Mi Lordring

"Mi Lordring"

- introducing himself.

About
Mi Lordring is a fanatical priest of the AL Church. Through sheer grit and enthusiasm, he rose from the position of an ordinary priest to one of the four bishops that serve directly under the pope, placing him among the highest authorities in the Church.

Claiming to hear the voice of the Goddess ALICE from a young age, Lordring became convinced that it was his divine calling to serve as an envoy of ALism and began traveling across The Continent to spread the word of his goddess and help others in need, training to improve his abilities all the while. As a symbol of his devotion, he constructed a crude doll in what he believed to be ALICE's likeness and began to refer to it as a "sacred idol", claiming that his possession of it allowed him to more easily communicate with the goddess. Though his intentions were good, his hot-blooded personality and tendency to have extended conversations with his ALICE doll caused many of the people he encountered in his journeys to be unsettled by him, while his poor sense of direction and refusal to move in any direction other than forward often led him into danger. He never allowed these setbacks to dissuade him, however, perceiving each to be a trial given to him by ALICE to test the limits of his faith, and continued to work with the same fervor he had begun with.

In the year LP0001, Lordring made a pilgrimage to Leazas Castle Town, the capital city of the Kingdom of Leazas, to visit the altar of ALICEMAN in the surrounding frontier land as part of his priestly training. While staying in the castle town, he had his Level increased by Willis Fujisaki, a young woman who ran a local level shop. Though Lordring payed Willis no mind, she became enamored with his earnest and straightforward dedication to his mission and began to surreptitiously follow him around the city to admire him from afar. She gradually convinced herself that these outings were dates and that Lordring was her boyfriend, attributing their lack of interaction to his chaste life as a priest preventing him from being in an intimate relationship.

During the events of Rance 01, Lordring crossed paths with the warrior Rance while on his way to visiting ALICEMAN's altar. Having lost his way, he at first attempted to ask Rance for directions before declaring his directionlessness to be yet another trial imposed by his goddess and barreling away. Lordring later ran into Rance two additional times while attempting to exterminate the Undead creatures that had appeared in the Leazas Castle Town's cemetery and the Kien Mansion, each time running off just as quickly as he had in their first meeting. While the two men's respective personalities caused them to forget each other between each of their brief encounters, with Rance consistently dismissing the priest as a random pervert, Lordring always made a point of healing Rance's wounds prior to making his exit, claiming it to be his duty as a follower of ALICE to do so.

At some point during his pilgrimage in Leazas, Lordring wandered into the castle town's sewer system and fell into the wastewater, getting pulled deeper and deeper into the sewers by its current. By coincidence, he ran into Rance once more, who had traveled through the sewers in pursuit of Princess Lia Parapara Leazas, the person responsible for the kidnappings of several young woman throughout the castle town. Despite his own poor circumstances, Lordring made sure to heal Rance's injuries once more before being pulled away by the water, replenishing the Adventurer's strength in preparation for his final battle. Lordring was eventually able to escape from the sewer through unknown means and complete his work in the Leazas, after which he promptly set out on his way to continue training.

In the year LP0002, Willis passed the exam needed to transform an ordinary person into a Level God. Her infatuation with Lordring remained even after becoming a god, which caused her to begin following his every move in an incorporeal form. While Lordring could not see Willis, he felt her presence around him at all times and began to believe that he had become possessed by an evil spirit. The stress brought on by this notion made his hair begin falling out and compelled him to redouble his efforts to improve his training. In a panic, he began to deliberately move through Monster-infested dungeons throughout the Free Cities Alliance to raise his level more quickly in the hope that doing so would grant him the strength needed to dispel the otherwordly force from his body.

During the events of Rance 03, Leazas and the Free Cities were invaded by the forces of the Helman Republic, enveloping the region in chaos. Though the lives of many people became swept up in the conflict, known as the 7th Leazas-Helman War, Lordring was largely indifferent to it and continued his training unperturbed. Throughout this period, he ran into Rance, who was assisting the Leazas Liberation Army in repelling the Helman Army, on numerous occasions. The two remained oblivious to each of their previous meetings, with Lordring healing Rance and his allies before abruptly leaving just as quickly as he appeared.

Later on into the war, Lordring entered the battlefield during the Battle of The O, a decisive attempt to push the Helman Army out of the Free Cities. Having no formal affiliation to either the Helman Army or the Leazas Liberation Army, he turned to his ALICE doll for consultation on which side to lend his aid to. The doll repeatedly advised him to help the Liberation Army, which propelled him to rapidly move across various key points in the struggle and begin healing its soldiers. Lordring's sudden actions confused both sides of the dispute, but proved invaluable to maintaining the Liberation Army's strength. The battle eventually ended in the Liberation Army's favor, with the Helman Army being forced to retreat into Leazas after sustaining a major blow to its numbers.

After the Battle of The O, Mi continued to assist in defeating the Helman Army by appearing randomly to heal wounded soldiers of the Liberation Army. His movements led him to the sewers beneath Leazas Castle once more, which had become occupied by Helman soldiers. In the sewers, he crossed paths with Rance's party for a final time, where he again healed their injuries. Rance was not at all appreciative of the gesture, having mistaken Lordring for an enemy until he had revealed himself, and kicked him into the wastewater in irritation. Lordring stayed trapped in the stream for the remainder of the war, but made a point of healing Rance's party whenever it passed his location. The Liberation Army soon succeeded in driving out the invaders from Leazas Castle and bringing an end to the war, with Lordring leaving the sewer to resume his training not long afterward.

In the years following the end of the war, Lordring continued to work tirelessly to improve his skills, exterminate restless spirits, and assist others in need. Over time, his actions began to get recognized by the Church itself, leading to him rising through its ranks at an unprecedented rate. After only a few years, he was appointed to the position of bishop and began working directly under Pope Duran Teyuran, the leader of the Church. While many high-ranking members of the Church looked down on Lordring as an eccentric outsider, he proved to be extraordinarily popular with the common people, who greatly admired him as a man from humble beginnings that achieved great success through hard work and dedication. Even with his newfound status, however, Lordring himself payed no mind to how others perceived him, and continued to diligently rove across the Continent helping others as he had during his time as a common priest.

In the year LP0006, Pope Teyuran passed away, leaving the AL Church without a leader. In sacred tradition, the four bishops that had served directly beneath him were pitted against each other in a competition known as the Mulala Test to determine who among them would be chosen as his successor. The test required the bishops to carry out various holy tasks, such as performing miracles, excising spirits, and collecting Balance Breakers, people or things that threatened the stability of the world, to gain points, with additional points being given from votes submitted by the public. The bishop who scored the most points after several months would be recognized as the new pope and instantly be given all of the privilege and authority that came with the position.

During the earliest stages of the Mulala test, Lordring showed little interest in participating in it, claiming that status meant nothing to a servant of ALICE, and did nothing to alter his usual activities. This suddenly changed while he was praying at a small church in rural Leazas, where his ALICE doll reminded him that becoming the pope would allow him to speak with her directly. The notion of getting to see his beloved Goddess in the flesh made Lordring surge with a newfound passion to become the pope, causing him to charge out into the world in search of ways to improve his score.

Despite his vigor, Lordring had no real strategy for winning the competition and instead chose to run wildly in random directions with no particular goal in mind, often needlessly throwing himself into danger along the way and doing little to actually gain points. Because of this, he was not viewed as having a serious chance of becoming pope by either his competitors or much of the general public, causing his candidacy to be mostly ignored. The major exception was King Ragnarokarc Super Gandhi of the Magic Kingdom of Zeth, who was deeply moved by Lordring's straightforward zeal and pledged him his country's support in the competition, going completely against the advice of his subjects in the process.

During the events of Rance Quest, Lordring was reunited several times with Rance, who had been unknowingly assisting Bishop Crook Mofus in completing tasks for the Mulala test. Lordring showed no animosity toward Crook as a rival, offering her words of encouragement and healing for herself and her companions whenever they crossed paths. Though he continued to never recognize or be recognized by Rance throughout their encounters, Lordring was eventually alerted to the other man's status as a balance breaker and attempted to have him sealed to gain points in the competition. Rather than try to subdue him in combat as others had, Lordring revealed his intentions to Rance directly and asked him to come with him to the Holy City of Kaiz, the headquarters of the AL Church. Before the situation could escalate further, Lordring was taken aside by Crook, who informed him that Rance was not a threat to the world and thus had no need to be sealed. Lordring took Crook at her word and politely apologized for the misunderstanding, making no further efforts to capture Rance.

Some time into the competition, the four bishops reconvened in the sacred chamber in the basement of Kaiz to discuss the actions of the Church in the pope's absence. While discussing mission work, Bishop Roule Enron revealed that less than five percent of the eastern nation of JAPAN had converted with ALism, with the vast majority of the country's people choosing to instead follow the local religion of Tenshiism. To overcome this obstacle, Bishop Oz Tortoise proposed to covertly spread the black death, a virulent plague with a high mortality rate, covertly spread throughout JAPAN and have AList missionaries offer relief aid to those willing to convert. Though Enron eagerly supported this idea, both Crook and Lordring objected to it under the belief that killing non-believers was not something that the Goddess ALICE would approve of, preventing it from coming to fruition. After resolving several other hanging issues, the bishops separated to resume the Mulala test.

After months of work, the Mulala test concluded and the bishops gathered beneath Kaiz once more to hear the final results. Before the formal verdict was announced, the four each received a parchment that projected their chances of victory based on the number of points they had scored. Lordring received the lowest probability of winning at only 35 percent, but was enthused by these results, proclaiming them to mean that he would become pope 35 times were one hundred competitions to be held, and showed no fear of losing. In contrast, both Tortoise and Enron expressed outrage at their results relative to Crook, who had scored the highest at 54 percent, and attempted to convince her to drop out of the contest. When Crook refused, Enron accused her of having allowed her body to become corrupted by sin by giving her chastity to a Devil and demanded that a test be performed to confirm the presence of her hymen. While Lordring disagreed with this course of action, he did not wish to question the judgement of the senior bishops and instead left the chamber in embarrassment as they conducted the procedure.

When Lordring returned to the chamber he found that Crook was absent, with Tortoise and Enron claiming that she had left to perform a ritual to cleanse her body of corruption. Unbeknownst to Lordring, the ritual the two elder bishops spoke of was a violent gang rape at the hands of the Calpis Choir, a group of young men that Tortoise had raised to purge any women he deemed to be too "filthy" for his own pleasure, with the intention of breaking her mind and body before the new pope was declared. Oblivious to the heinous conspiracy that was underway, Lordring did not investigate the issue further, believing it to be patronizing to question Crook's ability to perform a purifying ritual by herself.

Crook was later rescued by Rance and his allies, who had stormed Kaiz in concern after learning that she was one of the bishops taking part in the Mulala test. While Tortoise tried to have the group apprehended for entering a holy space without permission, the four bishops were called to hear the final results of the competition just as he did, preventing any recourse. Lordring was the second of the four to be eliminated, only scoring higher than Enron, but showed no shame at his loss, having been brought to tears of joy at merely getting to witness the outline of the Goddess ALICE’s figure draped in blinding light. After hours of further deliberation, Crook finally emerged from the chamber accompanied by the echoing voice of ALICE declaring her to be the newest pope. Taking the word of his goddess as law, Lordring immediately pledged loyalty to Crook while Tortoise and Enron fled to parts unknown to mourn their losses and escape the repercussions of their actions.

In the days immediately following Crook's appointment as pope, Lordring assisted her alongside the Church's private army the Temple Knights in unsealing balance breakers that posed a low risk to the world and returning them to their previous locations. After all of the low-risk balance breakers had been released, the group returned to Kaiz to gather with the leaders of the major world powers and formally celebrate the ascendency of the new pope. During the festivities, the Shepherds, an organization headed by former pope Am Isuel intent on spreading despair across the world, infiltrated the proceedings and abducted the Kalar queen Pastel Kalar along with several dangerous balance breakers. On Crook’s orders, Lordring and an elite squad of Temple Knights began a widespread search throughout the area for the Shepherds’ whereabouts.

The Temple Knights eventually succeeded in locating the Shepherds’ headquarters within a secret waterway inside of Kawanakajima, the island on which Kaiz was located. Eager to save Pastel, Rance goaded Crook into taking him to the hideout ahead of the knights. Rance and his allies managed to corner Am at the hideout, only for her to escape with Pastel in tow before she could be defeated.

Shortly after the Shepherds’ disappearance, a mysterious black mist began to emanate from the Tower of Babel, a mysterious structure that had been constructed next to Rance’s new residence Rance Castle in the Free City of CITY. The mist quickly spread across the Free Cities and Leazas, and started to move into the easternmost parts of Zeth. Those who inhaled the mist became filled with an overwhelming sensation of despair which compelled them to bring despair onto others, quickly throwing the infected regions into chaos. Connecting the phenomenon to the Shepherds, Crook gained ALICE’s permission to storm the tower and investigate the mist.

After several difficult battles, Rance, Crook, and their allies managed to dispel the source of the mist, a congregation of completely polluted Human Souls being amplified by a dispersion morurun Curse cast by a brainwashed Pastel, and defeat Am. Soon after their victory, they were greeted by Lordring and an elite unit of Temple Knights, whose strong religious faith allowed them to resist the mist’s effects. Equipped with high level sealing items, Lordring and the Temple Knights contained the bodies of Am and the other individuals throughout the tower with high soul pollution to prevent their pollution from further spreading, putting a stop to the Shepherds’ dark plans once and for all.

Following the defeat of the Shepherds, the AL Church resumed its normal activities. As both Tortoise and Enron, who had run to the Shepherds for protection after their losses and respectively killed and sealed during the attack on the Tower of Babel, were no longer able to act as bishops, two high-ranking priests were promoted to fill their vacant positions. Lordring, the sole bishop that maintained his rank after the Mulala test, continued to serve faithfully under Crook, who, despite his unpredictable nature, viewed him as a trusted subordinate.

In the year LP0007, a large army of monsters suddenly appeared in the Kinani Desert at the center of the Continent and began to attack Leazas, Zeth, Helman, and the Free Cities in a conflict that would come to be known as the 2nd Dark Lord War. Unprepared for the invasion and unable to damage the Dark Lords that led the Monster Army’s forces, the four nations each quickly began to buckle against the attack. Kawanakajima’s isolated location rendered it relatively safe from the Monster Army, allowing it the freedom to deploy its resources to assist the rest of the Human Realm. Recognizing Rance, who wielded the Dark Sword Chaos that could penetrate the Invincibility Field that protected Dark Lords from conventional damage and had close relations with all of the Human Realm’s most influential figures, as the one person who could unite humanity to victory against the monsters, Crook commissioned the Temple Knights to scan the world for his location.

During the events of Rance X, Crook and the Temple Knights finally found Rance after a month of searching inside of the crashed Horus colony ship in the tundras of Siberia on the northernmost edge of the Continent. The group wasted no time in escorting Rance and his allies back to Rance Castle, where a global summit was being held between the Human Realm's leaders to coordinate a joint strategy against the Monster Army. Crook asked Rance to serve as a goodwill ambassador to help mediate the discussion between nations. While Rance was initially disinterested, he was quickly compelled into agreeing at the urging of Oda Kou, the leader of Oda House, the dominant power in JAPAN.

Soon after entering the conference hall, Rance grew frustrated with the unproductive nature of the summit and audaciously interrupted the proceedings to declare that he would defeat the Monster Army, demanding that the rest of humanity simply follow his lead. While many in attendance were infuriated by the display, the representatives of the Human Realm's five largest nations agreed to the proposal without hesitation, with Crook following soon afterward. Unwilling and unable to object to the unanimous decision of the six most powerful people in the world, the rest of the summits attendees accepted Rance's demand. Days later, the military powers of all the Human Realm's nations officially merged together under Rance to form the United Human Army, combining their resources to mount a more effective resistance against the monsters.

In December of LP0007, three months after the beginning of the war, Kawanakajima was attacked by an army of 50,000 monsters led by the Dark Lord RedEye. Lacking the numbers to defend against an army of such size, Crook ordered the Temple Knights to lead the island's inhabitants in an evacuation. While the Temple Knights conducted the process efficiently, many of the Church's most dedicated members refused to abandon Kaiz, considering it to be sacrelige to give up the holy city to monsters. Though Lordring shared his associates' anguish about having to surrender the Church's most sacred ground, he convinced them to go through with the evacuation by assuring them that the pope's judgement represented that of the Goddess ALICE, and that their goddess would not abandon them for abandoning Kaiz in their time of need. Before leaving with the rest of the evacuees, Lordring made an effort to collect every sacred relic from Kaiz he could carry to ensure that they would not be destroyed by the Monster Army, which helped put the minds of his colleagues further at ease. His heart heavy with doubt, Lordring took one final look at Kaiz as he boarded a ship to return to the Continent, unsure of whether he had truly made the correct decision.

Immediately after the evacuation was completed, Lordring made a request for Crook to authorize a campaign to take back Kaiz from the Monster Army. Crook was hesitant to agree to the appeal, but relented in response to the overwhelming support it received from other devout ALists. Rallying together a small army of volunteers made up of devoted ALists from across the Continent, Lordring led the operation to liberate the holy city. Lordring played an active role on the frontlines throughout the attack, barreling ahead of his subordinates to scout out the enemy's number and fighting off any monster soldiers that stood in his way. While his subordinates were concerned for his safety, his daring proved highly beneficial to the mission, with the Monster Army being driven out from Kaiz within a month.

At some point during the war, Lordring was recruited to serve as a member of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, an elite fighting force led by Rance designed to fight against and defeat each of the Dark Lords invading human territories. As a member of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, Lordring deviced a new form of worship known as the "firewalking line", in which he walked barefoot across hot embers barefoot as a show of his devotion to ALICE. Despite now working together as teammates, Lordring and Rance continued to forget one another between meetings, with Rance never failing to refer to Lordring as a pervert each time they were brought together. As a prank, Rance stole Lordring's ALICE doll and threw it out one of Rance Castle's windows. Rather than take offense, Lordring leapt through the window to follow it, interpreting the gesture as Rance's way of telling him to continue searching his heart to deepen his faith and improve the appearance of his doll.

During the “From the Sea” ending route, Lordring boards the ship the Sunset along with half of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad’s members to covertly invade the Monster Realm from the sea. The Sunset is unexpectedly swept away during the voyage by a violent storm, leaving its crew shipwrecked on a small island and unable to immediately accompany the remaining half of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad into enemy territory. After several days of hard work, the crew succeeds in repairing the Sunset and, following a signaling beacon sent out by the Dark Witch Miracle Tou, rescue their comrades from a large army of monsters within the underground waterway of Mount Bezdog, which the Monster Army’s leader, the Dark Lord Kayblis, had been using as his keep. After reuniting, the combined forces of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad engage in a final decisive battle against Kayblis, freeing humanity from his tyranny and ending the war.

In the year RA0004, four years after the end of the 2nd Dark Lord War, all divine presences abruptly vanished from the Continent, with both level shops and Divine Magic suddenly ceasing all function as a result. Stripped of all but its most rudimentary functions, the AL Church steadily began to lose power across the world, with many of its followers relinquishing their faith under the perception that they had been abandoned by God. By the year RA0008, an anti-religious movement heralded by the RECO Cult, which preached "God is dead, and we have killed him", began to gain traction throughout the Human Realm, depriving the AL Church of what little remained of its global influence. It is unclear how Lordring was affected by the radical shifts in the social climate of the world, though he is presumed to have been impacted significantly.

In the year RA0009, Rance, who had become the Demon King at the conclusion of the 2nd Dark Lord War, was overcome by the corrupting influence of the Demonic Blood Pool, causing his mind to become filled with an overwhelming desire to bring ruin to the Protagonist Race. In order to satiate this urge, he ordered his monster forces to invade the territories of the Human Realm, sparking the beginnings of a conflict that would become known as the War of the Brutal King. To combat the new threat, Miracle, who had assumed the position of leader of humanity's forces, assembled an elite team composed of humanity's strongest warriors known as the Neo-Twelve Knights, with Lordring serving as one of its members.

After a year of constant fighting, the Neo-Twelve Knights were able to temporarily restore Rance's sanity through the combined efforts of his daughter Reset Kalar and the mysterious creature SBR. Following his recovery, Rance ordered the monsters to cease their assault on the Human Realm, ending the war in the process. While it is unknown what happened to Lordring after the war, he and the other members of the Neo-Twelve Knights would go on to be revered by history as legendary heroes in recognition of their exploits and achievements.

Personality and Appearance
Lordring is a fairly young man with a thin build. He has very distinct, almost cat-like eyes that are always in an intense, determined expression. He is never seen without his Alice puppet by his side, which he claims to be an avatar of the Goddess herself, despite (poorly) providing the voice for it himself. Interestingly, as his rank within the Church increases, his Alice puppet becomes more detailed, beginning as a crude wood block in a dress and finally becoming a replica of the Goddess ALICE during the events of Rance X. Almost inverse to his Alice puppet's growth, Lordring's hair, which was once long and flowing, has steadily fallen out as he has gained more power, to the point of him being totally bald as an Archbishop.

An incredibly passionate man brimming with religious zeal, Lordring almost always loudly announces himself whenever he appears in an area, even when there is no one else around to hear him, and almost never speaks in anything lower than a shout. Lordring believes that it is his duty as a priest of ALism to spread the gospel of the Goddess Alice all across the Continent, and takes a great amount of pride in doing so. He is largely indifferent to anything that doesn't involve his Goddess, causing him to completely forget people that he has met several times before. He is very likely slightly insane, as he frequently travels through areas devoid of human life despite his goal being to convert other people to his religion. Despite this, he is a genuinely good man who never hesitates to help people in danger. He is shown to deeply believe in the teachings of the Church, devoting himself to providing care and protection to others while expecting nothing in return for his services. Notably, he is shown to have no problem with healing Feliss, a Devil, who would normally be recognized as an enemy to ALism and persecuted by a priest, showing that his compassion to help others surpasses even his devotion to his religion.

Unlike other high-ranking members of the priesthood, Lordring is entirely oblivious to the sinister inner workings of the Church, and refrains from taking part in the corrupt actions of his peers as a result. Of the four candidates for the position of Duran Teyuran's successor as Pope, he was the only one who did not use any sort of underhanded means to achieve his position, doing so solely through hard work. Because of this, he was largely seen as foolish and naive by the other Bishops, who did not deem him as legitimate competition.

He has crossed paths with Rance several times throughout his adventures, though Rance's lack of interest in men and Lordring's lack of interest in everything that isn't related to the Goddess Alice mean that neither of them ever remembers the other. In spite of this, Lordring almost always assists Rance whenever they encounter each other by healing his and his allies' wounds.

Strangely enough, Willis Fujisaki had a crush on him when she was still training to become a Level God, going so far as to claim that he was her boyfriend. Lordring was oblivious to her feelings for him and barely even seemed to register her as anything more than a means of leveling up. After becoming a Level God, however, Willis' memories of her life as a human were largely erased and she no longer remembers Lordring.

Abilities
While the full extent of his power is currently unknown, Lordring is suggested to be an extraordinarily powerful person that possesses abilities that border on superhuman. He is an extremely skilled Divine Magic user, and is capable of fully healing an entire party of high level warriors with the most basic healing spell. In addition, he is incredibly formidable physically, regularly defeating strong monsters singlehandedly while only using his fists. Compared to the other Pope candidates, who traveled with large groups of strong warriors to protect them when performing miracles, Lordring was able to travel across highly dangerous parts of the continent unaided and still successfully complete several miracles, further implying his excellence as both a priest and as a warrior. His amazing strength is additionally proven by his tendency to appear in situations and environments that are incredibly dangerous for even skilled warriors such as Rance completely unharmed, even appearing in the middle of a war zone seemingly no worse for wear fighting off several powerful Helman soldiers with ease.

In addition to his incredible physical capabilities, he also practices ventriloquism, and regularly speaks through his Alice puppet. Compared to his otherwise amazing talents, however, he is very bad at it.

Trivia

 * Similarly to the other two rival Pope candidates, Lordring shares a lot in common with the national leader that chose to support him, Ragnarokarc Super Gandhi. Both are ridiculously powerful and passionate individuals that are motivated solely by a desire to do good but are ironically ineffectual due to the way they go about doing it.
 * Despite his late introduction, he has retroactively been made one of the most reoccurring characters in the series due to his appearances in Rance 01 and Rance 03.
 * In the Rance 03 Popularity Poll he ranked 7th in the male characters category, making him a popular character.
 * His last name is very likely a reference to the iconic Lord of the Rings series of fantasy novels.