- "They will be reborn in me, as I rise from elf, to emperor, to god!" — Florian at the beginning of his "ascension".
Florian Greenheart is an elven male, a soldier of the Sanctuary, and he is secretly Emperor Solarius of the Glorious Empire. He lives in the Imperial Palace.
Overlord II[]
This article contains major end-game spoilers. Reader discretion is advised. According to his own words, Florian was born without any magical powers, which caused the other elves to bully him relentlessly during his youth. After the fall of the Third Overlord, the young elf attempted to steal the Tower Heart, hoping to harness it and unlock his magical potential. Unfortunately for him, the Tower Heart instead became unstable and exploded, causing the obliteration of the old lands in an event that would come to be known as the Great Cataclysm. This event was followed swiftly by a magical plague which caused mutations in living beings, transforming harmless creatures into bloodthirsty monsters. This forced the survivors to flee the old lands, abandoning their homes and settlements and fleeing to safer regions. In time, the old lands would become The Wastelands; a devastated expanse of barren stone, overgrown with mutated flora. In the aftermath of these various disasters, humans began to fear magic greatly, blaming all magical creatures such as Fairies and Unicorns for the destruction of their old homes. in this growing prejudice, Florian saw an opportunity.
He assumed the identity of Solarius; a noble human warrior who sought to purge the world of all magic and “save mankind.” Florian easily fooled the frightened people into serving him, and soon, his armies were marching out to collect and destroy any and all magical creatures and artifacts they could find, viewing the act of destroying such things as a “Cleansing.” Secretly, however, his legions were collecting magical energy and returning it to a containment vat deep beneath the Imperial Palace. Solarius appointed governors in each town to oversee his affairs with all of them unaware of his identity or motives.
Almost no one knew that Solarius was, in fact, an elf, because he wore a golden mask that hid his face and never spoke, letting his official spokesperson Marius do the talking for him. He positioned his most trusted followers in control of various towns in the land, placing governor Borius in control of the small town of Nordberg and the Everlight Governess in charge of Everlight.
When not posing as emperor Solarius, Florian Greenheart served as an elite-soldier under the command of Queen Fay, a humanoid fairy that offered protection to all magical creatures in her sanctuaries. Florian claimed himself to be a benevolent hero who was loyal to Fay, and brought all magical beings he could find to the sanctuary. In reality, Florian merely wished to gather all the creatures in one place, and then reveal the location to the Empire's army under the guise of Solarius. This rarely ended in success however, as the creatures that inhabited the sanctuary were to difficult to fight for his soldiers.
He solved this problem by instructing his forces to attack the Wasteland Sanctuary with firebombs, which proved extremely destructive since the sanctuary was mostly made up by the forest. Before this operation was carried out however, he was accidentally captured by his own soldiers and brought to empire city. He was presumably later freed by his right-hand man Marius, the only person to know about his secret.
He had hoped to absorb the energy of the blue hive in the Magic Containment Room, but the Overlord intervened, and broke free of the Empire Arena and took his Blues back.
When the Fourth Overlord confronted Solarius, Solarius revealed his identity and plans to the dark lord. When all the energy from the Tower Heart used to break Empire City's anti-magic shield was absorbed into the vat he jumped into it, hoping to shed his physical form and become a god. Instead, he summoned a hideous creature called the Devourer who devoured both him and Marius. Florian still believes he is becoming a god until the moment the Overlord brings his deluded reign to a painful end by overcharging the elf with his dark magic, destroying him completely.
Appearances[]
Florian Greenheart, alias Emperor Solarius
He is seen little as Solarius throughout the course of the game, and is first mentioned as Solarius by Marius, when he says that Emperor Solarius will not be happy about this. He is next seen upon the Overlord's entry to the Magic Containment Room in the Imperial Palace, where he is having his 'daily reinvigoration' by draining magic from the vat in the centre of the room. He is next seen in the imperial lodge above the Empire Arena with Marius, and is later forced to flee because the pillars holding up his lodge are destroyed by the Overlord and his minions. The next time he is seen is when the Overlord has entered Empire City and is seen 'cowering' behind his own Anti-Magic Shield that protects his palace. Rose also mentions him, saying that he was meant to bring order to the land, but his power has peaked and he has become unstable. In the imperial palace, the Overlord encounters him when he says he has escaped the arena dungeons with the aid of a Fairy, and next when he reveals himself to the Overlord and jumps into the containment vat to become a god. The final time he is seen is when he declares that his ascension has come, and he and the Devourer explode into a pile of blue slime.
Personality and Traits[]
Florian was extremely hate-filled and has selfish personalities, having no compassion for neither humans nor elves. Instead, he gladly manipulated the two species into fighting each other to make himself more powerful.
Despite being highly intelligent, he has a very young, laid-back and respectless attitude. Thus, he chose to let his right-hand man Marius speak for him when he was posing as Emperor Solarius, since his way of speaking would most likely raise his suspicions.
Florian use the "magical cleansing" program he gain magical powers like teleport, he can also temporarily resist the Magical Ooze.
Behind the Scenes[]
- Similar to how the Glorious Empire is a pastiche of the Roman Empire, Solarius' mask seems to be an amalgam of several well-known emperors. However, the aquiline features mostly invoke later depictions of Gaius Julius Caesar.
- Despite the fact that Marius speaks for him all the time, Florian does not seem to like him, as he once harshly told him to shut up while slapping him.
- Also, Borius says to Marius in Nordberg that his brother knew the Emperor favored him, and so persuaded Solarius to send Borius to Nordberg.
- Only Marius (and perhaps Rose) knows Florian's true identity, as Florian is nearly killed by the soldiers of The Glorious Empire twice. For example, in Nordberg, Borius commands the ballista to fire at Florian when he is on the bridge to the Nordberg Sanctuary. It could be argued that Florian actually signals for this though, in order to deceive the overlord. Later, Florian is captured by Empire Soldiers in the Wasteland, who then probably release him once in the Imperial City.
- He is voiced by Marc Silk.
Trivia[]
- Florian is arguably the first Elf antagonist in the series to be truly evil, as he willingly created the Glorious Empire and hunted down all magical creatures and items, not only to gain magic himself, but to hopefully also be reborn as a god. Unlike Oberon, who was not evil but cursed and Erasmus, who was only an enemy because he was an ally to one of the First Overlord's siblings.
- Florian can be found in the Nordberg Sanctuary when you're getting the Reds. When you have the Reds attack him, the fireballs go off to the sides.
- Florian's emperor mask is shown in both his Solarius character model and in the intro, to be a full head covering mask (minus his jaw), however, when he reveals his true identity, he just puts on the face part of the mask.
- Strangely enough, while guiding the Overlord to the rest of the Tower Heart Shards Florian is capable of traversing the magical ooze enveloping a majority of The Wastelands without any harm to himself.
- Whether this is a developer oversight, or a result of his continued experiments to achieve godhood is unclear.
Gallery[]
