Maes is mostly the same background, the CRAU comes from the fact that after he died he was brought to this place called the Temple of Beginnings and asked to help a goddess fight the darkness in the multiverse. So he's restored to life, given the magical ability to teleport, and is promptly sent with various people to different worlds to solve a variety of problems (this group is called the Circle). He did this for a year before dying again and winding up here (best he can tell it's because the goddess lost her "connection" to him and he was always told if that happened he would die).

So, yeah, he made various friends in the last game and I opted for the CRAU version because of his magical power but also because during that year he mostly came to terms with having died in canon. So I didn't want to back track on that growth. He is still very much a dad to anyone that will let him and a good friend to anyone else. Maes is fairly comfortable with the idea of knowing people but them not knowing him, so it's an equal exchange there 8D