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Everyone that played Awakening must have seen the Grimleal cult, and were likely VERY disappointed by how it was. Unlike other Fire Emblem series that held religion, such as Genealogy's Lopto Sect, and Tellius series religion that talk of Ashera, the Grimleal is a religion in Awakening that wasn't fully explored. Even the Duma Faithful were explored a bit in Echoes. But we hardly know a thing about the Grimleal, what sets it apart, and so on. My fic has the intention of exploring some of the stuff, and about two of the three things I'll say did get explained and explored. But I want to hear your opinions regarding it, and what you think about it. 1) Teachings: The Grimleal was founded under the worship of Grima. However, what Grima is depicted as differs depending on what form of faith you have. If you are of the minor faith, which makes up the majority of the religion, Grima is a god that exists to punish the non-believers, and protect the faithful. However, the Major Faithfuls, the one that are the fewer in the religion, know something deeper. In that Grima is born from the darkness of humans themselves. Here're a few quotes I have Validar speak in my fic where he explains it in: To the Major Faithfuls, Grima is a sign that the world must start over. The entity where humanity has evolved in all the wrong ways, and that the world must start over by ending humanity. This is what the religion believes. And anyone that tries to fight against that are the most vile creatures, as they are trying to prolong the suffering of the world. 2) What defines the Minor and Major Faithfuls? Simple, knowledge. You must study extensively on the customs and ritual of the religion. Afterwards, when you prove yourself, you are given the chance to ascend to the Major ranks. However, the reason these are so few is because the ritual for it is brutal. In there, the person has the Brand of the Defile burned onto their backs using a burning hot iron branding tool. Naturally, such a thing is incredibly dangerous, and if the pain does not kill you, the possible infections and damage to the skin could. After you receive the brand, you get treated almost immediately, but many die during recovery. But the ones that manage to survive, they are able to read the encrypted grimoires and have access to major knowledge about the religion, and even attain a great deal of wealth and political power, and some even attain some more ancient and powerful tomes to learn more powerful magic to grow stronger. This test is mandatory, but the person are informed of the risks, making sure that the dangers are very clear to them. If they accept, it shows true dedication to the cult, if you're willing to put your life on the line and scar yourself for life, it shows. 3) The Hierophants: Obviously, the Hierophant or the leader of the Grimleal obviously MUST have Fellblood in them. But exactly what makes the person want to serve Grima? What sort of brainwashing did they go through? Or rather, what did Validar go through for him to want to end the world? And would this have also been Robin if he/she remained in the cult, rather than be spirited away by their mother? Well, it basically is that the Fellbloods are taught to utterly hate the world. They are raised to believe that the world is truly vile and should be eradicated. This is done by making the child see the cruelties of mankind, from the war ravaged areas, to how bandits attack helpless citizens, and even see how people betray one another. The Grimleal manipulates many events to implant the seeds of the world's evil into their mind. Any glimmer or hope that the child might see is quickly snuffed out when they see the evil behind the good. They see acts of kindness to be nothing more than hypocrisy. And the final setting to cement their despair over humanity, when they reach a certain age, somewhere at like 10-12 more or less, the parent Hierophant fights their child in a battle to the death. They try to invoke all their anger, hatred, fear, and so forth in the fight, and ultimately makes the child kill them. Validar went through this and was forced to fight and murder his own father. When he realized what he did, and what his father tried to do to him, Validar's mind was shattered of all faith he might have possibly harbored for humanity, and that there was no such thing as goodness, and the world must be destroyed. -------- And there we go. That is how some of the stuff that I think the Grimleal functions in, and how I want to present it into my fic. What do you guys think? If this was in the actual Awakening game, would it have made the Grimleal more understandable? Would this have made Validar more sympathetic?

While replaying Radiant Dawn, I've been reminded that Zelgius might just be the most badass antagonist (at least for a while) in Fire Emblem history. He's calm, he's clever, he's powerful and he's the only character in the game with a good English voice actor. Every time he's shows up it means bad news for Ike and the gang. I never felt that way about any of the enemy generals in Awakening. They were incompetent flunkies who's only jobs were to be cannon fodder mini-bosses. Even the enemies that were important to the plot like Gangrel and Validar were a pair of easily outsmarted idjits in the end. Why didn't IS give us a antagonist on par with Zelgius? I wanted to see a bad guy who could Robin a run for his/her money show up, but they never did.

This thread is a failure and a dud. Even I think it is a failure *facepalm*

I was thinking, if you were to have one more endgame paralogue who would you want in it? I would probably want Validar or Phila since everyone major who dies can't stay dead for some reason so why not add a few more people who "escaped death" Or Excellus because I love messed up characters :/

Does anyone have the mp3s or other music file downloads? Preferably not .zip or .rar files because my phone and I'm sure a few other's phones are picky little sons-a-guns. Only if you have any laying around though, and if I'm completely ignorant and you can't link to files in forum posts, disregard this whole post and let me know please. Thanks! By the way, I have a couple versions of "Don't Speak Her Name!" if anyone wants that, when I learn how links work at least...