| “ | Eruptions will scorch the earth with fire from every fissure. The wind will rage and the wings will fall flightless. Pure water will run foul, and disease spread. Soil that once brought life turns all to dust and stone. Verdant land will wither away, and seeds will cease to sprout. The glaring light will obscure the boundaries to reality. Darkness will deepen, breeding monsters in its wake. The moon's hold over time will splinter, depriving all beings of logic. | „ |
| ~ Daelophos' curse turned to prophecy. |
Daelophos (Dioforos in the original Japanese) is the main villain of the 2024 JRPG video-game Visions of Mana. Once the mightiest champion of the Mana Goddess to ever live, renowned for defeating the Benevodons, he was driven mad by the death of his girlfriend and seeks to kill the Goddess as a revenge. He was sealed millennia before the start of the story but is accidentally revived by Eoren, until heroes blessed by the eight elemental Mana Spirits put an end to his madness.
He is voiced in Japanese by Hiroki Tōchi and in English by John Patneaude.
Appearance[]
Daelophos is a tall, powerfully built and ruggedly handsome man, with chiselled muscles, pronounced facial traits, golden eyes and long, sandy-blond hair held in many plaits. He wears vaguely Greek/Roman white clothing, with a robe ornate with golden and blue motifs, a cape stylised like wings held with a harness over his mostly bare torso, a golden shoulder-pad on his left-shoulder, golden gauntlets and two, ornate golden belts. He wields the fabled Mana Sword: an ornate longsword with a golden guard and a golden engraving over its blade, with vines sprouting from it.
His second form is covered with a white vegetal exoskeleton of sorts, with a red gem embedded in its chest and vine-like tendrils surrounding his right arm. His face becomes half-covered with a bark-like mask with a crown like array of branch-like pointed horns, two protruding from his eyes. Violet glowing veins run across his body, which glows a purple aura. In the final stage of the second battle, his body becomes entirely black and more devilish-looking.
Finally, his ultimate form is a gigantic and monstrous, red and black devil over twenty meters tall. He is covered with a crustacean shell with spiky protrusions on his shoulders, a violet gem at heart level with four gems on each side (the color of the eight elements). His head has nothing but glowing white eyes, and an array of horns surrounding a replica of his human face frozen in a disturbingly serene expression. During the final stage, the tentacle-like leathery wings on his back unfold and spread, he grows two additional arms and enormous horns on each side of his head.
Personality[]
Daelophos used to be a noble and stalwart hero, fervently praying the Mana Goddess and willing to give it all for the sake of innocents, despite knowing the risks. He loved his girlfriend Cerulia more than anything, and only wished for her safety, wanting to spend the rest of their days together in peace after his work was done. Sadly, his utter devotion to her and his excessive drive would drove him to the deep end after losing her.
By the time the story takes place, the fallen hero is burning with unbridled pain, rage, hatred and disproportionate thirst for vengeance. He blames the Mana Goddess and yearns to kill her, for failing to protect the one he prayed to preserve above all else. He renounced his friends and rejected all their pleas, unable to move on and refusing to see the world keep going without her. To sum it up, if he got denied his happy future, no-one deserves a future at all.
He is aloof, uncaring, scornful, violent and merciless, dismissing any foe as worthless despite the heroes' unyielding defiance. He views people as unworthy to exist, cannot stand opposition, immediately moves for the kill, and never backs down. He delusionally perceives himself as the unfairly wronged victim seeking retribution, and cannot fathom complaints. Thus, he berates the heroes for defending a world needing human sacrifices, utterly failing to grasp that his curse caused it to begin with. Worse, he is persuaded to do it in Cerulia's name.
Still, the more power he regains, the more bombastic, rageful and unhinged he gets, growing increasingly monstrous in body and mind. By the time of the final battle, he has become totally mad, unable to differentiate the past from the present, and mistaking the hero Val for his ancestor, who sealed him away. He spends the battle roaring with rage and ends up repeating Cerulia's name like a demented mantra. It is only after he is defeated for good that he finally admits defeat, and with surprizing grace coming from him, coming back to his senses at long last.
Powers and Abilities[]
Even before becoming the Mana Knight, Daelophos was a supreme warrior, insanely strong, fast and agile, with astonishing reflexes and swordsmanship skills. He moves faster than highly trained warriors can react, slices stone and steel with a mere sword swipe, and can casually lift a well-built man with one hand and send him flying.
Daelophos was the only Mana Knight able to fully master the Mana Sword, channelling the power of Mana to warp reality itself. In turn, he no longer needed the sword to control the power of Mana, nor the Elemental Relics to control the eight elements, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Wood, Moon, Light and Shadow, retaining his strong affinity for Light. The power of Mana being linked to strong emotions, his hatred made him monstrous yet frighteningly powerful.
The Goddess and the Mana Spirits had to combine their powers to keep his curse from wiping out every nation in elemental disasters, unable to break it for eons. By the end of the story, his might keeps growing despite breaking the Mana Sword and shifting to Shadow, to the point of warping time and space and turning him into a demonic titan.
History[]
Background[]
Daelophos saves Cerulia in flashbacks.
Ages before the story, civilizations abused the power of Mana that sustains the world of Fa'Diel, leading to the Ahrvet's War, violent enough to disturb balance, merging the Spirit, Mortal, Mystic, Ethereal and Arboreal Realms, turning Fa'Diel into the chaotic Qi'Diel. This enraged the Benevodons, who threatened the entire world.
Daelophos was a peerless warrior and a general in the war, who helped restore peace. One day, he helped some civilians caught in the crossfire, taking an arrow to the arm to shied a maiden called Cerulia. Grateful, she healed him, but he could no longer fight.
Daelophos anointed by the Goddess.
The two fell in love and lived in peace, until the Mana Goddess anointed Daelophos as the Mana Knight: the guardian of the world armed with the Mana Sword and the Elemental Relics, restoring his might. He sealed the Benevodons, being lauded by all. Alas, a thief murdered Cerulia before he could return the Mana Sword.
Maddened by grief, Daelophos cursed the entire world and went to the Mana Sanctuary to kill the Goddess with her own sword, ignoring his friend Sarcoh's pleas. Helped by the Mana Spirits, Khoda, the Protector of the Mana Goddess, forfeited his life to trap him in a boulder, on which the Mana Sword was planted to seal him, before dividing his powers and sealing them with the Benevodons.
Khoda's ghost kept watching over the Mana Sanctuary and the Mana Tree, incarnation of the Goddess and source of the Mana Power, where all souls return to reincarnate. But with Daelophos' curse still raging, the Goddess' faeries had to select one alm for each Spirit every four years. Alms being spiritually powerful people making a pilgrimage to the Mana Tree, offering their souls to become one with it, and sustain the Mana Power to keep disasters at bay. Should an alm fail to make it, the curse would unleash disasters and wipe their hometown from the map. This tragic tradition perdured for millennia until Daelophos' tale faded to legend, still re-enacted in a theatre play.
Return[]
The main hero Val is appointed as the Soul Guard to recruit and lead the alms, beginning with the Alm of Fire, his girlfriend Hinna. They befriend Eoren, a traveller aiming to end the cycles of alms, but he lures them to Reignus Shrine where the power of Mana converges. There he performs a ritual to gain Val's ability to turn defeated monsters into corestones containing their essence, sacrificing Hinna to turn her into one.
Val and the other alms track him down, until they reach the Mana Sanctuary where Eoren lifts the Mana Sword with Hinna's corestone, unknowingly freeing Daelophos, who instantly overwhelms the heroes, who only owe their lives to the living tree Trent, the Keeper of the Sanctuary, who appears on time to restrain him. The heroes follow Eoren to the Earth Village of Gudju, where he tries in vain to shield his petrified girlfriend Lyza from Daelophos, who kills them both in a single sword strike, before unleashing the Benevodon of Earth and leaving it to wreck the region.
The heroes head to the Dark Archives of Log'grattzo, where all the knowledge in the world is recorded, looking for intel about Daelophos. The Master Curator Aesh devises the Corepedo, a deadly magical poison that could harm even the Mana Knight. Knight who just barges in, having freed the Benevodon of Shadow. He makes short work of the heroes, but Aesh throws book at him in a seemingly futile attempt, hiding the Corepedo in one. Crippled by pain, Daelophos retreats, refusing to answer the heroes' queries about his motives.
The heroes goes to Lorimar Island, learning the Legendary Hero's past from actors rehearsing the play. They find him releasing the Benevodon of light and regaining his full, monstrous might, but he leaves without a glance. They slay the Benevodon, who cryptically hints of his tragedy, but refuse to tell the full truth.
The heroes return to the Sanctuary to ask the Goddess' guidance, and Khoda tells them everything. The Sanctuary is then attacked by the remaining Benevodons sent by Daelophos, but they are not enough to breach its magic barrier.
After curing Trent, made ill by Daelophos' curse, and slaying the Benevodons, the heroes find him on Entwine Bridgepass, where he once swore to Cerulia he would return to her. They try to reason with him but only enrage him so much he breaks the Mana Sword. They defeat him and swear to honour the alms' sacrifice. Livid, he unleashes a tremendous sphere of destruction, but the Mana Spirits contain it. He teleports to the Sanctuary to slay the Goddess, with the heroes in hot pursuit.
Final Demise[]
The heroes reach the Sanctuary, now distorted beyond recognition, warping not only distances but the past and present, witnessing echoes of Daelophos' past. They are on time to protect the Tree, but the raging Mana Knight, mistaking Val for Khoda, takes on his final form, only to be finally defeated.
Daelophos takes down the heroes with a tremendous energy sphere, but the spirits of Hinna, Eoren, Lyza and every alm that ever was manifest to support them. They restore the Mana Sword, which Val uses to finish off his corrupted precursor once and for all.
Val ends Daelophos' madness with the Mana Sword.
It is only as he lays dying that Daelophos renounces his twisted revenge. With the curse broken at last, the Mana Goddess awakens along the soul of Cerulia.
She tells him that she will reincarnate before his soul gets purified, but assures that two souls as deeply linked are bound to reunite in a next life. She then entrusts the Mana Sword to Val, who uses it to restore Fa'Diel anew. Only decades later as he peacefully passes away of old age, is he finally reunited with his beloved Hinna.
Boss Battles[]
First Battle[]
At level 24, or more depending on the heroes' levels, Daelophos is very fast and strong. He wields the Mana Sword, jumps, dashes, strikes, land combos, teleports and fires a barrage of homing light orbs. He resists Light but is weak to Shadow, so spells and element-infused weapons are advised. The battle stops when he loses half of his life-bar.
Rematch[]
Daelophos on the Shadow Element.
Daelophos fights the same, but at level 49 he is even faster, stronger and more aggressive. He still teleports and warps light-fast, dashes, backflips, strikes and land combos. He can coat his sword with a light blade to strike the ground, or fires many slicing light waves from his blades.
He conjures light swords whirling around him before firing them as a very fast barrage, a huge, slow-moving, homing light orb, or gathers his power to fire a powerful, far-reaching light blast followed by huge light pillars circling the arena. He is vulnerable to Shadow, and can be attacked when immobile.
Down to the last third of his life-bar, he breaks the sword and turns demonic, using Shadow and being weak to Light. He remains static and only fights with magic, teleporting and firing barrages of dark orbs in succession, in all directions or whirling around him, making him hard to reach. He can fire four orbs in succession, or a deadly dark blast around him. Freezing him is a good choice.
Final Battle[]
Daelophos' ultimate evolution.
At level 66, Daelophos' final form is huge, slow and brutish, but extremely strong, resilient and deceptively spry. He can warp through rifts in space, kicks, punches the ground, swipes his claws or wings, that can fire elemental projectiles depending on which gem is glowing on his chest. The heroes must hinder him with Elemental Vessels and unleash their mightiest moves, aiming for his chest, his head and his right arm.
He fires orbs of light, moonlight, shadow or wood, as a homing barrage, a cluster of explosive ones or a rain. He can conjure many huge icicles, flaming meteors or thunderbolts from the sky; and fire dark beams sweeping the ground in a straight line (rush to the gap between) or circling around him (jump above).
Down to half of his life-bar, Daelophos becomes even more monstrous, relentless and dangerous. He warps and attacks more often, can strike during his dark beams or combine up to three elements for his attacks. The heroes must get away when he gathers energy, before giant dark pillars rush around him and start circling around the arena.
Trivia[]
Like the Ebon Knight, Daelophos is based on the concept of the Mana Knight turning evil. But contrary to the Knight, who seems evil but is not, Daelophos still looks like the hero he was, until he transforms. His original Japanese name, Dioforos ("divine favor" in Ancient Greek) even resembles the Knight's true name Diospyros ("divine fire").
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 Villains
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Final Fantasy Adventure / Sword of Mana Secret of Mana Trials of Mana Legend of Mana Dawn of Mana Heroes of Mana Echoes of Mana Visions of Mana | ||