Dracula's Army

Warning! This article contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

Dracula's Army is an antagonistic military force under Lord Dracula's command that appears in the Castlevania animated series. It is an army conformed by diverse creatures of the night the Vampire Lord gathered to wage a war against all mankind.

Background

These unholy forces are conformed by a vast legion of creatures of the night the Vampire Lord, Vlad "Dracula" Tepes, himself gathered from Hell^[2] throughout the course of one year as part of a war campaign against humanity as a whole. Their lines are mainly composed of ferocious monsters which are lead by the lord's many generals; these are in their majority high-profile vampires, with only a couple of humans among their ranks who utilize black arts such as the ability to summon demons and necromancy.

It is worth mentioning that each of these generals is characterized for belonging to a different ethnicity, which range from those prominently seen in Europe –where Wallachia is established– to those found in other continents such as Africa and Asia, implying that Dracula's war is successfully expanding and may in time reach countries such as Turkey, Iran, India, China, Egypt, Libya, and Niger among others, if the war has not already reached them. At the very least, it's implied that Dracula has influence in these regions.

Despite their formidable numbers and powers, most members of Dracula's Army meet their demise during the events of Season 2, with the only surviving generals being Carmilla, Hector and Isaac, with this last one being the only who is still loyal to Dracula's campaign and apparently seeking to continue his unholy crusade.

Members

Generals

Other members

Gallery

Screenshots

Concept art

Trivia

The names of the vampire generals were given by Warren Ellis, according to Sam Deats, who revealed them on his Twitter account:^[3]
- Raman means "beloved" in Hindi.
- Sharma means "happiness" in Nepali.
- Chō means "butterfly" in Japanese.
- Zufall means "coincidence" in German.
- Dragoslav means "dear glory" in Slavic.
Chō, Dragoslav, Raman, Sharma and Zufall, play a relatively minor part in the overall story, and as such, they were given very few lines of dialogue. In the Japanese version of the show, all of their voices were provided by Masafumi Kobatake, Hinata Tadokoro and Kengo Tsujii.
While helping to emphasize his threat on a global scale and of a power of darkness that plagues all men throughout the world, the vampire generals also come to draw upon vampire legends found not just within the Balkans:
- In regards to Godbrand, Nordic lore tells of draugr, being viking vampires who become undead through dishonorable and despicable deeds done in life and are in turn barred from the gates of Valhalla. Suspended in unlife, draugr haunt their burial mounds out of their own vice and possessive disposition, and viciously hunt for their prey by driving them mad with their cursed presence. In contrast to the rather graceful feeding methods of their Eastern European brethren, draugr grisly maul and crush victims to death and gorge on their spilled blood and flesh, or even devour them whole.
- In regards to Raman and Sharma, Hindu and Indian lore bears many stories of a variety of vampiric creatures, be it the vatala, bat people like ghouls that possess the dead at charnel grounds and cemeteries to feed, or the bhuta, the spirits of those who died untimely deaths and feed on both blood and children. Of course, corresponding more to the European vampire, there is the mulo, those that have died untimely deaths but come back to repossess their bodies immediately out of grudges and hatred. Though appearing as themselves in life but with subtly unsettling features akin to the uncanny valley effect, mulo have little to any of the humanity as they had in life, and become indulgent and decadent in their feeding, subsisting not only on blood but sexual energy akin to succubi and inccubi.
- In regards to Chō, though there is of little lore regarding vampiric creatures within the Japanese nation, dark history from the end of the Heian era to the early Kamakura Era tells of how ancient Japan was thrown into chaos; not only due to wars over corrupt politics and brigands ruling the countryside, but demons able to terrorize and prey freely in this time of disorder and anarchy. Most notorious was that of Shuten Doji, the powerful undisputed ruler of all demons throughout Japan at that time, who was regarded with great dread for his commandeered raids on villages and cities, and his feeding habits of gorging on the blood and flesh of humans captured, his most favorite being beautiful maidens. Furthermore, in regards to Shinto thought, purification, be it physical and spiritual, was done to ward off kegare, or filth and defilement, the worst coming from the results of death and violence, as kegare unchecked was believed to spawn demons or even transform living creatures into demons.
  - Another origin for Chō could be the enenra, a Japanese monster that is composed of smoke and darkness.

References

[1] Targoviste, 1476. A year after Lisa's death, the day of her burning is being celebrated as a festival...

[2] Dracula stating he will gather his army from Hell.

[3] ttps://twitter.com/SamuelDeats/status/1059168613259718657

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