Relating the fiction of Castlevania with actual history whether well known & likely misunderstood or largely unknown history.
Cv = part of Castlevania fictional timeline
CvBS = possibly BS that some would exclude from the timeline
If it doesn't say Cv then it's actual history.
400's-200's BCE: Ancient Celtic La Téne culture is present in Transylvania
387 BCE: Rome sacked by the Celtic Gauls led by Brennus.
200's BCE: Kingdom of Dacia/Thracia takes over La Téne territory of what is now Romania. (Thracian=Northern Dacians)
About 61 CE: Nero, the last Caesar, the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, gives the order to destroy the Druids (those of Britain who were already pushed out to the Isle of Anglesey) finally and utterly. Queen Boudica of the Iceni makes a powerful last stand. The Roman troops despite their superior numbers are too petrified to move at first until pressed forward by their commanders. Boucida's forces may have committed gruesome acts though. Not sure what all the truth is as the accounts differ even between commanders on the Roman side.
376: Goths crossed the Danube River into Roman Territory.
410: Rome sacked by Visigoths led by Alaric I.
455: Rome sacked by Vandals led by Geiseric.
476: Odoacer, of part Gothic Scirii descent, unseated the Roman Emperor Romulus.
546: Rome sacked by Ostrogoths led by Totila.
846: Rome sacked by Saracens.
872: Charlemagne / Charles the Great, son of Pepin the Short, ordered the execution of 4,500 Saxon prisoners just for being Pagan. Joyeuse was his sword. Its name means "Joyful."
997 Cv: Dracula born about this time.
1046-1102 CvBS Reboot - Gabriel Belmont becomes Dracula
1075: Transylvania first documented in Medieval Latin as Ultra Silvam ("Beyond the Forest/Woods")
1084: Rome sacked by Normans led by Robert Guiscard.
1094 CvBS Origin: Leon Belmont has his adventure. Someone becomes Dracula.
Early 1300's: Principality of Wallachia founded.
1397 Cv: Alucard born about this time.
1436: Line of House of Draculesti began with Vlad II Dracul's reign. House of Danesti was rival Wallachian noble family. Both came from the House of Basarab.
1442: The real Vlad III Draculea and his younger brother, Radu, are sent as collateral hostages to the Ottoman Empire. They become fluent in Turkish language and are trained in warfare. Vlad III's brother converts and stays loyal to Ottomans.
1447: Boyars allied with John Hunyadi killed Vlad II Dracul in some marshes near Balteni and then blind and bury alive his eldest son Mircea II. Ottomans invade and put Vlad III Draculea on the throne of Wallachia for his first brief rule. Hunyadi invades and puts Vladislav II of the Danesti clan on the throne.
1450 CvBS Origin: Sonia Belmont vs Dracula after being tested by her lover Alucard. Trevor/Ralph is her son. Alucard as the father is debatable.
1456-62: Real Vlad III reconquers Wallachia, kills Vladislav II Danesti in combat, and begins his second reign. He turns against the Ottomans and uses everything he learned from them, even infiltrating their camp and running amok within. He renovates the ruins of Poenäri Castle as a stronghold defending against Ottomans and uses Bran Castle in the Southern Carpathian Mountains as a staging point for raiding Transylvanian Saxons. He curbed the socio-economic power of Boyars and foreign merchants and improved the conditions in Wallachia.
1462: Real Vlad III's first wife or mistress supposedly named Elisabeta jumped to her death from a castle tower into the Arges River rather than surrender to Turks. Vlad III had one child with her. Matthias Corvinus, son of John Hunyadi, having squandered money from the Pope meant for war, betrays and imprisons the real Vlad III. He forges a letter to frame Vlad III for treason. Ottomans put Vlad III's brother Radu on the throne. Vlad III is supposedly held captive for 10 to 12 years but may not have been so confined during all of it. He was supposedly held in and moved to various castles including Corvin/Hunyadi Castle, Oratea Fortress, Visegrád, and Buda.
1475: The same year, Vlad III's brother Radu dies, and Vlad III marries Countess Ilona Szilágyi, cousin of King Matthias Corvinus. He has two children with her.
1476/77: The real Vlad III Draculea (Tepes/the Impaler) a couple months after declaring his third reign, died on the battlefield. He impaled tens of thousands but was a folk hero to some for defending Romanians. At the time Drac meant dragon. In modern times it means devil. Vlad's head was taken to Constantinople (now called Istanbul) while the exact burial place of his body is not known and is best theorized as Comana Monastery, over 100 years before it was demolished and rebuit from scratch.
1476/92 Cv: Trevor/Ralph C. Belmont,Sypha Belnades,Grant DaNasty,Alucard vs Dracula
1479 Cv: Hector, a devil forgemaster who quit shortly before Trevor defeated Dracula, is out for revenge against Isaac the other devil forgemaster loyal to Dracula. Trevor comes to investigate what's going on.
abt. 1480-1750: Witch-hunts in Europe result in a total of about 40,000 to 60,000 executions.
1492: Columbus and his brothers land in what is now the Bahamas and later betray the kind native people by enslaving them and committing mass genocide and horrific torture to rival anything Vlad III ever thought of. Within about 50 years that entire ethnic tribe is extinct. Columbus's ships were piloted by Basques who within just the last fifty years were actively fishing off the coast of North America. People from nearly all continents were already visiting the continent for thousands of years and sometimes mixing in with the native populations. North America was often a refuge for people following their original indigeonous spirituality and fleeing murderous monotheistic empires.
1521: Earliest known writing of the name Teara Rumâneasca meaning "The Romanian Land." Derived from Romanus for "Citizen of Rome" from some Italians traveling in Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. Aside from that and influence of Latin language, can't really say how much Roman heritage or blood Romanians have as there also seems to be Hungarian, Roma, Gypsy, Germanic including Saxon, Slavic, probably some Ottoman, and Celtic heritage.
1527: Rome sacked yet again by Romans... What?... This time by a mutiny of troops of the holy Roman emperor. So apparently not having been sacked by anyone else in a few hundred years, Rome had to go and sack itself.
1576 Cv: Christopher Belmont vs Dracula
1591 Cv: Christopher saves his son Soleiyu from possession by Dracula
1604-11: King James's editors work on their even more authoritarian version of the bible and change a part that says you shouldn't suffer a poisoner to live to "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live." Thus they condemned many who were actually healers with good herbal knowledge who lived more in harmony with nature.
1614: The real "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Báthory dies imprisoned behind brick walls with little slits.
1666: Great London Fire
1666 CvBS: Sonia Belmont from 1400's and Victor Belmont from 1800's warped to this time (Canceled).
1680 CvBS: Desmond Belmont has his adventure.
1681: Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") established.
1688: Robert Morden draws up a New Map of Pensilvania and New Jarsey (original on display in this museum)
1691 Cv: Simon Belmont vs Dracula
1692-93: Salem Witch Trials in which more innocents were slaughtered. 19 were hanged. 1 was pressed to death. 5 died in prison.
1693/98 Cv: Simon collects Dracula's parts to destroy him again to beat his curse. Simon battles Carmilla's mask in his quest.
Later CvBS: Some night after having destroyed Dracula, AGAIN, for crap's sake, Simon was hanging out with some Belgian monks in their abbey getting trashed on some excellent Trappist beer they were brewing. A monk got thrashing on his lute and another was hammering some wicked beats on the carillon and Simon started busting some mad moves like Capoeira style head slides and spins and Cossack kicks. One monk ran to tell his brothers, "You gotta see this holy man's glorious dance moves!" And that is why the Theme of Simon gets called Dance of the Holy Man. Some people say it's just cause a remix in Cv Chronicles was called that but they're full of beans I tell you!
1748 Cv: Maxim Kischine collects Dracula parts, gets possessed, and Juste Belmont has to save Lydie Erlanger and him.
1769: Little civil war between Pennsylvania and Connecticut begins.
1776-78: Pennamite-Yankee War mostly on hold to fight the British in the Revolution.
1789-1799: The French Revolution in which foreign forces actually got involved against the revolution attempting to keep France part of the Holy Roman empire but they couldn't stop it, because the people weren't having any more of that.
1792 Cv: Richter Belmont and Maria Renard vs Carmilla, Shaft, and Dracula.
Few years later in CvBS: Maria warped into Time Rift in Judgement.
1794 in CvBS: Richter, some rival, and Maria have an adventure (Canceled).
1797 Cv: Richter gets possessed. Maria investigates. Alucard vs Count Olrox, Shaft, and Dracula.
1799: Pennamite-Yankee War finally ends.
1800 Homebrewn Cv: Armund DeNasty vs Count Olrox
1800's CvBS: Victor Belmont gets warped to 1666 (Canceled).
1800/1810 Cv: Shanoa and Order of Ecclesia vs Dracula.
1820 Cv: Morris Baldwin and parents of Nathan Graves vs Dracula.
1830 Cv: Nathan Graves, Morris & Hugh Baldwin vs Carmilla and Dracula.
1844 Cv: Werewolf Cornell has his adventure.
1852 Cv: Henry Oldrey, Reinhard Schneider, and Carrie Fernandez(Belnades) have their adventures.
1850's: Britain begins Irish Holocaust. With no food shortage despite the potato blight they forcibly export people's crops at gunpoint.
1859: Romania established when Wallachia and Moldavia united.
1871: Carmilla, the short novella by Irishman Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is first published with illustrations in a magazine, The Dark Blue. Irish legends and lore may have had a strong influence in addition to historical reactions to alleged vampires, when people mistook stages of decay in exhumed recent corpses as signs of vampiric life.
1890's: At this time despite the official/superficial conversion to Christianity, Russian people are still dually Pagan as well and it is normal for every village to have a shaman.
1897: Dracula, the novel by Bram Stoker in which Jonathon Harker, Quincey Morris, Prof Van Helsing, Dr. Jack Seward, and Arthur Holmwood oppose Dracula.
1904: Henry Mercer builds his Museum Castle in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He doesn't impale anyone.
Before 1910 CvBS: Eric Lecarde warped into Time Rift in Judgement
1908-12: Mercer builds his home, Fonthill Castle, on the outskirts of Doylestown, Pennsylvania and has a bonfire on the roof to mock his critics. Sometime later, the first indoor concert there is held.
1913: Elite bankers take control of US currency with the establishment of their "Federal Reserve" which is in fact a private bank that works in association with the government and its treasury department.
1914: Elite bankers set up WWI
1914/17 Cv: John Morris and Eric Lecarde vs Dracula and his niece, Countess Elizabeth Bartley.
1917: Bolsheviks, backed by the elite bankers, take control of Russia. Civil war ensued for a few years in which Russians even including more genuine socialists as well as foreign forces fought the Bolsheviks, but the opposition was not unified and was unsuccessful. Under the guise of communism, the Bolsheviks achieve their real agenda of redistribution of wealth from the masses to the elite. Everyone's bank account is confiscated. While the Orthodox Church suffers some oppression, the Russian Shamans are really massacred and exiled, because stripping people of their true spirituality is a major step in enslavement.
1918: Transylvania becomes part of Romania.
1920's: My grandfather's grandfather bakes a pie full of cotton for a priest and spikes the fruit punch at a Christianing (during Prohibition!).
1922: Nosferatu movie (Count Orlok, Olrox in SotN). In some version Orlok is called Dracula.
1941: Elite bankers set up WWII. They initially sold out common people and backed a certain rising regime until that regime turned against their banking system, warranting drawing everyone into war for them to profit from.
1944 Cv: Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin vs Brauner, then Dracula.
1989: the Romanian Revolution
1999: A bunch of Christians are either smug about some impending return of Jesus or are crapping their pants about an apocalypse of war, pestulance, and computer clocks rolling over to 1900.
1999 Cv: Demon Castle War in which Julius Belmont uttery destroys Dracula and Japanese Shinto Priests seal the spirit of the castle within an eclipse.
2010: After many outdoor concerts, the second indoor concert is finally held in Fonthill Castle. No one has been impaled yet.
2015: Rome is well overdue for another sacking.
2035 Cv: An eclipse occurs and Soma Cruz finds himself in the castle.
2036 Cv: An evil cult starts messing with Soma.
Long after 2036 Cv: Within a grimoire, history of Castlevania comes alive and heroes of different times relive in a new adventure in a composite of the castle's many incarnations.
2641 Contra: Five years after the Alien Wars, during a new conflict, the Hard Corps team is offered an opportunity to fight in an arena against some whipping robot vaguely modelled after Simon.
11470's-11909 CvBS: Somewhere in this period Galamoth sends the Time Reaper to destroy previous eras of time so he can have Dracula's Throne. Aeon drafts people ranging from 1470's to early 1900's into a Time Rift to set things right.
Book sources are listed later.
Timeline by game
Akumajou = Demon Castle
Densetsu = Legend
DCD = Demon Castle Dracula / Akumajou Dracula
abt. 997 - Dracula's birth (according to SotN, no game)
1046 - 1102 Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate
1047 Lords of Shadow
1094 Lament of Innocence / Castlevania
abt. 1397 - Alucard's birth (according to SotN, no game)
1450 Legends / DCD Dark Night Prelude
1476/77 real Vlad III died
1476/92 III:Drac's Curse/Demon Castle Legend
1479 Curse of Darkness
1576 Adventure (Rebirth) / Dracula Legend
1591 II:Belmont's Revenge / Dracula Legend II
1614 real Elizabeth Bathory died (basis of Bartley in Genesis game)
1666 Resurrection (canceled)
1680 Order of Shadows (US mobile phone only)
1691 original Cv/DCD and all remakes including SuperCvIV
1693/98 II:Simon's Quest / DCD 2: The Accursed Seal
1748 Cv Harmony of Dissonance / Cv Concerto of Midnight Sun
1792 DCD X Rondo of Blood
1794 Bloodletting (canceled)
1797 Symphony of the Night / DCD X Nocturne in the Moonlight
1800 Chorus of Mysteries (NES hack)
1800/1810 Order of Ecclesia / DCD The Stolen Seal
1830 Circle of the Moon
1844-52 Legacy of Darkness / DCD Apoc Gaiden: Legend of Cornell
1852 Cv64 / DCD Apocalypse of Suckola: Real Action Adventure
1871 Carmilla novella by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
1897 Bram Stoker's Dracula
1914/17 CvBloodlines/CvNewGeneration/VampireKiller
1922 Nosferatu movie (Orlok/Olrox in SotN & Chorus NES hack)
1944 Portrait of Ruin / DCD Gallery of Labyrinth
1999 Demon Castle War (no game)
2035 Cv Aria of Sorrow / Cv Minuet of Dawn
2036 Cv Dawn of Sorrow / DCD Crucifix of the Blood Moon
Long After 2036 - Harmony of Despair
2641 Contra Hard Corps
Time Rift involving abt. 1470-1909 and somewhere 11470-11909 - Judgment
Carmilla appears in Rondo of Blood, the SNES Drac X, Drac X Chronicles (the Rondo remake), Circle of the Moon, Judgment, Lords of Shadow, and you fight just her mask in CvII:Simon's Quest. In Harmony of Dissonance you see her mask in a background but there's no fight. Castlevania versions of her are probably based on an amalgam of movies and the original novella. The companion from her Rondo version appears in Portrait of Ruin as a normal enemy named Laura, which is the name of the main character and narrator of the novella. In the movie, the Vampire Lovers, they mix up some names and changed Laura to Emma and Bertha to Laura.
The Japanese versions of Lament, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria, and some of the Lords of Shadow series actually use the US name of Castlevania.
"Vampire Killer" in English is the Japanese Genesis game but is also the name of the Euro MSX version of the original DCD.
GameTrailer's Castlevania Retrospective - got a few more refined bits of info from this. Beginning is a great intro and skipping to 1hour15min there is a wrap up with a good Castlevania timeline. Everything in between is mostly indepth reviews of the entire series. Unfortunately there's a lot of major spoilers even telling you most of the games' endings throughout the whole video after the intro.
Bonus Contra Timeline:
1957 Red Falcon lands
1973 time traveling from 2633 Contra Rebirth
1987 Contra (30 years after Red Falcon lands)
1990? Super C
2633 time traveling to 1973 Contra Rebirth
2635 Contra III: The Alien Wars
2641 (Five years after Alien Wars) Contra Hard Corps
? Operation C (for gameboy)
? Contra 4
? Contra Force for NES was a US only game.
3D Contras don't count.
Book sources:
The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians by Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu translated & annotated from 3rd French edition by Zénaďde A. Ragozin 1896 Part III Book I Chapter III
America BC: Ancient Settlers in the New World by Barry Fell 1978 (2008 edition)
Bronze Age America by Barry Fell 1982
They Came Before Columbus by Ivan Van Sertima is a good compliment to Barry Fell's books.
A People's History of the United States 1492-Present by Howard Zinn 1980 (2005 edition)
Ancient Explorers of America by Aleck Loker 2009
Although I've yet to really use its info here I recommend the following book as an excellent look at the real world at the time Simon Belmont would have lived:
A Pirate of Exquisite Mind by Diana & Michael Preston 2004
William Dampier was a pirate, buccaneer, scientist, naturalist, botanist, hydrographer, explorer, pioneering navigator, travel writer & first Englishman to document the effects of Mary Jane, who sailed around the world three times.
Note: Wikipedia is good for a lot of information, except when it conflicts with the mainstream views. They are pro-monotheism, pro-Bolshevik, and pro-banker. Wikipedia perpetuates their BS and people are unwilling to rewrite their school textbooks with true history. All sources must be examined critically and opposing views must be compared, but mainstream history is really a sick joke written by those in control. Sorry if some info here comes off too political or too irrelevant. Nothing against those who genuinely believe in some equality of communism but unfortunately those in power were not so genuine and if you ask me, Karl Marx messed up its definition in the first place.
Possible Sources:
** 1922 Nosferatu - Max Schreck
1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Lon Chaney Sr.
1931 Frankenstein - Boris Karloff
1931 Dracula - Bela Lugosi
1932 The Mummy - Boris Karloff
*** 1932 White Zombie - Bela Lugosi
* 1933 The Vampire Bat
*** 1935 The Bride of Frankenstein - Boris Karloff
1939 Son of Frankenstein- Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi
1941 King of the Zombies - Joan Woodbury
1942 The Mummy's Tomb - Lon Chaney Jr, Glenn Strange
1942 The Ghost of Frankenstein - Lon Chaney Jr, Bela Lugosi
1942 The Corpse Vanishes - Bela Lugosi
1942 The Mad Monster - Glenn Strange, Reginald Barlow
1943 Revenge of the Zombies - John Carradine
1944 One Body Too Many - Bela Lugosi
1944 The Mummy's Ghost - Lon Chaney Jr, John Carradine
1944 The Mummy's Curse - Lon Chaney Jr, Boris Karloff
1944 House of Frankenstein - Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. John Carradine, Glenn Strange
1944 The Monster Maker - Glenn Strange
1945 House of Dracula - Lon Chaney Jr. John Carradine, Glenn Strange, Boris Karloff
1949 Master Minds - Glenn Strange
1956 Indestructable Man - Lon Chaney Jr.
*** 1957 The Seventh Seal - features Death as a character
1958 Horror of Dracula - Terrence Fisher, Christopher Lee, James Bernard
1959 The Mummy - Terence Fisher, Christopher Lee
1959 H.G.Well's Invisible Man (TV series) - André Morell
1959/61 Bloodlust! - Robert Reed
1960 Et mourir de plaisir (And to die of pleasure) / Blood and Roses - supposedly the best of Carmilla movies
1963 The Terror - Boris Karloff
*** 1964 The Gorgon (HH) - Barbara Shelley, James Bernard, Terence Fisher, Christopher Lee
1964 Face of the SCreaming Werewolf - Lon Chaney Jr.
1964 La cripta e l'incubo / Crypt of the Vampire - Christopher Lee
1965 Terror-Creatures from the Grave - Barbara Steele
* 1965 Nightmare Castle - Barbara Steele
** 1965/66 Dracula: Prince of Darkness (HH) - Terrence Fisher, Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, James Bernard
1966 The Plague of the Zombies - André Morell
1967 “What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets” - The book Antimémoires” by André Malraux
1967 The Mummy's Shroud - André Morell
1968 The Astro-Zombies - John Carradine
1968 Dracula Has Risen from the Grave - Christopher Lee
1970 Frankenstein - Boris Karloff
1970 Count Dracula - Christopher Lee
1970 One More Time - Christopher Lee
1970 Taste the Blood of Dracula - Christopher Lee, James Bernard
1970 Scars of Dracula - Christopher Lee, James Bernard
*** 1970 Countess Dracula (HH)
*** 1970 The Vampire Lovers (HH)
*** 1970 Lust for the Vampire (HH)
*** 1971 Twins of Evil (HH)
1972 Dracula A.D. 1972 - Christopher Lee
1973 The Satanic Rites of Dracula - Christopher Lee
1976 Dracula and Son - Christopher Lee
1979 Salem's Lot - features a vampire named Barlow
1989 Carmilla, episode of Nightmare Classics - Gabrielle Beaumont
** 1997 Rerelease of original Nosferatu - music by James Bernard
*** 2000 Shadow of the Vampire - Willem Dafoe plays Max Schreck playing Orlock
I've rated movies I've seen as * Good, ** Better, and *** Great.
(HH) = a Hammer Horror production