Luc

Luc (ルック, Rukku) is a character in Suikoden, Suikoden II, and Suikoden III. Luc is the powerful apprentice of Leknaat, as well as the possessor of the True Wind Rune.

Apprentice of Leknaat
"I'm Luc, Lady Leknaat's number one apprentice."

- Luc

Luc is a powerful young mage in service to Leknaat as well as the bearer of the True Wind Rune. He was said to be a very handsome boy when silent but his bitter, prideful attitude and poor character tends to negate that.

Luc was created as a clone of Hikusaak, leader of the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia, in order to bear the True Wind Rune. However, he was considered a failure as the True Rune became intertwined with his soul. As such, he had been confined to the One Temple, used merely as a storage device for the True Rune. When he was five years old, Leknaat would take pity on his circumstances and rescue him in what would later be described as an "incident" at the temple. He would be taken to Magician's Island and raised as Leknaat's apprentice.

During the Gate Rune War, Luc surprised McDohl and his party, summoning a Golem for the party to fight under the pretext of establishing their identities. After the battle, he would take the group to Leknaat and teleported them back to the shore of Magician's Island after their audience was finished. When the Toran Liberation Army acquired Toran Castle, Luc joined the Toran Liberation Army on the request of Leknaat. Luc stood guard over the Stone Tablet of Promise for the duration of the war and brought his powerful magic to battle.

Following the end of the Gate Rune War, Luc disappeared with Leknaat.

When Leknaat gifted the New State Army the Stone Tablet of Promise during the Dunan Unification War, she also gifted them Luc, despite his own consternation. However, Luc was focused when he noticed the presence of the Harmonian officer Sasarai in a skirmish at Radat Town. Following the battle, he revealed that he knew Sasarai well and told the New State Army to let him deal with him. Using his True Wind Rune, he decimated Sasarai's forces, forcing them to withdraw their support from the war. His similarity to Sasarai was noted but no one knew of their true connection.

Following the war, he considered his role ended and return to Lady Leknaat's service.

The Masked Bishop
"Wouldn't any prisoner seek freedom?"

- Luc

In the year 464, Luc would help rescue the young magician Sarah, who was imprisoned in Crystal Valley much like he once was, bringing her to Leknaat. As Luc's soul was intertwined with his True Wind Rune since he was born, he eventually came to know the true will of the True Runes; that things would fall into silence and order in the future, leaving everything as a perpetual Grey World. Fearing mankind was trapped in a prison of destiny, Luc hoped to break the balance between Order and Chaos and, in that way, change the future.

Luc's ultimate was to destroy his own True Wind Rune, which necessitated collecting all the elemental True Runes. He would eventually leave Leknaat's service, remarking that she would be unable to stop him from beginning his plan with her incomplete Gate Rune. Luc would reappear in the Grassland. With Yuber, Sarah and Albert Silverberg by his side, he would instigate the War of the Champions between the Six Clans and Zexen. His actions would create a web of mayhem that would endanger the entire world.

Through skilful manoeuvring, Luc was able to gain the rank of Bishop in the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia, participating in the invasion of Grassland as the mysterious Masked Bishop. It is not known if he managed to get a private audience with Hikusaak but he still managed to leverage the vast resources at his command to search for the elemental True Runes outside his grasp until the pretence of fighting the War of the Champions.

However, his plan would have cost the lives of many people in the Grassland and beyond. This would weight heavily on Luc's mind, such as when he encountered a young girl during the massacre at the Karaya Village, but he would continue his plans, determined to forge ahead with his own will to the end. Ultimately, his plan would fail, thwarted by the Fire Bringer. Defeated at the Ceremonial Site where had hopes to destroy his True Rune, he would pass away as the ruins collapsed, a casualty of fate, but with a sense of contentment as he felt his soul stir within him.

Trivia

 * In the English-language version of Suikoden, when he summons the Golem, Luc merely calls it forth with a wind rune, but in the Japanese version, he uses the True Wind Rune to do so ("我が真なる風の紋章よ・・・・").