Vholran Igniseri

Vholran Igniseri
Information
Appearance	Tales of Arise
Race	•Dahnan (formerly) •Renan (currently)
Occupation	Lord of Ganath Haros
Weapon	Katana
Japanese Voice Actor	Shou Hayami
English Voice Actor	Joe Zieja

Vholran Igniseri (ヴォルラーン・アングサリ, Voruran Angusari^?) is the primary antagonist in Tales of Arise. He is Ganath Haros's "lord of water", and possesses sword skills unmatched by any other lord. He harbors an unhealthy obsession with Alphen, using any dirty tactic to spite him.

History

Alphen, Shionne and Rinwell first catches a glimpse of him as a hooded man in Cyslodia, where he slaughters an entire pack of zeugles alone, surprising them before disappearing. Later, when the party is heading for Mahag Saar, the yet named Mysterious Swordsman (謎の剣士^?) ambushes them and have a brief struggle: he is more than a match for them, and Alphen struggles to keep up. For some reason, Vholran suddenly stops, giving Shionne a clear shot at him to stop him from killing Alphen. The bullet leaves a laceration above his eye, but the shot was not precise enough to kill him. Vholran charges at Shionne, who continues to fire, giving Alphen time to get up. Vholran attempts to stab Alphen, but Shionne puts herself between Vholran's sword and Alphen. Vholran chooses to leave when Alphen begins emitting blinding light (later revealed to be astral energy) at the sight of his cruelty.

He later appears after the party has defeated Almeidrea Kaineris on her ship, where his name is finally revealed by the Wind Lord. Almeidrea asks Vholran for assistance, but instead, he impales her on his blade before tossing her into the ocean. As he sees another act of cruelty, Alphen charges at Vholran and fights him. Alphen's mask begins glowing during the fight, ultimately destroying his mask, revealing the crest of the Sovereign in his right eye. As Alphen regains his memory, Vholran rushes up and hits him with the sword, sending him flying. As Alphen recovers from the blow, Vholran kidnaps Shionne. When Alphen tries to grab Shionne's hand, he is actually hurt by the thorns. Vholran mockingly invites Alphen to Ganath Haros and teleports away.

There, the party witnesses his cruelty as the entirety of the realm appears lifeless in unquestioning devotion to him. All of the Dahnan inhabitants ride boats while endless praising him until their astral energy is drained completely. The party rescues Shionne and confronts Vholran, who, after a harsh battle, reveals that he too has the power of a Sovereign. He is ultimately defeated after a clash when his ice sword is deflected by Alphen's normal sword, leaving him open to be impaled and immolated on the Blazing Sword. His master core rolls away as he falls, but he disappears rather than explicitly dying.

When the party arrives on Lenegis, they decide to learn more about the Lords from Renan perspective. They learn of a rumor that Vholran killed Urwagil Hildris, the previous lord of Ganath Haros. When they arrive in the Forbidden Zone, it is revealed that none of the Crown Contest victors were never appointed Sovereign at all. In fact, over the past three hundred years, only two Sovereigns were created; Alphen and Vholran. When the party pieces the evidence together, they find out that Vholran was originally a Dahnan, who was re-engineered into a Sovereign recently, just like Alphen three hundred years ago. But since he was more difficult to control, he was placed under the guise of a Lord.

It is later revealed that Vholran was not killed, but captured and bound in an artificial Maiden Chamber by the Helganquil to be used in a ceremony against his will. After the Helganquil are defeated, the party flees as the chamber collapses and Vholran is consumed by the flames, but not before still declaring his supremacy over them once again.

After the party defeats and incapacitating the Great Astral Spirit on Rena, Alphen and Shionne begin the ceremony to store its energy within the Renas Alma. Vholran arrives on an exploding ship and assaults them both, snatching the Renas Alma. Vholran declares his plan to kill both Shionne and the Great Spirit, and then enact a fortress of death over both Rena and Dahna so he can have world domination. After a fierce battle he is defeated by Alphen, who calls his actions evil, but Alphen nevertheless forgives him. As a last act of spite, Vholran grabs the Renas Alma and causes it to explode, taking himself with it.

Appearance and Personality

Vholran has yellow eyes and shoulder-long black hair with white tips. He wears a brown and black leather outfit with several belts around his waist. His look completes dark blue cape and large dark blue feathers around his neck.

Due to being a research subject and becoming a successful host for the powers of a Sovereign, he has gone mad, believing that he is the only person fit to rule, killing anyone that did not agree with him. His methods of rule are so effective that the effects of his rule lasts a whole month after his disappearance. He deeply resents Alphen due to his many failures, including his "inability" to die in his own time, and fighting for freedom and equality, values that Vholran finds worthless.

Vholran was contemptuous of fellow Lord Almeidrea Kaineris, describing her as a wretched snake before killing her as punishment for her failure to defeat Alphen and the heroes.

Vholran seemed to revel in his malevolent nature, describing himself thusly: "I am he who devours! Who rules over and crushes those who crawl at his feet!" He further expressed the belief that power is everything during his final duel with Alphen.

It is stated in his test subject file that although he was a successful sovereign experiment like Alphen, and had "high latent potential", he was initially classified as a failed subject. He showed significant mental instability, as well as a strong distaste for following orders, and because of this, he was under consideration for "disposal". This decision was then overturned because he was the first successful test subject in 300 years, and a method for controlling him was discovered, mitigating the risk factors.

Fighting Style

Vholran is an acrobatic swordsman, constantly dodging and on the move. He has mastery over Water-elemental astral energy, using it to cast high-powered artes and enhance his blows with ice. When he reveals his Sovereign powers, he trades most of his agility as he begins to use more Dark-elemental attacks, as well as even stronger manifestations of ice and other elemental attacks.

Trivia

• Vholran's last name, Igniseri, is derived from Latin ignis meaning "fire" and eri, an inflection of the word erus, meaning "master of the house". Therefore his last name translates to "master of the fire house", an ironic name for a man who is a lord of the water dominion and who uses Water-elemental attacks.