Veigue Lungberg | |
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Information | |
Appearance | Tales of Rebirth |
Hometown | Sulz |
Age | 18 |
Height | 6'0" / 183 cm |
Weight | 157 lbs / 71 kg |
Race | Huma |
Weapon | Broadsword |
Japanese Voice Actor | Nobuyuki Hiyama |
Character Designer | Mutsumi Inomata |
Veigue Lungberg (ヴェイグ・リュングベル Veigu Ryunguberu?) is the main protagonist of Tales of Rebirth. He is a Huma orphan from the village of Sulz and adopted to the Bennett family. Claire Bennett is his childhood friend, and he is very protective on her. Like all the major characters in the game, he is a Force user and uses the Force of Ice, as well as wields a two-handed sword in battle.
History[]
Awakening[]
When Veigue was young, he was adopted by Marco and Rakiya Bennett of Sulz village and befriended his daughter Claire. Along with their pet Zapie, Veigue spent his childhood and teens in Sulz. As Huma and Gajuma coexisted in peace in Sulz, Veigue never has any problems about it. However, it all changes when Veigue turns 17. In the capital city of Balka, the Gajuma King Ladras Lindblum passes away, and at that point, a certain event of chaos erupts in which several Huma suddenly gain the ability known as Force, which was formerly exclusive to Gajuma only. Veigue is one such Huma that has his Force awakened. His Force runs wild and worries Claire. However, as she approaches Veigue, his Force attacks her, sealing her within an ice coffin. From that point on, guilt overcomes Veigue, and he spends his time guarding his house where Claire is frozen, accompanied by Zapie.
A year later, in the current timeline of the game, Veigue is visited by a boy who has no memory, Mao, and ex-commander of the King's Shield, Eugene Gallardo. They claim that they are seeking Force users like Veigue to find out what is actually going on. Veigue refuses to listen to any of their stories, claiming that he needs to protect Claire. After a brief fight with Mao, he is told that he must learn to control his Force and thus will not freeze Claire again. Mao then helps him un-freeze Claire. As a token of gratitude, Claire invites them all to eat at her house. While eating and discussing the current situation, the village is visited by two members of Calegia's King's Shield lieutenants, known as the Four Stars, Saleh and Tohma. They demand the most beautiful girl in the village to be surrendered to them under the order of Queen Agarte Lindblum, and Claire is selected as the "most beautiful". Veigue tries to stop them, but Eugene knocks him out before Tohma and Saleh can seriously kill him.
Rescuing Claire[]
Eventually, Veigue resolves to rescue Claire. Marco also sends Zapie to accompany him. Although he is at first accompanied by Zapie, Mao, and Eugene, he encounters more allies in Annie Barrs, a girl who initially dislikes Gajumas; Tytree Crowe, a hotblooded worker from Petnadjanka; and Hilda Rhambling, a Half formerly under the King's Shield. As he journeys, Veigue also witnesses issues regarding race between Huma and Gajuma, mostly due to Annie's dislike toward Gajumas. But they never concern Veigue, as he is used to referring to Gajuma and Huma as equals. He also confronts the other members of the Four Stars, Walto and Militsa.
At the end of the journey, Veigue and his group arrives at the capital of Balka. They eventually learn a way to sneak into the castle through the sewers. Before entering, Veigue tells his companions that should he die, they should continue on and rescue Claire. His friends say otherwise and says that they will stick together. Unfortunately, they are ambushed by the King's Shield upon reaching the castle, and after an audience with Agarte, they are thrown in jail. They manage to get out thanks to the Dark Wings trio, and eventually Veigue, after defeating Saleh and Tohma, reaches the ceremonial site where Agarte attempts to revive the "King of Sacred Beasts", Geyorkias, in order to save Calegia. Veigue is unable to stop the ceremony. Geyorkias announces that he will destroy the impurity of the world that is the Huma race. Veigue and his friends battle Geyorkias and come out victorious. Just before Geyorkias explodes, Veigue leaps and manages to get Claire to safety. After these events, Veigue's group members go their own way.
Resurrecting the Sacred Beasts[]
Several days after Geyorkias's defeat, Veigue and Claire make it back to Sulz. However, when Claire regains consciousness, she is acting peculiar and barely speaks to Veigue. When retrieving water for the reawakened Claire, he is informed by Steve that Aunt Popura is causing a ruckus in the town plaza. Veigue reaches the plaza, witnessing Popura denying the village's Humas entry into the town hall, causing the Gajuma and Huma of the village to break into a racial frenzy. He tries to calm her down, but Popura begins to choke Veigue, spouting racist remarks at him. Luckily, Annie comes in and successfully calms Popura temporarily with her Force of Rain. Annie explains that many Gajuma across the world have suddenly begun to grow a strong hatred for Humas, causing several racially instigated clashes to break out. Eugene is revealed to be one of those Gajumas, and has been calling out Veigue, Tytree, and Hilda. As a favor to Mao, Annie requests Veigue come to Balka and meet with Eugene, with him accepting her request.
After leaving Sulz, the two stop at the roadside inn for dinner and find Claire being escorted by an adventurer to Balka. Annie assumes that Claire did so in order to stay by Veigue's side and the two agree to bring her along on the journey.
After the group fetches Tytree from Petnadjanka, they head straight to Mesechina Cavern, where Eugene has holed himself up. To their surprise, Eugene tells Veigue to kill him before he is consumed with his rage and kills them all. The group agrees they will not kill their comrade, with Annie suggesting afterwards they travel to the remote village of Razilda and get their hands on a Serenity Pill, a medicine that soothes an individual's heart. Following Annie's advice, Veigue heads to the Eastern continent while leaving Claire to accompany Mao guarding Eugene.
In Razilda, Veigue's party learns that the town is racially divided among the Humas and Gajumas. The group meets with Iga, the town's Huma mayor, and requests for a Serenity Pill from him. While initially agreeing to do so, Iga shortly changes his mind afterwards when Tytree accidentally reveals it was for their Gajuma friend, and demands the group to leave his home. With their plans not going as originally intended, the group decides to rest at the inn and are unintentionally reunited with Hilda at the inn. At the inn, Hilda suggests that their next course of action should be to travel to the Azura Coast outside of town and gather the Serenity Pill's ingredients.
On the coastline, Veigue and his friends are reunited with Igol, one of the Humas they helped free from Balka's prison. Igol reveals that he is Iga's son and that he can get the Serenity Pill for them. The group meets up with Igol at the inn later and receive the medication from him. With their business in Razilda completed, the group decide to return to the Mesechina Cavern.
Upon making it back to the Cavern, the group is forced to fight a berserked Eugene until he calms down a bit and is able to consume the cure calmly, regaining his old self. Eugene explains that this all may have some connections with Geyorkias. It turns out that after his defeat, several thoughts of hatred from Geyorkias began to grow from the hearts of every Huma and Gajuma.
Eventually it is concluded that to dispel the thoughts, they need to retrieve the power of the Sacred Beasts who fought against Geyorkias in the past. When journeying, they come upon the oriental town of Kyogen. In order to get the hint of the next Sacred Beast, after Tytree and Mao manage to gain the trust of two of them, Veigue agrees to become a temporary bodyguard for a man named Wan Gin, while Claire becomes his guest. Later, from Zapie, Veigue learns that Claire is kidnapped. But when he rescues her, once again she is acting rather weird. When Veigue meets two other prisoners, they tell him that they were with Claire. But when he meets her, she is alone. Regardless, Veigue knows that Wan Gin is behind this, and quits being his bodyguard.
Eventually, they reached the next Sacred Beast, and after Annie gains his trust, Mao becomes possessed by a Sacred Beast calling himself Shaorune. He tells Veigue to meet him, or he will lose something dear. Veigue becomes more frustrated hearing this. The group decides to gather the hints in the town of Belsas. In the town, Claire asks Veigue about things regarding on Queen Agarte, which slightly confuses Veigue. But he confirms he will still like Claire even if she is of a different race. And to his surprise, he learns that Agarte is spotted somewhere in the town. The next day, when the racist Huma leader Scarab is about to execute Agarte in public, Agarte delivers a speech that only Claire would actually say. Veigue realizes that Claire is in Agarte's body, and that she is once again in danger. He quickly rescues her. In the meantime, the general of the Calegian army, Milhaust Selkirk, arrive and quickly put the crowd at rest.
Eventually, Agarte reveals that during the ceremony before, she used the Force of Moon to resurrect Geyorkias. However, after Geyorkias's defeat, Agarte switched her body with Claire as an additional effect of the Force. Veigue demands that Agarte returns Claire's body to her, but she runs. Veigue then agrees to cooperate with Milhaust to return Claire and Agarte's bodies to the proper places. Shaorune once again possesses Mao and tells the group that he is at the town of Babilograd. The group eventually arrives at Babilograd.
Shaorune claims he will give Veigue three trials to prove his worth. As for the first trial, on the way to reach Shaorune, Veigue constantly sees several events in his life where his beliefs about which is Claire and which is Agarte is tested, such as refusing Claire's body where he knows Agarte's soul reside there. When the group approached Shaorune, the second trial begins, which is to defeat him in combat. Shaorune is defeated and asks Veigue who the girl besides him is. Veigue vehemently answered that it is Claire, although she is in Agarte's body. The trial is considered over and Shaorune lends his help to the party, acting like an air transport. Unfortunately, he can not grant Veigue's wish to restore Claire and Agarte's body.
Doubts[]
After finally achieving the power of all the Sacred Beasts, the thoughts of hatred are purified. But the tensions that are born from the thoughts are not. The group is forced to go from town to town, stopping any racism issues they meet. Along the way, however, Veigue begins to feel uneasy on Claire in Agarte's body. He wants to believe that it is Claire who is next to him, but he can not help but consider her as "Agarte" due to her body. These thoughts starts to take toll on Veigue's Force. Eventually, in Minal, Veigue hears about Agarte in Claire's body is stopping a fight. But he finds nothing. When they are asking around, several Gajuma soldiers see Claire in Agarte's body and claims that Agarte has returned. Veigue vehemently refuses, and eventually his Force goes berserk. His friends manage to subdue him. But when he wakes up, Claire is nowhere to be seen.
Veigue decides to pursue Claire, but he is stopped and soundly defeated by Milhaust, whom asks about his resolution back in Belsas. He wakes up in Minal and finds out that he was saved by Agarte in Claire's body. Veigue requests her to change Claire's body back again, but Agarte reveals that she has failed to reuse the Force for many times. Veigue then resorts to exchange Agarte to Milhaust, blaming all the events to Agarte. This irritated Tytree, who stops the confrontation and invites Veigue to meet him at the beach alone. On the beach, Tytree suddenly punches Veigue on the face, irritated on how Veigue seems to be so closed on himself, not letting his friends to feel his pain and difficulty, and claims that it is that attitude that made Claire go away. Veigue and Tytree end up in a fight where both of them keep punching at each other's face. Eventually, Tytree demands that Veigue speaks his feelings and mind. Veigue does so, and eventually calms down a little. Tytree tells him that since they are friends, they should help each other.
Veigue then requests to go back to Sulz, where he asks for advice from Marco and Rakiya, and later getting Popura back to her old self, which causes her to hold a festival for everyone, regardless of race. Veigue is glad on seeing the view, and speaks to Agarte, expressing his gratitude and new trust on her. He also promises not to give up, for Claire and her. Finally he learns what is important above race, and that is the heart. As he prepares to leave, Veigue calls Marco and Rakiya as father and mother for the first time and bids them farewell.
Final Battle[]
When they leave, the group finds out that the negative emotions stemmed from the tensions from the thoughts are welling up into an evil force. Veigue then decides to gamble on reviving Geyorkias once more and persuade him to save the world, as he is the one capable of doing it. They eventually make it to Geyorkias's sleeping place in Mount Sovereign, where they learn that the negative emotions gives birth to the evil being called Yuris. If this being is left alone, it can destroy the world. the group decides to defeat Yuris. While on the way to defeat Yuris, the party feels like their power is diminishing. However, as of that time, in the real world, people start to help each other regardless of races, which gives power to Veigue and his teammates. Eventually, they defeat Yuris, and Agarte is able to execute the Force of Moon to switch back to Claire. She also uses it to revive Geyorkias, which destroys Yuris.
Afterward, the group bid their farewells to the Sacred Beasts, as they leave the fate of the world to the people. However, Agarte dies of fatigue. Milhaust is instated as her successor, and he asks Veigue to help him fight against the discrimination and rebuild the kingdom. Veigue silently refuses, but knows that no matter which part he takes, he and Milhaust are aiming for the same goal. As he bid farewell to Milhaust, Veigue lets out a rare smile. In the ending pictures that follows, it would appear that Veigue returns home to Sulz along with Claire and Zapie, who seems to have found a soulmate.
Appearance and Personality[]
Veigue has cornflower blue eyes and hair of a jagged ice color, tied in a braid that reaches down his back. He wears a dark blue shirt with black gloves, covered by a bermuda chest guard, grey pants and black shoes.
A man of few words, Veigue is usually soft spoken, and rarely raises his voice. Though he is curt when he bothers to speak at all, he is mostly unaware, not ignorant, of the problems around him, unless it is happening right in front of his face, or involves Claire. In fact, Veigue cares so strongly for his childhood friend Claire that at times it blinds him to everything else around him. His brusque demeanor leads most to assume that he is coldhearted, but his inability to ignore those in need reveals a just and passionate heart.
Fighting Style[]
Veigue wields a broadsword as his weapon, providing him with powerful strikes and a large reach. His attacks are generally imbued with water or ice-based effects, which are combined under his Force of Ice and represented by the Aqua element. Although he moves slower compared to other characters, his reduced speed is mitigated by his fast arte execution, enabling him to deal several hits in rapid succession or move through the enemy quickly to attack from behind. One of his most powerful artes, Houryuu Mueiken, provides him with frames of invulnerability during part of its animation and denies fast enemy recovery after the attack, enabling him to achieve longer combo chains without support from his allies.
As with other characters in Tales of Rebirth, Veigue can heal himself by a percentage of the damage that he deals while his Rush Gauge is low. He can manage his Rush Gauge with two artes that reduce its effects while providing him with greater speed or a chance to freeze enemies with each attack. Because of this, he can fight effectively even without the direct support of a healer. Veigue also has a unique set of artes that he can use if he equips certain charm accessories, granting him with the ability to use classic swordsman artes that represent each of the five main Tales games that were released before Tales of Rebirth.
Other Appearances[]
Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3[]
Veigue and Claire make a brief appearance in Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3. Unlike all of the other Tales characters who participate in this game, Veigue is not playable, and his role mostly serves to market the recent release of Tales of Rebirth barely three weeks before Narikiri Dungeon 3. Veigue and Claire participate in a brief skit at Minakuru Town early in the game, although the option to view this conversation is bound to a short window of opportunity that appears only once.
Tales of Graces[]
Unlike most other cameo appearances of characters in other games, Veigue is actually a distinct character who exists within the world of Tales of Graces and has an impact upon its main story. The group initially encounters him at Riot Peak on their way to find the location of Fendel's valkines cryas, referring to Veigue as the Man in Black (黒衣の男?) due to the black cloak that covers his figure. Introduced as the guardian (番人?) of Riot Peak, he aids the group in their rescue of a Strahtan spy from Fendel soldiers, and he personally knocks out the leader of the soldiers for trying to kill the spy after losing his fight.
Much later in the story, after clearing all of the normal ranks of the Warrior's Peak competition, he stands before the group as the final person to be fought, discarding his black cloak and revealing his identity. During this battle, he is taken on by the entire party. After being defeated by a full four-member party, however, all subsequent fights against him will be one-on-one with the character who fought the last round. Veigue also gives one of the inn quests, requesting the "Requiem" sword. After fighting both Kohaku Hearts and Reala in the Zhonecage, the Masters Rank can be cleared to initiate a battle against him, Kohaku, and Reala using a four-man party, where he wields the "Requiem" sword he was given. In battle, Veigue uses many of his artes from his original game, and his only Blast Caliber is Celsius Calibur.
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 and 3[]
Veigue's abilities serve as the template for the Great Swordman class of Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 and Radiant Mythology 3. Veigue himself also participates as a playable character in both games. Veigue first appears in Radiant Mythology 2 during the ninth story mission when the Protagonist with Annie Barrs and Ruca Milda go into the snow passage to find the him and the others that got separated from Annie. Further into the cave the party finds Veigue fighting with the Craymel Celsius to give back Claire. After the party defeats the possessed Celsius, Veigue is able to save Claire and goes to live on the Van Eltia with the others. He can be called out for missions by the player at any time.
Tales of Crestoria[]
In Tales of Crestoria, Veigue is desperately looking for an azure bloodstone (瑠璃色の血石?) to make medicine for an ill friend. He is seen killing several monsters in a forest, and angrily laments that he has not obtained a single bloodstone from their corpses. Veigue is confronted by Kanata Hjuger, Misella, Vicious and Reid Hershel, who tell him that the villagers nearby are growing concerned that he might attack them. When Veigue tells them of his situation, Reid informs Veigue that he has been killing the wrong monsters. In order to find an azure bloodstone, the monsters that produce it reside in an ancient temple in the forest. The group helps Veigue in his quest and kill several monsters until they finally obtain the needed bloodstone. Veigue leaves the group to return to his friend.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Veigue's given name is a play on the word vague, contrasting with Claire, whose name is a play on the word clear. His surname is a corruption of Lundberg, meaning "wooded hill" or "mountain grove", possibly referencing his hometown of Sulz, which is forested area nestled in a mountain range.
- All of Veigue's Altered Force Skills in Tales of Rebirth are artes used by previous playable characters in the franchise.
- Although not appearing in person in Tales of Xillia 2, Veigue is mentioned in the job, "Needed For a Certain Contract", in which he rewards the player with the "Sealed Rebirth" weapon in exchange for a "Diamond".
- Veigue is the only character who appears in all of the Tales of Gekijou episodes, as well as the only character who does not say a word.
- Many of Veigue's spinoff appearances make a reference to his Japanese voice actor's role as Siegfried Schtauffen in the Soul series of fighting games, which is also published by Namco. Veigue himself has direct ties to Siegfried, such as the Requiem weapon, one of Veigue's most powerful swords in Tales of Rebirth, which is the signature blade of Siegfried after giving up the Soul Edge. Veigue's Fusionic Force Finality Celsius Calibur is a direct reference to the Soul Calibur, even taking on the broadsword form of the weapon as wielded by Siegfried Schtauffen during the animation of the attack.