Book IV Official Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Medeus]

22 hours ago, Mercakete said:

Hey now, that's not exactly accurate. Hrid was doing a lot of work offscreen before meeting with the reinforcements Fjorm brought. He was leading Nifl's army against Muspell and even actively fought against Surtr, but was forced to retreat. He was still recovering from that fight when the player meets him.

Regarding adjusting the dialogue to fit the story better (such as your Lugh example), I think that's a good suggestion. You should definitely send it in as feedback. 🙂

@SirErrant

I think we have at least a couple more books ahead of us before Ragnarok. There's still the founding dragons/Embla's curse to confront (which I suspect will be its own book, probably 2nd to last with the final one being Ragnarok.) Not sure when we'll meet Eir's actual parents, but she's the daughter of a life deity, and I doubt they're not going to bring that back. During Ragnarok, we'll probably see restored Nifl (run by Hrid) and restored Muspell (run by Leavateinn) come as NPC backups to help Alfonse (ruler of Askr) and either Veonica or Bruno (ruler of Embla) in the final confrontation. Lif and Thrasir will already be repping book 3 by helping Thorr/Alfador (who Thorr recruited them on behalf of.) Also, depending on how this plays out, the ruler of the fairies. Probably both Freyr and Freyja (since I think she'll be redeemed.) And whoever's in charge of Jormungdr (or however you spell it), which is probably where book 5 will take place. And probably have something to do with wolves (like Fenrir.) Maybe we'll have a wolf boss who eats the sun and a counterpart that eats the moon and they'll be the big bads we have to beat so they cough up the celestial bodies.

So, we're in book 4, then I imagine book 5 will be Jormungder, then book 6 will be the four founding dragons (Askr, Embla, Muspell and Nifl) climaxing in Bruno finally getting rid of the Emblian curse, then book 7 will be Ragnarok/the gods gearing up for Ragnarok (and maybe have something to do with the world tree + the blood eagle.)

Honestly, Eir's real parents and the Life Dragon bit was pretty much a footnote in the story. It only popped in at the final chapter as a cheap twist and even then it barely had an effect since Eir still saw Hel as her mother. It's not something that needs to be addressed further as the story did nothing to make it something worth going after, at least when compared to something like Loki's dragon research or drawing other storylines from Norse Mythology. 

That said, the aforementioned dragon research is something I can see pop up again. Loki was looking into that not too long ago and Askr/Embla are gods in the world of Midgar, so something will be done with them. In fact, it's possible that they may even be related to Jormungandr since in Mythology he is the World Serpent, so it would make sense for them to be connected.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Medeus

[Mercakete]

@SirErrant

Quote

To be honest, it was basically both. Yes, Hrid did a bunch of stuff offscreen, but since we never saw any of that happen or any of the consequences of that (besides distracting Surtr for a little?), it's almost as if he did nothing at all.

You're treating it like he was supposed to help us for some reason. Muspell invaded Nifl first, forcing them onto the defensive. We were the ones who came to his aid so of course it looked like he didn't do anything. We missed his fight, and I actually think that's a good thing. It helps the narrative remain consistent, and realistically, the player won't be there for every important thing in history. Also, he wasn't "buying time for us." That would again be him helping us. We're the ones helping him. If memory serves, he didn't even know about us until Fjorm brought us to him. We're the side characters in that story. I do agree, though, that a cutscene of Hrid's clash with Surtr would've been cool.

@Medeus

Eir's parentage also explained how she was able to be killed so many times. Don't forget about that. As for what IS does or doesn't do, all we can do is speculate whichever way. I can see us meeting Eir's parents sometime down the road, especially if/when the Emblian curse/founding dragons stuff goes down. That, or during the Ragnarok prep (though it'll probably be another one-liner scenario and Eir might not even talk to them.) Anyway, there's a lot of room for including it yet.

[SirErrant]

@Mercakete Whoops, you're right. I need to brush up on my book 2 knowledge a little more, I think I got Hrid confused with Gunnthra in terms of plot relevance. For some reason I thought Gunnthra was the one we were supposed to save and Hrid was the one helping us out in the background. It's the other way around, I think? Totally blaming this on IS for creating too many book 2 OC's, not my faulty memory

 

[Mercakete]

@SirErrant

Hahah! Well, Fjorm was trying to take us to find Gunnthra at one point, but yeah, the eldest Nifl sister was talking to Kiran in his dreams before then. Also hiding. But then she was found and died. I don't think that's bad either, though. Surtr was dealing with Nifl's main forces (led by Hrid) while his generals looked for the other Nifl siblings. He was trying to destroy Nifl's royalty, so Gunnthra dying made sense in the plot. Plus, it showed how evenly matched Nifl (+Askr) was to Muspell (+Embla.) Nifl was actually losing, if you think about it (and only because Muspell got the jump on them.) It only looked like they weren't because the player will always win. Yet, Muspell was never quite able to totally achieve their goals. So, fairly evenly matched. The loss of Gunnthra was an important part in the plot for 2 reasons: 1. It showed Muspell (+Embla) were not pushovers. It gave them a victory, even though Gunnthra's allies escaped. Honestly, I find it a bit irritating when wars (in fiction) are one-sided. It's just not realistic. Losing Gunnthra was a serious blow to Nifl, especially since she couldn't perform the Rite of Frost, nor could she assist Askr/Nifl anymore (which sucks because she had useful information that Muspell's opposition had to take time to figure out, and time was not a luxury they had.)

Admittedly, you can only really understand all this if you look at it from a story- and big-picture perspective. There's nothing wrong with it -- in fact, it's quite good -- it's just that the player is zoomed-in all the time on chapter part to chapter part (which makes the story kind of a grind), so it's probably not the right platform upon which to tell that particular story. It's really better told as a novelette, especially since then we can jump perspectives to Hrid's army, Gunnthra in isolation, etc.

[SirErrant]

@Mercakete Yeah, I don't have a problem with Gunnthra's death. I thought it was interesting, raised the stakes, and made sense plot-wise (although execution felt kind of rushed). Plus, it was (sort of) a subversion of expectations, since you were built up to assume that Gunnthra was going to be helpful to the plot and guide you to the Rite of Frost (I think). I also think that one-sided wars are annoying and narratively boring (whether you're on the winning or losing side). 

I just wish that, in general, we were able to get a chapter from someone else's perspective instead of just the Askr trio 100% of the time. It would have been cool to see how Veronica's doing, follow Bruno and Xander on the search for the end to the Emblian curse, or flesh out other enemies (Muspell sisters, Lif/Thrasir, nightmare fairies) a little more. Not to mention our other allies, like Hrid.

[Mercakete]

@SirErrant

I think that seeing things from Bruno's perspective may have distracted from the book 2 plot, and I think his time in the sun is coming. We've been given tidbits and teasers along the way, which (unlike many others) I think is more than satisfactory. Don't want to ruin dessert with too many sweets beforehand, you know? As for seeing things form others' perspective, we did see the sort of "war room" meetings with Surtr, Veronica, Xander, Loki, and the Muspell princesses. We also saw Ylgr and Helbindi's interactions, so it's not like it was Askr 100% of the time. Honestly, I think that people just look at the story on a surface level instead of making the jumps with what was inferred. True, it wasn't as immersive as other mediums allow for (i.e., a book, describing everything in detail) but for what it is (a mobile game narrative) it's actually pretty great and fairly true to FE's storytelling style. Again, its format just doesn't let it be quite as immersive, and it requires the player to do some imagining. (I.e., they tell you what certain characters have been up to in dialogue (Bruno's search, Hrid's military campaign, Gunnthra sitting in the still quiet, waiting and hoping and unable to do much else) but they don't show it because they can't with the format of everything and the resources available. These scenes would kind of need to be cutscenes, and this isn't a fully-funded FE title. If it was, I'm sure we'd be getting those cutscenes instead of just character portrait + background + text. Not to say that there aren't ANY cutscenes, of course, but they're a lot more intensive and expensive to make than portrait + background + text, so we don't get many.)

As for having entire chapters focus away from Askr, though, that's what paralogues/xenologues are for. They may not be that long, but at least they're there (the conversation with Hel, Loki, and Surtr, for example.) That said, I would like one showing Leavateinn and Hrid rebuilding their respective countries, and seeing how relations between the two are going. The two actually have a lot in common, too. (For example, both have talked about "being forged into blades" for their respective countries, and I think that they may hold respect for each other's sisters, too. Hrid seems like the sort to be open to hearing the other's side as well, and if Leavateinn opened up, I'm sure he'd see that Muspell was a victim of Surtr's too. ... Yes, I ship them and would love to see them unite their countries into one. They just have so much in common, and I could really see them helping each other recover from the war, both in rebuilding their kingdoms and in their own emotional scars.) But who's to say that Nifl will even let Muspell recover normally? Would Muspell become a vassal state to Nifl? And so on.

At least in the Forging Bonds stories we see some character progression with allies of the past. Ylgr mentioned some of her experiences in book 2 that we didn't get to see before in Julian's  FB conversations, Eir's getting development (and seems to have made friends with Midori. I would not be surprised to see those two as that new duo unit type sometime down the road), and we haven't seen anything from Hrid or Leavateinn because they're in their respective countries instead of with the Order of Heroes (so a xenologue of them would be great, as mentioned.)

But uh, I do wonder something... (back onto the topic of book4) Now that the land of Hel doesn't have anyone ruling over it, what exactly happen to people who've died? Or people who die after the events of book 3? Freyja is being all "a quick death would be no fun, so I'll play with you before I kill you" but what if she can't actually kill anyone because Hel's dead? Dreams and reality are supposedly one and the same now, so I imagine that dying in the dream world means dying in the real world, but...I mean, death being dead might make any attempts at murder end a bit awkwardly. I don't think IS thought this through to that extent, but...yeah. That's kind of a funny thought.

[SirErrant]

On 7/29/2020 at 4:01 AM, Mercakete said:

I think that seeing things from Bruno's perspective may have distracted from the book 2 plot, and I think his time in the sun is coming. We've been given tidbits and teasers along the way, which (unlike many others) I think is more than satisfactory. Don't want to ruin dessert with too many sweets beforehand, you know?

On 7/29/2020 at 4:01 AM, Mercakete said:

As for having entire chapters focus away from Askr, though, that's what paralogues/xenologues are for.

Yeah, I pretty much meant having more paralogues/xenologues that center around non-Askr trio OC’s rather than putting them in the main story necessarily (although that would also be fun). I get that it’s mobile game with limited funding for story, but there are still some cost-effective ways they could flesh out other characters/the story even without making any substantial changes. 
 

I love Forging Bonds, by the way. It’s exactly what I wished FEH would look like back when I had only heard of the game. Not only does it flesh out the OC’s (especially Eir, I love her forging bonds btw) but it also gives FE characters a chance to shine and show off their personality. Kinda wish the story could be like that, but it’s honestly fine as is. I’m a low-key fan of Norse mythology (not an expert though by any means), and the ways they’ve managed to subtly insert Norse mythology into this game while making it their own are certainly applaudable. (Especially the elves/dark elves being fairies. That was cool.) I can’t wait for Ragnarok to happen in the story.
 

On 7/29/2020 at 4:01 AM, Mercakete said:

Dreams and reality are supposedly one and the same now, so I imagine that dying in the dream world means dying in the real world, but...I mean, death being dead might make any attempts at murder end a bit awkwardly. I don't think IS thought this through to that extent, but...yeah.

Yeah... awkward. Imagine if that’s actually why Freyja let Askr trio run free instead of killing them on sight... because she couldn’t. Literally.

[Sentinel07]

I am so glad we won't have to wait all the way until Late September for Chapter 10. :)

[Mercakete]

I'm going to go ahead and put here what I put about seeing Freyr as an enemy in the trailer and then expound upon it.

Quote

Looks like Freyr is a blue beast unit. I wonder if he turns into a goat. Hoping he turns into a kudu or something, based on his horns. Maybe he'll have some sort of healing affect with his attack?

Evidently, some horns (which look like Freyr's horns) are used as components in medicine, and in some mythology, the horns are believed to contain spirits or something. Seems pretty on point with the theme of stealing children away and turning them into fairies you happen to rule over, while also being much more "good" (healing properties) to Freyja's "evil" (aforementioned association with the devil.)

Anyway, I'll bet he's being forced to fight by Freyja since she stole his power away and she rules reality now. Poor guy. Can't imagine he actually wants to fight us.

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, Mercakete said:

Anyway, I'll bet he's being forced to fight by Freyja since she stole his power away and she rules reality now. Poor guy. Can't imagine he actually wants to fight us.

Either that or he's an illusion. At the risk of going slightly off-topic, I'm disappointed that this is where the CYL Heroes are showing up. One, because Lunatic and Chain Challenges are going to be a nightmare (no pun intended) and two because we won't get to see these four interact, which is one of the reasons many people were fine with a 3H sweep this year.

In any case, the horn symbolism is an interesting way to look at it Mercakete, thanks! You're good with mythology, I'm actually a little jealous 😛 Is Freyr associated with any animals or insulted by being compared to one like his sister?

[Mercakete]

12 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Either that or he's an illusion. At the risk of going slightly off-topic, I'm disappointed that this is where the CYL Heroes are showing up. One, because Lunatic and Chain Challenges are going to be a nightmare (no pun intended) and two because we won't get to see these four interact, which is one of the reasons many people were fine with a 3H sweep this year.

In any case, the horn symbolism is an interesting way to look at it Mercakete, thanks! You're good with mythology, I'm actually a little jealous 😛 Is Freyr associated with any animals or insulted by being compared to one like his sister?

Or he's an illusion of himself and being projected as fighting them even though he doesn't want to. Could be any combination of it, really, and it may never be fully explained. Who knows?

As for your compliment, thanks! ^_^ But really, there are a lot of people who are a lot more knowledgeable than I am about this stuff. As for Freyr, I don't know much about him in the mythos. Off the top of my head,  I'm not even sure if he was a fairy, a nature spirit, or a god, but I'm pretty sure he has his roots in old Germanic mythology, and not only because of the name's spelling. Freyja is a Norse goddess (the Norse came from old Germany, as did many other cultures) and I'm pretty sure she's a goddess of fire, but also possibly war. (Let me check real quick. Ah. Nope. Not fire. Must've been thinking of something else. But yeah, fertility, beauty, war, gold, and future-magic, basically.) Yes, her brother is Freyr, and she's married (but not to him) and has 2 daughters. Oh. Hm. That's interesting. You know Alfonse's sword? It has the same name as the field Freyja (myths) rules over and is where about half the people who die go. Alfonse of another world becoming Lif makes a heck of a lot of sense with that in mind. Also, apparently she likes cats since she has a chariot pulled by 2 cats, and she also has a pet boar. (IS, please tie this in with Dimitri.)

Other male notable fairies I can think of are the Wilde Hunt (basically a forest god) and Oberon (king of the fairies, but in FEH, Freyr seems to have taken this role.) In A Midsummer Night's Dream, actually, Oberon does use magic that makes an entire forest fall asleep, so there's a connection there (he's also feuding with his wife over wanting to make the child of a friend of hers into his servant, since the mother died, and his wife wanted to raise the child herself. Sounds familiar to FEH's book 4 story, in a way.) Hmm let me take a quick look to see what I can find about Freyr in the mythos.

*does some reading*

Ah, okay, evidently, Freyr is associated with sunshine, fair weather, peace and prosperity. Yep. Sounds like the place where the light fairies of FEH live. He was also given Alfheimr...as a teething present. Dang. That's some teething present. Hmmm as I read about him, I'm beginning to understand a lot more, including the antlers IS gave him. One myth says that he killed a jotunn (someone from jotunheimr) named Beli (that's some name) with an antler. He does this because he already gave up a magic sword he had (he used it as payment so that one of his servants would act as a messenger on his behalf. This particular messenger is a clever one, apparently, and also helped in other aspects of Norse mythology, such as the forging Gleipnir (basically a magical collar) in order to bind the wolf Fenrir. I bet we'll see this guy appear sometime, though he'll probably be turned into a woman for FEH. His name is Skirnir.) If the one who wielded the sword was wise, the sword would fight on its own. He gave up the sword because he fell in love with another jotunn (named Gerthr/Gerdr) who becomes his wife. Turns out, he also has a pet boar. Also a foldable ship. Like, this ship can fold to the point of being able to be put into a pouch. Yes, a full on sailing ship. (I guess it helps that his and his twin sister's dad is a sea god.) Oh, and because he doesn't have the magic sword, he's killed by Surtr during Ragnarok. Buuuuut I guess that's not happening here (in FEH) unless Freyja gets annoyed enough with her brother to summon Surtr from the dead...which she can apparently do, having summoned a nightmare of him before. And, not having his power (which might be FEH's interpretation of his sword?) he's pretty vulnerable now. Oh, also myth Freyr really liked horses and had a lot of them. So, maybe he'll be a cav in FEH just because of that. I am curious if we'll ever encounter a character whose title is "The Sword of Freyr" or something, though.

Anyway, I don't actually know a whole lot about Norse mythology specifically. My knowledge is more widespread instead of focused on a particular culture, though I have specifically researched fairies in the past. It also tends to end where fantasy turns into archeology. Somewhere in the middle there. Well, it was certainly interesting, and really sparked some new potential that IS might tap into. ^_^

[DefyingFates]

Mercakete:

8 hours ago, Mercakete said:

As for your compliment, thanks! ^_^ But really, there are a lot of people who are a lot more knowledgeable than I am about this stuff.

8 hours ago, Mercakete said:

Anyway, I don't actually know a whole lot about Norse mythology specifically.

Also Mercakete: posts 3+ paragraphs about Norse mythology

Me: doubt.jpg

Seriously though, I love how much you know about this stuff! I knew about Folkvangr, but that's it and I didn't even think about the connection to Lif! Thanks for the mythology lesson! I hope IS pulls from this stuff too! I'm particularly interested in Jotunnheimr and the FEH's equivalent to the dwarven worlds. Both because I think they're interesting and because I want to see if IS has the guts to make an entire Book (or two) of OCs with non-standard designs 😛

Edited August 15, 2020 by DefyingFates

[Etrurian emperor]

I've always said that Heroes is a mobile game and so we shouldn't expect too much. But after taking a look at other mobile games I'm starting to believe that the standards regarding the story in Heroes could stand to rise a bit.

Dragalia Lost for instance makes much better use of Fire Emblem then Heroes ever did. Lets take Tiki as an example. In Heroes her only contributions to the story is that she has a single line of dialogue in the story, and an admittingly very cute implication in a paralogue that she befriended ''Tak-Tak''. But in Dragalia Lost she not only appears as a character in the crossover story but also has a short storyline of her very own. And the same goes for the likes of Chrom and Marth. Even Sharena gets her moment in the spotlight where she's the hero and Alfonse the second fiddle that Heroes just doesn't want to give her. 

An even better examples would be the annoyingly unlocalized Tales of Asteria which is a massive crossover for the Tales series. Like Fire Emblem the series has a gigantic cast that makes crossovers of them all rather hard to pull off, but the game handles it a lot more gracefully then Heroes. The most notable difference is that Heroes absolutely doesn't allow characters that aren't its OC's(or Xander) to partake in the plot while Tales of Asteria makes it a point to include everyone. Asteria has its own OC's and yet many characters still get their chance to shine. Seeing the difference just highlights the wasted potential in Heroes. In Asteria you have the dozens of Tales characters teaming up to go on missions and befriend each other. The deathly ill Ion gets the treatment he needs to become playable, Emil and Ratatosk get a much closer bond, old enemies make amends with each other and the more sympathetic villains even find redemption. In particular the character arc of Yggdrasil gets continued and expanded upon. 

That's something Heroes could have done. They could have put Arvis and Julius in a position where they'd make amends or show exactly how much they hate each other. They could have expanded on Tiki befriending Takumi. Grima and Zephiel could gush about plans to crush humanity and Lugh and Nino could arrange a playdate with each other, but its mostly isn't happening. Forging Bonds has transformed into a neat little mode that allows for some character interaction but even that is very limited in what it can do. 

Even with the lower standards applicable to mobile games Heroes can stand to step up its game a bit.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Etrurian emperor

[Mercakete]

11 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Mercakete:

Also Mercakete: posts 3+ paragraphs about Norse mythology

Me: doubt.jpg

Seriously though, I love how much you know about this stuff! I knew about Folkvangr, but that's it and I didn't even think about the connection to Lif! Thanks for the mythology lesson! I hope IS pulls from this stuff too! I'm particularly interested in Jotunnheimr and the FEH's equivalent to the dwarven worlds. Both because I think they're interesting and because I want to see if IS has the guts to make an entire Book (or two) of OCs with non-standard designs 😛

Well, I was getting most of my information from an online source (Wikipedia) though I admit that I know at least some stuff about Norse mythology. I just really don't consider myself an expert. XD; Still, thank you. ^_^ I guess my knowledge may be considered above average, but not compared to people who really get into it.

Anyway, I agree, it'd be cool to see what they do with Jotunheimr! (Also, I didn't realize they were dwarves until you said that, and then a few thought clicked into place. XD) It really would be the perfect place to put Fenrir as an antagonist, especially if Skirnir is our book 5 guide! (That is, freebie character who introduces the book's plot, just like Fjorm, Eir, and Peony.) It would be SO PERFECT since he's also Freyr's messenger to that place! What a perfect transition! I hope they keep him a dude. It'd be great to get a dude guide for once. Maybe, in a twist, the main antagonist will be Gerdr (since IS loves overloading us with females) and maybe she's subjugated the Jotunn, or is their queen or something, and maybe she has a servant who can turn into a great wolf (FEH Fenrir; female-ized because of course IS would) who keeps them in check. Skirnir comes to the Order of Heroes for help in overthrowing the tyrant, etc etc, need to find a sacred artifact with which to bind the invincible wolf lady (Gleipnir) etc etc, it's probably the summoner's gun again, etc etc., tyrant lady is overthrown, but in the chaos Loki starts Ragnarok (because Loki always starts Ragnarok) and BAM book 6 starts. This will probably be when we get Thorr and are introduced to Alfadhor. OR between the Jotunheimr episode and the Ragnarok episode, we deal with the four dragons, Bruno, and the Emblian curse. ...Unless the dark god who cursed Embla actually is called Ragnarok or something, then we'll meet the four dragons during this Ragnarok episode.

Oh, also, remember how I mentioned that Freyr had a sword that could fight on its own in the mythology? I realized that Mirabilis has a floating sword she uses. That's probably a reference to that.

[Othin]

Interesting result of Freyr being blue: Of the six fairies, theres now two each of red/blue/green, with one melee and one mage.

Mirabilis uses a sword and is a flying dancer like the three mages rather than being a beast cavalry like the two leaders, but still.

[XRay]

7 hours ago, Othin said:

Interesting result of Freyr being blue: Of the six fairies, theres now two each of red/blue/green, with one melee and one mage.

Mirabilis uses a sword and is a flying dancer like the three mages rather than being a beast cavalry like the two leaders, but still.

I wonder if they will introduce anymore characters and do colorless as well. Helbindi, Ylgr, Hríd were introduced pretty late if I recall correctly. Mirabilis is pretty late too by protagonist standards.

[Othin]

8 minutes ago, XRay said:

I wonder if they will introduce anymore characters and do colorless as well. Helbindi, Ylgr, Hríd were introduced pretty late if I recall correctly. Mirabilis is pretty late too by protagonist standards.

Looks like Helbindi and Ylgr were introduced in Ch9. Hrid was also name-dropped there, I think it was the first time he came up by name, although he didn't appear in person until Ch11.

Personally, I'm not expecting more. It was one thing in Book 2, where they were making most of the OCs just regular New Heroes, but now that they seem to all be mythics, I think they don't want it to get out of hand.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Othin

[Sentinel07]

On 8/15/2020 at 6:14 AM, DefyingFates said:

Either that or he's an illusion. At the risk of going slightly off-topic, I'm disappointed that this is where the CYL Heroes are showing up. One, because Lunatic and Chain Challenges are going to be a nightmare (no pun intended) and two because we won't get to see these four interact, which is one of the reasons many people were fine with a 3H sweep this year.

In any case, the horn symbolism is an interesting way to look at it Mercakete, thanks! You're good with mythology, I'm actually a little jealous 😛 Is Freyr associated with any animals or insulted by being compared to one like his sister?

Honestly, the previous CYL Paralogues don't have that much interaction. It's not much more than the typical "We'll join you should you summon us" shtick.

That video they did last year showing all 4 heroes conversing was a much better method. It'd be better if they did that again.

Plus, we're getting a Forging Bonds with CYL this year, so that should give you your interaction.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Sentinel07

[Mercakete]

9 hours ago, Othin said:

Looks like Helbindi and Ylgr were introduced in Ch9. Hrid was also name-dropped there, I think it was the first time he came up by name, although he didn't appear in person until Ch11.

Personally, I'm not expecting more. It was one thing in Book 2, where they were making most of the OCs just regular New Heroes, but now that they seem to all be mythics, I think they don't want it to get out of hand.

We still haven't met a fairy that looks just like Sharena, so I think we'll at least meet her changeling before the book's done (unless her changeling is Peony, who doesn't actually look like her except for face shape and such.) I'm still hoping to meet more male fairies besides Freyr, but it's kind of unlikely at this point, I think.

[Sentinel07]

3 hours ago, Mercakete said:

We still haven't met a fairy that looks just like Sharena, so I think we'll at least meet her changeling before the book's done (unless her changeling is Peony, who doesn't actually look like her except for face shape and such.) I'm still hoping to meet more male fairies besides Freyr, but it's kind of unlikely at this point, I think.

Really hoping they don't make Peony Sharena's changeling since she's already got the whole "Triandra's my sister" thing that we'll inevitably get soon enough.

[Othin]

6 hours ago, Mercakete said:

We still haven't met a fairy that looks just like Sharena, so I think we'll at least meet her changeling before the book's done (unless her changeling is Peony, who doesn't actually look like her except for face shape and such.) I'm still hoping to meet more male fairies besides Freyr, but it's kind of unlikely at this point, I think.

Good point, that's possible.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Othin

[DefyingFates]

On 8/16/2020 at 10:53 AM, Mercakete said:

Anyway, I agree, it'd be cool to see what they do with Jotunheimr! (Also, I didn't realize they were dwarves until you said that, and then a few thought clicked into place. XD)

Actually, the Jotunns are giants. Where the dwarves come from changes from telling to telling (some even say they come from Dokkalfheimr, funnily enough XD)

13 hours ago, Sentinel07 said:

That video they did last year showing all 4 heroes conversing was a much better method.

Wait, what? Do you have a link to this, please?

4 hours ago, Sentinel07 said:

Really hoping they don't make Peony Sharena's changeling since she's already got the whole "Triandra's my sister" thing that we'll inevitably get soon enough.

Perhaps. But wait, if Peony and Sharena are changelings, doesn't that mean Sharena is Triandra's sister instead?

[Mercakete]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

Actually, the Jotunns are giants. Where the dwarves come from changes from telling to telling (some even say they come from Dokkalfheimr, funnily enough XD)

Man, I should've known that. XD; I know that dwarves are referred to at times as dark elves. Ugh, I feel so silly now.

But yeah, we'll see how IS interprets the giants thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see some dwarves, too, since they're the ones that Skirnir contacted to make that wolf's collar. 

[DefyingFates]

9 hours ago, Mercakete said:

Man, I should've known that. XD; I know that dwarves are referred to at times as dark elves. Ugh, I feel so silly now.

Pssh, I guess you really don't know anything after all... 😛

It's fine, it's always the little things that always catch people off guard, don't worry about it!

I'm curious to see how they interpret giants too! According to Norse Myth they come in all shapes and sizes (Jormungandr is considered one despite being a giant serpent, for example), which gives IS an out to design OCs the same as they always have, but I think it'd be cool to see more people with Echidna's body type. Then again, I suppose that would fit more with the dwarves, if IS includes them in their take on the Nine Realms too.

Edited August 17, 2020 by DefyingFates

[Sentinel07]

11 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Actually, the Jotunns are giants. Where the dwarves come from changes from telling to telling (some even say they come from Dokkalfheimr, funnily enough XD)

Wait, what? Do you have a link to this, please?

Perhaps. But wait, if Peony and Sharena are changelings, doesn't that mean Sharena is Triandra's sister instead?

Part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3QuaKmAh38

Part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3V1Apq8SXc

Part 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyDH_qzVTrw