Asch

Asch (アッシュ), or Asch the Bloody (鮮血のアッシュ), is a God-General and an anti-hero in Tales of the Abyss. He is the 6th Division Commander of Special Operations within the Oracle Knights.

Past
In reality, Asch is the original Luke fon Fabre. As a child, Asch took his responsibilities as the future ruler of Kimlasca extremely seriously, developing a cold and impersonal disposition. However, his love for his country and people was evident during this time, and he made a promise to Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear that he would marry her and create a world where "no one has to be poor" and "war never happens". When he was ten, Asch was kidnapped by Van Grants to make a replica, who would later become known as Luke fon Fabre after assuming the position that Asch once held within the kingdom. Van's initial intention was to mold Asch into a perfect servant and use his power of hyperresonance in his plot to overthrow the Yulia Jue's Score. Asch eventually escaped and returned home only to find that Luke had usurped his life, family, fiance, and home.

Following this discovery, Asch became Van's servant. Afterward, Van was able to raise his protege through the ranks, all under an assumed name and identity, although it does become apparent that a few of Asch's fellow God-Generals are aware of his true identity. At first, Asch was willing to follow Van's plan to destroy the Score, but this changed when he discovered Van's true intentions to replace the world with replicas. Asch came to secretly despise his master's plan and cherished a hatred of all replicas, as he still harbors resentment toward the one who took his life and happiness in Kimlasca. Asch began to act as a double-agent, secretly working behind the scenes against Van while appearing to following his orders. He uses his cold exterior as a shield to protect himself and repel anyone who inquires about his intentions, making a vow that he will never return home and going so far as to reject Natalia. He insists that he is not the boy she once knew, though it is later revealed he thought and spoke of her often.

Tales of the Abyss
Asch has the same goal as the party, but most of what he does is undercover work. He seldomly works in junction with the party, apart from during times of necessity. For example, in order to escape the Qliphoth in the Tartarus and investigate Ortion Cavern, Asch had to cooperate with the party in Luke's place. Despite this, most of the time, he outright refuses to work with them. He assists the party on several occasions, including lowering the Outer Lands, eliminating the miasma, and preventing Luke and Natalia from being executed. At Eldrant, Luke and Asch duel to metaphorically determine "who the real Luke is". Luke emerges victorious, and Asch forfeits his Key of Lorelei to Luke. Afterward, a group of Oracle Knights arrive, and Asch stays behind to fight them. Although Asch manages to kill many of the knights, he succumbs to his injuries sustained during the battle. He forms a mental link with Luke during his last moments. Upon Asch's death, Luke receives Asch's fonons and with them gains the power to use "second-order hyperresonance". After Luke defeats Van and stays behind to release Lorelei, he sinks into the core of Auldrant, catching Asch's corpse inside. After Lorelei thanks Luke for releasing him, a surge of energy surrounds Luke and Asch, and Asch's hand twitches.

Appearance and Personality
Asch is a very cold and impersonal man. This is a result of his upbringing, where he was not only groomed from birth to become the ruler of Kimlasca, but also treated very coldly by his father, who knew his son was destined to die at Akzeriuth. Thus, Asch separates his internal emotions from his external appearance. He is also forced to do this after he becomes Van's servant in order to hide his true intentions while appearing subservient. Asch has a tremendous amount of pride and cares deeply for his country and the people around him. He is extremely short-tempered and hot-headed, even more so than Luke, and nearly always insists on doing things on his own.

Fighting Style
Asch fights in the "Albert" style of swordsmanship, which focuses on strong, concise strikes that yield heavy damage, while sacrificing speed for more defensive tactics. His attack movements are very similar to Luke's abilities, but Asch wields his weapon in his right hand, providing the illusion of him mirroring Luke's movements in battle. While he and Luke share mostly similar movelists, Asch also has access to four fonic artes and all sidequest-related attacks. Asch is the only major character who has only one mystic arte, but he is one of only two playable characters who have access to all AD Skills in the game.

Relationships
Luke Fon Fabre - Luke is Asch's replica and his perfect isofon, a person with the same fonon frequency. Perfect isofons do not exist unless artificially created. Asch despises Luke for being the one who stole everything from him, and he is not afraid to express this hatred. Frequently, Asch claims Luke is an inferior replica and ironically hates him for having an inferiority complex. Asch tells Luke that if he really is his substitute, he should not accept being called inferior. However, Luke does not think of himself as a replacement and claims he is a different person from Asch. By the end of the story, Asch acknowledges Luke as a separate entity and tells him that he is the one who must kill Van.

Guy Cecil - Asch thinks of Guy as a naive fool, especially after seeing that he still trusts Luke after the incident at Akzeriuth. Guy feels hatred toward Asch for being the son of his enemy, Duke Fabre. While Asch treats Guy like he would treat anyone else, Guy does not try to hide his feelings much. By the end of the story, they both put the past behind them as much as possible in order to start over.

Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear - Asch still holds feelings for Natalia; however, Asch attempts to remain distant and suppress his feelings because he is no longer the person he used to be. Despite this, when Natalia is in danger, Asch rescues her without hesitation, exemplifying his feelings for her. Both Asch and Natalia still remember and try to fulfill the promise they made when they were kids. Natalia sometimes mixes Asch and Luke in her head and thinks of them as the same person, but by the end of the story, she comes to the realization that they are two separate people. Natalia is eventually able to allow her feelings for Asch to flourish again once the truth of their replication is revealed.

Jade Curtiss - While Jade may be in part responsible for what happened to Asch, since he is the one who proposed the principles of fomicry, Asch does not feel any anger toward him and believe that no good will come of putting the blame on him. Jade often teases Asch in a similar manner to the way he does with the rest of the party, yet he is worried about Asch and Luke's fate due to an effect that occurs between perfect isofons, in which only one of them will live.

Van Grants - Asch knew from the beginning that Van only wanted him for his hyperresonance, but he decided to follow him anyway. Asch respects Van and agrees with him that the Score must be eliminated, but after discovering that his master wants to destroy the world and create a replica of it instead, Asch betrays him. Asch believes that it is his duty as Van's pupil to kill him and prevent his plans from coming to fruition.

Tales of Vesperia
Asch makes a cameo appearance in the PlayStation 3 version of Tales of Vesperia, where his clothes are a costume that can be used by Yuri Lowell by equipping the "Rokujinshou: Senketsu no Kenshi" title from the pre-order bonus, or by equipping the "Shin'en no Kokuen" title from the PlayStation Network. When wearing the costume, his hair is modeled exactly like Asch's own, including its color scheme.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2
Asch appears as a playable character in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 alongside Luke and several other members of the cast from Tales of the Abyss. Instead of a relationship as original and replica, he and Luke are portrayed as twins. Asch first arrives on the Van Eltia after being injured in a experiment by Janis Kern, and is placed in the infirmary. When Janis arrives on the ship to speak to Raine Sage, Asch awakens and attempts to attack Janis, but he is held back by the Protagonist in time. During the events of the story, Luke attempts to form a bond with Asch, but Asch ignores him. During the third mission in the mines, Asch, Harold Berselius, and the Protagonist save Janis and his assistant from being killed by soldiers. In the deepest areas of the mines, they find Janis nearly being killed by a soldier polluted with negative energy that transformed into "Blade Rex". After defeating the monster, Asch and Harold receive Janis's crystals and return to the Van Eltia. After Guede is finally defeated, Asch is shown on the Van Eltia looking at the mana spreading across the world. The sword Asch uses throughout the entire game is his exclusive "Maestro Sword".

Tales of VS.
In Tales of VS., Asch is one of the strongest swordsmen raised in the New Empire, Nidhogg, to join the "Yggdrasill Battle" mainly for supremacy. Asch was not present in the previous fights, and his existence was only recently announced to the public by the government. As in Tales of the Abyss, he is looking for Luke in order to gain revenge for his stolen identity. Much to his chagrin, Dhaos mass produces even more replicas. To unlock Asch's story, he must be fought in Stahn Aileron's story mode after being confronted in Leon Magnus and Kyle Dunamis's story mode.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3
In Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3, Asch and Luke are rivals and students under Van. During the main story, Asch, together with the Protagonist and Natalia, attempt to gather a document from the deeper parts of Schiffo Dong Springs. During this mission, there are skits where Asch and Natalia exchange their common thoughts and feelings for each other before being interrupted by the Protagonist.

Trivia

 * Asch's name derives from the German word for ash, which is asche.
 * Luke's name means light of the sacred flame in Ancient Ispanian, while Asch's name means charred remnants of the sacred flame, referring to his replacement by Luke in the story.
 * Asch was born on Remday, Lorelei-Redecan 48, N.D. 2000.
 * Asch's fonon frequency is equal to the mathematical constant pi, which is approximately 3.14159.
 * Asch's personality remains largely static throughout the story, while Luke's is dynamic.
 * In Tales of Vesperia, there is a letter in Nam Cobanda Isle that reads, Natalia to Asch.