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 Richter Belmont
Richter's accomplishments have made him one of the more celebrated Belmonts, and his popularity is second only to Simon's. Though, his plight was fairly more complex than most of the normal hunt-and-kill-Dracula Belmonts', his burden deeper. When the dark priest Shaft plotted to conquer the world by resurrecting Dracula and following the Dark Lord's lead, it was Richter who bore the troubling onus. Upon his return, Dracula commanded that his vile forces ravage the young Belmont's village and in the process abduct his girlfriend, Annet, her younger sister, Maria, and other women important to the village's long-term health. This act pushed Richter over the line and within him there was instilled a sense of justice; it was now his mission to exterminate evil's amassed army, to confront the instigating Shaft, to arrive in time to save the women, and to put the Count out of his misery.
What Richter didn't realize is that Shaft was more resourceful than originally thought. The dark priest survived his seeming defeat and lived to hatch a new plan: During their encounter, he cast on Richter a spell that would take effect much later. In time, it poisoned Richter's mind and coaxed him to the side of evil, removing him as an obstacle toward evil's goal of world domination. The turn was kept quiet, and to those ignorant, Richter had simply "disappeared." It was Maria Renard who set out to look for him. Sensing an imbalance tipping greatly in the favor of evil, powerful forces awakened the soul of Alucard, who rose from his slumber, braved the remodeled Castlevania, and with assistance from Maria freed Richter from Shaft's control.
Despite this excusable lapse, Richter is largely recognized as one of the more powerful Belmont warriors and for a long period its last in line: In addition to perfecting the special moves, he added those character-specific like the backflip, the air dash, the spinkick, and the slide kick; he also expanded upon the process of augmenting mystic weapons by instituting the item-crash
story:
 Almost a half-century had passed before the groundswell of evil again began to grow to a boil. A sure sign of its impending uprising was the sudden emergence of the dark priest named Shaft. Shaft, who was a master in the black arts, wanted nothing short of world conquest for all of his kind. Knowing that the power of the vampire hunters might be too much of an obstacle, he gathered together his followers and held an unholy ritual where they sacrificed a young woman with one goal in mind: To resurrect Count Dracula. And indeed, the Dark Lord lived again, and, concurrently, Castlevania sprang itself up from the depths. Shaft knew all too well that his best bet was to play the role of subservient to Dracula, who was more likely the key, the pure representation of evil's lust for dominance.
Dracula, now more wise to his opponents' sense of justice and emotional status in light of his encounters with Soleiyu Belmont and Maxim Kischine, formed a plan: He knew that his only true hope to defeat the Belmonts lay with the propensity to blind their justice-seeking nature by enraging them in other ways. If he could only take something of theirs, he thought, maybe he could achieve this goal. With the dark priest Shaft by his side, he certainly had an edge.
In the meantime, Richter Belmont was living a peaceful life with his girlfriend, Annet Renard. One night, without warning, Dracula's plan was set in motion: He commanded his forces to head out into Warakiya, to ravage Richter Belmont's entire home town, and to kidnap some of the town's women before leaving the ruins. While studying a rough sketch of Castlevania's interior, Richter looked out the window only to catch sight of the many skeletons and demons laying waste to his town. Without hesitation, he grabbed hold of the Vampire Killer whip and mystic sub-weapons, he scoured the town, and he quickly terminated the undead fleet. But it was too late: Four town women--including Annet and her younger sister, Maria--had been kidnapped and taken to Castlevania.
Richter hopped into his horse-pulled carriage and raced toward the castle. Moments later, Death flew in from the blindside to instigate some mind games--in this case, it was a swift toss of sickle in the Belmont's general direction. After a short battle, where Richter held his own, the belittling Death, having sent his message, flew off into the distance. Undeterred, Richter arrived at the castle. Once inside, he located Shaft almost immediately in the main halls, where the dark priest was holding Maria in suspended animation, no doubt ready to banish her into a netherworld. At the very sight of Richter, though, Shaft released the spell and vanished. Maria was more than just happy to be saved--the magically gifted youth was determined to aid Richter, to assist him with her magical prowess for the rest of the journey. Continuing on together, they scurried through the castle and its outland, where they battled and defeated the same old faces of Dracula's army while saving the other missing women.
When Shaft intervened with his nostalgic bag of tricks, he, too, felt the power of the whip. Shaft, a true mastermind, was badly injured but managed to feign total defeat and without notice chant upon Richter a spell that would take effect much later. Still, the dark priest was for now out of the picture, which meant access to the castle's twisted clock tower, where Richter located his beloved, Annet, who was being held within a specially locked chamber. Relieved to see her alive and well, it filled Richter with a sense of virility, and, despite having always dreaded his vampire-hunting destiny, he was now more determined than ever to vanquish the Dark Lord. High in the castle keep, another confrontation with Dracula was at hand, and, as had his ancestors, Richter emerged victorious from the deadly duel. After the battle, he and his future family, the capable Renards, embraced; after staring down the castle from a mountain cliff, a sense of satisfaction filling the troupe, the trio began the long journey home.
 EU SUNT DRACULA · Fri Dec 31, 2010 @ 06:40am · 0 Comments |
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