Has IS ever acknowledged Wyvern Caeda?

[Jotari]

So here's a fun fact for those of you who haven't played the Archanea games. Pegasus Knights promote into Wyvern Knights in Archanea. Even though Falco Knight was introduced in the second game in the series, this little early installment weirdness persisted in Old Mystery and the DS remakes. This means if you actually use Marth's girlfriend in any of her main series appearances (and you're recommended to, she's a very good unit) she'll eventually promote to ride a wyvern instead of a pegasus, unless you use an Elysian whip in the DS games, but given there are no other alternative promotions in the game it's almost tascit acknowledgement of it being odd. And despite this scaly destiny being consistent through out all five of Caeda's appearances, it doesn't seem to have ever been acknowledged in any of her appearances beyond Archanea. At least from what I can see. There is no actual artwork of Caeda riding a wyvern. In all her Heroes classes she rides a pegasus, in all the cipher artwork I can see she rides a pegasus, in Warriors she promotes to Falcon Knight and maintains her pegasus, in Super Smash Bros it's all reused artwork of her and a pegasus, only in TMS to we get a half acknowledgement of it with Draco Knight being one of her possible branched promotions along side Falcon Knight. Though that makes no visual difference to her model, she rides like a weird airplane hoverbike thing regardless.

This is an aspect of her character, maybe not in a narrative sense but more of a holistic sense. While I'm fine with her primarily being depicted as a pegasus rider, it'd be nice if there was the occasional nod to wyvern Caeda every now and then. I guess what I'm really saying with all this is that ot would have been cool if Legendary Caeda had ridden a wyvern in Heroes.

(And yes all of this also applies to the white wings too, though, idk, feels more relevant to Caeda, maybe because there's a much higher chance of me actually using and promoting her compared to the white wings).

Edited July 19, 2023 by Jotari

[Punished Dayni]

I immediately thought to check Cipher and there's an example of her on a wyvern here (There's also her TMS form here). It's the one card in Cipher that has Caeda on a wyvern, it's kinda hard to clearly see the thing clearly in this card with how it's laid out, but it's certainly not a pegasus. Coming back to TMS, I don't know how close the concept art is to in game, but this looks pretty convincing.

But it's telling how much more recent interpretations tend to tie her to pegasus as strongly as they do, something that makes less sense than for the whitewings who introduced Falcoknights (Here's the one (Well, combined set of three) Cipher Card that has them as Wyvern Riders).

(Off topic, TIL the Whitewings is a localisation from White Knights, a choice I completely agree with.)

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

I immediately thought to check Cipher and there's an example of her on a wyvern here (There's also her TMS form here). It's the one card in Cipher that has Caeda on a wyvern, it's kinda hard to clearly see the thing clearly in this card with how it's laid out, but it's certainly not a pegasus. Coming back to TMS, I don't know how close the concept art is to in game, but this looks pretty convincing.

But it's telling how much more recent interpretations tend to tie her to pegasus as strongly as they do, something that makes less sense than for the whitewings who introduced Falcoknights (Here's the one (Well, combined set of three) Cipher Card that has them as Wyvern Riders).

(Off topic, TIL the Whitewings is a localisation from White Knights, a choice I completely agree with.)

Looks like I didn't delve into cipher far enough. Looks like they really have done everything first.

[Acacia Sgt]

I'd mostly put the remake's cases as being faithful to the source material.

As it stands, I think that with them being able to flesh out things more, that the sudden mount switch is just not feasible from an in-universe standout. It's worth to point out this peculiarity of the promotion was only ever acknowledge with Minerva, who tells Catria she used to ride a pegasus before switching to a wyvern. Meanwhile, the whole point of the Whitewings existing is to prove that pegasi are also needed on the battlefield, so the Whitewings changing mounts would defeat the whole point of them being the Whitewings.

Also, it seems in general the idea of a character changing mounts is just something that is being avoided as best it could nowadays, unless there's a particularly good reason (like Minerva's, and even then, outside Fates DLC, we never get to play with PegasusKnight!Minerva anyway). And even when it's possible, it gets ignored in-story. After all, you can make Cherche a Griffon Knight or Troubadour, but she'll still talk as if she's still riding her wyvern, after all.

As it stands, it makes sense if these kind of situations only get acknowledge on supplemental stuff, like Cipher. I'm sure if TMS didn't had branching promotions, Caeda would only have Falconknight as her promotion.

Ironically, Heroes did the opposite. They made child!Minerva ride a wyvern.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Punished Dayni]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Looks like I didn't delve into cipher far enough. Looks like they really have done everything first.

Arguably the bare minimum that could have been done here imo, but at least there's something.

I'm somewhat bothered by the Caeda card not having an image that's just the illustration from what I'd found yet.

6 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Also, it seems in general the idea of a character changing mounts is just something that is being avoided as best it could nowadays, unless there's a particularly good reason (like Minerva's, and even then, outside Fates DLC, we never get to play with PegasusKnight!Minerva anyway). And even when it's possible, it gets ignored in-story. After all, you can make Cherche a Griffon Knight, but she'll still talk as if she's still riding her wyvern, after all.

Yeah, it's somewhat of an unfortunate case that they can't delve too much into gameplay-story integration of these kinds of minor details.

Funny enough that the Whitewings are among the first units who can access Falcon Knight in FE

[Jotari]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I'd mostly put the remake's cases as being faithful to the source material.

I feel like old mystery could have really gotten away with it after Gaiden introduced Falcon Knights. Especially since it wasn't just a remake but a sequel too.

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

As it stands, it makes sense if these kind of situations only get acknowledge on supplemental stuff, like Cipher. I'm sure if TMS didn't had branching promotions, Caeda would only have Falconknight as her promotion.

That's the funny thing though, the supplementary stuff isn't acknowledging it, at least not much. It's the main series that keeps reinforcing it. Though I agree of split promotions didn't exist they most certainly would have went falcon Knight for mirage Caeda, just like in Warriors.

[Acacia Sgt]

27 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Funny enough that the Whitewings are among the first units who can access Falcon Knight in FE

17 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I feel like old mystery could have really gotten away with it after Gaiden introduced Falcon Knights. Especially since it wasn't just a remake but a sequel too.

Heh, yeah, it's kinda curious how Falconknight would get introduced in Gaiden but then Mystery switched back.

17 minutes ago, Jotari said:

That's the funny thing though, the supplementary stuff isn't acknowledging it, at least not much. It's the main series that keeps reinforcing it. Though I agree of split promotions didn't exist they most certainly would have went falcon Knight for mirage Caeda, just like in Warriors.

Outside the DS remakes, not really. Supplemental stuff is more split about it, since you have Cipher and TMS on one side, and Warriors on the other. As it stands, WyevernRider!Caeda is something that only exists in Gameplay since Day 1, and it's here to stay.

[Jotari]

18 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Heh, yeah, it's kinda curious how Falconknight would get introduced in Gaiden but then Mystery switched back.

Outside the DS remakes, not really. Supplemental stuff is more split about it, since you have Cipher and TMS on one side, and Warriors on the other. As it stands, WyevernRider!Caeda is something that only exists in Gameplay since Day 1, and it's here to stay.

You can't really say outside the DS remakes when it's exactly the same in Old Mystery and NES too. And don't forget Heroes, the biggest supplementary product out there at the moment. As Dayni says, even for Cipher and TMS it's arguably the bare minimum (it's not even an actual wyvern in TMS).

Edited July 19, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

15 minutes ago, Jotari said:

You can't really say outside the DS remakes when it's exactly the same in Old Mystery and NES too. And don't forget Heroes, the biggest supplementary product out there at the moment. As Dayni says, even for Cipher and TMS it's arguably the bare minimum (it's not even an actual wyvern in TMS).

The NES game is the original, so it's more to say "outside the remakes", which falls back to "faithful to the source material" anyway. Book 2 is the only unique thing that continues the mount-change on its own... mostly, since it is sharing a cartridge with a remake.

Doesn't IS considers Heroes a mainline title? Can it even be called supplemental material in that case if IS doesn't see it as a spin-off?

Edited July 19, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Punished Dayni]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

The NES game is the original, so it's more to say "outside the remakes", which falls back to "faithful to the source material" anyway. Book 2 is the only unique thing that continues the mount-change on its own... mostly, since it is sharing a cartridge with a remake.

Course in practice how many people are getting Elysian Whips in SD these days? Pretty much just those with Wii Us, accessing the servers fans put up or modded roms.  So for many who'd be playing this game I'd suspect they're more likely to run into this situation anyways.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

(it's not even an actual wyvern in TMS).

Looking at the artwork, it sure looks like a dragon cycle.

And as Yu-Gi-Oh tells us, that shit is super cool, especially with card games

47 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Doesn't IS considers Heroes a mainline title? Can it even be called supplemental material in that case if IS doesn't see it as a spin-off?

I don't get the logic if that's true. It feels like the logical extension of the outrelams as a concept, but it's crossover-heavy nature combined with how it handles the telling of it's story and setting makes it hard to define it as akin to the other titles, even Engage. And that's not even going into the skills and what those have become in the years since the game came out. Or into figuring how the full extent of IS's active involvement (How many are working on FEH).... But then, it doesn't help that I've prior experience of playing it and how that colours my perception of the whole thing.

In fairness, it's been over a decade since Awakening really started this outrealms mess let's be fair.

[Acacia Sgt]

12 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Course in practice how many people are getting Elysian Whips in SD these days? Pretty much just those with Wii Us, accessing the servers fans put up or modded roms.  So for many who'd be playing this game I'd suspect they're more likely to run into this situation anyways.

Possible, but SD is too old at this point. People are bound to be more familiar with Caeda through Heroes or Warriors, where she's not riding a wyvern. Heroes might give her a wyvern riding alt, as a throwback in the same way Celica got her Gaiden design, but I think at this point it's quite entrenched the idea that Caeda wouldn't ditch her pegasus.

12 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

I don't get the logic if that's true. It feels like the logical extension of the outrelams as a concept, but it's crossover-heavy nature combined with how it handles the telling of it's story and setting makes it hard to define it as akin to the other titles, even Engage. And that's not even going into the skills and what those have become in the years since the game came out. Or into figuring how the full extent of IS's active involvement (How many are working on FEH).... But then, it doesn't help that I've prior experience of playing it and how that colours my perception of the whole thing.

In fairness, it's been over a decade since Awakening really started this outrealms mess let's be fair.

Assuming it's true, I can see the logic that FEH still plays like a traditional FE, in that it's a SRPG at its core. Unlike Warriors, Three Hopes, or TMS, who do full genre shifts. Hence why it can be seen as a main title. Ultimately, whatever criteria IS would use, it might not match what fans would use instead.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Dark Holy Elf]

I agree that it's a bit weird to hardly ever acknowledge Wyvern Caeda, but honestly, I think the weirder thing still is the idea of the mount magically changing during promotion. You use that Master Seal (or whatever) and boom, suddenly your pegasus is a wyvern. You can even do this mid-map in some games! It's even weirder in cases where the character appears to have a bond with their specific mount (Cherche with Minerva, etc.). I accept that a character might start or stop using a mount in games where reclassing is a major feature, but I really think that for linear promotions, Archanaea and Engage are being very silly in forcefully changing the mount of the character upon a basic promotion.

*In Engage I accept that it happened because someone at Intsys is very attached to the idea that men shouldn't ride pegasi but they didn't actually want to classlock men from any meaningful classes after everyone complained about genderlocks in 3H, so Chloe's transmogrified pegasus was a compromise solution.

[Jotari]

14 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I agree that it's a bit weird to hardly ever acknowledge Wyvern Caeda, but honestly, I think the weirder thing still is the idea of the mount magically changing during promotion. You use that Master Seal (or whatever) and boom, suddenly your pegasus is a wyvern. You can even do this mid-map in some games! It's even weirder in cases where the character appears to have a bond with their specific mount (Cherche with Minerva, etc.). I accept that a character might start or stop using a mount in games where reclassing is a major feature, but I really think that for linear promotions, Archanaea and Engage are being very silly in forcefully changing the mount of the character upon a basic promotion.

*In Engage I accept that it happened because someone at Intsys is very attached to the idea that men shouldn't ride pegasi but they didn't actually want to classlock men from any meaningful classes after everyone complained about genderlocks in 3H, so Chloe's transmogrified pegasus was a compromise solution.

I wouldn't have objected if in Shadow Dragon they'd ditched the Wyvern Knight promotion, made Falcon Knight not something exclusive to DLC, and then gave Minerva a tier 1 dragon rider class to promote into wyvern lord instead. The game itself doesn't really treat pegasus Knights as tier 1 units and draco knights as tier 2 units in terms of their enemy placement and pacing. And of course they have two different niches with res being a stat for pegasi while defense being focused on for wyverns. Shadow Dragon's approach to authenticty and also modernity was bizarre in many ways. But I guess my perspective is that, it's weird, but it exists, let's celebrate it.

[X-Naut]

On 7/19/2023 at 8:00 AM, Punished Dayni said:

But it's telling how much more recent interpretations tend to tie her to pegasus as strongly as they do, something that makes less sense than for the whitewings who introduced Falcoknights (Here's the one (Well, combined set of three) Cipher Card that has them as Wyvern Riders).

(Off topic, TIL the Whitewings is a localisation from White Knights, a choice I completely agree with.)

I'd argue it's more in line for Caeda to be the pegasus adherent. Talys is a poor kingdom to which fliers are likely not native; most are found in the Macedon/Dolhr region. Caeda's thus fortunate to have a pegasus in the first place, and with no companions her pegasus would bond very strongly to her. Meanwhile, Macedon is famed for its wyverns and has a strong culture of riding them. So even if Minerva's trying to establish pegasi as a viable war mount there's an existing predisposition to switch over.

I'm of the opinion that Caeda and Est lean strongly towards pegasus riding, while Palla and Catria are more indifferent and willing to make the transition.

[Acacia Sgt]

24 minutes ago, X-Naut said:

I'd argue it's more in line for Caeda to be the pegasus adherent. Talys is a poor kingdom to which fliers are likely not native; most are found in the Macedon/Dolhr region. Caeda's thus fortunate to have a pegasus in the first place, and with no companions her pegasus would bond very strongly to her. Meanwhile, Macedon is famed for its wyverns and has a strong culture of riding them. So even if Minerva's trying to establish pegasi as a viable war mount there's an existing predisposition to switch over.

I'm of the opinion that Caeda and Est lean strongly towards pegasus riding, while Palla and Catria are more indifferent and willing to make the transition.

I'd put Catria on the pegasi camp too, if mostly as duty-bound.

Catria:
We only had those opportunities thanks to you as well, Commander. And in this war too, I plan to make the Whitewings' prowess known throughout the entire world.

Can't do that if she switches, after all.

Don't know if there's something similar for Palla, but I would think if she was indifferent, she wouldn't have joined the Whitewings to begin with, which shows she was leaning to pegasi riding since the start.

[Jotari]

36 minutes ago, X-Naut said:

I'd argue it's more in line for Caeda to be the pegasus adherent. Talys is a poor kingdom to which fliers are likely not native; most are found in the Macedon/Dolhr region. Caeda's thus fortunate to have a pegasus in the first place, and with no companions her pegasus would bond very strongly to her. Meanwhile, Macedon is famed for its wyverns and has a strong culture of riding them. So even if Minerva's trying to establish pegasi as a viable war mount there's an existing predisposition to switch over.

I'm of the opinion that Caeda and Est lean strongly towards pegasus riding, while Palla and Catria are more indifferent and willing to make the transition.

Where are you getting the info that pegasi are not native (or widely imported to) to Talys?

Edited July 21, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Where are you getting the info that pegasi are not native (or widely imported to) to Talys?

Well, making a check on enemy data...

Almost every enemy Pegasus Knight is labeled as either Macedon or Dragoon. The only exceptions are:

Prologue IV has Gra-labeled.
Chapter 10 has Grust-labeled.
Chapter 24 has Dohlr-labeled.

Dohlr is in the same island as Macedon.

Ch10 also curiously has Dracoknights labeled as Grust soldiers. Book 1 had both these and the PK's as Dragoons.

I think an argument can be made that pegasi may only be native to the large island where Macedon and Dohlr are located. The only outliers would be the Gra PK's (which only exist in the remake) and Caeda... and perhaps the Grust ones are mislabeled, since they initially appear near Minerva's position. Either way, it would still only signal that they're only native to Archanea's southwest.

Still, make of that as you will.

Well, should check the sequel's data too, just in case...

Okay, unless I missed something, there are actually no enemy PK's in Mystery. New Mystery does have in one of its Prologue chapters, however. Meanwhile, Dracoknights have either the Dragoon label (in Book 2), or labeled depending on who you're fighting (in New Mystery), which is Archanea for the most part, but there's also Khadein-labeled dracoknights in Chapter 9.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 7/19/2023 at 1:31 PM, Dark Holy Elf said:

It's even weirder in cases where the character appears to have a bond with their specific mount (Cherche with Minerva, etc.).

I'm genuinely not sure whether Minerva (the Wyvern) becomes a Gryphon, or if she stays a Wyvern, and Cherche keeps bonding with her despite having a totally different mount now.

In case it's the former, I can never bring myself to make Percy go Malig Knight, since I'm essentially killing off Ace and bringing him back as a zombie.

On 7/20/2023 at 4:10 AM, Jotari said:

wouldn't have objected if in Shadow Dragon they'd ditched the Wyvern Knight promotion, made Falcon Knight not something exclusive to DLC, and then gave Minerva a tier 1 dragon rider class to promote into wyvern lord instead.

That would've been a neat way to handle it, especially if first-tier Wyverns started Axe-locked, thus presenting the player with more Axe-using enemies beyond the earlygame. Put "Dragon Rider" in the same male class pool with "Cavalier", so even your unpromoted units have the option to reclass. ...Well, only one of them before Minerva comes. Kinda-sorta having Falcoknights was just such a weird choice.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Where are you getting the info that pegasi are not native (or widely imported to) to Talys?

Well, if Talys had plenty of pegasi, then they'd probably have had a much more forceful and proactive response to a pirate invasion than "let Marth handle it LOL."

[Acacia Sgt]

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

In case it's the former, I can never bring myself to make Percy go Malig Knight, since I'm essentially killing off Ace and bringing him back as a zombie.

Darkly amusingly, it's totally fitting when you consider that Ace's name in Japan is Michalis.

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, making a check on enemy data...

Almost every enemy Pegasus Knight is labeled as either Macedon or Dragoon. The only exceptions are:

Prologue IV has Gra-labeled.
Chapter 10 has Grust-labeled.
Chapter 24 has Dohlr-labeled.

Dohlr is in the same island as Macedon.

Ch10 also curiously has Dracoknights labeled as Grust soldiers. Book 1 had both these and the PK's as Dragoons.

I think an argument can be made that pegasi may only be native to the large island where Macedon and Dohlr are located. The only outliers would be the Gra PK's (which only exist in the remake) and Caeda... and perhaps the Grust ones are mislabeled, since they initially appear near Minerva's position. Either way, it would still only signal that they're only native to Archanea's southwest.

Still, make of that as you will.

Well, should check the sequel's data too, just in case...

Okay, unless I missed something, there are actually no enemy PK's in Mystery. New Mystery does have in one of its Prologue chapters, however. Meanwhile, Dracoknights have either the Dragoon label (in Book 2), or labeled depending on who you're fighting (in New Mystery), which is Archanea for the most part, but there's also Khadein-labeled dracoknights in Chapter 9.

Yeah, but we never fight Talys or see anything of their common soldiery beyond Ogma's gang, Shiida and Castor. For all we know they could have a thriving Pegasus milita (though, uh, not so thriving as to be able to fend of the pirates without Marth's help). I see no reason to view Shiida as unique unless she has a support or something explaining why she has a pegasus. Ditto with Clair, who seems to be the only character in all of Valentia with a pegasus. Unless there's some explanation as to how she specifcially got it, there's no reason to assume it's unique and that there are plenty of offscreen Valentian and Talys pegasus knights. Shiida as a unit could be representing a whole platoon of Talys born pegasus knights.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, but we never fight Talys or see anything of their common soldiery beyond Ogma's gang, Shiida and Castor. For all we know they could have a thriving Pegasus milita (though, uh, not so thriving as to be able to fend of the pirates without Marth's help). I see no reason to view Shiida as unique unless she has a support or something explaining why she has a pegasus. Ditto with Clair, who seems to be the only character in all of Valentia with a pegasus. Unless there's some explanation as to how she specifcially got it, there's no reason to assume it's unique and that there are plenty of offscreen Valentian and Talys pegasus knights. Shiida as a unit could be representing a whole platoon of Talys born pegasus knights.

It's stated many times how Talys is a small island nation with barely much to defend themselves. Even if Caeda wasn't the only one with a pegasus, I doubt there'd be enough to form even a small squad.

For its worth on Valentia, if there were a lot of pegasi in Valentia other than Clair's, the Cheese Lover wouldn't be so excited to see Pegasus Cheese.

Is this... Can it truly be?! From the southern edge of Macedon, a vast ocean away... A cheese crafted from the milk suckled from the sweet, flappy teat of a pegasus!

The item's description is:

An extremely rare cheese. Increases speed.

Implying that cheese made from pegasi is not something common in Valentia, but rare. Extremely so. The Cheese Lover isn't excited to see a cheese made from far away, rather that it was made from pegasus milk at all. So either Valentia pegasi make milk that can't be made into cheese, or they truly aren't that common after all. Still, it is strange they still bothered to make Pegasus and Falcon Knight NPC's even if there isn't a single one actually on the battlefield. It's true there's no statement on how Clair got her pegasus, but since she is from a noble family, the possibility of importing one from Archanea is possible, barring evidence of the contrary.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

43 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It's stated many times how Talys is a small island nation with barely much to defend themselves. Even if Caeda wasn't the only one with a pegasus, I doubt there'd be enough to form even a small squad.

For its worth on Valentia, if there were a lot of pegasi in Valentia other than Clair's, the Cheese Lover wouldn't be so excited to see Pegasus Cheese.

Is this... Can it truly be?! From the southern edge of Macedon, a vast ocean away... A cheese crafted from the milk suckled from the sweet, flappy teat of a pegasus!

The item's description is:

An extremely rare cheese. Increases speed.

Implying that cheese made from pegasi is not something common in Valentia, but rare. Extremely so. The Cheese Lover isn't excited to see a cheese made from far away, rather that it was made from pegasus milk at all. So either Valentia pegasi make milk that can't be made into cheese, or they truly aren't that common after all. Still, it is strange they still bothered to make Pegasus and Falcon Knight NPC's even if there isn't a single one actually on the battlefield. It's true there's no statement on how Clair got her pegasus, but since she is from a noble family, the possibility of importing one from Archanea is possible, barring evidence of the contrary.

Barring evidence to the contrary is my main point. I don't think we can make sweeping statements if there's no actual statement. Or, to put it another way, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Talys is small, but Shiida and Ogma still managed to put down a rebellion in the New Mystery DLC, and her father was "uniting" tribes. So there is definitely military forces in existence, even if they couldn't fend off a full scale organized attack from Galder without Marth's help. We also need to factor in the possibility of these animals existing outside of a military context. Talys could employ Pegasus as messengers or transports to the main land. It would certainly be useful for an island nation to have something like that. So unless there's any game released that does give a unique explanation for Shiida's pegasus or provide some kind of statement on Talys wildlife, I would put Talys native pegasi in the "plausible" camp.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Barring evidence to the contrary is my main point. I don't think we can make sweeping statements if there's no actual statement. Or, to put it another way, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Talys is small, but Shiida and Ogma still managed to put down a rebellion in the New Mystery DLC, and her father was "uniting" tribes. So there is definitely military forces in existence, even if they couldn't fend off a full scale organized attack from Galder without Marth's help. We also need to factor in the possibility of these animals existing outside of a military context. Talys could employ Pegasus as messengers or transports to the main land. It would certainly be useful for an island nation to have something like that. So unless there's any game released that does give a unique explanation for Shiida's pegasus or provide some kind of statement on Talys wildlife, I would put Talys native pegasi in the "plausible" camp.

To be fair, it was because both sides were on the small scale. It was just Ogma and his men that composed the bulk of the fighting force. While the rebels needed to hire mercs (as seen with Navarre, Malice, and Dice) to bolster their own numbers. We also don't hear of any help Mostyn had outside of Lorenz, so it likely didn't took him a lot of power either to unite the tribes as well. Simply put, when it comes to Talys, do expect things to not be at a grand scale.

In that case, there's a lot of "plausible" things that can't be disproven because "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence", as you put it. I can say that, for all we know, Caeda's mother was from Macedon and that's how she has a pegasus. Mostyn being friends with Lorenz and Cornelius at least gives plausibility that he traveled lots before uniting Talys, so him falling in love and marrying someone from anywhere on the continent (barring Anri's Way I suppose) has enough actual evidence backing it up.

On that subject, "character has a pegasus because relative was from place that has them" is basically how Elincia got her pegasus, as her great-grandmother was from Begnion. The Binding Blade manga also had the daughter of a Lycian marquis having a pegasus because her mother was Ilian. To give another example.

[Jotari]

4 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

To be fair, it was because both sides were on the small scale. It was just Ogma and his men that composed the bulk of the fighting force. While the rebels needed to hire mercs (as seen with Navarre, Malice, and Dice) to bolster their own numbers. We also don't hear of any help Mostyn had outside of Lorenz, so it likely didn't took him a lot of power either to unite the tribes as well. Simply put, when it comes to Talys, do expect things to not be at a grand scale.

In that case, there's a lot of "plausible" things that can't be disproven because "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence", as you put it. I can say that, for all we know, Caeda's mother was from Macedon and that's how she has a pegasus. Mostyn being friends with Lorenz and Cornelius at least gives plausibility that he traveled lots before uniting Talys, so him falling in love and marrying someone from anywhere on the continent (barring Anri's Way I suppose) has enough actual evidence backing it up.

On that subject, "character has a pegasus because relative was from place that has them" is basically how Elincia got her pegasus, as her great-grandmother was from Begnion. The Binding Blade manga also had the daughter of a Lycian marquis having a pegasus because her mother was Ilian. To give another example.

Certainly possible. But outside the realm of a fanfiction, I wouldn't actually say Shiida's mother was from Macedon. On the subject of said mother, we might actually have a character design for her from the OVA.

Marth stares on this portrait for a few seconds in a panning shot, suggesting some sort of significance. I wonder if they were planning to go somewhere with that.

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Jotari said:

Certainly possible. But outside the realm of a fanfiction, I wouldn't actually say Shiida's mother was from Macedon.

Hence the "for all we know", just like the idea of Talys having native pegasi.

Just now, Jotari said:

On the subject of said mother, we might actually have a character design for her from the OVA.

Marth stares on this portrait for a few seconds in a panning shot, suggesting some sort of significance. I wonder if they were planning to go somewhere with that.

Possibly. Though if it's Caeda's mother, the stare could be of many reasons. Maybe the significance is Marth dwelling about the family he lost, or something like that. But yeah, unfortunately the OVA never went beyond Ghoul's Teeth, so we'll never know. There might've been no significance as well, since they never planned to do more than that.