Elfé



Elfé (エルフェ) is the leader of AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist organization dedicated to the preservation of the Planet and the destruction of the Shinra Electric Power Company in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-.

A skilled warrior who wields an unnamed katana in battle, Elfé's most notable trait is the broken Materia embedded in her arm which gives her the power to take on warriors such as Sephiroth.

Appearance
A slim young woman with a prominently apathetic expression on her face, thanks to the power of the incomplete Materia embedded in her arm and her own skills at swordsmanship, Elfé can hold her own against SOLDIERs such as Sephiroth. However, unbeknownst to her, the Materia slowly drains her life energy to compensate for its broken state and must be removed lest the Materia eventually kill her by draining her life energy completely.

Character
Surprisingly non-charismatic for a leader of an eco-terrorism organization, Elfé is somewhat quiet, and decidedly taciturn, although this might be due to the lethargy instilled by the Materia draining her.

Elfé cares deeply for the well-being and morale of the organization's members. Her attachment to the organization is largely due to how her amnesia prevents her from recalling anything before being taken into the group, as such she regards AVALANCHE as her only remaining family; ironically much like how her father, Veld, considers the Turks his only remaining family.

Story
Elfé was born as Felicia (フェリシア), the daughter of Turk member, Veld, and an unnamed woman in Kalm. Living in a happy family, Felicia loved her father and played with him during his visits home. One day, however, due to an equipment error during an operation near the town, Veld caused the bombing of Kalm, killing most of its citizens, and greatly injuring many others, including himself. Felicia and her mother were amongst the victims. While her mother was killed in the explosions, Felicia was still alive. Because of his job, Veld became responsible for the cover-up surrounding the incident, which included the arrangement of all of the town's injured to be moved to Nibelheim, where they were to be "treated" by Professor Hojo in the town's mansion.

Unbeknownst to Veld, Hojo had taken this opportunity to experiment on the injured, including Felicia, whom Hojo reported to have died.

Experimenting with embedding Materia into humans, Hojo implanted the Zirconiade Materia into the back of her hand. Unable to get the results he wanted, however, Hojo clarified the experiment a failure and ordered Felicia's body to be disposed of. Still alive but suffering from extreme amnesia, she was saved by Fuhito and brought to Cosmo Canyon where she took on the name "Elfé" and became a member of AVALANCHE.

Becoming a skilled swordswoman and a formidable warrior due to powers imparted to her by the Materia, Elfé gained considerable respect within the organization and, after the leader of AVALANCHE died, Elfé was voted to take his place, with Fuhito acting as her intelligence commander.

Some time later, after moving operations to Midgar, Elfé and Fuhito were accosted by a gang of thugs led by a man named Shears. After seeing Elfé take on all one-hundred of his men easily, Shears, admiring her strength and beauty, had himself and his men join Elfé on her mission to destroy the Shinra Electric Power Company. As time went by, Shears became Elfé's battle logistics commander and devoted himself towards looking after her well-being in spite of her prowess.

Conflict with Shinra
Elfé is first encountered by the Player Turk during AVALANCHE's first attack on Junon. Following a series of attacks against Midgar's Sector 8 reactor, and an assassination attempt on President Shinra himself, Elfé leads a bold attack on Junon's Sister Ray cannon, intending to use the cannon to destroy Midgar.

Discovering a dozen AVALANCHE members slaughtered within the facility's halls and believing the Player Turk responsible, Elfé attacks them without relenting, attempting to kill them to avenge her comrades, however she is stopped by Sephiroth, who had been sent by President Shinra to personally wrest control of the cannon from AVALANCHE. After briefly clashing, Sephiroth complements Elfé on her strength while Elfé herself questions him on his motivations for fighting. Considering Sephiroth's presence too risky to the lives of her men, Elfé orders AVALANCHE to withdraw from Junon and leaves while Sephiroth ponders her questioning and his reasons for fighting for Shinra.

While Fuhito continues his projects; which involves furthering his research into creating AVALANCHE super-soldiers known as Ravens. Elfé remains behind until the existence of a living descendant of the Cetra is revealed to be living in Midgar. Personally infiltrating the Sector 5 slums to meet her, Elfé, Shears and Fuhito attempt to persuade her to divulge the location of the "Promise Land" only to have the meeting interrupted by the Player Turk who was eavesdropping on the meeting. Having to withdraw after suffering a sudden bout of weakness due to the Materia within her, Elfé is troubled by how the descendant had mentioned an ancient voice coming from within her and how Fuhito had attempted to deflect the conversation.

Elfé, as well as Fuhito and Shears, are later encountered as the Player Turk infiltrates their base in Wutai, and, after the Turk demolishes the pagoda, were all seemingly defeated. However, the defeated trio turned out to be disguised Ravens and the commanders used Shinra's false sense of security to infiltrate the construction site of Shinra's new Mako reactor in Mt. Corel.

Luring the Turks into the facility, Fuhito attempts to not only kill the Turks but also AVALANCHE's financial benefactor and informant, Rufus Shinra. However, as Elfé informs Fuhito of the troop's readiness, Veld, who had followed Rufus to the facility to arrest him for treason, recognized her voice as his daughter's and causes her to have a memory relapse, which in turn causes the Materia within her to become erratic; weakening her even more. As Fuhito takes Elfé away, Veld abandons the Turks to chase after her.

As three years pass and the Player Turk awakens from a coma induced by the incident in the reactor, it is revealed that Elfé has become gradually weaker to the point that she has differed leadership to Fuhito. Veld, assisted by Shears who had been betrayed and left for dead in the reactor by Fuhito, had been searching for information on Elfé's whereabouts and on her ailment, which seemed to be coming from her Materia, which was actually a summoning Materia used to summon Zirconiade. Intending to cure her in loyalty to their chief, the two men are assisted by the Turks in spite of their fugitive status.

This assistance eventually causes Shinra to label the Turks as traitors and security risks, inciting their own fugitive status and execution orders. It is by chance that the Turks see Elfé, now limp and weak due to the Materia, when Fuhito comes to Midgar to summon Zirconiade. Stealing the support Materia the Turks were gathering to save her, Fuhito combines them with the Materia in her hand to awaken the summon.

As the Player Turks turn to stop the summoning, Shears attempts to take Elfé some place safe, however, she instead attempts to return in spite of her physical weakness to fight the monster she had caused to be created. Shears instead offers to achieve this repentance for her and sets her back to rest before following the Turks to fight Fuhito and the summon.

Having had to rescue Veld after he was captured by Scarlet, Tseng, Reno and Rude arrive with Veld to where Elfé lay, however, as father and daughter are reunited, the group is ambushed by Shinra troops. Faced with the potential execution of all Turk operatives, Tseng is offered the choice of executing Elfé and Veld to save the lives of his comrades.

Drawing his gun, Tseng shoots down first Elfé, and then Veld, in front of the Shinra troops.

Believing them dead the Shinra troops let the shocked Turks go and Elfé and Veld are gathered in the back of a truck where Tseng, claiming to wish to be with his chief until the end, accompanies them back to Midgar to be disposed. In actuality, thanks to the machinations of Rufus Shinra after he made a deal with Tseng, Elfé and Veld are secretly attended to and dispatched away from Midgar's reach to live a peaceful life together away from the conflict.

Battle


Elfé is fought as a boss in Before Crisis Chapters 3 and 14.

Music
Elfé's leitmotif is appropriately named Theme of Elfe. The theme itself has three different releases; one as a soundtrack without vocals and two vocal variations, Theme of Elfe (Angel) and Theme of Elfe (Devil).

While the theme is set to represent Elfé, the theme also plays during heartache scenes in the game; such as when Chelsea decides to no longer see Rude and when Zack's friends, Essai and Sebastian, are laid to rest. Theme of Elfe (Angel) is also used during the game's initial ending following the final boss battle.

Trivia

 * At one point, it was rumored among the fandom that she may be a descendant of the Cetra due to Aerith Gainsborough (a Cetra herself) saying that Elfé's voice sounded nostalgic. However, what Aerith was recognizing was the voice of the Cetra memories that were within the materia housed inside Elfé's body at that time. Elfé is in no way related to the actual Ancients.
 * Elfé's picture (as seen above) adapts a similar pose to Lightning of Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy

Elfé Эльфе