This article uses material from the “Van Grants” article on the Aselia at FANDOM is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Van Grants, also known as Vandesdelca Musto Fende, is antagonist of Tales of the Abyss anime and games.
Van is the Commandant of the Oracle Knights within the Order of Lorelei, serving as the commander of the God-Generals. He is also Luke's sword instructor and mentor. In the Ancient Ispanian language, his birth name means "one who would seize glory".
In the AWA fics, Van is a good guy. He is part of the AWA as one of it's instructors after Ad Libitum forms an alliance with the AWA.
In the XP4 fics, Van debuted in the XP4 Heroes Coalition - Neo-City Diaries.
Appearance[]
Van was a tall, middle-aged man with a light-brown hair tied in a spiky ponytail and has blue eyes. He wears a gray uniform underneath a white mantle with black lining, white pants and gray steel boots.
Personality[]
Van was born in N.D. 1990 on the island of Hod, son of Lord Fende and Farmyriarica Satis Fende. When Van was young and his mother was pregnant with his sister, Tear Grants, he was forced to destroy the land of his birth, Hod, by being attached to a machine that generated an artificial hyperresonance. Van was able to survive Hod's destruction, alongside his mother and unborn sister, by singing a Fonic Hymn. He fell to the Qliphoth, where he eventually reached Yulia City, and was later adopted with his sister by Teodoro Grants. Van later discovered this fate was predicted in Yulia Jue's Score, which ignited his hatred of it and sparked his attempts to overthrow it. Since the creation of replicaswas not predicted in the Score, and thus, they were not bound by it. His goal became to replicate the world and everything in it, destroying all originals. To do this, Van knew he had to obtain a position of power to gather followers who shared his ambition. He joined the Order of Lorelei, the organization that ensures that the world follows the Score.
While rising in the ranks of the organization, he presented himself to be older than he actually was so that people would be more likely to look up to him, rather than be jealous of his high rank. He gathered others who held the potential for the same hatred of the Score that he had, installing them as the leaders of various units within the Oracle Knights, the military arm of the Order of Lorelei, designating them as the God-Generals. When Asch was still known as Luke, he had gained a lot of trust in Van, and he agreed to run away to Daath with him one day. Instead, Van kidnapped Asch and had him replicated, claiming to Asch's parents that the replica was the real Luke so that he would take Asch's place. Van needed Asch for his hyperresonance, as it could be used to destroy all the Sephiroth Trees, which held the surface above the Qliphoth. The new Luke was to die in Asch's place at Akzeriuth, which is something that never happened.
After the disaster at Akzeriuth, Van eventually encounters the party at Belkend. There, he reveals his plan of replicating the entire planet, since it became apparent that replicas existed outside Yulia's Score. After the encounter, he finds the party again in the Meggiora Highlands, where he tells Tear to stop using the passage rings, as they insert miasma-infected fonons into her body. At that moment, Asch comes and attacks him. However, Van effortlessly defeats him with a single blow, leaving Asch injured. Van then tells Tear he will be waiting at the Absorption Gate and that the next time they meet, he would not hold back, even for her.
XP4 Fanfic[]
Van is a member of the Heroes Coalitions and is part of the Freedom Heroes. He also works as an instructor for the Training Camp and the Vanguard Academy.
XP4 Heroes Coalition - Neo-City Diaries[]
In Chapter 23, Van, alongside Bols and Max Tennyson, met up with Hank Hill whom is fixing the gutters of the Training Facility when they teased him about the lawn gnome. He then witnessed Hank chasing after Bols with a hand drill in hand.
In Chapter 40, Van, alongside Aty and Hank Hill, are seen inside the lounge area of the Training Camp where they are having a drink at the bar.
Abilities[]
Van practices the Albert style of swordsmanship, which focuses on creating powerful strikes while sacrificing speed and evasion. Van has access to several artes that are learned by his students, Luke and Asch, including Raging Blast and Lightning Tiger Blade, and he can activate elemental FOF Changes at will, without requiring the use of FOF Circles. Van is also capable of casting both Fonic artes and Fonic Hymns, abilities that have been passed down through his ancestry as a descendant of Yulia. Van has access to three mystic artes, known as Imperial Slaughter, Celestial Elegy, and Ancient Requiem. Maintaining the same motif of similarity to his students, his Imperial Slaughter features movements similar to Asch's Rending Saber, while his Ancient Requiem follows the actions of Luke's Radiant Howl.
Main Article: Van Grants: Artes
Trivia[]
- Van has unused cut-in artwork for Imperial Slaughter, depicted in the horizontal style commonly attributed to the protagonists' first available mystic artes.
- During the final battle against Van, after Tear begins singing the Grand Fonic Hymn, not only does the background music change to Tear's song, but Luke and his party seem to become invincible against Van, making it impossible for the party to be killed after Tear begins singing. However, this takes place after Van's normal HP is reduced to 0 and once Tear's song ends, Luke immediately unleashes Radiant Howl to end the fight. Also, this part of the battle only takes place if Luke and Tear are fighting Van.