Roy Alphard

Roy Alphard (ロイ・アルファルド) is a Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, representing the Bizarre Eating aspect of Gluttony, and he is the brother of Lye Batenkaitos and Rui Arneb. He was one of the main antagonists of Arc 5 and Arc 6 and a secondary antagonist of Arc 9.

During the events of Arc 5, he ate Julius's name, causing everyone but Subaru to forget about him. In Arc 6, however, when he tried to devour Reid Astrea, his body was taken over by his abnormally large soul. While he regained control of his body after Reid's soul shattered due to it being incompatible with Roy's body, the fatal wound rendered him unconscious, and he was sealed away with the usage of Yin Magic. In Arc 9, Aldebaran frees Roy from confinement and forces him to obey him as part of his plan to remove Subaru from the world.

Appearance

Roy has long, disheveled red-tipped, dark brown hair tied into a braid behind his head, along with emerald green eyes that are yellow in the center and have a poisonous glimmer to them. He also has a young look, a mischievous smile, and wears a ripped, green cloth reminiscent of a men's cheongsam around his body. Like his siblings, his teeth are all pointed like fangs.

Personality

Like his siblings, Roy speaks using in a collective manner, speaking with terms like "we" or "us" rather than third- or first-person speech; he also thrives on devouring the lives and memories of his opponents in a manner reminiscent of Lye and Rui. However, unlike his siblings, Roy does not care about what specifically he eats. As Bizarre Eating, Roy has no preferences and craves and "loves" all people equally, and as such, he desires to devour every last person in the world. Accordingly, he does not share Lye's fastidiousness with his meals, lacking the meticulousness with proving opponents' worth and distinct likes and dislikes his brother had. As he initially devoured his enemies, he placed his hopes on the chance that one of his dishes would one day fill him, and that he could find his own course to appease his hunger like his siblings did. His failure to find his desired meal often led him to feeling dispirited, despondent, and disappointed. As such, he did not place any special emphasis on the quality of his meals nor who it was he ate, which led to multiple criticisms by his siblings. It was also for this reason that he kept one of the heads of the Black Serpent hidden away, since it could effectively immobilize his meals without killing them, giving him the chance to devour their names and memories. He is even willing to expose the Serpent in a heavily populated area in order to do this.

After devouring Reid Astrea, however, who filled him to nearly literally bursting, his perspective changed. Understanding that his hunger may never be sated, Roy came to believe that, rather than wanting to sate his hunger, like his siblings attempt to do with their respective methods, what he wanted was a real filling of living, and he was given a true purpose to devour his enemies. Likewise, whereas before, he would find no worth in many of the names and memories that he had devoured and kept stored away, forgotten, because of his change in perspective, he came to realize that even that which he had forgotten and saw no worth in did, in fact, carry worth, and he began to harbor gratitude toward every single thing he had eaten, believing that not a single thing in the world that he could eat was a foul ingredient. As such, he came to the conclusion that even that which he had forgotten about could be useful and carry worth, something which led to him creating a new form of Eclipse, using the dregs from among what he had eaten.

Even if he comes across powerful enemies upon whom he cannot devour, he is willing to throw away his will to devour them and push his life to the brink and fight with everything he has available to him, even if it means he has to regurgitate some of his past meals. Compared to Lye, who would flee or postpone his dishes to prioritize his own life, Roy believes that if he allows someone to escape him, he may never again get a chance to devour that person, and his meal will be lost on the high chance that the two will never again meet. Furthermore, he thinks if he does not exert his maximum effort, it would be a disservice his enemy who went out of their way to bring out their full potential to fight and counter him, and that unless he invests his entire being into what he desires, he can not truly express love, an ideology he shares with his “Mother”. He also seems to display a seeming joy for battle as well, actively choosing not to heal himself in favor of choosing methods of attack, even if it means using up his life force.

History

Although much of Roy's past is unknown, according to Roy, he and Lye's birth parents, as well as Rui, died shortly after their births. He also mentions that his and Lye's foster parents after that were not likeable people. According to Reid Astrea, he got involved in unknown circumstances because he did not have a “stance” of his own. Sometime after coming into contact with the Witch Factor of Gluttony, Roy met his younger sister, Rui Arneb, for the first time when she possessed Lye's body. He later gained access to Eclipse after discovering it alongside Lye and began utilizing it to devour as many people as he wanted.

Abilities

Authority of Gluttony (暴食の権能 Bōshoku no Ken'nō): Roy is able to use the Authority of Gluttony. Due to the uniqueness of the Witch Factor's ability to split, Roy can sense others who bear the same Witch Factor, something he can use to determine whether or not his siblings are alive.

• Gluttony (暴食 Bōshoku): Roy can eat the name and memories of his opponent. To eat a name, he touches them with his left hand, then licks the palm of the same hand. Things such as experience, talent, and the likes and dislikes of human relationships serve as food for him, allowing him to take advantage of any abilities or memories his opponents had. Likewise, he can choose whether or not to eat only names, only memories, or both, though he claims that it difficult and is like trying to eat only the ingredients in a sandwich without removing the buns. However, if Roy eats a fake name, or if he attempts to eat the previous name of a person who has managed to change their name, such as through marriage or adoption, he becomes plagued with severe nausea. Similarly, attempting to devour the name and memories of someone with a soul too large and powerful puts Roy at the risk being taken over by said spirit, as in the case of Reid Astrea. Even after killing Roy, the names and memories of his victims will not return to their original owners. However, he can regurgitate specific names and memories in order shake those who were at some point attached to certain people. According to Roy, anything that the siblings eat goes to the same Stomach of Souls (魂の胃袋, Tamashī no Ibukuro), from which they can share and pull the same names and memories that their siblings have eaten.
  • Those that have had their names eaten have their existences erased from the world, destroying any human relationships along with negating any contracts with spirits.
  • Those that have their memories eaten become amnesic and any characteristics they may have had are reset, effectively making them into a different person.
  • Those that have both their name and memories eaten simply become a shell, and although they live, they no longer eat, excrete waste, or age, putting them in suspended animation.
  • They cannot eat the same person twice until that individual gains enough new memories to establish a different sense of self from their old one.
  • Roy could not eat the names or memories of non-humanoid beings, such as different animals, witchbeasts, or earth dragons.

• Eclipse (蝕, Shoku): Eclipse is considered to be the trump card of Gluttony. It is split into two types: Solar Eclipse (日食, Nisshoku) and Lunar Eclipse (月食, Gesshoku). Furthermore, as a result of his change in perspective in the wake of devouring Reid Astrea, Roy developed Eclipsing Binary (蝕連星, Shoku Rensei), a new form of Eclipse, during the struggle for the Grand Mogolade Geyser.
  • Lunar Eclipse: This allows the holder to use their victims' memories and harvest their skills and knowledge. Roy used Lunar Eclipse to boost his physical strength and speed in his fight against Julius and Ricardo Welkin. On top of that, Roy could also combine any number of memories and skills which would in turn allow him to create any sort of synthesized super-class technique he desired. However, Roy cannot bring forth the true potential of techniques in this manner, only being granted a portion of the technique's power. It is worth noting that by eating a person's name and using Lunar Eclipse, Roy does not gain his victims' Divine Protections, spiritual arts, or Authorities.
  • Solar Eclipse: This allows the holder to harvest their victims' name and transform their appearance accordingly. Rui, for example, transformed into Neiji Lockhart and numerous other victims she and her two brothers had eaten throughout the years using her sibling's body. By doing so, though he becomes limited in the number of techniques he can use, the techniques that belong to those who Roy has transformed into can achieve their full potential. Roy does not like using Solar Eclipse because he does not like the side effects of morphing into his victims, as he feels as though he loses his sense of self.
  • Eclipsing Binary: This allows Roy to extract and blend specific memories from the Stomach of Souls, then cast them towards his opponents. However, as the memories sent to his opponents were foreign to them, rather than experiencing the memories gathered by Roy, the memories hurled towards an opponent would incite them to recall the experience of the most similar memories they had. Roy utilized this power to take the concept of memories of agony and send it at his opponents, prompting each of them to experience a harsh feeling of agony they once underwent.
• Life Creation: Rui stated she and her brothers can create life with the usage of her Witch Factor of Gluttony, just like how Daphne created the witchbeasts four centuries ago. However, Rui has also stated she and her brothers had no reason to do so, hence they never followed through the idea.^[1] While all of this has been strictly stated by Rui, it's safe to assume Roy can also create life through the usage of his Witch Factor of Gluttony.
  • Witchbeast Control: Because Roy, Lye, and Rui each possess the Witch Factor of Gluttony previously owned by Daphne, they can direct witchbeasts to attack certain areas. This was why the White Whale’s attacks were coordinated with those of the Witch Cult. In Arc 6, Lye and Roy are able to get to the Pleiades Watchtower in half a day by commanding the witchbeasts in the Augria Sand Dunes and order them to attack the Watchtower. In Arc 9, Roy shows that he can command one of the heads of the Black Serpent, having it fight alongside him. The White Whale, as well as, to an extent, the Great Rabbit can also obey the Factor holder's will.

Master Martial Prowess: Through the accumulation of souls eaten with his Authority, Roy gains any abilities his victims once had such as martial art techniques and weapon skills by using Lunar Eclipse. In turn, this grants him extraordinary combat strength. He was able to overpower both Julius and Ricardo, who are noted to be very strong.

• Ultimate Palm (絶掌, Zettenohira): Ultimate Palm is a powerful palm strike granting Roy the sheer power to push people flying back with the force of a car and to destroy physical objects like swords by merely colliding with them. This ability is implied to originally belong to an individual who claimed to slay eighty-eight “pretty boys”.^[2]
• Serpent of the Twin Swords (双剣の蛇, Sō Ken no Hebi): With Serpent of the Twin Swords, Roy has the technique to swiftly use his daggers at high speeds, granting him the skill to direct a flurry of slashes at an opponent.
• Carnivorous Beast (肉食獣, Nikushoku-jū): Carnivorous Beast allows Roy to strengthen his body and gives him two advantages: he can withstand powerful attacks and strengthen his limbs to deliver devastating blows that, from Subaru's perspective, would be as devastating as getting hit by a car. With it, he could prevent himself from being beheaded by point blank wind magic from Ram. This ability originally belonged to Beli Hainelga.
• Leaper (跳躍者, Chōyaku-sha): Leaper allows Roy to use a short-range teleportation in quick succession, essentially allowing him to "leap" behind his opponents or avoid extremely precise and quick attacks. He is also capable of utilizing it vertically, making it appear as if he's flying. This ability originally belonged to Dorkell.
• Palm of the Fist King (拳王の掌, Ken Ō no Tenohira): Palm of the Fist King allows Roy to strike his opponents with an extremely powerful fist, and its destructive force grants him the capability to blast and drill through steel or flesh. This ability originally belonged to Neiji Lockhart.
• Snow Vallum (雪喰, Yukikui): A technique that allows Roy to enhance his physical might and grappling strength, and by doing so, he can stop the charge or attack of a beast larger than himself, such as a Guiltylowe. The technique originally belonged to Tislow, and it is fabled to have enough strength to stop an entire avalanche.
• Compactor (圧搾屋, Assaku-ya): An ability that allows Roy to, by closing their hands together, manipulate the earth around him as if moving sand, and by doing so, everything from the edges from his vision can be gathered in one spot and crushed by the earth. By only partially using this technique can allow Roy to obstruct his opponents' line of sight by raising the earth. The technique originally belonged to Figdour.
• Priestess of a Thousand Visages (千面聖女, Sen-men Seijo): A technique that allows Roy to see three hundred and sixty degrees degrees around himself from both left to right and top to bottom. The technique originally belonged to Iyerna.

Magic: Like with his martial prowess, due to having eaten numerous names and memories, Roy has obtained access to numerous magic abilities. However, this does not increase his mana pool, meaning that he might not be able to use spells to their fullest potential depending on the spells' respective mana consumptions.

• Twilight Mage (逢魔術師, Ōmajutsu-shi):

  

  Twilight Mage grants unique magical abilities to Roy, such as manipulating a stream of water into a pair of massive serpentine water dragons that can tear someone's body apart or countering the effects of others' magic by nullifying it with his own. This ability is implied to originally belong to an insignificant sorcerer who was a social outcast unloved by even their family.^[3]
• Blood-Weeping Oni (血涙鬼, Ketsurui Oni): Blood-Weeping Oni allows Roy to manipulate his own spilt blood to bind and attack his enemies. He can also make his blood coagulate and return to his body, essentially allowing him to halt his own bleeding. This originally belonged to Advan.
• Lord of Phantasmal Rainbows (虹幻公, Kōgen Kō): By using the residual mana of the corpses of witchbeasts as catalysts, Roy can create rainbow butterflies that create prismatic explosions upon contact with the target. Though, they can be made to detonate early by using the environment or magic in place of oneself. The technique is reminiscent of the prismatic spiritual arts of Julius Juukulius,^[4] meaning that the butterflies are likely made up of all six elements. These butterflies can also be used as mana tanks, from which Roy can absorb into his own body to maintain his mana stores.^[5] This originally belonged to Matclyma Jordon.
• Magic Manus Magister (魔弄師, Ma Rō-shi): A technique that allows Roy to manipulate multiple magic attributes to cast multiple spells at once, such as by simultaneously creating spears of flame, ice, and earth, which had the capacity to lock onto and fire at a target. The technique originally belonged to Yardray.

Blighted Love Balladeer (悲恋歌人, Hiren Kajin): A technique that allows Roy to use his voice to freeze an opponent in place. It is unclear whether this falls under magic, as it is described as a curse ballad. The technique originally belonged to Notah.

Keen Intellect: Despite coming off as a depraved lunatic, Roy is also deceptively smart and devious. After witnessing the display a strange Authority, he was able to quickly deduce who was using it, despite lacking any prior knowledge of it, as well as realize that its ability was related to the shortening of events, despite the intangible nature of her Authority. Likewise, he is shown to prepare traps and plan for certain eventualities; when he was held captive by Aldebaran and had his curse's restrictions loosened, he was quick to form an alliance with another captive and had already prepared "insurance" in the eventuality that she would inevitably betray him, all the while planning for a massacre in the near future. On top of this, having devoured so many names and memories, he also has a vast stockpile of knowledge at the tips of his fingers, and the only thing he needs to do to access it is unearth it from his stockpile.

Curse (呪い, Noroi): Roy currently has an oath bound curse mark carved onto him.

• Oath Bound Curse Mark (誓約の呪印, Seiyaku no Juin): Upon being freed from his prison by Al, Roy had an oath bound curse mark carved onto himself. According to his oath, if he is to ever break his promise and consume anyone with his Authority of Gluttony besides the one person Al has told him to eat, he shall be engulfed in a purifying flame, scorching his body and tainting his soul, never allowing it to return to Od Lagna.^[6] However, Al has since loosened the restrictions on the curse, allowing him to devour his targets' memories.

Equipment:

• Claws & Daggers: Roy wields two claws from his hands that he uses with his speed and lightness. He also wields daggers that were hidden inside of his clothes.
• Gospel (福音): As a member of the Witch Cult, Roy is the owner of a copy of a Gospel. Each Gospel was a replica of the Book of Wisdom, a book that had been in the possession of the Witch of Greed Echidna. The Book of Wisdom would provide exact details of future events concerning the Witch of Greed, essentially bestowing Echidna with a form of precognition. Unlike the original Book of Wisdom, the Gospels of the Witch Cult were imperfect replicas, meaning that, although they detailed the future of its owner, the events conveyed were subject to change and the information provided was often up for interpretation. The Gospels took the form of small black books that could only be read by their owners.

Trivia

• Like the other Sin Archbishops (with the exception of Stride Vollachia), Roy received his namesake from a celestial body. Alphard, meaning "the individual", is the name of the brightest star in the Hydra constellation. The star's meaning is also known as "the backbone of the serpent".
• The reason why he has the moniker "Bizarre Eating" is that he has no standards when it comes to who he eats.
• Roy, like Lye, dislikes using Solar Eclipse. According to him and his brother, it seems to make him experience the victims' thoughts which make him feel like he's being damaged. He describes this feeling as unbearable.
• It is hinted that Roy is working for Mother, being one of her "children", just like Elsa and Meili.^[7][8]
• In a Q&A, the author stated that if Daphne and a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony were to fight, it would most likely end in a draw. It is unknown if this answer was stating that a fight with Roy and his siblings would end in a draw against the Witch of Gluttony if they fought her all at once, nor is it known if the resulting draw would only come from a match with one of them.
• Roy was sealed off in the same way as the Witch of Envy; with the usage of a complex application of Yin Magic, rendering him stuck in time.
• Originally, Roy was the one who devoured the name and memories of Joshua Juukulius in the shop special release of Joshua Juukulius's Careful Second Encyclopedia, but the illustration incorrectly depicted his brother Lye instead. In Tanpenshuu Volume 11, this was remedied by having the story rewritten to feature Lye rather than Roy.

References

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Witch Cult Sin Archbishops Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti • Regulus Corneas • Lye Batenkaitos • Roy Alphard • Rui Arneb • Sirius Romanée-Conti • Capella Emerada Lugunica • Stride Vollachia Followers Ketty Muttart • Sado • Fogg • Sergei • Faust • Dorkell Others Pandora