Genis Sage

Player Information:
Name: David/TML
Age: 34
Contact: themissinglink
Other Characters Played: Sokka

Character Information:
Name: Genis
Canon: Tales of Symphonia
Canon Point: Shortly after the ending sequence of the game, after the Giant Kharlan Tree has been restored as a sapling
Age: 12
Reference Links: Courtesy of the Aselia Wikia

Setting:

Tales of Symphonia is a Japanese RPG that takes place in the world of Aselia, though that's an oversimplification in its own right. Long ago, Aselia was divided into two separate worlds—Slyverant and Tethe'alla. This was done because a great war had consumed a large quantity of mana—the life substance of the world without which all things will fade into lifelessness—and there no longer was enough mana to fully support a single unified world. As such, using an ancient and mighty power, the world was bifurcated into two half-worlds that would eternally compete for the now-limited quantity of mana that remained in the world. At all times, one of the two worlds would experience something of a Golden Age; mana would be plentiful, science and technology would flourish, and civilisation would spread mightily throughout the land. The other of the two worlds would be ever in decline; they would experience poverty and famile, there would be endless conflict, and they would be plagued by the kidnapping and endless experimentation upon humanity by a group called the Desians.

But the fallen world would not be without hope. For the angels above would offer a glimmer of hope for the fallen world to reverse the flow of mana by providing them a Chosen, a special person that would live amongst the people. On the Day of Prophecy, the Chosen would be blessed by the angels above and officially take part on a holy quest to regenerate the world. The Chosen would have to smite foes of darkness and visit several sacred sights across the land and offer his or her prayers at the altars there. Doing so would slowly allow an angelic presence to reside within the body of the Chosen. If the Chosen managed to traverse the land and make his or her way to the Tower of Salvation at the end of the road, offering his or her body as a sacrifice for the world, then the fates of the world would be reversed, and the balance of mana would rush from the then-saved world into the then-declined world.

As time passed, neither of the two worlds would strongly remember the presence of the other... at least for the most part. But for that most part, life resided in the confines of their own half of the shared world without knowing that there was some secret competition transpiring. And so, with that, the various races of the world segregated themselves off from the remainder of society. The dwarves are the most secretive as they live in extreme isolation from even their own kin, and they seem rather happy to do so. The elves have circled the wagons around themselves in one village, forbidding most outsiders from even being allowed through their gates. Humans keep mostly to themselves, though they seek to spread their influence across the expanse of their relative worlds. And half-elves, well...

It should be said that, for the most part, the races do not live in harmony with one another. While the racial divides are not as severe as, say, those in J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, they still exist here in the form of discrimination. And there is no race that is discriminated more than half-elves. Being neither fully elven or fully human, they are essentially outcasts from all sectors of the world and therefore solitary individuals. They never can find a home amongst the remainder of civilisation, and so they wander endlessly in hope of finding some place to call home, though usually that involves leaving behind everything of their past and heading to another world.

There is, unfortunately, some amount of reasonable discrimination for half-elves though, and that's because the Desians—the terrorisers of the world in decline—are entirely made up of half-elves. To the laymen of the world, the Desians seemingly attack society largely at random, kidnapping humans from villages and taking them to Human Ranches where they are forced to undergo slave labour, torture, and experimentation. (This is, in part, why some half-elves go around claiming that they are fully elven instead of half-elven.) They also serve as the primary antagonist to the Journey of Regeneration, though it's not in fact to hinder the actual Journey of Regeneration as the populace largely thinks. In fact, the Desians are—in total truth—a cover organisation that serves a much more sinister group of individuals and much more sinister purpose.

That organisation is Cruxis. The public front of Cruxis, interestingly enough, are the angels themselves. So in fact, the angels who are guiding the Chosen of Regeneration on the Journey of Regeneration to "save their world" are, in fact, ordering the Desians to antagonise the Chosen and hinder his or her journey. The reason for this bipolar strategy lies with their intentions. Cruxis is, in fact, primarily comprised of the four legendary heroes who put an end to the war thousands of years ago which ended up with the world being divided. Interestingly enough, three of those four individuals were half-elven themselves, but in ending the war, one of the half-elves was dealt an otherwise fatal blow. Her younger brother, also one of the four, was struck with grief so great that, as an attempt to end discrimination (which still existed then) and save his sister created this two-world mana balancing act along with the complicated machinations. The end goal is to breed a specific individual as an eventual vessel to hold the spirit of the all-but-deceased Martel so that his sister might be restored.

His sister Martel remains in a state of statis as her soul was bound to the Great Seed of the Giant Kharlan Tree—a tree that is capable of producing mana for the world. Before the war thousands of years ago, the Giant Kharlan Tree was given to the world of Aselia to produce life on the world, but the great war ended up depriving the tree of life, and all that remained was the Great Seed. And so in fusing Martel with the Seed, only one can be revived. If the Great Seed becomes the Giant Kharlan Tree, Martel will die; should Martel awaken, the Great Seed will die, and with it all of life upon the dual worlds of Aselia. Cruxis' true aim, therefore, is to destroy both Sylverant and Tethe'alla by producing a vessel for Martel to awaken using the Journey of Regeneration.

The Desians' role in this process is to expedite the creation of a proper vessel. This can only be done by affixing a Cruxis Crystal upon an individual and forcing that crystal to grow and evolve by stressing the body and having it draw mana from it to empty the soul residing in the body. However, Cruxis Crystals are rare and are only obtained by creating them from lesser but more common crystals called Exspheres. Exspheres (and Cruxis Crystals, for that matter), when attached to humans, allow superhuman abilities but also parasitically feed off of the host and convert their mana into stronger forms, eventually killing them unless a crest is formed around it to neutralise the mana flow. So behind the scenes, the Desians' role is to abduce humans and use them to evolve Exspheres into Cruxis Crystals and then to antagonise the eventual recipients of those Cruxis Crystals so that they can be evolved into a vessel for Martel. All the meanwhile, they serve as the antagonist of a myth put forward by Cruxis, that they are simply working against the "goddess" Martel and regeneration.

Genis, a half-elf, and his older sister Raine were forced to flee from the world of Tethe'alla due to their half-elven discrimination. There they found shelter in the village of Iselia, where they put forward the lie that they were actually full elves in order to bypass the discrimination they would have otherwise faced. They would both end up joining up with Colette, the seventh Chosen of Sylverant, in her Journey of Regeneration to save the world. Little would they find out that the mythology that the Church of Martel spewed would be an absolute façade and masquerade to hide the elaborate truth that would doom the world. As Colette would end up being a perfect vessel for the "goddess" Martel, it would be up to the band of friends surrounding Colette to expose the truth, to thwart the plans of Mithos the Hero, and then both merge the worlds back into one while anchoring it with enough mana so that the twisted regeneration system could be overhauled.

Personality:

Genis' most defining trait is his rather precocious intelligence. He is quite possibly the smartest person that he has ever known with the exception of his own sister Raine, and even she might not be a true exception as she's got an additional eleven full years' worth of knowledge in her to explain that one away. Genis takes to new logical and intellectual concepts like a fish does to water. He's practically gifted in maths and sciences, he can memorise histories and religious systems with ease, and he is extremely talented with the arcane arts of spellcasting, no thanks to his half-elven blood. He's also extremely versatile when it comes to hobbies; once he sets his mind out to learn something, he can quickly become talented with it. He's perhaps the best chef out of his teams, instantly able to comprehend how recipes work and gradually improve on his technique, much to the chagrin of his sister who does not have the knack. And, if Genis is truly honest about it, he's dang proud of this. His raw ability to learn anything and lord it over the uneducated plebian masses is his go-to strategy for feeling good about himself. (He even does that to his friends sometimes!) In essence, Genis is a jack-of-all-trades and master-at-many book smart tyke.

But Genis isn't wholly defined by this intelligence. In fact, he's anything but. His intelligence may be a huge positive, but his drawbacks and weaknesses are a mile wide. The first, and quite easily not his greatest drawback, is that Genis has quite the inferiority complex holding him back. His first true friend was Lloyd; Lloyd was the first one who, despite finding out about Genis' race through Genis' own indiscretion, didn't see fit to hold him to the half-elven stereotypes and discrimination the rest of the world had. As a result, Genis placed Lloyd atop an imaginary pedestal and in some ways hero-worshipped him, but in doing so he discovered a lot about who he was... and who he wasn't. Genis sees Lloyd as brave and courageous and strong, and Genis started out with none of these things. It is perhaps why, when he sees admirable qualities in both friends, strangers, and rivals, he will frequently belittle them with a well-timed quote or fall back to his intelligence to undercut them in order to boost his own self-confidence. Genis, in a rather rare moment, admits to Lloyd rather intimately that he's cowardly and not self-confident, that he's scared of venturing out into the wide unknown again. However, despite not being Lloyd, he eventually draws upon Lloyd's strength and manages to follow along to help him and Colette, his true friends.

While he has gotten over his inferiority complex to some extent, it still pops out of him at rather inopportune times, and when it does come, it can be downright rude and terrible. Genis has practically no filter between the thoughts in his brain and the words that exit from his mouth. He is not just sarcastic and snarky, but he surprasses it. He is downright bratty and insulting sometimes, harshly criticising his own friends and using their own strengths against them. He frequently recites Dwarven Vow #7 ("Justice and love will always win") to Lloyd knowing that it will annoy him deeply, and he has also upon occasion recruited the completely clueless Colette in on this troll-like behaviour to further the annoyance. While sometimes this is at least halfway done out of love and respect for that person, sometimes it is much more negatively stoked. This bratty behaviour usually only gets held back by strong slaps to his head or (worse) his sister's spankings, but the constant threat of these doesn't stop Genis from speaking every last snarky thought that comes to his small, underdeveloped head. While he may love his friends, Genis isn't a constant, ever-flowing fountain exuding love at all times.

Part of this comes from his wanton immaturity. Genis is, after all, only twelve years old, which is only a pittance of time to develop even by human standards' much less half-elven. Though academically precocious, he doesn't have the social skills of the older members of his ragtag team. His age shows itself prominently in many arenas of his life. First and foremost, he is extremely animated and excitable over the silliest and most trivial of things. When Colette gains the ability to summon and retract angel wings at will, Genis goes absolutely berserk and asks her to extend and retract them over and over again, never ceasing to be excited about it until Colette falls over in sickness. He's also extremely ill-equipped for dealing with youthful crushes, and he's practically reduced to stammering the moment someone he likes comes into view, never really able to say what he means or, sometimes, say anything at all. And overall, he is generally over-emotional in all things, the practical foil to his much more distant, aloof, and studious Raine. This tendency towards following his heart over logic, despite his gift for logic, will lead him into extremely unwise decisions without ever daring to think once (much less twice) about the consequences. He befriends a woman at the a Human Ranch, giving her half of his own food—an already rationed commodity—with her solely because she's kind-hearted, but this not only causes her to be brutally whipped later on, it also flies in the face of a Non-aggression Treaty with the local town, causing them to set fire to the homes and leading to his best friend's banishment.

Yet perhaps the most terrifying of his weaknesses is that he harbours within himself the great potential for discrimination and hatred. He has a remarkable talent for conjuring grudges out of thin air with little rationality, usually because of personality traits he finds unredeemable or because he makes a snap judgement to protect someone he deeply cares about, and getting over those grudges takes significant time, and even then he's rarely friendly with them after the fact. But moreover, as a half-elf of Iselia, his youthful indiscretion about his origins has forced him and his sister to move several times throughout the world in pursuit of a safe haven. He has faced gratuitous discrimination and hatred from a great number of humans such that Lloyd and Colette are, at one point, the only two humans in the world he would ever dare trust. He even goes so far as to say that all humans are the same when they evict him from the town that he and his sister had made their home.

He doesn't quite go so far as to retaliating against humanity at that point, partially because he is just as disgusted by those who seek to torture and experiment on humankind, but that seed almost germinates and blooms later on down the road when he meets Mithos. Even though surrounded by friends, Genis finds himself isolated from amongst his own travelling party, so finding another half-elf like him along the journey is like finding his new best friend that all but supercedes any friendship he had before. Mithos, also a half-elf, shares much of the same experiences and sentimentalities as Genis does, but Mithos takes it one step further by seeking to exterminate everyone not of half-elven descent. Despite trusting and following Lloyd, Genis almost strays from that path and follows Mithos' ideal of condemning the land that has condemned his kind. But Genis thankfully doesn't make that final leap, turning back from hate to forgiveness when the final choice was before him. Sure, he may know logically that hatred only begets hatred, but he doesn't actually act upon that wisdom until he has no choice but to choose between Mithos and Lloyd.

In short, all of this lends him towards a fair degree of self-consciousness and wariness around others. Despite trying to appear tough and untouchable in conversations because of his wit, Genis is actually a remarkably sensitive and frail flower underneath, caring deeply about what others think of himself. He does his best to cover up some of the undesirable aspects of his race and identity, not to mention the more embarrassing qualities of those around him (such as his sister's secret love of archaeological ruins) because there is a secret fear within him that's just waiting for the other boot to drop and reveal that the friendship he'd come to relish so much is suddenly no more. And while he's sometimes wildly inconsistent about it, he's frequently wary to trust strangers for much the same reason. He's not quick to rush to make friends and instead retains a rather safe distance from them, lobbing sarcastic grenades from over the fence rather than making friendships too quickly. Though at the opposite end of the spectrum, he is sometimes extremely too quick to trust others, though usually because he self-identifies with or has become completely twitterpated for that other person; in this case, he lets his naïveté take centre stage and rule the relationship.

But... all that said, Genis is loyal. Genis will not ever betray his friends, even though he may flirt dangerously with the other side. At the core, if someone takes Genis under his or her protection and takes the time to allow Genis to know him or her, Genis will fight tooth and nail (though sometimes perhaps too eagerly) for that person. He remains loyal because, eventually, that self-doubt and wariness will grow into a devout faithfulness. He stops worrying that everything will fall to pieces and will become that person's staunchest ally. And that extends to his beliefs even after being betrayed by one of his closest comrades. Even after being betrayed and being forced to fight and kill the enemy that was trying to hoard all the world's mana for the regeneration of his sister, he still manages to forgive him and want him to not experience pain. He urges Lloyd to not leave him in prolonged punishment and agony but to make the final death clean.

And, in the end, Genis is much stronger and more persistent than even he would give himself credit for. Despite the fact that he almost unwittingly falls for Mithos' alluring ruse and ambitions, he still looks for ways to redeem the world around him in his eyes. He exhibits true generosity towards his friend Marble early on, sharing food with her despite the prohibitions on it. He continues to interact with the world and even overcomes his personal grudges against members of his own party after finally realising that they have redeemable qualities. He looks out for the good; he thrives upon the good. While he may not jump headlong into that kindness right away, he will at least leave the opportunity to change his mind later down the road.

In short, Genis is naïve and inexperienced, and his age makes him far too energetic and a trifle immature. And while these elements can cause him to oversimplify problems, make rash decisions, and be lured into trusting the wrong side sometimes, when there's an anchor of positivity in his life, he won't stray from it. Genis may need that anchor in his life, but that anchor will keep him steadfast, even when the seas get rocky.

Appearance: 1, 2

Abilities:

Genis is, if you break it down to RPG stereotypes, a black mage. He is able to cast a wide array of spells from seven of the eight major elements found within Aselia. His spells range from ice to fire, water to earth, wind to lightning and light, though the first six those of his are his bread and butter. The effects of his spells are fairly localised within a small region and can typically weave around friendlies when casting into the heat of battle; even his most powerful spell, Indignation Judgement, only effects his enemies within a few-metre radius about him. Each of his spells, however, requires a period of concentration before able to be used, and any disruptions to that period of concentration will fizzle the spell, so he isn't anywhere near the level of instanteous god-like casting ability.

While Genis isn't really that much of a warrior when it comes to damaging others with weapons, he is admittedly somewhat proficient with a kendama (Japanese ball-and-stick toy). Yes, while it seems quite weird, he is practically an expert at it, and he can use the ball and string functionally as a whip of sorts, bonking people on the head and doing some amount of minor damage. While it may be more of a stunning attack rather than something that could kill on its own, it's not as if he's physically helpless, though certainly he's not trained in martial arts or any real weaponry to speak of. That said, he is able to use his own mana to defend himself from damage by creating a weak forcefield around himself. It's not something that will prevent attacks from reaching him but rather more of a way to make the impacts less severe and give him a little extra endurance.

Genis is also extremely intelligent for a boy of 12. He has already mastered mathematics and sciences that are taught in classes years ahead of his time, and he is known for diving into books. Like his Japanese name "Genius," he pretty much is a genius and isn't afraid to admit it. He will frequently use this to point out the holes of logic in others as well as use this for problem solving as many puzzles just seem to be instantly obvious within Genis' mind.

Inventory:

• Southern Cross - The kendama Genis manages to find within the Tower of Salvation when ascending to the comet Derris-Kharlan. It marginally adds to the offensive power of his spells. The stick portion is made of a white wood with a golden spiral that weaves about it for decoration, and the ball is rather large and looks not unlike a pearl.


• Mithos' Panpipes - A largely useless in the grand scheme of things, but it's a momento from someone he used to consider a true friend.


• Exsphere and Key Crest - The blue Exsphere attached to his right hand come from his friend Marble, who was one of the humans harvested at the Human Ranches, and the sun-shaped Key Crest around it originally was to be given to her but instead became Genis' after inheriting her Exsphere.

Suitability:

Genis Sage may be only 12 years old, but both who he is on the inside along with his experiences make him suitable for Tu Shanshu. First and foremost, Genis has a history of dealing with racism, banishment, and generally being shunned from society. Half-elves are shunned by both humans and elves alike in the world of Aselia, and for many years he and his sister posed as true elves in order to blend in with society. Similar themes exist here on Tu Vishan. The Foreigners are caught in the crossfire of three gangs, all of which are uneasy with their presence and unwilling to immediately accept them into their collectives. Genis has gotten over his immediate hatred of society as a whole and realised the necessities of compromise, though he certainly still has strong opinions about the general political acceptance of racism.

Secondly, Genis has a strong penchant for wanting to help save the world, even if it is a world inhabited by people that he's not entirely fond of. He immediately follows Lloyd into helping the Chosen of Sylverant to restore mana to the world, but he remains committed to even saving the people of a world he's never heard of, following his friends to the end to ensure the survival of those people who might have shunned him in the past. This is a similar aspect found in Tu Shanshu, where the Shell is filled with kedan who are not overly appreciative of the Foreigners, and yet Genis will have a strong desire to help rebuild the town and the Foreigners' own existence in order to better life for everyone. This also works well from an exploration perspective as Genis has had to explore wild and exotic locales across two separate worlds in order to fulfil his goals.

Lastly, Genis is a rather curious and intelligent boy. Though still a kid in many respects, he is a smart cookie and can grasp complex situations remarkably quickly. This will assist him in a world full of disappointments and setbacks, difficulties and tribulations. And yet, when opportunities arise, Genis will make the best use of it. He will be a the forefront with his sister Raine (already in game) to tackle the ills of the world.

In-Character Samples:
Third Person (Prose):

Genis is not amused.

It's not even been three days since he'd arrived on top of the Giant Kharlan Turtle, as he'd been facetiously calling it, and already he was facing about as many dirty stares and angry words as he had faced while he and his sister Raine had been trying to find. From what he'd heard, it had nothing to do with the fact that he was a half-elf, so there was that at least. However, them doing it just because he was a Foreigner wasn't any sort of consolation prize. In fact, it only made things even worse because, instead of discriminating against people that had physically done them ill, now they were just discriminating against everyone that wasn't themselves. At first, he'd tried to hold his tongue, and at first he'd been somewhat successful at that.

But Genis' patience was far from infinite, and today he's meeting those scornful looks with the beginnings of a rather annoyed glare. He had decided that he wasn't going to let them get off easy. Whenever one of the storekeepers decided to meet his presence with a distasteful look, he would simply stop in his tracks and just watch them—watch them with extreme judgement—at least until they looked away first. Granted, this didn't exactly help him make friends with anyone or even get him actual service at any of those shopkeepers, but it did help Genis feel a little better about it, as if somehow he'd gotten the upper hand for once.

Yet one particular shopkeeper wasn't content to simply give him the silent cold shoulder. This time there were insults, and that is the last straw. That's the moment at which the pent-up rage that's been building up the last few days breaks through. Hearing the rather pointed and painful comment hurled his way, Genis wheels about on his heel, grabs the kendama that's hanging from the small pouch at his waist, and he just flings the ball in a straight line into the wooden boxes that were propping up a rather large basket of fruit. The box wobbles back and forth precariously, though it thankfully doesn't quite tip over. But Genis isn't concerned with the fruit. He jerks the ball of his kendama back and points sternly at the shopkeeper.

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

Network:

[Console/Video]

[Genis is feeling all out of sorts. Yes, he'd been told that this massive headache and otherwise feeling completely lethargic and terrible would be gone by tomorrow, and so he would have considered putting this out there until then, but someone had told him that he looked somewhat familiar, that there was some older girl with the same hair colour. And while there were possibly a zillion people in all the infinite worlds out there that he didn't yet know about that had elder girls with a silver-white hair, the description sounded like a shoe-in for Raine. He had to make the post.

[But Genis looks just... terrible. He's tired and just feels just empty, not to mention hungry. You'll see a 12 year old's face just looking like he could use a really really nice sleep. And as a result, he's not afraid to be cranky. Granted, he's always unafraid to be cranky, but that's his excuse at the moment.]

I really hate to gripe about this first thing, but come on. I come straight from one world where I'm hated just for being a half-elf, and now I'm in a world where I'm hated just because I'm not from around here? Greeeeeat. You know, I'm beginning to wonder if there even is a world out there where groups of people don't just hate other groups of people for completely stupid reasons.

I mean, what'd you guys even do to the kedan anyway? Did you go out and personally kidnap everyone's eldest kid or something? Because if it wasn't as big as something like that, I don't know what you could have possibly done to get them to hate you so badly.

[He says this with the most deadpan delivery ever. He then just shakes his head as if just in disbelief that he's already stuck in a world worse than the one he'd just left.]

Okay, at any rate, I don't know who exactly is out there listening to this, but... hey. My name's Genis, and I don't suppose any of you have seen my sister Raine out there, have you? For everyone else out there, well, I'm a student at the moment, though I haven't really been attending school recently since I've been travelling around my world for the past while. Though I could probably still graduate at the top of my class even without having been super diligent on my studies last year.

Anyway, I'd say that I'm looking forward to meeting all of you soon, but right now I'm much more interested in waiting for this massive headache to go away first. Though it's supposed to go away tomorrow, so that's one thing going my way.

I like to hear the good news fast and the bad news faster.  So seriously, let me know how I'm doing.  I would love the feedback.