Hero System

About

The Guardian Hero during the LP Era, Arios Theoman

The Hero System is one of the most important features of the Planner Scenario, serving as a counterpart to the Demon King System. Created by Supreme God Planner in order to give humanity an edge against the Demon King on desperate situations, legend says that when humanity is on the verge of extintion the hero will rise up to save the world from destruction. The Hero is always accompanied by the Hero Guide Cola, who assists them on their mission by providing information and advice, as well as informing them of anything important they might need to know.

Like the Demon King, the Hero is a specialized individual with great powers granted by the Gods. Only one can exist at any given time as well but, unlike their antagonistic counter-part, their term only lasts 7 years, from the age of 13 to 20. Once they turn 20 they lose all their powers and they can't wield the Sword of Heroes Escudo anymore, as the blade is unusable by any human being besides the chosen Guardian Hero. The Hero is selected personally by Cola, who wanders around searching for suitable individuals. Typically, Cola will instruct them of their status as a Hero, their mission and spend the first couple of years travelling in order to train the young hero. In the headquarters of the AL Church a historically important flower named Aconka Flower remains. This flower is usually closed but when a new Hero or Demon King is born, the flower blooms and speaks to everyone, informing the world of the new player.

The current desginated Hero is the only individual that can wield the legendary Sword of Heroes Escudo. The sword is the main source of the Hero's power, and if anyone else tries to wield it the blade becomes impossibly heavy, unable to be even transported (the guide Cola can lift it however). The sword functions with a limiter that reduces its power, with said limiter getting progressively weaker based on human mortality. The more humans die the more powerful the sword becomes, granting an absurd amount of power on higher mortality rates. The final rung on the "limiter" ladder grants the "power to kill God". This means that the Heroic Blade can strike down Gods, including even the Three Supreme Gods, but for this to be activated the population of beings with souls must be reduced to extremely low numbers.

The Guide of the Hero, Cola.

While the Hero is considered a symbol of hope for regular humans and he's seen as their ultimate savior that will rescue them from dire situations, in reality it's little more than a failsafe system designed to ensure that the protagonist race won't get completely exterminated, since such scenario would not be amusing for the Creator God Ludo-Rathowm. In practice, the Hero will never be truly successful in his mission, since slaying the current Demon King would only result in a new one being appointed right away by Supreme God Planner, resulting in a never-ending battle between the Hero and the Demon King that provides endless entertainment for the Creator God. In times of peace where the current Demon King isn't actively fighting the protagonist race, the Hero is more or less useless as there's no big enemy to fight. Some heroes are selected by Cola regardless in order to keep the facade of the system functioning normally, but the Hero guide will often cause lesser problems for the hero to fix in order to keep him entertained, as he's not meant to fix the world's problems.

The system was originally created by Planner in the year 300 of the Ssulal Era, after Demon King Ssulal requested an invincibility field that would make her invulnerable to external damage. In order to give humans a chance to fight back if their numbers got too low the Guardian Hero was established as it would otherwise devolve into a boring one-sided slaughter.

Powers of the Hero

Unlike normal humans, the Hero has a variety of powers:

• Any attacks or special moves the Hero sees once, he will always avoid it for as long as he's the Hero.
• The Hero will always survive no matter how deadly the situation. As long he's the Hero this power will remain with 100% certainty.
• The Hero usually has bad luck but he gains great luck in desperate situations.
• The Hero has a fixed Level Cap of 99, regardless of his previous level before becoming the Hero. He also levels up very slowly, but never drops levels.
• The Hero is extremely attractive to the opposite sex (the Hero can be either male or female).
• The Hero will instantly lose all his powers and his ability to wield Escudo the minute he turns 20.

The Heroic Blade: Escudo Sword

Normally rusted and useless, the Escudo Sword is the one that limits the Hero's real power and potential. The Heroic Blade Escudo is fitted with a limiter that causes its power to vary based on global population and human mortality.

The Heroic Guide, Cola, has a small pocket-watch compass with a needle that points to the current section that Escudo falls under, the area the needle points to varies in real-time based on souls in circulation and living humans.

The Escudo Sword is separated into 5 modes of power:

1. Dust Mode - 10% of humanity is dead, the sword is now usable. It's a good sword but has nothing special.
2. Hesitant Mode - 30% of humanity is dead, the power to kill Dark Lords is unlocked.
3. Instantaneous Mode - 50% of humanity is dead, the power to kill the Demon King is unlocked.
4. Godly Friction Mode - 80% of living beings with a Soul are dead. The power to kill First Class Gods is unlocked.
5. Tranquil Nirvana Mode - The number of lifeforms is reduced to a single digit. The Demon King and the Dark Lords must be dead as well. The power to kill the Three Supreme Gods is unlocked.

The last mode was the idea of Ludo-Rathowm, who thought it might be funny if it ever comes down to it.

History of the Hero System

• SS300 - In order to balance Demon King Ssulal's request to give the Demon King an Invincibility Field, Planner creates the Hero System.

• NC901 - The Hero Quetabuno rises up during the Death Toll War, where 50% of humanity perished, in order to stop Demon King Nighcisa's genocide. While he's defeated by the Demon King, he manages to inflict a grievous wound that takes 40 years of his lifespan.

• GL0012 - The Hero Akira bravely attempts to defeat Demon King Gele. Because Gele had been warned about the system and subsequently created human farms to keep human population at an all time high, the Hero's power modes were still locked, leading to the Hero's crushing defeat. Gele sliced off his arms and legs and kept him as a pet. Eventually his soul reached 100% pollution due to the overwhelming despair.

• GL1000 - During the Demon King War, where Supreme Dark Lord Gi rebelled against Gele, the Hero wielding the holy katana Nikkou allied with Gi and assisted him in his fight against the Demon King.

• GI0500 - The Hero, wielding the Holy Katana Nikkou, battles the newly revived Dark Lord Xavier. The Hero fatally wounds Xavier, and is about to land the final blow, when he turns 20 years old. With no powers to use, and in shock at this revelation, he is quickly turned into a fleshy paste by Xavier.

• GI0940 - During the RedEye Dark period in the Kingdom of Zeth, a large-scale invasion orchestated by Dark Lord RedEye, the Hero of the era wielding Nikkou manages to repel the Dark Lord's invasion, saving the country from annihilation.

• LP3 - The Hero Arios Theoman aiming for the still dormant Demon King Little Princess, storms the AL Church where she's currently taking refugee, defeats Dark Lords Satella and La Hawzel, but cannot bring himself to kill Miki.

• LP4 - The Hero Arios loses his powers as the hero upon turning 20 years old.

This section contains spoilers from a game that has not been translated to English yet. Expand if you wish to read regardless.

• LP7 - The Second Dark Lord War takes place. No Hero has been selected yet, but Arios Theoman is de-aged using the powers of the Holy Gal Monster Serachrolas, allowing him to become the Hero once more. This time Arios will do anything to succeed in his mission to kill Little Princess. Trying to get the counter to go up enough so he gains the power to kill the Demon King, he gets in the way of the United Human Army on multiple occassions and fights against the Fuhrer Rance.

• LP8 - Arios fails once more. He's defeated by Rance and turns 20 again, losing his powers as the Hero and getting abandonded by Cola on the Monster Realm.

• RA04 - The Hero Calamity takes place. The new Hero Geimark begins a mass-slaughter in order to power up Escudo Sword and defeat Demon King Rance. Despite the attempts to fight back, 30% of humanity perished at his hands until he was ironically defeated by Rance.

• RA07 - The hero Geimark returns and climbs Rising Dragon Mountain in an attempt to defeat the Demon King but he was defeated and this time thoroughly destroyed.

• RA15 - The El Party encounters the undying Geimark. If El shows compassion for the fallen Hero, Geimark finally perishes.

List of Known Heroes

• Quetabuno
• Akira
• Arios Theoman
• Geimark

Trivia

• Early sketches on the Rance X manual show that originally the Hero during the events of the game was going to be a young girl named Barbara, who would have used the design of Mishera from Persiom. The idea was scrapped and Arios was incorporated into the story instead.
• Plenty of people such as Rance can be self-proclaimed heroes, but they are not the same Hero designed by Supreme God Planner.