British

"British"

- futilely begging for someone to help him.

About
British, frequently referred to as Concrete Man, is the former leader of the Legendary Five, the strongest adventuring party in history.

British was born to an ordinary human family during the chaotic reign of the malicious Demon King Gele. Throughout his youth, he experienced the terror and despair brought about by Gele's cruelty firsthand. Unable to have his spirit broken by his torturous living conditions, British made a vow that he would someday liberate humankind from its monster oppressors by defeating Gele.

In his early twenties, British began traveling the world in order to both become stronger and to find a way of piercing the Invincibility Field that made the Dark Lords and their master impervious to conventional damage. Throughout his journey, his earnest charisma and inspiring character drew many influential and powerful people towards him, including the thief Chaos, the samurai Nikkou, the priestess Café Artful and the mage Ho Raga. United under British's leadership and a shared desire to defeat the Demon King, the five became a close knit group of skilled adventurers who quickly became famous across The Continent for their heroic deeds.

During their quest to find a way of damaging the Dark Lords, British and his group eventually entered the Ancient Ruins, the largest dungeon in the world, in hopes of finding what they sought at its bottom. After many hard-fought battles with the powerful monsters within the dungeon, as well as a final decisive encounter with their longtime rivals The Witch's Party, the five finally discovered the Gate of the Gods, a sealed door surrounded by four mysterious pedestals with golden statues on them. Unable to open the door and continue deeper into the dungeon, the group was about to turn around and leave the ruins before being suddenly attacked by a strange and horrendously powerful creature. After a long and arduous battle, the group was able to slay the beast, and were greeted by the Supreme God of Balance Planner for their efforts. Planner revealed to the five that the creature that they had defeated was a failed God, an unstable lifeform that was created to serve as a God but had submitted itself to a mindless rage that made it uncontrollable. Impressed by the group's strength, Planner allowed the five entry into the Gate of the Gods, with the promise of granting them each one wish as a reward for their monumental achievement. British, who had become severely wounded during the battle against the failed God, was unable to muster the strength to move, forcing his teammates to enter through the gate without him.

While his teammates were having their wishes granted by Planner, British managed to regain a portion of his strength after resting for a period of time. As the Gate of the Gods had once again sealed itself after his teammates had entered through it, however, he was unable to reunite with them and have his own wish granted. British waited at the gate for his friends for three days, but was eventually forced to exit the dungeon. Before leaving, British took the four golden statues that surrounded the gate to use as mementos of his four missing companions.

After escaping from the ruins, British, having lost the rest of his party, gave up his life as a hero and retired from adventuring. Living in obscurity, he settled down with a woman, had children, and enjoyed a relatively mundane existence. In his middle age, British learned of the survival of his colleagues Ho Raga and Café, and traveled across the Continent to reunite with them. While British was happy to see his old friends again, he felt that both of them had been changed into entirely different people by their encounter with a God, causing him to have trouble reconnecting with them. Despite this, however, he still made sure to give them each one of the four golden statues that he had collected in remembrance of their final adventure together before bidding them farewell. Later, British was forced to sell one of his two remaining statues in order to make ends meet for his family, causing it to eventually end up in the hands of the mysterious riddle cat KD.

Some time after this, British stumbled upon a magical trap set by Shin, a member of the Witch's Party who his group had defeated during their trek through the Ancient Ruins. The trap cast a powerful curse onto British, sealing all but his head and hands in a wall of unbreakable concrete, permanently incapacitating him. Either as a side effect of the curse or as a result of coming into contact with the Supreme God Planner, British was also given immortality, forcing him to futilely beg for someone to free him for several centuries.

At some point, the concrete wall which British was sealed within was used to construct a small man-made cave along the outskirts of Leazas Castle. Despite the change in location, British's circumstances remained largely the same, as very few people even bothered entering the area in which he resided, and the few who did payed very little interest in him.

During the events of Rance 01, the cave where British was placed in became occupied by a group of thieves. While little is known about British's interactions with the group, if there were any at all, it can be assumed that they were uninterested in attempting to help free him from his predicament. He eventually encountered the warrior Rance, who had entered the cave to exterminate the thieves. British begged Rance to find a way of freeing him from his concrete prison, but was met with only mockery from the brute, who instead chose to take advantage of his situation by punching him in the face repeatedly, calling him the perfect punching bag and making no attempts at assisting him.

British's second most notable appearance happened during the events of Rance 03 during the Leazas Liberation Army's attempts at retaking Leazas castle from its Helman occupants. Julia Lindum, who had been largely oblivious to the Helman invasion and was instead acting as a tour guide to the young Zeth mage studying abroad Aten Gnu, traveled to British's cave as a tour destination. Aten, who was skeptical of British's claims of being centuries old, demanded for him to describe what life was like in his youth as proof. While initially hesitant to discuss his past, after extensive pestering, British told the two girls of his experiences living during Gele's reign, emphasizing the constant feelings of fear and despair that overwhelmed humanity at the time, as well as the torture it suffered under Gele's cruelty. After the two left, British resumed his usual complaining over being alone. During the credits, British is seen being given food by Julia.

British makes a small appearance during the credits of Rance IV where, seemingly directly addressing the player, he continues to beg to be freed. He makes a similarly brief appearance during the credits of Rance VI, alongside Julia, once again hopelessly begging for somebody to remember him.

During the events of Rance Quest, Café briefly mentioned that she went to visit British shortly after Rance restored her to her original form in order to wish him a happy new year.

In the non-canon Kichikuou Rance, Rance is able to visit British in his cave near Leazas castle whenever he wants. If Rance enters the cave after having heard the tale of the Legendary Five from Ho Raga while also having either Chaos or Nikkou equipped, he will ask British if he is the same person from Ho Raga's story, which British will confirm, to the disbelief of Rance, Chaos and Nikkou. British will prove his identity by showing the golden statue from the Gate of the Gods that he had taken during his group's fateful trip to it, which he will give to Rance while also informing him of the locations of the other three. Rance is given the option of attempting to free British from the concrete, but is unable to cut through it when trying to do so, even when using Chaos or Nikkou, causing him to once again abandon British to his fate.

Personality and Appearance
In his youth, British was a young man in bright silver armor with soft features, short red hair and a slim, muscular build. His face was described as always possessing a strong, determined expression that filled all who met him with feelings of hope. He was noted to have been very handsome by both Ho Raga and Café Artful, who both fell for him due to his good looks. In his present state, however, nearly all of British's body has become encased in a wall of concrete, leaving only his hands and face visible. His face, once bold and determined, has become gaunt and emaciated due to going centuries without being fed and is now always shaped into a helpless pout. His hair has also grown out substantially, to the point where he now sports a mustache, and continues to become progressively longer each time he appears. The concrete slab he is sealed in is covered with several graffiti doodles, likely from people who chose to mock his predicament rather than help him.

During his time as the leader of the Legendary Five, British was universally recognized as a hero. A confident young man with a strong sense of justice, he was the sole human who possessed both the courage and strength to make a stand against his monster oppressors, and came to earn the trust and faith of all of humanity as a result. He was described as naturally charismatic, drawing the interest of everyone who encountered him due to his unshakable passion, and was said to have had a kind and heroic heart that drove him to risk his life countless times in order to perform selfless acts to assist others. Of the Legendary Five, he was the only member who had entirely pure motivations for pursuing Gele, desiring to end the age of torment that had been brought about through her cruelty. In contrast to his admirable character in the past, British has long since become a shadow of his former self. Several centuries of living helplessly trapped in concrete in near total solitude have completely eroded his unshakable resolve, and he now spends nearly every waking moment weakly begging for someone to free him from his prison. His natural magnetism has also seemingly totally disappeared, as the few people who encounter him in his present state are more likely to either ignore or abuse him rather than take any sort of further interest in him. He is incredibly lonely, and will often cry when ignored. Despite having lost both his great power and fame, however, British still retains his courage, kindness and wisdom, and is willing to share his experiences with anyone who is willing to listen. Unfortunately for him, few people are. As the leader of the Legendary Five, British was single-handedly responsible for the formation of the group, with each member being inspired by his bravery to join him on his quest. He was deeply admired by each of his companions as both a leader and as a man, with even the normally dismissive Chaos describing him as "an amazing guy". In particular, both Café Artful and Ho Raga fell in love with him during their time traveling together, with Café choosing to use her wish from Planner to make herself irresistible to men in hopes of gaining his attention and Ho Raga referring to him as the only man he ever loved.

After the group was forced to abandon British when having their wishes granted at the Gate of the Gods due to his injuries, they were unable to find him afterwards and tragically assumed that he had died, mourning him for an extended period of time and quickly losing contact with each other without his leadership. When British reconnected with Ho Raga and Café years after this event, he felt that both had grown distant from him, noting in particular that Café "was not the Café [he] remembered", causing him to struggle to reestablish his former bonds with them. After reuniting with him centuries later, both Chaos and Nikkou express shock and disappointment at his pathetic state of being, but show relief that he is still alive.

In recent years, British has forged a rather strange friendship with Julia Lindum, a young, clueless and incompetent member of the Leazas Royal Guard who enjoys paying visits to him in his cave. While Julia is completely oblivious to British's true identity, she often brings him food to eat while talking to him about her various inane hobbies. Due to it being the first consistent positive human interaction he has had since becoming trapped in concrete, British has become extremely fond of Julia, and is able to replace his usually hopeless demeanor with happiness whenever she visits him.

Abilities
As a young man, British was one of the most powerful humans to have ever lived. Born into an age of chaos and despair, he alone had the courage to rise up and fight against the Demon King. He was both a prodigiously talented swordsman and guard, allowing him to both efficiently protect the weak and combat the corrupt with incredible skill. In addition, he had a phenomenal amount of innate talent, and possessed one of the highest Level Caps in history at a staggering 100, giving him the potential to fight on equal footing with lower ranking Dark Lords, a feat only a small handful of other humans could also accomplish.

As if to compliment his incredible physical capabilities, British was also naturally charismatic. His passion to liberate humanity earned him the admiration of his comrades, who all thought very highly of him and immediately broke away from each other following his disappearance. During his era, British became a symbol of hope to all of humanity as the man who would lead them to a brighter future, and was revered as a hero as a result.

In the present, however, British has long been sealed in concrete, incapable of doing anything besides speaking, and his body has steadily withered away from lack of nourishment. Strangely enough, he has maintained an impressively high level of 50, one of the highest levels of anyone currently living, even after hundreds of years of complete inactivity, suggesting that he would still be surprisingly formidable if somehow freed, though likely far below the excellence of his prime.

Trivia

 * His name is most likely a reference to the character of Lord British from the Ultima video game series.
 * In his youth he bore a very strong resemblance to Adol Christin, the main protagonist of the Ys series of video games, meaning that, much like Arios Theoman, he is likely intended to be a parody of the character.
 * While he was called a hero during Gele's era, it is unlikely that he was the designated Hero of the System during this time. This is supported by the fact that he was 25 years old during his time as leader of the Legendary Five, making him five years older than the maximum age that a person can be the hero at.
 * He is somewhat similar to KD, both being champions of their races who were reduced to gag characters after an encounter with the Gods.
 * He is the first member of the Legendary Five to appear in the Rance Series, appearing in the very first game in the series.
 * He is the only person known to possess the Guard Lv2 skill.
 * His hair gradually becomes longer with each of his chronological appearances.
 * In the Rance 03 Popularity Poll he ranked 9th among male characters.