A 16th century image of a salamander dwelling in the fire from The Book of Lambspring.
The salamander is an amphibian of the order Urodela which, as with many real creatures, often has been ascribed fantastic and sometimes occult qualities by pre-modern authors (as in the allegorical descriptions of animals in medieval bestiaries) not possessed by the real organism. The legendary salamander is often depicted as a typical salamander in shape, with a lizard-like form, but is usually ascribed an affinity with fire, sometimes specifically elemental fire.
The association of the salamander with fire appeared first in ancient Greece, where Pliny the Elder writes in his Natural History that "a salamander is so cold that it puts out fire on contact. It vomits from its mouth a milky liquid; if this liquid touches any part of the human body, it causes all the hair to fall off and the skin to change color and break out in a rash." The ability to put out fire is repeated by Saint Augustine in the 5th century and Isidore of Seville in the 7th century.
Legends have developed around the salamander over the centuries, many related to fire. This connection likely originates from the tendency of many salamanders to dwell inside rotting logs. When placed into a fire, the salamander would attempt to escape from the log, lending to the belief that salamanders were created from flames.
Description[]
The Salamander is a reptilian creature which dwells in fire. In the Castlevania series, it commonly appears as a serpent-like dragon which flies through the air, rather than the lizard-like animal from which it takes its name, and is heavily associated with the Fire element.
It usually appears throughout the series as a spell which will summon this creature to deal heavy fire damage to all enemies onscreen.
It has also been used defensively, like in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, where its Attribute Card can be used in combination with other cards to resist or absorb fire based attacks.
First appearance of the Salamander in the series, although instead of being a fire-elemental dragon like the legendary monster, this creature dwells underwater and cannot fly, although it still has the ability to spew fireballs. This creature is actually the same Serpent that first appeared in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, only going through a slight physical redesign, now portraying a red skin, but still following similar attack patterns with some slight modifications.
If the water leaking crack on the wall (that when destroyed gives access to Annet's cell) isn't destroyed while traversing the stage, the boss room will remain flooded. If this is the case, the Salamander will mainly attack by jumping over the bridge. While it will still perform most of its other attacks, it will do so less often and will never perform the coiling-around-the-bridge attack.
In some Castlevania games, the Salamander resembles the Intruder enemy from the Gradius series, also by Konami; a serpent-like dragon engulfed in flames which can spew fireballs while slithering through the air.
Salamander is also the name of a Gradius spinoff series. The name apparently alludes to the hostile military force(s) that attacks the protagonist's home planet (and neighboring planets) in those games (such as Latis).
The Salamander's body is described as exceeding 50 meters in length in the instruction booklet of Akumajō Dracula XX.[1]
