Frieren: What Is the Holy City of Strahl & Why Is It Important?
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 the Holy City of Strahl, a place in the Central Lands that has been mentioned more than once in the series. In this article, we are going to talk about Strahl and reveal all the information you need to know about it.
The Holy City of Strahl is a central location for the Priests in Frieren
We on Fiction Horizon haven’t talked much about the world of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. We’ve mostly discussed its characters and their powers and abilities, but the world itself is filled with some beautiful concepts and locations. After talking about Aureole and Äußerst earlier, the time has come for us to talk about another location in the series – the Holy City of Strahl, which is an exceptionally important location in the series, especially for the Priests.
As far as Strahl is concerned, we have to state immediately that we don’t really know much about it, which is ironic since Strahl is an exceptionally important location in the world of Frieren. It has been mentioned on more than one occasion, and every time that Strahl was mentioned, you could see that the characters respected this town and that it was a major location. This why it is so ironic that we know so little about it; namely, both the Royal Capital and Äußerst were mentioned in a similar capacity, but we’ve seen both of these locations – heck, even Aureole can be listed here, even though we still haven’t seen it, but it is the place where Frieren is heading.
And yet, despite all that importance, the Holy City of Strahl is still a big enigma. Geographically, we know it is located in the Central Lands and that it is a coastal city, as was seen on the map shown at the beginning of the series. It probably has a port, as it has access to the Middle Sea. It is close to other smaller towns, such as Warm, Turk, and Größe, but we really don’t have any additional information about the geography of the Central Lands. We know that the Holy City of Strahl is surrounded by a forest and that Heiter had a small house on the outskirts of the city, where he lived until his death. It is assumed that he was buried in Strahl.
As far as the role of the Holy City of Strahl is concerned, we know that it is closely tied to Priests. Just like Äußerst is a pivotal location for Mages, it seems that Priests in Frieren are related to the Holy City of Strahl. This has been confirmed by Sein’s brother, who revealed that Heiter – after becoming a well-respected Priest – had come from the Holy City of Strahl to invite him to come to live and study with them in the city. This is why we assume that the Priests are educated there.
They are also certified there, as Heiter brought a symbol of acceptance to Sein’s brother, who was, from that moment on, a certified Priest in the eyes of the Holy City. We assume that the central organization related to Priests is there and that the main people of that organization also live in Strahl. As seen, a Priest does not have to live there, but most high-ranking Priests were in the city or its vicinity. We also assume that it is a large city and an important post for all travelers and adventures who pass through the Central Lands. And with this, the known story of the Holy City of Strahl is over.
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