Mathias Cronqvist

"As you wish.... the power of the true Lord of Darkness is upon you!"

- Dracula.

Dracula Vlad Tepes, or simply Dracula, formerly known as Mathias Cronqvist, is the dark lord who is the physical incarnation of Chaos and is the lord of Castlevania.

Overview
Dracula is an immortal vampire holding the position of Dark Lord, who draws upon the power of Chaos and is looked upon as the King of the Night and the embodiment of evil. Originally a human called Mathias Cronqvist, Dracula fell into madness after the death of his first wife and became an immortal vampire thanks to the powers of the Crimson Stone. With his dark powers, he built an army of creatures and his fortress, Castlevania. Since the 11th Century, the Belmont Clan stood in opposition to Dracula and legendary warriors confronted him each time he came back from the dead.

Many lesser creatures of darkness and obsessive humans are fanatically devoted to him and subscribe to the belief that he will cleanse the world from its sullied state and bring about a new order. Their belief in this is so strong that until his regeneration cycle ended in 1999, Dracula was certain to return after death due to his servants yearning for him.

Because of this, Richter Belmont accused Dracula of stealing the souls of men and their freedom. Dracula rebutted that freedom is always sacrificed to faith and asked Richter if he was truly before him by choice. Earlier in the same conversation Dracula said that the world invited him to return, with humanity calling him with praise and tribute. He was eventually definitively destroyed in 1999 by the last descendant of the Belmonts.

Appearance
Dracula has been depicted many different ways over the course of history with his appearance changing in nearly every resurrection. Dracula's appearances have been very inconsistent over the years. Sometimes he is an old man, other times he is young; sometimes he's ghostly, other times he appears fairly regular, but he always retains vampiric archetypal traits. Regardless of how he appears, he is generally shown to have a very tall disposition, appearing at least twice as tall as his opponents in his more "human" form, usually requiring that his opponents jump to hit him.

As a human, Dracula was Mathias Cronqvist, a young man with long dark hair and light blue eyes. In earlier events, Dracula has a rather ethereal appearance, presenting himself as a very decayed and aged man with a long red cloak. This look was taken even further after his first defeat by Simon Belmont, where he has no flesh on his body and his bones are exposed. In his second battle against Simon Belmont, he greatly resembles Death. He is shrouded in a black mantle and his face is that of a skull.

In some cases, he resembles an atrocious version of the Béla Lugosi vampire stereotype with a widow's peak hairstyle along with a tuxedo with a cape. In other cases, he is also depicted with shoulder-length and unkempt white hair as well as a goatee, which bore some resemblance to how Count Dracula was described.

Sometimes Dracula sports a dark sorcerer like appearance with long flowing robes as seen in the beginning of his war on humanity. In his battle agonist Richter Belmont, Dracula appears as a young man with purple hair with a tuxedo and a long dark cloak.

Personality
Dracula has shown a certain level of inconsistency regarding his personality, although common elements have been an outstanding malice regarding the human race and God and a well defined superiority complex (he thinks every creature is inferior to him) when confronting his enemies. When facing his son, Alucard, Dracula shows a softer side and a clear love for his son and also expresses his eternal love for Alucard's mother as well. After his death in 1797, Dracula becomes much more consistent and seems devoid of many emotions, though the hostility and superiority complex still remain.

Some of his most consistent traits however are his deep cruelty and indifference to all the destruction he brings with him, while somewhat taking pleasure on the suffering he inflicts on others. He also justifies his actions by claiming that it is not by his power that he comes back, but through the malice of humans that makes his return possible, going as far as questioning whether he is truly "evil" because of this.

Despite being challenged and defeated numerous times by the Belmont Clan, he always seems to play with them at first before using his full power, possibly underestimating them while at the same time enjoying his battles with the family, something he does mention from time to time as he even looks forward to his next encounter against the Belmonts after being defeated.

However during his defeat in 1797, he actually feels for the first time regretful of his actions after knowing of Lisa's wish for him, although during his subsequent revivals he seems to feel nothing of that. A possible reason for this could be that the evil of humanity ensures that Dracula remains constantly evil and as such an embodiment of malice. Whenever Dracula's background is explained he often becomes what he is as a result of the loss of his loved ones and thus he can be seen as a rather tragic villain. In addition, upon being defeated by Alucard the second time, he implies that, despite being at war with God, he still retained some knowledge of the Bible, as he quoted the Book of Matthew's warning about losing one's soul in their pursuit of gaining the world. In addition, he also seemed genuinely impressed that innocence remains even in a world filled with evil when being beaten by Maria Renard.

Unlike other vampires, Dracula is never really seen abusing his minions in any way. In fact he addresses to any of his subordinates respectfully and politely whenever he engages in any conversation and even extends this trait to his enemies. He is also shown to be fairly grateful, as he often blesses and rewards those that serve him or otherwise helped in his resurrection, be it directly (as in the case of Shaft) or indirectly (like Shanoa) by usually offering power, a high rank within his army or even immortality. However, he is shown to be merciless toward any minions of his that defect from him, which is especially evident in how he intended to execute Hector for treason immediately upon being revived, although he nonetheless implored the latter regarding his reasons for doing so.

When he is manifested through Soma Cruz, however, Soma's personality is much more aggressive and sadistic than Dracula usually is. He murders Celia partly out of anguish for Mina's supposed death, but mostly because he finds her infuriatingly annoying, despite the fact that it was Celia who brought Dracula back into the world. When Julius, Alucard and Yoko confront Dark Lord Soma at the end of a timeline shown by the Time Watcher Aeon, he taunts them throughout their battle, more so than Dracula's usual manner of taunting. Similarly, his manifestation through Soma, or rather, a facsimile created by a grimoire catalogue, was shown to recognize Alucard, and shown to have a grudging sense of obedience to Hermina due to wishing to continue fighting despite being close to defeat.

Myths and Legends
In some of his earlier conceptions, Dracula was a passionate demon worshipper who sold his soul and that of his son, Alucard, to an evil god in exchange for his power. Later developments retconned Alucard as having been born as a vampire-human hybrid, but Dracula's pact with the evil god remained as the means through which he became the Dark Lord, obtaining control over the legions of darkness.

The reasons for Mathias' fall and metamorphosis seem to be strongly inspired by Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is an adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel, Dracula. Both Mathias and Coppola's Dracula renounce God and seek and obtain immortality out of anger at the death of their wives. While Elisabetha does not commit suicide, she does pass away while Mathias is absent 'fighting in God's name' (it has been proposed that this was during the First Crusade; however, this is not possible as according to the game's canon Elisabetha died in 1093, one year before the events of the game - Pope Urban did not call the First Crusade until November 27, 1095). Furthermore, she shares the name of Dracula's wife in the film.

Quotes

 * "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets." - Dracula to Richter Belmont.

Trivia

 * Whenever encountering his opponents, he generally holds a wine glass that presumably contained blood, only to toss it aside at their feet before promptly fighting them.

Image Sources

 * (Dracula castlevania by lo0bo0 d98dsud-fullview.jpg) Dracula Castlevania by Lo0bo0