#emblems aren't straight up the guy who existed lived and breathed and ultimately passed on

[moe-broey]

My "Not a full thought" post about Emblems now being able to exist in Askr and the potential of timeline fuckery is coming back to haunt me.

@iamdarkness BUT I really did wanna reply to this more in-depth esp to have context on the Engage side of things as well! And tbh it could be a really interesting thing to dig into, I just feel a bit out of my depth about it (the FEH autism does not extend far past Askr. If I'm entirely honest 🧍)

Hoping to clear the air on some things! Such as, Elyios (Engage) is separate from Askr/Zenith (FEH)! All the Emblems have their own "domains", in the form of a paralogue/map that's modeled after the respective Emblem's world. For story Emblems, you unlock these as you collect the rings, and for the DLC Emblems, that's how you recruit them. Unsure what this says about Elyios itself, if these maps are like. Pocket dimensions that are replicas of that Emblem's world or what. Given what I vaguely know about Emblem lore I'm gonna say replicas.

This is Askr's!

Which, is interesting that it Is Askr, because it's Emblem Veronica's domain.

But honestly I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself, because even before the DLC came out, I was under the impression that Engage took place after all FEs were said and done, timeline wise. Given the nature of the Emblems, and the set up of the story starting off "1000 years ago" (and that was just to set up the story of Engage! So it has been A While).

One thing (that feels very loose canon-wise) that made me feel Engage is after FEH is because, not only are there Bond Rings of the Askr trio, but their weapons are here too! This was a promotional thing, but. It's There

Something worth noting, is that Bond Rings are different than Emblems. They don't have a spirit in them, that's as animated as the Emblems anyway... they give small stat bonuses, and are of characters that are related to any given Emblem (so, Corrin has a collection of Fates characters for Bond Rings, ect). This Does have an interesting result where there's an overlap between some DLC Emblems and Bond Rings. Cases being, there's Emblem Camilla and a Camilla Bond Ring that's connected to Emblem Corrin -- and, this happened to Edelgard/Dimitri/Claude too! Each of them having Bond Rings connected to Byleth, and also becoming their own Emblems in the Get Along Bracelet LMFAO (all three of them are in there. It goes about as well as you'd expect.)

But I am. Getting a little distracted.

EMBLEM VERONICA

One line that stands out to me is Alear (named Milo here) saying he hasn't heard of Askr before. But like if I think about that too much my head might explode and also Alear was previously comatose for 1000 slutty slutty years. So. Take it or leave it, whatever this is implying

Also, interestingly, she takes the form of her post Book 6 look -- but there's some odd inconsistencies, like her personality being more young Veronica, and also, mentions of Bruno as if he was still missing in action and not. Well. You know. (I'd have to dig further into Bond convos for examples, which tbh may be a worthwhile endeavor! But for now Take My Word For It Please this is already so all over the place 🥲)

But the main reason I wanted to emphasize that dialogue (aside from it being interesting, to say the least), is how Alear doesn't know about Askr as a whole. And, in Alear/Alfonse Forging Bonds:

WHICH.... AGAIN.......... MADE ME FEEL LIKE. With everything going on in Engage, the Bond Rings of Alfonse/Sharena/Anna, their Respective Signature Weapons (feels particularly damning) and Emblem Veronica. It felt like, what happens in Elyios is something that has Yet to Happen. And that, Askr as we know it, has been long gone.

But then...... everything with the Katarina/Kris FBs............ how Kris was only able to be summonable because Katarina and Marth told their story............. and how it's just the Emblems that are specifically mentioned as Not Having Info on, not Alear herself or her friends. My head hurds so bad.

LIKE...... I GUESS???? My initial thoughts on "Oh yeah that makes sense the Emblems don't exist in Askr" was that they Didn't Exist Yet. Aughh but then ...... in-universe, wouldn't the same be true for. Anyone from "the future". Or does it just apply to ghostly jewelry apparitions. Because we KNOW that option isn't true, it's shown/stated that Kiran comes from a modern world like ours, and there's also the Tokyo Mirage Sessions idols. Maybe the Emblem thing WAS just a Kris case, but that feels SO ODD. Like the Emblems are intrinsic to Elyios it seems. Why wouldn't the Askr library, chock full of information about the various worlds and lives of Heroes, Not Have That Info??? Especially with royalty like Lumera (Alear's mom) having close ties with specific Emblems (Sigurd). And also off the top my head that's a REOCCURRING thing, that the royal families in Engage Are entrusted with specific Emblems that are passed down/protected across generations. Celica with Céline/Firene, Lyn with Alcryst/Brodia, to name a few. It just seems SO strange, because it Feels Like it would be basic information about the world of Elyios.

CONCLUSION?????

My head hurds so bad. Net zero information. I'm so sorry. I hope this helped!!!!!!!!! 😇🫡