Latest revision as of 21:19, 23 May 2011

Balian

Ash Tail Cap Miracle Cloak Wise Owlite Shield Ascended Calibur Master Blaster

Balian is a xenoarcheologist and a junior member of the Spiral Order.

Balian as a Spiral Knight

Balian joined the Spiral Order shortly after the disappearance of his elder brother, a lost member of the Alpha Squad. As one of the most eminent xenoarcheologist in the galaxy, he embarked the Skylark as a Warrant Officer where he was assigned by Captain Ozlo to provide expertise about the use of mineral power in alien technology. Following the explosion of the spaceship, Balian's rescue pod crashed on Cradle on April 4, 2011.

Balian easily managed to reach the new headquarter in Haven, where he reported to Lieutenant Feron, who directed him to assist Wegner in his research on the gate construction process. Determined upon grasping the ultimate secret of Clockworks and finding his lost brother, Balian started exploring and mapping the mysterious devilish machine.

Scientific research

Mineral power and genetic engineering

The effect of mineral power on life forms has been the first subject of Balian's research. As a consequence of his observation, he proposed to rectify the taxonomy of the creatures that can be found within the Clockworks, claiming that only three families of mobs, namely Fiend, Beast and Slime, could be properly called monsters. According to Balian, most of these monsters originate from harmless species, that have been genetically modified by mineral technology, similarly to what happens during the gate construction process where the combination of two minerals can alter a stratum theme. His conclusion was that the Clockworks are nothing but a genetic engineering machine, the purpose of which could be creating a powerful elemental army. Balian went even further, conjecturing that the Gremlins could be the unsuspecting target of this dreadful scheme conceived by a dark unworldly force.

Gremlins and Knights

His benevolent attitude towards Gremlins has drawn fierce criticism from orthodox members of the Spiral Order. One of his most controversial theories concerns the striking biological and cultural similarities between Gremlins and Knights, such as:

• anthropomorphism
• effect of health capsules on metabolism
• mutual intelligibility
• feudalism
• technophilia
• compatible technology
• mastership of mineral power

In his essay The Crimson Spiral, Balian hypothesizes a similar cultural development or even a common evolutionary path. Although his paper has been initially filed as classified by the Spiral Order, it has been published by an organization known as Spiral Leaks.

The Devilite culture

One of Balian's minor works deals with the Devilite culture. He observed that the Devilites are a very peculiar race of the fiend family, whose behaviour can be associated with some traits of the organizational culture typical of the so-called Third Industrial Revolution, which occurred on Earth in its 20th and 21st century. These traits include:

• work-life balance issue
• toxic leadership
• micromanagement
• sycophancy
• motivational speaking
• workplace violence

Equipment

When he crashed on Cradle, Balian was equipped with a Spiral Sallet and a Spiral Cuirass as well as with the default Proto Sword, Proto Shield and Proto Gun. Once obtained the first materials, he started crafting more advanced items.

Helmet

Although he was determined upon following the tradition of the Spiral Order and crafting helmets of the Cobalt line, the first materials Balian got allowed him to craft a Wolver Cap. After a while he switched to the Cobalt Helm, which he upgraded to Solid Cobalt Helm, however he realized that the Wolver line offered protection against freeze, so he eventually came back to the Wolver helmets equipping an Ash Tail Cap.

Armor

As a xenoarcheologist with advanced knowledge of the Owlite civilization, Balian opted to equip a Magic Cloak as an armor in order to upgrade it to Grey Feather Mantle, which used to be wore by renowned Owlite scholars.

Shield

Balian assembled first a Jelly Shield as a makeshift protection, but he was planning to switch to the Owlite line as soon as he could obtain recipes and materials, as eventually did.

Sword

As an inexperienced fighter, Balian chose as his first weapon the Calibur, being the standard sword of the Spiral Knights. Intrigued by its speed, he decided to test the Striker, but he was disappointed to find out that it wasn't able to knock back enemies as his first blame did, so the came back to the previous line.

Gun

After the Proto Gun, Balian obtained a Frost Gun as a sidearm although he was already striving to achieve the materials required to assemble a Blaster.