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Decus
Decus (DotNW)
Information
Appearance Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Hometown Hima
Age 24
Height 5'8" / 178 cm
Weight 154 lbs / 70 kg
Race Human
Occupation Member of the Vanguard
Weapon Broadsword
Japanese Voice Actor Akio Suyama
Character Designer Daigo Okumura

Decus (デクス Dekusu?) is an antagonist from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World who is part of Sylvarant's military group, the Vanguard. Despite his apparently good looks, Decus has sworn to give his heart to Alice alone. Decus, leader of the Vanguard's espionage division, is one of the main antagonists in the story. He does everything Alice does, including joining the Vanguard.

History[]

Saved by Demons[]

In a sidequest that centers on Alice and Decus, it is revealed that Decus and Alice were both orphans who lived in Hima. Eight years before the story, Decus was accused of robbing some travelers. As it turns out, the culprit was the orphanage owner and his three sons, but no one believed Decus, and so the travelers attacked him. Just as they were about to kill him, demons attacked the orphanage, and it was burned to the ground, killing many of the people inside. In the present, Decus reveals that at that time, Alice made a pact with a demon to save Decus, and she learned to summon and control demons and monsters because of this. However, in the original Tales of Symphonia, when the player goes to the Niflheim book optional dungeon, it is revealed that when Lloyd's group burned the book, it destroyed the pact Alice had with the demons and thus explains why she needs machines to control monsters now. Since that day, Decus swore his heart to Alice as repayment for saving his life. Even though Alice rejected him and his request, Decus continues doing everything for Alice and helping her whenever she wants, making it often look like he is her mindless slave in the present timeline.

Framing Lloyd and Meeting Emil[]

Decus (ToLink)

Artwork for Tales of Link.

It is unknown what happened to the survivors of the orphanage after the incident, except that one of them moved to Iselia in the present. Some time after the re-unity of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, Alice joined the Vanguard, in which Decus followed. One and a half year later, when the Vanguard was in possession of Solum's core, Alice told Decus to use it to disguise himself as Lloyd Irving, one of the saviors of the world, and lead the Church of Martel in his name. At this time, Decus, disguised as Lloyd, ordered the Church of Martel to fight the Vanguard in the city Palmacosta, in which said city burned down once again killing many innocent people. While looking like Lloyd, Decus also killed Reysol Castagnier and Lana Castagnier while trying to escape him. It is because of this that their son, Emil Castagnier, seeks revenge on Lloyd.

Half a year later, to the present story line, Decus is still pretending to be Lloyd while wreaking havoc in his name, while the real Lloyd does not deny that he is at fault. He uses this disguise when attacking Flanoir. There, it is possible he encounters the real Lloyd, as the latter was seen by Emil and the others, but this is not confirmed. Decus, without his disguise as Lloyd, is first introduced in Flanoir's church, where he is praying to get Alice to fall in love with him. He apparently reeks of "Eau De Seduction", a smelling cologne developed by the Lezareno Company. When Emil and Decus meet in the church, he forces some of the cologne onto Emil before departing, thinking that Emil is a fan who has a crush on him.

Losing Disguise[]

DotNW Opening Decus

Opening still from Dawn of the New World.

The next time he is seen, Decus is fighting against Lloyd, disguised as Lloyd, possibly when the real Lloyd tries to save Seles Wilder, the sister of his friend, Zelos Wilder. Emil, Marta, Tenebrae, and Zelos arrive to see their fighting, but cannot decide who the real Lloyd is since the smelling cologne Decus uses is too vague when they fight and move everywhere, not even when each of them claim to be Lloyd.

Zelos, however, knows exactly who the right one is, and depending on Emil's choice, whether he chooses the one laughing manically or the other one, might attack Decus with Demon Fang. When Decus loses his disguise, he is saved by Alice, who holds Seles as hostage. However, the rest of the original cast appears, in which Regal Bryant temporally knocks out Decus from behind by jumping on his back. Some time later, Decus helps Alice explaining Brute's reasons for wanting the Centurions' cores, and also how he wants to revive the Sylvarant Dynasty, which was destroyed by Cruxis eight hundred years ago. When Richter comes along and escapes to fight against Lloyd and some others of the original heroes, Decus and Alice stay behind to fight the group.

Final Moments[]

If the player has gone through a side-quest concerning Alice's past and then goes to Hima before the final battle, they will find Decus there. He will explain his past to the group, as well as Alice's pact with the demons, and also throw a bone of the demon Alice made a pact with at that time to stop the monsters from continuing their invades on Hima, stating that it was his home no matter what. Upon revealing these details to the party, they try to tell him his life is his own and he could change his ways. However, he states that he will only live for Alice. The group saddened by this, then they realize that though he has done terrible things, Decus should not be viewed as pure evil, which is how they had regarded him for the majority of the game prior.

Saying that this will be their final meeting before going to the Ginnungagap, Decus bids them farewell for now. After he is gone, Lloyd tells Emil that the more you know about the enemy, the harder it is to fight them, even though he himself thinks it is better to do so than fight in ignorance, something he used to do at the beginning of the original story. Toward the end of the story, after his last battle with Alice against Emil and the group, Emil is about to fatally wound Alice when the latter is about to hurt Marta, but at the last moment, Decus protects Alice by taking the full blow of the attack. Just before he dies he says he loves her, and Alice realizes that she loves him back. In the end the two die, lying next to each other while Emil regrets his choice.

Appearance and Personality[]

Decus (ToCE)

Artwork for Tales of Card Evolve.

Decus has kimberly-lavender hair, tied in a ponytail by a gold band, and eyes of the same color. His attire consists of a white coat outlined with black fur, black gloves, boulder pants and black boots. He also wears a gigas-purple belt around his neck like a necktie.

Decus is a simple man who cares little for the current conflict. He also possesses quite an ego and acts as a love-driving fool in front of Alice. In fact, he believes that she deeply loves him too. For instance, when Alice calls him "Dumbo-Decus", he thinks it is a compliment for "Dashing, Undaunting, Majestic, Brilliant, and Oh-so-handsome", until Alice retorts by clarifying that it stands for being plain dumb. Much like Alice, Decus does have a sadistic nature, which is shown when he is seen killing guards in the Temple of Lightning, and again when threatening to kill a researcher.

Fighting Style[]

Decus Sturm und Drang

Cut-in image for Sturm und Drang in Dawn of the New World.

Decus fights with a giant broadsword larger than himself which he carries in an Iron Maiden. His artes are fancy sword maneuvers, while his mystic arte, Sturm und Drang, consists of a series of slashes which spell "LOVE", followed by a massive energy blast, all caused by the destruction of Decus's picture of Alice.

In Tales of the Rays, Decus's movement speed is greatly reduced. To compensate, a unique mechanic is added for him: whenever he is close to Alice he will not stagger from enemy attacks and will take all damage that she would take.

Other Appearances[]

Decus Cut-in (TotR)

Cut-in image for Tales of the Rays.

Tales of the Rays: Last Cradle[]

In Tales of the Rays, Decus works as a spy for Jade Curtiss while he poses as a soldier of the Asgard Empire.

Trivia[]

  • Many of Decus's artes are named after German words. The name of Decus's mystic arte, Sturm und Drang, which roughly translates to "Storm and Stress", is the name of a German literary and musical movement in the 1700s that dealt with extreme emotion in often violent means.


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