Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria/Characters

Valkyrie Profile is a game with a plotline that is highly dependent on its characters. The cast is large, diverse and very colorful, sharing histories in a war-torn, tragic landscape. This article focused on describing the main playable characters, as well as some of the minor enemies and allies that are encountered throughout the game. It should be noted that the appearances of mythological figures such as the Norse gods are highly stylized and reimagined, and thus this article should not be used as a proper mythological source.

=Playable Characters= This is a listing of all of the characters that the player is capable of recruiting over the course of the normal game.

Lenneth Valkyrie
Lenneth is a valkyrie, recently awakened warrior-maiden that Odin has served with the task of recruiting the souls of deceased warriors, or Einherjar from the world of mortal men, Midgard, so that they may assist in the war against Surt, and prevent the destruction of Asgard in Ragnarok. Lenneth is a goddess of fate along with her two sisters (Hrist and Silmeria) and they all share the same body. A loyal servant, she does as she is asked until she one day discovers that while she had been "sleeping", her soul had been reborn in Midgard as a girl named Platina, and had once been in love with a human named Lucian. Odin gives her body to Hrist after she regains her memories, but through the efforts of Arngrim, Mystina and Lezard, she is eventually returned to Valkyrie.

After returning, Lenneth confronts Loki and in the process discovers that her rebirth, using a homunculus with half-elven/half-human blood, granted her powers surpassing those of Odin, giving her the power of creation. After killing Loki, Lenneth restored Lucian to life, and the two were able live together in peace with Lenneth as the Lord of Creation.

Lenneth makes a cameo appearance as a bonus boss in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and as a recruitable character in Radiata Stories.

Aelia
A spear-wielding woman clad in green armor, Aelia was captured by the villain Gandar as part of his attempt to learn the whereabouts of the Dragon Orb, one of the most powerful relics in existence. He was mistaken, however, in that Aelia possessed no knowledge of the Dragon Orb, but was in fact the bearer of the Dragon Gem, which gives her the power to transform into a massive dragon. Aelia eventually died from Gandar's torture, and Lenneth recruited her soon after. She was a member of the group of adventures that included Kashell and Celia, and is one of the few non-human Midgardian characters in the game; she is actually a member of the dragonian race.

Arngrim
One of the first souls that Lenneth recruits. However, due to imperfections in his character, Odin and Freya refuse to accept him as an Einherjar, and thus spends the rest of the journey at Lenneth's side. After the death of Princess Jelanda, he fought his way through the Artolian king's castle and defeated the man responsible for her death with Lenneth's help. Afterwards, he elects to commit suicide in order to follow the valkyrie, and eventually becomes one of her most trusted allies. He proves himself by assisting Mystina and Lezard in saving Lenneth's life when the gods attempt to do away with her.

Badrach
A lowlife that has robbed and murdered countless people, he himself is eventually killed by an assassin from the thieves' guild. Lenneth initially intends to send him to Nifleheim and damn him to the underworld, but when he shares his story of how he once saved a young girl from a life of slavery (Lucian's younger sister), he proves to her that even the most craven of humans can show goodness in their hearts, no matter how briefly. Towards the beginning of the game, he accompanied Arngrim in unknowingly transporting Jelanda to the Villnore border, and escaped after the princess was turned into a monster by Ghoul Powder.

Belenus
A respected nobleman from the city of Gerabellum. He treats his servants with the utmost care and compassion, including Asaka, a young Yamato woman whom he rescued by buying her from a slave auction. In return for all of his kindness, she remains faithful to him until she is attacked and killed by a vampire summoned by his late wife. Belenus, in his grief, agrees to perform the ritual of soul transfer, exchanging his life so that Asaka may continue living.

Gandar
An elderly but virile sorcerer employed by the Villnore army, Gandar is a thoroughly evil man ruled by his ambition. In his search for the Dragon Orb, he ultimately breaks into the Palace of the Dragon in order to steal it from its altar, only to discover that someone else had stolen it first. Lenneth chased down and defeated Gandar, but despite his evil nature, Freya gives her strict orders to recruit the wizard as a potential Einherjar.

Grey
A man that is never seen in anything less than full-plate armor, Grey was brought back to life by his friend Lemia, who exchanged her life for his in the ritual of soul transfer. However, when he attempted to reverse this and bring Lemia back to life, he died once more without the desired result since those resurrected by the ritual cannot return life to another.

Janus
A loyal soldier that exiled himself from his kingdom of Crell Monferaigne after performing a government-sanctioned assassination. However, he returned ten years later because he was worried about his father, and with hope that he could be reinstated in the military. Unfortunately for him, however, the conspirators in the assassination feared his return, and had him killed to prevent any possibility of their implication.

Jayle
A woman that disguised herself as a man in order to join her country's legion of knights. Her commander eventually found out the truth about her gender, but kept the secret hidden as she had proven to be one of his best soldiers. Eventually, the two of them fell in love. However, during a mission to take down the evil sorceress Guinevere, Jayle was killed by her commander when the sorcerer summoned a demoness that placed a charm spell over the men in her unit. Lenneth defeated the demoness and recruited Jayle soon after.

Jun
A Yamato swordsman who desires to cure his sister, Ai, of her blindness. He enters a cavern, believing that such a cure laid within, and confronted a demonic ogre. However, the cave was actually a mirror into his soul. The darkness of his soul turned Jun into the ogre. Upon Lenneth's arrival, she defeated the demon, killing Jun in the process, and opening the way for him to become an Einherjar. Jun's death cures his sister's blindness.

Kashell
A brash swordsman that fights for his beliefs, he was a good friend of Arngrim, Aelia, Grey and Lawfer. While traveling with fellow mercenary Celia, the two encountered a village where the residents had turned to stone after a forbidden seal had been breached by a curious child. He died protecting a vial of potion that would return stone people to flesh when they confronted the demon that had attacked the village.

Lawfer
An Artolian knight, proud that his father had given him a name with the word "law". A just and noble individual, he became curious about what caused Arngrim to ultimately kill so many Artolian soldiers and a major court official before committing suicide and leaving his brother Roland in prison. In an attempt to find the answers he seeks, Lawfer chose to take on a mission that would result in an almost certain death, and was recruited by Lenneth not long after. Interestingly enough, Lawfer is the only character who's death is not showed in the game.

Llewelyn
A young boy that had been drafted into Crell Monferaigne's military. Not nearly cut out for the rigors of military service, he died an anonymous death on the battlefield, leaving a grieving girlfriend behind.

Lucian
Lucian grew up in a small village with his childhood friend Platina. However, when they were in their early teens, the village's adults, having fallen on hard times, began selling their daughters to slave traders. Lucian encouraged Platina to escape, and the two of them ran away together. However, the path thath they took led them to the Weeping Lily Meadow, a field of flowers known for their highly toxic poison, and Platina died. Lucian went on to live in a poor part of a big city, and became reduced to stealing so that he and his friends could survive, but was eventually killed when the government performed a clean-up operation. Upon meeting Lenneth, he felt the presence of Platina, and sensed that the two might be one in the same. After being sent to Asgard, Lucian continued to brood over Lenneth, and was tricked by Loki into using the Water Mirror to contact Lenneth while the god of mischief stole the Dragon Orb from Odin's personal treasures. Loki then killed Lucian, and used him as a scapegoat for the theft of the Dragon Orb, which he kept hidden. Lucian is reborn at the end of the game.

Suo
A samurai-like soldier from Yamato, he lived by the sword until meeting Shiho who made him question the nobility of his efforts. Stopping to think, he left his guard open and was killed by a peasant. When Lenneth came to recruit him, he continued to ask himself what it was that truly mattered.

Jelanda
The spoiled princess of Artolia. After Arngrim humiliates her father in front of the army, she hatches an elaborate scheme for revenge, but is taken advantage of by a court minister who served as a double-agent for a rival nation. After she is placed in a crate, Arngrim unknowingly serves as her escort to the kingdom's border when she's discovered, alive and unconscious. Some Artolian soldiers give her some "medicine" that turns out to be Ghoul Powder, a potion that turns its imbiber into a monster upon consumption. At that moment, Lenneth appears, and she helps Arngrim kill the monster, freeing Jelanda from her fate.

Lorenta
The matronly headmistress of the Flenceberg Sorcery Academy. Lorenta was, intelligent and well-respected, although some, such as Mystina, secretly hated her for her strict personality. Lorenta was also responsible for expelling Lezard from the academy, and ultimately died as a pawn in his attempt to attract Lenneth to his tower.

Lyseria
A powerful sorceress that may be a descendent of the goddess Mimir from the Vanir tribe. Despising her power, she voluntarily sealed herself away with the hope that she would never be forced to use it, but is eventually freed by Lenneth when Odin expresses interest in recruiting her as an Einherjar.

Mystina
A researcher and graduate of the Flenceberg Sorcery Academy. Although beautiful, she's an extreme narcissist, and thinks very little of others. She steals a homunculus from Lezard's tower to use for her own research, but is 'killed' by him when he returns to retrieve it. Like Arngrim, she is unable to be sent to Asgard as an Einherjar because Mystina is not truely dead. Her body was frozen by Lezard when Mystina was spirit walking. However she proves herself loyal to Lenneth when she helps revive the valkyrie after the gods attempt to do away with her.

Nanami
The adopted daughter of a Shinto priest in Yamato, Nanami was chosen to inherit the family shrine after her adoptive family's daughter tragically died. A strong believer in fate, she is emotionally level-headed and calm, and was unable to see the danger the shrine's right of passage posed to her due to the fact that she wasn't a true member of the family bloodline. During the trial, she encountered the angered spirit of her deceased adoptive sister. Lenneth appears in order to drive the spirit off, but Nanami desires to give up her body allowing the spirit to take her body and live on.

Shiho
A song maiden from Yamato, Shiho is blind. Her singing voice had the power to give strength to her lord's soldiers, but in the midst of battle, she stopped, worried by what her singing caused. The tide of battle quickly turned, and Shiho's allies were defeated. Afterwards, Suo, who fought for the opposing side, found her and attempted to bring her back to his camp when she was deemed dangerous by his superiors and executed.

Yumei
A mermaid that lived off the coast of Yamato, Yumei was born to a mermaid mother and a human father. After her mother died, she attempted to locate her father in Yamato by hitching a ride on a small fishing boat operated by a father and son, and struck up a friendship with the boy. She spoke of her desire to find a cerulean lapis, a rare item said to grant wishes, but ultimately fled in despair when she learned that her father had died years before. She shared her history with the boy, about how she was looked upon with disdain by the merfolk for being half-human, and with the death of her father, she had lost all hope and motivation. In her tears, a cerulean lapis formed, and Yumei swam off, the boy picked the lapis up, and used it to wish for her to be reunited with her parents. The wish, however, had the effect of killing Yumei, and Lenneth arrived to collect her soul not long after.

=Bonus Characters= These characters are playable in limited spurts in the main storyline, and are fully playable once unlocked in the Seraphic Gate bonus dungeon.

Brahms
Brahms is the lord of the vampires, and has had a long-standing feud with the gods of Asgard. He is in possession of Silmeria, one of Lenneth's sisters, but he refuses to show her any harm because of his noble heart. When Lenneth arrives to fight him, he is surprised, and tells her flat out that he is too powerful to defeat before allowing her to go on her way. Later, when the gods attempt to kill Lenneth and replace her with her evil sister Hrist, he assists Arngrim, Mystina and Lezard in defeating the valkyrie so that they may reclaim Lenneth's body.

Freya
A powerful goddess, and an assistant to Odin, Freya serves as the go-between for Lenneth and Odin for most of the game. However, she is disdainful of humans, and finds them to be beneath the gods. After Lenneth regains her memories as Platina, she informs Odin, and the two of them plot to do away with the valkyrie and replace her with Hrist, a far more evil, but loyal warrior-maiden. Freya is left in despair after Loki kills Odin, as her betrayal of Lenneth's trust has destroyed any sympathy that the valkyrie may have had for her.

Freya makes a cameo appearance in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time as the final boss of the bonus dungeon.

Lezard Valeth
An evil human, Lezard is a necromancer that plots to make Lenneth his own by any means necessary. Using the bodies of elves, he constructs hommunculi, believing that he can use such a means to eventually attain godhood himself, and to provide Lenneth with a body that he could claim her in. However, his plans are thwarted when Lenneth is baited to his tower and flatly refuses to cooperate. After his defeat, he escapes, but eventually decides to kill himself so that his spirit may travel the realm of Midgard freely. Using his necromantic powers and one of his homunculi, Lezard brings Lenneth back to life, with the side-effect of granting the valkyrie the ability for her powers to grow to those of the most powerful of gods.

Lezard makes a cameo appearance in Radiata Stories as a bonus boss. A different character with his name appears as an NPC in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, but this different Lezard does share certain traits in terms of personality.

=Non-player Characters= These are characters that appear in the game, but are unplayable.

Platina
During a period of time where Lenneth was put to sleep, she was reborn as a human in Midgard named Platina. A beautiful young girl with silver-blue hair, she suffered constant abuse from her parents. When her friend Lucian found out that her parents planned to sell her into slavery, she agreed to run away with him, but the two accidentally wandered into the Weeping Lily Meadow. Having lost hope for her life and for her future, Platina died in Lucian's arms from the toxic pollen, and was laid to rest in the meadow. The gods sealed Lenneth's memories of her life as a human away, thinking that she would be easier to control if she couldn't remember the one human she had loved until her mortal death.

Loki
The Norse god of mischief, Loki secretly works to usurp power from Odin by stealing the Dragon Orb. After killing Odin's enemy, Surt, he then goes on the offensive, killing Odin, and taking control of Asgard. A nihilist, his only wish is for the destruction of all life, but he is stopped when Lenneth confronts him with the power of creation in her soul.

Odin
The lord of the gods, he orders Lenneth to locate Einherjar to assist in the battle against Surt, leader of the frost giants. He is also responsible for the original theft of the Dragon Orb, taking it from the Palace of the Dragon in Midgard to keep in his personal collection of artifacts (a fact that he and Freya kept hidden from Lenneth). He is ultimately betrayed by Loki and murdered, unable to withstand the power Loki could wield with the Dragon Orb. Odin is a rarity among the gods, as he has human blood in his veins which grants his powers the capability to grow in strength.

Hrist
The sister of Lenneth and Silmeria, Hrist is a valkyrie that serves Odin's will with great zeal. When Barbarossa, king of the city of Dipan was fooled into an unethical search for immortality by his three mages, Hrist unjustly executed the innocent king, and laid the entire city to waste. A frightening figure, she was brought out of slumber to replace Lenneth after her much more forgiving sister regained her memories as a human.

Barbarossa
The long-deceased king of Dipan, a city that once thrived in Midgard centuries before the game takes place. Barbarossa was fooled into a search for immortality by his three mages, and as a result incited the wrath of Odin. The valkyrie Hrist turned Barbarossa's execution into a spectacle, publicly beheading him via guillotine in the city square. His ghost, angered by this unjust action, haunted Dipan's remains, and attacked Lenneth, believing her to be the one that killed him. Lenneth is then sent back in time to the day of the execution, where she finds Barbarossa's wife and is entrusted with the king's crown. Upon returning to the present, Lenneth presented the crown to Barbarossa's spirit. Realizing his grave error in judgement, Barbarossa apologizes to Lenneth, praising her with his utmost gratitude before finally resting in peace.

According to early information on Valkyrie Profile's sequel, Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, due for release in 2006, the game will take place in the past, before Dipan met its downfall. The game may give more details regarding the plot against Barbarossa and the events that led him to be executed. His daughter, Alisha, will be one of the game's primary protagonists.

Celia
A human woman from Midgard. Celia is a mercenary that is a friend and ally of numerous characters, including Arngrim, Kashell, Aelia, Lawfer, and Grey. However, she grows distraught as each of her friends dies one after the other. Eventually, she comes to the conclusion that these events began around the time that Grey killed Lemia (as she believed). When she finally finds Grey, she attempts to confront him, but becomes lost when Grey's armor falls to pieces, revealing that he had disappeared. (In fact, moments before Celia's arrival, Grey had attempted the ritual of soul transfer to exchange his life for Lemia's but because Lemia had brought him back from death through her own soul transfer, the ritual failed and Grey's physical body ceased to be.) After this event Celia collapses in anguish, but what fate ultimately befalls her is unknown.

Frei
Freya's sister. She appears briefly at the beginning of the game to welcome Lenneth at the gates of Valhalla, and reappears at certain key points throughout the rest of the game. Unlike Odin and Freya, Frei appears to see Lenneth as a friend rather than a tool, but due to a rather naive nature, she angers Lenneth after the valkyrie returns to Asgard with her memories in tact, mentioning how Loki had stolen the Dragon Orb and ruined Odin's plans to eventually subjugate Midgard. She is also the one that explains the connection between Platina and Lenneth to Lucian.

Silmeria
The youngest sister of Lenneth and Hrist, Silmeria never actually appears in the game. She is a captive of Brahms, whom Lenneth and Hrist both make separate attempts to defeat. (Brahms persuades Lenneth not to fight, as she could not possibly win, whereas Arngrim, Lezard and Mystina assist him in defeating Hrist.) At the end of the game, she remains in Brahms's clutches.

Silmeria will be one of the protagonists of the upcoming Playstation 2 sequel, Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria. The game is said to take place hundreds of years before the events of the first game, and should shed much more light on how Silmeria came to be Brahms's captive. At the beginning of the game, Silmeria is apparently punished by Odin for an as yet undisclosed reason, and as a result, she is forced to share the body of Alisha, the princess of Dipan.