We're already in Gallia, guys. We've been in Gallia for... actually, wait, how many maps have been in Gallia? 8 definitely is, 6 probably is, and I'm not sure on 7.
Now that Ike has become commander of the Greil Mercenaries, Soren now provides him with a status report on the army's condition.
This is what we see. The contents of this page describe what happened last mission. Most of these statistics are self-explanatory, except the MVP. I still don't fully understand how MVP is calculated. Unexpectedly, Titania was the star of Chapter 8.
I'm not really sure how helpful it is. In-universe, probably.
Five Info conversations today.
Soren packs light, but "musty books" don't really feel like they fit in with this impression.
This is something Soren and Ike agree on.
The conversation gets awkward, and Soren wants to move on. Soren's not the most sociable type.
Ike doesn't mind, of course. He's not much better.
I wonder if this conversation is partially because of the Mordecai scene. How much did that hurt Ike?
Just two men being men.
Mist, on the other hand, is openly feeling upset.
This is the same thing Ike was saying to Soren. I can't help but wonder if this one is supposed to come first.
And that's the best way to look past a passing. Eventually, life moves on, and so should you. The worst thing you can do is waste your life in the name of someone else.
I think Mist is starting to bounce back.
To Oscar, meanwhile, Ike talks about how brutal a beating he took in Chapter 8.
I wonder how a stressful mission feels for the benchwarmers.
We haven't changed conversation topic. Oscar is still talking about the brutal punishment we took from the Daein soldiers. I think it's based on Ike being the commander.
Oscar starts obliquely talking about the game mechanics involved with being a Fire Emblem game: namely, that the AI is exploitable as hell. This isn't a 2 star conversation, though, so evidently it didn't do it well.
AI manipulation is one of those things that becomes second nature to you, especially on the basics like "the AI will always avoid taking damage itself where possible".
Oscar compares Ike to Greil. Ike doesn't seem to think much of the comparison.
Oscar's not really talking about looks, though (they certainly don't really share much in that). It's the sort of thing where Ike carries himself in the same way that Greil did. Or at least thinks things through the way Greil did. It's certainly not in the way he carries books.
Ike asks if Oscar can spar with him to teach him how knights fight, since Oscar is a former knight. I am now imagining Knight School formally teaching Oscar all the exploitable AI quirks like rigid turn order and ignoring future targets.
Mia gets a chance for Info. She loves mornings. Particularly, duelling at dawn. Or just duelling in general.
I think this might partially be because of the new circumstances after Greil died? Mia does slip in a "it must be rough on you" during this.
The suggestion to leave has gotten Mia all tongue-tied.
Mia admires dedication. She's not very complex, but she has her principles and she sticks to them.
What is it with me and managing to secure freeze frames of women half-blinking?
This is in response to "Don't let me down". I think this sums up Mia pretty well.
Ike chats with Mordecai about how long this packing is taking. I feel called out.
Mordecai explains to Ike that he is unfamiliar with this language, and wants to know if he's making himself understood.
So what's the language of Gallia, Ike asks?
That must be so nice.
Mordecai believes it is important to be able to talk to as many different kinds of people as possible, which is why he has chosen to learn the modern tongue.
Ike doesn't see the issue, though. I think a lot of social isolates might agree.
Mordecai is a pacifist, and he explains his reasoning thus. You can't make friends unless you talk to them.
Admin time!
Look at all those weapon uses Chapter 8 used up. Thank goodness I got that Hammer from Chapter 5. Turns out there aren't very many ways to get a Hammer- as far as I'm aware, the only other source is from the shop inventory in Chapter 21. So yeah, hope we don't want to use this one for much!
Taking a look at the Skill menu for my girls, too. Here is Titania's current weapon ranks and her Counter skill. Counter has a Skill/2% chance of returning half the damage she takes back at her opponent. It literally triggered once so far, on a failed run of Chapter 8 that, happily enough, did enough damage that Titania only had to use one Hammer on a knight instead of two.
Here are what Mia and Ilyana have. Vantage we're familiar with, but Shade is new. The description says "Makes user less likely to be attacked by the enemy", but exactly how this works is... still not entirely clear. It's probable that it might even be a silent proc skill. If we ever put Ilyana on a front line and she doesn't get attacked for unjustifiable reasons (which will be rarely, since Ilyana always attacks at range 1-2), it's probably Shade.
Levels! Mia gets Str/Def, which is perfect, and also capped Speed (unpromoted units cap non HP/Luck at 20 at most, sometimes lower). Ilyana works on her Magic, Skill/Speed (these are her problem areas), and even her Defence. Strength is important for Ilyana, since tomes weight down mages and Strength mitigates this, but we'll mostly be concerned about Ilyana getting enough Strength to hold an Elthunder tome- weight 6.
Titania has been to Gallia before, apparently.
It was related to her being a Knight of Crimea- she entered a military exchange program. This is discussed in more detail later, but I don't remember off hand if this is an Info conversation or a Support. It's something I want to show off, though.
I know they're shapeshifters, but is it that peculiar, Ike?
This is oddly poetic, but not really relevant to the conversation, I wouldn't reckon?
Ike realises that, since Greil knew how to get to Gebal, that must mean he's been to Gallia before too.
And... Ike has been here too?
Well, shame we don't get an answer on that one. This question comes up at the end of the chapter, though.
Not really, Ike. Apparently, this was a "..." in JP.
Mordecai is checking on how the beorc are faring.
Laguz can handle this distance no problem, apparently.
As a trivia point on the JP version, Lethe describes the distance from Gebal to Zarzi for laguz as being a three day trip. This... is not what she says here in ENG, but it does provide an interesting sense of scale for the continent of Tellius- PoR is discussed as if it takes place over a year (though where this comes in is another question), and moments like this help one figure out where the time is.
Mordecai scolds Lethe for being too rude to the beorc.
Mordecai is pretty wise, even if he's not necessarily learned.
Well. That's not something you expect to see- well, smell- in Gallia.
Only beorc use weapons of iron. And there's only one faction that would be hanging around...
Hi Daein!
Hi random guy.
This place has a name? I never saw it before.
Lethe may hate the beorc, but that means she hates the Daeins just as much as us.
Lethe suggests how to progress, and also suggests an escape route.
Ike doesn't want to escape, though. Let's give Daein something to remember.
Keep the kids out of danger, though!
Let's go, girls!
...Well, so much for "everyone who can fight". We can also see Lethe and Mordecai as yellow units to the south. We'll talk about them in a second, but one important note to get out of the way now: in Three Houses, yellow units are Enemy Units and actively hostile to both blue and red units. In Tellius, yellow units are Partner Units and hostile only to the red units.
This is what the map looks like. There's another faction of enemies, the pirates, but multiple red factions has no mechanical impact.
...Mist, what are you doing here?
...You are?
Mist is a healer! Well, of course she is. She's the Lord's little sister, after all.
I wonder how this discussion went. I can only imagine how much hair-pulling was involved. From both Rhys and Mist, but only to Rhys.
Ike has high standards here, but I don't think he's unjustified for it...
Rolf comes out too, and so does Green Unit Boyd, since we don't have ours deployed. I think Rolf spawns sooner if you actually brought Boyd.
Rolf is an archer? Mechanically, this is not much of a surprise, but in terms of the story, training to become an archer is a huge investment.
Rolf is indeed pretty good. Not right now, of course (he's level 1), but if you want to use a Sniper for Ballistae and Longbows, Rolf is your man. Since he's a man, we'll have to wait until later to start using bows.
Lie of the century.
I can only imagine Rolf is horribly mispronouncing the word "prodigy" here. I'm fairly positive that using a word like this is proof Rolf is being taught by somebody. But who? Who has Rolf been exposed to who might possibly be able to teach him how to shoot a bow?
Remember, Mist hates not being by her family's side in times of crisis. Rolf doesn't really have the same issues, but it's hard to blame them for it.
Ike decides it's too much pressure. Boyd, obeying the player's choice, walks back to camp.
Mist's stat screen. Mist is a Cleric, as distinguished from Rhys's "Priest" class by... just what they promote into. Mist is the only Cleric in the game, for either side, and Mist is characterised by being much, much more evasive than Rhys. She also has a few other key advantages over him later on (especially in regards to that promotion) that mean most people choose Mist over Rhys as their healer of choice. We're running All Girls, so we don't have a choice. Right now, though, Mist needs all the help she can get.
The Miracle skill in this game has a Luck% chance of saving you from a lethal hit, instead making you take half damage. The way lethal damage is calculated in this game is that overkill damage is truncated: a 20 Might blow aimed at a 10 HP Mist will deal 5 damage if Miracle procs. We will not be counting on 6% odds to save our hides. It caps at 40%, and Mist is one of the few units who might possibly hit that one day.
The artbook is frustratingly vague on ages. With very few exceptions, most of whom are characters whose ages are revealed in the game, all ages are listed as "apparent ages"- or "how old we designed them to look." Mist is one of the few exceptions, being definitely 15 during the events of PoR- though I don't recall her ever getting her age confirmed. Rolf, though, was designed to appear 12.
Here are Lethe's stats, for the sake of showing them. That Beorcguard she's wearing is very confusing: its description doesn't cover what it does at all. What it does do is make anti-laguz weapons lose their effective bonus. Imagine if there was an "Armourguard" that removes the effective bonus of Hammers from Armours, it's basically that.
Ike, as the Lord, now has the Direct command, which allows him to choose one of these AI behaviours for Partner Units to obey.
- Roam allows the AI to do "whatever it likes"- usually charge directly at the enemy and smash their faces in, as the AI does when controlling Enemy Units.
- Halt makes the AI do absolutely nothing: no moving, no attacking adjacent units, just hold their positions.
- Target makes the AI advance towards a player-selected square on the map and then Halt.
- Avoid makes the AI attempt to stay outside of enemy attack range. Their interpretation of such leaves something to be desired, but usually it works.
I want Lethe to occupy this tile. That myrmidon is scary.
Titania was using some of her spare inventory slots for staffs for Mist, but Mist wasn't kidding when she said "only small wounds". Not like I planned on using those staves seriously. Ward is good EXP generation, though.
Mist can Shove Ilyana. Imagine being so small you can get pushed around by a child.
Lethe transforms on her turn, and this is what a transformed Lethe looks like. Note the higher stats. There's more to transforming that we'll worry about when Lethe is under our control, but suffice it to say we want laguz to be transformed.
I want Ilyana to move as far as possible, which means if she also has to kill this guy, she needs to do so in melee. If she can oneshot, this doesn't matter at all.
Titania runs in between two enemy ranges so as to destroy those armours without killing many units. I want to keep some alive, but as we'll see later, perhaps I spared too many.
Mist can heal people! I don't have to use Vulneraries! Also she's surprisingly viable surrounded by enemies.
But let's do something about that. This guy wouldn't have hit her anyway (his AI is set to "charge the houses as fast as possible and burn them"), but we need to kill him now.
Watch where your fronts intersect. If you think the only units the units on the beach need to worry about are the units on the beach, you might get a Steel Axe-shaped surprise.
I think I actively baited him here with Ilyana anyway. It's been a little bit, I'm not entirely certain. I presume that Fighter was weakened so Ilyana could oneshot him in melee and get this guy aggroed.
The mage goes for Mist. Mist is pretty resistant to magical hits, but she dodged this one entirely.
Where have you been?
She spawns behind some trees, so it is impossible to recruit her right now. Like Mia in Chapter 7, her AI is set to "find Ike and talk to him".
Back on the beach, here's Mia killing that Myrmidon I said was a problem. He actually can be rather tricky to deal with on a casual run, especially since you don't want to send Oscar up here (cavaliers are heavily slowed down by beaches), and if you're having problems, I do actively recommend sending Lethe to bait him over with Target.
Ilyana gets everything I care about.
Getting too close to the castle spawns some reinforcements. I want Marcia to kill as many of these people as possible, but Marcia is also scared of those archers (bows do Effective damage on her) and Titania can't kill one and spare a lot of melee attackers. I wind up killing a lot of myrms.
Pictured: Mist shrugging off a Thunder mage on her join map.
Marcia's here!
Marcia has a decidedly... firm reaction to her former employer. When you find out what the Holy Pegasus Knights of Begnion are... this gets even stranger.
Ike decides to bring out the old standby: "What are you doing coming to us, we don't even pay good!"
Well, that's a truth.
Welcome to the team!
Oh hey, more Pirates!
This one has a name! Despite various claims, there's no particular evidence this fellow was supposed to be recruitable other than being a named character who is not a chapter boss and being slightly pleasant slash humourous.
You call that singing? There wasn't even a music note!
The writers' creative curse game is always on point.
His companion suggests going somewhere less dangerous. That's not Nedata's play.
To action!
Oh yeah, we got a new recruit, right. Marcia is a pegasus knight. She flies as well as being a cavalier. Those stats are surprisingly high for her level, if a little low for the game's demands right now. We'll get along with Marcia juuuuuuuuust fine. In fact, I have a bit of a lucky tendency with pegasus knights!
It's 6 damage with a <50% Hit rate, but it's also one weapon use to hit this guy instead of two, which saves resources.
I initiated this attack. So about that lucky pegasus charm...
Mia's doing just fine, though.
If this soldier didn't miss his attack, Marcia would've died. Well damn.
Nedata has found Lethe. Ike has been carried around and I've never gotten around to rescinding that Target order. He won't be available to get the laguz out of here, so I better do something or Mordecai might actually contribute to the mission! And that's terrible.
If only this was Nedata. Also, standing in sea water while a thunderbolt drops on you doesn't seem pleasant. Though I think I've read somewhere that sea water is actually safer in electrical situations than fresh water...
Wait, why am I contemplating the physics of water and electricity when we're in a world where pirates can walk on water instead of needing boats?
This is one of the houses. Ilyana's a little far from the fighting, so I had her pay a visit.
"Magic", not really. I guess they are a little on the less resistant side. Fire magic, though, is effective against Beast Tribe laguz as a rule.
So we get a Resistance boosting stat-up. Relevant!
Mia dealt with Nedata. Because of course Mia could handle it.
Ike finally gets the laguz out of there. No longer will Mordecai need to fear the possibility of taking another's life!
Pictured south: The mess that is Marcia trying to reap all that EXP Titania sowed.
Yeah, this Mia is going places.
That might have killed her. Mist is down here to heal Marcia.
The two most important stats in this situation, plus some extra HP and a stat I don't think we'll ever need.
That's a little extreme.
You know playing dead requires silence, right?
What kind of advice is that? What does this woman's mother think we are, bears? I can never remember, is playing dead good advice for bears? We don't have them in Australia.
Bribing beorc is a good way to get them to go away, though!
The Restore staff is good for curing status conditions. Three Houses allowed curing of status conditions of all allies in a certain range- this one's just good for one person. And oh boy, status conditions in classic FE can get much more fiendish than what the newer games are willing to throw at you...
Kotaff comes with the Counter Skill himself. As an enemy unit, he's going to be taking more damage, so this will hurt us more than Titania's Counter hurts other people, but it's manageable. He's not the first boss with a Skill, but Emil's Serenity sucks.
Marcia crit this archer. She needed to, or else he was going to become a very big problem for herself and for Mist.
Titania gets started on the boss. See what I mean about the Counter skill being more of a problem for us? That Knight Killer did him a lot of good, though.
The Defence is important! Also that Luck. I would like to not get critted sometimes.
Oh the shame! The shame! The shame of it all!
On another note, from this point onwards, all bosses will have special dialogue prepared for the laguz. Until Chapter 18, this mostly manifests in having unique dialogue for Lethe and Mordecai as well as Ike. These early fellows, though, that's mostly just "being racist".
Oh the shame.
"We killed a person and don't know what they wanted! It's almost like killing people is a bad way to learn their secrets!"
An valid observation, although I think how reasonable it is depends on how much you think Daein wants Elincia. Perhaps setting up a castle in Gallia was a valid way to claim her in their eyes.
But this, though, is a very valid point. Setting up a military installation in a nation you do not own is a good way to start a war. Daein either doesn't care or wants one.
Soren confirms this point. Whether the Daeins want it or not, the Gallians would be plenty justified to start firing back.
This is a true, if dangerous, statement. Although we haven't been introduced to the other nations, the two most significant ones on the world stage are champing at the bit to have an excuse to join any war and take potshots at the other. This is not good.
Could they indeed. The only thing missing is a motive.
Well, doesn't that sound familiar. This sort of statement feels eerily prescient of Three Houses and discussions of Edelgard.
Soren says something pretty grand here...
And is cut off when Titania points out that of course we're siding with Crimea and the Gallians!
Soren's argument is that beorc siding with laguz is even more unthinkable than siding with the Daeins. Whether or not this is a Soren thing is up for debate, but one thing is sadly true: his way of thinking is shared amongst other beorc.
Lethe has no patience for theoreticals.
Lethe and Mordecai will fight if to fight is necessary.
Off to the Gallian capital! Still a ways to go.
---
It took one black screen! The Gallian capital is labelled "Zarzi" on the map, but is never referred to as such in in-game text. Wonder why this slipped by.
This is the first time we've bumped into Elincia since Greil died. She pays her respects, but we don't have an extended moment on the topic.
We have more important business.
The correct response to seeing this man enter the room.
Not the sort of thing you expect him to say back.
We're going to be finishing this story. Ike has indeed been in Gallia before.
Ike hasn't figured it out yet, though. You can do it, boy!
We're ushering out the unimportant characters- although Lethe and Mordecai are preparing rooms for us. Not sure why this conversation is supposed to be on the down low. Maybe Cain just prefers less people around.
Oh yeah, this guy. Remember when I said "ushering out the unimportant characters?"
If it wasn't for one development later in this game, we would never see Giffca again. I have no idea what his plot role is, he has no character, and the one time he might have been important, he is unceremoniously ignored. I'm counting Radiant Dawn in this assessment of Giffca's character.
We get Titania and Soren to stay. Soren is as confused as you. He's on his best behaviour, don't worry.
Always remember to establish your baseline.
Ike is happy to hear about his dad, at any rate.
I wonder what he did. It's an odd job.
Caineghis still has problems with beorc, for understandable reasons.
For some reason, he brings up that Ramon and Renning were good beorc. Probably to make it clear to the audience that the peace talks between Crimea and Gallia that have already come up are indeed going smoothly.
I wonder if Titania had any facial reaction to this particular line of thought, for Caineghis to suddenly blurt out that she would be added to the list of "good beorc".
Ike and Mist are Gallian-born. This doesn't seem to have mattered much for the kids' national identities- or lack thereof, really.
I wonder at what age you're supposed to start keeping memories. At the very least, no one questions Ike not remembering his time spent in Gallia, and I think we're meant to assume Ike is around six to seven when he moves: not unreasonable for him to have forgotten.
As for Ike's parents... this is not something you want to hear.
"Over ten years ago" here gives us a lot of information about Ike's age, of course. Ike is definitely 17 today, which is where the estimate of "six" comes from.
Greil did not tell Caineghis anything. I don't know exactly why not, but I have some guesses.
Caineghis was eager to get another chance to find out Greil's secret.
But he took that secret to the grave. As a reminder, Caineghis was there when the Black Knight killed Greil, and it was thanks to him that Ike was saved.
I wouldn't call his roars a 'voice', though.
A fair judgement. The emotions of that moment would have been ruined if a man that looked like you jumped out of the woods and started asking questions.
This is a question Caineghis asks about Greil's final words. Honestly, though, I'm not really sure I agree that "who is the Black Knight?" is a particularly pertinent question. This may be biased by my knowing the answer, but I remember on my first viewing of the story being particularly surprised to find out this is a question that even has an answer.
Ike tells him what is probably a very disappointing answer for both of them: That Greil's secrets were not on his tongue when he died that night.
Caineghis will be happy to grant Greil's final wish.
But Ike does not want to accept it. His story would feel incomplete to him if he were to stop now.
But Ike knows better than to charge in recklessly now.
Ike is going to keep at his job, improve, and one day, perhaps he will come to blows with the Black Knight.
Both Caineghis and Titania seem pleasantly surprised by this outcome.
Caineghis has a request for Ike to start him off.
This will be covered in more detail in Chapter 11, but this is a theme that pervades the story of Tellius and bounces around inside the head of Three Houses from time to time. Just because Ramon and Caineghis have shaken hands and established an alliance does not mean that the beorc of Crimea and the laguz of Gallia are ready to overcome their differences and intermingle.
Sideways glance at Soren.
Crimea was founded on a history of being more friendly than most beorc to the laguz, but the fact it took until Ramon for anything concrete to happen says a lot.
And just because Caineghis is King, he doesn't have free reign to do whatever he likes.
Ah, the Begnion Theocracy. The only other major beorc country. What is now Crimea used to be Begnion land before Crimea peacefully seceded, but to be honest, the unique part of that sentence is "peacefully". Daein and Gallia are also former Begnion territories, but they fought for their independence with blood.
"But wait", I hear you say, "what about the land route?". Mountains, forests, and a lot more land. The ocean route isn't exactly a straight shot, though. I'm not enough of a nautical expert to know whether that's a 'several month' trip.
Didn't the Greil Mercs regularly get requests from the Crimean throne? Also Greil being a merc for Cain?
Of course we accept.
Oh don't worry, you will be.
Oh hey, Clear Bonus. That's not on Serenes until next map, but clearly we are now entitled to BEXP just for winning the maps. I lost plenty of it on this one, though- the max is 300. I blame that massive detour to make sure Marcia survived those enemies. Honestly, though, the turncount to beat is 8, and I've never actually done 8 turns or less- I've got plenty of 9s under my belt, though.
Next time: All the stealth you could ever want out of Fire Emblem!
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