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"Heed my words, O great powers of darkness! Release to me one of the tortured souls! Let me infuse him with my life-force and awaken him to the world of the living! Immaculate being... Appear before me now."
Hector, during the ritual of devil forging

A Devil Forgemaster (悪魔精錬士 Akuma Sērenshi?) is a human trained in the dark arts and, akin to their namesake, bears the ability to create and forge demonic and wicked creatures.

This particular profession is introduced in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and was one of the initial forces within the ranks of Dracula during his first reign of terror upon Valachia.

General description[]

Hector and Isaac Intro

Hector and Isaac, the only two known Devil Forgemasters.

While not much is said about them within the series, Devil Forgemasters are not mere sorcerers; they are not just trained in black magic, but also in the arts of alchemy and spiritual metaphysics, being able to craft magical weapons and arsenals from mere prime and raw materials of nearly any sort, as well as creating magical living beings with the forbidden knowledge they possess.

Their creations bear the namesake of "Innocent Devils", creatures summoned and born of darkness, ranging from original and self-made, to even the formerly deceased and revived. All created beings hold strict and utter loyalty to their respective Forgemaster and grow in power through battle and destruction.

Their ranks having been in the employ of Dracula himself, Devil Forgemasters may also be responsible for the mass creation of many of the series' enemies and fiends alongside Dracula's and Castlevania's own influence and summoning of evil creatures, although this is mere speculation.

Hector cleansing Curse

Hector's "final forge".

It is also said that the strength of a Devil Forgemaster rivals that of Death himself. Because of this, only few humans are known to be able to use Devil Forgery. Only two are present in the game itself, Hector and Isaac, both of which are identified by a crest or symbol of the Devil Forgemasters (Hector has this on the back of his armor, while Isaac has it as a tattoo).

Devil Forgemasters are known to go only by their first name. While the reason for this has never been explained, it is probable that the dropping of their family name is part of the requirements while studying the black arts, as a way to symbolize their renunciation to any bonds that may still tie them with their past normal lives.

Known Devil Forgemasters[]

Castlevania (animated series)[]

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"I am a forgemaster. I can take demons from Hell, and install them in dead bodies on Earth."
Isaac in "Investigators"

Mainly known simply as "Forgemasters" in the animated series,[1] instead of manifesting Innocent Devils from pure darkness, the main way both Hector and Isaac are able to utilize their magic is by performing rituals with special tools, either to bring people and animals back from the dead or to call demonic spirits from Hell into corpses (that aren't too badly damaged), transmogrifying the bodies and turning them into creatures of the night in order to enlist them in Dracula's army. According to Isaac, the art of being a forgemaster is a skill that takes many years to master.

According to Isaac, vampires cannot become Forgemasters because the art requires a human connection. Isaac explains that this is because Hell is populated by humans who went against the will of God, and through his hand, God lifts them out of Hell to serve their penance on the Earth as soldiers.

According to Hector, the magic needs to be channeled through an object of some kind in order for it to work, the same way that breath needs to be channeled through a flute to make music. However, not just any object will work, the tool must be forged from scratch and it must be forged in a very particular way, otherwise the magic won't work. It took Hector several weeks to craft a new hammer for himself (though he might've purposely prolonged this to buy himself more time). Additionally, the tool has to be the kind of object that the Forgemaster feels most comfortable with - Hector uses a hammer and Isaac uses a dagger.

Hector and Isaac's respective methods seem fundamentally different: while Hector uses surgical tools to prepare the bodies before reanimating them, Isaac is only seen using his dagger and magic to forcibly transform a person, or body, directly into a night creature. Additionally, while Hector is seen bringing a dead priest back to life, complete with the priest's holy knowledge and powers, Isaac is said to be pulling the souls of former humans turned demons out of the underworld and into fresh new bodies. It is unclear if they both possess these skills, or if the animated series used this distinction to differentiate both characters.

A notable unique aspect of the powers displayed by each Forgemaster is their color. Isaac, Hector and Miranda's magic manifest with a red, blue and purple glow, respectively, with the color of the former two allowing to discern which night creature/undead was forged by whom.

When a night creature is forged, it is loyal and obedient only to the Forgemaster who created it. However, Lenore was able to bypass this rule by putting a magic ring on Hector's finger and tricking him into swearing loyalty to her. As long as Hector wore the ring, any night creatures he created would be loyal to whomever wore the counterpart ring(s), which were worn by Lenore and her sisters.

This process appears to be similar to necromancy on the surface, but Hector explains to Godbrand that interpreting it as such fundamentally misses the point because the goal of forging is to create living beings ("He's not dead. We create life from death here."). Indeed, Hector further explains to Carmilla that "night creatures" are species in hiding, able to increase their numbers in nature without the help of Forgemasters.

As revealed in Castlevania: Nocturne, it is possible to gain similar powers to a natural born Forgemaster through making deals with demonic beings. As shown where Abbot Emmanuel successfully gained the ability to create and command night creatures by summoning a powerful demon and negotiating with it to gain a demonic machine capable of transforming human corpses into night creatures. Unlike with Hector and Isaac's creatures, however, instead of summoning random sinners' souls from Hell to inhabit and animate the corpses of their risen creatures, the demonic machine instead uses the original souls of the dead bodies to animate the newly created night creatures as they are transformed, as shown where Edouard, Jacques and another unnamed night creature retained their sense of self as people and slowly regained their memories of being humans upon being resurrected as night creatures, allowing them to disobey the Abbot.

Known Forgemasters[]

Trivia[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. Only Godbrand once referred to them as "Devil Forgemasters", in "War Council" (S2E01): "The Devil Forgemaster at work again, raising the dead."
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