Ivy Valentine

"For better or worse, this sword is my fate..."

- Ivy

Isabella "Ivy" Valentine is a character and an anti-heroine in the Soul series of fighting games. She appears in Soulcalibur, Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur Legends, Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, Soulcalibur V, Soulcalibur: Lost Swords, and Soulcalibur: Unbreakable Soul. Since her first appearance, she has become one of the most recognizable and iconic characters in the franchise, mainly due to her snake sword, large breasts, revealing clothing, and silver hair. She is nicknamed "The Twisting Blade Of Solitude".

What lies in her soul is Deliverance.

In Soulcalibur V 's promotional material, she is referred to as The Return of a Legend.

Personality
Ivy is considered evil by many due to her Machiavellian philosophy and her appearance. She only wanted to acquire Soul Calibur by any means to sever her bond with Soul Edge. When facing her opponents, she spites them with dramatic words and she takes advantage of her unique weapon, which she invented. Beneath her cold demeanor is a heart that wants freedom from a cursed life that will do whatever it takes to be free. Overall, she is a neutrally-aligned character.

Early life
The House of Valentine was once one of the most wealthy families in London. Isabella 'Ivy' Valentine had been raised with love by her parents. However, her father, Earl Valentine, was driven insane by his pursuit for what was called the "Key to Eternal Youth." By the time of his death, his efforts to search for immortality had drained his family's fortunes and left one of London's most distinguished families in ruins. As if to pursue her husband into death, the Countess fell ill and passed away soon after Earl Valentine's death. This left Ivy as the sole surviving member of the Valentine family.

In reality, Ivy was not a true Valentine by birth. The Earl and Countess found her abandoned in front of their mansion when she was an infant, and she was taken into the family as an adopted child. Ivy discovered this secret only after reading a will left behind by the Countess in her death. But this did not matter to her, for the Valentines were the only parents she knew.

Searching through her parents' possessions, Ivy found her father's diary. In it, she discovered that the "Key to Eternal Youth" her father had been pursuing was a sword called Soul Edge. He had also been obsessed with the art of alchemy. To honor her father, Ivy chose to become an alchemist and investigate Soul Edge.

During this investigation, she uncovered the true nature of the sword–it was an evil blade that feasted on souls. Vercci, Adams, Captain Cervantes; the more she read of the fates of those who had come into contact with Soul Edge, the more she became convinced of her suspicions.

"My father was driven mad by such a loathsome thing...this evil sword!"

Filled with rage and despair, Ivy vowed to avenge the death of her father by using all of her knowledge to destroy Soul Edge. Ivy realized she needed to create a weapon powerful enough to destroy Soul Edge. Her knowledge led her to successfully create a weapon capable of shifting back and forth from a whip to a sword. This weapon was merely mechanical though, and Ivy believed the only thing which could stand against a living weapon is another living weapon. She attempted to use alchemy and her own blood to give the sword life, but all attempts were unsuccessful.

Finding her alchemic skills useless, she turned to studying ancient sorcery. Every midnight, she would attempt summoning rituals, hoping to call upon a being who would grant her sword life. With every failed attempt, Ivy became more desperate and angry.

At last, one night, a large malformed arm emerged from her summoning circle. The arm, sensing her attachment to her weapon, proceeded to touch the whip sword. Ivy heard a soundless voice seemingly coming from the arm.

"I, Cross of the Pledge, shall confer upon thee the Point in the Escutcheon of Destruction - Dexter Purpure."

The ceremony came to an end and the mysterious being vanished. Under the moonlight, Ivy's sanity began to crack. She finally had the weapon she had sought to create; a living sword which would obey her every command. Calling her weapon the 'Ivy Blade', she set out on her journey to find and destroy Soul Edge.

Soulcalibur
The sword, which had a will of its own, accompanied and protected Ivy on her journey to vanquish Soul Edge. When she crossed paths with Nightmare, the one who breathed life into her sword, she agreed to assist him in the "summoning of souls." Little did she know that it was all part of the evil sword's plans. Ivy realized it was Nightmare who possessed Soul Edge. She came to this revelation only after he was defeated and the evil blade was shattered. That meant that the beloved blade she had forged to destroy Soul Edge had life thanks to the power of the evil blade. She also learned the secrets of her true lineage. Ivy's birth father once wielded Soul Edge and was manipulated by its wicked powers!

Soulcalibur II
Shaken by the horrifying truth that she had been collecting souls for the wielder of Soul Edge and of her own cursed lineage, Ivy returned home and locked herself away in a dark laboratory. She tried countless times to destroy Ivy Blade, which was now a symbol of her self-hatred and regret. She could not, however, bring herself to actually break the sword.

"I am the same as this sword... Yes, the blood of the evil blade flows through me. The same blood..."

Ivy Blade waited for its master's orders silently.

After months of soul searching, Ivy emerged with renewed resolve. Her goal was no longer to destroy the evil sword, but to completely wipe it out of existence. As a vow to her commitment, she renamed her sword "Valentine", a symbol of her will to continue onward as a human despite her own cursed blood. Once she acquired information about fragments of Soul Edge being scattered throughout the world, she immediately departed on her new journey.

Ivy's mission was to destroy not just the fragments of Soul Edge, but all of those who had been infected with the cursed blade's influence. All of them, even the innocent, would be granted no mercy. Ivy was determined to eliminate all traces of Soul Edge. Of course, she too would eventually have to be killed, and she believed this fate to be the ultimate end of her journey.

"Call me a monster or a demon if you must. I'll be happy to be called those names if it is the price I must pay to eliminate the existence of the evil blade!"

Soulcalibur III
Ivy intended to destroy every fragment of Soul Edge, anyone who carried its tainted bloodline, and anyone contaminated by its evil. Nothing would stop her from destroying the root of the evil, even if it meant killing the innocent - there would be no exceptions. The only thing that mattered was obliterating the evil sword's existence completely.

During her bloody, merciless quest, her sword began to change. It had become unstable and harder to control. Ivy decided to temporarily halt her mission and return to her mansion in order to determine the cause.

She stopped by a certain academic city in England and purchased new books, both ancient and recent, dealing with secret arts. At home, she found one particularly old book to hold much interest. In it was the most detailed information she had seen yet concerning Soul Edge and its origin. Continuing to decipher the text, she found information dealing with the spirit sword known as Soul Calibur, which was said to grant power to its wielder to stand against Soul Edge.

In a month's time, Ivy had deciphered all the information dealing with Soul Calibur the book had to offer. However, her front door suddenly opened and a dark skinned man dressed in a white robe entered her home.

"Who are you?"

"Did you read the book?", asked the stranger.

The two of them drew their weapons, her faithful snake sword and his giant scythe, and a fierce battle began. Sparks flew as each struck and deflected the other's blows. "Dammit!!", cursed Ivy as she had to use more of her mental power than usual to control her own sword. The man took advantage of her hesitation and landed a heavy blow. When Ivy had recovered, she realized she had dropped the book.

The man picked up the book. "This is a mistake from my past. The world no longer needs this...", he said as the book suddenly burst into flames. The man dropped the burning remains of the book and left as a wall of fire separated him from Ivy.

"Stop!", Ivy demanded. "If you wish to learn everything about the cursed sword and the spirit sword, then follow the knight you know well.", he said as he vanished from sight.

Despite the loss of the book, Ivy still remembered what she had read about the spirit sword. She theorized that the odd behavior concerning her own sword may have a link to Soul Calibur as well. Ivy set out on a new mission to obtain Soul Calibur for herself and use it to destroy Soul Edge once and for all.

Soulcalibur IV
Ivy continued to seek information about Soul Calibur for the purpose of destroying Soul Edge. Following rumors, she set forward toward the East, searching for a certain temple. This temple, now abandoned and corrupt with evil energy, was said to have once guarded a sacred weapon.

At the temple, she encountered a man tending the graves. This man, Kong, told her about Soul Calibur, also known as the Krita-Yuga. From his information, Ivy was presented with a new problem. Her own cursed blood would prevent her from being able to wield the sword or utilize it to its full potential.

Ending her current journey, she returned home to her alchemic research. If she could not wield the spirit sword, she would create a being who could. She sought to create a homunculus and animate it with an artificial soul.

Unfortunately, her father Cervantes tracked her down and invaded her house, intent on consuming his own offspring's soul. Ivy's lab was utterly destroyed by the battle between father and daughter. In the end, Ivy lost and Cervantes was able to consume most of her soul. Now at the brink of death, Ivy was forced to use the artificial soul she had created in order to survive. However, the soul was not perfected. Sooner or later, she would die.

Mixed with the remains of her old, cursed soul, Ivy hoped that her new soul was pure enough to wield Soul Calibur. After seeing that her Valentine still responded to her, she set out on what she believed to be her final journey.

Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny
According to Cassandra, in the Gauntlet mode, Ivy is a professor who has agreed to help Hilde's father from his ailment. In return, she demands the soul of Cervantes. Somehow, she managed to get Siegfried in his crystalized state and kept him as statue until Cassandra accidentally broke him free.

Soulcalibur V
Ivy had rushed to Ostrheinsburg in order to destroy Soul Edge; instead she faced her father, Cervantes. She prevailed, ruthlessly dispatching her father in their final, fateful duel. Her Valentine reclaimed not just her own lost soul, but all the souls her father had taken. But before she could move on to her true quarry, the sky tore apart.

Soul Edge, its physical form shattered, disappeared into the rift above.

Others called this victory and she triumphed, but Ivy knew better.

Having spent a lifetime studying the cursed sword's cycle of destruction and rebirth, Ivy was convinced that Soul Edge was merely biding its time in another dimension, awaiting the day it could be born again in our world. The sword itself may be beyond her reach, she reasoned, but what if she could rob it of its refuge? What if she could destroy the world beyond the rift?

At some point, Ivy was visited by two mysterious strangers, one of whom wore a mask and spoke not a word during their meeting. The unmasked figure claimed to be a supporter of her research, and informed Ivy about the nature of the chaos realm she sought after.

For over a decade Ivy researched the sword's home, a place she came to call "Astral Chaos". Her body, with the blood of the cursed sword flowing in its veins, seemed to have forgotten to age.

It was Soul Edge that had thrust this destiny upon her, and Ivy would not rest until the cursed sword was purged from all existence.

Soulcalibur: Unbreakable Soul
When the player and Cassandra encounter Ivy in the Maze of the Dead, she mistakenly thinks that they were performing inhumane rituals and fights them. After she is defeated, the misunderstanding is cleared and she tells them that they must destroy the core of Soul Edge in order to eliminate the sword.

Trivia

 * Ivy, at 5' 10", is the tallest female character in the series.
 * At size DDDD, Ivy may have the largest breasts in the franchise.
 * Ivy is nicknamed "Twisting Blade of Solitude".
 * Ivy and Cervantes share the characteristic of using a two-in-one weapon; Ivy's sword turns into a whip and back again into a sword; one of Cervantes' sword is also a gun.
 * Up until Soulcalibur V, Ivy's adoptive father was said to have the title of 'Count' in English versions. This was an error, as he should have been called an 'Earl'.
 * Some people consider Ivy an "evil" character because of her Machiavellian philosophy, but her motivations are more in line with those of the "good" characters; she wishes to destroy Soul Edge, but will do so at any cost. So, she is considered to be neutral. After her actions in Soulcalibur V where she helped Patroklos resurrect the spirit Sword.