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Freyjadour Falenas
"Real" Name: Frederick FitzroyRoom Number: M15 (roommate: Ougi Takaya)
Age: 16
Hair Colour: Silver
Eye Colour: Blue
Height: 5'4"
Main Language: Suikoden-verse common
Second Language(s): None
History
[N.B. This history is based on the path to the "best" ending of the game, and ignores any of the other possible storyline branches. I also skipped over certain events that were just more of the same, and those that didn't push the story forward significantly.]
Though Prince Freyjadour Falenas (known to family and friends as "Frey") was born into a time of political strife, his parents managed to keep this knowledge from him as he grew up and so he never suffered under the shadow of his grandmother's bloody and treacherous rise to the throne. So Frey's early childhood was, on the whole, quite happy, until Falena was invaded by a neighbouring country, the New Armes Kingdom, when he was eight.
With his mother, Queen Arshtat, only newly ascended to the throne, there was some concern amongst the nobles that the invasion would be successful, but Ashtat, her husband Ferid, and the tactitian Lucretia Merces were able to push back Armes with astounding strategy and skill in battle. Peace returned to Falena and Ashtat and Ferid became beloved by the people, if still somewhat distrusted by the more hidebound nobles.
The next six years of Frey's life were reasonably peaceful except that his baby sister, Lymsleia, at first allowed herself to be swayed by the common opinion of the male members of the Falenan royal family--that they were useless for anything but waving to crowds and being married off to foreigners for political reasons. She treated Frey quite coldly for some time, before finally warming to him. Once she did warm to him, Lym became *extremely* fond of her brother, clinging to him stubbornly whenever he was in the Sun Palace.
Two years before the start of the game, Lucretia Merces advised Queen Arshtat to bear the Sun Rune, symbol of the royal family and one of the oldest and most powerful True Runes, in order to prevent the ambitious Godwin family from gaining control of it themselves. Around this time, Arshtat also began to send Frey on inspection visits to towns around Falena, which flew in the face of the nobility's firmly-held beliefs on what the male royals should and should not be allowed to do.
Unfortunately Lord Barows, Godwin's most significant rival, incited a near-rebellion in Lordlake also around the same time, and the Sun Rune's corrupting power led Arshtat to decimate Lordlake for this crime, killing the local lord and drying up all the water in the town. Worst of all the Dawn Rune, one of the two unique child runes responsible for limiting and controlling the influence of the Sun Rune, was stolen from the East Palace in the chaos of the uprising. For the next two years, Ashtat refused to allow any aid to be given to Lordlake, and even banned doctors from serving the town.
It is under these circumstances that Frey is sent to "inspect" Lordlake at the beginning of the game, in order to make certain that the town and its people are still suffering. Frey, his aunt Sialeeds, his bodyguard Lyon and the newest of the Queen's Knights, Georg Prime, go to Lordlake on Arshtat's orders and are all horrified by what they see. They try to reason with Arshtat on their return to the Sun Palace, but the Queen has another fit of madness and the discussion ends quickly when Ferid comes to hustle his wife out of the throne room before she does something dangerous.
The next mission Frey is sent on is an inspection of Stormfist, the home of the Godwin family and the location for the upcoming Sacred Games, which would be used to choose Lymsleia's future husband, the future Commander of the Queen's Knights. Much seems out of place to Frey, Sialeeds, Lyon and Georg during their inspection, but nothing can be proven at this time.
When the rest of the Royal Family arrive later in the week and the Games officially begin things begin to go downhill rapidly. A supposed plot to assassinate Arshtat is uncovered and the Barows family's chosen gladiator is implicated, resulting in his being banned from the games. Another strong contender, the Kanakan swordsman Belcoot, is continually harrassed and eventually blackmailed, in an effort to get him to withdraw from the games. When he refuses he is drugged for the final match, causing him to lose unfairly to the Godwin gladiator, Childerich. Still, no one can prove anything, but the Barows family gladiator's name is at least cleared, and his execution postponed, when the truth about his role in the "plot" is revealed. Little else of any good comes out of the Sacred Games, and the Falenas family returns to the capital in a very grim mood.
A few days later, Gizel Godwin arrives in Sol-Falena for the banquet celebrating his engagement to Princess Lymsleia. Though Arshtat, Ferid, Sialeeds and Georg do their best to prepare for the Godwin treachery they believe is inevitable, they are woefully overmatched when the Godwins bring in the supposedly-disbanded assassin group, Nether Gate. Arshtat and Ferid are killed in the chaos and Frey is forced to flee the city with Sialeeds, Lyon and Georg. Two of the Queen's Knights, Zahhak and Alenia, choose to side with the Godwins and prevent Lymsleia from escaping as well.
Reluctantly, the fugitive royals take refuge with Lord Barows, who is the only one with the kind of manpower they need to stand up to the Godwins. Everyone, particularly Georg and Sialeeds, distrusts Lord Barows, but for the time being they have little choice.
Barows' soldiers get them through the first conflicts with the Godwin-controlled Falenan Army, but the royals decide they need the advice of a tactician who will be completely on their side, and not necessarily Lord Barows'. Remembering Lucretia Merces, they decide to spring her from the prison she has been locked in since she betrayed Godwin two years ago, when she advised Ashtat to bear the Sun Rune in order to thwart him. Though Sialeeds dislikes Lucretia for giving that advice and indirectly causing Arshtat's madness, she also recognises that Lucretia is the most brilliant tactitian in the country and that they need her desperately.
With Lucretia rescued and on their side Frey and the others attempt to gain more allies, but the independant, mobile city of Raftfleet and the decimated Lordlake still distrust them because of their connection to the Barows and Falenas families. Despite their refusal to help, Frey's forces save Raftfleet from the Godwin navy, and Raftfleet does reluctantly join the cause, though they remain extremely wary of Lord Barows.
Things change drastically for Frey after Barows attempts to ally with Armes, intending to carve out his own little kingdom from the eastern half of Falena, with Frey installed as a puppet ruler. Lucretia and Frey expose Barows' treachery and temporarily ally with Godwin troops in order to chase out the Armes soldiers Barows had smuggled into the area. In a tense confrontation with Salum Barows and his son, Euram, the royals are shocked and horrified to discover that the missing Dawn Rune has been in Barows' possession all along, and that he was in fact responsible for turning the Lordlake "rebellion" violent.
The Dawn Rune, Luserina Barows, Lord Boz of Estrise and even the Barows family servant Chuck all choose Frey over Barows, and the party leaves the Barows' home, Rainwall, to take refuge with the former Admiral Raja, leader of Raftfleet.
The very first thing the now-independant Prince's Army does is search for a way to return water, and thus life, to Lordlake. They discover a Sindar ruin hidden within the depths of Ceras Lake, and use its sluice gates to send a tsunami downriver towards Hatres Fortress, the Godwin stronghold that dams the river and prevents water from reaching Lordlake. This wins them Lordlake's support, and a great deal of love and respect from the people in the eastern half of Falena.
It is because of this respect that the city of Leclar asks for Frey's help and protection. In the course of the battle for Leclar, the Queen's Knight Zahhak sets the western portion of the city on fire in order to cover his own retreat. This destruction of Falenan land by the Falenan Queen's Knights is a huge shock to everyone, and it drives the formerly divided city of Leclar over to Frey's side.
The city of Sable is won over when Frey personally rousts out a bandit masquerading as him, and reveals that the bandit's masquerade was a plot of Euram Barows to discredit him. The bandit, Roy, is also recruited, to be Frey's official stand-in when needed.
Shortly after this, the Godwins shoot themselves in the foot (so to speak) by trying to wipe out the anthropomorphic Beavers, claiming that Falena should be a country for humans alone. The Beavers, steadfastly neutral until this point, join the Prince's army wholeheartedly following his rescue of their town from Godwin's Nether Gate asssassins. Similarly, when the Godwins later attempt to wipe out Falena's cave dwarves, that stubborn race also joins Frey's cause.
Things continue to go well for the Prince's forces, despite Lymsleia's official coronation and thus Gizel's official rise to the position of Commander of the Queen's Knights, until a shocking betrayal sets Frey and his allies back a great deal.
Queen Lymsleia, being on her brother's side despite being trapped in the Sun Palace, organises a military campaign supposedly intended to wipe out the "rebels," and insists on leading it personally. Recognising that this is Lym's attempt to escape/help Frey rescue her, the Prince's Army engages in a complicated three-front response to the so-called New Queen's Campaign. All goes perfectly as planned, until Sialeeds turns on them and prevents Lym from reaching Frey. Lyon is then stabbed and wounded severely by one of the Nether Gate assassins--a young man named Dolph, who was also integral in the original taking of the Sun Palace, and the attempted genocide of the Beavers.
Devastated by Sialeeds' apparent betrayal and frantically worried for Lyon's life, Frey embarks on a quest to another set of Sindar ruins, hoping to increase the power of the Dawn Rune. He is successful in this and manages to save Lyon's life with the great healing magic the Dawn Rune posesses.
Unfortunately all is not well, despite this moment of cheer. The Queen's Knight Miakis, who witnessed the last moment of Queen Arshtat, joins the Prince's cause but manages to chase away Georg, claiming that he truly did murder Arshtat, just as the Godwins had been claiming all along. Another Queen's Knight, Galleon, later clarifies matters, telling Frey, Miakis and Lyon that Arshtat had finally gone entirely mad and decided to destroy all of Falena as she had destroyed Lordlake, even killing her own beloved husband, until Georg followed Ferid's and Arshtat's own wishes and killed the mad Queen, thus saving all of Falena. Still, the damage has been done, and Georg does not return to the Prince's side until shortly before the final seige of Sol-Falena.
Worst of all, the Godwins also ally with Armes at this point and their combined forces are able to take not only all the towns allied with Frey, but even the Sindar castle that the Prince's army had been using as a base of operations. They take temporary shelter in the dwarven caves and make plans to reclaim what they've lost, but it's a grim time for the Prince's Army.
After clearing up yet more Godwin treachery and gaining the support of the powerful Dragon Horse Cavalry and even the moderate faction of the Armes Kingdom, Frey's forces are finally able to not only get back the territories they had previously controlled, but continue to push into Godwin territory.
They take the Godwin stronghold, Stormfist, despite Sialeeds' surprising use of the Twilight Rune (twin to the Dawn Rune Frey bears) against them in the siege. Sialeeds' own motives become somewhat clearer when she also uses the rune to kill Lord Barows, eliminating one of the corrupt nobles she so despises.
When the time finally comes for the Prince's army to retake Sol-Falena, things come to a very surprising and heartbreaking head. Sialeeds fights Frey's party directly, using the full force of the Twilight Rune against them, but ultimately loses. Just as Frey and the others begin to understand her motives, they are deeply shocked by the sudden use of the Sun Rune itself against them. Somehow, the Godwins discovered a way to use the Sun Rune without having anyone capable of bearing it personally. Sialeeds and Frey use the Dawn and Twilight Runes to temporarily seal the Sun Rune and prevent it from destroying the fleet beseiging Sol-Falena, but the strain of using the powerful rune is too much for the badly injured Sialeeds and she dies, revealing her true thoughts to Lucretia, and asking her once again to take care of Frey for her. Lyon becomes the new bearer of the Twilight Rune.
With the Twilight Rune and Dawn Rune now both at full power and the Sun Rune temporarily sealed, the Prince's forces are able to break into the Sun Palace itself for what they hope will be a final confrontation with the Godwins. They face down Zahhak and Alenia, both of whom die due to taking a dangerous Nether Gate drug to temporarily increase their strength, and move on into the throne room.
Much to their surprise the party discovers that Gizel and Lymsleia are alone in the throne room--Gizel has not fled using the time Zahhak and Alenia tried to buy him, but instead stayed willingly. After Lymsleia verbally bitchslaps him, Gizel admits that he could never and would never harm Lym, and chooses instead to face Frey in a one-on-one duel. Frey wins the duel, but with his dying words Gizel says cryptically that, in truth, the only person who has won in this situation is Sialeeds--meaning that the powerful noble families have been destroyed, leaving the path clear for Lymsleia to make her own decisions about the future of Falena, just as Sialeeds had wanted.
Unfortunately the war is not quite over even with Sol-Falena back in the hands of the royal family--Marscal Godwin, Gizel's father, has fled the city with the assassin Dolph and the Sun Rune. Lucretia and the Prince's researchers track Marscal to the third of the three Falenan Sindar Ruins, far to the north of the capital in the Ashtwal mountains.
When they arrive at the ruins and encounter Dolph, Lyon insists on facing him one-on-one, both to get revenge for her wounding during the New Queen's Campaign, but also because she herself was a member of Nether Gate as a child, until King Ferid rescued her and raised her as an adopted third child, and she knew Dolph well during her time with the assassins' group. Though she wins the duel, Dolph gets back up again, revealing that he has been taking all kinds of dangerous drugs for years, rendering him almost indestructible. Frey manages to kill him with the Dawn Rune, but not before he has wounded Lyon yet again.
The final confrontation turns out, much to everyone's surprise, not to be against Marscal Godwin, but against the incarnation of the Sun Rune itself--the unstable Rune, deprived of the support of the Dawn and Twilight Runes, has been running rampant throughout the game, seducing the Godwins into more and more violent and authoritarian behaviour. Marscal dies in the backlash as the Sun Rune takes form, then Frey and his party manage to defeat the Sun Rune, but the strain on Lyon's body turns out to be too much and she, too, dies.
Following the defeat of the Sun Rune and Lyon's death, Frey is granted visions of all those who have died because of the Sun Rune and the war it caused, including his parents, Sialeeds, and even the Godwins, Zahhak and Alenia, all of whom salute him wordlessly, for finally stopping the war and the Sun Rune. At this point, Frey will be transported to Landel's, without discovering the ultimate fate of Lyon (who is revived by the now-soothed Sun Rune in the "best" ending) or Falena at large.
Personality
[N.B. Because of the fact that Frey is a "silent protagonist," the player is frequently given two choices for his reactions to events. Depending on the choices the player makes, therefore, his personality can vary. I am basing this section on the choices I made throughout the game, and ignoring the other options, for the sake of consistancy.]
Having been raised to be essentially decorative, Frey is a very gentle, kind and quiet sort of person. His parents did grant him more responsibility than was traditional for males of the Falenan royal family, so he's not as useless as he would appear, but he did still grow up knowing it was better for him to be seen and not heard, and that his opinions were of interest only to his immediate family. His instincts are usually to fade into the background as much as possible, listening carefully but saying little. Frey tends to let Lyon or Sialeeds do much of his talking for him, unless he is specifically asked to contribute. When he does speak, it is generally decisively and firmly, if rather succinctly.
Because what duties he does have mostly revolve around diplomacy, Frey is extremely polite even under duress. He's not as good as his parents are at smiling and being friendly around people he distrusts, but he does at least keep his opinions to himself and resort to saying only meaninglessly polite things in such circumstances.
Frey has been very isolated, in many ways, despite his inspection trips to various towns around the country, because people generally treat him deferentially, at least to his face. He is also aware of some of the things people, particularly nobles, say behind his back, but he doesn't really know how to deal with this. Harsh words cause him to withdraw even more than usual, and it's very easy to make him feel vaguely guilty or at fault, just by yelling at him. He wants to please people, even strangers, and is thus more likely to be concilliatory than confrontational.
Probably also because of his status as royalty, Frey is extremely shy about physical contact, becoming flustered very easily when he is hugged or grabbed in any way. When people grab his arm and pull him he tends to follow without thinking about it, with a shocked sort of look on his face, because he's simply not used to being manhandled like that and it leaves him at a loss for what to do. His immediate family is very prone to not only hugging him, but practically tackling him, especially his father, but he doesn't seem to know how to deal with this behaviour, either--mostly he just stands there awkwardly, stammers out a request to be let go of, and begs for someone to help him, not out loud but with the look on his face.
When Frey is depressed or upset his reaction tends to be to seek somewhere quiet where he can be alone with his thoughts. He doesn't like talking about what's bothering him, even with Lyon. Nonetheless, it's very obvious when he's feeling down, because it shows clearly in his body language and facial expressions. He makes an honest effort to cheer up when the people around him give him encouragement, as he is just as easily affected by kind words as he is by harsh words.
Despite all this, Frey can be extremely strong-willed, even a bit reckless, when he sees or hears of someone being in danger. He frequently ignores Lyon's or other Knights' offers to take care of things for him and rushes into battle himself. Fortunately, he's very competent with his weapon of choice, so this doesn't get him into as much trouble as it could. This desire to protect others extends to the grand scale of his country, as well--one of the first things he does when he is given the chance is find a way to restore Lordlake. He also freely agrees to, or even insists on, defending towns that are under attack, even if those towns have refused to join his cause. He is particularly protective of his little sister Lym, going so far as to resist being taken to safety during the Godwin attack on the Sun Palace, even though his own life was very much at risk, until he was reassured that Lym was safe.
Though he is headstrong when it comes to short-term decisions, Frey is usually willing to listen to the advice of his elders when it comes to large-scale strategy, or major battle plans. If anything, he's too eager to follow Lucretia's advice, rarely questioning her even when her decisions seem to make very little sense. This works out very well for him, as Lucretia is a tactical genius, but it's nonetheless a bad habit to get into.
Despite the best efforts of Queen's Knight Kyle, Frey shows little to no interest in women or romance in general. Because he has known since he was a child that he's destined to be married off for political reasons, he likely has convinced himself that he just isn't interested in love (or even sex). It doesn't seem to be a strain on him to resist temptation, and he even tends to be confused when women say things like "don't peek while I'm in the bath"--like he doesn't understand why they would expect him to peek in the first place. In fact, Frey tends to be a bit naif about interpersonal relationships in general, with jokes and comments about who has a crush on whom frequently going right over his head. He also seems to be completely blind to the possibility that anyone might like *him* in a romantic or sexual way, and is extremely uncomfortable with the women who do flirt with him, or otherwise behave oddly around him.
Frey is a very strange combination of very adult traits, like diplomacy and the ability to keep cool under pressure, and very child-like traits, like his naivete and shyness with physical contact. The overall effect is not so much that of a child growing into adulthood, but of someone who was never really allowed to be a child at all, yet remains awkward because of isolation.
Physical Appearance
Bearing little resemblance to his father, Prince Frey is instead almost the spitting image of his mother.
Short in stature, standing barely shoulder-high to the taller men around him like Ferid and Georg, Frey is more of a height with the women in his life, especially Queen Arshtat. Being quite slender as well, the end result is that Frey tends to look, as one character so bluntly puts it, "about as frail as they come." This is, however, far from the truth--Frey is very skilled with the three-part staff he carries, and is capable of defeating much larger opponents in one-on-one battles.
Frey also has his mother's colouring--striking silver hair, which falls to the small of his back when loose and the middle of his back when held in his signature braid, and large, light blue eyes. His delicate facial features also clearly come from his mother, and even at sixteen his face is smooth and pale as a child's.
Altogether, Prince Frey is undoubtedly "pretty," rather than handsome, though he has the potential to grow into quite a striking young man, in time.
Powers and Abilities
Frey possesses the Dawn Rune which, while not a True Rune, is nonetheless a very, very powerful and unique rune. The Dawn Rune has both powerful offensive magic and powerful healing magic.
At Landel's he retains the healing aspects of the Dawn Rune. He can heal relatively minor wounds, partially heal major wounds and purify poison or infection. Using this power will exhaust him and give him headaches, their severity depending on how much energy he had to use. If he pushes himself too much and tries to heal more than his limits he will pass out for an hour or so, and wake with a killer migraine that will last another few hours. The only offensive magic he retains is the ability to cause a flash of light bright enough to temporarily blind; he himself is immune to the effects of this light (andonly that light--other bright lights affect him normally), but his allies would not be and would have to be warned to close their eyes. Using this power will also tire him out, especially if he has also done any healing that night.
Frey is very good with a three-part staff and an excellent field general.
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