character information
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Digital Devil Saga
Canon Format: JRPG (video game)
Character's Name: Heat
Character's Age: technically around 5, looks and acts 24
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. In everything but actual age he's in his early twenties, so that shouldn't be much of an issue.
What form will your character's NV take?
a laptop, basically like this one
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: The DDS demons don't fight much in human form, and most battles have them already transformed at the start. As Agni, Heat relies strongly on fighting/devouring attacks, but has an affinity to fire. Over the course of the game, a player can give any character any and all abilities eventually, but I wouldn't do that for the sake of RP. Anyone worth their salt would counter an elemental weakness with the opposite element, however, and since Heat's from the end of the game I think it would make sense to have him use both fire and ice trees of magic. This would be more for the sake of protection against said elements or casting when an enemy is strong against physical attacks. They're basic spells, varying in degree of strength and how many enemies they can hit, but mostly just basic fire and ice. I probably won't even give him any healing spells, as he would have left that up to Argilla and Cielo.
He also has the ability to go berzerk during certain stages in the earth's rotation. During this time he goes through a sort of half-transformation and, while still in control of himself, has a hard time reigning in the demon. During this time he's unable to use magic and his attacks miss more often, though they're stronger when they do hit. This will probably happen less in Siren's Pull, due to the nature of the world being different, and may happen more often when he's severely wounded or hasn't eaten in a while.
Weapons: in the game, Heat uses a hand cannon.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: (I would link to this, but I already have my own history written out that I trust better than a website, so have some tl;dr.)
The Digital Devil Saga story encompasses two games. Rather than a single game and its sequel, they're two parts of the same tale - almost like a question and an answer in the way they're presented. In the first game, we find the characters in a barren warzone called the Junkyard, where there is constant rain but no life aside from the men and women engaged in combat. The people are divided into six tribes - the Vanguards, the Maribel, the Solids, the Wolves, the Brutes, and the Embryon. Each is represented by a different color - green, red, yellow, white, blue, and orange respectively. The laws, given out by the Dissemination Machine in the Karma Temple, state that the tribes must fight and conquer each other. The tribe that comes out on top will then be allowed passage to Nirvana.
Heat is second in command of the Embryon, the tribe the main characters of the game belong to. At the start of the game, the Embryon are locked in a standstill with the Vanguards. An egg-like object has appeared on the border between their two territories and each suspects the other of having placed it. When neither do anything to move it, a fight breaks out. In the midst of this, the egg erupts in a burst of bright light. Beams of this light scatter and run through the bodies of those present. Everyone there then starts transforming - the battlefield dissolving into chaos. After blacking out for a while, the Embryon wake up to discover the Vanguards have vanished. In a crater left by the explosion, they find a young woman. To them, as they all have brightly colored hair, her black hair is unusual. Heat takes an immediate interest in her, telling Serph, their leader, that he wants to know more about her. They take her back to their base.
Each of them now bares an odd tattoo - a black marking with the design being different for all of them. Curious as to what happened at the site, Heat volunteers to go to the Vanguards' territory and question their leader, Harley, about it. With him go Serph and their female sniper, Argilla. They find the base far emptier than expected, and when they finally run into Harley, the man is terrified of them.
It should be noted that up until this point all the people in the Junkyard had dull, gray, pupiless eyes and lack much emotion (noticeable in their voices). A change in color from this to the color of their hair signifies the awakening of their personalities. Serph, as the protagonist, awakes immediately, though it might be harder to tell since his hair is silver and we never hear him speak. His eyes are now brighter, with pupils.
As Harley relates what happened at the site (referred to by the game as Ground Zero) he starts out with a partially dulled tone even in his fear, then his eyes go orange like his hair and he's practically screaming. They'd turned into monsters there, he claimed, and the Embryon had devoured his men. Argilla refuses to believe this, and she shoots the men hiding with Harley. They then begin to transform into demons themselves, and Harley flees. As Argilla denies that she could have eaten anyone, she awakens as well. The three of them are then overcome by the need to transform. Heat is happy to do so, in fact, smiling as his mark glows. They defeat the others easily, and though Heat insists that they devour their fallen enemies, Argilla refuses.
After chasing the frightened Vanguard leader around the base, they finally manage to corner him. Heat takes over the questioning, grabbing him by the collar and demanding he tell them about the girl. (The new demons within them don't seem to matter to him nearly as much.) As he does this, his voice becomes more and more full of emotion until his eyes flash red and he awakens. When they can't get the information they want out of Harley, they fight and devour him.
Argilla is getting weaker from not sating her demonic hunger. As they're returning her to the base, they hear the sound of gunfire and find Gale, their tactician, transformed and attacking Cielo, a blue-haired officer and youngest looking of their group. Heat leaps between them, looking hopeful for a fight, but everything comes to a halt as the girl comes out of their base singing. It's the first time they've ever heard a song and it calms them. Gale transforms back and Argilla regains her strength.
The group meets back up inside the base afterwards and the girl is questioned. Unfortunately, she has no memory of who she is or why she's there apart from that she wanted to help them. During the meeting, they receive a message from the Karma Temple summoning all tribe leaders. The rules have changed slightly. They're still ordered to defeat each other ("Rend, slaughter, devour your enemies.") but now they are also to claim the girl, Seraphita, and bring her to the temple. As the Embryon already have her in their possession, they're a bit ahead.
When Serph returns, they discuss how to go about making their way through the other tribes. As they're low on manpower, Gale suggests joining up with the Maribel against their rival tribe, the Solids. The idea is then to crush them afterward, but this doesn't sit well with Argilla. Heat has no problem with it.
They make their way there, where the leader, Jinana, and her second in command, Bat, test them out. Their final fight is against Bat. When they defeat him, Heat is prepared to devour him right there, but is stopped by Argilla and Serph. When Jinana hears from Argilla that they don't want needless killing, she agrees to have her tribe ally with theirs. Bat is enraged by this. When the tribes go to take on the Solids, he betrays them all to them. As they're facing Mick the Slug, the Solids' leader, they find out Jinana has never devoured anyone. Because of this, she loses control and becomes fully demon. They're forced to fight and kill her. As she's dying, Bat overhears her tearful request for her to come and meet Sera (Heat tells her to devour her and gets slapped for it), so when they return to the Maribel base, there's a trap waiting for them. When Heat realizes Sera is in danger, he rushes off ahead of the others.
When they get back to their own base, they find it trashed. Heat is angrily addressing a half-dead Cielo on how he could have let them take Sera. When Gale calls him out on not even knowing why he's so interested in her, he threatens to kill him. The others stop him, and Cielo tells them where she'd been taken - Coordinate 136. After hearing this, Heat rushes off once again. (In the meantime, Cielo wakens to his emotions and asks to come along but is left to recover from his injuries.)
Coordinate 136 is what appears to be an abandoned theme park, a bit out of place in the Junkyard environment. (The Embryon are unaware of what it is, though it seems familiar to some.) As they make their way to the top, they solve puzzles and hear a tale over a crackly intercom about a princess and two princes. (The princess in the paintings looks remarkably like Sera.) Though this place may seem a bit silly at first, it will become a lot more meaningful in the second game - especially as far as Heat is involved.
The Destiny Land tale is as follows:
"This story took place not long ago...In a certain kingdom, there lived a beautiful princess with mysterious powers. Her powers were very special, for they protected the country and drove away hardship. However, one day, an evil being captured the princess, and planned to use her power for evil...She was imprisoned high up in a tall tower. In a neighboring kindom, there lived two princes, who happened to be close friends of the princess. One prince was always kind...The other was brash and took a liking to violence. Thus, behind their backs, people began calling them the "good prince" and the "evil prince." In fact the princess was secretly in love with the good prince."
"Just as the princess loved the good prince, the evil prince was madly in love with the princess. He often interfered with the princess and her love. But despite his machinations, her feelings for the good prince never wavered."
"Once the princess was captured, it wasn't long before the princes came to the tower. However, the evil prince, in his hatred of the good prince, challenged him to a duel. There, in front of the princess, the two men faced each other...and the duel began!"
"However..." (This section is garbled and indecipherable...)
"The truly good prince was struck by a blow from the truly evil prince before he completed his plan. The princess collapsed in front of the tragically slain body, and sunk into deep sadness. Her heart was overcome with despair, and that power called forth great destruction."
Bat and Mick have Sera at the top of the building. Heat demands they release her, and Mick taunts him to approach. When Heat tries to do so unarmed, Bat stabs him in the gut. He then tells Heat to kill Serph - all they care about is Nirvana and once they're there he can have her if he agrees to follow them. Heat and Serph then fight as the others watch. Eventually, Heat reveals that he'd been acting, telling Serph to act like he's losing so that he can get Sera back. Before he can do this, however, the girl attempts escape by leaping from the building. Bat catches her and, as Mick starts to cheer him on, reveals that he's going to betray the Solids and join the Brutes. Cielo then appears, having snuck out of their base and transformed into his flying demon form, and rescues her.
With Sera back with them, they begin to prepare a trap for Bat and the Brutes. While they do this, Heat stays with Sera in the relocated base. Sera is singing continuously to keep everyone's demons at bay. After listening to her for a long while, Heat gets angry. He claims that she worries too much about Serph - that he's stronger than him and can protect her better. When she starts to protest, he kisses her. She struggles to pull away from him, then gives in with tears in her eyes. Realizing he's hurt her, he lets her go. When the others arrive, having been successful in their defeat of Bat, they find him in a saddened, distracted funk.
They receive word that the Wolves have been overrun with the Brutes and that the leader of the Wolves, Lupa, wants to meet with them. Apparently Varin, the Brutes' leader, had defeated most of the Wolves on his own. Lupa reveals a waterway beneath the Junkyard that will allow them to sneak into the Brutes' base. As with Jinana, Gale forms a quick bond with Lupa. Also like Jinana, they're forced to kill him as he looses himself to his hunger. Gale is left with the task of telling Lupa's child to be honorable (if they ever find him) and is then finally the last of the Embryon to awaken.
Making their way through the Brutes' base, they at last encounter Varin. What comes as a surprise is that he recognizes all of them except for Gale, and speaks of events they don't remember. He claims that Argilla was devoured by Serph, and he focuses on Heat in particular, asking him how many times he needs to die for Sera. None of them have any idea what he's talking about. He has a technique that causes Heat to almost become overcome with hunger before Sera steps in and calms him. After they fight and defeat him, he reveals that they were all humans who died "in that same Nirvana you're all so desperate to reach." The girl, he claims, will destroy the world. His words seem to spark memories in Sera, and she leaves while they're still questioning him.
The group searches for her, but she's gone from the base. I hadn't mentioned it until now, but there is a cat that appears every now and then, hanging around the Embryon (mostly Serph and Cielo). Cielo sees it now and suddenly comes to the realization that he'd never seen a cat before it, and yet knew what it was. This is the same for other terms, like children and parents. The revelation that they might have been someone else before they came to the Junkyard is disturbing, but it's Heat that is the most adamant about this not mattering in the end. They're all comrades now. Agreeing on this, they all go off to find Sera. The rain has stopped, and the gates to Nirvana have opened in the Karma Temple. They know that's where they'll find her.
After an arduous trek to the top of the tower, they find her confronting a strange woman. Gale knows her from flashes of memory - Jenna Angel. She's asking Sera to come back with her. Sera asks that her friends not be deleted if she does. (The rest of the Junkyard was in the process of being destroyed as they reached her.) When the party arrives to try and rescue her, she causes them all to freeze in their tracks. Serph and Heat look like they might be able to break out of it, but when she does it again Heat is left struggling on his knees while Serph continues onward. Jenna remarks on demons and how they epitomize karma, taunts him a bit, and then releases them all to face her in battle.
When they defeat her, the world around them begins to crumble. They make their way towards the gate to Nirvana, Gale even grabbing Jenna along the way, but the world explodes around them before they reach it. Everyone is separated in the process, but instead of being deleted they all manage to arrive in the real world. Not Nirvana, as they expected, but the real world. The second game starts here.
As Serph, Gale, Argilla, and Cielo learn, the world they lived in before was a computer program. They were designed as combat A.I.s, but the program also involved wisdom stolen from God. The souls of people who died in the real world found their way to the A.I. bodies and were awakened when the demon virus was introduced into the program. The real world was a wasteland, where the sun had become blackened and corrupted and merely stepping out into it, if you weren't a demon, would turn you to stone. Karma City, the place they'd arrived in, was run by the Karma Society. The heads of the society were Madame Margot Cuvier and Jenna Angel. The people had been divided. Some lived well off above ground, protected by the soldiers, while other "less worthy" ones were forced into hiding - hunted down by soldiers that had been turned into demons like the A.I.s. The resistance group formed to fight the Society was known as the Lokapala. Most of the Embryon joined up with its leader, Roland, and a boy named Fred (the son of Greg, the Lokapala's previous leader who would become Lupa in the Junkyard).
Heat, on the other hand, had been found by the Society. Cuvier knew who and what he was, and she related to him the story of his previous life. This caused him to have great anger towards Serph. He joined up with her in order to better protect Sera. When the others came for her, he fought them, much to their dismay. He was defeated the first time, but as they freed Sera from the EGG device she'd been kept in to perform her duties for the society, Heat comes running at Serph, who stands his ground and takes Heat's clawed arm through his midsection. Not understanding why Serph hadn't done anything to defend himself, he does nothing to stop his leader from pulling them both down into the bowels of the EGG. Sera, seeing this, has a flashback to events of the past and becomes utterly distraught. "God" reacts to her sorrow and starts slowly absorbing the planet. The rest of the Embryon flee with her, and do their best to try and stop this destruction. Sera remains completely out of it.
They try the power plant, but shutting this down doesn't stop it and they lose Roland and Argilla in the process. Sera comes to her senses finally, however, and after receiving Serph's demonic abilities through his love and that of her comrades, she tells them to return to the EGG so that she can speak to "God" herself. Making their way back there, they find the whole building corrupted by "God's" data and the whole place is filled with loud, mournful wailing. They're the sort of cries that make you want to find any way to help the one making them... and they belong to Heat.
Heat, having absorbed the EGG and much of the corrupt data, has taken on the demonic form of Vritra - a huge monstrosity with several large, gaping mouths and tentacled arms like hammers. He's been waiting for them. "I told you I was strong, Sera." He says. "Now I just have to devour you." This seems like a bit of a front, though, because when Sera tells him he can feel free to do so after she speaks with God, he asks her to speak with him instead. According to one source I've seen, and this may be from the official fanbook, Heat knew that Sera needed the EGG in order to survive and in some twisted way wanted to devour her in order to save her, since the EGG was now inside of him. They end up fighting him, and it's important to note that all throughout the fight the taunts he gives them make it sound more like he's asking to be defeated, rather than wanting it the other way around. For example: "Don't be so half-assed! The sun's gonna rise if you keep wasting time!" and "This next one's my best move! ...Don't disappoint me. You'd better survive!" None of his usual taunts about devouring them or tearing them to shreds.
As they finish the fight, we're shown a scene inside the EGG inhibitor. Serph is there, floating in the fluid. It's kept him alive. The same cat that they'd been seeing around the Junkyard appears before him, and we're shown the events of the past.
Heat O'Brien
Sera is the Cyber Shaman, one of many children used in experiments to try and converse with "God," a being on the sun that appears to control much of the Earth and its environment. Two doctors, Serph Sheffield and Heat O'Brien, were in charge of her mental and physical health respectively. Heat cared strongly for her. (It's not mentioned in the game but in his bio elsewhere that she reminded him of his younger sister, who had been lost to the Cuvier Syndrome - the disease that, at this point, slowly turned people to stone.) He believed that Serph pressed her too hard in their experiments. Serph would do things such as tell Sera he'd take her on a boat if she could talk with God for a certain amount of time - always speaking kindly, so the girl adored him. Heat, on the other hand, always seemed upset because he knew Serph actually cared very little for her. This anger scared Sera.
Unknown to the others for a while, Sera had developed her own personal A.I. program with A.I. versions of people she knew in real life - Serph, Heat, Argilla (who was the nurse that took care of her), and Cielo (who had been a previous shaman candidate, but had been driven mad and died from the experiments). They play together happily on a sunlit beach.
Learning of her ability to do this, those running the program press for her to begin work on a larger project. Heat protests, pointing out that she's already growing at a faster rate than normal. When Serph is asked about this, he tells them not to worry. At last Heat gets fed up with this. One day, when they're pressing Sera especially hard, Heat pulls a gun on Serph and tells him enough is enough. Having expected something like this eventually, Serph has been seducing Argilla. Seeing the gun pulled on Serph, she fires her own, killing Heat. Sera's health isn't important, he taunts, because if she dies they can just find another child - as many times as they need to. He wants to reach god-like status himself with this program. Unfortunately for him, the video feed had accidentally been turned on during the chaos this caused and Sera had witnessed the whole thing. Her sadness angered God, turning the sun black and bringing down demons upon the world. Serph became a demon himself, devouring those around him until he was destroyed.
Remind you of a certain story from the first game?
Back in the present, Serph is devastated to hear this story. He is approached by the ghost of the original Heat, who tells him that Sera spent the next five years here, sealing her heart away and working on the Junkyard program - Asura Project, stage 1. (Sera will later tell them that she had been asked to delete the original A.I.s she'd created, but she couldn't bring herself to do it and instead added them to the Junkyard.) He brings out the ghost of the original Serph, who he'd trapped there, and that of Serph's first A.I. form. They fight their demon forms together in order to free the current Serph from those of the past. Once they're defeated, Serph rips his way free of Vritra, leaving the current Heat mortally wounded when he transforms back.
Heat demands one final confrontation in the command center where it all began. When Serph goes up to meet him, however, he finds him almost dead - bleeding to death from the wound Serph created. He wants to make sure Serph understands his actions, and he leaves his leader in charge of taking care of Sera. "I did it...," he says as he takes his last breaths. "I made my choice... and I lost. I don't... regret --"
One by one, the members of the group sacrifice themselves in order to allow Sera to reach a place where she can send their data to God and get him to stop the destruction. Serph and Sera eventually manage, dying in the process. As they make their way to the sun, the two of them merge into one. The souls/solar data of their comrades join them as they fly into it, waiting for them when they arrive in the center.
Heat is actually a hidden addition to the party here. If you don't make four correct choices when speaking to him over the course of both games, then Roland will join you as you make your way to God instead. However, the choices are so easy (just pick the "good" answers) that I didn't even know he was optional until I read about it.
There is a short moment of tension between Heat and Seraph (as Sera/Serph is now called), but he breaks it with a shrug and a smile, saying "Hey, lighten up already. I'm here for you." If you speak to him later, he'll remark that he never meant for the two of them to get this close, but then go on to say that Seraph is kinda cute. He also promises never to hurt her anymore. After the group faces off against the final boss, those that died disappear, off to be reborn, as Seraph reaches enlightenment.
Point in Canon: end game, after beating the final boss
Character Personality:
Heat is a particularly tragic character, and I think the most unfortunate part is that his personality wasn't originally something he got to develop on his own. It was based on the way Sera felt about the original Heat - and his anger at the way the original Serph treated her frightened Sera, since she wasn't aware of the real source of it. She just believed him to be an angry person in general. Now she obviously cared for him despite this, as she included him in her original A.I. program, but because of her perspective, Heat ended up being a hot-headed person who was incredibly overprotective of her. It's like bringing your imaginary friend to life. Suddenly they'd be forced to develop as characters from personalities that you originally set for them.
I will be taking Heat from the end game, after his death when he's solar data on the Sun. This can be an iffy idea, because he's gone through quite a change at that point and we haven't seen a lot of what that change has done to him personality-wise. I don't think it's anything that can't be reasoned out through his previous actions, however. I also wanted to take him from a stage where he wouldn't be obsessive with Sera to the point of caring little about anything else.
Throughout the game, Heat is brash and impulsive - easily angered. Still, he obviously cares deeply for his comrades. There are a couple awkward moments when he tries to relay as much (the most noteworthy being the time at the Brutes base - Cielo gives it a 3 out of 10). He is jealous of the attention Sera gives Serph, but he still respects him as a leader.
Even in the second game, when Heat knows what the original Serph did and is infuriated with him for it, there are still signs that he's conflicted - such as his reaction to Serph just taking the killing blow at the EGG, and the way he taunted the party when fighting them as Vritra. Deep down, they're still his comrades. When he dies, despite his betrayal, the party is devastated.
Despite the change at the end game, there are likely to be basic aspects of his personality that remain the same. The fact that he won't get so easily angered isn't going to make him do a total 180. He's still willing to devour, though he's likely to be more like the others in his tribe - not jumping to gobble others up immediately. He's going to still be fairly rude in some instances, just because he won't know any better.
Heat is, at this point, a good person, but the good aspects of his character are mostly reserved for his comrades. If you're his enemy, you're nothing more than food to him, and if you're anyone else he hardly cares. Getting on his good side isn't as difficult as it would have been before, however. If you don't come off as a major irritation to him, he's going to treat you civilly. Allies are important in a time like this.
He's fiercely loyal to his tribe - any member of it. He's rather dog-like in his loyalties, in fact. Stick your nose in where it doesn't belong, threaten those he cares about, and he'll be all teeth. His bark is as good as his bite, too. On the other hand, if you pass the first impressions test then everything's cool. There's not much in-between there. When it comes to loyalties, he can see things in a rather black and white manner. If you're not with us, you're against us, and all that. He does have a head about him, though. He knows when to step back.
Now amongst the tribe, he's known to have some problems with authority. He won't be trying to overthrow anyone, so much as if he has an issue with something - or thinks something should be done differently - he'll be loud about it. It makes him difficult to control at times, but it's not likely that he's going to be arguing anything that would put him and his comrades at strong odds unless he had really good reason.
He can be pretty blunt at times. Okay, most of the time. He's just not the sort of guy that likes to beat around the bush. He comes at everything head on or not at all. On that vein, he has a tendency to be overconfident. He knows what he's doing, dammit, and don't you tell him otherwise.
When it comes to interacting with others, he can be a bit clumsy - especially when it comes to being friendly with those outside of his tribe. He's gruff and often abrasive, sometimes without meaning to be. He doesn't receive or give praise well. Heat is used to being a soldier and handling things with brute force. If you want to talk things over, go see Gale. Unfortunately, the situation he'll be put in here will make courteous interaction with others a necessity, so expect much awkwardness.
At the same time, Heat is capable of deep emotional turmoil - perhaps moreso than other members of his tribe. His problem comes in expressing it. When he's sad, depressed, or angry, you'll know it. He'll wear everything out on his sleeve. Good luck actually getting anything out of him unless you're a member of his tribe, though.
On an entirely trivial but still interesting note, Heat came to remember a lot of things and terms from his original life early on, but didn't know nearly as much about them as he let on. For example, he referred to Jinana as Argilla's girlfriend, but if someone would have asked him what it really meant to be someone's girlfriend, it's doubtful he would have been able to give you the right answer. There was another instance outside the Maribel base where several of the NPCs were talking to the Embryon about different types of music. At this point Heat claimed he only listened to metal... even though he had no idea what that was. The fact that the Embryon know so little about the real world is always a fun thing to play around with, but especially in Heat's case, since he tends to be so arrogant about it.