Raphael Sorel

"What a joke!" - Raphael

"Ha!, that look suits you, stay down there." - Raphael

"''How foolish of you, to anger me!" ''- Raphael

Raphael Sorel is a fictional character in Namco's Soul series of fighting games. First appearing in Soulcalibur II, he can be viewed as its protagonist but came out as an antagonist. He has returned as a starting character for Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny and Soulcalibur V. Raphael is well known for his fencing style of swordsmanship and his mocking, contemptuous persona. In Soulcalibur III he is nicknamed "Dark Lord". In Soulcalibur IV is called "Lord Of The Night" and "Creature Of The Night" by other characters.

What lies in his soul is Domination. In Soulcalibur V's promotional material, he's referred to as Wandering For His Lost Love.

Soulcalibur II
Raphael, the young master of the Sorel family, grew up with the rapier and medicine as his playmates. His cool, unemotional demeanor created many enemies, but his quick and precise decision-making and execution skills solidified the foundation of his family amongst the nobles. Unfortunately, Raphael was cast out one day when he made a critical mistake; during the Evil Seed incident, he had killed a noble in self-defense: a noble that had long supported their family. Outraged by this, his own family cast him out, and even aided the town in the pursuit of Raphael.

Raphael hid himself in an impoverished town to escape from his pursuers. There he met a little girl named Amy, who hid the weakened Raphael from his enemies. For the little girl, helping Raphael was only a simple deed motivated out of spite for the soldiers. For Raphael, however, it marked the first time he owed his life to someone else. He felt emotions that he had never experienced before, and Amy became an irreplaceable presence in Raphael's life.

Convinced that the chaos of the war was no place to live a meaningful life, Raphael took Amy and left the poverty-stricken town. But even with the new surroundings, he could not get Amy to open her heart to the world.

One day, in the library of the mansion he acquired under dark pretenses, Raphael found a letter with references to the Evil Seed. It wasn't long before he made the connection between Evil Seed and Soul Edge.

What if such a sword were thrust into the hands of the pathetic nobles? It would all be worth it if the petty, war-mongering nobles could be eliminated to secure a meaningful future for Amy. But in order to accomplish his goal, Raphael needed Soul Edge; he was determined to obtain the sword by any means necessary.

In his quest for Soul Edge, Raphael faced off against Nightmare in the land of Ostrheinsburg.

Nightmare won.

His body weakened, his breath haggard, and his consciousness fading, he looked up to see the giant, ghastly sword wielded by the embodiment of a nightmare. He muttered Amy's name; for an instant, an emotion that was neither anger nor pride flared up inside him, and he overcame his pain and forced his body to move. The desperate strike he unleashed hit its mark, piercing the center of Soul Edge. That was all he remembered. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the sight of his opponent writhing in pain.

Soulcalibur III
He should have been dead. Yet, for some reason, the Azure Knight had left without delivering the final blow. Raphael dragged his grievously wounded body back to his mansion. He spent several days on the brink of death, but he eventually recovered. At this time, however, he did not notice the evil energy radiating from the wounds he had received from Soul Edge—energy that was now eating into his body. The phenomenon of malfestation—he had come across this terminology during his research into the cursed sword. By the time that word flashed through his mind, it was already too late. The symptoms even spread to Amy, who had nursed him back to health. Likely she had been infected when she came into contact with his blood...

Raphael escaped with Amy to Wallachia, a distant land in Romania, where they took shelter in a castle ruin that stood in the mountains.

Amy had been transformed into a being that could not interact with the normal world. Raphael decided that he would change the world for her. His plan, woven from threads of madness, proceeded slowly but surely, infecting nearby lands with evil energy.

But one day, an incident occurred in which some people who had been transformed to evil returned to normal by the power of a Holy Stone. Threatened by this object, Raphael decided to go on a journey to discover the true nature of the "Holy Stone" and obliterate it from this world.

Just as he made his decision, an army appeared at the base of the castle. They had noticed the abnormality of the area and come to attack its source.

Raphael bid farewell to his beloved Amy and descended below to the world that refused to accept them.

Soulcalibur IV
To Raphael, Amy was everything. He even schemed to turn the whole world evil—to "malfest" it—for the sole purpose of creating a world Amy could call home. But the Holy Stone caused his plans to unravel by bringing some of the townspeople he had transformed back to their senses.

That meant a power even greater than the evil sword must exist. He needed another way to accomplish his goals, and so he vanished into the darkness to find it. After extracting some useful information from the creatures of the dark, he arrived at an answer: he must find a tribe that called themselves the "guardians of the spirit sword." Though themselves lost in the darkness of history, they had continued to pass down their lore: the story of Soul Calibur, the one weapon that could stand against the cursed sword Soul Edge.

This was the answer he had been seeking! Raphael looked heavenward, up at the night sky. Countless lights darted across his vision, and he followed them until they vanished over Orstrheinsburg, where he had once confronted Soul Edge. The series of lights were proof that the cursed sword was reviving. If Soul Calibur was once again fated to stop it, then it would inevitably appear there, at the castle.

Raphael now waits for Soul Calibur to appear so he can obtain her for himself and create the ideal world for himself and his beloved daughter.

Soulcalibur V
How long had he been dreaming? How long had he climbed that endless spiral staircase? Somehow, he knew her room was at the top...

France had been devastated by war, and Raphael, head of the once-proud Sorel legacy, was devastated by a betrayal that cost him everything. But then he met someone, someone who took him in and sheltered him in his hour of need, and suddenly none of it mattered. Her name was--

"Amy!"

He awoke with a start to find himself in a dark dungeon cell, thick with grime and the stench of death. He had no memory of how he had gotten there, but that wasn't important—he had to find Amy.

When Raphael burst out of the prison, everything outside looked different than he remembered...but no matter. This world was but a fleeting dream, destined to be transformed into a new and better place—a world twisted to the needs of he and his beloved.

"Don't worry, Amy... I'll be with you soon."

A force of madness was loose upon the world, a man who would stop at nothing to find his beloved.

Trivia

 * In regards to his fencing style, it should be noted that Raphael is a left-handed swordsman. During the timeframe of the games (Which plays with notion of Raphael's Vampiric nature without directly stating so), a left-handed swordsman was deemed an abomination.