1477 AD

Season 3:

A few months passed since our heroes -- Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and Alucard -- defeated Dracula in Castle Dracula, and since that point Trevor and Sypha traveled the countryside looking for the rest of her clan of Speakers. They weren't ever able to find them but, along the way, they saw all manner of monsters and Night Creatures, and being the heroes that they were, took out the creatures for the good of the countryside. One particularly nasty attack, against a band of beasts including monsters resembling a minotaur and another that looked a lot like a werewolf, happened near the town of Lindenfeld, with the two warriors being hailed as heroes for their killing of the Night Creatures.

Alucard, meanwhile, spent his days protecting the dual lands of Dracula's (now permanently grounded castle) and the Belmont keep, with the castle overlooking the keep. He spent his days wandering the forest and pick food, his nights spent cooking lavish meals while he talked to dolls made to look like Trevor and Sypha, the only two friends he'd made in years. He was surprised, then, when two Japanese warriors, Sumi and Taka, intruded on his reverie. They had come from far away to track down the evil vampire that had ruled their land for decades, the vampire lady Cho. Their foe, though, had died (along with many other vampire lords) in the raid on Castle Dracula months prior. Although their lands was now freed from Cho's influence, the two warriors feared what would happen when another vampire lord came to their region. Requesting aid, Alucard took them in, promising to train them with all the powers and knowledge as his command.

In Lindenfeld, Trevor and Sypha started to notice some strange happenings. A band of monks had turned against the teachings of the Church around the time that Dracula launched his war on humanity. Failing to see how God could allow such a thing, the monks, led by Prior Sala, became worshipers of Dracula, taking on new holy symbols (alchemical symbols for "Mercury" and for "Change") and spoke of their new faith, that of a belief in a Night Creature that had attacked the town and gave them a new gospel. Trevor and Sypha, already concerned about this whole affair, were first approached by the leader of the town, the Judge, who beseeched them to look further into the matter. They then encountered a wild-eyed magician, Saint Germain, who told them about the power underneath the rectory and his fears that the monks were looking to open a gateway to the Infinite Corridor. He just wondered where they would get that kind of power.

Meanwhile, across Europe, Carmilla, and the remnants of her armies, had trudged across the continent to get home, through snow, and angry villages, and this left her in quite a miserable mood. Her mood was matched, in fact, only by Hector, the Demon Forgemaster that Carmilla had convinced to turn against Dracula. After her plan for her armies had failed in Braila, Carmilla had dragged Hector, barefoot, across the many hundreds of miles of countryside, then had him stripped naked and thrown in prison. She needed him, and his power, for her next plan, but Hector, understandably, was in no mood to help her after that whole affair.

And there was Isaac, Hector's one-time co-worker who, together, had served Dracula as the leaders of his war council. When Hector betrayed Dracula and led Carmilla's armies to the castle, Dracula had sent Isaac, his only trusted companion left in the world, off to the far reaches to keep the Demon Forgemaster safe. Isaac, though, had only one desire: to have his revenge on Hector for the betrayal that, in the end, ruined Dracula's plan to wipe all humanity from the world. He began gathering a horde of demons with a plan of tracking down Hector and killing the man (and all those aligned with him).

At the Castle of the Sisters, Carmilla explained to her sisters -- Striga, Morana, and Lenore -- her plan for the world. Due to the machinations of Dracula, there was a wide swath of land that had been attacked by monsters and was ready for some other powerful figure that could come in and rule. With Hector's demons they could set patrols all along the borders of Carmilla's claimed kingdom, penning in hundreds of miles of countryside and putting the Council of Sisters in charge of the kingdom. They just needed the recalcitrant Hector to join them, something he naturally was against due to the treatment he'd received. Lenore, the diplomat of the four, took it upon herself to convince Hector to help them; where Hector went so went the demons under his control.

In the rectory at Lindenfeld, Saint Germain managed to convince the monks to let him in and explore the books and art stored there. Ostensibly he would have looked for further knowledge of Dracula, something Prior Sala was all too eager for. In reality, though, the magician was interested in searching the basement of the rectory, and once he managed to get down into the building what he found horrified them: the Night Creature, a hulking beast with immense power, that had come to the town months early was still alive and the monks had it nailed to a cross where it told them tales and spun lies that they believed. Meanwhile Trevor and Sypha found that the monks had been carving their alchemical symbols all over the town, on buildings and walls, as if they were preparing for some kind of event. The plans were murky, but with the demon speaking into the minds, the heroes all realized this was a dire situation indeed.

Back at the Belmont grounds, Alucard took Sumi and Taka into the Belmont hold to show them the weapons, and knowledge, stored within. Alucard was open about all that he had to offer, the things he could teach the warriors, but he cautioned them that patience was needed as there was a lot to learn. Sumi and Taka, though, grew anxious, wanting to see and know it all immediately. They worried that Alucard was hiding things from them, that he wasn't being truthful, and they knew, deep down, that they were going to have to take what they wanted because Alucard wasn't ever going to share all the power of the castle, and the keep, with them.

Across the sea, Isaac and his band of demons met resistance at one town after another. This suited his purposes in some respects as it gave him more bodies he could turn into demons. it also depressed him, though, as he found that even when he didn't want to fight the rest of humanity was still cruel and rude towards him. He did find one like-minded associate, though, in a Captain of a large shipping vessel. Buying passage across the sea, Isaac and the Captain struck up a good rapport, discussing the stupidity of man. The Captain left Issac across the pond with hopes the Demon Forgemaster found good fortune, and good luck, on his travels.

Hector had his own change of fortunes, however slow they might have been. Although there was little trust had for Lenore, over time (and with a number of gifts, and a fair amount of kindness), Lenore was able to rebuild his trust, at least in her. They grew close, with Lenore enjoying his company and treating him at least something more like a living creature (if not fully like a man). It could have been that Lenore really did want to help him, especially as Morana negotiated mercenaries to use to secure the border, alleviating the need (supposedly) for Hector demons, but it was hard to fully trust a vampire.

Hearing the news about what was happening around town and in the rectory, the Judge of Lindenfeld gathered his troops and set an attack against the Prior and his monks. Unfortunately the night they struck was also the night the monks launched their dark plans: the alchemical symbols around town burned to life and set the people within their homes aflame. The town of Lindenfeld burned and the souls of its victims were all condemned to Hell, flowing into the hulking Night Creature at the bottom of the rectory. Trevor, Sypha, and Saint Germain fought their way into the cellars where they confronted the beast, but not before, using the dark power of the damned souls, it opened a rift to Hell, releasing demons and devils and, potentially, finding a path for Dracula to return to the plane of men. Meanwhile Sala, seeing the truth of what he and his people had done, fled the rectory horrified at the lies he'd be told.

Coming to Alucard that night, Sumi and Taka seduced the half-vampire, promising him the companionship he desperate needed. This aligned with Lenore's own actions as she, too, seduced Hector with promises of love and fair treatment. In both cases, though, it was a lie. Sumi and Taka tried to bind Alucard down and kill him so they could have the secrets of the castle and the keep; Alucard was forced to kill them, summoning his magical sword and cutting both of their throats. Meanwhile, with promises of love and devoting, ,enore got Hector to promise the same as she slipped a ring of enslavement (without his knowledge) over his finger, binding the Devil Forgemaster to her. He'd given up his freedom and became a pet of the vampiress.

Isaac came upon a town ruled by a mad Magician who had enslaved all the people of the countryside under a binding spell, making them his mindless automatons. One person had resisted the magic, a former Forgemaster named Miranda, who warned Isaac to stay away from the Magician's tower, but the lands stood across Isaac's path and the Forgemaster was curious about the powerful treasures (a mirror of seeing) that was held within. So he battled his was across the land, fighting the hordes of mindless bodies the Magician threw at him (including combining most of the bodies into a sphere that strongly resembled Legion). Isaac, though, could not be held back and he fought his way to the tower, and up its stairs, until he confronted the Magician. The wizard tried to control Isaac with his magic, as he had the others, bu Isaac was much too powerful and broke the spell before killing the Magician, claiming the tower for his own.

Trevor and Sypha battled the massive Night Creature beneath the rectory while the Judge and his men took on the monks above. A confrontation between Sala and the Judge left the Judge on the ground, bleeding to death, but he told Sala how to escape the town through a secret path in the woods. Saint Germain, meanwhile, worked to try and close the portal before Dracula could escape. Trevor took on the massive Night Creature, fighting it even as it grew stronger and stronger on the feast of souls. Al of its power, though, was no match for the combined forced of Trevor's holy weapons and Sypha's magic, and, after a furious contest, the beast was felled. Saint Germain was able to close the rift but not before he leapt inside to search out the Infinite Corridor. and look for a lost love who had gone in years earlier. He wished the heroes well and promised, one day, to see them again.

Outside, Trevor and Sypha found the dying body of the Judge. He begged them to burn his house, without looking inside, and then to leave the town that was, now, a ghost of its former self. Trevor and Sypha, however, went to the house and looked inside, finding a secret room filled with children's shoes on little shelves. Following what he'd said about a secret path through the woods and the found Sala, dead in a hidden spike pit, one last cruel joke of the Judge. Trevor and Sypha realized that the Judge had been quite mad in life, a serial killer who only said he had the best interests of the town at heart. This left them depressed as they burned down his house as even someone "good" like the Judge had truly been evil in the end. And, in that case, what were they fighting for?

,enore brought Hector to the circle of Sisters and showed off her prize. Now, she said, they had not only mercenaries by a horde of demons that would be loyal to them; Hector was bound to ,enore and, due to the magic of the ring, could not disobey her, and since his demons were loyal to Hector they were now loyal to all the sisters, too. A neat trick that, sadly, left hector once again a slave to the vampires without the freedom he so dearly craved.

Alucard went back to his quiet life, alone on the castle grounds as he searched out food and missed his friends. The grounds had but one change: he'd taken the bodies of Sumi and Taka and put them up on stakes outside the castle doors to serve as warning to anyone else that came near. His journey, sadly, had taken him on the same path as everyone else in this story, realizing the evil deep within all men that, likely, could never be truly defeated.

Notes:

The last season of the series ended with the heroes parting ways and, for all indications, we pick up with them months later (Sypha admits they've been searching for her clan for "months") but no indication of the exact year is ever given. Since we see the heroes, Trevor and Sypha, travel through a region that colder, with snow on the ground in places, and Carmilla's territory was completely snowed in for the meat of this season, we're assuming that we're into the next year of the series (which also helps for organization on this site). The year of 1477 is only a guess, though, and not on backed up by any hard facts from the creators of the series.

Season 4:

Over the next six weeks, Trevor and Sypha journeyed across the countryside, quelling one nasty black magic ritual after another. Although they had defeated the night creatures that desired the rise of Dracula, that didn't stop the idea (and the magical power) from flowing to others. Many worshipers of Dracula desired his return, and they were all too happy to use dark and evil magics (and many human sacrifices) to attempt the spells needed to bring back the Dark Lord of Wallachia. Thankfully, because of the heroes, these attempts failed and many lives were spared.

This same six week period saw Alucard chasing off many additional interlopers at his castle. Quite a few ended up impaled on stakes out front (as they refused to take a hint from all the other corpses nailed up out front) while Alucard continued to live quite alone. His solitude was interrupted once more, though, by a rider on horseback slowly coming up to the castle. The rider failed to pay any mind to Alucard's shouted warnings, and that was because the rider was quite dead. His corpse did have a note pinned to it, though, asking "The Alucard" for help protecting the nearby town of Danesti, a village under constant threat by the night creatures. Seeing the honor in the man's request, and fearing what might happen were Night Creatures to take root in the lands, Alucard rushed off to fight for the town.

The vampire sisters, meanwhile, had begun their campaign for the lands around their castle. Striga and Morana had gone to the front line to lead the charge. Their interest in the battle was already beginning to wane, though, as it seemed like the war would unwinnable. They could beat the humans to a stand-still, even dominate them for a time, but the humans would not stayed cowed as even a farmer armed with a pitchfork would rise up to fight the vampires. This put the two at odds with Carmilla's own plans as the vampire queen had desires take over the whole world. She's gained quite the chip on her shoulder from all the men in power she'd known over the years and she felt like the only person that should control the power of the world was herself. Once they finished conquering this land she planned to expand, and expand, and expand, until the whole world was hers.

There was one that could stand in her way, though: Isaac. Although he'd been angered by Hector's betrayal, Isaac's weeks traveling the countryside had given him a new perspective on life, hope, and power. He knew the person who really betrayed Dracula, who'd pulled all the strings behind the scenes, had been Carmilla. Once he'd finished rebuilding the town of the old sorcerer, getting it ready for some other group of humans to take over (a weird "good deed" he felt the need to perform), he prepared to invade the castle of the sisters and take on Carmilla. It was for vengeance, for honor, and because Isaac simply knew it was the right thing to do.

As it turned out, he had an ally in his attack on Carmilla: Hector. Although he'd been brought to heel by the magical control ring slipped upon his finger by Lenore, Hector still found himself with a certain amount of free will. He couldn't directly betray an order from the sisters, but if they didn't tell him something was verboten he found he could do as he liked. He was able to create magical totems, secreting them around the castle to create a web of power. When Isaac arrived, his demon army in town, instead of using these totems to keep the demons at bay Hector used them against the vampire servants of the castle. This allowed Isaac a chance to get deep into the castle, to confront his old friend.

Lenore was, understandably, shocked at this turn of events. She watched as Isaac freed Hector of the control ring by cutting off his finger. This took control of the devils and demons created by Hector from the hands of the vampire sisters, leaving Carmilla outnumbered and desperate. Isaac thanked Hector before going up to the castle keep to fight Carmilla. This led to a very bloody fight as Carmilla slaughtered demons by the handfuls, but in the end she was no match for the combined might of Isaac and his armies. She was slain, the world saved from her power-hungry madness, and Isaac felt like he'd finally given Dracula some kind of peace.

As it turned out, though, Hector still felt guilty. That was why he assisted a different fiend with their own dark plans. The sniveling vampire Varney, a smell wretch who'd lived for centuries in London before coming east to Dracula's lands, had his own plans to raise the Dark Lord and, with Hector's assistance on the spell he found a way to do it. All he needed was a magician powerful enough to perform the rite. That required the assistance of Saint Germain, who had gone into the Infinite Corridor in search of his lost love. She had moved on but a chance encounter with a another magician, Miranda, showed him what he had to do next. He had to be willing to do anything, to perform any dark rite, if he were to have the power to find his lost lover.

So he set about his task, throwing aside his morals, all so he could become powerful enough to finish his personal quest. He eventually was put in contact with Varney, and together they devised a way to raise Dracula which would, indirectly, empower Saint Germain even more so that he could tap into the raw potential of the Infinite Corridor All they would need is a large enough set of sacrifices at Dracula's castle, the place where he was killed, so they could resurrect him once more. As fate would have it, those very souls were conveniently on their way to the castle.

Those Night Creatures that had been attacking Danesti, the town near the castle, had been sent by Varney. They were his army he'd collected, powered by Hector and given form and shape to do Varney's bidding. Alucard didn't know that at the time, though. All he knew was there was a town full of people that needed protecting. After fighting off the initial attack (as he got there), Alucard was confronted by the leader of the town, Greta, and she told him the town couldn't be saved. It wasn't defensible enough. They needed some place stronger, some place with big stone walls and impenetrable doors. They needed Alucard's castle. He reluctantly agreed, leading the people back to his abode with the Night Creatures on their tails (some could say herding them).

As this was going on, Trevor and Sypha had made their way back to where Dracula's dark presence had started all the terror: Targoviste. There they found a city that hadn't recovered from the initial attack, its people starving, dirty and living on the streets. The nobility of the town had fled, hiding underground in chambers they thought were protected from the vampires. This assumption was wrong, though, and once Trevor and Sypha got involved the vampires attacked. What the undead wanted was the treasures of the Royalty of Targoviste and with heroes in the way they had to push their time table up. Varney, plus his (sort of) ally Ratko, led an attack into the underground. Sypha and Trevor battled them back, but it was a battle they found hard to win.

Alucard was in his own battle, dealing with the Night Creatures as the chased the humans all the way back to the castle. The assault didn't end at the walls, though, and the next night the creatures came again, but this time Saint Germain was with them. As the humans fell the magician used dark magics to collect their souls, to suck that magic up to the chamber where Dracula had originally been killed. There, Saint Germain began his ritual. His goal, to suck the souls of Dracula and his wife, Lisa, into a single undead body here on Earth, a Rebis. This being would be eternally tortured by the two souls within it, and that beast would then go out into the world and cause untold chaos and destruction, just as Varney wants. And what Varney wants, Varney gets.

Varney got what he wanted in Targoviste, finding a magical mirror hidden behind the thrones of the King and Queen (the two royals having died many months earlier). He used this mirror to transport himself to Castle Dracula, right into the chamber of the dark ritual. Trevor and Sypha, seeing Varney vanish, found themselves staring into Dracula's castle where they found their friend, Alucard, fighting a losing battle against the Night Creatures. They leapt through, throwing their might into the battle and suddenly turning it back again. The demons in the castle were turned back with the power of the trio, but that didn't stop the ritual going on high above them. They rushed in only to find the spell nearly done: Dracula and Lisa's souls were sucked into the Rebis.

With his plans nearly complete, Varney's true form was revealed: he was Death, the grim reaper and collector of souls, an ages old vampire he fed upon death and destruction. Saint Germain, horrified at who he'd been working with, went back on his promises and turned the magic against Death, leaving the Rebis defenseless. This allowed Trevor to attack the horrible beast, splitting the body apart and freeing Dracula and Lisa's souls once more. The magic failing, Saint Germain found himself dying, unable to truly get back to the Infinite Corridor, at least in this life.

Death, angered at having his plans foiled, lashed out at the heroes. He threw attacks at the three of them, beating back Sypha and Alucard and leaving Trevor as the only hero still able to reach the demon. The two battled, Trevor using every skill, and weapon, he had at his disposal. This was a long and bloody battle held atop the castle keep, bricks and walls flying about in a maelstrom of Death's power. But it was with one last blow, and a bit of magic from the dying Saint Germain, that Trevor was able to plunge his holy weapon into the body of Death, seemingly killing them both.

Death was defeated, Dracula's resurrection was saved, and the world seemed safe once more, but at what cost? As Alucard and Greta worked together to aid the townspeople outside the castle, the two agreed that the castle grounds, with all its resources and those resources of the Belmont Keep as well, would be a perfect place to found a new settlement. Sypha, though, was heartbroken as her love, Trevor, was dead. She planned to pack up and head back out into the world, to find the rest of her clan of Speakers as she couldn't bear to stay at the castle any longer. But then a horse with a rider came up to the grounds. It was Trevor who had found himself transported far away from the castle when Death was defeated, presumably with the magic of Saint Germain. The friends were reunited, Sypha was overjoyed and told her love about a special surprise: she was pregnant. Life would go on with the Belmont clan, at their ancestral home after all.

Speaking of life and death, Lenore, still alive and at the castle of the sisters with Hector after Carmilla's death, decided she didn't really want to live as a bird in a cage any longer. Her other sisters were gone, her power base was destroyed, and she had nothing else. Despite an offer from Hector to stay with him forever, she chose to walk out into the sun instead. She chose death.

And, finally, two more wanderers had found new life. Dracula and Lisa, although not bound into the body of the Rebis, found themselves quite alive and on Earth once more. Finding shelter at an inn, the two elected to stay away from Alucard for a time, instead letting their son live his life while they found their own way in the world again. Dracula had Lisa and his anger the humans was abated, at least for a time. Love had conquered his heart once more and it was time for peace to reign... for a while, at least.

Notes:

It's hard to know if this actually spells a happy ending for Dracula or not. The next series of the show was announced, with the tale taking place during the time of Richter Belmont and, if that story follows anything close to the plot of the original games (which, admittedly, these later seasons have not), Dracula has to be the bad guy again. We shall see how that plays out eventually.

Episodes Referenced

• Season 3:
  • "Bless Your Dead Little Hearts"
  • "The Reparation of My Heart"
  • "Investigators"
  • "I Have a Scheme"
  • "A Seat of Civilisation and Refinement"
  • "The Good Dream"
  • "Worse Things Than Betrayal"
  • "What the Night Brings"
  • "The Harvest"
  • "Abandon All Hope"
• Season 4:
  • "Murder Wakes It Up"
  • "Having the World"
  • "Walk Away"
  • "You Must Sacrifice"
  • "Back in the World"
  • "You Don't Deserve My Blood"
  • "The Great Work"
  • "Death Magic"
  • "The Endings"
  • "It's Been a Strange Ride"