#radiance eagle

[fullofbees]

Thinking about the brothers being "biblically accurate" when they were angels:

Lucifer, the Morning Star, with six wings that burn bright with holy radiance. Two wings cover his eyes, for the Avatar of Humility knows that not even he is worthy enough to look upon Father. Two wings shield his feet from view, though the blinding light makes it impossible to discern whether he has feet at all. The last two wings carry his form in the air, each flutter of his feathers stirring the winds upon the Earth.

Mammon, the newest carrier of Father's throne, whose body is littered in thousands of all-seeing eyes. His body turns in on itself, over and over and over and over, though the rotation is as mundane as breathing. Like his big bro, he is alive with divine fire; The Avatar of Charity shines his light upon all those who seek shelter from the darkness.

Beelzebub, who seldom speaks despite his four mouths. The Avatar of Temperance; with a face of a bull, a second of a man, a third of a lion, fourth of an eagle, yet does not experience the futility of animalistic hunger. Blessed are those who see him, for it means his Father is not far behind.

#fullofbeeswrites #i also have headcanons for the other brothers #and for simeon and luke #if anyone is interested #obey me shall we date #obey me nightbringer #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me beel #obey me beelzebub

[secretmellowblog]

I love how the parallel between Valjean’s crisis after the Bishop and Javert’s crisis after the barricades is so strong that their thought processes are often described with nearly the exact same metaphors.

The musical conveying this by having them sing the same melody is such a perfect translation of the way their dialogue/descriptions echo each other in the novel...Like:

Valjean: 

“Is it true that I am to be released?” he said, in an almost inarticulate voice, and as though he were talking in his sleep.

Vs Javert: 

As though in a dream, (Javert) murmured rather than uttered this question: “What are you doing here?”

—

Valjean:

Like an owl, who should suddenly see the sun rise, the convict had been dazzled and blinded, as it were, by virtue.

Vs Javert: 

He perceived amid the shadows the terrible rising of an unknown moral sun; it horrified and dazzled him. An owl forced to the gaze of an eagle.

—

Valjean:

He no longer knew where he really was. 

Vs Javert:

Where did he stand? He sought to comprehend his position, and could no longer find his bearings.(…) He no longer understood himself. 

Valjean: 

At times he would have actually preferred to be in prison with the gendarmes, and that things should not have happened in this way; it would have agitated him less.

Vs Javert:

But then, why had he permitted that man to leave him alive? He had the right to be killed in that barricade. He should have asserted that right. It would have been better to summon the other insurgents to his succor against Jean Valjean, to get himself shot by force.

—

Valjean:

He actually saw that Jean Valjean, that sinister face, before him. He had almost reached the point of asking himself who that man was, and he was horrified by him. 

Vs Javert:

He conceived a horror of himself. 

—

Valjean:

He could not yield to the evidence of what was going on within him. He hardened himself against the angelic action and the gentle words of the old man.

Vs Javert:

He had not yielded without resistance to that monster, to that infamous angel, to that hideous hero, who enraged almost as much as he amazed him. 

Valjean:

 By one of those singular effects, which are peculiar to this sort of ecstasies, in proportion as his reverie continued, as the Bishop grew great and resplendent in his eyes, so did Jean Valjean grow less and vanish. After a certain time he was no longer anything more than a shade. All at once he disappeared. The Bishop alone remained; he filled the whole soul of this wretched man with a magnificent radiance.

Vs Javert:

Then his reflections reverted to himself and beside Jean Valjean glorified he beheld himself, Javert, degraded. (…)

Javert, the spy of order, incorruptibility in the service of the police, the bull-dog providence of society, vanquished and hurled to earth; and, erect, at the summit of all that ruin, a man with a green cap on his head and a halo round his brow; this was the astounding confusion to which he had come; this was the fearful vision which he bore within his soul.

—

Valjean:

That which was certain, that which he did not doubt, was that he was no longer the same man, that everything about him was changed, that it was no longer in his power to make it as though the Bishop had not spoken to him and had not touched him.

Vs Javert:

All that he had believed in melted away. Truths which he did not wish to recognize were besieging him, inexorably. Henceforth, he must be a different man.

Valjean:

He examined his life, and it seemed horrible to him; his soul, and it seemed frightful to him.

Vs Javert: 

He felt himself emptied, useless, put out of joint with his past life, turned out, dissolved. Authority was dead within him. He had no longer any reason for existing.

Valjean:

Did he have a distinct perception of what might result to him from his adventure at Digne? Did he understand all those mysterious murmurs which warn or importune the spirit at certain moments of life? Did a voice whisper in his ear that he had just passed the solemn hour of his destiny; that there no longer remained a middle course for him; that if he were not henceforth the best of men, he would be the worst; that it behooved him now, so to speak, to mount higher than the Bishop, or fall lower than the convict; that if he wished to become good he must become an angel; that if he wished to remain evil, he must become a monster? (….) did he catch some shadow of all this in his thought, in a confused way?

Misfortune certainly, as we have said, does form the education of the intelligence; nevertheless, it is doubtful whether Jean Valjean was in a condition to disentangle all that we have here indicated. If these ideas occurred to him, he but caught glimpses of, rather than saw them, and they only succeeded in throwing him into an unutterable and almost painful state of emotion.

Vs Javert:

God, always within man, and refractory, He, the true conscience, to the false; a prohibition to the spark to die out; an order to the ray to remember the sun; an injunction to the soul to recognize the veritable absolute when confronted with the fictitious absolute, humanity which cannot be lost; the human heart indestructible; that splendid phenomenon, the finest, perhaps, of all our interior marvels, did Javert understand this? Did Javert penetrate it? Did Javert account for it to himself? Evidently he did not. But beneath the pressure of that incontestable incomprehensibility he felt his brain bursting.

..And these are only the lines I've caught tonight. I don't know, as much as Les Mis adaptations love to focus on Valjean and Javert (often without understanding them cough bbc les mis cough) I feel like there are very few that Get how much both of them were broken by the same prison system, and how the trauma of that makes them view themselves and their own feelings through similar lenses.

#les mis #les mis letters #lm 1.2.13 #1.2.13 #but yee!!!! #valjean/javert parallels #javert #valjean #anyway feeling sad about valjean hours 2nite

[queenlua]

i'm finally feeling well enough to write again

& i'm desperate to, like. finish. anything

if you throw a character/ship + some kind of prompt in my inbox there's a nontrivial chance i will fill it

(i can do Ace Attorney, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance + Radiant Dawn, and technically Fire Emblem: Three Houses but i've never written any blue lions or black eagles, just as like, fyi)

#times like this i wish kinkmemes were still a thing. #i wish to Spit Out Several Paragraphs Very Quickly And Receive An Upvote From A Stranger #get that validation feedback loop goin again lol #(if no prompts arrive current default is The Most Fucked-Up Reyson Shit I Can Dream Up)

[bracketsoffear]

Corruption Tournament Round 1

Kid Rot vs. the Radiance

The Fur Beetles vs. Gregor Samsa

The Sisters of Plenitude vs. Sydney Sargent

Clara/the Changeling vs. Malenia

Thistle Men vs. Thrax

Eldon Stamets vs. Narrator

SCP 049 vs. Darryl Weaver

Seth Brundle vs. Ratboy

Conway vs. the Masque of Red Death

Calamity Ganon vs. Dr. Hilbert

Gog-Agog vs. Taylor Hebert

Spider vs. Eveline

Zazie the Beast vs. Bugsnax

Emperor Belos vs. the Candyman

Warren the Eagle vs. Queen Chrysalis

Oogie Boogie vs. the Grinch

#corruption poll #masterpost

[theia-eos]

Tellius Height Chart, or People in Tellius are How Tall?!

So, I was looking through the dead wasteland that is Twitter a little while ago, scrolling through the comments on a screenshot of Fire Emblem Engage showing Ike's Emblem fighting alongside...one of the new characters.

For my fellow beers-per-bald-eagle citizens, that's 76.77 inches, or 6'4.8" (rounding to 6'5").

And ho boy, if that is a fact, then that has some ramifications for the size of the people on Tellius because they're all close in height to him, if not massively larger than him. I know we all joke about Ike being super big in Radiant Dawn, but he seems kind of average compared to the others.

Spoilers and length below the cut.

(Screenshots courtesy of poledoo on YouTube...this post is honestly courtesy of poledoo and Odyssey RPG and every other Tellius YouTuber so I could find every obscure cutscene and base conversation to get the measurements and references I needed, along with Kantopia for having all the concept art imaged so beautifully)

So, obviously, I had to look for this Good Smile Ike Figure.

The website lists this figure as 1/7th scale, and 420 mm in height. This means that scaled up to 1:1, the total height is 2,940 mm or 294 cm. That means I just have to figure out how tall the Ike figure is in comparison to its total height, and I can double check the math. If it maths correctly, we should be around the same number.

After using the power of photoshop to figure out his height based on his pose, I came up with a size of ≈279mm, or ≈195 cm at scale, but then I realized my height calculation included the heels of his boots, so when I cut that out, I arrived at ≈273.4mm, or ≈191cm at 1:1 scale (6'3") without shoes.

Ike is big confirmed. Incidentally, I took the liberty of measuring Ragnell, and it was 185cm at 1:1 scale (6'1"). GOOD LORD THAT BLADE IS FUCKING HUGE. SOMEONE ELSE DO THE MATH ON HOW MUCH IT WEIGHS

So, then, I began the process of figuring out how tall every major character is. Fortunately, the devs had made a height scale for Path of Radiance when making the character models and decided to share some of that with us. The translated height chart was provided by XKAN and microwaveit on Kantopia

So that cut out a lot of the larger characters for me, but this chart was not an exact science. There are two places where Ike is compared to Reyson and Leanne, and like, what am I supposed to do? Their heads seem to be at about the same level, but their bodies are different sizes and the feet aren't all level.

I worked off the chart, primarily for the characters shown in it, compared to Ike's concept art, and just scaled their feet down to be level with Ike's feet. I also used concept art primarily because they're in more neutral standing poses, the height would be easier to work off of.

I then compared the characters to Ike's portrait in cutscenes in Path of Radiance. In order to arrive at their true height, I would make sure they were all scaled together with whatever footwear they're wearing (soles, heels, highheels, etc.) and then moved them down on the scale to remove the footwear from their total height.

I then used Titania as a cross game bookmark for Ike's scale in Radiant Dawn (fun fact, with shoes, they are the same height, just about), and brought in all the Radiant Dawn specific characters. I also scaled characters that were young enough in Path of Radiance to have grown in Radiant Dawn to Radiant Dawn Ike's portrait.

For fun, for characters in both games that weren't going through height growths in the intervening three years, I would compare them to Path of Radiance Ike and Radiant Dawn Ike to see how consistent the heights were. Some were very consistent, others...not so much.

I mean, look at Reyson! In Radiant Dawn, he's only up to about Ike's headband, but in Path of Radiance, he had a good amount of height over Ike. Scaling Reyson to both instances...shows a vastly different height.

And then we have characters like Zelgius, who are exceptionally consistent...aside from when they're the Black Knight.

As you can see, Zelgius wears stilts while in the Black Knight suit, that's why it's not obvious to anyone aside from Ranulf. That one edited image of Radiant Dawn Ike surrounded by Zelgius in Black Knight Armor, Zelgius, and Black Knight amuses me highly.

For characters like Reyson, I did the best I could with what I had.

Some characters were harder to scale. According to the height chart, Caineghis and Tibarn are much taller than the scale of their portraits on cutscenes. For example, in the art book, Ike should be up to Tibarn's shoulders, but in the game, he's up to Tibarn's eyes.

I figured that the super big characters had to be scaled down/bending over to fit within the frame, so for Gareth and Dheginsea, I scaled their body art to their portraits, and they did come out drastically taller than where Ike's portrait comes up to them. I double checked Dheginsea against Kurthnaga in The Gathering cutscene from Path of Radiance, since they were standing straight at the same height on a flat surface, and Dheginsea came out about the same size as my body art experiment.

Look at all smol my son is compared to Dheginsea Kurthnaga looks so tiny at this truer scale, much smaller than the portraits make him look in comparison to the laguz royals. For Rajaion, I decided the portrait method was good enough, and compared his portrait to Ena's, and went from there.

For Elena, I compared the scale of her only model seen in game against Greil, since they're both lying flat on the ground here, and scaled her accordingly.

So, with my double checking and triple checking completed (although maybe I needed to quadruple check, I invite you to quadruple check me), I got all the characters to scale, and then measured how tall they are without footwear boosters.

For Sanaki in Path of Radiance, I suspected that as some characters appear smaller in cutscenes, she appeared larger than she actually was. In order to get her height, there is only one time we see her model for anything, and that's at the end of Daybreaks when she goes to apologize to the herons.

I used Soren and Ike's feet to find the angle the character models were standing on and compared her to Elincia to arrive at Sanaki's height in Path of Radiance.

Without further adieu, here is the final chart I came up with. Anyone wanting straight measurements can look below the chart, where characters are listed in alphabetical order. Characters without full body art are included in the list, but were not included in the imaged height chart. I'm fairly certain that most of the characters are within an inch (2.54cm) of the height I calculated (maybe 2 or three inches for Dheginsea, Gareth, and Rajaion). Anyone without fully body art is probably near 3 inches of the final height, because of factors I cannot see, and therefore, cannot control for.

If you find anything that doesn't sound right to you, leave a comment, reblog, or ask, and I'll take another look when I have the time. By the time I had moved onto measuring the heights of characters in row two I was cackling in disbelief at how tall these people are. It's hilarious and mind-boggling.

Edit to make this much clearer: These are the numbers I came up with based on the methods that I provided above. Please do not share these numbers as canon, and if you share this image, or any part of it, on another site please make it clear in your post that the "height was calculated by a fan." Thank you, I deeply appreciate your assistance in not spreading misinformation.

(I've edited the image to add a soft watermark so crops of this shared on the internet are less likely to be misinterpreted as canon information)

Aimee, 184.6 cm, 6' 0.7"

Almedha, 180.7 cm, 5' 11.1"

Amy, 107.4 cm, 3' 6.3"

Aran, 188.6 cm, 6' 2.3"

Ashera, 202.1 cm, 6' 7.6"

Ashnard, 202.9 cm, 6' 7.9"

Ashunera, 183.8 cm, 6' 0.4"

Astrid, 176.7 cm, 5' 9.6"

Bastian, 195 cm, 6' 4.8"

Black Knight, 203.7 cm, 6' 8.2"

Boyd age 18, 180.7 cm, 5' 11.1"

Boyd age 21, 185 cm, 6' 0.8"

Brom, 186 cm, 6' 1.2"

Caineghis, 202.9 cm, 6' 7.9"

Calill, 174.3 cm, 5' 8.6"

Daniel, 193.4 cm, 6' 4.1"

Danved, 195 cm, 6' 4.8"

Dheginsea, 222.8 cm, 7' 3.7"

Edward, 173.5 cm, 5' 8.3"

Elena, 178.3 cm, 5' 10.2"

Elincia, 175.1 cm, 5' 8.9"

Ena, 173.1 cm, 5' 8.1"

Fiona, 176.7 cm, 5' 9.6"

Gareth, 220.4 cm, 7' 2.8"

Gatrie, 190.2 cm, 6' 2.9"

Geoffrey, 190.2 cm, 6' 2.9"

Giffca, 201.3 cm, 6' 7.3"

Greil, 201.3 cm, 6' 7.3"

Haar, 193.4 cm, 6' 4.1"

Heather, 183.8 cm, 6' 0.4"

Hetzel, 179.9 cm, 5' 10.8"

Ike age 17, 183.8 cm, 6' 0.4"

Ike age 20, 191 cm, 6' 3.2"

Ilyana age 16, 170.3 cm, 5' 7"

Ilyana age 19, 174.7 cm, 5' 8.8"

Izuka, 171.9 cm, 5' 7.7"

Janaff, 178.7 cm, 5' 10.4"

Jarod, 192.6 cm, 6' 3.8"

Jill, 182.2 cm, 5' 11.7"

Jorge, 193.4 cm, 6' 4.1"

Kieran, 187 cm, 6' 1.6"

Kurthnaga, 180.3 cm, 5' 11"

Kyza, 190.8 cm, 6' 3.1"

Largo, 192.6 cm, 6' 3.8"

Laura, 172.7 cm, 5' 8"

Leanne, 177.5 cm, 5' 9.9"

Lehran, 193.6 cm, 6' 4.2"

Lekain, 186.2 cm, 6' 1.3"

Leonardo, 185.4 cm, 6' 1"

Lethe, 175.1 cm, 5' 8.9"

Levail, 187 cm, 6' 1.6"

Lotz, 194.2 cm, 6' 4.5"

Lucia, 181.5 cm, 5' 11.5"

Ludveck, 196.6 cm, 6' 5.4"

Lyre, 171.9 cm, 5' 7.7"

Makalov, 182.2 cm, 5' 11.7"

Marcia, 175.9 cm, 5' 9.3"

Meg, 175.1 cm, 5' 8.9"

Mia age 17, 175.9 cm, 5' 9.3"

Mia age 20, 181.8 cm, 5' 11.6"

Micaiah, 171.1 cm, 5' 7.4"

Mist age 15, 170.3 cm, 5' 7"

Mist age 18, 175.5 cm, 5' 9.1"

Mordecai, 189.4 cm, 6' 2.6"

Muarim, 195.8 cm, 6' 5.1"

Muston, 198.2 cm, 6' 6"

Naesala, 202.1 cm, 6' 7.6"

Nailah, 189 cm, 6' 2.4"

Nasir, 183.8 cm, 6' 0.4"

Nealuchi, 172.3 cm, 5' 7.8"

Nephenee, 178.3 cm, 5' 10.2"

Nolan, 199 cm, 6' 6.3"

Numida, 186.2 cm, 6' 1.3"

Oliver, 179.1 cm, 5' 10.5"

Oscar, 193.4 cm, 6' 4.1"

Pelleas, 186.2 cm, 6' 1.3"

Petrine, 187 cm, 6' 1.6"

Rafiel, 187.8 cm, 6' 1.9"

Rajaion, 210.1 cm, 6' 10.7"

Ranulf, 183 cm, 6' 0"

Renning, 191 cm, 6' 3.2"

Reyson, 188.6 cm, 6' 2.3"

Rhys, 187 cm, 6' 1.6"

Rolf age 12, 161.6 cm, 5' 3.6"

Rolf age 15, 176.7 cm, 5' 9.6"

Sanaki age 10, 145.6 cm, 4' 9.3"

Sanaki age 13, 165.5 cm, 5' 5.2"

Shinon, 192.6 cm, 6' 3.8"

Sigrun, 182.6 cm, 5' 11.9"

Skrimir, 200.1 cm, 6' 6.8"

Soren age 19, 173.5 cm, 5' 8.3"

Soren age 22, 179.9 cm, 5' 10.8"

Sothe age 14, 163.9 cm, 5' 4.5"

Sothe age 17, 184.6 cm, 6' 0.7"

Stefan, 191.2 cm, 6' 3.3"

Tanith, 185.7 cm, 6' 1.1"

Tauroneo, 193.4 cm, 6' 4.1"

Tibarn, 212.5 cm, 6' 11.7"

Titania, 187.8 cm, 6' 1.9"

Tormod age 13, 166.3 cm, 5' 5.5"

Tormod age 16, 174.3 cm, 5' 8.6"

Ulki, 183.4 cm, 6' 0.2"

Valtome, 188.6 cm, 6' 2.3"

Vika, 183 cm, 6' 0"

Volke, 191.8 cm, 6' 3.5"

Volug, 191 cm, 6' 3.2"

Yune, 135.3 cm, 4' 5.3"

Zelgius, 191.8 cm, 6' 3.5"

Zihark, 188.6 cm, 6' 2.3"

#fe9 #FE10 #fe9/10 #Path of Radiance #radiant dawn #Tellius #fire emblem path of radiance #fire emblem meta #meta #fire emblem radiant dawn #fire emblem tellius #tellius meta #taking fantasy settings too seriously #character heights #math #I'm so tired #The Black Knight armor was one-size-fits-all #and Zelgius just had to deal with it #everyone in Tellius is so tall #Over 50% of the characters are over 6 feet (182.8cm) #They're massive #Titania is officially mommy #So is Nailah #No wonder the Greil Mercenaries are so strong #you have to be this tall to join #You look at Soren and think ‟haha he's such a short little gremlin‟ #BUT HE'S NOT! He's just short in comparison. That traitor #I'm above average height and yet I'm shorter than Soren. I hate it #There are 0 adults in these games that I am taller than

[tobiasdrake]

It's over, Erlina. Bring me Aephorul.

Oh, there he is. Good job. Thanks.

HEY. RUDE. Did no one ever teach you that it's not polite to killsteal?

I had a whole pre-mortem speech prepared about how she and I aren't so different in the lengths we'd go to for the people we love, and you ruined it. Ugh, I want to break your neck so bad.

Oh. There you are.

You're not about to tell me I can't wring this guy's neck, right? You were there for my Statement of Intent. You knew what this was about. I will go through you to get to him. I am nowhere near as attached to you as I am to Garl.

No, it's time for him to die, is what it's time for. I want my pound of Fleshmancer.

...what final surprise? Your big thing was Erlina and we beat her. What more could you possibly have--

Oh, fuck me. I got vengeance in my eyes and somehow I completely forgot about Strife. Shit. Right. Fused with the Acolytes to become a whole new kind of thing. A World Eater, I'm guessing.

UGGGGGGH I hate this fucking guy so much.

I'm neurodivergent. I get that being bored can be the most insufferable agony in the world. But get a fucking hobby, man.

Yeah, yeah. Come on, Zale. Let's go god-fight the apocalypse.

Not if Strife has anything to say about it, you're not. *sigh* It never ends. It never goddamn ends. I am not looking forward to whatever immortal eternity vigil we're going to have to perform after this.

Once this is done, I am taking a long-ass vacation and y'all are coming with me. That is not a request.

If you guys could, like, research ways to get my hands around Aephorul's neck while we're gone, that'd be great. Maybe dedicate part of your civilization to it or something. Maybe with a statue of me while we're at it.

Oh, but that is just a friendly request, not some sort of god decree. I'm not going to Great Eagle this shit. Just. If you could. For me.

I don't know why you needed both of us when we've never been apart for more than five minutes, but we love you too, Teaks. Have a good life.

And maybe put those skills to work helping us figure out how to murder Aephorul, because I trust you more than anyone when it comes to deciphering obscure lore.

But don't let that take you away from the most important calling in your life: Writing better fucking tomes. I want Zenith Academy stocked with Teaks Originals of all--

Oh, shit. We're leaving Zenith Academy completely unstaffed. Well, we cleared out all the Dwellers and chased the Acolytes out so hopefully they won't need any more Solstice Warriors ever again. Otherwise those kids will just have to do with an empty school, a bunch of books, and a plank of wood that reads "GOOD LUCK".

I can't speak for Zale but you'll be hearing plenty from me, bestie.

But I really can't delay any longer or else your planet's going to be devoured by a cosmic monstrosity.

Alright, Zale. We're gods now. We must conduct ourselves as such. Dignity. Decorum.

CHOKE

ON

MY

RADIANCE

FUCKWORM

Like gods do.

Come on, Zale. It's going to be a long vigil.

But first: Back down to the planet. Because it's party time.

#sea of stars #drake plays sea of stars

[gascon-en-exil]

Making Some Book VIII New Heroes Predictions

Now that we've gotten the trailer for the final New Heroes banner of Book VII, it's time to look ahead to what the next year may bring in terms of new characters to be added to FEH. Two years back I made an entire video out of this topic on my channel...but that's a lot of work and I'm about to dive into the Super Mario RPG remake over there, so I'm doing this the easy way this time.

*When I refer to "premium" units in this post, I'm talking about ascended, rearmed, or attuned heroes. Also legendaries and mythics, if it's outside the context of New Heroes banners.

Guaranteed banners

Engage

Definitely one, possibly two again this year. IS is breaking up the cast by country, so an Elusian banner with the royal sisters, Goldmary, and whichever of the guys polls highest is an easy prediction. I'd say Solm as well, but it's already such a natural fit for the January special banner theme that we may have to wait for then to see those characters all together. 2024 is doubtful there for that, considering we just got a special Timerra. It's possible we may see a DLC-focused banner, like what happened with the Wolves - and IS will absolutely push Zelestia as a new character even though Zephia's already in the game.

Everyone's also predicting that Engage will sweep the next CYL with at least three of the four slots, so that in combination with a standard array of seasonals, a likely appearance on the fallen banner, and the odd legendary or mythic (legendary m!Alear at some point is all but assured) will lead to complaints of Engage fatigue.

Thracia

Unless you count ascended Ced or Sara backpacking for desert Linde (I don't), we haven't had a new FE5 unit in Heroes since March of 2022. The poor game is long overdue, especially because aside from Engage it's the title with the most potential new units to add. Granted that those characters aren't exactly popular, but with a whopping nine women still missing from its roster FE5 can lock down the key headlining waifu demographic in a way that almost every other game would struggle to at this point. There's a plot-relevant magical waif (Linoan), a loli (Tina), a dancer (Lara), a wyvern rider (Eda), or a pegasus knight to follow up on 2022's Karin (Misha). Again, none of them are especially popular, but Thracia could make up a viable banner easily even without help from Heroes fanservice. I'd expect one sometime between January and April, when the New Heroes events lack OCs.

Path of Radiance

The Tellius games alternate books, likely because of the significant roster overlap. Book VII got a Radiant Dawn banner, so here we are. Since FE10 poached Lucia though, FE9's only got Calill for a new female addition. Prediction for the banner would be Calill, a premium female character (one of Mia, Ilyana, or Nephenee, maybe Mist?), a Heroes OC, and some male unit. Largo would be logical, but I could see a more random pick like Zihark or Tauroneo.

Three Houses

A surprising number of Fódlan characters are still stuck in alt hell despite the years of fatigue. There's enough of them in fact for two or possibly three more New Heroes banners without significant help from OC padding. We've already seen multiple examples of IS using characters' Hopes designs for lazy premium alts, so I'd also expect more of that.

2023's banner was all Lions (and Rhea), so next year's will focus on a different house. If it's the Deer, I'd guess Lorenz, Leonie, premium Lysithea or Marianne, and either a Heroes OC or whichever of Raphael or Ignatz polls better. If it's the Eagles, Dorothea and Caspar are locks as well as premium Bernadetta most likely, along with Heroes fanservice or possibly regular Manuela. After those two ideas have been used up, the few remaining members of the roster are very likely doomed to something like the recent Echoes banner where they've got to split it with multiple OCs. The handful of male non-student characters who got dropped from the Hopes roster (and also Rodrigue from Hopes itself) are probably out of luck entirely bar the odd GHB like Cyril got a few months ago.

Oh, and fallen m!Shez possessed by Arval is pretty much a lock next year too. Fódlan is amazing for those wanky fallen banners.

(New) Mystery of the Emblem

Archanea closed out Book VI a year ago and hasn't been seen since, so a comeback in 2024 is reasonable. Complicating matters is that despite the abundance of missing units, most of them are 1) male and/or 2) utterly forgettable. The waifu picks are Midia, Cecil, Marisha, and Yuliya...not exactly inspiring options. As 2022's banner was ostensibly taken from FE1/11 owing to pre-corruption Hardin and as FE3/12 have more options for new units, that would be the more likely play. Will we finally see a banner that forces IS to turn an earlygame cleric into a headliner? Historically those characters have fared poorly in Heroes (we're still missing all of Edain, Lana, Safy, Elen, and Laura), but half of the options for new women are just that.

Fates

Last we saw FE14 New Heroes they were opening this book, so it's a reasonable expectation later on in Book VIII. Even though Fates still holds the largest percentage of Heroes's total roster, it surprisingly has a handful of characters it can still offer. That's especially true for the second generation, although because that was the focus of the last banner IS may be alternating them. The waifu options in Gen 1 - Mozu, Scarlet, and technically Fates Anna - aren't inspiring, but it's not like Sophie and Mitama left over in Gen 2 are much better. Throw in a premium royal or two and/or a Heroes OC and call it a banner.

Assuming two Engage banners, that's seven of the ten New Heroes slots. Those below are ones I'm less certain of - but something's got to fill out the holes in the schedule.

Wild Cards

Genealogy and Binding Blade

Both reasonable options although they're kind of running low at this point. FE4's banners alternate, so the next one should be Gen 1...which has only Edain and an assortment of men that even fans of the game are hard-pressed to care about. FE6 has, uh...Elen? I did say IS hates earlygame clerics.

The one thing that would certainly bolster the prospects of either of these games would be a remake announcement, which would offer tons of options for premium alts and potentially drum up interest in missing early picks like both games' Christmas knights and such. It would be odd if we didn't get any kind of development announcement for FE in 2024, and a remake would be perfect filler while IS works on whatever the next big release is planned to be.

Sacred Stones

Seems to be a favorite among the FEH staff considering how often it shows up on summer banners despite its age and low level of waifu bait potential, and the last time it got a New Heroes banner was near the start of this year. Too bad it's down to Ismaire as far as new female characters go.

Blazing Blade

Unlikely as it's just now getting a new banner, and it too is running out of viable options. With Isadora getting added, Vaida's the only female character from the game left.

Awakening

Technically overdue since it last showed up in October of 2022, but it's been running on fumes for years. We're talking just Vaike and Laurent here. Even Kellam got a seasonal! I expect that FE13 will be the next victim of a double OC banner. Speaking of which...

Echoes

...Not happening. We all saw that travesty last month. Jesse and/or Nomah might be added sometime in 2025, if IS even bothers.

#Fire Emblem #FEH #Fire Emblem Heroes

[blorbologist]

Two for joy - Cut Content

[These short scenes were originally going to be included in the Two for joy timeskip, however after some change of plans they never really Fit anywhere well. So I’m tossing this one here, given it’s not quite worth a oneshot of its own to me. Enjoy!]

Vax’ildan is starting to get a bit of a tan from being in Zephrah.

There just isn’t much reason to cling to the shadows here, even if the mountaintop offers a massive one he can follow if it really mattered. But Keyleth’s usually in the sun - tending to duty, dispute or otherwise. Gilmore’s basking like a content lizard, taking to the vacation with great pleasure when not nursing the enchanting projects he brought with him. What kind of a boyfriend would he be if he skulked inside while his partners rivaled the sun for radiance outside? 

So, he’s pretty sure Vex will tease him for this when they next meet. Worse, if she catches the flaky remnants of his first sunburn in a decade on his ears. Which is extremely unfair - he doubts she’d heckle Percy for finally getting more color to his skin. 

There are other reasons to be out and about, too.

Vax is doing his best to show Hunin how to handle a dagger - his stance is so wrong, he really should have given Kynan more credit - when Keyleth swoops in. Not literally, in this case - though he has come to expect her darting in as a great golden eagle. Her usual form is just as splendid, as far as Vax is concerned.

“Two gnomes!” Keyleth exclaims, breathless. 

“I don’t follow?” Kyor offers from the sidelines, nursing a lightly bruised wrist. 

Vax’s eyes brighten. “One of them ours?”

“If you could call Scanlan anyone’s, sure!” Keyleth says, flicking her hair away from her face. The shorter cut means it won’t stay back behind her ear when she goes flitting about - it’s adorable. 

“Well - what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Now she turns into an eagle. 

“Class dismissed!” Vax says with a feigned salute. He laughs - maybe due to the sudden takeoff, maybe from how the twins sag against eachother in dramatic relief. 

They have no reason to complain - they’re not decked out in black leather. 

Keyleth’s eagle shoulders bunch as she brings them into a dive, and the savage wind is just perfect beneath the summer sky.

--

“How’s fatherhood treating you?”

Scanlan squints at Vax over his beer. “How hoppy is this? Does it even count as beer?” 

Vax takes a long, long draught of his, shrugging. “When in Zephrah. If you don’t like it, you can walk down the mountain -”

“Nooooo siree, no thank you.” Scanlan takes a gulp and makes a face at it. Drinks more all the same before wiping the foam away with his shirtsleeve. 

“How’s fatherhood treating you?” he tosses back. 

Vax pokes at his boots on the table - Scanlan does not remove them. “Actually? Pretty good - I don’t think either of them would call me a father. Or Shaun or Keyleth, for that matter. But we’ve moved past sir, and should be considered their legal guardians - moreso for their benefit than ours.”

“They’re, what? Fifteen, sixteen? You sure you’re getting your money’s worth?”

“Vex’s, not mine,” Vax points out. “And she’s yet to take the boots from me.”

Scanlan grins. “She will.”

“Oh, she will.” It’s easy to agree to that. A little less to force the next gulp down - took it a touch too fast. “We were just about that age, maybe younger, when we ran away from Syngorn. So, you know - just hoping history doesn’t repeat itself.”

The gnome’s grin broadens. “See, I get to skip all the teenage angst and turmoil - Kaylie’s a perfectly fine, grown woman.” He sobers. “Capable of calling me out for my bullshit, seeing through the rest of my bullshit, and critiquing my eating habits. Did I tell you she’s talking about putting me on a diet?”

“Several times.” Vax knows Kaylie, for her part, has been enjoying their stint in Zephrah greatly - an isolated audience with limited familiarity of common jigs and barroom songs, she’s become an overnight celebrity. If he drowns out Scanlan’s babble he can still hear her from here.

“- and of course I said yes, because she’s my daughter, and I love her, but Vax I don’t think you understand just what that much salad does to a man’s psyche-”

“We could go see Grog,” Vax says, unperturbed, a finger tracing the rim of his tankard. “It’d be a boys' weekend.” Taps a drop clinging there - it escapes at a leisurely pace. “Plus Pike. I hear she’s been giving baking a shot, lately. Makes a mean sponge cake.”

Scanlan pauses. Puts on his best thinking face. “So, like. A cheat day?”

“If you want it to be. There’s also cage matches.”

“If you fight, I’ll sneak you some magic - so long as you don’t snitch to Kaylie that I bailed on the veganism.”

They shake on it. Scanlan’s grip matches his, in the dark, half-drunk. “Deal!”

--

“You shit!” Vax cries, betrayed, when he hears the tell-tale hum of Scanlan’s magic around Grog, bearing down on him. “Oy, Scanlan, you bastard!” That last part comes a little shrill as he ducks into Grog’s space, under one arm and away. 

He’d love to take a moment to shoot the bard a fuck-you, but one of the privileges of being small is the ability to vanish in the crowd. 

And in this case choosing not to because he’s sitting with Pike, and Vax doesn’t quite feel like giving her the finger. That’d be more dangerous than the - oh SHIT ax -

--

Vax snitches on Scanlan.

#for context for anyone who doesn't read my AU: Vax Kiki and Gilmore are Kyor and Hunin's legal guardians in a sense #aka Vax saw these twins in a rough spot and went 'is anyone going to project on them' and didnt wait for an answer #AND. Scanlan never left during Bard's Lament due to compounding factors. So he gets to drop by during the timeskip #he and Vax can deal with their complicated feelings about being sort-of-dads out of the blue #critical role #campaign 1 #cr fanfic #critical role fanfiction #my writing #vex is the Raven Queen's Champion AU #vax'ildan #keyleth #scanlan shorthalt #vax'leth #actually Kiki x Vax x Gilmore BUT Gil doesnt rlly pop up much here

[fairesky]

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝟏 / ∞

before    enlisting     in    SOLDIER,     Zack     possessed    a    complexion     that     was    bronzed    by    the    sun     and    eyes    that    held     a    captivating    hazel     hue.     he     took     great     pride    in     his     appearance,     as    it     reflected     the     people    and     culture     he    held     in    high    esteem.     from     objects    to    imagery    of     warriors    representing     strength,     cactus     representing     bravery,     or     the    eagle     symbolizing     freedom,     he     would    wear    clothes    from     his     people.     zack    is    constantly     seen     outdoors     enjoying    the     sun.

after    running     away     to     join    SOLDIER,     being    infused     with     mako    energy,     gradually     his     appearance    he     took     pride    in     changed.     from     hazel     hue     to    a    SOLDIER     trademark,     sky    blue     irises.    the     lack     of     natural    lighting     during    his     first    year    of     training     had     significantly     affected    his     skin     tone,     making    it     appear     much    lighter    and     deprived    of     the    sun's     natural     radiance.     stripping    away    from     the    clothes     he     wore    the    first     time    he    arrived,     he    kept     a    few     pieces    with    him     to     remind    him    of     home     and     his    bloodline.     Despite     his     changed     appearance,    Zack's    connection     to    his    people    remained    strong.     he     cherished    them    dearly     and     would     eagerly    seize     any    opportunity    to    speak    about     Gongaga     and     his    ancestral     background.

#╰ ––––––– ✧ ₀₀₅ ᜵ ​​​🇭​​🇪​​🇦​​🇩​​🇨​​🇦​​🇳​​🇴​​🇳​​🇸​​​ ¸ SOLDIER boy memoir.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

Sai Raya

Source

Sai Raya is the Sun: the Great Luminary. As such, she is the Janya most immediately assimilable to Dea Herself (although all the Janyati may be seen as Her Aspects). Her Aristasian name means simply The Lady, as well as The Radiant. Raya is the Aristasian word for Lady (in the Lord sense — there is no such specific word in English). Dea is sometimes addressed as Raya (Lady) even when the specific Aspect of Sai Raya, the Sun, is not intended. Her ancient Greek name is Theia, which is simply the feminine form of God, equivalent to Dea.

Very much might be said about the Sun. She is the Primordial Light, and it goes without saying that the physical luminary that represents Her in the material solar system is but an outward body or symbol of Her, just as the Sacred Mountain may be incarnated in some particular mountain on earth. The modern mind, with its shallow rationalism, finds it hard to grasp how very real is the incarnation of the Sacred Mountain in, say Mount Sinai, Mount Meru or Mount Olympus, how for their respective Traditions they are the one Sacred Mountain. But the Sun is a little simpler to understand, for there is only and can only be one Sun for the whole of terrestrial humanity.

And so materialism can fall into the opposite error — that of confusing the Supernal Sun with Her outward body (and so ludicrously imagining that traditional peoples worship "what we now know to be a ball of gas"). Sai Raya was before there was an earth to light or a Sun to light her. The same may be said of the Moon, and of each of the planets. They are Eternal Principles: principles that existed before our cosmos came into being and that will exist when all the worlds are dust.

As a principle governing terrestrial life, Sai Raya's influence (the word "influence" means, originally and literally, a "flowing-in" from the "stars", or celestial beings) is the most expansive and positive of all. Among the attributes of this influence are generosity, wealth, health, radiance and pride (pride in the negative sense is also the earthly perversion of the Stream of Sai Raya).

Solar associations are central to traditional symbolism the world over — the lion or the eagle figure in most Western national and imperial emblems. In the East the direct representation of the Sun is found in national emblems, such as that of Japan. The emperor of Japan is the direct descendant of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Omikami, just as the Empress of Aristasia is the direct descendant of Sai Raya.

Despite Western familiarity with the patriarchal classical world which sees the sun as masculine and the moon as feminine, this is rather an unusual perspective worldwide. The Sanskrit tradition masculinises both luminaries, while throughout the world the original Feminine Sun is to be found in a very large number of patriarchal cultures, sometimes with a masculine moon.

Japan has already been mentioned. Old Lithuanian songs have a feminine Sun-Deity, which is interesting because Lithuanian is the only still-living Indo-European language as ancient as Sanskrit, with which it shares many features. Its Solar Deity probably represents the pre-masculinised form of the Sun of the Sanskrit tradition. In the Celtic world the Sun Goddess is Grainne or Igraine; in Old Slavonic, Saule; among the ancient Semites, Athtar and various other names. In Germany, popular tradition still refers to Frau Sonne. The very word "Sun" comes from the name of the Scandinavian Sun-Goddess Sunna or Sunnu. Sunday, of course, is Her day. Just as Friday is a contraction of Freya's day, Sunday is a contraction of Sunna's Day.

The Sun, as symbolic centre of the macrocosm, is equivalent to the heart in the microcosm of the human body and the hearth-fire in the microcosm of the house. Thus it is that Intelligence is situated in the heart (governed by Sai Raya) and reason in the head (governed by Sai Candre). Needless to say, we are speaking of subtle centres, not of the mere bodily heart and head.

#aristaisan #encylopaedia aristasiana #deanism #janyati #deanist #aristasian religion

[proofthatihaveaheart]

[Image description: 9 images in a 3x3 grid, each showing the book cover of one of the books listed in the post]

top nine books i read in 2023 (in no particular order):

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

An Immense World by Ed Yong

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (and the Stormlight Archive more generally)

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

Babel by R. F. Kuang

#book recs #booklr #i had a really good reading year; read lots of good books #and found 2 new favorite authors (T. Kingfisher and Brandon Sanderson) #and got back into reading graphic novels #here are 9 of my favorites #i limited it to 1 per author/series

[honeyed-sunflowers]

Midnights – Taylor Swift

Side A: The Dark Side of The Moon

1. New Moons: the first track, starting with a slow rhythm and then building up. theme – being afraid of the new changes in life, like going to a new school and the fear that keeps you awake at night. here, new moons, refer to youngsters facing life changes. this will be the other pov of nothing new. (‘the kind of radiance you only have at 17’ but it'll show the struggle of being 17 here)

2. Saudade: it means nostalgic or melancholic longing. this can be about wishing to go back to a certain time of life when you believed you were the happiest or had someone precious but they aren't around anymore. it can be about sleepless nights thinking about that moment of life.

3. The Tale Of October: this can be a narrative style of song, following the story of a memorable october – how that month symbolises something meaningful to the narrator. it can also include myths associated with this month (it's known as the month of gods in japanese folklore).

4. Cinderella's Shoe: a long-story short kind of song – but it focuses mainly on the negative/darker side of it. inspired by the saying “if cinderella's shoe fit her, why did it fall?” and the enchantment that wears off by midnight.

5. Insomnia: for all the night owls. for those nights where sleep is a distant place, an escape from reality, but it's hard to reach it. it'll include wild thoughts, anxiety and/or imaginations we may conjure while trying to sleep. this will be the saddest song, of course.

6. Werewolves: a song about transformation (every full moon, so contrasting the first track). halloween vibes that will first show werewolves (humans) as monsters but slowly show the misunderstood side of them. it will have reputation vibes and be the song connecting side a with side b.

☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️

Side B: Midnight Paradise

7. Meet Me At Midnight: the first single of the album. it will be a beautiful, romantic song but with hints of fear of losing it, just like delicate or peace. it'll also follow a timeline, like the first verse will be about 10 pm, the second verse will be about 11 pm and in the bridge, at midnight, the two lovers will finally meet.

8. Aquila: it's a midnight constellation, in the shape of an eagle. it'll be about the random bursts of creativity or ideas we may get when we are about to sleep. it can symbolise independence (like owning your own music) or about the growth that occurs in solitude, which no one appreciates us for.

9. Stargazing: another love song, but this one goes like a fairytale. like love story or invisible string. it can be about staying up late at night with someone special, spending your midnights with them after a long day.

10. Temporary Deaths: thinking about lost friendships or relationships and finally understanding how to let them go. it's a slow song about goodbyes, how they tear us apart, how we wish to avoid them, but they still happen. “temporary death” refers to how a part of us dies when someone we cherished disappears from our life.

11. Cerulean: it's about love that keeps you awake at night. it can either take a happy or a sad turn, depending on the listener, so the writing will just super creative.

12. Lanterns: inspired by the emily dickinson quote “i'm out with lanterns looking for myself”. taylor also mentioned ‘lanterns’ in the announcement post. it's about self-discovery or self-reflection. finding your mistakes, forgiving yourself and being free from the guilt, and working on being a better person. it's about accepting our true nature and being at peace with it.

13. The Witching Hour: technically, the witching hour is 3 a.m. so this song takes place after midnight. a story about witches (inspired by a poetry series i once wrote), how the public humiliates them but they stay up all night for a good cause instead. a song with i did something bad and mad woman vibes but it will have less angry tone, and more like “i turned the stones you threw at me into jewels” vibes.

so, this is something i've always wanted to do but never got the chance to do it. i'm not so sure about how much it makes sense or if it matches the theme of the album enough but this album allowed my imaginations to run wild and i knew i had to do something about it! let me know if you liked my ideas! and if possible, i'll try to write some of the songs or just turn them into poems. until next time, keep burning the midnight oil! *winks*

– dandelion

#taylor swift #midnights 👀🪐✨ #midnights #writing #album ideas #songs

[oathwilled]

he is, generally, good with animals. his mother liked to say this was his father's blood coming through — his father was a ranger, well in tune with the world and it's fauna — and maybe it is and maybe it isn't, but either way he's always just had kind of a gentle and easy manner with animals. domestic ones — cats, dogs, horses, oxen — and even wild ones, too, to a degree. he'll toss bread scraps to curious squirrels or birds, and generally respects their territories.

he backed away from the owlbear mama. he came to an understanding with the grove squirrel. he gave mercy to the hyenas that were changing — purged the unchanged hyenas with radiance where he could, dispatched those with mercy he could not. he refused (adamantly) to kill the giant eagles. he freed the gnolls from the absolute cultist's control in moonrise. he punched scratch's abusive former houndmaster in baldur's gate in the face lmAO. he casually freed the displacer beast in the circus KDJFS.

so yes. he can be a grump. but damn it, he likes critters, and he's kind to them as a rule. probably pretty common for him in camp to be petting scratch's head and sneaking him a few scraps.

#;; & headcanons.

[yutopia-eleftheria]

Erik Eagle Next Generation

As everyone already knows, Sue was completely in love with Erik. They did get together for a few years, but it didn’t ended very well. Erik ended up missing Silvia so much and realized she was the one he needed in his life, so he left Sue.

Erik Eagle X Suzette Hartland :

Radiance Eagle :

Full name : Radiance Claire Eagle

Nickname : None (she doesn’t want any)

Gender : Female

Birthday : March 2nd

Zodiac Sign : Pisces

Height : 5′10″ (177 cm)

Weight : 101 lbs (46 kg)

Nationality : American / Japanese

Parents : Erik Eagle and Suzette Hartland

Siblings : Cliff Eagle {half-brother}

                          Cyril Partinus {half-brother}

Other family : Silvia Woods {aunt-in-law} / Arion Sherwind {cousin}

(Melody Partinus / Loreena Partinus / Milly Partinus : aunts-in-law (but not really anymore))

Personality : Arrogant, Sassy and Generous

Position : Midfielder

Teams : Raimon (7) / Unicorn (6)

Element : Air

Notable Hissatsu Techniques Inherited from Parents : Rose Shot / Pegasus Shot

Radiance is the daughter of Erik Eagle and Suzette Hartland. She is considered very beautiful by others, and a lot of men are falling in love with. Moreover, she is not scared to show her body to others.

Erik Eagle X Silvia Woods :

Cliff Eagle :

Full name : Cliff Denver Eagle

Nickname : Cliffy

Gender : Born Male, Trigender

Birthday : January 28th

Zodiac Sign : Aquarius

Height : 5′6″ (167 cm)

Weight : 112 lbs (51 kg)

Nationality : American / Japanese

Parents : Erik Eagle and Silvia Woods

Siblings : Radiance Eagle {half-sister}

Other family :  Silvia Woods {aunt-in-law} / Arion Sherwind {cousin}

(Melody Partinus / Loreena Partinus / Milly Partinus : aunts-in-law (but not really anymore))

Personality : Clever, Caring and Curious

Position : Midfielder

Teams : Raimon (5) / Inazuma Japan (5)

Element : Wood

Cliff Eagle is the only son of Erik Eagle and Silvia Woods. He is a very gentle guy, but is as talented as his father. He is a wonderful tactician and his help can be crucial in games. He also loves to help his mother with chores.

#inazuma eleven #inazuma 11 #inazuma eleven next gen #inazuma eleven next generation #inazuma 11 next gen #inazuma 11 next generation #erik eagle #ichinose kazuya #suzette hartland #sue hartland #urabe rika #erik eagle x suzette hartland #erik eagle x sue hartland #ichinose kazuya x urabe rika #silvia woods #kino aki #erik eagle x silvia woods #ichinose kazuya x kino aki #raimon #unicorns #radiance eagle #cliff eagle

[raxistaicho]

Everything’s coming up wyverns!

Since I already got onto the subject of Fire Emblem gameplay with my recent post on the Weapon Triangle, I guess it’s a good opportunity to hit on another complaint that often gets hurled at the feet of Three Houses: that the game is just wyvern spam.

Now before I get into the details of why this is a Fire Emblem problem rather than a Three Houses problem, it’s worth pointing out that this viewpoint that spawned in 2019 and never really went away, despite being nothing more than low-effort ammunition to bitch about the game.

It was certainly true at one point that you could just mass a squadron of wyverns to roll over the enemy with, but that was back when hard was the highest difficulty we had. And hard’s a joke. But with the advent of Maddening and further development of the meta, anybody pretending that, “just mass wyverns!” is still considered the best strategy can safely be ignored. I mean, Bernadetta was once deemed a trash unit, now she’s unironically considered better than Claude and the male version of Byleth.

So, why do people complain about mass wyverns so much? Most because it’s visually boring and appears to result in a team with no versatility. In most games, what class a unit is in has a huge part to play in their prospects, so the class system appears to force versatility on your team by giving different units different strengths and weaknesses, but this very seldom plays out in reality. In actual practice, one or two classes are best in a given game, players just mass those classes with maybe a few others to support them, and if you’re in the wrong class for a given game (footies in 4, swordlocks in 7) then you’re dead on arrival.

While it isn’t actually true in Three Houses that mono-class teams lack versatility to begin with (units are made unique in this game not by their base class but by their skill aptitudes, abilities, spells, and combat arts), to pretend that Three Houses invented the issue of mono-class teams with its redesign of the class system is ludicrous.

FE4 is horse spam, FE 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 are horse and flier spam, FE13 is dark mage and hero spam, FE14 is more flexible but there was still a lot of wyvern and ninja spam, and FE15 is mostly soloing everything with an archer and sometimes using a horse or merc for specific tasks. Meanwhile, FE12 avoids this by having the best array of promoted classes in the entire series (EVERY promoted class aside from Warrior has some valuable niche at varying points in the game) and that game has DS Emblem’s free class changing system. The problem is game balance, not army versatility.

Now, getting back to Three Houses.

As I mentioned previously, a large part of what makes units unique in this game is not their class but what attributes, abilities, spells, and combat arts they learn. In this game, classes are often little more than a vehicle through a unit leverages their innate qualities (Sniper and Grappler are two notable exceptions to this).

To take just the Black Eagles as an example, assuming you’re using your entire base class you’re likely to end the game with Edelgard, Petra, Ferdinand, and a female Byleth on wyverns.

On paper, you have 4 units who fly around and bop people with an axe.

In practice, Ferdinand’s the wyvern you use when you need guaranteed doubling or to hit those annoying swordmasters or assassins, Petra’s probably the only wyvern who can carry silver or brave bows since she has a bow boon and low skill benchmarks, Byleth’s the wyvern who has battalion desperation so she can kill mid-tier and slower enemies without giving them a chance to counter, and Edelgard’s the wyvern with Aymr.

Now compare this to the fandom darling Path of Radiance, where your options are to have Titania ride around killing everybody with axes or have Oscar ride around killing everybody with axes or have Jill fly around killing everybody with axes or have Kieran ride around killing everybody with axes or have Astrid ride around killing everybody with axes or have Makalov ride around killing everybody with axes, or when you wanna break out of your comfort zone, you can have Marcia or Tanith fly around killing everyone with lances.

Yay versatility :D

And as I alluded to previously, “just mass wyverns!” is a stupidly inefficient way to play Maddening. People who know what they’re doing haven’t unironically done that for years.

The pool of units who function best on wyverns is actually quite limited if you’re looking beyond physical female units, and wyverns are generally more resource-intensive than most paths. You also want a dancer, a healer, generally one or two warpers, and at least one sniper for shooting down enemy pegasus knights. There’s also the fact that your deploy slots are limited to 10 before the time skip, by which point your team is mostly fully developed so adding a late-joining extra wyvern is giving you diminishing returns. Maybe go for a rally bot or somebody to carry a utility battalion instead.

In practice, most players will have 4 or 5 wyverns on their final team depending on which route and who they recruit (the OG Blue Lions, for instance, have very few units at all who are well-suited for riding wyverns). This only seems like a significant chunk of your team because Three Houses has unusually low deploy caps for most of the game, maxing out at 10 and 11 for most maps.

So yeah, “Three Houses has poor gameplay because just make everyone wyverns and win!” is a weak argument from start to finish. It hasn’t been relevant since 2020.

#Fire Emblem Three Houses #fire emblem

[crystalelemental]

So, I got bored of my last run of Etrian Odyssey 3.  Long story short, I fell into the same general plan I used every time.  I wound up dropping Wildling entirely, dropped Ninja for not really accomplishing much, and went right back into Hoplite/Ninja with two frontline damage dealers, just swapping out Shogun for Arbalist.  And that wasn’t interesting.  I want to do something ridiculous.

So I’m doing something ridiculous and running Regal Radiance Princess.  My game plan is that Princess focuses on elemental application, Regal Radiance, and her passives to maintain TP.  Sub-Zodiac will get the general spells as needed, but I may change that depending on what happens.  Prophesies would be nice, though.  Ninja will go sub-Princess.  The goal there is setting up Ninja with the buffs that keep Princess TP battery running, and being able to apply the elemental buffs to weapons for Princess to dispel every turn as needed.  They’re able to make a copy of themselves, so we can get two buffs running per turn, and their class skill that reduces TP consumption, turns this into like a 2-4TP cost per action.  When a buff wears off, they’ll regain more than they spent.  With Ad Nihilio on a super fast unit, we should be able to just blast through anything that buffs before anyone attacks.  Double Knighthood might also have applications.  At the very least, we should be able to ensure that Charge goes to the thing we want, rather than being used on Regal Radiance (my understanding is Regal Radiance consumed it on the target dispelled?  The forum post wasn’t entirely clear on that point but that’s what it sounded like).

I’m running a Monk for the first time ever.  It’s probably boring, but sub-Hoplite.  I figure they can pick up an elemental guard for when Hoplite needs to do something else like Bodyguard.  As for Hoplite, I’m thinking of going sub-Buccaneer.  I was able to find calcs on it, and apparently Eagle Eye is a stronger single-target defense debuff than Primal Drums, and it’d sure be nice to have that option somewhere in the party.  Hoplite does a lot of protecting, but my hope is that Monk can ease some of the demands a bit.

We’re on Stratum 2, floor 8.  It’s...actually going really well?  I was initially worried about lack of Zodiac, but honestly I’ve had it...easier than ever?  Who knew the game was easier when you have a healer that directly healed, and didn’t just rely on Princess passive healing?  More importantly, the elemental buffs are actually doing great for enemies with a clear weakness.  We are entering a phase where my solution to most things was “Etheric Charge -> Hellfire,” and I’m definitely going to notice the drop in power.  But on the other hand, Amritas are purchasable now, so I can Regal Radiance spam all day long.  We’ll find out how it holds up when we get to clearing FOEs, but for now I’m having fun.  Regal Radiance is a pretty fun set.

#etrian odyssey 3