Harken

Doctor Harken is Dominion Arcanist who has gone beyond ethics to create monstrous abominations, and was involved in the destruction of Freemark.

He created a device to activate the Cenotaph. He believed he could use it to control the Anthem of Creation. However, his tampering with the device led to the Heart of Rage cataclysm, destroying Freemark. Harken was never seen again after that day.

Biography[]

Harken is a tall bald man from Stralheim. He has a sarcastic way of speaking to others.

He is seen wearing Dominion clothes during the fall of Freemark. However, he simply wears plain clothes during his hunt. He also wears a face mask when outside the walls like other Arcanists.

Harken has the ability to gate himself to different locations, along with the objects he is holding.

Overview[]

Harken has been involved in the story since the very beginning. Ten years before the present day, he was seen for the very first time in Bastion along with dominion troops.

The Fall of Freemark[]

Eight years before Haluk and his team's attempt to silence the Heart of Rage, Harken stood at the head of the Dominion's assault on the city of Freemark, along with the Monitor. Despite the valiant effort of the Freelancers and Sentinels, the city's walls fell, allowing the Dominion to flood in. The doomed Sentinels eventually led them to the Shaper relic contained under Freemark, known as the Cenotaph. Despite there being more Sentinels, the Furies swiftly dispatched them.

Freelancer Jani tried taking a shot at Harken. But, the Monitor easily shielded him, forcing her and a child she was protecting to flee. With every obstacle out of the way, Harken inserted a device into the Cenotaph, believing it would grant the Dominion control over the Anthem of Creation. Cenotaph created a massive cataclysm known as the Heart of Rage. It was thought that Harken had perished in the cataclysm.

The Sunken Cell[]

As evident by a Dominion facility discovered by Corvus after the Silencing of the Heart of Rage, Harken was involved in experiments with the Anthem and Shaper relics even before the fall of Freemark. The result of one such experiment is The Unfathomed, an massive Fury.

According to Corvus, the device which was used to control the Cenotaph but failed, was made here.

Echoes of Reality[]

A few months after silencing the Heart of Rage, Grandmaster Adams and Corvus discovered more Dominion activity in Bastion because of an anomaly in the sky. It was found that Harken was still alive. An investigation by the Freelancer soon revealed that Harken and a Dominion battalion known as The Spear were involved in a starting a cataclysm, which was later called Echo of Reality.

Harken was located manipulating a Shaper artifact inside the Bane Engine. Although he escaped at first, he was soon apprehended despite unusual proficiency at the use of gate technology, when multiple Freelancer teams intercepted his strider. He was imprisoned in Fort Tarsis.

When questioned by Adams and Commander Vule back at Fort Tarsis, he revealed that The Spear had in fact started the cataclysm against orders, seeking to prove herself more successful than her late brother; by way of sacrifice instead of cypher powers. Harken offered his assistance in silencing the cataclysm, but as the Shaper storm was impenetrable to conventional means, he instead suggested completing the Egress, a gating device which allowed to travel in and out of the Shaper storm. To that end, he sends the Freelancer to collect quills from a bristleback and a Dominion transtator; he also wanted the pneumatic leg of an Escari tank, which he later revealed was a prank to see how far the Freelancer will go to stop the cataclysm.

When the Freelancer returned, Harken had vanished from his cell only to mysteriously reappear, enjoying an apple, boasting he could've left at any time, but he chose to stay. When he was being imprisoned again, Harken insisted he genuinely wanted to help and showed the finished Egress, advising the Freelancer to attach it to the Dawn Shield.

When the cataclysm did not subside despite the Spear's death, the Freelancer confronted Harken. Harken defended that Arcanists are not omniscient and suggested the Freelancer to stop thinking like a lancer and more like an Arcanist and return to the cataclysm to study it.

With multiple entries into the cataclysm, Harken found out that the cataclysm was not spear, the person, but it was indeed the actual spear in the ruin. Without its destruction, the reality within the cataclysm would keep reflecting itself like echoes. This was effectively making The Spear and the wings of the spear immortal. Unfortunately, the spear (weapon) itself was encased in an impenetrable crystal, so Harken requested crystal samples so to determine a way to destroy it.

After colecting enough crystal samples, Harken made a new device attachable to the Dawn Shield. Using this, the Freelancer entered the storm one last time to destroy the spear and stop the cataclysm once and for all.

Upon destroying the Spear, Harken was accused of planning everything. Harken soon cut his communications link with the Freelancer and escaped from his cell, casually strolling out of Fort Tarsis, while eating another apple. When the Freelancer returned, they find a letter from Harken, denying Vara's accusations and a promise to aid the Freelancer in the future when his help is needed.