- For the original timeline version of this term, see Devil Forgemaster.
- "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.
Description[]
According to Isaac, the art of being a Forgemaster is a skill that takes many years to master. Like their game counterparts, a Forgemaster's knowledge and expertise extends beyond the magic of devil forging to encompass magic in general, necromancy in particular, alchemy, spiritual metaphysics, magical item, arsenal, and weapon crafting, and more (as shown by Hector in particular throughout the series, most prominently in Season 4).
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, whether through reproduction or through spontaneous creation through wild magic. Also, the Forgemaster can choose the morphology of the Night Creature during the creation process, including their size or features (Isaac deliberately creating a gargantuan night creature to fight the Magician's mind controlled slaves is one example of this ability).
As revealed in Castlevania: Nocturne, it is possible to gain powers similar to a real Forgemaster via 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 used to make them, the demonic machine instead uses the original souls of the dead bodies to animate the newly created night creatures. This is shown when Edouard, Jacques, Drolta Tzuentes, and many other night creatures the Abbot had forged retained their previous sense of self as humans/vampires. This lead to them either regaining to retaining their memories of being humans/vampires upon being resurrected as night creatures, allowing them the ability to disobey the Abbot, albeit still bound to him.
As shown after Abbot Emmanuel was killed by Maria, Night Creatures share a deep mental/mystical connection with their Forgemaster, where the army of Night Creatures in the Marquis’s Cheatu immediately detected Emmanuel’s death and howled in reaction to losing him. Later, many of Abbot’s Night Creatures would continue to mourn him. After his death, the Night Creatures he forged were implied to have finally attained free will once again and were free to do as they liked once more. As shown where Erzsebet Báthory noted that Drolta Tzuentes now needed to reassert control of them personally to ensure further cooperation in their plans. Later, during their final assault against the Revolution, Edouard and the former Captain of the National Guard were able to finally act on their own will against their vampire masters and convinced several of their fellow Night Creatures and fight the other Night Creatures who continued being loyal to Erzsebet.
Known Forgemasters[]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ Only Godbrand once referred to them as "Devil Forgemasters", in "War Council" (S2E01): "The Devil Forgemaster at work again, raising the dead."