Characters / Fire Emblem - Heroic Archetypes - Teams

Heroic Archetype Index | Main Characters | Availability Vs Growth | Teams | Physical Units | Magic Units | Mid-Late Game Units | Personalities | Others

Teams

These units are of the same class, but have different stat distributions to fit different playstyles and are personality foils. They are complementary when fielded together, and may give strong support boosts or team attacks.

• Cain and Abel: A Red and Green knight duo that typically serve the main Lord.
• Bord and Cord: A Red Oni, Blue Oni pair of axe fighters that may serve the Ogma.
• Pegasus Trio: A The Three Faces of Eve trio of fliers, mostly of common background, that can use the Triangle Attack.
• Wyvern Duo: A Red and Black Wyvern Knight duo (with clear distinction of who is superior in rank) from the enemy territory where both or one of them realize the error of the countries and defect.

Cain and Abel

The Cain and Abel are a pair of characters that join early in the game. The duo tends to pair off in four ways:

1. Personality: One is more relaxed or detached, while one is more serious or hot-blooded.
2. Stats: The two have different stat specializations, with the specifics varying by game. For example, one may have high Speed and Skill while the other has high Strength and Defense.
3. Color: One wears red, the other wears green, but other colors might fit, as long as it matches their hair colors.
4. Class: They have the same class, the most common being a Cavalier.

Cain and Abel always share a Character Class, which is usually Cavalier or some variant thereof. They are also usually both male, though Awakening and Shadows of Valentia have females in their duos.

Playable characters of this archetype: Cain and Abel (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Luke and Roderick ^note Luke is a Blue cavalier instead of Red, while Roderick follows the usual Green color, but otherwise they fit dynamic-wise(Mystery of the Emblem); Alec and Naoise (Genealogy Of The Holy War); Alen and Lance (The Binding Blade); Kent and Sain (The Blazing Blade); Kyle and Forde (The Sacred Stones); Oscar and Kieran (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Stahl and Sully (Awakening); Kaze and Saizo (Fates); Lukas and Forsyth, Mae and Boey ^note Forsyth exists in the original Gaiden, but has a different color scheme. Shadows of Valentia makes him green and lets him interact with Lukas thanks to some of the game's DLC. Meanwhile, Mae and Boey also underwent personality expansion in the remake (otherwise they're almost nondescript in the original Gaiden) and they surprisingly fit the dynamic despite being unconventional classes of the archetype. Additionally, Boey's color scheme was modified to become the green Abel to Mae's red Cain.(Shadows of Valentia)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Cecil ^note  Cecil is a red clad cavalier who joins at the same time as Roderick and Luke, and has a red oni personality to clash with Roderick's green armor and calm personality. But stat wise they actually both lean towards the Fragile Speedster, and she was from a different platoon to start with before being put in their platoon, while Roderick and Luke were partnered from the start. This leaves those two with the relationship of the archetype and Cecil as more a third wheel. Also, in the original Mystery of the Emblem, she had pink hair and armor to boot. (Mystery of the Emblem); Alva and Kain^note  They have the red and green colors, (supposed) contrasting personalities, and opposite stat lines. However, their relative unimportance and lack of any dialogue at all, especially with each other to give off an air of being friends, means they can't be said to match the personality trait outside of what a few minor sources have said about them. (Thracia 776); Oscar and Boyd ^note  If you read Ike as a Lord, they're his early game immediate deputies with contrasting personalities, stats, a red and green color scheme, and are literally brothers like the original Cain and Abel. However Boyd is a fighter rather than a cav, even if the eventual red cav Kieran is also an Axe Cavalier specifically. They also have a third wheel younger brother Rolf, who is of yet a different class, but the three can Triangle Attack giving them shades of another archetype as well. (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Janaff and Ulki ^note They don't have contrasting colours and join towards the mid-late game, but they otherwise fit the archetype quite well: they share the same class (Hawk) with different stat specialisations, serve a major lord character (Tibarn), and have a Red Oni, Blue Oni personalities.(Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Silas and Peri^note  They have contrasting stats, with Silas as more of a tank and Peri faster and less strong, as well as different personalities of the red oni, blue oni type. But they never join at the same time as each other, have no personal connections in their backstories other than both being from Nohr, and their colors, while contrasting, are not the usual vibrant colors of green and red instead being white and black.(Fates); All Cavalier-aspiring students (Ferdinand, Sylvain, Lorenz, Leonie and to some extent Ingrid)^note Elements of Cain and Abel were spread quite fairly to those who aspire to be some sort of horse-rider class, but none of the pairs given could be considered full-on Cain and Abel. From those with same houses: Lorenz and Leonie may have standout colors (Leonie is red-orange, Lorenz is purple), but they don't have a notable relationship besides 'being in the same class.' Sylvain and Ingrid almost hit it well, with contrasting personalities (quite similar to Kent and Sain's dutiful knight vs skirt chaser), being childhood friends, having a red vs yellow-green colors, but they're really part of a trio that includes Felix. Felix and Ingrid default to myrmidon and pegasus rather than cavalier. And... Ferdinand is the only Cavalier in the Black Eagles class. He and Lorenz, despite being of different houses, bond over both being proud nobles and tea lovers making them more two of the same than contrasting, and their stat growths don't line up well. (Three Houses); Clanne and Framme (Engage) ^note While they fit the archetype's color scheme and personality dynamic (in fact, their color schemes were picked to homage this archetype), they aren't the same class (by default, Clanne is a Mage whereas Framme is a Martial Monk).; Touma (Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE) ^note While he is Cain's Mirage Master and Abel also exists as a Mirage, Touma doesn't have a partner in the game. Abel instead appears as an antagonistic Mirage possessing an NPC in Touma's sidequest chain. They eventually partner up, but long after the end of the game's story

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• Character Select Forcing: Their early availability, high mobility, all-around good stats, and (in some games) wide range of available weaponry make them two of the most versatile characters the player will have in their disposal.
• Chromatic Arrangement: The red Cain and green Abel are typically close with the (usually) blue Lord character, oftentimes serving as the Lord's loyal retainers.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Usually, the one in red is the red oni and the one in green is the blue oni; Mystery of the Emblem changed red for blue with Luke. The Blazing Blade is the only one that reverses this (and possibly Thracia 776, where the duo filling the archetype are little more than extras). Their stat specializations also tend to follow a pattern where the red one is strong and the green one is swift, though both The Blazing Blade and The Sacred Stones reversed that one.
• Cool Horse: Are always of the Cavalier class, with the exception of Kaze and Saizo, who are of the Ninja class (which itself is a counterpart to the Thief class), Lukas and Forsyth, who are of the Soldier class, and Mae and Boey, who are of the Mage class.
• Foil: Almost always of clashing personalities, which gets brought up (or even emphasized) in support conversations.
• Force and Finesse: A common distinction between the two, with one having greater Strength and the other having more Skill and Speed. They could be considered mounted counterparts to the Fighter and Myrmidon classes, respectively.
• Lightning Bruiser: For the most part, they are durable, strong, fast, and mobile with weaknesses that might as well not exist.
• Non-Indicative Name: Named for the original Biblical figures Cain and Abel... and the only two times the Cain and Abel trope actually comes into play (Mystery of the Emblem and Fates: Conquest), it's the Abel who betrays the Cain. Please note that this is only in a matter of 'betraying the homeland', not 'betraying the hero', since Abel ended up betraying both the hero Marth and his home country Altea, while Kaze betrayed Hoshido in Conquest, but sticks with the hero Corrin. And despite the namesakes of the archetype, only the Fates duo are actually siblings, though most of them do share a brother-like relationship with each other.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Usually one is intense and the other is calm, or one takes their knightly duties seriously and the other pursues other interests or hobbies. While the original Cain and Abel are the former and latter respectively, other games occasionally swap around the aforementioned traits.
• Those Two Guys: They generally act like this.
• With a Friend and a Stranger: Occasionally, there will be a third cavalier who is closely associated with the main duo, but isn't as close as they are to each other. Examples include Frey (to Cain and Abel as another one of Marth's retainers), Cecil (to Luke and Roderick as part of their trainee division), Franz (to Kyle and Forde as the latter's younger brother), and Kagero (to Kaze and Saizo as the third ninja, and Saizo's fellow vassal to Ryoma). Ironically, the one who originated this tendency was from the brother archetype of this archetype (Bord and Cord): Barst.

Bord and Cord

A duo of axe fighters that typically join together in service of a sword fighter, either the Lord or the Ogma. Similar to Cain and Abel, they are mostly distinguished by their complementary growth rates. One will have better Strength, and the other better Speed. Typically the one with higher Strength also has higher Skill. They will have a Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic, with the exception of the original. Bord and Cord themselves were both Red Onis and had a Blue Oni in a third fighter named Barst, in which the 'third wheel' member like Barst would end up being utilized amongst the Cain and Abel archetype (see above on their folder).

Since Path of Radiance, this archetype in its classic form has been replaced with giving the player's army a single axe fighter at the beginning of the game, though this does not rule out the possibility for more axe fighters to join later on.

Playable characters of this archetype: Bord and Cord (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and New Mystery of the Emblem); Halvan and Osian (Thracia 776); Wade and Lot (The Binding Blade); Dorcas and Bartre (The Blazing Blade); Garcia and Ross (The Sacred Stones)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Iuchar and Iucharba ^note  They are axe fighters with opposite stat lines and personalities... but are also mutually exclusive party members, meaning neither one can ever be with the player's army at the same time, so you can only get half of the archetype within a single playthrough. (Genealogy of the Holy War); Boyd and Oscar ^note  If you read Ike as an Ogma, they're his immediate deputies with contrasting personalities and stats. However Oscar is a cavalier rather than a fighter (Path of Radiance); Boyd and Nolan^note They possess contrasting stat growth, personalities and are the earliest axe fighters... for their respective groups. In other words, they joined different people (Ike and Micaiah), don't fight in the same army for most of the game, and are completely unconnected storywise. (Radiant Dawn); Arthur and Charlotte^note They have differing stat growths and at the very least, they both originate from Nohr (despite the difference of their positions), thus available in any routes they are playable. While Arthur is the only early axe fighter in Conquest, they have the same joining time in Revelation. Their personalities, however, are different flavors of Red Oni, being Hot-Blooded in their own ways, and they aren't officially a pair In-Universe (they DO have pairs of fellow Armor Knights (Effie and Benny), but that's a different story unrelated to the archetype). (Fates); Caspar and Edelgard, Caspar and Hilda^note They are similar in a way of two starting axe fighters with different, contrasting personalities (Caspar is battle gung-ho while Hilda actively avoids battle out of laziness), but they never join at the same time since they belong to different houses (Black Eagles and Golden Deers), despite actually being able to have paired endings (and even worse, Hilda is flat out unavailable if you stick to the Crimson Flower route). Caspar and Edelgard are actually both available on the same route, and fit for personality and stat contrasts, but they aren't really connected outside of sharing a house, and their vastly different social standings mean they probably don't qualify. (Three Houses)

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• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first Bord and Cord actually came as a trio with another axe fighter named Barst. Barst was the Blue Oni to their collective Red, and a Jack of All Stats between the two about equal with Ogma.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Usually, one is calm and the other is a Boisterous Bruiser. For instance, Garcia and Nolan are older and more level-headed war vets while Ross and Boyd are young in their careers and eager to fight. Dorcas is doing mercenary work to save money for his sick wife, and Bartre is throwing himself into battle to get strong enough to fight his rival.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: The two will often share this dynamic, with one being a Blood Knight eager to take part in battle, and the other being The Everyman that just wants to be with their family. However, both play the Warrior to the Draug's Soldier, being independent mercenaries as opposed to members of an army. This is best shown in Dorcas' conversations with Oswin in The Blazing Blade where the former (himself the Soldier to Bartre's Warrior) turns down the latter's offer to join the Ostian Knights, so that he could continue fighting on behalf of his wife.
• Those Two Guys: They are usually friends, join at the same time, and even tend to look alike. Garcia and Ross are a father-son duo.

The Pegasus Trio

A trio of Pegasus Knights who are either sisters or simply have a long history of working together. They typically join you one at a time, with one coming early-game, one coming mid-game, and one coming late-game. Together, they can execute the Triangle Attack, guaranteeing a Critical Hit on that turn.

Personality-wise, the youngest is the most innocent, the eldest is the most mature. The middle child varies, but tends to be extremely dedicated to one thing, whether her duties, her family, money, an unrequited crush, etc. They're typically knights of the kingdom or mercenaries, with the eldest being The Captain of their own squadron. Rarely are they nobles with the exception of the Sacred Stones and Warriors entries.

Notable for being one of the only typically-player-side archetypes that has been used by the enemy: a Pegasus trio of Meng, Maybell, and Bleg appears in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. Furthermore, a enemy trio of Banba, Fetra and Eliu also appears, with largely the same dynamics except that these three are mages instead.

The Triangle Attack is absence from Awakening (barring a reference) and Fates being somewhat succeeded by the Pair-Up mechanic. The move returned in Three Houses as a universal mechanic that all female characters reclassed to pegasus knight can learn. However none of the default pegasus-aspiring units have any of the other elements of the archetype.

Playable characters of this archetype: Palla, Catria, and Est (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Gaiden, Mystery of the Emblem); Juno, Thea, and Shanna (The Binding Blade); Fiora, Farina, and Florina (The Blazing Blade); Syrene, Vanessa, and Tana (The Sacred Stones); Sigrun, Tanith, Marcia, and Elincia (Path of Radiance^note Not Sigrun and Radiant Dawn); Caeda, Cordelia, and Hinoka^note While Caeda triggers the Triangle Attack on her own, Cordelia and Hinoka can join in for cosmetic purposes if their supports with her are maxed out (Warriors)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Karin and Misha^note As their number suggested, despite having similar backgrounds and profession, they are only two people, therefore, they can't be this. (Thracia 776); Barthe, Bors, and Gwendolyn ^note They actually fit neatly, but are armor knights instead of pegasus riders, and include two males. (The Binding Blade); Oscar, Boyd, and Rolf ^note They fit in personality, and are all siblings, but three males and three different classes. Their Triangle is triggered by using the same weapon (bows) instead of being in the same class. (Path of Radiance); Phila, Cordelia, Sumia, and Cynthia^note The first three are mentor and students, respectively, and were part of the same guard before Sumia was reassigned to the Shepherds. However, Phila suffers an irreversible Plotline Death without being able to be recruited, which renders Sumia and Cordelia as a duo, and thus unable to fulfill the requirement. Cynthia, meanwhile, fits as a recruitable starting Pegasus Knight, but while she is Sumia's daughter, she shares little relationship with Cordelia. Additionally, they all lack the ability to use the Triangle Attack, another major requisite for the archetype. (Awakening); Hinoka, Subaki and Caeldori^note It's a trio of Pegasus Knights, but they are not that closely related aside of 'originating from Hoshido': Subaki is Sakura's retainer and doesn't always have to pair up with Hinoka, and only by one specific combination (Hinoka marries Subaki) that the three could be family, and even then, they still don't have Triangle Attack. (Fates)

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• Awesome, but Impractical: While definitely cool, setting up the Triangle Attack is often more trouble than it's worth.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: They wear this as part of their attire.
• Boyish Short Hair: One or two of them tend to have shorter hair than other girls.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Sometimes. The original White Wings had a very clear red, blue, and green color scheme. However the ones that reprise this closest are the non-pegasus trios that can Triangle in Binding Blade and Path of Radiance.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • In Genealogy of the Holy War, the archetype is assigned to a trio of enemies during the final map that aren't given much characterization. Also, a similar trio of enemy mage sisters appear in Chapters 7 and 8 with similarly limited characterization and access to the Triangle Attack.
  • In Binding Blade you have a trio of armor knights that can Triangle Attack, and are close on the other counts of the archetype. The eldest is still the captain of the guard, but the youngest is the most driven and the middle is the most gentle. Only two out of three are siblings.
  • In Path of Radiance you have a trio that can triangle and arguably even closer, despite some key differences. The eldest was a high ranking knight (before resigning to take care of the family), the middle is the most battle focused, and the youngest is the most naive. They're brothers however, not sisters. And they all have different classes, Paladin, Warrior and Sniper. Despite this they can still Triangle Attack because of their shared weapon, bows.
• Combat Medic: Only in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (though the relevant characters are enemies, and while none of them are equipped with staves, they all carry Earth Swords to heal themselves with) and Elincia in the Tellius duology.
• Combination Attack: The Triangle Attack. The effect is always a guaranteed Critical Hit on the unfortunate enemy. Yes, the trio of enemy Pegasus Knights can do this as well, and while they will seldom pull it off thanks to their AI canto-ing out of range, they do have the Critical skill, which hits just as hard as a Triangle Attack.
• Composite Character: Some games incorporated traits from Caeda into their resident youngest Pegasus Knight. Shanna, Florina, and Sumia are the starting Pegasus Knight in their games while being acquaintances with the starting Mercenary (Dieck) and a Lord (Lyn and Chrom) respectively. Elincia has elements of the Heroine archetype, and conveniently Ike is a Lord with elements of the starting Mercenary. While Tana's age is vague in relation to Vanessa, she is the least experienced fighter in the group and is close friends with Eirika and Ephraim. And there is Farina who fits into the Beowolf archetype that players had to pay to recruit her.
• Cool Horse: Well, Cool Pegasus actually.
• Fragile Speedster: Most of them tend to be this compared to other units, having high speed but mediocre to low defense.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: The eldest of the sisters (Palla) always has long hair to emphasize their 'wife/mother' status in the The Three Faces of Eve dynamic and being the caretaker. The only exception for this rule is Tanith during Path of Radiance, but in the sequel, the more feminine, long-haired Sigrun takes over the 'eldest sister' part.
• Mage Killer: Because most of them tend to have high Resistance as well, they tend to excel at slaying mages.
• Rule of Three: Three Pegasus Knights who all know each other and who can initiate the Triangle Attack exist as recruitable characters in most games.
• The Three Faces of Eve: Tend to have this dynamic. The Est is the Child and the Palla is the Wife. The Catria is the odd one out that they are usually the Serious One instead of the Seductress.
• Utility Party Member: The initial Pegasus Knight tends to have underwhelming combat abilities, with Speed being their only quality, not helped by their restriction to lances if the early game is dominated by axe-wielding enemies. However, they are nonetheless invaluable for their high Movement and ability to bypass terrain obstacles, not only allowing them to reach villages before the Bandit Mooks, but also ferry other units to where they're needed, but couldn't easily access on their own.

The Wyvern Duo

The Wyvern Duo are usually a pair of Wyvern Knights who are always related to each other. The most common scenario is that they're from the enemy nation, which is usually the nation that houses Wyvern Knights, and decided that their Empire crossed the line and they're in the wrong, and so decided to join the heroes to set the nation right. A most common similarity can also be found in their colors, similar to Cain and Abel, except with Red and Black. For some reason, this pair is often fairer to the sex, you often get one boy and one girl, and the girl is almost always red. And they rarely join at the same time, similar to Merric and Linde, so if one joined and became your primary Wyvern Knight, you might end up not using the other, or benching the first-joiner until the second one came along. And the earlier joining time is usually mid-game.

In the earlier days, only the red Wyvern Knight would join you, but eventually both would join, forming this archetype. If that happens, usually it's the female who joins first. This is why at first the archetype used to be named after the first female example of this: Minerva. There are other instances of this, however.

There's also another similarity in traits for this. Unlike Cain and Abel, who are more or less equals in rank, the rank hierarchy is clear in this archetype: One would be a senior/senpai, the other one would be a junior/kouhai. And as opposed to Cain and Abel, they're pretty consistent in their class. It's always going to be Wyvern Knights, which is why their country of origin plays a big part in defining them: The country always tends to be the sole wyvern-breeding ground of the continent.

Playable characters of this archetype: Minerva & Michalis (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem) ^note Michalis does not join you in Shadow Dragon or Mystery of the Emblem, but in New Mystery of the Emblem, he can join you; Altena & Arion (Genealogy of the Holy War) ^note Arion does not join, but he can temporarily become an allied NPC in the final chapter; Eda & Dean (Thracia 776); Melady & Zeiss (The Binding Blade); Heath & Vaida (The Blazing Blade); Cormag & Glen (The Sacred Stones)^note Glen is a throwback to Michalis and Arion, wearing red like Minerva and contemplating a Heel–Face Turn, but was killed off by Valter before he could go through with it, leaving Cormag the sole Wyvern Knight on the good guys' side; Jill & Haar (Path of Radiance); Scarlet & Camilla (Fates) ^note due to Fates' branching paths, they can switch between who plays the Minerva and Michalis roles

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Cherche & Gerome ^note They fit a majority of the requirements: Two Wyvern Riders with clear distinct seniority (mother and son), Cherche even has red color scheme (if only just by being a redhead). What they lacked was a major one that disqualified them: They originated from a country that's not at all antagonistic to Ylisse (Rosanne, which was already conquered by the Valmese Empire); therefore, there was no 'realizes that their country was in the wrong, thus defecting'. (Awakening), Cyril & Seteth (and Ladislava) ^note Cyril and Seteth only slightly fit this as enemies on the Crimson Flower route; while Seteth has Anti-Villain qualities, Cyril takes his loyalty to Murdock-esque levels. However, only Cyril comes from a Wyvern-breeding country (Almyra, and it didn't even defect to the Empire), Seteth is officially from the mainland and a Child of the Goddess, and while they have some people close with each other, it's not them together (Shamir for Cyril, Flayn for Seteth), so they're not exactly closely related duos. Their color schemes also don't match. Ironically, Ladislava of the Adrestian Empire is closer to a shout out to Minerva alone, being a red-colored female wyvern rider and a sympathetic one at that despite working for the Empire, but the Adrestian Empire doesn't breed wyverns, she's still unplayable in Crimson Flower, she never betrays the Empire, and she lacks a black-colored wyvern rider companion. (Three Houses), Ivy & Hortensia (& Rosado) ^note  They all defect from the same antagonistic nation where wyverns come from. Ivy holds the highest rank as crown princess and Hortensia's big sister, and Rosado the lowest rank as Hortensia's retainer. Ivy & Hortensia share the same base class in name and weapons (Wing Tamer, wielding tomes and staves) though only Ivy is a wyvern, and Hortensia is a pegasus. Ivy & Rosado both have wyverns but with different class names and weapon loadouts with Rosado being the only physical Wyvern Knight. They also have less of a relationship with each other than either does with Hortensia. There's not a strong color difference between any of them. They all favor a mix of reds, purples, blues, and blacks. (Engage)

• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Red and black, similar to Cain and Abel (switching green for black).
• Defector from Decadence: They always hail from the enemy empire, which is often made to be the only place capable of breeding wyverns. This is also why both Cherche and Gerome from Awakening don't quite make the cut despite being a duo of wyvern knights: the country they're from isn't antagonistic.
• Dragon Rider: They're always of the Wyvern Knight class.
• Foil: In a way, to the Cain and Abel archetype. Two color-coded mounted knight duos. One uses horses (mostly), one uses wyverns. One is from the Lord's country, one is from the enemy country. One seems to be equal with each other, one has a distinction in who's more experienced or in higher position.
• Heel–Face Turn: They are always defectors from the enemy nation (with the exception of Camilla in Fates: Conquest), and often must be recruited directly from the enemy.
• Lightning Bruiser: As Wyvern Knights, they are extremely powerful and tanky, and usually have just enough speed to double as well, although arrows, magic, and especially wind magic will deal big chunks of damage to them.