Richest Fire Emblem Lord?

[Jotari]

That talk about serfdom has me wondering something else. Who is the most powerful Fire Emblem lord. No, not powerful in stats, powerful in the way that matters! Which Fire Emblem lord has the most wealth? I think right away we can dismiss Ike, for once he is not in the running. Even at the end of Path of Radiance when he has a lordship, it was bound to be a pretty small one, possibly even only ceremonial. And he gives up that to stay a mercenary, and he even gives up that to just wander around as a penniless hobo. Corrin too, I think we can rate as pretty poor. They do inherit the entire kingdom of Valla, but it's kind of empty of all subjects, meaning he has a tonne of real estate,  but no economy at all.

The characters that are in the running, I think, would be Alm, Marth and Byleth. Marth and Alm both get to rule over entire continents (more or less). Byleth also gets to rule a continent, but also gets control of the church and all the treasures and tithes such an institution would have accumulated.

Our mid tier lords in terms of wealth would be Leif, Roy, Eliwood, Hector, Lyn, Eirika, Ephraim, Micaiah and Chrom. They all rule over just one country of hard to gauge size. Seliph would be a tier between them and Alm, Marth, Byleth as, depending on your endings, he inherits Granvale which is more of a super state in the context of Jugdral.

Robin is probably of pretty modest means, mostly mooching off Chrom. While Lucina is up there with Ike, vanishing at the end of the game even if she could press a claim to inherit Ylisse, though that would be kind of weird as she'd be supplementing herself twenty years younger. Oh, and I guess Sigurd does die a traitor with only enough money to keep his army of desperate loyalists together.

[Acacia Sgt]

33 minutes ago, Jotari said:

They do inherit the entire kingdom of Valla, but it's kind of empty of all subjects, meaning he has a tonne of real estate,  but no economy at all.

They don't, actually. Both Xander and Ryoma give them land, and a New Valla is founded, basically.

33 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Our mid tier lords in terms of wealth would be Leif, Roy, Eliwood, Hector, Lyn, Eirika, Ephraim, Micaiah and Chrom. They all rule over just one country of hard to gauge size. Seliph would be a tier between them and Alm, Marth, Byleth as, depending on your endings, he inherits Granvale which is more of a super state in the context of Jugdral.

If we're only taking their default endings into account, I'd put Eliwood and Roy a lower tier, with Lyn even lower than that. Eliwood and Roy only rule a single territory of a country, while Lyn goes back to Sacae on her lonesome.

Edited June 25, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Armchair General]

Probably Edelgard, In an practical sense. Since her country was probably the only one in the series that could qualify as an superpower. Then there's Byleth, who as archbishop, more or less becomes one of the richest people in the continent.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

It's definitely 100% either Alm (who's joint with Celica) or Marth. Probably Marth, since his continent is bigger, I think? You really can't beat ruling over an entire continent.
After them, probably Seliph, Hector, Eirika, Ephraim, Micaiah, Ryoma, Xander, Byleth, Edelgard, and Dimitri. They all get significant portions of their continents and have their own treasures, but it isn't a literal entire section of a planet like Marth and Alm/Celica.
After that, probably Leif, Roy, Eliwood, Corrin, and Claude. They all rule portions within portions, basically, territories of smaller degrees of within/by larger places.
Towards the bottom, it's probably Lyn, Ike, Robin, and Lucina. At the very bottom is Kris.

[Jotari]

2 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

It's definitely 100% either Alm (who's joint with Celica) or Marth. Probably Marth, since his continent is bigger, I think? You really can't beat ruling over an entire continent.
After them, probably Seliph, Hector, Eirika, Ephraim, Micaiah, Ryoma, Xander, Byleth, Edelgard, and Dimitri. They all get significant portions of their continents and have their own treasures, but it isn't a literal entire section of a planet like Marth and Alm/Celica.
After that, probably Leif, Roy, Eliwood, Corrin, and Claude. They all rule portions within portions, basically, territories of smaller degrees of within/by larger places.
Towards the bottom, it's probably Lyn, Ike, Robin, and Lucina. At the very bottom is Kris.

Alm's realm might be bigger, actually. Archanea is bigger, but most of it is actually wilderness that Marth doesn't rule. Even Dolhr he (probably) doesn't reside over.

[Acacia Sgt]

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Alm's realm might be bigger, actually. Archanea is bigger, but most of it is actually wilderness that Marth doesn't rule. Even Dolhr he (probably) doesn't reside over.

I do wonder.

Valentia also has good chunks where it doesn't seem to be anyone living around. All those marshes in Rigel plus the big desert. The latter is inhabited, but by Jesse' merc country who I doubt have to pay tribute to the One Kingdom.

Heck, I'm pretty sure the entire eastern half is meant to be seldom populated, compared to the west side at least.

[Jotari]

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I do wonder.

Valentia also has good chunks where it doesn't seem to be anyone living around. All those marshes in Rigel plus the big desert. The latter is inhabited, but by Jesse' merc country who I doubt have to pay tribute to the One Kingdom.

Heck, I'm pretty sure the entire eastern half is meant to be seldom populated, compared to the west side at least.

Which is weird because Mila is meant to have made the land really bountiful (and Duma was probably focused on developing harsh land).

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Jotari said:

Which is weird because Mila is meant to have made the land really bountiful (and Duma was probably focused on developing harsh land).

The desert probably was always there and can't be made fertile. Or maybe Mila did, but there was still all that sand atop, it couldn't be used anyway.

Either way, once Mila was sealed away, the desert began to expand, which... I doubt that stopped, considering Mila could never reapply her blessing and all that.

[coldhand25]

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I do wonder.

Valentia also has good chunks where it doesn't seem to be anyone living around. All those marshes in Rigel plus the big desert. The latter is inhabited, but by Jesse' merc country who I doubt have to pay tribute to the One Kingdom.

Heck, I'm pretty sure the entire eastern half is meant to be seldom populated, compared to the west side at least.

That's a good point, I was sure Alm is the wealthiest, but now it seems he might not be after all. So I would also say Marth and then Alm.

I would say next is probably Eirika and Ephraim, although they don't rule over a whole continent, they have good relationship with other kingdoms, so I think trade is blooming, which, honestly, is arguably better then a huge barren land with nothing to do and nobody to trade with. Eliwood, Hector and Roy probably in the same tier, or a bit lower, I'm don't exactly remember the endings.

5 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

They don't, actually. Both Xander and Ryoma give them land, and a New Valla is founded, basically.

Ooh nice! I wasn't sure of that, so it seems Corrin is out of the game. Unless there is New Valla, Nohr and Hoshido living in harmony, trading with each other and such, because then Corrin can be wealthy too. Chrom is in the same tier too I think?

Now the thing is, while both Dimitri and Edelgard has a kingdom, I would argue that they should be in a lower tier than the previous - they don't exactly live in harmony with each other, so I'm not sure how is trade between the nations, which does make up a lot of the wealth, unless you rule over all the fertile land and resources of a continent.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Byleth also gets to rule a continent, but also gets control of the church and all the treasures and tithes such an institution would have accumulated.

I would be baffled if it turns out that the church has wealth comparable to the whole continent's. Also, hold up, does he get the continent in the end? Man, I really did forget the ending, might be time for a replay.

Have yet to finish FE4 and FE5, so not sure about the endings, but yeah, Sigurd, Quan, Eldigan... 😭

Lucina, Ike, Robin, Kris, Mark, Lyn.... get out of here, this time it ain't about you.

So my list:

1. Marth
2. Alm
3. Eirika, Ephraim
4. Eliwood, Hector, Roy, Corrin(?), Chrom(?)
5. Dimitri, Edelgard
6. Lucina, Ike, Robin, Kris, Mark, Lyn

 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

The unified kingdom of Archanea doesn't span the whole continent. But it does seem to span all the settled nations where people actually live and are interested in being governed. Sure Archanea is big, but so is Canada and Russia, and they are not wealthier than the countries to their immediate south. I think it's a little presumptive to suggest Marth owns all of it. First ruler of the United States of Archanea (USA)? If he retires, he's not taking that money home with him. Even the real life United Nations has a leader.

Alm being King of Valentia is unambiguous by comparison. Then again, in Echoes we're depicted as pinching every piece of silver and gold while leading an army. Compared to Archanean villages that hand you gold by the tens of thousands. Is Valentia that much poorer? Or is "Gold" a generic name for currency in the sense that people in all FE universes pay with minted silver coins of pre-determined 'gold' value?

Edited June 26, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Jotari]

9 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

The unified kingdom of Archanea doesn't span the whole continent. But it does seem to span all the settled nations where people actually live and are interested in being governed. Sure Archanea is big, but so is Canada and Russia, and they are not wealthier than the countries to their immediate south. I think it's a little presumptive to suggest Marth owns all of it. First ruler of the United States of Archanea (USA)? If he retires, he's not taking that money home with him. Even the real life United Nations has a leader.

Alm being King of Valentia is unambiguous by comparison. Then again, in Echoes we're depicted as pinching every piece of silver and gold while leading an army. Compared to Archanean villages that hand you gold by the tens of thousands. Is Valentia that much poorer? Or is "Gold" a generic name for currency in the sense that people in all FE universes pay with minted silver coins of pre-determined 'gold' value?

Another thing that kind of works in both directions for Alm is the recent famine in Zofia. Of course, all characters (except Lyn, Eliwood and Hector) need to bounce back from international disasters, but Zofia's famine in particualr is really weird. Because they made the creative choice of saying there was a famine, yet showing bloody oranges stockpiled everywhere XD So is Zofia so rich that even with a supposed famine they're still coming down with things to eat, or are Zofians so lazy that if things aren't handed directly into their mouth then they can't organize anything for themselves?

[Armchair General]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

or are Zofians so lazy that if things aren't handed directly into their mouth then they can't organize anything for themselves?

Well, this is certainly true for King Lima. But it's more along the lines of Mila had the power to make stuff grow on their own and power of hers is gradually waning, hence the growing threat of an famine. 

[scigeek101]

I think it depends on how we define wealth. If we define it purely as value of items owned, it's hard to to say who is the richest, I'd say Ike is in the running there what with the collection of newly made legendary unbreakable weapons, but that said, that only counts if we consider Ike the owner of his entire armies goods. 

 

In terms of power as an expression of wealth. Byleth wins easily I think in the "I've become the pope emperor of the entire continent"

If we count my playthrough it's probably Eliwood due to substantial arena abuse as a child. 

 

 

[scigeek101]

4 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

The unified kingdom of Archanea doesn't span the whole continent. But it does seem to span all the settled nations where people actually live and are interested in being governed. Sure Archanea is big, but so is Canada and Russia, and they are not wealthier than the countries to their immediate south. I think it's a little presumptive to suggest Marth owns all of it. First ruler of the United States of Archanea (USA)? If he retires, he's not taking that money home with him. Even the real life United Nations has a leader.

Marth's situation basically was Hardin had either wrecked every other country or Marth had killed whomever Hardin had set as the ruler, basically leaving the whole continent leaderless and putting Marth in a very adventageous position to become the Holy God Emperor. 

Now, I've never much liked the plot of book 2, something felt off to me. I go for a , revisionist history version of it. Marth having won the war, and history being written by the victors, wrote the story of history to make him seem to be in the best possible light and Hardin in the worst. Hardin likely worried (rightly) about Marth's ambitions set off to weaken Marth's ability to control by sending him off to another land to govern where he lacked the same political advantage as he had in his homeland. Marth being unhappy with this situation used the opportunity to get his friend Lorenz to instigate a rebellion, then Marth brutally murdered him and claimed it to be "suicide" to hide the truth. Marth then began a bloody a brutal campaign of subjugation across the continent. 

 

Later historians re-wrote the campaign as book 2 to legitimize the tyrant Marth's rule. We see quite a few hints to this. One is the creation of Lundgren as a character who is totally absent from book 1. Lundgren is simply "Marth" as he ruled the land, and was spun off into an alternative character to distance his reign of terror from Marth's new messianic image. We also see the part where Marth visits some random village and the King of Orleans is there for no reason to give Marth his crown and the star sphere. 

 

What probably actually happened is Marth was pushed out of Grust by Hardin after he tried to instigate a bloody rebellion, Marth then found the remains of the fell dragon at thebes while out in the desert and used that to brutally subjugate the continent. Later fabricating the "Anri's way story" to add legitamacy to his reign. As well as completely fabricating the last couple chapters where he saves the world from a resurrected garnef and all that. It's just lazy writing all around. 

[Eltosian Kadath]

This is definitely dependent on which ending in a lot of cases, and as such I am going to put forth one set of possible ending for Seliph as the richest, the ending where no one is alive that can inherit any of the other kingdoms, and they all come under the control of Seliph by default. A classic youtube video displaying the purest example of such an ending is hidden in the spoiler box below.

Spoiler

 

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, scigeek101 said:

I think it depends on how we define wealth. If we define it purely as value of items owned, it's hard to to say who is the richest, I'd say Ike is in the running there what with the collection of newly made legendary unbreakable weapons, but that said, that only counts if we consider Ike the owner of his entire armies goods. 

 

In terms of power as an expression of wealth. Byleth wins easily I think in the "I've become the pope emperor of the entire continent"

If we count my playthrough it's probably Eliwood due to substantial arena abuse as a child. 

 

 

Ike's in the habbit of giving away Ragnel though. And surely the other blessed weapons didn't go to him and were instead kept by the likes of Mia and Astrid (everyone takes Astrid to end game, right?). Ike probably kept Urvan for himself, but unless he got Haar or someone to hold it to be blessed and then stole if off him, it's probably not "canonically" blessed.

[SMinairo]

I don't think Chrom would have that much wealth since, if I remember correctly, his father's war against Plegia was relatively recent.

Also, while not really the same as wealth, there's his conversation with Timerra where after she compares the shepherds with her sentinels, he says "being able to station squads all over Solm suggests a greater wealth of personnel."

So, while I don't think they are necessarily comparable since Ylisse might be bigger than Solm, I don't think the Halidom is in it's best moment.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I completely forgot about Chrom lol. I'd put him in the same place I put Leif, Roy, Eliwood, Corrin, and Claude.

[SnowFire]

Doesn't Marth just rule Altea?  I thought Nyna ruled Archanea-as-a-whole, hence why Hardin marrying her than getting mind controlled being the excuse to set up FE3/FE12.  Does Marth get given all of Archanea at the end of FE3/12?  I forget.

Anyway, I will go for a rather unconventional answer here.  So...  wealth is an absolute idea that is a rough stand-in for quality of life, right?  Not a relative one.  For example, you are probably better off living as lower middle class in North America or Western Europe than as rich in war-torn Yemen.  This ability works when comparing across time (rather than place), too, so there's a bunch of amazing quality of life things that lower middle class Americans have that even the richest 1823 Americans could only dream of, like cars, cell phones, modern medicine, etc.  They'd happily trade a servant or two for a vacuum cleaner, a microwave, and a modern refrigerator.  I think you see where I'm going with this by now.

Itsuki is the richest FE Lord.

Edited June 27, 2023 by SnowFire

[Acacia Sgt]

30 minutes ago, SnowFire said:

Doesn't Marth just rule Altea?  I thought Nyna ruled Archanea-as-a-whole, hence why Hardin marrying her than getting mind controlled being the excuse to set up FE3/FE12.  Does Marth get given all of Archanea at the end of FE3/12?  I forget.

Yes, Nyna hands over Archanea and disappears. Just about every other ruler does the same (well, not the disappearing part).

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, SnowFire said:

Doesn't Marth just rule Altea?  I thought Nyna ruled Archanea-as-a-whole, hence why Hardin marrying her than getting mind controlled being the excuse to set up FE3/FE12.  Does Marth get given all of Archanea at the end of FE3/12?  I forget.

Anyway, I will go for a rather unconventional answer here.  So...  wealth is an absolute idea that is a rough stand-in for quality of life, right?  Not a relative one.  For example, you are probably better off living as lower middle class in North America or Western Europe than as rich in war-torn Yemen.  This ability works when comparing across time (rather than place), too, so there's a bunch of amazing quality of life things that lower middle class Americans have that even the richest 1823 Americans could only dream of, like cars, cell phones, modern medicine, etc.  They'd happily trade a servant or two for a vacuum cleaner, a microwave, and a modern refrigerator.  I think you see where I'm going with this by now.

Itsuki is the richest FE Lord.

It's funny. Itsuki might have toilet paper and air conditioning, but Marth can certainly afford far more horses than Itsuki could ever dream of owning (not that Itsuki would ever dream of owning anything, since he's the least interesting character in the totality of fiction and liking horses would constitute a character trait).

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

It's funny. Itsuki might have toilet paper and air conditioning, but Marth can certainly afford far more horses than Itsuki could ever dream of owning (not that Itsuki would ever dream of owning anything, since he's the least interesting character in the totality of fiction and liking horses would constitute a character trait).

Closeted horse girl Itsuki?

Anyway, the truest sign of wealth isn't money, but how many friends you have. The Lord who recruits the most friends into his army is Marth, in FE12. Therefore, Marth is the wealthiest Lord.

10 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yes, Nyna hands over Archanea and disappears. Just about every other ruler does the same (well, not the disappearing part).

"Early FE" and "letting female characters exercise political power in their own right", name a less iconic duo.

[Acacia Sgt]

5 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

"Early FE" and "letting female characters exercise political power in their own right", name a less iconic duo.

I mean, so did the men. Nyna wasn't alone in that regard.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Clearly it´s Marth, pre-victory over Medeus. Man´s recruiting an infinite amount of mercs.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I mean, so did the men. Nyna wasn't alone in that regard.

"So did the men"... what? I'm a bit confused by what you're saying here.

1 hour ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

Clearly it´s Marth, pre-victory over Medeus. Man´s recruiting an infinite amount of mercs.

Yeah, but they were of rather Auffle quality.