1775 AD
Castlevania: Nocturne: Season 1
Season 1:
Erzsébet Báthory (see: Elizabeth BartleyBased on Erzsabet Bathory, Elizabeth is the secondary antagonist in Castlevania: Bloodlines. Bartley is the niece of Dracula and, by sowing discord around Europe, she aids in his eventual resurrection.) ruled her lands in Russia with an iron, torturous fist. A vile and evil vampiress, Erzebet loved nothing more than capturing girls from the villages in her lands, stealing them back to her castle to torture slowly before draining and killing them. She was a monster, and the villagers living in the lands knew it, they just lacked the power to save themselves. And under Bathory’s evil eye, they could barely scrape at all.
It was in 1775 AD (give or take a few months) that a clan of Speakers (we assume the Renard Clan, due to the fact that one member, TeraOne of four girls that can be rescued in Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. Tera was a young nun who lived in the village in the original game, although her role was greatly expanded in Castlevania: Nocturne, turning her into Maria's mother., has the last name of Renard which she passes to her daughter, Maria RenardA young heroine, and cousin to Richter Belmont, with the blood of the Belmont clan in her veins, Maria teams with Richter to fight back Dracula and the forces of darkness in the late 1700s.) comes to a village in Bathory’s lands. Looking to aid the villagers, they help with food, warmth, shelter, all the things the people need, all while learning their history so it can be documented and spoken about for the future. This is their duty, what the Speakers do and have always done, and they consider it a great honor simply to help.
But Bathory, vile and evil demon that she was, did not want the humans on her lands to better themselves. She wanted them beaten down, tired and weak, so they could be easy pickings for her enjoyment. Seeing the Speakers there, helping, Bathory had to put an end to it. She sent her minions out to the village, having them attack the Speakers, killing most of the clan. Only Tera escaped while her sister was captured and dragged off to the castle. The rest of the clan lay dead.
Tera, sensing she had no other choice, snuck into Bathory Castle to try and save her sister. Creeping into the dungeons, among all the bodies of girls strung about there, she found her sister but she was too late to save her: Bathory had already turned the young girl into a vampire. Laughing as she saw Tera witness the vile corruption of her own sister, Bathory lunged forth to capture Tera and add her to the vampiress’s collection. Tera was able to escape, killing the vampire her sister had become in the process. She fled out a window of the castle, just out of reach of Bathory’s grasp, and then left Russia altogether, hoping to put the vampire and her evil behind her.
Tera went westward, eventually ending up in Paris, France. There she established a little homestead for herself in the woods outside the city. Although not a religious woman, Tera did meet the local AbbotHead of the Paris church in the time of the French Revolution. He's initially presented as a helpful ally, but secretly he's working with the vampires to ensure the rise of their coming Messiah. and, with him, she found a connection. They quickly fell in love, despite him being a man of the cloth, and soon after he fathered a child with her. Fearing what this would do to his position, and what the people of his congregation would think of Tera and the baby, the Abbot broke off the tryst. Tera swore to keep it a secret, and while the two remained friendly their relationship ended.
Tera did have her child, though, naming the young babe Maria, but her parentage was kept a secret, even from the child herself, so as to not bring the wrath of the people down on any of them.
Episodes Referenced
- Castlevania: Nocturne: Season 1:
- "A Common Enemy in Evil"
Important Information
We have to make some suppositions about this era and the events. Although we know the basics of what Tera mentions in the second episode of the first season of Castlevania: NocturneA loose adaptation of Rondo of Blood, this sequel anime series follows on from Netflix's hit anime adaptation of the game series., certain guesses have to be made. For starters, we aren’t exactly certain what year these events took place. We know that Tera didn’t have Maria in Russia, as the child is fathered in Paris after, and that means that these events have to take place at least 16 years before the main events of the series, as Maria is documented as 16 years old there. If we assume that, after fleeing Russia, Tera traveled west directly to end up in Paris, and then quickly fell in love with the Abbot, that adds at least one more year to our math, if not more. 1775 AD is a fair guess then, for these events, but just as likely it could have been a year, or two, or more earlier. We simply don’t know for certain.
By the same logic, we guess that Tera’s last name is Renard, since that’s Maria’s last name, but she doesn’t actually say what her clan name is. Sypha BelnadesOne of three heroes recruited by Trevor Belmont on his quest to defeat Dracula, Sypha is a powerful sorceress, and one of the most famous members of her clan. was part of the Belnades Speaker clan, so this seems like a safe bet, but it could just as easily be an assumed name so we’re not certain what the name of Tera’s clan actually was. Until told otherwise, Renard seems like the most likely option (even if Renard is a French name and not Russian).
Finally, was the Abbot an abbot when Tera met him? Who knows. Maybe, but he could have been a lesser priest, or even just a student. If he was learning to be a priest and then decided to not marry Tera and instead follow the path of the cloth, that does color his character more, but it’s also information not conveyed by Tera’s telling of her story. We assume his position was already cemented, but other paths could have been taken before he became the Abbot and we’d just be guessing at that point.
Suffice it to say that this historical entry is based on just a short segment of an episode of the series, and while it does help to provide information for us about the characters and their background, it doesn’t provide a lot of detail or context to help us flesh things out further.