Gwenhwyfar

Gwenhwyfar (グイネヴィア, Guinevia) is one of the survivors of Sword Art Online and currently a Salamander at ALfheim Online. She is the founder of the guild Knights of Round in both Sword Art Online and ALfheim Online. Outside of her VRMMORPGs, she is a NEET. Her real name is Kaizawa Raiko (カイザワ・ライコ, Kaizawa Raiko) and she was revealed to be the daughter of a rich businessman situated in London, England, and an architect in Japan.

Reality/Sword Art Online Avatar
Raiko possesses seal brown hair that reaches her mid-back, with her bangs swept to the side. She has green eyes, indicating the foreign blood she never knew of. As she started in Sword Art Online, her avatar wore a deep red garb with silver breastplate and shorts. She also had brown knee-high boots, and a cape she wore all the time. As she made progress in the game, her garments improved, and Raiko, with her in-game name Gwenhwyfar, at times shorted to Gwen, gained possession of a white, gold and black garment, with silver breastplate. This earned her the epithet The White Spectre. On her chest, she wore a golden dragon emblem, the symbol of her guild. Her weapon of choice is a rapier named Llacheu.

ALfheim Online Avatar
After transferring Gwenhwyfar's data to ALfheim Online, Raiko gained an avatar having almost the same appearance as her SAO avatar, except that the hair and eyes were now red, indicating her being a part of her chosen race, Salamander. She still wore a red and white colored clothing, but it had a different design from the one she used in Sword Art Online. For her weapon, she made the decision of using the same type, a rapier named Destiny's Song, and a dagger.

Personality
Raiko has a rather shy personality and has trouble speaking with people she barely knows. She has the tendency to fumble over the right and proper words to say, and more often than not, clumsy. She can also be described as a bit of an airhead. This explains why she prefers to stay locked up inside her room and play MMOs than go out like teens of her age do. In contrast to her personality in the real world, Raiko finds herself comfortable talking over the Internet, most especially when they share the same interests. But it was once revealed that when she finally opens up to someone in the real world, she is very clingy, cheery and energetic, and she stands up for the people she cares for and those that remains loyal to her, and helps them out the best she can.

In the beginning of SAO, she was a friendly character who willingly helped anyone in need. She was also cooperative when it comes to raids and party activities in the field. It was like that until the guild she formed was ripped apart and disbanded. Afterwards, she became cold and invisible, fitting her nickname in the virtual world. Until the clearing of the 75th floor, she was a solo player.

Upon entering the realm of ALfheim Online, she made the decision of forgetting her past in SAO. She reformed her guild, Knights of Round, and re-purchased their manor house in Mishe as their guild base. When it dons to the battlefield, Gwen is more of an attack person, who gives out every bit of strength in dealing damage. A friend once pointed out that she only uses healing and magic spells when her health bar is in a critical level.

Gwen had also developed a hardheaded personality.

Background
Raiko and her mother, her only relative, never had a healthy relationship, which is why the former uses the virtual world as a getaway. She had played various MMORPGs before Sword Art Online was introduced. Before, she goes to school, but then quit after experiencing bullying from her own classmates. With an IQ of 180, she was considered a genius, and she had a high interest in programming that she even created her own AI, Merlin, who appeared to have a motherly aura. After receiving a copy of SAO, she began to encode cheats and hack the game system itself and leave her actions unnoticed to the game master. She was able to hack a lot of Cor and improve her stats without much effort. Afterwards, she logged in.

Aincrad Arc
In the beginning of the game, during the announcement of Kayaba Akihiko that Sword Art Online was actually a death game, Gwen was not shaken nor afraid, and she calmly accepted the fact that all of them might die for real while inside the program. This was because of her little care to the real world and her only remaining family. Even so, like every gamer, she desired to clear the game, though such goal did not require any fair methods. Through her cheats and knowledge in programming, she was able to gain possession of good gears and weapons, but managed to get away with it without being detected by the system. Later on, she formed a guild that she fought with as she proceeded in the game, floor by floor.

Later in the game, in Aincrad's 35th floor, as she was hoping to pass time in the Forest of Wandering, she was teleported to an area of the forest where a young boy was dealing with a group of Drunk Apes. Recognizing the golden dragon symbol worn by the player, she immediately recognized him as a member of her guild, and rushed off to help, but decided against it upon seeing the other skillfully defeat the monsters all on his own. After that, she approached him and introduced herself, and both wandered to find the way out of the forest. The boy, Lancelot, was indeed a Knight of her guild. As they chat, Lancelot accidentally mentioned about his reason for wanting to survive the game -- to find his older sister. They were separated shortly after his birth, for their parents had decided to separate. He even added that the guild captain certainly resembles his sister in the only picture he had of her.

A bit stupid during that time, she joked that she might be his sister, as she had a younger brother that she hadn't seen for a long time now. Lancelot, however, took the joke quite far and said that they should have themselves DNA tested then once the game is cleared. Gwen laughed at this and simply ruffled his hair.

Soon enough, they were able to escape the forest, they continued their conversation in the Guild Hall. As she was cooking them meal in the kitchen, the guild captain asked about his father's name. Lancelot casually answered, and as soon as he did so, Gwen froze. She hugged him, crying and saying that they were really siblings, for his father was the same father that left her almost thirteen years ago. With the new reason to clear the game, and the desire to meet him in the real world, Gwenhwyfar installed a cheat in his system through Merlin, preventing his permanent death by keeping his health bar at 1.

However, when the guild disbanded, they parted ways.

She became a solo player then. At times, she would join parties, only if it is necessary for her progression in the game. Gwen was also involved in raids The Dark Swordsman and The Lightning Flash were in. She was also one of the fifty high-leveled players who attacked the Laughing Coffin.

Gwen then continued with her quests and raids, eventually joining the battle in the 75th floor. When the game was finally cleared, she was greeted by Merlin upon her wakening.

Fairy Dance Arc
Two months after the clearing of Sword Art Online, Raiko's relationship with her mother did not even improve, and only worsen when she told her of meeting her brother. Reiko insisted that her father and brother died in an accident years ago, but she refused to believe it, as she was able to see Lancelot again before the battle at the 75th floor. Due to the heated argument, she once again sought refugee in a VRMMO, purchasing ALfheim Online shortly after it is released.

She converted her SAO avatar to ALO and disabled all of her cheats before logging into the game. Upon logging into ALfheim Online, she chose Salamander as her race, and used the same username, Gwenhwyfar. Even without her cheats, her avatar retained most of its stats and skills from SAO.

In ALO, she once again met her brother who still uses the same avatar name and was an Undine, and since then, they always go together as a party, eventually reforming Knights of Round guild that had disbanded back at SAO.

It was also during the Fairy Dance Arc that Lancelot told him about his nearing visit to Japan and the two decided to fulfill the promise they made back at SAO -- to finally meet in the real world.

Phantom Bullet Arc
Even if Lancelot had shown him the new rising MMO, Gun Gale Online, Gwen declared that she has no interest to it, as she had no interest in guns and bullets and things that go bang! Lancelot only laughed at how similar they felt, eventually dropping the topic.

Raiko (Gwenhwyfar) had also made the decision of returning to school to take a course in computer programming.

Calibur
During a meeting of the Knights of Round, Gwen was informed about the founding of the most powerful sword in all of ALfheim Online. The news enlightened and perked the interest of all the guild members. Along with the news came information about the Beast God Slaughter Quest. The knights were about to accept the quest, but Gwenhwyfar herself halted the operation (despite her own interest to the sword) after Merlin had taken a peek on the system, revealing that it was actually an apocalyptic quest that would dictate the fate of Jötunheimr and Alne.

Instead of accepting the quest, the Knights of Round, in Gwenhwyfar's command, had taken an entire hundred-eighty-degree turn, slaying Frost Giants instead and those who mercilessly murdered the Beast Gods. It hadn't been very easy, because, even if the guild was composed of strong and skilled players, they were lacking in number. The situation was made difficult by the fact that all players in ALfheim (apart from Kirito's party) had taken the quest and were killing Beast Gods.

In the end, the alternative quest succeeded, but Gwenhwyfar's guild benefit very little from their acts.

Lancelot
Lancelot, or Arthur Lancaster, is Gwen's in-game and real-life brother, whom she met in SAO. They share a lot of similarities and are now inseparable. In the guild, Lancelot acts as regent when Gwen is unable to lead her comrades.

At present, Raiko spoils Arthur in every possible way, resulting in the boy being clingy to his sister despite his age.

Kaizawa Reiko
Kaizawa Reiko is Gwen's real life mother who she rarely gets along with, because her mother disagrees with her addiction to MMORPGs, especially the VR ones. Reiko and William separated shortly after Arthur's birth.

William Lancaster
William is her real-life father whom she barely remembers. According to Lancelot, he is a very work-oriented man is actually the CEO of a large company in London. It was also revealed that Gwen's computer set was actually from him.

Abilities
Because of her experience in MMORPGs, Gwen can be considered as a skilled player. Having studied fencing before entering Sword Art Online also helped in battling with her rapier. She is often on the attack and was never a person of strategy.

Sword Art Online

 * Level: 79
 * HP: 158900

Main Equipment

 * Llacheu (One-handed rapier)
 * Linear
 * Flashing Penetrator
 * Quadruple Pain

Alfheim Online

 * HP: 800
 * MP: 750

Main Equipment

 * Destiny’s Song (One-handed rapier)
 * Nova Ascension
 * Knightfall - a 10-hit Original Sword Skill
 * Dagger
 * Rapid Bite

Trivia

 * Her name was the Welsh variation of Queen Guinevere Pendragon, the wife of King Arthur. Her AI, though female, was named after the great wizard Merlin.
 * Gwenhwyfar's rapier in SAO, Llacheu was named after the son of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere.
 * Her epithet, The White Spectre or The White Ghost,  was because of the white clothing she wore and her movement during battle, disappearing from sight with great speed, only to reappear in a fearful proximity to her enemies before dealing a fatal blow. This was also because of her almost "unseen" attitude, as her name was not one of those who became known throughout the entire game. Although, the name Gwenhwyfar actually means The White Spectre.
 * Most of her stats has similarities to Asuna's.
 * When she’s not playing any game, she spends most of her time drawing.
 * Before her official designs were colored, she was often mistaken as Asuna Yuuki.

Notable Achievements

 * Cleared Sword Art Online
 * Created a 9-hit Original Sword Skill
 * Created a 10-hit Original Sword Skill