Duke of Soleanna

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The Duke of Soleanna is a character in Sonic the Hedgehog, voiced by David Wills in the English dub and by Kenji Utsumi in the Japanese dub. While his exact age is uncertain, he is known to be elderly, and was probably quite old at the time of Elise's birth. As the Duke is already dead at the time of the game's storyline, he only appears a few times; once when Shadow and Silver travel back in time to observe the Solaris Project firsthand, once in Elise's flashback in the cutscene following the Tropical Jungle stage, and once at the end of the game, when he and the young Elise are viewing Solaris in its early form - the Flame of Hope - before Sonic and the present-day Elise extinguish him.

[edit] Game Appearance

After the death of Elise's mother, the Duke resolved to use the power of Solaris, the sun god honored by the citizens of Soleanna, to travel through time and see her again, as well as allow humanity to correct its past sins. However, the project became unstable when a device they were using exploded, and Solaris split into two villainous entities: Iblis, the raw power, and Mephiles, the conscious mind. The Duke was gravely wounded in the blast while attempting to protect Elise. Upon the arrival of a time-traveling Shadow and Silver, they both split up to pursue and capture Mephiles and Iblis. The Duke, strangely not surprised to see them, gives Shadow the Scepter of Darkness in order to imprison Mephiles.

The Duke arrives, carrying Elise, once Silver has caught up to Iblis and psychokinetically paralyzed him. Silver shouts at him to leave, but the Duke replies that it is his duty to ensure that Iblis is not released into the world. With no other option, the Duke uses a Chaos Emerald in a ritual to seal Iblis within Elise's soul. Once he is successful, he entrusts Silver to take Elise to a safe place, and, while lovingly stroking his daughter's hair, tells her to remain strong and not to let herself cry, no matter what, as Iblis would be free if that would ever happen, and then dies, leaving Silver alone in the room with the unconscious Elise in his arms.

Due to the actions of Sonic and Elise in the past which resulted in the permanent destruction of Solaris, it is possible that the Duke either died from another cause, or he may never have died at all. As he was not seen during the game's ending, his exact fate is uncertain.

[edit] Trivia

• The Hint Rings' "voice" might possibly be the spirit of the Duke interacting with the living world, as the voice sounds suspiciously like him.