Elzam von Branstein

Elzam von Branstein is a calm, collected individual, much like his brother, whose even temper makes his skill as a pilot even more readily apparent. Despite this stoicism, he is a gentle person and treats his subordinates with utmost respect when not on the battlefield. Much like Sanger, his honorable personality conflicts with that of some of the less scrupulous members of the Divine Crusaders, who view his upholding of honor to be a weakness.

His prowess in battle is matched only by his prowess in the kitchen—Elzam is a master chef. When he was a Divine Crusaders commander, he would cook feasts for his men, creating gourmet dishes with whatever ingredients are on-hand. The fact that Elzam is such a gourmet is the basis for his rather thinly-veiled disguise, Rätsel Feinschmecker, which is supposed to mean “The Mysterious Gourmet” in German (although correctly translated, it would be “riddle gourmet”; the correct translation would be “Rätselhafter Feinschmecker”). His taste in food also creates a perplexing situation in the game series, as Elzam is one of the few people to have tried one of Kusuha Mizuha’s health drinks—which, while beneficial, are by all accounts in-game foul-tasting, to the point where the drinker loses consciousness—and actually enjoy it, even going so far as to identify every single ingredient of the concoction, to the other “victims’” dismay.

Another trait of Elzam’s in battle is his distinctive custom color scheme for his mecha and his flagship, the Kurogane: they are all primarily black with red accenting and a splash of gold; save for the Kurogane, all are referred to as Trombe, the name of his pet stallion. The figurative steed, in the case of Dygenguard’s companion machine, the Aussenseiter, becomes a very literal one—Elzam’s machine becomes a horse, acting as the Dygenguard’s mount.