Velvet Crowe

Velvet Crowe (ベルベット・クラウ, Berubetto Kurau), also known as "Velvet the Daemoneater" (喰魔のベルベット, Kuuma no Berubetto) is the fictional character and one of the main protagonists of the Tales of RWBY series. She is a human granted with the powers of a "Slayer of Darkness" with the power to create, control, manipulate, and change her body to "darkness" at will and to consume those of "Black Hearts", such as Grimm, or daemons and absorb their souls, and therefore refers to herself as "Monster" (化物, Bakemono). Due to having an imbued element of darkness inside her body, she is shunned and, by the voice of Amadeus and the Abbey, which is to be feared by the world.

Originally kind and family-oriented, the events of the Scarlet Night three years prior to the events of the series, and the three years of dark experiments performed on her at the hands of Baron Amadeus Praxis, turned her into an angry woman fueled by vengeance. During her journey across regions of Remnant, she comes across a young boy called Laphicet, who changes her with his pure soul. Devouring daemons with her power of darkness during her time locked up in Titania, the prison island, has earned her the title as Deamoneater.

"I am not a Daemon. My name is Velvet Crowe. That is my name; you can give Amadeus my regards and make sure Artorius also knows. Velvet Crowe is coming for them. I will destroy and devour all daemons, all malakhim, all exorcists, and all species alike. I am a monster. I am a SLAYER, OF DARKNESS!"
 * —Velvet Crowe.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Cristina Vee (English), Rina Satō (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

Biography
Originally a kind and family-oriented girl, Velvet became a vengeful woman fueled by hate due to the traumatic events she went through on the Scarlet Night three years prior to the events of the story. She fights with a blade mounted on her right-hand gauntlet, her feet, and her powers to create, control, manipulate, and change her body to darkness as a daemonic weapon to devour daemons, humans, and malakhim alike.

Appearance
Velvet is a fairly tall, slim young woman with jet black hair. Her eyes are a piercing yellow.

Past
Three years prior, she used to fully plait her hair, that reaches past her waist, before tying it off with a red hairband. She seems to normally wear it in a loose braid. She used to wear a red shirt with belt-pouches and brown pants as well as maroon boots. She also used to wear a different gauntlet without having the need to bandage her arm up.

Current (Volume 4–Current)
Velvet has grown her hair extremely long, and messy, which drops to floor-level; towards the bottom her hair is plaited into big braids that are tied off by a bandage-like band around the tips. Her hair-strands curve towards the left-side of her face and she has mid-length hair which is plaited and tied by a smaller bandage-band resting on her left shoulder. She dresses in dark colors and tattered clothing, and her left arm is perpetually bandaged.

Her outfit consists of a revealing ruby-red corset which reveals her midriff and the top half of her breasts. It is possible her clothes have been torn during her adventures. The red corset has an insignia visible below the belt which it hinders below. The same belt rests of her hip and above her torn, black jean trousers, which now look like shorts. The jean trouser has a chain, multiple belts wrapped around her right leg and a few which spiral towards the lower half of her left. Over her corset, she wears a black jacket in the form of a robe with red-velvet lacing; the jacket is ripped towards the bottom and is tightened towards her chest by the belt.

She wears protective armour on her footwear as well as one extra armour plate on her right shin. She wears the same armour in the form of an arm protective gauntlet which rests above the same material as her coat; the material arches its way up to and wraps around her middle finger, highlighted by a rhombus-shaped piecing. The same gauntlet is where she rest her lance-blade in battle. Her left arm is wrapped and bandaged up because of the burned injury she took in her initial battle with Artorius.


 * Hair Color: Black
 * Skin Color: Not Known
 * Eye Color: Gold
 * Age: 16 (Scarlet Night), 19 (Volume 4)
 * Birthday: Not Known
 * Height: 170cm
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
"Velvet was originally a simple girl who loved her family, but the incident back home three years ago had changed her. Her smile that always had, is forever gone, and it's now cold-blooded rage, anger and hatred that drives her."
 * —Description on Velvet Crowe.

Three years ago before the incident, Velvet was described as a very kind, unpretentious, companionable, and loving woman, holding a deep love for her family and having a sensible head. Her little brother and many of the villagers often believed she was too athletic to land a husband. She loved her family and the people of the village until the events of them being massacred by a mysterious figure.

After the incident and the massacre of her loved ones ever since then, however, she and her life completely changed and she has locked away her carefree heart. She suppresses her kindness and feeds only her standoffish rage and driven by hatred in her heart. Now, all that remains of her facade is a dark and gloomy character who will do anything to achieve her goals. She is a being who is shunned and by the voice of Amadeus Praxis and the Abbey, is feared by the world. She feels loneliness in life, having to continuously went through multiple experiments and injections, face many conflicts and build up hatred. As a result, she almost never smiles.

Despite this, it is until three years later, in which she meets a young malak boy once called Number Two, who she named "Laphicet" after her brother later on, manages to draw out some of her old self. Because his orders were to harm the party, Velvet unconsciously saved him after forcibly using him by commanding him to hurt members of his affiliation and then pulling him along onto the fleeing ship. She acts rude and frustrated with him because everything she talks to him about is referred to as an "order" by him, until she teaches him the ways of life, she gains back some of her emotions of which were buried deep in her memory. It is because of her, that Laphicet began to attain a purpose in life, which makes her happy inside. As the story progresses, Velvet becomes an older sister figure of the team, particularly to Laphicet.

Velvet can also be quite stubborn when people, usually females, become close to Laphicet in any form. This can be seen when Laphicet and Eleanor have private conversations and becomes jealous that the former will not tell her about them. Afterwards, she tells him to prioritize herself before Eleanor—saying that she is "first" and Eleanor comes "second", therefore he should speak to her about his problems before blushing at what she said. Velvet is also quite sisterly/motherly and overprotective regarding Laphicet, when she scolds Eizen and Rokurou for teaching him, unnecessary knowledge regarding e.g the untrusting of women.

Friends/Allies

 * Niko
 * Velvet's Faction
 * Rokurou Rangetsu
 * Magilou
 * Eizen
 * Dyle
 * Sorey's Faction
 * Sorey

Family

 * Artorius Collbrande (Brother-in-Law)
 * Celica Crowe (Elder sister; Deceased)
 * Laphicet Crowe (Younger brother; Deceased)
 * Unnamed mother (Deceased)
 * Unnamed father (Deceased)
 * Laphicet (adoptive son/younger brother)

Neutral

 * Seres
 * Eleanor Hume

Enemies

 * Amadeus Praxis
 * Abbey
 * Artorius Collbrande
 * Oscar Dragonia
 * Teresa Linares
 * Heldalf
 * Salem's Faction
 * Salem

Fighting Style
Velvet's class is that of a Lancer which makes her a quick-combo fighter. She primarily uses martial artes in battle for evasion and rapid succession. She carries a hidden blade underneath her shoe. Velvet fights up-close and personal, utilizing her legs in martial artes performing swift kicks, while relying on her gauntlet blade in hidden artes to perform vicious stabbing attacks. The elemental properties on her hidden artes are well-suited for performing weak point combos.

In battle, she equips a blade which acts as a small lance within the tip of her right-hand gauntlet and use it as if it were an extension of her own body. She also uses the power of the Darkness Slayer sealed within her and turns her arms into bloody-crimson clawed hands that she can then use to strike with. She also uses her legs to kick and sweep into her combos. Her kicks are seen into work when she spirals to the side and kick or swipes her foot with a double-loop airborne to perform an a variety of techniques.

Semblance
Her Semblance is named Consuming Dark Devil (コンジューム, Konjyūmu), which allows Velvet to also use her Slayer powers to manifest a shadow figure of her self with glowing red eyes, black, frightening clawed hands and feet which takes the forms of a werewolf's clawed arms and a dinosaur's clawed feet, her teeth become razor sharp with four canine like ones looking like that of a vampire's fangs, and dark bat/dragon-like wings that allows her to fly, release energies provided that one of the enemy, and launch a powerful special arte. She gains certain buffs depending on the type of enemy she strikes and enables her to unleash a special arte.

Despite her Semblance being powerful, at the cost of her Aura constantly decreases in this state, but she also deals more damage in proportion to the amount of Aura she loses. The appearance and the name slightly resembles and foreshadows the form of a monster, as the Abbey calls her.

Slayer

 * Main article: Slayer of Darkness

The Slayer of Darkness (闇のスレイヤー, Yami no Sureiyā), is an unusual power she gained due to the three years of dark experiments performed on her at the hands of Baron Amadeus Praxis, which grants her the ability to create control, manipulate, absorb and transform her body into all and any forms of darkness at will. As such, Velvet can let all and any form of attacks pass through him without injury and can only be wounded with the use of being caught off guard, her elemental weakness, and weaponized form of artifacts created by the Ancients (as a means of an emergency call should a Slayer go rouge).).

As with all Slayers, she can consume, not just any forms "negative darkness" such as Malevolence, Grimms or Daemons, but her respective element, with the exception of that which she has created, to replenish her energy reserves. Velvet's ability to eat darkness gives him immunity to most types of it, and allows her to spew a large burst of darkness/shadows from her mouth at her target.

This power allows Velvet to transform the physiology of her body into that of the Shadow; transforming her body into a shadow that cannot be touched by any means. With this ability, Velvet is also able to fade herself into shadows to move swiftly, dodging efficiently and making surprise attacks. However, if Velvet is caught while in a tangible form, or by another person in shadow form, she is then vulnerable to attacks.

The darkness and shadows produced by her are able to be utilized in several different ways, allowing for a high level of adaptability; the shadows and darkness are able to be released in freeform, as condensed, create full-body clones of herself or anyone she knows and remembers in memory, or even molded into the shape of a weapon, taking on the properties of said chosen shape.

Techniques

 * Grievous Slash


 * Lethal Pain (リーサル・ペイン, Rīsaru Pein): Velvet dives from the air, striking the target enemy with her foot and sending them airborne. She then unsheathes her gauntlet blade and slashes them twice, knocking them down on the ground. Sheathing her gauntlet blade and turning her fingers intro black razor sharp claws, Velvet ends the arte by diving down and clawing her enemy.


 * Impulse Desire (インパルス・ディザイア, Inparusu Dizaia): Velvet first charges at the enemy, piercing her gauntlet blade through them, and then thrusts her open hand engulfed with darkness at the target, blowing it away as a vortex of red and black swirls follow it.


 * Annihilating Crash (絶破滅衝撃, Zeppa Messhougeki): Velvet dashes forward to the enemy, turning both of her arms into sharp clawed has of darkness, and assaulting them with slashes from both her arms and gauntlet-blade. After making a downward slash, Velvet jumps high into the air, creating a ball of energy from both of her arms. She then descends and slams the ball down on her target, rupturing the ground.


 * Innumerable Wounds (イニュメラブル・ワウンド, Inyumeraburu Waundo): A combo attack between Velvet and Laphicet. Laphicet begins by sweeping the enemy into the air with his papers, which then scatter around the air as Laphicet forms a magical glyph beneath the enemy. Velvet advances and slashes the enemy with her gauntlet-blade while ascending by jumping on the scattered papers. As the enemy begins to fall, the magical glyph is fully formed, and the enemy lands on a glowing sphere, propelling it back into the air. Eight ephemeral blades then form around Velvet, landing on circles around the glyph as Velvet descends to stab her enemy down on the glyph. At the center of the glyph, energy expels in a cross shape of darkness while the surrounding circles that were stabbed earlier by the ephemeral blades release pillars of light energy.

Meeting Arthur
Ten years before the story, she lived a quiet, warm, and happy life in a small village of Aball with both her older sister Celica Crowe, and her younger brother named Laphicet Crowe—who she used to refer to her brother as "Laphi". From a very young age, it has been hinted at many times that Velvet's parents had passed away. As a child, Velvet never went to school. At the age of nine years old, both Velvet and Laphicet, were introduced to a man with white hair by Celica. They had become close to him and eventually became a brother-in-law, started living under the same roof. The man named Arthur, under whom she trains.

One day during a Scarlet Night, of which was the crimson hours of darkness, her village was attacked by daemons, and she and Laphi had ventured out into the forest with Arthur witnessing a shocking splurge of events. On this night, their older sister was killed and passed away, leaving Velvet to take care of Laphicet together with Arthur. The siblings took a few days to recover from the event and the accept the death of their sister.

On that same night, the more malaks arrived, one of which was a woman named Seres. Arthur's malakian companion, Seres, could not be seen or heard by Velvet but by her brother and Arthur only.

A Stolen Happiness
Three years before the story, at the age of sixteen, despite the loss of Celica and her unborn child, Velvet still leads a happy life, caring for her sickly brother. A few days before an upcoming Scarlet Night, Velvet is doing her usual errands. The next day, she wakes and notices that Laphicet is not at home and begins to look for him. Her search takes her to Tranquil Woods, where she finds her brother, who happened to take a break on his way to the cape. She takes him and they talk a bit, but they are soon attacked by a daemon and Velvet attempts to fight off the monster while giving her brother a window of escape. However, she is unable to do so, and Laphicet encourages the daemon to attack him. It gives into his taunt and knocks Laphicet on the ground with Velvet as he attempts to give her a comb.

Velvet loses conciousness and wakes in her bed during the Scarlet Night with the comb in her hand and her brother nowhere to be seen. She rushes outside to find daemons attacking the village, much to her horror, and she rushes to the cape in hopes of finding her brother. There she sees Arthur together with Laphicet, but a binding ability is placed upon her, and before her very eyes, she suffered from a traumatic event in which caused her loved ones to become massacred by the savior Artorius Collbrande, who also killed her younger brother and drops him into the shrine's depths during on the night of the Scarlet Night.

This in turn, left people to wonder whether she was a daemon, calling her "inhumane". When she is thrown from the shrine, daemons attack her, but she strikes back and devours them on instinct. Artorius tells her to look around her surroundings and she realizes that the daemons she had slaughtered reverted back into the townspeople, among them her deceased childhood friend Niko.

With her psyche shattered and fatigued from the fight, she collapses as malakhim begin to appear and Arthur reveals his real name: Artorius Collbrande. Velvet was arrested by a patrol of guards headed by their commander, Erron.

Erron takes her to the prison island Titania, where prisoners and daemons are kept and imprisoned. From this event onward, her life forever changed and her family was killed. Because of that incident she grew and harbors her deep hatred all on Artorius, the "savior" of her world, and vowed revenge on him for killing the townspeople, as well as her brother.

Etymology
The term Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel. By extension, the word velvety means "smooth like velvet." Velvet can be made from either synthetic or natural fibers.

Notes & Trivia

 * She shares the same last name as Tytree Crowe.
 * Velvet is allergic to cats. She avoids going to Katz Corner in order to conceal her allergies, which results in her sneezing. Strangely enough one time, Velvet claims her favorite animal person is a Katz despite in spite of her allergy. Of course, Velvet admits that she is a dog person, stating that dogs do not betray.
 * Velvet states her favorite mascot character is a rappig because her village raises them and they taste good.
 * One of Velvet's costumes is based on Rutee Katrea's appearance.