Dracula (Lords of Shadow)

Gabriel Belmont, later known as Dracula and Dracul, is a Knight from the 11th century and the main character of the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow saga.

He was originally a member of the Brotherhood of Light, an elite group of holy knights who protected and defended the innocent against supernatural threats. But after losing everything he loved on his quest, and obtaining astounding powers from an ancient demon, he became the powerful Vampire Dracula, and started a war upon the Brotherhood of Light.

Gabriel Belmont is voiced in all three games by Scottish actor Robert Carlyle.

Appearance
Gabriel is tall with a muscular build. His hair is brown and sometimes depicted as curly and long though in the actual game it appears to be straight and about shoulder length.

The armor he wears is based on Simon's from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest but with notable differences. It is emblazoned with a skull, and consists of thick plates that covers all of his upper body. His legs are covered with ironclad boots. In addition, Gabriel's armor also contains a hood which he can wear to conceal his face should he need to.

Originally, Gabriel's design resembled a classic barbarian, before Kojima then advised the staff to refine him into a character that was more relatable for the player. David Cox mentioned that Robert Carlyle, who provides the voice for Gabriel is a bit similar to the character.

In the epilogue of Lords of Shadow, Gabriel is changed significantly. He is bare-chested and only wears a sort of cloak/skirt about his waist held up by a sash with a large face as a clasp. Instead of his old gauntlets, he now wears bits of two steel gauntlets held on by scraps of fabric. He is less muscular than he was in the past but is still formidable, as seen when he survived the fall from his lair onto a paved street. His hair is long and white, as is his skin. His eyes glow orange and he has the ability to grow fangs.

In Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2, Gabriel appears as a fusion of his original form and his latter Dracula form. His hair is still long and brown, but he wears his old armor with the chest exposed with a large face set in a belt. He has abandoned his Dark Gauntlet and wears a red cloak. He has also abandoned his Cyclone Boots in favor of simple leather ones.

Personality
As a child Gabriel sometimes fell into dark moods, and had a tendency to brood, which could only be broken with the aid of Marie, whom he came to love deeply. As a man, Gabriel was still morose and moody at times, but he was also incredibly tenacious and faithful, having been raised by the Brotherhood to believe in God and put his faith in Him.

Following the death of Marie, Gabriel was heartbroken and when he discovered a chance to revive her, he was willing to go anywhere and do anything to resurrect her. During his quest he learned that the founders of the Brotherhood were the cause of the troubles of the world, and his faith began to waiver. He was also plagued with nightmares of Marie's death, which prevented him from sleeping, and as the stress grew he ceased sleeping, and soon stopped eating. The death of Claudia, an innocent, made him even more bitter and angry.

At the end of Gabriel's quest he no longer cared for the suffering of others and held his grief and sorrow in place with anger, consumed by his wish to revive Marie. He even consigned a disgraced holy man to death by taking a holy relic which had protected him.

When he faced the Lord of the Necromancers, Gabriel learned that Zobek had influenced him with the Devil Mask to make him pursue the powers of the Lords of Shadow to fulfill the prophecy by killing everything in his way. This was the plan, but the Lord of the Dead had not foreseen the darkness within Gabriel, and how terrible he would become, earning him the nickname "The Prince of Darkness". He said that Gabriel was a beast, and a cold-blooded murderer.

Following the final battle, Gabriel saw Marie again, but was ashamed of himself and what he had done during his quest. Marie forgave him, saying that while he was flawed, he was as God intended, and she still loved him. The revelation that the God Mask Gabriel had reclaimed could not resurrect the dead was the final blow to Gabriel and, his spirit broken, he wept as Marie left for Heaven.

When Laura called him to her, asking for help defeating the Forgotten One, Gabriel claimed not to care for the fate of the world, and only agreed to help the vampire so he would not be plagued by more guilt for having failed humanity. After drinking Laura's blood Gabriel relinquished most of his humanity, and claimed that he was now darker and more terrible than the demon he hunted, which became true when he claimed the demon's power and killed him. He then renamed himself Dracul, and returned to the human world.

Dracul (known to the people as Dracula) hungered for revenge on the Brotherhood, and wished to remake the world as he saw fit, in revenge for his betrayal. During this time he formed a sort of philosophy on killing; he felt that he had sent his victims to a better place, and he did not care to learn more about them. Thus he denied knowing Trevor's mother when he first confronted his son.

In spite of how dark he had become, he still retained a measure of his old humanity. When he learned of the true identity of Trevor, he was horrified and remorseful for having killed his and Marie's son. He attempted to revive him, but when it seemed to fail, he gave his son a respectful burial. Now even more angry at the Brotherhood's latest betrayal -sending his own son to kill him-, he sent his werewolves to their sanctuary to kill all who live there, and resumed his old plans.

In modern times Dracula still lived, but had withdrawn from the world, becoming a shadow of his former self, despairing of his undead existence.

Powers and Abilities
Gabriel was trained in the arts of combat from a very young age, though he has showcased incredible powers of strength, stamina and agility far beyond human ability as well. His standard arsenal consists of the Combat Cross and other supplementary weapons such as Silver Daggers and bottles of Holy Water Flasks.

The Combat Cross, also known as the Vampire Killer is a multifunctional weapon invented by Rinaldo Gandolfi. Gabriel upgrades his combat cross throughout his journey. It consists of an iron crucifix with a retractable chain quenched with Holy Water hidden inside the main body of the weapon. Hence, the Combat Cross is a very effective weapon against the undead and also allows the wielder to channel either their light or shadow magic into it.

On his left hand Gabriel wears the Dark Gauntlet. The Gauntlet is an ancient relic forged in the pits of Hell. It grants him tremendous superhuman strength, able to move heavy obstacles by punching them, conjure Hellfire from his fist to incinerate all enemies, and overpower Satan with ease. In addition, it also grants him the ability to defend and counter magical attacks.

Additional relics acquired by Gabriel are the Cyclone Boots and Seraph Shoulders which allow him to sprint with amazing speed and double jump respectively. Gabriel has the ability to utilize magic in combat as well. Light Magic and Shadow Magic are both at his disposal and are used for healing his wounds or boosting his offensive power. Combining magic with his combat allows Gabriel to use new and devastating moves on his foes as well.

As Dracula, he has all the common powers of an immortal vampire and the immense power of the ancient demon known as the Forgotten One who was the sovereign of the elemental plane of darkness. This makes Dracula one of the most powerful beings the Castlevania world has seen to date. In the Lords of Shadow 2 trailer, he is seen to possess even greater strength, telekinesis, and the ability to transform into magical smoke and to manipulate this smoke to a variety of effects; flying through the air and landing with enough force to stagger a battalion of knights, creating a magical whip of red energy that slices enemies with great speed and force, instantaneous teleportation, and transforming into a giant dragon. In later trailers, he is shown to possess the power of holy light; able to create a magical light sword and to create bursts of powerful light.

His powers and weapons as Dracula are first seen in-depth in Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate. When battling Alucard and Simon, he can transform his hand into a red gauntlet, which allows him to produce a magical red whip similar to his old Combat Cross. When fighting Trevor, he is shown retaining his ability to use light and shadow magic, and uses both a light magic-empowered sword and a pair of shadow-magic empowered orange gauntlets, which allow him to perform an array of magical attacks. With the sword he is able to send out waves of energy, and with the gauntlets he summons bursts of fire similar to the Gauntlet's tremor attacks. Also, in parallel with his classic counterpart, he is able to fire a stream of fireballs and commands legions of monsters, such as werewolves, undead knights and the Succubus.

The release of Lords of Shadow 2 revealed the nature of Dracula's powers. Rather than using Light and Shadow magic he uses the Void and Chaos, and each is tied to a weapon. The orange gauntlets are named Chaos Claws, and are slow but powerful. The sword is the Void Sword, which is light and fast, granting Dracula an increase in health with every attack, and able to blast void power to freeze enemies. His neutral weapon is the Blood Whip. In addition to these changes Dracula does not absorb neutral magic from enemies, but rather orbs of blood.

Early Life
Some years ago, a child was found on the door of one of the Brotherhood of Light convents. It is not known who his original parents were though some suspected he was an unwanted bastard from a local wealthy landowner, most likely the Cronqvist family, though this has never been proven.

The order gave the nameless boy the Christian name of one of the blessed archangels, Gabriel, and raised him as one of its own members. The precocious child quickly proved to be extremely talented, developing a mastery of the fighting arts unprecedented in the Brotherhood. However, he was also prone to dark moods and moments of brooding that only his beloved childhood sweetheart, Marie, could pacify.

The two youngsters were made for one another; they grew together and soon started to make promises of their future, promises that were always kept. One idyllic morning, with the blessing of both her family and the Brotherhood, the couple was married.

Gabriel took the surname of Belmont, after his love of mountains and the high places of the World.

Before Lords of Shadow
In 1046, Gabriel was sent by the order to capture a dangerous creature called the Daemon Lord. Injured by the beast, he used his blood and a magical device to lock it away.

When Gabriel was on this mission for the Brotherhood, Marie gave birth to his son, Trevor but knowing of Gabriel's eventual descent into darkness, decided to leave the child in the hands of the Brotherhood and to hide the birth from Gabriel.

Events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow


Some time after Marie's death, the heavens were cut off from the earthly plane, thus leading the people to believe that God had abandoned them. The Brotherhood of Light knew otherwise. After receiving a message from the 3 founders of their order in heaven, the Brotherhood sent Gabriel to contact the dead and ask Marie if she knew of any means to save the world. Taking up the Combat Cross and an amulet connected to the old gods, Gabriel begins his journey.

He met an old god, Pan, who allowed him to communicate with Marie who, throughout his journey, aided Gabriel in times of peril. Next he met a supposed comrade of the order, Zobek, who instructed Gabriel to destroy the Lords of Shadow, the rulers of the demonic forces now driving mankind into extinction. Both Pan and Zobek desired an end to their tyrannical rule, but for very different reasons.

His first great test comes when he met Claudia, an innocent young psychic and her enchanted guardian, the Black Knight, who briefly aided him in his journey. However, when they stopped to camp, Gabriel dreamt that he stabbed Claudia in the night, only to wake and discover her dead body, indicating that it was not a dream. Finding Claudia dead, the Black Knight became enraged with grief and attacked Gabriel, forcing him to destroy it in self defense. This act granted Gabriel the Knight's enchanted Dark Gauntlet, allowing him to launch flame based attacks as well as fight back mystical attacks from enemies.



The first Lord of Shadow he faced was Cornell, who revealed that the Brotherhood of Light was founded by three divinely empowered saints who led God's army. And in doing so were rewarded with monumental bounties, transcending human parameters and becoming divine beings in Heaven whose power was second only to God's, but at the cost of discarding all chaotic elements within themselves. The result of this transformation was that the leftover bodies of each of the three lords in Heaven now arose as their demonic counterparts on Earth, and thus the Lords of Shadow were born. This creates a poetic irony, since the Lords of Shadow were the ones who created the very demons now driving mankind to extinction. This revelation causes Gabriel to begin to lose faith in the Order. Killing Cornell granted him the Lord of the Lycans' Cyclone Boots, which granted him the speed of a beast.



After the Lycans he faced off against the vampires. Gabriel continued his journey killing their champions, Olrox and Brauner, and facing the puppets of Laura, second in command of the vampire race and the only enemy not killed in the entire game, until finally he reached Carmilla, queen of the vampires, and the second Lord of Shadow. In the dialogue with Carmilla, she hinted at Gabriel's future when she stated he indeed would be "one of us." Her death granted him the third of the enchanted gear granted to the Lords of Shadow by Heaven, her Seraph Shoulders, which grant him angelic wings and the ability to double jump.

Interestingly, it is revealed that a "King of Angels" has been helping Gabriel on his quest.



Before he headed of to the Land of the Necromancers, Gabriel faced Pan, his guide throughout his journey. Pan taught Gabriel how to battle against light and dark magic, knowing well the final battle Gabriel would be facing at the end of the his journey, and then sacrificed himself, as the death of a god was needed to proceed to the land of dead. Eventually Gabriel learned that, in fact, Zobek was the third Lord of Shadow all along.

Zobek had engineered his entire journey. Using the Devil Mask, Zobek made Gabriel kill Marie so that he would end up focused on revenge, and thus blind to the truth of the quest for the God Mask. He also had Gabriel kill Claudia so that the Black Knight would attack him, granting him Zobek's own Dark Gauntlet, as Gabriel would be powerless against Zobek while wearing it. Zobek loathed how each of the Lords of Shadow harbored a piece of the God Mask, each possessing their share of the power and unwilling to compromise to actually make use of it. Thus Gabriel was the ideal pawn to eliminate them and reunite the pieces, which he did. After revealing all of this, Zobek electrocuted Gabriel, but was in turn burned alive as Satan materialized from the flames that consume him.

Satan revealed himself as the real mastermind behind the whole plot, implanting knowledge of all the dark arts into Zobek to aid him in his quest to set up the entire charade with Gabriel, and was the real power behind sealing off access to the heavens for all deceased pure spirits. Marie persuaded all the souls trapped in limbo to revive Gabriel. Satan offered Gabriel a place at his side, but Gabriel refused, telling Satan that his lust for power was what caused his fall from grace. Angered, Satan puts on the god mask and initiated the final battle.

At the climax of the duel, Gabriel grabbed Satan, and after opening himself to the light, invoked a divine ritual, possibly the same that gave birth to the Lords of Shadow, sending Satan back to Hell. After this, Gabriel met with Marie one final time, discovering that the God Mask did not hold the power to resurrect the dead as he had hoped. Giving her husband one last kiss, Marie departed for Heaven, taking the God Mask with her. Watching as she and all the other dead departed, including Claudia, who appears briefly to say goodbye, Gabriel was then left alone and on his knees, weeping for his beloved.

Events of Reverie and Resurrection


Soon after, Gabriel was summoned by Laura to the Bernhard castle. There he learned that by killing the three Lords of Shadow, Gabriel has unleashed a new menace: the Forgotten One, an incredibly powerful demon whom the founders of the Brotherhood had imprisoned deep in the center of the castle. Laura and Gabriel decided they must find the entrance to the ancient fortress of the Brotherhood.

After opening the gate to the Brotherhood fortress, Gabriel and Laura traveled through the ancient castle and gathered the blood of the three founders in order to open the gate to the Forgotten One's chamber. However, only dark beings could enter into the dimension where the Forgotten One was kept. To bypass this, Laura asked Gabriel to drink all of her blood and release her from her immortal torment. With reluctance, Gabriel did as she asked, killing Laura while he himself became a creature of the night. He stepped through the gate alone to confront what awaited him.

Gabriel entered the Dimensional Prison to seek the demon. He showed signs of darkness, including renouncing his humanity, hunger for violence, and partial insanity. After unlocking the doors, he found The Forgotten One emerging from lava, climbing the rocks to open the portals to the original realm, despite the demon being in a weakened state. The two fought and came to a draw, causing The Forgotten One to retake his power and move on to the Underworld, the final plane before entering the mortal realm.



Gabriel followed The Forgotten One, and showed more signs of darkness. He claimed that he was darker and more terrible than The Forgotten One, and that the creature would beg for mercy before the end. He confronted the demon again, and after the battle, The Forgotten One finally opened the portal, mocking Gabriel that the portal was open and that he would let him live to watch the world's destruction and claimed that he had failed his mission. However, just when the Forgotten One was about to reclaim the part of his power he had sent to unlock the seal, Gabriel intervened and absorbed the Forgotten One's demonic power. While the Forgotten One begged for mercy, Gabriel used his new-found power to destroy the demon once and for all. Just before leaving the Underworld, Gabriel destroyed his Combat Cross, leaving the pieces lying broken and forgotten within the dark dimension.

Events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate


Gabriel became an immortal vampire and took on the name of Dracul, but the people knew him as Dracula. He made Carmilla's castle his own fortress, and grew to master new forms of magic, such as the Void and Chaos, as well as command new legions of monsters. The Brotherhood of Light sought to kill Dracula, being partially responsible for his fate and for being a vampire, and sent many knights to the castle to slay him, all of whom failed. At the same time, Dracula sought to take his revenge on the Brotherhood and remake the world as he saw fit. When he came of age, Gabriel's son, Trevor, was finally informed by the Elders of the truth of his parentage, and started a journey to defeat his demonic father and avenge his mother.

Dracula was confronted by Trevor. He saw that he carried a copy of the Combat Cross, and asked for the name of it's user. Trevor swore to tell him when he killed him, and after intense combat, was defeated by being stabbed with his own weapon. As Trevor lay dying, he looked into the Mirror of Fate and, realized the truth of Gabriel's fall into darkness, told him that they were opposites. Gabriel had accepted his fate even when he was betrayed at every turn while Trevor had fought against his fate even though it was in vain. He told Dracula that he pitied him and revealed himself as his son. Looking into the Mirror of Fate himself, Dracula saw the truth of Trevor's words and was filled with horror and regret. Remorseful, Dracula desperately attempted to revive Trevor by feeding him his blood. As it does not seem have any effect, Dracula placed his son's body in a coffin, on which he wrote the name Alucard, since he never learned his son's real name but possibly remembered what Trevor had said about them being opposites. Blaming the Brotherhood for his son's demise, he sent his werewolves to attack the Brotherhood's sanctuary, killing all who lived there, save Trevor's son Simon, who escaped to the mountains.

Years later, Dracula witnessed the meeting of Simon and Alucard, smiling, and teleported away. Soon after, Simon confronted Dracula in his castle, and as he prepared to attack him, Alucard entered the room. Dracula had hoped Alucard would side with him, but when his son refused, Dracula fought both of them. He was defeated and disappeared into a red light after the battle. Alucard remarked that Dracula's "death" was atypical of a vampire, suggesting that he survived the encounter. His castle collapsed shortly after his supposed demise.

Events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2


Dracula managed to survive his supposed "death" by the hands of Simon and Alucard and remained in his reconstructed castle. The Brotherhood of Light wished to finally be rid of him, and so launched a massive invasion of his castle, which was defeated single-handedly by Dracula himself. Dracula survived his encounters with the Brotherhood but lost much of his power.

Lords of Shadow Epilogue


Dracula found himself awakening in his old castle with no memory of how he got there or of who he was. However, the famed Belmont clan still seeks his ultimate destruction.

Over the centuries, Gabriel eventually became weakened and yearned for release from his immortal bonds, and went into hiding in an old church. Years later in modern times, he met Zobek again who predicts that Satan's return to the Earthly realm is not far off. His "old friend" urges Gabriel to prevent the resurrection. The two engage in a short fight after which Zobek reveals it is Gabriel's only chance to be freed from his immortality. Gabriel disappears at the end of the conversation, transforming into a flock of bats or possibly mist. Whether he chose to join Zobek to face-off against Satan's acolytes or not has yet to be answered.

Robert Carlyle

 * Robert Carlyle, Gabriel/Dracula's voice actor, is one of the stars of ABC's Once Upon a Time, where he plays Mr. Gold, whose real identity is that of the mythical Rumpelstiltskin. Both characters are similar to Gabriel, in that they were both cursed with great dark power, were greatly feared by the people of their world, and both killed their own wives and lost their sons.
 * In addition, both recieved their powers after being tricked by a man whose name began with a "Z"; Zobek for Gabriel and Zoso for Rumpelstiltskin.
 * Robert Carlyle has also played Durza in the film and videogame adaptations of the popular Eragon series. In it he plays a Shade, a creature similar to a vampire with powerful magic.
 * In a behind-the-scenes video for the videogame, Carlyle reveals that he is a gamer himself, seen here.
 * In an interview with Gametrailers, Carlyle revealed that he had always wanted to play the part of Dracula but had never acquired it because he wasn't "Dracula material", seen here.

Name and origins

 * Gabriel's origins remains unknown. Some have argued him being named Gabriel is no coincidence and hints towards a darker destiny the order knew about.
 * The game developers stated that Gabriel chose the name Belmont due to his love for mountains, since Belmont connects to them. In fact Belmont means "Beautiful Mountain" in old French.
 * Gabriel's appearance is the result of input from Hideo Kojima. Kojima felt the main character needed to look more "heroic" than his original design implied. Kojima Productions also advised the team on facial animations and character design in general.
 * The original intent for Lords of Shadow was to be a reboot of the Castlevania franchise with Simon Belmont as the protagonist. Footage of this intended game can be seen here. Eventually Mercurysteam was given free reign to write a new story, and decided to tell the origin of Dracula, and invented Gabriel.

Lords of Shadow and DLC

 * Before his fight with the Forgotten One, Gabriel says the classic line from Symphony of the Night: "Enough talk...! Have at you!"
 * It should be interesting to note that Gabriel does not refer to himself as Dracula (which means Son of the Dragon in Romanian), but Dracul, the Dragon. Vlad III, aka Vlad Țepeș (on which the literary Dracula is based), was the son of Vlad II Dracul, who in turn was named as such for his affiliation with the knighthood know as the Order of the Dragon. In the Resurrection DLC, Gabriel begins comparing himself to a dragon, which could be the origin of the name, and in Lords of Shadow 2 he turns into a ghostly dragon. However, it has been confirmed that Gabriel is indeed the Dracula of the Lords of Shadow Timeline.
 * Interestingly, although Gabriel calls himself "the Dragon" in Romanian at the end of Lords of Shadow he never actually names himself. He only refuses to take his old name.
 * Gabriel defeated Satan by countering the angel's magic with it's opposite, i.e. light with shadow and vice versa. Years latter, Gabriel's own son would fight his father in the same way.

Mirror of Fate/Lords of Shadow 2

 * Like the Dracula from the original series, Gabriel is able to shoot a wave of fireballs at his enemies.
 * Even though Dracula now controls Bernhard Castle, his rule seems to be contested by enemies, as seen in the case of the witches who released the Daemon Lord and the Toy Maker who resurrected him, and several monsters seen in trailers for Lords of Shadow 2.
 * Ironically, the battle between Trevor and Dracula mirrors the one between Gabriel and his greatest enemy, Satan, with each countering the others' magic with it's opposite.
 * This increases the parallels between Dracula and Satan.
 * Both started as the greatest of their kind but fell to become the enemies of all things good.
 * Both are masters of combat and magic.
 * Both are masters of their own realm (Bernhard Castle for Dracula and Hell for Satan).
 * Most notably, both are named "The Prince of Darkness".
 * In the Book of Revelation, Satan is also called "The Dragon".
 * In the first trailer for Lords of Shadow 2, Gabriel takes the appearance of a dragon. It is a reference to the names Dracul and Dracula, but also to the original Dracula's second (and sometimes third) forms.
 * In this same trailer it shows that Dracula has no reflection. This does not stop him from seeing visions in the Mirror of Fate.