Castlevania is a series of video games produced by Konami. This is one of the company’s most successful and long-running franchises, spanning several different consoles from Nintendo consoles to the Playstation. The first game, Castlevania, released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The Castlevania games tell the tale of a familial clan of vampire hunters and their quest to rid the world of Count Dracula, with heavy ties to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Each game chronicles a different member of the Belmont family and their quest to defeat the creatures of the night. The gameplay across the games is split into three different genres; Classic Castlevania, which functions as a side-scroller; Metroidvania, which provides a large singular map and focuses on exploration and back-tracking; and 3D Castlevania, which adapts the Metroidvania style into a 3D plane.
Each Castlevania game is set in the same universe, with only a few notable exceptions (Castlevania Legends, Kid Dracula, the Lords of Shadow series.) Nearly every game’s main character shares a familial connection.
The Belmont Clan takes center stage as the main characters, each being noted as legendary vampire hunters. Every member of the Belmont clan wields the powerful Vampire Killer whip, which was given to the Clan as the Whip of Alchemy, by an alchemist named Rinaldo Gandolfi.
The main recurring rival of the Belmont Clan is Lord Dracula, a powerful immortal vampire who has existed for several hundred years. Having a deep hatred for God and humanity, Dracula curses the land of which he stands, and returns every 100 years after he is killed. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence established that Count Dracula was once a regular human and masterful tactician named Mathias Cronqvist, who was also best friends with the ancestor of the Belmont Clan, Leon Belmont. After the death of Mathias’ wife, he swore vengeance against God and sought out a powerful relic known as the Crimson Stone to become the Dark Lord, Count Dracula.
As the Dark Lord, Dracula has domain over a great many things, including a large castle known fittingly as Castlevania. This castle is directly tied to Dracula’s power, will rise when Dracula himself is resurrected, and will crumble as Dracula is defeated. Both the powers of Castlevania and Count Dracula are sourced in primordial Chaos, and the parallel universe known as the Chaotic Realm, in opposition to God’s order and law. Because of his status as the Dark Lord, Dracula has control over a large number of different evil creatures; ranging from skeletons, zombies, mermen, werewolves, bats, gargoyles, ghosts, Medusa, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Death.
There are also several other Clans of vampire hunters in the series who assist in the destruction of Count Dracula. Such as the Morris Clan, which functions as the successor to the Belmonts and inherits their Vampire Killer whip, during the nearly two centuries that the Belmont Clan had disappeared. There are also the Belnades, Renard, Lecarde, and Kischine Clan, which have been seen assisting the Belmont Clan in some of their most important battles.
Terms
Chaos: Chaos is the primordial entity, once formless matter that existed before the creation of the universe, which was formed as the opposition to God’s order and law. Chaos exists in a realm known as the Chaotic Realm, which is visibly a parallel universe to the main one in which the games take place. When Mathias Cronqvist rejected God and became the Dark Lord, his powers became rooted in the Chaotic Realm, so that he would continue to live on so long as Chaos existed, along with the hatred within the hearts of mankind. Chaos was also the entity that chose Soma Cruz to be the reincarnation of Count Dracula and made him the Dark Lord, after Dracula was killed once and for all in 1999. When Soma Cruz enters the Chaotic Realm, Chaos takes on a physical form for their battle. Chaos is responsible for many things that Dracula and Soma are capable of doing.
Power of Dominance: An ability that is given to the Dark Lords chosen by Chaos; notably Count Dracula, and his reincarnation Soma Cruz. This is a special power that allows for the user to extract and absorb the souls of those they defeat; absorbing their souls then allows them to perfectly mimic the abilities of the monster whose soul was absorbed. This is an ability that Chaos can give and take away from those it considers the Dark Lord.
Vampire Killer: The Vampire Killer whip was originally created as the Whip of Alchemy by an alchemist named Rinaldo Gandolfi. When his daughter was turned into a vampire by a demon lord known as Walter Bernhard, Rinaldo created the Whip of Alchemy as a way to confront Walter and get revenge. Unfortunately, the Whip of Alchemy was far too weak to defeat Walter in Rinaldo’s hands, and so he decided to give the whip to a young knight named Leon Belmont in hopes that he could bring the whip’s latent power out. Eventually, the Whip of Alchemy was infused with the vampiric soul of Leon’s betrothed, Sara Trantoul, and transformed into the powerful Vampire Killer whip; a whip that is specifically made for destroying the creatures of the night. It has gone through drastic design changes, from a simple leather whip, to chain whip with a flail and a cross-shaped handle; the former being considered the “canon” design, and being the one that was adapted into the Super Smash Bros. series. The Vampire Killer whip not only acts as a powerful weapon against demons, but can also act as a seal against them to keep their magic suppressed. Furthermore, it contains a realm within it that is accessed through the Lecarde Clan, that hosts the whip's memories and can summon apparitions of its previous wielders. If the Vampire Killer is wielded by someone it does not view as worthy of it, it will slowly drain the life force from them until they perish.
Dominus: This is a powerful glyph created by Barlowe of the Order of Ecclesia, which is viewed as the ultimate weapon against Dracula’s evil during a time when the Vampire Killer and the Belmont Clan were absent. This glyph is so powerful that it had to be segmented into three parts; and Dominus itself can only be fully utilized when all three parts are used simultaneously. However, it was soon revealed that the glyph was actually created through using Dracula’s own remains, and thus Dracula can take control of anyone who tries to use Dominus against him. However, a woman named Shanoa is able to use the power of Dominus against Dracula without the handicap of him taking control of her, and she was able to use it to destroy him.
Canon
Although an official timeline has been officially revealed, it is quite outdated with new releases and contradictions. There is a mass of confusion surrounding what can be considered "canon," and what should not be.
The entirety of the timeline and it's canon has been explained here.
