Characters / Fire Emblem Engage: Antagonists

Main index | Main Characters | Land of Lythos | Kingdom of Firene | Kingdom of Brodia | Kingdom of Elusia | Queendom of Solm | Alternate Elyos | Antagonists | Emblems

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The antagonists of Fire Emblem Engage.

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Land of Gradlon

The Fell Dragon's former base of operations, a land as unholy as Lythos is holy, it was sunk beneath the sea when Sombron was sealed a thousand years ago.

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Land of Gradlon in General

• Atlantis: Of the dystopian variety, it was a powerful land that was brought to ruin as a result of its master's hubris.
• Colorful Theme Naming: The majority of the Gradlon characters are named after colors:
  • Zephia is named after sepia.
  • Griss is named after griseo (Latin for gray).
  • Marni is named after maroon.
  • Mauvier is named after mauve.
• Death World: Under Sombron's influence the land is inhospitable to most life, being volcanic, toxic, and desolate. After his death it remains so, but after a hundred years of work Veyle manages to use her powers to turn it into a fertile place that people can colonize.
• Hailfire Peaks: Gradlon is a literal example of this, as it is a very harsh land full of volcanic wastelands and frozen mountain peaks.

Major Villains

Fell Dragons (ALL SPOILERS UNMARKED)

Sombron (Sombre)

Class: Fell Monarch > Great Fell Dragon

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese), Erik Braa (English)

The Fell Dragon who waged war on Elyos a thousand years ago that was defeated and sealed away by the power of the Emblems. In present times he is worshiped by some in the kingdom of Elusia, and his servants seek to unleash him and plunge Elyos into darkness once again.

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• Abusive Parents:
  • He's an absolutely hideous father, as he regularly killed his children for perceived defects, and according to Past Alear, the only time he ever said their name was when he named them, and then never again. Sombron eventually clarifies that he never wanted a bond with his children, and indeed despised them for desiring a bond with him, never intending to keep any of them around past the point of serving his purpose.
  • There's also him being a terrible parental figure to Zephia, being directly responsible for her being as cruel as she is and her twisted concept of family, not to mention manipulating her into remaining loyal to him by gaslighting her about eventually upholding his promise of giving her children.
  • His counterpart in Alternate Elyos from the Fell Xenologue wasn't much better, having tampered with Nel's dragonstone at some point in time. While it's unknown what he did to it, the dragonstone warped Rafal's mind into having him pick up where his father left off.
• Alas, Poor Villain: For all of the genuine evil that he committed, his death is still treated as a somewhat somber moment as it's made plain as great of a monster as he was Sombron was also a profoundly damaged and lonely person who had long ceased to enjoy being alive. Alear and Veyle take pity on him and convince him to try one last time to summon the Emblem of Foundations, allowing him to achieve some manner of peace as he dies.
• Alternate Self: Like the rest of the main cast, Sombron has a counterpart in Alternate Elyos and is pretty much the same. That said, Nel mentions he appeared alongside the first Divine Dragons, implying Alternate Sombron was native to Alternate Elyos, whereas his main counterpart is from another world entirely and was exiled to Elyos.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Since Sombron is from another dimension, he has gray skin to represent how he is much different from other dragons.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • In his final moments, after he says the invocation of the Emblem of Foundations to a seemingly futile effect, he suddenly starts seeing the aforementioned Emblem as he dies, happy to have finally reunited with them. But Alear, Veyle, and the player don't see anything, which begs the question as to whether he genuinely saw them or was just hallucinating in his dying breath. The characters conclude that whatever is happening is real but only Sombron can see it.
  • The enemy force that killed his family, it's never stated if they had a good reason to beyond that it was part of a war over their world's Emblems, or did it out of Fantastic Racism, as Veyle and Alear show that fell dragons are Not Always Evil unlike other settings. Them sparing Sombron shows that they at least showed some empathy.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Sombron "Engages" with the Emblem of Foundations, an Emblem who had passed from this existence, after his defeat; he then vanishes, with only sparkles left behind. The same particle effect is used when each of Elyos's Emblems lose their forms afterwards, to signify their own departure from the living world.
• Archnemesis Dad: While not obvious early on, he serves as this to Alear and, later on, Veyle.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Not only is his dragon form massive initially, he becomes far bigger still after using the power of all 12 Emblem Rings for himself, growing to utterly titanic proportions. Whereas before he could still fit inside a castle, afterward he is outright taller than it.
• The Bad Guy Wins: This is the main idea behind the "Fell Xenolouge" DLC, as it takes place in an alternate reality where Sombron wins, has killed everyone who is playable in the base game (with the exception of Mauvier, but even then, he dies later), and is responsible for creating a post-apocalyptic world. Although Sombron does eventually die thanks to alternate Alear pulling a Heroic Sacrifice, by then, he has already done pretty much everything that he wanted to and considers his own death to not really be a problem.
• Being Evil Sucks: Sombron is not really an happy person and as he revealed in his last moments, as part of him is tired of searching for Zero Emblem and realizing that his whole objective is very likely a Snipe Hunt.
• Big Bad: The main villain of Engage and quite possibly the biggest and baddest villain in the mainline series yet, considering he summons Dark Emblem versions of many of the past final bosses in order to serve him as his puppets, and he's more powerful than all of them. He wants to destroy all opposition and obtain all the Emblem Rings so that he may scour the multiverse and find the Emblem of Foundations.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: On the receiving end of this. Most of Sombron's children who have survived until the start of the story, with the exception of both of Veyle's personalities and occasionally Rafal, refer to him by name due to wanting nothing to do with him. Alear is unaware of their status as Sombron's child for most of the game, but learning their heritage doesn't improve their opinion.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: More like "will need you", but it's alluded a few times that the main reason Sombron didn't dispose of Veyle 1,000 years ago like his other children, was because she was too young to fight or be of any use.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: He contrasts heavily with all the major final bosses of Three Houses.
  • Azure Moon: Edelgard wanted to create a continent no longer under the control of the Crests and the Church, and she forced herself to use the power of her own Crests despite her beliefs because she didn't believe that she would live too long in her new world anyway. Sombron wants to use the power of the Emblems to become a being who can stand alone, not needing or caring about anyone else.
  • Crimson Flower and Silver Snow: Rhea benevolently worked as Archbishop to guide the continent without fully leading them, while keeping her identity as the Immaculate One a secret. Sombron is the head of a cult seeking to conquer everything while openly being known as the Fell Dragon. Notably, Rhea created lives to serve her own purposes but accepted them when they didn't turn out how she wanted, while Sombron discards all his children that don't live up to his dark standards and forces the ones that do to do his bidding.
  • Verdant Wind: Nemesis was a human being that took the power of the dragons for himself but still had a warped version of a warrior's honor. Sombron is naturally a Fell Dragon and has no scruples whatsoever.
• Death by Irony: Sombron despises bonds because, thanks to what he learned from the Emblem of Foundations, he see them as weak and unnecessary. Since Alear's biggest strength is the bonds that they have gathered on their journey, bonds are what leads to Sombron's defeat, and later, death.
• Determinator: Despite all of the atrocities that Sombron has committed, he certainly doesn't know when to give up. He has been searching the the Emblem of Foundations for thousands of years, and no matter how much he fails, he keeps looking, killing anyone who stands in his way.
• The Devil Is a Loser: His motivation to reunite with the Zero Emblem comes mainly from the fact that it was his only source of comfort as a child. However, it's pointed out by both Alear and Veyle that Sombron's loneliness after the Zero Emblem left him was entirely his own fault. Despite being adopted by a loving village, having many adoring children, and having an entire religion of devoted and loyal followers, Sombron refused every single opportunity to form other meaningful relationships and instead chose to single-mindedly pursue the Zero Emblem and reject Elyos as a home.
• Disappears into Light: When he dies, he vanishes in a flash of light, and takes the Emblem of Foundations' Ring with him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His one genuine redeeming quality is his love for the Emblem of Foundations, and his main goal is to reunite with them.
• Evil Redhead: His human form has red hair. Alear inherited the hair though not the evil.
• The Farmer and the Viper: A few years after he first arrived on Elyos as a young boy, a human village took pity on the lost child and took him in. Their thanks was to be burned to ash by Sombron when the Emblem of Foundations disappeared shortly thereafter.
• Fatal Flaw: He has three notable ones:
  • Obsession. He is obsessed with reuniting the the Emblem of Foundations, that he will destroy and discard anything to find it. This decision ultimately leads to his undoing and ensures he will die alone.
  • Callousness, especially toward his underlings. His incredible disregard for the lives of his followers leads to him killing or abandoning even loyal and competent ones without a second thought. This also leads to a lot of defections from within his ranks.
  • Ego and Overconfidence. It may be due to the teachings of the Emblem of Foundations, but Sombron thinks that he, and only he, is more powerful than anyone. Due to how he dismisses bonds as weak, it leads to his downfall, since bonds are what defeat him in the first place.
• Faux Affably Evil: He rarely raises his voice unless something doesn't go his way and speaks in a falsely modest tone, such as when he tells Hyacinth that he plans to eat him at the end of Chapter 10.
• Final Boss: First as a humanoid, then as a dragon.
• Final Boss Preview: You get a taste of fighting him at the beginning of the game in a vision.
• Foil:
  • To Alear, the game's protagonist. While both are fully committed to their respective goals and relatively quick to move on from grudges, Sombron is utterly self-centered to the point of viewing everyone and everything else as pawns for his ambition, while Alear acts selflessly for the sake of others. Both also stick to opposing absolutes, with Alear preferring to keep everyone alive and maintain all of their bonds if they can, while Sombron stays detached from everyone to live up to his lone wolf vision of the Zero Emblem.
  • He's also a foil to Veyle, incidentally his other child. Both were Lone Survivors of their clan, spared for being pathetic at the time of their parents' defeats, and both sought to reunite with what they had been separated from; however, Veyle held nothing against those who hated her and even accepted their empathy, while Sombron took his merciful exile as a slight against himself. Veyle's violent and malicious impulses were successfully checked by the few parental figures and guardians she had (before Zephia, anyway) and she kept her innocence even after they died, while Sombron's couldn't talk and prompted him to twist himself into an amoral jackass when they left.
• Freudian Excuse: As a child, Sombron's entire family was wiped out by enemy forces, making him the only survivor. His only comfort was the Emblem of Foundations, who disappeared a few years after Sombron was exiled to Elyos in response to him being taken in by some villagers. Since then, his every action was out of desire to be reunited with the Emblem. That and vengeance against his original world.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Although the other characters sympathize with Sombron's backstory to an extent, they all make it clear that he squandered multiple opportunities to achieve his fundamental goals without violence, his actions are entirely his own fault, and he should be held responsible for them. They also note how his interpretation of the Emblem of Foundations behavior and desires could be seriously misguided, a possibility he rejects outright.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: In the past, Sombron was a scared young child from another world, exiled to Elyos by enemy forces and only spared from murder out of kindness. He initially even bonded with some human villagers after a few years spent alone with the Emblem of Foundations. However, when making these connections caused the Emblem to leave him, Sombron hardened his heart and became the evil Fell Dragon responsible for much of Elyos' suffering.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Sombron has, not two, but three glowing red eyes as part of his horrific nature.
• Graceful Loser: When defeated Sombron reacts to it with his usual apathy, saying if he can't reach his goal then dying is the only thing left from him and he won't be asking for anything else.
• Hidden Depths: Sombron does remember Nel (or at least the deceased version of her in Alear's Elyos), despite claiming that he would forget everyone's faces after leaving them behind.
• Hypocrite:
  • Sombron chastises others for forming bonds, claiming it makes them weak. Yet, his reasons for starting wars and causing so much suffering is out of a desire to be reunited with the Emblem of Foundations, who comforted him as a child after his family was killed in war and he was exiled to Elyos (though he claims the difference is he does not do this out of a need for the Emblem's help or affection, but merely as a means of validation for how far he has come on his own). Furthermore, if Alear engages him, he'll chastise them over attempting patricide, neglecting his own murder of his children.
  • When Alear turned on him and struck him down a thousand years ago, he was furious that they would dare turn against him, as he is their father. This is despite openly admitting that he cares nothing about bonds, familial or otherwise, and that he openly considers his offspring little more than tools.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Fear. Encounters with Zephia in Chapter 23 and Past Alear in Chapter 24 make it clear that his minions, including his own children, are completely terrified of him and know that if they fail him, they will be executed without mercy. This has happened so many times that Zephia has lost count.
• I Will Find You: The reason behind his rampage and atrocities across Elyos. When he was exiled to Elyos, his only companion was the Emblem of Foundations. Yet, once he formed bonds with others, the Emblem left him. Believing this was a rejection and a sign he had "failed" by forming such bonds, Sombron became obsessively devoted to becoming a being who needed no one, with the ironic end goal of finding that Emblem again and showing how "perfect" he had become. This (and revenge on his home world) is his driving goal, no matter how many mountains of corpses he has to make.
• It's All About Me: Sombron believes that he is above everything else in the world, and that being by himself and looking down on everyone else is the only way to ever prosper.
• Jerkass: With an extremely cruel personality and a callous disregard for all life but his own, Sombron is easily the biggest jerkass in the entire game.
• Knight of Cerebus: Although Engage is known for being Lighter and Softer than its predecessor, the game gets much more serious when Sombron starts to develop more of a presence near the end.
• Last Breath Bullet: Played with. After being defeated and falling collapsing against Alear 1,000 years ago, he had just enough energy to get back up and blast Alear in the back before passing out again and his sealing being completed.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Sombron has many children, although there are only four of note: Alear, Veyle, Nel, and Rafal. Sombron heavily contrasts with all of them.
  • Alear may be a Fell Dragon, but they use that power to help people and to use their dragon powers for the good of humanity. Sombron believes that Fell Dragons are superior to all other races and believes that he should use his power to destroy anyone who is different from him.
  • Veyle is meant to be living proof that Fell Dragons are not evil by default, and is one of the nicest persons in the entire game. Sombron revels in the stereotypes, and strives to prove that Fell Dragons are, indeed, meant to be evil. That is why he has a habit of killing his own offspring, and why he forced Veyle to become evil.
  • Nel is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, who is the main leader of the Four Winds, while Sombron leads the Four Hounds. Although Nel can be somewhat harsh, she cares deeply about her subordinates and tries to be a worthy figure that they can look up to. When the Winds are presumed dead, she is utterly distraught, and regrets that she couldn't save them. Sombron is a Bad Boss who treat the Hounds like dirt, ruling them with an iron fist. Even when they meet their end, Sombron doesn't give two hoots about it, dismissing it as their own fault for being weak.
  • Rafal is the child that Sombron is the most similar to, but even then, they have differences. They both were seen as weak as children, and wanted to pursue power by any means necessary. However, the difference on in that ways that they executed it. Sombron has absolutely no regrets in what he does and who he hurts purely for the sake of power. While Rafal wants power and doesn't regret trying to pursue it, he doesn't want others to suffer for it, and when he does thanks to Sombron's magic, he sets to atone for it.
• Lysistrata Gambit: Actually pulled one unknowingly. As revealed in Chapter 24, he postponed Zephia's request to mate with her until they acquired every Emblem Rings. Zephia's twisted vision of family led to her remaining his minion during the length of his sealing and working to free him in order to have a child of her own.
• Maou the Demon King: Sombron is a quintessential daimaō, being a monstrous overlord of the evil land of Gradlon whose power can create Corrupted as his minions in addition to his various Fell Dragon children. He is also served by his own shitennou as his best minions.
• Meaningful Name: His name derives from the Spanish word for shadow, sombra. The "-on" ending of his name is similar to the -ón suffix from said language which means bigger or greater in some way, meaning his name can be roughly translated to "great shadow".
• Motive Rant: In the final chapter he rewards Alear and Veyle for reaching him by explaining his true motives for the first time. He starts out calm, even amused at how much they have misunderstood about him, but eventually becomes enraged as they question and counter his arguments.
  "That Emblem had the strength to stand alone! Unlike you, huddled together, whining like dogs. Such a warrior showed me the meaning of all existence—fight alone, take revenge!"
• Multiversal Conqueror: Mauvier states that Sombron's goal is to get all 12 Emblem Rings so he can open portals to other worlds so he can conquer them, but this isn't true as his true goals are to go to other worlds to search for the Zero Emblem and get revenge on the world that exiled him, though his methods mean he is likely to outright destroy every world he comes across in his search, making him more of a Multiversal Destroyer.
• Mysterious Past: In-universe, no one really knows where Sombron came from. As far Lumera knew, he just showed up one day, took over Gradlon, and started a war with the Divine Dragons. It's later revealed this is because Sombron isn't native to Elyos, and was more or less exiled into it as a child.
• Narcissist: Sombron believes that he is the most powerful being in the world, regarding everyone except himself as weak and pathetic.
• Necromancer: One of Sombron's main abilities. He is able to revive the deceased into zombie-like creatures called "The Corrupted". He has spent millennia gathering up Corrupted to further his own army, and those he is connected to also can do this, though not to the same extent.
• Offing the Offspring: As a fully unloving father, he kills his children as if they were disposable weapons once they proved flawed enough or no longer had any use.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Although Sombron seems to want to conquer other dimensions, in reality, he just wants to travel to them to find the Emblem of Foundations as well as seek revenge on the people who banished him. If Sombron cannot find the Emblem, he can and will destroy them as a consequence of his search (in particular the portals he opens will eventually cause energy from other dimensions to spill in and destroy the world that the portal opens into), killing all of the dimensions' inhabitants.
• Only Friend: The Emblem of Foundations. When Sombron was banished to Elyos, they were the only one who was there for him when he was an alone. Even after he found others, Sombron refused to accept friendship from anyone else, and spent the rest of his life searching for them.
• Orcus on His Throne: Two flavors of it. In the war a thousand years ago he was purposely this, Zephia noting he rarely ever left his castle. The presumed reason was his desire to have as little directly to do with Elyos as possible, having his children and others function as doers of his will. Over the course of the main game his lack of action is justified by him actually being unable to do much physically, due to the long sealing having weakened him. Even after regaining enough strength to transform into a dragon, it's noted his ability to move is still "limited," and he only travels to Lythos near the end of the game as a desperate measure (which in the short run works out for him).
• Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: Lord Sombron is from another dimension, so his humanoid form has all sorts of unnatural features to emphasize this, such as his Third Eye, glowing red eyes, gray skin, etc. His hair is also a very unusual shade of purple-ish red, a hair color that no almost no other character in the franchise has, even in Worlds of Technicolor Hair.
• Outside-Context Problem: As essentially an alien, Sombron is a very different beast from the other dragons of Elyos. Aside from his inhuman humanoid appearance, Sombron evidently doesn't operate off the "Cast from Lifespan" rules that Elyos's dragons are constrained by. Combined with him being from another family of Dragon Monarchs and thus having morally-callous versions of the Divine Dragons' abilities, Sombron ends up being an anathema to Elyos that must be handled decisively. There's a different flavor of this in Alternate Elyos, where he's merely a rival Dragon Monarch to the Divine Dragons, but still exerts his corrosive and destructive influence after death in his rivals' absence.
• Parental Substitute: He was this for Zephia when she was young. To say Sombron was a bad influence on her would be putting it very mildly.
• Playing the Family Card: He's an absolutely abysmal father, who uses his parental status to force his kids into doing whatever he wants and believes that, as their father, he has the right to treat his kids like slaves. When they, inevitably, try to stand up for themselves, he kills them without any remorse, labeling them as "defects."
• Prehensile Tail: His dragon form features a very long tail with four clawed digits at the end with which he uses to grasp certain things such as King Hyacinth when he decides he needs more sovereign blood as well as when he holds 12 Emblem Rings in his tail to use their power and raise Gradlon from the bottom of the ocean.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "You will be dust!"
  "Perish."
  "Pathetic defects!"
  "I will dispose of you."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Sombron has, not two, but three glowing red eyes as part of his horrific nature.
• Snakes Are Sinister: His draconic form resembles that of a cobra with the archetypical hood and fangs of the genus. After absorbing the power of the 12 Emblems, the form changes a bit. In addition to becoming far larger, he grows a set of front legs and his wings change shape.
• Snipe Hunt: Sombron has been spending millennia searching for the Emblem of Foundations, but no matter where he looked, the Emblem was nowhere to be found. Nobody has seen it since it left Sombron, and Marth is convinced the Emblem perished, so it's clear that finding the Emblem in the living world is impossible.
• The Sociopath: Sombron is an incredibly cruel tyrant who will stop at absolutely nothing in order to get what he wants. He despises bonds and sees needing others as a sign of weakness. He frequently kills people when they have served their purpose and views his children as mere tools for him to abuse. Sombron has almost destroyed entire dimensions, not caring about the losses in countless innocent lives. If that wasn't bad enough, those Sombron kills, he is able to revive as zombies, forcing them to bend to his will and be his slaves.
• So Proud of You: A dark example. When facing Veyle, he expresses annoyance that she's still alive, and she mocks him for it, boasting that she'll be the one to end him. Sombron commends her.
  Veyle: Heh.
  Sombron: You laugh.
  Veyle: You're angry because I persisted and survived. It almost feels like praise. We never spent time together as father and daughter, like I wanted. But I'm glad I didn't give up. I made it. Because now, I can be the one who defeats you.
  Sombron: You are a malicious child. I would expect no less from my own.
• Spikes of Villainy: He's almost entirely covered in spikes, from his crown, to his hair ornament, to his outfit's many edges. His dragon form, on the other hand, isn't nearly as decorated in spikes as he is.
• Start of Darkness: Some years after arriving in Elyos, Sombron was taken in by kindly villagers who pitied him. He admits he did indeed feel a bond with them, however, this was overshadowed by his despair when the Emblem of Foundations disappeared soon after. Believing it to have happened because he had failed in the eyes of the Emblem, that he had become tainted and weak from bonding with others, he proceeded to raze the village to the ground and slay every last person there. He then began his new goal in life, to become a person who embodied what he believed the Emblem of Foundations did, someone powerful and perfect who needed no one, and then to reunite with that Emblem and prove himself to them. In the process he closed off his heart from ever caring about anyone else.
• Taking You with Me: After his first defeat a thousand years ago, his last act before Lumera sealed him away was to blast Alear through the heart, which is why they had to spend the next thousand years in slumber as their strength slowly returned.
• Taught to Hate: Played with given it is unclear what the Emblem of Foundations was actually like. It turns out that Sombron's Hates Everyone Equally mentality stems from how he interpreted the behavior of the Emblem of Foundations. Apparently, they did not seek out bonds with others and sought power alone. Sombron admired The Emblem's strength, and wanted to follow their example in order to get as much power as he possibly could. That is why, in the present day, he treats every important figure in his life like insignificant bugs, as he only sees them to further his own strength.
• Third Eye: Sombron has one, probably to better represent his otherworldly nature.
• Trapped in Another World: The end of the game reveals Sombron isn't native to Elyos, and was in fact exiled there as a form of "kindness" by the enemy soldiers who slew his kin during a war to control their world's Emblems. They sent him to Elyos, knowing it was a world ruled by dragons, with the intention that he would live a quiet, peaceful life there. Yet Sombron instead grew to despise this world, and refused to form bonds there with anyone after Zero Emblem left him. He notably always refers to Elyos as "your world" and maintains he has no need or desire to connect with anyone there, including the children he sired as he regards them as simply other denizens of this "worthless" world. To return "home" is thus another of his main motivations.
• Ungrateful Bastard: He used to demand total loyalty and love from his children but absolutely did not reciprocate in the slightest, openly admitting he considers them all tools and pawns to be used and discarded as convenient, and almost killing Veyle once she makes clear she won't obey him anymore. Also, in the past a few years after he first arrived in Elyos from his native world, a local village took pity on the wandering lost child and took him in. But because the Emblem of Foundations disappeared shortly after he met them, he burned the village and all its inhabitants to ash.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Engage is Lighter and Softer than other installments in the Fire Emblem franchise, especially Three Houses, with a wonderfully goofy cast and highly colorful environments. Sombron, however, disregards all of that to become a truly deplorable being. He completely lacks the more sympathetic and redeemable traits of past antagonists and instead, is a man who repeatedly kills his own children and will kill anyone and everyone purely to get what he wants.
• Villain Has a Point: In the Fell Xenologue, Alternate Sombron points out (in a flashback) that Alternate Alear royally screwed up by never having kids or even adopting an heir in their thousand years of rulership, thus letting their divinity pass from the world with them.
• Villainous Legacy: In the Fell Xenologue, he was killed by Alternate Alear. Despite his absence, one of his children is wreaking havoc in Alternate Elyos in an attempt to continue his work. As it turns out, the flashback sequences reveal Sombron anticipated his probable death and sought a worthwhile successor, which he seemingly found with Nel and Rafal, the strongest and most cunning of his kids respectively. Rafal ended up being the "Heir", having been seemingly corrupted by Nel's dragonstone (which he tampered with, as Alear and Zelestia find traces of his magic within it).
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: It's implied that he saw Zero Emblem as a father figure and wished for nothing more than to find him and receive validation from him.
  Alear: You chose to be alone, yet continued to look for this Emblem. Why?
  Sombron: Perhaps I wanted someone to appreciate how far I had come, all on my own. Someone to see me—who I am—after millennia of being cast away.
• Weredragon: He's a fell dragon who has a humanoid and a dragon form.
• Xanatos Gambit: Alternate Sombron in the Fell Xenologue enacted one that succeeded in destroying all of Alternate Elyos. Knowing he may well die in his war with the Alear of that world (and indeed he and the Divine Dragon ended up slaying each other), he prepared measures to ensure his vengeance upon the world for opposing him would take place, though how exactly he did so and what he directly caused are not completely clear. It is known he filled Nel's Dragonstone with his own magic, and that this had some level of influence on the bearer's psyche and behavior to the point that they outright forgot their original motivations and replaced them with Sombrom's own. It is also known that after the war the remaining people of the world all somehow died and became Corrupted, and that the land itself began to die after the death of the Divine Dragon. He was confident enough that he outright remarked his death would not matter, and what he left behind would do as he willed regardless. His plan proved mostly successful, with only a few inhabitants of that Elyos surviving to find refuge in the main game's Elyos, leaving behind an empty, dead world.
• You Have Failed Me: If anyone is seen as a defect in his eyes, he will declare them to have no value and want to dispose of them, such as when he tries to kill Veyle when she refuses to give him the Emblem Rings after her mind control helmet was damaged.
  Sombron: Well then, there is nothing more you can do for me, and I have never been in the habit... (hisses) of keeping that which has no value.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He's a huge fan of this, having disposed of many of his own children for being "defective", to the point that Past Alear saw it as an inevitability no matter what they did, and Zephia eventually stopped remembering which child was which due to this, and that caring about them would just make her sad. Sombron eventually confirms that he never desired any of his children to be more than temporary pawns, and only even bothered siring them because he believed children of his own would make more obedient pawns]]. In the present, he eats King Hyacinth as soon he gives him enough sovereign blood for him to move and fails to defeat Alear and co., and tries to kill Veyle once she breaks free of her mind control and refuses to support him anymore.

The Fell Princess

Veyle

Birthday: 9/12

Class: Fell Child

Voiced by: Reina Ueda (Japanese), Megan Taylor Harvey (English)

^{Click to see Veyle in Chapter 26's game over cutscene}

Under normal circumstances, Veyle is a kind, caring soul, but through Zephia's magic, a cruel personality wholly subservient to her father Sombron was created. This Veyle wears a dark cloak, and a black version of her usual dress.

Information about the good Veyle can be found on the Main Characters page.

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• Asshole Victim: She is the only villain who doesn't get any sympathy during her defeat and death when Veyle shatters the helmet containing her psyche. Given everything she had done, she deserves it.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Implied to be the reason Veyle's evil personality doesn't even remember Alear when she meets them again in Destinea Cathedral sometime after killing Lumera, the act was similarly not memorable enough to remember.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Alear's Abel, being the evil sibling.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Veyle's evil side really loves causing wanton destruction, slaughtering innocent people, and boasting all about it at every opportunity she's onscreen.
• Climax Boss: Evil Veyle's amplified form is dueled in Chapter 21 shortly before Sombron himself arrives on the scene and attempts to wipe out the good Veyle for refusing to serve him properly, resulting in Alear Taking the Bullet for her and needing to be brought Back from the Dead twice, first as a Corrupted, then as the Fire Emblem. Alear's sacrifice and their words to Veyle in the Afterlife Antechamber also inspires her to destroy her evil personality once and for all, which she accomplishes by personally shattering the helmet that Marni was able to crack.
• Daddy's Little Villain: She was created to be this due to Veyle's heavy reluctance to follow her father's orders.
• Dark Is Evil: This split personality acts every bit as vile as her father and, after having her powers amplified by the cursed black helmet, her garb changes to much darker colors, showing that she is truly Sombron's willing enforcer.
• Death of Personality: After Veyle destroys her Mind-Control Device, Zephia and Griss both express shock that she is in her normal state as opposed to her evil personality, confirming that her Evil Veyle is gone for good.
• The Dragon: Veyle's vile split personality is the second in command of her father Sombron.
• Enemy Within: Once Veyle realizes her evil Split Personality, it is now treated as this. Although she doesn't get the chance to actively fight back against Evil Veyle thanks to the helm Zephia and Sombron force on her, she shows no hesitation in destroying it once Marni damages it and gives her a chance to take back control of her body and rid herself of her evil personality for good.
• Evil Costume Switch: When Veyle's evil side is amplified by the cursed helmet, her usual white dress is changed to a foreboding black.
• Evil Is Petty: The evil Veyle resurrects Hyacinth as a Corrupted in Chapter 17 just to personally spite Ivy for stealing Lyn and Lucina's rings under her nose back in Chapter 11.
• Evil Sounds Deep: When her evil split personality takes over, Veyle’s voice noticeably drops in pitch from high pitched and childlike to a lower more mature teen sounding voice.
• Eye Color Change: When Veyle switches over to her Fell Princess personality, her eyes change from the usual light purple to a blood-red.
• Face Death with Despair: When regular Veyle breaks the Mind-Control Device helmet, Evil Veyle lets out an anguished scream of despair as she ceases to exist.
• Faux Affably Evil: In contrast to regular Veyle being a kindhearted and selfless person, Evil Veyle feigns politeness and pleasantness just to enhance her cruelty and sadism.
• Hate Sink: Veyle is a kindhearted and selfless person so she obviously isn't an example of this, her forged evil personality on the other hand is a cruel and despicable woman, on top of being incredibly selfish, so absolutely no one misses her evil personality once the real Veyle takes control permanently.
• The Heavy: She - or sometimes Zephia - end up taking on this role following King Hyacinth being Eaten Alive by Sombron. As the Fell Dragon's Number Two, Evil Veyle commands the Four Hounds and leads the hunt for the remaining Emblem Rings, expressing a desire to slaughter and burn everything in her path.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Attempting to defeat her in Chapter 11 is completely impossible, as she nullifies the damage you try to deal against her.
• I Got Bigger: Veyle is normally depicted as petite, and shown to be a head shorter than female Alear. That being said, the bad ending sequence seems to imply that Veyle is still growing. In this sequence an unspecified amount of time has passed, but Veyle has grown to match female Alear in height.
• In the Hood: She prefers to wear a giant coat with a hood for most of the story—which is also used early on to hide her identity before The Reveal—before swapping it for a dark dress around the endgame.
• I Want My Mommy!: Her evil side desperately cries out for Sombron to save her as the real Veyle destroys her helmet, and her evil half with it.
• Jekyll & Hyde: The malicious Hyde to the original Veyle's Jekyll.
• Jerkass: In contrast to her regular pschye being a Nice Girl, Evil Veyle is a callous and heartless individual who enjoys being a sadistic person.
• Kick the Dog: She enjoys doing this whenever she gets the chance cause misery onto others. For instance, in Chapter 10, after Sombron devours Hyacinth, she laughs at how terrified he was prior to being eaten while Hortensia was nearby. She also laughs at Alear's sinking into despair after Sombron turns the Emblems into Dark Emblems after she stole the rings from them.
• Makeup Is Evil: If the player loses in the final chapter and gets the bad ending, Veyle wears heavier eyeshadow and lipstick to show that the evil personality has reformed and is now here to stay forever.
• Parental Title Characterization: In Veyle's dark personality, she calls Sombron "Father," (unlike the good Veyle, who uses "Papa") showing that she's more mature, if also twisted and evil.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "By the Fell Dragon's power!"
  "I'm coming for you!"
  "Grovel!"
  "You defect..."
• Recurring Boss: Appears in the battlefield thrice in the story, though she can be defeated only in her second and final encounters.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Whenever Evil Veyle is in control of her body she has red eyes. This may be for the player's convenience as none of the playable characters seem to notice or comment on the change.
• Sadist: The Veyle formed from her artificially enhanced draconic impulses is notably this compared to most of the other antagonists. Sombron can be very cruel, but he is mostly indifferent to suffering rather than someone who enjoys it, even noting he has no interest in prolonging someone's death. Zephia too is indifferent to death and pain in general, having long decided to numb herself from feeling anything regarding it, and uses pain to accomplish plans rather than for pleasure (she even admits that as cruel as she is to the kind Veyle, she is indifferent to her rather than hating her). Griss cares more about his own pain and exhilaration than he does about inflicting pain on others. Marni is enthusiastic about causing suffering but only if it is ordered and she will get praise for it, the praise being what she seeks, while Mauvier is obedient but has no desire to cause pain. Among them, this other Veyle alone revels in the suffering of others, particularly humans.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Evil Veyle rarely raises her voice and usually speaks in a pleasant, Faux Affably Evil tone to everyone in a voice much deeper than Veyle. She's not above an Evil Laugh at the end of Chapter 21 when Sombron has seemingly won; however, and sounds fairly horrified right before Veyle destroys the helmet later on.
• Sweet Tooth: The evil Veyle likes sweets.
• Teens Are Monsters: Her evil personality is a cruel teenage Card-Carrying Villain who razes villages for fun out of contempt for humanity.
• Villains Want Mercy: When Veyle is finally able to take control of her own body and begins to destroy the helmet Sombron and the Hounds used to control her, Veyle's evil side outright begs for her life. Considering the heinousness of her crimes and utterly cruel personality, regular Veyle doesn't feel very guilty about essentially "killing" her.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: This evil side is fanatically devoted to Sombron and is willing to do anything and everything to earn his praise, no matter how vile. Her good side is thankfully better adjusted.

The Defect

Past Alear

Class: Fell Child

Male Alear Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (Japanese), Brandon McInnis (English)
Female Alear Voiced by: Aya Endo (Japanese), Laura Stahl (English)

1,000 years ago, Alear served as a minion and child of Sombron. However, they were found by Lumera all alone and became her child. Following the defeat of Sombron, they were wounded by him, and was put into a deep slumber.

Tropes pertaining to Alear in the present day can be found here.

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• Anti-Villain: Despite being introduced sporting a sadistic grin and surrounded by flames as it turns out, Past Alear was never malicious or evil at all, instead they were basically Forced into Evil by Sombron under the threat of death. When the players travel back in time they meet a younger Alear who initially just asks them for their Emblems, showing that they really did not want to hurt anyone.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: In the past, Alear served their father Sombron, who treated them as a tool at best and watched many of their siblings die at his hands or the Corrupted for their "defects". Lumera, who was an enemy at the time, treated Alear with such kindness that the latter was shaken to their core. Small wonder why they came to call her "mother".
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Alear when they were still under their father, the Fell Dragon Sombron. They lived under the constant threat of dying should they become "defective" in the eyes of their father. When the present day Alear travels back in time and confronts their past self from a thousand years ago during the war, the past Alear casually mentions the many ways they have watched their siblings die; from being burned alive to two of their younger siblings being torn apart by Corrupted. They say it all casually with a flat voice and an emotionless expression on their face.
• Creepy Monotone: Past Alear spoke in a tone that had almost no emotion.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Alear had both red hair and red eyes.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Before meeting Lumera, Alear was a child of the Fell Dragon Sombron, who had a bad habit of killing any child he thought was "defective". Lumera showing them such kindness and warmth, things Sombron never showed to his kids, caused them to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Past Alear wore a black and gold variant of their current outfit and had red hair to match their father, but they were very clearly a Token Good Teammate on the Fell Dragon's side, murmuring to Lumera that they had no choice but to kill her or else their own father would murder them.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of Luke, I Am Your Father. Engage goes out of its way to show exactly how much it would suck to have the Big Bad as your dad. Past Alear grew up under a horrible Abusive Parent, watching countless siblings being murdered for their failures. They're Conditioned to Accept Horror and act like an Empty Shell, as they've been conditioned to associate emotion with weakness and weakness with death. They really, really don't enjoy this life, but have nowhere else to go. Even after a chance encounter with Lumera, the one person to show them genuine kindness, prompts a Heel–Face Turn, they're still clearly mentally broken as they strike down their father, and only 1000 years of sleep and amnesia starts them on the road to healing. Their remaining sibling, Veyle, has it just as bad.
• Emotionless Girl: Alear's past self is this if you choose the female version. Her emotionless façade, however, is out of self-preservation, otherwise they risk being labeled as "defective" and killed as a result.
• Forced into Evil: Past Alear only acted under their father's orders because he threatened to have all his children labeled as defective and eviscerated otherwise.
• I Am What I Am: Says as much after embracing Lumera's kindness and coming to the conclusion that because they have done so, they are a defect.
• Kill the Cutie: 1,000 years ago, Sombron shot Alear in the back with a blast of dark magic as he's sealed away. Alear tearfully lamented that as a Fell Dragon, they are fated to die, but wished that they could have been a "good dragon" instead. This one is downplayed as they were forced into a 1,000 year slumber to recover from their wounds instead of outright dying.
• Madness Mantra: When Lumera shows them kindness despite being their enemy as a Divine Dragon, Past Alear starts having a crisis over being "defective" like they feared and being disposed of by Sombron.
  Past Alear: I am thinking a thought that doesn't belong. I guess I am what I am. A defect... Defect. Defect, defect, defect, defect…
  Lumera: Don't say that! There's nothing defective about you!
• Noble Top Enforcer: Even as Sombron's minion, Alear wasn't an especially cruel person.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "Are you ready to die?"
  "This ends now."
  "I am a Fell Dragon."
  "I will dispose of you."
• Psychotic Smirk: In their nightmares, Alear sports these while looking utterly unhinged, not helped by having a full head of red hair and red eyes. Subverted when we meet said past version of Alear; it turns out it wasn't so much "psychotic" as "broken".
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: They have red eyes and hair and black clothing, and are (at least due to their association with Sombron) a villain.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Alear's appearance in their nightmares shows them with red eyes. Said scenes also show them in disturbing imagery, such as being surrounded by flames or getting ready to kill some poor shmuck.
• The Stoic: When they were still working under Sombron. Their stoicism is out of sheer self-preservation under the abusive command of the Fell Dragon with Alear remarking that if they said that they were scared, they would have been labeled "defective" and killed.
• The Un-Reveal: Alear’s biological mother has never been seen nor her name.
• Token Good Teammate: Even 1000 years ago, Alear only fought on the Fell Dragon's side because he was their father and would have killed them instantly had they not showed complete unswerving obedience. Past Alear is very visibly unhappy about having to kill Lumera. Thankfully, the latter provides them with a much better option.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: They used to talk this way while serving Sombron 1000 years ago. According to Past Alear's boss dialogue with their present self, they try to avoid outward displays of emotion to avoid being labelled a defect by showing sadness or fear.
  Past Alear: I follow orders. I do not think. I am like the Corrupted. They are awful.
• Trapped in Villainy: Past Alear had no loyalty to Sombron whatsoever - their entire reason for serving him was that if he would kill them if they didn't, and if they did fail while he was serving them, he would kill them immediately (likely in a very painful way, if what Past Alear says about watching their other siblings die is true).
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Implied, due to just how - well, broken their nightmarish life left them, and how the current Alear doesn't remember anything about their life before waking up (and how some things, such as their fear of the Corrupted, stuck despite the amnesia).

The Four Hounds

In General

• Alas, Poor Villain: Every Hound that dies ends up getting a humanizing moment prior to their death, with Marni dying after trying (and failing) to free Veyle, and even Zephia and Griss get a tragic death after they realize they were each other's family when Sombron wasn't there for them.
• Alternate Self: In the Fell Xenologue story included in the Expansion Pass, the Four Hounds have Good Counterparts in the form of the Four Winds, who serve twin Fell Dragons.
• Criminal Found Family: This is what the Four Hounds are at its core, even though Griss himself has some doubts over how genuine the whole dynamic is.
• Dual Boss: Marni and Mauvier are fought together in Chapters 16 and 19, and both Zephia and Griss are fought for the last time in Chapter 23.
• Elite Four: Overlapping with Quirky Miniboss Squad. There are four of them, they all serve the Fell Dragon, and are comprised by: a wicked Evil Matriarch, a sorcerous Combat Sadomasochist, a Cute and Psycho teenager in full armor, and bizarrely enough, a Knight in Shining Armor.
• Magic Knight: Over half of the Hounds (sans Griss, who is purely a spellcaster) can fight with physical weapons and use magic via tomes or staves, with Marni even using a magic axe to make up for her class' general lack of access to magic.
• Narrator All Along: It's all but stated they're the ones narrating the introductions to Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the Fell Xenologue (the chapters where their Wind counterparts debut), with their closing words also serving as Foreshadowing of just how different each member of the Four Winds is to their respective Hound counterpart. The fact Mauvier doesn't get a closing statement is also a big clue that he and his alternate self are very much alike.
  Zephia: My lonely heart does not beat here.
  Griss: My pain does not exist here.
  Marni: My yearning does not exist here.
• Promoted to Playable: Kinda. Marni, Griss, and Zephia themselves are not playable without modding the game. However, the Fell Xenologues take place in a Mirror Universe, and as such features playable alternate versions of the three.
• Recurring Boss: You'll be running into them a lot in the second half of the game. If the chapter where the party is supposed to run from them but can fight is included then each Hound is individually fought five times over the course of the game, and from Chapters 14 through 23 you never go more than one map in a row without fighting a Hound.
• Wolfpack Boss: The Four Hounds appear together as bosses multiple times:
  • Chapters 11 and 17 have all four of them appear together as sub-bosses.
  • In Chapter 14, Zephia, Marni, and Mauvier appear as co-bosses along with a Brainwashed and Crazy Hortensia.
  • Averted in Chapter 20, where Griss is the only member of the Four Hounds who appears as the chapter's boss.

Zephia (Sepia)

Class: Melusine

Voiced by: Rika Fukami (Japanese), Elizabeth Maxwell (English)

^{Click to see Zephia in Fire Emblem Heroes}

Scheming Dragon

The leader of the Four Hounds, who plot to resurrect the Fell Dragon. She's a descendant of the (Demon) Mage Dragon clan who live for millennia, and has been working in the shadows to collect the Emblem Rings.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite all the evil acts she committed, her death has her lamenting that she had the family she desired all along in the Four Hounds but failed to appreciate them, as her own actions lead to their destruction.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's never elaborated upon if Zephia fully grasped the full extent of her Mage Dragon powers and if she eventually figured out time travel is possible to an extent. While she's the one who creates the Magic Crystal which later allows Alear and Veyle to reach the 2nd Fell Dragon Shard, Zephia arguably never hints it will allow them to do so through time-travel (she pauses before saying it will allow them to "reach" the shard, but it's unclear if she did this from fatigue or due to not wanting to explain that time travel is involved), and while it's heavily hinted she's the one who crafted Veyle's Draconic Time Crystal to begin with (as the crystal Zephia makes for Alear looks similar), this is never openly confirmed.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: Implied when she with quite a bit of emotion advises Veyle in her last moments to not waste her time on people she can't understand, to forget them entirely rather than let them linger in her mind. It's likely she is speaking of herself and her decision to make Sombron her hope for her future when she never really understood his motives.
• Anti-Armor: Zephia's class skill, Soulblade, averages out the target's Defense and Resistance when using weapons. We see Zephia flex this on Marni, coldly punching through her armor with an Iron Dagger for going against her wishes with regards to Veyle. In-game, though, this only applies to swords.
• Bad Boss:
  • Zigzagged on one occasion when Zephia immediately executes an underling who failed her, as she later implies this was more because she simply hated him.
  • Downplayed with her Hounds. She's usually kind and motherly with them, but is more than willing to punish them brutally if they mess up really bad or go against her. After Marni later steals two of the Emblem Rings from her and loses them to Alear behind her back, she reacts by knocking her and Mauvier (who tried to deflect the blame on him) out cold with fire magic, an act the normally unflappable Mauvier considers an unjust extreme. And they're not even safe from execution, as Zephia stabs Marni after she later tries to free Veyle from the brainwashing helmet Zephia forced upon her.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: The reason she gives for not helping the party until she is literally dying. As far as she is concerned, joining them is impossible after all she's done, and she believes they would only accept her help if she died giving it. Of course, her words to Griss later show that the full reason was she wanted to get back at Sombron in some way. Still, while she may or may not have felt much guilt for the life she lived, she didn't want her crimes forgiven either.
• Beauty Is Bad: She's a beautiful woman with an alluring voice and revealing clothes, but is a sadistic dragon mage with a evil and twisted personaliyu
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Downplayed and deconstructed. It slowly becomes obvious as the story progresses that Zephia's definition of a family, while well-intentioned, is neither conventional nor healthy at all, given she finds it's perfectly acceptable to punish her "children" by setting them ablaze if they mess things up really bad, and even kill them should they betray her (as Marni later finds out), which is what finally ends up driving Mauvier to switch sides.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Fitting for the sexpot villainess role she's meant to fill, she has the largest bust possible in the game, which is very prominent due to the Cleavage Window in her outfit.
• Cast from Lifespan: Realizing she would likely die in battle against the party, and not wanting Sombron to get everything he wanted while she gets nothing, she decides to sacrifice her remaining years of life to create a powerful magical item that will help the party, and dies from the resulting draining shortly after.
• Chosen Conception Partner: Due to her curiosity of what being a mother would be like, the only thing she ever dared to ask of Sombron was to mate with her and give her a child, which he promised to do once his ambitions where fulfilled.
• Compelling Voice: Her mastery of magic is such that she can exert some control over people, with it being implied that her voice carries the magic. She does this to Hortensia to convince her that Hyacinth will be revived by the power of the 12 Emblem Rings being gathered together, and it puts her in such a state that she can no longer be reasoned with by even Ivy until she is defeated and regains awareness. It appears similar, if not identical, to the magic Zephia uses to form Veyle's split personality, explained as enhancing specific aspects of a person's mind. The power appears to be fairly limited though, as Zephia never attempts it against the party, only people who are unaware she has the power and are in a mentally/emotionally vulnerable state. Notably Veyle becomes immune to it after becoming aware of what Zephia was doing to her, at least until the item Sombron made to enhance the magic is used.
• Contralto of Strength: Her Japanese and English voices are both quite deep, befitting the leader of the Four Hounds.
• Cool Sword: Her final two boss encounters has her wield one of two powerful S-rank swords each time: Caladbolg and Georgios.
• Climax Boss: She and Griss are fought one final time in Chapter 23 while guarding the first of three Fell Dragon Shards. While they no longer possess any Emblems, they more than make up for it by powering themselves up through the use of the Shard, launching devastating meteors all over the battlefield.
• Deliberately Non-Lethal Attack: Zephia exercises immense control over her magic, able to flame-broil Marni and Mauvier just enough to knock them out, with one casting of Elfire. Such restraint is not shown in battle.
• The Dragon: Serves as this for both Sombron and Evil Veyle (herself The Dragon for her father) before her Death of Personality, though with the latter it's a zigzagged example given her loyalty to Veyle's evil personality stems from Zephia seeing her as an extension of Sombron rather than her own person, and it's implied she had a similar relationship with Alear and her liege's other children in the distant past. Zephia doesn't last beyond Chapter 23, leaving the role to fall to Corrupted Lumera.
• Dragons Are Demonic: She's a descendant of the (Demon) Mage Dragon clan.
• Dragon with an Agenda: What she truly wants most of all from her lord and master is a child, though Sombron is only willing to consider it if she helps him win the war.
• Dramatic Irony: Zephia truly wants a family and created the Four Hounds to have this dynamic, however her role as Sombron's Dragon makes her destroy the one thing she wants with her own hands (her Bad Boss treatment of Marni and Mauvier, culminating in stabbing Marni to death for attempting to save Veyle from Sombron's brainwashing helmet), and it isn't until her death that she realizes this.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She despises asskissing cowards, this being implied to be the real reason she kills her Elusian underling Nelucce after he fails his mission. She even apologizes for his behavior when she next meets the party.
• Evil Gloating: Zephia loves to do this, frequently gloating to her enemies of her progress and even telling them things they might be unaware of just for the sake of breaking their spirits. This eventually backfires on her, as explained elsewhere.
• Evil Matriarch: She functions as something of a mother figure to the rest of the Four Hounds and even Veyle. But due to her upbringing she has a very twisted view on motherhood and genuinely believes that loving them means having to viciously punish them for disobediance, or even killing them for betraying her, because that's what Sombron did with his own children.
• Expy: She has a few parallels to Aversa from Awakening. Both share a similar physical appearance, are magically talented Dark Action Girls serving as high-ranking officers to their respective Big Bads, are flying tome users in-game, and are ultimately seen as nothing but expendable pawns by their masters. The biggest difference between them however is that Aversa was brainwashed into it, while Zephia is more willing due to a combination of her upbringing under Sombron's influence and a promise made to her by him.
• Failed a Spot Check: She initially fails to recognize Alear, despite feeling that they look familiar. While this can be chalked up to her not knowing they're the Divine Dragon, it's more likely the reason she failed to recognize them as Sombron's kin is because of Lumera infusing her Divine Dragon essence into them during their thousand-year slumber, mixed with not getting attached to Sombron's kin in general because of how often he killed them.
• Fantastic Slurs: Zephia calls Alear a "lizard", if you have the two fight in Chapter 14. Of course, them both being dragons impacts things.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: The horns on her head have different lengths, forming a crescent moon.
• Faux Affably Evil: During her introduction, she gleefully tells Queen Eve in a mockingly apologetic tone that as punishment for her not revealing where Celica's Emblem Ring is she plans to have everyone in Fierne Castle killed one by one.
• Foreshadowing: That her allegiance to Sombron is not as absolute as it seems gets hinted at when she is defeated in chapter 21, wherein she will remark "perhaps you do have what it takes..." (presumably meaning what it takes to stop Sombron). Perhaps at this point she had already surmised Sombron intended to leave her behind without giving her children, leading her in turn to create the item that costs her life in her next battle.
• Freudian Excuse: Zephia's twisted sense of family stems from having unintentionally killed her own parents at a young enough age and not having any clear memories of them, leaving her with no references as for how a family is meant to work beyond Sombron's horrible parenting and notion that offspring should always be loyal to their parents. And even though this made her yearn for companionship and is one reason she desired to have a child of Sombron (and later, went on to form the Four Hounds), her master's tendency of also disposing of his offspring left her fearful of getting attached to others in the long term. It's also theorized at one point by Mauvier that Zephia's excessive cruelty may be a result of her own massive power amplifying her dragon instincts.
• The Heavy: She is the most recurring threat in the entire game and replaces King Hyacinth as the driving force of the plot following Chapter 10, being the third-in-command of the Fell Dragon's forces and only answering to Evil Veyle and the Fell Dragon himself. She outlasts Evil Veyle and briefly replaces her as The Dragon until the end of Chapter 23.
• Horned Humanoid: She has two large horns on her head, which create the shape of a crescent moon.
• It Was with You All Along: Played for Drama. She always wanted a true family, but doesn't realize that Griss (and by proxy, the other Hounds) had always been truly family to her until after said family had been irreparably shattered (by herself, no less), and both she and Griss are on their dying breaths.
• Jerkass: Due largely to her twisted sense of love, fairness and pragmatism, Zephia is without a doubt, a very cruel woman. Her Establishing Character Moment sees her - in a Faux Affably Evil tone, no less - threatening to not only kill the castle inhabitants, but also Queen Éve's children if she doesn't tell her where Firene's Emblem is. And that's not going into her cruel, callous treatment of Veyle while the latter isn't brainwashed.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Her whole talk about wanting to make amends and helping Alear and Veyle in her last moments? Nothing but an act driven by sheer spite against Sombron for feeling he cheated her out of her promised reward, wanting nothing but to ensure he will go down as well.
• The Leader: The rest of the Hounds answer to her.
• Lightning Bruiser: Her unique Melusine class makes her a very swift and bulky fighter with a ton of movement, and that's before she gains access to Sigurd's ring.
• Magic Knight: Like the Mage Knight, Zephia wields both tomes and melee weapons (swords in this case). Unlike the Mage Knight, her unique Melusine class allows her to do so as a flier.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Zephia's personal class, Melusine, stands out from other enemy-only classes in that it actually has growth rates baked into it like player-accessible classes do. Probably has something to do with the fact that an alternate version of her is playable in the DLC.
• Ms. Fanservice: With her stunning figure and revealing outfit, Zephia is unquestionably this.
• Never Be Hurt Again: She stopped trying to remember the names of Sombron's kin, as it would just hurt her when they would be inevitably disposed of by him for being "defective". Given how she treats her supposed "family" however, she was still hurt and traumatized significantly.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In an attempt to break Veyle's spirit, Zephia reveals Veyle's Split Personality situation to her and Alear. Not only this serves to dispel any distrust Alear had with Veyle, as soon the girl regains control of herself, she quickly uses this knowledge to impersonate her evil self and trick Zephia into giving her Sigurd's Emblem Ring and throw it towards Alear soon after.
• Power Incontinence: As a child she was already extremely powerful but she had no control over these powers. While she would eventually master them, it would come too late to prevent her from accidentally killing her mother, father and many others. It's indicated she is the most powerful mage dragon to have ever lived (in Elyos at least), as she claims no other in history could have created the time travelling crystal she gives the party at the cost of her life.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "No quarter."
  "You've been naughty."
  "That's enough out of you."
  "Want a reward? Here it is."
• Promoted to Playable: She makes her playable debut in Heroes as a Grand Hero (unless you count her Alternate Self Zelestia as her).
• Really 700 Years Old: She looks and sounds like a young woman, but she's a dragon who has lived thousands of years.
• Recurring Element: She fulfills the "sexy and skimpy evil sorceress" archetype like Sonia, Aversa, Nuibaba, and Cornelia before her.
• Riddle for the Ages: Zephia is a mage dragon, but like Alear, Veyle, and her counterpart Zelestia, she has, at no point in the story, transformed into her dragon form. However, those three have their own justifications for this, but for reasons unknown, Zephia doesn't. Why is it that Zephia never transforms in the story? And what's stopping her from doing so?
• Shock and Awe: She often uses lightning elemental tomes like Thunder and Thoron. Zephia is incidentally the only enemy in the game whose animations for using both is wholly unique, in that the visual effects of the thunder spells she uses are given a purple coloration instead of the normal yellow. She also does not hold a physical book to use the tome (the tome is in her inventory and she is treated as being equipped with it, but in cutscenes and battle she can simply launch the spell from her hand with no book in sight).
• Smug Snake: So very much, though it's worth noting she only assumes this attitude with her enemies.
• Stripperiffic: Compared to the modestly-dressed Divine Dragon Alear, her outfit is very revealing, showing off a hefty amount of her bare skin.
• Suicide by Cop: Zephia spends what's left of her Healing Factor before her last fight with Alear, since Sombron intends to abandon her on Elyos and leave her childless. This turns into The Dog Bites Back when she gives them the trinket she spent her life on, having something of an Ironic Echo to how Lumera died.
• Sultry Bangs: Her hair is covering her left eye, giving her a sultry appearance that fits with her being a Ms. Fanservice
• Supermodel Strut: A shot focuses on her legs crossing over each other as she walks. This walk also helps to emphasise her Smug Snake personality.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Implied. In her last battle Zephia mentions she was particularly powerful for a Mage Dragon at a young age. However, by the time she managed to control her powers, she'd already killed her parents and many others with her Power Incontinence.
• Token Non-Human: When it comes to the Four Hounds, Zephia is the only one who explicitly isn't human, as she is a Mage Dragon instead.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: As seen in Chapter 24, 1,000 years before the start of the story and during the war between Sombron and the Divine Dragons, Zephia during that time period lacked the haughty attitude she would later adopt when interacting with those allied with the Divine Dragon.
• Tragic Villain: In spite of her cruelty and smugness, Zephia near the end of the game is essentially revealed to be a Broken Bird who genuinely wanted to have a real family after unintentionally killing her parents at a young age, but her lack of knowledge on what true love is, the attitude she assumed to cope with Sombron's casual disregard and disposal of his children, and the cues she borrowed from such heartless parenting eventually twisted her view of what love and family are, to the point she unknowingly ended up shattering the Four Hounds by her own hand, only realizing what she once had built and lost when it's already too late to do anything about it.
• Tyke Bomb: It's implied that after her Power Incontinence killed her family, Sombron took her under his wing to raise her to be his loyal servant.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: She has this dynamic with Nelucce. While Nelucce makes threats and backs down when the unarmed and captive Queen Éve gives him a glare, Zephia is far more competent and cruel, quickly establishing that she's more dangerous and competent by realizing the queen doesn't care about herself, so she threatens to kill her subjects to make the queen cooperate.
• Villain Ball: In Chapter 17, she makes two uncharacteristically stupid blunders. The first is her Nice Job Fixing It, Villain moment, which serves to restore Alear's trust in Veyle, at the start of the chapter. The second is when she, at the end of the chapter, hands over Sigurd's ring to Veyle no questions asked (granted, Veyle is Zephia's superior), without realizing that Veyle's good personality is in control, enabling Veyle to throw the ring to Alear. Marni later points out the latter blunder she made at the start of Chapter 20, something Zephia is quick to note is different given she was following orders. For both cases however, an exchange Zephia has with Griss in the previous chapter shows she intended Evil Veyle's upcoming takeover to be a permanent one, and as Chapter 18 shows, Zephia also didn't expect Veyle would eventually gain resistance to her spell, forcing her to put the girl to sleep while she seeks for a solution with Sombron.
• Villainous Breakdown: The normally cool-headed Zephia seriously loses her temper at the end of Chapter 17 when Veyle's good side takes Sigurd's ring from her and throws it back to Alear, prompting Zephia to slap Veyle so hard she faints on the spot.
  Zephia: YOU FILTHY DEFECT! When we return, I'll see to it that you NEVER wake up again!
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: While it's unclear how genuinely she believes it, she tells Alear that if they live long enough and watch enough people die then they will eventually become just like her as far as not caring about most lives.
  Alear: Oh? Am I that forgettable?
  Zephia: Oh, not at all. You're the Divine Dragon now. But in due time, you'll be me. One tends to lose count of the lives that pass by. You'll understand one day.
• Weredragon: Subverted. She is a dragon who has a humanoid form, but unlike Lumera or Sombron she never once shifts into her dragon form.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Invokes this in her execution of Marni, sounding and looking genuinely sorrowful right after she stabs her but maintaining she had to do it in response to Marni's disobedience.
• Wicked Stepmother: Played with. Veyle's mother is a different Mage Dragon, and Zephia harbors some deep-seated resentment to that fact. On the other hand, Zephia needed Veyle in order to get back Sombron (or at least to establish the Fell Dragon cult), so Zephia had to at least pretend to care about her. Ultimately, Zephia's knowledge of what Sombron does to his children makes her try not to care either way.
  Veyle: When we met, you seemed so kind. I really liked you.
  Zephia: Really? I hated you. (Beat) No, that's not right... I was indifferent to you.
• Willfully Weak: Played with. Despite being the most powerful Mage Dragon to ever live, Zephia is more of a Master of All than The Archmage, having struggled with Power Incontinence for a long time. She favors Swords over Tomes, and switches from the magical Levin Sword to the physical Caladbolg and Georgios after Chapter 17; not that the latter matters too much in Hard and Maddening Mode, where she has Soulblade. The strongest magical act she does in the story (which numbers her days in the single-digits), while unlike anything even Sombron with the Rings could do, isn't in battle.

Griss (Gris)

Class: Sage

Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese), Jamison Boaz (English)

The chief advisor of the Four Hounds. A violent and utterly deranged wielder of magic.

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• Accomplice by Inaction: Mauvier views him to have murdered Marni alongside Zephia, by not objecting to it in the slightest.
• Ax-Crazy: Griss is a violent, deranged psychopath who loves to hurt and be hurt.
• Berserk Button: As mentioned under Don't You Dare Pity Me!, Alear implicitly raising the possibility that his loyalty to Zephia is not by choice (in a manner that is not intentionally insulting), is one of the few things that makes Griss angry.
• Blood Knight: Griss loves the thrill of battle, and actively goads his enemies into hurting him.
• Blow You Away: Likes using wind elemental tomes like Elwind and Excalibur.
• Combat Sadomasochist: He utterly enjoys pain, and often looks forward to his enemies' blades cutting him as he fights. He's also way too eager to get punished by Sombron and Zephia.
• Cruel Mercy: Implied to be attempted on the receiving end of this. Mauvier and Veyle, who both know of Gris's Combat Sadomasochist personality, specifically state that they will make his death quick and/or painless. It ends up not working since Griss simply plays dead so he can experience the pain of slowly bleeding out.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Has this reaction in his final battle should Alear fight him. Alear asks if Zephia is making him fight for her, seeking to understand just why he is doing all this, and the idea that Alear would seek to sympathize with his life (as well as imply he does not want to follow Zephia) enrages Griss more than anything.
  Griss: Worried about little old Griss! That's an insult to me and Zephia! I won't forgive that ever. Ever! EVER!
• The Dragon: He serves as Zephia's most loyal enforcer, because she took him in and he saw her as family. Funny, considering that Zephia is The Dragon to Veyle's evil personality who serves as The Dragon to Sombron.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Briefly appears with Marni in Chapter 9 before his actual introduction the next chapter.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He truly, genuinely cares for and adores Zephia, and reveres her like a sister, mother, and goddess, because she took him in when he had nothing. This makes Zephia realize that she has always had a true family in Griss, but she only realizes this in their dying moments.
• Laughing Mad: He starts laughing hysterically as he reveals to Alear that Sombron is their father.
• I Let You Win: His fight in Elusia Castle turns out to be this in the sense that he didn't intend to win, given he needed to see how Alear summons Emblems to test his & Zephia's hypotesis, and to stall for time while Sombron and co. moved to Lythos with no issues.
• Mr. Fanservice: All Girls Want Bad Boys aside, Griss's outfit shows off his bare chest, and he's shown to be quite muscular as a result.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite his impressive physique, Griss is a mage, not a physical fighter.
• Not Quite Dead: Griss plays dead for a while after being defeated in his final fight, mainly to ensure Alear and their allies won't put him out of comission soon enough to not let him relish on the pain from his mortal wounds.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He generally laughs off any insults directed at him, but when Alear questions if Zephia is just using him as a pawn, he becomes genuinely angry and feels completely and utterly insulted. This is because he adores Zephia and thinks the world of her as family.
• The Penance: Griss's backstory is elaborated on in a support conversation introduced in the DLC, confirming him to be a flagellant for the Fell Dragon cult. Early on, he realized he loved pain in the church, and justified it as pleasing to Sombron. This made him a pariah, but fanatical enough for Zephia to trust him. According to Mauvier, Griss didn't know how to speak normally until Zephia took him in.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "Allow me!"
  "Rejoice!"
  "This is gonna hurt!"
  "I'll show you pain!"
• Recurring Element: He follows the trend of murderous psycho villains like Valter, Izuka, Hans, Kronya, and Metodey.
• Sadist: He enjoys inflicting pain on others as much as he does in receiving it.
• Slasher Smile: His default expression is a wicked grin.
• Squishy Wizard: His magic prowess is nothing to scoff at, though unlike what his muscles might suggest, his physical defense is subpar and a big weak point.
• Suicide by Cop: Griss takes his last chance at impeding Alear's quest as an opportunity for this, since his "mom" plans on doing the same.
  "Oh, yeah. Mortal wounds... The really good ones. Can't say no to any of that."
• Tattooed Crook: Griss has crimson tattoos that frame his left eye and his bare chest, resembling daggers and slash wounds. These are distinctly missing from his Mirror Self, Gregory.
• Together in Death: His and Zephia's death scene is a rare non-romantic example, with the pair dying together after Zephia bemoans how Sombron never gave her the family she wanted and Griss confessing that he has always revered and loved Zephia like family.
• Undying Loyalty: His loyalty to Zephia is unshakable due to him seeing her as his family. It takes a twisted form since he remains loyal to her even when her actions start to destroy the family she created.
• Villain Teleportation: Gains the ability to teleport thanks to Celica's Ring. He will even abuse it in his 3rd battle as much as he can up until he's forced to return to his throne.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The only outfit he ever wears leaves his bare chest permanently exposed.
• Wham Line: After being defeated and handing over Celica's Emblem Ring, he drops The Reveal that Alear is Sombron's child.

Marni (Maron)

Class: General

Voiced by: Ruriko Aoki (Japanese), Sarah Anne Williams (English)

A member of the Four Hounds. She's an armored knight who's full of confidence and prone to mood swings.

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• Armor Is Useless: Not gameplay-wise; tragically however, being decked in an armored Battle Ballgown did not protect her from being shanked by a small knife from Zephia.
• Battle Ballgown: She seems to wear one into battle, but looking closer shows that it's made entirely of metal, which explains her class as an armored unit.
• Big Stupid Doo Doo Head: Her reaction to her alternate counterpart Madeline criticizing her is to blurt out a rather childish insult.
  Marni: Shut it... Bluey!
• Blow You Away: Often carries a Hurricane Axe in combat.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Marni is quite the moody and immature brat.
• Cute and Psycho: She might look cute, but that doesn't stop her from being unhinged and very kill-happy.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • She's a big deconstruction of the characters who Desperately Craves Affection but Nino in particular. While characters of this type are generally protagonists, Marni shows how these types can actually be weaponised by antagonists.
  • She also serves as a deconstruction to the Child Soldier - especially ones in Fire Emblem games. Many Fire Emblem games feature characters who are in their teens - Marni is sixteen - and actually acts rather childish. Teenagers are usually treated as surprisingly competent, yet Marni is shown to be a bit of a loose cannon with her immaturity.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Her seeming enthusiasm for destruction and bloodshed is ultimately rooted in an obsessive desire for the approval and affection she lacked in childhood. Since Sombron's cult were the first to offer her this approval, she became zealously loyal to them for that approval rather than any particular loyalty to their ideals. Even when talking about the body count she intends to inflict when the Hounds attack Firene, her focus is entirely on the accolades she will gain, on being regarded by others as a "hero" for it, etc.
• Dub Name Change: Her Japanese name is Maron, which is closer to the color she's named after.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Briefly appears with Griss in Chapter 9 before her actual introduction the next chapter.
• Enfant Terrible: Marni is much younger than any of the other Four Hounds, yet she proves to be almost as despicable as them (not counting Mauvier), as she acts like a Spoiled Brat who is more than willing to follow along with the Hounds' evil deeds. Eventually, this gets downplayed, as Marni eventually has a Heel–Face Turn and even performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted. Mauvier brings her up several times over the course of chapter 21 and 22, which immediately follow her death. She also features prominently in his supports with Veyle and is mentioned in a couple of his bond conversations.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: After hearing about Veyle's terrible past and seeing her permanently brainwashed, Marni turns against Zephia and tries to free Veyle, which results in Zephia fatally stabbing her.
• Heel Realization: She gleefully follows all the destructive, murderous plans Zephia and Sombron concoct out of her obsessive desire for approval and praise, until she finds out and acknowledges the true Veyle led a similarly unappreciated but even sadder life for far longer than her and still does. This leads her to question her allegiance and defy Zephia.
• Mighty Glacier: Marni has a high physical bulk, and her General class even gives her inmunity to the Break mechanic through the weapon triangle that her fellow Hounds are susceptible of.
• Never My Fault: Played for Laughs after her defeat in Solm Castle, when she claims that she lost because the floor was slippery. Amusingly, post-battle conversations confirm that this, in fact, is true, with Jade noting that the floor is slippery and Amber having slipped on it himself.
• Oh, Crap!: The normally smug and cheeky Marni freaks out when she's defeated in Chapter 19, because she took two Emblem Rings behind Zephia's back and just lost them to Alear, and fears how she'll be punished by Zephia.
• Parental Abandonment: She was abandoned by her mother in the past, before being taken in by the Hounds. This is the reason she's such a "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal, as her own mother never praised her or thanked her no matter how hard she worked, so she craves Zephia's praise as something of a surrogate mother for her.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She has the stature of a small girl, but is a strong Mighty Glacier just like any other General.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "[Laughter]"
  "No more games"
  "Sorry!"
  "Can I kill you now?"
• Redemption Equals Death: She tries to free Veyle from the helmet that suppresses her good side after hearing her tragic backstory. Unfortunately, it gets her fatally stabbed by Zephia, to Mauvier's despair, though it's later revealed that her attack ended up cracking the helmet just enough for Veyle to regain control.
• Reincarnation: Possibly. If Veyle and Mauvier both survive the final battle, their ending slide shows Veyle seeing a young girl who looks almost exactly like Marni, hinting that she may have been reborn and given a second chance like Veyle and Mauvier were.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Subverted. While it initially seems her attempt at destroying Veyle's mind-control helmet was for naught, it's eventually shown her attack did crack the device enough to allow Veyle to regain control after Veyle is defeated at the end of Chapter 21. It ends up being doublely subverted back to an actual Senseless Sacrifice when the helmet reactivates after Sombron gains unlimited power from the Emblem Rings and Evil Veyle expels regular Veyle seemingly for good. It ultimately ends up being triple subverted at the beginning of Chapter 22 after Alear convinces regular Veyle in the afterlife to regain control of herself from her evil split personality, and ultimately breaks the helmet completly and destroys her evil personality with it.
• Spoiled Brat: Due to just how impulsive Marni is, she definitely has this attitude. A good example of this would be in Chapter 19, where she insists on taking on the heroes alone, but Zephia makes Mauvier tag along anyway. Marni is not happy about this, and wines and pouts about it.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: In the end, Marni's decision to "borrow" two Emblem Rings behind Zephia's back just so she and Mauvier can have a chance at recovering more Rings from Alear kickstarts a series of events that end up causing her demise.
• Tsundere: She belittles and insults Mauvier and Veyle a lot, calling them boring, but it's implied she cares more than she lets on, and her last words to Mauvier before her death are to tell Veyle that she did well.
• The Unfavorite: Claims she was of more help to her mom than any of her brothers, but according to her, said mom decided she didn't need a girl.
• Weak to Magic: Marni is very slow and her Resistance is low, making magic attacks the best way to defeat her.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: She enjoys hearing approval from Zephia, and her actions are always motivated by hearing Zephia's praise or wanting to hear it. Naturally, she does not take it well when Zephia becomes angered at her failure, and for also stealing two rings behind her back. She eventually turns against Zephia to try to do the right thing, no longer caring about praise, though this ends up leading to her death.
• The Worf Effect: She unleashes a powerful attack to try and break Veyle's suppressor helmet, only for it to do nothing, and it gets her killed by Zephia. Then it's subverted when it's revealed her attack actually managed to crack the helmet enough for Veyle to rip it off and smash it, permanently destroying her evil side.

Mauvier (Mauve) (MASSIVE UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Class: Royal Knight

Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno (Japanese), Gavin Hammon (English)

^{Click to see Mauvier in Fire Emblem Heroes}

Penitent Knight

A member of the Four Hounds. He's a loyal, honest and simple warrior.

His personal skill, Contemplative, gives Mauvier +2 Defense for one turn if he uses the Wait action instead of attacking or using items.

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: He is one of the last units to join the group alongside Veyle, and as a high level prepromoted unit, he can hold his own until the end of the game. It helps that the story Chapters he can appear in give extra deployment slots over the standard twelve, for him and Veyle respectively.
• Anti-Villain: Although he's one of the Four Hounds, Mauvier really isn't all that malicious, being an honorable and honest soldier. He also pulls a Heel–Face Turn later in the game.
• Anti-Villain: Even when he's a member of the Hounds, Mauvier is much more affable and honorable than his companions, and is only working with them due to personal loyalty rather than any desire for villainy. This leads to him pulling a Heel–Face Turn once Zephia and Griss lose his trust and loyalty.
• The Atoner: He eventually joins Alear's side to atone for the crimes he committed as a Hound.
• Affably Evil: He is the most respectful and the least cruel member of the Four Hounds as he always shows respect towards his opponent and speaks in a polite tone in combat.
• The Big Guy: He is the tallest among the playable cast at 6'5".
• Character Witness: To Veyle. Mauvier was the only person present at her previous awakening, where she asked if he could be her friend; after he shared his misgivings toward being friends with someone so important, she offered to make him her knight, just to give him an official reason to keep her company. Mauvier would thus be the only person in centuries (other than Alear) to truly care about her, and would later betray his god's wishes to save Veyle from a Death of Personality.
• Combat Medic: As a Royal Knight, he can attack his foes or use staves to support allies.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Not a native of Elusia, Mauvier moved there from his homeland of Firene with his mother after her prayers to the Divine Dragon did not save her husband dying of illness, causing her to reject the divine in favor of the fell. She herself would die not long after, leaving Mauvier to be raised under the strict and harsh guidance of Sombron's church, molding him into an obedient and loyal follower.
• Demoted to Extra: After siding with Alear and leaving Lythos to venture to Gradlon, Mauvier becomes irrelevant for the rest of the game, and no longer contributes to cutscenes, and in Classic Mode, becomes susceptible to Permadeath.
• Foreshadowing: Paying attention to his introduction actually foreshadows Veyle's split personality situation. He says that Veyle "has told him much about [Alear]", but the evil Veyle claims she's never spoken with Alear before. Given how Mauvier greatly cares for her, of course her good side would tell him positive things about Alear and their friends. That he said "Lady Veyle" is also foreshadowing this, given he refuses to call the "other" Veyle by that name, as she herself notes in a later scene.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Mauvier provides far lower stat bonuses through Supports than anyone else in the game, supposedly the placeholder values, and these never go up with higher levels. This might be to account for Late Character Syndrome, or it might just be a bug; regardless, Mauvier views himself a bit out-of-place with the rest of whatever group he's in.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Like Griss and Gregory, Mauvier's innate proficiency is in Staves, owing to their upbringing in Elusia's Church. Alternatively, Mauvier's Royal Knight class promotes from Lance Fighter, matching how he was a guard at the temple Veyle was sleeping in.
• Heel–Face Turn: His defection from the Hounds is motivated by his loyalty to Veyle, and his rage at witnessing Marni's murder at Zephia's hands.
• Hidden Depths: As shown in his supports with Pandreo, even after turning against Sombron, he considers the concept of the Fell Dragon as a deity to still be a holy thing and continues to pray to them.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • Mauvier sticks out from the other Hounds as being the only member of the group to have a personal skill. Naturally this means that he defects from them and joins Alear's army as a playable character.
  • Additionally, in the chapters where he appears as an enemy and you attempt to fight him, if you pay close attention to his character model on the right side of the battle preview menu (just before you press A to start combat with an enemy), you can see he performs the same "battle ready" pose as player-affiliated lance wielders^note Positioning the left hand under the lance and (if he's equipped with Micaiah) tome wielders^note Outstretching his left hand forward while holding a tome in his right, much like earlier units you recruited who were formerly enemies, foreshadowing his eventual recruitment to your team.
• It's All My Fault: His Bond chain with Corrin reveals that he blames himself for Marni's death, believing that if he had chosen to defect from the Hounds sooner, he might have been able to save her.
• Jack of All Stats: All of Mauvier's stats are evenly balanced, except for his Luck, and his starting class is equipped to do whatever is needed of him; physical damage, magical damage, and even Utility Magic are at his disposal. He shows off the latter in Chapter 19, though his skills are exaggerated by Micaiah's Ring.
• Knight in Shining Armor: He's a very honorable and courageous knight, making him stand out a lot when compared to his fellow Hounds.
• Lady and Knight: He serves as the Knight to Veyle's Lady, and Veyle had once asked him to be her knight in the past.
• Magic Knight: As a Royal Knight, he can wield both lances and staffs, and even joins with the strong physical Silver Greatlance, and the magical Flame Lance.
• Master of None: On the other hand, Mauvier is somewhat limited in potency, at least without an Emblem Ring. He has only A-rank in Lances, so he can't wield the legendary ones to get the most out of his average Strength, while his B-rank in Staves prevents him from using Entrap or Fortify. On top of that, while his Magic is relatively good, the only non-Engage weapon he can use it with is the enormously-heavy Flame Lance. Such is the price paid for wanting to do everything (physical attacks, magic attacks, staves, and zipping around the map) at the same time.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: By Chapter 21, he can no longer tolerate Zephia's cruel treatment of Veyle, and adding onto that with her murder of Marni, he betrays her and joins Alear's party.
• Nice Guy: Mauvier is always polite and affable, even when he's fought as an enemy.
• Noble Demon: While the other Hounds will openly disparage their foes, Mauvier makes no bones about how much he respects Alear and their allies. He doesn't stay this way for long, as he eventually joins the good guys full time.
• Not So Stoic: The normally quiet and pensive Mauvier snaps when Marni dies in his arms in Chapter 21, causing him to let out a scream of immense rage.
• Odd Friendship: With Pandreo. Despite the fact that Mauvier is a worshipper of the Fell Dragon while Pandreo is a priest of the Divine Dragon, as well as the fact that the two of just have very different personalities, they actually become pretty good friends in their support chain.
• Pet the Dog: Out of the Hounds, Mauvier is the only one who seems to genuinely care for Veyle in her true good personality, and is horrified when Sombron and Zephia intend to permanently erase her good side. His loyalty to Veyle is part of what fuels his Heel–Face Turn.
• Plot Armor: In Classic mode, he won't die if his HP drops to 0, due to his story presence being necessary in certain cutscenes, namely to witness Veyle regaining her senses and free herself from her evil side in Chapter 21. After that point though, he won't be protected from death if he's defeated.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "You will have nothing!"
  "Forgive me!"
  "I atone for my past."
  "This is my redemption!"
• Rage Breaking Point: Zephia's callous murder of Marni is what finally causes Mauvier to completely snap and join Alear's side to avenge her.
  "I will never stand by you again, Zephia. Save for the moment my blade PIERCES YOUR HEART! Divine One, I beg of you! Permit me to fight by your side!"
• Recurring Element: As a heavily-armored general who defects from the enemy faction, Mauvier is this game's equivalent of Lorenz of Grust.
• Redemption Earns Life: Him being the only Hound to fully defect to the heroes' side lets him be the only one playable in Alear's army.
• Riddle for the Ages: The Fell Xenolouge DLC takes place in a world where the Four Hounds are the good guys, called the Four Winds. Each of them also has a slightly different name and appearance to their Hound counterparts from the main timeline, as well as having drastically different personalities. However, Mauvier is the exception, as he is exactly the same in the main timeline and the Xenolouge timeline, with the only difference being that Xenolouge Mauvier dies while he is the Sole Survivor of the Four Hounds in the main timeline. Why is it that Mauvier the only one of the Winds who is exactly the same while all the others have slightly different names, appearances, and very different personalities?
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mauvier apparently isn't told to die for his missions, and typically skedaddles the moment he's defeated.
• Sole Survivor: By the end of the story, he's the only one of the Hounds to still be alive.
• Token Good Teammate: He's by far the least antagonistic member of the Four Hounds, even going to great lengths to take the blame when Marni defies Zephia's orders.
• Uncertain Doom: It's stated in his solo ending that late in life he went out one day and simply disappeared; it is left ambiguous as to what exactly happened to him. Some say he died in an accident, others that a victim of the Four Hounds past crimes took revenge on him. The only certainty is that Veyle and the Divine Dragon Monarch were in his thoughts to the very end.
• Undying Loyalty: To Veyle. More precisely, her true self, sticking with her to the end no matter what.

Minor Antagonists

The Corrupted

Undead soldiers raised by Fell Dragon magic, they serve as Sombron's main army.

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• Came Back Strong: Most Corrupted are formed using the souls and corpses of ordinary untrained people, but they are all raised as powerful fighters capable of matching trained soldiers, leaping many times their own height, getting up uninjured after being flung a good distance, etc. Their precise strength varies greatly, but all are dangerous.
• Came Back Wrong: Even when a Corrupted is formed with enough precision to appear just as they did in life, the person brought back will have their personality twisted to zealously serve their master's desires regardless of how much this conflicts with who they were in life. They may also exhibit aspects of their former selves to a insanely unhealthy degree, such as Lumera deciding that since Alear was "poisoned" to turn against them, the only way to win back their love is to kill everyone else Alear cares about. The only exception is if the caster intentionally leaves their personality unchanged and their will free.
• Composite Character: They largely seem to take cues from the Risen from Awakening and Anankos' Vallite zombies from Fates, all three groups being resurrected soldiers who serve as Mooks for their respective Big Bads. Like the Risen, the Corrupted wear masks and serve under a Fell Dragon and affiliated villainous factions. Like the Vallite zombies, certain deceased individuals like loved ones can be brought back in sophisticated Corrupted bodies greatly resembling that of their old ones for psychological warfare against their designated enemies, but with aspects of their personalities being severely twisted.
• Disappears into Light: How Corrupted "die" be it from deadly injury or expending all their power, is to dissolve into red motes of light. It's noted the process is irreversible once it starts as it signifies their body is actively rejecting the magic and destroying itself in the process.
• Dying as Yourself: Corrupted that are otherwise who they were in life will regain their full selves upon their second death as the effects of the magic's twisting their minds come undone. Dying again is also the only way to restore a person's mind if the Corruption ritual twisted them.
• Faceless Mooks: Generic Corrupted wear metal masks that obscure their faces.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Their singular eye color is glowing red.
• Humanoid Abomination: Several Corrupted are undead zombies much like the Risen.
• Living on Borrowed Time: At least in some cases, creating a Corrupted also involves retrieving the soul of the departed person in question. They can even be allowed to behave and think freely as they did in life if the caster wills it. However, this is not a genuine or perfect resurrection, as they inevitably die again once they've expended a certain amount of power. At this point, their body will also become unable to endure becoming a Corrupted again, making them impossible to raise a second time. This is not much of an issue when the Corrupted are used simply as tools of war, as there are always other corpses that can be raised.
• Night of the Living Mooks: They are an undead army led by Sombron, forced to serve him until they are slain. They usually attack in hordes.
• Non-Indicative Name: In the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese versions of the game, the corrupted are called the "Grotesque", which fit their hideous undead appearance. However, with the exception of Corrupted Morion, any named character that became a corrupted at one point are still called "grotesque" in the aforementioned languages, even though they look no different from when they’re still alive.
• Ontological Inertia: While Sombron is the cause of the armies of Corrupted plaguing Elyos, and every Corrupted has a limited lifespan, it's noted in Rosado's solo ending that Sombron's death did not bring an automatic end to the Corrupted, and they continued to need to be fought off and slain for some time after the main events of the game before all the undead horrors were eventually destroyed for good.
• Voice of the Legion: They have echoing roars and screeches.

Abyme

Class: Axe Armor > Berserker

Voiced by: Marie Miyake (Japanese)

^{Click here to see her as a Berserker}

An Elusian general, who is first seen leading assault on Lythos Castle. She appears again much later to attack the party as they head to Elusia by sea.

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• Et Tu, Brute?: She's furious at Lindon's "betrayal," although he points out that he joined the people who can save Elusia, while she's fighting for the ones who will destroy it.
• Hates Small Talk: Both times she's fought, she simply states her orders, and rebuffs any attempts at communication.
  "I am here to fight, not exchange words."
• My Country, Right or Wrong: She seems to value her country before even the royal family. Should you recruit Lindon and have them fight, Abyme will accuse him of betrayal, despite Lindon possibly being persuaded to change sides by the crown princess herself.
• Took a Level in Badass: Not only does she put on a ton of stats between her two appearances, she also changes her class from the incredibly magic-susceptible Axe Armor to the more well-rounded Berserker. She also gains a skill typically reserved for units in Maddening Mode, which gives her +30 Crit when under half her maximum health (disregarding Revival Stones).
• Wake-Up Call Boss: She's the first Armored enemy faced, meaning that she can't be broken with the weapons at your disposal, and is rather difficult to damage without Emblem Marth's Rapier (which won't work on her in Maddening) or Clanne's magic.

Rodine

Class: Lance Armor

Voiced by: Masaaki Yano (Japanese)

An Elusian soldier tasked with capturing Céline, and the Boss of Chapter 4.

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• Adaptational Late Appearance: The manga adaptation of the fourth chapter completely omits Rodine, as he is nowhere to be found when Alear's group arrives at Firene. He shows up much later in Chapter 7, not long after Alear saves Firene.
• Glory Hound: He dreams of becoming a legend for capturing Céline.
• Never My Fault: Blames the Corrupted soldiers under his command for his defeat, claiming that he would have won if he had "real soldiers".

Nelucce

Class: Axe Fighter

Voiced by: Yuu Maeda (Japanese), Frank Todaro (English)

An Elusian soldier, who was tasked with taking queen Ève hostage and retrieving an Emblem Ring of Firene. He is the Boss of Chapter 5.

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• Asshole Victim: Zephia may not be a good person, and her killing him is proof of her ruthlessness, but it's hard to feel bad for him.
• Cultural Posturing: He looks down on Firene by calling it "Flowerland" and implying everyone there is incapable of fighting.
• Dastardly Whiplash: His thin, meticulously-trimmed mustache is an obvious sign at him being a vile Dirty Coward.
• Dies Differently In The Adaptation: The game has Nelucce get killed by Zephia after trying to beg for his life. The manga instead has him killed in battle by Alear inside Firene Castle, without saying any last words.
• Dirty Coward: It takes queen Ève a stern look to shut him up, despite him holding her hostage. Later, he pathetically begs Zephia for his life, before she kills him anyway.
• Fur and Loathing: The collar of his armor is coated with fur.
• Hated by All: He's disliked by every character he interacts with, as even Zephia admits she executed him mostly because she already disliked him.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: He's quite willing to suck up to Zephia due to her status as his superior, but harbors a strong desire to accomplish something great enough to outshine and outrank her, foolish as such a desire is.
• Smug Snake: He resents having to serve Zephia and has delusions that he can one day outrank her and boss her around, being unaware of the vast power gap between them.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: He's far less of a threat than his superior Zephia, and his inability to back up his threats makes him come off as comedic.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Nelucce presents a new challenge to new players of Engage; aside from being able to attack both in melee and at range (something Rodine could do), he's also capable of Chain Attacking with the same range when any of his soldiers attack, and he boasts the game's first revival stone. Rushing him down with Céline or anyone else is very dangerous.

Bandits

Teronda

Class: Barbarian

Boss of Chapter 6.

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• Adapted Out: The manga adaptation completely omits Teronda, as its version of the game's chapter 6 has a very different plot taking place in Brodia rather than in an abandoned village in Firene. Therefore he is replaced by the manga-exclusive Count Lebright.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He proudly brags how he and his band have slaughtered an entire village.
• Recurring Element: He's following the tradition of "early evil bald bandit boss with no main plot consequence" started by Gazzak, although Teronda is not the Starter Villain (he's 5 main chapters too late).

Mitan

Class: Barbarian

Voiced by: Ikumi Hasegawa (Japanese)

Boss of Anna's Paralogue.

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• Breaking Old Trends: She's the first-ever female bandit boss, not that the narrative treats her any differently from the usual deal.
• From Bad to Worse: Laments that things couldn't get any worse after her hideout's loot is targeted by Anna. Then, Alear's group shows up to make her day worse.

Tetchie & Totchie

Class: Barbarian (both)

Tetchie voiced by: Kento Fujinuma (Japanese)

Totchie voiced by: Masaaki Yano (Japanese)

Bandit twins who terrorize a Solmic town. Fought in Chapter 13.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Their death quotes have them lamenting failing each other.
• Breaking Old Trends: Unlike most examples of the look-alike bandit archetype, these two are treated somewhat seriously and have fewer humorous or goofy aspects to them.
• Dual Boss: In keeping with the tradition of the look-alike bandit archetype, you must defeat them both to finish the chapter. Additionally, they're close enough to each other that you'll have to fight them at the same time.
• Lone Wolf Boss: As a pair of bandits, they're among the few chapter bosses who are unaffiliated with the major antagonistic factions (although they somehow have gotten a horde of Corrupted to work for them, claiming monsters are "fans" of theirs).
• Recurring Element: They fall under usual Fire Emblem archetype of two similar-looking bandits who work together. This time, they are actually twins.
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: One swings a Brave Axe, the other packs a Tomahawk.

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