Shaft

	"Mature Content"
	This character or verse has mature themes and concepts, thus those of young age are ill-advised to look through these.

“	A dark priest who hates peace and attempts to bring about destruction and chaos. He resurrected Dracula to fulfill his plan to change the world according to his wishes. He was a priest before but the more he served God, the more he saw the world covered in desire (sins), and the God he believed in greatly disappointed him. He construed that the God-lead peace causes corruption, dabbling in the dark arts to destroy it, with Dracula's resurrection, he plots to change the world into the one he desires.	„
	~ CR Pachinko Akumajō Dracula official website description

“	Servants, come forth from the gates of Hell! Attack! Rid my master's castle of this pest!	„
	~ Shaft to his servants

“	Ha... I die victorious... Count Dracula rises even now! Let him purge the world in flames! Hahaha!	„
	~ Shaft's last words to Alucard, in Symphony of the Night

“	The dark priest called Shaft, come to cleanse the world in the forge of chaos.	„
	~ Shaft introducing himself to Alucard, in Symphony of the Night

Background

Shaft is a dark priest and devoted follower of Count Dracula. First appearing in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, he returned in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as the secondary antagonist in both games.

In 1792, Shaft resurrected Count Dracula and helped him abduct young girls, including Maria Renard and Annette, intending to offer Dracula a bride. During Richter Belmont’s quest, he faced Shaft, who summoned monsters that Simon Belmont had once defeated. Shaft was eventually overpowered.

In Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Shaft’s fate changes based on the protagonist’s choices. If Richter or Maria fails to save Annette, she becomes the boss of Stage 7 in place of Shaft's Ghost, allowing him to survive, aid Dracula, and buy him time to escape. If Annette is rescued, Richter or Maria directly confront and defeat Shaft's Ghost.

Afterward, Shaft’s spirit remains bound in a crystal ball.

In 1797, Shaft abducted and brainwashed Richter Belmont, believing that no one could defeat him, as he was the strongest vampire hunter. Using dark magic, Shaft manipulated Richter to defend Dracula’s interests, unaware to Maria and Alucard. Maria suspected he was under a spell, prompting her to help Alucard uncover Shaft's manipulation. Alucard ultimately freed Richter from Shaft's control and thwarted the dark priest’s plans. Yet, even as Alucard defeated him in the Reverse Castle, Shaft remained satisfied, knowing he had succeeded in reviving Dracula.

General Information

Name: Shaft

Origin: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

First Appearance: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

Latest Appearance: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Company: Konami

Creator: Hitoshi Akamatsu, Koji Igarashi

Actor

• Japanese Voice Actor: Kiyoyuki Yanada (Symphony of the Night), Dai Matsumoto (The Dracula X Chronicles)
• English Voice Actor: Tony Oliver (Symphony of the Night & The Dracula X Chronicles), Jeff Manning (Symphony of the Night)

Sex: Male

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Pronouns: He/Him

Age: Unknown

Homeworld: Earth

Residence: Castlevania

Story Role: Evil Preist, Servant, Lackey

Classification: Preist, Dark Preist of Dracula, Servant of Dracula

Species: Human

State of Being: Regular

Physiology: Humanoid Physiology

In-Universe Creator: God

Occupation: None

Affiliations: Dracula, Death, Followers of Darkness

Enemies: Richter Belmont, Maria Renard (Captured her initially), Alucard

Height: Unknown

Weight: Unknown

Status: Deceased (Has been killed by both Richter Belmont and by Alucard)

Date of Death: 1792 (By Richter), 1797 (By Alucard)

Alignment: Lawful Evil (Shaft is a servant of Dracula, following his word and order, always attempting to revive him)

Threat Level: Global Threat (A servant of Draucla that tries to revive him to cover the world in darkness)

Codex Statistics

Key: Dracula X Chronicles | Symphony of the Night

Key Information

• Dracula X Chronicles: This key covers everything within the Dracula X games.
• Symphony of the Night: This key covers everything within Symphony of the Night.

Grade: S | S

Tier: At least 7-C | At least 7-C

Cardinality: Finite

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: At least Town level (Potency) (Can fight and harm Richter Belmont who can fight and defeat 1700s 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 getting these results) | At least Town level (Potency)

Durability: At least Town level | At least Town level

Striking Strength: At least Town Class (Potency) | At least Town Class (Potency)

Lifting Strength: Unknown: True Class | Unknown: True Class

Travel Speed: Unknown: True level | Unknown: True level

Attack Speed: At most Faster Than Light (Can tag Richter Belmont & Maria Renard, who both in turn can tag 1700s 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) | At most Faster Than Light

Reaction Speed: At most Faster Than Light | At most Faster Than Light

Stamina: Unknown, Limitless as Shaft's Ghost (As he is a spirit in this state)

Range: Standard Melee Range, Multi-Universal with Abilities (Shaft's magic can summon servants from the gates of hell)

Intelligence: Supergenius intelligence (Shaft is a skilled practicioner of alchemy. Where alchemy 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. Along with being a skilled 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")

Knowledge: Grandmaster level

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Powers and Techniques

Superhuman Physical Characteristics (Even the smallest creatures of the night can destroy a bridge, one of Dracula's bats easily destroyed a stone ground block), Intimidation (Creatures of the nights appearances can cause one to have their body's cells cry out in terror), Immortality (Ageless; The biggest hindrance to humans when attempting to accomplish something being their limited lifespans, a limitation that cannot be overcome, however dwellers of the darkness do not apply to the laws of the human world, ignoring such limitations. Immortal Metaphysical Aspect; Creatures of the Night can continue to exist even as a spirit and use their spirit form to form bodies out of inanimate material around them), Acausality (Causality Immunity; All immortal beings disrupt the flow of time according to Aeon. With their souls being completely free from time. The biggest hindrance to humans when attempting to accomplish something being their limited lifespans, a limitation that cannot be overcome, however dwellers of the darkness do not apply to the laws of the human world, ignoring such limitations), Free Will (Creatures of the Night do not follow the hand of God and instead choose of their own free will), Empowerment (Creatures of the night are empowered by the night, becoming stronger when it's night time), Evolution (Creatures of chaos can inherit evil natures awakening into stronger enemies with new abilities and less weaknesses), Resurrection (Self-Resurrection; Creatures of chaos can be brought back to life from the power of hate. This has also been shown with slain heads reviving as an angry wraith), Regeneration (Mid-Godly overtime; Even the castle from Castlevania is a Creature of Chaos, where they are always rebirth from Chaos with each rebirth, the creatures takes a new form, with this state being referred to as a "regeneration cycle"), Invisibility (Creatures of Chaos possess a natural aura of darkness, which makes one unable to see those with an aura of darkness by the naked eye), Time Manipulation (Passive; All immortal beings disrupt the flow of time according to Aeon), Darkness Manipulation & Subjective Reality (Creatures of chaos very existence causes dark powers to flow beyond the control of the Elgos' grimoires, due to them collecting documented information on Dracula and his castle. Causing their power to materialize in the real world in the form of monsters. With the real world and world of grimoires being one and the same), Text Manipulation & Plot Manipulation (Passive; Creatures of the night's dark powers allowed them to rewrite the Grimoires to greatly strengthen their dark powers. It is noted by Lucy that the "vital soul" of a monster is the cause of the grimoire chaos. Their vital souls are 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 books contents 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 one and the same), Law Manipulation (Creatures of Chaos can alter grimoires, which do not adhere to the laws of reality), Power Modification (Creatures of the night alterations of the Grimoire can greatly limit the powers of those far stronger then them, such as Jonathan Morris' power being limited due to the alterations. The Chaos of the Grimoire destabilized the magic of the others).

Resistance to Ice Manipulation & Absolute Zero (All enemies in Castlevania III: Dracula's curse can eventually break out of being frozen from Sypha's ice magic. Along with this to protect against ice attacks in series, one normally wears rings that help them resist against absolute zero), Time Manipulation (All immortal beings disrupt the flow of time according to Aeon, with their souls being completely free from 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. Some creatures of chaos are immune to time stop, normally being boss level creatures), Fate Manipulation (All immortal beings disrupt the flow of time according to Aeon, with their souls being completely free from time, with fate being a truth wound by time)

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Flight (Naturally flies around as Shaft's ghost), Incorporeality (After being killed, he comes back in his soul state, being capable of attacking), Magic & Principle Manipulation (Shaft is a skilled practicioner of alchemy. Where alchemy 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), Astral Projection (Shaft is able to project his soul out of his body while talking to Alucard), Necromancy (Summons undead beings to fight with him, can summon a giant undead bird to shoot out fireballs at his opponents), Mind Manipulation (Shaft was capable of mind controlling Richter Belmont), Teleportation (Teleported away when found by Richter), Darkness Manipulation (Appeared from an aura of dakrness behind Annette. Emerged from darkness preparing to fight against Richter and Maria), Sleep Manipulation (Put Annette to sleep after Dracula wished to bring her alive), Glyph Manipulation & Summoning (Can manifest gylphs that summon servants from the gates of hell), Forcefield Manipulation (Created a forcefield around Dracula that Maria and Richter could not break), Fire Manipulation (With his two orbs he can light them on fire, with the fire orbs attempting to home in on the enemy), Electricity Manipulation (With his two orbs, he can create electricity around them, causing them to shoot down lightning).

Poison Manipulation (Shaft has a complete immunity to poison based moves)

Shaft is the one powering the Inverted Castle after Richter Belmont's mind control is broken, where the inverted castle is just Dracula's Castle inverted, giving him: Magic (The castle pulses with dark magical power. The castle uses magic to do things like re-animate corpses, along with skeletons), 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), Save and Load (The castles magic has rooms where one can sit on a chair and is enveloped in the angelic wings of light, allowing them to save their progress, with these chairs being acknowledged in rooms in the castle with a description), Possession (The castle possesses objects with its magic, such as a ouija table), Bestowal (The castle enables one to keep their mind after dying, becoming a ghost), Mind Bestowal (The castle can bestow a mind through its magic), Soul Bestowal (The castle can bestow a soul through its magic. Imbued the Mud Man with a tormented soul), Power Bestowal (The castle grants enemies to attack under the power of magic. The magic of Dracula's power that empowers the owl enemy), Resurrection (Resurrection of Multiple Targets; The castle uses magic to return creatures of chaos back to life), 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), Telekinesis (The Castle can lift parts of levels apart. The castle has blocks that float and levitate up and downards to crush opponents or send them into spikes), Immersion (Can bring paintings to life and have them attack), Mimicry (Physiology Mimicry; The castle contains mirror worlds where perfect clones of oneself can fight. The Castle can also do this without mirror worlds, where they make a perfect copy that have all of their moves and sub-weapons, and can freely switch to a different person to copy their abilities), Teleportation (The castle has access to the teleporter seat, the seat of a device that allows instant movement across Valachia. The castle has objects that fade in and out while trying to platform on them), Invisibility (Parts of Dracula's castle are invisible such as invisible stairs, and invisible platforms), Necromancy (The castle can raise the dead to attack whoever enters a room. The castle reanimates human bones as monsters by its evil magic. The Castle created the Executioner from numerous dead bodies), Fusionism (The Castle can create an abomination made from numerous dead bodies), 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), Elemental Manipulation & Chaos Manipulation (The castle infuses some enemies with chaos, giving it all elemental properties), Blood Manipulation (The casle imbues blood all over a skeleton, making them always return to life no matter what damage is done to them. The Castle has areas where its blood can form new enemies), Acid Manipulation (The castle has areas of acid rain falling), 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), Perception Manipulation (The Castle is able to warp the users perceptions, making a room where it is split into three parts that do not operate under standard spatiality and directionality), Gravity Manipulation (The castle has rooms with reverse gravity), 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), Life 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), Plant Manipulation (The castle can cause even the trees to attack. The castle can cause the plants and leaves to form a wraith), Forcefield Manipulation (The castle set up a barrier seal outside of it to make people unable to enter. Evil energy can create barriers blocking one until they defeat all enemies), Fire Manipulation (Can cause fire across an entire room just from causing a chandelier with candles to fall, setting everything, even people on fire), Portal Manipulation & Battlefield Removal (Application Based; The castle can create portals that send one to another dimension, where time is stopped. Brought a wandering merchant in through swallowing him into a dense fog. The castle has magic energies that seal the gateway to hell), Summoning & Glyph Creation (The Castle can summon creatures of chaos to spawn and attack whoever enters a room through enemies spawning from glyphs. The castle can make glyphs that teleport one outside of the castle by standing over it. A lot of these creatures are summoned from Hell), Water Manipulation (The Casles Waters seem to be very hazardous, as it instantly kills enemies upon touching them), Spatial Manipulation (The castle can shift the room to make it where Trevor needs to escape upwards that will instantly kill him if it reaches him. The castle can make blocks disappear and re-appear, making it difficult for one to traverse around the castle. The Castle made it where the stairway Soma was walking up with Mina went longer hen usual, trying to keep Soma from going to the Shrine and instead bringing him to the castle), Sense Manipulation (Caused Soma's senses to dim even entering the chaotic darkness near the Castle), Weather Manipulation & Electricity Manipulation (The Castle is the reason for a massive cloud that covered the entire sky. Can conjure thunderstorms around itself that can summon enemies during its flashes of lightning. Can summon enemies through the lightning bolts it makes), Dark Matter Manipulation (The castle contains dark matter within it that beings can use for weapon creation), Abstract Manipulation & Hell Manipulation (The castle can create a core of evil made from hatred, envy, anger and other dark emotions).

Resistance to Time Stop (Areas in the Castle are unaffected by time being stopped, and blocks and objects will still fall. Noted that the stop watch has no effect on moving platforms in the castle. Christopher stopping time on an elevator does not stop the elevator from moving, machinery still moves along, and floating objects still float. 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)

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Equipment

Floating Orbs

Shaft has two floating orbs around him that he uses for different magic attacks.

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Notable Techniques

Enemy Summon

Shaft can conjures gylphs allowing him to summon enemies such as the Giant Bat, Medusa, Mummy Man, and Frakenstein's Monster.

Giant Bat Summon

Medusa Summon

Mummy Man Summon

Fraken Summon

Fire Magical Orbs

Shaft lights his orbs on fire and have them home in on the target and harm them through contact damage.

Lightning Magical Orbs

Shaft has two orbs that shoot out lightning below them.

Rotating Magical Orbs

Shaft has the magical orbs rotate and try to damage an enemy through contact.

Back Dash

Shaft jumps backwards to avoid attacks thrown at him.

Dead Wyvern Summon

Shaft uses the powers of necromancy, to summon a Dead Wyvern that attempts to chomp at an enemy or shoto fire out of their mouth.

Dead Behemoth Summon

Shaft uses the powers of necromancy, to summon a Dead Behemoth that attacks the opponent from underground.

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Other

Standard Tactics: Shaft will start with summoning enemies for the opponent to fight, once the opponent defeats all of them, he will utilize hsi two orbs for a variety of elemental attacks, if he is defeated, his consciousness will persist as Shaft's Ghost, where he uses the powers of necromancy and other magical attacks.

Weaknesses

• Unique Weaknesses: Nothing notable.
• Creature of the Night Weaknesses: Creatures of the night become weaker when exposed to the morning sun. Garlic significantly weakens creatures of the night, and causes demons to die if its placed on the ground. If a vital soul is defeated, the grimoire will revert back to its original content.

Trivia

• The four bosses Shaft summons in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood are the same first four bosses that appeared in the original Castlevania: the Giant Bat, Medusa, the Mummy and The Creature (Death is not summoned in this encounter as he has his own boss fight).
  • As a side note, these five bosses (Death included) would each hold one of Dracula's relics in the sequel, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

• The Ghost boss in Stage 4' of Castlevania: Dracula X (a remake of Rondo of Blood) is basically Shaft's (or more precisely his ghost's) equivalent in the game, at least in appearance.
  • However, Carmilla's abilities in the same game are the ones that are nearly identical to Shaft's own powers in Rondo of Blood, conjuring two orbs that unleash elemental attacks (Carmilla's riding skull's eyeballs in this case).
• In Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, the remake of Rondo of Blood, Shaft's skin tone was changed to match the Symphony of the Night artwork of his ghostly self.
• The Dracula X Chronicles also changes the storyline of the original game to some extent by giving Shaft a larger role. He was ironically responsible for detecting and unlocking Maria Renard's magical potential (rather than Maria getting caught while trying to be a heroine), and was also the one to explicitly kidnap Annette due to her bond with a Belmont.
• In The Dracula X Chronicles Shaft's possession of Richter Belmont is foreshadowed during the first battle with Shaft, where before summoning monsters to fight Richter he uses an incantation that's similar to the one possessed Richter will say while summoning a Minotaur and a Werewolf to deal with Alucard in Symphony of the Night ("Servants, come forth from the gates of hell! Attack! Rid my master's castle of this pest!").
• Also in The Dracula X Chronicles, if the player didn't meet the conditions to fight and defeat his ghost, Shaft will appear after Dracula's second form is defeated and the two villains will flee, thus ending the battle –and the game– prematurely.
• The Necromancer boss from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon also shares a resemblance to Shaft, or more precisely to his ghost, mainly being a floating robe with a very similar design. He is even given some antagonistic lines similar to those usually said by Shaft, being the only regular boss in the game to have this treatment.
• According to a post by David Cox on Facebook, in the Lords of Shadow universe, Zobek is an amalgamation of Shaft and Death.
• Shaft's possession of Richter Belmont in Symphony of the Night was referenced by Alucard in Richter's Palutena's Guidance conversation in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • In addition, Mewtwo's classic mode route, Psychic Control, has him having one of his previous opponents as his "ally". Richter acts as his ally in the fifth round, which apparently is a reference to Shaft brainwashing him in Symphony of the Night.
• Shaft was given a mention in Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, where Lucy Westenra speculates from the records that Maria's abnormally high magic potential at her age was likely the result of it being awakened by Shaft. Genya Arikado (a.k.a. Alucard), hearing this, curses him as a malcontent and deduces that Shaft most likely did that as a gift for Dracula.
• His name may be a miswriting of the German suffix -schaft, which equates as "-hood" or "-ship" for words such as bruderschaft (brotherhood) or partnerschaft (partnership).
• While Shaft hasn't made any appearances in the two Netflix animated series, Castlevania and Castlevania: Nocturne, some characters from both series seem to borrow aspects from him:
  • The Bishop apparently borrows some traits from Shaft, such as also being a malevolent priest and even sharing some physical resemblance to him.
  • Sala also seems to borrow certain traits from Shaft, such as being a monk whose ultimate goal is to resurrect Dracula.
  • The Vampire Magician wears a cowled robe similar to Shaft's and even uses floating magical orbs to cast spells. However, Adam Deats later confirmed this character was instead based on the Necromancer from Circle of the Moon.
  • Vaublanc seems to be a loose reference to Shaft. He wears a similar robe and cowl, and even shares some of his mannerisms. Likewise, most of Erzsebet Báthory's followers also wear similar robes.

Battle Records

0 - 5 - 0

None.

• Richter Belmont - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Stage 6: Marble Gallery

• Richter Belmont - Fight
  • Conditions: Match was a rematch.
  • Location: Stage 7: Clock Tower

• Maria Renard - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Stage 6: Marble Gallery

• Maria Renard - Fight
  • Conditions: Match was a rematch.
  • Location: Stage 7: Clock Tower

• Alucard - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Reverse Castle Center

None.