Immortality, Loss, & Legacy - by Daniel Kwan
If you’re looking for something to inspire your next D&D campaign or character backstory, I strongly recommend Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End - a fantasy, slice-of-life manga series written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe.
This series has a lot of the genre tropes you would expect: dramatic magic, dragons, demons, and even your classic party structure. You’ve got Himmel the Hero, Heiter the Priest, and Eisen the dwarven warrior. But what makes the story interesting is that it starts after the end of a grand adventure with the titular elven mage Frieren and her party returning from their decade-long quest to defeat the Demon King and return peace to the land.
You might see where this is going.
Decades after the triumphant conclusion to their adventure, Frieren is forced to confront her understanding of the human world as she outlives Himmel and Heiter.
Before dying of old age, Heiter requests that Frieren care for and train his apprentice Fern in the magical arts. The pair embark on what begins as an aimless journey driven by the elf’s passion for collecting unique magic spells (most of which have mundane functions). Along their travels, they revisit the places from Frieren’s past adventure, forcing her to confront the opportunities she missed to forge deeper bonds with Himmel and Heiter.
The story explores themes of love, faith, legacy, and mortality as Frieren embarks on a new journey with Fern to understand what life means to those around her and the impact her party had on the world. It’s is a slow burn that asks, “what happens when everyone who witnessed your accomplishments is long gone?”
In D&D 5th edition, elves art described as “a magical people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it”
Their perspective of time also causes them to come off as “aloof and unfazed by petty happenstance.”
This manga really gets you to think about the cruel loneliness of the extremely long life that elves have been granted. Frieren is over 1000 years old and is extremely powerful despite her unassuming appearance. She comes off as aloof and appears to have little time for those around her. I mean, why bother if their lifespan is but a fraction of yours? She has literally witnessed generations of companions die and rarely encounters other elves during her travels. I find it fascinating to see this isolating reminder of her privileged lifespan come to life in this manga.
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As years sometimes pass between chapters of this series, I find it extremely interesting to see Frieren actively try to forge bonds with her new companions, despite the fleeting nature of their time together. Through her cold facade, you see a curious and sentimental character who is learning to articulate these feelings to those who may never truly understand her perspective of the world. Readers are slowly introduced to new party members like Stark the human warrior (Eisen’s former apprentice), who develops a budding romance with Fern. It’s a wonderful secondary plot that contrasts Frieren’s reserved relationships.
If I wasn’t clear, this is a wonderful series that deserves your attention.
Not every grand adventure immediately leads into another, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a reminder that downtime can be just as interesting as the action. After reading the first 7 translated volumes of this series, I still find myself craving more of this cute and tragic story.
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