An Analysis on Fire Emblem Legendaries: Version Elibe Part 1
Previous Analysis:
An Analysis on Fire Emblem Legendaries: Version Archanea
And we are back with another edition of yours truly going in depth in regarding the legendary weapons, this time from the continent of Elibe. Now this actually had some incredible weapons, and had a LOT to introduce and share a huge story behind it even.
Because of the sheer number of weapons, with many of them having a story behind them, I’m splitting this thread into two parts. This way you guys don’t get overwhelmed by the read.
I’m actually really glad that so many people like this. I got more likes than I actually expected, honestly.
Well, let’s get to the events.
Legendary Weapons
Might as well get to the main legendaries of Elibe anyways.
As anyone that knows the Elibe series, originally, humans and dragons on the continent lived in harmony. But then humans decided to be d*cks and start a war with dragons. Dragons attacked back, but the dragons were not backed by the Divine Dragons, who were the most powerful dragons among the race, and even left the war.
So without the Divine Dragon’s assistance, the humans actually were not wiped out in an instant, and were able to fight the dragons, due to how humans have just so many in number, and thus could overwhelm the dragons. So the dragons went to the Divine Dragons and wanted to use them to create War Dragons to level the playing field. They refused and left, but one young Divine Dragon foolishly stayed behind. And then the other dragons destroyed her soul (conscious I’ll go with really), and turned her into a Demon Dragon, and thus constantly created War Dragons.
Now the humans were at a disadvantage, and they needed to win the war. So they put all their efforts into using their best technology and magic (Didn't Kaga say that magic is the equivalence of technology in Fire Emblem?) to create the best weapons to take out the dragons. And thus, they did, creating 8 weapons that could cut through the dragon’s iron-hard scales like they were butter.
However, the clash of these eight powerful weapons against the immense power of the dragons concentrated in a single area caused a cataclysmic event, where reality itself was warped. A major explosion of pure concentrated magical energy, something like an atomic explosion, caused the laws of reality and the environment to change, and there to be a magical drought that weakened both the weapons and dragons, the latter even worse. This event was known as the Ending Winter. After the Scouring was over, the weapons were sealed away in an effort to prevent from from ending the world or falling into the wrong hands. They were placed in locations that would be difficult to get to, and one of the Eight Legends, Bramimond placed a spell to prevent them from being entered.
Now, the thing about these weapons that are so incredible is… well, they are human crafted. Yeah, not forged by dragons at all. These were created by humans. They made these for the sole purpose of killing dragons. But the question is… how?
Well, my theory is that since dragons once lived peacefully with humans, they may actually have bestowed humans with great knowledge of magic, allowing them to perform great feats with magic and forging skills with magic into it. Along with that, since the humans must have killed dragons before they got started on the weapons, it brings up to question on whether they may have actually tried to use the dragon corpses to actually create these weapons. Remember, dragons even in death are rather sturdy, and have high quintessence. So depending on the knowledge they have and the events that occurred, they may have actually managed to use both knowledge and the dragon bodies to create dragon slaying weapons. It isn’t the first time that dragons become the things that can kill dragons better. And you know humans, we love to reverse engineer things to create weapons of mass destruction.
These weapons also have a unique function of storing the memories of their masters. This could be because humans created weapons that are far beyond their understanding, especially if they were going with my theory that some form of dragon design went into it, so there may have been an unnatural quintessence manipulation or imprinting.
All Legendary Weapons have an effect of dealing bonus damage to dragons in the game, as well as boosting a stat.
- Armads, the Thunder Axe:
Likely the most well known due to Hector, which only escalated further by the two Hectors in Heroes. Armads was an axe that was given to the Berserker Durban. Because of Armads’ sheer size and weight, no ordinary man could wield it. Once you take it, you feel an incredible rush of power and might that stays with you even after you no longer have the weapon on you, according to Hector.
Durban was so close to Armads that he even adopted the name onto himself, and is one of the Eight Legends who’s spirit remained with the weapon after death, ready to speak to the next person that takes it. The weapon was sealed in the caves in the Western Isles, which Durban founded. The cave is filled with poison gas.
There is actually a curse on Armads. If one claims its immense power, you surrender yourself from a peaceful death, but instead will die a violent death in battle. This prophecy came true as Hector died at the hands of Zephiel.
However, one popular theory is that this curse may in fact have been a blessing for Hector, as his family is actually known to have a case of becoming deathly ill and dying from it, as did Hector’s parents and then his brother did. The act of taking Armads may in fact have prolonged Hector’s life until he gets killed by Zephiel. Now the only worry is that Lilina may in fact share her family’s ill fate and die of illness. Hopefully not for Roy’s sake.
The game has the weapon give a boost in defense, have a LOT of weight on it, and plenty of power. With the weight it has, no wonder only a huge beefy guy like Hector could wield it.
- Durandal, the Blazing Blade:
Title drop of FE7, though in America, there is no title there like that. This is the signature weapon of Eliwood, Hector’s best friend and rival, as well as the father of Roy.
Durandal was given to the Champion Roland, though the weapon was much larger than him, which got him the nickname “Little Knight”. It is said that after the Scouring, he went to his home of Ostia, held the sword up, and just like that, the once scorched land became lush with life once more. He sealed the weapon in a lava canyon north of Ostia, that was guarded by spirits that served him, and then found the Lycian League and first marquess of Ostia. Interestingly enough, Roland is in fact the ancestor of both Eliwood and Hector. Wait, would that make Roy and Lilina distantly related? Eh, the blood has diluted enough that you really can’t consider that incest.
When Eliwood got it, he immediately encountered an Ice Dragon, and as if triggered by the mere presence of the dragon, Durandal guided Eliwood’s body and forced him to kill the dragon, which was revealed to in fact be Ninian. This is actually interesting, as the weapon is actually able to sense and force the wielder to slay the dragon. This is very unique really as no other weapon made the user act on their own like that, but possibly all weapons are intended to be like that. Of course, Eliwood was so guilt ridden by this that he gave the weapon back to Athos, since he sort of killed his girlfriend (and didn’t even get to see her special dance too).
In the game, Durandal boosts strength, and has great might as well.
- Eckesachs:
Hardest weapon to pronounce, and Heroes didn’t even try to have a voiced line for it. :/
This is a weapon that belonged to the Hero Hartmut, the leader of the Eight Legends, and later wielded by Hartmut’s descendant Zephiel. Very ironic that the hero that killed dragons would eventually have a descendant that wants to give the world back to dragons. The world works in mysterious ways. But these things happen. It’s unknown if this weapon was ever sealed away, but Zephiel clearly has it. Maybe it was sealed somewhere inside Bern, or maybe it was made into a royal sword. No idea.
The most awesome thing about the Eckesachs is how this weapon looks like a trident-like scepter when it isn’t in battle mode, but then immediately shifts to a sword that emits electricity when used. Seriously, how cool is that? A weapon that instead of having a sheath, turns into a scepter instead. Though I admit that I question how the blade could even shrink to such a size at all.
The weapon is clearly powerful, and can hit from afar, and like I said, it emits electricity. Very few weapons sword weapons actually go for electricity for it. It’s mostly preferred to be fire. This is also the only Elibe Legendary Weapon from the Scouring that the heroes never use. This weapon is the only Legendary Weapon that does not have an effective against dragon bonus. This could be due to how it’s at the enemy’s side that we never use it for ourselves. Also the only weapon that doesn’t have a cool title with it. Though since it belonged to the leader, that might all that was needed, and he was the one that gave the other weapons their titles.
- Forblaze, the Infernal Truth:
Wielded by the Archsage Athos himself, the Gotoh of FE7. This is the Legendary Weapon of Anima Magic, holding the power of fire. When the spell is cast, the effects differ between how it was used in FE6 and FE7. In FE7, it a massive ball of flame is summoned, followed by a near-simultaneous eruption and downpour of flame and magma. When used in FE6, the ball of flame does not appear, and the flame has a less fiery, yellow-orange color. This weapon was sealed away in a temple Arcadia, a place Athos hung out with, and was a sanctuary for dragons and humans, the only place where the two species can exist peacefully like they used to pre-Scouring.
Unlike the other Eight Legends, who perished, Athos is in fact one of the two that actually lived on through all the way to FE7’s time, so he’s already well over 1000 years old by then, since FE7 takes place 980 years after the Scouring, and he was a young man that time.
It is unknown how he survived this long, but he may have somehow harnessed a lot of quintessence or learned some advanced magic that managed to prolong his life. He was a man that hungered for knowledge, so he may have found a way to stay alive and keep learning new things. Or maybe Forblaze itself caused something within him that kept him alive as long as it did. He was even once good friends with Nergal as well. But then shit happened.
This weapon boosts the user’s luck.
- Aureola, the Glorious Ascension:
Carried by Saint Elimine, one of the two girls in the group, Aureola is the Legendary Weapon of Light Magic. When cast, the heavens will open up and shine a single beam of light upon the selected enemy target, momentarily petrifying them in their tracks. A sparkle will then cascade down this beam of light, causing the beam of light to dissipate and combust, engulfing the enemy in the process. Elimine enshrined this weapon at the peak of the Saint Tower in Eutria on the outskirts of Aquleia. She was also the founder of Eutria and the St. Elimine Church.
The unique thing about her weapon is that in FE7, Athos specifically took this weapon for the purpose of facing off against Nergal, due to Nergal having near unrivaled magical defenses that left conventional weapons useless. Wait a second, didn’t Eliwood’s father Elbert actually make a critical injury on Nergal that left him needing to recuperate for some time? And this was despite Elbert having been wounded by Jaffar, the Angel of Death, and had most of his quintessence drained by the Dragon’s Gate? Well shit man, as if Elbert wasn’t already badass enough, he’s got to use some conventional weapon to mortally wound a man that requires legendary weapons to fight as well.
Anyways, Aureola boosts the user’s resistance, but in FE7, it has the unique ability to deal bonus damage to Dark Druid class, the only legendary weapon to do so. This ties to what Athos said about how Aureola being the weapon they need to take down Nergal, since Dark Druid is Nergal’s personal class.
- Apocalypse, the Elder Revelation:
This is the tome that was wielded by Bramimond, the Enigma. It is also the Legendary Weapon that wields Dark Magic. When cast, the spell forms a large magical seal, and then eight characters of an ancient language circle around the center of the seal and converges onto the very center and then spreading out once more. The magic seal vanishes and replaced by a large black hole that consumes the enemy. This tome was sealed within the Shrine of Seals, alongside another special weapon.
This tome is in fact implied to not be made by other humans, but rather by Bramimond himself. In order to fight the dragons, Bramimond sacrificed his humanity to perfect his dark powers in Valor, the Dread Isle. As said in the Elibe series, Dark Magic (Elder Magic according to Canas), holds the knowledge and forces of darkness, and harnessing it requires you to invite darkness onto yourself. However, you cannot let the darkness control you, else you will suffer terrible consequences, as Canas’ brothers found themselves comatose. However, Bramimond went far beyond even them, harnessed the darkness to the utmost limit. However, rather than be comatose, Bramimond lost all sense and form of self. He went from a “he” to an “it”, losing gender and personality. When one confronts it, Bramimond merely becomes a reflection of the person, in both voice and mannerisms.
This is actually very important detail, as this means that Bramimond attained the knowledge and power that potentially rivals even that of a dragons, hence why he could use magic that can be considered to be greater than even the archsage Athos, since it was Bramimond that actually placed the seal on the weapons to prevent others from taking them. I theorize that one could even consider the possibility that Bramimond’s Apocalypse was the first Legendary Weapon forged, and the knowledge he attained may have been utilized to forge the other weapons. This is another potential theory about the creation of these weapons.
Bramimond is also the other of the Eight Legends that has survived to FE7 and is probably over a thousand years old. He is also the last of the Eight Legends to die, as he died before FE6, but after FE7 after Athos died based on what Bramimond said. It’s possible that Bramimond had survived as long as he did due to the dark powers he had. He even managed to revive Ninian after the latter was killed by Eliwood (Hooray!).
Apocalypse boosts the magic power of the user, thus being the most powerful magic weapon in FE6, as well as having an unusually long animation (Pft, Sephiroth’s Supernova still wins there), and having an unorthodox sound effect.
- Mulagir, the Tempest Bow:
This was the bow of Hanon, the Horseman, though I much prefer the title of Divine Cavalryman. In FE7, due to a translation error, Hanon is referred to as a man, but is in fact a woman, the other woman besides Elimine. Hanon is the founder of Sacae and sealed Mulagir in there.
There isn’t much to talk about this weapon, as the history and story of both weapon and original wielder is left out mostly. Such a shame really.
However, instead, I’ll talk about the unique thing about it’s gameplay functions. This bow is actually the one and only bow in the game that DOESN’T deal effective damage to fliers in general, only dragon-type units, and grants a boost in the user’s speed.
Now what’s up with that? Why dragons only and not pegasi? I mean, I believe the concept on why bows a pegasus’ greatest enemy is due to how if an arrow pieces the wing of the mount, the pegasus will fall down and that is most certainly death. So there’s no reason for that. And for that matter, what does the Mulagir do that makes the arrows it fires to be strong enough to pierce through dragons like butter? Since it’s called the Tempest Bow, maybe it fires the arrow that magically enhances it to have the force of a tempest? Who knows.
- Maltet, the Blizzard Spear:
The weapon wielded by Barigan, the Knight. Barigan is the founder of Ilia, which becomes renowned for its Pegasus Knights and Mercenaries. Though the odd thing here is that Barigan is neither of these, but instead likely a Paladin or something. Maltet was sealed in ancient ruins in the outskirts of Ilia.
Since Maltet is called the Blizzard Spear, it is possible that it’s powers were likely able to create ice from it’s attacks. I imagine cases where he could stab the ground and freeze the vicinity and anyone else that is standing on it. And maybe even create ice pillars to pierce the dragons. Who knows, but it would be cool if it could do that. Though I imagine just being stabbed by something that freezes you from the inside out is already a terrifying way to die. Though I wonder if Ice Dragons would be bothered by that?
This weapon gives a boost to the user’s skill.
Saint’s Staff
Yeesh, so much stuff from the Legendary Weapons, and I’m actually STILL not done with them entirely. This is a magical healing staff that was used during the Scouring by Saint Elimine alongside the Aureola. This staff has the ability to heal all the allies of the caster on the map, as well as cure them of any status conditions.
Even though it isn’t a legendary weapon, or even a weapon in general, this staff is still very powerful and has lasted for a thousand years, so it deserves some credit.
Fire Emblem
Yay, almost there. Now we will be talking about the Elibe’s Fire Emblem, which is… never seen… ever.
The f*ck man?!
Anyways, there actually isn’t that much information on it. So here’s what we have. The Fire Emblem was used with a certain Elibe iconic weapon, by Hartmut during the Scouring. Together, it was able to defeat and put to sleep the Demon Dragon Idunn, and then seal her away. It became a national treasure of Bern and is what is used to unseal the Shrine of Seals.
However, I’ll instead talk more about how it is for the manga series, Hasha no Tsurugi. Oh right:
SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING:
Anyone that never read Hasha no Tsurugi, go read it now. It’s actually pretty good. For those that want to see how the Fire Emblem looks in the manga, it looks like this.
Binding Blade
Finally to the third most iconic weapon in the franchise. To me, at least.
The Binding Blade is also known as the Sword of Seals, both names a play on the reverse of the Fire Emblem of Archanea, being the Binding Shield or the Shield of Seals. Just imagine what would happen if both were together. That would be epic. Having the Sword and Shield of Seals on each arm.
Anyways, back to the topic, the Binding Blade is other weapon of Hartmut, so he dual-wielded this and the Eckesachs to plow through the dragons during the Scouring. After the Scouring, Hartmut separated the Binding Blade with the Fire Emblem, which is in fact on the center of the hilt on the weapon. That’s right, the Binding Blade and Fire Emblem need to be united to truly unleash the power. The Binding Blade was sealed within the Shrine of Seals in Bern.
The Binding Blade showed a form of sentience or rather it acts towards the will of the wielder. When Hartmut realized that Idunn was just a simple girl that had lost her mind, a hesitation had grown within him and when she transformed into the Demon Dragon to fight him, Hartmut’s hesitation prevented the Binding Blade from killing her, but instead merely put her to sleep. Then using the Binding Blade and Fire Emblem, Hartmut sealed her away.
So the origin of the Binding Blade is… a total mystery. Understand that the Binding Blade was NOT forged by the humans to combat the dragons. The humans created only eight weapons to fight the dragons, and the Binding Blade was not one of them, but Hartmut, leader of the Eight Legends, did in fact use it with the Eckesachs. A weapon of mysterious origins, with an orb that glows with the light of flames, and is more powerful than even the legendary weapons that the humans forged? Very suspicious…
The Binding Blade, similar to the Eckesachs, can coat itself in a certain element, with this one’s being fire, the heroic element that heroes. Though interesting fact:
The Binding Blade is arguably the strongest legendary weapon in the game, and is even stated to be stronger than the other Legendary Weapons, so even the in-game stats holds true. It can attack at a range, strong against dragons, boosts defense and resistance, and heals the user.
And that’s it! Finally done. Man this was long. Hope you guys all like it. The next one will be the rest of the Elibe Weapons, and then I’ll move onto another continent.
Posted Mar 3, 2018, 6:14 PM UTC · edited