Soul Campaign App
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Duke Pantarei
Age: mid to late 30s (38 or so), looks a bit younger than that.
Gender: Male
Canon: Tales of Vesperia, ps3
Timeline: Post Adephagos defeat
Character History:
http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Duke
From a novel synopsis http://www.fancomic.com/vesperia/resources/raven/emptymask.htm has some information.
Duke was a noble of Zaphias, one fairly important if by family alone, and used to be a knight. He was at least on friendly terms with Alexei during his travels with Elucifur, because he helped him out on occasion, and Duke was the one who returned Raven's body and Hermes' notes to Alexei. Sometime between that and when 'Schwann' was created, Duke and Elucifur won the war, Elucifur was murdered, and Duke got really angry, resulting in his theft of Dein Nomos.
He spent the ten years after the war up to meeting the party in Deidon Hold wandering the world, conversing with wildlife and Entelexeia ('conversing' is a bad word to use there. 'in the company of' is probably better) and calming Aer Krene as if he was an Entelexeia, of which there are few left.
This Duke had all of the side-quest meetings with the party (Deidon Hold, Caer Bocram, Dahngrest, Nordopolica, Weasand of Cados, Ehmead Hill, Deidon Hold again, Nor Harbor). He transformed into Radiant Winged One during the final battle.
Character Personality:
At a first glance, the response would be "What personality?"
The man is quiet, reserved, and abrupt with his comings and leavings. He's distant and cold. Occasionally rather rude; "Those matters exceed your comprehension." isn't something one tells Rita Mordio without receiving a Fireball, but Duke went and did it. He's very socially awkward, occasionally thinking aloud in the middle of "conversations". He keeps his distance even from those who he has talked to many times; rarely asking for any information that is not relevant to the situation. He refers to people as "you", or by descriptors of their person when he cannot simply stare in their direction and be understood that way. He doesn't reply to greetings and decides when the conversation is over, acting upon that by simply turning and leaving without a further word.
Duke is confident and controlled. He carries himself with an air of confidence, one that Yuri picks up on in KeivMoc. There is an odd sort of meditative serenity and an almost militaristic way of holding himself. The few times he holds a blade in hand, it is always held point to the ground. This relaxed position speaks of his confidence in his skill to react in time to any threat. He never moves at a speed faster than a walk, his hands never leave loose fists from his sides, his expression barely flickers from a faint, blank frown, and his voice never rises. He doesn't swear, verbally or physically lash out, or seem to have a temper at all. Insults, teasing, and sarcasm simply roll right off him, if he even recognizes what they're supposed to be.
"A single life cannot be privileged over the fate of the world"; through his own words, Duke shows himself to be a man of action and the idea of "the many before the one". Unlike others who think that way, his 'one' is always less important than the many; although in Duke's case, the "many" is Terca Lumireis itself. He believes that even he, a human who lives in harmony with nature, might one day cause Terca Lumireis harm, and this showed in his plan for the removal of all humans. He is perfectly willing to kill himself, and every other human, to protect the world. Duke's opinion of himself, other than that he may cause harm to Terca Lumireis, is never stated. He holds himself with confidence, is clearly aware of his strength and power, and attempts to keep himself removed from humans, but remains aware that he is one.
"Words are cheap." The death of Elucifur taught him that words can be said, but that doesn't truly change anything. Elucifur said he would simply watch, and the humans nodded and smiled, then killed him out of fear of the power Elucifur swore he would not use. This doesn't mean that Duke won't keep his word, however, just that anything said to him by a human - any promise made to him by a human - is taken with a good deal of suspicion that it won't be held to. He's a man who removes threats when they become them, does rather than says, and doesn't care about "consequences". Twice, his actions in calming Aer Krene and destroying Hermes Blastia have saved the party, a band of the disliked humans. Had he but waited a little longer in both KeivMoc and Ghasfarost, the party might have been wiped out, but Duke thought the threat to the planet is not worth waiting longer for removing said threats.
Despite being a man of action, he doesn't take any joy from fighting. Killing isn't something he enjoys, and he won't unless he absolutely has to. However, if he is to fight, and fight at his full capacity, he would prefer to not leave any witnesses to his strength. Knowing exactly how powerful Elucifur is what drove humans into slaying the Entelexeia. It is due to fear, so Duke would rather people underestimate him, and thus avoid a similar fate.
Avoidance is Duke's answer to "fight-or-flight", as he'd rather not get into that situation in the first place. Duke will not intentionally start any conflict, and he will, at first, try to walk away if someone starts one with him. As with his emotions, one has to reach a certain point with him before he'll retaliate, or insult Elucifur or Entelexeia to gain the same reaction.
If someone can get past his shell, they may see him differently. Duke is loyal. If he joins his cause with yours, if your morals/goals match his, if he likes you, you have someone who will stick with you through thick and thin until he witnesses a blatant breach of trust. Duke's trust has been a fragile thing since Elucifur's death, and repairing it for the sake of friendship may be the work of a lifetime. Regaining his trust after breaking it is a feat that stands close to impossible.
Despite his stony, normally emotionless exterior, Duke finds amusement in the subtle humors. He finds ironic words amusing, or at least sounds amused, and may even call the one being ironic out in a way. "So I am the only stubborn one?" was his response to Yuri's commenting on his stubbornness, complete with a rising, almost incredulous tone. However, he has no appreciation for Raven's sort of humor, referring to it as foolishness and clowning.
Despite how jaded he is about what to expect from humans, he manages to be a little naive about the workings inside human society. He understands the chain of command, and some of the workings of the upper-class households, but otherwise very little beyond his pessimistic views of imminent betrayal and inability to learn from the past. Things like "white lies", "putting on a brave face" and the differences in types of affection are not things he understands. Part of this is his odd thought patterns. He melds animal-like behaviors with more human ones, understanding more base, linear thoughts but having trouble with the more convoluted human patterns. He understands killing for food, for imminent threat removal, and for defense, but not for many of the other reasons, such as over Blastia or for resources. Some of his body language is much closer to animalistic than it is to humans - in humans, tilting one's head down is normally a sign of submission while tilting back is more of a haughty stance, and Duke does the opposite. Baring one's throat is a sign of submission, and lowering one's head more aggressive. He is as curious, and as picky about what he'll be curious about, than any cat, and has the single minded tenacity of a terrier. Because of this merge of more animal-like patterns and human patterns, he has a hard time understanding how to deal with people. Mixed with his expectations for betrayal, and ten years removed from society, he's a social mess.
Duke does not like people, simply based on the fact they are human. Still, even after realizing his mistakes, he has a great deal of trouble trusting just any human. Although he finds that the human is friends with one he sort-of trusts, like a member of Brave Vesperia, he will be more likely to attempt to try. If someone manages to get close to him, he might show a bit of 'closeness' in his odd, quiet fashion. Duke has lost someone very important to him, and doesn't like how that felt, nor does he want to experience that again. He'd do everything in his power to prevent losing someone else, even if that means, for the most part, avoiding getting too close to anyone else. While he does ally himself with Khroma and has been working with her since Elucifur's death, she still finds his motives a mystery.
One thing that separates Duke from the heroes is that he knows his limits and doesn't attempt to push them. This isn't the sort of "this project got hard, I give up" sort of quitting one sees in modern settings, but the sort that when he feels that he can do no further, he only spends a short amount of time trying anyway before he scraps that plan and throws himself in a different direction. Raven comments on this when they try to convince him not to steal the life of all humans at Tarqaron. Part of the reason Duke quits so easily is because he expects no help, doesn't trust humans enough to try to get them to aid him, and thus has only a limited amount of back up plans and allies.
Religion on Terca Lumireis is a vague thing. There are mentions of The Goddess, but there are no real church systems, or many more mentions of anything beyond a hell and someplace better. The Shrine of Baction seems to indicate that humans once worshiped Entelexeia as gods. Neither of these are what Duke follows, and, by his own words, "there is no such thing" in reply to Yuri commenting that their repeated meetings were of fate. As a man who has walked more of his world than any other human, has spoken with the Entelexeia and flown with them, Duke does not hold them to be deities. As traveled and learned as he is, he also knows the truth behind tales and legends of the protective powers of Brave Vesperia and the true role of the Child of the Full Moon. He believes in the balance of nature, which should stay as it is, with Entelexeia governing the Aer.
Duke used to be a man whose sole motivation was the protection of Terca Lumireis, his promise to Elucifur. Everything he does is to protect, to preserve, his planet, to keep his promise to Elucifur. He lives for that promise and nearly willingly died for it. He has little in the way of short term goals beyond survival, no long term goals beyond the next Aer Krene, finding the next abnormality to deal with. Now that the Adephagos, and Aer threats as a whole, have been dealt with, Duke has little to do.
Despite his former occupation as a Knight of the Empire, Duke has no respect for human laws anymore. This does not mean he breaks them to break them, he simply doesn't care that they exist. He still follows some of the basic, common sense ones, laws he refers to as the laws of Terca Lumireis. Flynn accuses him of thinking himself above the law, and as Duke has cast aside his ties to the Empire, he most definitely doesn't hold himself to their laws.
He is a slightly situational person. It depends on what he is dealing with, who he is dealing with, and what he could gain to aid Terca Lumireis. Perhaps the best description, and probably the one Brave Vesperia would give if anyone asked them to describe him, is that "Duke is Duke". He's contradictory, yet not quite hypocritical.
Character Abilities you would like to expand on further:
Duke is a powerful swordsman and mage, and all the more powerful in battle due to how well he merges the two. His fighting style involves at least two "skill" spells, constants that he keeps up without expending any of his magic. He employs Levitation, keeping himself above the ground by a half a foot unless knocked down, and only two of his Artes involve him taking blade in hand to attack, something that seems very close to telekinesis. While his magic is not as diverse as Rita, the party mage, all of his spells are of intermediate, advanced, or altered tiers. He also boasts a spell that no other character has, and the ability to cast two of his spells without any incantation - something no one else, even while in Overlimit, does. His speed is moderate while levitating; only a fraction slower than Yuri, however he is capable of bursts of speed so fast he appears to be teleporting, something that is limited to Yuri's Mystic Arte. He seems to have the ability to take apart and use other's Artes against them, as is seen with a large amount of his Artes having names, effects and shapes similar to those of the heroes, and that one of his Mystic Artes, titled Brave Vesperia like the guild the heroes form, or like the 'star' they named the guild after, is a combination of all of the parties Mystic Artes. A full list of Duke's in game Artes.
Ten years ago, he was named a Hero for aiding an Entelexeia (Giant intelligent 'monster'), Elucifur, in the defeat of another (who had been leading other Entelexeia in attempting to kill off humans) - and while some might think that Elucifur pulled most of the weight in the fighting, reactions from Raven, who knew Duke at this time, indicate that Duke was nearly equal in strength. Elucifur's daughter, Khroma, who has inherited the feelings of her father, also seemed to believe that even though the party defeated her in combat, they had a chance against Duke.
His fighting style without his magic to keep him and his blade afloat is one that has similarities to wolves - he strikes to separate the weak and bring them down, sow chaos, and cripple if he cannot kill quickly.
Duke is particularly good at sensing magic. He is seen traveling with the purpose to calm Aer Krene, founts of Aer, and remarking upon the flow of it altering. Aer is not something that is normally visible, something hazardous when visible, and he works with it often in these concentrations.
He's capable of understanding barks and growls, at the very least, as some form of speech. He hold a conversation with a dog, at the very least, and is seen in harmony with monsterkind. This is due to a greater understanding of body language and habits that has come from living among them, and this understanding is lessened without vocal noises. This aids him in making his way about lands untouched by humans, as other humans have trouble due to the aggressive nature of monsters.
Character Weaknesses you would like to expand on further:
Duke's sight is not the best. He reacts to noise more than he does subtle movements, uses his ability to sense magic and how it moves to find and keep track of living things about him. With his skill with sensing magic, it isn't that hard for him.
He doesn't have many friends, and those he had either turned out poorly, in the case of Alexei, or dead, in the cases of Elucifur and Khroma. If someone ends up in that range of feelings for Duke, where he thinks of them as a friend, he will try to pull away. He has been hurt by his previous interactions, and doesn't want to feel that again. Adding onto this is that Elucifur died violently. Duke will become distressed if someone he cares about is bleeding or injured.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What abilities will your character retain in Soul Campaign?
• Keeps weapon abilities/training.
• Better than average strength and speed.
• Better than average understanding of animals.
•
What weaknesses will your character lose or gain in Soul Campaign?
• His magic. No more calling down meteors and turning rain into light, levitating or strange telekinetic abilities.
• His ability to sense living things will be dumbed down to "something alive", rather than more detailed knowledge.
• Duke will adapt slowly to living in a largely populated city. The large amounts of activity will be stressful to him, and he will likely get really poor sleep until he can find a place that is quiet enough for him.
• The restrictions on travel will not improve his mood, which will be poor due to the location where he has to stay.
The wish Death the Kid made to the BREW in 2009 was to “rescue Death City and stop the waves of Madness from overtaking the world.” By whatever means necessary. Pretend you are the BREW. Why would you choose to bring this character to Death City?
Duke, while not quite the sanest character to pull from Terca Lumireis, is among the most powerful. He is a swordsman of skill and a mage, a spell crafter, of a level of talent that is still beyond Rita, famed Genius Mage of Aspio. While he is heavily a loner, if approached correctly and persuaded just so, he is a powerful ally and would throw his all into a cause.
If your character has difficulty verbally communicating or can’t verbally communicate at all (mute or non-humanoid), elaborate on how this will be treated in the game.
Skipping. Duke will continue to mix sentence fragments and complex sentences.
[ WEAPON ONLY SECTION ]
Why is your character a Weapon and not a Meister?
Duke has issues both with placing his life in another's hands, and with the responsibility over another. At his canon point, despite his potential leadership abilities, he is not interested in directing another. Due to his avoidant nature and his reluctance to show his power, his reluctance to take action and trust others, he would be a poor Meister, as he would rather not do anything. With the realization that his judgment has been clouded by distaste close to hate of humans, he would rather have someone else make the calls and go along with it.
What is your character’s Weapon Form? Why?
Duke takes the appearance of Dein Nomos. This is an unique blade on Terca Lumireis, even if Rita creates something very similar to it in power. Duke murders to get this weapon, has mastered it over a decade and unlocks secrets that the ruling family no longer knew. To him, this blade isn't a symbol of 'right to rule', but something that allows him to act as an Entelexeia would. While the blade, in canon, is not remarkable for its sharpness but rather for the level of magical conduction, in his hands, it is one of the sharpest blades in the world. Duke has mastered this longsword.
Despite the seemingly frail, if not just bizarre shape of the blade, it is a sturdy weapon. Its shape and lack of an actual guard seems to indicate it was meant for going straight through people, and several of Duke's own Artes take advantage this.
What is your character’s Weapon Ability?
Apart from standard weapon powers, Weapons also have unique abilities depending on weapon form and individual personalities. Please give us one general ability that you think the character’s weapon form should have.
At basic resonance, Duke can use the main ability of Dein Nomos - one that is not particularly difficult to call upon in canon - his directions were "Raise it and calm your mind. The sword will take care of the rest." At this level of resonance, the only forms of magic that would be able to be dispersed would be rather basic, or ‘simple’, and it takes some time (minutes, depending on level of distraction)
At good resonance, the variety of spells that they can dismantle is increased, as is the speed at which they can do so. ‘intermediate’, or more complicated, magics can be taken apart/dispersed.
At near-perfect resonance, very few kinds of magic are beyond the ability to dispel, and the speed at which they can do so as well.
If possible, Duke would start out only being able to turn his lower arm into the odd blade, and work up to being able to turn his hand alone into his weapon form. As a bonus, the white-and-red color to his blade will alter depending on his mood, or how much he trusts the meister. The more trust, the closer the colors to a mix between the meister and his own.
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Describe your character’s soul with six adjectives.
Calm.Wary.Damaged.Independent.Situational.Loyal.
What does your character’s soul look like? Be creative.
White and red, with white being the main color and red appearing like streamers in the chaotic hair. Expression is a blank line-face. Appears a little smaller than it should be for someone of his strength - he's trying to keep it compressed, to 'hide' how strong he is.
If red is a bad color, then just white.
[ SAMPLES ]
Provide a First Person style sample in the form of a post to the DEMISE network.
[ A view of a black-gloved hand - although the fabric seems to have been roughed up sometime recently. ]
Curious. Clearly no known sort of Blastia - nor if it was such a thing could it yet function.[ A pause, and the view turns from the gloved palm. Slightly dizzying movement shows pale fingers with calluses from sword-use, then a pale face with somewhat dull red eyes, framed by only slightly paler white hair. ]
Assume that such a thing means little. If this is not Terca Lumireis, then the rules I am accustomed to would have no meaning. [ And then uncomfortably close to his eyes as he studies the communicator. ]
... Almost appears to be the diagnostic controls... pity cannot compare them now...[ It seems he's forgotten that it's recording him. ]
... what is the function of SOS ... [ And one pale finger closes in on the screen -
Provide a Third Person sample set during the last minutes on their world and/or their first few moments in the Kishin Chamber.
The light of the falling spirits was a little painful - particularly with the growing headache of having less Aer ready to use than he had ever before, and the headache of having been knocked to the ground so many times in the course of combat. Duke permitted none of the aches and slow burns to reach his face; even if Brave Vesperia was a ... trusted, band of humans, habits of showing nothing resembling weakness around humans formed over a decade were hard habits to break.
With nothing left for him here, and if he had understood the formula of what Brave Vesperia had done, leaving the ancient tower quickly was the best course, as it would no longer be kept to the air above the ruins of Aspio by the formula and Apatheia in the foyer. New Spirits, those were now. Duke wondered as he started toward the edge of the platform crafted by spell, if they remembered their lives as Entelexeia. No. He had no right to try to contact them, given what he had tried to do. Given that he had attempted to prevent them from reaching this new life.
Behind him, he could hear the guild gathering, cheering for Lowell and their success. He had no right to interrupt them - even if it was for something like warning them of a danger - and simply reached the edge of the platform, and dropped down from it.
The landing was less jarring than he would have thought given how sore he felt simply walking.
The garden was also far darker than he had remembered. Had the four crystals shed that much light? No. There was no longer any sign of the light of the spirits raining down upon the land, no sign of the disintegrating Adephagos to the sky - no sign of the sky at all, in fact.
And since when had he been on the ground, rather than crouched upon it. Had he been that badly injured, to black out and allow himself to be moved? Duke rose to his feet, narrowing his eyes against the darkness. This.Made absolutely no sense. He had walked all there was to Terca Lumireis, yet this location was new. Unless the spirits had altered the land to this extent.
He stopped and fell still at the sound, and the sudden light, at a red haired male who told him to remain calm, and begun to explain that this... was in some place called Nevada. Duke turned and began to inspect the debris, the ruin to this room and the large doors, listening. War. Of course, that was what humans did. Why were witches referred to as something separate? For all of the questions the man, this Spirit Albarn, was answering, he was creating quite a few as well.
[ NOTES ]