Question About Dark Magic

[Hero_Lucina]

I'm working on a FE fanfiction that takes place after Blazing Sword, and was wondering if it was theoretically possible if dark magic could go to the extent of reviving someone and changing their whole appearance and personality. It should be due to the morphs, but I could be wrong. This is all for a character arc folks.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

I'm pretty sure Nergal's original goal was to revive Aegir with quintessence, but he went off-track after getting drunk on power. There's no telling if he could have succeeded if he hadn't forgotten his goal, though. I'd say it's up to one's imagination.

[Hero_Lucina]

Just now, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

I'm pretty sure Nergal's original goal was to revive Aegir with quintessence, but he went off-track after getting drunk on power. There's no telling if he could have succeeded if he hadn't forgotten his goal, though. I'd say it's up to one's imagination.

Alright. Thanks!

[Interdimensional Observer]

And let us not forget that at the end of the game, when Nergal is freshly dead, Bramimond, the undisputed master of darkness in Elibe, revives the dead Ninian (albeit with some generic team power taken from Eliwood and co. in addition to whatever unexplained powers he'd been gathering for some reason). This is incidentally a cruel mockery to Nergal in its timing and its implications- he actually stood a chance of succeeding! 

While Magvel isn't the same as Elibe, they do appear to have comparable magic systems. And in SS, we have the instance of Riev bringing back Orson's wife Monica, albeit with what is implied to be a grotesque form, and the ability to only recite a single word.

Edited June 15, 2017 by Interdimensional Observer

[Topaz Light]

Also, I know that this doesn't apply to Elibe lore, but there is more precedent in the Fire Emblem series in general for characters being able to be revived completely after death; the Archanea-Valentia-Jugdral timeline has the Aum and Valkyrie Staves, as well as Valentia's revival springs.

I mean, so much about Fire Emblem lore is left undefined due to not being super relevant to the plot, so there's plenty of room for your imagination.

I'm not really sure about "reviving" someone, only for them to have not just a different appearance, but also a different personality, though. At that point, aren't you really just creating a whole new person from the remnants of the base dead person, rather than actually, truly bringing that dead person back?
Gotta be enough left of them that it could truly be said to be them, after all, for it to really count as actually reviving them.

Edited June 15, 2017 by Topaz Light

[Dragoncat]

6 hours ago, Topaz Light said:

 

I'm not really sure about "reviving" someone, only for them to have not just a different appearance, but also a different personality, though. At that point, aren't you really just creating a whole new person from the remnants of the base dead person, rather than actually, truly bringing that dead person back?
Gotta be enough left of them that it could truly be said to be them, after all, for it to really count as actually reviving them.

This. I can see it working with a different appearance like for a cover up. But different personality on top of that would be a whole different individual. You'll also have to consider memories. Do they remember their life, dying, and being revived?

I think dark magic would only be able to create zombies/incomplete shells like Orson's wife. If you want a complete resurrection ala Jesus or Lazarus I'd consider making it via light magic instead. Those revival staves mentioned above are probably light based.