Relius Clover

""I am the one who is quite normal here... It is this world that is insane.""

Relius Clover (レリウス＝クローバー), known to many as the Mad Puppeteer (狂気の人形師), is the patriarch of the Clover family and the former Colonel of the Novus Orbis Librarium's Engineering Department. He was once the leader of the Ten Sages, known as The One (ザ・ワン) and formerly belonged to the Immortal Breakers, having worked alongside Valkenhayn R. Hellsing.

Relius first appeared as an NPC in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and was made playable in its remake, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend.

Appearance
Relius is a tall, well-built middle-aged man. He has spiky blond hair and a short chinstrap beard. His most distinctive feature is the gold and black domino mask which he wears at all times.

Relius wears a fine purple shirt, white pants, and white gloves. Around his collar, he wears a white cravat topped with a purple jewel. He has tall purple boots with golden metal buckles and toes. His boots also have silvery metal adornments which resemble cross-shaped screw heads. Over his clothing, Relius wears a purple cloak with a huge collar, held on by a cross-shaped buckle similar to Carl’s. The bottom of this cloak has two metal rings attached to it. The inside of the cloak is green.

As a young man, Relius was clean-shaven, and his hair didn’t stand up as it does now. Though his cloak and gloves were the same as they are now, his other clothing consisted of a simple black and purple suit with a white necktie. Most strikingly, he covered his eyes with a black blindfold instead of his domino mask.

As The One of the Ten Sages, Relius wore a dark purple hooded robe with light purple markings and large golden fasteners. The cross-shaped buckle on this robe had two long, belt-like leather straps attached to it. He is clean-shaven like his young self, but wears the domino mask he does now.

When Amane uses his Astral Heat on Relius, he appears with hair similar to his current self, but clean-shaven. He wears the same boots, cravat, and domino mask as he normally does, but lacks his cloak, and wears a simple white dress shirt and vest with black pants in place of his regular clothing. The jewel on his cravat is colored brown.

Personality
"Consistently self-centered. He has barely any interest in things that are unrelated to his research, and detests wasting time. He can be social, but aside from his research it's only to "maintain appearances." It's not that he doesn't experience changes to his mood, but rather that he won't let himself lose his calm and collected demeanor. He behaves extremely coldly to the ignorant, whom he regards as fools."

Relius Clover
''Carl’s blood-related father. A well-known doll maker, who is also a Captain in the NOL. He is also the creator of the Boundary Interface Prime Field Devices.

''He covers his eyes with a mask, but generally maintains a chivalrous manner of speech and attitude. Nevertheless, one feels a darker side that he keeps hidden behind the façade, when coming into contact.

''His personality is extremely methodical, and egoistic. He cares little for anything that does not relate to his research, and he is witty enough to manipulate even Hazama – a bonafide mad scientist who sees humans as objects, and has no hard feelings using them in his experiments.

''As proof, he used his own wife as the basis for the Detonator, Ignis, and Ada as the platform for Nirvana.

''Upon discovering Shuichiro Ayatsuki’s ultimate and ancient creation, the Kushinada’s Lynchpin was located in Ikaruga, he wastes no time traveling there.

Trivia

 * Library Mode erroneously calls Relius a "Captain" of the NOL, but he was a "Colonel".
 * In BlazBlue: Central Fiction most of Relius' scenes were cut from the final game. In an interview with creator Toshimichi Mori in the BlazBlue: Central Fiction Official Setting Material Collection he stated that Relius was originally going to be acting in secret, and had his scenes been left in, it would have almost doubled the content of the Story Mode.
 * In the English translation of Izanami's Act III Arcade Mode in Central Fiction, Relius references French philosopher René Descartes. He repeats the famous phrase "I think, therefore I am", also known as "cogito ergo sum" which appears in Descartes' book Discourse on the Method.