Emil Castagnier

Emil Castagnier (エミル・キャスタニエ) is one of the protagonists in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.

Past
Emil's parents were killed by Decus posing as Lloyd Irving, the main protagonist in the original Tales of Symphonia. He is portrayed as a coward, but promises to protect Marta Lualdi, the bearer of the Ratatosk Core by forming a contract with the Lord of Monsters, Ratatosk, thus making him the Knight of Ratatosk. He receives the strength to fight against monsters through this contract, making his voice deepen, his eyes turn red, and his attitude bolder. In the duration of this phase, Emil is more violent and blood-thirsty, which is why some call him a monster. This form is later on called Ratatosk Mode. His goal is to help Marta hatch the Centurion Cores and ultimately avenge the death of his parents. Emil eventually falls in love with Marta. Depending on the choices the player makes, Emil may or may not end up with Marta in the end.

Humble Beginning
Toward the beginning of the story, Emil is shown to have saved Marta during the Palmacosta Blood Purge. However, he leaves her with barely a word, returning to his parents, who are dying from wounds that Lloyd had inflicted on them. His mother's final words were to find his relatives in Luin. After this introductory sequence, the story skips forward in time. Emil is in Luin, living with his Aunt Flora and Uncle Alba, yet he is shown to be timid, indecisive, and otherwise cowardly. He has a less than loving relationship with the two, in addition to the rest of the town, due to him being a so-called, "supporter" of the Vanguard, an organization that wishes to free the Sylvaranti people from oppression, and against Lloyd, who led the attack in the Blood Purge, but is, ironically, a true hero to almost every person in the game for leading the Chosen, Colette in the Journey of Regeneration. He is also highly revered in Luin after rebuilding their town.

Emil's day in Luin begins with a howl of a monster waking him up. He wanders around town, eventually bumping into Richter, who saves him from some bullies. Richter ends up having quite the impact on Emil, saying things that inspired him to perservere until the end of the game, one of his quotes being, "Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality". As quickly as he met Richter, he parted with him, as he didn't know of who he was looking for a girl with a red gem on her forehead. However, some chaos outside Luin gave Emil the chance to sate his curiosity as to what was going on with the recent monster influx, despite not truly being able to defend himself. It was then that he first met Marta, who saved him.

True Self
Later on in the story it is discovered that Emil is not really Emil Castagnier, but actually a personality created by Ratatosk who was implanted with false memories. The name Emil belongs to a person who most likely died during the Blood Purge. Ratatosk assumed the form of Aster, possibly because he was the last human he saw before Richter reduced him to core form. Ratatosk/Emil were awakened by Marta Lualdi as she called for help in Palmacosta. In a ruse to escape, he implanted her with a fake core to draw attention away from himself while he regained his power. Exhausted, Ratatosk became dormant while the personality Emil took it's place. The new Emil, in the guise of Aster, wandered upon previous Emil's dying parents and Emil's mother Lana, now blind, mistook him for her son. Emil then followed her directions to escape to his aunt in Luin.

With the "spirit" of Emil and physical form of Aster, he was able hide after being attacked by Richter Abend. The Emil who acts as the protagonist in the story is the personality Ratatosk created which grows from his experiences after fleeing Palmacosta. Some clues that other characters are aware the new Emil does not look like the real Emil despite taking on his identity are when the player meets Ms. Dorr, the widow of Palmacosta's governor-general, and Thomas, Emil's apparent next-door neighbor, both stated that they didn't recognize Emil, but eventually let it slide. Tenebrae chose to let Emil/Ratatosk live for a while without telling him the truth, even letting him believe the core on Marta's forehead is real so the gathering of the other Centurion's cores would be easier. The pact with Ratatosk and the title of Knight of Ratatosk that go with it in fact do not exist, and are fabrications by Tenebrae.

Family
The real Emil Castagnier's father and mother were named Reysol and Lana Castagnier respectively. They probably knew Lloyd, hinting this when they were afraid for Lloyd killing them in the Blood Purge. They are killed by Decus, who was impersonating Lloyd at the time, and with her last breath, Lana tells the new Emil to go to her younger sister in Luin, Flora, and her husband, Alba. She does that without being able to see his face. This suggests that she thinks Emil is the one right there. She then dies. The reason that Flora and Alba accepts Emil as their nephew is because they had never seen Emil before, but knew of his birth.

Fighting Style
Like many main characters, Emil is a strong, frontline swordsman who can hit fast and hard, similar to Lloyd, Zelos, and Kratos. Unlike them, he has an unrefined sword style as he tends to swing more wildly than the other swordsmen, and is a lot more brutal with his attacks in comparison. Most importantly with Emil are his skills which take advantage of the battle systems in the game. Emil is able to be more of an airborne fighter using the Sky Combo and Sky Attack skills. This allows him to fight flying enemies more easily, as well as dragging ground enemies into the air where they will be helpless and unable to counter attack.

The second important part of Emil's skills are those that are gained after acquiring the Centurion Cores. All of these skills, which are named after the centurion of that element, alter Emil's artes depending on which skill currently active. For example, the skill Tenebrae turns the arte Demon Fang into a Darkness-element melee attack. This is important as Emil can have direct control of the elemental grid which makes monster capturing and Unison Attacks easier to perform.

Relationships
Marta Lualdi - Emil's first real friend since the attack on Palmacosta and his love interest. At first, Emil was able to play along with Marta's advancing their relationship forcefully, but he finally stood up for himself and Marta finally realized just how special Emil really was. He always does whatever he can to protect her and would sacrifice himself to make sure Marta was safe, despite their awkward first encounter. Over time, Emil and Marta's relationship blossoms into true love as each supports the other.

Richter Abend - Despite being a member of the Vanguard, Emil admired Richter for all the kindness he gave him when they first met and how he helped him stand up for himself. It was this belief that Richter had a kind heart that motivated Emil into trying to reason with Richter in the Ginnungagap, trying to avoid another incident like when he helped take Decus' life when protecting Marta from Alice. It works and Richter abandons his goals to become Emil's friend.

Ratatosk - Both he and Emil share the same body, but Ratatosk fights to control Emil. At first, Ratatosk tells Marta Emil is too weak and cowardly to protect Marta and depends on him to step in and finish the fight. But Emil finally decided to temporarily put away Ratatosk's power by having Verius seal him away. However, this proves useless as Emil faces Ratatosk within his own conscious to try and reach an understanding. Afterwards, Ratatosk finally accepts Emil as part of himself and the two agree to share the same body.

Trivia

 * Emil means enthusiasm, indirectly referring to his character growth in the game.
 * Emil was listed as the tenth most popular character in the Tales series in the fourth popularity poll. In the fifth popularity poll, he was ranked in twelfth place.