Characters / Tales of Berseria - The Abbey

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The Abbey

In General

• The Atoner: Most of the Exorcist NPCs are unaware that Innominat forced the Malakhim to tether to them. When the Suppression is lifted, some of them swear to earn the Malakhims' forgiveness.
• Cool Helmet: Low-ranked exorcists wear one that completely covers their face.
• Cool Mask: Malakhim under the Abbey's command wear a mask with the shape of the head of a dragon.
• Dark Secret: The high ranking members of the Abbey and their direct subordinates know the truth about Daemons, Daemonblight, Malevolence, the Therions, and their Empyrean Innominat.
• Determinator: They may be the antagonists, but many of them continue to do their job despite their enslaved Malaks jumping ship near the end of the game.
• The Evils of Free Will: Their ultimate goal is the removal of emotions, with free will effectively disappearing as a result so that the world can be "pure".
• Faceless Goons: The exorcists of lower ranks wear helmets.
• Hypocrite: When you really get down to it, the Abbey as a whole rarely practice what they preach. They claim to be paragons of reason and rational thought who commit the actions they do because they prioritize The Needs of the Many. And yet at the end of the day, every single high-ranking member is driven by some kind of unhealthy emotion or personal goal (in most cases, both). Artorious is driven by his irrational need to "save everyone", Melchior is driven by his arrogant belief that he knows what's best for the world, Oscar is driven by an obligation to atone for things that were out of his control and Teresa is driven by a desire to protect her brother regardless of what he wants. The only solid exception is Shigure, who openly admits he doesn't care about their goals and is mostly just looking for a good challenge.
• Irony: All the high ranking exorcists, except Shigure, are defeated when they let their emotions get the better of them. All despite preaching reason over emotion.
• Light Is Not Good: The uniforms of the exorcists are white with golden lines, but their intentions are sinister.
• Mad Scientist: The Abbey regularly engages in inhumane experimentation like fusing their mindless malakhim together, arte formulas that take the subjects' life, and the Venomization of daemons.
• Non-Indicative Name: The title 'exorcists' might give the impression they have the ability to purify the daemons, but all they're able to do is kill them.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Not a single named Abbey member wears the standard uniform. Oscar's is closest, but he has some extra tassels and a longer cape. Meanwhile, Shigure's is basically a Custom Uniform.
• Original Position Fallacy: Played with. While the Exorcists consider it an honor to sacrifice themselves for The Needs of the Many, some are upset when this ideology demands the sacrifice of their loved ones. They don't necessarily seek to directly benefit from this ideology, but they expect that their loved ones will, which isn't always the case.
• Unwitting Pawn: The rank-and-file Exorcists are unaware that Innominat will take away everyone's free will and force them to fit his image of Reason. When Innominat starts his Suppression, many of the Exorcists lose their free will just like the citizens.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Artorius and the Exorcists under him seek to make a world free of suffering. They'll do anything to stop it, even downright horrible extremes to do so.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Exorcists want to purge the world of monsters and create peace and will do anything to do so. When Velvet outright tells Oscar that Artorius crossed the Moral Event Horizon for killing a child, Oscar more or less makes it clear it was necessary for the sake of the world. Melchior later acknowledges that the Exorcists' mission can't be accomplished through good deeds alone, and is willing to do unpleasant things (to a point).

Artorius Collbrande

Voiced by: Kenyū Horiuchi (JP), Ray Chase (EN, game), David Wald (EN, Tales of Zestiria the X)

"Stop struggling! Give up your fight! I will end the world's sadness! I HAVE to end it!"

The leader of the Abbey, considered a savior for exterminating a large number of Daemons three years ago. He used to live with Velvet as family, but isn't related to her by blood - he was, for a brief and wonderful time, married to Velvet's sister and so is her brother-in-law.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Velvet cries as she kills him, and acknowledges that she now knows that had it been her and Laphicet who had died during the first opening, Artorius would've tried to save everyone in their name.
• All-Encompassing Mantle: Wears one to cover his right arm. According to Velvet, he lost the use of his right arm some time ago, but learned how to fight just fine with his left arm.
• Anti-Villain: Artorius wants to create a world of peace. But he is perfectly willing to kill anyone who would get in his way, or be more useful dead. Not to mention, his idea of a "world of peace" is one with rampant Emotion Suppression because he believes that mankind can't be trusted to govern itself.
• Arch-Enemy: To Velvet, who is hell-bent on killing him ever since he murdered her brother.
• The Atoner: In a late sidequest, the party learn Artorius feels guilty for Celica getting sacrificed and causing the death of his mentor Claudin, who broke the condition on his oath to save his life at the cost of his own. He actually deconstructs it to a heavy extent, as this is a major reason why he's a villain: his inability to get over his grief and sadness makes him feel the world is too broken to be kept as it is, and thus needs to be changed by whatever means are left.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: He's the leader of the Abbey, and as noted below, he held off Velvet's entire party by himself without breaking a sweat.
• Baritone of Strength: His voice is deep, calm and commanding, befitting his role as the Abbey's leader.
• BFS: His sword when he's armatized with Innominat. He even wields it with one hand.
• Big Bad: As the leader of the Exorcists and the one who caused Velvet's crusade, Artorius is the main antagonist of the game.
• Broken Pedestal: Several characters idolized Artorius, but the Scarlet Night and the fallout of said event broke their trust in him. Velvet and Seres outright go against him for it, and Eleanor, upon learning of the darker side to him, goes rogue as well.
• Catchphrase: "Why do birds fly?" A question that he constantly asks towards people as a Secret Test of Character. Only Velvet and Laphicet Crowe figure it out prior to the final battle. Laphicet answers "because they have to fly," to justify becoming a sacrifice for Innominat before he dies to disease. Velvet answers "because they want to fly," implying that people shouldn't have to live by cold logic and reason. Artorius's own answer is "because it is inherently within their nature", since he has given up all hope of mankind overcoming the emotions that cause malevolence.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed. It was his desire to save everyone, and failing to do so, that twisted him into the man he is now. His inability to save those he loved made him lose all hope in the world being able to change, leading him to the conclusion that mankind itself cannot be allowed to exist as they do now, which sets him on a dark path.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • Played with due to this game being a prequel to Tales of Zestiria while being released later. Unlike Heldalf, who is an Obviously Evil Lord of Calamity with few allies, Artorius is a popular Shepherd who leads an entire organization of Knight Templars. This trope is also downplayed due to their similar goals of ending the world's pain while choosing different methods to do so. Heldalf plans on accomplishing this by corrupting everyone with Malevolence while Artorius wants to feed everyone's Malevolence to Innominat in order to make them "pure."
  • He also contrasts interestingly with a few previous antagonists. Take Yggdrasil, for example. Both effectively lead an army of angels, but while Yggdrasil simply wants to bring his sister back and doesn't particularly care what else happens to the world, Artorius knows he's already destroyed any and all family he could ever hope to have, and does what he does solely for the sake of the greater good.
• Curbstomp Battle: The groups first fight against him ends in utter defeat for them. Their attacks do more or less the Scratch Damage equivalent to Scratch Damage. To add insult to injury, he didn't even use Innominat's power until the cutscene that followed.
• Dark Messiah: As Shepherd Artorius, he's considered the salvation of humanity by most of the population. However, his 'salvation' is stripping all humanity of their free will, thus making them never produce malevolence, but also never truly 'live'.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crossed it when his wife and unborn son were sacrificed in the Advent. He's been meditating for years to barely keep his overwhelming despair from turning him into a Daemon.
• Dissonant Serenity: After becoming Shepard, he rarely ever raises his voice and his face is always set in a calm, serious expression—even when his vengeful sister-in-law is trying to rip his face off with a huge red claw. It seems to be cultivated as a way to keep his raging despair from turning him into a daemon.
• Dual Boss: With Innominat in the first part of the final battle.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Artorius made his first appearance in a trailer for Tales of Zestiria the X, a year before he appeared in Berseria's promotional material.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Gideon believes Artorius was the one who ordered a hit on him. If this was true, then Artorius has no intent to turning a blind eye to any activities in the Church that involved exploiting people. While it's likely Artorius didn't hire the Bloodwings, Eleanor planned on arresting Gideon anyways, which implies that the Abbey as a whole wouldn't tolerate the corrupt high priest.
  • A flashback in Hellawes's inn shows that he's not proud of unleashing Innominat and that he'd rather team up with the other Empyreans, but he feels that he has no choice because he can't form pacts with all of them.
• Evil Mentor: He taught Velvet on a lot of things and then broke the pedestal personally.
• Fallen Hero: He wasn't always secretly a nasty guy; he originally was as genuine as his distant successor to his title Sorey.
• Field of Blades: Combines this with Storm of Blades in his Limit Break.
• Final Boss: Along with Innominat.
• Foregone Conclusion: Regardless of his status as the Big Bad, as shown in Tales of Zestiria, he goes down in history as a hero, and his shrine is used by Maotelus and many other power Seraphs.
• Four-Star Badass: In the book of Legates, Artorius is listed as the third person to ever attain that rank, though he surpasses that rank once he becomes the leader of the Abbey.
• Fusion Dance: Armatizes with Innominat in the final battle.
• Game-Breaker: In-Universe. One side conversation reveals that in an official Abbey trading card game, his Level 10 card is so broken that it's been banned from official tournaments.
• Handicapped Badass: Lost the function of his right arm in the past, implied to be the first Scarlet Night. One of Aball's villagers comments disparagingly on this, but Artorius is still easily capable of training Velvet in combat, and holds her off effortlessly later when she's much better at fighting and legitimately trying to kill him. Gets out of this trope when he armatizes with Innominat in the final battle.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: A flashback shows that Artorius originally considered seeking the help of the other Empyreans as an alternative to Innominat, but ultimately sided with Innominat because he deemed it unfeasible to form pacts with all four elemental Empyreans.
• Heroic Willpower: He may be evil, but there's no denying his tenacity. He really should be a daemon by now, with all the despair he's carrying, but he's kept himself human through meditation and sheer strength of will.
• Hero's Evil Predecessor: A downplayed example to Sorey of Zestiria; while he is definitely a far more ruthless man than his successor, he is obviously long dead by Sorey's era and never directly antagonizes him.
• Hidden Depths: A sidequest reveals that for a man that advocates cold reason, Artorius sometimes visits Aball to place flowers on the grave of his wife. He also has the pendant he made Celica and gave to her the day he found out she was pregnant attached to the pommel of his sword. It also shows that at his core, Artorius is motivated by his immense guilt for her death, and why he does what he does.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: As a contrast to Velvet's Historical Villain Upgrade, Artorius goes down in history as a legendary Shepherd who was beloved by the people.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He's killed when Velvet stabs him with his own sword, the same way he killed Laphicet and injured Velvet in their first encounter.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The first time he is encountered, Artorius is at least forty levels stronger than the party could reasonably expect to be through normal level progression, and attacks only do Scratch Damage to him. The battle ends with him unleashing his Mystic Arte on Velvet. The "hopeless" part even extends to the following cutscene, where Velvet can't so much as hit him.
• Hypocrite:
  • Preaches how emotion is ultimately what will lead to humanity's downfall. His own quest is driven by both grief at Celica and his unborn son's passing and Survivor's Guilt that Melchior played on.
  • Velvet points out as she deals the killing blow that he forgot his own Maxim: "Don't Despair, No Matter What."
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he kills Laphicet at the beginning of the game. This is how Velvet kills Artorius at the end of the game, with Velvet using Artorius' sword.
• Irony:
  • He started his crusade the moment his lost his wife and unborn son, both of whom as Malakhim come to oppose him and everything he stands for.
  • His logic is that reason trumps emotion. During the final battle Artorius starts hamming it up and ends up being defeated by his own emotions getting the best of him. Furthermore his entire goal is driven by his own grief.
  • A meta example: Artorius is a man who strives for a world of order and reason at the cost of free will. His Mystic Arte is Savage Wolf Fury, which is shared with the rebellious vigilante Yuri Lowell.
• Jerkass: Subverted. By all accounts Artorius appears to be a terrible person, and from the perspective of Velvet, he's done so much to deserve scorn that he comes across as a horrible person. In reality, Artorius is a broken man who is so desperate to do what he can to fix the world that he's willing to cut all his familiar ties. When Velvet learns the truth of why he fell, she can only feel remorse and sadness for him, as he lies dying, he even tries to make her hate him by claiming if he could sacrifice her and Laphicet to bring back Celica he would do so, but Velvet counters that he would have walked the same path anyway because of guilt.
• Leitmotif: Artorius Collbrande, a low pitched menacing orchestra of violins and wind instruments that first symbolizes his betrayal of Velvet and later his power and authority as head of the Abbey.
• Light Is Not Good: While he appears as the inverse to many people with his white and gold clothing, princely looks, and good publicity, his true nature is far more sinister.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: During the Wham Episode where Innominat traps the party in the Earthpulse, the Earthen Historia reveals in one of the flashbacks that Malak Laphicet is Celica's unborn child, making Artorius his actual father. As Malak's are not really the same person though, Laphicet and Artorius have no family connections though.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Strangely, he can't use Malak artes even when Armatizing with Innominat, despite that other Armatus users in the duology can do so and that Innominat himself mainly uses Malak artes. However, his Hidden Artes have a lot more range, power, and elemental variety than the Fire Armatus.
• Meaningful Name: He's named after King Arthur, whose original name is most commonly thought to be Artorius. His last name Collbrande is another name for King Arthur's original sword Caliburn.
• My Greatest Failure: Not being able to save Celica and their unborn child haunted him for years. His despair about the event was so bad, that he was secretly always on the brink of turning into a Daemon. And as much as he always wished that it had been Velvet and Laphicet who died, he would have felt the exact same way because his biggest regret was not being able to save all of his family. Even earlier, he feels massive guilt for being involved in the death of his mentor Claudin and running away.
• Necessarily Evil: How he seems to view his actions on the Scarlet Night. He outright tells Velvet it is his sin to bear, not hers.
• Offhand Backhand: He does this to a daemon near the end of the prologue.
• Parental Abandonment: He originally grew up in an orphanage before meeting his mentor.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "With a single stroke, I will call death into your being! SAVAGE WOLF FURY!"
  "This I claim! RIGHT OF RULE! Your sins are deep... now suffer for them!"
• Power Floats: He continuously floats when Armatized with Innominat.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: In a metaphorical sense, this is his ultimate goal and motivation. Due to the despair he felt losing his loved ones, along with Melchior's manipulations, he projects his own desire of suppressing his emotions on the entire world. To him, it would be better for humans and malaks to feel nothing rather than feel anything negative.
• Secretly Selfish: As Eizen notices, Artorius is always going on about changing the world, but not saving it. This key difference in words shows that he is ultimately one of the most selfish people and seeks to impose his desires on everyone else.
• Secret Test of Character: His question "why do birds fly?" is his way of assessing someone, but most fail on account of taking it literally. The question itself is supposed to make people think about their own kinds nature and why they do the things they do. On-screen, the only person to give him a satisfactory answer was the human Laphicet.
• Sociopathic Hero: An In-Universe example that gets Deconstructed. Artorius invokes this trope for the sake of his goals, going so far as to justify his actions and hurting his loved ones for "the sake of the world". Its later revealed that this only happened because Artorius crossed the Despair Event Horizon, and became so disillusioned that he essentially no longer holds any care for the world as it is now. All of his actions are essentially that of a broken man who just doesn't care anymore.
• Start of Darkness: Losing Celica on a previous Scarlet Night, especially after learning she was pregnant with their child, ultimately set him on his path. It didn't help that Melchior pushed him further.
• Stepford Smiler: Sidequests and later revelations during the main plot reveal that during the time of the prologue, he was this. He drops that in favor of feigning being entirely stoic in the present.
• Stock Weapon Names: King Arthur is Shrouded in Myth, to the point that we don't even know how many swords he had. We all know he pulled Excalibur in the Stone, but what about the one he was given by the Lady of the Lake? Sometimes this other sword is given a separate name, such as 'Caliburn' or 'Caladbolg'... or Collbrande. This also puts Artorius' first name in a completely different light.
• Tempting Fate: During his life with Celica, he stated that he never thought he could be so happy. Soon afterwards, Celica got sacrificed in the first Scarlet Night.
• That Man Is Dead: During his Final Speech, he admits that the Arthur Velvet knew and loved died along with Celica during the Opening. Interestingly for this trope, nobody disagrees with him with the small exception of Velvet crying for Arthur after killing Artorius.
• Throwing Off the Disability: His broken arm is magically healed when he's Armatized with Innominat.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He murdered Velvet's brother and imprisoned her for years after causing her to become a Therion. Later revelations twist this around; he did this because he believes in reason and Necessarily Evil to reach his goals.
• Villainous Valor: The final battle reveals that the death of Celica and her unborn child, as well as the weight of the world's hopes has filled him with such despair that anyone else would instantly transform into a Daemon. He managed to keep it in check through sheer force of will and determination, only wavering to allow Innominat to feed on his despair to fuel his One-Winged Angel form.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Unlike most of the main antagonists in the series, Artorius is seen as a hero and idolized by the world. Even afterwards, it is Velvet who will go down as a villain while Artorius remains a legendary heroic figure.
• Would Hurt a Child: Killed Velvet's brother in a Human Sacrifice. It turned out her brother wanted it to happen.
• You Should Have Died Instead: Deconstructed. He admits to Velvet as he's dying that he always wished Velvet and Laphicet had died instead of his wife Celica and their unborn child, but Velvet points out that even if that had been the case, he would have followed the same path, but in Velvet's name instead of Celica's. Artorius agrees, accepting that it was really his inability to save all his family that set him down his path.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Subverted. After losing Celica and her unborn child during the Advent, Artorius become full of despair that throughout the whole game, he was on the brink of becoming a Daemon. However, he prevents the transformation from happening by learning to suppress his emotions. It also helps that Innominat feeds off his malevolence.

Oscar Dragonia

Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno (JP), Michael Sinterniklaas (ENG)

A praetor-rank Exorcist from the Dragonia aristocracy. He supervised the Titania prison facility prior to Velvet's breakout.

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• Adaptational Badass: In the game, he fights Velvet and Seres with the aid of the malakhim under his command. In the animated adaptation of the fight in Tales of Zestiria the X, he manages to fight Velvet just by himself and beat her without any effort.
• Ambiguous Situation: His relationship with Teresa. While there is some Brother–Sister Incest subtext, Oscar himself doesn't really lean into it as much as Teresa does, and if anything seems to treat her more like family.
• Bad Boss: Indirectly zig-zagged.
  • He treats malakhim as little more than disposable tools, and has a Malak hold down Velvet while ordering another to attack them.
  • On the other hand, he's hinted to be more gracious to lower-ranking exorcists. Teresa notes that he'd originally been selected for the position of patrolling inspector, but had stepped aside because he was aware of how much Eleanor wanted it.
• Bandaged Face: Bandages cover his left eye and part of his face for the rest of the game after being burned by Velvet's attack during their first encounter.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason for his close attachment to Teresa. As the Spare to the Throne, Oscar was largely neglected by the rest of the Dragonias. Teresa was the only person to treat him as if he was valuable in his own right.
• Blow You Away: During the final fight against him he whips out a Wind Armatization to defeat Velvet.
• Boys Like Creepy Critters: During his governorship of Yseult, Oscar climbed a tree to collect cicada husks, showing that he retains his childhood interest in insects.
• Didn't Think This Through: Treating his Malak as an expendable pawn caused it to turn into a dragon daemon, leading Velvet to gain fire powers and burn him.
• The Dragon: Artorius' direct subordinate and one of his top disciples.
• The Dreaded: When Seres realizes Oscar is trying to stop them, she's quite shocked.
• Expy: He's been noted to look fairly similar to Flynn. Like Flynn he's also someone who has a strong sense of morality and is determined to follow it.
• Eye Scream: Velvet's fire attack damages his eye. His later appearances has a bandage over it.
• Evil Counterpart: Interestingly, he's one to Sorey. Like the future Shepherd, Oscar is a naive, innocent man who wishes to save the world, wield a sword, draws power from seraph/malak, and gains the power of Armitization. Many of his artes are similar to Sorey's in terms of motion or have similar names. But while Sorey is kindhearted and friendly (even to his enemies), Oscar comes off as cool, collected, and, while always civil, willingly supports Artorius' tyranny in the name of Reason and is merciless toward everyone who stands in his way. Both have a close companion from childhood who is calmer in nature (but still passionate when it comes to them and their safety) than them with ambiguous subtext in regards to what exactly their relationship is. They even have similar outfits and hairstyles.
• Failure Hero: Despite his rank, skill, and devout faith in the Abbey and Artorius's teachings, Oscar fails at everything he does. This is even reflected in his last fight as the boss "Failed Oscar", who would have become a dragon if Velvet had not killed him.
• Fusion Dance: Armatizes with a wind Malak in his last fight with Velvet.
• Graceful Loser: He takes his first loss against Velvet quite well because it reminded him of his lack of experience in combat.
• Informed Ability: In a skit, Eleanor mentions that she could never beat Oscar's swordplay. The siblings are also consul-rank praetors, while Eleanor is only a primus. However, they never exhibit or accomplish anything particularly special until their final battles, during which they're not even fighting with their natural abilities.
• Ironic Echo: He repeats several of Artorius' teachings that were once taught to Velvet during their first fight.
• Irony: Fights to remove emotion from the world, yet his anger at seeing his sister hurt nearly turned him into a dragon.
• Light 'em Up: His magic artes are light themed, befitting his status as a Exorcist.
• Magic Knight: Uses a sword and Exorcist based artes in combat.
• Oh, Crap!: Reacts this way when he realizes Velvet has devoured Seres and has gained her powers.
• Power at a Price: The Armatization greatly increases his abilities and gives him power over wind, but due to his being an imperfect version, if the malak whom he armatized gets pressed way too far and begins to turn into a dragon, he himself will turn into one.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "Pierce my enemies... and scorch them! SYLPHID BLAZE!"
• Reassigned to Antarctica: It's not like Titania offered him much opportunity for advancement, but it gets even worse for the poor kid. His failure to stop Velvet escaping gets him reassigned to scout work and he's not heard of again until he's seen being handed a dead-quiet governing post way out in Southgand. And when Velvet and company completely botch that for him, he ends up assigned to a barely-inhabited marshy shithole in the middle of nowhere armed with a new technique that will probably kill him.
• Reincarnation: After being killed and devoured by Velvet, he's used as a vessel for Hyanoa, reincarnating him as the Elemental Empyrean of wind.
• Relative Button: Hurting Teresa in any way. He nearly turns into a dragon during his final fight against Velvet's group due the damage they did to her sister.
• The Rival: To Velvet.
• Scars Are Forever: Velvet badly burns him in the prologue during her escape from Titania, and he spends the rest of the game with bandages covering the scar.
• Spare to the Throne: Oscar is the second son, and suffered Parental Neglect as a result.
• Starter Villain: Even though Artorius is technically the first villain who appears in the game, he is the first boss that you confront in the current storyline.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With Teresa. Despite being half-siblings, they look almost identical.
• Took a Level in Badass: After having three unsuccessful encounters with the group (the first time he confronts Velvet in Titania, he ends having part of his face burned for his troubles and is forced to flee helped by his malak, the second time he faces the group in the Empyrean Throne along with Artorius, Teresa, Melchior and Eleanor, he is unable to do nothing, and the third time he encounters the party in the Palamides Temple, he is knocked down by Velvet before he could even fight them properly), in the fourth one, he gains the Armatization arte and manages to fight against all the party just by himself, being limited by the fact that the Armatization wasn't perfected by that point and he has to face the corresponding limitations.
• Undying Loyalty: His loyalty to Artorius is absolute, to the point where he ignores Velvet trying to tell him what Artorius really is like.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Evident in his and Teresa's backstory. He's also noted as having been a lot like Laphicet, right down to having a fascination with insects.
• The Worf Effect: A rare example of a straight villain being the recipient of this. Despite Eleanor saying she could never best him while sparring, in his first encounter with Velvet, he needed to use every trick in the book just to keep up with Velvet, and his only clean hit on her was a cheap shot. The next time they meet, he's still at roughly the same power level, while Velvet has been traveling half the world and getting stronger. Accordingly, she unceremoniously knocks him out mid-sentence with a single kick.
• Would Hurt a Child: Kamoana's statements imply that it was Oscar who tricked her into becoming a therion by saying that it would make her "stronger" so she could impress her mother.

Teresa Linares

Voiced by: Yui Horie (JP), Brina Palencia (EN)

A praetor-rank Exorcist and Oscar's half-sister, Teresa governs Hellawes, the northern area of the Holy Midgand Empire.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: She dies crying for the death of her brother, crawling towards his lifeless body in her sorry state before she passes away. Even Velvet has remorse killing her (as she did exactly the same thing that Artorius did to her; kill the younger brother of another person in front of her), to a point where she even passes out as a result of the shock.
• An Ice Person: In her first boss fight, she uses ice malak artes.
• Bad Boss: Zigzagged. She treats her malakhim as dispensable tools, but the people of Hellawes and Yseult note that as a governor she is firm but fair.
• Bastard Bastard: A villain who was born as the result of an extramarital affair.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason for her close attachment to Oscar. Because she was the product of an extramarital affair, Teresa's step-mother hated her and the rest of the Dragonias considered her nothing more than a maid. Oscar was the only one to treat her as family.
• Big Sister Instinct: She cares a lot about Oscar. Upon seeing the damage Velvet did to him and realizing it was her she attempts to get revenge on her for it. She later willingly become a Therion Daemon to protect his honor.
• Brother–Sister Incest: She has this subtext with Oscar. The earrings she wears in the game are those given by him when they were younger and told her she was the most important person in his life. They are meant for his fiancee and he insisted she keep them even after finding out just what "most important person" meant in this case. Unlike Oscar whose feelings towards the subject are vague, its heavily implied Teresa feels this way towards him, even going so far as to refer to him very possessively, the same way someone might their romantic interest. This is seemingly confirmed with her being able to successfully fuse with the succubus Therion encountered later on, as Grimoirh and Artorius both elaborate that the Therion's represent a sin of sorts, the succubus naturally being lust.
• Brought Down to Normal: When she questions the mission Artorius sends her brother on she has her remaining Malak taken away, leaving her as an ordinary human.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Subverted. Teresa starts defrosting, almost too quickly, given her eventual fate as a fire-aligned therion, but it's cut short when its revealed it was a ruse in order to get close to the Therion Oscar was guarding so she could fuse with it and kill the heroes.
• Didn't Think This Through: Almost died from Corsair's Scourge while trying to follow her brother without being well prepared.
• Don't Look At Me: Says this to Oscar after she becomes a Therion.
• Evil Counterpart: Though not as obviously as Oscar, she's this to Tales of Zestiria's Mikleo to a certain extent. Associated with water (at least in her first boss fight and in regards to her nickname), very calm and collected unless certain buttons are pressed, and has been close to Oscar since childhood with a subtext to their relationship which brings into doubt it being just platonic. Her desire to protect Oscar pushes her to greater heights, just like Mikleo walks off by himself and spends late nights training in Zestiria for the sake of guarding Sorey's back, to the point of being willing to risk her life for him.
• Fanboy: Has a very passionate one in both Hellawes and Yseult, which is lampshaded by Velvet.
• Foil: In many ways she's Velvet's opposite number on the Exorcists, driven by an obsessive need to protect her brother and a willingness to do anything for him. Teresa also becomes a Therion. Their similarities are not so lost on Velvet, either. Velvet has a Heroic BSoD upon killing her and Oscar, wondering if she had become no different from Artorius.
• Fusion Dance: She willingly lets a Therion fuse with her in her final fight.
• Honor Before Reason: The party was more than willing to let her and Oscar go - her rushing to defend Oscar's honor was what caused their demise and essentially handed the Abbey their defeat.
• Hypocrite: Is one of the highest ranking exorcists in an organization dedicated to logic, reason, and placing the needs of the many above the needs of the few. Theresa appears to believe whole-heartedly in this philosophy...unless of course that few is someone who's important to her.
• I Surrender, Suckers: She pretends to let Velvet take her as a hostage only to reveal this was a ploy to fuse with Dis, a succubus-like Therion and kill the party so Oscar won't have to use the experimental Armatus.
• Ice Queen: She acts stoic and cold towards most people, only showing her more passionate side to Oscar and those who hurt him. She fittingly has a few ice themed artes during the first fight with her.
• Informed Ability: In a skit, Eleanor mentions that she could never beat Teresa's magic. The siblings are also consul-rank praetors, while Eleanor is only a primus. However, they never exhibit or accomplish anything particularly special until their final battles, during which they're not even fighting with their natural abilities.
• In-Series Nickname: Known as the "Frozen Queen".
• Irony: Her lust towards her brother's welfare only gets stronger when she fuses with a succubus Therion.
• It's Personal: The reason why she decides to fight against Velvet is because the wound she did to Oscar in Titania.
• Lust: Her admiration and protectiveness for her brother borders heavily on this due to their upbringing. Ironically, she lets a Therion representing lust itself - a succubus - fuse with her to kill Velvet. Artorius' later description of the eight types of malevolence and Grimoirh discussing them in a skit confirm both her, and the succubus, embody the lust malevolence.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Teresa attempting to kill Velvet and the heroes ends up being the biggest thing that leads to the defeat of the Abbey. By forcing Velvet to kill her and Oscar, Velvet ended up devouring two pure-hearted people, which later became important when they learned they needed pure hearted vessels for the Elemental Empyrean to reawaken. Had she not tried to kill the heroes, Teresa and Oscar would have potentially escaped with their lives and force the heroes to find other vessels on a short notice, potentially making them lose the ability to do so with how little time was left.
• Pet the Dog: When she first appears, she takes the time to express concern over how Velvet is dressed in such a cold climate and briefly takes on a warmer tone of voice while doing so. She later reveals to Laphicet she always knew about him wandering off to read books, but never punished him for it. Apparently, she also made his backpack for him so he could hold all the random stuff he would pick up. She also grabs a beetle he was interested in for him despite finding bugs disgusting.
• Playing with Fire: After armatizing with the therion of Endgand, she can use fire-based artes.
• Power at a Price: Willingly armatizes with a Therion Daemon to stop Velvet and the heroes. Of course doing so makes her a Therion Daemon herself.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "Taste the pain you inflicted on him! THIS IS YOUR PUNISHMENT!"
• Reassigned to Antarctica: After the disaster at Hellawes she is sent to the somewhat backwater Yseult. According to one townsperson, it was probably meant as a punishment. Her brother Oscar takes her place after she is recalled by the Abbey.
• Red Herring: You'd think she was going to become a better person while as a hostage, but unfortunately, it was all a ruse that ended up with her and Oscar dying for it.
• Reincarnation: After being killed and devoured by Velvet, she's used as a vessel for Amenoch, reincarnating her as the Elemental Empyrean of water.
• Relative Button: Hurting Oscar in any way, to the point she decides to confront Velvet personally after watching the burns she did to him in Titania and even willingly fuses with a therion in order to protect his honor.
• Staff of Authority: Uses a staff with an ornate design on top as a weapon and is the leader of her own territory.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With Oscar. Despite being half-siblings, they look almost identical.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: The ice is for everyone except her brother Oscar. Near the end she starts showing her softer side to Laphicet, but it's tragically cut short.
• Unwitting Pawn: Innominat used her attachment to her brother as part of the plan to break Velvet.
• Villainous Breakdown: She's completely lost it by the time of the final battle with her. Her Mystic Arte quote hammers it home as she screams in fury while madly hacking at her defenseless opponent.

  Taste the pain you inflicted on him! This is your punishment!

• Wolfpack Boss: Fights alongside Silva and Laphicet in her first boss fight.
• Would Hurt a Child: Orders Laphicet to commit a suicide attack against Velvet and Rokurou. In later skits, Laphicet states that she used to whip him and Number One if they displeased her.

Shigure Rangetsu

Voiced by: Kazuya Nakai (JP), Max Mittelman (EN)

A legate who's also Rokurou's older brother and the head of the Rangetsu family. His carefree attitude makes him unusual among the other Abbey members, and he's always looking for a good challenge.

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• Affably Evil: A jovial guy and more friendly than other exorcists. His Malak even has free will unlike most.
• Always Someone Better: He is superior to Rokurou in swordfighting in every way, having won every sparring and training session the two had as kids. Even after defeating him Rokurou admits Shigure was still the better swordsman, as he relied on one blade compared to Rokurou wielding three.
• Animal Companion: Has Morgrim, the cat Malak from Zestiria that was Pendrago's Lord of the Land, as his personal Malak.
• Badass Normal: He's human unlike his brother Rokurou who is now a daemon, and in contrast to all of the other members in the Abbey, he's the only one who doesn't utilize malak artes of any kind. And yet he still manages to put up one heck of a fight against the entire party with nothing but the results of years of training.
  Shigure: With enough will, humans can do anything.
• Benevolent Boss: His personal Malak having free will alone makes him this compared to the others who are prone to using them as cannon fodder. When he dies, he requests that they spare Morgrim's life which the group honors. Morgrim even remains by where he died to mourn before eventually moving on. The fact Morgrim stuck around with him becomes more notable when the other exorcists end up paying for their behavior when the malakhim under their control regain their free will.
• BFS: Wields his own Stormhowl. He's broken Rokurou's using his own several times.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Shared with Rokurou.
• Blood Knight: A self admitted one. He really loves fighting, though not senseless killing. He even encourages the rest of the party to join in on the fight between him and Rokurou to make it interesting.

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite supposedly being the official bodyguard to Artorius, he's a complete no show the first time Velvet meets Artorius since escaping Titania, has gone off on his own doing things independent from the Abbey, and wants Artorius' blood nearly as much as Velvet's. For all these quirks, he is one of a very small handful of people to hold the title of Legate and shows he has earned the title after being shown to be an extremely competent fighter.
• The Brute: The World's Strongest Man who doesn't give a damn about the Abbey's secret agenda and only wants a good fight.
• Cain and Abel: He was the Abel to human Rokurou's Cain. Having only followed the clan's duty of successors killing clan heads before their fight, he knew Rokurou had spread the lie about him planning a coup but never held it against Rokurou. Towards his now daemon brother he treats him with the same amount of respect and gets it returned, with the two drinking together before their final fight.
• Cats Are Snarkers: Due to having her freedom, Morgrim acts this way but in a far more polite tone.
• Duel Boss: He's fought three times. The first time he's battled, it's just with Rokurou. The other two times, the party joins in. But even then, the last of those three fights ends with Rokurou and Shigure squaring off one-on-one.
• The Dreaded: More subtle than most examples, but everyone who's aware of Shigure's power treats him with utmost respect. Despite his drive to beat him in a fair fight, Rokurou won't go up against Shigure without a new trick to level the field. Nobody in the Abbey, not even Melchior, even pretends they can tell him what to do. Artorius heavily implies he lets Shigure get away with it because he knows he'd be dead the moment Shigure decided he needed to be stopped.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": While everyone refers to him as Shigure, his true name is actually "Ichirou". "Shigure" is just the title given to the head of the Rangetsu clan.
• Everyone Has Standards: Unlike everyone else in the Abbey, he permitted his personal Malak to have freedom and treats her as a living being. To become Shigure he had to kill his mother, the previous Shigure, in combat. Later on he came across her as a malak turned dragon, but he could not bring himself to kill her again. Further digging into the sidequests revealed more information on his past such as having distaste towards the clan to the point of leaving and that he loathed deceitful behavior more than anything.
• Face Death with Dignity: Absorbed by Velvet with a smile on his face after being beaten by Rokurou.
• Foreshadowing: At one point in the game, he makes a note about how a good sword needs a good amount of flexibility or else it will risk breaking in regards Rokurou's new weapon upgrade, but directs it towards Artorius in a tone of criticism. Come the final battle, suppressing his emotions ends up becoming Artorius's downfall when he succumbs to them.
• Four-Star Badass: One of only two Exorcists in the entire Abbey to hold the rank of legate.
• Graceful Loser: He takes his defeat with grace and accepts his fate. He even congratulates his brother on his victory.
• Hates Being Alone: Sidequest dialogue reveals he was not very happy when alone, which is implied to be one of the main reasons he gave Morgrim her free will back.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Prior to the final fight with him, he reveals that his Malak, Morgrim, isn't empowering him like malakhim usually do to exorcists. In fact she's limiting his power as a training method - when she first did it he could hardly move, and he trained himself to the point of being so strong he whooped the party's ass in the previous fights with the limiter on. For the final fight he orders Morgrim to release her bindings.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: He grooms and defleas Morgrim as part of their pact and the two care about each other. After Rokurou finally defeats him, his last request is that the party spares Morgrim.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": He doesn't get too loud about it, but Shigure is audibly excited when he sees Rokurou brandishing a Stormquell made of orichalcum. When Kurogane makes the final Stormquell out of his own body, Shigure is amazed at the sight.
• Last Request: Before he dies, he asks the group to let Morgrim go, and they respect the request.
• Manchild: In a very similar way to Rokurou. While not immature he has a fairly simple outlook on life, being largely unconcerned about anything but fighting, completely uncaring about anything besides a good fight and doing as he pleases regardless of what anyone says.
• Master Swordsman: Although he mainly fights using a single sword, he's also skilled at his family's short sword style. In the past, he defeated Rokurou with a single short sword while the latter used a Stormhowl replica. After his second boss fight, Rokurou lets Shigure stab his hand with Stormhowl to create an opening, but Shigure uses his free hand to grab Rokurou's broken Stormhowl replica and block Rokurou's attack.
• Mentor Archetype: Subverted in that while there are several Exorcists in the Abbey learning the Rangetsu sword style, he doesn't teach them in the conventional manner. Rokurou even says that Shigure would "never take on a student."
  Rokurou: Let me guess. He taught you a few things one time when he was super bored, and then crushed you with them.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: He doesn't care for Artorius's goal to change the world and the Abbey's agenda, even hinting at knowing that Artorius is always on the verge of becoming a daemon due to his despair. He only stands by them just so he can fight an armatized Artorius when the arte is completed. Artorius even admits Shigure wants his blood nearly as much as Velvet does.
• Power Limiter: Morgrim doesn't enhance his power but actually restricts it as a form of training. In the final battle against him he removes the Power Limiter to have one final fight. When he reveals this, Magilou reacts with horror.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "I don't even need to dodge! It'll be the same every time! RANGETSU EAGLE!"
• The Rival: To his brother Rokurou.
• Reincarnation: After being fatally founded by Rokkurou and devoured by Velvet, he's used as a vessel for Musiphe, reincarnating him as the Elemental Empyrean of fire.
• Scars Are Forever: A light-hearted example. The markings on his chin are cat scratches, which he got from Morgrim when he got too affectionate with her one time and she retaliated.
• Sibling Rivalry: With Rokurou.
• Sweet Tooth: His favorite food is yozakura anmitsu, which is a type of dessert. Rokurou explains that it's cherry blossom-flavored sweet bean paste, black sesame ice cream, and fruit.
• Token Good Teammate: Shigure is the only member of the Exorcists to be both social and relaxed about the whole thing, largely because he doesn't give a single damn about their ideals. He's also the only one who allows his Malak to have his own free will, arrives early to peacefully clear bystanders out of the area when he's ready to test Rokurou again, and in general he seeks a good challenge rather than some evil ambition.
• Undying Loyalty: His sole Malak companion follows him willingly because she was permitted to have her free will.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Doesn't wear a shirt, showing his chest off at all times.
• Wild Card: While he's ultimately working for the Abbey, Shigure is more often than not prone to going off and doing his own thing.
• Worthy Opponent: Craves them. He basically says out loud he's let Rokurou survive all their clashes because he knows it'll be a fight to remember when his little brother gets his act together, and supports Artorius not out of ideaology but because he'd make a legendary opponent when his armatization works.
• You Are Number 6: Rokurou explains that Shigure is the first son, and his real name is Ichirou. "Shigure" is the title of the head of the Rangetsu clan.

Melchior Mayvin

Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (JP), Darin De Paul (EN)

A legate elder, well-versed in legends and a master of alchemy, who advises Artorius.

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• An Ice Person: In the last battle against him in mount Killaraus, he uses ice artes against the party. Magilou even says it's one of his strengths.
• Arch-Enemy: To both Eizen (for capturing Aifread and turning him into a Daemon) and Magilou (for casting her aside as his pupil and breaking her heart countless times).
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He was able to make out the properties and nature of Siegfried within the two shots used.
• Badass Bookworm: He mostly functions as support by being a strategist, but he's still a powerful arte-wielder.
• Bad Boss: He turns Malakhim into Dragons to make them strong enough to kill Velvet. Not even other Exorcists are safe when they die from the faulty armatization arte in droves.
• Combat Pragmatist: Magilou makes it very clear that Melchior will use any tricks up his sleeve in order to gain victory. Be it with illusions, turning Malakhim into Dragons, sending a Daemonized Aifread after the party, and using Armatization on himself. Even after he's been defeated, he resorts to trying to make Mt. Killaraus erupt so that he can eliminate the party with him.
• Defiant to the End: While being cornered by the party in his last fight, in a last effort to defeat them, he tries to erupt mount Killaraus. Luckily for the heroes, Magilou manages to cast an illusion of flowers (whom Melchior tries to not step in, as he loves flowers above all), distracting him enough to give Velvet the chance to kill him.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: During a climactic confrontation with the party, he quotes a speech from Claudin expressing the hero's belief that humanity will one day overcome the emotions that cause Malevolence. As a couple of Normin imply and some optional dialog later confirms, he's taking those lines completely out of context; the original speech was Claudin explaining his belief that humanity is strong enough to thrive despite constantly producing Malevolence. Whether Melchior is suffering Motive Decay in his old age or had his own plans from the start is left as an exercise for the player.
• Enemy Scan: He has an arte that can analyze the properties of Siegfried in order to understand the nature of the gun.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As hard as it might be for him to admit it, a part of him always had a weak spot for Magilou. Even after discarding her when she failed her final test, he couldn't bring himself to kill her and let Bienfu take her. A stark contrast to his usual Bad Boss tendencies.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: More specifically, Order cannot comprehend Chaos. He just can't seem to get his mind around the fact Velvet could purge herself of despair by embracing the fact she's a flawed being with blood on her hands and a heart full of contradictions instead of allowing herself to be overwhelmed with guilt as his morality would demand.
• Evil Genius: Melchior is the oldest and wisest of the Exorcists and the mastermind behind Innominat's summoning ritual.
• Evil Mentor: Was once Magilou's teacher.
• Evil Old Folks: Is one of, if not the oldest exorcists at least several centuries and very much a Bad Boss.
• Foreshadowing: There is a skit that plays shortly before fighting him, where Magilou describes Melchoir as knowing every trick that Magilou or any of the exorcists would know, along with knowing exactly what the party is capable of, along with the fact that the party is almost certainly following Melchior into a trap. Magilou claims that Melchior has no weaknesses, but Eizen encourages Magilou to not give up...
  Eizen: "Let's take another hard look. What we need might be lying right at our feet."'
  Magilou, thinking: "At our feet, eh? I'll keep my eyes on the ground as we walk, then."
• Fusion Dance: Armatizes with a water Malak in his boss fight.
• General Ripper: As a Legate, he has no problem sacrificing Exorcists or Malakhim to deal with Velvet.
• Greater-Scope Villain: As seen under The Heavy and Evil Genius entries, he's ultimately responsible for nearly every terrible thing the Abbey does. He is the only Abbey member who is largely unsympathetic in his motives. He's hinted to have been behind Celica's death as well, meaning he set the entire plot into motion, and is directly responsible for nearly every bad thing that happens in the story.
• The Heavy: While Melchior isn't the cause of things like the Daemonblight, he's ultimately the one who walks Artorius down his path towards becoming an antagonist and convinced him to have Celica reincarnated as a Malak, which produced Laphicet.
• Hero-Worshipper: He believes all his actions are fulfilling the will of his late friend and fellow Exorcist Claudin Asgard, who he often praises for his ideals for the world. Even his last words to Velvet express his anger at her for standing in the way of Claudin's ideals rather than fear of his own death. The Oath that extended his life was done to get into Claudin's good graces all those years ago. That said, the Normin companions of Claudin and Artorius suggest Melchior has in fact distorted Claudin's noble ideals into what's seen in the story.
• High-Class Glass: Wears a monocle in nearly all his appearances. Only in his final fight is it gone.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He's a master of illusions and taught Magilou everything she knows about magic.He's ultimately defeated when Magilou tricks him with an incredibly simple illusion of a flower distracting him long enough to let Velvet eat him.
• Irony: Much like his allies, his emotions do him in despite his anti-free will ideology. His love for flowers causes him to hesitate in his Taking You with Me attempt on the party.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: His Malak taps into peoples hearts to create the illusions, trapping them in a dream of their own making.
• Making a Splash: Alongside with ice, he also uses water artes in his last boss fight, as a result of armatizating with a water malak.
• The Man Behind the Man: To Artorius. As seen by The Heavy, many many events in the game were orchestrated or influenced by him, mainly directing Artorius down the path he went down.
• Manipulative Bastard: The man's extremely cunning, having plans set years in advance to help the Abbey's agenda. He was behind the accident that prevented Magilou from being executed for witchcraft to appear as a savior to her, set a trap to steal the secrets of the gun Siegfried held by Zaveid to create armatization, had planned a year in advance for Magilou to join Velvet at Titania, placing a spell on Bienfu to make him into an unwilling spy, and heavily implied to have had a hand in the Opening that cost Celica and her unborn son's life, conveniently appearing just as Artorius was broken by his loss to corrupt him.
• Master of Illusion: What he usually does to the party. First, he uses his illusion power to mess with Eizen. He creates illusions of Edna, which leaves Eizen shocked, along with a chained Van Aifread. His second illusion attempt is with Velvet. Trapping her and the party in an illusion of her village where all of her friends and the villagers are still alive with her brother Laphicet.
• Meaningful Name: Named after the Biblical Magi Melchior, who brought the gift of gold to Jesus, fitting for a mentor-like figure to the Messianic Archetype of the game.
• Nature Lover: Loves to preserve nature, flowers specifically. It's what does him in when Magilou casts magic that produces a flower near his feet. While he's distracted by not stepping on it, Velvet eats him with her left hand.
• Parental Substitute: He took Magilou in and raised her as his daughter, before eventually abandoning her.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "Imprisoned by the coldest cold, there you shall perish! ABSOLUTE PRISON!"
• Pride: As an ancient Manipulative Bastard Master of Illusion, he's very confident not only of his plans but his own skills. This bites him in the ass at the end as he grabs the Villain Ball and goes to fight the group despite knowing that without him, they can't call on the Empyreans.
• Pure Is Not Good: Magilou claims that he's pure of heart, which means he's just that much of a Knight Templar in creating a world of "reason". Ironically, his resistance to gaining malevolence makes him perfect for being the "shadow" of the Abbey, since he can do their dirty work without becoming a daemon.
• Really 700 Years Old: In the final battle against him, Magilou reveals that he's been using an Oath to artificially extend his lifespan. She estimates that he's at least centuries years old at this point.
• Reincarnation: After being devoured by Velvet, he's used as a vessel for Eumacia, reincarnating him as the Elemental Empyrean of earth.
• Taking You with Me: After the party defeats him, he tries to pull this off by erupting Mount Killaraus. Luckily, they managed to stop him in time.
• Vicariously Ambitious: During Artorius's attempted retirement in Aball, Melchior was technically the highest ranking member of the Abbey. It's implied that he manipulated the events of the Opening in order to make Artorius take over as the Abbey's leader. He also develops Armatization so that Artorius can take control of Innominat and rule the world as a god. This is because his borderline sociopathic "purity" makes him more suited to act as the Abbey's "shadow" rather than its leader.
• We Can Rule Together: Tries to convince Magilou to the Abbey's side, with the response being her adamant refusal.

Van Aifread

Voiced by: Yukitoshi Hori (JP)

The captain of Aifread's pirates who transformed into a Daemon. Once held in the same prison as Velvet, he was freed by Melchior but his whereabouts are unknown for a while.

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• Almost Dead Guy: Gives the party information in regards to the Four Elemental Empyreans before dying.
• Anti-Villain: Aifread isn't a villain by choice, since he was Brainwashed and Crazy by Melchior and turned into a Daemon against his will.
• Badass Normal: According to Zaveid, he was able to fight him on equal footing despite being a regular human. Possibly subverted in that it was implied he used Siegfried to power up.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Just like Eizen, Aifread fights primarily with his fists.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Broken mentally by Melchior's illusions, and later Innominat completes it by consuming his will.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: He defeat the entire Van Eltia crew offscreen and leaves them injured, including the ones who are Therions and Daemons. And this is before he uses Siegfried to power himself up.
• Dark Is Evil: Has pitch black skin, uses darkness, and has dark purple mixed in. Just to make it clear how he's a villainous Daemon.
• Determinator: The man managed to keep himself from breaking due to Melchior's illusions for seven days. Even after it he tries to defy him on an instinctual level.
• The Dreaded: According to Dyle, Aifread is so feared among the seas that he manages to strike fear in the hearts of both humans and Daemons alike.
• Dying as Yourself: Laphicet purifies him after his final fight.
• Fallen Hero: Aifread was once a pirate who defied the Abbey and even was willing to help free Malakhim like Zaveid. However Melchior broke him, turned him into a Daemon, and made him fight the heroes.
• Horned Humanoid: He has two purple bull like horns on his head.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Subverted. Even though Laphicet tries hard to make Aifread realize what he's doing, the rest of the party, including Eizen, knows full well that the original Aifread is gone. However, that doesn't stop Eizen from pulling off a big speech about his creed to the Aifread pirates, and it takes that along with a single punch to his torso to make Aifread regain his will. After he's purified by Laphicet, he dies as his original self.
• Informed Attribute: Eizen, Zaveid, and the crew talk about how powerful and badass Aifread is - the player however does not see this. in fact, when he's fought, he's actually rather easy. This is a pretty rare justification of this trope though - because he's pretty clearly not the Aifread that others knew, he's Brainwashed and Crazy and it is essentially a mercy kill.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: What his crew seems to paint him as. He's prone to mood swings but was also the first person to accept Eizen despite his curse.
• Lean and Mean: His body has an unhealthy shape with a torso too small and thin to properly support his arms and head. He's also a brute enforcer acting on the Abbey's behalf.
• Mercy Kill: Ultimately what the group does to him.
• Purple Is Powerful: Along with black and white, he is colored with purple skin, along with two purple horns, as well as purple in his darkness element. His captain's outfit as a human is also purple.
• Reforged into a Minion: From a fearsome and defiant pirate to a daemon servant to Melchior.
• Silent Antagonist: Due to being brainwashed, he does not speak as a daemon, save the occasional grunting. He doesn't even say anything when performing his Mystic Arte.
• Would Not Hurt A Child: According to Eizen, he would have never done this when he was himself.

Seres

Voiced by: Satomi Arai (JP), Monica Rial (EN)

A Malak who serves Artorius, Seres has begun to question her master's motives and mission now that she's regained her free will.

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• Amnesiac Dissonance: She helped Artorius kill Laphicet before she recovered her memories of being Celica. Seres refuses to consider herself to be Celica because she doesn't want to believe that Celica would be capable of such a thing.
• Animal Motif: Butterflies.
• Cool Mask: A butterfly-shaped half-mask that goes over her eyes.
• Crutch Character: During the prison island level, she'll be assisting Velvet with powerful magic and healing spells.
• Defector from Decadence: She frees Velvet after realizing that Artorius has crossed the line in his goals. After Velvet consumes her in the game it's suggested this started from when she saw him kill Velvet's younger brother on the Scarlet Night.
• Duel Boss: After the timeskip, Seres jumps into Velvet's cell to fight the latter one-on-one in order to test if she's worth helping.
• Expy: Seres draws heavily from Lailah, having a similar hair style and color, outfit, and the same element.
• Familiar: For Artorius, though she eventually defected.
• Fiery Redhead: While calm and composed, she tells Velvet that like her, there within her is a fire that she cannot be quenched. Later in the game, it's implied that the fire was her memories of her past life as Celica, which fueled her to betray Artorius and free her sister.
• Guest-Star Party Member: She accompanies Velvet during the escape from Titania, but is not directly controllable by the player.
• He Was Right There All Along: The memories of her shown during her death reveal she's been living close to Velvet and her family for years without them ever realizing it. This is noticeable in the anime due to it never revealing this info.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She takes a fatal blow for Velvet against the drake, then, allows Velvet to devour her to help her defeat the rampaging drake.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: Quite a bit of her chest is exposed.
• Locked into Strangeness: As a malak reincarnated from a human, she lost her human black hair and gold eyes in favour of red hair and red eyes befitting her fire element.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: She's Velvet's older sister who was sacrificed in a previous Scarlet Night and reincarnated as a Malak along with her unborn son Laphicet.
• Mama Bear: Part of her vengeance is fueled by the fact that her unborn son became a sacrifice and tool of the Abbey. Even visiting Laphicet to apologize for her failures as his mother.
• Ms. Fanservice: Red hair, bigger breasts than Velvet, Sexy Backless Outfit, Zettai Ryouiki, and so forth. She's very attractive.
• Mark of the Supernatural: As a fire elemental malak, she has red hair white tips. Interestingly enough, it is the exact opposite of most seraphim from Tales of Zestiria, whose hair were white with colored tips.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Downplayed as her plunging neckline just barely reaches her midsection.
• Not So Stoic: Two instances. One is when she sheds a tear before Velvet devours her, telling her that she cherished the memories of her family as Celica. The second is prior to her freeing Velvet from prison, when she confided to Laphicet of her suffering as a reincarnated Malak, then apologizing as a "failed mother".
  • There's also a lesser moment when she starts yelling upon finding Stormhowl in the equipment room in Titania. It's not until a repeat playthrough that one realizes she can't tell the difference between the real Stormhowl and the inferior copy in front of her, and was terrified that Shigure might be somewhere nearby.
• Playing with Fire: Specializes in fire-based artes.
• Red Herring: Seres bears so many similarities to Lailah that people expected her to be revealed as Lailah. Instead she turns out to be Velvet's older sister, and Artorius' wife, reincarnated as a malak.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Shows off quite a lot of backside, though her shoulders are covered.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Subverted. Without her mask, her facial features are quite similar to Velvet, even though they are technically not related, Seres being her sister's reincarnation. This does however serve as a contrast to her former self as Celica, who more closely resembled their brother Laphicet.
• Thanatos Gambit: While the exact details weren't clear, she always intended to die by Velvet's hands, depriving the Abbey of the Sorcerer's Ring.
• That Man Is Dead: She views her human life as this, seeing herself as a different person who simply carried the memories of Celica.
• Trailers Always Spoil: While Zestiria the X itself spoils the fact that she dies early on, the last few trailers show Seres talking to Velvet outside of the Island Prison, indicating she exists in some manner later on.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Averted. Even though she gets consumed by Velvet early on, more of her backstory is eventually revealed later in the game, and it turns out that she's the reincarnation of Celica. And judging by her interactions in Velvet's dreams, she must be alive in some form inside Velvet.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Melchior and Artorius used an oath to place the ancient arte formula in her body that would create Brunhilt, the Sorcerer's Ring, which will allow them to create armatization and control Innominat, at the eventual cost of her life.