Characters / Fire Emblem - Antagonist Archetypes

Alongside heroes, antagonists in the Fire Emblem series tend to follow certain archetypes in both story and gameplay.

To see the central character index for the entire Fire Emblem series, go here.

Bandit Bosses

Bit Part Bad Guys typically unrelated to the evil empire, or ancient evil dragons.

• The Gazzak: A Starter Villain and often the very first boss. Likes to prey on the weak. Usually a bandit or a pirate.
• Bandit Twins: An eccentric duo that may be defending their turf from intruders or protecting stolen loot.

The Gazzak

When a Lord starts their journey, they will usually be given a weak group to face in order to ease up their journey before fighting imperial soldiers, evil cult members, or even dragons. The group called for this job are usually bandits (or sometimes, pirates). These bandits usually have leaders in the form of Gazzak. Gazzak characters usually don't have very deep characterization, as they exist to be disposed of early and then forgotten about. But they serve as the first step for the Lord characters to begin their journey. For this, they're always equipped with an axe, which is always on the losing end of the Lord's preferred weapon, the sword. They may occupy a throne to make up for their disadvantage of the weapon triangle. But overall, they serve as the Tutorial boss of each games, teaching the ropes to the players.

While this archetype is obviously unrecruitable, Fire Emblem Fates Conquest features a bald bandit leader with the same name (Gazak) that can be recruited by capturing and persuading him.

Characters of this archetype: Gazzak (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Gerrard (Genealogy of the Holy War); Damas (The Binding Blade); Batta and Groznyi (The Blazing Blade)^note Batta fills the role in Lyn's Tale and Groznyi fills it in Eliwood's Tale, while Hector's Tale has no counterpart to Batta and Groznyi, and the first boss of Hector's Tale, Wire is not a bandit of any sort, but rather a trained assassin from the primary antagonist organization of the game; Bazba (The Sacred Stones); Zawana (Path of Radiance); Pugo (Radiant Dawn); Garrick (Awakening); Brigand Boss (Shadows of Valentia)^note he didn't have a name or dialogue in the original Gaiden, but he gets the latter in the remake; Kostas (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Garrick again (Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE)

Character that only has elements of this archetype: Bucks^note He is the first Bandit boss in the game, being the first promoted enemy in the game, as well as the only Bandit boss before Gomes, but he's actually serving under Lifis and Gomes (Fire Emblem: Thracia 776)^note Shows up too late to be considered a Starter Villain, and is more sympathetic and difficult than is standard for this trope., Teronda^note While visually and role-wise similar to Gazzak, he is not the Starter Villain; Alear and their team have fought several Corrupted soldiers and even those under the Four Hounds before him.(Engage)

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• Beauty Equals Goodness: None of the Gazzaks are pretty, and they're all one-dimensional evil bandits.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Gazzaks are ruthless bandits who wield axes.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: While he's only partial due to his latter appearance, Teronda deconstructs the whole archetype, showing what happens if they do not become the first stage boss like a traditional Gazzak: The stage he's fought at is a ruined village which has been thoroughly pillaged by Teronda (and many characters lament on how this village has been razed to the ground without hope of salvation) chiefly featuring darkness/fog of war and he claims that he has done the same to many other villages before this one. While most stages featuring a Gazzak feature at least functional villages for the respective Lords to save, Alear's army is given no such opportunity because they're all tied up with the Corrupted in the meantime, giving Teronda's group a short, free reign to pillage to his heart's content.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Despite the archetype being filled with land-lubbing bandits, the original Gazzak and his men are actually classified in both story and gameplay as Pirates. To make the story not too dependant on the body of water, latter games simplify that as long as they do Rape, Pillage, and Burn to poor villages, land-lubbing bandits will suffice.
• Flat Character: They don't need any other characterization aside from "Grr, evil bandits!". Tropes Are Not Bad, however, since you don't really need deep characterization on someone meant to be killed and forgotten in the very first act.
• The Goomba: Overall, they're this for the whole franchise. You'll always face normally-easy-to-beat bandits led by these guys in the beginning of the game. And occasionally, bandits like these guys pop up again (with or without a Gazzak figure to lead them), but they tend to be easy pickings for your heroes compared to other more advanced enemies and you only have to worry about how quick you can stop them from pillaging villages.
• Lone Wolf Boss: With the exceptions of Gerrard and Kostas, they aren't connected to the game's main villains. They're just ordinary lowlifes out for coin.
• Obviously Evil: Though low on the villainy chain, you can definitely tell from looks alone that they're not dashing swashbuckling rogues, but evil ravaging bandits.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Their standard modus operandi. They send out their men to destroy villages (if there's one in the map), thereby teaching the players to be quick to secure villages and get items. Due to the family-friendly image of Nintendo, however, the 'Rape' part is just left to the player's imagination; the 'Pillage' and 'Burn' parts are the ones that can be on-screen.
• Starter Villain: Usually the first enemy boss you encounter in the series.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: On higher difficulties, chances are that these guys will be the first taste of real difficulty, especially on that game's equivalent of Lunatic and Lunatic +.
• Warm-Up Boss: They exist to familiarize the players with the usual game mechanics, especially if the game gets Nintendo Hard somewhere. If you can't beat them, you may want to lower the difficulty...

The Bandit Twins

The Bandit Twins are recurring minor antagonists. The bandits have always had the same hairstyle; one has purple hair and one has dark hair. They usually appear in desert levels. They're much more territorial than a Gazzak: Rather than exploring and finding new places to loot, they're more content to wander around and looting within their own area. But make no mistake, despite their quirkier appearances and personalities, they're just as ruthless as the Gazzaks, looting and razing towns as best as they can when able.

Traditionally an NPC archetype, though they can be "recruited" in Fire Emblem Fates by using the Capture command.

Characters of this Archetype: Maggie and Rose (The Binding Blade); Paul and Jasmine (The Blazing Blade); Pain and Agony (Radiant Dawn); Vincent and Victor (Awakening); Lloyd and Llewelyn^* The first two members to be recruitable if captured by Orochi or Niles during Kana's recruitment Paralogue (Fates); Totchie and Tetchie (Engage)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Dolph and Macellan ^note Superficially resemble this archetype with their thuggish appearance and identical resemblance to one another, but they are playable Knights.(Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and New Mystery of the Emblem), Pallardó and his Body Double ^note Although the two have identical appearances, they're never fought at the same time. (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes)

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• Aerith and Bob: Their Japanese names tend to have this going on. Examples of the Awakening ones: Handsome (Vincent) and George (Victor).
• Affably Evil: Most of the time, the twins are oddly polite for bandits.
• Bald of Evil: Most of them are bandits and have a shaved head.
• The Berserker: Berserker is their most preferred class.
• Butter Face: All of them have muscular builds, but somewhat homely faces.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: As typical for roving bandits, they wield axes.
• Creepy Twins: In some games, they're specified as related.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Although not very strong compared to other villains, their quirky appearances may make the players think that they could be mere Joke Characters. However, they appear mid-game so they often come with better classes than Gazzaks, and if there's a nearby village, they will waste no time to loot the village and razing it to the ground, showing that no matter how you look at it, the commonfolks fear them for a reason.
• Desert Bandits: They're usually criminals that operate in the desert.
• Dual Boss: They're almost always fought together. In The Blazing Blade, they have a support bonus that gives one a higher critical rate, meaning it is important to defeat them before they get close enough to use it.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Dolph and Macellan in Archanea have some elements of the archetype; they are two thuggish-looking bald musclemen who are Inexplicably Identical Individuals that are always seen together, but they are playable Knights.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Sort of. Though they typically look completely identical aside from how they're Palette Swaps of each other, they also tend to have different fighting styles, usually expressed through minor stat variations and weapon choice- typically with one being stronger, and the other being more skilled or faster.
• Gag Lips: Downplayed, but they're drawn with lips, while most characters aren't.
• Gonk: All of them tend to be much uglier than other characters to differentiate them from the rest of the cast.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Most of them aren't related, despite looking like twins.
• No Brows: They have no eyebrows, contributing to an intimidating appearance.
• Palette Swap: In The Binding Blade, the two are direct palette swaps of each other, and a few other bosses like Scott also use their portrait. In the Japanese version of Fates, the bosses in Anna's DLC are not in fact them, but meat-themed bandits reusing their portraits. In the US version, the meat bandits were altered, and made to be Lloyd and Llewelyn.
• Promoted to Playable: In Fates, the Bandit twins can be captured and recruited into the player's army.
• Theme Twin Naming: Aside from Paul and Jasmine, all of the twins have a theme with their names.
• Villainous Friendship: They're almost never seen without each other, and tend to be quite fond of each other. In The Blazing Blade, they even have an A-Support between them.

Noble Enforcers

Just battle commanders who happen to be playing for the wrong team. Beauty Equals Goodness is usually in effect, so you may even be led to think you could recruit them. Due to their strong values, knightly code, or for the sake of their loved ones, they remain loyal to the villains until the end.

• The Camus: A typically male physical unit that fights out of loyalty to their nation or their master.
• The Ishtar: A typically female magical unit that fights out of love for their nation or their people.
• The One-Shot General: A lower-ranking general that is beloved by their subordinates. They last just as long as Gazzaks despite their later introduction and sympathy level.
• The Murdock: A high-ranking male commander of a very physical class that is frantically loyal to their superior or organization. Whilst honorable, unlike Camus, a Murdock remains hostile towards the protagonists and never considers changing sides.

The Camus

Camus

The Camus is an Anti-Villain from the opposing army that acts as one of the Big Bad's generals. They hold no ill will towards the player's army and usually know that what their leader is doing is wrong, but they continue to fight anyway out of loyalty to their nation or lord. Unlike other enemy commanders, the Camus cares about the well-being of their subordinates, to the point where they even allow any soldier who does not want to fight to leave the battlefield. They also tend to be very powerful bosses on their own, either through their sheer stats or the fact that they possess a very powerful weapon (or both); if the weapon is obtainable, it probably won't be with their original user.

Characters of this archetype tend to not be recruitable.

Characters of this archetype: Camus (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Wolf^note only in the original SNES Book 2; he becomes a Lorenz in the DS remake (Mystery of the Emblem); Eldigan and Arion (Genealogy of the Holy War); Reinhardt (Thracia 776); Galle (The Binding Blade); Lloyd and Linus (The Blazing Blade); Glen (The Sacred Stones); Bryce (Path of Radiance); Zelgius and Levail (Radiant Dawn); Yen'fay (Awakening); Xander ^note He only qualifies in Birthrightas he joins your party in the other two routes. (Fates); Cyril^note Only on the Crimson Flower route and Dimitri^note Only on the Crimson Flower route, as he protects Seiros despite her increasing insanity. (Three Houses); Alternate Diamant (Engage); Xander (again) (Heroes)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Helbindi ^note Book II; He's a sympathetic enemy general, but ends up turning on Surtr in the final chapter, thus disqualifying him. (Heroes)

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• Ancestral Weapon: Some, like Eldigan and Xander, wield weapons exclusive to them or their bloodline. Others, like Camus and Bryce, wield incredibly powerful weapons the player can get only with their death.
• Anti-Villain: Their defining trope, they are the poster children of this in the whole franchise: They are the kind of people who would make great friends and allies if it wasn't for them being on the other side of the war, and their honor prevents them from defecting.
• Cain and Abel: Many of them (though certainly not all) have a sibling or some other very close relationship among the heroic forces, adding to the tragedy of being forced to fight them. Ironically, even though the Camus is a villain, they actually are the Abel of the duo, since their sibling will be the one who has turned traitor against the villainous forces, and they are the ones who have to die like Abel did.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Eldigan in Genealogy of the Holy War serves as the first one to apply this to it. Eldigan is eternally loyal to his country despite the rulers of it being terrible people. His loyalty to Agustria leads him to turn his sword on his best friend Sigurd and refusing to commit mutiny against the aforementioned terrible rulers despite his countrymen actually being fine if he became the next king, which leads to his death. However, if instead his sister Lachesis runs into him, she convinces him to stop, leading Eldigan to return to his lord Chagall to convince him to stop the fighting. Chagall proceeds to have him beheaded. In the end, his loyalty to his country and lord, despite it being clear how wrong it is, leads to his death regardless.
  • Reinhardt from Thracia 776. Although Reinhardt is a sympathetic and noble person and is morally against the Child Hunts, he stays loyal out of both his knightly vows and love for his boss Ishtar. When his sister Olwen finds out he won't do what's right in spite of knowing the truth, she calls him out as a coward, and turns against him. This leads to Reinhardt's potential death when he stubbornly refuses to yield to Leif's army. Ultimately, as sympathetic as he is, Reinhardt is too afraid of going against his home and the one he loves, and so he willingly throws aside his own views out of fear.
  • Corrin in Fates: Conquest serves as one despite being a playable character (and the Lord and Avatar on top of that). They show just how hard it is to be unable to leave the service of the Big Bad because of your own personal commitments (whether to your loved ones or your country).
  • Dimitri and Faerghus as a whole embody the mentality of the Camus, Honor Before Reason, and Dimitri fights to defend his country against an invading Adrestian empire but is still loyal to an increasingly ruthless and violent Rhea.
• Foil: To the playable Lorenz archetype. Both are renowned enemy generals who don't completely support the villains' goals, but while the Lorenz's virtuousness ultimately wins out and allows him to join your party, the Camus is too caught up in Honor Before Reason to do the same. Ironically, the archetype-naming Camus himself has served as both opposing archetypes: his own in Shadow Dragon, and a Lorenz as Zeke in Gaiden.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: If a character of this archetype is on the verge of a Heel Realization, as seen in Eldigan^note if Lachesis speaks with him, Glen, and the Reed brothers, they're bound to be killed off by one of the more unscrupulous villains before they can complete it.
• Honor Before Reason: Many of them choose death over disobeying their masters. This can be a main difference between them and the Ishtar archetype: While sometimes an Ishtar would use their love for someone amongst the bad guys (be it family or lover) as a reason to fight the good guys, a Camus is always about a knight's honor and loyalty to country (and its innocent people), not a romance partner. While the original Camus had a love affair with Princess Nyna, she was not the Princess of his country, Grust, which he dedicated his battles for, and solemnly accepted that their forbidden love was not meant to be. The only one who kind of deviates from this is Reinhardt, whose affection for Ishtar became one of his reasons to not leave Friege, in addition to his knight's honor.
• It's Personal: There are some cases where a Camus character may be on their way to defect because of their piling-up doubts, but then something happened: You wrecked their side so much that some of their really close friends suffer or die. At that point, a Camus will outright reject any notions of joining the good guys because things just escalated on a personal level. Just look at what happened to Lloyd & Linus and Birthright!Xander. Ironically, it was Ishtar who codified this before she ended up branching to her own archetype.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Usually, they disagree with many of the actions done by their ruler/country, but ultimately obey nevertheless. The sole exception is Glen, who might have turned face if he had the chance; too bad Valter murdered him first.
• Noble Top Enforcer: They're usually one of the most powerful forces on the enemies' side, but have a strong sense of honor.
• Redemption Rejection: Any attempt to convince them to defect to the heroes falls on deaf ears, and they must be killed (or occasionally circumvented). The sole exceptions are Arion, who actually can be convinced to stand down by Altena, and Lloyd/Linus (whoever you fight first) and Glen, who are murdered before they get the chance.
• Sole Survivor: Ironically, Camus is the only one of his archetype who definitely canonically lives after the events of the game he's introduced in. Xander is also this by definition of being playable in Conquest and Revelations, though he isn't a Camus in either of those routes.
• Unbuilt Trope: The original Camus actually sees the error of his ways in Mystery of the Emblem (he has amnesia in Gaiden) and chooses to fight for good out of guilt for his actions.
• Undying Loyalty: All of them towards their country/nation, which ironically gets at least some of them canonically killed.
• Worthy Opponent: They often come to see the Lords as such, sometimes bordering on rivalry levels.

The Ishtar

Often called the female Camus, the Ishtar serves a similar role to the Camus, being an Anti-Villain who fights for the sake of their country and is usually not a Hate Sink. The main difference between this and the Camus, however, is that the Ishtar is the female character equivalent. Typically, the Ishtar knows that their country is wrong, but are loyal to a loved one, usually a betrothed or lover, and fight to protect them from the heroes. When they are not fighting to protect a loved one, they instead fight for the sake of protecting their home country. If they do fight the heroes, they typically use magic to be a Foil to their usually physically-oriented lover, or to differentiate them from other Camus characters in the game. In most situations, they decide to leave the battlefield entirely, usually because of Conflicting Loyalty, and typically end up appearing in the end in some manner. If they appear frequently in the story, they are typically at odds with the Dark Lady. In some rare instances, they are not even fought by the heroes, and instead simply try to stop the heroes, or even those close to them, from fighting.

Characters of this archetype tend to not be recruitable, though in some cases, they are actually playable units who, due to story events, are now enemies with the player.

Characters of this archetype: Ishtar (Genealogy of the Holy War); Altena (Thracia 776); Brunnya (The Binding Blade); Selena (The Sacred Stones); Ena^note She is playable, but only under the right conditions. and Jill^note While she is gained naturally in the story, she can defect to the enemy side if the player doesn't have a high enough support with Mist and directs her to fight her father — and if this happens, you really only have yourself to blame. (Path of Radiance); Micaiah^note Like with Ena, she is a playable unit, but for a time is in opposition to Ike in Chapter 3. (Radiant Dawn); Flora, Hinoka^note only in Conquest, as she is trying to stop you from invading her home and Camilla^note Only in Birthright and with the same reasons as Hinoka, with the added bonus of getting so overly attached to her sibling that she resorted to more brutal methods at times (Fates); Rinea^note Fits a lot of the elements of one, but isn't fought until she is brought back as a Witch against her will. (Shadows of Valentia); Catherine and Hilda ^note Only on the Crimson Flower route, where Catherine refuses to abandon Rhea despite her growing insanity and Hilda is devoted to protect Claude and the Alliance (Three Houses); Marni, Alternate Hortensia (Engage); Laegjarn, Triandra, and Plumeria (Heroes)

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• Anti-Villain: Like the Camus, they are all sympathetic in why they fight the heroes. Almost all of them are loyal to their home and simply wish to protect it. In some cases, they do so to protect loved ones.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: All of them are attractive, beautiful ladies. Naturally, you can tell they aren't anywhere near as evil as some of the others.
• Combat Medic: In some cases, the Ishtar is a magic class with the ability to heal others, usually meant to symbolize their kindness, while most Camus-types are physical bruisers. A notable exception is Catherine, who's effectively a female Camus.
• Conflicting Loyalty: A common trait among them is a growing concern over what they should do. For most, they stop fighting once it reaches a point where they cannot overcome it. In some cases, they instead choose to die fighting for their home.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Micaiah starts off being your typical Ishtar, fighting for the people and her country despite having misgivings about the reasons for the conflict. As the war goes on, however, she gradually begins to crack under the pressure of knowing that she is fighting against what she believes in, and yet also being too loyal to stop fighting, resorting in her becoming more desperate and willing to betray her own beliefs in the hopes that she can end the war in Daein's victory. The result is that she nearly kills several thousand soldiers in a trap, leading to her being called out by Tibarn when he puts Sothe in danger. The result makes Micaiah break down and call off her trap, as she realizes she has become no better than the enemy they originally fought for liberation, and that she cannot ignore her own feelings as she once did. She resolves herself to stop fighting afterward, but outside factors force the conflict to continue anyway.
  • Marni shows just what happens if an Ishtar tries to break the mold and not being Lawful Stupid, even for the sake of her loved one: Attempting to break the helmet that keeps Evil Veyle in control causes Zephia to finally punish her with death. There's another element deconstructed: Just because one fights for a family/group she liked (in this case the Four Hounds) doesn't always mean that said family/group will always reciprocate. If said family/group is particularly heartless, they will be the one killing the rebelling Ishtar, not the player's army.
• Distaff Counterpart: Pretty much a female version of Camus with the same nobleness and loyalty.
• Females Are More Innocent: Female and more innocent than the other enemies, definitely moreso than any of the Dark Ladies (yes, surpassing even Eremiyas).
• Foil:
  • To the Witch. The Witch usually is a cruel, evil, and sadistic woman who fights for malevolent reasons, while the Ishtar is a kind, good, and honest woman who fights for what they believe in. This usually is reflected in their designs, as the Witch will usually have darker clothing, hair, and, design-wise, an overtly sexual appearance, while the Ishtar will usually have lighter hair, clothing, and a modest but still beautiful appearance. This also makes the Ishtar foiling the other kind of Dark Lady: The Eremiya. While the Eremiya was evil not by her choice, the Ishtar chose to stay antagonistic on her own will, sympathetic as they may be.
  • Also to the heroic Minerva half of the Wyvern Duo archetype; while they are both loyal enough to fight for their countries to the end, Minervas will always come around in the end while Ishtars generally don't.
• Love Redeems: Subverted in most cases. If they are loyal out of love, even if it's familial instead of romantic, most of them attempt to convince the one they love to back out of fighting. Sadly, it almost never works, largely because the one they love is also extremely loyal, or goes insane.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: If they aren't loyal out of love for another, they typically are just very steadfast in their loyalty to their home. Unlike the Camus, they are almost all aware of how wrong the things they, or their country, are doing, but remain silent since they feel it is the right thing to do. This is why Micaiah, Hinoka and Catherine fall into the archetype, as while they are playable characters, the direction of the story makes them an antagonist to the faction currently being played.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: If you want to know which female antagonist is more sympathetic, look at the one who dresses more conservatively. That would be the Ishtar, not the Witch. There were only some subversions on this:
  • Camilla dressed very sensually like a Witch and was very aggressive in her offense, but aside of her rather creepy yet genuine sisterly love, she was also defending her home, conflicted with her family issues and has desires to be a doting mother and inspiring her subordinates through leadership, traits that are antithesis to the more evil Witch.
  • Both Triandra and Plumeria dressed like Witches and at least for Plumeria, acted very sultry, but both had motives more similar to an Ishtar, driven to resurrect Freyja who they looked up to very highly.
• The Stoic: A good amount of them are fairly stoic, largely because they hold their true feelings back and follow orders. When they do show emotions, it usually is meant to be a sign that they've reached a breaking point.
• Token Good Teammate: Due to their emotional struggles and occasional kindness (to the point they don't actively fight at times, like Ena and Rinea), they tend to hold this place amongst the bad guys.
• Undying Loyalty: They are all fiercely loyal to their country or lord. Like the Camus, they tend to obey even orders they know are wrong.

The One-Shot General

An archetype which combines the qualities of a Camus and the screen time of a Gazzak. They're all one-shot antagonists meant to be forgotten once beaten, but at times, they possess enough decency that they don't come off Obviously Evil, but more like an Anti-Villain or a personable Punch-Clock Villain who fought against the player, once again blurring the lines between good and evil within the story. Most of the time, the reason is that their nastier commanders threaten any form of disobedience with harsh punishment (usually death), giving the OSG no choice but to obey if only to protect their subordinates. Unlike Camus characters, they don't appear in other cutscenes, only appearing in the battle they're in. Yet, they're personable and honorable enough to make you wish that they could have more screentime or prominence. Sometimes, they do get the latter... posthumously.

Aside from their level of sympathy and screen time, another way to differentiate them from a Camus is that they tend to not have a powerful weapon. Their position tends to be not as high as a Camus, so it is more reflected in how their weapon tends to be nothing special, a trait shared with other common bosses. Sure, it makes them easier to fight, but it doesn't diminish the level of sympathy or tragedy.

Like Camus, characters of this archetype tend to not be recruitable.

Characters of this archetype: Magnus (Gaiden); Lorenz and Yodel (Mystery of the Emblem); Clement, Ishtore and Liza, Ridell (Genealogy of the Holy War); Eagler and Uhai (Blazing Blade); Shiharam and Hafedd (Path of Radiance); Veyona (Radiant Dawn); Mustafa and Pheros (Awakening); Lonato (Three Houses)

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• Anti-Villain: Even though they're only one-shot characters, they usually show a sympathetic side, sometimes comparable to a Camus or an Ishtar.
• Cruelty Is the Only Option: Yes, they're sympathetic, but you'll most likely be forced to strike them down and then move on like nothing happened.
• A Father to His Men: They're shown to care about the lives of their men and will ensure their lives are saved with their death, especially later ones. Unlike Camus characters, who are honorable but actually powerful enough to strike out, One-Shot Generals usually fight the heroes because if they disobey their orders, their own men will pay the price, and they don't have enough power to directly disobey. Most of the soldiers fighting under an OSG will remember them fondly.
• Punch-Clock Villain: They don't hold any ill will toward your army, but if they disobey their superior's orders, they and their men will be punished.
• Trope Codifier: Before Genealogy, examples of this archetype usually only followed the rule of commenting on protecting the lives of their soldiers and generally being expendable. It's only after Ishtore and Liza appeared that the more modern aspects of the archetype were solidified, giving them posthumous characterization and sympathy (Seliph laments having to kill Ishtore and Liza because he saw them as likable and a genuinely loving couple; Ishtore was also revealed to be nice toward Tine/Linda).

The Murdock

Perhaps the least sympathetic of the Noble Enforcers characters (but still more sympathetic than the more evil characters), the Murdock is a high-ranking general in the enemy ranks that might look affable and not being evil about it, but he doesn't share the doubts and conflicts plaguing either the Camus, Ishtar, or the One-Shot General. He may be a personable fellow out of battle, but when it comes to fighting the war, he steadfastly remains loyal to his nation/liege and does his job of planting himself like a wall between you and his nation/liege most admirably, as an ultimate show of loyalty and the fact that he's a model soldier. Call it Blind Obedience or the like, but he has been raised to place a premium value on loyalty. His men are highly motivated, and while he might not be A Father to His Men, he wins their loyalty over via strict discipline and proper training. He's decked out with either powerful muscles or heavy armor that makes him a mighty physical fighter; if you face him, you may not feel pity or sadness, but rather an adrenaline rush of fighting for your life, as he is a Worthy Opponent for you to unleash everything you have.

A Murdock is usually encountered rather late in the game and will probably be the second-toughest (or third, if there is a Camus/Ishtar, then they tend to compete for the position) enemy you face before eventually facing the higher level of bad guys, mostly due to the fact that they tend to possess any of the Mighty Glacier classes. Their high HP and stats might make you worry about sending in your mages in case they are strong enough to tank the magic and kill off your Squishy Wizard.

Named after the high-ranking general of Bern in The Binding Blade, who made several appearances prior to his battle to showcase his honorable, strict personality, but otherwise remained loyal to his fading empire due to his own Undying Loyalty.

Characters of this archetype: Brian (Genealogy of the Holy War); Murdock (Binding Blade); Brendan (Blazing Blade); Dheginsea (Radiant Dawn); Cervantes (Awakening); Hubert^* Only in routes where he isn't recruited, in which he stays loyal to Edelgard until the very end, regardless of how bad things get for the Empire., Dedue and Gilbert^* Crimson Flower exclusive, where they stick with the Church of Seiros despite Rhea's increasing insanity without going too overboard (Three Houses); Abyme (Engage)

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• Anti-Villain: They're more of a Type I. They don't want to be seen as a conflicted Woobie; they know their role as the antagonist and will stick with it. However, they're still noble warriors without going to the extremes of a Michalis, and could have been perfectly personable if only you were on their side (unfortunately for them, you're not).
• Breaking Old Trends: So far, Hubert is the only character that is a Dark Bishop rather than the usual General, or a class that fits a similar purpose like in Dheginsea's case.
• Evil Counterpart: Played with:
  • Murdocks are Evil Counterparts to the good Lorenz, a high-ranking general who realizes the error of his ways and does a late Heel–Face Turn. A Murdock won't do this, because his loyalty to his master takes precedence.
  • On the other hand, Murdocks can be seen as a Good Counterpart or A Lighter Shade of Black towards a Jiol-type. Both are imposing and usually armored, but a Murdock displays some off-the-field decency that the slimeball Jiol totally lacks.
• Four-Star Badass: Their ranks are amongst the highest in the enemy army, and they are more than capable of delivering a tough fight.
• Large and in Charge: Members of the Murdock archetype use large classes like General and Warrior. Official artwork tends to show them as especially large as well.
• Mighty Glacier: That size isn't just for show. Rank Scales with Asskicking often comes into play.
• Promoted to Playable: Three Houses has a few cases of playable Murdocks:
  • Dedue is the first Murdock that's actually playable outside of bonus modes, but only if you take the Azure Moon route, and even then, he takes on elements of a Draug. Otherwise, his Undying Loyalty and tendency to do crazy things to better serve Dimitri without joining you makes him this archetype.
  • Similarly, Gilbert is an older version of the archetype and takes Dedue's place in the Azure Moon route, just in case Dedue wasn't saved from his Plotline Death (and even then, he still sticks around). On Crimson Flower, though, he decides to stick with his guns with the Church of Seiros despite Rhea becoming more and more unhinged.
  • Likewise, Hubert mostly is a magical version of Murdock, but only if you take the Crimson Flower route, and even then, he's a Deconstructed Character Archetype of Arlen. Any other route, however, he decides to stick with Edelgard regardless of the potential outcome for them.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Their defining trope. They're fairly affable and professional off the battlefield, but are still willing to commit atrocities in their master's name or defend their master despite knowing their atrocities.
• Stern Teacher: Their relationship with their men is strict and professional, whilst simultaneously valuing the lives of their soldiers. As a result, soldiers and commanders serving under them have the same loyalty to their general.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: Being one of the few playable characters of this archetype, Dedue naturally has his reasons for his fanatical loyalty fleshed out the most. As it turns out, his family was wiped out in the genocide of his people, and Dimitri both saved him from being slaughtered like they were and is the most sympathetic of the royal family to the Duscur people's plight, meaning their future would look even bleaker than it already is if something were to happen to him.
• Trope Maker: Brian, who only appeared in the last scenario ^note He is a Master Knight, which is usually a Master of All class with high movement points, but Brian specifically gears himself to be a Mighty Glacier on a horse, emphasized with his unique axe Helswath giving him a positively insane +20 Defense and +10 Resistance, fighting for nothing more than restoring his house's prestige, wondering whether or not he was fighting for a good cause as he died. Even though Lewyn still called him out on continuing House Dozel's decline, Brian's a lot more Anti Villainous than his predecessors (who were purely Jiols). He didn't get to name the archetype due to only having the screentime of a One-Shot General. Murdock would be the first to perfect the formula with extended screentime.
• Undying Loyalty: This is a Murdock's greatest calling card, a counterpart to Camus' Honor Before Reason. For Murdocks, steadfast loyalty is the greatest moral value there is, and you can't convince them otherwise.
• Worthy Opponent: He may view the player as this, nothing more, nothing less. Meta-wise, he'll be a very tough boss that requires better yet fair effort to defeat.

The Vile Opportunists

Unlike the protagonists, who wish for a better world, or the true antagonists, who want to create a new world order, these villains live in the grey of the moment. For some, the chaos of war has given them an opportunity to seize political power, prestige, or wealth. For others, it's just an outlet to express their inner vices.

• The Michalis: Noble Demons who will commit wicked acts to preserve themselves, their people, or their way of life.
• The Jiol: Corrupt, cowardly politicians who only care about themselves. Often Generals prone to backstabbing.
• The Brute
  • The Kempf: Narcissists consumed by wrath or lust, who live out their power fantasies on the battlefield. Typically the bad guys' psychotic attack dog.
  • The Black Knight: An evolution of the Kempf who trades narcissism and full-on psychosis for a hidden agenda and a desire to find a Worthy Opponent, no matter who they have to cut down to do it. They tend to be The Dreaded who wear some form of helmet or mask and are known only by titles rather than actual names.

The Michalis

Michalis is something of a foil to Camus. Whereas Camus is a noble Anti-Villain, Michalis is almost always the straight-up villain. These characters are driven by ambition and will do anything to achieve their ends, including dishonorable tactics or being as indecent as possible. Mostly part of the nobility, they can be very haughty on their own and don't come off as decent outside of battle, unlike a Camus. However, they do share one thing with Camus: besides ambition, they also at the very least have their national pride. Most of their actions are also driven by the desire to make their people prosper (they couldn't care less about people outside their nation); usually, their people have gone through some sort of suffering and they would gladly do anything to alleviate that, including being hated by the very people they're trying to save. In other words, they are the Noble Demon of the Fire Emblem series. How much it saves them from being unsympathetic varies, but it certainly adds Villainous Valor points that makes them likable as villains, and if lucky, they may even find redemption just as karma catches up to them or become an 11th-Hour Ranger.

Characters of this archetype: Michalis (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Arvis^* Generation 1 only and Travant (Genealogy of the Holy War); Saias (Thracia 776); Naesala (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Takumi ^note only in Conquest (Fates); Berkut (Shadows of Valentia); Claude^note Only in the Crimson Flower and Scarlet Blaze routes; on the former, he's a unique example of a heroic Michalis, as all his actions are purely defensive and are solely focused on ensuring the Alliance can survive a war they really have no stake in, while on the latter his Michalis side only comes out if you kill Jeralt, leading Byleth to convince him to betray Edelgard to make his own power grab. (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Alternate Céline and Alternate Alcryst (Engage); Eitri (Heroes)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Caellach^note His particular ambition lines up with the usual Michalis: To rule his own country and manage it the way he likes. Additionally, he possesses some of Michalis' ruthless charisma, and he's also shown to have some standards in regards of his compatriots (Valter and Riev, respectively). Unfortunately, he's just a mere sellsword/mercenary without a nation to actually claim for his own (so any of his ambitions of kingdom-ruling only exist in his dreams), which rules him out. (The Sacred Stones)

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• Ambition Is Evil: What makes them a bad guy and an effective one too. They have ambitions (usually for their nation) and stop at nothing to achieve them.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: These are the antagonists that are most likely to look good. And they're also the ones who get noble or redeeming qualities, even if they stay antagonistic. This occasionally opens up a chance to join your team too.
• Dark Messiah: To their nation, they may look like or fancy themselves as this, doing everything they can to save their nation. The response from their citizens may vary from accepting to being outright disgusted.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Berkut deconstructs the Michalis archetype by showing what happens when one's ambitions are taken to the extreme. He starts off the game a smug antagonist who is sure of his goals and set in his way of thinking like most Michalises tend to be. However, as he loses to Alm and his allies, he slowly begins losing his mental fortitude as a result of being unable to understand how someone like him could lose to a "mere peasant", becoming more unhinged and unstable as he tries to defeat Alm and prove himself as deserving of the throne of Rigel. He reaches his lowest point when he learns his uncle, his father figure, never intended to make him the Emperor and Alm was his son, who was intended to take the throne. Having his entire life's goal and purpose ripped out from under him, Berkut becomes desperate for the chance to kill Alm and gain power that he sacrifices his fiancé to Duma in a fit of madness at the chance of power to defeat Alm, becoming a shell of his former self who only cares for power.
  • Claude in the Crimson Flower route is what you get if you put a Michalis in a more realistic war setting. His primary goal is the survival of his nation, and while he is willing to fight dirty, he doesn't stoop to the level of the other examples and is ultimately less a threat than other players in the setting, ironically making him the first heroic Michalis via deconstruction. He also willfully self-parodies this trope, and on both Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind admits he's a similar take on Edelgard. As he's capable of surviving all four routes, it's possible he does still get to help his people, alongside whatever winning faction the protagonist chose. Though, Three Hopes shows how in certain circumstances things can go very wrong, with Claude becoming more of a traditional Michalis.
• Foil: The Michalis is usually considered the traditional foil to the Camus, and to an extent, the Ishtar and Murdock as well. While both archetypes love their country as their sympathy points, the Michalis are much more ambitious in that and usually are willing to stoop even lower than the standards of decency in order to achieve their grey-yet-sympathetic goal, whereas a Camus/Ishtar/Murdock will not even try trespass it thanks to their own standards. As such, the Michalis is the archetype more easily identified as villains.
• Noble Demon: They're assholes, yes, but they can possess some humane and noble qualities.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Amongst the more grey antagonists, the Michalis usually possesses the highest rank and considered the most dangerous, even more than the Jiol or the Kempf. Only the Black Knight may challenge him in terms of sheer power, but they choose to stay beneath the spotlight, allowing a Michalis to openly show that they're the most dangerous.
• The Scapegoat: For a lot of them, they are willing to go down in history as monsters as long as their people prosper in the future. And they willingly act like one too.
• The Unfettered: A standout trait and key in what makes them so dangerous: Their ultimate goals and motivations can be admirable or not, but they are all willing to perform some utterly heinous actions to reach them.

The Jiol

The Jiol is a seemingly minor antagonist character that has been part of the franchise since the beginning. Much like Michalis, they will do anything to get what they want. However, the Jiol lacks the charisma and valor of a Michalis, and are usually designed to be disliked. Just like Michalis, Jiol has a presence in the political world of the verse and is probably much more invested in politics than battle. However, they are also often shown as an example of the corrupting influence of power to contrast with the more heroic Lords or even the Michalis. Jiol characters usually begin as allies of sorts to the Lord, but the moment The Empire offers them more power and influence, they waste little time in accepting it.

They do possess an imposing presence when they actually go to battle, usually represented as a General or a similar promoted class (though there are some exceptions). Like Michalis, they are never Final Boss material, but they often serve as a Climax Boss or a Disc-One Final Boss.

Characters of this archetype: Jiol and Morzas (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Desaix (Gaiden and its remake); Lang (Mystery of the Emblem); Chagall, Lombard, Reptor, Danann, and Bloom (Genealogy of the Holy War); Raydrick (Thracia 776); Erik, Arcard, and Roartz (The Binding Blade); Lundgren and Darin (The Blazing Blade); Orson (Sacred Stones); Ludveck (Radiant Dawn); Gangrel (Awakening); Kotaro (Fates); Cornelia and Acheron (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Oskar (Warriors); Shahid and Duke Aegir (Warriors: Three Hopes)

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• Aristocrats Are Evil: Serves as a way to show the dark side of aristocracy in the Fire Emblem universe, contrasting with your army's 'good aristocracy'. Played With by Orson; he's more of a knight than an aristocrat, but after betraying Renais, he temporarily becomes the king of Renais and runs the country into the ground.
• Bad Boss: As a rule, they tend to be tyrants, making the commonfolk suffer. When they fall and the heroes liberate their land, the people will rejoice that they're finally free from tyranny. Moreso if the land happened to be the Lord's homeland, which usually triggers Rightful King Returns rejoicing.
• Composite Character: Cornelia is an attempt to combine a Jiol archetype with a Witch archetype, being that she is the one who sold out her part of the Kingdom of Faehrgus to the Adrestian Empire to save her own hide and rule, she's highly antagonistic toward Dimitri, and is an older woman to boot. There are some hints that she may be a member of "those who slither in the dark" (which may be a reason why she's a partial Witch), but it's never confirmed outright in the original game. Three Hopes confirms that she's indeed an Agarthan.
• Disc-One Final Boss: They may serve as the Climax Boss for an earlier arc, but after that, it's time to move on to the next, greater arc.
• Evil Old Folks: Most Jiols are middle-aged, with the exception of Ludveck and Shahid.
• Face–Heel Turn: They tend to start as some sort of ally of the good guys, but then betray them for petty reasons, either out of cowardice or a desire for personal power. Orson is even playable for one scenario before he betrays Renais.
• Hate Sink: Responsible for a lot of atrocities that befall the heroes, you're supposed to dislike these guys and want them to die. Them being stereotypical 'evil noble' characters also enforces this as well.
  • Averted big time by Orson, who is at least somewhat pitiable, since he only betrayed his homeland to Grado because his wife's death drove him into Despair Event Horizon, and he jumped at the chance of having his dear wife resurrected. His poor rulership of Renais is due to him ignoring everything else aside from spending time with his wife, and his death is depicted in a very tragic way.
  • While Darin also starts up being built like this, he is also a subverted case at the end, as it is revealed that his gullibleness and his lust for power made it easy for Ephidel to corrupt him, and was just nothing more than a puppet whose strings are pulled by the true villains of the game, as mentioned by the protagonists after they killed him. Even worse, he is also one of the people that Nergal brought back as a morph, which horrifies the protagonists.
• Large and in Charge: The earlier versions of this archetype are of the General class (or Baron, in case of those from the Jugdral games), decked out with big armor to compensate for their smugness. Morzas in Shadow Dragon isn't armored, but turns into a large Mage Dragon. Cornelia and Shahid are the only exceptions by the former not being large, making up for it by being a high-ranking Court Mage, and the latter being a Wyvern Lord.
• The Quisling: When the Empire rolls in, the Jiol is often the first to sell out their former allies and sucking up to the Empire for survival, political power, or what have you.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Although they may be sniveling cowards, they will not go down without a fight when cornered. Usually.^note Acheron, if fought on Crimson Flower, will hide behind Judith's army and make a break for it the moment the player's army takes the advantage.
• Sleazy Politician: If not being an outright Corrupt Politician, power in politics is one of the things they seek.
• The Smurfette Principle: Cornelia is so far the only female Jiol archetype character, thus she's not too old. Had it not been for her political involvement, she would've been a straight-up Witch.
• Sole Survivor: There are multiple examples.
  • Downplayed with Ludveck: whilst he never dies, he is sent to prison and unmentioned for the rest of the story.
  • Likewise downplayed with Gangrel: he can recruited in a SpotPass paralogue, but unless he's romanced by a female Robin, his ending states he dies shortly after the events of the game.
  • Acheron is not a required target in the Crimson Flower route in Three Houses, and he usually runs like hell before you have a chance to even fight him, though it's unknown what happens to him afterward.
  • Cornelia is also The Unfought on both Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes.

The Brute

The Kempf

Not every notable enemy holds a high ranking in the army. Some of them may be mercenaries, hired swords, or even generals on the level of a Camus or lower. They also possess either great battle lust or overly high ambition to match most other villains, even Michalis characters, and they resort to despicable actions just to show them off, without any care for how many will suffer because of it. It's what happens when you take a Michalis, drop them a few ranks, and then remove their noble qualities (for example, the love for their country). They may technically be Just Following Orders, but it doesn't make them any less despicable and any former subordinates (who survive) may comment on how hellish it was to work under them. Many Kempf-types are unsympathetic Ax Crazies that make the player wonder just how evil an empire has to be to allow psychopaths like them into their ranks.

Characters of this archetype: Kempf (Thracia 776); Narcian (The Binding Blade); Ursula, Pascal and Jerme (The Blazing Blade); Caellach and Valter (The Sacred Stones); Jarod and Valtome (Radiant Dawn); Clarisse (New Mystery of the Emblem); Iago and Hans (Fates); Fernand and Slayde ^note In Gaiden, he was an unimportant one-shot boss; he is retroactively given this characterization in Shadows of Valentia. (Shadows of Valentia); Kronya and Metodey (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Alternate Fogado (Engage)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Andrey and Scipio^note Andrey can be said to be a predecessor to Kempf, appearing earlier, and their role is being the smug, brutish, ruthless attack dog of the Granvalle Empire (and him having a lesser Holy Blood signify his lower rank, where the higher ranked antagonists have major Holy Bloods). But even so, like Brian about Murdocks, Andrey has a very limited screentime, thus not enough time to show how psychotic and crazy he is and how he is antagonizing everyone even within his own rank with his own unpleasantness (the best he could get was a single disgusted remark by Lombard about how he's eager enough to commit Patricide). His son Scipio has an even less screentime and characterization except being a Generation Xerox to Andrey. And while ruthless, he also isn't overly vain and having too much high opinions of himself, he's just doing a job that he takes wholeheartedly with his own ruthlessness. It's why Kempf is the one who names the archetype. (Genealogy of the Holy War), Griss ^note While he has the blatant Ax-Crazy requirement of a Kempf, he's generally more lucid, not interested in moving up ranks and not showing how messed up the Four Hounds are with him being there. He never exaggerates his insults towards anyone and even gets a sympathetic death.(Engage)

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• Ambition Is Evil: Like the Michalis, many Kempfs are only concerned with moving up in the ranks (but without the same loyalty to their lord and/or country) and will stop at nothing to get their way.
• Ax-Crazy: A lot of them are really unhinged (though some at least make the effort to hide it), and a few, like Valter and Hans, get even worse as the story goes on.
• Bad Boss: Even more so than Michalis, if they're allowed to command others. Anyone serving under them may comment on their boss' lack of leadership skills. There were only few exceptions:
  • Jarod, who displays some Villainous Valor and proves to be A Father to His Men when his back's against the wall (although before this, he openly murdered one of his men for failing to follow orders).
  • Fernand, who can actually be decent to his men, but just as long as they fit his views of real men (nobles, whereas commoners will get his ire).
• Blood Knight: A lot of times, these guys just love fighting and slaughtering anyone they come across.
• The Brute: They're the main muscle of the group.
• Composite Character:
  • In Sacred Stones, Caellach actually combines several traits of a traditional Michalis. While he's selfish, ruthless and lacks empathy, he does not lack a code of honor, being disgusted with Valter (the more traditional sadistic Kempf) and Riev. And while he only cares for himself, he is also the only one to showcase his ambition to move up ranks and eventually become a king on his own^note If he is already a king or high ranking noble by the time the game started, Caellach would've been a full blown Michalis than a Kempf.. Therefore, while Valter has Michalis' class, Caellach has parts of his mentality. Additionally, Caellach is Affably Evil and he has standards that he wouldn't even cross, which also made himself look not so bad especially when compared to Valter.
  • In Three Houses, Kronya is both a Kempf (from her overall craziness and bloodthirst) as well as a Witch due to being a member of "those who slither in the dark", which means her past incarnation, Monica, used to be more normal, although it is made clear that they are different people, particularly in Three Hopes where Monica is Spared by the Adaptation.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Fernand. He used to be a somewhat elitist, but still honorable and kind person, who wanted to help people. However, the deaths of his family, including his two younger siblings, caused him to grow to hate the lower class to the point of being willing to defect from his best friend's resistance organization to the enemy side out of sheer hatred. After becoming Berkut's Number Two, he lets his ego and classist views blind him to how wrong he is, and when he gets fatally wounded by the newly turned Witch Rinea, he dies in Clive's arms realizing his hatred and callous disregard for others costed him the chance to actually make the world better. Ultimately, his anger and brute like role didn't bring him joy like he thought, just death.
• Females Are More Innocent: Until Kronya, if the Kempf is a female, they're usually portrayed a lot more sympathetically:
  • Ursula does not overly antagonize the team, she just appears in the exact moment she needs to act antagonistically (attempting to kill Nino). But aside of that, she has her own personal honor code and even gives an item to the team if visited to a certain village. Her inherent psychosis is what prevents her to become a full-blown Ishtar.
  • Clarisse has a Dark and Troubled Past and it turns out that she's also gaslighted to be a psychotic person by the person she admires the most, since she's also part of the Eremiya archetype (and so is her gaslighter). She ends up having a very pitiful and sympathetic death when compared to other Kempfs.
• Hate Sink: Quite a lot of members of this archetype are quite despicable without redeeming traits, who have open sadism and disregard for anyone else's lives, and are designed to make the players want to kill them. On the other hand, there are some who are more complicated and downplays, subverts or even averts this, such as Ursula, Caellach, and Clarisse.
• Just Following Orders: If a Kempf even bothers to "justify" their actions, they'll try to Hand Wave their atrocities with this line.
• Narcissist: If they're not either ugly or Ax-Crazy, they're probably incredibly self-absorbed, making them an inverse of Beauty Equals Goodness (such as Kempf, Narcian, and Slayde).
• Psycho for Hire: They're basically the bad guys' primary attack dog. They may try to excuse themselves as a Punch-Clock Villain, but their brutality often proves otherwise.
• The Rival: Chances are good that the Kempf will have this type of relationship with the Camus:
  • The original Kempf hated Reinhardt to the point of taking out his frustration on Reinhardt's sister Olwen, leading to her eventual Heel–Face Turn.
  • Narcian was by far the most egotistical of Bern's Wyvern Generals, putting him in direct contrast to the more honorable Galle.
  • In Eirika's route, Valter kills Glen under the pretense of executing him for defying orders, when in reality he merely wanted Glen out of the way.
  • While Zelgius falls under a different archetype than the Camus, Valtome's animosity towards him otherwise fits quite well.
  • While Iago is always an antagonist regardless of the route you take, his attitude towards the Nohr siblings fits this part especially well in Birthright, given Xander's status as an Anti-Villain in that route.
• Small Name, Big Ego: They may not be as high on the Sorting Algorithm of Evil as a Camus or a Murdock, but they sure love to show off their supposed superiority over others...until you start beating them and their previous bravado evaporates.
• The Smurfette Principle: Only three of them so far are females:
  • Ursula might be the first female Kempf. She's an assassin who wants to get more power for the sake of being always "perfect". That said, she does have an honor code.
  • Clarisse is most likely one the few female members of this archetype, being a very loyal and psychotic underling of Eremiya ready to do anything to get more power and earn her approval.
  • Kronya is a psychotic and bloodthirsty member of "those who slither in the dark" with a rank low enough that Solon sees it as okay to just sacrifice her life for his own plans.

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The Black Knight

Named after the armored knight from the Tellius games, the Black Knight is an antagonist archetype who is less concerned with politics or status than other villains, and acts more enigmatic than blatantly evil. They're usually Blood Knights, but unlike the sadistic Kempf, they often fight to find a Worthy Opponent. To make themselves look more threatening, they usually don something to cover their heads and conceal their identities, be it a mask or a helmet.

Gameplay-wise, while these characters eventually meet their end (if they do anyway), they have a tendency to appear in the early stages of the game, shocking the player as they're way more powerful than any character at that point in the game, and sending anyone against them early on tends to be a death sentence. However, as the game progresses, your army will gain sufficient strength to finally face a Black Knight head-on. It still won't be a cakewalk; it's just that they finally recognize you as a Worthy Opponent and will fight to the fullest.

Characters of this archetype: Black Knight (Path of Radiance); Legion (New Mystery of the Emblem); Sumeragi (Fates); Death Knight/Jeritza (Three Houses); Lif (Heroes)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Hardin (Mystery of the Emblem)^note While he is the Big Bad, thus not fitting being the 'powerful enigmatic grunt' (him being possessed has been an open knowledge to the game, even if his Red Eyes, Take Warning may also be a 'precursor' to the Black Knight's tendency of "Cover your head and identity with a garment, like helmet"), it's worth noting that the original Black Knight's tendency to be The Dreaded is based on Hardin's first appearance as an enemy, where he's practically invincible thanks to the Darksphere and the goal of the map he's in is to take the throne while avoiding him.; Ishtar (Genealogy of the Holy War)^note She's similar to Hardin beforehand as she's chiefly known as the sympathetic villain without any enigma and also lacks a head-covering garment. However, she also has Hardin's Advancing Boss of Doom trait in her debut at Chapter 8: Coming immediately equipped by the Mjolnnir tome and more likely to attack and kill one of your allies (rather than staying holed up in a castle) unless they can somehow dodge and survive her spell. She is actually killable, but it requires luck and very specific character at the time (either Shannan or Ares, who also has Holy Weapons), or the player can just stall for time and run away until Julius drags her off from the battlefield.; Galzus (Thracia 776)^note He seems like this at first, as he serves as The Champion to Raydrik, acts as an Advancing Boss of Doom over the course of several chapters, and is The Dreaded even to the game's (other) Gotoh archetype, Ced. However, he's actually a Hitman with a Heart, and pulls a Heel–Face Turn the moment he speaks with his long-lost daughter, Mareeta. Additionally, he doesn't have a mask or headwear to conceal his face; Bertram (Path of Radiance)^note In spite of being an enigmatic brute and Black Knight who is a very strong foe, you only face him once in Path of Radiance. You do encounter him at the beginning of Radiant Dawn as a preview of his appearance during the endgame to challenge Geoffrey, but you don't face him during a boss battle (the fight happens off-screen) and he pulls a Heel–Face Turn right after his return. That said, he's The Dreaded, his identity is a secret for most of the Tellius games and is arguably a recurring antagonist during part 4 of Radiant Dawn.; Byleth (Warriors: Three Hopes)^note While Byleth acts as The Dreaded and seemingly invincible foe of The Hero, they're a mercenary, not a knight. Also, they don't have a mask or headwear concealing their face, and like Galzus, can pull a Heel–Face Turn.

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• Advancing Boss of Doom: One of their chief element is that they're this boss who will more likely advance on you on early stages in a slower pace so you can outrun him (or just stays in place so you can ignore them). But, if you try to provoke them at this stage, then they'll easily make a mincemeat out of your unit.
• Black Knight: They are enigmatic figures clad in dark armor who conceal their identities with masks. The codifier for this archetype is even literally called the Black Knight.
• Blood Knight: They are more selective than the Kempfs, but it's clear that they very much enjoy a good fight, especially when their opponents are worthy of their caliber.
• Composite Character: This archetype combines traits of Kempf with traits of Murdock or Camus (and a head-covering garment), resulting in an enigmatic Brute who has a thrill for battle but does not kill indiscriminately, more or less acting like a powerful enigma in search of a Worthy Opponent who doesn't care for materialistic self-advancement like army ranking or wealth. This is shown somewhat in Legion, but more blatantly in the Death Knight.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: The Death Knight/Jeritza not only presents a much darker take on the enigmatic and unpredictable nature of the Black Knight archetype in his support conversations, but also serves as a deconstruction of the Brute archetype as a whole. On the surface, the Death Knight has the personality of a Kempf with the appearance of a Black Knight, being an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight in service to a Big Bad, but preferring a specific challenge. However, instead of using this to make him a simple Hate Sink like most Kempfs, his psychotic actions are shown as symptoms of a legitimate mental illness. Jeritza, previously known as Emile, developed a Split Personality that he treats as a second person as a result of years of abuse by his father and finally, learning that his father intended to forcefully make his step-daughter, Mercedes his wife to make more Crest-bearing children. This caused Emile to snap and kill his father and the rest of the children of House Bartels. Not only does Jeritza struggle to keep this side of him in check, but not even Mercedes is safe from the Death Knight, despite Jeritza creating the persona to protect her and their mother, to make sure their escape from Baron Bartels was safe. Jeritza works with the Adrestian Empire and seeks challenging opponents not only as thanks for giving him a place to belong and a new identity, but to keep the Death Knight's bloodlust focused and prevent him from going on killing sprees, but even Edelgard doesn't have complete control over this side of him. Even when he's your ally (a Crimson Flower exclusive), he tries to socially distance himself from others because of this, and is only able to support with four characters: Byleth, his sister Mercedes, his childhood friend Constance, and Bernadetta, a fellow trauma victim. He doesn't even have supports with Edelgard herself. He's only able to overcome this in his paired endings with Byleth or Mercedes, the latter in which he willingly submits himself to therapy.
• The Dreaded: Chances are if they enter the battle... you know the shit is going to hit the fan if you ever try to confront them without preparation. It usually ends with death, so your current option is to just run away and avoid confrontation.
• Enigmatic Minion: A Black Knight is appropriately shrouded in mystery and follows their own orders, which makes them even more unpredictable and dangerous.
• Promoted to Playable: The Death Knight is the first straightforward playable member of the Brute archetype.
• Redemption Earns Life: The Death Knight is the only Brute who can truly redeem himself, and the only one who can live through his story in Crimson Flower route.
• Sole Survivor: The Death Knight is the only Brute who can live to see the end of his natural lifespan, and only on the Crimson Flower route.

Evil's Inner Circle

These are the highest-level antagonists. They're beyond the moral conflicts of the Noble Enforcers, and the political games of the Opportunists. They want to totally upset the world, and will invoke monsters, dragons, and gods to do it.

• The Monster Corps: Zombie-like enemies summoned by the main antagonists that start rare, but slowly become the entirety of the enemy army.
• The Deadlords: Warriors Reforged into a Minion, they often serve as the last bastion of defense against the Heroes, and some of them may be either dead player units, or antagonists that were killed but brought back to life.
• The Hardin: Someone with a personal character flaw or an unfortunate lineage that has made them susceptible to Demonic Possession. May overlap with any other archetype after becoming a vessel for the true evil.
• The Dark Lady: Hand-picked beautiful women who execute the will of the true evil. Usually in charge of luring in partners, commanding soldiers, and discarding both when they are no longer useful. Often an Evil Matriach.
  • The Witch: Evil by choice and without any remorse or with origins that did not provide adequate sympathy, a despicable witch meant to avert Females Are More Innocent.
  • The Eremiya: A twisted version of a once virtuous lady, brainwashed or coerced into embracing the philosophies of the Evil's Inner Circle.
• The Dark Wizard
  • The Gharnef: A Sorcerous Overlord puppet master who seeks to resurrect the Medeus.
  • The Smug Minister: An Evil Sorceror similar to a Gharnef, but lacking in competence or power. Usually an adviser to another villain, or a pawn in someone else's games.
• The Rudolf: A Tin Tyrant that commands The Empire. May have allied with the true evil as a means to an end.
• The Medeus: A dragon or god that threatens the entire world. May be so powerful they've lost their senses.

The Monster Corps

The Monster Corps are the undead rank and file of the true enemy, often conjured by magic from the Medeus or the Dark Wizard. Some may be conjured from pure dark magic to take forms of monsters classes like revenants, mogalls, and bonewalkers. Others may be refined to allow for regular classes with zombiefied features. The more magic is put into them, the more powerful and human they become, up to manifesting as the Deadlords.

Characters of this archetype: Terrors (Gaiden), Morphs (The Blazing Blade), Monsters (The Sacred Stones), Feral Ones (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn), The Risen (Awakening), The Faceless and The Vallites (Fates), Demonic Beasts (Three Houses), The Corrupted (Engage)

• Came Back Wrong: Like full Deadlords but even more so. If they are resurrected usually means they're basically moving lifeless husks. A horrifying example occurs in Sacred Stones when Orson's wife is "brought back" by Riev, but can't even form full thoughts and sentences. Ephraim puts her down a second time.
• Level Grinding: Can be endlessly fought in games with grinding mechanics. They often show up in skirmishes on old maps, or in replayable dungeons. They may even have a dedicated Bonus Dungeon or a Peninsula of Power Leveling DLC where you're guaranteed to face them.
• Our Demons Are Different: They can take the form of various monsters like zombies, skeletons, giant eyeballs, and werewolves among other mythological beasts. The most refined versions are human (or dragon) and use regular classes.
• Replacement Mooks: By the final chapters they may they make up the entirety of the enemy army, replacing all but the named characters (and sometimes even them).
• Snowballing Threat: They show up in a one off early chapter as the heroes are still concerned with bandits and low level members of the enemy army. By the end of the game they become more common, powerful, and versatile.
• Technically-Living Zombie: Occasionally they may still be technically alive, but drugged or damned to enhance their powers at the cost of free will. There have been cases where this process can be reversed.
• We Have Reserves: The evil forces can essentially conjure them endlessly. Summoners can create new ones every turn in-game.

The Deadlords

The Deadlords often serve as the undead elite force of the villain group. While their origins vary, they all share one thing in common: They were once dead, but were resurrected by the group to serve as mostly the last line of defense against the Hero's army. They're often the highest form of Monster Corp magic to the point that they might look like normal humans and may even have a semblance of freewill. Since they're faced together, expect a tough fight against them, especially if they're mandatory.

Characters of this archetype: Duma's Witches ^note Marla, Hestia, Rinea (though Rinea is not fought with the others) (Gaiden) Deadlords ^note Mus, Bovis, Tigris, Lepus, Draco, Anguilla, Equus, Ovis, Simia, Gallus, Canis, Porcus (Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776^note Only six appear in the game, Awakening), Nergal's Morphs ^note Lloyd, Linus, Ursula, Brendan, Jerme, Uhai, Kenneth, Darin (The Blazing Blade), Vallite Servants ^note Arete, Mikoto, Sumeragi, Scarlet (All four are both Revelations and Heirs of Fate only), the entirety of the First Generation (Heirs of Fate only) (Fates), Ten Elites ^note Blaiddyd, Riegan, Lamine, Goneril, Charon, Fraldarius, Gloucester, Dominic, Gautier, and Daphnel, Verdant Wind only (Three Houses), Alternate Royals^* Alfred, Céline, Diamant, Alcryst, Ivy, Hortensia, Timerra, and Fogado (All are Fell Xenologue only)^note They are all fought once (or in Fogado's case, twice) before the final Xenologue, when they are fought as a group. (Engage)

Character that only has elements of this archetype: Corrupted Monarchs ^* Corrupted Morion, Corrupted Hyacinth, Corrupted Lumera^note While they are undead, these three are never fought together. Also, Corrupted Morion and Corrupted Hyacinth are fought several chapters too early, as deadlords are usually fought a few chapters before the endgame chapter (or are fought in the endgame chapter itself). Corrupted Lumera, on the other hand, is at least fought in the second last chapter of the game, but she is still fought independently., the Dark Emblems^* Shadow Dragon, War Father, Dark God, Dark Bishop, Demon Dragon, Dark Druid, Demon King, Mad King, Judgment, Despair, Mad Dragon, and Liberation King ^note There are twelve of them wielded by undead forces and are used as the last line of defense by Sombron against the heroes, and there is ambiguity about wheter they are the original villains reforged into Emblem form or the same as the heroic Emblems being echoes of what was, but since Emblems are at most immortal and they aren't fought directly, they do not qualify, and the corrupted that they are each given to are not specially named or indicated to be noteworthy among the corrupted despite speaking which makes them decidedly non-elite., and Seven Emblem Bracelets^* Tiki, Hector, Veronica, Soren, Camilla, Chrom/Robin, and Edelgard/Dimitri/Claude ^note They are all wielded by the alternate royals in Xenologue 6, with all of them being fought together with Fell Rafal, but just like the Dark Emblems, Emblems are at most immortal and they aren't fought directly, striking them out as qualifying for this. (Engage)

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• Back from the Dead: They were resurrected by the villains to serve them.
• Boss Bonanza: They are often faced in groups.
• Breaking Old Trends: Most Deadlords usually cannot even speak, all hopes for their characterization lie from their past histories. As of the moment they're revived, they're basically glorified Elite Mooks. The Alternate Royals in Engage, however, can talk and exhibit personalities different from their original counterparts, almost as if they're Evil Counterparts of the main timeline royalties.
• Came Back Strong: If they were a former boss that had to be fought during the storyline, it can be this, the most notable example being Raydrik, who gains Wrath as Deadlord Mus, and Nergal's Morphs have notably improved stats compared to when they were fought as bosses^note this includes Brendan, as while he is The Unfought beyond his morph, he logically couldn't be as strong as the other morphs, since he loses to Sonia (and the battle obeyed normal combat mechanics).
• Came Back Wrong: That being said, their resurrection came at the cost of most likely their free will, as they are basically moving lifeless husks.
• Gut Punch: If the player-controlled units were among the Deadlords, they're mostly an additional middle finger as a reminder of how they couldn't protect them in a game with Permadeath.
• Our Zombies Are Different: The Deadlords and the other members of this archetype are zombies, but how they became one varies depending on game.
• Reforged into a Minion: Thracia 776 and Fates had player units who died were brought back as undead soldiers for the villain groups.

The Hardin

The Hardin is a unique breed of villain who could technically overlap with any of the other archetypes, or be their own character. Their main trait also makes them one of the most tragic of the villain group: They have been possessed by an evil force, brainwashed into either "killing the heroes" or "destroying the world", and the only way to stop them is to beat the crap out of them or kill them. The Lord's army will eventually do so, usually granting the Hardin a tragic or peaceful death (if the player's army doesn't comment on it, the player themselves just might). They usually used to be close acquaintances with the Lord and/or the heroine, if not an arch-nemesis of sorts, making the struggle against them more personal.

Since this villain is defined by a highly personal tragedy, they can never be recruited.

Characters of this archetype: Hardin (Mystery of the Emblem); Julius (Genealogy of the Holy War); Lyon (The Sacred Stones); Rajaion (Path of Radiance); Robin^note The vessel of Grima that either comes from Lucina's timeline or accompanies Validar (Awakening); Garon^note While Birthright and Conquest only hint at his status as a Hardin, this is fully revealed in Revelation and Takumi^note Conquest only, where he is in an irreversible stage of possession by Anankos (Fates); Morion, Hyacinth, and Lumera (Engage); Bruno ^note Book I and VI and Fáfnir ^note Book V (Heroes); Darios (Warriors)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Gunter^note Revelation; though he is possessed for a majority of the game, he only actively opposes Corrin for one chapter and returns to his senses after being beaten. (Fates); Shez^note Same reason as Gunter and Byleth^note They only get possessed by Sothis if the player fails to recruit them. (Warriors: Three Hopes);

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Once beaten, they usually get a sympathetic sendoff. Even Julius is given one, as Julia tries to remember what he was when they were younger.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: There's usually a malevolent force possessing them and driving them to kill and/or destroy.
• Breaking Old Trends: While most members of this archetype are humans being possessed by dragons or other demonic beings, Rajaion is a dragon who is being possessed (as in owned and used as a mount) by a human. On top of that, instead of Demonic Possession, Rajaion has lost his mind due to being drugged by Izuka. Finally, while he is technically fought as the final boss due to being Ashnard's steed, Rajaion is not fought directly, as Ashnard is the main enemy in his boss fight.
• Demonic Possession: Most of the time, it's the Medeus figure doing so. There are two types of possession; the first is where the demonic figure claims the body as their own, such as Loptous, Fomortiis, and Grima; the second is where the demonic figure controls the host like a minion, such as the Darksphere, Ashnard, and Anankos.
• Dying as Yourself: All of them except for Julius and Conquest/Revelation Garon get to return to their senses as they die.
• Green-Eyed Monster: If they're not born into a diabolical bloodline, jealousy (oftentimes towards the Lord) is usually the major catalyst that makes them vulnerable to Demonic Possession.
• Mercy Kill: There's no saving them; all you can do is put them out of their misery. Bruno subverts this in Book I, as he is not too far gone to require this trope yet, but he plays it straight in Book VI.
• Raised as a Host: Some of them exist only to be possessed. The most extreme examples of this are Julius and Robin; they were born only to be the vessel for a dark dragon, and nothing more.
• Split-Personality Merge: In some cases the possession works like this; instead of being simply possessed, the original being essentially merges with the possessor and becomes mostly the possessor with elements of the original being. Julius for example is largely Loptous with some of Julius' personality (such as his love of Ishtar).
• That Man Is Dead: In the most extreme examples of this, the host is almost completely dead in terms of their being, and is fully taken over by the possessor. Lyon in Erika's route (to Fomortiis) and Bad Future Robin (to Grima) are the most extreme examples of this. Rajaion is similar in that, while he is still alive, due to ingesting Izuka's feral drug, he is now a mindless beast whose possession is impossible to reverse, essentially making his original self long gone. Garon is an interesting Inversion; his possessor thinks he is the real Garon, and struggles to at times remember it isn't the real Garon.
• Tragic Villain: These guys didn't become villains by choice; villainy is something forced upon them (unlike Camus or Ishtar), making them usually the most sympathetic of the final bosses.

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The Dark Lady

The Witch

In the earlier times, female antagonists were rare, and media usually tend to default them into Females Are More Innocent; if you saw a bad, humanoid female, you might see them as someone at least redeemable. Come at least the first game stepping out far from Archanea, Intelligent Systems decided to introduce an aversion of that: A female antagonist that can be just as horrifically evil as their male counterparts. (which is also ironic because that game also introduced a sympathetic, yet unrecruitable female antagonist (Ishtar)).

Enter the Witch, a female member of the bad guys amongst the evil's inner circle. Extremely loyal to the main bad guys, be it the Gharnef or the Rudolf or even the Medeus, or at times, only for themselves, these women demonstrate a high level of ruthlessness and don't blink an eye at murder or manipulation. They may even gloat about it. Unlike the Kempf, these women are rarely of lower rank; they typically rival a Jiol in the hierarchy of the inner circle of evil. Another common element amongst these 'witches' are that they're mothers, but never expect them to be anything decent. Often being a Wicked Stepmother, they represent the fears of children that were unfortunate enough to be born from or adopted by an evil woman, so they will be greatly abusive towards these little children.

Whatever reasons why these women were evil are inconsequential; they might be evil right to the bone from the start, or their excuses were eclipsed by their atrocities.

And as far as the evil's inner circle was concerned... they aren't really supportive to these witches either; despite their contributions to evil, they're just another cog in the wheel, so when these witches die, their sense of self-worth and worldview go into a downward spiral. They typically die ignored by their superiors, and karma finally catches up to them, often times at the hands of the people they abused or wronged (and we have to remind you that karma does not take genders into account).

Despite the name, these antagonists aren't necessarily a literal witch or classed as one, this is more or less because there is a trope with the same name that works in tandem with Fire Emblem's sometimes archaic and censor-prone choice of vocabulary and these ladies' nasty personalities. This marks the first archetype to be named after a Class instead of a character. ^note We did consider naming it 'The Hilda', after the first example of these dark ladies originating from the Jugdral games, but we did not want to insult Hilda Valentine Goneril, whose greatest vice was that she's merely lazy.

In gameplay they do tend to be magic users, or at least specialize in ranged weapons. In appearance they tend to wear dark, provactive clothing, and are clearly designed for the Male Gaze.

Characters of this archetype: Hilda (Genealogy of the Holy War); Sonia (The Blazing Blade); Petrine (Path of Radiance); Kronya and Cornelia (Three Houses); Evil Veyle, Alternate Ivy (Engage); Loki and Hel (Heroes)

Characters that only have elements of this: Nuibaba (Shadows of Valentia)^note Appears in the original Gaiden, but does not fit there. The remake gives the character a Gender Flip and more attractive looks, making her very nasty, complete with no deathbed redemption, but All There in the Manual reveals she was a victim of domestic abuse and a murder attempt by an evil man, forcing her to make a Deal with the Devil that robbed her of a soul, making her agency questionable.

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• Bad Boss: The faceless mooks and lower-level bosses are terrified of them, as they show no remorse in punishing or executing even allies for their failures.
• The Baroness: They are sexy, cold and sadistic. Despite playing the role of the seductress, none of them have ever had a Dating Catwoman situation with the main heroes. They may have real, fabricated, or yearned for connections with male villains however.
• Black Mage: For the most part, they ARE actually capable of black magic like literal witches, such as Hilda, Sonia and Cornelia. Even Petrine used a magic-attuned Flame Lance. Subverted with Loki, who's actually a staff user^note but even then, her PRF has Wrathful Staff built in, enabling her to deal damage like any other mage, but possesses the more manipulative tendencies of a black mage.
• Breaking Old Trends: Evil Veyle is the first of Witches which aren't physically mature enough like the rest, but still possesses the cruelty and sadism of other Witches, therefore showing that little, nasty, not-so-haggard witches exist.
• Composite Character: In Three Houses, the Witches of the game take aspects of several other antagonist archetypes:
  • Cornelia is more deeply involved in politics than other Witches and also participates in selling out Faehrgus to the Adrestian Empire. She's also an elderly woman, giving her some of the "old Sleazy Politician" traits pioneered by Jiol.
  • Kronya is the sadistic Psycho for Hire of "those who slither in the dark", but has little interest in politics and little influence within her cult, putting her on the level of a Kempf.
• Custom Uniform of Sexy: They are typically dressed much more provocatively than their peers, even for their in-game class. A way to tell between the evil and good Veyle is after all to see which one has the more provocative clothing.
• Evil Matriarch: They are often 'worst mother of the year' candidates. Any children under their care can expect cold cordiality at best and horrific abuse at worst.
  • Hilda is the mother of Ishtar but delivers her cruelty mostly to her niece Tine/Linda, while going for psychological abuse on Ishtar (viewing her as nothing but a stepping stone to get herself more riches and influence by pressuring Ishtar to marry Julius for wealth reasons, not actual love).
  • Sonia is the adoptive mother of Nino, and she hated every thought of that and only did so because Nergal ordered her to, and thus she abused Nino while manipulating her earnest desire for adoration.
  • Inverted with Evil Veyle. She's instead a Daddy's Little Villain for Sombron, and ironically, Sombron is the one giving her a typical Witch-to-children treatment to her.
  • Played With for Alternate Ivy. While she is not a mother, she is in fact the eldest sister of her family. Therefore, she's a highly abusive big sister who goes beyond a Big Sister Bully (as in, an abusive elder sibling receiving a Promotion to Parent) to Alternate Hortensia and the rest of her siblings, to the point of callously killing them all and leaving Alternate Hortensia the Sole Survivor and she's still treated horribly.
  • Hel constantly killed her adopted daughter Eir, knowing that the latter would revive upon death due to possessing multiple lives and each revive would empower Hel herself, and generally treated Eir like a disposable pawn for her plans instead of actual daughter. To her surprise, on being defeated, Eir still considered her like a beloved mother, which gave Hel some sort of amusement (without any spites) before she resigned to defeat.
• Females Are More Innocent: They are clear aversions to the trope; the creators made them as evil as they could so the players wouldn't have any remorse or regrets when the time comes for them to die.
• Foil: One of the foils of the Ishtar. While the Ishtar is an honorable, loyal Anti-Villain that dressed more sensibly, the Witch is depraved, selfish with more provocative clothing and mature appeal.
• Hate Sink: They are horrible people with no redeeming qualities and make the female gender look bad; the best they could have is just a Freudian Excuse that looks miniscule compared to how they acted, so you shouldn't worry too much about killing them. Although, Petrine downplays this as she has a Freudian Excuse of being a Branded, which means she's prejudiced by others, and she actually cares for Ena, even to the point of ignoring an order from Ashnard to kill her.
• Karmic Death: Karma knows no gender indeed, a lot of times, they would put these ladies right in their place by placing someone who has been wronged by them to deliver justice unto them. Most of the time, it's the abused children.
  • Hilda has special dialogue when she fights against the children of the woman she tortured for fun (Tailtiu/Ethnia) in which they plan to exact vengeance for their mothers, and can potentially be the ones to end her life. Said children usually prevails over her in the Magic Weapon Triangle (They specialize in lightning, which is strong against Hilda's fire), making it a lot easier for them to exact vengeance.
  • Sonia finds out right before she died that she was another mass-produced Artificial Human like the one whom she had been cruelly mistreating; she is then abandoned by the subordinate she had abused.
  • Kronya meets her end foolishly begging for help from the child of the legendary knight she murdered not too long ago, gasping for air as her boss, Solon, sacrifices her to spring a trap he prepared for the hero Kronya failed to kill.
  • In the Azure Moon route, Cornelia is fought, defeated and killed by Dimitri, whom she sold out by aligning with the Adrestian Empire, and generally playing a big part of why Dimitri was such a big mess after the time skip. And as a final spite, on death's door, she even tries to shake Dimitri's resolve by revealing some nasty truths about his stepmother... and that still fails to even shake Dimitri, who has since recovered from his madness.
  • Evil Veyle is obliterated by her Good Counterpart, whom she scoffs as a defective sibling. The good Veyle takes control of her body and smashes the headband containing the evil Veyle into pieces, leaving her to ignobly call for help from daddy dearest Sombron, which gets ignored, and she dies screaming in despair.
• Manipulative Bastard: Something they take after Gharnefs, but for the most part, the Witches specialize in personal manipulation rather than kingdom-level manipulation.
• The One Guy: Cornelia is an interesting example in that she presents female, but Three Hopes implies that "she" is actually a guy named Cleobulus who has been impersonating her, mainly by wearing her corpse.
• Promoted to Playable:
  • Petrine is playable, but she requires Path of Radiance to be beaten at least seven times, and even then, she's only playable for the Trial Maps.
  • Loki and Hel are basically playable due to the gacha nature of Heroes; storywise, they never had a Heel–Face Turn (Hel, however did have an Even Evil Can Be Loved moment).
• Revisiting the Roots:
  • Kronya and Cornelia's impersonator, Cleobulus, were meant to be the return to this style of Dark Ladies, after their venture to a slightly more sympathetic examples since Eremiya which lasted for about three mainline games. Kronya's "other self", Monica, wound up on the losing end of a Kill and Replace plot, making Kronya solely responsible for her actions.
  • Before the two, however, Nuibaba can be considered a downplayed example. In the remake, she's given a personality revamp as something that's more of a witch and dies evil, behind-the-scenes tragic backstory of being betrayed and murdered by an evil man, with implications the pact with Medusa corrupted her as it explicitly took away her soul.
• Sole Survivor: Cornelia is The Unfought in Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes of Three Houses.

The Eremiya

After their attempt in Path of Radiance, where the token Witch (Petrine) had a slight redeeming quality that didn't eclipse her nastiness, Intelligent System decided to use the remake of the third game as a method to experiment with further examples of this, which dominated the handheld Fire Emblem games after Tellius and ended up receiving more publication due to the Newbie Boom in Awakening.

The Eremiya is what happens when you combine the Witch with the Hardin ^note Coinciding with this archetype originating from the remake of the game that debuted the Hardin archetype. Perhaps these matriarchs are nasty, manipulative and evil, but Rousseau hit the jackpot for this lady; there was a time that these ladies were once upstanding and virtuous. However, either by nature or the manipulations of "Evil's Inner Circle", these ladies were hit with tragedy that they caused them to fall into despair (or were just unfortunate enough to meet members of the inner circle at the wrong time) and was then transformed, usually via brainwashing, into a twisted version of their old selves, now serving the bad guys and doing nasty things like the Witches.

Their end fates differ from normal Witches, who would surely die horribly as retribution for their bad deeds. For the most part, they typically end up remembering their old, virtuous self... and then dying in despair of the knowledge of how far they have fallen, though at least any surviving members of their family might stay by their side until they breathe their last, giving them comfort in death. Very rarely, they might have their brainwashing wear off before they even die, and offer to join the heroes in their last shot at redemption.

Named after the first incarnation of this character that debuted in the Japanese-only remake of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Eremiya.

The main distinction of this sub-type of Witch is that they're more sympathetic in story. In gameplay and design they are very similar, tending to be magic using or at least ranged units, and wearing more provactive clothing than most.

Characters of this archetype: Marla and Hestia (Gaiden); Eremiya (New Mystery of the Emblem); Aversa (Awakening); Mikoto^note only on the Revelation route, where she is revived and tries to trick Corrin into entering a death trap and Arete (Fates); Thrasir and Freyja (Heroes)

Character that only has elements of this archetype: Clarisse^note Because she was taken for her family and raised as a Tyke Bomb as a kid it's unclear how good she ever had a chance to be. She also plays Wicked Stepsister to Eremiya who already fulfills the Wicked Stepmother role, and is an archer rather than a mage. (New Mystery of the Emblem) Limstella^note Despite following a similar character arc to the typical Eremiya, Limstella was specifically created - rather than brainwashed - to be evil, and it's hardwired in them to have Undying Loyalty to Nergal. While significantly more sympathetic than The Blazing Blade's token Witch, Sonia, Limstella is not above kicking the dog themself (especially towards other villains), nor does the story attempt to downplay or justify their actions. (The Blazing Blade); Camilla^note While she was a provocatively dressed high ranking older female, she was not at all brainwashed and not evil to the core, she just had trouble with her living family members. And likewise, she's genuinely a very doting lady for her underlings.(Fire Emblem Fates) Zephia (Engage) ^note She fulfills most of the requirements including a sympathetic death scene, however it's unknown if she was ever fully good before the events of the story. She's clearly somewhere in the Dark Lady archetype but skirts the line between where we split the subtypes.

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• All Abusers Are Male:
  • In contrast to the countless abusive fathers in the series, all Eremiyas only act abusively because a man abused and manipulated them.
  • Double Subversion with Clarisse who was abused and manipulated by Eremiya, a beautiful nun... but she only did this because she was magically manipulated by the male Gharnef in the first place, making a man the abuser of both characters.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • Marla, Hestia, Eremiya, Clarisse and Arete are all victims of brainwashing.
  • Thrasir dies her 'first death' lamenting that she couldn't restore her Bruno.
  • Freyja has a last minute Heel–Face Turn and dies as the nurturing faerie queen that saved both Triandra and Plumeria, prompting them to find a way to bring her back.
  • Aversa is an an odd case: if you do not do her sub-quest, there's no indication that she's a brainwashing victim and she appears to be a case of My Master, Right or Wrong that Chrom feels sorry for. But when she does find she's brainwashed, she doesn't die and joins you to atone, thus giving you no time to mourn.
  • On the brink of death, Zephia realized that if she wanted a family, she already had the Four Hounds. However, her own plotting for Sombron and her twisted sense of family (thanks to learning from Sombron) led her to kill Marni, having Mauvier leave her, and she's left to die along with Griss, who made her remember her wish that she inadvertently destroyed herself.
• The Baroness: Something they share with the Witches, although Early-Installment Weirdness is in effect for Eremiya herself who is dressed as a traditional conservative Bishop class and Clarisse in the same game who wears darker clothes but otherwise isn't far off from most other archers.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Unlike the Hardin, the brainwashing usually comes from dark magic cast by the Gharnef-type instead of possession by the Medeus-type.
• Black Mage: This is why they're part of the Dark Ladies along with the Witches. Eremiya, Arete, Nuibaba and Thrasir are part of the mage class family proper. Aversa is a Dark Flier with Shadowgift, a magic-wielding pegasus class unique to Awakening with the personal ability to cast Dark Magic. Freyja is a Beast unit where her attacks were counted as magic type. Mikoto and Clarisse are both archers, though the former has access to staves.
• Evil Matriarch: Unlike Witches, their status as a 'bad mom' is often because of being turned into a twisted version of themselves. They were actually once rather good parents:
  • Technically speaking, Marla was actually the eldest of three sisters, but Sonya describes her as "stern, but deeply kind" in her third base conversation in Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
  • Eremiya is the adoptive mother of Clarisse and Katarina but is only evil due to brainwashing; beforehand she was a true genuinely nice adopted mother to all orphanage children. Similarly Clarisse, as a Wicked Stepsister rather than an Wicked Stepmother, was kidnapped and raised to be evil, but may have been a good person if her biological family wasn't killed. She too gets a sympathetic death scene with her stepsister Katarina taking care of her in her final moments, acknowledging their bond despite their Big, Screwed-Up Family.
  • Aversa is a variation. By default, she is not a mom, but she can marry Robin, become Morgan's mother, and speak of her time as a villain with quite a bit of regret.
  • Mikoto was the mother of the Hoshido siblings and as shown on screen in early game, she was good, peaceful and serene. When she is revived and brainwashed by Anankos, she decides to use that 'good mother' image to lure them and Corrin into a trap, and when beaten, she reverted to her old genuinely good self before dying for real.
  • Arete is the real mother of Azura; before her death, she was a very gentle mother, and returns to her kind self as she dies.
  • Freyja zig-zags this: She saved and inspired Triandra and Plumeria from their abusive pasts, but then she went crazy because of siblings issues and resorted to giving Triandra and Plumeria nasty job descriptions (bringers of nightmares and lewd dreams), became more or less megalomaniacal, and pretty much stopped caring about them. Then she has a last-minute Heel–Face Turn, reverting to her old kind self and dies while admitting that she was genuine in saving Triandra and Plumeria, motivating them to resurrect her.
  • Zephia is the matriarch figure of the Four Hounds, proudly saying that they're like family. However, her twisted values of familial matters thanks to Sombron made her resort to either blasting away her disobeying family members to outright killing them, as Marni learned the hard way. On her death's door, she realized that she could've just treated the Four Hounds as a normal family, but it's too late. Zelestia, her alternate counterpart, is the good mom she could've been if she didn't lose her way.
• Females Are More Innocent: For the post-Tellius handheld games, they hold up as this, along with Ishtars though not as blatant. Three Houses decided to go back to the unsympathetic style.
• Foil: They are this, for both the Witches and Ishtars. Eremiyas are Forced into Evil, whereas Witches and Ishtars are antagonistic by choice.
• Tragic Villain: A once virtuous lady that is struck with the tragedy or encounter they never asked for and become a twisted version of themselves that needs to be put down.
• Unwitting Pawn: They are majorly brainwashed victims of men. Averted with Freyja, who's not being manipulated by anyone. She seems to view Alfaðör as at least a being above her hierarchy, while Alfaðör didn't directly manipulate her actions.

The Dark Wizard

The Gharnef

The Gharnef is the first of the three main villain archetypes. He's a mage (usually a Dark Magic user) that spends the entire game manipulating others for some goal, being the driving force behind the main conflict. The Gharnef tends to be defeated before the real Final Boss rears its head... usually it's because they are trying to revive a great destructive being who would serve as the Final Boss (usually the Medeus). Their goals often will cause a lot of destruction to the world, so they're very antagonistic and have to be put down. And even then, when the heroes actually kill them, they keep a satisfied smile in their faces: Because their deaths mean nothing in the grand scale, they have succeeded in bringing back the destructive being to ruin the world, so for them, the heroes will die anyway, so it's up to the player to make sure that the middle finger is given not for the heroes as the Gharnef predicted, but to the dead Gharnef figure post-mortem by surviving and killing the destructive being.

Characters of this archetype: Gharnef (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Jedah (Gaiden); Manfroy (Genealogy of the Holy War); Nergal (The Blazing Blade); Lyon and Riev (The Sacred Stones); Sephiran (Path of Radiance^note Sephiran is The Unfought in Path of Radiance, and the game never goes any further than subtle hints to his influence in the plot — his true colors aren't shown until the sequel and Radiant Dawn); Validar (Awakening); Thales (Three Houses); Hatanaka (Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Veld^note His goals mostly align with Manfroy, who is his boss; overall, he's just another Dark Mage that just happens to be the Final Boss for the game, but not the one fully in charge of the resurrection of Loptous, the cult's overall goal (Thracia 776); Iago^note Like Veld, he's only following King Garon's orders and while he is one of the last opponents you face in Birthright and Conquest, he is defeated midway through Revelations (Fates); Solon^note Like Veld and Iago, he's only following Thales' orders, but he's defeated midway through the game, instead of being one of the last opponents you face, Hubert^note Hubert is playable for the Crimson Flower route, is a manipulator and at least just has a Face of a Thug, and could be a sympathetic take of Gharnef. However, he is ruled out because he is not interested in resurrecting anything; he's just a loyal servant of Edelgard., Rhea^note Rhea is an Archbishop and manipulates the history of Fódlan. As a very pretty woman, she is also in line with mid-era Gharnefs like Lyon or Sephiran. However, even if she is an Archbishop, it translates to the game as being a Magic Knight since she's also attuned to swordsmanship and brawling. She is only an enemy, and the Final Boss at that (as Seiros) during the last half of the Crimson Flower route, though like most members of this archetype, she's fought in her human form in the penultimate chapter before being fought as the final boss; on the other routes, she works more as a genuine ally (she's kind of complex). And lastly, the being she's trying to resurrect (Sothis) is actually benevolent and more likely not going to ruin the world., and Aelfric^note Cindered Shadows only, with similar reasons to Rhea, though unlike her, he used to be good before discovering Sitri's body. Also, he does succeed in resurrection... though it goes horribly awry.(Three Houses); Zephia ^note She is the magic wielding architect behind Sombron's revival and the one pulling off the mind tricks to get everyone else in their side. However she has more in common with the Dark Lady archetype, especially in appearance. Additionally because Sombron is revived well before the Endgame, she spends a significant amount of time as his Number Two instead of as the Big Bad herself in his absence. Finally she gets discarded and Out-Gambitted by her own master like a Dark Lady. Alternate Ivy ^note Although she expresses a desire to resurrect Alternate Sombron, she isn't present until halfway through the Fell Xenologue and isn't the main enemy at any point of it. (Engage)

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• Always Male: All characters who fully fit the characteristics of this archetype have been male.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Most of the time, Gharnef characters are irredeemable bastards, and their deformed Gonk appearances are proof to that^note with Nergal being an exception; once you get to his backstory, he's a surprisingly Tragic Villain. Lyon is a pretty boy and he gets the sympathetic Tragic Villain treatment and sad sendoff (because he is also a Hardin archetype). Sephiran also looks normal, and he gets a chance for redemption.
• Casting a Shadow: All of them save for Riev and Sephiran specialize in Dark magic.
• Dark Is Evil: Their hearts are as black as their magic of choice (save for Riev and Sephiran).
• Evil Old Folks: While not mandatory for the archetype, Gharnefs are generally not just old, but also usually look the part, with Sephiran being the only one to pull off Really 700 Years Old handsomely^note Nergal is no young man appearance-wise, but he's also much older than is apparent. Lyon and Validar do show that advanced age isn't necessary to fill the archetype though.
• Evil Sorcerer: Is always a user of magic, mainly Dark Magic (though Riev and Sephiran use Light magic instead).
• Manipulative Bastard: They spend the game manipulating others, often being responsible for many of the conflicts in the plot.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: The more unsympathetic Gharnefs usually treat their deaths as such: They may die, but at least they have succeeded in setting up the Medeus to return to the world; from their POV, the heroes are doomed anyway. Notably, they're usually spared from 'being devoured by the Medeus figure' since that's usually reserved for the Smug Minister, meaning that even in the face of death, a Gharnef still remains calculative and confident about the fruition of their plan, carrying their dark, villainous dignity to the end.
• Promoted to Playable: Sephiran is the only Gharnef archetype who has ever been playable in the main campaign of the game they appear in. He needs specific circumstances to actually join you and only really exists for one chapter.
• Redemption Earns Life: Sephiran is the only Gharnef who can truly redeem himself, and the only Gharnef who can survive.
• Signature Spell: All of them except for Riev have their own unique magic tome to bring forth against their enemies.
• Sinister Minister: Many of them are evil Cult leaders who serve the resident Medeus archetype. Gharnef, Manfroy, and Riev take this further by being actual Bishops.
• Sole Survivor: Being a Gharnef is generally a death sentence. However, Sephiran can see redemption playing New Game Plus and completing some specific tasks to unlock the special event that makes him playable.^note The tasks are using the Black Knight in Chapter 1-F, and fighting him with Ike in Chapter 3-7, but the Black Knight mustn't be defeated. Doing this will unlock a special cutscene in the Endgame. Sephiran will be playable in the last chapter using his original name, Lehran.
• Unique Enemy: Mostly averted. Of the three main villain archetypes, the Gharnef rarely has their own unique class, opting for one of the normal magic-using classes instead. They may be of an enemy-exclusive magic-using class depending on the game, but they are rarely the only one. The only Gharnefs that have completely unique classes are Nergal (Dark Druid), Lyon (Necromancer), Sephiran (Chancellor), and Thales (Agastya).

The Smug Minister

Also known as the Ephidel, these are villains who are designed to attempt to emulate Gharnef, but are instead saddled with the smugness of either a Jiol or a Kempf and none of the charisma or competence of either Gharnef or Michalis. This usually results in 'The Smug Minister'. Always a magic user, these are the type of characters that, aside from holding a slightly better position in the political world, much like Jiol (unless they prefer to avoid politics and practice [dark] magic), fancy themselves great manipulators of events and bragging about it, making them extremely detestable. Unfortunately, for all their big talk, they can't back it up with power or cunning. They may be schemers, but the Gharnef is much better at it, factoring in the smaller details that the Smug Minister is too arrogant to concern themselves with.

Much like the Dark Lady, once everything comes crashing down for them, only an Undignified Death awaits them as they can only rant about the impossibility of their failure or futilely beg for their lives.

Characters of this archetype: Veld (Thracia 776); Ephidel and Sonia (The Blazing Blade); Lekain and Izuka (Radiant Dawn); Eremiya (New Mystery of the Emblem); Excellus (Awakening); Iago (Fates); Hyacinth (Engage); Letizia (Heroes)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Solon (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes) ^note Like Veld, he's only following Thales' orders, but his actions in the game contradict some of the most remarkable traits of the Smug Minister (like being a coward and having an undignified death, though Three Hopes gives him the latter by having Epimenides sacrifice him to activate the Spell of Zahras).

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• Always Someone Better: The Smug Minister is essentially a "Discount Gharnef". It's well known that Veld is lower in authority than Manfroy or Julius, but he otherwise plays the archetype straight in Thracia 776 because of the game's smaller scope.
• Composite Character: Hyacinth combines the elements of a Smug Minister and surprisingly an Eremiya, despite his male gender. He spends his time before his first death like a proper Smug Minister. But then, he gets revived and gets to die much more peacefully and with some encouraging words, surrounded with his daughters that still looked up to his past, kinder self, which is more in line with an Eremiya.
• Dirty Coward: When cornered, they usually start panicking, but that's merely the prelude to their long-overdue Undignified Death.
• Evil Sorcerer: Always a magic-user, and more inclined to dark magic.
• Hate Sink: If they get a lot of screen time, it will be dedicated to irritating the player with their smugness, machinations, evil actions, and being a poor man's Gharnef. Hyacinth is a subverted example in this trope: While he has all the makings of this archetype^note He only lasts half of the game, but his on-screen time was spent with being so utterly smug and successful in inciting the anger of Diamant and Alcryst by completing his corruption of Morion, only to be revealed that he's upstaged by both Zephia and Evil Veyle in manipulation and Sombron has the Undignified Death planned for him, with him dying in complete despair, he's still looked up highly by both Ivy and Hortensia, and it's shown that before the arrival of the Four Hounds, he used to be kind and gentle, proven with his encouraging final words as he dies the second time as a Corrupted. Additionally, he has a good reason to be antagonistic and trying to resurrect Sombron in the beginning: He was only defending his nation from Morion who tends to constantly wage war against Elusia just because of their religion of choice (granted, it was a dark religion, but if Morion didn't provoke him constantly, there's a chance that he could end up as a Dark Is Not Evil example).
• Manipulative Bastard: Their forte, although they still pale compared to Gharnef, usually without them knowing.
• Sinister Minister: They often have some level of political power, aligned with either the Rudolf or even the Gharnef, instead of the Medeus figure. Again, Gharnef still does it better. Played With for Hyacinth: While he's technically the King of Elusia, he nonetheless acts like these smug people who usually takes the minister position for Sombron.
• Smug Snake: This is what makes them so punchable. The way they fancy themselves as some big shot and rubbing it in their victims' faces makes them really unlikable.
• Undignified Death: They never end well. Despair tends to be the last emotions painted in their face as death approaches. This is to contrast with the real Gharnefs, who remain confident that their world-dooming plan will succeed anyway even when they get killed.
• Unwitting Pawn: Oftentimes they turn out to be a pawn of the real Gharnef.

The Rudolf

The Rudolf is the second of the main villain archetypes. Unlike the Gharnef, they tend to take a more direct approach, typically as the leader of The Empire that invades the nice and/or innocent kingdoms. The Rudolf's combat prowess matches their empire's military might, decked out with massive armor, and they often own a powerful and unique weapon to make them even more dangerous to face in battle.

Some Rudolf characters are ultimately repentant, becoming the Tragic Villain and will see the error of his ways, but usually too late (in fact, Rudolf himself is revealed to be an Anti-Villain). If he does not repent at all, he will continue to be a threat to the realm until put down.

Characters of this archetype: Rudolf (Gaiden); Hardin (Mystery of the Emblem); Arvis^* Generation 2 (Genealogy of the Holy War); Zephiel (The Binding Blade); Vigarde (The Sacred Stones); Ashnard (Path of Radiance); Walhart (Awakening); Garon (Fates); Flame Emperor/Edelgard (Three Houses); Alternate Timerra (Engage); Surtr (Heroes)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Morion (Engage)^note King Morion is clad in the same style of red armor that most of the characters in the Rudolf archetype wear. In addition to that, it is also stated that Morion is a fierce warmonger who has been very willing in following Brodia's long-lasting militaristic conquest. Furthermore, he constantly invades Elusia and starts a war between them, something even his own son disapproved of. However, he is treated as a heroic character despite this, and he willingly allies with the protagonists and fights against an evil kingdom that worships the Big Bad. His only part with an antagonistic role occurs after he is killed by his enemies and brought back as an undead monster.

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• Anti-Villain: Most of the Rudolfs are either a Well-Intentioned Extremist with actual standards or like Hardin, a shell of their former self and a Fallen Hero. Surtr is the only notable aversion of this, since he is never given any sort of motivation beyond conquest for power's sake.
• Climax Boss: By the time you've defeated them, you're either at the end of the game or entering endgame.
• The Emperor: They are the leaders of big evil empires trying to conquer the world. While Zephiel, Ashnard, Garon, and Surtr are all kings, they still act as evil emperors in practice.
• Evil Overlord: They're usually the leader of an evil empire trying to take over the world.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Very downplayed with Edelgard. While she is the only female member of this archetype, one of only two who can become playable under any circumstances (the other being Walhart), and some of her worst traits can be toned down via a Morality Chain, her goals and means still bring her in conflict with the rest of the world.
• Large and in Charge: These guys tend to be large, heavily armored guys who command a great deal of authority in their kingdom. Inverted with Edelgard, who is a Pint-Sized Powerhouse and one of the shortest characters in the game, period.
• Lightning Bruiser: Most of them have incredibly high, if not maxed-out stats across the board.
• Parental Issues: Most of the people in this archetype have certain... problems with their parents:
  • Arvis' father was a womanizer who pressed his mother into banishment, causing him to develop an Oedipus Complex from it.
  • Zephiel was The Unfavorite to his father, to the point his own father tried to have him assassinated twice (the second time being his Start of Darkness).
  • Ashnard is on the giving end of this trope to his son; even so, he tricked his own father into signing a Blood Pact to kill everyone ahead of him in the line of succession, and then murdered him personally.
  • Subverted with Edelgard. Rather than her father, the Emperor, being her abuser, it was how weak-willed he was (though not by his own choice, as he was afflicted with a terminal illness) and how the prime minister practically took over and used her as a guinea pig that served as her Start of Darkness. When she takes power, all she has to do is to tell her father she's ready to accept the crown, which he grants without complaint and gives her his full blessing, and then she immediately puts the crooked prime minister in his place.
• Promoted to Playable: Zephiel, Ashnard, Walhart, and Edelgard are all playable, with incrementally more prominent roles, Zephiel and Ashnard can be unlocked as Secret Characters only usable in trial maps, Walhart is an optional DLC character playable throughout the entire campaign with his own supports and endings, and Edelgard takes center stage as one of the main lords, despite fitting this role.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: All of them are royalty in their home games.
• The Smurfette Principle: Edelgard is the first female to be a member of this male-dominated archetype, and the chances of getting another female like this in the future are... kind of low.
• Sole Survivor:
  • Walhart is the only unquestionable example of a Rudolf who gets to live long enough to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Edelgard might count depending on whether you consider her to be a Rudolf even on her own route where she's not an antagonist.
• Tin Tyrant: Usually the commander in chief of The Empire, decked head to toe in heavy armor complimenting their size.
• Trope Codifier: While Rudolf started the archetype, Hardin would be the one who codified the more modern traits: Unique weapon and toning down the Anti-Villain aspects.
• Unique Enemy: Excluding Rudolf and Vigarde, all of them have their own unique classes, usually known as Emperor, King, or some variation of the same idea, like Walhart's Conqueror. With the exceptions of Ashnard and Alternate Timerra, the class is always a variation of the Armor Knight class-line; not all of them have the Armor weakness, though.
• Visionary Villain: They tend to be someone who has some sort of vision of a better world and will stop at nothing to achieve it, and sometimes can be utterly ruthless and brutal about it.

The Medeus

The last of the three main villain archetypes is not like any of the others. The Medeus is simply... not at all human. They are more or less a greater being whose power goes beyond mere mortals. Usually depicted as a dragon, though other species, a God/Goddess, or even a demon have been used. They usually tend to be The Man Behind the Man for the Gharnef, the force possessing the Hardin, or a tool too powerful for the Rudolf to control. Almost always the real final boss.

The Medeus is an ancient being which their existence and power is told in the world's legends, talking about their wicked desires and objectives, thought in some cases the Medeus can be remembered more fondly in these legends because of either misinformation or because they used to be good.

Due to how late they show up, the Medeus runs the risk of having little personality and only being defined by the threat they present to the realm. Although ironically, sometimes a Medeus is simply their antithesis, Naga, after one bad day turned their morality around.

They are the only one of the three main villain archetypes to never be recruitable in any form, for obvious reasons.

Characters of this archetype: Medeus (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Duma (Gaiden); Loptous^note You technically fight against Prince Julius, but he's described as nothing more than Loptous' vessel (Genealogy of the Holy War); Jahn and Idunn (The Binding Blade); a Fire Dragon (The Blazing Blade); Fomortiis (The Sacred Stones); Ashera (Radiant Dawn); Grima (Awakening); Anankos (Fates); Nemesis and Seiros/The Immaculate One (Three Houses); Sombron (Engage); Medeus again (Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE); Velezark (Warriors); Epimenides (Warriors: Three Hopes)

Characters that have elements of this archetype: Hegemon Edelgard^note The Hegemon Husk is unique among the "monster" final bosses as the only one that isn't a creature from ancient times; instead, she is created in the middle of the story serving as a transformation for Edelgard, unlike the Immaculate One or Nemesis, even if Edelgard technically serves as a successor for Nemesis after being imbued with the Crest of Flames. This difference makes the Hegemon Husk's context in the narrative very different compared with every other Medeus in the franchise, as its power and existence isn't part of the game's lore., Umbral Beast Aelfric^note DLC. Like the Hegemon Husk, he transforms in the middle of the DLC episode to become the final monster boss. (Three Houses), Fell Nil/Rafal ^note DLC. While he is the final boss of the Fell Xenologue, there are a few problems: First, he simply follows the will of the deceased Alternate Sombron. Second, he transforms into his One-Winged Angel form using the Emblem Bracelets rather than by his own power. Finally, he becomes The Atoner and is playable after completing the Fell Xenologue. (Engage)

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• Breaking Old Trends:
  • While all the other examples are unique, one-of-a-kind 'things', the Fire Dragon from The Blazing Blade is literally a generic Fire Dragon. The only reason the player fights it as the Final Boss is because events of the plot caused there to only be one Fire Dragon for the player to fight.
  • Unlike most examples of the Medeus, Fomortiis is not a dragon, instead being a demon.
  • Similarly, Ashera isn't even a being of darkness or a dragon, instead being a full-blown goddess, driven by a desire to maintain order on the continent of Tellius.
  • Nemesis is "just" an incredibly powerful human with powers derived from gods due to butchering the goddess Sothis and her children in order to fashion weapons from their remains.
  • Epimenides is not a dragon, but rather the secret mastermind behind Shez's possession and formerly a human as well before his self-styled experiments, using them and Arval on his quest to kill Sothis. Also, he is an endgame Optional Boss instead of the final boss. Most significantly, unlike almost every other example of a Medeus, it was never the stated goal of anyone to free or revive him; despite his research into soul transference, Epimenides was written off even by his own allies as truly dead and his revival centuries later was essentially a happy accident of several factors coming together in just the right circumstances to awaken him.
• Devil, but No God: In certain realms, a Medeus figure may rise alone without any Naga figure to counter them, thus it's just up to the humans alone to face off the demonic dragon. In times like these, the Past Legends took charge of sealing the Medeus in the first place.
• Dragons Are Demonic: Many are evil dragons trying to destroy and/or conquer the world.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Medeus is actually the leader of an invading empire, but what makes him different is that he is very passive in enforcing his rule (Gharnef does most of the manipulating behind the scenes while it's mostly Grustian officers that are enforcing his rule) and is practically only there to serve as the final boss fight. The emperor figure wouldn't be conceived until Gaiden, kickstarted by Rudolf.
• Females Are More Innocent: If a Medeus figure somehow is considered female, then she has a shot for redemption post-game.
  • If you land the final blow with the Binding Blade and Fae has survived, Idunn is spared from death and is taken to Arcadia to regain her emotions.
  • Ashera regains her moral compass and if certain conditions are met, she assists the reformed Sephiran in looking for another set of heroes to save Tellius from another war.
  • In any routes other than Crimson Flower (where she takes center stage as the Big Bad, and outright refuses Edelgard's offer of surrender), Seiros doesn't see the need to take over so she can pursue her goals. On Azure Moon, after an implied Heel Realization in captivity, she willingly relinquishes power to Byleth and Dimitri after her rescue; they then proceed to reform her church. On Verdant Wind and if not A-supported on Silver Snow, she takes several missiles to the face to save Byleth and passes away from injuries sustained from said missiles (in Silver Snow, however, her draconic degeneration peaked and she became antagonistic against her will, requiring a Mercy Kill). If S-supported on the Silver Snow route, Seiros (after being saved from her madness without killing her) manages to acknowledge Byleth as their own person and abandons her selfish desires to reunite with her mother, thus being able to genuinely become the virtuous archbishop Rhea that she projected all along.
• Final Boss: Whenever they appear, you can bet on them being the last opponent you face. The only exception is Epimenides, but even then he is still the second-to-last boss before the Immaculate One and/or Thales.
• Greater-Scope Villain: It is generally the Gharnef or the Rudolf who serves as the Big Bad, with the Medeus generally only showing up just before the Final Boss fight. Often averted if there is a Hardin around for them to control, turning them instead into the actual Big Bad (examples include Fomortiis and Anankos).
• The Man Behind the Man: They frequently end up either directing or manipulating other villains from behind the scenes.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Most of their backstory revolves around them harboring animosity against humans for whatever reason. Other villains would make use of the Medeus' hatred for humanity and godly strength to advance their agendas.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Most Medeus-types have a habit of either having been sealed or killed in the backstory, with the goal of the villains to resurrect or free them from their cans. If and how they're able to communicate with their minions depends on the nature of their current predicament.
• Unique Enemy: Most of them have their own exclusive class, although it's averted for Medeus himself (in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and its remake) and Jahn (in The Binding Blade), who are both ordinary Manaketes; though in the former case he has a personal dragon weapon (Earthstone) that gives him a unique Dragon form in combat, in both the original and the remake.

Others

The Unfought Catalyst: Background unfought characters whose nasty actions unwittingly created lasting problems for the world or accidentally enabled the present villains.

The Unfought Catalyst

By far, non-hostile NPCs tend to be more or less hapless allies or good Posthumous Characters. Not these characters, however: There are some NPCs that were actually despicable from what is told, but you don't fight them at all, maybe it's because they're already dead, or their retribution came off-screen. However, in the past, they did some things that became the catalyst of the events that come to pass in the past because they just can't keep their flaws in check. They tend to be horrible people in general, as one of the attempts to gray out the morality of the setting: Not all those Non Player Characters are innocent victims, but they may even give you and the land trouble post-mortem. In other words, they end up being the Unwitting Instigator of Doom, which makes it very frustrating for the players because they're not given the chance to directly sock them in the face and make them pay for what they have done, possibly making them even surpass all other characters in the directly antagonistic tropes (from the Vile Opportunists to the Evil's Inner Circle) in terms of despicability. But on the other hand, it cemented their importance in the narrative: Without their horrible act, the plot of the game wouldn't even happen at all.

Members of this archetype must be unable to be directly fought, however. Any time they are actually fought and defeated with game mechanics in any of the time span of the series, they are ruled out. And since they are by nature NPCs, none of them are recruitable.

Characters of this archetype: Adrah (Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem); Lima IV (Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia); Gair and Victor (Genealogy of the Holy War); Desmond (The Binding Blade); Forneus (Awakening)^note While he is first mentioned in Shadows of Valentia, his lasting effect that ends up being the archetype (the creation of Grima) is felt in the Awakening timeline; Marquis von Vestra, Lord Arundel, Baron Bartels, and the ancient Agarthans (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Alternate Sombron ^note Fell Xenologue only (Engage)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Taliver Bandits (The Blazing Blade)^note They collectively serve as a Token Motivational Nemesis for Lyndis, having murdered her parents and village when she was a child, and are reviled even by the rival Ganelon Bandits. They are never fought or even seen in the game proper, and are Killed Offscreen by a player character, Wallace, during the Time Skip. However, they have no apparent connection to any of the major villains, either in this game or The Binding Blade, and are only ever relevant to Lyndis' backstory.; Lekain (Path of Radiance)^note In that game, he and the rest of the Begnion Senators looked more like unassuming Obstructive Bureaucrat NPCs of the Begnion state, but the next game reveals that he's responsible for everything bad that happened in Tellius in the recent past, especially the Serenes Massacre. He's eventually ruled out with the fact that he's directly fought and defeated in the sequel, Radiant Dawn.; Great Noble Families of Adrestia ^note Duke Ludwig von Aegir, Count Grégoire von Varley, Count Waldemar von Hevring, Count Leopold von Bergliez, and Duke Gerth; just like Lekain, they are ruled out due to being fought in Three Hopes. Additionally, Counts Hevring and Bergliez and Duke Gerth are revealed to be decent people in Three Hopes, averting the asshole criteria. (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Parents of the Ljósálfr and Dökkálfr (Heroes)^note They may be unfought and despicable Abusive Parents for Peony, Mirabilis, Triandra, and Plumeria, but generally, their actions didn't have that big of an impact on the chaos in Ljósálfheimr and Dökkálfheimr; all they served was just to give servants for Freyr and Freyja, the instigator of chaos was Freyja.

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• Asshole Victim: Their heinous deeds often resulted in their actions coming back to bite them hard, and needless to say, it was well deserved and sometimes, there was much rejoicing. Adrah averts this by the virtue of how he was never a victim of anything (he actually succeeded in his goals) and his general personality outside the theft he did to the Shield of Seals was rather blurry to confirm whether he's an asshole or not. His descendants, however, end up being the victims of his crime by karma. Gerth, Bergliez and Hevring are also all decent men who end up supporting Edelgard and on some routes Count Bergliez will lay down his life so his soldiers may live.
• Didn't Think This Through: They do their actions without thinking of lasting effects, only living for the moment. By the time the lasting effect happened, if they may have second thoughts, it's already too late or for those who have no regrets (like the Agarthans), pass the will to the next generation.
• Flat Character: Most of them are defined by their flaws and whatever they did in the past. As a result, their other characterization is not a high priority in the writing, so whatever is highlighted on them makes them look very bad on purpose.
• Hate Sink: While they're actually non-playable and could technically be 'on your side', the games don't shy away to showcase that they're not to be liked at all. Some of them may be designed to be even more despicable than the actual villains of their games, which may be why they're put in the Antagonistic Archetypes. Adrah and some of the Noble Families of Adrestia are the only ones that downplay this, due to Adrah's minimal characterization making his whole personality and actions feel more ambiguous despite causing trouble for millenia to come and Gerth, Bergliez and Hevring being shown to be surprisingly decent individuals.
• Jerkass: Plain and simple, if their personalities are known to the players, they're assholes with no redeeming qualities, and their acts may be kind of heinous, but rarely match with what the current villains have in store. Averted with Duke Gerth and Counts Bergliez and Hevring, who are all decent guys who seem to have sided with Aegir and the fake Arundel more out of convenience than malice. They certainly have no problem turing against the former in Three Houses and against both in Three Hopes.
• Karma Houdini:
  • For the time he lived, Adrah didn't really suffer any direct karmic hammer from his theft, he lived and died just fine, achieving his goal to form his own kingdom that spanned through generations. It's just his descendants who paid the price for his actions, from the curse of tragedy, the disillusionment of Medeus and the war that came with it (which happened years after Adrah passed away).
  • Desmond got away with his abuse and attempted assassination of Zephiel in The Blazing Blade, though Zephiel made sure he got his comeuppance before The Binding Blade began.
  • Houses Gerth, Hevring, and Bergliez more or less get away with their crimes on routes where the player supports the Adrestian Empire. Otherwise, it's partially averted as Leopold and Waldemar can both see their sons die in the war they unwittingly helped start, in addition to Leopold dying in every route that is not Crimson Flower in Three Houses.
  • Alternate Sombron very much succeeded in wiping out humanity in Alternate Lythos, with what remains of it ending up having to migrate to the main world and only having to compensate with defeating the main timeline Sombron. Even with his death, he kinda won.
• Non-Player Character: But not the friendly types either.
• Posthumous Character: For the most part these characters are already dead before the start of the game. Only the Great Noble Families of Adrestia avert this, as they're still present in-game and their actions were more recent (except for Lord Arundel, who was murdered and replaced by Thales prior to the Insurrection of the Seven). Desmond plays with this: he counts within the timeline of The Binding Blade, but he's alive and well in The Blazing Blade because the game is a prequel set in a time where he still lives. He remains The Unfought, though.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Despite their minimum role and dead state by the game started, it's clear that their actions caused a great ripple in present time.
• The Unfought: Much as you wish to, you don't even fight them. They remain either unplayable, unfought, or already dead NPCs.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: They decided to thrive in their flaws and then died and the world pays the price:
  • Adrah's theft of the Shield of Seals that he used to found the Archanea Kingdom and conquer the land caused the Earth Dragons to awaken from their slumber, which paved the way for Medeus's disillusionment with human's treatment towards his kin, leading to the formation of the Dolhr Empire and cursing Adrah's own generation with tragedy.
  • Lima IV's generally prideful, cruel and hedonistic attitude made the otherwise peaceful Zofia become slothful, which not only caused trouble for his descendants, but gave justification for the generally poor Rigel to invade, as well as making the otherwise benevolent Mila (that blessed him) suffer draconic degeneration.
  • Gair's decision to journey to Archanea for 'personal power' ended up with him making contact with Loptous, kickstarting the dark age of Jugdral that haunts the continent for decades to come.
  • Victor was an unrepentant womanizer and abusive father/husband towards his family. His wife, Cigyun, held Loptous blood, and the two gave birth to Arvis. However, Victor's abuse led Cigyun to have an affair with Prince Kurth who had Naga blood, giving birth to Deirdre, causing Victor to commit suicide out of spite. This gives Manfroy the exact tools he needed to revive Loptous and shaped up Arvis to be a ruthless manipulator that ended up killing Sigurd.
  • Desmond is basically a really jealous father against his well-loved by public, dutiful, and talented son Zephiel just because he's born from an Arranged Marriage. He repeatedly refused to treat Zephiel well and repeatedly tried to have him dead, only for Zephiel to eventually snap in the last attempt, kill him in retaliation, and then become a Misanthrope Supreme who judged humanity based how his father treated him, waging war against Elibe to give the rulership to dragons.
  • Forneus just wanted to create a 'perfect lifeform', but didn't treat it well, and in turn, made the lifeform kill him. While Alm and Celica put a halt on that, the lifeform only went to slumber, and millenia later, the Grimleal capitalized on his awakening, becoming known as Grima and terrorizing Ylisse and its surroundings.
  • Duke Aegir, Count Varley, Count Hevring, Count Bergliez, Lord Arundel, Duke Gerth, and Marquis Vestra orchestrated the Insurrection of the Seven, all of which left a lasting impression on Edelgard and factored in why she became the Flame Emperor and concocted her destructive plan that threatened Fódlan, though three of them (Bergliez, Hevring and Gerth) eventually side with Edelgard and seemingly suffer no consequences for their previous betrayal on the route where she wins the war. And that is before you account on how they treat their children, especially Count Varley to Bernadetta. There's also Baron Bartels, who may not have been part of the Insurrection of the Seven, but was a horrible father to Mercedes and caused the rise of the Death Knight.
  • The Agarthans became Drunk with Power given to them by Sothis and rebelled in an attempt to prove their superiority, causing Sothis to obliterate them. They then became the first generation of the people that would be known as 'those who slither in the dark' (not including Thales) and manipulated Nemesis and the Ten Elites into slaughtering Sothis and the Children of the Goddess as revenge, causing Seiros to snap and eventually lock Fódlan in Medieval Stasis to prevent such tragedy again.
  • Averted with Alternate Sombron: He actually counted on what would happen after his passing against the alternate Alear, so he's actually a very witting instigator of doom.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: They're the ones that acted first, accidentally creating the grounds for the chaos that eventually swept their land. Though sowing chaos throughout the land was exactly what Arundel was aiming for, since he's actually Thales and the leader of those who slither in the dark.

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