When I first played through Final Fantasy IX, I thought nothing of Freya. At first, I thought she was a giant chicken in a red coat (given that she looked like she had chicken legs when you first see her - turns out they were leather stocking that she wore). However, it soon became clear that Burmecians weren't giant birds or something simiar, but a race of rats. Except that they didn't look like traditional rats, having large, pointy ears in favor of small, round ones and lack of pink skin pigment on hands, feet and the nose. To me, Freya and her kin are a unique race, bearing a mysterious aura that just wants to be looked at.

Unfortunately, Freya wasn't considered a popular character, considering that she was just that - a humanoid rat. As a result, there are only a few shrines about her on the internet, all of which are starting to die out as Final Fantasy IX gets older. But age isn't the only thing that's contributing to Freya's demise.

Although Final Fantasy IX was a great game and a top seller at the time, it did not sell as well as it's earlier cousins Final Fantasy VII and VIII, in both Japan and the United States. And with the release of later Final Fantasy games, IX is slowly starting to disappear into obscurity, to the point where it's often labelled as "The Forgotten Final Fantasy". On the bonus DVD that came with Final Fantasy X, it showed footage of every major FF game in the series, minus IX. The only mention the game had was one of the programmers in the "Making of Final Fantasy X" featurette saying "We did not make the progress we wanted with number 9". For these reasons, FFIX has a much smaller fanbase than VII and VIII.

In spite of Freya's lack of popularity, I still choose to hose a fansite dedicated to her. When I decided to take over as shrine maintainer, I wanted to recreate what the original maintainer had intended: to give fans a "one stop shopping" database for everything Freya Crescent and Burmecian. With this in mind, the Realm of Eternal Rain has and will continue to grow, thanks to the support of it's dedicated and talented fanbase. We couldn't have done it without your help!