Arshtat Falenas

Overview

Queen Arshtat Falenas is the reigning queen of Falena in Suikoden V. Her ascension to the throne followed a complex web of intrigue and turmoil within the royal family and the nobility; she and the other two princesses, Haswar and Sialeeds, agreed that Arshat would become queen, while the others would deny any claim to the throne and avoid bearing children so that the succession disputes and conflicts of the past wouldn't be repeated. Arshtat herself has two children; her son, the player character of Suikoden V, and a younger daughter, Lymsleia. Because Falena is a queendom, the protagonist is ineligible to inherit the throne, leaving the much younger Lymsleia as Arshtat's lone heir.

In the year 447, when Arshtat is thirty-two years old, an uprising in Lordlake results in the theft of the Dawn Rune from the East Palace, and Arshtat is convinced by Lucretia Merces to become the bearer of the Sun Rune, one of the twenty-seven true runes in the Suikoden universe. Influenced by the Sun Rune, Arshtat punishes the people of Lordlake by using the rune's power to lay waste to the entire region. Over the next two years, Arshtat's sanity occasionally slips, but she is quickly brought back to her senses by her husband Ferid each time this occurs. However, when the Godwins attempt a coup and Ferid and his knights are forced to defend the queen, Arshtat uses the power of the rune to defend her husband, but the Sun Rune once again takes her sanity, and Ferid is unable to bring her back to reality. The Sun Rune, now in control, kills Ferid. The act allows Arshtat enough compsure to mourn what has happened, but she is just as quickly lost once again. In the end, Arshtat is killed by Georg Prime, putting an end to both her misery and the danger she posed as the Sun Rune's bearer.