Shepherds

Shepherds (導師, Doushi; literally meaning "Monk" or "Priest") is a being figure which appears in the two of the mothership storyline events of Tales of Berseria and Tales of Zestiria. A Shepherd is a human contracted to a powerful seraph who has the ability to purify malevolence at its roots, and is, by extension, able to purify the hellions. A Shepherd's ultimate goal is to defeat the Lord of Calamity. The Shepherd plays a crucial part in the story and serves as the mediator between humans and seraphim. The Shepherd is advised to avoid becoming involved in the affairs of humans, such as politics, lest society become dependent upon the Shepherd's intervention or otherwise misuse their power.

"."
 * —About Shepherds.

Role and Duties
The main role of the Shepherd is to travel the world and form pacts with multiple Spiritual beings to increase their overall strength and gain the Powers of Purification, which is then used to cleanse the malevolence of the world.

Sorey, as the Shepherd in Tales of Zestiria, gains the Flames of Purification after forming his pact with the fire seraph, Lailah, who is also a Prime Lord. Through forming a pact with the prime-lord, the Shepherd is able to form pacts with other seraphim—as well as grant them the powers of purification to their own nature and provide a vessel in the Shepherd, where the seraphim can take a spiritual form to rest their bodies in. The Prime-Lords serve as a guide to the Shepherd, sharing their knowledge of the world. They are usually the first to enact the Armatus with them; a process which is the fusion of the host body and the powers of the seraphim to boost their base power and purification immensely, this process is called "Armatization".

In Tales of Berseria, it is revealed that the term originated during the game's timeline and that Artorius Collbrande was the first of them. The Abbey, a pre-Zestiria foundation consisting of Exorcists under their rule, all function as the Shepherds of their time. Throughout the events of Tales of Berseria, it is shown that the members of The Abbey and their patrolling army, the Exorcists, can form pacts with Malakhim and acts as vessels for them. Eleanor Hume, an ex-member of The Abbey and once serving under Artorius Collbrande can form pacts without the need of having a spiritual being such as the seraphim prime-lords as seen in Tales of Zestiria. This ability has also been shown by Magilou, a mysterious witch party member of Berseria, when forming a pact with a Normin Malak called Bienfu. Oscar Dragonia and have been shown to be enact the powers of the Armatus, something heavily related to that of the Shepherd's abilities. Guidelines have proven that the term Exorcists had evolved into eventually referring to all Exorcists as Shepherds. As the vessel for Maotelus, the sixth Empyrean and the purifier of Malevolence, Eleanor Hume effectively becomes the first "true" Shepherd after Artorius.

The major Shepherds in Tales of Zestiria include Sorey, the previous Shepherd Michael and the overseeing Temple Trial seraphim. Rose takes on Sorey's role as the shepherd so that she could continue quelling hellions in his place as he cleanses the world in a timeless space allowing his powers to be used by his Squires.

Heroes

 * Sorey - The Shepherd during the Age of Chaos and the protagonist of Tales of Zestiria. Initially a human with high enough resonance to see the seraphim, Sorey becomes the Shepherd through contracting with Lailah by taking up the Sacred Blade.
 * Rose - Initially Sorey's Squire, Rose takes the mantle of the Shepherd by contracting with Lailah and makes Alisha Diphda her Squire three months after the Age of Chaos in the post-game DLC titled "Alisha's Story".

Supporting

 * Claudin Asgard - The king who had ended the Era of Darkness. He is referenced in Tales of Zestiria as having been a Shepherd. In Tales of Berseria, he is only mentioned to have been an Exorcist, as well as Artorius's mentor.

Villains

 * Asura - A former Shepherd from an unspecified time period. He possessed the sword that was infused with the power to cleave malevolence. He became a hellion, and his sword was taken by his seraph companion, Altul. Maltran later steals the sword during the events of the game.
 * Artorius Collbrande - Known to be one of the first Shepherds, as well as a hero thousands of years prior to the events of Tales of Zestiria. He is featured in Tales of Berseria, the distant prequel to Zestiria.

Other featured characters

 * Pawan - A former Shepherd, contracted to Lailah during an unspecified time period. He was known for purifying over 10,000 hellions. He became a seraph upon his death.
 * Michael - The Shepherd prior to Sorey, who died eighteen years before the game's events.

Notes & Trivia

 * Ironically, both known Lords of Calamity, Heldalf and Velvet Crowe, were created by the actions of a Shepherd of their respective age. Heldalf was cursed by Michael, and Artorius sacrificing Velvet's brother led to her becoming a daemon seeking revenge.