There are all these groups of people we'll get to at a steady pace.

I think we're meant to take this as Ike addressing everyone here. Also, he may still be in his Lord pose, but he's back to his Ranger clothes. I think I do prefer the red. (It's specifically clothes- he's back to a tiny left shoulder guard.)

The thanks belong to everyone, but the "I hope I can continue to rely on you" is probably more for the Greil Mercenaries.

Every character has something to say to Ike, some of whom have more substance than others (minor characters only have two textboxes at maximum). Path of Radiance does not include a "where are they now" epilogue as per Fire Emblem Tradition, since it's planning on Radiant Dawn existing. This is its substitute.

Incidentally, there are paired endings in this game. The character with whom Ike is at A Support will have an edited line. Soren's line is as follows:

“There’s only one place for me to be, Ike…and it’s by your side.”

This is Titania's A Support line, since that's what we got.

This is what happens if Titania is not A Supported.

Honestly... I'm not sure how fast it felt for me writing it.

Oscar A Support:

What a long road we’ve traveled! And yet, in many ways, it seemed to pass so quickly. I’m proud to have fought beside you, Ike.

So proud... if slightly concerned at how much Sonic Swording you did.

Sure, sure.

Don't overdo it, kiddo.

You're welcome. Yes, this kid is even better in Radiant Dawn.

It's only been a year, Rhys.

Why did we rehire you?

Pats head condescendingly. Obviously, this requires Shinon being recruited. I'll be showing them off anyway.

The point of this conversation is that Mia is now an official Greil Mercenary. It may be a little unclear what everyone else is as a member of our army, but while they're all going their separate ways now, Mia is sticking with Ike and will appear with the rest of the Greil Mercenaries in Radiant Dawn.

I wonder what Titania and Mist feel about having another girl around. I don't remember if either of them ever interact with her.

Volke goes off to accept his job from Bastian and go undercover. He'll turn up eventually. Probably.

"Now about my bill..."

Elincia's switched back to the orange dress too. I'm... less sure on this change.

She went and bowed.

"Why am I being bowed at? By a cute girl?"

Elincia finds this funny.

If you get an A Support, Ike has a different reaction to the bowing and scraping.

And Elincia gets exceptionally flustered.

Uh, Greil sent us. And last I checked, he's not the goddess.

You may believe it, but that doesn't make it true without proof.

It'll be long, hard work, but I trust you can do it.

Huzzah huzzah!

No, I'm not Copy+Pasting a thousand of those.

I'm sure they miss you dearly, chap.

To torture you, he first has to get through your armour.

At least you have friends in the countryside.

Calill and Largo have decided where they're going to settle down.

And also helping the people of Crimea.

I don't know if we find out the name they settle on, but it's still running in Radiant Dawn.

Next up are the Begnions.

All favourable, I hope.

I think Ike might be slightly concerned by the whole "Begnion is reasserting itself" rhetoric Soren brought up last time.

Possibly a good call. Not sure about whether we had bandit problems before Daein attacked. Sure felt like it.

If Begnion was any nastier, they might try to press this debt.

Well, the Daeins back in Daein itself.

Tanith makes sure Ike picks up some of the praise for himself.

Titania and Elincia.

Sanaki and Sephiran, too, I guess.

Ike won't be leaving Crimea for a good long while yet.

If Tanith dies, this is the speech that is replaced by a similiar speech by Zelgius himself:

Zelgius: It was a glorious victory, General.

Ike: General Zelgius! What are you doing here?

Zelgius: Looking at it now, and it all may seem a bit impertinent, but… I came with reinforcements in case things took a turn for the worst. Your opponent was the Mad King Ashnard after all, and if worse had come to worst… well, you might have needed the help. Duke Perseus ordered us to join in the fight and rescue Princess Elincia at the very least.

Ike: Oh, I see.

Zelgius: My apologies.

Ike: No, no… I appreciate the concern. It was a dangerous day.

Zelgius: Your Crimean army proved up to the task. Let me offer you my congratulations. You did well to win the day. I’m certain the troops we lent you, and the apostle herself, are quite pleased.

Ike: Our success was thanks to the Begnion shield protecting our flank. Not the soldiers you lent us, but your reinforcements capturing and holding the retreating Daein soldiers. Because of that, we were able to concentrate on the enemies before us without concern for our rear guard.

Zelgius: I was merely following the orders of my superiors.

Ike: In that case, please express my appreciation to the apostle and Sephiran. One day, I will go and thank them in person.

Zelgius: Understood. Now then, I will return to Daein.

Ike: What about the troops you’ve lent us?

Zelgius: Though the war may be over, it will take many weeks to see the country secure. I spoke with the princess earlier, and she asked that we help if possible. So I’ll leave them in your care a while longer.

Ike: I see. It’s very appreciated.

Zelgius: It’s our pleasure. By your leave.

I think I prefer Tanith's, yeah, but there's a few nuggets in here worth looking at. Honestly, I think the more interesting part of this alternate scene is seeing Zelgius again.

Also, I'm not sure if "Duke Perseus" is a script error or a Serenes error. Obviously he's talking about Persis.

No she doesn't. Shame, too. I want to see her succeed Sigrun.

Please stay in Begnion. I know you won't, but please do.

Yeah, all three of them aren't staying in Begnion for two different plot reasons. This is in the Japanese version, too, so I suspect this may be something the developers decided upon later.

Devdan escapes the issue of which country he is going to turn up in later by not saying anything on the topic at all. I wonder why he does wind up where he is, though.

Hey, remember these guys? Remember how they exist? No, I will not let that go.

You did good, kiddo. You're always one of my favourites.

This is an important fact about war. The things you do during it (other than killing the other people) are going to stick around after everything calms down, and often it involves forging new alliances or making emergency strides in scientific or social studies. War has value, and depending on what your peace looks like, sometimes it can be the best value.

Look after yourself, all right, Muarim?

Stefan is probably very interested in Ike for certain reasons.

Ranulf has some business with the King to deal with first.

[Master Ike! Thank you for everything.]

Now he's a "Master"? Nobility really is a "if people call you it, it counts."

Tibarn and Caineghis have agreed that Gallia is probably healthier for all three herons than Phoenicis.

...So yeah, what about Serenes? Didn't we restore that?

That's honestly just asking for some asshole like Gashilama to pick off the last of them.

One day, though...

I wonder for what reasons this is the case. It is the place he was born, but it was also the place both of his parents died. There's also one other reason Ike might be fond of Gallia because of his childhood...

Caineghis doesn't care about the trivialities about Ike's visits.

A Support with Ranulf:

“Oh, and another thing. You’ll be seeing me again soon. Gallia’s decided not to spare any effort in aiding Crimea’s reconstruction. I’ll be back shortly with a whole army of workers and laborers. Look for us!”

Either way, Crimea gets the assistance from Gallia to get all the structure fixed.

Mist just wants to quickly get one last moment of closure.

[Yes. It's all right, isn't it, brother?]

Thank you, Greil and Elena.

Reyson offers his thanks to all four members of the family for looking after the medallion where the herons couldn't in the wake of the Serenes Massacre.

[Thank you, our kind-hearted beorc friends.]

A Support with Reyson:

Mist: You… You’re welcome!

Reyson: So, Ike, when you come to Gallia, you must visit us as well. Understand?

Ike: Yes, I’ll be there. Take care.

Mordecai means that quite literally.

You'll do what you do best, big guy.

A Support with Lethe:

I don’t know when, but… If that thing we talked about happened… that would be fine. I guess. Not that I care. So… good-bye.

Such tsundere.

Well, this is empty without Janaff and Ulki.

"We've built quite a close bond, haven't we?" he just says.

Ike is a hero to the laguz as well as the Crimeans. His name will go down with Ramon's- if not even bigger.

"Well, we might have to airlift you..."

Ike is here for the food.

Some nice Phoenician cuisine options. I'm no culinary expert.

Ike has one setting: "More."

Naesala insists that Ike not extend the same assumption to Kilvas.

Ike is happy he helped out in the end.

Naesala is touchy about it. I wonder how clear the vision on the Naesala writing was.

I wonder if Ike ever did take him up on that.

Why don't Janaff and Ulki show up if you didn't recruit them?

Janaff is Janaff, of course.

The Daein discussion is led by... Jill? Well, from a narrative level, she is the most prominent Daein character in Path of Radiance. So who will be taking over in Daein after this?

Haar nods off.

Sothe got one of the hugest promotions to narrative importance in Radiant Dawn, even if he doesn't really do much to earn the position. But that's a story for later on.

Tauroneo, too, will have quite the role to play in Radiant Dawn, but as what might potentially be the last surviving member of the Four Riders before Ashnard, it's obvious why one might choose him.

Of all the characters going to Daein, Ilyana is the strangest. I wonder why the merchant convoy is going to Daein and what they plan to do once they get there.

Zihark is Daein-born, so this makes a bit more sense.

Also, Path of Radiance has a large breadth of unused Supports, with no text surviving except one. Ike and Zihark had a Support conversation at one point, and Zihark's altered ending quote survived:

Crimea’s an interesting place, but I’ve decided to travel to Daein. …We never did have our match, did we? Of course, I’m no longer in the same class as you… I’ll be training hard for the next time we meet!

Keep up your training, Zihark.

And now, one last scene...

The Goldoans.

Now that Ena has closure on Rajaion, she is prepared to move on.

Rajaion having been "saved" makes it more likely that he survived, but no, he's dead. It appears this confusing choice of words persists in the Japanese version.

There are... reasons, for this. But still, this is kinda overkill on that point.

...Huh. Odd that they cited this as his reason for leaving Goldoa. Radiant Dawn has a different reason. I think this one is only in the "Nasir dies" version.

Also possibly tried to bite her.

Thanks to Nasir, Ena could get even closer to Rajaion. Without knowing how to cure a Feral, it must have been hard.

"Possibly ready to appear in RD without comment on how he survived this game."

For the whole "Worm" thing.

Sure, you never thought of him that way.

That's one way of putting it.

"Just drop in and say hi to the prince while you're there."

<<

I think this is what replaces Rajaion's explanation for leaving Goldoa. Rajaion's actual reason for leaving Goldoa is a pretty good candidate for a Goldoan state secret.

Almost. The gaudy gold jewellry helped with that part.

So Ena's parents are dead? Wonder what killed them. Probably disease. I also wonder what Nasir was up to at this point.

This is a better expression of Ike's forgiveness than the Ena version.

They still phrase it that way.

This is a good question of how long Nasir left and for what reason. The reason he intends to go back, though, that gets expanded upon later. Plus, he's still sold his ship.

I couldn't guarantee Nasir is going to have contact with Kurth any more than Ena does.

And Ike gets to say this to Nasir's face.

Which comes to Nasir's surprise.

That Ike would have his optimism tested, that he would no longer see things in his childlike "why can't you just... stop fighting?" kind of way.

That hasn't happened.

Ike is just bad at not being himself.

And Nasir insists he keep it up. He's always been rooting for that outcome.

"Everyone playable from PoR has to come back for the sequel, right?"

---

Huh, the Crimean soldiers are still green.

From this point onwards, the epilogue proceeds at a fixed speed. I cannot speed it up or slow it down. And it turns out that it's going at a really slow pace. Counting the end credits, it's roughly 20 minutes from now until the "high score screen".

Now what Ashnard was planning with this is another matter. I suspect it was just power-drunk Daeins and Ashnard made no attempt to discipline them. Which, if his army is mostly commoners rising up, makes you ask why- although perhaps Ashnard's toxic ideology convinced them that the peasants who weren't training to fight back deserved it.

This is a general proverb in the real word, but I'm not sure if any particular country has claimed it.

Crimea will return, str... actually, no, but still.

One thing this war and devastation has been good for is getting the Gallians to come to the Crimeans aid.

And here we see this being done practically. That one Gallian with the backpack in the bottom middle left of the image is very amusingly drawn, though.

This bond of friendship is more powerful than anything Ramon could've done much faster.

But Ramon would be proud of it all the same.

Still a bit off from that, but much closer than Begnion is.

Time to coronate the Queen!

I dunno why, that feels like a different statue. Maybe it's just the lighting.

And war was less busy?

"At least it's not me carrying around the blocks."

Twice is a generous estimate.

Yeah, has she been getting eight hours of sleep and three meals a day?

Ike doesn't figure she's getting that much.

Well that's one way to connect point A to point B.

So the Gawain family still has one of the keys to the dark god to pass on.

Not that we have the foggiest who Altina is.

So how does one search for Altina?

...That's helpful.

Hi, Sephiran. Genuine question: have we ever seen you without your cloak from Chapter 10-11?

Sephiran is not bound by normal methods of travel.

So he knows Altina, then?

...Well, she'll be somewhat difficult to track down, then. I reckon even her burial site is lost to time.

So what are we supposed to do with the song?

At least someone we can pass it along to.

The founder of Begnion is the direct ancestor of its current Empress. That's both surprising and not surprising at the same time. Absolutely no coup has destroyed the family line yet?

Sanaki's surname appears to not be common knowledge. You'd think they'd brag about that whole "our Apostle is descended from a legendary hero blessed by the goddess" thing.

Well, at least we know who it is.

Mist is happy to finish the conversation here.

Which makes Sephiran second-guess himself. You're a rather suspicious fellow.

Mist is just stressed for normal reasons. Ike suggests it has to do with the Begnion/Serenes conflict.

Sephiran asks for "what Ike has to say".

Ike accuses Ashnard of the attempted revival of the dark god (correct), the Serenes Massacre (reasonable, but false), and... the assassination of the apostle in the first place.

Pats head.

Sephiran is confused.

Sephiran is stealthily insulting Ike for his bad conclusion.

How about "what kind of theory is that?"

You're going to be so disappointed.

Sephiran has quietly changed the topic.

Ike has done a lot more than "just fulfill the wishes of his parents". He's a hero to every nation! ~~Except Daein.~~

It's praiseworthy to have gotten this far, no matter what you did to get there.

Ike wants his companions to receive the praise too.

And Sephiran's happy with the humility- not for any reason, though.

Sephiran asks for the galdr of release, to pass to Sanaki.

Well, it certainly won't be Ike in the near future!

Or the not-so-near-future.

Ike could become King if he wanted, right here. Not even if he wanted: he could just stay in the palace long enough and Ike/Elincia shipping would do its magic.

Since when has Ike had that as a goal?

Ike has decided he's not going to take the title he's got, let alone further any nonexistent ambitions of greater titles.

Sephiran is tickled.

Breathe. Breathe.

...He's still going?

Says Ike.

Ooh, duty calls.

...Greet the people?

And they want Ike.

Titania seems about as interested in being here as Ike is.

Ike hates being in this position.

But he is not able to bend the will of the people on this matter.

Ike goes to ask if he can skive.

History has been made with this war after all. Ike has done a great deal.

Not all of it good.

There will be factions taking the chance to cause some mischief of their own in Ike's wake, because of something that he's done. No matter how tangential.

Sephiran's entire soliloquy is basically the game planting its flag in the sand and saying "we are making Radiant Dawn", and no line is that more true than this one.

The Mad King's War will be but a footnote in the wake of what's waiting for Ike.

(Also, it seems the localisation added that last line as a generic "good luck" quote, although many have noticed that, from Sephiran, it has some... other connotations.)

It is time for the game's final cutscene. In contrast to the rest of the game's cutscenes, there is actual plot in this one that I have to narrate. Radiant Dawn ramps this up, so time to get in some practice...

Ike: What's wrong? Everyone's waiting to see you.

Ike forgetting he came in here asking for a bye.

Elincia: I'm nervous. I spent my whole life in hiding.

Elincia: No one ever taught me how to rule a kingdom. I don’t think I’m ready to be their queen. I don’t think I’m ever really going to be ready.

We're in the game's final cutscene and we've finally decided to check Elincia's qualifications. If the expectation was Renning was going to be King, I can see why they skimped on teaching Elincia the duties, but that has created a huge problem.

Ike: What’s the matter with you?

Elincia: Ike, stop it! How can I–

Ike: Did anyone teach you how to hire mercenaries?

Elincia: No, but that’s not the same–

Ike: How to win back lost allies? How to win back your lost kingdom?

Elincia: But that’s… That’s different.

Ike, of course, is of the mind that what Elincia has done has prepared her to take the throne.

Ike: No, it’s not. You’ve done such an amazing job.

...No offence, remind me what she has done?

Ike: And I think you always will.

Elincia: I see.

I'm not really sure I like "I see." in this thought. From the JP script, it looks like it started life as a "can you keep doing it?" "Yes" exchange.

Ike: All right, come on. We’ll do this together.

~~Until you ditch the nobility, of course.~~

Elincia: Thank you, my lord Ike. I am… I am so blessed to have met you.

This is a nice romance-adjacent moment, but since it's Elincia's body language in a cutscene, this was definitely language-indifferent.

Narrator: And so it was that, in the spring of the year 646, Elincia Ridell Crimea saw peace return to her homeland. In the years to follow, the story of Queen Elincia and her noble hero, Ike, spread across the land and inspired the songs of many a wandering troubadour.

Notice the lack of mention about the golden age of peace that Elincia's about to create.