Character Information
Out of Character Information
player name: Batty
player livejournal: batty_chan
playing here: Scar
are you 16 years of age or older?: yes!
In Character Information
character name: Luke fon Fabre
canon source and the point from which they're taken: Tales of the Abyss videogame (not the anime based on it), directly after being reunited with Guy.
character's age: 17
canon powers, skills, pets and equipment: The planet of Auldrant, where Luke is from, is filled with particles known as fonons. People who can use these fonons are known as fonists. Luke is supposed to possess the power of the Seventh Fonon, but because Anatole has no fonons, and because Luke never voluntarily used them in the game (aside from when you control him in monster encounters/etc which is not counted as part of canon-Jade commented on how he should make use of Fonons in battle to fight more efficiently) , so he will not be able to in Anatole. He will, however, still be able to use his (mundane) sword technique Fang Blade, which appears to consist of dashing towards the opponent and striking with a swift uppercut.
In canon, Luke occasionally suffered from headaches and heard a voice in his head (later revealed to be Lorelei, the sentient personification of the seventh fonon), whom he, shared an identical fonon frequency with. Because they still have a link, he will probably occasionally still get the headaches, though the dimensional gap will probably prevent him from being able to make out anything he tries to say.
non-canon powers: ((Note: These are not exact canon, but derived from what does exist in canon, so I suppose they are…semi-canon?)) Because his body itself still contains Seventh Fonons, which are said in canon to be able to read the future, the fonons will interact with the mist and give him, from time to time…visions. These visions need not necessarily be of the “future” as in the remote future-it may, for instance, show him something that happens minutes or even seconds later. These visions, however, will only be flashes, only a few seconds long (though he may have a series of them at once, depending on the mist’s activity)-nothing like true clairvoyance. For instance, he may see a blade being unsheathed, which could mean a monster attack, an arena battle, or even just a friendly spar. He may see these visions while asleep, as well, through dreams. Time passes as normal during these visions, so anyone’s free to question why he suddenly started staring off into space.
canon history: ((I apologize that the beginning of this history is not about Luke, but the entire story follows from this introductory element))
For most of the planet Auldrant’s history, there were only six known fonons, for each of the elements known to exist. However, several generations ago, the Seventh Fonon, for sound, was discovered, which granted the ability to read the future. One of the first Seventh Fonists, Yulia Jue, was able to do so, and she predicted a future of unprecedented prosperity, brought about by a “boy of noble blood, with hair of red” who would be the “Light of the Sacred Flame” (Luke, in ancient Ispanian-an ancient language in Auldrant), a prophecy which became known as the Score, documented on “fonstones” scattered throughout the planet. The two nations of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear (frequently referred to just as “Kimlasca”) and Malkuth went to war over these stones, while at the same time, a religious order called the Order of Lorelei came about, headed by a Fon Master and devoted to reading the Score and protecting the peace of Auldrant.
It’s during this war that a ten-year-old Luke, the son of Duke Fabre and the nephew of the King of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, is kidnapped by the Malkuth Empire. He is found a few months later, but apparently traumatized with PTSD-induced amnesia. (It is later revealed that the reason he’s “lost” his childhood memories is because he never had them to begin with; he is a replica of the original Luke fon Fabre created through fomicry-essentially a physical clone with a blank-slate mind). After the kidnapping, Luke is ordered by his uncle to remain within the confines of the Fabre manor at the capital of Kimlasca (Baticul), for his own protection. He spends the next seven years under this confinement, during which time he grows close to Guy Cecil, a servant within the Fabre household with an amusing case of gymnophobia, and is trained in swordplay by the leader of the Oracle Knights (the military branch of the Order of Lorelei), Vandesdelca (Van) Grants. During this time, Luke is said to suffer from occasional headaches and voices in his head (Guy comments at the beginning of the game that they’ve been growing more frequent recently), which the household and the royal family considers to be caused from the remaining trauma from the kidnapping incident.
One day, Van Grants comes to Kimlasca to inform Duke Fabre that he needs to get back to his home at Daath, as an emergency in the Order of Lorelei has come up, Fon Master Ion having disappeared suddenly. He promises Luke a training session before he leaves, and it is during that that a mysterious woman named Tear invades the manor, using a fonic hymn to put the guards to sleep. She then proceeds to attack Van, but is intercepted by Luke. Because the both of them are Seventh Fonists, the collision of their fonons caused a phenomenon known as a hyperresonance that caused them to be transported far away, into a remote region called Tataroo Valley, during which Luke has his first experience with fighting outside of training with Van. If one chooses to read the skits, he and Tear have several humorous exchanges before they come upon a coachman who offers them a ride to the capital in exchange for a gem Tear gives him. They find out, however, that they are no longer in Kimlasca, and the “capital” they are headed to is Grand Chokmah, the capital of the Malkuth Empire, when they go by the Malkuth military in a skirmish against a group of bandits known as the Dark Wings. That capital is even farther away from Baticul, but the skirmish with the Dark Wings put out the Rotelro Bridge-the only way back to Kimlasca in that direction-so they decide to get off there and go to the nearest town, Engeve and head to the Kaitzur checkpoint (at the Malkuth/Kimlasca border) from there.
Luke learns a bit more about the real world there, including how he’s supposed to pay for things before he simply picks them up as he did in Baticul (it can be assumed that vendors and people came around there often, as Luke was confined to his mansion for seven years). Because of the incident, he’s later accused of stealing when food from one of the storehouses goes missing later on that day. They take him to the house of a woman named Rose (who can be assumed to be a village elder?), where Colonel Jade Curtiss of the Malkuth military was meeting with her on some kind of business. Fon Master Ion appears at the doorway as tensions are flaring between the village men and Luke, showing the Cheagle fur he found while investigating the storehouse, which clears up the matter of what was stealing the food.
Luke and Tear then run into Anise, a Fon Master Guardian for Ion, at the local inn, the presence of whom Tear tells Luke affirms that Ion’s journey was officially recognized by the Order of Lorelei. This confuses Luke, as Van had told him he needed to return home to Daath to search for Fon Master Ion because he had supposedly gone missing.
Luke, still miffed over having been called a thief, decides later that night at the inn that he wanted to go to the nearby Cheagle forest to prove that it had been the creatures that had stolen the food from the storehouse, despite Tear telling him he’s unlikely to find any proof there.
Once there, they run into Fon Master Ion again, who is cornered by monsters and defeats them using a Daathic Fonic Arte-which only Fon Masters of the Order of Lorelei can use-but which tires him and causes him to collapse. It turns out he too is looking for proof of the Cheagles’ theft in the forest, as Cheagles are considered sacred to the Order of Lorelei and he wants to understand why they’re doing it.
They find out from the Cheagle elder that one of the Cheagles, a young one named Mieu, accidentally caused a fire in the northern region and the ligers in the area came down into their forest, hunting and eating them unless they provided the ligers with food, which they stole from Engeve.
Although Luke shows his spoiled side in not wanting to help initially, they decide to attempt negotiating with the ligers, using the Cheagles’ Sorcerer’s Ring as a translating medium-however, when they reach the ligers’ den, the Liger Queen is decidedly unwilling to negotiate because she is protecting her eggs, and attacks the group. Luke and Tear face off against the queen for a while, not making much progress, until Jade Curtiss arrives on the scene, helping them to finish off the liger queen with his fonic artes.
Afterwards, they return to the Cheagles’ nesting ground so that Mieu can report to the Cheagle elder, and it is decided that because Mieu caused the fires that began the trouble with the ligers, and because Luke saved Mieu during that battle, that Mieu will serve Luke for one year after which he may return to the Cheagle tribe.
As they are leaving the forest, Jade has Luke and Tear apprehended and taken aboard the land dreadnaught, the Tartarus, which Anise had, upon Jade’s request, brought directly outside the forest. Once aboard, Jade enquires about the hyperresonance that caused the duo to appear in Tataroo Valley. Luke reveals his last name for the first time since arriving in Engeve (as Tear had warned him against using his last name carelessly-his father had a lot of enemies in Malkuth), and Ion suggests that Luke might be able to help them with their mission. Luke again acts like a brat when he says that Jade should kneel if he was going to ask him for his help, and just gets more irritated when the man swallows his pride to do so.
Ion and Jade explain that localized conflicts have erupted between Malkuth and Kimlasca that are likely to escalate into a full-scale war. The emperor of Malkuth had written a letter proposing a formal peace treaty which he had asked Ion to deliver as a neutral ambassador. The apparent discrepancy about Ion being “missing” is finally explained, as it turns out that two rival factions are emerging within the Order of Lorelei, and Ion had escaped from the custody of Grand Maestro Mohs’ faction with the help of the Malkuth military, and Ion and Jade explain that they need Luke’s help to get an audience with the king of Kimlasca.
Not long after that, a warning alarm goes off in the Tartarus. The man at the Bridge (control/communications center of the Tartarus?) informs them of the situation-a group of griffins (flying monsters) are directly in the path of the Tartarus, and a few moments later, he further informs them that ligers are dropping from the griffins and attacking the ship before the line cuts out.
Luke wants to go up to the roof to investigate/get off the Tartarus, but before he can get anywhere, he is intercepted and tossed to the side by Largo, one of the six God-Generals of the Order of Lorelei under Grand Maestro Mohs (just a title, they are in no way divine or superhuman). In the skirmish that follows, Jade’s fonic artes are sealed by means of a Fon Slot Seal, but with the help of Mieu, Jade manages to stab him and knock him out (it was initially assumed by the group that he died, but he reappears alive later in the game) and they manage to get up to the roof and head for the Bridge to retake the Tartarus.
Tear puts the lone guard in front of the control room (?) to sleep with a fonic hymn, but while Luke is waiting outside with Mieu, he ends up shaking the Cheagle for having an annoying voice and Mieu accidentally spits out fire, which awakens the sleeping guard, and he attacks. Luke panics and ends up stabbing the guard in self-defense, killing him. A rare moment of vulnerability is shown when he is visibly distraught by what he has done when explaining what happened to Jade and Tear, but before anything can happen, they are ambushed by Asch and Legretta, two of the other six God-Generals and subdued, then locked in a cabin on the Tartarus.
After a brief conversation in the room, during which they plan their next move, Tear and Jade explain the nature of the battle before them to Luke, who is initially unwilling to go into battle again for fear of killing more people, and he is eventually swayed, albeit reluctantly. After escaping the room, Jade initiates an emergency shutdown on the Tartarus-a voice-activated system he had installed as a precaution, and they head for the port hatch: the only door that will open in the case of an emergency shutdown, where the god generals are likely to take Ion (who was captured in the attack).
They ambush the God-Generals once there, though their initial advantage is thwarted by Arietta’s liger (?) partner. However, when it seems that Luke, Tear, and Jade are cornered, the God Generals are again ambushed, suddenly, by Guy, who turns out to have gone looking for Luke as soon as he had disappeared from the manor in that hyperresonance. The distraction created by Guy allows Tear and Jade to retake control of the situation, and it is at this time that The Door transports Luke to Anatole.
personality:
To most, Luke would appear bratty, immature, self-centered, and rude.
And in fact he is, though one might be more likely to be forgiving of the personality flaws he has acquired if they are aware that since his childhood kidnapping seven years ago, during which he lost his childhood memories (see note about this under “anything else”), he was confined to his family’s manor for his own safety. Due to this confinement, he’s had absolutely zero contact with the outside world, and knows nothing of any social practices such as shopping at a store (he picks up an apple off of a store vendor’s rack and starts eating it without realizing he’s supposed to pay first, because the manor usually pays for everything).
That said, Luke can be neigh insufferable at times, because he seems to show a sense of entitlement about everything and is extremely self centered, loath to do anything that does not directly benefit him, as shown in Engeve, when he didn’t want to help solve the cheagles’ dilemma with the ligers because he “didn’t care what happened to that stupid village.” It was only when Ion told him that food produced in Engeve was shipped throughout the entire world, including Kimlasca, that he agreed to help. He can be infuriatingly ignorant at times, and does not understand many things most people find obvious. Luke can also be extremely immature at times, beginning to whine and complain as soon as something doesn’t go his way or if a situation is difficult. His limited experience shows in that he tends to treat people he meets like he would the servants at House Fabre, sometimes saying things like “dismissed” when he’s done talking to people and when Jade and Ion told him the situation between Malkuth and Kimlasca and asked for his help in getting an audience with the King of Kimlasca, he told Jade that he “should bow his head in respect when asking for a favor.” He goes to the other side of the extreme with people he admires, blindly following whatever they may say or tell him to do (which leads to the tragedy at Akzeriuth later on after the point in the game from which he is taken).
Despite this, Luke has shown a few instances of admirable traits, such as when he doesn’t want to fight the Liger queen because they could break the baby liger eggs, and feels guilty about it afterwards, even though ultimately, it was for the good of Engeve. He is also profoundly disturbed when he stabs and kills a Malkuth guard out of self-defense. Guy appears to truly care about him, traveling across the Kimlasca/Malkuth border to search for him when Luke went missing, and is one of the only people Luke thinks of and treats more like a friend than a servant, as he seems genuinely surprised and happy to see him when he arrives at the Tartarus. Early in the game, Guy expressed concern over Luke’s constant headaches and Luke also notes that Guy is pretty good with a sword and he could train with him, at least, in the absence of Master Van-whom he practically idolizes.
Anything else? A detail that was revealed later in the game from the point at which he’s being taken is that Luke is actually a replica of the original Luke fon Fabre (who now goes by Asch)-when he was “found” a few months after his kidnapping, it was the replica they found, rather than the original Luke. This means that technically, Luke is seven years old, even though biologically, he is seventeen. I hope this won’t be an issue! Because while he is immature, he doesn’t really talk like a seven year old and he can take care of himself (though, he’ll have to get used to the idea of actually working, etc.) and is a competent sword-fighter.