Gharnef

The Dark Pontifex
Gharnef
Species	Human
Class	Sorcerer
Affiliation	Dolhr Empire
Hair color	Black
Weaponry	Illumhu
Base	Thebes
Debut	Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi

Gharnef is a villainous sorcerer who appears one of the main antagonists of Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi, its remakes in Monshou no Nazo and Shadow Dragon as well as the sequel in Book 2 of Monshou no Nazo.

Background

Book 1

Gharnef apparently once was a youth with a strong sense of justice, at which point he and Miloah had trained under the great sage Gotoh. However, Gotoh saw that Gharnef had a weak heart and passed on the Aura spell as well as control of Khadein to Miloah in his place. This filled Gharnef with anger and jealously, leading him to steal the Dark Orb and use it to create the magic spell Illumhu, with which he was almost invincible. He was corrupted by the Dark Orb's influence, which eventually led him on a path of conquest.

He first gained more power by aiding in Medeus's resurrection and selling his soul to Dolhr in the year 597, basically setting into motion his master plan for gaining control of the world. He first went to Khadein and used his new dark powers to slay Miloah in battle and take control of Khadein, shrouding it in darkness. Within Thebes, he used an ancient magic as his power source and used this influence to begin manipulating the rulers of the various other kingdoms into joining with the Dolhr Empire over the next few years. He finally started the War of Darkness with an invasion of Archanea followed by Altea in 600. Altea's King Cornelius was killed in battle when he tried using the Falchion Sword against them, but Gharnef then took the sword so that it could not be used to defeat Medeus.

Two years later, Marth and his army began their campaign against the army. Gharnef claimed he allowed them to go about their actions because they wound up disposing of potential future threats to him such as Camus and Michalis. At the same time, Gharnef had Falchion and also had the divine-dragon Tiki under his hypnotic control so that not only could the heroes not use these against Medeus, but he had something to help keep Medeus in check. Gharnef had also captured Marth's sister Elice and kept her alive, locked away in case he needed her to operate the Aum staff (which could be used only by a sister of noble blood to revive someone), although his exact purpose for the staff is unrevealed. On top of all of that, he had the Illumhu, which made him invincible against all save the Starlight spell - which he believed no one could use against him with Miloah dead.

Gharnef first confronts Marth and his men in person at Khadein in Chapter 15 (Chapter 12 of the SNES version), where he does not regard them as a threat and teleported away to Thebes, taunting them to go there if they wanted the Falchion. They eventually did reach him in Chapter 23 (Chapter 18 SNES) and battled him, although he produced multiple illusions of himself to distract the enemies. However, eventually he was eventually ambushed and destroyed with Starlight to his great disguise or the source of his magic was shut down when the door to his tower was seized, although in the latter case he did not surrender Falchion and escaped. Canonically he was killed by Marth in that battle, but was confident that Marth could not defeat Medeus even with the Falchion and that he would see Marth in Hell.

Book 2

However, Gharnef's spirit survived and remained within the Black Orb, from which his evil presence sought someone new to act through. Posing as a merchant, Gharnef presented the Black Orb to Hardin, Archanea's new king, to exploit his extreme depression caused by Princess Nyna not returning his feelings. Under the influence of the Black Orb, Hardin began a conquest of the continent while Gharnef's priests went around swiping the maidens Elice, Nyna, Lena and Maria, because the pure blood of noble maidens was necessary for a sacrifice in order to revive Medeus again, this time as a Shadow Dragon.

After Hardin was defeated, Gharnef set up an illusion in which he and his priests appeared before Marth and his army posing as the missing maidens, claiming that they had defeated Gharnef so that Marth would not pursue him. However, if Marth had completed the Shield of Seals it would destroy Gharnef's illusion, and they would then flee to the dragon's altar for the final stages of the resurrection. It was only a matter of time until Marth's army arrived, and they clashed with Gharnef once more. Gharnef was once more destroyed by Starlight in the following battle (although he had taken it to prevent it from being used on him again, Michalis was able to steal and give it to Marth's army) and once more assured Marth that he would be no match for Medeus, this time seeming quite certain that the world would end.

Other Appearances

• In the two episode Fire Emblem OVA, Gharnef was seen in a flashback in the first episode where he killed Marth's father King Cornelius in person.