Kratos Aurion

Kratos Aurion is a key protagonist of the Tales of Symphonia series.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, he is a veteran hero. He recently returned to the Heroes Coalition.

Appearance
Kratos had a shoulder-length spiky hair with matching red eyes. He wears a dark-blue mantle cape over a dark-blue sleeveless bodysuit with white collar and two gray belt straps around his waist, dark-blue arm sleeves with white cuff ends, gray fingerless gloves and gray & white boots.

Personality
Kratos is displayed as a cold and heartless mercenary early in the game, though is also an expert in swordsmanship, a fact that makes Lloyd angry. The only thing he has in mind at the beginning of the game is to protect Colette, as that is what he is assigned to do. However, as the journey progresses, Kratos begins to open up a little, giving hints about a past where he made a terrible mistake. Throughout the early stages of the story, Kratos displays outstanding knowledge of the ancient world, raising Raine's suspicions.

Despite his secret agenda, Kratos takes a keen interest in Lloyd's development as a warrior, although he takes a fairly callous approach to this. Through a sidequest, Kratos will train him in swordsmanship and give him advice that helps the young boy to grow. Despite his long life and many years of experience, Kratos is, up until the end of the story, a fatalist. For much of the story, he believes that Mithos's is the only way. This changes if the player triggers the scene with Kratos at Flanoir. It is Lloyd's actions that make him realize how much control of his destiny he really has.

Abilities
Kratos's fighting style is similar to that of Zelos Wilder, though it seems like Zelos has a little shorter range than Kratos. Kratos has some useful offensive and healing spells, together with the Angel Skill Judgment, although he prefers to fight on the front lines. Although he uses the same weapons and armor as Zelos, his swordplay varies subtly from that of him: Kratos's swordplay is stronger, reflecting his strength rather than his finesse. The varied swordplay style also affects some of his techniques. For example, when Kratos uses the technique Victory Light Spear, he tends to lift himself up too fast, often missing the final midair spiral cut. Zelos, on the other hand, has no trouble flawlessly delivering all four hits from the same technique. Also, in the PlayStation 2 version of the game, his mystic arte is Shining Bind.

In Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, Kratos's fighting style changes slightly. He is able to have a useful set of six normal slashes with his sword, combining with Base, Master, and Arcane Artes, something that was not possible in the prequel without the appropriate EX-Skills. Also, having one of the highest strength stats in the game, he is quite valuable in battle.

Trivia

 * Kratos derives from the Greek cratos, meaning "strength". Cratos was also the name of a Greek demigod, companion of Zeus, as well as son of the Titan Pallas and goddess Styx, who was representative of the river of the same name. Aurion comes from the Greek meaning of "morning". Together with Kratos, his full name translates to "strong morning" or "morning of strength".