King Irwin
| King Irwin | |
| Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age | |
| Japanese name | アーウィン |
| Romaji | Āu~in |
| Race | Human |
| Voice actor | Kenyu Horiuchi (Japanese) Jamie Ballard (English) |
King Irwin is a character in Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age. He was the last King of Dundrasil, husband of Queen Eleanor, and the Hero's father.
Once the captain of Eleanor's bodyguard, he fell in love with his charge and became Dundrasil's King when Robert abdicated the throne to enjoy his retirement. Both Irwin and his Queen perished in Mordegon's attack on Dundrasil.
Appearances[edit]
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age[edit]
Though Irwin died when the Hero was just a baby, he makes several appearances throughout the game in flashbacks and visions.
In Rab's intermission chapter in the Definitive Edition, he relives several key moments from his life as part of an illusion created by Grand Master Pang, including Irwin asking for his daughter Eleanor's hand in marriage and the Hero's birth and naming. His final vision is of an alternate world in which Dundrasil was not destroyed, and Irwin and Eleanor were able to raise the Hero as a prince.
In Act 2, the party learns that people who sleep at the Warrior's Rest Inn in the Zwaardsrust Region have begun to experience strange and disturbing dreams of a knight in Drasilian armour lamenting his fate, and a woman imploring the dreamer to free him from his misery. After staying at the inn themselves and experiencing this dream, the party travels to the ruins of Dundrasil to investigate the cause. The party enters the passage once used by Dundrasil's royal family as a secret escape route and comes face to face with the Restless Knight, the tormented figure from the dream. Once defeated, the knight reveals himself to be none other than Irwin, now under the thrall of a beast known as the Gloomnivore which has been feeding off his despair. Eleanor begs the Hero to free her husband from his endless nightmare, and he is drawn into a vision of the night Dundrasil fell.
The Hero sees the entirety of the Colloquy of Kings that was only briefly glimpsed during the game's opening cutscene. Irwin brings the infant Luminary before Rab, King Carnelian, and the King Gustaf of Sniflheim and the Sultan of Gallopolis, and the monarchs discuss the boy's fate. Led by Gustaf and Carnelian, Irwin's peers suggest that the Luminary may be the source of the approaching evil and all but demand that Irwin kill the child to spare the world from calamity. Irwin is outraged, but this was merely a test of his devotion to his son - in truth, the Luminary had the Colloquy's complete faith, and if Irwin had faltered, his fellow kings would have taken the Hero from him.
Just as the meeting concludes, the castle is attacked by hundreds of monsters. Irwin dons his armour and escorts his wife, son, and Princess Jade of Heliodor through the royal escape passage. He remains behind to fight off a Barbatos and a pair of Moosifers while Eleanor flees with the children. After his victory, he is approached by King Carnelian, now possessed by Mordegon, who murders him.
After witnessing this final scene, the Hero returns to the present. Hearing words of encouragement from his mother, he shines with the light of the Luminary and reveals the Gloomnivore. Once it is defeated, Irwin's spirit is freed and the Hero regains the powers of the Luminary, which had been sealed away since the fall of Yggdrasil.
In Act 3, Irwin can be found back under the Gloomnivore's thrall. The creature has received a boost in power from Calasmos and is now Malicious.
See also[edit]