Dracula (Lords of Shadow)



Gabriel Belmont is a Knight from the 11th century and the protagonist of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Light, an elite group of holy knights who protect and defend the innocent against the supernatural.

After receiving word he had lost his wife Marie to evil forces, he sets out on a quest to bring her soul back from the purgatoric plane that prevents her and others from passing on.

Powers and Abilities
Gabriel Belmont was trained the arts of combat since a very young age though he has showcased acrobatic attributes as well. His standard arsenal consists of the Combat Cross and other supplementary weapons such as bottles of Holy Water and the like.

The Combat Cross is a multifunctional weapon invented by Rinaldo Gindalfi, which Gabriel upgrades throughout his journey. It containes an iron crucifix used to repel evil, and a retractable chain quenched with Holy Water which is hidden inside. Hence, the Combat Cross is a very effective weapon against the undead.

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

Additional relics possessed by Gabriel are the Cyclone Boots and Seraph Shoulders which allow him to jump great distances and reach higher places respectively. Contrary to most Belmonts, Gabriel has the ability to uttilise magic in combat as well. Light Magic and Shadow Magic are both as his disposal and are used for healing his wounds or boosting his offensive. Combining magic with his combat allows Gabriel to use new and devestating moves on his foes as well.

Appearance
Gabriel is tall with a muscular build. His hair is brown and sometimes decipted 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 noteable 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 is able to cover his face with a hood to mask his appearance at all times.

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 similair to the character.

Before Castlevania
Some years ago, a child was found on the door of one of the Brotherhood of Lights 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.

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

Events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Some time later, 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 meets an old god, Pan, who allows him to communicate with Marie and who, throughout the game, aids Gabriel in times of peril. Next he meets a supposed comrade of the order, Zobek, who instructs Gabriel to destroy the Lords of Shadow, the rulers of the demonic forces now driving mankind into extinction. Both Pan and Zobek desire an end to their tyrannical rule, but for very different reasons.

His first great test comes when he meets Claudia, an innocent young psychic and her enchanted guardian the Black Knight, both of whom he slays. Killing the Black Knight grants him the Lord of the Necromancer'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 faces is Cornell who reveals that the Brotherhood of Light was founded by three divinely empowered saints who led God's army and defeated Satan. 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. But the result of this transformation was that the leftover bodies of neach 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. Which makes Gabriel lose all his faith in the Order. Killing Cornell grants him the Lord of the Lycans' Cyclone Boots, which grants him super-speed.

After the Lycans he faces off against the vampires. 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 game. Until finally he reaches Carmilla, queen of vampires, and second Lord of Shadow. In the dialogue with Carmilla, we get the first glimpses of Gabriel's future when she states he indeed will be "one of us." Her death grants him the third of the enchanted gear granted the Lords of Shadow from Heaven, her Seraph Shoulders which grants him angelic wings.

Intriguingly we learn about a "King of Angels" who has been helping Gabriel on his quest. As we all know, the King of Angels was the Devil himself, who set all of these events in motion.

Before he heads of to the Land of the Necromancers, Gabriel faces Pan, his guide throughout his journey. Pan teaches Gabriel how to battle against light and dark magic, knowing well the final battle Gabriel would be facing at the end of the game. And then sacrifices himself, as the death of a god was needed to proceed to the land of dead. Eventually Gabriel learns 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. Gabriel was 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. Zobek electrocutes Gabriel, and is in turn burned alive as Satan materializes from the flames that consume him.

It is revealed that Satan was 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 being the real power behind sealing of access to the heavens for all deceased pure spirits. Marie persuades all the souls trapped in limbo to revive Gabriel. Satan offers Gabriel a place at his side, but Gabriel refuses, telling Satan that his lust for power was what caused his fall from grace. Unpersuaded, Satan puts on the god mask and initiates the final battle.

At the climax of the duel, Gabriel grabbed Satan, and after opening himself to the light, invokes a divine ritual, the same that gave birth to the Lords of Shadow, obliterating Satan while also mysteriously giving Gabriel black wings, another mystery which has yet to be explained. Doing so Gabriel says his farewell to Marie who takes the God Mask with her to heaven.

Reverie
Soon after, Gabriel was summoned by Laura to the Bernhardt castle. There he learns that by killing the three Lords of Shadow, Gabriel unleashed a new menace: the Forgotten One, an incredibly powerful demon whom the Brotherhood imprisoned deep in the centre of the castle. Laura and Gabriel decide they must find the entrance to the ancient fortress of the Brotherhood.

After opening the gate to the Brotherhood fortress, Gabriel and Laura travel through the ancient castle. They gather the blood of the three founders in order to open the gate to the Forgotten One's chamber. However, only dark beings can enter into the dimension where the Forgotten One is kept. To bypass this, Laura asks Gabriel to drink all of her blood. With reluctance, Gabriel does this, killing Laura but freeing from her eternal torment, while he himself becomes a creature of the night. He steps through the gate to confront what awaits him.

Epilogue
Gabriel became an immortal vampire and took on the name of Dracula. He eventually went into hiding in an old church. Many centuries later he would meet Zobek again who predicts that Satan's return to the earthly realm is not far off. His old friend urges Gabriel to prevent the ressurection. The two engage in a fight but before Gabriel disappears Zobek reveals it is his only chance to be freed from his immortality.

Trivia

 * 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.
 * 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.
 * It should be interesting to note that Gabriel does not refer himself to Dracula (which means son of the dragon in Romanian), but Dracul, the Dragon. Vlad III Țepeș, on which Dracula is based, was the son of Vlad II Dracul, who in turn was named as such for his affiliation with the Order of the Dragon. Whether this fact is intentional or coincidental remains to be seen, but it could imply that Gabriel could be the father of a powerful, evil Vampire. The concept art within the game labels him as Dracula, however.
 * 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.