What's your favorite bit of Fire Emblem lore?

[indigoasis]

Lore can be found in nearly any franchise with a long enough history, and Fire Emblem is no exception. What makes FE more unique in this regard is the fact that its games are set in various different worlds, which means different sets of histories and lore for nearly every game (aside from the games set in the same world, of course).

With that in mind, what is your favorite bit of Fire Emblem lore? This can be anything that comes to mind, from shared lore across the entire series to the most obscure trivia fact from a single game.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Before FE7, half-dragons couldn't transform into Manaketes. I actually like this idea a lot more than what we eventually got as the series standard.

[Eltosian Kadath]

One I enjoy simply because all the Wikis miss it is that in Fates one of the First Dragons is a Divine Dragon, from which Izana descends.

I also like how the series generally toys with the idea of magical blood lines not being direct descendants, or male only, with things like Marth not being the direct descendant of the hero Anri; Anri instead being Marth's Great-GrandUncle, or Hezul's blessed blade (and strong Holy Blood) passing down to his youngest daughter instead of heir, not to mention all the political issues this kind of indirect inheritance of Crests brings to Three Houses.

Another funny detail is that the support affinities in Elibe are not just a mechanical thing, but an in universe one as well, and have religious significance in both the St. Elmine faith, and that of the Nomadic Sacae. Honestly all the lore details you can glean about the religions of Elibe through Binding Blade support conversations are kinda fascinating...

 

[Keikyushi]

12 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Another funny detail is that the support affinities in Elibe are not just a mechanical thing, but an in universe one as well, and have religious significance in both the St. Elmine faith, and that of the Nomadic Sacae. Honestly all the lore details you can glean about the religions of Elibe through Binding Blade support conversations are kinda fascinating...

That's the first time I've heard of it, can you explain some more?

[Etrurian emperor]

The map of Fodlan is a pretty big one. Every noble house has a firmly defined location on the map, and Three Hopes even went as far as to show exactly how far each of their territories spread. 

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

The history of the laguz and the other beast races were always interesting to me, every single race has a long and interesting history that's full of intriguing lore. 

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Manaketes aren´t native to Archanea.

The mage dragons of SD&etc had a leader named Basilisk.

[lenticular]

In Fódlan, the noble houses of the Empire mostly have Crests associated with the Saints of the Church of Seiros, while the Kingdom and Alliance noble houses mostly have Crests associated with the Ten Elites, mirroring the battle lines from the War of Heroes.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Rhea saves Jeralt's life with a blood transfusion - in a society that does not appear to understand the concept of blood types. So when they say "it was unlikely he was going to pull through, but he did" it makes logical sense with that context. And it parallels real life history where the first recorded, successful blood transfusion was about three hundred years before anyone discovered the concept of blood types - which thereby made the procedure extremely safe rather than a game of russian roulette.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Eltosian Kadath]

22 hours ago, Keikyushi said:

That's the first time I've heard of it, can you explain some more?

Mostly I am just summarizing the classic Binding Blade Dayan-Yodel support, which you can read a translation of on the main site here:

https://serenesforest.net/binding-blade/scripts/supports/dayan-yodel/

Reading through the supports of Yodel, Saul, and Ellen almost all touch on little detail about the religion of St. Elmine in interesting little way, if you are curious.

[Jotari]

On 4/26/2023 at 4:06 AM, Imuabicus said:

Manaketes aren´t native to Archanea.

Where is this from?

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

11 hours ago, Jotari said:

Where is this from?

Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light has it as follows:

Lefcandith Gauntlet/Script - Fire Emblem Wiki

Malledus: Prince Marth. It is time I tell you the legend of the manaketes. A long, long time ago… the manaketes arrived in Archanea. They were of three clans. The Divine Dragons of Naga, the Mage Dragons of Basilisk, and the Fire Dragons of Salamander. The Divine Dragons were the most powerful. They stopped the others from conquering mankind.

 

The following FE games have it with the Manaketes preceding humans. 

[ping]

At least in principle, I like the idea of how Elibe's (specifically BlaBla's) dark magic corrupts its users. I think it's a mistake that it's hidden behind, what, a terrible Gaiden requirement during another Gaiden chapter and by the I hope you level-grinded your dancer during the tutorial and also this is only available in a second playthough, but I think it's neat to see Nergal go from "I need power to save my dragon waifu" to just "I need powah" under the influence of the magic he's using.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Imuabicus said:

Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light has it as follows:

Lefcandith Gauntlet/Script - Fire Emblem Wiki

Malledus: Prince Marth. It is time I tell you the legend of the manaketes. A long, long time ago… the manaketes arrived in Archanea. They were of three clans. The Divine Dragons of Naga, the Mage Dragons of Basilisk, and the Fire Dragons of Salamander. The Divine Dragons were the most powerful. They stopped the others from conquering mankind.

 

The following FE games have it with the Manaketes preceding humans. 

I'm well familiar with that piece of dialogue, I actually played it only the other day, but I guess the implications of the word arrive never hit me before. I wonder if the wiki is updated to the Switch translation. I'm trying to use turn rewind on my own switch version to go back to that chapter but for some reason the turn rewind wants to load file 1's previous turns when I'd just been playing file 2.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

On 5/6/2023 at 5:25 PM, Jotari said:

I'm well familiar with that piece of dialogue, I actually played it only the other day, but I guess the implications of the word arrive never hit me before. I wonder if the wiki is updated to the Switch translation. I'm trying to use turn rewind on my own switch version to go back to that chapter but for some reason the turn rewind wants to load file 1's previous turns when I'd just been playing file 2.

Makes me wonder how they arrived as well as the sequence of arrival. It says Naga/Salamander/Basilisk arrived and Naga stopped the other two from conquering humans, until: 

The dragonkin lived in peace with humans until the arrival of Medeus, an earth dragon. Medeus used his great power to destroy the Divine Dragons and found the Dolhr Empire.

So... was there a greater dragon immigration? Did they come by boat - Medeus dragon model does have wings, but they don´t look like he could fly with them? Was the travel distance too far for them to fly, so sailing it was? Why did they come over - Fire/Mage dragons evidently for the typical conquest shenanigans, but the Divine Dragons? Are they just dragon nannies? 

*ponders questions that will go unanswered forever*

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Makes me wonder how they arrived as well as the sequence of arrival. It says Naga/Salamander/Basilisk arrived and Naga stopped the other two from conquering humans, until: 

The dragonkin lived in peace with humans until the arrival of Medeus, an earth dragon. Medeus used his great power to destroy the Divine Dragons and found the Dolhr Empire.

So... was there a greater dragon immigration? Did they come by boat - Medeus dragon model does have wings, but they don´t look like he could fly with them? Was the travel distance too far for them to fly, so sailing it was? Why did they come over - Fire/Mage dragons evidently for the typical conquest shenanigans, but the Divine Dragons? Are they just dragon nannies? 

*ponders questions that will go unanswered forever*

I actually went and replayed the Switch version up until Lefcandith Valley just to see if it's retained and it is. That being said, it doesn't seem to be in Shadow Dragon DS, at least in the English translation, though I love the Shadow Dragon version for having Marth basically say to Mallaedus "Uh, yeah, I know the broad history of my country. Why are you telling me this?" as it is probably the most "As you know" conversation in the series. It is possible Mallaedus is just mistaken and they are native. Like, he doesn't seem to know about the existence of ice dragons or even wyverns as dragons introduced in the sequel a few years later (and much, much later dagons too, though originally planned for Old Mystery).

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

On 5/10/2023 at 1:40 PM, Jotari said:

I actually went and replayed the Switch version up until Lefcandith Valley just to see if it's retained and it is. That being said, it doesn't seem to be in Shadow Dragon DS, at least in the English translation, though I love the Shadow Dragon version for having Marth basically say to Mallaedus "Uh, yeah, I know the broad history of my country. Why are you telling me this?" as it is probably the most "As you know" conversation in the series. It is possible Mallaedus is just mistaken and they are native. Like, he doesn't seem to know about the existence of ice dragons or even wyverns as dragons introduced in the sequel a few years later (and much, much later dagons too, though originally planned for Old Mystery).

ehhh, Malledus not knowing about Ice Dragons I can see - allegedly they live high up in the cold north and the only one to ever reach there is Anri according to Gotoh, Two Sorcerors Script and if they are nothing more than territorial animals with the urge to protect their temple... 

That begs the question, how much of Anri´s way is known, since Jeigan apparently knows a whole saga about it and that Anri got the Falchion from the ice temple.

As for Wyverns, Anri´s Way script has Jeigan say soaring dragons roam, so, if it looks like an oversized lizard and breathes fire on you... fire dragon?

[Jotari]

16 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

ehhh, Malledus not knowing about Ice Dragons I can see - allegedly they live high up in the cold north and the only one to ever reach there is Anri according to Gotoh, Two Sorcerors Script and if they are nothing more than territorial animals with the urge to protect their temple... 

That begs the question, how much of Anri´s way is known, since Jeigan apparently knows a whole saga about it and that Anri got the Falchion from the ice temple.

As for Wyverns, Anri´s Way script has Jeigan say soaring dragons roam, so, if it looks like an oversized lizard and breathes fire on you... fire dragon?

Oh yeah, it's perfectly reasonable that Malledeus doesn't know about ice dragons, but that's my point, Malledeus isn't an authority on ancient history. He can be wrong that manaketes "came" to the continent (and it probably is an abandoned idea, indeed of it was ever intended to mean that, given it's not in the remake).

[Magenta Fantasies]

Fates has a ton of fascinating concepts, plot points and lore that aren’t thought out well or explored enough. Here is one that takes the cake. 

Every 30 years, the skies above Nohr and Hoshido change. Hoshido’s sunny skies become clouded and Nohr’s dark clouds give way to sunshine.

Why is this never mentioned outside of one scene in Revelation?

It has massive plot implications. Is Hoshido only prosperous because it happens to be in the part of the 30 year cycle where the skies are sunny over it? When that changes, will Nohr’s food shortages end and Nohr will have good growing seasons? Would Nohr flourish and Hoshido struggle to survive? This kind of weather system would create a drastic shift in both kingdom’s economies and the relationship between them. Nohr wants to invade Hoshido to gain resources because its barren land does not provide for its people, and it is portrayed as the antagonist in Birthright for it, but would virtuous Hoshido be doing the same to Nohr in another 30 years?

There are also a few characters who would be old enough to have lived through the last time the skies changed, like Shura, Reina, Fuga, Gunter and Yukimura.