Knight Arek

Knight Arek was a fairly substantial change from Arek's prior incarnations. While Knight Arek was a top tier character throughout the game, it was only at the literal last battle that he finally acquired the arguable lead in power, and even then was matched quite closely with Protoss McBuzzsaw and FallenOne. And instead of a DPS or magic character, Arek was well-balanced between many Affinities and was a primary tank.

Personality
Though Arek had much of his normal personality, being a Knight Bard did bring about some changes in Arek's demeanor and disposition. His behavior switched to a more Lawful Good, honorable equilibrium. As a tank, Arek would never let anyone near him fall if he still drew breath. Arek followed his own version of the Cyber-Knight code, which had the following precepts:

Live one's life so that is worthy of respect and honor. Live for freedom, justice, and all that is good. Never use the Psi-Sword nor one's knightly powers against foes not up to the challenge. Never envenom one's blade with a poison that will inflict pain or sure death. Always give enemies at least one chance for mercy and one chance for surrender. Protect others at the cost of oneself. Never let a blow strike an innocent or those who cannot defend themselves if your body can still draw breath. Never attack an unarmed foe. Never brutalize or accost civilians. Avoid attacking from behind, and if possible, give one's foe a chance to protect themselves or come to terms with their death. Avoid cheating. Avoid torture. Exhibit self-control. Show respect to authority. Obey the laws if they do not supercede the right of life. Administer justice. Administer mercy. Protect the innocent. Respect those weaker than you are. Follow the practice of largesse: Give to others your luxuries. Keep only what is absolutely necessary to survive. Remain humble. Do not aggrandize or promote yourself. Let others have their glories. Defend the weak and innocent. Fight for one's ideals: Freedom, peace and release from suffering. Fight with honor. Avenge the wronged. Never abandon a friend, ally, or noble cause. Always keep one's word of honor. Always maintain one's principles. Never betray a confidence or comrade. Avoid deception. Respect life. Honor all life. Respect all views of life. Exhibit manners. Be polite and attentive. Be respectful of host, all people, and honor. Be loyal to one's principles and heart. Be loyal to one's friends and those who lay their trust in thee. Be loyal to the code of chivalry. Heal the sick and protect the wounded in preference to glory. Peace must be attained at all costs. Honor the dead. Do not act as a vulture. Mourn every loss and celebrate every life.

Archetype
Race: Human [Magi at end of game]

Class: Knight, Bard [Bard upgraded to Harmony Magi at end of game]

Trainers
Cecil Harvey

Wyatt Halliwell

Bill S. Preston and Theodore Logan

Fictional Character Biography
[Beginning: Celebrating end of last game, attack from Terminators, cold, geomancer zombies, house destroyed by Mist Ninja, go to Vault, die

[Kill radroaches, end plague, Betelgeuse, go to Redmore, end Flameborne War

[Kill C'Tun, find town, find out about Sainthood

[Hell, Jade Emperor

[Kridos

[Evil campaign

[Defeat of Kridos

Noteworthy Powers, Abilities and Equipment
Arek's Knight and Bard powers were a drastic departure from earlier iterations. Until the end game, Arek's Magic was roughly equal to his other Affinities, in stark contrast to his usual high Magic focus. Arek's role on the team was support and tanking primarily, and his DPS was less compared to others and dependent on powerful gear and costly abilities. Arek intended to find the Cosmic Forge to become the True Cosmo-Knight and thereby achieve cosmic power, but he was never able to achieve this lofty goal.

Arek's training under Cecil Harvey did not allow him to access a full suite of Dark Knight abilities, as he hoped, but it did allow him both healing and damage.

Unbelievably Tough: Arek's mainstay. This Trait caused Arek to have far more hit points than his attributes would otherwise suggest. This allowed him to absorb traps with ease that would have killed lesser men, and caused many opponents to give up or despair for their possibilities of success. Further, Arek could use powers like Dark Wave to take advantage of his large HP, stamina or armor and thereby do immense damage. This was the primary source of his limited DPS, but it was primarily at a close range.

Psi-Sword: Arek's first, and signature, move. As a Cyber-Knight, Arek could conjure a gleaming blade of psychic energy for no cost. Though he intended to learn multi-weapon wielding from Zoro and Kirabi in order to project many more Psi-Swords, Arek ended up primarily using the Psi-Swords to amplify the power of Excalibur and Dual Blade.

Psi-Shield: Another signature Cyber-Knight technique, this shield of gleaming psychic energy would combine with the kite shield Arek wore on his other arm to give him two shields and three swords. Between those five potential blocking sources, Arek could block almost any incoming attack.

Barrier: Wyatt's signature barrier, Arek's low Magic powering this move was compensated for by its complexity. As long as Arek's mind stayed true and pure, his barrier would deflect almost any attack. Arek usually extended his barrier around others, weakening its total power but protecting the whole team and making his taunt and aggro requirements much easier. After acquiring his Magi powers, though, Arek's Magic was the highest on the team, and thus his barrier was particularly impenetrable.

Harmony Magi Powers: Though not a Magi for the entire game, after ITM 8.3, Arek was infested by his clone's own cells. His immense willpower and holy toughness allowed him to instead absorb the cells, becoming a true Magi, a nearly impossible feat. This provided him with the default Magi abilities of etherealization, cloaking, energy blasts, flight, barriers, teleportation, Ascent hohou, telekinesis and enhanced attributes.

Particularly, as a Harmony Magi, Arek's speed was amplified somewhat, but his strength and endurance greatly. Further, his powers allowed him to harmonize others' skills and were instrumental in defeating Kridos and thereby ending the scourge upon all of the ITM dimensions.

Dual Blade: Arek's signature weapon acquired by a Trial Ticket, Dual Blade acted as a natural spiritual amplifier. His own relatively meager powers were amplified by Dual Blade, and Dual Blade's immense Wave Motion techniques allowed him to freeze entire enemy groups temporally or fully heal, cleanse, restore, revive and buff the group. After becoming a Harmony Magi, Dual Blade became an immense amplifier, allowing him to greatly increase his and others' powers and emit highly dangerous energy attacks at almost no cost.

Excalibur: Wielded primarily as a whitelighter orb field similarly to Zoro's Santoryu, Excalibur was Arek's primary DPS weapon. Between Dual Blade and Excalibur, Arek was one of the most devastating anti-supernatural, anti-unholy attackers.

Bard Songs: Arek's bardic songs were a vital buff early in the campaign. In particular, Inspire Competence and Inspire Courage gave allies necessary boosts. Many times, moves that would have narrowly failed were saved from failure by these songs.

Vantage: Arek had this essential defensive ability from Fire Emblem. When an enemy attacked, Arek would move before them, gaining a level of initiative priority. With this opening, Arek could frequently stop opponents from starting their offensive rhythm and stagger an enemy before they could even begin.

Attribute Breaks: For much of the game, Arek's primary action during battle was to provide basic assistance by hindering opponents' attributes. Arek could Break almost any relevant stat to an opponent, devastating their magic capacity, mana, strength, speed or defense. Arek would primarily use Power Break or Magic Break to keep enemy DPS from killing party members faster than he could tank and healers could heal, Speed Break to slow fast bosses so that they would not get multiple actions or slow enemies so they would only act once per several rounds, and Defense Break or Mind Break to make enemies more vulnerable to an upcoming bout of DPS.

Draw Attacks: Arek's primary aggro control mechanism, this passive mechanic drew attacks to Arek primarily. When this failed, Arek would use Fighting Challenge to force an opponent to focus on him, then Vantage to attack them first and reduce their damage.

Dragon Armor Set: This set of armor inherited from Cecil was not only high-tier armor, but also combined had a 10% damage reduction for both magic and physical attacks. When adding Enhanced Armor, Cyber-Knight armor, his kite shield, and other armor enhancements and buffs, Arek's total armor was by far the highest on the team, adding onto his extreme unkillability.

Shield Bash: A simple damaging stun with his shield, Arek would often use this to interrupt an opponent as a parry then Speed Break to further set them back.

Sanguine Sword: A Dark Knight technique Arek worked on for most of the game, this move did immense damage to several targets and drained all of that damage into him. Using this move, Arek was able to keep high late game survivability, especially since the move was based off of Arek's three legendary weapon damage bonuses.

Dark Flame: Just as Cecil before him, Arek would bellow, "Burn!" and release a cloud of dark flame. This attack was highly safe and could be launched repeatedly, arcing up or down to track enemies, letting Arek keep enemies on the defensive so his allies could get hits.