A large part of Ravus’s motivation in both Kingsglaive ( the movie prelude to Final Fantasy XV ) and the game itself is resentment. Resentment more specifically towards the kingdom of Lucis, it’s king Regis, and the Caelum lineage itself. Bitterness is largely what propels him forward in Kingslglaive. In the first scenes of the movie, a young Ravus is seen in the midst on an assault on his home of Tenebrae— of which he is the first son. Nifheilm unleashes it’s magitek infantry when the royalty are least expecting it, and are hosting the King Regis and his son the young Prince Noctis. A soldier targets Ravus while he is left vulnerable to attack, but his mother Queen Sylva puts herself between her son and the soldier. She is then run through by the General Glauca. Instead of using this opportunity to flee with his sister and Regis, he stays beside the motionless form of his mother and beckons for aid. The call is not asnwered. King Regis manages to escape with Noctis, and leaves Tenebrae to be conquered.
This event, is the motivation behind the Ravus we see in Kingsglaive.
In the wake of his mother’s death, and the loss of his birthright as Tenebrae’s heir, Ravus seeks someone to blame. Instead of blaming the Empire of even General Glauca as the direct agent of his mother’s death he blames Regis. In his eyes, Regis is the one who did not turn back when he signaled for aid, and the one who left he and Lunafreya to live under the Empire’s occupation just to save his own son and bloodline. Bitterness is assumedly what spurs Ravus to joining the ranks of the Niflheim army. At the beginning of Kingsglaive, Ravus’s position within the army is not specifically mentioned but he is a high officer. The guiding force at this point in Ravus’s life is the desire for power, enough to act on the resentment he feels towards the Caelum line even though it is against the wishes of his only living family, his sister Lunafreya. Lunafreya is the Oracle, meant to herald the coming of the King of Light who she believes is Noctis. She is completely devoted to her duty to help him ascend to this position, and rid the world of Eos of it’s blight. The will of his sister is not enough to stop Ravus from taking what he believes is rightful revenge on the Lucian kingdom. He arrives at it’s capital Insomnia to witness a treaty signed between the Emprire and Lucis though that is far from what happens.
Instead Niflheim makes an attempt to take over Insomnia and retrieve it’s crystal which holds immense power. Ravus finally gets to see the King Regis again, and when he has the opportunity to get his hands on the Ring of the Lucii ( an artifact that itself symbolizes the Lucian line and is handed down from King to King holding the wisdom of each ) he takes it, and believing himself worthy of the ring and the power it holds ( though he is not of the Caelum lineage, he is a Nox Fleuret which is the bloodline of the Oracle ) puts it on.
It rejects him.
The ring incinerates his arm. Though he ascended through the Empire’s military ranks, became part of the organization that orchestrated his mother’s death, it still wasn’t enough. He wasn’t worthy, is forever reminded of that fact by the prosthetic he was granted in place of his burned arm. The next time Ravus appears it is in the game of Final Fantasy XV.
The first time Ravus appears in game it is of course in a confrontation with older Prince Noctis and his companions after Insomnia has fell to the Empire. He appears before Noctis with nothing but contempt for the other. He says that Noctis is too weak to fulfill the prophecy of the King od Light, and even more so too weak to be what Lunafreya is siphoning her life force off for. He is bitter still, that the Ring of the Lucii rejected him, and presumably will choose Noctis. The only time in this confrontation where Ravus truly loses his composure is when Noctis makes the remark that he is hunting down Lunafreya.
Which from what the player knows so far about Ravus from Kingsglaive might as well be the truth. This comment is what spurs Ravus to grab the prince by the throat and push, as well as easily outdo Gladio with a wing of his sword. The confrontation is only put to an end by the arrival of Ardyn Izunia, the Imperial Chancellor of Niflheim.
So far, based on what the player has seen and knows of Ravus, he is simply a one note character. One embroiled in hatred, and motivated by bitterness and the desire to take revenge on the Caelum linage. He has sided with the empire and is hunting down his sister because she is awakening the astrals who guard the world of Eos, and readying them to make covenants with the Prince.
This is what Noctis believes of Ravus himself, until he ventures towards Tenebrae and meets with a woman named Maria who was once one of the retainers of House Fleuret. She asks if Lunafreya had delivered him the Ring of the Lucii, which after it had burned off Ravus’s arm came into her possession. Noctis answers in the affirmative and Maria exclaims that Lord Ravus too will be happy to receive the news.
Noctis, as well as the player at this point experiences a moment of wait, what? Why would Ravus, who hates Noctis, who works for the Empire as their dog be glad that Noctis received the ring from his sister.
In a flashback of Lunafreya and Ravus in Altissia ( where Lunafreya awaits the arrival of the Prince Noctis so that she can summon Leviathan ) Lunafreya is shown to be weakened and doubting her ability to deliever the ring to Noctis. Ravus kneels down before her and tells her that he believes in her, that she has the inner fortitude to do her duty as Oracle and give Noctis the Ring od the Lucii, and even urges her to show Noctis the truth of her heart separate from her duties as Oracle. This flashback shows that Ravus has the capacity to be a caring individual, he gingerly grasps Lunafreya’s hand while he reassures her, and at this moment comes closer to smiling than he does the whole rest of the game.
The assumption that Ravus was fully in leage with Niflheim is questioned again in another scene with the Chancellor Ardyn Izunia in Altissia. He stands in the rain in the Capital and Ardyn asks him whether or not he had the chance to speak with Lunafreya. Ravus answers with a resound no, even though we have seen that he did speak with her to reassure her of her own strength. While it was once assumed that he did not care about Lunafreya’s mission as Oracle, and was willing to hunt her down, that is not the case. The love that Ravus has for his sister, his last living family, is immense. While Lunafreya was planning to summon the Leviathan, Ravus was in preparations to take the beast down for her sake— not to capture the power of the astral for the Empire, or to prevent the Prince from making a covenant with it.
Ravus, though largely motivated by bitterness, is not ruled by it. There is a part of Ravus that is still the child that beckoned for help from a King and received none, but there is also a part that wants to protect his sister above all else. While working for the Empire he wrote Lunafreya several letters, one predictably advising her that Noctis was not worthy of the sacrifice she was making, and two others that advised her to cut ties completely with the Empire and offered to send her an escort to return to the manner as the Empire was starting to fear the awakening of the Astral. Somewhere along the line, Ravus had a change of heart about Noctis, and is even willing to return to the Prince the sword he had taken from King Regis as a trophy.
On the outside, Ravus appears to be stoic and single minded with aspirations towards power and revenge. On further analysis of his actions, he is more of what Gladio gives as his epithet: a man with hopes and dreams.
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