About
Rudd is the older mentor, similar to Auron in Final Fantasy X, or Snow in Final Fantasy XIII and is the moral/sensible compass of the team. The character excels in physical offense and defense but may also be developed magically as well - although it will be harder for the player, it will serve as a great pay off due to the character's back story.

Final Design

Inspiration

I looked at "older male characters with a dark secret" for my inspiration for Rudd. The most obvious inspiration was Final Fantasy X's Auron, with his hidden past and enigmatic present. However, I had to be careful to not have too many similarities, as I wanted Rudd to be his own distinct character. I wanted to make sure Rudd looked rough around the edges, adding to his sense of mystery and he fact he is a lot older than he appears.

Designs
His designs will be here and the process of developing his designs.

Backstory
Rudd, as the player and characters will find out 2/3s through the game, is actually the last of the original warriors of the light. When Chaos unleashed devastation upon the World, he fled with the Earth orb and using its power, put himself into hibernation only to be awakened when Chaos had reached his full power 1000 years later - coincidentally the same time that the other orbs were reunited with the descendants.

Personality
Rudd is the stoic character of the group. Very serious and aware of his task, Rudd is focused solely on the mission, causing some clashes with the flighty Storme. He is also very secretive and does not like to reveal his past to the other characters - it is only when Chaos recognises him and reveals his secret that he fully explains everything.

Having been dormant for the last 400 years, Rudd is slightly clueless as to the current state of the world - something he tries very hard to hide. Rudd is very careful about keeping on track and trying to maintain a sense of leadership over the unruly group; something that is very difficult around Lockus, Storme and Myrren.

Abilities
Rudd has used up the most of his magic power keeping himself in his hibernation state, thus he is far more powerful offensive and defensively. However, towards the end of the game, the character will be able to slowly develop Rudd's magic ability which has the potential to far excel the other characters if the player chooses to develop it.

Story Beginning
Rudd travels to Coneria to locate the other warriors of the light. He disguises himself and steals in order to be thrown in jail where he knows the other characters will end up due to Galland's search for the orbs.

Explanation
In the majority of the previous games in the franchise which have received praise for being character driven, there is always one character with a twist in their backstory concerning their true identity, a big theme in the previous games. This project uses that twist and expands on it by having one character introduced very early on in the game (in the opening cutscene) turning out to be a playable character that you have controlled throughout the whole game. As the original game uses time travel as a major plot point, it would not be a stretch to use it as part of a character's backstory.

Rudd was chosen as this character primarily because of his personality and abilities. Both of these were to reflect on his backstory (his ability potential and his serious personality,) in order to reveal small clues to the observant player. Therefore, when the revelation comes, aspects of his character will make sense and be explained, tying together the character and story.

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