The creepy Prior Salas is an original character for the Netflix series, but he may be based on two dark priests from the video game series: Shaft and Zead. Shaft is one of the major antagonists in 1993’s Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine (the game was only available in Japan until 2007) and 1997’s Symphony of the Night for the PlayStation. In both games, he succeeds in resurrecting his master Dracula and terrorizing the main heroes — not unlike Sala.
Zead is the big bad of Curse of Darkness. At first, he presents himself as a priest trying to help Hector stop Isaac, but he later reveals himself to be Death itself in disguise, working to bring back Dracula from the dead.
As you’d expect, like Sala, both priests eventually meet their end.
Carmilla’s Castle
Castlevania season 3 takes us to Carmilla’s Castle in Styria, Austria, and it’s surprisingly not as creepy as one would expect. It actually looks more like a majestic palace than the creepy sanctuary of monsters. Versions of Carmilla’s castle have appeared several times in the video games, most famously in 2001’s Circle of the Moon for the Game Boy Advance. In that game, Carmilla’s goal is to, you guessed it, resurrect Dracula.
The castle also appears in the Lords of Shadow games, which are set in an alternate timeline to the rest of the games. In the first game, Gabriel Belmont defeats Carmilla and becomes Dracula, the new lord of the castle. Yes, in this continuity, Dracula is actually originally the first monster hunter in the Belmont family line.