Urien

"My anger will calm only when I am proven to be the true emperor!"

- Urien

Urien (ユリアン) is a character in the Street Fighter series. He first appeared in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, voiced by Yuji Ueda, and in 3rd Strike, voiced by Lawrence Bayne. He is the younger brother of Street Fighter III antagonist Gill.

Appearance
Urien has a similar appearance to Gill, having exactly the same physical build (i.e. that of a Greek Olympic athlete) with dark bronze skin tones and short, metallic white hair. On his forehead, he has a small jewel crowning it, and his shocking animation reveals it to be embedded directly into his skull. He also wears a simple loincloth.

In his pre-match introduction in the Street Fighter III series, he appears as a lighter-skinned man with short blonde hair and wears a light brown (white in his 3rd Strike ending) business attire; he then sheds the suit, his skin darkens to a bronze complexion, and his hair turns from blonde to metallic white.

Many of his alternate colors are similar to those of Dhalsim, in that they change his skin color as opposed to his costume's color. This ability to change skin and hair color could be the result of his control over metal. In his time over sprite, he reverts back to his normal state as his skin becomes pale.

Personality
Urien's personality can be best described as tyrannical, much in contrast with the benevolent nature of his brother Gill. Urien's nickname in the Street Fighter III series is even "The Treacherous Disciple", alluding to his status as the Judas to Gill's Jesus. Urien frequently displays sadistic tendencies, and takes a lot of pride in becoming the "True Emperor". Urien also dismisses the cryogenically preserved brains of his predecessors as "ugly and stupid" and "a mass of junk with no ability to take positive action".

Urien also renounces any noble traits and elements associated with leadership, regarding them as worthless, and instead seeks fear and subjugation through his reign, much like a despotic tyrant. Accordingly, he screams phrases such as "crush", "destroy" and "kill" during most of his special attacks, which - along with their names - highlight his violent nature, and also points to a lack of self-control stemming from emotional instability.

Concept
Urien's design draws on his relationship to Gill: if Gill can be compared to Jesus Christ, Urien can be considered Judas Iscariot, whom his title even references.

Like Gill, Urien shares a few inspirations with him, being based on Yuda from Fist of the North Star and the Pillar Men from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Urien's own design however, bears resemblance to the antagonist Replicant Roy Batty from Blade Runner fame, the crazed technocratic ruler Trevor Goodchild of the animated series Æon Flux, and famous WWF wrestler Ric Flair; furthermore, his enjoyment of suits, the culturally memetically famous quotes of Crush, Kill, Destroy!, and megalomaniacal desire of ruling with an iron fist may refer to the concept of "The Man", the derogatory societal term of "The System", and how those that follow it in this context are also derogatorily referred to as "robots". His Roman based attacks and imagery also invokes the familiarity to the infamous Roman Emperor Caligula; not only given names potentially rife for ridicule, but also to their emotional instability, as Caligula grew to be known as an insane, scandalous, indulgent and abusive tyrant to his peers and the populace, claiming himself as the incarnation of Jupiter to having at one point forcibly thrown a section of a crowd into a pit of carnivorous animals for his amusement. On a minor note, Roman statues were often colored than the common thought of them being plainly white, as the Romans saw the plain marble as the statues being tastelessly lifeless, while Roman political culture often percieves insanity as one aspect of poor government.

Background
Supplementary material on Urien's backstory notes that, unlike the other candidates for the leadership of the Illuminati, who are kidnapped and brainwashed into doing their bidding, Urien and Gill were born to parents who were long time members of the cult. Both his parents are said to have been candidates to the presidency of the cult; being holders of Ph.D(s) in their respective fields. It is noted that his mother, an olympic level athlete and a doctorate in Sports Dynamics was especially a favourite to become the President.

Urien became a potential candidate for the presidency at the age of 6 along with his brother Gill. After this the brothers were separated from their parents and were made to undergo constant genetic modifications, training and monitoring sessions. During this period, Urien learned to manipulate both his ki and the elements of the Earth, merging them together in his aura. He also learned to perform the Aegis Reflector, one of the 66 secret arts described in the lore of the Illuminati. At the age of 22, the management chose Gill as the president due to his greater strength and charisma over Urien, sometime before the events of Street Fighter III.

Street Fighter V
On October 2015, a datamining of Street Fighter V ' s PC beta test revealed fighter data and character meshes of Urien, Dhalsim, Juri, Ibuki, Alex, Guile and Balrog. Dhalsim was later confirmed as a returning character and it was reasonably believed that Urien and the rest would be the first six additional DLC characters. Urien and the rest of the characters were later confirmed on December 5th, 2015 at the PlayStation Experience.

2nd Impact
In Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, Urien is introduced as the younger brother of Gill, who bears an intense grudge against him, stemming from an inferiority complex. Like Gill, he too is subject to genetic modifications and training programs under the Illuminati. His inferiority stems mainly from his emotional instability. Being the second strongest member of the Illuminati, Urien originally holds the position of the Vice President of the organization during the tournament of Street Fighter III 2nd Impact, outranked only by Gill who serves as the President. Urien stakes his claim to the Presidency by challenging Gill to a match in order to prove his superiority. Gill purposely throws the match and Urien is made the President. Immediately after, Urien learns that the President is outranked by the Emperor in the hierarchy of the organization, his recently promoted brother Gill.

Urien is also in charge of the Illuminati's crisis management unit, the G-Project, which works on the basis of human body remake theory. This unit is responsible for the mutations to a Russian national, Illia, more commonly known by his code name, Necro. Urien also spearheads the creation of Twelve, and many similar clones.

3rd Strike
During the events of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Urien longs to overthrow Gill by creating his own army of super-soldier clones with the G-Project. He also kidnaps one of the children under Chun-Li's care to subject her to genetic modifications. He however agrees to let the child go, if the legendary street fighter, Chun-Li, fights him for his amusement. After a brief spar Chun-Li manages to defeat him and rescue the child. Ken also encounters Urien during the tournament as he attempts to uncover more about the Illuminati.

What happens to Urien after the events of the Third World Warrior Tournament is yet unknown. His 3rd Strike ending shows that he took leadership of the Illuminati and destroyed its preservation facility, where a weakened Gill was resting, declaring the beginning of an era "After Urien". Gill's own ending, however, shows an entirely different outcome, implying that he actually survived.

Capcom Fighting Evolution
Urien appeared in Capcom Fighting Evolution as a playable character.

Gameplay and fighting style
Like Gill, Urien's basic fighting style is possibly based on the ancient Greek Olympic discipline of Pankration. Urien also underwent the same Illuminati physical training program, though his grasp of the more advanced techniques of the program is fairly limited, reflected by his relatively simpler Super Arts compared to the much more advanced ones of his brother; this may also be the reason behind Urien's mostly charge-based set of special attacks.

Overall, he has slightly lower attributes compared to Gill, thus making him more balanced for higher-level play; though his normal and command moves have the same high priority of his brother's, they tend to do less damage all around. In addition, his size makes him somewhat vulnerable to aerial attacks from more than a few characters, such as Necro and Akuma. However, Urien is still more than powerful enough to overwhelm opponents via constant pressure, and many of his moves are difficult to anticipate, albeit prone to whiffing. Urien also has several more combo setups compared to the rest of the cast, giving him an array of methods to inflict high damage and stun.

Where Gill wields fire and ice, Urien can wield lightning and make his body metallic; he can create electrified spheres similar to his brother's projectiles, and can also use similar knee drops, headbutts, and charging tackles, all with the potential to shock opponents.

Super Arts
Urien's Super Arts consist of the Aegis Reflector, a barrier that reflects incoming projectiles; the Tyrant Slaughter, a string of Chariot Tackles followed by a lariat; Temporal Thunder, a powerful Metallic Sphere that shrinks as it approaches the foe and hits multiple times. The Aegis Reflector is noted to be one of the Illuminati's Sixty-Six Secret Arts, and tends to be the most commonly chosen Super Art by players due to its high utility as a stun-building combo extender.

Quotes
See: Urien/Quotes.

Pop Culture
Urien/Pop Culture

Trivia

 * Urien seems to have a connection to Alex; when the latter asks if the former knew someone named Tom, Urien becomes upset and demands that name to never be mentioned again.


 * In his winquote to Urien in the console ports of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Twelve refers to him as 'Dad' (in Binary), asserting the fact that the G-Project is Urien's brainchild.


 * Urien's 2nd Impact stage is possibly set in the archaeological sites outside the Temples of Abu Simbel, Aswan in Egypt, while Gill's stage is inside the temples.
 * Urien's 3rd Strike stage is likewise set in the Olmecan ruins is in La Venta, Tabasco in Mexico.


 * Both Urien and his brother share the same voice actor in 3rd Strike, Lawrence Bayne. Coincidentally, Bayne also voices Twelve and Necro, whose creations Urien is responsible for.


 * While Urien's name is speculated to be a mistranslation of 'Julien', Urien is actually a real, but very obscure name from Welsh and Arthurian legend. The name means "privileged birth", which correlates directly with his parents being high-ranking members of the Illuminati, as well as his entitled attitude and wish to be rule with utter supremacy.


 * Plenty of Seth's attacks came from Urien and Gill, his basic attacks and focus attack being a prime example of this. In USFIV ' s Omega Mode, Seth gains his Chariot Tackle as well.
 * This has led to theories that Shadaloo and/or S.I.N. possibly has some intel on the Illuminati. Comics published by UDON make this explicit, Illuminati is S.I.N.'s benefactor when it breaks away from its parent organization. The UDON comics, much like the EX series, aren't canon to the main storyline.


 * The sprite where Urien's blood comes out from his left arm is only found in the Japanese versions of 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike as it was censored everywhere else. In Capcom Fighting Evolution, he instead changes himself back to normal when he loses.

Gallery
Urien/Gallery

Sprites
Urien/Sprites