Cossack>Cavalier

Thracia in Jugdral has a similar theme, so it seems to be a recurring one in FE games. That being said, it's really not realistic. There had to be baseline agriculture or hunter/gatherer activities to support the population there before they could become mercenaries. Indeed, that both of these nations use mounts for their mercenary work implies that there is domestic food production. The wyverns in Thracia and pegusai in Illia are by all indications domestic. So they have the resources for animal husbandry...of some variety. They also have towns of varying sizes and the various human endeavors that occur within them needed to support the creation of a mercenary force for export. I think the best explanation is that domestic production isn't non-existent, but it IS insufficient for large numbers of people who sell their services out as mercenaries to compliment domestic production. I also wouldn't be surprised if this exacerbates the issue in the long run. Maybe young men and women who would normally work the meager farm decide not to do so in pursuit of quick riches and glory as a mercenary, already reducing a limited food and resources supply.

It's already been said, but an avatar is a horrible idea for FE4. The story is already something very tightly knit around the existing cast. It is Sigurd's army. His charisma and prior relationships are what allow him to do what he does. His sense of duty to Adeen draws him into Verdane. His friendship with Quan brings the forces of Leonstar into the war. His friendship with Eldigan brings the drama to Augustria. His relationship with Ranna in Silesse as that of surrogate son makes that nation safe harbor for many members of his army as did his decision to protect Shannon that results in safe harbor for Seliph. The driving force behind the first half is Sigurd. The glory and the failures. I think any avatar character just serves to disrupt that. You run into similar issues with the second generation. There, you have an explicit advisor character in the form of Lewyn/Forseti. If the avatar survived the first generation, he threatens to overshadow Lewyn in that role. If he doesn't survive (which would cause anger all on its own) then he has to delve into the children aspect of the game. So, let's unpack that can of worms. Assuming you have both a male and female option for the Avatar, you'll need to allow the woman to have children. Which makes her strictly better than the male avatar. Unless you allow him to have kids, too. So what happens if your male avatar marries an original female from the game. Let's say Arya, for example. Does Arya then have 4 kids now? New Kid 1 (Male), New Kid 2 (Female), Ulster, and Larcie? If that's the case then male avatar likely becomes better than the female avatar as he can effectively double what skills are passed down. This isn't even considering that what class his kids are. (Which I assume would be based around what class he was for at least one of the two, likely his male kid and the female kid for the female avatar.) Then from a thematic/story point you have the Holy Blood dynamic. Does the avatar have Holy Blood? If so, where do you fit that into the world's history? The 13 crusaders if you make it a new type? If so, why isn't the avatar a noble or king? Every other descendant of the Divine crusaders created a kingdom or dukedom (as part of a larger kingdom). Was the avatar's dragon some secret 13th crusader lost to time? I suppose, but it's more than a little cliche and doesn't mesh with the very neat and tidy existing lore. The best you can say, as I think about this off the top of my head, is that perhaps his ancestors rule Verdane but at some point lost rulership, and it devolved into anarchy and tribalism...and that somehow Jugdral forgot he existed. I just don't think it works. (Also as a side note, the Holy Weapon and Holy Blood bonuses would have to change for every single class if this were the case. If Holy Blood 13th increases strength and health growths, it's neither suited for a mage character nor would the holy weapon Thirteenthfing the lance/sword/axe/bow be useful. And more so than a melee weapon, a tome would disrupt the tome effectiveness triangle. Especially if you could make it a wind tome. Christ, think about two Forseti's.) So let's say you allow for him to have existing Holy Blood. That's just as big of an issue, if not more so. Instantly the Avatar goes from a nobody to a close blood relation of somebody important. No matter what is chosen. Major Fala? Arvis. Major Naga? That one blows the plot wide open. Julia and Seliph ceases to be the only heirs to the throne, Julia isn't the only one able to stop Julius, etc. Hell, you could imagine an absolutely comical scenario where the child of the Avatar has Major Baldur or Naga blood and instead of Seliph or Julia fighting Julius in a final climactic battle of gods and vengence...it's the OP avatar's kid who saves Jugdral. Edit: No Holy Blood is of course an option. And from a story perspective it is the most viable. Then you have to consider that most players would want to pair the avatar up for self-insertion purposes or merely so that their character "lives" on but from a gameplay perspective they are at a massive disadvantage with no stat growths from Holy Blood. So just give them great state growths on par with what Holy Blood has. Sure? I suppose that's workable but I think thematically it dilutes the immersion that comes from having Holy Blooded characters feels dramatically more powerful than their counterparts. Especially in conjunction with their Holy Weapons, I don't think any other FE game did as effective a job as making it's legendary weapons and divinely sired characters FEEL as earth shatteringly powerful as FE4 did. The mythic backstory to many FE games has a small group of heroes blessed with powers who turn the tide of ancient wars, etc, etc. FE6/7, FE8, FE1/3/11/12 (to a certain extent) but FE4 was the only one where I felt while playing that "yeah, if I had the 12 Crusaders I could take on armies." And I think it would be a shame to dilute that.

Lewyn/Forseti also states to Seliph that Naga is/was more powerful than Loptyr.

That's fair. If it helps, a decent explanation is that part of what it means for divinity to be divine is that it can manipulate the causality or the material world. It's not simply tossing big fireballs by the ability to alter the nature of reality. Console commands for the universe, if you will. Or, that the sort of truth an author of a more mythical story is trying to tell isn't a materialistic truth but rather an ethical or poetic truth. No one would bother to tell a story where Manfroy tripped and fell on the way to bringing the book to Julius, breaking his own neck in the process. Or one where Arvis was shooting blanks and the whole plan of the Loptyr cult was foiled by the lack of the S-ranked Tome of Viagra. Details like that get in the way of events unfolding so that the children of Deidre, Sigurd, and Arvis would kill eachother, replaying the original Holy War. That's why I think Seliph also had to recapture Darna in Chapter 7 right after the Yied shrine which served as a lair for the Loptyr cult. The player is supposed to see it on the map/capture it and think, "Wow, Darna. I know that place. It's the miracle of Darna all over again. By golly, it's another Holy War!" But, again, I understand that sort of thing being annoying. Plot contrivances are what they are.

Perhaps. I was actually just playing Chapter 7 today and read the conversation Seliph had with Lewyn/Forseti. The latter did state that the elements of the cult hiding in Yied were not simply cultists but direct remnants of the Loptyr Empire. When the Empire fell loyalists hunkered down, underground literally and figuratively, in enclaves. It does stand to reason that they might have spirited away artifacts and knowledge. The Loptyr sect seems to be rather diversified with hands in lots of pots so to speak. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see that they operated in cells, not unlike modern terrorists, so that if one cell is outed and burned at the stake they can't give up all their compatriots. Losing Manfroy would no doubt be bad, but with the cultists always being hunted to one degree or another since the fall of the Loptyr Empire, I can't imagine it wouldn't have happened before that a high ranking member/leader of the cult was found and executed before. I think it's hard to apply purely material logic to things like this. It's like suggesting that Isildur should have simply tossed the One Ring into the middle of the ocean halfway between Middle-Earth and Valinor and everything would have been just fine. When you're dealing with myth and magic and evil artifacts that have a will of their own, it's not easy. You'll end up with a sea quake that breaks the box, a fish swallows the book, and a Loptyr sect fisherman just happens to pluck that fish from the ocean. It's a little silly to put it that way, but I think that's an inherent part of the logic of universes like Jugdral. Consider Deidre's premonition that if she were separated from Sigurd harm would come to her. Or the odds behind Cigyun giving birth to children, one from a scion of Naga and the other a scion of Loptyr? And then for those two children to meet and have a child themselves? Indeed, the Loptyr sect on got involved in that very last step (so far as we know) in bringing Arvis and Deidre together. The rest was seemingly Cigyun on her own. Which to me speaks to fate and divine intervention.

From my impression of the story, those who seem to have the best idea about how holy blood works are those in the Loptyr sect. Perhaps this impression is only rooted in the fact that the only group engaged in Holy Blood eugenics, for lack of a better term, is the Loptyr sect. Even the descendants of St. Maira seem to only vaguely be aware that the propagation of their line has the risk of calamity. Granted, it would be rather on the nose to say "well if you engage in incest (to an unknown degree) the end result may be a high enough concentration of unholy blood which will serve as a vessel for the resurrection of Loptyr!" Instead it's, "calamity will befall the world if you have kids!" Which is rather vague, to say the least. So, my impression was that the Loptyr sect perhaps preserved certain knowledge from the time of the original empire at locations such as their lair in the Yied Desert from those devotees whom the crusaders were not able to fully wipe out. That could easily have included the tome itself. It is an assumption (albeit a fair one) that the Crusaders recovered the tome when the slew Loptyr the first time around. They also might not have. If we're talking about story tropes, that's a frequent one, too. The ancient heroes slay evil but the MacGuffin artifact slips through their grasp and through the work of loyal servants of evil, it bides its time until rising again. So, long story short, I think that the Loptyr sect had held onto the tome since the time of the original empire and it passed from leader to leader of the sect as a sort of unholy Bible until it came into Manfroy's hands with the only missing piece being the major unholy blood.

@TheMaskedRaider Very enjoyable hack! I hope that you finish the supports at some point, but dropping the google doc was pleasant enough, and it has plenty of potential. I really enjoyed the story and which characters we were able to get to know. I thought the banter between Clara and Algimas was particularly well done. On a side note for other folks, I did have a glitch on the final chapter. It locks up after Algimas speaks his first lines and none of the menus or icons appear. I was able to complete the chapter by skipping all the text. The chapter played like normal after that.

I've seen someone suggest Christmas cavalier pairings before and I think it'd be great, but they'd have to add more of the pairs. *coughs Kent/Sain *coughs*

That's the spirit! Heroes vs Swordmasters. #teamraven

I dunno. Your sig is still promoting Leo. I think I can safely blame Robin's impending loss squarely on your shoulders and begin the process of ostracizing you from SF.

Suggestion for the both of you? Take this to PMs. The thread isn't to hash out a "discussion" of this sort.

Why didn't you just ask me sooner? I could've done it. If only I'd known earlier you needed the skills of the most charismatic man on the internet.

Not sure I'd want the attention, but appreciate the sentiment.

I, for one, refuse to be anything other than a little disappointed. It's not worth anything more severe than that, folks. It's just a popularity contest between fictitious characters in a Japanese strategy RPG. The fictitious waifu embodiment of yandere fanservice beat out the fictitious blank slate chosen-one self-insert hero. Oh well, better luck next time!

Damnit all, I can't keep joining you're team if you're always going to pick losers! In all seriousness, it is disappointing. One of these days the most popular person in the gauntlet will be the person I also like the best. I can't keep striking out. Ephraim, Cordelia, Minerva, Julia, Robin