with an underhand swing that launches her opponent upward, and then throws a spellbook directly at them, which vanishes upon impact. At any point during or after this combo, Sypha can initiate a Fireball to Triple Blaze combo.

Directional Combo

Sypha thrusts her mace forward into her opponent, then executes a slight jump to launch them upward.

Jumping Attack

Sypha sends her spellbook diagonally downward towards her opponent while being lifted into the air. This move allows her to follow up with an Ice Storm attack before she lands.

Fireball

Sypha's book hovers open in front of her, from which she conjures and launches a fireball at her opponent.

Triple Blaze

Following the initial fireball, Sypha unleashes a second wave, sending three additional fireballs in a triangular formation towards her opponent. All four fireballs converge at a single point in front of her.

Frost Wall

A series of ice shields form a circle around Sypha. If her opponent makes contact with the shields while not blocking, they will be frozen for several seconds.

Icicle Blades

Continuing from Frost Wall, if Sypha attacks again, long icicles erupt from each of the shields.

Ice Storm

Sypha opens her book, summoning a flurry of ice daggers that shoot out from it. She cannot execute another attack until she lands.

Lightning Strike

A large lightning sphere forms above Sypha's raised hands, which she can launch directly at her opponent. Its slow trajectory can be controlled with the analog stick and will cease moving when the trigger button is released. If performed in mid-air, Sypha holds her hands downward, generating the lightning sphere in front of them.

Hammer of Thor

Sypha delivers a powerful upward swing of her mace. If the attack connects (which cannot be blocked), it knocks her opponent upward and backward. Sypha then points her mace in their direction, unleashing a massive beam of electricity towards them.

Disintegrate

Sypha exclaims "Here it goes," spinning her mace to prepare for an attack. If she hits her opponent, she declares "Grimoire!" summoning a giant book bound in chains from the ground. With a gesture, she causes the chains to snap, opening the book to the desired page. She calls out, "Spirits, heed my call, come!" creating a magic circle around her opponent that forms a barrier. Informing them, "You cannot escape from that barrier," she watches as they panic while the barrier encloses them, lifting them into the air. Massive orbs of fire, ice, and lightning form, spiraling inward toward the barrier. Sypha shouts "Disintegrate," causing the barrier to explode. The book then disappears, and she states, "That is the forbidden power" or "It is finished."

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Other

Standard Tactics: Sypha utilizes her magic in battle, using the grimoire to hit the opponent with various magic spells.

Weaknesses: As a witch, she must hide her identity out of fear, pretending to be a male. Though after coming into contact with Trevor Belmont, she is more comfortable revealing that she is a woman.

Note

• Contrary to popular belief, holy attacks and the whips in Castlevania can affect and harm people that aren't apart of the creatures of the night. Leon's doppelganger can use holy water and holy attacks against him in this fight along with the alchemy whip despite Leon being a pure and noble warrior. Simon's doppelganger can harm him with the vampire killer, despite Simon being a noble hero. Holy Water even works and harms enemies such as the "Holy Armor", a knight who has natural holy powers. Corrupted enemies such as Charlie Vincent, use holy water attacks on Carrie and Reinhardt. Characters like Jonathan Morris wear armor like the Holy Mail, an armor that reduces damage from holy attacks.
• The Sky Fish feat moving so fast that it appears as a beam of light and only slows once time is stopped is a natural indication of Faster Than Light travel as at the speed of light, time is zero from its perspective. Soma Cruz having a hard time catching up with it initially does not mess with his scaling either as we know it's an unquantifiable level into Faster than Light at the most.

Explanation

Usage of games like Castlevania Legends & Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Castlevania Legends

The game was originally meant to be a prequel to all the other games in the Castlevania series, this can be seen with Sonia's boss fight against Dracula serving as the first time Dracula ever encountered a Belmont along with the ending of the game saying "this story marks the beginning of the Belmont family legend that has been passed on through many ages". Along with this, Sonia shared a relationship with Alucard, heavily implying that her child is between her and Alucard. The existence of Lament of Innocence already greatly messes with this. The game manual even mentions that Sonia was the first of the Belmont family to leave her name to posterity as a vampire hunter. Despite Leon Belmont being the one to start the legend of the Belmont Hunters being vampire hunters. Along with this, Trevor is canonically the first Belmont to defeat Dracula. Iga has gone out of his way to note too that Castlevania Legends was intentionally redacted from the timeline so that it doesn't conflict with the timing used in other titles.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Although it was in the original 2006 timeline, it was removed by Iga from the timeline, along with Castlevania (N64), Legacy of Darkness, and Legends.

Why abilities from them are still usable for main timeline

These games were at one point officially a part of the original timeline before ultimately being removed, making them hypotheticals that could be done. This is further supported by an interview in the History of Castlevania - Crescent of the Moon book, where executive producer of Castlevania Netflix Adi Shankar noted that even the "non-canon" games are parallel timelines in the overall multiverse, sharing the same spirit and lore. While one could argue his statement shouldn't be used, it comes from a book titled, "History of Castlevania - Crescent of the Moon", where it wouldn't make much sense if his statement was wrong and there was no correction over it. The book even has asterisks to give further context, yet they never claim him wrong. Along with this, it's consistent with the fact that most of the Castlevania games that are "non-canon" now were originally a part of the timeline. Thus this statement is usable. Thus abilities and the likes from these games can carry over to the main timeline games.

Trivia

• Sypha is the only one of the three playable allies in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse whom the player does not fight prior to getting her to join (as Grant Danasty was forcibly transfigured into a monster before Trevor lifted his curse, and Alucard briefly fought them in order to test them before formally defecting to their side).
• In the PAL and NTSC versions of Dracula's Curse, Sypha is referred to as a male due to technical limitations of the NES - that is, there could only be one programmed window asking the player if they wish to take a companion with them. The programmers decided on "Take him with you?", thus meaning that all three scenarios would use this text box.
  • Likely because of this, her incarnation in the Captain N: The Game Master animated series is a male wizard, despite the actual ending in the game where she is revealed to be female.
• Her name is a mistranslation on "cipher" - an unknown or an enigma. This fits in well with her hidden true nature.
• Sypha and Trevor appear briefly during the introduction of Castlevania: Bloodlines.
• The Fernandez Warrior from Castlevania (N64) was originally conceived as Sypha Belnades herself. The designers ultimately scrapped the idea before the game's release, simply making her another Fernandez.
• In Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, there is an accessory alluding to Sypha called Cipher's Charm, with "Cipher" being a mistranslation of "Sypha". In the Japanese version of the game, the item is correctly named Sypha's Crystal (シファのクリスタル). The item improves MP speed regeneration, further referencing Sypha's magical abilities.
• In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Yoko Belnades is a playable character whose fighting style –very similar to Sypha's, being her relative– includes the use of various spells and a weak staff.
• Sypha's Judgment characterization was allegedly not popular among fans due to her being single-mindedly obsessed with trying to wipe out the creatures of the night, even by targeting characters who were technically on her side, such as Shanoa, Cornell, and Alucard (with the former even being part of the Church just as Sypha is), and coming across as an hypocrite as a result, something that was not alluded to in either Dracula's Curse or even the Pachislot version.

Misconceptions

"Gaiden" means "Non-Canon" or "Alternate Timeline"

This stems from the belief that when Iga or a producer calls a Castlevania game a "Gaiden" it is therefore non-canon or an alternate timeline and can be dismissed. This, however, is not the case.

The term "Gaiden" merely just means a side story, spin-off, or a separate tale. The term "Gaiden" does not determine the canonicity of a work, it just lets you know if the game is a spin-off/side-story or if it's a main story. Take, for instance, the Kingdom Hearts series. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories would be considered a gaiden, as it's a side-story and spin-off title that isn't a mainline numbered title, however, it is in all manners canon and important to play to understand Kingdom Hearts II.

The same can be applied to Castlevania itself, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is a gaiden game. Yet it is very obviously canon and pretty important to play to understand more of Alucard's backstory. The idea of a Gaiden game for the Castlevania series itself would be any game not dealing with one of Dracula's main 100-year-resurrections, which in this case, even Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest is in a way a gaiden, despite being completely canon.

This is all to say that Gaiden does not at all mean "non-canon" or "alternate timeline" and should never be treated as such, the term itself has nothing to do with the canonicity of a product.

IGA Statements Quoted by a Fan

Any statements Iga has made about Judgment that don't come from this IGN interview or a sourced and reputable article are not usable. This is, of course, referring to the popular statements used when discussing Judgment's Canoncity about a fan asking IGA about the game's Canoncity on Facebook, here are some of them below:

Fan: You mentioned Legend of Cornell was an alternate continuity. However, Cornell appears in Castlevania Judgment, which I believe is not an alternate continuity. How does that work? is he from a different universe than the other characters? It is not really explained in the game itself so I was hoping you could give some clarification on the issue.

IGA: Judgment is a work that surpasses space and time and brings them together.

Fan: I get it. So, is the explanation I suggested in the previous reply possibly correct?

IGA: I don't think it's exactly correct. Judgment is a work born of thinking it would be fun to remove all the hedges and bring characters that appeared throughout the series together. I think that you need to view it as an event from another world which does not consider things like timelines or parallel dimensions at all.

Now these seem like pretty clear-cut statements until you start to try to find where these come from.

They come from both a timeline archive discussion on the Castlevania Wiki back on January 15th, 2012 and from a forum post from the same user as the wiki article.

There is no way to find anything sourced or verifiably proven that this person spoke to Iga. Trying to look up the person didn't get any real results either.

Some other issues fall under the inconsistencies within these Iga talks, the person claims that Iga confirmed that Order of Shadows and the Arcade are non-canon because they were intended from the very beginning to be such, however, an officially sourced interview has the lead game designer of Order of Shadows state that Iga was actively involved with ensuring the game was consistent with the current canon, this would be a weird thing to do if he intended it to be non-canon from the very beginning.

He also claims that Iga said Super Castlevania IV was an alternate continuity, when the wiki also notes Iga saying that the games are all legitimate and the same scenario of defeating Dracula, however this quote is also unsourced, they just claim Iga says this with no link or anything.

There is another one not related to the user who spoke to Iga, but a user on reddit who claimed that a magazine claimed that Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was stated to be in a "different time axis". Attempting to get it translated got no wording that said anything like that, with it not even mentioning anything about canon, timeline, time axis, or any other wording of the sort in a machine-translated attempt. Do note however that this is a machine translation so it could potentially be that it is there, but until a reputable and verifiable translator can confirm or deny this translation, the jury is out with it and it will not be used for the canoncity of Circle of the Moon.

Thus all of these quotes are merely hearsay until shown or proven otherwise.

Remakes/Remasters Being Non-Canon

This comes from an Iga quote that says:

"IGA: FC版とX６８０００版ですが、X６８０００版はFC版をベースにアレンジを加えたものになっています。ゲームのアレンジは、その時に応じて、色々と施されるものですので、正直どちらも正統であると思ってよいのではないかと思っています。結論として、ドラキュラと戦い勝つというシナリオで、中間部分の切り抜きが違うと考えてもよいのではないかと考えています。スーパーファミコン版も違いますし…。どうしてもと考えるのであれば、FC版を尊重すべきかと考えます。

Translation: Regarding the Famicom version and the X68000 version, the X68000 version is an arrangement based on the Famicom version. The arrangement of a game is the kind of thing where you add a lot of different things as needed, so honestly speaking, it think they both should be considered legitimate. In conclusion, I think they should be considered as the same scenario of fighting to defeat Dracula, just with a different middle part. The Super Famicom version is different as well... If you simply must have a clear answer, the Famicom version must be given deference."

Now the quote itself doesn't state remakes or remasters are non-canon despite what people believe. It's moreso a quote of Iga stating that all of them are the same scenario, just with differences. However, an interesting point is that Iga says the NES version should be given "deference", as in to defer to the NES version.

Of course, though, this has the same issue as the Judgment quotes, everyone claims Iga said this, but there is no source of him saying this. In fact, in Castlevania Chronicles, there's a reward interview you receive from Iga himself where he talks about the game, Iga pretty much explains how the game came to be and never says anything about the game not being canon or to defer to the original, if anything he treats this as just an updated version of the original. Interestingly to note too, the original he's talking about is not Castlevania on NES but instead, he's talking about the computer version of Castlevania, though it borrows a lot of elements from Castlevania NES.

Overall due to the quote itself having no source, it is unusable. The way we will treat remakes, remasters, or ports here however is that they are all equally canon unless stated otherwise. Most of these tell the same story with the only real differences being extra background information added, such as Haunted Castle having it be Dracula stole Simon's wife, though the same overall story still applies even here. Iga himself has already expressed that the original Castlevania's story is pretty simple and Simon having a wife does not affect anything in the overall narrative. Super Castlevania IV notes that Simon is a vampire, though this was due to a novel writer making him a vampire in their novel. The novel was originally supposed to be an adaptation of Super Castlevania IV but was then dropped and made its own thing. Super Castlevania IV itself is still canon, but the subplot of Simon being a vampire is not. The most recent timeline even acknowledges it as canon.

Iga Only Allows Stuff He Works on To Be Canon

There is a weirdly believed idea in the fandom that Iga only considers works he worked on canon, however, an officially sourced interview has the lead game designer of Order of Shadows state that Iga was actively involved with ensuring the game was consistent with the current canon, along with this Iga did not work on a lot of Castlevania games considered canon, such as the NES trilogy and the Gameboy games. In fact, he has only made 12 Castlevania games, out of the 30 Castlevania games in total, and most of them from the older console eras are still a part of the canon. Thus Iga does not only allow stuff he works on to be canon.

Iga is a Producer of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

A Nintendo Power magazine calls Iga the producer of Circle of the Moon, with Iga talking like he worked on the game in that interview. However Iga can be found nowhere in the credits of the game. Making this Nintendo Power issue questionable as to if they were talking to Iga or if the game was mixed up. Though we have direct in-game proof that Iga was not a producer of Circle of the Moon.

Elements and Statements can be used from Lords of Shadows for the main continuity

This argument comes from Adi Shankar saying that even "non-canon" games are parallel timelines in the overall multiverse, sharing the same spirit and lore. However, the Lord of Shadow games are directly noted in an interview with the lead developer, that the game has nothing to do with the canon, sharing none of the lore or original stuff for the characters. This directly conflicts with Adi Shankar's statement and it was very likely he was not even thinking of Lords of Shadows when making this statement but moreso games like Castlevania Legends. On top of this, Adi Shankar has no actual position within Konami, and being an executive producer for the Castlevania anime, thus he does not have any true say in terms of how Castlevania canon works and can only be used at most as a supporting piece of evidence.

Codex Statistics Questions

Q: Shouldn't the characters be around Tier 2 for defeating the Time Reaper who would've destroyed the very fabric of time, attempted to destroy the specific era of time, cause all beings everywhere to disappear, forever and that the age was on the verge of collapse?

A: We actually never get a direct outright method of Time Reaper's plan for doing this, from what Aeon mentions to Golem, if the Time Rift is not erased, all beings everywhere will disappear, forever, implying that it's the Time Rift causing this, this is further backed up by the fact that in Time Reaper's boss fight, there is a vortex in the background consuming everything, meaning this is an overtime feat that scales to no one physically.

Q: Shouldn't they get tier 2 for Dracula's influence destabilizing the flow of time?

A: This is a potent ability but has nothing to do with Attack Potency, there is no quantification for "destabilizing the flow of time", along with this, even if it was taken as physically, then it would be overtime as the effects are not noticeable throughout most of Curse of Darkness. Thus this is merely potent Time Manipulation.

Q: Shouldn't Dracula and by proxy anyone that scales to him get tier 2 for him being able to sustain his castle?

A: This goes under our Stabilization Feats standards, which treats sustaining feats are non-combat applicable Attack Potency normally, though in Dracula's case the Castle is speficially powered by the existence of a Dark Lord, and doesn't necessarily need their strength to rise. In the Castlevania novel, the castle rose without a Dark Lord as an example. Along with this, no one scales to the collapse of the castle, in Curse of Darkness Hector would've died to the collapse of the castle if Julia didn't come save him, and Isaac died within the castle. In other cases the Castle does not collapse, but instead slowly fades away. At the end of Dawn of Sorrow Soma Cruz and Genya Arikado (aka Alucard) must escape the collapsing abyss.

Q: Shouldn't Castlevania characters that scale to Death have Infinite speed due to Death being able to kill distance itself with his attacks?

A: Killing distance to attack is not a speed feat, it's a method of Spatial Manipulation by circumventing and ignoring distance, while one can say the attack spawns on you instantly, this is not really something quantifiable. Along with this, it would only scale to characters comparable to Death during post-Dawn of Sorrow, as Soma notes Death is far faster than he remembered from his fight with him in Dawn of Sorrow.

Battle Records

19-1-0

VictoriesLossesInconclusive

Castlevania III: Dracula's CurseCastlevania Judgment

• Medusa - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Ghost Ship

• Double Trouble - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Ghost Ship

• The Creature - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Tower of Terror

• Water Dragons - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Castle Causeway

• Triple Threat - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Castle Bridge

• Death - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Castle Entrance

• Doppelganger - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Castle Gardens

• Dracula - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Dracula's Lair

• Aeon - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.

• Trevor Belmont - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.
  • Note: Fights against characters in the time rift are technically not the actual characters but one's desires being made within the time rift, such as why some characters like Dracula kill others in their story mode but the characters is alive and defeats Time Reaper in their own story mode, never meeting Dracula.

• Grant Danasty - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.
  • Note: Fights against characters in the time rift are technically not the actual characters but one's desires being made within the time rift, such as why some characters like Dracula kill others in their story mode but the characters is alive and defeats Time Reaper in their own story mode, never meeting Dracula.

• Cornell - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.
  • Note: Fights against characters in the time rift are technically not the actual characters but one's desires being made within the time rift, such as why some characters like Dracula kill others in their story mode but the characters is alive and defeats Time Reaper in their own story mode, never meeting Dracula.

• Eric Lecarde - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.
  • Note: Fights against characters in the time rift are technically not the actual characters but one's desires being made within the time rift, such as why some characters like Dracula kill others in their story mode but the characters is alive and defeats Time Reaper in their own story mode, never meeting Dracula.

• Shanoa - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.
  • Note: Fights against characters in the time rift are technically not the actual characters but one's desires being made within the time rift, such as why some characters like Dracula kill others in their story mode but the characters is alive and defeats Time Reaper in their own story mode, never meeting Dracula.

• Maria Renard - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.
  • Note: Fights against characters in the time rift are technically not the actual characters but one's desires being made within the time rift, such as why some characters like Dracula kill others in their story mode but the characters is alive and defeats Time Reaper in their own story mode, never meeting Dracula.

• Alucard - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.
  • Note: Fights against characters in the time rift are technically not the actual characters but one's desires being made within the time rift, such as why some characters like Dracula kill others in their story mode but the characters is alive and defeats Time Reaper in their own story mode, never meeting Dracula.

• Carmilla - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.
  • Note: Fights against characters in the time rift are technically not the actual characters but one's desires being made within the time rift, such as why some characters like Dracula kill others in their story mode but the characters is alive and defeats Time Reaper in their own story mode, never meeting Dracula.

• Aeon - Fight
  • Conditions: Match was a rematch.
  • Location: Time Rift.

• Time Reaper - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Time Rift.

• Cyclops - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Forest of Darkness
  • Note: Sypha was turned to stone by the cyclops.

None

References

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Versus Threads

VictoriesLossesInconclusive

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