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[morgrim]

Name: Redd
Age: 18+
Contact info: pokerap | Discord: Redd#5105

Character: Shigure Rangetsu
Canon: Tales of Berseria
Canon Point: Immediately after the confrontation with the party in Titania.
CRAU, Canon AU: N/A
Character age: 31

Canon Abilities/Powers:

Shigure is a master swordsman, wielding one of the most powerful swords created in his canon, Stormhowl. It's a massive greatsword that Shigure can swing around one-handed, and while a good amount of his power comes from his blade, he's an accomplished swordsman even without it. The party remarks that he seems too strong to be human, and they're unsuccessful in their attempts to kill him (until the final battle, anyway). Shigure's strength is equal parts natural talent and hard work; he's trained in the Rangetsu family style of fighting with the greatsword, which is a very unique style that few others know. Shigure is also capable of wielding dual shortswords (the Rangetsu family teaches both, with a preference for the greatsword), but he only uses those when absolutely necessary and will always default to using Stormhowl.

Tales of Berseria is a jrpg, which means everyone has overpowered attacks. Shigure is a boss character, so naturally he's got a ton of them too. Having a bond with a malakhim means that Shigure has access to Malak Artes (essentially magic), but he refuses to use it and instead stubbornly relies on his own strength. His moves are mostly just really strong attacks, occasionally with an element (wind or earth) but a few of them have a chance to cause status ailments. Those don't really translate very well to roleplay, but if you'd like more information on his attacks, let me know!

Shigure is also capable of using a very powerful attack called a Mystic Arte; he hits one target for a massive amount of damage, but it can be blocked by a very powerful swordsman with an equally tough weapon. Rokurou is capable of blocking this attack during the final battle with Shigure, though both of them take damage from it. If he's permitted to keep this, I think it'd be fair to limit its use to only once a day or something like that so he can't repeatedly spam it like he does in his boss battles.

Shigure is also said to be incredibly skilled in training - if he can see a technique performed, he'll be able to recreate it and improve on it in a matter of moments. This only applies to fighting styles he's familiar with, and even then only those he's particularly interested in. Since he focuses exclusively on blades, this isn't super likely to come up. Shigure is also capable of telling what a weapon is made of, even when it is something previously unheard of (for example, the body of a daemon). This relies heavily on knowledge in his own world, so it isn't likely to be applicable to much here, but I figured I'd mention it.

For a more minor ability that may or may not have any usefulness here, Shigure is one of the characters in the game who has resonance - he was capable of perceiving daemons and malakhim even before the event three years ago that essentially boosted everyone's resonance so that everyone can see malakahim and daemons. This absolutely did not have any impact on him at all, he couldn't care less about the explanation when Artorius attempted to talk to him about it and instead wanted to fight Artorius (of course).

What is their greatest negative emotion towards an object, situation, or person in their past?:

Shigure is said to be one of the strongest warriors not just in the Abbey, but in the world. There's only one enemy Shigure was unable to kill, and it wasn't because he wasn't strong enough. Shigure faced off in battle against his mother - or rather, the daemon she became. Prior to this, Shigure had killed her in battle to become the next Shigure and head of the Rangetsu family. Her strong negative emotions led to her remaining as a daemon, and he couldn't bring himself to kill his mother again. While we don't ever get to hear his exact thoughts on everything that happened, the fact that this daemon he was tasked to kill is still around speaks a lot considering how eager Shigure is to throw down at any given moment. Considering that his companion malakhim Morgrim comments about how Shigure hates being lonely, it's likely that killing his mom and having his one remaining brother decide to try to kill him to take the family name was not exactly a good time.

With that said, he doesn't hold any ill will against his brother for that - killing the leader of the Rangetsu family is a normal thing as far as they're concerned, and Shigure encourages Rokurou to try to take him down, so It's Complicated. There isn't any resentment or hatred toward his brother on his end, even though he's fully aware Rokurou spread lies about him to try to justify his own attempts on Shigure's life. In fact, Shigure spends the majority of the game goading Rokurou on to try to get him to improve so they can have a real fight.

It's worth noting here that an excess of negative emotions can lead to one becoming a daemon in Tales of Berseria. Shigure is notably not a daemon, despite having all the potential to become one. He cares almost exclusively about fighting and living in the moment, and has little regard for others. He helps Artorius out not because he believes in Artorius' plan at all - he doesn't even care what happens to everyone else - but because he wants to fight Artorius' armatization with Innominat (basically his fusion with a god). This means that Shigure went along with a plan that was ultimately going to remove everyone's emotions and free will, all because he wanted to fight Artorius. It's this sort of single-minded dedication to fighting that likely should have turned him into a daemon by now, but because he isn't fighting out of hatred or anger or a desire for revenge that he's still human. So this section is honestly kind of difficult to fill out because he doesn't really have a lot of negative emotions to begin with.

How strongly do they feel about the negative subject matter, on the scale of one to ten?:

It isn't as though Shigure is constantly thinking about the situation with his mom. Killing the previous head of the household in order to become the next Shigure is a common thing for the Rangetsu family; they're often noted as being very weird compared to everyone else, and this is just one of those ways. So Shigure had no problems with his initial battle with his mom, it was just having to kill her a second time that stopped him. Ironically, he has no problems with the fact that his little brother became a daemon (due to his many negative emotions toward losing to Shigure) and is very eager to kill him. So putting it any higher than a one would be far too generous, but Shigure's a person with remarkably few negative emotions toward anything. That's why he's not a daemon, after all.

What is their greatest virtue?:

Shigure would claim his physical strength and swordsmanship are his greatest assets, and while he's certainly a powerful warrior and skilled swordsman, that isn't all he is. Shigure is actually remarkably patient, waiting for Artorius to accomplish his goals (and basically fuse with a god to become more powerful) before fighting to the death with him and letting Rokurou go repeatedly so Rokurou can toughen up to stand a chance against him in battle. Sure, it ultimately comes down to fighting in the end, but patience is a bit of a surprising virtue coming from Shigure considering how badly he wants to fight everything that could potentially stand a chance of killing him. He's willing to wait for years to have a chance at a truly satisfying battle, and he doesn't mind at all if the outcome isn't in his favor and if he dies for it. To that end, he's loyal to Artorius for that reason - until Artorius has managed to become even more powerful, Shigure's loyalty lies with him. While he's not a supportive big brother at all, he does try to push Rokurou into bettering his skills so he can stand a better chance in battle against Shigure, because ultimately Shigure cares about one thing and that one thing is fighting. Still, he's willing to back off and let Rokurou and company have more chances to take him out than he would have if he didn't see any hope for them at all; it's another way he can be surprisingly patient.

Also of equal note is Shigure's personal code of honor. While the Rangetsu family has one (and Rokurou's own code of honor seems to be a bit closer to it), Shigure doesn't follow the vast majority of it and instead sticks to his own morals. He hates fighting dirty or relying on anyone else for help, and instead uses only his raw strength. Morgrim - his malakhim - limits his power instead of enhancing it like other malakhim are capable of doing. She never assists him in battle and he never uses Malak Artes that she theoretically should be allowing him access to - instead he insists on relying only on his own raw strength. Shigure has no problems with others using underhanded methods or other tactics in battle against him; Rokurou is only able to defeat him because of it, and he's genuinely proud that his brother managed it as he dies. (It's also worth noting that he's perfectly fine with working with Artorius and Melchior who rely on plans and sometimes underhanded tactics, but Shigure himself refuses to use them even during the final confrontation where the party points out he could have set an ambush for them.)

How aware are they of their virtue, on a scale from one to ten?:

For his patience, he's around a six. Shigure knows he can be patient, but he doesn't really see it as a strength. It's not like he sees it as a weakness either, but that's another part of why Shigure isn't a daemon - because for just how proud he is, he isn't egotistical about it. Shigure can acknowledge his strengths without assuming he's the absolute best in the world; part of his desire is to find someone truly strong to have a fight against, after all. So Shigure knows that patience is a positive trait, but he doesn't really realize that it's actually one of his better characteristics - naturally, he'd say his physical strength is far more important.

As for his own personal code of honor, Shigure's more aware of that; that's around an eight. He's fine with other people being as underhanded as they want, but he personally can't stand relying on "cheap tricks" to win fights and only wants to be victorious on his own strength and merits. He definitely does appreciate Rokurou's creativity and cleverness in their final battle, but he's not the sort to rely on that. With that said, Shigure's code of honor does not at all make him an honorable person, he's just picky in how he wants to win fights. So ultimately his patience is probably the better trait here.

Items:

✦ Stormhowl - The massive greatsword that Shigure carries everywhere with him and his only weapon.
✦ ...that's it, that's all he's got. Who needs anything besides a massive sword, anyway??

Samples: TDM with Artorius

Special notes

If possible, I'd like for him to bring Morgrim along! She's the malakhim Shigure has a bond with, and while she does have a personality, it isn't much of one. She's very much her own person instead of something like a Pokémon, but she has very little history and is never seen without Shigure (at least until Zestiria, where she's once again a minor character).

For powers, her bond with Shigure and her presence here would mean that he could use magic, but he never does and wouldn't here. We don't know what sort of Malak Artes he would be capable of using, or how Morgrim would fight, so I wouldn't be bringing that up at all - Shigure would never use Malak Artes and Morgrim would never be involved in any fighting. The most she could really do is limit Shigure's power, as she was doing before the start of the game and through most of it at Shigure's insistence. This is so that he could train against that power limiting to become even stronger; this wouldn't have much of an effect in game, anyway.

No worries if Morgrim can't be brought into the game, Shigure will be just fine without her! Thanks for your time, mods!