Altena (Noir)

Infobox animanga character
name = Altena
series = Noir


caption = Altena's portrait
first = Episode 1
last = Episode 26
creator =
voiced by = Tarako (Japanese)
Tiffany Grant (English)
nickname =
alias =
age =
gender = Female
blood type =
born =
death =
occupation = Soldats priestess and leader
title =
relatives =
divider = yes
aux1 name = Theme music
aux1 = Lullaby

nihongo|Altena|アルテナ|Arutena is a fictional character and one of the two antagonists of the 26-episode anime "Noir" created by Bee Train studio. She is voiced by Tarako in the Japanese version, while voiced by Tiffany Grant in the English version.

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Appearance and Personality

Altena is the high priestess of the Soldats - an ancient, secret society whose power clandestinely reigns over the globe. As a high priestess who traditionally holds control over Noir, the most highly skilled assassins of the Soldats, she holds immense authority and transcends even the governing body known as the Soldats Council. She makes brief appearances through the beginning of the series and first introduced in episode six. Altena is always seen wearing a robe and is never shown to have left a place known only as "the Manor". She is the one who raised and trained Chloe as Noir, who acts as her personal bodyguard.

Little is known about Altena, but her ultimate goal involves "Le Grand Retour", an event which will revolutionize the Soldats and change its present form. As such, there are those in the Soldats who oppose her. Altena goes by her own philosophy of "If love can kill people, hatred can save them."

Role

Not much is known about her past except that her homeland was destroyed during a war in her childhood and it was implied that Altena was raped by a soldier as she was wandering along the streets of her ruined village. Altena goes by the belief that if love can destroy others, hatred can perhaps save. When and how she became the high priestess of Soldats has never been revealed. Although her appearance is that of a kind and merciful mother, Altena in fact is skilled with guns.

Altena lives a medieval lifestyle in a place the Soldats considers as their holy site called "The Manor" along with Chloe, subsisting on the produce of a vineyard. There, she keeps watch over Kirika Yuumura and Mireille Bouquet - the other "saplings" for ritual revival of Noir while playing a motherly role to Chloe who acts as her personal bodyguard. Altena sends Chloe to initiate contact with the pair, aiding them from time to time. She also assigns Chloe assassination missions under the name of the Soldats. It was later revealed that Altena was the one who gave Kirika her Beretta and the mission to execute Mireille's parents.

Altena, who believes that the Soldats of the present time have been corrupted by power and greed, works towards an event known as "Le Grand Retour" (French for "The Great Return") for the purpose of returning the Soldats to its "original state" with the process of reviving Noir. This caused a conflict with some of the Soldats Council members whom disagrees with Altena's ideology on the future of the Soldats. While Altena sees the Soldat's given termination order on Mireille and Kirika as a trial, the Soldats members opposing Altena attempt to make use of the opportunity to kill the pair as a means to stop Altena's plans.

After Kirika returns to the Manor, Altena prepares for the ritual and summons other priestesses of the Soldats to the Manor. Everything was going well prior to the arrival of Mireille at the Manor in which Chloe was killed in the ensuing confrontation between the three candidates of Noir. The priestesses, not knowing that Mireille and Kirika had no intentions of succeeding as the next generation of Noir, were surprised that the pair had turned against them after Chloe's death. When confronted by the leading priestess Borne while the rest of the summoned priestesses make a last ditched attempt outside to stop the pair, Altena calmly states that the transpired events are of no surprise, and the ritual will proceed nevertheless. Borne then concludes that Altena has no consideration over the eventual fate of the Soldats in her zeal to revive Noir and brands her a traitor. Altena shoots Borne as the latter tries to subdue her.

Betrayed by both Noir and the Soldats, Altena maintains the ritual at the Manor dungeon (an open volcano) where she confronts Mireille and Kirika. She taunts Mireille by referring to her parents as lambs who had merely served as one of the many sacrifices necessary for the growth of the Noir "saplings", leading them to this very place. Mireille was on the verge of killing Altena in her anger but eventually concludes that Altena is someone who is not even deemed worthy of killing. Altena then injures Mireille with a gun hidden behind her robe and entices Kirika to kill her instead. Kirika hesitates to kill Altena, who then opens fire on Mireille. Kirika, remembering her promise with Mireille's mother, shields Mireille with her body. Altena dies as Kirika brings both her and herself over the lava pit.

External links

* [http://www.projectnoir.com/characters/altena.shtml/ Altena's profile] (ADV Films)