Vossler

Name: Vossler York Azelas
Japanese name: ウォースラ・ヨーク・アズラス
Age: 38
Race: Hume
Seiyuu: Masaki Terasoma
Voice Actor: Nolan North

Vossler is a former captain of the Order of the Knights of Rabanastre, and current member of the resistance against the Archadian Empire. Following the fall of Dalmasca, he helped to hide and protect Princess Ashe.

Vossler first appears during the attempt to prevent King Raminas's assassination; he somehow manages to survive the ruse. He next appears two years later during the attack on the Royal Palace of Rabanastre the night of Vayne’s fête, and manages to avoid capture by the Imperials. When Basch returns to Rabanastre, it’s Vossler he goes to in an attempt to join the Resistance, but Vossler is loath to believe Basch’s story despite the need to rescue Ashe.

Vossler appears again on the Dreadnought Leviathan in the disguise of an Imperial soldier, having found passage there through the help of Marquis Ondore. He joins the party as a guest and assists in freeing Ashe, and leaves again when they come across Larsa as they try to escape. He secures a ship for the party, and they escape to Bhujerba successfully.

Vossler urges Ashe to stay in hiding, as she has done for the past two years, but, tired of waiting, Ashe promptly leaves Ondore’s watchful care with a plan of her own. Vossler promptly follows after the party, and again rejoins as a guest.

The party successfully retrieves the Dawn Shard in Raithwall’s tomb, but upon leaving find an Imperial fleet waiting for them. Vossler, it turns out, has struck a deal with the Archadians: all they have to do is turn over the Dawn Shard, and Ashe will be allowed to reclaim her throne. Left with no other choice, Ashe does so, but when the stone is tested its power goes wild and Fran goes berserk. The party breaks free of their restraints and makes to escape, but Vossler stands against them. The party defeats him, and Vossler says that he had thought only of Dalmasca, and urges Basch to take up his charge of protecting Ashe. The party escapes, and Vossler dies as the Dawn Shard takes out the entire Imperial fleet.

Opinion

As far as guest characters go, Vossler is really good. Here’s a character who’s only in the first quarter of the game, and yet he gets a good chunk of development and screentime. We know who he is, we know why he acts the way he does, and we can understand why he did what he did. As Ghis says, a kingdom for a stone is a simple choice — especially when the characters don’t yet know what the power of deifacted nethicite is.

All in all I think Vossler is a really good example of a guest/NPC character done well. He has just the right level of involvement in the story and his arc is taken to the logical conclusion. It doesn’t end well for him, sure, but it makes sense for the character, and that’s something I like a lot in storytelling.

The manga expands on Vossler a lot (to the point that the manga is almost more Vossler’s story than Ashe’s, bizarrely). Unfortunately, the manga is terrible and near the end Vossler’s characterization takes a real nosedive. Trust me on this: stick to the game.

As a side note I had no idea Nolan North was his voice actor until I was putting his profile together for this page. I've played this game five times and I never noticed that. Now that I know it, it's all I can think about.