Name: Phillip Biqe Reston Canon: Tales of the Rays Canon point: The last chapter of Fairy’s Requiem (arc 3), before he speaks with Ix and reads First Ix’s letters Age: 35
History: The incident in the Glasswater Woods: As a teenager, Phil invited Mileena (his childhood friend that he had a crush on) to a picnic in the Glasswater Woods while their other friend Ix was out fishing. Mileena wondered if they shouldn’t wait for Ix to get back; Phil insisted that it would be fine. It Was Not Fine. The pair was attacked by monsters, Ix showed up just in time to fend them off, and in the ensuing chaos Ix’s mirristry went out of control and Mileena ended up taking the backlash. When faced with an unconscious Ix and Mileena, in a fit of jealousy (because Ix was everything Phil could never be) Phil stabbed Ix with a shard of his broken mirrage. Ix came to right as this happened, and while he wasn’t angry, it was effectively the end of their friendship as Phil ran off to the capitol and never responded to Ix’s letters.
The Kaleidoscope and the Voidstorm: After Ix’s death at the hands of the Bifrost Empire, Phil helped Mileena create and construct the Kaleidoscope, a magical weapon of mass destruction that they fired indiscriminately on Bifrost, destroying the country and killing almost all of its citizens. However, the use of the Kaleidoscope allowed the Voidstorm to break containment and engulf the world—though Phil deployed the Aegis System (a sort of magical shield) in a desperate attempt to protect it, everything save for a small region surrounding Sellund was wiped out and all of the people in the destroyed portions were reduced to animus particles trapped in an unending purgatory within the Voidstorm itself. Ever since that day, Phil has blamed himself for what happened and has devoted what is left of his life to attempting to save what little remains of the world.
Exoflecting Third Ix: The unexpected death of the second Ix at the hands of the Salvation Front left Phil and Mileena with a very big problem, namely the loss of Ix’s mirrage. And since the mirrage couldn’t be exoflected without Ix, Phil exoflected the third Ix as a replacement for the second. But not only did Phil not tell Ix that he was an exoflection, he took it upon himself to fundamentally alter this Ix’s memories and personality to make him more timid and anxious in the hopes that it would prevent anything like the Glasswater Woods incident from coming to pass again… all because he was too ashamed to face the truth. Needless to say, Ix doesn’t take any of this well when he finds out, and in an attempt to atone for what he did, Phil tells Ix that he is welcome to kill him once the world is saved.
Powers: deep breath I’M SO SORRY FOR THIS ENTIRE SECTION… Mirristry, the Tales of the Rays version of magic that utilizes special mirrors known as “mirrages” as a sort of focus. As the current Biqe of Sellund, Phil is the most powerful mirrist in the world, specializing in the Fusion type of mirristry. While the exact extent of what mirristry is able to do is unfortunately never made clear in canon (WHY IS RAYS LIKE THIS!!!!), we do get to see a number of the things it’s capable of, so I’ll detail those.
The primary ability of a mirrist is what is known as exoflection, or the arte of effectively creating objects (including actual living creatures) out of nothing by projecting their imagination through their mirrage and making it physical by granting it anima. The size of the objects that can be exoflected is limited only by the individual mirrist’s power; with the help of an amplification device, it is possible for a single powerful mirrist to exoflect even an entire continent, for example. As to what a mirrist can exoflect, it has to either be something they can picture in their mind (i.e., Phil would not be able to exoflect a car or a cell phone because he has no idea what those are) or something that is in front of them for them to be able to duplicate.
Mirrists are able to summon a sort of familiar known as a mirrite, which is basically an exoflection of a portion of their own heart. Mirrites share an anima link with their mirrist, meaning that the mirrite is able to feel their mirrist’s emotions, and if the mirrist dies, the mirrite will die as well. If a mirrite “dies” while their mirrist is still alive, however, they return to their mirrist’s heart and can simply be resummoned. Mirrists are only able to have one mirrite at a time (unless they detach them, which is a whole other kettle of fish). Phil’s mirrite is named Marcus; the two of them have been together for twenty years at this point and have a very close relationship. Obviously Marcus will not be here with him, though!
Phil is also capable of creating the equivalent of a pocket dimension within his heart known as a virtual mirror field. Normally, in order to maintain one, a mirrist must either remain within the field or leave their mirrite there instead, but Phil is specifically stated to be one of only two people powerful enough to be able to maintain a field without needing to be in it or leave his mirrite within the field in his stead.
He can open transfer gates/circles, which are exactly what they sound like: a teleportation circle that sends anyone who goes through it to a specific destination. It is noted in canon that both opening and using transfer gates/circles puts a significant strain on the body of the person casting or utilizing them, however, and they take some time to cast. (At one point Phil opens a bunch of them in rapid succession without any sort of preparation beforehand and completely KOs himself by doing so.)
His combat artes are quite versatile, encompassing artes of all elements, and his Itenkiyou ability allows him to temporarily shield himself while casting. However, it’s worth noting that one thing Phil DOESN’T seem to be able to do is heal, as his playable kit has no healing abilities (outside of a couple of artes having very minor self-heal/damage conversion properties) and at one point in canon he mentions wanting to have healers on hand while he’s performing a delicate mirristry procedure on someone else, implying that he himself isn’t capable of healing if things come down to that.
Basically, if it isn’t healing and it can be done with mirristry, Phil can do it. However, the drawback is that Phil is quite frail health-wise thanks to the whombo combo of his innate anima deficiency and the anima contamination caused by his experiments and overusing his powers takes a physical toll on him (we’ve seen him end up coughing up blood on one occasion and collapsing with a fever on another after he’s pushed himself too hard)—he’s fought on the front lines all of once in canon and it ended in disaster and him being told that he’s not allowed to do that again. He’s capable of unleashing awe-inspiring amounts of power, but it comes at a not-insignificant price for him.
CHARACTER SURVEY
MANDATORY QUESTIONS
- Of all the things you own or have owned, what is the most important to you?
My mirrage-- it’s the proof that I am qualified to be a mirrist. That title is the one thing that I hold most dear.
- Where is it you feel most at peace, or most whole?
It isn’t exactly a place, but… I always feel safe by Marcus’ side. It’s only natural, of course… he is my mirrite, after all. He’s always looked after me ever since I first summoned him.
… ha. It’s funny… I can’t even remember what it was like to not have him around.
- Describe what gives you the most strength.
Wanting to save the world. … is what I’d like to say, but… I’m not as noble as that. It’s true that I don’t have any intentions of dying until the world is safe, but what I need to do is to try to atone for a least a small amount of what I’ve done. I can’t die without doing that.
OPTIONAL QUESTIONS
- Do you forgive easily, or do you hold grudges?
I can’t say that I hold a grudge against anyone [not even Phantom], so I suppose I do forgive rather easily.
[Except himself, that is. He can forgive everyone except for himself.]
- Have you ever made a promise you can't keep?
Ha… haha… I think most of the promises I’ve made have been ones I haven’t kept…
- What are you most proud of?
Achieving the title of ‘Biqe.’ I may not be very reliable as a person, but where mirristry is concerned, there’s almost nothing I can’t do.
- What would you describe as your weakness?
Only one…? […] I’ve… never had any courage. Courage to confess to Mileena, to apologize to Ix… maybe if I’d just done those things, if I hadn’t run away and hidden in Sellund…
- What is your one wish or greatest desire?
… to save what’s left of the world. And… to grant whatever wishes Ix may have. If I can accomplish that, then I’ll have been able to atone at least a little. That will have to be enough.
- What animal would you want to be?
It would be nice to be a bird, to be able to take to the sky and fly wherever you wanted… I can do that in a way with the Heimdallr, but it isn’t really the same thing when you have to bring an entire crew along with you. Sometimes it would be nice to just be free… but I suppose that’s something of a selfish wish.
- Cats or dogs?
I’ve always thought it might be nice to have a cat, but… Marcus would never allow it. And he’d be right—if I can’t even remember to feed myself, how could I possibly remember to feed a cat?
LUNAE CALAMITAS
Inventory: His mirrage (the monocle he wears, which also functions as a regular monocle), his regular outfit, his mirrage comm (which won’t work for obvious reasons because other dimension), and a few doses of his medicine.
Sage Crest: On the back of his right hand.
Questions?: YES, ACTUALLY… so as I told Unkie, Phil is terminally ill and requires a special daily medicine in order to manage his condition. We agreed that he’ll have to find a way to use magic in order to achieve the same effect here, which leads me to my next question: as I mentioned above, if Phil uses too much mirristry in his own canon, it has negative physical effects on him due to his poor health. Would the same thing hold true with the magic here? I.E. if he overuses it, will it exhaust him/harm him physically? please let him continue his tradition of making Terrible Life Decisions
Luna | Phillip Biqe Reston | Tales of the Rays
CHARACTER
CHARACTER SURVEY
LUNAE CALAMITAS