Series: Final Fantasy X
Class: Samurai
Alignment: Good
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Age: 80s
Birthdate: Unknown
Height: 6' (182 cm)
Weight: ~190
Short Description: Graying hair, red longcoat, grey pants, heavy boots
A well-built man who stands about six feet tall. His face is weathered and rough, but overall he doesn't look too terribly old. It's just that his whole countenance tells of a man who has been through a lot. In fact, he seems to have lost his right eye, a vertical slash across it telling of a cruel injury inflicted upon him. Between the dark shades and the gray collar that hides his mouth from view, it's hard to see much more of his face.
His hair is black, but is dusted with the silvery gray of age, just at the temples and at his forehead. It's only just spiky enough to give it a feathery appearance, particularly on top. That hair is in a ponytail that reaches to the middle of his back, bound with gold/beige cord.
First noticeable is his dark red haori. The haori has shoulder armor attached on the left side, a burnt brown and beige colored shoulder guard with a single beaded tassel hanging from it. Though his right arm is in the haori normally -- he wears a bracer on this arm -- his left arm is normally left out of it, leaving the garment to fall loose on that side.
The haori is held closed by a wide band around his waist, one that features silver and blue designs at the sides that almost resemble feathered wings. At the front it is secured by two narrow bands of brown leather with silver buckles, and hanging off of the right side is an earthenware jug with a word written on it (those who can read Spiran will read it as "Nog").
Under that he wears a gray leather breastplate with gold-beige piping outlining the muscles underneath. His loose, dark gray pants match the color of his breastplate; two lines of lighter gray run vertically down the legs of his pants. He wears on his feet black, shin-length boots that are criss-crossed with brown leather straps. One set holds a coin-shaped piece of golden metal at the top of the boot. The other set holds a matte gray, metal plate across his tarsals (the area near his ankle).
- Katana: This is not the traditional Japanese katana, though it does bear a passing resemblance, in having a single, curved cutting edge. However, this sword is much larger, more like a western zweihander. Its weight makes it a better choice for cracking open armored foes than a traditional katana, but it also makes for slow strikes.
- Warrior-Monk Training: Before the twisting of the teachings, the warrior-monks of Yevon were an elite force of fighters, both with hand-to-hand techniques and with the sword. Most of Auron's hand-to-hand techniques are grapple and pin moves, techniques that remove leverage from an enemy rather than doing direct damage. This makes them less effective against non-human opponents. He can also track and plot the flow of ki in a human body; he can use this knowledge to either disable a human body or to correct imbalances in that energy (the latter he cannot do in battle, as it requires too much concentration).
- Battle Skills: Battle is not simply about hitting enemies with a sword. Auron can use a number of special skills to even the odds when he is outmatched, or to protect another during battle. While some Auron's skills have been lost to Unification, he retains much of his knowledge. These range from guarding another person, diminishing an enemy's physical and/or mental capabilities, to paralyzing an enemy with fear, to making an enemy unable to heal normally for a short time.
- Overdrive: When his temper flares, when he is injured near the point of collapse, of when experiencing a great deal of mental trauma, Auron can draw upon his qi to access a number of super-powered techniques known as "Overdrives". These techniques are draining on his energy reserves, and thus he cannot use them often, normally only once per battle at most.
- Strength of Will: It may not be, strictly speaking, a super power. But Auron's strength of will and tenacity cannot go unmentioned. Whether walking across half a continent while bleeding out, or keeping his spirit together to keep promises to a friend, Auron can reject even his body's most pressing needs, allowing him to keep going through situations that would push the human body to the limits.
Auron's Theme (Final Fantasy X Remaster OST) - Original composer: Nobuo Uematsu, Remaster: Junya Nakano
Background
Auron lost his parents in a Sin attack when he was very young, and was raised by the Church. He quickly decided that he wanted to join the warrior-monks of Yevon, who had rescued him when he lost his parents. He climbed the ranks quickly, but when offered a high-ranking position that would lead to him becoming a Maester (a high priest, basically), one of the requirements was that he marry the daughter of a high-ranking priest, and he refused. Because of this he became a pariah in the church, and lost much of his rank and prestige. The only one to really stand by him with this loss of favor was Braska, a priest that Auron had known since he was a child. Braska was a bit older than Auron, about five or so years. Braska's continued friendship during Auron's loss of favor with the church prompted a fierce loyalty in Auron.
After Braska's wife died on a ship that was attacked by Sin, Braska decided to become a Summoner. Auron was the first to discourage him, but also the first to offer to be his Guardian -- Guardians are a Summoner's protectors during a Pilgrimage, a journey to all Spira's temples to train mind and body for the Final Aeon. Braska agreed. Before leaving, though, Braska made a visit to the cells underneath the city of Bevelle. There was a man there claiming to be from Zanarkand. Braska offered to take him home, since they were headed that way anyway. In return, the man -- who said his name was Jecht -- was to help keep him safe along the journey. Jecht agreed, if only to get out of the cell.
Auron took an instant dislike to Jecht, who was little more than an arrogant drunk who never took anything seriously. Fights were common, and Braska had to break them up frequently. But all that changed after an incident where Jecht mistook a shoopuf (basically a giant elephant with baleen in its trunk, it's used for transport across large bodies of water) for a monster. He was drunk, and attacked the poor shoopuf, wounding it before Auron or Braska could stop him. The shoopuf handler grew angry, and Braska had to give all the money they'd raised for travel expenses to the handler for damages. After this Jecht started to straighten up, and he and Auron became friends.
By the time the Pilgrimage ended, the three of them were all close friends. Which made it harder when they found out the truth -- that Sin could not be destroyed, only temporarily calmed. And worse, because there WAS no Fayth in the final temple, that one of Braska's Guardians would have to sacrifice his life to become the Fayth (the spirit) of the Final Aeon. It would be te daughter of Yevon himself, an Unsent (spirital-type undead, basically), who would render the Guardian of Braska's choice into a Fayth. Auron begged Braska to reconsider, but Braska wouldn't be swayed, putting his hopes on the slight chance that perhaps this time it would take. Jecht volunteered to be his Fayth.
Auron was devastated, but saw Braska to the Calm Lands (a massive open field where the battle against Sin historically always took place) and when Sin appeared, Braska summoned Jecht as the FInal Aeon. The battle was fierce, but Jecht won. However, just as the Sin fell, something dark floated out of the dispersing beast and into Braska's Final Aeon. And as it did, Jecht turned... and killed Braska. He managed to get control of himself, and fled before he could kill Auron. Auron buried Braska's body and then rushed back to Zanarkand, confronting Yunalesca about what had happened. She was unconcerned, merely putting Braska's and Jecht's sacrifice to "hope". Auron lost his temper and attacked her, but she easily repelled his attack, turning and leaving the room again, leaving him bleeding to death on the temple floor.
Still bleeding, Auron made his way down Mt. Gazaget, the holy mount over which the ruined city of Zanarkand lie. He didn't stop until he got to the Calm Lands; there Rin, an Al Bhed who owned a string of successful Travel Agencies (a network of kiosks and shops set up around Spira to sell items to Summoners and Guardians on their pilgrimage) picked him up. He brought auron to the Travel Agency in the Calm Lands, where Auron received care. However, he rested only a single night before leaving in the morning, before anyone got up. He'd made a promise to both Braska and Jecht. His promise to the former was to take Yuna to Besaid so she could grow up without the stigma of being Braska's daughter.
Despite his injuries, Auron did make it to Bevelle. But he never got inside. Just outside the city his strength deserted him and he collapsed. That might have been the end, but as luck happened, a passing Ronso (big blue cat furry, the males have horns), exiled in shame at the breaking of his horn, saw him fall. Auron, knowing that he was dying, asked the Ronso to take Yuna to Besaid. The Ronso agreed, and Auron died.
But Auron's business wasn't done. He returned as an Unsent, to keep the other promise -- to look after Jecht's son. In his Unsent state he could follow Jecht to HIS Zanarkand (Jecht came from a dream version of Zanarkand, an imaginary utopia based on what Zanarkand looked like before it was destroyed). In this Dream Zanarkand, Auron located Jecht's son Tidus. Without Jecht, Tidus's mother soon died, leaving Auron the sole caretaker of a seven-year-old boy. Ten years later, Sin attacked the dream world. As it turned out, Jecht was inside Sin, and he was trying to bring Tidus to Spira. He did, with Auron's help.
Auron and Tidus got separated for a while, but found each other again in the port city of Luca during a monster attack. Afterwards, both Auron and Tidus joined Yuna, Braska's daughter, who had also become a Summoner. Auron supported the group from afar, but when he noticed how Yuna and Tidus interacted, began subtly pushing the two together emotionally. He hoped that, when it came time to choose a Fayth, that both Tidus would be the only viable choice and that Yuna wouldn't be able to bear losing Tidus. This worked, and once Yuna and the group got to Yunalesca, they defeated her. Which felt REALLY good, after what she'd done to Auron.
The group now had to devise a way to defeat Sin. They realized that the easiest way would be to go inside it, and defeat Yuu Yevon, the controlling force behind it. Doing so also revealed Jecht, whose soul had been controlled by Yevon to create Sin. This was the cycle -- Sin would be defeated by the Final Aeon, and then Yuu Yevon (who existed in a no-long-human, instinctual state) would "possess" the Final Aeon, control it, and turn it into the next Sin. This was why Jecht killed Braska -- Yevon would turn the Final Aeon on its exhausted Summoner and Guardians, and murder them to protect the newly-made Sin.
The souls of all the Aeons needed to be put to rest, leaving Yevon no refuge, before they could face the one-time Maester of Zanarkand from a thousand years ago. His form was that of a bloated magical tick, nothing without the Aeons to hide behind. Yevon was destroyed, and the souls of the Aeons could finally rest. And so could Auron. His business in Spira concluded, he allowed Yuna's Sending of the Aeon's souls (Sending is the process by which a soul that does not or cannot move on to the next life is enabled to do so) to also Send him to the Farplane (the realm of the dead).
He expected to stay dead. But...suddenly he wasn't. When the Farplane passed close to NeoTokyo, Jecht called to Auron on the Farplane, and gave him form again (Jecht's a Fayth, there's evidence the Fayth are able to do that). He pointed out the world of NeoTokyo and asked Auron to look at it. When he did, Jecht did the spiritual equivalent of booting him in the rear. It had the effect of kicking him out of the Farplane, and into NeoTokyo. As a living human.
Personality
Auron has undergone a big change from the young man he used to be. In his youth, he was an arrogant, conceited, petty, temperamental young man. Even childish at times. He gave Jecht no end of hell, something he regrets now that Jecht's dead. Yet, in the end, Auron's constant badgering eventually got the older Guardian to straighten up and take things seriously. In Auron's older years, the arrogance and vanity has been stripped away from him. Though he does have his petty moments. And even though he hides it behind an impassive, composed mask, he still has that temper. He's learned by now, though, that going off half-cocked to "fix" things alone only leads to one's downfall.
When others first meet Auron now, the outward appearance is one of a stoic, tactiturn old man. The astute might see a man who's been through Hell, much like any veteran of war, no matter what world one is from. And a lot of non-verbal communication. If one stays around long enough to annoy him, one will note another prominent feature of his personality -- snark and bitterness by the bucketload.
But it might be noted that, in-between bouts of snark, he generally does have something important to say. Despite only having one eye, he can generally read people pretty well, too. He can usually figure out just what an ally needs to hear -- or what an enemy DOESN'T want to hear -- and respond in kind. Whether that's with encouragement for a sensitive heart, snarky reverse psychology for a cocky young ally, or a rousing speech in times of fear or low morale.
More than that, his coarse demeanor and words are a way to get through to someone who may not be listening, or paying attention to what's around him or her, to see through to the crux of a situation which he or she is about to make a mistake in. Auron's sharp manner is designed to lay bare the truth of the situation for another, often with brutal honesty. Sometimes this verbal slap is exactly what a person needs to snap out of whatever has befallen him or her.
That is... when he can be coaxed to say something. Generally people will see the mask of the bitter old man, hear him lob his snark, and not want to look deeper. As is usually the case with such people, this is a defense mechanism. But then again, if you let Auron tell it, there's not much left of him. There is, but he doesn't want to find it. He can only associate his younger self with a helpless, hopeless, useless man, despite the admiration he once got in Spira.
As one might imagine, Auron is suspicious of organized religion. Interestingly enough, even though he has lost faith in at least his own former religion, he still maintains a strict dislike of excessive behaviors. Particularly drinking to excess, since he remembers how horrible Jecht was while he was drinking. But by the same token, he doesn't feel he has the right to tell anyone else what to do -- he couldn't even keep HIMSELF alive, after all; what right does he have to tell others how to live?
