Dedan

Dedan is the Guardian of Zone 1. He is notable for his nasty temperament, and seems to be constantly enraged and vulgar langauge. He interacts with cruelty towards various beings, including his own working staff.
== Profile ==
=== Appearance ===
Most noticeable characteristic Dedan possesses is his teeth, which take up the majority of his face. He seems to be a relatively humanoid-looking monster with grotesque features added onto him. A gaping hole is formed between his upper and lower jaw, and his head appears more like that of an inanimate animal skeleton than a human. His hands are another noticeable difference from humans given the elongated, frail appearance of his fingers. There is a small white dot in this hole on his battle sprite's head as well. Though possibly a singular eye, this dot does not appear to be present on his talk sprite (this may be, however, simply because Dedan keeps his eye closed much of the time).
Tall and with long arms, his body looks inherently imposing. In terms of his outfit, Dedan wears a trench-coat, pants, and boots, although he does not wear a shirt. All of this bears a strong superficial resemblance to a military uniform, as befitting a leader of a large and important area, but is worn in a very shabby manner. This may be related to his disinterest in many aspects of his position, as he does not appear to particularly even enjoy his work even though he rules with an "iron fist".
=== Personality ===
Dedan has no patience for ineptitude and has a terrible demeanor. He is not only disdainful, but vicious towards the Elsen in his Zone for their inability to handle spectres on their own. Dedan acts similarly towards The Batter, even after The Batter helped Elsen by purifying the spectres, and he remains in a foul mood until his death. He's also shown to have a strong work ethic, as shown in The Room to believe that everyone should work together to build their future. He seems to be very direct and prompt in carrying out his job (something that his time related competences seem to illustrate), and is quickly irritated if anyone else doesn't share that skill. Despite his obvious nastiness and his wrathful punishments, his end goal does seem to be to keep his Zone safe and operating, even if his overly-strict attitude ends up causing more harm than good.
== Plot ==
Dedan is introduced early in the game as a supervisor and administrative figure associated with The Queen. Even the Elsen in his own land, Zone 1, greatly fear him, despite the importance of what he and them do in producing goods for other Zones. He allows the spectres to run rampant and terrorize the vulnerable Elsen in their workplaces, having little interest in making efforts to help them.
Dedan is a supervisor working with the Queen. As Guardian of Zone 1, he is the first boss that the Batter must face. He is first met in the barns of Pentel, where he is angrily shouting at an Elsen for getting in his way. He is then met personally in the office of Shachihata, where he is fighting the spectres that are infiltrating his building. He believes that the Batter is the "chief of spectres" and warns him to leave, saying "If I see you again... you're dead". He then teleports away to Alma (possibly through the use of his Zodiac Card). After encountering him again in his secret office, where he is even more aggressive, he will call the Batter "insane" and engage him in combat. After he is defeated, he is in denial that he has lost and is then purified by the Batter; thus purifying the Zone. Later, in Zone 2, a short description of how Dedan became a Guardian is found in a page in the massive library of Bismark.
Once the Batter gains access to The Room, he is able to visit beings that are altered versions of previous bosses. One of them, titled "The Tall Mister", is a counterpart of Dedan. Other beings in the area include "The Bird" and "The Big Mister", which bear resemblance to Japhet and Enoch respectively. The Tall Mister is an entity which appears to be a time-skipped version of Dedan before he became a Guardian. The Tall Mister's personality traits are the opposite of Dedan's, as he is observed to have a compassionate and sedate manner. The alternate Dedan has a particular interest in dates and times, commenting about this to the Batter, which could point to the Tall Mister having been an organized and prompt leader before his personality deteriorated.
Dedan sees the Batter as a particularly aggressive specter, calling him a "sick spirit". It is unclear if Dedan has any awareness of The Player or of the overall nature of the Batter's purification mission.
== In Battle ==
Early in the game, Dedan is a force to be reckoned with. He has more health and defense than any other specter/Burnt encountered beforehand. The damage he deals alone is dangerously high and his "Hour Hand" competence can cripple your party if left alone. It is important to heal up regularly when fighting Dedan, as well as to make sure you have items to counter the status effects that Dedan can inflict upon a member. Dedan also passively summons speech bubbles that only attack manually, and with little force.
=== Competences ===
Dedan's competences are named after clockwork. This may be referring to his house where a broken clock can be found. The song that plays in the Mail Office of Shachihata is also called "Clockwork".
Name	Description	CP	Priority	Accuracy
== Gallery ==
 Dedan sprite.gif | Sprite
 Dedan 01.jpg | The origin of Dedan's talksprite.
 Dedan 02.jpg | Concept art by Mortis Ghost.
 Dedan 03.jpg | The origin of Dedan's battlesprite.
 Dedan 04.jpg | Dedan (cloaked and uncloaked).
 Dedan 05.jpg | Dedan with snakes coming out of his eyes.
 Dedan 06.jpg | Concept art by Mortis Ghost.
 Offisgrat.jpg | Dedan with Japhet.
 General 02.jpg | The Batter looking at Dedan
 OFFDedan.jpeg | Some relatively new artwork by Mortis Ghost, depicting Dedan using the "Sweep Hand" competence in front of an Elsen. It is being sold as a print at his store.
== Trivia ==
* As with most other characters, Dedan's name is biblical and means "low ground". This can be a reference to his ultimate personality, as terms such as "low" and "lowdown" often are applied to people who behave in angry and cruel ways.
* The word "Dedan" is additionally similar to the French words "des dents", which mean "some teeth". This coincides with his physical depiction.
** Dedan's name in English shares a close similarity with the term "deaden" as well.
** Dedan's name also has an assonance with the french word "dedans", meaning "inside".
* The speech bubbles that Dedan spawns has the Chinese symbol "笑" (Xiào), which means laugh, or the Japanese symbol "笑" (Emi), which means smile. The Japanese version has similarities to a phrase says, "I'm going to wipe that smile off your face".
* When encountering Dedan in his house hidden in Alma, he says he'll wipe The Batter's smile from his face, although we see him as a stoic, and non-emotional character.
** Something interesting is that Dedan looks rather similar to The Batter's monstrous form that he takes on during The Judge ending. Both have elongated teeth and and have their eye-socket(s) connected to their jaw. Considering that this "form" the Batter takes is merely due to the fact that we now view him as a monster and nothing more, it is possible that Dedan says these words because he views The Batter as the malicious "chief of specters" and as a menace. Due to their visual similarities, it may even be possible that the terrifying form we see Dedan in may only be because we view him as a villain.
** Dedan's competence "Sweep Hand" seems to fit the clockwork motif much better in the French version. There, the attack is referred to as "troteuse", a slight modification to the word "trotteuse", a word that commonly refers to the second, "sweep", hand in clocks. "Trot" is also a word that refers to galloping of a horse in French so it could also be referred to as "running hand" or "charging hand", which would explain why the English translation refers to it as "Sweep Hand".
* When seen in the Room, Dedan takes an interest in pedalos found all across the world of OFF, and also adopts a more calm, level-headed demeanor.
* According to Mortis Ghost, Dedan might be a mutanthttp://comments.deviantart.com/4/3470838/3082657465.
* The design of Papyrus from the game Undertale was based off on Dedan.(apparently) the genesis of papyrus - Toby Fox, Twitter
== References ==
Category:Zone Guardians
Category:Bosses