Vital Information

The Basic

Those unfamiliar to the Lunar series may recognize this pointy-eared ragamuffin from his many sites of devotion in cyber space. Ghaleon, the Magic Emperor, the snatcher of dragons, the crusher of Sun Tea, is for all intents and purposes still quite an obscure bishounen. His admirers lack numbers, but make up for that with ardor for this cute megalomaniac.

Ghaleon first appeared in video game by Game Arts and a manga series by Akari Funato called Lunar, which is set on the Silver Star (widely suspected to be the Earth's moon, though it is never stated). Ghaleon's somewhat odd appearence can be contributed to his heritage. According to the manga, he is "Mazoku" (literally translating as "Magic Race," also known to us as the Vile Tribe). Readers are told he was born in the city of Vane, which in its own weird way floats in the sky protecting the Tower of the Goddess Althena. Wouldn't you know it, anyone born in such a place is just destined to be special.

The first Lunar video game in which Ghaleon was introduced was released on the now dead and very dead Sega CD system. Since then, a total of six games have carried the Lunar legacy, although only four have yet been fully translated into English. The manga cover some of the game, supplemental stories, and also go into the backstory. Readers will find the manga give more information on Ghaleon's family, childhood, and life with his friend Dyne before his fall from grace. It is unclear whether or not the timelines of the video games and the manga fit together perfectly.

A more complete version of Ghaleon's story follows. Spoilers abound. Fair warning!

The Comprehensive

Ghaleon is born in Vane into a tightly-knit group of six Mazoku, the last of their kind in the city. The Vile Tribe had been displaced by human settlers in Vane and find their numbers dwindling. Among the last of the race is Zain (as in "Zain-it-rhymes-with-Dyne"), Ghaleon's elder brother, and Latona, Zain's consort. The brothers' relationship is very poor; Latona takes better care of young Ghaleon than his sibling. It may be coincidential, but Latona does bear striking resemblance to Xenobia... After Zain's death, Ghaleon tries his best to forget about him, though the remaining members of the Vile Tribe do collaborate with him in completing work on Zain's airship.

During Ghaleon's adolescence, the eldest of their microcosm passes away, and Latona goes beserk and gets herself killed. Ghaleon leaves Vane with the other survivors, Morris and Tagak. Seeing that Latona was the last female, the fate of the Magic Race in Vane is sealed anyway. Ghaleon returns to Vane every one in a while to study and witness the birth of new generations, and soon he is left alone.

Enter Dyne (it rhymes with Zain), the lovable scamp who makes the mistake of throwing fruit at Ghaleon's head. Ghaleon judo flips, then adopts the boy in order to teach him, subjecting Dyne to many torturous hours of reading books (it's so cute, really). Dyne grows up to be a little more subdued, but still very animated. Together with Lemia Ausa and Mel de Alkirk, the pair become legendary heroes who save the world from total destruction (Hooway!). After this heroism, Dyne and Ghaleon's relationship begins to fall apart.

The Goddess Althena, who had chosen Dyne to be her champion, is reborn as a human and entrusts her mortal self to Dyne. Ghaleon sees this act as a grave betrayal by the Goddess, whom he assumes is abandoning her world. It is unclear how Dyne and Ghaleon part ways. Ghaleon returns to Vane to become Premier of the Magic Guild. Dyne hides baby Althena and is then presumed to be dead.

Ghaleon grows afraid of what will happen to the world of Lunar without a governing deity. He begins plans to replace Althena as god, enlisting the help of Xenobia, a sexy Mazoku chica from the Frontier. His "evil" (aw, but he means well) plot consists of capturing Althena's dragons and avatar and using them to fuel his ascension to power.

Em... it doesn't work.

Alex, a youth guided by Dyne and sweatheart of Luna-Althena, defeats Ghaleon, and here we see Ghaleon's first death. Why do I qualify his death with an ordinal adjective, you ask? Because he's so special, he gets two.

One thousand years later, Althena's androgynous rival Zophar, God of nasty stuff, attempts to destroy Lunar in Althena's absence. He reincarnates Ghaleon to do his evil bidding. Ghaleon, in turn, uses Zophar to buy time in which he can redeem himself to the world. Ultimately, Ghaleon refuses Zophar's will and spares the lives of the young and physically attractive adventurers rising up against the dark fairy god, thereby earning his second, more peaceful death.