“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 is a playable character in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade in service to house Pherae of Lycia.


Before joining the Pherae army, Harken served an unnamed lord who treated him very badly, and ultimately threw him out of his household. On a mission accompanying Lord Elbert, he becomes the sole survivor of the Pharae Knights that went missing. Watching Nergal wipe out the Pheraen Knights drove Harken to insanity because of his powerlessness, so Harken sought to infiltrate the Black Fang on his own, he deciding to take revenge on them by infiltrating their ranks and destroying them from within. In turn, it 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.

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.


A very troubled individual before joining the army, 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.

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.

In GameEdit

Description: The sole survivor of the Knights of Pherae.

Base StatsEdit

Normal ModeEdit

Starting ClassAffinity
FE8 Hero Map Sprite HeroGBAFireFire
WeaponStarting Items
SwordSword - B
AxeAxe - B
BraveswordBrave Sword

Hard ModeEdit

Starting ClassAffinity
FE8 Hero Map Sprite HeroGBAFireFire
WeaponStarting Items
SwordSword - B
AxeAxe - B
BraveswordBrave Sword

Growth RatesEdit

HP S/M Skl Spd Lck Def Res
80% 35% 30% 40% 20% 30% 25%


See also: Harken/Supports.


Secret Book (Artwork)

Harken has amazing base stats - even on normal mode where he doesn't get hard mode bonuses. He can immediately contribute at a very high level, and while his growths are not as high as comparable early-game units, they are more than acceptable. He is worth the effort for recruitment over Karel due to his 1-2 range and preferable stat-spread (his only significant deficit is speed, which is already sufficient to double most enemies) that gives him far greater utility for almost any playthrough.

If you wish to compare Harken to a unit of a similar class in Raven, you will see that their stats are quite close when both are Level 8 heroes. (If you have waited to promote Raven past level 10 before promotion). Harken will have higher resistance, luck and defense while Raven will be a little bit stronger in everything else, although with far greater required investment for the latter. Harken also boasts a higher constitution of 11, 2 points stronger than Raven's as a Hero. Harken also starts with a B in axes - something that Raven will almost never have without excessive grinding. Additionally, his higher constitution allows him to wield axes without suffering much of a speed penalty, although this rarely matters as both him and Raven have enough speed to compensate for such. If you want to quickly grow Harken's axe rank, you can have him use the Devil Axe, although this should be done with extreme caution.

Harken is a useful character and starts out very strong, and will stay strong throughout the rest of the game. He's arguably ready for endgame at base. His class offers fantastic utility which warrants using him in almost any play-through, even in addition to Raven as a second hero. His Fire affinity can increase the offense of both himself any of his support partners greatly.


Death QuoteEdit

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

Final Chapter: Light QuoteEdit

“Lord Elbert... I will protect your son.”
—Final Battle Quote


Harken - Troubled Warrior

Harken worked closely with Marcus to rebuild the knights of Pherae. They are slowly rebuilding their strength and prestige.

Harken and Isadora

Harken and Vaida


  • 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.


'Herken' or 'herk' in archaic English was a verb meaning 'to listen'. It is often spelled 'hearken'.

