What does the Dolhr Army really look like?

[Nozomi Kasaki]

Sorry, I'm pretty new to the lore of the Archanean games. I heard that the Dolhr Army was pretty powerful in that they conquered most of the continent.

I want to know what kind of military they have and what they look like outside of the games. Can you guys give me the idea of how powerful they are and what tactics they use?

[Etrurian emperor]

That's a bit challenging because for the most part Marth isn't really fighting Dolhr. I recall most stages in Shadow Dragon have the enemy described as belonging to Grust or Macedon. So I think its more of a coalition type scenario where Grust and Macedon took over most of the world for Medeus and Dohlr just giving orders from the background. 

While Dolhr is described as a country of Dragons most enemies you face in the rare cases you're confirmed to be fighting Dolhr are humans. So I always imaged Dolhr as a country with a mostly Dragon upper class ruling over a slave or at least second class population of humans .

Edited October 18, 2022 by Etrurian emperor

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

That's a bit challenging because for the most part Marth isn't really fighting Dolhr. I recall most stages in Shadow Dragon have the enemy described as belonging to Grust or Macedon. So I think its more of a coalition type scenario where Grust and Macedon took over most of the world for Medeus and Dohlr just giving orders from the background. 

And Gra! Don't forget tiny little Gra! Khaden too, but yeah Grust and Macedon are considered the main military powers both in lore and in terms of who you spend most of the time fighting. Though Doluna, or maybe just Medeus alone, is considered scary enough to cowtow Grust and Macedon. So I don't think we're meant to think of Doluna as exactly weak on its own might. They usually hold the capitals of each country, namely its Doluna forces in charge of Archanea and Altea when you liberate them (they never properly solidify their capture of Aurelis, I think that's a pure Macedonian force, presumably Doluna would have came to take direct control later). So that gives some indication of their military strategy. They let other forces conquer key positions, and then occupy those key positions themselves, giving them a lot of political control over the actual conquest aspect. I kind of get the impression their forces are a lot smaller than Grust and Macedon, but also highly feared and powerful (having some freaking dragons probably helps). So I guess, kind of like Switzerland if they were evil? Or maybe for a closer Fire Emblem example, kind of like Garrek Mach only substituting soft religious power for scary intimidating hard power (despite being sort of weaker than the people they're intimidating).

And yes, I use the European name Doluna over Dolhr. Because, while Doluna sounds like a silly word, Dolhr looks like a silly word and this is a text based medium.

[AnonymousSpeed]

6 minutes ago, Jotari said:

And yes, I use the European name Doluna over Dolhr. Because, while Doluna sounds like a silly word, Dolhr looks like a silly word and this is a text based medium.

Perhaps, but Doluna is also a silly looking word.

[Jotari]

1 minute ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Perhaps, but Doluna is also a silly looking word.

At least it knows how vowels work in English.

[X-Naut]

At least Dolhr is better than Durrhurra... sorry, Durhua.

Etrurian's guess is basically on the mark, Dolhr is a country of mostly humans who capitulate to Manakete rule. This makes sense when you consider the lore, as the Manakete have long been in decline and unable to repopulate after climate change worked against them. Hence you encounter few dragons in the grand scheme of things, but the few you do meet are very powerful, especially in Shadow Dragon.

Beyond the occasional upper class dragon it's probably a standard army for the continent, but with more dragon heraldry.

[AnonymousSpeed]

2 hours ago, X-Naut said:

This makes sense when you consider the lore, as the Manakete have long been in decline and unable to repopulate after climate change worked against them.

I'm pretty sure that's the Elibe lore, whereas the decline of dragons in Archanaea is due to intrinsic degeneration. Am I wrong about that?

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I'm pretty sure that's the Elibe lore, whereas the decline of dragons in Archanaea is due to intrinsic degeneration. Am I wrong about that?

Pretty sure it's both. Degeneration causes infertility.

[Forseti of Wind]

In the First Dolhr War, the invasion ended by gathering Manakete from all over the world and destroying Archanea, which was the only country by force.
In the Shadow War, the continents were divided into seven countries, and then they occupied Archanea again, and then they allied themselves with Grust, Gra, and Macedon and they occupied the rest of the world.

Because Medeus' resurrection was at the hands of Gharnef of Khadein, the Mage forces of Khadein were also incorporated into Dolhr.
Manakete has been reduced in number, and he is mostly in command, and they're not deployed as a normal soldier.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Forseti of Wind

[X-Naut]

20 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I'm pretty sure that's the Elibe lore, whereas the decline of dragons in Archanaea is due to intrinsic degeneration. Am I wrong about that?

IIRC it's never really specified what caused it but given the severity and previous golden age, they had to have been stable for a time until something triggered it. That was just a guess based on Elibe's events.