Basic Information[]
Name: Dhaos
Username: whatdeheckisdat
Series: Tales of Phantasia
Played by: Amihan/Northeastern Wind
Age: ??? (Proooobably older than you >>)
Height: +2 m/6'7"
Weight: ???
Hair: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Appearance: On the right!
Birthplace: Derris-Kharlan
Abilities: Click here!
Occupation: Prince of Elusion
Original Application: Here!
Background Information[]
Canon History: (First, a note: A lot of this is from Narikiri Dungeon X, the novel Katararezaru Rekishi, or the drama CDs, none of which have been released in the US. Headcanon will be noted!)
Dhaos is the ruling prince of Elusion, the largest country on the planet of Derris-Kharlan, and is addressed with respect and awe by the entire rest of the planet (though not necessarily the good kind of respect and awe). When two much smaller nations, Gudra and Sedam, went to war, threatening the health of the Giant Kharlan Tree that provides mana for the entire world, Dhaos gave them an ultimatum: stop fighting, or be ground into the floor by Elusion's might. However, Dhaos despised war and would not follow through on his threat, allowing the war to reach the point where Gudra was all but defeated. In an act of spite, Gudra's general ordered that their secret weapon, the Mana Cannon, be fired at Sedam, killing over 150,000 people, flattening Sedam and killing the Giant Kharlan Tree.
Dhaos, commonly regarded as the most powerful being in the world and saddled with guilt over his own inaction, decided to set out for other worlds in search of a seed for a new Giant Tree. Hundreds of mages, including Dhaos' girlfriend Karion, gathered to cast a spell that would allow him to jump through space and time a finite number of times. What Dhaos did not know was that the spell was cast from the lifeforce of its castors, and he watched as his people and his beloved died before his eyes. This, and Karion's final words ("I will always love you") would haunt Dhaos every night in his dreams for the rest of his life.
Dhaos spent several years wandering the cosmos and the ages alone, failing time and again to find his world's salvation. With one time-space jump left, he landed on the planet Aselia in the year 4201, his mana and morale all but exhausted. Just before collapsing and passing out, he was discovered by a group of young circus performers, who dragged him back to their home in Midgard and proceeded to take care of him. After some needling, one of the performers-- a girl named Winona-- finally managed to get Dhaos to tell her his story. Though Dhaos is convinced it's hopeless, Winona cares for him until he is able to walk again and drags him around town, introducing him to friends and trying to find information on the Mana Seed. Among these friends is Edward D. Morrison, who finds himself fascinated by the effect the mana levels have on Dhaos' health. (Read: he went Ruin Mode on Dhaos, which is presumably why their relationship never quite reaches the 'friendship' stage.)
In return for Winona's kindness, Dhaos somewhat ironically helps Winona on her quest to catch a glimpse of the unicorn: neither she nor he nor any of their friends have any idea that the unicorn has any healing powers. They only believe that seeing the unicorn will grant you a wish, and as a band of orphans running a traveling circus Winona and her friends need that wish very badly. Thus, Dhaos goes out unicorn hunting with a band of little girls from the circus, never knowing that he could have solved all his problems by hanging around a little longer to talk to the unicorn himself.
Eventually, Winona decides that the best way to figure out what's going on with the mana levels is to arrange a meeting with Reisen, the general of Midgard's armies. They discover that Reisen is attempting to build mana weapons to rid the countryside around Midgard of demons, and Dhaos begins to panic over the idea of there being a Mana Cannon on Aselia. He attempts to dissuade Reisen, but being a half-elf Reisen can sense that there is something wrong with Dhaos' mana-- just as Morrison could. Between this and Dhaos' insistence that this is a bad idea, Reisen becomes genuinely convinced that Dhaos is a demon, and a fight happens. In the chaos, Winona's right arm is severed.
Dhaos and Winona escape, but fearing for his career and safety Reisen begins to tell everyone that Dhaos attacked first and sets the castle guard on him. Dhaos, convinced that staying with Winona will only put her and her friends in danger again, abandons her, teaming up with Jamir and the army of demons attacking Midgard instead. When Winona's friend Rhea and her parents move to Hamel to avoid the war, Dhaos orders that the scientists be killed, casting a spell on Demeter to do so (or at least asking Jamir to do it for him). When Rhea goes after Demeter for revenge, however, Demitel proceeds to kill her and go on to raze the entire village of Hamel. As it happens, the demons are only pretending to follow Dhaos' orders in order to ruin his reputation, so he has no idea any of this has happened.
At this point, Cress and his friends intervene: Dhaos doesn't actually learn who they are until they make their way to the castle. (It's the group who speculates that "Dhaos knows of us now" after Mayer, when in fact Dhaos still has never heard of them.) When the group finally arrives in Dhaos' castle, Dhaos is a little confused: this group of children confronts him alongside Midgards' army, and when his greeting of "I have no quarrel with you" is met with "such demon king very stop all the suffering" he assumes that Cress and company are a part of Midgards' army. Unfortunately, he also assumes that because they are part of the army they have been told what happened between Dhaos and Reisen (spoilers: they haven't) and his respect for them plummets. Cress accidentally begins to wreck the castle with his Mystic Arte and, laughing at him, Dhaos flees to escape certain death.
(He flees specifically to the future instead of a past where the tree is healthy because he doesn't want to accidentally cause Winona to not exist somehow. Just a note.)
In this future, the Giant Kharlan Tree lives, but people have begun creating magitechnology and threatening its health once more. With no way home even if he obtains a seed, Dhaos decides that he can no longer afford to waste time on apparently fruitless negotiations. By the time the party arrives to stop him, Midgard has been completely levelled and Dhaos' patience has been exhausted, as he searches out and indiscriminately destroys anything and anyone related to magitech, using any means necessary. Alvanista is under fire, his monsters roam the seas, much of the ninja village has been brought under mind control, and people live in fear of the "Demon King", a title he now accepts. Winona and her friends are long dead; he no longer has any reason reason to hold back.
(Martel and Dhaos also heavily imply that Midgard had in fact rebuilt the Mana Cannon in the future, which may perhaps explain some of Dhaos' behavior. This is not explicitly confirmed in the game, but Luceti's Dhaos, if asked ICly, will confirm it. Feel free to assume that he is lying if you would like.)
Dhaos has no idea the party has followed him to the future until he runs into them at the Giant Kharlan Tree. He and his army reside in a castle floating through a rift in time and space, phasing completely into the world only to empty itself of monsters in the case of a new assault; he himself rarely leaves it. Once the party obtains the Eternal Sword, this is no longer adequate defence: he spends the rest of his time afterwards waiting for them, remembering his departure from home and contemplating the effect that long-term time-travel has on one's sense of reality and perception of time. He also states that while Karion's death was not useless in and of itself, it will become meaningless if he does not obtain a Seed and return to Derris-Kharlan with it, the reason he chooses what he knows is a cruel path instead of giving up.
As the battle goes on, Dhaos incapacitates every one of the Heroes of Eternity except Cless and Mint, the latter of which soon collapses. Cless is momentarily distracted, begging Mint to get up. Mint, who believes that these are her final moments, says to Cless:
"I will always love you."
Dhaos' resolve vanishes as he realizes that he has turned Cless into himself: by waging war unto Aselia, he has forced Cless to decide between destroying one world and watching his own die, between watching his beloved perish and allowing his world to be destroyed. Despite everything Dhaos has done to ensure Derris-Kharlan's revival, he finally decides that none of it is worth the pain and suffering, and he commands Cless thus:
"If you believe you have the power to change this world, show it to me!"
And does nothing as Cless unleashes his Mystic Arte. It is at this point that Dhaos finally tells them his story, and spends the rest of his consciousness telling himself that everything is better this way, but Derris-Kharlan will never be saved. When he hears Karion's voice, Dhaos asks if it's okay if he finally rests now, and whispers that he is glad to be home, that he's returned. He then dies.
...His body is turned into a Seed and sent to Derris-Kharlan by Martel, turning him into the Martel of Derris-Kharlan, but those facts are irrelevant due to Dhaos' canon point.
Roleplay History: Dhaos has been in Luceti since March '11. Most of his events revolve around Grune because his mun is outrageously lazy and doesn't know how to get him to have a decent conversation with a normal person.
The AU event pretty much crushed his soul for a few days by virtue of marrying him to two women (Bellemere and Grune), giving him a daughter (Sheena), a little sister (Martel) and generally erasing all his memories of Derris-Kharlan. He's not quite as upset about it at the moment, but can still be found fuming over it.
The next month, Dhaos was drafted in the rainforest battle. Nothing particularly significant occured, though Dhaos would go on to participate in every single draft since.
He has been kidnapped by the Malnosso once, and returned with the obligatory Turned Into Kid effect. At this time, projections from the Battle Dome were running rampant in the enclosure, and he spent some time either being attacked or trying to save others being attacked (with little success, given his age) until he ran into Grune. He stayed with her in House 34 until the effects of his kidnapping wore off, rather to everyone's horror. ....Except Grune's, who was delighted to see him.
A month later, Luceti Land. He got a Grune plushie, courtesy of Grune, but otherwise did his best to avoid the place-- until he was drafted, and didn't really have a choice.
Dhaos spent much of the Fairytale Life event dressed as Cress, feeling compelled to go around rescuing princesses from their captors. He was turned to ice by Fatima at this time, ended up reenacting Sleeping Beauty with Grune, and somehow roped himself into becoming Yuan of the Four Heroes, with Giles as Mithos, Jeb as Kratos, Grune as Martel and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as Noishe.
Dhaos was completely unaffected by the mask event for Halloween, and utterly unperturbed by the idea that the moon might crash into Luceti.
In late December, Dhaos cast a spell on Rupert Giles: Giles does not believe he is worthy of Grune's friendship, and unfortunately, Dhaos agrees, and amplifies these feelings to the point where Giles shuts the door in Grune's face every time she comes to see him. Grune, of course, came crying to Dhaos, who then proceeded to feel terrible.
Point in Canon: Just after his death, before the creation of the Great Seed from his body.
Personality: Dhaos has always been the quiet and barely responsive type. ‘…’ is the answer you’re most likely to receive if you ask a personal or awkward question, as opposed to a curt dismissal or blatant avoidance. When he does speak, he does so with the speech of a ruler. Staring at things silently until he figures out what‘s going on is his preferred modus operandi, and he rarely gives long monologues unless angry.
Which, unfortunately, is more likely to happen now than back when he was Prince of Elusion. He hasn’t had a good friend in a long, long time, and his social skills are getting a little rusty. As a ruler, he’s used to people and having to interact with them, but he’s been alone on a world that hates him for at least eight years now. He’s wary of people as a habit now, and while he tries not to hold anything against complete strangers he doesn’t particularly trust them, either.
He dislikes violence in general, but is not at all afraid of resorting to it if necessary: he threatens to crush Gudra and Sedam if they don’t cease and desist, and he almost actually does crush Aselia. Once he starts with the violence, he believes he must continue to give the deaths that have already occurred meaning. In particular, Derris-Kharlan has sacrificed hundreds of lives just to send him on his way, and if he doesn’t obtain a Mana Seed and save the planet all those deaths will have been for nothing. He decides that a few hundred thousand lives on Aselia is a fair price for the life of every single person on his world, even though he knows that is no excuse. He could easily have listened to his conscience and kept trying for negotiation, but frankly Reisen was trying to cover up the mana depletion and things were getting more and more complicated by the moment. And of course, once angered, Dhaos’ ability to rationalize disappears.
Dhaos is terribly lonely after the death of Karion, and while he thinks in his head that she’s his one and only he’s willing to consider entering a romantic relationship with someone else-- provided they’re very close and he’s sure they can make each other happy. Mostly, however, friendship is as far as you'll get. He's a little cold and distant on the outside, but reaching out to him makes him a kind friend-- if a mostly silent one.
Dhaos was beloved by his people as a dignified and kind ruler, though he's hardly the prince of Elusion anymore. Old habits die hard, however: he still won’t answer private or awkward questions, do pointless things, or associate with people he considers asinine. As a byproduct of having been a ruler, Dhaos must always be doing something he considers helpful or productive, and idle time is time wasted. If he doesn’t have something to do-- such as trying to save his planet-- he feels useless.
The stars, being so far away, are the only things that remain constant between worlds. As such, you’re likely to find Dhaos stargazing at night when he has nothing to do, probably trying to find Derris-Kharlan or just looking for something to remind him of home. He’s interested in things like languages, mythology and history, and while talking to people is another story, years of ruling has developed in him a habit of just watching people. He actually understood them quite well, though of course his experiences on Aselia have left these views rather jaded. He is also rather unsettled by the sudden weakness of his magical abilities, and will probably be studying Filial Magic often.
The final years of Dhaos' life were spent getting more and more sure that his journey was nothing but a last-ditch effort at survival from a dying world. He believes that he was always meant to fail, and in fact died believing that he'd caused all of that suffering for nothing. He’s very homesick, but he wouldn’t go back to Derris-Kharlan even if he could: he couldn’t face his people after everything, and honestly he’s just tired. He never wanted to be resurrected, and while he won’t throw his second chance away he still believes happiness is impossible for him. He does want to be happy, however, and will accept any chance to earn his spot in heaven back.
Relationships: Here!