Dhaos

Player Name: Endless
Contact: FistFullofMagic on Plurk
Referred by: Me, Endless
Other characters: Nikkari Aoe

Character Name: Dhaos
Series: Tales of Phantasia
Canon Point: prior to the unfortunate incident with Reisen, anime timeline
Summary/History: Everything up to the point he arrives on Aselia is consistent with canon in the Animation.
After that he’s just been kinda hanging around Aselia, keeping an eye on the tree and watching the inhabitants of the planet either try their best, not be of any particular help, or be the reason we can’t have nice things. Later the point where things become relevant to the protags will start happening, but he hasn’t reached that point yet. Dhaos has been on Aselia long enough though for the elves to be A) aware of his existence, and B) have them kind of imply to the protag party that time travel or no, his arrival point was somewhere in time out of living memory for them. Given that elves can live up to a thousand years in this canon…

Personality:
One of the more noticeable features of his personality if one knows anything of his motivations whatsoever is that he is an exceedingly loyal person. It is from this sense of loyalty that the majority of his actions stem, for good and for ill. The well-being of those he cares about is far more important to him than his own personal safety, although he is not reckless as incurring injury would make it more difficult to look after those he needs to look after. The point that this is most evident is where the party fight him in the Present: as he flees that fight, he says that he cannot afford the possibility of his body being damaged. While this sounds a bit arrogant, paying attention to the specific phrasing and keeping in mind the fact that he needs to live long enough to return home with a mana seed, it's clear that it was a statement of fact from a man who just referred to himself as if he were nothing more than an important tool in saving his world. While he hasn’t gotten quite to the point of considering his own desires beyond safeguarding his people as entirely unimportant at his canon point here, this is a noted mindset that Dhaos rather leans towards.

If left to his own devices he's a very calm person with a tendency to speak very formally and generally not more than strictly necessary. Dhaos is not naturally inclined toward violence, preferring it as a last resort to solving problems diplomatically. This is evidenced in the fact that every time the option of speaking with others to solve things without bloodshed is open, he attempts to take that route. Even when not possible, he attempts to minimize the casualties as much as possible, and despises himself for the deaths he causes. Without conflict, he's actually rather gentle natured; so much so that wildlife does not fear him, and are perfectly willing to snuggle against him and perch on his shoulders.

Thing is, for all that his natural inclination is to be a rather gentle soul, he is terrifying when he decides that someone or something is in his way and cannot be removed peacefully. The phrase "Beware the nice ones" very much applies to Dhaos. Yes, he is a kind person, but if he has people to defend and/or is driven to insanity, and then backed into a corner where the best possible result in his mind requires it... Well, canon as far as the protags witness happens. It is this same kindness that makes him hate himself so deeply for the people he eventually hurts to save his world, and for failing to prevent the damage in the first place. This is evidenced in the previously mentioned point about how he refers to himself when the protagonists meet him, and in that his reaction to finding out that his planet is in grave peril that he could theoretically have prevented was to desire to stay behind and go down with the ship, so to speak.

It should also be noted that he is a massive nerd about all things about space.

Powers/Abilities:
Dhaos is an exceedingly powerful mage. How powerful exactly? Well, it's slightly difficult to gauge precisely given that the times he's seen in canon are times when he is running dangerously low on mana. Given that he demonstrates the ability to make a jump through time - a feat in itself impressive in that it takes so much mana to accomplish that successfully sending a single person through time would require over a dozen accomplished mages to exhaust all of their mana - after having been living solely on his magic for a decade, this is exceptionally impressive. Moreso in that he has the ability to move through space-time between planets and most likely between solar systems. In short, comparing his full reserve of mana to a normal person's is somewhat like comparing Lake Superior to a small pond.

These are his battle powers.

Other powers include the ability to create and maintain barriers around himself or other things in his vicinity, flight, telepathy, some degree of hypnosis (specifically the ability to bring out the dark desires in people so that they'll help him), a reduced need for sleep, and in extreme circumstances not needing to eat or breathe for periods of over a decade if necessary. His physical strength is also greater than of a human, as are his senses of smell, sight, and hearing. Somewhat hilariously, he gained his level of power – though not the individual skills, which he did actually practice – in the way of One Punch Man (i.e., he did perfectly normal daily training starting when he was young and ended up accidentally making himself an eldritch abomination.)

He also happens to have an inexplicable weakness to electrical magic.

Items on your character:
All he’s got are the clothes on his back.

PLAYER INFO

Name: Endless
Contact Information: PMing fistfullofmagic is one way, although Plurk (FistFullofMagic) is better for extended planning. Be sure to PM me before adding me on Plurk.
Time Zone: UTC-8:00
Characters Played: N/A


CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Dhaos
Character Canon: Tales of Phantasia (taken from the OVA timeline)

History:
Everything up to the point he arrives on Aselia is consistent with canon in the Animation.
This is the gist of what happens after he gets to Aselia, barring an indeterminate amount of time he spent observing the world while waiting for the tree to produce a mana seed. He mentions observing humanity for centuries, but given his ability to time travel and the uncertainty of how (and if) he ages, it's uncertain if that time was centuries in total or after a series of jumps through time.


AU History:
Dhaos was born thirty one winters ago to a noble couple, his father a councilman and his mother a Ranger. As he grew, they were quite relieved to discover that he was a very well-mannered child, for their jobs made them both quite busy. It helped that he got along so well with the Pokemon of the area, so that he was never terribly lonely. It was through his bond with a Zubat that encouraged him to eventually become a researcher in order to help Pokemon and humans foster an even deeper understanding between themselves.

Time passed, and things for him remained relatively uneventful. The boy grew into a bright young man, successfully became a researcher, and devoted much of his time to his work.

On a day that was otherwise unremarkable, Dhaos was introduced to a new coworker. Karion was her name. Although neither could have known it at the time, they would grow to be close friends, fall in love, and eventually marry. At some point between this and present day, his mother disappeared during a mission and his father died of natural causes.

On January 24th, he, Karion, and a small team of other researchers were working in the Old City when the earthquake hit. The area they were in collapsed, burying them in rubble. Only Karion's quick thinking to push her husband out of the way of the brunt of it allowed Dhaos to live through it at the cost of her own life. He spent the next months grieving and attempting to deal with his resulting survivor's guilt. He's doing his best not to hate Team Evolution too much for their part in the incident since they claim that they never intended to cause any harm, but... well, understandably he's never going to forgive them for it.


Canon Personality:
Though called a demon and thought by near the entire population of Aselia to be a heartless evil being, Dhaos is most certainly not. As powerful as he is, as much destruction as he has caused, he is no monster; merely a man in a situation that forces him to become a villain in order for every living thing on his world not to wither and die. Had circumstances been different, his personality has a number of traits that would have served him well in the role of a more heroic figure rather than the tragic villain that he became.

One of the more noticeable features of his personality if one knows anything of his motivations whatsoever is that he is an exceedingly loyal person. It is from this sense of loyalty that the majority of his actions stem, for good and for ill. The well-being of those he cares about is far more important to him than his own personal safety, although he is not reckless as incurring injury would make it more difficult to look after those he needs to look after. The point that this is most evident is where the party fight him in the Present: as he flees that fight, he says that he cannot afford the possibility of his body being damaged. While this sounds a bit arrogant, paying attention to the specific phrasing and keeping in mind the fact that he needs to live long enough to return home with a mana seed, it's clear that it was a statement of fact from a man who just referred to himself as if he were nothing more than an important tool in saving his world.

If left to his own devices he's a very calm person with a tendency to speak very formally and generally not more than strictly necessary. Dhaos is not naturally inclined toward violence, preferring it as a last resort to solving problems diplomatically. This is evidenced in the fact that every time the option of speaking with others to solve things without bloodshed is open, he attempts to take that route. Even when not possible, he attempts to minimize the casualties as much as possible, and despises himself for the deaths he causes. Without conflict, he's actually rather gentle natured; so much so that wildlife does not fear him, and are perfectly willing to snuggle against him and perch on his shoulders.

Thing is, for all that his natural inclination is to be a rather gentle soul, he is terrifying when he decides that someone or something is in his way and cannot be removed peacefully. The phrase "Beware the nice ones" very much applies to Dhaos. Yes, he is a kind person, but if he has people to defend and/or driven to insanity, and then backed into a corner where the best possible result in his mind requires it... Well, canon happens. It is this same kindness that makes him hate himself so deeply for the people he hurts to save his world, and for failing to prevent the damage in the first place. This is evidenced in the previously mentioned point about how he refers to himself when the protagonists meet him, and in that his reaction to finding out that his planet is in grave peril that he could theoretically have prevented was to desire to stay behind and go down with the ship, so to speak.

On the scale of the four temperment types as described by David Keirsey, Dhaos is fairly easily identified as having a subset of the Guardian temperament.


AU Deviation:
In many ways, Dhaos as he is in this AU is more like Dhaos as he was long before the events of Tales of Phantasia. Without the immense burdens of being the leader of a country and the sole hope of Derris-Kharlan's survival, and centuries of pain and loneliness, he is a far more sane individual than his canon counterpart. He has had neither the time nor reason to gain nearly as dim a view of humanity.

He still holds the pain of loss, but the loss of Karion and his coworkers is not compounded by that of everyone else he was close to and over a hundred thousand lives besides. With only the weight of the loss of a few instead of over a hundred thousand and the impending loss of the rest of his world, he's infinitely less desperate than he was. This is further helped by the fact that unlike in canon, he has both the time to properly grieve and people and pokemon to help support him Given Team Evolution's involvement in the cause of the earthquake that caused the death of his most precious person and caused much damage to Union though, he's... rather decidedly unhappy with them, and very much considers them a threat. He's certainly not at the point that he would murder the ones directly responsible on sight as his canon counterpart would have, but it is entirely possible he will not forgive the members that showed up in Union for as long as he lives. Team Evolution has proven to him that unless they can be convinced to alter their ways, there may be a great conflict in the future. As much as he does not like them, he dearly hopes for the sake of Union and all the innocents that may be caught in the crossfire that it will not come to that...

On a lighter note, besides his grief for the loss of his wife and a good portion of his friends, he's a good deal happier than in canon. Without having been forced into a position where leading a large number of people was necessary, here he was able to fully devote himself to helping people as a scholar rather than as royalty.

Canon Abilities:
Dhaos is an exceedingly powerful mage. How powerful exactly? Well, it's slightly difficult to gauge precisely given that the times he's seen in canon are times when he is running dangerously low on mana. Given that he demonstrates the ability to make a jump through time - a feat in itself impressive in that it takes so much mana to accomplish that successfully sending a single person through time would require over a dozen accomplished mages to exhaust all of their mana - after having been living solely on his magic for a decade, this is exceptionally impressive. Moreso in that he has the ability to move through space-time between planets and most likely between solar systems. In short, comparing his full reserve of mana to a normal person's is somewhat like comparing Lake Superior to a small pond.

These are his battle powers.
Other powers include the ability to create and maintain barriers around himself or other things in his vicinity, flight, telepathy, some degree of hypnosis (specifically the ability to bring out the dark desires in people so that they'll help him), a reduced need for sleep, and in extreme circumstances not needing to eat or breathe for periods of over a decade if necessary. His physical strength is also greater than of a human, as are his senses of smell, sight, and hearing.

He also happens to have an inexplicable weakness to electrical magic.

Enlightened Abilities:
Dhaos is a Psychic/Water type Enlightened with the Child of the Verdant Forest specialization. As his wide variety of elemental magic is nigh impossible to replicate in this setting, the physical differences caused by being something of an eldritch abomination do not transfer over, and the time travel shenanigans are something only two particular legendaries are capable of, here his powers are based more on the magic that transfers well over to psychic abilities and keeping the one elemental type that fits best with his personality.

Starting out, his physical attack power here is about the same as any human of his size that keeps themselves in good physical condition... It's just that he happens to be about six foot seven. In general his powers are more geared toward defense. At this level he can produce barriers that can absorb most of the energy of attacks, albeit for no more than two minutes at a go and requires fairly intense concentration. He can grab, lift, and throw objects up to the approximate mass of himself via telekinesis. The distance he's able to throw them is directly proportional to how much force he could put behind it if he were to throw the object the normal way, plus factoring in how aerodynamic the object in question is. While he can lift multiple objects at once, their total mass cannot exceed his own mass. This can be self-directed to allow him to hover for a couple minutes, although the most lift he can really achieve is about knee height. Teleportation is also something he can do. Not sure on the range as of yet, but he specializes more in rapidfire teleportation over short distances than long distance. He can read people/pokemon's surface thoughts if he devotes a sizable portion of his attention to it, and if he devotes almost all of his effort, he can pinpoint where a specific individual is within a certain range. Lastly, he has one water attack that's basically equivalent to Water Pulse.

As he evolves his abilities mostly just increase in range or duration. The telekinesis will work its way up to actual flight. Water Pulse will eventually work its way up to roughly mimicking this spell. At all evolutionary stages he can exceed the specified limits for psychic abilities, but he will damage himself by doing so, thus making it a last resort. I can divide up when he learns things if need be.

Starter Pokémon:
A level 8 Zubat, which is a descendant of the one mentioned in his backstory.

Notes/Special Considerations:
None I can think of at the moment.

SAMPLES

First-Person:
-What would you say the role of Pokémon is in your life?
Pokemon are... I suppose it would not be an exaggeration to say that my life revolves around them. My main field of study heavily involves researching pokemon, and my abilities allow me to better communicate with them. [A smile. It seems... almost sad.] I find them rather pleasing company as well.

-What do you feel your role in Union is?
..... [He just explained this. Kindly do not make him answer this a second time.]

-What do you seek for humanity’s future?
I seek to better the relationship between humans and pokemon. [Yes, that's really it.]

-To what lengths would you go to rescue your allies if they were lost in the wilderness?
If strictly necessary, I suppose I might mount a rescue effort myself and perhaps ask the aid of some of the local Pokemon. However, I believe that under most circumstances it would be far better to contact the Rangers about the matter. I may be a field researcher, but I have not been trained to carry out search and rescue missions as they have.

-What would you say the most important occupation is within Union?
I would not say that any occupation is more important than another, as all are necessary to keep the city functioning in some capacity. Some simply have their contributions acknowledged more than most.

-The gods of old have returned. How would you be judged if you were chosen as a representative of humanity?
A difficult question. Is this based upon my words, or upon my actions? [He ponders this a moment.] ...Regardless, I would hope that I would be looked upon well. With the gods as unknowable as they are, I cannot say how I nor anyone else might be judged. ...Or if the gods would even care... [He seems to come back to himself, and shakes his head lightly.] Nevermind. I forget myself at times these days.

-A human has attacked a wild Pokémon who retaliates in defense. How do you respond and whom do you defend?
[He shifts uncomfortably at the question.] ...I suppose it would depend entirely upon the circumstances. I do not like the thought of a human attacking a pokemon for reasons beyond hunting.

-When encountering a rare and powerful Pokémon, what is most important? Researching it, bonding with it, or defeating it? Why?
[He gives a small, thoughtful frown and takes a moment to consider the answer.] ...I suppose that given the nature of my research, bonding with it would be most beneficial to long-term study. I should rather like to speak to the ones spoken of in legend, even if bonding would likely not be possible.

-What do you do to ensure we never again awaken the wrath of the gods upon humanity?
[He smiles at this question.] It is no guarantee that they will never see us as a threat again, but I believe my work to bring a greater understanding between humans and Pokemon may help preserve the peace, if only a small amount.

-In your eyes, what is absolutely unforgivable.
[His eyes narrow slightly and purses his lips for a moment before responding in a carefully neutral tone.] To act for personal gain with no regard for the welfare of others, and to intentionally cause permanent harm to another for any reason other than the defense of one's self or others. I cannot condone intentionally attempting to destroy any knowledge either. There are reasons to temporarily hide knowledge that is more likely to cause greater harm than good at a particular time, but attempting to purge its existence can only lead to ruin.
[He purses his lips momentarily, then shifts his gaze to his hands.]
...I wish to end the interview now.



Third-Person:
He could feel it; even from deep within his castle he could feel that horrible weapon – the Mana Cannon – misfire, and the massive drain on the world’s mana. Those fools! He’d warned them that infernal contraption would bring nothing but destruction and despair long ago, and yet they had still ignored him!
…Regardless, now was not the time for dwelling on that. Prevention hadn’t worked, so now was the time for damage control. Dhaos took a deep breath to calm himself, then set off in a south-easterly direction. Yggdrasil could perhaps be saved yet.
--------
When he arrived at his destination, Dhaos found he was not the first: a group of three was already there. A blond girl – a Cleric if he were to judge by her healer’s garb – was attempting to use her divine magic to repair the damage done to the World Tree, and it seemed that the spirit of Yggdrasil had set up a barrier in an instinctual effort to keep herself and the little healer from further harm. Not the best course of action, for he could see that to heal the tree it would take more energy than the girl alone had, even were the life to be extracted from her very bones. Still, her companions didn’t seem to be able to help, so it was time he stepped in.
Breaching the barrier was a simple task, though he was fairly certain this was because the tree could sense his motives were merely to assist it. He paused for a moment as one of the girl’s companions – the swordsman, though he still looked more a boy than a man – started yelling something about Dhaos being a coward; to face him instead of harming “Mint.” A strange and very human sentiment, that thought. Why would the boy think that he would kill the girl first, had that been his intent at all? No matter. He resumed his stride, stopping in front of the little cleric. Surprisingly, especially given that she seemed to share the belief that he was there to kill her, she begged not for her life, but for him to wait until she had completed her task. Though incorrect in her assumption, he could certainly respect the courage it took to make a request like that in the face of what appeared to be a powerful enemy intent on your demise. Thus Dhaos couldn’t blame her initial flinch when he raised his hand, though she relaxed minutely when he placed his hand over the one she had placed on Yggdrasil’s trunk. Though he had not been chosen for the task, he would gladly give his power to aid Mint in saving the only thing with the power to save his beloved world...

Name: Dhaos
Age: even he doesn't know beyond a few hundred years, and probably under 500