Transon Balir

Transon Balir (トランソム・バリル) is a significant supporting character in Tales of Eternia.

Journey to Celestia
Balir was a researcher at the University of Inferia City. Despite being from Inferia, he considers himself a Celestian at heart. He left Inferia thirty years prior to the events of the story, having discovered the Bridge of Light on the summit of Mt. Farlos and researched how to use it. These findings can still be found in Inferia City's Royal Observatory. In Celestia, he decided to never return to Inferia and instead build a life there. From the Inferian perspective, he is presumed to have died in Celestia due to their brutal image of Celestian people.

Not long after this arrival in Celestia, Balir met Shizel, who helped him in the foreign world. They fell in love, and Balir decided to give up his first name to become more like the Celestian people, who only used one name. The two shared a vision of an ideal world beyond what one could see with the eye: a non-material, substanceless world in which there would be no pain or suffering. Sixteen years prior to the game's main plot, he and Shizel had a daughter, Meredy, and they lived together as a family in Luishka. Although Balir made friends, he also made enemies, one notably being Birial, a royal adviser to Celestia's ruler. This was primarily due to his political views and work, having even written a text, The Path to Peace, in which he states that war can only destroy, nothing can come of it, and that people should lay down their arms and seek peace.

Betrayal and Death
The text elaborated on Balir's views that he shared with Shizel, that without war, humans could achieve a greater humanity by not paying attention to solely themselves, but also trying to love and understand others. He urges in the text for courage and determination, that he plans to devote his life to preaching this truth. This idealism was not well-received from all. Ten years prior to the game's plot, Celestia's ruler was murdered, and Birial appended this to Balir in order to rid of him, using the aid of Hyades, Shizel's brother, by offering him more power. Birial seizes Celestia's military power and uses it to hunt Balir, who, in an attempt to keep his family safe, distracts Birial and his soldiers so that Shizel and Meredy could escape to Hyades. All he had to fight back with was a sword.

Hyades betrayed Balir by delivering his sister and niece directly to Birial so that he could lure Balir out of his hiding place. Balir then did as Birial demanded and revealed himself. When Birial attempted to shoot Shizel because she had resisted him, Balir leaped in the way and caught the hail of bullets, dying in Shizel's arms, which results in her heart falling to Nereid's temptation. She then levels the city, killing all but herself, Hyades, and Meredy, who share Nereid's Fibrill now thanks to her. Shizel built a castle where Balir resided officially and secretly performed cruel experiments on Hyades and Meredy in order to find out how she could use the Dark Aurora artes bestowed to her properly.

Meredy's memory was severely damaged due to this trauma, so at some point, she began to believe what the world had told her: that Balir was Celestia's new king, but that he had retired and left the world to its fate. Meredy had prepared to take revenge upon her father, not knowing that it was actually the actions of her mother that spurred these events. When the heroes storm Balir Castle, they find only his mummified corpse upon the throne, which decays after Shizel drives the heroes away using her Dark Aurora artes and leaving for Vatenkeist.

Transon Balir