L-elf Karlstein

L-Elf Karlstein (エルエルフ・カルルスタイン|Eruerufu Karurusutain) is one of the main characters in Kakumeiki Valvrave. He is a Dorssian Military Pact Federation Special Agent. He is a child soldier sent to infiltrate the JIOR Dyson Sphere  with his team.

Personality & Character
L-Elf is a cold and pragmatic person with a genius-level intellect, shown to be very observant and very calculative of who and what's around him in order to tactically predict and make the best out of any circumstances always. As such, his predictions are of superhuman accuracy one way or another, often resulting in turning of tables in his favor. His highly precise calculation abilities, coupled with his ruthlessness and mercilessness in the battlefield, made him one of most feared battlefield tacticians known to all, with a reputation of being capable taking out army of thousands all on his own despite being only 17 years old, hence earning the nickname "One-Man Army".

Although L-Elf chooses to keep his emotions hidden and often appears stoic, he is not completley devoid of emotions. However, when he does choose to reveal them, he often is shown gloating over his predictions proving correct or has been shown afraid over things not going as planned. The only person to whom he is completely open, is the Dorssian princess, Lieselotte, with whom he is in love with.

Fateful Encounter
Before the events of the series, L-Elf lived a harsh life in which his entire family was killed before his eyes at the age of 6. He was tossed into a Dorssian concentration camp right after. In True Calender year 61, L-Elf is shown escaping from the Dorssian camp. Growing tired and wary, L-Elf trips and falls. He stops momentarily in order to catch his breath. It is in this moment that L-elf encounters Lieselotte. This meeting is interrupted by the Dorssian guards that were quickly catching up to L-Elf. Growing desperate, L-Elf takes the Dorssian princess hostage in order to gain his freedom. Lieselotte saves L-Elf by requesting that he gets his life back by giving him half of hers, she symbolizes this by giving him a portion of her hair. This would be the first and only show of unadulturated kindness L-Elf would experience since the death of his family, and for many years to come.

New Guinea Conflict
L-Elf was admitted into Karlstein Institute that same year, and it was there that he became the calculating, cold-blooded perfect soldier he is today. Internalizing the Karlstein matra of "Kill, Don't be killed.", L-Elf became easily became the top of his class is one of the most lethal of all of Dorssia's soldiers. Eight years later, L-Elf obtained the nick-name "One-Man Army" for taking out a whole 5000 soldier army by himself during the New Guinea conflict.

Operation Virgin Road
Along with A-drei and his team, L-Elf is sent to JIOR to track down the Valvrave. Upon arrival, he killed some personel from the module to shut him up, as there just should be only 2 students on board (there are 5 members in the team). L-Elf and the team eventually reached the academy where Haruto Tokishima is studying and suspects that their target is close. He exhibits his genius level intellect by calculating the number of sprinklers in the school compound.

He later ran into Haruto in the store room and overheard Haruto's conversation with Shoko. L-Elf was enraged when he heard that Haruto wants humanity to share everything. He walked to Haruto snatched his keys and made Haruto slip. Arms stretched he quoted to Haruto:

" Would you split the yolk of your bread and ham and share with her (Shoko) or will you share your love of that girl (Shoko) with another man?? When you have no choice, you must fight!" 

L-Elf was later reprimanded by a member of his team for interacting with civilians. Via hacking the school systems the team found that the Valvrave is located at the school's basement. The team went there and killed all the scientists. As the last scientist lay dying, he activated Valvarave's launch sequence. L-Elf had no choice but just stare disappointingly at the Valvrave that has been launched to the ground level.

Body Switch
Tracking down the Valvrave, his chance came when it landed after destroying countless Dorasian Mechs. The pilot revealed himself to be Haruto, and agreed with L-Elf's opinion about fighting. L-Elf said nothing and whipped out his knife, and introduced himself as a soldier for Dorasia. As he finished, he stabbed Haruto in the heart and shot him several times. As Haruto laid "dying", he said,

"I won again, Lieselotte"

L-Elf's attention then changed to the Valvrave, his primary target. As his proceeds to take the mech, he felt someone's presence behind him. As soon as he turned, Haruto bit him at the neck. With a cry, L-Elf passed out.

Beyond 666
L-Elf awakens to find himself tied up in the cockpit of Valvrave I. He is surprised to find that Haruto is still alive after stabbing him and shooting him twice. After escaping his bindings, he immediately takes Saki hostage in order to get information on the current situation. He notices that Haruto's previous wounds are completely healed and is surprised when A-Drei calls him a traitor. He concludes that Haruto took over his body since he has no memories of shooting A-Drei and calls Haruto a monster.

Soon the Valvrave overheats and stops moving. Since the heat gauge shows that the maximum heat capacity jumped from 100 to 666, L-Elf explains that the Valvrave's true potential can be attained once the heat capacity reaches maximum. Finally, as A-Drei's Ideal grabs the Valvrave One, the heat capacity reaches maximum and the Valvrave unleashes a tremendous heat attack which severely damages A-Drei's Ideal. Just then, the Dorssia fleet is repelled by oncoming ARUS ships who show up and retake control of JIOR 01. In the aftermath, L-Elf is arrested by the ARUS.

L-Elf's Prophecy
After Haruto tells the ARUS soldiers L-Elf's name they immediately tense up since that is the name of Dorssian soldier that took down 5000 ARUS soldiers two years prior to the start of the series by himself (they did not know that he was in fact a 17 year old boy). Before L-Elf is taken into custody he tells Haruto a string of words. L-Elf later escapes from ARUS' custody and begins a plan called "D7".

After having only 15 minutes of preparation time, L-Elf immediately causes a wave of destruction throughout module 77, forcibly making the string of words he said earlier come true. After completing plan "D7", he finds Haruto and asks Haruto to form a contract with him and bring a revolution to Dorssia.



The Hostage is Valvrave
Haruto rejects L-Elf's contract resolving to use the Valvrave to protect everyone himself. L-Elf tells him that whenever he decides that wants to make a contract, just make a peace sign.

Later, L-Elf appears within the crowd and reveals that the Dorssian forces have already occupied every Module on JIOR 01 except 77 in order to cause uncertainty in the people of Module 77 and to pressure Haruto into making a contract with him. He arrogantly shows Haruto a peace sign in order to push the point further. He is shocked when Shoko proposes that they hold the Valvrave itself as a hostage which ruins his plans.

Singing Sakimori Academy
As Haruto and Saki explore the depths of Module 77, he purposely leads them to a holding bay that contained four new Valvraves which he had previously found. He smiles as he examines the Valvraves through the security cameras.

Saki, Come back!
L-Elf reveals his plan to use Saki as a guinea pig and is surprised when Saki isn't killed by the Valvrave like the previous ARUS soldier was.L-Elf deduces that the underground facility was not built under Sakimori High by chance since the students meet some requirement to operating the Valvrave.

Dorssia

 * Cain Dressel
 * The person who taught him how to be the perfect soldier was Cain, although this doesn't seem to affect L-Elf's will to fight when he has to face him during the attack at the school.


 * A-Drei
 * A-Drei thinks of him as a very valuable and important friend, and L-elf reciprocates these feelings. The two of them have stuck side by side since L-elf had entered the training grounds for Dorssia soldiers. Both of them are also completely able to identify each others tactic strategies with just simple glances, as L-elf showed when Haruto first fought against A-drei in their respectful mechs. A-drei also identified, on the spot, L-elf's basic plans for when the JIOR team had infiltrated the Dorssia training grounds.
 * L-elf has had several occasions to kill A-drei and the others but never has, even if it would have been in his best interest to do so.
 * Despite getting little to no explaination on why L-elf turned traitor, A-Drei has continuously supported him, forgiven him, and given him chance after chance. He still considers him his friend.


 * Lieselotte
 * Lieselotte saved L-elf's life as a child. He kept a picture of her in his Sakimori uniform which was found by Haruto when he was in L-Elf's body piloting his Valvrave. One time L-Elf attempted to save her; Lieselotte later said that it was't the time. During the mission to save the kidnapped JIOR scientists, L-Elf ran to rescue her where she called him by his real name: Michael. L-elf then reveals that he has been in love with her despite the fact that they have only met twice before. Lieselotte is the person of most meaning in L-elf's life; she is the light within his darkness. Ever since meeting her in that fateful encounter, everything that he's ever done, in some way is for her. Hesitant because of their different natures and backgrounds, Lieselotte refrains from accepting his confession of love at first, however, learning that she perhaps does understand the concept of human love more than she thought she did, she declares that she feels the same way and wants to love her beloved Michael. However, fate has declared them star-crossed lovers, she makes the ultimate sacrifice to protect L-elf and the Neo JIOR crew from destruction. L-elf is unconsolable in his grief.

New Jior

 * Haruto Tokishima
 * L-elf and Haruto begin the story on two completely different wavelengths. One is too naive while the other is too bitter. But after learning that L-elf also has a person that is important to him, Haruto begins to trust him more. Although they still have disagreements, episode 12 showed that when worst comes to worst they will put aside their differences and work together as an effective team. However, as of the second season, it can be seen that the two still do think in seperate ways with L-elf still considering everyone of Neo JIOR to be useful pawns and tools, to Haruto's frustration. After Lieselotte's sacrifice, and L-elf is nearly comatose with grief, Haruto tries his best to console him, however Haruto still doesn't understand L-elf enough to be of much use. Bt episode 10 L-elf and Haruto are finally on the same wavelenght at they promise to change the world. At the final episode, sometime later, Haruto was awoken, with lifeless eyes, by L-Elf and shocks L-Elf as he no longer remembers anything. As Haruto questions L-Elf whether he knows him or not, L-Elf replies tearfully that Haruto is his friend. Haruto then surprises L-Elf by gently punching him with his eyes full of life, signifying that Haruto might have recalled their friendship, before passing away.

Trivia

 * "L-Elf" means "L-11" in German.
 * His favorite food is nothing in particular.
 * His most disliked food is nothing in particular.
 * He doesn't have a hobby.
 * His weakness is women (because he can't understand them).