Otis Velona

Otis Velona is a character in Final Fantasy XIV, first appearing in the expansion Dawntrail. In life, he was the Captain of the Knights of Alexandria, serving under Queen Sphene. His soul was eventually moved into a robotic body, serving as a prototype for the Endless project. A separate copy of the original Otis' memories is preserved as an Endless in Living Memory.
== History ==
===Before Dawntrail===
Otis Velona was the dutiful Captain of the Knights of Alexandria, a kingdom in the unlost world, one of the 13 shards of the Source. In life, Otis volunteered for his memories to be scanned by Preservation. The original Otis volunteered to help with the Endless project sometime after the original death of Queen Sphene, his soul and memories were loaded into an early model of machine body as part of Preservation's research into creating the Endless. The machine Otis was not, however, considered Endless, because it was his entire soul that got moved into a robotic body, and this body could still cease functioning one day with no means of recovering his memories. Another copy of his memories would eventually become an Endless in Living Memory, but the machine Otis lived on separately into modern times long past his immediate usefulness. When Sphene was revived as an Endless, the machine Otis avoided her, ashamed of his now-uncomely appearance.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail===
Alexandria's new King of Resolve, Zoraal Ja, sired a son, Gulool Ja, but abandoned him to live on the streets. The machine Otis took in Gulool Ja and raised and protected the child as his own, and they lived together in the ruins of old Alexandria.
After tailing Gulool Ja to the old Alexandria ruins, Wuk Lamat approached the child to befriend him. The machine Otis rushed in to his defense, mistaking her and the Warrior of Light as hostilities. The misunderstanding was cleared up and the group became acquainted. The machine Otis cooked a repast for the group and retold his tales as the former Captain of the Knights of Alexandria, providing insights on Preservation's Endless project. 
Zoraal Ja prepared to resume his assault on Tuliyollal. Wuk Lamat and her allies rushed to Vanguard to stop him while machine Otis and Gulool Ja hurried to the Alexandria Outskirts to warn and evacuate the citizens. After dueling with Wuk Lamat and learning that his invasion on Tuliyollal had failed, Zoraal Ja ordered his army to slaughter the Alexandrian citizens to harvest their souls. Gulool Ja rushed in to stop his father, followed by machine Otis. Zoraal Ja threatened to kill his son, and machine Otis dived in to his rescue. Due to his authority as the King of Resolve, Zoraal Ja ordered the machine Otis to stand down and the latter obeyed without protest, overwriting his individualism. The machine Otis, now under the King of Resolve's command, marched with his army back to Everkeep, leaving the group behind.
Forming a truce with Queen Sphene, Wuk Lamat and her allies defended the Alexandrian citizens in Solution Nine from the massacre, where they encountered the machine Otis, now leading the army. The heroes dueled him, and just when it seemed he had the upper hand, Sphene called out to him, reminding him of his status and bringing him back to his senses. The levin beast Gwyddrud attacked and the machine Otis and the heroes battled it. The beast overcharged itself with lightning aether and overwhelmed the group with paralyzing lightning bolts. The machine Otis, gathering the last of his strength, created an aetherial bulwark to fend against the beast's attacks, granting the heroes time to fell the levin beast. The machine body succumbed from enduring too much lightning bolts, and Otis perished. Sphene noted that Otis's machine body, being an older unit, was not equipped with a regulator, hence his soul could not be resurrected, and the group shared a moment of silence to mourn his loss.
To stop Queen Sphene's plan of interdimensional fusion to harvest more aether to sustain the Endless, Wuk Lamat and her allies traveled to the unlost world to confront her in her realm: the Living Memory. While traversing the realm, Wuk Lamat and the Warrior of Light encountered Otis again in Yesterland, now as an Endless. This Otis, however, was created based on a copy of his memories in the past and did not recognize the pair, mistaking them as villainy again. The misunderstanding quickly cleared up, the pair offered their assistance to help Otis prepare a marquee play that retells the history of Alexandria. During the play, Otis came to a stupor over a lingering memory of the late Queen Sphene's passing, bringing it to a halt, but Wuk Lamat improvised by mentioning how a new Alexandria is born. Afterwards, Otis questioned the group about the world beyond, learning about the perseverance of Alexandria and his machine counterpart. Feeling a measure of peace, Otis implored the group to watch over Gulool Ja, now the new king of Alexandria, inherited from the late Zoraal Ja. The group reassured him and proceeded to shut down the data terminal sustaining Yesterland, purging the memories of Otis and every other Endless in the area.
== Characteristics ==
== Behind the scenes ==
Otis Velona's character appears heavily inspired by Adelbert Steiner from Final Fantasy IX. Steiner, however, was not originally the Captain of the Knights of Alexandria, but the Captain of the Pluto Knights, a lesser team of male knights in an otherwise overwhelmingly female Alexandrian military commanded by General Beatrix. And whereas Steiner's character is both chivalrous and a buffoonish comic relief character, Otis's character is primarily chivalrous with barely any buffoonish characteristics.
Otis' machine body has two white spot-like eyes, which are more reminiscent of the black mages of Final Fantasy IX, who were themselves mass-produced machine bodies infused with souls taken from the Mist.
== Etymology ==
== Citations ==
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy XIV
Category:Hyur
Category:Endless
Category:Paladins