| “ | That raid you made was quite impressive. I trusted you to guard my back. That's the way I think. | „ |
| ~ Lavitz |
Lavitz Slambert (ラヴィッツ・スラムバート, Ravittsu Suramubāto) is a major protagonist and the first party member that joins Dart Feld in the 1999 video game The Legend of Dragoon. He is the leader of the First Knighthood of Basil, serving under his longtime friend King Albert.
Lavitz had wanted to become a knight to protect the country of Serdio ever since he was little, but now he is involved in the Serdian Civil War between the Duchy of Basil and the Imperial Sandora, led by Albert's ruthless uncle, Emperor Doel. Lavitz joined Dart after he met him in Hellena Prison until he is killed by the Man in Hood near the end of Disk 1. Then the team will meet him again in Death City Mayfil possessed by Zackwell.
He is voiced by Kazuhiro Oguro in the Japanese version of the game and by Mike Marx in the English version.
Appearance[]
Lavitz has short blonde hair and brown eyes. His main outfit consists of silver armor with gold lining and a Basil emblem on front, along with matching silver gauntlets. Beneath this, he wears both a dark green top and pants. He is also pretty much always seen wielding a spear as his weapon of choice.
As a Dragoon, he resembles Syuveil, the original wielder of the Jade Dragoon Spirit. He wears mostly jade green Dragoon armor with bits of reddish brown, and his spear turns into a more ancient-looking Dragoon one that's brown-colored.
Late in the game, when his soul is stuck in Mayfil and he is being possessed/controlled by Zackwell, his skin takes on a sickly purple color and his face becomes demon-like, with pupil-less eyes and pointy teeth. He is also seen without a shirt on beyond his possession after he manages to purge himself of Zackwell and open the way forward for Dart, Albert and the others.
Personality[]
Lavitz is a shown to be very kind, selfless and chivalrous. This is especially well demonstrated when early in the game, while he, Dart and Shana are travelling through the Prairie and come across a couple and their son who had fled from Sandora, despite technically being associated with the enemy, he offers the boy food and gives them instructions on how to get to Bale so they can find lodging. He is also extremely loyal and dedicated to Albert, who is his childhood friend in addition to being his king. He is also very close with his mother, as shown when he takes Dart and Shana to visit her and thanks her for the jerky she makes, though he is also easily embarrassed when she shares personal details about him.
While he also gets along well with Shana, Rose and Haschel during the time he spends with them, during traveling with him, he develops an especially close relationship with Dart, to the extent he becomes as close to him as he is with Albert and they have a brother-like dynamic. He gives him very honest advice about his relationship with Shana, tries to encourage him to see her as more than his baby sister and supports them by giving them tickets to play some games together while in Lohan after Dart participates in the Hero Competition (ironically, while Dart would continue to show no interest in her at first, he would later take his advice to heart and eventually reciprocate her feelings later on in their journey after he died). He also later tries to talk him out of pursuing the Black Monster to get revenge since he admits that after defeating Greham, the man he hated for killing his father and betraying Basil, it brought him no personal peace or satisfaction.
While Lavitz is generally level-headed and even prefers to avoid unnecessary battles, like when he futilely tries to act as a mediator between Rose and Drake the Bandit at Shirley's Shrine when the latter incorrectly assumed he, Dart and Rose were there to steal treasure as opposed to just looking for a special plant to save Shana, he can be very wrathful and confrontational towards those who have wronged him and/or those he cares about, as shown when he furiously confronts Greham for killing his father and betraying Basil. He can also easily lose his composure when Albert is in danger, as demonstrated by him trying to impulsively run off to save him all by himself upon hearing the news from a dying soldier that he was captured and taken to Hellena Prison, to the extent he had to be knocked out by Haschel and later chastised by him for his recklessness to be brought to his senses. This unfortune tendency to lose his temper in such situations sadly proves to be a fatal mistake later on when he impulsively attacks Lloyd in a blind rage as a Dragoon upon witnessing him extract the Moon Gem from Albert's body, which leads to him being fatally impaled by the Dragon Buster, which Lloyd had kept concealed.
When his soul is later encountered in Mayfil, he initially acts hostile and aggressive to the party as a result of Zackwell possessing and controlling him. However, thanks to Dart repeatedly calling out to him and reminding him of who he is, he is able to purge the demon from his body and return to his old self, sharing a proper goodbye with him and Albert before doing one last good deed for them by opening the path to the Signet Sphere.
Abilities[]
Lavitz is very skilled with the sphere he wields, with it even being revealed later by Albert that he learned how to fight with a spear himself from him while growing up together. Stats-wise, Lavitz has very strong physical attack strength, durable defense against physical attacks directed at him, and a high amount of HP, allowing him to do a good amount of damage against enemies and equally good endurance against their basic attacks. Conversely, however, he has slow speed compared to the others, and both his magic attack and defense stats are considerably weaker, making him less effective at wielding magic attack items and vulnerable to magic attacks from enemies. He is also able to capably wield wind magic and spells later on after inheriting the Jade Dragoon Spirit from Greham, though his weak magical attack stat doesn't allow him to do much damage, especially since he only inherits it for a fairly short amount of time before he dies and it passes on to Albert. However, his Rose Storm technique is still very useful, since it cuts all damage any of the party takes from enemies in half for three turns.