Ulysses

— Ulysses, *Temptation Stairway*

**Ulysses** is a minor character that appears in *Temptation Stairway*. They are the first character Ena interacts with inside the residence of The Great Runas, giving information to her while working under Runas.

## Appearance

Ulysses is a humanoid-looking character with pale skin and dark gray hair. They have thick eyebrows, orange lips, and their eyes are always closed. Their body consists of simply a floating torso which lacks arms, though they still possess hands that float at a distance from where their arms would be.

Ulysses wears a purple coat with thin yellow stripes covering their puffed sleeves, front, and waist section. They also wear a brown undercoat with an eyeball on the collar and three white buttons resembling eyes.

Ulysses's hands sport yellow wrist cuffs with purple frills. They also wear gloves that change appearance depending on the type of voice Ulysses uses. In their default state, the gloves depict a blue sky with moving clouds. The other variants consist of Renaissance paintings, lines of green code, and a static-filled background with a black silhouette-like face. The lattermost variant is also capable of showing a full figure rather than simply a face.

## Personality

While Ulysses tends to be blunt and pessimistic, they can still give helpful advice and are quite informative. When they are speaking, they will usually repeat the last phrase or word said 3 or more times, as they cycle through their various voices/hand variants.

Ulysses speaks in 5 distinct voices, shifting several times in the middle of nearly every sentence.

* Voice 1 is static-like and quiet such that it is nearly a whisper. It is marked on Ulysses's gloves by static and with black silhouettes of a face/figure(s) speaking for them, as the face silhouette moves its own mouth rather than Ulysses moving their mouth. Example: "...***desires are never fulfilled***..."
* Voice 2 is reminiscent of announcers at concerts or sports games and is the least filtered. This voice, like Voice 5, is marked by Ulysses's gloves having a blue sky-like appearance with moving clouds. Example: "B-b-but heed this warning,"
* Voice 3 is extremely similar to Voice 5 and could be just a variation of it, but has a more distorted, mocking tone and is higher in pitch. This voice is marked on Ulysses's gloves (if they are visible) by rapidly shifting artwork, reminiscent of Renaissance-era paintings. Example: "*But it seems your g-g-greedy soul*..."
* Voice 4 is jarringly loud and monotone and usually only interjects repetitions of single words and phrases, with only one exception where it speaks in rapid-fire binary (see Trivia). This voice is marked by a black background with green code on Ulysses's gloves and usually causes their body to glitch and spasm. Examples: "**`OVER`**." "**`WARNING`**"
* Voice 5 is neutral, smooth and deep with a synthetic filter over it. While speaking in this voice, Ulysses's gloves are blue and have moving clouds on them, and they have a generally calm tone. Example: "The celebration is..."

Note that the first time Ulysses speaks of The Great Runas in *Temptation Stairway*, they repeat the name in all five voices in the order that they are mentioned above.

Example: "You are bearing **`W-WITNESS`** to the incredulous residence of Our ***Great Runas***-Great Runas-*R-Runas*-**`RUNAS`-**Runas."

## Trivia

* According to *Temptation Stairway*'s subtitles, Ulysses states to Ena the next celebration is in 10,000 years, though their normal voice is interrupted by their Voice 4 voice, causing the words to become glitched. In the subtitles, this is stated through binary text ("00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000").
* Ulysses is somewhat similar to Ena in that Ulysses has different voices, each having their own tones and sounds, which can be said to slightly represent other emotions.
* In the description for the RASH A1M Japanese dub of *Temptation Stairway*, Ulysses is erroneously named "ホーク" (*hōk*, Hark). This is possibly a misunderstanding of Ena's line "Hark! I believe I'm in dire need of your services to learn my current whereabouts.", in which the word "hark" was believed to be Ulysses's name.

### Cultural references and inspirations

* Ulysses's design was confirmed during a Twitch stream to be based on Lord Farquaad from the DreamWorks film *Shrek*.
* Ulysses's speech pattern appears to be a reference to The Master from *Fallout* or to the character of Max Headroom.
* The images that appears on Ulysses's hands while speaking in their third voice are snippets of a painting by Renaissance painter Pieter Huys titled *Inferno*.

## Gallery

### Artwork

Concept drawings of characters for *Temptation Stairway* including Ulysses.Ulysses's 3D model. Modeled by Utu-Nui.Concept art of Ulysses. Found in the files for Utu-Nui's Ulysses model.
### Screenshots

The silhouette in Ulysses's hands."The celebration is **`OVER`**"Ulysses seen sideways.Ulysses with their finger up."***In that case...***"The silhouette multiplied."Like the rest of them... Like the rest of them! ***Like the rest of them...***"
### Merchandise

Ulysses on a shirt.Ena, Mariya & Gabo, and Ulysses sticker set.
## References

1. ↑ https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/ulysses-from-ena-ff304dd4572a48aeafb1f3242f8e8daf