Voldo (ヴォルド, Vorudo) is a character in the Soul series of fighting games. Voldo made his first appearance in Soul Blade and has returned for all the following sequels.
Voldo first appeared in Soul Edge, offering the first insights of his unpredictable play style and mannerisms. Later, in the sequel, Soulcalibur, he gained many of his staple moves and traits that would later stay in his reappearance during following games Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III and Soulcalibur IV. He is one of the few characters to have been present in every version (either arcade or home) of almost all of the games in the series; in the main series, he, Siegfried, Mitsurugi, Nightmare and Cervantes are the only characters to have appeared in every installment. Voldo remains one of the most well known and popular characters in the series due to his unique playstyle and disturbing appearance. Voldo is incapable of sight and speech. Thus, making him reliant on his senses and only being able to make grunting, groaning and hissing noises. (Though for sake of RP, I’ll have him slowly speak over time.)
What lies in his soul is Allegiance. In Soulcalibur V's promotional material he is referred to as He Who Is Bound By Blind Allegiance.
Due to his appearance, Voldo is considered as an oddity, even among the Soul series' cast. Following his debut appearance in Soul Edge, all of his costumes had a very direct approach to the sado-masochistic slave theme which is associated with him. Voldo almost always wears a leather harness, which resembles a head trainer, covering his eyes and mouth. Most of his costumes also include other fetish elements, such as spikes, strings tied tightly around his body, thongs revealing his ass and parts of his costumes are made from see-through fishnet. In Soul Calibur IV his initial concept even had a ball gag, but this wasn't included in the game, possibly due to its offensiveness or to avoid a higher rating. His final design in Soul Calibur IV includes an element from his 2P costume from Soul Edge - monoculars. However, in this costume, he has three of them, two where his eyes should be and one in the middle of his forehead.
Voldo's Soul Calibur V outfit is seemingly less bondage themed, though he does sport a very outlandish suspender depicting a spider. When he loses the colorful fur during battle, it's revealed that he's dressed in his usual way.
Voldo is easily recognizable by his strange and unique style of play. His moveset is based on contorting his body in unnatural ways, making him an extremely unpredictable fighter. He also has many stances that compliment his odd style, like his Mantis Crawl in which he stands on his four limbs face-first. Also unique to Voldo is his ability to fight with his back towards his opponent. He uses a different set of attacks in this mode, though he returns to face-forward mode to execute grabs. Due to the nature of his weapons, Voldo has one of the shortest range in the game, which is considered a major flaw. Also, due to his lack of eyesight, Voldo will sometimes miss the opponent if they are quicker than him. Despite these difficulties, he is generally considered as a high tier character by the tournament community.
