Aseo
Aseo in Caelid
The Tarnished protagonist of the Road to the Erdtree manga, standing in for the blank slate player character. He has no memory of his past, and is rather frustrated at how everyone keeps talking about grandiose things and dumping new nouns on him.- A Dog Named "Dog": Since he doesn't have any memories, Melina names him after Asebito, the Japanese word for Tarnished.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: During his fight with the Carian knight Moongrum for Rennala's great rune, he learns and copies the skill Carian Grandeur after being hit with it.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Even before he literally and figuratively levels up, he's strong enough to cut through unrealistically-thick plate armor with a sword and lift a massive multi-ton slab of metal door (though he complains about its weight), and tough enough to survive being punted over the horizon by the Tree Sentinel. Later on he's decapitating heavily-armored giants, smashing up stone floors, stabbing right through the feet-thick stone scales of a dragon, and so on.
- Famed In-Story: By the time of the Radahn Festival, his exploits have gained him some degree of fame (namely that he acquired two great runes), to the point of getting himself a Red Baron nickname. Most of the champions at the festival recognize him and are happy to fight alongside such a renowned warrior, and Melina introduces him as the future Elden Lord with no objection.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Wears a Fundoshi and a cape. He's a germophobe and can't stand the tought of wearing second-hand clothes, especially if someone died in them or he found them in a mouldering box in a dan cave. Furthermore, his Endurance is so low that the first time he tried wearing a suit of armor, he instantly started puking blood until he took it off.
- Idiot Hero: He is quite dimwitted, not understanding things explained to him, getting tricked very easily, and coming up with zany solutions to problems. Melina even states that he has low intelligence. This seems to have changed after Melina used the Runes he had gathered to raise his intelligence. By the time he reaches Liurnia he's notably better at casting Sorceries than Thops, and his characterization subtly reflects it with him being more cunning in and out of battle. He's still clueless about a lot of things, but in more Fish out of Water ways.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Aseo is often admonished for being an idiot, but in spite of (or maybe because of) his low intelligence, he is a deeply kind and compassionate person who's first instinct is always to help those who need it.
- Logical Latecomer: A fair bit of the comedy in the manga comes from Aseo being confused about the various absurdities of the Lands Between. In the very first chapter, he remarks on how weird it is that the door to the Heroes' Grave is opened by lifting from the ground.
- Lovable Coward: Prior to his Character Development setting in, his default way to deal with anything is running like hell, and he joined Patches' criminal operation specifically to avoid danger.
- Made of Iron: Aseo somehow survives getting smashed in the face by the Tree Sentinel, despite wearing no armor and having starting health, causing Varré to ponder if maybe he is powerful in some ways. During the fight with Radahn, he combines his natural resilience, the Endure skill, and a boost from the flask of wondrous physick, to tank Radahn's meteor strike attack!
- Major Character, Mainstream Accent: While most characters speak in an archaic manner, Aseo talks like a person from modern times, as if he were a player thrown into the game itself.
- Magic Knight: Through the assistance of Bernahl and Thops, Aseo becomes competent at both swordplay and sorcery, which he uses well in his duel against Moongrum. As far as the mechanics of the game goes, he appears to be utilizing a Dexterity/Intelligence build.
- Naked People Are Funny: He starts the game as a Wretch, meaning that his only clothing is underpants. He doesn't get anything else until Margit gives him a cut of his own cloak, since he's a bit of a germaphobe and thinks it'd be gross to loot clothes from a dead body or from an old moldy chest.
- Nice Guy: Aseo, for all his faults, is fundamentally a good person with a strong sense of morals. He gives the crestfallen Roderika words of encouragement, puts up with Melina and Ranni's sarcasm and pettyness because he considers them his friends, and wasn't a good fit for Patches' criminal organization because he couldn't bring himself to hurt Kalé.
- The Nicknamer: He asks if he can call Melina "Mel", which she refuses. As soon as she's gone, he calls her Meli-meli.
- No Social Skills: He is rather lacking in social grace, as shown when he shows the scars on his ass to Melina during their first meeting, even moving into the light of the Grace so she can see better. This goes away as the comic goes on, and he becomes more emotionally perceptive, most notably when he picks up on Blaidd's discomfort with fighting Radahn and is about to say something when Blaidd changes topic.
- O.C. Stand-in: A non-fanfic example. The original Tarnished from the game has absolutely zero canonical personality beyond being slightly creeped out by Varré. As a result, Aseo is a wholly original character to the manga with a new personality (being creeped out by Varré is still there, but who wouldn't).
- Pinball Protagonist: Having no prior knowledge of the Lands Between, he isn't really interested in claiming Great Runes or becoming Elden Lord, and most of his journey is done to help people out (either willingly or under threat). Most notably, the entire reason he's gathering great runes and heading towards Leyndell in the first place is because Melina wants to go there and he wants to help her out.
- The Poorly Chosen One: Just like in the games, Torrent chose him as his steed because he sensed his potential to become Elden Lord. Melina isn't quite sure about this decision, since Torrent apparently chose him solely because he has a great ass (which is important to horses).
- Red Baron: At some point his feats became well-known enough that people took to calling him "Aseo, the Naked Parry King." He does not learn of this until Caelid, at which point he's gone through several outfit changes.
- Samurai Ponytail: He starts wearing his hair in this style after a while.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: At first it seems to be just him projecting his own thoughts onto his steed when he "talks" with them, but Torrent later gives him an exposition dump full of things that Aseo couldn't possibly know from before so apparently he can genuinely understand Torrent's neighing.
- Terrified of Germs: Aseo calls himself a bit of a germaphobe, which is why he doesn't wear anything until he gets some robes from Margit. Looting clothes from dead bodies or taking them from moldy old chests grosses him out.
- This Loser Is You: Aseo pretty much represents the average Elden Ring player who is playing the game for the first time, avoiding fighting as much as possible, getting confused by the lore of the world, and getting his ass handed to him by various adversaries. And like new but determined players, he learns from every failure, becoming stronger each time.
- Took a Level in Badass: Aseo starts out completely inexperienced and underleveled, and runs from any combat encounter or relying on his spirit summons for support. By the time he gets to Caelid proper, he's grown significantly more powerful, having learned both swordplay and magic and is notably more confident in his ability. Compare his first encounters with the tree sentinel, resulting in him being knocked into the horizon, with his battle with Commander O'Neil, where he confidently stands up to the superior foe and performs a perfect guard counter, only being put at a disadvantage when O'Neil starts using the Scarlet Rot.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Varré remarks that Aseo might be the strongest Tarnished he's met, in a Made of Iron sense. Too bad he's also dumb as a bag of bricks.
- What's Up, King Dude?: He's pretty casual with the demigods who aren't actively trying to kill him, to the point where he frequently forgets that Ranni is a demigod (and one with short temper at that). When Ranni appears to him in Caelid, his response is "Oh it's you, Ranni. Look, I'm kinda busy right now, so-"
