Characters / Fire Emblem - Heroic Archetypes - Magic Units

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

Recurring Magic Units

• The White Mage: Typically a young girl that can only heal until promoted. The line between personality and class may be interchangeable from game to game.
  • The Lena: The early on-foot priestess, typically religious and demure.
  • The Maria: A healer who joins later, typically a noble, mounted and enthusiastic.
• The Black Mage Prodigy: Early-to-mid-game mages that specialize in offense, particularly Wind.
  • The Merric: A social optimist who takes pride in the power of magic.
  • The Arlen: A socially distant bookworm who values their studies.
• The Linde: Mid-game feminine auxiliary mage who compliments the Prodigy, and has had a family member killed by the bad guys, giving them a Revenge and tragedy angle.
• The Wendell: Mid-to-late-game pre-promoted Mage who mentors the Prodigy.

The White Mage

The Lena

The Lena is one of the early-game healers, more often than not the first you will recruit. She usually ends up joining up with your army because she was rescued from some sort of tight situation, such as being kidnapped. Just like how the Gordin is used to teach you about how bows work, the Lena is used to ease players into the healing mechanic.

The Lena tends to be a young and pure-hearted girl who is part of the faith/religious group of her country, and is also good friends with and/or the morality chain for another character. She starts off as a Support Party Member and needs to be defended until she can Class Change, at which time her high magic potential that has been used for healing can also be used for powerful attacks.

Playable characters of this archetype: Lena (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Silque and Genny (Gaiden); Marisha (Mystery of the Emblem); Edain and Lana/Muirne (Genealogy of the Holy War); Safy (Thracia 776); Elen (The Binding Blade); Serra (The Blazing Blade); Natasha (The Sacred Stones); Laura (Radiant Dawn); Lissa (Awakening); Sakura (Fates); Mercedes (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Framme (Engage)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Rhys^note While he's a male character, he's noted to be more soft-spoken and handsome like Lena being a very pretty cleric, and also gets a 'pair' with the Myrmidon Mia. However, he ultimately fails the part of debuting in some sort of distress. He instead inverts it, joining at the stage about rescuing the distressed Mist and Rolf as part of the rescue party instead. (Path of Radiance);

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• Damsel in Distress: You usually meet them when their home is under attack, or when they're on the run from the enemy. There were only a few that were met not in distress.
• Healer Signs On Early: The Lena is usually your first medic (and if not, they're usually the second^{for example...} Wrys is the first healer you can obtain in Shadow Dragon, while Moulder is the first healer you can obtain in The Sacred Stones; both are male elderly priests, making them a mini-archetype of sorts, recruited very early in the game).
• The Medic: Will most likely be your main healer and joins early most of the time.
• Morality Pet: She may be paired with at least one guy who has a soft spot for her despite usually being more nonchalant. As the original was paired with Julian, they tend to be Fragile Speedsters. However, they are not always the Julian - sometimes it's the Navarre, and there have been some completely different examples. Lena has Julian. Serra and Erk (in Lyn's story, and to some extent Matthew in the main story). Natasha and Joshua. Rhys and Mia. Laura and Aran. Mercedes and Jeritza.
• The One Guy: Rhys is so far the only male who's possesses parts of this archetype (as opposed to Wrys and Moulder). He even gets a female partner in Mia the Myrmidon.
• Proper Lady: The older examples are always demure and polite, and even Rhys is like this even though he's a guy. The younger examples like Genny, Marisha, Serra and Lissa tend to avert this.
• Team Mom: The older ones tends to become the 'mommy' to the crew, working extra hard to care for the younger ones.
• Token Religious Teammate: Not just using the stock RPG class, they are almost always literal clerics and priests that are part of the fantasy faith tradition of the continent.
• White Mage: It takes a lot of effort to get her to level 10 to promote, or level 20 to get her maximum potential before attacking. But it's usually worth the wait.

The Maria

The Maria is the female mid-game healer, joining later than other healers, typically because she has somehow been sidelined. To justify using the Maria over previous healers you've obtained, she often comes equipped with more potent staves or has a different class. Starting from Genealogy of the Holy War, this class is usually a Troubadour or other mounted healer class.

While the Lena is typically a healer because she's part of the faith, the Maria is often of Blue Blood and became a healer because it's an Acceptable Feminine Goal for a noble. The Maria also tends to focus on her family, with her siblings usually being playable. In many games, the two white mage archetypes are personality foils to each other, but who takes what role depends on the game.

Playable characters of this archetype: Maria (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Yuliya (Mystery of the Emblem); Ethlyn^note She is the very first healer obtained in the game, but fits the other traits and Lachesis (Genealogy of the Holy War); Nanna (Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776); Tina (Thracia 776); Clarine (The Binding Blade); Priscilla (The Blazing Blade); L'Arachel (The Sacred Stones); Mist (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Maribelle (Awakening); Elise^note Revelation only, since she joins later than Sakura; in Conquest, she's somewhat merged with the Lena role as she joins much earlier and is your first dedicated healer(Fates); Flayn (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Hortensia ^note Like her sister, she plays double duty as a Linde, since she lost her parents due to the villains' actions. (Engage)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Céline ^note She is the little sister of Prince Alfred of Firene, debuting with having to be rescued from Corrupted attack (along with Louis and Chloé), but she's more attuned with offensive magic. She's starts as a Magic Knight (thus cannot heal early), and while she can promote into The Red Mage, her healing is more of a secondary value than magic-slinging.(Engage)

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• Blue Blood: The Maria is often from a family of nobility, and sometimes this has an effect to make the Maria a snobbish princess, but still a good-hearted one.
• Breaking Old Trends: Hortensia is the first of the Marias who is not on ground or riding a horse. She rides a pegasus instead.
• Damsel in Distress: Almost all of them are held against their will at some point.
• Magic Knight: Almost as often as not, they'll have a promoted class that will give them access to swords (or knives in Elise's case) rather than tomes, and Ethlyn, Lachesis, Nanna, and Mist^note Radiant Dawn only don't even need to promote to be able to start slashing.
• Proper Lady: Tends to be a noble, or have secret noble lineage.
• Sibling Team: Most have at least one recruitable sibling. Usually an older brother.
• White Mage: Like Lena, she's primarily a medic.

The Black Mage Prodigy

The Merric

The main mage archetype, The Merric is an early-to-mid game youthful mage who belies a lot of potential in magic and studies quite hard to achieve it.

As the "warm side" of this archetype, they tend to be eager and social, but overall a bit more passive. They could be a little shy or cowardly, or just too much of a Nice Guy to confront those that taunt them. They are often underestimated due to their age, but a lot of times, it doesn't bog them down.

Keeping with the warm theme, since Sacred Stones, a dead giveaway is also their reddish hair.

They usually have early joining time, allowing time for the players to invest in them as a magical powerhouse ASAP.

Playable characters of this archetype: Merric (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Boey (Gaiden); Azelle (Genealogy of the Holy War); Asbel (Thracia 776); Lugh (The Binding Blade); Ewan (The Sacred Stones); Tormod (Path of Radiance); Ricken (Awakening); Hayato (Fates); Annette (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Clanne (Engage)

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• Badass Adorable: They're young, youthful, and positive boys, they can be precocious, but they still pack a punch with magic tomes.
• Badass Bookworm: Well read, and they fight with tomes.
• Blow You Away: In games where Wind magic is distinct, many of them start with a wind tome and are associated with Excalibur and its equivalents. Hayato plays with this by being from the "Wind Tribe" despite Hoshidan mages using animal spirits instead of elements.
• Child Prodigy: A young teen or preteen that is often the best student of a well-known Sage, if not just having The Gift.
• Composite Character: Three Houses attempts to merge their main Merric and Linde (see how it goes for the Linde below) with interesting results. Annette retains Merric's typical wind mastery and cheeriness and the fact that she had to study hard in order to master magic, but has Linde's gender and a variation of her 'father issues': She has a Disappeared Dad, though he is actually still alive and under the alias Gilbert. In Crimson Flower, if you recruited Annette, you could have her attack and possibly kill Gilbert in an inverse situation with Tailtiu and Reptor, or if you haven't, you effectively turned Gilbert into Annette's Miloah and she'll have a serious bone to pick against you.
• Magikarp Power: Downplayed; all of them join a little underleveled (except Azelle^note And even then, he's a variation: His level may be decent at the beginning, but he's stuck with the heaviest tome type of the game (Fire) and it'll be awhile until lighter tomes become available and he's on foot. If you're patient with him, then he gains a mount and generally gains much more useful utility specific to his game. and Revelation Hayato), meaning you have to work a little to get them up to scratch.
• Nice Guy: All of them are mostly pretty nice to others, actually quite similar with the Peaceful Lord.
• Playing with Fire: If they are not using Wind Magic, then they would instead specialize in Fire Magic. They never do Thunder Magic.
• The Smurfette Principle: Annette is the only female member to represent this archetype.
• Tagalong Kid: Some of them are very young, to the point of not being taken that seriously by the rest of the army. Ricken and Hayato in particular find this frustrating.

The Arlen

A subtype and foil to Merric. Their roles overlap to the point where you may only have one (like Oifey to Jagen), but later games tend to have both.

The tend to be a little older and they're not paragons in personality in comparison. Some traits that are more on the Arlen side of the spectrum include being more comfortable studying than talking to others. While they may share some of Merric's natural talent, they tend to focus on the scholarly side of magic, than raw power and intuition.

The "cool side" to the archetype, the Arlen is standoffish and doesn't always get along great with others. They're confrontational, sharp tongued, or maybe just so socially awkward that they come across as 'The Asshole Mage.' Despite having a dark air around them, they're just as dedicated in blasting evil with magic. Keeping with the cool theme, they usually have darker clothing and hair than pure Merrics.

Playable characters of this archetype: Arlen (Mystery of the Emblem); Lewyn and Arthur/Amid (Genealogy of the Holy War); Salem (Thracia 776); Raigh and Hugh (The Binding Blade); Erk (The Blazing Blade); Lute (The Sacred Stones); Soren (Path of Radiance); Miriel, Tharja, and Henry (Awakening); Nyx and Rhajat (Fates); Luthier and Sonya (Shadows of Valentia)^note Despite debuting in Gaiden, Luthier was nondescript there. Shadows of Valentia gives him the 'socially awkward, can't make friends' personality that is more in-line with Arlens. Likewise, Sonya also benefits getting a bonus personality in Shadows of Valentia, but while she has Linde's 'family drama' angle (her sisters being turned into Witches by her father Jedah), she lacks Linde's youth and pluckiness, instead having a more aloof stance and only having one possible friend (Genny); Hubert and Linhardt ^note Only on the Crimson Flower/Scarlet Blaze routes in the former's case. (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Ivy ^note Also counts as part-Linde since before joining Alear she just lost her father too. (Engage); Kiria (Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE); Raigh again (Heroes)

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• Aloof Ally: Every one of them probably wouldn't be the most friendly mages you'll meet, but they will still fight the bad guys.
• Badass Bookworm: Much like Merrics, of course.
• Blow You Away: Like Merrics, some of them also specialize in this when Wind Magic is distinct.
• Breaking Old Trends: Linhardt is the only member of this archetype that actually specializes in White Magic. However, he's not part of any faith and applies a majority of 'curious, distant magic researcher' personality like many members of the archetype, he just picked White Magic because it'll shed the least blood and he doesn't like shedding too much blood.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Another part that makes Arlen differ from Merric is that sometimes they're not afraid to dabble in dark arts, sometimes even actively pursuing it, when compared to Merric. whose bright personality would make them unsuited for dark magic. Regardless, they still kept their sanity to use the dark arts for good goals.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Hubert at first looks like a typical 'asshole mage', but his Undying Loyalty to his liege Edelgard essentially makes him the closest thing the series has to a heroic Gharnef. The harsh setting of the game and Edelgard's ambitions turn him into a puppet master, assassin, and generally a 'fixer' for her in the shadows; ironically mirroring the warnings given to the original Arlen that he might end up like Gharnef if he didn't temper his jackass attitude; in case of Hubert, he literally takes that route out of loyalty.
• Foil: Personality-wise, they serve as this to Merric, mirroring the originals' near-deadly rivalry. While the Merric is more open and social, the Arlen is more antisocial and comes off as jerkish.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: They may be more confrontative and less social, but they're still decent-hearted people when you get to know them. Some of them hide their decency really well.

The Linde

The second distinct mage archetype after the Merric/Arlen divide. The Linde is a female youthful mage that compliments Merric in a way that they tend to be blessed with more talents and sometimes confidence, the Brilliant, but Lazy to Merric's studious types.

They can be quite social, too, bonding with mostly Merric characters due to their shared interest with magic, or just as well to start a relations with other non-Merric characters. They appear plucky, but they may be hiding a personal tragedy, since most Lindes end up in the Lord's army because the bad guys have done something horrible to their family members, mostly parents. And most of the time, it's going to be about death, not any other horrible things that would be inflicted when they still draw breath.^{For example} Crippling for the rest of their life, stripping them from their wealth and status, inflict them with severe sickness, etc.... And sometimes, said parents die throughout the course of the game rather than in the backstory, so you may get to see the anguish of losing their parent in loving detail.

They tend to join later than Merric characters, thus people often have to choose which one would be their main magical powerhouse, their stat growth could be quite stellar that they could surpass the Merric character if the player invested their time, even if their starting stats and availability might not be that hot.

Playable characters of this archetype: Linde (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Mae and Delthea (Gaiden); Tailtiu and Tine/Linda (Genealogy of the Holy War); Sara and Miranda (Thracia 776); Lilina (The Binding Blade); Nino (The Blazing Blade); Sanaki (Radiant Dawn); Katarina (New Mystery of the Emblem); Ophelia (Fates); Lysithea (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Ivy^note Also counts as part-Arlen. Ivy is older than other members of the Linde archetype, but still fits otherwise and Hortensia ^note Also counts at part-Maria, due to her exclusive classes being themed around staves and being recruited mid-game.(Engage)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Sophia^note Only looks youthful, but her parents are unmentioned, and if they died, the bad guys had nothing to do with it. (The Binding Blade); Ilyana^note Looks youthful, but her parents are unmentioned (Path of Radiance); Orochi^note Same case with Ilyana and Nyx^note Looks youthful and actually scores pretty strong within the 'naturally gifted' stance, but her parents are unmentioned (though most likely dead considering Nyx is really over 1000) and she also has a distant personality (Fates); Sonya (Shadows of Valentia)^note She did have dead family members courtesy of her father Jedah, but her personality is not exactly sociable and more distant. And she's older than most.; Annette^note Her parent, in this case father (Gilbert), is in the game, but rather distant enough to be a Disappeared Dad/Parental Abandonment. He can explicitly survive the story if you circumvent him on Crimson Flower or don't get him killed on Azure Moon, and she can also die with him, so her tragedy angle is subverted a bit. Adding to that, she is noted to be more of a hard-worker in studying, and has praised Lysithea to be way more talented than she is, which makes her more of a female Merric. and Constance ^note She's naturally gifted, having a rare and powerful crest that helps her powers, and she actually does have a dead family. However, her family dying was not connected to the main villains of Three Houses, meaning she lacks any revenge motivation (Three Houses); Citrinne^note Appears to be young and is a magical Glass Cannon, but her parents were never mentioned to have died. Best she can come up with is her 'distant elder relative', being Morion. However, it doesn't make up the bulk of her history/character. (Engage)

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• Badass Adorable: Due to their youth, they tend to be very cute, but they pack a very heavy punch with their magic. Even moreso, the combination of adorableness and magical prowess (and a lot of times, tragedy angle) tend to make them high candidates to become fan-favorites.
• Black Magician Girl: They're young girls with the gift of magic.
• Breaking Old Trends: Hortensia is the first to be a flying Linde unit, others before her are usually on foot (with the small exception of Miranda, who's on a wingless horse).
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Downplayed. They're not lazy, but due to their talent with magic, some of them can afford to focus on other personalities instead of 'studying magic really hard'.
• Composite Character:
  • Three Houses attempts to merge their main Merric and Linde (see how it goes for the Merric above) with interesting results. Lysithea retains Linde's immense gift of magic without a lot of studies as well as family tragedy angle, but she also possesses a trait seen in modern Merrics like Ricken and Hayato: Getting snappy when someone treats her like a child.
  • Engage has two Lindes in Ivy and Hortensia, both of whom fall into another archetype as well: Ivy is part Arlen due to her more introverted personality, while Hortensia's focus on staff usage and midgame recruitment make her part Maria.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Lysithea pretty much deconstructs the concept of natural talent in magic within this archetype. In her case, her talent was experimented on her in form of having two crests, it gave her great magical talent, but it heavily shortens her lifespan, despite her still trying her best to live her short life the fullest.
• Foil: They tend to be a more positive foil to Merrics and are often seen paired with the Merric. Their growths also often differ with the Merric in a similar way with Cain and Abel.
• The Gift: They're often someone who's just born with magical talent, thus requiring less studies than some of their fellow mages.
• Glass Cannon: Their stat growths or weapon focus tend to favor this approach compared to the speedier Merrics: low Defense, as is typical for mages, and usually comparatively lower Speed, so they can't dodge very well, but in exchange, they either have a much higher Magic growth or have a magic type or tome that hits really hard. Quite often, they compensate for failing to double by hitting so hard they kill the enemy in one shot. (One of the few cases of Male Might, Female Finesse being inverted in these archetypes.) It may have something to do with how a Linde rarely if ever specializes in wind magic, something that a lot of Merrics (or Arlens) tend to favor, and winds are associated with speed.
• Magikarp Power: Though not as much as Est characters, a Linde can come a bit late when you have already developed your Merric, but they have a chance to grow exponentially more powerful than Merrics.
• Parental Abandonment: Most of their parents are dead, usually by the hands of the bad guys.
  • Linde's father Miloah was murdered by Gharnef.
  • Tine's mother Tailtiu (or Linda's mother Ethnia) was tortured and driven to death in depression by Hilda. Tailtiu herself would see her father Reptor, who she still cared about despite how power-hungry he is, killed by her army or herself (and mainly due to the betrayal of Arvis).
  • Miranda's whole family and relatives were slaughtered by the Friege army. Meanwhile, Sara's father were outright murdered by her own grandfather Manfroy due to not agreeing with the latter.
  • Lilina's father Hector was killed by Zephiel.
  • Nino's original family was killed by both Nergal and Sonia, and later, her new foster family, the Black Fang, was completely ruined and destroyed by them.
  • Sanaki's grandmother was murdered by Lekain, who proceeds to manipulate her and use her as a figurehead ruler.
  • Katarina's parents were killed by bandits, and then her other foster families die one by one at the hands of her own foster mother, who was brainwashed by Gharnef.
  • Ophelia might look normal, but during the Heirs of Fate scenario, her father Odin was murdered and raised as a revenant by Anankos.
  • Lysithea's parents lost the majority of their power and influence after they were Forced to Watch as she and her siblings was experimented by "those who slither in the dark" to have two crests, which results all of her siblings dead and she's the Sole Survivor, with shortened lifespan to boot.
  • Hortensia lost her mother when she was seven, witnesses her loving father Hyacinth become crueler when Sombron returns, believed she lost her older sister Ivy while fighting Alear's Army, after Sombron's revival he consumes Hyacinth before her eyes, and is forcefully brainwashed by Zephia into attempting to kill her sister Ivy who joins Alear all before she finally joins your army.
• Revenge: If they lost a relative as stated above, chances are, they want to exact the trope on the ones responsible within the enemy ranks.
• Ship Tease: Much like Linde's crush on Merric, they tend to contain one to mostly fellow mages that may belong to the Merric archetype, or even Arlen. This is mostly seen with Mae, who'd end up as Boey's future wife; Delthea, who is the little sister of Luthier; Tailtiu being a childhood friend and strong predestined for Azelle, which results in Arthur and Tine being siblings; Sara having Support Bonus the dark mage Salem (and they're the only Loptous Church ex-members of the group); Sophia having a Support with the non-elderly non-Nabata dweller fellow dark magic user Raigh; Nino being able to support and marry Erk (despite her default pair deviating from the rule, being the Assassin Jaffar); Lysithea needs to be paired off with a mage (Linhardt or Hanneman) or Byleth and the Lords (Claude or Edelgard) or else she suffers a Deadly Distant Finale. The ones who deviate from the 'Mage-mage' rule include Miranda, who's implied to marry the knight Conomore; Lilina, who's instead paired with Roy (who ironically played the 'studious Merric' role when they studied under Cecilia); and the aforementioned Nino, who is primarily teased with Jaffar.
• Stepford Smiler: They mostly put up a strong front, but hide great anguish about losing a loved one.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Downplayed, since magic is quite accurate overall, but they'll often be the most inaccurate spellcasters in your army due to their low Skill and propensity for stronger, less accurate tomes.
• You Killed My Father: Oftentimes, the murderer of their parents are amongst the enemy ranks and they have a chance to exact direct retribution for it. Averted in a most tragic manner with Tailtiu: Her father Reptor is either killed by herself, then either her father curses her as a family-shamer deserving of Honor-Related Abuse or she blames herself for it... or alternatively, her father dies by the machination of Arvis, who later initiated the Battle of Bellhalla that costed the lives of Tailtiu's friends as she's forced to retreat, which means that Tailtiu is even denied the chance to avenge her father.

The Wendell

The final of the mage archetypes is the mentor type. There's usually an elder magic user who's of the promoted class mentoring any of the three archetypes. While they often make comments that their students will definitely surpass them given time, if the player has been neglecting (or getting unlucky with) them, the Wendell can turn out to be a decent prepromote to handle the magical needs in usually mid- or late-game, where they joined. But if the player did raise the other three mages, the Wendell might turn out as a magical Crutch Character like Jagen.

Playable characters of this archetype: Wendell (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Nomah (Gaiden); Claude (Genealogy of the Holy War); Ced (Thracia 776); Cecilia (The Binding Blade); Pent (The Blazing Blade); Saleh (The Sacred Stones); Calill (Path of Radiance); Izana (Fates); Hanneman (Three Houses); Lindon (Engage)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Pandreo ^note He's a pre-promoted High Priest when he joins the player's army in the mid-game, but he doesn't really mentor anyone. (Engage)

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• Boring, but Practical: As mentioned above, they are a perfectly serviceable prepromote who could feasibly last into the endgame if none of your early magic users have turned out well for any reason.
• Mentor Archetype: Obviously. Claude's case is between-games, though it might be easy to think that Tailtiu is the student, but it's actually Sleuf.
• Student–Master Team: They're the 'Master' in question. Student can be any of the three mage archetypes.
• Support Party Member: They usually come packaged with a staff rank higher than even the trained mages can manage up to that point, letting them use high-end staves while their students are still busy building their rank up from basic heals.
• Surpassed the Teacher: The Wendell will often remark that the student will surpass them. This is true to an extent: if you have been training the student, the Wendell would look like they're Overrated and Underleveled or a Crutch Character, though Ced is an exception because he also pulls double duty as the Gotoh as well, so he'll still be very strong even when Asbel can hold his own.