Arshtat Falenas

Arshtat Falenas (アルシュタート・ファレナス, Arushutāto Farenasu) is a major character in Suikoden V. Arshtat is the ruling Queen of Falena as well as the mother of the game's protagonist.

History
Arshtat was the reigning Queen of Falena at the outset of the Sun Rune War. She was the wife of Ferid and the strict, but gentle, mother of both Lymsleia and the Prince of Falena. She had met Ferid in a visit to the Island Nations as a youth and the two had quickly fallen in love. In the year 433, Arshtat would sponsor him in the Sacred Games and his victory in this tournament would allow him to ask for her hand in marriage.

Arshtat would become queen in SY 440, after the sudden death of her mother, Falzrahm. The following year, with the aid of strategist Lucretia Merces, she would fight off an invasion from the New Armes Kingdom and would later institute a ban on cruelty to slaves. These, and other acts, would lead to Arshtat being lauded as a virtuous, benevolent ruler.

This would all change in 447 when, during the Lordlake Uprising, Arshtat would become the bearer of the Sun Rune on Lucretia's advice, to prevent it from being stolen by the Godwin Faction. Although this would indeed protect the rune from being stolen, it would also make Queen Arshtat increasingly unstable in her rule. She ended the Lordlake riots by using the Sun Rune to dry up the waters in the region, forcing them to live in desperation and squalor. Since that time, bursts of anger were not uncommon.

In 449, when the Godwin Faction began their coup at the Sun Palace, beginning the Sun Rune War, Arshtat's rage would be so great that she would accidentally kill Ferid in one of her outbursts as she fought off the Godwin invaders. The one person able to reach her in her anger killed, the devastated and enraged Arshtat decided to wipe out all Falena itself with her powers. She would be stopped before she could do so, cut down by Georg Prime with a single thrust of his sword.

Before she died, she regained her normal composure, thanking Georg for stopping her before asking him to save her children. She then passed away on the steps of her throne room.

Name
Arshtat is also the name of a Zoroastrian principle, signifying honesty and/or justice, and a goddess, representing rectitude and justice.