Fire Emblem/Characters
Character page for Fire Emblem series and the tropes that accordingly apply. Characters for specific games and game universes are on specific pages for that universe, and this page will only cover universal character tropes, archetypes, classes and recurring characters; for more detailed and complete character sheets, go to:
- Fire Emblem Akaneia
- Fire Emblem Jugdral
- Fire Emblem Elibe
- Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones
- Fire Emblem Tellius
- Fire Emblem Awakening
- Tear Ring Saga
Every character page, including this one, is CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS. You Have Been Warned.
General character tropes
Fire Emblem tends to regularly feature recursive expies in the games' casts, so some character tropes arise in practically every game.
- Action Girl: Pretty much any female who's not a White Mage, and even some of the white mages after they get promoted.
- Badass Adorable: Some of your units will turn out like this if you train them well, particularly the Magikarp Power ones.
- Bodyguard Crush: If a person is hired/commanded to protect someone else, the lord/lady and bodyguard are extremely likely to fall in love.
- Brother-Sister Incest: No, really.
- Crutch Character: Jagen, considered the epitome of this in the context of Fire Emblem, was once the Trope Namer, and among the fandom he sort of continues to name it: the "Jeigan Archetype" is a Crutch Character who turns out to be utterly terrible as the game progresses, far outstripped by practically everyone else. Related is the "Oifey Archetype", named for Oifey from Genealogy of the Holy War, which refers to crutch characters who actually continue to be a useful unit throughout the rest of the game; this is the more common archetype these days.
- Defector From Decadence: Plenty of high-ranking enemies tend to ditch their respectable positions and join your army when asked out of an inclination to do what's right.
- Disappeared Dad: If they are even alive, expect them to die five minutes in.
- Eleventh-Hour Ranger: Known as the "Gotoh Archetype", there's traditionally one last ally character obtained in the final three chapters (if not the very last chapter) who is exceptionally powerful, if unable to gain EXP. These include Gotoh, Nagi, Karel, Athos, the three Laguz royals and Lehran.
- Everything's Better with Princesses: Often, they can actually fight.
- Genius Bruiser: The huge guys in armor or with the axe? They'll often be much smarter than you'd think.
- Gonk: Numerous bosses, including a running gag of having Those Two Bad Guys be identical gonk cloudcuckoolanders. As if to compensate and seem vaguely fair, they'll throw one or two gonks in as a recruitable characters. Interestingly enough, most are Axe classes.
- Heroic Lineage: Almost every lord, as well as a few minor characters.
- Lady of War: Around half of the playable female characters.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Often an In-universe example, as the main lord can usually be paired with any of a number of partners. The exceptions are Sigurd, Marth and Alm.
- Love Makes You Evil: If someone has bad luck in love, s/he might change for the worse and Face Heel Turn.
- Magikarp Power: Among fans, this is referred to as the Est Archetype, which are something of a logical inversion of the Jeigan Archetype: they will show up in the last quarter of the game, often the last character before the Eleventh-Hour Superpower, will be of an incredibly low level (often Level 5 unpromoted), often will be quite squishy with no defense, and accordingly are incredibly difficult to level up and promote; if they are levelled and promoted though, bodies start falling.
- Missing Mom: The lord's mom often won't even be mentioned. Eliwood is the only protagonist to have his mom alive in the beginning of the game, not counting Diadora, who was around for the entire first half of the game before Celice was born.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Many of your foes will stand by their kingdom's values, even if their superiors have evil ulterior motives.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Although some are Fan Preferred Couples, there are a few that are canon or at least possible in the specific game.
- Worthy Opponent: Some enemies will commend your fighting prowess after they're defeated.
Class-related tropes
The character classes present in the series also embody tropes, both in gameplay and in the mythology, story role and recurring tendencies present in them.
Lord
The class to which The Hero always belongs, the Lord class functions like a King in Chess in that the death of a Lord character yields a Game Over. The specific traits of the Lord class vary wildly depending on the game or the specific character in question. Lords are typically sword-wielders, but especially in the last decade there have been plenty of exceptions; they also typically have blue hair, or failing that, something equally outlandish.
Some games give their main characters classes which are Lords in all but name, often having different specialities; among the fandom, pretty much all of these classes are colloquially called Lords. Alm and Cellica's base Lord classes in Gaiden are Fighter and Priest respectively[1], and the class is known as Junior Lord in Genealogy of the Holy War. Ike's initial class is Ranger in Path of Radiance and Hero (a second-tier class) in Radiant Dawn; Micaiah's initial class in Radiant Dawn is Light Mage. Recently introduced in Awakening is the My Unit exclusive class Strategist.
Most Lords who can promote have their own specific class into which they promote. Marth does not promote at all, Alm and Cellica promote to Hero and Princess[2] respectively, Celice and Eliwood promote into the Knight Lord[3], Leaf promotes into the Prince in Thracia[4], Hector, Eirika and Ephraim promote into the Great Lord[5], Roy, Krom and Lucina promote to Master Lord[6], and Lyn promotes into a Blade Lord. Ike is an odd case in that Lord is actually his promoted class in Path of Radiance; in Radiant Dawn, he can promote into the third-tier Vanguard class. Micaiah promotes into the Light Sage class, then again into the third-tier Light Priestess class. My Unit promotes into the Grandmaster class.
Related are the Prince and Princess classes in the Jugdral games, exclusive to Leaf of Lenster and Lachesis of Nodion respectively. In Genealogy of the Holy War, they're not true Lords in that their death does not end the game, but are otherwise quite similar; they promote into the Master Knight, which can use every weapon type except dark magic. In Thracia 776, the Prince is Leaf's promoted class. In his DLC appearances in Awakening, Marth has the unique Star Lord class; he can use Rapiers and the Falchion, but does not act as another proper Lord and cannot seize thrones/castles. Also, at various points in Radiant Dawn, Elincia, Geoffrey, Lucia, Nephenee and Tibarn all act as the Lord character of certain chapters.
Playable characters of this class family: Marth, Alm, Cellica, Siglud, Celice, Leaf, Rackesis[7], Roy, Eliwood, Hector, Lyndis, Eirika, Ephraim, Ike, Micaiah, Krom, Lucina, My Unit.
- Competitive Balance: They fall all over the place on this one:
- Fragile Speedster: Lyn, Eirika.
- Mighty Glacier: Alm and Hector, if you're unfortunate.
- Jack of All Stats: Marth, Roy, Eliwood.
- Lightning Bruiser: Siglud, Celice, Ephraim, Ike, Hector (if you're lucky) and My Unit (with class change abuse).
- Magic Knight: Cellica, My Unit.
- Squishy Wizard: Micaiah.
- Expy: Most character-specific Lord class variants are based on other classes: Lyn is based on the Myrmidon line with elements of the Nomadic Trooper, Hector on Generals, Eliwood on Paladins[8], Ike on Mercenaries, and Micaiah on Mages (except with light magic).
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Only Ephraim, Hector, and Micaiah don't.
- Royal Rapier: The traditional weapon of Lord characters; those who don't partake tend to use a functional Expy like Hector's Wolf Beil, Lyn's Mani Katti, Ephraim's Reginleif, Ike's Regal Sword and Micaiah's Thani.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Lords are generally characters of royal, or at least noble, descent, and they are all willing to get their hands dirty fighting on the front lines of the battlefield.
- Sword of Plot Advancement: Most promotions of Lord characters are story-tied events which can't be avoided, often even if the character isn't at the right level to promote. Sometimes they're tied to obtaining a literal Sword of Plot Advancement.
- We Cannot Go on Without You: The death of a Lord is an instant Game Over; in some games, other ally characters will invoke this trope almost word-for-word when the Lord is dying.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Almost every Lord has blue, or otherwise unnaturally-coloured, hair. That Leaf instead has a downright normal hair colour is what actually stands out among them.
Cavalier (Social Knight)
One of the most common and basic of classes, Cavaliers are horse-mounted knights. The player will almost always start off with two cavaliers, one wearing red armour and one wearing green. In almost every game, Cavaliers promote into Paladins; The Sacred Stones and Awakening also allow them to promote into Great Knights. The third-tier promoted classes for the cavalier tree are the Gold Knight (lances in Fire Emblem Gaiden, swords and axes in Radiant Dawn) and as of Radiant Dawn, the Silver Knight (lances and bows).
The Judgral and Tellius games split the Cavalier class into four separate horseback classes, each specializing in a different weapon type: the Blade Knight[9], Lance Knight, Axe Knight and Bow Knight.[10] The Tellius games have them all promote into Paladins (in Radiant Dawn, the Paladin class is split similarly), but the Jugdral games give them all their own promoted class: the Forrest Knight[11], Duke Knight, Great Knight and Bow Knight.
Distantly related is the bow-wielding Nomad class of the Elibe games, which is pretty much a Bow Knight with a tribal flavouring and slightly different stat distribution. They promote to the Nomadic Trooper class, which gains the use of swords as well. Also related is the Mage Knight of the Jugdral games[12], which wield both magic and swords.
Playable characters of this class family: Cain, Abel, Jagen, Hardin, Roshea, Vyland, Midia, Arran, Cleve, Camus/Zeke/Sirius, Maisen, Cecile, Rody, Luke, Robert, Leiden, Belf; Alec, Noish, Lex, Cuan, Fin, Midayle, Beowolf, Oifey, Delmud/Tristan, Lester/Dimna, Johan, Aless, Brighton, Felgus, Hicks, Carrion, Kain, Alva, Robert, Fred, Glade, Amalda, Conomore; Alan, Lance, Marcus, Sue, Noah, Treck, Zealot, Shin, Percival, Dayan, Sain, Kent, Rath, Lowen, Isadora; Seth, Franz, Forde, Kyle, Orson, Duessel; Titania, Oscar, Kieran, Astrid, Makalov, Geoffrey, Fiona, Renning; Frederick, Sol, Soiree, DLC!Ephraim.
- Automaton Horses: There's no sign that the horses used by Cavalier variants ever need rest; odds are they do after battles, but it's never discussed.
- Blade on a Stick/Cool Sword: All outright Cavaliers wield lances and swords.
- The Cavalry: Many enemy armies treat them as thus, bringing in waves of cavaliers and related classes as mid-level reinforcements; this is particularly effective given their high movement rate, allowing them to quickly sweep in and potentially ruin the player's shit.
- Cool Horse: Their horses give them greater movement than your units on foot, and most of their attack animations show the horse is rather in-tune with its rider.
- Jack of All Stats: They tend to be the most balanced of the mounted/flying units and is typically the only unit who is capable of wielding more than one type of weapon before class change.
- Life Drain: The Gold and Silver Knights' mastery skill, Sol.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: The Cavalier class family is easily the most populous in the franchise, with there being more recruitable cavalier-esque characters in any given game than of any other class.
- The Paladin: Averted; the Paladin class has nothing to do with holy warriors and cannot use any sort of magic. They're generally upstanding, moral, and loyal knights, but not holy by any means.
- Those Two Guys: The two red and green cavaliers from the beginning of the game generally act like this.
Knight (Armor Knight)
A counterpart to the Cavalier, Knights are heavily-armoured footsoldiers. Generally, the player will gain access to one within the first few chapters, and just one other through the course of the game. They generally promote to Generals. Third tier Knights are known as Barons in Fire Emblem Gaiden, and Marshalls in Radiant Dawn. In The Sacred Stones and Awakening, they have Great Knight as a branched promotion option.
The Jugdral and Tellius games split the Knight class into four separate armoured classes, each specializing in a different weapon type: the Sword Armor, Lance Armor, Axe Armor, and Bow Armor.[13] They all promote into similarly weapon-specific variants of the General.[14] In Fire Emblem Gaiden, the Armor Knight serves as a second-tier class promoting from the Soldier (see below).
Playable characters of this class family: Draug, Roger, Lorenz, Valbo; Arden, Hannibal, Dalsin; Bors, Barth, Wendy, Douglas, Wallace, Oswin; Gilliam; Gatrie, Brom, Tauroneo, Meg; Callum, Dezel.
- 24-Hour Armor: Like the Cavaliers' Automaton Horse, possibly. The only time a Knight variant is ever seen without their armour is Brom's first appearance in Radiant Dawn, and that's only because he was out farming before the fight came along.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: The General and Marshall's mastery skill Luna.
- Blade on a Stick: In games where the class isn't split up into weapon-specific variants, they always wield lances. Generals get a secondary weapon type which varies depending on the game in question.
- Stone Wall/Mighty Glacier: The defining trait of this class category is enormous Defence and great Attack, with minimal Speed.
- "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Traditionally, a General will appear as the boss of the eighth or tenth chapter as the first promoted boss, and will accordingly serve this role. A good amount of them tend to be Climax Bosses as well.
- Won't Work On Me: Great Shield, a skill belonging to this class in the Jugdral and Magvel games, completely protects the unit from any damage whatsoever when it randomly activates.
Mercenary
The basic sword-wielding footsoldier classes. Mercenaries are generally defined as just that: soldiers-for-hire. They promote into the Hero class[15], and in Fire Emblem Gaiden, they promote again into the third tier Demon Fighter. The class was technically replaced by the Myrmidon class (see below) in the Jugdral games; the equivalent class was called Swordfighter a.k.a. the Myrmidon class, but in function said class is a mix of the Mercenary and the Myrmidon; several Swordfighters promote to Hero/Forrest as per usual, while some promote to Swordmaster, depending on the character. Likewise, Mercenaries do not exist in the Tellius games.
The Demon Fighter reappears in a limited capacity in Awakening. Acting as a reward for completing Alm's DLC package (Alm himself is this class here), any male unit can promote to it by use of a Demon Fighter Scroll. Here, their weapon set adds axes and magic.
Related are the aforementioned Myrmidon class and Ike's various Lord classes in the Tellius games, which are functionally Mercenaries.
Playable characters of this class family:[16] Ogma, Nabarl*, Caesar, Radd*, Astram, Samson, Savor, Jesi, Deen, Samto*, Maris*; Dieck, Ogier, Echidna, Raven, Harken; Gerik; Greg, Selena, Flavia, DLC!Roy, DLC!Alm.
- An Axe to Grind: In Thracia 776' onward, Heroes can wield axes upon Class Changing.
- BFS: The swords wielded by the Mercenary class in the GBA and DS games are depicted as large swords.
- Jack of All Stats/Lightning Bruiser: Almost all of them.
- Fragile Speedster: The big exception: the "Nabarl Archetype", a small number of Mercenaries which tend more toward this. Starting with the Elibe games, they just became their own class, the Myrmidon.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Their critical animations often do this.
- Weapon Across the Shoulder: Often their default pose.
Myrmidon (Swordfighter, Blade)
A class closely related to the Mercenary, originally deriving from Mercenaries with specifically different gameplay constitutions; whereas Mercenaries are balanced, Myrmidons turn up the speed to near-ridiculous levels at the expense of defense. They promote to the Swordmaster class, and in Radiant Dawn promote further to the Trueblade class. The Myrmidon class technically replaced the Mercenary class in the Jugdral games (and thus, some could promote to Hero/Forrest), but was functionally a bit of a mix of the two; the full, separate Myrmidon class in and of itself as we know it today debuted in the Elibe games.
Playable characters of this class family: Nabarl, Radd, Samto, Maris, Athena; Ira, Holyn, Lakche/Radney, Skasaher/Roddlevan, Shanan, Eyvel, Machyua, Shiva, Mareeta, Trewd, Ralph, Shanam, Galzus; Rutger, Fir, Karel, Guy, Karla; Joshua, Marisa; Mia, Zihark, Lucia, Stefan, Edward; Ronku, Sairi, Wood. DLC!Celice.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: The Astra/Shooting Star skill; it's the mastery skill for Swordmasters and Trueblades in the Tellius games, and is pretty much exclusively associated with the Isaac royal family (all of whom are Swordfighters, Swordmasters and Forrests) in the Jugdral games.
- Divergent Class Evolution: The Myrmidon class originated as the Fire Emblem Gaiden equivalent of the promoted Hero (as "Hero" was Alm's personal promoted class). In the Jugdral games, the class was a functional mix of the Mercenary and Myrmidon classes, promoting to both the Swordmaster and Forrest. Starting from the Elibe games, the two classes have become distinct from one another.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Myrmidons are some of the most common darkhorses, prominently Nabarl, Ira and Mia. Joshua may also count.
- Flash Step: A general tendency of Swordmasters.
- Fragile Speedster: Myrmidons are very weak and fragile compared to other infantry; however, they have very high speed, meaning that they double attack more often and often rely on dodging to avoid damage. In Fates, they gain an evasion boost.
- Hot Chick with a Sword: Following the tradition of Ira, one of the class's prototypes, every female Myrmidon. No exceptions.
- Spell My Name with an "S": In Japanese, they just can't decide on a consistent name: they've been variously known as the Swordfighter, the Blade or the Myrmidon. The English games just call all of them "Myrmidon".
Fighter
Fighters are axe-wielding footsoldiers practically defined by their wild style relying primarily on power; it's again quite common to receive at least one at the start of the game. They promote to the Warrior class, and in Radiant Dawn promote again to the Reaver class. In the branched promotion lines of The Sacred Stones and Awakening, they also have the option to promote to Hero.
Related are the Brigand/Bandit and Pirate family, which is pretty much the same thing except less reputable in-universe and capable of crossing mountains and water respectively; both promote into the Berserker class.
Playable characters of this class family: Barst, Bord, Cord, Darros, Ymir, Jake; Johalvier, Othin, Halvan, Dagda, Marty; Lott, Wade, Gonzales, Geese, Bartre, Garrett, Dorcas, Geitz; Garcia, Dozla; Boyd, Largo, Nolan; Vake, Basilio.
- An Axe to Grind: They can only wield axes as their weapons. Fighters class change into Warriors, which use Bows as well.
- Bandit Mook: Brigands and Pirates, when in the service of the enemy.
- The Berserker: Guess. That said, playable members of the class are normally an aversion, bearing no such tendencies beyond their class name.
- Big Fucking Axe: Common, especially among Berserkers.
- Bigger Is Better: The basis of the Warrior's mastery skill Colossus in Path of Radiance: it deals more damage if the user's Constitution is greater than that of the enemy. This was changed in Radiant Dawn, where Colossus merely triples the user's Strength.
- Fighters and their related classes are typically fairly large as well.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Traditionally.
- Everything's Better with Spinning. Warriors' criticals in the GBA games, and the Reaver's mastery skill Colossus in Radiant Dawn.
- Gonk: They Have a tendency to this or to avert Generic Cuteness.
- Horny Vikings: Most portrayals of the Berserker.
- Mighty Glacier: Massive attack and respectable defences, but not the fastest of classes.
- Roar Before Beating: The critical hits of Brigands in the GBA games. Berserkers do this when Colossus is activated in Path of Radiance.
- Unskilled but Strong: They have gargantuan strength, usually only beaten by the Brigands/Berskers, but just like them tend to be lacking in Skill which, factored into the already low hit rate of axes, makes their accuracy rather unreliable.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Often applies, especially with Berserkers.
Soldier
In most games, the Soldier class are the mook class: they're enemy-only, they're weak, they serve as little more than cannon fodder, and the game itself is more than ready to point that out to you. Then came the Tellius games, and suddenly, Soldiers became a viable fighting class which functions as the lance-wielding counterpart of the Fighter, Myrmidon and Archer. In the Tellius games, they promote to the Halberdier class, then again in Radiant Dawn to the Sentinel class. In Fire Emblem Gaiden, Soldiers served as a first tier class which promoted into the Armor Knight class (see above).
Playable characters of this class family: Luka, Fols; Nephenee, Devdan/Danved, Aran.
- Blade on a Stick: The pure-lance infantry class, much like Myrmidons are to swords. Spear Masters in Fates gain Lancefaire, which boosts their damage output for wielding lances.
- Critical Hit: Up to Eleven. Normal critical hits and mastery skills deal three times the damage. The Impale mastery skill available to Sentinels deals four times the damage.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Started out as unpromoted Armor Knights.
- Jack of All Stats: In the Tellius games, with generally a slightly higher focus on defense.
- Mook: Their sole purpose everywhere except the Barensia and Tellius canons.
Archer
Lightly armoured soldiers wielding bows. Archers don't have much in the way of defense or other related stats, but that's the thing... that's not why they exist. They're supposed to take down the enemy from afar using their bows, and if you're throwing them into the thick of things, you're doing it wrong. They promote to the Sniper class, then again to the Bow Knight class in Fire Emblem Gaiden and the Marksman class in Radiant Dawn.
Related are the Ballisticians of the Akaneia and Jugdral canon, a class which exclusively uses Siege Engines, an ability which in other games is available just to Archers. Also related is the Hunter class, exclusive to the Akaneia games, which is pretty much the Archer with slightly different stat distribution and the ability to traverse forest easier; they promote to Horseman, the mounted, near-identical progentior of an endless line of bow-and-sword-using mounted classes like the Ranger, Bow Knight and Nomadic Trooper.
- Always Accurate Attack: Deadeye/Sure Strike, the Sniper and Marksman's mastery skill. It's a bit of a Power-Up Letdown, in that by the point they have access to it, a Sniper/Marksman will have such high Skill that they don't need an accuracy boost.
- The Archer: Wow, no shit.
- Crippling Overspecialisation: By design, they can only attack over distances and as such are incapable of retaliation when attacked at close-quarters. The only game to change this is Radiant Dawn, where crossbows (inferior weapons) and the Double Bow (a Game Breaker, only available in the finale) can be used both in close-quarters and over a distance.
- For this reason, Archers and Snipers functioning as bosses is extremely rare; one of the few, in Radiant Dawn, wields a crossbow.
- Fragile Speedster: If not to the extent of Myrmidons. Archers are lightly armoured and so have little in the way of HP and Defence, but are intended to be swift and accurate; in-universe, Wil describes himself as being able to travel through forests swifter than anyone else in the group (Lyn, Sain, Kent, Florina) because of this.
- No Arc in Archery: No Fire Emblem game depicts archers or other bow users as arcing their shot.
- Siege Engines: They're the only class family which can use ballistae and similar weapons.
Mage
The basic offensive magic class, dealing in the three "anima", or nature, magic types. Mages almost always promote into the Sage class, and in Radiant Dawn promote further to the third-tier Arch Sage class (which also existed in Fire Emblem 7 as the exclusive class of Athos). The Sacred Stones also allows Mages to promote into the mounted Mage Knight class. In the original Akaneia games, Mages promoted into Bishops like every other magic user; the Sage class was implemented in the remakes.
The Jugdral games and Radiant Dawn[17] split the Mage class into three variant classes, each specialising in one of the three anima magic types: the Fire Mage, Wind Mage and Thunder Mage. In Radiant Dawn, they promote into similarly split Sage variants; in the Jugdral games, all four variants promote promote into one of two other promoted classes: the Mage Fighter and Mage Knight, which are generally identical in that both wield swords alongside three anima magic types, differing only in that the Mage Knight rides a horse.
Related is the Bard[18], a class exclusive to Levn of Genealogy of the Holy War which wields only wind magic and also promotes to Sage.
Playable characters of this class family:[19] Merric, Wendell*, Linde, Gotoh*, Ryuto, Dyute, May, Boey, Sonia, Norma, Yubello, Ellerean, Katarina; Azel, Levn, Tailto, Arthur/Amid, Teeny/Linda, Sety/Hawk, Asvel, Olwen, Homer, Eyrios, Miranda; Lugh, Lilina, Hugh, Erk, Pent, Nino, Athos; Lute, Saleh; Soren, Ilyana, Tormod, Calill, Bastian; Miriel, Richt, Loran, Emelina.
- Badass Cape/In the Hood: Most Mages wear capes, and occasionally hoods.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Awakening forsakes this tradition in favour of some enormous wizard hats.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning/Blow You Away/Playing with Fire/Shock and Awe: Mages have access to the three "anima" classes of magic: fire, thunder and wind. The Akaneia, Elibe and Magvel games lump them into one magic type, whereas Jugdral and Tellius split them into three separate types.
- Holy Hand Grenade/Casting a Shadow: In the Akaneia games, all magic types (staves aside) are one and the same, meaning that Mages also wield ostensibly "light" and "dark" tomes like Starlight and Swarm.
- Life Drain: The Arch Sage's mastery skill Flare.
- Magic Knight: The Mage Knight and Mage Fighter, only in the Jugdral games; the Magvel Mage Knight doesn't fall under this trope, as it is just a mounted mage and doesn't do physical weapons.
- Squishy Wizard: Mages and Sages are very frail physically, making them unsuitable for the very front lines against physically-oriented armies. Averted with Dark Knights, who have Defense as their highest stat.
Priest
One of two medic classes, Priests only wield magical staves which can heal allies, inflict status effects on enemies, or teleport allies. The class can be either gender, but some games split female Priests into the separate but otherwise identical Cleric class. Priests and Clerics both promote into the Bishop class, whereupon they gain access to offensive Light magic; in Fire Emblem Gaiden and Radiant Dawn, their final promotion is the Saint class. In Awakening, Clerics and Priests gain the alternate promotion of Battle Cleric/Monk, which gives them the use of axes.
In the Tellius games, the Cleric variant is exclusive to Mist. She is generally identical to normal Priests (which still exist), but does not have the association with religion, and in Radiant Dawn can also use swords. She promotes to the Valkyrie class, which in Path of Radiance allows her to use swords as well.
Related is the Monk class, an offensive magic class exclusive to the GBA games which uses light magic; they also promote into Bishops, and so are considered part of this class tree. Also related is the Light Mage and its promotions, Micaiah's Lord class in Radiant Dawn, and the Shaman[20], Diadora and Yuria's class in Genealogy of the Holy War, which promotes to Sage.
Playable characters of this class family: Wrys, Lena, Maria, Boah, Elice, Silk, Jenny, Malliesia, Frost, Nyna; Adean, Claude, Rana/Mana, Corpul/Sharlow, Safy, Tina, Linoan, Sleuf, Sara, Cyas; Ellen, Saul, Yodel, Serra, Lucius, Renaud; Moulder, Natasha, Artur; Rhys, Mist, Laura, Oliver; Liz, Libera, Brady.
- Combat Medic: Upon promotion, they gain offensive light magic, or have it from the start for Shamans in Genealogy of the Holy War.
- For Massive Damage: The Slayer skill in The Sacred Stones, which deals massive damage to monsters.
- Light Is Not Good/Sinister Minister: Bishops who support the enemy, are morally questionable, or are outright evil and heretical are a recurring feature throughout the franchise—the most prominent examples are Gharnef[21], Riev, Oliver and Lekain.
- Light the Way: Tend to be the only light magic users.
- Healing Factor: Renewal allows them to regenerate 30% of their max HP at the start of each turn in Awakening and Fates.
- Holy Hand Grenade: After promotion and Monks. The exception is Awakening, where light magic does not exist in any form.
- The Medic: They're mainly used to heal weakened units.
- Religion Is Magic: Light magic, at any rate. In most canons, light magic has a strong association with the dominant religion of the world (which more often than not has some connection with one of the world's legendary heroes who also used light magic). Light-wielding units not affiliated with the clergy are rare, with Micaiah being the only one in Tellius. Discussed by Knoll and Natasha in The Sacred Stones, pondering the differences between the roots of their magic of choice (light/religion for Natasha, dark/knowledge for Knoll).
- Simple Staff: Normally, they don't have offensive use in line with this trope, but Radiant Dawn allowed staff-wielding units to use them to strike back when attacked. Some staffs have a 100% critical rate, but almost no-one has the strength to actually deal any damage in such a situation.
- Squishy Wizard: Significantly more so than the Mage line.
- White Mage/White Magician Girl: They're frequently female.
Shaman
A far less common offensive magic class, Shamans are a slower, bulkier counterpart to Mages, specializing in dark magic. They promote to the Druid class, or can become the Summoner class in The Sacred Stones. The class is also known as the Dark Mage in the Akaneia and Jugdral games, with the Druid being called the Sorceror in Akaneia and the Dark Bishop in Jugdral; it's an enemy-exclusive class in the Jugdral games.[22]
Related is the Dark Sage, a second-tier class which also wields thunder magic, exclusive to King Pelleas in Radiant Dawn; it promotes into a variant of the Arch Sage. Also related are the Dark Druid, Dark Prince and Necromancer, dark-wielding classes exclusively belonging respectively to the final bosses Nergal, Yurius and Lyon.
This class is not to be confused with the Shaman class of Genealogy of the Holy War, which is a light-wielding class exclusive to Diadora and Yuria, or with the third-tier Light Priestess class, which was called "Shaman" in the original Japanese version of Radiant Dawn.
Playable characters of this class family: Etzel; Salem; Lleu, Sophia, Niime, Canas; Knoll; Pelleas; Sariya, Henry, DLC!Micaiah.
- Casting a Shadow: Dark magic is essentially this. Also, while they have often been portrayed as the magical equivalent to axes, dark magic in the GBA games and in Awakening have effects on their general weapons that other magic will never have.
- Dark Is Not Evil: And Canas will make a point of reminding you of that fact.
- In the Hood: Almost every similar unit wears a heavy hood completely obscuring their face.
- Mighty Glacier: Significantly slower than Mages and have worse Skill, but generally have better Defence and HP, and relatively equal Magical Attack.
- Necromancy: The Summoner and Necromancer can create phantom warriors to assist you in battle.
Troubadour
A female-exclusive medic class which makes occasional, if inconsistent appearances. The Troubadour is basically a Priest, except on a horse.
The Troubadour class is one of the most variable in the series in terms of promotion and weaponry. In most games, they wield only staves, but additionally wield swords in the Jugdral games. They normally promote into the Valkyrie, which like the Priest, adds the ability to use offensive magic (anima or light depending on the game) in every game except the Tellius games; in said Tellius games, where the class is exclusive to Mist, they add the ability to use swords instead. In the Jugdral games, they instead promote into a female-exclusive variant of the Paladin class which can use staves.
Playable characters of this class family: Ethlin, Nanna/Janne; Clarine, Cecilia, Priscilla; L'Arachel; Mariabel.
- Automaton Horses: Their horses are only seen in combat.
- Combat Medic: Valkyries have offensive magic/the use of swords in addition to healing with staves. In the Jugdral games, troubadors can use swords from the start. In Fates, they gain shurikens as their weapons as Maids and Butlers.
- Cool Horse: Troubadours are always mounted on them.
- Healing Staff
- The Medic: Their main battlefield role.
- Squishy Wizard: They have high Magic and Luck to aid in their healing abilities, but they're defensively weak physically and typically can't fight back at first.
- Staff Chick
- White Mage
Pegasus Knight
One of two flying mounted class, Pegasus Knights are knights who fly on pegasi defined by their excellent speed and resistance, at the cost of shitty defense and HP; they're generally considered to be great for eliminating mages. They promote to the Falcon Knight class, which almost always adds the ability to use swords, and in Radiant Dawn promote further to the Seraph Knight. In Awakening, Pegasus Knights gain the alternate promotion Black Pegasus, which allows them use of magic.
Related are the Princess Crimea and Queen classes, exclusive to Elincia in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn respectively; both classes wield swords and staves, but are otherwise identical to the normal pegasus classes.
Playable characters of this class family: Caeda, Catria, Palla, Est, Clea; Ferry, Phee/Femina, Karin, Misha; Thany, Thite, Juno, Florina, Fiora, Farina; Vanessa, Tana, Syrene; Marcia, Tanith, Elincia, Sigrun; Sumia, Tiamo, Cynthia.
- Blade on a Stick: The starting and main weapon for Pegasus Knights.
- Cool Sword: In Fire Emblem 1 and Fire Emblem 4, they can wield swords immediately. In most other games, they get swords upon promotion to Falcon Knight.
- Early Installment Weirdness: Pegasi become dragons in the Akaneia games? Huh?
- For Massive Damage: Bows and, in Radiant Dawn, wind magic.
- Won't Work On Me: The Iote/Delphi/Fili Shield in the Akaneia, Elibe and Magvel games is an item which, when held by a flyer, negates their weakness to bows.
- Fragile Speedster: Their high Speed typically allows them to get in at least two hits. However, they're vulnerable to arrows and wind-related magic.
- Geo Effects: A class-limited aversion; flyers completely ignore terrain bonuses and penalties because after all, they can fly. They still get healed by forts and thrones though.
- Mage Killer: They're frequently lauded as such, given their high Resistance and access to physical weapons.
- Pegasus
- Rule of Three: Traditionally, there are three available pegasus-riding units, often related to each other either through family or through job, who can execute a "Triangle Attack" when together. The Jugdral games are the only exceptions; the player never gets more than two Pegasus Knights in the same game, and in Genealogy of the Holy War, the two are in different generations. Genealogy of the Holy War actually has a trio of enemy Falcon Knights who can Triangle Attack!
- Spell My Name with an "S": "Falcon Knight" has been variously rendered as "Falcoknight", "Falconknight" and "Falcon Knight" in the English games.
- Staff Chick: Falcon Knights in Genealogy of the Holy War and Awakening.
- Winged Unicorn: Normally, they look like this after promotion to Falcon Knight, though it's entirely possible that the horn is just part of the pegasus's head armour.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Almost every Pegasus Knight does Grade B with boots and a miniskirt.
Dragon Knight
The other flying mounted class, this time flying on the backs of dragons; sometimes known instead as the Wyvern Rider class. Originating as the promoted class of Pegasus Knights in the Akaneia games, Dragon Knights were later were spun off into their own entirely separate class family. Compared to their pegasus counterparts, they tend toward hardier, bulkier compositions at the expense of speed.
Dragon Knights promote into the Dragon Master/Wyvern Lord class, the name depending on the game; in The Sacred Stones, they can alternatively promote into the Wyvern Knight. In Radiant Dawn, they can promote into the third-tier Dragonlord class. The Jugdral games feature the weaker Dragon Rider class, which was made the first tier to the (now second tier) Dragon Knight in Thracia 776. In Awakening, they gain the alternate promotion Griffin Rider.
Related is the King Daein class, exclusive to Ashnard in Path of Radiance.
Not to be confused with the "normal" dragons which figure heavily into the plots of most games.[23] Nintendo of America certainly thought this'd be the case, so for a while this class became the "Wyvern Rider" in English; this was later reverted to "Dragonknight" in Radiant Dawn.
Playable characters of this class family: Minerva, Michalis; Altenna, Dean, Eda; Miledy, Zeiss, Heath, Vaida; Cormag; Jill, Haar; Serge, Jerome.
- Armor-Piercing Attack/Game Breaking Bug: The Wyvern Knight's skill Pierce in The Sacred Stones. Its usefulness is offset by being linked to a nasty glitch which locks up the game under certain circumstances which, oddly enough, only occurs in English copies of the game.
- Blade on a Stick: Traditionally this is the family's primary weapon.
- An Axe to Grind: In Radiant Dawn and Awakening, this has been their preferred weapon.
- Depending on the Artist/Your Size May Vary: There's pretty much no consistency with the appearance of the dragon mounts between games; it's pretty much justified by the different universe, except in the case of Tellius.
- Divergent Class Evolution: The dragon-riding family slowly evolved from the pegasus family into the distinct class tree with different strengths it is today.
- Dragon Rider: You don't say.
- For Massive Damage: Bows and, in Radiant Dawn, thunder magic.
- Won't Work On Me: The Iote/Delphi/Fili Shield in the Akaneia, Elibe and Magvel games is an item which, when held by a flyer, negates their weakness to bows.
- Geo Effects: A class-limited aversion; flyers completely ignore terrain bonuses and penalties, because after all, they can fly. They still get healed by forts and thrones though.
- Giant Flyer: In the GBA games and Radiant Dawn in particular, they're downright enormous.
- Heel Face Turn: Typically, the dragon mount species is associated with an/the enemy kingdom (Medon, Thracia, Bern, Grado, Daein) and dragon riders are a mainstay of the respective army, and so almost every allied Dragon Rider is recruited from the enemy.
- Mighty Glacier/Lightning Bruiser: Depending on the game, as a bit of a counterpoint to the Fragile Speedster status of Pegasus Knights.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The appearance of the Dragon/Wyvern Mounts vary wildly even in games taking place in the universe (compare the quadruped dragons in Radiant Dawn to the Bipedal Wyverns in Path of Radiance). What varies most are whether they stand on two legs or four and if they have no arms like a wyvern or their arms like a western dragon.
- Spell My Name with an "S":
- There is one hell of a naming inconsistency clusterfuck with this class family. For Blazing Sword, the first English release, they were renamed "Wyvern Rider" and "Wyvern Lord" to distinguish them from the proper dragons which figured heavily into the plot of the game; The Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance stuck to this. The Japanese version of The Sacred Stones introduced the "Wyvern Knight" class, ostensibly separate from the dragons of the Dragon Rider class and looking more like traditional wyverns; they were still called "Wyvern Knights" in the English version, and the matter of their physical difference wasn't addressed. Radiant Dawn's translation discarded the "wyvern" name for the classes themselves, going with variations of "Dracoknight"; however, in dialogue, the species are still called wyverns, again to differentiate from the game's fairly important actual dragons. This remained the case for Shadow Dragon, the last translated Fire Emblem game.
- The Japanese version alone isn't much better. The base class is called Dragon Rider in most games, but the Jugdral games and Radiant Dawn call it Dragon Knight. The promoted class is called either Dragon Master or Dragon Lord depending on the game, which becomes really fucking confusing when you consider the name of the third-tier promoted class from Radiant Dawn: Dragonlord (Lindwurm in Japanese).
Dancer/Bard
A pair of recurring support classes, with the Dancer being more common. These classes put on magical performances which allow adjacent units which have already moved in a turn to move again. The Heron laguz in the Tellius games serve the same purpose, using their galdr.
This Bard class is not to be confused with the Bard class of Genealogy of the Holy War, a Wind magic-wielding class exclusive to Levn. Dancers exist in their normal function in that game, though.
Playable characters of this class family: Feena; Sylvia, Leen/Laylea, Dancer-promoted!Lara; Elphin, Lalum, Nils, Ninian; Tethys; Reyson, Rafiel, Leanne; Olivia.
- Dance Battler: In the Jugdral and Akaneia games, in which they also wield swords... just not very well.
- Magic Dance: Averted: the ability of Dancers to grant other units an extra turn is mundane, although it functions like magic. The same idea is true for Bards, although not the Heron Laguz and Azura.
- Magic Music: The Heron Laguz/songstress's song reinvigorates units to act once more before the end of the player phase.
- Spoony Bard: Actually not that spóony. It's true that they have no means to defend themselves and low-to-average defense, but a well-trained character of this clas can have massive Speed and Luck, thus they will dodge a good part of the attacks thrown at them (additionally, Tethys has good HP growths).
- Wandering Minstrel: Most of them come across as this initially.
Thief
A support class specialising in, well, stealing things. Thieves can steal items from enemy units, and unlock chests and doors with lockpicks instead of keys. What they promote into depends on the game: the Jugdral games promote them into the Thief Fighter class (though Lara can optionally promote into Dancer instead), and most games from Elibe onward allow them to promote into the Assassin, a powerful offensive class, or the Rogue, an extension of the thief's theft abilities. In Radiant Dawn, Rogues promote further into the third-tier Whisper class, and Assassins are treated as a separate third-tier class whose only member comes as one and thus doesn't promote. In Awakening, they gain the alternate promotion of Trickster.
Playable characters of this class family: Julian, Rickard; Dew, Patty/Daisy, Lifis, Lara, Pahn; Chad, Astol, Cath, Matthew, Legault, Jaffar; Colm, Rennac; Sothe, Volke, Heather; Gaia, Anna, Gangrel, DLC!Leaf.
- All Swords Are the Same: A particularly amusing exaggeration: in the Elibe and Magvel games, all swords look like knives when used by members of the Thief class family!
- Bandit Mook: When they're enemies.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Assassins in Awakening.
- Combat Medic: Tricksters gain the use of staves.
- Flash Step: Assassins are practitioners of this art.
- Fragile Speedster: Unpromoted thieves have horribly lackluster defenses, but make up for it with their immense speed, allowing them to dodge practically everything not backed by a weapon triangle or terrain advantage.
- Gentleman Thief: Most allied thieves tend toward this; the only real exception is Lifis.
- HP to One: Bane, the mastery skill of Whispers.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: When allied.
- Knife Nut: Almost every one of their appearances draws their swords as knives for some reason; they didn't become full-fledged knife-wielders until Tellius, when knives became a weapon type.
- Magic Knight: The Trickster class uses both Swords and Staves.
- Magikarp Power: You'd be mad to put a thief in the thick of combat. Then they become Assassins. Shit starts dying en masse.
- One-Hit Kill: Silencer/Lethality, the mastery skill of Assassins.
- Video Game Stealing: Depends on the game, but they can typically steal either gear or gold from enemies. But in all of the games, they have the ability to open chests to steal the content in them.
Trainee classes
The "trainee classes" are a set of four classes which are Magikarp Power incarnate: they start out much weaker than any other class, but have excellent potential for growth and have incredible versatility in their main draw: their ability to promote to a wide range of classes, allowing the player to bolster their forces specifically to their tastes.
In Fire Emblem Gaiden, the only trainee class is the Villager, which has the ability to promote at random to any of five classes: Mercenary, Soldier, Archer, Mage or Cavalier; if the Mercenary route is taken, the third-tier Demon Fighter class can promote right back around to Villager, allowing for an effective infinite stat-gain loop. The Villager class returns in Awakening, but oddly cannot promote in and of itself, instead relying on Change Proofs to promote to other classes.
In The Sacred Stones, there are three trainee classes, each exclusive to one ally character: the Pupil, the Journeyman and the Recruit. Each has a choice of two classes to promote to: the Pupil can promote to Mage or Shaman, the Journeyman to Fighter or Pirate, and the Recruit to Cavalier or Knight. In accordance with the promotion tree system of The Sacred Stones, each thus has three or four options for their final promotion.
Playable characters of these classes: Robin, Grey, Cliff, Atlas; Amelia, Ewan, Ross; Donny.
- An Axe to Grind: Journeymen specialize in axes. This carries over to their advance classes: Fighters and Pirates.
- Blade on a Stick: Recruits as well as Villagers in Awakening and Fates wield lances.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Pupils are aspiring mages that are capable of using anima magic, which are comprised of the three elements.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Villagers in Fire Emblem Gaiden start out with swords.
- Magikarp Power: They start out weak, but they come with the Aptitude skill which increases their growth rates, or the ability to "gain" more levels than normal in one way or another, which give them more chances to proc their growth rates. Both cases increase their chances of capping more stats and/or become more powerful than the average Fire Emblem unit does over the course of a game.
- New Game+: Kind of. In The Sacred Stones, once one completes both Eirika and Ephraim's stories at least once, the trainees have the option to promote to "Super Trainees": that is to say, promoting to the trainee classes again and again. The final-promotion versions of these classes gain special bonuses: the super Journeyman and Recruit gain increased critical rates, while the super Pupil is the only class in the game which can use all three types of offensive magic.
Manakete (Mamkute)
A common feature of most titles is the existence of the Manakete tribe, a species of sentient dragon shapeshifters who appear as humans with a few differences. They fight using dragonstones, rare gems which allow them to transform into their dragon form to attack.
Related are the dragon laguz of the Tellius canon, which are pretty much the same thing, but fitting into the laguz concept of that universe, and by extension the rest of the laguz.
Playable characters of this class: Bantu, Tiki, Nagi; Fae; Myrrh; Ena, Nasir, Gareth, Kurthnaga; Nono, Nn.
- An Ice Person: Ice Dragons/Icestone wielding Manaketes.
- Breath Weapon: Dragons tend to attack with their breath. Averted with Fates where they physically maul their enemies.
- Casting a Shadow:
- The Earth Dragons uses Dark Breath along with their earth-based abilities.
- The Silent Dragons of Fates utilizes dark powers combined with Making a Splash when fully corrupted.
- Cute Monster Girl: Only three recruitable Manaketes are not little girls[24], and of the three, one is male.
- Hidden Elf Village: Normally.
- Light'Em Up: The Divine Dragons, the strongest of the dragon tribes.
- Lightning Bruiser: In and of themselves Manaketes tend to have piss-poor stats, but with a dragonstone they shoot through the roof and turn them into this, almost to the point of game-breaking.
- Magic and Powers: Mage Dragons and the Magestone.
- Our Dragons Are Different: They're dragons capable of taking on human form. In battle, they can transform back to dragons.
- Playing with Fire: Fire Dragons, or when wielding a Firestone.
- Too Awesome to Use: Often, there's only one dragonstone with finite uses available in the course of the game. While it's often enough to level a Manakete to level 20, you're not going to get all that much use out of them once you start, so it's quite common to hesitate to use Manaketes.
King
If the final boss isn't a dark magician, a dragon, or a god, this is what they'll be: a king decked out in enormous armour or finery, dwarfing every other unit (except maybe Manaketes/laguz) in sheer size, wielding a really fucking huge ancestral weapon, and possessing astronomical physical stats. More often than not though, there'll be a True Final Boss after them. Specifically, this refers to King Zephiel of Sword of Seals, Emperor Hardin of Mystery of the Emblem, Emperor Alvis of Genealogy of the Holy War Baron Leidrick of Thracia 776, King Ashnard of Path of Radiance (who is also similar to a Dragon Rider), Overlord Valhart of Awakening and arguably the Black Knight of the Tellius games.
Playable characters of this class: Valhart.
- Ancestral Weapon: All of them wield personal weapons.
- BFS
- Final Boss: Often, but there'll frequently be a True Final Boss after them.
- Large and In Charge: "King" sprites tend to dwarf the others in the game. Usually, this is a product of having bulky, intimidating armor.
- Tin Tyrant: They're almost always covered in armor.
Recurring characters
The games may mostly be Non Linear Sequels, but that doesn't stop a few characters from showing up in multiple canons...
Anna
Fondly dubbed the Series Mascot and the "RNG Goddess" by the fandom, Anna is a recurring character who has appeared in every installment except Fire Emblem Gaiden. Normally appearing in menus and the like, she occasionally gets story roles like appearing in villages, running tutorials or being the owner of Secret Shops. In Awakening, she finally graduated into being a full playable character, in addition to maintaining the game's SpotPass functionality as the keeper of the Other World Gate. During Awakening, it is revealed that there is more than one Anna and that the playable Anna is the merchant and other-world keeper Anna's sister.
Tropes about Awakening Anna go on the Awakening characters section while tropes about Anna generally go here. Tropes about both playable Anna and NPC Anna can go on both.
Class: Pegasus Knight (Fire Emblem 9, as an NPC in tutorials), Trickster (Fire Emblem 13)
Voiced by: Saori Seto (Japanese, Fire Emblem 13)
- Ascended Extra: In Awakening, after thirteen games.
- Plucky Girl: They are generally characterized as this: even if they are in a tight situation, they maintain a positive attitude.
- Memetic Hand Gesture: Resting her index finger on her face.
- Secret Shop: Their usual proprietor. Discussed in Shadow Dragon: Jake remarks that business isn't actually looking too good for her because of the nature of the shops.
- Walking the Earth: She is strongly implied to be doing this on a multiversal scale.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Her hair is always an unnatural shade of red in every single appearance.
Jake
Anna's love interest. Formerly a citizen of Grust in Akaneia during the War of Shadows, he apparently accompanies Anna on her interuniversal travels, including doing a brief stint as one of Fargus's pirates in Elibe. Despite constantly ending up in combat situations, he regularly laments that he doesn't really have that much of a stomach for it all.
Class: Ballistician (Fire Emblem 1, Fire Emblem 11), Pirate (Fire Emblem 7, as a NPC), Warrior (Fire Emblem 12)
- Adaptation Dye Job: The games and supplementary materials can't decide on whether his hair is brown (Fire Emblem 1, Fire Emblem 7) or purple (official art, Fire Emblem 11). It appears this traces back to his and Beck's portraits being swapped in the original Famicom game.
- An Axe to Grind: Since ceasing use of his ballista, he's apparently taken a liking to axes.
- The Archer: Though he hasn't stopped using bows entirely.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Anna doesn't seem to mind too much.
- No Sense of Direction: During his time in Jugdral, he gets lost twice.
- Put on a Bus: Didn't appear in the second book of Mystery of the Emblem. This was remedied in Heroes of Light and Shadow.
- Siege Engines: In Shadow Dragon; by the time of New Mystery of the Emblem, he's stopped using it.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Strangly despite Anna being present (and playable), Jake is no where to be seen in Awakening.
Naga (Narga)
The Divine Dragon King and protector of humanity, although an aloof and distant one. Over the course of the series's backstory, she did battle with the Earth Dragon tribe, among them Medeus and Loptous, and the Dark Dragon Gimle, said to be her archrival.
While Naga eventually passed away, she left a lasting legacy on the world. Her bloodline lives on through her daughter Tiki, her reincarnation Nagi and the royal family of Grandbell in Jugdral who received it through her pact with Saint Heim. The people of Akaneia and Jugdral revere her as a legendary god, though the former are largely unaware that she was in fact a female dragon. Many a hero has used holy weapons associated with her to vanquish evil: the Falchion and Shield of Seals wielded by Marth and eventually the Iris royal family, and the Naga tome of the Grandbell royal family.
- Aloof Big Brother: To Holsety, and to a degree to the whole of Jugdral. In spite of her desire to protect it, she never was too fond of interacting directly with humanity, unless it was truly needed.
- Ambiguous Gender: In-universe: with the exception of her appearance before the Twelve Crusaders at the Miracle of Darna, she is universally assumed to be male by the people of Akaneia. The same applied out-of-universe too until Awakening, where she turns out to be definitively female.
- God Is Good
- Leitmotif: "Legend of the Divine Dragon God", in the Akaneia games (and Blazing Sword); the melody is shared with her daughter Tiki, with her version using on harps and woodwinds.
- Light Is Good: The tome with her essence is Holy, of course.
- Missing Mom: To Tiki.
- Our Dragons Are Different: As a Divine Dragon tribe Manakete, she's able to take on the form of a golden-colored dragon with softer features, in contrast to the more reptillian forms of the other dragon tribes.
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: It was pretty much her idea for the dragons to take human form and become Manaketes.
Tiki (Chiki)
Naga's daughter, and the sole survivor of the Divine Dragon tribe who is still capable of taking dragon form. As one of her last acts, Naga placed her in an unending sleep to prevent her from degenerating into madness like all the other dragons, but she was eventually unsealed by Bantu. The two travelled the world for a time until she was captured and brainwashed by Gharnef. Upon being freed from the spell by Bantu, Tiki joined the Altean army and took a liking to Marth. After the war, she was put back to sleep by Gotoh, but he allowed her to reawaken for good upon confirming that Marth would be able to restore the Shield of Seals, which would prevent her from degenerating.
Eons later, Tiki has (finally) grown up and is now revered as a "Divine Dragon Priestess" in the Varm Empire. When Krom's band travels to Varm, she appears before them to task them with restoring the Shield of Seals, and aids them in challenging the Gimle Cult.
Class: Manakete
Voiced by: Ikue Ohtani (Japanese, Fire Emblem 13)
- Adult Child: As an adult, she still apparently shows shades of this.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: By Gharnef in Shadow Dragon.
- Cute Monster Girl: In the Archanea games, she was the youngest playable character, at least appearance-wise.
- Deep Sleep: Twice, no less. The first was Naga's doing before he died, placing her in an unending sleep to prevent her from degenerating into madness like all the other dragons; this was interrupted by Bantu. Then, after the War of Shadows, she was put back to sleep by Gotoh, but he allowed her to reawaken for good upon confirming that Marth would be able to restore the Shield of Seals, which would prevent her from degenerating. It happens again by the time of Awakening where she, willingly this time, goes to sleep due to sheld of seals being broken.
- Happily Married: Only if paired with MU in Awakening. Which leads to...
- Hot Mom: The mother of Mark.
- Mayfly-December Romance: "I love you... even though we'll be separated one day... no matter for how many thousands of years I sleep... I'll always remember you..."
- Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: With the aid of a Dragonstone, she can take on her Dragon form, allowing her to beat the crap out of most enemies with ease.
- In the Hood: As depicted in the Famicom game.
- Leitmotif: "The Little Divine Dragon", which shares its melody with that of Naga, using much higher-pitched and eerie instrumentation.
- Light Is Good/Light'Em Up: Like her mom, her breath is holy.
- Lightning Bruiser: Give her a couple of levels and watch her wipe out an entire area.
- Magikarp Power: Well, sort of. She's already good when you get her because the Divinestone, but she has very low HP at that point in the game (HP being the only stat not touched by the Divinestone's bonuses), and even with the Divinestone's bonus to her Speed, she won't be able to double most enemies. Once you level her up a bit, her HP won't be much of a problem, and she can double most of her foes with ease.
- Mercy Kill: In the DLC chapter with the Dark Warlords, her battle quote heavily implies that the warlord she's facing is in fact, Marth, leading to this trope.
- The Nicknamer: Child example: she refers to Marth as "Mar-Mar" and Bantu as "Ban-Ban".
- Our Dragons Are Different: Like Naga, she's able to transform into a golden-coloured dragon which is sometimes depicted with feathers. In Awakening, her dragon form is more or less a Palette Swap of Nowi, slightly glowing brighter than the latter.
- Parental Substitute: Bantu was this to her when she was a "child".
- Person of Mass Destruction: Gotoh feared that she would become this. The restoration of the Shield of Seals averts this possibility for good (assuming the Shield isn't broken again).
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: In Awakening, she casually mentions that she's 3000 years old. This actually helps establish just how long after Mystery of the Emblem the game is set.
- She's All Grown Up: By the time of Awakening.
- Token Mini-Moe: In the original Akaneia games.
- Too Awesome to Use: She's considered one of the best characters in all four Akaneia games... and she comes mid-late into both games and has very limited uses given the small, finite number of Dragonstones available.
- In Shadow Dragon at least, give her the Starsphere. It allows all of the holder's weapons to be used infinitely, Dragonstones included. You'll have to give up the sphere if you want Gotoh to forge Starlight, but until then, have a blast letting Tiki rip through everything! Also, she can use Bantu's Firestones if you want to save up the Divinestone.
- There's also the secret shop in New Mystery Of the Emblem where you are able to recurit Tiki. You can use the Warp staff that is also obtianed in that chapter to teleport someone to the centre of the north eastern lake, an area that cannot be reached otherwise, and they'll find the secret shop holds one of each non-unique dragonstone in the game, meaning that Tiki, as well as the other Manaketes, have more weaponry and use in the process. This, however, cannot be done in Lunatic mode as the warp staff is not available to use.
- In both Shadow Dragon and New Mystery Of The Emblem, you can use the even more limited Hammerne on the Divinestone to make sure that it doesn't run out of use.
- Averted properly in Awakening: her "true" dragonstone has limited uses, but weaker (though still undeniably potent) Dragonstones can simply be purchased.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Her supports with Female MU indicate this, as she has nightmares about Marth leaveing her.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Grade B as an adult, with boots.
The Dark Warlords
The 12 Dark Warlords are a collection of warriors, named Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier, Fünf, Sechs, Sieben, Acht, Neun, Zehn, Elf and Zwölf. They once served the Lopto Empire, and later served the empire's remnants, the Lopto Sect. Very little is known about the warlords due to the fact that they are introduced in Genealogy of the Holy War and are fought before the final battle with little explianation of where they came from. Thracia 776 sheds more info about the Warlords. The Warlords are "born" by the Lopto Sect turning other people into them, and both Manfroy and Veld seem to have the ability to do this. This is shown by Leidrick, as well as potentially Galzus, Dadgar, Eyvel, Sara and Lifis, being turned into Eins, Zwei, Drei, Funf, Elf and Zwolf respectively.
In Fire Emblem: Awakening, the Warlords were reincarnated by Fauder and Inverse of the Gimle Cult, and some of their number were equpped with the holy weapons of the Twelve Crusaders. They were deployed under Inverse's command in order to defeat Krom, but again failed and were slain. You fight the Warlords again in a DLC chapter where it is heavily implied that the Warlords are in fact the parents from the Bad Future and that one the Warlords is in fact Marth.
- An Axe to Grind: Drei.
- The Archer: Funf.
- Cool Sword: Neun, Zwolf and Zwei.
- Dark Is Evil/Light Is Not Good: Aside from the name, Zehn always uses Dark Magic, while Vier always uses Staffs, and Elf always uses Light or Staffs if Light is unavailable.
- Gender Bender: Funf, Male in Fire Emblem 4, Female in Fire Emblem 5. Justifed, as it is possible a different person was used to create Funf each time.
- Five-Bad Band: Particuarly in Tharcia 776.
- Big Bad: Eins.
- The Dragon: Zwei.
- The Evil Genius: Zwolf.
- The Brute: Drei.
- The Dark Chick: Elf.
- Sixth Ranger: Funf.
- ↑ No relation to the basic clases normally known as Fighter and Priest, which don't exist in Fire Emblem Gaiden. Other characters of this type of Priest exist in the game, but only Cellica can promote and is treated as a Lord.
- ↑ No relation to the normal-unit Hero class, here called Swordfighters, or Lachesis's personal class in Genealogy of the Holy War.
- ↑ Siglud starts as one.
- ↑ Prince is also his basic, first-tier class in Genealogy of the Holy War.
- ↑ Hector's Great Lord class is completely different from that of Eirika or Ephraim, in that the former is more like a General, whereas the latter are horseback units; additionally, Eirika and Ephraim's Great Lord class was called Master Lord in Japanese, which is also what Roy's promoted class was called.
- ↑ Based on the precedent of Eirika and Ephraim, many people just call it "Great Lord" in the context of Krom and Lucina.
- ↑ Not a functional Lord.
- ↑ In their Sword of Seals Trial Map appearances, Eliwood and Hector actually were a Paladin and a General respectively.
- ↑ "Free Knight" in Jugdral.
- ↑ "Arch Knight" in Jugdral.
- ↑ Also appears in The Sacred Stones as a promotion option for Archers and Mercenaries, where it is called the Ranger.
- ↑ Not of The Sacred Stones, which is a magic-only class.
- ↑ Jugdral only.
- ↑ In Jugdral, only the Sword Armor promotes; the others are enemy-only and thus don't promote, though the Jugdral General can use all four weapon types anyway.
- ↑ Forrest in the Jugdral games; no relation to the Forrest Knight.
- ↑ Characters marked with an * were changed to Myrmidons in Fire Emblem 11 and Fire Emblem 12.
- ↑ Path of Radiance just has normal unsplit Mages and Sages, with both being able to wield all three anima magic types from the beginning.
- ↑ Not to be confused with the normal Bard support class, discussed below.
- ↑ Characters marked with a * were originally prepromoted Bishops in the first/third games, before the remakes added the separate Sage class.
- ↑ Not to be confused with the normal dark-wielding Shaman class, discussed below.
- ↑ Before the remakes happened, and he became a Sorcerer.
- ↑ In the Akaneia games, all magic types except staves are lumped into one weapon type, so the Dark Mage isn't specifically a Dark user; in fact, the player cannot actually procure any tomes which could be construed as Dark magic in Shadow Dragon!
- ↑ Though in Akaneia, these dragons are degenerate wild relatives of those dragons.
- ↑ Bantu, Nagi and adult Tiki.