Feral One

A feral tiger laguz in humanoid form.

“	Pawns need no sense of self! It's only natural to sacrifice soldiers for victory in war!	”	— Izuka

A Feral One (Japanese: なりそこない Failed One) is a laguz who has been driven to a mad, bestial state in exchange for being able to permanently remain shifted into their animal form. Feral Ones are not a natural occurrence and are the product of the research of the Daein court naturalist Izuka, who developed a drug with the aim of turning laguz into tools of war for Daein.

Overview

History

Gritnea Tower was the site of Izuka's vile experiments to create the Feral Ones.

“	I saw the results of your experiments at Gritnea Tower. The mutilated bodies… the rotting flesh… It was the most horrifying experience of my life. I wonder if my nightmares will pass when I kill you?	”	— Ranulf

The Feral One plan appears to have been first devised during, or at least close to, the Mad King's War of 645. Izuka's headquarters while experimenting with the laguz was Gritnea Tower, a prison tower located to the south of the Crimean capital Melior. When King Ashnard sought out beorc warriors to join the Daein cause, he used Feral Ones as tests for these warriors by pitting them in battles, often ending with the Feral One's gruesome demise. Some Feral Ones escaped Daein captivity and roamed in the wild as far as Begnion, occasionally being captured, tamed and pressed into the service of laguz slave traders.

The first known Feral Ones encountered by enemies of Daein were a pair of tigers who had been captured by the slave trader Gashilama, who was fought by Ike and the Greil Mercenaries in Begnion. After Ike and the Begnion army began their invasion of Daein, cat and tiger Feral Ones were frequently used the Daein army. Toward the end of the Mad King's War, Ike and Tibarn launched an attack on Gritnea Tower to rescue the heron princess Leanne, and fought many Feral Ones; after the battle, even though Izuka escaped, they encountered a dungeon in the tower which was filled with the twisted, rotting corpses of Feral Ones and other laguz who had been subjected to Izuka's experiments. The dungeon's contents left a profound effect on those who viewed it: Ike described it as the "most vile thing I have ever seen", and Ranulf would later comment that it haunted his nightmares for years afterward. It also played a key role in securing the support of Phoenicis and Kilvas in putting an end to Ashnard.

Three years later, following Ashera's judgement upon Tellius, the Hawk Army led by Tibarn and Elincia encountered Izuka after he escaped Bastian's captivity in the swamps of Salmo. Izuka summoned a massive number of Feral Ones to fight them, but was killed in the ensuing battle. The Feral Ones he commanded, presumably the last Feral Ones in existence, died with him.

Effects

When the Feral One drug is first administered, the victim loses control of their ability to transform, rapidly shifting between the two forms, and begins to lose their grip on their own identity and starts to growl like a beast. The mental effects can be briefly staved off if somebody they know tries to snap them out of it or if the victim tries to resist, but it will start again almost immediately.

Once in full effect, the Feral One state keeps a laguz locked into their shifted forms and removes their need to revert to the humanoid state. The drug also greatly enhances their strength in addition to the advantage of remaining permanently shifted. However, the Feral One drug has two major side effects. First, it drastically shortens the laguz's natural life span. Secondly, and most significantly, the drug also destroys the laguz's mind and sense of self and reverts them to effectively behaving like wild beasts. A Feral One loses the ability to communicate through speech or thought as they did before, and they can only growl or snarl like an animal. They are able to be tamed like a wild animal to serve a master, with every Feral One in Daein's service being trained to not attack Daein soldiers. Even after they have lost their mind, the victim tends to retain some sense of connections to their former life, as Rajaion would still react in the presence of Ena, his fiancée. Feral Ones give off a powerful, disgusting smell.

Izuka had the ability to both summon and control Feral Ones using his dark magic.

When used on beorc, the Feral One drug has a somewhat different effect. While it still breaks the victim's mind, still gives them a deep blood-lust and still makes them prone to bouts of growling, they are still able to communicate but tend to speak in an extremely violent and morbid manner. They appear to retain some sense of their situation and are capable of seeing their own death as a release from the feral state. Since beorc have no transformation capability, the Feral One state instead greatly enhances their physical strength.

Cures

The only known guaranteed cure for the feral condition is the galdr of rebirth. A successful performance of sufficient strength is able to revert a Feral One back to their pre-feral state. Under normal circumstances, the complexity of the galdr will require at least two herons to be present to perform it. The galdr method was used to cure Rajaion, Muarim, and Renning.

Izuka also claimed to be able to produce an antidote for the elixir and offered it to Bastian in exchange for his freedom.

In gameplay

In gameplay, Feral Ones have their transform gauges permanently at their maximum, allowing the laguz to remain permanently in beast form for the entire battle, and they will not revert under any circumstances. This makes them more of a challenge for the player's army to fight than the ordinary laguz who are fought in earlier chapters, since it prevents them from taking advantage of their weaker untransformed state to easily defeat them.

In Path of Radiance, Feral Ones are introduced in Chapter 14 and become a regular part of the enemy armies from Chapter 22 onward. Not counting Bertram, Feral Ones appear in the following chapters:

• Chapter 14: Tigers
• Chapter 22: Tigers and Cats
• Chapter 23: Tigers and Cats
• Chapter 25: Cats
• Chapter 27-1: Tigers and Cats
• Chapter 28: Tigers, Cats, Hawks, Ravens, and Red Dragons
• Endgame: Tigers, Cats, Red Dragons, Rajaion*

In Radiant Dawn, Feral Ones are only present in gameplay in a single chapter of Part 4.

• Part IV, Chapter 5: Cats, Tigers, Hawks, Ravens, Red Dragons; four random reinforcements per turn

Known Feral Ones

Rajaion, a feral black dragon, with Ena in his final moments.

Rajaion

Main article: Rajaion

The black dragon laguz Rajaion, prince of Goldoa, was lured to Daein after his sister Almedha became King Ashnard's wife. He was captured and given the elixir, and in his feral state was tamed by Ashnard and used as his "wyvern" mount. Rajaion was used as leverage to force both his fiancée Ena and her grandfather Nasir into Daein's service, though Ashnard made a point of keeping them separated as he noticed that Ena's presence would provoke a reaction from Rajaion. After Ashnard's defeat by Ike, Rajaion was cured by Reyson and Leanne and had a brief reunion with Ena shortly before he died from the battle.

Muarim

Main article: Muarim

During his time with the Daein Liberation Army in 648, the tiger laguz Muarim was subjected to a dose of the Feral One elixir by Izuka, who served as the army's strategist. He never became a full Feral One, both because he resisted its effects as much as he could and because Rafiel was present to cure him with the galdr of release before the elixir could take hold.

Bertram

Main article: Renning

Prince Renning of Crimea survived his defeat in the first battles of the Mad King's War and, on the orders of King Ashnard, was abducted and given a dose of the Feral One elixir. Since he was not a laguz, the elixir affected him differently but still shattered his mind, turning him into Bertram of the Four Riders. After Bertram's defeat, he entered the custody of Bastian, his former disciple, and was cured three years later by Reyson.

Others

The majority of Feral Ones were cats and tigers, owing to the proximity of their kingdom, Gallia, to Gritnea Tower. Numerous hawk and raven Feral Ones also existed, although they were typically only seen around Izuka himself. In addition, a platoon of red dragons who had been dispatched from Goldoa to find Almedha were captured and converted into Feral Ones.

Flavor text

Game	Text (English)	Text (Japanese)
Radiant Dawn	A laguz whose essential nature has been warped by the experiments of Daein's former court naturalist, Izuka. The Feral Ones were given an elixir that allowed them to remain in their animal forms indefinitely. This greatly enhanced their combat prowess, but at the expense of their sanity.	旧デイン王国の生物実験によって 本来の性質を歪められたラグズを指す。 「化身」するとずっと元に戻らず 常に高い戦闘力を維持できる。 しかしその代償として短命になる他 精神が破壊されて凶暴化する。 特別な薬を用いることで使役できる。 実験途中に生まれた失敗作である ことから、この名称で呼ばれる。

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Feral One	--
Japanese	なりそこない	Failed One
Spanish	Feralis	Latin: "fatal"; also similar to "feral", which means the same in Spanish as in English.
French	Sauvage	Savage
German	Ungezähmter	Untamed
Italian	• Bestia • Fiera	• Beast; in Path of Radiance. • Wild animal; in Radiant Dawn.
Portuguese	Um feroz	Feral one
Traditional Chinese	瑕疵品	Defective one

Gallery

• 
  A feral tiger's portrait in Path of Radiance.

See also

• War Dragon