Alister Azimuth

Biographical information
Homeworld	Fastoon
Residence	Fastoon (formerly) Volgram Pass, Torren IV
Membership	Lombax Praetorian Guard Center for Advanced Lombax Research
Physical description
Species	Lombax
Gender	Male
Behind the scenes
Portrayed by	Joey D'Auria

General Alister Azimuth is a major supporting character in A Crack in Time. He is a Four-Bolt Magistrate of the Lombax Praetorian Guard and an elder councilman for the Center for Advanced Lombax Research. Azimuth was a childhood friend of Ratchet's father, Kaden, and wields a Praetorian OmniWrench in battle.

After Emperor Tachyon's purge of the lombaxes, Azimuth became an exile, residing in the Breegus System with a hideout on Torren IV. He fought against the forces of Dr. Nefarious and Lord Vorselon, earning the moniker "the rebel." Ratchet eventually met him in his hideout, and together they searched for the Great Clock in hopes of rescuing the lombaxes from their past.

History

Early life

A photo of Azimuth and Kaden.

Azimuth and Kaden were childhood friends who often embarked on daring adventures, including hoverbooting in the Odin Caves of Krell Canyon, where they would sneak in after the vullards had left. On one occasion, Kaden nearly broke his arm while hoverbooting in the caves. Kaden even stole Azimuth's father's trillium harvester to travel to the Agorian Battleplex and compete. Although Kaden became captain of the hoverball team on Fastoon and could outrace most elders, Azimuth could still beat him.

During a summer, Kaden and Azimuth went on a secret mission to the outskirts of Orrack Minor, where space pirates had taken over a vullard settlement. They also led an army of terraklons away from a fongoid refugee camp during the Battle of Erundai.

Azimuth joined the Lombax Praetorian Guard, becoming a Four-Bolt Magistrate and eventually an Elder Councilman for the Center for Advanced Lombax Research. During his tenure, he was the architect behind the Court of Azimuth.

Before A Crack in Time

Tachyon presenting his ideas to the lombaxes.

At one point, a cragmite adopted by the lombaxes, Percival Tachyon, approached the Center for Advanced Lombax Research with advanced military technology. While many lombaxes were suspicious of Tachyon, and Kaden warned Azimuth not to trust him, Azimuth believed that partnering with Tachyon was the right move to protect Polaris, which remained a dangerous place. He granted Tachyon full access to lombax technology, leading to the creation of the Imperial Army and its subsequent attack on the lombaxes, forcing them to flee to the lombax dimension. Due to his role in Tachyon's rise, Azimuth was forbidden from joining the other lombaxes.

Azimuth was unable to prevent Tachyon from killing Kaden, and was unaware that Ratchet had survived. As a result, he remained in exile, believing himself to be the last lombax in the universe. Azimuth desired to use the Great Clock to reverse his mistake, but lacking contact with the Clock or knowledge of its location, he was unable to do so.

Several decades later, Dr. Nefarious rose to power within the Breegus System. Azimuth fought against him and his enforcer, Lord Vorselon, becoming known as "the rebel Azimuth". He attacked one of Nefarious' transports, destroyed one of Vorselon's outposts in the Korthos Sector, and fought Vorselon on Lumos. Vorselon kept a cell ready for Azimuth on his warship in case of capture. Eventually, Azimuth was exiled to the Molonoth Fields on Torren IV under strict conditions.

At some point, Azimuth worked with a terachnoid named Jarvis, who later owed him a favor.

A Crack in Time

Azimuth introducing himself to Ratchet.

During his search for Clank in the Breegus System, Ratchet heard of Azimuth after being mistaken for him by Vorselon, and was given his location by Captain Qwark. In "Chase down Alister Azimuth", Ratchet found Azimuth in Volgram Pass, but a misunderstanding led Azimuth to attack him, believing Ratchet to be an assassin in a hologuise. After Ratchet caught up to him, Azimuth recognized him as Kaden's son and apologized, explaining what he knew about the Great Clock, where he believed Clank was held. Azimuth gave Kaden's hoverboots to Ratchet, and in "Master the Hoverboots", taught Ratchet to use them around Volgram Pass. Azimuth especially commended how Ratchet inherited Kaden's talent with the hoverboots and told him stories about his father.

Azimuth giving Ratchet the hoverboots.

Azimuth then directed Ratchet to travel to Axiom City, Terachnos, to infiltrate Pollyx Industries and find an Obsidian Eye to contact Clank. In "Bypass the Defense System", Azimuth called in a favor from Jarvis to gain access to the headquarters, and in "Infiltrate Pollyx Industries", they learned of the Obsidian Eye's location in Krell Canyon, Lumos, before teaming up to destroy the VX-99 sent by Dr. Nefarious.

Azimuth telling Ratchet about the fall of the lombaxes.

On Lumos, during "Explore Odin Caves", Azimuth showed Ratchet how to navigate the caves, reminiscing about doing so with Kaden. When Ratchet pressed him about not being with the lombaxes, Azimuth initially deflected, but eventually confessed to being responsible for their downfall, quickly adding that he intended to use the Great Clock to change time so it never happened. After escaping the caves, they encountered vullards under attack by agorian invaders. Azimuth was uninterested in helping until a vullard offered to guide them to the Eye in exchange for protection. They defeated the invaders and received the vullard's help. In "Explore Vogal Caves", Azimuth guided Ratchet through the caves, expressing excitement about his plan; when Ratchet questioned it, Azimuth assured him that fixing the past was the Clock's purpose. Using the Obsidian Eye, Azimuth briefly met Clank.

Ratchet freeing Azimuth from Vorselon.

After leaving Lumos, Azimuth informed Ratchet that following through with the plan might mean Ratchet never met Clank, noting there was no guarantee Clank would have temporal immunity from working in the Clock. Reluctantly, Ratchet accepted the sacrifice, focused on bringing his family back, which Azimuth praised before they split up to distract Vorselon after detecting his signature. This led to Azimuth's capture by Vorselon. Despite Azimuth urging Ratchet to ignore him and focus on finding the Clock, in "Free General Azimuth", Ratchet freed him from Vorselon's warship. Azimuth initially responded with anger but showed pride after learning Ratchet had used a time portal successfully, later thanking him for the rescue.

In "Locate and Rescue Clank", Azimuth accompanied Ratchet on Vapedia as they fought to rescue Clank, and split up from Ratchet to chase Cassiopeia after she threatened to kill Clank. When Ratchet found Clank and they reunited, Azimuth proposed his plan to save the lombaxes, which Clank strongly objected to, knowing it could destroy the universe. Azimuth remained unconvinced, believing the reward was worth the risk and reminded Ratchet of his family, but Ratchet deferred to Clank's wisdom, recalling his own experience with the Dimensionator and its dangers. Dejected, Azimuth promptly left on his own.

Azimuth shooting Ratchet.

After Ratchet and Clank defeated Nefarious at the Nefarious Space Station, Azimuth saved them just before they were destroyed and dropped them off at the Great Clock. Though Ratchet still objected to changing the past but promised to find the lombaxes with him, Azimuth snapped and killed him, then headed for the Orvus Chamber, demanding the Zoni bend their rules to allow him to change time. In "Beat Azimuth to the Orvus Chamber!", Clank reached it first, safely traveled back six minutes, and saved Ratchet, leading to "Stop General Azimuth at all Costs!".

This time, Azimuth reached the Orvus Chamber first, activated a time shift, and promised to kill Ratchet to ensure his plan could not be stopped, knowing he would simply save Ratchet in the past. During their battle, Azimuth called Ratchet a coward and traitor who could not live up to his father, insisted that this was the only chance to bring the lombaxes back, and regretted they could not do it together.

Ratchet kneeling over Azimuth after he sacrifices himself to stop the time shift.

Initially, Azimuth ignored the damage being done to the Clock, insisting it could handle it despite the risk, and claimed it was built for this purpose. However, seeing his time shift fail and system failure imminent, he apologized profusely. Taking Ratchet's place, he used his OmniWrench to pull the lever back, wished Ratchet well, and sacrificed himself to abort the shift, saving the Clock and the universe. Ratchet was deeply hurt by Azimuth's death, but Clank noted his bravery, encouraging Ratchet to be proud. Ratchet kept the General's wrench and pocket watch as mementos.

Legacy

Ratchet looking at Azimuth's photo after his death.

During the events of the Ratchet & Clank comic series, after Ratchet returned to Veldin, he still felt some guilt over Azimuth's death, wishing to shut himself away so as not to cause anyone else close to him to be lost. However, Talwyn Apogee reminded him that solitude and guilt were the exact reasons that drove Azimuth to do what he did. Ratchet later used Azimuth's wrench as his primary weapon during the battles with Artemis Zogg. Even afterward, Ratchet remained hesitant about finding the lombaxes, in part due to his experience with Azimuth.

In Into the Nexus, a statue of Azimuth is located near Ratchet and Clank's in the Lombax History Wing of the Intergalactic Museum of History. The plaque describes Azimuth as "a great lombax, until shame and anger got the best of him" and explains that while many saw him as a villain for putting the universe in jeopardy, others saw him as a hero whose only crime was trying to correct a mistake.

Characteristics

Appearance

A portrait of a younger Alister along with Kaden.

Alister possessed the normal feline-like traits of other lombaxes, though was much taller and muscular in build compared to Ratchet. He had light gray fur with red-brown stripes, thick black eyebrows, a red-brown nose, and brown eyes with yellow sclera. The fur on the sides of his jaw also resembled a short beard.

Azimuth wore dark brown and black Lombax Praetorian Guard armor with plates on the shoulders and chest. The chest plate in particular had a symbol which somewhat resembled the one on Orvus' head.

Personality

Azimuth was daring, courageous, and headstrong, but very stubborn. His adventures with Kaden and his actions showed heroism and desire to keep the galaxy safe. Azimuth was brash and rushed into danger without speaking first, willing to take great risks even to his own life. Nonetheless, he was still strategic and planned ahead when working with Ratchet. Azimuth remained single-mindedly focused on his mission, even disregarding his own safety in the process.

Azimuth's single-minded approach ultimately brought about his failures. This first manifested in him enabling Tachyon after ignoring advice from his peers, and later in his flawed plan to use the Great Clock to correct that same mistake. Azimuth became steadfastly convinced his plan for the Great Clock would work and refused to listen to detractors. This gave him a false sense of being able to "let go of consequence", leading him to urge Ratchet to abandon him to Vorselon's hands, and eventually to put the entire universe at risk for his plan, something that did not phase him. Azimuth ultimately saw the error of his ways and sacrificed himself, showing a selfless side to him in the end, but one that had subsided until it was clear his plan was not achievable.

Azimuth was close with and spoke very highly of Kaden, with whom he went on many adventures. To that end, Azimuth considered Kaden's son Ratchet to be family, and acted as a father figure and mentor to him, whom he showed great pride in. Azimuth was distraught that Ratchet did not go along with his plan, and was even willing to kill him (convinced he would be saved in the past), but ultimately sacrificed himself for him.

Abilities

Azimuth's ship

Alister was a skilled war veteran who was considered the strongest of his kind.

Azimuth's key pieces of equipment were his Praetorian Guard armor, his hoverboots, his Praetorian OmniWrench and personal mines. He was very skilled at using his boots, utilizing them to reach greater speeds and jump further distances than Ratchet could, as well as grind on grindrails. In combat, he used his wrench both as a melee and ranged weapon, able to fire negatively charged energy to destroy enemies. He could spin the wrench at high speeds to deflect weapon fire from any weapon, including the RYNO V. He also possessed explosive mines that could be triggered to detonate on contact or on a timer.

Azimuth had his own lombax ship that resembled Aphelion used for transportation and combat, equipped with ion cannons.

Behind the scenes

Concept art of Alister Azimuth.

Concept art of Alister's ship.

Azimuth was developed as a character to introduce another lombax to the series and was considered to be who Ratchet could have become if he didn't have Clank as the voice of reason. According to senior writer TJ Fixman, he was also a deeper character than was possible in previous games and a lot of fun to work on. Fixman had desired to write a prequel featuring Azimuth set against the backdrop of Tachyon's war against the lombaxes, as well as the idea for a novelization featuring Azimuth and Kaden's adventures on Fastoon.

The original concept art and the art of Azimuth inside his pocket watch feature him with a small scar over his right eye. This is absent in his in-game model.

In both A Crack in Time (after collecting 32 gold bolts) and Full Frontal Assault (in multiplayer), Azimuth is an unlockable skin. Azimuth's wrench is also an unlockable replacement for Ratchet's OmniWrench.

Azimuth also appears as a downloadable minion for Ratchet and Clank in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Alister Azimuth skin in A Crack in Time.

Alister Azimuth red team skin in Full Frontal Assault.

References

Video games

• Insomniac Games (2009). Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.
• Insomniac Games (2012). Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.
• Insomniac Games (2013). Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.

Books

• Fixman, TJ (2010). Ratchet & Clank (Issue 1: Ears of War) [Book]. Wild Storm.

Websites

• Miller, Greg (n.d.) . "Pre-E3 2009: Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time Lombax-Lovin'". From IGN. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017.
• Fixman, TJ (2012, September 5). "Ratchet & Clank - The 10th Anniversary Celebration Panel (PAX 2012)". From IGN. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019.
• Fixman, TJ [@TJFixman] (2018, August 29). 3) A Ratchet/Azimuth prequel set against the backdrop of Tachyon's war against the Lombaxes. [Tweet]. Twitter.
• Fixman, TJ [@TJFixman] (2018, August 29). I've brought up the idea of doing a novelization based on Kaden and Azimuth's adventures on Fastoon, and I still wouldn't say no to it. But if Insom plans on doing more R&C games, that writer should be able to do their job without worrying about us tripping over each other. :) [Tweet]. Twitter.