Behind every knight's oath in Astonishia Story elves lore sits a much older war between races whose roots reach back to the Life Tree, the dying heart of the elven world. The original 1994 Korean RPG by Sonnori framed its entire conflict around that single image, and the upcoming February 11, 2027 remake from DAEWON MEDIA, WAYCODER, and publisher NIS America is rebuilding it for modern PCs while keeping the political tension intact. Players stepping into Sir Lloyd von Reuental's boots for the first time will spend most of their time inside the human kingdom of Palmira, but the elf plot is the engine pulling every faction forward. Understanding the Astonishia Story elves angle — the queen, the half-elf defector, the long-dead god, and the backstabbing between kingdoms — is the fastest way to make sense of why this remake matters.
The Elven Backstory: How the Life Tree Forged Every Faction
The Astonishia Story backstory begins roughly one century before Lloyd ever picks up the Wand of Kinan. According to the plot summary recorded on Wikipedia and confirmed by the official Steam store page store page, the Life Tree — the source of elven longevity and magic — withered and died, and the elves began fading with it. Their eternal queen, Brimhild, refused to let her people vanish quietly. She set her sights on the power of an ancient god as a substitute source of life, which is the inciting pressure that fractures the world in the original game.
This backstory is what makes the elven plot more than a side faction. The dying race needs a miracle; the human kingdoms of Palmira and Ferarin see elven desperation as a strategic opportunity; and the half-elf knight Francis De La Cross is the human-shaped fracture line between them. The Astonishia Story factions triangle — humans, elves, and half-elves — exists because the Life Tree's death left no clean alliance available. The upcoming 2027 remake leans into this by re-rendering the pixel-art portraits in high definition, so players who skipped the 1994 MS-DOS original finally get to see the character art that drove the original's cult following in South Korea.
The Three Elven Sub-Groups in the Lore
The elven side of the Astonishia Story kingdoms is not monolithic. Reading the source material, three sub-groups are clearly distinguishable, and each one pushes a different political outcome.
| Elven Sub-Group | Leader or Figure | Stance in the Astonishia Story factions war |
|---|---|---|
| Pure-blood High Elves | Brimhild, the eternally youthful queen | Pursue the ancient god's power to replace the Life Tree, even at the cost of human casualties |
| Half-Elf Outcasts | Francis De La Cross, former knight of Palmira | Reject both elven supremacism and human prejudice, operate as independent agents |
| Loyalist Elven Soldiers | Various NPCs in the elven chapters | Follow Brimhild's command without question, serve as the bulk of enemy encounters in the elven maps |
The pure-blood elves represent tradition and survival at any cost. The half-elf outcasts represent the personal cost of the ancient race politics. And the loyalist soldiers represent the rank-and-file consequences of those decisions. Players running the Astonishia Story elves playthrough quickly notice that Brimhild never appears as a generic villain — she is acting with the same logic any dying-civilization leader would use, which is what makes the remake's writing interesting for newcomers in 2027.
How the Human Kingdoms of Palmira and Ferarin React
Palmira and Ferarin are the two human powers the elven crisis collides with. The 5th Infantry of Palmira — Lloyd's unit — is the military arm that ends up escorting the holy artifact the elves want. Ferarin plays a more ambiguous role as a rival human kingdom willing to deal with Brimhild if it weakens Palmira. The Astonishia Story kingdoms map is therefore a three-cornered standoff, not a simple humans-versus-elves binary.
| Kingdom | Core Identity | Elven Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Palmira | Knightly human kingdom with the strongest army | Officially neutral toward elves, but actively guards the Wand of Kinan against elven theft |
| Ferarin | Rival human kingdom, more pragmatic | Open to secret pacts with Brimhild if it shifts the balance against Palmira |
| The Elven Realm | Impoverished remnant of the Life Tree era | Desperate, expansionist, hunting for any source of life magic |
The Astonishia Story ferarin angle is one of the most under-discussed parts of the remake, because most Western coverage of the 1994 original focused on Lloyd and Francis. New players going in cold in 2027 will find that the political maneuvering between Palmira and Ferarin is the reason a half-elf thief can disrupt an entire continent — both kingdoms want to use the elven crisis rather than solve it.
Brimhild, Francis, and the Personal Stakes of the Elven War
The Astonishia Story elves story works because it is built around two charismatic figures with opposite motivations. Brimhild wants her people to live; Francis wants to stop her from damning them by unleashing the ancient god. Neither is purely right, which is why the remake is leaning into the high-definition character art — players need to read the emotion on these faces, not just parse the dialogue.
Brimhild: The Queen Who Refused to Let Her People Die
Brimhild is described in the source material as "eternally youthful," but that line carries a quiet horror. She has watched generations of her subjects wither as the Life Tree's death worked its way through the elven population. The Astonishia Story backstory frames her pursuit of the ancient god's power not as greed but as triage — the elves will be extinct within a human lifetime if nothing changes. Her decision to set her sights on the Wand of Kinan, which Lloyd's Palmira 5th Infantry is escorting, is a direct consequence of that calculus.
The political weight here matters for players reading the Astonishia Story factions in 2027. Brimhild is not a cackling antagonist; she is a leader making the same kind of morally grey choice a human wartime prime minister would make. The remake's writer room is reportedly keeping her dialogue humanized, which is a strong signal that the elven plot will carry the same emotional resonance the 1994 Korean original built for players who already knew her arc.
Francis De La Cross: The Half-Elf Who Refused Both Sides
Francis is the personal axis of the Astonishia Story ferarin and Palmira tension, because he is a half-elf who earned his knighthood in the Palmira 5th Infantry before defecting. He is the one who steals the Wand of Kinan at the start of the game, and his motivation is never simple. According to the Wikipedia plot summary, Francis rejects both the elven supremacism of Brimhild's court and the human prejudice he experienced inside Palmira's army. The Astonishia Story backstory gives him a singular position: he is the only character who sees the Life Tree's death, the human kingdoms' exploitation of that death, and the ancient god's danger all at once.
That position is what makes Francis useful as a guide character for newcomers. The Astonishia Story elves player who skips dialogue will still see Francis's decisions play out across the grid-based battle maps the remake is showcasing in its announcement trailer. That trailer, which NIS America uploaded in the run-up to the February 11, 2027 release, includes the new pixel-art redraw and the grid combat system, and players can find it on the Astonishia Story official channel on YouTube for a visual preview of how these characters look in the modern build.
How the Elven Plot Connects to the Wand of Kinan and the Ancient God
The Astonishia Story ferarin and Palmira standoff only matters because there is a physical object at the center of it. The Wand of Kinan is a holy staff that Lloyd's unit is transporting at the start of the game, and the elves want it because it is the conduit to the ancient god's power. The Astonishia Story kingdoms tension is therefore a question of who gets to hold the lever, not who is morally right. Lloyd's unit is transporting at the start of the game, and the elves want it because it is the conduit to the ancient god's power. The Astonishia Story kingdoms tension is therefore a question of who gets to hold the lever, not who is morally right, and the deeper mechanism behind that conduit — how it siphons, stores, and weaponizes arcane power — is unpacked in our Astonishia Story Magic Lore breakdown, which reveals why every faction treats the artifact as a strategic chokepoint rather than a sacred relic.
How the Staff Drives Faction Conflict
The Wand of Kinan's role in the Astonishia Story elves plot is to force every faction into direct conflict. Palmira treats it as a holy relic that must be protected; the elves treat it as the only viable replacement for the Life Tree; and Francis treats it as a weapon too dangerous for either side to possess. This three-way framing is what gives the grid-based combat system — one of the features NIS America is hyping for the 2027 remake — a narrative reason to exist. Every battle is a faction pushing toward or away from the Wand.
| Faction | Reason to Pursue the Wand | Reason to Destroy or Hide It |
|---|---|---|
| Palmira | Preserve the holy relic and Palmira's political legitimacy | None — Palmira's leadership never considers destruction |
| Brimhild's Elves | Use the ancient god's power to replace the Life Tree | None — the queen sees the Wand as the only elven survival path |
| Francis De La Cross | Steal it before either kingdom can deploy it | His preferred outcome, to keep the ancient god's power sealed |
For players running the Astonishia Story elves playthrough for the first time, this table is a useful quick-reference for the political motivations behind each encounter. The plot is not a fetch quest; it is a faction-level argument about who gets to decide the future of the elven race.
The Ancient God Threat: Why Half-Elves Exist in the Story
The ancient god is the unseen third party in the Astonishia Story factions war. Brimhild wants to wake it; Francis wants to keep it asleep; and Palmira's high command barely acknowledges it exists. The Astonishia Story backstory links the ancient god to the existence of half-elves, because the original lore describes half-elves as descendants of humans who had contact with the god's lingering power generations ago. That is why Francis exists as a character at all — he is living proof of the danger both kingdoms are ignoring.
The 2027 remake is reportedly going to lean into this lore layer. According to the official store page summary, the Elven Queen "sets her sights on the powers of an ancient god," and the remake's marketing language is keeping that phrase in the spotlight. For new players, the simplest way to read the Astonishia Story elves angle is this: Brimhild is solving a survival crisis, Francis is preventing a worse crisis, and the human kingdoms are too busy fighting each other to notice either of them.
Faction Power Map: Who Actually Wins in the Astonishia Story Backstory
Reading the source material closely, the Astonishia Story kingdoms do not end in a clean victory for any side. The 1994 original wrapped its elven plot on an ambiguous note, and the remake appears to be keeping that structure. Below is a faction power map that reflects how each side enters and exits the main conflict.
| Faction | Position at Game Start | Position at Story Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Palmira | Dominant human military, holds the Wand | Military victory, but political cost from the Ferarin intrigue |
| Ferarin | Weaker human kingdom, opportunistic | Gains leverage but loses standing when the elven plot collapses |
| Brimhild's Elves | Desperate, dying race, hunting the Wand | The elven survival plan is stopped, but the queen's long-term goal is not erased |
| Francis and the Half-Elves | Independent, ideologically isolated | Prevent the ancient god from being awakened, but receive no recognition from either kingdom |
| The Ancient God | Dormant, referenced as forbidden power | Remains sealed at the end of the Astonishia Story backstory |
The Astonishia Story ferarin player will notice that the rival kingdom never actually wins a clean victory — it merely trades one form of dependence for another. The Astonishia Story elves player will notice that Brimhild's plan fails, but her people are not erased. And the Palmira loyalist will notice that Lloyd's unit pays the heaviest price in lives, even though the kingdom's flag is still flying when the credits roll.
Why the Elven Plot Resonates With 2027 Players
The Astonishia Story backstory is about civilizations making hard choices under pressure, and that theme lands differently in 2027 than it did in 1994. The original Korean RPG framed the elven crisis as a fantasy staple — a dying race, a forbidden god, a stolen artifact. The 2027 remake is positioning the same story for a global audience that has spent two decades playing games about morally grey faction politics, and Brimhild's calculated pursuit of the ancient god is the kind of character writing that survives that translation.
Players who only know the franchise from the announcement trailer should be aware that the elven plot is not decorative. The Astonishia Story factions war is the structural engine of the entire game, and the Palmira vs Ferarin vs Elves triangle is what every battle and every dialogue choice hangs on. Even if a player skips the lore and treats the remake as a pure tactical RPG, the faction pressure is what generates the encounters on the grid-based maps. The backstory is the load-bearing wall.
Reading the Astonishia Story Elves Through Character Backstory and World Building
For new players in 2027, the best way to read the Astonishia Story elves plot is to anchor it to three concrete things: Brimhild's leadership crisis, Francis's half-elf identity, and the Life Tree's death. Everything else — the Ferarin intrigue, the Palmira military culture, the ancient god threat — is downstream of those three points. Once those are clear, the rest of the Astonishia Story factions map falls into place naturally.
The 2027 remake's grid-based combat system, the high-definition pixel redraw, and the "Round Up and Recruit" mercenary hook are all gameplay features, but they sit on top of the same elven crisis that drove the 1994 original. A player who goes into the remake without that context will still enjoy the tactical combat, but a player who reads the Astonishia Story backstory first will recognize every map as a faction's argument about the future of the elven race. That is the layer the remake is selling, and it is the reason the elven plot is still being discussed in 2026 even though the original game shipped thirty-two years earlier.
The Astonishia Story ferarin player, the Astonishia Story palmira loyalist, and the Astonishia Story elves purist all get a different experience from the same plot. That is the design strength the remake is preserving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the Elven Queen in Astonishia Story elves lore?
The Elven Queen is Brimhild, an eternally youthful ruler whose people began dying out one century before the main story after the Life Tree withered. She pursues the ancient god's power as a replacement life source, which puts her in direct conflict with Palmira's escort of the Wand of Kinan. According to community archives of the 1994 source material, she is portrayed as a calculated leader rather than a one-note antagonist, a tone the 2027 remake appears to be keeping.
Why does Francis De La Cross steal the Wand of Kinan?
Francis is a half-elf knight who served in the Palmira 5th Infantry before defecting, and he steals the Wand of Kinan to keep it out of both Brimhild's hands and Palmira's political grasp. The Astonishia Story backstory frames him as someone who has experienced prejudice from humans and supremacism from elves, so he operates as an independent agent. His theft is the inciting incident of the entire game.
What is the difference between Palmira and Ferarin in the Astonishia Story kingdoms?
Palmira is the dominant human military kingdom that guards the Wand of Kinan through the 5th Infantry. Ferarin is a rival human kingdom that is more pragmatic and willing to negotiate with Brimhild if it weakens Palmira. The Astonishia Story ferarin storyline plays out as a quieter political subplot that runs underneath the main elven crisis and the grid-based combat.
When is the Astonishia Story remake releasing?
According to the official Steam store page, the Astonishia Story remake is planned for a February 11, 2027 release on Windows, with single-player and Family Sharing support and full controller compatibility. The game is being developed by DAEWON MEDIA CO., LTD. and WAYCODER CO., LTD., and published by NIS America, with an ESRB T (Teen) rating.
Do I need to know the 1994 original to follow the elven plot?
No, the 2027 remake is built as an entry point. The Astonishia Story elves plot is fully self-contained through the Brimhild, Francis, and Life Tree setup, and the high-definition character redraw is designed to introduce those characters to new players visually. Veterans of the 1994 MS-DOS original will recognize the political tension, but the remake's writing is structured so a first-time player can follow the faction politics without prior context.