Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / Tales of the Abyss

Go To

Tropes relating to the cast of Tales of the Abyss.

BE AWARE THAT NOT ALL SPOILERS ARE MARKED. PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION.


    open/close all folders 

The Jade Gang

    As a Group 

As a group, the team falls under these tropes:


  • Badass Crew: Despite all the issues noted below, this team is very competent and strong, and ultimately save their world. You also can have any of them act as a One-Man Army in the Coliseum.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Oh boy. The best way to put it is that they all meet in circumstances that make them hate each other. For example, Luke meets Tear when she attempts assassination against his Parental Substitute and they meet Jade when he arrests them. And that's not taking into account all the various issues and problems that come bubbling up over the course of the game.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: They are dubbed 'The Jade Gang' in a letter by Dist, which they obviously take exception to. Unfortunately, due to Jade's exceptional popularity with fans, it is the closest to an actual name for their team that they receive.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Despite their dysfunctions, they are friends. It takes a lot of work, but by the end they are loyal to each other and will stand up and besides any of the party members.
  • Gender-Equal Ensemble: Three men (Luke, Jade and Guy) and three women (Tear, Natalia and Anise).
  • God Was My Co-Pilot: As noted in Luke's section below, he's a God in Human Form of Lorelei. So not so much co-pilot as much as straight up pilot.
  • It's Personal: Unique to the Jade Gang is that, in comparison to other games in the Tales Series, the villain goes out of his way to ensure the personal enmity of all the members by the end of the game. Though Luke is The Protagonist, every character is given their own specific pair of scenes with the villain at the end of the game as the final boss rages on, contingent on who the player enters the fight as. In each of these scenes, Van in some way references their connection to the plot as a whole and effectively picks a fight with them personally as a final obstacle in the path to the story's conclusion. Natalia, for instance ties the fight back into her ability to lead the people of Kimlasca to a bright new age while Van tries to counter with the idea she'll lead from a throne drenched in blood, and admits that she's a skilled opponent.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: All of them are jerks in their own way (with the exception of Guy and, ultimately, Luke). That said, they are good people, stand by their friends, and work to save their world.
  • Poor Communication Kills: A lot of their problems boil under this; if their various issues or whatnot didn't prevent them all the time from doing what is needed, the Big Bad and his team wouldn't have gotten so far in their plans.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Not as much so as their successor; in fact, the most downplayed example in the Tales Series. The party notes that, as an unlikely a group they are, they are composed of some of the most notable second-tier citizens of Auldrant, and are trusted by the rulers of every world government (Luke and Natalia with Kimlasca-Lanvaldear; Jade with Malkuth; Anise with Fon Master Ion; Tear with the mayor of Yulia City; the party collectively with the mayor of Chesedonia, the sole independent city-state on Auldrant; and Guy with what remains of the government of Hod [since, as far as the game bothers to spell out, he basically is said government]). On top of that, they have a lot of specialized skills and talents that aid them; Jade with his genius fonist abilities, Tear's hymns, and Luke's hyperresonance come up repeatedly as key to their success against the Big Bad's plots, with Natalia's status as a Universally Beloved Leader to the citizens of Kimlasca being important a few times, Anise's experience with the Order of Lorelei as a Fon Master Guardian coming in handy, and even Guy's fontech geek knowledge helping them a few times.
  • With Friends Like These...: Let's just say they tend to be their own worse enemies for quite some time.

    Luke fon Fabre 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LukeProfile_5251.jpg

"I may not do a good job right away. I may make mistakes. But I'm going to change."

Voiced by: Chihiro Suzuki (JP), Yuri Lowenthal (EN)

Luke is the son of a duke in Kimlasca-Lanvaldear and has been kept locked up in his family's manor since the age of ten after an incident in which he was kidnapped by an opposing nation and developed complete retrograde amnesia. In that time, he's grown up into a spoiled and selfish person with little regard for anyone outside of his immediate circle of friends. After he is inadvertently teleported halfway across the world with Tear, his journey to return home leads to some startling discoveries about himself: not only is he a prophesied Chosen One, but he possesses the power of hyperresonance, a force that can reshape reality itself.

After a certain incident, he vows to change himself for the better and gives himself an Important Haircut.

As the main character, Luke is a pure swordsman. He is balanced in both attack and defense, and his combat style specializes in chaining artes to keep the enemy off-balance.


  • Abusive Parents: The closest Luke has to a "real" parent is Van who is not only responsible for his creation but was the only one providing him with any kind of "stable" influence i.e. he was emotionally manipulated and abused by Van to be dependent on him. Van used that to turn him into a Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb and discarded him once he served his purpose. His "blood" parents aren't too much better: Susanne tries but her ill girl status makes her neglect his needs and Duke Fabre deliberately distanced himself since he was doomed by the Score. Duke Fabre even admits later on that Luke has no parents due to how he was raised.
  • Accidental Kidnapping: On the receiving end and the reason the plot happens; by getting in the way of Tear trying to kill Van, a hyperresonance was set off, landing them halfway across the world. It turns out Luke technically kidnapped himself when it's revealed it was just his power of hyperresonance responsible.
  • All-Loving Hero: Post-Important Haircut, he makes a point of helping everyone, including the other replicas that no one else likes. In fact, he reaches near messianic levels by the very end.
  • Amnesiac Hero: Deconstructed twice over. Luke doesn't remember the first ten years of his life due to being kidnapped as a child. Unlike most usages of this trope, Luke lost memories of everything, from the faces of his parents, to how to eat and talk. The past roughly eight years have been him trying to relearn how to live as a human, and as a result, his knowledge is very minimal. This means that he is a child in an adult's body because he only knows roughly eight years of his life. The twist later that he is a replica drives this further; he doesn't have memories because they never existed.
  • Apocalypse Maiden: Van created him to act as this, destroying Akzeriuth and the Albertesque Seal it guards so that he can kick off the end of Auldrant. This is exactly what the Score said the real Luke fon Fabre would do. Interestingly enough, it's only after Luke has been tricked into setting in motion the end of the world that he starts being able to fight against Van's plan.
  • Apologises a Lot: Post-Important Haircut he apologies for everything. It's justified because of his Guilt Complex.
  • Artificial Human: He's a replica of the original Luke fon Fabre.
  • "Ass" in Ambassador: His power as ambassador goes to his head, and he uses it to order the party around. Justified as that's to be expected when a spoiled seven year old is put in a position of power.
  • The Atoner: After the debacle at Akzeriuth Luke spends the rest of the game making up for it. He actually deconstructs it as it becomes increasingly clear Luke is very messed up in the head thanks to that entire incident.
  • Backup Twin: Was created to invoke this by Van, to destroy and die in Akzeriuth in Asch's place. He goes on to defy it repeatedly, to the point of claiming he is himself and was never Asch by the end.
  • Badass Adorable: Post-Important Haircut his sweet attitude and Nice Guy status makes him quite cute. He also starts seriously fighting more and ends up a strong enough fighter to defeat Asch and ultimately Van in battle. And that's without taking into account his hyperresonance which, according to skit in the late game, could be used to destroy the atmosphere.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Some dialogue and thoughts from Luke reveal that his Undying Loyalty towards Van comes from this; Van was the only one to care for Luke (specifically as a Parental Substitute) and Luke is almost fanatically loyal for that one reason. This makes it more tragic as Van never actually even saw Luke as a person. Luke's attachment to Guy is similar and, ultimately, he attaches himself to anyone who he sees as being nice to him pretty quickly.
  • Betty and Veronica: Natalia sees him as the Betty, once The Reveal of him being the replica of the original comes out, between him and Asch. It's also discussed that he could have been the Archie between Tear and Natalia.
  • Blank Slate: He thinks it's amnesia, but it's really this because he was born as a replica.
  • Blessed with Suck: In regards to the fact that he has the power to cause hyperresonances on his own but it is abused by the Big Bad, and it's also supposedly too unstable to use in battle..
  • Blood Knight: Downplayed. Luke is normally a Reluctant Warrior, but going to the coliseum reveals that he enjoys that kind of fightingnote  very much (he gets very excited and giddy about it) to the point that when he was younger, there was a general agreement to not introduce him to the coliseum so he wouldn't whine his way into fighting in it.
  • Book Dumb: Justified. He's a seven year old that's trying to learn at the seventeen year old level.
  • Break the Haughty: At the start of the game Luke is an entitled, arrogant, spoiled brat. Then Akzeriuth happens, he learns he's a replica and The Team abandons him... All of this is deconstructed when one takes into account Luke is truly seven and what that means for his maturity level in the face of these events.
  • Brutal Honesty: Can be amazingly blunt to the point the rest of the group tends to immediately berate him in response. He keeps this up even after his Important Haircut though he does try his hand at this mysterious thing called "tact" at the same time. Since he's actually seven, it's no wonder he's like this. Children can be (in)famous for bluntly stating opinions due to the lack of experience in that regard.
  • Butt-Monkey: It's Played for Drama as the world of Auldrant seems to exist solely to break Luke's mind into tiny little pieces as often and as brutally as possible, and almost all of his otherwise noble friends and family seem only too glad to help it out.
  • Character Development: There aren't bigger developments than going from Jerkass to All-Loving Hero. After his Important Haircut, he is humble, unsure of himself, and trying to be a Nice Guy. He's without a doubt the most developed protagonist in the series.
  • Childhood Marriage Promise: Made one with Natalia when he was younger, but thanks to Identity Amnesia he doesn't remember. Averted when it turns out he's the replica and thus not the one who made the promise with Natalia. However, before the Disc-One Final Boss Luke can talk to Natalia and recites the promise on her request; between his actual age and the Gainax Ending obscuring whether or not Natalia chooses him, it could ultimately count as one.
  • The Chosen One: Played with. A passage in Yulia's Seven-Part Score says that a savior shall be born in the country of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear; a noble with hair of red, who shall be called "the light of the sacred flame". "Luke" means just that in Ancient Ispanian, and he is the son of a duke with red hair, so it's clear that he's the prophesied youth. Indeed, Luke Fon Fabre is the chosen one. However, it's not this Luke, but rather Asch. Luke is a replica created solely for the purpose of overturning the prophecy by allowing Asch to survive an event that is fated to kill him. Then a later event seems to play it straight again by having Luke "destroy himself" (by performing an action that causes terminal fonon separation) "and his people" (Replicas) in the "miner's city" (the Tower of Rem used to be just that). However, so much of the Score has gone off track by that point that it's difficult to say.
    • It gets even more complicated considering certain revelations. The voice that had been giving Luke chronic headaches pre game and a little into it? That's Lorelei trying to contact his other self so he will destroy the Score. In other words, Lorelei chooses him over the original for the task of saving Auldrant.
  • Classical Anti-Hero: Starts as a good-hearted but extremely unpleasant Sheltered Aristocrat, and though he goes on to fill the role of a hero, he's still plagued with crippling self-esteem issues even on his best of days.
  • Clone Angst: Realizing that he's a replica causes him no end of angst.
  • Death Seeker: Luke spends a good chunk of the game post Akzeriuth looking to pull a Heroic Sacrifice. It's only once he does have to do one that he turns away from this trope... except he's dying by that point.
  • Deconstruction: On the whole, Luke is an intentional deconstruction of many standard tropes associated with JRPG protagonists, as almost all of the fairly well-known tropes used to characterize him are shown realistically.
    • Part and parcel of being a Deconstruction (as noted above) is that Luke's actions and reactions come from exactly what would happen if you put someone like him in such positions as the game puts him in. What would happen if a seven year old was handed so much responsibility and power? And then screwed up? And then was taught he had to take responsibility for everything? Everything Luke does is very realistically handled as the norm.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Luke is the one ending the Score, surprising even Lorelei in managing to pull off freeing Auldrant from it.
  • Disney Death: Someone resembling him comes back two years later after the final battle. It was made ambiguous if it was really him, Asch, or a combination of the two that came back.
  • Doting Parent: His mother loves him despite knowing he's a replica. She thanks Tear for watching over him in her place.
  • Easily Forgiven: Zigzagged about Akzeriuth. While he 'pulled the trigger' so to speak, he was being manipulated by the Big Bad into destroying the place; he thought he was saving it. The others give him crap and abandon him because of it but ultimately they forgive him for it, as they all realize they were just as responsible for the situation as he was. However, he doesn't forgive himself until much later.
  • Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: Played with. Luke is chronologically seven and definitely acts like it, particularly in the first arc where he's acting exactly what one might expect from a spoiled seven year old Sheltered Aristocrat. That reduces come his Important Haircut but he still has the childlike emotional maturity to match the actual age. All the other characters seem to expect this trope to be played straight however, and react as if Luke is evil or an idiot for not fitting their expectations grounded in this trope.
  • Evil Knockoff: A inversion of the trope in every aspect. He's Asch's knock off but he's also The Hero of the story.
  • Expy: He looks a heck of a lot like Zelos Wilder who is also a member of the nobility who acts like a jerk. He uses a number of the same artes, except for not having magic. His self-loathing and Death Seeker traits after his Important Haircut also invoke Zelos's personality. He's also a hint of Genis with his gravity-defying hair, discrimination issues, and on top of that he really is a kid, at seven years old.
  • Fiery Redhead: Long red hair and an antagonistic jerkass. He cuts it off at the same time as toning down his behavior.
  • Five Stages of Grief: Goes through this after Akzeriuth. Though he manages to be both in Denial and Anger at first, he slips into a variation of Bargaining by becoming The Atoner post Important Haircut. Depression comes after the month-long time skip and he only gets to Acceptance in time to be forced to accept his own death.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: On the way to Akzeriuth, Luke falls into this; his Jerkass antics get cranked up and they only tolerate him because he's the Ambassador and thus has to be on the team. This is deconstructed as this ultimately contributes to the mess that is Akzeriuth; being treated like that means he has no reason to trust the team. He's somewhat treated like this post Important Haircut until they realize his change of heart is really genuine.
  • God in Human Form: Certain lines from Lorelei reveal that he's actually another Lorelei due to being a replica: a replica is a collection of seventh fonons given form and sentience, exactly the definition of an Aggregate Sentience like Lorelei.note  By being that and having the same fonic signature as Lorelei, Luke is thus also Lorelei. However, he is not the Lorelei who created the Score.
  • Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: His eyes are drawn wider after his haircut than before, most likely due to less apathy from him post-Heroic BSoD. They also give him a younger look which may be in keeping with the reveal that chronologically and mentally, he's really seven years old.
  • Guilt Complex: After the events of The Reveal tore Luke's sense of self-worth into little-itty-bitty pieces, he becomes susceptible to this kind of thinking, and the rest of the party have to keep a close eye on him to keep him from going over the edge. It begins spiraling out of control in the last third of the game.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • Goes into one the first time he kills a person in self-defence. It takes Tear getting hurt due to his hesitation for him to start moving out of it.
    • Unwittingly nuking Akzeriuth, being abandoned by The Team, and then revealed as a replica puts him into a deep funk.
    • Later he has another one when the miasma comes back and he's put into a Sadistic Choice about sacrificing himself to destroy it or have Asch do it.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Wants to invoke this after he destroyed Akzeriuth and develops a massive Guilt Complex about it.
    • He ultimately does in the last third of the game. It begins as a slow death from fonon seperation and culminates in a quicker death in the crashing Elderant. Whether he comes back at the end, is truly dead, or is merged with Asch to be a new person, is up to personal interpretation.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Is nigh crippled by this post Important Haircut. He only manages to move past it near the end...just in time to find out his days are numbered.
  • Heroic Wannabe: Leading up to Akzeriuth he wants to be like his role model, Van, and be a hero. It's really a means to an end for him.
  • Hypno Fool: A dark version as Van uses Luke's Undying Loyalty to him and a specific trigger to "remind" him of a situation where he had no control over his hyperessonance to cause him to destroy Akzeriuth's Sephiroth Tree and thus the entire city.
  • I Just Want to Be Free: What his Heroic Wannabe phase was really about: getting out of the manor.
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: The entire town of Akzeriuth serves as this for Luke.
  • Idiot Hero: He admits it himself. Justified in that, even before the dramatic reveal, he only remembers the last seven years of his life and was basically under house arrest and deliberately Locked Out of the Loop that entire time. With the dramatic reveal, he ultimately averts it as, taking account his true age and all he does post Important Haircut, Luke is actually pretty smart.
  • Important Haircut: After his Heroic BSoD post Akzeriuth he cuts his hair to mark his commitment to changing himself.
  • Improbable Age: With all Luke does (stopping a war, saving the world, and becoming a Master Swordsman) and his appearance it's easy to forget he does all this at age seven, since he's a replica. He's technically a Child Prodigy up to eleven!
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: Luke does his best to seem confident during the first part before the Wham Episode, but considering how sheltered he is it's very clear he's at a massive disadvantage for dealing with anything in the real world (he doesn't know anything about shopping!). Post Important Haircut, he trades this trope for straight up Heroic Self-Deprecation.
  • Internalized Categorism: After he finds out that he's Asch's replica, he develops an inferiority complex about whether or not he should exist. It gets especially bad in the lead up to the Tower of Rem, when he goes from Heroic Self-Deprecation into full-blown Fantastic Racism (towards his own kind).
  • Irony: The Spoiled Brat Jerkass turns out to be the nicest of nice guys.
  • It's All My Fault: Luke's mindset through about the middle of the game till just before the end.
  • It Never Gets Any Easier: Though Luke does manage to fight and kill humans, he remains haunted by it to the very end, something which Jade notes during an optional conversation in Keterberg.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Before Akzeriuth, he's abrasive, arrogant, and typically has selfish motives for his good deeds (he wants to save Akzeriuth so that he'll be a hero and be freed more than out of concern for the people). However, despite his mouth, he automatically helps people when he sees them in trouble and is one of the few RPG protagonists who are utterly averse to killing. This means that the plot forces him to destroy an entire city against his will, and then later consciously choose to disintegrate what are basically thousands of newborn clones in order to save the world from being covered in poison. Ion put it best when he said that Luke was always kind, he just wasn't very good at showing it. After his Important Haircut, he loses the "jerk" part.
  • Kamehame Hadoken: His Lost Fon Drive.
  • Kick the Dog: Tends to do this to Mieu, at least until his Important Haircut.
  • Kid Hero: Luke's really only seven years old. His true age and the ramifications of being thrust into so many difficult decisions and dangerous situations is pointed out several times.
  • Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Van created him to destroy Akzeriuth in the original Luke's place. In other words, he's a Tykebomb created to replace another one.
  • The Leader: Becomes a charismatic version post Important Haircut. Though Jade is the one behind the planning and coming up with what they need to do, it's usually Luke making the decisions as what to do and the team does, in fact, look to him for guidance in regards to "what is next".
    • A good example is in regards to the lowering of the Outer Lands as Luke is the one to bring up that they should bring the various government figures into it and also arrange a peace conference while at it.
    • The party showed their acknowledgement of Luke being the leader before heading off their final battle.
  • Lethal Chef: In a skit the party categorizes him with Natalia. Though in another scene his food is shown to be at least edible, unlike Natalia's. Being not only a Sheltered Aristocrat but actually seven it's not entirely surprising he has terrible cooking skills.
  • Light 'em Up: Radiant Howl involves Luke damaging nearby opponents with swirls of light beams.
  • Likes Older Women: Taking into account both his actual age and his feelings towards Tear, yes, yes he does.
  • Limit Break: Radiant Howl and Lost Fon Drive
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Deconstructed. Was deliberately kept ignorant after his kidnapping and throughout the game the rest of the party tends to hide things from him despite how it always tends to result in horrible situations. In particular, the sheer amount of secrets and deception around Luke led to Akzeriuth's destruction at his (unintended) hands. Worse, Luke knew at the least everyone was keeping things from him, which further aggravated him.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Pre-Important Haircut, he had long hair down to his rear.
  • Manchild: During the first part of the game he acts very immature. Subverted when his true age is revealed. As he's actually seven, and a sheltered and spoiled seven year old at that, his attitude is "normal" so to speak. He starts acting more mature post Important Haircut.
  • May–December Romance: Since he's actually seven, this is where his relationship with Tear falls.
  • Meaningful Name: 'Luke' means 'light of the sacred flame' which refers to a Score that drives the game.
  • Mighty Glacier: His attack stat is the best of the party and he has very high defense, but Guy is faster than him and Anise is slightly more durable then he is. At end game however he'll become a Lightning Bruiser since his speed stat will become high enough to be right behind Guy.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: Averted. While he never knew any of the people there, it's clear that Luke feels incredible guilt over his role in the destruction of Akzeriuth, to the extent that atoning for it becomes the defining point to his character.
  • Mirror Character: To Asch. Though there are more differences, they share enough traits to throw into sharp relief the fact Luke is his replica.
  • Morality Pet: You got to do a lot of exploration in the game to find the proof, but by the third arc Luke is this to Jade. The Reminiscences of Jade manga out right confirms it at the end.
    • It's also suggested he was this to Guy; raising and caring for him forced Guy to rethink his blind hatred of the Fabres and his Revenge by Proxy plan. If it wasn't for him, it's implied Guy would have gone through with it or at least remained on Van's side.
  • Morally Superior Copy: Following a truly vicious Break the Haughty sequence, Luke becomes far more kind and heroic than his Anti-Villain original.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Taking into account all of the alternative costumes, he easily shows the most skin out of the entire male cast.
  • Never My Fault: After the destruction of Akzeriuth, he refuses to take responsibility for what happened and at one point repeatedly shouts "It's not my fault!" This is what finally drives the rest of the party to leave him. He gets a lot better after his Important Haircut. Though "better" might not be quite true since he does a 180 into a full on Guilt Complex.
  • Nice Guy: Post-Important Haircut he deliberately treats others better. But as the trope below shows, he always was one.
  • No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Played With. He doesn't appreciate Natalia and Anise's attempts to woo him but he's got some good reasons for it; Natalia is Loving a Shadow and insists on him remembering their Childhood Marriage Promise while being a royal pain to him. Meanwhile Anise is rather creepy in how a 13 year old is wrapping around him, pulling a Fake Cutie and flirty act to get at him for the sake of money, which results in an in-universe Squick reaction. When he develops a crush on Tear, he averts this as his actions and comments make it clear, in part due to low self esteem, he wants her to chase him.
  • No Social Skills: Downplayed but pre Important Haircut a lot of his jerk actions come from him not having been taught how to properly express himself and he gets very awkward when he tries to show he cares for others. Even after Character Development kicks in, Luke tends to stumble a bit when it comes to interacting with the rest and can still stick his foot in it. Being actually seven, and previously very sheltered, it's no wonder Luke struggles in this regard.
  • Parental Substitute: Not him himself, but it deserves mention here since Luke has no less than five different ones. Van is the obvious one, but Guy also raised him after he got amnesia or rather due to being a Blank Slate replica. Then it gets complicated as though Jade denies it, he ultimately fills this position for Luke after Van abandons him. And, since he's a clone, Duke Fabre and, especially, Lady Susanne accepting him as their son puts them as two more.
  • Pet the Dog: Even before he loses his Jerkass attitude, he has a soft spot for Ion. An early skit even shows him trying (awkwardly) to make Tear better when she keeps apologizing and obviously feels guilty for accidentally dragging him across the world via hyperresonance. And he admits to being worried about Anise when they meet up with her in Kaitzur...he does this a lot actually.
  • Picky Eater: Canonically he does not like (deep breath) all kinds of sketchy meat, carrots, mushrooms, milk, rappig meat, and all kinds of fish. The Fridge Brilliance of his actual age, being seven years old, on top of being spoiled by the Manor, explains why he's so picky. All of the above foods are the kind children would be likely to despise.
  • Reality Warper: His power of hyperresonance, which he uses during his Radiant Howl Mystic Arte. Lacking any kind of finesse over it, he just forces his power into a ball and shoves it into his target.
  • Reckless Pacifist: His aversion to killing puts himself and his allies in danger and injuries Tear. Moving past this is one of the earliest stages of his extensive Character Development.
  • Reluctant Warrior: He's quickly forced to accept that killing enemies is necessary, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. It's more pronounced when he has to kill humans though, as he is haunted by doing so.
  • Reformed, but Rejected: Jade and Anise are initially not too pleased to see him when he reunites with them.
  • Replacement Goldfish: He was created because Van didn't want to part with the original Luke. Guy comes to believe that Replica!Luke is the "real Luke", and his relationship with him is different than the one with Asch, the original Luke.
  • Royal Brat: Initially; his mother is the king's sister and he was a Jerkass.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Develops into this; he's the tertiary heir to the throne and the heir to the most powerful non-royal aristocrat in the kingdom while being The Hero. Though Luke himself doesn't feel he fits this trope properly due to being a replica.
  • Say My Name: In the voice dramas, when Asch takes a blow from Van meant for Luke and bids Luke farewell as he dies, Luke screams his name in anguish: ASSSSSHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUU! Outside of that, he's one of the few Tales Protagonists to avert screaming people's names.
  • Secretly Dying: He's entirely composed of seventh fonons because he's a replica. This makes him vulnerable to fonon seperation from the Tower of Rem. It turns out by the end that everyone knew. Merging with Asch at the end of the game re-stabilized him. Maybe.
  • Sheltered Aristocrat: What he starts as. Character development moves him from a cloistered nobleman's brat to a heroic royal that is honored by his king for bravery.
  • Spanner in the Works: His existence 'as a replica' threw Yulia's Score off track. Not to mention he goes out to wreck Van's plans as well.
  • Sphere of Destruction: His "Radiant Howl" Mystic Arte is a sphere of reality destroying energy that he forces on an enemy. Not to mention what happened at Akzeriuth.
  • Stepford Smiler: Does his best to seem happy despite his various issues past a certain point. Gets worse once he starts dying as he plays up the positive things more and more in an attempt to hide it.
  • Thou Shall Not Kill: He doesn't like killing. Ultimately defied in that he realises that it is unfortunately necessary.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: The game leads the player and The Team to believe that Asch is an evil clone but the truth is that Luke is the clone.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Ambassador Asshat. He wasn't a role model from the start, but after being appointed as an ambassador, he becomes much more irritable and quick-tempered; impatient to meet Van at Akzeriuth. The fact that he is Locked Out of the Loop by the rest of the party only provokes him more.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: After his Important Haircut. Even his quotes during and after battle become more polite.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Oh, just about the whole damn game. Even before Akzeriuth, Luke is forced to kill people for survival, thrown head long out of his depths into situations beyond his limited experience, and ends up face to face (literally) with things that horrify him. Then he's used to destroy Akzeriuth, the party gives him crap because of it and ultimately abandon him, he gets a massive Guilt Complex about his part in Akzeriuth's destruction...and that's just the start.
  • Tsundere: Like with Asch, when he's in jerkass mode, he gets like this to Ion and whenever he's complimented. Once he takes a level in kindness, he downplays it with the tsun mode mostly coming up by the end when he's flustered about his feelings for Tear.
  • Undying Loyalty: No matter what anyone says (though they certainly weren't giving him any actual reasons to think otherwise) Luke whole-heartedly trusts Van and will follow what he wants him to do without any question. Van specifically invoked this in him and once Luke did what Van made him for, he was discarded and left to die.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Is this to Van in the lead up to Akzeriuth, having been groomed since birth to only trust him and thus destroy Akzeriuth on his command.
  • Walking Spoiler: It's very hard to talk about him without bring up the fact he's actually the replica of the original Luke fon Fabre.
  • The Watson: Being an amnesiac Sheltered Aristocrat who hasn't left the family manor in seven years, Luke is perfect for the role of asking "what's going on?"
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: Uniquely among the party, Luke recognizes enemy soldiers as human beings and values their lives even pre-Character Development, with him experiencing a Heroic BSoD the first time he kills an enemy Mook. He'll defend himself against enemy attacks and kill if he has to, but its mentioned that killing all these Mooks haunts him, and he has unique end-of-battle dialogue against human enemies where he expresses regret.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: As he is actually seven, a lot of what Luke does and thinks and comes to a realization about puts him firmly in this trope.
  • The Wise Prince: Character Development has him transform into this.
  • Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Or rather, why can't you remember who you really are in Luke's case; most people around him (especially Natalia) want him to remember his past so he can go back to being the Luke of the past. Turns out to be technically this trope in full as he's the seven year old replica of the original and is himself, no memories to unlock.
  • Younger Than They Look: He's only seven years old, the kicker being that nobody trustworthy is aware of it until it is too late. Interesting side note: Luke's one of the oldest replicas encountered in game. The only one that's older than him is the Nebilim replica, who's more than twice his age. However, he is the oldest Seventh-Fonon-based replica.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: The events of the Tower of Rem results in Luke's fonons seperating, leaving him with a limited amount of time left to live; especially as he has no choice but to use the very power that will speed up his death to save the world.

    Tear Grants 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TearProfileNew_639.jpg

"It's not easy to regain trust once you've lost it."

Voiced by: Yukana (JP), Nicole Balick (EN)

Born Mystearica Aura Fende, Tear is a Seventh Fonist from the Order of Lorelei who- at the beginning of the game- attempts to assassinate her brother Van Grants. She accidentally teleports herself and Luke halfway across the world, and stricken with guilt she vows to return him home. Though she carries herself as a soldier, Tear possesses a powerful motherly instinct and a weakness for girly or cute things. As a Songstress of Yulia, she can sing hymns that bestow powerful magical effects.

Tear is a defensive spellcaster. She has several ways of creating Fields of Fonons that enable the local Combination Attack, has several offensive spells, and is the party's first healer, wielding area-of-effect healing spells.


  • Accidental Kidnapping: Thanks to Luke trying to stop her from killing Van, they got whisked away by hyperresonance across the world, placing her as the kidnapper. Considering Luke has been previously kidnapped and his importance, Tear is lucky for only getting a metaphorical slap on the wrist. Though considering her boss sends her soon after to a place that is destined to be destroyed when she gets there, perhaps not.
  • The Ace: Though every character just about has their moments, Tear’s mastery of Yulia’s Fonic hymn is primarily the reason the party can make Van vulnerable to attack when he is using the power of Lorelei in his last fight with them. It is also the sole reason they survive the utter annihilation of Akzeriuth, as her fonic hymn shields them from both the great fall of the landscape and the poisonous miasma that awaits them at its end. In the anime, her Fonic hymns are also often the last move done in battle before their adversaries are dealt a finishing blow by the party. In the anime’s version of the final fight with Sync and Legretta, it is her fonic hymns that renders them immobile to be finished off by Guy and Jade, respectively.
  • Action Girl: Her first introduction is her trying to kill her evil brother. Though she's your main healer, she has plenty of skills that are geared towards fighting. She also whips out her knives during several scenes when enemies show up.
  • Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Tear is beautiful with long gray-brown hair, and as a soldier, she's also composed, cold, and distant at first.
  • Always Accurate Attack: Fortune's Arc will never miss.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Not nearly as bad as Natalia (see below), but when her AI casts Resurrection, unless you immediately when she's done have her cast/do something else, she WILL try to use Resurrection again, even if nobody is KO'd any more after she cast Resurrection the first time. This also occurs with Anise if you have the doll head that allows her to cast Raise Dead/Resurrection. note 
  • Badass Adorable: A ruthless soldier who sometimes shows her cute side.
  • Betty and Veronica: Averted but it's discussed that, if it wasn't for The Reveal, she would have been the Veronica (as the woman who brought Luke into the outside world) to Natalia's Betty for Luke.
  • Big Eater: Implied by Jade. Her preferred ingredients when cooking are things like eggs and potatoes, which result in rather heavy dishes.
  • Blunt "Yes": She says the replicas on Feres Island, who don't care whether the originals live or die, have "a will to live that borders on arrogance." When one of them asks if she's calling them arrogant, she says yes, and asks them whether they can say what they did when their words are turned against them.
  • Boom Stick: She uses her wand to fire beams of light at her enemy rather than using it for closed-quarters combat.
  • Brutal Honesty: Does this a lot, with a strong leaning towards the brutal part of the equation. She doesn't see the point in sugar-coating anything, such as the fact that Luke will likely have to kill to defend himself on his way home.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: People don't seem to pay much attention to her large tracts of land until it's lampshaded in some skits and Luke uses them to taunt Anise.
  • Cat Girl: Her "Monster Collector" costume title is styled with cat ears. It has the handy ability to stop encounters when worn...at the cost of chipping away at the party's HP.
  • Combat Medic: The best healer while plenty competent with her staff and throwing knives.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Put anything cute near her. "So cute..."
  • D-Cup Distress: Her big bosom isn't mentioned very often, but when it does, she surely doesn't like it.
    M-me-melons, what do you mean melons!? Are you stupid!? Can't you be a little more quiet!?
  • Deadpan Snarker: For example, when a stagecoach driver thinks Luke's with the Dark Wings, and Luke objects, Tear agrees, saying that the man might upset the Dark Wings.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Downplayed. She's not really a cold individual, but Luke has so many foot-in-mouth moments that it looks that way.
  • Disappeared Dad: It's never explained how her father died. It's entirely possible he died when Hod fell, since it's stated Van saved himself and their mother (who was pregnant with Tear) using a fonic hymn, but nothing is ever said about their father.
  • Famous Ancestor: Yulia, mother of the Score.
  • Forced Sleep: She uses the fonic hymn Nightmare to put enemies to sleep both in battle and in cutscenes.
  • General Ripper: God Generals on the loose? Van is behind it. Fon Master kidnapped? Van is behind it. He is.
  • He Is Not My Boyfriend: Tear and Luke run into this trope a lot during the early game when they are traveling alone. Because of Tear's Sugar-and-Ice Personality, she doesn't make a loud fuss about it.
  • Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Her long hair covers one of her eyes; hinting at her reserved demeanor.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: Based on Yulia's hymns and the seventh fonon.
  • Identical Granddaughter: Aside from the hair colour, she strongly resembles Yulia.
  • Improbable Age: A lieutenant of the Oracle Knights of the Order of Lorelei... at the age of sixteen! However, considering this is a world where a pre-teen can be the personal bodyguard of the spiritual leader of the known world (who's also pre-teen) it's less of a stretch. Plus, the world of Auldrant has years that last twice as long... meaning in our earth years, she's 32.
  • Improbable Weapon User: "Pow Hammer!"
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Some of the stuff she says can really sting, and she does pull that Moral Myopia crap (see said trope below), but she's also a very loving and sensitive young lady.
  • Lady of Black Magic: A reserved and graceful Seventh Fonist who, despite being a White Magician Girl, has some powerful offensive spells at her disposal.
  • Lady of War: A beautiful and composed soldier whose weapons include songs and expertly thrown knives.
  • Lawful Stupid: It's subtly implied that raising her as this was deliberately done by the Yulia City elders to help her adhere to the Because Destiny Says So attitude of the Oracle Knights. Ironically, she's more open to the idea of changing destiny than she is breaking the rules of her society.
  • Limit Break: Innocent Shine and Fortune's Arc.
  • Literal-Minded: Slips into this a few times, mostly in skits. Like assuming that when Luke says she "hasn't changed" he means her outfit...
  • Magic Music: The fonic hymns are powerful spells, thus making her a Musical Assassin.
  • May–December Romance: Being sixteen to Luke's seven, she's the December to his May.
  • The Medic: She has the best healing power and the most varied healing spells of the playable characters.
  • Meido: Her "Proud Maid" costume title.
  • Moral Myopia: She chews out Luke for trusting his beloved father figure Van, who then proceeded to use Luke to blow up Akzeriuth. However, she saw no problem with defending the honor of her direct superior Grand Maestro Mohs, even after it is readily apparent that he masterminded the repeated kidnappings of her ultimate superior and, by that time, close friend Ion, and was trying to send the entire world into war. She never seems to bring this up, even when its revealed that he knew and was fully supporting Van's actions regarding the destruction of Akzeriuth.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Out of the three playable girls, Tear is definitely the most voluptuous, especially in the chest department. She's even regarded as an incredible beauty In-Universe.
  • Parental Abandonment: As stated, an explanation for how Tear's father dies is never given, and her mother died not long after giving birth to her.
  • Pillar of Light: Innocent Shine is light magic attack beams that rain down from above.
  • Promotion to Parent:
    • In a different sense; Luke's mother promotes her to "sister" in a cutscene, but she still views Tear as someone that takes care of her son when she can't.
    • She was also on the receiving end. She and Van were officially adopted by the mayor of Yulia City, but Van was the one who ultimately took responsibility for raising her.
  • Properly Paranoid: About Van. He really is responsible for all the trouble going on.
  • Say My Name: Screams Luke's name in anguish as he prepares to sacrifice himself at the Tower of Rem.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Falls into this as she watches Luke become an All-Loving Hero after his Important Haircut.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: At first she's mainly ice (due to her insistence on being a "soldier") but over time her sugar comes out more and more around the group, and Luke in particular.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Her deceased mother's pendant. She gives it up early on to pay for a carriage ride. An optional sidequest later on has Luke buy it back for her. In Tales of the Abyss Anime Last Episode cd drama, it explains how she got it back.
  • White Mage: She can cast healing magic based on Yulia's holy fonic hymns and is also the strongest healer of the team.
  • White Magician Girl: Averted. While she has the best healing magic, she's a soldier. Half of her skills are direct fighting instead of magic and she throws knives in several cutscenes. She's also presents a cold front in contrast to the trope's standard. She's the most action-focused White Magician Girl ever.
  • Words Do Not Make The Magic: Tear has to understand the lyrics, melody and symbolism of Yulia's Hymns in order to invoke their effects. Otherwise, they're just songs.
  • World's Most Beautiful Woman: Tear's beauty is mentioned quite a few times throughout the game; Guy makes a point of telling her he finds her beautiful, Luke admits in his journal that he considers her 'really beautiful', and a man in Chesedonia mentions seeing a great beauty recently, but upon considering your party mentions that Tear is 'more his type'. Even the emperor of Malkuth seems to lust after her, judging by his (apparently scandalous) bathing suit choice for her.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's really scared of Ghosts.

    Jade Curtiss 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/JadeProfile_9032.jpg

"I merely expressed distrust as a matter of formality."

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (JP), Kirk Thornton (EN)

Also known as Jade the Necromancer, Jade is the oldest character to join your party (in his thirties). Born as Jade Balfour and adopted into the noble House Curtiss, he is a prodigy in fonon use and research. He grew up with the Emperor of Malkuth as a neighbor, and serves Malkuth's military as commander of the Third Division Forces. Unofficially, he's the Emperor's right-hand-man.

Jade is (usually) calm and collected, and is always ready with a witty or sarcastic remark. He also tends to enjoy playing the age card to get out of physical labour (like pushing boxes). His fonic ability is sealed early in the game, restricting access to all but his most basic spells. He unseals his existing abilities as he levels up.

Jade is mainly an offensive spellcaster, though he can also summon a spear for close-range combat.


  • Adults Are Useless: Averted, and lampshaded to hell and back. Jade is a Magic Knight and vital to many plot events but exploits the trope for fun, or to get out of doing manual labour.
  • Almighty Janitor: Jade is a genius fonist, an amazing strategist, has more political connections than expected from someone originally of a "lowly" birth, and has the ear of the Emperor himself due to being Childhood Friends. Not to mention is trusted with highly classified and important missions. All that, and he refuses to be ranked higher than Colonel.
  • Ambiguous Disorder: It's very, very clear that Jade's mind simply does not work in the same way that other people's do, but what exactly his mental difference is and what caused it is never addressed, and since There Are No Therapists, it won't be.
  • Anti-Hero: Jade is not nice by any means and one gets the feeling that he's more "helping his friend/boss" than "fighting For Great Justice". That's what he says, anyway. Having seen his softer side, however, this is hard to believe.
  • Badass Bookworm: Jade is a colonel in Malkuth's military and also one its brightest scientists.
  • Badass Cape: Gets one in his optional final costume, "Evil Fonist?".
  • Berserk Button: Finding out the villains are using fomicry sends him into an uncharacteristic rage.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Though it doesn't come up in the game, in the Reminiscences of Jade manga when Nephry is attacked and injured by assailants he acts somewhat uncharacteristically (showing anger and worry, going for an immediately kill to one of the assailants, and not being quite as observant as usual when Nephry appears) in such a way to make it clear he is not taking any of this calmly and potentially even takes the whole incident very personally.
    • Nephry brings it up in the game when she describes Jade performing formicry on her favorite doll that broke.
  • Bizarre Taste in Food: Jade tends to get creative with his food dishes when he's the designated cook, creating things like Potato Pizza and using tofu in the Fried Chicken recipe
  • Black Mage: All his spells focus on dealing offensive magical damage.
  • Breakout Character: He's become one of the top popular characters in the whole franchise before Yuri Lowell debuted and had to share the same amount of spotlight as Jade that they both kept winning too many popularity polls they had to be banned as options. This popularity netted Jade a cameo battle in Tales of Zestiria alongside Sophie; another popular character but not as popular as either Jade or Yuri.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Played for Laughs- Jade is ridiculously competent at everything he does except he can't use the seventh fonon, and he's a sociopathic Mad Scientist so his inventions cause moral issues, but he'd rather not do anything if he doesn't have to, usually tricking Guy or Luke into doing things for him. Explaining things is the most common thing Jade worms his way out of, but he also gets out of menial labour and the like.
    • This is also deconstructed. Jade later admits his desire to avoid making things complicated in the lead up to Akzeriuth is why he didn't reveal what he figured out about Luke, and thus is partially to blame for what happened there.
  • Broken Ace: Jade is so famous, so skilled, so renowned, so respected and so damn intelligent that more or less everybody who isn't a villain (and even then, some of those too) treat him with respect. None of which he's happy about. Why? Because he's not the god of a man people seem to think he is. He's a sociopathic, borderline Mad Scientist whose lack of emotional connection to the world and the people in it just makes their lives worse, and he knows it. As the story goes on, he seems to develop envy towards Luke; as he's able to overcome his flaws and develop true compassion for the lives of others whereas Jade struggles with very similar issues up to and beyond the game's end.
  • Brutal Honesty: Can be like this, often in rather horrible ways. The problem is that one can't tell if he's being snarky or it's this trope.
  • Celibate Eccentric Genius: He is a brilliant and multidisciplinary inventor who has enough difficulty forming friendships, let alone any sort of romantic relationship.
  • Character Development: Subtle and rather depressing.
    • While he keeps an almost invariably cool facade, Jade is initially very emotionally detached and aloof to everything. As Luke grows and Jade sees the fruits of both his inventions and his apathetic treatment of others, he begins to increasingly loathe his work and curse his irresponsible detachment from his surroundings. Late in the game, during a skit contemplating both, he wishes he could go back in time and kill himself as a newborn and, for once, he doesn't seem to be joking.
    • During a private chat with Luke, he confesses that he had guessed that Luke was a Replica long before The Reveal, but that he withheld the information because he felt explaining would be a hassle. He's aware of the ramifications of keeping everyone in the dark about this, with no small amount of self-loathing.
    • Though it wasn't visible much during the ending, but the anime version shows more visibly his eyes's colors have turned back into brown. In the official guide, the Tales team confirmed that it wasn't a glitch or editing mistake. Jade had his Fonic sight removed after the final battle showing how much he has changed.
  • Child Prodigy: When he was younger there wasn't any fonic arte he couldn't learn — except seventh fonic artes. This is a deconstruction taking account he was also a Creepy Child (see below for details).
  • Colonel Badass: Jade is a colonel in Malkuth's military.
  • Colony Drop: A late-game sidequest grants him several "forbidden spells" and one of which is Meteor Storm.
  • Cool Old Guy: Parodied. Jade repeatedly pulls the "old man" card despite being only thirty-five and he's aware of how ridiculous this is when he states that he doesn't consider someone a true adult until they're in their forties. He just invokes it to get out of hard work.
  • Competence Zone: If one of these exists, then Jade is in it and everyone else is too young.
  • Creepy Child: He used his genius-level skill in fonic artes to torture monsters For the Evulz. His own sister called him a monster, but he got better after Professor Nebilim showed him the errors of his ways.
  • Crutch Character: Sort of. The first time he joins your party, he's level 45, while Luke and Tear are probably closer to 5. This changes very fast.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Jade admits on several occasions that his intelligence is a curse. Considering his inventions and ideas are used equally by heroes and villains alike, he's not wrong.
  • Death Seeker: He states that, if he could, he'd go back in time and kill himself before his intelligence could blight the planet. He doesn't take any such actions in the present.
  • Dissonant Serenity: For example, if the party gets attacked from behind by an enemy encounter, his reaction is to just laugh and cheerfully proclaim "This is terrible!"
  • Dressed to Heal: The "Doctor Mambo" costume.
  • Elemental Powers: Has access to Earth, Wind/Lightning, Water/Ice, Fire, and Light, missing only Darkness and the seventh fonon.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He skirts around the edges of this trope, but his self-awareness of his Lack of Empathy and a desire to do something right despite that lead to him defying it.
  • The Gadfly: 90% of Jade's dialogue consists of making snarky jabs at the other characters to get a humorous reaction out of them, and he enjoys every second of it sporting a Perpetual Smile, and sounding utterly joyful, and humorous while doing so. This leads to many comedic moments with him throughout the game.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: This Colonel Badass isn't just show- he joins your party for the first time halfway through the first boss fight at level 45, when Luke and Tear are likely around 5. Its not much later that the Fon Slot Seal hits him and brings him down to their level.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Jade is also a common girl's name.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
    • He delivers one to Natalia during their final mission in Eldrant for being so clingy to Asch, and almost getting herself and the others killed when Asch dies.
    • He does a verbal one to Luke when St. Binah falls into the Qlipoth. The elder McGovern tells Luke it's proof that Jade's warming up to him. If Jade didn't care, then the reprimand would have been too much of a hassle.
  • Glass Cannon: He's putting out better numbers than anyone else on Unknown difficulty due to his huge Fonic Attack growth and very strong spells. However, he's got low physical defense growth and mediocre health and is the only character incapable of healing himself without special equipment and/or items. This becomes his primary bane in his solo arena battles that while he's got combos they don't do much. His best damage comes from spells which he barely has time to do (his fastest spell is Photon). In compensation, he's the only character to receive a costume upon winning his solo arena
  • The Glasses Come Off: Before the fight with Van. This is bad news for Van, considering the glasses are a Power Limiter for his fonic powers.
  • Guilt Complex: He does his best to hide it, but a close inspection proves he has this for how fomicry is being used by the villains and Luke's very existence, and issues born from that, blaming himself as the one ultimately behind it.
  • Hammerspace: Where Jade keeps his spears when he's not wielding them. It's justified by explaining the fonic arte that lets him do it as essentially breaking them apart into their individual fonons and keeping those fonons stored in his arm when he's not using them; this (missable) explanation actually turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun when something similar accidentally happens to Luke, who is made of Seventh Fonons, with an item that is also made of Seventh Fonons.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Subtly done; the one who has the worst opinion and impression of Jade Curtiss will always remain Jade Curtiss himself.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners:
    • He is this with Emperor Peony, the only person Jade's sarcasm fails against. Instead, he himself is teased.
    • He used to be this with Dist before actively disassociating himself from him to escape his past. Dist still hasn't gotten over it.
  • Hot for Teacher: Subverted. While there's enough subtext to suggest that this was be the case, Jade confesses that he has difficulty in forming truly meaningful emotional bonds with others. As such, this is denied.
  • I Am a Monster: Subtle and usually Played for Laughs. Until it isn't as Jade has some very good reasons to believe it.
  • Improbable Age: He created the first replica when he was nine. This is Played for Drama when he and his sister reveal their awareness that such a thing was unnatural for a boy of his age. It's implied his use of torturing monsters For the Evulz with his fonic artes came soon after.
  • Instant Runes: They form in preparation for the Mystic Arts.
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Downplayed. While his significantly higher intelligence than other kids his age made it harder for him to relate to them, the true reason he had few friends was because he creeped the other kids out.
  • It Seemed Trivial: The reason why he kept the information concerning Luke being a replica to himself is that explaining would be a hassle.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Implied to be what he did to Dist to extract information about Mt. Roneal. We don't see it because of Relax-o-Vision (although Dist was screaming), and Jade 'covers it up' with incidents about earthquakes awakening an underground monster.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: He's never nice about it, but when it comes to advice and bringing up important things, Jade has a point always. Sometimes not one even he likes to admit like the whole Tower of Rem situation.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Small but it's there, and becomes more noticable as the story progresses. He even gets a title called "Soft Meanie".
    Sure you can be bitter, mean, nasty, sarcastic, and snide. But once in a very long while, only to those you trust, you can actually be nice.
  • The Leader: Pretty clear mastermind for the main cast, though he shares the role somewhat with Luke as the charismatic one.
  • Limit Break: Mystic Cage and Indignation.
  • Mad Doctor: A small sidequest results in him testing out an experimental treatment on the character of your choice. He gets a doctor's outfit costume title as a result. If you equip it for a battle, he tells Anise in a skit that he originally planned on being an autopsist, not a soldier.
  • Mad Scientist: He was the one who invented fomicry; note . No more needs to be said.
  • Magic Knight: He is the game's most powerful offensive magic user, yet he also has high enough attack power and hit points to make him aptly suited for melee combat as well but his lack of healing abilities and physical defence means he won't last long in the role.
  • Manchild: Subtly done for the most part, but it really comes out when he joins forces with Anise to tease the others, such as the moment when he joins in on tickling Guy.
  • My Sister Is Off-Limits: He is not pleased when he discovers that the rappig Peony named after Nephry has the prettiest collar.
  • Necromantic: Averted. Though his original goal in fomicry was to revive his teacher Nebilim, he flat out says he wasn't in love with her.
  • Not So Stoic: Though he is normally unflappable (noted below) there are a few times where he's pushed to his limits and actually expresses genuine emotion.
  • Odd Couple: In the Tales-of metaverse, he hosted the bonus talk-show Viva Tales-of with Zelos and the two of them play off each other surprisingly well.
  • Older Than They Look: He's 35. He does not look it.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: At a few points.
    • As Luke ponders sacrificing himself, Jade says that "as (Luke's) friend," he feels compelled to stop it, something Luke says he never heard Jade refer to him as before. Jade then follows with an apology.
    • He loses his temper when he hears that the villains are using fomicry.
    • After the collapse of St. Binah, Luke is quite upset and desperate to do something about the problem, and Jade scolds him for acting like a child. Elder McGovern tells Luke that this is a sign that Jade is warming up to him, seeing him as worth scolding.
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Zigzagged. At one point, Jade has an idea that might answer a significant plot point, but since he's not a physicist, he insists they go to consult one to make sure his theory will work, which looks like an aversion of the trope. Then the physicist they consult confirms that he's absolutely right...and calls Jade brilliant for thinking of it in the first place. This happens with other disciplines, too, though not to the same degree, and with occasional lampshading - while Jade's field of expertise is fonic artes, he's apparently very well-read in a wide variety of other subjects. When it comes to biology he straight-up admits it's not his subject and can only make guesswork about the various creatures the group encounter but he entertains the idea of dissecting them to learn more.
  • Overrated and Underleveled: Justified in a way that makes him seem even more awesome. In terms of cost, using a fon slot seal on someone is the equivalent of nuking them from orbit.
  • Parental Substitute: Though he denies it, it's very obvious that he has become this to Luke despite himself, as pointed out by Elder McGovern when Jade scolds Luke like a concerned parent would.
  • Perpetual Smiler: He always has a smug smile on his face. It pissed Luke off when they first met.
  • Phlebotinum Breakdown: He wears glasses to keep this from happening to the fonslots in his eyes. In an optional scene, the player can see what happens to someone who doesn't do this.
  • Power Limiter: Gets hit with a Fon Slot Seal early in the game, which reduces his strength by about 40 levels and he breaks the seal as you re-level him. Also has a willing Power Limiter in the form of his Glasses regulating his Fonic Sight, check out The Glasses Come Off up above for more on that one.
  • Professor Guinea Pig: In his youth, he experimented on himself, which increased his Fonic ability by way of the Fonic Sight. However, during an experiment of harnessing the power of Seventh Fonons, it backfired horribly. Professor Nebilim's house was set ablaze and the backlash fatally wounded her. This course of events led up to his attempt at replicating Nebilim and her coming back as a bloodthirsty monster.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: He did it to himself, when he was eight, by using magic to mutilate his eyes. "Fonic Sight" increased his power, but it's been banned because the arte usually makes people go blind or insane or dead.
  • Renaissance Man: He's an Omnidisciplinary Scientist who also is a skilled tacticial, is a capable fighter and fonist, and has some knowledge of medicine. Not to mention torture and interrogation judging by Dist's screams in a certain incident.
  • Sociopathic Hero: Jade is aware of the concepts of right and wrong, but is unable to fully comprehend them. Unlike most Sociopathic Heroes, he is troubled by this and makes an effort to do the right thing. Thus making him a case of Moral Sociopathy.
  • Specs of Awesome: He's an unflappable magic soldier who wears glasses not because he needs them but to protect his enemies.
  • Stepford Smiler: Hits this by constantly snarking with a cheerful tone and smile. In truth he's bothered by his moral sociopathy and how his inventions have been turned to evil.
  • The Stoic: As a kid, where he bordered on emotionless to go along with his status as a Creepy Child with an Ambiguous Disorder. As an adult, however, he's replaced stoicism with smugness and is generally much more emotive.
  • Summon to Hand: He mutilated his own arm with "the contamination effect" so he could summon and dismiss his spear at will.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: a playful variation "*Sigh* I'm babysitting a group of children."
  • A Taste of Power: That Liger Queen was created so that Jade would brutally murder her with powerful spells. note 
  • Token Evil Teammate:
    • While Jade's not exactly evil, he's a lot less hesitant to Shoot the Dog than the other party members and is willing to cross lines that nobody else would even approach. While he never quite loses the sociopathic streak, he does gain enough understanding of people to be a better friend.
    • If you look at his early childhood, his personality and actions are often disturbingly similar to those of real-life serial killers. Had he not ever had his upbringing to teach him the meaning and value of a life, or even lost one of the few people in his life that he gave a damn about the way he did to help reinforce this deeply, he could easily have grown up to be a Villain.
    • It's even lampshaded if you fight the Final Boss with Jade as your active character, and neither Luke nor Tear in the roster, as the Big Bad expresses admiration for how Jade's unethical science and callous disregard for life is what made his plan possible in the first place. Jade's response amounts to a very uncomfortable "Shut Up, Hannibal!" moment.
  • Troll: Jade tends to spend most of his conversations messing with whoever he's currently talking to. This is most apparent when he's dealing with Luke or Dist.
    • It's made crystal clear, even if you'd never seen Jade before, in his cameo boss fight in Tales of Zestiria. He doesn't even have to speak to the party yet to give off this aura. Jade's new guard pose seems to be actually just him pushing up his glasses and, sometimes he'll stand there, unflinching, as you hit him. You can actually get his health down low even 20 levels lower than him (and not even take much damage in turn), since Jade retains his Glass Cannon status... and then he uses Mystic Cage, which for those who don't know, is a Mystic Arte that hits pretty much the entire field in its original game. It'll kill your party, no problem. Considering this is consistent with his character, it's hard not to think he's just screwing with you.
    • And what he says when he wipes out your party, likely with said Mystic Cage? "Don't worry. It's only death."
  • Tsundere:
    • A very mild version, but he tends to treat Peony (and late in the game, Luke and Anise) in a dismissive way that's completely unconvincing when they tease him. One of his titles in the Japanese version is "tsundere ojisan" (tsundere old man). It's translated as "soft meanie" in the English version.
    • He's also an example with Dist. While Jade is very clearly tired with him, he still seems to care about him as a friend deep down.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Peony, who is the only person ever to get away with teasing Jade as mercilessly as Jade teases everyone else.
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Jade is the only main character in the game who is never shown taking an interest in anyone. This also extends to friendly compassion, to the point that Anise has to tell him flat-out that he's becoming concerned for their well-being when he starts questioning his feelings towards them.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Like the rest of the party, Jade says this to Luke. It's also returned by Luke himself, as he's the first one to genuinely see Jade as actually a very good person. On Jade's part, he's surprised and honestly touched (though he's quick to cover it up) by this faith.
  • You Monster!: Would you believe he used to be one? His sister straight-up calls him a "monster" because he was a sadistic freak in his youth, who tortured helpless animals no reason other than he found it entertaining. He only stopped being one because Gelda Nebilim was able to change him. Tragically, it was because he developed an immense love and respect for her that led to the Break the Haughty moment that puts the events of the whole game into motion: her death and his subsequent application of fomicry to living beings.

    Anise Tatlin 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AniseProfile_213.jpg

"Come on! If you don't try harder then it's just annoying!"

Voiced by: Halko Momoi (JP), Melissa Fahn (EN)

Anise is a Fon Master Guardian, the personal bodyguard and aide of Fon Master Ion. Her sugary sweet appearance and demeanour hide a ruthless and money-hungry personality that dreams of marrying into money and violently curses out enemies. She also works as a subordinate to Jade.

She is known as a "puppeteer", and can make her plushie Tokunaga grow to an incredible size using her knowledge of Fonic Artes. She uses this ability to ride Tokunaga into battle and beat her enemies into submission. The gameplay result of this is that she's something of a hybrid character - she possesses a "wide heavy swings" combat style similar to characters like Presea from Symphonia, also has a line of both light and dark attack spells, and is reasonably tanky but not quite the wall of HP that some other "heavies" of the series are. She also has access to a specific line of doll accessories which grant her unique passive abilities that change up her gameplay (and the form Tokunaga takes when enlarged).


  • Action Girl: She might be young, but with Tokunaga's help she's fully capable of taking on various enemies and monsters.
  • A-Cup Angst: She is just thirteen after all, but with Tear in front of her and more than a few taunts directed her way Anise really dislikes being flatchested.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Downplayed as they have little screen time but when they do show up they embarrass her with their lack of common sense.
  • The Atoner: After Ion dies and she stops being a Gold Digger.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A minor example. She acts very cutesy, but she's a lot more rude and foul-mouthed than she lets on. Not so minor when it's revealed she's The Mole.
  • Bodyguard Crush: It's hardly a secret that she crushes on Ion.
  • Black Magician Girl: Her speciality is offensive magic and she's so small and squishy that she has to ride Tokunaga just to take part in battle.
  • Casting a Shadow: Her spells mostly consist of contrasting light and dark elemental powers.
  • Cute Bruiser: Tokunaga, her puppet, is cute and can crush monsters with its fists. SHE, on the other hand, is as physically weak as her young age and short stature would suggest.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: A hero who uses dark magic. (Negative Gate and Bloody Howling)
  • Easily Forgiven: Acts as a spy for Mohs for most of the game due to the latter keeping her parents hostage, eventually leading to Ion's death. Contrary to Luke's game-long redemption arc, Anise's is glossed over with a bit of crying and no hard feelings from the rest of the party. This can be explained because Anise did what she did for her parents, and shows genuine horror and remorse before Ion dies, and tries to get their help. She also tests to see what the party does with traitors as far back as when they learn Guy was originally on Van's side. She's easily the hardest on traitors, and remarks how stupid they are for trusting Spinoza.
  • Expy: Like Luke and Asch, she is a third one of Zelos, but unlike Luke and Asch, it's her character, not her appearance, that makes her an expy.
  • Feminine Women Can Cook: She's the best cook in the party, plays up her cuteness, and looks forward to being married (to a rich guy of course)
  • Genki Girl: Compared to the rest of the cast, anyway, she has a lot more energy.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Part of her 'cute girl' act is styling her hair in this fashion.
  • Glass Cannon: Not so noticeable on your first run through the game but she dies quick on higher difficulty levels.
  • Gold Digger: She hits on a number of characters like Luke and Peony for their wealth. When Jade mentions that Guy, as a Malkuth nobleman has a good deal of it, she starts hitting on him too. She gets over this later, and it's also explained that she was so focused on money because her parents are extremely gullible, and are constantly in ridiculous amounts of debt because they keep donating money they don't have to the Corrupt Church and they constantly fall for mail-order time share and vacation scams, and she wants to help them pay off their debts.
  • I Have Your Wife: Forced to work for Mohs to pay off her parents' debt, and this escalates to outright kidnapping when Mohs wants to use Ion to read the Score.
  • Improbable Weapon User: While she equips wands, all of her physical attacks use her giant plushie.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's nice to her friends but everyone else either gets the 'cute girl' act or a scathing comment.
  • Kawaiiko: She deliberately plays up her age and appearance to invoke this trope.
  • Light 'em Up: Half her spells are light based.
  • Little Miss Con Artist: Part of her whole Gold Digger shtick is acting adorable and cheerful to pilfer coins from gullible Non Player Characters.
  • Limit Break: Final Fury and Fever Time.
  • Love Hurts: Her love for her parents causes her a lot of trouble and Ion's death causes a Heroic BSoD.
  • Marionette Master: She rides a plushie puppet.
  • The Mole: For Mohs, for most of the game, culminating in the death of Ion.
  • Money to Throw Away: Fever Time note .
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Played with. She's is weak physically and Tokunaga has to grow to seven or so feet to fight in battle. She's also magically strong.
  • Precision F-Strike: "I'll kill you bastards!" and "We're going to shove the Commandant's ideas up his ass!"
  • Race Lift: Her skin is much more white in the anime.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Final Fury has Tokunaga rapidly punching a target.
  • Shoryuken: Her Dragon Surge/Stone Dragon Ascent arte as well as Final Fury can be extended to Dying Moon which is an uppercut in this fashion.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: While she is after someone with a lot of gold what she really wants is someone with a heart of gold.
  • Supreme Chef: The majority of the recipes you obtain she can upgrade them to make it better. She even has a title that can make her NOT ruin dishes. There's a skit where she can force Luke to call her "Anise-sama" by withholding her cooking.
  • Try to Fit That on a Business Card: "Ionian Sergeant Anise Tatlin: Oracle Knights Fon Master Guard WINS!"
    • One of her win quotes has her stumbling trying to say it all.
  • Yin-Yang Bomb: She can use spells of the First and Sixth Fonons, which are Dark and Light spells, respectively.

    Guy Cecil 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/GuyProfile_1461.jpg

"Enter the amazing Guy!"

Guy is Luke's servant and "best friend", going so far as to travel into the middle of enemy territory looking for Luke when he goes missing. Though Guy is extremely charming, he suffers from a crippling case of gynophobia and freaks out if he is touched by a woman. He also has a geeky obsession with Fon Machines. He's actually a Malkuth Noble; Gailardia Galan of the House of Gardios, and originally of Hod which was destroyed fifteen years ago. Paired with that is some Hidden Depths, including a particularly dark side.

In battle, Guy is a swordsman who sacrifices attack power for pure speed in both his movement and rate of attack, a Fragile Speedster to Luke's Lightning Bruiser.


  • Alliterative Name: His full name (Gailardia Galan Gardios.)
  • Ambiguous Disorder: Averted. Guy's condition isn't explicitly pegged as gynophobia when it's introduced, but it's clear that the game isn't dancing around the issue of it. Strictly speaking, it's PTSD.
  • Ancestral Weapon: The Jewel of Gardios is an heirloom of the House of Gardios.
  • The Atoner: He feels that he was partially to blame for what happened at Akzeriuth, because A). he was in cahoots with Van and knew that he was up to no good and B). feels responsible for raising Luke into the spoiled brat that was easily manipulated by Van.
  • Badass Normal: He's the only one of the team to not have any fonic artes or special power/destiny, and he keeps up just fine with them. In fact, he's a Game-Breaker in terms of ability!
  • Becoming the Mask: In his backstory. Guy originally hated Luke and the Fabres, only working for them to kill Luke in a Revenge by Proxy plan. Then Luke was kidnapped and returned "amnesiac" and Guy ended up in charge of his care. Before he realizes it, his friendship with Luke is 100% genuine, something he only becomes aware of throughout the game when he meets the "real" Luke and comes to the conclusion the replica is the only Luke for him.
  • The Bet: He mentioned in the Jewel of Gardios sidequest having done one with Luke, who doesn't remember it.
    If the son of my father's killer, the man I hated more than anything, grew into someone who could make me feel loyalty towards him, then perhaps I'd lose my desire for revenge.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Usually, Guy is a friendly and upbeat Nice Guy. Then his charge (Luke) is threatened and he becomes frightening.
  • Big Damn Heroes: "Enter the amazing Guy!"
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed but Guy is not quite the Nice Guy he appears to be; he does have a mean streak to him and can hold a grudge such as the whole revenge scheme against the Fabre family to which he has enough lingering feelings about to allow the Curse Slot to effect him. Events in the game reveal he was once a straight example, as though he acted all cheerful and subservient, he hated all of the Fabre family and, until Luke's kidnapping, secretly wanted to kill him.
  • Black Comedy: His fear of women is funny until Guy remembers what happened to cause it. On successive playthroughs, the game's treatment of it before Guy gets his memory back can skirt close to Dude, Not Funny! territory.
  • Broken Ace: Charming, well-spoken, an accomplished swordsman, unfailingly kind and intelligent; it seems like Guy's only flaws are a few endearing quirks like his fear of women and obsession with fontech. Then you find out about his family's murder, and the plot to kill Luke in front of his father as a result. Add that he knew Van was up to no good, and did nothing to stop him despite not really wanting Luke dead anymore. Then he holds a sword to King Ingobert's throat at the peace conference, and it becomes clear that he's not over his past nearly as much as he seems to be.
  • Butt-Monkey: Though not as much as Luke, Guy tends to get the short end of the stick, whether it's with his gynophobia, riffing him on how he spoils Luke, or ending up the butt of jokes.
  • Buried in a Pile of Corpses: The real source of his gynophobia, since he was trapped for days under the bodies of his sister and the maids who died to protect him.
  • Chick Magnet: To his great despair, many girls would like to hold his hand or otherwise be too close to him for comfort.
  • Childhood Friends: He grew up with Van.
  • Children Raise You: An interesting take on the trope. Guy raising and caring for Luke made him move beyond Revenge Before Reason and ultimately perform an off-screen Heel–Face Turn.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: "Well, I do love LOOKING at beautiful women..."
  • Cool Sword: The Jewel of Gardios which hangs in the entrance hall of Luke's house throughout the game and is acquired through a sidequest. Like the Key of Lorelei it doubles as an Infinity -1 Sword in subsequent playthroughs, since it unlocks Guy's second Mystic Arte
  • Covert Pervert: Relatively early on, there's a skit that brings up showers and the women of the party in the same sentence. While the girls are going after Luke (thanks to jumping to conclusions) only Jade notices that Guy is drooling. As the team gets to know each other, the "covert" part disappears.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: When he was young, his entire family was wiped out, and his homeland was destroyed soon after. He dedicated himself to Revenge, something which is subtly implied to be the only reason he stayed alive, and originally supported Van's plans just so he could have that revenge.
  • Deadpan Snarker: "Jade is someone's pet."
  • Does Not Like Women: A variant. He doesn't HATE women; he just can't stand being touched by one and with good reason; when his family was murdered he was buried in the corpses of dead women so being touched by women reminds him of that.
  • Double Agent: For Van, up until about the time of Akzeriuth. He's technically Van's Lord, and Van is more than willing to serve as his vassal, as long as Guy is willing to let him continue his plan to murder everyone else in the world. Suffice to say, he's not that interested in avenging his family since he's gotten to like Luke.
  • Easily Forgiven: Even though he didn't realize how far Van had gone, Guy did still cooperate with him to work from the inside to destroy House Fabre. The party doesn't care. Possibly it's because he broke off ties with Van and tries to convince him to stop his Evil Plan by invoking his liege lord status.
  • Fragile Speedster: Guy is the fastest playable character, but can't take many hits. By mid-game, he's the Jack of All Stats and by endgame, he's a full-blown Lightning Bruiser due to his ever-improving defenses and HP and an increasing TP pool to spam his self-heal technique with and a reasonable (but not outstanding on higher difficulties) damage output.
  • Genki Guy: Around fon-tech he's an excited little kid.
  • Hates Being Touched: But only by women because of something in his past.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Off screen, Guy did this as he grew to care for Luke. After Akzeriuth and a final confrontation with Van, Guy is firmly on the team's, and particularly Luke's, side.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: His friendship with Luke is genuine. After the party splits up, he's the first one to reunite with Luke, and is explicitly said to have gone out of his way to have done so.
  • Hidden Depths: There's more to him than "Luke's cool-yet-dorky buddy". Look at Broken Ace for details.
  • Iaijutsu Practitioner: Several skills function like this, including his Mystic Arte Brilliant Overlord.
  • I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Hilariously so considering his phobia.
    Luke: Don't you feel sorry for the women you lead on like that?
  • Informed Ability: He's a qualified lifeguard but this is never relevant to the plot.
  • Innocently Insensitive: During the first part, Guy cheerfully says more than a few things that are somewhat mean to Luke. Not so innocent when you find out his backstory and his original plan for Luke. After Akzeriuth and The Reveal he drops this aspect...mostly.
  • Limit Break: Razing Phoenix and Brilliant Overlord.
  • More than Mind Control: The curse slot Sync puts on him can't make him do anything he doesn't deep down want to do. Sync makes him attack Luke because Guy wants to kill him.
  • Nice Guy: He's well-spoken and a great friend to Luke.
  • Parental Abandonment: Both his parents, along with his older sister, are dead.
  • Preasskicking One Liner: Before entering Overdrive mode: "You wanna see how strong I really am?!"
  • Promotion to Parent: An interesting take on it. Guy did the bulk of raising Luke when he came to the manor and completing the Jewel of Gardios sidequest has Duke Fabre refer to Guy as Luke's "real" father by his actions and treatment of Luke.
  • Punny Name: He has guy-nophobia.
  • Real Name as an Alias: Guy is a childhood nickname while Cecil is an alternate spelling of his mother's maiden name Cecille.
  • Revenge by Proxy: What he was initially planning to do to Luke in retaliation for what Duke Fabre did to his own family.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Invoked and Deconstructed. Guy is given the chance to get revenge for the slaughter of his family during the negotiations during the later portion of the game, and King Ingobert even admits he is justified in doing so. However, it's quickly dropped because Guy realizes he would need to become this trope if he wanted to feel satisfied, because everyone involved at the meeting was guilty in some way for the destruction of Hod (Duke Fabre led the attack that killed his sister, Malkuth was responsible for the experiments that destroyed Hod, and Tedoro basically let people know it was destined to happen). Guy drops his vengeance for good after this; realizing he has nobody to blame for his revenge without killing a lot of people.
  • Ship Tease: With Noelle during one side quest. It turns out he just wanted her to let him pilot the Albiore. In the main story, he has a lot of moments between him and Natalia.
  • Stepford Smiler: Guy is permanently good-natured, cheerful, and friendly. He's been plotting with Van for years to kill Luke in revenge for his own family's murder at the hands of Luke's father.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Getting over his gynophobia to save Anise. Sadly, he still yelps whenever he's suddenly glomped by girls, except he's trying to keep it under control.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: More in backstory and you have to read between the lines for it. He originally was on Van's side and wanted Revenge on Duke Fabre by killing his son in front of him. Raising and caring for Luke made his mask genuine.
  • Tragic Keepsake: His deceased father's sword.
  • Undying Loyalty: Towards Luke. Explicitly so at the conclusion to the Jewel of Gardios sidequest where he makes an oath of fealty to him.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Women in regards to his gynophobia.

    Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/NataliaProfile_2510.jpg

"A victory for me is a victory for my people!"

Voiced by: Michiko Neya (JP), Stephanie Sheh (EN)

Natalia is the princess of the game, being in line for the throne of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. She is stubborn, haughty, and an utter romantic. As Luke proposed to her before his amnesia, she constantly pesters and pressures him to remember the promise they made. When Luke leaves the capital on a diplomatic mission, Natalia stows along and blackmails her way into the party. Despite her overbearing attitude, she is a sincere ruler who only wishes to see her country and people prosper.

Natalia is an archer who fights at a distance. She is also the party's second healer, restoring larger amounts of Hit Points but only to one person at a time.


  • Abhorrent Admirer: Luke at least views her this way; her clingy nature and refusal to shut up about their Childhood Marriage Promise makes her very annoying to Luke. She moves past this.
  • Action Girl: A crack-shot with a bow, and often one of the first party members to leap into battle. For more detail, see The Ace below. This girl kicks ass.
  • The Ace: In regards to her archery. In terms of cutscenes alone, if one pays attention, during cutscenes where fights take place, she's nearly always the first one to get a hit in. Seriously, Luke would have died had she not fired on Largo, and would have died even earlier if she hadn't, while turning, expertly sniped Sync out of a tree. She gives cover fire when the group is ambushed by Legretta (who uses guns), and certainly gets a LOT farther than the others in doing any real counterattack. Ironically, that girl who everyone but Jade and Luke have doubts letting into their group is also the one who most often saves their collective asses.
  • Archnemesis Dad: Largo is her biological father. They were separated when the real princess was stillborn and Natalia was chosen to fill in.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Her AI loves to waste her TP...
  • Battle Couple: She vies for peace, but Natalia is the most willing to scrap among everyone in the party. The game proper allows Natalia to be one half of a combat couple with Asch at multiple points, but the ending leaves it ambiguous as to whether there's an 'Asch' left for Natalia to continue to be with.
  • Betty and Veronica: Sees herself as the Archie between Asch and Luke once The Reveal kicks in and she starts to appreciate the both of them as their own person. It's discussed that, if not for The Reveal, she might have ended up the Betty (as the fellow noble with the childhood engagement) to Tear's Veronica for Luke.
  • Childhood Marriage Promise: With Luke. The original Luke, Asch, made such a promise to her and Luke himself doesn't know about it.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: When the second thing she does is get confrontational about Tear's presence on her first appearance, it's obvious she's this. She's not as bad as other examples; once she befriends Tear, she drops that attitude entirely. She remains rather clingy to Luke until The Reveal shakes her and makes her start rethinking everything.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Sometimes falls into this, such as believing Anise's stories about Van's beard and eyebrows.
    Luke: Natalia can be surprisingly out of it sometimes.
  • Combat Medic: She can be played as either a healer or an offensive fighter.
  • Covert Pervert: It doesn't take much for Anise in a skit to get Natalia to admit she would like to peek on a guy bathing!
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts: Cutscene Power to the Max notwithstanding, Natalia doesn't do a lot of damage in battle with her primary weapon. Still, her ranged attacks are a lot more effective than Tear's, on account of a much higher projectile movespeed, and it lets her participate in battle from a safe distance. Additionally, her high rate of fire and low recovery time means she's able to keep attacking fast enough for her damage to add up quickly, making up for her middling damage output. Her artes, additionally, pack quite a punch. One such arte in particular, Gallant Barrage, is this trope incarnate; she unleashes a veritable stream of arrows, first fanning outward and then in a singular burst forward. These arrows briefly stun enemies, meaning if Natalia uses this arte at point blank range, whatever enemy is on the other side of her bow is in for a world of hurt.
  • Distress Ball: Captured twice but the only time she needs rescue is when Luke is there with her.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: She gives herself this treatment in-universe. She's extremely fond of teasing Guy for his fear of women but once she learns why he suffers from it, she apologies instantly and stops ridiculing him for it.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: The hair of gold is always on display and heart of gold is most commonly shown around her subjects. She's done a great deal to make her kingdom a better place to live for everyone.
  • Humble Hero: Surprisingly so, in fact. While she can act like a royal brat at times, one of the first things she requests of the party is that they treat her as an equal. Her authority over Guy can be forgiven because he's literally been one of her servants for years, and she quickly acclimates to considering him as an equal. All but her actual princess outfit, which she only wears for formal events, mind you, are practical, not showy. When she wins battles, she cites her people as the source of her strength, and in general tries to actually make friends with the commonfolk and succeeds. This is best exemplified if she's chosen as the person to oppose Van at endgame - he'll quickly assume she's a power-hungry monarch who thinks herself noble for serving Asch's will, only for Natalia herself to reply she isn't as vain as to think herself the hero - and when he presses the issue further, she tells him to his face she has the less important job of kicking his ass and taking his power so Luke can save the world without any hint of jealousy or scorn.
  • Idiot Ball: Played purely for laughs. She's the first to swallow Anise's tall tales, and tends to make outright idiot decisions whenever the Rule of Funny calls for it. For example? She set a metal pot on fire by accident and tried to fix it by casting Heal.
  • Infinity -1 Sword: The Elven Bow. There are a couple bows that have better stat boosts than it, but you can only use her second level mystic arte (Noble Roar) when the Elven Bow is equipped, so most people stick with it.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yeah, she's a bona fide Royal Brat, but at the same time she has legitimately changed her people's conditions for the better. As she progresses through the game, she loses the "Jerk" part completely.
  • Kissing Cousins: Subverted. Natalia and Asch were thought to be cousins before her parentage was revealed and it turned out that she was of no blood relation to the royal family, Asch included.
  • Lethal Chef: In the skits, burns a roast and tries to use Heal on it. This is less prominent in the game itself.
  • Limit Break: Astral Rain and Noble Roar
  • Loving a Shadow: Just by how she treats Luke and her glorification of the Childhood Marriage Promise suggests this, paired with her romantic nature and tendency to pester Luke about remembering his promise. It ultimately turns out to be more complicated than that; Natalia made the promise with Asch and the traits she loves still are in there, if buried under a lot of trauma. Part of her character development lies in her moving past that and finding true, genuine love for Luke though whether she picks the original or replica is unknown.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Though her father didn't tell her this himself, Mohs and the wet-nurse did. Even then, they didn't specify his identity. Luke figured it out and got Largo to confirm it.
  • The Medic: Shares the role with Tear in an odd way. They seem to make up for each other's weaknesses: Tear can't heal as well as Natalia, but she can heal more people. Natalia can only heal one person, but she also gets spells that not only buff party members but also gives them cool other effects. Physically, Tear is a pain to fight as, but has actual, painful spells. Despite not having spells capable of hurting others, Natalia's strike artes and physical attacks are probably tied with Guy as the third strongest on the field.
  • Missing Mom: Her mother died when she was a child. Her real mother committed suicide out of grief over her baby daughter being taken away from her.
  • Modest Royalty: Her travel outfits are quite un-pimped out. She can get her princess dress as an alternate outfit, but it's still pretty modest for something you'd expect a royal to wear.
  • Morality Pet: She is perhaps the only person in the world that Asch cares about. The Dark Wings says he talks about her all the time and he can't say "no" to her. When he rejects her later in the game, it's a sign that he's really losing it.
  • Ms. Fanservice: In some of her alternate costumes, she shows more skin. It's surprising given that she's not the resident busty character.
  • Navel-Deep Neckline: Her Star of Malkuth costume is open all the way to her navel.
  • Mythology Gag: Her real name, Meryl, belonged to another powerful healer much earlier in the series.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Meryl Oakland but only her wet nurse and real father know that.
  • Overly Long Name: Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca Lanvaldear... Wow, try saying that five times fast.
  • The Paladin: She might not be part of a holy order, but in every other respect, she's a Paladin. She helps the helpless, cares for the people in her country, helps them in fighting evil, is a very skilled combatant who stands up for the people who suffer in her country and does relief work on their behalf, prefers to use diplomacy to solve the issues with Malkuth, and most of her magic is either healing or buffing.
  • Parental Abandonment: Her real mother died before the game, and her father is one of the God Generals. It's not their fault as she was taken away from her biological parents as a baby to replace the real Princess Natalia, who was stillborn. As an attendant, there wasn't anything her mother could do about it and keep her job. Her father was away at war at the time, and couldn't do anything about it either, though he gladly would have. Her adoptive father also abandons her on learning she's not his blood relative, but comes to his senses and realises it doesn't matter.
  • Plucky Girl: Travelling, monster fighting, saving the world; it doesn't get her down. Discovering that she's not the real princess, that does the trick.
  • Politically-Active Princess: Despite her initial brattiness, she is very much one of these. Luke even refers to her as a "wannabe queen" at one point. She uses her influence for the benefit of her people or engaging in international diplomacy, to the point where she's already almost universally considered a much better ruler than her father, the king. The people in fact, are so fond of her that they choose to protect her even after her lineage is revealed; she is not a real member of the royal family.
  • Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Natalia has a very romantic soul and is (usually) very polite and sweet, but is also a very competent member of the team with her archery skills and healing abilities.
  • Royal Brat: When she first joins the party she is abrasive and acts stuck up, but mellows after a short period. She does occasionally slip into these habits later on, but then she's usually quick to check herself and apologise. At one time she said that she was trying not to boss Guy around so much but she was having trouble because she was so used to acting that way. After she ran away and forced her way into the group, Anise asked the question everybody else was thinking- "Anybody else think I should rip daddy's little girl a new hole?"
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: She's beloved by her people because she does so much to help them and volunteered to save the world instead of lounging in the palace. The reason everyone in Baticul is willing to save her from the guards when it's revealed that Natalia's not the real princess. She takes good care of Kimlasca and listens to the needs of its people.
  • Significant Green Eyed Red Head: Inverted. Natalia's lack of red hair is used as proof that she is not the real princess.
  • Silk Hiding Steel: She's a firm and proper princess but she's unquestionably one of the most lethally effective party members of the group. To put into perspective her strengths, she's the only party member to, for sure, kill one of the God Generals, her own father Largo at that, where as the others are defeated in battle and pass away after from wounds. Once the game gets past her introduction, she's shown to be as strong as Tear in her resolve and dedication.
  • Stripperiffic: Although her regular outfit is modest enough, her alternate costumes reveal quite a surprising amount of flesh.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Greatly resembles a younger version of her wet nurse/maternal grandmother.
  • True Blue Femininity: The three outfits you're guaranteed to see her in without obtaining extra costumes (that is, her main outfit, the dress she wears when she's first introduced and her epilogue outfit) are all pale blue. It's a little odd, considering she's the princess of Kimlasca, a country whose flag, coat of arms, military uniforms, etc., are always red, whereas Malkuth's are blue.
  • Universally Beloved Leader: The people of Kimlasca adore her for putting work into improving things for them as proven when they protect her when it's revealed she's not princess by blood and gets the army after her. It's not crazy to say people like her more than they like her dad, the actual king of Kimlasca.

The Order of Lorelei

    Fon Master Ion 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/IonProfile_6420.jpg

Voiced by: Ikue Otani (JP game) Yumiko Kobayashi (JP Anime), Erin Fitzgerald (EN)

Ion is the Fon Master of the Order of Lorelei, meaning that he is technically the ruler of the world. He arranges for Malkuth to kidnap him so he can escape from Mohs and investigate the conspiracy that seems to have sprung up. He is one of the few people trained to read the Score. Though he can use powerful techniques known as Daathic Artes, he suffers from a weak constitution and often collapses after using them.


  • Assist Character: He's not playable, but his Mystic Arte can be used as an extension to Luke's during New Game Plus.
  • Badass Adorable: Ion is patient, endlessly forgiving, and physically frail. He's also a very proactive leader who isn't afraid to pull rank on those who underestimate him.
  • Clone Angst: Played with. Being a clone of the original Ion it doesn't seem to bother him, and he states at one point that he wants to help other replicas with their problems. However, he comments while dying that "there are plenty of replacements for him", hinting that it got to him more than he let on.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Both green.
  • Distressed Dude: He is often kidnapped during the game, especially earlier portions to unlock the Fon Slot seals.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: As pointed out in the manga, it is easy to mistake him for a girl.
  • Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: Played With. Though he's physically 14, he shows greater maturity than expected. But with the reveal of him being actually a replica comes hints being dropped he's actually as emotionally stunted as you would expected from someone with only two years of life experience. He never cried until Sync attempted suicide in front of him and had to have it pointed out to him.
  • Heroic RRoD: Using Daathic fonic artes puts a strain on his body.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: His reading the Score provides Luke a valuable clue, and he also absorbs Tear's Fonons as he is dying, which cures her miasma poisoning, but also would have caused his death if he were not dying already.
  • Morality Pet: When Luke is in Jerkass mode he acts as a downplayed version, bringing out his nicer side.
  • Morally Superior Copy: This Ion is a Nice Guy and one of the heroes' most reliable allies, in stark contrast to the original who was The Sociopath who treated people like pets and may have been behind the plan to replace the world with a replica.
  • Nice Guy: He's one of the few who's unfailingly patient with Luke even at the height of his arrogance and abrasiveness.
  • Non-Action Guy: He can use Daathic fonic artes, including one to extend Luke's Limit Break, but this is greatly taxing on him and he has no other means of self-defense.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Leader of Daath and well-respected mediator.
  • Replacement Goldfish: He was created specifically to be one for the original Ion. It's had a severe impact on Ion's self-worth and prevented him from developing his own identity.
  • Stepford Smiler: Is revealed to be a variation of Type B; Ion doesn't have the experience or emotional maturity to deal with things in an emotional manner. His default smile is actually fake and part of how he was trained.
  • Squishy Wizard: The main reason he's a Non-Action Guy despite his incredible powers: he's so frail that using them is a threat to his health.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: He's fourteen and is one of the most effective Reasonable Authority Figures in the entire world. Gets taken further with the reveal he's actually two years old.
  • Young and in Charge: He's the equivalent of the Pope at fourteen years old. He's only a two year-old mentally.

    Van Grants 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/VanProfile2_2457.jpg

Voiced by: Joji Nakata (JP), Michael McConnohie (EN)

Born Vandesdelca Musto Fende, Van is the commander of the Six God-Generals, and Commandant of the Order of Lorelei's Oracle Knights. He is also Luke's sword-instructor and mentor, and one of the few people to treat him with patience and respect. Despite this, Tear seems intent on offing him, and the God Generals who are supposedly under his command are wrecking havoc upon Auldrant.


  • Abusive Parents: Is this to Luke considering his status as his Parental Substitute and being responsible for his very existence. He emotionally manipulated and abused Luke so he would be a useful "tool" and then discarded him once he did what he was created for. Ironically extra materials reveal his own parents were rather abusive to him due to his Scored doom to destroy Hod.
  • The Ace: He is the Ace in a world that's just a few competent civilians short of being a World of Badass and, in a weird way, while he's very much a broken one, he's also a straight one... to the villains.
  • Anti-Villain: Type IV, technically speaking. Van is just a good guy who wants what's best for Luke, regardless of what the Score dictates. Unfortunately, the political leaders of the world don't give much of a toss what he thinks. This is later subverted when it's revealed that he's actually a Type III, a Well-Intentioned Anti-Villain. He believes the Score is a drug that creates tragedies and destroys free will and seeks to destroy it. To do that end he has to destroy a lot of other things. Unfortunately for everybody, those "other things" include every human on the planet.
  • Authority in Name Only: He has this relationship with the God Generals. They support the Grand Maestro faction of the Order of Lorelei, so people believe that he does as well. However, it turns out that he's actually on the Fon Master's side and that his generals have effectively gone rogue to fight for Mohs. Except it turns out that that's not true at all. They've been following his orders from the beginning. He just acts like this is the case in order to win Luke's, and the player's, trust.
  • Beard of Evil: Subverted. His goatee is clearly evil hair but he's a good guy who just grew it to look older than he really is. It's also Double Subverted once you realise that he's the Big Bad.
  • Big Bad: Tear starts off believing that he's the villain and the fact that his God Generals are running rampant only serves to confirm her suspicions. It's subverted when it turns out that he's just an Authority in Name Only and that his men are really loyal to Mohs and then Double Subverted when it turns out that he's the true power behind Mohs. Once Akzeriuth falls, he rapidly begins taking the stage for himself.
  • Big Brother Mentor: To Luke. He trains the boy and teaches him about life beyond the mannor. There are hints that he was this to Asch as well, before he learned the truth about him.
  • Broken Ace: Master Swordsman, top-level Magic Knight, Seventh Fonist, descendent of Yulia, promoted to Oracle Knights Commandant at a young age, has a beautiful singing voice... and yet he has mental and emotional scars deep enough to lose the collective Outer Lands in.
  • Broken Pedestal: For Tear. She resolved to kill him after overhearing him say something to Legretta about killing everyone in the Outer Lands. Even when this turns out to be a misunderstanding, she's still sceptical of him. He's also this to Asch and, eventually, Luke when it turns out that there was no misunderstanding after all.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The Order of Lorelei is dedicated to keeping destiny on its set path. The only reason why he's got such a high rank when he does nothing to hide his attitude even after The Reveal is because he's just that damn good at his job.
  • Cain and Abel: Played with. In the beginning, Luke sees him as the Abel to Tear's Cain, given her attempted fratricide but it soon becomes clear who's who in their relationship after The Reveal.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Though not particularly forecast by the Score, he turned out to be an Apocalypse Maiden in his own right. Once, he and his sister Mystearica were citizens of the land of Hod, and young Vandesdelca was a volunteer in experiments on fomicry and hyperressonance. It was hinted that his mother was held hostage in the official guide so that Van would cooperate. But then, a war came to Hod, threatening the experiments... which were, secretly, being carried out by Malkuth. They hooked Van up to a machine that used his hyperresonance to create an Earth-Shattering Kaboom, destroying Hod. Malkuth then blamed said Kaboom on Kimlasca-Lanvaldear as a pretext to declare war. Hod, as a landmass, sunk into the Qliphoth below; its populace was wiped out almost to a person, with only three canon survivors. And when Van and Tear somehow got to Yulia City alive, Van learned that nobody gave a damn about what had just happened to him, because the Score said it was all okay. This was Van's Start of Darkness, and frankly, it's hard to fault him for that.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: His enemy is The Score, but he does everything in his power to make it come true... so that it does so on his terms. Ultimately subverted despite his attempts otherwise; he fails to do anything that stops the Score as it turns out he's more tied to it than he realizes.
  • Disney Villain Death: He throws himself off a ledge into the core of Auldrant, and we get a shot of him grinning wildly as he falls to what he and the party fully believe to be his death. He survived, but only because he remembered that he could make a pact with Lorelei thanks to the Fonic Hymns.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: Betrayed his family, who are all Watchers, and betrayed Asch and Luke respectively to throw the Score off track.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: No matter how far he fell, he always loved Tear, and wanted to protect her however he could. His final words are to her, and it's clear, even during the final battle, that he cares for her.
  • Evil Counterpart: To a lot of people.
    • Luke, the child used to create a hyperressonace to sink a town.
    • To Tear, the watcher who went rogue.
    • To Guy, the man obsessed with revenge.
    • He can also fill-in this role for Jade, given their differing outlooks on fomicry.
  • Evil Mentor: Tear sees him as this, even though he was quite the opposite to Luke and Asch. Then it turns out that he trained the latter two and raised them to exploit their trust and abilities.
  • Famous Ancestor: The mother of the Score, Yulia Jue herself.
  • Final Boss: Subverted. After defeating him at the Absorption Gate, the game continues... and then it's Double Subverted when he reappears for the real Final Boss fight at Eldrant.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: He's not a playable character but he accompanies the party sometimes early on in the game. He also appears in a skit and gets his own chat face. This is rectified for Radiant Mythology 3 where he's fully playable. Theodore insists him come back to Yulia city more often as it is his second home.
  • Happily Adopted: Though it wasn't shown in neither of its adaptations, in the Tales of the abyss Anime episode zero drama cd, which sets before the main plot, showcased a rare moment with Van having a family conversation with his adopted grandfather saying how grateful he was for taking him and his sister as his grandchildren after their mother passing. Theodore insisted him to come back more often since Yulia city is his 2nd home and that he was always welcome here.
  • He Knows About Timed Hits: His training session with Luke at the beginning of the game has him talking about "buttons" and "sticks", in fully voice acted dialogue, as if they're perfectly normal aspects of combat and swordplay.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: It's made increasingly clear throughout the game that his war against the Score has turned him into, in a fashion, what he hates. The most prominent is how he forces Luke to destroy Akzeriuth; which is very similar to how he was made to destroy Hod. In other words, he starts his master plan by recreating the same incident that resulted in him hating and wanting to destroy the Score in the first place.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Created Luke to kick off his plan to destroy Auldrant and create a replica world, throwing a Spanner in the Works in regards to the Score. Luke promptly goes on to screw up his own plans and ultimately kills him, in a fashion that doubles as Karmic Death (see below).
  • Humble Pie: Following his defeat and near-death at the Absorption Gate, he is infinitely more respectful in his interactions with Luke to the point of offering him to join him, something he never considered before.
  • Hypocrite: For all he goes on about how creating a replica world is the only way to "save" Auldrant from the Score and how they have true free will, he has no trouble creating and using various replicas as mere pawns and obviously also hates them. His treatment of Luke compared to Asch stands out in particular.
  • Improbable Age: This is a plot-point for him. He's just so damn good at everything he does that he became the Commandant at a young age. However, he got a lot of stick for it, so he grew his beard to look older.
  • Informed Ability: According to Tear, Van has an amazing singing voice. Sadly, we never get to hear it. However, we do get to see him play the organ (with one hand) and he uses the Fifth Fonic Hynm in the final battle.
  • In the Blood: Van can also use Yulia's hymns given he is equally her descendant.
  • Irony:
    • His whole plan came about for "saving" Auldrant through creating a replica world. It's because of his very actions that the main party and the rest of the world comes to realize that the Score leads to destruction and thus fights to save the world. In other words, Van managed to save Auldrant by virtue of making just the right enemies whose actions intended on stopping him opened a way to actually save the world.
    • It's possible that the destruction of the world predicted in the Score is, in fact, Van's plan succeeding, which would mean the world is only fated to destruction because Van found out it was fated to destruction and decided to destroy it.
  • Karmic Death: His eventual defeat at the hands of Luke, the boy he created and trained to use a sword, is ripe with this trope.
  • Kick the Dog: To kick off his Big Bad run, Van tricks and hypnotizes Luke into destroying Akzeriuth and then leaves him to die. Luke, who even after that looks up to him as "Master Van" and appears to consider him his father figure. And despite that Van discards him once he has destroyed Akzeriuth. He then continues to treat him as a "thing" and dismiss him whenever he interacts with him.
  • The Leader: A Mastermind/Charismatic hybrid for the Oracle Knights. He plans their operations and they follow him because they believe in him.
  • Limit Break: Imperial Slaughter, Celestial Elegy and Ancient Requiem. Interestingly, Imperial Slaughter and Ancient Requiem are basically Rending Saber and Radiant Howl, respectively.
  • Logical Fallacies: As Guy points out right before the final boss fight, Van's entire ideology collapses on itself no matter how things turn out. Either he's right about the Score being absolute and humans having no free will... which would include himself, rendering his attempts to Screw Destiny pointless, or he's enacting his plan against the Score of his own free will... therefore proving that the Score isn't abolute and that his plan isn't necessary.
  • Magic Knight: An excellent swordsman who is also a powerful fonist.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Rather then manipulate Luke through Obviously Evil means, he spends years getting Luke to trust him. He does the same to Asch, ensuring their loyalty, though Asch catches on.
  • Meaningful Name: Van's full name, Vandesdelca, means "one who would seize glory" in Ancient Ispanian.
  • Memetic Badass: An in-universe example according to Luke and Anise, the latter of whom tends to play up his ability to ridiculous levels. His eyebrows can shoot hypno beams!
  • Mirror Character: From Grand Maestro Mohs. Just as Mohs is willing to start the war and kill countless innocent people for the Score, Van is willing to destroy the whole world just to defy the Score. In fact, his sister Tear points out that he is so intent on screwing destiny that he's shackled to it more than anyone else.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Not him personally but, in-universe, he considers the Watchers of Yulia City to have crossed it by not warning the people of Hod that they would be destroyed because they knew it would happen and did nothing to stop it. It's the primary reason why he's so adamantly against the idea of following the Score; as shown further when he offers to make Luke a member of the Oracle Knights to escape his own awful destiny and the primary reason why he became the Big Bad.
  • Necessarily Evil: His constant attempts to defy the Score could be seen as this, given that he's supposed to be one of the people upholding it. Also, see "Omnicidal Maniac".
  • Obviously Evil: The God Generals have tried to kill the heroes throughout the first half of the game. It is no secret that Van is the leader of the God Generals. Luke somehow fails to put two and two together... Except it turns out that, actually, he's just an Authority in Name Only and the God Generals have actually gone AWOL. Still, that doesn't stop Tear and Asch from suspecting absolutely every little thing he does as part of a plot to take over or blow up the world. It turns out that they were only half-right...
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Tear accuses him of being one, even though it's his job to protect the world. Turns out that Van's definition of "protecting the world" means protecting it from the Score, which he views as being the true villain. He believes that the world needs to be replicated in order to help its people escape from it, which has the tragic side-effect of destroying the original world in the process. Obviously, he isn't an insane monster and it's clear that he regrets the fact that so many people will die - even if he claims otherwise.
  • One-Winged Angel: Averted. He completely bypasses this and becomes something approaching the Bishounen Line during the final battle, as his last form is just his regular one with a few whistles and bells.
  • One-Handed Zweihänder: His sword is pretty darn massive, yet he has no effort in swinging it around with a single hand.
  • Parental Substitute: How Luke views him because Duke Fabre does his best to pretend Luke doesn't exist while Van teaches him swordplay. Unfortunately Van was invoking this so he could manipulate Luke. He also did the same to Asch for similar reasons, though Asch is more aware of exactly what was done to him.
  • Pride: Is very arrogant about his plans and ability to succeed. He utterly refuses to believe that all his work into Asch could result in failure (ie him ultimately turning from his plans) and that Luke is anything but a failure thanks to this. It leans him into being a Smug Snake at times. After they defeat him at the Absorption Gate, he wises up...but not enough to realize that he cannot win by the end.
  • Promotion to Parent: Even though they were technically adopted, he did the bulk of the work raising Tear.
  • Rage Against the Heavens: He really, really hates Lorelei for creating the Score and his goal is to kill him as part of "saving" the world.
  • Revenge: Just because he looks calm and collected on the surface doesn't mean that Van has ever forgiven or forgotten how the Watchers allowed his homeland of Hod to be wiped out just because destiny said it should be.
  • Say My Name: "Luuuuuuke!" "Mystearica!"
  • Screw Destiny: Despite being the leader of the Oracle Knights, Van makes it extremely clear that he thinks destiny can go screw itself. He is the polar opposite of Grand Maestro Mohs. Though it's later noted he's one of those most bound by the Score.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Destroying Hod led to his parents' death as well.
  • Sorry That I'm Dying: Shortly before dying after the final battle, he apologizes to his fallen subordinates for failing to bring their vision to life.
  • The Svengali: To Asch. Given that the Rage Against the Mentor starts not long after the beginning of the game, that aspect to their relationship is never explored on-screen; however, interviews state that Van kept Asch isolated and uninformed in order to keep him pliable. As for the Lima Syndrome that's common to this trope, it flips back and forth but Van certainly is convinced he "needs" Asch for his plans; ignoring the fact that if he had used Luke instead from the start, a good chunk of his plans would have gone without a hitch.
  • Slipknot Ponytail: When Luke gets serious, he fights without concern for the survival of others. When Tear gets serious, she starts performing feats of knife and magic combo-ery that are impossible in-game. When Van gets serious, his... hair comes undone.
  • Take a Third Option: Essentially, his plan is to Screw Destiny by forcing the prophecy to come to pass and building a new world as the old dies.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Invoked. Even though Van is a master and father figure to Luke, a high ranking member of the Order of Lorelei and world renowned swordsman, fonist and soldier, as well as the one who saves Luke from being stabbed in the back and having his powers fired against his will, Asch and Tear seem to think that his public image of the guy is a bit too perfect and decide to try and take him down despite everyone dismissing their concerns as paranoid delusions. Then he makes Luke nuke a city and leaves him for dead.
  • Walking Spoiler: Not as big as others in the game but talking about him without revealing he really is the Big Bad from the start is impossible.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: He's very happy to break the rules of the Oracle Knights to save Luke and the other people he cares about from horrible fates recorded in the Score. He ultimately wants to free the world from the Score and this unforunately involves replacing the world with a replicated one.
  • Where I Was Born and Razed: When Van was 11, he was used as a test subject for experiments on generating hyperresonnance. He and the researchers lost control of a particularly powerful one, which destroyed the island of Hod, killing most of its citizens, Van's parents included. It's implied that his father died during Hod's destruction, but his mother survived long enough to give birth to Tear, whom she was pregnant with at the time. In the Shiro no Ashita novels, it was hinted that his mother was held hostage to keep Van under control.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He supports human free will over the Score's predetermination because of all the suffering he went through. He is largely portrayed in a sympathetic Well-Intentioned Extremist or Necessarily Evil light.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Does this to Luke after he has him destroy Akzeriuth. Not to mention the rest of the party except Tear, who he gives advice to use a special technique of the family to survive the collapse into the Qliphoth (thus letting her save the whole team). This ultimately bites him in his ass, especially in regards to Luke.
  • Younger Than They Look: Van attained the rank of Dorian General and Commandant of the Oracle Knights at a remarkably young age, and was on the receiving end of a lot of ire because of it. He grew his beard for the sole purpose of trying to look older so people would leave him alone about his age (he's 27, believe it or not).

    Grand Maestro Mohs 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MohsProfile_4205.jpg

Voiced by: Kaneomi Oya (JP), Terrence Stone (EN)

The second-in-command of the Order of Lorelei. He is obsessed with the enforcement of the Score, and is attempting to provoke a world war because it is supposedly predetermined.


  • Beauty Equals Goodness: The counterpart concept, Ugliness Equals Evil, is in play. One of the most hideous characters in the game and one of the worst people in it.
  • Because Destiny Says So: The defining element of his character. He believes the Score leads the world to prosperity and is always right.
  • Big Bad: His plan to begin a major war sets him up as this before he's even introduced. However, not too long after it's subverted. As it turns out, he was nothing more than an Unwitting Pawn of the real Big Bad all along.
  • Body Horror: Provided happily by Dist imprinting a glyph on him that grants him control over the seventh fonon.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Played With, because the heroes's "victory" over him in "Disk One" is political. They don't get to physically fight him until near the end of the game.
  • Dramatic Irony: He seeks to fulfil the Score to bring peace and prosperity to the world, no matter who gets hurt in the process. Turns out that the whole point of Yulia writing the Score down was because she and Lorelei wanted people to avert it, as the world is destined to die if the future isn't changed.
  • Evil Is Petty: He decides to be vague about how to get to the Sephiroth in Mt. Zaleho, apparently for no other reason than to get back at the party for interfering with his schemes.
  • God Before Dogma: Inverted. Even though Ion, Yulia Jue, and Lorelei itself all seem to have been of the opinion that the Score is just one possible path among many, Mohs takes the view that the Score must be fulfilled at any cost.
  • Gonk: He's a nasty looking piece of work.
  • Hate Sink: While Van has sympathetic motivations for his villainy, Mohs has nothing to back up his moral bankruptcy. He is smug and manipulative and causes many problems for the party, including turning King Ingobert against Natalia, kidnapping Anise's parents, and forcing Ion to the Planetary Score, despite knowing it could kill him.
  • The Heavy: He's responsible for a massive chunk of the political drama that the party encounters, even when it's revealed that he isn't the main villain.
  • In Name Only: His New Order of Lorelei has no actual religious teachings to it, no real preaching, and no codes of conduct. It's just a gang made up of his lackeys and the God Generals who are manipulating him.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He's no fighter. The major problems he causes for the protagonists and the world at large are all based on manipulation of others. For instance, he starts a war and disinherits Natalia based on words alone. And according to supplementary material, he arranged the birth switch in the first place to keep the world on the Closed Score's prophecies.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: He absolutely does not care how many people the war will kill as long as it leads to the fulfilment of the Score.
  • Obviously Evil: We're told that he wants to start a war Because Destiny Says So before we even see his face.
  • One-Winged Angel: An artifical seventh fonon ability turns him into a monster. Only then do the protagonists fight him.
  • Sanity Slippage: After Dist turns him into a monster he becomes irrational and loses the ability to speak coherently.
  • Sinister Minister: A classic example of a character who cares more for the power of his religion than its actual teachings.
  • Smug Snake: Because he's legally untouchable due to his position, he takes almost every effort to smugly lord over the party at practically every meeting.
  • Start My Own: After it becomes clear that he's lost all influence within the Order of Lorelei, he starts the New Order of Lorelei with himself as the Fon Master/Pope.
  • Super-Empowering: He attempts to gain the power of the Seventh Fonon through this. It doesn't work.
  • Tragic Monster: Some might say so, at least in-universe. Of course, he's still an utterly irredeemable piece of garbage who never apologises for any of the really quite awful things he does, but after Dist mutates him into a twisted freakish monster, he gradually degenerates into a raving lunatic; by the time you finally get to exact revenge upon him, he's so far gone that he probably couldn't spell his own name. Even Anise, who has more reason to hate him than anyone, finds it hard not to feel sorry for him at the end.
  • Troll: See "Evil Is Petty". He deliberately dicks with the party once they start spoiling his schemes.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Van used him to further his own plan.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: The party can't touch him legally.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Just before his One-Winged Angel moment.
    Mohs: I am RIGHT!! How can you not understand?!
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Played with.
    • Everything he does is for the sake of achieving prosperity from the Score. Even though he later knows full well that said prosperity would mean lots of sacrifices, and would not last very long.
    • He doesn't count as this in-universe to most people. In-universe, he's neither well-intentioned nor an extremist. He's following the Score, which everyone follows to the letter, to bring prosperity. The only time he really counts as an extremist to the public in-universe is when he accepts Dist's "help". Though for what it's worth, he does seem in denial that the fall of Auldrant will happen.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The artificial ability to control seventh fonons ultimately costs him his humanity.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He has no regrets about using Ion and Florian to further his ambitions.

    Florian (spoilers) 
Voiced by: Ikue Otani (JP Game) Yumiko Kobayashi (JP Anime) Erin Fitzgerald (EN)

Like Sync and Ion, he's a replica of the original Fon Master Ion. He was saved to keep reading the Score in case Ion refused. He plays the role of Fon Master after Ion dies.


  • Backup Twin: He was kept as back up for the Fon Master in case something happened to the new Ion. He looks the same and has similar abilities but none of the memories.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Both green.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Due to being a clone of the same person he has the same effeminate look.
  • Meaningful Name: Florian's name means "Innocent One" in Ancient Ispanian.
  • Replacement Goldfish: For the original Ion and his replacement Goldfish, the second Ion.
  • Sole Survivor: By the end of the game, Florian is the only remaining Ion replica.
  • Walking Spoiler: Due to being yet another replica of Ion, and showing up to read the Score after the Ion replica in your party is dead.

    The previous Fon Master (SPOILERS) 

Fon Master Ion (Original)

The Original Ion. He was the one that took in Arietta, worked with Van to craft the plan to destroy the Outer Lands, and was a massive Jerkass unlike his replacement.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Despite being an utter Jerkass it's hard not to feel pity as he dies alone; he was truly a child and realizes only at the end he had Arietta as a friend.
  • All There in the Manual: Most information about him is found in extra materials, like the Ion Gaiden.
  • Berserk Button: Even though he treated her like a pet, Ion did seem to have a small soft spot for Arietta. When insurgents try to kill him, Arietta steps in and takes the blow, prompting an enraged Ion to kill them all, claiming only he is allowed to hurt his pet.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The replica Ion's personality is what he pretended to be in public. He was anything but.
  • Creepy Child: 12 years old at his death and did terrible things.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: This Ion is where his replicas (excluding possibly Sync) get their looks.
  • Dying Alone: Very much so; he isn't even known to be dead until The Reveal of the Ion they know being a replica, and even then, outside of Luke's group and those already in the know, Ion is believed to be the "real" one.
  • Jerkass: He is the opposite of the main story's Ion in this regard; rude, cruel, and manipulative.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He played nice and twisted people into doing as he wished. He even manipulated Arietta into being loyal to him this way.
  • Pet the Dog: He's an aversion because he literally considered Arietta like a "pet" to him, so any affection he showed her was offset by his dehumanization of her.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Unlike the replica versions of him, he had no trouble pulling out Daathic Artes to murder anyone. At one point he utterly destroyed those who hurt Arietta.
  • Posthumous Character: He's been dead for two years and that's only found out when Ion's replica status is revealed.
  • Rage Against the Heavens: He hates the Score so much he wants the world to end and sets in motion events for that to happen after he dies.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He's dead for the entirety of the game, but is the one responsible for a majority of the events there, having created the "destroy the world to destroy the Score" plan of Van's.
  • Thanatos Gambit: He was going to die anyways, so he dies through fomicry, creating a replica to replace him and act as a pawn for Van.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He kills a replica of him; the equivalent of a newborn.
  • Young and in Charge: Deconstructed. Because he was a child, he wasn't mature enough to handle the burden of leading the Order of Lorelei or his death forced in front of him repeatedly. It eventually turned him into a villain.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: His entire reason for forming the plan of Auldrant's destruction and his hatred of the Score.
  • Villainous Legacy: Heavily implied he was the one behind the whole "destroy Auldrant" plan, but died before seeing it begin in earnest.

The Six God Generals

    As A Group 
The Six God-Generals are the highest-ranking members of the Oracle Knights, the military arm of the Order of Lorelai, and answer directly to Van Grants. Despite their supposed allegiance to the Order of Lorelei, they follow their own agendas and act as the main antagonistic force to the party.

The Six God Generals as a group provide examples of the following tropes:

  • Church Militant: They are warriors in service to the Order of Lorelai.
  • Hidden Depths: They all receive an impressive amount of depth, to the point of rivaling the heroes in this department.
  • Leitmotif: "Oracle - Coercion" and "Awkward Justice".
  • The Magnificent: They each have one: "The Quick", "The Tempest" etc.
  • Musical Theme Naming: Apart from Asch, whose Meaningful Name follows a different logic.
  • The Psycho Rangers: They mirror the main party in numbers and serve as their Evil Counterparts (see each of their individual trope lists for more details).
  • Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Just as much as the main party. All of them come form completely different walks of life, with only Asch and Arietta being anywhere close to each other in age.
  • Recurring Boss: All except Asch are faced as bosses three times, whether alone or with others, and Asch is fought twice (but only as one-on-one duels against Luke).
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Each God General is working for his or her own goals. The relationships between them range from simple professionalism to thinly-masked tolerance.

    Asch the Bloody 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AschProfile_7199.jpg

"You're weak! NOTHING!"

Voiced by: Chihiro Suzuki (JP), Yuri Lowenthal (EN)

Asch is a mysterious character that works as one of the Six God-Generals under Van. His appearance is strikingly similar to that of Luke - whom he has a venomous hatred of - but personality-wise they are completely different: where Luke is ignorant and naive, Asch is intelligent and hardened. Asch is also stubborn to a fault and easily angered (especially by Luke). Though he appears to be a loyal follower of Van at first, he soon becomes a Wild Card who starts working against more or less every major character in the game.

Having also studied under Van, he uses the same combat style as Luke. His moveset also includes several offensive spells. He is a Guest-Star Party Member on three occasions (being recruitable up to a maximum of three times during one of those three occasions).


  • Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed but all other adaptions of Abyss and appearances of Asch in Escort Titles shows his nicer side better and, particularly noticeable in the anime, he doesn't spend as much time being a dick.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: He believes that he has nothing to really live for, given that his life and destiny were stolen from him and despises everyone in the world who isn't Natalia. Despite this, he insists on being a Well-Intentioned Extremist Wild Card out to ultimately save the world because Score-damn-it-all, someone's got to do it.
  • Aloof Big Brother: He's Luke's elder brother in a sense, initally antagonistic, and remains aloof to the end.
  • Anti-Hero: He has a noble goal and redeeming traits, but only rarely joins the party and is anything but a conventional hero as shown through his actions.
  • Apocalypse Maiden: The Score decrees he would have been this, setting off a series of events starting with the destruction of Akzeriuth that would result in the end of Auldrant. The creation of his replica and Van's plans threw everything off track.
  • Bait-and-Switch: The game sets him up to serve as the party's 11th-Hour Ranger when he joins the team (complete with appearing on the statscreen) toward the end of the final dungeon. He proceeds to leave the party and perform a Heroic Sacrifice one screen later without ever doing any fighting.
  • Berserk Button: Has quite a few, but the major one is Luke.
  • Betty and Veronica: Natalia sees him as the Veronica between him and Luke, his replica, after The Reveal and her accepting them as two different people.
  • Blessed with Suck: Same as Luke, only he doesn't abuse it. This is because he knew about it his entire life and has full control over it.
  • Broken Ace: Has the potential to be even stronger than Van thanks to being The Chosen One and all. He is just about as messed up, although for different reasons.
  • The Bully: A weird combination of this trope and Stealth Mentor. Asch is a remorseless bully to Luke throughout most of their interactions together but his motivations for doing so are only partly because he hates him. Since he's Secretly Dying, he needs Luke to be strong enough to take out Van and he finds Luke's compassionate nature post-haircut to be a constant source of frustration. Since he refuses to acknowledge Luke as his own individual person, believing that Luke is nothing more than a copy of him, he sees Luke's lack of bloodthirst as a personal failing.
  • Cain and Abel: It's speculated that Asch might be an evil brother of Luke's due to their resemblance, and the two certainly do have a sibling dynamic — even more so after The Reveal of Asch's true nature.
  • Can't Catch Up:
    • When he joins the party as a Guest-Star Party Member during the second half of the game, his level is adjusted accordingly but his equipment is still locked at the power level he was at during his first stint, severely handicapping him. It becomes very disadvantagous if you're playing in Unknown. He's going to get crushed whenever you're controlling him... and, for the record, trying to give him bonus stats with C.Cores is futile and waste of time since they will be wiped out when you're taking on the extra sidequest. Players who want to exploit a certain glitch in order to keep him in the party permanently usually keep Luke dead at level 2 (who Asch levels up to whenever he joins the party) so Asch can benefit from C.Core bonuses accordingly upon massive level-up. Having the same base attack stats as Luke, his ability to cast and cancel magic to string infinite combos becomes extremely useful to the point where it's broken, especially when you find ways to unlock his equipment.
    • Also applies in universe. Initially, he's Luke's complete superior to the point where even the rest of the party consider him to be the more suitable party member. By the end, he finds himself completely outpaced by Luke in almost every way.
  • Childhood Marriage Promise: As the original Luke, he's the one who made it with Natalia. It's subtly implied he still takes it very seriously, but his various issues prevent him from taking her up on it. Him Secretly Dying doesn't help and the Gainax Ending obscures if he will ever go through with it.
  • Child Soldier: Though Improbable Age isn't uncommon, it deserves mention in Asch's case; it's heavily implied that being thrown into the Oracle Knights, already traumatized, when ten years old did not help his mental state.
  • The Chosen One: The real one, because he's the original Luke. The prophecy was talking about him. Van created Luke to Screw Destiny.
  • Clone Angst: In the same way Luke suffers from being a clone of Asch, Asch inverts the trope by being unhappy that there is a clone of him. Then again, is he ever happy?
  • "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Massive chunks of the game could have been skipped had Asch been more cooperative with The Team instead of taking turns leading them on with little explanation or antagonising Luke. This is lampshaded several times later on, as Luke is as baffled as the player by his stubborn uncooperativeness.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: He's the original Luke fon Fabre who was kidnapped, put through horrific experiments to produce his replica, replaced by said replica, then raised by the Big Bad to be his right hand man while working his way up in rank to become a God-General in the Oracle Knights, earning the title "the Bloody" in the process.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Though his usual attitude doesn't let him show it much, he has his shades of this. Like that "my hair grows fast" incident.
  • Death Seeker: The whole reason for him originally going to sacrifice himself at the Tower of Rem was because he already was dying and thus rather choose to die on his own terms. There are also a lot of implications that he's been this ever since he found out about the truth of his Score and had his life "stolen" by his replica.
  • Despair Event Horizon: More like a Rage Event Horizon, but it counts. Asch had his entire life stolen from him and his response was nothing less than pure hatred.
  • Disney Death: Someone resembling him comes back two years later after the final battle. It was made ambiguous if it was really him, Luke, or a combination of the two that came back.
  • The Dragon: Defied. He isn't one but, rather, Van wanted him to be his right hand and greatest warrior.
  • Duel Boss: He has a one-on-one with Luke on two occasions.
  • The Eeyore: He is never happy; ever. The closest he gets is 'only slightly annoyed', which is during his heart-to-heart talks with Natalia.
  • Evil Counterpart: Well, more Anti-Heroic than evil but he is definitely Luke's counterpart. Makes sense, as he's the original Luke fon Fabre.
  • Expy: His hairstyle reeks of Zelos Wilder's Narcissist costume. Personality-wise, he's an antisocial (Tsundere) magic swordsman, a temporary party member that prefers to work alone who has a close connection to the Big Bad but ultimately sacrifices himself to save the protagonist that he claims to dislike? Hello again, Leon Magnus.
  • Fiery Redhead: Has an even worse temper than Luke pre Important Haircut; being angry is practically his default emotion in fact.
  • Feigning Intelligence: Downplayed. Asch is actually pretty smart, but he doesn't know quite as much as he tries to play himself as knowing. It's more often just horrible social skills than him purposefully hiding information from them or deliberately using this trope. By the third arc, the party starts to catch on to the fact that Asch isn't quite as smart as he seems to be.
  • Four-Star Badass: He's a tough and powerful general in a game where Authority Equals Asskicking.
  • General Ripper: Has the personality for it, if not necessarily the rank. He will find a way to blame everything on Luke, Van or both; even if he has to use Insane Troll Logic to do so. He's usually right for Van and never right about Luke.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Very rude, snide and generally a jerkass, but he's also trying to save the world. But he does show signs of kindness here and there, and extra Tales material portrays him as not that bad of a guy.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: You can even level him up to the point where you can use his Mystic Arte manually. It's averted in the Drama Discs, where Asch decides to open up a little and joins as a permanent member until he is killed by Van during the final battle.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • In the game and anime, he is killed by Oracle Soldiers after a You Shall Not Pass! moment that allowed Luke to get to Van. Then he merges with Luke, but whether or not he's still in there somewhere is unexplained.
    • In the Voice Dramas, he is killed by Van after taking a blow meant for Luke.
  • Hidden Depths: He's an excellent cook. There's also a manga side-story that reveals a lot about his point of view.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: His first duel with Luke is set up as one and the player will most likely lose. But it is possible to win under certain circumstances.
  • Hypocrite: Is very pissed off at Luke calling Van "Master Van" even after The Reveal but he, himself, still views Van in the same way as Luke does. For all his bluster and rage, he's obviously struggling a lot in regards to facing his mentor and father figure as an enemy.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Run through with several swords by the soldiers he's fighting.
  • Identical Stranger: To Luke. As it turns out, there's a very good reason for that. Luke is his fonic clone; basically his twin.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: For all of his boasting, a clear side of him believes that Luke is superior to him. While this becomes more obvious later in the game, defeating him in the Hopeless Boss Fight reveals that he had these feelings from the beginning.
  • Insane Troll Logic: He constantly assumes that everything that goes wrong is Van's fault and will happy break any laws of logic required in order to justify his irrational hatred of the man. This turns out to be a case of Cassandra Truth crossed with The Extremist Was Right. Asch isn't always right in what he specifically blames Van for but he is always on the right lines, which usually leads to the heroes filling in the blanks. Furthermore, if he had just been allowed to murder Van when he had the chance, the entire plot could have been avoided. Unfortunately for him, his atrocious social skills prevent him from being taken seriously until it's too late.
  • Interface Spoiler: If one checks the Records menu at the beginning of the game, they'll be aware that a character named Asch joins the party at some point.
  • I Was Just Passing Through: No matter what, Asch did not help you because he wanted to help you. It's only because his plans required it.
    • Jade pokes fun at this in the Tales of Innocence Voice Adventure DVD when Asch claims to have been at the right place at the right time "coincidentally" when he saved Jade from Barbatos, in a completely different world and right at the last moment...
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all his uncooperative behavior and anti-social personality, his interactions with his parents and Natalia are touching, as is his devotion to his ideals. While in the party, the non-player-characters and Anise note that behind his cold exterior, he may be a Nice Guy, in which he replies "S-shut up!". This is more obvious in the Japanese version, where Chihiro Suzuki makes Asch sound audibly embarrassed when Anise brings up him possibly leaving Ion behind in the Tartarus to be for Ion's protection rather than just him "getting in the way." Plus, for all his animosity towards his replica, he seemed really appalled when Jade "killed" Luke during the Doctor Mambo sidequest. Overall, his kinder side is much more obvious in the Drama Discs and the Asch manga, his equivalent to Destiny's Lion Side; where the summoning of ALL the Six God-Generals to slaughter the Tarturus' crew just to capture Ion was what added onto his suspicions about Van, deeming it to be strange and unnecessary. Remember, he was a soldier and, at that time, he was just following orders from the Commandant and doing his job. Regardless, he didn't have much of a kill count during the Tartarus slaughter.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: What he evolves into, because of Luke's Character Development. When Luke finally stands up to him near the end of the game, Asch's response is a combination of pure bafflement and even more Unstoppable Rage - even lashing out at Natalia - simply because he adamantly refuses to acknowledge that Luke doesn't need him anymore.
  • Kick the Dog: Tends to lash out at Luke a lot.
  • Kick the Morality Pet: While's never been the nicest of guys, the fact that he starts yelling at Natalia as a means to vent his frustrations regarding Luke standing up for himself near the game's ending is a clear indicator of just how much his rage and hatred have consumed him. He doesn't even seem bothered when Luke makes him promise for her sake to come back alive from his last stand.
  • Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: The reason they had Susanne give birth to him was because the Score foretold he would bring Kimlasca prosperity...by kicking off a war via destroying Akzeriuth and dying in the process. Van kidnapped him, made his replica, and tried to turn him into his own personal Tyke-Bomb but Asch rebels against him as well.
  • Limit Break: Rending Saber is a sonic wave attack followed by a Sword Plant and a massive burst of Pure Energy.
  • Magic Knight: He's skilled with a sword but he also knows a number of spells.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: It's implied that Rending Saber is connected to the Seventh Fonon, as one of the Kanji used for it relates to sound.
  • Manchild: Subtly done, but some of his lines in the latter part of the game and his attitude and actions reveal that he's been "stuck" in his development ever since he was kidnapped by Van and replaced by his replica. Emotionally speaking, he's still the bitter, angry ten-year old of that time.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Given who his mentor is, it makes sense for him to have picked up a few tricks.
  • Meaningful Name: He used to be the "light of the sacred flame" but after he was replaced, he became its ashes.
  • Memetic Mutation: An in-universe example. The fact that he never smiles is noted a couple of times and before long the party turn it into a sort of Running Gag amongst themselves.
  • Mirror Boss: To Luke, as the two have the same fighting style.
  • Mirror Character: To Luke. He knows this too which is why the sharp differences between them tend to throw him into a massive rage.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: During his You Shall Not Pass! moment.
    :"No. Your fight is with me, Asch—no, Luke fon Fabre! Prepare to die."
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Somebody trying to destroy Akzeriuth? It must be Van. Let's kill him! The continents is sinking into the Qliphoth? If we kill Van, everything will sort itself out! Planetary-replication threatening to engulf the world? Asch will find a way to blame Van. As it turns out, there is a Freudian Excuse behind this; namely that Van manipulated and betrayed him to create Luke.
  • No Social Skills: With the exception of Natalia (and even then she's not immune to his rudeness), he's terrible with people: being rude, abrasive, secretive, condescending, and just an all-round jerk to everybody that he meets. This is, however, justified: Van saw him as little more than a tool to accomplish his goal of killing Lorelei and has little regard for his personal wellbeing. This kind of emotional abuse, which he must have endured for years, on top of the fact that Van took advantage of his trust to create a replica that stole his life, rightful destiny, and even his fiance more or less caused Asch to cross a Despair Event Horizon.
  • Other Me Annoys Me: A very weird take on this. Since Luke is his replica, he sees him as "another me" to a certain extent. The fact Luke isn't the strong, ruthless person he wants him to be, and in the end isn't Asch but his own person, turns him into a walking Berserk Button for Asch.
  • Perpetual Frowner: He's never without a frown. It's often Lampshaded and has become memetic.
  • Prepare to Die: "No. Your fight is with me, Asch—no, Luke fon Fabre! Prepare to die."
  • Pride: By far and away the single most arrogant being in the Tales series. Characterising him as such was the point of his character, as it helps him to serve as a Shadow Archetype to Luke.
  • The Reveal: He's the original Luke fon Fabre. The other Luke is his clone.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Asch has a reason (albeit it still shouldn't be excused), that being his issues regarding trust ever since Van betrayed him and seeing his family and fiancee getting friendly with his replica, not knowing it wasn't him, as a child. Ever since then, he's kept his problems bottled up to the point where he withholds information so he wouldn't have to get close to anybody ever again, but of course his resentment of Luke adds fuel to it.
  • Say My Name: Sorta... "REPLICAAAAAAAAA!" Yes, it's memetic.
  • Secretly Dying: Implied in the main game, as one of the Dark Wings states it. However, the issue is never confronted directly in the main quest. Doing the Contamination Effect sidequests imply that he may have been undergoing a delayed Big Bang the whole time. It's canonised by the anime and Drama Disks as Asch goes through one of the symptoms of the Big Bang before his death in both.
  • Semi-Divine: Though completely human by lineage, he was born as an isofon of Lorelei (something which should be impossible) and possesses powers far greater than any normal seventh fonist.
  • Significant Double Casting: Shares the same voice actor (in JP and ENG) as Luke because Luke is his replica.
  • The Sixth Ranger: To the main party. This is Lampshaded with his costume title, Abyss Silver, a common color for sixth rangers in Super Sentai.
  • Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Heavily implied (and shown in extra materials) that he honestly does want to connect with others and is still that sweet, serious kid he was before. Unfortunately, the trauma he's gone through and his many issues prevent him from being honest about his feelings and he spends most of his time doing his best to drive away anyone who attempts to get close to him. Such actions are far from uncommon among victims of similar abuse to what he went through.
  • Stockholm Syndrome: He spent seven years loyal to the man who kidnapped him and even after switching sides it's clear that he still admires and respects Van. There's also a scene in the manga adaptation which shows Van convincing him that he is the only one who still cares about him after seeing everyone else embrace Luke in his place.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: He looks a lot like a younger version of his father, Duke Fabre.
  • Tsundere: A male version, towards both Natalia and Luke.
  • Unstoppable Rage: His default mood is rage, rage, and even more rage. He does his best to remain calm despite it, but it does not take much to set him off and remove the thin veneer of calm.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Was once a wise young noble who was determined to make Kimlasca a wonderful place for all. Then he got kidnapped and "replaced" by a fake...
  • Walking Spoiler: A literal sense. It's hard to hear his voice, see his face, or observe his fighting style without realizing Luke is his replica.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Enforced by the game. While he's statistically superior to Luke, his terrible availability mixed with his lack of access to capacity cores means that, by the end of the game, Luke is statistically stronger, but Asch has a more varied and versatile move pool.
  • When He Smiles: There is a single skit where he actually smiles (around Natalia naturally) and it's downright adorable, up there with Luke's genuine smiles. Considering he's the original Luke fon Fabre, it's not surprising they have the same smile.
  • The Wise Prince The way he used to act according to Natalia most certainly qualifies and disregarding his more... brusque actions toward Luke, he still has strong tendencies in this direction.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: In the final arc he stands alone against an army of knights to buy Luke time to reach Van and stop Eldrant. He kills all of them before succumbing to injuries.
  • Younger Than They Look: Believe it or not, but he's 17. It's more obvious when his hair isn't pulled back thanks to his resemblance to Luke being more obvious then.

    Legretta the Quick 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LegrettaProfile_6900.jpg

Voiced by: Miki Itō (JP), Cindy Robinson (EN)

The Leader of the Six God Generals and Tear's mentor, who carries herself with the composure and integrity of a soldier. She wields two pistols and light-elemental magic. Her true name is later revealed to be Giselle Oslo.


  • Adaptational Curves: She's more buxom in the anime than in the game.
  • Anti-Villain: Type II (Woobie Anti-Villain). She tried to kill Van only to fail and be recruited by him.
  • Broken Pedestal: She trained Tear in Yulia City and later became a heretic. A letter she left behind urged Tear not to follow her example and find her own path.
  • Dark Action Girl: A villainous gunslinger.
  • Dark Mistress: Defied. Despite being in love with him, there's no romantic interaction between her and Van and with good reason - it's a love born from the Score, which she despises with every fibre of her being.
  • The Dragon: She's an enforcer for Mohs. She's actually Van's.
  • Elemental Powers: She has Blow You Away (/ Shock and Awe) via Divine Sabre. She also has Playing with Fire via Searing Sorrow.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Tear; a cold and composed soldier who is warmer than she appears and fights with projectiles. The difference is how they view The Score and their relationship they have with the central figure among their group.
  • Fragile Speedster: Legretta the Quick indeed. One doesn't earn such a name without becoming a speedster. Her teammates are slower but better at taking hits, and in general she tends to be easier to stun than people like Sync.
  • The Gunslinger: She wields two with great skill.
  • Lady of War: Like Tear she is a graceful and deadly warrior.
  • Limit Break: Prism Ballet
  • Love Hurts: Part of why she's an antagonist is this. She was supposed to kill Van, only to fall in love with him, but she was furious when she learned the Score had predetermined she would be in love with him. She really does love him, but doesn't admit to it because it would be exactly what the Score said she would do, and she hates it. She wanted to love someone of her own free will, not because she was told she had to.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Legretta is horrified by the fact that she has fallen in love with the man she wanted to kill and is sickened by the idea that she only fell in love because it was determined in the Score.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Her name in Japanese is Regret, which got changed to Legretta. It may have been caused in order to keep the musical name theming among the God Generals. Legretta stands for "alegretto". Largo and Arietta are both musical terms. Sync may come from "syncopation", while Dist may or may not refer to "distortion", as in "sound distortion". It seems the Japanese prefer the change, since the anime site has it as such.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Invoked in-universe and deconstructed, via They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste. She genuinely doesn't want to love Van - but doesn't have a choice in the matter because the Score controls her destiny, as it does everyone's. This is one of the many reasons why she hates it; she wants to choose who she loves.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Van; despite her love being Score based she is genuinely loyal to him.

    Dist The Reaper 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DistProfile_3577.jpg

Voiced by: Kazuki Yao (JP), Liam O'Brien (EN)

Also known as Dist The Rose (his preferred moniker) or Dist The Runny (Jade's preferred moniker for him) or (rarely) his birth name of Saphir Ortion Gneiss, Dist is an effeminate Mad Scientist who is also one of the Six God Generals. He hangs out on a floating chair in a permanent Slouch of Villainy, and summons Humongous Mecha to fight in his place. He has a long history with Jade.


  • Ambiguously Bi: While his obsession with Jade and incredibly flamboyant mannerisms make most assume him to be either a case of Single-Target Sexuality or simply gay, the game all but states that he has a crush on Professor Nebilim. Considering a major part of his obsession with Jade is linked to Jade's refusal to assist him in reviving Nebilim, he may even be Camp Straight.
  • Anti-Villain: This is how he views himself; horrible actions are okay for reviving the professor because she doesn't care about anyone else, except Jade.
  • Broken Ace: He's a brilliantly gifted scientist who has made countless revolutionary contributions to the world of engineering, but his fixation on the past has left him a bitter, twisted and pathetic man.
  • Broken Pedestal: He's shown to have worshiped Jade when they were children, but now resents him for giving up on professor Nebilim. However, it's made quite apparent that he still worships Jade and he makes it clear that he'd drop whatever he was doing and work alongside Jade in an instant were Jade to "go back to normal".
  • Butt-Monkey: The other God Generals are treated as serious threats by both the heroes and the story. Dist is not. He's treated like a nuisance and a joke.
  • Camp: While his sexuality is up in the air, his flamboyant mannerisms, hot pink-accented outfit, and insistence on being referred to as "the Rose" instead of by his actual title all push him squarely into this territory.
  • The Chew Toy: Jade thinks of him not as a Friendly Enemy but as a pet.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: The Reminiscences of Jade manga shows, in flashbacks, him being a platonic example towards Jade while in the Malkuth Military, getting very upset when Jasper or anyone else had Jade's attention or appeared to be trying to "steal" his best friend. In the present he seems to have some tendencies remaining due to his focus on Jade.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Though he's treated as a joke most of the time, it becomes easy to forget that he's a prodigious genius whose contributions to the technological world were as revolutionary as Jade's were to the Fomicry world. It's just that Jade is such a Troll that he rarely ever comes off as threatening.
  • Dub Name Change: His middle name is Wyon in Japan; an interesting case which changes the name of a dungeon (Ortion Cavern) as he named it after himself.
  • Evil Counterpart: For a certain value of "Evil" anyway. He is this to Jade as the eccentric Mad Scientist that researches forrbidden fields like fomicry. The difference is that Jade learned from the mistakes he made last time, while Dist's refusal to move on from his past define his entire character.
  • Evil Genius: He's a brilliant engineer who is responsible for constructing most of the game's most impressive machines. He's also a villain.
  • Fake Brit: invoked In the English dub he speaks with a haughty British accent but drops it when frustrated or flustered. This is further proven in a flashback to Jade's youth, where he has no accent at all. This further emphasizes his Manchild status, as he definitely does it to seem cooler and more sophisticated.
  • Foil: Jade is his team's Token Evil Teammate, rarely takes anything seriously, is treated as one of the biggest badasses in the world by almost everybody and grew past his traumatic childhood. Dist is his team's Token Good Teammate (or at least the closest thing to one), carries grudges over minor things, is never taken as a legitimate threat despite his incredible amount of talent and is emotionally stunted. To further this, Jade specializes in the study of magic while Dist specializes in the study of technology.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: He is The Scrappy, In-universe, for the God-Generals. Despite the fact that he's the closest thing they have to a Token Good Teammate, he gets no respect form any of them and they all go out of their way to avoid him. It's not just aversion - they genuinely dislike him. This may be because he's oh-so-obviously not working towards their goal. invoked
    • He is also suggested to have been this to a degree back when he was friends with Jade and Peony. While both of them eventually cut off all ties from him entirely, even beforehand they are suggested to have teased him constantly.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Is incredibly skilled at making fontech and fontech machines. Boss Battles with him are always with robots he created. That battle plushie Anise uses to fight? Dist made it for her.
  • Harmless Villain: He's certainly treated like this, but that's simply because his arch-nemesis is Jade, who makes sure that everyone else treats him as one. In reality, he's a legitimate genius who is quite competent at his job.
  • He's All Grown Up: Unlike Jade, who is shown to have been tall and handsome even in his youth, Dist was a weedy little nerd as a kid but grew up into quite the pretty boy. A shame his personality didn't age as gracefully.
  • Insistent Terminology -
    Jade: Well if it isn't Dist The Runny!
    Dist: It's Rose, dammit! R-O-S-E ROSE!
    Anise: You mean Dist The Reaper.
    Dist: It's DIST THE ROSE! I refuse to have such barbaric name!
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Used to be this with Jade, before he dissociated from Dist after a particularly sore incident. Dist clearly wants them to become this again, and is incredibly resentful to Peony for stealing his place as Jade's best friend.
  • Hot for Teacher: Suggested to have had a crush on Professor Nebilim, which he still seems to harbor to this day. His crush seems to have remained that of a schoolboy crush on his teacher despite now being in his mid-thirties.
  • Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Uses a fonic glyph to mutate Mohs into "the New Fon Master", but he seems to do it more out of professional interest and personal amusement than anything else.
  • Lean and Mean: Not immediately obvious since he's almost always sitting down, but Dist is a good head and shoulders taller than Jade, who is 6'1". This may be a case of Your Size May Vary, however, as his official height is 5'9'' while his in-game model is taller than most of the rest of the cast by a wide margin.
  • Mad Scientist: This is how he gained his nickname "reaper". Like Jade he's done some strange and creepy things in his pursuit of science.
  • Made of Iron: He survives fontech explosions.
  • Manchild: Childhood trauma led to him never maturing, making him come off as a whiny brat trying to look cool.
  • Non-Action Guy: Justified. He specializes in Fontech and has no real reason to practice combat when he can have his inventions fight for him.
  • No-Respect Guy: Jade seems to have made it a personal goal to make sure nobody ever respects Dist. It has fantastic results, as everyone seems to hate him.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: At the Tower of Rem, when he reveals his most powerful robot yet and starts massacring the Replicas.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: Jade will never let him forget how his nose used to run whenever he got angry when he was a child.
  • Opaque Lenses: Varies between the artwork and the game. In the artwork, only one is opaque, but in-game both are.
  • Pet the Dog: Anise relates a story where she approached Dist in the Oracle Knights lunch hall (where he usually ate alone) and struck up a conversation with him. In return, he modified her Tokunaga doll to allow it to grow to massive proportions. Anise comments that he always seemed lonely.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: For such a brilliant mind, he's quite juvenile. It's implied that the shock of watching Nebilim die and then seeing her Replica go insane had something to do with it.
  • Sissy Villain: In case you hadn't guessed it from the rest of this list, Dist is a wimpy and effeminate villain.
  • Slasher Smile: His usual expression. Surprisingly, he's actually one of the least bloodthirsty God Generals.
  • The Starscream: Yes, he's only using the God-Generals for his own ends but those ends turn out not to be further power and control - They're finding a way to revive Nebilim.
  • Sole Survivor: The only God-General to survive the entire game.
  • Taking You with Me: He attempts this after beating him the last time. It fails. He survives the explosion, though only if you follow the catalysts and Nebilim sidequest to the end, even after she hits him in the face with a Fragmented End. Tenacious as a cockroach, indeed.
  • Tsundere: An incredibly transparent one. He acts like he hates Jade more than anything else in the world, when in reality it's quite clear he worships him like a god.
  • The Unfought: He never fights you directly, instead sending giant robots he made to do it in his stead.
  • Unknown Rival: Jade prefers to pretend that he doesn't exist.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was a short, clumsy and adorably chipper nerd with a perpetually runny nose as a boy, who worshiped his best friend in his youth. In a bit of a twist, the reason he isn't sweet any more is his refusal to grow out of the very same traits that made him cute as a kid. The few occasions when Jade tricks him into thinking they've joined forces again makes him immediately switch into his younger traits.

    Arietta the Wild 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AriettaProfile_527.jpg

Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (JP), Kate Higgins (EN)

One of the Six God Generals. When she was orphaned during the Hod War, she was rescued and raised by Ligers. Due to this, she is the only human on the planet that can communicate with monsters. Van found her at an early age and raised her to become a functional- if not entirely sociable- member of society.

She used to be the Fon Master Guardian to Ion, but was transferred to another position two years previously and replaced by Anise. Because of this, she has a bitter hatred of Anise, who she claims "stole" Ion from her.

The party kills her "mother" early in the game (in an unrelated boss fight) and she swears to take vengeance against them. She fights alongside monsters and is a powerful spellcaster.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Arietta was in the end just a hurt child; one who desperately wanted the affections of a boy she didn't know was already dead and wanted Revenge for the murder of her mother. Her death after the duel between her and Anise is heartwrenching.
  • And This Is for...: "Your deaths will be for Mommy. Anise, yours is for Ion. For Van, too! I'll finish all of you!"
  • Anti-Villain: Type II (Woobie Anti-Villain) and/or IV (Villain in Name Only). She fights the heroes to avenge her mother, (the Liger Queen), to "protect" Ion, and to support the closet thing she has to a living human parent, Van.
  • The Beastmaster: She can communicate with monsters and they always assist her in every boss fight involving her.
  • Black Magician Girl: She casts dark magic in battle.
  • The Brute: She doesn't look the part but she most definitely acts it. She's got a Leeroy Jenkins attitude going on and, while she's not necessarily stupid, she most certainly isn't clever. She doesn't need to use her head when she can just Zerg Rush everything with her monsters. Van and the God Generals treat her like extra muscles for missions like All Your Base Are Belong to Us. This is justified given that she is a young adult raised by animals who possesses both prodigous magical talent and an ability to communicate with monsters; she's clearly smart enough to use fonic artes, but the means by which she was raised, her lack of emotional maturity, and her overwhelming force means she's likely to stick to the one tactic she knows works.
  • Bodyguard Crush: On Ion. This is made rather tragic as events and All There in the Manual reveals she a) is in love with the original Ion b) doesn't know he's been replaced by a replica, and c) the original Ion was a complete jerk who thought of Arietta as a sort of pet.
  • Dark Action Girl: You don't become one a God-General without being a vicious combatant.
  • Dark Magical Girl: She's not evil, but a girl whose only friends are monsters and used by the Big Bad who is a Parental Substitute to her. Her Magical Girl foil is Anise; another much more lively girl who (eventually) has True Companions and fights alongside her plushie. She has more of a Morality Adjustment instead of a full Heel–Face Turn...and then dies.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: In the anime, the spirits of Ion and her Liger family come to take her to the afterlife and she goes out with a smile.
  • Elemental Powers: She has Wind (Lightning), Darkness, and Fire.
  • Enemy Mine: She teams up with the party to save Ion from Mohs. When they fail, she decides to hate them again.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Anise; both young girls who use dark magic and guard the Fon Master. The difference is that Arietta lives in the past while Anise gains the strength to move forward.
  • Failure-to-Save Murder: This is why she challenges Anise to a duel after Ion's death; she blames Anise for Ion's death.
  • Go Out with a Smile: In the anime, she smiles as the spirits of Ion and her family come to take her away with them into the afterlife.
  • Light Is Not Good: Her second Mystic Arte's name? Evil Light.
  • Limit Break: Big Bang and Evil Light.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: She was purposefully reassigned because it was feared she'd kill herself if she knew that the original Ion was dead.
  • Mighty Glacier: Glaringly, the first boss fight against her on Unknown gives her tremendous defenses even after you try exploiting C.Core growths that you will be delivering Scratch Damage for a long while. Later fights against her don't inflate her defenses to insane proportions, though.
  • Morality Pet: A downplayed and somewhat literal example to the original Ion, who feels sympathy towards her and even cries for her during the last moments of his life despite treating her as a disposable pet beforehand.
  • Older Than They Look: She's sixteen despite both her appearance and personality being that of a little girl. Though the personality thing comes from being raised by monsters.
  • Psychopathic Womanchild: Not so much psychopathic though so much as she's taken slow to mature and her father-figure is a villain.
  • Raised by Wolves: Ligers in this case. The Liger Queen was her mother.
  • Tragic Villain: Let's count the ways: (1) She was orphaned as a baby, (2) She gets taken from her stepfamily who while Ligers, were actually pretty loving to be put into servitude of Van and the original Fon Master, the latter of whom would dehumanise her, (3)falls in love with Ion only to lose him twice, the first time while being kept in the dark, (4)Loses her adopted mother and the latest brood of would be siblings to the party without being able to so much as say goodbye and then when she tries to avenge them, keeps losing more friends, (5) it's vaguely implied althought not explicitly stated that she doesn't get comforted from this in any way due to the the fact that people see Ligers as man eating monsters, instead having her feelings coldly exploited to turn her against the party and game only, (6) when she dies, she does so thrown on the ground like trash talking about how "it hurts" and lamenting her life, not living long enough to actually she herself being honored by her mourners, much of this orchestated and caused directly or indirectly by the man she pledged Undying Loyalty to and the boy she was in love with. Somebody give her a break already!!, and a hug for that matter. At least in the anime, she DOES get a happier ending.
  • Villainous Rescue: Saves the party from Legretta and her men so they can try to save Ion.
  • Wild Child: Thanks to Van she assimilated pretty well into human society but the Liger upbringing is still in there.
  • Wolfpack Boss: In two of her boss battles, she fights with her monsters, and in another, fights with Largo and Legretta.
  • You Killed My Father: You know that Liger Queen Luke, Tear, and Jade killed? That was her mother, You Bastard!.

    Sync the Tempest 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SyncProfile_7202.jpg

Voiced by: Ikue Otani (JP game) Yumiko Kobayashi (JP Anime), Erin Fitzgerald (EN)

The youngest of the Six God Generals, who wears a mask at all times. He has a cruel and manipulative personality, and uses powerful Daathic Artes to curse and torture his enemies.


  • Back from the Dead: It is unclear whether he died when he fell into the core and was resurrected by Van or if he was just badly wounded.
  • Beauty Is Bad: despite being very handsome, he is one of the biggest jerks in the game.
  • Child Soldier: Deserves special mention as he turns out to be two years old meaning he's basically been one since birth. Even discounting that spoiler, he's way too young to be the commander of military forces, much less of such a high ranknote .
  • Cool Mask: A gold and red one that resembles a bird's beak.
  • Clone Angst: Is a failed Replica of the original Ion and tormented by this fact. The idea that he, himself, is a failure makes him act like an asshole to others. It also makes him suicidal.
  • Death Seeker: The only time Sync expresses genuine happiness in his whole life was dying after his final fight with the main cast.
  • Disney Villain Death: ... Sort of. He attempts to kill himself by throwing himself into the core of Auldrant. He survives because of Van.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When the party learns of his past as a replica of the original Ion, the party's Ion sympathizes with him and attempts to convince him to work with the party to survive their predicament. Sync angrily slaps Ion's hand away and jumps off the Tartarus.
  • Driven to Suicide: He attempted to kill himself by throwing himself into the core. Van saves him.
  • Elemental Powers: He has Blow You Away As if it wasn't obvious enough and by extension, Shock and Awe. He also has Dishing Out Dirt (Ground Dasher) and Playing with Fire (Cyclone Blaze).
  • Evil Counterpart: To Guy in both of them are Fragile Speedsters driven by revenge. Sync allowed his thoughts of revenge to consume him, while Guy ultimately put them behind him and moved on. This contrast is brought in sharp relief when one recalls Sync's assertion that he is empty and his life is meaningless outside of being used by Van, and compares it to Guy's motto of "Where there's life, there's hope."
  • The Evil Genius: Played with. While a case could be made for him serving more of a Dragon-y role in the game, his interaction with the God Generals make it clear that he's the brains behind most of their operations. Dist might be the one building their machinery but Sync is the one who comes up with the tactics, evaluates the situation and engages in frequent extremely horrific Manipulative Bastardry.
  • Evil Twin:
    • To Ion, and later, Florian. The former is a Reasonable Authority Figure and the later an Innocent Child; he himself is a Jerkass.
    • He's also a very downplayed example to the original Ion, who is very similar in personality to him and shares the same omnicidal goals. Although the original Ion did start thinking of Arietta as a friend on his deathbed, Sync never gets any positive Character Development and has no Villainous Friendship with the other God Generals.
  • For the Evulz: Sync truly is the sort of depraved sociopath who thinks that life is utterly meaningless so everyone should kill each other. After Ion's death he mimicked Ion's voice to Anise for no reason other than to guilt-trip her. He laughed at her reaction.
  • Freudian Excuse: The reason he is such a mean spirited person is because he was created as a clone to the original Ion, but was deemed a failure and cast away to die.
  • Generation Xerox: He's just as cruel and nihilistic as the original Ion and shares his goal of taking revenge on the world.
  • Irony: His Clone Angst caused him to be the closest to the original Ion in terms of personality.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: If it looks like he's doing something nice for you... he's not. Anise learned that the hard way.
  • Kick the Dog: Perfectly mimicking Ion's voice to demoralize Anise after Ion's death is a pretty low blow.
  • Kung-Fu Wizard: He fights with both bare-handed martial arts and fonic artes.
  • Limit Break: Akashic Torment and Harrowing Gale.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Other God Generals have sympathetic goals like reviving a beloved teacher or granting free will; Sync just wants to kill everyone.
  • Red Herring: Guy seems to recognize Sync when he sees him without the mask. This implies that Sync will be Guy's Evil Counterpart, similar to how all the other God Generals correspond to a member of the party. It turns out that Guy recoginzed Sync because Sync is a Replica of Ion and that the rest of the party would probably have had the same reaction if they had seen Sync mask-less prior to The Reveal.
  • Straw Nihilist: He believes that his life is completely meaningless because he was born as a failed Replica and his creators intended for him to die. Before the last fight with him, he reveals that he follows Van only because Van's plan means destroying the world that created a life as empty as his own.
  • The Sociopath: The only reason he works with Van is because he basically just wants to watch the world burn. He takes amusement in cruelly toying with Anise by imitating Ion's voice not long after his death, implying a large lack of empathy for anyone.
  • Token Mini-Moe: The youngest God General and overall youngest antagonist in the Tales series at the age of 14. That's not putting into account his real age.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Sure, his backstory is sympathetic, but the guy is a total jerk.

    Largo the Black Lion 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LargoProfile_9829.jpg

Voiced by: Tesshō Genda (JP), Jamieson Price (EN)

One of the Six God Generals, and the leader of the shock troops in the Oracle Knights. A huge man who wields a giant scythe. Largo first appears during the assault on Tartarus and places a Fon Slot Seal on Jade. Though he seems to know Natalia on a personal level, she does not recognise him.

His real name is Badaq Oakland and he is Natalia's biological father.


  • Anti-Villain: Type II (Woobie Anti-Villain) He's working towards Van's Evil Plan because the Score took his family away from him. The true Princess Natalia was stillborn so Largo's mother-in-law gave her granddaughter Meryl to the queen as a replacement. His wife Sylvia committed suicide out of grief.
  • Archnemesis Dad: To Natalia but it takes quite a while for her to find out.
  • Armor Is Useless: Averted. He's killed when Natalia shoots him in the back... the one part of his body that isn't armoured in the final battle with him.
  • Blood Knight: Decent guy though he may be, he sure does enjoy a straight-up scrap.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Zigzagged. Largo makes threats like any other bruiser but, when he's put up against an enemy he's clearly outmatched by, he won't start the trash-talk unless he's made damn sure they can't do anything against him. Unfortunately for him, said enemy was Jade - a man who is The Combat Pragmatist to a T.
  • Cruel Mercy: Averted. He never shows it to his enemies because he believes it's an insult to go easy on an opponent.
  • Death Seeker: Heavily implied. Outright confirmed when it's revealed that his wife Sylvia died after their child Meryl was switched with a stillborn baby, the real Princess Natalia; driving her to kill herself.
  • Despair Event Horizon: He crossed it a long, long time ago because he lost his family to the Score. See Death Seeker.
  • Elemental Powers: His preferred one is Playing with Fire including Brimstone Tempest.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: In-universe. The party have varying levels of hatred and disgust towards the God Generals but they all like Largo because, despite being an antagonist, he's still a really good guy.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Natalia, thanks to the fact he is her biological father as well as their similar yet contrasting beliefs.
  • Friendly Enemy: He starts out as something of a rival to Jade for being the one who sealed his Fonic Artes but, as time passes, the whole group comes to regard him with a lot more respect.
  • Gentle Giant: Outright stated to have been one in his past and, as much as he tries, it still shows through in the game.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Based on how big his daughter and mother-in-law are, he and his wife were definitely this.
  • Irony: Supplementary material reveals his wife married him not just out of love, but also partly because it was predicted in the score. Largo hates the Score despite this, as it is also what took his wife's life when she had to hand over their child.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A blindingly bright heart of gold... It's just too bad that he's crossed the Despair Event Horizon and decided he has no reason to live in the world anymore.
  • Limit Break: Brimstone Tempest.
  • Noble Demon: More so than his comrades, he doesn't mean anything personal and doesn't want to cause any unnecessary damage.
  • Nothing Personal: Even if he has to kill a load of Tartarus guards, Largo makes it clear that he's not the kind of man who enjoys slaughter. It's just what has to be done. A truly great fight is something he relishes.
  • Red Baron: "The Black Lion". He could only live up to this more if he were a genuine big cat.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Went on one when he realized that his daughter had been stolen and that his wife killed herself in grief; he killed a guard before he was subdued.
  • Sinister Scythe: Averted. His weapon of choice is in no way indicative of his personality.
  • Sixth Ranger: He's a newcomer in the God Generals. The others have been with Van for longer.
  • Token Good Teammate: Out of all the God-Generals, he's the one with the strongest moral code.
  • Undying Loyalty: One of his defining traits is his loyalty towards Van.
  • Warrior Poet: He's given to waxing poetical before or after the boss fights.
  • Worthy Opponent: Their final confrontation is more or less an exchange of compliments in-between arse-kickings.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: His final scene is guarding the Absorption Gate from the heroes.

Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear

    King Ingobert VI 

Voiced by: Katsumi Choo (JP Game) Takashi Taniguchi (JP Anime), Robert Clotworthy(EN Game)

The King of Kimlasca and father to Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear.


    Crimson Herzog fon Fabre and Susanne fon Fabre 

Voiced by: Naomi Kusumi (JP game) Hiroshi Nakano (JP anime), Paul St. Peter (EN)

Or simply, Duke Fabre, is father to Luke don Fabre.


  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite his neglect, he really does love his son Luke and his replica.
  • 0% Approval Rating: Being a war hero of Hod War, he is one of Mulkuth's most infamous enemies. Even Tear has to warn Luke not to use his family name hapzardly.
  • Hate Sink: It's not readily apparent in the game, but Duke Fabre has a lot of atrocities to answer for in the subtext of the game's narrative. He was the one who massacred Guy's family. He leveraged the plight of Cecille's family heritage against her to force her into entering a sexual affair with him at the cost of his invalid wife, and he outright refused to treat Luke as his son because of the prophecy of his death at Akzeriuth.
  • Parental Neglect: He doesn't pay too much attention to Luke compared to Van, whom Luke has more respect for. His wife on the otherhand, smothers Luke.

The Malkuth Empire

    Emperor Peony Upala Malkuth IX 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Peony_wiki_pic_1606.png

The current emperor of Malkuth. To keep him safe from the political strife of Grand Chokmah, he was sent to live in Keterburg, where he met and befriended Jade and Dist. He keeps several rappigs as pets, collects weapons, and enjoys flirting.


  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's The Wise Prince when his country needs him to be, but he's also a Sheltered Aristocrat, and when people don't need decisions out of him, he has far too much free time on his hands, which he's perfectly happy to spend goofing off and avoiding paperwork.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: During a certain sidequest, the heroes ask to borrow an item from his room. He agrees to give it, free of charge, but only if the girls beg him for it. If he weren't such a friendly guy who asked for nothing more than flattery, Natalia would be right when she said "a fine case of sexual harassment".
  • Cosplay Otaku Girl: Rare Male Example. He gives the party several costumes, some of which are based on his favorite Sentai play while others are his own original design. Jade even comments that he can tell his best friend's handiwork and it is implied that he had him model outfits for him before.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Flowery names like "Peony" are typically given to girls.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Jade. They grew up together and he can tease Jade with impunity.
  • Hidden Backup Prince: The offical reason he was raised in Keterburg was so there would be an heir kept safe from Grand Chokmah's Decadent Court. The real reason is because the Score said he was supposed to take the throne, so having him be the one who was sent away and kept safe made it a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the anime and manga, he actually punches Jade in the face and gives him a massive What the Hell, Hero? rant. This is after Jade almost kills himself in a extremely risky experiment.
  • Promoted to Playable: He's a playable character in Tales Of The Rays.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: The main party frequently turns to him for support and since they have 'save the world' business he's willing to help. By contrast, his counterpart in Kimlasca was an obstructive antagonist. In fact, he's so reasonable, he's the only one of the world leaders in the third arc who flat out apologies to Luke for forcing him to make a Heroic Sacrifice and says that, if he wasn't an emperor, he wouldn't want that. He even says that if Luke runs, they won't blame him.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: He's a great help to the party and to his people. When Eldrant raises, he's there to help.
  • Sophisticated as Hell: His manner of speaking switches easily between formal and casual, no matter the situation.
  • Trash of the Titans: Look at his personal room; neatness isn't his strong suit.
  • Universally Beloved Leader: Talk to the NPCs in Grand Chokmah. They all adore him. Even when the world is literally falling apart around them, they trust that Peony has things in hand and will do what's best for everyone.
  • Older Than They Look: He's in his mid-late 30s.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: To Jade's younger sister Nephry, because the Score said she would marry someone else.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Jade. They're clearly very close, because if they weren't, the way they mock and tease one another might be considered cruel.
  • We Named the Monkey "Jack": He named his pet rappigs after various people in his life. Jade does not approve of Rappig!Nephry having the fanciest collar or Rappig!Jade being called "the cute Jade". Jade himself is the "non-cute Jade".
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Gives one to Jade in the past, telling him upfront that Jade had failed in bring Nebilim from the dead and at least give a damn of how Saphir (Dist), Nephry, and him would feel if Jade is dead.

    Nephry Osborne 
Voiced by: Mariko Suzuki (JP game) Takako Honda (JP anime), Wendee Lee (EN)

Viscount Nephry Osborne, formerly known as Nephry Balfour, is the sister of Jade Curtiss and governor of Keterburg. She's also the Childhood Friend of Peony and Saphir who is now known as Dist.


  • Arranged Marriage: A variation; the Score foretold she would marry Viscount Osborne so she married him, despite having been in a relationship with Peony before.
  • Ms. Exposition: In regards to Jade's past she tells Luke (and thus the audience) about who he was before and the origin of fomicry.
  • Nice Girl: She might be serious, but she's polite and kind to the others; especially Luke.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Is quick to aid the party when they need it.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: She strongly resembles her brother, to the point she's almost a Gender Flip of him in design.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: To Peony; when the Score declared she would marry another, she broke off the relationship.

Other Characters

    Mieu 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MieuProfile_5001.jpg

Voiced by: Miki Maruyama (JP), Sandy Fox (EN)

A baby cheagle who accompanies the party. He is banished from his village for one year after accidentally burning down the Liger Woods, and bound to serve Luke for that time. Despite Luke's obvious dislike and abuse towards him, Mieu doesn't mind and idolizes his master.

He uses the Sorcerer's Ring around his belly to communicate with people and help clear obstacles in dungeons.


  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Most of his fur is teal in the original game (and most other appearances) but blue in the anime.
  • The Atoner: He got banished for accidentally burning down the Liger Woods, causing the Ligers to invade the Cheagle Woods and kill cheagles for food, so now he's trying to make up for it.
  • Breath Weapon: Downplayed. He's too young to use it naturally, but the Sorcerer's Ring gives him enough boost to solve puzzles.
  • Butt-Monkey: He's kicked around a lot.
  • The Cameo: Makes a cameo as a treasure Rutee tries to sell early on in Tales of Destiny R. He also shows up in the PS3/Definitive Edition version of Tales of Vesperia as one of the options for Patty's Mystic Arte "Summon Friends".
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: As a cheagle, perhaps it's not surprising he has some odd thoughts and comes to strange conclusions. For example, he accepts "Thing" as an actual name from Luke.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: He insists that Luke is a Nice Guy despite his treatment. He's not wrong.
  • Cute, but Cacophonic: The entire cheagle race, which Mieu belongs to, are small, plush-like creatures with (usually) high-pitched voices. It greatly annoys Luke, which he complains about almost every time Mieu opens his mouth.
  • Dub Name Change: Or rather nickname is changed; in the original Japanese script, he's called "butasaru"note  by Luke. In English, he's "Thing," which is not a bad change considering it's not easy to translate, and the latter gives the same impression.
  • Happiness in Slavery: He either doesn't notice, doesn't care that Luke hates him, or he's atoning and seeing through to Luke's heart of gold.
  • Flight: One of the upgrades for the Sorcerer's Ring grants him this ability.
  • Improvised Weapon: Gets used as one by Luke at times.
  • Made of Iron: For such a small creature, Mieu can tank a lot of abuse. This is even one of his abilities through the Sorcerer's Ring; the Mieu Attack has him tackling obstacles and breaking them thanks to being essentially invulnerable while it is active.
  • No Hero to His Valet: Subverted. At first, Mieu is the victim of several Kick the Dog moments from Luke. Despite this, Mieu never loses his Undying Loyalty towards him. Additionally, a metric of Luke's Character Development is the amount of respect he shows Mieu, who–annoying voice or not–is an irreplaceable group member from the start.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Tries to invoke this with Luke after he destroys Akzeriuth, saying that they both killed many of their people by accident, but Luke is in no mood to hear him out.
  • Playing with Fire: Via the Sorcerer's Ring, he can breathe fire.
  • Pokémon Speak: When he's upset or not wearing the Sorcerer's Ring, he says, "Mieu!"
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: In Tear's opinion, he's cuddly.
  • Sidekick Creature Nuisance: In Luke's opinion, he's a 'thing' that bothers him. Luke does warm up to him after Character Development kicks in, but he still finds him annoying.
  • Team Pet: Specifically Luke's, but he hangs out with everybody.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Luke, to the point he remains with the comatose Luke in Yulia City while the rest go off with Asch.
  • Verbal Tic: In Japanese, "desuno." In English, "-mieu!"

    Gelda Nebilim 
Voiced by: Mariko Suzuki (JP), Tara Platt (EN)

Jade and Dist's childhood teacher. Her ability to use the Seventh Fonon - something even the child prodigy Jade could not - placed her in a rare position of superiority to Jade, and she used his (begrudging) admiration of her to instill him with as much morality as she could. It is due to her influence that Jade did not grow up to be evil.


  • The Atoner: Her sidequest and the Reminiscences of Jade manga reveals her ending up in Keterburg came from this.
  • Ax-Crazy: After she was brought back by Jade. While some of her killing was to complete herself, it's clear she enjoys it.
  • Came Back Wrong: Brought back in body, but without her original's mind and soul. The result was a smug homicidal murder.
  • Church Militant: She is revealed to have been a Locrian Sergeant in the Oracle Knights.
  • Combat Medic: Is stated to have used the Seventh Fonon and was a member of the Oracle Knights. Her actual combat prowess is never shown. Though if what her Came Back Wrong boss shows is correct, she was definitely no push over.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Her determination to unlock the Planetary Fonic Arte resulted in a terrible incident which killed off everyone involved except herself. She also previously was an incredibly cold and dangerous Oracle Knight who did a lot of terrible things for the sake of the Order.
  • Death by Origin Story: She died in Jade's childhood.
  • Energy Weapon: Uses these in her Came Back Wrong boss battle.
  • Expy: Strongly resembles Raine Sage in appearance and was also a teacher just like her.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Died protecting Jade from the backlash of him attempting to cast seventh fonic artes.
  • Instant Runes: Uses these to cast in her boss battle.
  • Mirror Character: To Jade. She was once a powerful and talented soldier and fonist with a fearsome reputation who participated in horrifying experiments, only to go too far and swear off it, making the research forbidden in the aftermath. This is even lampshaded by Luke.
  • Morality Pet: Did her best to invoke it in regards to Jade.
  • Purity Sue: In-universe example. Much like Stella, this is only Dist's opinion of her. Jade seems to realize that, as incredible as she was, she was still a human being with her own faults and flaws. As it's revealed in the manga, she subverts this big time during her time of the Oracle Knights to the point Luke thinks of her as a female version of Jade when he was younger.
  • Red Baron: Was known as the Demonic Commander when she was in the Oracle Knights.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: A inversion, of the "Kind Red Eyes" variety. Her replica plays it straight.
    • She plays this straight when she was in the Oracle Knights, if her title of Demonic Commander is anything to go by and she is shown to be pretty ruthless. Especially when researching the Planetary Fonic Arte
  • Small Role, Big Impact: On a personal level, her relationship as teacher and role model to Jade is why he didn't end up a villain. While her death resulted in the first attempt to use formicry on a living being, resulting in the creation of The Hero and Van's plans.
  • Smug Super: After she Came Back Wrong at least. She's the strongest enemy in the game and the party recognizes her Suberboss status. She's also violent, destructive, and almost all her dialogue in battle involves showing her sense of superiority.
  • Superboss: Is fought after the player completes the sidequest to complete the Planetary Fonic Arte, due to the first replica of her being only trapped and used the Arte to restore herself. She is the single strongest enemy in the game, using every high level Arte, and has a unique ultimate move of her own called Fragmented End, the most damaging attack used by any enemy.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: As above.

    Yulia Jue 
Yulia Jue was a prophet and Seventh Fonist who lived during the Dawn Age of Auldrant, around 2,000 years prior to the events of the present. She left an enduring legacy through the recording of her predictions, known as the Score, which represented a highly accurate history of the world's future spanning over two millenia and became the centerpiece of the religion led by the Order of Lorelei.


  • All the Other Reindeer: For being a child prodigy, other children of her day left her out of their circle. In turn, she enjoyed playing with cheagles.
  • All There in the Manual: Most things about her are found in extra materials, though as an important historical and religious figure there's some facts to be found in the game as well.
  • Child Prodigy: For both technology and fonic manipulation. She also made a pact with Lorelei when she was fourteen.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: Alongside Lorelei and the Score, it is Yulia that Auldrant venerates.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Van views her as this, as she's the one who create the Score which suppresses all of Auldrant. In reality she's the exact opposite; her Hymns contain the secret message to end the Score to her descendants.
  • Kangaroo Court: Was on the receiving end of one; she was freed before she could be executed.
  • Magic Music: As the creator of the Hymns Van and Tear use, she also used them.
  • Messianic Archetype: The extra materials paint her exactly like this, down to the betrayal by one of her True Companions. However, he repented and allowed her to escape.
  • Posthumous Character: The whole plot ultimately happens because of her creating the Score two thousand years before any of its mortal characters were born. From both sides at that; Yulia wanted the Score to be destroyed.

    Lorelei 
Voiced by: Osamu Hosoi (JP)

The Aggregate Sentience of the Seventh Fonon, the Fonon of Sound, who's existence is still considered theoretical. Over two thousand years ago, Lorelei made a pact with Yulia and created the Score to guide the world. Though mostly unseen, he plays an incredibly important role in the story.


  • Ambiguous Gender: Though it's assumed Lorelei is a he from his voice and the fact Luke and Asch are his isofons the fact he's made of pure fonons and the name given to him is a Gender-Blender Name, one can't be quite certain if any gender rightfully applies to him.
  • The Chooser of the One: Played With. The Score puts Luke fon Fabre as the one to "inherite the power of Lorelei" and Lorelei helped make the Score. And yes, he did pick Luke... the replica that is. The Score is humanity choosing the original Luke fon Fabre after a fashion. Lorelei picks out the replica because he's his other self and thus capable of screwing destiny and ending the Score which is what he wants. Shame that his attempts to talk to Luke just gave him massive headaches and only fragments of his voice. And his Exact Words gave him issues the few times he could properly talk to him.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: Is partly worshipped by Auldrant, though they venerate the Score and Yulia more so due to him being theoretical.
  • Cryptic Conversation: Subverted. Lorelei speaks actually quite clearly, however everyone expects (due to his mystical status as a fon sentience and the one who created the Score) him to speak in metaphors and such. In reality, he's speaking as clearly as he can.
  • Exact Words: Falls into this in both normal conversations and even the Score since it's revealed that the Light of the Sacred Flame, aka Luke, does survive Akzeriuth's destruction in the Score, the phrasing of him being "destroyed" by it is meant more literally. Interestingly enough, it's because Lorelei is trying to be clear to the Puny Humans he's communicating with that the message tends to get garbled.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Has a deep masculine voice while the name "Lorelei" is for women.
  • God Is Good: Is flat out ecstatic when Luke frees him and destroys the Score, happy to be rendered unneeded by humanity.
  • God's Hands Are Tied: The pact between him and Yulia traps him in the Core and means he can't do anything about the Score as he's forced to sustain it. He really would like to help and resorts to some Loophole Abuse to try to aid Luke. He also technically subvert this thanks to Luke; while the Lorelei in the Core is bound, the Lorelei that is Luke is very active in fighting the Score.
  • Literal Genie: Aside from his tendency to translate names out of Ancient Ispanian and say Light of the Sacred Flame when he just means Luke fon Fabre, for example, Lorelei is a well-intentioned example of this. The Score is a fairly straightforward list of historical occurrences in chronological order. It only comes across as confusing due to a) people treating it as mystical and metaphoric b) having been recorded over two thousand years ago it is missing some details like the name of Akzeriuth which didn't exist back then and c) being translated from Ancient Ispanian.
  • Meaningful Name: Lorelei means "murmuring rock". The Score is recorded on special fonstones that Scorers "read" out loud. It's also the name of a siren from German folklore that lured sailors to their doom. The Score leads to the end of Auldrant and all of the people there are following the Score. The siren angle works in another way too; the sirens of The Odyssey sang of revealing the knowledge of the future to Odysseus.
  • Minor Major Character: Lorelei is the focus of a major religion in Auldrant and the very reason the Score exists, not to mention is heavily implied to be why Luke fon Fabre was born with his fonic signature. Despite that, he gets minimal amount of lines and only has two scenes where he actually "appears" in one form or another. Justified as he's trapped in the Core the entire time and it's possibly subverted since Luke is Lorelei as well.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Everything, from the Score to his more recent attempts to communicate with Luke and the rest, suffers from this. Lorelei means well and is honestly trying to be clear but there is a vast gap in regards to how an Aggregate Sentience like him views the world compared to the humans of Auldrant.
    • One example of this is when he tries to warn Luke that "One who would seize glory is trying to capture me!" Luke doesn't understand what that means, so he ends up putting it aside for a long time until he says it off hand during an important meeting. Everyone looks at Luke in disbelief because "One who would seize glory" is the Ancient Ispanian translation for Vandesdelca. Meaning Lorelei wasn't trying to be poetic, he was trying to tell Luke that Van was stil alive!
  • Pure Magic Being: Is made up of only seventh fonons that possess his frequency. This includes Luke.
  • So Proud of You: Tells Luke he has done "admirably" and praises his successful destruction of the Score and freeing of him and Auldrant.
  • Truly Single Parent: Depending on how you interpret him calling Luke his other self, you can see Lorelei as this to Luke.

Top