Topic: I was bored, so I made this timeline.

[Nagumo]

One of my weird quirks is that I like to know how exactly each Castlevania game relates to the next. It's kind off a guilty pleasure of mine. I already mentiond this before, but a few months ago I got IGA to answer a few questions for me. I asked him about the canonity about a whole bunch of games and he told me these games (which were not included in his timeline) took place in alternate timelines (like how the Zelda timeline has three alternate timelines that run parallel to each other). Inspired by his answer and the Zelda timeline, I decided to come up with ideas how all those gaidens (which is the term used for those kind of stories) could relate to the "main timeline". The timeline below is a combination of those ideas. First I would like to explain a few basic principles I used while making it:

• All games that are not listed on the offical timeline (with the exception of Legends and Lords of Shadow) are gaiden according to IGA. 
  
• I've constructed the timeline in such a way that there is only one point where alternate timelines start branching off because I thought it would more cleaner than having a seperate branch for each gaiden.
• There are a few games that are "retellings" of other games. These games have mostly the same story as the original game but are completely different design wise. IGA said that the original game always takes precedence so all retellings are gaiden. The only exception, he said, is Castlevania Chronicles which has the same canonity as the original Castlevania. Therefore, I've listed games like Castlevania IV, Haunted Castle etc as seperate adventures on different branches of the timeline.
• If two games on different timeline branches are listed at about the same height, it means that they roughly they place around the same time. For example, Castlevania: The Arcade takes place around the same time as the original Castlevania.
• I've included three Japanese exclusive CV books which most of you probably don't know anything about. You can read more about them at Mr P's site. Roughly translated they are called: Legend of Demon Castle - The Vampire Hunters, Nightmare of Blood and Battle of the Old Castle.
• Most of these timeline placements have no real factual basis and are just based on my ideas. The only exceptions are the Pachislot games and Adventure Rebirth which are gaiden sequels to Castlevania III.

             
                   
Timeline:


                                                      Castlevania: Lament of Innocence   
                                                                        |
                                                                        |
                                                                 Castlevania III 
             ^                              ^                        |                         ^                             ^   
             |                               |                         |                         |                              |   
       Pachislot 1/2                     |                    Castlevania:               |                               |
             |                               |                Curse of Darkness            |                               |
             |                               |                         |                         |                               |
             |                               |                         |                         |                               |
             |                               |                         |                         |                               |
             |                               |                         |                         |                               |
Legend of Demon Castle:            |                   Castlevania:          Castlevania:                 Castlevania:     
 The Vampire Hunters                 |                 The Adventure        The Adventure            The Belmont Legacy
             |                               |                         |                      Rebirth                          |
             |                               |                   Castlevania II:             |                               |
             |                               |                 Belmont's Revenge          |                               |
     Castlevania:                        |                         |                         |                               |
  Order of Shadows                    |                         |                         |                               |
             |                               |                         |                         |                               |
             |                               |                         |                         |                               |
     Castlevania:                     Super                Castlevania            Vampire Killer                Haunted Castle
     The Arcade                 Castlevania IV          (Chronicles)                |                               |
                                             |                         |                         |                               |
                                             |                         |                         |                               |
                                             |                     Castlevania:              |                               |
                                             |            Harmony of Dissonance         |                               | 
                                             |                         |                         |                               |
                                             |                         |                         |                               |
                                             |                     Castlevania:              |                            Castlevania: Dracula X
                                             |                    Rondo of Blood            |                               |
                                             |                         |                         |                               |
                                             |                     Castlevania:              |                               |
                                             |               Symphony of the Night      |                               |
                                             |                         |                         |                             Castlevania:
                                             |                         |                         |                         Legacy of Darkness
                                             |                     Castlevania:              |                                |
                                             |                  Order of Ecclesia           |                             Castlevania 64
                                             |                         |                         |
                                    Nightmare of Blood       Quincy Morris            |
                                                                      event                    |
                                                                        |                        |                             
                                                                    Castlevania:             |
                                                                      Bloodlines               |
                                                                        |                        |   
                                                                     Castlevania:         Battle of the 
                                                                    Portrait of Ruin         Old Castle           
                                                                        |
                                                              (rest of the timeline)   
I will explain later why I decided to place a specific game together in a timeline branch with certain other games. If you got a question about my timeline, just ask away. 

For the sake of discussion, what you think about having a timeline like this? Would you like it? How would you place all the games in relation to each other? etc.   

[Thomas Belmont]

You forgot Simon's Quest.

[Maedhros]

You forgot Simon's Quest.

No, he didn't.

[X]

I'm not seeing Simon's Quest either. Also I'm not seeing CV: Legends as well as CotM.

[Danial]

You've created an interesting timeline, but I'm not sure I understand your reasoning as to why certain stories are on the same track as others.

Aside from the Lords of Shadow series, there's really very little contradiction between the games.  I always saw multiple versions of the same game, like the original CV or Dracula X, as no different than villagers retelling a story.  Things may end up being altered or exaggerated, but the core of the story is there and it always ends the same way.  And when it comes to games like CotM or Legends, even Iga seems to be loosening his embargo against them.

[Maedhros]

Woops, tought Belmont's Revenge was Simon's Quest. Forgot about the GB title. My bad.

[Nagumo]

You forgot Simon's Quest.

Yes, I forgot Simon's Quest. Just imagine it's there between CV1 and HoD.

Also I'm not seeing CV: Legends as well as CotM.

It appears I didn't explain myself very well. Sorry about that. IGA told me CV: Legends was a "story from another world" which means it takes place in a completely different universe then the rest of the series. Other games like CV64, CotM etc are "gaiden" and he makes a distinction between that and "story from another world". So gaidens games still take place in the world of IGA's timeline, albeit as an alternate timeline, while Legends is a completely different world altogether.           

As for CotM, I decided to leave that one out for now because I'm not sure how Nathan's story would relate to that of the Belmonts. He is from a completely different family, uses a different whip etc.   

You've created an interesting timeline, but I'm not sure I understand your reasoning as to why certain stories are on the same track as others.

Thank you for thinking my timeline is interesting. As for why which games are together on the same track, I was going to explain that. 

I'll start with the left most branch.

• It starts out with the Pachislot games. I wasn't sure if these Pachislots even had stories at all, but according to the developer's blog of Pachislot III, they are gaiden sequels that run parallel to Curse of Darkness. Trevor is the hero again however, and not Hector. Pachislot I and II are the same story while III adapts Castlevania 3.

• The story that follows is told in a gamebook called "Legend of Demon Castle: The Vampire Hunters". It's an sequel to CV3 that deals with the descendants of Trevor, Sypha, Grant and Alucard defeating Dracula again. This story was ignored by IGA's timeline so I included it on this branch instead. 
  
  Oddly enough, it appears Trevor never married Sypha according to this story because Trevor's descendant, Sid, and Sypha's, are not said to be related at all and have the surname Belmont and Belnades respectively. Therefore, in order to be consistent, I decided that this story would fit pretty nicely with the Pachislots, and I came up with the idea that in this timeline, Trevor marries Angela (who is a character in the Pachislots) instead of Sypha, and that she marries somebody else too. As a result, a completely different line of Belmonts comes into existence, and characters like Simon, Christopher etc are never born in this timeline.
  
  Also, I mentioned Alucard has a descendant in the book, so in this timeline, Alucard decided not to seal himself away.

 

• Next up is Order of Shadows. IGA said this game was gaiden too, and I thought this timeline is where it fits best. I decided not to put in any of the other branches, because I thought its story would conflict with Simon's otherwise. That's because the manual stories of Simon's various adventures tend to mention the last time Dracula was defeated was 100 years ago. Order of Shadows being set in the 1600's, wouldn't fit in very well.
  
  Desmond also inherited his fabulous hair from Sid.

• The last story in this branch is CV: The Arcade. I really wanted to include this story somewhere and I thought it worked very well in this spot. The story is very vague, but despite not outright stating so, it seems to imply Dracula resurrects again after 100 years. You also don't really know anything about the main character, Vampire Hunter, but for the sake of this timeline I'm assuming he is a descendant of Desmond.
  
  At the end of this story, the Little Witch character absorbs Dracula's powers, and becomes the new Demon Queen. I thought that would put an nice end to the "Dracula saga" of this branch of the timeline.

Anyway, I'll stop for now because this is getting quite lengthy. 

[X]

It appears I didn't explain myself very well. Sorry about that. IGA told me CV: Legends was a "story from another world" which means it takes place in a completely different universe then the rest of the series.

Last time I checked 'another world' and 'alternate realities' are in essence the same thing. Both still happen on Earth even if the stories are different. So by this reasoning IGA doesn't really know what he's saying.

[Nagumo]

Are you familiar with the tv-series "Awake", X? It's about a policeman who gets into a car crash with his wife and son. From the moment of the incident two timelines come into existence: one where his wife dies and one where his son dies. He experiences both of these timelines and they are both just as real. This is what a gaiden/alternate timeline is in this case. What IGA meant with "story from another world" is that Legends is like Lords of Shadow, it takes place in a parallel world, it mirrors IGA's world in some cases but also differs from it in substantial ways. Essentially what Termina from the Legend of Zelda series is to Hyrule, except in Castlevania's case, both worlds are called Earth.

[Sumac]

Personally I see this "timeline" as quite confusing.
As for me I see remakes as different interpretation of the same event by villagers (as someone sad before). Though, I made the story (consider it a fanfic) that explained why Simon has five different appearances and five different versions of the same adventure.

Nightmare of Blood

Wouldn't you mind to tell what is this?

My personal CV timeline is close to the official thing - it discards all Pachislots and Arcade. CVL, CV64, LOD and COTM are different timeline (universe) all together. And remakes doesn't count (i.e. there is only one version of each event, like CV1 is true story and the rest are glorified retellings).

Last time I checked 'another world' and 'alternate realities' are in essence the same thing.

If I understood it right, then "different timeline" happens in the same reality as "normal timeline".
For example some Mike Random goes on the left on the road, but somehow he manages to go right at the same time. So we have two Mike Randoms co-existing in the same universe, but they kind of disconnected from each other, each living in their own version of reality. In a sense it is a different universe, but not.
Confusing concept. 

[Nagumo]

Nightmare of Blood is a Japanese Castlevania novel published by Aspect in 1994. The full (awkward) title is Demon Castle Dracula: Blood of the Demon - Nightmare of Blood. It's rather creative with its source material. Simon Belmont is actually in this novel and he is basically turned into Alucard. He is revived as a Dhampir about 200 years after he killed Dracula. Dracula himself returns as well, by possessing Simon's best friend.

Regarding "remakes", just to be clear, the part about them being in alternate timelines is not fanfiction. I can back that up with evidence:

Regarding Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Dracula X, though Dracula X was created as a port of Rondo of Blood, it does not reflect the intentions of the Rondo of Blood staff at all. For myself, I give priority to the intent of the original creators and treat Dracula X as a separate continuity.

Because Castlevania: the Adventure Rebirth is more a completely new game than a remake, I think it is best to treat is as a separate continuity.

Regarding the Famicom version and the X68000 version, the X68000 version is an arrangment based on the Famicon version. The arrangement of a game is the kind of thing where you add a lot of different things as needed, so honestly speaking, it think they both should be considered legitimate.

Personally, these remakes always bothered me and I considered the explanation that they were different versions of the same story a bit of a cop-out. So I definitely like this alternate timeline explanation better. In my opinion, it's the least confusing explanation. 

[Sumac]

Nightmare of Blood is a Japanese Castlevania novel published by Aspect in 1994. The full (awkward) title is Demon Castle Dracula: Blood of the Demon - Nightmare of Blood.

Does this story have any relation to the canon? Or was it completely discarded?

Personally I find interpretation of "remakes" being (rumor based in-universe) retellings of the same story much simplier rather the whole "fest of alternate timelines". IGA's approach makes the Castlevania universe incredibly bloated with different contiunities. If every remake have its own timeline...what it would be...10+ CV timelines?!

IGA is certainly not so great storyteller. I mean it is easy to say that the game is in different timeline, but with amount of stuff that could be regarded in CV'verse as "alternate timeline" (at least 1/3 of the series) it opens a very big barrel of fat worms. And still it doesn't help to indicate what is a "true version" of the story in main timeline.

[Nagumo]

Does this story have any relation to the canon? Or was it completely discarded?

No, it was completely ignored.

Personally I find interpretation of "remakes" being (rumor based in-universe) retellings of the same story much simplier rather the whole "fest of alternate timelines". IGA's approach makes the Castlevania universe incredibly bloated with different contiunities. If every remake have its own timeline...what it would be...10+ CV timelines?!

Well, there are four versions of Simon's adventure (if you count the original and X68000 as the same event), so at the very least, there would be four timelines. I came up with five because there were a couple of games I didn't want to shoehorn into the other ones. That's of course, not assuming each retelling has its own timeline (which would indeed be a bit ridiculous) and that they can share a continuity with other retellings. For example, I came up with the idea that Vampire Killer follows up on Rebirth etc.

IGA is certainly not so great storyteller. I mean it is easy to say that the game is in different timeline, but with amount of stuff that could be regarded in CV'verse as "alternate timeline" (at least 1/3 of the series) it opens a very big barrel of fat worms. And still it doesn't help to indicate what is a "true version" of the story in main timeline.

I don't really think that's really IGA's fault, but rather the result of the developers doing whatever they wanted back then, and they are still doing that now.

As for what is the "true version", that's pretty easy. It's always the original version. And in case of Simon's adventure, it's the original and the "rearrangement" of the original.     

[Sumac]

I don't really think that's really IGA's fault, but rather the result of the developers doing whatever they wanted back then, and they are still doing that now.

I am agree with that, but I still think that he shouldn't try to explain purely marketing decisions "in-story". It's useless and creates more mess than it clear.

[Nagumo]

That depends on what we're talking about has to do with "marketing" or was original intent all along. All Castlevania games so far except maybe Legends are not in continuity with IGA's timeline because that was original intent. I can easily imagine that being the case with the "remakes" too.

For example, do you know about that Gamecenter CX interview with IGA where he states the X in the Japanese title for Sypmphony of the Night means gaiden (spin-off)? There is a theory (not mine) that the extra X in the title of Dracula XX for the SNES means gaiden too. So the title would be read as "Dracula X gaiden".