Player Name: Nao E-mail: n/a Preferred Contact:lollichop | Nao #9016 @ discord Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: n/a
Character Name: Ardyn Lucis Caelum/'Ardyn Izunia' Series: Final Fantasy XV Timeline: End of Chapter 14 Canon Resource Links:Ardyn, his DLC episode, and Final Fantasy XV in general
Personality: The initial and vital distinction to make before describing Ardyn in any detail is that he is a person whose development can be split into three sections: his past as a healer, his ingame presence as a villain, and the midpoint in between displayed in his own DLC episode.
Healer: In his past as a relatively normal human, Ardyn was intensely selfless to the point of self-destruction. Tasked by the gods with the healing of the Starscourge through divine magic, he accepted his responsibility without question and seemed to take a small amount of pride in carrying out the will of the gods. Taking his role incredibly seriously, he rarely smiled or did much else but act stoic and professional in front of the people he worked to help. Implied but only seen in the novel is a falling-out with his own younger brother over a difference of opinion in how to save the world from the plague, demonstrating that Ardyn took the matter seriously enough to leave both home and his only apparent family entirely to continue his work. More to the point on the 'self-destructive' front; his task to heal the Starscourge was actively causing him agonizing pain and deteriorating his body, but he clearly prioritized the people in need of salvation over his own life with no hesitation or question.
...What I'm saying is he's an incredibly thinly veiled messianic archetype and the only way the comparison would be less subtle would be if his birthday were on Christmas. It's Walpurgisnacht, which isn't much less subtle.
Adagium: In being rejected by the gods, executed by his brother, and sealed away for two millennia, to say Ardyn's mental state took a hit would be an understatement. In his confinement he retreated into his own head, living in his own hallucinations of the past as resentment and hate fueled by the Starscourge built within him. Despite this, when released by Verstael his prevailing emotion seems to be apathy. He's largely indifferent to Verstael, the world, and everyone in it--briefly thinking that just being left alone in Angelgard would have been preferable. While the resentment fostered in his imprisonment is still present, it is also directionless; with Somnus dead, Ardyn finds little point in revenge. He spends several months in Niflheim sleeping; ostensibly as recovery, but it's equally likely he simply felt he had nothing better to do. While he is a barely-human passing avatar of malice and hatred, enough of his original human self remains that though he resents his own mistakes in working so hard to accomplish basically nothing, he won't simply destroy everything indiscriminately in vengeance. At this stage he's very tired and very mentally unwell--he's prone to nightmares and, when under significant stress, outright dissociation and waking hallucinations (both auditory and visual) centering around both Somnus and Aera alike. Ultimately, at that point he wasn't even an open threat at all--while he did in fact kill several of the Crownsguard on the island, it was done in self-defense and also one such hallucination implied a genuine sense of guilt; a spectral version of Somnus taunting Ardyn over having killed an innocent man and Ardyn claiming 'my calling is to save lives, not take them'.
Ardyn Izunia: The tipping point of finally shattering a fractured grasp on sanity lies with Verstael convincing Ardyn to daemonify Ifrit; pushed into seeking power he swears vengeance on the line of Lucis and in sublimating a god Ardyn also sees fragments of memories implying it was he and not Somnus that was chosen. That, specifically, is the point that causes him to utterly snap and decide to take his vengeance on gods, kings, and everything else on the planet. In the years that followed he killed people indiscriminately in order to steal their memories and learn more about the world, as well as contribute to creating Niflheim's magitek and highly unethical cloned daemon army. In his DLC episode preceding the game itself, he proves to be a force even Niflheim can't hope to actually control; he goes rogue on an already violent invasion mission, seeking to kill the then-reigning king and only being stopped by the intervention of both his spectral younger brother as well as Bahamut himself, learning of the prophecy that names Ardyn as nothing but an agent of darkness whose purpose is to suffer as an immortal plague until the true Chosen King can arise and kill him. Depending on player choice, Ardyn either completely gives up and accepts this as an inevitability, or rages against the draconic deity and is summarily harshly punished for the hint of rebellion. (It isn't clearly stated ingame which option is game canon, but the second is explicitly canon to the light novel/alternate timeline.)
Which leads into his role in the game itself: a manipulative chessmaster who orchestrates the fall of both Lucis and Niflheim, kills several named characters either directly or by proxy, and spreads the Starscourge to the point of creating a ten-year-long night over the planet only ended with Noctis defeating Ardyn and sacrificing himself to bring back the light. He is constantly bitter to the point of vicious mockery to everyone around him, ally and enemy alike. His bitterness at having been cast out is projected clearly on those who had nothing to do with it--specifically Noctis more than anyone, being Somnus' identical-looking descendant. Ultimately, it may all just be a decades long lashing out in anger and vengeance, and once the prophesized end does come about Ardyn seems content with the idea. After a fierce final battle in the destroyed streets of the crown city he accepts his defeat quietly, and is eradicated from all existence with little more than a bow to the true Chosen King who saved the world as neither brother could.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Zorua, with the justification that it's thematically fitting; apart from having a heavily black and red aligned color scheme, Ardyn often and repeatedly uses illusions himself to change his form for nefarious purposes. Password: Atomic Fireball
Ardyn Lucis Caelum | Final Fantasy XV | not reserved
Name: Nao
E-mail: n/a
Preferred Contact:
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Victory Road: n/a
Character
Name: Ardyn Lucis Caelum/'Ardyn Izunia'
Series: Final Fantasy XV
Timeline: End of Chapter 14
Canon Resource Links: Ardyn, his DLC episode, and Final Fantasy XV in general
Personality: The initial and vital distinction to make before describing Ardyn in any detail is that he is a person whose development can be split into three sections: his past as a healer, his ingame presence as a villain, and the midpoint in between displayed in his own DLC episode.
Healer: In his past as a relatively normal human, Ardyn was intensely selfless to the point of self-destruction. Tasked by the gods with the healing of the Starscourge through divine magic, he accepted his responsibility without question and seemed to take a small amount of pride in carrying out the will of the gods. Taking his role incredibly seriously, he rarely smiled or did much else but act stoic and professional in front of the people he worked to help. Implied but only seen in the novel is a falling-out with his own younger brother over a difference of opinion in how to save the world from the plague, demonstrating that Ardyn took the matter seriously enough to leave both home and his only apparent family entirely to continue his work. More to the point on the 'self-destructive' front; his task to heal the Starscourge was actively causing him agonizing pain and deteriorating his body, but he clearly prioritized the people in need of salvation over his own life with no hesitation or question.
...What I'm saying is he's an incredibly thinly veiled messianic archetype and the only way the comparison would be less subtle would be if his birthday were on Christmas.
It's Walpurgisnacht, which isn't much less subtle.Adagium: In being rejected by the gods, executed by his brother, and sealed away for two millennia, to say Ardyn's mental state took a hit would be an understatement. In his confinement he retreated into his own head, living in his own hallucinations of the past as resentment and hate fueled by the Starscourge built within him. Despite this, when released by Verstael his prevailing emotion seems to be apathy. He's largely indifferent to Verstael, the world, and everyone in it--briefly thinking that just being left alone in Angelgard would have been preferable. While the resentment fostered in his imprisonment is still present, it is also directionless; with Somnus dead, Ardyn finds little point in revenge. He spends several months in Niflheim sleeping; ostensibly as recovery, but it's equally likely he simply felt he had nothing better to do. While he is a barely-human passing avatar of malice and hatred, enough of his original human self remains that though he resents his own mistakes in working so hard to accomplish basically nothing, he won't simply destroy everything indiscriminately in vengeance. At this stage he's very tired and very mentally unwell--he's prone to nightmares and, when under significant stress, outright dissociation and waking hallucinations (both auditory and visual) centering around both Somnus and Aera alike. Ultimately, at that point he wasn't even an open threat at all--while he did in fact kill several of the Crownsguard on the island, it was done in self-defense and also one such hallucination implied a genuine sense of guilt; a spectral version of Somnus taunting Ardyn over having killed an innocent man and Ardyn claiming 'my calling is to save lives, not take them'.
Ardyn Izunia: The tipping point of finally shattering a fractured grasp on sanity lies with Verstael convincing Ardyn to daemonify Ifrit; pushed into seeking power he swears vengeance on the line of Lucis and in sublimating a god Ardyn also sees fragments of memories implying it was he and not Somnus that was chosen. That, specifically, is the point that causes him to utterly snap and decide to take his vengeance on gods, kings, and everything else on the planet. In the years that followed he killed people indiscriminately in order to steal their memories and learn more about the world, as well as contribute to creating Niflheim's magitek and highly unethical cloned daemon army. In his DLC episode preceding the game itself, he proves to be a force even Niflheim can't hope to actually control; he goes rogue on an already violent invasion mission, seeking to kill the then-reigning king and only being stopped by the intervention of both his spectral younger brother as well as Bahamut himself, learning of the prophecy that names Ardyn as nothing but an agent of darkness whose purpose is to suffer as an immortal plague until the true Chosen King can arise and kill him. Depending on player choice, Ardyn either completely gives up and accepts this as an inevitability, or rages against the draconic deity and is summarily harshly punished for the hint of rebellion. (It isn't clearly stated ingame which option is game canon, but the second is explicitly canon to the light novel/alternate timeline.)
Which leads into his role in the game itself: a manipulative chessmaster who orchestrates the fall of both Lucis and Niflheim, kills several named characters either directly or by proxy, and spreads the Starscourge to the point of creating a ten-year-long night over the planet only ended with Noctis defeating Ardyn and sacrificing himself to bring back the light. He is constantly bitter to the point of vicious mockery to everyone around him, ally and enemy alike. His bitterness at having been cast out is projected clearly on those who had nothing to do with it--specifically Noctis more than anyone, being Somnus' identical-looking descendant. Ultimately, it may all just be a decades long lashing out in anger and vengeance, and once the prophesized end does come about Ardyn seems content with the idea. After a fierce final battle in the destroyed streets of the crown city he accepts his defeat quietly, and is eradicated from all existence with little more than a bow to the true Chosen King who saved the world as neither brother could.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Zorua, with the justification that it's thematically fitting; apart from having a heavily black and red aligned color scheme, Ardyn often and repeatedly uses illusions himself to change his form for nefarious purposes.
Password: Atomic Fireball
Samples
RP Sample: meme thread
Victory Road Sample: tdm thread