app for empatheias

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Pur
Contact: PM
Age: 30
Current Characters: None


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Asch the Bloody
Age: 17
Canon: Tales of the Abyss (game only).
Canon Point: On Eldrant, after he’s fallen into the trap but before the duel with Luke.

Background: Link.
Note that I do have some issues with some assertions in this page (ie Asch’s demeanour prior to his kidnapping), but as far as major events and his role in the game goes, it’s accurate. I also don’t have direct access to supplemental materials, so am drawing conclusions from the game on its own; I think the wiki tends to lump them all in together.

Personality: Asch is the type of man whose actions say more than his attitude. His core of self is fairly well displayed, inside and out, but his life has ensured that all that is best in him is expressed in negative ways. In his heart he’s dutiful, passionate, loving and driven; but these traits have been twisted to come out as reckless sacrifice, rage, bitterness and fixation. Despite this, the heart of him can still be seen; it’s been displaced by definite emotional and almost certain psychological abuse. Most of Asch’s internal doubts and feelings arise out of conflict between these two parts of him, but even when these parts of him war, there’s two things which remain constant: the promise he made to Natalia, and his will to live.

When Asch was Luke fon Fabre, he was prophesised to die for Kimlasca’s prosperity. Having been saddled with this responsibility, as well as being tertiary heir to the throne, means that one of his formative traits has been to dedicate himself to those responsibilities. As Luke, this consisted of being ruler. As Asch, they consist of supporting Van, and then later stopping Van. On the one hand, he’s proud to be needed, and thrives in his duty; on the other, he’s been denied any real opportunity to choose his future for himself. His life has forever been defined by the Score, by Van, by what he isn’t. Because of this Asch tends to throw himself into any venture he takes, no matter the consequences. He doesn’t want to die, but he’s been prepared to die his whole life, and thanks to this has a tendency to endure unnecessary pain and injury. His methodology is brutal and painful, but at least it’s his choice to do it that way.

In this, Asch’s passion arises perpetually as rage. As Luke, he once swore to change his nation, to ensure war didn’t happen and no one had to be poor; and such is his passion for this that even after seven years of abuse, knowing he’s prophesised to die, this is a promise he intends to keep. Even as Asch the Bloody, after Van’s initial disappearance Asch keeps moving forward, acting instead of waiting for someone else to act; he takes on the burden of freeing Lorelei, because he can, because it serves the world. But this passion often emerges as rage, primarily at Van and at Luke. Van kidnapped him but Luke stole his life; and even though part of Asch knows it isn’t Luke’s fault, anger is what keeps him going. What turned Asch against Van initially was finding out that Van intended to replace the entire world with replicas; it was the betrayal of seeing Van ‘side’ with replicas that drove Asch away from him. In that way, for much of the game, he’s still a child, reacting out of anger and hurt.

Anger keeps Asch driven, but it’s bitterness that makes him cutting. It’s clear from some softer moments that Asch does have a love for his world. When it seems like Van is dead, Asch does manage to keep going, for the sake of Lorelei – because it’s right, as much as because it’s his choice. His Dark Wing associates comment that 60% of what Asch talks about is Natalia, and when Natalia asks him to speak his promise to her, it’s clear that he still remembers it. But this is something he’s kept close; Van doesn’t seem to target Natalia except incidentally, so it’s an emotion Asch has hidden deep. When he looks at Luke, he sees all the love Luke’s receiving which Asch is not; when he looks at Luke, he sees a version of him still capable of showing love and care without fear of it being used against him. Asch hates that he can’t be the person he wanted to be, and he takes it out on Luke.

Because of the above, Asch has learned to act, not react; he doesn’t have time to waste waiting on others, and so he doesn’t. This makes him indescribably driven, even when others falter. He always seems to have a course of action, no matter how terrible or ill-thought. On the flipside, because he’s learned to act alone, he doesn’t know how to accept help. He can’t bear to open himself to Luke, despite Luke reaching out; he’s fixated on proving himself – to Van, to his replica, to himself. His whole life he’s been told he matters, but all he can see is how he’s being used and displaced. As a result he’s tunnel-visioned; he’s felt like he’s locked into courses of action, and even in those moments he has some freedom to choose, his choices are still limited by those courses of action.

Ultimately, Asch is in many ways still a child, albeit one who has managed to shoulder burdens no child should have to; but he’s hurt and lashing out. When he lashes out at Luke for ‘taking his death’, it’s not because Asch wants to die, but because he wants to be able to choose. When he pushes Natalia away, it’s not because he’s stopped loving her, but because part of him is terrified that the commitment he’s made will, in some fashion, be rendered invalid if he tries to reach for it. What he wants is to be loved and to be given choices; but his experience says that he’s a tool and what he tries to have will be taken from him. The result is a deeply conflicted and angry young man who resist changes because at least it’s his choice not to change, but who is nevertheless willing to sacrifice himself for others.


Abilities: Asch is a perfect isofon for the aggregate sentience of the seventh fonon, Lorelei. Basically, he’s a mortal copy of a god-thing. As such, and thanks to his training, he has a butt-ton of power – most of which he doesn’t use. As the scion of Lorelei, he is a seventh fonist, which means he can use all the elements – dark, light, wind, water, earth, fire and sound.

Asch’s gameplay arte list is here. Mostly it’s a combination of sword attacks, magic-sword attacks, and straight-up magic. Nothing in here should be gamebreaky. His list of AD skills is here. AD skills are basically physical/mental talents – not attacks he uses so much as skills as a result of physical/mental/magical conditioning. Asch is one of only two characters in the game who can learn all available, which indicates his broad range of skills and capabilities; I’m not assuming he has all of them, so much as taking it as a guideline of his potential.

Asch’s off-gameplay powers are a lot more powerful. Sound is his specialty, for obvious reasons; this mostly is displayed in terms of hyperresonance. A hyperresonance is an interaction between sound fonons (particles) which can destroy or reconstruct matter on a minuscule level; in canon it’s been used to destroy an entire city and teleport people across continents. Asch and Luke are the only people who can create a hyperresonance on their own, even spontaneously – usually they need to be manufactured by multiple fonists.

Uncontrolled hyperresonances are atmosphere-destroying levels of power; controlled they can be used for fine-detail activities like brute-force hacking into fontech software to change commands. Given Asch’s training with Van and the way characters generally treat him like he’s a live bomb to be managed, he’s probably on the higher end of the power scale; but he actually tries very hard not to use his powers to that level, especially in battle. For one thing, they too difficult to control to be practical; for another, they can cause fonon destabilisation, which causes death.

Most uses of hyperresonances in the game are performed by Luke, but since Asch has been training with the seventh fonon for seven years, I assume that Asch is capable of all the same things, and probably with more control/refinement. (The travel hyperresonances, in particular; there’s a side-quest where Asch manages to stay suspiciously ahead of the group, fast enough to get things done before they arrive. He claims he’s taking a boat like them, but c’mon, dude.)

The other ability Asch has relates directly to Luke. As perfect isofons, once their fon slots are synchronised, they can make telepathic contact with one another and even control each other’s bodies, or ‘ride along’ in the other’s body while leaving their own in a coma. For most of the game this is one-sided: Asch can contact and control Luke, but Luke can’t do the same; and Asch lets Luke ride along, but also punts him back to his own body when he’s had enough. That said, there’s nothing in the game to indicate this is anything other than a matter of the extensive training Asch has had, which Luke hasn’t, so it’s theoretically reciprocal. These abilities will only be used with consent from and frequent OOC communication with Luke’s player.


Alignment: Piphron. Asch’s existence revolves around a promise he made to Natalia. Most of his life has been out of his control, where he’s been used and betrayed by those he trusts; this promise is the one thing he clings to which he was able to choose.


Other: Asch is canonically dying. His fonons, the constituent particles of any living being, are destabilising, which means he’ll vanish sometime probably in the near future. To stop that from happening I’m going to assume that uses of emotion keeps him together. Positive emotions do it the best, but since he’s a bundle of rage and resentment right now, I’m going to say that negative emotions also do the job, since uh. He wouldn’t last long otherwise.

Asch will also have on him the Sword of Lorelei, which is one half of the Key of Lorelei and can concentrate fonons. The Key of Lorelei summons Lorelei when used in conjunction with the Grand Fonic Hymn. The Sword has to be combined with the Jewel to create the Key, so mostly the Sword is a Sword which can increase fonon density.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
General Sample: TDM thread is here, featuring threads with Luke, Sync and Asbel.

Emotion Sample: Most emotional tag in the TDM thread linked above, but really there’s low-grade rage throughout all of the thread with Luke.

Questions: Is self-nerfing acceptable in this game? Asch isn’t about to risk destroying a planet on which he’s standing and he’s not going to use powerful hyperresonances given that the use of them will hasten his death, so those would be my preference, but if these aren’t solid enough limits I can say hyperresonances interact badly with his crystal so he’s just flat-out not capable of reaching city-destroying level of power.