Characters / Tales Of Symphonia Antagonists

Tales of Symphonia | Main Character Index
Playable Characters | Antagonists | Supporting Cast | Dawn of the New World Characters

The antagonist characters from the game Tales of Symphonia.

SPOILER ALERT: NOT ALL SPOILERS ARE MARKED.

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Lord Yggdrasill

Mithos Yggdrasill

Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka (JP), James Arnold Taylor (EN)

Mithos voiced by: Minami Takayama (JP), Brianne Siddall (EN)

^{Click here}

to see his true appearance. (MASSIVE SPOILERS)

Yggdrasill is the Big Bad of Symphonia, a Fallen Hero who lost his mind and his idealism when the people he risked everything to save decided to betray him by murdering his family, only to find a new and darker purpose by gorging on the power of souls. As the leader of Cruxis and the Desians, this self-righteous false messiah has the entire world bowing to his Path of Inspiration. For the past four millennia, he has hoarded technology and experimented on his chosen sacrifices, waiting for the day his magnum opus bears fruit.
He's also Mithos, the young half-elf the heroes "rescued" from a burning village - who becomes Genis' first half-elf friend, who worries for Raine when she looks tired, who makes jokes at Zelos' expense like everybody else... until he reveals himself to the party when one of his most trusted lieutenants, one of his companions from 4000 years sooner, proves himself to be a traitor.

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Tropes associated with him:

• Adorably Precocious Child: He looks the part. Sure doesn't act the part.
• A God I Am Not: He has godlike power but never develops the full-on complex. In the end, he still views himself as a half-elf who's just trying to make the world a better place... through some extremely questionable means.
• Badass Adorable: Both stages of the Final Boss are him alone versus the party.
• Beam Spam: The PS2 version of the game onward gave his Yggdrasill form the "Yggdrasill Laser" move, which he likes to spam in the third battle, a lot. Coupled with his Outburst arte and he really starts to seem like a Dhaos clone, gameplay-wise.
• Becoming the Mask: He genuinely seems to grow to like Genis, even taking a hit from Pronyma that was meant for him, though it doesn't stop him fighting him later on.
• Big Bad: Of the first game.
• Big Bad Friend: Especially from Genis' point of view.
• Break the Cutie: What turned him into a villain was his sister Martel dying.
• Childish Villain, Mature Hero: In stark contrast to Lloyd, who is willing to yield when it's clear he's in the wrong and actually learn from his mistakes, Mithos refuses to accept that his unhealthy obsession with getting his sister back no matter what is wrong, to the point that when Martel intervenes to call out Mithos for his actions, he refuses to accept her words and deliberately misinterprets her final request just so he can keep her at his side forever regardless of what she wants, no longer caring about the world.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Symphonia is a prequel to Tales of Phantasia and Mithos is deliberately written to contrast Dhaos, a villain who has similar angelic powers and laser spam. Both fear for the world tree's mana depletion, but Mithos is primarily motivated by his goal to revive his sister and end discrimination, in that order, while Dhaos is primarily trying to obtain a seed to plant a new world tree, making the former more selfish. At the same time, Mithos is able to maintain better publicity due to his control over the Church of Martel while Dhaos is only ever seen as a generic Evil Overlord by humanity. Finally, Mithos dies unable to accept that he was in the wrong while Dhaos dies realizing that he became no better than the humans he hated.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He and his sister were the victims of a lot of overt racism due to being half-elves.
• Dark Messiah: He sets himself up as this, believing that everything he has done is necessary in order to save the world from its inevitable destruction. Judging from what happens in the sequel and Tales of Phantasia, he's not entirely wrong, but the end result would have been eternal stasis of civilization and consciousness, which was likely worse.
• Death Seeker: During a skit, he actively questions his goals and says that if he is wrong, then he has no reason to continue living.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Stock Shōnen Hero. In the past Yggdrasil was his own RPG protagonist, going on an epic quest to save the world, believing everyone could put aside their differences and work together and end discrimination forever, and convincing rivals and enemies to work with him. But when reality refused to follow his ideals and murdered his sister, Yggdrasil couldn't handle it and went insane, completly inverting the archetype.
• Despair Event Horizon: Martel being murdered. Doubles as his Start of Darkness. He becomes disillusioned with the idea of voluntary coexistence after this, and believes that the only way humans, elves, and half-elves will ever get along is if the differences between them are artificially removed and they all become emotionless, lifeless beings.
• Determinator: Deconstructed. In fact, it's treated as his Fatal Flaw. He never, ever gives up, and will do anything to save his sister. Unfortunately for the rest of the two worlds, we do mean anything. Including splitting the world asunder, getting countless people killed and trying to force everyone to become lifeless beings to end the discrimination that killed Martel. When Martel herself finally intervenes and tells him to stop what he's doing, his response is to go Laughing Mad and refuse to accept her words, before finally deciding to take his sister and all of Derris-Kharlan into space so they can finally be alone, even if it causes The End of the World as We Know It. When he's finally killed for good, his last words are that he wouldn't change a thing if he could do it all over again. His Fallen Hero status is fueled by his determination to never grow up.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He kills Pronyma for calling him by his first name.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: The fact that his younger self is voiced by a female actress doesn't help matters.
• Dying as Yourself: After the final boss battle, he has a Heel Realization where he realizes he doesn't want to be trapped in a soul gem for eternity, much like he forced thousands of his victims into. He is still unrepentant though, as his Cruxis Crystal is destroyed before his consciousness fades.
• Evil Laugh: Has a rather unnerving one when his child Mithos form is revealed as the Big Bad and starts kicking Yuan around for betraying him.
• Evil Luddite: His World Prolongation Plan involves keeping the world in a Medieval Stasis, because he believes that the development of technology inevitably leads to wars that waste resources. Unlike most Evil Luddites, he has no qualms about using technology himself.
• The Extremist Was Right: About one thing; one part of his plan, the splitting of the world in two and putting a limiter on mana flow, genuinely worked as far as it prevented new magitek wars. As Tales of Phantasia reveals, a renewed free flow of mana led to the proliferation of magitek weapons, another Mana Cannon, and another war that destroyed civilization a few centuries after the game ends. Incidentally Tales of Phantasia's storyline involves the creation of yet another Mana Cannon that ends up damaging the new Tree of Mana... Even before the events mentioned in Phantasia, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has the Vanguard, who planned on using the Mana Cannon against Tethe'alla.
• Fallen Hero: Was once idealistic and, like Lloyd, believed the factions of the ancient war could live in peace. Everything changed when Martel died.
• Fantastic Racism: First a victim, then a perpetrator; especially when he obtained the power to change peoples' races, but used it to turn humans into monsters and Human Resources. The party comment on how he might have been a victim, but, as Zelos says, "it doesn't even come close to justifying all the things [he's] done."
• Faux Affably Evil: Zigzagged. On one hand, his regal demeanor is a facade to hide how deranged he is to his followers. On the other hand, he shows a more genuinely affable side when befriending Genis and helping to treat Raine when she's sick.
• Final Boss: Though he's fought several times before then, this is the only time it's not a Hopeless Boss Fight.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Even after the party comes to understand the experiences that made him the person he is, they don't believe it justifies it. Most explicitly spelled out when Zelos says that what he suffered doesn't even come close to justifying his actions.
• Get It Over With: Asks Lloyd to destroy his Cruxis Crystal so he won't be taken over by it. He admits defeat but refuses to accept Lloyd's ideas to the end.
• Grand Theft Me: Yggdrasill's primary goal is to use a suitable Chosen as a host body for his sister's mind. He also takes control of Colette so he can make her fly to the sacrificial area.
• Half-Human Hybrid: And the discrimination he received because of it changed the entire world.
• Hero of Another Story: He was famed as a hero during the Kharlan War, before becoming a Fallen Hero.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The first two times you meet him, physical attacks all deal single-digit damage, though magic still works fine. Both fights will end without a results screen after a certain amount of time, or if you somehow manage to reduce his HP to zero.
• Humans Are Bastards: His primary belief.
• I Regret Nothing: When Mithos tells Lloyd to Mercy Kill him, he admits that he doesn't regret committing any of his atrocities to get Martel back and he would do them all over again if he could, thus proving to the very end that he will never let go of his hatred for humans and move on his sister's death.
• I Reject Your Reality: When Martel calls out Mithos for his atrocities and refuses to accept his plans, pointing out that this goes against everything they strived for, Mithos refuses to believe Martel would say that to him and goes Laughing Mad. When she leaves Colette's body and begs Mithos to return the world to the way it was, he delibertaly misinterprets her words and decides to take her and Derris-Kharlan into space without caring that this will destroy the world, even going so far as to refuse to believe that Martel would tell Colette to stop Mithos from doing so.
• The Idealist: 4,000 years ago, he believed it was possible for humans, elves, and half-elves to live without Fantastic Racism. He was apparently so much of a Wide-Eyed Idealist that he managed to get his jaded Mentor Archetype Kratos, and Yuan, who was deliberately trying to prove him wrong to work with him. Unfortunately, that idealism died when said humans murdered and tortured the people he loved the most.
• Ignored Epiphany: When Martel briefly possesses Colette and gives Mithos as massive What the Hell, Hero? speech, he chooses to interpret it entirely differently from how Martel actually meant it.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Killing Pronyma, while she begged him to save her after being defeated by Lloyd and Co. Presea even calls such an act cruel.
  • Attacking Tabatha and calling her a failed vessel.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Hoo boy. He does everything for the sake of Martel. She's not impressed.
• Lack of Empathy: For all his talk about how much he loves his sister Martel, he doesn't seem to care about what she wants and becomes furious when she calls him out for all of the atrocities he's committed in her name. After she leaves Colette's body, he's willing to take the Great Seed (which contains Martel's soul) to Derris-Kharlan in order to be with her forever, knowing that it'll destroy the worlds, not caring in the slightest that this goes directly against his sister's wishes. He also injures or outright kills people who piss him off and shows no remorse for it.
• Light Is Not Good: He's an angel and uses some light-based techniques like Judgment, Holy Lance, and Prism Sword, but he's the main villain.
• Love Makes You Evil: Sibling love, though, to be exact. Unless you read too much into it.
• Loving a Shadow: Despite how much he claims to love Martel, it turns out Mithos loves more of his idea of her than his sister himself. When he successfully manages to merge Martel with Colette, Martel gives him an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech over the atrocities he's committed in the name of resurrecting her and tells him in no uncertain terms that it's not what she wanted, musing that maybe things would have been better if the elves never left Derris Kharlan. When she leaves Colette's body, Mithos is furious and when Colette tries to tell him Martel wants the suffering to stop, he purposefully misinterprets this as Martel wanting the world destroyed and retreats to Derris Kharlan to "go home" with his sister.
• The Man Behind the Man: He's the leader of both Cruxis and the Desians.
• Mask of Sanity: He acts like a calm and composed leader, but according to the spin-off novel, Pronyma thinks he's too blinded by grief to think rationally. His crazy side starts to come out when he laughs maniacally while kicking Yuan, attacks Tabatha for being a failed Martel vessel despite earlier saving her because of her resemblance to Martel, and kills Pronyma for calling him by his first name. When Martel temporarily possesses Colette's body and admonishes him, Mithos starts going into denial and tries to take the Great Seed to Derris-Kharlan in a mad attempt to be with his sister forever.
• Meaningful Name: Mithos, as in "mythos", referring to both a set of stories — Mithos being the legendary hero at the heart of the worlds' narrative — and also to "myth", alluding to Mithos's carefully-constructed image all being a lie.
• The Mole: In his "Mithos" guise.
• Motive Decay: He started out wanting to end half-elf discrimination, save the world from mana depletion, and revive his sister. Somewhere along the line, he became the main perpetrator of all discrimination, turned the world into his playground, and sacrificed thousands of chosen ones for his experiments. By the end of the game, he's willing to doom the world to be with his sister forever, all while disregarding her criticism.
• Narcissist: By the time you meet him, Yggdrasil has been consumed by his own ego. He casually spreads the racism he once fought against because it ensures he stays at the top of the hierarchy. He turned his dead sister into the goddess of his Path of Inspiration, and painted himself as the perfect hero. He also responds to a lieutenant calling him by his former identity (which he now derides as weak) by murdering them. By the end of the game, Yggdrasil is finally called out by the one person he wanted the praise of the most, and the blow to his ego causes him to abandon everything he's built to die just so he can be left alone.
• Necessarily Evil: Played With. On one hand, him dividing the world into two with the Eternal Sword was definitely this, since as bad as the situation with the two worlds was, they would die without the Kharlan Tree if they were one. He argues that keeping them this way prevents another Kharlan War. Sadly, this is eventually proven true centuries after his death. On the other hand, it becomes clear that his cruel cycle was ultimately unsustainable due to his thirst for power, and if he wasn't replaced with something better, than the world would definitely die completely.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Mithos' backstory can be summed up in two sentences: Risk everything to make the world a better place, and the people you saved will betray you by murdering your family. Become an evil, soul-devouring bastard, and you get to become the Top God. This absolute failure of karma has utterly warped him into the narcissistic villain he has become today.
• One-Steve Limit: Despite Raine's insistence that Mithos is "a common boy's name", Mithos the Hero, Mithos who holds the pact with all the Summon Spirits, and Mithos the tagalong half-elf orphan from Ozette are one and the same.
• Older Alter Ego: He used the Cruxis Crystal to give him an adult form so he would have "an appearance befitting the leader of Cruxis."
• One-Winged Angel: An amalgamation of three mecha-like mini-bosses from Welgaia; reflecting his inability to accept others, come to terms with the past, or forgive people.
• Playing the Victim Card: He tries this on the party right before the Final Boss fight. He calls himself the victim for all the racism that he and his sister suffered, and that his solution would still work. The party doesn't buy it for a minute, with Zelos in particular saying "it doesn't even come close to justifying all the things you've done."
• Psychopathic Manchild: Martel's death drove him so completely over the edge that, for all of his power and intelligence, he never really grew up mentally.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the leader of Cruxis and the Desians and is the most powerful among them, being the strongest enemy in the game barring a couple Superbosses.
• Really 700 Years Old: Like the rest of his companions.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Martel shoots down his Assimilation Plot, he decides to just take her and Derris-Kharlan and fuck off to space. Unfortunately, taking the giant mana source that is Derris-Kharlan with him would doom both worlds, so the heroes still have to stop him.
• Shut Up, Kirk!:
  • Shortly before the third battle with Yggdrasill, he responds to Lloyd calling him out on all the people he's killed by saying. "Human. Don't tell me what's right and wrong!"
  • During the final confrontation, he asks where the half-elves should live. When Lloyd says they can live anywhere they like, he says "Don't make me laugh." Lloyd, not missing a beat, insists that if they're not doing anything wrong, they can live proudly in the open.
  • In response to Colette asking him to seek redemption, he says, "Do you think I'm going to beg for forgiveness? Ridiculous!"
• Shadow Archetype:
  • He's what Lloyd could have become if the latter never owned up to his mistakes. He even says as much.
  "Farewell, my shadow, you who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow."
  • He shares a lot of the same insecurities as all of the party members, as shown by the illusions he uses to prey on their insecurities. He runs away from his problems like the moles and Sheena, has issues with forgiveness and valuing his own life like Presea and Regal, and suffers from Internalized Categorism over his race like Genis and Raine. This trope is especially true for Colette, who can be trapped in any of these illusions depending on whichever character is chosen in Flanoir, due to her guilt in not completing the pilgrimage and feeling ostracized for being a Human Sacrifice. Unlike Mithos, the party members ultimately choose not to accept the easy solution to their problems, which baffles him because he always chose the easier path.
• Taking the Bullet: Pushes Tabatha out of the way of a landslide (as Mithos), and takes a shot of dark energy Pronyma aims at Genis (as Yggdrasill). It's implied he resents Tabatha for being a "failed vessel" that couldn't accept Martel's soul (which he in fact outright says when Raine calls him out for hurting her) but her uncanny resemblance to Martel could be why he saved her. As for Genis, the game basically states that Genis was exactly like Mithos once was, and since Genis and Mithos became friends after the group "found" him in Ozette, it's possible Yggdrasill felt genuine kinship towards Genis, or was trying to persuade Genis to pull a Face–Heel Turn.
• Teleport Spam: This is why his first form is considered harder than his second. He does it in both of his Hopeless Boss Fights, too.
• That Man Is Dead: Only his former comrades are allowed to call him "Mithos". Interestingly enough, this may extend to Lloyd and Co., since he wasn't seen to have any specific problem with any of them calling him by his old name though its justified by the fact that when interacting with them, he calls himself Mithos.
• There Are No Therapists: Subverted. It's implied that Kratos did want to help him but it either didn't work, or Mithos didn't let him.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: What he thinks of himself and Martel once this happens. For Martel, this works. For himself, not so much.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
  • Was revealed to be a lot like Lloyd and Genis (if a bit of a brat towards Yuan) as a kid in the anime and the manga. And then Martel was murdered...
  • This is also shown in the Updated Re-release, where a phantom of his past self is in Niflheim as a Superboss. His phantom is still idealistic about equality for half-elves and encourages the party to carry on his work. The party can't bear to tell him the truth about his present self.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: How he justifies the things he's done. No one buys it. Not even Martel after she briefly resurrects.
• Villain Decay: A deliberately invoked and justified by-product of this. After Martel rejects his plan, he basically decides to abandon the world and build a new life for himself and his sister on Derris-Kharlan.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Martel rejects his plan. Complete with Laughing Mad.
• Vocal Dissonance: It is very jarring hearing Mithos' voice coming out of his mouth.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Shifts between the tall, intimidating angel Yggdrasill and the young, innocent-seeming Mithos.
• Walking Spoiler: Learning more about him turns the entire second half of the game on its ear.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He started off well-intentioned, but eventually becomes a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist. Everything he did was for the sake of creating a world where he and his sister could leave free of discrimination. Until he undergoes his Villainous Breakdown and goes batshit insane, leading to him trying to create a new world on Derris Kharlan for himself and his sister while abandoning any pretense of saving the old one, thus proving that now he only cares about keeping his sister at his side forever regardless of what she wants.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: During his Villainous Breakdown in the anime. Take a look◊.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: It's hard not to feel sorry for him after all that's happened to him, but he loses any sympathy he might have gained after all of his horrific actions. The party even says as much before their final battle.
• Worthy Opponent: Eventually comes to regard Lloyd as one. The respect is mutual.
• Yandere: For Martel, though in a more familial love kind of way. Again, unless you read too much into it.

The Five Grand Cardinals

The five leaders of the Desians.

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Tropes associated with the Grand Cardinals:

• Battle Theme Music: "The Law of the Battle".
• Dirty Coward: While they have plenty of physical courage when butting heads with the party, often to the point of arrogance and contempt, they only operate in whatever is The Declining World at the time. This means they're picking on humans who are too weak to fight them due to mana depletion in their world, instead of fighting the stronger world to liberate half-elves suffering under Fantastic Racism.
• Fantastic Racism: They all hate humans, and some of them even hate elves.
• Flunky Boss: Tend to have a few minions fighting alongside them, except for the first battle with Pronyma, Magnius, and Rodyle.
• Freudian Excuse: Half-elves are abused by humans to a horrifying degree, leading them to hate humans. Then Cruxis promotes them to positions of power over captive humans. As expected, they did not grow up to be nice and understanding about the trauma.
• Hate Sink: If they have any redeeming qualities, they never share it with the party, and demonstrate the bloodthirsty pettiness of the world's Fantastic Racism. Even Forcystus' more noble qualities are only brought up after his death and Pronyma's moral standards are only revealed in a spin-off novel.
• Moral Myopia: None of them express or seem to notice any Irony over their treatment of humans and how it seems similar to their own past treatment by humans.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Zigzagged. They are the strongest of the Desians, except for Rodyle, who is a Dirty Coward. However, it is implied that Forcystus is actually stronger than Pronyma, but she is the leader due to some off-screen plotting.

Pronyma

Pronyma

Voiced by: Yuki Makishima (JP), Masasa Moyo (EN)

The leader of the Five Grand Cardinals and Yggdrasill's right hand.

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Tropes associated with Pronyma:

• Alas, Poor Villain: The party is taken aback at how Yggdrasill mercilessly kills her when she is begging for help.
• Casting a Shadow: Most of her attacks are dark-based.
• Dark Action Girl: She's the only female of the Desian Grand Cardinals.
• Dark Is Evil: To contrast with the rest of Cruxis' Light Is Not Good.
• The Dragon: To Yggdrasill. Downplayed in that she is both much weaker than him and a distant second in his esteem compared to the Four Seraphim.
• Early-Bird Cameo: We first see her in Kvar's ranch as a hologram.
• Elemental Powers: Includes Casting a Shadow, Making a Splash, and An Ice Person.
• Even Evil Has Standards: According to Kratos's spin-off novel. Despite her Undying Loyalty to Yggdrasill, even she is disturbed by his increasing insanity, especially when he states that he doesn't care about the out-of-control world tree.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: All of the other Desians resent her because she apparently usurped the leadership of the Five Grand Cardinals. Notably, Magnius' first instinct when he suspects that there's a traitor in their midst is to contact Forcystus rather than her.
• Ignored Enamoured Underling: It's strongly implied Pronyma's Undying Loyalty is because she's in love with Yggdrasill- she even threatens Genis when the latter attacks Yggdrasill saying, "You may be one of us, but you will pay for your treachery!" Of course, Yggdrasill couldn't care less and only keeps her around because she's the strongest of the Cardinals.
• Lady of Black Magic: The cold, serious leader of the Five Grand Cardinals with powerful darkness attacks.
• Recurring Boss: She's the only one of the Grand Cardinals you fight more than once. Three times, actually.
• Red Baron: Twilight Pronyma
• Rescue Romance: Her one-sided love for Yggdrasill started when he saved her from being used as a living weapon.
• Samus Is a Girl: Before she's introduced to the story proper, you fight Kilia, her underling, who brags about how she was sent to keep an eye on things in Palmacosta by Pronyma and once killed, cries out, "Lord Pronyma!", so it can come as a surprise to first-time players that Pronyma is a woman.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Subverted; her thigh-length boots, leotard and Excessive Evil Eyeshadow isn't what you'd call subtle, but she is constantly surrounded by a set of artificial bronze wings on a ring, which means most of the time you only ever see her face and possibly her feet.
• She Is the King: Zelos is the only one that refers to her as "Lady Pronyma"; the others all call her "Lord Pronyma".
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She detests Kratos for his human origins and because she blames his earlier betrayal for Yggdrasill's Sanity Slippage.
• The Starscream: It's implied that she was one to the previous leader, though she's completely loyal to Yggdrasill.
• Undying Loyalty: To Yggdrasill. Killia, her subordinate, has this to Pronyma, screaming her name when she gets defeated.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: She's trying to protect her people from discrimination by humans.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Mithos no longer cares about her after she's defeated by the heroes and Martel is about to be revived. In fact, he actually kills her himself when she calls him Mithos while begging for his help after being defeated by the party.

Forcystus

Forcystus

Voiced by: Takahiro Yoshimizu (JP), André Sogliuzzo (EN)

The Grand Cardinal in charge of the Iselia Ranch.

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Tropes associated with Forcystus:

• Adaptational Wimp: In the game, he survives Marble's self-destruct attack, but in the manga, he's vaporized by that same attack.
• Arm Cannon: It shoots out gusts of wind. He also uses it as sort of a giant metal club.
• Artificial Limbs: His left arm has been replaced by a cannon. It is either this or a gauntlet-like accessory. Given that he's also lost his eye, it's probably the former.
• Blow You Away: His attacks are wind-based and he's adept at wind magic.
• Died Standing Up: Fades away while still standing.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Rather literally, he's the last boss you fight in the GameCube version before you're forced to switch to Disc Two. More thematically speaking, while Pronyma is still alive at that point, The Desians are more or less destroyed as a faction and are largely no longer relevant to the story going forward.
• The Dragon: He appears to have the most authority among the Cardinals in charge of the ranches, making him this to Pronyma. It makes sense, considering he's in charge of the most important of the Human Ranches, and is the strongest of them all by far.
• Eyepatch of Power: It probably alludes to his past as a half-elven hero.
• He Who Fights Monsters: He put an end to a human-led genocide against half-elves in his past. He doesn't seem to see any irony with his current situation.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Not killed, just incapacitated by a self destructing Marble when Lloyd says he won't give up his exsphere to the Desians that killed his mother, Forcystus actually seems surprised and says "What are you talking about, your mother was killed by..." before he's cut off.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Lloyd.
• Informed Attribute: We learn nothing of, nor get a hint to the fact that Forcystus was a hero to half-elves everywhere until one skit shortly after he dies.
• Kick the Dog: Transforming Marble into a monster just to spite Lloyd. When he learns of Kratos' betrayal, he yells that humans cannot be trusted and aims his arm cannon at Chocolat, making Colette push her out of the way.
• Knight Templar: He started out just trying to protect his fellow half-elves. Now he does many horrible things to defend them.
• Magic Knight: He splits the difference between Magnius and Kvar. While Magnius prefers physical strikes and Kvar exclusively uses magic, Forcystus fights with both with equal competence.
• Mr. Exposition: Averted. When Forcystus is first introduced, he nearly drops two very big reveals in the game's first act. Namely, the existence of the Renegades and that Lloyd's father is the one who killed his mother. However, he's interrupted both times, so we don't find them out later.
• Noble Demon: He's the only Grand Cardinal who doesn't go out of his way to provoke the village he's overlooking and honours the non-aggression treaty until he has reason to believe that Iselia has violated it. It's also discovered posthumously that he was a defender and champion of his people. That said, it's implied that the real reason he didn't antagonize Iselia was so that Colette could grow up unharmed to continue the Vicious Cycle Yggdrasill has in motion.
• Red Baron: Forcystus the Gnashing Gale
• Taking You with Me: Attempted, after being revealed to be Not Quite Dead.
• Villain Has a Point: Despite how cruel and unnecessary his attack against Iselia was, he was completely correct that Lloyd violated the non-aggression treaty first, so he was simply retaliating. This is tempered by the fact that 1) Lloyd only killed about 3 Desians, while Forcystus led a massacre and 2) Lloyd mistakenly, as it turns out believed that Forcystus violated the treaty first by attacking Colette.
• Too Many Belts: His undershirt is just a mass of belts (or belt-like straps, anyway).
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is a hero to his people and comes off as a soldier fighting a racially-motivated war.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Praised by the Desians but reviled by the humans. Lloyd wonders whether he could have gotten along with him in a world where humans and half-elves could coexist.

Magnius

Magnius

Voiced by: Shinji Kawada (JP), Chris Edgerly (EN)

The leader of the Palmacosta Ranch.

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Tropes associated with Magnius:

• Blood Knight: He's the most violent of the Grand Cardinals. In stark contrast to Forcystus, who leaves his area alone unless provoked, he's more than willing to kill the citizens of Palmacosta with his bare hands.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's got the other Grand Cardinals beat in the volume department, that's for sure.
• The Brute: When your Establishing Character Moment is executing a teenage girl's mother and snapping a bystander's neck with your bare hands, you're probably this.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He snaps a guy's neck for not calling him "Lord Magnius".
• Dumb Muscle: He's plenty strong, but he's not very smart. Rodyle manipulates him with a minimal amount of effort.
• Dumbass Has a Point: He calls out Lloyd in the Palmacosta Human Ranch when Lloyd declares the party will kill him and free the captives by pointing out how he failed to do just that in Iselia, and that several people died as a result.
• Fantastic Racism: He's one of the few half-elves that hate their elven half as much as their human half.
  Magnius: Fine, I'll take care of you myself! I'll put an end to the Chosen, right along with you fools who can't let go of your elven blood!
• Fiery Redhead: Literally and figuratively.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar over his eye.
• Groin Attack: When Magnius attacks Palmacosta, Lloyd's response is to deliver a swift Demon Fang to his crotch.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: In his very first scene, he's trying to kill at least 3 people, just because they mildly annoyed him. And the people of Palmacosta live in fear that one day he'll be in a bad mood and just destroy the city.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Seems to have shades of this towards Chocolat.
• Large Ham: His voice actor was obviously having a great deal of fun, especially with the word 'vermin'.
  VEEEEERRRMIIIIIIIIIN!
• My God, What Have I Done?: When he realizes that Rodyle used him, he doesn't take it very well.
• Neck Lift and Neck Snap: Does this to a random human who doesn't use his title.
• Playing with Fire: His main element.
• Red Baron: Magnius the Pyroclasm
• Slouch of Villainy: He's got a pretty impressive one going on when the party catches up with him in his ranch.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: More prone to screaming and cursing than the other Cardinals. He actually doesn't swear quite as often as, say, Lloyd, but he seems to use the word "VERMIN!" in copious amounts to replace the swear words he would use otherwise.
• The Starscream: He seeks to replace Pronyma as the leader of the Grand Cardinals.
• Stupid Evil: It's ultimately Played for Drama. It's because he's so Stupid Evil that Rodyle was able to manipulate him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He seeks to protect his people from discrimination by humans by murdering the crap out any of them who get in his way. Needless to say, he probably wasn't hired for his brains.

Kvar

Kvar

Voiced by: Shigeru Ushiyama (JP), Chris Edgerly (EN)

The leader of the Asgard Ranch.

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Tropes associated with Kvar:

• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Comes off as very similar to Josef Mengele.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: The unassuming bladed portion of his magic scepter is actually absurdly sharp, enough to impart a wound on Colette that horrifies the party.
• Arch-Enemy: For Lloyd and Kratos. For Lloyd, it's because he's responsible for his Missing Mom. For Kratos, it's even more personal because said Missing Mom was his lover.
• Body Horror: Not him, personally, but as the brains behind the Angelus project, he induced this in Lloyd's mother.
• Even Evil Has Standards: His own underlings pull this on him, as they seem to be somewhat scared of him. He's even considered the cruelest of the Five Grand Cardinals, which is really saying something.
• The Evil Genius: One of two, Rodyle being the second. Rodyle appears to be the superior of the two.
• Eyes Always Shut: His sprite has a perpetual squint. In the OVA, this is changed to having very narrow eyes with black sclera.
• Foreshadowing: He knows who Kratos is and the two seem to have a very, very bad history. Hrm...
• For the Evulz: Unlike the other Desians, Kvar doesn't seem to need much motivation to be a complete bastard.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: He has slicked-back hair, which is a common hairstyle for bad guys.
• Hilarious Outtakes: His voice actor somehow managed to have this little gem slipped into the game's files...
• Lack of Empathy: He casually tells Lloyd about his father killing Anna with no change in tone or facial expression. He even seems amused when Lloyd gets angry.
• Mad Scientist: He seems to be responsible for the Desian's scientific research in Sylvarant. Which naturally means he kills humans by the dozen for the sake of science.
• Meaningful Name: KVAR is an acronym that stand for KiloVolt-Amperes Reactive, a unit of reactive power, which is a reference to to his Lightning-related powers.
• Posthumous Character: Somewhat. He's alive at the game's beginning but you don't find out quite how far the depths of his depravity go until after you've killed him.
• Red Baron: Kvar the Fury Tempest.
• Shock and Awe: He uses lightning magic as his weapon of choice.
• Smug Snake: You'll find yourself wanting to punch him in the face in every scene he's in.
• Squishy Wizard: He relies on magic to a much greater extent than the other Grand Cardinals. His only physical attacks involve him ineptly bashing his opponent with his staff. His magic is more than enough, though, especially his Guardian Shield, which can seriously fuck you up if you're not expecting it.
• The Starscream: Like Magnius, he seeks to replace Pronyma as the leader of the Grand Cardinals. May also be one to Yggdrasill, since he was involved with Rodyle's plan to rebuild the Mana Cannon and use it against Cruxis. It's never stated exactly how much he knew about the plan, but the game implies that Kvar and Rodyle were working rather closely together. Rodyle even refers to him as "Lord Kvar."
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: It sounds like a mix of Indian and an upper-class British accent.

Rodyle

Rodyle

Voiced by: Takeshi Aono (JP, game), Bin Shimada (JP, OVA), Daran Norris (EN)

The leader of the Remote Island Ranch and one of the main Desian researchers.

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Tropes associated with Rodyle:

• Arc Villain: For the first half of the Tethe'alla portion of the game, he's the main antagonist.
• Arch-Enemy: For Presea. And Regal to a somewhat lesser extent.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Plans to overthrow Yggdrasill. As far the player can tell, Yggdrasill doesn't take him for a threat. Mithos decided to go and let Lloyd and his friends deal with him as opposed to killing him himself.
• Dirty Coward: For the most part he runs rather than fights.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Most of his attacks are non-elemental, but the once that do have an element are Earth-based.
• Dragon Rider: Not in battle, but uses one as his main mode of transportation.
• Evil Genius: The second one after Kvar. Rodyle is apparently the superior of the two.
• Giggling Villain: Madly giggling is almost a second language for him.
• Mad Scientist: He's the one responsible for the Desians' Exsphere technology. Then, of course, is his hobby of human experimentation, which really messes with Presea's life.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's playing everybody, from Lloyd's group to the other Desians to the Pope of the Church of Martel. Ironically, he himself was manipulated by the Renegades into building the Mana Cannon, and Pronyma tricks him into killing himself by giving him a defective Cruxis Crystal.
• One-Winged Angel: He mutates himself into an Exbelua when you fight him... albeit not willingly.
• Red Baron: Iron Will Rodyle. Doubles as an Ironic Nickname, given that he's a Dirty Coward.
• Smug Snake: Believes himself to be the cleverest of the Desian Grand Cardinals but ends up being manipulated by the Renegades into building the Mana Cannon for them, as well as tricked by Pronyma, who gives him a Cruxis Crystal that turns him into an Exbelua when he equips it.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: After Kvar's death, a hologram of Rodyle appears and communicates to the recently deceased that he's going to take the rest of the data about the Mana Cannon, culminating with Rodyle laughing at his fellow Grand Cardinal's untimely demise.
• The Starscream: He seeks to take over Cruxis.
• Taking You with Me: He fails, but manages to force Botta into a Heroic Sacrifice and successfully manages to drown the humans at the ranch to spite the party.

Remiel

Remiel

Voiced by: Wally Wingert (EN)

An Angel sent down from Cruxis to guide Colette on her Journey of Regeneration, Remiel is said to be Colette's true father and tells her of the locations of the seals in Sylvarant.

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Tropes associated with Remiel:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He asks for Kratos' help after the party defeats him, but Kratos refuses.
• Armour-Piercing Question: When Lloyd protests about Colette being taken away, Remiel answers, "The Chosen's soul will save the world. Are you saying you would choose one soul over the entire world?"
• Batman Gambit: The only reason he claims to be Colette's father is because he noticed Colette about to ask about him in that relation, and realized it'd be a perfect way to manipulate her into doing what he wants.
• Character Catchphrase:: "Colette, my daughter." Invoked in-universe to make Colette trust him more.
• Disc-One Final Boss: His defeat marks the end of the Journey of Regeneration and gives the party an idea of just how big a mess they have to clean up.
• Dragon with an Agenda: What Remiel thinks he is- he only took the role of guide to Colette because he thought that Yggdrasill would then make him one of the Seraphim. But in the end, he was just another pawn to Yggdrasill.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: He's very feminine-looking and wears long, flowing robes.
• Evil Laugh: Once he shows his true colors.
• Evil Is Hammy: His voice gets much deeper and more dramatic after he reveals he lied to everyone.
• Guardian Angel: Acts as this towards the group. Downplayed in that he only gives hints about where they need to go next, and gifts Colette with her angel powers. And ultimately subverted, in that he's actually been lying to the party and facilitating Colette's death.
• Half-Human Hybrid: He's not really an Angel, he's a half-elf that evolved using Cruxis Crystals.
• Karmic Death: He tries to pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on Lloyd on his party once Colette was taken, mocking them for believing he was her father. They wind up beating him to an inch of his life instead, and he succumbs after having his plea for help rejected by Kratos.
• Light Is Not Good: He's the first taste of this trope that the party gets.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: To Colette. He's not. He just went along with it because it made him seem more trustworthy. He even calls Colette and Lloyd out on it, although Colette admits she guessed he was lying.
• Tomato Surprise: Surprise! He's not really an Angel. One of the first big ones of the game.
• Tranquil Fury: At the second seal, he's really annoyed with Colette for some reason, but plays it off extremely well. It's not until The Reveal that we find out why: He's angry because Colette's group destroyed the Palmacosta Ranch.

Kuchinawa

Kuchinawa

A ninja from Mizuho, Kuchinawa is a childhood friend of Sheena's and brother of Orochi.

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Tropes associated with Kuchinawa:

• Badass Boast: When he finds the party at the Otherwordly Gate:

  Raine: I'm positive Genis and I were left here when Genis was just a newborn...and we ended up in Sylvarant.
  Kuchinawa: Then this time, let me send you to hell instead!

• But Now I Must Go: He leaves Mizuho in disgrace after he loses to Sheena. It's implied by Orochi that he might change his ways.
• The Dragon: To Vharley. And later to the Pope when Vharley is killed.
• Duel Boss: Sheena duels against him in an optional sidequest.
• Evil Former Friend: Exactly when he became evil is unclear, but he starts working for the Pope right around the time Sheena makes her pact with Volt.
• Face–Heel Turn: Subverted, he was only pretending to be on Sheena's side at first to plant a charm on Sheena, allowing the Papal Knights to keep tracking the party.
• Interrupted Suicide: He tries to finish himself off when Sheena beats him, but he's stopped by herself and Lloyd.
• It's Personal: He blames Sheena for failing to control Volt, even though she was incredibly inexperienced at the time and couldn't understand Volt's language. He also bears anger towards her because she couldn't go through with killing Colette.
• Noble Demon: He appears to agree when Sheena asks he spare the party in exchange for allowing him to kill her, although Zelos says the Papal Knights probably would have taken everyone else out, anyway. He also returns the document containing important information of how to make a Rune Crest in exchange for Corrine's Bell, even if it directly helps the party. He agrees to fight Sheena alone in Mizuho, according to village customs.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Orochi's Blue. They even wear their respective Oni colours.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With Orochi. Orochi never blamed Sheena for the Volt incident, and even congratulates her when she successfully makes a pact with him.
• Villain Has a Point: Not about Volt- that was a case of Poor Communication Kills, but he is right in saying that Sheena's failure to kill Colette put Mizuho in danger.

Vharley

Vharley

An exsphere broker, he is working with both The Pope and Rodyle to distribute exspheres around Tethe'alla.

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Tropes associated with Vharley:

• Anime Hair: Sports a rather ridiculous-looking Mohawk.
• Arch-Enemy: Both to Regal and Presea- it was Vharley who was responsible for turning Alicia into a monster, then he had Regal sent to prison because Regal's gave Alicia a Mercy Kill, and then tried the same project on Presea and introduced her to Rodyle.
• The Cartel: A one-man version, considering that he's got the illegal exsphere market cornered. Doesn't sound like much, until you consider that Tethe'alla quite literally runs on exspheres.
• The Dragon: To both Rodyle and the Pope.
• Fat Bastard: The most rotund character in the game, and by far one of the worst.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He's an absolutely vile human being, but he's not wrong when he gloats about how easy Regal made it for him to get away with Alicia's death, since Regal blamed himself and turned himself in while Vharley, who was responsible for the whole mess, didn't care at all and casually moved onto his next experiment - Presea.
• Lack of Empathy: Arguably one of the worst cases in the same (after perhaps Rodyle and Kvar), he taunts Regal over Alicia's mutation, completely doesn't care when the party kills Rodyle, his employer, because he still has the Pope to work with. And he assists the Pope in obtaining some poison to assassinate the King of Tethe'alla. Luckily, Lloyd, Raine, Zelos and co put a stop to it.
• The Unfought: The party run into him in the Meltokio sewers at first, it looks like a fight will happen, but Presea promptly cuts him down with her axe.
• The Man Behind the Man: He's the middleman between Rodyle and the Pope, which allows the former to control Tethe'alla from behind the scenes and brings the latter dangerously close to ruling Tethe'alla in name.
• Would Hurt a Child: Has no problem using a sixteen-year-old girl in horrific experiments, then tossing her aside when it fails and using her sister instead.

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