Frieren: What Is Aureole & Why Does Frieren Want to Go There?

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a wonderful fantasy series combining Japanese craft with Western tropes. We on Fiction Horizon are covering the series, of course, and while we have talked about the characters and the plot of the series most often, this article will be a bit different as we are going to talk about a location. The location in question is Aureole, which seems to be the final destination that Frieren and her companions are heading to. Why is Aureole so important, and why does Frieren want to go there? Keep reading to find out!

Aureole is “The Land Where Souls Rest,” i.e., the place where Frieren could see Himmel once again

The world of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a very special one, but it is more or less a standard fantasy world seen in numerous other works, but with a unique touch that makes it stand out, even if only a bit. And while many locations have already been shown or visited by the protagonists, there are still numerous locations that the series has to explore. One of them will be the topic of this article, in which we will tell you everything about Aureole.

But first, a short introduction. At one point in the story, Frieren runs into her former traveling companion, the dwarf Eisen, while traveling with Fern. He then takes them to his home, and there, while they’re talking, Frieren inquires as to whether or not he requires assistance. He then confesses that he is searching for Flamme’s notes and requests assistance from the two of them.

Frieren discloses that most of Flamme’s discovered notes are actually fakes. Still, Eisen is adamant that the notes he seeks are authentic and claims that Heiter has discovered a clue to their whereabouts while conducting a study in the Holy City. After a brief adventure, the three of them are actually able to locate it very quickly with the assistance of Frieren and Fen.

As they discover the notes, we also learn a bit more about Flamme and Frieren’s relationship to her, but also about the goal of the notes. Namely, Flamme, while she was still alive and was teaching Frieren, properly predicted that the young Elf would make a mistake that she would regret and that she would, because of that, want to seek out an old comrade. This turned out to be true when Frieren realized that she had not cared enough for her former comrade, Himmel and that she knew almost nothing about him. This is why she wanted to find and see him again, which proved Flamme was correct.

So, how is all of this tied to the notes? In them, Flamme mentioned a place called Aureole, which is located deep in the Northern Lands, in Ende, where the castle of the Demon King is also located. Aureole is known as “The Land Where Souls Rest,” and it is a sort of heaven where the souls who die venture. Not many details are available about Aureole, but from what it seems, only the souls of heroes and good people go there; it is unknown whether the souls of Demons and criminals go to the same place, but we do assume that the manga will reveal more information about Aureole later on.

Based on the notes and the instructions, Flamme was actually there at one point in the story, and she actually conversed with her old comrades. As of this point in the story, it is not known if this is a lie, but the protagonist – and we, alongside them – believe that Aureole exists and that Flamme was not lying about its location and purpose. A scene showing her meeting three souls was also shown, implying that her story is true.

So, why does Frieren want to get to Aureole so eagerly? As we have said, she wants to correct her past mistakes. Namely, and this is due to her personality, Frieren never really bonded with her former comrades. Because Elves live for thousands of years, while humans live out their normal lifespan, she has a different perception of time, and a human lifespan is too short for her to form a meaningful bond with anyone.

On the other hand, she did care about her comrades, and she showed it both when Himmel and Heiter died, which proved that she was not emotionless as some characters wished to imply. While traveling with Fern, she remembered some of the episodes and memories she shared with her former companions and then realized that she was not fair to them and that she never bothered to learn much about them. Now, she thinks that such behavior was a mistake and wants to improve it, if possible.

This is where Aureole comes in. Frieren knows that necromancy is not a valid form of magic, as it seems, and that the dead cannot return, at least not in a normal fashion (there are ways of conjuring false ghosts or even controlling corpses, but that’s about it). This is why she quickly rejected such an idea, but Aureole is different. The souls residing in Aureole are dead, as Aureole is simply a place where deceased souls go once their bodies die. This is why it is comparable to heaven and why it is such a special place. And difficult to access as well.

The journey won’t be easy, that is for sure, but Frieren has made reaching Aureole her new goal, and unlike the previous one, which was to simply stroll around and collect spells, this one actually makes a lot of sense. Aureole is located in Ende, and to reach it, they will have to pass through the Demon King’s castle, which will certainly be an interesting experience and an important plot moment.

And that’s about it. This is all we know about Aureole at this moment, but more information is certainly going to be revealed later in the series. We will update this article once more information about this important location becomes known in the series.

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