Esper Senne

Esper Senne is a major character who will appear in Path of Lightning.

Appearance and Personality
Esper appears as a handsome young man with somewhat short, messy, jet-black hair and piercing green eyes. Often he is dressed in armor well-suited for his profession--black or dark brown studded leather, so as to be light and flexible and enabling full mobility. Typically he carries his weapons at his belt at all times, along with several other necessities for the traveling rogue. He often employs a cloak with a hood and facemask to conceal his identity quickly and easily when the need arises. He has two tattoos on the outside of his biceps (often concealed by his armor), which he obtained as an initiation for a guild he previously worked for.

Esper is highly cynical and mistrusting of others, quite unlike the helpful and sympathetic Satoshi Kura. When meeting anyone for the first time, his speech is carefully guarded and, if dealing with someone he dislikes, often has a hint of deception in it. Otherwise, he remains quiet, thoughtful, and reserved, only offering advice when he deems necessary or directly asked for it. He is an expert at diplomacy, often able to settle many conflicts with words rather than steel. That said, however, he is a master at swordplay, having honed his accuracy and speed for many years. While he can hold his own when outnumbered and by himself, he has a special talent for winning duels one-on-one, knowing nearly every trick for breaking through an opponent's defense.

Relationship With Other Characters
Esper initially dislikes Satoshi for his bluster and naivety, but depending on the outcome of several storyline events, can eventually foster a friendship with him, viewing him much the same as he might a younger brother.

Esper gets along well enough with Rena, eventually developing a sense of protectiveness over.

Esper loathes Ross for his mental instability and crudeness as well as his violent tendencies to take lives without apparent reason, though when he learns of the Fuirseoir's existence, he begins to become somewhat sympathic to Ross and shift his loathing to those entities.

Though Esper initially respects Wilheim for his tact and gentle disposition, once he learns of his true intentions, those feelings are completely inverted and he grows to despise Wilheim with a vengeful fury, partly stemming from his abuse of Rena and partly from his sheer traitorous disposition to everyone who had ever trusted him.

Esper views Hitoshi much the same as he might a disobedient gerbil--that is to say, sheerly for annoyance and the odd bit of amusement. Hitoshi's patronizing disposition toward women irks him considerably, though he manages to hide it for the most part.

Esper initially respects Ghadin sheerly out of fear of being on the receiving end of his powers, but eventually grows to despise him for his callous treatment of his daughter, Rena. Even so, he tries to help Ghadin make amends, though he doesn't meet with much success for quite some time

Early Life
Esper Senne was born to a middle-class family in the secluded mountain village of Cheus, native to his own dimension. Though his community primarily survived off of their agriculture growing medicinal herbs well-suited for the mountain soil, education was readily available for those who sought to pursue it, which Esper did with fervent dedication. His father died as a casualty of war when he was six years old, and he and his mother struggled to live as the cities and provinces in the plains below the mountains began to descend into conflict. Esper excelled in nearly all academic fields, but he developed a passion for ancient lore, texts documenting diplomatic strategies, and practical applications for cryomancy--ice magic. In his early teens he began to develop a persistent case of sticky fingers, and while a lousy pickpocket at first, his skills began to hone until he could relieve the average passersby of their spare change rather readily. While his mother tried to encourage him not to steal, he insisted that he only took from those who could spare it--a philosophy he has always since adhered to.

By the time he was seventeen years of age he decided to seek his fortune outside Cheus in the city of Lithius, the largest trading hub in the lower plains. Though his journey to the city was largely uneventful, within a week of arriving in the city he discovered that many other thieves infested the city and were far less merciful than he, taking freely from any foolish enough to carry coins with them down a dark alley. Though he tried to remain inconspicuous, one of the local guilds eventually took notice of Esper's activity and he was subsequently captured. They left him with a choice--work for the guild and give them half of his plunder, or see how long he could survive the rack. Ever the practical, Esper submitted to their first offer, but vowed to wreak vengeance on them--not just for their transgressions against him, but their abuse of the poor, people who truly needed what they had.

Before long, Esper climbed the ranks of the guild and eventually became a trusted pickpocket by the guildmaster, contributing to a significant portion of the overall income. Eventually, the guildmaster requested a new task of Esper--one of tortuous interrogation of a suspected traitor. Though he outwardly gladly accepted the task, he chose instead to set the prisoner free, though not letting slip a few secrets the guildmaster had been hiding from his allies. Within a week, those allies quickly turned a hostile eye on the guild, and every one of its members turned up dead in the resulting raid, save for the one who had eagerly anticipated the impending disaster.

Deciding that his talents could be put to good use in such unorthodox manners, Esper decided to repeat this pattern with several other guilds he viewed as overstepping their bounds and brutalizing the weak and the poor. Being immersed in this environment, he developed a very cynical and jaded outlook on life, contributing to his tendency to avoid trusting anyone. Nevertheless, he always remembered his reason for leaving the comfort of home in the first place, and always sent whatever money he could to his mother.

After several years of making a name for himself as an incredibly talented pickpocket, housebreaker, safecracker and diplomat, among other fields, he met someone whose skills, tact and cynicism could rival his own--a red haired woman named Caleah. Though at first he viewed her as merely another rogue to work with and ultimately destroy, he eventually came to develop romantic feelings for her from her understanding of his view on the world. Those feelings would end up being eradicated one evening when she confronted him for his preparations to betray their guildmaster, informing him that she had been instructed to kill him for his traitorous actions. Though he desperately pleaded with her to abandon the guild and live her life with him, Esper was ultimately forced to kill the only woman he had ever loved.

Soon after he decided to return to his home town to see how things had changed, but much to his horror, the war plaguing the lower plains had managed to spread to the neutral grounds of the mountains, the fresh remnants of a raid leaving the town in fiery ruins. Though he managed to find what remained of his home, he arrived much too late to rescue his mother who had perished in the fire. Bereft of any human being to care about, Esper left to wander far away from any charted lands, no longer fearing whatever ends he might meet.

Limit Breaks
All of Esper's Limit Breaks are part of his Skills submenu, and appear under his normal Rogue abilities only when his health drops below 50%. Instead of a set amount of MP consumed upon use, they require a percentage of his maximum MP. Unlike other characters, Esper gains access to new Limit Breaks as the story advances (with the exception of the last two, which are only usable when he has his ultimate weapons equipped).


 * Ice Cleave
 * Frost Barrier
 * Freezing Shockwave
 * Suffocating Darkness
 * Death's Cold Embrace
 * Crippling Shadow
 * Absolute Zero
 * Summon: Azeph