"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 Svafriam 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 rule centered around Sanctism. He is one of the candidates for the Tournament for the Throne, garnering wide support by the population to the point of ranking number one in popularity.
Appearances[]
- Metaphor: ReFantazio: Major Antagonist
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 also rather self-confident, as shown when he bragged in front of the royal tournament's other contestants after Louis' (supposed) death that he will take the throne with his major competition out of the way.
He is shown to be extremely skilled in deceiving other people; even King Hythlodaeus V and the prince's closest aides believe his lies that Louis assassinated his son rather than the sanctifex himself. Forden is also not above making threats or manipulating others including children, such as forcing Rella to assassinate the prince in exchange for the safety of her adopted sister Junah. However, all of Forden's crimes are committed in complete secrecy and he is a highly popular public figure who puts significant effort into maintaining his public image, rendering him near suspicion-proof and unaccountable. Those who work closely for him, such as his right-hand man Gideaux, do not realize the true extent of his treachery. The party only discovers his involvement in the prince's assassination after he accidentally slips up when congratulating Hulkenberg on stopping the assassin despite her never telling anyone about it out of shame.
As the sanctifex, he bears a profound hatred against the elda tribe due to their vast knowledge and connection to the Old World before Sanctism's founding, and has instigated multiple pogroms against their sanctuaries. 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 for the elda tribe proved to be his undoing as it brought his demise to the hands of Louis, who he had single-handedly driven into becoming a madman.
He generally takes action against anything he views as a threat to his power and authority, often using Sanctism teachings and influence as a cover to hide his true intentions and to give himself plausible deniability. This includes treating the mustari tribe as pagans and using the tournament to plunder Eht Ria's holy relics to prove the church's supremacy, in spite of the church's usual passivity towards the mustari people. Forden also ordered the Mage's Academy to be shut down behind King Hythlodaeus V's back, as the institution's research into magic without the use of igniters had the potential to undermine the funding that the Sanctist Church received through the Igniter Consortium's profits.
Due to his long-living nature as a rhoag and his pretense as a moderate Sanctist, Forden 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' Darwinistic meritocracy. His reputation with the citizens is so great that his followers remain loyal even after the party confronts him regarding the prince's assassination—it took Rella personally confessing both her and his involvement for the public to realize the full extent of his crimes.
Forden is highly pragmatic and will satisfy the citizenry only if it helps his public image, 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 Joanna during the monster head exhibit. Though he often speaks in a calm and soft-spoken manner, he is prone to outbursts of anger in private.
Profile[]
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. During one such pogrom, the sanctifex ordered the burning of the Ancient Eldan Sanctum, killing half of its population, including the eldan queen and some members of the Charadrius family of medics, and forced the survivors to close themselves in the ruins. The king himself then visited the sanctuary to bring two survivors of the pogrom, the prince and Louis, back to the Royal Capital Grand Trad. Louis later climbed the military ranks while disguising himself as a clemar with a pair of fake horns.
Detesting the thought of an eldan on the throne, Forden forced a twelve year old Rella to assassinate the prince by threatening her newly adopted sister Junah. She was unable to control the spell and instead cast a curse that siphoned her own magic, rendering the prince unconscious with no hope of waking up while she still lives. Forden, able to completely avoid suspicion due to his popularity, framed Louis for the crime.
Forden's attempt on the prince's life drove the king into depression that he took advantage of to use him to push policies in his favor, effectively turning him into the sanctifex's puppet king and making sure that he will take power completely unopposed. Heismay heavily implies that he made the king announce Sanctism as the state religion in a conversation, and a flashback in the Skybound Avatar confirms that he tricked the king into shutting down the Mage Academy under the premise that igniters will replace naturally-learned magic. When Louis kills King Hythlodaeus V and incites a succession crisis, Forden is greatly speculated to become the next king.
He first appears the day after the king's assassination, where he and his fellow senate members enter the king's bedroom to investigate the king's corpse. Later, at the royal funeral, he berates Louis for his blatant desecration against the king as the king's election magic activates. He is initially the 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 garners many supporters, as most people are unaware of his real nature and fear the dangers posed by Louis taking the throne. Posing as a moderate Sanctist, he becomes a major participant of the Tournament for the Throne and is also responsible for organizing the challenges of the tournament alongside his fellow senators, effectively allowing him to game the system to his favor and making sure that he would turn Euchronia into a theocracy with barely any opposition standing in his way other than Louis.
He shows up to the monster hunting exhibition with a giant squid that he claims to be the monster plaguing Port Brilehaven's waters, slain by him to protect the population. After the party brings Sanctoress Joanna, the chief perpetrator of the Martira kidnappings, he is forced to execute the sanctoress to save his own skin.
In an attempt to strengthen the church's grip on Euchronia, Forden decides that for the second round of the tournament candidates must plunder Virga Island for holy relics he falsely claims were stolen by the mustari. When Rella warns him of the small possibility that one of the relics will be able to bypass the king's magic, Gideaux laughs off her concerns. Unbeknownst to the two men, Louis is hunting for such a relic: a dragon-empowered lance known as Drakodios that can kill any candidate regardless of their popularity.
After the party seemingly kills Louis in Altabury Heights, they are congratulated by Forden while a member of the church inspects Louis' body. Unbeknownst to him, the Sanctist member is Louis' right hand man Zorba in disguise, who secretly swaps the real Drakodios with a fake one forged by the party earlier. Before confiscating the lance for "safety," Forden compliments Hulkenberg in her attempt to stop the prince's assassin by slashing them on the back. That night, the party discovers that the curse on the prince has not been dispelled despite Louis' death. This leads Hulkenberg to suspect that Forden was somehow involved, 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.
The next day, wielding the Drakodios, Forden holds a speech at the Montario Opera House. He announces that his victory is all but assured with his only major opponent slain and the other candidates nowhere near popular enough to be a viable threat. The party directly accuses him of being involved in the prince's assassination, which he dismisses. Spurred on by his supporting crowd, Forden prepares to execute them for defying him.
Before any further confrontation between the sanctifex and the party can happen however, a hooded Sanctist appears on stage and reveals himself to be Louis who, thanks to the lance just missing his heart, was able to be healed by Zorba. Citing divine punishment, Forden attempts to kill Louis with Drakodios—the lance is quickly proven to be a fake when the king’s magic activates and protects Louis. With the real lance in hand, he kills Forden. Rella is soon appointed as the sanctifex representative replacing Forden in the tournament, only for her to expose Forden's crimes to the public and commit suicide to free the prince from his curse. The grave losses suffered by the Sanctist Church causes it to quickly disintegrate as a political body, nullifying their control over the tournament.
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
- Aestivum is a Latin specific epithet meaning "of the summer." Plants of this species include the Leucojum aestivum, an ornamental plant commonly called the summer snowflake, and bread wheat.
- Forden comes from Old English ford, meaning "road" or "way," a word borrowed as fordd in Welsh. The modern form Forden derives immediately from the Welsh Ffordun, a village in Powys, Wales.
Trivia[]
- The text on his campaign poster reads: "Pre u kaj vi estos savita Aestivum Svafram Forden," roughly translating to "Pray and you will be saved: Aestivum Svafram Forden."