Magnificent Bastard Proposal Thread

Who is Ristill Eva Mizants? What has she done?

Ristill Eva Mizants is a fellow Ancestor and Reviel's Rival. Aware of Reviel's overwhelming strength, Ristill feels a bit of an inferiority complex, and plots and schemes to one day be able to defeat him.

She makes her debut appearing in Algiz while Reviel is out trying to dismantle the barrier, and encounters Luna, who is trying to treat a young boy's wound. She helps her out by applying Thaumaturgy, and encourages Luna herself to learn it, offering to teach her even as the girl doubts her ability to do so, making use of Reverse Psychology to get Luna to accept the offer and put her doubts away. This offer wasn't made out of the goodness of her heart, though, rather it was done to troll Reviel.

Later on, she shows up after Reviel's battle against Idith Midowin, observing that Idith lost even after trying her hardest. She introduces herself as a vampire, effortlessly shrugging off Idith's attempts on her life and No Selling her Super Mode. She offers her the power to defeat Reviel once and for all, demonstrating the power of Maxwell, a curse that possesses whoever is affected, making them go Ax-Crazy, while boosting their power. Though Idith refuses, Ristill takes her leave, sparing her life and telling her that she hopes Idith will give a more favourable response when they meet again.

From this point onwards, Ristill begins to go on the attack. She sets up multiple Maxwells in a cave nearby, and when Reviel investigates them, she has him afflicted with a Dark Chains curse to further weaken him. This successfully puts him out of commission, though with how OP Reviel is, it would have only lasted a few days had Luna not gone out to get a cure for him.

Later, she eavesdrops on a discussion between Luna and Khaos, only revealing herself when called out by the latter. There, she discusses her latest plan regarding Maxwell, revealing her intention to gather guinea pigs from Algiz to experiment with it as part of her plan. One such Maxwell attacks Luna while she is out gathering herbs.

In her next scene, she appears before a troubled Luna, and confirms that yes, she does indeed wish to kill Reviel, and only approached her because she was close to him. She then opens up about her reasons for wanting to kill Reviel. At first, she simply wanted to satisfy his thirst for challenge, as well as to put a stop to his "frenzied feastings of blood and massacres", openly calling him crazy for his sheer bloodthirst. Once she realised how much weaker she was than him, she ran away in fear, and became obsessed with reaching and surpassing his level of power.

She then reveals that she has improved her Maxwells, so they can now control living monsters rather than just dead ones, and threatens to put Luna under Maxwell's control, only stopped by the intervention of Khaos' familiar, Shylphiel. Though Ristill threatens her, she realises that she would never be able to win in a fight against a cooperating Reviel and Khaos, and withdraws, a little irritated, but content in knowing that Luna isn't her only pawn.

Later on, Luna gets kidnapped by bandits. Ristill, admittedly, had no part in this, but she observes the situation from afar, watching Reviel rescue her, and approaches the Sole Survivor of the group, tempting him with the power to kill Reviel. It is, naturally, a new and improved Maxwell. After the man is possessed by it and dies as a result, she is approached by the vampire hunter Idith, who confirms that she is an Ancestor before attacking her. Ristill no sells the attack, revealing that Idith's vampiric powers come from her, so she can't use them to hurt her. But she still respects Idith's power and strong will, enough so that she decides she'll be the perfect vessel for her Maxwell. Thus, she begins persuading Idith to accept it, appealing to the amount of power it can give her and pointing out that at her current power level, she'll never be able to defeat Reviel.

After this, she approaches a melancholic Reviel, and challenges him to a duel, but he, growing disillusioned with the endless passing of time, simply allows her to have a shot at him. She, though surprised, accepts, and likely would have killed him then and there if not for Luna sacrificing herself to protect him. She leaves him, not wanting to kill him in that state anymore, and reissues her challenge to him, saying he can come to her castle whenever he's ready to fight.

At the castle, Reviel comes across Idith, who is revealed to have accepted Ristill's offer, and activates its power to attack him. At first, she seems to be overwhelmed by it, and it's clearly done a number on her sanity, judging by the amount of uncharacteristic evil cackling she does. But, halfway through the fight, Idith manages to reassert herself. This turns out to be what Ristill was counting on; using Idith to learn how to control Maxwell. When Reviel confronts her at the heart of the castle, Ristill bestows herself with the power of Maxwell, using it to boost her power and finally defeat Reviel.

She loses, but not without putting up one hell of a fight, and Reviel, though clearly exhausted, moves in for the kill, only to be stopped by a newly-revived Luna. This surprises both vampires, and Reviel tries to get her to move, but eventually concedes and spares Ristill. This offends her a little, but she accepts her defeat, vowing that one day, she will kill him.

She doesn't actually try anything else against him over the course of the game, as after that, Khaos shows up with his plans and forces the two to make an Enemy Mine to stop him. Ristill is ambushed by Khaos, and would have died if not for Idith saving her at the last second. She then proceeds to return the favour by intervening during Reviel's fight with Khaos, using her unpredictable powers of creation to muddle with his Laplace's Demon spell and give Reviel a fighting chance. So, they win in the end, and after Khaos' death, she parts ways with Reviel on relatively good terms - still out to kill him, but more genuinely friendly than before.

Is she Magnificent? Does she think on her feet?

Ristill is a clever, manipulative woman, excellent at putting on an affable act to get what she wants. Barring a few exceptions, she is always calm and collected, and even when she loses her cool, she usually manages to compose herself shortly. This goes hand-in-hand with her capacity for scheming, as she puts multiple plans in place to kill Reviel. She has Maxwell-infused humans and monsters attack him directly, she turns the vampire hunter Idith into a vampire and, with control over her vampiric abilities, forms an alliance with her to defeat Reviel, all while studying her use of the Maxwell abilities to learn how to control it herself without going mad, so she can use her master-stroke of empowering herself with the dark power while averting the potentially reckless implications of the Professor Guinea Pig trope. She still loses in the end, but both in-story and in-game, she puts up one hell of a fight.

Khaos puts it best when he ambushes her during the final dungeon, that she's actually the greater threat to his plans compared to Reviel. Reviel is a Strong and Skilled fighter, but is fairly straightforward and not much of a strategist, and as such can only defeat people who are weaker than him. Ristill isn't quite as strong, but her ambitions, chaotic powers and schemes may enable her to triumph over those who are stronger than her. This is later reinforced when Ristill's Power of Creation abilities turn out to be unpredictable enough to act as the Achilles' Heel to Khaos' Laplace's Demon spell, turning the Hopeless Boss Fight into something actually winnable. And she came to this realisation on her own, too.

Is she a Bastard? Too much?

While Reviel is a Villain Protagonist for most of the game, that doesn't mean his enemies are strictly better than him, and she does some pretty low deeds herself. Throughout her run as Big Bad, Ristill uses living beings as guinea pigs for her Maxwell experiments, even threatening Luna's life with one, and manipulates and vampirizes the much more sympathetic Idith to achieve her goal. Though actually killing Luna was accidental, she doesn't show much remorse for it, either.

That being said, she isn't really too sadistic about it, and everything she does is in service of her goal, so save for her little prank on Reviel early on (which isn't even evil in the slightest), she doesn't indulge in much needless cruelty. Part of her reason for disliking Reviel comes down to disgust at his needless slaughter of humans in the past, too, showing she does have standards. It's also hard to say she's too bad when she, touched by Luna's decision to spare her, puts out the fires caused by Hypnosis' attack on Algiz, and later helps oppose Khaos' plans to overhaul the world, offering to keep Shylphiel alive with her mana after Khaos' death. It's not quite a Heel–Face Turn, but it certainly shows she has a heart in there.

What's the competition like?

Reviel isn't stupid by any measure, but most of his threat comes from his strength and skill, which Ristill has to work around in her schemes. And through her Maxwell plan, she actually does manage to put up a fight against him despite him otherwise being so much stronger than her, so even if she doesn't win in the end, that's still rather impressive.

Khaos is another brilliant schemer, but his and Ristill's plans don't really intersect — Khaos' plans were the reason Ristill was able to put hers in motion, and while Khaos ultimately did benefit from Ristill acting as she did, she did that entirely on her own, without having to be manipulated into it by Khaos. And while he did help rig things in her favour to distract them both from his own plans, she did get back at him by being a key part of his eventual defeat. So, his machinations don't affect her chances.

Final verdict?

Though there's a stronger candidate in the game, I think Ristill might just be able to qualify.

Who is Khaos? What has he done?

Khaos is the third and most powerful vampire Ancestor, and a friend of Reviel's. Despite his immense power, Khaos prefers to live as a hermit, and is a relatively inactive force for most of the game (or the entirety of the original release, at any rate), occasionally making commentary on what's going on around him and serving as Reviel's source of crafting. At one point, when Reviel falls ill due to Ristill's curse, Khaos helps Luna retrieve medicine to get him back on his feet. At another, he requests Reviel to place a mirror in a certain spot in the Forest of Origins. But otherwise, as the game focuses on the conflict between Reviel and Ristill, Khaos takes a backseat.

Once Ristill is defeated, however, the village Reviel has been staying at gets attacked by a horde of Devils led by the "Satan of the Fiery Hell", Hypnosis. This serves as the moment that solidifies Reviel's Heel–Face Turn, but right afterwards, Khaos appears, noting how much weaker Reviel seems to be than before, due to actually struggling against Hypnosis. When Reviel questions his attitude, Khaos admits to three things. 1) That he was the one who sealed Reviel's power with the elemental barrier. 2) That he helped Ristill grow stronger so she could confront him. And 3) that he was the one who opened a wormhole to the village, allowing Devils to enter.

Khaos explains his disillusionment with the world, having travelled while Reviel and Ristill slumbered, even having been a hero at some point, as he helped the humans of the region overthrow the mad king Gilbard in the Revolutionary War eight years prior to the story, only to have been betrayed by his comrades later on. He then reveals his reason for opening the wormhole - to test Reviel's Heel–Face Turn and to show him and Luna that continuing to hide their vampiric nature is pointless as he exposes it to everyone. He points out that everyone's fear and doubt in light of this truth despite just having saved everyone's lives is "the detestable nature of humans", and then tells them all that he wishes to destroy the world. He tells them that he's already made preparations to do this, but thanks to his friendship with Reviel and Ristill, he will give them one chance to stop him. At this, he leaves, waiting for them to arrive at the final dungeon, Khaos' World, which forms from the mirror he had Reviel put down earlier in the game.

Though he only appears at the end of this dungeon, there are parts of exposition here that reveal his motives. Rather than simply destroying the world out of disillusionment or dislike like he claimed, Khaos plans to reconstruct it, using time and space magic so he can revive his loved one, who fell saving him from an enemy's blade when he was travelling the world and helping humans. Luna even deduces that he's lying about his motives, stating that he loves the world too much, and has been too nice, even performing a Villainous Rescue when his familiar, Shylphiel, attacks the party. Seeing his familiar almost at her limit, he tells Reviel that the time to face him has not yet come, and teleports away with Shylphiel.

While Reviel makes further progress, Khaos turns his attention to Ristill, revealing the existence of the magical elements of time and space; the lynchpin of his plan. The two battle, and Khaos reveals that between her and Reviel, he actually fears her more; even though she had assumed he was simply culling the weak first. Khaos explains that while Reviel is strong, Ristill can bridge the gap and keep up with him through wits alone — and for that reason, she is the greater threat, and her ability to create things from nothing will surely prove to be a thorn in his side.

After defeating her, he then waits for Reviel and Luna to reach him, revealing to him that Ristill escaped. Once again reiterating his desire to disassemble the world and turn back time to "the way things should be", he then makes the pair an offer. In his new world, he offers to turn back time so that Reviel's actions can be fully undone, and Luna can return to normal. His offers are rejected, however, on the basis that all the progress that has been made will also be reset, and reality must be accepted for what it is. Khaos disagrees, calling them cowards who can't appreciate his ideals, and the Final Boss battle begins.

Shortly in the middle of the fight, he casts a spell - Laplace's Demon - that allows him to avoid every one of his opponents' attacks by predicting them perfectly. The battle becomes one of the hopeless variety for a while before Ristill shows up. With her help, Khaos is finally defeated even after Shylphiel forces her way into the fight.

In the end, Khaos, accepting his loss and recognising his fellow Ancestors as worthy opponents, recognises that this was his last possible chance at reviving his loved one, and now that that's been foiled, he has nothing. Figuring that his story will never have a happy ending, he bids his friends adieu and undoes Shylphiel's contract with Alhazard, her magic sword, so that she can live on. At that, he jumps to his death, ending his threat once and for all.

Is he Magnificent? Does he think on his feet?

Khaos may be the strongest Ancestor, but this fact isn't very apparent throughout the game, as he barely lifts a finger and gets as far as he does mainly by using his brain. He starts the plot of the story to occupy Reviel and Ristill while he makes preparations for his grand plan, and generally acts as a more mature and intellectual counterpart to his relatively callow familiar, Shylphiel. He didn't foresee Idith's intervention, which was ultimately his undoing, but it's not like he could have been reasonably expected to, either, given she didn't even enter Khaos' World at the same time as the heroes, and we the player didn't even see it.

He is a clever, philosophical type of guy who makes good points about the hypocrisy of man during his Motive Rant. Despite his disillusionment, he cares deeply for his friends, and above all, he is a highly sympathetic character. But his schemes are impressive nonetheless, and while a little arrogant once his true colours are revealed, he never reaches Smug Snake levels of arrogance and takes his defeat in relative stride. Even when he is Driven to Suicide at the finale, the scene is played for pathos. He bids a final goodbye to his friends, undoes Shylphiel's contract with her magic sword so she can live on, and calmly contemplates where he went wrong for him to have failed to reach his desire while Reviel succeeded, before smiling as he throws himself off the floating island. It's not framed in a disqualifyingly pitiful manner, but as a touching, tear-jerking scene. This isn't even preceded by any kind of Villainous Breakdown, either.

Is he a Bastard? Too much?

Durr. He's trying to destroy the world. And even without that, he did put Reviel and Ristill's lives in peril by pitting them against each other; though they're both bad people at the start of the game, so this isn't quite as bad as it sounds. Not to mention, the stunt he pulled with the Devil wormhole that put all of Algiz at risk.

But he's not all bad. The reason why he wants to destroy the world is so he can reconstruct it into a more ideal one, and be reunited with his fallen lover, who died protecting him from an enemy's blade. As stated by Shylphiel, Khaos wanted to give the heroes a chance to stop him. And he offers Reviel and Luna benefits in his new world, too - he offers to undo Reviel's crimes and Luna's vampirism, both of which have become sources of angst for the pair. And he has redeeming qualities, too, such as his fondness for Reviel and Ristill despite his schemes against them. While Shylphiel was designed from his fallen lover's remains, Khaos does seem to care about her as her own person; he saves her from Reviel when she's at her limit, initially stops her from intervening on his behalf in the final boss fight, and his last living act is to undo her life-threatening contract with Alhazard and beseech her to continue living.

What's the competition like?

Well, the other two Ancestors, Reviel and Ristill, are obstacles that he needs to circumvent for his goals, and he does this masterfully. He set up the elemental barrier to weaken Reviel and buy time for his plan, and helped Reviel overcome Ristill, who Reviel believed was responsible. While he didn't manipulate Ristill directly, he did figure her attacks on Reviel would help buy time, and so aided both sides while keeping them unaware of his true machinations.

Final verdict?

I can pretty easily say yes to him. Easily the stronger keep from this game, imo.