mobage_manual | Recommending Characters #1: Faust (Promise of Wizard) (Reply)

Introduction:

Welcome to Recommending Characters! In this section of the blog, I’ll be making an overview of a certain character from one of the franchises I’m into once every two weeks, as well as highlighting their best and most important moments in canon, in hopes that it’ll make the readers interested both in the character and in the game itself!

To start off this series of posts, I decided to go for my all-time favorite character so as to ease into the workflow better, who is none other than Faust, from the game Promise of Wizard (also known as ‘Mahoyaku’, for short)!

Faust is a curseworker from Eastern Country, who has been living isolated from the rest of the world for the past 400 years before getting summoned as a Sage’s Wizard. His gloomy demeanor is somewhat off-putting for others at first, but his status as the teacher of the Eastern Country and his leadership skills foreshadow an unexpected past… Without further ado, let’s go into his in-game profile and some general characteristics!

Profile and general overview:

“I don’t want to save the world anymore. I’m tired of being betrayed.”

As mentioned before, Faust is a wizard of the Eastern Country, characterized for their numerous laws (over 100 books) and their closed-off demeanor at first, which suits him. He was born on January 13th, making him a Capricorn, and he’s 1,74m tall, putting him on the shorter side of the cast, surprisingly. His voice actor is Kent Itou, whose other roles in mobages include Touya Aoyagi (Project Sekai) or Doppo Kannonzaka (Hypnosis Mic). Regarding his magic abilities, his magic tool is a mirror he got from a wandering merchant in his hometown, and his magic specialty is sorcery, as well as curses, naturally. Other details in the Sage’s Manual include that he has a fondness for cats, and a particular disdain for Central Country and its residents.

This last point is explained by the betrayal of his former best friend and Central Country’s first king, Alec Granvelle, whom he led the revolution of Central Country with 400 years ago. Despite setting their objectives in creating a world in which humans and wizards can co-exist, Alec had a change of heart which resulted in the execution of the entire wizard side of their army. Faust was one of the few who survived, rescued by his comrade Lennox, but still in disbelief, he fled him, thus starting to live in solitude.

Stories:

Location Story and Affection Story:

All wizards have their own smaller, focus stories in a certain location important to them (Location Stories), and an interview with the Sage in which they talk a bit about their motivations and their pasts as they’re prompted to answer (Affection Stories).

In Faust’s case, his Location Story takes place at the Valley of Storms, the place where he used to live in solitude. The Eastern Wizards discover this after being tasked to investigate a rumor about a witch luring humans in… Only to find a pleasant surprise. On the other hand, his Affection Story is prompted by a mysterious painting arriving at the Magic Manor, apparently intended to be sent to Faust ever since Alec died. The painting, depicting a young Faust dancing under the moonlight around a bonfire prompts the questions from the Sage, intrigued by Faust’s past despite the curseworker’s reluctance to share it with them.

These stories are, for the most part, the closest the players have gotten to finding information about Faust’s past, and even then, a lot of it is told by his fellow Sage Wizard, Lennox, who knew him back then. While his Location Story is much more lighthearted, its sub-episodes reveal tiny details that emphasize Faust’s compassionate heart, along with his Affection Story.

Event Highlights:

Etude of the Melancholic Sunflower (also known as ‘East Etude’)

“Sorrow, loathing, self-admonition and reproach... Various emotions float into his eyes and disappear.”

Despite not picturing Faust on the event’s banner, East Etude is one of the most significant events to get to know Faust. Following a request to investigate a mysterious hanging noose over a field of sunflowers, the relationships between Faust and his former revolutionary comrades are explored as well as the reasons for their inevitable parting before meeting again as Sage’s wizards.

Concerto of a Maledictor and the Lonesome Moon (also known as ‘East Concerto’)

“I believe he was trying to direct the boy’s hatred away from the moon and towards himself instead.”

East Concerto was Faust’s first focus event, in theory, and boy does it do a good job of conveying some of his feelings by paralleling them with the story within the event. The dilemmas of denial over a good friend disappearing and misdirected hatred are explored over the wizards’ sudden encounter with a boy that appears to bear some kind of curse…

Other Events:

For other anecdotes with Faust: The Stellar Night of Overflowing Dreams (also known as ‘Tanabata 2021’ or ‘Stellato’). A more lighthearted event compared to the previous two in which the wizards go investigate a cave which Faust had visited in the past.
For more information on the Central Revolution: Etude of the Sacred Sword (also known as ‘Central Etude’). Although it focuses more on how politics in Central Country affect the current Central wizards, they do visit one of the churches in the country that revered Faust as a Saint, thus offering some insight on what he thinks of the legacy Alec left behind in that country related to their story.

Fun-facts:

Mithra, fellow Sage’s Wizard, has taken an odd interest in his hat, and is always waiting for a chance to wear it himself whenever the two are close by.
Nowadays, he’s much more composed, but during the Revolutionary Era, he used to get pretty wild when drunk during their celebrations.
Although he keeps on denying he likes cats, there’s no doubt he’s very fond of them, keeping two of them close to his home in the Valley of Storms and who would make another appearance later on his Birthday card in 2021.
A specialty of his that’s not commonly mentioned throughout the story but that he learnt at home and during the Central Revolution are medicinal herbs and how to use them.

Closing thoughts:

As I said at the beginning of the entry, Faust is my all-time favorite mobile game character, so getting to highlight all of his important stories was incredibly pleasant. One of Promise of Wizard’s biggest strengths is the depth and emotion in all of its characters, and Faust is no exception: from his tragic past to his complicated present, and the ways he’s slowly overcoming it and learning to be happy with himself, he makes a pretty relatable character for those who have been let down by close friends in the past, offering a very realistic view on someone who’s trying to hate the world but can’t fully bring themselves to because in the end, they want to love it again.

With that, we’ve come to an end! Like I mentioned at the beginning, these types of entries will be posted once every two weeks. This schedule might seem too slow, but I’ll make sure to post other special entries once in a while to make up for it, and set up suggestion boxes and polls to have the readers help me decide which characters to post next! I hope you enjoyed this first entry!

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