#fe ashnard

[crestoflaminee]

How Old Is Soren Fire Emblem?

It’s an honest question, and not just for Fire Emblem veterans. Even the most superficial soldiers running around with their heads shoved up their own asses have wondered, ‘What is that small child doing on a battlefield with a Wind tome?’ Or worse,

(Image alt under the cut.)

Soren’s battle prowess is not to be questioned, nor underestimated. Uncertainty arrives when trying to discern how old the Greil Mercenaries’ strategist and chief staff officer is.

Based on information from in-game conversations, from the canon timeline, and from the Tellius Recollection volumes, I have an answer. Read on under the cut. Or skip to the end, I don’t mind, I even put the important stuff in bold for you.

[Alt ID: the image is divided horizontally into two screenshots of a viral video of a young child running through a backyard. Soren’s original Fire Emblem Heroes portrait has been photoshopped over the child’s face. In the first panel, the caption at the bottom reads, ‘“Let me see what you have”’. In the second frame, Soren/the child is closer to the camera. A screenshot from Soren’s Wiki page reading “Skills: Knife” has been added to the left of the image. The caption at the bottom reads, in all caps, ‘“A knife!”’. End ID.]

Googling ‘soren fire emblem age’ yields a suspiciously simple result. According to the Tellius Recollection volumes, Soren is physically sixteen in both games. Immediately, it is clear there is more to Soren’s age than that answer. Since Soren is half-laguz and half-beorc, he ages differently from his beorc companions. In his Path of Radiance (PoR) A Support with Stefan, he admits, ‘I thought I was aging normally… Well, until about three years ago.’ There is some ambiguity here, as Soren only noticed he was aging differently ‘about three years’ from the time of this conversation during the latter part of PoR, but if nothing else, we know Soren must be older than sixteen. We may assume this line means Soren stopped aging three years before this point, and was sixteen at the time. If this is true, Soren would be about nineteen in PoR. But what if Soren is older?

What is the oldest Soren could be? To figure this out, I looked to Almedha and Ashnard. When Almedha met Ashnard, he was power hungry and if he wasn’t already, soon set on war with Goldoa. In Radiant Dawn (RD), Nasir informs Almedha that ‘the red dragon platoon which went in search of [her] was captured and turned into Feral Ones by King Ashnard’. Unaware of this at the time, Almedha continued to live with Ashnard until Rajaion’s capture ‘more than twenty years’ ago, at which point they ‘had a falling out and ended up living separately‘ according to Almedha’s conversation with Elincia. Though a ‘falling out’ is a weird way to describe the aftermath of her brother being drugged into insanity by her husband, we now know that Soren is more than twenty years old when RD takes place in year 648, though not too much older, or Almedha would have perhaps picked a different number to say than twenty.

Returning to Almedha’s conversation with Nasir, Kurthnaga, and Ena reveals that Ashnard’s cruelty toward the dragon laguz had intention. Nasir says Ashnard ‘did everything in his power to provoke King Dheginsea’. Indeed, near the end of the Mad King’s War, ‘the king thought he'd lost not only dragon soldiers but also his children’, not knowing Almedha and Soren were still alive, and was ready to join the war. Why was it that ‘Ashnard needed Goldoa to get involved in this war’? Goldoa was completely isolated from everything outside its borders until Almedha left, so Ashnard had no personal reason for provoking them. Nasir tells us that if the Goldoans had joined the war, they ‘would not have stopped until the continent was ashes. Then the spirit of chaos would have spread across Tellius, awakening the goddess’. Why would Ashnard want to destroy the continent and all humanity, when what he clearly wanted in PoR was to be the most powerful man alive? Awakening the goddess to pass judgement was Sephiran’s motivation. Thus, when Almedha met Ashnard, he was either already plotting with Sephiran or would conspire him in the short time between Almedha’s departure from Castle Goldoa and the arrival of the red dragon platoon sent to look for her in Daein. Based on this information, we know Soren could not have been born before the Serenes Massacre of 625, after which Sephiran decides humanity needs to be judged. So the oldest Soren could be during PoR is twenty years old.

So now that we have an upper limit, what is the youngest Soren could be? Another member of Goldoa’s royal family holds the answer to this question. Rajaion left Goldoa to rescue Almedha and Soren ‘some nineteen years ago’ according to Ena near the end of PoR. At this time, Soren was already born and determined to be worthless by Ashnard. We also know Ashnard was already king when Rajaion was captured, meaning this happened after 627. If Soren was born in 627 he would be eighteen at the start of PoR, and perhaps would turn nineteen before the end of the game in the spring of 646, meaning Ena’s line about ‘some nineteen years’ would still be accurate. This means eighteen is the youngest Soren could be while still keeping with the continuity of the game.

It is important to note that Ena’s line corroborates the earlier conclusion drawn from Soren’s support with Stefan that Soren is nineteen in PoR. Furthermore, if Soren were nineteen in PoR, he would have been born within the calendar year limits determined by the events surrounding Rajaion’s capture (625-627). Nineteen is also the average of the oldest and youngest he could possibly be (18-20). Thus, I conclude that

in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Soren is nineteen years old

and factoring in the three year timeskip between the games and Almedha’s line about her and Ashnard’s separation,

in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Soren is twenty-two years old

which makes a lot of sense. If I were twenty-two but looked like a sixteen-year-old boy, I would also get zero sleep, have the self-confidence of a duct-taped teacup, and cry at inopportune moments. Pre-T trans men, you are our strongest soldiers.

You have reached the end of my investigation into Soren’s age! As a bonus, Ike is seventeen in PoR, so the age difference between the two of them is two years.

Thank you for reading. Vote Soren for Choose Your Legends Seven.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Ashnard, the sigma male villain:

so power-hungry he claims the throne by offing his whole family via magical blackmail

so hubristic he takes advantage of a rebellious dragon princess to prove his might and birth powerful dragon children

so spiteful that when he doesn't get the child he wanted, he tosses the child in the trash unironically and stops riding the dragon princess in favor of riding her drugged-up older brother instead

.

[fefuckability]

ROUND 1: Punchable face (affectionate) vs Punchable face (derogatory)

Feel free to rb/comment with your reasoning!

[best-fe-parent-tournament]

Worst FE Parent Poll: Round 1 - Match 10

[lunar-soren]

shadows of a bloody legacy

but what if both of them were ashnard's sons. what if that was why almedha so desperately clung to pelleas — protecting the one of her twin sons she could recover, even to the point of madness. what if.

[thousand-winters]

I forgot to do this until now

We should get enough Sorens to match all the Ikes, I think. A Soren dressed like Almedha to match Brave Ike, FEH, please 🙏

[fe-smashorpass]

[randomnameless]

TIL that Kusakihara was the one who wrote SS (I don't know if he also wrote AM and VW) whereas KT handled Tru Piss. It does kinda paint the whole Foldan shitshow/discourse wank of the past 4+ years to be more of an IS vs KT thing in addition to everything else.

Oh gods

I can fathom it, only if Kusakihara motivated the "choice" between Tru Piss and SS as "pick the lady you want to S support" lol

However, given how far ? Ridiculous? FEH's story is, especially with the Vero retcon, uwuing conqueror and war-mongerer chan (even if Vero needed a retcon and brainwashing!) isn't exclusive to KT, IS can and will use it too!

With IS "but she was sad and lonely + don't forget the uwu hammer" and KT "everyone has a point so you can't really pick a side! - I'm not surprised Fe Fodlan ended up the way it did.

In a way, Engage moving past this nonsense is a good sign for the franchise... and yet, Fodlan is apparently still more popular with all the ridiculous drama it creates so and Book 7 of FEH followed the same pattern, wait'n'see anon.

[c-221]

[katfreaks-hidyhole]

The newest member to the +10 club. His art is so pretty and he tanks so well :)

[caelin-ismycity]

Speaking of Ashnard, I’m surprised you never drew Ashnard

listen my brother i love a lot of characters and i love a lot of characters immensely however that does not mean my brain is ever capable of drawing said love

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

ashnard was gay

.

[fefuckability]

Tellius Fuckability Face-off: Qualifier 6

Feel free to rb/comment with your reasoning!

[best-fe-parent-tournament]

Worst FE Parent Tournament: Round 3 - Match 3

[radiant-nasir]

i believe that the meticulous care of fe9's writing shines at its strongest when it comes to mist. in no other fe is a lord's sibling given this much weight and presence in the narrative, and you feel their bond and level of comfort with each other strongly even without any support conversations. not even going into how crucial elena and mist were for plot events, just that mist reacts to things and changes throughout the story in ways that make her mist and not just ike's sister. most notable of course her rushing in to ike's side as he faces the black knight, refusing to leave him alone, her dialogue with the black knight if they fight. she digs her heels in and whatever they have to face she wants to bear it together with ike, even if it has to be death. she even has special dialogue when fighting ashnard! in conclusion mist is THE specialest girl if you don't cheer and clap for her ill fucking blow this whole building up

[arkus-rhapsode]

I guess this is still a controversial opinion in 2023, but… I think Micaiah is a good character. Like yeah I understand there are a lot of newer FE fans who are getting introduced to her through stuff like Engage and Heroes, but if you’ve been around as long as me you know that Micaiah probably was the “love or hate her” character of FE pre Edelgard/Rhea discourse.

I’m probably not gonna sway anyone who has already picked what side they fall on. I’m just gonna give you my opinion as one guy on the internet who has lived through a lot of discourse and what he thinks.

I think there are three primary complaints that people still pull out with her: She’s a Mary Sue, she’s dumb, and she’s a bad unit.

Now look, I’ll give you the bad unit. She’s a lord character that doesn’t have a lord build. She’s a light mage. Now Radiant Dawn is infamous for its difficulty and stat variation, so pairing an interesting idea of a lord who’s not a combative unit is an interesting idea on paper. But in execution it’s just really hard to play. So I get why people don’t like her as a unit.

The Mary Sue argument I’ve never been a fan of however. Yes, she has special healing powers, future sight, and all the apostle powers. But like… That’s kinda just what a lot of FE lord characters get? They get a special weapon only they can use, they have a magic blood that gives them power, they are secretly the descendant of some ultra important person or god and they’re destined for something. Like it’s kinda always just been there with FE lord characters. Hell, even non lord avatar characters like Robin and Byleth are just secretly reincarnations of gods. I think with Micaiah the issue comes in that she’s in the same game as Ike. Who was bucking the trend as a playable character that wasn’t a lord, wasn’t magically destined for anything, and isn’t secretly a child of some Uber royal. So Micaiah does feel like an oddity, but I’d argue this does create an interesting conflict of a traditional MC vs a non traditional one.

And finally the “she’s dumb” argument. So I understand that games are an interactive medium. And people value being able to make their own choices. But in the intersection of narrative and gameplay focused games, there are characters and events we don’t have control of. Micaiah makes a choice to liberate her homeland but doesn’t want to be its ruler. When Pelleas the son of Ashnard comes along and seems like a good guy, she gives it to him. This makes sense from Micaiah’s perspective-despite loving her country she doesn’t want to rule it. So when a seemingly good individual with recognized lineage comes in, she’s willing to give it up. But we the audience can see this is flawed, Sothe in game mentions this. And ultimately Micaiah’s choice is what brings Daein under Begnion. Where now she has to do things she doesn’t like in a desperate war.

I feel like in media there’s a criticism of “why don’t these characters do the logical thing that I would’ve done in this situation.” And I think games as an interactive medium enhance that as they want to make their own choices. But in a narrative a character doesn’t always need to make logical sense. A character can exist independent of what the player wants and takes actions that the viewer may disagree with. But an action a character takes that they may disagree with isn’t inherently a sign of bad writing. I personally believe that if it makes sense for the character within the context of the story, they are capable of making mistakes. And often times these flaws are what facilitates character development/introspection.

So when Micaiah makes her choice to not be ruler, it makes sense from the perspective of someone not interested in ruling. However, her choice has consequences, ultimately forcing her to do more of the things she was trying to avoid. And even if Pelleas lives or dies, Micaiah by the end of the story is now queen out of obligation rather than personal interest. The game at least seems self aware of audience would react to a flawed decision by having Sothe be the voice of obvious concern. But let’s for a moment think if she did the logical thing. Had Micaiah just held onto power at first and did nothing, there really wouldn’t be a plot for Daein or a journey for Micaiah. And it probably be a much more dull story.

Characters are allowed to be flawed and make mistakes. Make choices we don’t personally agree with. But the important thing is that flawed actions have actual consequences to them. And basically all of Daein suffering from someone who made a bad choice and is now living through it and ultimately has to rise to the position that she denied in the first place is a suitable consequence.

I think actual bad choices in narratives tend to be actions that have no real conflict as the plot needs to bend to make that choice make sense or justify a bad choice. Rather than an action having a tangible consequence that needs to be dealt with internally or externally.

So yes, Micaiah made a dumb call in Radiant Dawn. And it led to an interesting story and character development.

Now I do have issues with Micaiah: I don’t like that Yune ultimately takes over for most of part 4. I don’t like that there are no supports in RD so I had to wait till Engage to see how she may feel about certain characters. Yes, I think that she is ultimately eclipsed by the true MC of the game Ike. And yes, I don’t like her future sight. I have never liked precognition as a storytelling concept. I’m just not a fan of its inclusion.

That said, I don’t dislike Micaiah. I do actually find her an interesting character who was allowed to be flawed and not fall into the newer FE game trap of trying make her more likeable/actually secretly in the right the whole time. And maybe it’s weird that something like this discourse is still kinda around. But with stuff like Engage and talks FE4 reboot and just a general Tellius conversation still existing I felt like I might as well say where I stand on who used to be the most controversial FE character.