"I claim no great ambition, nor any heated calls to action. All I wish is to restore order for our people and to safeguard our land from the threats beyond. This chaos we face is but one of God's many trials."
Aestivum Forden is a major character and antagonist in Metaphor: ReFantazio. He is the 78th sanctifex of the Sanctist Church and the supreme authority of Sanctism, the state religion of the United Kingdom of Euchronia, and also the head of the Crown Theocracy, the government ruled centered around Sanctism. He is one of the candidates for the Royal Tournament, garnering wide support by the population to the point of ranking 1st in popularity.
Personality[]
Within the Sanctist Church senate, Forden is a bigoted, manipulative and power-hungry man who instigated the events of the story for the sake of power and his hatred towards the elda tribe.
He is shown to be extremely skilled in deceiving other people; even the King Hythlodaeus V believe his lies that Louis Guiabern assassinated his son rather than the sanctifex himself. Forden is also not above to making threats or manipulating others to do what foul deeds he wants them to do, such as forcing Rella Melancoryphus Cygnus to assassinate the prince in exchange for the safety of her adopted sister Juani Cygnus. However, all of Forden's crimes are committed in complete secrecy and he is a highly popular public figure who does put significant effort in keeping his crafted public image afloat, rendering him near suspicion-proof and unaccountable. Even the ones who are closely working for him such as his right-hand man Gideaux, do not realize the true extent of his treachery unless they are directly tasked or ordered to do the dirty work for him.
As the santifex of the religion, he bears a profound hatred against the elda tribe due their vast knowledge and connection to the Old World before Sanctism's founding, and has instigated multiple pogroms against their sanctuaries, of which Louis Charadrius and the prince's elda mother were victims. Forden also strongly desires the death of the half-blooded prince simply because he despised the idea of an eldan king leading the country where Sanctism is wide-spread. His own hatred of the elda tribe proved to be his own undoing as it brought his demise in the hands of Louis, who he had single-handedly driven into becoming a madman.
While most of his hatred against the elda tribe stems from the religious teachings of Sanctism, Forden generally takes actions against anything he views that challenges Sanctism's teachings and influence as a threat to his power and authority. This includes maintaining a stance of treating the mustari tribe from Eht Ria as pagans to their religion and taking advantage of the tournament to make sure its participants would plunder their resources and prove the church's supremacy. The santifex would also order for the shutdown of the Mage's Academy behind King Hythlodaeus V's back as the institution's research into magic without the use of igniters has the potential to undermine the funding that the Sanctist Church was already receiving through the Igniter Consortium's profits.
Due to his long-living nature as a rhoag and his pretense as a moderate Sanctist, he created his own image as a wise man whom the public frequently seek for knowledge and leadership, and provides his Sanctist theocratic dictatorship as the more favorable alternative to Louis' logically cruel Darwinistic meritocracy for the people during the Tournament for the Throne. This is further burdened by Louis' infamous reputation as a dangerous man that will become a tyrant and endanger the country should he ever take the throne. His reputation with the citizens is so great that his followers still took his side even after when the party confronted him on his involvement in the prince's assassination, followed by his death at Louis' hands in the Altabury Heights opera house. It required Rella to personally confess his involvement over assassinating the prince to make the public realize the extent of his crimes, and even fewer know about the pogroms he launched against elda settlements.
Forden is also highly pragmatic and will satisfy the citizenry only if it would keep his public image afloat, even if that action would otherwise displease him, such as with the slaying of the giant squid and the execution of the serial killer Sanctoress Johanna during the monster head exhibit.
In most of his appearances, Forden appears to maintain a calm and soft-spoken manner, even when he was blackmailing Rella with Juani Cygnus's safety and when informing King Hythlodaeus V of the shutting down of the Mage's Academy.
Appearances[]
- Metaphor: ReFantazio: Major Antagonist
History[]
Forden is the 78th Sancifex of the Sanctist Church, the leader of its senate and King Hythlodaeus V's chief advisor. Infamous for his hatred of the elda tribe, he would actively start pogroms against their sanctuaries. One of the victims of his pogroms is the prince's elda mother, but the prince was brought by King Hythlodaeus back to the royal capital. Louis Charadrius also survived it, and managed to grow up to work for the royal army masquerading as a clemar. At one point, he orchestrated a conspiracy to assassinate the prince himself out of spite against his elda bloodline and to grab power for himself by blackmailing a young Saintess Rella into doing the dirty work for him, threatening that he will kill her sister Junah if she does not comply. Instead, Rella cast a curse on him that rendered him completely unconscious and will not falter until she is dead. He then framed Louis for the crime, something which the king believed. This action turned Louis from an idealist to the madman seen in the game. Some time before the king was assassinated, Forden also tricked him into shutting down the Mage Academy under the premise that igniters will replace naturally-learned magic, likely so the church could monopolize the Igniter industry and the usage of magic. When Louis actually killed King Hythlodaeus and incited a successor crisis, Forden took the opportunity to participate in the Royal Tournament posing as a "moderate" Sanctist, which would allow him to turn Euchronia into a theocracy.
He first appears alongside his fellow senate members on the king's funeral, and berates Louis for his blatant desecration against the king as the king's election magic activates. He is the initial most popular candidate for the throne and the most formidable opponent to Louis, whose ascension to power is interpreted as a worse threat against the kingdom and the populace. Despite his atrocities against the elda and his treachery, Forden's campaign garnered many supporters, as most people are unaware of his real nature and fear the dangers posed by Louis taking the throne. He, alongside his fellow senate members, were also responsible for organizing the challenges of the tournament, effectively allowing him to game the system to his favor.
He was one of the participants of the tournament involved in the monster hunting contest, and shows up to the exhibit with a large squid that he claims was plaguing Port Brilehaven and was slain by him to protect the population. However, his mood was soured when instead of a monster, the party shows up with Sanctress Joanna, the chief prepretrator of the Martira kidnappings and was forced to execute the sanctoress to save his own skin. After the execution, he goes back to the senate chamber to discuss with his fellow senators on how to play the tournament further to their own favor, as he expresses distaste on the eldan contestant. It was agreed by the senate that for the second round of the tournament, the contestants were to gather holy relics and deliver the relics to them; to their beliefs, allowing the contestants to plunder the relics of pagans they dislike would allow the Sanctist Church to subjugate them and strengthen its grip on Euchronia. When Rella warned him of the small possibility that one of the relics would be able to bypass the election magic to allow a candidate to kill him, Gideaux laughed off her concerns in his boss' place.
After the party seemingly assassinates Louis, they were congratulated by Forden, who also accidentially slips up to compliment Hulkenberg for trying to stop the assassin by slashing them on the back. Back to their room, the party found out that the curse on the prince has not been dispelled despite his supposed death. This led to her suspecting that it was Forden who did it, as she never told anyone about trying to stop the assassin out of shame, meaning that only the assassin (and whoever ordered the attack) would know it.
On the next day, the sanctifex held a speech at the auditorium wielding the Drakodios where he essentially announced his victory under the premise that his only opponent is slain and the other candidates do not come close to reaching his popularity. The party sneaks atop of the podium and suddenly shows up to out Forden as the prince's killer, although he merely dismisses Eupha as a "pagan wretch" and orders the party to be executed. Most of the spectators cheered for Forden as they are unaware of the conspiracy he orchestrated in secret. However, before he can take any further action, a hooded Sanctist shows up behind the party and exposes himself to be Louis in disguise, now about to assassinate him. Despite Forden trying to strike him with the Drakodios, it was revealed to be a fake as the king's magic activated when he tried to kill Louis, while the real Drakodios is in Louis' hands. The sanctifex was then slain by the man whose village he once ordered the destruction of. Rella was then appointed as the sanctifex representative replacing Forden in the tournament, although the position was also quickly lost when she exposed Forden's crimes to the public and committed suicide to free the prince of his curse, leaving only Louis and Will as the only viable contenders.
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