Faris Scherwiz

Faris Scherwiz (ファリス・シェルヴィッツ Farisu Sheruvittsu), real name Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon (サリサ・シュヴィール・タイクーン Sarisa Shuvīru Taikūn), or Salsa in the US Anthology release, is a female pirate captain (although she disguises herself as a male) and one of the Warriors of Light in Final Fantasy V.

The elder sister of Lenna Charlotte Tycoon, Faris is technically the Queen of Tycoon by birthright, however she does not accept the position, preferring the life of a pirate over that of an aristocrat. Possessing her own pirate ship and a sea-dragon named Syldra, she represents Fire, the element of courage, in the party.

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

Due to how women were not respected on an equal level among the all-male crew, and due to the dangers inherent in being the sole woman on an all-male ship, Faris was raised and disguised as a boy, dressing and acting accordingly.

When she was fifteen years old, the ship encountered a mysterious whirlpool. The crew unable to escape it, Faris dove into the water to discover what was causing it and came out with Syldra, a sea-dragon with whom she formed an almost sisterly bond. This bond enabled her to tame the dragon, eventually using it as a steed to pull the ship through the ocean without the need of sails. The pirates, unaware that she was a girl, made her their captain for this. This was supposedly the youngest a pirate had ever been made captain.

By the age of twenty Faris was still captain of her ship and had become well-respected among the crew, although some of them by now suspected that she may actually be female. It was during this time that three adventurers, on their way to the Wind Shrine, attempted to steal her ship after they saw it was able to move without sails. As the ship was pulled by Syldra, however, they were unsuccessful in getting it to move and Faris and her pirates captured them easily.

The adventurers; Bartz Klauser, Galuf Halm Baldesion, and Lenna Tycoon, tried to plead for a ride and Lenna revealed her identity as Princess of Tycoon. Upon learning this Faris' initial thought was to hold Lenna for ransom, however when Lenna displayed a pendant identical to the one Faris herself possessed, Faris changed her mind. She decided to help the three adventurers get to the Wind Shrine in the hopes of discovering why she and Lenna shared the same pendant.

At the Wind Shrine, Faris was startled by the disappearance of King Tycoon and volunteered to join the quest to find him, becoming a permanent member of the party. Not long after this Syldra was mortally injured in a battle with Karlabos. Without the sea-dragon, the Pirate Ship eventually drifted into the Ship Graveyard.

When, in one of the dungeons, the group had crossed a flooded room, Bartz and Galuf tussled with Faris to get "him" to dry his clothes by the fire, and as a result discovered that "he" was, in fact, a "she".

In need of a new method of transportation, the party climbed North Mountain in an attempt to relocate Hiryuu, Lenna's Wind Drake. When a hunter named Magissa attacked Lenna on the climb up, Faris quickly 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. There, 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 soon after, the party rushes to the tower where the crystal resided and fought off a monster in an attempt to protect the Crystal. However the Water Crystal itself shatters anyway and the tower begins to sink into the ocean. The party is rescued by Syldra, however Syldra is then lost in the current, much to Faris's grief. The party then approaches the site where the Meteor fell and are transported to another Meteor site.

Arriving at Karnak, the party is arrested not long after their arrival. An old man in a cell next to them introduces himself as Cid and reveals his involvement with the crystals. The party is let free along with Cid not long afterward, and enter the steamship nearby. The party will eventually make their way into the engine room of the steam ship, which seems to be overworking itself. There, they encounter the Queen of Karnak, who proceeds to attack them. It is revealed after defeating her that she was being possessed. The party rushes to defend the Fire Crystal, but to no avail. The Fire Crystal shatters, and the party is forced once again to flee to safety.

The party then heads to the Ancient Library in pursuit of Cid. Encountering his grandson Mid Previa, they fight off a monster that is attacking him. Mid then heads with them back to Karnak, where he knocks some sense into his grandfather. When the King of Tycoon is spotted in the Quicksand, the party heads there to look for him. With the help of Cid and Mid, they are able to cross the desert and make their way to the Ronka Ruins. When Faris spots the king, she calls him father, leading to an emotional, although brief, reunion between her and Lenna as they were officially introduced as sisters. Afterward the party ends up under Crescent, where they encounter Cid and Mid once more.

The party locates the Earth Crystal in the flying ruins, a city floating in midair due to the power of the crystal. The party fights their way into it, defeating Soul Cannon with the help of Cid and his grandson. When the party reaches the top, they encounter King Tycoon. He does not appear to recognize either of his daughters and attacks the party, to the shock of Lenna and Faris. The encounter of another meteor, along with Galuf's granddaughter Krile, stop him from doing so. Krile then knocks him out with a spell. This brings back the king's memory and as he regains consciousness, he recognizes both of 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.

Having escaped Exdeath for the time being, Galuf separates from the party and heads back to his own world with Krile to prepare for the upcoming battle against Exdeath. Utilizing the power of all three meteors, the remaining party was able to travel to Galuf's world. Before they are able to locate Galuf however, Bartz, Lenna and Faris are captured by monsters and brought to Exdeath's Castle. There the party is used as bait to keep Galuf and his troops from entering the castle. Galuf enters on his own and rescues the party. They then escape together, fighting off Gilgamesh along the way. Reunited, the party plans for the battle with Exdeath.

Along the way the party encounters remaining Dawn Warriors, King Xezat and the werewolf; Kelgar, both of whom are killed aiding the party. The party tracks down Exdeath in the Great Forest of Moore. They are attacked by Exdeath, who uses the power of the crystals against them. Krile's attempt to rescue them fails, leading Galuf to fight off Exdeath by himself. He then falls in combat and transfers all of his powers on to Krile before dying. The party continues onwards, infiltrating Exdeath's castle and supposedly killing him.

After Exdeath shattered the remaining crystals of the second world, the party blacked out and mysteriously found themselves back at Castle Tycoon. Here, Faris was welcomed back as "Princess Sarisa", and a grand celebration was held to celebrate the return of the heiresses.

Faris, however, despised the fancy clothing (despite Bartz insisting she was beautiful), and not long into the ceremonies she slipped off to join Bartz and Krile as they continued their search for Exdeath; leaving only Lenna behind when the castle was consumed by the return of the Void. Although the rest of the party believed that Lenna was dead, she was actually retrieved by Hiryuu from the Interdimensional Rift, but was possessed by a demon of the Rift named Melusine. Melusine forced Lenna to attack her friends, but the injured Hiryuu knocked her out and forced the hostile spirit to leave her body. After the demon was slain, Lenna recovered and rejoined the party for the remainder of the game.

Faris and the other Warriors of Light defeated Exdeath for a final time and restored the power of the Crystals at last, returning the world to peace.

Afterward, Faris initially returned to Tycoon and shared the throne with her sister, but she grew to hate the life of a queen and missed her old life, and soon she had changed back into her pirate clothing and returned to her ship to continue sailing the seas.

Personality and Appearance
Faris is courageous, sometimes reckless, and determined - she charts her own course and does not care about what anyone else thinks of it. One of the key aspects of Faris' character is that she is very selfish, in contrast of Lenna's altruistic persona. Being a pirate captain, she is also shown to posses great leader capabilities and dislikes being excluded from the party. Faris also has a caring side, as she finds out that Lenna could be her sister - she becomes very protective of her, refusing to let anything hurt her younger sibling.

Faris has two distinct appearances: her ingame sprite and her FMV model. In the ingame sprite she has long, loose purple hair, and green eyes. Her face is half-covered by her hair, but she also wears a green band around her head. Her clothing consists of a dark blue sleeveless jacket with gold piping and a paler blue tunic underneath. 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 that is similar to the brooch. She has brown leather bands on her forearms. The FMV model has her hair blond 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 also 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 also trimmed with gold and seems to be 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 elbowpads (also spiked) and a pair of wristguards that extend over the back of her hands with red stones set into the top. For the most part, her coat obscures her lower body, but her legs are visible sometimes. She seems to wear a short kilt made out of fur or heavily tasseled cloth. Her boots look like that they were made of black or blackened plate metal with a low heel.

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

Etymology
Faris is an Arabic word meaning "horseman, rider" (i. e. "Knight"). It is debatable if this fact was intended to be a counterpart to some other element in the game or as a metaphor of its bearer.

Trivia

 * In the original SNES version of Final Fantasy V, Faris appeared as a pirate with long purple hair, green eyes identical to Lenna's, and blue-and-green pirate clothing. However, the full-motion video segments from the Final Fantasy Anthology version and her portrait for the Advance remake were based on Amano's original design of Faris, a blond in a black trench coat with golden pauldrons.
 * Faris, along with Terra of Final Fantasy VI, is Amano's favorite design.
 * In the Dawn of Souls and 20th Anniversary 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' profile is gender-neutral while speaking of her, helping preserve the secret of her true identity.
 * Faris spoke with a pirate accent in the first official localization of Final Fantasy V for the PlayStation. This was not in the Japanese version of the game originally. It remained in the Gameboy Advance version released after, but it was kept to a small degree.
 * In the first town you enter where you meet Zok, Farris stays at the pub and sleeps in a private room. When Bartz approaches the sleeping Farris she shifts her head slightly and Bartz becomes aroused and tells Galuf he saw something. This was the first hint at Farris' secret gender.