Castlevania Timeline

The Castlevania timeline shows the official chronology of the Castlevania series. It was first revealed in Konami magazine in 1997. The timeline was indented to be a reference for the developers of Symphony of the Night, but was accidentally leaked.

At that time, the upcoming Castlevania Legends was intended to be the origin story of the series, however, the game was removed from the timeline during development, and this was made clear in the next issue of the magazine. The spin-off game Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun (localized as Kid Dracula) was also included. Likewise, the game was removed from later editions of the timeline. The Akumajo Dracula X Chronicle guidebook later went on to state there was no story connection with the rest of the series.

Not all Castlevania games are intended to be part of the timeline. Several games and other media deliberately take place outside of it. They can be classified as either a story set in a completely different universe or a story from an alternative timeline. Castlevania Legends and Lords of Shadow are part of the first category. The stories of these games have nothing to do with that of the main timeline, and take place in completely different worlds. They often feature alternate incarnations of certain characters, but with different back stories. Secondly, a story can be set in an alternate timeline, a timeline that branched off from the main one. Circle of the Moon, Castlevania 64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (among others) are this.

See Lords of Shadow Timeline page for events taking place in the Lords of Shadow titles.

Leon Belmont's Era

 * Game: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence — 1094 A.D
 * The 11th century was a time of knighthood, when the medieval monarchs were waning due to feuding lords and knights. Two of the courageous knights fighting during this period were Leon Belmont and Mathias Cronqvist, who together with Leon's exceptional combat experience and Mathais' skills as a tactician led one of the strongest companies in the realm. Walter Bernhard was a powerful vampire who lived in a castle within a forest covered in eternal darkness. One day, Leon's fiance, Sara, is kidnapped by his very vampire. Leon renounces his loyalty to the Church in order to save her. In the end, in order to avenge his fiance's death, he manages to defeat Walter with the Vampire Killer whip, created from Sara's soul. However, everything was just a plot by Leon's close friend Mathias who had turned into a vampire in order to defy God, who allowed his wife to die of an illness.

12th-14th centuries
With Leon now walking the path of a Vampire Hunter in pursuit of Mathias, the Belmont's struggle against evil begins. From generation to generation, the magical whip and the title of Vampire Hunter are passed down. Feared for their powers, they are shunned by society and lived in exile. What they also didn't realise was, that each slain only adds to the power of Mathias, who used the power of the Crimson Stone to absorb them. Growing more powerful over the years, Mathias eventually declares himself King of the Night, and changes his name to Dracula Vlad Tepes. He continues to hide in foreign lands.

Trevor Belmont's Era

 * Game: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse — 1476 A.D
 * Dracula's war with humanity began. The people cry out for a champion. However, the Belmont clan had been feared for their supernatural powers and exiled from Transylvania, but with the new threat of the evil count, and the impending danger on his hometown of Wallachia, Trevor Belmont is not too far away to answer the call to duty. Picking up the Vampire Killer whip, Trevor goes to battle against the forces of darkness, meeting up with three companions along the way- Grant DaNasty, Sypha Belnades, and Alucard, the dhampir son of Dracula. Because Trevor was the first person to ever destroy Dracula, the Belmonts were welcome again in Wallachia. Sypha and Trevor fall in love, and have children. The magic power of the Belnades is inherited by future Belmonts.


 * Game: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness — 1479 A.D
 * Though defeated at the hands of Trevor Belmont, Dracula's curse still ravages the countryside of Europe, bringing with it disease, mob violence, and heresy. Amidst this chaos is Hector, a Devil Forgemaster who had formerly worked in the service of Dracula. Yet Hector grew weary and disgusted of the count's brutal methods and left to live with humans, but when his human wife was killed and his fellow forgemaster, Isaac, is implicated in the deed, Hector sets off for Dracula's stronghold to settle the score with him. At the end, it revealed that Isaac made Hector regain his devil forging powers so that Castlevania would return to the human world. But, what Isaac didn't know was that he himself was being used by Death, Dracula's right-hand-man. Death believed that Hector would kill Isaac, and that Dracula's Curse would take control of him, with his body becoming a vessel for Dracula's safe return to Earth. However, Hector realized that his drive for vengeance was caused by Dracula's Curse. Hector did not kill Isaac, but Death killed Isaac anyway and summoned Dracula through Isaac's body. Hector killed his former master, and performed the "Final Forging" where he summoned the essence of the curse and destroyed it. But a mysterious man named Saint Germain, who Hector had met earlier, believes that the war will never end and even when all evil is destroyed, there will still be ones who will claim evil's mantle again.

Christopher Belmont's Era

 * Game: The Castlevania Adventure — 1576 A.D
 * After a century of a deep slumber, the evil Count Dracula rises to wreak havoc once again on the landscape of Europe, but this time, Christopher Belmont, great-grandfather of Simon Belmont, rises to the occasion with the legendary Vampire Killer and vanquishes the evil Prince of Darkness, destroying his evil minions and restoring peace to the land once again.


 * Game: Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge — 1591 A.D
 * Though Christopher Belmont had defeated the evil count Dracula fifteen years ago, he did not manage to destroy him, as the count turned himself into mist and managed to escape, building up his energy and biding his time over the years. As Christopher's son came of age, a ceremony was being held to confer the title of Vampire Hunter upon him, so that a father-son team would be formed, but after the ceremony had been completed, Dracula used his powers to take of Solieyu Belmont's mind, and then made four castles appear. Christopher vowed to destroy Dracula and return his son to normal, and in the end, he defeated the evil count, restored his son, and the land was returned to its normal balance once again.

Simon Belmont's Era

 * Game: Castlevania (Chronicles) — 1691 A.D
 * Count Dracula is fully revived by the forces of evil for the second time. Simon Belmont defeats Dracula once more, but in the wake of Dracula's death, is struck with a curse.


 * Game: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest — 1698 A.D
 * The curse inflicted upon Simon seven years earlier contains to affect his body, which slowly starts to decay. A mysterious woman appears to Simon while visiting his family's graveyard, and is told that Dracula will be revived when the curse will him. The only way to lift the curse, is for Simon to gather the scattered body parts of Dracula and burn them were his castle once stood. Simon succesfully gathers and burns all the five pieces. However, Dracula is reborn again through a sixth piece (his fang ). Simon fights valiantly and prevents Dracula's full resurrection from taking place.

Juste Belmont's Era

 * Game: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance — 1748 A.D
 * Fifty years after Simon's battle, Juste Belmont, grandson of Simon, continues the family's vampire hunting tradition and upholds the duty of searching for Dracula's relics. However, his childhood friend, Lydie, is kidnapped and brought to a mysterious castle, which had suddenly risen up out of the mist. Juste's best friend, Maxim, joins him in the search for Lydie in the mysterious castle. However, it turns out that Maxim was possessed by a evil spirit born out of Dracula's remains, which were brought together by him. The castle that had appeared was spawned from Maxim's mind. The evil spirit wished to sacrife Lydie in order to revive the true castle of Dracula. Combining the strength of the three friends, the evil spirit is defeated, his hold on Maxim disappears, and the castle vanishes back into the mist.

Richter Belmont's Era

 * Game: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood — 1792 A.D
 * Called back to life by the Dark Priest Shaft, Dracula is awakened again. Richter Belmont, descendant of Simon and Juste, sets out to find and kill Dracula and save the women kidnapped from his town, including his fiance Annette. Aided by Maria Renard, a girl with mysterious powers, Richter prevails over Dracula. However, Richter was left defenseless from his battle with Dracula and Shaft's curse enters his body.


 * Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night — 1797 A.D
 * Shaft would continue to exist as a spirit contained within a crystal ball. However, in the five years since the previous battle, Shaft manages to regain power through the curse placed on Richter. After four years, Shaft succeeds in gaining full control over Richter. He plans to revive Dracula with the aid of Richter's powers. Maria sets out to find the missing Richter only to stumble on Dracula's castle which had risen out of the mist. Sensing the rise of evil, Alucard awakes from a 300 year slumber. Thanks to Alucard, Richter is freed from Shaft's influence and Dracula's revival is prevented.


 * Radio Drama: Akumajō Dracula X: Tsuioku no Yasōkyoku — 1798 A.D
 * The Incubus Magnus plots to make Alucard take his father's place as the Dark Lord. With the combined strength of five vampire hunters, this plan is foiled.

Era of the Belmont Family's abscence
In the 1800s, the Belmonts mysteriously dissapear. In their place, several organizations are formed to try and find ways to prevent Dracula from returning. The most prominent of these is the Order of Ecclesia.
 * Game: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia — 18?? A.D
 * Shanoa, an Ecclesia member, has been chosen to be the bearer of Dominus, a Glyph that was developed to be used as a weapon against Dracula. Fellow member Albus steals the three pieces that make up Dominus out of jealousy. Shanoa pursues Albus and manages to retrieve the pieces. When she returns to Ecclesia's leader, Barlowe, it's revealed he wishes to revive Dracula with the help of Dominus. He and Shanoa battle, but Dracula's spirit leaks from Dracula's remains, which were stored in Ecclesia's headquarters, and takes control of Barlowe, resulting in Dracula being reborn in a host body. Shanoa heads to Dracula's newly risen castle and confronts him, managing to defeat him in the end.

Quincy Morris' Era
Sometime after Richter Belmont's era, the Vampire Killer whip kept for so long by the Belmont Clan is passed on to the Morris Clan. The motive behind this is unclear, and Richter becomes known as the last Belmont. In reality, the whip does make it's way back to the Belmonts.


 * Game: none — 1897 A.D
 * Quincy Morris, a distant descendant of Trevor Belmont, keeps Dracula at bay.

John Morris' Era

 * Game: Castlevania: Bloodlines — 1917 A.D
 * The legendary vampire Elizabeth Bartley, Dracula's niece, suddenly appears in the 20th century. Plotting a sacrificial war in order to bring back her uncle back to live, she orchestrates the beginning of World War I. Quincy Morris' son, John, and his best friend Eric Lecarde (also of Belmont blood), vow to take up the fight against evil. Together they manage to prevent Dracula's full resurrection.

Jonathan Morris' Era

 * Game: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin — 1944 A.D
 * The world is in chaos due to the second world war. The souls of the dead roam the earth. Their anguish summons Dracula's legendary castle. Jonathan Morris, son of John, and his ally Charlotte Aulin step forward to fight evil. They discover a vampire named Brauner has claimed the castle as his own. They fight him in order to destroy the castle, but by defeating Brauner, Dracula is freed from the seal that kept him locked away but the Count is defeated once more.

Julius Belmont's Era

 * 1999: (The Demon Castle War) It was foretold that this would be the year when the war between Dracula and the Belmonts would come to an end. Dracula was resurrected, but Julius Belmont, possibly Adrian Tepes (In his ending of Castlevania Judgment, it says that he enlists the services of a Priest) and most likely a relative of Yoko Belnades managed to defeat him. Apparently, a family member of Mina Hakuba was also involved (who performed the ritual to achieve the effect stated below). The ending of Castlevania Judgment implies that Aeon or someone in his service was also involved, but this is speculation. Castlevania along with the soul of it's master was sealed in an eclipse that occurred at the time of his death. After the battle, Julius lost his memory. The ending of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness makes it seems to reference it as well. See also; Gamesradar interview.

Those who were born on the same time as Dracula's death would be born with special powers and become "Dark Lord Candidates".

Era of Dracula's rebirth

 * 2035: (The events of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow) Thirty-six years after Dracula was sealed in an eclipse, high-school exchange student Soma Cruz and his friend Mina Hakuba visit the Hakuba Shrine and are sucked into a warp leading to the infamous Castlevania. There he encounters Graham Jones, a cult leader who wishes to assume the powers of the soul of Dracula for his own. He also meets up with Genya Arikado (Alucard), who defeats a group of demons and explains to him his ability to absorb monster souls. Soma must stop Graham, but realizes that he, in fact, is the reincarnation of the now completely destroyed Dracula, and this is why he has assumed all these powers. He manages to stop Graham's plans, but confronts Julius Belmont, though the two in the end do not kill each other. Ultimately, Soma destroys the Chaos present within the castle and gets the soul of Dracula under control without letting Dracula become dominant within him, and he and everyone else escape the castle.


 * 2036: (The events of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow) A year after Soma Cruz was awakened to his powers and realized that he was the reincarnation of Dracula, a cult that sought the power of the count returned, this time building their own castle strikingly similar to the count's former ancestral home of Castlevania. The cult members were Celia Fortner, the leader, Dario Bossi, who held power over fire, and Dmitrii Blinov, who held the power to copy any ability and counter-use it. Celia's belief was that for the ultimate good to exist in the world, the ultimate evil must also exist. Dario and Dmitrii were known as the two "Dark Lord" candidates, who both had the possibility of becoming the Dark Lord himself. Through the cult's evil actions, they managed to once again draw Soma to them for yet another battle. In the end, Soma defeated both candidates and destroyed a monster called Menace before it could be released into the world. The castle crumbling, everyone safely escaped to live another day.


 * 2037: (The events of the novel Akumajo Dracula: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku, non-canon?) - Julius Belmont's protege Curtis Lang battles against the rogue vampire Olrox, who wishes to conquer the forces of both humanity and chaos.

11th millenium

 * (Time Reaper's native era in Castlevania Judgment) - The era of Galamoth and the Time Reaper. Galamoth sends his servant the Time Reaper from this time period to harvest the time period when Dracula reigned as Dark Lord, in a bid for Galamoth to gain Dracula's position.

Alternate Timeline
The following games are directly confirmed to take place in alternate timelines that spun off from the main timeline.


 * Game: Castlevania Pachislot I &amp; II — 1479 A.D
 * In this timeline, Hector possibly becomes Dracula's vessel instead of Isaac and Trevor has to stop a revived Dracula. He is aided by Angela, but she is captured and falls under Dracula's influence. Trevor manages to defeat Dracula and saves Angela.


 * Game: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon — 1830 A.D
 * In an old Austrian castle, the worshippers of Dracula attempt to resurrect their master. Vampire Hunter Morris Baldwin and his apprentices, Nathan Graves and Hugh Baldwin, rush to the castle in an attempt to stop the resurrection, only to arrive a moment too late. Camilla, one of Dracula's minions, has just revived the Count and kidnaps Morris; the two apprentices then plummet down into the depths of the castle. In the end, Nathan defeats Camilla, rescues Hugh and Morris, and defeats the dark lord, Dracula.


 * Game: Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness — 1844 A.D
 * Following Dracula's revival, a village is attacked by evil forces and Ada, the sister of the man-beast Cornell, is taken. Cornell returns to find the town under attack. After finding out about his sister's caputure, he rushes to Dracula's castle to find Ada. Ada was to be sacrifed but Cornell saved her by defeating Dracula, sacrificing his wolf powers in the process.


 * Game: Castlevania 64 — 1852 A.D
 * Using Cornell's wolf powers, Dracula is reborn in the body of the child Malus. However, the memories of who he really was were lost. Dracula's forces, unaware which child was their master reborn, kidnapped all of the children from the surrounding villages and brought them to Dracula's revived castle. Sensing Dracula's return, Belmont descendant Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez decided to hunt Dracula. They rescued Malus and believed they defeated Dracula. However, it turned out this Dracula was an imposter and the memories of Malus were restored and reveals himself to be the true Dracula. However, he was subdued through the combined effort of Reinhardt and Carrie.

Kid Dracula Timeline
The Kid Dracula games take place in the "Demon World".


 * Game: Boku Dracula-Kun — 11797
 * Kid Dracula awakens after a ten thousand year nap to be challenged by Galamoth. He sets forth to put an end to Galamoth's ambitions and keep the takeover of the world for himself.


 * Game: Kid Dracula
 * Galamoth returns after being defeated. Kid Dracula has forgotten most of his skills since then, but Death allows him to borrow some of his father's items to defeat Galamoth once again.

Legends Timeline
Castlevania Legends is an alternate universe story to the Castlevania timeline.

Sonia Belmont's Era
During the Middle ages there lived a man who wished to obtain power. In the year 1431, this man made a pact with an evil deity who granted him power to conquer the world. From that moment on, the man became a powerful Demon King known as Dracula. For nineteen years, he terrorised Europe with his army of monsters, conquering one nation after the next. Seventeen year old Sonia Belmont, takes up a magical whip left to her by grandfather, and swears to avenge him after he was killed by Dracula's minions. During her search, she meets and forms a strong bond with her enemy's son, Alucard. After vanquishing the Count, Sonia vows that if Dracula returns after her lifetime, others will take her place and defeat him. Afterwards, she gave birth to a son fathered by Alucard. This child would later defeat Dracula once more.
 * Game: Castlevania Legends — 1450 A.D

Unknown
It's not known if the following games take place in alternate universes or alternate timelines. It can't clearly be determined which of the two possibilities applies. The terms "alternate timeline/continuity" and "story from another world" were used interchangeable when IGA described their relation to the chronology in an interview.


 * Game: Castlevania: Order of Shadows — 16?? A.D
 * The Belmonts find the hideout of The Order, which has been responsible for the last several reincarnations of Dracula, and attempt to stop them before they can revive the count. Desmond Belmont defeats the leader of this group, Rohan Krause, which only serves as a catalyst for Dracula's return. He then defeats Dracula, but a mysterious force or powerful being keeps Dracula's Castle from crumbling.


 * Game: Castlevania: Dracula X — 1792 A.D
 * Dracula is revived by his followers and it's Richter destiny to stop him. At the same time, he is forced to save his fiance Anette and Maria. Maria's powers do not awaken in this timeline and Richter overcomes Dracula on his own.


 * Game: Castlevania: The Arcade — 1??? A.D
 * A Vampire Hunter, a Lady Gunner and a Little Witch join forces to fight the forces of evil. And together they go to Dracula's Castle and beat every evil that stands in their way until they reach the Dark Lord, Dracula.