Aegis Alver

is one of the main characters of Tales of Crestoria. He is initially a Medagal knight who takes an antagonistic role towards the main party, but ends up joining them when his king condemns him as a transgressor.
==History==
=== Humble Origins ===
Aegis was born into a poor merchant family that ran a liquor store in a backwoods town. He dreamed of becoming a knight, and his parents enrolled him in Medagal's knight academy. Aegis, knowing that his parents would struggle to pay the high tuition, worked harder than everyone in order to achieve his dream.
=== Chapter 1: The Wake of Sin ===
Aegis is introduced in the outskirts of Dalchia, where he chases the Great Transgressor, Vicious. He accuses Vicious of being a vile criminal and mass murderer who doesn't deserve to live. He also decides to arrest the recently condemned transgressor, Kanata Hjuger, for commiting the crime of patricide. After his knights fail to defeat Kanata and Vicious, Aegis and Leon Magnus team up to fight the Transgressors and gain the upper hand, but the transgressors escape.
Later, Aegis intercepts them in Dalchia and nearly captures them, but Vicious manages to escape by pretending to take Kanata hostage and threatening to kill civilians, forcing Aegis and the knights to retreat.
=== Chapter 3: The Upending of Virtue ===
Aegis finds the party again and has them surrounded, but Vicious escapes by handcuffing his comrades and leaving them behind for Aegis to arrest. Aegis has Kanata and Misella taken to Medagal in order for King Gadel to interrogate them on the location of the Nation of Sin. At the city gate, he greets Queen Rebecca, but despite her advances, he tries to keep their relationship strictly professional because of their positions. Once she leaves, Leon warns Aegis that his half-hearted kindness towards the queen could hurt her in the long run.
At the castle, Aegis reports that he failed to capture the Great Transgressor, but King Gadel is satisfied that Aegis captured at least some of the transgressors. Gadel questions Aegis about the latter's relationship with Rebecca, but Aegis insists there is nothing between them.
At some point, Rebecca asked him about the conditions of the city's tunnels, but when she goes missing, Aegis realizes she may be traveling in the tunnels despite the risk of monsters. When he goes to investigate the tunnels, he finds Rebecca and the party trying to escape the city. Rebecca asks Aegis to leave the kingdom with her so they can be together, but he refuses because of his knightly duties and insists that she stops traveling with the transgressors. Rebecca continues insisting that Aegis must love her deep down, but Aegis states that he only conversed with her because she seemed so sad. Unfortunately, Gadel overhears their conversation and has a soldier kill Rebecca. Rebecca dies begging Aegis to say that he loves her, but he's too shocked to respond. Gadel then uses his vision orb to frame Aegis for seducing and killing her, turning Aegis into a Transgressor. Gadel orders his soldiers to kill Aegis and the party, but Leon arrives to buy time for them to escape. Leon tells Aegis that although his ideals betrayed him, he must hold those ideals dear.
Aegis and the party manage to escape onto Yuna Azetta's boat, taking them to the Nation of Sin. Aegis is still in despair over being betrayed by his king and his people and still distrusts the other transgressors. When the party arrives in the Nation of Sin and finds that all the residents are trying to live peaceful lives, Aegis questions if people who sinned deserve to live in tranquility. Despite this, he reluctantly protects the nation's crops against monsters and slowly opens up to the residents, even listening to Naph talk about how the transgressors want to atone for their crimes. Unfortunately, the Nation of Sin's barrier is destroyed by the enforcer, Makina, who leads an army of enforcers to slaughter the nation's residents. Aegis witnesses this senseless cruelty and is saved when a transgressor takes a fatal blow for him, causing him to realize the vision orb system is unjust and that he never really understood the meaning of his knightly ideals. He tries to fight back against the enforcers, but is unable to hurt them with his current weapon. Vicious questions him about how he wants to deal with the loss of his ideals, and Aegis states that even without his chivalry, he wants to protect the people in front of him. Vicious then grants Aegis a Blood Sin glaive, Wavering Heart. Unfortunately, despite the party's best efforts, they're were only able to save a small animal, Meakyu. He gets on board with Kanata's goal of destroying the vision orb system, but scoffs at the latter's lack of an actual plan. Aegis recommends going to Toshimina to investigate the source of the vision orbs, the god Kasque.
=== Chapter 4: Adjudicators of Sin ===
While traveling near Northmine and Southvein, Aegis is worried about the party's inability to afford the fare to Toshimina. He also makes it clear that he still doesn't trust Vicious, since the latter has yet to explain the circumstances behind his past incidents of mass-murder. The party runs into Luke fon Fabre, who Aegis recognizes as a member of House Fabre. The party decides to escort Luke and help him negotiate with Southvein, but they realize something about the job is fishy when Luke makes a stop to supposedly kill a powerful monster that is antagonizing Southvein, and their fears turn out to be valid when this mission turns out to be a trap by Count Senegal to destroy Southvein. When Vicious states that he wants to kill Senegal, Aegis is surprised to realize that he's on the same page as Vicious, agreeing that Senegal is human trash. After Senegal is killed and Luke decides to set off on a journey of atonement, Aegis continues addressing Luke as a noble, to remind the latter that he acted in a manner unfitting of nobility. He tells Luke that once the latter is able to face his sin, he'll address the latter as an equal and a friend. Aegis reaffirms his commitment to destroy the vision orbs, even if it means working alongside fellow transgressors.
==Appearance==
Aegis is a man of average height with wavy platinum-blonde hair. Unlike most knights who wear armor, he wears a sea-green coat with Medagal's crest. His Stain of Guilt is on the left side of his chest to symbolize that his metaphorical weak heart led to Rebecca's death.
==Personality==
Aegis has a genuine desire to live up ideals of a knight by protecting the weak and upholding justice, but he is also too obstinate about adhering to his duties as a knight, resulting in him being blindly loyal to King Gadel. He shows kindness to Queen Rebecca out of pity, but his position prevents him from answering her feelings for him or finding a way to truly help her out of her plight. Like many characters, he follows the public's belief that the vision orb system is absolute and that all transgressors are irredeemable, not caring to learn about their circumstances.
When his king betrays him, Aegis loses faith in his ideals and his will to live. After being treated kindly by the people of the Nation of Sin and witnessing the enforcers kill them, Aegis realizes that blindly following the king and the vision orb system without caring about the consequences is just half-hearted justice, and that he should determine justice according to his own morality. He becomes much more empathetic and protective towards the transgressors, though he won't tolerate genuine acts of evil, especially those perpetrated by abusers of the vision orb system.
Of the party members, Aegis is the strictest one, being concerned about the others' lack of discipline and financial straits. Despite no longer being a knight, he still insists on treating nobility politely and chastises the rest of the party for not doing the same.
==Fighting Style==
Aegis fights mainly with aerial polearm maneuvers, with his attacks dealing water damage. After becoming a transgressor and resolving to own his sin, he gains the Blood Sin glaive, Aegis's basic profile image Tales of Crestoria (Official Website) (2020) Retrieved on 2020-11-05..
==Trivia==
*Aegis is named after a shield from Greek mythology, and can also mean "protection", symbolizing that he's a "shield" to protect innocents, eventually extending this protection tp atoning transgressors.
*Aegis's birthday is on November 23.
*While he is left-handed, in his official art Aegis wields his weapon in the right hand.
==External Links==
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==References==
Category:Tales Series Heroes
Category:Knights
Category:Betrayed
Category:Redeemed Villains
Category:Honorable
Category:Martial Artists
Category:Servant of a Villain
Category:Falsely Accused
Category:Monster Slayers
Category:Fighters
Category:Rebellion Heroes
Category:Scapegoat
Category:Video Game Heroes
Category:Vigilantes
Category:Criminals