Ulrich Evans

"Y'know, now that I think about it, honestly, I guess that bird guy's right. Even if you're the strongest in your country, outside of it is an entirely different matter. If you build something up, some other guy can just rock up and knock it down without giving a damn about how much effort you put into it. Look at what happened back in Minstrel. All that damn work we put into making something special for everyone, taken away from us in the blink of an eye. You know what? What happens to the world isn't my problem anymore. I really wanted to be one of those allies of justice, but in the end I couldn't even protect somebody I was assigned my post to do. Let's just kill this jackass and get the hell out of here before the guards come."

- Ulrich Evans, to Elraine Ambrosius, "Without a Cause"

Ulrich Evans (ウルリッヒ・エバンス, Ururihhi Ebansu), more commonly referred to as "Richie" (リッチー, Ritchī) was one of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights (聖騎士団, Seikishidan), the fighting force of Minstrel (ミンストレル, Minsutoreru); a prosperous neutral nation located to the southeast of Fiore, separated from it by a large gulf with an island in its center. Thanks to its laws granting nondiscrimination to non-humans causing it to become a cultural melting pot where all races could get along thanks to its equality and its pacifism law, Minstrel was one of the most popular countries to live in- indeed, during the time from X675 to X800, Minstrel stayed out of the constant conflicts of the other lands, though this, along with its abundant resources, made it a target for certain unsavoury people, especially those with powers. Ulrich himself born in Kalm, a city closest to the capital of Sin, a nation with whom Minstrel's relationships were tense- as a child, he wished to become something "great" after making a promise to his childhood friend, Shirley Eisenstein.

But of course, it was difficult to stop somebody's memes from simply being dreams; Ulrich was mocked and ridiculed by everyone due to hailing form a dead magic bloodline and his grievous misunderstanding of how magic worked as his family kept away from it because of their curse afflicted upon his father's side of the family; he had an inability to perform "proper" magic as the curse had corroded his Magic Origin, but eventually, he discovered Arms Projection, one of the One Hundred and Eight Cardinal Codes and how it could be used beneficially in conjunction with his curse, resulting in him becoming an almost peerless swordsman, managing to join the Seventy-Second Unit (七十二部隊, Shichijūni Butai) as a lowly infantryman at best before his return to Kalm with his platoon, where he managed to achieve the impossible along with an awakening of his powers, resulting in Ulrich joining the Sacred Order of Holy Knights at a very young age, and became the last Holy Knight to join at the age of eighteen.

In X835, Minstrel was invaded by the Vulture Empire, an imperialistic regime which uprooted Sin's Magic Council and devastated the country's guilds in order to form a nation where anyone was allowed to fight for what they saw was right. Quickly, Minstrel was forced on the ropes- though Laeticia von Minstrel, the queen and Estellise von Minstrel's mother, negotiated with the Emperor, entering a political marriage so that her subjects would be spared. However, as part of a plan gone wrong, the Emperor's right hand, Morgana Blackmore, killed Laeticia out of jealousy and then slaughtered the rest of the Royal Family, leaving Estellise as the sole survivor. Though the Holy Knight Order fought against the Vulture Empire valiantly with Ulrich himself even fighting Emperor Peng Liuxing and Morgana at the same time after flying into an uncharacteristic rage by seeing his queen, the only person who saw him as an equal in his childhood being killed, managing to hold his ground; but as soon as he barely lost, they were forced out of the country as the Vulture Empire sent in countless magicians to occupy Minstrel, earning the ire of the general populace.

Forced into becoming a Bounty Hunter (賞金稼ぎ, Shōkin Kasegi) due to a lack of income and not understanding how Guilds work, Ulrich became a normal member of society, settling down in Stella (ステラ, Sutera) with Shirley as his sole loss to Peng had effectively killed his desire to liberate Minstrel, making him believe that there was no point in attempting to fight something that could be considered an invincible wall. Though his personality didn't change drastically, still being a very charismatic young man who possesses a strong sense of justice, which sustains and guides him through all manner of shaking uncertainties, his loss made him lose some of his zeal towards justice and gain a new perspective of the world. Being the most skilled knight in Minstrel, Ulrich is talented at combat with his lightning-fast reflexes, and backs it all up with his powerful Arms Projection magic. However, after being defeated by Peng, he'd rather goof all the time, and, even when he fights, puts in as little effort as he can get away with- though a lazy Ulrich can still compete with others at their best.

Appearance
Ulrich Evans is a young adult of average height for his age group—though height-wise in terms of how he matches up to the other members of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, Ulrich is shown to be in the middle; with his superior Leonardo Asmodeus, a beast of a man, towering over him and the rest, and the youngest of the Sacred Order, Marina Leviathan only coming up to his waist- a fact that he enjoys teasing her about. Ulrich bears the appearance of a young, early-twenties man of a relatively lean physique, hiding a surprisingly muscular build, complete with a toned abdomen, arms and the like; though he generally only exposes this when releasing his ultimate spell, for reasons unnamed. Ulrich has long, blonde hair that is spiked back as to give off the appearance of something you'd see in a comic book aimed towards hot-blooded kids, and the rest of his hair frames his face in the form of mid-length bangs. Ulrich also has blue eyes with an odd claw marking replacing the pupils. Due to the Armsbane Curse, Ulrich's hands up to the elbow have been tainted with a black mud and crimson chains are entwined around his arms.

In terms of attire, Ulrich has two outfits- one is his Holy Knight Armour (聖騎士の鎧, Seikishi no Yoroi), and the other is his casual one. In the Holy Knight Armour, the manner of dress provided by Minstrel's military itself and worn by all members, Ulrich dresses in black armour befitting a knight in Great Britain- along with being mainly black, the armour is decorated in reds and blues on the sleeves, chestplate, and the left leg; red, blue, and black were the national colours of Minstrel before it was absorbed into the Vulture Empire. Two long tufts of fur rest over the pauldron armour, and a blue turtle-necked sweater is underneath the chestplate. The bottom half of the Holy Knight Armour is two large, extravagant greaves which are multi-segmented in regards to the boots, and the left knee-guard is shaped like a dragon's head. Attached to Ulrich's back is a large, black holster which can hold five of his swords at once. Ulrich's other, more casual outfit consists of wears baggy red capri pants, a short, sleeveless, black vest, and a blue muscle shirt- still the colours of Minstrel.

Personality and Traits
Ulrich Evans is a very kind and polite knight of Sacred Order of Holy Knights who is also a deeply religious man; the adjective describing both his devotion to his beliefs, as well as his commitment to the ideals of law, order, and honour, being diligent and scrupulous. He goes out of his way to be polite to even those who do not return the favour, such as even Morgana Blackmore when the two met during at a time before she razed his hometown by chance. In addition, Ulrich is well liked among those that share his righteous ambitions of saving everyone and disliked greatly by those who do not—he was the favourite Holy Knight of the previous king, but not for the reasons that Ulrich thinks; the real reason is because his strong beliefs paint his moral world black and white, unable to see any gray areas, and this makes him relatively easy to manipulate. Ulrich thinks of himself as a "Hero of Justice" (正義の英雄, Seigi no Eiyū), and somebody who punishes evil doers, frequently stating that he believes that knights are to protect the citizens, and if they can't do that, then they must become strong enough to do so. Thanks to his natural charisma, he is idolized by nearly every citizen of Minstrel, and his supposed death effectively broke the will of the country.

Ulrich is a man with great pride in his home and tolerates no ill words towards it or the Royal Family as well as his friends. However, despite this, he can be somewhat of a ladies' man; as he can be quite perverted— he is shown to be a pervert as his first line in to Estellise von Minstrel, the princess of his former country after finding out that she is "Stella Rayhunton" is about her breasts, and onwards he has shown the ability to analyze a female's B-W-H measurements. However, he has no interest in underage females such as Marina, remarking how she should get back to him in five years. However, due to his knightly mannerisms and perversions, he can be chivalrous in the classical way, being known to hold back against female opponents if he is forced to fight them; Morgana points out how suicidal such a thing is when facing somebody like her, a known and extremely deadly assassin. Interestingly, Ulrich's never shown any open perversion towards Shirley, the closest thing he has to a solid love interest. He is also surprisingly humble as he frequently attributes his many victories to the fact that he has "incredible help". One of his most noticeable traits is his genuine love for children; he would do everything to protect them, and the sight of them being hurt badly and for no reason are one of the things that would tempt him to consider breaking his 'no-kill' policy.

Due to the Armsbane Curse within his body, it is noted that Ulrich is unable to handle anything on his own, and his carelessness, when combined with this curse, causes him to destroy objects like an entire set of silverware per meal per day, each worth a second-class citizens' monthly living expenses. Because of his clumsiness and not really caring about changing his ways even though everything that he touches seems to crumble to dust, this leaves Shirley constantly exasperated at him, going as far to place notices on which objects have been mortgaged to keep him from touching them, but he more often than not brushes it off as nothing to really worry about- it's been with him as long as he could remember, and he'd endured the Armsbane Curse all of his life- indeed, Ulrich spent most of his childhood abhorring the curse, but once Leonardo Asmodeus, his superior, gave him the idea to cease seeing it as a curse but rather a blessing, his opinion changed regarding it to the point that in combat, he can utilize it in ways that nobody else with similar powers ever could. Even if the Armsbane Curse caused him to drown in debt which looms over him even to this day, Ulrich simply ignores all the pressure and continues on living his life as normal.

However, despite all of these positive traits, Ulrich's defining flaw is his black and white insanity—unable to see in shades of gray, Ulrich's proclamations of a "Hero of Justice" become quite dark when it is shown that he has a seething hatred for the people of Sin and Dark Magicians, bordering on fantastic racism. This is shown by his desire to personally hunt down and kill every person in Sin who has malicious intentions to exist, as well as his ambition to slay those who attempt to harness the power of demons. His hatred towards criminals is much worse—he will chase them to the ends of the earth and do anything that it takes short of harming innocent bystanders to kill his prey. His unreasoning hatred of "evil" is what actually caused the root of the conflict in the Vulture Empire-Holy Knights conflict, as he believed that the Vulture Empire simply wished to overrun Sin and make it a hell on earth, whereas Peng tried to explain that he wished to bring stability to Sin as it had previously been a dystopia, albeit to no avail. However, Ulrich's hatred of "evil" comes from failing to save his childhood friend, Shirley Eisenstein from falling off of a rickety bridge due to his Armsbane Curse; driving him with a near psychotic hatred for curses, though he remains guilt-ridden inside due to the incident, which he covers up with this Knight Templar-esque behaviour as a sort of "excuse".

After his loss to Peng, Ulrich's personality changed rather subtly, as he no longer felt the zeal he once had for ridding the world of evil and protecting the citizens of Minstrel- to be fair, there was no country to protect anymore. But after his defeat, Ulrich developed a dislike for hard work and began to descend into a state of slight apathy, not wanting to fight for something such as an "ideal" anymore, only fighting for himself and to make ends meet. Even after finding his country's princess in disguise in Stella, it takes him a while to try and stage an attack on the Vulture Empire, slightly fearful of screwing up again. Indeed, his personality had become rather subdued, preferring to simply lay back and let the tides of time pass by without a care in the world. Not only does he limit his heroics to only saving those he's close to whenever they're in a pinch, and as such, he's even let two dangerous beings rampage around without concern and was content to watch somebody get beaten up by thugs until it concerned him; a far cry from his previous 'help everyone' personality. This has caused Ulrich to gain a strict personal policy to never waste more energy than he needs to- never helping if he has to, and if he has to, he makes it quick.

Seemingly given up on his dream of being a world-class hero, Ulrich decided to take the call to agriculture by settling down with Shirley and starting a farm where he no longer wishes to be bothered by anyone, whether they be revolutionaries whom desire to topple the Vulture Empire or the Vulture Empire themselves. He personally notes that life is quite easier when remaining neutral, as he no longer has to be responsible for the lives of countless people, attempt to outmaneuver others, be willing to kill people, and much more. Ulrich, however, still possesses a lot of standards that display quite a bit of wisdom. He is capable of eventually forgiving Morgana despite her murder of his queen after learning about her past, even offering to help her reintegrate into society despite her angry protests at him trying to get "close" to her, admitting himself that he couldn't turn his back on anyone. It's also said that the reason he ceased putting effort into combat after his loss is because he had finally began to take the Armsbane Curse's side-effect in the heat of battle seriously- whenever he overuses his powers, he risks being possessed by a god of destruction, and even though this could possibly end the Vulture Empire itself, he doesn't want to kill people who could be innocent, causing him to take up a stance of pacifism unless provoked.

Trivia

 * Ulrich's images are of Swallow Cratsvalley from Red Dragon, also known as Chaos Dragon: Red Dragon Campaign, a story which was born from the minds of Kinoko Nasu (Fate, Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai), Gen Urobutchi (Psycho Pass, Madoka Magica), Ryhogo Narita (Bacanno, Durarara), and Shima Drill (something) which they initially developed as a tabletop role-playing session and adapted into an anime last year. Some of the images are official CGs by Shima Drill, and some are done by the fan artist Hesocha; all credit for the images goes to both of them, obviously. The author of the article cannot actually recommend the anime, as the draw of Red Dragon was reading about the five goofing around while writing, something which vanishes in the animated adaption.
 * In terms of inspirations, Ulrich's Armsbane Curse/Breakblade Phenomenon was derived from Lancelot's Knight of Honour from Fate/Zero, and Imagine Breaker from A Certain Magical Index- the Memory Stigmata was based on One for All from My Hero Academia as well as Uzu Sanageyama's Tengatsu from Kill la Kill. The Dhaos Mode was based off of Devil Trigger from Devil May Cry, Dark Mode from Kingdom Hearts, and God Soul from, well, Fairy Tail.
 * Continuing from here, Arms Projection is based on Projection magecraft and Gate of Babylon from Fate/Stay Night, Edward's Alchemy from Fullmetal Alchemist, and the Bind [weapon] spells from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Reinforce is derived from status buffs in general in video games, as well as Sky Dragon Slayer Magic's Arms/Armour/Vernier spells. Lastly, Army of One holds its basis in Unlimited Blade Works from Fate/Stay Night and Mifune's Infinite One Sword Style from Soul Eater, as well as the Murakumo Units' sword launching from BlazBlue.
 * Ulrich's stats are: