Galtia

"Galtia"

- upon being interrupted while eating.

About
Galtia is a Dark Lord affiliated with the Kayblis Faction, the force of demons of the Monster Realm united under the leadership of Kayblis in the LP Era.

Born in the earliest periods of humanity 3000 years prior to the current era in the times of Demon King Ssulal, Galtia was a Human born under the now nearly extinct tribe of Insect Users and displayed unspeakable potential as an Insect User. While most fully-realized Insect Users can store a total of 4 Insects within them, Galtia could keep over 20 Insects inside his body, granting him a far higher combat potential than any other member of his tribe and rising as the chief of the clan. However, the ridiculous number of insects he possesses gave him an equally ridiculous appetite, even among the already gluttonous tribe of Insect Users. Regardless, using his great strength he was able to continuously repel assaults sent by Ssulal's forces, eventually granting him a reputation as a legendary warrior.

Word of Galtia's achievements eventually reached Ssulal's ears, which sparked the interest of the Queen of Monsters. Fascinated by his abilities, she payed him a vist and convinced him to become one of her loyal Dark Lords by luring him with food. While he came to be known as a traitor of his tribe, his tale became a legend that would be passed down among members of his tribe through oral tradition for countless generations to come, remaining even to this day. Because of his fighting ability granting him power over multiple creatures, Ssulal gave him the title of the "Lord of Beasts". In the year GI0420, Demon King Gi, at the pressuring of his subordinates, declared war on the Holy Magic Sect, the most powerful and prominent human civilization in existence at the time. Harnessing powerful magic, the Holy Magic Sect constructed Toushin, mechanical warriors of unbelievable power, to fight against the forces of the Monster Realm. During the conflict, known as the 1st Dark Lord War, Galtia engaged in battle against the most powerful Toushin deployed during the war, a war machine known as Lambda created from the corpse of a Dragon. Despite being outmatched in front of a formidable foe, Galtia was able to survive the encounter thanks to the Invincibility Field protecting him.

After Gi's death and the start of the LP Era that resulted in a Civil War on the Monster Realm to decide the next Demon King, Galtia sided with Kayblis and joined his Faction due to providing better food rations, entering in a war against the Dark Lords of the Hornet Faction as a result. By the order of Kayblis, he's been at the front lines with Babolat but all they do is keep a routine of eating, sleeping and fighting.

In the year LP0007, the Kayblis Faction finally emerged victorious from the War of the Factions, causing Kayblis to be recognized as the ruler of the Monster Realm in the absence of the Demon King. Immediately following his victory, Kayblis ordered a full scale invasion of the Human Realm, sparking the beginning of the 2nd Dark Lord War.

During the war, Galtia was tasked with invading the Kingdom of Zeth. Under the command of the Great Monster General Zedong, the monster army invading Zeth was the largest of all the invading armies, consisting of around 1 million monsters. Taking with him an army of 600,000 monsters he invaded from the Kinani Desert at the North, while his fellow Dark Lord Medusa invaded from the west. In a mere week his army was able to easily conquer the cities of Sabasaba and Nagarmaule, as well as the crucial eastern Adam Fort. He was intercepted by the Fire Army and Ice Army, and even King Gandhi himself rose to assist in the desperate battle, but the Magic Kingdom was overwhelmed by Galtia's numbers and their mages' inability to inflict damage on him. Galtia's campaign seemed unstoppable as it continued pushing Zeth, reaching Italia and the Haniwa Plain, but his momentum was finally hindered when reinforcements from the East arrived. Traveling through the large Taiga lake, JAPAN sent the Mouri House to assist the Zethans in their crisis, and with their help the magic kingdom was able to momentarily stop Galtia's advances. However, one week after this, the western Maginot Line finally fell to Medusa's army, allowing her to conquer even the Zethan Capital Ragnarokarc along with the towers of the Four Lords of Zeth, cornering the magic nation even further. King Gandhi made Mark the temporary capital to serve as their main headquarters before marching to fight Medusa.

During Galtia's conquest, instead of slaughtering everyone in his path he offered his enemies a chance for survival in exchange of massive amounts of food and his non-violent approach decreased the number of victims on a short-term. Additionally, Galtia eventually settled down and gave Zeth the offer to stop fighting as long as they can keep him fed. The nation accepted and Galtia's invasion was temporarily put on full stop. However, relying on granting his absurd food demands eventually reached the point where the country as a whole fell into a state of starvation.

Shortly after this, during the events of Rance X the forces of the Human Realm were, through various circumstances, formally united under the warrior Rance to create the United Human Army. Due to possessing the Dark Sword Chaos, one of the only weapons capable of penetrating the Invincibility Field that protects Dark Lords from all forms of damage, Rance was able to form a specialized squad made up of humanity’s finest warriors designed to fight against and defeat each of the Dark Lords invading human territories. Titled the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, this group allowed humanity to begin to mount a more effective resistance against the Monster Army, providing hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. At some point, Galtia and his army settled down and formed his base in a huge mountain-like potato that occasionally grows in Zeth, prompting the Ice and Fire armies led by Commanders Uspira and Saias to set a camp nearby. Unable to defeat the Dark Lord, the Zethan generals had no choice but to serve as mere negotiators, trading large quantities of food in exchange while their army remained on standby waiting for an opportunity. In his base, a total of 200 cooks under the supervision of the expert chef Martina Curry were gathered to serve as the Dark Lord's personal cooks, who would spend most of a day preparing meals and serving him as he pleases.

Rance and his group will eventually travel to Zeth in order to exterminate one of the Dark Lords invading the country and hopefully save them from total collapse. They soon reached the temporary capital Mark, where they meet up with Magic. She and Papaya inform them of the current state of affairs and Rance decides to take down the gluttonous Dark Lord Galtia, so the Dark Lord Extermination Squad marches towards the east where his hideout is. Shortly after infiltrating however, Galtia became aware of their presence after an encounter with his apostle Launea.

The squad reached the innermost area of the dungeon where Galtia was calmly eating, welcoming them without worry. While Rance and Chaos were eager to fight and kill Galtia, the Dark Lord was largely uninterested, claiming that it was "meal time" and inviting them to eat too. As he didn't feel like fighting, Galtia instead proposed to host a large eating contest, where Rance's entire squad would compete against Galtia alone over who could eat more in a limited period of time, promising to withdraw along with his entire army from Zeth if he lost. Despite Chaos' complaints in the matter, Rance agreed to the proposal as it seemed like an easier victory. After they accept, Galtia calls Martina and orders three A Specials for him and three for Rance's group. Despite being vastly outnumbered, Galtia comes out victorious in the competition as Rance's group was unable to finish their portion in time, leading to an enraged Rance to pull out Chaos and jump on Galtia's table, kicking off some of the food in the process. In doing so however, Rance unleashed the anger of the Dark Lord himself, who immediately exerted an abnormal power from the hole in his belly that sucked all the members of the Extermination Corps inside.

After going through numerous troubles, the Extermination Squad managed to escape safely from the Alternate Dimension inside Galtia's belly, returning to the settlement where the Ice and Fire armies are deployed in order to plan their next move. In the meantime, Galtia and his army will approach the human army's camp for their stipulated food demands, forcing them to make a decision to fight against Galtia right then and there, or to surrender the food. Rance then chooses to give in the food, as he has come up with a plan to kill Galtia but he needs time in order to execute it.

After obtaining the materials and preparing a deadly poison, as well as mixing it with scraps from Chaos, Rance begins his plan to kill Galtia and the Ice and Fire Armies strike an offensive maneuver onto Galtia's base. A large battle begins between the two armies while Rance's squad sneaks onto his base, quickly reaching the innermost area where Galtia is. The gluttonous Dark Lord was surprised that he managed to escape the dimension within his belly but, as he was in the middle of his meal, he told him to wait until he was done. Rance refuted Galtia's statement, claiming that he was here not as a warrior but as "the continent's strongest cook".

Intrigued by Rance's claim, Galtia lets him do as he pleases, as he won't reject any meal he's presented with. Rance and Sill then sloppily prepare a mediocre meal on the spot while secretly mixing the highly toxic poison previously retrieved. However, Galtia proves to be completely immune to the poison's effects, much to Rance's anger. After failing, the party then shamelessly proceeded to try a wide variety of potentially deadly ingredients in an attempt to harm the Insect User, but they all proved futile and he was merely enjoying the quirky dishes. Eventually, they would run out of options until Galtia smells food in Kouhime's luggage, finding her infamous dango in the process. Upon tasting it however, and much to the the shock of everyone present, Galtia found the dango to be unbelievably delicious. The Dark Lord then begins praising Kouhime, claiming her to be the world's finest dango maker, and begging her to become his cook, even going as far as to offering to withdraw his entire army from Zeth in exchange of Kou's service. Rance strongly refuses however, claiming that he won't hand over one of his women and challenging Galtia to a battle to settle it, which he gladly accepted as he drew out his sword.

On the spot, Rance's Dark Lord Extermination Squad engages in battle with Galtia. As he notices that they managed to escape his belly before, he strengthens the acidic gastric juices on his dimension in order to ensure their deaths after swallowing them. However, Rance takes advantage of his desire to get Kou as a chef, claiming that if Galtia used his powers he would absorb her as well, making the Dark Lord drop his plan and simply fight conventionally. Additionally, Rance will throw her dango at him mid-battle, which will heavily distract Galtia as he can't help but give in to the temptation of eating it. Eventually, Rance's squad manage to win against the Dark Lord, inflicting grievous wounds on him. After he collapses, Galtia crawls into a sitting position and, knowing that his death is inevitable makes one final request, asking Kou to let him taste her dango one more time. Taking his final breaths, Dark Lord Galtia praises once again her dango, claiming that it's "too powerful" for humans to enjoy. As he dies he reminisces of his old master Ssulal and finally perishes with a smile on his face. Dark Lord Galtia's long life ends as he's reduced to a Demonic Blood Soul.

If Rance chooses to give up on his strategy to poison Galtia, he will refuse to hand over the food to the monster army. As doing so is synonym with a declaration of war, Galtia's forces will proceed to attack the human camp and a large battle will take place between the Dark Lord's army and the Ice and Fire armies combined with Rance's Dark Lord Extermination Squad. Despite their empty stomachs, Uspira and Saias prove to be very effective in battle but as they can't defeat Galtia himself, Rance's group focuses on defeating the glutton commander of monsters. As the battle rages, Galtia quickly goes hungry, prompting him to use the powers of the hole in his belly to absorb members of Rance's party. In this story branch, as Galtia did not taste Kou's dango, he will be fully focused on the battle, making him a considerably harder opponent. The battle will end with Rance's victory, killing Galtia and reducing him to a Demonic Blood Soul in the process. With their leader killed, the morale of the monster army plummets and falls into chaos, and the Human Army takes advantage of it to crush the opposition with a brutal momentum.

If Rance manages to tie with Galtia back during their eating contest by finishing the A specials served to his group in time, Galtia will propose a second eating contest, where they instead eat as much as they can and the winner will be decided simply when one on either side can't continue. If Rance's party manages to continue eating for long enough to deplete the meals continuously brought by Martina, they will eventually run out of food and become unable to determine a clear winner until more food is brought. This will motivate Kou to offer her dango, but while everyone in Rance's side vehemently rejects it, a curious Galtia takes the bite on a whim. Charmed by her dango, he will plead her for more and even ask her to become her chef, but Kou will refuse as she can't take the liberty to waste time like that in the middle of the war. In response Galtia will propose to join the Human Army and assist them in battle if she can serve him dango from time to time. Since a Dark Lord joining the war effort would be a considerable boost to Humanity's fighting force, they reach an agreement and Galtia joins the Dark Lord Extermination Squad as a result, moving to Rance Castle shortly after.

Galtia neither appears or is mentioned at any point during Rance X: Part 2, leaving his fate during the 2nd Dark Lord War somewhat ambiguous. However, as Rizna Lanfbitt is noted to have been captured and tortured by Medusa during the war, something which can only occur if Galtia is killed, it can be assumed that he canonically was not recruited into the United Human Army. The whereabouts of his demonic blood soul during this time were not revealed, leaving his ultimate fate a mystery.

In the non-canonical Kichikuou Rance, Galtia appears once again as a member of the Kayblis Faction, taking part in the War of the Factions against the Hornet Faction. When Kayblis loses his patience, he demands an all-out-assault onto Hornet's territories, taking advantage of the weakened state of the opposing faction that has lost most of its members. Galtia, along with almost every other Dark Lord in the Kayblis Faction, is sent to fight a large-scale battle against Hornet's army in Cascade Bau, which is led only by Dark Lords Silky Littleraisin and La Hawzel. Commanding an army several times larger, he eventually fights against Silky. Seeing as she's completely outnumbered, he requests her to surrender peacefully, claiming that fighting will only make him hungry, but his petition only enrages the enemy Dark Lord and the fierce fight continues. While Galtia is unable to defeat Silky's army, his army still manages to deal considerable damage to her forces.

Following Cascade Bau's fall after months of fighting, Galtia takes part in Kayblis' ultimate tactic to sneak into Hornet's hideout by traversing the Land of Death, an exceedingly dangerous area that kills every living being that enters. Galtia comments on the dangerousness of this strategy, but agrees to go along with it anyway due to knowing that he wouldn't die. By using thousands of monster troops as meat shields, the majority of the Dark Lords of the faction manage to get to Hornet, resulting in a battle that ends with the faction leader's crushing defeat and capture.

During LP0004 when war breaks out between the unified forces of humanity and the monster realm, Galtia is sent to invade the Kingdom of Zeth along with his army of Kuiman, where he will spend most of his time eating all the food reserves located in the territories he attacks. Upon conquering multiple cities, Rance will attempt to kill him by poisoning the food, but it will have no effect, much to Rance's annoyance. After enough tries, if Rance defeated Martina Curry in a cooking contest, she will request Rance to let her deal with the calamity of Galtia. Martina would then greet Galtia while he's eating to offer him some of her exquisite meals and he will become completely charmed by the master chef's cuisine. Wanting to eat more of her wonderful meals, Martina will convince Galtia to join humanity's side in exchange for becoming his personal chef, which he will gladly accept, joining the human army and betraying the Monster Realm in the process. If Martina has not been recruited by Rance, Galtia will eventually be defeated by Rance's army in the battlefield, getting reduced to a Demonic Blood Soul.

Personality and Appearance
As Galtia is a Dark Lord, he possesses an ageless body that allows him to retain the appearance of a young man despite being one of the eldest living beings in The Continent. He's a relatively tall man with a short green hair, golden eyes, dark-skin and is inscribed with the iconic tattoos of his tribe, displaying them easily by going shirtless. He sports a lot of golden adornments as well as a silver plate on top of one of his eyes. His most visually impactful trait is the massive hole on his abdomen, which connects to an alternate dimension where he keeps his Insects in, with several demonic limbs and hands often grossly coming out of it. He has three Apostles formed from the combination of many Insects, who all live inside his body just like with regular Insect Users.

Galtia's appearance is largely the same in Kichikuou Rance, though he does no possess any tattoos on his body and instead wears a blue attire resembling that of a jester. He also has a large metallic eyepatch, which conceals a large scar underneath it.

A carefree and blithe individual, Galtia is a Dark Lord largely uninterested in matters related to violence or cruelty. He is a man that prefers to live life as he pleases without judging others based on their race or position, described by Satella as indiscriminately friendly. His greatest sin and pleasure is his colossal gluttony. Ever since his time as a human he was notorious for possessing an incredibly absurd hunger, born from the extraordinary number of insects he houses inside his body. Because Insect Users have the peculiarity of sharing their food with the insects that reside on their bodies, they're forced to eat many times more than a regular humans. According to Caloria, tales of his voracious appetite where prominent among her tribe and was said to spend most of his time eating, even while in the battlefield.

Upon becoming a Dark Lord, his unbelievable appetite manifested into the hole in his belly, which makes his hunger insatiable. Despite it, Galtia has developed an immense pleasure for eating, and has gladly spent his long life doing so in an almost constant basis. He takes food extremely seriously, and while it usually looks like he just rapidly dumps entire meals into his mouth without tasting it, he has actually developed an extremely refined palette, and can detect even the slightest details on the meals he consumes. He has a deep respect for those that can prepare a good meal efficiently and with a delicious result, but he also doesn't mind eating mediocre meals. Above all, Galtia despises to waste food and ingredients, and doesn't mind if someone has failed terribly in the cooking process, he will happily eat it if he feels like the cook tried his best in doing so. He loves to experiment with all sorts of meals, and there's no preparation he won't take to his mouth even if it is hardly edible. He finds poisonous food to be an interesting variant for instance, and even enjoys eating different kinds for the unique flavor it supposedly gives. He's very knowledgeable of the culinary arts, and frequently encourages others to improve on their cooking, providing them with advice and support.

He's generally singlemindedly motivated by his stomach, and little else matters for him. This also however makes him rather selfish and has no qualms with doing whatever he feels appropriate to obtain food, to the point that he's perfectly willing to assist Kayblis in his invasion of the Human World purely because he offered better food rations than Hornet did. However, Galtia also has a fair sense of honor when it comes to food, and would often not take it from others if he feels like he's not giving something in return. While invading Zeth, he chose to go for a peaceful route of exchanging large portions of food in exchange of holding back his army, going against Kayblis' orders of invasion in the process. He's largely uninterested in carnage and prefers to avoid fighting as much as possible, as doing so only makes him more hungry and finds little pleasure in exerting himself like that, and he prefers to settle things peacefully if possible as a result. He's isn't particularly loyal to anyone and mostly just follows what his glutton nature tells him to, being completely willing to change sides or aid former enemies if they lure him with tasty food. However, the one individual that he seems to hold some level of loyalty and respect for is his former master Demon King Ssulal, who he still remembers fondly and honors her death even to this day.

When engaged directly, he's a straight-forward and cozy man, inviting anyone to eat alongside him. The only people he despises are those that waste food, dropping his usual easy-going disposition and becoming more ruthless and unforgiving. He's a quite compassionate Dark Lord, as he's perfectly willing to spare his opponents if he doesn't feel like it's necessary to kill them and, despite being greatly angered by those that waste food, he is still willing to forgive them if he believes like it's someone worth of his respect or if it was due to a simple mistake. He's also a surprisingly charismatic and beloved individual, popular with women, children, elderly, and just about everyone as he's willing to help others in exchange of food and is a pleasant company in general. During his stay at Rance Castle, crowds of people would form around him, be it from women that want him to taste the foods they prepare, warriors that want to be trained by him and even kids that come to play with him, something that greatly irritated Rance due to his overwhelming popularity.

Galtia greatly respects those that can cook well but also those that do so with passion and enjoyment, being especially fond of the brilliant Martina Curry. However, after tasting her dango, he holds Oda Kou in a higher regard than any other person, describing her as the best dango maker in the world. His love for her dango is so great that he's willing to do anything to eat it, and he's thrown into an an unbelievable feeling of happiness and joyful excitement upon tasting it, to the point of being able to die peacefully and happy for it. Kou feels strangely overwhelmed by Galtia's feelings about her dango, even more-so considering that is usually infamous for being grotesquely awful, but appreciates and thanks him for feeling that way about it.

During his stay at Rance Castle, Galtia also developed a casual relationship with his last kin Caloria Cricket, who has a deep respect over him due to being the legendary insect user that has been described for millennia by her tribe, but Galtia proved to be rather humble, as he does not see his outstanding talent as anything special. She attempted to ask him to teach her in order to improve her ability as a user, but Galtia claimed that he could not do so. He explained that the development of insect users are different on each person and the relationships formed with their insects is something very personal that can only be done by oneself, which is something that cannot be taught, though the prodigy user still provided her with valuable advice based on his experience. Galtia felt slightly lonely upon learning about their tribe's extinction, but claimed that it was something that they shouldn't get dejected about. He and Caloria spent long sessions eating together on the dinner hall along with other gluttonous members of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad like Uesugi Kenshin, much to the distress of the staff in the kitchen.

Abilities
As a warrior with already high combat ability even prior to his transformation, Galtia is a powerful Dark Lord capable of throwing into chaos a large human country with his mere presence. Boasting a high Level Cap of 148 and with 108 being his current Level, he carries incredible power that places him easily above the rest of the mortals. In battle he wields a rare blade called Hawaiian Sword with great expertise, displaying a Sword Combat Lv2 skill that makes his potential swordsmanship comparable to the most skilled swordsmen in The Continent like Uesugi Kenshin and Rick Addison.

A living legend and likely a talent that was never seen again within his tribe in the entire history of the continent, Galtia was blessed with an extraordinary ability as an Insect User, possessing the unrivaled Insect User Lv3 skill. On his former days as a human, he was said to hold over 20 insects inside his body, an outstanding feat considering most fully-realized Insect Users reach their limit with 4. After his transformation, many of his insects fused together to form powerful Apostles, resulting in the birth of Launea, Thalgo and Samezan. While his apostles live inside him they, unlike normal insect users, are able to completely leave their master's body, allowing them to assist Galtia in battle as independent entities that fight alongside him, which is what earned him his title as "Lord of the Beasts". He's also capable of borrowing their abilities to employ himself, and possesses a wide array of powers, from being able to fire poison needles and bombs to creating spider silk in order to restrain his opponent's movements, among other things. He also possesses abilities inherent to all insect users, like an abnormal resistance to lethal poisons. His body however is even more poison-proof than that of an average insect user, capable of ingesting an incredibly absurd variety of poisons without feeling any repercussions whatsoever, some of which include extremely powerful venoms that are deadly even to insect users according to Caloria. However, Galtia also possesses the weakness inherent to all insect users and that is the amount of stamina and energy that requires to keep his energy, making him quickly get hungry in the battlefield and forcing him to spend most of his time eating (though this hardly qualifies as a weakness given his usual behavior).

Beyond his insects, he also possesses a unique gate in the hole in his abdomen, which connects to an Alternate Dimension. The hole has an incredible sucking power, allowing him to use it to absorb his opponents and trap them inside his belly. This dimension within him is entirely exclusive to him, and seemingly was created purely as a side-effect of his abilities as an insect user during his transformation into a Dark Lord, and it is the dimension where his Insects commonly live. The world closely resembles what the inside of a stomach would look like, being a confined world with walls, floor and roofs made of meat. It is a surprisingly big world, with Rance's party being able to travel through it for hours without an end in sight, and it produces gastric juices capable of melting everything that enters with enough time, making a trip inside a hazardous experience. Additionally, it seems like Galtia has some level of control over the intensity of these gastric juices, allowing him to use it to exterminate his enemies more easily without needing to fight very much. Escaping from this dimension seems to be a nearly impossible task, as even the great witch Miracle Tou struggled to find a way to do so and only succeeded with the help of her grandmother. While what is sucked by the hole in his belly is transported to this world, it seems like everything he consumes by mouth is also taken here and processed normally to become nutrients for him, which is the secret behind his infinite metabolism.

Beyond his fighting prowess, Galtia possesses an unmatched eating ability. He's capable of eating immensely large amounts of food non-stop and at a fast pace without any difficulty, to the point that even Rance's entire Dark Lord Extermination Squad was unable to keep up with him on an eating contest. There's virtually no limit to what he can eat nor is there about its quantity, making his appetite likely the largest in existence.

In-Game
For more in depth gameplay information of each game refer to:
 * Galtia/Kichikuou Rance
 * Rance X - Galtia: Boss Fight

Trivia

 * Galtia came in 11th place in the "Males" category of the Rance X:Popularity Poll.
 * Galtia's design, abilities and constant hunger served as the inspiration for the entire Insect User race, as the group was only designed years after his creation. Following the creation of the Insect Users, Galtia's backstory was altered in order to make him into one, retroactively turning him into the first Insect User to appear in an Alicesoft game.
 * While Galtia's last name prior to becoming a Dark Lord is unknown, it is speculated to be Cricket, as with every other insect user that has appeared in an Alicesoft game.
 * Galtia is given the nickname of "The Insatiable Hunger" (無尽の貪欲) in the opening sequence of Rance X.
 * While Galtia's Apostles were not mentioned in any way or form in the original Kichikuou Rance, drafts of them from that time exist, and the limbs emerging from his belly in his character portrait closely resemble theirs.
 * While Galtia speaks JAPANese like the rest of the characters, in a short encounter with Root Ari he's also proven to be versed of the unknown language that was utilized in the continent before Fujiwara Ishimaru's conquest, since Galtia is from a time prior to the JAPANese Emperor.