The origins of Dracula and the Belmont Clan

## Beginnings

Our tale begins towards the end of the 11th century AD with two dear friends, by the name of Leon Belmont and Mathias Cronqvist.

### **Leon Belmont**

Leon Belmont was born in 11th century Europe, where knights not only protected their lords, but also protected the peace and fought heretics in God's name. Orphaned at a very young age, Leon became a knight when he was just 16 years old, and his skill in combat was second to none. He joined a company of knights with his close friend, Mathias Cronqvist, and they made the platoon invincible with their skills in combat and strategy. But Mathias was bedridden after losing his wife, Elisabetha. One year later, monsters began attacking Leon's domain, but the Church forbade him to fight them because they were focused only on heretics. He was then informed by Mathias that his betrothed, Sara Trantoul, was kidnapped by a vampire and brought her to a castle in the forest 'Eternal Night'. To save his beloved, Leon renounced his title as a baron and ventured into the forest alone.

On his journey, Leon encountered Rinaldo Gandolfi, an alchemist who lived by himself in the forest. From the old man, he learned that the vampire who kidnapped Sara was Walter Bernhard, who amused himself by playing 'cat-and-mouse' with powerful warriors before defeating them. Rinaldo offered his assistance by giving Leon the Whip of Alchemy, a weapon imbued with the powers of alchemy, and empowering his gauntlet with the ability to absorb magical attacks. The alchemist also warned him that Walter could only be reached after defeating the five guardians protecting the vampire's quarters.

Reaching the castle, Leon defeated the guardians one by one. They included Joachim Armster, a vampire imprisoned by Walter for his rebellion, the monster Medusa who turned victims into stone, and a succubus who tried to trick Leon by disguising herself as Sara. Whenever he returned to Rinaldo, he gained valuable information, which included the whip's incomplete state, the Ebony and Crimson stones, and how the alchemist lost his daughter, Justine, to vampirism.

Eventually, Leon entered Walter's chamber, where he discovered that the whip could not harm the vampire and Sara was in a strange trance. Walter left to return to his chambers, and Leon took Sara back to Rinaldo's house. But he and the alchemist soon discovered that his betrothed was bitten by Walter and was about to become a vampire. The only way to save her was to defeat Walter but the whip was not powerful enough. So Rinaldo told Leon that he needed to kill Sara and absorb her soul into the whip, which was something the young warrior was hesitant to do. Suddenly, they found Sara outside and learned that she had overheard everything, and she volunteered to sacrifice her life to empower the whip. Although he was hesitant at first, Leon complied with his lover's request and bound her soul to the whip, transforming it into the Vampire Killer. After burying Sara outside of Rinaldo's house, Leon ventured to defeat Walter once and for all.

Reaching the castle throne room, Leon confronted Walter for the last time. With the Vampire Killer, he destroyed the Ebony Stone protecting the vampire and soundly defeated him. Suddenly, Death appeared and reaped Walter's soul, transferring it to Crimson Stone. Upon the appearance of Mathias, who possessed the stone, Leon realized that his friend was behind everything, using everyone to obtain Walter's soul in order to empower the Crimson Stone. Mathias's motivation was vengeance upon God for taking his wife Elisabetha, and he abandoned humanity and defied mortal life. He offered Leon to join him, but the warrior refused, vowing to keep the promise that he made to Sara. Seeing that his friend could not be swayed, Mathias left Leon to Death. As the warrior prevailed, Leon told Death to give Mathias a message: that the Belmonts would destroy him someday.

### **Mathias Cronqvist**

In the world of knights who lacked education, Matthias was a genius tactician who was even called Cronqvist the Wise. Because Mathias's family had books recording secret arts transmitted orally concerning alchemy, a science that experiments with the arcane, Mathias himself had a detailed knowledge of alchemy. His beloved wife, Elisabetha, died from illness while he was on an expedition. Mathias was grief stricken and bedridden and Leon was forced to continue the campaigns without his friend. When Leon's beloved was kidnapped, Mathias told him that it was the doing of a vampire who had a castle in the east.

In fact, Mathias had deceived Leon. In deep mourning, Mathias devised a plan to take revenge on God for stealing Elisabetha by becoming a vampire and living eternally. He manipulated Leon, Rinaldo, Sara, even Walter and his monsters, in order to obtain a vampire's soul with the Crimson Stone, and he was reborn with it. He then offered Leon to join him and become immortal, because Leon suffered the same loss. Leon refused, with Matthias, while disappointed that Leon refused to see things his way, deciding to let his new henchman Death deal with Leon and fled by turning into a bat. Death was ultimately defeated, and had delivered a message to Matthias from Leon: Leon, as a result of Matthias's actions, had vowed that his clan would forever hunt him. As time went on, Mathias renamed himself Dracula, taken from the Romanian word "Dracul" meaning dragon and devil.

## Rise of the Dragon

Mathias had now truly begun to turn into the makings of what would be considered one of the greatest evils of all time, Dracula. Leon kept true to his promise that he and his descendants would forever hunt, and someday destroy Dracula. Leon tracked down and put an end to his former friend, and thought that the end of it. Yet monsters known as Night Creatures, minion creations of Dracula still roamed the world, and so Leon redesigned the Belmonts from a family of Knightly nobles to monster hunters, eradicating evil and protecting the innocent.

However, each century, Dracula would return in full power, and the latest in the line of the Belmonts would journey to confront, and once more vanquish him.