Topic: The Headcanon Thread

[Gaawa-chan]

Mathias Cronqvist: Mathias is not Dracula. Instead Mathias disappears at the end of LoI and reappears much later on as King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.

Did you come up with that yourself or did I inspire you? 

In my head-canon, Mathias is indeed Dracula, however... it's a little convoluted.  Irl, the real Vlad was imprisoned for some time by Matthias Corvinus.  Head-canon says that this is Cronqvist, and that Matthias had at this point lost interest in ruling Hungary for whatever reason (gonna go with the idea that he discovered the reincarnation of Elisabetha in Wallachia and nothing else mattered after that), and so he ensorcelled Vlad and outright swapped places with him years before the irl date of Vlad's imprisonment.  Corvinus remained his puppet for some time, and the 'imprisonment' was not truly an imprisonment at all; in fact, Dracula was still in Wallachia building up a vast force to attack humanity because at this point Lisa had been murdered.

Irl, Vlad had three children.  He had one child with his first wife (Mihnea the Evil One) and two with Ilona Szilagyi, cousin of Corvinus; one of those was Vlad IV, and the other was an unknown child who supposedly died very young.  Since Lisa is the first wife in my head-canon, that means a little more history re-writing is in order.  Alucard is the oldest child, but he was outright written out of history, all details about him lost to those outside the vampire-hunting circle, and of course many of the baddies know at least a little about him.  In fact it is because of what happened to Lisa that the facts became so skewed; the people who murdered Dracula's wife trying to erase any hand they had in rousing the wrath of Dracula.  It helps that we can infer that Alucard more or less went into total seclusion after what happened; it would be easy to argue that Dracula's son was dead if he was never seen about.  So Alucard in history became a younger son that died of illness, in order to hide the wrongs that humans had committed against Dracula's family in an attempt to make him unsympathetic.

As for the two other sons, Ilona and Vlad had a marriage of convenience irl.  So I've turned her into a demon because I'm mean.  In my head-canon Dracula has two younger, half-demon half-vampire children: Mihnea the Evil One and Vlad IV.  Mihnea made attempts at continuing his father's war against humanity, and was assassinated by vampire hunters of your choice under orders from the church in Sibiu.

As for Vlad IV, there's not much to work with historically.  I'm gonna say Mihnea killed him.

Nocturne of Recollection: I believe Alucard and Lyudmil had some sort of relationship greater than a master and a servant. Alucard and Maria would not have children (due to Allie being so afraid of passing his bloodline), but there is a possibility of adoption.

I second this, particularly the latter bit.  Alucard, imo, has never passed on his genes, believing his bloodline to be cursed.  However, it's obvious that the Lecardes have some sort of connection to him and to Maria- I mean, come on... >_> - so the Lecardes are actually the descendents of their adopted child(ren) which also explains the wonky surname.



There's a ton more to my head-canon but I've got to work... er... later today and I haven't slept yet, so... another time.


EDIT: Zomg, how could I have forgotten my time-line head-canon notes?!  Hang on a sec; sorry for the double-post I'm about to make.

[Gaawa-chan]

So these are some random notes I've jotted down; I've never put them together coherently.  I should really do that...

(click to show/hide)

Official time-line notes (excerpts):
12th-14th centuries: According to some dates given, Alucard was born in 1397 but this does not make any sense as I'll explain in a second.

    15th century: Lisa, Dracula's second wife (presumably the reincarnation of his first, Elisabetha), was condemned to death by Inquisition and burned at the stake in front of her son, Alucard. Dracula's grief and hatred was profound. He blamed this on all of humanity, and hated humans.
In 1476, his war with the humans and the Belmonts began.
Here's where the dates get a bit weird. Konami places Lisa's death in 1470. However, SotN's manual places Alucard's birth around 1397. Assuming that Lisa would have been in teens when Alucard was born, placing her own birth round about 1380; since her natural life would probably end around 1450, it seems likely that her execution took place some time between 1400 and 1450. But it gets even weirder than that because Lisa looked young when she died- in her 30's, perhaps. AND Castlevania Judgment places her death at 1475, a year before Castlevania III, BUT Lyudmil comes to Alucard some time (perhaps years) after Lisa's death and says "I'll be 22 this year.  I am merely a few years older than you."  This would mean that Alucard is at most TWENTY when he fights his father.
SotN's manual also stated Dracula's age to be approximately 800, placing his birth around 997, while Mathias Cronqvist (being 32 in 1094) was born in 1062.
Assuming an error of at most 65 years either way in both cases, Alucard's birth could have taken place any time between 1332 and 1462; this is very interesting because the REAL Dracula, Vlad... his first son was born in 1462.
Considering that Alucard was old enough to remember his mother's last words, he would probably have been no younger than 5 at the time of Lisa's execution (although dhampirs may learn at an accelerated rate), placing Lisa's death any time between 1337 and 1467.
We can assume that all of the characters were born later than they were stated to be but that Lisa died before she was stated to in Judgment; this also makes sense if you know the irl history of Vlad.
Basically, if you're trying to set up a time-line, just pick what you want. I've written my own interpretation. >_>

    1450: (non-canon) Sonia Belmont takes up the Vampire Killer whip and swears to avenge her grandfather after he is killed by Dracula's minions. (this makes no sense, as Dracula did not start killing the crap out of humans yet, not even in real life >_>) During her search, she meets and forms a strong bond with her enemy's son, Alucard. (Alucard was still with one or both of his parents at this time) After vanquishing the Count, Sonia vows that if Dracula returns after her lifetime, others will take her place and defeat him. (The game's creators intended Sonia to be the first Belmont to battle and defeat Dracula.) It's implied that she has Alucard's child (... this makes no sense at all... >_>)

    About 1470-1471: Carmilla and other children of the night cause darkness in humans hearts to launch the great witch trials. Many of Sypha Belnades' fellow sisters are killed in the events. Later, Sypha Belnades becomes a hunter for the Church.

    1476: (Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse) Dracula's war with humanity. The Belmont clan had been feared for their supernatural powers and exiled from Transylvania, but with the impending danger on his hometown of Wallachia, Trevor Belmont answers the call to duty. Picking up the Vampire Killer whip bestowed to him by the Poltergeist King (this may be Pumpkin... perhaps Leon had Pumpkin hold the Vampire Killer until Mathias was finally located? Hmm), Trevor goes to battle, meeting up with three companions along the way- Grant DaNasty, Sypha Belnades, and Alucard, the dhampir son of Dracula.
Grant's clan was wiped out, courtesy of Dracula (the 'Danesti' clan was a TRUE family in opposition to Dracula, and he hunted them as soon as he came to power) and he was turned into a monster.  Sypha was ordered to attack Dracula, and when she tried she was turned into a statue but Trevor frees her; I can't decide whether or not he knew immediately that Sypha was female.
Because Trevor was the first person to ever destroy Dracula, the Belmonts were welcome again in Wallachia. Sypha and Trevor fall in love (to Grant's dismay) and have children. The magic power of the Belnades is inherited by future Belmonts (Juste Belmont, for example).

    1479: (Curse of Darkness) Hector and Julia presumably get together after the game ends; he comments upon first meeting her that she looks like his wife.  Julia and Hector decide to create a safe-haven for people like Hector; people who have left the path of darkness.  This organization is not mentioned again but some people suppose that it is the organization that Genya and 'his associates' who guarded Mina in Dawn of Sorrow belong to.



Incomplete head-canon notes:
Lisa was of noble lineage but her family had been wiped out by sickness. She lived by the waters in the woods near Cordova. Lisa became the closest thing to a doctor most locals could turn to. Upon crossing her path Dracula recognized her as the reincarnation of Elisabetha Cronqvist, and as they had almost 350 years prior, they fell in love and married.  Lisa gave birth to Adrian.  When Adrian was still young, Cordova was struck by the plague.  Lisa's attempts to save the villagers saw her tried and killed as a witch despite the protests of Lyudmil, whose family had been saved by her work and would be subsequently executed for their associations; young Adrian was forced to bear witness to his mother's final words pleading him to show mercy to humans and her burning.  The villagers promised him a similar fate for his lineage, but Adrian escaped. Lyudmil was branded a traitor and forced to flee.  He sought out Adrian, who had made his way to his father's side, and became Adrian's dear servant in Castlevania.
Beneath Castlevania runs a tributary, called Râul Doamnei (the "Lady's River", the Princess' River).  This is for Lisa; the river feeds into the waters of the woods and town she lived and died therein.

During the Dănești clan Vladislav II's rule, Dracula ensorcelled the true Vlad III in order to take advantage of his nobility. In 1456, he took up the rule Vlad had lost, allied with the King of Hungary (Matthias Corvinus, who is actually a servant of Dracula in disguise because before he found Lisa in Wallichia, Dracula WAS Corvinus and he abandoned that position in favor of pursuing her), and had many leading nobles enslaved and slaughtered, giving positions to persons of obscure origins who would be loyal to him (guess what they were). He had two armies, the second being a lesser peasant army. Dracula built a church at Târgșor allegedly in the memory of his false father and older brother who were killed nearby to keep up appearances that he was Vlad III. The Vlad line was against the rival Dănești clan, and they caused trouble for Dracula so he wiped them out, raiding Transylvania for them.

Upon Leon Belmont's questionable victory against the vampire infestation in England in 1094, Matthias Cronqvist found himself bereft of Eternal Night, Bernhard's living castle.  The alchemical construct, having been warped by Bernhard's magic, could not maintain form when its master's soul was taken.  After Lisa's death, Dracula had the castle reconstructed using enslaved nobles to breathe life back into the broken stone with their suffering as the basis of the binding magic.  Thus Castlevania arose, a mighty creature of chaotic magic that reformed at its master's behest. None survived the construction; the slaves that did not die during construction were given to the castle.

When Lyudmil returned to Cordova he found it blighted, and was set upon by a demon.  Through the demon's magics, Adrian tainted Lyudmil with vampirism in order to save him, and having found his taste for blood, he returned to his father's side.  With his newly acquired power, Dracula let loose his wrath upon Cordova and cursed it.

Dracula instigated war against the Turks and killed tens of thousands of people. Dracula's forces were eventually defeated because his nobles had been alienated by his policies of impalement. He traveled to Hungary and struck a deal with Corvinus, the king. Corvinus had spent money given by the Pope for battle against Turks on other things, and now needed a scapegoat. Dracula had Corvinus place the blame on him, and imprison a doppleganger of Dracula for high treason using false documents claiming Dracula had pledged allegiance to the Turks.  Corvinus took great pains to malign 'Vlad's' reputation, and this would work in the vampire's favor, garnering him much support amongst the followers of darkness.
The false confinement lasted twelve years and during that time, being actually free, Dracula solidified his position as a lord of darkness, wreaking havoc wherever he pleased, a blight that none save his evil allies could identify.

Dracula took a second wife at this time, Ilona.  Ilona bore Mihnea the Evil, who sought to follow in his father's footsteps but was forced to flee Wallachia. He was killed by assassin Dimitrije Iaxici, a Serbian partisan of the Craiovescu faction.  The second, Vlad IV, was unable to lay claim to his father's reign at all.  Dracula cared for neither his wife nor his younger children.

It was at this time that Adrian fled his father's side, his eyes opened to his father's evil and his own wrongdoing.  He fled Castlevania and took up arms against his father, abandoning his given name.  That name, and his origins, would be lost to the obscurity of time, but Alucard would become a legend amongst those who fought in the millenia-long war against the lord of darkness.

On 26 November 1476, Dracula declared his new reign, revealing himself as the shadow that had long haunted the land. He invaded Wallachia.  However, his rule ended when Trevor Belmont took up the Vampire Killer bequeathed to him and, alongside Alucard, Sypha Belnades, and the last of the Dănești clan, Grant, who would go on to repair much of the damage done to Wallachia.

...

My thoughts are somewhat nebulous and I can't quite decide how I like the Dracula-Vlad-Corvinus thing to be so it comes out differently almost every time I write it down. XD

Anyway, that's as far as I got with trying to lay down my head-canon thoughts.

[chainsawmidget]

Grant is dead.  While you can fight his monster form and restore sense to the guy, you can't change the fact that Dracula killed him and its his spirit that's accompanying Trevor.

Many people have heard about "The Wizard Belnades," who lives somewhere out in the dark forest.  Some say he's evil, some say he's a force of good, Almost all would agree that he's immortal.  They would be wrong.  "The Wizard" is actually part of a family that's been practicing magic for generations and the people of Transylvania have simply assured it's the same person.  Sypha is the last of her family.  In order to keep up appearances, she wears a heavy cloak to hide her features and uses a minor disguise spell to make her appear as an old man when she has t interact with others. 

Alucard's hair and skin ahve gone white because he hasn't been drinking his blood.  Yeah, the albino look is because he's malnourished.  Back in 3 when he was still reluctantly working for Dracula he was more willing to drink the blood of others so he appeared younger and healthier.  Dracula sometimes appears like this as well shortly after he's been resurrected because he hasn't had time to feat and fully regain his appearance. 

[X]

Did you come up with that yourself or did I inspire you? 

Naw. I had heard about this theory on the internet for quite some time now. And to me it's a lot easier to accept then IGA's explanation for Dracula. The Word 'Dracula' is nothing more then a title which comes from 'Dracul'; a Romania title, and I don't think IGA knew this. Did Mathias have a father called Dracul? I highly doubt it and we know absolutely nothing about him. So in hindsight Mathias can't be Dracula because there was no one who came before him with the title of Dracul. And Mathias is not a member of the order of the Dragon (order of the Dracul). Both he and Leon were from France if I'm not mistaken and the French church authorities don't have an order of the Dragon. It is strictly Romanian.

I suppose I should have put this in my first post, lol.

[crisis]

Just some food for thought:

[Nagumo]

What gives you the idea Leon and Mathias are from France? If they were, the whole bit from CV3 about the Belmonts being exiled from their homeland wouldn't make any sense.

The Order of the Dragon doesn't exist in the CV-verse since Vlad II and III don't either. Dracul also means 'devil', so the name Dracula still makes sense in context with the games.

[Ahasverus]

Pfff ALL of the Dracula theories here are better than IGA's Pussyas=Dracula

The Order of the Dragon doesn't exist in the CV-verse since Vlad II and III don't either. Dracul also means 'devil', so the name Dracula still makes sense in context with the games.

No it doesn't. IGA thinks Dracula = Devil and that's not true.

[crisis]

Dracula means son of the Dragon, but when people typically see the name Dracula, they associate it with an evil being/vampire. So IGA isn't necessarily wrong in saying that.

[Ahasverus]

Dracula means son of the Dragon, but when people typically see the name Dracula, they associate it with an evil being/vampire. So IGA isn't necessarily wrong in saying that.

Yeah I think the interpretation is not supposed to be semantic.

[X]

What gives you the idea Leon and Mathias are from France? If they were, the whole bit from CV3 about the Belmonts being exiled from their homeland wouldn't make any sense.

The name 'Belmont' is french apparently. It translates to "beautiful mountain". I've also looked up the title of Baron in different European countries and Romania does not appear on the list. Leon, during the LoI intro story is wearing French nobleman's outfit. Also isn't Walter Burnard's Castle situated in France somewhere? In terms of the CV 3 connection, Romainia is home to the Belmonts of that period in history, but that doesn't mean that they did not dwell in another land in the past. We know not of Mathias' home country as it is not mentioned so I'm guessing with him on this.

The Order of the Dragon doesn't exist in the CV-verse since Vlad II and III don't either. Dracul also means 'devil', so the name Dracula still makes sense in context with the games.

The title's 'Dracul' (The Dragon) and 'Dracula' (Son of the Dragon) have nothing to do with the Devil. That was entirely a church thing. They no not of the old ways and knowledge of spirituality. Dragons are not evil to begin with and are historically linked with the serpent or snake (a world renowned, ancient deity of fertility and creation).

[Nagumo]

No it doesn't. IGA thinks Dracula = Devil and that's not true.

He's partially correct. Putting 'son of the' before 'devil' doesn't render its meaning nonsensical in the CV-verse. Either way, Mathias basically calls himself the anti-christ. That's also pretty much what Dracula, so the name fits perfectly.

The name 'Belmont' is french apparently. It translates to "beautiful mountain". I've also looked up the title of Baron in different European countries and Romania does not appear on the list. Leon, during the LoI intro story is wearing French nobleman's outfit. Also isn't Walter Burnard's Castle situated in France somewhere? In terms of the CV 3 connection, Romainia is home to the Belmonts of that period in history, but that doesn't mean that they did not dwell in another land in the past. We know not of Mathias' home country as it is not mentioned so I'm guessing with him on this.

The title's 'Dracul' (The Dragon) and 'Dracula' (Son of the Dragon) have nothing to do with the Devil. That was entirely a church thing. They no not of the old ways and knowledge of spirituality. Dragons are not evil to begin with and are historically linked with the serpent or snake (a world renowned, ancient deity of fertility and creation).

Not too sound harsh, but I think you cling too much to historical facts when you really shouldn't.We know the series plays fast and loose with them almost all the time. Every game is a walking contradiction to the time period they are set in. It seems  more likely to me the events of Lament take place around Wallachia somewhere. Regardless, Leon still has a French name and French knight apparel but the setting is still supposed to be eastern Europe. The Ghostly Theatre has several paintings of a style that wasn't used until much later, not to mention the things they depict are from completely different countries and times. I could list tons of other examples. When you really start to break things down, it all falls apart pretty quickly. You should accept how things are presented and not try to rationalise it by trying to make it fit 100% with real history. That's not what the series set out to do. If you keep thinking that way you just get frustrated when things don't line up when they really aren't supposed to.

[Chernabogue]

Léon and Mathias are also French names. Belmont is somwhat French ("belle montagne" meaning "beautiful mountain").

[Dominus]

Just like Bram Stoker's Dracula, Carmilla's novel events are canon. In the end Carmilla didn't get Laura, but she renamed all her "favorites" after her to honor her afterwards. Which is why we have several Lauras in PoR and DXC

[X]

Not too sound harsh, but I think you cling too much to historical facts when you really shouldn't.We know the series plays fast and loose with them almost all the time. Every game is a walking contradiction to the time period they are set in. It seems  more likely to me the events of Lament take place around Wallachia somewhere. Regardless, Leon still has a French name and French knight apparel but the setting is still supposed to be eastern Europe. The Ghostly Theatre has several paintings of a style that wasn't used until much later, not to mention the things they depict are from completely different countries and times. I could list tons of other examples. When you really start to break things down, it all falls apart pretty quickly. You should accept how things are presented and not try to rationalise it by trying to make it fit 100% with real history. That's not what the series set out to do. If you keep thinking that way you just get frustrated when things don't line up when they really aren't supposed to.

No harshness here so your all good 

But in terms of historical accuracy, Castlevania does come pretty close. Close enough that I don't really have to put in a whole lot of effort to make the connections and suppositions. Castlevania did start out as a horror spoof with many elements converging into one game. But ever since then the series has kept on growing, and the story has become more complex, there's just really no way that you can avoid make historical references with it now because it's now apart of the series. IGA is mainly responsible for introducing many bits of real-life history into the series so you can hold it to him for that.

[Ahasverus]

No harshness here so your all good 

But in terms of historical accuracy, Castlevania does come pretty close. Close enough that I don't really have to put in a whole lot of effort to make the connections and suppositions. Castlevania did start out as a horror spoof with many elements converging into one game. But ever since then the series has kept on growing, and the story has become more complex, there's just really no way that you can avoid make historical references with it now because it's now apart of the series. IGA is mainly responsible for introducing many bits of real-life history into the series so you can hold it to him for that.

I disagree, IGA was the one who introduced many anachronisms. As prevoiously said, the outfits simly don't fit the era, and, for giving an easy example, the clock was not invented until 1227 yet there is a clock tower in LoI. Things like Ramen, for example, were unheard of in the 1600, some weapons are also introcuded before their invention and so on, Castlevania is not a series to like for its historical accuracy, it's more of an artistic representation of a vision than a documentary.