Decus

Decus (デクス) is a antagonist from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World who is part of Sylvarant's millitary group, the Vanguard. Despite his apparently good looks, Decus has sworn to give his heart to Alice alone. Decus, leader of the Vanguard's espionage division, is one of the main antagonists in Dawn of the New World. He does everything Alice does including joining the Vanguard.

Saved by Demons
In a side quest that centers on Alice and Decus, it is revealed that Decus and Alice were both orphans who lived in Hima. Eight years before the game, Decus was accused of robbing some travellers. As it turns out, the culprit was the orphanage owner and his three sons, but no one believed Decus, and so the travellers attacked him. Just as they were about to kill him, demons attacked the orpahange, and it was burned to the ground, killing many of the people inside. In the present, Decus reveals that at that time, Alice made a pact with a demon to save Decus, and she learned to summon and control demons and monsters because of this.

However, in the original Tales of Symphonia, when the player goes to the Nifilhiem book optional dungeon, it is revealed that when Lloyd's group burned the book, it destroyed the pact Alice had with the demons and thus explains why she needs machines to control monsters now. Since that day, Decus swore his heart to Alice as repayment for saving his life. Even though Alice rejected him and his request, Decus continues doing everything for Alice and helping her whenever she wants, making it often look like he is her mindless slave in the present timeline.

Framing Lloyd and Meeting Emil
It is unknown what happened to the survivors of the orphanage after the incident, except that one of them moved to Iselia in the present. Some time after the reunity of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, Alice joined the Vanguard, in which Decus followed. One and a half year later, when the Vanguard was in possesion of Solum's core, Alice told Decus to use it to disguise himself as Lloyd Irving, one of the saviors of the world, and lead the Church of Martel in his name. At this time, Decus, disguised as Lloyd, ordered the Church of Martel to fight the Vanguard in the city Palmacosta, in which said city burned down once again killing many innocent people. While looking like Lloyd, Decus also killed Reysol Castagnier and Lana Castagnier while trying to escape him. It is because of this that their son, Emil Castagnier, seeks revenge on Lloyd.

Half a year later, to the present storyline, Decus is still pretending to be Lloyd while wreaking havoc in his name, while the real Lloyd does not deny that he is at fault. He uses this disguise when attacking Flanoir. There, it is possible he encounters the real Lloyd, as the latter was seen by Emil and the others, but this is not confirmed. Decus, without his disguise as Lloyd, is first introduced in Flanoir's church, where he is praying to get Alice to fall in love with him. He apparently reeks of Eau De Seduction, a smelling cologne developed by the Lezareno Company. When Emil and Decus meet in the church, he forces some of the cologne onto Emil before departing, thinking that Emil is a fan who has a crush on him.

Losing Disguise
The next time he is seen, Decus is fighting against Lloyd, disguised as Lloyd, possibly when the real Lloyd tries to save Seles Wilder, the sister of his friend Zelos. Emil, Marta, Tenebrae and Zelos arrive to see their fighting, but cannot decide who the real Lloyd is since the smelling cologne Decus uses is too vague when they fight and move everywhere, not even when each of them claim to be Lloyd. Zelos, however, knows exactly who the right one is, and depending on Emil's choise (whether he chooses the one laughing manically or the other one), might attack Decus with Demon Fang. When Decus loses his disguise, he is saved by Alice, who holds Seles as hostage. However, the rest of the original cast appears, in which Regal temporally knocks out Decus from behind by jumping on his back.

Some time later, Decus helps Alice explaining Brute's reasons for wanting the Centurions' cores, and also how he wants to revive the Sylvarant Dynasty, which was destroyed by Cruxis eight hundred years ago. When Richter comes along and escapes to fight against Lloyd and some others of the original heroes, Decus and Alice stay behind to fight the group.

Final Moments
If the player has gone through a side-quest concerning Alice's past and then goes to Hima before the final battle, they will find Decus there. He will explain his past to the group, as well as Alice's pact with the demons, and also throw a bone of the demon Alice made a pact with at that time to stop the monsters from continuing their invades on Hima, stating that it was his home no matter what. Upon revealing these details to the party, they try to tell him his life is his own and he could change his ways; however, he states that he will only live for Alice. The group saddened by this, then they realize that though he has done terrible things, Decus should not be viewed as pure evil, which is how they had regarded him for the majority of the game prior. Saying that this will be their final meeting before going to the Ginnungagap, Decus bids them farewell for now. After he is gone, Lloyd tells Emil that the more you know about the enemy, the harder it is to fight them, even though he himself thinks it is better to do so than fight in ignorance, something he used to do at the beginning of the original game.

Toward the end of the game, after his last battle with Alice against Emil and the group, Emil is about to fatally wound Alice when the latter is about to hurt Marta, but at the last moment, Decus protects Alice by taking the full blow of the attack. Just before he dies he says he loves her, and Alice realizes that she loves him back. In the end the two die, lying next to each other while Emil regrets his choice.

Appearance and Personality
Decus is a simple man who cares little for the current conflict. He also possesses quite an ego and acts as a love-driving fool in front of Alice. In fact, he believes that she deeply loves him too. For instance, when Alice calls him "Dumbo-Decus", he thinks it's a compliment for "Dashing, Undaunting, Majestic, Brillant and Oh-so-handsome", until Alice retorts by clarifying that it stands for being plain dumb. Much like Alice, Decus does have a sadistic nature, whether be by killing guards in the Temple of Lightning to threaten to kill a researcher.

Fighting Style
Decus fights with a giant broadsword larger than himself which he carries in an Iron Maiden. His artes are fancy sword maneuvers, while his mystic arte, Sturm und Drang, consists of a series of slashes which spell love, followed by a massive energy blast, all caused by the destruction of Decus' picture of Alice.

Vanguard
Richter Abend - It is unknown what Decus and Richter's relationship is, but he, or at least Alice, must have had deep loyalty to him, as they kept following him even after the Vanguard disbanded.

Alice - Viewing Alice as his savior and his life, he does everything Alice does, including joining the Vanguard. Even if he is aware that Alice finds him repulsive, he is willing to follow her to the end of the world. Alice is also the reason he keeps buying charms or perfumes that are said to help giving him love. At the end of the game, when Decus proves that he really loved Alice, Alice realizes that she also loved him, being devasted that she did not see it before then.

Brute Lualdi - Since Decus is aware of Brute's reasons for the Vanguard's brutal actions, it is possible that he supports it. However, this loyalty cannot be deep, and he, together with Alice, left him and followed Richter when Brute was defeated and decided to disband the Vanguard.

Enemies
Emil Castagnier - When they first met each other, Decus mistakes Emil for his fan and thinks he has a crush on him. As an apology that he cannot return his feelings, as he loves Alice only, he gives Emil some of his perfume against Emil's will. However, the relationship cannot have been deep, as Decus did not hesitate to fight Emil later on. However, while being in the control of Solum's core, he seems to vaguely recognize Emil as his fan when he sees the cologne.

Marta Lualdi - While their relationship has never been revealed, Marta seems to understand some parts of Decus' love for Alice at the end of the game, as it is similar to her feelings for Emil. However, it has not been stated that they have ever met before.

Lloyd Irving - Because the Vanguard is after Lloyd and the rest of the party, as well as being part of the rampage of Palmacosta, Lloyd views them as his enemies.

Colette Brunel - Although it has not been stated that Decus and Colette have ever met or talked, Alice said sometime after Colette left the party that she was heading toward the area Decus was in charge of. This might mean that they have met each other at least once off-screen.

Zelos Wilder  - Because the Vanguard kidnapped his sister and framed Lloyd for things he did not do, Zelos has shown great anger toward the Vanguard, and before facing Decus, he explains, "you can't even put on cologne without screwing it up!".

Trivia

 * Many of Decus' moves are named after German words terms.