Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont
Official artwork of Simon Belmont from Castlevania Chronicles
Series	Castlevania
Debut	Castlevania (1986)
Console of origin	Nintendo Entertainment System
Species	Human
Gender	Male

Simon Belmont is the main protagonist of Castlevania and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for NES. He also made an appearance as a playable character in Castlevania Judgment and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. Simon is a renowned vampire hunter from the 17th century, and also the first and one of the most recognized of the heroes from the Castlevania series.

Various incarnations of him have appeared in other games in the series. Besides appearances in the main series, Simon has also several cameos in other games from Konami.

Description

Simon is rather brash and inclined to force his way through situations.

Castlevania

Simon first debuted in Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System. He wears a leather breast plate, tall boots, and a bandana. He is sometimes also depicted with a cape. Simon's hair color is brown on the cover art, contrary to the artwork from the Japanese instruction manual, in which it is red. This hair color would later carry on to Kojima's design of the character.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

In Castlevania II, Simon's barbaric design is dropped and he takes on a more knightly appearance. He wears red armor decorated with yellow engravings and pearls, shoulder plates and iron gloves. Furthermore, Simon also wears a belt with a pearl in the middle, black trousers, knee-guards, and long boots. His hair color is blond on the cover art and brown in the Japanese instruction manual.

Castlevania Chronicles

Simon's appearance in the artwork for Castlevania Chronicles was designed by Ayami Kojima. Although the artwork was not made for Castlevania or Castlevania II, similar designs have since been consistently used to represent Simon's character.

Kojima's design is based on Simon's original appearance. Simon wears leather armor, long fingerless gloves, long boots and shorts. Over his left shoulder he wears part of a red vest with a fur edge. He also has a sword sheathed on his hip.

History

Background

Simon Belmont was the heir to the renowned Vampire Killer whip and of the Belmont clan and became the most famous vampire hunter. He was born around the year 1669.

Simon grew up hearing stories of his great ancestors who had defeated Dracula, along with those who helped them. As he trained in the ways of the whip, he would often wonder how he compared to these legendary warriors.

Castlevania

At the age of 22 in 1691, he would be given the opportunity to prove himself worthy of his family's legacy. On Easter Day, 100 years after he was defeated by Christopher Belmont, Count Dracula had returned. He was reawakened by a dark order of humans on Easter Day during a dark mass in an abandoned monastery.

Simon was determined to end the threat of a new reign of terror, and entered Dracula's Castle alone to face the Count. Simon slew Dracula's servants and then faced off against Dracula himself as his ancestors had. Unable to kill him in the battle and unbeknown to Simon at the time, Dracula had managed to place a curse on a wound he inflicted on Simon's back.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

The curse that Dracula had placed upon Simon 7 years ago slowly began to ravage his body. He began to think that his death was near. One night, six years after he returned from the time rift, he was contemplating his situation at his family's cemetary.

Suddenly, a mysterious woman appeared behind Simon standing in the morning mist. She explained to him that this feeling he had was due to a curse that Dracula had placed on him and that his life was in real danger. In order to be free of this curse, he would have to collect Dracula's remains - his nail, heart, rib bone, eyeball, and ring, and burn them all in the ruins of Dracula's castle. While this would defeat him for the time being, she warned him that even this might not be enough to defeat Dracula forever. She then vanished within the mist as mysteriously as she had appeared.

Simon resolved to take up this challenge and began his new quest. The land had once again become infested with monsters and the villagers would board up their houses at night and hide from the creatures that would take over their towns. Some villagers, perhaps grateful to be able to help the man who had saved their land from Dracula years earlier, assisted Simon on his quest by offering him advice on where to go next. Others did so for the money and items he would give them in exchange for their goods. Other villagers, perhaps fearful that Dracula's return would be hastened if Simon was successful in gathering his remains, would refuse to help him or offered him misleading information.

Simon was able to find each of the remains that had been gathered by Dracula's servants and placed in their strongholds in various mansions throughout the land. He returned to the site of the ruins of Dracula's castle, which was abandoned by humans and monsters alike, and placed his remains there. However, through the power of a sixth body piece, the fang, Dracula was revived. Simon managed to defeat him a second time. This time, he burned his remains and his curse was lifted. He buried what was left of Dracula in a graveyard. He was forever remembered for his bravery.