Aster Laker

Aster was a former member of Sybak University, who supposedly looked and acted much like Emil. He was a prodigy who entered the university at age nine. He was close friends with his fellow researchers Rilena and Richter Abend. Though he is dead by the time the game begins, he has a large impact on the plot, and is the source of the phrase, "Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality," which becomes a mantra of sort for Emil.

Two years pregame, when the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla merged, Aster's research into summon spirits lead him to hypothesize that a summon spirit controlled the world's flow of mana. He and Richter set out to prove the existence of Ratatosk, the spirit in question, and hopefully convince him to take back up his duties so that the natural disasters plaguing the newly-joined world will cease. After discovering the Centurion Aqua, who agrees to help them, they go to meet Ratatosk at the Ginnungagap. Ratatosk agrees to regulate the mana with the help of his Centurions, but also states his desire to purge both humans and half-elves from the world. Aster tries to argue with him, and Ratatosk kills him. In an explosion of rage over Aster's death, Richter "kills" Ratatosk, causing him to revert to core form.

During the Purge of Blood in Palmacosta, Ratatosk is regenerated through the Ratatosk's core Marta has into human form. He mimics Aster's form for reasons not fully expanded on in the game, though Emil hypothesizes in his journal that it could be because Aster was the last human he saw before he was "killed."

For a brief period of time, before the truth is discovered, the party believes that Emil may in fact be an amnesiac Aster.