Character name: Sync the Tempest Character canon: Tales of the Abyss Canon point: After his death on Eldrant Physical Description: Fan art picture because the only official art in that uniform I can find is the anime art and no. Sync is about 5' purge all wiki ideas and physically appears around 15.
About the Character: Bullet point timeline, GO.
Sync was created, not born, as the fifth of seven replicas of the Fon Master. Despite looking around twelve years of age, and being programmed to already know how to walk, talk, eat, basics, replicas are like babies at birth and know nothing aside from what they're programmed with.
You know what five of seven means? He wasn't good enough. Requiring a replica that had at least the ability to use the Seventh fonon at the same level as the original Ion, each one was tested. Out of all seven, Sync's abilities were the worst, despite also being the most physically capable (original Ion was weakened due to illness; Sync was one of the only replicas to not inherit this). He was regarded as trash, to be thrown away.
Quite literally. Grand Maestro Mohs ordered the leftover replicas to be left at the Mount Zaleho volcano. The staff, apparently being assholes, took this further and literally shoved them into the volcano itself. He survived somehow, hiding under a rock first chance he got.
Van Grants, one of the others involved in the creating of the replicas, came out to the volcano. Why, who knows? But he found and called out to the fifth, impressed with the physical abilities displayed. Van offered him a choice, to go or to stay. In a decision he came to regret immensely, he chose to go. At this point, Van officially named him Sync.
He was taken to a place just outside of Daath, and given a mask to hide his face, given he was identical to the Fon Master. Here, Van trained Sync to be a tool for his own purpose, making him learn to fight, to analyse, to calculate and assess. Sync was smart and progressed at a rapid rate.
At the same time he was learning that while he was 'free' as Van said, he was also only alive to be used. This gave rise to self-destructive tendencies, making him borderline suicidal. Van refused to let go of him however, making it clear that the only time Sync would be allowed to die was when Van had no further use for him.
Eventually he was integrated into the Order of Lorelei, becoming one of the six God-Generals, Van's direct subordinates, along with becoming Chief of Staff thanks to his tactical abilities. By the time that canon begins, he's been alive for a mere two years, though Auldrant's years are over 700 days long, so by Earth terms he's slightly older.
As the game starts, he is one of the chief antagonists, though is also one of the less seen ones. He helps with the plan to kidnap Fon Master Ion (in truth the seventh Ion replica) in order to take him around unsealing the Sephiroth, something only Ion could do.
Sync is briefly encountered in Choral Castle when Asch the Bloody, one of the other God-Generals, had Luke kidnapped and brought to the replica machine present there to have his fon slots opened (Luke, unknowingly at the time, was a replica of Asch). Sync helps the resident tech genius of the generals, Dist the Reaper, with this task, before being briefly unmasked by Guy Cecil. Guy is thus the first to begin to suspect was Sync is, but the Tempest doesn't stick around for the others to see, retreating soon after getting his mask back on.
His first major encounter with the main party is in the Zao Ruins when they come to rescue Ion. Sync and one of his allies, Largo the Black Lion, team up to take them on, though are defeated. However with the Sephiroth unsealed, Sync called Asch back, and offered the party a deal: take Ion, but leave now, or else everyone present got to get buried under the sand. They take it.
The next time he's encountered is also brief, but during this point, he also gets a curse slot on Guy. For some time after, Sync uses this to turn Guy on his allies, Luke in particular, before it is eventually removed by Ion.
Given the main party had thoroughly messed with Van's plan at this point, Sync's next mission was also likely to be his last. A suicide mission, to hide on the Tartarus (a landship) as it dove into the core of the planet; his mission to stop the main party from returning. Despite his best efforts, they defeat him, and it's revealed not only that Ion was a replica, but that Sync was the same. Ion offers a hand of friendship to his fellow, but it is rejected, and Sync backs off, allowing himself to fall off the Tartarus and into the core, believing himself finally having a chance to die.
Van gets fought later on, also falls into the core, absorbs the sentience of the Seventh fonon, Lorelei, and finds Sync there. Since he still has work for the replica, he picks him up, returning to the surface with him. Sync is not overly pleased but doesn't say anything about it.
Van's plan comes to light then – in order to destroy Lorelei and abolish the Score, the planet's memory that tells the future and predicted that one day everyone would die to plague, Van planned to replicate the entire planet and everyone on it, as replicas weren't bound by the Score. As Score readings at this point had been abolished, Sync was tasked with going around giving fake readings to the desperate people, as a ploy to actually extract their replica data. The main party encounters him doing this, but is unable to do anything about it due to civilians being in the way.
Eventually, the device that would allow Van's vision to come about, Eldrant, rose into the sky. Sync remained on it as the main party worked to get up there, eventually gaining access as Eldrant crashed into the ground, an entrance formed thanks to the work of Asch, who turned traitor awhile ago. The main party took their time, but eventually got past various obstacles, before getting to where Sync waited. As the penultimate boss of the game, he was the last thing in their way before they could truly stop Van. They fought one last time, and Sync was finally defeated, disappearing in a cloud of fonons.
One important fact to mention before going into Sync's personality is that when replicas are born, they're total blank slates. In a way, they don't even have basic instincts, though they learn them fast by copying what those around them do. However when created, replicas can be programmed to have some basic motor skills such as walking, talking, eating, etc. Sync is one of these replicas. The problem with the programming is that in exchange for being born with these skills, development in other areas will be stunted, making it harder to learn. In Sync's case, he has severe trouble understanding emotion, especially positive emotions. As a result, it shows through in his personality and (in)ability to handle ordinary people.
Perhaps the very first thing to understand about Sync is the sheer amount of hatred he has for the simple fact that he was born. He views himself as trash, a failure of a replica, and has a fair amount of self-loathing going on. He doesn't display it as such, viewing it less of something that his emotions make him feel and more of just a fact: he was born to be a replacement, he was deemed unworthy, and was tossed away. As a result, the mere fact that he was born is something that he hates. More than once in his life he's contemplated ending his existence, but never has to come to anything. Regardless, it is one of the defining points of his character. As a result, he also hates the Score for being the reason he was born. If it hadn't dictated that the Fon Master would die, he wouldn't have been born. It's why he goes along with the plan to destroy it and Lorelei, not caring about the fact it would also destroy the world.
Sync views himself as empty, and in way isn't entirely wrong. While normal people (or successful replicas) go through life as you'd expect, Sync spent most of his short life training and be used as a tool for Van Grants. He was very aware of this fact, and in all honesty doesn't really mind it. It gives him some sense of purpose, a feeling of being useful in some way. It makes his life easier to bear. Regardless, that kind of upbringing has resulted in him being very much unattached to everything and everyone. The idea of friendship, of caring for someone or something, to have a reason to actually live, is foreign to him. People who act normally are confusing. As a result, he tends to really not give a damn about a lot of things, particularly other's opinions.
It makes him dangerous as an opponent, as he's not afraid to fight with everything he has, to give up his life, as it doesn't mean much anyway if he loses. If he loses the fight, he's clearly not useful anymore, and should just die anyway if the fight didn't kill him. It's that reason that he lets himself fall from the Tartarus when he loses to the party in the core. He doesn't need the party's pity, seeing that kind of life as worthless and pathetic.
Despite this, it's also true that if he was going to die, he'd rather it be on his terms. It's why he fights so hard, because dying to some pathetic excuse for a person is not exactly okay by him. If he's going to die from a fight, then that person had better put everything they have into it. Heaven help he ever gets killed by something managing to catch him off guard or sneaking up on him. It'd just make him hate himself even more.
Two words that describe Sync very well are ruthless and sadistic. Ruthless in that he is not one to care about what happens to those that aren't important to Van's plans, ruthless in that he will destroy anyone in his path without stopping or hesitating. If there is one thing he definitely is, it's an effective weapon. Sadistic in that he's not beyond doing whatever it takes to achieve what he plans. When Anise tries to stop him from taking people to get their Score read (and quite possibly dying), he's not above changing his voice, raising it to sound identical to the replica Ion, whom Anise was quite close to, despite the fact that Ion had just recently died. He knows damn well it'll hurt her, and frankly he doesn't care. In fact, if anything it simply amuses him that it's so easy to get by her.
Sync doesn't have a temper as such. It is kind of hard to anger someone who really doesn't give a damn about what you think. But he does have a few things that can make him mad (put in the right way, sometimes they'll just amuse him), namely pretty much anything that attempts to validate his existence, or claim he's actually worth something, or knows more about the whole existing thing than he does. Ignoring him in a way that says he's being underestimated can also do it. His temper doesn't tend to boil up to exploding point like a normal person's; instead it usually flips to mildly annoyed at best to pissed off to high hell and likely about to punch someone in face if he isn't already. Given his age, it's almost like a temper tantrum, except that his are lethal and can very easily be fatal.
no subject
Character name: Sync the Tempest
Character canon: Tales of the Abyss
Canon point: After his death on Eldrant
Physical Description: Fan art picture because the only official art in that uniform I can find is the anime art and no. Sync is about 5'
purge all wiki ideasand physically appears around 15.About the Character: Bullet point timeline, GO.
One important fact to mention before going into Sync's personality is that when replicas are born, they're total blank slates. In a way, they don't even have basic instincts, though they learn them fast by copying what those around them do. However when created, replicas can be programmed to have some basic motor skills such as walking, talking, eating, etc. Sync is one of these replicas. The problem with the programming is that in exchange for being born with these skills, development in other areas will be stunted, making it harder to learn. In Sync's case, he has severe trouble understanding emotion, especially positive emotions. As a result, it shows through in his personality and (in)ability to handle ordinary people.
Perhaps the very first thing to understand about Sync is the sheer amount of hatred he has for the simple fact that he was born. He views himself as trash, a failure of a replica, and has a fair amount of self-loathing going on. He doesn't display it as such, viewing it less of something that his emotions make him feel and more of just a fact: he was born to be a replacement, he was deemed unworthy, and was tossed away. As a result, the mere fact that he was born is something that he hates. More than once in his life he's contemplated ending his existence, but never has to come to anything. Regardless, it is one of the defining points of his character. As a result, he also hates the Score for being the reason he was born. If it hadn't dictated that the Fon Master would die, he wouldn't have been born. It's why he goes along with the plan to destroy it and Lorelei, not caring about the fact it would also destroy the world.
Sync views himself as empty, and in way isn't entirely wrong. While normal people (or successful replicas) go through life as you'd expect, Sync spent most of his short life training and be used as a tool for Van Grants. He was very aware of this fact, and in all honesty doesn't really mind it. It gives him some sense of purpose, a feeling of being useful in some way. It makes his life easier to bear. Regardless, that kind of upbringing has resulted in him being very much unattached to everything and everyone. The idea of friendship, of caring for someone or something, to have a reason to actually live, is foreign to him. People who act normally are confusing. As a result, he tends to really not give a damn about a lot of things, particularly other's opinions.
It makes him dangerous as an opponent, as he's not afraid to fight with everything he has, to give up his life, as it doesn't mean much anyway if he loses. If he loses the fight, he's clearly not useful anymore, and should just die anyway if the fight didn't kill him. It's that reason that he lets himself fall from the Tartarus when he loses to the party in the core. He doesn't need the party's pity, seeing that kind of life as worthless and pathetic.
Despite this, it's also true that if he was going to die, he'd rather it be on his terms. It's why he fights so hard, because dying to some pathetic excuse for a person is not exactly okay by him. If he's going to die from a fight, then that person had better put everything they have into it. Heaven help he ever gets killed by something managing to catch him off guard or sneaking up on him. It'd just make him hate himself even more.
Two words that describe Sync very well are ruthless and sadistic. Ruthless in that he is not one to care about what happens to those that aren't important to Van's plans, ruthless in that he will destroy anyone in his path without stopping or hesitating. If there is one thing he definitely is, it's an effective weapon. Sadistic in that he's not beyond doing whatever it takes to achieve what he plans. When Anise tries to stop him from taking people to get their Score read (and quite possibly dying), he's not above changing his voice, raising it to sound identical to the replica Ion, whom Anise was quite close to, despite the fact that Ion had just recently died. He knows damn well it'll hurt her, and frankly he doesn't care. In fact, if anything it simply amuses him that it's so easy to get by her.
Sync doesn't have a temper as such. It is kind of hard to anger someone who really doesn't give a damn about what you think. But he does have a few things that can make him mad (put in the right way, sometimes they'll just amuse him), namely pretty much anything that attempts to validate his existence, or claim he's actually worth something, or knows more about the whole existing thing than he does. Ignoring him in a way that says he's being underestimated can also do it. His temper doesn't tend to boil up to exploding point like a normal person's; instead it usually flips to mildly annoyed at best to pissed off to high hell and likely about to punch someone in face if he isn't already. Given his age, it's almost like a temper tantrum, except that his are lethal and can very easily be fatal.