#arvis x seliph

[overtsexting]

Hi! I want to ask you since you seem to know well about Fire emblem: is there real, blood-related canon incest? I read Camileo is semi-canon and they're half-siblings, is there someone else?

Yes, actually! Not as much canon bio incest in the more recent games (unless you count… whatever is going on with Rhea, but that’s its own can of worms), but very much so in some of the older games. The most notorious is fe4 (genealogy of the holy war). I’ve only played the beginning of it so my synopses may be a little inaccurate. And i’m putting all this under a cut because i rambled for too long :)

FE4 has:

eldigan and lachesis, where lachesis is stated IN the game to be in love with her brother and love him more than other men. his feelings on the matter are never addressed, but in the official manga, he returns her feelings and they very nearly have sex — the only reason he decides not to is that he knows he’s likely going to die soon and doesn’t want her to live with that sin alone. She has two children eventually, with fathers who are implied to be two specific men, but it seems she never really gets over her brother’s death. there’s a rumor that she was initially meant to be married to him, but the source of it is extremely suspect lol. since timing-wise her first son had to have been conceived sometime pretty close to eldigan’s death, i personally like to think he’s actually eldigan’s son ☺️

arvis and deirdre. this is like… the Plot of the game. arvis is born to a cursed bloodline where iirc they’re only allowed to have one child. deirdre has grown up secluded in a forest, separate from society. at the start of the game she marries sigurd, the protagonist of the first half, and they have a child. but she’s later kidnapped and has her memory wiped, so that she can marry arvis (who was not aware of that happening). they have twins, and then eventually it’s revealed that they are half siblings; the group that kidnapped her did so because of the cursed bloodline, and had her marry arvis with the hopes that their children would have the blood necessary to revive their ancient god. the whole thing is extremely tragic.

seliph and julia. this one’s a bit Less, but seliph is sigurd’s kid with deirdre and julia is arvis’s with deirdre. due to them starting at nearly maximum love points, there’s an exploit that lets you have them get married despite negative growths to their love :)

There’s more too: loooots of cousins you can have get married in the second half, as well as a pair who are kind of heavily implied to be long lost siblings but are “just distant relatives”

there’s also frejya in fire emblem heroes book 4 who only cares for her brother (because he was the only one kind to her as a child) and is jealous that he loves humans. so she decides to try and end humanity. the whole plot is her being a brocon. and in book 6, otr goes to GREAT lengths to prevent his adoptive brother from learning about his true past (that he came from another world where he has a family iirc) because he doesn’t want his brother to leave him.

not to mention in fates, corrin can marry all of the royal siblings. four of whom (xander, camilla, leo, elise) they grew up alongside and believed were their biological siblings until the start of the game. I think all four of them believed corrin was their bio sibling too, but that’s never made 100% clear. At the start, corrin learns they were kidnapped and are actually a half sibling of the hoshidan royal family (ryoma, hinoka, takumi, sakura) and that their real mother is the others’ stepmother. but corrin can also marry those 4. Turns out their father ISN’T corrin’s father, but only one of the routes actually talks about this in the plot. In the other route where these characters are an option, corrin does not know unless you choose to marry them. Ryoma has always known, but was told not to share that information with you, while the other three find out at the same time as corrin (from a letter from their late step mother). Basically, corrin can marry any of their adopted siblings OR step siblings, all of whom they thought for an extended period of time were bio siblings.

they play the “it’s pseudo incest so it’s ok” card but all of these S-supports involve some level of “i wish we were actually related” or “it’s ok, we can make it work…. wait we’re not related??” AND they generally still refer to you as their sibling after marriage, so it’s pretttttty incesty. tbh this is the best non-modded marriage for leo imo, all his s supports with women besides corrin feel so awkward and stilted and fake. he’s a siscon through and through <3 Then of course the other most prominent character, Azura, whom a lot of people marry just to avoid the incest, is revealed in the third route to be corrin’s first cousin.

so: yes, lots of canon incest :) there’s definitely more that i’ve missed

[emblemxeno]

Not really a twinlear ask, but that discourse kind of have me worried for a FE 4 remake. If people react like that to alternate siblings making out because they ain't really related, then how do we survive Arvis x Deidre and the kids from there ? And also, the Seliph x Julia thing even if it's only through a glitch that they can get married ? Plus there is so many canon ships in there, I am worried. Are we truly ready to face another discourse ?

People I think are gonna have to learn to deal with it, haha. Fundamentally, you can't change Arvis and Deirdre's situation due to how holy blood works. And it's not like it'll be treated as a good thing, either, so there might be a little uproar here and there but nothing major.

Honestly, what's probably gonna set off people more is the fact that Deirdre and Julia don't hold grudges against Arvis despite his relative complicity in their situation. Given that people still think every Faerghus dad should burn in hell because of lesser 'crimes'... blegh.

[louvay]

amomg folks with canonical partners (including arvis x aida), who likely can be murdered by his wife and what for 😈

Iirc I believe she’s engaged to him but I can see Linoan murdering Arion since they’re on opposite sides of the war and Linoan could stay with Leif’s army to join Seliph’s invasion of South Thracia in order to liberate Tahra. It’s an interesting idea for a fic with these two and it would be interesting seeing her reaction to Arion’s stubbornness in Chp 9 of Fe4.

Now I would call this a murder because Arion is woefully weak to magic and Linoan is a Sage which in both Fe4 & 5 is pretty busted.

[randomnameless]

A mon avis le coup de Nel et Rafal était surement un clin d'oeil aux fait que FE adore nous faire le coup de la fausse inceste qui n'est pas de l'inceste a cause de tel explication farfelues et canon. Donc oui c'est encore des S support trolls. Probablement pour nous préparer pour Genealogy of the Holy incest parce que la, y'aura pas de multivers pour annuler l'inceste dans le canon et pour épargner ceux qui n'aiment pas ca et veulent marier leur avatar avec oneechan. Mais bon, il n'y aura pas d'avatar non plus.

" Techniquement c'est pas de l'inceste, mais la simple possibilité que ce ship se réalise joue sur ce genre de fantasmes ?" comme pour Corrin x Royal et Byleth/Rhea. Je voyais déja des tonne de commentaires sur youtube expliqué que il n'y avaut techniquement pas d'inceste parce que ceci et cela. Enfin, ils devraient se reposer, le jeu est clair la dessus. Après Fates où les ships les plus populaires étaient Corrin avec sa famille adoptive et ses step siblings, la fe fandom a vu pire.

Le plus drôle dans tout ça c'est que Veyle n'est même pas romantique parce qu'ils étaient a cours d'excuse. Mais le coup du multivers, alors là! Ils s'appellent pas Intelligent system pour rien !

Je groupe le tout parce que je suis une feignasse -

J'espère que dans le remake Jugdral, s'il voit le jour, il n'y aura pas d'avatar parce que ça ne peut pas le faire sans casser le truc, le messie c'est Seliph, et la falchion (le vrai messie) c'est Julia.

Mettre un nouvel avatar "en fait je suis god reborn et un major naga en plus si jamais julia meure je peux sauver le jeu à moi tout seul" ça me ferait sérieusement reconsidérer un futur achat...

L'inceste Arvis/Deedee de Jugdral c'est le truc qui amène Julius, l'antichrist - présenté comme tel - et puis Julia, ben tout le monde s'en fout. C'est pas censé être dépeint comme quelque chose de bien, je ne sais pas si le glitch était fait exprès, mais Julia a un love growth négatif envers Seliph - la 2nde gen étant censée corriger les boulettes de la première, Seliph ne peut pas finir avec sa soeur.

Après il y a les incestes entre cousins - mais si je me souviens bien, au Japon ce n'est pas considéré comme de l'inceste? Je sais que ce qui est considéré comme "incestueux" a changé avec le temps, mais mis à part les délurés de Twitter qui sont, ben, délurés et sortent du "oui mais dimitri et claude ils sont parents éloignés au 576 256 452ème degré du coup le pairing est incestueux", je ne pense pas que ça fera bcp jaser, sauf les personnes un peu trop ethnocentrées mais au bout d'un moment, ces personnes font chier.

Et au final, on en revient aux shipwars, et franchement, c'est d'un ennui, oui on peut ne pas aimer des ships pour des raisons X ou Y, mais mis à part le Ares/Nanna de FE4 assez, euh, borderline sur ce sujet, aucun FE n'est en mode "je vais me marier avec mon frère/cousin parce qu'on est de la même famille oh oh oh c'est rigolo" pour surfer sur ce fantasme.

Les devs surfent peut-être dessus, mais les persos ne sont pas écrits que pour ça, si Larcei admire Shanan, ce n'est pas parce que c'est son cousin, mais parce qu'il est super fort et badass à l'épée.

J'imagine le gars chargé de screener les retours des jeux sur Twitter annoncer aux développeurs "hey les gars vous vous souvenez du petit pairing Alear et Veyle qu'on a voulu faire? Et Jean-Marc avait misé 40 euros sur la fanbase américaine être en pls parce que S support pour eux ça veut dire "marriage" et ils hurlent à l'inceste? Ben Jean-Marc a gagné!"

"Vas y on essaie de refaire la même, mais cette fois-ci avec une demi-soeur d'un univers alternatif, mais dans cet univers alternatif elle est même pas la demi-soeur, elle est la fille du mec qui n'est pas le père du héros dans cet univers alternatif - je mise 50 balles sur une controverse Twitter-"

"Bordel t'as encore gagné!"

"Les gars on fait un remake de Jugdral?"

[archer3-13]

honestly the main reason why the twinlear shipped would sail depsite critics is : self insert or genuinely liking the twins relationship with Alear so, it's really not worth fighting over. (plus actual incest shipper are a rare kind among the FE community and by that I don't mean our habitual pseudo incest but ACTUAL one such as Seliph x Julia or Arvis x Deidre)

its more popular then ya might think [though perhaps not those specific ships], but your right that its not the dominant shipping behavior when it comes to the fe fandom.

although, ive noticed selfcest is weirdly more common in fe fandom then i've seen elsewhere.

[fire-emblem-heroes-supports]

Arvis/Seliph C-A Support

Written by  animenutcase

CONTENT WARNING: Arvis’s marriage to Deirdre (his half-sister) isn’t going to be explored in-depth, but the subject is going to come up a couple times.

C SUPPORT

Seliph: Duke Arvis of Velthomer.

Arvis: …Can I help you? Seliph: I wanted to ask you something. Arvis: That’s fine, but we need to prepare for the next battle. Seliph: You wanted to unite Jugdral as one, correct? Arvis: Yes. My goal is to create a more equitable world, one without discrimination. Seliph: A noble goal. Then, may I ask why you killed my father? Arvis: …I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t know who your father is. I don’t even know who you are. Seliph: I think you do. Arvis: My apologies, but I’m afraid I don’t. Seliph: Then why aren’t you looking me in the eye? Arvis: …! Seliph: I was told that my face resembles that of my mother, Deirdre of the Spirit Forest. It’s also my understanding that she was the wife of Emperor Arvis of Grannvale… in other words, you. Arvis: So it’s true, then. I could theoretically have pretended that Sigurd had been trying to trick me when he saw her at Belhalla, but this… You look too much like her for it to be coincidence. Arvis: Heh. Of course you do. Deirdre looked too much like… Seliph: Like your mother. Arvis: How- Seliph: Given how the Loptyr Sect was nearly hunted to extinction, it’s not that hard to guess that there was some foul play involved in Julius becoming Loptyr’s vessel. Lewyn only suggested it as a theory, but I think it’s true. He had some spies in Velthomer who distinctly remember a portrait of Lady Cigyun. Arvis: Tch! Seliph: I’m not going to force you to talk about it, but I will want some answers eventually. Good day to you, Duke Arvis. [Seliph leaves.] Arvis: He really does look like her... [Arvis and Seliph have reached support rank C.]

B SUPPORT

Seliph: Why don’t you tell me about Lady Cigyun, Duke Arvis? Arvis: You just dive right in, don’t you? You’re more like your father than I thought. Seliph: I’m just curious about the sort of woman my grandmother was. Oifey told me about Sir Vylon, but he never knew my father’s mother, so I can’t ask about her. I’d like to ask about Prince Kurth, too. Arvis: Prince Kurth was a kind and wise man. My mother always looked happier when he visited than she did with my father. Of course, Father also seemed to prefer the company of women besides his wife. Seliph: Duke Victor was rather infamous. I’d heard a few stories about him, as well. Arvis: How unfortunate for you. My father was a blight on the House of Velthomer, and his death was one of the few good things that came out of the mess with Prince Kurth. Seliph: Was your brother another of them? Arvis: You know about Azelle? Is he alive!? Where is he!? Seliph: I-I don’t know. I only know what I’d heard from Oifey, Shannan and Lady Edain, and none of them knew what happened to him! Arvis: I see. I apologize for grabbing your shoulders. Seliph: No, it’s my fault for bringing up a sore subject. Arvis: And yet you brought up my mother. Seliph: I… apologize. Arvis: Don’t apologize. It was a joke. Seliph: (It didn’t sound like a joke…) Arvis: As for my mother… I’d always loved her long, silver hair. I remember it tickling my face whenever she hugged me. Come to think of it, Deirdre’s silver hair was the first thing I noticed about her as well. It was a rather unusual color. In hindsight, I should have been more suspicious. Seliph: I’d… I’d prefer it if we kept the subject on Lady Cigyun, please. Arvis: Of course. My mother was a timid woman, but she was capable of standing up when she needed to. When Father tried to have Azelle’s mother banished, she argued that she should be allowed to stay. Seliph: Wow. Arvis: At the same time, trying to keep Velthomer stable and keep Father in check took its toll on her. I can count the number of times I saw her smiling in the days before she left on one hand. Seliph: It sounds like things were already starting to go bad even before the war with Isaach. Arvis: You may be right. That’s part of the reason I became as ambitious as I did. My mother swore me to secrecy the night she told me of her Maera blood. If anyone learned of it, we’d doubtlessly be burned at the stake. I couldn’t condemn her for fleeing Velthomer, especially after I learned the truth of why she did so. Seliph: … Seliph: When exactly did you learn the truth, Duke Arvis? Arvis: …It was shortly after the Battle of Belhalla. I had done some digging and learned that around the time Sigurd set out for Verdane, a woman matching Deirdre’s description had been seen near the Spirit Forest where my mother came from. That was where I learned the truth. At that point, however, it was too late. When I returned to Belhalla, Deirdre broke the news that she was pregnant. At that point, all I could do was pray that neither of the twins inherited our Maera blood. Seliph: Do you… remember finding out? Arvis: I spent every day praying that the mark on his forehead was just a birthmark. The day it became clear that it wasn’t was the worst day of my life. Deirdre went to check on the children, but then there was a commotion in the twins’ room. I rushed there, but when I arrived, Deirdre was lying on the ground and Julius had turned into… something I couldn’t recognize. And Julia was… gone. Seliph: Duke Arvis… Arvis: I don’t know anything beyond that. If Julia is alive, then Deirdre’s sacrifice at least meant something. Please, tell me! Seliph: She-she was alive last I saw her! But… she vanished in Miletos. We think she might have been abducted by Manfroy. Arvis: …I knew I should have killed him when I had the chance. Seliph: Duke Arvis, you’re getting angry. I think we should table this discussion for now. I’ll be happy to tell you about Julia later, but please try to calm down. Arvis: Very well, then. [Arvis and Seliph have reached support rank B.]

A SUPPORT

Seliph: Do you feel better, Duke Arvis? Arvis: Yes, thank you. Seliph: I met Julia right after we began our liberation of Isaach. She was rather quiet, but I felt drawn to her. Even if Lewyn hadn’t asked me to look after her, I think I would have done so anyway.

Arvis: How did she look? Did she seem healthy, like she was eating enough? Seliph: Heh, she looked fine. She seemed a bit shy about eating at dinner, but I think that’s because she didn’t know us very well, and it didn’t take long before she got used to us. Arvis: Good. Seliph: She’d lost her memories, however. Lewyn said that when he found her, the only thing she could remember was her name, and only because the words “Julia, you must live” were ringing in her head. Arvis: …! I-I see. Seliph: I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you more. Arvis: You’ve… told me enough. You could have lied to me or refused to tell me anything, but you were honest. I’m grateful for that. Seliph: Duke Arvis, how much do you remember of the future? Arvis: Like I said, my memories only go up to the night of Deirdre’s death. Why? Seliph: … Arvis: …You killed me. Seliph: I- Arvis: Don’t. I’m not angry. Your father was an innocent pawn in my schemes. I don’t have a right to condemn you for avenging him. I merely want to ask how you did so. Seliph: I… We rescued some children that had been taken in the child hunts when- Arvis: Child hunts!? By the Lopytr Sect!? Seliph: Y-Yes. The Bishop protecting them was from Chalphy, and he gave me the Tyrfing. He wouldn’t say where he got it, though. Arvis: He didn’t say? Seliph: It’s strange. People were saying that my father wielded it at the Battle of Belhalla, so I’m not sure how it got into his hands. The only person who could have had it after my father’s death is the king, and after King Azmur died, it would have passed into the hands of the… next king. Arvis: … Seliph: It was you. You sent the Tyrfing out with him. You were the one who let the children go. Arvis: I should hope so. The very fact that the child hunts were happening under my watch tells me that something went very wrong under my rule! Seliph: You really don’t know, do you? Arvis: Tell me what happened in the future after Deirdre’s death. I want to know every detail of what the Grannvale Empire was up to. Seliph: You’re not going to like it. […] Arvis: Hah. Hahaha! Seliph: Duke Arvis? Arvis: Oh, this is rich! You mean to tell me that everything I’ve ever worked for, every sacrifice I’ve ever made, has been for nothing!? Seliph: … Arvis: I wonder if I’ve been cursed. I don’t know if my brother is dead or alive, I’ve married my own sister, my son is going to turn into a monster, and my daughter is going to lose her memories and be raised on the run, and now you’re telling me that I’ve even failed to create the world I dreamed of!? Seliph: I-I’m... sorry. Arvis: As long as I put an end to discrimination and inequality, I could understand. Sacrifices need to be made for society to advance, and my own happiness is no exception to that. But it was all for nothing!? Arvis: Heh. I wonder if this is a curse from your father. Seliph: No, I don’t think my father resents you. Arvis: What? Seliph: After I killed you, I felt… empty. I went to the cliffs near Chalphy and held up the sword, telling my father that I’d avenged him, and… I saw my parents. Arvis: What!? Seliph: My mother said that Lewyn had done a good job with me, then asked about Julius and Julia. But my father… scolded me. He told me that I needed to know the suffering of the common people. I don’t think he agreed with your actions, but… I think he understood why you did what you did. Arvis: … Seliph: This has been an… interesting talk. I feel like I’ve gotten to know you better. Arvis: … Seliph: I understand if you don’t want to speak any more. I know you have a lot to think about. Good night, Uncle. [Seliph leaves.] Arvis: Idiots, both of them… [Arvis and Seliph have reached support rank A.]

[fire-emblem-drabbles]

Master List: Genealogy and Thracia 776

Arvis: Demon; trapped in a candle, the summoner and Arvis are pinning for one another so hard it hurts, I want something I’m not sure I deserve to have,

Ayra: Ayra teaches her disaster summoner s/o how to wield a sword,

Eldigan: “I’ll make you crave me as much as I do you.”,

Julius: Slyph Julius; reader is an idiot who just steps into fairy circles and gives their name out,

Quan: Centuar; the reader is scared of horses, “If you could be with me, would you?”,

Reinhardt: the summoner talks in their sleep... but Reinhardt thinks its cute, the summoner asks Reinhardt to teach them how to ride a horse in order to get close to him, I had a dream where Reinhardt gave me headpats so I wrote about it,

Seliph: Pretty Little Words, “I love you so much, you’re all I ever think about.”, “Your heart is safe with me.”, Billet-Deux, “The world doesn’t deserve an angel like you.”,

[loppy132]

My Special team who finally have a good quality time together.... I manage to finish the last stage of the Tap Dance 

Note: The others are from the Casual stage

(Please click The images for the caption for my different teams)

What are my teams doing, during their Time in the Hot springs? Let’s find out? (Warning: There are offensive language and Out of character personality from different heroes and also Implied Sexual scene)

1.) Team Howling Moon Chrom With Robbie: 

Chrom: “You’re Beautiful” Robbie: “Chrom....I-”

With Clarine and Lucina Clarine: “Hey Lucy does your dad love your mom very much?” Lucina: “Of course... Except my mother has mental issues of getting an emotional breakdown whenever her tactical skills had failed her...” Clarine: “Oh”

2.) Team Astral Ocean

Cor with Azura: 

Meanwhile with Genny and Shigure Genny (☺️): “Aww it so romantic just like in my fairytale stories” Shigure (😌): “....Mother....Father...Thank you  You've helped create a future for everyone to enjoy”

3.) Team DragonHeart

Eliwood With Ninian:

Eliwood: “Promise me Ninian....Promise me that I will spend more time with you like this for all eternity” Ninian: *Nods* “Yes... Yes I would, Lord Eliwood”

Meanwhile with Catria and Roy Catria(😌): “Lord Eliwood really does Love Ninian so much” Roy (🙂): “Yeah, My father misses her so much...”

4.) Team Mother Cryst

Sigurd With Deirdre:

Sigurd: “...Deirdre...” 

*Hugs her bare form and rested his head on her bosom*

Deirdre: “...Sigurd...”

*Wraps her arms around his back and Neck*

Meanwhile with Mae and Priscilla Mae: 

“OH MY, MILA GOD”

Priscilla: 

“Are they gonna do it?”

5.) Team Fairy Sylph

Ephraim and Julia:

Fae: 

Beruka( 😑) : “Oh gods” *Covers Fae’s eyes completely*

6.) The Tactician Team...

Rob and Cordelia:

Rob (🙂): “So how’s our Daughter, Cordelia” Cordelia (😊): “Our Daughter has a Hoshidan boyfriend” Rob (😕): “Oh really?”

Nearby from them:

Soren and Katarina:

Katarina (☺️): “Your Mom loves you”

Soren (😕): “Really?”

7.) Team Satanael: 

Arvis With Celica:

Celica: “Lord Arvis... Are you...alright?” Arvis: “...Lady Celica...”

Meanwhile with Myrrh and Camilla...

Myrrh: “Miss Camilla is Big sister Celica in Love with Arvis?” Camilla: “I hope so” *giggles*

8.) Team Engine Tech

Seliph with Caeda:

Caeda: “May I Join in Seliph?” Seliph: “Uh...Sure?” Meanwhile towards Clair and Sophia Clair: (😠): *With her Silver Lance*

Sophia: (😨) “Uh Clair... you don’t need to-” 9.) Team Oriental sun Corrine with Nino:

Corrine: “For you see Nino, Hoshidan people had a lot of hotsprings we called it Onsen” Nino: “Wow did you do those?” Corrine: “Yeah, We also have some in Nohr but they rather call it hot springs than Onsens” Nino: “Oh”

Meanwhile with Palla and Karel Karel (😏): *Smirks to Palla* “Lesbians” Palla (🤬): “Naga Dammit Karel”

Palla Towards Karel:

10.) Team Feline Eyes: Mathilda and Clive Mathilda: “You Two behave yourselves while me and Clive will have our time to ourselves...” Clive: “Indeed Mathilda...Indeed”

*Faces towards Mathilda*

Mathilda: “...Oh Clive...” Clive: “...Mathilda...Beautiful...” Sakura (Neko form): “Ok then Lady Mathilda, Meow” Navarre: (🤦‍♀️) “Oh Gods I’m not a kid”

[moved-to-sideblog]

Snowball Fight (Arvis X Gunnthrá)

For the lovely @shauni-will-never-write . Because of her, I'm stuck in this rarepair hell and I'm not complaining. I've never written Arvis before so I just hope I'll get him right after some research... I'm on mobile, so I have no clue how to put under a read more. Just a heads up.

___

Snow had never been a top priority of Arvis. It was cold, damp and always managed to seep into your clothes. In some ways, it was as difficult as sand everywhere. He was mostly indifferent to it, though. So when Askr was given a red weather warning for snowfall, and the next morning you could hear Sharena squealing with delight at the wonderland outside, he just ignored.

Gunnthrá on the other hand... she was from Nifl. It was always cold and snowy there. She had spent her whole life in the snow. She and her sisters had played together so many times... it was those memories that kept her from pure misery these days. Knowing she can get those days back was part of her motivation.

Today, however, she realised she can still have those kinds of days. With her new family members.

"Arvis? Did you see the snow outside?" the princess smiled.

"Hm?" the redhead looked up from a book he was reading. "The snow... oh... yes, I did..."

"And what do you think?"

"... I..."

"Have you ever been in snow before?"

"It snowed where I am from... but not very often. And when it did, it wasn't there for long..." Arvis cleared his throat.

A twinkle of an idea came into Gunnthrá's ice blue eyes.

"Arvis, can you come with me for a moment?" she gave another one of her smiles.

"Of course... do you need something, dear?" Arvis's expression softened.

"I just want to show you something." Gunnthrá replied.

_

The two stepped outside into the snowy air. Arvis was wearing the appropiate wear for outside, but Gunnthrá was all too used to cold, completely unaffected by the icy blades against their cheeks.

"What do you need to show me?" Arvis glanced at his wife. She was always so beautiful in this weather...

He was met with a snowball to the face.

Gunnthrá had dashed a few feet away, and was now giggling at her mischief.

"... Gunnthrá, why are we-" the emperor shielded his face from another snowball. "Enough! I don't have time for this!" he growled in irritation. Such childish behaviour was a waste...

But then something made him turn around again.

Julia was talking to Gunnthrá. The young girl was wrapped up as well. She said something like she was taking a walk, as they never got snow like this before.

Then Julia ran a few feet from Gunnthrá, and launched a snowball at her. Gunnthrá laughed as it hit her shoulder, and threw one back at Julia, who squealed in delight.

Of course. They never got snow like this in their world.

Arvis sighed briefly. He thought over what to do when another ball of powder hit him in the back of the neck. Julia's hand flung to her mouth.

Then a peculiar thing happened.

"All right... if you're so set on me joining..." he rolled up snow in his hand, and aimed at Gunnthrá. "I will spare you both no mercy!!" he laughed and threw. Gunnthrá yiped and threw one back. Suddenly it erupted into a full-on snowball fight. For the first time in years, Arvis had proper fun, he laughed the hardest he had in a while. They were like a normal family. Except missing one person.

"Seliph! Seliph!" Julia suddenly ran inside the castle. She didn't know how her brother would feel about Arvis, but she wanted him to join.

Arvis turned all of his attention to Gunnthrá.

"How splendid. The one person who started this." a wicked grin spread across his face. Gunnthrá ran for it, being pelted as she went. She was enjoying herself, though.

Arvis was having the time of his life.

He was suddenly met by an icy wind. Gunnthrá's Blizzard blew him back a little, leaving snow among his fiery hair.

"Oh, so we're playing street rules, are we?" Arvis's grin became a smirk. He looked up at the tree Gunnthrá was under, and gave it a kick. The princess barely had time to process her confusion when a pile of snow fell on her head. She giggled and tackled her husband, and they both fell in the snow. Arvis planted a kiss on her head.

"Julia, I really don't know what you're..." Seliph blinked at the scene. Arvis was laughing like mad, with Gunnthrá in his arms.

"Maybe we can take them on, round two. Kids vs adults!" Julia clapped excitedly. Seliph couldn't help stare at her. She was normally so quiet and spacey... must have been the adrenaline. He was unsure what he should do. On one hand, it was harmless fun. On the other hand, it was Arvis.

Then Seliph thought about how it was Arvis. This Arvis... he had not met his fate yet. Seliph had not killed him in his timeline. It was only a matter of time before the emperor went back to his own timeline, and to his death. It was quite tragic, really. He was happy here with Gunnthrá. Julia pined for the day her twin could join them. She often said that her brother was kind and caring. Seliph had felt mild confusion, as the Julius in his timeline had been cruel. Perhaps he would solve these mysteries one day, and maybe with the help of this Order of Heroes.

But for now, he had to brush off the snow that had just impacted his face.

Julia had a pleading look and another snowball in her hand. Seliph sighed and smiled. "Alright, I'm in."

Gunnthrá and Arvis watched the two children enjoy themselves, sitting in the snow. Gunnthrá's hand met Arvis's. His hands were always so warm...

"Thank you, Gunnthrá. You truly are a blessing to me." Arvis smiled at the princess and kissed her.

___

Whoo... I did it. Once again, this is for Shauni. Thanks for giving me this ship, I really like it!! If only Julius could be in Heroes, he could come home and they can have a happy family in Nifl and Seliph or Sigurd could rule the empire of Grannvale... if you're reading this, thank you and I hope you enjoyed!

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

I thought about it more in depth and I think I understand now why 3H feels odd in how many routes shaft X # of Lords yet the plot accepts it as fine. In looking at previous FE games, there was always a set Lord but also leaders from other nations. Over the plot, they come together to work towards a shared goal of stopping the red emperor archetype + the evil cult/big bad. Think how Eirika and Ephraim join with Innes, Tana, Joshua and La'Rachel. Leaders of different nations come together (1)

Think about how Seliph joins with people from all over Jugdral to defeat Arvis, Manfroy and Julius. Think how Minerva clashed with her own brother to join Marth to seek peace for the continent. In Elibe, people of all nations come together too. This same process happens in almost every FE game. However, 3H is a weird exception. You can recruit Lions, Eagles and Deer but the main Lords are route locked and thus barely work together. Even tho they should in AM, VW and SS, since common enemy (2) The fact that chapter 19 of AM when Dimitri saved Claude and Derdriu is the ONLY example of 2 Lords actually working together directly in any route of 3H feels odd. Because why couldn't they just join their forces immediately once the time skip starts to give both armies the best chance of defeating the Empire? They already work with the church anyway; why not combine to form a 3 part army of Kingdom, Alliance and church? It just feels so contrived to keep them apart vs making them allies (3)

I'm just going to blindly trust you about the Altea and Elibe stuff, but even in Radiant Dawn (current FE game rotting my brain) it's a whole thing that the Laguz Alliance has now formed (leaders of their own tribes coming together for the sake of beating a mutual enemy). Based on what you're saying, it's not novel that factions work together as one unit. At all.

To your point: The Kingdom and Alliance have complementary resources; Leicester with agriculture and Faerghus with military, while both lack in what the other has. They are quite literally primed to work together, and both have canonically bitchy checkpoints between themselves and the Empire: Myrddin and Arianrhod. An alliance with the Kingdom would make it easier to defend Myrddin instead of allowing Gloucester to declare loyalty to the Empire to keep Leicester from being trampled. Add the church's forces (who seem to be willing to throw their weight behind anyone willing to search for Rhea, which Claude canonically does), and you have a pretty solid military to keep the Empire from somehow managing to make a fool of Leicester. If you throw in a partnership with the church you even get Garreg Mach as a middle point instead of Ailell.

Anyway. In my eyes, the reason they maintain such firm distinctions between the factions is because there's supposed to be friction between the fans that choose one over the rest. I really, sincerely hope that FE gets past this phase of creating different routes under the illusion of replayability (because . . . uh, White Clouds four times, or three if you were smart before The Choice in BE-WC, is not that great) and in the name of creating division, and thus engagement, amongst the fans, because it's . . . sigh. It's illogical, that people getting trampled to hell by the Empire would not ally against that Empire when they have the luxury of doing so. We literally got so close to it too, in The Golden Deer's Plea.

[inkycompass]

Evil Punnett Squares

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War is a game where the villains' plot is an evil Punnett square.

Let me explain.

In the fantasy genre, mystical traits that are inherited through generations are often referred to as "blood of the thing" or "the blood" of this or that mystical lineage. Sins carried in the blood, powers carried in the blood... this can even refer to ordinary attributes, like one's facial features or eye color demonstrating their, e.g., "royal blood" -- essentially, some kind of heritable trait. Unless specific circulatory system components are referred to, we can usually understand "blood" as a synonym for "DNA" in fantasy.

In Genealogy, a major plot and gameplay element is "Holy blood". In the backstory, thirteen dragons forged a pact with thirteen human warriors, imbuing them with mystical powers: Holy blood. (Or, in Loptous' case, Unholy.) The descendants of these warriors, whatever their moral alignment, inherit these powers to either a great or lesser degree, which is called Major blood and Minor blood.

Given the way Holy "blood" is inherited, it's not a stretch to understand it as a set of thirteen mystical alleles. In Mendelian genetics, alleles are designated as dominant (R) and recessive (r), with any carriers of the dominant allele expressing the dominant trait. These perceptible traits are called phenotypes--so Holy blood inheritors have Major or Minor phenotype. In most cases, rare traits are carried on the recessive allele, so rare phenotypes are usually assumed to be homozygous recessive (rr), because the dominant allele masks the expression of recessives in heterozygotes (Rr).

The villains' plot hinges on finding two carriers of Major Loptous and coercing them to have children, which will allow the evil dragon Loptous to use that child as a vessel. So how does this work, genetically?

In each generation, there is usually one person carrying Major blood. This person will always pass on Major blood to one of their children, but everyone else will have Minor blood. Sometimes, even direct relatives may not have any perceptible Holy blood. The way this makes the most sense is if the Major Blood trait is carried on the recessive allele. So with Loptous blood, the dominant allele (L) confers minor blood in the LL genotype, and also the heterozygous Ll genotype. To be Major Loptous, a person would need to be homozygous recessive: ll. That means that two Loptous heterozygotes have a chance of producing a Major Loptous child. Although it is taboo for two Minor Blood characters to marry, the Loptrians don't care about that. They succeed in getting control of a pair of half-siblings with Minor Loptous blood (Arvis and Deirdre) and coercing them to have children through blackmail and magical trickery.

The result is twins--Julius has Major Loptous blood, and Loptous takes control of him accordingly. But Julia's Holy Blood wheel is missing that center circle--she does not exhibit Major OR Minor Loptous traits. If we're going to cast Holy blood as a matter of Mendelian genetics, how can she not have any Loptous blood?

The answer lies in the fact that Deirdre, in addition to her Minor Loptous, had Major Naga blood. We'll call the Naga alleles N and n.

Let's do a dihybrid cross.

This Punnett square is a little complicated. Arvis' full genotype is Llff (Minor Loptous, Major Fjalar). Deirdre's is Llnn (Minor Loptous, Major Naga). Their children therefore receive three sets of Holy blood alleles: Fjalar from Arvis, Naga from Deirdre, and Loptous from both. Arvis passes a Fjalar allele to both children, which makes sense if he is a homozygote. But the twins are each missing something they should have. Julius has no Naga blood, despite the fact that Deirdre must have given him an n allele. Likewise, Julia has no Loptous. Why are the twins missing two bloodlines that they must have inherited?

I'll dip back into Genealogy lore to explain this. Naga is the dragon of the holy element--in fact, in any Fire Emblem game set in this continuity, Naga is THE Holy Dragon who opposes whatever dark dragon is oppressing humanity this week. Naga's tome has a critical advantage when wielded against Loptous'. It stands to reason that the Naga allele would have a similar effect on the Loptous allele.

Because Deirdre was heterozygous for Loptous, with copies of the Major and Minor allele, her double n allele was not able to totally mask them and she showed a Minor Loptous phenotype. If Julia was a heterozygote, this would be the case for her as well. But if she is homozygous dominant (LL), even a single allele for Major Naga (n) can mask the Minor Loptous phenotype. To Jugdrali understanding, it appears that she does not have any "Loptous blood" at all.

Julius' single copy of n, however, cannot mask the double l in his genotype--in fact, the double recessive overwhelms the single recessive Naga allele, leaving him without the Naga phenotype at all. (Just as Julia wielding Naga always beats Julius wielding Loptous, but two Juliuses at once could overwhelm her.) The strength of the two opposing alleles also partly masks the effect of the Fjalar allele--so although both children have a copy of the recessive gene, its expression is indistinguishable from the expression of Minor blood.

But having seen a cross where there are only single copies of alleles in the potential offspring, this makes difficulties when predicting genotypes for the F1 generation (that is, the Generation 2 children). In Punnett square exercises, even dihybrid crosses, it's assumed that you're getting the same type of alleles with any set of parents. This is not the case for Holy blood, where you have a dozen alleles all being crossed together. Thus, the F1 generation are mostly hemizygotes--individuals with only one copy of a certain allele. How could each generation have Major phenotypes when most parental crosses can only donate one Holy allele?

It's important, then, to note two things. Dominant and recessive alleles may not be dominant or recessive to alleles of other types, so the Holy blood alleles may have different effects on each other than they do with themselves. The second thing is that this is mystical dragon DNA, conferred to human carriers with a very deliberate intent, and as such it will sometimes behave in odd ways.

Let's see how this plays out with Quan and Ethlyn's children. Quan has the Major Njorun phenotype, so we'll assume him to be homozygous recessive (nj nj). Ethlyn is Minor Baldr. We'll assume her to be homozygous dominant (BrBr).

Leif and Altena have identical genotypes, but different phenotypes. Within chromosomes, some alleles can mask--partly or fully--related alleles. When we're dealing with mystical alleles, it's plausible that alleles could interact with each other across individuals--that as the elder child, Altena's copy of nj is suppressing the Major phenotype in anyone else with a single copy of nj born in her generation. (This would also guard against loads of Major-phenotype children brawling with each other over Holy weapons and inheritance.)

We can also assume that singular copies of an allele have, say, a 50% chance to be expressed once the first scion is born. Brigid and Edain are identical twins with Major and Minor Ullur, respectively. Assuming Lord Ring was uu, and both his wives lacked U or u (we will call this lack of allele z), their half-brother Andrey should also carry u. But he lacks the Minor phenotype. Therefore, the u he is carrying simply does not express itself phenotypically. We will say that there is a 50% chance of a single allele expressing a phenotype.

We're not done yet. What about crosses with parents who lack Holy blood, and crosses where both have the same Holy blood?

Let's start with Brigid. We already established that Brigid must be a hemizygote for u. If she is paired with Jamke, who has no Holy blood, their first child--Febail--always has the Major phenotype, because the dragons who blessed the Crusadors wanted those lines to have the full force of that blessing. Their subsequent children have a 50% chance of having no Holy blood. Patty always does, because of gameplay mechanics, but if you want to get more complex, you could say that Holy alleles always shows up in the first TWO scions, and reverts to normal Mendelian probability after that. The same applies to Edain's children, but hers will never have the Major phenotype due to cross-individual allele masking from Febail.

(Note that while Jamke's genotype is labeled as zz, this is not a real allele, just a placeholder denoting his lack of one.)

Incidentally, this also would apply to Seliph. Deirdre must have given him one Loptous allele, but it is being fully masked by her Naga allele; like Julia, he does not have any Loptrian traits. He is also a hemizygote for Major Baldr (br) and expresses the Major phenotype. In a cross between Seliph and Tine (a Thrud hemizygote, T), their children have the potential genotypes of brT, nT, lT--a 1/3 chance of Loptous. However, because Seliph is also the inheritor of Major Baldr, his br allele will likely be the one that appears in his children thanks to magic DNA sorting. So his children are safe. Julia's Naga allele will also insist on appearing in the genotype of her potential children.

Cross-individual genetic influence can, however, be overridden if you cross two parents who are heterozygous for the same Holy blood. The game tells us with a big ol' wink that you're definitely not supposed to do that because it's big taboo, but if you do, you'll get kids with Major blood. And there are two crosses you can do for this within your army: Ayra x Chulainn and Silvia x Claud. Both pairings are distant cousins.

Assuming both are heterozygous for Od, that gives a 25% chance of an oo child. Although Shannan's two copies of o could mask a single copy in someone else, they cannot mask another double o--so even though Shannan is the Major Od homozygote in Generation 2, Larcei and Scathach are both able to become Major homozygotes as well through luck.

With the potential for children with one copy of the allele to be Major, Minor, or Neither, this also introduces the prospect that Holy blood alleles could be lost. We have two ways to handle this. One is to say that Holy blood alleles, being mystical, always end up in any offspring--so even if Febail has eight children with a non-carrier mother, all of them will have u in their genome. The other is to say that maybe that is just what happens sometimes. All Holy blood families are nobility of one rank or another, and they would simply add "Holy blood" to their matchmaking considerations alongside money, titles, and land. (There is also likely some amount of cheating going on with the "no marriages between the same type of Holy blood". Not enough to produce lots of Major children, but enough marriages between cousins to ensure that there are heterozygotes around to keep the Major and Minor alleles at a pretty high frequency within the family.)

The upheaval caused by the twenty-year Holy War scattered many scions of Holy blood all around the continent, and many subsequently married without regard to maintaining the Holy lineage. Under these circumstances, those rare alleles would eventually be lost through natural causes. Although Naga's alleles still exist by the time of Chrom, Naga has made multiple interventions into human affairs, and her assistance to Ylisse's first Exalt likely took the same form as her blessing to Heim, the progenitor of Jugdral's line of Naga blood.

So there we have it, a Mendelian explanation of how the inheritance of magic dragon traits works in a video game from 1996, thank you for reading it if you got this far.

[nonpareiltactician]

@mautlie​ || X

   gáe bolg’s curse does not escape the prince’s knowledge. when he had first overheard the castle staff discussing his parents’ deaths, it had naturally slipped into conversation. it must’ve been the curse that consigned them to their demises. to wield njörun’s lance is to accept a tragic fate. being a child, he hadn’t understood the weight of the words, but they had stuck with him — as if his memory wished for him to know more than anything else what being njörun’s chosen really meant.

but has that stopped him from desiring that lance? no. countless people have been wiped from this world due to leif’s existence already. he almost wonders if he has already been put under njörun’s curse anyway.

“ if valflame was cursed, wouldn’t you know? ” he asks. forseti asks for your will, gáe bolg asks for your happiness… though leif cannot say he knows all of jugdral’s holy weapons and their caveats, he imagines the branded would be told.

but saias must have a reason to be unsure, even if that does not stop the question from pouring out of leif.

“ right… the emperor has it right now. we’ll have to go through him first before you can get it. ” leif pauses to think for a few moments. though he wouldn’t have anticipated going up against arvis anytime soon, with seliph’s leadership, it seemed more tangible a dream. saias would not be accompanying them, but…

“ archbishop, if i get my hands on valflame, i’ll bring it to you. i’ll find a way. and i’ll find you too! ” thus is his pledge, conviction burning in his eyes.

    Silence falls over Saias for a moment or two, not out of offence over what was just said, but instead to give himself a second to see if the young prince realises the implications of what he has said. Perhaps it never occurred to Leif that his pledge falls hand-in-hand with the death of the archbishop’s father, or perhaps he thought such a concept would not disturb him all that much-- either way, he cannot fault the other for it. Saias has not given the boy any reason to think that he would care all that much, or that the two were particularly close in any sense of the word. For that reason alone, the tactician’s lips curl up to form the very bare bones of a smile, and even though it does not completely reach his eyes, the rest of the man’s expression is genuine.

         “...That would be appreciated,”

    The archbishop begins, his tone unchanging from what it had been a few moments ago.

         “I am indebted to you. If there is anything you require from me, you need only ask.”

    Though their time together has been short, Saias’ own promise is not something he speaks lightly-- rather, it is something he is willing to do on his own free will, rather than out of obligation or duty. Pale features soften a little further, and for a moment, the young man almost forgets that mere minutes ago, the two had been speaking on a topic that has long weighed on his mind so heavily, but stayed behind tightly shut lips.

         “For the time being, you may find me at Bragi Tower... however, should that change, I will see to it that word reaches you without compromising myself. You have my word.”

[moczothe1st]

Let’s Play Fire Emblem IV: Genealogy of the Holy War, Part 30: Man, oh Man, oh Manfroy

Part 29

Welcome back to Fire Emblem IV: Genealogy of the Holy War.  Last week, we fought off like six armies all at once, and it was miserable, but on the plus side Hilda died. I think every game would be better if Hilda died.  This week, we finish taking her castle and… *sigh* And we regret it, probably.  This week, we start off mid-turn, so after moving most of my southern front up north toward the action, I end my turn and let the remainder of Hilda’s dorks take their shot.

… Why couldn’t they have gone down that easy last week, huh?!

Now, on our turn, the enemy is down to four dark mages with staves, and one dark bishop with a siege tome in the castle. I have Fee cut down one of the former…

And have Larcei and Seliph talk about love, because honestly I’m actually in no big hurry to finish this castle.

Larcei: I’m coming with you on this one!

Seliph: Of course you’re welcome to… but why?

Larcei: It’s odd… I’m actually a little scared…

Seliph: Odd indeed! If there’s one thing you’ve never been known for, it’s fear.

Larcei: It’s… I just…

Seliph: Shhh. I understand. Now come! After all, what could ever inspire courage quite like having you at my side.

(… Damn, Seliph, smooth like silk. You win a little more of my respect, bro.)

Larcei: Seliph…

This conversation gives Seliph +1 to his Strength; it was apparently supposed to be +3, but he was actually only one point away from his (oddly low) cap. Apparently Seliph only has a natural 25 strength cap! That seems weird considering his descent from Sigurd the Humungous.

And… sigh. Guess I should kill the stupid boss.

All right. Nothing left but sleep staves, and they can’t really hurt us. I have Fee and Altena purge them.

And now we have the problem dealt with. A little jumping around before I set off the next story segment; I have Finn zapped home, where he repairs and sells his Brave Lance. I’m going to have Fee buy it after we take Freege.  Sorry, Finn, but you’re kind of just not holding up; you lasted longer than I expected you too, but despite being decent on offense you’re just kind of fragile.  Oifey will also be benched here, I think, he can stay to defend Freege castle after we take it.  Thankfully…

… The game is polite enough to tell us where the next part of the chapter will be coming from. So I do spend a turn or two moving the kids up to this gate and ready to rock. Seliph?

Seliph: But I can’t help but wonder… are the children at Belhalla still unharmed? I pray they are…

Lewyn: Funny you should say that!

(That’s not really the appropriate response to dying children.)

Lewyn: We’ve got a visitor who’s got a bit of news on that front, Seliph.

(“I’ve seen… terrible things. Thank the gods I have no sister, for I fear I would never be able to look her in the eyes again.”)

Felipe: On secret orders from His Majesty, the abducted children were moved here to Freege for safe-keeping.

(Orders so secret that we never actually got to see Arvis give them in that whole scene where he was desperately trying to save all the children at Chalphy and failing, being immediately caught, and then getting cowed into submission by a man infinitely less powerful than himself. STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME FEEL BAD FOR ARVIS, GAME.)

Felipe: Rest easy, sire. They’re all hiding in the city’s abbey, and they’re all in good health.

Seliph: And all under Hilda’s nose, at that! That you’ve kept every last child safe in Hilda’s own city… color me impressed!

Felipe: Actually, sire… Princess Ishtar deserves your thanks. Without her generous aid given in secret, we could never have done this. No Imperial soldiers dared come even close to the abbey, on pain of the princess’s wrath.

Seliph: Princess Ishtar?! But why… why would she-

Felipe: Few people in this land are as kind and caring as Princess Ishtar.  

FEW PEOPLE IN THIS LAND ARE AS KIND AND CARING AS PRINCESS ISHTAR.

YEAH SHE’S A FUCKIN’ TREASURE.

Felipe: All along, the princess has toiled behind the scenes to aid our cause.  It was Princess Ishtar herself who ensured that every last child escaped from the bowels of Belhalla.

(“Then… how comes she’s… you know… literally banging the Devil?” “Technically he’s a ghost dragon.”)

Seliph: I see… at any rate, thank the gods for their safety. I’m certain everyone will be glad to know the children are in good hands. You have my deepest thanks, Lord Felipe.

Lewyn: Well, Seliph, that’s one job done. Good to see we’re finally getting results out of this mess.

(Hey, screw you man, I’ve conquered three quarters of the country.)

Seliph: And yet, Julia still eluds us… where could she possibly be?

Lewyn: The only options left now are Belhalla and Velthomer. It’s got to be one of those two.

Seliph: And Belhalla is where Julius awaits…

Lewyn: Yeah. We’ll need to find Julia first if we want to go anywhere near Belhalla. Without Julia’s power on our side, we won’t have a hope in hell against Julius.

(Again, not technically true, but you really should listen to him on this one.)

Seliph: But no matter what’s happened, Julius is still her brother. Will she even want to fight him…

Lewyn: … You’ll have to convince her.

(I mean, you’ve met Julius. It won’t be super hard.)

Ishtar: This will require that I leave your side, even for a while. I beg your forgiveness.

Julius: Feh.

Julius: Why the rush to get out there so suddenly, Ishtar? All the soldiers they could ever throw at us could never so much as scratch me. Why even bother with those maggots?

Ishtar: Yes, I know… but for me, there is no greater pride than being one of Freege’s great mages.

(“Saving all those children? Doesn’t even compare.”)

Ishtar: My parents and brother lie dead, and I cannot stand to leave their murderers to run amok… please. All I ask is a chance for vengeance.

Julius: It sounds as if what you really want is to following your family to death on a rebel’s blade! Are you so desperate to escape me, Ishtar?

Ishtar: No… nothing like that, Lord Julius. I love you. Nothing will ever change that.

Julius: Hmhmhmhmhm… I know.  

Julius: Very well! Fight if you must. I won’t stop you.

Ishtar: Thank you… now, I beg your pardon. Meng! Bleg! Mabel! We sortie at once.

(Oh god, we are really scraping the bottom of the name barrel this time. ‘Meng’?  ‘Bleg’?)

Julius: Now, then. I think it’s time we put an end to this sorry show. Deadlords, move out!  And order Arion’s unit to attack!

(… wait, what?)

So. You may recall I told you to remember this moment.

It was important for two reasons.

First: This is the moment the war becomes winnable. You see, Manfroy is not… really all that into Loptyr. Oh, he worships him, but it’s not really about loyalty so much as sadism. Manfroy hates the world, and every single human being in it. His overall goal in life is nothing more or less than to make humanity suffer as much as possible. But he’s generally pragmatic about it. He knew the best way to hurt humanity was to revive Loptyr, who possesses incredible powers and views humans as little better than food to eat and pets to abuse. This moment, right here, is the moment that Manfroy, flush with overconfidence in the presence of his god on earth and having enjoyed a long decade and a half tormenting the entire continent, finally makes a mistake. He lets his sadism overpower his common sense for the first time. And in so doing, he gives us a real shot.

Second: Because he’s still Manfroy, he’s a total fuckwad about it.  

Remember Ayra? Waaaaaaaaay back in Verdane, remember how we recruited Ayra. How we had to get to a castle to turn her non-hostile to us, only she was between the army and the castle and she was trying to kill us the whole time?

Yeah, that’s happening again. Only it’s Julia, our lil’ atomic vampire gatling gun trying to kill us. Of course she’s just as strong as she was when she was on our side, why would you even ask.  Oh, and just for fun…

Here’s the map of what we need to achieve.  The blue X is where we are. The red X is where we need to get to save Julia.  The ravenous piranha is Ishtar’s army, waiting to pounce upon us and tear us limb from bloody limb.  And to her right, marked by the douche, is Julius. You don’t have to fight him, and you in fact definitely should not because getting anywhere near him will also draw the Deadlords out to fight you, but of course has a siege tome now and will cheerfully wreck the shit of anyone who gets anywhere near him, therefore heavily limiting the space we have to move.

And of course, Julia will be trying to kill us the whole time, and we can’t fight back and risk killing her.

And hahaha, yeah, Arion will be showing up soon.  

This is not going to be any fun, is what I’m getting at here.

First thing’s first, let’s take a look at our piranha.  

Ishtar has taken yet another level in badass; her magic has gone up two points, skill by three, luck by 2, defense by eight, and resistance by one. And this time, she’s got an actual army with her instead of fighting us alone; three Snipers, three Heroes, three Sages, three High Priests with Fortify (of course) staves, and of course…. *snerk*…. Bleg, Meng, and Mabel.

They’re three identical Falcon Knights, both in picture and stats, so I’ll only be showing one of them. Despite the intensely crappy names, they honestly three ridiculously dangerous units. They all have Earth Swords, meaning any hit they land is going to heal them, and they’ll be hitting often what with that maxed-out Speed and solid 23 skill. And to make things worse, they all have the Nihil ability to prevent us from just shooting them down with arrows or relying on Astra to solve our problems.  

So! This is going to suck. A lot. But thanks to Ced being awesome, there’s an option I can take to make this a lot more manageable.  Lana sells her Silence staff, and he buys it…

And with his 35 fucking magic he can overpower Ishtar’s 32 Resistance to Silence her up to three times, basically removing Mjolnir from the equation for this battle. And Mjolnir is like… half of this battle’s equation.

I literally cannot believe I’ve never tried this before.  From here, the army moves forward, Seliph leading the way; he’ll be attacked by quite a lot of people here, but he’s a living iron wall of destruction, and the more of these people I can lure away from the main melee, the better.  So. End turn!

(*sigh* Must you, now?)

Arion: Chalphy’s fall to our blades shall be the first step to winning back our fatherland. Now, move in! Show these liberators one final defiance from the drackoknights of Thracia!

A solid enough start! We hurt one Falcon Knight, and didn’t take much damage in return.  And now that Ishtar is in range…  

Oh, that is delicious.  Now, my first goal here is to kill at least one of these three annoyingly fast pega-bitches, but I also have to get Altena (and yes it has to be her, of course it has to be her) down to the castle to intercept Arion.  I hate everything forever.

One down!  Let’s keep this train rolling and clear out some more jerks.

Two out of three ain’t bad!

Okay, I think that’s about all the damage I’m going to get done this turn.  And not bad at all, frankly, so I’m happy.  I have Lene dance Altena, and warp her home with Lana.

Ignore the pentagram. It’s a good pentagram. Down at the bottom, Altena equips Gae Bolg and flies to just outside Arion’s range. The rest of his buddies don’t matter at all, but I don’t want her to fight him. There’s a reason for this, of course. It’s unsatisfying, but it makes her happy.

The things I do for my kids, I swear.

End turn.  

… Huh. They don’t attack her? Or maybe they can’t damage her. I honestly am not sure.

*sniff*

I remember the last time I played this map.

I died five times on this battle alone.

And now it’s going better than the fight against the fucking Beige Knights.

I don’t understand what’s going on.

Altena: How could you be so craven?! How dare you place your vanity and pride over what truly matters!

(You tell him, honey!)

Arion: What do you want from me, then?

(God, don’t ask her that. This LP is not rated Adults Only.)

Altena: Take a good, hard look at Prince Seliph! Ask yourself, this: why is he still fighting? For whom is he out here day after day, setting his own suffering to the side?

Arion: So Seliph fights for justice, and I somehow do not? Is that what you’re trying to say?

(…. YES!)

Altena: Very well, Arion… if you won’t see reason, so be it. Come on. Kill me. End this. My… my life is in your hands. I die with no regrets.

Arion: A-Altena… very well. You can rest easy now. I get it. I was wrong… my mercenary days are at an end, and my final task is with Seliph. Wait… no. With you. I now fight for you, Altena.

Altena: Arion…

Yeah, it would have been neat if you’d done this a few maps ago, jackass, but Arion is on our side now. Or, well, sorta. He doesn’t join the army, but his unit becomes neutral and are programmed to stay close to Altena and be hostile to any Belhalla units that get near them. I know we all sort of wanted to kill him, but he still has Gungnir and I really just didn’t want to risk a screwup when things are going so well.  I mean, I’m not even gonna use him. At this point, letting him get near the enemy would likely result in him rushing Julius and dying, which sorta defeats the point. Let’s just end this; time to wipe out the remains of Ishtar’s unit.

And now, a special treat. Since Ishtar can’t fight, we get to see a conversation that even I have never actually seen.

(…. ‘Nothing but kind’.)

(Just sayin’.)

Ishtar: … I may be in the wrong. But I can’t turn back now. Forgive me, Tinni… please….

And thus passes Princess Ishtar of Freege. She died as she lived: getting nuked by her cousins. And without her leadership stars…

All right. Now, the rest of the army is going to stay right where they fucking are. Julia cannot be trusted to not kill herself, or more troublesome to not kill me.  The only people going forward are Seliph and Ares, who are going to go north across the forest, out of Julius’s range, and try to lure Julia into following them. Their resistance is tremendous, and they’re both on horses. Ideally she’ll try to kill them, fail, and be following them and unable to catch up until I can free her. This will take a few turns of nothing but movement because I will not be going anywhere near Julius.

Trust me.

She seeeeeeeeeees uuuuuuuuuuussssss…

Okay. There’s two things that could happen here. She’s either going to go east and cut us off, in which case we’ll be dodging vampire lasers the rest of the map, or she’s going to go north through the forest and we basically win the game.  Let’s see!

…. Bitch. Okay, straight west you guys! Hide on the healing church, you beautiful bastards. God, haven’t used one of those in awhile, with those fifty healers in the army lining up to zap everyone with staves.

Dammit, Loptyrians, I am trying to flee in terror from a small woman.

Okay. We can do this. Ares heals up, and all we have to do is clear out those priests and kill Manfroy. Go get ‘em, boys!

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Are you fucking kidding me.  

Of all the.

That.

I.

I.

You.

HOW.

What the!

NO.

………………

Well. You know all those times when I was questioning my good fortune? The moments where I was like ‘oh, man, I don’t trust how generous the game is being, bet it’s gonna screw me later!’ Well, that just happened.

*sigh*

End turn. If I survive this, I will be genuinely stunned.

Oh hey it’s as though the Hel tome is really easy to dodge and you should have dodged it all along. But here we go…

(How do you know that’s Manfroy? You’ve never met him…)

Manfroy: So I did. And so long as I live, my puppet she shall remain! Hehehehehe!  She’s every bit as helpless before my magic as her mother was…

Seliph: I should have known. If not for you, Mother… Gah! All of this misery… all these agonizing years… It was all your doing from the outset!

Manfroy: Heh… of course. Everything I’ve done has led to this moment: the revival of my lord Loptyr. And at last, it is so! Loptyr’s advent in the form of Prince Julius is complete, and darkness shall soon engulf the world. You cannot prevent it. Nobody can…

Seliph: Manfroy, you… Father’s grief… Mother’s despair… if not for you and your foul ambitions, none of this would have ever happened… Damn you, Manfroy! I cannot allow you to win! I will not! You’ll NEVER know mercy for your crimes!

Yeah, not the dramatic win I was hoping for after that great speech. But I guess I saw that coming.  Reset! I start off a little differently; Seliph and Ares park themselves on trees. With the 20% dodge bonus, they should have no chance of being hit by Hel, and very little of being hit by Julia. We need to clear out these Dark Mages before we go for Manfroy.

Better! This repeats for all of them; one actually dies because they’re forced to attack at close-range thanks to being blocked off by their own buddies, which is great.

Yeah, yeah.

He only does one damage. Seliph could have survived him with no problem in any other situation. I hate this game sometimes. On our turn, I have Ares and Seliph each clear out a mage…

Then immediately go hide in the woods again. I am playing this as cautious as humanly possible, honestly. Better to spend three turns killing mages than let the reset counter jump up above the number of updates.

The enemy misses again on their turn, because they literally can’t not miss. Two more deaths…

All right! That’s that for dark mages. On the next turn, Ares is going to park his butt on the healing church forever, and Seliph goes to fight Manfroy.

You stay out of this.

Now then. It’s time. It’s time to face Manfroy himself.  In direct combat. The enemy behind it all! The dark schemer who has given over our kingdom to the dark god.  And he…

Is a loser.  I mean, he’s not the worst enemy in the game. He’s okay. But he’s definitely no match for Arvis, or Ishtar, or… anyone with a holy weapon, really.  Which fits, really; his danger is his skill and intellect, not his power.  But considering he’s basically the final boss, it’s a little sad, still.

Seliph. Teach him some manners, bro.

And with two shots, he’s down to six HP.  End turn.

I miss the days when I was the one with the Julia Beams.

*sniff*

God. That is just cathartic to do. Now. With Manfroy off to Hell, where I’m assuming he will meet Hilda and strike up a whirlwind love affair, Seliph can take the castle.

Lewyn: That’s right, isn’t it Felipe?

Felipe: My liege concealed the key within his most treasured memento…. The circlet once worn by Empress Deirdre.

(HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRK!)

Felipe: If we can find that circlet, sir, the Book of Naga is yours.

Lewyn: Deirdre’s circlet…

And that’s that! Ares runs toward the castle, with intent to lure Julia toward us. Of course she’s still hostile, why are you even asking? She has to talk to Seliph to get back to our side. Tee-hee, Fire Emblem hates you.

God, you are just like your mother. Seliph, go fix this please.

Seliph: It was Manfroy’s dark arts. He brainwashed you into his service.

Julia: Manfroy… that’s right, he caught me…

Seliph: Thank goodness you’re safe.  

Julia: Lord Seliph, I…

Seliph: It’s fine, Julia. I know. Lewyn told me everything. I’m sorry… I failed to protect you.

Julia: No… it’s fine. Don’t worry, Seliph. I finally know why I’ve survived for all these years. I know my fate… I’m fated to fight. I’ll never run away again!

Seliph: You’re right… This is the will of fate, tragic as it is. None can afford to cower or flee now. Until the bitter end, we must march on.

And with that, Julia rejoins the team. She’s just as strong as ever, barring one fact; she’s picked up Deirdre’s circlet, adding Renewal and Miracle to her list of abilities, which is a heck of an upgrade.

But not as good as the one she gets from reaching Velthomer.

Lewyn: It worked… it really worked! And there it is, the Book of Naga! It’s yours for the taking, Julia!

Julia: … Oh! How strange… it feels so warm. It’s almost as if I’ve known this book all my life…

And now, the game is over. See, here’s the thing… Julius is just as dangerous as before, if not slightly moreso. His stats are slightly lower than his first appearance where you are very clearly not meant to fight him, but he still has Loptyr’s game-breaking effect, and his ability list is now Wrath, Pursuit, Nihil, and Accost. So he can double most of our army, null critical hits and combat abilities, and gets a huge critical boost when his health drops below half. And of course, he’s on a castle and gets the defense bonus and health regeneration that gives. Basically, he’s borderline invincible. The only real option if you lose Julia is to have Seliph fight him, and poor Seliph can only do about 15 damage per turn (if he hits) some of which will then be healed.  While getting blasted in the face repeatedly, so you’ll need to get someone in to heal him between rounds, and they’ll very probably die to having Meteors dropped on their head unless you’re very lucky. And then there’s the Deadlords, who are just a pain.  

But if you do have Julia…

Yeah.

YEEEEEEEEEAH.  

Naga is the best weapon in the game. +20 each to Skill, Speed, Defense, and Resistance, instantly turns Julia into a hyper-fast, hyper-accurate, hyper-durable killing machine. And as a light magic tome, it has no disadvantage to any kind of weapon. And, of course, it negates Loptyr’s half-damage effect.  Your reward for the most annoying recruitment in the game is the weapon that ends the game. Big time.

So.  

It’s time to lay back and let Big J play us out, I think. I have her do the Arena, just for old times sake. Nothing even touches her.

Julia: Seven wins, gained two levels. +2 HP, +1 Speed.

About as good as can be expected at this point, honestly. And it…. Doesn’t really matter, you know? She heads to Belhalla, and Julius has no chance to hit her with Meteor, so he doesn’t even try.  The Twelve Deadlords rush up to meet her, of course…

They’re going to regret this. The Deadlords are named for the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and each one has a different class and some very good weapons and abilities. They’re a dangerous group! Usually.  

One down, eleven to go. End turn.  

And then there were nine.

Sorry, seven.

Six of one, half-dozen of the other.

Fun fact, ‘Lepus’ means ‘Rabbit’. And ‘Dead’.

Well I’ll be! Someone landed a hit!  Too bad Julia did too. Four to go.  

I’m so bad at counting! It’s actually three. Congrats to Equus the Bishop on surviving a round with The Julinator.  But with that, none of the remaining Deadlords will actually take a shot at Julia anymore, so I’m just going to ignore them. It’s time for a family reunion.

(He isn’t wrong.)

Yes, that was a single round of combat. Julius procced his Accost skill and made the fight last an extra round. This… was not helpful to him.

Julius vanishes, the spirit of the dragon arising from the castle as the entire map shakes…

But it’s just bluster. Naga’s power has destroyed Loptyr’s vessel, and with its bloodline finally ended the dragon’s grip on this world is gone. Loptyr returns to whatever void it came from, and with the power that animated them gone, the few surviving Deadlords vanish.  

I’m going to cut out here, but no sense waiting a week, huh? So see you tomorrow for the epilogue, kids. I think we earned it.

Final Reset Total: 30.  Y... yay.

Epilogue

[animenutcase]

Yoooooooooooooooooooo that Arvis x Seliph support you made.

Heh heh! Yeah, I noticed that you liked it. Thanks!

[gascon-en-exil]

I finished FE4; that last chapter was an absolute slog, but then frankly all of Gen 2 except Chapters 6 and maybe 8 felt like that. Thoughts:

My first name shows up in a FE, whee. The English version of my saint’s name is already in FE10 as the name of Dawn Brigade myrmidon who memetically blocks axes with his face, but I believe that prior to this patch the eldest Dozel brother’s name was translated as Burian. It does raise the question though of why his father didn’t have Helswath in Chapter 6 aside from the plot contrivance that comes with a chapter of entirely fresh units.

I found Hilda rather disappointing to be honest. She’s talked up in fandom as this heinous proto-Sonia who’s such a pleasure to kill, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Part of it is that she’s just not around as much. She’s the first boss of Chapter 10 and then in Endgame she’s just one of the many new or reappearing enemies that pop up on the way to Belhalla. It doesn’t help either that all of her abuse of Tailtiu and Tine is told as backstory, and that Blume is almost as much to blame in first kidnapping his sister and niece (are we ever told why he didn’t just kill them?) and then turning a blind eye to whatever Hilda was doing to them. At least we actually see Sonia manipulating and abusing Nino and the Reeds several times before she becomes a boss, plus there’s that whole delusion of humanity angle she’s got going for her. Hilda meanwhile is...a social climbing mother pushing her daughter into a political marriage, which feels slightly out of place although it does ground the Empire’s politics more in the real world in spite of all the child sacrifices and evil dragon worship.

On a related note, I still don’t quite know what to feel about Ishtar, aside from her possibly being the most annoying boss in this game. She’s a Camus with a doomed love, but she’s also explicitly defying Julius’s orders and saving kidnapped children. Has she figured out by Endgame that he’s clearly unhinged but sees no way out of the situation?

Manfroy may be fantastic at the political long game, but compared to Gharnef or Nergal or even Sephiran he had very little presence as a boss. He doesn’t even get a special class or tome.

Miletos is such filler, even on a geographic level because having Seliph go straight back to Grannvale after Thracia would have meant another desert map. Thank goodness we dodged that bullet, but Miletos...meh. At least Carcino over in Magvel gets its politics delved into a little bit, and I believe Rennac is from there? It’s been forever since I’ve played FE8.

I like how the character endings are divided up by country and can change according to pairings in both generations, though the number of women whose endings consist entirely of “wife of X” stands out. In my playthrough only Tine inherited something on her own rather than join her husband (Ced). Also, Verdane got annexed by Seliph because something something Deirdre worship which I wasn’t expecting. I imagine the only way to have an independent Verdane is to pair up Jamke?

Diarmuid always returns to Agustria with Ares, unless I assume he marries a woman who inherits something which will never happen in my files because I’ll take what I can get in this het fest. Is Ares/Diarmuid a thing? Sure, first cousins, but so is Ares/Nanna, and the cousin angle might actually help convince Ares that it doesn’t really count and so doesn’t mess with his image of heterosexual knightliness.

Also, Ares is Owain played for drama. That was an odd revelation, to say the least. There’s no question as to which of the two non-Camus black knights inspires more genuine dread.

Why does Oifey have to take Chalphy? Seliph says he “can’t” inherit it as King of Grannvale, but Arvis was Emperor despite being the Duke of Velthomer so this really just feels like an excuse to give Oifey something to do in the ending. If Seliph’s fine with annexing foreign countries (and apparently the whole continent if you kill off all the right people) why is his own major blood inheritance off limits?

I remember that years ago I read that Jugdral had no Fire Emblem, but in the ending we’re told that that’s the name of the insignia of House Velthomer. That’s completely reasonable in the context of the story, but that makes its appearance in the title a little strange (aside from being the title of the series and all). I suppose it’s because most of the central conflict of FE4 (and 5? I get the impression that one’s more of a tangent from Arvis and Julius and all) comes from Velthomer.

We’re still a few weeks away from the international release of FE15, so now I’m wondering if I should track down a translation patch of either FE5 or FE3/12 (though more likely 12 as I don’t imagine there’s much reason to play the games with remakes anymore). I’ve read that New Mystery has had a competent patch for years whereas the one for Thracia 776 has been in partially-completed flux. Sticking with Jugdral would be nice, but I’m not looking forward to FE5′s infamous difficulty. Or I could just replay Genealogy using different units and different pairings....

[randomnameless]

hmm i don't know many of your fandoms asides from fe4; so fe4

here it goes!

the character i least understand : hm... Julia? Julia. I can’t even understand how/why she stays in the background at the end of FE4 “watching over Seliph with a warm gaze” when there are so many things to do, helping rebuild the country, taking care of the remaining loptyrians, etc...

interactions i enjoyed the most : Ares and Lene. Lene is wonderful, she doesn’t care about his theatrics or his “views” about what a mercenary is or what he should do - killing Seliph because of Siggy, Lene has the nerve to call him an idiot and make him realise that maybe she’s right.

the character who scares me the most : Sprites aside, I’d say Manfroy. The guy can brainwash major naga ladies to do his biding, what else can he do? Is there something he can’t do?! 

the character who is mostly like me : wow. Dimna (that’s him right) who’s shaking in his boots in the last map because this is a place where only Crusaders have their place and I’m not one!

hottest looks character : Gen 1 Arvis?

one thing i dislike about my fave character : Eyvel isn’t in FE4 so...  he opted to kill everyone to bring a new empire raising from the ashes of the old Grannvale when he could/might have come to the same results (making a better world) if he bothered to talk about it to the right people, i.e. not Lombard and Reptor.

one thing i like about my hated character : even if it made him live a miserable life and if he didn’t let her talk at all during her intro, I suppose taking care of a child who was hurt counts as a “good thing” F!Lewyn did in his not-life.

a quote or scene that haunts me : well I triggered Ayra’s death quote once and the “X i wanted to see you one last time” really made me feel sad, imagine it could be canon if X was Finn!

a death that left me indifferent : Byron. He doesn’t even mention his daughter!

a character i wish died but didn’t : in FE4 it’s rather the inverse and F!Lewyn is a zombie so.. uh... I can’t think of any, sorry :’(

my ship that never sailed : Faval/Ishtar