Awakening "Headcanons"

[Jotari]

Oh yeah and as for how a dead man might father a child. The fact that he's breeding with the vessel of an evil dragon god might change the rules slightly.

[The Void]

????

I know this is a game with dragons and magic and undead soldiers and shit, but it's still a little ridiculous to say that just because it's only been a short time since he died that his testicles miraculously started to produce sperm again.

Because FE is oh so grounded in reality.

Also:

http://fe-according-to-japan.tumblr.com/post/54683505191/spoilers-up-to-the-spotpass-chapters

Edited July 28, 2013 by The Void

[Airship Canon]

????

I know this is a game with dragons and magic and undead soldiers and shit, but it's still a little ridiculous to say that just because it's only been a short time since he died that his testicles miraculously started to produce sperm again.

...If the rest of him started...

[Faye]

In my little head-canon, Walmart dies for good. I filled his spots in the Support Library. Now that fat ugly old lobster can die forever. I make sure Chrom is never in his attacking range. He's really the only Awakening character I dislike entirely.

[Junkhead]

Because FE is oh so grounded in reality.

I think it's silly when people use that criteria. Sure, FE has fictional elements, but that doesn't mean anything else will be viable.

[Faye]

It's still painfully obvious Walmart isn't a Risen. That dude is capable of being one of the most horrible, ugliest fathers ever, and I highly doubt zombies can do that. Whenever a person says "my heart has stopped beating", they rarely ever mean literally. It's a melodramatic metaphor that means "my life as I knew it is over".

[Anacybele]

I've got a headcanon about Frederick, since I adore him so much. :3

I think that Frederick, despite having grown up in a village in the hills, is actually of noble birth. Only, his parents fled Ylisstol during the first Ylisse/Plegia war and didn't want to have anything to do with the ambitions of Chrom, Lissa, and Emmeryn's war-hungry father. Frederick's father was a knight in service to the Exalt and the Exalt had ordered him to join the war at the border. However, Frederick's father refused to do such a thing and it pained him to abandon his duties so soon. But Frederick was very little at the time and still needed both of his parents. His father couldn't bear to leave him for so long just to fight in a ridiculous and unnecessary war. So Frederick's parents secretly escaped and thankfully were never found by the Exalt. While looking for a suitable place to remain hidden and raise their son away from the bloodshed, Frederick's parents found that village in the hills and settled there. They still passed on their family's knowledge and traditions to little Freddy though, in hopes that perhaps one day Frederick could pick up where his father left off, but serve a better ruler. Frederick is so devoted, loyal, and passionate towards his duties because he wants to do so for his father's sake and feels he is bound by this.

Frederick's mother taught him to do household tasks like cleaning, cooking, knitting and anything else like this that he does. Frederick's father and an instructor taught Frederick combat skills, leadership, outdoor stuff (like the campfires and all), and trained him from squire to knight.

Frederick's seriousness stems from his history, and his mother believes that he became OCD when that wolf attacked him. An injury to his head left this lasting effect. His soft side is from how much love his parents gave him after he suffered the trauma and pain from that incident, not to mention how proud of him they are. I also think Frederick might not be very good at math or formulas. He might be a bit of a momma's boy too (but not enjoy admitting it). lol

Edited July 28, 2013 by Anacybele

[Airship Canon]

It's still painfully obvious Walmart isn't a Risen. That dude is capable of being one of the most horrible, ugliest fathers ever, and I highly doubt zombies can do that. Whenever a person says "my heart has stopped beating", they rarely ever mean literally. It's a melodramatic metaphor that means "my life as I knew it is over".

http://fe-according-to-japan.tumblr.com/post/54683505191/spoilers-up-to-the-spotpass-chapters

The metaphor thing sorta falls apart in face of that though.

[algae]

New plan: Walmart extended his conquest to the afterlife, ultimately defeating Death to gain himself and his soldiers (the Risen he fights with in the paralogue) life. It didn't go so well for them.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Walhart, failing to conquer Lunatic+ decided to hack FE9 and FE10 because he can't conquer it otherwise

[Phoenix Wright]

Because FE is oh so grounded in reality.

Also:

http://fe-according-to-japan.tumblr.com/post/54683505191/spoilers-up-to-the-spotpass-chapters

Part of my argument was the concession that much of the Fire Emblem Universe makes little sense.

So, OK, a new discovery: zombies can procreate. Coolio. This really only bolsters my argument on how incredibly stupid the explanations for the post-25 paralogue characters are (again, excluding Priam). Which, in light of this I repeat, who cares about the explanations when they're this faulty? At this point, I enjoy them because they make me giggle.

This also makes Morgan half-undead, which is hilarious (obviously only in this circumstance).

...If the rest of him started...

if anything, maybe he's even MOAR powerful than before, now.. ;)

Edited July 28, 2013 by Phoenix Wright

[Vashiane]

If we got into my headcanons about how tomes worked, we'd be here a while...

Plus they're still not as organized as I'd like.

[Phoenix Wright]

If we got into my headcanons about how tomes worked, we'd be here a while...

Plus they're still not as organized as I'd like.

I'm interested in hearing your theory. Anything different from "reading a spell to activate," the typical way to describe magic, is probably interesting.

[Junkhead]

http://fe-according-to-japan.tumblr.com/post/54683505191/spoilers-up-to-the-spotpass-chapters

The metaphor thing sorta falls apart in face of that though.

Call me a dickhead, but I still refuse to believe that. I don't really trust that source. We might as well assume Emmeryn is an adorable risen as well as the possibility Gangrel might be one (which by the way, none of them look anything like them...and still have an actual sense of concious and memories, even if not so much for Emmeryn's case).

[Silverhand]

Heh. Headcannons.

Pewpewpew :3

But for serious: I could totally see Yen'fay being blind

It just makes him more badass and I'm cool with that.

[The Void]

Here's one: The Deadlords, the Morphs in Blazing Sword (especially the ones in the last chapter), and the risen were all made using magic tied to the Earth Dragons

A chunk of the walking corpses we've seen in this series were tied to either groups who worship a Earth Dragon or are Earth Dragons. And Nergal apparently found out how to make morphs in Arcadia.

Edited July 28, 2013 by The Void

[Junkhead]

I take it your point refutes my own? It's a decent point, but you have to take into account that the zombies in FE13 also showed such appearance, rather than just being "living dead" versions of the character they're replacing.

[HadouKirby]

About the tomes. My idea is that the ink inside is what fuels the spell, which is how a tome can run out of uses.

[Jotari]

The reason the Future Despair DLC is so bad that Naga needs to get warriors from another world is because it's a timeline where Girma happened to have twins giving him the very slight advantage he didn't have in the original timeline.

[Airship Canon]

About the tomes. My idea is that the ink inside is what fuels the spell, which is how a tome can run out of uses.

That's basically my theory behind it as well (Empty Book and the FE OVA seem to point in that direction too), but mine tends to run a bit further (The ink is primarily blood. (yes, squick, but...) As seen in FE2, it -is- possible to cast without a tome. However, it did use the Mage's life to do so, which, going by the reagent idea, means whatever the reagent is, can derived from the human body... reason it's not practiced by later mages is a tad unknown, but given the implications, it may be a taboo to do so, and as such, with mages not using this method any longer, it fell out of practice entirely. As for modern tomes, well, send a cow to a slaughter for food, get plenty of blood out of that.))

The reason the Future Despair DLC is so bad that Naga needs to get warriors from another world is because it's a timeline where Girma happened to have twins giving him the very slight advantage he didn't have in the original timeline.

Eh, I always assumed this is the "failure" line, that I happened to notice back when the game first came out in Japan. The reason its so bad is literally everyone is stronger, and the cause of this, is that this isn't anything like the original timeline, no this is a timeline where Lucina and the others had gone back.... and failed for whatever reason (a big point to this is that original timeline MU -willingly- became Grima, Future Past MU doesn't). The children you meet in Future Past are not the kids as you get them, they're their younger-selves, who, by failure of Lucina to succeed were forced to grow up just like their timetraveler versions. The Morgan you get, also happens to be from this timeline, in full (as doing the maps is a self-sustaining timeloop)-- in short after meeting with his mother/her father's kinder original self, fled, but when he/she returned to Grima, was warped away by MU, like in the case of your army in the final mission, with his/her memories being wiped in the process (perhaps as a mercy, so that Morgan isn't left with the knowledge he/she was completely evil and ready to kill his/her friends and family.).

[Vashiane]

That's basically my theory behind it as well (Empty Book and the FE OVA seem to point in that direction too), but mine tends to run a bit further (The ink is primarily blood. (yes, squick, but...) As seen in FE2, it -is- possible to cast without a tome. However, it did use the Mage's life to do so, which, going by the reagent idea, means whatever the reagent is, can derived from the human body... reason it's not practiced by later mages is a tad unknown, but given the implications, it may be a taboo to do so, and as such, with mages not using this method any longer, it fell out of practice entirely. As for modern tomes, well, send a cow to a slaughter for food, get plenty of blood out of that.))

Eh, I always assumed this is the "failure" line, that I happened to notice back when the game first came out in Japan. The reason its so bad is literally everyone is stronger, and the cause of this, is that this isn't anything like the original timeline, no this is a timeline where Lucina and the others had gone back.... and failed for whatever reason (a big point to this is that original timeline MU -willingly- became Grima, Future Past MU doesn't). The children you meet in Future Past are not the kids as you get them, they're their younger-selves, who, by failure of Lucina to succeed were forced to grow up just like their timetraveler versions. The Morgan you get, also happens to be from this timeline, in full (as doing the maps is a self-sustaining timeloop)-- in short after meeting with his mother/her father's kinder original self, fled, but when he/she returned to Grima, was warped away by MU, like in the case of your army in the final mission, with his/her memories being wiped in the process (perhaps as a mercy, so that Morgan isn't left with the knowledge he/she was completely evil and ready to kill his/her friends and family.).

That theory is a HELL of a lot more interesting than mine.

I thought the tome's power came from the literal pages itself. In order to cast a spell, you tear one of the pages out and crumble it into your hand - the destruction of the page releases the magic for the mage to fire once he/she opens their hand again.

[Lhyonnaes]

Here's one: The Deadlords, the Morphs in Blazing Sword (especially the ones in the last chapter), and the risen were all made using magic tied to the Earth Dragons

A chunk of the walking corpses we've seen in this series were tied to either groups who worship a Earth Dragon or are Earth Dragons. And Nergal apparently found out how to make morphs in Arcadia.

If you believe that there is a connection between Jugdral/Archanea and Elibe, this is hardly headcannon.

We get a fairly good sense of how Quintessence works from FE7, because Nergal actually talks about it. It's a power possessed by the dragons that allows for the direct manipulation of life-force. Nergal combines it with Dark Magic to produce his morphs, but we should think about it in a broader context.

Certainly, this brand of magic is used by followers of Earth Dragons on many occasions - the Risen are likely created by some brand of this magic, the Dreadlords even more so. Human sacrifice is used to resurrect Medeus (with more "powerful" spirits being able to restore him more), and mass human sacrifice is used to resurrect Grima. But not only Earth Dragons use this power - Claude specifically mentions, in one of his conversations, that the power of the Valkyrie Staff (an artifact of draconic origin) is dependent on Aegir (AKA Quintessence).

This raises some interesting questions on the nature of the Demon King, actually. He also shows the ability to manipulate Quintessence, and his possession of Lyon is also reminiscent of dragons. Could the Demon King perhaps actually be a dragon? It would certainly make the small Manakete population in the Darkling Woods and the Caer Pelyn legend of Naya Kuda (both at which hint at secret Archanean involvement in historical affairs on Magvell) make significantly more sense than if the Demon King was just some unaffiliated type of monster.

That's basically my theory behind it as well (Empty Book and the FE OVA seem to point in that direction too), but mine tends to run a bit further (The ink is primarily blood. (yes, squick, but...) As seen in FE2, it -is- possible to cast without a tome. However, it did use the Mage's life to do so, which, going by the reagent idea, means whatever the reagent is, can derived from the human body... reason it's not practiced by later mages is a tad unknown, but given the implications, it may be a taboo to do so, and as such, with mages not using this method any longer, it fell out of practice entirely. As for modern tomes, well, send a cow to a slaughter for food, get plenty of blood out of that.))

Personally, I find this slightly doubtful. Not only is it slightly... extreme, but it also fails to explain the functionality of healing staves.

Personally, I think that to cast magic, you need two things - the proper technique, and an easily accessible source of magic. Tomes are used because they conveniently fulfill both of these requirements. They essentially function as containers of magic energy with a regulated output level and a specific activation method - the mage performs the required incantation or gestures to access appropriate quantity and configuration of magical energy, which he then manipulates into a spell. This is why more powerful tomes typically have less usages - with typical methods, there is only so much magic that you can fit into a tome, and higher outputs will naturally drain the reserve faster.

This brings us to the matter of Staves. Generally they have significantly less uses than tomes, and obviously do not contain any information about specific incantations or other thaumaturical tomfoolery. This leads me to believe that instead of just providing power, staves contain magic to effectively automate the casting process, but this takes up some magical capacity, meaning that they have less charges than tomes. Why this is the case is hard to say, though I theorize that it is because precision is of utmost importance when healing wounds and transporting people. You minorly mess up the casting of a fireball, and your target is still getting set on fire. You minorly mess up healing a wound, and things are worse than when you started. You minorly mess up Rescuing an ally, and you no longer have a whole ally.

This also explains the magic functionality of other arcane items, like the magic cards from FE10 - they have all the necessary magic processes hard-coded into them, so they can be used by those with no magic training. However, this makes them less powerful and of more limited uses, as a result.

For a highly skilled mage, it would thus be possible to cast magic or heal without the appropriate items, as long as they had access to some other power source. Life force is the go-to option in these situations, though as shown by Nino it is theoretically not the only option (perhaps she could in some way take power from the world around her? It's very unclear).

This may not be an exhaustive explanation, but I think it covers all the bases. As for the ink in tomes, well... who's the say that some methods of making magic tomes don't use the ink as a medium for storing the magic energy?

[Jotari]

On the subject of why Fe2 styled magic isn't used, Radiant Dawn Sothe states that Micaiah is unique in the way she can use magic without a tome or stave meaning the art is actually impossible rather than taboo. Which fuels plenty of other possible theories about Micaiah discovering or being a descendant of Valm (or whatever it's name is in Gaiden).

[Acacia Sgt]

On the subject of why Fe2 styled magic isn't used, Radiant Dawn Sothe states that Micaiah is unique in the way she can use magic without a tome or stave meaning the art is actually impossible rather than taboo. Which fuels plenty of other possible theories about Micaiah discovering or being a descendant of Valm (or whatever it's name is in Gaiden).

But doesn't that ability comes from her Heron Brand? At the very least, her Sacrifice ability is similar to what the Herons can do, minus the loosing HP part.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Acacia Sgt

[Lhyonnaes]

But doesn't that ability comes from her Heron Brand? At the very least, her Sacrifice ability is similar to what the Herons can do, minus the loosing HP part.

Exactly. It comes from her bloodline, even if Sothe doesn't realize that when he says that it is impossible. I don't think it has any connection with Valentian magic.

On a tangentially related note, after re-reading Nino and Erk's support, it seems like Nino still requires the power source of a tome to be able to cast, she has just memorized the incantations. Which makes her much less notable.