반 아크라이드

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“One: Never accept less than 1,000 mira an hour.
Two: Complicated matters only.
Three: Only eat sweets once per day.
Four: Sleep whenever you can.
Five: A hot morning shower and a dip in the sauna are blessings to oneself.”
— The Five Laws of a Spriggan

Van Arkride (ヴァン・アークライド) is a spriggan and the founder of the Arkride Solutions Office. He is the main protagonist of 영웅전설 여의 궤적, 여의 궤적 II, and 계의 궤적.

Profile

Introduction

영웅전설 여의 궤적

A young man with dark-colored hair and deep blue eyes. He works out of a small office in the Old Town district of Calvard's capital city, Edith. Known as a spriggan, he takes on jobs that can't be brought to the police or the bracers. He'll sometimes come across as being dry, and even a bit cynical, but he's level-headed and surprisingly attentive to others. Because of his job, he has a wide network of contacts across a number of different industries. Despite all these friendly acquaintances, it sometimes seems as though he's reluctant to let anyone see the deepest parts of his heart. He may have stumbled into his line of work almost by accident, but he seems satisfied with his way of life. Even when he gets crummy jobs, he might complain, but he completes them without fail.

영웅전설 여의 궤적 II

The man at the head of Arkride Solutions. A lover of sweets, saunas, and orbal cars. Due to his job as a spriggan, Van has a tendency to take on legally-questionable jobs. However, the fact that he occasionally walks on the edge of the law does not preclude him from doing good by others—as is evidenced by his numerous personal contacts. While tracking down the Oct-Geneses at Agnès' request, Van developed the ability to transform into an armored form known as the Grendel with the help of Mare, the holo core installed within his combat orbment. It was with this new ability that he was able to fend off the mafia group known as Almata. Having once terrorized the entirety of the Republic, Almata was eventually brought to its knees by the Arkride Solutions team during the fight for the Oct-Geneses. Upon the quelling of this threat, however, they decided to temporarily go their separate ways. Now left to himself in a less-than-lively office, Van is free to return to his lone-wolf lifestyle once more.

영웅전설 계의 궤적

A for-hire problem solver who makes a living taking on jobs for those caught between the cracks of society. Upon learning that he's spent most of his life on his own, most expect him to be something of a lone wolf, cold and pragmatic. However, the reality is that he's just a guy who marches to the beat of his own drum. As the vessel of a demon lord, Van's body once harbored an object known as a diabolic core. However, after coming face to face with said demon lord, Van succeeded in removing the core from his person and sealing it away in the boundary between Zemuria and the beyond.

Appearance

Van is a young man with blue eyes and mostly black hair with a single dark blue streak in front styled into a spiky, swept-back style with a long fringe. In the fall and winter, he wears a long cobalt-blue jacket with a fleece lined collar, two front pockets, and leather patches on the shoulder. The jacket's sleeves are partly rolled up, revealing a single unique red band worn on the left wrist. Over his coat, Van wears a red leather strap around his right shoulder and a black belt with the buckle undone hanging over his lower back. Van also wears a red shirt under an off-white vest with a shortened central zipper. He wears dark gray-brown trousers criss-crossed with light gray straps on both calves and brown straps on his left thigh, a light gray belt seated in the loops of his trousers, an additional brown belt worn over his hips, and blue-grey loafers. Around his neck, Van wears a dog tag on a cord attached to a leather strap around his shoulders. On his right ear, a small earring can be seen. At his waist, he wears a two-part leather sword belt for his weapon. The belt consists of a main grey part at the waist and a left side hanging brown part for his weapon.

In the warmer seasons, Van replaces his jacket and most of his attire, but keeps the same style (ear ring, thin jacket, red inner shirt, light color top, light-grey trousers, brown loafers and a brown sword belt). He also wears a dark leather glove on his right hand and a metal bangle on his left, replacing his red band on his wrist. His dog tag necklace was replaced for an unknown reason.

Van is armed since S.1205 with a stun caliber, a long, blunt weapon resembling a Chinese jian sword breaker, but with a trigger three-hand hilt and no sharp edges. The blade portion of the stun caliber is the main module partitioned into segments, and there is a blue gem in the sub-module installed into its pommel. This gem is part of its orbal energy function, and the blade is durable enough to resist a physical blow from Kasim Al-Fayed's Buster Lance. The stun caliber is provided by M.T.S.C. to Van on a tester contract with instructor guidance by Kasim Al-Fayed and customer service by Risette Twinings. By spring of S.1209, the stun caliber has become a medium for Van to perform higher orbal attacks after partially awakening his true power in December S.1208.

Personality

“You know full well I'm not like the cops or the bracers. I do things my own way.
And that way isn't black, but it definitely ain't white either. Mine's like the color of a dark blue sky just before dawn.”
— Van's own description of his methodology

Van comes off as dry and pragmatic, while he tries not to be insincere and is not bad at looking out for others. He maintains contact with people in various industries and backgrounds due to his work, in normal society and the underworld. This extends to having a wide range of personal connections, but also a side that does not allow people to get too attached to him.

Although he began working as a spriggan almost by sheer coincidence, he seems comfortable with its way of life, and even though he complains when he has to deal with bad jobs, he still makes sure to handle it. Van maintains a strong code of ethics, refusing to take jobs from those he deems too corrupt or acting in bad faith, and willing to compromise for those in sincere need. Van is also very intuative being skilled at sniffing out a significant amount information behind the situation at hand a skill that consider unique by his closed friends and connections.

Van is mainly a lone wolf and often like to act as one which made him very reluctant to take on part‑timers, as he prefers working alone and feels anxious and displeased about the added costs and the threat they pose to his lifestyle. He becomes irritated whenever he is forced to take them under his wing, though he ultimately ends up accepting it.

Van is an avid connoisseur of sweets, and few can match his expertise or enthusiasm. He has a pronounced sweet tooth and openly expresses joy when eating desserts. His love for sweets is so well‑known that some clients have even paid him with rare delicacies, though he insists he didn’t accept the job just because of the sweets. He also has a deep passion for cars, enthusiastically modifying and upgrading his own vehicle—especially favoring the Ingert brand. His dedication to car customization even leads him to participate in illegal fighting rings to fund his hobby. He is also very fond of baths and saunas. He even watches mainstream films in his rare open free times, mostly featured films.

Van also seems to want to be seen as a cool, hard‑boiled person, but his enjoyment of sweet and his hobbies and interests makes it hard for people to see him that way. Several individuals often call him “old man,” much to his annoyance, and he tries to make it clear that he is not old.

Like Lloyd and Rean, Van frequently ends up forming close connections with various women. He once dated Elaine, his childhood friend, during their time as students at Aramis.

Trivia

• Similar to Estelle Bright and Lloyd Bannings, Van Arkride uses a non-lethal weapon, the Stun Caliber, as his main weapon. This weapon is based on the jian, a narrow bludgeon used in China to break swords. However, the stun caliber made by MTSC can enable a mode that covers the weapon in a blade of electricity or orbal energy, gifting it lethal potential.
• Pre-spriggan Van Arkride was taught Kunlun-style martial arts until S.1203 by Dominion Gunther Barkhorn who faked his death in December, S.1205 and later reappeared as Bergard Zeman, a master of the Kunlun style, by S.1208.
• In 영웅전설 계의 궤적, most of Van's crafts significantly change their previous combat animations.

References

Japanese terms

Sources

See also

• Story
• Gameplay Information
• Image Gallery