SS Chapter 9 Ephraim Setup: The Worst Human Being

Ephraim will be heading south to Grado- as previously mentioned, this kinda makes the Tower of Valni sit in the corner. So then... we're going to be playing with an entirely new squad here on Ephraim route, so it's time you got introduced.

General Ephraim, powerhouse in all the main stats. This is how Ephraim likes to turn out, although that level is one thing. He's going to ram his level cap pretty quickly.

Say hello to the Ross. When promoting from Journeyman, Ross can choose to promote into a Fighter, like his father, or a Pirate, becoming the game's only recruitable Pirate. While Garcia is a traditional Fighter, having high HP and Strength but poor Speed and Skill, Ross is fast and lucky in exchange for having a little less HP. Only a little, though. Even people who go "bases over growths" tend to prefer Ross over Garcia. Although I imagine they prefer "neither".

I picked up Artur instead of Lute because that seemed a natural comparison. Artur isn't as magical as Lute, and Light being inherently weaker than Anima isn't helping, but when the time comes to promote, Artur is a much better staffer. Plus, Artur has his own... advantages.

Joshua is an important character in the context of the worldbuilding of Magvel, although the big reveal happens on Eirika route. Regardless, he's important enough that he was a cert for the team- when designing this team, I started with the male characters with important story reasons for being on the battlefield.

Ross also picked up an A Support with Garcia. I didn't plan on Garcia being a team fixture, so Ross is going to be bereft of Supports when the main party kicks into gear, but this helped Ross punch holes in the early-game, and it's also going to keep Ross engaged for this early part of the route split while there's room for him.

Plus, Garcia's not so bad that he can't swing his axe himself from time to time.

Grado is down here, so of course this is where Ephraim heads. It's a lot more convenient than going back to Serafew in-universe.

This unpleasant clod is the chapter boss of today's mission, and has no greater role in the story of this game.

Emphasis necessary.

I believe this is talking about before he left to Jehanna.

Ephraim's picking up where they left off.

...

OK, I mentioned the whole "they wouldn't have done it for Ephraim" bit, and I admit they did kinda do it, but, uh... why is Ephraim surprised that an enemy-controlled fortress on a critical border is well defended? I feel like not even Ephraim is this dumb.

He will hear that and charge in anyway, but he's not dumb enough to not even consider it.

Just going with "Fort Rigwald" for Team Ephraim today, are we?

We start with a look in at Grado Keep...

And the entire speech, from these two lines and in between, is a repeat of what we saw on Eirika route.

On Ephraim route, Duessel pipes up to ask about which of the Six he's sending to Renais.

Vigarde's answer is nobody. Renais is to be left in the condition it is already.

Selena tells him to leave the matter there.

It sounds as if Duessel might not be of the same mind there.

Selena's going to remain in the capital, as she did on Eirika route.

We also get an extra scene, with Vigarde and Lyon heading off.

Before Duessel shoots up for one last question.

"You vex us." Lyon's opinion on the situation has been roundly ignored thus far.

Duessel, the honourable knight that he is, is looking between his principles and his orders, and is starting to find the former much more appealing than the latter.

With Renais in tatters, Grado has accomplished... roughly zilch. So that rules that avenue of "why is the Emperor doing this" out.

And I'm afraid the remaining answers aren't particularly flattering.

Vigarde tells him, bluntly, that he doesn't care.

Duessel doesn't let on that his faith has been shaken, but I'm sure it has. Duessel's probably smart enough to try and get something to stick before being absolutely sure that Vigarde cannot be reasoned with.

Vigarde repeats his orders.

Yeah, at this point, I think Duessel is mentally quitting in his mind.

...Vigarde, you already said that one.

Duessel heads off. And something's telling me he's not coming back.

Of all things, there's an ellipsis delivered by Lyon here. This moment is much more meaningful if you know Lyon's role in the story, and is one of the first clues that the game kinda expects you to have beaten Eirika route and learned said role before coming here.

This knight moves one square, drops a pegasus knight in front of him, moves onto her square, and so on and so forth all the way until he's in front of the boss.

It's the game's way of simulating holding a captured prisoner without using the Rescue mechanic.

There's something oddly gross about the fact that Eirika!Tana gets a conversation asserting her independence and joins freely, while Ephraim!Tana pushes ahead and gets captured instead. Restoration Queen, last I checked, was only concerned with the Eirika route when it came to narrative tweaks, and I wish them luck making this look better.

Not the least because this jerk immediately proves why he's famous among the fandom for all the wrong reasons. This guy is the mascot for the sorts of fantasies that I utterly refuse to touch with a ten foot pole on this blog, although Tana's blink frame is an apt sumary of my feelings on the matter.

It's Ephraim. I think he'd be about as merciless regardless of your presence.

He probably wouldn't even notice you were here until he found you.

Two sentences that go along together like chalk and cheese.

Look, he may be a pig, but you can't deny the people who adopted him for their own ends weren't coming from nowhere with it. Yeesh, he's worse than Valter.

Tana's wishing she was a sword-using pegasus right about now...

People keep saying things like this in Fire Emblem stories, and I can never help but feel like the retort is "since when have Grado and Frelia tested these defences?" Sure, the two countries don't exactly like one another, but what's the point of war in Magvel of all places, when the whole continent has a vested interest in the five superpowers continuing to exist?

Ephraim asks this, as if he has not successfully besieged a castle with three men and a traitor before.

This time, when they have "more than twice our number", our numbers are big enough that that's scary!

Ephraim, though, seems to be setting aside his jaunt through 5x and considers the question of "how to take a superior force" with much more serious responses.

...Somewhat.

Ephraim does explain his reasoning, at least.

Vigarde has declared war suddenly, and the soldiers have been rigourously fed propaganda... but that's not exactly changing minds, is it?

Ephraim's already got a Grado general in mind for someone likely to defect.

Although he has no information to help him draw this conclusion, we, the player, already know Ephraim is making a correct decision by targeting Duessel.

Seth, of course, doubts him, because apparently Seth's job is arguing against the good ideas to make the twins look better.

Ephraim also posits the suggestion that Lyon might be of help.

Lyon is similar in character to Duessel, or at least was when Ephraim knew him, so the idea that Lyon might be sympathetic to Renais is equally valid.

Ephraim considers the value of taking out the head and letting Grado surrender.

Seth tells him that he doesn't expect that plan to work out in his favour. While a fair point... please don't try and argue that Grado has completely abandoned us and we should feel OK murdering them all.

Seth at least agrees the plan is a good way to set up a solid position with minimal conflict.

Ephraim says this, and... honestly, I don't really get what he's trying to say here. I think he's trying to allude to Eirika working hard at her objective, so he should work on his?

And the party lines up. I find it interesting that the group that gets the most use in this army and no one else showed up. We get more than six spaces in the map itself. Maybe it was good screenshot timing.

The scouts have a report: Grado is screwed.

And a Grado soldier confirms Ephraim's suspicions, and resents being asked to fight.

And even starts planning his own little defection.

...Well, if it wasn't for the ogre behind him.

In case you didn't realise he was the worst of the worst of the garbage human beings already.

Duessel's resentment is already public? Yeah, I think he's definitely not welcome back in the keep.

...He can hardly be washed-up, he barely got out of the castle with his dissenting views!

Gheb insists his soldiers fall in line because he's the one in charge.

I can't wait to wipe this guy off the map.

And the wheel spins and lands on wasting human life!

Ephraim!Amelia has a bit more self-awareness about how bad a place Grado is to be, or maybe that's just because her boss is a million times worse a human being.

...This is more a general question, but why ask her name? In an army, a name won't tell you much unless the soldier in question is really famous or infamous.

Amelia, a rookie, hasn't been around long enough for any information.

She's not quite at the position of automatically joining us because she's got a sense of independence.

Gheb apparently didn't even realise he was talking to a girl.

By which I mean... I'd say Amelia could pass for a boy, between her haircut and her presumably passing-for-prepubescent-boy voice, but she's wearing a miniskirt.

Gheb thought he went a bit too long without being horrible to women.

Thank goodness for small mercies.

I'll say. If they lose you, they might hire someone (pause for dramatic effect) COMPETENT! *Insert shock and awe.*

...So if the two of you jump him at once, you might be able to get a hit in, right?

Amelia leaves the room prepared to vomit, and not even for the reasons you think.

Not that Amelia has much room to do anything about it.

We start the map over here, with everyone I really want to bring coming along. And one of the horses, I forget which he is.

Colm is on thief duty, Natasha is on healing duty, and Garcia is on Support duty. All three are appropriately armed, and I'm even training Colm on the side, but none of them are considered permanent party members.

Our map looks like this. There's one important feature not yet marked, but that'll come up later.

The door down here is locked, although there are plenty of keys to grab.

Amelia's standing here, identical to her appearance in Eirika route. She will charge us, but she won't leave under any circumstances, like she does on Eirika route.

Technically, this makes Amelia the only female character whose recruitment is earlier and easier on Ephraim route compared to Eirika route. There's a reason the All-Girls run is on Eirika route, and it's not just for the female Lord.

Gheb is a bit like Binks, except he's standing on a throne, so his pathetic Avoid score means something. Unlike Binks, though, he doesn't have a weapon that can hit at 2 range, so Artur has his number. If you let him take a swing at you, he will switch to the Killer Axe, and then you'll get an Iron Axe drop. So, you know, it's an even more terrible idea.

Well, this looks like it'll get annoying fast.

These two priests are our culprits.

Also, this guy has a Red Gem on his person but not droppable, so Colm will need to pay him a visit at some point.

So guess who forgot to stock up on Restore? To be fair, I think I forgot you could.

Calling in the cavalry! These four are going to run around, ferry anyone who falls asleep, and hopefully try to take the Sleep staff hits themselves. Low in Res, high in Move, they're the perfect lightning rods.

Oh yeah, and they finally got around to throwing Tana in a jail cell.

Ephraim route Tana mood.

Seriously, why couldn't Tana have joined Ephraim the same way she joined Eirika?

Tana is basically the same as she appeared in Eirika route, but she doesn't start with her inventory. There's some generic unit somewhere on this map that drops a Heavy Spear, but I don't think her Javelin and Vulnerary are matched. Not that the game is 1:1 on the little stuff like that. Since she joins the party "at the start of Turn 1" rather than in the base, you can't magically supply her with weapons or a Door Key, meaning you have to bring your own units around to her jail cell to properly recruit her. Annoyingly, this delay does mess with Tana's viability, but I will try to get around that. Tana's one of the few characters who I'll be using on both routes: I love her too much to bench her.

This mage over here will shoot at Tana if you try and have her sit on those two squares he can reach. I don't think the EXP is worth the risk. Also, a minor note, but every turn until you rescue Tana will probably involve the minor irritation of thinking you moved everyone and then forgetting she counts.