Siegfried Schtauffen (ジークフリート・シュタウフェン Jīkufurīto Shutaufen?) is the main protagonist for most of the Soul series up until Soulcalibur V. He joined a gang of bandits after being left by his father, a knight of the Holy Roman Empire, only to unintentionally kill his father during a raid. Driven insane by this act, Siegfried convinced himself that someone else was to blame for his father's death, thus embarking on a journey to find Soul Edge and use it to take revenge. After obtaining Soul Edge, he becomes possessed by the sword and transforms into Nightmare, a major antagonist in the series. Though he does temporarily regain his sanity after the Azure knight is defeated by Kilik and Xianghua in Soulcalibur (only to be taken over by Soul Edge again shortly after), it is not until after the events of Soulcalibur II that he is freed from the sword's control entirely and went on to pierce the cursed sword using Soul Calibur, trapped it in "Soul Embrace". He spends the duration of the series seeking atonement for the atrocities he committed as Nightmare, who becomes a separate entity by Soulcalibur III and opposes Siegfried as his archenemy. The two eventually confronted each other in the Lost Cathedral, where Siegfried manages to cast out Soul Edge. However, he is mortally wounded and is left in the brink of death if not for the help offered by Soul Calibur, at which point the holy sword tied itself to Siegfried permanently. Siegfried then make his way to confront Nightmare, who have "completed" itself through its scattered fragments. In their final confrontation, Siegfried successfully destroyed Soul Edge and ended Nightmare's existence. He reformed his gang of bandits, Schwarzwind sometime later, with the intent to find a new wielder for Soul Calibur, as he felt the sword is not loyal to him anymore. After seventeen years, he meets Patroklos Alexander and while at first deprived by his cocky nature, deems him as the new wielder and helps him recover his true fighting style. Siegfried later participates in an all-out war in Hungary, knowing that its leader, Graf Dumas is the new Nightmare.
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