Dracula's Castle

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Walter's Castle from Lament of Innocnece.

Dracula's Castle from Kid Dracula.

Background

Dracula's Castle, also known as Demon Castle or Castlevania, is Count Dracula's lair and symbol of his magic, being one of the most primary areas in the Castlevania series. It houses an army of his supernatural minions and tends to collapse when Dracula is defeated. Yet, it can restore itself and reappear intact in later games, even those where Dracula has not yet revived himself.

The castle’s exact location is impossible to pinpoint since it’s an entity of chaos that can appear in various places whenever it reemerges. Most often, though, it has appeared in Europe, specifically in Transylvania.

If one considers the events in the original 1897 novel and historical locations linked to Vlad III Drăculea, the castle in the series may have once been situated in Transylvania or northern Wallachia, near Poenari Castle, one of Vlad's known residences.

Nevertheless, as a supernatural structure linked to Dracula's powers, the castle does not exist as a typical physical landmark but rather as a spiritual realm layered over another dimension. This explains why, after Dracula’s death, the castle usually collapses without a trace, aside from a rare exception in the late 1600s when only part of it fell.

The castle’s appearance changes frequently:

• In the original Castlevania, it is atop a mountain.
• In Symphony of the Night, it is by a lake.
• In Curse of Darkness, it is near an ocean (possibly the Black Sea).

Characters like Maria Renard and Alucard note that it’s different each time, with Alucard suggesting it’s “a creature of chaos,” hinting at its shifting, unstable nature.

Some speculate that the castle once belonged to Walter Bernhard, whose stronghold shared features with Dracula’s. If true, Castlevania may date to the 11th century. However, the Lament of Innocence story leaves it unclear whether Dracula ever returned to Walter’s original castle, and the Japanese guide for Castlevania: The Adventure suggests Dracula built his own castle near Transylvania.

After Dracula’s defeat in 1999, his castle was sealed within a solar eclipse. It nearly returned in 2035, only to be resealed when Soma Cruz rejected his destiny to become Dracula. In 2036, a cult created a replica of the castle to summon a new Dark Lord, but it collapsed when their plans failed. The castle briefly returned through a new Dark Lord but was quickly sealed away by Arikado to prevent its reappearance.

General Information

Name: Castlevania (The castle has been directly called this in some games such as Order of Shadows), Dracula's Castle, Walter's Castle

Origin: Castlevania

First Appearance: Castlevania NES (Game release wise it's first appearance), Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (Chronologically its first appearance)

Latest Appearance: Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls

Company: Konami

Creator: Hitoshi Akamatsu, Koji Igarashi

Sex: None

Sexuality: None

Pronouns: It

Age: Over thousands of years old

Homeworld: Earth

Address: Unknown

Story Role: Exploration Area for the Hero, Home for Demons

Classification: Creature of Chaos, Castle of Hell, Child of the Night

Species: Living Castle

State of Being: Regular

Physiology: Castle Physiology

In-Universe Creator: Dark Lords, most notable Dracula

Wielders: Walter Bernhard (Formerly), Richter Belmont, Dracula, Maxim Kischine, Graham Jones

Size: Varies (The castle is a creature of Chaos, where with each rebirth it takes a new form)

Weight: Varies (The castle is a creature of Chaos, where with each rebirth it takes a new form)

Environment: Varies on area in castle

Resources: Endless amount of resources due to the infinite magic, along with an infinite supply of monsters and drawing it with their magic, spreading chaos across the world

Status: Other (The Castle has been sealed within a Solar Eclipse by the year 1999, prior it would fall when Dracula dies and come back when a new Dark Lord comes)

Date of Seal: 1999

Alignment: Chaotic Evil (The castle is a creature of Chaos, creating an infinite supply of monsters and drawing it with their magic, spreading chaos across the world)

Threat Level: Global Threat (Creates an infinite supply of zombies and monsters drawn by the Castle's magic, all used by it's Dark Lord to rule the world)

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Codex Statistics

Cardinality: Finite

Dimensionality: 3+1-D

Range: Varies through sheer size (The castle is a creature of Chaos, where with each rebirth it takes a new form), up to Multi-Universal (The castle is directly steered by Mathias' power, which exist on top of another dimension. The castle is directly steered by Dracula's power. 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. The castle has magic energies that seal the gateway to hell)

Stamina: Limitless (The Castle has an infinte supply of zombies drawn by the castles magic)

Intelligence: Unknown Intelligence

Knowledge: Unknown level

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Effects

Is a Creature of the Night, which gives:

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 is 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 is 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 strengthen their dark powers greatly. 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 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 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 than 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)

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 (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)

The castle is directly steered by Dracula's power, and has these effects:

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), Poison Manipulation (The very waters of the castle are poisonous, killing one in an instant if they fall into it), 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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Notable Features

Inhabitants

An infinite supply of zombies and monsters drawn by the Castle's magic, Olrox, Death, Medusa, The Creature,

Areas

Rooms and features

The Castle's interior constantly shifts between games due to being a creature of chaos, some of the rooms include:

• Entrance
• Bridges
• Castle Keep
• Ceremonial Room
• Chapel
• Clock Tower
• Courtyard
• Guest Rooms
• Great Stairway
• Halls
• Kitchen and Storage Area
• Mansion/Villa
• Marble Corridor
• Outer Wall
• Throne Room
• Top Floor
• Towers

Recreation

• Arena
• Ballroom
• Garden
• Library
• Theater

Research

• Laboratory

Underground

• Armory
• Catacomb
• Caves
• Dungeon
• Waterway

Objects

• Fountains
• Hallways
• Waterfalls
• Ferries
• Stairs

Other

Issues

• 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.
• Unique Issues: The Castle collapses if its Dark Lord dies.

Trivia

• The word "Castlevania" was created by Emil Heidkamp, Konami of America's senior vice president at the time, who believed the game's Japanese name was translated as "Dracula's Satanic Castle", and therefore he chose to change it out of potential religious sensibilities.
• In the first game, only the keep portion of the castle collapses, while later games had the entire castle collapsing. This was because it was originally intended that the keep area (more specifically the clock tower gears) acted as Dracula's metaphorical heart and could only remain standing as long as Dracula himself remained alive.
• Several real life castles have served as inspiration in Dracula's design over the games:
  • Neuschwanstein Castle: On the cover of Perfect Selection Dracula album and for Symphony of the Night's intro cutscene. It also appears on an early Pack-In poster of the first Castlevania.
  • Alcázar of Segovia: On pages 2-3 of the Akumajō Dracula (X68000) instruction booklet, and on page 8 of the Symphony of the Night instruction booklet.
  • Bran Castle: In the background of the Rondo of Blood cover and the American Dracula X cover.
  • Mont-Saint-Michel: On the American Symphony of the Night cover and for the design of Castlevania (N64).
• In real life, Poenari Castle was Vlad Ţepeş' most prominent outposts. Poenari was chosen for its strategic location: built high atop a precipice to gauge properly the lands of southern Romania all around, with a bottlenecked path in and out of its domain, making it hard to infiltrate, and large enough to accommodate a small army, making it difficult to siege. Long after his reign, Poenari Castle is reported to have hauntings and unusual phenomena within its grounds by visitors. While based upon more lavish and grandiose real world castles, Castlevania itself appears to take its geographical and even strategic aspects from Poenari, from its seaside/lakeside position, elevation upon natural mountains and structures, and to be used as a fortification for an army.
• The castle is referred to as "Dracula's Tower" in an American commercial for Super Castlevania IV.
• Aside from the Demon Castle that frequently acted as the setting of the series, Soma Cruz in Aria of Sorrow twice alluded to a castle that Count Dracula owned in Europe, which was presumably referring to either Bran Castle, Poenari Castle, Hunyad Castle, or Mount Izvorul Câlimanului from the novel.
• The stage Big Battle from Contra: Hard Corps (also from Konami), when seen from the outside, bears a resemblance to Dracula's Castle, with the ending of the stage emulating the classic 'castle crumbling while the hero stares at a distance' ending from Castlevania titles. The interior also bears a long walkway upward to the base's center.
• The Dark Castle from the Boktai series (also by Konami) is probably a reference to Dracula's Castle. It is a castle that can travel in space by the combined powers of the Count and Carmilla (themselves also being Castlevania references), along with other enemies.
  • The castle itself bears some resemblance to the Reverse Castle from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, mainly from the cutscene where it is introduced.

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  Big Battle base from Contra: Hard Corps.

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  Dark Castle from Boktai.