The first Book of the game, running from the game's launch until September 2017. See the opening cinematic here
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Midgard, the Realm of humans, home to the Kingdom of Askr and the Emblian Empire, two countries with the power to manipulate portals to other worlds. The Kingdom bears the power to open gates, while the Empire has the power to close them. They've lived in peace for years until the day the Emperor of Embla ceased to close portals, and instead began invading other worlds and binding the people there (known as "Heroes") to contracts, in hopes of bringing prosperity to his country. Upon his death, his wife called off the war, until her stepdaughter, the Princess Veronica, took up her father's cause and restarted the war.
The Order of Heroes is an organization within the Askran Kingdom that seeks to free those bound by Emblian contracts, lead by Commander Anna. Joining her as the Askran royal siblings: Prince Alfonse and Princess Sharena. While fleeing from Emblian invasion, a desperate Anna grabs the legendary artifact Breidablik and summons the one prophesied to save their country: the Great Hero, the Summoner.
Tropes:
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Book I is the only Book to have a Preface, a Prologue, and two Intermission chapters. It is also the only Book to have the Order of Heroes to actively visit other Fire Emblem worlds, and the only one where there are 9 main chapters available with the release of the Book, and, alongside Book II, the only one without a Midpoint and Ending movie.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Ike in Chapter 10-1 is impossible to defeat since he is equipped with a special Sacred Seal (Embla's Ward) that makes him completely immune to damage. He will seek the player's units out, and the only way the player can deal with him is to avoid him entirely before successfully surviving a specific number of turns.
- Magically-Binding Contract: The reason why you fight all the Heroes in the story. Heroes defeated by the Emblian Empire must agree to the contract, which states that they must serve the empire, or they'll presumably be killed. However, the contract is null and void if someone else defeats them in combat. A majority of Book I (and a few Paralogues) focuses on freeing the Heroes from the Empire's contracts.
- Recurring Boss:
- Regular Xander is fought a few times during the story mode. Once during the prologue, twice during Ch 2, and once more in Ch 9-5, where he fights alongside Veronica.
- The Mysterious Man/Prince Bruno is fought several times during the story mode. He's fought in Ch 9-4, 10-3, 11-5, 12-5, 13-1, and 13-5 in Book I, and 1-5 and 6-5 in Book IV, notably being the main boss of 9-4 and the Climax Boss of 12-5 and 13-5.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 10 begins with Veronica directly invading Askr with Heroes from the World of Radiance, and the Askr trio are actually unnerved by the idea of facing Ike and his group. This time, Veronica somehow obtained a seal that makes Heroes invincible and until it wears off, the Summoner's units can't damage Ike at all. In the last chapter, the Summoner and the Askr trio follow the Heroes of Radiance into their world, and just as they claim victory the gateway between the worlds begins to close, and the player ends up temporarily trapped and very nearly killed by Veronica, only managing to return to Askr due to a timely rescue by Zacharias. Not only is this a shift in tone for the main story, but it's also a Wham Episode from a gameplay standpoint; this chapter had new objectives, such as surviving the battle for 6 turns and having a limited amount of time to defeat all enemies.
- Chapter 11 has a big story revelation at the chapter's end: Bruno states that he killed Zacharias and next on his list is Anna, Alfonse, Sharena, and you.
- Chapter 12 one-ups it again by revealing that Bruno possibly is Zacharias, and he's either suffering from Demonic Possession or is otherwise Not Himself.
