Hero of Brightwall

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“

Teach me how to be a Hero!
— The Hero of Brightwall

”

The Hero of Brightwall (also known as the Prince/Princess and subsequently the King/Queen) is the protagonist of Fable III and the second child of the protagonist of Fable II, and begins the game as the Prince/Princess of Albion in what is presumably his/her late teenage years. The first part of the game is called "The Road to Rule," and requires the Hero to gain support for a revolution to overthrow their elder brother Logan, the current tyrannical king of Albion. The Hero must make promises to people to gain control of the region, and then choose to fulfil those promises or deny them when they become the ruler of Albion. The title of "The Hero of Brightwall" is given to him/her early in the game by the town's librarian Samuel, as they make a promise to reopen the Brightwall Academy.

Once the Hero has gained control of Albion, he/she will have the power to shape people's lives and the country itself, as well as wage a campaign against the army of a shadowy creature known as The Crawler.

Afterwards he/she embarks on more quests, including the decisision of the future of Ravenscar Keep.

Story

Beginnings

The Prince/Princess and his/her dog are roused from bed in the castle by the butler, Jasper, and are told to meet his/her friend, Elise/Elliot. Elise/Elliot tell him/her that Logan seems more mad these days, and asks the Prince/Princess to speak to the castle staff and Logan. After the speech, the Prince/Princess trains with Walter Beck; as Walter is about to tell him/her something important, Elise/Elliot bursts in to tell them of a riot taking place outside the castle. Walter goes to speak to Logan, and Elise/Elliot insists that they go talk to Logan also. Logan, feeling betrayed by his sibling, makes him/her choose between the lives of Elise/Elliot or the ringleaders of the riot. Whatever choice the Hero makes, he/she swears to Logan that he/she will never forgive him for doing this.

Revolution

Later that night, Walter and Jasper take the Prince/Princess, along with the Dog out of the castle through the tomb of his/her parent, the Hero of Bowerstone. There, he/she is given the Guild Seal and meets Theresa in the Road to Rule, who confirms the Prince/Princess is indeed a Hero. Also she mentions that she guided his/her parent to power 50 years ago. She encourages the Hero to gather allies to claim the throne of Albion and to improve his/her skills. Going through the caverns underneath the tomb, the group finds a Cullis Gate, which takes them to the Sanctuary of the Hero's parent, and serves as their base for the Hero's journey.

The Hero and Walter travel to the Dweller Camp of Mistpeak Valley, via another Cullis Gate and meet the Dwellers and their leader, Sabine. Sabine requires proof of the Hero in order to trust him/her. First, the Hero travels to Brightwall and locate an item of the Hero's parent which is said to be in an underground cavern beneath the academy there. The Hero does so, fighting off hordes of Hollow Men, and finds the item: the music box his/her parent used to defeat Lucien Fairfax. Back at the Road to Rule, Theresa shows the Hero a vision of how far Logan had fallen, and it convinces the Hero even more to stop Logan once and for all. Next, the Hero is tasked to stop the mercenaries hassling the Dwellers. Disguising as a member of the gang, the Hero sneaks into their camp, but is quickly discovered at the camp's third checkpoint. Fighting his/her way through the camp, the Hero is challenged by the mercenary leader, Saker. The Hero defeats Saker, and is given the choice to spare him and gain him as an ally, or to kill him, in which either way they would leave the Dwellers alone. Finally, the Hero is tasked to bring food to the starving Dwellers; the Hero does this by doing quests for the villagers of Brightwall. Afterwards, Samuel, the librarian of the the Academy, dubs the Hero as "The Hero of Brightwall", and asks for a promise to reopen the Academy. Samuel then sends deliverers to give food to the Dwellers in Dweller Camp for the Hero. With the music box, security, and food given to Sabine and his people, the Dweller leader also makes the Hero promise to give back the mountains to the Dwellers if they follow him/her into battle.

The Hero meets Walter at the Monorail Station, but the monorail is attacked by Hobbes, and the two warriors fight their way through to Mourningwood, where an old fort is run by two of Walter's friends, Major Swift and Ben Finn. After helping them defeat a legion of Hollow Men, Swift, Finn, and the soldiers agree to follow the Hero, as long as he/she promises the guards to be able to, "protect Albion's people, instead of oppressing them".

Leaving the fort, Walter and the Hero travel back home to Bowerstone. Arriving in Bowerstone Industrial, they go through the Sewers and meet Page, the leader of the Bowerstone Resistance. She also requires proof of the Hero's capabilities, so the Hero once again goes out and does many quests, to gain favour with the people of Bowerstone. If the Hero chose to spare Elise/Elliot in the beginning of the game, the Hero would reunite with her/him. Soon, the people of Bowerstone begin to trust in the Hero, and Page has him/her join her in a rescue mission in Reaver's mansion of Millfields. Disguising themselves, the Hero and Page enter the party, but are soon forced to battle against the monsters inside, via Reaver's Wheel of Misfortune. Afterwards, when Page tells Reaver who the Hero is, Reaver allows them to leave with Kidd, the only survivor. Page pledges herself to the Hero's cause, only if he/she promises to take care of the poverty and oppression in Bowerstone Industrial.

A herald then announces that Logan has an address to deliver. The Hero and Ben Finn fearfully go the castle front yard, in which they witness Logan order one of his solders to execute Major Swift while in arrest for treason. Luckily, Swift passed a message on that allies could be found in the desert city of Aurora. The Hero, Walter, Finn, and Page make their way to the docks to secure a ship; Page remains behind while the three make their getaway. However, on their way, one of Logan's ships attacks them and all of them are shipwrecked on Aurora. Ben is missing, so the Hero and Walter go looking for him in the Unknown Shore. Travelling through many dark caverns, Walter and the Hero are taunted by the Crawler, who eventually kidnaps Walter and begins to corrupt him. The Hero manages to save Walter and they both make it outside. Forced to leave Walter behind, due to his weakness from being possessed, on his/her way to the city, the Hero goes looking for help as he/she across the desert, while the Crawler taunts him/her with visions of Walter along the way. The Hero eventually passes out, but is found by Ben and Kalin, leader of the Aurorans and brought to the temple in their city for aide, along with Walter. After recovering, the Hero learns from Kalin that five years ago, the Crawler and its army came to Aurora and based themselves in Shadelight and had been a menace to the island since. She also tells the Hero how Logan came there four years ago and witnessed the death of his allies to the Crawler and promised to make Aurora an equal part of Albion and give the land protection, a promise he never upheld. The Hero makes the same promise and so the Aurorans join his/her cause. With all his/her allies and a recovered Walter gathered, the Hero decides now is the time to attack Albion in Bowerstone Old Quarter.

With the help of his/her generals and their soldiers, the Elite Soldiers are defeated and the Hero, along with Walter, make it to the castle. They bust down the door of the war room, where Logan immediately surrenders and offers to tell the truth of why he became a tyrant, but Walter says it would wait until Logan's trial. The Hero is finally crowned the new King/Queen of Albion.

Monarchy

Now the ruler of Albion, in the following day of the coronation, the Hero learns from Logan, during his trial, that he had been visited by Theresa and warned him that the Crawler was slowly making its way to consume Albion in darkness and would subsequently consume the rest of the unnamed world as well. Logan reveals, that this was the reason why he became a tyrant, in which the Hero can either spare him for this and gain him as an ally, or execute him in a firing squad at the castle front yard. The Hero confronts Theresa, yet again in the Road to Rule, who told him/her it was true: in exactly one year, the Crawler would attack Albion, and the Hero needed to raise 6,500,000 gold coins in the Kingdom Treasury to pay the army that would defeat the monster's minions.

Plenty of adventures lays ahead for the Hero as he/she tries to raise the money for Albion's future, including either keeping or breaking the promises he/she made during his/her travels, in which they are all informed by Hobson. Two of these quests involve moral income to the Treasury, one involving collecting a Diamond in the Sandfall Palace and the other involving collecting a Balverine Statue in Silverpines. There is a quest between, that involves reducing crime in Bowerstone, set in the Hideout.

364 days after being informed of the attack, the Hero and Hobson convene in the treasury again. Hobson says "happy anniversary" to the Hero and begins reading off the various trivial tasks on the day's agenda. Suddenly, Hobson is interrupted as a portal appears. The Hero enters the portal, travels to the Road to Rule and is greeted by Theresa, who proceeds to reflect and comment on the Hero's decisions as ruler over the past year before sending the Hero out to face the Crawler in what she calls the Hero's "true form", the ultimate manifestation of his/her morality. After leaving the Road to Rule, the Hero finds himself/herself warped one day into the future in the war room, alongside all his/her allies, where Walter mentions the results of the army's defence and says it is time for the group to attack.

The Hero, Walter and Ben Finn leave the castle and go to the Market, where they confirm that the Crawler is indeed attacking Albion. The Hero and the others fight several of the monster's minions, as they make their way through the market, until he/she begins to confront the Crawler itself. The Crawler then makes a desperate move: it assumes control of Walter's body and attacks the Hero with it. With little choice, the Hero finally slays the evil creature, but also Walter as well. Walter says the Hero made him proud, and dies in the arms of his student. The Hero erects a statue commemorating Walter in the courtyard of the castle. At Walter's funeral, all your allies to whom you kept your promises will thank you and say their farewells, while those to whom you broke your promises will be absent. Theresa then teleports herself from the Spire and onto the courtyard in order to congratulate the Hero on behalf of his/her actions and says "perhaps we shall meet again someday." In which the Hero responds by asking Theresa "aren't you going to tell me my future?" Theresa refuses to tell and says, "The future will reveal itself when it is ready to do so," and disappears back to the Spire.

Traitor's Keep

After the funeral ends, the Hero returns to the treasury with Hobson, who says he also grieved for Walter and says they should move to the throne room to further the future of Albion. An unknown amount of time passes as Hobson addresses minor decisions for improving Albion, and the Hero begins to fall asleep from boredom. However, his/her boredom is quickly put to rest when an unexpected assassin attacks the Hero. After a long duel, the unnamed assassin is slain, and Commander Milton arrives and requests that the King/Queen, along with Hobson, accompany him to Ravenscar Keep in order track down the three criminals responsible. First Professor Faraday is captured on Clockwork Island, then Mary Godwin at the Godwin Estate, but then it is revealed that the third criminal, General Turner, has been dead for six months. Milton is revealed to be the real culprit behind the assassination attempt, and he captures Hobson and the Hero and manages to use one of Mary Godwin's machines to copy the Hero's appearance, voice, clothing, weapons and abilities. He plans to kill the Hero and assume his/her place on the throne, but only so he can sabotage the Hero's rule and, in his mind, free Albion. However, the Hero manages to break free, due to Milton threatening to kill his/her Dog, and after a long duel he/she manages to defeat him. With his last breath, he says someone will succeed him, just as he had succeeded Turner, and then dies. Afterwards, the King/Queen decides the future of the prison with Lieutenant Hadley, either free the former Anti-Logan rebels, maintain the status quo, or subjugate his/her own citizens.

Afterwards, the Hero begins his/her reign over the peaceful times that were to follow for Albion.

Gameplay

When the Hero becomes King or Queen, they have a series of choices to make. Making the right choices and keeping your promises to those who helped you become King or Queen will put you in debt of 3,600,000 gold coins. Donate the two items (The Auroran Diamond and The Balverine Statue) will give back 1,200,000 gold, thus making the final total debt of 2,400,000. If you wish to keep all of your promises and save all of Albion, the total amount of gold one would need to save up would come to 8,900,000. While this may seem difficult to achieve, the best way of doing it would be to start buying up properties and renting them out from early on in the game, and all the businesses (pawnbrokers, taverns, and blacksmiths are good early choices). To help with this, when you're King/Queen, go to Sunset house and open the demon door, which yields 1 million gold.

By the end of the game, the Hero of Brightwall has followed in his/her father's/mother's footsteps and has become the greatest hero and warrior in Albion and is possibly one of the greatest heroes ever to have lived. This is believed to be because of the single handed defeat of the Crawler, one of the greatest threats ever posed to Albion, the selfless act of killing his/her mentor to save Albion and finally Jasper's greeting in the sanctuary, stating that the Hero performed a feat not even the Old King or Queen could have bested.

Because of the Hero's bloodline and his/her direct bloodline to William Black, the Hero can master all three of the heroic arts of Strength, Skill and Will. The Hero will physically change depending on each art, but unlike all other Heroes before him/her, the Hero can only access his/her Will energy by using a magical gauntlet that manipulates the power that they already have. This could be an explanation why the Hero showed no Heroic attributes before touching the guild seal apart from large strength despite the Hero's rather slim physique before the campaign for the throne begins.

Relationships

Logan

Logan is the Hero of Brightwall's elder brother and is one of the main enemies in the game. Little is known about the Hero's relationship with his/her brother before the game began. But it is stated in the game that Logan changed much over the years of his rule so the Hero and Logan could have had a close relationship before Logan's choice to become a tyrant. It is shown in the game that Logan has a rather protective view of his brother/sister, constantly referring to the hero as a child and keeping the hero in the castle away from Bowerstone. The Hero and Logan's relationship took a turn on the day the Hero left Bowerstone Castle. After the Hero interrupts Logan's meeting with Elise/Elliot, Logan gives the Hero a choice: to kill a group of protesters or Elise/Elliot. The Hero, despite which choice is made, tells Logan that he/she will never forgive them. Once the Hero takes the throne, he/she has a choice, to be good and spare Logan's life and gradually become allies again, or to execute his/her brother. If Logan is spared, he will state that he knows the Hero will never forgive him for the crimes he has committed.

Walter Beck

Sir Walter Beck was the Hero of Bowerstone's adviser and is the Hero of Brightwall's mentor; the Hero and Walter have a very close bond between them and Walter acts like a father figure to the Hero. Walter is also the Hero's guide and trainer teaching him/her how to fight with melee weapons and later on organizing their takeover of the throne. Walter is considered to be the Hero's greatest ally in their quest, and will remain loyal to the Hero regardless of his/her morality. After the Hero flees the castle with Jasper and Walter, it is up to Walter to direct the Hero, starting with recruiting Sabine, restoring Brightwall, recruiting the Albion army, joining with Page, travelling with the Hero to Aurora and finally helping to lead the Battle for Albion and the takeover of the throne. Finally, Walter was the one who crowned the Hero after the defeat of Logan and his army. Walter also helped run the Hero's armies for them and was the Hero's adviser in court during the Hero's reign when Albion was preparing for the arrival of the Crawler. The Hero will later have to kill Walter, when the Crawler possesses him, and Walter willingly accepts his fate. His last words to the Hero are that he/she always did him proud.

Jasper

Jasper is the first person the Hero speaks to in the game and is one of the most seen characters throughout the game. Jasper is the Hero's loyal servant, and was previously the servant of Logan before he was forced to step down for unknown reasons, most likely for making an unwanted statement on Logan's rule. Jasper has known the Hero and Logan since they were small children and is the caretaker of the Hero's Sanctuary after the Hero flees the castle.

Elise/Elliot

Elise/Elliot is the childhood sweetheart of the Hero of Brightwall. The Hero meets Elise/Elliot early the game and she/he the person who teaches them the dynamic touch. At the start of the game, Logan forces the Hero to choose to kill either a gang of protesters, or Elise/Elliot. Should you choose to have Elise/Elliot executed, they will tell the Hero they made the right choice, and that they love them. It is possible to marry Elise/Elliot, if you chose to have the protesters killed, later in the game.

Trivia

One of the first screen-shots showing the Hero of Fable III shows the Hero as having a striking resemblance to the fictional Napoleonic wars soldier Richard Sharpe.
Like previous titles, the hero's appearance will change with moral standing. Evil characters gain progressively greyer skin tones and eventually black eyes and eye sockets. Good characters gain a pale white skin with a faint glow and butterfly patterns on their bodies. After the Hero has beaten the final enemy, they will also gain "wings" which appear during special attacks and flourishes.
In Fable III, the character uses "guild seals" to upgrade ranged, magic, and melee skills and buying emotions or other social abilities, whereas in previous games, the upgrades were made using experience points or morality level. The seals work in a somewhat similar way, as you gain them from interacting with villagers as well as from combat.
- Also unlike previous titles, the Hero's appearance does not change as drastically as they become more skilled in these abilities. For instance, having a character with a Level 5 mastery of melee weapons will not produce a very buff and bulky character.
It was considered by Lionhead to make the Hero of Fable III chubby at the beginning the game, possible due to the Hero living with Logan at the castle at that point, but as stated in the E3 Combat Demo, apparently Lionhead chose not to include this feature in favour of a slimmer character.
According to OXM, the morph system will change for evil characters, making them "dangerously desirable" instead of even the female Heroes looking like, as put by Peter Molyneux, "Russian shot-putters."
The Hero now has a voice, and can choose a good or evil approach to the different conversation topics at certain points in the game, instead of the "interactive cut-scenes" seen in Fable II, where the player pushed up or down on the D-pad to select a non-verbal expression.
- Louis Tamone is said to voice the male Hero. It is currently speculated that Rachel Atkins voices the female hero.
The Hero is first introduced in Fable II, in the DLC See the Future quest, as an infant in a crib.
This is the first Hero to have an older brother, rather than an older sister.
This is the first Hero with a speaking role throughout the game.
This is the only Hero that doesn't get visibly older during the campaign.
In the Fable III Limited Edition card pack, the Hero is the King/Queen of Hearts.
The hero appears to be ambidextrous, carrying their sword/hammer in one hand and the gun in the other, just like Walter.
During the quest Life in the Castle, the Hero is incorrectly referred to as "Your Majesty", when a prince/princess should be referred to as "Your Highness".
This is the only hero in the series who is not referred to by a nickname; ie: Farm boy, or Sparrow.