Gruidae is a minor character in Metaphor: ReFantazio. She is the current chief of the elda village, following the death of the eldan queen.
Appearances[]
- Metaphor: ReFantazio: Minor character
Design[]
She is an elderly eldan woman, often seen floating on a rug.
Personality[]
Wise and perceptive, Gruidae possesses extensive knowledge of the Old World, a time when humanity was unified and had not yet splintered into different tribes as well as knowledge of the discovery of magla, and the true purpose of the church's igniters as a magic limiter rather than a magic conductor. She was able to deduce that Louis was likely an elda from the Charadrius family, a lineage of doctors mostly wiped out in the fire set by the church, rather than a clemar due to his deep knowledge of humans, his mastery of magic and his ability to use magla to transform ordinary people into humans.
She holds profound respect and reverence for the late eldan queen, and by extension, the prince who is the queen's son. After he fell into a coma from a curse cast during an attempted assassination, she hid him and his loyal followers within the eldan village, determined to protect him until a cure could be found.
However, she harbors great disdain for the late King Hythlodaeus V, who she views as an idealistic fool too weak to protect his family and whose short sightedness led the Sanctist Church under Forden to attack the eldan village, branding the elda as heretics and wielders of forbidden magic. She condemned the fact that he died powerless and as a puppet of the church, unable even to even safeguard his only child.
Profile[]
Gruidae inherited her position as the chief of the eldan village after the original leader, the eldan queen, was killed in a pogrom orchestrated by Sanctifex Forden out of spite against the eldan tribe and the possibility of an eldan king ruling over the throne. Supposedly, she is now a member of a resistance to bring the prince back to life by assassinating the person who cursed him and has tasked the protagonist to do the job. In actuality, Gruidae has never met the protagonist before and doesn't recognize him.
She is first met in the center room of the eldan sanctum, safeguarding the prince's corpse until the party arrives, which coincidentally just happened to be the day they are driven out from Grand Trad by a mob incited by Louis into the eldan sanctuary. There, the chieftess explains the prince's origins as the son of the former leader of the eldan sanctuary and expresses her disdain against the late king and the sanctifex, the former of who enabled the latter to destroy the village. Gruidae turns her head to the protagonist, being surprised at his arrival as if they have never met before. Russell, who has also just met him a short while ago, gives her an introduction.
The protagonist is then questioned by the eldan queen about his journey and origin, who reveals that his origins were nothing and she merely made his "backstory" up to keep him going. If he breaks out from his identity crisis and fuses with the prince, Gruidae will then give the party a tour through the sanctum, explaining the origins of humans, the ancient world, the sanctifex's ordered pogrom against the eldan sanctum and the origins of Louis. However, the tour was interrupted when Russell spots the intruder who has killed the prince trying to escape, and has the party give pursuit. Zorba summons a Homo Gorleo to distract the party, which the protagonist slays with his new Prince Archetype. The assassin successfully escapes and the party returns to Grand Trad preparing to stop Louis with Gruidae's revelations in mind.
During the epilogue, Gruidae can be seen in the royal capital alongside her servants. According to her, word that the protagonist became king has spread all the way to the sanctum, and Junah invited her in to see the new capital the protagonist has reformed. She congratulates the protagonist that he had made it so the thousand-year seclusion of the elda might end under his guidance, but warms him of the uncertainty of the future and asks him to revisit the sanctum if he could afford to.
Etymology[]
- Gruidae is the biological family of the crane.
Trivia[]
- Gruidae knows how to cook some of the eldan queen's favorite dishes.