Backstory

[divine_cannon]

A note before I start this…
Though most Tales games give rich histories of the characters, Vesperia did not. All that is known about Raven is that he was a commoner who rose through the ranks of the Imperial Knights. As Schwann, he earned the title First Captain as well as legendary status for being one of the few survivors of the Great War that occurred 10 years prior to the game. Though, that isn’t entirely true—he was killed in the war and brought back from the dead by Commandant Alexei who implanted a blastia (a type of magical stone that is controlled with formulas) into his chest to serve as a false heart. Oddly enough, he prefers to live amongst the guilds as Raven and seems to only follow Alexei’s orders because he is certain that the Commandant would kill him by shutting down the blastia that keeps him alive.

A small side quest reveals that during the Great War Era he and an arms dealer named Yeager were in love with the same woman, Casey. Nothing is told about Casey beyond that she fought with a bow, served in the knights and died at Mount Temza during the war.

Thus, I made 90% of the history involving Schwann and Casey up…because I think it’s important for characters to have a back-story. The direction I took that may not be the accepted ‘fanon’ but I think it works. ^__^


Schwann Oltorain was born to a 16 year old scullery maid and fathered by the nobleman she served. His father cast his mother out of his household and she returned to the Lower Quarter, the slummiest, most crime ridden area of the Imperial Capital, Zaphias. The knights and the rest of the Empire often ignored the residents and their needs there; many die of easily curable diseases and hunger.

When he was 13, his mother died of illness and he was left to fend for himself. Seeing no other alternative, he enlisted in the knights, hoping to bring equality and help for those in the Lower Quarter. Though only a commoner, his talents with combat, leadership and strategy caught the eye of the ranking officers and he was placed in officer training.

Many of the other cadets treated him badly since officer training was often reserved for only the most well-connected families in the nobility. One of the officer cadets became his friend and eventually his lover. Though she called herself Casey Dalvist, he found out that she was actually Casey Whitehorse, daughter of the Guild Union Boss, a sworn enemy of the empire. Upon learning this, he initially thought she was a spy, but she explained she was only following the tenets of her father's guild—to do what one believes is right, and she wanted to be a knight.

Their romance survived three years in training and a year apart while sent to different areas of the world. When he was nearly twenty, he proposed marriage to her but she refused, telling him that the guilds did not believe in marriage as the Empire dictated it. Instead, they wed themselves using her traditions by cutting an "x" into their upper arms, exchanging words of devotion and the knives used in the ritual.

About eighteen-months later, Casey's brigade was ambushed and she was assumed to have been killed in the battle, though her body was never found. Upon learning this, Schwann took it upon himself to venture to Dahngrest, the guild city, to find her father and tell him of her fate.

Upon arriving in Dahngrest he was arrested and put in prison. Eventually Don Whitehorse came to see him and to Schwann's surprise he learned that Casey wasn't dead. She had asked her father to get her out of the knights for reasons the Don didn't, or wouldn't, tell him. Just before dawn, Casey visited him in the cell but refused to allow him to see her face. Keeping him pinned to the wall, she told him it was over, to forget about her and to go live his life. Then she gave him his knife back and took hers back from him.

Heartbroken and full of questions, Schwann threw himself into his work and became the youngest man ever to make Captain. When he was 25, the Great War broke out and his brigade was stationed on Mount Temza, one of the largest battlegrounds in the conflict. It was just as he expected war to be—bloody, horrible, soul-consuming--until Casey walked back into his life.

Now guild-married to an arms dealer named Yeager, she decided to return to the knights to assist in the war to protect those she loved and to be near her husband. In the weeks that followed, Schwann learned she left the knights because she had a child by another man; not him nor Yeager. [In reality, the boy is Schwann's and she didn't want him to give up his self-appointed mission to fix the corruption of the empire from within. Schwann never learns this, though]

Knowing their history and hoping to kindle favor with Don Whitehorse, Commandant Alexei sent the two of them to Dahngrest to request aid from the guilds. During the journey, they began an affair that they carried on behind Yeager's back. It is on this voyage that he gained his guild-persona; she taught him how to dress and how to speak. Casey also insisted that he tie his hair up because, "No self-respecting guildsman asks the Don for a favor with his hair in his face." In order to complete the disguise, she put her knife back on his belt and gave him a name to use while in Dahngrest—Raven.

After enlisting the aid of the guilds, they returned to Mt. Temza to learn that Yeager had died in a recent battle. Faced with the reality that she may not survive this war and still wanting to fight, she had Schwann promise her that if she perished, he would go to Dahngrest and care for her son. He readily swore this to her with the words, "As long as I live no harm will come to your child."

Unfortunately, Schwann was made to pay up on that promise. Casey died, falling into a pit of fire on the battleground. He had held her hand, desperately trying to pull her up, but he was stabbed in the back, directly to the heart, and let her go. In that moment he died, but his life was not over.

Alexei, wanting nothing more that an army of incredibly powerful and loyal soldiers, brought his First Captain back to life by implanting a Hermes Blastia in the space where his heart had been. Upon waking from death, Schwann convinced Alexei to let him spy on the guilds and left immediately for Dahngrest.

In the ten years that followed, Raven kept his promise and cared for Casey's son, Harry. He also became Don Whitehorse's right hand man and closest confidant. Though the Don was aware of his life as Schwann, he never once questioned Raven's loyality. At times Raven would disappear and turn himself back into Schwann to take care of business within the Empire, but he never revealed any guild secrets, no matter how much Alexei pushed him for information.