Ardyn Lucis Caelum (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scourgingstars) wrote2017-05-03 03:11 pm
scourgingstars) wrote2017-05-03 03:11 pm
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theairlock application
OOC
Name: Nao
Age: 27
Timezone: EST
Reserve link: ayyyyy
Password: lucky flannel
OOC contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
lollichop, or my discord is Nao#9016
IC
Name + Username: Ardyn Lucis Caelum, alias 'Ardyn Izunia' |scourgingstars
Age: 2000+, but visibly around early to mid 30s
Canon point:
Assumed canon point: 2000 years prior to the start of the game, before his exile.
Actual canon point: Immediately after being defeated by Noctis.
History: Ardyn on the FF wiki; due to the somewhat unfinished nature of the game, the finer details of his circumstances are somewhat glossed over. Though this ventures into headcanon territory, I tend to assume Izunia/the royal who ostracized him was potentially his brother or at minimum, his nephew. It's also unclear whether Ardyn himself predates the Oracle lineage or not, so I also assume his power was a precursor or possibly even a underdeveloped version of the healing later displayed by them--kind of like the astrals were running a badly planned beta test.
Memories:
- His rejection by the astrals and the Crystal for becoming tainted by the Starscourge, and subsequent expulsion from the Lucian royal family.
- The Chancellor of Niflheim negotiates 'peace' with Lucis.
- The death of an Oracle.
- The end of the Fleuret line.
- 'Ifrit, the Infernian.'
- The final confrontation and battle with Noctis.
Regains:
- Fallen Messiah's Cloak - An intricate outfit of several layers, in the dark colors of a particular country's nobility.
- Philomela - A stuffed animal resembling a black ostrich-like bird.
- Ring of the Lucii - The symbol of a dynasty's power and wisdom, granting its bearer immense power. However, it seems to be just an ordinary ring now.
- Convertible - A small model of a well-maintained car. It may have been painted to match its driver in some fashion.
- Oracle Ascension Coin - A silver coin issued to commemorate Lunafreya's ascension as the Oracle. It is a limited run minting.
Character Underwear: Dark red shorts patterned with black stars. Ridiculously high quality, because Ardyn's a pretentious asshole and working for Niflheim probably has a hell of a paycheck.
Strengths & weaknesses: Ardyn's personaltity and thus his strengths and weaknesses vary wildly depending on which Ardyn is being talked about. Not to say that it's a matter of split personalities; but the person Ardyn was is the near-complete opposite of who he is when FFXV's story begins.
Ardyn Lucis Caelum was a king of the Lucian country, chosen by the Crystal--the source of power for his lineage. Though the account we have of his backstory is his own and therefore likely to be heavily biased, what is actual fact is that at the time, he was dedicated to being a healer; he claims that 'countless lives were saved', but Ardyn's ability to heal the Starscourge was only usable by taking the daemonic plague into himself rather than its victims. Presumably he knew this, making his continued efforts to heal the afflicted the mark of a kind and highly devoted leader; a king who risked his life and safety for his subjects. Concept art shows him riding through a town on a black chocobo to the adulation of his grateful subjects, suggesting that he was well-loved for his efforts--and if his demeanor as Ardyn Izunia (described later on) is even a sliver of an indication, it is plausible that he was a highly eloquent man with no shortage of charm or charisma. By all indication, he was every bit the messianic archetype and a worthy king of the Lucian line.
But as Ardyn healed the Starscourge by absorbing the disease into his own body, he became afflicted in a sense himself; it began to affect his body and even his mind. The gods and Crystal that had once chosen him rejected what he was becoming; as his body was the host to the Starscourge itself and therefore 'tainted' by what he had sought to destroy. When Ardyn was cast out as a daemon himself, the rejection and expulsion seems to have been the trigger for rage and resentment: though he had devoted his life to healing others and saving his subjects, they were all turned against him by gods and kings alike. While that would be a catalyst for anyone to be enraged and resentful, Ardyn had something else contributing to that: the Starscourge itself. In his expulsion and eradication from all Lucian records, Ardyn began to curse everything from Lucis to the very gods, fueled by the darkness of the daemonic presence within him. In short, he was at one point a selfless savior of the people, who like most had a breaking point he was pushed far past even without the aid of the corruption he had taken into himself.
And that is where 'Ardyn Izunia' comes in. Unable to age or die as a result of his body itself no longer being human, Ardyn dropped off the face of Eos for two millennia: presumably left more or less alone with his ever-growing hatred. He took the name of the royal who had cast him out and dropped the 'Lucis Caelum' surname, eventually setting in motion a plan to hasten the Starscourge and end the world. By the time of his introduction to Noctis and the party, he is eloquent, but with a demeanor as though nothing that goes on around him fazes him in the slightest. Ardyn Izunia is a man who constantly acts as though he is in control of the situation, more often than not because he is. Without a doubt, his default emotion is 'smug superiority' in every word he says. He lies without the smallest flicker of hesitation, and carefully orchestrates his actions as well as that of those around him to reach his goals. Unsurprisingly considering his motivation, he also has surprisingly rare moments of outright anger; he strikes a dying Lunafreya as she promises 'all those in thrall to darkness shall know peace', and also shouts in frustration at Noctis during their final battle over how long Ardyn had waited for that moment compared to Noctis' ten years spent within the Crystal.
Ardyn is someone whose entire drive is spite paired with vengeance on people who are millennia dead by the time the game's title screen even rolls around. He hastens the infestation of daemons and the eternal night of the Starscourge because to him, the line of Lucis itself should just burn and that's the best way to do it. To say the least, the compassion of the healer has long since been forgotten and replaced by the madness of a would-be ruler of a complete wasteland. And yet, it also seems as though Ardyn is not fully committed to being the last man standing; though he seeks the end of the Lucian line of kings, he does so while ensuring Noctis attains his full power. If Ardyn defeats Noctis, fine--but Ardyn himself can only be killed and banished by the True King of Lucis. If he dies, then not only does his two thousand years of waiting for this result end, but Noctis will need to die to banish the daemons, scourge, and perpetual night anyway.
No matter which outcome happens as the final steps of his plan unfolds, Ardyn wins the moment Noctis touches the Crystal in Chapter 13, and he knows it. He is cold, confident, and insufferably smug to the second he dies in Insomnia against Noctis; having nothing to lose, he has no reason to feel disappointment in the outcome. If anything, he seems to almost have a small amount of pride during the final battle--whether that is as the 'Accursed' aware his two millennia long plan has gone exactly as it should or as the last small shred of a Lucian king acknowledging his descendant's own ascension to the Crystal's power is never truly clear.
Skills & abilities:
Most of Ardyn's powers are a mirror of Noctis' own, since the 'power of kings' as it is described is the same throughout the lineage. Though he does not fully display this aspect of his powers until the final battle, Ardyn possesses the Armiger, a collection of weapons from the Lucian line and the ability to manifest them (excepting the Trident of the Oracle and Sword of the Father) either one at a time or simultaneously from what amounts to hammerspace. In this same vein of abilities, he can point warp, as well as draw fire, ice, and lightning energy from specific sources to craft elemental spells kept in magic flasks. He also has high-level skills in illusion magic; disguising himself completely as Prompto and vice versa for the majority of a chapter and briefly as Noctis himself later on.
But as the 'Accursed', he also has abilities he has that the Lucian kings do not. Ardyn's body is heavily corrupted by the Starscourge; he can not die except by the hand of the prophesized True King wielding the power of the Crystal. In the final fight with Noctis, he can occasionally set off an area of effect spell that appears to be unleashing said corruption as an explosion of energy with Ardyn himself at the center. His blood is the same black smokelike substance that daemons dissipate into upon defeat, and any sustained injuries heal almost immediately. Occasionally--and it's not clear what the trigger for this is, though it could be as simple as regenerating from would-be fatal injuries--this black corruption manifests in blackened sclera and facial markings looking like running eyeliner.
The healing power which made him a savior in the past is never fully displayed; we see Lunafreya heal the Starscourge with the implication that it is something which needs to be seen to immediately, or nothing but a stopgap measure in worse cases. Ardyn's, however, is different, as he absorbed the plague in a way Lunafreya clearly did not. It's possible that he could have been able to utilize the same ability to heal injuries as well--taking others' wounds onto himself as well--but another skill of the Lucian line displayed by Noctis is to transform liquids into varying levels of healing potions. So although Ardyn could have theoretically done as much on his own, it was likely unnecessary.
Note: Obviously, all of this is going to be massively nerfed if not negated entirely; can't have a murdergame if a participant can't die or is just that overpowered. But if possible, I'd like to keep the black blood/occasional facial markings as a purely cosmetic aspect, should that be acceptable.
As for Ardyn's title, the one ability that makes him stand out isn't the arsenal of the Lucii or even really his powers as the Accursed. He can't be 'Champion of Lucis' or 'Champion of the Crystal' because neither applies to what he eventually became. What is in a twisted sense the common thread of Ardyn Lucis Caelum and Ardyn Izunia is that both were aligned with at least one of the Astrals; while as a healer he was briefly favored by the gods of Eos, as the Accursed he is aligned with Ifrit, who is the black sheep of the Astrals and created the Starscourge in the first place. Neither Ifrit or Ardyn (at that point in time) have any affection for Eos or humanity; both have been cast out from their respective groups, and Ardyn specifically summons him at the end of the game to assist in fighting Noctis and the party. If all that makes sense, then I'd like his title to be Champion of the Infernian--because at this point, he is operating at least in part on behalf of the Starscourge and by extension the god that created it.
Motives: It wouldn't be hard to motivate Ardyn to want to kill--before he starts regaining his memories, offering to eliminate the Starscourge would be enough. After he learns a little more about himself, it would probably be even easier: just about anything from simply promising the elimination of the Lucian line, to offering an opportunity to go back two thousand years and end the world as soon as he's cast out.
Third Person Sample:
Ardyn Lucis Caelum
Ardyn Izunia
Plot Involvement
Would you be okay with your character being a mole?: I would be fine with that! Ardyn pre-memory regains might be a slightly hard sell on betraying the others, but not impossible given a little motivation. Once he remembers a little more, he's very much the backstabbing type.
Particularly, later on if he thinks playing as a mole would give him a potential advantage over the mastermind, he would absolutely regard the mastermind the same as he did the ruler of Niflheim and attempt to use them for his own purposes. 'Attempt' being the key word.
Name: Nao
Age: 27
Timezone: EST
Reserve link: ayyyyy
Password: lucky flannel
OOC contact:
IC
Name + Username: Ardyn Lucis Caelum, alias 'Ardyn Izunia' |
scourgingstarsAge: 2000+, but visibly around early to mid 30s
Canon point:
Assumed canon point: 2000 years prior to the start of the game, before his exile.
Actual canon point: Immediately after being defeated by Noctis.
History: Ardyn on the FF wiki; due to the somewhat unfinished nature of the game, the finer details of his circumstances are somewhat glossed over. Though this ventures into headcanon territory, I tend to assume Izunia/the royal who ostracized him was potentially his brother or at minimum, his nephew. It's also unclear whether Ardyn himself predates the Oracle lineage or not, so I also assume his power was a precursor or possibly even a underdeveloped version of the healing later displayed by them--kind of like the astrals were running a badly planned beta test.
Memories:
- His rejection by the astrals and the Crystal for becoming tainted by the Starscourge, and subsequent expulsion from the Lucian royal family.
- The Chancellor of Niflheim negotiates 'peace' with Lucis.
- The death of an Oracle.
- The end of the Fleuret line.
- 'Ifrit, the Infernian.'
- The final confrontation and battle with Noctis.
Regains:
- Fallen Messiah's Cloak - An intricate outfit of several layers, in the dark colors of a particular country's nobility.
- Philomela - A stuffed animal resembling a black ostrich-like bird.
- Ring of the Lucii - The symbol of a dynasty's power and wisdom, granting its bearer immense power. However, it seems to be just an ordinary ring now.
- Convertible - A small model of a well-maintained car. It may have been painted to match its driver in some fashion.
- Oracle Ascension Coin - A silver coin issued to commemorate Lunafreya's ascension as the Oracle. It is a limited run minting.
Character Underwear: Dark red shorts patterned with black stars. Ridiculously high quality, because Ardyn's a pretentious asshole and working for Niflheim probably has a hell of a paycheck.
Strengths & weaknesses: Ardyn's personaltity and thus his strengths and weaknesses vary wildly depending on which Ardyn is being talked about. Not to say that it's a matter of split personalities; but the person Ardyn was is the near-complete opposite of who he is when FFXV's story begins.
Ardyn Lucis Caelum was a king of the Lucian country, chosen by the Crystal--the source of power for his lineage. Though the account we have of his backstory is his own and therefore likely to be heavily biased, what is actual fact is that at the time, he was dedicated to being a healer; he claims that 'countless lives were saved', but Ardyn's ability to heal the Starscourge was only usable by taking the daemonic plague into himself rather than its victims. Presumably he knew this, making his continued efforts to heal the afflicted the mark of a kind and highly devoted leader; a king who risked his life and safety for his subjects. Concept art shows him riding through a town on a black chocobo to the adulation of his grateful subjects, suggesting that he was well-loved for his efforts--and if his demeanor as Ardyn Izunia (described later on) is even a sliver of an indication, it is plausible that he was a highly eloquent man with no shortage of charm or charisma. By all indication, he was every bit the messianic archetype and a worthy king of the Lucian line.
But as Ardyn healed the Starscourge by absorbing the disease into his own body, he became afflicted in a sense himself; it began to affect his body and even his mind. The gods and Crystal that had once chosen him rejected what he was becoming; as his body was the host to the Starscourge itself and therefore 'tainted' by what he had sought to destroy. When Ardyn was cast out as a daemon himself, the rejection and expulsion seems to have been the trigger for rage and resentment: though he had devoted his life to healing others and saving his subjects, they were all turned against him by gods and kings alike. While that would be a catalyst for anyone to be enraged and resentful, Ardyn had something else contributing to that: the Starscourge itself. In his expulsion and eradication from all Lucian records, Ardyn began to curse everything from Lucis to the very gods, fueled by the darkness of the daemonic presence within him. In short, he was at one point a selfless savior of the people, who like most had a breaking point he was pushed far past even without the aid of the corruption he had taken into himself.
And that is where 'Ardyn Izunia' comes in. Unable to age or die as a result of his body itself no longer being human, Ardyn dropped off the face of Eos for two millennia: presumably left more or less alone with his ever-growing hatred. He took the name of the royal who had cast him out and dropped the 'Lucis Caelum' surname, eventually setting in motion a plan to hasten the Starscourge and end the world. By the time of his introduction to Noctis and the party, he is eloquent, but with a demeanor as though nothing that goes on around him fazes him in the slightest. Ardyn Izunia is a man who constantly acts as though he is in control of the situation, more often than not because he is. Without a doubt, his default emotion is 'smug superiority' in every word he says. He lies without the smallest flicker of hesitation, and carefully orchestrates his actions as well as that of those around him to reach his goals. Unsurprisingly considering his motivation, he also has surprisingly rare moments of outright anger; he strikes a dying Lunafreya as she promises 'all those in thrall to darkness shall know peace', and also shouts in frustration at Noctis during their final battle over how long Ardyn had waited for that moment compared to Noctis' ten years spent within the Crystal.
Ardyn is someone whose entire drive is spite paired with vengeance on people who are millennia dead by the time the game's title screen even rolls around. He hastens the infestation of daemons and the eternal night of the Starscourge because to him, the line of Lucis itself should just burn and that's the best way to do it. To say the least, the compassion of the healer has long since been forgotten and replaced by the madness of a would-be ruler of a complete wasteland. And yet, it also seems as though Ardyn is not fully committed to being the last man standing; though he seeks the end of the Lucian line of kings, he does so while ensuring Noctis attains his full power. If Ardyn defeats Noctis, fine--but Ardyn himself can only be killed and banished by the True King of Lucis. If he dies, then not only does his two thousand years of waiting for this result end, but Noctis will need to die to banish the daemons, scourge, and perpetual night anyway.
No matter which outcome happens as the final steps of his plan unfolds, Ardyn wins the moment Noctis touches the Crystal in Chapter 13, and he knows it. He is cold, confident, and insufferably smug to the second he dies in Insomnia against Noctis; having nothing to lose, he has no reason to feel disappointment in the outcome. If anything, he seems to almost have a small amount of pride during the final battle--whether that is as the 'Accursed' aware his two millennia long plan has gone exactly as it should or as the last small shred of a Lucian king acknowledging his descendant's own ascension to the Crystal's power is never truly clear.
Skills & abilities:
Most of Ardyn's powers are a mirror of Noctis' own, since the 'power of kings' as it is described is the same throughout the lineage. Though he does not fully display this aspect of his powers until the final battle, Ardyn possesses the Armiger, a collection of weapons from the Lucian line and the ability to manifest them (excepting the Trident of the Oracle and Sword of the Father) either one at a time or simultaneously from what amounts to hammerspace. In this same vein of abilities, he can point warp, as well as draw fire, ice, and lightning energy from specific sources to craft elemental spells kept in magic flasks. He also has high-level skills in illusion magic; disguising himself completely as Prompto and vice versa for the majority of a chapter and briefly as Noctis himself later on.
But as the 'Accursed', he also has abilities he has that the Lucian kings do not. Ardyn's body is heavily corrupted by the Starscourge; he can not die except by the hand of the prophesized True King wielding the power of the Crystal. In the final fight with Noctis, he can occasionally set off an area of effect spell that appears to be unleashing said corruption as an explosion of energy with Ardyn himself at the center. His blood is the same black smokelike substance that daemons dissipate into upon defeat, and any sustained injuries heal almost immediately. Occasionally--and it's not clear what the trigger for this is, though it could be as simple as regenerating from would-be fatal injuries--this black corruption manifests in blackened sclera and facial markings looking like running eyeliner.
The healing power which made him a savior in the past is never fully displayed; we see Lunafreya heal the Starscourge with the implication that it is something which needs to be seen to immediately, or nothing but a stopgap measure in worse cases. Ardyn's, however, is different, as he absorbed the plague in a way Lunafreya clearly did not. It's possible that he could have been able to utilize the same ability to heal injuries as well--taking others' wounds onto himself as well--but another skill of the Lucian line displayed by Noctis is to transform liquids into varying levels of healing potions. So although Ardyn could have theoretically done as much on his own, it was likely unnecessary.
Note: Obviously, all of this is going to be massively nerfed if not negated entirely; can't have a murdergame if a participant can't die or is just that overpowered. But if possible, I'd like to keep the black blood/occasional facial markings as a purely cosmetic aspect, should that be acceptable.
As for Ardyn's title, the one ability that makes him stand out isn't the arsenal of the Lucii or even really his powers as the Accursed. He can't be 'Champion of Lucis' or 'Champion of the Crystal' because neither applies to what he eventually became. What is in a twisted sense the common thread of Ardyn Lucis Caelum and Ardyn Izunia is that both were aligned with at least one of the Astrals; while as a healer he was briefly favored by the gods of Eos, as the Accursed he is aligned with Ifrit, who is the black sheep of the Astrals and created the Starscourge in the first place. Neither Ifrit or Ardyn (at that point in time) have any affection for Eos or humanity; both have been cast out from their respective groups, and Ardyn specifically summons him at the end of the game to assist in fighting Noctis and the party. If all that makes sense, then I'd like his title to be Champion of the Infernian--because at this point, he is operating at least in part on behalf of the Starscourge and by extension the god that created it.
Motives: It wouldn't be hard to motivate Ardyn to want to kill--before he starts regaining his memories, offering to eliminate the Starscourge would be enough. After he learns a little more about himself, it would probably be even easier: just about anything from simply promising the elimination of the Lucian line, to offering an opportunity to go back two thousand years and end the world as soon as he's cast out.
Third Person Sample:
Ardyn Lucis Caelum
Ardyn Izunia
Plot Involvement
Would you be okay with your character being a mole?: I would be fine with that! Ardyn pre-memory regains might be a slightly hard sell on betraying the others, but not impossible given a little motivation. Once he remembers a little more, he's very much the backstabbing type.
Particularly, later on if he thinks playing as a mole would give him a potential advantage over the mastermind, he would absolutely regard the mastermind the same as he did the ruler of Niflheim and attempt to use them for his own purposes. 'Attempt' being the key word.
ROUND 5
Name: Nao
Age: 28
Timezone: EST
Reserve link: here
Password: still murder
OOC contact:
IC
Name + Username: Ardyn Tenmyouji |
Age: ~2000+1, visibly mid-30s
Canon point: Chapter 14, end of the main quest 'The Cure For Insomnia'.
Character Underwear: Dark red shorts patterned with black stars. Ridiculously high quality material.
History:
★ 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum' was the person who showed up to the Fantasy Sweet; genuinely caring, compassionate, and completely unaware of the monster he had become over two thousand years of life. He endeared himself fairly quickly to the others over a quiet first week both out of a natural inclination to act as a leader as well as simply being a genuinely affable person. From a world without space travel, he was fascinated with the less unsettling aspects of the situation and sought to learn as much as he could from people like Finn and Angel while also reaching out to as many of his fellow captives as possible to keep them from falling apart. He even displayed a stunning ability for absolutely terrible jokes at one party, to the delight of some and misery of others.
★ The incident with Mai and Mikaela wasn't one he was pleased with; though he'd kept the nature of his magic and what he at the time only suspected it had done to him as a secret, Mai's abilities and the resulting disasters it brought were something he felt only sympathy for--or thought he did, failing to understand why his emotions felt deadened and filtered.
★ Trying desperately to comfort Mai once they understood the reality of the situation, Ardyn did the only thing he knew how at the time; put himself on the line to give others peace of mind. He offered forgiveness for anything she believed she had done wrong and acceptance in place of all those who had turned on her. Ardyn promised Mai that he'd see to the others' protection from there forward, not possibly realizing what he'd go through in the weeks to come to get there.
★ The fourth week in the Fantasy Sweet was both the start of a rapid decline as well as ultimately the catalyst of the majority of Ardyn's development. Remembering his murder of Lunafreya in Altissia, he almost instantly cracked as he began to comprehend what he was and what he was capable of. Having a crisis as only the most extra of Lucians could, he immediately started trying to distance himself from everyone out of a twisted sense of something he didn't fully recognize as fear and self-loathing
in Space Vegas.★ However, Church snapped him out of it by challenging Ardyn to kill him on the spot if he was really so terrible. Unable to find either the desire to betray everyone or reason to hurt him, Ardyn broke down insisting this wasn't the person he'd wished to become and pleading for help.
★ Fittingly enough, the powerswap motive for that week shuffling around everyone's abilities let Ardyn be rid of the Starscourge and in possession of human biology for the first time in two thousand years. Snapped back to 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum' rather than 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum but with serious shades of complete fucking insanity', he saw to the most important priorities: taking a nap, eating a sandwich, getting completely white girl wasted, and kissing the cute guy at karaoke night.
★ Following that, he was confronted by Church and Junpei, the latter of which had been given Ardyn's abilities and corruption. They finally got him to confess to what he'd been hiding; that it was the Starscourge he'd tried to heal which made him inhuman, and that his 'healing' was only transferral at cost to himself. The three of them promised to be a team from there on, solidifying the foundation of what would eventually become Ardyn's Kingsglaive.
★ Even after his powers and deadened emotions returned, the revelation that Roland had effectively lost control in an incident ending in both Takumi and Mary's deaths left Ardyn shaken. He understood Roland's situation better than he wanted to, and the idea of bearing one's karma left a deep impression on him in the wake of remembering Luna's death. Ultimately he promised Roland the same that he did to Mai; that he would try to protect those still living, and bear the karma of those they'd failed.
★ When Ardyn regained the memories pertaining to the unholy monster he became, the lingering feeling of attachment that he had felt in the weeks prior led him to admit the entire story to the others. With the exception of Queenie as the lone person bearing common sense, everyone was in agreement that he'd been dealt an unfair hand and sympathized...which genuinely caught Ardyn off guard, since he'd expected all of them to ostracize him. Despite his sarcastic remarks about how stupid everyone was for believing in him, he couldn't change anyone's mind; this served as the main root of what would eventually become a hesitant sense of trust in the group at large.
★ Kip's (apparent) demise shortly after registered as significant even to Ardyn's mostly-deadened emotions. Though he was quickly distracted by Junpei's disarming situation, he still remembered having told Kip that he'd try to get all of them out, and it registered on some level as a failure that he didn't.
★ Once the truth of Rhys and Angel's deaths came to light, Ardyn accepted the unpleasant truth more easily than some. He saw too much of himself in Angel who was terminally ill and Rhys who had a murderous personality living in his head. While Ardyn was beginning to understand that even his own machinations and eventual death were preordained, he found that he genuinely respected the pair of them for looking at their own fates and outright choosing another option of their own free will. In his own mind and speaking from thousands of years of experience, there was nothing inherently wrong with choosing to end one's own life if said life was either not worth living or going to end regardless.
★ Choromatsu's prevented suicide the following week, however, tended towards being another set of circumstances. While he did acknowledge and respect the choice being made, to Ardyn it was one made in haste at an understandably low moment. From his own perspective, Choromatsu could at least consider enacting revenge on the network that orchestrated Takumi's death and separated him from his brothers before doing anything drastic; and even if Choro had made his own choice, stopping his suicide attempt was just the others making theirs.
ROUND 5 PART 2
★ Things spiraled quickly from there, and eventually the matter of PAL came up in a meeting. When several of the others insisted that no, the (apparent) killer AI was not coming with them when they escaped, Ardyn was quick to point out the double standard as he saw it. Obviously, their apparent mastermind had dome horrific things and was a murderous lunatic...but so was Ardyn himself, and they all seemed pretty dead set on keeping him around. The meeting quickly devolved into an argument, Ardyn incapable of understanding the distinction and beginning to convince himself that they would leave him behind as common sense dictated they should have. And while knowing logically that was the correct choice and the one he tried to convince them to make, he found even his broken emotional state was descending into something resembling legitimate fear of another abandonment and betrayal.
★ While the others continued their meeting/argument, Ardyn walked out and finally snapped. He was certain every path ended in a long-awaited death at his own hands or someone else's; as far as he was concerned, it didn't matter what he did at that point. But he knew he'd promised Mai and Roland that he'd protect the others, and much to his abject horror Ardyn realized he kind of cared about that. Knowing he was tearing himself apart, liable to kill the others or himself before they found an escape route, and unable to protect anyone with screaming madness in his head, Ardyn was left with no other option than to turn to their would-be killer AI for help in the removal of the Starscourge.
★ By the time the motive to change fate was offered the next morning, Ardyn showed up fully human and with a renewed sense of spiteful determination. He did all he could to be the leader he thought he had been in the first week, encouraging the others and even making amends with Queenie. But he was still cracked and fragmented, two thousand years of insanity, memories, and atrocities crammed into a human mind too small and mortal to fully process or comprehend it. He denied Queenie's offer to erase his memories, convincing himself that this was a fair price and punishment for all that he had done and that he only had to hold out until they all escaped safely before figuring out how to bring himself to an ending long overdue.
★ Eventually, he cracked to such a point that Ardyn couldn't reconcile the healer-king with the Accursed, his sense of identity on a rapid decline. As a patchwork coping mechanism to keep some self awareness and solidifying the bond he'd formed with the fractured family they had all become, he took Junpei's surname in place of his own at the eleventh hour before what would be their final murder trial.
★ Once the trial started to fall apart as the truth of what Queenie had done and why came out, Ardyn swiftly took her side and outright refused to vote for her. Realizing none of the others had yet betrayed him, he resolved on the spot to be different than his brother and refuse to turn on any of them even if it meant dying. Though the attempt eventually did take a sharp left turn, the sentiment remained something he fully committed to.
★ Following the trial and discovery of Queenie's would-be last messages, Ardyn found himself with a gift she had left him: the Draught of Living Death, giving him an easy and painless suicide method. But stubbornness and determination had taken priority; he'd come to realize Church and the others did need him, even fractured and slowly going insane as he was. So he opted to shatter the vials on the spot, swearing to Church that there would be an 'after' once all this was over and that they'd see it together.
★ At first, the reveal that Kip was both alive and the real mastermind left Ardyn running a whole spectrum of emotions from 'mad' to 'angry' and what he saw as a betrayal. But as they discovered his notes and the truth of Kip's own developed attachment came out...he realized he couldn't hate their mastermind for what he'd done. Once again, he saw himself in someone else: rejected by his homeland, alone, and desperate for validation while also trying to push away any help offered to him because it was seen as undeserved. On top of that, it was Kip himself that had taken the Starscourge and turned him human again--so even if 'forgiveness' was pushing it, 'acceptance' was something Ardyn was entirely ready to offer.
★ ...Of course, he wasn't exactly a saint even as a human, and they blew up the mansion after stealing everything not nailed down out of spite and the sheer emotional high of knowing they were getting out.
★ After meeting with the survivors of the previous season, the incident investigating the supposed cast member appearance at the convention center was a stealth mission gone very very poorly. Once it was clear they weren't actually Finn, Lightning, Max, and Bolton and everything started going to hell, Ardyn almost immediately started backsliding into self-sacrificial tendencies; using himself as a distraction so Yuuri, Junpei, and Jane could get back to the ship and escape. A reckless nature and dangerous temper getting the better of him, he tried to fight a team of security guards with Xander and took a taser arrow to the leg for it.
★ The would-be infiltration team's brief confinement was not something Ardyn handled well. While he'd trusted the others enough to at least look for them, irrational fear said that of course they wouldn't; they'd get away and save themselves, because that was just human nature. So when they mounted a full-scale jailbreak, Ardyn realized that a) maybe that was a stupid fear to have and b) maybe living in constant lowkey fear of betrayal wasn't necessary.
★ Ending up at Science Grandpa's house, they settled into some vague semblance of recovery with Ardyn struggling to learn how to actually be human and the three Knifeglaive members plus Ardyn himself getting matching tattoos of the Lucian Kingsglaive's sigil.
★ The next season's preview also did not go over well. Having largely come to terms with the objective fact that his many-generations-removed descendant was dead and Ardyn was against all odds and sense still around, seeing Noctis even in a brief trailer was enough to nearly make him snap. Ardyn was furious that the real Chosen King hadn't simply been allowed to rest after everything and that he was still under manipulation by higher powers with god complexes. The complicated mess of feelings regarding Noctis only worsened throughout the season's broadcast, especially later on when Noctis tended to express sympathy for Ardyn and some level of understanding for what he'd done.
★ Encountering their following season, Ardyn and Noctis came to a shaky but genuine sense of mutual understanding and coexistence, the former trying perhaps a little too hard to be friendly and welcoming to his descendant's fellow space pirates. Notably he and Soma shared a unique perception of too many memories and centuries in one lifetime, and Ardyn looked after Fukawa when he could upon noticing her apprehension around the group at large.
★ Somewhere along the line of minor breakdowns and struggling to cope with the prospect of living out a mortal life in the state he'd come to, Ardyn and Church eventually discussed the idea of engagement; first as casual remarks, then gradually more serious as neither of them seemed averse to the concept. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that rushing an engagement in a high-stress situation probably wasn't a great indicator of a healthy relationship. But at the same time, both of them were reasonably certain they wouldn't exactly refuse--so Ardyn instead offered an alternative. When everything was over and settled, only then would they propose to each other. ...He didn't dare admit that there was even a shred of doubt they would ever get that far.
★ The rerun of Season 1 basically manifested as a long and drawn out scream of perpetual guilt, with Lunafreya and Prompto featured in a season with a foregone conclusion. Ardyn tended to avoid Noctis unless the latter specifically sought him out, both of them very aware those two especially suffered more than most at Ardyn's hand--and neither Lucian particularly liked seeing the whole thing play out as the disaster it did.
★ Eventually, things came to a crashing disastrous end with the final infiltration mission. Things progressed too quickly for Ardyn to point out what he was sure everyone knew: that it was another trap and they weren't likely to get away twice. But even if he did...he realized he just didn't have the heart to be the one to say it and break the slim illusion of hope that they'd find Cece, inconvenience Rox, and perhaps even ruin the network's plans. Having a fair idea that this was probably just about it for them, he put on a smile and told the group the first lie he had said to a single one of them since waking up in front of a murder mansion:
'Everything will be fine.'
★ The whole affair fell apart almost instantly, with Ardyn promising to relieve Rox of one of her hands, nearly having a panic attack upon waking up confined in yet another cell, and dealing with comforting a dying Kip. The latter of these events prompted Ardyn to--likely for the first time in millennia--offer genuine and unhesitant forgiveness to someone.
★ In short, it was not fine.
ROUND 5 PART 3
- One-Winged Antichrist - An intricate outfit of several layers, in the dark colors of Lucian nobility. Includes a hat and a completely unnecessary wing-shaped accessory.*
- For Hearth and Home - A relatively simple outfit in shades of black and gray. Meant to fit someone very tall and fairly thin.
- Ring of the Lucii - A conduit for a royal bloodline's blinding light. However, it seems to be just an ordinary ring now.*
- Starscourge - A heavy glass orb, flat on the bottom. Black, with deep purples and crimsons and blues that seem to glitter and shift in the light.
- Vixen Constellation - A small model of a well-maintained convertible. It may have been painted to match its driver in some fashion.
+- King's Charm - A silver crown pendant on a chain. Part of a set indicating a king and his retainers.
+- Digital Camera - With candid pictures of 27 people, one small green alien, one blue alien, one hedgehog robot and one galaxy pigeon wearing an orange ribbon. You might even recognize just about all of them, including yourself!
+- Engagement Ring - One of a pair of color-coded rings; black with a strip of pink through the band and a pale pink sapphire set into it.
+- Pumpkin Space Latte - Legally, this iced blended drink probably barely counts as 'coffee'. It's mostly cream, sugar, and pumpkin-flavored sugary syrup, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. (renewable)
+- Bookmark - Decorated with a gradient pattern, starting with dark iris petals at the top and slowly transitioning to blue gladioli which fan out to pale lilac at the bottom. There's a single orchid petal on the back, just above Yuuri's note: Iris flowers are often used as a symbol of royalty and power but they can also represent strength of character and honor. Gladioli were considered the flower of the gladiators and are often associated with or used to represent swords. They can be used as symbols of integrity and determination. You're stuck with us until the end, I'm afraid, and there's nothing you can do about it. For better or worse, we're seeing this through together.
Strengths & weaknesses: You ruined a perfectly good antichrist is what you did. Look at him, he's got anxiety.
Ardyn Izunia has, debatably, been one at war with himself even throughout canon. While he had long since given himself over to madness sparked by betrayal and fueled by Starscourge, there remained the faintest traces of the healer and would-be savior king he once was. Even as the vessel to a plague of biblical proportions he maintained some level of humanity, however repressed. While he orchestrates the fall of Insomnia as well as the deaths of Verstael Besithia and Ravus nox Fleuret, callously kills Lunafreya, and psychologically torments Prompto and Noctis directly, he essentially never actively comes at Noctis or his companions with full power or killing intent. (The exception being Episode Ignis' Extra Verse, which I could get into but won't because it's an alternate universe anyway.) In other words, even up to arranging the end of the world, nothing he did was without purpose no matter how sick and twisted the 'purpose' might have been. Not quite the actions of a mindless murder plague, at minimum--but having been a monster for so long, it would be easy enough to infer he had long since forgotten how to be human.
Until Airlocked season three, where he was swiftly reminded. Two thousand years of madness were erased, leaving only 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum' and a sense of confusion at his inability to fully process positive emotions. From his perspective he effectively woke up one day unable to feel things like compassion and struggling to go through the motions of it because he knew it was the right thing to do. Realizing everyone else trapped in the mansion was as lost and confused as he was, Ardyn quickly resolved to be the savior and leader he believed he was destined to be; he committed immediately to standing as strongly as he was capable and supporting the others when they faltered.
Unfortunately, as he regained his memories Ardyn began to comprehend what he was. While he'd been on some level aware of what his efforts to heal the Starscourge entailed, he either didn't realize or chose to ignore what it was doing to him physically and emotionally. And as his memories returned, so did Ardyn Izunia's bitterness, hatred, and refusal to trust that others would do anything but turn on him in the end. When the others failed to turn their backs on him as Ardyn fully expected once they learned of the genocidal immortal he was, it caused a conflict between the healer he'd once been and the daemon he'd become. Ardyn expressed 'compassion' through trying to push the others away to avoid hurting them, certain they would one and all leave him behind in the end and be better off for it...yet desperate to see them keep their word and refuse to betray him as his own kingdom had. The inability to reconcile his attachments with his hatred caused a tremendous rift within Ardyn, one he would later describe as two crystals being shattered and the pieces forced together into a third fragmented shape.
Eventually, the fissures in the metaphorical crystals named Ardyn Izunia and Ardyn Lucis Caelum broke them entirely and he felt a sense of desperation to reclaim the humanity that had been waved in front of him only weeks before--with the alternative being the irrational horror that he really would be left behind by the others if he remained as he was. Taking a risk and bargaining with a mastermind he (at the time) had no reason to trust, Ardyn demanded the network's makeshift Starscourge removed to have his physical and emotional humanity restored near the eleventh hour.
This solved one problem and set off quite a lot more. A human mind was simply not designed to carry two thousand years of memories; his psychological state swiftly became a delicate balancing act between remembering his endless hatred and all the atrocities left in his wake while also carrying the morality to comprehend the sheer scale and horror of what he'd done for two millennia. Outlined clearly by Ardyn himself, 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum and Ardyn Izunia can't coexist.' As things began to draw closer to the end, he reached out to form a new identity that was both and yet neither, forging a concrete bond with the friends and family he was now loyal to as 'Ardyn Tenmyouji'.
However, that only helped so much; he still risks occasionally lapsing into a dissociative or panicking state to varying degrees of severity when left to his own thoughts/otherwise reminded of the specifics of things he's lived through or acts he's committed. Examples include a fear of imprisonment from residual memories of Angelgard, and a compulsive need to be around or in physical contact with people due to having been isolated and severely touch-starved for literal ages. Additionally, he tends to overcompensate in caring for others--half because he does legitimately care for his fellow survivors and half because he has a fear of being seen as the monster he was tied with a genuinely horrendous temper. He actively tries to restrain showing anger in any form, because if he does it tends to manifest in the form of backsliding into two thousand years of terrifying anger issues. This overcompensation tends to end with Ardyn regarding those closest to him as family; adopting at minimum three kids in R2 alone followed by a considerable number from both R1 and R3 as makeshift extended family. It's even possible that's just an extended manifestation of his terrible fear of abandonment and solitude, but who's keeping track?
Skills & abilities: As far as powers, nothing's changed from his original app despite all the other retcons I've been slapped with since then. But I'd like to change his title, actually--considering he's no longer the avatar of the Starscourge or on good terms with even Ifrit at the moment, 'Champion of the Infernian' doesn't fit the person Ardyn eventually became. Considering his shift in personality detailed above, his talent currently seeming to lie in adopting several rounds of a murdergame space family, and the apparent fact that he was meant to be the first king of his line:
Champion of the Infernian -> Champion Patriarch
You love wordplay. Don't lie.
Motives: Until he regains his memories, just offering to let him permanently die would be more than enough. Once he starts to remember who everyone is and how they're connected, however, he'd be less insistent on dying for the sake of it and more on any motive that might benefit his Kingsglaive/the others even at cost to himself.
Plot Involvement
Do you have a case you want to volunteer for?: I did offhandedly mention a couple ideas to Ri a while back, boiling down to 'if you want a suicide turned accidental murder, suicide with a ton of frameups and false evidence, or another preventable suicide, you know who to call'. But I don't have a specific week I was gunning for and am perfectly content to let the RNG chips/mod decisions fall where they may!
....Ardyn's kind of really screwed up and that's liable to be the easiest way for me to justify his involvement in a case, ultimately.
Otherwise (and depending partially on memory regains/who dies and when), Ardyn's entirely likely to end up on a hair trigger and decide to just start breaking shit until he earns a punishment for it, because spite and anger issues are the other name of the game.