# Alesh Lore: How He Lost His Eye > Alesh lost his eye covering for one of his two best friends when they turned on each other. The one-eyed fish that haunts him became his Originium Arts. Source: https://endfieldhub.org/blog/alesh-lore-how-he-lost-his-eye-endfield Published: 2026-10-04 Updated: 2026-10-04 **Alesh lost an eye to one of his two best friends, covering for the other when they turned on each other.** He lost his gang that same day. The fish that has haunted him since he was a kid is half blind too, and his files point to it as the giant fish his Arts pull out of thin air in battle. Most players know him as the sleepy one-eyed angler who asks for a nap before every task and wants the Endministrator to pay for his barbecue. His files tell a darker story, one he says is “simple and boring” and then spends four profile pages telling. This is that story, in order, from the in-game English text. _Endfield Hub is a fan-made resource and is not affiliated with Hypergryph or Yostar._ --- ## TL;DR - Key Points * **He grew up with no family, no school and no roof.** Every morning the street kids did a headcount to see who the city had “devoured” overnight. * **He learned to fish the brutal way.** The first fin he ever hooked with a bare drop-and-yank tore itself free, its eye ripped open. He never forgot that eye. * **He ended up leading a gang called La Estrada.** A man who didn’t treat the kids like animals taught them to protect each other and handed Alesh the crew. * **The one-eyed fish kept coming back.** For years it broke his line at the wharf and swam a victory circle around him. * **His two best friends turned on each other.** He covered for one, the other took a swipe at him, and he lost an eye and his old life. * **That same day the old fish surfaced,** its bad eye gone white, and stared at him like he deserved it. * **His Arts woke up in his blind spot.** Dazed after losing the eye, he sensed something swimming where he couldn’t see and cast at it. * **On a full-moon night he finally hooked it.** He hauled it out and the hook was empty, the bait untouched. The fish, he decided, had become his “what ifs” about the people he lost. --- ## Who Is Alesh? ![Alesh with his left eye closed above the words BLIND IN ONE EYE, over dark water where a fish with one scarred eye swims](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-blind-in-one-eye.webp) Alesh is a 5-star Cryo Vanguard in Arknights: Endfield. He fights with a sword and a fishing rod: his skill hooks a block of ice and slams it into the enemy, his combo opens an angling hole under the target, and his ultimate, “One Monster Catch!”, hooks “a fin of unbelievable size” and slams it down. His build and team details are on [Alesh’s operator page](https://endfieldhub.org/characters/alesh). His Basic Info file lists him as an Anaty, born September 1, authenticated by the United Workers’ Syndicates of Talos II, and Oripathy positive. His exam scores Physiological Strength and Combat Skill as Standard, and Tactical Acumen and Originium Arts Assimilation as Excellent. The examiner adds a line about that giant fin: > “He probably used the Arts to create a fin-like construct from memory or a figment of his imagination. The fin is unlikely to be an entity ‘summoned’ from another dangerous or unknown dimension… I guess.” His HR file calls him “an angler and fin vendor” who came to Endfield on the recommendation of the UWST liaison “Seagull”, and who signed a regional liaison agreement and a covert operations agreement on his first day. He summed up his duties as “Angling, but not for the roast.” On arrival he left a fresh fin on the HR assistant’s desk, and when he learned the assistant doesn’t eat protein, he offered to stuff it and mount it on the wall. The memory that fin is built from goes back to when he was a kid. --- ## Kids Stuffed in a Can ![The word HEADCOUNT in stencil above rows of tally marks, several of them fallen](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-headcount.webp) Alesh grew up on “the messy frontiers,” where, he says, kids “either grew up with a stinking family or without one.” He had neither family nor school nor a roof. In File 4 he describes the street kids living “like fins stuffed in a can”: > “First thing we do in the morning was a headcount to see who survived and who got ‘devoured’ by the streets. Stealing, mugging, and lying? Those were the survival techniques. We negotiated with fists.” The kids hated each other, he says, “but all the threats force us to make funny choices. Somehow we got together and created our own family.” They even “carved our own rules on that lawless turf.” Elsewhere he remembers “hustling as a harbor punk” as a kid. That is also where he learned to fish. --- ## Drop-n-Yank: The Fin That Tore Free ![A lime fishing line and bare hook dropped into dark water under the words DROP. YANK.](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-drop-yank.webp) File 4 opens on Alesh’s “least favorite angling style,” the one the street kids learned first. Drop-n-Yank uses no lure, no bait and no waiting: you drop a bare hook, yank with everything you have, and hope it stabs into something you can eat. “They call it angling, but it feels more like violent muggery to me.” He learned it from a scarred old angler at an abandoned wharf, watching from behind the barrels with a bunch of other kids, chewing on tortillas. The first time he tried it, he pulled something up: > “But it fought back and tore itself free. I couldn’t forget that bloody wound and the disfigured eye. Ugh. I can still feel that eye staring at me. Of course, I didn’t bother with human-fin relations back then. People have to angle when they get hungry, and we can’t help it when things get ugly.” He calls the fin his “old friend.” He says he isn’t sure that’s the right word. --- ## Leading La Estrada Then someone showed up “that didn’t treat us like feral wildlings.” The man taught the kids “how to negotiate properly, how to step back a little, and how to protect those around us.” Then he handed Alesh La Estrada and told him “that someone has to do something different for the city.” > “I believed him, you know. Maybe I can clean up the biz and make a name for myself.” In a trust dialog Alesh gives the short version: “I used to roll with Estrada Ursaña. Most called it La Estrada… I grew up in the city’s armpit, found my crew, joined a bigger gang, and somehow ended up leading it.” When the Endministrator finds a photo labelled “Second Gangster Leading La Estrada,” he says the man in it might look like him, “who’s to say,” and tells them some things are meant to stay buried. Not everyone in that life was kind to him. File 1 remembers a gang advisor, “an expert in bottom angling,” who sat in a rocking chair all day saying “Stop moving, son. They fear you more if you stay still,” while the crew got their legs broken out on the street. Then he would squint and say the enemy had taken the bait. “I was the friggin’ bait,” Alesh says. --- ## The Fish That Kept Coming Back ![A dark fish with one eye circling under a full moon beside a pier, with ripples spreading, under the word BIGGER.](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-bigger.webp) With La Estrada in his hands, “nights got real quiet.” He started fishing the wharf at night, and the one-eyed fin was there: > “It became a great fin. The monstrous thing always fought back, always broke free, and always swam its victory circle. It was laughing at me with that ring of ripples. So I fought with people in the day and the fin at night.” It lasted until his two closest friends broke. --- ## Two Ride-or-Dies ![A drawn eye with a rust-red slash across it above the words AN EYE.](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-an-eye.webp) In File 4 the friends become “two insane raptorfins trying to off each other,” and Alesh says, “I paid an eye to get them to stop.” He tells the Endministrator the rest in a trust dialog, after first pretending he won’t: > “Had two ride-or-dies. One took a swipe at me when I was covering for the other. Lost an eye and a chunk of my old life right there. There you have it. Simple and boring, right?” The gang broke up the same day. He sat at the wharf watching the waves hit the wall where he and his friends had painted graffiti as kids: “Now there was nothing but froth. Our friendship became a dead fin. Scaled and scraped clean.” He still lives with the blind side. “You were standing in my blind spot when you greeted me just then,” he tells the Endministrator. “Maybe it’s actually better to keep certain things in the dark and make them … mysterious.” --- ## The Old Fish With the White Eye ![A huge fish eye gone milky white, with a rust scar across it, under the words GONE WHITE.](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-gone-white.webp) That same day, the fin came back one more time. It had become “an old geezerfin,” thin, its scales falling off, and “the injured eye had already turned entirely white.” It leaped out of the water and stared at him coldly: > “It was laughing at me and telling me how I deserved everything. I thought it was our last meeting.” --- ## Something in His Blind Spot It wasn’t. Alesh says he grew up fighting, not reading, and as a young punk he couldn’t even pronounce “Originium Arts.” Then, in his voice line about the strange fin he caught: > “When I just lost my eye and was feeling all dazed and confused, I sensed something swimming around in my blind spot. It got really annoying when I was angling, so I cast my bait real hard and… ‘BOOM!’ You know what happened next. Old man told me I got a talent for the Arts. I don’t know if it’s a curse.” That is the closest any of his files come to explaining where his Arts come from. Something he couldn’t see, swimming on the side he lost, and a cast hard enough to bring it out. --- ## The Full-Moon Catch ![Alesh in his official art, standing on a boat with his rod and sword under a full moon, above the words FULL MOON.](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-full-moon.webp) Years later he was selling fins at a quiet wharf. File 4 ends on a night “just two days ago”: he closed the stall, went night fishing under a full moon, and felt a bite he knew. “Man, I know that deadly strength anywhere.” The fight “felt like it lasted a hundred years,” with splashes like Maymay testing explosives underwater. The line held. He hoisted the geezerfin out of the water, and it looked bigger than it had in its prime. ![A lime hook hanging empty over dark water, the bait still on it, above the word EMPTY.](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-empty-hook.webp) > “I was about to lower it in the fin crate when I saw that… there was nothing on the hook. Even the bait was still intact.” He asks himself whether he hooked it at all, or whether “my unresolved angst and dilemmas” had used the cover of night to show themselves. Then the last ripples disappeared, and he understood. ![Alesh's profile in faint line art with bubbles rising past the words FRIEND and WHAT IF](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-what-if.webp) > “‘It’ was no longer a simple fin. It had become my lingering disappointments and obsession, an embodiment of ‘what ifs’ left behind whenever I see someone leaving or dying early.” He says he has toyed with using his Arts to hook it out whole. He knows its form, its wounds, the way it moves “and even the way it stares at people.” His last line in the file: “It’s living with me, and it’s way more alive than it had been in water.” ![An outlined ice fish with one scarred eye under the words NEVER CAUGHT.](https://endfieldhub.org/images/blog/alesh-lore/alesh-never-caught.webp) Put that beside his Basic Info (“a fin-like construct from memory”) and his ultimate (“hooks a fin of unbelievable size”), and the giant fish he slams onto the battlefield is that fin: the one he hooked as a kid and never caught. --- ## The Angler at the Wharf Today Today Alesh runs a fin stall that barely pays the rent. He lets people haggle, lets them run tabs, and gives his extra fins away, because “Life isn’t easy for everyone.” A thief once broke into his place, found nothing, and left a note: “Sorriest place I’ve ever seen.” He says he joined Endfield because of his old landlord, who got tired of months of unpaid rent and got him a job without asking. “Don’t know what he wrote for my resume, but you accepted it.” The landlord still writes to him, calls him a “lazy good-for-nothing,” and asks how he’s doing. Alesh wonders out loud if the old man is “trying to make me his son.” The stall is also a cover. File 2’s daily routine has him watching passersby for “familiar faces” that shouldn’t be there, and logging the day’s “fintel.” A new liaison sent to the wharf finds fins laid out in a code (grayfins facing north, red cupras in pairs, a strangely patterned whitefin in the corner) and can’t read it. The stall owner, lying on a bench with a book over his face, tosses him a fin on crushed ice: “No great fins today. Settle your nutritional needs with this one.” The liaison’s report reads “Intel is accurate and … pretty reliable.” File 3 is his most famous job. A convoy needed to get through Route 17, held by bandits who had even taken over the Late Night Traffic Radio. Alesh’s “Popper Tactic” dumped two fake broken-down trucks by the road with crates of bricks spray-painted “Class I Hazard,” played a trembling SOS recording, and then turned it up until a second bandit mob arrived and fought the first. The crew watched from the slopes eating dried fin. The whole convoy got through. At night, his routine says, he sits on the balcony and looks at the stars “with his only eye.” The turf wars are distant memories, “yet they also felt like undercurrents that could suddenly snag him while he angles.” --- ## Alesh’s Story in Order | When | What happened | Source | | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | | Childhood | No family, no school, no roof; the morning headcount | File 4, Topic: Gangs | | Childhood | Learns Drop-n-Yank; the first fin tears free with a ruined eye | File 4 | | Youth | A man teaches the kids to protect each other and hands him La Estrada | File 4, Trust Dialog 4 | | Gang years | Leads La Estrada; the one-eyed fin keeps beating him at night | File 4 | | The split | His two best friends turn on each other; he loses an eye covering for one | File 4, Trust Dialog 5 | | Same day | The gang breaks up; the old fin surfaces with its eye gone white | File 4 | | Soon after | Dazed after losing the eye, he casts at something in his blind spot; his Arts wake | Topic: Strange Fin | | Later | Angler and fin seller at a wharf; passes intel through the stall | HR Summary, File 2 | | Endfield | Joins as liaison and covert agent; runs the Popper Tactic on Route 17 | HR Summary, File 3, Trust Dialog 2 | | “Two days ago” | The full-moon catch: the hook comes up empty | File 4 | The files give no dates, so the table follows the order the text implies. The full-moon catch is “two days ago” from when File 4 was written, which places it during his Endfield years. --- ## Sources and Method Every quote in this post comes from Alesh’s in-game English text: his profile records (Basic Info, HR Summary and Files 1 to 4), his voice lines (Trust Dialogs 2 to 5, Chats 2 and 4, Topics: Gangs, Landlord and Strange Fin) and his skill descriptions. We’ve lightly punctuated a few quotes where the original used a dash. Two points are our reading rather than the game’s wording. The files never say that the fin in his ultimate is the geezerfin; we connect them from the Basic Info note, the Strange Fin line and the end of File 4\. And his HR file credits the UWST liaison “Seagull” with recommending him while he credits his landlord, so we give both. His Chinese conversation scripts weren’t released in English and aren’t used here. For his kit, materials and builds, see [Alesh’s operator page](https://endfieldhub.org/characters/alesh). For more operators whose files hide a hard past, read [Da Pan’s backstory](https://endfieldhub.org/blog/da-pan-lore-sad-backstory-hongshan-endfield) and [Last Rite’s backstory](https://endfieldhub.org/blog/last-rite-lore-sad-backstory-nachzehrer-endfield). --- ## Frequently Asked Questions **Who is Alesh in Arknights Endfield?** Alesh is a 5-star Cryo Vanguard who fights with a sword and a fishing rod. He’s an Anaty, born September 1, authenticated by the United Workers’ Syndicates of Talos II, and Oripathy positive. He runs a small fin stall at a wharf and works for Endfield Industries as a regional liaison and covert operations agent. **How did Alesh lose his eye?** He had two best friends he calls his ride-or-dies. When they turned on each other, he stepped in to cover for one of them, and the other took a swipe at him. In File 4 he says he paid an eye to get them to stop. It cost him his gang too: the crew broke up the same day. **What is La Estrada?** La Estrada is the street name of Estrada Ursaña, the gang Alesh used to run with. He grew up with no family in the city’s armpit, found a crew, joined a bigger gang and ended up leading it. A photo labelled “Second Gangster Leading La Estrada” turns up in one of his trust dialogs, and he won’t confirm it’s him. **What is the giant fish in Alesh’s ultimate?** His files say his Arts create a fin-like construct, probably from memory. The fin he remembers is the one he hooked as a kid with a bare hook, which tore free with a ruined eye and haunted him for years. Right after he lost his own eye, he sensed something swimming in his blind spot, cast at it, and found out he had a talent for the Arts. **Why does Alesh sell fish?** After his gang fell apart he became an angler and fin seller at a wharf. The stall barely pays: he lets customers haggle, run tabs and take extra fins for free. It is also a cover. The arrangement of fins on the stall is a code that passes intel to Endfield liaisons. **Why did Alesh join Endfield Industries?** His HR file says he was recommended by Endfield’s UWST liaison, “Seagull”. In his own telling, his old landlord got him the job without asking, because the fin shop was failing and he owed months of rent. He doesn’t know what the landlord wrote on his resume. --- ## Related Reading * [Arknights Endfield Lore and Backstories](https://endfieldhub.org/lore): every operator backstory Short next to its write-up, plus all world and faction lore * [Alesh operator page](https://endfieldhub.org/characters/alesh): his kit, materials, best weapons and teams * [Da Pan Lore: His Sad Backstory Explained](https://endfieldhub.org/blog/da-pan-lore-sad-backstory-hongshan-endfield): the Hongshan prodigy who quit the day the elders left their dead * [Last Rite Lore: Her Sad Backstory Explained](https://endfieldhub.org/blog/last-rite-lore-sad-backstory-nachzehrer-endfield): the undertaker who refuses to feed on the dead * [Estella Lore: Her Sad Backstory Explained](https://endfieldhub.org/blog/estella-lore-sad-backstory-landbreaker-camp-endfield): the “lazy” operator whose childhood was a prison