Aster Laker
Age: 18 Aster Laker was a former member of Sybak University in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, who supposedly appeared and acted similarly to Emil Castagnier. Richter states at the end of the game that Aster was an idealist. He became friends with a half-elf despite the discrimination toward them during the time Tethe'alla was separated from Sylvarant. Aster's name derives from the Greek aster, meaning star, and he has a star-shaped birthmark above his collarbone. Most of Aster's past is unknown, but it is said that he was a prodigy, and entered the Sybak university at age nine. Sometime after this, he began to study in the research laboratories, being partnered with the half-elf Richter Abend. Despite them being of two different races, they became good friends. Two years prior to the events of the story, when the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla merged into one world, Aster's research into Summon Spirits led him to hypothesize that a Summon Spirit controlled the world's flow of mana. He and Richter set out to prove the existence of Ratatosk, the Summon Spirit in question, and hopefully convince him to take back up his duties so that the natural disasters plaguing the newly-joined world will cease. After discovering the Centurion Aqua, who agrees to help them, they go to meet Ratatosk at the Ginnungagap. Ratatosk agrees to regulate the mana with the help of his Centurions, but also states his desire to purge both humans and half-elves from the world. Aster tries to reason with him, though Ratatosk uses Ain Soph Aur on him, causing his death. In an explosion of rage over Aster's death, Richter mortally wounds Ratatosk, causing him to revert to core form. During these two years, Richter secretly plans to save the world without Ratatosk's help by using the door to Niflheim. He also, at the end of the game, states that if he could use the power of a Cruxis Crystal, he would also manage to revert Aster back to life. During the Blood Purge of Palmacosta six months before the events of the story, Ratatosk is regenerated through his core into a human form that strongly resembles Aster's. He mimics Aster's form for reasons not fully expanded in the story, though Emil hypothesizes in his journal that it could be because Aster was the last human he saw before he was reverted into core state. For a brief period of time, before the truth is discovered, the party believes that Emil may in fact be an amnesiac Aster, as Emil looks exactly like Aster and would be about his age. (Source: Aselia Wikia)
