Eugene Gallardo

Eugene Gallardo is one of the playable characters in Tales of Rebirth. He is of the Gajuma race, a fictional race of beastmen. His form is of a black panther. In battle, he wields a long spear and is often considered the 'tank' of the team due to having the highest HP and solid defense. He is an exiled commander of the Karegia Kingdom, and is the only pure Gajuma of the team, and thus he is often confronted with questions about helping Huma, when other Gajuma are fighting against them. Eugene is also the possessor of the Force of Steel, which gives him enormous force with his bare hand, capable of destroying boulders.

Respected Commander
Eugene Gallardo was one of the prominent figures in the Karegia Kingdom, in a world where Huma and Gajuma coexisted together in harmony. He was a high-ranking commander of the Kingdom and served King Ladras Lindblum along with General Milhaust Selkirk. He is also good friends with Doctor Barrs, the most revered doctor in the kingdom, and Walto, the possessor of Force of Sound and one of the Four Stars. His reputation was also very high, so much that a lot of soldiers harbored deep respect for him, Huma and Gajuma alike.

One day, during his career as a commander, Eugene found a young boy who had no memory named Mao. He is the possessor of the Force of Fire, which was currently uncommon for a Huma like Mao, and Eugene decided to take Mao under his protection, acting like a father figure and protector to him.

Fall from Grace
The day of peace ended abruptly when Ladras succumbed into sickness. On his deathbed, he struggled to move to a ceremonial site and unleashed all his Force power, which caused several other Huma to develop Force powers. Eugene and Milhaust attempted to stop him, but it was too late.

Later, Eugene decided to discuss about the sickness and Ladras' death with Doctor Barrs, the man tending to Ladras' sickness during his last days. Upon speaking further, Barrs suddenly acted very strangely as if he's the one who served poison to Ladras and effectively killing him. Barrs attacked Eugene, but Eugene retaliated and as a result, he stabbed Barrs with the latter's knife. Before he died, Barrs returned to his old self and mentioned Ladras' daughter Agarte and his daughter Annie. Upon his death, Eugene was overcame with guilt and shortly after, a soldier witnessed this and summoned the Kingdom's advisor Zilva Madigan. Eugene took the blame of 'killing' Doctor Barrs and was arrested. Later, he was stripped from his ranks, a punishment he gladly accepted, and went on an exile with Mao.

They decided to investigate the mystery of Ladras' death, which became known as the 'Setting Sun of Ladras', and hoped that they will find an answer to quell the disasters which occurred lately caused by the Force power coming out of the Huma bodies.

The Journey Begins
Their search leads them to the village of Sulz, where they meet the recently awakened user of the Force of Ice, Veigue Lungberg. Eugene attempts to get him to accompany them in their journey, but he refuses. Just then, two of the Four Stars, Saleh and Tohma, come to the village and capture Veigue's childhood friend Claire Bennet. Before Veigue can do anything stupid that can cost his life, Eugene is quick enough to stop him.

Eventually, under the reason to rescue Claire, Veigue joins the group. However, while they travelled to the Minal, they are ambushed with none other than the daughter of Doctor Barrs, Annie Barrs, who had developed a hatred towards the Gajuma race since Eugene killed her father. Eugene doesn't back down from the fact and after defeating her, he encourages her to live on so she may kill him one day. The group ends up nursing Annie back to health in Minal, and after several difficulties that arise due to it, she joins them, on Eugene's suggestion to stay close with him so she may find many opportunities to kill him.

During their journey, they eventually gain the help of a hotblooded, idealistic worker of Petnadjanka, Tytree Crowe, and a Half formerly under the King's Shield, Hilda Rhambling. During their journey, Eugene makes a lot of efforts to protect Annie, especially due to her fragile body, although as of that time, she still hates him.

Eventually they make it to the Capital Balka and succeeds in getting to the Castle. However, they are caught and sent to the prison after an audience with Queen Agarte. They manage to escape and makes it to the ceremonial site where Agarte is preparing for a ritual do switch her body with Claire's. While Veigue rushes to save her, Eugene and the others stalls those who guards the ceremonial site, Walto and Militsa of the Four Stars.

When Eugene is done with the two, he rushes to Veigue's assistance. However, they end up fighting a recently ressurected King of Sacred Beast, Geyorkias. They end up victorious and later move on to their separate paths.

Murderous Thoughts
While Eugene is getting ready for another journey, he begins to feel rather weird within his body. His mind is welling with the thoughts of hatred on the Huma race whenever he sees or thinks about them and he becomes prone to going into a berserk state, attacking everything in his sight. He attempts to investigate about this event, thinking that Geyorkias' defeat may have something to do with it, but eventually he can't handle his berserk state anymore. Eventually, he locks himself in Mesechina Cavern and constantly mutters the names Veigue, Tytree and Hilda inbetween his normal state and berserked state. Mao asks Annie to fetch the three as he guards Eugene.

Annie later returns with just Veigue and Tytree. Eugene reveals that he wants them to kill him. Before he can say anything else, he goes into a berserked state, forcing the group to back away for awhile. They later return again with Hilda and the cure to calm him down. However, before he can drink it, Eugene goes into another berserker rage and attacks the group. They manage to knock him down and have him drink the cure. Eugene calms down and explains about his investigation. They eventually learn about the thoughts spread after Geyorkias' defeat and the only way to purify it is to revive the Sacred Beasts.

In this new journey, racism issues become a very serious problem and Eugene finds himself becoming the voice of the party when it comes to dealing with the Gajuma race. And when he's confused, his Force will go out of control and he goes berserk again. Thankfully, he manages not to get the party involved this way by taking out his anger against Viruses. Along the way, they learn that Claire and Agarte manage to switch bodies.

Eventually when Annie achieves the power of the Sacred Beast of Wind, Wontiga, she learns the truth behind her father's death and she tearfully apologizes to Eugene. He says that the Doctor Barrs he knew was not someone who would kill the King for his own benefit, but a Doctor protecting everyone equally. He asks Annie to find out the truth together with him, and she agrees.

Eugene is the last to achieve the power of the Sacred Beasts, in his case the Sacred Beast of Earth Randgriz, located within the city of Sannytown. Eugene's tests consist of confronting his own shadow which harbors great hatred towards the Huma race. He confirms that the hatred to Huma exists in his heart and that he has been holding back his hatred for Huma despite the medicine he took, but he has learned and achieved something beyond race thanks to his friends: bond.

Truth and Final Battle
With Eugene gaining Randgriz' power, the thoughts of hatred is purified from the world, but it doesn't purify the conflicts left behind by the hatred. The party's journey is not over yet. They end up travelling throughout the world stopping various racism conflicts. As they journeyed, they find out that the negative emotions caused by the conflicts become so great that it becomes capable of destroying cities and eventually the world. Eventually, it is decided that they must revive Geyorkias in Mount Sovereign and persuade him to restore order.

On Mount Sovereign, they defeat the Four Stars. Eugene manages to persuade Walto to stop the futile fighting and side with them for the good of the land. This also causes Militsa to also stop fighting. Unfortunately, the rest of the Four Stars, Saleh and Tohma, do not follow this idea and end up killing each other as the group leaves them.

Reaching the end of Mount Sovereign, they encounter Zilva, who suddenly reveals that she will be reviving Geyorkias to wipe out the Huma from the world. When she suddenly strikes a gesture, Eugene and Annie are shocked as they recognize that gesture as Doctor Barrs'. To his horror, Barrs' plot to kill Ladras was actually Zilva's plot to eventually manipulate Agarte. The ones getting in her way were Ladras, Eugene and Barrs. And so, she switched bodies with Doctor Barrs, had him serve poison to Ladras and attempted to kill Eugene, only to have him retaliate and kill Barrs, and perfectly put him in a position where he can be framed for murder.

The party succeeds in defeating Zilva, although Eugene regrets that he should've noticed her plot earlier. The group proceeds to persuade Geyorkias, but he says that all is too late, as a being even greater than him, born from negative emotions, called Yuris, has arrived and is slowly consuming the world. The party decides to destroy Yuris. Although they are being weakened during their journey, the people throughout the world learn to accept and love each other, granting the group sufficient power to eventually banish Yuris. Agarte and Claire soon after switch bodies again, restoring everything back to normal. Unfortunately, Agarte soon dies due to fatigue.

Although he is forgiven from his crimes, apparently Eugene chooses to not return to the Karegia Kingdom, perhaps due to his guilt over killing Doctor Barrs. In his ending picture, it is shown that he is once again traveling throughout the world with Mao at his side.

Trivia

 * Eugene is the only playable representative of Tales of Rebirth in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology.
 * Some of Eugene's techniques are re-used by Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss, specifically Shujinshou (Sonic Spear) and Tenraishou (Thunder Lance).
 * Eugene is officially the first physically non-human party member of the Tales series (other non-humans like Arche, Genis, Raine and Shirley still physically resemble humans).