Sieg

"Sieg, formally introducing himself to Rance."

- A pleasure to meet you. I am Sieg, a Dark Lord. I have been waiting for you, wielder of the Dark Sword Chaos. I have been entrusted with the role of the Human Realm Suppression Army's second-in-command. For being able to harm my associate Seizel, your talent must be very impressive for a human. However... I cannot simply let you continue after harming an associate. Allow me to challenge you now.

About
Sieg was a Dark Lord allied with the Kayblis Faction and a major antagonist in Rance VI.

A former Panaclonic, Sieg was transformed into a Dark Lord at an unknown point in the GL Era. As a Dark Lord, Sieg aspired to spread order and culture across the Monster Realm, organizing charity drives to support disadvantaged Monsters and hosting seminars to teach proper manners and etiquette. These attempts at educating monsterkind went largely ignored, with close to no one ever attending them.

Approximately 50 years before the beginning of the LP Era, Sieg became aware of a disadvantaged Lycanthrope Gal Monster that had been living a miserable life as part of a circus sideshow in the Helman Republic and manuevered to rescue her. Disguising himself as a human aristocrat, he observed the show and requested to purchase the gal monster from the man operating it. The man demanded he pay a hefty fee of 10,000 GOLD in exchange, but Sieg chose to instead give him a staggering sum of 1,000,000 GOLD as a way of emphasizing the much greater value that a single life held over any amount of wealth.

As Sieg walked off with the lycanthrope, the circus owner, blinded by greed, drew a knife and attempted to stab him in the neck, only for his weapon to bounce off against the Dark Lord's Invincibility Field. Taking the attack as an act of foul play, Sieg promptly revealed his true form to the man and delivered him a swift death. The commotion caught the attention of the rest of the circus' staff, who all charged at Sieg with lethal intent, but died just as quickly as their leader had by his hand.

In no time at all, Sieg had massacred the entire staff of the circus until only he and the frightened lycanthrope remained. To ease the gal monster's fear, he smiled gently at her, patted the top of her head, unlocked the chains she had been bound to, and asked for her name. When the lycanthrope answered that she did not have one, Sieg resolved to give her a name himself, choosing Aurora in reference to the beautiful star-filled night sky they had met under. Filled with a mixture of awe and gratitude, Aurora became Sieg's most ardent fan and supporter, as well as the one and only person willing to consistently attend his countless seminars. This devotion and enthusiasm proved to be so strong that Sieg quickly transformed Aurora into his Apostle, cementing their bond.

Following the death of the Demon King Gi at the hands of Ogawa Kentarou, a Human boy from Dimension 3E2, and the disappearance of Kurusu Miki, Gi's chosen successor, the Monster Realm fell into a state of civil war. The war was fought between Gi's daughter Hornet, who desired to follow her father's wishes and embrace Miki as the Demon King, and the elite Dark Lord Kayblis, who wished to become the Demon King himself and wage war against humanity. Despite finding Kayblis to be a rude and uncouth man, Sieg chose to side with him over Hornet, likely due to believing it to be the natural order of the world for humans to exist as a subordinate race to monsters.

During the events of Rance VI, Sieg, alongside his fellow Dark Lord La Seizel, was assigned the task of serving under the elite Dark Lord Camilla as one of the commanding officers of the Human Realm Suppression Army, a subdivision of the Kayblis Faction formed with the goal of conquering humanity while the majority of the group's forces were preoccupied fighting in the civil war for control of the Monster Realm. Due to Camilla's chronic laziness, Sieg was left largely in charge of coordinating a way of infiltrating the Human Realm.

Forced to invade through Zeth, the human nation bordering the Kayblis Faction's territory, the Monster Army had to first find a way of dismantling the Maginot Line, the self-automated magical defense system stationed along the country's border with the Monster Realm. In order to do this, Sieg instructed Aurora to covertly infiltrate Zeth while posing as a human. Aurora succeeded in becoming a high-ranking member of the anti-Mage terrorist organization Pentagon. As a member of Pentagon, Aurora persuaded Nelson Server, the group's leader, to authorize an operation known as "Liberate the Motherland", which consisted of finding and destroying the mana batteries responsible for powering the Maginot Line, under the guise of it being to destabilize the government's power and allow it to successfully be overthrown. With the cooperation of Ice Flame, a historically more moderate organization that had secretly been taken over by the reckless warrior Rance, the Maginot Line was successfully deactivated, allowing the Monster Army to enter the magic nation, with Sieg commanding a large portion of its forces.

Through a combination of the suddenness of the attack, the chaos caused by the non-magic user revolt and the considerable power difference between humans and monsters, the Monster Army quickly succeeded in occupying Zeth, pushing the humans to the outskirts of the country. While Sieg initially commanded a sizable portion of the Monster Army's forces directly during the early stages of the invasion, he quickly retired from the frontlines to take on a more administrative role behind the scenes.

Sieg later confronted the elite team of humans organized to reactivate the Maginot Line and liberate Zeth from the Monster Army within the depths of the Fruit Ruins, one of the several underground complexes linked to the Maginot Line via teleporter. Blocking the teleporter leading to the Maginot Line, Sieg challenged the group to a battle.

Due to his belief that a gentleman should always fight fairly, Sieg refrained from attacking Rance's group outright to allow them time to heal and prepare for the battle against him, politely waiting in the room containing the teleporter until they were ready. Taking advantage of this generous gesture, Rance, the member of the group in possession of Chaos, the legendary sword capable of piercing the Invincibility Field that protects Dark Lords from conventional damage, attempted to kill Sieg by surprise. Noticing a large hole in the wall above where Sieg stood, Rance snuck up to this area, positioned Chaos directly above the Dark Lord, and dropped him. Alerted by Chaos’ falling screams, Sieg narrowly managed to avoid being killed by the attack, but had his left arm severed off by the sword. In excruciating pain due to the loss of his arm and outraged by Rance’s dirty tactics, Sieg was forced to retreat, allowing the group to access the teleporter he was guarding.

After having his wound treated by Aurora, Sieg attempted to fight the group again as they made their way closer to the Maginot Line. Now well-aware of Rance’s conniving nature, Sieg chose to forgo fighting fairly and instead employed a trick of his own by transforming himself into an injured young boy in to attack the group by surprise when it attempted to help him. While this plan very narrowly succeeded due to the Zethan General Alex Valse’s kind nature compelling him to aid an injured child, it was foiled by Rance who, disinterested in helping a young boy, forbade the other man from doing anything. Dumbfounded by Rance’s refusal to help an injured child, the agitated Sieg revealed his true form to the group and demanded it fight him, throwing a glove at Rance’s feet to initiate a duel. Indifferent to Sieg’s desire for a fight, Rance stepped on the glove in response, prompting the enraged Sieg to spontaneously grow back his lost arm through sheer anger and attack the group regardless.

While Sieg initially fought Rance's group in his normal form, he quickly utilized a new tactic of scanning the minds of its members and transforming himself into what each of them feared most, beginning by transforming into the legendary Helmanian General Thoma Lipton after reading the mind of Patton Misnarge. Sieg then briefly took on the likeness of the Demon King Gele after reading the mind of Sel Catchgolf, but was quickly forced to return to his true form after exhausting too much of his power. Finally, Sieg attempted to read Rance’s mind but was tricked when the brutal warrior, made aware of the ability after the previous two fights, lied in his thoughts that his greatest fear was caterpillars. Transformed into a harmless Insect, Sieg was quickly and effortlessly crushed by Chaos and reduced to a Demonic Blood Soul, which was immediately collected by Kaoru Quincy Kagura, one of the retainers of Zeth’s king Ragnarokarc Super Gandhi, to be later thrown into the Disposal Dungeon.

Shortly following the successful reactivation of the Maginot Line and the eradication of the Monster Army from Zeth, Sieg’s blood soul was stolen by Aurora, who was grief-stricken after losing her master and eager to revive him. While traveling with Sieg’s blood soul, however, Aurora crossed paths with Abert Safety, a rogue Apostle of Camilla’s, who nonchalantly took the blood soul from Aurora and consumed it himself. Abert’s willpower overpowered Sieg’s own, allowing him to become a Dark Lord while destroying the last remnants of Sieg’s existence in the process. Abert’s blood soul was placed into the possession of Zethan authorities following his eventual defeat at Rance’s hands. To this day, Aurora continues to futilely search for a way to revive Sieg from the blood soul rather than Abert.

During the events of Rance X, Aurora infiltrated the AL Church headquarters of Kawanakajima, where Abert's blood soul had been transported, in an effort to reclaim it for herself. Shortly after finding the blood soul, however, Aurora was caught by the duo of Rance and Crook Mofus. Upon learning of Aurora's intentions, Crook bluntly informed her that the blood soul belonged to Abert, and that Sieg had no chance of being revived from it. Aurora refused to listen, and attempted to flee with the blood soul anyway, but was swiftly stopped by Rance, who claimed it for himself. Using the blood soul as leverage, Rance forced Aurora into his service as a member of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad.

After becoming a member of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, Aurora made several unsuccessful attempts at assassinating Rance in to avenge Sieg. At one point during this time, while Aurora was unsuccessfully attempting to kidnap Rance's Children from the Rance Castle nursery, the young Kalar princess Reset Kalar took a great amount of interest in Aurora's considerable collection of handmade Sieg stuffed dolls. While Aurora initially tried to sell the dolls to Reset, hoping to raise more funds toward her effort to revive her master, she eventually allowed the young girl to take dozens of them for free, content enough to have created another Sieg fan.

Later, during a more private moment, Rance secretly watched Aurora fantasize reuniting with Sieg using a life-sized stuffed doll in his likeness. After playing out a scenario where Sieg defeated Rance and swept her off her feet, Aurora confronted herself with the reality of her master's situation. Despite admitting that Sieg likely no longer existed and had no chance of being revived, Aurora refused to give up on him. Reflecting on the great efforts that he went through to bring her happiness when they first met, Aurora resolved to continue working toward finding a way to save Sieg no matter how impossible it seemed to be.

In the non-canonical Kichikuou Rance, Sieg is sent by Kayblis to serve as a replacement member of the Little Princess Capture Squad following the defeat of Lei. Along with attacking the territories surrounding Leazas Castle, Sieg will periodically attempt to infiltrate Leazas by disguising himself as Rance. While able to near-perfectly recreate Rance’s physical appearance, Sieg’s lack of awareness of Rance’s personality causes him to behave in the way that he assumes a young king would, being kind, serious, polite and entirely unlike Rance in every conceivable way. This poor imitation results in Sieg being forced to retreat from each of his attempts at infiltrating Leazas, as his strange behavior quickly causes those close to Rance to become suspicious of him.

If Rance attempts to retrieve Chaos from Sel Catchgolf’s church in the Free City of Red at least once, Sieg will intercept the sword’s location. Interested in obtaining Chaos’ power, Sieg will assume Rance’s appearance and request Sel to give the cursed sword to him. Mistaking Sieg’s inaccurate impersonation of Rance to be a genuine change of heart, Sel willingly gives Chaos to him. While in possession of Chaos, Sieg repeatedly ignores the sword’s constant demands for women, causing Chaos to quickly become bored of him. If Rance is deployed in battle against Sieg after the Dark Lord obtains Chaos, Rance will ask Chaos to fight alongside him instead, prompting the sentient sword to eagerly leap from Sieg’s hands into Rance’s. Following this, Sieg will continue to attack Leazas’ territories but will not retreat from battle after taking damage, allowing him to be killed.

Personality and Appearance
Perhaps the most bizarre-looking Dark Lord, Sieg possessed an exceptionally strange and distinct appearance. In contrast to typical members of his original species, the short and rotund panaclonic, he had an extremely tall, thin and humanoid build, along with an unusually long neck and arms and a very large pair of hands. Despite his wildly different physique, Sieg retained the panaclonic's distinct yellow skin, rounded antennae and crooked, beak-like mouth, causing him to still bear some resemblance to his original race. This odd appearance was frequently commented on by others, with Rance describing him as a "big yellow thing" and Camilla bluntly calling him "disgusting". Sieg's clothing consisted of an elegant violet-colored double-breasted suit jacket, a dark-purple collared dress shirt and pure white dress pants. This crisp and suave ensemble only served to further highlight his strange looks; appearing rather ridiculous over his long and amorphous body.

Sieg's appearance was considerably different in Kichikuou Rance, where he was significantly shorter and stockier in build, though still very tall, overall resembling a panaclonic much more closely. His skin was also a slightly more tan color and his eyes were a deep red. Most notably, he possessed a long tail with a star-shaped protrusion at its end, something he did not have at all in his canonical appearance. His clothing consisted of a light-blue colored three-piece suit rather than the suit jacket and dress pants he wore in canon.

Nicknamed "The Demon Gentleman", Sieg aspired to carry himself in as poised, sophisticated and well-mannered of a way as possible. Living by a strict "gentleman's code", he always spoke in a calm, articulate and polite manner, and never failed to act courteously when in the company of others. He was also extremely dutiful, and always addressed his superiors respectfully and followed their orders loyally, regardless of his own personal opinions regarding them. Through this behavior, Sieg hoped to bring a level of virtue and stability to the chaotic Monster Realm by encouraging others to follow his example. While Sieg considered humans to be an inferior race to monsters, he maintained these chivalrous mannerisms even when interacting with them, only ever choosing to attack one when he believed that they possessed a fair chance at fending themselves against him and always making sure to formally challenge them before doing so. In spite of his kind and thoughtful nature, Sieg was not particularly well-liked or respected, and often found himself being taken advantage of by others. Most notably, his staunch refusal to ever break any promises he made, even to his enemies, caused him to perform such ridiculous tasks as standing completely still for several days straight simply because another person had told him to wait for them. This blind devotion to his beliefs as a gentleman nearly cost Sieg his life when pitted against Rance, who took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack against him when Sieg agreed to wait in one spot while Rance prepared for their fight. Sieg was not at all unwilling to resort to underhanded tactics after being tricked by another, however, stating that it was part of his code as a gentleman to always fight evenly against his opponents, even when they fought unfairly. During these instances, Sieg made excellent use of his transformation ability to cunningly manipulate and trap his enemies, showcasing behavior much more in line with the typical image of a Dark Lord.

Sieg's most positive relationship by far was the one that he shared with his Apostle Aurora. Aurora maintained an intense admiration towards Sieg, desiring to emulate his behavior, enthusiastically cheering him on whenever he performed a task, and always obediently and skillfully following his orders. Aurora appears to have possessed a romantic attraction to Sieg, plainly stating that she considers men to be "either big and yellow or no good", and is disgusted by the thought of following anyone besides him. Despite her intense devotion, Aurora was not completely unaware of Sieg's faults, and was often exasperated by the blind trust that he placed in others. While Sieg frequently chastised Aurora for acting improperly, to the point of regularly forcing her to take lessons in grammar and etiquette when he believed her behavior to be too vulgar, he was also extremely fond of her and always made sure to praise her when she met his expectations.

Aurora was left incredibly distraught following Sieg's death, and continues to search for a way to revive him even after his soul was completely overwritten. While this suggests that Aurora is in denial of her master being gone, in a private moment she revealed that she is aware of the fact that bringing Sieg back is likely impossible. Though Aurora understands the reality of her master's circumstances, she continues to work tirelessly for his sake, believing it to be her duty as an Apostle to try and find a way to save him regardless.

Abilities
Contrary to his polite and respectful personality, Sieg was a very competent combatant who could provide a sufficient challenge to even the most skilled warriors. He possessed a respectable Level Cap of 156, and had reached Level 60 at the time of his death. While this level is quite low for a Dark Lord, it allowed him to be more than capable in a fight when coupled with his naturally enhanced strength and powerful abilities.

Sieg fought using a strange, cane-like spear. His fighting style was a unique one that, like the rest of his character, revolved around the concept of gentlemanliness. Sieg's primary attack was a technique known as the "gentleman punch", wherein he swung his weapon in a way that resembled an exaggerated bow. Sieg possessed the Sword Combat Lv1 Skill Level, which suggests that, despite the strange shape of his weapon and his signature attack being called a punch, this technique was considered to be a form of swordsmanship.

While a formidable warrior in his own right, Sieg's most notable ability was his skill at Transformation. With his natural transformation abilities as a panaclonic heightened by his powers as a Dark Lord, Sieg was capable of flawlessly mimicking the appearances of other beings. Sieg could also modify his strength and skills in order to more closely match the power of the individual he had transformed into and potentially greatly improve his strength. Through transformation, Sieg was able to replicate the strength and abilities of beings as powerful as Demon King Gele, allowing him to momentarily surpass the Four Elite Dark Lords in terms of overall power. Sieg's power was not limitless, however, as transforming into a being stronger than himself forced him to draw directly from his lifeforce, preventing him from remaining in their form for very long. As a result of this restriction, Sieg was unable to maintain Gele's form for more than a few minutes, which kept him from fully utilizing the former Demon King's awesome power.

Sieg's transformation ability also had excellent application outside of combat. By altering his appearance, Sieg was capable of concealing his identity as a Dark Lord, enabling him to effortlessly infiltrate enemy territories to either gain information on or ambush them. As he was unable to perfectly replicate the personality of the individual that he transformed into, however, the successfulness of his disguises hinged on a combination of his knowledge of the behavior of the person he was disguised as and the gullibility of the people that he was attempting to deceive.

Upon becoming a Dark Lord, Sieg gained the ability to read the hearts of others. To activate this skill, Sieg was required to point at the person he desired to read the heart of and concentrate for several seconds. This ability paired excellently with his transformation skills, as it made him able to find his opponent's greatest fears and turn into them himself, potentially to devastating effect. Sieg's targets could just as easily use this technique against him, however, as Rance was able to successfully trick him into believing that his greatest fear was a caterpillar when the Dark Lord attempted to read his heart. After having his left arm severed by Rance, Sieg was later able to instantaneously regenerate it after being sufficiently angered by the perverted adventurer during their second encounter. It is unclear if regeneration was another power that Sieg possessed or if his rage was so intense at that moment that he was able to miraculously perform an action that he was otherwise incapable of doing.

In Kichikuou Rance, Sieg displays the ability to teleport between locations by summoning a thick fog that transports his body to its desired destination. As he did not utilize this ability at any point during his appearance in Rance VI, however, it is assumed that he did not canonically possess it.

Trivia

 * Sieg came in 30th place in the "Males" category of the Rance X Popularity Poll. Sieg's high ranking is especially notable as, outside of being mentioned several times, he makes no appearance at any point in Rance X. While it was specifically stated that characters who did not physically appear in Rance X could not qualify for the poll, the unexpectedly large number of votes that Sieg received allowed him to become an exception to the rule. Sieg later came in 2nd place in the "Character You Most Want to be Added as an Ally" poll, losing to Suzume by a mere 16 votes.
 * Sieg was the focus of a simple Alternate Reality Game created as a part of the now-defunct Rance World Notes section of the Alicesoft website to promote the release of Rance Quest, where Aurora's various alter egos sponsored a charity drive known as the Sieg Revival Fund, in which every click made by users of the site ostensibly donated 10 GOLD toward assisting with his revival. The target goal of 1,000,000 GOLD was eventually reached, only for Aurora to reveal that she had to pay the merchant Pluepet 90% of the funds raised as commission for assisting in constructing the site, rendering the entire process pointless.
 * Sieg's strange appearance is derived from the design of an alien that appeared in the tokusatsu series Ultraman.
 * When asked in a Twitter Q&A, Orion, the Rance Series' lead artist, named Sieg's death as his favorite of any Dark Lord's.
 * In the same Q&A, Orion revealed that an actual method to revive Sieg from his blood soul rather than Abert had been conceived during the development process of Rance X, but he did not disclose what it was.
 * Sieg possesses a unique portrait, profile and character card in the game files of Rance X. Despite this, there is currently no legitimate way for any of these to appear in the game. This was further proven during the popularity poll results for Rance X, where Sieg used his portrait from Rance VI rather than the unused one he received in Rance X, indicating that he is not considered to have appeared in the game.
 * Sieg shares his name with the German word for victory. The word is most commonly associated with the phrase "Sieg heil", the signature chant of the Third Reich.
 * Upon being killed in Rance VI, a small, angelic-looking ghost rises from Sieg's remains and seemingly floats to heaven. This is assumed to simply be a visual gag, as a Dark Lord's soul is restricted to a demonic blood soul until it is overwritten.
 * Sieg is the first Dark Lord of the Kayblis Faction to be killed in a canonical game in the Rance series.