Astler Leidt

Astler Leidt is one of the protagonists of Blue Matter. Astler is the Admiral of the Guard and one of the four faction heads of Coelcaitus. He is a genius Cael user and is considered a prodigy.

## Appearance

Astler is a teenager with white hair and cobalt blue eyes. He has spiky bangs that he keeps swept to the left side of his face. He has eight halo shards on the right side of his head, consisting of three longer shards in front of his ear and five smaller shards around the back of his ear. He is typically seen wearing his Armada uniform, which consists of a baby blue turtle-necked tank top, a short white cloak with cobalt trimming, a golden brooch in the shape of the Armada symbol, baby blue wrist guards, a white belt with a gray-blue buckle, gray-blue pants, and dark gray shoes. He is described as very handsome by multiple characters, earning him the nickname “Dollface” from Icarus.

## Personality

Although most people perceive Astler as stoic and phlegmatic, he is actually just socially awkward. Astler is shown to take his work as the Admiral seriously and is capable of taking down demons without hesitation. He is quite humble and doesn’t care for his reputation due to the attention drawn to him and is oftentimes uncomfortable with the formalities that come with his position, disliking when angels salute him. He can sometimes come off as cold towards others, particularly when he appeared unfazed by Lanning’s injury despite her being a friend of Shinsa. He has an unsettling habit of threatening to hurt those who mistreat or harm Shinsa.

## Powers & Abilities

Astler is an incredibly gifted Cael user, considered to be one of the best, if not *the* best. He has eight shards in his halo, which was the maximum amount anyone was capable of using prior to Euclase’s halo examination. He is noted as having very high cael affinity and is capable of creating intricate shapes, ranging from paper airplanes to giant angel wings.

Astler also has an astounding cael capacity, creating an entire structure out of cael shards to neutralize Shinzen, even intimidating Eugene Solgloire, another cael user considered to be immensely talented. He was able to create multiple massive shards of Cael when Shinsa attacked him, including one that was several times larger than the palace of Shin-an.

He is also able to manipulate the density of Cael, such as when he created a shield of Cael while fighting Shinsa and a small shard of Cael dense enough to protect him from Shinsa’s blood-sword. Astler also utilizes cael in a manner similar to telekinesis, creating small shards to attach to objects so he can move them. Although he has not been shown to utilize cael chemistry outside of creating physical cael shards, it can be presumed that he has high cael chemistry capabilities due to his status as a prodigy.

Unusually, Astler's halo serves not to increase his power, but limit it, as he can not control his full output. His extraordinary accomplishments are all the result of an eight-shard Halo limiter, implying his full output could be far bigger.

## Relationships

### Shinsa

Despite initially being enemies, Astler was shown to be considerate towards her humanity despite her being a demon, even going as far as to offer her his blood upon first meeting. He went as far as lying in his reports about eliminating her, even though it could jeopardize his position. He is shown to deeply care for Shinsa and acts quite differently around her. Despite initially being hesitant to help Shinsa sneak into Coelcaitus, he grows to enjoy her company due to her becoming his friend, although he can be annoyed by her improper manners and reckless attitude. He is extremely protective of her and becomes deeply angered when her house was vandalized after her identity as a demon was revealed, and even threatened to take on the entire Guard after they attacked Shinsa. Even though he claimed to be unwilling to help her if she gets outted as a demon, he saved her and pledged to sponsor her to allow for her to stay on Coelcaitus. Their friendship seems to have progressed to a one-sided crush, with Astler often blushing around Shinsa, such as when she first wore the hairpiece he gifted to her. He has even gone as far as to call her pretty when she wasn’t bugging him.

At the Founding Festival, Astler finally confessed his feelings to Shinsa, and she reciprocated.

### Seraphina Leidt

Although not much is known about Astler’s relationship with his mother, it has been shown that he tries to keep a professional relationship with her due to their positions as faction heads. He usually doesn’t acknowledge their relation often, but he was willing to do so to convince her to allow Shinsa to stay in Coelcaitus. Seraphina seems to think highly of Astler, calling him a good child and trusting his word.

### Icarus

Astler has a working relationship with Icarus since both of them are the heads of factions. However, Astler has known Icarus for a long time, claiming that she was the one who taught him about morality. Although Astler has acknowledged Icarus’s suspicious personality, he trusts her, as shown when he assured Shinsa that she’d help convince Lady Seraphina to allow her to stay. The two are close enough for Icarus to dub him “Dollface”.

### Eulifer De La Solgloire

Despite the two of them working together for four years, Eulifer and Astler aren’t close. Astler is uncomfortable with the praise she gives him and views her as no more than a coworker. Eulifer’s advances often go unnoticed by Astler due to her approach being more formal then friendly.

### Eugene De La Solgloire

As admiral and captain of the Armada, Astler and Eugene have been shown to work together on missions. Astler respects Eugene’s work ethic as a captain, stating that his efforts to catch slave traders were important. Eugene seems to respect Astler and his power, even being intimidated by his Cael capabilities, shown when he watched Astler take down Shinzen with moderate ease, despite the demon previously wiping out Eugene’s entire squadron.

### Bach

Although the two are both faction heads, they don’t get along very well. Bach is envious of the praise that Astler gets, jumping at the opportunity to defame him by revealing his connections to Shinsa.

### Ryung

The two have not interacted often, but Astler seems to be impressed by his genius-intellect and perfect memory, wondering if he could predict the future because of his brains. Ryung on the other hand doesn’t regard Astler in the same light as other angels and skips out on the usual formalities, treating him like a normal person. He’s unafraid of disrespecting Astler and sees him as the socially awkward person he is rather than the stoic personality that everyone associates with him. He’s even gone as far as cursing at Astler and calling him a moron when he said something stupid. He also is one of the few people who has noticed Astler’s ruthlessness when it comes to keeping Shinsa safe.

### Shinzen

Astler first met Shinzen after he slaughtered the Northern Squadron after being dispatched to handle him. Although Astler didn’t initially care about supposedly killing the demon, he later expressed guilt over killing someone Shinsa cared about and apologized to her for his actions.