Asch

Asch (アッシュ), or Asch the Bloody (鮮血のアッシュ), is a God-General and the commander of special operations of the Order of Lorelei. He fits the role of anti-hero in Tales of the Abyss.

Personality
Asch is a very cold and impersonal man. This is a result of his upbringing, where he was not only groomed from birth to become the ruler of Kimlasca, but was also treated very coldly by his father, who knew that his son was destined to die at Akzeriuth. Thus, he separates his internal emotions from his external appearance. He was also forced to do this after he became the servant of Van in order to hide his true intentions while appearing subservient. He has a tremendous amount of pride and cares deeply for his country and the people around him. He is also a talented cook. He is extremely short-tempered and hot-headed, even more so than Luke fon Fabre, and nearly always insists on doing things on his own.

Fighting Style
Asch fights in the Albert style of swordsmanship, which focuses on strong and focused strikes that yield heavy damage, while sacrificing speed for more defensive tactics. His attack movements are very similar to Luke's abilities, but Asch wields his weapon in his right hand, providing the illusion of him mirroring Luke's movements in battle. While he and Luke share mostly similar movelists, Asch also has access to four fonic artes and all sidequest-related attacks that Luke has not learned. Asch is the only major character who has only one mystic arte, but he is one of only two playable characters who have access to all AD Skills in the game.

History
Asch is, in truth, the original Luke fon Fabre. As a child, the true Luke took his responsibilities as the future ruler of Kimlasca extremely seriously, developing a cold and impersonal disposition. However, his love for his country and his people was evident at the time, and he made a promise to Natalia that he would marry her and create a world where "no one has to be poor" and "war never happens".

When he was ten years old, Asch, then still known as Luke, was kidnapped by Van Grants to make a replica, who would later become known as Luke after assuming the position that Asch once held within the kingdom. Van's initial intention was to mold Asch into a perfect servant and use his power of hyperresonance in his plot to overthrow the Score. Asch attempted to escape and return home, only to find that Luke had usurped his life, family, fiancée, and home.

Following this discovery, he became Van's servant. After this, Van is able to exertly raise his protégé through the ranks, all under an assumed name and identity; though it does become apparent that a few of his fellow God-Generals are aware of his true identity. At first, Asch was willing to follow Van's plan to destroy the Score, until he found out about his intent to replace the world with replicas. Asch came to secretly despise his master's plan, and has come to cherish a hatred of all replicas as he still harbors resentment toward the one that took his life and happiness in Kimlasca. He began to act as a double-agent, secretly working behind the scenes against Van while appearing to following his orders. He uses his cold exterior as a shield to protect himself and to repel anyone who makes inquiry into his true intentions, making a vow that he will never return home and going so far as to reject Natalia. He insists that he is not the boy she once knew, though it is later revealed he thought and spoke of her often.

Asch has the same goal as Luke and friends, but most of what he does is the "behind the scenes" work. He seldom works with the party, except at times of necessity. For example, to get out of the Qliphoth and investigate Ortion Cavern, he had to cooperate with the party in Luke's place and use the Tartarus. However, most of the time, he outright refuses to work with them. He has helped the party in several occasions, some of these include: lowering the outer lands, eliminating the miasma, and preventing Luke and Natalia from getting executed.

At Eldrant, Luke and Asch duel to find out who the real Luke is. Luke emerges victorious, and Asch forfeits his Key of Lorelei to Luke. After that, a group of Oracle Knights arrives and Asch stays behind to fight them off. He fights to the end, but he succumbs to his fatal injuries sustained during the battle. He forms a mental link with Luke during his last moments, providing his last words, "The rest is up to you." Upon Asch's death, Luke obtains the power to use second-order hyperresonance. After Luke defeats Van and stays behind to release Lorelei, he sinks into the core of Auldrant, catching Asch's corpse along the way. After Lorelei thanks Luke, a surge of energy surrounds Luke and Asch, and Asch's hand twitches.

Relationships
Luke Fon Fabre - Luke is Asch's replica and his perfect isofon, a person with the same fonon frequency. Perfect isofons do not exist unless artificially created. Asch despises Luke for being the one who stole everything from him, and he is not afraid to show his hatred. Most of the time, Asch says that Luke's an inferior replica, and contradictorily hates him for having an inferiority complex. Asch tells Luke that if he really is his substitute, he should not accept being called inferior. However, Luke does not think of himself as a replacement, and claims that he is a different person from Asch. By the end of the game, Asch acknowledges Luke as the real Luke Fon Fabre and tells him that he is the one that has to kill Van and stop his scheme.

Jade Curtiss - While Jade may be in part responsible for what happened to Asch, since he is the one who proposed the principles of fomicry, Asch does not feel any anger towards him and thinks that no good will come of putting the blame on him. The two seem to work well together. Jade teases him sometimes like he does with the rest of the party, yet he is worried about Asch and Luke's fate because of an effect that occurs between perfect isofons called the "Big Bang", in which only one of them will get to live.

Guy Cecil - Asch thinks of Guy as a naive fool, especially after seeing that he still trusts Luke after the incident at Akzeriuth. Guy feels hatred towards Asch for being the son of his enemy, Duke Fabre. While Asch may treat Guy like he would treat anyone else, Guy does not try to hide his feelings too much. By the end of the game, they both seem to have put the past behind them as best as they can in order to start over.

Natalia Luzu Kimlasca Lanvaldear - Asch still holds feelings for Natalia and vice versa, but Asch attempts to remain distant because he is no longer the person that he used to be. Despite this, when Natalia is in trouble, Asch still helps her as her childhood friend. They both still remember and try to fulfill the promise they made when they were kids. Natalia sometimes mixes Asch and Luke in her head and thinks of them as the same person, but by the end of the game she finally understands that they're different people and sees them both as childhood friends.

Van Grants - Asch knew from the beginning that Van only wanted him for his hyperresonance, but he decided to follow him anyway. Asch respects Van and agrees with him that the Score must be eliminated, but after discovering that his master wants to destroy the world and create a replica of it instead, Asch betrays him. Asch believes that it is his duty as Van's pupil to kill him and stop his plan.

Others - Asch enlists the help of the Dark Wings later on in the game, since after betraying Van he could no longer use his soldiers. Apparently, he speaks with them about Natalia, Luke, and Van. He somewhat cares about the Dark Wings, seeing that he did not bring them to Eldrant because he knew that it would be dangerous. He also procures the help of Ginji, since he needs a pilot for the Albiore III.

Tales of Vesperia
Asch makes a cameo appearance in the PlayStation 3 version of Tales of Vesperia, where his clothes are a costume that can be used by Yuri Lowell by equipping the Rokujinshou: Senketsu no Kenshi title from the pre-order bonus, or by equipping the Shin'en no Kokuen title from the Playstation Network. When wearing the costume, his hair is modeled exactly like Asch's own, including its color scheme.



Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2
Asch appears as a playable character in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 alongside Luke and several other members of the cast from Tales of the Abyss. Instead of a relationship as original and replica, he and Luke are portrayed as twins. Asch first arrives on the Van Eltia after being injured in a experiment by Janis Kern, and is placed into the infirmary. When Janis arrives on the ship to speak to Raine Sage, Asch awakens and tries to attack Janis, but he is held back by the Protagonist just in time. During the events of the game Luke is trying to get along with Asch most of the time, but Asch ignores him. During the third mission in the mines, Asch, Harold Berselius, and the Protagonist save Janis and his assistant from being killed by soldiers. In the deepest areas of the mines, they find Janis almost being killed by a soldier polluted with negative energym that transform into Blade Rex. After defeating the monster, Asch and Harold receive Janis's crystals and return to the Van Eltia. After Guede is finally defeated, he is on the Van Eltia looking at the mana spreading across the world. The sword Asch uses throughout the entire game is his exclusive "Maestro Sword".

Tales of VS.
In Tales of VS., Asch is one of the strongest swordsmen raised in the New Empire, Nidhogg, to join the Yggdrasill Battle mainly for supremacy. He was never around in the previous fights, and his existence was only recently announced to the public by the government. As in Tales of the Abyss, he is looking for Luke in order to get revenge for taking his identity away from him. Much to his chagrin, Dhaos mass produces even more replicas.

To unlock Asch's story, he must be fought in Stahn Aileron's story mode after being confronted in Leon Magnus and Kyle Dunamis's story mode.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3
In Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3, Asch and Luke are rivals and students under Van. During the main story, Asch, together with the Protagonist and Natalia, attempt to gather a document from the deeper parts of Schiffo Dong Springs. During this mission, there are skits where Asch and Natalia exchange their common thoughts and feelings each other before being interrupted by the Protagonist.

Trivia

 * Asch was born on Remday, Lorelei-Redecan 48, ND 2000.
 * His fonon frequency is equal to the mathematical constant pi, which is approximately 3.14159.
 * Asch's favorite food is chicken and his least favorite foods are octopi and carrots.
 * Although Luke is Asch's replica, Asch contrasts in many ways from Luke, showing that they mirror each other through opposites.
 * Luke's name means "Light of the Sacred Flame", while Asch's name means "Charred Remnants of the Sacred Flame".
 * The ends of Asch's hair are dark red, almost maroon; The ends of Luke's hair are yellow-orange.
 * Asch's hair, when down, is shown to be parted at the left; Luke's hair is parted at the right.
 * Asch wears silver and black; Luke wears white and gold.
 * Asch is right-handed; Luke is left-handed.
 * Asch's personality remains largely static throughout the game; Luke's is dynamic.
 * Asch is apparently a very good cook, while Luke's cooking is not as well.
 * The way Asch's name is spelled derives from the German word for ash, Asche.
 * In the most recent Tales character popularity contest, Asch is ranked in 26th place.