"And a monster is what I see... when I look upon the world! People are beasts of fear and superstition. Murderers without remorse. I have done nothing they've not done to me. Abominations... They are the unnatural... They deserve to die. They should all be so glad to nourish my child. My dear... sweet... child."
Joanna Tarar Calendula is a minor antagonist in Metaphor: ReFantazio. She is the sanctoress of Martira who was exposed for ordering the kidnapping of children and feeding them to a human known as Homo Jaluzo.
Appearances[]
- Metaphor: ReFantazio: Minor antagonist
Personality[]
Johanna appears to be a kind and caring woman whom the townsfolk of Martira and the Sanctists repsect dearly, but after losing her son to tribal prejudice and discovering a baby-like human, she became a broken, deranged madwoman who would kidnap children to feed her new "son," a human monstrosity. As it is indicated that the human was somewhat influencing her, she might not be in total control towards some of her actions. Joanna commits her crimes under complete secrecy and has a good reputation around Martira, meaning that she's popular enough that very few would dare go and expose her crimes, to the point where even when she confesses her crimes in front of Forden and the public, there are some Sanctists who do not believe it at first. Even the party did not consider that she was involved when investigating the mass kidnappings and only realized when they cornered both her and Morris in the room where she was housing the human at. She however, does openly volunteer for herself to get executed when her crimes do get exposed and the human was killed.
Profile[]
Joanna is a member of the Sanctis Church and the leader of Martira, Old Castle Town. When the protagonist's group comes to capture Heismay Noctule and collect the bounty, Joanna agrees to aide them in whatever way she can. She promises to use her heirlooms and private possessions as reward for apprehending him, and appeal to the people of her town to support the protagonist's campaign in the royal election.
It is eventually revealed that Joanna was the true culprit behind the kidnappings. In the past, Joanna was in a relationship with a man of another tribe, however, due to racial prejudices, the man was forced to flee the country. Nevertheless, Joanna became pregnant from the relationship and despite the insistence of her family, gave birth to the baby. Her son was born shortly before the human attacks began and his nanny, believing the attacks to be connected to the birth of a half-breed child, chose to kill the infant before his birth could be publicly announced. Since everyone who knew about the event held racist views against half-breeds, the incident was covered up and the existence of Joanna's son was never acknowledged. This all sent Joanna into a deep depression, leading her to despise the world for what it had done to her child. She eventually happened upon a human resembling a baby, and, still in her depressive state and under the effects of Melancholia Magla it was releasing, convinced herself that it was her child reincarnated. She allowed it to roam beneath the Kriegante Castle and, with the help of some of the Martira guard corps, including Morris, she began kidnapping children from Marita and feeding them to the human, blaming Heismay for the disappearances.
When the party confronts her and reaches the room where she was holding the human at, she was seen asking Morris if he gave any food to her "child." He failed to get the party to her, so she summoned the human she was keeping in the room, who promptly eats him. Heismay confront him for his insanity, causing her to go into a fit of rage and order the human to attack them.
Joanna doesn't actually fight the party during their fight against Homo Jaluzo, so her participation in it is very straight forward; she will substantially heal the Human once, when Homo Jaluzo reaches critical health range, with the healing spell regenerating any of its gouged-out eyes at the time. However, she will expend all of her magic in the process so Homo Jaluzo will not be healed once it happens again.
In the end, Homo Jaluzo is killed, causing the Melancholia to clear and returning her to sanity. Heismay convinces her to give up her hatred and move forward. Repentant, she agrees to give up her own head instead of Heismay's for the Royal Selection competition, as the party decided that they cannot directly bring the monster's corpse to there under the concern that it can be easily dismissed as a forgery. Elphas Bardon offers to personally escort her to Port Brilehaven where the competition is held at. During the competition, Joanna admits to her actions and offers her head as recompense. After Aestivum Forden confirms her words to be truthful, he has two Sanctist knights execute her on the spot.
The exposure of the incident is treated as a humiliation for the Sanctist Church and left a foul taste in Forden's mouth. Despite this setback, his standing in the tournament is still unfazed and he was confident that he could win the tournament, and continues to organize the second set of challenges with his fellow co-conspirators.
Trivia[]
- According to Bardon, the kidnappings orchestrated by Joanna had went for at least six months with 15 "missing" children.