BEWARE OF UNCOVERED TROPE SPOILERS!
open/close all folders
Heldalf, The Lord of Calamity
Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)
A towering, lion-like Hellion of incredible strength. Calm and collected, he desires to destroy the world and make it anew.
- Adaptational Villainy: Played With in regards to his backstory. In the game the destruction of Camlann was less of his fault and more of Contrived Coincidence, seeing as Hyland attacked after he and his forces had left the village, and his choice to leave it to its fate is more of a pragmatic reason than anything. The anime instead has him and his forces at the village, with his superiors revealing it was a Xanatos Gambit to draw out Hyland into attacking. However the Played With aspect is that Heldalf seems to not agree with the plan and merely followed the orders given.
- Animal Motifs: Lions, from his appearance to possessing the iconic arte Beast, which is renamed "Lion's Howl".
- The Antichrist: He's the resident force of evil that opposes Sorey's Messianic Archetype. It's to the point where one of his attacks in his One-Winged Angel actually name drops Satan himself.
- Archnemesis Dad: The manga implies that Heldalf is Sorey's father. Neither are aware of it, however.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Uses his fists along with his claws as his primary way of attacking.
- Big Bad: He's largely responsible for the spread of the miasma and Hellions throughout the world. He retains the position for the entire story, unlike the villains of some other Tales games.
- The Corrupter: He puts Sorey through all kinds of hell in order to turn him into a Hellion. His power is also so massive he corrupts anyone with any bit of malevolence and they instantly become a Hellion.
- Curse: His abandoning Camlann was the reason the previous Shepherd ended up cursing him, driving him mad by grief and despair until he turned into the Lord of Calamity.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Like most Tales villains, he has his reasons for doing what he does.
- Dark Is Evil: His design involves a lot of black and purple, and he's the Big Bad of the game.
- Elemental Powers: Able to wield the four primary elements, presumably as a result of having consumed Seraphs who possessed them.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Due to the years he suffered from the curse and eventual transformation into the Lord of Calamity, Helfdalf lost the ability to see anything good in the world beyond hatred and darkness. His words as Sorey walks over to end his suffering were all about how striking him down would make him the next Lord of Calamity only to be mad and baffled at how he failed to turn.
- Expy: Of Ganon, being the animal themed Antichrist Big Bad with ties to a god, and was made the Big Bad through a curse.
- Freudian Excuse: Surprisingly Averted. It wasn't a single moment or event that made Heldalf the monster he is now. Instead, it was a slow and even worse series of events ranging from his family being murdered, to him being unable to kill himself that shaped him into hating the world.
- Four-Star Badass: Even before turning into a hellion, he was a powerful enough general in Rolance to be granted the Lion's Howl arte.
- Fusion Dance: He armatizes with Maotelus, becoming a dragon with a lion's face.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: The girls discuss in a skit during Alisha's story that his attempts to convince Sorey to join him were due to his feelings of loneliness and seeking someone to be his companion. He failed to realize that even if Sorey joined him and became a Hellion he would still oppose him since Hellions are fully capable of hating and opposing each other. It is implied that he is also reaching out to Sorey specifically because on some level he recognizes him as his son.
- King of Beasts: He's more or less a humanoid lion, having the distinctive mane and tail, along with claws.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: The manga heavily implies that he is Sorey's father. While both of them are apparently unaware of this, Heldalf seems to realize the similarity between Sorey and Selene in his last moments.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Much like the human party members, Heldalf cannot use Seraphic Artes outside of Armatization.
- Names to Run Away From: The Lord of Calamity.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He imprisoned a Seraph in the middle of a battlefield to turn him into a dragon and help wreck the world. This causes the remaining Hyland and Rolance soldiers to team up with Sorey against the dragon and leads to the war being cut short.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The source of why he ended up the way he is, though the "good deed" is up for interpretation. Heldalf and his troops were garrisoning at Michael's village during the war, causing the people to constantly lash out at them. He decided to give them what they want and left, only for the village to be attacked after they did so. Rather than try to save it, he decided to leave it to its fate to spare his troops. In doing so, Michael cursed him into becoming the Lord of Calamity, which is why he no longer can see people in a positive way again.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims and believes that turning everyone into Hellions will erase the world's pain, which is a contradictory goal due to how most Hellions are characterized as perpetually angry, Ax-Crazy brutes. However, the party speculates that he's really looking for a way to overcome his loneliness, as shown when he insists on sparing Sorey in order to give the latter a chance to become a Hellion servant. It's implied that his true motive for spreading Malevolence is so that he doesn't have to be alone in his predicament, though his curse would most likely find a way around that anyways.
- One-Hit Kill: His Mystic Arte causes so much damage that anyone who gets targeted with it is going to hit the floor, regardless of what difficulty you're playing on.
- He also does this to a Dragon during a flashback.
- In the second part of the final fight, he Armatizes with Maotelus and gains the ability to use Indignation and will attempt to use it for every quarter of health lost. Failure to inflict enough damage to disrupt the charging will result in this happening to the entire party.
- One-Winged Angel: After Armatizing with Seraph Maotelus.
- Physical God: While he may have been human once, Heldalf is a walking well of malevolence. Simply appearing in any area generally causes anyone with any malevolence at all to instantly become a Hellion. He's so absurdly strong he defeats Sorey and the group the first time they clash with his domain alone. Keep in mind up until that point domains only were used to quell malevolence in cities. During a viewing of the Iris Gems the group is utterly horrified at how he defeats a Dragon in one hit.
- Power Glows: Most of his body glows purple, and it does a good job of making him look powerful, in case him being a hulking, eight-foot tall lion man wasn't enough.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Heavily implied to have been this in his backstory; though he butted heads with Shepherd Michael, he was only truly doing his job and made choices that were logical and meant for the good of his soldiers. Unfortunately...
- Shaping Your Attacks: As one might expect from his appearance, he's able to use the lion-shaped, Tales series staple of Beast. His Mystic Arte basically takes it and cranks it up.
- Shoot the Hostage: At one point, Rose holds Symonne at knifepoint in an attempt to get him to back off and stop attacking the party. He responds by simply blasting both of them with a torrent of water.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Unlike his game counterpart, Sorey does not kill him and successfully purifies him in the anime.
- The Stoic: Aside from occasionally showing some slight amusement at the party's determination, he tends to remain completely straight-faced.
- Tragic Villain: Being cursed to endure eternal loneliness caused his family to die in tragic accidents, be alienated and mocked by his peers, feared amongst those who saw his curse in action, watch innocent babies turn into Hellions just from him holding them, and have every attempt to commit suicide to fail until he finally transformed into the Lord of Calamity.
- True Final Boss: If the player beats the postgame dungeon, Hexen Isle, the Earthpulse's flow is restored and powers up both Heldalf and Maotelus. If the player starts the Final Boss fight again, Heldalf is upgraded to "Despot Heldalf," giving him higher stats and resistance to all elements. His upgraded Armatized form doesn't have these resistances, but gets a stat boost that makes the DPS check much harder than before.
- Unskilled, but Strong: He fights with punches and claw swipes, which can easily be used without finesse. He's also strong enough to one-shot a dragon. Exaggerated during his One-Winged Angel mode after Armatizing with Maotelus. The unskilled part is downplayed since he's at least skilled enough with countering to use Karmic Stance.
- Villainous Legacy: In the Alisha DLC, Hyland and Rolance are still healing from the conflict he instigated between them. Additionally, his servants Symmone and Lunarre are still at large, recycling his methods to sabotage Sorey's plans to purify the continent.
- Walking Wasteland: He emits enough malevolence to blanket the region he's in, turning the sky an eerie purple, along with causing ill effects to those aren't protected from it; the worst of them being a swift transformation into a Hellion should the individual have enough darkness in their heart. The party initially doesn't stand a chance against him as a result.
- Was Once a Man: Used to be a General from Rolance.
- We Can Rule Together: Offers this to Sorey, but he declines.
Lunarre
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (JP), Benjamin Diskin (EN), Austin Tindle (EN, Anime)
"Are you going to make me spell it out for you…? That I want to devour you?"
A cold-blooded assassin whose dark heart transformed him into a Hellion, and a member of the guild known as the Scattered Bones. His sudden appearance in Sorey's village and subsequent actions end up being part of what drives him and Mikleo to set out on their journey.
- Ambiguous Situation: The game doesn't reveal how he came into Heldalf's fold. It's implied to have happened sometime after his second boss fight since his goal of killing Alisha could interfere with Maltran's plans to use the princess.
- Animal Motif: He's designed after the mystical kitsune/foxes of Japanese folklore, having facial markings reminiscent of one, along with a tail-like hairstyle. He looks enough like one that he's referred to as a fox-man before his name is known, or is simply called a fox by those who don't respect him.
- Ax-Crazy: He loves killing and is prone to fits of insane cackling.
- The Brute: He shares this role with Maotelus by being an Ax-Crazy Hellion with plenty of literal firepower. During his first Pendrago encounter, he's shown working with Symmone, which means he's working for Heldalf. Unlike Maotelus, he is shown to have a cunning mind when the situation calls for it. He captures his former Scattered Bones comrades in order for them to take the fall as Hyland spies, all as part of Heldalf's plan to worsen the war. In Alisha's DLC, he manipulates the pro-war extremists into invading Camlann, which is bad news because Sorey is still in hibernation with Maotelus.
- Dragon Ascendant: Played with due to his role as The Brute during the main story. Despite not being as close and loyal to Heldalf as Symmone, he takes a more active role in Alisha's DLC to antagonize the party and invade Camlann. In contrast, Symmone ditches the operation halfway through, due to questioning her nihilistic views.
- Expy:
- Of Zagi, in so many ways.
- Blondish hair, creepy fangs, was once human before willingly becoming a monster, enjoys devouring humans to gain strength, Ax-Crazy Blood Knight mindset, and Recurring Boss voiced by Takehito Koyasu? Sounds a lot like Dio Brando.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: According to the Scattered Bones, Lunarre apparently started out as a small-time thief before joining them. The Alisha DLC has him commanding Hellions in much the same way as Heldalf, implying that he's trying to become the next Lord of Calamity.
- Fusion Dance: The game strongly infers Lunarre was somehow created this way from Rolance Prince Konan's malevolence and the body of Dezel's old friend Lafarga, who had long hair. The fact the Scattered Bones met Lunarre only two years prior to the game, Lunarre not remembering a time when he wasn't a thief (assuming he wasn't being figurative), and his obsession with Rose further points to this trope. On the other hand, the Fuseface Hellion also seems to have a connection to Konan and Lefarga, so it's not guaranteed that this is Lunarre's identity.
- I'm a Humanitarian: He's introduced in the game literally eating someone! He even calls Alisha his next meal and refers to Sorey and Mikleo as appetizers.
- Killed Off for Real: In the anime only. He sacrifices himself by using all of his power to destroy the malevolence.
- Know When to Fold Them: At the end of Alisha's DLC, Lunarre refrains from fighting the party after they defeat the last of his Hellion minions, since he's still weakened by the stab wound from his previous boss battle.
- Known Only by Their Nickname: The party minus Rose doesn't know his name for a while and call him Fox Guy or Foxxy.
- More Despicable Minion: Downplayed. Lunarre lacks the tragic pasts of Heldalf and the rest of the latter's group, making him their least sympathetic member. While the other members have their own share of atrocities, Lunarre is even more sadistic and spiteful towards the party in comparison, especially to Rose. His malice gets to the point where the Alisha DLC implies that he's trying to take Heldalf's place as the Lord of Calamity by raising a Hellion army against Camlann.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Two pasts in the game, one in the anime.
- Natural Weapon: Uses his claws for close-range combat, frequently imbuing them with the aforementioned flames.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Lunarre ends up saving Alisha in Zestiria the X's prologue from Symonne because he is the one who must kill her.
- Playing with Fire: Wields blue flames to go along with his kitsune motif, but also incorporates some standard fire elemental magic into his arsenal in later battles.
- Pointy Ears: One of his physical traits aside from his eyes and fangs that make him readily identifiable as a Hellion.
- Recurring Boss: Yet another in the line of psychopathic assassins/hitmen who fill the role throughout the Tales Series.
- Slasher Smile: His default expression and the markings on his face serve to emphasize it.
- The Sociopath: The anime gives him this attitude regarding current events and will watch with glee as everything and everyone around him wither down under pressure, especially in regard to Alisha's issues.
- Start of Darkness: Zestiria the X reveals he became the psychotic Hellion Lunarre after failing to defeat his target Alisha and begging Rose to let him finish the job she gave him.
- The Stinger: Lunarre is shown to be alive in Alisha's story, plotting to kill all of Rose's friends or somehow kill Sorey in front of them all.
- Took a Level in Badass: By his fourth encounter, he's capable of using a Mystic Arte and can quickly cast fire Seraphic Artes.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Downplayed. His melee attacks mainly consist of wild flaming swings despite his experience as an assassin. However, he eventually learns several fire Seraphic Artes and gains the ability to turn his flames into explosive mines, showing that while his martial capabilities have degraded, he's developing better control of his Hellion powers.
Seraph Symonne
Voiced by: Hiromi Igarashi (JP), Christine Marie Cabanos (EN)
A rogue Seraph with the power to create illusions. Cold and cynical, she considers good deeds to be worthless, and belittles those who would strive for them.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: In a bizarre way she came to serve Heldalf because he valued her and her abilities, something other Seraphim and humans did not.
- Dark Is Evil: She is the only seraph who has dark hair instead of light or a solid color, and also the only seraph who remains firmly villainous.
- Death by Adaptation: In the game, she survives to the end and even appears in the post-game DLC event, whereas in anime adaptation, she sacrifices herself for Heldalf and turns into a dragon to block the path to his domain, and is eventually taken down by Dezel's Heroic Sacrifice.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: After Heldalf bites it.
- Doppelgänger Attack: While not very threatening on her own in battle, she can create weaker clones with the same abilities as her. Her Mystic Arte, Metem Psychosis, has them gang up on a downed victim and stab them repeatedly in a scene reminiscent of a horror movie.
- The Dragon: To Heldalf.
- Elemental Powers: On top of her illusions, she's able to utilize magic from a wide array of different elements by copying the artes of the party seraphim.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She sics an illusion of Maltran against Alisha, which ends up helping Alisha get over the event. Like before, she's baffled that her illusion failed to corrupt her intended target.
- Girlish Pigtails: She has cutesy pigtails in contrast with her villainous behaviour.
- Hair Intakes: She has two intakes in her hair that resemble cat ears.
- Killed Off for Real: In the anime only, where she turns herself into a dragon to keep the party from reaching Heldalf and is subsequently killed by Dezel.
- Loophole Abuse: She's not allowed to kill anyone, but she get around this restriction by setting her enemies up to be killed by others, like Hellions.
- Magically-Binding Contract: It's implied that her illusion magic is so strong because she took an oath forbidding herself from killing anyone.
- Magic Staff: Her weapon of choice. She seldom attacks directly with it, preferring to keep her distance and use magic.
- Mark of the Supernatural: As a seraph, she has unnatural purple hair tips.
- Master of Illusion: She's able to create tangible images capable of causing harm, disguise herself, and trap others in a world of illusion.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In Alisha's DLC, though her attempts were to get Alisha to cross the Despair Event Horizon, she ends up helping Alisha with her Character Development.
- Power Copying: Her illusion powers allow her to access a range of elemental artes that all derive from the party seraphim's own artes.
- Pure Is Not Good: She's a Seraphim who has dedicated herself to her master Heldalf and his cause. Thus she has no malevolence within her.
- Sadist: In her first appearance, she cruelly taunts Dezel about his past mistake, and it turns out she was there to taunt him when it happened, as well.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She initially planned on using Alisha for the age of Chaos in Zestiria the X prologue, but Lunarre's interference makes her decide it's not worth it and leaves.
- Stripperiffic: Her outfit is easily the skimpiest out of any female in the game, excluding some of the DLC costumes.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: The party speculates that the cost of the oath she took to gain her illusion powers was that she couldn't kill anyone.
- Villainous Breakdown: After being defeated for the last time, the party gives her a speech in an attempt to make her question her way of thinking, and she ultimately throws a crying fit as they walk away unable to understand what they mean.
- Worf Had the Flu: Her illusion are basically a Story-Breaker Power, but she loses to the party in the final dungeon. The party speculates that her power comes from a pact that prevents her from directly killing them and when she does try to break the pact, she does it in a place full of malevolence, thus weakening her.
