Folka

Folka, commonly known by her title of Veritas of the Waters , is a major character in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. She is the third member of the Sworn Six of Paladia the party meets and serves as the main antagonist of Season One's Chapter III. Seemingly cruel and devious, she attacks the Aquapolis to ensnare the protectors of the Water Crystal in her quest to destroy it, but in truth, she hides a gentler side.
== Profile ==
=== Appearance ===
Veritas of the Waters wields a staff and wears a full suit of blue armor with gold highlights. A small blonde braid emerges from the side of her helmet. Without her suit of armor she has long blue hair and blue eyes and wears an elaborate blue dress with a long purple chiffon scarf tied around her waist. The blue of her dress fades into white at the hem and is decorated with blue gemstones. She wears segmented sleeves and a yellow jewel on her chest. She wears high heels also adorned with blue jewels.
=== Personality ===
Veritas of the Waters is sadistic, causing destruction and taking delight in the pain she inflicts on others. She is narcissistic and egocentric, adoring her own beauty and considers herself a careful planner and an elaborate strategist. This is her main downfall as she has little patience and respect for her opposition.
Her sadistic personality is a fake created through a forbidden self-hypnosis technique. Her true personality is kind and compassionate, hidden away by her own hand to shield her delicate psyche from the bloodshed of war; Veritas of the Waters adopted a cruel personality to do the fighting while her true self would not remember any of it.
After reconciling with Nichol, Folka does her utmost to assist him and develops affection for him, viewing Citra a rival over his affection, though Nichol remains oblivious. She is airheaded and clumsy and sloppy with money; even when she tries to attach her wallet to herself to not lose it, it still falls as she does not know how to tie a knot properly. 
==Story==
===Early life===
Veritas of the Waters hails from the world of Paladia. When the world fell into conflict between Aldore and Hess she was loyal to the former as part of the original Eight Sworn of Paladia. Though a competent warrior she could not stomach the murders she had to commit and decided to hypnotize herself with a special technique to create a malevolent personality to shield her true self who would remain ignorant of the actions "her other self" would commit. Veritas of the Flame implored her to not do it and promised to convince the higher ups to let her step down. Veritas of the Waters refused to let anybody else perform her duties and opted to carry the burden of the sins herself, starting a long period of constant self-hypnosis.
When the original Veritas of the Dark's plan to seal Hess' Eight Sages in Crystals to force negotiations between both factions succeeded, the leaders of Aldore betrayed the Sworn Eight by transporting the entire landmass of the battlefield to the world of Lapis, isolating people from both sides into a different world.
During her time in Lapis Folka investigated the world separately from her comrades and for a time lived peacefully in the new world. Eventually she reached the town of Olde (Olderion in the present day) where she was spotted by Ichor, a young warrior from a nearby village. Ichor fell in love at first sight with her, but was unsure if she was real. He witnessed her a second time and chased after her, believing her to be no mere illusion. He found her purse on the ground, which he returned to her much to her delight. Folka took her leave after an awkward moment of silence.
The town was restless as the river overflowed, leading to territorial damage and monster invasion. The villagers requested the wisdom of their local priestess, Kihana (who was in truth a fraud), who tried to calm the populace and buy time, painfully aware her powers could not solve the crisis at hand. She requested aid from Ichor and Yubel, a faithful devout, in defeating the monsters. As they followed the river they encountered Leviathan's shadowed form, which Kihana decided to blame as the cause of the problem. Folka appeared, and revealed the serpent to be an Esper and the water god to be worshiped for the land to grow prosper. Kihana and Yubel rejected this, but Ichor believed Folka, infuriating Kihana.
As Folka and Ichor traveled to Leviathan's lair, Ichor tried to ask Folka about her life. She could not answer as she did not want to reveal her Paladian origins. Ichor nonetheless trusted her as she answered truthfully rather than making up lies to convince him. Following another awkward moment the two ventured further until they met Leviathan. Folka tried to reason with the water deity as a fellow Paladian stranded in a different world, pleading the Esper to calm down.
Kihana has Yubel attacked Leviathan and Ichor and Folka battled the now enraged Leviathan to calm her down. Folka apologized for what her nation did to her, and requested she becomes the Water God of the people. Leviathan noted Folka's concerns for the people were also about herself as she sought respite over revenge and requested her service as her priestess. Folka accepted this task, and with it started the role of the Priestesses of the Waters.
The townspeople of Olde praised Folka for saving them and revered her as the Priestess of the Waters along Leviathan as their new deity. Folka fell in love with Ichor and the two had a baby girl. Over time Kihana lost favorability as the townspeople went to Folka for counsel, making her grow jealous. In a fit of rage Kihana slandered Folka on suspicions of being a monster due to not aging. The townspeople grew concerned over this and requested Folka explain herself. Aware that the people would not accept her immortality, Folka decided to leave the town, with Ichor chasing her.
A remorseful Kihana confided with Yubel that she talked out of spite. Yubel nonetheless urged her to do the right thing and the two chased after Folka. Ichor tried to plead with Folka, but she refused to reveal her reasons, and fought him before leaving for good. Kihana and Yubel apologized for causing Folka to leave, but Ichor didn't blame them, realizing Folka belonged to a different world and had her own circumstances. He was still glad to have their daughter, whom he vowed to raise as the next Water Priestess. Kihana and Yubel promised to raise her together. Kihana would not only be the child's mentor, but under her leadership the town would prosper and become the Olderion Federation.
Several years later, Folka appears in Olderion, still keeping a watching eye on her nation, observing her great-granddaughter from afar before departing.
Approximately six hundred years later, Veritas of the Light and Veritas of the Bolt found a book in the Magic Library that detailed a way to return to their world. Veritas of the Waters voted for revenge, although it is left unclear which of her personalities did the voting. Sakura (Veritas of the Bolt) and Raegen (Veritas of the Dark) decided to lead peaceful lives in Lapis and left the group. Waters then followed the new Veritas of the Dark believing him to be Raegen.
===Season One===
One hundred years later, Veritas of the Waters is present when the Veritas assault Grandshelt Castle and announces their goal of destroying the world to Rain, Lasswell and an amnesiac Fina, before leaving.
Waters follows Veritas of the Heavens' defeat at the hand of Rain and his companions, mocking her comrade for his loss and for allowing his identity to leak. She offers to cover up for Heavens' mistake and borrows the Sacred Ring of Paladia from Veritas of the Dark. She asks a nearby Evan if he's fine with his sister being possibly killed by her hand. Evan consents, making Waters delight that she can fight without holding back.
Veritas of the Waters plans to break the Water Crystal to taint the rivers of the Olderion Federation—whose purity makes Aquapolis monster-free—to lure a Water Priestess to kill her to break the seal around the Water Shrine where the Crystal resides. She heads to Lake Dorr and injures Leviathan, an Esper worshiped as a water deity, with the Sacred Ring. Leviathan's blood pollutes the waters, attracting monsters. Luka, the Water Priestess, heads to purify Lake Dorr, accompanied by her brothers Nichol and Elle, both Wardens of the Waters, as well as Rain's party.
Veritas of the Waters attempts to ambush Luka, but the attack is thwarted as Nichol had anticipated it. Waters reveals what happened to Leviathan and her control of the Esper through the Sacred Ring of Paladia, which Nichol recognizes as an ancient artifact that can amplify magical power. Waters ushers Leviathan upon the party and defeats them.
Luka attempts to reach the water god through her prayer and Waters attempts to interfere, but is blocked by Fina who defends her with a magical barrier. Waters breaks through and attempts to command Leviathan to kill them, but the creature responds to Luka's prayers and assaults Waters instead. Waters is forced to retreat. Luka sinks to the bottom of the Lake to purify it, informing the party that the procedure will take years, but before doing so, she shares a portion of her power with Fina so that the party can enter the Water Shrine if need be.
Waters floods Olderion and is intercepted by the party. Fina attempts to attack Waters but is deflected by the ring. Fina regains her memories as a warrior of Hess and recognizes Waters as a warrior of Aldore. She defeats Waters alone, who retreats. They decide to pursuit Waters as Fina can feel her presence.
With the help of pirate captain Mercedes, they find Veritas of the Waters in the Ghost Ship and a battle ensues as Fina mocks Waters' inability to hide. Waters is again defeated, losing the Sacred Ring. Rain touches the ring, causing his arm to glow with power, putting his life in danger. Waters recognizes the phenomenon and decides she should alert Dark, hiding in Elle's shadow.
The party travels to the Water Shrine to use its Crystal to heal Rain and restore the Aquapolis to normal. Waters she survived the last encounter and attacks them with monsters, while Elle runs to the Crystal chamber and amplifies the Crystal's power but is interrupted by Waters who reveals she hid in his shadow knowing that Elle would be too inexperienced to notice. Waters injures Elle and shatters the Crystal while gloating over her own beauty.
Veritas of the Waters prepares to ambush Rain and his party, but is distracted by Elle who is empowered by his fiancée Arsha's amulet. When Waters deals a mortal wound to Elle, she realizes he had stalled to thwart Waters' ambush. Infuriated Waters attempts to kill the party but is beaten and retreats for good. Fina uses the Crystal shards still brimming with power to restore Olderion and heals Rain of his current condition.
The Waterlord reunites with her comrades to plan how to deal with Rain and his party who have grown stronger and now pose a significant threat to their plans. Veritas of the Dark guides the group to one of Dr. Lazarov's laboratories where he researched life energy to find several capsules that could boost their powers. The Darklord encourages his comrades to empower themselves.
Veritas of the Waters later faces Rain's party with the other Sword Six when Rain and his friends confront Veritas of the Frost to protect the Dark Crystal. The Veritas spot their former comrade and invite him to join them. The Frostlord refuses, revealing himself to be Raegen behind the armor, leaving everyone confused as to the Darklord's identity.
In the battle for the Dark Crystal the Waterlord faces Nichol and her self-hypnosis fades mid-battle. The Flamelord blasts Raegen and Lasswell with a Firaga to aid his comrade, and the Waterlord attempts to destroy the Crystal but fails due to Raegen having cast a barrier on it. The land shakes due to the interdimensional gate growing unstable with a single Crystal sustaining it so Raegen and Sakura are forced to teleport everyone to Pharm.
At Pharm Nichol's desire for revenge takes the best of him and he pursues the Sworn Six in hopes of getting revenge on the Waterlord for her crimes against his nation and family. Defeating the Earthlord and the Heavenlord, the party reaches the Town of Sian where they meet with Ayaka who tries to gift Sakura some candy. Goken, who went to an expedition, returns full of injuries claiming that a "monster in blue armor" was responsible. 
Learning that the Waterlord is nearby Nichol rushes with the party following behind. They find Waters surrounded by the warriors she had assaulted and behaving strangely. Veritas of the Flame protects her and shares Folka's background. Nichol would have none of it, still driven by revenge. Lasswell and Rain defeat the Flamelord and the Waterlord ambushes Nichol and provokes him into following her.
They reach her at Lake Ryusei, which the Waterlord set up as their battleground further pouring salt into the wound by claiming it looks exactly like the place where Luka was forced to submerge herself. The party attacks her but Waters displays an uncharacteristic lack of trickery in her battle. The party defeats her and Nichol realizes she's faking her self-hypnosis so he would kill her. Folka reveals this is true and by demonstrating the technique she used for so long, Nichol discovers that his enemy is his distant ancestor. Nichol can no longer bring himself to kill her and as "revenge" has her spend the rest of whatever life remains of her aiding others to pay for her misdeeds. Folka gladly accepts.
After the Darklord is slain by Behemoth K, Folka approaches a distraught Veritas of the Light (Citra) and encourages her to stand up to help Rain's party. Citra accepts, vowing to get revenge on behalf of the Darklord.
As they accompany and help the party from Sol's monsters, Folka and Citra discuss the plan for Dark Fina to transform herself into Crystal to keep the gate at bay. Finding no other viable way they teleport Dark Fina to the Earth Shrine where she can perform the ritual.
When the party reaches Sol, they face the Behemoth K who proves resilient. Folka and Citra thus teleport away along with the Behemoth to battle the Sage while Rain's party continues their chase of Sol. While fighting the Behemoth Folka and Citra share their amusement and respect of Nichol. Although they put a good fight, the two are killed by the Behemoth who takes their helmets as a "trophy". The Behemoth later appears in front of the party through teleportation and tosses the helmets, making Nichol and Sakura eager to avenge their family. Having seen Folka's genuine repentance, Nichol forgives her for her crimes.
After the disappearance of Sol and Rain, Nichol returns to Olderion where he meets Arsha who is taking care of her daughter. Folka soon becomes the topic of a heated discussion when Nichol reveals he forgave her, which infuriates Arsha as she cannot forgive her beloved's murderer. When Nichol returns with Luka from Lake Dorr he states that were not for Folka's aid, Arsha and her daughter would have died as well, making her reconsider her beliefs.
===Season Two===
Some time after the defeat of the Chaotic Darkness, Folka, along the rest of the Sworn Six (minus the Darklord), are revived by Dark Fina. The group joins Lasswell's party in their travel to Paladia to find out if their sacrifice achieved peace in their homeworld. Folka has developed affection for Nichol causing a rivalry with Citra over him, although Nichol seems oblivious. Nonetheless, she gets along significantly better with him, leaving past events behind them.
As they reach Paladia they find that Aldore has become a cruel dictatorship that threatens their world. The Sworn Six decide to take matters into their own hands and overthrow the despot. While the Six are led by Raegen Lasswell's party searches for Rain. Nichol prays success to Folka who is overjoyed he remembers her name.
The Sworn Six venture into Aldore Tower to defeat the Emperor, but are met with heavy opposition from high ranking members of The Orders led by Hyoh. The Sworn Six use the best of their power to fight their successors, but find themselves defeated as their moves are easily predicted. The Sworn Six are sent in prison from where they escape. Their suits of armor have been damaged and they give them up, grateful for years of service. When Raegen suggests they go by their real names and personas, Folka admits that walking without her suit of armor is almost the same as being naked because she had fought with her armor for centuries.
During the final battle against Vlad, clones of the Sworn Eight of Paladia face the party which have the ability to restore themselves to full health, so the party realize they have to completely destroy them to deprive them of their revival. Sieghard then uses a sample of Aldore's powering drug to power the Sworn Six but purportedly excluding Raegen as the world still needed him. The five Sworn Six battle their dopplegangers with increased power and destroy them for good but at the cost of their immortality, and are unable to further fight as they exhausted themselves.
Following Vlad's destruction the Sworn Six appear to celebrate their victory still alive but now with finite lives. Folka decides to migrate to Olderion and live the remainder of her life in peace in her own nation, as she is soon surrounded by children who point out her resemblance with the first Water Priestess although not realizing that it is her in person. Folka follows the children to play with them.
== Gameplay ==
===Playable character===
Folka can be summoned to play either in her "Veritas of the Waters" (4-6★) variant, or her armorless variant "Folka" (5-7★). In both versions, her role is mainly that of a healer with several abilities related to the Water element, including some Black Magic. She can equip staves and rods, along with helms, light armor, heavy armor and accessories. Additionally, she shares a summer variant (5-7★) with Citra.
While her Veritas of the Waters can be seen as akin to a Red Mage as she uses spells and abilities of different schools but is not particularly excellent in either, her Season Two variant "Folka" is a top-tier healer. She is able to mitigate damage taken by the party (either physical, magical, or both), refresh their MP, increase their resistance to (or remove) all status ailments and stat breaks, and reraise allies. While she cannot equip helms any more, she adds daggers, instruments and maces, as well as light shields, hats and clothes to her equipment selection. As one of the so-called 'CG units', her Limit Burst ("Aqua Ensemble") is a FMV-like sequence and has a powerful effect: it can fully recover the party's HP, cure all status ailments, stat breaks, Stop and Charm, and greatly boost their resistance to Water.
She appeared as a guest unit in her own introduction quest as well as several stages from Priestess of the Crystalline Waters (...).
===Battle===
Folka, as Veritas of the Waters, is faced as a boss twice in the main story, first in Ghost Ship - Abominable Presence and again in Water Shrine - Will of the Ferocious. Waters employs status ailment-inducing attacks, such as Biora (inflicts Poison), Mind Blast (inflicts Paralyze), and Mist (causes Confuse). She can use Elemental Power to boost her elemental resistances and uses Watera, Waterga and Water Torture as her strongest attacks. Her empowered version is fought in Lake Ryusei - Course for Revenge at Pharm. She also appears as a boss in the second-to-last stage, "Magnificent Fate", of the story event Sieghard, the Magnificent.
Additionally, Folka fights armorless in the "The Goddess From Afar" stage of the Priestess of the Crystalline Waters story event.
==Gallery==
;Artwork
FFBE Sworn Six Concept Art.png|Folka and the Sworn Eight artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.
Season 2 from FFBE artwork 1.png|Season Two key art, featuring Folka, by Yoshitaka Amano.
;Renders
FFBE Folka Render.jpg|Full body CG render by Visual Works.
;Sprites
FFBE 605 Veritas of the Waters.png|No. 605 Veritas of the Waters (4★).
FFBE 606 Veritas of the Waters.png|No. 606 Veritas of the Waters (5★).
FFBE 607 Veritas of the Waters.png|No. 607 Veritas of the Waters (6★).
FFBE 1207 Folka.png|No. 1207 Folka (5★).
FFBE 1208 Folka.png|No. 1208 Folka (6★).
FFBE 1209 Folka.png|No. 1209 Folka (7★).
FFBE 1392 Folka & Citra.png|No. 1392 Folka & Citra (5★).
FFBE 1393 Folka & Citra.png|No. 1393 Folka & Citra (6★).
FFBE 1394 Folka & Citra.png|No. 1394 Folka & Citra (7★).
FFBE Veritas of the Waters Sprite 1.png|Enemy sprite.
FFBE Veritas of the Waters Sprite 2.png|Enemy sprite (empowered).
;Screenshots
FFBE CG Folka.jpg|Closeup on Limit Burst.
FFBE CG Folka 2.jpg|CG for Folka.
Folka from FFBE screenshot 1.png|CG limit burst screenshot.
FFBE Aquatic Retribution.gif|Aquatic Retribution limit burst.
== Etymology ==
Folka is a German name derived from the Germanic element fulk, meaning “folk, people” and was originally a short form of names containing this element, such as Fulbert and Volker.
==Citations==
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
Category:Antagonists