Castle Keeps

The Castle Keep is a recurring environment in the Castlevania series. It sits at the very top of the Demon's Castle and is generally preceded by the clock tower. The throne room is traditionally found here, and it is also in this place where Dracula (or that generation's lord of the castle) usually awaits the hero for the final confrontation. In games where it is directly connected to the clock tower, it may be called Dracula's Tower. In other games, it is connected to a another tower, which itself may be referred to as one of Dracula's Towers. This area may then be referred to as Dracula's Room, Vampire's Room, or simply named after Dracula himself. Other games emphasize that this is the highest point in the castle, calling it and sometimes the surrounding part of the Castle the Carpathian Tower, Top Floor, Observation Tower, or Pinnacle. It may also be referred to as the Final Stage. The English-only name "Castle Keep" emphasizes that this is Dracula's last line of defense.
==Overview==
The Castle Keep is a rather small area of the Demon Castle; even though there are slight differences between games, it usually consists of a long hallway or a sumptuous banquet room housing a large dining table, with the throne room at its far end; or, in some instances, a simple chamber is found instead, where lies the vampire's coffin.
The keep is traditionally found suspended in the air and apart from the castle's main structure, possibly held up by magical forces since the castle itself is a creature of Chaos. It is generally located after the clock tower and is generally reached by climbing a long staircase suspended high in the sky (from where the face of the clock can usually be seen in the distance), which just by itself would make it impossible to hold the weight of the whole structure. Sometimes broken columns may be seen below it as if the columns had once held its weight, but it later levitated to higher heights, splitting the columns in two.
==Appearances==
*Castlevania - Dracula's Tower Interior (Stage 18)
*Vampire Killer - Carpathian Tower (Stage 18)
*Haunted Castle - Vampire's Room
*Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - Dracula's Final Clock Tower (separate part of the same stage, Block A-03)
*Super Castlevania IV - Dracula's Room (Block B-4)
*Castlevania Chronicles - Count Dracula's Tower (Stage 28)
*Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - Count Dracula
*Castlevania: Bloodlines - Ruins of the Castle Dracula (Stage 1-11), The Castle Proserpina (separate castle, Stage 6-11)
*Castlevania: Dracula X - Count Dracula
*Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, LCD handheld and Encore of the Night - Final Stage: Bloodlines, Castle Keep, Reverse Keep
*Castlevania Legends - Top Floor
*Castlevania (N64)/Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness - Castle Keep
*Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - Observation Tower
*Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - Castle Top Floor
*Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Top Floor
*Castlevania: Lament of Innocence - Pagoda of the Misty Moon
*Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - The Pinnacle
*Castlevania: Curse of Darkness - Abandoned Castle (separate part of the same stage, separate castle), Dracula's Castle (separate part of the same stage)
*Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Master's Keep, The Throne Room
*Castlevania: Order of Shadows - Castle Keep
*Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Final Approach
*Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - Come, Sweet Hour of Death (separate part of the same stage), Origins (separate part of the same stage)
*Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - The Throne Room
*Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate - Throne Room, Belfry, Mirror of Fate
*Castlevania: Moonlight Rhapsody - Castle Keep
==Gallery==
Castlevania Block 6 From Block 3.png|Block 6 seen from Block 3.(Castlevania)
CV CK.png|Inside Dracula's Tower(Castlevania)
VK CK.png|Carpathian Tower(Vampire Killer)
HC CK.PNG|Vampire's Room(Haunted Castle)
CV3 CK.png|Clock Tower(Dracula's Curse)
SCVIV CK.png|Dracula's Room(Super Castlevania IV)
Ganbare Goemon - Jigen Jō no Akumu - 13.png|Castle Keep(Ganbare Goemon: Jigen Jō no Akumu)
CVC CK.png|Count Dracula's Tower(Chronicles)
RoB CK.png|Final Stage: Bloodlines(Rondo of Blood)
CVB CK1.png|Ruins of the Castle Dracula(Bloodlines)
CVB CK2.png|The Castle Proserpina(Bloodlines)
CVB CK3.png|The Castle Proserpina(Bloodlines)
CVB CK4.png|The Castle Proserpina(Bloodlines)
CVDX CK.png|Count Dracula(Dracula X)
Castlevania Symphony of the Night - Castle Keep.png|Castle Keep(Symphony of the Night')
CVL CK.png|Top Floor(Legends)
CV64 CK.png|Castle Keep(Castlevania 64)
CotM CK.png|Observation Tower(Circle of the Moon)
HoD CK.png|Castle Top Floor(Harmony of Dissonance)
AoS CK.png|Top Floor(Aria of Sorrow)
LoI CK.PNG|Pagoda of the Misty Moon(Lament of Innocence)
DoS CK.png|The Pinnacle(Dawn of Sorrow)
Castle Keeps - Curse of Darkness - 01.png|Abandoned Castle(Curse of Darkness)
Castle Keeps - Curse of Darkness - 02.png|Dracula's Castle(Curse of Darkness)
Keep1.png|Master's Keep(Portrait of Ruin)
OoE CK.png|Final Approach(Order of Ecclesia)
Quest map 7 4.png|Castle Keep(Grimoire of Souls)
Pachislot00-Outside Keep.jpg|Castle Keep(Pachislot Akumajō Dracula)
==Trivia==
*In the original Castlevania, the Castle Keep can be seen from a distance near the end of Stage 09.
*The final stage in Castlevania: Dracula X is supposed to be the Castle Keep, but for unknown reasons the developers used the level map from stage transitions as the background of the level, meaning the player can look at the Castle Keep exterior from the Castle Keep interior itself.
==See also==
*Dracula's Castle Keep
*Environments
**Throne Rooms
**Top Floors
==External links==
*Dracula's Perch at the Castlevania Realm
Category:Environments