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Player Information:
Name: Samm
Age: 24
Contact: radiantwingedone on plurk , AIM at AurianEnasni
Other Characters Played: n/a
Character Information:
Name: Duke Pantarei
Canon: Game: Tales of Vesperia, with ability adding from Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave
Canon Point: Post game, prior to credit sequence.
Age: 38
Reference Links: Aselia Wikia game synopsis.
Setting:
Our world, Terca Lumireis. No one knows how far its lands and oceans stretch. For the people are no match against the hordes of monsters that crawl the earth. Barriers protect the cities in which we live, and we are completely dependent on them for our survival. These barriers are generated by the blastia. Blastia use the primeval power of aer that fills the world to provide us with fire, water, and light. They provide us with everything that has made the empire prosper. Perhaps one day we may even forget the threat of the vicious monsters lying in wait, just beyond the barriers. The blessings of the blastia will bestow ever more prosperity to the world and peace to its people. From the imperial capital Zaphias, bedrock of peace, we pray: May tranquility bless this world.
Tales of Vesperia takes place in a Japanese RPG world called Terca Lumireis. Well over a thousand years ago, the Krityan empire called Geraios rose to power, and created a blastia – a form of magical technology that used a crystalized chunk of aer – the local life-force / magic particle – combined with a formula (or spell) to do a great deal of things. One of the most important forms of blastia was the Bodhi blastia – usually taking the form of a jewel that could be worn as part of a bracelet, bracer, choker, or in a bag – that would give the wearer access to heightened strength, reflexes, and the ability to cast formula. Unfortunately, these blastia would consume more aer than the planet was naturally putting out – thus tainting the aer. The Entelexeia – a life form that evolved for the sole purpose of regulating the aer – warned the krityans that they ought to stop, but pleased with their great power, they did not. This eventually lead to a war – with the power of blastia, krityans were able to match the ancient race in strength. During this time, the city of Tarqaron was converted to a great weapon, so that the krityans could attack more Entelexeia at once. Even more reason to was what an Entelexeia left behind instead of a corpse – as Entelexeia feed upon aer, when they die the accumulated aer is left behind as crystal, known as an apatheia – which could then be shattered and used in blastia. So the Geraios civilization had double the reason to off the ancient race.
Before that could happen, the blighted aer grew greater and greater – and attempted to eat the planet. This the ancient krityans called the Adephagos. The threat of the Adephagos finally convinced them to stop making war against the Entelexeia, and band together to defeat it. Only their combined might could not. (Sometime during this war, the Entelexeia king called Spiral Draco was slain, and his apatheia used in several weapons known as the fell arms.)
A bloodline of humanity had an inborn power to manipulate aer, and they, as well as the kritya and the Entelexeia discovered a path they could take. These Children of the Full Moon, as they were called, split into two groups – one that agreed with the path that could save Terca Lumireis, and one that hated the Entelexeia enough they refused. Those who refused were sealed away under the Ever Enduring Shrine of Zaude, and most of those who agreed willingly gave up their lives to seal Terca Lumireis off from the Adephagos. The Children of the Full Moon who remained made a pact with the Entelexeia, and formed the Empire, burying the blastia and promising to never use them again. Sometime before the Geraios civilization completely failed, the krityan city of Myorzo was absorbed by an Entelexeia, and traveled the skies instead of the sea.
Of course, history gets muddled and foggy. Over time, it was forgotten that Entelexeia were more than giant monsters. And eventually, the Empire discovered that the sites they had been protecting held marvelous technology, and began unearthing it to use.
And slowly, the aer began to become blighted again, as a krityan researcher began developing more powerful blastia, unaware what it would do. Duke, a human who befriended an ancient Entelexeia, Elucifur, tried to warn him, but unfortunately, those who wanted the blastia from that krityan didn't stop using them.
Entelexeia and humans went to war once again, and this fighting changed the face of a mountain range. Eventually, Duke and Elucifur won the war for humanity, however the Empire didn't wish to relinquish the benefits of blastia, and in fear of the strength the two held, attacked them while they were recovering. Elucifur was slain, and Duke's trust shattered. Duke went on to steal an imperial heirloom, a sword known as Dein Nomos, which was proof of right to rule, and vanished into the wilds of Terca Lumireis. Not long after, the aging emperor died, and the Empire was thrown into the chaos of an unclear succession. During this time, people disillusioned with how the Empire ran broke away, moving to another continent and began forming Guilds.
However, blastia were still in use. For ten years, Duke moved about, trying to help the balance as the Entelexeia did, while the commandant of the empire – more or less in charge while there was no emperor – tried to find him for the sword.
Eventually, things came to the breaking point. The commandant had been manipulating guilds and imperial knights alike into making him a weapon that could match Dein Nomos, into wounding and killing some of the few Entelexeia who remain, and one of the imperial candidates was a strong Child of the Full Moon. With apatheia in hand, he kidnapped the imperial princess from her friends, and by forcefully using her powers, sought to gain entrance to the Shrine of Zaude, believing it to be a powerful weapon he could use to take greater control of the world and fix the corrupt systems in place by making his own. Duke had lent his aid – in the form of Dein Nomos – to this group of friends of the princess, and they went to stop the commandant.
They failed, but the commandant did as well. The Shrine of Zaude was not a weapon, as he thought, but a shield against the Adephagos, as previously mentioned. And he turned it off.
Furious with this failure, Duke took his sword back, swearing to protect Terca Lumireis. The princess was reclaimed by her friends, and they also decided to try to protect the world – by taking what apatheia they could find, and using them as a focus to tame the out of control aer by binding the aer to an element, creating mana. The side effect was the Entelexeia who died to form that apatheia was reborn as a Spirit of whatever element that they ended up bound to. They would take this one better – get rid of all the blastia causing the blighted aer, that was calling to the adephagos, and turn all those fragmented cores into spirits, stabilizing the aer and protecting the world.
Duke came across the princess and her friends and they told him their plan, hopping to gain his help. He found their willingness to change the natural order of things to save themselves hopelessly arrogant, and refused, leaving to go put forward his own plan. While the princess and her friends created the four elemental spirits, Duke went to the city of Aspio, and woke the ancient city of Tarqaron from under it. While in the sky upon this ancient tower, Duke began implementing his plan – a formula that would grow and spread across the world, stealing away the life force of every human so that he could direct this raw power to destroy the Adephagos.
It is there that the princess and her friends confronted him, where they fought three consecutive battles to prove which plan was the better through their own strengths, and where Duke collapsed, unable to fight further. The princess and her friends started their plan, found it just under enough, and Duke, bruised to his senses over his promise to protect Terca Lumireis, provided the strength they needed to succeed.
After converting all the blastia cores, and then all of the Adephagos itself, into spirits, Duke turned to leave Tarqaron.
Personality:
At first glance, the response would be "what personality?"
Duke is quiet, reserved, and abrupt with his comings and leavings. He's distant and cold, and has a particularly rude streak – when faced with questions he would rather not answer, he says flat out "Those matters exceed your comprehension", while "those matters" were "Just who are you?! What is that sword of yours?!" It doesn't help that he's socially awkward, thinking aloud in the middle of these "conversations". He keeps his distance even from those who he has talked to many times; rarely asking for anything that isn't relevant to the situation. It's rare that Duke will refer to anyone by anything other than "you", resorting to vague descriptions when he cannot simply stare at them and make his meaning clear. He reacts rather than replies to greetings, and often decides when a conversation is over by turning and leaving.
He is confident and controlled. There is a visible air of confidence about the way he carries himself, one that Yuri calls an odd sort of meditative serenity, and it's coupled with an almost militaristic way of holding himself. The few times he holds a blade in hand, it is always held just less than horizontal at his size – the tip angled toward the ground. This relaxed position speaks of his confidence in his skill to react in time to any threat. He never moves at a speed faster than a walk, his hands never leave loose fists at his sides, his expression barely flickers from a faint, blank frown, and his voice never rises. It's far more likely that he will grow even quieter, thinking aloud about some topic or another, than anything else. He doesn't swear, verbally or physically lash out, or seem to have a temper at all. Insults, teasing, and sarcasm roll off him with only a look or a comment about he finds such frivolousness irritating, assuming he recognizes what they are supposed to be.
"A single life cannot be privileged over the fate of the world"; through his own words, Duke shows himself to be a man of action and the idea of "the many before the one". Unlike others who think this way, his 'one' is always less important than the many; although in Duke's case, he considers the "many" to be Terca Lumireis itself, rather than the humans who inhabit it. He believes that even he, a human who lives in harmony with nature, might one day cause Terca Lumireis harm, and this showed in his plan for the removal for all humans. He was perfectly willing to kill himself, and every other human on the planet, to protect the world. Duke's opinion of himself, other than that he may cause harm to Terca Lumireis, is never stated. He holds himself with confidence, is clearly aware of his strength and power, and attempts to keep himself removed from humans, but remains clearly aware that he is one.
"Words are cheap", if the death of his best friend taught him nothing else, it taught him that words can be said, but that doesn't truly change anything. Elucifur had said he would simply watch, and through Duke's association with him, he knew him to keep this promise, but the humans smiled and agreed, then killed him out of fear of the power Elucifur swore he would not use. This doesn't mean that Duke won't keep his word, however, just that anything said to him by a human – any promise made to him by a human – is taken with a great deal of suspicion that it won't be held to. He's a man who removes threats when they become them, does rather than says, and doesn't care about "consequences". Twice, his actions in calming Aer Krene and destroying Hermes Blastia have saved the party, a band of the disliked humans. Had he but waited a little longer in both Keiv Moc and Ghasfarost, the party might have been wiped out, but Duke thought the threat to the planet not worth waiting longer for removing said threats.
Despite being a man of action, he doesn't take any joy from fighting. Killing isn't something he enjoys, and he prefers to avoid to get into a situation where he would have to. However, if he had to fight, and fight at full strength, he would prefer to leave no witnesses. Knowing exactly how powerful Elucifur is what drove humans into slaying the Entelexeia. It was due to fear, so Duke would prefer people underestimated him.
Avoidance is Duke's answer to "fight or flight" – avoid the need to pick one of the two entirely. Duke rarely throws the first blow, and will often attempt to leave when someone tries to pull him into a fight. It is also his reaction to topics he doesn't want to discuss – shut it down verbally, or simply walk off. As with his emotions, there's a boiling point before anything happens – although a short cut would be to insult his dead friend.
If someone can get past this deflecting, emotionless shell, they find loyalty. If Duke joins his cause with another's, if morals or goals match his, if he has some sort of fondness or affection, he will stay through thick and thin until he witnesses a blatant breach of trust. Duke's trust is fragile after Elucifur was murdered, repairing it for the sake of friendship could take years. Regaining it after breaking his trust is a feat that stands close to impossible.
Duke finds amusement in the subtle humors. He finds ironic words amusing, or at least sounds amused, and may even call the one being ironic out in a way. "So I am the only stubborn one?" was his response to Yuri's commenting on his stubbornness, complete with a rising, almost incredulous tone. However, he has no appreciation for Raven's sort of humor, referring to it as foolishness and clowning.
Despite how jaded he is about what to expect from humans, he manages to be a little naive about the workings inside human society. He understands the chain of command, and some of the workings of the upper-class households, but otherwise very little beyond his pessimistic views of imminent betrayal and inability to learn from the past. Part of this is his odd thought patterns. He melds animal-like behaviors with more human ones, understanding more base, linear thoughts but having trouble with the more convoluted human patterns. He understands killing for food, for imminent threat removal, and for defense, but not for many of the other reasons, such as over Blastia or for resources. Some of his body language is much closer to animalistic than it is to humans – in humans, tilting one's head down is normally a sign of submission while tilting back is more of a haughty stance, and Duke does the opposite. Baring one's throat is a sign of submission, and lowering one's head more aggressive. He is as curious, and as picky about what he'll be curious about, like any cat, and has the single minded tenacity of a terrier. Because of this merge of more animal-like patterns and human patterns, he has a hard time understanding how to deal with people. Mixed with his expectations for betrayal, and ten years removed from society, he's a social mess.
Duke does not like people, simply based on the fact they are human. Still, even after realizing his mistakes, he has a great deal of trouble trusting just any human. Although he finds that the human is friends with one he sort-of trusts, like a member of Brave Vesperia, he will be more likely to attempt to try. If someone manages to get close to him, he might show a bit of 'closeness' in his odd, quiet fashion. Duke has lost someone very important to him, and doesn't like how that felt, nor does he want to experience that again. He'd do everything in his power to prevent losing someone else, even if that means, for the most part, avoiding getting too close to anyone else. While he does ally himself with Khroma and has been working with her since Elucifur's death, she still finds his motives a mystery.
One thing that separates Duke from the heroes is that he knows his limits and doesn't attempt to push them. This isn't the sort of "this project got hard, I give up" sort of quitting one sees in modern settings, but the sort that when he feels that he can do no further, he only spends a short amount of time trying anyway before he scraps that plan and throws himself in a different direction. Raven comments on this when they try to convince him not to steal the life of all humans at Tarqaron. Part of the reason Duke quits so easily is because he expects no help, doesn't trust humans enough to try to get them to aid him, and thus has only a limited amount of back up plans and allies.
Religion on Terca Lumireis is a vague thing. There are mentions of The Goddess, but there are no real church systems, or many more mentions of anything beyond a hell, and someplace better. The Shrine of Baction seems to indicate that humans once worshiped Entelexeia as gods. Neither of these are what Duke follows, and by his own words, "there is no such thing." In reply to Yuri commenting that their repeated meetings were of fate. As a man who has walked more of his world than any other human, has spoken with the Entelexeia and flown with them, Duke does not hold them to be deities. As traveled and learned as he is, he also knows the truth behind tales and legends of the protective powers of Brave Vesperia and the true role of the Child of the Full Moon. He believes in the balance of nature, which should stay as it is, with Entelexeia governing the Aer.
Duke used to be a man whose sole motivation was the protection of Terca Lumireis, his promise to Elucifur. Everything he did was to protect, to preserve, his planet, to keep his promise to Elucifur. He lived for that promise, and nearly willingly died for it. He has little in the way of short term goals beyond survival, no long term goals beyond the next Aer Krene, finding the next abnormality to deal with. Now that the Adephagos, and Aer threats as a whole, have been dealt with, Duke has little to do.
Despite his former occupation as a Knight of the Empire, Duke has no respect for human laws anymore. This does not mean he breaks them to break them, he simply doesn't care that they exist. He still follows some of the basic, common sense ones, laws he refers to as the laws of Terca Lumireis. Flynn accuses him of think himself above the law, and as Duke has cast aside his ties to the Empire, he most definitely doesn't hold himself to their laws.
He is a slightly situational person. It depends on what he is dealing with, who he is dealing with, and what he could gain to aid Terca Lumireis. Perhaps the best description, and probably the one Brave Vesperia would give if anyone asked them to describe him, is that "Duke is Duke". He's contradictory, yet not quite hypocritical.
Appearance:
One image, post with breakdowns of his outfit.
Abilities:
Duke can somehow get along with what are considered "monsters", creatures that attack humans on sight, and keep the majority of the population of Terca Lumireis locked inside their barrier-covered cities.
Swordsman. He was a knight, so he's pretty good at traditional sword-work. He has higher agility and physical defense than anything else, which really suggests that he subscribes to "you can't hit me while I move like this" sorts of fighting. In a side game, Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave, Duke is shown fighting on foot at one point, with a larger sword than he does in canon. While he is not fast enough to seem invisible, he is still fast enough to warrant a great deal of speed lines, and hits hard enough from his stand-still, with this sword in hand, to knock a 5'6", 108lb swordswoman flying into the door a good ways behind her, hard enough to drop her to her knees. So clearly while he's a roughly 6', skinny old-for-jrpg man, he still hits really hard.
Mage. Dear god, he is a good mage. Not only does he craft spells (most notably the ones he uses with Dein Nomos (appears like telekinesis), his formula to steal the life force of all humans on the planet, and Guilty Resolver (A new spell for this series)) but out of the available elements for his canon, he uses a good majority of them at high tier spells. Fire, Wind + Fire (effectively 'Lightning'), Light, Dark, Non-Elemental, and Healing magic are available (and his Wind + Fire spell is one that is altered from a Wind spell, so its arguable that he can use Wind spells as well). Not only that, but he is so skilled with magic that he regains the TP (the version of "mana" or "magic" points of most of the Tales Series) that he just consumed after his attack fades (I usually have this as a part of his spellcrafting, that he found the extra to his spells and streamlined them, and partially that he is so in-tune with magic he can find the scraps left over and gather them up to use them again) It's also a thing he mentioned was the way aer was flowing – so he can either sense or otherwise see magic.
Mageknight – for the most part, Duke's only combination of magic and swordcraft (outside of artes) is that he's constantly floating a good half foot off the ground (in ToV and in battle in ToH:TB) and is floating his sword about to attack people.
Hermit (survival skills, self-sufficient in terms of food, shelter, clothing upkeep)
Rizomata Formula – the formula (spell) for direct manipulation of aer. This is how Duke casts without a Bodhi blastia, and he learned it off of Dein Nomos.
Inventory:
Monster Book an old collection of images and habitats of the various monsters on Terca Lumireis
Bedroll, change of clothing
Dein Nomos a sword said to be the mark of the imperial heir – Dein Nomos powerful sword that was forged by the Entelexeia. It exudes energy and has the ability to control Aer, and is thus able to obliterate magic, such as magic seals. It changes color and the way it cuts according to the person who wields it. In Duke's hands, it is one of the sharpest blades out there, and made of red and white metal. The blade comes with the Rizomata Formula – an alternative way to manipulate aer (magic)
Suitability:
Duke is most comfortable in the wilderness – world exploration would be right up his alley, and as his motivation for offing humanity was to protect his world, he would gladly throw himself into exploring and learning all he can of this one to better understand how to help it.
While he has become almost hateful of politics, and the implied lies and backstabbing inherent, he would be a good set of eyes and ears who knows – or at least knew – the human versions common in nobility.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person (Prose):
This… was new. He was tired, yes, but he wasn't this bone-numbed fog, where everything felt stiff and too quiet, too dull, not quite in focus.
A moment's thought, and staring at his knees from his spot on the ground – it was curved, those were called ditches, once he got his mind to start functioning – and the stiffness made sense. He had just been beat by Brave Vesperia, although he hadn't been feeling quite this stiff…
It took him another minute of staring at the way his boots fit to realize a couple of problems with this. One, he couldn't form a formula in his mind to even start casting, which was likely due to how his head throbbed more than anything. Two, though. Two was vastly more important.
Two, there were no ditches in Tarqaron. If he had been held half up by a shrub, a hedge, that would have been plausible. The garden level had been site of fight number one, and the air and formula above had been two and… yes there had been three, even if thinking on it made him feel empty and hollow, like something more had been filling him.
… That wasn't helping, it just made his head hurt more.
With a groan – that child hit far harder than he would ever expect, and Stalagmite was never enjoyable to be on the receiving end – Duke managed to get his feet in the ditch with the rest of him, and sit upright.
Alright, time to expand on problem number two. There were no farms on Tarqaron either. He can't deal with his aches and pains now, so the next thing to do was to find something. Shelter would be preferable.
Network:
[ video ]
[ It's a pale, tried face that hits the video at.. well, a very early hour, to judge by the lack of light. ]
I seem to have forgotten. [ He doesn't exactly sound like he really thought he'd forgotten, though. More like he was regretting… everything. Everything sounds like a good thing to regret at the moment. ]
Cities at night – are they always this… noisy. [ Duke unfortunately seems to have gotten a room that's a little close to the market that's open at all hours. ]
Or is this another side effect of avoiding cities for a decade. [ By avoiding cities, he means "being a hermit". There's a faint noise – but evidently its loud enough to Duke that he twitches. ]
Does anyone have any sleeping aids that do not involve alcohol or beating my head against a wall? [ He's.. frustrated. ]
Name: Samm
Age: 24
Contact: radiantwingedone on plurk , AIM at AurianEnasni
Other Characters Played: n/a
Character Information:
Name: Duke Pantarei
Canon: Game: Tales of Vesperia, with ability adding from Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave
Canon Point: Post game, prior to credit sequence.
Age: 38
Reference Links: Aselia Wikia game synopsis.
Setting:
Tales of Vesperia takes place in a Japanese RPG world called Terca Lumireis. Well over a thousand years ago, the Krityan empire called Geraios rose to power, and created a blastia – a form of magical technology that used a crystalized chunk of aer – the local life-force / magic particle – combined with a formula (or spell) to do a great deal of things. One of the most important forms of blastia was the Bodhi blastia – usually taking the form of a jewel that could be worn as part of a bracelet, bracer, choker, or in a bag – that would give the wearer access to heightened strength, reflexes, and the ability to cast formula. Unfortunately, these blastia would consume more aer than the planet was naturally putting out – thus tainting the aer. The Entelexeia – a life form that evolved for the sole purpose of regulating the aer – warned the krityans that they ought to stop, but pleased with their great power, they did not. This eventually lead to a war – with the power of blastia, krityans were able to match the ancient race in strength. During this time, the city of Tarqaron was converted to a great weapon, so that the krityans could attack more Entelexeia at once. Even more reason to was what an Entelexeia left behind instead of a corpse – as Entelexeia feed upon aer, when they die the accumulated aer is left behind as crystal, known as an apatheia – which could then be shattered and used in blastia. So the Geraios civilization had double the reason to off the ancient race.
Before that could happen, the blighted aer grew greater and greater – and attempted to eat the planet. This the ancient krityans called the Adephagos. The threat of the Adephagos finally convinced them to stop making war against the Entelexeia, and band together to defeat it. Only their combined might could not. (Sometime during this war, the Entelexeia king called Spiral Draco was slain, and his apatheia used in several weapons known as the fell arms.)
A bloodline of humanity had an inborn power to manipulate aer, and they, as well as the kritya and the Entelexeia discovered a path they could take. These Children of the Full Moon, as they were called, split into two groups – one that agreed with the path that could save Terca Lumireis, and one that hated the Entelexeia enough they refused. Those who refused were sealed away under the Ever Enduring Shrine of Zaude, and most of those who agreed willingly gave up their lives to seal Terca Lumireis off from the Adephagos. The Children of the Full Moon who remained made a pact with the Entelexeia, and formed the Empire, burying the blastia and promising to never use them again. Sometime before the Geraios civilization completely failed, the krityan city of Myorzo was absorbed by an Entelexeia, and traveled the skies instead of the sea.
Of course, history gets muddled and foggy. Over time, it was forgotten that Entelexeia were more than giant monsters. And eventually, the Empire discovered that the sites they had been protecting held marvelous technology, and began unearthing it to use.
And slowly, the aer began to become blighted again, as a krityan researcher began developing more powerful blastia, unaware what it would do. Duke, a human who befriended an ancient Entelexeia, Elucifur, tried to warn him, but unfortunately, those who wanted the blastia from that krityan didn't stop using them.
Entelexeia and humans went to war once again, and this fighting changed the face of a mountain range. Eventually, Duke and Elucifur won the war for humanity, however the Empire didn't wish to relinquish the benefits of blastia, and in fear of the strength the two held, attacked them while they were recovering. Elucifur was slain, and Duke's trust shattered. Duke went on to steal an imperial heirloom, a sword known as Dein Nomos, which was proof of right to rule, and vanished into the wilds of Terca Lumireis. Not long after, the aging emperor died, and the Empire was thrown into the chaos of an unclear succession. During this time, people disillusioned with how the Empire ran broke away, moving to another continent and began forming Guilds.
However, blastia were still in use. For ten years, Duke moved about, trying to help the balance as the Entelexeia did, while the commandant of the empire – more or less in charge while there was no emperor – tried to find him for the sword.
Eventually, things came to the breaking point. The commandant had been manipulating guilds and imperial knights alike into making him a weapon that could match Dein Nomos, into wounding and killing some of the few Entelexeia who remain, and one of the imperial candidates was a strong Child of the Full Moon. With apatheia in hand, he kidnapped the imperial princess from her friends, and by forcefully using her powers, sought to gain entrance to the Shrine of Zaude, believing it to be a powerful weapon he could use to take greater control of the world and fix the corrupt systems in place by making his own. Duke had lent his aid – in the form of Dein Nomos – to this group of friends of the princess, and they went to stop the commandant.
They failed, but the commandant did as well. The Shrine of Zaude was not a weapon, as he thought, but a shield against the Adephagos, as previously mentioned. And he turned it off.
Furious with this failure, Duke took his sword back, swearing to protect Terca Lumireis. The princess was reclaimed by her friends, and they also decided to try to protect the world – by taking what apatheia they could find, and using them as a focus to tame the out of control aer by binding the aer to an element, creating mana. The side effect was the Entelexeia who died to form that apatheia was reborn as a Spirit of whatever element that they ended up bound to. They would take this one better – get rid of all the blastia causing the blighted aer, that was calling to the adephagos, and turn all those fragmented cores into spirits, stabilizing the aer and protecting the world.
Duke came across the princess and her friends and they told him their plan, hopping to gain his help. He found their willingness to change the natural order of things to save themselves hopelessly arrogant, and refused, leaving to go put forward his own plan. While the princess and her friends created the four elemental spirits, Duke went to the city of Aspio, and woke the ancient city of Tarqaron from under it. While in the sky upon this ancient tower, Duke began implementing his plan – a formula that would grow and spread across the world, stealing away the life force of every human so that he could direct this raw power to destroy the Adephagos.
It is there that the princess and her friends confronted him, where they fought three consecutive battles to prove which plan was the better through their own strengths, and where Duke collapsed, unable to fight further. The princess and her friends started their plan, found it just under enough, and Duke, bruised to his senses over his promise to protect Terca Lumireis, provided the strength they needed to succeed.
After converting all the blastia cores, and then all of the Adephagos itself, into spirits, Duke turned to leave Tarqaron.
Personality:
At first glance, the response would be "what personality?"
Duke is quiet, reserved, and abrupt with his comings and leavings. He's distant and cold, and has a particularly rude streak – when faced with questions he would rather not answer, he says flat out "Those matters exceed your comprehension", while "those matters" were "Just who are you?! What is that sword of yours?!" It doesn't help that he's socially awkward, thinking aloud in the middle of these "conversations". He keeps his distance even from those who he has talked to many times; rarely asking for anything that isn't relevant to the situation. It's rare that Duke will refer to anyone by anything other than "you", resorting to vague descriptions when he cannot simply stare at them and make his meaning clear. He reacts rather than replies to greetings, and often decides when a conversation is over by turning and leaving.
He is confident and controlled. There is a visible air of confidence about the way he carries himself, one that Yuri calls an odd sort of meditative serenity, and it's coupled with an almost militaristic way of holding himself. The few times he holds a blade in hand, it is always held just less than horizontal at his size – the tip angled toward the ground. This relaxed position speaks of his confidence in his skill to react in time to any threat. He never moves at a speed faster than a walk, his hands never leave loose fists at his sides, his expression barely flickers from a faint, blank frown, and his voice never rises. It's far more likely that he will grow even quieter, thinking aloud about some topic or another, than anything else. He doesn't swear, verbally or physically lash out, or seem to have a temper at all. Insults, teasing, and sarcasm roll off him with only a look or a comment about he finds such frivolousness irritating, assuming he recognizes what they are supposed to be.
"A single life cannot be privileged over the fate of the world"; through his own words, Duke shows himself to be a man of action and the idea of "the many before the one". Unlike others who think this way, his 'one' is always less important than the many; although in Duke's case, he considers the "many" to be Terca Lumireis itself, rather than the humans who inhabit it. He believes that even he, a human who lives in harmony with nature, might one day cause Terca Lumireis harm, and this showed in his plan for the removal for all humans. He was perfectly willing to kill himself, and every other human on the planet, to protect the world. Duke's opinion of himself, other than that he may cause harm to Terca Lumireis, is never stated. He holds himself with confidence, is clearly aware of his strength and power, and attempts to keep himself removed from humans, but remains clearly aware that he is one.
"Words are cheap", if the death of his best friend taught him nothing else, it taught him that words can be said, but that doesn't truly change anything. Elucifur had said he would simply watch, and through Duke's association with him, he knew him to keep this promise, but the humans smiled and agreed, then killed him out of fear of the power Elucifur swore he would not use. This doesn't mean that Duke won't keep his word, however, just that anything said to him by a human – any promise made to him by a human – is taken with a great deal of suspicion that it won't be held to. He's a man who removes threats when they become them, does rather than says, and doesn't care about "consequences". Twice, his actions in calming Aer Krene and destroying Hermes Blastia have saved the party, a band of the disliked humans. Had he but waited a little longer in both Keiv Moc and Ghasfarost, the party might have been wiped out, but Duke thought the threat to the planet not worth waiting longer for removing said threats.
Despite being a man of action, he doesn't take any joy from fighting. Killing isn't something he enjoys, and he prefers to avoid to get into a situation where he would have to. However, if he had to fight, and fight at full strength, he would prefer to leave no witnesses. Knowing exactly how powerful Elucifur is what drove humans into slaying the Entelexeia. It was due to fear, so Duke would prefer people underestimated him.
Avoidance is Duke's answer to "fight or flight" – avoid the need to pick one of the two entirely. Duke rarely throws the first blow, and will often attempt to leave when someone tries to pull him into a fight. It is also his reaction to topics he doesn't want to discuss – shut it down verbally, or simply walk off. As with his emotions, there's a boiling point before anything happens – although a short cut would be to insult his dead friend.
If someone can get past this deflecting, emotionless shell, they find loyalty. If Duke joins his cause with another's, if morals or goals match his, if he has some sort of fondness or affection, he will stay through thick and thin until he witnesses a blatant breach of trust. Duke's trust is fragile after Elucifur was murdered, repairing it for the sake of friendship could take years. Regaining it after breaking his trust is a feat that stands close to impossible.
Duke finds amusement in the subtle humors. He finds ironic words amusing, or at least sounds amused, and may even call the one being ironic out in a way. "So I am the only stubborn one?" was his response to Yuri's commenting on his stubbornness, complete with a rising, almost incredulous tone. However, he has no appreciation for Raven's sort of humor, referring to it as foolishness and clowning.
Despite how jaded he is about what to expect from humans, he manages to be a little naive about the workings inside human society. He understands the chain of command, and some of the workings of the upper-class households, but otherwise very little beyond his pessimistic views of imminent betrayal and inability to learn from the past. Part of this is his odd thought patterns. He melds animal-like behaviors with more human ones, understanding more base, linear thoughts but having trouble with the more convoluted human patterns. He understands killing for food, for imminent threat removal, and for defense, but not for many of the other reasons, such as over Blastia or for resources. Some of his body language is much closer to animalistic than it is to humans – in humans, tilting one's head down is normally a sign of submission while tilting back is more of a haughty stance, and Duke does the opposite. Baring one's throat is a sign of submission, and lowering one's head more aggressive. He is as curious, and as picky about what he'll be curious about, like any cat, and has the single minded tenacity of a terrier. Because of this merge of more animal-like patterns and human patterns, he has a hard time understanding how to deal with people. Mixed with his expectations for betrayal, and ten years removed from society, he's a social mess.
Duke does not like people, simply based on the fact they are human. Still, even after realizing his mistakes, he has a great deal of trouble trusting just any human. Although he finds that the human is friends with one he sort-of trusts, like a member of Brave Vesperia, he will be more likely to attempt to try. If someone manages to get close to him, he might show a bit of 'closeness' in his odd, quiet fashion. Duke has lost someone very important to him, and doesn't like how that felt, nor does he want to experience that again. He'd do everything in his power to prevent losing someone else, even if that means, for the most part, avoiding getting too close to anyone else. While he does ally himself with Khroma and has been working with her since Elucifur's death, she still finds his motives a mystery.
One thing that separates Duke from the heroes is that he knows his limits and doesn't attempt to push them. This isn't the sort of "this project got hard, I give up" sort of quitting one sees in modern settings, but the sort that when he feels that he can do no further, he only spends a short amount of time trying anyway before he scraps that plan and throws himself in a different direction. Raven comments on this when they try to convince him not to steal the life of all humans at Tarqaron. Part of the reason Duke quits so easily is because he expects no help, doesn't trust humans enough to try to get them to aid him, and thus has only a limited amount of back up plans and allies.
Religion on Terca Lumireis is a vague thing. There are mentions of The Goddess, but there are no real church systems, or many more mentions of anything beyond a hell, and someplace better. The Shrine of Baction seems to indicate that humans once worshiped Entelexeia as gods. Neither of these are what Duke follows, and by his own words, "there is no such thing." In reply to Yuri commenting that their repeated meetings were of fate. As a man who has walked more of his world than any other human, has spoken with the Entelexeia and flown with them, Duke does not hold them to be deities. As traveled and learned as he is, he also knows the truth behind tales and legends of the protective powers of Brave Vesperia and the true role of the Child of the Full Moon. He believes in the balance of nature, which should stay as it is, with Entelexeia governing the Aer.
Duke used to be a man whose sole motivation was the protection of Terca Lumireis, his promise to Elucifur. Everything he did was to protect, to preserve, his planet, to keep his promise to Elucifur. He lived for that promise, and nearly willingly died for it. He has little in the way of short term goals beyond survival, no long term goals beyond the next Aer Krene, finding the next abnormality to deal with. Now that the Adephagos, and Aer threats as a whole, have been dealt with, Duke has little to do.
Despite his former occupation as a Knight of the Empire, Duke has no respect for human laws anymore. This does not mean he breaks them to break them, he simply doesn't care that they exist. He still follows some of the basic, common sense ones, laws he refers to as the laws of Terca Lumireis. Flynn accuses him of think himself above the law, and as Duke has cast aside his ties to the Empire, he most definitely doesn't hold himself to their laws.
He is a slightly situational person. It depends on what he is dealing with, who he is dealing with, and what he could gain to aid Terca Lumireis. Perhaps the best description, and probably the one Brave Vesperia would give if anyone asked them to describe him, is that "Duke is Duke". He's contradictory, yet not quite hypocritical.
Appearance:
One image, post with breakdowns of his outfit.
Abilities:
Duke can somehow get along with what are considered "monsters", creatures that attack humans on sight, and keep the majority of the population of Terca Lumireis locked inside their barrier-covered cities.
Swordsman. He was a knight, so he's pretty good at traditional sword-work. He has higher agility and physical defense than anything else, which really suggests that he subscribes to "you can't hit me while I move like this" sorts of fighting. In a side game, Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave, Duke is shown fighting on foot at one point, with a larger sword than he does in canon. While he is not fast enough to seem invisible, he is still fast enough to warrant a great deal of speed lines, and hits hard enough from his stand-still, with this sword in hand, to knock a 5'6", 108lb swordswoman flying into the door a good ways behind her, hard enough to drop her to her knees. So clearly while he's a roughly 6', skinny old-for-jrpg man, he still hits really hard.
Mage. Dear god, he is a good mage. Not only does he craft spells (most notably the ones he uses with Dein Nomos (appears like telekinesis), his formula to steal the life force of all humans on the planet, and Guilty Resolver (A new spell for this series)) but out of the available elements for his canon, he uses a good majority of them at high tier spells. Fire, Wind + Fire (effectively 'Lightning'), Light, Dark, Non-Elemental, and Healing magic are available (and his Wind + Fire spell is one that is altered from a Wind spell, so its arguable that he can use Wind spells as well). Not only that, but he is so skilled with magic that he regains the TP (the version of "mana" or "magic" points of most of the Tales Series) that he just consumed after his attack fades (I usually have this as a part of his spellcrafting, that he found the extra to his spells and streamlined them, and partially that he is so in-tune with magic he can find the scraps left over and gather them up to use them again) It's also a thing he mentioned was the way aer was flowing – so he can either sense or otherwise see magic.
Mageknight – for the most part, Duke's only combination of magic and swordcraft (outside of artes) is that he's constantly floating a good half foot off the ground (in ToV and in battle in ToH:TB) and is floating his sword about to attack people.
Hermit (survival skills, self-sufficient in terms of food, shelter, clothing upkeep)
Rizomata Formula – the formula (spell) for direct manipulation of aer. This is how Duke casts without a Bodhi blastia, and he learned it off of Dein Nomos.
Inventory:
Monster Book an old collection of images and habitats of the various monsters on Terca Lumireis
Bedroll, change of clothing
Dein Nomos a sword said to be the mark of the imperial heir – Dein Nomos powerful sword that was forged by the Entelexeia. It exudes energy and has the ability to control Aer, and is thus able to obliterate magic, such as magic seals. It changes color and the way it cuts according to the person who wields it. In Duke's hands, it is one of the sharpest blades out there, and made of red and white metal. The blade comes with the Rizomata Formula – an alternative way to manipulate aer (magic)
Suitability:
Duke is most comfortable in the wilderness – world exploration would be right up his alley, and as his motivation for offing humanity was to protect his world, he would gladly throw himself into exploring and learning all he can of this one to better understand how to help it.
While he has become almost hateful of politics, and the implied lies and backstabbing inherent, he would be a good set of eyes and ears who knows – or at least knew – the human versions common in nobility.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person (Prose):
This… was new. He was tired, yes, but he wasn't this bone-numbed fog, where everything felt stiff and too quiet, too dull, not quite in focus.
A moment's thought, and staring at his knees from his spot on the ground – it was curved, those were called ditches, once he got his mind to start functioning – and the stiffness made sense. He had just been beat by Brave Vesperia, although he hadn't been feeling quite this stiff…
It took him another minute of staring at the way his boots fit to realize a couple of problems with this. One, he couldn't form a formula in his mind to even start casting, which was likely due to how his head throbbed more than anything. Two, though. Two was vastly more important.
Two, there were no ditches in Tarqaron. If he had been held half up by a shrub, a hedge, that would have been plausible. The garden level had been site of fight number one, and the air and formula above had been two and… yes there had been three, even if thinking on it made him feel empty and hollow, like something more had been filling him.
… That wasn't helping, it just made his head hurt more.
With a groan – that child hit far harder than he would ever expect, and Stalagmite was never enjoyable to be on the receiving end – Duke managed to get his feet in the ditch with the rest of him, and sit upright.
Alright, time to expand on problem number two. There were no farms on Tarqaron either. He can't deal with his aches and pains now, so the next thing to do was to find something. Shelter would be preferable.
Network:
[ video ]
[ It's a pale, tried face that hits the video at.. well, a very early hour, to judge by the lack of light. ]
I seem to have forgotten. [ He doesn't exactly sound like he really thought he'd forgotten, though. More like he was regretting… everything. Everything sounds like a good thing to regret at the moment. ]
Cities at night – are they always this… noisy. [ Duke unfortunately seems to have gotten a room that's a little close to the market that's open at all hours. ]
Or is this another side effect of avoiding cities for a decade. [ By avoiding cities, he means "being a hermit". There's a faint noise – but evidently its loud enough to Duke that he twitches. ]
Does anyone have any sleeping aids that do not involve alcohol or beating my head against a wall? [ He's.. frustrated. ]
