All's Fair in Love and Holy War: Let's Play Fire Emblem 4

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:40 am

Hello and welcome to this LP of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. This is my first ever LP and I am very excited for it!

Genealogy of the Holy War is the fourth entry in the strategy RPG series from Intelligent Systems, made for the SNES in 1996. It remains a singular experience within the franchise. It introduced many mechanics that went on to become Fire Emblem staples, like the weapon triangle, personal skills, and relationships between characters translating into in-game bonuses. It also established a feature that would come back in a big way almost a decade later with marriage between characters creating children as playable units. At the same time, it lacks many other things considered essentials, like the ability to double or perform a critical without a particular skill, or trading between character inventories. Possibly the most unique feature of the game is that there are only twelve chapters, compared to the typical 20-30 chapters in most Fire Emblem games. Each chapter, however, is absolutely enormous, with the map often spanning an entire country and containing multiple objectives to capture.

With the release of Three Houses, now is an excellent time to look back at Genealogy, as you will discover that it was a major source of inspiration for the story, characters, and setting of that game.

Genealogy was never released outside of Japan, and we are only able to play it due to the work of fan translators. Genealogy has had a variety of fan translations. The one I am using is from Project Naga, translated by BookofHolsety. A past LP of this game by Wind God Sety is on the archive and used an earlier translation.

A note on names: this translation is from 2014. Most of the main character names come from official localisations used in Fire Emblem Awakening, however since then many of those names have been re-localised for Fire Emblem Heroes. So the names at one point were official, but are no longer. I will use the names that are in the patch (with one exception which I will explain when we get there) for consistency's sake. Feel free to use whatever names you prefer in discussion.

Please no spoilers! No hinting, no subtle "guesses". If it hasn't come up in the LP yet, just wait a little bit longer to discuss it.

IMPORTANT

YES there are children in this game and YES you will be voting to optimise the loving relationships forged during wartime

Contents
0.1: Prologue: Birth of a Crusader
0.2: A Lot of Introductions
0.3: Do The Introductions Never End?
0.4: Lex's No Good, Very Bad Day
0.5: Gerrard Blows It
1.x: Introducing Oifey to Vice
1.1: A Kingdom of Axes
1.2: Ayra, Warrior Princess
1.3: A Non-Canon Account of the Siege of Marpha
1.4: The Spirit Forest's Tedium
1.5: Out of the Woods and into the Forest
2.x: Introducing Jugdral's Bachelorettes
2.1: The Charge of the Light Brand
2.2: You know, I can't really think of anything pithy for this one
2.3: The Miracle Gambit
2.4: An Analysis of Jugdrali Celebrity Culture

Extras
Basic Mechanics and Skill Glossary
The Jugdral Chronology
Old Hubba's Guide to Love

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:42 am

0.1 Prologue: Birth of a Crusader

Beginning

A devil's shade upon our land

Plunging it into the deepest darkness, and condemning us to grief without end.

We and our world were thus reborn.

And so...

Our nightmare has faded into legend.

Fire Emblem Theme

---

Glorious Grannvale

Saint Heim of the Twelve Crusaders.

each also descended from a Crusader of old.

each occupy vast swaths of Grannvale's land and maintain mighty militaries of their own.

the highly respected Prince Kurth. Kurth has two trusted advisors in his rule:

[L to R Ring, Byron, Kurth]

posed by Kurth and his advisors,

opposed to Kurth's rule over Grannvale.

in the king's care and so has little time for the circus of politics.

[The map moves to the north-east]

is now besieged by savage warriors from Isaach.

[The map moves south-east to focus back on Grannvale]

and before long the kingdom declares war on Isaach.

commanding the military might of the kingdom's six houses.

a highly decorated hero of peerless valor in his own right.

Grannvale has poured its entire military might into the Isaach campaign, and precious few soldiers remain behind.

With its neighbors -
[the map moves north-west]

[the map moves south]

none dare to dream they could ever be threatened.

crosses the Grannvale border and lays siege to Jungby Castle.

Lord Byron has entrusted the defense of Grannvale in his absence to his son,

A friend of Aideen since childhood, Sigurd is horrified to hear of the Jungby siege, and even with so few soldiers, is determined to protect Aideen and his fatherland from the savage Verdanite hordes.

Nobody could have known then that this simple disturbance was but the first of countless calamities to come.

Crisis

[Enemies march into Jungby territory to surround the castle]

Jungby:

Please, you needn't worry about me. You must ensure that as many of you survive this as possible.

No, milady. We might not stand a chance, but every last one of us will give our lives to protect you, right to the very end.

Thank you, Midir. ...I'm so sorry.

[The camera moves west to focus on Chalphy castle]

Nearly all of our forces are already on the march to Isaach with Father. There's hardly anybody left to call upon. They may be simple savages, but Verdane's army is still huge. I can't risk your lives by forcing you to face them.

Perish the thought, milord! I was born a knight, and I will gladly risk dying a knight's death in your name. To allow our lord to die alone in battle would be an unspeakable disgrace. We shall be by your side, every step of the way. Alec, I trust you're of the same mind?

Those thugs'll try to beat us to them, and they'll loot, massacre, and burn them all down if they do. We've gotta get there first, and lend the locals a hand in locking the villages down and fortifying their defenses.

Absolutely. We mustn't neglect our knightly duties to the people, especially not at a time like this. Good point, Alec.

Actually, that was all Oifey's idea. That kid's every bit the tactician they say he is. Give him a few years and he'll be a match for his old grandpa, Lord Cesare!

I can't just sit back while you risk your lives.

I don't know... You're still so young. Are you sure you're ready for this?

I'm already fourteen, sire. I may not be battle-ready just yet, but there's still so much I can do to support you. Please, allow me to accompany you. I swear I won't let you down.

Fair enough, Oifey. After all, you've already spent two years training as my squire. Real battlefield experience would be fantastic for your training, but you're still definitely not up to actual combat duty for now. How about you ride with me as my advisor instead?

Y-yes! Thank you, sire! Thank you!

Milord, what of the the defense of Chalphy itself in our absence? Leaving the castle unattended is risky. Should the enemy slip past us, an unguarded castle will fall easily and spell us a swift end.

Sturdy as a brick wall! Strong as an ox! Slow as a turtle! Face it, Arden, you were born for guard duty! Haha!

Pah... I'm strong and tough, I know, but you really don't need to call me slow!

He has a point, Arden. Would you? You're the most apt at guard duty.

Sigh... Fine, I'll do it. But you have to bring me with you at least once! I don't want to be left out of the action.

Right, men, it's time to set out. Let's start by assisting the villages, and then it's onward to Jungby!

Next time: we actually play the game!

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:43 am

0.2 A Lot of Introductions

Let’s begin by taking a brief look at each of our new soldiers. I’ll include a character profile at the end of the update with stat growths and more information (and nice art!).

Here we have Sigurd. He’s in the Knight Lord class, which is actually a promoted class. His stats are on the left, and inventory on the right. In the upper right corner you can see his attack stat with his equipped weapon, his base accuracy (Hit), the range of his weapon, and his base chance to avoid an attack.

This page shows a number of new things! The stars next to Authority indicate his leadership stars. With these two stars, Sigurd gives 10% hit and avoid to himself and all allies within three tiles of his position. Each additional star gives another 10%. Enemies can have these too.

You can also see his weapon ranks here. Unlike in other games, weapon ranks cannot be increased with use. They will only increase with promotion.

Pursuit would probably be localised as “follow-up” now. It is a very important skill. Typically in Fire Emblem, if a unit’s in-combat speed exceeds the enemy’s by four, that unit can make a follow-up attack. In this game that is only possibly with the skill pursuit. There are some other ways to get your unit doubling, but this is the only 100% active one. As you can imagine, this becomes critically important when thinking about planning skills to pass on to children.

The glowing symbol here tells us that Sigurd has major Baldur blood, which allows him to use the divine sword Tyrfing. This is why his sword weapon rank is an asterisk. If that means nothing to you, the game will give some context throughout the prologue.

Next is Noish, who’s a little less impressive. He’s a cavalier, which lets him use swords and lances.

He comes with critical and accost. Critical means he can make critical hits, which double his base attack. Similarly to follow-ups being locked behind pursuit, units without this skill cannot make critical hits. There are other ways to effectively attain the critical skill, which I will explain as they come up.

Accost is also known as "duel" and "charge" in various fan-translations, and it’s a way for units without pursuit to gain the ability to double enemies. It is, however, far less reliable and frankly, quite dangerous.

“If agile” means if Noish’s HP is greater than or equal to 25, he may continue a round of combat. For example: Noish attacks first, the enemy attacks, accost activates, Noish attacks again, the enemy attacks again, accost activates… This can secure you a kill, but it can also put Noish in a very dangerous position, especially as it can activate on the enemy phase when Noish can’t counterattack. Basically, don’t leave him in range of bows! Note that if Noish had Pursuit he’d be making double attacks in each round. Something to keep in mind for inheritance!

Alec here is very similar to Noish, but a little speedier and weaker, and green. He comes with pursuit and nihil.

Nihil prevents critical hits and enemy skill activation, but that really only matters for boss characters, and also effective weaponry — in Alec’s case, horseslayers.

Arden! Strong and tough, but don’t call him slow (except he really, really is). Arden is a great guy but as a unit? Well… The maps are huge, so his tiny move is even more of a drawback than it is in most FEs, especially given that his allies are all horses. You can do what they say and leave him to guard a castle, but he’ll never level up that way so he won’t be doing much defending for long.

He has vantage, which allows Arden to attack before the enemy if they initiate when he is below half-health. I'm not sure, but I think the phrase "in a pinch" comes from Pokemon? It's a bit vague.

Very briefly, this is the interior of the base castle. We can’t do anything with it in the prologue but it will be important next chapter.

Our objective is to get over to Jungby, where Midir is guarding the castle, to rescue Aideen.

Midir is a bow cavalier. He has accost and pursuit.

The main threat to Midir is this guy, Gandolf. He looks pretty tough so we'll have to hurry over. The little sack icon next to his skill ring means it’ll drop when he dies.

Gandolf has been officially renamed Munnir, by the way. I guess they didn’t want you thinking of an old wizard instead of a scary warrior type.

Backing him up is DiMaggio. They both have leadership stars, so that’s something to watch out for.

Here’s a map of all the territory we’ll be covering. As you can see, it’s pretty big! Chalphy, Jungby and Evans are marked. From our starting point, I’m going to send Sigurd along the blue arrow, and everyone else will follow the green arrow south. We will be protecting the villagers from brigands along the way.

Alright, that’s enough introductory stuff, let’s play the game!

Sigurd is first off the ranks.

These are the various windows you get for choosing an enemy and weapon to attack. Obviously I won't show this every time.

What I really miss from newer Fire Emblems is that the game does the attack preview calculations for you, including visually showing that you’ll double. (You can assume Sigurd is doubling every enemy in this chapter, by the way)

Sigurd deletes this guy and gets a little hurt but that won’t be much of an issue.

As a cavalry unit Sigurd can move again after performing an action. He’ll head north to that village next.

Another thing I miss is toggle-able enemy range. It’s very easy to make mistakes when you move the map around.

The three amigos start to move out. There’s no point leaving Arden on the castle here; offence being the best defence and all, the enemies won’t get close enough to threaten it.

If an enemy unit does get to your base castle that's an immediate game over.

Time to end turn and see our first enemy phase!

Focus shifts right away to Jungby.

Alright Midir, it's your time to shine!

He has 47 hit, so that’s a 50/50 chance which isn’t too bad!

Ah, it hit. Well anyway Gandolf can’t double so Midir should be able to survive this with a little HP at least, and maybe we can rush to—

Ah. That was a critical. (Yes, this was scripted, shh)

Rest in peace, Midir.

Listen up, Dimaggio. I'm heading back. You and Gerrard are in charge.

Er, yes, sir...

Hah, relax! Won't be long, and I'll be bringing Kinbaith's lot along for the fun. When I do, all Grannvale's our oyster. Even Belhalla ought to be easy pickings, what with nobody around to stop us! The kingdom's all ours, boys!

Leave it to us, sir!

Gandolf leads Aideen west to Verdane, but she resists.

Uh-oh. We actually don’t have a way to open that route back up.

The spoils of war, m'boy! She's coming back to Marpha to marry me. Whaddya think? A real keeper, eh?

I'll say! Just looking at her's makin' me mouth water.

Back off! This one's mine. You'll have your pick of all Grannvale once we're done here. Keep it in your pants a little longer, yeah?

What animals... ...Gods above, I implore you, bestow upon these men a hint of human decency...

Oi, what're you mumbling about now? We're outta here. No dawdling, y'hear?

He leaves, and the focus shifts back to Jungby again.

The Verdanites start moving towards Chalphy and our crew, but there's only one in range.

He doesn't do much damage, either.

Ok, it's our turn now! Objective updated: avenge Midir, kick the Verdanites out of Grannvale, then head into Verdane to get Aideen back.

Next time: new allies!

Character profiles:

I promised them, and here they are!

Sigurd

[From Fire Emblem Heroes]

HP: 70 + 40% Spd: 30%
Str: 30 + 20% Lck: 20 + 20%
Mag: 5% Def: 40%
Skl: 30 + 20% Res: 5%
Skills: Pursuit

Sigurd is the son of Byron, the Duke of Chalphy. Chivalrous and quick to jump to the defense of the vulnerable.

Descendant of the crusader Baldur. His major Baldur blood grants him bonuses to his growth rates, indicated above, and enables him to use the holy sword Tyrfing.

Sigurd is very, very, very good. Typically, Fire Emblem games start you out with a “Jagen,” which means a promoted unit with great stats but poor growth who exists as a get out of jail free card if your regular units aren’t strong enough to beat some enemies (named after the first such character, who you may remember from LordHippoman’s excellent LPs). This game doesn't really have one, butSigurd is the closest thing. Except Sigurd has incredibly good growths and a full 30 levels to take advantage of. This is why I’m totally confident sending him off on his own; he’s fully capable of handling himself.

[From Fire Emblem Cipher]

Noish (Off. Naoise, pronounced like “niche-uh”)
HP: 80% Spd: 20%
Str: 40% Lck: 20%
Mag: 5% Def: 40%
Skl: 30% Res: 5%
Skills: Critical, Accost

He’s red!

Alec
HP: 70% Spd: 30%
Str: 30% Lck: 30%
Mag: 5% Def: 30%
Skl: 40% Res: 5%
Skills: Pursuit, Nihil

He’s green!

Eh, there’s not much more to say about these guys. Character-wise, Noish is the serious to Alec’s playful. Unit-wise, Noish is a bit more battle-capable. Alec is liable to fall behind as time goes by.

Overall unit rating of these two: horse.

Arden

[From Fire Emblem Heroes]

HP: 90% Spd: 20%
Str: 50% Lck: 10%
Mag: 5% Def: 40%
Skl: 10% Res: 5%
Skills: Vantage

A big body that houses a big heart.

Arden’s real issue is his lack of a horse. The maps in this game are BIG, and having extremely limited movement and no ability to move again after actions means he just can’t keep up, both on the map, and in combat experience. Still, that doesn’t mean he can’t find love. Will you help him in his search?

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:46 am

0.3 Do the Introductions Never End?

As the player phase begins, focus moves to the north-east of the map, just above one of the villages.

Two new characters have appeared!

Bet he'll be glad for the help! But geez, Azel, I can't believe I let you drag me into yet another mess like this.

With the war in Isaach going on, there's hardly anyone left to defend Grannvale. Sigurd's few knights are all we have, and they're out here risking their lives on behalf of the entire country. I couldn't just leave them to die...

Heh... We both know there's more to it than that. Come on, Azel. What's the real reason we're here?

Er... I... I have no idea what you mean!

It's that Lady Aideen of Jungby, isn't it? Come on, everybody knows you like her. You just came for her sake, didn't you?

N-no! Of course not, you dolt!

Really? Then why's your face beet-red? Looks like somebody's got a giiiiiiirlfriend!

L-Lex, knock it off! Come on, we've wasted enough time.

Hahaha, got it. Time to teach these Verdanite thugs a lesson or two!

They get added to the roster right away, and as you can see they both want to talk to Sigurd. We'll get to that later. First, introductions.

Azel is our first offensive magic user, which is very nice here since the enemies have extremely low res in the prologue. He comes with a decent base speed and growth, but he has one major drawback: he comes with a fire tome. Fire magic weighs 12 mystery units, which gives him a flat -12 speed penalty in combat. With a speed of 9, that puts him at -3 attack speed. Fortunately, the axe bandits in this chapter all carry axes that weigh 18, and they have a base speed of 7, which takes them into such negative AS that Azel doubles them easily. It will become a problem as the game goes on, however.

However, although he's a fire specialist, he can still use other kinds of anima magic. Both wind and thunder are much lighter than fire.

Why is fire so heavy? This game introduced the weapon triangle for swords, axes and lances, which has stayed roughly the same throughout the series. Apart from the paper-scissors-rock aspect of the triangle, the three weapons also have different tradeoffs in weight, might, and accuracy. Swords are light and accurate but weak, axes are powerful but heavy and inaccurate, while lances fit in between.

This game also introduces a magic triangle, where fire beats wind, wind beats thunder, and thunder beats fire. However, it only half-included those tradeoffs of the physical weapon triangle. Each type of magic has the same might and accuracy, but different weight. Fire weighs 12, thunder 7, and wind 4. As you can see, wind is automatically superior since you don’t normally use mages against other mages, so the triangle itself isn’t very important.

Azel has minor Fala blood (off. Fjalar), which boosts certain growths and gives him an extra rank in fire magic (which is useless).

Lex is an axe cavalry. He's kind of a proto-Hector, in hair, choice of weaponry, and brash character.

He comes with vantage and paragon, which is self-explanatory.

Lex has minor Neir blood. Neir growth bonuses contribute a lot to his bulk, and combined with paragon he will quickly grow into a very useful tank.

Back to Sigurd.

He's just going to delete the brigand pillaging the village before continuing forwards. Thanks? Sigurd doesn't need thanks.

So Alec is going to take it instead.

Here - the whole village did their bit to raise some money for you. It's not much, but we hope it helps out there. Be sure to lend the other villagers a hand, too. I bet they'll be happy to help you out right back.

Very nice. An unpillaged village gives 5000 gold, and each turn a brigand spends burning it down subtracts 500, until it is destroyed.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that rather than a common pool of gold for the entire army, each character has their own wallet. There's no convoy, and you can't simply trade between inventories, so characters must buy and sell their weaponry individually. You can also pay to repair weaponry, like in Three Houses. This makes it important to carefully choose who will visit villages to efficiently spread money around.

These forest tiles grant a bonus to avoid, while the road tiles give a -10% penalty.

Noish and Arden will sit on them and let the bandit try and hit them on the enemy phase.

Moving back up north, Azel is going to take care of the brigand attacking this village. You can see these enemies are designed for Azel to kill very cleanly in one round.

I find the mage sprites in this game hilarious. I think he's meant to be wearing a tunic underneath the cloak but the colouring makes it look like he's wearing oversized underwear.

Lex is going to get the reward from this village because even though Azel could use the cash more, he doesn't have canto so he'd end up having to waste a turn on it.

This right here's why you've gotta use your head before you blunder into battle. Speaking of battle, if you ever find yourself hurting out there, a chapel is the best place to go. It ain't free, mind. Every bit of health you regain there'll cost five gold pieces. But you can't put a price on your health.

Some nice tutorialising there, along with a full 5000 gold. Weapon triangle advantage gives +20 accuracy, while disadvantage gives a -20 penalty.

Chapels are pretty handy in an emergency. I am going to wish I used one in this chapter pretty soon! (That's some foreshadowing for you)

Enemy phase time!

Arden gets targeted by that one bandit, which lets me show off his sprite and the, frankly quite beautiful, forest tile background.

This cowardly bandit attacks Sigurd with a hand axe but whiffs it. Loser.

And here's Lex retaliating against a bandit who missed him. He has a nice sprite.

A few other bandits start moving in on Lex and Azel. They should be capable of taking them on between the two of them.

It's our turn again! And again, before we get the chance to do anything the camera moves to the south-east, just below Chalphy castle.

Yet more new characters!

We do, of course, have a magic user now in Azel, but I suppose Ethlyn doesn't know that. She really means a healer specifically though.

I want to do all I can as a healer to help out and save lives... Quan, I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess as well... I know Chalphy isn't my family anymore, now that we're married, but I couldn't just sit back and do nothing. Thank you so much for coming. Not just from me, but from Sigurd.

There's no need for thanks, Ethlyn. Sigurd is every bit as important to me as he is you, remember? He is my brother-in-law now, after all. ...And I couldn't possibly leave you to fight all alone.

Thank you, dear... Thank you so much...

Milord, milady, we should hurry. Lord Sigurd still awaits us on the battlefield just ahead.

So many new friends this chapter!

Quan is similar to Sigurd in that he's already in a promoted class.

He doesn't come with pursuit, though, so he's not quite as good out of the box. Adept does give him the chance to make a second attack sometimes, but it's not reliable.

He and Ethlyn are married, as shown here.

Quan has major Nova blood (off. Njörun).

Ethlyn is Sigurd’s younger sister, Quan’s wife, and our army’s first healer.

She's in the troubadour class, which uses swords and staves. This is a class that I don't think you see outside of Jugdral until Mist in Path of Radiance.

As Sigurd's sister, she has minor Baldur blood. This is why she has A rank swords.

Finn here is Quan's squire. He's actually in the unpromoted version of Quan's class, which is a nice touch.

He has pursuit and miracle. Another example of "in a pinch"! It's worse here because miracle is a very weird skill in this game, and needs explaining. It doesn't work at all like the skill in Awakening onwards.

When Finn's HP is under or equal to 10, miracle increases his avoid by [(11 – HP) x 10] for one turn. If he drops below this threshold during the player phase of turn 1, for example, he would maintain this status through the enemy phase, but it ends when turn 2 begins.

It has its uses, but getting below that threshold safely can be tricky, and it doesn't make him completely unhittable.

Back to playing the game!

Ethlyn is going to heal up Noish.

I really love that forest background.

Finn is going to take care of this bandit. Although he's at weapon disadvantage here, his accuracy is still higher simply because he has more skill and axes are just very inaccurate weapons.

Quan is going to soften up this archer for one of Alec or Noish to finish off.

His class gets a very cool entrance into battle.

Oh, actually Quan is going to trigger adept here and kill this guy himself. Well, thanks for showing the skill in action, I suppose.

I'll just leave everyone in formation here to avoid Ethlyn getting attacked.

Sigurd weakens that cowardly hand-axe guy then continues moving west.

In the north, Azel kills this guy and puts himself in a position to talk to Sigurd next turn.

Lex has killed the bandit who was on the village, and I decide to leave him here rather than on the chapel. I will regret this. Lex is heading to the northwest village, but two tiles further would not have made much difference to the time he will take to get there.

Enemy phase!

Most of the enemies go after Quan, which makes sense because they have the highest chance to hit him of anyone.

It's quite painful.

Lex gets some HP knocked off him. For now this is ok, but it will cause me undue stress later.

Back in player phase, Azel takes the opportunity to talk to Sigurd.

I'm here with Lex. We want to do whatever we can to fight the Verdanite invasion. Please, allow us to fight by your side. We won't let you down!

Of course! I couldn't ask for better help. But what of your brother, Lord Arvis? Is he alright with you helping out?

No... He's been tasked with command of the Royal Guard. He made it clear that I wasn't supposed to leave Belhalla at all.

Did he, now? I can only imagine the scolding that you'll be in for later!

I know this is a dreadful thing to say, but to be honest, I'm terrified of Arvis... Sometimes, when I'm around him, I... I feel as if I'm only a nuisance to him.

Is that right... Well, whatever your reasons, I'm just glad that you're here, Azel. You're more than welcome to stay for as long as you want.

Thank you, sir!

This shot makes me laugh. He looks so funny just floating on nothing. The text boxes are really necessary to keep the characters from looking weird.

Next time: I continue to make bad decisions with Lex!

Character profiles

I'm doing Quan, Ethlyn and Finn here, and Lex and Azel will be next update.

Quan

[Fire Emblem Heroes]

HP: 70 + 40% Spd: 20 + 20%
Str: 30 + 20% Lck: 10%
Mag: 5% Def: 30 + 30%
Skl: 30% Res: 5%
Skills: Adept

Quan is the son of King Calf of Leonster on the Thracian peninsula. His joining in a conflict he has no stake in could be seen as rather rash.

Quan, like Sigurd, is very good and useful. Sigurd is better overall, but that's a matter of how good Sigurd is rather than Quan being bad.

Ethlyn

[Fire Emblem Heroes]

HP: 40 + 20% Spd: 30%
Str: 20 + 10% Lck: 10 + 10%
Mag: 5% Def: 20%
Skl: 20 + 10% Res: 20%
Skills: Critical

Ethlyn is Sigurd’s younger sister, Quan’s wife, and your army’s first healer. As you can see, although she’s a healer she doesn’t have any better of a mag growth than your other units, so she’ll want to upgrade her Heal staff to a Mend as soon as possible to be able to heal larger amounts.

As Ethlyn has minor Baldr blood, she has half the growth bonuses that Sigurd does.

Finn

[Fire Emblem Cipher]

HP: 70% Spd: 30%
Str: 30% Lck: 50%
Mag: 5% Def: 30%
Skl: 40% Res: 5%
Skills: Pursuit Miracle

Finn is Quan's trusted and dedicated squire.

As a lance knight he has some trouble in the early game against all the axes, but once we get past that he contributes very well.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:06 am

I should start coming up with fun names for updates because every chapter is going to be at least six parts.

This one will be...

0.4 Lex's No Good, Very Bad Day

But we'll get to that.

When we left off, the knights of Chalphy and their new allies from Leonster were... still actually very close to Chalphy castle, wow. Things will move faster now I've gone through all those character introductions, I promise!

They clean up around the place a bit.

Arden gets fed this nicely weakened bandit.

It's not terribly exciting, but this is where they end up. I keep positioning Quan and Ethlyn next to each other because a) they get a hit/avo bonus from that and b) there's a special mechanic I want to show off, but it won't trigger.

Sigurd is going to hang out in the forest here and bring these guys north to die.

Meanwhile, Lex is continuing to head west towards the most remote village. Being very intelligent, I made sure to check this enemy's range,

so that I could ensure Lex was far out of it and he would go unharried on his journey. ( :

End turn!

Immediate heart attack as I realise there was a bandit JUST south of Lex.

Hssss

Oh god.

Oh god oh god.

In case you can't tell, Lex's movements have activated a shitload more bandits who are all now moving north to target him.

Yipes.

There was only one bandit in range of this crew and he went for Alec, who was fine.

These two go for Sigurd but are too scared to attack him so they just stand there, basking in his glory.

The third one is unafraid to die.

Now it's my turn to see if I can extract Lex from the sticky situation I've put him into!

First things first though, Sigurd is going to get rid of this archer. It's a good idea to proactively take care of archers since no one really has ranged weapons to counter them on the enemy phase, and they have a little more effective speed than the axe bandits since bows are light.

That nets Sigurd the first level of the LP!

And it's a very good one! Thanks Sigurd.

Azel is going onto this tree to better avoid some of the bandits I need him to draw away from Lex.

Speaking of Lex, he's going to continue charging headlong into danger by attacking the village brigand. This won't be too dangerous since they never attack on the enemy phase, but they do of course retaliate when attacked.

Ouch!

This guy is juuust out of range. He's at 17 health, so even if he attacks first on a later turn Lex will kill him with vantage. It's the other approaching enemies who are more of a concern.

A little bit of fighting, a little bit of healing, and the squad keeps heading on to Jungby. I think you can see Arden trailing behind back there, poor guy. He does his best.

Azel-bait works for this guy, who is now very singed.

Despite being siblings, Sigurd and Ethlyn treat their enemies very differently.

Fascinatingly, this guy does nothing. He must realise that if he gets into Lex's range he will die, but he also doesn't want to leave? I don't fully understand the AI in this game sometimes. Oh well.

Azel finishes off the smoking remnants of this bandit, and gains a level.

Speed is very good!

Lex finally saves the village. He gets the finest of rewards for it: a level!

A little more bulk, and skill to help out with those inaccurate axes he lugs around.

Oh he also gets a literal reward from the village.

It's no wonder, being that they bear the bloodline of Baldur, the god of light of old. Those Verdane thugs are lucky Lord Byron isn't around with his holy sword, Tyrfing. They wouldn't stand a chance!

Lore & 3500 gold!

Here you see some of the inspiration that Three Houses took from Genealogy. Powerful bloodlines and divine weapons are present in most Fire Emblems, but FE4 really leans into the idea that those bloodlines are what define the noble class, and in fact entitle them to rule. You can already see that our units with major holy blood are far and away better than those with only minor, or without entirely. Three Houses took that concept and ran with it, engaging and criticising it in very interesting ways.

Back down south, Sigurd has finally met up with the rest of his army.

This means Ethlyn can finally have a chat with her brother, but first she's going to heal him up. That's the nice thing about cavalry units, they can perform an action and talk in one turn.

"Thanks so much for coming," he says, like he's hosting a barbecue and is just so happy that his very busy sister could make time to join.

I just couldn't stay away when I heard of Verdane's attacks... It's such a relief to know you're okay.

Oh, come now. Did you really think I was about to lose to Verdane?

I'd heard that Chalphy barely has any soldiers left behind, given that most of the army is away in Isaach. And let's face it, I can't remember the last time you didn't just leap straight into a crisis without thinking. With father away at war... I knew I had to come. Someone has to save you from yourself, after all.

Heh heh. Wow, it feels as if I was getting this very lecture only yesterday! I swear, after Mother passed away, it was you who single-handedly kept us in check. Once you went off to marry Quan, we could've sworn that Father finally had a proper little lady for a daughter... But no, nothing's changed at all! I feel so sorry for Quan... Ahahaha!

Sigurd, I'm only what you and Father made me! If I'm a fusspot, then it's squarely your fault! Perhaps if the two of you hadn't been so unkempt...

Heh, perhaps you're right. Listen, Ethlyn... We might not act like it, but everything you've done means the world to us. I'm so sorry for all the trouble I've always caused you... And thank you so much for coming.

Sigurd...

Similarly, Quan is going to attack this bandit and then have his talk.

We heard about the Verdane attack and couldn't just leave you be. We're here to do what we can.

But what about Leonster? Aren't your hands full there, keeping an eye on Thracia?

Indeed. That's why Finn is the only knight here with me. The Lanceritter are all back at home, under Father's command.

Is that so... Quan, I'm sorry for pulling you into this mess, too. I know you're-

Sorry? Surely you jest, Sigurd? Don't you recall our old pledge?

Hm?

Come now! How could you forget? All those years ago, when we were students at the Belhalla academy? You, me, and Eldigan. Dear friends and fierce rivals in equal measure? Surely you recall that night, talking late about our hopes and dreams, and pledging our aid to one another in times of need?

Ah, of course! I remember it well.

Excellent. Now shall we? With both of us here, what hope could those Verdanite savages possibly have? Never forget, Sigurd. I'm here for you, now and forever. I'll not let you lose to these lowlives!

This is the conversation that really planted the seed for Three Houses. From this they took the idea of three leads at a military academy together in peacetime, to meet again years later during war. You can play around a little with certain FE4 characters mapping to 3H characters (they don't, really, but... Eldigan... Edelgard

) but this concept is the core of the connection.

Noish kills this bandit and gets his first level.

Hm. Well, better crit rate I guess.

Finn kills this guy and gets a little hurt in the process. He'll live.

Sigurd is going to start working on the fighters protecting Jungby. Typically enemies protecting a castle in this formation will not move even when someone's in range, but they can surprise you sometimes. These ones definitely don't move though.

He can bring them all down to 2 HP so the one he attacked will die next enemy phase, and the rest will be offerings to the low-level scrubs.

On the enemy phase, these lovely fellas start lining up to attack Lex.

The first one here is the only one in range to attack Lex right now, but Lex can easily kill him since vantage will trigger and he's at 17 hp.

But these two are a worry. If they get closer Lex might be able to slip past them, but for now it's safest if he stays on the village to boost his avoid in case he misses his vantage hit on the first guy.

Now we begin to prepare for an assault on Jungby.

Quan uses his javelin to take out one of the guards. Javelins are lower might, accuracy and higher weight as a trade-off for being 1-2 range.

Ethlyn moves next to Sigurd to chip away at this guard.

And, finally! This sparkly little animation represents a sibling crit, which is one of the ways that units without the critical skill can make critical hits. It also boosts the critical rate for characters with critical, so you see Ethlyn getting it a bit. The same thing can happen for lovers, but the animation looks different to represent the different relationship.

Ethlyn's crits don't actually hurt that much, unfortunately.

Sigurd brings the third castle guard to 2 HP,

and waits at the castle entrance for DiMaggio to initiate on him.

Finn takes out a bandit for a kinda weird level.

Finn will also take a hit from that last guard and kill him on the counter.

DiMaggio attacks and misses, lol.

Sigurd will easily kill him on the next turn.

Now let's see how things are looking for Lex.

???

These guys are not moving. I can understand for the one who will die in one hit, but the others are full health. They could quite easily take out Lex!

Well, Lex is just going to kill the closest one, then go back to hiding out in the village until someone else comes to help him out.

Speaking of, Azel will do his part by baiting over one of these two.

Alec chips at this village pillager for a level, then heads north.

Quan takes the kill because I want him to visit the village.

He also gets a level! So many levels this update.

Take this little trinket. It's the least I can do. They call it a speed ring. Slip this magic band on and you'll be as nimble as a feather! Go on, try her out! Your enemies'll be too slow to hit you!

The speed ring is an accessory that grants +5 speed to the bearer. There's no limit to the number of rings you can hold, but they can't boost the same stat. I wanted this for Quan because adept triggers based on speed, so you want him to have as much as possible. He also gets 2500 gold.

I'm sending everyone north before Sigurd besieges Jungby. Ethlyn heals up Finn.

Gets a level. Eh. Crit rate, I guess.

A preview of how fucked DiMaggio is.

Sorry, but it is!

Now that's a level, damn!

After defeating DiMaggio, we can now seize Jungby back in the name of Grannvale!

The little flag turns blue.

Midir!! He's alive!!

Uh... You... ...Lord... Sigurd?

Are you alright, Midir? Where's Aideen?!

I... don't know. But Gandolf...

Gandolf... That's all I need to hear. Midir, I'll do all I can to rescue her. You stay here and rest up.

I can't, sir. I've got to help! I can't stand staying here, knowing those thugs still have her!

Midir exits the castle and joins our army.

I send him up to join the rest of the crew heading for Evans castle. Let's take a look at him.

He's a cavalry archer, which is very useful. He has accost and pursuit which is a great combination on a ranged attacker. He can double and extend combat, achieving potentially four attacks or more, in certain cases without any risk of countering! And he has canto so he can hit and run to avoid danger on the enemy phase.

Next time: the remnants of the Verdane army make a foolish mistake! Lex's fate is still in limbo!

Character profiles

Azel (Off. Azelle)

[Fire Emblem Treasure]
what are thoooose

HP: 50 + 20% Spd: 50%
Str: 10% Lck: 20%
Mag: 10 + 30% Def: 20%
Skl: 20% Res: 10%
Skills: Pursuit

Azel is the younger half-brother of Arvis. Childhood friends with Lex. Nurses a crush on Aideen.

Minor Fjalar blood. Azel has some trouble keeping up as infantry with all those horses, but his good speed combined with the low res of most enemies mean he has good combat, at least if you manage to get him a lighter tome.

Lex

[One Hundred Songs of Heroes]

HP: 70 +20% Spd: 20%
Str: 40% Lck: 20%
Mag: 5% Def: 20 + 30%
Skl: 20% Res: 5%
Skills: Vantage Paragon

Lex is the son of Langbalt (off. Lombard). His father hates Sigurd's father, but Lex himself bears no ill will.

Minor Neir blood. Lex becomes a powerhouse physical tank quite quickly with paragon, and some later events factor in to make him very useful.

Midir

[Official artwork]

HP: 60% Spd: 40%
Str: 30% Lck: 10%
Mag: 5% Def: 30%
Skl: 30% Res: 5%
Skills: Pursuit, Accost

A loyal knight of Jungby.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:08 am

0.5: Gerrard Blows it

You see, without that bridge we have literally no way of crossing the river. If he just cut his losses and kept to the stronghold, Verdane could count this as a victory -- they got Aideen, so forget about trying to claim any more territory. Alas, not knowing when to quit is a recurring problem for characters in this game.

Verdanite soldiers pour out of Evans castle.

They begin to cross the bridge into Grannvale.

Back to our units.

Ethlyn is target by this archer, which hurts quite a bit!

One of the two fighters that were threatening Lex takes the bait and targets Azel. The other... I literally have no idea where he's going. Other than to his doom.

Before we get to that, though, Azel lightly sears this guy to death.

And then! Someone approaches from the north.

Sigurd... So this is all you've amounted to...

It's Arvis, the commander of the Royal Guard from the introduction!

He locks on to this bandit to show Azel how it's really done.

He was... incinerated...

Ok, now it's our turn, let's take a look at whatever the fuck that was.

Wow! Those are some bonuses!

They come from his holy weapon, Valflame.

Even if any of those bandits could lay a finger on him, this ring guarantees that he would completely heal up the next turn.

He comes with FIVE authority stars, and adept and nihil.

Arvis has major Fala blood (off. Fjalar) which entitles him to the use of Valflame.

Huh? There's something weird in that picture? Dunno what you're talking about.

Anyway, now that we've claimed this castle for ourselves, Sigurd can go inside! Let's check it out.

As this isn't a base castle, we can go inside without wasting an entire turn. Here we can do a bit of weapon maintenance and inventory management. The lower two options aren't available in the prologue, but we'll see what they are next chapter.

The blacksmith fixes up weapons. Each weapon has 50 uses. When they break, they become a broken weapon rather than disappearing, and they can be fully restored by the blacksmith. Different weapons have different prices for each use to be repaired, so sometimes you might want to save using an expensive when you can.

The pawnbroker is the only way to move weapons between characters. Here you can sell a weapon, and another character can come to the castle and buy it.

I sell off Sigurd's steel sword, and it now appears in the "buy" tab. Things sell for half the price that you buy them for, as is typical in games.

Supply is where you'll find Anna. There's not much use for this option, but if a character picks up an item they don't have room for in their inventory, it'll go in here and you can swap it out later.

The augury is where you'll find Old Hubba the fortuneteller (I don't think he's actually Old Hubba, but I'm calling him that). He'll tell you how many enemies a character has killed, and whether they're in love with anyone.

Sigurd is not, just yet.

Done with that, we'll send Sigurd up to follow the rest of his comrades.

No longer threatened by incomprehensible AI, Lex is also on his way to join his allies.

After Alec and Noish take care of the archer that attacked Ethlyn, everyone starts heading west toward the bridge to Evans castle.

As it's on the way, Finn takes the time to knock some HP off the enemy pillager.

The Evans army approaches.

Midir gets his first combat in killing the village bandit. He won't get the village reward, though.

Instead that goes to Ethlyn, who heals up Finn before claiming her gold.

Our noble duke, Lord Ring, has twin daughters as well as a younger son. Alas, the duke lost one of the girls to pirates, years and years ago... She was just a little lass...

Lady Aideen's still here, but the son Lord André is away with his lord father on the Isaach campaign. Rumor has it, though, that the two aren't getting along well now that the boy's grown...

Gee I wonder if we'll ever see either of the other Jungby siblings.

Ethlyn gets 1500 gold from that village. Not a huge amount, but as a healer she will need quite a lot of gold to keep repairing her staves.

Which is why I also have Quan do what lovers do and give her all of his gold.

This is represented by a sack of gold hovering over their heads.

Our army isn't quite in range to begin attacking enemy units, so I position them like this to draw the enemy closer in.

Finn takes the brunt of the assault, but he scrapes by.

Arvis continues heading toward us. We'll ignore him for now.

We are fairly surrounded by enemies. I'll spare you the specifics, but basically: we kill them all.

Lex gets a good level from the slaughter.

As does Finn!

After an uneventful enemy phase, Arvis makes his purpose known: he wants a friendly chat with Sigurd!

His Majesty is concerned, and he bade me to come and observe. He also entrusted me with this - a gift for you.

This is... a silver sword! A gift from His Majesty? Oh, what an honor! Lord Arvis, be sure to pass my deepest gratitude for this onto the king!

Very well. Incidentally, Sigurd, rumor has it that my brother, Azel, is among your forces. I presume this is true?

Mm, sorry about that. It sounded as if he came behind your back, but I couldn't turn him away. If at all possible, would you mind if he remained with me for a while longer?

I see... So long as you keep him safe, then. He and I may have different mothers, but Azel is still my only brother. I'd prefer if he remained by my side, but perhaps this is how it must be... I'll entrust Azel to you, Sigurd. Be sure that he learns from this experience.

You can leave it to me, Lord Arvis. Once we're done here, I'll do what I can to convince him to go home.
[Sigurd will not do this]

Good to hear it. Now, I must return to His Majesty's side in the capital. I'm entrusting this crisis to you, Sigurd.

There is an alternate conversation if you have, somehow, gotten Azel killed already.

Oh, gods... Azel... He...

He's dead isn't he?

I'm so sorry, Arvis... I couldn't do a thing to save him...

Oh, Azel... You careless fool...

Arvis exits, and we receive our shiny new sword!

It's light and powerful and will serve Sigurd well from here on out! Also, there's a mechanic I haven't explained. See the star with a zero next to it in the weapon tooltip? The zero indicates the number of kills recorded by a weapon.

His iron lance has killed one enemy, so it has a one.

Once the count reaches fifty, the weapon gains the critical skill, and the wielder can make critical hits. All kills above fifty add to the percentage change of a critical. This incentivises each character relying on a preferred weapon to maximise the number of kills and reach this threshold. In typical play, it's quite easy to turn a number of specific weapons into killer weapons in this way, the silver sword chief among them.

Alright, now we're going to move on to taking control of the bridge Gerrard so foolishly lowered for us.

They make a nice orderly queue first, as befits an army of brigands.

On the player phase, we tear through them all.

In between battles, Lex finds time for a long-overdue talk with Sigurd.

Yeah, Azel dragged me into it. I swear, I can't say no to that twerp!

Hahaha... You haven't changed a bit, have you, Lex? But what about your father, Lord Langbalt? Does he know you've come here?

Oh, hell no! You know as well as I how much my father loathes yours. There's no way he'd ever let me help House Chalphy, even if his life depended on it. I had to slip out behind his back.

Just so we're clear, Sigurd, I'm not here for you. Azel's my best friend, and he really wanted to help. That's all.

Heh. A bit harsh, but thanks for coming all the same. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Well, I'll do what I can. Those Verdane dogs have had their run of our land for long enough!

Now, let's take Sigurd's new sword out for a spin.

Beautiful.

Arden snags a kill and a level. This is... ok? Honestly just getting a level on Arden is something.

Azel takes the fight to the bridge.

Level!

Aand one for Noish too.

Ethlyn gets a level from healing up Azel.

The level brigade ends with Midir. This is a great one!

I accidentally blocked myself from going any further because I wanted Arden to get some experience, so this drags on for a little while.

But I get him that kill eventually! Don't say I never do anything for Arden.

Sigurd is going to wait and let Gerrard make the first attack.

It's a good idea, because Gerrard hits quite hard. Now, notice how in those pictures he has a steel axe equipped?

But, if we attack him with a ranged weapon he automatically switches to the hand-axe. Different rules for the enemy and the player -- very unfair!

Hey, don't you go lecturing us about a fair fight!

Midir and Azel bring him low enough for...

The final blow!

Prince Gandolf's already... Urgh...

Sigurd profits from Gerrard's death.

And we seize Evans, ending the prologue.

Two cavalry units ride from the direction of Belhalla south to Evans castle.

His Majesty is highly pleased, and has thus proclaimed you ordination as a paladin of the realm.

I hardly deserve such an honor, sir! I pledge my undying fealty to His Majesty.

From here, it is imperative that you hold Evans. We can ill afford to lose such a valuable defensive point to the enemy. You and your men shall be handsomely paid for your service. Provided, of course, that our territory survives unscathed.

This means every unit will get a certain amount of gold each chapter for each castle captured.

Best of luck, Lord Sigurd. Grannvale expects every man to do his duty.

And that's the end of the prologue!

Next time: Sigurd ventures further in to the verdant forests of Verdane.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:10 am

Extra: Old Hubba's Guide to Love

So you’ve found the lucky man or woman you want to spend the rest of your life with, and you’re wondering, ‘How do I get them to love me back?!’ Well, never fear, because Old Hubba is here to explain all the intricacies of that mysterious thing we call Love.

Love, of course, is measured by Love Points. You accumulate love points with eligible bachelor/ettes every turn, up to a maximum of 500, at which point you become Lovers! The amount of love points you earn each turn with potential lovers varies depending on the person, and you may have a base amount of love points with someone you’ve never even met. You can speed up the falling-in-love process by standing next to your crush for turn after turn. But beware! Love will only grow for the first 50 turns of each map! After that, all relationships are frozen in place.

If you’re a man, you may manipulate women using the high-level technique called the Jealousy Formation. This is an arcane ritual too complex for even my mind to understand, but it seems to involve placing another woman between you and your love interest in order to drive her absolutely wild with jealousy and fall in love with you at light speed.

Here are the answers to some common questions I receive from anxious young singles:

Can we hold a ceremony to mark the occasion of our marriage?

Absolutely not. You will simply stand next to each other until your status ticks over.

What if I accidentally accumulate 500 love points with the wrong person? Can you refuse a proposal?

Again, absolutely not. Once you hear the clarion call of Love, you cannot turn away. There’s no such thing as divorce in Jugdral. If you don’t want kids, you can get your spouse killed, but you may never remarry.

Now that we're happily married, what next?

Why, it’s time to do what men and women do together when they love each other very, very much: combine their stat growths, skills and holy blood to create OP offspring, and automatically determine which kid gets which parent’s weapons. As you all know, all couples always have two children, one male, one female. No exceptions.

Quan, Ethlyn, would you come up here so I can use you to demonstrate how genetics work? Yes, this is a class requirement, thank you.

First, let’s look at their skills. All personal skills are passed on to children, so long as there are no class restrictions, such as on Sol and Luna, which only on-foot swordfighters can use. Quan has Adept and Ethlyn has Critical, so their children will have both Adept and Critical.

Next, holy blood. If a parent has major holy blood, only one child will inherit it, unless both parents have the same holy blood, but that’s not going to happen because that would mean the parents are related, and that’s taboo! Ahahaha. Ahem. The child that inherits the major holy blood is predetermined, and always the same. In this case, Quan has major Njörun blood and Ethlyn has minor Baldr blood. One of the children will inherit major Njörun and minor Baldr, while the other will inherit only minor Njörun and minor Baldr. Poor thing’s likely to end up with an inferiority complex!

On to weapon inheritance! Each parent will pass their inventory on to a specific, predetermined child. Typically the father will pass on to the son and the mother to the daughter, but in certain edge cases, and Quan and Ethlyn, I can already tell you’re one of those edge cases, the father will pass on to the daughter and so on. A parent will only pass on weapons that the child can actually use — if you try to leave an axe to your cleric daughter, they will not take it with them. Only give your children gifts they actually like!

But how am I supposed to know that weapons my kids will want?

Well, if you really want to know, I can drop a couple hints. Or you can go in blind!

Skill growths are also determined primarily by one parent. A child’s growths are equal to the growths of their primary parent plus half their secondary parent, plus whatever holy blood bonuses they might receive.

All right, I can see you’re getting sick of all this theory and want to put it into practice. Goddess bless you horny soldiers. Class dismissed!

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:13 am

1.x: Introducing Oifey to Vice
Before we begin the next chapter properly, I’m going to skip ahead a little bit in order to introduce the base castle. At the beginning of every chapter, we start inside the home castle, where we can perform various management tasks.

From here, you can visit the castle town, depart the castle, change your class, and, if married, exchange money between characters. Giving money ends your turn, however, so you don’t want to do that before you’re ready.

This is what happens if you try to class change while already promoted (Sigurd) or too low level (Arden):

I sometimes forget that Oifey is theoretically in charge of our battle strategy, and that he rides with Sigurd wherever he goes. Speaking of, I had a realisation recently. I always thought that Oifey riding with Sigurd meant literally in the same saddle with Sigurd, and that seemed awfully cumbersome. Making this LP I had to think more about that, though, and I realised that it makes a lot more sense that Oifey just has his own horse, and rides next to Sigurd. Not as funny, though.

In town, we can visit the places we went to last update, and two new locations: the armory and the arena. Let’s take Finn to the armory.

I want him to buy the javelin (a note: there’s also typically a steel axe for sale here, but Lex already bought that in my recording).

Oh no! But I know how to get him some quick cash.

To the arena! I suppose in character you can think of this as Oifey becoming addicted to gambling. Or maybe it's each individual character, as the money goes into their personal wallets.

The arena is made up of seven tiers of predetermined fighters. These are the same for every character, although bow units get a slightly different set. There is a new set of fighters each chapter. The first fighter rewards 1000 gold, with rewards increasing by 500 gold each tier. The first three fighters are usually pretty easy. It’s a good way of getting some extra levels and money for all your characters.

Even through weapon disadvantage, Finn has no problem putting away Gazzak. Even though he’s hurt, winning his bout puts him back up to full health. If he lost, he wouldn’t die, but would start the chapter at 1 HP.

And now he can buy his javelin!

Other inventory management of note:
Noish bought the iron lance.
Lex bought the steel axe, as noted above.
Alex bought Sigurd’s old steel sword.
Arden bought the slim sword.
Consider all weapons fully repaired.

As for the arena, I’ll do a quick survey of the rest of the competitors, then summarise where everyone got to and the results of their levels. You can savescum everyone through the arena with a bit of persistence, but it’s not for everyone. Personally, arena grinding appeals strongly to my lizard brain’s love of numbers going up.

Rank 2 is Clotore, a level four mage wielding a fire tome.

He's a pushover.

Rank 3 is Weissman, a level seven lance knight with an iron lance.

He can give some trouble to your sword users, but he's not too challenging.

Rank 4 is Tiburon, a level ten myrmidon with a steel sword.

Tiburon is a bit of a wall in this arena. He's faster than all your units, so he gets the first attack. As a myrmidon, he has pursuit as a class skill, so he can also make double attacks. He hits hard and is hard to hit. Only Quan, Sigurd, and somehow Lex were able to beat him this chapter, though I've been able to get past him with Finn and Ethlyn in the past.

Rank 5 is Bacchus, a level 13 axe armor with a steel axe.

He's a little troublesome for Quan, but easy for Sigurd.

At rank 6 is Emile, a level sixteen wind mage equipped with Elwind and a speed ring.

He's so fast my screencap didn't manage to catch him! He can take out Sigurd in two hits, so he's pretty dangerous. It took a while, but I did get past him eventually with Sigurd and Quan, but not Lex.

The final enemy is Dulles, a level nineteen general with a steel blade.

He's not hard to beat, but he does give us our first taste of a very annoying skill that will be on basically every boss starting in a chapter or so. Pavise blocks all damage for one attack. It activates at a percentage rate of the user's level, so in this case Dulles had a 19% chance of it activating.

Hooray!
Here are the results:

Sigurd beat rank seven. He gained 2 HP, 1 strength, 2 skill, 1 spd, and 1 def in three levels.
Noish beat rank three. He did not level.
Alec beat rank three. He gained 1 skill and 1 def in one level.
Arden beat rank three. He gained 1 HP in one level.
Azel beat rank three. He gain 1HP, 1 strength, 1 spd, and 1 def in one level.
Lex beat rank five. He gained 3 HP, 1 strength, 1 spd, and 2 def in three levels.
Quan beat rank seven. He gained 3 HP, 1 strength, 1 spd, 1 def, and 1 res in three levels.
Finn beat rank three. He gained 1 HP, 1 skill and 1 res in one level.
Ethlyn beat rank two. She gained 1 HP, 1 skill and 1 res in one level.
Midir beat rank three. He gained 1 HP and 1 luck in one level.

I'll do one of these posts in between each chapter to keep all the inventory swapping and arena grinding in one place.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:14 am

1.1: A Kingdom of Axes

Glorious Grannvale

Aideen is not there, instead already well within Verdane's borders.

The nation is widely dubbed a "barbarian kingdom" by Grannvale's people, owing to their constant raids on Grannvalian soil.

A pacifist, King Batur has long worked to build a lasting peace with Grannvale, while also keeping his aggressive sons appeased.

Batur's three sons have unexpectedly launched an assault on Grannvale.

Aideen's fate... Batur's sudden belligerence... Sprawling before Sigurd lie the great forests of Verdane - and within them, the answers he seeks.

The camera moves focus north-west of Evans, into Agustrian territory.

Agustria Palace

A single paladin rides out from the castle, and approaches a soldier guarding the border between Agustria and Verdane.

He rides onwards to Evans.

You couldn't possibly be declaring war on Verdane, could you?

Eldigan! Am I glad to see you. Listen. The Verdanites have abducted Lady Aideen of Jungby. They've made it amply clear that they don't plan on releasing her. Taking her back by force is our only option.

Ah, I see. That makes sense. Well, whatever you do, you cannot afford to leave Evans unattended. My fellow Agustrian lords have been of a rancorous sort of late... Ah, I know. I'll ensure they don't threaten you from behind.

I'm sorry to involve you in this as well. Say, Eldigan, once I'm done here, what do you say to a catch up? You, me, a fine bottle of wine... Just like old times.

Mm. I'm looking forward to it. I trust I'll see you later, then. May luck be with you this day, Sigurd!

Eldigan heads back to Nordion.

Now focus moves south of Evans, to Genoa.

Enemy Message 2

Remember, first sign of funny business, and it's the brat's head.

Look, Kinbaith, you have my word. So long as you leave Shannan alone, you'll have no trouble. But I do wonder if, once this battle is over, you actually plan to return him to me.

Ahahahaha! You got nothing to worry about. If we get Evans back, you get him back.

I understand. But be warned, Kinbaith: if you break your promise, you'll deeply regret it. Cross me, and I will pursue you to the very depths of the inferno itself, till I take your head. Remember this well!

Wh-whoa, settle down there! I don't believe it... Such a cute face, but you only use it to spew bile like that! I'm not about to make an enemy outta someone with a sword arm as fine as yours. I can promise you that.

Shannan, sit tight. Be patient for just a bit longer.

Ayra, no! Don't do it! Don't go! AYRA!!

An army of fighters exits Genoa castle to advance on Evans.

The Spirit Forest's Maiden

And it's our turn!

Here's the map of this chapter:

It's pretty linear, but I put the arrow in because I like arrows. Sue me!

Let's take a look at the field of enemies.

The fighters all have hand axes, which mostly serves to make killing all the enemies on their phase less effective.

Kinbaith is at the back of the formation. He drops that hand axe, so ideally we want Lex to get the kill on him to avoid fussing around with the pawn shop. He's a beefy boy, but not too dangerous.

Defending Genoa is just a generic warrior with the same stats as Kinbaith, but only a hand axe.

And Ayra?

I'm going to leave her for later.

Oh yeah, the Cross Knight border guard is still there! That makes me feel comfortable not leaving anyone behind to guard the castle. It's nice to have a friend like Eldigan.

Alright, let's start.

First up, Quan wants to talk to Finn, so we'll do that first.

Manster Palace

They head as far south as their range allows.

Thank you, Finn.

Even so, I am but a page... It honors me to have your confidence, but I doubt I'll be of much use to you.

Is that so? In that case, what better time than now is there for a spot of hands-on training? Draw, Finn!

Yes, sir!

Finn gains +1 strength, skill and defence. It's a very nice little conversation! Incidentally, Finn is only around a year older than Oifey, at fifteen. He is by far the youngest person actively fighting in our army at the moment.

Everyone else exits the castle to join them.

Verdane Army

On the enemy phase, Kinbaith's squad heads north to meet us. No action yet.

And it's our turn! Except, before we can take control, the camera's focus shifts to Marpha.

Enemy Message 2

Three figures, including one I can already identify as Aideen, scurry out of the castle.

You need to get as far away as you can before Gandolf finds out!

Pardon me, Prince Jamke, but are you not joining us?

No. I won't stand for my brothers' vile ways but I just won't betray my father, either. I'm going back to the capital. I'm going to try, one more time, to convince my father.

You're right... We must do all we can to end this war as soon as possible. Prince Jamke, I would sooner not burden you alone, but you are our only hope to persuade King Batur to end this.

Aideeeeen! C'mon, hurry up! We're still in serious danger here. If they catch me this time, then Gandolf'll rip my tongue out for sure!

Dew, you're a thief. You got caught in the act. Any tongue rippings you get are your own fault. If Aideen hadn't insisted on letting you go too, you'd still be sitting in chains. Now, what did you promise to do?

I know, I know. I promised Aideen, too. I'm washin' my hands of thievin' from now on. Can I go now?

I'll take your word for it. Now, go already!

Dew and Aideen exit to the east, while Jamke watches them go.

He then heads west, presumably to the capital to talk to his father.

Meanwhile, inside Marpha...

Boys! We're taking the wench and the brat back! If they put up a fight, kill 'em if you have to!

The boys amass.

They are threateningly close to Dew and Aideen. Let's have a look at the two of them and see if they have a chance at taking on the Marpha army singlehandedly.

I'm glad Dew got to keep all the money he stole from Gandolf. He's got about as much money as Sigurd has, I think!

Dew comes with three fun new skills.

Steal. This is the class skill for thieves. When Dew lands a hit on an enemy, he steals all their money. All of it! Thieves can also give gold to any other character, regardless of marital status.
Sol. Restores HP equal to damage done. Activates on [Skl]%
Bargain. 50% discount from all merchants. This means he can buy and sell at the same price, which can help when moving money around the army.

Aideen is a pure healer. She has minor Ullir blood, which would give her a bonus bow rank if she could use those.

So, doesn't look like these guys will be facing the Marphans. Nope, they will be running away as fast as they can.

First though, I'm going to send Dew to that village.

Mark my words: this is all the doing of Sandima, his sorcerous advisor. I can just feel it. Making out a living here's grown tougher and tougher since the day that man arrived, and save for the youngest son, Jamke, both king and country are at his very whim. Please, I beg you... Save our country! Bring back the Verdane that once was!

Dew gets 5000 gold to add to his already overflowing coffers.

Aideen is going to hide out in the forest.

Back with Sigurd, he's going to take out the brigand before he gets to the village.

Kinbaith's band is a little too far away to initiate on safely, so I'm going to make a defensive line to bring them closer.

Alec gets hit by a 42%

One thing that you notice going back to the older games in the series is that high hit rates seem to miss a lot more, and low hit rates connect more often. It's not just your imagination -- the displayed hit rates in modern Fire Emblem games are actually lying to you!

In the first five games, hit rate equals hit rate. 42 means a 42% chance of hitting, which seems low to human brains that are bad at internalising probability, but it's a 2 in 5 chance of connecting, which is pretty decent.

Starting with Binding Blade, however, the games use a system referred to as 2RN or True Hit that makes the probability of hit rate feel right, by rolling two numbers from 0-100 and averaging them to determine if they hit. It makes higher hit rates more reliable, and lower hit rates far less likely to hit.

In general it makes dodge-tanking a little more dangerous in this game. Some characters are still pretty safe, though: see these three axe dudes lining up to try and get a hit on Sigurd. Nerds.

The boys approach.

Next turn, Aideen hides in the corner and Dew follows. He's in range to be attacked by a couple of the boys.

Up north, I suddenly remember that I used Arden to reset the RNG in the arena so Quan could beat the wind mage.

Ah well, he can still kill one of the bandits Noish chipped down last turn.

And then Ethlyn heals him up.

Sigurd and the others clean up.

This feels like a somewhat vulnerable formation, particularly for Azel.

They all go for Finn instead.

And they all miss, too! Haha!

Kinbaith attacks Quan.

Mid-Boss

You know what's precious? Attacking at range where Quan can't retaliate, like a coward.

See what I mean about hit rates!?

And Dew steals all his cash.

Fortunately the next two bandits don't hit Dew, and he gets even richer.

Boy, he sure is in dire straits though.

Being in the woods should increase his avoid to the point where the Marphans won't even bother trying to attack him, and hopefully buy enough time for a few allies to come rescue them both.

Alec's actually turning out kind of OK! Especially now he has his steel sword and he can do a bit more damage.

Azel's effective speed with the fire tome is now 0!

Midir chips Kinbaith low enough that...

Lex can finish him off!

Ah,

This is good though!

With Kinbaith gone, everybody else mops up.

N-no...

Ah, couldn't quite finish that guy off.

He targets Ethlyn on the enemy phase and misses. No dramas.

Dew is safe in the forest where no one can touch him

Aideen can now escape through that little northern passage.

Azel takes care of the straggler.

Finn is the poorest, so he gets to visit this village.

Barely a month goes by without him settin' his army on us. It's terrifyin'! King Batu, his father, used to do such a fine job of keepin' him in check. I can hardly imagine what's goin' on... Anyway, glad you stopped by!

Probably would have made more sense if I'd visited this village before defeating Kinbaith, but 5000 gold is 5000 gold, no matter when it comes.

Everyone except Sigurd and Alec will head west to skirt the forest and catch up with Aideen and Dew.

Meanwhile, Sigurd and Alec will face...

The warrior princess of Isaach, Ayra! See you next time!

Character profiles

Aideen

[Fire Emblem Cipher]

HP: 50 + 20% Spd: 30%
Str: 20% Lck: 30 + 30%
Mag: 30% Def: 30%
Skl: 20% Res: 5%
Skills: none

Daughter of Lord Ring of Jungby. Has a twin sister who was lost at sea, and a younger brother at war in Isaach who is at odds with their father.

Compared to jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none Ethlyn, Aideen is a pure healer. One thing I'll do once I get the chance is swap Ethlyn's heal for Aideen's mend, as Ethlyn needs the extra healing power more than Aideen. With no skills Aideen is never going to be great in combat even once she gets access to tomes from promotion, but she's a very good healer.

Dew

[Fire Emblem Treasure]

HP: 50% Spd: 40%
Str: 40% Lck: 40%
Mag: 10% Def: 40%
Skl: 40% Res: 10%
Skills: Steal (class), Sol, Bargain

A thief from Verdane. He doesn't have much backstory.

Dew secretly has really good growths. They don’t do much for him as a unit, but it makes him an interesting choice as a father. Yes, Dew can be a father. Look, Genealogy takes place over several years, he’s not having kids as a teenager!

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:19 am

1.2: Ayra, Warrior Princess

Today we are going to lay siege to Genoa castle, which presents a bit of a tricky problem.

To do so, we need Ayra out of the way. However, we don't want to kill her. She's clearly been coerced into fighting for Verdane, and if we free Shanan we can likely convince her to help us instead.

Ayra is a scary opponent. First of all, she's faster than any of our units.

Secondly, she comes with pursuit as a class skill, which means she can actually put that speed to use.

Thirdly, and most significantly, she has astra. Astra is scary!! Activating off skill%, astra has a 16% of activating and tearing any of our characters to shreds. Unlike later games, each hit of astra is full strength.

However! Her other skill, nihil, should serve as a reminder.

That's right, Alec is going to play a very important part in safely baiting Ayra. Astra cannot activate against Alec, and he can survive two hits from her.

Sigurd moves into the range of the fighters protecting Genoa, but keeps out of Ayra's range. This will get them all moving towards him, and next turn he should be able to run around the castle while Alec keeps Ayra busy.

Everyone else keeps well away.

The fighters move in. Ayra is not actually associated with Genoa, so she won't move just yet.

Nor with Marpha.

Now she'll act.

She moves east around the castle, when I was kinda hoping she'd stay to the west. Oh well, still workable.

Ethlyn quickly heals Alec back up to full, then runs back.

In the west, Aideen is finally meeting back up with our crew.

I set things up for Noish and Lex to take on a couple of the Marphans.

Sigurd bypasses the fighters and Ayra to directly besiege Genoa.

The commander is not very threatening to Sigurd.

I'm not sure why I bothered moving Sigurd one tile away from the boss; he would have killed him on the enemy phase. Doesn't make much actual difference though.

Alec will sit on the forest tile for some extra avoid.

End turn.

The three fighters go for Sigurd (all miss) which keeps the pressure off Alec.

Oh, I haven't been making note of this, but this brigand has been slowly winding his way down to the southern village. If I hadn't had Dew rescue that village last update the brigand would have targeted that one instead, which would give me more time to rescue the second one. My mistake! I'm going to have to rush to keep it from being destroyed now.

Now, the moment of truth.

Fateful Showdown

She misses her first attack, then Alec failed to connect with his counter, and her final attack made contact.

We did it!

Oh, but it's not quite over yet.

Sigurd defeats the commander.

Gets a level.

And seizes the castle.

This makes those Genoan axe fighters blink out of existence.

You're not one of Kinbaith's lot... Are you?

We've dealt with Kinbaith. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore.

Oh! So Ayra doesn't have to keep fighting! My Auntie Ayra was forced to fight 'cause Kinbaith had me! Please! You've got to help her!

That swordswoman? Huh. I thought there was something amiss about her... Very well! I'll let her know that you're safe. Now, what's your name?

Shanan. ...I'm Shanan, the prince of Isaach...

Isaach's prince, you say... I can barely begin to imagine what you've been through, Shanan. For now, though, you're welcome to stay with our army. Don't worry. One day, you'll make it home. I'll do all I can to ensure that.

Pardon me, sire, but we're currently at war with Isaach. If we're going to harbor its prince, shouldn't we inform the king?

He's a child, Oifey. That war has noting to do with him. I'll find a way to get him home safely, but for now, we need to look after him.

Understood, sire.
(Sigurd leaves)

Just as I thought... Lord Sigurd really is such a kind man...

Oifey: "Uh, Lord Sigurd, sire? Did you possibly, maybe, forget that we're at war with Isaach?"
I feel like Oifey has a poor opinion on Sigurd's grasp on world politics.

Now we wait to see what Ayra does next.

She can't reach Sigurd, but I put Alec over here as well to keep him safe.

Things are becoming a little more eventful over here now.

Please...

Dew's Theme

Dew goes over to Aideen to have a chat. This only becomes an option after capturing Genoa.

Look, I picked up this odd cane. It won't do much good if I just hold onto it, will it?

Oh? This is a Warp staff. Where did you find it, Dew?

Oh... er... I... I found it just over there! Yeah! That's right. Weird, isn't it? I betcha one of the gods left it over there. Juuuuust for you!

Oh, Dew... Having a staff like this ought to be a great help for everybody. Thank you. I'll cherish it.

I'm not sure if Aideen clocks Dew's lie and lets it go, or if she's just that gullible.

Anyway, this is definitely a cool little cane Dew "found". With this, Aideen can send a unit back inside the home castle, or to the entrance of any castle we've seized.

Here's a look at Aideen's sprite as she heals Noish.

We're in a bit of a weird territory for fighting. There's not much room for manoeuvring.

On the enemy phase,

Quan gets quite badly hurt,

this guy starts looting the village, and

Ayra heads straight for Genoa.

Then, suddenly...

Agustrian Army

The border guard returns to Nordion to alert Eldigan.

And the Agustrian army start heading straight for Evans! Oh no! Eldigan, come save us!

On our turn, it's time to talk to Ayra.

From Enemy to Friend

I do. Prince Shannan told me everything: that you're the daughter of the late Isaachian king. Listen. You detest Grannvalians. You've made your hostility perfectly clear. But you can't neglect your duty to the prince. You can't afford to waste your life now, not on a battle as senseless as this.

My brother, the crown prince, entrusted Shanan to my care knowing that his death was inevitable. You're right. After all this time, I refuse to die for Verdane's sake. Until I've seen Shanan rise to the Isaachian throne, my life is not mine to forfeit to such dogs.

I will aid you all I can, if you lower your sword. On my honor as the heir of Baldur the Crusader, I swear I will not betray you.

Very well. I'll place my trust in you, as well... Such is the way of the warriors of Isaach. For now, I pledge my blade in your service. However, this does not change that Grannvale is my foe. Beware, for if one day that includes you... I will not hesitate.

Mm, war can be truly cruel. Ayra, Isaachian warrior... I pray that day never comes.

Ayra is now on our side! I won't show you her stats again, they're obviously the same as before. One thing I didn't show earlier though was her holy blood wheel:

As a member of the Isaach royal family, she is a descendant of the crusader Od, and has minor Od blood.

Oh, and now she's recruited she wants to introduce herself to Quan. Let's get on that!

Quan is in a precarious situation at the moment, so he's going to kill and run backwards towards Genoa.

Ayra has a go at the arena first. She beats tier 5 and gets 1 speed and 1 skill from one level. That's a pretty standard Ayra level.

One important thing from the arena: she triggers astra in one of her fights! It's indicated by the green sparkles. Sol looks similar when it triggers except it has yellow sparkles.

I positioned Quan perfectly for Ayra to reach him after going into the castle. Always satisfying.

Isaach Palace

I'd hate to press you for information so soon, but there's something I'd like to know. Why did Isaach attack Darna in the first place? Surely you knew doing so would invoke the wrath of Grannvale. That King Mananan would commit such a reckless act... The very idea defies belief.

You knew my father, Sir Quan?!

I'm afraid I never had the chance to meet him. However, my father knows him well. He always had only the utmost praise for him. He also speaks fondly of your brother, Prince Maricle. He's always said he is a fine young man.

Is that so? It heartens me to hear it. Without a doubt, my father and Mariccle were admirable men. Never would they condone such an assault on a defenseless city. In the matter of Darna, the patriarch of Rivough acted alone and without our consent...

I beg your pardon?! Why haven't the Grannvalians heard this? Surely if Prince Kurth knew the truth, he would refuse to continue the war.

So, too, thought my father. Once he executed the Rivough patriarch, he departed for the Grannvale front, head in tow, to negotiate with them. But...

...Yes?

My father, the king... He was assassinated on the way. Once word of this returned to Isaach, the people were utterly incensed. Maricle set out, leading our entire army, seeking vengeance against Grannvale.

Something is amiss here. The murder of a king who seeks peace talks certainly isn't like Prince Kurth, either. Have you told Sigurd of this as well?

No. Lord Sigurd carries enough of a burden as it is. It's too late for my brother...

Prince Maricle was resigned to his death when he engaged Grannvale, wasn't he...

My brother believed to the last that Isaach's hope for the future rests in Shanan, his son. My role is to protect Shanan, and with him, the promise of Isaach's liberty...

I see. Thank you for telling me, Princess Ayra. Someday, the world will know this truth, and till that day comes, you mustn't give in. I will do all I can to help you.

Thank you, Sir Quan.

I smell a conspiracy.

In the woods, we keep fighting through the Marphans.

Dew gives Aideen 23,000 gold. He's a generous boy.

I put Noish on a forest tile to soak up the attacks.

He gets a crit on the commander of this troop, which is helpful. I think this is his very first crit of the game, actually?

Then, before the Agustrian army has a chance to continue marching on Evans:

Agustria Palace

Ugh... I should've known Elliot just couldn't keep his nose out of this. Take care of the castle, Lachesis. Sigurd is in dire need of my help.

I knew I could count on Eldigan!

He marches out of Nordion with an accompaniment of soldiers, and speaks to Elliot.

Withdraw immediately, or I will take action. We both know you're no match for me.

What's this? Eldigan?! I should've known you would side with Grannvale!

In doing this you are crossing not just Grannvale, nor me, but your very liege! We bow to the reverent King Imca, who desires only peace with Grannvale. Would you truly cross His Majesty?

You fool! Only you would still seriously heed that senile old fool's word. The lords of Agustria are united against both Grannvale and any peace with them!

Wrong, for I will not stand with you! Agustria cannot afford the crippling tolls of war, and nor can Grannvale. Our past stands as a testament to this. Learn well, Elliot: we, the nobility, know not the suffering brought by war. War cripples only the powerless, our subjects. I will not abide your lust for glory at the expense of our people!

A pretty little speech, but that won't save you now. I knew all along: you and I were always fated to clash, Eldigan! Today, we settle this, once and for all! Men, the enemy is now House Nordion! I want Eldigan's head on a platter!

Eldigan's knights move to attack Elliot's with javelins. They could pretty clearly kill any of Elliot's men with two hits.

Even Elliot himself isn't much compared to them.

And Eldigan, well.... Don't get on his bad side.

Yeah, I think Eldigan has this one handled. Thanks, bud!

Next time: a non-canon approach to Marpha, as I failed to record the real gameplay

Character profiles:

Ayra

[Asatani Tomoyo, Fire Emblem Heroes]

HP: 50 + 20% Spd: 30%
Str: 30% Lck: 20%
Mag: 5% Def: 20%
Skl: 30 +30% Res: 5%
Skills: Pursuit (class), Nihil, Astra

Princess of the kingdom of Isaach. Currently guardian to her nephew, Shanan, the heir to the throne. Equally fierce in battle and conversation.

For some reason I thought Od boosted speed growth, but it doesn’t. Anyway! She starts with such a good speed base that hardly matters. Although Ayra may have a unit rating of “no horse,” she’s absolutely the best of the infantry. She can tear through enemies once she gets to them already, and she’ll acquire more tools to do so throughout the game.

A tribute to the friendship between Sigurd, Quan and Eldigan

[Rika Suzuki, Fire Emblem Cipher]

Since there's only one character profile this update I thought I'd include a nice bit of art of the trio of lord friends. They may have been the inspiration for the lords of Three Houses, but their relationship is far better than Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude!

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:21 am

1.3: A Non-Canon Account of the Siege of Marpha

A short update today! I'm a little busy with deadlines at the moment so my pace might be a little slow for the next week or two. I have the rest of this chapter recorded though, so the final update shouldn't take too long.

Here's where the crew is, newly recruited Ayra included.

Sitting on the top of Marpha is Gandolf. He has a lot of defense compared to the weak fighters we've been facing, but that hand axe reduces his attack power somewhat.

First, though, we need to get to him.

Sigurd leads the charge in removing this wall of barbarians.

Lex was getting a bit low, so Ethlyn tops him up. She reaches level five from this and receives... 1 res :negative:

Slowly but surely, we whittle the enemy down. Lex gets to level eleven off that last guy and gains 1 hp and 1 speed. That puts him at 14 base speed which is I think... -4 AS.

Noish triggers accost twice! It's very noish!

All that's left is this guy.

He goes for Finn next phase.

To his detriment.

Good level!

Then...

Ooh, new type of phase!

Nordion continues to massacre Heirhein.

In the greatest of insults, a generic Cross Knight defeats Elliot.

He runs away. No acknowledgement from Eldigan just yet.

Ethlyn is the first to welcome Aideen back. Otherwise her return has gone unremarked on (this is largely my fault for not getting the conversations until much later).

It's difficult to convey my thanks, but please, accept this staff. I think you'll have more use for it than me.

Is this... a Return staff?! Oh, thank you, Aideen! I'll put it to good use to help us all.

The return staff is similar to the warp staff, but it can only send a character back to the base castle, so warp is technically superior.

The sequence of conversations makes it seem like Aideen got the warp staff from Dew, then decided to ditch the return staff she already had since she found something better.

This is where the army ends up.

After twenty minutes it appears Eldigan realised that Elliot fled, and (most of) the Cross Knights return to Nordion castle. (There's one straggler)

Here, unfortunately, is where I stuffed up a bit. I failed to record a segment of gameplay and had already saved past where I could replay it. However, I had made a previous attempt that got Ayra killed for dumb reasons, so what I present here is a non-canon account of the siege of Marpha.

The strategy is largely similar except I was more aggressive the second go around.

Mostly it was a lot of this.

The main thing you miss out on is the levels people got. I know, I know, watching numbers go up is really all you want from a Fire Emblem LP, isn't it? I apologise profusely.

Ah, there he is. The final Cross Knight.

La-di-da, we inch closer to Marpha. In the real version, I sent Sigurd further ahead because that village in the south-west is teetering on total destruction.

He still heads that way, I was just quicker about it the second time.

We defeat the last of the ground force.

And now it's time to start chipping away at Gandolf. While Sigurd's away, the rest of the army will try to earn some exp.

Damn my rotten luck!

Sigurd gets closer...

When Midir attacks, he gets some unique boss dialogue!

Dew unfortunately does not, even though that would be really funny.

He does steal all Gandolf's gold, though.

So... close...

Azel also gets some unique dialogue.

Please imagine this screenshot, only Gandolf has a lot less HP and Azel is about to destroy him.

N-no... this... can’t... Guh...

Because that's the canon version. That means Azel gets the skill ring, which he doesn't really need, but it'll make for some fast cash later on.

And that's the end of the non-canon run!

We skip forward to when Sigurd has killed the pillager and returned to the castle to seize it.

We transition into a cutscene:

Deirdre's Theme

I need to go home, sir. I ask of you, please, pay me no mind!

Shaddup! Keep up your yappin' and you'll regret it!

Sigurd enters the scene, dashing knight that he is.

What's going on here? Let the girl go.

What's your problem!? This ones- ...Urgh! You're not that Grannvale paladin, are you?

You understand the situation? Then be on your way. There are none I loath more than your kind. The girl has given you her answer. Now, leave her be and get out of my sight!

Yeah... Yeah, got it... My bad, missy. I was just teasin', is all. Sorry. I'll be off now...

He disappears. By the by, if you look at the image URL you'll notice that this is just DiMaggio's sprite. Recycling of portraits is common in this game, but it can be a little disarming when it happens so soon after a character's initial role in the story.

Are you alright?

Y-yes... Thank you, Sir Sigurd.

Hm? You know of me?

Yes. I met a woman named Aideen not long ago in this castle, and...

She spoke of me.

She did. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you: You are in every way the man I had imagined...

My I... ask for your name?

...I'm sorry, but... ...I... I must go.

Wait! Please, I just want to talk for a little longer--

...I am truly sorry. I am glad we could meet, even once...

What? What do you mean? Please, wait! ...Ah.

The mysterious woman leaves Marpha, casting one last look back before heading into the depths of the forest.

Lord Sigurd, is it? What's the matter?

Oh... You must be the town elder! That woman who ran off just now... Do you know who she is?

Ahh, of course. That woman is called Deirdre. She is a priestess of the Spirit Forest.

Deirdre... She's beautiful...

Ohoho, even a refined man like you can't resist being charmed by her ilk! Could it be love at first sight? Hoho...

Now I know it's just sprite reuse, but this is definitely Old Hubba, right?

Sir, please. Don't tease me. And yet... I've never seen anybody so beautiful before. I... I need to see her again.

Alas, sir, for it cannot be so. The folk of the Spirit Forest staunchly refuse to partake in the world beyond their woods. Furthermore, that girl and members of her clan are forbidden from ever liaising with men. Village lore dictates that should this ever happen, calamity would befall the world. You have no choice, sir. Resign yourself of that girl.

What superstitious nonsense! That poor girl... Deirdre... we must meet again.

Next time: what lies in the spirit forest? Could it be... tedium?

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:23 am

1.4: The Spirit Forest's Tedium

Enemy Message 2

My brothers already have fallen, and it's only a matter of time before they come for the capital as well. The Grannvale commander, Sir Sigurd, is a good man. Please, end the war while you still can!

I... allowed Gandolf's raid only because I'd been told that Grannvale would surely come to invade us first. Never did I intend for a war like this.

It was that sorcerer, Sandima, who told you that, wasn't it? You, Kinbaith, and Gandolf trusted him too readily. You've all been deceived!

Your duty as prince is to lead your men into the fray. Dawdling in a place like this would be deeply troublesome of you.

Argh! Damn you, Sandima!

That's enough, Jamke. Listen to Sandima. Go. Lead your men into the fray.

Father! ...Very well. If you won't change your mind, even now, then... I'll see this through as well. But be warned. Should I return victorious, Sandima, I'll allow you to live no longer!

Jamke exits the castle to join his crew of barbarians.

Back in Verdane castle, King Batur continues to question Sandima.

You did assure me that Grannvale hungers to claim our land, and yet...

Feh... And just what are you saying now? To think, I believed that your Verdanites would be of use... You truly are naught but savages. You are worthless. Completely and utterly worthless! And from now on, your army is mine to command!
(Sandima attacks Batur with dark magic)

What?! No, stay back! Back, I- -Guhh...

Loptyr

A SECOND evil vizier-type character appears! I wonder where he was hiding out. Do they have a club?

Hrm, I see... And what of the situation here? Does the plan progress?

My sincerest apologies, Your Excellency. That Grannvalian... Sigurd, or something, has proven to be an unexpected obstacle to the invasion.

Hrm... And what of the search for the Loptyrian scion? Have you found Sigyn's daughter?

Er... No, not yet...

Imbecile! After all of the pains I have gone to, to locate the boy... The son of Sigyn is still in Belhalla, but he's worthless without the female.

Prepare for incoming exposition. Please place your seat in the upright position and stow any belongings.

Listen well. Sigyn was an heir of Prince Maira, brother of an emperor of the old Loptyr Empire. Sigyn alone in this era inherited the sacred blood of the dark lord. That woman broke the commandment that Maira placed upon his heirs and bore two children. Do you know what this means?

Yes, Your Eminence. When the blood of the two heir intersects, the second coming of the dark lord, Loptyr, will be upon us.

Precisely, and so too shall we, descendants of the Loptyrian Empire, return to this world. You know as well as I, Sandima, how heavily our fates depend upon the resurrection of the dark lord. You know well our order's centuries of exile, hidden deep within the Yied Desert.

You know well the abuses... The famines... How we were sustained only by dreaming of the day when the Empire will rise again. And at long last, that day is upon us.

Understood, Your Eminence. If I must surrender my life to ensure that the plan is realized, I will do it gladly!

And so he will!

He takes his place at the top of Verdane castle. Don't you just love his beady glowing eyes?

Jamke's squadron inch their way south through the forest.

Briefly, I send a couple of units through the arena. Aideen obviously can't, with no weapon, but Dew has a go at the first tier.

This is what Sol looks like when it activates. Incredibly useful for Dew to heal one (1) HP.

Ethlyn also miraculously crits Weissman of tier three to death.

And Finn finally beats Tiburon the myrmidon at tier four.

Then I accidentally hit "end turn" instead of doing anything useful. It doesn't really matter, though, because it just lets Jamke move sliiightly closer to us.

See? He really hasn't moved far at all. Let's take a look at him.

The killer bow grants critical, and is also quite light, making it a Very Good Bow.

As for skills, Jamke is somewhat similar to Midir. He has pursuit as a class skill, accost and adept. Those skills combined with the killer bow make him a very potent enemy deleter. Although he of course comes with the usual infantry caveat in a game made for horses.

And here's Sandima too.

Fenrir is our first siege tome. That range makes it incredibly dangerous to approach the castle, considering that barely anyone in our army has any resistance, and also that the castle is just beyond a forest that seriously limits our movement.

Jormungand is also very accurate and very powerful dark magic. Dark magic, alongside light magic, exists sort of outside the triangle of wind, fire and thunder. It is always at an advantage against all anima magic.

And he drops that magic ring. I think that would look very nice on Azel, don't you?

And now begin our journey into the spirit forest. I'll try to break it up with conversation.

Aideen's Theme

Please accept my apologies. I've put the people of Chalphy through nothing but danger...

Don't worry about it. Everyone will be glad to know that you're safe. You've nothing to worry about anymore. The road back to Jungby is secure for you, when you're ready.

No, I wish to remain here. Injuries are inevitable in war. As a humble servant to the gods, it is my duty to stay here and aid your wounded.

Say, Aideen... As I recall, you declined to pursue a knighthood and instead joined the clergy. Am I right? I shouldn't be surprised, knowing how easily people warm to you, and you them. I'd do well to learn from your example!

Thank you, Lord Sigurd, but that isn't entirely true. Initially, I sought priesthood in a bid to help me find my sister. Even now, I still believe this is the answer I seek.

You mean Bridget... I'd heard that she went missing as a child. So all this time, Aideen, you've been praying for her sake, haven't you?

Yes. I know we'll meet someday. No matter what happens, I must give her this: her sacred birthright, the bow Yewfelle!

Well, certainly nothing will ever come of that.

Onwards we go. Ethlyn gets a level doing some healing as we go, +1 str. If you have to have a one-stat level, that's a good one.

Time goes by...

I sent Dew to go get that village. It has some important LORE for us.

Slowly, slowly. It's been three turns and this is how far we've gotten. The pacing in this game can be something else.

Finally some combat.

Finn reaches level six, +1 strength. These are definitely a lot better than the single +HP or + luck levels I was getting earlier.

Careful with that fire, Azel, this is a world heritage forest.

We don't want Jamke getting too close to us with that killer bow.

If I had foolishly let him initiate on someone, he would get this line:

But I didn't! Definitely not! Definitely did not result in Ayra's death yet again.

Lex beats some heads in, gets +1 HP and +1 def for his trouble.

Hahaha yeah you'd have to be stupid to leave Ayra in range when all you had to do was move her over one tile.

Ahem.

Dew is still trying to get to this village, by the way.

Perfect.

Her prey in sight, Aideen moves in.

From Enemy to Friend

You said you would persuade your father, yet instead you've taken to the field yourself. What is the matter with you?

My father is a changed man. My words can no longer reach him... ...It all started when that sorcerer, Sandima, arrived. My entire family now obeys his every word.

This is why I ask... Why have you taken to the field? Please, Jamke. Join us. Let's go to Verdane together. We can reason with the king, one more time. We can put an end to this war! Lord Sigurd has no interest in invading Verdane. He fought only to rescue me. Please listen, Jamke. Please... I beg of you.

Fine... If you're willing to go so far, then I'll stain my name with treason. But it must be understood that I won't let anyone lay a finger on my father.

Yes, I will promise you that. Thank you, Jamke. You truly are a good person.

Aideen...

"I'll stain my name with treason" is a good line.

Anyway, now Jamke is ours! Let's put him to work killing his old buddies. They don't have pretty faces so they don't get a chance to ally with us.

Hell yeah, first hit, first crit!

Ahh, and now we're back to slowly inching forwards.

Oh, Dew finally got to that village!

Strap yourselves in again, this is a long one. And the accent makes it a little annoying to read.

Just t'the north a here is this mighty woodland. S'called the Spirit Forest. Once upon a time, I lived there too, in this li'l hamlet deep within. Th' village is home to the last kin o' the dark one of old, Loptyr.

They say it all started with Saint Maira, exiled by the empire for darin' to sympathize with mortal men.

In my day, there was this gorgeous girl livin' there called Sigyn, the last heir o' Loptyr's bloodline, she was. She lived 'er life under close guard, the villagers wary o' lettin' the blood o' Loptyr loose into th' world.

Alas, Sigyn grew weary o' the tedious forest life an' she left it all behind, breaking ancient commandments. A couple o' years later, she came back, 'cept now she was pregnant. Never said who the father was, mind. Before long Sigyn died, even as she gave birth t' her daughter.

From what I 'eard, the hamlet's old prophet took 'er in and raised the girl as 'er own. If the little girl's still alive, she'd 'ave to be 'bout seventeen or eighteen by now...

I see, I see... Things are starting to come together now.

"Sigyn" has been officially localised as "Cigyun," by the way. Makes it a little easier to distinguish from "Sigurd".

Oh right, the gold.

The remnants of Jamke's crew continue to approach. Notice how they can walk through the slightly more mottled forest? We can't. The only way to traverse the forest is go take that tiny little passage between the thickets. It's very rude.

Ayra gets to level six, +str and +spd.

Ever creeping forwards.

Jamke hasn't been through the arena yet, so I send him back to the castle. Mostly this is an excuse to show return.

Zhoop! The UFO takes him to Evans.

The barbarians line up to try and take on Ayra.

She misses the kill on this guy, but gets a very solid level.

Jamke, all alone in Evans. Don't worry, I'll send you a friend soon enough. I have to show off warp, after all!

He visits the fortune teller. That's not much of a surprise, she's the only person you know in the army! Well, apart from Dew, but who cares about him.

Jamke beats tier five in the arena and gains two levels : +2HP, +Str, +Res.

For archers, you get this guy at tier four instead of Tiburon the myrmidon. Hey, I never noticed that rhymed before.

Ugh, we are STILL marching through this forest. Well, Sigurd, this looks like a nice place for a quick rest.

Oh? Deirdre emerges from the deep woods.

Deirdre's Theme

Thank the gods! For a moment I thought that I might never see you again.

Milord, listen. The dark priest Sandima guards Castle Verdane with his wicked magic. You must go no further. You would surely be killed. Please, you mustn't go...

But I mustn't place my men in even greater danger, either. I have no choice but to go.

...I see. Then I will go with you.

Excuse me?

This is called a Silence Staff. So long as my own power is enough to pierce his magical resistances, it will seal his magic away. Trust me, milord. I'll ensure his dark spells never harm anyone ever again.

I'd never imagined that you'd have such power... But why... Why are you helping me?

...I tried to forget you all I could, but it was all in vain. ...I no longer know what I should do...

What is it you're afraid of, Deirdre? I don't understand. But if you and I feel the same way, then surely we've nothing to fear. I... I love you, Deirdre...

How romantic! It's love at first sight! Why, they're already --

Wait, they're not married yet. Maybe they're waiting for the enemy phase to hold their wedding.

Anyway, who cares about that, we have a new unit! A new weapon for Oifey, master strategist, to wield!

Deirdre is a priestess, which means she can use light tomes and staves. She comes with Silence, as promised, which prevents enemies from using magic. It automatically succeeds if the user's magic is higher than the foe's resistance.

Unfortunately, Deirdre is saddled with an extremely heavy tome, and unlike Azel, she won't get the opportunity to switch it for anything else. Being slow makes her very easy to hit, and she's extremely fragile. She can one-shot a lot of these early enemies though.

Her circlet grants miracle and renewal. Renewal restores 10 HP at the beginning of each turn.

And... Oh. Major Naga blood, and now we can identify that as minor Loptyr blood, that of the dark god. Mildly concerning...

Let's see how she goes in battle.

Because her target is on the thicket, we get this fun new background. I had never seen this one before!

The magic animations in this game can be pretty psychedelic. The screenshot doesn't capture it, but she annihilates him.

On the enemy phase, the last of this pack of enemies goes to his death.

At the back of the pack, Aideen prepares to warp Arden.

This brings up a little map to select which castle to send him to. We pick Evans, of course.

A nice, safe pentagram. Warp and return give a lot of exp. Aideen levels up off this, reaching level five. +HP and +luck.

Ah! Now they're married. How lovely, a wedding in the middle of the spirit forest, surrounded by the corpses of barbarians.

Next time: more forest! More arena! Aideen talks to the rest of her love interests! We beat up a helpless old man!

Character profiles:

Jamke

[Suekane Kumiko, Fire Emblem Heroes]

HP: 90% Spd: 35%
Str: 50% Lck: 40%
Mag: 0% Def: 30%
Skl: 10% Res: 5%
Skills: Pursuit (class), Adept, Accost.

The third prince of Verdane. Turns against his father to join with Sigurd at Aideen’s urging.

Jamke compares very favourably with Midir. He is very offensively potent. He has the usual drawback of being an archer (no melee enemy phase) and not having a horse. He also makes for a pretty interesting father for anyone who has no need of pursuit.

Deirdre

[Haimura Kiyotaka, Fire Emblem Heroes]

HP: 40+20+10%
Str: 10%
Mag: 10+40+20%
Skl: 20%
Spd: 10%
Lck: 10%
Def: 10%
Res: 10+40+20%
Skills: Nihil

Deirdre is the mysterious maiden of the spirit forest, daughter of Sigyn and an unknown father. Sheltered in her forest home for her entire life, she fell in love at first sight with Sigurd and married him with only a little hesitation.

Her growths without the holy blood bonuses are impressively low. She's very frail and slow, but she does have staff utility. Silence is very handy, but also very expensive.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:24 am

1.5: Out of the Woods and into the Forest

Yes, we are still stuck in the woods. Never fear, as I will break it up with conversation.

Aideen has two mutually exclusive conversations available with Midir and Azel. The pair will gain 100 love points from the event.

I'm so sorry I failed to protect you. Please, forgive me...

The important part is that you're safe as well, Midir. Please, don't worry about it. You gave your all to protect me, and I couldn't thank you enough for that, even if you didn't succeed. For now I'd like you to remain with Sigurd. He could use your strength.

Certainly, milady. He's done so much for me, for you, and for all of Jungby. I'll do all I can to return his kindness.

Out of the woods, and into the forest!

When the news of your abduction reached us, the thought of you in danger while I just sat at home was unbearable! I came to Jungby as quickly as I could.

Hold on. You are the younger brother of Lord Arvis of Velthomer, are you not? Did he allow you to come?

No, I... I came without his consent. And he certainly won't be pleased.

Why would you do something so reckless, then? I thought you abhorred violence.

Because I... er, well...

Oh? What is it, Azel?

It's... It's nothing... never mind.

Poor, shy Azel. Officially, I didn't get either of these chats so neither get the love boost, because I'll be holding the vote for Aideen's hand in the pre chapter 2 arena update.

I can't bait the guardians of Verdane out without being in range of Sandima. I have to wait for Deirdre to painstakingly make her way through the forest so she can silence him.

While I have a captive audience...

I always find it interesting how pseudo-medieval fantasy stories engage with the role of women in those societies. Obviously the status of women in the western European societies many of these settings use as inspiration was pretty low compared to men. How does that then translate into the fictional world?

I think there’s two ends of the scale in how this can work. The first is to ignore gender-based hierarchies at all. In Fire Emblem, I would say Awakening is a strong example of this. Lucina's status as heir is never questioned on the basis of gender, nor is any other female character in power.

On the other end of the scale, you incorporate misogyny into your setting, and engage with it. I don’t mean simply using the mistreatment of women as plot dressing but to use the characters and narrative to explore what effect systematic misogyny has on people. Three Houses does this really well in my opinion with characters like Mercedes, Dorothea, Ingrid and Bernadetta.

Genealogy obviously incorporates misogyny into its setting, what with the inciting incident being the abduction of Aideen into forced marriage, but does it do so thoughtfully?

Not really, in my opinion. The abduction of Aideen serves to characterise the villains and motivate the (male) heroes, and Aideen is never given the chance to reflect on how she felt about the situation. Certainly that’s a matter of the limits of space in an old game, but I also think it’s simply a theme that the developers at the time weren’t interested in.

I think there's considerable room for exploration in a potential remake.

Ah, we've finally arrived.

As the animation finishes, all sound cuts out. It's a nice effect.

Deirdre.txt

After so long... Combat.

They all want a piece of Ayra, and they all miss. One good thing about forests, I guess.

Sandima is silenced for five turns, so we have a lot of time to take him out.

Gold Axe, Silver Axe

Lex takes some personal time to stare out over the great lake of Verdane.

Huh.

Ok then!

This game has a lot of weird, obscure events like this. They're charming, but there's also no way to know about them in advance without a guide.

Azel I know you want to impress Aideen but please exercise some caution with your fire.

Aura: bad tome, but sick animations.

Ayra gets in on the action too.

Sigurd, of course, cannot be stopped.

Alec is also here.

Slowly, we whittle them away.

By the way, as people are fighting, please imagine lots of warping and returning going on. It's an easy way to get Aideen and Ethlyn some experience while they're not needed for healing, and it helps feed my arena addiction.

And then there was one.

And then there wasn't!

Time to take on Sandima. I want Azel to kill him for the magic ring, so Noish and Alec are going to chip him down first.

Funnily enough, because Sandima is silenced he is, quite literally, silent. He has no dialogue if you fight him like this.

If we waited for silence to wear off, though, he'd say this:

Scintillating.

If Jamke fights him:

You are too late, Jamke. Your father has already passed on.

What?! You... You're MINE!!

If Deirdre fights him:

What’s this? A priestess, are you? Could it be... Could you be Deirdre... The cursed maiden...

Alec brings him down to easy killing range for Azel.

Huzzah!

He recovers his voice for his death quote.

Mmm... That's nice.

Before we seize, I'm just going to make note of all the levels characters got in this update. I got several characters a little further in the arena -- notably, Arden beat Tiburon the myrmidon and Lex used the brave axe to beat the elwind mage.

Aideen: HP, def, skl, res
Ayra: 2 levels, str, skl, spd, lck
Alec: hp, spd, res
Ethlyn: 2 levels, HP +2
Arden: HP, def, res
Deirdre: 3 levels, HP, str, mag +3, res +2
Azel: 2 levels, HP +2, spd +2
Midir: str, spd
Lex: HP, mag
Finn: HP, def, skl

By the look of it, he's well beyond help.

Hnnh... Lord... Sigurd? I am so sorry for doing all this to you... I let Sandima... lead me astray... He... he abused my trust... and won over my sons... all to seize control of Verdane for himself...

I understand, Your Highness, but you need to rest now. Please, you mustn't stress yourself further.

No... It's too late for me... Heed my word, Sigurd, for there is one final thing I must tell you... The misery here... the grief spreading across Jugdral... it is all the will of the dark priesthood...

Sandima... was one of them... He twisted us to war with Grannvale... for the sake of the cult's madness.
The... the dark priests... they infect every corner of our world... Sigurd... Stay vigilant, lest you be tricked too! I... I failed the people of Verdane... Sigurd, I beg you... Make this right... Protect... my... people...

Oh... Your Highness... The dark priesthood? What in the blazes is happening...?

I'm sorry to tell you this Sigurd, but there are some very dangerous people operating in Jugdral. They are...

[from vilkacis]

Next time: politics! crises! a race against the clock!

Bonus: Alternative Scenes.

The script has some alterations to take into account different variables. The first one is pretty straightforward.

If we kill Ayra before seizing Genoa:

Sire, we've found this young boy in the dungeon.

Who are you? What's your name?

I-I'm Shanan... Prince Shanan of Isaach... You're not one of Kinbaith's lot... Are you?

Isaach's prince?! ...Er, forgive me. I am Sigurd, a paladin of Grannvale. We've defeated Prince Kinbaith. You're safe now.

Really?! Then Ayra doesn't have to fight anymore! My Aunt Ayra was forced to fight 'cause Kinbaith had me! Come on, we've gotta tell her!

Ayra? That swordswoman out there? ...Oh. Oh no...

It... It can't be... She's dead? ...You killed Aunt Ayra?!

I'm so sorry, Shanan... If I had known, I wouldn't done all I could to help her...

Ayra...

Oifey, could you take care of Shanan for a while? Try to help him calm down a bit.

Pardon me, sire, but we're currently at war with Isaach. If we're going to harbor its prince, shouldn't we inform the king?

He's a child, Oifey. That war has noting to do with him. I'll find a way to get him home safely, but for now, we need to look after him.

Understood, sire.

"Try to help him calm down a bit"

Sigurd is no grief counsellor.

The second example is a more difficult situation to set up. The reason the game forces you to plod through the forest is that it needs Sigurd to stop in one of about four tiles in order to trigger the meeting with Deirdre. There's no way around this, so you can't end the chapter without having triggered the event.

If, for some ungodly reason, you leave Sigurd behind and send the rest of your army to kill Sandima, the event with Deirdre is quite different.

Wait... Lord Sigurd...

Hm? Is that... Deirdre! Ah! So this must be your Spirit Forest. Thank the gods! For a moment I thought that I might never see you again.

I heard of Sandima's defeat. I was afraid that he'd find me... He was a dark priest from a shadowy cult, sent to Verdane to find me.

A... shadowy cult? What in the world do you mean?

I don't know much of it myself. All I know comes from the last words of the old woman who raised me. Somewhere in this world, she said, there lies an ancient order dedicated to the ancient dark god, Loptyr. So devout are they, it is said that they plot to resurrect their once-fallen god.

Yes, I've heard those rumors myself. But why is this cult after you?

The dark god slumbers within my very blood... Through me, they have some way of reviving Loptyr. This is why she told me on her deathbed: I must never be found, she said. I must never mingle with men...

I see... So that's why you kept running away from me.

I was afraid of falling in love. I did all I could to forget you, but... Love found me still. I couldn't do it... I couldn't bear to lose you. I... no longer know what I should do...

Deirdre... I know you must fear where your destiny might lead. But nothing will come of living in fear. I will protect you. Come what may, I will protect you. Deirdre, if you and I feel the same way, then we've nothing to fear.

O gods above, should our love be a sin, then deliver punishment unto me alone! I swear this day: Even should my body be rended and rent, no regrets will ever haunt me. All I ask, O gods... Protect my beloved Deirdre in my stead, for all eternity!

Ahh... Milord...

It's a real shame this is so hidden away. I think it's a far more insightful moment than the standard conversation, which is half a tutorial on avoiding Fenrir.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:25 am

Extra: The Jugdral Chronology

I skipped over this part in the prologue because it's largely extraneous, but after you start a new game, a timeline of Jugdral very quickly scrolls by.

None of this information means anything right now, but it may be interesting to look back on later to see if anything gains significance.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:28 am

2.x Introducing Jugdral's Bachelorettes

Before we get to the main event, let's get some housekeeping done.

This is chapter 2's armory. The thunder tome immediately goes to Azel. It has a weight of seven, effectively giving him a +5 boost to his speed compared to fire.

Midir takes the steel bow, Finn takes the steel lance, and Ayra takes the steel blade.

Rank one of the arena is Jirough, a level five fighter with a steel axe.

Watch him burn!

Rank two is Mahatma, a level eight fire mage with elfire.

I'm never going to use elfire in my playthrough so have a taste of it here.

Rank 3 is Lovin, a level eleven lance knight with a steel lance.

Rank 4 is Buchanan, a level fourteen myrmidon with a steel sword. As you can see, so far the types of enemies are pretty similar to the last chapter. Buchanan is as much of a wall as Tiburon was.

This is where Deirdre bowed out, so Ethlyn takes over for the exhibit matches.

The alternate rank four for archers is Millet, a level fourteen archer with a steel bow.

He has fashionable pink boots. Just like his melee equivalent, he has pursuit as a class skill, so he's quite dangerous against Midir. Less so Jamke.

Rank five is Heltzog, a level seventeen armour lance with a steel lance.

Azel really tore through the arena this chapter with his shiny new tome.

Rank six is Tyakov, a level twenty thunder mage with elthunder and a shield ring that grants +5 to defense.

That's irrelevant to Azel though. Sorry I didn't get the tome animation for this one, but I will be using elthunder much later on.

Rank seven is Holyn, a level twelve myrmidon with an iron blade. Wait, that can't be right.

No, I guess that's this chapter's champion. How odd.

It's an even match, but Azel comes out ahead.

Yay!

Now we get to--

Hang on, the game is transitioning into a cutscene.

He's Azel!

The way you fought... You were brimming with spirit! Hm... Could it be that you fight for something you believe in? I've been doing nothing but chase the money for all these years...

But I look at you, and suddenly it feels so meaningless. Hey, I don't suppose you're recruiting? Maybe using my blade for something real and grander than me is just what I need.

Our very own gladiator!

We'll look at him in a second, but first! Back to the arena!

For you see, Holyn wasn't the real rank seven enemy.

That's Chaimos, a level twenty three hero with a steel blade.

He is far, far more dangerous than Holyn, and there's no way Azel could have beaten him. (Sigurd couldn't even beat him! Though that's mainly just bad luck on my end.)

Oh, and the archers at tier seven face Marilyn, a sniper with a silver bow.

She's also tough, and our first female arena opponent I think.

Ok, now we can look at Holyn!

Holyn (off. Chulainn, pronounced like HULL-en)

[Tomohide Takaya, Fire Emblem Cipher]

HP: 90+20% Spd: 30%
Str: 30% Lck: 20%
Mag: 5% Def: 30%
Skl: 50+30% Res: 5%
Skills: Pursuit (class), Luna.

A gladiator so impressed by Azel's fighting spirit that he joined Sigurd's forces.

Holyn compares well with Ayra, who is at 14/19 str/spd, but only 8 defense. Their growths are also quite similar, but he has the edge on skill and defense. Overall he's a bulkier Ayra. As a myrmidon, he comes with pursuit as a class skill. Luna is another sword skill like Sol and Astra. It activates on skl% and is very useful against high defense enemies.

And just like Ayra, he has minor Od blood. That means he and Ayra are both descended from the Crusader Od, and are some degree of related. Od's time was about 120 years ago, so... how many generations could that be? Hm. I'm sure that will never matter to us.

Now for the results of the arena!

Sigurd beat rank six and gained two levels, reaching level 15. 2 HP, 1 str, 1 skl.
Noish beat rank four and gained two levels, reaching level 9. 1 HP, 2 skl, 1 spd, 1 def.
Alec beat rank three and gained one level, reaching level 8. 1 HP, 1 str, 1 spd.
Arden beat rank three and gained one level, reaching level 8. 1 spd, 1 def.
Azel beat the whole arena and gained two levels, reaching level 10. 1 HP, 1 mag, 1 skl, 1 spd, 1 lck.
Lex beat rank five and gained two levels, reaching level 15. 1 HP, 2 def.
Quan beat the whole arena and gained two levels, reaching level 11. 2 HP, 1 str, 1 spd, 1 def.
Finn beat rank five and gained one level, reaching level 8. 1 HP, 1 lck.
Ethlyn beat rank four and gained one level, reaching level 9. 1 skl, 1 res.
Midir beat rank three and gained one level, reaching level 8. 1 spd.
Dew beat rank one and gained one level, reaching level 3. 1 str, 1 spd.
Ayra beat the whole arena and gained two levels, reaching level 11. 2 HP, 1 skl, 1 lck.
Jamke beat the whole arena and gained three levels, reaching level 11. 3 HP, 3 str, 1 skl, 2 luck, 1 res.
Deirdre beat rank four and gained one level, reaching level 8. 1 mag, 1 spd, 1 res.
Holyn beat rank six (but not his shadow self!) and gained one level, reaching level 13. 1 HP, 1 str, 1 skl.

Now, I know you've all been waiting for this. It's finally time... Take it away, Hubba!

Welcome to the first ever Jugdral series of the Bachelorette! In this series we give YOU, the audience, the power to choose just who the bachelorette will marry from a curated selection of bachelors. I am your host, Old Hubba. For the first instalment, we bring you a DOUBLE EPISODE with not one, but TWO bachelorettes! Now then… Let’s love!

Our very first Bachelorette is the comely cleric Aideen. Aideen enjoys prayer, devotion, and lamenting the disappearance of her identical twin sister. She brings to the table minor Ullir blood, granting an extra rank in bows that she cannot use, but maybe one of her children will! She’s relying on her partner to contribute their skills to the relationship, for she has none! Who will be her perfect match? Let’s meet her bachelors.

Azel*

Young Azel has nursed a crush on Aideen since childhood, but will his valiant attempts to assist in her rescue from Verdane be enough to draw her attention? Though you might expect a fire mage to be full of scorching hot passion, Azel’s sweet and mild temperament is not exactly one to set hearts ablaze. Is a gentle warmth just what Aideen needs, or will this spark fizzle out?

I’m sure that since Azel has had a crush on Aideen for so long, he already has the perfect honeymoon gift in mind! Something that will keep him perpetually close by… Azel would be a wonderful father to a little girl, but unfortunately he’s not well-suited to raising a rough-and-tumble boy.

Compatibility:

Minor Fjalar blood.

Pursuit.

Magic and speed growth.

Poor strength and defense growth

No bow knowledge.

Midir*

Midir almost gave his life for Aideen. Is such self-sacrifice the key to her heart?

Secretly, Aideen has always hoped her son would turn out like Midir. In fact, she has a family heirloom hidden away she would love to pass on to her son, but her poor archery skills mean she is ill-equipped to train him in it.

Compatibility:

Pursuit and accost.

Ok physical growths to balance out Aideen’s magical growth.

Bow knowledge.

No holy blood.

Jamke*

Jamke is the strong but silent type. He’s a man of action, but the kind who’s willing to turn his back on his family for the sake of an attractive woman (there may have been a greater issue at stake, but let’s focus on the woman here).

Committing treason at a woman’s request is just the type of thing to drive her wild. Wild enough, possibly, for Aideen to commission a beautifully made bow in his honour.

Compatibility:

Accost and adept.

Decent physical growths to balance out Aideen’s magical growth.

Bow knowledge.

No holy blood.

Although he has pursuit, this is a class skill of the archer class and will not be passed on.

Arden

Arden proposes to Aideen by writing out her name.
Aideen
Ardeen
Arden
It must be fate.

Compatibility:

Gives great hugs.

Potential to gain bow knowledge.

Vantage.

No holy blood.

Mediocre growths.

Mystery Man of Faith*

Aideen entered into the religious service rather than train as a knight. Perhaps that faith extends to her path to a soulmate? Aideen prays that some day she will find a man who understands her completely, so as to answer her every desire. Will her wishes be fulfilled?

Compatibility:
it is a mystery

No one
After her ordeal in Verdane, perhaps Aideen decided she would dedicate her life to prayer and the care of others. Taking a vow of celibacy means she will never have children of her own blood, but surely some children will come into her life regardless.

Who will she marry? It's up to you!

-------------

Now I bring you our second bachelorette of the night. Up for marriage this time is Ayra, she of the baleful blade! Why, I’d love to be the one on the end of her “sword,” if you know what I mean. You know what I mean.

Woe to anyone who crosses her path, but what of the one who crosses her… heart?

Ayra is determined to raise her children in the ways of Isaach. No Grannvale father will sway her from this choice. The knowledge of pursuit will be drilled into them from the day they take their first steps.

Holyn*

How closely do two people have to be related before you say it’s too close? Holyn and Ayra are some kind of cousin, but to what degree? That’s up to your conscience. But taboo is a most potent aphrodisiac…

Compatibility:

Minor Od + Minor Od = MAJOR OD!

Luna.

Loves swords.

Doubles down on areas Ayra already excels in; brings little new to the relationship.

Lex*

Throughout history it is a known fact that the most powerful swordswomen feel a deep attraction to rowdy men wielding axes. Can Ayra possibly resist the pull of generations before her?

Compatibility:

Minor Neir blood.

Paragon.

Bulky growths.

Vantage.

Does not share love of swords.

Noish

This incredible masculine energy… What woman could say no to, uhh, Nosh? Nacho? The red guy.

Incidentally, Ayra’s favourite colour is red. Blood red.

Compatibility:

Accost, critical.

Loves swords.

Ok physical growths.

No holy blood.

Jamke

A shared shame may well bring Jamke and Ayra together. Both were forced by malicious hands to fight against Sigurd’s cause. Is it possible they came to know each other during Ayra’s time at Genoa? Could it be that they… fell in love?

Compatibility:

Accost, adept.

Good offensive growths.

No holy blood

Does not share love of swords.

Very low skill growth.

Dew

Everyone knows money is the key to any woman’s heart. Not even Ayra can deny the devilish draw of a shiny sack of gold.

Compatibility:

Sol, bargain.

Decent growths across the board, in particular speed and a surprising magic growth.

Loves (stealing) swords.

No holy blood.

Arden*

Who else could bring a beautiful smile to this steely warrior’s face but Arden? He’s strong and he’s tough, and maybe that’s what Ayra needs. She has enough speed for two already.

Compatibility:

Smiles.

Loves swords.

Vantage.

Mediocre growths.

No one
Ayra’s an independent woman who doesn’t need a man. She’ll take a blade to anyone trying to to convince her otherwise.

Who should be Aideen’s gorgeous groom? Will Ayra get over her prejudice against all weapons that are not swords? Vote now! Disagree with my selection? How dare you insult my expertise as an augur of true love!? You are all but newborn babes in the understanding of feminine desire compared to me! But, I suppose, if you can make your case and convince your fellow voters, you may do so.

* Although any single man can pair with any single woman, this indicates pairings that have dialogue within the game as a result of pairing up. Some of them aren't very substantial, but it's a factor to consider.

[Credit to Cheetah and Tigerfang for giving me ideas when I was drafting this post! It was a lot of fun.]

RESULTS

Alright, I'm going to call it now since it seems like there aren't any more votes coming in.

Jamke juust edges out over Azel to win Aideen's hand, with eleven votes against ten.

Arden will be the one to marry Ayra with SEVENTEEN votes, the next closest were Dew and Lex both at four.

[contributed by vilkacis]

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:31 am

2.1: The Charge of the Light Brand

Glorious Grannvale
Verdane has fallen to Grannvale. On orders from Belhalla,

The lords of Agustria lead a storm of heated rhetoric denouncing Grannvale. To make matters worse, the renowned pacifistic Agustrian ruler, King Imca, has been slain by an unknown hand.

Even as the Agustrian crisis unfolds, the bulk of Grannvale's army remains in Isaach.

.

As the sole defender of Grannvale's front, Sigurd once again finds himself in battle...

Sigurd has found himself a position of considerable authority, hasn't he? Governor of Verdane, even as there's an extant prince around in Jamke! Not bad.

Agustria Palace

Lachesis, I'm leaving for Agusty. I can't rest until I've convinced King Chagall to end his foolish warmongering.

Please don't do it, brother! You know as well as I that Chagall murdered his father himself. You'll only be endangering yourself for a lost cause. He won't listen to you!

There remains no evidence against him. Surely, His Majesty will see reason in this matter, if I simply persuade him.

But-

Enough! I'll leave three of my finest knights here to defend Nordion, should the worst come to pass. Lachesis, you needn't look so sad. I will be back. I promise. I'm not about to abandon you in death.

Eldie...

Your father before you worked so hard to build an era of peace with Grannvale. A war will only bring ruin to our people, bringing disgrace upon your good name for generations to come.

But now, my father is no more... And long live the king of all Agustria! For years you've made me play the fool, and now, I will reward you in kind. Guards! Throw this man in the dungeon!

W-wait! Your Majesty, please-

Enemy Message 2

Pfeh! Good riddance, the eyesore. Send my orders to Bordeaux at Heirhein: seize Nordion Castle! Once that nuisance is dealt with, we're clear to throw all we've got at Grannvale!

teleporting wizard alert

Manfroy? Yes, just as we agreed. Father is dead, and by my hand. ...There is no turning back now. Even so, I still don't know if we stand a chance.

Remember, Grannvale still adheres to that tawdry old peace treaty with you, and their entire army is distracted in Isaach. Strike now, and you could not possibly fail.

You're right. The downfall of Grannvale will mark the rise of Agustria as Jugdral's new leading power!

Hmhmhm... We can only hope your ambition will be rewarded.

Crisis 2

That isn't our only problem, milady. With Lord Eldigan gone, we need to be aware of Heirhein's movements. Knowing of his lordships absence, a strike from them is inevitable. After the Verdane incident, they're most likely out for revenge on us... Especially Lord Elliot.

Ugh, that Elliot... I can't believe how many times I've had to tell him I'm not interested in him.

It's too bad they aren't, else perhaps someone would stand a chance to marry me. Perhaps.

Lachesis, there's a time and place for rants about the state of single men in Agustria. Perhaps later we could discuss your candidacy for the next season of the Jugdral Bachelorette?

We three are all who remain. Nordion is vulnerable, and they know it. Rest assured, my brothers and I will do all we can to defend the castle, but the odds are against us. I'm sorry, milady.

Very well. Thank you, Eve. But please, look after yourselves. Don't waste your lives for me. Be sure to tell Eva and Alva that I'm sorry for this.

We are not worthy of such kind words, milady. Even so, Lord Eldigan handpicked us to defend you. Our lord gave us a task, and we will see it through. As paladins of Nordion, our lives are yours, no matter what. To our dying breaths, we live to defend you!

The three paladins, and Lachesis, take their places guarding Nordion. You will soon see how very seriously Yves takes that last promise, by the way.

Very strong family resemblance here.

Ahahaha, that's perfect! Elliot! Lay siege to Nordion at once! Let's see some tears roll down Eldigan's Cheeks!

With pleasure, Father!

Cavalry begin pouring out of Heirhein, but I didn't capture it very well.

Why does every line from Oifey make me laugh. "Uh oh sire, we have trouble!"

I bear a message from Lady Lachesis, pleading for aid.

They've taken Eldigan?! Why... Why in the world would they treat a man so esteemed this way? Inform everybody to make ready. We ride for Nordion at once!

No matter the cost, Lachesis needs us. He might never admit it, but Lachesis has always been dear to Eldigan. The loss of Lachesis would gravely wound him...

I thought as much. I'm not about to stop you. No... I will accompany you.

What?! No, I can't allow that! I refuse to endanger you like this.

Milord, do you not remember our vows? You swore to never leave my side, and... I... I am... uneasy... I have a feeling that if you and I were to part, we would never find each other again... Please, grant me this. Let me stay by your side...

I'm sorry... you're right. I did promise. Very well! Let us ride together. But you mustn't leave my side.

I won't.

Deirdre I'm sorry but unless you get a horse you are going to left far, far behind.

This chapter has many more moving parts than the last, so I will likely come back to this map a couple more times. Elliot's cavalry are approaching Nordion from Heirhein, while we race northwest from Evans. The opening to this chapter is fast-paced and will not let up for a long time. Now, more than ever, you will see why they call this Horse Emblem.

First, let's take a look at who we're racing to save.

Ah, it's time for me to come clean. I have been very carefully presenting all dialogue involving Lachesis to conceal this absolutely dreadful localisation leftover from Awakening. This is the one name I refuse to use even for the sake of consistency. I hope you can forgive me.

Lachesis is a princess, which means she's a sword healer. She's more in the line of Ethlyn than Aideen in terms of stat distribution, except she doesn't have a horse.

The miracle sword does what it says on the tin: grants miracle. Also,

So you can't go selling it to Sigurd and having a nigh-unkillable lord.

Charm is a very useful support skill for killing bosses buuuut she's infantry so all the bosses will probably be dead before her charming aura gets into range.

As Eldigan's sister, she has minor Hezul blood.

Lachesis' squadron of identical triplets Yves, Alva and Eva all have the same stats/weapons. You can differentiate them by the colour of their capes, but uhhh that's hard. Yves is yellow, Alva is green and Eva is... purple, maybe?

Heirhein's formation has some new enemy types, but they don't concern us just yet, since they won't move.

Elliot's cavalry will, though. Note that there are only lances and axes, no swords. Clearly they are prepared to face the lances of the Eves.

Ok, let's begin.

Crisis in Agustria

Deirdre has a conversation with Ethlyn, but getting it now will delay Ethlyn too much, so I'll set them up to have the conversation at the beginning of next turn.

And there's the whole crew out.

Agustria Army

She's been playing cruel games with my heart for years... But look how the tables have turned! I've an entire army behind me, against her insignificant guard. What could she possibly do? She's powerless to resist coming back to Heirhein with me! And who knows... Perhaps one day she'll admit she wants it.

I'm gonna fucking kill you dude!!

(just a note that each chapter so far has the initial call to action be a woman needing rescuing from forcible marriage to a brute)

They advance.

This guy is Phillip, the general at the centre of the defensive formation.

Under the old king, you couldn't even dare to meddle in any of his property... Yet it is the easiest thing to cheat Chagall! Strip everything of worth you find and bring it back here. Leave no stone unturned!

The brigands are heading for the villages in the great central forest of Agustria.

Back to our turn, and now Deirdre can have that talk with Ethlyn.

Deirdre's Theme

Everything will be alright. I can fell it. So long as I'm at Sigurd's side, our happiness will see us through.

I don't think I've ever seen Sigurd as happy as he's been since he met you. He's practically a changed man!

Ethlyn... Here. I'd like you have this. I've been meaning to give it to you for a while.

Oh? ...Is- is this a light brand?! Wow... These are so rare and hard to come by! Are you sure you want to give me this?

Of course. I know that it will serve you well.

I can't thank you enough, Deirdre! I'll always treasure it!

Our first magic sword! I love magic swords. In this game, they cause physical damage at melee range and magical damage at range.

With Light Brand in hand, Ethlyn leads the charge of the light brigade.

I'm not going to bore you with all the movement this time, promise.

Next enemy phase, the first of Elliot's knights reach Nordion.

The rest can't reach, so they clump up here.

Anphony's pillagers continue towards the forest.

We can't quite reach yet. Next enemy phase Elliot & co. are going to focus fire on Yves. This part requires a lot on luck - Yves can die here if he gets hit too many times, and there's nothing you can do to influence that (beyond RNG manipulation). All three paladins need to survive to receive a nice reward at the end of the chapter.

The paladins don't move from their positions, but they'll attack anything in range.

Of course, the enemy has canto, so they can move after attacking to allow for the next guy to get his hits in.

This one thankfully bypasses Yves for Eva, and misses.

My luck is... not great.

AHHH

Phew, this guy misses, and he doesn't have any movement left, so Yves lives through this.

Alva gets a piece of the action too.

Elliot can't attack anyone, so he stops here.

This turn is a very painstaking affair. I need to bodyblock Yves because he cannot take any more hits, so I have to kill the right enemies to make a path through, but at the same time not put any of them in danger. Only a few of my units are in range.

Alec opens up the assault.

Ethlyn immediately gets some mileage out of her gift.

I didn't know Intelligent Systems was in league with the Illuminati

.

Next, Quan kills one of the knights that Yves softened up.

The final piece is Sigurd removing the axe knight and taking his place. Yves cannot be attacked. Ethlyn, however, is very vulnerable here.

Lex blocks off one side of her, but she's still very open. The game should really have punished me for this, but... Well, you'll see.

None of Elliot's forces have ranged weapons, so Yves is quite safe to take potshots at them behind Quan and Sigurd.

Ouch! Well, might as well reset now, she's so obviously dead --

Ah?

I forgot, the AI in this game is not smart.

In fact I would say that it's really fucking stupid.

And Ethlyn is safe from certain death.

Elliot attacks Eva,

and runs back to here.

Oh, and these guys are still on the move.

Phew. Well, now it's just clean up.

Lex will soften up Elliot so that Quan can get the kill.

Don't interfere with this, unless you want me to wipe the floor with you too!

Oh sure, dude, you're totally gonna wipe the floor with Lex.

Before Quan gets his shiny new silver lance, I'll show you the dialogue you get if Elliot attacks Lachesis:

Lachesis! I grow weary of this little song and dance! Become my wife, and I'll yet spare you.

Enough, you vile worm! I'd sooner die than be your wife!

Aw, boo-hoo.

Yay!

Everyone else clears up the last of Elliot's knights. It's not too challenging.

Alec gets a pretty good level: +1 str, +1def, +1 skl.
Ethlyn gets... a level: +1 def.

Everyone moves north after fighting, because 💯 the grind 😤 never stops 💪. God knows when the infantry will feature in this chapter again.

Because Yves came so close to death, Sigurd himself has to hang around for another turn to recruit Lachesis.

Sir Sigurd! Thank goodness you're here! Things were looking so bleak for a moment...

I'm glad to see you're safe, Lachesis. What about Eldigan? Is he still being held?

Yes, he's still in Agusty... It's as if all the lords of Agustria have turned on us.

Oh sure, Sigurd, I totally believe you. You haaaate charging into sovereign nations to conquer their lords and take their land to govern as your own. But hey, someone has to do it, right?

His Majesty, King Azmur, is aware of King Imca's assassination, and of Chagall's hand in it. He's received word of Chagall's ambitions to invade Grannvale itself, and has already approved military action.

His Majesty also believes Eldigan's rescue to be vital if we're to put an end to hostilities. Rest assured, Lachesis. I swear that I'll save Eldigan...

And now Lachesis is a part of our army! Unfortunately Sigurd is keeping her on the castle, so she can't do anything just yet. But surely next update she will be right in the action!

Next time: I keep Lachesis far, far from the front.

Character profile

Lachesis

[kawasumi, Fire Emblem Cipher]

HP: 40+20% Spd: 20%
Str: 20+30% Lck: 40%
Mag: 5% Def: 20%
Skl: 10% Res: 10%
Skills: Charm

The younger sister of Eldigan, who admires him above all other men, particularly the uncouth nobles of Agustria constantly at her to marry.

Lachesis, I have to admit, is among my favourite characters in Fire Emblem. I find her character conflicts quite compelling. She places her brother on a pedestal, she chafes against her place as a token of power in a sexist hierarchy, and she has a very pretty yellow and pink colour palette.

She’s not a great unit right now, though that strength growth is awfully compelling. Staves are always useful, except that Aideen has the better magic for range and healing power, and Ethlyn has a horse. Still, extra healing is never bad, and charm is very handy.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:33 am

2.2 You know, I really can't think of anything pithy for this one

It's been a couple weeks since my last update, so let's refresh on what we're up to:

Having just defeated the cavalry swarming Nordion, we have officially recruited Lachesis into our army. Now, we continue north to Heirhein.

We will be fighting this formation of armours and ballistae, led by Philip here (pretend the cavalry aren't there, I had some issues recording so this is a cap from the beginning of the map).

Philip is a general, which means he has the dreaded PAVISE, which can really draw out killing him.

The ballistae make approaching the formation tricky, because they can kill characters who've been chipped at by the armours.

The infantry are still in the passage up to Nordion. If they're lucky they might get a single hit in.

The brigands sent by Macbeth of Anphony are closing in on the first forest village. To save that village we are going to have to really rush to defeat Heirhein's boss in time.

Quan is pretty beefy, so he is going to bait out the enemy while everyone else hides just out of range.

Hey! They're almost there!

Every turn you get the Nordion Phase, where Lachesis' three knights move to flank her. If there are any enemies in range of them, they will attack, and then continue to fight each turn until either there are no more enemies or they are dead. It's very annoying, so I'm keeping Lachesis in the back lines as much as possible.

They take the bait.

Quan isn't too troubled by them though.

Here's the ballista in action. It shoots a huuuge bolt, but it only does four damage.

The whole formation advances, largely keeping in the same positions.

And then we skip forward one turn, because I lost some footage. The two forces meet, putting Alec and Finn at perilously low HP, and Sigurd speeds ahead, stopping only to kill a ballista on his way to Heirhein.

That brings us to here (Sigurd is behind the terrain window). We are fully engaged. The armours are far less threatening than the cavalry earlier was, because they can't canto out of the way after attacking someone and leave room for the next guy. Still, Philip is pretty threatening, so we want to get rid of him first.

He doesn't have a ranged weapon, so Midir can safely chip away at him.

Midir, the absolute legend, triggers accost twice for a total of three rounds and six arrows fired at Philip. Pavise gets in the way of two of those, but it chisels him down to a very manageable 22 HP.

Quan is therefore able to kill him easily, and picks up the return band for his efforts. This allows the bearer to return to the home castle at any time. I tend not to do much with it, but I'm sure more strategic-minded people than me find it quite useful.

Having removed the greatest danger from the field, Quan leaves clean-up duty to the unpromoted masses.

Meanwhile, the foot units have caught up! Ayra is going to celebrate by picking on this defenseless priest.

Wow, an astra proc! She really hates this bizarrely purple priest. This gets her to level twelve, gaining one point of skill. Thrilling!

Ethlyn, somewhat low on health herself, tops Alec up.

So he can take on some knights.

Finn doesn't have the luxury of healing just yet, so he's going to go and hide in the forest after this.

Generally, the cavalry are continuing forward and leaving the remnants to the infantry. This may well be the only fighting that the infantry get for a long time!

Even still, they aren't in range yet, so Dew is going to talk to Lachesis.

Hey! Lachesis! There y'are! Check out this little beauty of a sword! Thought I'd give it to ya.

Oh? I can't say I've seen a blade so peculiar before. Does it have a name?

It's called a thief's sword. Wanna gut the bad guys? This thing's yer best friend.

Er... Thank you. Although, why are you giving this to me? I'm hardly complaining, but surely you need a decent sword?

Nah, I'm not bothered. There ain't any point in me keeping it. Let's just say it does a lot more than just stab... Heh. See ya around!

Handy! Although Lachesis, high-bred lady of Nordion, is the last person I'd expect to go around stealing gold off enemy combatants.

By the by, the Eves are in range of Philip's troops. Will they help, or hinder?

Some chip damage, which is very helpful.

And they soak up the enemy phase without getting either themselves or any of our precious exp-bags killed! Good show by the Eves.

The last ballista takes Ethlyn down to 5 HP, but that's ok, she's not going to be anywhere near the enemy for a while.

Jamke says it's HIS turn to kill some Agustrians!

"I want a go, too!" says Holyn. (Reaches level 14: HP, str, spd. 16/18 str/spd now!)

"Me, three!" says Ayra.

"What about us?" cry the rest of the infantry. But they were so far away that no one could hear them...

Midir rids us of that last ballista.

Sigurd isn't that low on HP, but I'm sending him in to take on Heirhein's boss by himself, so I want him at max.

He's a lot tougher than the bosses from the last chapter, and as a general he also has pavise. High avoid from the castle + pavise = very frustrating to kill!

The cavalry are in position to begin the offensive.

Midir softens up the javelin guard from the south.

Lex takes on the eastern guard.

Quan takes him to make room for Sigurd.

Sigurd kills one of the guards, and the other wounds him, but not so badly that Bordeaux is too dangerous.

Fortunately, pavise does not activate, and Sigurd lands both hits, so we can easily capture next turn.

Only thing that could stop us is the 14% chance of pavise activating.

But it doesn't!

Sigurd gets a nice level off Bordeaux, and the barrier ring, which brings his res up to a whole eight points.

Nordion should be safe, but Eldigan is still being held in the capital. Furthermore...

Yes?

I'm hearing that the frontier towns in the central forests are grappling with bandit raids. We can't afford to leave them be.

Agreed. It is crucial that we help the locals, that we might convince them we aren't their enemy. In that case, we must ride for the north at once. There's no time to waste. Let's go!

Yay!

Now that we've captured Heirhein, Quan has a very important conversation with Finn.

For stronger enemies, what could be more fitting than a stronger weapon? Let's see how you fare with this.

Is that... a brave lance?! Are you sure you want to entrust me with such a rarity?

Of course. You are House Leonster's most promising young knight. You are our future, and I'd sooner see you live this day. Arming you properly is the best I can do to help for now, so yes. Take this spear.

What an honor, milord! Thank you.

I love the characterisation this gives Quan. He's so dismissive of those weaker than him. Anyway, the brave lance is really good!

Since Finn has pursuit, he can get even more use out of this than Lex can the brave axe.

Ethlyn heals Midir up, and gets an actually good level for once. Thank you Ethlyn!

At the next pass, these three knights are guarding the entry to Anphony.

I establish this line to face them.

The infantry are still slowly catching up. Ayra thought she saw something interesting on the beach, and she made Arden tag along with her.

Meanwhile,

There had better be a good explanation for your behavior, Macbeth!

Er, um... My humblest apologies, Your Majesty! Forgive me, I beg of you! I've already sent out the order for Waltz's sellsword unit to move in at once.

Bet he's gonna send us in, then 'ave his men turn tail right when we need 'em. I'm stayin' put till I see how this all plays out. Oi, Beowulf, how 'bout you?

Yeah, I ain't up for this at all, Waltz. That Macbeth swine really rubs me the wrong way. I'm this close to just walking off the job.

You're a free man, Beowulf. If a job isn't right for you, you're free to quit it. That's the funny thing about mercenaries, innit? Today's pals are tomorrow's foes.

Amen to that. Hopefully we're not gonna end up enemies someday. Wouldn't have a hope in hell against you, would I?

Heh... Ain't met anybody in the whole world who can take me!

The two mercenaries ride off to the east.

Macbeth assembles his forces.

The knights guarding the pass ride... north? Huh. I think this is nice programming so you don't get ambushed right away, but it makes them look very indecisive.

Anphony's brigands continue to attack the villages, but now they're our opponents we can take them out. It's going to take a long time for us to get there from where we are, though...

Interior: village.

Crisis 1

Bandits? Isn't the Agustrian army doing something about them?

The army? Hah! That's rich, boy! The army's too busy with their little civil war to deal with our problems. Clearly that's more important than our safety. Actually, that's not all... Rumor is, the lord of Anphony himself is pullin' the bandits' strings here.

Oh, you've gotta be kidding. That's it. That guy's gotta go. I'll go sort out the bandits, okay? Now, how big a reward'll be waiting here for me when I get back?

Still full of hot air, are you? Just get outta here, wise guy. Nobody here's got the time to listen to you blowing your own horn.

Oh, come on! A little confidence would be nice! Eh, whatever...

Fighting Dancer

Sylvia?! Damn! Er... I mean... you found me!

Yeah, I found ya! You've had your fun with me, so you're just dumpin' me without so much as a goodbye?

Hey, careful with that tongue of yours! We barely just met here a week ago! We've only been out for dinner for... What, two or three times? You're a dancer. I'm a bard... There's not much else to it.

But... But you called me adorable! That... That really meant a lot to me...

Er... Sometimes I just say things and don't really mean them... Oh, come on! Enough with the tears! Things'll probably get more than a bit rough out there, though. Think you'll be okay?

Recruitment

Yeah! I like it rough!

Geez... She was crying here eyes out just a few seconds ago. It's like she never really grew up...

Huh?

Er, nothing! Let's get going.

Alright, some new characters!

Lewyn is a bard, which is a kind of mage with skill in all kinds of magic (including light), but Lewyn himself specialises in wind.

See how unfair wind magic's weight is in comparison to fire? A weight of two compared to twelve!

He comes with critical and adept. No pursuit, unfortunately, but at least with his high speed and light weapon he will have a high trigger percentage for adept.

His major Forseti blood is what gives him the bonus to wind ranks, and also makes him as fast as a hurricane.

Sylvia (officially Silvia. Yup!) is a dancer. Once a turn she can dance, refreshing all units adjacent to her who have already used their turn. She also has adept and miracle, but she's even less made for combat than Dew.

She has minor Bragi blood, which would give her an extra staff rank, if she could use them.

The very first thing I'm going to do is have Lewyn attack one of the brigands. If we want to save every single one of them, he has to rush across the forest at top speed.

He needs a critical or adept to kill this guy.

And he gets a critical! Fantastic.

Supporting Dancer

And Lewyn continues further into the forest on his mission to save the citizens of Agustria from their own rulers.

Next time: Finn demonstrates the power of his new lance!

Character profiles

Lewyn

HP: 50 + 40%
Str: 10%
Mag: 30%
Skl: 40%
Spd: 30 + 60%
Lck: 20%
Def: 20%
Res: 10%
Skills: Critical, Adept.

A wandering bard with surprising magical skill and a disdain for the corrupt.

Lewyn is really just his speed stat. He is so fast, and he only gets faster. Sure, he's on foot, but he has a lot of killing power when he catches up.

Sylvia

HP: 40 + 10%
Str: 10%
Mag: 20 + 10%
Skl: 10%
Spd: 10%
Lck: 20 + 10%
Def: 10%
Res: 20 + 20%
Skills: Dance (class skill), Miracle, Adept.

A travelling dancer just looking for a good time.

Sylvia is pure utility, and she's really, really useful! Again, she's on foot, so she's not always exactly where she needs to be, but when she gets there she can give a total of four characters another turn, which is powerful given how huge these maps are.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:34 am

2.3 The Miracle Gambit

Last time, we saw two mercenaries discuss their distaste for their employer, Macbeth of Anphony.

Waltz is the boss of this mercenary troop, and he's a fairly dangerous foe. He's fast, and the steel blade only weighs him down by six while giving him quite high attack for a mobile enemy. Adept means you have to be careful fighting him with slow units, or those weighed down by heavy weapons. The paragon ring that he drops is a very desirable item.

His friend, Beowulf, is less threatening. He has pursuit and accost as personal skills. Personal skills on an enemy unit, eh? What could that mean... Sword knight is the base class for Waltz's forrest knight, so we get a nice preview of adept being a class skill gained on promotion.

Accompanying them are ten faceless sword knights.

Back to Sigurd & co., and we want to deal with these guys guarding the pass, and then we can deal with Waltz's crew.

Quan, Finn and Lex are going to choke the point. Probably I could have been more aggressive here, but I wanted to avoid the cavalry using canto to repeatedly attack one unit to death.

Quan kills one, Lex leaves the other at 2 HP, and the commander goes for Finn.

Finn shows off his new lance!

It does a huge amount for his combat capability.

The boys move out.

Beowulf moves at the very end of the enemy phase, even after all the brigands have their turn looting the villages. This is a Clue.

Silesse Palace

At Agusty castle, a squadron of pegasus knights fly in from the north.

Hopefully we'll be able to find a lead on Prince Lewyn's whereabouts in town.

Curious. I suppose we'll see more from them later.

Clearing out these guys is simple enough.

Then, it's off to the northeast, to engage with the mercenaries. I don't want to activate the armours just yet; trying to tackle both fronts gets very messy, and there aren't any timed objectives at the moment forcing me to go any faster.

Well there's one, but Lewyn is the only unit with the power to do anything about it. That village is on its very last legs. I'm leaving it right down to the wire, but Lewyn will be able to save it.

With nothing much else to do, I let Sylvia take on one of the bandits. As I'm writing this post, I realise that I really should have had her catch up with the main force as soon as possible rather than screw around in the forest. Ah, hindsight.

I'm not quite ready to engage Waltz's troops yet, so I position everyone just out of their range.

Ayra and Arden are enjoying their beach trip.

Lachesis has been hanging back to heal the Eves and keep them from suiciding into the enemy, but it's reasonably safe for her to move up again now. She will be visiting the villages eventually which will keep those paladins well out of trouble.

Lewyn has reached the critical moment! The village will be destroyed in the second-to-next enemy phase, so even if he doesn't get the kill this turn he can save it next. It's just a loss of 500 gold.

No adept or critical, so this brigand will live for one more turn.

The mercenaries march down to us, with Beowulf on the outer left edge there. I wonder what would happen if we approached him? I'll send Quan up.

Well, ok then! Go on Quan, you have plenty of cash, pay him!

Yep, he's our ally now! And if you compare his funds to the earlier screenshot, he actually does get the 10,000 gold (and equally, Quan is 10,000 gold poorer).

If the character you talk to Beowulf with doesn't have the gold on hand, he says this:

Hey, you! If you're gonna hire me, ya need a cool 10,000 gold. What's that? Don't have it? Hit the road!

Beowulf is on a horse, and he has pursuit, so he's automatically very useful both as a unit and a potential father.

Finally, Arden reaches the sea. What a beautiful sight. It's enough to make you think about your place in the universe.

Maybe if I were more like Alec, with how he can attack twice... That'd be all I need to get a bit of respect, methinks... and maybe a cute lass while I'm at it... Hee hee. But I'm still just me... Back to the ol' grind, I suppose...

Hang on? What's this little ring thing? Ooh, maybe it's one of those magical ones I keep hearing about. That'd be grand, wouldn't it? Let's try her on...

Hm... Hwooooarh! W-what's this power I'm feeling?! IS this what Alec feels like all the time?

Woah! That's amazing! Ayra's certain to fall for him now!

Meanwhile,

Lachesis reaches a glorious level three;

Lewyn saves the village; and

so does Silvia!

To take on Waltz's troop, we're going to do something fun.

We are going to make use of Finn's miracle skill.

The sword knights will act first, and then Waltz. Each sword knight can do four damage to Finn, and he will kill them in retaliation. After three, he will be at 7 HP and activate miracle, making him very hard to hit, allowing him to tank the entire squadron, and Waltz himself. Finn's natural avoid is -10, so at 7 HP he will gain 40 avoid, putting him at 50 avoid with the +20 bonus from weapon triangle. At three he will gain 80 avoid, giving him effectively 90 avoid. That is not foolproof by any means! This isn't a reliable strategy, but it is a fun one, so let's try it out.

Sigurd is next to him to grant his leadership boost, and also to form a blockade to keep our weaker units out of range (Beowulf is one of these, he will also fall back).

Let's begin!

He has hit the miracle threshold!

Well, not all that surprising that he still got hit. His avoid should be high enough from here on out though.

Just imagine this screencap repeated six more times.

The empty battlefield... It's beautiful...

Ahaha! Yes! It's worked! Waltz has missed!

Look at that. Thirteen kills already.

Finn levelled up three times, gaining 1 hp, 2 skl, 2 lck, 1 def, and this:

You win some, you lose some.

Now then. Waltz said Beowulf would never stand a chance against him. Is he right?

Yes, as it turns out! Alright, rewind.

Finn took care of all his subordinates. It's only right he takes Waltz's life, too.

Nicely done.

Quan and Sigurd initiate the assault on Heirhein's guards.

They don't quite kill most of them, but bring them all forwards.

Lewyn takes out the final brigand. The villages are now safe, and we can visit them at our leisure. Sylvia will head towards the main force now, while Lewyn receives his well-earnt reward.

Holyn, having been dragged all this way, finally gets a chance for blood.

Jamke is also finally allowed a go at combat.

He does well, with that second hit a critical.

Beowulf gets into a (real) fight! I like his sprite.

Lex kills this guy, and I think to myself "I wonder how many kills his brave axe has! It must be so many by now!"

Huh. I guess he's only really had it for actual combat since the beginning of this chapter, and I've mostly used him to set-up kills for others.

Sigurd's sword, for comparison.

The herd is thinned, and now we wait for the enemy phase.

Lachesis is on her way. She can do some healing in the backlines.

The paragon ring does what it promises. Finn is proving quite beefy with that def stat.

I was typing out the levels for a while to reduce the number of images, but then I realised that means you don't see the overall stats for each character, and might lose track of how they're shaping up. Plus, simply copy+pasting the level up image is easier for lazy ol' me. Any strong opinions on the matter?

It's time now to face Macbeth. That defense stat is making me wish I had lugged one of Azel or Deirdre up here to help, but we'll have to make do.

Midir will make the first strike.

Damn it all! What are those useless mercenaries doing out there?! Ugh. Fine, I'll fight them myself!

Midir manages to do very little damage, and take quite a bit in return. He gets a +HP/+skill level that I won't dignify with a screencap.

Everyone's lining up to have their go. Really, pretty much every unit gets a shake at this.

They either do tiny damage, have their attacks nullified by pavise, or in Quan's case, miss entirely.

It's boring. We'll break up the monotony with a village visit.

Folk in the big cities like Agusty an' Mackily certainly seem to think so. Every year they do these huge hunts for Loptous' spawn. They arrest a ton of people, then burn 'em all at the stake, even if they're innocent... Madness, I tell ya!

Jugdral sounds like a lovely place to live.

Back to Anphony, where Lex has Macbeth on the ropes.

Finally!

Because you are a corrupt bastard.

Lex is getting close to promotion! He might not quite get there by the end of this chapter (I haven't finished recording it yet), but definitely by the start of next chapter. He also gets the shield ring to make him a better tank.

Sigurd seizes.

Victory 1

Two allied knights ride up from the south.

Lord Filat, I presume? Thank you for coming.

Lord Sigurd, the Agustrian conflict has escalated into full-scale war, I see. How does this battle look at the moment?

We're faring well so far, somehow, but this hasn't been easy by any means.

Nasty rumors have emerged of late in the royal court... and they concern you. The rumors claim that, in concert with Quan of Leonster and Eldigan of Nordion, you are conspiring against the crown. This, it is said, is why you are harboring the prince of Isaach in your ranks.

What?! That's absurd! Who in the world could've started such nonsense...

Chancellor Reptor and Lord Langbalt.

I see... I should have known, knowing their disdain for my father. Yet, to take that grudge so far...

Those two are ruled by their envy of your father's immense power as Prince Kurth's advisor, I'd say. They likely believe a Chalphy-controlled prince will strip them of their influence once he takes the throne. Fear and jealousy dominate their lives... Don't let your guard down against them.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate the warning. By the way, sir... Pray tell, how goes the Isaachian campaign? Is there an end in sight?

I know my father worries so about how the Belhalla lineage would end with His Majesty's death, unmarried as he is.

Indeed. Before the war started, we were trying to hasten him to search for a wife.

If I may, is there a problem?

Indeed... The story behind this has been well known in the royal court for a long time now. Regrettably, His Higness struggles to move on from a long-lost love.

Really? Why did he never marry this person?

Conversation 1

Prince Kurth had an affair with the duchess of Velthomer, a truly lovely woman as I recall. Duke Victor of Velthomer was... Well, he was a philanderer of the worst degree, and had countless lovers.

The prince, of course, is nothing like him. He wished only to support the duchess at first, but the two soon fell deeply in love. Victor was distraught, needless to say. He penned a letter denouncing the pair, then he took his own life.

The duchess could bear to stay no longer. She fled Grannvale and was never seen again. As I recall, her name was Sigyn.

...Wow. That's horrible... So she was the mother of Lord Arvis...

Indeed. I can scarcely imagine what this was like for him... Losing both parents at only the age of seven...

Mm. And yet, I feel so sorry for the prince. Not to mention, for Sigyn as well...

Oh! My apologies. I'm sure a soldier of your caliber has better things to worry about than court gossip. Please, don't worry about the story. You have a war with Agustria to win, after all! Farewell, Lord Sigurd. We look forward to the day that you, too, return to the fatherland in triumph.

Capturing Anphony triggers a conversation between Beowulf and Lachesis.

I do love her.

Oh, er, sorry 'bout that, ma'am. The name's Beowulf, a hired blade.

What do you want?

Uh... Well, I just wanted to give ya a quick heads up about fightin'. See, war ain't the fun and games you're used to. And someone as green as you... Well, you're gonna get in the way. Besides, a princess's a princess. Why not run along back to your castle now?

H-how dare you! My business in battle is just that: my business! Not yours! I'll nail your foul mouth closed!

Heh. You really are Eldigan's sister. Shoulda known you wouldn't be a pushover.

What's that? Do you know my brother?!

Oh, yeah. Eldigan and me, we go way back. I'd never've been so noisy if he hadn't asked me to keep an eye on ya.

Is that so? Oh, I'm sorry for snapping at you so.

Eh, I've seen a lot worse in me time. Hey, how about a quick battle lesson? Eldigan thought it'd be a big help.

Why, thank you. I'd like that.

Much like the result of Finn and Quan's conversation in chapter one, Lachesis gains +2 strength, +2 skill and +1 def.

I mean, she's still not all that good, but it's something.

Meanwhile, Dew is going to scrounge up some cash to hand out to the army.

I wish I could kill em' with my bare hands!

I have good news for you, my friend!

On the enemy phase, the lord of Mackily panics:

Are they just going to keep going until all Agustria is theirs? They'll have to come this way. We've no choice but to fight. Deploy the ballistae. We're all that stands between the capital and Grannvale's dogs of war!

The camera moves north before we can see all of Mackily's forces.

Agusty castle.

I need to find Prince Lewyn as quickly as possible. You said you know his location. That's the only reason I'm here.

Apologies for the delay, knight, but I just received word of a lead for you. I trust you've noticed we're currently contending with a Grannvale invasion? They have taken Prince Lewyn captive!

My scouts report that their army is arresting and executing anyone and anything which stands in their way. Your prince is being held in Evans Castle. Reports say that he is soon to face the axe.

No... I can't allow this! Thank you for your assistance. We'll leave to rescue him at once. Our queen, Rahna, cautioned us against clashing with other nations on our mission, but we may have no choice. Should Grannvale's troops cross our way, they'll be confronted without hesitation.

Oho... This is even better than I'd hoped! Best of luck on your hunt.

I'll be on my way, then.

Agusty's forces move south to meet.... Azel and Deirdre!? Shit I better rush back.

Next time: yes I will show you every unit movement as we head back to fight Agusty and Mackily

Character profiles (and art)

Beowulf (off. Beowolf)

[Homazo, Fire Emblem: Cipher]

A mercenary looking to lend his sword to a just cause.

Unit rating: horse. Beowulf is somewhat low level for a combat unit at this point of the game, but he has a horse: he'll catch up

.

Arden on the beach, illustrated

[Soeda Ippei, Fire Emblem Cipher]

Godspeed, Arden.

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:36 am

2.4 An Analysis of Jugdrali Celebrity Culture

Last I left us we were preparing to make our way south through Agustria to face up against Chagall's armies. Ah, I'm sensing it's my favourite time again: map time!

The force at Anphony will travel along the blue arrow to meet Agusty's charge, represented by the red arrow. Meanwhile, Erin's squad of pegasus knights will fly directly for Evans castle. We'll have to have Lewyn there in time to intercept them and convince Erin he's not about to be executed. Lachesis and Dew will be heading into the central forest to visit some villages, while Lewyn and Silvia make their way out.

Let's take a look at the forces arrayed against us.

Erin is a fairly typical pegasus knight: low strength, high speed and skill. She has pursuit as a personal skill. Thankfully, enemy units tend not to use their full movement during a turn if there's no targets in range, so she won't get to Evans castle as quickly as you might think.

Chagall is a baron, an enemy-only class that can use every type of weapon except light and dark magic. Without a ranged option, he's fairly easy to chip away at. Physic is a ranged healing staff, and he can actually be a bit annoying with it by healing up enemies you were close to killing.

Clement of Mackily's staff is even more annoying, though. Any unit with res lower than his magic stat will be put to sleep as soon as they get in range. Of course he can only sleep one unit per turn, but if he targets Sigurd that means you can't proceed past Mackily until he's woken up. The only unit we have with res high enough to avoid being put to sleep is Deirdre, and...

Yeah, I'm not letting her anywhere near those ballistae. These guys also mean I'm leaving Noish, Jamke and Beowulf behind, because accost makes them a juicy target for ballistae to fire on and potentially keep firing on, round after round.

Right, before we start up the endless warping and returning that will take up the next few turns, we'll take a little tour of the forest villages.

Lachesis visits the village that came closest to destruction.

It's a pretty little bracelet, huh? Wear it at the shops and the nice man there'll be happy to give ya a discount!

A nice little trinket. Honestly not that much of a loss if you do miss it, but nice to have.

That's gotta be why he was locked up. Please, for the good of all Agustria... Help Lord Eldigan!

Please... go home to your families.

No one visited this one in time for this update because it's in range of the ballistae, but I'll show the dialogue now since it's irrelevant later:

Beware of Bishop Clement, the lord of Mackily Castle. That dastard wields a magical staff that they call a Sleep staff. If you're not careful, you'll find yourself snoozin' and wide open to bein' attacked.

Y'know how Lord Eldigan has a li'l sister, right? Well, lookin' at 'em, wouldn't ya say there's more to it than that? If ya know what I mean... Ohoho! I love me a li'l bit of gossip! Hmm? I've better things to do than run me mouth y'say? Fine, then.

What this village conversation brings to mind for me is the rumours that surrounded Marie Antoinette prior to and during the French Revolution. Pornography depicting her as a depraved, bisexual sex addict circulated the country, both to titillate and to criticise King Louis XVI’s lack of virility, additionally casting doubt on the legitimacy of their children. Pornography of the aristocracy was popular; similar material was distributed of Louis XV and his mistress, the famous Madame de Pompadour. Which is to say that this conversation doesn’t necessarily reflect the truth of their relationship, but gives insight into the way the nobles of Jugdral are talked about by the peasantry.

It just goes to show that people never really change. There have always been people who are obsessed with the lives of the rich and famous, to highly intrusive degrees.

Now, back to the journey to Mackily—

We interrupt your normal programming to bring you the next instalment of the Jugdral Bachelorette! I’m your host, Anna —

Wait just one minute, you ginger upstart! This is MY show. Just who do you think you are?

Sorry old man, but your metrics on social media for last season were overwhelmingly negative. Audience reactions included: “ugh, this guy again!?;” “he’s so creepy;” “more like Old Hub-bad.” The producers wanted to go with a… fresher face for this year.

I won’t allow it! My contract says —

Take it up with a lawyer, pal. Security!

Now that’s dealt with, let’s move on. Lovely Lachesis is the lucky lady this time. She’s sure that no man can hold a candle to her big bro Eldie, but maybe one of these fine fellas can prove her wrong.

Lachesis is known as the lioness of Nordion, and as lady of that house she will not fail to raise her children according to its equestrian sword-fighting traditions.

Finn*

Dutiful to a fault, chivalrous, raised to excel as a knight, cares deeply for his people: the perfect man for Lachesis. Wait, who was I describing?

Pursuit

Finn will relish the opportunity to mentor his daughter the way his liege once did for him

Miracle

No swords

Poor magic growth

Beowulf*

This ruggedly handsome mercenary has a roguish charm to his rough speech that could well prove irresistible to the refined, well-bred Lachesis.

Swords

Pursuit

Accost

Poor magic growth

Dew*

Not only can Dew amass money to give to Lachesis, with his gift of a thief sword he enabled her to go out and get her own gold! Now there’s a man unafraid that his wife might out-earn him,

Swords

Balanced strength and magic growths

Bargain

Sol will not be passed on

Noish*
A blond man who fights with a sword astride a horse, all dressed in red… Let’s not interrogate this one too deeply.

Swords

Critical

Accost

No pursuit

Poor magic growth

Azel

Both live in the shadow of a famed older brother, esteemed for both their power and their mind. Who could ever live up to such a figure? Who could ever understand what it’s like? Maybe… each other?

MAGIC swords

Pursuit

Low strength growth, mitigated by Hezul blood’s boosts

No one
It's true after all -- there really is no man who meets the standard set by Eldigan.

* Although any single man can pair with any single woman, this indicates pairings that have dialogue within the game as a result of pairing up. Some of them aren't very substantial, but it's a factor to consider.

Gee, Lachesis sure has a type, doesn't she?So, whaddaya think? Send in your votes for your preferred bachelor over the next 48 hours! That's all for tonight, so I'll let you go back to your typical programming.

And after all that time, we're finally in formation to take on Mackily! I hope you all appreciated the blow-by-blow account, I think it was really important to get an accurate picture of the game.

Next time: past Mackily and onward to Agusty!

RESULTS
Finn will be the one to take Lachesis' hand in marriage! Blessings to the new couple!

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:37 am

2.5 The Road to Mackily

The knights of Agusty continue their charge while Mackily's forces stand their ground.

But before we begin the fight, Lewyn channels the power of a crusader to mind-meld with Sigurd and carry on a telepathic conversation (i.e. I did not get these two close enough to have this talk until long after it made sense)

Lewyn, I presume? The one who's been helping defend the villages? I appreciate the aid. As I understand it, you're a bard, but you also wield magic? That's unusual.

Something like that. I guess it's a hobby. You're that Sigurd fellow, aren't you? It's obvious what your little hobby is: war! Clearly you've got so much spare time, you spend it starting war after war!

Come again? You seem angry, but-

Don't play dumb! Think about the people of all the countries that you're flattening! You come barging in, swords flashing, and all you do is ruin the lives of normal folk who're trying to make a living here!

You're right. My apologies, Lewyn... I didn't even think about that, but I can't stand knowing I've done this to them.

Words are just words without actions backing them up. If you really feel so bad, then why not pull your army out?

Mm, you're right... Very well. I'll consult with my troops and arrange a retreat.

Wait, you're serious about this?

Of course. I've been mulling over retreating for a while already, and you just gave me the answer to all of this. I've had enough of the war approach. I think I'd rather seek a diplomatic answer.

Yeah, no. Trying to get through to Chagall now would be a total waste of everyone's time. Besides, if you lot pull out now, then nothing stands between a peeved king and all the citizens who've helped you so far. Are you sure you're okay with leaving them all hanging like that?

Well, no, but... Er... I...

Ahahaha! Y'know, I guess I was wrong about you. You're alright, Sigurd. Say, why don't I help you finish this fight up?

Er... Okay, I suppose... Who are you, anyway?

Who, me? I'm just a wayward troubadour, my friend...

Yes, Sigurd can be easily convinced to make major strategic decisions on the word of a complete stranger. It's certainly worthwhile for the game to challenge why Sigurd has escalated this war from protecting Nordion and rescuing Eldigan to defeating the king of Agustria in the name of Grannvale, but this conversation mostly just paints Sigurd as an utter idiot. A core part of Sigurd's character is that he only sees what is directly in front of him while being ignorant to the bigger picture, but I think that could be portrayed more artfully.

The squadron of lance knights make their attack, targeting Noish primarily.

He comes out a little worse for wear, but survives.

Arden takes a javelin to the face.

After four updates, Azel finally gets some combat.

Zzzzzap

I know this screenshot has a lot going on in it, but if you look carefully you'll see that Midir defeated the lance knight.

Lex softens up the commander for Quan. I feel like that happens a lot. Poor Lex, always the opener and never the hero.

The sword knight squadron closes in, and the remaining lance knights target Arden.

They are therefore left open to....

Thunder is much more viscerally satisfying than fire magic in my opinion.

This isn't a very exciting level, but it puts her that much closer to promotion at level 20.

Arden will have his revenge!

He hits once...

Gets hit...

And hits again! The power of pursuit! Incredible!

Sigurd, Finn and Quan are going to set up across the neck here.

Finn shows uncommon mercy by leaving this knight at 2 HP.

Sigurd does not follow his example. Repeat this image twice more, to represent the additional two sword knights dying on his blade.

The commander puts on a better show, actually doing some damage to Sigurd.

Erin's flight squad are still on their way south to Evans castle, passing by a lone lance armour in the mountains west of Mackily. What exactly he's doing there I have no idea.

Not to worry about the safety of Evans, though, because I have a plan:

Lewyn's in no rush to go anywhere once he's in Evans, though. Not when there's money to be made in the arena!

He goes from level six to level nine, ending on this level:

Then he heads out to wait for Erin to arrive.

It feels like we've barely moved! I'm being conservative and trying to take out all of Agusty's forces before moving into range of the ballistae.

Some thunder and astra take care of the last sword knights.

Sigurd, Quan (and Finn, not in position yet) will attract Mackily's defenders while avoiding Clement's sleep staff.

Speaking of, Crystalgate raised quite a good point, questioning whether Clement is truly dastardly, as he's described by a villager last update. His defenses are an effective roadblock from a gameplay perspective, but I think they actually reflect on his character rather well. In contrast to the warmongering, corrupt lords we've faced earlier in the chapter, Clement is decidedly non-aggressive in his approach. His forces won't attack until you enter their range. He's done nothing comparable to Heirhein's assault on Nordion, or Macbeth's looting of villages. Excluding Eldigan, he seems by far to be the nicest of Agustria's lords.

Unfortunately for him, though, none of that matters to us. He's in our way, and must be defeated.

These are the first mercenaries we've on the field so far, and they're considerably faster than any other opponents we've faced. A reminder that they have pursuit as a class skill, which is something to watch out for.

Still, Finn doesn't need to make a follow-up attack to get two hits on this guy and kill him. The brave lance is a very good weapon.

Quan brings another down to low HP.

Mostly they just clog up the path to Mackily. My aim is to clear it enough that Sigurd can cut straight through to assault Clement without anyone falling asleep.

Arden very sadly (and unsurprisingly) cannot double these mercenaries.

Finn! Finn! Finn!

I feel like Alec is punching above his weight with his strength. I'm quite happy with him.

The fire mages (as distinct from simple mages like Azel) have very snazzy outfits. It's important to get rid of them quickly because no one in the frontlines has any resistance to speak of.

The results! Still a few left blocking our way up, but we'll get there. Now, this next enemy phase is as much a surprise to me as it is to you. I had to leave the game running while I went off to cater to my dog's whims, so I only saw the results when going back over the recording later.

Starting off very strong.

A miss!

Uh oh. Just one point off miracle range, too.

Sigurd is also a victim of the fire mages.

UH OH. Ah well, at least miracle is well and truly active now.

Phew, this one's targeting Holyn. That's fine.

Well surely now miracle's effect is strong enough to keep him from being hit?

Oh thank god, he survived. And that's all the ballistae finished, so now it's time for...

The pegasus knights to finally arrive!

This javelin hits,

But Lewyn crits her to death. Lewyn, these are knights of Silesse!! Your subjects! Show some restraint!

Please let this one live, Lewyn...

"They attack me, they die. That's life."

Thankfully the others, including Erin herself, cannot reach him.

First things first.

Finn takes out the archer, then rushes to the back lines.

Aideen sold her heal staff at Anphony so that Deirdre could pick it up at Nordion.

That's very unlike you, Deirdre.

Sigurd takes out the last fire mage, and Quan takes out the armoured guard, but I'm going to continue being cautious about sleep range this turn, so that I can rush in and seize Mackily in one go next turn.

Lewyn is in a very fragile state after killing two of his countrywomen, and he can't quite reach Erin to convince her to call off the attack. He'll also have to wait until next turn.

Which is right now, because nothing of significance happened during that turn!

From Enemy to Friend

What, this? I'm a bard now. You know, walking the land, spreading songs and cheer? What do you say: perfect, or perfect?

Er... Perfect? But why, milord... Aren't you supposed to be held captive at Evans? I got here as fast as I could, but...

I'm imprisoned at Evans, am I? Where'd you hear that one?

King Chagall of Agustria said so.

Chagall? Hah! Hate to break it to you, Erin, but you've been tricked! It's nice and all that you're so ready to trust, but you wouldn't last ten seconds out there in the city! It'd eat you and your innocence alive. You might even end up like Sylvia...

Sylvia, milord...?

Oh, Sylvia's... Er, it's not important. Point is, what are you doing all the way out here?

Isn't it obvious? I'm here to find and bring you home, milord. It's been two years since you fled Silesse. Her Majesty is gravely worried about you. Please, milord. Come home with me.

Do you have any idea what that'd do to Silesse, Erin? If I go back, I'll have no choice but to take the throne. It's my late father's will, but my uncles would never accept it. Just one false step and we'd have a civil war, just like here.
And it's always the common folk who suffer for it! If there are people who want to be kings or whatever, great! Out here, though? I'm free, and I like it that way. I don't want a thing to do with that throne. For the good of Silesse, just give it to one of my uncles.

I can't allow that, milord. You know as well as I that the kings of Silesse must bear descent from Forseti, the wind god. You, milord, are the sole living scion of his lineage. Neither of your uncles bear it. You milord, are Silesse's future! Yourself and your uncles aside, all Silesse wishes to see you claim the throne. And... And your mother, the queen, was in tears when she sent me... Please, milord... Come back.

Erin... Ugh, don't you start crying too! Give me a break... I can't stand to see a woman in tears... Okay, fine. I'll think about going home. Just... Give me some time to muster the nerve, alright?

Thank you. In that case, I'm staying with you until you're ready, milord. I'll send a messenger back to Silesse to report that you're safe.

Wow, you're persistent, I'll grant you that. All right. I think I'll stay with Sigurd's army for now. He's a pretty neat guy to work with, not to mention his army's full of beauties! Hey, Erin, you could stand to get to know some of the ladies here. Maybe their stylishness could rub off on you a bit!

Yes, milord...

Hey, I'm just kidding, Erin! Relax a bit! Don't take everything so seriously! ...Heh, nobody in the world's as sweet as you. Don't you ever change a thing.

Y-yes, sir... I mean, no, milord...

Erin turns blue, and her remaining companions turn green and fly off back to Silesse, I suppose.

Erin is pretty good! She comes with a decent strength base and solid speed, and her ability to fly over otherwise impassable terrain is very useful for getting to tight spots. She won't get much to do this chapter, though, because she's just too far behind and also has to watch out for the ballistae.

Now, let's get started on Clement. Quan and Lex will head in first for some chip damage so Sigurd can finish him off.

Quan misses, and gets zapped for his efforts.

Lex does much better! He still gets zapped though.

I don't really think so, sorry! You're just not all that memorable.

Sigurd also gets the sleep staff, which is basically just a purse of gold for him. He seizes, and the ballistae disappear.

We've been informed that Agusty still hosts a sizable defensive force. We ought to take the most utmost care.

Mm, you're right. Who knows what Chagall has up his sleeve...

Lachesis is still in the woods, by the way. She's heading for that southernmost village, and then I'll warp her to Mackily to do some healing.

Dew is also still visiting villages.

He wield's Hezul's old weapon, Mystletainn, the demon blade. They say it's as strong as Isaach's Balmung and Chalphy's Tyrfing... The three mightiest blades in all of creation.

You.

Cease your whining! Get out there!

Loptyr

He's still here?!

Y-you! Manfroy!! If it weren't for your schemes, I wouldn't be in this mess! How in the blazes will you fix this?!

Heh heh... You exaggerate my role. All I did was advise the removal of the king, obstacle to your ambition as he was. All else was your choice. Can you doubt this?

I... Damn it all! How is Sigurd's little army even this strong? This isn't fair! Manfroy, I'm begging you... Help me. What am I supposed to do now?!

As I said, this isn't over. As a last resort, I do believe you have a fellow of use imprisoned here... Yes, I speak of Eldigan. Eldigan and Sigurd have been associates for years. Sigurd will unquestionably listen to Eldigan's counsel. Of course, Eldigan can't do that while locked up, can he? Go apologize to him.

Er... Y-yes, of course! Surely, Eldigan is the answer! Now, if you'll excuse me...

Ugh... What a simpleton.

Gah! They're multiplying. And Kurth's dead just like that, huh? That does not augur well.

With Kurth's death there remains but a single scion to Naga's holy lineage, and that old fool hardly needs our help to die. And then, all that will remain is the restoration of the dark one, and then the world will belong to us...

What of Duke Arvis, Your Excellency? Is he in agreement with your plan?

Why, of course. As a bearer of the dark one's blood, what choice does he have? Not even one of Arvis' stature can afford the wider world learning of his dark heritage, lest he be burned at the stake. Could a man as prideful as Arvis bear to meet such an end?

So he will betray his king and style himself emperor, and...

Indeed... But that will not be enough. Arvis alone cannot restore the dark god. We still need one more person... That woman's daughter.

Zane's forces assemble at the top of the map.

Zane is dangerous to all of our top units with his horseslayer, although it has very low accuracy. His battalion is made up of a range of axe, sword, bow and lance knights, all wielding iron weapons, and a few troubadours who run around healing.

They're still a little way off, so it'll take a couple of turns to get into place to fight them.

Sigurd stops by Mackily castle town to sell the sleep staff for some much needed cash (he gave all of his to Deidre so she could buy the heal staff).

He also finally beats the last tier of the arena.

Ayra gets a palm reading.

Ethlyn heals up Lex for a suspiciously familiar level.

Lachesis finally gets Eve out of the way so she can visit this village.

It's an unusual sort, innit? They call it an armorslayer. In the right hands it'll cleave right through the thickest armor. If your hands aren't the right hands, though? Maybe it can make ya a quick but at the pawn shop in town.

A very handy weapon!

And Dew visits the final village (technically he still has one, but it's the one with the conversation I showed last update).

He's barely been buried for long and his son Chagall's already runnin' the country into the ground! If Lord Eldigan had a claim to the throne, somehow, then we wouldn't be in this mess...

One thing to note about Chagall, which I forgot to get footage of: despite being the direct descendant of the crusader Hezul, he has no holy blood. Not even minor blood! At some point in the history of Agustria, the bearer of Hezul's blood must have been a woman who was married off into the Nordion line, which is why Eldigan is the bearer of Mystletainn today. I think that contributes a lot to Chagall's hatred of Eldigan.

The usual trio of Sigurd, Quan and Lex are going to attract Zane & co south.

The lance armours come first, and are mostly ineffectual.

Individually none of these guys are very strong, but collectively they can pose a threat. That's a common theme with this game really.

This weird cloud is one of the troubadours healing someone up.

Zane is pretty close to the front, and I don't want him rushing in to kill someone at the end of the enemy phase, so I'm going to fall back a little bit.

Finn is really good at busting armours. Most other units can't one round them. He's getting excitingly close to promotion too!

So is Lex!

I clear out all the enemies immediately in front, then retreat to stay out of horseslayer range. He has a javelin too, so he'll still come in close.

Lachesis finally escapes the forest,

greatly confusing the Eves.

Everyone takes a little bit of damage across the board, but now the main force is pretty easy to take care of.

Ayra didn't need this astra to kill the troubadour, but it's nice all the same.

Likewise Holyn with this luna.

I'm aiming to remove as many units as possible to reach Zane on this turn.

Noish...

Sigurd kills the last enemy in the way, and then positions himself so that he can boost the hit of the units who fight Zane. Zane's avoid isn't that great so it's not much of an issue, but every bit helps.

Jamke will soften him up. I was hoping for a crit, but no luck.

Jamke gets quite badly hurt, so I'll have to take care of that urgently.

Lex gets the kill and the horseslayer, which he can't use. Would have been helpful right now but that's ok!

I set up a quartet for Sylvia to dance. The most important part is enabling Arden to move out of the way so I can heal up Jamke.

Ta-da!

Deirdre also does some healing, and gets a much more Deirdre-like level.

On the enemy phase, a bunch of enemies suicide into Holyn and Ayra.

They come perilously close to death.

Thankfully though, the troubadours are focused solely on healing, and both Ayra and Holyn pull through fine.

All that's left of Zane's crew is clean-up, and then it's on to Agusty proper.

Lex is ready to promote! He has to go back to the home castle to do so, though, so he'll have to wait until next chapter.

Almost there.

Yeah Arden!! Almost into double-digit levels!!

Erin has caught up with Sigurd, and wants to have a chat.

My name is Erin. I'm a royal knight of Silesse. I wish to join your army, so as to keep an eye on Prince Lewyn.

Er... Prince Lewyn? What are you on about?

My lord Lewyn is the rightful heir to the Silessian crown. He is a scion of Ced, the Wind Crusader, and is the sole inheritor of his power.

Wait, THAT Lewyn?! Heh... I knew there was something odd about him, but I'd never have thought him to be Silessian royalty. Any idea why he's pretending to be a bard?

That's a long story, sir, and I'm hardly the most qualified to tell it. Perhaps try asking him later, but for now...

Fair enough. It's hardly my business, anyway. I'm glad you're here, Erin. A pegasus knight among us would be a great help. Would you mind aiding us in battle?

: Yes, sir! I'll do my part!

Except then I load a save state so that conversation never happened, because it would leave her in range of the ballistae.

Quan one-shots this ballista. They are not very tough!

Holyn and Ayra take care of the other two. Now, Chagall is all that's left. First, though! More conversations:

Come on, sir! Don'tcha know who I am? I'm Sylviaaaaaaa! You can call me Sylvie if ya want, though!

Look, I'm sorry, but I really don't have the time to look after children. Be a good little girl and run along back to the castle, alright?

Rrrgh... Good little girl?! Look at me! How d'you look at someone this hot and think "little girl"?! What is wrong with you? Never thought ya'd be such a borin' old stiff, just like everyone else 'round here...

Enough! I have work to do.

Sigh... Oh, well. Back to being a lone, delicate flower, sprouting in a battlefield... My beauty is nothing to the tide of bodies...

Ugh... What in the world is...

Fortunately for Sylvia, though, there's someone far more receptive to her charms.

Heh, I guess I'm the only decent guy around here. Glad I found you.

Thanks! Me, too!

I guess we'll be here a while, so how about dinner sometime? Bet that'd be nice.

Ooh, yeah! Maybe I'll dance for you too! I've got a special one that nobody's seen yet. It's kinda embarrassing, 'cause it's VERY special. Maybe I'll show it to ya, though!

Y-you will? Oh, I can't wait!

I'm glad she's not too hung up on Lewyn. He's kind of an ass. A loveable one, though.

Now, it's finally time!

Without a ranged weapon, Chagall is not a particularly threatening boss. I'll condense it down, but I spend a few turns chipping away at him and... doing other things, which I will reveal later.

That's our Deidre!

Before we go into the chapter end scene, we get a nice thank you from the Eves for keeping them all alive:

This ring will help you fight more like a mounted knight. Put it on and it will allow you to keep moving after fighting or healing. I know it will prove highly useful to you. Take care, milady!

Of course, Finn already gave Lachesis a ring earlier to symbolise his intent to court her.

She wears it quite well, don't you think?

(I uhh... may have gone a little overboard abusing return to level her up).

No matter how unwise his decisions, no matter how ill his temper, I cannot sit in silence and allow my liege to die.

Hm? Eldigan?! You're safe! Thank the gods! I've been looking everywhere for you, since I heard you'd been arrested.

I suppose I was... But what is the meaning of this, Sigurd? Why is your army swarming the capital the first thing I find upon release? Why are reports saying our castles are now under the rule of Grannvale officers, as if we are a mere tributary state?
I'm indisposed for barely any time at all, only to find Grannvale has made itself at home in Agustria behind my back! There had better be a damned good explanation for all of this, Sigurd, or there will be consequences.

I'm so sorry, Eldigan. You're absolutely right: none of this makes sense to me, either. As if out of nowhere, the entirety of Agustria suddenly turned against us. We had no choice. I've been ordered to remain here with my army for the time being, to maintain peace and order.
Eldigan, please. I know this is a dreadful situation, but one year is all I need. I can restore the country's peace to normal and repair our diplomatic ties, but only if I'm allowed time to do it. Once our time is through, we'll leave your country with no objections. My king and I pledge our word.

Hm... I suppose I've little choice but to take you at your word. Very well: you have your year. I shall relocate the king to the northern Madino Castle for his own protection. I'll also leave my Cross Knights stationed at Fort Silvail.
Offer even the slightest provocation, and your forces will have us to answer to. Remember, I'm holding you to your word. Break your promise, and we will break you. Do I make myself clear, Sigurd?

Of course. You know I'm not about to betray you. Please, Eldigan. You have to trust me!

Next time: can Sigurd earn Eldigan's trust?

metis · Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:39 am

Phew, I'm all caught up! Next update will be the chapter three arena, which should be up by tomorrow.

metis · Mon Jun 29, 2020 8:53 am

3.x Averages of the Holy War

In this update we will be going through the chapter three arena, and I’ll provide an overview of all our units’ current stats and their variance from averages. We also have some promotions! This update is mostly just numbers, no story, so if you’re not interested in that feel free to skip ahead!

First, though, I realised I forgot to introduce Erin properly last update, so I’ll do that now.

Erin (Off. Erinys)

Wait, that’s the wrong picture!

Uhh, that’s not right either…

There we go! Finally.

HP: 50%
Str: 20%
Mag: 10%
Skl: 20%
Spd: 30%
Lck: 20%
Def: 30%
Res: 10%
Skills: Pursuit

A loyal pegasus knight of the kingdom of Silesse. Nurses a crush on her liege, Prince Lewyn.

Unimpressive growths, huh? 30% speed growth on a pegasus knight is pretty shocking! Still, she’s pretty good. Her base strength (12) is passable, and flight allows her to surpass some of the similarly mediocre cavalry like Alec and Noish in utility.

The Arena

The first opponent in the arena is Tyler, a level nine cavalier with a steel sword. Tyler is such a funny name to come across in a Fire Emblem game. That’s the name of some dipshit you went to high school with, not a Fire Emblem character! Although, if that guy were to be in a Fire Emblem game, “low-tier arena opponent” is entirely appropriate.

Rank two brings us Pelleo, a level twelve axe knight with a steel axe. He doesn’t pose much of a challenge either.

Rank three’s Treville is a level fifteen myrmidon with a steel blade. Unlike past myrmidons in the arena, he’s not a huge obstacle. Low-level units like Arden, Noish or Beowulf might have some trouble getting past him, but most will be able to eventually.

At rank four we face Pazan, a level eighteen armour lance wielding a steel lance. He’s tricky for some of our sword-using units, but fortunately we now have the armourslayer to trade around.

Doma of rank five is a level twenty-one dark mage wielding Jormungand and holding a shield ring. Jormungand is a basic dark magic tome and it has a might of 20 and accuracy of 90%. It is very dangerous! Some weaker units can struggle their way past Pazan, but Doma will prove insurmountable to them.

It’s a very cool looking spell though! Love me some yelling skulls.

At rank six is Keller, the level twenty four duke knight with a brave lance. Again, he is a very serious threat.

The final boss of the arena is Thornton, a level twenty seven great knight with a brave axe. Honestly, he’s easier to fight than Keller for most units.

By chapter three some of our units have enough money to buy the paragon ring, which I was able to trade around to get some extra levels on a few characters.

Sigurd beat the arena, gaining two levels. +2 HP, +1 str, +1 skl, +1 def.
Noish beat rank two, gaining one level. +1 HP, +1 skl.
Alex beat rank three, gaining one level. +1 HP, +1 spd.
Arden beat rank three, gaining two levels with the paragon ring. +1 HP, +1 str, +2 def, +1 res.
Azel beat rank four, gaining one level. +1 HP, +1 mag, +1 spd.
Lex beat rank six, gaining two levels. +2 HP, +1 skl.
Quan beat the arena, gaining five levels with the paragon ring. +4 HP, +2 str, +1 mag, +2 skl, +4 spd, +2 def, +1 res.
Finn beat rank four, gaining two levels to reach level 20! +2 HP, +1 skl.
Ethlyn beat rank three, gaining one level to reach level 20! Empty level!
Midir beat rank two, did not level.
Ayra beat the arena, gaining five levels with the paragon ring. +4 HP, +2 str, +3 skl, +2 spd, +2 lck.
Jamke beat the arena, gaining three levels. +3 HP, +2 spd, +2 lck, +1 def.
Holyn beat rank five, gaining two levels. +3 HP, +2 skl, +1 spd,.
Lachesis beat rank four, gaining two levels with the paragon ring. +1 HP, +1 str, +1 lck.
Lewyn beat the arena, gaining three levels. +3 HP, +1 mag, +2 skl, +3 spd, +3 skl, +1 res.
Beowulf beat rank four, gaining two levels. +2 HP, 1 str, 1 lck.
Erin beat rank six, gaining 2 levels. +1 HP, +1 skl, +1 lck.

Dew, Silvia, Deirdre and Aideen could not beat the first rank of the arena. Aideen for fairly obvious reasons, the rest because they were just too weak and fragile.

We have three promotions! Lex was ready to promote at the end of chapter two, and Ethlyn and Finn both reached level twenty through the arena.

Lex first:

Lex has been promoted to Great Knight! If you find the promotion gains a little hard to read, they are:
+5 strength
+1 skill
+1 speed
+4 def
+3 res

The strength boost is much needed, you will see later in this post that Lex has fallen quite badly behind on his strength growths.

Finn’s up next, promoting to duke knight:

+5 strength
+1 skill
+1 speed
+2 def
+3 res

And now Ethlyn, promoting to Paladin (female version (they can use staves)):

+6 strength
+3 skill
+3 speed
+2 magic
+6 def
+2 res

Ethlyn can also use lances now, although she never will.

People were curious to know how my units were turning out compared to their averages. This will allow you all to see how everyone is developing, and also what weapons they have in their inventory, since you don’t see that much in my posts usually.

Sigurd:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES   LCK   
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ------ 
  AVE.    51.5   21.5   0.7   18.5   16.5   15.0   3.7   13.0  
  CURR.   50     21     1     21     14     13     3     13    
  DIFF.   -2     0      0     +2     -2     -2     -1    0

I have felt that Sigurd is a little fragile in this run, but he’s been gaining a little more def lately so that may round out as we go.

Deirdre:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR   MAG    SKL    SPD    DEF   RES    LCK  
 ------- ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ------ ----- 
  AVE.    31.6   0.8   19.6   10.6   12.8   3.8   21.6   6.8  
  CURR.   28     1     20     9      13     4     22     7    
  DIFF.   -4     0     0      -2     0      0     0      0

Not too surprised there, this Deirdre is very Deirdre.

Quan

Code: Select all

          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ----- 
  Ave.    51.6   23.9   0.8   14.8   16.4   18.0   3.8   6.6  
  Curr.   51     22     3     14     19     18     6     6    
  Diff.   0      -2     +2    -1     +3     0      +2    -1

Doing pretty well on speed, and bizarrely on magic too. A little low on strength, but honestly he’s not too divergent. He performs pretty well.

Ethlyn:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG    SKL    SPD    DEF    RES    LCK   
 ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ 
  AVE.    40.0   17.0   11.0   20.0   20.9   14.0   10.0   12.0  
  CURR.   39     17     10     20     20     13     12     10    
  DIFF.   -1     0      -1     0      -1     -1     +2     -2

Ethlyn’s growths aren’t really a thing I notice much since she’s primarily a healer, but she’s nicely on track.

Arden:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL   SPD   DEF    RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- ----- 
  AVE.    43.2   17.0   0.4   5.8   5.6   16.2   0.4   3.8  
  CURR.   41     15     0     5     6     18     2     3    
  DIFF.   -2     -2     0     -1    0     +2     +2    0

Arden ended up with the paragon band because I would really like him to promote in order to pass down some A rank swords to his son. He had to sell the pursuit band to afford it, but oh well. It would help, too, if he hit his strength growth a little more.

Noish:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL   SPD   DEF    RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- ----- 
  AVE.    39.4   14.2   0.4   9.4   9.6   11.2   0.4   5.6  
  CURR.   38     11     1     13    9     9      0     4    
  DIFF.   -1     -3     +1    +4    -1    -2     0     -2

What happened, Noish? He’s usually my favourite of the beginning cavaliers, but he has not turned out well at all this time.

Alec:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF   RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- 
  AVE.    38.3   11.7   0.4   12.6   12.7   9.7   0.4   6.7  
  CURR.   39     13     0     15     12     9     1     5    
  DIFF.   +1     +1     0     +2     -1     -1    +1    -1

Alec, meanwhile, is doing alright! Usually I find him far too weak, but he got a lot of strength early on and has been helping out quite a bit.

Finn:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES   LCK   
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ------ 
  AVE.    45.3   19.7   0.9   16.6   16.7   14.7   3.9   17.5  
  CURR.   44     20     2     18     12     16     5     15    
  DIFF.   -1     0      +1    +2     -5     +1     +1    -2

Finn’s speed deficit really shows; he just can’t double a lot of enemies he should be able to. Still, with the brave lance he can usually kill who he needs to, so it’s not a disaster.

Midir:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL   SPD    DEF   RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ----- ------ ----- ----- ----- 
  AVE.    37.4   11.7   0.4   9.7   12.6   9.7   0.4   3.9  
  CURR.   37     12     0     9     13     8     0     5    
  DIFF.   0      0      0     -1    0      -2    0     +1

A very average man.

Aideen:

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          HP     STR   MAG    SKL   SPD    DEF   RES    LCK   
 ------- ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ ------ 
  AVE.    33.6   1.6   15.4   9.6   11.4   2.6   10.4   15.8  
  CURR.   35     1     16     11    10     3     11     18    
  DIFF.   +1     -1    +1     +1    -1     0     +1     +2

Azel:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR   MAG    SKL   SPD    DEF   RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ ----- ----- ----- 
  AVE.    38.4   1.2   14.8   9.4   15.0   4.4   7.2   4.4  
  CURR.   40     1     12     11    19     5     6     4    
  DIFF.   +2     0     -3     +2    +4     +1    -1    0

Unfortunate that he’s behind on magic growth, but he has the ring for that. Look at that Lewyn-tier speed, though!

Lex:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES   LCK   
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ------ 
  AVE.    49.2   22.2   0.9   14.6   15.6   21.9   3.9   11.6  
  CURR.   49     19     1     14     16     18     5     12    
  DIFF.   0      -3     0     -1     0      -4     +1    0

Low on strength and low on defense. Not a great Lex, unfortunately! He just about gets the job done, though.

Holyn:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ----- 
  AVE.    45.5   15.5   0.2   21.0   18.5   12.5   1.2   2.0  
  CURR.   47     16     0     21     19     11     1     1    
  DIFF.   +1     0      0     0      0      0      0     -1

Another very average man! Even more average than Midir. Incredible.

Ayra:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF   RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- 
  AVE.    41.8   15.2   0.7   23.9   21.2   9.8   1.7   5.8  
  CURR.   39     16     0     25     22     8     1     7    
  DIFF.   -3     +1     -1    +1     +1     -2    -1    -1

Jamke:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ----- 
  AVE.    44.1   15.5   0.0   14.9   16.7   11.7   0.4   7.6  
  CURR.   45     15     0     15     17     11     2     8    
  DIFF.   +1     0      0     0      0      -1     +2    0

Beowulf:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ----- 
  AVE.    40.4   15.2   0.0   12.2   11.9   10.9   0.1   3.6  
  CURR.   41     16     0     12     11     11     0     5    
  DIFF.   +1     +1     0     0      -1     0      0     +1

Lachesis:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES    LCK   
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ 
  AVE.    36.2   14.5   8.8   10.7   16.4   10.4   10.7   11.8  
  CURR.   38     17     8     13     15     10     11     13    
  DIFF.   +2     +2     -1    +2     -1     0      0      +1

Ah…. She’s beautiful.

Lewyn:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR   MAG    SKL    SPD    DEF   RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- 
  AVE.    40.3   1.7   14.1   14.8   22.3   6.4   9.7   8.4  
  CURR.   40     1     16     17     23     5     10    8    
  DIFF.   0      -1    +2     +2     +1     -1    0     0

Erin:

Code: Select all


          HP     STR    MAG   SKL    SPD    DEF    RES   LCK  
 ------- ------ ------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ----- 
  AVE.    34.5   12.0   1.5   13.0   19.5   10.5   9.5   8.0  
  CURR.   33     12     1     13     21     9      9     9    
  DIFF.   -1     0      0     0      +1     0      0     +1

Erin is turning out fine. She hasn’t had too many levels yet, though. Speaking of, I excluded Dew and Sylvia from this exercise because they have only got two levels since their recruitment, but I’ll show them regardless.

Next time: Eldigan the Lionheart

Tanegashima · Mon Jun 29, 2020 1:31 pm

Glad to see this LP on the Beach. FE4 has special place in my heart in spite of the flagrant balance issues and Kaga plot decisions.

Shei-kun · Tue Jun 30, 2020 5:53 am

Lewyn ahead of the curve on the stats that matter, and Azel trying to be the fastest mage on the battlefield.

Always interesting to see how they turn out compared to their averages.

AradoBalanga · Tue Jun 30, 2020 6:48 pm

That is definitely the fastest Azel I've ever seen. I guess he's using his knowledge of fire magic to create make-shift rocket thrusters or something.

metis · Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:27 am

3.1 Taste My Bolt Sword!

Glorious Grannvale

Honoring his promise to Eldigan, Sigurd allows Chagall his freedom and does not interfere.

he persists in negotiating Agustria's return to governance by its own king. Despite his determination to restore Chagall's rule, his orders from Belhalla never change: to remain in Agusty and to govern its citizens.

grown arrogant and have taken to abusing their power over Agustria for their own gain. Day by day, the Agustrian people grow ever wearier of Grannvale's actions. Before long, as he feared, Sigurd finds himself yet again caught in a new conflict.

vying to reclaim his lost capital from Sigurd.

to sweep in and profit from the land's chaos.

Sigurd's heart lies heavy in the face of the impending crisis.

The looming battle for Agustria... A trial between friendship and loyalties. Before Sigurd looms a final battle in Agustria's north: a showdown fated to shape the course of Jugdral's history.

Enemy Message 2

This is our final chance to return Agusty to our control. Just look at them... Lingering in my kingdom, oh-so-carefree. ...I grow weary of them. They will pay dearly for this! Jacoban! Where's that lousy sellsword gotten to this time?!

Now, Eldigan's still at Silvail, is he? Hm... How will he take this? I wonder...

Crisis 1

Gah... I couldn't possibly fight Sigurd. What in the world can I do now...

Agustria Army: Pirates

This is our chance, I reckon, with nuthin' stoppin' us from fleecin' the villages. Both them armies'll be at each other's throats, so there'll be nobody interested in gettin' between us an' th' villages.

Shut it, Duvall! I won't allow any petty thefts under my watch. I refuse to let us sink so low. Don't forget, we're heroic thieves. That's what the name of Orgahill now means to the world!

That wench struts aroun' like the boss, but she ain't really the ol' cap'n's sprog. The cap'n jus' found 'er lost when she as a tiny thing an' raised 'er as 'is own. She still took over when 'e died, but little she knows she ain't really his brat. She ain't the real boss, so there's nuffin' t'worry 'bout. Now, let's go 'elp ourselves to sum treasure!

Crisis 1

Where in blazes is Eldigan...

That isn't all, sire. It appears that pirates from Orgahill are attacking amidst the confusion.

Is that so... I suppose we've no choice, then. Ready everyone for battle.

Seliph is but a newborn, and he needs you.

Yes, dear...

You needn't look so anxious, Deirdre. I'll be back before long. I promise. Shannan, I've a favor to ask of you. Would you look after Deirdre and Seliph, please?

Of course! Don't worry about a thing.

Ha! As spirited as ever, Shannan. At the very least, Deirdre, he ought to keep you in good cheer. Don't worry about a thing, Deirdre. I'll be back for you. I promise.

Milord...

Eldigan the Lionheart

Rather than arrows, I've opted for circles for this chapter's map. As Oifey said, Chagall has us surrounded.

To the west are lance cavalry;

to the east, lance armours.

In the forest to the north is a squad of fire mages,

and guarding the pass to Madino are axe armours and bow knights.

Madino has a range of units defending it including ballistae, with Jacobin in charge with a droppable bolt sword.

Additionally, there are pirates crossing the ocean to raid the villages along the coast. They can move one tile over water, as a unique feature of the (enemy only) pirate class.

I'll be splitting the army into a couple of groups to deal with them all.

Sigurd was serious about Deidre staying behind, by the way! She cannot leave the castle. If I gave her physic she could still contribute by healing people in a small radius around the castle, but there wouldn't be much point.

The cavalry exit to the north. Lex and Quan will split off to take care of the western enemies.

Meanwhile, the infantry heads east to deal with the armours there, and should catch up with the main force a little later on.

Both Holyn and Lex want to talk to Ayra in this chapter. They're mutually exclusive, so we're going with Holyn purely because it's more convenient. I'll show Lex's version too, of course.

This thing's only gonna get harder from here, yeah? You burn through blades so fast you could do with a spare or two. Look after yourself out here, okay? One day I might not be here to watch your back.

Holyn... Thank you. I promise I'll put it to good use.

Short but sweet!
Here's Lex's version for comparison.

Ayra! Hey there.

Sigh... What do you want, Lex?

Sheesh! Courteous as ever, aren't you?

Look, get to your point, whatever it may be. I've better things to do than waste time on you.

Hold on. I've got a little gift here. I thought of you the moment I saw it.

You can foist it on some other woman. I've no use for such trinkets.

Heh... Not even something like this?

Oh? ...Wait! That's-

Ah, good! You're well acquainted with the famous brave sword, then.

I never thought I'd see a real brave sword! Never have I seen a blade so beautiful...

Glad you like it! It's yours. I guess I'll see you around, Ayra.

Er, Lex! Wait a moment!
(Lex leaves)

Oh...

Bit more to it, isn't there? Holyn hasn't got much characterisation, but Lex and Ayra's chemistry is fantastic. Anyway, the sword is the same no matter what, and the love points you get from either conversation are irrelevant since Ayra's destined to marry Arden.

Speaking of...

"What are you doing chatting up my girlfriend?"

"Sorry, sorry, I'll get out of your way."

Erin is the last person to leave the castle (save Deirdre), and she's heading on a solo mission,

to save this village.

The armours shuffle forwards. That is literally all that happens on this phase! Everyone else is waiting for us to get into their range.

The pirates make their move, too.

I'm putting Azel in range to bring out that one lance armour without the whole bunch of them attacking at once, since he can only take one hit.

Throughout this whole update (and the next couple) you will see Finn dropping way back so that he can hang out with Lachesis. I want them to get married quickly!

Still some distance before we meet the enemy.

The axe armours start moving south, but the bow knights are staying put.

The pirates are close to hitting the northern beaches.

Azel finishes off that armour.

I decide I don't really need Lewyn and Holyn here, so I split the infantry further and leave that group down south.

The western cavalry are really hidden away! Lex will draw them out.

Meanwhile Quan is heading north to rid the villages of the pirates.

Ethlyn gets in the first attack for the cavalry this chapter with a critical hit! Critical hits aren't very distinctive in screenshot form, particularly for magic attacks. The screen shakes a little and the hit sound is more dramatic.

I let Alec take the kill on that guy.

Sigurd got hit on a 21% chance, which when you think about it as a 1 in 5 chance, is actually not that surprising.

Midir then finishes him off.

The final formation is well in range of the bow knights, so now the action really gets going.

Alec is really turning out well! I might actually give him the brave sword, since there's a couple of A rank swords up for grabs that Ayra can use instead. She can get it back when it's time to have children, of course.

Midir dodges. How hard can it be to hit a horse with an axe, though?

The armour commander has a bow, which is more accurate than a javelin or hand axe, but he still misses.

The bow knights start moving in.

Uh-oh...

This is very rude, I just wanted Arden to get some chip experience.

Finally these guys start moving in. Three of em die the exact same way.

The others line up to die.

The fire mages shift down a little. You just wait, they're going to be suuuper important later.

No adept activation, so this village will suffer for another turn.

The commander has a javelin, so Lex won't be able to enemy-phase him. If only he wasn't so strength cursed, then he'd be able to one-round this guy! Ah well, next phase.

All right, let's work on these armours.

Azel brings the commander down to killable HP-levels, and gets a really nice level out of it too. Now he can one round these armours!

Let's try out the brave sword now. This is another pretty likely candidate to rack up 50 kills on so we might as well start early.

She misses the killing blow in her first two attacks,

opening her up to taking quite a bit of damage. But she activates astra for no reason, I guess just to prove she could?

I'm left with a pretty poor formation, to be honest. Arden is low health and Aideen is very exposed. Azel is also very fragile.

Jamke handily deletes one of them, and then I have Sylvia dance so he can attack again.

Would've been better if he had killed this guy, but at least standing here he'll body block the vulnerable from getting ganged up on too badly.

Things are a little dicey over here, with Noish at only 10 HP, so it'll take some careful management to keep everyone safe. I'll get rid of the commander of the armours first, to remove his authority bonus.

A critical!

Dew gave all his gold to Sylvia earlier, so he's stocking back up again.

Beowulf is getting some good use out of his armourslayer. Again, the critical animation doesn't really show up in screenshots. It's quite funny for mounted sword-users, they wave their sword up and down for a second before striking. Not quite up to par with some of the fun GBA crits.

We start taking out some of the horsies, who are much more threatening than the armours with their ranged canto.

Again, I'm prioritising the commander so the rest will be less accurate.

Beowulf is healed up, and Ethlyn's placement keeps Noish out of harm's way, since he's still very low on health.

This guy impotently attacks Beowulf, and misses.

This attack puts Sylvia in miracle range, but it's still concerning. The second armour, however....

Chooses death.

The fire mages would like you to know that they are still there!! Stop ignoring them, please!!

The two cavs die while the cowardly commander attacks from a distance.

One pirate down, and on to the next.

Lex decides to work on his flaws.

Time to move on to Madino!

Oh right, this guy is still here. I genuinely forgot about him, he kind of blended into the background.

Azel kills the last armour, allowing the infantry to start sidling up north. They won't catch up in time to assault Madino, but that's fine.

Erin can't quite one-round this pirate. I also forgot to give her a sword, which might have protected her from taking that hit.

I forgot to do a lot of inventory management, actually! There's a bunch of silver weapons in the armoury that I never handed out, partly because everyone who can use A-rank weapons already has a better option.

Quan - already has a silver lance
Finn - brave lance (although I might sell this to Erin, then he could buy the silver lance)
Jamke - killer bow
Lex - brave axe
Sigurd - already has a silver sword
Lachesis - miracle sword (although it has 2 less might and is more inaccurate, so maybe?)
Ethlyn - light brand (could sell this to someone with more combat ability, and give her the silver sword?)
Ayra - brave sword (for now)
Holyn could use the silver sword, though, and I actually thought I did have him buy it, but that was an overwritten save.

The rest of the army, who actually need the upgrades, have to wait for promotion before they can use higher rank weaponry. Feel free to suggest who should get what if you like! There's one of each physical weapon. Plus Elfire, but no one wants that.

They form an orderly queue.

This bishop has fortify, which heals all allies in a radius of ten tiles. It's very annoying on enemies!

Oh yeah, the fire mages. Ooo, so scary.

Gotta remember to watch out for the ballistae!

Lewyn disappointingly fails to activate either adept or critical. Can't happen every time, I suppose.

Lach finally brings Noish back to reasonable levels of health.

They're faint, but he does have luna's signature blue sparkles in this image.

Alec takes a detour to hit this village. See how he's barely missing the kill on the pirate? I think he'd do well with the brave sword. Although I should compare his stats with Beowulf, first.

Dew keeps dewing what Dew dews.

Noish... Why do I even bother with you anymore.

Brave lance on a mage is kind of overkill, but they're probably the most threatening enemies on the field right now. Magic hurts!

Quan is still handling pirates.

Lex has caught up to the infantry.

This guy feels like a weird choice for villager, since he usually shows up as a Grannvale bureacrat.

We can't thank ya enough, but mayhap this magic staff'll help ya out. They call it a Restore staff. If yer allies've been put t'sleep or silenced, one cast of this staff'll get 'em back on their feet. This oughta be a big help for ya.

Erin gets 3000 gold as well as the restore staff. Would've been nice last chapter, but there's no real need for it in this one. Erin will hold on to it until she can pawn it.

Yikes, this could be bad.

Silver lining!

Why willingly go to your death? Maybe the AI can't factor in effectiveness.

Ahh! But he whiffs it, thank goodness.

In the immortal words of Anna, "Cha-ching!"

Sigh.

A close shave there, Holyn! All right, the clean-ups done, so let's tackle Jacoban.

"Besiege" is highlighted here, but I'm actually going to have Ethlyn "attack," which means it's a ranged attack with the light brand. Jacoban can retaliate with the bolt sword, but with magic damage only, so it's safer for Ethlyn.

Ok, let's fast forward.

The guy is obsessed with this sword.

Ethlyn does some damage, and he misses in return.

I want Finn to kill him so he picks up the bolt sword. This is one of the only ways he'll be able to pass a sword down to his son. Finn can't double Jacoban, but if he hits with both attacks he will win here.

Ah, but of course he doesn't.

Meanwhile, Quan takes out that pirate and heads back to the main road.

Thank you for not missing, Finn!

Hahaha, yeah these guys will matter any minute now. Promise!

More pirates!

Before seizing, I let Beowulf and Alec get some easy kills on the ballistae before they disappear.

Ah, what the hell. May as well let these guys in on the fun before I consign them to non-existence in a minute.

Remember where Quan is. This will be important later.

Victory 1

His Cross Knights are the last remains of Agustria's army. At this rate, all should be well if we can subdue them, but...

Decision 1

Prince Kurth is dead. Somebody murdered him en rout from Isaach.

What?! This can't be... Who could have done this?

Lord Byron was once constantly by His Highness's side... Yet, ever since his murder, he has been nowhere to be found. I regret to say this, but... As it stands, Lord Byron - your father - is the prime suspect.

Wh-what?! That's impossible!

I regret to say that there's been naught but horrid rumors in Grannvale lately. Among them are those which allege that you and your father worked in concert to assassinate the prince... Alas, His Majesty's anguish at the affair has rendered him dreadfully ill.

My father was already the prince's closest confidant. What could he have possible gained from the prince's demise?! Surely, shouldn't Reptor, Langbalt, and the others who opposed the prince be the likely culprits?

I am of the same mind, but we've no evidence tying either to the crime. And Reptor and his minions currently hold a great sway over the royal court.

What about Lord Arvis, His Majesty's aide? Do you know where he stands on this?

I cannot say for sure. He seems to hold no enmity toward you, but I am loath to consider him an ally...

Hm... I'm worried for my father. If I could, I'd head home now and do what I can to help, but my orders haven't changed. I still need to hold Agustria. Please, Your Grace... Do you have any idea what I should do?

I am on my way to the Tower of Bragi, on the island to the north-west of here. As an heir to the great Saint Bragi, if I pray at our sacred tower, then the truth shall be revealed to me alone. With this knowledge, I can convince His Majesty of Byron's innocence. You needn't worry, Lord Sigurd.

Hm? Aren't you Taillte of House Friege? What are you doing with Father Claude?

Wouldn't you worry if I left him to wander all on his lonesome? Somebody's got to protect him.

But you're Duke Reptor's daughter, so...

I just can't wrap my head around Father's schemes, y'know? Besides, I love the priest!

Gods, give me strength to cope with this child... Anyway, I'll rendezvous with your group once I've learned the truth. I pray we'll both return home this day.

As do I, Father Claude. As do I. I can't thank you enough.

Next time: where in the world is Chagall of Agustria?

Bonus

A happy family:

[Rika Suzuki, Fire Emblem Cipher]

SloppyDoughnuts · Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:01 pm

That baby has a goatee.

Greener223224 · Mon Jul 06, 2020 6:19 am

You could've killed that bishop next to Madino's gate with Sigurd, and still been able to seize the castle at the same time.

metis · Sat Jul 11, 2020 12:31 pm

3.2 Eldigan

Deirdre's Theme

I know. I want you to look after Seliph while I'm gone.

No way! I'm just a kid. I can't look after a baby all by myself.

I won't be long. I promise. Please, Shanan... I implore you...

Okay, fine. I'll look after him. Just be careful out there and get back here as soon as you can, okay?

Thank you, Shanan. I'm sorry, Seliph. I'll be back for you right away.

Loptyr

Oh? Who are you? Wait... How do you know my mother?

Kehehehe... The day of your rebirth is upon us. Through my black magic, the slate of your life will be cleansed, paving the way for your true husband... Your fate was written the day you were born. There is no use in fighting destiny.

Wh-what are you doing?! Stop it! No!! ...Aaaah... Sig... u... r...

Uh, guys? Could you help out here? Jamke? Ayra? No?

Deirdre is gone, and yet the game continues.

Quan is waiting near the Silvail guards.

Not too far from where the infantry are.

On the enemy phase, the camera moves to Fort Silvail.

Where we see Chagall trudging his way across the Agustrian countryside after fleeing the fall of Madino.

Ah, but that's part of your plan, isn't it?! You're part of their plot to destroy Agustria, traitor!

Your Majesty... How could you say that?

What's this? Do you dare to be displeased? To think, you've forgotten my father's favor, all to idly stall for time... You're a disgrace to the knighthood!

There's nothing more I can do to convince you... Very well, Your Majesty. My men and I will move out post-haste. I am proud to be a paladin of Agustria. If I must die, it shall be with sword in hand! By your leave, Your Majesty.

I count myself the luckiest commander there is for your years of loyalty to me. The fatherland's fate hinges on this final battle. Do not let Agustria down. Cross Knights! MOVE OUT!

The rest of you, fortify the defenses! I'm in command now!

Chagall takes his place atop Fort Silvail as Eldigan's men begin to charge.

If I had been cleverer I would have equipped Quan's javelin, but oh well.

Two of the Cross Knights attack him.

The rest stay in formation.

Eldigan has had a bit of training since we last saw him in chapter one:

We really really don't want to get in a fight with him. His five authority stars will also make his nearby allies very accurate and very hard to hit. Suffice to say, we're going to try to talk him around to our side.

Quan is at a serious disadvantage here, so he's going to hit the cross knight in range and run.

He doesn't get adept off, so no kill unfortunately.

After he runs, I switch his equipped weapon to the javelin. Really this just means they'll probably attack him at melee with their swords.

He's in cross knight range, but not Eldigan range, so that's good.

Lachesis returns Sigurd to Agusty castle and reaches level twenty in doing so.

Beowulf and Alec team up to take out this pirate north of Madino.

Quan, Ethlyn, Azel and Jamke are all in range of those two cross knights who broke off from the greater group, just serving as a nice buffet of bait.

They have chosen: ETHLYN.

Both attack her; she kills the first, since Quan weakened him, and hurts the second.

I'm quite sure I'll need Sigurd to speak to Eldigan, so we're going to avoid engaging him for another turn.

We need Sigurd in tip-top shape in case anything goes wrong, so Ethlyn heals him up.

I'll never not find these screenshots funny. It misses, by the way.

As Eldigan approaches, Sigurd calls out to him.

Crisis 2

I still have every intention of returning Agusty to Chagall! All I need is a little more time, I swear!

...Sigurd. I'm sorry, but I grow weary of these excuses. We stand now as two knights on the battle field, sworn to an honorable duel. Draw, Sigurd! So long as I wield the demon blade, Mystletainn, I won't be the one to fall this day!

From this, it seems we'll have to have Sigurd defeat Eldigan in combat. Maybe once we do that, he'll just surrender?

Since Eldigan has no ranged weapon, Ethlyn can safely initiate on him with the Light Brand. It's not as effective as it could be, since Mystletainn gives a big bonus to resistance.

Stay clear of me, lest your life end on the demon blade!

This is a far better sword-based threat than the bolt sword guy from last update.

She gets a critical hit, wiping off 18 HP.

Sigurd can't reach Eldigan with all the cross knights in the way, everyone else needs to help clear a path.

Another thrilling bowfight.

This demonstrates the power of Eldigan's five authority stars. Lex here is attacking one of the cross knights within the leadership aura.

This cross knight is far outside the aura, though, and Lex's hit rate has skyrocketed, and the cross knight's accuracy has also fallen.

We've cleared a path, but Eldigan is still too strong for Sigurd to take on by himself, so Finn and Quan are going to help out. Mystletainn grants critical to Eldigan, so any combat with him is fraught, but Finn and Quan both have the best chance of survival. Additionally, Quan is a good friend of Eldigan's, so I want to see if he has a combat dialogue.

Finn's attacks connect.

The sky turns white as Eldigan attacks. This is a sign of the holy power of Mystletainn.

That hurt a lot! But he survived, which is what matters.

Quan is next.

No conversation, sadly. Would've been nice. Nevertheless, Eldigan is now nicely softened up for Sigurd to defeat him, and thus hopefully show him the error of this ways.

Fateful Showdown

Yet, we are knights... This was always our fate.

E-Eldigan! Wait!!

A sibling crit! That's great, that means we've got this in the bag.

Sigurd... misses? Uh, I guess the critical is on his next attack?

No, no Eldigan, you're not the one who's meant to crit!

No.....

Well, that didn't go great. Do-over!

Azel gets danced and kills another cross knight to change the RNG, and I try again.

Thank you, Sigurd.

Wait... That's it? He was supposed to be convinced! Sigurd would show him the error of his ways by defeating him in combat! I didn't think he would actually die!

Maybe if I wait a turn, something else will happen?

Agh, everything's going wrong!

Time of Sadness 2: Game Over

For now, the best we can do is work to realize Eldigan's wishes, and give the Agustrian people the peace they deserve.

I refuse to accept this! DO-OVER!

Okay. Sigurd can't convince Eldigan, but maybe his sister can? Let's get Lachesis into position so Sylvia can refresh her to get close to Eldigan.

Which means I also have to get her future husband moving. Even in a life-or-death situation, you have to think about matchmaking.

Dance formation achieved.

Obviously, Lachesis is going to attack her brother. That's the surefire way to convincing him!

I foresee this going very well.

She misses. Shocking, I know.

I thought you said you wouldn't fight her, Eldigan? This is actually her normal death quote, but it fits the context perfectly.

Ok, final do-over, I promise.

Conversation 1

Your actions are utterly baffling! Would you really betray Sigurd, your friend? Is this what you call a knight's pride?! Please, brother! Believe in Sigurd. Give him even the tiniest amount more time to finish his job. We don't need to fight.

Lachesis... Look, don't cry. Fighting is my only choice. Please don't make this harder than it already is. His Majesty's death will spell the death of Agustria, too, and I cannot allow that.

That isn't true! Everything hinges on Chagall laying down his arms. Sigurd never had any interest in fighting, and has even less interest in continuing if you stop. Brother... Please. You lead the Cross Knights! Chagall simply cannot ignore your counsel!

...You're right, Lachesis. I'll try and persuade His Majesty, one more time. If i must risk my life, I'd rather risk it to stop this blasted war than to fight my friend. Any knight would do the same. Lachesis... here. This sword is for you.

Isn't this an earth sword?! ...Brother, you can't be-

This is a last memento, in case I... I'm sorry, Lachesis. You must survive!

Eldigan rides back to Fort Silvail.

Crisis 2

Agusty shall be returned to Your Majesty someday, but it must happen peacefully.

Eldigan! How dare you abandon the battle to spout such nonsense! You couldn't hide your true colors forever, traitor! Men! Seize this... this worm! Off with his head! Humiliate him! Parade his shame before the world!

I... this was all in vain... This spells Agustria's doom-

Tch, enough! Accept your death quietly, traitor! Finish him! Do it, right here, right NOW!

Lachesis...

The game somewhat undercuts the tragedy with the "got item!" jingle here. But that's the end of Eldigan the Lionheart. All Lachesis has left of him is one sword and a world of troubles...

It's a very good sword, though!

Next time: Lachesis will have her revenge.

metis · Thu Jul 16, 2020 6:10 am

3.3 Lachesis Takes Charge

Hmph. I suppose even these common sellswords ought to do a better job for me than all of my worthless servants... Don't you dare let me down!

From the north, a squad of dracoknights fly in.

We relive the events that once led to Lewyn's death...

Only this time, he emerges victorious!

With her brother's parting gift in hand, Lachesis asks Aideen to send her back to Agusty.

Her whole life she has idolised her brother; he was a paragon knight who did the utmost to uphold his duty. And for the sake of that duty, he died.

Now, she will show the world what it is to be a true knight. A master knight!

She gains:
+7 strength
+7 defense
+7 skill
+4 speed
- a horse

But that's not all:

That's right, she can now use every weapon but dark magic, with A ranks in every type but light. What's more, she gains pursuit as a class skill.

I've said before that Lachesis is my favourite character in this game, and I attribute about 50% of that to her character. The other half is this absolutely absurd promotion.

She buys the silver bow, and probably should have bought the axe too. Her inventory is a little overloaded at the moment. I'll have to condense it down later.

She rejoins the gang.

Now let's investigate those dracoknights of Thracia who just entered the fray.

Their commander is Papillon, which is an incredibly charming name for a dracoknight. It's French for butterfly. The dracoknights are threatening as a group because of their huge movement range and ability to bypass terrain obstacles. They're still very far away so we don't have to worry about them just yet.

They call it the wingslayer. It's enchanted to be lethal to sky-riders. If it flies, this sword'll bring it down. 'Course, if ya can't use it, sell it!

This will be a handy tool for Erin to counter the dracoknights.

Pirates always have a lot of cash, so it's nice to have Dew hit them up.

Beowulf finishes him off, but he's not going to get the village.

Arden will!

We could've sworn that boss of theirs was a good lass... Brigid or something, was it?

I'm sure that won't be significant.

Ayra finishes off the last Cross Knight. It's a sad moment, really. They came to our rescue back in chapter one, and now they've been wiped out.

From here, we march on Madino.

Chagall has the same silver blade from last chapter (this time droppable), but he actually has a ranged option this time, with bolganone, the A rank fire tome.

That he has three fewer authority stars than Eldigan and no Hezul blood is I think some subtle background for why he hated Eldigan so very much.

Midir brings the battle to the Silvail guard.

They have javelins, so he gets a little hurt in return.

The dream team of Sigurd, Lex and Quan round out the fight, taking out one and leaving the other two alive for now.

Ethlyn does some healing. It would be nice to get her to level twenty by the end of this chapter so she can wield a tome.

The border guards attack at range so nothing interesting happens this phase.

Ayra beats the commander, gets a pretty boring level.

Holyn takes care of the other one and gets a slightly more exciting level. Strength! Another 1% luna activation rate!

Lex and Quan will draw the enemy in.

Erin is heading across the ocean to meet the Thracian force.

These guys really don't move very far each turn.

Erin is just north of here, although it's a little hard to connect the screenshots. Lewyn and Jamke are going to head to the coast to help take out some dracoknights if needed.

Otherwise, it's time to take on Chagall's remaining forces!

Glad to see him getting magic, he's been a little bit behind.

Let's take the earth sword out for a spin.

At range, the sword casts the spell nosferatu and does magic damage. Lachesis will do better attacking at close range for physical damage, but ranged options are always nice. If she were hurt, it would heal her back up for the damage done.

A luna proc isn't quite enough for Holyn to one-round an armour, unfortunately. He needs to upgrade his sword -- I'll try and have him get the kill on Chagall for the silver blade, or at least have him buy it off whoever does.

Noish is still pretty bad, and Alec is ok-ish.

Cleared out about half the guard now.

Midir... Ugh.

Go away. Maybe you can kill a dracoknight and make up for this.

Almost done!

There's only a couple left, and then we can take on Chagall.

He misses.

Ayra does not.

And another one...

This one connects!

And so does Ayra.

The third (now only) armour knight targets Holyn. Are these guys racist against Isaachians or something?

Papillon's squad is now in spitting range. Erin will do a classic hit and run maneuvre on Papillon. Taking him out first is important to removing the authority bonuses.

I don't think I've ever seen this beach background before. It's very pretty.

Erin takes Papillon to about half-health with her effective weaponry, and then flies back to land near Jamke and Lewyn, who are just off-screen.

Sylvia's not really doing anything here, so Aideen warps her to Madino for some nice exp.

Azel takes care of that last armour unit, and now we can challenge Chagall.

Hmm... those chances aren't great.

Ok, better!

Bolganone has a pretty intense, and long, animation.

I didn't have Sigurd attack Chagall, but if he had they would have this conversation:

Sigurd! Feel the full force of your months of humiliation of me!

King Chagall, you've done naught but murder countless innocents ...And Eldigan... You're as foul as they come!

Silence, you fool! You understand nothing of me! You die, Sigurd, here and now!

Lachesis defeats the man responsible for her brother's demise, and shows off the healing power of her sword.

Lachesis has a very overstuffed inventory. I send off the knight ring, since that's redundant and I should have sold it earlier anyway.

The dracoknights begin their assault on Erin. A few of them are in range to attack her, as well as Papillon, so things could get precarious!

The wingslayer allows her to kill several of them, though that also opens up room for her to be attacked again.

If Papillon connects here....

He didn't though, so no worries!

Time to take him out!

This flying unit critical hit animation is quite fun -- she hits him really quickly then zooms off into the sky.

Yay strength! And everything else is good as well!

She takes the opportunity to fly off and visit this village.

That's a very nice bonus for Erin. Her strength growth is extremely low so she's unlikely to gain much more strength from levels. This will keep her working through the rest of the game.

Before Sigurd seizes Silvail and these guys blink out of existence I'm going to kill as many as I can reach this phase.

Midir gets one.

Jamke gets another.

And Lewyn is the last who is close enough.

Now Sigurd can seize without "wasting" experience.

Woah! A wyvern just appeared on the castle.

Off he goes.

By the way, Shanan has just arrived from Agusty. He'd like a word with you, sire.

What's happening, Shanan? Why are you crying?

Deirdre's gone! She left the castle and was looking to talk to you, but she never returned. I'm sorry! I failed to protect her...

What?! This can't be happening! And Seliph... Shanan, what about my son?

I've got Seliph with me. See? Here he is. But Deirdre...

I see... Shanan, this isn't your fault. Don't worry about it. We'll find her. No matter what it takes, I'll find her.

B-but, I... I should've tried harder to stop her! I'm so sorry, Sigurd!

Over at the Tower of Bragi...

(ignore all those pirates, I'm presenting things slightly out of chronological order to suit my own purposes)

Just look around! There'll be pirates all over us if we don't get moving!

Be at peace, Taillte. This was quite the fruitful journey! Lord Bragi has answered my prayers and revealed to me the truth. It is precisely as I had thought. Not to mention, I even found House Edda's long-lost sacred heirloom within the tower: the staff of Valkyria. See? This is it.

What, that grubby little cane?

...Taillte, please. Do try to mind your manners. This is a legendary magical staff with the power to restore life to the deceased. It is usable only be the direct descendants of Saint Bragi. That is to say, me alone.

Huh. So what you're saying is, with this rod you could bring my sweet old grandma back to life?

Alas, most likely not. Valkyria is limited in many particular ways, and so cannot be used on just any lost soul. You see, all of mankind is born bearing a life force called quintessence, which-

Yaaawn... Er, what's that? You lost me. Why're you still talking about this, anyway? We've still gotta get outta here!

Ah, of course. Let us go.

Claude and Taillte officially join our army now.

Claude has major Bragi blood which allows him to use Valkyria, which does just what he says it does. He's a pure healer in the same way Aideen is, coming without a single tome even though he can use all types of anima magic. Fortify is an incredibly useful staff. Expensive, though.

Taillte is a thunder mage. Unlike Azel, who's a plain mage, she can't use other types of magic. She has minor Tordo (or Thrud) blood, which boosts her thunder rank to A, allowing her to use Thoron. Wrath is a very nice skill that packs a real punch, and gives her a lot more killing power than expected for a level three unit without pursuit at this point in the game. Even so, she'll struggle, purely because she is a foot unit in this horse-focused game.

Next time: an ancient power reawakens...

Character profiles

Claude (off. Claud)

[Akira Fujikawa, Fire Emblem Cipher]

Duke of Edda and a bishop of the Church of Bragi. Searching for the truth behind recent dramatic events.

He's still Claude in this game, but the later removal of his "e" makes for somewhat less confusion between him and the Three Houses character.

Taillte (off. Tailtiu)

[Shioemon*, Fire Emblem Heroes]

Daughter of Duke Reptor of Friege. Doesn't care for her family's involvement in politics and would rather have fun with friends.

A note on her name: she's been in Fire Emblem Heroes as Tailtiu for so long that I'm very used to that name, so please watch out for any slip-ups on my part! It's pronounced like Tal-tee or Tal-too. I tried coming up with a comparison word for the "al" sound but I'm struggling because my accent merges el and al. Like the "al" in "Alan," maybe?

AradoBalanga · Thu Jul 16, 2020 6:51 pm

The other things hurting Tailtiu right are the more obvious 0 strength and 1 defense. The former means her heavy tomes kill her speed, and well, the latter on a mage should be fairly obvious.

Greener223224 · Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:59 pm

Why is Bookofholsety so determined to bland up and literalize all the dialogue in this game...

AradoBalanga wrote: ↑
Thu Jul 16, 2020 6:51 pm
The other things hurting Tailtiu right are the more obvious 0 strength and 1 defense. The former means her heavy tomes kill her speed, and well, the latter on a mage should be fairly obvious.

This isn’t FE16. Strength has no effect on weapon weight, it only judges physical damage. Weight in FE4 is a fixed penalty on attack speed that cannot be mitigated. Which basically means fire magic and axes are slow and vulnerable to Pursuit, while sword and wind magic users are overpowered.
Besides, if anything’s going to screw over Tiltyu, it’s more her low movement than her low defense, given how much she leans on Wrath.

ClaudiaSilvestri · Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:36 pm

After the art at the end of the post, all I can think of for Tailtiu is "what in the world is going on with her eyes?".

AradoBalanga · Thu Jul 16, 2020 11:47 pm

Greener223224 wrote: ↑
Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:59 pm
This isn’t FE16. Strength has no effect on weapon weight, it only judges physical damage. Weight in FE4 is a fixed penalty on attack speed that cannot be mitigated. Which basically means fire magic and axes are slow and vulnerable to Pursuit, while sword and wind magic users are overpowered.
Besides, if anything’s going to screw over Tiltyu, it’s more her low movement than her low defense, given how much she leans on Wrath.

Whoops, forgot that.

ClaudiaSilvestri wrote: ↑
Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:36 pm
After the art at the end of the post, all I can think of for Tailtiu is "what in the world is going on with her eyes?".

That's because Metis posted an edit of her artwork from Heroes. Here's the real deal.

metis · Fri Jul 17, 2020 8:18 am

ehehehe, i've been made!

metis · Fri Jul 17, 2020 10:36 am

3.3.1 HUBBA’S REVENGE

Behold my return to glory! That ginger upstart managed to wrest away the rights to the Bachelorette, but she failed to realise that was only a spin-off! Thus did she foolishly pave the way for the revival of that great, ancient power... THE BACHELOR.

The gentleman at the centre of attention today is Lewyn, the wayward prince of Silesse. Lewyn, do you have any words for the lovely ladies vying to become your queen?

Heh... There’s no need for you fine women to come to blows over me. There’s enough of me to go around.

This… isn’t a tournament for your hand, young prince. No one will be crossing blades. Although that is a good idea for a show. I must write that down. In any case, let’s meet our contestants!

Erin

Erin’s long standing crush on Lewyn is one to rival Azel’s on Aideen. So far, he thinks nothing of her but the girl-next-barracks who was always obsessed with flying horses. Can she convince him otherwise?

Pursuit.

Results in one strong child, and one decent child.*

Sylvia

A fine romance was started in the tavern of a backwater Agustrian village. Does Lewyn have the heart to return to the woman he spurned only a few months ago?

Miracle.

Results in two support-oriented children.*

Adept - but Lewyn has this too, so it’s a waste of Lewyn’s adept.

No pursuit.

Taillte

What might prove attractive about Taillte to Lewyn is that they have absolutely no history. They share a distaste for their respective families’ politics, but their relationship begins with a blank slate.

Wrath

No pursuit. I will buy Lewyn the pursuit ring to pass on to his son but his daughter will make do with only adept. (I won’t do this for Sylvia's kids)

Results in one strong child, and one okay child.*

In casting your votes, you decide not only who will marry Lewyn, but who will become queen of Silesse, and the next heir to the throne! This is a momentous moment indeed. Think carefully!

*Subject to debate, but I'm trying to inform without spoiling, so don't get too hung up on these statements.

clearcardinal · Fri Jul 17, 2020 1:37 pm

Let's go with Erin.

Greener223224 · Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:18 pm

Sylvia. I really, really don’t want this game to be easymode any more than it already is, so just let her win Levin for once. Both the previous LPs had Levin with Fury and Tiltyu, so I would really like to see...the results...of this pairing come to fruition in a Somethingawful LP. I’m just not pleased with how the userbase acceps a troll pairing of Arya x Arden, but will heavily push full-on vanilla when it comes to Levin.

Actually, while you're at it, would you mind informing the thread on Somethingawful about the Wind God Sety and FionordeQuester LPs and their pairing decisions?

AradoBalanga · Fri Jul 17, 2020 7:49 pm

I'm fine with Erin. Yes, it's a repeat option, but let the lovesick pegasus girl win over the prince at least once in this damn franchise.

Greener223224 · Fri Jul 17, 2020 9:26 pm

AradoBalanga wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 17, 2020 7:49 pm
I'm fine with Erin. Yes, it's a repeat option, but let the lovesick pegasus girl win over the prince at least once in this damn franchise.

That’s not even her name!!