Belmont Clan

"Returning to life time and again since the ancient middle ages, the evil lord Dracula has driven people to terror. Each time Dracula returned from the dead, the Belmont clan fought him in shadows, wielding the holy whip. Through their efforts, humanity avoided darkness, securing prosperity."

- Integra Hellsing.

The Belmont Clan, or the House of Belmont (Belmondo), is a important and prominent supernatural hunter clan, mainly known for continuously fighting and even defeating the dreaded and demonic vampire known as Dracula and his army.

Their clan was founded by the ex-baron Leon Belmont for the purpose of protecting the innocent and hunting the malevolent creatures of the night. The Belmonts are widely regarded as among the greatest vampire hunter clans in the world.

Overview
Since the eleventh century, the Belmonts are entrusted with the duty of slaying Dracula and various other creatures of the night. For this purpose they use as their main weapon the sacred whip known as the Vampire Killer, which has the power to destroy any entity of darkness and Dracula himself. They also use other weapons to accomplish this, which coupled with their skills and magical powers made ​​them formidable enemies of the creatures of darkness along with the others hostile entities that hide in the night.

With the Belmont Clan was founded by Leon Belmont in Wallachia, his bloodline would throughout ages separate to multiple children from each member with many marrying in other families, bringing many branching family lines, ranging from the Morris Clan, Renard Clan, Lecarde Clan, Schneider Clan, the Graves Family and even the Van Helsing Clan. No matter what, these branching lines are all descended from Leon.

They had allies in the Belnades Clan, Morris Clan, Ericsson Clan, Totoyan Clan, the Baldwins and even Dracula's own son, Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, currently known as Alucard. They also had allies in the Apostles of Hecate, Order of Ecclesia, the already mentioned Van Helsing Clan (which was also an offshoot clan related to the Hellsing Organization), the hunters of the Hunter Organzation, and the Legendary Dark Knight himself, Sparda along with his family. They also have a complicated relationship with the Church.

After the battle between Julius Belmont and Dracula, the Belmont Clan became apart of the Dark Knight Initiative.

Powers & Abilities
"I will show you the might of House Belmont."

- Simon Belmont.

It is unknown what power the Belmonts possess or if they even possess any supernatural powers, aside from the magical powers some of Trevor's descendants have due to his marriage with Sypha Belnades. This magical power is perhaps most prominent in Juste Belmont, as he uses spell books to empower his sub-weapons. Julius also mentions that he has magical power. Whether this is the same kind as the one Juste wields or not is unknown.

However, when Leon Belmont, the eldest known link in the Belmont's lineage of Vampire Hunters, first meets Joachim Armster, he's able to perceive the presence of vampirism in him. This could hint to a natural predisposition throughout his family's bloodline to detect and confront vampires, or the forces of darkness in general, as well their magical powers. He's also able to effectively mix the sub-weapons with magical elemental Orbs, a trait he might have naturally inherited to their descendants to perform the powerful Item Crashes.

Since Leon, the Belmonts had possessed the Belmont Warlord Chromosome which boosts the already great power, durability, speed and skill to beyond even superhuman levels. The Belmonts are able to rules miles with a single loss of stamina, survive beings who can rip normal humans in two and battle Dracula over and over again throughout the centuries without issue. This also gives the ability to mastered any weapon after using it for a small time.

Some have mentioned the incredible physical power of the Belmonts that are above human. For example, Simon Belmont says "That is the power of a Belmont!", after completing his finishing move, which consists in whipping 99 times his opponent in super speed. Soma Cruz, after defeating Julius, also states, that "You took it easy on me. I could tell. The strength of a Belmont... No... the strength of a vampire hunter is greater than this.", which may imply that vampire hunters in general have a certain strength, but Belmonts are definitely something else, and there's also the fact that Julius managed to make the castle to crumble a bit when performing his Grand Cross special attack. Furthermore, It has to be noted that the Belmonts were exiled because their powers were seen as fearsome by the people of Wallachia.

It has been shown that Belmonts have strength above the average, as Trevor is capable to deal super punches and grab and toss any enemy with ease with his whip; and in one his dialogues he's proud of this power that made him fearsome to others, as well as the creatures of the night. He's also able to tackle Hector by using super speed and imbuing himself in a fire element, as well performing Martial Artss that deal lots of damage; Richter Belmont would also show this superior strength in close combat, and was regarded as the ultimate vampire hunter at that time. Shaft would take advantage of his power to revive Dracula and made him the lord of the castle to prevent any intruder to ruin his plans.

It's also hinted that the Belmonts have Holy based attribute magic in their blood to seal and resist the dark, as demonstrated in their iconic special move, the Grand Cross. Trevor sometimes even yells "Holy Power!" when performing his Grand Cross special attack. Also, during the events of Curse of Darkness, it's stated that only the blood of a Belmont has the power to open a portal to the Infinite Corridor, and Issac fought Trevor to get a sample of it, going there and placing a Dullahan so Hector when fighting him would summon Castlevania with the impressive amount of power generated in battle.

A similar event takes place during the year 2036, where it's only with the power of a Belmont, in this case Julius, that an energy barrier in Celia's castle replica can be dispelled, granting access to the Mine of Judgment, the lair where the reaper that serves Dracula, Death (not the primordial entity) dwells. Albus would try to gather the blood all of the possible Belmont descendants to counter the evil power and influence of Dominus, although it ultimately proved to be a failure because none of them were direct descendants.

The Belmonts' primary weapon is the Vampire Killer, an extremely powerful holy whip that is especially effective against evil and unholy creatures, such as vampires, and the only weapon capable to effectively kill Dracula. Its full power can only be used without any consequences by a full-blooded member of the Belmont Clan. The Belmonts have also used sub-weapons as their other means to attack and they are generally very skilled in combat, whether it be with the Vampire Killer, or martial skills. Thus far, the Belmont clan has been one of the most powerful hunting clans due to all this.

Background
The Belmont Clan was not formed with the purpose of destroying creatures of the night until when Leon Belmont vowed to hunt the night. It was in the same time period that the Vampire Killer, the Belmonts' primary weapon, was created. Leon Belmont is the founder of the clan's tradition of vampire hunting and also the first known wielder of the Vampire Killer in its complete form, and the first to battle and defeat Death, although he didn't defeat Dracula, as Dracula (known as Mathias Cronqvist then) managed to escape before Leon can do anything to stop him. He was a knight once, but left his knighthood to pursue his betrothed's kidnappers. After his efforts, the Belmonts' sole duty became protecting the people from darkness.

When Leon went on to leave France to follow Dracula all the way to Wallachia, he met a certain vampire on the way. This vampire was known as Hector van Neck who seek to test the hunter. Despite Leon's prowess, he could not defeat the Lasombra, as Hector was far stronger than any ordinary vampire but he was able to harm him enough for Hector to retreat.

War against Dracula
The first Belmont to fight the Dark Lord Dracula was Sonia Belmont who later on mothered a son named Trevor Belmont. Sonia was born in a remote mountain village located in Transylvania. One night, when Sonia was 17 years old, she encountered a young man named Mihail (who was truly Alucard). The two formed a bond together. However, tragedy suddenly struck as the mansion where Sonia was raised was attacked by grotesque monsters serving Dracula.

The Dark Lord had attacked this European city with his dark army. He did this out of revenge as his son was exiled from the city for being non-human the townsfolk; later revealed to be a ploy created by Absalom. Sonia found her grandfather, mortally wounded during Dracula's attack. Her grandfather told her that it was time for her power to be unleashed. Sonia took her grandfather's whip as a memento in her hand, setting out to Dracula's Castle. Sonia traveled across the Transylvanian countryside to the Dark Lord's castle itself, Castlevania, all while destroying several of the Vampire King's legions, until finally reaching the Dark Lord's Castle. While unfortunately unable to truly defeat Dracula, she did wound him enough for him to surrender for the moment and retreat. Before leaving with castlevania, Dracula said that he was impressed with her skills.

The Belmonts showed great power and this led to the people of Wallachia fearing them. Due to this, they were banished and lived away from civilization for a long time, until 1476 when the Dark Lord Dracula waged war upon humanity by invading European countries one by one with his army of monsters. He did this out of revenge for the death of his wife by the superstitious townsfolk along with some of the Christian faith which started with him attacking Targoviste where his wife was burned.

The Hunter, the Witch, the Pirate and the Traitor
At this time, no other person, man or woman, was able to stand up against Dracula's forces. The Church was left with no choice but to find a Belmont, which proved to be a difficult task as they could not find one anywhere in Wallachia. Their search gave results, however, when they found a youth who went by the name of Trevor Belmont.

It was not long until Trevor encountered a woman known by the name of Sypha Belnades, who was not only a Speaker Magician, but who would also soon become his wife along with the founder of the Belnades Clan, a man known as Grant Danasty, and Alucard himself, who was in the midst of his travels. However, Alucard and Trevor had a rather turbulent relationship due to Alucard being the son of Dracula though it gradually began to soften due to Sypha being a medium between the two men. Under request by her grandfather, an elder of the Speakers, Sypha sought out Trevor due to a prophecy foretold to him, who knew of this prophecy from an Oracle, regarding a "Hunter, Witch, Pirate, and Traitor". Eventually, the four were able to find a compromise and work together as a team to destroy the forces of darkness that stood in their way of defeating Dracula.

After raiding Castlevania and destroying his top generals and most of his armies, they confronted the Vampire King himself. However, in the midst of the fight, they discovered that Dracula had been under the influence of the Vampire God, Absalom and Satan himself. They was able to manipulate Dracula into killing thousands of humans and harvesting their blood in order to perform the ritual of bringing Absalom back to the mortal plane. While they managed to halt the ritual, Absalom forced Dracula to consume the remaining reserves of blood along with using the powers of Chaos which provided him with more than enough power to defeat the four heroes with a portion of Absalom's power added to his own. After a long and arduous battle, the four heroes defeated Dracula, and after this display of heroism, the Belmonts were hailed as heroes and allowed to live among people once more alongside Sypha's coven.

Next Battles against Dracula
A hundred years after, Dracula would re-emerge, more powerful than ever, and haunt Transylvania again. However, Christopher Belmont stood ready to face the Count and defeated him in combat. Dracula feigned defeat, however, and waited 15 years to spot an opening, which he did when Christopher's son, Soleil Belmont was born. ‎He possessed Soleil after the boy turned 15 and forced Christopher to tread through five castles, face Soleil in combat and defeat Dracula again. Christopher saved Soleil and came out victorious.

Even though it was rumored that Dracula becomes stronger with each resurrection, Simon Belmont still went into the castle alone and fought his way through, eventually defeating the Count. He was badly wounded from the battle, however, and Dracula had cast a curse on Simon before his death. This curse did not allow the wound to be healed, and it was slowly killing him. It was not until 1698 that Simon, through a ghastly revelation, discovered the way to cure this curse, which involved gathering Dracula's remains and burning them. However, after gathering them, a sixth body piece previously unknown to Simon caused the Count to revive. He defeated him and burned his remains, being freed from the curse, and was ultimately victorious, saving Transylvania once more.

The castle had later on appeared suddenly, with no prior attack or ceremony. Juste Belmont had to explore the castle and discover its secrets and finally found out that it was through Maxim's other personality that the castle had resurfaced, albeit without its true master. Juste finally fought to save Maxim and, in the end, battled a wraith born out of Maxim's feelings that took over the appearance of Dracula. He saved the world and his friends from Dracula's corruption.

Richter Belmont's town was attacked by dark legions and as soon as he found out, he rode toward the town on his carriage. Unfortunately, he was late as Dracula kidnapped his fiancée, Annette and three other maidens from the village.‎ Richter made his way through many formidable creatures and obstacles. He saved all four maidens and defeated Dracula, saving the world from darkness once more. Richter has also got the reputation of being the most powerful vampire hunter at the time.

Hidden from History
Until the 19th century, the Belmonts steadily defeated Dracula during his resurrections. However, sometime after the Era of Richard Belmont, the Belmonts vanished and did not appear again until 1999, when Julius Belmont came and defeated Dracula once and for all. Until that point, the Morris Clan took hold of the Vampire Killer, as the Belmonts were not allowed to touch it until that time. However, the inhabitants of Wygol Village were descendants of the Belmont Clan, which resulted in the rogue Ecclesia member, Albus, abducting them in the hopes of finding a way to bypass the deadly aspects of his stolen Dominus glyphs and use them in order to ensure his adopted sister Shanoa didn't end up being killed from using them herself.

Myths and Legends
Dracula had attacked Transylvania with his legions and no man could stand against him, which forced the church to find a member of the Belmont clan. This led them to find Trevor, whom defeated hordes of Dracula's legions, found valuable allies on his way, and ultimately defeated Dracula himself.

Belmont Family Line

 * Leon Belmont - The founder of the hunting Belmont Clan, responsible for swearing his clan to fight evil for eternity. Originally a knight of the church, he threw away his title to save his betrothed from a vampire. He was the first to use the Vampire Killer and the former best-friend of the man who will become Dracula, Mathias Cronqvist.
 * Sybil Belmont
 * Sonia Belmont
 * Trevor (Ralph C.) Belmont - The first Belmont to have truly defeated and killed Dracula along with Sypha Belnades (who would become his wife), Grant Danasty and Alucard, the son of Dracula.
 * Ann Belmont - The first daughter and child of Trevor and Sypha who married Royd Morris and became the matriarch of the Morris Clan.
 * Frediric Belmont - The only son of Trevor and Sypha who married Janis Belmont and is the grandfather of Christopher Belmont.
 * Marry Belmont - The second daughter of Trevor and Sypha who married Leo Helsing and became the matriarch of the Van Helsing Clan.
 * Lias Belmont
 * Christopher Belmont
 * Soleil Belmont
 * Amanda Belmont - The only daughter of Christopher who married Raypl Ericsson and the ancestor of Bolt Ericcson
 * Gerhart Belmont - The second son of Christopher who was born a decade after his brother Soleil.
 * Pierre Belmont
 * Desmond Belmont
 * Zoe Belmont and Dolores Belmont
 * Simon Belmont
 * Juste Belmont
 * Richter Belmont
 * Michael Gelhart Schneider
 * Reinhardt Schneider Belmont
 * Victor Belmont
 * Julius Belmont - The current head of the Belmont Clan and the one to finally finish Dracula, allowing his soul to be reincarnated as Soma Cruz.
 * Kokoro Belmont
 * Sepia Belmont
 * Livia Belmont - The Current heiress of the Belmont Clan whose parents died when she was young.

Branching Belmonts

 * Sid Belmont - A Belmont descended from Trevor Belmont's second child. He was joined by descendants of the other Legendary Three Warriors and Alucard.
 * Ray Andrews - An old and wise Belmont who trained Sharon Werner.
 * Sharon Werner - A Belmont who became a Krsnik after fighting against Dracula and assisted Dean Silva in dealing with Claude Runkle, a vampire who was believed to be possessed by Dracula.
 * Richard Belmont - More commonly known as Jack Henry Dappen, the younger brother of Michael Gelhart Schneider who also changed his surname from Belmont in disgust from his father's mistakes.
 * Michael R. Belmont - The mysterious descendant of Richter Belmont who emerges from hiding in 1917 to remind Eric Lecarde of his destiny as a vampire hunter.
 * Simon Belmont - An actor, trained as a vampire hunter, named after his ancestor that dealt with a vampire who also called himself Dracula.
 * Rose Belmont
 * Adrian D. Belmont
 * Travis Belmont
 * Unnamed Belmont - A vampire hunter who worked with a female gunner and a young witch to defeat a powerful vampire seeking Dracula's throne in Castlevania

Belmonts through Marriage

 * Sypha Belnades - The wife of Trevor Belmont and matriarch of the Belnades Clan.
 * Royd Morris - The Husband of the Ann Belmont and the patriarch of the Morris Clan.
 * Leo Helsing - The Husband of Marry Belmont and the patriarch of the Van Helsing Clan.
 * Illyana "Cynthia" Riktor - The Wife of Christopher Belmont.
 * Raypl Ericsson - The Husband of Amanda Belmont and a member of the Ericsson Clan.
 * Lydie Erlanger - The Wife of Juste Belmont.
 * Annette Belmont - The Wife of Richter Belmont.

Quotes

 * "This storied clan of vampire hunters has engaged in mortal combat against Dracula countless times in the past. However, one day the Belmonts simply vanished. In their absence, a number of clans have risen in their place to continue the fight against evil." - The Order of Ecclesia


 * "The Belmont Clan is one of the most powerful and influential clans within the supernatural-hunter world, if not, the most. Considering the fact most supernatural-hunting clans only existed for around 4-5 generations at most before being wiped out by the supernatural and what not, the fact this clan had been established since the 11th century and is still extremely powerful 'till this day is one of the world's greatest mystery." - Carl Black.


 * "This whip and my kinsmen will destroy you someday. From this day on, the Belmont Clan will hunt the night." - Leon Belmont making the vow.

Trivia

 * Trevor is the first Belmont to have truly defeated and killed Dracula and as such, had gained legendary status.
 * The villagers of Wygol Village are all descended from the Belmont Clan.
 * Even after leaving France, the noble house still belonged to Leon Belmont as the Church was unable to take it away from him.
 * The clan possess an alternate universe counterpart that is also known by the same name but had a very different history.

Images Sources

 * (Belmont.jpg) Belmont Clan's Symbol from Netflix's Castlevania
 * (Belmont Family.jpg) Castlevania Greatest Five by Billysan291
 * (The belmont clan by whittingtonrhett dblnus4-fullview.jpg) The Belmont Clan by whittingtonrhett
 * (The belmont five by aorashi21 d7y9f0k-fullview.jpg) The Belmont five by AoRashi21
 * (The Belmont Clan NeoJimHeadshot.png) The Belmont Clan by NeoJimHeadshot