Dracula Lore Breakdown

In game Count Vlad Dracula “The Prince of Darkness” actually has very interesting lore and narrative elements from his personal biography and monthly quest line. Unfortunately we did not receive a breakdown of all the details surrounding Count Dracula so I wanted to take a moment to discuss what I appreciated most about his design and the story that he tells. I don’t want this to be a super long thread so I will boil everything down to 5 key points.

1. Dracula the warlord over the mere magician. Marvel typically likes to bounce back and forth between two sides of Dracula. The suit wearing charismatic necromancer/solomanari that we usually see in films like Nosferatu or the hammer series. And a warrior that we might see in a lot of anime (such as Hellsing) or even the unique take on the character in Blade Trinity. In current comics Dracula basically bounces back and forth between both physical appearances but all of the stereotypical traits are still tightly wrapped within himself. The decision to showcase the more warrior like side to him is a decision that is usually carefully considered and is something meant to specifically bring honor to the character while highlighting the man Vlad the Impaler over the monster that would become Dracula. Let’s take a look at an image of Dracula from his mini series in Blood Hunt where he dawned the same outfit as he wears in game. Notice how he speaks and how he’s presented

“I have maintained my title against hordes of challengers. I shall be the mountain they can do naught but crash against” Dracula’s determination and level headedness is admirable in the face of invasion. But even more so when you think about who Dracula keeps being paired with.

2. Dracula’s allegiances
In game it is acknowledged that despite being thought of (and even tagged) as a standard villain, Dracula is much closer to being an anti-hero similar to the likes of Magneto, Blade, Ghost Rider and a lot of the sort of “Knights of Marvel”. Well in the comics Dracula who we may stereotypically think of as a standard Blade or Dr Strange villain has actually been used far more often as of late as a defender of monsters, mentor to vampire slayers, and as an ambassador of monster nations (this was also the purpose of his relationship with Shiklah who he married in order to form an alliance between monster/oppressed demonic communities that were ultimately abandoned. In game it is interesting to point out the description of Dracula’s event quest where it is the Prince who recruits the summoner in an effort to save the monsters of the night from mortal exploiters which I will provide examples for through screenshots.

This reminds me even more about the relationship between Blade and Dracula throughout history where Dracula sees himself (or saw himself) as a vampire/monster hunter. A servant of God who was eventually corrupted and now seeks something greater than himself who can take up the mantle, or like in the case with other forms of media, Dracula may seek to regain his mental state from before he was corrupted so, he may return to power but also once again become a sort of hand of God or merely a protector of the creatures of night.

4. Not the villain per-say
This one will be short and sweet but I think that it was a very bold decision to make the final villain of Dracula’s EQ a clone of Dracula rather than the actual character. This essentially allowed Kabam to keep a standard generic villain version of Dracula for all of us to whale on while the intricacies of the REAL Dracula went unnoticed. It is also worth noting that Dracula actually has a clone in the comics. I believe his name is Bloodspot (something silly like that) and he’s a massive more demonic appearing version of Dracula who on paper should be equal in strength but he has none of Dracula’s drive or resourcefulness.

5. The Prince of Darkness
I think that Kabam was very serious about maintaining this identity within Dracula’s kit/lore. The Prince of Darkness can be thought of under really two schools of philosophy 1. The opposite and equal force to God and ruler of beasts. 2. The opposite and equal force to God… but in a good way albeit a little edgy.

Dracula in game genuinely has presented himself as a philosophical and depth filled character who really desires to oppose oppressors rather than being a pure dictator and seducer (which is often the imagery created by the sorcerer “Steal your wife” Dracula” this version is an actual knight. A WARRIOR! And he still has all of the necessary components of a necromancer (his degeneration is a clever way to showcase a force of nature that can directly manipulate life energy/ki) as opposed to just sucking on blood Dracula is actually draining life energy from ANY target. This would give him literal governance over death.

*Bonus (for the five of you that are still here)
Dracula’s appearance also looks a lot like Knull because they are thematically similar. Essentially Knull is what we would think of as a Devil character (The ENTP personality type) Knull was not annointed, he was created by darkness. When light came into the dark Knull became envious and through his anger and jealousy he forged a weapon that could literally tear down all of the systems that he saw being created. Now let’s compare this to Vlad the Impaler (or at least our fantasy version of him) Vlad was born into a family who were members of the “Order of the Dragon” ignoring religious sides, this was a house that was meant to serve God and literally worked under the pope. Vlad experienced death and torment when he was young, his father and siblings were vanquished and he built himself into a superpower that would spread fear and bring death to his enemies all while serving his god. Dracula through legend became a voice for the voiceless and a defender of certain values. Even in Blade trinity, Dracula has a fierce desire to defend what he believes to be truth and to preserve the future for Vampires and beasts that he deems to be worthy… these are very different characters. Very different “Devils” despite this Dracula is the one who carries the mark of the beast, Dracula imo has far greater potential than what we have seen across Rivals, MCOC, or even the current comics. And now he is officially a daywalker, he was able to EARN immunity to sunlight (and the subtext that this comes with) for ALL Vampires and he did this in both Rivals (through literal safrifice) and in Marvel comics (by helping to defeat Varnae).

I hope that in future “Collections” and maybe even a potential buff for Dracula we can continue to see more of this lore play out through dialogue and through gameplay references of all kinds. And last but not least I really want to say thank you to the game designers for implementing such a well done version of Dracula lore wise. He’s arguably the best version of Dracula across all of marvel and I’m thankful that we didn’t go the mustache twirling villain route.

Comments

Herbal_Taxman

Heck of a post, OP. Solid work.

Sundance_2099

Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad Dracula (lit. son of the dragon, his father Vlad II was also known as Vlad Dracul as he was member of the Order of the Dragon), was voivode of Wallachia. He was held hostage by the Ottoman Empire along with his brother as a child. It guaranteed Dad Vlad wouldn't fight against the Ottomans as they tried to expand into the Balkans and southern Europe. But Dad Vlad died, Vlad III was then given the chance to return to Wallachia and take the throne. Which he did. He then faced a rebellion from the Boyars, the local lords, so he had them all get together and then had his men impale them on huge spikes going from their back passage through the body and out their mouths and then stick the impaled bodies outside his castle, as a warning, like ''don't do treason!'. Hence why he's known as Vlad the Impaler. Vlad III then picked a fight with the Ottomans by refusing to pay tribute to the Sultan and taking offence at the Sultan's emissaries not removing their turbans as a sign of respect, even though he knew they couldn't, and so he had them killed.

(Waiting for the next part of the story on Youtube. There's a guy been telling the story of Vlad Tepes in his shorts. He's good.)

EdisonLaw

I think it does depend on the version of Dracula. Other versions like Castlevania are far more villainous

Herbal_Taxman

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2897723#Comment_2897723

bro coming in hot with some wild proper nouns.

Suckmysigma

wait is this a post about the lore in game that’s actually fun and entertaining?!!!! Peixe take notes!!!!!

Suckmysigma

although seriously thanks for the effort and coolness of this post OP

Capricious

thanks everyone! I made this in a stream of consciousness sort of way so I was concerned that the message wasn’t coherent. But once again I want to take some time to thank Kabam for coming out with such a great depiction of one of my all time favorites. Even down to his crystal “Oceans of Time” which was a phrased used in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (apparently this is the line that convinced Gary Oldman to take on the role) and even the many synergies/dialogue which make unexpected references to both Marvel Comics AND Castlevania.

As a last note about Castlevania it is worth noting that despite Dracula being a villainous monster, he also is fated directly by Chaos to continue to exist and he has an innate power known as “Dominance” which essentially grants him control over the will and abilities of every monster in universe. Once again this would tie into him being the Prince of Darkness and in the series he reincarnates into a more heroic character, and there’s an alternate universe version of him (Gabriel Belmont) that more blatantly takes on a roll as a Eastern God who directly opposes and eventually kills the Devil. I think there are a lot of ways we can parallel Dracula and his relationship with God to that of Classic Thor/Loki with Odin. After all The order of the Dragon that I mentioned is a combination of paganism AND monotheistic religions. Therefore Dracula in a strange way ends up being a combination of both ancient pagan/indigenous cultures AND more modern monotheistic practices. Once again relating to the “666” degeneration effect in game. RZA also has a song called “Fatal” that I really enjoy where Dracula is further personified through his twisted sense of morality and his odd relationship with God. The final lines of the song go “Strike with the force of Cain, my blood is known to revitalize the corpse of men, in the last days they said the dead would walk again. The blind, deaf, and the dumb will talk again. What interests me so much about this is how Odin himself in marvel AND norse lore is known as the God of the Dead. He was notorious for recruiting the worthy amongst the dead in order to add to his army during Ragnarok. Part of me thinks that Dracula would be the perfect foil for this line of thinking. And the makers of Castlevania (less to do with direct in game lore) appear to believe the same which is why many Death reapers including the embodiment of death tend to hang around and leech off of Dracula. In later games Dracula is even able to wield Gungnir, the boots of hermes, and other items from different pantheons. Even in actual marvel lore Thor cannot summon lightning when fighting against Dracula because the storms are unsure who to follow (which is insane! And also makes the Skyfather paralells even more noteworthy… heck just look at what they’re doing with Storm in recent years). Not sure if this makes him more or less of a villain. It would probably depend on who is telling the story.