Hellene

Hellene
; Hellene's portrait in The Blazing Blade.
Gender	Female
Race	Human
Family	Desmond (estranged husband); Zephiel (son); Louise, Klein, Clarine (distant relatives);
Title(s)	Queen of Bern
Appearance(s)	The Blazing Blade;

“	It is my son who shall reign in Bern! My son, Zephiel! Ha ha ha ha ha! How it gives me such pleasure to say those words!	”	— Hellene

Hellene (Japanese: ヘレーネ Helene) was the Queen of Bern as of the year 980.

Biography

Queen of Bern

Hellene of Etruria, as part of an arranged marriage aimed to achieve a political gain, married King Desmond of Bern. However, he was already in love with a different woman and held no affection for Hellene, and when the marriage eventually yielded a son, Prince Zephiel, he took out his resentment on Zephiel.^[2] The marriage soon came to an end with a separation, exiling both Hellene and Zephiel to live apart from Desmond in a private, well-attended manse, while he engaged in a relationship with the woman he actually loved; this relationship yielded a daughter, Guinivere, upon whom Desmond doted heavily. As the time passes, Hellene's lingering resentment towards her former husband grew stronger and stronger, making her more taunting and aggressive towards Desmond as Zephiel's coming-of-age ceremony approached.^[3]

As Guinivere and Zephiel grew up, Desmond forbade Zephiel and Hellene from visiting Bern Keep; this never stopped Zephiel, whose bond with Guinivere was deep, and the people of Bern soon came to revere Zephiel as the nation's future - to the joy of Hellene and displeasure of Desmond.^[4] This led Desmond to undermine Zephiel's claim to the throne by any means necessary. His actions included hiring the Black Fang to steal the Fire Emblem and thus cancel Zephiel's coming-of-age ceremony, denying Zephiel the ability to be named heir. Desmond even commissioned the Black Fang to directly assassinate Zephiel soon after. With the help of Louise; Eliwood, Hector and Lyn sought Hellene's aid to gain access to the Shrine of Seals. She said she would provide assistance to their group if they managed to retrieve the Fire Emblem before Zephiel's coming-of-age ceremony. After the rescue of Zephiel, Hellene showed appreciation for getting the emblem back, but did not show any concerns for her son's well-being, leading Eliwood to call her out on her careless behavior and wish she thought more about her son's desires. Frustrated, she initially refused to help the group get access to the Shrine of Seals, but Murdock, shocked to hear what happened during the night from one of his men, passed on an account of what had transpired to Queen Hellene and convinced her to keep her promise, follow Eliwood's words and care more about her son.

Assassinations

As Zephiel's popularity with the people of Bern grew even higher, Desmond sought to suppress his claim to the throne by annoncing directly to Zephiel that the next king of Bern would be Guinivere's future husband. While Zephiel claimed to not mind the decision, the public pressure upon Desmond to properly recognize Zephiel and ultimately caused him to lose his patience by attempting to kill Zephiel again by a poisoned drink during a banquet.

While Zephiel survived thanks to the assistance of Murdock, Desmond made no further known attempts to kill his son, although according to Guinivere, it is rumored that he sought to have Hellene, Murdock and anyone else associated with Zephiel assassinated instead.^[5] In response, Zephiel faked his own death to protect others and had a funeral staged. During the funeral, when Desmond came to observe his son's corpse, Zephiel rose from the casket and, sword in hand, killed Desmond.^[6] While what exactly happened to Hellene after that remains unknown, Zephiel succeeded Desmond as the King of Bern.

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

Role

Hellene's fate remains unknown by the time the events of The Binding Blade occur, but she is mentioned by Guinivere when she relates the story of Zephiel's descent into misanthropy to Roy.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Role

Hellene appears in cutscenes in Chapters 23 (24 Hector), 24 (26 Hector), and 26 (28 Hector).

Personality

Hellene was an unforgiving character when it comes to her marriage with Desmond, constantly rejoicing of her son's exploits and showing disdain to Guinivere for being a illegitimate child to the displeasure of her former husband.^[3] While they both never feel actual love for each other in their arranged marriage, Hellene's behavior gives fuel to Desmond's paranoia towards her and Zephiel and anyone loyal to them, interpreting virtually any gesture they made as a clear sign of traitorous, throne-stealing intent.^[7]

Choose Your Legends placement history

Round	Placement	Character	Votes

CYL 5
(2021)

773