- For the original timeline general description of this species, see Vampire.
- For other uses, see Vampire (disambiguation).
Vampires are a species of immortal beings featured in the Castlevania and Castlevania: Nocturne animated series.
History[]
Origins[]
The exact origins of the vampire race are a mystery; however, it is known that their existence dates back to ancient history. For instance, Drolta Tzuentes was once a priestess of Sekhmet in ancient Egypt, and remembers this period vividly. And Morana's origins are from ancient Mesopotamia or Persia.
Characteristics[]
Appearance[]
The physical appearance of a vampire tends to vary from individual to individual, but generally, vampires possess either white or grayish pale skin (that can be more or less noticeable depending of their original human skin color), pointed ears, a pair of fangs in place of their upper canines, and a set of long, razor-sharp claws in their hands. Their eye color is not always the same, red seems to be the most common, but green, violet, pink and yellow eyes have also been shown. Vampires like Carmilla have icy blue eyes, although it is not clear if this is product of her vampirism or is her natural eye color, as other vampires have been shown to retain normal brown, hazel and gray eyes.
When enraged, their sclera can become red as if filled with blood, as is shown with Dracula and Carmilla. Vampires can cry blood instead of tears under certain circumstances, but Alucard was shown crying normal tears, and so did Morana while mourning Carmilla.
Nutrition[]
Vampires subsist by feeding on the blood of living creatures, more specifically human blood, but sometimes animal blood will also suffice, though some find it disgusting compared to that of humans. As Lenore states, vampires can in fact consume human food and some still do it out of enjoyment, but it doesn't offer any real benefits for their bodies as blood is their only possible source of nutrition, and without it they will weaken and die of starvation in about a year.
Psychology[]
As opposed to most of their game counterparts, vampires are not inherently malevolent beings by nature; however, they still show to have a clear inclination for evil. As stated by Dracula, the majority of vampires are driven by their thirst and thus can no longer conceive of humans as thinking beings, instead seeing them as prey animals or mere livestock to be slaughtered. As a result, most vampires seen in the series are completely psychopathic, sadistic, violent, cruel, ruthless and destructive. However, this is not the case for everyone, as Dracula, Olrox, Lenore, Striga and Morana have proven that vampires are in fact capable of things like love, reason and camaraderie if they so wish.
Alucard mentioned that every vampire has a predatory nature that they need to control, otherwise it would take over for the urge to feed in a violent fashion. This likely implies that struggle to control it can be challenging for vampires, but at the same time not impossible, which inherently means they can exercise free will. Lenore also mentions the idea of humane feeding, which could mean that vampires who control their nature could prefer to feed in non-violent ways, possibly from consenting humans.
Free will[]
The show initially stressed that vampires like humans have free will and can choose between good and evil while having their vampire nature. So for vampires same as for humans, being a monster or not is a choice and not something their nature dooms them to. However, this became inconsistent and contradictory to prior story in Season 4, with the writer implying as if vampires are doomed by their nature. That was conflated by the related idea that nature is fluid for night creatures, so overall this theme was very mixed up in result.
Creation[]
To create a new vampire, the future "sire" must drain a mortal of all of their blood to the point of near death, and then they must replace that blood by feeding them a considerable amount their own vampiric blood, finally creating the newly fledged vampire. It is not clearly explained if and how vampires can reproduce with natural childbirth. Given that Dracula has a son, it is strongly implied that it is possible. A vampire child skull was also shown in the Belmont Hold, but this could also be the skull of a child that was turned.
Dhampirs[]
It is known that at least male vampires can have offspring with human women; these beings are known as dhampirs, a half-vampire, half-human hybrid that possesses all the strengths and powers of a vampire, but with few if any of their weaknesses. Such is the case of Alucard, the son of Dracula and Lisa Ţepeş. As Alucard has admitted, dhampirs inherit the same predatory bloodlust as their vampiric progenitor, and until now it is the only known downside of their special condition. In both the games and the show, Alucard is the only known dhampir that appears in the series, and it is unknown how common dhampirs are the Castlevania universe, or if others exist at all.
Society[]
Vampires have their own society, culture and even philosophy as was pointed out by Hector when he was learning about it from Lenore, who gave him a book on vampire magic. It can be even said that they have their own civilization in the sense that they value knowledge of science and magic more than humans and therefore their society develops in different ways from human one, in some aspects even being more advanced.
In Broken Mast, while Carmilla is manipulating Hector, she mentions in two occasions the concept of a "Night World", this could be either the official name vampires have for their society or a personal name used by Carmilla to refer to it.
Although details of their hierarchical structure are largely obscure, during the 1400s, Dracula appeared to be the King of the entire race, with his domain and influence extending to various parts of Europe and beyond, as vampires from different parts of the world such as Styria, Germany, Scandinavia, Slavic Countries, and even India and Japan, owed him allegiance and heeded his call to form part of his court as generals during his war against humanity. Though Dracula's title seemed more formal or military than social, since even despite vampires answering his call, Dracula was not involved in actual governance and politics even in Wallachia itself where he resided. While in some other countries like Styria vampires were rulers over both their vampire and human subjects and were actively involved in statecraft and diplomacy.
As stated by Trevor and Juste, Vampires sometimes band together as "nests" or "packs" in hidden areas where they live and plot their schemes, such as in the underground tunnels of Targoviste. During her return to Styria, Carmilla claimed that Dracula's death caused a chaotic power vacuum in the vampire world, with vampire packs trying to set up their own kingdoms.
It is unclear how vampires view or are related to religions in the show's settings or whether they have some that are unique to them and different from human ones.
It isn't clearly explained how vampires coexist with humans in different regions, but likely their relationship is often not peaceful. In general existence of vampires is a common knowledge among humans and they are not some kind of secret society. By 1792, many vampires are seen living among humans in the French commune of Machecoul, and this might also be the case for other places in the world, however, they are still feared and hunted often.
Forgemasters and Night Creatures[]
Dracula's army, referred to as "Night Hordes", is in its majority composed by Night Creatures, demonic beings created by Forgemasters, practitioners of dark magic who have the ability to create these beings by extracting and placing demons from hell in human corpses. Forgemasters are all human, as this is a type of magic vampires cannot perform. Once a night creature is created, it is loyal only to the forgemaster, though they themselves often work under the orders of a vampire, such is the case of Isaac, Hector and the Abbot. Still, forgemasters are not strictly bound to serve vampires and can perfectly work independently.
Powers and abilities[]
Not all vampires posses the same abilities, some are shared traits that all vampires have, such as their immortality and their enhanced physiology. Others may be unique to certain individuals depending on their own personal preference, mastery of it, how old and/or powerful they are, or even the place they originate from, but it is ultimately unknown on what exactly they depend, or even which are vampiric abilities and which are the product of magic. Age for instance, doesn't seem to have a consistent impact on vampire abilities or power. For example Alucard is relatively young yet his power far exceeds many of the supposedly older vampires.
- Immortality: Vampires do not age beyond the time of their transformation, having eternal life from then on as long as they feed. They're also immune to all types of human illnesses and diseases.
- Supernatural physiology: Vampires possess unnatural strength, speed, agility, stamina, durability, reflexes, senses, and healing beyond all human limits.
- Supernatural strength: Their immense strength and bodily force allows them to easily overpower humans and lift large, heavy objects with very little effort.
- Supernatural speed, agility and reflexes: Vampires can move at alarming speeds with perfect balance, bodily coordination and great reaction time.
- Supernatural stamina: Vampires can exert themselves at peak capacity during long fights before fatigue begins to affect them.
- Supernatural durability: Vampires are more resistant to injury than mortals. They can successfully resist repeated attacks from other members of their kind, as demonstrated during Alucard and Dracula's fight, as well as to leap great distances without any injury upon landing.
- Supernatural senses: Vampires have enhanced senses of smell, hearing and vision far superior to that of humans. They can hear conversations from great distances and it is very possible they also have a predatory night vision.
- Accelerated healing factor: Vampires can heal almost any injury almost instantly, unless the injury is severe enough to be fatal.
- Cold immunity: Vampires have been shown to survive in extreme cold temperatures wearing minimal clothing.
- Fangs and claws: Vampires possess nearly indestructible razor-sharp fangs and claws that can easily bite and tear flesh, as well as to even carve into metal. Their claws can also serve them as formidable weapons in combat.
- Flight and wall-crawling: Vampires can defy gravity, being able to levitate weightlessly and even outright fly through the air freely and at high speeds. They are also able to adhere to and scale walls and ceilings like spiders.
- Shape-shifting: Vampires can transform and alter their bodies in numerous ways:
- Beast form: Notably, vampires can turn into animals like wolves, bats or even a swarm of bats. Olrox has been shown to be capable of becoming a giant serpent-like dragon, similar to the god of his culture, Quetzalcoatl.
- Mist form: Vampires like Olrox and Chō have shown the ability to transform into mist, in this form, they become intangible and are able to fly, as well as to travel fast and unnoticed.
- Wings: Ratko, Dragan and Drolta are vampires that have shown the ability to sprout large, bat-like wings from their backs, allowing them to fly. Alucard can turn his cape into bird-like wings. There is no unique tell or condition establishing the appearance of wings, as demonstrated by the generals of Dracula's Army randomly having this trait.
- Succubus form: Drolta possesses a succubus-like form, not only giving her bat-like wings, but also fiery pink hair, a demonic tail with a fire tip and pitch black horns.
- Telekinesis: Alucard can control his sword at will, moving it through the air, and even fight with it without actually needing to wield it.
- Magic: Dracula and Olrox are examples of vampires who are also powerful practitioners of sorcery. Richter mentions that some vampires can do magic just like humans, and previously Dracula had referred to Sypha's sorcery as "human magics", implying that the magic that vampires perform is different to that of humans. Dracula infused much of his inventions with magic and he himself built and enchanted his legendary castle.
- Astral projection: Dracula can magically send projections of himself to far away places, he has shown his face in the form of a giant head of fire and in flocks of crows in the sky.
- Summoning: Olrox can summon floating ghost skulls engulfed in blue flames.
- Elemental control: Dracula has control over the elements, particularly fire. He can transform his body into flames and project himself through fires in any location. He can manifest fire anywhere, even in the sky, and his power over the elements was such that he was able to easily destroy Targoviste with sheer elemental attacks, releasing thunderstorms, tornadoes and meteors. When fighting the trio at the end, Dracula manifested a huge burning ball of molten lava. Which was powerful enough that Sypha could not deflect it without aid from Trevor and Alucard.
Weaknesses[]
Sunlight[]
The light of the sun makes vampires combust into flames almost immediately after being fully exposed, burning their skin and flesh away, and leaving only their steaming skeletons. Olrox and Drolta imply that vampires feel a natural sense of dread as the sun rises, being able to tell when the dawn is near even before the first lights of day appear in the sky.
Fire[]
Immolation is also one the most effective ways to end a vampire, being mainly used by Sypha Belnades and Richter Belmont through their pyrokinesis.
Stakes[]
Generally, piercing a vampire's heart will make their bodies turn into dried up husks almost instantly, though this is not always the case, Godbrand and Ratko for instance, started to burn until they were reduced to ashes, and Carmilla caused a massive explosion that destroyed part of her castle.
Holy Water[]
Holy water burns vampires like acid and makes them catch fire. The water of the river blessed by the resurrected Bishop at Braila proves to be lethal as great part of Dracula's army burns and disintegrates when immersed in it.
Crosses[]
Trevor Belmont states that crosses affect vampires because they're an evolved predatory species and their eyesight works different than that of humans, with geometrical shapes confusing their brains and making them panic.[1] However, this is proved to be wrong, as the vampire Vaublanc is not only repelled by Annette using crosses, but also burns his hand upon touching one of them. Their natural aversion to religion is further reaffirmed as vampires are also affected by holy water and consecrated weapons. This, however, also contradicts Dracula pointing out that fear of crosses for vampires is a mere superstition. Since original show and spin off were created by different writers, it is also possible their approaches are inconsistent with each other, meaning that settings of each show can have different rules about it.
Consecrated weapons[]
The consecrated whips of the Belmont Clan can effectively hurt and kill vampires, having been the main weapon the family has used for centuries to hunt these creatures. The leather whip has been shown to burn vampire skin upon contact, and could make night creatures like Blue Fangs explode. In the case of the Morning Star, an upgraded version the original whip, it can instantly destroy both vampires and night creatures alike by making them explode upon their flesh being damaged by it. However, Dracula proved resistant to the power of the whip as Trevor couldn't kill him even after directly attacking him with it, instead just being momentarily slowed down.
Known vampires[]
Castlevania[]
- Dracula
- Carmilla
- Godbrand
- Lenore
- Striga
- Morana
- Ratko
- Dragan
- Dragoslav
- Zufall
- Raman
- Sharma
- Unnamed Carmilla's sire
Castlevania: Nocturne[]
Dhampirs[]
Known vampires gallery[]
Vampire Hunters[]
The Belmont Clan[]
For generations, the Belmont family has fought and died entrusted with the duty of protecting the world from supernatural threats, including vampires. As famed monster hunters, the members of House Belmont have acquired a vast amount of occult knowledge over the centuries, trained to become specialized in exterminating the creatures that would terrorize Wallachia and beyond. The family became largely feared by most of the vampire world, and their reputation was such that even Carmilla and vampires from far away lands became agitated upon learning of their unexpected return in 1476, after the family was allegedly wiped out by the Church years prior.
The show made a point to highlight darker aspects of the Belmont family, showing that they weren't all merely good heroic people and could also be cruel and ruthless in their pursuit of killing vampires. Extreme views of some Belmonts trying to exterminate all vampires were counter-posed to some like Dracula waging a genocidal war against humans, showing that such extremes are evil both for human and vampire sides.
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- In the TV series' universe, the process of siring a new vampire is the same one used in many other vampire themed media, first originated in The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, but also used in franchises like Vampire: The Masquerade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood, as well as various adaptations of Dracula.
- There are inconsistencies regarding the worldbuilding of both series, this can be attributed on the first show and spin-off having different writers. Some other aspects are left unexplained or open to interpretation. Some of these inconsistencies include:
- The Belmont whips: In the original series, both the Leather Whip and the Morning Star can kill night creatures by making them explode, but only the latter can make vampires explode. Not in all four seasons are ever shown the effects of the leather whip on vampires, until Castlevania: Nocturne, where the leather whip is shown to burn their skin. However, here the leather whip doesn't explode night creatures anymore as in the first and second season of the original show, where Trevor Belmont is seen using the leather whip on Blue Fangs and other night creatures during the battle of Gresit.
- Vampire powers: It is unclear on what some of the vampire powers and traits featured in the series depend on, and which are product of magic and which are not; although some like flight and shape-shifting into animals, to name a few, can be found across many vampire lore of other franchises.
- The explanation Trevor gives on why vampires fear the cross in Season 4 is inspired by the "Crucifix Glitch" in the novel Blindsight by Peter Watts. In the novel, vampires are a predatory species that branched away from humans. Here, vampires have the vertical and horizontal cross-wired in their visual cortex, which causes them to suffer seizures upon looking at right angles. As right angles seldom form in nature, humanity drove them to extinction once they invented architecture.
- Dracula' sclera turning red in combination with his already red eyes is similar to the 1992 adaptation of the character by Francis Ford Coppola, Bram Stoker's Dracula. When Dracula is about to bite Mina, his irises and scleras turn blood red on their entirety.
- The term "nest" to refer to a group of vampires that live together is also used in franchises like Supernatural and the Buffyverse.