Soul Campaign Application
[ PLAYER INFORMATION ]
Player Name: Picaro
Age: 26
Timezone: CET
Personal Journal: rogue_picaro
Other Characters: Leo (Fire Candy), Hades (Olimpos)
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Aion (sometimes called “Aion the Sinner” or “the hornless devil”)
Age: Ok, this is somewhat of a guessing game since demons don’t age the way humans do. I heard that the mangaka places him and Chrono around “85 or so in human years and physically about 20/early 20ies” in 1924, which means that he is chronologically about 30 in human years at the time I’m taking him from. Physically/mentally I’d guess him to be a “young adult”, maybe late teens/twenty-ish at that time.
Gender: Male
Fandom: Chrono Crusade (Manga-version)
Timeline: I’m taking him from the end of Chrono’s flashback that’s set in 1870 (volume 6, chapter 40), after he has hunted down and attacked Chrono and Mary-Magdalene the second time and when he got his time semi-frozen by his brother.
History: Wiki , fansite with official guide translations - it also has an encyclopedia for the specific terms that are used in the series here.
Character Personality:
If one were to try and describe Aion’s character with one word the outcome would probably be to call him “complicated”. A second try would probably get you “human”. And the third would say that he is the main villain of Chrono Crusade, even though it is unlikely that Aion ever considered himself as such.
Being the leader of the Sinners - a band of demons that has rebelled against the hierarchy-driven society of Pandemonium, the world of the demons - Aion is the kind of villain who never got the note that he’s evil. Rather than that he sees himself as somebody who is doing what is necessary to make things better and to reach his goal. And if some people think that what he does is bad? Though luck, opinions always vary and if some have to suffer for the greater good of all that may be sad, but ultimately still the best and only reasonable way to go. Aion knows that people will never be able to absolutely agree with each other and that to make one person’s idea of a perfect, happy future possible one will always have to inevitably pay for it by destroying somebody else’s idea of the same. He even goes as far as mentioning this once during his final confrontation with Chrono, asking him with a smile whose dream will prevail and whose (hopes for the) future will be sacrificed for it.
In that way it can be said that Aion knows that sometimes he is doing bad things, things that can’t and won’t be forgiven, no matter how good his intentions are… and he is okay with it.
When he first appears in the manga Aion is pictured as irredeemable evil. He is the monster who tore off his former ally’s horns when he dared to voice doubts about Aion’s orders, thus damning his own brother Chrono to suffer a slow, painful death if it hadn’t been for Chrono’s lover at that time sacrificing her life and soul to keep him alive. He is also the demon who kidnapped the main character Rosette’s sickly brother Joshua and who gave him Chrono’s horns that drove the boy mental, but also gave him the power he desired - and made him an useful tool for Aion. In a similar incident he kidnapped another main character’s sister after he killed all other members of her family and had the dying girl made into a doll-like being (with a possibly artificial soul) called Fiore who works for him as a maid and whom he uses to lock human souls into jewels and make them ultimately demon-food as they serve as replacement-contractors (just without getting their part of the deal). His wrongdoings against Pandemonium include severing one of its terminals heads so that he could peel the stored information out of it, staging a revolution and killing several of his kind, though not quite as much as Chrono did in his rage. This nasty side of him also shows in his penchant to not only defeat his opponents, but to break them as is showcased in his fights against Rosette and Duke Dufaux, the leader of Pandemonium’s pursuers.
However, this is only one side of him, the business one. Despite all this and his being a demon Aion doesn’t only have a bad side, but also a good one and everything between which especially shows in the way he interacts and cares for the other Sinners. When he isn’t doing whatever necessary to reach his goals Aion is shown to be an idealistic person who is laid-back, friendly and can be even outright dorky in his spirited ways. He takes his job of protecting the other Sinners as good as he can very seriously and can get almost endearingly excitable when things go smoothly. In such cases he is shown to be able to be quite a joker, albeit his jokes and analogies tend to end up either corny or slightly messed up. (Usually he ends up pouting at his followers when they calmly point out that “it’s not quite like that”.) Aion doesn’t mistreat his hostages (besides making them eat the carrots in their meals), believes in good manners and it’s even not unusual to see him doing the groceries and slipping in souvenirs for his subordinates when he’s not busy being an evil bastard. Both Joshua and Fiore are shown to have been fully integrated into the dysfunctional family unit of the Sinners and Aion even goes as far as keeping Gennai from attacking them when the latter blames them for Rizelle’s death. Though whether that is because he still needs them or if he really cares is once again up to guess.
There are things that Aion shows and things that he hides. His business persona is calm and cool, yet he hides his thoughtful side, his fears, hopes and worries behind a confident pokerface that only falls when he gets driven into enough of a corner that Aion panics - in such instances he goes with his instincts and the fastest way to regain control, no matter how cruel it may be. (He decided to kill Mary-Magdalene right after he found out that Pandemonium had found a way to infest her mind and take her over rather than trying to find a cure, for example.) Similarly, he insists in carrying all the problems of the Sinners as far as he knows about them while he refuses to share any of his own, keeping all those things that nag at him and keep driving him a secret - especially his deep connection to Pandemonium. On the other side he is quite open with his goal - to destroy Pandemonium and acquire ultimate freedom not only for himself but for everybody - and what he hates (Pandemonium and any kind of oppressive systems).
Just as he can be caring, Aion is a good and charismatic leader who prefers to be active and shares both the works as well as the fun with his followers and there is little to no chance that not each one of the Sinners knows just how far Aion is willing to go to reach his goal (including sacrificing everything including them and even himself willingly) -- and they are okay with it. A thing that he but not they might be aware of is that he is insane, though. Ever since he accidentally went too far into Pandemonium’s memories during his fateful coming off age ceremony that went wrong Aion is positively cracked, though it is in a very subtle, creeping way that can practically not be detected until it is accidentally triggered and jumps out to bite one in the face. He is also a very “either-or” person who is selfish and obsessive with who he cares about and who he hates.
There is little grey in Aion’s world as he recognizes only those who are for him, those who are against him, and those who don’t matter (which includes just about all of humanity with a few exceptions). Despite his wits and charisma he is also unable to relate to subtleties of empathy which shows when he is repeatedly unable to understand why one would want to protect their special person more than everything else in the world or when he fails to read a crucial part of the mood and thus ends up being accidentally exceptionally cruel despite wanting to help. Chrono becomes repeatedly a victim of this, for instance when Aion tries to cheer him up about the fallen comrades that they couldn’t save during their escape from Pandemonium by pointing out that “the dead don’t demand” and that he should just forget about it and concentrate on his role of being Aion’s sword. What Aion meant to say was probably something along the lines of telling his brother to quit blaming himself for something that can’t be changed anymore and that he should concentrate on something only he can do and leave the ‘taking the responsibility’- part to Aion as their leader, but yeah. Bad timing, bad phrasing. Whether this is because Aion was mindraped by the truth behind Pandemonium to the beginning of the demon culture and back or if it is simply a weakness that has always been part of his character is unknown.
The most contradictory thing with Aion’s personality are probably his relationship with his direct family - he hates and fears Pandemonium like crazy, but with Chrono it is even more complicated. It is those two who can make Aion go back on his own words and it is an open secret that he favors Chrono amongst the Sinners. Throughout the story Aion seems to be obsessed with having Chrono return to his side, even after the other openly turns against him several times. While he can be exceptionally cruel to him, Aion never hated his brother even once. The hardest feelings he has towards him is disgust with how human Chrono insists to act, but at the end of the day he wants him back on his side and with him. The reason for this is that he and Chrono are actually twins, a thing that should be impossible for demons who are all born from the same queen. However, when the human female named Lilith had been taken and made into Pandemonium’s latest host she had been pregnant with twin boys which resulted in the unborn fetuses being turned into and born as fullblood demons - Aion and Chrono. One of the main motivations for Aion’s vicious struggle for freedom is to put an end to the monstrosity that has ruined his mother and done so many unforgiveable things for some many generations (Lilith is the 250th replacement of Pandemonium’s main core) while at the same time keeping Chrono safe from it to the point where he refuses to tell him that they are twins until their very last confrontation when he confirms it. (However, he also admits that there are other reasons which are never revealed.)
In conclusion, Aion is a powerful, sly and manipulative demon who has a fondness for screwing with minds and dramatic sadism, but he also has the core of a once noble person and a good friend that has been twisted yet still seeks to do the right things, just with the wrong ways. He carries no remorse for anything he does and the early point I am taking his from in canon changes little in this - the only difference is that Aion might be still a little more open about his feelings and motivations with those he trusts.
Character Abilities:
Being a demon gives Aion several natural perks such as being able to recover from almost every injury at high speed by absorbing astral energy with his horns, the ability to fly with his wings and to influence the shape of his body according to his will. This is achieved by controlling the legion that makes up his body, allowing Aion to change into a more human-like shape (where only his eyes and still slightly pointy ears are hinting at him being more than your ordinary human) or to modify parts of his body into deadlier shapes by turning his fingers into claws or a whole arm into a blade. In his demon-version, Aion has three marks on his forehead that seem to be additional eyes, possesses wings, long fur-tipped eyes and an extra spine-like tail that grows from the base of his neck and which can be used as an extra weapon or limb. Thanks to the point I am taking him from he also still has his horns.
Even though Aion was supposed to be a high-rank demon of the soldier class, his natural special skills seem to be limited creating and firing raw blasts of energy (which are strong enough to knock even Chrono out of the sky in a direct hit but the ability itself is nothing special amongst demons) and to summon a familiar in the shape of a bald eagle that he can use to collect information with or to communicate through. After tearing his horns off and having them incorporated into his sword Aion also gains the additional ability to neutralize any demonic and most holy-based attacks that are thrown at him by blocking them with his sword.
Skills that he picked up upon and trained himself in include his mastership in swordplay, the ability to read and speak English (and probably also German, as he had been talking with people in a flashback playing in Germany) next to the demon language and his general all-round knowledge concerning things such as the demon technology and science. He might not be as much of a tech-genius as Shader nor as literate as Viede, but he still knows more than average and definitely enough to hold his ground. There is also reason to suspect that he is knowledgeable about legion, the healing technologies demons are using and the way (demon) bodies are made up as he put a lot of his time into formulating a plan that would make Pandemonium kill itself inside out and the fact that he is shown being involved in some sorts whenever one of the Sinners is hurt and needs treatment at the sick bay. (He assisted Shader when Rizelle, Gennai and Mary-Magdalene were down after Pandemonium’s attack and is shown just returning from the sick bay when Viede got injured - that doesn’t make him a doctor, but I guess he’s good enough at it to do first aid, make a first assessment of what needs to be done and push the right buttons of medical machines.)
His other strong points are his cunning wits, his charismatic ways that allows him to influence people easily and his sheer devastating competence as a tactician and a leader. (If you don’t believe me: He managed to win a 3-way war against the forces of heaven and hell while his own team consisted of him, four other more or less crippled Sinners of which one was already dead at that time and two more or less damaged humans and was only stopped due to underestimating Rosette Christopher and not expecting a miracle to happen. I think we can call that tactics.) Compared to Chrono he is A LOT more capable of controlling his volatile temper whenever it is important to do so and is loyal and caring enough to inspire real faith even amongst people who would have all reasons to hate him (Joshua and Fiore). He doesn’t let his emotions get into his way and is strong-willed enough that he pursues his goal no matter what and doesn’t even flinch over having to tear off his own limbs in order to do so.
Character Weaknesses:
Like all demons, Aion has to depend on his horns. They serve as both, the organ through which he is able to collect and consume matter from the Astral Line but are also an umbilical cord to Pandemonium that can’t be cut without damning him to die in a slow and painful way as his body can’t even heal naturally without them. Keeping the horns however bears the risk of allowing Pandemonium to take over and even “overwrite” a demon- in such cases the personality gets erased and the Legion making up the demon reshaped into plump monster-like things that listen to the direct orders of the central system. Another lesser version of this is the Geass, which can be compared to painfully hijacking the demon’s body and forcing it to freeze, a skill that has been used against the Sinners before and which almost ended with their utter eradication. While sealing a pact with a contractor offers a way to survive even without the horns, it bears the disadvantage of the demon being bound to the will of the human and the fact that having a demon fuelling itself and its powers through one’s soul tend to short most people’s lifespan considerably means that every contractor is nothing more than a short-time solution in demon terms of time. (And then there is still the risk of getting attached to them.) Another typical weakness that all demons share is that they are weak to holy objects.
Things that could be counted as additional disadvantages for him are that Aion has no notable special demonic skill of his own that would be worth mentioning (at least not compared to how other demons can dive through shadows, freeze time at their will or create thousands of minions and take over people with them) and that there is an off-chance that his eyes might have taken a minimal but lasting damage after he took a direct time-freeze from Chrono in the face (which would explain why he is wearing glasses in the present time even though he doesn’t seem to need them in the flashback).
Any other weakness of Aion is based on his character: He hates and fears Pandemonium and the truth behind it that much that he is obsessed with it and he stubbornly insists on trying to carry the burdens of the other Sinners (as far as he is able to recognize them) together with his own even when he at the same time ardently keeps his own issues a secret he refuses to share. He also has problems to ultimately trust anybody but himself which shows in how stubborn he is about it being him who has to defeat Pandemonium and the system. Aion’s fight is something personal and he refuses to let anybody else in in it, even if doing so could have prevented many things from turning out as badly as they did. His temper is another problem of him - Aion may be better at controlling it than Chrono, but it is still fatal and once set off there is little that survives Aion’s rage - even if it is something he originally needed. (Which would be how Fiore came to be.) Aion also tends to underestimate humans to the point of completely ignoring anything they do until they prove themselves as important enough of his attention and has something of a ‘messiah complex’.
His driven obsession, problems with relating to empathy and need for control are bound to make it difficult to be able to stand on the same height as he does and his way of seeing everybody as nothing but tools of will in the end is bound to make him a very difficult and dangerous Weapon to partner with at best.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What are the abilities that your character will retain in Soul Campaign?
Since Aion was taken while being in his demon form, he will be keeping all the physical advances that come from it like flying since he still has his wings, using his spine-tail as extra limb, having better than usual night vision due to having different-types of eyes,… .
I think it’s safe to say that he will keep everything else since it’s either character-based (wits, good at strategies, can take LOTS of pain due to determination,..) or a skill acquired through learning and experience like his swordsmanship or being able to speak and read more than one language.
What are the weaknesses that your character will lose or gain in Soul Campaign?
A weakness that Aion will keep in Soul Campaign is his weakness to holy objects, though it will be scaled down considerably. For example, touching a cross will not burn the skin off of his fingers anymore but it will trigger something akin to an allergic reaction. I think this exchange is fair since he won’t be able to instant-cure himself from it either.
Other weaknesses lost would be his dependence on his horns and having to absorb astral energy to keep his legion working as the sole fuel for anything concerning his body. The connection to Pandemonium through them will also be gone, meaning that there is no longer a risk for him to have her take his body over or speak a geass against him.
Weaknesses he gains are the loss of all the nifty special things being a demon made up of legion brings - With his horns losing their function, Aion will also loose most of his special skills, such as the ability to heal himself, the ability to fire blasts of raw energy at enemies or any voluntary shapeshifting he could have usually done (like switching to a more human form or changing his fingers into deadlier claws or even shift an arm into a sword). I figure that his physical strength might also be nerved to more human standards, as would his ability to sense souls/astral ability. He will have to deal with a body that is suddenly a lot more human, both in the positive (injuries heal automatically) and the negative (it takes a lot longer for them to heal) ways.
[ WEAPON ONLY SECTION ]
Why your character should be a Weapon:
The first answer that comes to mind would be divine irony. Aion always called Chrono “his sword” while referring to himself as the “head” or “brain” of their unit, so having him end up being in the position of the one being used (Weapon) this time would be quite ironic and something he would have to first learn how to deal with.
On the other hand the position would also fit him in the way that it is normal for demons to devour souls in order to survive, so collecting and eating them would come quite naturally to him. Canon also mentions that Aion and Chrono both were originally meant to be fighter/soldier class demons meaning that they are practically predestined to fight and more than quite capable of doing so without letting it weight them down much. Aion shows this nicely when he keeps opting to get actively involved himself during the battles in the story rather than staying behind and relying on others to fight for him. He may be at his best as a tactician, but he is also a skilled fighter who would want to get involved in any fight he considers his. He is also the only Sinner who prefers fighting using a weapon (his swords with his horns in it) rather than his body.
Last but not least there is also the fact that Aion ultimately trusts nobody but himself. Having him forced to rely on a Weapon as a partner to be able to fight would not go well, as he would do anything to bind them to him, be it blackmailing, threatening or fostering their psychological or emotional dependency on him… Anything to make it work and to prevent being betrayed again. As a Weapon he would still be controlling and demanding, but I can see him being not quite as bad about it since he can ultimately always go and do his own thing even without a Meister that’d help him to give a whole hundred percent.
What is your character's Weapon form?:
Aion is going to be able to turn into a gunblade whose design fits the time he is taken from. Going with the ‘Wild West’ theme the gun-part of it is that of a big ‘double action’ revolver that stores its bullets in a revolving cylinder while the sword part of it is set as a smooth, deadly blade that can be wielded with either one or two hands (though the latter will do better). While it can theoretically be loaded with real rounds, it usually fires bullets that are made up from the Meister’s compressed soul energy with little recoil. The weapon as a whole looks like it has been well-used for quite a while and has a picture of an eagle engraved on one side of the blade. Right next to the engraving letters making up the words “SINNER” seem to have been scratched into the material like a branding. Taken together the symbol and the writing are about a hand’s length. Since he is a blade-type weapon, Aion will be able to turn a part of his body (most likely his lower sword arm) into the blade of his weapon form, though he wouldn’t be able to shoot.
Abilities:
1. Ability sealing - Anti-Geass
This ability allows to prevent being affected by unnatural skills. This encompasses any Weapon ability, Meister ability or even spells from Witches. It can also help to minimize the effect of the Madness Wavelenght to an extent, depending on resonance and the amount of collected souls. It works automatically for Aion as long as he is in his Weapon form (since the weapon is the tool being used for it), but his Meister will have to use it actively like a skill, meaning that the can block or cut through any ability that is tossed at them, but also that they can fail doing so and still be hit anyway.
This ability is based on how Aion is able to block out demonic or holy skills that are tossed at him with his sword that has been made with his horns.
2. Ability enhancement - Fever Pitch
Activating this ability enhances Aion’s Meister’s physical abilities in a short violent boost. The effectiveness of that boost can range between simply removing all natural limits that would usually keep somebody from harming themselves up to multiplying what they can do several times over. The strength/output of this skill depends on how good the resonance between Aion and his Meister is and on how many souls have been collected at that time. There are two limitations to this skill: first, the Meister has to keep in physical contact with Aion all time as long as he uses it and second, it has a time limit of five minutes. While it can be forced to last a little longer, doing so will inevitably lead to physical damage or even cripple the Meister
This ability is a reference to Aion’s enhanced abilities as a demon and how he manages to give a crazy 210% of what he’s able to do whenever he is driven into a corner or fights for what he thinks is right.
3. Healing - Higher Devotion/End of Game
Aion heals his Meister’s fatal injuries. The extent of how much he can heal them depends on the grade of the resonance between him and his Meister while the amount of how often he can do it and how long it takes him to recharge this skill depends on how many souls Aion has collected so far. The maximal amount on death scythe level is four persons within a week. The drawbacks of this skills is that it is useless against non-fatal wounds and that it can’t take away the pain caused by the injuries - in the opposite, using it will make Aion share it in the form of phantom pain. He also cannot use the skill to heal himself.
This ability relates to Aion’s usual regeneration ability through his legion and his willingness to fatally harm himself for his case.
4. 100% resonance - Headhunter
The gun-part of Aion’s usual Weapon form upgrades into the BFG-version of a sniper rifle that is attached to his Meister’s arm while the blade-part of it turns into a support. During this the design of his Weapon form changes from used and old-fashioned to new and hyper-modern (reflecting the highly advanced alien technology demons are using), but it keeps the engraving (eagle and “Sinner”).
In this form Aion is able to fire giant blasts of energy at a speed of 1000m/second over several kilometers of distance, magnifying his Meister’s soul energy into something truly devastating. It can be shot several times in rapid succession, but doing so bears the risk of killing the Meister through over-exhaustion if they do not stop in time. Similarly, it is absolutely necessary that Aion and his Meister are at a 100% resonance with each other or a single shot will suck out the Meister’s whole soul, thus killing them. Another disadvantage of this form is that while it grants a giant reach and enough power to shoot through a little mountain, those very same things also make it difficult to control and aim properly. It’s sheer size also serves as a disadvantage as it makes moving around with it practically impossible.
This ability plays on several things. The first would be the switch of technology and scale, which goes with how Aion switches between being like a villain of an old Western and yet also manages to be something akin to a savior-like figure to the demons he leads and their advanced technology. It also mimics the relationship that exists between a demon and its contractor by harnessing the Meister’s energy and actively turns it into something more at the risk of their own life and last but not least there is also Aion’s power of firing blasts of energy that can even knock a berserk Chrono out of the sky (and a good part of San Francisco into the ground, but let’s not talk about collateral damages).
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Soul Description:
Caring, Cruel, Cunning, Charismatic, Spirited, Cracked.
Soul Appearance:
Beware of my horrible drawing skills! (The color is supposed to be malve.)
Player Name: Picaro
Age: 26
Timezone: CET
Personal Journal: rogue_picaro
Other Characters: Leo (Fire Candy), Hades (Olimpos)
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Aion (sometimes called “Aion the Sinner” or “the hornless devil”)
Age: Ok, this is somewhat of a guessing game since demons don’t age the way humans do. I heard that the mangaka places him and Chrono around “85 or so in human years and physically about 20/early 20ies” in 1924, which means that he is chronologically about 30 in human years at the time I’m taking him from. Physically/mentally I’d guess him to be a “young adult”, maybe late teens/twenty-ish at that time.
Gender: Male
Fandom: Chrono Crusade (Manga-version)
Timeline: I’m taking him from the end of Chrono’s flashback that’s set in 1870 (volume 6, chapter 40), after he has hunted down and attacked Chrono and Mary-Magdalene the second time and when he got his time semi-frozen by his brother.
History: Wiki , fansite with official guide translations - it also has an encyclopedia for the specific terms that are used in the series here.
Character Personality:
If one were to try and describe Aion’s character with one word the outcome would probably be to call him “complicated”. A second try would probably get you “human”. And the third would say that he is the main villain of Chrono Crusade, even though it is unlikely that Aion ever considered himself as such.
Being the leader of the Sinners - a band of demons that has rebelled against the hierarchy-driven society of Pandemonium, the world of the demons - Aion is the kind of villain who never got the note that he’s evil. Rather than that he sees himself as somebody who is doing what is necessary to make things better and to reach his goal. And if some people think that what he does is bad? Though luck, opinions always vary and if some have to suffer for the greater good of all that may be sad, but ultimately still the best and only reasonable way to go. Aion knows that people will never be able to absolutely agree with each other and that to make one person’s idea of a perfect, happy future possible one will always have to inevitably pay for it by destroying somebody else’s idea of the same. He even goes as far as mentioning this once during his final confrontation with Chrono, asking him with a smile whose dream will prevail and whose (hopes for the) future will be sacrificed for it.
In that way it can be said that Aion knows that sometimes he is doing bad things, things that can’t and won’t be forgiven, no matter how good his intentions are… and he is okay with it.
When he first appears in the manga Aion is pictured as irredeemable evil. He is the monster who tore off his former ally’s horns when he dared to voice doubts about Aion’s orders, thus damning his own brother Chrono to suffer a slow, painful death if it hadn’t been for Chrono’s lover at that time sacrificing her life and soul to keep him alive. He is also the demon who kidnapped the main character Rosette’s sickly brother Joshua and who gave him Chrono’s horns that drove the boy mental, but also gave him the power he desired - and made him an useful tool for Aion. In a similar incident he kidnapped another main character’s sister after he killed all other members of her family and had the dying girl made into a doll-like being (with a possibly artificial soul) called Fiore who works for him as a maid and whom he uses to lock human souls into jewels and make them ultimately demon-food as they serve as replacement-contractors (just without getting their part of the deal). His wrongdoings against Pandemonium include severing one of its terminals heads so that he could peel the stored information out of it, staging a revolution and killing several of his kind, though not quite as much as Chrono did in his rage. This nasty side of him also shows in his penchant to not only defeat his opponents, but to break them as is showcased in his fights against Rosette and Duke Dufaux, the leader of Pandemonium’s pursuers.
However, this is only one side of him, the business one. Despite all this and his being a demon Aion doesn’t only have a bad side, but also a good one and everything between which especially shows in the way he interacts and cares for the other Sinners. When he isn’t doing whatever necessary to reach his goals Aion is shown to be an idealistic person who is laid-back, friendly and can be even outright dorky in his spirited ways. He takes his job of protecting the other Sinners as good as he can very seriously and can get almost endearingly excitable when things go smoothly. In such cases he is shown to be able to be quite a joker, albeit his jokes and analogies tend to end up either corny or slightly messed up. (Usually he ends up pouting at his followers when they calmly point out that “it’s not quite like that”.) Aion doesn’t mistreat his hostages (besides making them eat the carrots in their meals), believes in good manners and it’s even not unusual to see him doing the groceries and slipping in souvenirs for his subordinates when he’s not busy being an evil bastard. Both Joshua and Fiore are shown to have been fully integrated into the dysfunctional family unit of the Sinners and Aion even goes as far as keeping Gennai from attacking them when the latter blames them for Rizelle’s death. Though whether that is because he still needs them or if he really cares is once again up to guess.
There are things that Aion shows and things that he hides. His business persona is calm and cool, yet he hides his thoughtful side, his fears, hopes and worries behind a confident pokerface that only falls when he gets driven into enough of a corner that Aion panics - in such instances he goes with his instincts and the fastest way to regain control, no matter how cruel it may be. (He decided to kill Mary-Magdalene right after he found out that Pandemonium had found a way to infest her mind and take her over rather than trying to find a cure, for example.) Similarly, he insists in carrying all the problems of the Sinners as far as he knows about them while he refuses to share any of his own, keeping all those things that nag at him and keep driving him a secret - especially his deep connection to Pandemonium. On the other side he is quite open with his goal - to destroy Pandemonium and acquire ultimate freedom not only for himself but for everybody - and what he hates (Pandemonium and any kind of oppressive systems).
Just as he can be caring, Aion is a good and charismatic leader who prefers to be active and shares both the works as well as the fun with his followers and there is little to no chance that not each one of the Sinners knows just how far Aion is willing to go to reach his goal (including sacrificing everything including them and even himself willingly) -- and they are okay with it. A thing that he but not they might be aware of is that he is insane, though. Ever since he accidentally went too far into Pandemonium’s memories during his fateful coming off age ceremony that went wrong Aion is positively cracked, though it is in a very subtle, creeping way that can practically not be detected until it is accidentally triggered and jumps out to bite one in the face. He is also a very “either-or” person who is selfish and obsessive with who he cares about and who he hates.
There is little grey in Aion’s world as he recognizes only those who are for him, those who are against him, and those who don’t matter (which includes just about all of humanity with a few exceptions). Despite his wits and charisma he is also unable to relate to subtleties of empathy which shows when he is repeatedly unable to understand why one would want to protect their special person more than everything else in the world or when he fails to read a crucial part of the mood and thus ends up being accidentally exceptionally cruel despite wanting to help. Chrono becomes repeatedly a victim of this, for instance when Aion tries to cheer him up about the fallen comrades that they couldn’t save during their escape from Pandemonium by pointing out that “the dead don’t demand” and that he should just forget about it and concentrate on his role of being Aion’s sword. What Aion meant to say was probably something along the lines of telling his brother to quit blaming himself for something that can’t be changed anymore and that he should concentrate on something only he can do and leave the ‘taking the responsibility’- part to Aion as their leader, but yeah. Bad timing, bad phrasing. Whether this is because Aion was mindraped by the truth behind Pandemonium to the beginning of the demon culture and back or if it is simply a weakness that has always been part of his character is unknown.
The most contradictory thing with Aion’s personality are probably his relationship with his direct family - he hates and fears Pandemonium like crazy, but with Chrono it is even more complicated. It is those two who can make Aion go back on his own words and it is an open secret that he favors Chrono amongst the Sinners. Throughout the story Aion seems to be obsessed with having Chrono return to his side, even after the other openly turns against him several times. While he can be exceptionally cruel to him, Aion never hated his brother even once. The hardest feelings he has towards him is disgust with how human Chrono insists to act, but at the end of the day he wants him back on his side and with him. The reason for this is that he and Chrono are actually twins, a thing that should be impossible for demons who are all born from the same queen. However, when the human female named Lilith had been taken and made into Pandemonium’s latest host she had been pregnant with twin boys which resulted in the unborn fetuses being turned into and born as fullblood demons - Aion and Chrono. One of the main motivations for Aion’s vicious struggle for freedom is to put an end to the monstrosity that has ruined his mother and done so many unforgiveable things for some many generations (Lilith is the 250th replacement of Pandemonium’s main core) while at the same time keeping Chrono safe from it to the point where he refuses to tell him that they are twins until their very last confrontation when he confirms it. (However, he also admits that there are other reasons which are never revealed.)
In conclusion, Aion is a powerful, sly and manipulative demon who has a fondness for screwing with minds and dramatic sadism, but he also has the core of a once noble person and a good friend that has been twisted yet still seeks to do the right things, just with the wrong ways. He carries no remorse for anything he does and the early point I am taking his from in canon changes little in this - the only difference is that Aion might be still a little more open about his feelings and motivations with those he trusts.
Character Abilities:
Being a demon gives Aion several natural perks such as being able to recover from almost every injury at high speed by absorbing astral energy with his horns, the ability to fly with his wings and to influence the shape of his body according to his will. This is achieved by controlling the legion that makes up his body, allowing Aion to change into a more human-like shape (where only his eyes and still slightly pointy ears are hinting at him being more than your ordinary human) or to modify parts of his body into deadlier shapes by turning his fingers into claws or a whole arm into a blade. In his demon-version, Aion has three marks on his forehead that seem to be additional eyes, possesses wings, long fur-tipped eyes and an extra spine-like tail that grows from the base of his neck and which can be used as an extra weapon or limb. Thanks to the point I am taking him from he also still has his horns.
Even though Aion was supposed to be a high-rank demon of the soldier class, his natural special skills seem to be limited creating and firing raw blasts of energy (which are strong enough to knock even Chrono out of the sky in a direct hit but the ability itself is nothing special amongst demons) and to summon a familiar in the shape of a bald eagle that he can use to collect information with or to communicate through. After tearing his horns off and having them incorporated into his sword Aion also gains the additional ability to neutralize any demonic and most holy-based attacks that are thrown at him by blocking them with his sword.
Skills that he picked up upon and trained himself in include his mastership in swordplay, the ability to read and speak English (and probably also German, as he had been talking with people in a flashback playing in Germany) next to the demon language and his general all-round knowledge concerning things such as the demon technology and science. He might not be as much of a tech-genius as Shader nor as literate as Viede, but he still knows more than average and definitely enough to hold his ground. There is also reason to suspect that he is knowledgeable about legion, the healing technologies demons are using and the way (demon) bodies are made up as he put a lot of his time into formulating a plan that would make Pandemonium kill itself inside out and the fact that he is shown being involved in some sorts whenever one of the Sinners is hurt and needs treatment at the sick bay. (He assisted Shader when Rizelle, Gennai and Mary-Magdalene were down after Pandemonium’s attack and is shown just returning from the sick bay when Viede got injured - that doesn’t make him a doctor, but I guess he’s good enough at it to do first aid, make a first assessment of what needs to be done and push the right buttons of medical machines.)
His other strong points are his cunning wits, his charismatic ways that allows him to influence people easily and his sheer devastating competence as a tactician and a leader. (If you don’t believe me: He managed to win a 3-way war against the forces of heaven and hell while his own team consisted of him, four other more or less crippled Sinners of which one was already dead at that time and two more or less damaged humans and was only stopped due to underestimating Rosette Christopher and not expecting a miracle to happen. I think we can call that tactics.) Compared to Chrono he is A LOT more capable of controlling his volatile temper whenever it is important to do so and is loyal and caring enough to inspire real faith even amongst people who would have all reasons to hate him (Joshua and Fiore). He doesn’t let his emotions get into his way and is strong-willed enough that he pursues his goal no matter what and doesn’t even flinch over having to tear off his own limbs in order to do so.
Character Weaknesses:
Like all demons, Aion has to depend on his horns. They serve as both, the organ through which he is able to collect and consume matter from the Astral Line but are also an umbilical cord to Pandemonium that can’t be cut without damning him to die in a slow and painful way as his body can’t even heal naturally without them. Keeping the horns however bears the risk of allowing Pandemonium to take over and even “overwrite” a demon- in such cases the personality gets erased and the Legion making up the demon reshaped into plump monster-like things that listen to the direct orders of the central system. Another lesser version of this is the Geass, which can be compared to painfully hijacking the demon’s body and forcing it to freeze, a skill that has been used against the Sinners before and which almost ended with their utter eradication. While sealing a pact with a contractor offers a way to survive even without the horns, it bears the disadvantage of the demon being bound to the will of the human and the fact that having a demon fuelling itself and its powers through one’s soul tend to short most people’s lifespan considerably means that every contractor is nothing more than a short-time solution in demon terms of time. (And then there is still the risk of getting attached to them.) Another typical weakness that all demons share is that they are weak to holy objects.
Things that could be counted as additional disadvantages for him are that Aion has no notable special demonic skill of his own that would be worth mentioning (at least not compared to how other demons can dive through shadows, freeze time at their will or create thousands of minions and take over people with them) and that there is an off-chance that his eyes might have taken a minimal but lasting damage after he took a direct time-freeze from Chrono in the face (which would explain why he is wearing glasses in the present time even though he doesn’t seem to need them in the flashback).
Any other weakness of Aion is based on his character: He hates and fears Pandemonium and the truth behind it that much that he is obsessed with it and he stubbornly insists on trying to carry the burdens of the other Sinners (as far as he is able to recognize them) together with his own even when he at the same time ardently keeps his own issues a secret he refuses to share. He also has problems to ultimately trust anybody but himself which shows in how stubborn he is about it being him who has to defeat Pandemonium and the system. Aion’s fight is something personal and he refuses to let anybody else in in it, even if doing so could have prevented many things from turning out as badly as they did. His temper is another problem of him - Aion may be better at controlling it than Chrono, but it is still fatal and once set off there is little that survives Aion’s rage - even if it is something he originally needed. (Which would be how Fiore came to be.) Aion also tends to underestimate humans to the point of completely ignoring anything they do until they prove themselves as important enough of his attention and has something of a ‘messiah complex’.
His driven obsession, problems with relating to empathy and need for control are bound to make it difficult to be able to stand on the same height as he does and his way of seeing everybody as nothing but tools of will in the end is bound to make him a very difficult and dangerous Weapon to partner with at best.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What are the abilities that your character will retain in Soul Campaign?
Since Aion was taken while being in his demon form, he will be keeping all the physical advances that come from it like flying since he still has his wings, using his spine-tail as extra limb, having better than usual night vision due to having different-types of eyes,… .
I think it’s safe to say that he will keep everything else since it’s either character-based (wits, good at strategies, can take LOTS of pain due to determination,..) or a skill acquired through learning and experience like his swordsmanship or being able to speak and read more than one language.
What are the weaknesses that your character will lose or gain in Soul Campaign?
A weakness that Aion will keep in Soul Campaign is his weakness to holy objects, though it will be scaled down considerably. For example, touching a cross will not burn the skin off of his fingers anymore but it will trigger something akin to an allergic reaction. I think this exchange is fair since he won’t be able to instant-cure himself from it either.
Other weaknesses lost would be his dependence on his horns and having to absorb astral energy to keep his legion working as the sole fuel for anything concerning his body. The connection to Pandemonium through them will also be gone, meaning that there is no longer a risk for him to have her take his body over or speak a geass against him.
Weaknesses he gains are the loss of all the nifty special things being a demon made up of legion brings - With his horns losing their function, Aion will also loose most of his special skills, such as the ability to heal himself, the ability to fire blasts of raw energy at enemies or any voluntary shapeshifting he could have usually done (like switching to a more human form or changing his fingers into deadlier claws or even shift an arm into a sword). I figure that his physical strength might also be nerved to more human standards, as would his ability to sense souls/astral ability. He will have to deal with a body that is suddenly a lot more human, both in the positive (injuries heal automatically) and the negative (it takes a lot longer for them to heal) ways.
[ WEAPON ONLY SECTION ]
Why your character should be a Weapon:
The first answer that comes to mind would be divine irony. Aion always called Chrono “his sword” while referring to himself as the “head” or “brain” of their unit, so having him end up being in the position of the one being used (Weapon) this time would be quite ironic and something he would have to first learn how to deal with.
On the other hand the position would also fit him in the way that it is normal for demons to devour souls in order to survive, so collecting and eating them would come quite naturally to him. Canon also mentions that Aion and Chrono both were originally meant to be fighter/soldier class demons meaning that they are practically predestined to fight and more than quite capable of doing so without letting it weight them down much. Aion shows this nicely when he keeps opting to get actively involved himself during the battles in the story rather than staying behind and relying on others to fight for him. He may be at his best as a tactician, but he is also a skilled fighter who would want to get involved in any fight he considers his. He is also the only Sinner who prefers fighting using a weapon (his swords with his horns in it) rather than his body.
Last but not least there is also the fact that Aion ultimately trusts nobody but himself. Having him forced to rely on a Weapon as a partner to be able to fight would not go well, as he would do anything to bind them to him, be it blackmailing, threatening or fostering their psychological or emotional dependency on him… Anything to make it work and to prevent being betrayed again. As a Weapon he would still be controlling and demanding, but I can see him being not quite as bad about it since he can ultimately always go and do his own thing even without a Meister that’d help him to give a whole hundred percent.
What is your character's Weapon form?:
Aion is going to be able to turn into a gunblade whose design fits the time he is taken from. Going with the ‘Wild West’ theme the gun-part of it is that of a big ‘double action’ revolver that stores its bullets in a revolving cylinder while the sword part of it is set as a smooth, deadly blade that can be wielded with either one or two hands (though the latter will do better). While it can theoretically be loaded with real rounds, it usually fires bullets that are made up from the Meister’s compressed soul energy with little recoil. The weapon as a whole looks like it has been well-used for quite a while and has a picture of an eagle engraved on one side of the blade. Right next to the engraving letters making up the words “SINNER” seem to have been scratched into the material like a branding. Taken together the symbol and the writing are about a hand’s length. Since he is a blade-type weapon, Aion will be able to turn a part of his body (most likely his lower sword arm) into the blade of his weapon form, though he wouldn’t be able to shoot.
Abilities:
1. Ability sealing - Anti-Geass
This ability allows to prevent being affected by unnatural skills. This encompasses any Weapon ability, Meister ability or even spells from Witches. It can also help to minimize the effect of the Madness Wavelenght to an extent, depending on resonance and the amount of collected souls. It works automatically for Aion as long as he is in his Weapon form (since the weapon is the tool being used for it), but his Meister will have to use it actively like a skill, meaning that the can block or cut through any ability that is tossed at them, but also that they can fail doing so and still be hit anyway.
This ability is based on how Aion is able to block out demonic or holy skills that are tossed at him with his sword that has been made with his horns.
2. Ability enhancement - Fever Pitch
Activating this ability enhances Aion’s Meister’s physical abilities in a short violent boost. The effectiveness of that boost can range between simply removing all natural limits that would usually keep somebody from harming themselves up to multiplying what they can do several times over. The strength/output of this skill depends on how good the resonance between Aion and his Meister is and on how many souls have been collected at that time. There are two limitations to this skill: first, the Meister has to keep in physical contact with Aion all time as long as he uses it and second, it has a time limit of five minutes. While it can be forced to last a little longer, doing so will inevitably lead to physical damage or even cripple the Meister
This ability is a reference to Aion’s enhanced abilities as a demon and how he manages to give a crazy 210% of what he’s able to do whenever he is driven into a corner or fights for what he thinks is right.
3. Healing - Higher Devotion/End of Game
Aion heals his Meister’s fatal injuries. The extent of how much he can heal them depends on the grade of the resonance between him and his Meister while the amount of how often he can do it and how long it takes him to recharge this skill depends on how many souls Aion has collected so far. The maximal amount on death scythe level is four persons within a week. The drawbacks of this skills is that it is useless against non-fatal wounds and that it can’t take away the pain caused by the injuries - in the opposite, using it will make Aion share it in the form of phantom pain. He also cannot use the skill to heal himself.
This ability relates to Aion’s usual regeneration ability through his legion and his willingness to fatally harm himself for his case.
4. 100% resonance - Headhunter
The gun-part of Aion’s usual Weapon form upgrades into the BFG-version of a sniper rifle that is attached to his Meister’s arm while the blade-part of it turns into a support. During this the design of his Weapon form changes from used and old-fashioned to new and hyper-modern (reflecting the highly advanced alien technology demons are using), but it keeps the engraving (eagle and “Sinner”).
In this form Aion is able to fire giant blasts of energy at a speed of 1000m/second over several kilometers of distance, magnifying his Meister’s soul energy into something truly devastating. It can be shot several times in rapid succession, but doing so bears the risk of killing the Meister through over-exhaustion if they do not stop in time. Similarly, it is absolutely necessary that Aion and his Meister are at a 100% resonance with each other or a single shot will suck out the Meister’s whole soul, thus killing them. Another disadvantage of this form is that while it grants a giant reach and enough power to shoot through a little mountain, those very same things also make it difficult to control and aim properly. It’s sheer size also serves as a disadvantage as it makes moving around with it practically impossible.
This ability plays on several things. The first would be the switch of technology and scale, which goes with how Aion switches between being like a villain of an old Western and yet also manages to be something akin to a savior-like figure to the demons he leads and their advanced technology. It also mimics the relationship that exists between a demon and its contractor by harnessing the Meister’s energy and actively turns it into something more at the risk of their own life and last but not least there is also Aion’s power of firing blasts of energy that can even knock a berserk Chrono out of the sky (and a good part of San Francisco into the ground, but let’s not talk about collateral damages).
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Soul Description:
Caring, Cruel, Cunning, Charismatic, Spirited, Cracked.
Soul Appearance:
Beware of my horrible drawing skills! (The color is supposed to be malve.)
