- For the environment, see Churches, Cathedrals and Chapels.
- For the animated series version, see Church (animated series).
The Eastern Orthodox Church (東方正教会 Tōhō Seikyōkai?), or simply The Church, is an organization that seeks to ensure that God is worshiped in the land, fight heretics and heathens, and opposes Dracula.
History
In the 11th century, the Church was busy fighting heathens, and it forbid any unauthorized battles. Two of its greatest knights were Leon Belmont (the warrior) and Mathias Cronqvist (the tactician), they trusted each other completely and were bound by an old friendship. When mysterious monsters appeared in Leon's domain, he requested to be able to fight them, but as the Crusades were raging in the East and the Church was more focused in fighting heathens rather than monsters, The Church forbid it. When his betrothed was captured, Leon renounced his title in order to save her, but he was being manipulated by Mathias, who renounced God and became Dracula, a new threat to humanity and the Church. This began centuries of estrangement between the Church and the Belmont Clan.
In the 15th century, the Church employed Sypha Belnades, a witch, who disguised herself as a male priest. She was the Church's greatest warrior and her clan and descendants would continue to serve the Church for centuries. When Dracula began his campaign against humanity, the Church sent an army to Dracula's Castle, but they were annihilated by the armies lead by the Devil Forgemasters, Hector and Isaac. They sent Sypha to deal with Dracula, but she was captured by the Cyclops and turned to stone. With no one else to turn to, they sought one of the outcast Belmonts and found in Trevor a mighty warrior who was up to the task. He rescued Sypha and defeated Dracula. After Dracula was slain, it was found that Dracula's curse still remained. It is not clear if Zead was really working with the authority of the Church or not, but he claimed to be a priest who was trying to rid the land of the curse. Zead turned out to really be Death, who was trying to resurrect Dracula using his former henchman Hector. He was forced to use Isaac instead, but Hector defeated both Death and Dracula.
Relationships between the Belmonts and the Church were good after Trevor defeated Dracula. It's not clear if the Belmonts worked as members of the Church for the following centuries, but the Church did provide them with aid.
After the Belmonts vanished, the Church employed the young Jonathan Morris, the wielder of the Vampire Killer, and Charlotte Aulin, a relative of the Belnades Clan, with power enough to be seen as a trump card for an ultimate victory over Dracula. They sent them to investigate the reappearance of Dracula's castle during World War II and sent a priest named Vincent Dorin to meet and assist them. The two defeated the lord of the castle, a vampire unaffiliated with Dracula named Brauner, and then defeated Death and Dracula after his early resurrection.
The Church likely played a key role in the final defeat of Dracula, but was only one of the players in his downfall in 1999. Their employee, Yoko Belnades, kept close tabs on the Hakuba Shrine, which had sealed away Dracula's castle in an eclipse. Yoko was like an older sister to the priestess of the shrine, Mina Hakuba. Wary of a prophecy that involved the return of Dracula in the year 2035, they sent Yoko to investigate the intentions of the cult founder, Graham Jones, and sent her to Dracula's castle during an eclipse to prevent him from becoming Dracula. She failed and was stabbed by Graham, but her life was spared by Soma Cruz, a Japanese student who actually turned out to be the true heir to Dracula's power. Soma defeated Graham, but he resisted his destiny and defeated Chaos to prevent being consumed by and becoming Dracula.
After Julius Belmont regained his memories, he worked for the Church in conjunction with Yoko. The following year, the Church sent Yoko and Julius to defeat a new cult leaded by the priestess Celia Fortner from creating a new Dark Lord. Julius used the last of his strength to allow Soma to enter the Abyss and ultimately prevent a new Dark Lord from coming into being.
Trivia
- It is worth mentioning that while the Eastern Orthodox Church has been the predominant rite in modern-day Romania and Eastern Europe overall, the architecture in the games is distinctly depicted as Gothic and/or Baroque, which are styles traditionally associated with Roman Catholicism. The Banat Swabians and ethnic Hungarians are the greatest Roman Catholic minorities in Transylvania and Wallachia, which makes sense, since most Castlevania characters do not have Romanian names but rather German sounding ones. Transylvanian Saxons are predominantly Lutheran; however, this is irrelevant for the games set in earlier time periods, as Lutheranism was only established in the 16th century, and prior to the Protestant Reformation they were predominantly Roman Catholic.
- Although Gothic architecture is rare in Orthodox churches, Baroque influences have appeared in some Orthodox structures, particularly in Transylvania under Habsburg rule.
- In the backstory of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, the Eastern Orthodox Church was stated to have been led by a pope. However, the real-life Eastern Orthodox Church, unlike the Catholic Church, does not have a pope.
- While relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches fluctuated throughout history, there were periods of cooperation, particularly in facing common threats such as the Ottoman Empire, so it is possible they were simply working together during the events of the game, especially considering the threat posed by Dracula.
- Leon Belmont and Mathias Cronqvist were knight crusaders in the 11th century, a role more commonly associated with the Catholic Church than with Orthodox Church, as the later never organized a Crusade, though it did seek aid from the Catholic Pope in the 11th century, which led to the launch of the First Crusade. Orthodox rulers did engage in defensive and expansionist wars against Muslims and steppe nomads, but these conflicts were not called Crusades and were not part of a unified religious campaign.
- Given the blend of artistic and architectural elements in the series, and considering the threat posed by Dracula, it is also possible that the Great Schism simply didn't occur or was mended during the series.