Spoiler Possible giant black plothole.

[Brother PaciFist]

Hello,

here a little detail i found while completing the game. It is like an elephant in the room.

Plot heldalf becomes the lord of calamity because of the curse of solitude exshephard Michael puts on him. Curse of solitude: You can not talk, see, interact with people. All his babies are born hellion. All his loved ones die, he is cursed to live forever alone.

Heldalf becomes Lord of Calamity. He now is able to order his subordinates around like that lolli girl, the Knight lady Maltran, diverse Seraphim like the elder seraphim, the fox, the light dragon Maotelus. He interacts without problems with the whole land and makes everyones life miserable. He talks without problems to Zorey and party on several occassions. All while under the curse of solitude.

Story writing at its best.

Good game, but hey invest some brain power in your stories please, dear developer.

[Curious Fox]

where exactly does it say he can't talk, see, interact with anyone?

[Simon]

Originally posted by Curious Fox:

where exactly does it say he can't talk, see, interact with anyone?

In the anime, Tales of Zestiria the X.

Just forget everything about the explanations from the anime, the anime is not canon to the game's storyline. The game never explained further about the curse, so it is not really a plot hole.
By the way, the anime came out AFTER the game's release. Also, the story of the anime is written by the people from the anime studio, UFOTABLE. Not the game developers.

[Brother PaciFist]

Hello

It is not in the anime. The story about the curse is explained in the historia crystals you collect in the world. Curse of Solitude. He can not die, no one can interact with him, his family dies away. In some part of the story the timeperiod of the curse was messed up a little i think. One time it is 400 years then it is 20 years. 20 years of solitude does not seem to be enough to build up that massive malevolence i think. It seems strange. And why is the dragon guardian of Zesteria allied with him, connected to him. Wasnt he a good guy? Guardian and all. The Seraphim do not talk bad about him at all. Does not add up with the story of the Silver Dragon we see in Tales of Berseria. It seems strange that a newly born hellion like Helldalf can just overpower one of the most powerful psychic individuals in the Zestiria world.

But okay you are right, the effect of the curse is not explained in detail. It could be that only people Helldalf cares about are effected. That would make sense. If he could not interact with people he does not care about, it would be not that much of a problem. His whole family dying, his children been born as Hellion could effect the wellbeing of a human being. But still not enough to become literally the Avatar of Evil.
Thanks.

[kart0shkah]

The subordinates are enamored and devoted to him, but I believe they're acting of their own free will. They're also not exactly having tea parties together. They go off doing their thing in his name but you don't really see them hanging out more than briefly. In fact, I think they're only collaborating now after being separate for decades so for the majority of the time he's been a lone wolf, as per the curse.

[Brother PaciFist]

He plots and orders around his minions all the time in the background. All the wars did not start themselves. He has several minions. The bishop lady gorgonne, the knight lady in the city of lakes, the hellion fox in the assassins troupe, his young seraphim/hellion lady. He talks 2 times at length to the MC.

Heldalf was a human before turning hellion. 20 years before the events of the game. Curse of Solitude -> not being able to interact with anyone as explained in the history crystals. Communicating with other Hellions would be a violation of the curse. He did know the latest shephard though. It might be that the shephard and other seraphim told him the secrets of the binding ritual, to bind Maotellus to his will. But the whole plotting, talking contradicts the curse. It might be that the binding to Maoetellus lifted a little bit. In other victims curses were followed in detail. Like the gorgone cleric women, or the Minotaur guardian. Only heldalf is the exception. If you can still talk to other people it is just not a curse of solitude, the whole reason for becoming hellion was the severity of the curse. They devoted all those historia crystal only for that detail. It is like complete anticlimax at that point.

But in the end our Main Character kills him by severing the bind to Maotellus and then goes on the purge the Malevolence in Maotellus for the next decades. Then he is reborn as seraphim himself after decades. Last scene.

[Brigadeos]

What really bugs me about the story in this game, is that michael puts the curse on heldalf because he didnt defend his home instead of cursing the freaking soldiers or commander that attacked a civilian town. For me that doesnt make sense and i see it as a childish response from the sheperd.

[Brother PaciFist]

It is not a very shephardy way of doing things yes^^. Lets fight for the sake of my family. Oh no, better sacrifice the child of my sister to punish the Man responsible for the crime. And both his sister and the child were still living at that time. But that michael guy did not even try to defend them. Just rolls over and dies together with them and using a cowardly curse to punish the evil doer.

He was a shephard at a time. As shephard he had to do the trials of strength, courage, valour did he not? Or just anyone can become shephard in that world. The job requirements seem to be very low. You can see Seraphims, Shephard you are now. Have fun.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Brother PaciFist:

You can see Seraphims, Shephard you are now. Have fun.

That seems to be the case.
By the way, Michael's action to sacrifice his child is very similar to what Artorius did. Although their motives are different, they did sacrificed someone who is close to them to achieve something.

[Brother PaciFist]

Originally posted by Simon:

Originally posted by Brother PaciFist:

...

That seems to be the case.
By the way, Michael's action to sacrifice his child is very similar to what Artorius did. Although their motives are different, they did sacrificed someone who is close to them to achieve something.

No the motivation is totally different. Artorius sacrificed Laphicet to end the circle of suffering for all human beings. Laphicet was not forced to do anything. Laphicet was reborn. The sacrifice was only a small step. He would have died of the 12 years sickness anyway.

Michael wanted to make Heldalf suffer, he sacrificed his niece/child to not only make live a living hell for one person. As shephard he knows that such suffering leads to strong Malevolence buildup. So he must have known of the wider consequences of his deed. More malevolence more suffering, more suffering more negative energy. endless cycle.

He acted directly opposed to the principles of those shephard guys. That was something like trying to make a coexistence between Seraphim and Humans possible.

It is not important that the two deeds are similar. The motivation and consequences of any action is.

You could kill someone to achieve something. Or you could just work hard to achieve something. In your logic both are similar. No not at all.

[kart0shkah]

Originally posted by Brigadeos:

What really bugs me about the story in this game, is that michael puts the curse on heldalf because he didnt defend his home instead of cursing the freaking soldiers or commander that attacked a civilian town. For me that doesnt make sense and i see it as a childish response from the sheperd.

I think that's kind of the point. They wanted to show that unforgiveness and lust for revenge can blind even the most pious individual. It corrupted him to the point he wasn't thinking logically.

[kart0shkah]

Originally posted by Brother PaciFist:

He plots and orders around his minions all the time in the background. All the wars did not start themselves. He has several minions. The bishop lady gorgonne, the knight lady in the city of lakes, the hellion fox in the assassins troupe, his young seraphim/hellion lady. He talks 2 times at length to the MC.

Heldalf was a human before turning hellion. 20 years before the events of the game. Curse of Solitude -> not being able to interact with anyone as explained in the history crystals. Communicating with other Hellions would be a violation of the curse. He did know the latest shephard though. It might be that the shephard and other seraphim told him the secrets of the binding ritual, to bind Maotellus to his will. But the whole plotting, talking contradicts the curse. It might be that the binding to Maoetellus lifted a little bit. In other victims curses were followed in detail. Like the gorgone cleric women, or the Minotaur guardian. Only heldalf is the exception. If you can still talk to other people it is just not a curse of solitude, the whole reason for becoming hellion was the severity of the curse. They devoted all those historia crystal only for that detail. It is like complete anticlimax at that point.

But in the end our Main Character kills him by severing the bind to Maotellus and then goes on the purge the Malevolence in Maotellus for the next decades. Then he is reborn as seraphim himself after decades. Last scene.

The wars started because humans let malevolence into their hearts. Also, Sorey became a catalyst in his involvement.

I also think that the loneliness isn't literal but rather symbolic for "you'll be surrounded by other damaged individuals who want to help you destroy the world but you'll never have camraderie and true friendship". Compare his relationship to the way Sorey and his group joke around, support one another, eat meals together, etc. In comparison it makes Helfalf's existence very sad and lonely, indeed.

[Brother PaciFist]

No, it is ment literal. It is a magic spell, a ritual, a curse that was placed on heldalf. The historia crystals show it in every detail. His family member die, he has only hellion offspring, all people start to ignore him, he is alone, he is immortal, can not kill himself. Why would they bother to show us all those details if it has no meaning. Why would show fake historia memories, when retrieving those crystals is the main goal for 1/2 of the game. That would make even less sense out of story telling perspective.

You have to endure quite a lot of emotional pain to become Lord of Calamity. E.g. Velvet. To feel alone and sad is not enough.

Magic spells, curses follow certain rules, we learned in the world of Zestiria. Those stone reliefs mentioned some of those rules. That curse of solitude let to the creating of the lord of calamity. If those rituals folllow no rules the whole magic story is for nothing. Then you could just stop telling a story at all. Anything can happen at anytime.

Story breaks at 2 points. The curse of solitude of heldalf and the actions of Michael, that do not reflect Shepard behaviour in any way. His sister/wife child/niece was still alive when he casts the ritual. Revenge would only make sense to me if they are dead. But he does not even try to save them. He just turns into the fire, places the baby on the altar and starts the sacrifice.

Just bananas.

[Brother PaciFist]

You are right.

If you take the historia super literal you could say: Curse of Solitude only effects people Heldalf likes. His family close one. If he starts to care about someone the curse prevents interaction with those people. Then it makes sense. So he is doomed to only interact with people he does not like, hate, does not care about. That is a kind of living hell too.

The sacrifice makes sense if Michael was corrupted before the events. Or breaks at the sight of his dream shattering. He wanted for Seraphim and Humans to coexist. When Heldalf destroys the dream, he just snaps.

He was no Shephard before the events anymore. Something happened before. Perhaps like you mentioned he did not manage one of the trials. Or he just retired from the office.

Then the story goes nicely down. Thanks for the help to understand it better.

The only mystery for me is who placed the historia crystals in the world. In Tales of Berseria, the crystals just materialize like a natural cause. And then are found by people. So it was Maotellus, the Lord of the Land/whole continent. As a kind of emergency measure. Or perhaps the whole events were planned all along.

Have fun.

[gamer]

In family oriented movies,books cartoons, and comic, bad guys are often misunderstood lonely people who do awful things because they feel lonesome. Based on this logic, eventhoough helion heldalf is able to talk to people, he is still empty inside.