Heiss

Heiss is the leader of Specint and Stocke's mentor in Rh, as well as the game's main antagonist. He puts Raynie and Marco under Stocke's command as well as entrusts Stocke with the White Chronicle. As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that Heiss knows more about the White Chronicle than he lets on.

Backstory and Prologue
According to the revelations of Alternate History: Final Chapter, Heiss was the brother of King Victor of Granorg. Victor's kingship caused a Cain-and-Abel relationship, and the necessity of the Ritual distanced them even further. Eventually, Victor killed Heiss to be his Sacrifice, but after resurrecting him for the Ritual, he fled Granorg.

Heiss was infuriated that the public didn't know about the existence of the Ritual, and didn't appreciate the royal family's losses as a result of it. Victor, unable to find Heiss, instead decided to use Ernst as a Sacrifice. Unable to accept that his beloved nephew would be die, he kidnapped Ernst, who was resurrected as "Stocke", wiped his memories, and set up shop in Alistel, training "Stocke" to be a master swordsman for an intelligence agency that he convinced the Alistel military to create, known as Special Intelligence or simply Specint.

Heiss returned to Granorg and assassinated Victor, taking the White Chronicle and Black Chronicle, and using the latter to resurrect Victor as the first Shadow. He began using the Black Chronicle to alter the timeline somewhat, making changes that would accelerate desertification: his plan was to turn the world to sand so that the Ritual would never be needed again, even if it came at the price of humanity. The sheer use of the Chronicle caused Heiss to age rapidly, since his body was traveling back in time so often to change his past actions. Teo and Lippti couldn't stop him; they were bound by the laws of the Empire, which kept them from controlling wielders of the Chronicles, but only providing them with the wisdom necessary to be a working Sacrifice.

During the Flux War, he recruited Raynie and Marco into Specint by resurrecting a monster as a Shadow and causing it to attack a weak beam in the roof of Alma Mine, causing it to collapse and kill every mercenary in their troupe except them. He found them injured outside the mine and took them in, and persuaded them to join Specint as a way of repaying his "rescue" of them. He later assigned them to work under Stocke.

In the very first scene of the game, he entrusts Stocke with the White Chronicle, telling him he'll need it for his next msision. While he does need the Chronicle for his mission, Heiss's true intentions are, of course, to get Stocke to help him bring an end to the Ritual and bring about permanent desertification.

Standard History
Stocke chooses to remain in Specint in the Standard History, allowing Heiss to send him on his second mission: capture a spy from the Alistel Resistance, Vlad the Spy. He then orders Stocke, Raynie, and Marco to travel to Granorg to assassinate Eruca, telling them that they need to get rid of the last heir to the Granorg throne and help bring a speedy end to the war. The truth is that with Eruca dead, nobody will be able to complete the Ritual, but only Heiss knows that.

In The Sister, a future Heiss realizes that Stocke's mission failed and returns to this point to kill Eruca himself, seconds after she first sees Stocke. However, a future version of Stocke fights off Heiss and forces him to return to the future.

Heiss gets very little screen-time until Standard History: Final Chapter. He convinces Dias and Selvan to join him, and then sends several Shadows after the party, which King Garland singlehandly holds off. He also creates the Black Guardians as illusions of the most difficult foes faced by the party. Still, they fight through the Royal Hall, rescue Eruca, and confront him, where he reveals that he is going to seal Flux to prevent the Ritual. He animates the Black Chronicle using its own power, but Stocke kills it and its last Shadows. In one last-ditch attempt to kill Eruca, he absorbs the power of the souls of all past Sacrifices in all possible timelines, becoming Apocrypha, the game's final boss. However, Apocrypha is destroyed as well.

Alternate History
Heiss is infuriated that Stocke has left Specint, and sends a Shadow after him, warning that if he does not abandon the Rosch Brigade, it will be destroyed. However, the Shadow begins to reveal too much information, so Heiss turns him to sand.

After the Battle of Gran Plain, Lt. General Raul sends Stocke to find information about Hugo's schemes against the Rosch Brigade. Heiss encounters Stocke going through Hugo's papers and attacks him, but is defeated; in doing so, he unintentionally (or, being Heiss, perhaps intentionally) gives Stocke the Vanish spell he needed to progress in the Standard History.

Heiss doesn't appear again until Stocke and his allies use Historica to slay Hugo's demigod form once and for all. They enter the Imperial Ruins to find more information about the wielder of the Black Chronicle and fight him, during which he reveals most of his and Stocke's backstory. He fails, however, to convince Stocke to join him, and instead decides to kill Eruca before she could speak to Stocke. This also fails, bringing the Alternate History to a close.

Endings
In most versions of A Promise, Heiss dies with Apocrypha. In the perfect ending, however, Heiss looks into the soul of Stocke and sees his actions during various Side Quests, realizing that he merely wants the world to be a better place -- just like Heiss. Regretting his past actions, he forcibly Sacrifices himself instead of Stocke, and having becoming an enlightened soul in his last minutes, prevents desertification from continuing for a long time.

Battle
Heiss is fought as a boss several times throughout Rh.

Alistel
During the node Homecoming in Alternate History: Chapter 2, Heiss attacks Stocke to keep him from escaping with information about Hugo's dealings with Granorg.

Strategy
Stocke fights this battle alone, making it similar to Vlad the Spy. Heiss will use the powerful Blood Pain to deal around 70 damage to Stocke and restore his own HP; when he is not casting Blood Pain he will attack twice per turn. To lessen damage, have Stocke use Push Assault to move Heiss to the back row, then chain together turns to Stocke can cast Fire several times in a row to deal major damage to Heiss, without Heiss casting Blood Pain between attacks. The Mana Burst Turn Break can also prove helpful. Heiss flees when his HP is critical. Heiss has roughly 500 HP.

Imperial Ruins
Heiss is the final boss of Alternate History: Final Chapter, fought in the Imperial Ruins when he attempts to kill Eruca so that the Ritual cannot be carried out. He is aided by two Shadows.

Strategy
This may be one of the hardest battles in the game. Heiss regularly uses MP Break to lower characters' MP, along with double-hit 100-damage attacks, and the Shadows regularly use 175-damage attacks. Altogether, the three of them can hit for 500 damage, which can be lethal to a level 40 party. The Shadows have roughly 1000 HP, so having Aht create Star Traps in the front row and then pulling them into it can wipe them out, as will Will-O-Wisp and similar "cross" spells.

Without the Shadows, Heiss is greatly weakened, and can be eliminated without much effort. A Shield Seed Plus and King Stud can be Steal from Heiss.

Gran Plain
The party follows Heiss through time to Standard History: Chapter 1, where they fight him to keep him from killing seconds before she meets Stocke's past self. He calls a Shadow to help him.

Strategy
The Shadow has around 2500 HP, and can easily be defeated with a Volt Star Trap or G-Spells. Otherwise, it will use physical attacks, but is not much of a threat.

Heiss uses Power of Darkness to charge up Dark World, which can cause 150+ damage to the party. If he is kept in the back row, his Blood Pain and double-hit attacks will deal minimal damage. He also casts MP Break. Unfortunately, he has a large magic resistance, so even two Volt Star Traps will deal 1500 damage total. Heiss does not have any items to steal. He has roughly 5000 HP.

Related Enemies

 * Alistel Grunt
 * Alistel Soldier
 * Alistel Officer
 * Hugo (boss)
 * Rosch (boss)
 * Viola (boss)
 * Shadow (boss)
 * Pure Ice (boss)
 * Garland (boss)
 * Silent Soul (boss)
 * Guardian (boss)
 * Floating Stone (boss)
 * Noble Flame (boss)
 * Black Chronicle (boss)