Topic: The "Era of no Belmont"

[Intersection]

You all know what happened: desperate to reunite Castlevania with its literary inspiration, Konami had chosen to name Bloodlines’ next whip-wielding hero ‘John Morris’, in honor of his famed father, Quincey Morris, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Yet by doing so Konami created one of Castlevania’s most glaring plot holes: what was a “Morris” doing in a world so dominated by the Belmont lineage? And why would this complete stranger be the inheritor of Leon’s legendary whip?

“Well, explained Konami, the Morris family actually has some vague ties with the Belmonts, that we don’t really care to specify.”
But then why, asked fans, didn’t the era’s actual Belmont use the whip? Why would he accept for its power to be delegated? Was it true, like some conspiracy theorists advanced, that the Belmont bloodline had finally died off?

Enter the prophecy: “Until 1999, no Belmont Shall Touch the Whip,” quoth Nostradamus, or some other foolish augur. Ergo, Shanoa, ergo Morris and Lecarde.
"But why, might again have asked Jonathan in a different life, why couldn't any Belmont use the whip? For what reason were humanity’s greatest champions barred from the weapon they so cherished?” Eric Lecarde, somber, would have turned his head and remained silent, for this answer yet remains a mystery...

And yet it is to you I now turn, loyal fans, to solve it once and for all.
Between Richter and Julius, what devilish device, what malignant curse had kept the Belmonts away? What happened during the "Era of no Belmont"?

[Pfil]

I always thought that it was just a last name change because some female Belmont girl got married with a male Morris, and that's how the lineage wasn't interrupted but the last name changed.

[jestercolony]

You all know what happened: desperate to reunite Castlevania with its literary inspiration, Konami had chosen to name Bloodlines’ next whip-wielding hero ‘John Morris’, in honor of his famed father, Quincey Morris, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Yet by doing so Konami created one of Castlevania’s most glaring plot holes: what was a “Morris” doing in a world so dominated by the Belmont lineage? And why would this complete stranger be the inheritor of Leon’s legendary whip?

“Well, explained Konami, the Morris family actually has some vague ties with the Belmonts, that we don’t really care to specify.”
But then why, asked fans, didn’t the era’s actual Belmont use the whip? Why would he accept for its power to be delegated? Was it true, like some conspiracy theorists advanced, that the Belmont bloodline had finally died off?

Enter the prophecy: “Until 1999, no Belmont Shall Touch the Whip,” quoth Nostradamus, or some other foolish augur. Ergo, Shanoa, ergo Morris and Lecarde.
"But why, might again have asked Jonathan in a different life, why couldn't any Belmont use the whip? For what reason were humanity’s greatest champions barred from the weapon they so cherished?” Eric Lecarde, somber, would have turned his head and remained silent, for this answer yet remains a mystery...

And yet it is to you I now turn, loyal fans, to solve it once and for all.
Between Richter and Julius, what devilish device, what malignant curse had kept the Belmonts away? What happened during the "Era of no Belmont"?

Allow me to elaborate. The reason why the Morris' family was chosen to heir the whip was due to the fact that Richter Belmont became tainted by evil and controlled by the dark priest Shaft (i.e SoTN.) This tainted the Belmont bloodline with darkness. As the story progresses with OoE, we begin to understand that Dracula's magic can be separated from him by the use of very special runes (known as Glyphs), we also begin to understand that the blood of a Belmont has a very interesting tie against Dracula. Eventually the events of Bloodlines took place, and then we find the events of PoR, in this we find out, again that Dracula's power can be separated from him and leave him a weakened state (hence the paintings)

Eventually these studies and concepts lay out the lines to the Demon Castle War and how it formulates on how they actually separated Dracula from the Demon Castle; and able to destroy him once and for all, while being able to seal his castle in to an Eclipse. Then of course the events of AoS and DoS play out. There is really no plot hole here, you just really need to be able to pay attention to the following games for it to make sense

 - SoTN
 - OoE
 - PoR
 - AoS
 - DOS

[Lelygax]

Allow me to elaborate. The reason why the Morris' family was chosen to heir the whip was due to the fact that Richter Belmont became tainted by evil and controlled by the dark priest Shaft (i.e SoTN.) This tainted the Belmont bloodline with darkness.

I think this part is wrong, Soleiyu says hello.

[jestercolony]

I think this part is wrong, Soleiyu says hello.

Hah! I forgot about that one!

[KaZudra]

Reinhardt Schneider was originally intended to be a Belmont, but changed to a distant relative, for awhile these game weren't canon until CoTM...
Ironically, John Morris had no ties to the Belmont family until PoR, which was unnecessary because Nathan Graves can wield the VK without any blood ties to Belmonts.

In reality: IGA took advantage of the situation and made the non-Belmont era, for awhile it was interesting until the constant phoning in on the 1999 thing...

In Games: Somehow Ritcher cursed the Bloodline from using the Whip in SoTN, thus Creating the Era.

It would have made more sense if the Vampire Killer was exhausted of its power either by Richter outputting so much power or by that concentrated era of resurrections, or something else that makes more sense....

[TheouAegis]

I think it was just a girl got married. That's the most plausible and doesn't require any metaphysical hokey malarkey to explain. Madame Belmond was wed to Monsieur Morris and the bloodline was kept strong giggity.

[DragonSlayr81]

I always tend to believe whatever happened with Richter, it happened after SotN. That's just my belief. My concept(idea based on fanfiction) is that Dracula's minions want to prevent a Belmont from wielding the VK for a century or two(close to two centuries, if this occurs late 18th century/early 19th century), so that there will be no one of that caliber around when Dracula eventually is resurrected(until 1999). Of course, they don't know about the Morris clan. It would've been an interesting follow up, or perhaps a TRUE sequel to SotN. Richter was 19 in 1792, 24 in 1797, meaning he was in his late 20s-early 30s in the early 1800s.

I remember tha old Japanese family tree of the Belmonts(came out around LoI or CoD) that said the Morris clan branched out of the Belmont lineage after Trevor, but before Christopher(meaning they only have Leon and Trevor's blood in them, but aren't descended from Christopher(and Soleiyou), Simon, Juste and Richter. You can use that to somewhat justify why they aren't as strong(if with each generation, the vampire hunters grow stronger, and each generation are basically trained as vampire hunters). Maybe, within all that time, the Morris clan moved away and for generations, unlike the Belmonts, who kept active as vampire hunters, the Morris clan lived a peaceful existence away from all that. They eventually are brought back into the clan's business because they hold the blood of Leon, but lack the skill that comes with generation after generation of fighting evil.

[Lelygax]

Ironically, John Morris had no ties to the Belmont family until PoR, which was unnecessary because Nathan Graves can wield the VK without any blood ties to Belmonts.

No, its named Hunter Whip in CotM.

I always tend to believe whatever happened with Richter, it happened after SotN. That's just my belief.

Its shown in Radio Drama that Richter is doing well and using the whip without problems after SotN, so it must be something else other than this brainwash thing.

[X]

I think the most unconfused explanation as to why the Morris clan had the whip and not the Belmonts was due to the developers of CV: Bloodines. They wanted to fit Bram Stoker's Dracula into the CV universe and did so by making bloodlines. And since Quincy Morris was the one to deliver the fatal blow to Dracula they made him into a belmont by blood relation. They stated that the Morris clan were decedents of the house of Belmont. Not directly descended though. As to why they ended up with the whip was not mentioned until many games later, and not in full detail either; It's all guesswork at this point. All we have is the '1999 battle' which is mentioned throughout the latter half of the series in bits and pieces. If there ever was to be a 1999 Demon Castle War, then we might have a full-on explanation about the Belmonts being unable to wield the vampirekiller, and other things that manages to tie everything else together. But IGA has been very reluctant about it and instead, made other CV games that only added to the confusion rather then outright explaining things clearly. Personally if I were him, the 1999 game would have been done after it was mentioned in AoS. Nobody back then had any real expectations of what it was to be like. His problem was that he waited too long and generated all this hype; essentially creating a monster that's too big for him to tackle now. Even more-so since he's no longer producing CV games.

[Reinhart77]

One of my theories involves memory loss.  The Belmont remnants in Order of Ecclesia forgot about their monster hunting past.  Julius forgot he was a Belmont before Aria of Sorrow, why not before the Battle of 1999 as well?  I also suspect it might have been an intentional memory loss, perhaps figuring that the only way the family could follow the rules of that prophesy and "never touch the whip" until 1999 (why, I don't have any theories on) would be to forget who they were.  It is also "nice" that after so many centuries, the Belmonts "get a break" and let someone else do the heavy lifting, while they live out their lives in obscurity for a while. 

[Lelygax]

That makes a LOT of sense to me, they even hint at it using a "Whip Memory" in PoR. What if its not a common trait of the whip, but truly Richter combat memories and will to fight in it? If that is right, maybe a Lecard or even Alucard is needed to lock and unlock a Belmont memory.

[Pfil]

I think it was just a girl got married. That's the most plausible and doesn't require any metaphysical hokey malarkey to explain. Madame Belmond was wed to Monsieur Morris and the bloodline was kept strong giggity.

That's exactly my point, we don't need more explanations than just that simple fact.

[Inccubus]

I think they were pretty clear about what the Whip's Memory is. Like the description says it's nothing more than a manifestation of the whip's memory of it's last wielder. Now the fact that both John and possibly Quincy used the whip before Jonathan infers that the last wielder means the last Belmont wielder. This is further evidenced by the need of a ritual for Jonathan to be able to use the whip at any measure of it's full potential without it outright killing him.

At any rate the only things we know for sure is that SOMETHING happened after SotN that causes the the situation. Anything else is no more theory and conjecture.

[Pfil]

That's a perfect opportunity to have a game explaining that.
What are you waiting, stupid lazy Konami?