Ithere

About
Ithere is a Dark Lord that belongs in the Hornet faction. He temporarily left Hornet's side along with Dark Lords Noce and Satella in order to obtain a weapon that would give them the upper hand in the war with the Kayblis Faction.

Under Noce's directions, he allied with Helman and invaded Leazas, not aware that Noce's plan was to resurrect the Demon King Gele from her imprisonment.

He was turned into a Dark Lord by Gele, which means he's from 1021 to 2025 years old. He's also had his apostles since Gele's era.

Appearance and Personality
He is a tall man of 202 cm, very handsome and formal in dressing. With long golden hair and bloody red eyes, he greatly resembles a vampire. He cannot stand the sight of ugly beings. Like Kesselring, he loves beauty and loathes ugliness. He prefers to use others to fight his battles, often using his apostles or brainwashing the enemies to make them fight each other. He's a very skilled and thoughtful Dark Lord and he likes people with strong mental fortitude and force of will that can resist his mind control. He's very respectful and merciful towards his enemies.

Despite what humans would think of a Dark Lord, he's a very noble-minded and kind man. He doesn't enjoy war or bloodshed and is protective towards the people he loves.

He's very loyal to Hornet and wishes to help her as much as he can - this is the reason he was tricked by Noce into retrieving Chaos. During the invasion of Leazas he encountered Shizuka Masou and ended falling in love with her. Although he was rejected by Shizuka, Ithere still loved her dearly and chose to respect her decision and feelings.



Ithere was very honest and opened himself a lot towards Shizuka. He confessed her his fears about Gele, and revealed her that he was once powerless and impotent against her. He admitted that he never had the guts to go against Gele in any way. He showed great concern for Shizuka after Gele was revived and was desperate to convince her into becoming his apostle to be able to protect her, since he didn't want Shizuka to suffer in the same world humanity was forced to live in during Gele's era. Shizuka still rejected him though.

He has three loyal apostles called Garnet, Sapphire and Topaz, who are known as the Jewel Three. Each wear similar clothes and carry the jewels that are their namesake. Since they are Ithere's servants, they are also members of the Hornet Faction.

They serve under him and follow all his orders and instructions. They were all humans during Gele's era that at some point received Ithere's blood and were turned into his apostles.

All three of them have a deep respect and love for him, to the point they are willing to throw away their lives with no second thought in order to save Ithere, claiming that they wouldn't like to live in a world where Ithere is dead anyway.

Abilities
Although Ithere wasn't a top tier Dark Lord, he was still incredibly strong. Rance was unsure if he would be able to beat him in a 1v1 scenario, so he had to resort to dirty tricks in order to win. He's mostly proficient in magic related to the element of Darkness and he's very powerful with it. Even while injured he's still a dangerous opponent.

He has the ability to mind control humans and seems to be more effective with females. He could even used this ability to brainwash Leila, captain of Leazas. He is also adept with sword. He has three apostles, known as the Jewel Three, called  Garnet, Topaz and Sapphire. Each control the elements of Ice, Lightning and Fire respectively. They can also combine their powers to make one powerful Black Destruction Beam. His apostles also have the mind control ability although to a lesser extent. They are pretty powerful by themselves and average humans would stand no chance at defeating them.

In the original timeline, Ithere was transformed after being wounded by Rance. This gave him a larger, metallic body, but it is unclear what impact this had on his abilities.

Personal History
He was turned into a Dark Lord by Gele and, at some point in Gele's era, he encountered his current apostles while still humans and invited them to serve under him. Ithere is known to have fought in the Dark Lord War and at some point met and fought Toushin Delta while trying to attack his toushin toshi. They fought to a draw but he was forced to retreat from the Toushin Toshi. How active he was in the war it is unknown. In the year LP0001 when the Dark Lords were split between two factions, he joined the Hornet Faction making his goal to protect Kurusu Miki and turn her into the next Demon King while fighting the Kayblis Faction. He loyally served Hornet but in LP0002, during the events of Rance 03, he was convinced by Noce to retrieve a powerful weapon that could be found in Leazas that would give them an advantage over the Kayblis Faction. Along with Dark Lords Satella and Noce, they left Hornet's side making sure she wouldn't notice and aided Helman in their invasion to Leazas. They tried to find the holy weapons to break the seal of the Demon Sword Chaos. In the battlefield he fell in love with Shizuka Masou after a brief fight with her. He would later confess but was turned down. Rance used his crush on Shizuka to his advantage by making her appear in front of him naked, and tell him she loves him. The plan worked, and Rance stabbed him with Chaos while Ithere was distracted. He fought Rance afterwards, but the damage caused by the thrust was too grave. However, when Rance and Chaos attempted to finish him off, Shizuka intervened and the party left him there. His apostles however, unable to see him die, all agree to sacrifice themselves to save him. They stab themselves in their chests and remove the blood Ithere originally gave them and give it to him. They all die but Ithere's wounds are partially healed, but he's still wounded. In the epilogue there's a rumor about a ghost haunting Leazas castle. Said ghost is blonde and late at night it moves around as if it were looking for something, which turns out to be Ithere who's still injured. His current whereabouts are unknown but he survived.

Trivia

 * In the original Rance III he died at the end and was reduced to a blood soul whereas in the Rance 03 remake he survived making him the only character whose fate changed in the canonical storyline with the remakes.
 * In the Rance 03 popularity poll he was ranked as high as 4th place within male characters, making him the highest ranked villain in the series. Although he barely qualifies as a villain.
 * Interestingly his comrade Satella shares this spot in the female characters category.
 * He's one of the few Dark Lords whose previous skill levels and level cap remain unknown.
 * While it's safe to assume that he was a human before turning into a Dark Lord, this was never officially confirmed.
 * He is the first Dark Lord of the Hornet Faction to lose all his apostles.
 * He's one of the few Dark Lords known to have fallen in love with a human, the others being, Ray and Satella.
 * A picture of what Shizuka would have looked like had she accepted to become Ithere's apostle was released in a blogpost, where she was named "Apostle Emerald".
 * Ithere is the only Dark Lord that was part of Miracle's dream group, albeit this was due to lack of information on her part.