Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword (also known as Fire Emblem)
Developer(s)	Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release	April 25, 2003 November 3, 2003 July 16, 2004
Genre(s)	Tactical RPG
Mode(s)	Single player

Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword (ファイアーエムブレム 烈火の剣, Faiā Emuburemu: Rekka no Ken) is a Japanese tactical role-playing game for the Game Boy Advance developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. It is the seventh game of the Fire Emblem series and the first to be released in both North America and Europe, where it is marketed under the title Fire Emblem. It is the prequel to Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi, and takes place five years before Roy is born and twenty years before the events of Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi.

Note that while "Blazing Sword" is the official translated sub-title of the game used by Nintendo (in the official website when describing the history of the game, for example), it does not actually appear in the North American and European versions of the games themselves. The subtitle is used here to disambiguate the game from the Fire Emblem series itself.

Plot

Introduction

The game opens with text describing ancient historical events in the world of Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword. Over a thousand years before the events of the game take place, dragons and men coexisted in the world. However, this peace was broken when man began fighting against the dragons in a bitter war known as the Scouring. Upon their defeat, the dragons vanished from the world and man began to flourish as the sole dominant species.

Lyn's Tale (Prologue - 10)

File:GBA Fire Emblem Overview.png

Screenshot: From Prologue of Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword

The game's narrative starts in the plains of Sacae. The player character, a tactician named Mark is found lying unconscious by a girl named Lyndis (more commonly known as Lyn). After a short series of events, Mark and Lyn meet the Cavaliers Kent and Sain, who reveal that Lyn is half-Sacaean and half-Lycian: she is the daughter of the nomadic prince Hassar and Marquess Caelin's daughter, Madelyn -- making her heir to the throne of Caelin. However, Lyn's existence is an obstacle to Lundgren, the brother of Lyn's grandfather Hausen, who desires to succeed his brother as the marquess, and he will stop at nothing to make sure that Lyn falls victim to an untimely demise.

So begins Lyn's quest to claim her rightful position as heir to the Caelin throne. Before setting out for Caelin, Lyn, Kent and Sain visit a temple in order to pray before the Mani Katti, a sacred blade. The temple is under attack by a group of bandits led by Glass, who desires to steal the Mani Katti. However, the sword contains spirits that will only allow one of pure heart to wield it. After defeating the bandits and rescuing the priest, Lyn discovers that she is the chosen wielder of the Mani Katti.

Lyn travels from the plains of Sacae to Lundgren's stronghold in a series of 10 chapters. Over time, Lyn meets a variety of companions including the frail-yet-potent Pegasus Knight Florina, the social Archer Wil, the devoted Fighter Dorcas, the uptight Mage Erk, the feisty Cleric Serra, the happy-go-lucky Thief Matthew, the quiet Nomad Rath, the mysterious Bard Nils, the pious Monk Lucius, and the former Caelin Knight Wallace. After the conclusion of this story, the player will proceed from the beginning of either Eliwood or Hector's Tale.

When playing the game for the first time, Lyn's Tale will serve as a tutorial and many actions will be mandatory. After completing the game once, Hard Mode will be selectable. In Hard Mode, the player is given the freedom to play as he or she would at any other point. That is, no moves will be forced in the beginning and Wallace can stay un-promoted.

The Lycian Rebellion

Eliwood's story starts a year after Lyn defeated Lundgren.

Eliwood, Lyn's friend, is leaving Pherae to go in search of his missing father, Marquess Elbert of Pherae. As he and his escorts prepare to leave the area, a local village is attacked by bandits led by Groznyi who want to take advantage of Elbert's absence. At that time, Mark, the tactician, is at the village, and Eliwood acquires Mark's help in order to take down the bandits with the aid of the archer Rebecca, the daughter of the village leader. Their group is also joined by the paladin Marcus, Eliwood's retainer, his apprentice the Cavalier Lowen, and the fighters Bartre and Dorcas (the latter an ex-member of Lyndis' Legion).

After defeating the bandits, Eliwood heads to Santaruz, which he believes his father likely passed through on his journey. On the outskirts of Santaruz, Eliwood's group is accosted by some bandits hired to kill Eliwood, but Eliwood's friend Hector, the brother of the marquess of Ostia, comes to the rescue along with the Knight Oswin and the ex-Lyndis Legionaries Matthew and Serra. The Santaruz soldiers, however, do not attempt to offer any aid to the son of Marquess Pherae, and even attempt to hinder Hector in coming to Eliwood's aid. When they confront Marquess Santaruz, they find him with but moments left to live.

With the memory of his last words - "Marquess Laus knows all" - in their minds, Eliwood's group travels to Laus. During a short cut scene, it is revealed that Marquess Laus is working with the Black Fang, a group of assassins, and intends to take over the world. With him is a mysterious man named Ephidel, who controls the Black Fang and holds considerable sway over the Marquess. Marquess Laus sends his son, Erik, out to kill Eliwood, Hector, and Lyndis, who he fears will destroy his plans. Erik rides out under the pretense of greeting Eliwood, but Hector spots his troops and alerts Eliwood. After the capture of Castle Laus, they pressure Erik into revealing what he knows of recent events.

Erik confesses that one year ago, Ephidel came to Laus and began persuading Marquess Darin of Laus to rebel against Ostia and put Laus at the head of Lycia. According to him, Elbert was one of the supporters of this plan, although he distrusted Ephidel and warned Darin against him. Eliwood does not believe that his father could have supported such a plan, and continues to search for Darin, who left his son to die soon after the group began the attack on Laus. Along his way, he and his friends recruit more people, like the myrmidon (a swordfighter noted for speed and skill) Guy, Lady Priscilla, a Troubadour (mounted healer), and the ex-Lyndis Legionary and magician Erk (currently Priscilla's escort).

A couple of days later, Eliwood is informed by the Pegasus Knight Florina (also a friend of Lyn) that Castle Caelin has fallen to an attack from the remains of Laus's army, so Eliwood, fearing that his friend Lyn might have been killed, rushes to the castle's rescue. His small army meets up with Lyn and three of her allies, Kent, Sain, and Wil from earlier in the game, and they decide to work together to recapture the castle and rescue Marquess Caelin, who is captured inside. After a long battle to get the castle under Caelin control, Lyn's grandfather Lord Hausen is rescued, peace is restored to the area... but Darin and Ephidel escape again.

Eliwood and Hector come upon the Ostian spy Leila, who is working undercover in the Black Fang and is Matthew's best friend and fellow spy in service to Lord Uther. She informs them that the Black Fang is responsible for all that has happened. Although the Black Fang used to be an organization with mostly noble intentions, it is being used now by Nergal, a mysterious man who wants to start war in Lycia for unknown reasons. Ephidel is one of his precious "Morphs", creatures created through magic that serve Nergal. They also find out that Elbert is being held captive at the Dragon's Gate, a place on Valor island, also known as the 'Dread Isle', because all those who set sail for the island never returned.

To the Dread Isle

Lyn, Hector, Eliwood and their troops (joined by Lyndis' other vassals and friends Sain, Kent, Florina, Lucius and Wil, along with the shaman Canas and Lucius' true master, the mercenary Raymond alias Raven) set sail to the island with the help of the pirate captain Fargus (though Lyn is unhappy about asking a bunch of pirates for help, as she hates bandits, no matter what kind they are.)

Along the way, they find Nils's older sister Ninian in a small drifting boat. She unfortunately has amnesia, and has no idea where she is, why she was there, or even who she is. Nils is not with her, which Lyn finds highly suspicious. Eliwood and company reach the island, but along the way to the Dragon's Gate, the group runs into Leila... who is already dead. Jaffar, one of the Four Fangs of the Black Fang, killed her after her disguise was revealed by Ephidel. Matthew vows to avenge her in any way he can as the group plunges into the fog surrounding the entrance to the island.

After finding the Dragon's Gate, a huge place that the Dragons created during the Scouring. Ephidel then teleports in and captures Ninian, so they assault the temple to rescue her. Here they face off against Darin, and he is finally slain. Eliwood finds his seriously injured father near the back of the temple, but before they can take him out, Jaffar appears and blocks their escape. Then Nergal and Ephidel appear with the captured Ninian, who is in a trance. Nergal absorbs Elbert's soul, and feeds it into Ninian, forcing her to open the Gate. This will allow Dragons to cross over from their new world, back to this one. As Nergal believes he can control Dragons, he believes he will be able to take over the world with them, taking their life-force, known as quintessence, to make himself stronger.

But as a Fire Dragon is starting to emerge from out of the portal, Nils comes in and brings Ninian to her senses. She immediately closes the portal, causing the dragon, halfway through the portal, to disintegrate... and taking Ephidel down with it. Nergal attempts to take Ninian and Nils, but the nearly-dead Elbert manages to find enough strength to deal him a great wound, at which point he flees to recover. Elbert then dies in his son's arms.

Eliwood and company head back to the mainland to inform Marquess Uther, Hector's older brother and Marquess of Ostia, of what has been happening. On the way, they are ambushed in Badon by a group of Black Fang, but they prevail, and Ninian recovers and joins the group to aid with her sacred dances and magical rings. As they prepare to meet Uther in a fortress on the outskirts of Ostia, they are attacked by a group of mercenaries. To make matters worse, Nils collapses, having previously given too much of his energy to Ninian. Ninian tells them not to move him at all so he can recover, and thus they find themselves having to defend Nils until Uther arrives.

Through the help of a defecting mercenary named Heath and of Lyn's old friend, the nomad Rath, Eliwood and company learn that the attacking group, lead by Commander Eubans, used to work for Laus. Eubans's forces hoped to join the Black Fang if they succeed in killing Eliwood, as Laus is now defunct, but they fail and flee when Eubans falls.

Living Legend

Uther is troubled by the news of dragons, and suggests Eliwood go to the Nabata desert to meet a person he will only refer to as the 'living legend'. This legend turns out to be Archsage Athos, one of the veterans of the Scouring, whose lifespan has been drastically lengthened because of his deep connection to magic. After Eliwood assists a mysterious Sage in the desert named Pent, who turns out to be Athos's student, Erk's mentor, the count of Reglay, and the Mage General of Etruria, he leads them back to a nearby temple. Athos tells them that they will need to find the Shrine of Seals in Bern if they want to stand a chance against Nergal.

After Athos teleports the group back to Pherae, Eliwood reunites with his mother, Lady Eleanora, who knows of her husband Elbert's death, as she sent her vassal Isadora to Eliwood's aid when he fought Oleg in Badon. After staying the night, the group sets out in disguise as travelers toward Bern.

When they reach Bern, they hear of Prince Zephiel's coming-of-age ceremony, during which Pent and his wife, the beautiful sniper Louise, hatch a plan to ask Hellene about the location of the Shrine of Seals. While waiting, Legault, a Thief who left the Black Fang and joined Eliwood's group at the Dragon's Gate, suggests that they try to gather more information on the Black Fang group, whose headquarters are in Bern.

Halfway through their search, they are attacked by one of the Reed Brothers (depending on the combined level of the lords, the brother can be either the swordmaster Lloyd or the hero Linus), son of the Black Fang leader Brendan Reed. After subduing him, they persuade him that they are not his enemy, at which point he decides to track Sonia, Reed's wife and the woman Nergal is using to control the Black Fang, and discover her intentions. However, Nergal's other underling Limstella shows up and kills him by absorbing his quintessence in order to heal Nergal's wound. The other Reed brother, showing up later and finding his brother dead, blames Eliwood and friends.

Preventing the Prince's assassination

Queen Hellene, who is Louise's cousin and close friend, will provide Eliwood with the location of the Shrine of Seals if he recovers the Fire Emblem for her, which was 'stolen' by an expert thief. The Fire Emblem is the symbol of Bern, and it is required for her son, Zephiel, to be officially identified as the heir to Bern's throne. King Desmond gave the Fire Emblem to the Black Fang to prevent the Prince from obtaining his inheiritance. On top of this action, King Desmond has struck a pact with Sonia to assassinate Zephiel.

Lyn manages to trace the Black Fang to their mountain fortress, where they hear that Jaffar was to carry out a contract to kill Zephiel. In secret, Sonia tells Jaffar to also kill her daughter, the young prodigy Nino (a Mage), who she sees as worthless and stupid, much to Jaffar's shock since Nino saved his life few hours ago. Eliwood returns to the Bern Manse and saves Prince Zephiel from a Black Fang assassination, meeting Nino and Jaffar along the way; Nino had persuaded Jaffar of not killing Zephiel and struck a chord inside of him, so he later helps her and Eliwood's group to fend off a sudden attack from Bern forces, and they join Eliwood's group. Hellene then gives them a map to the Shrine of Seals and a Heaven Seal after learning about the night before.

They stop by at the Black Fang's secondary base, the Water Temple, after following Nino and Jaffar there. Sonia kills Brendan, and Limstella absorbs his quintessence for Nergal. Having being told by Jaffar and Eliwood of Sonia's true intention and the upcoming fall of Black Fang, Nino confronts Sonia about her parentage, and Sonia reveals that Nino is indeed not really her child, but the daughter of a noble clan of magic users that she and Nergal killed to gain knowledge about Dragons. Eliwood's troupe shows up and saves Nino, and finally Sonia is defeated. Limstella shows up, but does not absorb Sonia's quintessence because she does not have any, as she was a morph all along, and leaves her there to die alone.

The Shrine of Seals

Eliwood makes it to the Shrine of Seals, where he is attacked by the remaining Reed brother. He has sought out Eliwood seeking revenge for the death of his brother. Nino and Jaffar try to tell him the truth, but he refuses to listen and continues his pursuit for vengeance, leading to his death in battle. Bern Wyvern Lord Vaida joins the group out of gratitude for them saving Zephiel. Athos teleports in and takes them into the Shrine to talk to the other remaining legend, the cautious magic user Brammimond. After a conversation with Athos, Brammimond is persuaded to open the seals on the legendary weapons used to slay the dragons.

Outside the Shrine, a fully healed Nergal shows up and tries to take Ninian and Nils. To defend her brother and gain time, Ninian makes a deal with the Dark Druid and accepts to go with him in exchange for Nils' safety; she then entrusts Nils to Eliwood's care, gives her brother her magical rings, and goes with Nergal. He then leaves with Ninian, telling them there is nothing they can do to stop him.

Eliwood goes and collects the Blazing Blade, Durandal, from its resting place. Then he is attacked by an Ice Dragon, and Durandal, seemingly activated on its own, slays the Dragon. It turns out that the Ice Dragon was Ninian, whom Nergal had secretly allowed to escape to track Eliwood, after using his magic to force her to revert to her dragon form.

Nergal comes to gloat at them, telling Eliwood about how Ninian lost most of her memory when she changed back into Ice Dragon, and that the only thing remaining was her love towards Eliwood. All the while, he's secretly absorbing Ninian's quintessence while Eliwood and friends are too distraught to notice. Ninian uses her last bits of quintessence to change back to her human form and dies in Eliwood's arms. Enraged, Athos attempts to kill Nergal, but he has become resistant to Athos's Forblaze.

Return to the Dread Isle

Back in Ostia, as Eliwood and friends recuperate, Athos tells them about Nergal's past; Athos encountered Nergal in the desert as a wandering seeker of wisdom. Athos and Nergal were equal in intelligence and soon became fast friends. Soon after, Athos and Nergal came across the legendary city of Arcadia, a city where humans and dragons lived in peace. While Athos studied powerful arcane secrets at Arcadia, Nergal spent his time learning the secrets of acquiring quintessence. This knowledge slowly distorted his soul, until Nergal became the vile fiend that he is now. Athos and the residents of Arcadia, which included the Mamkute Fae and possibly the Shaman Sophia, teamed up to defeat Nergal, but he managed to escape at the last second and fled to Bern to regain his strength, taking control of the Black Fang while he was there.

After the battle, Hector learns from Oswin that his brother who was supposed to be away, had died. During the start of Eliwood's path, he was getting an illness (which is supposed to be tuberculosis, since its more visible sympthoms were lividness and coughing up blood). The illness worsened over time, and during the last visit to Ostia, he was clinging to life. Oswin never said anything before for the fact that, "it was with his own dying word to not keep you informed." Shortly before leaving to set off to dread Isle with Fargus again, Hector visited the throne one last time before departing.

Nergal, back at the Dragon's Gate, feeds Ninian's quintessence into her Dragonstone, and uses it to open the portal. But he feels he does not have enough quintessence in order to be able to control dragons. That does not matter; Eliwood arrives at the island. Nergal sends Limstella out to deal with him, but it seems Limstella is not as capable as he may have hoped: her body is so full of quintessence that it is corrupted, and she's finally defeated.

The Final Battle

Nergal channels quintessence from the most powerful Black Fang human leaders: the Nomad Trooper Uhai, the Valkyrie Ursula, the Marquess Darin, the Leader Brendan, the Reed brothers Lloyd and Linus, the Assassin Jerme and the Bishop Kenneth, whom were only a few of the people Limstella and he had absorbed, and creates supercharged morph versions of them, and waits for Eliwood to die against them.

Before leaving, Nergal tells Athos that he now hates him, because he has learned that trust brings betrayal and friends bring weakness. Eliwood retorts by calling Nergal a fool, saying that even as Athos struck Nergal down, his heart was ripped in two, even though Nergal was too consumed with hatred to realize this. He then tells Nergal that even now, he feels nothing but pity for him, and will end this right now.

Nergal then sends his morphs out to destroy Eliwood, but unfortunately for him, Eliwood and his companions are more powerful than he thought, and all the morphs fall, freeing the souls of the people who were used to form them as they are destroyed. Then Nergal himself appears to try to destroy Eliwood, but they destroy him instead. But with his dying breath, he summons Dragons.

Three Fire Dragons emerge from the Dragon's Gate. Athos attempts to stop them, but he cannot get anywhere near them. At this point Brammimond shows up and uses his remaining power to resurrect Ninian, who uses her ice powers to kill two and severely wound the third. Eliwood and friends take the fight to the last Dragon, and manages to slay it.

The battle is finally won, but Archsage Athos, who joins Eliwood's team in the final chapter, collapses from exhaustion and dies, finally able to reunite with the other Legends and taking Brammimond with him. Taking Fargus's ship back to Lycia, Eliwood is crowned Marquess of Pherae in his father's place, and soon Hector is crowned as Marquess of Ostia after Uther dies of consumption. After the death of Lord Hausen, Lyn entrusts Caelin to Ostia and returns to the home of her heart: the plains of Sacae.

Hector's story

Hector's tale is almost the same as Eliwood's, but with a few changes. First, the viewpoint has changed from Eliwood to Hector, meaning Hector is the main character. The characters Uther (Hector's older brother, Marquess of Ostia and newly-elected leader of the Lycian League), Matthew (a spy for Ostia) and Oswin (a Knight/General and Hector's bodyguard) play larger roles as well. Several story elements and cut scenes are changed to reflect the change in the point of view. Other changes include different troops and troop placement in the chapters. Additional details concerning Nergal, Ninian, and Nils' past are added if certain requirements are met. Because Hector's tale is unlocked after beating Eliwood's tale, Hector's tale is more difficult than Eliwood's. Also included in Hector's story are two characters not found in Eliwood's mode: Farina, the third of the Pegasus-Knight sisters (along with Fiora and Florina), and Karla, the Princess of Swords, sister to the Swordmaster Karel, future wife of the Fighter/Warrior Bartre, and mother of Myrmidon/Swordmaster Fir.

Characters

Main article: List of characters in Fire Emblem (Game Boy Advance)

See also: Table of Fire Emblem characters § Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken

Development history

At a total of 128 Megabits (16 Megabytes), the game's memory size is twice as large as that of the previous Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals.

Reception

The popularity of Marth and Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee partly influenced Nintendo to localize Fire Emblem games to North America and Europe. This is the first Fire Emblem game released outside of Japan, and it was designed with localization to North America in mind. Since its release in North America and Europe, each new installment of the Fire Emblem series has been seen an international release in western markets.

Trivia

• The arena battle theme was originally the player battle theme of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
• The emulated audio archive of the game contains an unused rendition of a song from Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu, as "Silesia Royal Palace."

External links

• Official Japanese Site
• Official U.S. Site
• Fire Emblem Empire - Fansite
• Fire Emblem World - Fire Emblem site with a large amount of Blazing Sword information.
• Fire Emblem Empires - Massively multiplayer online text-based Fire Emblem strategy game.
• Fire Emblem Stat Compilaton
• Pegasus Knight (section on the English version)
• Pegasus Knight (section on the Japanese version)
• [1] - Includes walkthrough + statistics on game characters
• chitomv10's Random Number Generator FAQ (hosted on IGN)
  • (Note: contains some misinformation--more up to date notes on the RNG here)