With Absolute Loyalty In His Heart

THE BASICS

Name: Baldr
Canon: Tales of the Rays
Age: 25
Height: 182 cm (5'11")
Weight: 66 kg (145.5 lb)
Class/Weapon: Knight & martial artist/katana (two katana named Hayate and Yamato-- Hayate is wind-aspected, Yamato is earth)
Canon point: Chapter 18 of Last Cradle

BACKGROUND

- Knight retainer to and childhood friend of Crown Prince Woden Roth Nibelung of the Bifrost Empire, Baldr serves him faithfully up through the Mirrage Wars despite his personal dislike for the conflict
- ... until Sellund unleashes the Kaleidoscope on Bifrost and obliterates the country and almost all of its people, Baldr and Woden included
- Spends more than ten years drifting in the Void that engulfed a large portion of the world in the wake of the use of the Kaleidoscope as animus particles, in constant agony and yet unable to fade away or truly die
- Gets yoinked back out of the Void by Woden's younger sister Princess Mercuria (the only survivor from the Bifrost royal family, now the adopted daughter of the newly-formed Asgard Empire's Emperor Demitrius, the canon's Big Bad) to be used as a prototype in her Living Doll project, the aim of which is to revive the dead citizens of Bifrost
- Which would be great! ... if said revival had been in his own body instead of shoving his animus particles into someone else's body while they were still using it in a sort of forced parasitization
- Good thing Flynn is understanding and recognizes that Baldr isn't happy about this situation either. The two of them agree to work together to put a stop to the Living Doll Project, with Flynn granting Baldr control of his body and Baldr allowing Flynn's consciousness to remain awake and aware of what's going on
- This means Baldr throws in his lot with Mileena and the other protagonists, even though this means going behind the also-revived Woden's (now going by the name 'Nuadha') back, feeding them information from inside the Asgard Empire and helping to rescue two of their friends from the Empire's clutches
- Eventually he realizes that that's not enough, and that in order to truly help them out (by helping to free Ix, the main protagonist, from the mirrage crystals he's currently imprisoned within) he's going to need to have his own body to allow him to leave the Empire and move freely
- Body-hopping shenanigans ensue, Baldr gets his own (mostly) unoccupied body, and finally defects for real (with the unexpected blessing of Nuadha, who knows what he's up to and tells him that what he's doing isn't wrong, as he doesn't believe in the Living Doll Project either)
- Baldr formulates a plan to free Ix with the help of one of the other protoype Living Dolls who has also defected, and with the cooperation of Mileena and the other nexuses, they're able to pull it off and rescue Ix, though it means Baldr ends up returning to the Void in the process (something he knew was going to happen and honestly wasn't bothered by)
- As far as he was concerned, that would have been that... until he gets yoinked back out AGAIN (along with Nuadha) to help save Princess Mercuria after Demitrius forces her to exoflect her mirrite and then kill it, damaging her own heart in the process. At least this time he gets to exist in an artificial heart core instead of someone else's body
- Okay, so he can't really do much in that form, but he does manage to talk some sense into Nuadha when he's being a stubborn idiot mired in anger and regret, and thanks to Nuadha finally relenting and allowing Ix, Mileena and the others to assist them, they're able to save Mercuria
- Now Baldr's just chilling in his artificial heart core with the Bifrost Crew. Everyone agrees it's kind of creepy to hear his disembodied voice coming out of Nuadha's pocket (plus it's difficult for him to project his voice so that non-mirrists can hear him), so Nuadha uses his mirristry to create a temporary illusionary body for Baldr.
- He resumes his place by Nuadha's side as the man's loyal friend and aide, doing whatever he can in this form to aid Nuadha in his fight against Demitrius and the Asgard Empire and looking out for both Nuadha and Mercuria
- ... and now he's pretty much the Bifrost Crew's mom, too. He breaks up fights, teaches the kids how to brew tea properly, and is a generally calming presence for this chaotic little ragtag band
- He's resurrected for real as of chapter 4-5 thanks to the Eye of Balor! Of course, there seem to be some strings attached, but in the Tales of the Rays world, what DOESN'T have strings attached...

PERSONALITY

- The consummate knight: kind, honorable, loyal, and sincere, it's stated that he is beloved both by the other Asgardian soldiers and the common people for his kindness and amiability towards all despite his rank
- His loyalty only goes so far, however. If you cross his moral boundaries, he won't hesitate to switch sides if needed in favor of doing what's right
- As honorable as he may be, he can and will lie right to your face without missing a beat if he needs to. (He's disturbingly good at this, too...)
- Highly intelligent, he's good at coming up with and altering plans on the fly based on the situation. It's his quick thinking that allows Nuadha and the others to escape Sellund Castle safely in chapter 3 of Last Cradle by having Mercuria disguise his illusionary body as Nuadha to lure their pursuers away while the real Nuadha and the others make their escape. He's also the brains behind the plan to free Ix from the mirrage crystals, using the knowledge gained from his time in both the Void and the Empire
- Although he hates conflict, he won't hesitate to throw down to protect others if necessary, even if that means going up against his own former colleagues. Or, you know, angry, out-of-control spirits...
- Pretty much the epitome of chill. He's very, very mellow, and it takes a great deal to push him into being angry or even raising his voice (we only see it happen once in canon when Raven and the Vesperia cast start taking verbal digs at Nuadha). His levelheadedness serves as a perfect tempering force to Nuadha's more emotional nature; overall, he's very thoughtful and is usually the first person to try to cheer someone up or calm them down in a tense situation
- Implied to have something of a hero complex: in chapter 3 of Last Cradle, he expresses dismay that his illusionary body didn't allow him to drag Arietta away from the Empire (who is manipulating her into working for them). Nuadha admonishes him for feeling that way, telling him to "stop shouldering unnecessary burdens" in a way that indicates this sort of thing has happened before
- He doesn't seem to have a very high opinion of himself. At one point he refers to himself as a "failure of a knight" for being unable to protect his homeland and for betraying Nuadha and says he doesn't think he has anywhere near as much strength of heart as Flynn does, and in his second character skit he apologizes to Gareth and says that Sidney (Gareth's fiancee, also killed by the Kaleidoscope) was the one who should have been revived, not him
- A HUGE (UNINTENTIONAL) FLIRT-- except that his flirting with women is entirely innocuous! He is a Mama's Boy who has a high level of respect for women in general, so all of his praise is genuine with absolutely no ulterior motives. He actually gets extremely frustrated and upset when people assume that he's a womanizer because of his tendency to compliment women. On more than one occasion, women have gotten in actual fights over him while he just sort of stood there and looked confused...
- ... also kind of a gremlin who enjoys teasing people to get a rise out of them sometimes (though never maliciously; he just thinks it's funny when people react) okay no he's actually a bona fide goblin, he flat-out implied that Nuadha is into crossdressing TO NUADHA'S FACE
- The Symphonia summer event gave us some hints that there's a definite darkness hiding behind that smile; Marcus confronts him about how he can remain so calm in front of Mileena (the younger exoflected version of the person who was responsible for his death) and Neamhain, and his response is that continuing to cling to hatred from the war would only lead to misfortune, and that if he were to let his own hatred prevail, he would have to kill Phillip, indicating that he does in fact still have a considerable amount of hatred under there that he's willfully suppressing

Additional info/links:
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