Desna "The Starstruck Beauty"

Desna "The Starstruck Beauty" is a member of Eden's "The Seven" possessing the rank Rook, and one of the antagonists of Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, appearing as the boss of the mission Raveled (Babel) in Copen's story route, and Eden (The Garden 1) in Gunvolt's story route. She is also one of the protagonists of the drama CD Eden's Party.
She is an astrologist who joined Eden under the pretense of being an oracle of the stars and has become highly revered for her accurate fortune telling. She is an Adept with the Septima Splitting Ends, which allows her to control an endless supply of phantasmagorical hair.
==Website Description==
==Appearance==
Desna is a young woman with long brown hair and green eyes. She wears an orange sweater dress made of wool, with a black and white short sleeved jacket on top. She also wears multiple purple wrist bands, two on each wrist, and a black belt with a silver buckle in an lemniscate shape.
In her Grimoired form, Desna gains black eyes with bright yellow irises, with thin, matching hair. She wears slender black and gray armor, with yellow areas on her cleavage, neck, and feet. She also gains a large hoop attached to the back of her head, which sprouts four long, ribbon-like pieces of hair.
===Gallery===
Main article: Desna "The Starstruck Beauty"/Gallery
Desna's Artwork.jpg|Normal
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==Personality==
Desna is one of the more mysterious members of The Seven. She always has an unnervingly calm air about her, and speaks in a soft, knowing voice which rarely shows any emotion. As one of Eden's elite, Desna is unflinching in her loyalty to Zonda, and takes her role as her protector very seriously.
Desna also has a great love for fortunes and astrology, being quite skilled in both subjects and having an incredibly high accuracy rate, enough for the members of Eden to regard her as a Goddess, something she doesn't see herself as or is even aware of.
==History==
===Background===
Desna once belonged to a wealthy Russian family, where she was adored for her beauty and precise astrological predictions. However, a riot broke out in her home town led by an Adept, resulting in discrimination against those with Septima. Fearing for her safety, Desna's family confined her to her house.
However, she interpreted a message from the stars telling her to travel the world and act as a guide to oppressed Adepts. Taking the message to heart, she used her Septima to flee from her window, and from that point onwards roamed the land, guiding the lost and oppressed, amassing quite the following, whom came to see her as a Goddess.
Once, whilst sleeping in a stable, Desna saw a message in her dreams, telling her to join the adept union Eden and save Adepts. Desna and her followers then joined the group after that, with Desna herself joining The Seven, Eden's elite, and became known as one of Eden's "Rooks".
During her time in Eden, a rumor began to spread among her fanatical followers that those who do an outstanding job will be rewarded with a year's supply of her hair. Desna is not aware of this.Dengeki Nintendo magazine and Armed Blue: Gunvolt Official Complete Works, Year's Worth of Hair section
===Eden's Party===
===Azure Striker Gunvolt 2===
====Copen route====
=====Raveled (Babel)=====
Some time after Eden managed to obtain the power of the Muse, Desna led a band of Eden soldiers to Babel, Sumeragi's Orbital Elevator, to obtain more data on the Muse, using her hair as makeshift electrical cords to power some of the machinery (and to act as ramps to allow her men to climb up as well).
This draws the attention of Copen, who goes to the tower to stop her and obtain her mirror shard. During their fight, Desna attempts to warn Copen that his quest for vengeance will lead only to abject misery and that he will take with him all that he holds dear, but Copen will hear none of her fortunes and defeats her, claiming her mirror shard.
=====Savior (The Garden 3)=====
As Copen fights his way to the heart of the garden to rescue his sister Mytyl, Zonda summons mirror copies of The Seven to hinder his progress, one of them being Desna. During their fight, Desna expresses worry about the future, foreseeing "a great swell of light and dark that swallows all". Copen ignores her prophecies and defeats her once again before moving on.
Later, during Zonda's fight with Copen, she uses her Eden's Presence Special Skill to summon illusions of The Seven to aid her, Desna being among them.
====Gunvolt route====
=====Eden (The Garden 1)=====
As Gunvolt fights his way to the heart of the Garden to reclaim the rest of the mirror shards, Tenjian sends Desna to stop him.
Desna taunts Gunvolt, calling him a devil whose very existence brings pain to the world with no regard for order. Gunvolt merely retorts that even if he is a devil, it in no way justifies Eden's actions and engages the Starstruck Beauty in battle, defeating her and claiming her mirror shard.
==Other Appearances==
===Mighty Gunvolt Burst===
Desna makes a cameo as collectible pixel sticker #45 in Mighty Gunvolt Burst. Some of Seismic's attacks resemble ones used by Desna, and the Mine stage has collapsing platforms, somewhat similar to in Babel. Coinciding with this, Desna's pixel sticker is a stage completion reward.
==Powers and Abilities==
As a human attuned to the Septimal stage of the Lifewave and a member of The Seven, Desna is one of the strongest Adepts in Eden who wields the Splitting Ends Septima, which allows her to manipulate her seemingly endless supply of hair.
She can extend the length of her hair to seemingly no end and can mold it into a variety of shapes such as hands to grab enemies, a tornado to suck enemies close to her, and more commonly, drills. Her hair can also harden to the point where it surpasses diamond in strength. Desna is also very agile, using her hair as springs to extend the height and length of her jumps. She can also use her hair for more mundane purposes such as creating makeshift electrical cords.
Her hair is a valued commodity among Eden, often serving as a reward for loyal soldiers.
Apart from her Septima, Desna is a skilled fortune teller whose prophecies are highly accurate, earning her a reputation among Eden as a goddess. For instance, she was able to predict that Copen's vendetta against Adepts would lead only to misery for him, a prophecy that would come to fruition at the end of his story.
===Boss Battle Skills===
Skill 	Description
Neo Wolfネオウルフ4gamer.net article about Tenjian, Desna, and Milas 	Desna jumps out at you, striking once or twice with her hair extended.
See-through Bangシースルーバング4gamer.net article about Tenjian, Desna, and Milas 	A long-ranged attack in which she turns some split-off hairs into drills and shoots them towards the player. The hairballs and the drills they form can block tags/bullets. She can transition into this attack from Neo Wolf.
Twistツイスト4gamer.net article about Tenjian, Desna, and Milas 	She gathers bloated hair around her, makes it spin, and then turns it into a gigantic tornado which pulls you toward it. She’s invincible during this attack (cancels tags and block shots), so focus on dodging it by dashing away.
*From this move, she either combos into Neo Wolf, See-Through Bang, or disappears for Grunge Wave.
Grunge Waveグランジウェーブ4gamer.net article about Tenjian, Desna, and Milas 	An attack in which she makes two jumps, one on your position, and one to either end of the arena. On the second jump, her hair thrusts upwards from the floor in a wave of drills. The drills grow higher as they go further from Desna, so staying close to her is recommended to dodge this attack.
*The drills directly connected to Desna will block your shots during this attack.
*Copen can still tag her by Bullit dashing.
Entangled StrandsエンタングルブロンドEntangle Blond 	Desna's Special Skill. It's a large-scale attack in which she stretches hair everywhere and tries to capture the player. She also makes hair drills line the ceiling for those who try to wait it out in the air. If you get caught by the hair, you will be subject to a hair whip tornado that takes up about 4/6ths of the screen. She'll create a tornado anyway even if you don't get caught, it'll just be around your general area. Survivable as long as you don't stand in place and LET the hair whips strike you.
* The grabbing hairs will Overheat GV, but will not empty Copen's Bullits.
* She starts with creating 3 grabbing zones, with a maximum of 9 being deployed as you avoid them.
==Boss Battle Voices==
Event 	Translated	Romaji 	Japanese
Transform 	 	Hoshi yo… 	星よ...
Neo Wolf 	 	Fuu! Ei! Seyaa! 	ふっ！ えい！せやっ！
See-Through Bang 	 	Kyaa! Tsuranuite! 	きゃっ！ 貫いて！
Twist 	 	Haa! 	はあっ！
Grunge Wave 	 	Haa! Seii! Haa! Karame torimasu! 	はっ！ せいっ！はっ！絡めとります…！
Entangled Strands	(Caught) 	Shuuen no jikan! Entanguru Burondo!Haa! Hoshi ga tsugemasu… (Caught) Tsukamae mashita… Hoshi no nageki wo, shirinasai!	終焉の時間…エンタングルブロンド！はっ！ 星が告げます…(Caught) 捕えました… 星の嘆きを、知りなさい！
1st Phase Down 	 	Hoshi yo... Watashi wo michibiite... 	星よ… 私を導いて…
2nd Phase Down 	 	Hoshi ga… Matataite iru… 	星が…瞬いている…
Defeated 	 	Aaa! Hoshi no hikari ga… kieru… 	あぁっ！ 星の光が… 消える……！
==Special Skill Chants==
Entangled Strands:
== Quotes ==
==Designer Comments==
Source: Armed Blue: Gunvolt Official Complete Works
==Musical Themes==
Title 	Context 	Composer 	Audio
The Entangled Star-roads縺れ合う星路 	Raveled (Babel) stage theme	Ryo Kawakami	
The theme's melody is intended to express Desna's "mysterious and no idea how to make sense of her" traits.Gunvolt 2 OST, sound designer Ryo Kawakami's comment
== Trivia ==
*As part of the Eden top members being based on classical fairy tales, Desna's motif is Rapunzel.
*As a callback to earlier story drafts, The Seven are all named after missiles.Gunvolt Official Complete Works staff interview Desna is named after the R-9 Desna.
**Her Japanese name, "Nike", is derived from Project Nike, a planned US missile program. It is also the same as the Ancient Greek Goddess of victory Nike and reduction of the Russian name Veronike.
*Standing at 185cm (6'0"), Desna is the tallest female character in the series, tied with Fake Zonda.
*Desna's voice actress, Jenya, is also Russian. When it was suggested that Desna be from Russia based on her design's looks, the sound director commented "Russian? I know a good VA.", and so it was decided that would indeed be Desna's homeland. Because Jenya is good at speaking Japanese, she was instructed to use a Russian accent when recording Desna's lines.https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2016/08/26/101289_4.html
**In addition, she's the only character whose Japanese voice actress reprised her role in the English dub of Azure Striker Gunvolt 3.
*In early design concepts, Desna was going to be Southeast Asian instead, but this was decided against.
*In early trailers for Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, Desna's Special Skill splash screen used the name "Beat Up Entremets", which is the Japanese name for Asroc's Special Skill, instead of "Entangled Blonde". However, the incantation was the same as in the final version.
==References==
== Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 Navigation ==
Category:Characters
Category:ASG2 Bosses
Category:Antagonists
Category:Adept
Category:The Seven
Category:Eden
Category:Azure Striker Gunvolt 2
Category:Female Characters
Category:Deceased
Category:ASG2 Characters
Category:Image Pulse