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sainthood

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I think if you workshop this line a little bit more for maybe another thousand years people might start calling it "raw" or say that it "goes hard"

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rhysulki flying together for pride month

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(unsafely) binding my blade rn

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While the games try to lead us to believe that Lorazieh is completely comatose from grief (literally unconscious 24/7), they just as frequently say he is "bed-ridden" (an unclear state of awareness) and in Chapter 15 Reyson says to Nealuchi "He seldom rises anymore" (seldom means 'rarely' and not 'never'). As a result, I am inclined to read his state during the games as more along the lines of "mostly unresponsive/unconscious, but at least somewhat lucid on rare occasions".

Lorazieh also likely has formshift, and I've found myself wondering: since he can freely shift between forms, which would he prefer? Does he stay transformed while his consciousness lapses? Do the cliffs of Phoenicis echo intermittently with his sorrowful cries while untransformed, or with a haunting dirge he wails as a heron?

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[Original Meme]

Mordecai Fire Emblem is so large because his muscles are full of love for his friends :)

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A while back I had been thinking about how for a while (idk if people still do it anymore) the term "laguz royal" was used to batch units that got formshift (and a higher skill cap*) even though the group of characters that are both "laguz" and "royal" includes just as many characters that don't get formshift, making it more ambiguous than something like the phrase "laguz sovereign" (since the groups "leader of a laguz nation" and "has formshift**" overlap 1:1).

That thought had recently returned to rattle around inside my head, and lead to a followup thought: Lorazieh's main role as a chacater who is alive in present-day Tellius is preventing the player from getting a heron with formshift, though this is mostly an unintentional conicidence, since he's confirmed to be alive in FE9, several real-world years before formshift became a thing in Radiant Dawn.

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it’s june

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Giffca's medal... badge... thingy... has the same design as a shape that's repeated on the edge of Caineghis' robe, which itself is a simplified version of the design found on the sleeves. The design sketches for Caineghis in Tellius Recollection Volume 1 (on page 146) has a diagram of the more complex version found on Caineghis' sleeves, and while it doesn't comment on the symbol itself, it does say that the sketches are from an early point in development.

It's a recurring motif in Caineghis' design (and apparently important enough to be singled out in the artbook), but why is it present on Giffca's?

Giffca's primary role, both in the narrative and in-universe, is acting on Caineghis' behalf. He is Caineghis' envoy, confidant, and shadow, and while we mostly see him act as a mouthpiece for Caineghis, when he speaks in his own words, they carry the same authority that Caineghis' do. People who know Gallia's leading lions (other Gallians and other sovereigns, for instance) are already well aware of this, but what about people who aren't? Giffca would surely have an item to prove his identity, one that represents the authority given to him by Caineghis, right? And perhaps he would wear as a part of his outfit that would immediately catch your eye, like a bright, golden medal that stands in stark contrast to the dark, muted colors of the rest of what he wears.

Gallia already has a crest with a different design, which afaik is only used in-game on the world map. The crest exists in-universe and is used somewhere (because otherwise the developers wouldn't go through the trouble of designing a crest), but the important part here is that because Gallia's crest already exists, the design Caineghis wears must be something else. And since it appears on an item meant to represent his authority (which we're assuming, but is there a better explanation?), I think the 'circle divided into quadrants' design is meant to be Caineghis' personal crest, which would also explain why the artbooks go out of their way to highlight it (and why it was present on both Caineghis and Giffca's designs from as early a point in development as we're aware of).

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a canvas of dragons. I like dragons

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looks like it's the same! thank you for going through the trouble of getting a good photo of it!

if the design is legible in the artbook, would it be possible to get a close-up of the medal/emblem/insignia/whatever that Giffca wears on his chest in his concept art on page 194 of volume 2? the resolution for that part is kinda low on the other scans i could find and it looks like it *might* be different from what it is in his final design

The more you zoom in, the more obvious this is concept art... heh

I tried to adjust the contrast a bit if this helps!

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UNLESS☝️you pay 20 dollars for the third Path! available on nintendo eshop

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I'd love to see Caineghis and Giffca if possible! Definitely looking forward to scans of the weapon art too. Thanks for sharing!

Caineghis is so cool and regal

Giffca is here!

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Found a really old bbs thread about Giffca and they used 影武者 (kagemusha/"shadow warrior") to describe his professional relationship to Caineghis. This has reasonably different connotations than the localization's usage of "shadow" (which, while not entirely inaccurate, could come off as either someone who acts behind the scenes or does shady stuff, or someone who is inseparable and a permanent part of their entourage), where a kagemusha is at their core a political decoy (doing stuff like "I'll sit on the throne while the king goes on important trips so our enemies don't realize our domestic leadership is disrupted" or "I'll pretend to be the king after he passes to give his actual successor time to grow into the role") which is, interestingly enough, the exact opposite of his relationship with Caineghis (Giffca is the one who travels while Caineghis stays at home to prevent a void in leadership).

The games never use 影武者 to describe him, just 影 (kage/"shadow", like in the localization), but since his profile in the first artbook uses 影武者, it seems reasonably likely that 影 is meant to invoke 影武者, especially since the two places where it's used aren't places where his role as an envoy would be highlighted: Caineghis going "hey i know he's still in the room but don't worry about him. we're cool." in Chapter 9 (using shadow because he's not the focus of the conversation) and Ashnard mocking Caineghis for sending Giffca and not fighting him himself (using shadow to mean 'unimportant henchman' rather than 'envoy').

I would be unsurprised if this is where his line about fighting Ashnard as an "impostor [of Caineghis]" comes from (JP uses nisemono, which means the same thing, though I might've picked "fake" in this context instead), since while at no point does Giffca attempt to pose as Caineghis (though he acts in his name, he never claims to be him and they don't even try* to look like each other), a kagemusha in its historical context (warring states period) was an impostor/body double meant to fool one's enemies.

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celica(s)

--> redraw of that one qifrey art

closeup below