An Analysis on Fire Emblem Legendaries: Version Elibe Part 2
Previous Analysis:
An Analysis on Fire Emblem Legendaries: Version Archanea
An Analysis on Fire Emblem Legendaries: Version Elibe Part 1
Hey guys, this is the second part of my Analysis on Elibe Weapons. First part was about me going over the Legendary Weapons and objects used specifically during the Scouring. Now I will be talking about other weapons that aren’t defined as legendary there, but are still very powerful, and can rival even that of the Legendary Weapons. So we will take a look at those weapons now as well.
Man, these things take a long time to do, but thankfully, I feel this one will not take as long to make really.
Morph Weapons
These are a set of weapons that appear in the final chapter of FE7. One is held by Nergal himself, and the remaining are held by Morphs of the Black Fang. These weapons are incredibly powerful, and total, there are eight, basically being a new set of Legendary Weapons to combat the original Legendary Weapons.
The normal explanation is that these are for gameplay reasons to give us a challenging fight. However, I feel that there’s actually a VERY simple reasoning for this in the lore. Think about it. Nergal has been harvesting quintessence for so many years. He’s lived for several hundred of them in fact. He must have had so much quintessence to use that it isn’t beyond his limits to actually create powerful weapons that actually can hold their own against the Legendary Weapons as well.
Due to appearing only on the final chapter of the game, these weapons do not have a big story behind them, but I’ll try to make due.
These are the eight weapons.
- Regal Blade:
This weapon is held by the morph of Lloyd Reed, the White Wolf.
Regal Blade is basically an even better Silver Blade, being more durable, powerful, accurate, and is even lighter. Hell, this weapon’s might is stronger than any other sword in the game, save for the Durandal, due to the boost in strength it gives that adds to the overall might. This blade truly signifies the exalted rank that Lloyd had once held as the White Wolf of the feared Four Fangs.
It’s a damn shame that his brother Linus actually didn’t get any morph weapons, despite being the Mad Wolf of the Four Fangs. Instead Linus got a Brave Sword and Tomahawk instead, though those are powerful weapons of their own.
Interestingly enough, the Lloyd in Heroes we get has Regal Blade as his personal weapon, and has an ability that the original game’s counterpart did not have.
- Rex Hasta:
This is a lance held by the Morph of Darin.
The Rex Hasta itself is incredibly powerful, being the most powerful lance in the game and can be seen as an homage to Darin’s former status as marquess or Laus.
A personal thing I find to be plausible is that because this is a lance, and in general anime troupes, lancers tend to play second fiddle to the guy with the sword that is the leader of the group, or isn’t as strong as the axe guy that boasts power. This troupe could be seen used here, where Darin, and by extension Erik, actually feel like that lancer, not having the leadership skill like Eliwood or the incredible strength that Hector has.
Though I guess after being revived as a morph and dying, that smile that Darin had is a sign that he had seen the error of his ways. Well, pity his even weaker willed son has to go insane and join his father over two decades later.
- Basilikos:
This was the axe used by the Morph of Brendan.
Interesting thing about him when he’s fought is that his human form never appears on the battlefield, making him unique amongst the bosses in the last chapter, as he is the only resurrected morph never fought as a human and who can never be a boss while he is alive.
Basilikos is the strongest axe is the game, being even stronger than Armads, but just as heavy and has less hit rate. The design could be an homage to him being the founder and leader of the Black Fang.
In Heroes, Basilikos is the new personal weapon of Raven. Given that in FE7, Raven was a man driven by revenge against Ostia, and Hector is from House Ostia. So him having an axe that could be considered a rival to his Armads could actually make a lot of sense. Especially since the refined version is a Life and Death skill, which is precisely how revenge works. You’re so obsessed that you care not for your own life, just so long as you get to kill the enemy before you.
- Rienfleche:
This bow was held by the morph of Uhai.
Rienfleche is and incredibly powerful bow, but one unique thing is how there was in a translation error in the NTSC English version, where the description was that the bow can “strike consecutively”, meaning that it had the same effect as a Brave Bow. If it really had that kind of skill, then with that kind of might, then this bow would have arguably been the strongest bow in the game, and would also surpass Radiant Dawn's Double Bow minus its range of 1~2.
Funny how when it comes to the bows in the Elibe series, the legendary and extremely powerful ones are always known to be wielded by the Sacaean.
- Excalibur:
This weapon is held by the morph of Ursula.
Excalibur is the Anima Magic of the Morph Weapons, and holds the same name as its Archanean counterpart, but lacks the effect and doesn’t even have a high critical rate with it, and is rather heavy to boot. When cast, the animation actually functions how the other games do, summoning a single blade of wind that goes to the foe and the splitting into multiple wind blades that is to slice them all up.
The magic uses wind element, which fits well with Ursula’s title as a member of the Four Fangs, Blue Crow.
- Luce:
Held by the morph of Kenneth.
Luce is the Light Magic of the Morph Weapons. When cast, swirls of divine energy will centripetally congregate into the centre of the immediate battlefield, charging up and eventually giving rise to an orb of light. As this orb of light absorbs more and more energy, it will eventually shatter and send a fury of light stakes in the direction of the selected enemy target.
This tome is even stronger than the A rank tome Aura, and is widely considered to be the best Light Magic tome in FE7, surpassing even the likes of the Legendary tome Aureola, owing to the fact that it possesses a higher might and critical rate than the latter tome does. However, it lacks the ability to deal effective damage to Nergal and the Fire Dragon, does not possess a boost of the user’s resistance, and is more cumbersome, so Aureola is usually better during the final stages of the final battle.
- Gespenst:
Held by… a Druid Morph. Yeah, unlike the other weapons, that are all held by previous bosses that we can encounter throughout our journey, this one is someone that we have not met at all. Or maybe we did meet, but never got to know them. Who knows.
Gespenst is the Dark Magic of the Morph Weapons. When cast, the spell creates a dark magic seal on the opponent, before purple flames surround them, and then followed by a purple lightning storm that strikes the opponent and releases a flash.
This tome is by far the most powerful tome in the game, as well as heaviest. It kind of makes its use less awesome really.
- Ereshkigal:
This is the weapon held by the Dark Druid Nergal himself.
Nergals’s Ereshkigal is a Dark Magic tome that is incredibly powerful, with high might and accuracy, and is relatively light. It is the only weapon of the eight that you cannot acquire in the final map. It’s like the Eckesachs in that regard. But the weird thing is that this tome actually has no weapon rank at all. With a modding done on the game, if you give a copy of the tome to any unit, they can all use it instantly because there’s no rank requirement, and they’ll all gain an E rank in dark magic.
When cast, the spell causes the user to exude a dark aura that flows up into the air, before a small streak of lightning strikes the ground near the enemy. Immediately after, a swirling vortex opens with a black hole in the center and seems to draw in other black holes into it as well, before it consumes the enemy.
Mani/Sol Katti
Lyndis primary and then ultimate weapon.
The Mani Katti is attained in Lyn’s Mode, from a small church in Sacae. According to the priest there, the Mani Katti a sacred blade under divine protection, and that the weapon is infused with spirits, who judge those that touch it, and that anyone that is unworthy shall not be able to wield it. This is one of the only weapons in the game that actually has the case of only allowing certain individuals to wield it. Fortunately, when Lyn is granted permission to touch the blade, the weapon resonates with her, choosing her as it’s wielder.
The Sol Katti is the sister sword of the Mani Katti, thus is also infused with the power of spirits, but is significantly more powerful than it’s counterpart. Athos states that though the Sol Katti is not one of the Eight Legendary Weapons of Elibe, it is still a very powerful weapon, with power that is comparable to their own.
The Mani Katti has the ability to inflict bonus damage to cavalry and armored units, thus acting as Lyn’s personal Rapier of the game, though the stats are different. Meanwhile, the Sol Katti is much stronger and even heavier, and has the ability to inflict bonus damage to dragons. The latter may in fact be a sign that some other people or perhaps another force at work had created this weapon during the Scouring. Since it is infused with spirits, this means that the method of creating this weapon is much more different than the Legendary Weapons.
I’m actually gonna delve much deeper into pair though.
Mani Katti seems to resemble a wakizashi, which is a Japanese sword that is shorter than a katana. Or perhaps it could even be considered a kodachi, since we clearly see that the Mani Katti is rather short for its blade. The Sol Katti though, has gone through redesigns as the look it had in Awakening and Heroes went to be altered by the case of Warriors, where Sol Katti now resembles a combination of the sprite in FE7 and the Mani Katti, so now it can resemble that of a katana. This means the Mani Katti might in fact be a wakizashi in fact.
This is because the two are sister blades, and thus meaning that they are meant to be used together as a pair in combat. This never happens in the game, but you notice in Warriors that Lyn has Navarre’s moveset so she uses a dual wielding form. The reason I say that the Mani Katti is likely a wakizashi is due to how in feudal Japan, a wakizashi and katana used in pair is known as daishō, which means “big-little”, and the term is used for samurai that carry what is generally a katana and wakizashi. Not always, but for this case, let’s say they do.
The style of combat that I managed to dig up that uses these type types of weapons is known as the Niten Ichi-ryū, which can be translated as the “school of the strategy of two heavens as one.” While it is possible to wield each weapon on their own, I feel the Mani and Sol Katti’s true strength is achieved when the two are used together in this style.
Champion’s Sword
Spoiler Warning:
And that’s it for Part 2 of the Elibe Weapons. We are done with Elibe from this. I admit that I actually went through several revisions with this thread. This is because I actually ended up talking more about the person than the weapons themselves for the Morph Weapons, and that isn’t what this thread is meant to be about really. It’s meant to be more about the weapons than the wielders. Though the wielders do have a hand in forging the story of the weapons, but for the Morph Weapons, it doesn’t work as well.
So with this, I have finished the Elibe series.
Now I wonder who I will go for the next one? There are still a lot of legendary weapons.
Posted Mar 4, 2018, 11:27 PM UTC · edited