Artorius Collbrande is the main antagonist of 2016 video game, Tales of Berseria, who also appears in the 2016 anime Tales of Zestiria: The X.
He is voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi.
Background
Artorius lived with Velvet as family, but he is not related to her. In fact, he is her brother-in-law. At the time, he married her older sister, Celica.
When an event known as Scarlet Night happened, the Daemonblight consumed their village. He saved Velvet and her younger brother, Laphicet, from the attack, but loses Celica in the process, along with their unborn child.
A few years later, Velvet lives with Laphicet and Artorius in another village. The Scarlet Night returns, with the entire village succumbing to the Daemonblight: when Velvet finds Artorius, she sees he has sacrificed her brother as part of a ritual. Artorius attempts to use her as well, but she fights back and the Daemonblight possesses her arm, mutating it and turning her into a Daemon.
Three years later, Artorius becomes the leader of the Abbey, an organization of the Exorcists.
Anime
During Tales of Zestiria The X, Artorius learns that Velvet and his former ally Seres Malak have escaped from the prison on Titania island, and sends his underling Oscar Dragonia to return them to their cells, bestowing an "exorcism sword" upon Oscar to allow him to complete this task,
However, Velvet was able to kill one of Oscar's men and provide him with a longer, more evenly matched battle, until they were interrupted by a dragon, which killed several more of Oscar's men, and destroyed his ship, but was later contained by Oscar using a magical bounding field, until it managed to smash through the field and kill all of Oscar's remaining soldiers. Ice shards from the dragon's breath impaled and killed Seres while she tried to protect an injured Velvet, and then the daemon Rokuro, the sorceress Magilou, arrived to help fight the dragon using their own magic.
Artorius, as he appears in the anime Tales of Zestiria: The X
Velvet devoured Seres's remaining life force in order to gain strength, used it to heal her wounds and generate fire-blasts, which she used to kill both the dragon and Oscar, before she, Magilou, and Rokuro stole the one remaining ship on Titania, and Velvet used it to continue her quest of vengeance to find Artorius.
Velvet then had a flashback of finding Artorius in a ruin site plunging a sword into her brother's chest, surrounded by the bodies of all the other people he had sacrificed, saying "This is the way of things. And I, Artorius Collbrande, shall stop the pain".
Personality
Artorius used to be a loving man who cares about his family, even though he isn't related to them.
Upon losing his wife, Celica, and their unborn child, he has changed into a sociopath who is willing to sacrifice Laphicet in a ritual for power.
He favors the use of reason over emotion as part of his battle tactics, and has used this as the prime teaching for all Exorcists.
Trivia
- Artorius is similar to Griffith from Berserk. Both are white-haired villains who were idolized by many but willingly sacrificed those close to them for a ritual during a full moon for their beliefs and for power. However, Artorious is portrayed more sympathetically than Griffith.
Gallery
