Tempest Trials+: Life & Death (Part 4)

[Diovani Bressan]

A new chapter of the Life & Death Tempest Trials+ Series is coming!

 

The curtain rises on Life & Death, a series of events focusing on the story of Eir and others from Hel, the realm of the dead!

Plus, story elements that feature Special Heroes chatting will be released on the 4th day and 7th day after the event starts!

The bonus allies of this TT+ are:

Nils's skills at 5★ Lv 40:

A bard whose travels take him between the worlds of dragons and humans, known
to vanish as quickly as he is revealed. Appears in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.

 Surprise Breath+ (Mt: 14 | Range: 1)
At start of combat, if unit's HP ≥ 25%, grants Atk/Res+5 to unit and inflicts penalty on foe's Atk/Res during combat = 20% of unit's Def at start of combat.
If foe's Range = 2, calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res.

 Play
Grants another action to target ally.

 Geyser Dance 2
If Sing or Dance is used, grants Def/Res+4 to target.

 Hone Dragons
At start of turn, grants Atk/Spd+6 to adjacent dragon allies for 1 turn.

And the Sacred Seals are:
* Description for the enchanted version of each sacred seal *

 Odd Spd Wave 3
At start of odd-numbered turns, grants Spd+6 to unit and adjacent allies for 1 turn.

 Null Follow-Up 3
Neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks and effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks during combat.

You can also earn some Divine Codes: Ephemera 10 by reaching the 6,000 score, and a Water Blessing by reaching the 12,500 score.

The next event in the series, titled Life & Death 4, is scheduled for Ver. 6.11.0. Because the story of Life & Death is told through a series of events,
you will be able to view the story on the Tempest Trials+ event page after the event is over, even if you didn't participate in it.

 

[Xenomata]

THIS IS NOT A DRILL, NULL FOLLOW-UP SACRED SEAL MAYDAY MAYDAY PREPARE ALM'S BUTTS BECAUSE THE FLOODGATES ARE OPENING AND HE IS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK.

Kind of ironic the effect of Naga's inheritable breath is countered by the SS released alongside her...

[LoneStar]

NFU Seal makes want to build Holst. The classic issue is that you want all of those effects: NFU, Dodge, etc.

For the TT story I'm patiently waiting for the datamines to show Ascended/Rearmed Eir.

[Ice Dragon]

Null Follow-Up is weird as a Sacred Seal since it takes up the skill slot that grants the second-highest stat boost. Running the Null Follow-Up Sacred Seal on a fast unit is just asking to be out-sped by the same unit since you're typically losing a full 6 points of Spd by not running Atk/Spd Solo in that slot.

I can definitely see it being run on slow wall breakers with guaranteed follow-ups to block follow-up prevention from some of the walls with middling Spd. I can also see it being run on tanks with middling Spd to prevent being broken by wall breakers.

 

It also feels a bit odd to have Nils be the unit to come with the dragonstone version of Flame Gunbai, as that would imply that this version actually has a Def stat. Are they going to have him have Rinkah's stat spread?

I'm also curious if Naga has a stat spread that can also use the weapon.

[Tybrosion]

22 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Are they going to have him have Rinkah's stat spread?

No, because that would require giving him 37 Atk when Halloween Nils is getting 32 Atk at best. He already know Nils is gonna have relatively high HP (probably about 45) based on the trailer (he has 48 HP on the last map of the Paralogue).

Also, I wouldn't look too deeply into Nils's weapon when Bridal Larum, with an inheritable weapon that boosts Atk and Def, ended up with just 32 Atk and 26 Def.

Edited October 4, 2022 by Tybrosion

[XRay]

Null Follow-Up is going to be fun on Sweepers. Ninja Yumi with Flashing Blade will land 9 damage per hit for a total of 36 damage against slowpokes.

[Diovani Bressan]

Just like how Distant Counter D looks like it was created so Brave Tiki can run DC without changing her kit, Null Follow-Up looks like  it was created so Halloween Female Corrin can have NFU without removing Dragon's Wrath 4.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Tybrosion said:

No, because that would require giving him 37 Atk when Halloween Nils is getting 32 Atk at best. He already know Nils is gonna have relatively high HP (probably about 45) based on the trailer (he has 48 HP on the last map of the Paralogue).

He obviously can't have Rinkah's stat spread exactly since he's already missing 8 points due to being a dancer. I clearly just meant high Spd and Def with garbage Res, as those are the things that are notable in Rinkah's stat spread.

 

1 hour ago, Tybrosion said:

Also, I wouldn't look too deeply into Nils's weapon when Bridal Larum, with an inheritable weapon that boosts Atk and Def, ended up with just 32 Atk and 26 Def.

Boosting Atk and Def is quite different from calculating an effect based off of the unit's Def, though. The former happens all the time (pointing to the fact that most of the recent inheritable weapons we've gotten are Atk/Def weapons), whereas the latter doesn't happen at all (if you ignore the first year or two when we got headscratchers like Klein with Glacies).

[Tybrosion]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

He obviously can't have Rinkah's stat spread exactly since he's already missing 8 points due to being a dancer. I clearly just meant high Spd and Def with garbage Res, as those are the things that are notable in Rinkah's stat spread.

Boosting Atk and Def is quite different from calculating an effect based off of the unit's Def, though. The former happens all the time (pointing to the fact that most of the recent inheritable weapons we've gotten are Atk/Def weapons), whereas the latter doesn't happen at all (if you ignore the first year or two when we got headscratchers like Klein with Glacies).

I suppose it should also be noted that Diovani got the weapon description wrong in the OP. The "inflicts penalty on foe's Atk/Res during combat" part of the weapon uses 20% of his Res, not Def.

So with that in mind, I don't think he's gonna have the dancer equivalent of Flame Tribe Rinkah's stats. Nils should definitely at least have above 30 Res.

[Mercakete]

The ONLY complaint I have about Nils is that he's infantry again. Even then, I'm not even that upset about it, just kind of disappointed. (Poor guy, with his sister always getting IS' favor between the two of them. Even in his home game, every time I had Ninian, I kept being all "When do I get Nils back?") Glad he's at least able to join the party now. Maybe he can join Ninian and Tiki as they go trick-or-treating.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Hold up, NFU Sacred Seal? I definitely did not expect that. That's pretty cool.

[Hilda]

So whens wrathfull and dazuling staff as sacred seals? because healers sure are on the sidelines

[Mercakete]

Oooh okay; very glad that IS cleared this up. So, by being bound to servitude to Ganglot, he's in danger since he's bound to serve her since he's dead, but also bound to serve Alfador (or whomever his actual handler is) because he entered the service of the higher gods. And if the orders conflict with each other, but he's equally bound to both, it would destroy him. So, not only is he trying to kill Eir even though he doesn't want to, he's also in immortal danger himself if Ganglot sticks around as one of his masters. (I guess Ganglot just didn't summon Thrasir...but it could also be that she re-died and we'll find out more about that in the coming book.) So, Eir now has proper motivation to destroy Ganglot: not only to save herself and to rescue the spirits she has within herself, but to save Lif from having to obey her (and potentially being destroyed by this obligation), too. So, it's kind of turning into a "defeat and rescue" mission (not entirely dissimilar to what happened to Laegjarn, but still kind of different.) And now we have Ascended Eir's design officially out! (Not that I've had a good look at it yet.) She'll be summonable soon, I'm sure. Can't wait to finally see what Ganglot looks like! (I wonder if Thrasir will show up before this Life and Death story is finished (since she was brought up specifically by Eir.) Maybe she'll be Hel's ascended? I feel like there are at least 3 better candidates (Surtr, Gustav, and Dead Sharena), but...sure. I guess.)

[defensedefumer]

For anyone interested, I put my playthrough here. I used a team of Corrins to clear the Trial!

 

[Mercakete]

Ah, I kind of wish I could show my playthroughs this time around. It's neat how the protagonist is the enemy, and I've killed her with Ymir plenty of times, and with Rearmed Lif once. (I like thematically appropriate things.) Also, did anyone else notice Eir's horse's ears? That is not a normal horse.

Anyway, onto the exchange between Duma and Mila! Poor Duma. Trying to be nice but everyone runs away... Mila's theory is that it's just because he's a dragon and that if they met people from their own world, that said people would not run away since they didn't run away from her. But, uh... I feel like poor Duma isn't going to have much luck, ESPECIALLY with people from their own world... (Unless surprise Jedah? The dude literally worships Duma, so...) I guess Alm is nice enough that he'd give Duma a chance. I don't know if Rudolph would. Celica... I feel like if she was in character, she'd panic (at least at first.) I can't really see Fernand, Berkut, or...well, maybe Rinea if it's pre-witch...being too friendly toward him... Or anyone from Mila's church...or from the Deliverance...or Sonia... Have we had any other Valentian Halloween-goers?

[Etrurian emperor]

Team Celica having their Halloween cameo kinda rubbed me the wrong way. Its cute but it signals that IS is aware that Mae and Boey are the perfect Halloween characters but that they just refused to give them their alt. 

[Mercakete]

(Didn't get an opportunity to say anything until now; was busy yesterday.)

Ah, okay, Mila asking people to come get candy so that her brother can enjoy the festival is really cute. And at the end I was all "Aw, he's happy." He just has a really threatening way of expressing it. XD Heh, good job, Boey, for being brave enough to step up, too! I didn't see Mae or Celica doing that (it's implied that at least Mae didn't yet since Duma asked if she wanted candy.) And then Boey being all "if I have to do this then I'm taking everyone down with me!" was hilarious. XD Glad they kept everything in character, and glad Mila wasn't a jerk to Duma and just be all "oh well no one likes you; I'm off to enjoy the festival with my worshippers." Instead, she stood by her brother. Really appreciate that, and it really helps to explain the duo hero pair! I love canonical reasons like that. 🙂

[Mercakete]

Ahhhh okay. I'm glad some of the confusion was cleared up here. So, Ganglot (whom I'm sure we'll finally get to see in the next TT+) has become more powerful than Hel was (explaining the unit's updubted powercreep) and is sort of holding Thrasir hostage, explaining why she's in the same sort of flashbacks as Sharena. Lif's being all "I don't want to lose another person I care about to death's goddess."

Also, dang, Eir's really stepped up! That was such a strong move she did, especially considering how all this time she's more or less been sad and letting everyone else handle everything while she laments. But now, she's planning on bringing the fight to Ganglot, to save Thrasir, to take responsibility for what Hel did, and to save the souls of those from the Realm of Life. Shoot, what a hero move! Have to say, I'm impressed! And all this in spite of Ymir acting as a well-intentioned foil, trying to offer her an easier way out because she wants Eir to be okay. But then Eir just claiming her role as the heir to both life and death. What a boss! I'm cheering for her (even though I know she'll win anyway. XD)

[Aedan7479]

I think this has definitely been an improvement over Ice and Flame, I was worried at part 3, but Eir's development here has left me satisfied with the whole thing, I don't even mind if it stumbles a little in the next two parts, though I would like to see some depth with Ganglot and ascended/rearmed Thrasir. Still it's great to see Eir grow.

[DefyingFates]

On 10/17/2022 at 8:18 PM, Mercakete said:

Ahhhh okay. I'm glad some of the confusion was cleared up here. So, Ganglot (whom I'm sure we'll finally get to see in the next TT+) has become more powerful than Hel was (explaining the unit's updubted powercreep) and is sort of holding Thrasir hostage, explaining why she's in the same sort of flashbacks as Sharena. Lif's being all "I don't want to lose another person I care about to death's goddess."

Also, dang, Eir's really stepped up! That was such a strong move she did, especially considering how all this time she's more or less been sad and letting everyone else handle everything while she laments. But now, she's planning on bringing the fight to Ganglot, to save Thrasir, to take responsibility for what Hel did, and to save the souls of those from the Realm of Life. Shoot, what a hero move! Have to say, I'm impressed! And all this in spite of Ymir acting as a well-intentioned foil, trying to offer her an easier way out because she wants Eir to be okay. But then Eir just claiming her role as the heir to both life and death. What a boss! I'm cheering for her (even though I know she'll win anyway. XD)

Yeah, as a whole I'm quite pleased with how Life & Death is "filling in the gaps" so to speak by explaining exactly why things are happening. Lif's appearance makes a lot more sense too, and of course it's very curious what happened to Thrasir. I wonder if she'll be the next Rearmed Hero (especially given her role in the latest Forging Bonds).

Jumping ahead a bit, if we're going to have the theme of "Book mascot vs a 'general' of that Book's villain" in all of these sequel stories, I'm very curious to see what they do with Peony and Triandra next year, since they're sisters and all. It's put their duo alt in a weird spot, but still: the potential for drama! (We'd also see more of FEH's take on Vanir in said sequel story.)

...though they may take the easy way out and make Plumeria the secondary antagonist instead, especially since she becomes a Rearmed Hero and we're only going to get one Arcane weapon per weapon type (Thrasir and Triandra are both Green Tomes).

[Mercakete]

Warning: I also talk about the FB in this post. (Plus a little bit from the main story.)

 

On 10/21/2022 at 2:35 AM, DefyingFates said:

Yeah, as a whole I'm quite pleased with how Life & Death is "filling in the gaps" so to speak by explaining exactly why things are happening. Lif's appearance makes a lot more sense too, and of course it's very curious what happened to Thrasir. I wonder if she'll be the next Rearmed Hero (especially given her role in the latest Forging Bonds).

I doubt she'll be a rearmed hero. In the FB, she expresses quite the fear of arcane weapons (she even treats them like they're evil. And, well, they're purple, and a purple aura in FEH means there's an evil power at work.) I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit if arcane weapons became a plot point in the next book (and maybe we have to save Lif from corruption, but I talk about that in a bit more detail in the 2nd part of this post so I'll leave that there for now.)

Right now, I actually want to talk more about Thrasir. As I mentioned, she seems afraid of the arcane weapons. She asks Grima if she knows the name of her weapon, and warns Ricken that if he sees one of those weapons to run away from it as quickly as he can. She also says that she's looking for someone, which I immediately think of as Lif. So, Lif took up his arcane weapon and has a huge (and even desperate) focus right now getting stronger, even to the point of acting in ways that he normally wouldn't. (This absolutely sounds like a corruption arc.) It could be that he tried fighting the gods, but lost, and in order to rescue Thrasir (and maybe the fairies), he struck a deal. So, his plan failed (explaining the tactics change) and now all that's left to him is trying to gain power in order to employ overwhelming force. However, Thrasir is seeing Lif fall into darkness as a result, and is looking for him in order to rescue him from it. (It could even be that the arcane weapons are actually imbued with power from Alfador himself.) I actually find this to be a really neat reversal, as in Book 6, Alfonse is trying to rescue Thrasir, but in what may be Book 7, it could be Thrasir trying to rescue Lif (and getting our help to do it.) Either way, Thrasir really read as shaken in the FB, and seems to be desperately searching for Lif (perhaps to save him from the power of the arcane weapon before it's too late.) This would explain both Lif and Thrasir's behavior, with Lif taking up the sword even as he envisions his Sharena along with Thrasir (like, "I must save her, even if it means employing such an evil blade as this/submitting myself to this power to do it") and Thrasir searching for Lif with such fear (which is probably for his sake as well as fear of the arcane weapons specifically.) It also explains Lif's hesitation in "Writhe" before he picks up his new sword.

Basically, I'm theorizing that the arcane weapons draw their power from an evil source, and that it could be that they become the focus of the next book. (To see a bit more on that, keep reading; I touch upon that a bit more in the next segment in this post.)

Quote

Jumping ahead a bit, if we're going to have the theme of "Book mascot vs a 'general' of that Book's villain" in all of these sequel stories, I'm very curious to see what they do with Peony and Triandra next year, since they're sisters and all. It's put their duo alt in a weird spot, but still: the potential for drama! (We'd also see more of FEH's take on Vanir in said sequel story.)

...though they may take the easy way out and make Plumeria the secondary antagonist instead, especially since she becomes a Rearmed Hero and we're only going to get one Arcane weapon per weapon type (Thrasir and Triandra are both Green Tomes).

I can't really see them not doing Peony and Triandra as the focus. That said, this is just a guess, but they sure have set up for it, especially with the focus on Lif and Thrasir here. Lif, after all, was the one to recruit Triandra and Plumeria at the end of Book 4.

So, here's my guess (as I listen to the Book 6 ch12 Part 5 map theme on loop because dang it's beautiful.)

By the end of Lif and Death (this was a typo but I like it so I'm keeping it), we'll find out about how the strike against the gods either 1. has gone horribly wrong or 2. failed completely. It could very well have even been a ploy on Thorr's part to bring the threat of Lif to heel, but she seems to have very strong focus on bringing out the potential of mortals, on straightforward tactics, and on her loyalty to Alfador (more or less, she's Loki's opposite, which could also mean that Loki is actually plotting Alfador's demise (and thus the reign of the gods and thus Ragnarok) behind the scenes, but I digress.) The point is that something went down to cause Lif to change his tactics (as per a conversation with him if you managed to summon his Rearmed version; he says that he's going to have to even use tactics that he normally wouldn't since he's desperate, and that not only will Alfonse have to do this too if he wants to succeed, but he even mentions that he's an ally "for now," indicating that he may be an enemy in the future.) He's not just biding his time against the gods anymore, something happened, he got summoned by Ganglot, Thrasir's looking for him (and is afraid of arcane weapons for some reason) and Triandra and Plumeria have disappeared from the story for reasons (as of yet) unknown.

That's why I believe what exactly happened with Lif's group will get explored in more detail when we learn more about Triandra and Plumeria via "Dreams and Nightmares" -- which actually could have a double meaning as not only the worlds/themes of Book 4, but also of Lif's group's "dreams" (goals), and the "nightmare" of their failure. I could even see Plumeria being the one to initiate the book, coming to Peony for help because something happened to Triandra during the mission and now Peony needs to go save her sister from whatever bad thing is happening to her (probably doing a "please stop being evil because we're sisters and I know there's good in you" sort of thing and then awakening a hidden dream power and getting Freyr's dream blessing, perhaps to wake her up from the "nightmare." Like, "I couldn't save my sister. Let me give you the power to save yours." or something. After all, Peony had two helpings of the magic nectar since she drank Sharena's share.) Alternatively, Peony gets trapped in a nightmare or something and Sharena finally gets the nectar and becomes a fairy, but since Sharena has a presence in the main story, I don't know if she'll actually get this or not. Probably not -- this looks set up for Peony especially since the sister thing was only touched upon during Book 4.

Anyway, I don't doubt that we'll get some answers before Life and Death is over, but probably not to conclusion until at least Triandra and Plumeria get addressed in Dreams and Nightmares. Life and Death could even lead to the next book including/following Thrasir in pursuit of rescuing Lif/the Dokkalfar. And I say Lif specifically because of the recent FB. She may be worried because he has a dangerous weapon and has been driven to such desperation that he's losing himself or something. So, Thrasir (perhaps even an ascended version) becoming our next "guide" character for the upcoming book with Lif being a rogue element which maybe even becomes a book boss isn't too farfetched. The only thing really giving me pause here is wondering if Life and Death will be done before the next book gets announced. If it is, though, this would be some really nice setup for it, and it, in turn, sets up beautifully for the Ragnarok book. (Lif makes for a fantastic corruption arc "dragon," if you know what I mean. Like, the "boss" which leads to the actual final boss.) That said, we may be getting 9 books in this Alfardor arc to kind of mirror the 9 realms. Whatever the case, the story is really building towards a climax and I love how all these elements are piecing it together from multiple modes. Heck, resolving the Embla vs Askr thing is a HUGE plot step forward, so all the hallmarks indicating the story coming to a head is already here, and IS is actually doing a great job with it. You can tell a lot of planning has been leading up to this. All these "behind the scenes" stories are really beginning to weave together and I am loving it.

[DefyingFates]

1 hour ago, Mercakete said:

I doubt she'll be a rearmed hero. In the FB, she expresses quite the fear of arcane weapons (she even treats them like they're evil. And, well, they're purple, and a purple aura in FEH means there's an evil power at work.) I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit if arcane weapons became a plot point in the next book (and maybe we have to save Lif from corruption, but I talk about that in a bit more detail in the 2nd part of this post so I'll leave that there for now.)

Right now, I actually want to talk more about Thrasir. As I mentioned, she seems afraid of the arcane weapons.

That part is why I think she'll get an Arcane Weapon even if she thinks they're unnatural or anything. And even if Lif isn't in any danger, she still seems like a "necessary evil" type of person too.

1 hour ago, Mercakete said:

Dreams and Nightmares.

I didn't think about this, but it's a perfect title for the next story, thanks! I wonder what "X and Y" title Book V's will have, "Dwarves and Giants"? I don't know if we'll even get a "rival" there since the only two Book V OCs still alive are friends. Maybe Fafnir's original family shows up, or Dagr's mom is the antagonist?

[Mercakete]

On 10/23/2022 at 4:52 AM, DefyingFates said:

or Dagr's mom is the antagonist?

This I could see.

Quote

I wonder what "X and Y" title Book V's will have, "Dwarves and Giants"? I don't know if we'll even get a "rival" there since the only two Book V OCs still alive are friends.

"Great and Small," maybe? There wasn't a lot of dichotomy to Book 5. There's also that the Dvergar were technologically advanced and the giants...had birds, I guess? I wonder if those will ever be explained... "Natural and Artificial?" (Also, I do wonder if the dragon of Nidavellir is actually a little girl. IS hasn't met its little girl dragon quota for FEH yet, and with Eitri being a factor and the dwarves being short, this is probably their best place to put one.)

 

Also, I was thinking about it, and this is probably just personal opinion, but I'd actually like it, I think, if Ganglot wasn't killed in this, but rather just chased away. If she still has power over the dead, that presents a great opportunity for her to resurrect foes of the past and create a sort of "anti-party," which would bring a lot of characters potentially back into the story. For example, we could have Surtr, Nott, Elm (if he dies), Gunnthra, and maybe even Hel herself (with upgrades. Like, if Ganglot resurrects Hel and then Hel's all "yeah right" and just offs Ganglot and takes over like the boss she is.) There are a ton of candidates, really (most of them men, so I don't think IS would do this, actually.) It would make for a great new overarching plot after Ragnarok, though, since reviving the dead makes for an interesting parallel to summoning. (Plus, I just really want a jelly skelly of Elm so we can have him be a "bat out of Hel." Plus, the beast form could look really cool in jelly skelly form. I just really want this, and think is has fantastic plot and reuse of characters potential.)