Van Grants

'''"Have you forgot? I was the one who taught you the sword."

- Van Grants to Luke fon Fabre '''

Van Grants called Master Van by Luke or Dorian General Grants by title, is the main antagonist of the video-game Tales of the Abyss and its anime adaptation. He was the former mentor of the story's main protagonist, Luke.

History
When Van was young (and known as Vandesdelca Musto Fende), and his mother was pregnant with his sister, Tear Grants, he was forced to destroy the island of his birth, Hod, by being attached to a machine that would cause a hyperresonance. Van later found out that this was predicted in the Score, starting his hatred of it. It sparked his plans of overthrowing it. Since the creation of replicas was not predicted in the Score - and thus, they were not bound by it - his goal was to replicate the entire world and everything in it, destroying all the originals.

To do this, he had to get into a position of power - to get followers. So he joined the Order of Lorelei - the organization that ensures that the world follows the score. He even tried to look older once he did get into a higher position so that people would be more likely to look up to him rather than be jealous of his high rank. Once there, he found others, who made up the the Six God Generals, who shared the same hatred of the Score that he had. Van originally followed the Score - even ensuring the fall of Akzeriuth, but later showed his true objectives by trying to make St. Binah fall as well.

He later encountered in Belkend. There he reveals his plan of replicating the entire planet, since it became apparent that replicas existed outside Yulia's Score. After the encounter, he was met again in the Meggiora Highlands where he tells Tear to stop using the passage rings, which inserts miasma-infected seven fonons into her body. At that moment, Asch comes and attacks him. However, Van effortlessly defeats him with a single blow, leaving Asch injured. Van then tells Tear he will be waiting at the Absorption Gate and that the next time they meet, he would not hold back, even for her.

When Asch was still known as Luke, he had gained a lot of trust in Van, and agreed to run away to Daath with him one day. Instead, Asch was kidnapped and replicated. This new Luke was to die in Asch's place at Akzeriuth - something that never happened. Van needed Asch for his hyperresonance, as it could be used to destroy all the Sephiroth which held the land in the Outer Lands.

Throughout the game, it is revealed that until the confrontation at Eldrant, Van thinks of Luke as inferior, due to him being a replica. Only when Luke and the party confronts Van at the end of the game, does Van consider Luke a true human being, since he defeated Asch, his original, in battle.