empatheias app.

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Jen
Contact: aurajen | PM this journal!
Age: 18+
Current Characters: N/A


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Ardyn Izunia
Age: 2000+
Canon: Final Fantasy XV
Canon Point: Post-game, AKA after his death

Background: Wiki link here!

Personality:

Ardyn Izunia is a difficult man to parse. At first glance, he is built upon contradictions which make little sense when compared to each other; but upon further inspection and knowledge of his past experiences, all these bizarre pieces come together to neatly form a whole. To begin, it’s easiest to start with outside appearances.

The Chancellor of Niflheim is a lofty title, one that might invoke the imagery of a stern and unrelenting man. And yet, instead you get Ardyn — supercilious and fueled by a condescending sort of humor, aimed at nearly everyone around him. He is malleable as he is silver-tongued, eloquent in words (as a politician must be), and oddly unaffected in general. He is theatrical and even sarcastic; he’s just as quick to pay a compliment as he is to throw out verbal barbs, and his expression remains the same regardless of which he chooses. As his English VA once described him, he is full of “insincere sincerity”. He’s a difficult man to read, because he seems fluid and unnecessarily fills the air with words that may not have much meaning to them to begin with. In this way he is both ineffable and confusing, even frustrating, but undoubtedly dripping in charm the entire time. He's shrewd and intelligent, confident and subtly cocky. He can get under your skin with some well-placed words, which is admittedly the way he prefers to do it.

Whereas some of this persona is a farce, some of it is a sincere a part of Ardyn’s character. He’s a man who has lived for two thousand years, and only a small fraction of this time was he driven by action in the narrative (the events shortly prior to, and during, the game); the rest of this time, Ardyn was merely living in Eos, unheard of by others. Floating through the ages, and being dismissive about people, events, and other transient things was just a part of an immortal life. In this sense, Ardyn lacks empathy, which can be clearly seen once he shows his more devious, darker side in the later chapters of the game. How he kills Lunafreya without so much batting an eye, how he patronizingly taunts Noctis throughout all of Chapter 13, and how eager he is to bring darkness to all of Eos, just for the sake of getting revenge on the Caelum line and the astrals, two thousand years in the future. If he seems lackadaisical, it's because he simply doesn't care about the "smaller picture", the day-to-day moments and considerations. He's seen centuries pass, and he's geared himself to look at everything in a wider scope. This is especially true given his goals in the game.

The other side of Ardyn Izunia is the ugly half. It’s the devious mind that lies beneath the surface of what most think is a puzzling man; it’s the fact that often his empty words are empty for a reason, because he’s either manipulating someone by holding back the truth, or merely sees no reason to share it at all. He thinks with a calculating mind, lending well to his station as Chancellor. Ardyn pulls the strings from afar — throughout the game, he aids Noctis and his companions, who are technically his enemies. All of this because it lends to his end goal of being able to turn Noctis into the True King, so that he can end the Lucis Caelum line with the King’s death and his own. And it takes a bitter, twisted sort of man to cover the world in literal darkness just for the sake of his own vendetta. When you dig even deeper, there’s an anger and a cruelty there that, coupled with his apathy, makes him a very dangerous person. He even takes a sadistic sort of pleasure in toying with others, one that he doesn't bother hiding when the curtains have been drawn back completely.

It isn't a stretch to say that a very, very long time ago, Ardyn may have been a nicer person. He was going to be a King and leader, as well as a healer; he healed countless, the implication being that there was a clear devotion to the goal, and a possession of empathy for those suffering from the Starscourge. In the game, we no longer see him utilizing these powers at all. He's lost any sense of humanitarianism beyond achieving a clear-cut objective. There's no warmth, no real concern for those around him; he's quick to even betray those he had allied with, simply because they outlived their usefulness -- in a true villainous fashion. This is important to point out, because this clear transition from healer king to Man Who Wants to Fuck Up the World was brought on by a betrayal that defined him for millennia to come.

This betrayal was by both gods and family, and in its completeness Ardyn became angry and spiteful. Shrewd and motivated. In his most revealing moments, he tells Noctis that he had been left in the darkness for ages, the resentment finally spilling forth in uncommon forthrightness. It reveals the anger he has kept bubbling in the pit of his chest for countless years, a bitterness that has been the motivation behind his very existence. Revenge turns a mind dark and its purpose razor-sharp, and the same could be said for Ardyn Izunia. This, along with the burden of countless daemons he keeps within himself, only fueled this venom within him.

So, Ardyn is a villain, we get that now. But there's one final thing worth mentioning; as immortal as the man is, as eager as he can be to destroy the Lucis Caelum line, there is a part of him that wishes for his own death, so that he can finally be unburdened by the daemons he carries and pass peacefully. This adds a bit of tragedy to his otherwise unsavory character faults, and though it does not excuse the travesties he wishes to place upon Eos, it does provide further motivation for Ardyn. In various bits of dialogue, there's hinting that Ardyn almost expects Noctis to kill him during the final battle, so that he can finally be free. This lends itself to the notion that there may be the tiniest amount of regret he harbors, or at the very least, a stark awareness of the monster he's become over millennia. It's enough for him to pursue the only way in which he can actually die, which is to have Noctis become the True King to kill him.

As a result, this desire for revenge (and possible freedom) is what makes up the ugly core of Ardyn, completely disregarding any sort of decent individual he might have been in the past. He's calculating with more than enough potential to be cruel, though he usually keeps all of this hidden behind a veneer of patronizing humor, questionable charm, and clever wordplay. In the end, most everything he does is either for the sake of manipulation, or in contrast, because something is unimportant enough in his eyes to actually care. His past experience as a future king, his betrayal by his own family line and the astrals, and the thousands of years wrought on his humanity was more than enough to unfortunately shape him into the man he is during the events of the game: a man bent on throwing the world into darkness simply because of the injustices incurred upon him thousands of years ago.

Abilities:

IMMORTALITY - Due to the countless daemons he harbors within himself, Ardyn became immortal. He can be shot, stabbed, and frozen solid by a literal goddess, but even that is not enough to kill him. He would recover from any attack thanks to his darker powers; the only thing that felled him in the end was someone of equal power, none other than Noctis' return as the True King himself. As a result of his immortality, he is also far stronger and possesses more stamina than any mortal in Eos. He also feels a lessened amount of pain than what most would upon receiving injures, and heals from them quickly (with the help of the daemonic essences within him).

WARP MAGIC/ARMIGER - Like all from the royal line, Ardyn can also utilize warp magic. This includes being able to phase through solid objects, to "teleport" his own body from point A to point B, leave a light-like still image of himself to distract enemies after he warps, to store various items (weapons, mainly) in a magical hammerspace until called upon, and to send them back there again once no longer needed. He can also call upon his own version of his Armiger, which is basically calling forth all of his versions of Royal Arms to utilize an attack on his enemies. This also lets him fly through the air and do a whole lot of crazy warping that he wouldn't be able to do normally.

DAEMONIC POWERS - Ardyn's darker powers have also manifested in a few more interesting ways. He can manipulate the mind of a person to view someone/something as something else completely, effectively creating illusions for at least a single individual. He can also use his aforementioned powers to literally knock others unconscious with a blast of daemonic power, or just conjure it up out of nothingness to wreck havoc, or to imbue his weapons with it, as seen in the final battle. It is also through his possession of the Starscourge that he manages to bring the world into darkness for 10 years. He is also able to turn other people into daemons, being the technical avatar of the Starscourge itself.

GENERALIZED COMBAT - Ardyn is familiar with a wide range of weapons (as indicated by him having his own Armiger), and is a skilled combatant on the field, though seeing him actually fight is a rare occasion; only at the end of the game does he wield any sort of melee weapon, but even then he's shown as more than competent. I mean. Final boss and everything, you know.

ELEMANCY - Using his magic, he is also able to create what are basically elemental spells for everyday people to use. He can find and absorb elemental energy, concentrate it into a physical object (like a flask), and store it for later.

HEALING - While he was initially given the power to heal people suffering from the Starscourge (and presumably others who are simply wounded and afflicted), Ardyn does not use these skills any longer. He's not inclined to carry more darkness in him than he already has, nor does he particularly care enough about the civilian population of Eos to be the same selfless man he once was. There's nothing to say that he doesn't still possess these abilities, but good luck getting him to ever use them again. This being said, his healing comes with a caveat: those he heals, he absorbs the pain and sickness of the other into himself. With all things barring the Starscourge, this is temporary at best, but still rather unpleasant depending upon what he deems to heal.

MASTER MANIPULATOR - It's worth mentioning that Ardyn is a very manipulative individual. Many long years of existence have made him a far-seeing man in terms of knowing how people will react, and how to subtly push them in the right direction to get what he wants. He's particularly good at manipulating the emotions and motivations of others by mere words alone. This, coupled with an innate cleverness, makes him a very shrewd individual.

Power Nerfs (if applicable): Ardyn is basically the Starscourge incarnate, but I think it would be reasonable to nerf his ability to ~cover the world in darkness~ if he ever became so inclined. He would no longer be able to do so.

Alignment: Elios. Ardyn, despite his apparent flippant demeanor, is a man of very deep emotion. In the beginning, he was a healer, who gave himself to the people out of his concern and love for them. He took on their suffering so that they would not have to. And it is also because of this betrayed love and trust (of people, family, and gods) that he became filled to the brim with hate, as we see in canon.

Other: N/A


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: TDM top level link

Emotion Sample:

Ardyn did not want to do this in the company of those he knew; he was a man who kept his emotions hidden under that usual thick veil of flippancy, of patronization that cut into the skin of others, of frustrating smiles and suffocating superciliousness. At times, it was sincere, this dismissive nature that he harbored towards the thoughts and feelings of others — other times, it was but a cover for what lurked beneath. That torrent of bitterness and hatred and complete, utter spite that he had felt towards the gods, family, and his so-called destiny to be the darkness that ended his world.

That much had ended, of course. Seen through to its end, as he wished it to be. But that did not mean that he could not still call upon this hatred, for he need only focus on the memory of his brother, of the entire damnable Lucis Caelum line, and how it stood for all that he had lost. How the gods had denied his ascension, sealing his fate to be demonized by others. How he would bear the burden of the Starscourge of thousands of years, crushed under the heel of fate to adhere to a self-fulling prophecy.

No, that was more than enough to fuel the fire for his little test. To see just how much damage he could do with his baseline emotions if he reached deep, grabbing a fistful of the ugly stuff and letting it flourish above the surface. He had so much of it, after all. Accumulated after such a long existence, the end result would not be surprising.

The window to a storefront cracked under an invisible pressure, as if struck. It vibrated, groaning, then shattered, its pieces falling to the ground unceremoniously. Nearby, the flora of a flower-seller’s stall, adorned with rows of bright yellow and red blossoms, began to wane and wither and shrivel. As if some invisible scourge was reaching out, sapping away life from all it touched.

Ardyn let out a laugh, dry and hollow yet sharp. A few flowers lost their petals, and they fluttered pitifully to the ground at his feet. The man tending to the stall noticed a minute too late, before Ardyn had already turned to walk away. He had his answer here -- he would try elsewhere, as well.


Questions: Nothing I can think of!