The dark priest Shaft was another in a long line of deviants who wished to use black magic in order to raise Dracula from his slumber and procure assistance from the Dark Lord in conquering all of Europe and, inevitably, the world. The difference between Shaft and all of the others is that the dark priest had the power to do it not once but twice.

In his first attempt, Shaft gathered together the forces of darkness for a ritual necessary to resurrect Count Dracula. He did this with every intention of acting as a general, a subservient to Dracula's every whim. In contributing to this cause, Shaft occupied the castle's gallery as a guardian; after his defeat, his ghostly yet still considerable essence acted as the last line of defense in the clock tower. Due to Richter Belmont's efforts, this campaign was unsuccessful.

Shaft somehow survived. Five years later, after replenishing his strength, he began a new mission with three objectives: (1) To raise Castlevania from the depths. (2) To coax Richter Belmont to the side of evil using a spell, thus removing him as a threat. And (3) to eventually raise Count Dracula from the underworld yet again. When Alucard returned to this world to to solve the mystery, he was able to break Shaft's control over Richter thanks to the advice of Maria Renard, who saw beyond the facade. The dark priest thought quickly and magically created a floating upside-down version of Castlevania to which he could escape and buy more time for the execution of objective three.

In the upside-down castle's gallery, Shaft was defeated by Alucard but was successful in his final goal regardless. Though, he didn't live long enough to see the conclusion of the Alucard-Dracula confrontation that was to follow. Had he lived, through any means, he wouldn't have been happy with the result.