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⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Matty
Contact:

jungler
Age: 27
Current Characters: None

⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Delita Heiral
Age: 19 (canon is not explicit, but he is definitely at least 18)
Canon: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Canon Point: Chapter 3, after slaying Zalmour

Background: Delita Heiral at the Final Fantasy Wiki; if more information is needed, please let me know.

Personality: From a historical standpoint, Delita’s personality would be best described as a strong, noble man; almost a hero of legend, in the same way that Americans think of George Washington as a larger-than-life figure. Delita is, to the people of future Ivalice, an inspiration; a common man who stopped the civil war, who married the princess, who became king. Delita is a reminder that even a pebble can stand up against the tide.

None of this is, technically speaking, incorrect - but it is important to remember that history is written by the winners.

Before he was the Hero of the Lion War, he was Delita Heiral, who was raised in House Beoulve, and best friends with the youngest of the Beoulves, Ramza. He had been brought in by Ramza’s father, Barnabeth, after Delita’s family had died - leaving only himself and his sister, Tietra. And under Barnabeth’s watchful eye, Delita was treated the same way as any of the Beoulve sons. He had grown up under the impression that it was not who you knew or who you were born to, but who you were on a fundamental level - whether you were a good person, a moral person, or a bad person - that mattered.

Soon after Barnabeth’s passing, this idealistic view of the world was shattered. Tietra was kidnapped by members of the Corpse Brigade, a group of commoners who had fought for the Crown during the Fifty Years War and then were refused pay by the nobility… which had caused them to turn to banditry. Ramza and Delita attempted to make their way to rescue her, but came across her and her kidnapper at the same time that soldiers lead by Zalbaag, Ramza’s brother, arrived - along with Argath Thadalfas, a young noble who had been with the pair earlier before Ramza had told Argath to leave because Argath thought Delita and Tietra worth nothing based on their bloodline.

Delita then got to watch Argath shoot his sister with a crossbow, on Zalbaag’s orders. Delita, to the surprise of nobody, did not take watching the last remaining member of his family getting shot because she was inconveniently in the way of shooting a Corpse Brigade member very well. Delita ends up running down Argath and killing him, and the fort that Tietra had been taken to ends up exploding due to a whole lot of gunpowder in it being set off… while Delita refuses to leave, holding his sister’s body.

This doesn’t kill him. It doesn’t leave any physical scars, but this moment in time is when Delita’s idealism gets stomped on by consequentialism. He wants revenge for what happened to Tietra, but it’s not Argath’s death he seeks (he already took care of that), nor is it Zalbaag’s death. Delita’s revenge is not against a person, but against a concept. Ultimately, he knows that what killed Tietra is not Argath’s crossbow bolt, nor Zalbaag’s order; it is the fundamental idea of hereditary nobility that Delita seeks revenge on.

Delita, at this point, is the parallel to Ramza. Tietra’s death at Fort Zeakden sets them in different directions; Ramza is the one who will not give up on his ideals in order to set things right, while Delita will use any methods he can in order to do the same. He joins up with several factions only to double-cross them all and play them all against each other, all in the name of his one goal - destroying the very system where someone is expendable merely because of their bloodline.

Delita is also extremely perceptive and aware of what is happening around him. While he is supposedly working for the Church of Glabados, they assign him an "assistant" - a young woman by the name of Valmafra Lenande. Delita knows almost immediately that while she is technically an assistant, she is there more as a spy for the Church, and he knows that she has orders to kill him if he displays any signs of betraying the Church.

Even with all of his manipulation and lying, Delita isn’t a monster. While he does kill several people in cold blood, he does seem to genuinely feel bad about using both Ramza and Princess Ovelia:

Valmafra: You mean to let him go?
Delita: He acts as I expected he would.
Valmafra: Even your friends are only pieces to be played.
Delita: [turning quickly] Mind your words! You know not what you say!

He isn’t someone with a lack of conscience or morals; he’s not doing this simply for the sake of power, he is doing what he is doing to make things right, and while he would prefer not to have to use his friends in order to see things fixed… he is able to push aside those feelings in order to do what he must. He also does not kill anyone who isn't necessary to kill; there are several times where he has the opportunity to kill people who might end up being a threat to him, but opts not to because he feels sure they will not. The people he does kill, as well, are almost always people with much heavier sins on their shoulders; the only one who arguably does not is Inquisitor Zalmour, and Delita is forced to kill him because a failure to do so means Delita's betrayal of the Church is outed.

While it may seem that he is doing this only for power, as well, it's important to stress that power is not Delita's end goal. Delita is one of the few characters who is aware of the Zodiac stones, and what they really do (grant wishes, turn you into a horrible demon, or both) - and chooses not to utilize them. He could have become one of the Church's "Zodiac Braves" if he had so chosen to; given his connections within the Church, it's safe to say that... but he doesn't. He doesn't want to become King solely for his own benefit - and we know that in Vagrant Story, the history of Delita is that he was an incredible, just, and fair king.

Again - history is not wrong about Delita, but it says little of how he got to that path. And when he decides that something needs to be done - rules be damned, methods be damned, it will be done.

Abilities: I’ll be basing Delita on his appearance at Zeltennia Church!

Holy Sword
Delita has the ability to channel various effects through his blade. These don’t have any resource cost (MP, etc.) or charge-up time before he can use them - he simply can use them anytime he’s able to attack.

Judgment Blade: Crystalline energy surrounds a target, then shatters. Strikes a target and anyone directly next to them. It inflicts holy-based damage and has a chance to inflict Stop status on the target.

Cleansing Strike: A phantom sword appears above the target with some (Japanese? runes?) appearing on it, then breaks. It inflicts holy-based damage on one enemy and has a chance to inflict Doom status on the target (target dies after a period of time unless the status is cured somehow).

Northswain's Strike: A spike of orange energy strikes through the target. It inflicts holy-based damage and has a chance to instantly kill the opponent.

Hallowed Bolt: Lightning strikes the ground from the sky, hitting the target and anyone directly next to them. It inflicts holy-based, lightning-based damage and has a chance to inflict Silence status on the target.

Divine Ruination: Divine energy streams down from the sky and surrounds targets in a line directly in front of Delita. Inflicts holy-based damage and has a chance to inflict Confuse status on the target.

Chant: Delita can sacrifice his health to give twice as much to an ally. This isn’t technically a Holy Sword ability but is listed under them anyway, so here it is!

Arts of War
Delita has the ability to use specialized combat skills to inflict damage upon the enemy in ways other than “make the bad mans dead”.

Rend Helm: Swing at an enemy’s head, attempting to break their head equipment.

Rend Armor: Swing at an enemy’s torso, attemping to break their torso equipment.

Rend Shield: Swing at an enemy’s shield, attempting to break it.

Rend Weapon: Swing at an enemy’s weapon, attempting to break their weapon.

Rend MP: Swings at the enemy’s spiritual energy (??? don’t ask how?), depriving them of MP or other magical reserves.

Rend Speed: Strikes at an enemy somehow, presumably to make them slower - not like, movement-wise, but just “everything they do is slower”. Somehow. Sorry, this isn’t really explained in game other than “it’s how you lower Speed”. It's not aiming at their legs because that's something else entirely.

Rend Power: Strikes at an enemy’s physical power, making their physical attacks weaker.

Rend Magick: Strikes at an enemy’s magical power (but not in the same way Rend MP does!), making their magic (or magick) weaker.

Parry
Delita knows how to parry with a weapon pretty well. Very well, in fact - in some cases making it more effective than a shield. How effective it is depends on the weapon; some weapons (like parrying swords) tend to be more effective than, say, a big axe.

Concentrate
Delita is very, very good at aiming attacks. Like, really good. Concentration essentially makes it so any particular swing Delita uses can’t be evaded, period. This doesn’t mean every attack will hit, in game terms - the Arts of War don’t always hit even if the target has 0% evade - but it’s really hard to not get hit by Delita.

This is a little powerful, so I'm just going to sort of handwave it and say "he's more accurate than the average knight". Someone whose entire thing is evasion can probably still dodge him, but not as often as they would - and someone for whom it's not a real focus will still have serious problems with evasion.

Move+1
Delita can move faster than the average “guy in plate mail”.

Alignment: Piphron. Delita's main focus is convincing other people to trust him - that he's loyal, that he is exactly what he appears - while never being that; he is not loyal to the Church, nor the Knights of the Southern Sky, but to himself and what he feels is right.

Other: I can't think of anything necessary to add, but am willing to answer any questions that may arise.

⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: ⌈ ST0506 ⌉

[the task board, delita had figured out, wasn't that much different from the various jobs that people would advertise for in bars in ivalice. generally those were more oriented towards exploring rather than ... fairy bandits, but as far as delita knew, fairy bandits that ran away with cutlery weren't really a thing in ivalice. a lot of things weren't things in ivalice, and delita's worldview had been continuously adjusting since he got here.

this, however, is something he understands. the opponents are different, but combat is combat; it's something he'd trained with under barnabeth, he'd practiced with ramza, he'd honed at the academy, and tempered under the tutelage of the church. there are few things that delita is unprepared to fight.

however, when it said "flying stone fairies", he had pictured something elementally aligned with stone. not literally stone.]

Hells. [it's a very muted display of the annoyance he is feeling right now; while he's effective with defending himself enough that they aren't accomplishing much in the way of hurting him... well, have you ever tried to stab and/or slash rocks? in pokemon terms, it's not very effective.

another grunt. there's a lot more anger than he's letting on - in an ideal world he would be home and not dealing with goddamn rock pixies or whatever and he would be making sure that ivalice was safe. but no, right now he's busy with this, and frankly, he is getting sick and tired of probing for weak spots; it's like an enemy who is made of armor.

he hefts his blade. it's not save the queen, but it'll do for this; any blade would have.]

The devil's spirit of restlessness...

[the chant isn't strictly necessary, but it's something they're all taught when channelling energy - whether it be the holy sword abilities of one like him, the spells of a black mage, or a monk's punch arts... just a way to keep one's mind focused. and that's something delita needs right now; the annoying jeers and blows of the fairies, while not particularly harmful, are keeping him somewhere between "annoyed" and "ticked".

he holds the sword forward. the fairies don't seem to be quite sure what he's doing, considering that what it looks like isn't an attempt to stab them. delita locks his gaze onto one of them and raises the sword, gripping it tightly; his knuckles would be visibly lightening if they weren't hidden by gauntlets.

if he had the sense and ability to divert his attention to look down at his crystal, he would see it pretty pleased with the emotion that he's gathering. the fairies' generally being obnoxious has manifested itself in a nice blue glow. in the words of the internet, 'he mad'. or at least it's some fairly intense emotion.]

Cleansing Strike!

[he brings the sword down in a high arc that is nowhere near the fairy he's looking at, and it isn't intended to be by any means. once the sword comes down, there's energy coming up from the ground, as if summoned by the chant, the motion; energy taking the form of a ghostly sword around the unlucky fairy - and then the image fades, energy flowing into the fairy.

energy that is very much not the fairy's friend. delita knows what's supposed to happen; it's supposed to be painful. it could kill it, even; cleansing strike is a very effective way to deal with a single target. but something's different here - delita can feel it. everything's glowing brighter, like somebody turned the bloom up on a video game; it's too bright, and actually a little unpleasant to look at.

this is concerning. unfortunately, that concern and alarm is only fueling it more, making the energy more intense, even brighter as it courses through the extremely unfortunate fairy on the receiving end of his cleansing strike.

the fairy writhes in the air painfully and then pops in an explosion of crystal and stone, causing delita to immediately bring his shield up, covering his head from being carved open by shards of pointy minerals. it's the first time that delita has been caught off guard by his own abilities, and he doesn't like it. while cleansing strike can take time to gather energy before outright slaying the target - a "doomed" effect - it doesn't do so immediately; that's a base covered more by northswain's strike. and even northswain's strike would kill the fairy, not make it explode violently.

the other fairies have stopped chittering, and they are now noping the fuck out of there, crystalline wings trying to make sure they are nowhere near this guy who just detonated one of them. it's a pretty reasonable reaction; most humans would flee from a monster that swung a sword, didn't hit the opponent, and made them explode in a mess of muscle, blood, and bone.

once they've fled, delita looks at the bits of rock and crystal around him. that could have been a lot worse, and it was his fault - he'd forgotten something important about where he was. after all, this wasn't ivalice.]

...emotion truly affects things in different ways here, doesn't it?

[a lesson well learned. of course, he'd still have to get things back from those fairies... but he'll take the lesson over the reward from the task board for now. and next time, he'll make sure not to get so alarmed; he wants to be able to do that when he chooses to.]

Questions: None!