Von's Fire Emblem Art

[Von Ithipathachai]

Fire Emblem: Uprising

Chapter 5: Second Thoughts

Objective: Defeat Barret

On the way back to Rema, everyone is still in shock from witnessing the Massacre of Ioklos.  Claudus in particular has spent a good portion of the trip holed up in his quarters, crying.  Overhearing him, the Avatar comes into the room to try and comfort him, reminding Claudus that he can always turn to him/her when he's not feeling well.  Claudus confides to the Avatar his remorse for being unable to stop the massacre, but also his disgust at the possibility that his own country is not only capable of such acts of brutality, but may even be perpetrating more in Ferenca and elsewhere on the Aegan Islands.  Finally, he outright says to the Avatar that if this is the case, he does not want anything to do with the fighting.  Suddenly, Ferrum, who has been eavesdropping on them the whole time, enters and tells them that would be a bad idea.  Angered by his flagrant disrespect of his authority and his personhood, Claudus furiously socks him in the face with a hard punch.  Ferrum shrugs it off and reminds Claudus that they are both bound by their positions and the expectations accompanying them to advance the cause of perpetuating Rema's superiority throughout the continent.  Claudus demands to know why killing everyone else is necessary, but before he can be answered, there is a loud noise outside and they all must head to the deck to see what's going on.

It turns out that pirates under a man named Bloody Barret have intercepted their ship and are attempting to board it.  Barret demands that they all surrender if they wish to preserve their lives, but, of course, Claudus and his men do not listen to him, and resolve to protect themselves by defeating the pirates.

 

Oh, goody, a boat map!  These are always fun, right?...

All kidding aside, this map is one in which you'll need to be a bit more careful.  For one thing, Barret's daughter, Petricia, is waiting in front of one of the boarding planks to pounce on anyone unfortunate enough to enter her movement range, and you do not want to mess with her Killing Edge.  Furthermore, your fighting space on this map is much more cramped that what you may have seen so far, so attacking the pirates first is not recommended since they're likely to surround you, especially the reinforcements that spawn on Turns 4 and 8.

Also note the two chests.  The one on the right has 10000 Gold, and the one on the left has a Beast Killer.  Both of these will be extremely useful, so make sure to get them.  There are two Chest Keys for them that are dropped by enemies.  Petricia has one, and the generic Commander at the top of the map has the other.

If Vincenzo is still alive upon starting the mission, he will recognize Petricia as a major threat and tell Claudus to let him deal with her.  However, Claudus observes that she looks a bit reluctant to fight and wonders if she can be talked out of hurting them.

The best thing to do is to let the pirates come to you so that you can handle them in more controlled amounts.  Your first priority is to deal with Petricia with one of your tougher units.  The best way to do this is to remove all of Ferrum's equipment and put him in Petricia's movement range so that he can soak up her attack without possibly killing her.  Speaking of Ferrum, this is the last chapter in which you can use him before he leaves permanently, so it's especially important that his equipment be given to someone else so that it isn't lost.

On the first Enemy Phase, Barret will tell Petricia to "make her pappy proud" as she leads the charge.  Petricia, however, appears a bit irritated for some reason.

Once Petricia is within your range, talk to her with either Claudus or Vincenzo to recruit her.

If Claudus talks to her, he will try to convince her to stop fighting them and offers to take her away from the pirates if she doesn't want to continue fighting for them.  She accepts the offer, finding that she has developed unusual feelings upon seeing him that compel her to be by his side, struggling to keep her composure all the while.

If Vincenzo talks to her, he will ask her not to kill him, insisting that there are others more worth his time.  Curious, she asks to know where such people can be found, and he offers to show them to her if she joins them.  Doubting that she wants to keep wasting her sword on weak sailors as one of Barret's pirates and spying Claudus's handsome face, she agrees, compelled to do so by unusual feelings...

Petricia is this game's Navarre character.  She is rather close statistically to Vincenzo, but has better Resistance at the expense of Defense and a higher Weapon Rank to boot.  There is not much difference between her performances as a Swordmaster or Mage Fighter, but Swordmaster is still recommended since she will not be able to take much advantage of her low Magic as a Mage Fighter.  Starts with a Slim Sword, Killing Edge, Vulnerary, and Chest Key.

You can start to enter the pirates' ship once most of the enemies have been cleared out.  Beware of the generic Commander miniboss; he is armed with a Mythril Axe, Mythril weapons essentially being "Steel Slim" weapons.  

The only enemies on the map who do not move are Barret and the two Myrmidons with Kodachi standing near him.  Barret himself is armed with a Steel Axe and Hand Axe, so you should deal with the Myrmidons at close range, where Barret won't be able to reach you.  As always, Blaise will be helpful for his ability to attack the boss at 3-Range.

After clearing out the pirates, the survivors (everyone if you're playing Casual Mode) will all make it back to Rema to rest.  That night, Claudus decides to confront his older brother the Emperor about what's going on.  When he enters Cato's chamber, Cato congratulates him for his excellent work in both wiping out the rebellion AND defeating Bloody Barret's pirates, remarking that he may consider sending him to Ferenca or even Tirna next.  Dismayed that even his own brother is condoning mass murder of dissident subjects, Claudus demands to know why it's necessary to kill so many people just to assert Rema's dominance.  Thinking Claudus to still be somewhat naive about why they're fighting, Cato decides to give him a little refresher: their father, Tarquin, believed that the Reman kingdom, while at peace, was losing the fortune it had under its god Iopter and being held back from its full potential.  Believing that the gods and other countries were complicit in treating them unfairly, Tarquin worked until his death to rebuild Rema's army stronger than ever, so that the kingdom could reclaim the prosperity it deserved and show the gods the error of their ways.  Not believing Cato's explanation to justify anything, Claudus reasserts his refusal to participate and runs out of the room.  Disappointed, Cato hopes that Claudus will eventually be able to see eye-to-eye with him.

Early the next morning, the Avatar is unexpectedly roused from their slumber by Aetius, who tells him/her to come with him to the Colosseum if they care about their country.  Being awoken by them, Claudus overhears their conversation and asks what's going on.  Aetius has already been told about the massacre and Claudus's reluctance to continue fighting for his brother, so when he offers to let Claudus come with them, he accepts.

In Chapter 6, Carol and her friends are forced to fight for their lives against seemingly endless waves of gladiators in the Colosseum, all for the amusement of thousands of spectators.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Von Ithipathachai

[Von Ithipathachai]

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, particularly since the next chapter doesn't even have any recruitable characters.  I've been doing some practice with SNES/GBA sprite editing, and so I made this attempt at a portrait of Claudus.

...Now you can see one of the reasons why I'm not trying to make this into an actual hack.  I cannot draw in any Fire Emblem artstyle for jack crap, so I had to resort to splicing to make this portrait.  Even then, as a splice this is very conservative.  (If you're wondering, it's basically young Zephiel with Hawkeye's skin tone, Kent's hair color, and Matthew's shoulders, as well as a few of my own edits to his hair and cape to make it look more like my own art of him.)

Edited July 25, 2017 by Von Ithipathachai

[Von Ithipathachai]

Fire Emblem: Uprising

Chapter 6: Game of Death

Objective: Have Carol Survive for 10 Turns

Early that morning, Carol awakes from the same dream she had back in Ferenca, finding herself imprisoned underground, presumably below the Colosseum.  She and her friends are all trapped in separate cells, waiting to be sent into the Colosseum's pit to die.  They are struggling to figure out what to do when Aetius appears with Claudus, the Avatar, and their own men.  Now that Claudus, Carol, and the Avatar are all together, Aetius decides it is time to explain to them all the history their elders never exposed them to:

Long ago, Rema's god, Iopter, tried to overthrow the other gods and take over the entire Ferencan continent, but he was stopped and sealed away by the other gods with the help of two heroes, one wielding Excelsior, the Sword of Heaven, and the other wielding Peacemaker, the Axe of Earth.  The gods granted these two the Mandate of Heaven and placed them and their descendants on the throne as Rema's new royal family.  This family's greatest treasure was the Fire Emblem, a normally colorless pendant that turned red in the hands of those of royal lineage and was considered to be the physical manifestation of the Mandate itself.  Claudus, however, does not ever recall hearing about this Mandate; Aetius continues with his story, adding that some twenty years ago, a Reman general named Tarquin amassed an army to overthrow the royal family and seize power for himself.  He was able to kill all of the royal family except for the queen's sister, who managed to escape with the Fire Emblem into Ferenca, never to be seen again.  Aetius finishes by taking out the "good luck charm" he'd taken from Carol earlier and returning it to her; it turns from black to red in her hands, signifying that she alone and not Claudus's family is the rightful ruler of Rema.  He adds that it is her duty to save not just Rema, but the entire continent from Iopter's influence as a result of Cato's conquests.

After hearing everything, Claudus and the Avatar also decide to help Carol, but none of them are sure how to go about protecting the whole continent from Cato.  Aetius advises them to start by figuring out how to escape from the Colosseum and Rema to a more favorable land.  However, before they can do anything, Aetius and Claudus's party is forced to hide as guards appear to take Carol's party into the arena to fight.  Now pressed for time, Claudus and the Avatar try to think of an escape plan for them all.  Here, the Avatar demonstrates his resourcefulness by remembering that there is a port directly east of the Colosseum.  Once they make their way to that end of the Colosseum, everyone can be broken out of the arena and they can all escape to the port town to take a ship off of the Reman mainland.  They must hurry, though!

Outside, Cato is observing the arena fight from the royal family's personal box, where he himself grants permission for the fight to start.

I'm not lying when I say I've been looking forward to this chapter.  After all, you cannot have a story with a Rome-like kingdom without gladiatorial arena combat.  All you need to do is last 10 turns without letting Carol die, at which point Claudus and the Avatar will appear to bust everyone out.  Until then, the player gets to enjoy listening to an arrangement of Adversity from Thracia 776 as they struggle to have everyone survive.

Carol and friends all start in the middle of the arena surrounded by enemies.  Once again, you will need to use the terrain to your advantage, having everyone (especially Chaucer) take cover in the pillars.

At the top of the map, you can see Cato himself in his private box.  He has a unique class, Emperor, that is essentially a stronger version of the Bishop class, having an S Rank in Tomes, an A Rank in Staves, and Immune Status as a Class Skill.  Cato himself also has very high stats for this point in the game and can wield both Light and Dark Tomes.  He is armed with a Seraphim tome for self-defense, but this is purely cosmetic as the player won't be able to actually reach him.  Furthermore, every three Turns, or if Carol and friends defeat all of the enemies in the arena, Cato will immediately warp more in on the designated spawn areas regardless of whose turn it is to move and will continue doing so until the time limit is met.

Also worth noting is that on Turn 6, the ground in the center of the ring will give away into a spike pit that damages units that begin their turns in it, making the central four pillars unusable.  So watch out for that.

Once the time limit is met, Claudus and the Avatar will come in through the eastern gate (covered up by the map) and everyone will escape.  Cato cries out in vain to have the Colosseum guards catch them, disappointed but perhaps not surprised that his little brother has turned on him.

In Chapter 7, Claudus has an opportunity to settle the score with a certain racist old Paladin as his and Carol's armies continue their escape through the port.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Von Ithipathachai

[Von Ithipathachai]

A portrait splice of Carol.  This one uses Tate as a base with Dorothy's shoulders and pieces of Florina's hair, with a few of my own modifications.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Von Ithipathachai

[Von Ithipathachai]

Fire Emblem: Uprising

Chapter 7: Exodus

Objective: Have Claudus and Carol Escape

After a while, Claudus and Carol's army make it to the port the Avatar was talking about earlier, with Reman troops still pursuing them.  Unfortunately, the port is also crawling with guards, led by none other than Sir Ferrum, who had received word from Cato by pegasus that all of the borders and ports of the country were to be guarded.  Now surrounded on all sides, Claudus and Carol are left with no choice but to fight their way out.

In order to clear this map, Claudus and Carol need to enter the space inside the docked boat behind Ferrum.  The easiest way to reach would seem to be taking the less heavily defended top roads, where the player can buy Iron and Slim weapons and Fire and Thunder tomes from the Armory and Heal staves, Vulneraries, Door Keys, and Chest Keys from the Vendor on the way.  However, it should be noted that this route will likely yield less EXP.  Regardless, the player should be prepared to handle enemies from both in front and behind, as Cavaliers will spawn near their starting position every two Turns and Pegasus Riders will spawn every three Turns over the large body of water to the east.  There is also a Priest below the lower houses who carries a Poison staff that can be used to inflict ailments on your army from far away.  The Poison ailment in this game works like it does in Thracia 776, except that it cannot kill units on its own.

A Thief will also spawn on Turns 5 and 10 and attempt to ransack the Houses, so you may wish to deal with them ASAP.

Note Aetius's presence on the map as an ally.  He is a very strong pre-promoted Paladin who will be recruitable much later in the game, but not right now.  For now, he will stay a certain distance away from Claudus and Carol, hanging back to help deal with the Cavaliers pursuing them.  In this chapter, he is equipped with a Steel Blade and Silver Lance.  Note that he will not enter the dock area where Ferrum is.

It would be a good idea to visit the Houses before assaulting the dock.  The top-right House has an Armorslayer, the bottom-left House has a Butcher's Axe, and the rest have Medals.

On Turn 3, before the Enemy Phase begins, if Drusilla was talked to in Chapter 3, there is a scene in which Glauce orders Drusilla to pursue Claudus.  Drusilla is at first hesitant to move out, remembering his and the Avatar's kindness in trying to help her, but she complies when Glauce threatens do something particularly embarrassing to her.  Tito overhears this and, unable to stand his sister's actions any longer, encourages Drusilla to not only leave the Fury Squadron for her own sake, but also to defect to Claudus's army, where she will be treated better.  Afterwards, she and a couple of generic Pegasus Riders appear and the Enemy Phase starts.  (Drusilla will appear on the bottom spawn zone on Turn 3; this space will be occupied by generic Pegasus Riders on subsequent turns.)

If Drusilla was talked to in Chapter 3, Claudus or the Avatar can talk to her again to recruit her.

Drusilla is another exceptional mounted unit and the player's first flier.  She is very powerful with excellent HP and Strength growths for her class and also unusually high Constitution, allowing her to wield heavier Lances with relatively little Speed loss.  However, as can be expected, her Speed and Resistance growths are unusually shaky, and her Magic is poor.  As a Griffon Knight, she will even be able to use Axes fairly well thanks to her extra bulk.

Once you reach the dock, use Franklin or a Sword-user with the Armorslayer (if you obtained it) to deal with the Heavy Soldiers, who will not move from their position.  Beware of Ferrum, as he WILL move to attack a unit if in range.  He will have the same stats as when he left the party, but will be armed with a Steel Lance and Javelin.  Also, if he is reclassed with the Second Seal dropped by Milos in Chapter 3, he will be changed back into a Paladin to be fought in this chapter.  If you obtained the Butcher's Axe or the Beast Killer back in Chapter 5, definitely use those as they will make him a much easier foe to defeat.  If he is defeated, he will curse Claudus and vocally regret not killing him sooner before dying himself.

Once Claudus and Carol are inside the boat, everyone else will make it in, but Aetius will lag behind, finding himself suddenly surrounded by enemy reinforcements under Crassus.  Unfortunately, the boat leaves without him and the Avatar is unable to save him; Aetius assures his son/daughter that he will be alright before Crassus's men carry him off to be captured.

Now that everyone is heading away from Rema, Claudus, Carol, and the Avatar are now left do devise a plan of action of how to fight back against the Remans.  Claudus notes that they do not have enough manpower to oppose the entire Reman army themselves and will likely have to go to a country able to spare resources and manpower to strengthen their own rebel army.  Tirna and the Aegan Islands are out of the question, as they would have to return west for those and possibly fight the Reman navy, for which they are ill-equipped.  Ferenca and Feniz are also poor choices, Carol notes, because Rema is known to have allies in high places in those countries.  This leaves distant Xanadu as the best option, being the least involved with Rema and having ample resources.  However, to get there, they will still have to briefly stop in Feniz to cross the peninsula, as they will need to reach Xanadu as quickly as possible.

If Vincenzo and/or Petricia are alive, they will notice another ship being harassed by pirates and inform the protagonists.  Claudus and Carol disagree about what they should do.  On one hand, Claudus wants to ignore the ships, which would let them reach Feniz (and Xanadu) more quickly at the cost of the passengers' lives.  On the other hand, Carol wants to help them because she feels a duty to start helping as many people as possible as the true heir of Rema; however, this would result in word of their escape having more time to spread, leading to more guards pursuing them.  It is a difficult decision that is ultimately left up to the Avatar.

In Chapter 7x, our heroes stop to help some familiar faces against more pirates.  Not familiar to him, perhaps, but to you.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Von Ithipathachai

[Von Ithipathachai]

Drawings of Cato and Glauce, since I thought they were notable enough antagonists that they needed proper artwork.

[Von Ithipathachai]

Fire Emblem: Uprising

Chapter 7x: Merchants

Objective: Defeat Hassan and Khalid

To access this chapter, either Vincenzo or Petricia must be recruited and alive and the heroes must choose to help the ship being attacked by pirates.

The scene opens with a familiar merchant and her bodyguard talking to their crew of sailors about when they will arrive in Feniz.  Suddenly, as they are talking, one of their crew sights a pirate ship; everyone else gets below the deck to hide while the merchant and her bodyguard stay above to hopefully negotiate with the pirates.  Their leader, Khalid, and his younger brother, Hassan, meet with them.  The merchant tries to buy their safety with a huge bribe, but Khalid refuses, noting that they must have more that would be easier to obtain by force.  To make matters worse, Hassan recognizes the bodyguard as one of their crewmen, who had deserted some time ago, and decides to punish him and the others with death.

Luckily, our protagonists show up just in time to help, and proceed to board the merchants' ship on the other side.

This is the first chapter in which the player has access to Battle Preparations.  Here, the player can choose which units to deploy, access unlocked Support conversations, manage inventory and Skills, save their game, and purchase the most basic weapons and Vulneraries available from the Shop.  Note the blank blue circles; this is where other deployed units go, and their positions can be changed if needed.

Anyway, onto the map itself.  It's another boat map, actually a harder version of Chapter 5 in which the player must also protect the two green units in addition to defeating the named Commanders.  And guess who they are!  It's Anna, everyone's favorite money-loving, RNG Goddess merchant!  Oh, and her lackey, too.

For this map, it is recommended to at least bring a Thief (who can debuff enemies and help grab the chests), one healer, and a Bow user (to provide long-range support fire, especially against Khalid and the two stationary Thieves protecting him).

Head for your green allies as soon as you start the map.  Note that Anna is a VIP here and you will fail the mission if she is defeated, even after recruiting her.  Thankfully, Claudus, Carol, or the Avatar can talk to her to recruit her.  They tell her that they're here to help and that they can all fight the pirates off more easily together.

Anna is the second Thief you obtain, and she is largely a more traditional one than Jack, having much higher Speed and Resistance, but also worse Strength, Defense, and Constitution.  However, she also has a few other odd quirks of her own.  For one thing, her Magic will probably be better than her Strength despite neither of her regular promotions using Tomes or Staves.  This is remedied by her personal weapon, Anna's Dagger, which has high durability and is not only a magical weapon, but also grants her Despoil when equipped and can be sold for a whopping 6400 Gold if you don't plan on using her much.  She also has absurdly high Luck for her class, with a high base and an astounding 100% growth in it, befitting of her nature as the RNG Goddess.  This makes her a truly exceptional dodge tank, though her chances of surviving whatever physical attacks she is hit by are slim.  Making her a Rogue will maximize her evasive abilities.  Starts with Anna's Dagger and a Vulnerary.

Once you recruit Anna, Jake will automatically be recruited with her.

Jake is your only recruitable Brigand (unless the Avatar was made a Brigand prior to beginning the story).  He will hit very hard and fast, even compared to your other Axe users, but his Skill and Luck will fall behind thanks to their poor growths.  His monstrously high HP is also offset by his comparatively poor defenses.  He is best off as a Berserker so that you can have a decent S Rank Axe user, but if you don't recruit him, fear not, for you will be able to recruit another, pre-promoted Berserker later.  Starts with a Steel Axe and Concoction.

Once Jake and Anna are recruited, you can begin advancing on the enemy ship, but make sure to get the chests on Anna's boat first and be wary of the reinforcements.  On Anna's boat, the left chest has a Goddess Icon, and the right chest has a Medal.

Watch out for the Commanders like always.  Of them, only Khalid will be stationary.  The nameless Fighter Commander is armed with a Steel Axe and drops a Chest Key when defeated.  Hassan is armed with a Lancereaver and Kodachi, the latter of which he'll drop when defeated.  Khalid and his Thief friends only have Iron Daggers, but Khalid himself has Critical +10 from his class, so be wary of that if you're attacking him with someone other than your Bow user.

You should also make sure to claim the other chests before killing him, assuming you've cleared out most of the other enemies on their boat.  The left chest on the enemy boat contains an Iron Blade, and the right chest contains a Javelin.

Once Khalid and Hassan have been defeated, the other pirates will surrender and leave our Jake and Anna alone.  Jake and Anna then thank our protagonists and offer to lend their services to their army.

In Chapter 8, our heroes arrive in Feniz and find themselves caught up in someone else's rebellion.

[Von Ithipathachai]

So... it has come to my attention that Serenes Forest has a limit on how many MB of images you can upload onto the site.  Considering that I have many more chapters and OCs I'd like to upload here, this is a problem.

Alternatively, I could just upload them to DeviantArt and insert image links here, but there are other issues I have related to the content itself.

You see, I've grown somewhat dissatisfied with the class, stat/growth, and Skill systems I have in place.  I've also found a few problems with the character templates I use (necks are off center, not much proportion variance possible).  However, changing those would require restarting everything from the ground up, I decided it would simply be better if I asked anyone who happens to be reading this thread to check out my DeviantArt page instead if they want to see my updated, new-and-improved Fire Emblem: Uprising stuff.

In conclusion, don't expect any more important stuff like that on this thread, though I will leave the stuff here up for posterity, as a sort of relic of my creative process.  I may post other drawings on here, though, such as memes/shitposts (like From Nergal With Love) or other Uprising-related drawings not intended to convey major info.

Anyway, thank the three of you who were looking at this thread for taking the time to check it out and providing feedback.

[Von Ithipathachai]

"It's time to kick ass and drink Vulneraries.  And I'm all outta Vulneraries."

Edited August 26, 2017 by Von Ithipathachai