Sypha Belnades

Sypha Belnades is one of the protagonists of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. She also appears in Castlevania Judgment as a playable character.

The instruction booklet of the English version of Dracula's Curse referred to Sypha as a "Mystic Warlord", and the game itself refers to her with male pronouns, leading to confusion of Sypha's gender among players.

Early life
Sypha Belnades was a witch who harnessed the energy of spirits to command the power of the elements. Sypha grew up among witches in Wallachia. When she was very young, children of the night, including the vampire Carmilla, darkened the hearts of men and helped spark the great witch trials which resulted in the death of many of Sypha's sister witches. Both of her parents were killed in the process.

Sypha escaped and was found wandering near a monastery in Wallachia and was granted protection by the church. Sypha would remain at that monastery for some time and would train as a monk. She eventually mastered the elements of fire, ice, and lightning by making a deal with spirits.

Sypha had a burning desire to destroy anything tainted by darkness who she felt was responsible for mankind's actions against her kind and would become a hunter for the church.

Dracula's Curse
In Wallachia, during the year 1476, the populate became disturbed when monsters, who had until that point only been talked about in legend, started to appear in populated areas. According to rumors, they were commanded by a mysterious Count in black known as Dracula. Viewing the situation with great concern, the Eastern Orthodox Church sent out their troops to subdue to the threat. Because he was suspected to be a vampire, a secret team was deployed to find and defeat Dracula.

Sypha was part of the hunting party formed by the Church to take on Dracula. Since the people of Wallachia were known to be afraid of witches, and because the young woman Lisa had been executed for suspicion of witchcraft months prior, Sypha had disguised herself as a man in order to move around without concern. She was eventually captured by a Cyclops and was turned into a statue.

After receiving no word from Wallachia for some time, the Pope turned to the Belmont family as a last resort. Trevor Belmont stepped forward to end the oppression of Wallachia.

Trevor managed to put an end to the cyclops, and Sypha was freed of her petrification. She then decided to go along with him. Together with Grant Danasty, a freedom fighter, and Alucard, Dracula's son, the four heroes fought their way to Dracula's Throne Room. Through their combined efforts, they managed to subdue him. After the fight, they watched the Castle crumble at a nearby mountain cliff. All the monsters disappeared alongside with Dracula, and Wallachia was at rest.

Legacy
Sypha likely left her hard life as a hunter of the church and settled down as Trevor's wife. However, Grant could not bear watching Sypha getting married to another, and they would sorely miss him at their wedding. He would avoid them for the next three years. They would eventually have children that would carry on the Belmont legacy. Sypha proved to generally have the final say in matters dealing with the home and Trevor would continue his role as vampire hunter.

Sypha and her compatriots Alucard and Grant who had fought alongside Trevor against Dracula became known as the "Legendary Three Warriors" and their tales were passed down from generation to generation of Belmonts. Sypha had passed along great magic abilities to some of her descendants, most noticeably Juste Belmont, who would be born two hundred and fifty years later. Her descendants would face Dracula many times over the next five hundred years.

Other members of the Belnades Clan would also continue serving the church in much the same capacity that Sypha had for generations, including Yoko Belnades in the 21st century. Their exact relationship to Sypha is unclear. Other relative of Sypha is Charlotte Aulin of the 20th century.