soul_campaign application
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Emil Castagnier, AKA the Summon Spirit Ratatosk
Age: Complicated. He looks sixteen, has actually been Emil for around eight-ish months, and has actually existed for about ten thousand years that include four thousand years of dormancy.
Gender: Male
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia (the sequel, ToS: Dawn of the New World)
Timeline: Partway through Chapter Seven, after Mizuho but before returning to Altamira
History: Emil, Ratatosk
Character Personality: The question "Who is Emil, really, and what's with this guy?" is complicated enough that Emil doesn't fully know the true answer himself at the point in canon he's from. I'll explain that first.
The basic thing is that Emil has two personalities visually represented by a green-eyed "normal" Emil, timid and apologetic but learning courage, and a red-eyed "Ratatosk Mode" Emil, rough and ruthless but learning moderation. Whether he actually changes color IC instead of just for viewers is hard to tell at times, but I personally play him as if there are no visual cues other than posture/mannerisms. At his canon point Emil thinks this is because he's an amnesiac former researcher whose other personality is the original, but he's actually a millennia-old summon spirit who developed a human identity and two personalities due to various circumstances. IT'S A LONG STORY.
The "normal" Emil is eager and genial, taking courage from his friends' support - his motto is "Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality," given to him by his it's-complicated-frenemy Richter. Courage has guided Emil ever since he heard that, starting with the very first times he took a step forward and earned himself his first friends for it. Emil likes to use it for inspiration and encouragement, both for himself and for his friends-which he really needs sometimes! Months of his town's scorn after his parents' deaths took their toll on him, leaving him with a fear of confrontation that he's been getting over with his friends' help. He'd still rather avoid conflict and having to fight (physically or verbally), but if he has a goal in mind and/or encouragement from his friends he's willing to keep pushing all the way to the end in order to achieve something.
He's never quite shaken off a tendency to apologize a lot sometimes, and can take responsibility for things he had no real control over-which can go far enough that he denies himself a normal life if he feel his crime is deserving enough and his friends aren't there to check him. Emil takes a lot from his friends; he's had a lot of problems relating to who he is, between the split personalities and the truth of who Emil Castagnier really is (amnesiac researcher? magical entity? The freaky waking dreams of Richter killing him don't help) but his friends are always there to remind him that he is himself and he has value, no matter what. Without his friends, he believes he would be a much worse person than he is now.
Emil has his not-so-bright moments, occasionally missing the point or otherwise stumbling over himself, and he's not exactly book-smart. It's in personality and spirit that Emil shines: he's a nice, sweet kid who cares about his friends dearly, because after months of bullying Emil really appreciates the friends he's got. He's a fairly easy read to anyone perceptive enough to read him, but he can be perceptive and understanding himself as well. He judges his friends based on who they have been with him and has taken major revelations over their pasts with complete trust, though he can have his prejudices - he won't ever forgive his parents' murderer, whoever it is.
Both the "normal" Emil and Ratatosk Mode Emil are fiercely protective of Marta Lualdi, Emil's first and most constant friend. Emil originally became a Knight of Ratatosk so she wouldn't get killed; since then he's been charged to protect her, and he takes that seriously. They...do approach it a bit differently, however. The normal Emil maintains a balance of it, doing his best to keep Marta safe but mindful of other people too. Ratatosk Mode, not so much: he's extremely goal-oriented, going back to Emil's past as a summon spirit who existed for his duty, so while he's been trying to dial it down at her request Marta's safety and reawakening Ratatosk (not knowing he is Ratatosk) are his priorities over everything else.
Ratatosk Mode Emil...has his own problems. A past betrayal and the loss of the tree he guarded have left their mark on him even though he doesn't consciously remember it. Being knight to Marta gives him something new to protect, and his extremity is likely his way of trying not to fail again. This is both good and bad, as he hasn't struggled with who he is like the other Emil has-Ratatosk Mode doesn't care about any of that, focusing on Marta and the Centurions instead-but on the flip side he has his own self-esteem issues, often about how people tend to view him negatively in relation to his other self (especially Marta, since he feels so protective over her).
Aside from Marta and to a lesser extent Emil's other friends, Ratatosk Mode's not big on people: he's more cynical than the other Emil, and in this fact this has been used to highlight the difference between the two Emils on a few occasions. He didn't care much for the possibility of civilian casualties in his journey until Marta told him off for it, either, although now he's making a little effort to consider people's safety. He's actually come a long way throughout his journey, considering that before he became Emil he meant to kill off all humans and half-elves to prevent further damage to the world's mana.
He prefers to be more direct and to-the-point, but he does have moments where he can be nice-although he refuses to acknowledge it as such, because he considers it weak (possibly relating to his betrayal as a summon spirit), and that won't accomplish anything in the end. Being strong in both combat and mentality is important to him, and in his opinion Emil (who is definitely a kind person) doesn't cut it. One of the best examples of this was when he believed Richter had killed Marta and he blamed it on the other Emil: "If I was more powerful, I could've stopped this! If I was always me, I never would've let this happen!" Even when he decides to stop taking control outside of battle after he does a nice thing to help Marta, Ratatosk never quite trusts his other self to be strong enough to protect her. That could change, but it's a matter of whether or not the normal Emil actually proves himself and/or Ratatosk Mode changes his standards.
Ratatosk Mode Emil takes over at will, generally when Emil is fighting and when he feels the other Emil isn't able to accomplish what needs to be done-he observes and remembers everything Emil experiences whether or not he's in control, although Emil's normal personality does not (he seems to forget after switching, and has fought control mid-Ratatosk Mode at one or two heated moments).
It should be emphasized that both the normal Emil's and Ratatosk Mode's personalities are both Emil and both Ratatosk, just two sides of one coin. One of the major points of the game is how people don't fully realize that they’re the same and instead sometimes treat them as different people, only to get reminded that both Emils are Emil. They aren't entirely separate identities, even if there isn't always much trust between them.
Character Abilities:
Emil's become a pretty skilled swordsman, through fighting monsters and people for a couple months. He normally uses a one-handed sword, and can manipulate mana in some of them or use the power of Centurion underlings he's awakened to certain effects (shock waves, power boosts, etc.) up to the point where one of his/Ratatosk's signature moves, Ain Soph Aur, basically involves charging mana and flinging it at an enemy.
More on the magical bent...well, he's a summon spirit doing triple duty as tree guardian/lord of monsters/guardian to the door to the demon realm. He has a lot of related abilities depending on how much power he's regained, including a general connection with monsters and the ability to turn them into party members along with dimensional warping pertaining to his minions, the ability to rewrite natural laws pertaining to mana (at least when at full power)-basically he's something like a functional god of everything mana-related, which ties back to that triple duty. Really. This of course has no real relevance in Death City, but it means a lot for his home world.
Back to normal stuff, he's not a bad cook. Non-Ratatosk Mode Emil likes to make an art out of it (by the end of the game he's practically making miniature sculptures for meals) and Ratatosk Mode Emil throws stuff together without any regard for appearance, but their cooking actually tastes exactly the same.
With people, he's generally a nice kid and usually does his best to do what he think is right. Unless he thinks you murdered his parents, generally he judges people by what he sees rather than who he hears if those images conflict. He cares a lot for his friends and does his best to help them, so he's strong for them and perceptive when he really needs to be - just before the point he's taken from both sides of Emil gave Marta a pep talk about fighting her father, nailing her main problems and how she needs to fix them. And he respects his friends' wishes and desires if he can, although that can be situational (he's tried to stop a friend rashly giving herself up to save a city, but trusted another when she stayed back to save a friend).
The thing about Emil is that he is his best for his friends! Emil doesn't think much of himself at times, but in a single day alone he went from a nervous bullied kid weighing a calling against his uncle's punishment to a boy on a journey, living by one friend's advice and promising to protect another and trying to be stronger for their sake rather than just his own. Ratatosk Mode Emil takes it a bit differently: while Emil's other friends do matter to him Marta is priority as the one he's supposed to protect, but even he makes the effort to think of people's lives if Marta asks him to or try to make her feel better if something's bothering her. (On that note, Ratatosk Mode Emil is sort of decent at imitating his other self, although he makes some slips the one time he does it. The normal Emil is able to do the same later on when the Emil/Ratatosk lines blur further, but probably not at his current point in canon.)
Character Weaknesses:
Months of an unhealthy cycle of distrust/fear/hatred/bullying between Emil and the village he lived in have left Emil with a low base self-esteem that's been boosted by his friends and wavered as he's tried to understand who he really is: he likens himself to a monster when he goes berserk on knights attacking his village, for example, and he calls himself a fake when he hears that he may not be the real Emil Castagnier. Having friends there to assure him that he has worth and deserves happiness does a lot of good for him, but if he begins closing himself off and stops absorbing these reassurances he loses confidence in himself and may spiral downward into misery instead. Both sides of Emil have a tendency to bottle up their problems until it all comes out at once, from Ratatosk Mode Emil getting frustrated and dejected over his friends' preference of his other half to the "normal" Emil piling blame and guilt onto himself until he plans to die at his friends' hands. Validation is a key with him!
Both of Emil's personalities can be single-minded in regards to goals; sometimes this helps, sometimes it doesn't, and if someone isn't there to rein Ratatosk Mode Emil in he can get...ruthless. People who can get him to dial it down include anybody he happens to be protective over/care a lot about and general voice of reason types (e.g., Marta and Regal). On the flip side, he gets even more irrational over that first type-Emil, either side of him, does not deal with loss very well and his reactions include trying to kill off mankind for killing the World Tree and harboring a really blind hatred for the person he thought murdered his parents until reality happened. All of this (the listening and the loss problems) could also apply to any partner he finds, provided he feels protective enough towards the partner.
Emil has a lot of false memories as an ancient spirit who thinks he's a sixteen-year-old boy, but the memories are loose and leaky. He doesn't remember some things a real teenage boy from Palmacosta would know, and when he encounters these things he tends to mentally retcon them (e.g., "Oh yeah, I don't remember the giant tree attack because I was out of town") and/or experience various effects: sometimes nothing happens, sometimes he looks or feels strange, sometimes he gets tired to the point of near-passing out. He also has a recurring memory/dream/waking dream of dying at Richter's hands, often but not always coinciding with talk of Ratatosk or who Emil is, and for obvious reasons it freaks him out to have this happen at random moments.
The multiple personalities thing sometimes works against him, too. At this point the "normal" Emil rarely remembers what he does while in Ratatosk Mode (though not vice versa) in much if any detail, so if something important goes on while he's Ratatosk Mode he'll need to be filled in on it again while out of Ratatosk Mode to know what's going on; the fact that Ratatosk Mode doesn't trust the other Emil to be strong enough doesn't help matters either. On a select few occasions he'll argue with himself, shifting personalities rapidly to plead, argue, and/or yell at himself, and-well, this isn't exactly a good thing and could easily put off anyone who's not used to Ratatosk Mode. In Soul Campaign, this could really affect resonation: somebody who could resonate with both the normal Emil and Ratatosk Mode Emil wouldn't be as easy to find as somebody able to resonate with just one personality, making it more difficult for him to find a partner unless he just goes into Ratatosk Mode every time he resonates.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What are the abilities that your character will retain in Soul Campaign?
Emil's dual personality should be kept, since it actually is a part of him-both regular Emil and Ratatosk Mode Emil are Emil, which is a major point of the game.
Less weird: his fighting skills should be retained. And his cooking skills!
Everything else...yeah, no. Dimensional warping is not going to fly, and there aren't any Centurions around anyway.
What are the weaknesses that your character will lose or gain in Soul Campaign?
Emil will be much easier to kill, as before his "death" would only revert him to his core form (i.e., a red orb) and that would have to be destroyed to kill him for good. In Soul Campaign you just have to kill him once and that's it.
No weakness losses for him. Stinks for you, Emil!
[ MEISTER ONLY SECTION ]
Why your character should be a Meister: Besides the fact that I already have two weapons? It’d be good for Emil - his character development centers around him learning to be confident and proactive rather than passive, and actively fighting as a meister would help with that. He's developed fighting skills to be physically up to the role as well. Not to mention, Ratatosk Mode Emil would rage hard if he were a weapon (and even worse if he were to accept a meister and then lose him/her) and that just doesn't work well for anyone.
Meister Ability: Soul Summon, Soul Adrenaline, Soul Determination
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Soul Description: Since Emil has two distinct-yet-linked personalities, I'm going to use three for one, three for another, and three shared. This works, right?
Non-Ratatosk Mode: eager, appreciative, guilt-prone
Ratatosk Mode: abrasive, tsundere, wary
Shared: determined, sensitive, single-minded
Soul Appearance: As the "normal" Emil, his soul appears a soft shade of green and has his typical cowlick sticking up at the top. As Ratatosk Mode Emil, the color of his soul turns a harder red color. Both varieties of his soul have Ratatosk's symbol (the butterfly on the orb here) on the side opposite its face.
[ SAMPLES ]
First Person:
[The feed begins with a shot of a boy's hair, short and blond, and the view over his shoulder. A voice can be heard, close but out of direct view.]
-how you turn it on? Oh!
[The view moves around until a boy appearing to be in his teens is looking into the camera, confusion disappearing from his face as he realizes that he might already be visible to everyone else now.]
Did it start already? I'm very sorry about that! Um, my name is Emil Castagnier and I'm one of the new arrivals here today. They told me before I'm supposed to be a meister. That means I'm supposed to use someone else for a weapon, right? Although I'm not really sure about that. Doesn't that mean it will be dangerous for that person? But they already took my sword, so I can't...oh man, I need that!
[He looks briefly panicked before composing himself, still obviously bothered about something.]
I need to get back home, because I have friends in trouble right now. I'm really worried about them. But if I can't do that until this war is over, it'll be too late when I get back.
[But that's not the only thing on his mind, and he sighs discontentedly.]
On the other hand, it looks pretty bad here too. It wouldn't be right to just leave a place like this in trouble, even if Regal and the others need help too. And I guess I don't really have much choice about leaving...so I have to help!
[He nods to himself, and looks a little more confident.]
That's it, then. If anybody's looking for a meister, I'd like to get started with this partnership thing if I can. It might be a little complicated but I really want to help, so please tell me if you want to give it a try!
[And with that, the video turns off and the transmission ends.]
Third Person:
They were almost at Altamira. Regal, Sheena, and Solum’s core-two people to save, and one thing to take.
Emil slashed at another monster and dodged out of the way of a claw aimed at his head, running around the creature and regrouping to beat back another one advancing towards Marta as she cast a healing arte. That one was simple to deal with, already weakened and easily handled with a single move. Behind him one of his own monsters-the Fafnir-was finishing off the one he'd been fighting a moment before, so that was the last of them.
Marta completed her healing arte and cast him a grateful look, probably for what he'd said to her earlier. He didn't respond (no need to, all he'd done was tell her she couldn't keep running from the problem) and instead sheathed his sword, giving control back to his other self.
"Great job!" Marta complimented him, checking over her own weapon. "Just a little further now, and we'll be back at Altamira."
"Yeah." Emil nodded. "I hope Regal and Sheena are all right. And you're okay too, right Marta? Facing your father..."
"Yes, I'll be fine." Marta definitely sounded determined, in spite of what lay ahead. "I-"
But Emil didn't hear any more than that. It was all kind of fuzzy, like how he'd been in Ratatosk Mode once, but the next thing he knew he was in a dark (and decidedly creepy) chamber with a man on an overhead monitor telling him things.
It was all a lot to take in, and when Emil tried to ask questions he couldn't: the man couldn't hear him, of course. And the rest of it, other worlds and wars and living weapons...what was all this? The more he listened to it, the less sure he grew of his situation.
Finally he was let out into the city to begin his stay, and all he could think about at first was his friends in trouble, wondering where he could be.
[ NOTES ]
None!