Today’s Subject: The Armor of The Veritas

Hello one and all, and welcome to the first ever Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Lore Tour with me, YinToYang. This thread will discuss and theorize on the lore and the thoughts of various topics within the worlds of Lapis and Paladia.

First, I’d like to provide a disclaimer that the majority of the Topic of Discussion will come from my knowledge of the current state of the Global Release. Therefore, this topic assumes that you’ve completed up to the current chapter of the Global Story. If you’ve not gotten to that point in the game, fair warning, THERE MAY BE SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.

Expect very little Japanese Story Spoilers unless I can find a partner in crime on the Japanese side to help expand on this budding series if it proves popular. As well, with some of the voids being filled in with Personal Hypotheses about the topic, please take everything with a grain of salt.

Now, saddle up your chocobos if you think you can ride in this choco-rodeo!

We’ll be discussing the villains of Brave Exvius Season 1, The Sworn Six of Paladia or more specifically The Armor of the Sworn Six. Also, special thank you goes out to Vin Chu for the amazing image he created of the Sworn Six for today’s topic!

The Armor of The Veritas are eight different heavy armor sets designed by the Aldore Empire and worn by eight chosen warriors of Aldore’s Elite and Nobility. Each Armor is unique in design and built to channel one of the eight core elements of the games worlds; Fire, Ice, Water, Lightning, Wind, Earth, Darkness, and Light.

The armors were originally created for the Sworn Six of Paladia (Known as the Sworn Eight at the time) during the Great War between Hess’ Mages and Aldore’s Warriors 700 years ago. Aldore being a technologically advanced nation more than likely pooled all their resources and gathered their best minds to create the Veritas Armors giving them special powers relating to the element each one was attuned to. They were then fine-tuned and tailored to the fighting styles and backgrounds of each handpicked warrior to both augment their natural skills and compensate any innate weaknesses that would hinder them. Alongside this, the Sworn Eight were biologically modified by the Scientists of Aldore to be given immortal bodies that would ultimately serve a purpose to wielding the Armors of the Veritas.

Now here is where we dabble into some Theory Territory. The Veritas Armors are not just any old Magically Infused Heavy Armor anyone can just wear. They’re specialized armors that are fuelled and powered by two separate sources. The first source is the Element each one is attuned with. All the Veritas in the game possess a passive ability that automatically absorbs the element their Armor relates to and converts it into HP for them. In real world terms this would ultimately translate as that Veritas Armor naturally fuels and possibly even repairs itself by being exposed to the magical energies of the specific attuned element.

That second power source is actually a little darker and ties back to the purpose of being given immortal bodies. This is some serious Theory Territory we’re entering right now so bear with me on this. The secondary power source is the wearer’s life force. The Armors are energized by the wearer’s individual life force and augments their abilities exponentially. This life draining aspect in long term use would obviously prove detrimental to the average person donning the armor due to the fact it saps the very strength from their being and after an extended use would probably kill the wearer. This would explain why The Sworn Eight have had their bodies augmented to be immortal. Donning the Veritas Armor in this way negates the problem of the Armor ultimately killing the wearer and provides it with an unlimited fuel source, while leaving its owner able-bodied enough to continue to fight.

Now the purpose of The Veritas Armor was simple: The Sworn Eight ultimately served as the vanguard of the war between Hess and Aldore due to Hess being a Magic Nation and most of their soldiers and warriors were powerful Mages. The Armors served the purpose of negating most of the offensive capabilities of the Mages since, as stated earlier, the Armors are designed to absorb the elements they’re attuned to which hampers Hess’s side immensely.

But Hess also had another weapon at their side; The Espers. Almost every Esper is a mystical beast attuned to an element and with the King of Espers, Bahamut, fighting on the side of Hess as one of the Eight Sages of Hess, the other Espers more than likely followed Bahamut’s lead and were among the vanguard on Hess’s side. As shown with Veritas of The Waters during the Olderion storyline in Season 1 she easily defeated and brainwashed Leviathan showing that the Veritas Armor was also designed to counter the force of an Esper’s might should they have ever encountered one.

As we said before the Veritas Armor was tailored to each specific bearer of the Sworn Eight and now we’ll take a look how the armor was made to enhance and compensate each individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

Raegen Veritas of the Dark

Raegen’s Armor was designed primarily with physical combat use in mind. As the leader, and possibly the most physically powerful of the Sworn Eight (even over Fire), the Dark Veritas Armor was designed with long term frontline combat in mind and was given the Dark Element. Darkness Element Magic is extremely dangerous with powerful spells such as Bio and Gravity, and magic intended to cause debilitating status effects. This is most prominent when you consider that one of the Eight Sages of Hess was Dark Fina and her command over the Dystopia and Distress abilities. The Armor was more than likely designed to counter these with innate resistance to various ailments including Blind, Paralysis, and Petrification. He can further his resistances with the Abyss Guard ability and even lend his allies some resistance to the Darkness element as well.

The Armor granted Raegan the ability to use Gravity spells and a powerful magic spell in Impact, which based on Veritas of The Dark’s magic arsenal was more than likely a spell that created a powerful but localized gravity well that enfeebled multiple opponents easily to be taken out. All these enhancements were designed to compensate for Raegen’s lack of ranged capabilities and improve his odds against many of the mages who employed status ailment inducing spells into their arsenal of magic while at the same time being able to deal with large numbers easily.

Cid Veritas of the Heavens

Cid’s armor was one of the most unique armors designed with Aerial Combat in mind by giving the armor the unique power to fly. The flying mechanic of the Heavens Veritas Armor is most likely a mixture of both the armor’s design and how it expels wind magic to both propel and levitate the armor.

With the ability to fly, Veritas of The Heavens was also geared to be a reconnaissance specialist to scope out enemies from afar in the safety of the air. Given Cid’s use of the Spear as his preferred weapon the Veritas Heavens Armor heavily compliments the Dragoon based fighting style. By augmenting his jump capabilities to be able to fly instead, he could use the wind to propel himself back to the ground for devastating results with his Spineshatter Dives. The Armor helps compensate the weakness of the fatigue from long term Dragoon Jumping by making the need to jump almost non-existent with the flight capabilities of the Armor. The Armor’s augmentation system focuses primarily on physical combat similar to the Dark Veritas but on a much weaker level given the Armor more than likely expends a lot of energy alone with the flight system.

Folka Veritas of the Waters

Of all the Veritas Armors, the Water Veritas Armor is the lightest of this set and just barely makes the cut of being classified as a heavy armor. The reason for this is because Folka is a water priestess and the armor was designed to be possible to combat against magic spells while still being a full body suit, but also allowed her mobility for her own graceful magic movement. Given her heritage, it was only natural for her armor to be attuned to the element of water.

As a water priestess, Folka was an extremely gifted healer and would serve a beneficial role amongst the Sworn Eight in protecting the lives of Aldore’s soldiers. As one of the three sole mages amongst the Sworn Eight and with her specialty being White Magic, Folka’s main operative was to heal soldiers while also disorienting and disrupting the opposition with skills like Mist and Mind Blast. As the war raged on however, Folka was forced to take a more direct approach, and not having the capacity for direct combat, utilized the Forbidden Arts of her heritage to forcibly change her personality into that of a cruel and sadistic warrior with dangerous water elemental skills that slaughtered a number of soldiers.

The Water Veritas Armor ultimately serves the purpose of protecting Folka from harm while augmenting her already impressive skills in both the Water Element and White Magic by both constantly replenishing her magic with the Auto-Refresh and protecting her from debilitating ailments like paralysis and silence, so she could constantly keep active and be able to cast magic without end.

Ignacio Veritas of the Flames

Out all the Veritas Armors, The Flame Veritas Armor is probably the largest and heaviest, which isn’t surprising given the owner Ignacio’s sheer height and size. Ignacio’s armor being attuned with the Fire Element was perfectly natural with his background as a Blacksmith. With the Armor’s control over fire it was beneficial in the process of Ignacio creating weapons with the flames he could produce. It wouldn’t be surprising if Ignacio was part of the development team that created the Armors and Weapons of the Veritas given his talents and reputation as a renowned blacksmith.

On top of his skills in forging weapons, Ignacio was also a top notch combatant and probably ranking at about the third strongest physically among the Sworn Eight with only Raegen and Veritas of The Frost surpassing him. His armor was designed to withstand long term frontline combat just like Raegen’s with protection from Blind, Paralysis, and Petrification ailments and the armor augmenting his already impressive physical strength to unimaginable levels. This increased physical strength would benefit him greatly in his forging of weapons because the hammering of a weapon can take a long time to shape properly and requires a large amount of strength and stamina to complete. The Flame Veritas Armor almost makes him his own forge with him being able to constantly heat the metal with just the fire his armor could produce alone.

For those who don’t know, forging a weapon can be summed up in five steps: Forging, Annealing, Grinding, Hardening, and Tempering. Out of all these steps, four of them require the metal to be heated. So it isn’t surprising that the Flame Veritas Armor was a perfect match for Ignacio.

Sieghart Veritas of the Earth

The frontline defense of the Veritas Armors created was The Earth Veritas Armor. This armor absorbed the element of the earth and was fashioned with some of the most unique features in that its primary focus wasn’t offense but rather defense. With the ability to absorb the very earth element itself, it’s a possibility the Earth Veritas armor is fashioned to absorb various minerals within the earth into the armor to enhance its durability which allows Sieghart to mitigate the damage he would receive from oncoming attacks.

As a frontline fighter his armor imbues him with innate resistance to paralysis to allow him to continue his march forward. The most unique aspect of the Earth Veritas Armor is its weapon, the Demon Wall, which appears to be a semi-sentient shield that can transform into a monster when buried into the earth to accumulate power and can then construct itself a full body allowing it to be let loose upon its targets. This would mean Sieghart must manage the distribution of energy in his Armor, as he has to keep the Demon Wall from rampaging if it absorbs too much.

The Demon Wall functions as both a defensive and offensive tool, assisting the Earth Veritas and his companions with a large stone wall. It not only provides great cover for Aldore Soldiers marching behind it, The Wall also attacks anything in front, crushing its target. For added nightmare fuel, given that human blood contains traces of iron, it’s more than likely that the victim’s blood was absorbed to further enhance the durability of the Demon Wall.

The creation of a sentient weapon that transforms into a powerful monster also brings up that Aldore is capable of artificially creating monsters that are controllable but more than likely require an accomplished and capable warrior of wielding such ravenous beasts.

Citra Veritas of the Light

The Vertis of The Light Armor was among the most powerful of the three armors used by the mages of the Sworn Eight because it served to overcome Citra’s glaring weakness. This isn’t to say Citra herself was weak but rather she was cut off from the source of her magical power as an Evoker. Evokers utilize the power of the Espers to unleash tremendous magic by borrowing some of that strength, but since the Espers were fighting for Hess with Bahamut serving as one of the Eight Sages, Citra was unable to access much of her true power.

However, Citra is among one of the most intelligent members of the Sworn Eight and was most likely a tactical genius and strategist so she was beneficial to the Great War and was selected for the Light Veritas Armor. The Light Veritas Armor was among one of the unique Armors, as it allowed Citra to both heal (to a lesser degree than the Water Veritas Armor) and attack with its primary focus being concentrated light elemental magic damage. The armor absorbed the light element and channelled the absorbed energy directly into the cannon arms to fire either a spray of bullets composed of pure energy or concentrated beams of holy light for devastating results.

The Light Veritas Armor was also one of the most well-rounded, as it seemed to borrow features from other Armors, such as augmenting healing like Veritas of the Waters, flight like Veritas of The Heavens, powerful magic like Veritas of The Bolt, innate ailment protection like Veritas of The Dark, devastating attacks like Veritas of The Flame, solid defense like Veritas of The Earth, and an assortment of weaponry like Veritas of the Frost. This further proved Citra’s tactical prowess in that her armor could serve any purpose during the war and support her fellow Veritas if they were incapable of fulfilling their role at the moment. Truly, Citra was a force to be reckoned with given her genius.

Sakura Veritas of the Bolt

Sakura’s Armor is among the least shown of the Veritas Armors, rivaling that of Frostlord’s, but from what we know of Sakura herself we can easily assume the original purpose of The Bolt Veritas Armor served.

Among the three mages of the Sworn Eight Sakura was a black magic specialist and extremely talented to the point of creating her own unique spells like Final Thunder and Rebel Intention so the armor’s ultimate focus was to amplify her black magic skills with Lightning Magic to the highest limits possible. Another purpose the armor served, humorously, was to assist with Sakura’s lack of height and physique. With the appearance of a small child, Sakura suffers obviously from not being taken seriously for her appearance. The armor not only gives her an adult appearance but an intimidating presence with her weapon being a staff that doubled as a scythe composed of magical energy.

Veritas of the Frost

The Frostlord is an enigma among the Sworn Eight. Next to nothing is known about him in terms of combat strength and capabilities and his background is also shrouded in mystery. All we know for sure is that out of all the Veritas he was probably the strongest of them all, an aggressive battle thirsty combatant and allegedly perished (no body no death rule) during the Hess War and all that remained of him was his Armor. However, what little we have seen of the Armor’s capabilities do showcase why this armor was only worthy of a warrior of great talent.

The Frost Veritas Armor’s capabilities with the ice element was unparalleled being capable of freezing an entire village almost instantaneously, and selectively at that, giving the impression that Frostlord’s primary fighting method for the unworthy was just to freeze them and press onwards to the challenges he sought. The Frostlord was armed to the teeth with multiple weapons including twin katanas, a three pronged spear, and a kusarigama possibly hinting a samurai or ninja background to his fighting style. On top of this, Frostlord often sought for worthy challengers in battle and held a firm belief in brawn over brains further adding to his bloodthirsty nature. Among the Veritas he was probably the most ruthless and didn’t hold back against anyone and cut many warriors asunder with his blade.

And that is it for our first Lore Tour. I hope everyone enjoyed the adventure! Please leave your comments down below and let’s discuss further on these subjects. Feel free to even leave suggestions for future subjects I can discuss or you’re just curious on!

I want to give some heartfelt thanks to those who supported me in this endeavor when I made my first thread asking if there’d be interest in this sort of thing, my friends who supported me, my hubby who lovably calls me a nerd but loves it when I chase my passions, my fellow Canadian and Brave Exvius player Berengar for proofreading my atrocious grammar skills, Vin Chu aka /u/Kyuze1337 for the awesome art again of the Sworn Six and who I promised I’d link him this thread when it was done, the good people who make Brave Exvius a reality, and of course you the Brave Exvius Community for taking the time to enjoy this.

This is your host YinToYang signing off till next time!