Lester DeRosso



Lester DeRosso is a character in Bravely Default. He is over 2400 years old, and he is the Vampire who knows the truth behind Airy alongside his rival Sage Yulyana. He is the Archduke of Eternia, but prefers the title 'Lord' instead.

Appearance and Personality
Lester has dark, slicked back hair and very pale skin. Since being branded a vampire by the Crystal Orthodoxy, he has gone to some lengths to try and fit this image, learning how to grow fangs with magic. He wears a white shirt with elbow length sleeves with a cravat, a dark green vest, grey pants and a tattered cape.

Lester DeRosso is a very enigmatic man. His voice is rather monotonous, and he often speaks with weary eyes. He has a bad habit of suddenly appearing in a cloud of smokes or in a form of a bat.

He said that; even though he is immortal and fairly similar to a vampire, he is not one. He said that his abilities, such as to turn into a bat, and growing fangs was "Long, long years of effort". In his opinion, the smell of blood is "too revolting" for him to ever drink it.

Story
Many centuries prior to the events of the game, Lester DeRosso was born of the House of DeRosso who have supported the kingdom of Eternia. Made clergyman of the Crystal Adventists at age nineteen, DeRosso later became a cardinal of the newly born Crystal Orthodoxy. However, DeRosso soon was forced out of his position for refusing to vote for the first grand patriarch, who orchestrated a scheme to eliminate the Kingdom of Eternia so that the Crystal Orthodoxy would gain full control of the Earth Crystal. His father murdered, and their water supply poisoned, DeRosso was forced to hand his mother Lilia DeRosso over to them in exchange for his people's safety and his surrender. However, the attack was led by the archbishop who was responsible for the first patriarch's rise to power and refused DeRosso's surrender out of sheer hatred for him as he murdered Lilia.

Forced to watch the innocents trapped in his manor suffer a lingering death by starvation, DeRosso set his home on fire with the intent to go down with it. Just as he was about to die, beginning to come to the realization that his persecution is unwarranted and that those responsible must pay, DeRosso heard a voice call out to him: "Accept me and I shall grant life everlasting. Though it shall be filled with grief, thou shalt have all eternity to wreak vengeance upon thine enemies". While the voice's identity was unknown to him at the time, DeRosso became an immortal and left the ruins of his home. Demonized as a vampire by the Orthodoxy, deciding to make use their propaganda by giving himself the look, DeRosso gathered many followers who shared his malice towards the Orthodoxy.

For the next few centuries, DeRosso battles the Orthodoxy from the shadows and engaged the order's High Inquisitor Yulyana in a series of battles that terraformed the countryside in each of the nations of Luxendarc. During their epic final battle 1800 years prior to the story on Norende, DeRosso and Yulyana stopped fighting when an "angel" descended from the heavens and they attempt to save her from dying of her injuries, learning of the Evil One who would destroy Luxendarc by piercing the world's boundaries and of the events that would foretell its coming. Entrusted by the angel with a task only he can fulfill as an immortal before she died, DeRosso and Yulyana spoke for three days and nights before ultimately joining forces to prepare for the coming doom.

From that point on, DeRosso faked his death to aid Yulyana from the shadows in as they world behind the scenes to try and stop the Harrowing. With the Orthodoxy losing its hold on the world, DeRosso returned to his ancestral home and rebuilt it as Frostcoffin Castle, christened Vampire Castle by the Orthodoxy. When the first two signs of the event occur, the uprising to Eternia's ridges and then the Great Plague, DeRosso and Yulyana proceed to establish Anticrystalism and enlist Braev Lee to become leader of their army with the intent to take the temples by force. However, the plan falls apart when the Orthodoxy attempts to invoke the Great Ritual, resulting with Braev taking control of their order and DeRosso removed from leadership by being named archduke of Frostcoffin Castle.

Fifteen years later, when the event he and Yulyana waited for begins coming to pass, DeRosso knocks the wind vestal's group out at Eternian Central Command and hands them over to Alternis Dim, stating that it is a matter of friendly concern. He expresses an interest in Edea to Alternis, telling him that he may throw the other three in the dungeons if he wishes and informing him of the deaths of Victor S. Court and Victoria F. Stein, lamenting that he never had the chance to meet them. DeRosso later meets with Braev and tells the Templar that his act to claim the crystals and use them to further society, though praising him for doing what he and Yulyana failed to accomplish, was done too hasty.

After Braev's defeat by the Wind Vestal's party, DeRosso assures the distraught Edea that her father is not dead, merely unconscious though he may never wield his sword again. He explains to Edea that her fears concerning awakening the Earth Crystal are misplaced, formally introducing himself and informs the party that Braev has advanced science and medicine in Eternia by a hundred years, and that while they cannot cure Mahzer Lee, they can still treat her even if the Earth Crystal were to be awakened. He then goes on to say that it is ironic that he would be the one to urge them to awaken the crystal. He tells Edea that she reminds him of her father in his youth, but there is still much that she cannot fathom. He mentions of some of the things he has seen along the course of his immortal life, the rise and fall of the Orthodoxy being one of them.

After defeating Braev Lee, the party can go to Vampire Castle, where upon attempting to enter, Lord DeRosso's voice tells the party that if they wish to enter, they should seek the six keystones scattered across the lands to prove themselves worthy. When the party returns after acquiring all the keystones, they are granted access to the castle, speaking with Lord DeRosso about the painting depicting the important events of life on each floor, learning his backstory and eventually fighting him on the final floor. Defeated, DeRosso reveals his alliance with Yulyana to combat the doom that is to come.

Alternate versions of him can also be encountered in later chapters, offering a deeper insight into his backstory from why he bore no grudge on Braev's actions. In the Fourth World, noting the younger man having the same feel of despair he has, DeRosso meets with Victor S. Court and agrees to help him in his research to save Victoria by giving him a lock of his hair having him promise to name the first new life created through the sample after his mother. In the Fifth World, noting this to be some sort of punishment by Braev, DeRosso is grouped with Duchy's most disturbing members (Victoria F. Stein, Fiore DeRosa, and Ciggma Khint) as the last line of defense against the Wind Vestal's group when they come to Eternia Central Command.

In the final world, with Ouroboros's arrival into his reality, DeRosso carries out his promise to the angel by merging into the monster's core. Using his own immortality to negate Ouroboros's regeneration, DeRosso died with the monster when he was finally destroyed. But prior to his sacrifice, as the Infernal Realm transcends time and space, DeRosso begins a bootstrap paradox by saying the very words he heard long ago so that a past version of himself would hear it.

Battle
Lester DeRosso is only fought during sub-quests from Chapter 4 onwards, and gives the Vampire asterisk upon defeat. In the final chapter of the game, he can be fought alongside Yulyana. Defeating him in the final chapter also unlocks Dimension's Hasp, where Yulyana sealed away the most powerful weapons in the game.

Etymology
Lester is an ancient Anglo-Saxon surname and is derived from the concatenation of an Old English tribal name "Ligore" and the Old English word "ceaster" meaning "Roman Town" or "Walled City".

DeRosso is a common Italian surname meaning "red", derived from the Latin words Rubius and Rossius both meaning "red".