Siegfried Schtauffen

Siegfried Schtauffen is the main protagonist of the Soulcalibur video game series. He is a tragic knight who seeks repentance for his sins after accidentally killing his father in Soul Edge. It is said that Nightmare was created by evil laying within Siegfried and the sins he committed. So the only way to really bring peace to the world was to kill Nightmare once and for all. It is shown in the games that Siegfried is very skilled with his big and heavy greatsword dubbed Requiem, but he also becomes a host for Soul Calibur later on. He is capable of twirling his sword around in a number of various tactical maneuvers and stances.
He is voiced by Crispin Freeman in Soulcalibur III, Roger Craig Smith in Soulcalibur Legends to Soulcalibur V, who also voiced Chris Redfield, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and Sonic the Hedgehog; and by Kirk Thornton in Soulcalibur VI, who also voiced Shadow the Hedgehog and Guile. In the Japanese dub, he is voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama, who voiced Link from Ocarina of Time.
==Personality==
In his younger years, Siegfried was at first initially a cocky and arrogant mercenary who took no purity to the death of his enemies. However, after obtaining Soul Edge, he transforms into a misanthropic and omnicidal monster who seeks to harness all the worlds souls to become god-like.
Upon being freed from the cursed sword's influence, Siegfried feels a need to atone for his sins, and becomes notably reclusive, seeing that he might end up hurting people that attempt to help him, and chooses to destroy Soul Edge on his own.
After seemingly destroying Soul Edge, Siegfried begins to lose his reclusiveness and becomes calmer, acting as a mentor to his allies.
==History==
===Soul Edge===
Siegfried was a young boy who eventually goes rogue and forms a mercenary group called the Schwarzwind, where he is the leader.  He leads them to raid on a small group of knights, which his group succeeds in eliminating, however tragedy strikes when Siegfried raises the head of the enemy group's leader in the moonlight only to identify it as the head of his father.  Feeling guilty, Siegfried flees in depression and seeks to resurrect his father as a way to atone for his unholy deed by going on a search for the blade known as Soul Edge.  He eventually finds a castle inhabited by a noble who is rumored to wield the blade Siegfried searches for and after pledging  and showing loyalty to its owner, Siegfried kills the man in a moment of opportunity, only to learn that he does not have the blade.  Siegfried eventually finds Soul Edge on the rotting corpse of a dead pirate captain named Cervantes, but when he retrieves the blade, the cadaver animates to life and battles Siegfried.  The young knight eventually defeats the undead pirate and collects the blade.  Upon doing so, the boy was overwhelmed by the spirit of the sword, who makes a deal with the boy saying for him to collect souls from individuals to make the sword stronger and in exchange, the spirit would resurrect Siegfried's father.  Siegfried agrees, and then chaos breaks out.
===Soul Calibur===
Over the course of three years, Siegfried (who now goes by the alias as Nightmare) gathers a guild of followers consisting of a golem named Astaroth, a lizard man known as Aeon Celoes, and a haughty alchemist named Isabella Valentine.  But in the midst of a ritual, the group is attacked by two warriors:  Kilik and Xianghua (who wields Soul Calibur in disguise).  The two warriors defeat the group and exile Nightmare from the area.  After the defeat, Siegfried begins to have hallucinations accompanying the presence of the souls of the individual's Soul Edge had murdered under the guise of Siegfried.
===Soul Calibur II===
Four years pass and Siegfried assumes the identity as Nightmare once more and returns to the castle he had search previously for Soul Edge and later overran.  There, he makes an attempt to restore the cursed sword Soul Edge to is former power once more.  His ritual is then interrupted by the French noble Raphael Sorel, would battles him in an attempt to retrieve the cursed sword.  Nightmare however overpowers him and just before he succeeds in restore Soul Edge back to full power, he is interrupted once more, but not from an outside force, but an inside force.  Siegfried's will broke free from Nightmare's influence and then engaged in a battle against the entity of Inferno.
===Soul Calibur III===
Raphael with the last of his dying strength to finish off Nightmare.  He succeeds and manages to free Siegfried's will from the manipulation of Nightmare.
When it was all over, Siegfried thought back in a daze over what he had done. As he looked around, he sighted a sword that appeared along with the light. As if guided by something, he took the sword in his hand and drove it into the evil eye that was the core of Soul Edge. That sword was the holy sword Soul Calibur, which had been trapped by the power of the evil sword.
During this time, Soul Calibur and Soul Edge become intertwined into each other.  Siegfried soon pledges to destroy Soul Edge, kill Nightmare, and atone for his sins.  But little did he know that the Azure Knight was being resurrected by another man.
Eventually, Siegfried and the resurrected Azure Knight, who is now a separate entity meet again.  The man who resurrected the Azure Knight used his dark magic and broke the two swords from their embrace. Both Siegfried and Nightmare took their respective swords and clash, causing an explosion that almost costed both of them their lives.
===Soul Calibur IV===
during his journey, Siegfried began to hear a familiar voice speak to him.
"So you would forsake our friendship?" the voice said, before taunting him about will only seek death if they ever cross paths with him.
Siegfried then recognized the voice was his own, before hearing another, more unfamiliar voice speak after it.
"I have seen what you have done. Now you devote your life to atoning for your sins and redeeming your soul. Are you not as much a victim of that sword as the others?", the second voice taunted, referring to Soul Edge.
Siegfried then angrily protested that what he has done must be repented in order return back to a normalize one more.
The second voice then vanished, and Siegfried was then force to relive a vision of the night he killed his father by mistake, seeing his father's decapitated head once more in the beaming moonlight. Suddenly, he woke up, realizing it was all just a dream.
Upon awaking, Siegfried realized that the power of both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur had scarred him not physically, but mentally and socially. Siegfried once again felt that his quest to destroy the evil sword was so close, yet still felt incomplete. It felt as though Siegfried should have died during the battle at the Cathedral, but upon feeling Soul Calibur's essence flow through his body, he realized that the sword had saved his life.
That night, Siegfried made a decision: he must confront Soul Edge once more at the maelstrom produced at the Cathedral, and destroy the cursed sword once and for all with the spirit sword. Once completed, he would become one with the spirit sword, hoping that in doing so, he would never bring harm to those he loved so much.
Afterwards, Siegfried began a long journey to Ostrinsburg Castle, the very place he once was manipulated by the cursed sword years earlier.
In his ending (which is implied to be non-canon), Siegfried collides with Nightmare and kills his archenemy with a single slash. As Nightmare groans in agony, Siegfried remarks ""With this... it ends." Siegfried then stabs his body with Soul Calibur, which then begins to unleash its full power and crystallizes both Nightmare and Soul Edge. "Our kind must not exist in this world; not ever again." Siegfried then utters before Soul Calibur also crystallizes himself. It is then implied in the epilogue that Soul Calibur's power then begins to cover the world in crystals, creating a world without war or conflict.
In Hilde's ending, he pleads guilty in front of the princess and wishes her to finish him off, stating that the rumors that he was once Nightmare are true, and that he deserves to die for his actions. Hilde heeds his wish but before striking him with a fatal blow, she stops and ultimately forgives him for the sins he has committed, in doing so, Siegfried was spared, and his life took a turn for the better.
===Soul Calibur V===
Siegfried and Nightmare enter a brutal battle, with Siegfried successfully defeating his archenemy and ultimately kills Nightmare in the process.  In doing so, his goal seemed to be accomplished, he went on to live a life of peace, however he realized that Soul Edge could not be fully destroyed and that eventually it would return once more. To help prepare for this event, Siegfried reformed the Schwarzwind and began recruiting members to help combat Nightmare upon his arrival.
Seventeen years pass before Nightmare seemingly returns with as a new host. Siegfried, who still possessed Soul Calibur witnessed the spirit sword transform into a one-handed sword, signaling the cursed sword's return.
"So... The time has come..." he uttered under his breath.
He then assigned a traveling mercenary named Z.W.E.I to carry out the task to locate an able-bodied warrior to wield the weapon, eventually finding itself to a an arrogant, but strong-willed teenager named Patroklos Alexander.
===Soul Calibur VI===
Siegfried is once again the host for Nightmare, as Soul Calibur VI revisits the events of the original Soul Calibur in an alternate timeline. While under control of Soul Edge, he once again spreads havoc across everywhere he travels.  His tyrannical reign is thwarted once Kilik and Xianghua once again defeat both him and Inferno, Nightmare's true form.
Following the events of the main storyline, Siegfried is revived to his former self, now suicidal and still remorseful over his father's murder by his hands and the sins he has committed as Nightmare.  Warriors begin to challenge him in an attempt to kill him after what he has done as Nightmare.  He defeats them, but feels that it accomplishes nothing.
Eventually, Siegfried encounters Sophitia who heals him after a near-death experience, following this Siegfried becomes more determinate and believes that the only way to repent for his sins is by destroying Soul Edge once and for all; he begins to remember seeing the sword that Xianghua wielded whilst battling Nightmare, and believes that is the weapon that he must sought after to accomplish the task.
Siegfried returns to Ostriensburg Castle, Nightmare's former lair and discovers a shard of Soul Edge, upon touching it, he is sent to the Astral realm, where he encounters Nightmare in Siegfried's form.  Siegfried battles him, before Nightmare transforms into his true form: Inferno.  Despite the intensity of the battle, Siegfried prevails and destroys Inferno.  Afterwards, he discovers Soul Calibur lodged in the Astral realm, there he reaches for it, believing now that he has the weapon needed to bring an end to Soul Edge, once Nightmare returns to the normal realm once more. Despite being successful, Soul Edge was able to increase its hold over its host, trapping him in Astral Chaos for some time and started to focus its will on corrupting both Siegfried and Soul Calibur. Siegfried's soul would however escaped from the Astral Chaos, only to disappear into the Astral Chaos over and over again when he fell asleep. This would allow Inferno to possess his body completely as well as take on the guise of Nightmare and slaughter people.
While trapped in Astral Chaos, Siegfried despaired at Soul Calibur slowly being corroded by Soul Edge's malice and was approached by Acht, a mysterious entity resembling an androgynous silver-haired child. She claimed to have once been Siegfried's traveling companion but the latter does not remember her, nor any of the events she mentions to him. Siegfried rebuked Acht's attempts to manipulate him into giving in to Soul Edge's corruption and surrendering Soul Calibur to her. This allowed him to break free and regain control of his body the moment the opportunity presented itself.
During his time at Ostrheinsburg Castle, Siegfried gained knowledge of where Soul Edge’s servants held imprisoned hostages; and was able to use the brief interludes where he regained control of his body to relay that information to Hwang before sensing he was turning into Nightmare again and departing, unwilling to cause more casualties.
In the Libra of Souls campaign, the protagonist will encounter him in the European wilderness if there alignment leans towards good. Siegfried will reluctantly battle them, believing that they are just an obstacle in his path. 
The protagonist ends up prevailing in battle, and afterwards, they tell Siegfried of their true purpose. Siegfried will then wish them luck, before departing to fulfill his own goal.
==Audio==
===Theme===
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