Luis Virgil
From Xenosaga Wiki
Luis Virgil was an A.G.W.S. pilot and a tactician known for his improvisational skills. He was also very irritable, irrational, erratic and egocentric. Virgil was a veteran of the Miltian Conflict, a traumatic war that occurred fourteen years prior to Episode I’s beginning that affected many of the main and minor characters’ lives. He hated Realians with a fiery passion, and does not consider them to be on the same level as humans, despite their biological frames. Virgil suffered from the effects of DME Addiction, which is contracted when a person consumes the internal tissues of Realians in order to get a narcotic high. His mental instability and hard, cracked facial skin are symptomatic of DME addiction. It is possible that these symptoms are the result of an organ transplant he received from the transgenic Realian Febronia in the past. Virgil was a severe case of the addiction, but before the Miltian Conflict started he appeared to be in some kind of relationship with a Realian named Febronia, who was the nanny of Shion Uzuki. In the present, however, his love had turned to hate and apathy, which he clearly demonstrates by stealing Shion's connection gear and hacking into the neural structures of his own squad of Realian soldiers and causing them to self-destruct in order to defend the cruiser Woglinde from a Gnosis attack. He was accidentally killed during the Gnosis assault by KOS-MOS when he strayed into her line of fire while attacking another Gnosis. KOS-MOS was presented with the choice of holding her fire and allowing the possibility of the Gnosis killing Shion, or firing and destroying the Gnosis but also killing Virgil in the process. KOS-MOS ultimately took the course of action that complied with her expressed programming: ensure the safety of all Vector employees. KOS-MOS could have altered her line of fire; however, doing so would have decreased her optimum aim by a factor of 30%.
Virgil reappeared later in Episode I, surprisingly resurrected from the dead in the form of the Blue Testament. As the Blue Testament, he now appears to take orders from Vector CEO Wilhelm and his aide, the Red Testament, who also was the "late" Kevin Winnicot.
Virgil's role in the TV Asahi animated retelling of Episode I titled Xenosaga: The Animation was quite different from what his role in the game was. In the anime, Virgil survives the Gnosis assault on the Woglinde in the place of Commander Cherenkov, who was ignobly crushed to death by a falling Gnosis. Despite surviving all the way to episode nine of the twelve episode-long series, Virgil proved to be a rather useless character and a poor substitute for Cherenkov. Virgil's history and backstory were not developed in the anime, despite having the time and potential for more character development. Virgil served only few roles in the anime's plot, the most notable ones being his part in stopping Pellegri while Shion and company were in the Encephalon, although most characters don't know this. It was because of his A.G.W.S. assault on the E.S. Issachar that chaos and Jin managed to drive off Pellegri. The other one was saving MOMO from the Gnosis minutes prior to his death. But despite this, his character was not explored any deeper than what was already known about him. As almost expected, Virgil finally died in episode 9 of the anime's run when his A.G.W.S was obliterated by KOS-MOS's X-Buster attack while defending the Kukai Foundation from a Gnosis attack.
Virgil appears again at the very end of Episode II as the Blue Testament, again alongside Kevin and Voyager as Wilhelm comments to them on Albedo, much like he does to Kevin at the end of Episode I. Virgil plays a much larger role in Episode III, where his story during the Miltian Conflict unfolds. In Episode III he finds peace, and his spirit retires with Febronia.
The name Virgil can be traced to multiple sources, including The Divine Comedy, where the character of Virgil served as a guide through Hell. That character was in turn based on a historical Roman poet who wrote the epic poem the Aeneid.
For an extremely short period of time, Virgil is a playable battle character in Episode I when the Woglinde is being attacked by Gnosis. Virgil, like all temporary playable characters cannot change equipment. Virgil does not have any sort of Tech/Ether attacks. For a weapon, he uses a Vector Sub-machine gun, for close combact, he simply bashes the enemy with it.
[edit] Blue Testament
Luis Virgil is transformed into a Testament by Wilhelm during the course of Episode I.
In a comment in Xenosaga: Episode I, he refers to chaos as "boss." He first reappears as the Blue Testament on the Song of Nephilim where he bails out Albedo who was just defeated by Shion, Jr. and their companions. When Albedo departs, Virgil attacks the group using his newfound powers as a Testament, which include, but are not limited to, subverting the laws of physics and transforming into a Gnosis. Moreover, the type of Gnosis that the Blue Testament transformed into, Ein Rugel, was the same type that the Black Testament Voyager turned into when Ziggurat 8, then Jan Sauer, confronted him over 100 years ago.
The Blue Testament appears again after Albedo summons Proto Merkabah to Second Miltia and he is reprimanded by the Red Testament to just let Albedo go. When the Red Testament shows him just what his and Wilhelm's plan is and how it relates to Albedo, he reluctantly backs off. He pilots E.S. Naphtali, a blue, arachnid-limbed machine with a humanoid torso and a large accompanying rifle that can be teleported at will.
Virgil only shows up twice in Episode II. He appears once aboard the Ω System with Kevin and Voyager where they destroy Partriarch Sergius and Proto Ω and reconstruct Albedo. Then a second time in the epilogue where he, Wilhelm and the other two Testaments welcome Albedo into their fold as the White Testament.
In Episode III Virgil confronts Shion and the others on the landmass Rennes-le-Château, showing up on E.S. Naphtali and unmasking before Shion and the others. He chides Shion for her self-righteous and hypocritcal actions then attacks the party, seeking to prevent them from entering the temple on ahead. When he is defeated Albedo and the newly restored E.S. Simeon appear and he extracts Naphtali's Vessel of Anima. Together Virgil and Albedo disappear, but not before Albedo makes his presence known to the group once again.
Virgil next invades the past Miltia that emerged from Shion's subconcious and confronts her yet again. They argue with each other over their actions in the past and their emotions in the present. Virgil claims that the two of them are exactly the same, people who would do anything in order to survive and for Shion to be making excuses and trying to find justification for her actions is hypocrisy. Virgil reveals that he became a Testament only for power, and that being unable to prevent the death of his love Febronia made him develop a hunger for power. When he attacks Shion again and is defeated they argue again, but then the spirit of Febronia, who had appeared to Shion numerous times in the past, appeared before him and she too tried to reason with him. At first he was unable to face her, thinking that she could not forgive him, but when she told him she still loved him, even now when as a Testament he gave in. With the help of Febronia he renounced Wilhelm's influcence and his Testament-hood and the two disappeared into the hereafter together, both of them finally complete.
Virgil's deep-rooted psychological issues were the driving force for most of his actions as a Testament, not Wilhelm's will as with the others. This was probably the reason why he was able to break free of being a Testament when Febronia pleaded with him.
In Xenosaga I & II Virgil and E.S. Naphtali show up on Old Miltia in the Episode II portion of the game and he confronts Shion and her companions before they reach Labyrinthos. He then attacks the group and they do battle. He later speaks with Shion before she faces Patriarch Sergius on the Ω System. In the Japanese version, he is voiced by Tomokazu Seki. In the English version of Episode I and III he is voiced by Lex Lang, and in Episode II he is voiced by Dave Wittenberg. In the English anime, he is voiced by Andrew Love.
