Faris Scherwiz

Faris Scherwiz, real name Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon, is a player character in Final Fantasy V. Faris is a pirate captain who travels with a pirate ship and its crew, accompanied by a sea-dragon named Syldra. The party first encounters Faris when they try to steal the pirate ship, which leads to their adventures as the Warriors of Light.

Appearance and Personality
Faris is courageous, sometimes reckless, and determined - she charts her own course and does not care what anyone else thinks of it. She is selfish in contrast of Lenna's altruistic persona. Being a pirate captain, she is possesses great leader capabilities and dislikes being excluded from the party. Faris has a caring side; as when she finds out her relation to Lenna she becomes protective of her.

Faris has two distinct appearances: her in-game sprite and her artwork design. In the in-game sprite she has long, loose purple hair, and green eyes. Her face is half-covered by her hair, and she wears a green band. She wears a dark blue sleeveless jacket with gold piping and a paler blue tunic. Over her shoulders she wears a baggy green shawl hiked up on her shoulders and secured with a red stone brooch. The cloth drapes over her torso and back. The tunic is secured with a plain brown leather belt with a red buckle similar to the brooch. She has brown leather bands on her forearms.

Her artwork appearance, also used for her FMV model, has her hair blonde rather than violet, and it is secured in a ponytail though there are numerous strand and wisps left hanging around her face. She has a purple earring in one ear. Her eyes are stone-brown rather than green. From the inside out, Faris wears a gold-embroidered and red shirt with three-quarter sleeves and gold trim under a ankle-length black sleeveless coat. She has a purple-and-yellow striped silk scarf wrapped below her neck, in the opening of her coat. The coat is trimmed with gold and is lined with blue velvet with gold embroidery. The front is secured with buttoned clasps, and over the coat she wears an ornate blue belt with beaded wires and threads.

Her arms are heavily protected with what appears to be bronze armor, starting with jeweled pauldrons with long, curved spikes, and additional plating just beneath. She has metal elbow pads (also spiked) and a pair of wrist guards that extend over the back of her hands with red stones. Her coat obscures her lower body. She wears a short kilt made out of either fur or heavily tasseled cloth. Her boots are made of black or blackened plate metal with a low heel.

Story
Faris is a female pirate captain, although she dresses herself as a man. In truth, she is the elder sister of Lenna Charlotte Tycoon and is technically the future queen of Tycoon by birthright. When Faris becomes aware of her true identity she does not accept the position of queen, preferring the life of a pirate over that of an aristocrat. As a Warrior of Light, she represents Fire, the element of courage.

Born Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon, the daughter of King Alexander Highwind Tycoon, Sarisa became lost at sea as a small child and was found by pirates. As she was unable to pronounce her name correctly (calling herself "Farifa"), they dubbed her "Faris".

Due to the generally misogynistic attitude of pirates, Faris was raised as a boy, dressing and acting accordingly. When she was fifteen years old the ship encountered a mysterious whirlpool. The crew was unable to escape it, but Faris dove into the water and came out with Syldra, a sea dragon with whom she formed an almost sisterly bond. The bond enabled her to tame the dragon, using her as a steed to pull the ship through the ocean without the need for sails. The pirates, unaware of her true gender, made her their captain for this, supposedly the youngest a pirate had ever been made captain.

By the age of twenty Faris is captain of her ship and has become well-respected among the crew, although some of them seem to suspect she may be female. During this time three adventurers, on their way to the Wind Shrine, attempt to steal her ship after they see it moving despite the lack of wind. As the ship is pulled by Syldra they are unsuccessful in getting it to move, and Faris and her pirates capture them easily.

The adventurers, Bartz Klauser, Galuf Halm Baldesion, and Lenna Tycoon, plead for a ride, and Lenna reveals her identity as Princess of Tycoon. Upon learning this Faris's initial thought is to hold Lenna for ransom, however, when Lenna displays a pendant identical to the one Faris herself possesses, she changes her mind. She decides to help the three adventurers get to the Wind Shrine in the hopes of discovering why she and Lenna have the same pendant.

At the Wind Shrine Faris is startled by the King of Tycoon's disappearance, and volunteers to join the quest to find him. Not long after this Syldra is mortally injured in a battle with Karlabos. Without the sea-dragon, the pirate ship drifts into the Ship Graveyard. After crossing a flooded room in the Ship Graveyard Bartz and Galuf tussle with Faris to get "him" to dry his clothes by the fire, and discover "he" is, in fact, a "she", which came as a relief to Galuf after he and Bartz experienced an attraction to "him" at Tule.

In need of a new method of transportation, the party travels to North Mountain after hearing rumors in Carwen that spoke of a dragon flying in that direction and Lenna's conclusion that they refered to Hiryu, her wind drake. When a hunter named Magissa ambushes Lenna during the climb, Faris rushes to her rescue, jumping over a chasm to stop Magissa from kidnapping Lenna, and together the party fights the hunter off.

After finding Hiryuu the party lands at the Castle of Walse, and head to the throne room where Lenna addresses the king, begging him to stop abusing the power of the Water Crystal. He refuses to listen due to how much Walse has prospered thanks to the Crystal. When a meteor crashes nearby the party rushes to the tower where the Crystal resides and fight off a monster to protect it. The Water Crystal shatters anyway and the tower sinks into the ocean. The party is rescued by Syldra, who is lost in the current, much to Faris's grief. At some point after the recovery of Hiryu, the party spends the knight in Tycoon Castle. There, Lenna confronts Faris by calling her "sister," but Faris refuses to acknowledge that they are related.

Bartz, Galuf, Lenna and Faris keep trying to protect the Crystals but they are always too late and each of them shatter one by one. In the Ronka Ruins they meet King of Tycoon again. When Faris spots the king she calls him father, leading to an emotional, although brief, reunion between her and Lenna as they are officially introduced as sisters. The party locates the final Crystal, the Earth Crystal, in the flying ruins, a city floating in midair due to the crystal's power.

When the party reaches the top, they again encounter King Tycoon who does not recognize either of his daughters and attacks the party. Krile, Galuf's granddaughter, appears and knocks him out with a spell. This brings back the king's memory and as he regains consciousness, he recognizes his daughters, calling them both by name. The happy reunion is cut short when the last of the Crystals shatters, freeing the legendary sorcerer, Exdeath. The king tells his daughters to unite to fight Exdeath, and asks Bartz to protect them before sacrificing himself to save the party.

Galuf separates from the party and heads back to his own world with Krile to prepare for the upcoming battle against Exdeath. Before the party departs to the next world they can visit the chancellor at Castle Tycoon, and stay the night. Faris will reminisce with Lenna of her time at the castle before she was lost at sea. Lenna tells Faris they should keep the secret that Faris is still alive from the chancellor, fearing he would not let Faris leave the castle again.

Utilizing the power of the meteors, Faris, Lenna and Bartz follow Galuf to his world. After reuniting with Galuf the party plans for the battle with Exdeath and eventually track Exdeath down in the Great Forest of Moore where they battle him. Exdeath uses the power of the Crystals against them and Krile's attempt to rescue them fails, leading Galuf to fight off Exdeath alone. Galuf falls in combat and transfers his powers on to Krile before dying. The party continues onwards, infiltrating Exdeath's castle and supposedly killing him.

After Exdeath shatters the remaining Crystals of the second world, the party blacks out and mysteriously finds themselves back at Castle Tycoon. Faris is welcomed back as "Princess Sarisa", and a grand celebration is held to celebrate the heiresses' return.

Faris despises her new title and appearance, and not long into the ceremonies she slips off to join Bartz and Krile as they continue to search for Exdeath, leaving only Lenna behind when the castle is consumed by the return of the Void. Lenna was saved by her wind drake, and later rejoins the party. During the party's quest to break the seals on the Twelve Legendary Weapons, they visit the Pirates' Hideout. There, Faris sees Syldra again, initially thinking that the dragon had somehow survived before realizing that Krile is the only other person who can see her. Syldra's spirit then grants her powers to Faris as a summon. When the weapons are recovered, Faris and the other Warriors of Light fly into the Cleft of Dimension to defeat Exdeath for a final time. The strength of their spirits returns the shards they had been carrying to Crystals, returning the world to peace.

Afterward, Faris initially returns to Tycoon and shares the throne with her sister, but grows to hate the life of a queen and misses her old life. She changes back into her pirate attire and returns to her ship to continue sailing the seas, reuniting with the other Light Warriors at the Guardian Tree a year later.

Battle
Faris has good Agility, and her attributes are average or balance compare to the other party members. Faris can be great at anything, and one way to take advantage of that is to have her fill whatever role Galuf isn't filling so that the party will always have two fighters and two spellcasters during battle.

In the Gameboy Advance version, Faris was given the innate element of Fire, therefore the Gladiator's Finisher ability will take this element when using this ability.

Stats
Each playable characters have slightly different base attributes and they are therefore slightly better suited for different task(s). Faris has average or balance overall stats, so she can be a decent warrior and decent spellcaster. Below is the list of Faris's base stats.

Creation and Development
According to the "Chocobo's FF Laboratory" feature published in V Jump in 1993, the character of Faris was originally a female gambler named Eva Scherwil. The developers encountered difficulties in making her fit in the game's world and atmosphere, and changed her into a pirate and Lenna's sister. In a later issue of V Jump the developers noted that Setzer Gabbiani from Final Fantasy VI evolved from this early Eva concept.

Faris speaks with a pirate accent in the first official localization of Final Fantasy V for the Final Fantasy Anthology. Faris does not speak with an accent in the game's Japanese version. Later localizations are more faithful to the original Japanese version, with Faris's pirate accent greatly toned down.

Musical Themes
Faris's theme is widely considered to be "Pirates Ahoy", played when the party first meets her, and can later be heard in the Pirates' Hideout.

Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals
Faris along with Lenna, Galuf, Krile, Bartz, Cid, and Mid, appears at the end of Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals, when Mid finally can rest in peace. Legend of the Crystals is a four-episode anime OVA was released in Japan from March to July in 1994, and the United States from 1997 to 1998. The series' setting takes place 200 years after the events of Final Fantasy V, and follows Linaly, Bartz's descendant, and her friend Prettz.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Faris appears as a playable sub-character obtained via collecting Crimson Crystal Shards from Dark Note bosses. To use Faris Scherwiz in the iOS port the player needs to buy her at the online store.

Her appearance is based on her original pirate captain design by Yoshitaka Amano. In the iOS port her appearance is altered to incorporate her SD appearance, giving her grey-purple hair, green eyes, and a different sword also shown in Amano's artworks.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Faris appears as a Legend character. She uses the ability Thunderstorm to assist the player.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Faris appears on several cards in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game depicting her in various jobs from Final Fantasy V, as well as her original artwork and her Theatrhythm Final Fantasy artwork.

Etymology
Faris is an Arabic word meaning "horseman, rider" (i. e. "Knight"). It is debatable if this was intended to be a counterpart to some other element in the game or as a metaphor of its bearer. ' or ' was a 4 to 7 meter (13–21 feet) long spear used in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic warfare.

Trivia

 * Faris (along with Terra of Final Fantasy VI) is one of Amano's two favorite designs.
 * In the Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls and subsequent remakes of the original Final Fantasy, Sarisa is one of the automatic names the player can choose for the Thief Job.
 * In the manual for Final Fantasy V Advance, unlike the other three initial party members, Faris's profile is gender-neutral while speaking of her, helping preserve the secret of her true identity.
 * In the Anthology version, Faris's real name, Sarisa, is mistranslated as Salsa.
 * Bartz and Galuf receive small bonuses to Strength and Vitality, while Lenna and Krile receive similar boosts to MP and Agility; Faris has boosts to all four stats, reflecting her androgynous nature.

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