Dhaos

Dhaos (ダオス) is the primary antagonist of Tales of Phantasia, and later a supporting character and minor protagonist in its sequel Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon. Within Aselia, Dhaos is known as the Demon King who started the Valhalla War against the kingdom of Midgards, whose propaganda campaigns caused the world's population to fear him as a demonic figure. Said to be impervious to all but magic, he wreaked havoc on the world before being sealed away.

Tragedy of Derris-Kharlan
Hailing from the planet Derris-Kharlan, Dhaos is the prince and leader of one of its largest countries. Accompanied by his consort Karion and his council of sorcerers, Dhaos led his people with a vision of peace and prosperity, always valuing diplomacy and dialogue as a means of resolving conflict. However, his country served as a deterrent force against any of the other countries which would be inclined to conduct open warfare against each other, due to the country's power and influence.

In spite of this, two small countries, Palace Gudora and Palace Sedamyu, clashed arms and started a major conflict against each other. Dhaos observed that the war was spreading as bloodshed and casualties damaged both sides, but as the forces of Palace Gudora became weaker and weaker, he knew that its loss was imminent. He was relieved that his own country would not have to intervene in this war, and that it would be resolved soon enough without requiring more violence. He started to organize relief efforts to aid those who were caught in the crossfire of the war. However, the scientists of Palace Gudora had been developing a powerful superweapon which would change the tides of war in their favor, the magitechnology-infused Mana Cannon. The weapon was fired upon Palace Sedamyu, and its capital region was incinerated with a powerful blast of energy.

Horrified by the atrocity, Dhaos was greatly disheartened, but a more pressing matter came to light when it was discovered that the discharged blast consumed so much of the planet's mana that the World Tree of Derris-Kharlan began to wither and die. Since all life on the planet requires mana to survive, everything within the world was trying to survive on what little mana remained, since the dying tree could no longer produce the necessary mana. This led to widespread famine and death of whole populations, a disaster which could not be averted, and Derris-Kharlan would be reduced to a lifeless rock if nothing was done.

Eager to take any chance to restore the planet's mana and save everyone's lives, Karion proposed the idea that Dhaos travels to a recently discovered planet which also has its own World Tree, the planet of Aselia. There, he could obtain a mana seed from the tree and then return to Derris-Kharlan to plant the seed, spawning a new tree which would restore the mana flow. However, Dhaos was against this idea, as he wished to die with and among his people in repentance for his lack of action, which he believed was the cause of the disaster. But Karion insisted, and Dhaos eventually agreed. Karion and his council placed him in a capsule and began a ritual to transport him to Aselia. Knowing that there is not enough mana in the environment to perform such magic, they supplement it with their own internal mana, sacrificing themselves in front of Dhaos to generate the needed energy to provide two charges to enable travel across space-time-- a finite but unspecified number of times, intended to give him more than one chance. Deliberately kept unaware of this and unable to do anything, Dhaos is forced to watch his beloved take her own life for the sake of their world, and this is the last image he sees before being transported to Aselia.

Tales of Phantasia: Katararezaru Rekishi
After spending several decades traveling, Dhaos arrives on Aselia completely disoriented and incapable of coherent thought. A young woman, Winona Pickford, discovers him in a nearly catatonic state, lying on the ground in the woods close to her home. Due to mana deprivation, Dhaos was severely ill, and Winona took him home and nursed him back to health. As he recovers, he is plagued with images of his dying wife and his other followers, and he comes to realize that he has no choice but to obtain the mana seed, so that their sacrifice would not be in vain.

Eventually, he regains enough stamina to make regular visits to the World Tree of Aselia, Yggdrasill. In order to germinate a mana seed, the tree requires a large amount of energy to be stored, and Dhaos realizes that this process was inhibited by an industrial revolution that was taking place throughout the world, especially within the city of Midgards, with the development of magitechnology. As the technology drains mana faster than Yggdrasill can produce it, not only is Dhaos's plan threatened but also Yggdrasill's life and the very existence of magic.

Determined to halt this development of magitechnology, Dhaos travels to the kingdom of Midgards, acting as an emissary of peace in order to establish open-minded dialogue. He attempts to approach and warn the king and his court about the dangers of magitechnology, which he had already experienced firsthand, in an attempt to appeal to their concern for the environment. However, one of the king's closest advisers, Reisen, intercepts him, and interprets Dhaos's mission to end magitechnology as a means of weakening the kingdom's defenses as a precursor to invasion. As the head scientist of magitechnology research for military application, Reisen knew that he needed a target, a scapegoat, for the people to focus their attention and hatred in order to gather more support for his research, which in turn would increase his funding so that he can enhance the scale of his projects. In addition, he genuinely believed Dhaos to be a demon: he attacks Dhaos and Winona, brands him a "Demon King", and persuades the king to believe that Dhaos was a subversive figure who would seek to take over the kingdom.

Furious about these claims and the injustice against Winona, Dhaos departs from the kingdom, aware that peaceful methods are not always capable of achieving what is necessary. He knew that his inaction caused the disaster on Derris-Kharlan, and so he decided to force Midgards to submit to his demands no matter what the cost might be, because his entire planet is at stake. He decided to fulfill the role that Reisen declared he already was, so that the cruel lie would become an actual truth. In order to raise an army, Dhaos made a contract with the demons of Daemonium who were already trying to reenter Aselia through the miasma present in Sylph's caverns. He organized an intimidating horde of monsters, striking fear into the hearts of the people throughout Aselia. At the same time, Dhaos organized preemptive strikes against people who are associated with magitechnology, including the village of Hamel where the parents of Rhea Scarlet were researching the subject on behalf of Midgards. His forces slaughtered countless innocent lives, but Dhaos deemed these losses to be necessary, as rage consumed his heart and madness ruled his mind.

Finally, Dhaos declares open warfare against Midgards, initiating the Valhalla War with the intent to destroy Midgards completely in order to attain his goal. Unfortunately, the kingdom had been improving their magitechnology-based weapons, which proved to be an anathema against the demons, and at the onset of the Battle on the Valhalla Plains, Reisen unveils Aselia's own Mana Cannon, shooting it at Dhaos's army twice before the device malfunctions and explodes. Identical to what had happened on Derris-Kharlan, the blasts consumed massive amounts of mana, causing Yggdrasill and the Summon Spirits of Aselia to die, while also eliminating magic from the world. However, the world's flora and fauna continue to survive normally, as if they are unaffected directly by the loss of mana, due to a change made to the world thousands of years prior so that all living things could survive without mana.

Severely weakened by the loss of mana, Dhaos's mind breaks, as his only purpose for being on Aselia is now lost due to the death of Yggdrasill. Dhaos has nothing left to fight for, other than the vain hope that something might arise in the future which would allow him to return to Derris-Kharlan successfully, and in order to reach that possibility, Dhaos realizes he must survive and destroy mankind for what it has done. While Dhaos's forces have been reduced significantly due to the two blasts from Reisen's Mana Cannon, the edge that Midgards had due to magitechnology was lost, since mana could no longer be used to empower their devices. As a result, the demons of Dhaos's ranks were able to thrive, and the conflict became a war of attrition. Neither side could overpower the other, casualties continued to rise, and the war continues for nearly seven years. And during this time, Dhaos grew increasingly maddened by his failures.

To put an end to the war once and for all, Edward D. Morrison organizes a team including the wandering swordsman Alan Albane, the practitioner of clerical artes Carol Adenade, and even Dhaos's first friend on Aselia, Winona, now matured and distressed by Dhaos's insanity. The group storms his castle and manages to defeat him, forcing Dhaos to flee through time and space to protect his life using the last temporal charge which had been bestowed upon him by his beloved's sacrifice. He arrives at the Catacombs of Euclid nearly a century into the future, only to be immediately sealed by Trinicus D. Morrison, Miguel Albane, Maria Albane, and Meryl Adenade, with two pendants held by Miguel and Meryl containing the key to his seal. Dhaos is incarcerated within a coffin, remaining fully alive but powerless, merely aware of his situation and his failures as he sees an unending cycle of images of Karion's sacrifice, which he knows is now in vain, further driving him beyond any perception of rational thought.

Present Timeline
Ten years later, Dhaos senses the presence of the power-hungry knight of Euclid, Mars Uldole, a descendant of the group who defeated him years back. Mars had been excavating the Catacombs for the specific purpose of finding the supposed "Demon King" of historical record, hoping to gain his favor and his power in order to usurp power within Euclid. Dhaos takes this chance for freedom without hesitation, using telepathy to give mental suggestions to Mars in order to lead him to unlock his seal. To do this, Dhaos impresses upon Mars the need to obtain the key to his seal at any cost, and Mars easily obliges by capturing or killing those of sealed Dhaos. Mars captures and tortures Meryl in the sewers of Euclid, in order to acquire her pendant and information on the whereabouts of the other pendant. He then leads a force of knights from Euclid to attack the village of Toltus, massacring its citizens for Miguel and Maria's pendant.

Mars returns to the Catacombs with the two pendants, using their power to free Dhaos from his confinement. Although Trinicus attempts to stop Mars, with Cress Albane, Mint Adenade, and Chester Burklight behind him, Dhaos is released, and he promptly kills the knight for thinking he can control him. Dhaos then turns his attention to the others and attacks. Morrison manages to send Cress and Mint away to the past using his clerical artes, telling them to find a way to defeat Dhaos by experiencing the era when Dhaos's power was at its greatest. Due to the presence of multiple branching timelines from the point when Cress and Mint start to interfere with past events, this particular timeline concludes when Dhaos unleashes his rage against Trinicus, annihilating him with several piercing beams of light. From that point onwards, Dhaos is able to escape the Catacombs, after which he resumes his campaign of destroying everything in sight since he no longer has anything to lose.

However, a separate timeline occurs in which Cress and Mint return to the Catacombs, immediately from Trinicus and Chester's perspective, with friends Claus F. Lester and Arche Klein in tow. Many events in this renewed timeline have changed, including the reduction of the Valhalla War to less than one year, the launching of only one blast from the Mana Cannon, and the survival and healing of Yggdrasill in the past. This ensures the continuation of magic, and they use its power to defeat Dhaos and the Catacombs crumble around them, with Dhaos's body lost in the ruins.

Future Timeline
By returning to the past, Cress and Mint essentially take the place of their ancestors in defeating Dhaos the first time. This alters the timeline so that Dhaos's life on Aselia unfolds differently, causing the Dhaos of this alternative reality to be different from the one sealed by Edward D. Morrison and his group. When he uses his final temporal charge to escape from the past era, he does not flee to their present time, instead traveling farther into the future with a much calmer and more rational mindset.

This new Dhaos, without the all-encompassing hatred set about by waging an unending war followed by being sealed for a full decade, sets out to continue his goal. In the years since, magitechnology has flourished, and Dhaos attempts to destroy all of the magitechnology once more. Hiding his base behind a space-time barrier, none can approach him as he attacks the world, though he takes care not to attack southern Euclid, where the Forest of Spirits and Yggdrasill reside. He also watches over the Spirit Martel who guards Yggdrasill, and she harbors no ill will toward him. When the party travels to the future to confront him upon request by the people of the future, they can find him by Yggdrasill. Recognizing them from the past, Dhaos moves to fight only to refrain from combat to prevent damage the Great Tree. Letting them live, he leaves.

The party, however, unseals the Eternal Sword, a blade capable of preventing Dhaos's use of his powers of altering space-time as well as revealing his castle. Forced to fight to the end, Dhaos unleashes his full might upon the heroes, drawing strength from his homeworld and transforming his own body, first into a grotesque, unnatural form and then, with the blessing of the gods of his homeland, he achieves an angelic form more powerful than the last. Despite his best efforts, however, he is ultimately felled by the hands of Cress Albane and his companions with the power of the Eternal Sword. Deeming his motives just, however, the heroes asked the Spirit Martel to send a mana seed to his homeland of Derris-Kharlan, alongside his deceased body.

Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon
Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon details much of Dhaos's history prior to journeying to Aselia, as the story focuses on Mell and Dio, the reincarnations of two citizens of Palace Gudora, the country which devastates the world with the use of the Mana Cannon. The weapon was the brainchild of Meltia Bandi, a scientist who disregarded moral concerns for the sake of scientific advancement. She developed the Mana Cannon, knowing that it would be used as a weapon of mass destruction by her country. Meanwhile, Dios Bandi, a military leader under the command of his father, the ruthless and amoral General Bandi, decides to activate the Mana Cannon as ordered by his father prior to his death at the hands of Palace Sedamyu soldiers. Overcome by his rage and his duty to his family, he activates the weapon, unaware that he is responsible for unleashing a disaster which would doom the entire planet.

Dhaos is found within the "cloud painting" at Bifrost after Mell and Dio rediscover their past memories. Recognizing the two children as Meltia and Dios, he tells the heroes that he no longer possesses a physical form, and that he is only alive now, "thanks to the mana radiating from the Great Seed". He engages them in combat to test their abilities, knowing that he survives in this form for this purpose, as part of Norn's test to determine the nature of their souls. Upon being defeated, he tells them of the regret he had felt in his heart for his previous actions on Aselia, and that he had been taken completely over by his rage, hatred, and pride. He continues to say that the darkness in the hearts of humans is perpetual, but that it must not be destroyed; rather, it must be controlled by admitting it as a part of the whole person. He then gives the children the "Star Arcana" card and commands them to confront their darkness.

Appearance and Personality
Dhaos can come across as evil and megalomaniacal, but that is the result of his cold ruthlessness. He has his goals and would do anything to achieve them, with the ends justifying the means. At times, though, he can seem almost kind to the Great Tree Yggdrasill and Martel. In the past, before he was taken over by his anger and rage, he was a kind ruler who worried for his people, and he returns to this same personality after his death.

Fighting Style
As the game's primary foe, the party battles Dhaos many times over the course of the story. Dhaos possesses a fair amount of strength and wide variety of attacks. For basic strikes, he can punch his foes with great vigor, but his most devastating attacks are his artes, which are an iconic part of his arsenal. His strongest and most well known moves are his Dhaos Laser and Dhaos Blast. He is also heavily associated with Tetra Assault, where he perform four consecutive blows, and Tetra Spell, which performs four elemental spells in consecutive order. He can also cast a variety of high level spells, like Tidal Wave or Explosion. In the Super Famicom version of the game, he can also use Para Triangle (パラトライアングル) to stun all enemies.

During the final battle against Dhaos, after defeating his first form, he will transform into a larger, beast-like form called Phaser Dhaos (フェザーダオス), called Feather Dhaos in the iOS version of the game. A large abomination, he is split into a head target and his left arm, both of which can act independent of each other, and are called Dhaos's Face and Dhaos's Arm. The head will only attack through using artes, but its abilities are potent: it can use the Chaos (ケイオス) to fire streams of small orbs, or it can spit out larger, homing ones with Circular (サーキュラー), or unleash a large scale magic strike with Tried (トライド). The arm, on the other hand, can punch with a very large knockback effect, sometimes clearing the target across the screen. The arm can also launch Circulars and, in the Super Famicom version, use Last Ray (ラストレイ), an upgraded version of the Ray spell. Both parts of this form can also cast dangerous magic such as Meteor Storm, and the arm can also heal with Cure or Revitalize. While both parts are separated in the Super Famicom and Game Boy Advance versions of Tales of Phantasia, all other releases combine the two into one target.

Starting with the PlayStation version, after Phaser Dhaos's defeat, Dhaos will call upon his homeworld one final time and achieve an angelic form. In the Japanese version he is simply called "Dhaos", but in the English version he is called Plume Dhaos. In this form, Dhaos's battle abilities are greatly increased; his wings allow him to fly across the screen, and he can unleash a horde of light balls as a basic attack. When he strikes, energy follows his fists, and he can punch a blast that crosses the screen. With these come also dangerous spells; he can cast the strongest spells of both divine power and magic, able to use Black Hole, Meteor Storm, Big Bang/Extension, and Time Stop.

In the sequel, Dio can dress in a Dhaos costume by combining a "Wizard" costume with a "Hell Master" costume. When fought as a boss, Dhaos uses Dhaos Attack (ダオスアタック) as a basic strike as well as Tetra Assault for damage, which can inflict the "Stone" status ailment. He will also cast Tetra Spell to inflict strong damage to one enemy and use Dhaos Laser and its upgrade Dhaos Beam (ダオスビーム) to attack all enemies.

Tales of Eternia
Although Dhaos does not appear directly in Tales of Eternia, the Greater Craymel of Time, Sekundes, is based directly on Dhaos in terms of appearance and abilities. The affinity for the element of Time refers to Dhaos's reliance on time travel throughout the story of Tales of Phantasia.

Tales of Vesperia
In Tales of Vesperia, Dhaos, referred to as the Time Traveler (時を駆ける男), makes a cameo appearance in the "200-Man Melee" challenge in Nordopolica's coliseum as the 150th enemy. A formidable foe, he attacks through punches and kicks and retains his Dhaos Laser, Dhaos Blast, Tetra Assault, as well as a modified version of Tetra Spell, which uses different basic spells to match the selection of spells in this game. He can also cast various offensive spells of the stronger variety, such as Tidal Wave, Tractor Beam, Meteor Storm, and Tempest. The Time Traveler gains a mystic arte, Super Dhaos Laser. After the challenge is completed, the party obtains his cloak, called the "Dhaos Cape", which Yuri Lowell can equip to change his Destruction Field to Dhaos Blast.

In the PlayStation 3 port of the game, Rita Mordio can obtain her second mystic arte, Indignation, by re-enacting the opening scene of Phantasia, which consists of Edward D. Morrison casting Indignation to defeat Dhaos for the first time in the unaltered past timeline. As a consequence, any time Indignation is used against the Time Traveller when he is at relatively low HP, it results in the one hit instant death scene re-enactment. Additionally, in the party coliseum challenge, the Time Traveler will appear in a party consisting of his fellow antagonist cameos, the Sorrowful Queen of Darkness, Killer of Heroes, and Traitor to Heaven.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2
Dhaos appears as a boss in the EX Dungeon of Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2. He can use Tetra Assault, Dhaos Laser, Dhaos Blast, and for the first time, Million Assault, an arte which was developed for Sekundes in Tales of Eternia. He can also cast Tetra Spell, which, in this version, uses Ground Dasher, Tidal Wave, Cyclone, and Explode rather than using lower-level spells. Dhaos can also use each of those spells separately alongside Flare Tornado and Judgment.

Tales of VS.
Dhaos appears as the main antagonist of Tales of VS., alongside Barbatos Goetia. During the events of the game, he attempts to prevent challengers from taking the fruit of the World Tree. He makes replicas of the other playable characters in the game in order to achieve his goals. After completing all of the story modes in the game, his story mode will become available and serves as an epilogue for the overall story, providing a chance for Dhaos to be playable. At the end of the game skit, he faces Cress, Mint, Arche, and Chester in one final battle, but the result of the battle is not revealed.

Trivia

 * In Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, the information on the "Dhaos" costume refers to him as "the tragic prince from a far off world".
 * In Tales of Xillia 2, Dhaos is mentioned in the job, "Earth Cape, Please!", where he rewards the player with the "Sealed Phantasia" weapon, in exchange for an "Earth Cape".

Dhaos