Halen Terumi

"Through my heart lies a fire; a fire that can't be put out. I was given an unfair start, but with excessive practice and passion for what you do, nothing's ever impossible."

— Halen to June

"Halen Terumi", real name Senna Izath, is one of the main protagonists of Final Fantasy XVI. She is a young celebrity card-player, gambler, dancer, and professional athlete from Rosaria.

Personality
Halen is an energetic, optimistic, cheerful, and hopeful individual who takes an elegant pride in her capabilities in all of her hobbies. She enjoys challenging herself and pushing her to the limit in order to test her abilities for success. At the age of sixteen, she is the youngest member to join June Asmius's group and the youngest athletic celebrity in current Olion. Because of her young age, this affects Halen on a personal and mental level, as she believes her fans have high expectations for her abilities; this causes Halen to push herself even harder, ultimately shutting out her other passions to make meaningful friends, cook food, or take care of her pet Cactuar. Despite this, sometimes her fans are jealous of her success at the young age, and this can annoy her very much, as she believes even young celebrities need personal and private space. Although Halen considers the best at what she does, she believes there is always someone better than her outside of Rosaria and will do anything to test her abilities against them.

Although she is competitive, she rarely lets the product of fame get to her head. Halen is sweet, carefree, and kind when opening up to others about her hobbies and takes upon the world. Because of this, people find her to be a very comfortable person to live around even though her fame seems to rival many individuals. She is quite clumsy as well, as she struggles with pushing conversations forward or cooking lunch for her friends and herself. She also is very irresponsible at doing little tasks that involve taking care of certain objects, as she has the wealth to replace them very quickly. She shows this care for all of the friends, with special regards to Mari, Killian, Kazari, and June for their expressive and optimistic attitude. Halen's clumsiness also leads her to misunderstanding many people's intentions, and sarcasm or jokes fly right past her.

Halen has been nicknamed the "Trump Card Athlete" across Olion for being the surprise competitor that surpasses all those who are about to take home the competition. She excels at ballet dancing and archery skills, but her best abilities lie within her card skills as she excels at playing and memorizing strategies to over 60 different card games. She subsequently has hobbies in playing darts and Triple Triad, and is an avid card collector who treasures rarity and variety. For Triple Triad, Halen holds the valuable "Eden" card, and finds it as a symbol of her progress. She treasures her achievements in her abilities with certain athletic trophies in order to show to her mother, making her a very passionate and lovable individual who believes family is vital to success.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In reality, Halen's real name is Senna Denek, the daughter of the Edelian Empire's political and military leader Izath Denek (AKA Baron Remlet). Her mother is Michi Terumi, who has severe mental trauma after giving birth to Halen and her sister Sundai, which led them to being abandoned by Baron after her pregnancy. Because of this, Halen has severe mental traumatic issues as well, and chooses to shut out her past life to focus on the present, believing her father could be a better person in the future despite his abandonment. However, after her father reveals herself to be the leader of the Empire with multiple wives, Halen loathes her father to the point where she would murder her if he was within her presence. Her strong distaste for her father's ideals began to infect her mentality, creating a second version of Halen that she nicknames the "Ugly Spark." During her "Ugly Spark", Halen has anger issues, tantrums, multiple seizures, and chaotic traumatic flashbacks and visions through her mind from before she was abandoned by her father, and this always results in her being sent to the hospital for recovery and treatment. Halen becomes careless about her "Ugly Spark" spasms and always forgets the memory of them occurring beforehand, believing another made-up story in order to get past her spasms.

When she is revealed to be Baron Remlet's daughter to the public, she is instantly dethroned of her title and is banned from competitive athletics. This takes a massive tole on Halen's health, instantly giving her painstaking depression and anxiety for being in public. Halen fantasizes about her suicide, realizing that her existence was a mistake as part of Baron's own foul bloodline and relations to all of his wives. However, after remembering the promises she made to her mother, and with the emotional and physical assistance of June and her group, Halen's passion and distaste for the empire empowers her power, letting the espers select her to become one of the Knights of the Goddess. After her powers awaken, Halen's "Ugly Sparks" give her more control over its dangerous drawbacks as she focuses on saving the world from the danger that awaits with June and her other friends.

Appearance
Halen is a young, slim, and attractive woman standing at 5'3" (160 cm) with lightning red hair tied into a side ponytail off of her left side with yellow star earrings. She has hazelnut brown colored eyes and pink lips. She has a tiny beauty mark below above her right cheek, and another below her chin. Because of her athletic personality, Halen switches between different outfits very often; although her most common and casual outfit is a tropical red and white floral based top that reveals her shoulders and brassiere straps, along with a black ruffled skirt. During more formal times, Halen wears a white dress shirt underneath a slim and tight black jacket, buttoning only halfway to reveal her dress shirt within. She also wears the same black ruffled skirt, but wears red shorts underneath it to conceal her underwear. She wears high red buckled boots with laces on its ankles, and a motorcycle glove on her left hand when necessary.

During ballet, she wears a bright navy blue dress with sparkles that resemble Sakura flowers. During her gambling and card-playing sessions, she combines her tropical floral top with a crimson red over-sized jacket to bring out her elegance and style.

During combat after joining the party, Halen wears her formal outfit but adds several skin openings to her outfits to lighten her weight. She also equips armor pauldrons, knee and shin guards, and metal spiky gauntlets to increase her strength.

Abilities
Halen excels at movement and deductive abilities. Her intelligence and flexible personality and movement allows her to make very quick decisions, whether it be succeeding at competitions or attacking or defending against an enemy. This combination of intelligence and swift deduction skills allow her to excel at almost everything when it comes to invasion, assault, or strategy.

Halen's main element is Holy, but during her "Ugly Sparks", her element swaps into Gravity. Depending on her mood, she can swap between these two elements but cannot do so accordingly or properly timed. She wields the Asynja, a combination of blade and gun to provide physical and ranged attacks for the party. She is able to imbue her abilities with light, which becomes very effective against undead or unusual creatures or enemies. Much like June can, Halen is the second and only character who can warp via tossing orbs, or create illusions that leave behind blinding light.

Story
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Act I
Halen is first seen when June Asmius travels to the city of Ylslata to seek the magic charm under Drai's father's possession. When Halen saves a woman from leaping off of a building during a suicide attempt in public, she is saved by June after catching her from falling to her death. When she is ridiculed for being as oblivious much like Mari, Halen affirms that she would not have died because of her incredible athletic abilities and deduction skills, calculating that her drop would not have killed her, but only injured her slightly. Halen thanks June wholeheartedly for saving her nonetheless, and invites her to play Triple Triad at a nearby cafe. Surrounded by Edelian soldiers, Halen is unsure of what their motives are and chooses to ignore them, as they endorse her fame by keeping quiet. Halen reveals she does not let the fame get the better of her, which in fact causes her to be very successful. She allows June to leave after their game, saying they should meet again in the future.

Act II
Halen returns momentarily in one of June's flashbacks while trying to escape the Casmal Prison.

When June returns to Corselia to defend Rosaria, Halen runs into her and Aliza, revealing that she and Aliza are also very close friends from the past. Although she knows Aliza is extremely jealous of her abilities, Halen decides to invite June and Aliza to another cafe meeting, where June rejects it immediately. During the defense of Rosaria from the planned attack under Baron's orders, Halen witnesses June utilizing her Darkfire abilities while battling with her allies. Halen is extremely impressed by June's abilities but chooses to be quiet after the city repels the Edelian forces. After the city becomes safe, Halen invites June and Aliza back to the cafe where she reveals her passions and hobbies, where she believes June could be a vital source of information in order to test her athletic and deduction skills. Halen is enthusiastic when June accepts, as she explains that one of her friends is recovering in the hospital.

Two weeks later, Halen has a mental breakdown due to her "Ugly Spark", and is sent to the hospital immediately. June deduces that it is because she witnessed Baron Remlet's face appearing on one of the billboards to declare universal war, but after Halen recovers, she cannot remember who Baron Remlet even is. However, during her hospital visit, a group of skilled and trained assassins and combatants known as the "Devil's Strike", hijack the broadcast and reveal Baron's real name to be Izath Denek, causing Halen to have another mental shutdown. This results in a coma, which causes June and her friends to watch over her. After she awakens, Halen tells June that she is Baron's daughter, who named herself Halen Terumi after her father abandoned her family for death. The reveal creates tensions within Halen's life, causing her to become extremely depressed. She volunteers to join June's party, but June and her friends reject, fearing she could have another "Ugly Spark".

Act III
After the death of her father, Halen is nowhere to be seen. She and her mother is reported to have retired from being celebrities and moved on from life.

In reality, Halen has been carelessly following and tailing June's party, witnessing their goals and missions to locate the Tempus in order to free the espers and defeat Tenebris and Shern. She steps in one of the battles that June and the party encounters, dealing with multiple Iron Giants and Dark Coeurls. Halen tries fighting, but is severely injured. She revers the fact that she feels useless as she was unable to defeat her own father, and believes she can do much more. The espers hear her cries and grant her Alexander's orb and power, gaining the Asynja weapon to defend her friends.