You've heard of it, haven't you? The Legend of Sparda?

The story of a demon, the strongest of his kind rebelling after waking up to justice. He was so powerful that even the mighty Mundus was defeated in battle against him.
Sparda reigned over the human world, protecting it for many years as a legendary dark knight. He sealed all of the large hellgates, and fell in love with a human named Eva.

They had two sons, twins, named Dante and Vergil. But for some reason, some unknown reason, he vanished, and hadn't been seen since. It was believed that he was dead, leaving his children and wife behind, defenseless against Mundus' devils.

Eva was killed, and the twins were separated.

This was the story I grew up being told, that the Order of the Sword raised us all on in Fortuna. The truth is, there's much more to this tale.

The brothers would reunite years later, and began to battle over the power of Sparda. Dante had grown into a devil hunter, a protector like his father before him, but his brother, Vergil, was consumed by revenge, and a lust for power... one that was never truly thrown away. It was suppressed by Dante, who did everything in his power to save his brother, and his friend Abigale he met not long after the loss of his parents.

Dante went on to start Devil May Cry, and met a woman that goes by Lady along the way.

Vergil, on the other hand, had a child of his own with Abigale named Nero. Everything was fine... until one day, when Vergil vanished, leaving Abigale and Nero behind.

The truth is, he had people hunting him, hunting Yamato specifically, the blade that separated the human world from the demons, and one of the keys to reopening the gates. He left to keep Abigale and Nero safe from them.

After gaining Dante's support, the sons of Sparda battled the Order of the Sword in an attempt to stop them from opening the hellgate in Fortuna, to stop the rise of one of Mundus' strongest generals.

After the loss of Abigale at the hands of the Order... the Hellgate was opened. After a long battle, Vergil defeated Argosax, absorbing his soul and turning it into new power, and Nero killed the Order's leader out of revenge for the murder of his mother.

Vergil, once more consumed by lust for power and revenge, battled his brother once more, this time defeating him and going into Hell with the Force Edge, sealing the gate behind him.

Nero went on to follow in his uncle's footsteps, even taking a job offered by Dante as a devil hunter.

Dante went on with his life, his business. He met a man that he knew he had a connection to, but left him due to his request after Dante killed his half-demon mother.

Vergil's fate... remained unknown for the longest time.

Life went on normally. Until the amount of demons began to grow by the day, and Dante and Nero were greeted by mysterious women that resembled Abigale and Eva. Dante was also greeted by a mysterious, tattooed man going by the name V. Trish, the Eva lookalike, needed Dante's help to stop the return of the Devil Emperor, Mundus, but V had another job for Dante, another demon had already risen in Redgrave city.

Nero was given the same job Trish had given Dante from the Abigale lookalike, who was revealed to be named Eliza.

You might be wondering how I know all this... well, it's simple. I met the two sons of Sparda... and I met the sons of Vergil. Both of them. One of them saved my life, and kept me from being just another pawn of the Order of the Sword...