Harken

"I have seen much blood in my days... Yet Lord Elbert welcomed me as an honored knight. When I lost him, I lost myself... Yet Lord Eliwood accepted me without question."

- Harken to Marcus in a support conversation

Harken (ハーケン, Hāken) is a playable character in Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken in service to house Pherae of Lycia. On a mission accompanying Lord Elbert, he becomes the last survivor of his knights after their infamous trip. After the Black Fang's attack on his group, he decides to take revenge on them by infiltrating their ranks and destroying them from within. His suicidal tendencies are only matched by his self-worth troubles coming from his blurry background and his love for his fiancée, the paladin Isadora, who he promised to marry once the war was over and he returned.

Background
Watching Nergal wipe out the Pheraen Knights drove Harken to insanity because of his powerlessness, which in turn led him to forget his promise to Isadora, who would greatly resent this when they found each other again. However, Harken's former instructor, the paladin Marcus, helps him greatly to remember his duty to Pherae and ease his doubts about his worth as an ally, and he also becomes a guide and older brother figure for the young Lowen.

Harken's supports with Marcus also reveal that he already was a very troubled individual before joining the Pherae army. According to them, Harken served an unnamed lord who treated him very badly, and ultimately threw him out of his household. Due to this, Harken hides an already seriously damaged self-esteem, and greatly fears that he'll be questioned or hated if it's known that he served a cruel lord, which also explains why he lost it so badly upon not being able to aid a master who treated him kindly without caring about his shady past.

If he has an A support with Isadora, they renew their promise and get married; if he has one with Vaida, they develop some degree of understanding but leave each other.

You can recruit Harken in Chapter 25 of Eliwood's Story and in Chapter 27 in Hector's Story. If you defeat less than 4 promoted enemies before the 9th turn on Kenneth's map or open less than 4 doors before the 9th turn on Jerme's map. Harken can be recruited with a surprisingly large number of characters, and will join you if you make him talk with one of the following: Eliwood, Hector, Oswin, Lowen, Isadora or Marcus.

While Marcus and Eliwood are seen in the war with Bern, Harken makes no appearance at all. It is possible he settled down or that he went to war with Bern. If so, it is unknown if he survived.

In Game
Description: The sole survivor of the Knights of Pherae.

Normal Mode
Axe - B
 * Hero
 * GBAFire.gif
 * 8
 * 38
 * 21
 * 20
 * 17
 * 12
 * 15
 * 10
 * 11
 * 6
 * Sword.gif - B
 * Brave Sword
 * }

Hard Mode
Axe - B
 * Hero
 * GBAFire.gif
 * 8
 * 42
 * 22
 * 21
 * 18
 * 12
 * 16
 * 11
 * 11
 * 6
 * Sword.gif - B
 * Brave Sword
 * }

Growth Rates

 * 80%
 * 35%
 * 30%
 * 40%
 * 20%
 * 30%
 * 25%
 * }

Supports

 * Eliwood
 * Isadora
 * Lowen
 * Marcus
 * Vaida

Overview
Harken has comparatively lower growth rates to unpromoted counterparts of the same class, like most pre-promoted characters, but he has really good starting stats, especially in hard mode. If you compare Harken to Raven, you will see that their stats are quite close when both are Level 8 heroes. (If you have trained Raven to Level 20 or close to before promoting). Harken will have higher resistance, luck and defense while Raven will be a little bit stronger in everything else, although they are both likely to cap strength by the time they hit Level 20 as Heroes. Also, a good reason for using Harken would be his constitution. Harken's constitution is 11, 2 points stronger than Raven's as a Hero. Harken also starts with a B in axes, something Raven most likely will not have without a lot of effort to achieve, and his higher constitution allows him to wield them without losing as much, if any, speed compared to Raven, who cannot wield an Iron Axe without losing speed, normally.

Harken is a useful character and starts very strong, but will not become too much better. He can replace Raven as a Hero if Raven died, did not get recruited, or was not trained properly, or be used in addition to Raven. His Fire affinity can increase the offense of any of his support partners greatly, and actually increase his offense higher than Raven's depending on supports, since Raven's Ice affinity is primarily defensive.

Death Quote
"I'm already dead... If I leave my body here, I do so without regret..."

- Death Quote

Final Chapter: Light Quote
"Lord Elbert... I will protect your son."

- Final Battle Quote

Trivia

 * It is implied that Harken was the person in the village in Four-Fanged Offense who gives the Silence Staff. That individual says he wears the garb of the Black Fang as he has infiltrated the organization and is despite appearances a loyal citizen of Lycia; this self-description is fairly accurate of Harken. Probing the ROM shows that for this sequence, the game does indeed load Harken's portrait data along with that of whichever player unit visited the village; it simply is not shown on-screen.
 * Harken seems to be derivative of Astram, as both are blond Heroes and dedicated soldiers to their lieges, and are also engaged to a blue-haired female Paladin (Isadora is herself quite derivative of Midia).
 * When Harken first appears (outside of the village in Four-Fanged Offense), he refers to himself in the first person plural, almost as if he is addressing his dead comrades.

Etymology
'Harken' or 'hark' in archaic English was a verb meaning 'to listen'. It is often spelled 'hearken'.