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Iron Kingdom
General Tropes
"The Iron Kingdom, forged in faith and fear."
Capital: Creag Loisgte
Located amongst a small group of islands off the coast of Storm, the western half of Valisthea's twin realms, the Iron Kingdom, also known as Haearann in its local tongue, is home to the Crystalline Orthodox, who serve as the kingdom's rulers. The Iron Kingdom controls Drake's Breath, a Mothercrystal that sits at the very heart of one of the islands that make up its kingdom and has long served as a source of contention between them and the neighbouring Grand Duchy of Rosaria. Judging Dominants to be unholy abominations and building their culture around the worship of crystals, the Ironblood have long been isolated and aloof from the mainland nations of Valisthea.- Authority in Name Only: It's a nominal kingdom, with a royal family, but they have no actual power. It's the priesthood that commands this realm.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: The Iron Kingdom's Crusaders fight primarily with axes and cudgels and have a reputation for being savage berserkers.
- Cargo Cult: The Crystalline Orthodox worships the Mothercrystals as gods. They see the mining of crystals or the use of aether in any capacity as sacrilege and wage a holy war to take the Mothercrystals from those who would exploit their power.
- Fantastic Racism: As the game's official website reveals, the orthodox doctrine of the Iron Kingdom are said to consider Dominants to be unholy abominations. Dominants that are unlucky enough to be born on the islands that make up the kingdom are executed. In-game, it's revealed that even by the standards of other kindgoms' bigotry towards the branded, the Iron Kingdom treats with their branded with extreme cruelty involving outright torture and daily mass ritual sacrifices.
- Hate Sink: Nothing about them is redeemable. From sacrificing Branded, to enslaving and raping female slaves, (only sparing Jill from the latter due to her awakening as the Dominant of Shiva) and their overall treatment of Dominants, it's very satisfying to see them get killed in the most gruesome of ways.
- Hufflepuff House: Like the Crystalline Dominion, they get far less focus in the story than the other nations. They at least have one named character native to it, but he doesn't even have that large of a part himself.
- Human Sacrifice: A large part of their religion involves "giving thanks", which is basically ritually sacrificing Branded to their Mothercrystal under the guise of "cleansing" their souls.
- Hypocrite: Oh yes. For all their talk about purging the Dominants, they're quick to enslave Jill and use her Eikon, Shiva, against their enemies. For all their talk about Dominants being demonic evils, they made Jill obey them by threatening to kill children and then STILL killed them afterwards even when she behaved.
- Out of Focus: They completely lose relevance in the story with the destruction of their Mothercrystal, which is only the second one destroyed overall. After that, they only show up in one optional hunt sidequest.
- Pelts of the Barbarian: Iron Kingdom warriors wear thick pelts over their armor, even in arid climates like Dhalmekia. Between that, the savagery in battle, and their penchant for axes and cudgels, it makes them come off as Viking stand-ins.
- Power Crystal: As revealed on the game's official website, the people of the Iron Kingdom draw their aether from Drake's Breath, a Mothercrystal seated between the Iron Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Rosaria.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: It's not as explicitly stated in the English version, but there's really only one reason why Iron Kingdom soldiers won't take male prisoners and only capture females. In the Japanese version, when facing Imreann, Jill makes it explicitly clear that female captives (who were children) are raped prior to being sacrificed
, and that she witnessed all of it. Jill also alludes to this early in the game after she wakes up in the Hideaway (which is retained in the English localization), by recounting how she fully expected her captors to have their way with her only to avert this fate by awakening as the Dominant of Shiva. - Religion of Evil: Thanks to a tragically incomplete understanding of why Magic Is Evil on Valisthea, they've got the most monstrously tyrannical, bloody-handed religion on the continent, built on mass human sacrifices of Bearers and enslavement or murder of just about every other kind of foreigner 'heretic'. There's a reason they're such a tiny and friendless nation.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: They have the dubious distinction of being the only nation on Valisthea that routinely enslaves normal humans, mainly because their Religion of Evil compels them to sacrifice Bearers instead. They also enslave Dominants (who they consider just as blasphemous as Bearers, but far too useful to kill), and are disturbingly experienced and effective at finding the right psychological levers to keep such immensely powerful people enslaved.
- Starter Villain: They're built up as one, with Rosaria being in a territorial dispute with them at the start of the game, and the initial march to Phoenix Gate is a prelude to an all-out war with them. It gets subverted hard when the Empire of Sanbreque betrays Rosaria and assassinates Duke Elwin, with Joshua being killed by Ifrit and Annabella selling out Rosaria from the inside. Though the Iron Kingdom does capture Jill Warrick, and Clive is later assigned to apprehend her while serving with the Bastards. They also are the first nation whose crystal is destroyed by Clive as Cid.
- The Theocracy: Even more than the Empire. The Empire sees their leader as a god, but the Iron Kingdom is built on religion and is truly ruled by the priesthood.
- Would Hurt a Child: They have no qualms about holding children hostage and threatening to kill them if it suits their purposes. By the end, its made clear in the story that they will in fact rape and murder children, in accordance with their faith.
Imreann
Voiced by:
The High Priest of the Iron Kingdom who is also its ruler, he leads his followers to pillage and plunder the mainland as well as capture slaves to be brought to serfdom.- High Priest: His title, he is the religious leader of the Iron Kingdom and because of its theocratic nature, their ultimate head of state.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Jill kills him by stabbing him through the chest with her rapier.
- It's Personal: Jill harbors a deep, venomous hatred for him thanks to everything he did after enslaving her. And she has good reason, since this was a man who ritually massacred Bearers even before Anabella started her own genocidal campaign, and routinely threatened the lives of Jill's own countrymen to make her do his bidding, only to kill them anyway (after raping them). She gleefully skewers him on her rapier soon after her and Clive destroy Drake's Breath.
- Sinister Minister: He's the leader of the villainous Crystalline Orthodox, intent to forcefully converting everyone to his faith.
- Villainous Breakdown: He falls into complete and utter dismay after Clive shatters the Mothercrystal.
Crystalline Dominion
General Tropes
The Unblinking Eye of the Storm
Capital: Twinside
Built around Drake's Tail, the tallest of all the Mothercrystals, and seated at the heart of Valisthea, this small plot of land has served as the site of countless bloody battles. Following the declaration of a peace armistice, the islands surrounding Drake's Tail have become an autonomous dominion, led by a council of representatives from the surrounding nations of Valisthea, who work to ensure that the people of the realms all enjoy equal claim to the Mothercrystal's blessing.- Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Twinside was built atop what were though to be Fallen ruins, with the spires poking through the earth the only indication of their presence. It turns out they weren't Fallen ruins but rather part of Origin, the vessel Ultima's people used to travel to Valisthea, which had been buried beneath what is now Twinside.
- Apocalypse How: Class 0. As if being razed by Bahamut weren't bad enough, the ascension of Origin is the final nail in the coffin for the Dominion. Ultima raises Twinside into the air and then instantaneously levels it to reveal Origin underneath. When the party travels there to face Ultima, there is no sign that anything—or anyone—in the city survived.
- City on the Water: Twinside is located on a chain of islands in the Strait of Autha known as the Isles of Ark. The islands are largely man-made, having used what were thought to be Fallen ruins as a base to build around.
- Hufflepuff House: The nation with the least amount of screen time and no real major character.
- Land of One City: The Crystalline Dominion is comprised of the city of Twinside, and little else outside its immediate vicinity. Despite this, it lies in the southern tip of the Strait of Autha that divides the continents of Storm and Ash, giving it key strategic control of the waterways.
- Power Crystal: As noted on the game's official website, the Crystalline Dominion is built around Drake's Tail, the tallest of the Mothercrystals, whose aether is utilised by nations that each member of the council representatives calls home.
- Team Switzerland: The game's official websites reveals them to be a neutral force, with the purpose of ensuring that the Mothercrystal's blessing is shared equally across Valisthea. This is represented even in their flag, which features iconography of all its neighboring states. Interestingly, they are not a Truce Zone, since their lands are also the site of countless battles. Before the half-point of the game, they get quickly conquered by the Empire.
The Undying
Jote (WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Voiced by: Jessica Clark (English), Yu Shimamura (Japanese)Foreign VAs
Margrace's attendant, ever-present at his side. She is a knight of the Undying, individuals who have been dedicated to serving the ducal throne of Rosaria from the shadows for generations.
- Beleaguered Assistant: While Jote does carry out all of her duties without complaint, she shows clear exhaustion over how often she needs to make sure Joshua takes his medicine and remind him to rest, neither of which he is ever very inclined to do.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Jote is sworn to protect Joshua, who has taken several leaps in competency over the years.
- Bodyguard Crush: Spending years traveling with Joshua wasn't all just out of a sense of duty for her. After he dismisses her from his side late in the game, Clive notices that Jote cares deeply for Joshua on a level more than just that of a protector and her charge, to which Joshua answers that he feels the same way for her but he must do this to keep her safe.
- Code Name: "Jote" is not her real name — all members of the Undying choose a new one upon becoming a member.
- Combat Medic: At times it seems she is Joshua's attendant in order to make him take his medicine, which she makes herself. When she comes to the Hideaway she tends to remain with Tarja in the infirmary. In addition, she is also said to be a skilled swordswoman.
- Headbutt of Love: She and Joshua share at least one, which also results in him kissing her forehead in parting.
- Informed Ability: She is said to be incredibly dangerous with a blade, but we never get to see it.
- Out of Focus: She was never particularly that prominent in cutscenes, but by the time Joshua and Clive reunite and her status as a member of the Undying is revealed, she mostly hangs out at the hideaway and doesn't do much more.
- Undying Loyalty: To Margrace. She loyally fulfills every wish her master has, from intelligence gathering to preparing his meals.
- Walking Spoiler: She and the rest of the Undying were responsible for whisking Joshua away to safety following the fall of Phoenix Gate, thereby keeping the fact that he was Not Quite Dead a secret from the rest of the world for years.
Cyril
Voiced by: Anthony Howell (English), Katsuya Miyamoto (Japanese)Foreign VAs
A senior member of the Undying known as the Bearer of the Burning Quill. From their headquarters in Tabor, he helps uncover ancient secrets at the behest of Lord Margrace.
- Agree to Disagree: When Clive has a problem with how members of the Undying seem to be dying for nothing, Cyril disagrees, because it is in service to the Phoenix. Cyril suggests not debating it any further because there would be no convincing him, but a later sidequest does help the two come to understand each other's perspectives a bit more.
- In the Hood: Cyril always has his hood up, appropriate for a secretive scholar.
- The Needs of the Many: Cyril is a big believer in the creed of the Undying, which is that the protection of the Phoenix and the good of the realm comes above all else — even the individual lives of its members. Clive believes their deaths to be a Senseless Sacrifice, leading the two to debate, but Cyril points out the ideological differences in their beliefs and that they will never fully convince each other.
- The Stoic: Cyril never raises his voice beyond his detached and clinical musings.
Mysidia
Shula
The Tributary of Mysidia who seeks out Clive in order to help with Leviathan's Dominant.
- The Atoner: Shula is ashamed of her ancestors' decision to sacrifice Waljas, an infant and a member of their family, in an attempt to create a new mothercrystal. After hearing of "Cid's" track record of subduing Dominants and Eikons, she seeks Clive's aid to atone for her ancestors' wrongdoings by rescuing Waljas and giving him the life he deserves.
- The Chains of Commanding: She confesses some insecurity as leader of Mysidia to Clive, stating that she is unsure of how best to lead her people as the world changes all around them, and whether or not later generations will view her decisions favorably, since everyone knows how badly their ancestors messed up in regard to Waljas. Clive reassures her that she's actually doing a lot better than the rest of the Twins, and that with the support and love for her people they will make it through any hardship.
- Combat Medic: As a Bearer, she uses magic for attacking alongside her axe, but she is also capable of healing Clive.
- Deuteragonist: With Joshua taking a backseat in the DLC Shula takes his place as secondary main character in The Rising Tide, being the character the DLC focuses on the most beside Clive.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: A dutiful, serious leader, unlike her brother Famiel.
- Guest-Star Party Member: She temporarily joins Clive's party during the Rising Tide DLC.
- Lady of War: Despite wielding a large axe, she is graceful in battle, unflinching, and rather composed other than her occasional battle shouts.
- Magic Knight: Shula is a Bearer, meaning she can wield magic freely and in equal measure with her axe.
- Ms. Exposition: She takes on the role of explaining ways of life in Mysidia, as well as the circumstances of Leviathan's Dominant to Clive and his party.
- Mystical White Hair: Like all Motes of Water, she has white hair and sapphire blue eyes, making their people stand out from the rest of Valisthea.
- Parental Substitute: Shula becomes one to Waljas after he is freed from the time-stopping spell, along with her brother Famiel.
- Promotion to Parent: Shula's parents died when she was young, so she essentially raised her younger brother.
- Screaming Warrior: Shula tends to shout and scream loudly while facing her foes in battle.
- Statuesque Stunner: She is a few inches taller than even Clive, cutting an impressive figure as leader of Mysidia and a skilled warrior.
Waljas
Leviathan's Dominant, an infant suspended within a time-stopping spell in order to stop him from priming.
- And I Must Scream: It’s revealed quickly that despite being frozen in time, he’s fully conscious and aware of his surroundings, and 80 years in this state has left him terrified... and angry.
- Goo-Goo-Godlike: Despite being an infant, Waljas is also a Dominant, with all the power that entails.
- Happily Adopted: After he is saved, Waljas is taken in by Shula and Famiel to give him the proper childhood he was robbed of.
- Living Distant Ancestor: An odd case, considering Waljas is an infant child and he was born eighty years ago, so not that distant, but the dynamic is there: he is actually the child of Shula's great-grandfather, making him her great uncle. Tangled Family Tree comes into play when Shula adopts and raises him as his new parent.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Waljas survives his battle against Clive, dismissing his Leviathan priming after being defeated with no ill effects whereas every other Dominant was either on the brink of death afterward or actually perished, Justified as unlike the other fights Clive wasn’t trying to kill Waljas and was likely holding back, and his boss fight is even capped off with the words "Leviathan Tamed" instead of "Leviathan Defeated/Slain".
- Making a Splash: Naturally, as the Dominant of Leviathan, he can wield water, summon watery familiars, and transform into the sea serpent itself.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: From the moment of Waljas' birth, his family planned to use him as a living battery, trapping him in time while siphoning the aether of his Eikon, Leviathan, in hopes of creating a new Mothercrystal to replace the fallen Drake's Eye. This enraged Waljas and Leviathan, who would have swept Mysidia out to sea if they hadn't been halted by the time freezing spell.
- Obliviously Evil: Considering he's a baby he has no sense of right and wrong and doesn't understand the destruction he causes from his tantrum.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: Shulas' ancestors planned to use Waljas' aether to create a new mothercrystal to draw upon for their daily needs. In their mind, sacrificing a single infant, even a Dominant, is worth it if it means the Motes of Water's enduring prosperity.
- Unstable Powered Child: An extreme example in that Waljas basically throws a colossal temper tantrum after being imprisoned for almost a century, priming into Leviathan and managing to give Ifrit quite a lot of trouble in the process.
Other Characters
Kihel
Voiced by: Farah Redif (English), Nina Nakabayashi (Japanese)Foreign VAs
A young, orphaned medicine girl encountered by several characters over the course of the story, first seen in the Dhalmekian city of Kostnice selling her potions and tinctures before traveling down the Crystal Road to the Crystalline Dominion with other refugees.
- Action Survivor: Kihel survives Dion's uncontrollable assault on Twinside as Bahamut, and furthermore stays behind to help the wounded. She is later able to escape the city with Terence's aid before its destruction by Ultima.
- Children Are Innocent: She is one of the youngest characters to appear in the story and is always kind to everyone she meets, even at great risk to herself, which helps her stand out in an otherwise Crapsack World.
- Good Samaritan: She's a poor orphan barely able to make her way in the world enough to afford her own bread, but whenever she is shown she goes out of her way to help people. When she meets Margrace, she finds him nearly collapsed on the side of the road and offers him medicine, but Jote has her own to give him. After the razing of Twinside she is shown helping the wounded. Later, she meets Dion, who has also collapsed from his wounds and she takes him to her home in the slums to nurse him back to health.
- Interface Spoiler: The fact that an apparent bit character has a codex entry should tell you that she's going to become plot-relevant at some point.
- Nice Girl: She's unfailingly kind and caring to a fault, making her a rare ray of light in the Crapsack World that is Valisthea.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After she is shown in Twinside's slum, she is never seen for the rest of the game. Only the Inner Voice feature added in later patches show that she was at least able to escape Twinside before its destruction.
The Fallen
Fifteen centuries ago, this race of Precursors dominated Valisthea with their advanced Magitek, but fell to ruin during an unknown apocalypse. Since then, most of their aether technology has rusted away, but the few remaining pieces can make riches out of rags or turn armies into irradiated pulp.
- A God Am I: Their goal was to overthrow the gods of Valisthea and master their secrets of technology and magic for their own purposes. The Echoes of the Fallen DLC shows that — in Clive's own words — they were closer to achieving godhood than anyone realized; their most advanced creations are essentially Magitek Cyborgs, they had created an automated intelligence comparable to advanced AI systems, and could transmute matter into energy in some regard. They even managed to create their own synthetic Mothercrystal, and an artificial Eikon, Omega, to defend it.
- Ambiguous Situation: It is gradually revealed that many of the Fallen ruins and their creations around Valisthea are actually based on Ultima and the architecture of his civilization, but on an individual level it isn't always clear who created what. The Fallen were so good at copying Ultima's designs that even in-universe, scholars are uncertain what creations to attribute to the Fallen and what to Ultima.
- And Man Grew Proud: The cause of their downfall was said to be their hubris as they flew into the skies and challenged the gods. This is not too far from the truth. A certain sect of their people went to go destroy the Mothercrystal at Dzemekys, and Ultima retaliated — creating the giant crater that is still there today, which led to their downfall.
- Advanced Ancient Humans: The Fallen were a human civilization that developed all kinds of Magitek from clockwork soldiers to airships.
- Arc Villain: They (or rather, a tower of theirs controlled by an AI system) serves as the antagonist of the Echoes of the Fallen DLC.
- Clockwork Creature: Their soldiers are said to be clockwork, but in all likelihood that is just how they are described because no one in the modern day knows how they actually work.
- Human Resources: The Echoes of the Fallen DLC reveals their constructs were powered by synthetic crystals created by experimenting on monsters to turn them into crystals.
- Laser Blade: Some of their clockwork soldiers wield laser swords.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: The detailed ruins of the Fallen are scattered everywhere, to the point that it almost seems the Fallen had a giant floating city covering most of Valisthea itself. Now the world is in a relative Dark Age and the remaining Constructs have failed to rebuild from their masters' deaths.
- Lost Technology: Remnants of their Magitek technology and their ruins dot the landscape. After Ultima begins Primogenesis, droves of their clockwork soldiers emerge from the ruins and attack people.
- Magitek: Modern scholars coined the term in reference to their creations, because they were so advanced that they seem like magic, and it's not always clear when their functions are purely mechanical anyway.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Their most advanced creations blur the line between technological, biological, and magical construct, to the point it's impossible to distinguish between the concepts. This includes biological creatures who were grown in a lab, and can sprout jet engines from their shoulders to fly and extend a Laser Blade to attack with.
- Recurring Element: They're the latest in a long line of ancient civilizations in Final Fantasy, with ruins and technology that fascinate modern scholars. In this game, their involvement in things is as a means to include fantastical mechanical enemies in an otherwise fairly grounded Medieval European Fantasy setting.
- Red Herring: The Apodytery and Reverie were originally believed to be ruins of the Fallen based on their architecture, but in reality are creations of Ultima. The Fallen merely based their own structures off of them.
- Unobtainium: No one is quite sure what their ancient ruins were built out of, just that it's stronger than steel and can't be worked by modern forging methods. This is why a lot of human settlements make use of Fallen ruins in their architecture, but they have to build around them. A couple of sidequests shed a bit more light on this material and its unusual properties; it doesn't scratch, rust, or tarnish even after centuries have passed, and it can absorb and disperse heat directionally from one side to the other, attributes that would imply that magic or advanced chemical metallurgy was involved in its creation. Samples of Fallen material acquired as loot in the Echoes of the Fallen DLC state that it has properties of both ceramic and metal, but it's somehow as pliable as leather.
- Precursors: They are an advanced, ancient society that once covered all of Valisthea and beyond, originating outside of the Twins.
- Rings of Activation: They were fond of circular light arrangements that powered up whenever their technology is activated.
- Science Fantasy: Their ruins distinctly resemble Gigeresque biotechnology and engineering than they do the Magitech that actually composes it.
Famiel
A "merchant" who's been making a living off selling strange dark-colored crystals that suddenly appeared on the black market.
- Anyone Can Die: Subverted. Despite the quest presenting them as people who are in over their heads and on top of this game being set in Valisthea, where Anyone Can Die is in effect, Famiel and his associates all survive the events of Echoes of the Fallen. Lampshaded during the Rising Tide, where Clive points out Famiel can probably teach Waljas good tips about survival.
- Connected All Along: He's the link between the two DLC stories, being not just a Mysidian, but Shula's younger brother.
- Dirty Coward: When Clive and party come looking for him regarding the source of the dusk crystals, Famiel tells the thieves chasing him that Clive is the one selling crystals and books it.
- Distressed Dude: The entirety of the Echoes of the Fallen DLC sees him being harassed in almost every scene, either running from bandits, being chased by Akashic, or nearly killed by the Sagespire's automatic defense systems.
- Dye or Die: It is revealed he naturally has the white hair of any other Mysidian, which he hides whenever he has to travel to the mainland.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Famiel is a lazy, shady coward who keeps getting himself into tight spots, unlike his sister Shula.
- Honest John's Dealership: Famiel's been selling dusk crystals at a premium in the black market. The thing is, however, the dusk crystals don't last nearly as long as ordinary crystals do and will shatter after a certain amount of uses. Unsurprisingly, this led to more than a few people outraged by his "scam" to the point that Byron Rosfield has banned dusk crystals in Port Isolde altogether. Famiel and his two workers are chased out of Port Isolde when a guard demands to see what they're carrying.
- By the end of the quest, it's clear that Famiel and his lackeys are only selling the dusk crystals in order to support their tribe. When Clive points out that trying to keep the artificial heart around will endanger the tribe to nations still vying for Mothercrystals, Famiel is convinced to let him destroy it, giving up this trope in order to protect them in the long run.
- Justified Criminal: His selling of the dusk crystals has made a lot of people still wanting crystals upset on account of how inferior they are. But said crystals are basically all that Famiel's tribe have had for centuries, and he doesn't want Clive to destroy their source of survival. However, when Clive points out that their tribe would be in danger of the other nations without Mothercrystals, Famiel reluctantly lets him destroy the artificial Mothercrystal heart to protect them, saying afterwards, "I hope we did the right thing".
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Although he's not exactly happy about it, he lets Clive destroy the artificial Mothercrystal, since it's only a matter of time before news of its discovery will become public, which in turn puts his people in danger since crystals are becoming increasingly scarce.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: At the start of the Echoes of the Fallen DLC, Clive has destroyed all the Mothercrystals, meaning crystals are a more valuable resource now more than ever. Famiel takes advantage of this by selling dusk crystals off the black market, which are stated to be inferior compared to ordinary crystals.
- The DLC initially presents Famiel and his associates as just a bunch of opportunistic sellers of inferior crystals, who have gotten in way over their heads once the Sagespire starts "waking up". Despite this, they manage to survive the entire quest, thanks in part to Clive and company's meddling.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Zig-Zagged. Famiel and his associates' working strategy is running away from trouble. Some ominous growling in the Sagespire? Run away. Port Isolde guards demanding to inspect their packs? Run away. Bandits, Akashic, and strange warriors focused on finding the dusk crystals' source? Run away. Noteably, Famiel is visibly reluctant to run away from the Sagespire despite nearly being killed by one of its defenses. In fact, he and his all run toward Clive to stop him destroying the Fallen's artificial heart, imploring him not to destroy his people's means of survival.
- Before parting ways, Famiel admits that if his begging his village elders for forgiveness doesn't work, he can try hiding from them for a year or two. While Clive is surprised that Famiel is considering this trope again, Famiel points out that it's how they've survived this long in the first place.
- Walking the Earth: Famiel reveals to Clive he and his friends are part of a wandering nomadic tribe who lost their homes to the deadlands and now struggle to survive. This makes the dusk crystals especially vital to them despite their inferiority to normal crystals, and is for this reason he tries to stop Clive from destroying the artificial Mothercrystal in the Sagespire.
The Witch of the North
A mysterious witch who lived in the far northern regions of Storm. She crafted an incredibly powerful spell that had the power to freeze time, in an effort to preserve the Mothercrystal of Drake's Eye so it would not fall and the northern territories could continue to rely upon it forever. Though she mastered the spell too late to save the crystal, she passed it on to the people of Mysidia, who used it for a similar but more nefarious purpose.
- An Ice Person: Jill eventually realizes she was a former Dominant of Shiva.
- Composite Character: She serves as a two-for-one Mythology Gag to Ultimecia and Ysayle. Like Ultimecia, she was a witch who developed a powerful spell to control time, and she was served by a sworn knight who protected her. Like Ysayle, she has the powers of Shiva and used them as part of a misguided effort to preserve peace between nations. Her true name is revealed to be "Ysay", a shortening of Ysayle.
- Literal Metaphor: She crafted a spell that could freeze time. As in actually freeze it, as an extension of Shiva's power over ice. Clive lampshades it when he connects the dots atop the Vare and remarks "who else would have the power to freeze time?"
- Posthumous Character: She died eighty years before the game began.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Her crafting of the chronomancy spell directly led to the events of The Rising Tide DLC. Her failure to craft the spell earlier to stop Drake's Eye from falling also caused the northern territories to lose their Mothercrystal, which led to them trying to invade Rosaria, being thwarted and subjugated, and Jill being taken as a Ward by Archduke Elwin.
- Strong Family Resemblance: From what little is seen beneath her hood, she bears a strong resemblance to Jill, and as both are Dominants of Ice they likely share some lineage.
- Villainous Legacy: Though it's completely unintentional. She taught the people of Mysidia her time-freezing spell out of thanks for them caring for her in her final days, and they used it as part of a ritual to try and turn Leviathan's Dominant, a newborn infant, into a new Mothercrystal. Instead Leviathan angrily lashed out and caused mass destruction, forcing them to use her spell to freeze time before Leviathan obliterated their village. Additionally, in spite of her death her aether remains trapped in the time bubble around the Vare, causing her companion to also become trapped in it and a guardian against Clive and his allies who had come to free the child.
