LIFEAFTR APP

[scythegun]

Player Information
Name: Redd
Age: 29
Contact: pokerap | Discord: pokerap#0934
Current characters: N/A

Character Information
Name: Yeager
Series: Tales of Vesperia (XBox 360)
Appearance: Here!
Age: Canon doesn't provide an age for him, but Raven is presumably around the same age and he's 35. I'm using 34 for Yeager's headcanon age!
Canon Point: Post-death, after his final battle with the party in Zaude.
Canon History:

Tales of Vesperia @ Wikipedia | Yeager @ Tales Wiki | In-depth summary of Yeager's appearances (IT'S REALLY LONG THOUGH)

Yeager's canon has been listed as the XBox 360 version of the game due to the differences between them. The PS3 version of the game was only released in Japan and comes with a few upgrades including more boss battles, replayable boss battles and cutscenes/skits, and two new party members. This changes the story a bit with the inclusion of Flynn and Patty as playable characters, but for the most part the main story stays the same. The biggest difference here is Yeager's voice and accent - in the PS3 version (and the Japanese version of the XBox 360 game), Yeager occasionally speaks in English, while in the translated XBox 360 version he has a thick German accent and uses German words on occasion. I will be playing this version as opposed to the Japanese version and will be following the XBox 360's sequence of events.

I've provided a summary of Yeager's appearances in canon since he's not mentioned at all in most game summaries. It's very long but I believe it covers everything. I'll try to cover everything in the app so you don't need to go read that, but if you have any questions about the timeline that should answer it! I can answer any other questions you have about the story as well, and I apologize for just how long this app is.

Personality:

Yeager seems to be a pleasant man; he's smooth-talking and he's almost always smiling. Nothing seems to get under his skin. He's the sort of guy that's easy to get along with. He seems like a perfectly ordinary man; there really isn't anything all that special about him aside from his accent.

And then you realize he's orchestrating a war between the Empire and the guilds, running two guilds, selling arms and blastia under the table, and posing as a completely different person all at the same time. Yeager is a very busy man.

The charming personality isn't an act, however. He wouldn't get very far if he wasn't a good salesman, and considering just how far Leviathan's Claw (Yeager's main guild) reaches within the game, it's safe to say Yeager is very good at what he does. Leviathan's Claw is a guild that covers a good amount of things - selling blastia and arms, working as mercenaries to protect wealthy (and often evil) clients, and assassinations being the most frequent assignments. Yeager runs everything on top of handling Ruin's Gate, another guild and one that is considered very influential. There are rumors that Yeager killed the previous leader of Leviathan's Claw to gain his position, and his leadership goes unchallenged. After he dies the guild actually has no idea what to do and no one really steps up to take Yeager's place. Meanwhile the other guild Yeager is running, Ruin's Gate, is a guild focusing on archaeology and excavation - which is where Yeager gets the blastia he's selling from. Regaey is the leader of Ruin's Gate, and given the backwards name, it's obviously just Yeager in disguise. Regaey looks absolutely nothing like Yeager and acts nothing like him, right down to losing the accent and stuttering almost constantly. Regaey is very soft-spoken and hesitant, lacking all of Yeager's usual confidence and charm. Everyone completely buys this act and considering Ruin's Gate's spotless reputation as one of the Five Master Guilds (guilds that are more or less in control of the Guild Union), Regaey can do whatever he wants. Even the missing blastia from the excavation sites go unreported, leaving Yeager in the perfect position to increase his own stock to sell. Yeager's acting skills are exceptional, which plays into how he presents himself to potential clients and enemies alike.

Speaking of enemies, Yeager might act like he's the easiest person in the world to get along with, but there are very few people who actually like him. In fact, Yeager is attacked by Don Whitehorse, the leader of the guilds, and someone Yeager actually likes. (Which is shocking enough as it is, more on that in a moment.) The Don claims the world would be a better place without Yeager in it, which is entirely true, given his warmongering ways and general personality. Yeager isn't offended by this or by the attempt on his life and strangely enough, he shows up to the Don's funeral. It's the one moment of the game where Yeager actually seems genuinely bothered by something, even if it's only for a few brief moments. His relationship with Don Whitehorse is never explored in game, but Yeager clearly does feel the loss of the leader of the Guild Union, just as everyone else does. Despite the fact that Don attempted to kill him earlier that day. He's a complicated man.

Aside from this once instance, Yeager almost never shows any emotion other than mild amusement. He never gets angry. He never gets scared (though he can portray fear very well as Regaey). This blasé attitude is not something Yeager puts on as a front, however. This is how Yeager always is, and there's a reason for his carefree attitude towards literally everything. Ten years ago Yeager served the Empire as a member of the Imperial Knights and fought in the Great War against the Entelexeia (which at the time he believed to be talking monsters). It was during this conflict that Yeager died. He also lost someone very important to him, a fellow knight named Casey who was both the leader of his brigade and his girlfriend. Yeager was brought back to life by Alexei - the Commandant of the Imperial Knights - through the use of a special blastia. Casey was not revived, but another soldier from Casey's brigade was. This blastia gave them a second chance at life, but unlike Schwann Oltorain, Yeager chose not to ally with Alexei and left the Empire for the guilds. Ten years later, Yeager's entire world view is so warped by having a second chance at life he can't genuinely care about much. This isn't due to the blastia limiting his emotions or anything of the sort, this is entirely because Yeager is a screwed up individual who took dying and coming back from the dead really poorly.

This is particularly notable when it comes to Gauche and Droite, his adopted daughters. Despite caring for them in some way, Yeager usually utilizes them as a means to escape. They show up and throw smoke bombs to cover his escape several times and even fight for him at one point. They're members of Leviathan's Claw and the people Yeager is closest to, but they still can't get into his base without being questioned by Yeager's minions. Yeager does care for them, but ultimately his version of "caring" is so subdued it's outweighed by his distrust. With all of that said, while he doesn't appear to care for them very much during the course of the game, it's obvious that he does care enough to put his life on the line for them. He's pressured into working for Alexei using both Gauche and Droite as well as the orphanage they came from (that Yeager still funds) as leverage. This ultimately ends in Yeager's death and he refuses to tell anyone why he did anything.

There is no one Yeager trusts more than himself. He does everything on his own and when he absolutely cannot get himself out of a situation, he has Gauche and Droite nearby to jump in and cover him. If Yeager trusted anyone else, he wouldn't be doing everything by himself - he's doing a lot for one person to handle, after all. During his final battle with the party Yeager chooses to fight alone. Gauche and Droite are nearby, but they flee after Yeager dies and do not interfere with the battle at all, because he ordered them not to. Even at the very end Yeager won't tell the party why he was doing everything he did, because he can't trust anyone. This extends to Alexei of course, though Yeager did die trying to defend Alexei due to that nasty threat mentioned above. Yeager continues to have difficulties with authority figures, news at eleven.

Despite his laid-back attitude towards almost everything, Yeager does have emotions. He was upset at Don Whitehorse's passing and during his final battle he's obviously manic and thoroughly enjoying pushing himself to his limit in one final rush. There is another side to Yeager that conflicts heavily with the arms dealing, warmongering asshole Yeager presents himself as to the party. Yeager adopted Gauche and Droite, which is odd enough, but he also sends a good amount of money to the orphanage the girls lived in. Yeager's payments kept the orphanage from going under entirely and after his death there is a sidequest the party can take on to fund the orphanage. While one good act certainly doesn't make up for all the terrible things Yeager has done (and tried to force others into doing), it is a surprising gesture of kindness from a man who shows none throughout the game. Yeager's a complicated man, but ultimately he is human with the same good sides and bad sides as everyone else. The bad heavily outweighs the good here, though. Funding an orphanage is nice and all, but it really doesn't balance out wanting to start a war for profit.

Yeager is a powerful and influential man with both the Empire and the guilds and his efforts ultimately pushed both sides entirely too close to war. While this was partially to further his own goals (primarily for blastia sales and things like that), it was also partially because of just how apathetic he's become since dying. His apathy has gotten so bad over the past ten years that he truly believed death to be preferable to continuing to live when he should have died in the Great War. This was aggravated by Alexei showing up and threatening the things Yeager holds dear, but his death in the Great War has greatly impacted him. Despite his bitterness at the world in general, Yeager puts his all into everything he does and when he dies, it's not on his terms, but he takes as much control over the situation as he can. He pointed the party toward Zaphias knowing they would confront Alexei, and eventually he would have to face them. Never mind the fact that his daughters watched him die and the party - consisting of several teenagers and young adults - had to kill him to get through to Alexei, who was trying to activate a superweapon. The only thing that mattered was everything going according to Yeager's plans. This selfishness is an extreme example, but Yeager will ultimately choose his own happiness over everyone else's. That includes his daughters.

Despite this fatalistic world view and the desire for everything to finally be over, Yeager can find happiness, even if it is in brief amounts. He genuinely enjoys his work, he cares for his daughters, and even when things don't go as planned, it gives him a chance to improvise. He loves challenges and the chance to really push himself, so his final battle with the party was an incredibly emotional moment - he finally had a chance to go all out and see what he could do with the blastia keeping him alive. While he did ultimately choose to let himself die against the party, he is not usually of the opinion that he'd prefer to die, otherwise he wouldn't be doing everything he did (and tried to do) in game. While a good amount of that was to keep busy to try to avoid being bored and apathetic toward everything, it's also in part because Yeager had things to live for, even if those things were just his guild and his daughters. When Alexei threatens the freedom Yeager's tried so hard to create for himself, he decides dying will solve his problems better than anything else. Which is dumb, but Yeager's not exactly a man of good decisions. He thought Cumore might actually be useful, after all.

While he comes off as a very casual, laid-back man, Yeager is a complete mess who focuses on living in the moment. Ultimately, he doesn't find as much meaning in the second life he was given as he'd want. Unlike Raven, (formerly Schwann Oltorain) Yeager does not overcome this and chooses to allow himself to die. He might not have wanted to die so soon, but with Alexei's interference Yeager has little choice but to fight the party. He might as well make the best of it though, and he'll try to take as much control of the situation as he can.

Abilities:

List of Artes | Caress of Death (Yeager's Mystic Arte) | Over Limit | Blastia
(I've provided these links for the extra details, though everything is covered below!)

Yeager is a Tales character, which of course means he has ridiculous combat potential. Yeager's battles take place against the party, which consists of four powerful characters at any given time. Naturally Yeager can hold his own against them because he's a boss. Yeager uses a really odd weapon, even for a Tales game: his weapon is part-gun, part-scythe, part-whatever it wants to be at any given moment - including a sword, shield, and a crossbow. This means he can attack at both close range and from further away, so Yeager controls the battlefield exceptionally well. He's equally good with close range and long range attacks and no matter what shape his weapon takes, he can utilize it perfectly. This weapon is never explained in-game, but it isn't magic and is probably one-of-a-kind. The perks of being an arms dealer, I guess.

The unique weapon Yeager has is never named in game and there are never any other instances of it or any explanation for it. The scythe and rifle forms are larger than Yeager is tall, but the weapon is capable of folding up into much smaller forms such as the shield and a handy briefcase for easy carrying. While it does seem to be advanced technology, there are other weapons capable of transforming like this in the game - Raven uses bows that can turn into knives and there are quite a few models of these. So Yeager's weapon is ridiculous, but it isn't anything too out of place within Vesperia, somehow. (Probably because Vesperia is the land of extremely stupid and extra weapons.)

The important forms to mention here are the crossbow and the rifle. The other three forms (shield, scythe, and sword) are all your typical items outside of being part of a dumb weapon, but the crossbow and rifle are special due to their ammo, or lack thereof. Vesperia doesn't use any sort of ammunition system, so characters with bows can fire arrows repeatedly without needing to restock. Yeager's weapon runs on the same idea. The crossbow appears to fire proper bolts, so if you'd like I can limit his ammo for that! The rifle is a bit different; it instead fires energy shots that probably don't have any ammo. It's never explained what the energy is, but it doesn't count as a magical attack. (What makes the most sense to me is that it's aer; one of his attacks references aer and something like this most likely wouldn't be out of place in Vesperia. This is only speculation, however, as the game never gives us any information on Yeager's weapon and there aren't any weapons similar to this one.) Once again, I'd be fine limiting this to ammo as well, and I'd also be okay sealing off any sections of this weapon if you believe it's necessary!

The list of artes he has access to is above, but the important thing about them is that they're all physical attacks relying on his weapon and his blastia. Yeager doesn't have any magical attacks whatsoever (despite having a strangely high magic attack stat). Like most later-game Tales bosses, Yeager has a Mystic Arte, which is an exceptionally powerful attack that can only be used when he's in Over Limit. Over Limit is more or less a more powerful stage where a character can attack faster and even without consuming TP (this game's version of MP) and even removing casting time entirely. Since Yeager is a boss character, he can go into Over Limit more frequently than the playable characters, allowing him access to faster attacks and more chances to use his Mystic Arte. When he's in Over Limit, he also cannot be staggered by most attacks. Yeager's Mystic Arte is called "Caress of Death" because he is the most extra man to ever exist, but it's really just a powerful physical attack that can only hit targets that are standing in his line of sight. It's usually restricted to hitting only one (or two very unlucky) target(s). Like the rest of his artes, Caress of Death makes use of Yeager's unique weapon and physical attack to deal a lot of damage; there isn't any magic involved at all with this Mystic Arte. (Unless you count Over Limit is magic, though it's something anyone in Vesperia can do without extensive training, so I'm not going to count that as magic.)

Perhaps the most important thing to note is how Yeager uses his arts. In Tales of Vesperia, artes can only be used if a person has a blastia. This is done by using aer (a natural part of the world) to grant the user power. Blastia come in all sorts of forms, but to shorten an incredibly long explanation, Yeager has a blastia attached to his chest. Most people wear blastia as accessories, but Yeager is special because ten years ago, he died in the Great War. The blastia given to him brought him back to life. The one he has attached to his chest (it's referred to as both a Hermes Blastia and a Cadis Blastia without any proper explanation of which one it actually is, so I'm just calling it a "blastia" and giving up) is exceptionally powerful and this is how Yeager is capable of using all of his abilities. The downside is that it is connected directly to his lifeforce instead of aer. (How did it bring him back to life if it is based on his lifeforce? Good question, I don't have an answer for that, and of course Vesperia doesn't give us one.) That said, using a ton of abilities will apparently not kill him, since both he and Raven can be completely reckless with how much they attack and neither of them suffer much for it. Using nonstop attacks like that will tire Yeager out, however.

The blastia does have an added benefit I haven't mentioned yet: making Yeager much more resilient than he has any right to be. Raven survives being (presumably) crushed to death, so it's safe to say it would take a lot to kill Yeager. Destroying the blastia is a surefire way to kill him though, and since it's so large and located in the middle of his chest, that's a definite concern. The blastia is a red gem-like core surrounded by a golden casing; it's a very large target (if one knows it's there) and it isn't a particularly durable piece of technology, even though Yeager himself is durable. So you could crush the core or remove it and that would effectively kill Yeager. He's also still very human, so most of the normal ways to kill a person still apply to him and it isn't as though the blastia gives him awesome regenerating abilities or anything.

As an arms dealer, Yeager has an extensive knowledge of both weapons and blastia. His own weapon is unique and it doesn't appear to be easy to handle at all. Yeager has a good deal of knowledge at his disposal which makes him both an excellent salesman and very dangerous. He's smooth-talking and can be charming as well, so it's usually quite easy for him to manipulate people and get what he wants from them.

Also worth noting is Yeager's ridiculous ability to disguise himself. He spends a bit of the game masquerading as Regaey (yes, no one notices that it's just his name backwards) who looks nothing like Yeager and sounds nothing like Yeager. Regaey is quiet and soft-spoken, constantly stuttering and sounding unsure of himself while Yeager is the exact opposite. Being able to drop his accent and fool everyone into thinking Regaey is a completely different person is a pretty impressive skill, though not something Yeager can pull off easily. Yeager was also capable of running two guilds (Leviathan's Claw and Ruin's Gate) and trying to instigate a war, all while selling arms, handling blastia sales, and overseeing excavations at dig sites as Regaey. He's been a busy man and clearly he's capable of a good amount when he's actually motivated.

Inventory:

★ The clothes on his back and the heart blastia beneath said clothes
★ Yeager's weapon: Capable of taking on six different forms: scythe, rifle, sword, crossbow, shield, and briefcase. (As mentioned above, I'm willing to nerf it or add ammo for the rifle/crossbow forms if you feel it's necessary!)
★ Alexandrite: A ring capable of giving the wearer a boost in energy. (The exact in-game effect is "increases Max HP and TP by 25%" which is obviously not super applicable here, so that's how I've chosen to interpret it.)
★ Splash Bow: A bow that can also turn into a knife. It's water-aligned! (Like with the crossbow/rifle, I'm perfectly fine with working with a set amount of ammo for the bow! If there aren't any elemental affinities to worry about, then it'll just act as a standard bow.)

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