Topic: Castlevania: Legacy of Sorrow - An original scenario project - Updated 7/16

[Intersection]

A legend rises. A demon returns. Tears are shed. Blood is spilt. A battle is fought. A soul is freed. A prophecy is fulfilled. A legacy… ends.

Intersection presents:



UPDATED 7/16

Many thanks to plottwist for designing such an incredible logo for my project, as well as for providing invaluable criticism for yet unreleased elements of my scenario. So if you haven't already, take a look at his version of the Demon Castle War: Umbra of Sorrow

A short introduction to the project:

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A Q&A before we begin:


Well, here it is. For a while now, I've been working on 1999 scenario of my own design, and I think it's reached a point where it's compelling enough to be worth its own thread in the Dungeon.


So what is this thread, exactly?

What you're about to read isn't a complete scenario by any stretch of the the imagination - and if you expect me to provide one in the near future, don't hold your breath. There are two reasons for this: first of all, I didn't come up with all of this in a day. If I just pasted it all in one go, you'd get a hell of an entertaining read, but that's about it: you wouldn't understand why I made the choices I made, what direction I wanted the story to take. So what I'll instead be doing is regularly updating this thread with insight on how this plot was conceived and developed, so that you'll have a good idea of the whole thought process behind it - sort of a "dev diary", if you will. The second reason is a more straightforward one: this story is, mostly, unfinished. While I've got the broad strokes and some important details down, it has some gaps, inconsistencies, and placeholders that need ironing out. And that's, to some extent, where I hope you'll all come in - giving feedback, commenting, and even helping me build new plot threads from the ground up.

And no, I don't have a true title yet. I'll be working on that soon.


Well, will this ever become a game?

No. Let's make this clear: I have neither the ability, the time, or the willingness to develop a full-fledged game on my own. This is a scenario project, and it will remain that way until I finish it. Afterwards, we could maybe talk about working on something - but it's all hypothetical. Just don't expect me to announce a fan game tomorrow.

Now, let's get down to business.

PART I: IN SEARCH OF A COMPELLING SETTING

Well, what exactly is the "Demon Castle War"?

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This question ended up being far more difficult than I expected, and it's what would ultimately shape this story more than anything else.
 At first, I thought of what most of us already had in mind: Dracula awakens, more powerful than ever, and unleashes a demonic army to destroy all of humanity. But the problem was that it's not a particularly original, or, let's face it, interesting idea. Every attempt I made at imagining "demonic war" funneled into some awful ending scenario with a generic monster army spilling out of a castle under assault by a crazy military setup - and that wasn't an idea I was very fond of. Not only did it sound impossibly cheesy, but it also kind of threw the Belmonts out of the picture - there wasn't much space left for one legendary family's struggle against Dracula if his castle was also getting flooded by tanks and paratrooper squads.  There were too many things to consider, too many artificial plot points I had to invent for a story that barely made any sense in the first place.

To give you an idea, here's a pretty accurate account of my early thought process. If anything, just read it for the laughs:

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"So who does the military belong to? The Church? Probably not. The state of Transylvania? But why only them? How about Europe, then? The entire world? That's too much to worry about. Maybe a secret order that for some reason is the only one to know about Dracula? And that somehow manages to assemble a massive private army to stop him?

What kind of weapons would they bring, anyways? Tanks? Aircraft? Missile Launchers? Anything to bring down Dracula, right? So while they're at it, why don't they just go about obliterating zombies and axe armors with drones and orbital missiles... But then maybe Dracula's Castle is a "creature of pure chaos", so it can get a special magical anti-orbital-missile-force-field...

And what is Julius supposed to do in all this? Is he getting hired by the Church? How about by the government? Maybe he's going to lead the army? Maybe some real-time-strategy? But we want a 'lone Belmont'. So maybe he's just going to be the "super special Dracula assassin" to be parachuted in from a helicopter. Heh. Someone, of course, is going to tell him: "you're our very last hope to end this war". Always someone intimidating enough who can speak with a deep and serious voice. Like the Prime Minister. Or the Pope."

So after obsessing about it for a few more days, and failing to come up with a scenario any more compelling than "kill them because they're monsters" (and some cool vocal impressions of the Pope), I tried to take a different approach. After a while, here's what I came up with:

Since Dracula and modern war were best kept separate, I decided that this war would be one waged by men against men. There are several reasons why I chose to do this. First of all, I'm convinced that Aria's 'Demon Castle War' is more a thematic indication than it is a literal description. It's also probably the product of a less-than-perfect translation, to be understood in context and not really word-for-word: kind of like how Akumajo Dracula, had it not been given its Westernized namesake, would've been literally translated as 'Demon Castle Dracula'. So what I decided to do was to strip it down to its most basic meaning as a "Castlevanian war", a war that was somehow crucially tied to or under Dracula's influence, but that didn't necessarily have to involve him directly. Second of all, I felt it was a waste to reduce all of the complex premises of an actual conflict to another "evil monster" war -- we've already seen so many zombies getting whipped to death in the series that letting the military jump into the mix for no particular reason felt like unnecessary bloat. There's so much more to exploit, and so much more to build, if I can create a war driven by human decisions and with entirely human consequences.

But this choice also meant something that I originally hadn't planned to do: the Demon Castle War no longer stood at the forefront of the story. And I realized that for my own purposes, that was acually a good thing. This was Castlevania - a series about the Belmont family's struggle against Dracula - and as much as I wanted to shape this narrative into something thought-provoking and poignant, I didn't want a massive war clouding up the core story I wanted to tell. So I made my choice. And in that moment, my 1999 scenario was born.

I was all set, and all I had to do was throw the Castlevanian element in. So to pull it all together, I imagined a modern world under the influence of Dracula's Curse.

The land becomes infertile; nature grows restless as it warps, withers and dies; a lingering darkness falls as men grow fearful, cruel, and selfish; and none, not even the dead, can find peace. Under the strain of dwindling natural resources, those in power become greedy and belligerent; corruption runs rampant; authoritarian and expansionist ideologies are on the rise, and the shadow of war looms in the horizon.

There you have it - that's the "catalyst" for my Demon Castle War. I'd gotten the causes down - now, for the actual motives.
Once again, I dove deeply into international intrigue, trying to come up with some crafty sociopolitical implications. But then I realized something: my story was getting far too complicated. I had already come to the conclusion that this story's spotlight would be squarely set on Julius -- and yet here I was wondering about something like how the United States would handle diplomatic relations with a war-torn Europe. So here was my idea: I wouldn't give specific motives for this war. Of course, the war was always going to be given vague political or economic rationales, but since Julius would never truly going to be involved in it, and since it was always going to be entirely separate from the main narrative, I decided not to add another loose thread - which really wouldn't have gone anywhere - in a story that I felt most needed focus. This actually ended up playing in my favor - I began to understand that the more obscure this war was, the less invested we were in its motives, the more inexplicable its very existence would seem, and the more pathos I could reasonably draw from it. Julius' role, in this case, is one of a passive observer: he runs into a conflict that isn't his and sees atrocities committed for reasons he doesn't entirely understand. In fact, those fighting in it themselves will begin to lose sight of the motives behind their own hostility. This plays well in a variety of themes I'll be developing later on; and it also gives the narrative an apocalyptic dimension, which was very much what I was aiming for, in context.

Now, for exactly the same reason, I've decided not to name the country or the nation this is happening in. I didn't want to have to worry about state politics, borders, or nationalities in a story which never really warranted it. And the lack of a defined nation as the setting gives this setting a sense of scale that it wouldn't otherwise be able to attain, while allowing Julius' journey to have a true sense of continuity.

The backdrop for Julius' journey, then, is an apocalyptic depiction of a collapsing society on the brink of war, plagued with internal unrest and crumbling under the strain of external conflict. By design, it's an unobtrusive and fully independent setting, running parallel to Julius' own quest and motives, but always endowed with enough weight and presence to exert a significant influence in shaping characters and events. It's a dynamic environment that quickly evolves from visible tension to escalating hostility, and also one that easily stands out from any generic modern setting.

A word about Dracula's Curse

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It's worth noting that in this particular case, men and women in this setting don't suddenly become monsters. Ordinary people remain ordinary: if they could, they would lead their lives just as they would in any other context. It's much more subtle than that - I wanted Dracula's Curse to instead loosen this fundamental tension between conscious action and inner, amoral desire. Good people don't suddenly turn 'bad'; they become more impulsive, less reasonable under pressure, more prone to making mistakes that can cause them to capsize into involuntary evil. More on this later, as well.

Castlevania in the (almost) 21st century

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Now there's one last question that begs to be asked. Exactly what place does a whip-swinging Belmont hero have in a contemporary world? Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow pretty much sidestepped the issue: while both games were supposed to take place in futuristic Japan, you were too busy hacking away in the same medieval castle with the same medieval weapons to care. But this time, I had to ask myself: how far could a "modernized" Castlevania go? I came up with a brief image of Julius fighting in the streets of a city against a shielded SWAT team, coolly deflecting bullets with his whip as he walked... For Final Fantasy, perhaps. But it definitely wouldn't mesh well here. In context, it felt too jarring, too heavy-handed. I wanted a more grounded plot, one that had its share of fantastical elements but that kept them contained within Castlevania's own comfort zone, rather than shoving them into the wrong time period and saying: "well, it's fantasy anyway". That's something that happened with Lords of Shadow 2, and the results were pretty bit messy.

So I wanted to be able to avoid this kind of tonal inconsistency while still preserving some kind of a plausibly contemporary setting. And I decided to go about doing this by moving the action away (though not completely) from the dense, metropolitan setting I'd first imagined, and into more rural, sparsely populated locales; later on, I would decide to tap into abandoned and unexplored areas, which had the additional benefit of giving off an appropriate sense of solitude. After all, there's a sense of movement, a journey this narrative will follow us through.

The Catholic Church in 1999

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In keeping with common Castlevania themes, I wanted to give the Church a far wider influence than it actually had in the late 20th century. To achieve this, I decided that modern society would’ve evolved differently under Dracula’s curse – in a general climate of uncertainty and mistrust, men would have turned to the only institution they could place their unconditional faith in: religion. As a result, the Church would maintain a powerful ascendance over the collective conscience, wielding no longer a political authority but instead a social one. However, in the light of emerging nationalism, and as religious schisms multiplied, a previously strong central Catholic Church found itself considerably weakened as national or refractory churches claimed their own sovereignty. Populations became increasingly apolitical as they distanced themselves from governments they believed to be corrupt and untrustworthy, instead renewing their faith in a collapsing Church that had grown even more corrupt and disjointed after centuries of uninterrupted power. This led otherwise impotent politicians to forge an unstable truce with local ecclesiastics, giving birth to explosive international dissent that was religious just as often as it was political.

By 1999, the Vatican’s central power was in steady decline, but it still held on to its considerable, if now only ideological, influence. Over time, its members had overseen the creation of several religious orders and clerical organizations across Europe, hoping to preserve the Vatican’s wide influence and to keep dissenting Churches under scrutiny.

The Order of Ecclesia had been one of them. After Barlowe’s death, and the order’s collapse, its remaining members would join with the Belnades family in order to preserve much of Ecclesia’s legacy, seeking to found a new order around the discovery of a mysterious tome known as the Grimoire…

PART II: THEMATIC ELEMENTS

Here are a few tidbits of dialogue from the scenario; it should illustrate the plot's most relevant themes more effectively than any explanatory paragraph. It should serve as a character teaser, as well.

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“This… was not supposed to happen.”

– Saint Germain


“For so long you have wandered, lost in the hollow halls of this castle built of vanity and fear; yet not once have you asked yourself just what you had become. You sought to bring virtue and justice to this land, yet all you had found was cowardice and hatred! You believed, with these last threads of your sanity, that you had changed mankind for the better, and yet it was mankind that had changed you… for the worse.”

– The Puppet Master


“I have seen so many like you, obsessed with their futile nightmare of justice and blood. Their task was done, their journey ended, yet still they were possessed by a consuming guilt, a burning rage that would never leave them until their dying breath. Tell me, Belmont, is this what you seek?
I pity you, Julius. You shroud yourself in a cloak of hypocrisy and self-righteousness, yet you blind yourself to the suffering you would bring upon us all. How much blood would you spill, how much Good would you sacrifice to destroy what you so fervently believe to be evil?”

– Adrian Farenheit Tepes, Heir to Darkness


“And what good will that ever bring? Once they condemn you to the shadows, no matter how solemnly you repent, no matter how fervently you beg for forgiveness, you will forever seek a humanity once taken from you and that you will never recover!”

– Ignacius Blackmore, Lord of Shadows


“I know them, hunter: your greatest hopes, your deepest fears, your wildest of dreams and your darkest of nightmares. You walk upon a gaping abyss, held only by the most fragile of threads. It will not be long before you fall.”

– Paranoia, Keeper of Nightmare


“Yours is a terrible fate, Julius. I once believed I could stand in its way, share your burden, spare you this pain, this suffering. I know now that I was wrong.”

– Sofia Belnades


“Tell me, Belmont, just who are you fighting for? For the men who feared you, who reviled you, who knew nothing of your plight yet cast you away in terror and hatred? For the men who manipulated you, for the cowards who hid from the own nightmares as they sent you to destroy them? Look at these men, Belmont, and see them for what they are. You fought for their sake, yet they have betrayed you at every turn! And yet you would come to me on their behalf?”

– Dracula Vlad Tepes, Prince of Darkness


“… It is not for them that I have come.”

– Julius Belmont

The Prophecy

We all know that Nostradamus had no idea what Dracula even was when he wrote down his “prophecy”. So instead of adhering to four 500-year-old lines about the “King of the Mongols”, I decided to come up with a prophecy that’s actually relevant to the story at hand. If you think I’m overstepping boundaries, well, you’ll just have to forgive me this once. Besides, it sounds so much more appropriate...

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One year before the millennia’s turn
From the abyss he shall return
To see a bitter vengeance burn

In sorrow, hatred, blood, in fear
As despair looms and war draws near
Mankind will shed its final tear

Through darkness deep and shadows tall
One man shall rise to end it all
The last to stand and the last to fall

PART III: CHARACTERS AND GLOSSARY

In this section you will find short portraits or descriptions of various characters and plot elements from the scenario, in a manner similar to the "library" in Dawn of Sorrow's menu. More entries will be added as the story progresses.


Julius Belmont

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Separated from his parents at an early age, a young Julius was taken in and raised to adulthood by members of the Enlightened. Trained in physical combat and imbued with the order’s religious and moral values, yet haunted by the tragedy of his childhood, Julius is kind, loyal, and virtuous to a fault, if inclined to an impulsive intransigence that has often hampered his judgement.

Sofia Belnades

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Raised under the Order’s wing after its founding by the Belnades family, Sofia has known Julius from childhood. Possessing her bloodline’s signature arcanic powers, and inheriting her family’s sense of perspective and pragmatism, Sofia has aided and later overseen many of the Order’s endeavors. She has formed a strong friendship with Julius over the years, and the shrewd observer might even detect a budding romance…

The Order of the Enlightened

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Formed by the Belnades family and the remaining members of the Order of Ecclesia after its collapse, the Order of the Enlightened was founded as a means to preserve Ecclesia’s purpose of keeping Dracula’s power in check, while affording the Belnades a foothold in the religious hierarchy. Over the years, the Order would perpetuate Ecclesia’s studies, and keep watch over a mysterious artifact known as the Grimoire.

PART IV: DEVELOPING THE SCENARIO

This will be by far the largest section in the thread. Here, I will be commenting my choices and explaining my decisions in building the plot as it is released. This will be done on a chapter-like basis.


Overture - Innocence Betrayed

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Before I could allow Julius to storm Dracula’s Castle and leave him to his undead-slaying duties, the first element I needed to provide him with was a background – an origin story, of sorts. This story had to satisfy two criteria: it needed to provide a plausible reason for the Belmont family to return to its heritage, after having abandoned it for several centuries; and it needed to offer a powerful and narratively exploitable motive for Julius to set off and resolve to defeat Dracula on his own. I knew that a Papal pat on the back wouldn’t be nearly enough, so I sought a more personal motive that could fuel Julius’ emotional resolve without being dependent on unconvincing external factors. I also faced the problem of Julius’ ancestry; why should Julius suddenly decide to take up his bloodline’s vampire-slaying mantle while for generations his homologues did not? My idea, then, was to get Julius to make this decision outside of any familial context, or even take the decision out of his hands entirely. So how could I plausibly separate Julius from his family, while at the same time establishing a strong emotional trigger for the scenario? The answer was a simple one: I would stage his parents’ death.

When you think of it, it’s a contextually appropriate plot device, and the Castlevania franchise is ripe with similar examples. Almost every game that tried to explain its protagonist's motivation went for a comparable idea: his parents are killed (Mirror of Fate), his love interest is killed (Curse of Darkness, Lament of Innocence, Lords of Shadow), his girlfriend is kidnapped (Rondo of Blood), his friend is missing (Harmony of Dissonance) - and our Belmont, like the good boy he is, dutifully sets off to either rescue or avenge the appropriate party. Of course, in each of these games, the relevant backstory usually stops there, or else becomes something of a narrative gimmick; and each of these motivations are, of course, heavily clichéd. Yet my intent here is to build a backstory that’s both a homage to the series and an emotionally complex starting point for my scenario. Here, this original tragedy plays a key role in Julius’ character development, and is in part responsible for the man Julius becomes later on. It’s worth noting that I’ve also put a significant twist on the formula: Julius’ parents aren’t killed by Dracula, one of his minions, or any defined antagonist in the story; instead, they meet their end at the hands of the terrified members of their own village. This means that Julius will never truly find someone to blame, a dynamic which, without spoiling too much, is central to one of the plot’s themes.

[Intersection]

The finalized plot elements will appear here.

OVERTURE - INNOCENCE BETRAYED

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An accentuated, whimsical voice is heard.

“This is but a story.

A story forever lost in the reaches of time, a story once known to all, now all but forgotten, a story that once was ours, and that even now we write anew.

Like all stories, it is a burden, and a blessing, to those who carry it; like all stories, it is destined to pass from word to word, from page to page, until at last it is heard no more. Like all stories, it has its seeds of truth, and its share of lies – and yet, like in all stories, that is not what truly matters.

What matters, in the end… is what you make of it.

But hark! Can you hear them? Those are the church bells as they tolled on the 20th of September, 1984. It is time for our story… to begin.”


Wygol Village, 1984


We can see a Gregorian church and its belfry, bells tolling, in the center of a village’s public square. It is nearly nighttime. Outside of the church, a large crowd has gathered around a few men attempting to break down its wooden doors with a metal post. Inside, a robed priest – unaffected by the commotion he hears behind him – recites scripture in front of a cross bearing an effigy of the Christ, dimly lit by a long row of candles. The church doors finally break open, yet the priest continues to recite until a wavering voice interrupts him:

“We know who you are. We know… your lot, what you did then, and what you would do to us now. This… darkness, those… things, they come from you, for you, with you… you… Belmont…”

The priest slowly turns around. An old man had spoken, a manic gleam in his eyes. From behind him, shoulders gripped by the man’s trembling fingers, a young boy shuffles forward, visibly terrified by a shotgun he uncomfortably holds with both hands. The crowd gathered outside enters the church at a deliberate pace, shadows cast high upon the church’s stone walls, and animated by the flickering light of the candles.

The priest speaks in a calm, authoritative voice: “You are welcome here – yet I would ask the meaning of this… display.” A flicker of concern passes through his eyes as he sees the old man urging the frightened child on. Slowly, but with a tinge of agitation: “Put it down, Matthew. It is not your place, and it is not your cause. What has transpired here, and what is set to happen, is not in our power to change…”

“Spare us the philosophy. You know it as well as us all… [To the child] End this now, boy. For your family. For your village. For this God-forsaken land that has suffered enough. For something, dammit, that you could even call a future!”

“Listen, Matthew. This is not…"

The priest doesn’t finish his sentence. A detonation is heard. Blood splatters on the cross. Fade to black as the Castlevania logo appears, the bloodstained cross replacing the “T”.



It is now nighttime. We follow a large mob, holding lit torches and armed with makeshift weaponry, as it converges upon an ornate Victorian house, built on the foot of a wide hill and flanked by the neighboring forest.

Near its back entrance, a Mother kneels by her son: “Don’t worry for me, Julius. These people… they are anxious, they are afraid; they need only to be comforted, to be reassured – to be spoken to. Everything will be all right – I promise. Now go, and don’t look back. I will come find you when it is all over.”

The son flees, running with all of his might across the hill and into the nearby forest, periodically stumbling in blind agitation. Panicked, and not daring to turn back, the boy reaches the forest’s entrance, yet while still running he steals a glance behind him – from the corner of his eye, he sees his house engulfed in flames. Letting out an inaudible scream, he trips on a nearby root, losing his consciousness in his fall.

As the scene fades, we can distinguish the faded silhouette of a man amongst the shadows; he appears to be checking a pocket watch. We can hear him utter: “This… was not supposed to happen,” before vanishing into the night.

When Julius wakes, it is morning. As he slowly stumbles towards the edge of the forest, he sees the charred remains of what used to be his home. Extenuated, he falls to his knees, and begins to cry.


The Wygol Ruins, 1999


The scene changes around Julius; the house’s burnt remains have disappeared. In their place, only a few scattered stones, overcome by vegetation, remain; in their center are nestled two crude gravestones. The surrounding buildings that once formed the outskirts of Wygol Village are now but a few ruined metal walls covered by layers of moss and shrubbery. The winding path that once cut through the area is periodically sunk under massive depressions and still-visible impact craters.

Two young men and a young woman, clad in emblazoned leather robes, emerge from the forest and walk towards a now older Julius; the woman puts her hand on his shoulder, and whispers wistfully: “Julius… it’s time to go.” He rises, nods, and follows them into the forest.

[Dracula9]

I'm not sure how to take this, the implications for satire are plentiful.

[X]

LOL, that spoiler was a humorous read 

[Intersection]

The thread's been updated.

I'm not sure how to take this, the implications for satire are plentiful.

Yeah, I'm sure they are, if you're talking about to the "Umbra of Sorrow" project... I expect the buzz for this project would've been dampened as a result. Still, my original "release date" for this was around early May, so I'm still not too far off.

LOL, that spoiler was a humorous read 

Heh, glad you liked it. It was kind of there to hide the fact that I had no idea what I was doing yesterday...

[X]

The land becomes infertile; nature grows restless as it warps, withers and dies; a lingering darkness falls as men grow fearful, cruel, and selfish; and none, not even the dead, can find peace. Under the strain of dwindling natural resources, those in power become greedy and belligerent; corruption runs rampant; authoritarian and expansionist ideologies are on the rise, and the shadow of war looms in the horizon.

After reading this my thoughts immediately went to Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. It's essentially the same scenario that happens after the events of CV III. Except on a much larger scale.

[Intersection]

After reading this my thoughts immediately went to Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. It's essentially the same scenario that happens after the events of CV III. Except on a much larger scale.

I did speak a lot about Dracula's Curse, so that's not a surprise. Still, Curse of Darkness was definitely one of my inspiration sources. In fact, there's a character from that game who'll be appearing here (you probably know who he is). He'll have a very interesting role to play, even though he won't be appearing very often.

Speaking of inspiration sources, Lords of Shadow was actually among them as well. I'll be building on many of the themes the game touched upon, although from a different angle and with some new perspectives. I've even taken the liberty of reworking and transposing one of the characters from the LoS universe into the classic timeline. He's actually one of my more successful character pieces, with a few Faustian overtones.

I think it's also worth noting that all of the more 'fantastical' elements in my narrative are intentionally borrowed from other Castlevania games, so that I won't have to stretch our imaginations any further than what the franchise has already done.
Like I said, I intend for this to be a very grounded scenario, revolving around a very small cast of characters, but delving far into their beliefs and motivations to create a very personal storyline.



Those were my teasers for today.    Keep in mind that the reason why I'm moving so slowly is not because I believe I'm writing some kind of a groundbreaking masterpiece, but because I really need, and value, feedback, and I find it's most effective when it comes right in the middle of my 'storytelling'.
So please, don't be shy, comment and tell me what you think! I spent quite a bit of time on this, and if I'm posting it now, it's not for my personal ego, but for all of you to enjoy.

My second main update, I think, should be coming around next week.

[Nagumo]

Good idea about how to handle the military aspect. It's actually more interesting than having some cliche, grand battle which like you said, doesn't really make sense in the context of the series. Also a smooth way to maintain the "secret history" theme of the series where only a couple of people know Dracula exists.

How are you going to handle the cast of characters? You said you want a small cast of characters, but I believe aside from Julius, characters that have been said to be involved and thus have to appear in some way are Alucard, a Belnades, and someone from the Hakuba family. Are you following IGA tradition and have them just occasionally show up for exposition or did you have something else in mind? 

[Intersection]

How are you going to handle the cast of characters? You said you want a small cast of characters, but I believe aside from Julius, characters that have been said to be involved and thus have to appear in some way are Alucard, a Belnades, and someone from the Hakuba family. Are you following IGA tradition and have them just occasionally show up for exposition or did you have something else in mind?

I've always believed that Alucard's story ended with SoTN. Symphony was one of the few Castlevania games to provide an ending that actually gave off some sense of finality: we get to witness an emotionally resonant exchange that's atypical for the series, and a sendoff that could very well have ended the franchise without feeling forced. SoTN gave Alucard's character arc a clear beginning and end, which is why I was never keen on seeing him reused in every game imaginable simply because he was considered to be a "fan favorite".
He was originally involved in the scenario, but now his segment is somewhere in limbo, since I'm not really sure what to do with it. That's chiefly because his presence isn't instrumental to this story at all, and if he does appear in a significant way, it will be as an antagonist, and I'm not sure how many people will be happy about that. So I'm putting off my decision for now, but let me know what you think.

The "priest of the Hakuba shrine" is part of a description in Dawn, iirc. And as for the whole "sealing off" part, I've got my own ideas about it, so I'm not too concerned about that. In the plot's current state, though, that happens partly behind the scenes, so if that's what you're asking, Julius never meets a member of the Hakuba family. Unless I play with names, of course, but I'm not that desperate yet.

I don't remember any game suggesting that the Belnades would be involved. Care to refresh my memory?
I could always induct my yet-unnamed secondary protagonist into the family, but if I can avoid it, I will.


More generally, though, I'm averse to throwing every existing character from a franchise into a game just for the sake of them being there, especially here. I'll be talking more about characters in detail in my next update, so stay tuned!

[Nagumo]

It's from the PoR bonus timeline. It says something like: "The Belmont family, the Belnades family, and Alucard become aware of Dracula's return" (something like that). I don't think any other material mentions it though, so it's easy to overlook.

[theplottwist]

I really like your vision of the war. Specially this bit:

I'm convinced that Aria's 'Demon Castle War' is more a thematic indication than it is a literal description. It's also probably the product of a less-than-perfect translation, to be understood in context and not really word-for-word

It doesn't need to be an all-out war with such a big scale. "War" can simply refer to the unending battle between Dracula and mankind that reached it's tipping point in 1999, or simply refer to the involvement of a unspecified military force.

In fact, I like everything what you put here until now. Very curious to see the rest.
Which reminds me that I must post Julius' origin on my own project :O

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

It's from the PoR bonus timeline. It says something like: "The Belmont family, the Belnades family, and Alucard become aware of Dracula's return" (something like that). I don't think any other material mentions it though, so it's easy to overlook.

Nagumo is right ^^^

I have to be honest and say I was kinda letdown by you openly saying Alucard role is not that important to the story.

My hope was that you where going to do the 1999 thing in a believable way as to what IGA had envisioned but I must say that if Alucard,the Belnades, and the Hakubo aren't going to have a fairly large role in this than the integrity of it is definitely going to suffer in my opinion since it was revealed that they played a crucial role during the War alongside Julius.

[Intersection]

By massive fan demand, then (well, massive... everything is relative), Alucard has been replaced into the story. 

The truth is, every character I introduce into my narrative is made to have an important role in it - I hate the concept of filler characters, and it's why I'm so stingy about my current cast. They all have their own story, their own motives, and their own part to play in the plot - and that's something that takes time to build.

When I say Alucard's role is not instrumental to the plot, however, it means that his involvement isn't integral to the themes I'm developing or the direction I want the story as a whole to take. And this goes for pretty much every character in this scenario that isn't Julius or Dracula (with one notable exception); their presence heavily contributes to the plot, but the plot doesn't revolve around them.

More generally, I'm sticking as close as I can to the guidelines IGA set for 1999, but otherwise this scenario is entirely mine. I'm not trying to guess what IGA would've done if he'd actually produced the game.

So if you're expecting Alucard, Julius, the Belnades, and the Hakubas to all come together to devise some ingenious plan to take down Dracula once and for all... Well, I'll have to disappoint you.
But if you're interested in what complex (and not necessarily one-sided) interactions these characters could have, then by all means stay tuned! I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.


Note: I've been pretty busy this week, and I hadn't prioritized updating this, so I'm sorry about the delay. I'll try to get it done by tomorrow night at the latest.

[KaZudra]

You could always do something creative, for example, Julius not really being the prophesied Belmont, but as the prophesied Belmont fails, Julius takes full swing.
It'll be interesting to twist the story a bit in the areas that aren't fully detailed, since we all pretty much know the scenario of the Demon Castle War

[Intersection]

And the update has come. Sorry to all for the delay: I got caught up in the Bloodstained hype.

You could always do something creative, for example, Julius not really being the prophesied Belmont, but as the prophesied Belmont fails, Julius takes full swing.

You're actually closer than you might think.


NOTE: For those of you wondering why the scenario is suddenly awash with new characters, it's worth noting that very few of them will be recurring, and that most of them will only appear as bosses.
I'll be adding a fully detailed character list once I get the next update in.

NOTE 2: Yes, the name I chose isn't very original by any stretch of the imagination, and it's composed of two already existing CV title fragments. In the end, I chose relevance over originality, since "Legacy of Sorrow" is actually pretty evocative of one of the themes I'll be developing in the plot. Besides, how much choice did I have over the "of Sorrow" part?

NOTE 3: Yes, this thread needs formatting. I'm working on it.