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Fire Emblem Lore: The Dragon Connection


CappnRob
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So if there are two things that connect all FE games together, its the Fire Emblem itself (albet appearing in multiple forms) and the presence of dragons in its stories. I've been reading some creator notes on FE4 particularly, which explored the origins of Loptyr, Naga, and Forsetti's involvement with the mortal world in regards to Judgral Saga's backstory, and it got me thinking due to some stuff that was said. Apparently the dragon gods of FE4 all came from Akaneia, so does that make Akaneia the homeland of deitic dragons? The dragon's gate from the Elibe Saga, does it in fact lead to Akaneia? I know the dragons in Akaneia Saga all live in this wilderness hell hole up north of the human nations. Then there's the dragon tribe Laguz in Tellius Saga: how are they connected? Are they glorified manakete/mamkutes? And lastly, is it ever explained the difference between a sentient dragon and the feral ones that dragon knights ride? Their evolutionary differences or whatever?

Food for thought I suppose.

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I suppose the difference between the wyverns used by Draco Knights and Manaketes/divine dragons are more or less the difference between humans and apes: physiologically similar, but very different in certain regards.

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That's what I imagined too but I wondered if there was any in-game lore explanation for it in any of the games. I know FE7 sorta glosses over it because NoA translated "dragons" into "wyverns", but there's still the issue of FE6.

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I don't think there's any connection between the dragons of Elibe and of Tellius.

At least, there is a difference between people of mixed human and dragon parentage in Elibe and in Tellius: Ninian was able to transform into a dragon (and presumably so was Nils), and Soren wasn't.

Then again, Roy can't transform into a dragon even if Ninian is his mother, so maybe half-dragons in Elibe are equivalent to Dragon Laguz in Tellius.

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I'm lessso asking if there's a direct connection and more if there's a correlation of some kind. I haven't played Radiant Dawn yet so I don't know what if any lore dragon laguz get that could connect them to dragons from previous games.

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I haven't played the Judgral saga nor many of the Akaneia games so I can't comment on their connection to each other but Dragon Laguz seem a significant departure from the dragons of other settings. As far as we know, Dragon Laguz don't need Dragon Stones nor do they inevitably go insane. Elibe dragons use dragon stones but there is no mention of them going crazy either. As far as Roy not being able to turn into a dragon, you could chalk that up to Ninian not existing when Roy was made. Branded in Tellius just seem like above average humans, since they can't transform, no matter how much Laguz blood they have.

Edited by NekoKnight
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I love lore topics, although I wish IS gave us a lot more details to digest ^^;;

My personal theory is that the Laguz are the ancestors of the Manakete and Taguel (and the Wolfskin and Kitsune). To put it more precisely, the Dragon Laguz eventually became Manaketes and everything else (the Birds and Beast) became the Taguel.

But since we're talking about dragons, I'll focus on the Dragon Laguz and Manaketes. Obviously, we've already established that Dragon Laguz do not need dragonstones to function, but that's because the catastrophic event that forced dragons to become Manaketes hasn't happened yet.

Remember that Laguz do not need stones to assume animal form, but it still requires energy (unless you're a royal). In-game and story-wise, Laguz can use Laguz Stones to transform straightaway; likewise, dragonstones (and beaststones) could've been used to reduce the strain on the Laguz.

Another thing: in the planning documents for Path of Radiance, the dragons of Goldoa were developing dragonstones to make combat easier.

One argument against Dragon Laguz becoming Manakete is that the Manaketes' "dragon" form is considered the "true" form, while Dragon Laguz have two forms. I think this is just a minor inconsistency though, since it's difficult to tie all the lore together over many years of game development.

One more thing, although this is possibly a bigger stretch. In the Japanese version of Fates, while visiting Fort Dragonfall, the characters mention the fortress being built from the remains of the Black Dragon King, who was said to be an Earth Dragon. Considering the true form of an Earth Dragon is a Shadow Dragon, this could tie the Tellius dragons with the Archanean dragons.

On the topic of the Branded. I'm pretty sure there is some connection to the holy blood in Jugdral, as well as the markings that Chrom and Robin possess. For the latter two, Seliph in his post-DLC conversation even mentions how his and Robin's Brands are similar.

In addition, the Branded are a result of Beorc and Laguz blood mixing, while the Brands in Jugdral are a result of human and dragon blood mixing. Presumably Chrom and Robin's Brands work the same.

In the end, I am pretty sure IS has purposely put all these connections in, but I have no idea if they really put any thought into it XD

Edited by VincentASM
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I prefer to to take each continent's lore and separate it from the lore of other continents (with the except of everything pre-Elibe, as the Kagaverse is all connected in various ways). I'm personally not a fan of trying mash all the lore of each continent into one continuous set of world building, mostly because even FE 1-5 has strange continuity errors before you even throw in games like Awakening that supposedly take place in the same setting.

As for wyverns, only the Archanean games actually bother to provide an explanation for why they exist (being a degenerated dragon tribe), though I don't think Jugdral provides an explanation that I'm aware of despite being in the same continuity.

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I have no doubt IS (or at least Kaga) intended these connections albeit probably without thinking TOO hard about these connections. Either way, interesting that laguz stones can be seen as predecessors to dragonstones, I never considered it that way. I had forgotten that mamkutes take on a human form to conserve energy and dragonstones were created to serve that purpose, I forget which game mentions that (its FE6 I think?). 

This has me wondering though, does it ever mention if Nils or Ninian had markings? I don't think it does, but eh! I never considered the Branded marks being the same as the Crusader's divine markings.

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