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Nightmare is a fictional character designed for the Soul Series of fighting games. Nightmare made his first appearance in Soul Calibur and has returned for both sequels: Soul Calibur II and Soul Calibur III. He appears in Soul Blade as "Siegfried," an extra costume for Siegfried.

Western Voice Actor: Ted D'Agostino. Eastern Voice Actor: Nobuyuki Hiyama.

Biography

The biographies of Siegfried Schtauffen and Nightmare are the same up until the last paragraph, where they become separate and are able to co-exist simultaneously. Night Terror is his true identity.

During the late sixteenth century, the oppressed peasants of Germany were revolting against the Holy Roman Empire. With its forces weakened by the Italian Wars, the German peasants finally had a fighting chance. One of the champions of the people, a brave knight named Sir Frederick Schtauffen, met and fell in love with a woman named Margaret while on campaign; and they spent the night together. When Frederick returned after nine months of battle, he rejoined Margaret, having given birth to a son, who he named Siegfried, after the famous hero. Over the course of the next ten to fifteen years, Frederick spent a lot of his time teaching his son swordsmanship. Embarking on a foreign crusade, Frederick promised Margaret that he would return; unfortunately, without his father's guidance, Siegfried began to socialize with an edgy clan of teenagers, and he soon became the leader of their band of thieves known as "Schwarzwind," meaning "black wind." In a misguided act of national pride, the band devised a plan to attack the knights who ran away from the crusades, as they were bound to carry valuable possessions, and were too cowardly to deserve respect in any case. That night, the "Schwarzwind" ambushed a group of war-weary soldiers, too tired to retaliate. Siegfried even managed to kill the commander himself; but as he held the commander's severed head in triumph, the moonlight shone on its face, and Siegfried screamed as he realized he held the head of his own father. In mere seconds, Siegfried had snapped and ran straight into the forest, becoming more and more insane as he ruminated over his previous acts, until he came to a point at which he psychologically convinced himself that his father's murder was actually someone other than himself. And in this newfound delusion for revenge, Siegfried decided that his father's murderer must only be defeated by a specific weapon so that the vengeance would remain all the more satisfying; that weapon was the Soul Edge. He traveled first to Ostrheinsburg Castle, the refuge of the noble Sir Stefan, who he believed to be the possessor of the Soul Edge; and he joined in its forces, rising in its ranks with the hopes of acquiring Stefan's self-proclaimed legendary blade. During a siege on the castle, Siegfried saw an opportunity to take Sir Stefan's prized possession, the sword Grimblade, and killed him, running off with it into the Black Woods nearby the castle; but the sword held no power. Frustrated, he continued to search for weeks for the Soul Edge, growing increasingly more insane for its power as time passed. He finally managed to come across the legendary weapon Soul Edge, lying next to the defeated corpse of the dread pirate, Cervantes de Leon. But as he reached for it, the corpse lit up in a hellish blaze of fire and attacked him. Siegfried Schtauffen raised his zweihänder--appropriately named Faust--and defeated the fiery Inferno, earning the right to wield the Soul Edge for himself.

At the precise moment that Siegfried obtained the cursed blade, the Evil Seed emanated from him in a beam of light that rained pain and despair across the entire world, leading only to death and destruction. But Siegfried was concerned only with his own quest, to bring his father, Sir Frederick Schtauffen, back to life with the power that the Soul Edge had promised him and to avenge his father's murderer--even though he was the murderer himself but had forgotten due to self-induced psychological brainwashing. He thought that if only he could devour enough souls, his father would be resurrected; and by the time he finally remembered that it was he who had actually killed his own father, the sword had totally enslaved him with its power. In his first three years as the azure knight, Nightmare, he gathered together a group of followers: the golem Astaroth, the lizard man Aeon Calcos, and Ivy, the unknowing daughter of Cervantes de Leon. Each of them aided him in the Soul Edge's quest to devour souls for a rejuvenation ceremony to be performed in his chosen stronghold, Ostrheinsburg Castle. But as the ceremony was about to take place, the clan was quickly laid to waste. Aeon Calcos had been defeated by Rock for kidnapping his foster son, Bangoo; Astaroth had been killed by Maxi for murdering his crew in an Indian port town; and Ivy was considering abandoning the clan after learning the shocking truth of her horrifying past from the Fu-Ma ninja, Taki. Nightmare did succeed in resurrecting his father, but as Nightmare battled viciously with Kilik's holy bo staff Kali-Yuga, he came to the realization that this resurrection was merely an illusion of his own weakened soul, and he was too distracted to invest his full energy into the fight. Kilik eventually defeated him, and as his wounded body lay on the ground, Siegfried Schtauffen began to become the dominant force in Nightmare's mind again; and he witnessed the fateful battle between the holy sword Soul Calibur and the Inferno of Soul Edge. After the wielder of the Soul Calibur, Chai Xianghua, left with her companion, Kilik, Siegfried Schtauffen regained his sanity, becoming his former self.

As Siegfried Schtauffen lay wounded on the ground, having been defeated by Kilik's holy bo staff Kali-Yuga, he gradually began to become a prominent force in Nightmare's mind once again. During this time, he witnessed the banishment of the blazing Inferno of Soul Edge into the void by the holy sword Soul Calibur, and the Soul Calibur's fall into the void along with its counterpart. And he watched as its former wielder, Chai Xianghua, quietly left the castle, aiding her wounded companion along the way. Siegfried meditated on all he had seen and eventually learned to accept responsibility for his sin. He planned to return to his mother, who had no knowledge of anything that occurred during or after that fateful night three years ago; but just as he was about to knock on the door, he could hear his mother praying, and concluded that if he was to be successful in his new resolve, he must distance himself from society so that he never kills again. He could not see his mother until he was fully redeemed; but he knew he was not yet atoned for, for every time he awoke from a night's rest, he found his new zweihänder Requiem bloodied, and he was surrounded by the corpses of victims he had presumably murdered in his sleep.

Siegfried Schtauffen was aware that although he had regained his sanity and learned to accept his past sins from three years ago, he was not yet fully redeemed. Every morning, as he awoke from rest, he would find the corpses of helpless victims lined around his body. He knew that the Soul Edge still held power over him, but now it used its strength in his sleep, and no matter how hard he tried not to fall asleep again, he would always eventually give in, and the darkness would continue to operate at night in his subconscious. He tried to forsake civilization as far as he could go so that no person could be corrupted by the dark energy of the Soul Edge, but never to any avail. Four years passed, and he had eventually assumed the azure armor for a second time, becoming Nightmare all over again, desperately pursuing fragments of the Soul Edge that he might fully restore it. As he plundered powerful souls and recovered shattered fragments of the sword, the cracks in the Soul Edge's surface healed one by one. His goal of reviving the sword was nearly complete, and he returned to his old stronghold, so that he may be in the Ostrheinsburg Chapel when he restored the blade to its true power. But just as he was about to begin his ceremony, he was interrupted once again, this time by a lone fencer from the French Empire--the exiled son of the Sorel nobility, Raphael. At the end of the fierce battle, Nightmare stood victorious; but just before he administered his finishing blow, the wounded man muttered something incoherent. Deep within the azure helmet, a faint hint of the will of Siegfried Schtauffen emerged and attempted to fight off the Soul Edge's influence for a second time. The battle between the two personalities waged in the mind of the singular being, causing the azure knight to stand motionless in distraction. Unknown to him, the fallen body of the fencer Raphael had been conjuring up all of its remaining strength to unleash a desperate pierce into the center of Soul Edge's eye. Nightmare let out an inhuman cry, and as the will of Soul Edge desperately clawed to keep its grasp on the azure knight, the time had come for Siegfried Schtauffen to re-emerge and reclaim the body as his own.

Siegfried Schtauffen had re-emerged to reclaim his body as his own for the second time--this time, he hoped, for the last time. And when he had become separate from his azure identity, Siegfried quickly thought back in a daze over all he had done; it had been a reflexive action. Just then, a sword had appeared within the light: the holy sword Soul Calibur. It had been trapped inside the Soul Edge all this time, waiting for a force strong enough to free it for its fateful battle to occur. As if guided by a mysterious force, he grabbed the Soul Calibur by its hilt and drove it into the evil eye that was the core of Soul Edge.

At this point, the biographies of Nightmare and Siegfried Schtauffen become separate and are able to co-exist simultaneously.

In the instant that the Soul Edge was pierced by the holy sword Soul Calibur, no one noticed the evil Inferno dwelling within the Soul Edge flowing out. Throughout its long history of slaughter, the sword had obtained its own immortal soul. This invisible entity--the will of the cursed sword--chose to cling to the remains of the azure armor strewn on the ground, the armor of the former azure knight, Nightmare, who had unleashed his reign of terror across Europe. The evil soul flowed into the armor, desperately trying to manipulate its bodiless host to devour more souls. But the absence of a physical body held the spirit's potential back tremendously, and it was unable to accomplish anything. All it could do was resign itself to its current fate and wait for an opportunity to arise. Some time later, an Egyptian man bearing a large scythe--the enigma known as Zasalamel--visited Ostrheinsburg Chapel where the strewn armor remained. He could read what had happened by studying the armor and the evil energy hanging in the air. In the thick fog, the spirit of the evil sword had an unspoken conversation with him; and Zasalamel agreed to aid the sword in its resurrection. He performed an ancient ritual, using powerful words to distort the laws of nature. The unsteady energy of the weakened sword was woven together and bound to the remains of the azure armor. The revived being clad in azure armor shone as new, with not a trace of damage remaining. Out of its hand oozed a tremendous sword which resembled the previous incarnation of the Soul Edge. But Zasalamel had plans of his own, and with his newfound control over the will of the sword, he ordered the entity to create havoc in the name of one Siegfried Schtauffen. The azure knight soon made its presence known as a disciple of fear, death, and devastation as it devoured countless souls, attacking and consuming all it encountered on a pure impulse to destroy. Not even death could quell the revived evil. But more and more souls would not be enough, and the spirit knew that it was in desperate need of stronger souls. Ultimately, however, the raging Inferno regained its independence and decided to free Soul Edge on its own as rumors of the terror of the azure nightmare spread throughout Europe once again.

Character Analysis

In Soul Calibur II, Nightmare is considered a mid-tier character. Although he has a strong "step" and does heavy damage, his attacks lack the speed and initiative of other characters such as Xianghua and Yoshimitsu. Though his Zweihänder swords have huge range, most of his move at that distance are unsafe. His ideal range is mid.

Nightmare is a stance-based character, having a total of five, through which he can transition seemlessly by either manual control or through attacking. One of his staple attacks is his primary launcher Sky Splitter (a.k.a. 3), which goes into Night Back Stance, followed by Terror Stomper (B). Since Nightmare is relatively slow and does not have strong pokes, his game is based punishing-and provoking-mistakes. Nightmare has a strong wake-up game due to his ability to mixup Sky Splitter, throws, and low attacks.

Series' Appearances

• Soul Calibur
• Soul Calibur II
• Soul Calibur III

Tournament Match Videos

• Read Me First!!! Instructions on how to view Team Crooked Jester X264 videos
• Bibulus vs GiX at 12/10/05 Team Crooked Jester Tournament (external login required)

External links

• Official Project Soul website
• Forum for Nightmare strategies/tactics
• Comprehensive Nightmare FAQ

• Soul Series characters