"I am a young man who constantly seeks the wonders of new lands. I intend to write many, many volumes of travelogue during my journeys, hopefully leaving behind a legacy of discovery for future generations to discuss."
~ Adol Christin, Adol's Travel Journal
Adol Christin (アドル・クリスティン) (0 AC - 63 AC), mistakenly known as Aron in the Master System version of Ys I, is the main protagonist of the Ys series. He is an adventurer and a swordsman who has a knack for arriving at the right place at the wrong time. Despite being a silent protagonist throughout the entire series, he is shown to be the type of person who can never leave those in trouble and will try to help him or her in any way he can. Known to many as a master swordsman, he also carries the nickname "Adol the Red" due to his fiery-red hair; a rather unique trait among those he visits during his travels, thus earning him that title. Being a man of adventure and of few words, he never stays in the same place for long and always expresses himself through motivation and his will to fight and help those in need.
Contents
History[edit | edit source]
Not much is known about Adol's past, except that he was born in a small nameless mountain village, thought to be somewhere in the Garman region of Europa (around present-day Germany, presumably in the regions near the real-world Black Forest). Adol came from a humble background, born to a peasant family, but still managed to live a normal daily life. It's shown in the intro of Ys I that sometime in his childhood, he was taught the basics of swordsmanship by his father, a skill that he excelled in and made his own. Sometime later, an elderly traveling merchant came to his village. His stories of far off lands captured Adol's imagination early on. Between this, and his father's bedtime stories of dragon-slaying heroes, Adol decided to one day become an adventurer. He continued to dream of far-off lands, and when he was 16, left his home village to begin his own adventures.
The first destination he had in mind was the largely unexplored continent of Afroca. However, fate threw a spanner into his plans. While resting in a tavern halfway to Promalock, Adol overheard local merchants talking. He learned that war had broken out between the Mercantile Kingdom of Altago and the Romun Empire. Having absolutely no desire to be caught in the middle of a war, he made an abrupt change of plans and headed west instead. Upon the arrival at the port town of Promalock, he heard about the island of Esteria. Once a peaceful hub of trade, a veil of storms suddenly appeared out of nowhere, cutting off all shipping. Rumors were starting to spread that Esteria had become overrun by monsters. This motivated Adol to go to the island of Esteria to investigate. After working some odd jobs to obtain a ship of his own, Adol set out on a small boat for Esteria on a clear day. However, the weather changed when he hit the Stormveil, and he was shipwrecked on the shores of Esteria. This shipwreck started his first real adventure that would go on to reveal what happened to the ancient kingdom of Ys.
After the first adventure in Esteria, Adol would go to Celceta in the following year. There, he meets Eldeel, the last of the mythical Eldeen civilization. Even though Eldeel offers Adol the knowledge of the world, Adol refuses and insteads explore the world for himself. Thus, it is at this point that Adol would start calling himself an adventurer and get recognized by the world as such.
Adol would go onto many adventures, bringing hope and revelation to wherever he visited. Many of his adventures would be related to the Eldeen civilization but not all of them as some, like the Five Dragons of Altago, would be completely unrelated to the Eldeen civilization.
Sometime past his fifties, Adol went back to his village and started making records of his adventures. At one point, he tried to reach the north pole but failed. He is said to have disappeared or died at the age of 65.
Even a long time after his death, the records of his adventures motivated many people to start exploring the world, giving rise to the Age of Discovery.
Storyline[edit | edit source]
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Spoiler warning! This section contains plot details of the Ys series. Do not read it if you have not played the game and intend to play the game in the future. |
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Throughout the series, Adol has been the subject of several running gags:
- Many times, he starts his adventures by drifting ashore after a mishap at sea. This is either due to his boat breaking up in a storm (Ys I), being shot at by Romun warships (Ys VI), or otherwise falling overboard (Also Ys VI). This doesn't apply in Ys Seven, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Ys V, or Ys: The Oath in Felghana, since Adol managed to get to the land safely without being drifted apart. Dogi even jokes about it in Ys Seven, mentioning Adol's rather horrible luck with boats. In Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, when Ingrid is questioning Adol, she mentions that he encounters more shipwrecks in few years than most fishermen do in their entire life.
- Many times, he would faint for some reasons and found by the heroine of the game. In Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, Dogi jokes about this saying, "How can you faint when there is no mountain or seas in sight."
- Many times, he would be "chosen" by some godly entities, fate or destiny to be the hero of the region. Dogi ask "Why would a power like that (referring to Dragon Power of Altago) choose Adol?", then said to himself "Silly question, given how often this kind of thing happens...".
- For gaming reasons, he will always begin the game with the weakest equipment, despite having obtained strong weapons, armor and accessories in the previous games. There is rarely any mention of all the equipment Adol gathered in his previous adventures, though it is implied that he loses his equipment frequently due to his maritime mishaps. In Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, when Ingrid is questioning Adol, she suspects that Adol sold those artifacts to the black market, causing losses to the Romun Empire.
- He would always leave for another adventure after making the game's main heroine fall in love with him (Feena, Lilia, Laxia, Dana, Elena, Terra, Isha, Olha, Leeza, Karna, Niena, Tia, Aisha and Krysha) as well as other characters.
- In Ys I & II, he was infamous for being able to measure the three sizes of Feena and Tarf by pushing them into the corner, and sleeping on some girls' beds (Lilia's, Zalem's, and Maria's). To reflect this, in the Steam version of Ys The Oath in Felghana, there is an achievement for pinning Elena in the corner of the travel monument located at the outskirt of the Redmont village.
- Adol is one of the few human character in the Ys series who have red hair, which has earned him the nickname "Adol the Red".
- In the ending of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, Adol is seen wearing the handmade bracelet given to him by Isha during the beginning of the game.
- Adol's original voice actor, Takeshi Kusao, is known for voicing at least two other adventuring swordsmen: Parn from "Record of Lodoss War", and Cless Alvein from "Tales of Phantasia".
- In Ys 8, he has two fully voiced dialogue lines, and in Ys 9 the Crimson King speaks fixed dialogue before fusing with the real Adol.
External link[edit | edit source]
Adol Christin on the Heroes wiki.
