Asch

Asch the Bloody is a God General of the Order of Lorelei. He can be arrogant and rebellious, and almost always seems angry.

Backstory
Asch is, in truth, the original Luke fon Fabre. As a child, the true Luke took his responsibilities as the betrothed of the future ruler of Kimlasca extremely seriously, developing a cold and impersonal disposition. However, his love for his country and his people was evident at the time, and he made a promise to Natalia that he would marry her and create a world where "no-one has to be poor" and "war never happens".

When he was ten years old, Asch (then still known as Luke) was kidnapped by Van Grants to make a Luke replica, who would later become known as Luke after assuming the position that Asch once held with within the kingdom, was created. Van's initial intention was to mould Asch into a perfect servant and to use his power of hyperresonance in his plot to overthrow the Score, replacing him with the substitute "Luke" to make it appear as though the Score were still progressing as was prescribed. Asch attempted to escape and to return home, only to find that Luke had usurped his life, taking his family, fiancée and home, albeit under stricter constraints than the life that Asch, as Luke, had previously known.

Following this discover, he became Van's servant, after which his master is able to exert influence to raise his protégé through the ranks, all under an assumed name and identity, though it does become apparent that a few of his fellow God-Generals are aware of his true identity. Despite his apparent obedience, Asch secretly despises his master's plan and has come to cherish a hatred of all replicas as he still harbours resentment toward the one that took his life and happiness in Kimlasca. He 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 to repel anyone who makes inquiry into his true intentions, making a vow that he will never return home and going so far as to reject Natalia, to whom he insists that he is not the boy she once knew, though it is later revealed that he thought and spoke of her often.

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 was also treated very coldly by his father, who knew that his son was destined to die at Akzeriuth. Thus, he separates his internal emotions from his external appearance. He was also forced to do this after he became the servant of Van, in order to hide his true intentions while appearing subservient.

He has a tremendous amount of pride and cares deeply for his country and the people around him. He is also an extremely talented cook.

Despite his smart and calculating exterior, Asch has moments of incredible goofiness. At one point he masquerades as Luke and is asked (by someone who had met Luke a few days previously) how his hair had changed from short to long in such a short time. Asch's improvised excuse was, "My hair grows fast."

Role in Story
Most of what Asch does is the "behind the scenes" work - though works towards the same goal as Luke and friends. He seldom works with the party, except at times of necessity. For example, to get out of the Qliphoth and investigate Ortion Cavern, he had to cooperate with the party (in Luke's place) and use the Tartarus. However, most of the time, he outright refuses to work with them. At the end of the game, he even fought Luke over who would fight Van.

Relationship with Luke
Asch openly despises Luke as the person who replaced him. He hates how Luke considers himself (as the clone) to be the inferior one, as not only is he a copy of Asch (and Asch has a tremendous amount of pride) but he was the one who essentially usurped Asch's life with no effort whatsoever. He also considers them rivals in swordsmanship as they are both pupils of Van.

Although he thinks that Luke is supposed to be his replacement, and thus the same as him, there are many things in the game that say otherwise. Perhaps the most obvious of these is that Luke's hair is light at the ends, and Asch's is darker. Their clothing is also like this, with Luke's white and gold contrasting with Asch's black and silver. Yet another difference between them is that Luke is left handed, and Asch is right handed. Also, as Luke gradually changes throughout the game, Asch always stays the same. Their personalities are also quite different, with long-haired Luke being the closest to Asch.

Luke and Asch fought (due to Asch's stubbornness) at the end of the game to settle the issue over who the "real" Luke was. In the end, Luke did win, yet Asch still thought of Luke as his replica. One of his last actions was to take his name back as his own, as a small step in accepting Luke, and acknowledging that he wasn't inferior.

Upon his death, he gave Luke some of his power, allowing Luke to use second-order hyperresonance (and to fully control it at that). It gave Luke the power he needed to finally defeat Sync and Van.

The End
After the defeat of Van, Luke stayed behind to release Lorelei. As he was doing so, he was sinking into perhaps the core of Auldrant, and caught Asch's corpse along the way. After Lorelei thanks Luke, Asch's finger twitches. It was there that the two fused due to the Big Bang, or the fusion of original and replica due to fonon separation.

Abilities
Asch using all of the same Artes as Luke, as well as a few spells that Luke never earns. Whenever Asch is usable, he's at the same level as Luke. Because Asch starts off with all his Artes already learned, he's overall, stronger then Luke when first used, but later on he's not very useful because his equipment can't be changed, during the 2nd time he's usable he is very weak at that point in the game.

Glitch
For a short amount of time after the destruction of Akzeriuth, Asch is a playable character. Also, a glitch involving Mushroom Road enables Asch to remain in the party until the end of the game.To get Asch, go to the other side of Mushroom Road, then use the "Map Trick" glitch, then exit out of the glitch in front of Grand Chokmah.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2
Asch appears as a playable character, although his exact role has not been revealed. However, in one part in the game, Asch is seen injured, clutching the wall for support, implying that he was hurt for some reason.

Tales of Vesperia (PS3)
Asch makes a cameo appearance in the port version of Tales of Vesperia, where his clothes is a costume that can be used by Yuri Lowell through a title. The costume can only be obtained if you pre-order the Tales of Vesperia for PS3. Scans reveal that Yuri will even have his hair styled like Asch'.

Tales of VS.
"Bastards like you... I completely find annoying!" One of the strongest swordsman raised in the New Empire, Nidhogg to join the Yggdrasill Battle mainly for supremacy. He was never around in the previous fights, and his existence was only recently publicly announced by the government. Just what is their intention?

Trivia

 * Born on Remday, Lorelei-Redecan 48, ND 2000.
 * Asch's favorite food is chicken, and his least favorite foods are octopi and carrots.
 * Although Luke is Asch's replica, Asch contrasts in many ways from Luke.
 * Luke's name means Light of the Sacred Flame and Asch's name means Charred Remnants of the Sacred Flame.
 * The end of Asch's hair is a dark red; Luke has lighter ends.
 * Asch's hair, when down, goes to the right; Luke's goes to the left.
 * Asch wears silver and black; Luke wears white and gold.
 * Asch is right-handed; Luke is left-handed.
 * Asch wields long swords, while Luke uses short swords.
 * Asch remains largely static throughout the game; Luke changes drastically.
 * Asch is apparently a very good cook,while Luke's cooking isn't very good.
 * The way Asch's name is spelled likely came from the German word for ash, Asche.
 * Asch has unused voice data for an attack named "Binding Doom", which some believe might have been a mystic arte.
 * In the last popularity contest of Tales characters, Asch ranked the 13th place, making him the most popular antagonist