| “ | Look behind you, at dune after dune of drifting, half-forgotten terrors. You flee them, these past phantoms and the madness that crawls inside. Griffa can help you venture down to where you daren't go yourself. And lay bare your true promise. | ” |
– Griffa (offering his assistance to Max) | ||
Griffa
Griffa is a character that appears in Mad Max. He fulfils the gameplay mechanic of an "abilities merchant". Griffa is voiced by Jonathan Oldham.
Personality and Purpose[]
A strange and mysterious person filled with wisdom and understanding of the world both he and his fellow survivors inhabit, Griffa (through currently unknown means) helps Max unleash his full potential as a road warrior through helping Max upgrade his skills. For example, Griffa will offer services that will help increase Max's maximum health, increase his efficiency in wielding melee weapons (thus ensuring they break less often), better his ammunition scavenging, as well as offering services to hone his potential to manage resources such as gas, water, food, and more. Max can earn points to exchange for such upgrades by completing certain tasks, such as destroying enough of Scrotus' vehicles in a specific way, scavenging enough of a particular resource, using individual weapons enough times, partaking in/winning races, and more.
It is implied that Griffa may not actually exist in the context of the game world, but in fact a figment of Max's failing mental status. For example, Griffa knows intimate details about Max and his life, such as his secret plan to reach the Plains of Silence, and the areas where Max meets with Griffa are always decorated with strange tribal paintings which vanish when Griffa leaves. Additionally, on some occasions when Max leaves the Magnum Opus to meet with Griffa, his companion Chumbucket will muse about the "leathery wanderer" heading out into the desert "to talk with ghosts". Whether Griffa is a real person or not is left up to the player to interpret.
It's possible that Griffa represents how Max wants to be, or how he should be, free of his madness, fears and regrets; he wanders freely with no burdens or enemies and helps out others.
Conversations with Max[]
During each encounter, Griffa waxes philosophical about Max and his existence, and through a series of conversations, helps Max to regain a portion of his lost humanity and shed his paranoid, reclusive nature. Griffa terminates each of these conversations by blowing a handful of unidentified dust into Max's face, causing him to pass out until Griffa has gone, and allowing him to strengthen his own abilities.
Griffa: Ah...there you are...drifter of sands...letter of blood...remnants of a ruined past. You say you seek the Plains of Silence, but do you not wander them right now? The remains of your life; a perpetual flight. An escape from all that is human, until one day...the Plains of Silence end...and you begin. You've purpose in this life, my friend. Though fear to dream it. But pain will come, much more pain...before this purpose to you is made manifest.
Max: You know nothing of me.
Griffa: Look behind you, at dune after dune of drifting half-forgotten terrors. You flee them always, these past phantoms...and the madness that crawls inside. You've come to Griffa for a reason. Deep inside, twisted around horrors from which you run, lies your strength. Griffa can help; help you venture down to where you daren't go yourself, and lay bare your true promise!
Griffa: Tell me about the ones you leave dead by the road. All the lives choked out.
Max: It's not my choice to kill.
Griffa: You seem to enjoy it.
Max: Never.
Griffa: You don't fear killing because you think you control it; you tell yourself such. Blood is not on your hands, but on theirs. Perhaps it's not the killing you enjoy...but the moments of silence that the fighting brings you.
Griffa: You've taken a short rest from your twisted path. I'll help you find what you seek, but first...answer me this.
Max: What?
Griffa: The other ones...that you don't kill...who are they to you?
Max: I use them, and they me. If there's no gain, then what's the use?
Griffa: What's the use? I'm asking you that. But you have no answer...have you? Yet it's very clear.
Griffa: There you are...lungs still heaving, heart still beating. Yet you refuse to live. Perhaps you have forgotten who you are?
Max: I know who I am.
Griffa: If you knew, why would you wander like this?
Max: I know where I'm going.
Griffa: Tell me again, that you're going to the Plains of Silence?
Max: That...that's my destination. I'm going to cross the Plains of Silence.
Griffa: Why must a vehicle be so important? Allies are a powerful aide. Even a dog can be a life saver. You focus your loyalty on a dead thing.
Max: I can drive a car. I'll cross the Plains of Silence in a car. People...get in my way.
Griffa: Do you trust a car?
Max: More than any man.
Griffa: We have a long way to walk. Let's look deeper.
Griffa: I've pondered your mystery...found a sliver of knowing, I think. They trained you to fight, and survive. You were their warrior. But...you were also human. You had love, and hope, and future. It was all torn from you..all but your training.
Max: I have no past. This is me. It will always be me.
Griffa: Because your flesh fears to let you think these things. Terrified...the one single ember of good could ignite the mind and consume it. But in some far away corner of yourself, it will always smolder...you'll never escape it. But let's leave the past for the future, and deal with now.
Griffa: This was once a very different world...a world where brother did not kill brother for scraps. A world where laws and rules were respected and nurtured. You protected your family and your children.
Max: I don't remember.
Griffa: Your body remembers. It trembles. It wants you to smother the past for fear of madness.
Max: I'm looking hard...there's nothing.
Griffa: Look again...and again...it's right there in front of you.
Griffa: You, again. I thought you wanted to know nothing more of yourself. What year is it?
Max: I don't know.
Griffa: How old are you?
Max: I don't know. I'm here, that's all I know.
Griffa: And where is that?
Max: ...Hell. That's how it feels.
Griffa: And that's where you are, my friend. What was that about the Plains of Silence?
Max: I'll search them out...and cross them.
Griffa: Did I not tell you? We're already there...on the boundless Plains of Silence. Look again.
Griffa: You approach different. Am I now your friend?
Max: No friends. Allies...maybe. Never friends.
Griffa: Are you afraid I'll die? That some unseen malevolent power butchers anyone you draw near?
Max: No friends. They only mean trouble.
Griffa: That which is broken...can be mended by love only.
Griffa: I'm glad to see you, my friend.
Max: Me too.
Griffa: You understand; the time has come to leave these Plains of Silence.
Max: That which is broken can be mended by love only.
Griffa: It's a very dangerous thing to fathom. Your way does not end with the Plains of Silence. They're just another stop on the road...until your true purpose is revealed. But before I leave...stand still.
Griffa: The whispering sands spoke of your path here. Let us commence our work.
Griffa: For one who shies from knowing, you seem not to mind learning.
Griffa: Your fear is the hardest one to overcome for you fear only yourself. Let our work commence.
Griffa: How long have I been here? Put in your path...waiting to open your potential...
Griffa: You are at the threshold of the unknown. The strength inside you will be released!