Midnight Syndicate ~ Application
Jun. 11th, 2015 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urallmaggotsPLAYER INFORMATION
NAME: Skyla
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER?: Yes
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
SkylaDoragono
CURRENT CHARACTERS: Yu Narukami | Persona 4 |linefacingforever
CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Albel Nox ("Albel the Wicked")
CANON: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
CANON POINT: End game, before the individual character endings (Albel joined the party as the seventh party member).
CHARACTER AGE: 24
HISTORY: Albel Nox was born and raised in Kirlsa, in the militaristic kingdom of Airyglyph on the planet Elicoor II. His father, Glou Nox, was captain of the Dragon Brigade, an elite force of air dragon riding soldiers. Albel, as his son, was expected to follow in his father's footsteps, and he took great pride in this fact. That was why, when he was fifteen years old, he decided he would take the trial that would get him his own dragon mount: the Ascension of the Flame, where an air dragon rider would obtain his own dragon mount. The ceremony is a difficult one as it is, with a very low chance of success; the rider not only needs to find a dragon that would even acknowledge a rider, but also the rider needed to show the dragon the respect they desired and bond with it in the manner that the dragon wanted. Albel, in his arrogance, felt he was good enough to challenge the Marquis Dragon, Crosell, the oldest and most powerful dragon. Naturally, he didn't succeed; Albel was badly injured, losing the majority of his left arm. Just as he was about to lose his life, his father protected him, dying in his place.
Disgraced, it is unclear what happened to Albel between this and his appearance in game. We can infer from NPC dialogue that Woltar, the captain of the Storm Brigade, raised him after his father's death. This is supported by the fact that Woltar is the only person that can still call Albel "boy" and get away with it. His lost arm was also replaced with a prosthetic claw, though it is unclear where he got it from. Despite his failure, Albel worked and fought his way through the ranks of the Airyglyph military, proving himself worthy enough of his own brigade, the Black Brigade, and he still holds the respect of the Dragon Brigade, which irritates the hell out of their current leader.
When he is first seen in game, it is in a conference with the King of Airyglyph and the other brigade captains, over what to do with the captured Fayt and Cliff. While the other captains are concerned that the two off worlders could be spies for their enemy country, Albel could really care less, offering to "deal with them" if they were that much of a problem. No one in the room had much of a comment for that, knowing exactly what he meant. At this point in time he had well earned the nickname of "Albel the Wicked", and so there was very little to imagine how he would "deal with" captured enemy soldiers.
Despite his uncaring attitude, Albel no doubt would have followed the king's order to recapture Fayt and Cliff when the two escape. Vox, the controlling captain of the Dragon Brigade, assumed this, and made a point to make sure Albel was otherwise preoccupied, especially when word came that the escapees were heading to the Kirlsa Training Facility, base of operations of the Black Brigade. With Albel elsewhere, Vox talked the Black Brigade's second in command, Shelby, to draw the two into a trap, taking all the glory and possibly unseating Albel as captain. Shelby and Vox underestimated how strong Cliff and Fayt were, however, and Albel showed up just in time to watch his second in command get totally annihilated. With the two weakened from the fight, most would take advantage of the situation, but Albel had no interest in fighting weaklings or taking prisoners, so he let them go.
As the story centers around Fayt, it's difficult to tell what exactly other characters are doing behind the scenes. As Albel is the commander in charge of the war with Aquaria (another thing that gets on Vox's bad side), one can imagine how he kept himself busy most of the time. When he is finally seen again, it's at the Bequerel Mines, where he seriously injures two of the Aquarian women assisting Fayt, before the hero party confronts him. Unfortunately for Albel, Fayt and the others had grown much stronger since the time at Kirlsa, and after a grueling fight he was left needing to use his sword to stand up. Instead of killing him, Fayt spares him, throwing back his words from Kirlsa, before leaving as Albel screamed in rage.
Soon after, all hell breaks loose between Airyglyph and Aquaria, only Albel is not part of the battle. After his failure against Fayt, Vox accuses him of treason and uses his influence to have him locked up in the dungeons. He misses out on the battle, Vox's death, and also the sudden attack by the Vendeeni, fish-like aliens that had been pursuing Fayt since the beginning of the game. It's not until the two kingdoms unite against the threat of the alien invaders that Albel is seen again.
In order to confront the Vendeeni, the party needed to go into the Urssa Lava Caves, and capture an air dragon powerful enough to carry a massive Aquarian weapon up into the air high enough to hit the enemy ships. King Airgylyph specifically wants Albel to go, not only because he was fond of him, but because there was only one dragon powerful enough: the Marquis, Crosell. Albel is excessively unwilling to cooperate, even though success would mean his freedom, and it takes Woltar bringing up his father before he's convinced to go.
Albel travels with the group for some time, getting to know the people that were the first humans to ever beat him. He might have liked what he saw in them, because one night while resting in Peterny, Albel decided to wake Fayt up for a little chat... by stabbing his pillow while his head was on it. He only had one question for Fayt though: "Do you hate me?" Despite the fact that Albel was cruel and unforgiving to not only Fayt's friends but many other Aquarians, Fayt could not bring himself to hate him. Albel dismisses him as an idiot, but he is privately touched by his reply.
When the group finally arrives at the Mountains of Barr and the ruins leading to the Urssa Lava Cave, Albel stays fairly aloof, for the obvious reasons; he's revisiting the sight of his first and greatest failure. After much running around to even get into the Marquis' lair, the group finally confronts Crosell, who is less than pleased to have mere humans asking him to accomplish such a mundane task. It takes beating him down twice before the Marquis finally agrees to help in the fight against the Vendeeni, flying everyone back to Aquaria to pick up the weapon before confronting the enemy ships.
Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, the primitive weapon had very little effect on the heavily shielded Vendeeni ships, and the group may even have been destroyed if an energy beam had not come from out of no where, destroying it. Just as they're trying to figure out what happened, those from off world receive reports that the same energy beams had been spotted throughout the galaxy, and they were all converging on one point: Earth. Their purpose finished on the planet, and with more pressing matters at hand, Fayt and the others from space take their leave... almost. Just as their ship is about to leave orbit, another Vendeeni ship appears, demanding that the crew surrender Fayt in exchange for the life of his father.
Agreeing to meet at the currently abandoned Kirlsa Training Facility, Fayt and the others touch back down on Elicoor II. As they enter the facility, Fayt swears he sees someone lurking around, but dismisses it as he has much more pressing matters to attend to. This person was Albel, returning to his headquarters to seek some time to himself, only to find out he's walking into a hostage situation. He followed the group, watching as the Vendeeni leader changed the negotiations to just taking Fayt and running. The group fought off the Vendeeni as well as they could, but with a device blocking the signal to their ship so they could not send for reinforcements, the situation quickly turned sour.
Just when it seemed like they would have no choice but to surrender Fayt, Albel finally reveals himself, destroying the transport jammer and catching the Vendeeni off guard. The element of surprise quickly passed, and the Vendeeni leader shot Albel just as he was about to rejoin Fayt for the battle. Thanks to his intervention, however, reinforcements were able to get down to the planet, just as their ship destroyed the Vendeeni battle cruiser. Now the one outnumbered, the Vendeeni leader open fire, intending to kill them all, but only succeeding in killing Fayt's father. Enraged, Fayt finished the leader off, ending the battle just in time for his father to die in his arms.
Heartbroken, and with Albel badly injured, Fayt and party take him back up to their ship, putting the swordsman to rest in the medical ward as they prepare to move on. Albel recovers in time to hear the others planning to go offer aid at the Moonbase, and also recover something that Fayt's father left behind. He forces his way into accompanying them, using the excuse that Fayt had already stopped the war and defeated Vox, and he needed some other form of excitement in his life, never mind that there was a chance he would never see his home again. Despite that, Albel seems to take everything in stride, from the massive amounts of technology that is so far beyond everything he had ever seen, to fighting creatures that no one in the galaxy had ever seen before, though he completely scoffed at the idea of the Executioners being referred to as gods.
Albel more or less took a back seat during the rest of the game (mostly due to how choosing your final two party members was set up). As he told Fayt, he did not get in the way during the fights that followed, and more than proved himself as an asset against the Proclaimers and Enforcers. He, as the others, was appropriately horrified by the destruction of Earth, and respected the choice of the crew of the Aquaelie in their sacrifice to get them to Styx. He also backed up Fayt and the others as they went through 4D space, finding it fascinating when the entrance first appeared, though he expressed his disgust later after finding out their entire lives are just a computer simulation, needing to be talked down by Fayt after. He also continued to accompany everyone to the very end, through the Ruins of Mosel to break through their simulated world's firewall in order to defeat the man that had programmed all of them and live their own lives without fear of being deleted.
PERSONALITY: Albel is extremely lacking in social skills. He's not anti-social, as he'll talk to people, but anyone speaking to him will most likely end up being referred to as a maggot, worm, or fool (or a combination of all three) within the first few minutes of conversation. There are very few people he shows respect to, them being King Airyglyph, whom he's sworn fealty to, and Woltar, who raised him after his father died. It takes some time, but he does show a small amount of respect to Fayt eventually, though it still doesn't keep him from calling him a maggot when he has the chance. This means he is capable of forming relatively positive relations with people, though it takes a lot of work on the other person's part.
His arrogance is a big part of who Albel is, and it stems from many things. One is his bloodline, being the son of a long line of Dragon Brigade captains. Even though this pride in his bloodline led to the worst failure of his life, others still respect him as the person that should be in command of the brigade. His pride in himself and his skills keeps others from walking all over him, such as Vox, who believes he can control everyone and everything, including Albel. Though his style is unusual, Albel is a master swordsman, and before he met Fayt and his party, no one on Elicoor II had ever been able to best him in combat, yet another thing that he took great pride in. Though when they finally confronted each other and Albel lost to Fayt, he was slightly humbled and acknowledged Fayt's party as stronger, though that didn't stop him from looking at everyone else as weak.
Albel has a rather skewed chivalrous side. He is absolutely merciless in battle, unafraid of killing others, and sometimes even toying with his enemies. Yet he is surprisingly forgiving to the weak, and he does not prey on or bully those that are not as strong as he is. For example, while his second in command had no issues with beating the hell out of Aquarian spies and tying them to the roof of the Training Facility as part of a trap, Albel would have never stooped to such a disgraceful level. Despite his attitude and nickname, this makes him an unexpectedly honorable warrior.
This doesn't make him a nice guy by any stretch of the imagination, however. If someone dares to challenge him or directly cross him in anyway, he will be more than willing to set them in their place. Of course, this usually involves his sword or his claw and lots and lots of blood, usually coming from the other person. He isn't quick to anger, but once his buttons are pressed, the absolute broiling rage or cold fury that is released is almost terrifying to behold. His rage is usually controlled, however there have been times where he just explodes in almost childish flailing, most notably when Fayt and party first defeated him. When that rage is mostly left uncontrolled, however, is when it's channeled into his fighting. He may not be as strong as Cliff in terms of physical strength, but he more than makes up for it by channeling his rage into nearly everything he does in battle. This especially shows via game mechanics, as if the fury gauge full, Albel can continuously chain all of his unique abilities until either the gauge breaks or he runs out of stamina.
All this, however, is a cover; a mask for the rest of the world. Inside, Albel never really recovered from his failure in the Lava Caves when he was fifteen. In fact, if you get the Albel only ending in the game, it reveals that he still has rather violent nightmares about it. The pain of being mutilated and losing his father is something that he has always held in his heart, and it twisted his perception of himself, to the point where he hates and despises every little thing about him, even if it's not necessarily true. He hates himself for being selfish and arrogant, and too rebellious to allow himself to work with others. He hates himself for being jealous of others, and even goes so far as the accuse himself of being inexperienced in battle.
There is no one that can hate Albel Nox more than Albel hates himself. While this is also a weakness of his, it also helps him; no one can shame him, can put him down and make him feel inferior just through their dislike of him, because whatever hate they have is nothing compared to the hate he has for himself. This is the main reason why him and Vox clash so badly; Vox believes Albel inferior to him, that his failures in the past only makes him useful as a man beneath him, but Albel can barely give enough of a damn about what Vox thinks of him. To Albel, Vox and his hatred of him was just a fly that needed to be swatted, and got what he richly deserved, even if it wasn't by his hand.
Albel's deep seated hatred of himself came out when he confronts the Crimson Scourge, a sentient sword that is one of his more powerful weapons. Confronting the sword meant confronting himself, and he had to admit that he hates everything about himself, from his selfishness that doesn't allow him to accept others to his suspicions that don't allow him to trust his king, and finally his own impotence that led to the death of his father. He's never forgiven himself for his father's death. The fact that he's lost an arm during the event doesn't seem to bother him so much, but the fact that he both failed his father and forced him to sacrifice himself so that Albel may live has left a gaping void in his life. He has had to dealt with the stigma of his failure ever since, and it has forced him to fight constantly for anything he's ever wanted in his life, from the right to keep his family status to earning his place as commander of the Black Brigade.
ABILITIES: Albel is a unique and powerful swordsman, and up until Fayt and Cliff arrived on Elicoor, was undefeated in battle and had rightfully obtained a reputation for being completely merciless to those that dared to challenge him. His fighting style is completely unique to Airyglyph and Aquaria both, and he even incorporates the use of his claw while fighting, turning his handicap into a strength. This fighting style of his (a modified version of Edarl Sword Style) has been used repeatedly through the Star Ocean series, and he is the first non-main protagonist to make use of it. Though it's not confirmed in canon, it is believed his (detachable) claws are inscribed with Runology, not only allowing his limited arm and hand movement, but also allowing him to channel energy though it. He also has some talent with Runology, stemming from the fact that his mother was likely Aquarian. In game, he can even naturally learn some spells, however, this doesn't happen until level 30, and his first ability is a simple First Aid, so it's clearly not one of his focuses.
Although he uses his gauntlet to the fullest advantage he can, it is still an obvious handicap for him. He has very limited control of the clawed fingers on his gauntlet, and it's likely he can't use it to hold anything. For the most part his prosthetic just hangs at his side, or he rests it on his scabbard and does not do much with it outside of battle. In addition, while heavily armored, his gauntlet still has some obvious joints that an enemy could take advantage of. Also, if any of the Runes that allow his gauntlet to move at his command were damaged, his ability to control it may not be as effective, or it may not work at all. The gauntlet can be removed (while Albel can equip swords, many of his more powerful equips are different guantlets in game), so he also would appear in Luceti without it.
SINS & VIRTUES: Let's not mince words, Albel is a poster child for Wrath. There are a lot of things he hates; he hates Vox, he hates the weak, hates the cold weather, and oh does he hate himself; his perceived weakness, his inability to have faith in his king or to trust anyone... there is no one that hates Albel Nox more than Albel hates himself. Despite his belief that he isn't as good as he projects himself to be, he also has a healthy amount of Pride in himself and his skills, as shown by his almost painful arrogance.
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NAME: Skyla
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER?: Yes
CONTACT:
CURRENT CHARACTERS: Yu Narukami | Persona 4 |
linefacingforeverCHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Albel Nox ("Albel the Wicked")
CANON: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
CANON POINT: End game, before the individual character endings (Albel joined the party as the seventh party member).
CHARACTER AGE: 24
HISTORY: Albel Nox was born and raised in Kirlsa, in the militaristic kingdom of Airyglyph on the planet Elicoor II. His father, Glou Nox, was captain of the Dragon Brigade, an elite force of air dragon riding soldiers. Albel, as his son, was expected to follow in his father's footsteps, and he took great pride in this fact. That was why, when he was fifteen years old, he decided he would take the trial that would get him his own dragon mount: the Ascension of the Flame, where an air dragon rider would obtain his own dragon mount. The ceremony is a difficult one as it is, with a very low chance of success; the rider not only needs to find a dragon that would even acknowledge a rider, but also the rider needed to show the dragon the respect they desired and bond with it in the manner that the dragon wanted. Albel, in his arrogance, felt he was good enough to challenge the Marquis Dragon, Crosell, the oldest and most powerful dragon. Naturally, he didn't succeed; Albel was badly injured, losing the majority of his left arm. Just as he was about to lose his life, his father protected him, dying in his place.
Disgraced, it is unclear what happened to Albel between this and his appearance in game. We can infer from NPC dialogue that Woltar, the captain of the Storm Brigade, raised him after his father's death. This is supported by the fact that Woltar is the only person that can still call Albel "boy" and get away with it. His lost arm was also replaced with a prosthetic claw, though it is unclear where he got it from. Despite his failure, Albel worked and fought his way through the ranks of the Airyglyph military, proving himself worthy enough of his own brigade, the Black Brigade, and he still holds the respect of the Dragon Brigade, which irritates the hell out of their current leader.
When he is first seen in game, it is in a conference with the King of Airyglyph and the other brigade captains, over what to do with the captured Fayt and Cliff. While the other captains are concerned that the two off worlders could be spies for their enemy country, Albel could really care less, offering to "deal with them" if they were that much of a problem. No one in the room had much of a comment for that, knowing exactly what he meant. At this point in time he had well earned the nickname of "Albel the Wicked", and so there was very little to imagine how he would "deal with" captured enemy soldiers.
Despite his uncaring attitude, Albel no doubt would have followed the king's order to recapture Fayt and Cliff when the two escape. Vox, the controlling captain of the Dragon Brigade, assumed this, and made a point to make sure Albel was otherwise preoccupied, especially when word came that the escapees were heading to the Kirlsa Training Facility, base of operations of the Black Brigade. With Albel elsewhere, Vox talked the Black Brigade's second in command, Shelby, to draw the two into a trap, taking all the glory and possibly unseating Albel as captain. Shelby and Vox underestimated how strong Cliff and Fayt were, however, and Albel showed up just in time to watch his second in command get totally annihilated. With the two weakened from the fight, most would take advantage of the situation, but Albel had no interest in fighting weaklings or taking prisoners, so he let them go.
As the story centers around Fayt, it's difficult to tell what exactly other characters are doing behind the scenes. As Albel is the commander in charge of the war with Aquaria (another thing that gets on Vox's bad side), one can imagine how he kept himself busy most of the time. When he is finally seen again, it's at the Bequerel Mines, where he seriously injures two of the Aquarian women assisting Fayt, before the hero party confronts him. Unfortunately for Albel, Fayt and the others had grown much stronger since the time at Kirlsa, and after a grueling fight he was left needing to use his sword to stand up. Instead of killing him, Fayt spares him, throwing back his words from Kirlsa, before leaving as Albel screamed in rage.
Soon after, all hell breaks loose between Airyglyph and Aquaria, only Albel is not part of the battle. After his failure against Fayt, Vox accuses him of treason and uses his influence to have him locked up in the dungeons. He misses out on the battle, Vox's death, and also the sudden attack by the Vendeeni, fish-like aliens that had been pursuing Fayt since the beginning of the game. It's not until the two kingdoms unite against the threat of the alien invaders that Albel is seen again.
In order to confront the Vendeeni, the party needed to go into the Urssa Lava Caves, and capture an air dragon powerful enough to carry a massive Aquarian weapon up into the air high enough to hit the enemy ships. King Airgylyph specifically wants Albel to go, not only because he was fond of him, but because there was only one dragon powerful enough: the Marquis, Crosell. Albel is excessively unwilling to cooperate, even though success would mean his freedom, and it takes Woltar bringing up his father before he's convinced to go.
Albel travels with the group for some time, getting to know the people that were the first humans to ever beat him. He might have liked what he saw in them, because one night while resting in Peterny, Albel decided to wake Fayt up for a little chat... by stabbing his pillow while his head was on it. He only had one question for Fayt though: "Do you hate me?" Despite the fact that Albel was cruel and unforgiving to not only Fayt's friends but many other Aquarians, Fayt could not bring himself to hate him. Albel dismisses him as an idiot, but he is privately touched by his reply.
When the group finally arrives at the Mountains of Barr and the ruins leading to the Urssa Lava Cave, Albel stays fairly aloof, for the obvious reasons; he's revisiting the sight of his first and greatest failure. After much running around to even get into the Marquis' lair, the group finally confronts Crosell, who is less than pleased to have mere humans asking him to accomplish such a mundane task. It takes beating him down twice before the Marquis finally agrees to help in the fight against the Vendeeni, flying everyone back to Aquaria to pick up the weapon before confronting the enemy ships.
Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, the primitive weapon had very little effect on the heavily shielded Vendeeni ships, and the group may even have been destroyed if an energy beam had not come from out of no where, destroying it. Just as they're trying to figure out what happened, those from off world receive reports that the same energy beams had been spotted throughout the galaxy, and they were all converging on one point: Earth. Their purpose finished on the planet, and with more pressing matters at hand, Fayt and the others from space take their leave... almost. Just as their ship is about to leave orbit, another Vendeeni ship appears, demanding that the crew surrender Fayt in exchange for the life of his father.
Agreeing to meet at the currently abandoned Kirlsa Training Facility, Fayt and the others touch back down on Elicoor II. As they enter the facility, Fayt swears he sees someone lurking around, but dismisses it as he has much more pressing matters to attend to. This person was Albel, returning to his headquarters to seek some time to himself, only to find out he's walking into a hostage situation. He followed the group, watching as the Vendeeni leader changed the negotiations to just taking Fayt and running. The group fought off the Vendeeni as well as they could, but with a device blocking the signal to their ship so they could not send for reinforcements, the situation quickly turned sour.
Just when it seemed like they would have no choice but to surrender Fayt, Albel finally reveals himself, destroying the transport jammer and catching the Vendeeni off guard. The element of surprise quickly passed, and the Vendeeni leader shot Albel just as he was about to rejoin Fayt for the battle. Thanks to his intervention, however, reinforcements were able to get down to the planet, just as their ship destroyed the Vendeeni battle cruiser. Now the one outnumbered, the Vendeeni leader open fire, intending to kill them all, but only succeeding in killing Fayt's father. Enraged, Fayt finished the leader off, ending the battle just in time for his father to die in his arms.
Heartbroken, and with Albel badly injured, Fayt and party take him back up to their ship, putting the swordsman to rest in the medical ward as they prepare to move on. Albel recovers in time to hear the others planning to go offer aid at the Moonbase, and also recover something that Fayt's father left behind. He forces his way into accompanying them, using the excuse that Fayt had already stopped the war and defeated Vox, and he needed some other form of excitement in his life, never mind that there was a chance he would never see his home again. Despite that, Albel seems to take everything in stride, from the massive amounts of technology that is so far beyond everything he had ever seen, to fighting creatures that no one in the galaxy had ever seen before, though he completely scoffed at the idea of the Executioners being referred to as gods.
Albel more or less took a back seat during the rest of the game (mostly due to how choosing your final two party members was set up). As he told Fayt, he did not get in the way during the fights that followed, and more than proved himself as an asset against the Proclaimers and Enforcers. He, as the others, was appropriately horrified by the destruction of Earth, and respected the choice of the crew of the Aquaelie in their sacrifice to get them to Styx. He also backed up Fayt and the others as they went through 4D space, finding it fascinating when the entrance first appeared, though he expressed his disgust later after finding out their entire lives are just a computer simulation, needing to be talked down by Fayt after. He also continued to accompany everyone to the very end, through the Ruins of Mosel to break through their simulated world's firewall in order to defeat the man that had programmed all of them and live their own lives without fear of being deleted.
PERSONALITY: Albel is extremely lacking in social skills. He's not anti-social, as he'll talk to people, but anyone speaking to him will most likely end up being referred to as a maggot, worm, or fool (or a combination of all three) within the first few minutes of conversation. There are very few people he shows respect to, them being King Airyglyph, whom he's sworn fealty to, and Woltar, who raised him after his father died. It takes some time, but he does show a small amount of respect to Fayt eventually, though it still doesn't keep him from calling him a maggot when he has the chance. This means he is capable of forming relatively positive relations with people, though it takes a lot of work on the other person's part.
His arrogance is a big part of who Albel is, and it stems from many things. One is his bloodline, being the son of a long line of Dragon Brigade captains. Even though this pride in his bloodline led to the worst failure of his life, others still respect him as the person that should be in command of the brigade. His pride in himself and his skills keeps others from walking all over him, such as Vox, who believes he can control everyone and everything, including Albel. Though his style is unusual, Albel is a master swordsman, and before he met Fayt and his party, no one on Elicoor II had ever been able to best him in combat, yet another thing that he took great pride in. Though when they finally confronted each other and Albel lost to Fayt, he was slightly humbled and acknowledged Fayt's party as stronger, though that didn't stop him from looking at everyone else as weak.
Albel has a rather skewed chivalrous side. He is absolutely merciless in battle, unafraid of killing others, and sometimes even toying with his enemies. Yet he is surprisingly forgiving to the weak, and he does not prey on or bully those that are not as strong as he is. For example, while his second in command had no issues with beating the hell out of Aquarian spies and tying them to the roof of the Training Facility as part of a trap, Albel would have never stooped to such a disgraceful level. Despite his attitude and nickname, this makes him an unexpectedly honorable warrior.
This doesn't make him a nice guy by any stretch of the imagination, however. If someone dares to challenge him or directly cross him in anyway, he will be more than willing to set them in their place. Of course, this usually involves his sword or his claw and lots and lots of blood, usually coming from the other person. He isn't quick to anger, but once his buttons are pressed, the absolute broiling rage or cold fury that is released is almost terrifying to behold. His rage is usually controlled, however there have been times where he just explodes in almost childish flailing, most notably when Fayt and party first defeated him. When that rage is mostly left uncontrolled, however, is when it's channeled into his fighting. He may not be as strong as Cliff in terms of physical strength, but he more than makes up for it by channeling his rage into nearly everything he does in battle. This especially shows via game mechanics, as if the fury gauge full, Albel can continuously chain all of his unique abilities until either the gauge breaks or he runs out of stamina.
All this, however, is a cover; a mask for the rest of the world. Inside, Albel never really recovered from his failure in the Lava Caves when he was fifteen. In fact, if you get the Albel only ending in the game, it reveals that he still has rather violent nightmares about it. The pain of being mutilated and losing his father is something that he has always held in his heart, and it twisted his perception of himself, to the point where he hates and despises every little thing about him, even if it's not necessarily true. He hates himself for being selfish and arrogant, and too rebellious to allow himself to work with others. He hates himself for being jealous of others, and even goes so far as the accuse himself of being inexperienced in battle.
There is no one that can hate Albel Nox more than Albel hates himself. While this is also a weakness of his, it also helps him; no one can shame him, can put him down and make him feel inferior just through their dislike of him, because whatever hate they have is nothing compared to the hate he has for himself. This is the main reason why him and Vox clash so badly; Vox believes Albel inferior to him, that his failures in the past only makes him useful as a man beneath him, but Albel can barely give enough of a damn about what Vox thinks of him. To Albel, Vox and his hatred of him was just a fly that needed to be swatted, and got what he richly deserved, even if it wasn't by his hand.
Albel's deep seated hatred of himself came out when he confronts the Crimson Scourge, a sentient sword that is one of his more powerful weapons. Confronting the sword meant confronting himself, and he had to admit that he hates everything about himself, from his selfishness that doesn't allow him to accept others to his suspicions that don't allow him to trust his king, and finally his own impotence that led to the death of his father. He's never forgiven himself for his father's death. The fact that he's lost an arm during the event doesn't seem to bother him so much, but the fact that he both failed his father and forced him to sacrifice himself so that Albel may live has left a gaping void in his life. He has had to dealt with the stigma of his failure ever since, and it has forced him to fight constantly for anything he's ever wanted in his life, from the right to keep his family status to earning his place as commander of the Black Brigade.
ABILITIES: Albel is a unique and powerful swordsman, and up until Fayt and Cliff arrived on Elicoor, was undefeated in battle and had rightfully obtained a reputation for being completely merciless to those that dared to challenge him. His fighting style is completely unique to Airyglyph and Aquaria both, and he even incorporates the use of his claw while fighting, turning his handicap into a strength. This fighting style of his (a modified version of Edarl Sword Style) has been used repeatedly through the Star Ocean series, and he is the first non-main protagonist to make use of it. Though it's not confirmed in canon, it is believed his (detachable) claws are inscribed with Runology, not only allowing his limited arm and hand movement, but also allowing him to channel energy though it. He also has some talent with Runology, stemming from the fact that his mother was likely Aquarian. In game, he can even naturally learn some spells, however, this doesn't happen until level 30, and his first ability is a simple First Aid, so it's clearly not one of his focuses.
Although he uses his gauntlet to the fullest advantage he can, it is still an obvious handicap for him. He has very limited control of the clawed fingers on his gauntlet, and it's likely he can't use it to hold anything. For the most part his prosthetic just hangs at his side, or he rests it on his scabbard and does not do much with it outside of battle. In addition, while heavily armored, his gauntlet still has some obvious joints that an enemy could take advantage of. Also, if any of the Runes that allow his gauntlet to move at his command were damaged, his ability to control it may not be as effective, or it may not work at all. The gauntlet can be removed (while Albel can equip swords, many of his more powerful equips are different guantlets in game), so he also would appear in Luceti without it.
SINS & VIRTUES: Let's not mince words, Albel is a poster child for Wrath. There are a lot of things he hates; he hates Vox, he hates the weak, hates the cold weather, and oh does he hate himself; his perceived weakness, his inability to have faith in his king or to trust anyone... there is no one that hates Albel Nox more than Albel hates himself. Despite his belief that he isn't as good as he projects himself to be, he also has a healthy amount of Pride in himself and his skills, as shown by his almost painful arrogance.
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