#the way you technically don't also get to know like [what was bruno like prior] Directly W/Promised Accuracy and yet

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also if only the physical copy of how to disappear completely & never be found i first encountered & read a few years ago (sort of [roughly avg age ten] reader book, not any similarly titled How To) hadn't disappeared completely & not been found since, probably b/c i put it somewhere i intended to be For Safekeeping, which is also how my binder vanished....b/c it's one of those like. those book for late elementary/middle school readers when they just weave in this unrealism which makes for a delightful range & unpredicability? and with a cynical protagonist girl like off to the races like wow her mom is depressed asf & smoking? and it's about A Family History Secrets Mystery so blatantly a haunting that the inciting incident is basically introducing a haunted [family history secrets mystery] house. and spoilers don't matter like it's stemming from there being this missing uncle who grew up so in contrast to the Winsome Winning Sibling Who Does It All Right while seeing his own affiliation with rats that he tried to disappear completely & never be found which led to this Tragedy which led to this more unintended disappearance of his & he haunts this house & wants to be left alone & only goes out at night with this [ambiguous Is That A Giant Rat Or Weird Small Dog (protagonist affected by these family situations who expresses her preoccupation with an awareness of how fate can Strike and Get you with this interest with roving packs of killer chihuahuas. people think she's weird though she spontaneously befriends this other girl struck with this bolt from the blue & a bit weird / outcast & then Insightful who i wish was in it more)] & plays into the hauntedness danger like playing into the [something's Wrong with you then] until having to take yet more action where the urge to express the truth comes out more both b/c living that hidden is more threatened but also b/c now the niece children are more threatened as well. ft. a sort of preternatural blurring of time b/c of only being communicated with through this uncle via his comic pages (that he paints?) of dubiously accurate translations of irl events that are created so quickly it seems to verge on foresight, imagine like "hmm what's this painting. it's me standing in this room looking at this painting??? as someone ominous lurks in the shadows right behind me?" in both [now how could you know this & paint it really fast ahead of time] and [horror]

[iturbide]

I had a question if you don't mind answering. Do you headcanon the Breidablik (not sure on my spelling, the summoning weapon) as having any other capabilities beyond simply summoning heroes? I always assumed it to do other things like showing the summoner a map of the battlefield or allow long distance communication with heroes. I was wondering what you thought.

Trust me I never mind ovo ~ <3 I love messing with Heroes Lore you are always welcome to ask also your spelling is exactly right 

But this is such a fascinating subject and I know that everyone has their own thoughts and concepts on how it works ( @grimastiddies​ definitely ascribes to the Breidablik being the source of tactical power), and I love seeing all the different amazing ways that people put together the information that the game has given us!  I’ve put a lot of thought in myself (I actually talked about it a little on the art blog a while back), and it gets a little bit weird so I’m going to cut for the inevitable wall of exposition.

A lot of this actually takes heavy inspiration from Norse mythology, since Heroes is clearly drawing a ton of their naming conventions from that source.  And one of the key things that people think of when they think ‘Norse Mythology’ is valkyries – for good reason, considering Wagner’s opera (we think of Vikings in horned helms entirely because of performances of his work, if that gives any indication of his impact on their popularity and public perception).  Technically, according to the known lore, valkyries served Odin and chose half of the dead from a battlefield to become part of Odin’s host of warriors in his hall of Valhalla….but I much prefer the thought that valkyries served no one god or goddess, and instead watched over battlefields and filled the halls of all the Aesir. 

What I find particularly interesting is how many people in Askr and Embla have weapons named after halls belonging to members of the Norse pantheon: Folkvangr, Alfonse’s weapon, is the name of Freyja’s hall; Fensalir, Sharena’s weapon, is the name of Frigga’s hall; Noatun, Anna’s weapon, is the name of Njord’s hall; Valaskjalf, Bruno’s weapon, is the name of another of Odin’s halls (specifically home of his son Vali); and Breidablik, the Summoner’s own weapon – and one no one else could use before Kiran arrived – bears the name of Baldr’s hall.  That’s kind of a weird coincidence, if you ask me, so it got me thinking: what if these weapons held by the Askrans and Emblians were once wielded by valkyries and acted as their means to fill the halls of the gods?  

So the concept I’ve developed is that, in the incredibly distant past, all of these weapons – blades, spears, axes, tomes, and whatever nonsense Breidablik is –  had the exact same summoning power.  They were entrusted to the valkyries assigned to each Aesir’s hall which allowed them to both take part in combat on the field and select worthy Heroes from it, who became part of the host of warriors serving the gods and goddesses of the pantheon.  But at some point before history, something happened, and the gods abandoned Zenith outright, leaving almost everything behind – up to and including the valkyrie weapons, which slowly lost their powers due to lack of care. 

Eventually human kingdoms began to find their footing, and in time they stumbled upon the ruins left by the gods.  Despite their weakened state, the valkyrie weapons were still incredibly powerful and unique arms, which ended up passed down through the royal families of Askr and Embla; but Breidablik, which never lost its Summoning power (an ability that could only be activated by valkyries, not humans), was unusable, and therefore it became enshrined in Askr along with the legend that in their time of need, it would bring forth a Great Hero capable of saving their world. 

And that brings us to Kiran. 

Kiran is a very, very strange case.  My own personal headcanon is that the Summoner, just prior to arriving in Askr, suffered a horrific trauma in their world…and when they were summoned, only their spirit arrived.  Their body is actually still trapped there, comatose in a hospital, while their soul now resides in Askr – and that is actually key to why they can wield Breidablik.  The valkyries were themselves believed to be spirits doing the bidding of the gods; the fact that Kiran is, for all their seeming solidity, a spirit presently bound to Askr effectively makes them a valkyrie, which gives them the ability to tap into Breidablik’s summoning powers where none have been able to before.  Unfortunately, Breidablik has not been immune to the atrophy that affected the other valkyrie weapons – but it has lost its combat powers, as opposed to the others that forfeit their summoning abilities. 

There is, however, the potential that any of these weapons could have their lost powers restored.  We’ve found ruins that allow us to refine weapons and utilize seals, after all…what if, somewhere out there in the wilds of Zenith, there’s a shrine that the valkyries used to perform restoration rituals when their weapons suffered wear or damage in battle?  What if it could be activated, and allow Breidablik to utilize all new powers (which, technically, are very old powers that it simply lost due to neglect)?  

Also, as for the tactical aspect (battlefield mapping and communication), I actually think that the Summoner’s phone is responsible for that!  It’s not actually a real phone, just a construct based on Kiran’s personal connection to it in their world (hence the reason why it never runs out of battery; it can’t connect to the internet or make calls, but it can still play their games and music).  The Fire Emblem: Heroes app is effectively an organizational and management application for them now, which allows them to easily manage the barracks, give new skills to Heroes, adjust equipment…and in battle, it displays an overhead map and enemy unit information by means of Kiran’s own valkyrie status.  By moving units in the app, a glowing trail appears in the overworld that shows the Heroes where to go.  I actually used that whole concept in a fic a while back, if you want to see it in action! <3