Characters / Fire Emblem - Heroic Archetypes - Main Characters

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

Main Characters

Obviously, these are the archetypes which involve the characters with the biggest plot importance within the game, usually having very big importance in plot (even post-mortem, for some) and their situation may affect the outcome of the story.

• The Lord: The protagonist and POV character of the game. Usually young nobles thrust into the center of an international conflict.
  • Peaceful Lord: Avoids unnecessary conflict, and relies on strong bonds within the army.
  • Martial Lord: Prefers to settle conflict directly, cares little for royal etiquette.
• The Avatar: A customizable character that serves as the lord's confidant, as well as the POV character if present in the game. Often a tactician.
• The Heroine: The Lord's opposite gender counterpart, and sometimes love interest with an optional main story dialogue modification if they were kept alive throughout the game. Either a Lord herself, a pegasus knight, or a mysterious waif.
• The Cornelius: A parent, sibling, or mentor that meets with a terrible fate, making the journey personal for the Lord.
• The Nyna: A high-ranking noble that specifically sought help from your army to restore peace in their homeland by driving out the bad guys. Serves as your army's Big Good.

The Lord

The protagonist of many of the Fire Emblem. There is always at least one Lord (Radiant Dawn had two, and The Blazing Blade had three). They are generally young, humble nobles or royals who are natural-born leaders despite their lack of experience, lose at least one (if not both) parental/mentor figures, and grow into universally revered and powerful warriors and rulers in their place. As the main character, it's automatically game over if they die in battle.

As characters, the Lord can be subdivided into two types: the peaceful lord, and the martial lord.

General Tropes

• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Whether due to high-quality training from childhood, unique weapons, superhuman bloodlines or other inherited powers, or some combination, playable royalty tend to be among the strongest units in your party both in initial stats, growth rates, and max stats. In-universe they are often famed for their tremendous strength/magic and skill.
• Blue Blood: Every Lord is either royalty or discovers they are such over the course of their journey. The only exceptions are Ike, a common mercenary ^note his father, however, was noble, but relinquished his title before Ike was born; Ike is knighted into nobility during Path of Radiance, but also relinquishes his title in the timeskip before Radiant Dawn, and Itsuki, an Ordinary High-School Student.
• Composite Character: As with many long runners, increasingly the archetype is played with by either combining aspects of other archetypes, or mixing and matching traits of previous Lords. In particular, Hector has been enough of a direct inspiration for future Lords that he's created a sub-type.
  • Sigurd is a mix of the Lord, Crutch Character, and Cornelius archetypes. Like most Lords, he starts off as the main character and gets exclusive access to the Infinity +1 Sword; like Crutch Characters, he is a prepromoted unit who has early access to Silver-grade weaponry and can kick ass far harder than the rest of the party at the beginning; like Corneliuses, he is murdered halfway through in order to give motivation to his son Seliph.
  • Ike is a mix of the Lord and the Ogma. His Ranger Class is the Tellius equivalent of Mercenary, promotes to Hero in the sequel game, and eventually gains access to Axes. Instead of a prince, he's the head of a mercenary company. He becomes the loyal sword of a pegasus-riding princess (Caeda/Elincia). His starting party even references this by getting Bord (Boyd), an axe fighter like Ogma has, and Abel (Oscar), a cavalier like Marth has, instead of a pair of either.
  • Micaiah is a mix of Lord and White Mage. While she has Light Magic to engage in combat, she's an innate healer through her Sacrifice skill before she gains staves. She's assisted by a Julian (Sothe) as well.
  • Corrin is explicitly a mix of Lord and Avatar, as the customizable self-insert character. Class-wise, however, they are a manakete instead of some type of magic class.
  • Edelgard is the first to be both the Lord and the Rudolf, acting as the main protagonist for the Crimson Flower route, main antagonist for the Azure Moon route, and a major secondary antagonist in the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes.
• Frontline General: They always fight in the thick of combat alongside the common soldiers.
• The Hero: The main POV character who stands on the side of justice.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Later games have the Lord and the Avatar getting into this sort of relationship with even an option of an S-support.
• Primary-Color Champion: With the exception of Corrin, who wears different shades of black and white, the main Lord and most supporting Lords have red, blue, and yellow somewhere in their base class outfit. The Lords of Three Houses, Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude, each sport the respective primary color.
• Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: Played with. While they do always get the Sword of Plot Advancement, they are sometimes also locked into a plot-based class promotion. If it comes late enough in the game, they may actually end up weaker than the supporting cast that the player can level grind consistently.
• Rookie Red Ranger: Even if they've had training, the beginning of the game is typically their first brush with actual warfare.
• Starter Equipment: They typically have a starting weapon that's both an armor and horse slayer to ease their journey fighting the backbone of The Empire's troops. The original prince style lords get the Rapier (except the Jugdral Lords; Sigurd and Seliph start out with normal, common weapons before getting the Tyrfing, while Leif starts with the Light Brand). Myrmidon Lord Lyn gets the Mani Katti. Axe General Lord Hector gets the Wolf Beil. Soldier Lord Ephraim gets the Reginleif. Mercenary Lord Ike has the Regal Sword (and later Ettard, but without the bonuses), Mage Lord Micaiah gets Thani. Chrom gets both his Rapier and a weak version of his legendary, the Falchion, to start with that later gets powered up through the plot. Corrin starts with the Ganglari until it self-destructs, at which point it's replaced with a weak version of the Yato which gains different boosts depending on the route as the story goes on. Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude each get legendary weapons, none of them being swords.

The Peaceful Lord

The more peaceful of the two Lord subtypes. Young and kindhearted, they generally hold an idealistic view of the world, and thus prefer to resolve conflicts with as little bloodshed as possible. However, they can also be naive and easily distracted by smaller matters, and they can be easily manipulated due to their trusting nature. Through Character Development, they learn to be less naive and more intelligent while still keeping their idealism and hope for peace.

Playable characters of this archetype: Marth (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Celica (Gaiden); Seliph (Genealogy of the Holy War); Roy (The Binding Blade); Eliwood (The Blazing Blade); Eirika^note Only for the first 8 chapters and her own route. She’s a heroine in Ephraim’s route instead. (The Sacred Stones); Corrin (Fates); Dimitri ^note Three Houses Prologue to Chapter 11 and Chapter 18 onward and Claude (Three Houses); Alear (Engage); Itsuki (Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE); Alfonse (Heroes); Lianna (Warriors); Dimitri (again) (Warriors: Three Hopes)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Lucina (Awakening)^note She has access to the Lord class-line but otherwise isn't treated as a lord gameplay-wise (I.E. In contrast to Chrom and Robin, her falling in battle doesn't result in a Game Over and she isn't a mandatory unit for every chapter battle like Chrom is) and she isn't the protagonist as she doesn't even join the player's army until the story's halfway point., Alcryst (Engage)^note He has access to the lord class, but like Lucina, he is not treated as an actual lord character from a gameplay standpoint nor is he the protagonist. He also becomes Demoted to Extra in his game's plot after Chapter 11., Sharena (Heroes)^note While initially treated as one of the main lords of the game, Sharena was largely cast aside in favor of her brother from Book II onward and is not given the adequate focus, thus no longer qualifying for the archetype.

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• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • In several of his support chains, Roy reveals himself to suffer heavily from self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness thanks to having a pivotal responsibility thrust upon him despite his lack of experience. His mentors also feel that his kind nature causes him to be too soft on the members of his army. However, Roy's supports end up reassuring him that it's his kindness and determination that make him so effective as a leader.
  • Dimitri is basically the Peaceful Lord put in a very harsh and dark situation that eventually causes his idealism to get impaled thoroughly and his Character Development takes a darker turn than usual, becoming a darker variant of the Martial Lord below as a result. It takes him accidentally getting one of his vassals killed in his deranged attempts to get revenge to finally snap out of it and return to his peaceful nature.
  • It is thanks to his mixed heritage that Claude has become Peaceful (to a degree), wishing to make the world a safer place instead of despairing over it by metaphorically tearing down the walls that separate different peoples all across Fódlan. In other routes beside his own in post-Timeskip, he instead becomes a Hero Antagonist, having the noblest motives, merely does what he thinks is right for his home, and is the only one that is not automatically killed in the story. Claude is also peculiar in his attitude among other Reluctant Warriors; Claude actively cultivates a reputation as an untrustworthy schemer and is more willing than other Lords of this archetype at using underhanded methods like ambushes and secret alliances to secure victory. Ultimately, his bark is a lot worse than his bite when it comes to schemes, though.
• Humble Hero: Lords of this subtype generally downplay their accomplishments when given praise.
• Martial Pacifist: They generally prefer to resolve conflict diplomatically. But make no mistake, they'll come down hard on their enemies when pushed. Claude takes this further by becoming a Guile Hero.
• Nice Guy: They're among the kindest and most generous people in their respective games, though Claude chooses to portray himself as a more scheming variant.
• Reluctant Warrior: While they are trained, capable fighters, they would rather solve conflicts peacefully than raise their swords.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to the Martial Lord's Manly Man when both are present.
• Took a Level in Badass: Stories following the Peaceful Lord generally involve them growing from naive, inexperienced greenhorns to confident and powerful leaders. More often than not, this is reflected in their stats, as they tend towards low bases and high growths.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: They're always full of hope that things will work out for the better, though Character Development later decreases this to more sensible levels.
• The Wise Prince: Naturally. They always put the needs of their people before their own, but their idealism can take a toll on them until they undergo Character Development.

The Martial Lord

The more aggressive of the two Lord subtypes. Unlike their more pacifistic counterparts, these Lords are more willing to fight and kill for their beliefs and are much more willful and blunt when interacting with others. Because of their willful nature, they tend to be reckless and charge headfirst without thinking of the danger involved. They often undergo Character Development in which they learn to think about the consequences of their actions and to solve problems without charging headfirst into them.

Playable characters of this archetype: Alm (Gaiden); Sigurd (Genealogy of the Holy War); Leif (Thracia 776); Hector and Lyn^note Only in her own tale, as she has less focus in both Eliwood and Hector’s tales (The Blazing Blade); Ephraim (The Sacred Stones); Ike and Micaiah (Path of Radiance^note Ike only and Radiant Dawn); Chrom (Awakening); Dimitri ^note Chapters 12 to 17 and Edelgard (Three Houses); Rowan (Warriors); Edelgard (again) and Claude (Warriors: Three Hopes)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Diamant (Engage)^note He has access to the lord class and fits a lot of tropes of this archetype, but he is not treated as an actual lord character from a gameplay standpoint nor is he the protagonist.

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• Action Hero: Unlike the Peaceful Lord, their primary instinct when confronted with a problem is to stab it until it stops breathing.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Sigurd. His recklessness and lack of hesitation towards using violence to achieve his goals allow the villains to play him like a cheap kazoo, ultimately get him and most of his followers killed, and leave his son Seliph to fix the devastation left in his wake.
  • Ephraim. His gallivanting in enemy territory doesn't endear him to the populace one bit, to the point that when he liberates Renais, the people only cheer because The Caligula's rule is at an end. After this incident, he begins to mature.
  • Micaiah. She dislikes fighting but understands it's important to stand up for what she believes in, and so fights with the goal of resolving conflict. In the first act, she was fighting a tyrannical regime, so while conflicted, she was reassured that she was doing the right thing. In the third chapter of the game however, she is forced to fight on the side of a war she is morally against, and with a nation that she is also against, leading to her focusing her efforts on the war by winning through whatever means possible. When it turns against her, she becomes willing to betray her own beliefs for the sake of her country, and it isn't until she gets a large What the Hell, Hero? from Tibarn that she cracks under the pressure of knowing she is betraying her own beliefs and also being too loyal to stop, leading to her confronting Pelleas about the conflict. To put it simply; she was a Peaceful Lord forcing herself to become the Martial Lord, without being able to handle the realities this conflicting nature would bring once the conflict becomes less clearly defined.
  • Edelgard takes this trope to the extreme, becoming a Well-Intentioned Extremist whose goal is to destroy a somewhat Corrupt Church and unite the entirety of Fódlan through any means necessary, even disregarding her own people. On any route other than her own, she takes this methodology to outright Rudolf levels.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Characters of this sub-archetype had some elements of the Peaceful Lord with Alm, Sigurd, and Leif, but fully diverged with the popularity of Hector, leading to several other lords being based around his personality. Micaiah is the only one of the most recent lords that doesn't fully embrace either side, being proactive to take action but also hating war.
• Good Is Not Soft: Even if they don't enjoy the fight for its own sake, they have no problem subduing problematic elements through force of arms.
• Hot-Blooded: If they see a fight about to get on, they often get very excited about bashing some dastards in the face. This trend primarily started with Hector, with Martial Lords before him primarily embodying Good Is Not Soft. Edelgard mostly averts this, acting through logic and ambition instead. Micaiah similarly prefers a more strategic approach, with her disliking war and pointless conflicts.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Tend to hold a more cynical view of the world compared to their more peaceful counterparts, but they're just as willing to make it a better place. This can be particularly be seen with Micaiah's view of the world, despite loving it (specially Daein) and its people, she knows the world is against her, because of her brand.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Many of them share the Fatal Flaw of being a bit too eager to fight, reaching Blood Knight levels in a few cases.
• Rebel Prince: A lot of the time, they would rather serve as a warrior rather than fulfill their royal/noble duties.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to the Peaceful Lord's Sensitive Guy when both are present.
• Trope Codifier: While elements of the archetype were present before him, most modern Martial Lords follow in the footsteps of Hector from The Blazing Blade.

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The Avatar

A character whose identity is created by the player before the game starts proper. First appearing in a prototypical form in The Blazing Blade as a tactician working for the army in the background that allows the units to talk directly to the player, a fully playable Avatar first appears in New Mystery of the Emblem. They tend to be one of the most powerful units available thanks to their overall high stat growths, ability to become almost any Character Class, and capacity to Support with pretty much everybody in the army. If playable, the Avatar works like an additional lord included giving an automatic game over if defeated.

The Avatar's narrative role has fluctuated over time. Mark is basically an extra in The Blazing Blade, Kris is a Supporting Protagonist in New Mystery of the Emblem, Robin and Byleth are the deuteragonists of Awakening and Three Houses respectively (though Byleth is the protagonist of the Silver Snow route), Corrin and Alear are the protagonists of Fates and Engage respectively, Kiran of Heroes returns the Avatar to their roots of being a faceless extra.

Playable characters of this archetype (using default names): Mark (The Blazing Blade, unplayable); Kris (New Mystery of the Emblem); Robin (Awakening); Corrin (Fates); Byleth (Three Houses); Alear (Engage); Kiran (Heroes); Shez (Warriors: Three Hopes)

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• Ascended Extra: The first fully playable Avatar, Kris, wasn't a particularly important character to the plot, mostly because Kris's game was a remake. In Awakening, Robin has a vital role as the Deuteragonist, in Fates, Corrin is the main character, and in Three Houses, Byleth is the character who explicitly tips the scales in favor of their faction in the player's chosen route^note Byleth's emergence five years after their disappearance breaks the stalemate between the three different factions in the Reunification of Fodlan, and Byleth themself served as the center for the machinations of Rhea, Edelgard, and Claude rather directly in their routes. Come Fire Emblem Engage, Alear is the game's only Lord (though they also share several traits with the Peaceful Lord). This also applies to the idea of the Avatar archetype itself, as it grew out of a minor featureless character, Mark, in The Blazing Blade.
• Canon Name: All Avatars have a default name for when they are customized.
• Character Customization: Their whole schtick is being the player's customizable character, though the more fully customizable are just Kris, Robin and Corrin. You can only change Kiran's gender (and they'll look the same due to being stuck with the hood, though later updates added artwork for females and males, and the option to keep the hood on), and you could only customize Mark, Byleth, and Alear's genders and birthdays (Mark can also change Blood Type in the Japanese version).
• Chick Magnet: Male playable Avatars except Kris can have a large number of female love interests. Even Female Byleth has more female romantic options than some male Lords. There are even some characters who can only be matched with the Avatar, whom the fandom has collectively referred to as "Avatarsexuals", and these are not limited to just females. This is downplayed with Alear, at least in localized versions of Engage, as while both genders can have supports with all female characters, most of those supports are platonic at best.
• Dude Magnet: Female playable Avatars except Kris can have a large number of male love interests. This can apply to Male Byleth too, to a lesser extent. This is downplayed with Alear, at least in localized versions of Engage, as while both genders can have supports with all male characters, most of those supports are platonic at best.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Avatars are most often associated with swords. Robin may be associated with tomes, but they can also use swords. Kiran is an exception: They instead use Dire Breidablik, which is a weapon that has similaries with small firearms.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: With the exceptions of Corrin and Alear, each Avatar serves their game's Lord. They end up being the most powerful unit and/or are stated to be the key to be the army's success.
• Jack of All Stats: They have good growth rates across the board by default; thought in the case of Robin and Corrin the player still picks one stat to specialize in and one Dump Stat.
• Job System: Notable in that, before Fates, the Avatar could reclass into virtually any other kind of unit in the game, allowing them to gain whatever skills or training they wanted with enough time and patience. Fates toned it down significantly: they have their own class/promotion, but can only choose one alternative class at the beginning, and later can acquire their spouse's and the people of the same gender that they get A supports with (save for Niles and Rhajat, who are the bi options). The Job System is a default element of Three Houses, with Byleth starting in what is essentially a trainee class.
• Lethal Chef: A Running Gag is that the Avatar's cooking tastes like steel. Downplayed in Three Houses, where Byleth can take part in an extracurricular activity with a house member where they cook a dish that grants buffs for the month to every party member, and it increases motivation and affection in party members that like cooking (though since the positive bonuses and negatives are based on the partner in question, it could be inferred Byleth really only stands aside and watches, and isnt that good of a chef still).
• Lightning Bruiser: When playable, their stats are usually off the roof because of various factors such as high growth rate, fast EXP gain, and perfect availability. A common Self-Imposed Challenge is to beat the game's most difficult game mode with only the Avatar in applicable games as a result.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Two of the four playable Avatars have turned out to have evil and unsavory heritage.
• Magic Knight: Three of their four playable appearances give them a class that can use both magic and swordplay, or let them promote into something that does.
• Non-Entity General: Mark does not exist in gameplay and barely exist in-story, and their whole existence is very much just used for characters in-game to refer to the player. Played With in the case of Kiran: While they do make an appearance in Mjölnir's Strike post update 5.2.0, they are almost never seen in the main story.
• Single-Target Sexuality: From a gameplay perspective, maybe internally as they cannot support with anyone else, but oftentimes the Avatar will have three or four characters who can only support with the Avatar and no one else. Usually, it's because they came that late in the story, or are DLC. The fandom has collectively referred to them as "Avatarsexuals".
• The Strategist: As befit their role as the extension of the player, many characters defer to them for strategy. Kris is an exception; Jagen and Katarina serve as strategists in their game.
• Virtual Paper Doll: In The Blazing Blade, you could only choose gender, name, and birth month. New Mystery, Awakening, and Fates added face, body shape, hair color and style, voice, and sometimes even accessories.

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The Heroine

Complementing the Lord is a close female companion, who often acts as a deuteragonist or has some other story importance. In the earlier games, she ends up with the Lord as part of an Official Couple and the two live Happily Ever After. Assuming she survives, of course.

As games from The Binding Blade onward gave more freedom to the player to pair the Lord with whoever they please, these characters would usually end up being the Developers' Desired Date. The game might 'encourage' the player to pair these characters with the Lord by providing extra story perks if they are chosen as the main pair of the Lord, but in the end, the final say is in the player's hands: follow the implications/suggestions or not.

The character's class is rarely the same in each passing game (though we've had repeats of Pegasus Knight, Mage, Dancer, and complimentary Lords). However, they have a tendency to be nobles, whether or not they have a Lord or another unique class. Gameplay-wise, they are also usually the second-best recruiter after the main Lord, and they have a knack for being able to recruit a complete stranger that you have no idea that they are related (a job usually reserved for the main Lord). Particularly if they happen to actually be Lords, or have a unique Lord-like class, they may be the main character of their own side conflict.

Characters of this archetype: Caeda (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Celica (Gaiden); Deirdre and Julia or Lana/Muirne (Genealogy of the Holy War); Nanna (Thracia 776); Lilina (The Binding Blade); Ninian and Lyn ^note Not in her own tale, where she’s the main focus. (The Blazing Blade); Eirika^note Only if Ephraim’s route was chosen after Chapter 8. For the first 8 Chapters and her own route, Eirika is the main lord instead of being a heroine. and Tana (The Sacred Stones); Elincia (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Sothe ^note The rare example of a male character that fits otherwise the role perfectly, included being Micaiah's main love interest and being able to recruit characters and Micaiah (Radiant Dawn) ^note Due to the many Tellius POV changes, Elincia and Micaiah could qualify depending on if it's Ike, Micaiah, or the player's perspective; Katarina (New Mystery of the Emblem); Sumia, Female Robin, and Lucina (Awakening); Azura (Fates); Byleth ^note Can be an opposite-sex foil and S support option of all three house leaders (and in Edelgard's case, same-sex). Does not qualify on Silver Snow due to being the sole hero in their own right. (Three Houses); Veyle (Engage); Tsubasa (Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE); Fjorm, Eir, Peony, Reginn, Ash, Seiðr, and Ratatoskr (Heroes)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Edelgard ^note Has a lot of traits of this archetype, but she's a main lord and is favored more in Crimson Flower than Byleth. In other routes, she's a major antagonist instead. (Three Houses), Sharena^note She initially acted as a deuteragonist of the story, but as of Book II, she was Demoted to Extra, and, unlike other heroines, has little to no plot relevance beyond providing dialogue. Instead, her role was taken up by every Arc Heroine introduced in each book since. (Heroes)

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• Action Girlfriend: If a female, she'll usually be able to defend herself from the beginning or will start leveling up as the game progresses. Even moreso if the boyfriend/Lord in question has their promotion time locked and stuck at Level 20 unpromoted while the heroine can promote any time she wants.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: A few get to be the main hero or the Arc Hero of their own adventures.
  • Celica leads her own party that doesn't join Alm's until the final chapter. Similarly, Micaiah is a mage-like lord that doesn't join with Ike until the 4-part endgame chapters.
  • Lyn, Eirika, Micaiah, and Elincia all have prologue/tutorial modes where they are the main character before the male Lord shows up (Eirika can even remain the main character after).
  • Katarina is the focus of an ongoing sidequest arc. Lucina gets the Future Past arc in DLC that focuses on her world if she didn't go to the past. Azura is technically the sibling that Corrin sides with in Revelation (before all the other siblings join). Byleth is for all intents and purposes the main hero of Part I of Three Houses - and arguably the Lord on the Silver Snow route as well.
  • Each season of Heroes has introduced a new female lord-like character to play opposite Alphonse.
  • Veyle is fought as an enemy for the majority of Engage and also the first Heroine to serve as a Not Love Interest for Alear, due to them being biological siblings.
• Deuteragonist: If a character of this archetype isn't given equal protagonist billing ^note Celica, Eirika, Micaiah, (to a certain extent) Lyn, and the Heroes girls (see the Lord archetype above), she will most likely fill this role in the plot. (We didn't say "always" because there are plenty of exceptions.)
• Developers' Desired Date: If they aren't explicitly the Love Interest of the Lord or Avatar due to a marriage or paired ending mechanic, the games give some hints to indicate that they should hook up.
  • In the Archanea games, if you finish the game after somehow letting Caeda die, the ending dialogue changes into either Nyna or Gotoh lamenting that the war cost Marth his dear childhood friend (and in the latter, future wife).
  • Lana/Muirne are a subversion. While they are the predestined partner for Seliph and their hook-up dialogue is achieved the same way as other predestined dialogues in the epilogue chapter, they're the first to join Seliph and have the biggest Love Growth points, enabling them to become lovers even in the chapter they debut in; this is to make up for the bug that Julia got stuck with. Moreso, for a substitute character, Muirne gets a special privilege of having a conversation with Seliph where he actually talks about his own insecurities, something he never does with any other prospects.
  • Pairing Lilina with Roy in The Binding Blade switches the scene where Roy greets Guinivere after the coronation for one of him talking with Lilina about the future that will come. Roy x Lilina is also the fastest growing support in the entire game, with a large margin, the C Support is unlocked the turn after they reunite.
  • In The Blazing Blade, Ninian for Eliwood, in consideration of how strongly she's tied with his story, including accidentally killing her, and if paired together, Ninian stays in Elibe instead of passing through the Dragon Gate. In the case of Lyndis, it's for Hector: There are exclusive scenes between them together that are available only in Hector Mode.
  • Near the end of Ephraim's route in Sacred Stones, Tana manages to confront and snap him out of a Heroic BSoD, while in Eirika's route (or if Tana dies in Ephraim's route), the role goes to L'Arachel, and they cannot pair together. In the case of Eirika, many characters are jealous of her closeness to her brother Ephraim. They are also one of the few sibling teams to have a paired ending.
  • Elincia is a Red Herring to this archetype in Path of Radiance. While she gets a Ship Tease with Ike and has a Pegasus Knight-like class, she also fills the same role as Nyna and Guinivere (who is never paired with the hero for various reasons), and as such she and Ike never get to hook up. She ends up with Geoffrey instead.
  • Sothe serves as this for Micaiah in Radiant Dawn: if their A support is maintained to the end, they marry and when she's crowned as the Queen of Daein, he becomes her Hot Consort.
  • Katarina in New Mystery of the Emblem is actually an addition to the remake and serves as the Love Interest for the Avatar, not Marth. While they are not shown to marry or live together in the end, Katarina has her own whole subplot that the player can choose to follow, and completing the subplot depends on how the player manages the Avatar.
  • In Awakening, Sumia and Female Robin split the difference for Chrom — Sumia is the only female character who openly shares screentime in Animated CG scenes with Chrom (both her debut stage and the opening movie holding baby Lucina), and the game prioritizes her for Chrom's scripted marriage. A Female Robin is the only one of Chrom's lovers who keeps her plot importance after marrying him, a non-Robin Lucina openly lampshades how close she is to Chrom (to either Robin herself or a non-Chrom!Male Morgan), and he has a modified scene where she's confronted by a Lucina mothered by her. Lucina serves as this for Robin in both ways since she also has the modified scene when confronting Robin and contemplates killing him to stop Grima, if she marries a male Robin beforehand.
  • In Fates, Azura is the only character to get different Support conversations with Corrin (of both genders, though only the Male one can marry her) and altered Love Confession scenes depending on the route. Her Support ranks with Corrin also increase faster than her other Supports.
  • The Gaiden remake, Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, also has a subversion: Faye fits the archetype surprisingly well (beauty, devotion to the guy she loves, starts out physically weak but can become a very skilled fighter, etc.), but since Alm and Celica are set in stone as the game's Official Couple, she's a Catria instead.
  • In Three Houses, Female Byleth's is Dimitri or Claude (and vice-versa) on their respective routes, and either gender's is Edelgard (and vice versa) on the Crimson Flower route. Their close bond with their respective Lord is highlighted constantly throughout the story; Edelgard even gives the equivalent of a love confession just before the final battle, while Dimitri outright tells Byleth she was the light in his darkness. Claude on the other hand, flirts with Byleth at the ball and is the only character who gets a cutscene with Byleth during the dance, as well as frequently telling Female Byleth in part 2 of Verdant Wind how he wants to see a changed world with her.
  • In Engage, Veyle is a Mysterious Waif that's prominent in the game's marketing with an emphasis on her relationship with Alear. However, as they're siblings, their relationship is strictly familial.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Shadow Dragon's Heroine (Caeda) was a fourth Pegasus knight, separate from the White Wing Sister Trio. In future games where the Heroine is a flyer, she's typically combined with the Est/Youngest Sister of the trio (Sumia, Elincia, Tana, and to a lesser extent Florina to Lyn for Lyn's prologue mode only). See also The Caeda in the physical unit section.
• Love Interest: In older games, they are the main girl that the Lord is interested in and ends up marrying. The newer games are more lax about it.
  • This is subverted by Julia in Genealogy of the Holy War: pairing Seliph and Julia is flat-out impossible outside of glitches due to the negative love point system placed upon them only, though Julia can't be killed until the last chapter. This is due to both of them being half-siblings through their shared mother.
  • This is also subverted by Elincia: It may have been a possibility with Ike in Path of Radiance, but Radiant Dawn puts an end to it as seen below.
  • Three Houses is pretty unsubtle about shipping the Lords and Byleth, especially on Crimson Flower, where Edelgard's route-agnostic crush on Byleth isn't doomed.
  • Veyle in Engage cannot be romanced by Alear, due to being siblings.
• Magnetic Hero: They're the second best recruiter of their army, or in case of Byleth, the one doing all the recruiting.
• Mystical Waif: A notable subtype of this archetype is a non-physical unit with a Mysterious Past and possessing special abilities that make her valuable and/or a significant threat to the villains. This subtype was pioneered by Deirdre and Julia in Genealogy of the Holy War, and later followed by Ninian, Micaiah, Female Robin^note also Male Robin by association; like Deirdre and Julia, Robin is both vitally important to the villains' plans and the number-one threat to their success, Azura, then looping back around to Celica^note at least in the remake via her secret parentage and brand, then onto Veyle. This makes Lilina the only magically-inclined member of the archetype to not have some great latent potential.
• The Not-Love Interest:
  • Despite fulfilling a lot of the traits of this archetype and having quite a bit of Incest Subtext, Eirika serves as this to Ephraim, as they are siblings.
  • Elincia serves in a similar role as a Love Interest in Path of Radiance, complete with Ship Tease, but she and Ike go their separate ways and have no Support ending in Radiant Dawn. She has one with Geoffrey, and Ike only with Soren and Ranulf. Plus, even if they're both left unpaired, Ike leaves the continent.
  • Like Eirika, Veyle is Alear's sister.

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The Cornelius

The Cornelius has a simple role: to get killed off in the early- or mid-game and provide motivation for the Lord to go defeat the Big Bad. They're usually the parent (oftentimes the father) or a Parental Substitute of the Lord in question. Since they die early, the Cornelius tends to be an unrecruitable NPC.

At times, there are cases where it's not the Lord who has a Cornelius figure, but instead a party member, usually of the Linde archetype. When that happens, the Cornelius can be referred to as a 'Miloah' (named after Linde's dead father), but they can overlap with the original Cornelius since they have the same role. However, there are often cases where a Miloah figure remains unnamed since they often hold less 'plot importance' towards the Lord's quest, whereas a Cornelius figure will always have a name. When a Miloah figure has a name, then their plot importance also raises. It should also be noted that having a Miloah figure is not an exclusive privilege for the Linde archetype (but it becomes a requirement for them).

Characters of this archetype: Cornelius (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Sigurd (Genealogy of the Holy War); Calf, Quan, and Ethlyn (Thracia 776); Hector (The Binding Blade); Uther and Elbert (The Blazing Blade); Fado (The Sacred Stones); Greil (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Emmeryn^note An optional endgame mission shows she actually survives her apparent death, but she ends up with Laser-Guided Amnesia and still fulfills the general narrative purpose of the archetype. (Awakening); Mikoto (Fates); Jeralt and Lambert (Three Houses); Lumera (Engage); Gunnthrá, Gustav, and Askr (Heroes); Berling, Getz, and Lazley (Warriors: Three Hopes)

Miloah variants with given names: Miloah^For...Linde (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Tailtiu/Ethnia^For...Tine/Linda (Genealogy of the Holy War), Hector^For...Lilina (The Binding Blade), Ismaire^For...Joshua (The Sacred Stones), Misaha^For...Sanaki (Radiant Dawn), Ursula^For...Etzel (Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem), Future Chrom^For...Lucina (Awakening), Morion^For...Diamant and Alcryst, Hyacinth^For...Ivy and Hortensia, and Marni^For...Mauvier and Veyle (Engage)

Characters that only have elements of this archetype: Byron and Reptor^For...Tailtiu ^note Both die far too late into Sigurd's tale for their deaths to have meaning for long; indeed Sigurd himself dies at the end of the same chapter as Byron, and Tailtiu is Killed Offscreen by the time of the next chapter. (Genealogy of the Holy War), Vigarde^For...Lyon ^note While his death does serve as motivation for a main character to take action, said character is one of the Big Bads of the game.(The Sacred Stones) Gilbert ^note Of the 'named Miloah' variants for Annette. Gilbert can survive the game just fine in certain routes, especially Blue Lions. And even when he's fightable and killable in front of Annette in the Crimson Flower route, it's still optional. (Three Houses), Yelena^note Much like Emmeryn, she is revealed to have lived later in the game, but still plays the role straight while she is presumed deceased. However, unlike Emmeryn, her surviving is integrated into the main story, and she does not suffer from any adverse effects as a result of her role.(Warriors), Randolph, Rodrigue, and Judith ^note Scarlet Blaze, Azure Gleam, and Golden Wildfire, respectively; Though they serve the same narrative purpose in the route Shez sides with them in, they are only killed if the player fails to recruit Byleth.(Warriors: Three Hopes)

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• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Hector is unique among those who serve this role in that he's the Love Interest's father, not the hero's. Roy's father Eliwood, for his part, survives the game just fine and dandy.
  • From Engage, Marni's personality is radically different from other members of the archetype, being a villainous Bratty Half-Pint who the player fights multiple times before she is unceremoniously killed off by Zephia, on top of being younger than the characters who wish to avenge their death.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Lambert shows how this trope can backfire as a motivation. As he lay dying during the Tragedy of Duscur, he told his son Dimitri something before passing. Whatever Dimitri heard was interpreted by him as a demand to avenge his death, causing Dimitri to become obsessed with avenging his father, and those who died in the incident, to the point of going nearly mad when he thinks he found the one who did so. Regardless of if Lambert told him to or not, his death caused most of Dimitri's problems.
  • Shez isn’t nearly as heartbroken at the deaths of Berling’s Mercenaries despite using them as motivation to combat Byleth, regarding them more as unfortunate but inevitable losses in the line of mercenary work. Indeed, they go on to doubt their grudge with the Ashen Demon as the game progresses, and only resolve to kill Byleth if Randolph/Rodrigue/Judith was killed late into the game, something the player can avoid by recruiting Byleth and Jeralt.
  • Jeralt serves as an antagonistic version of this archetype in Warriors: Three Hopes if Shez kills him. Doing so will result in Byleth getting possessed by Sothis and killing Randolph/Rodrigue/Judith as revenge for Jeralt’s death, convincing the player’s faction to ultimately decide that they need to be killed. It gets especially nasty in Scarlet Blaze, where the player is both locked out of recruiting Leonie, and Byleth later convinces Claude to turncoat against the Empire, resulting in Claude’s death as well.
• Disposable Woman: Female members of this archetype ultimately serve as this for other characters.
• Flat Character:
  • They exist to get killed off, so they usually don't get much development within the game/timeline where they took up the archetype role, most of their development are usually accessed via backstories or supports. Some later games try to avert this by allowing them to live a bit longer and showcasing their personalities before they finally die.
  • The Miloah variants generally zig-zag this. While the default Miloah and very few of his successors (like Misaha) are Posthumous Character and also adhering to the trope, others can range between Sacrificial Lions or even antagonists (especially Reptor and Marni), or appearing mid-game and lasting short enough before they get killed (Ismaire). Basically, they often get better screentimes or lifespans than Cornelius characters until latter games tried to expand a Cornelius' lifetime more.
• Posthumous Character: Some of these characters get their characterizations post-mortem.
• Sacrificial Lamb: The short-lasting ones such as Hector, Fado, Mikoto, and Berling’s Mercenaries die very early in the game, mostly to instill righteous fury in the hero to finish the job.
• Sacrificial Lion: The longer-lasting ones such as Greil, Emmeryn, and Jeralt have significant development to establish them as important characters to the main heroes, making their deaths all the more impactful.
• Satellite Character: They're defined largely by their relationship with the Lord and how their death affects the Lord, at least in the scope of the game of said Lord. Intelligent Systems would eventually try to avert this sometimes by making them live longer and showcasing how other characters are affected with them while they lived.
• Sole Survivor: Only Emmeryn and Jeralt (in Three Hopes) manage to survive being straight examples of this archetype. Still, even if Emmeryn is recruited, she is revealed to have suffered irreversible brain damage, and Jeralt can only be spared in Warriors: Three Hopes if the player makes sure not to mess up his and Byleth’s recruitment. Gunnthrá, Gustav, and Askr are also weird cases of this thanks to the game mechanics of Heroes; they can be summoned by the player even before their death scenes, and nothing stops the player from summoning them afterwards too (nor does their death scenes remove any of their playable versions from the player's party).
• We Hardly Knew Ye: One of the dangers of a Cornelius who dies early is that the player may feel that they know the Cornelius for too short of a time that the Lord's reaction to their death may sound disproportionate and generates a failed attempt at drama for the Lord to grieve greatly at someone whom they know from such a short time and no time for further on-screen chemistries, just because they claim to be the Lord's parent. This can force the game to spend a good amount of scenes trying to explain the significance of the Cornelius to the player, with varying results. Both Mikoto and Lumera are two stark examples of this kind of occasion; both are introduced and die within only a few scenes. It's more downplayed with examples that do not cause such grieving phases to their departed for dying quickly, or those who lasted longer than usual, since their (almost lack of on-screen) reaction is usually considered proportionate to the Cornelius' screentime. Greil for instance gets enough characterization and focus early on before his death, while Emmeryn is given more focus than normal, and can survive at the cost of her mental state being damaged.
• You Killed My Father: A common motivation for the Lord is to avenge these guys' deaths. Ike and Dimitri in particular want vengeance for their fathers’ demises. Same goes for those who have their own Miloahs.

The Nyna

The Nyna is a plot-important NPC who is usually female and is a heir/princess of a downtrodden kingdom which has been ravaged by the bad guys. And now, they sought the strength of the hero in order to either reclaim their throne or bring back peace into their realm. Very rarely are they available for combat, similarly to a Malledus, they serve as the moral support of your team that even your Lord bows to. If they ARE doing combat, chances are they'd be inept at it or need a lot of babying so they can take a level in badass. However, their presence shouldn't be dismissed that easily, in the setting, they usually have huge presence in the political world.

Characters of this archetype: Nyna (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Guinivere (The Binding Blade); Elincia (Path of Radiance); Pelleas (Radiant Dawn); Elise ^note Only on the Birthright path, where she follows the player's army as an NPC. On the other routes she is a straightforward Maria (Fates); Rhea ^note Unless you go the Black Eagles, Crimson Flower route, in which case you turn against her (Three Houses); Alternate Alear ^note Fell Xenologue only (Engage)

• Big Good: They serve as why your army fights. Most of the time, they get spurred to help out this lost noble.
• Blue Blood: They are always of nobility. Even Archbishop Rhea has this trope within her veins (namely having the Crest of Seiros).
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Pelleas shows just how bad it can turn out when a Nyna tries to enter the battlefield. Namely, his inexperience and naivete ended up getting him manipulated into entering the Blood Pact which put his people in danger and can outright kill him. When he realizes this, he invokes Suicide by Cop in the hopes it will free Daein of the Blood Pact, but unless on a second playthrough where he can be spared, his Heroic Sacrifice doesn't fix the problem, but arguably makes things even worse. A second playthrough also reveals that he's not even the real prince to begin with. He's a decoy that was propped up specifically to fuel the conflict. The person that Pelleas is unwittingly impersonating never finds out the truth.
  • Elise's desire to find a peaceful end to the war and the conflict within her family is what ultimately ends up getting her killed when she throws herself in front of an attack aimed at Corrin, resulting in the death of her brother Xander.
  • A Lord/player character is always loyal to a Nyna. So in the case of Rhea, if Byleth chooses to betray her on the Crimson Flower route, she has a breakdown and turns into a deranged villain obsessed with revenge on Byleth and Edelgard.
• Damsel in Distress: More or less, their nation has been invaded, subjugated or being run to the ground and they are helpless to stave the invaders off, and they need your help. Guinivere's distress is less because her kingdom was invaded, but more or less because her brother, the King, went crazy and led their kingdom to invade others and she's unable to stop him. Rhea might subvert it since Garreg Mach and the Church of Seiros seem fine but there have been a lot of bandit strikes pre-Time Skip, and after the Time Skip, unless you're on the Crimson Flower route, she gets invaded and captured by the Adrestian Empire.
• Non-Action Guy: Early examples are not taking the front lines. However, Nyna does join your team in the last battle of Mystery of the Emblem, but she's just fresh from being un-brainwashed. Those who join you for more than a scenario, Elincia and Pelleas, start out really weak and require a lot of babying. Rhea's more blatant moments of action are contained in cutscenes or when she becomes an antagonist.
• The Not-Love Interest: Defying the Standard Hero Reward, after you clean up the Nyna's realm (assuming the Nyna survives), the Lord does not win the Nyna's hand in marriage, simply because the Nyna stands in a way higher level of nobility compared to the Lord (and usually because both of them don't want to deal with the possible political upheaval that such marriage could cause). This situation was actually highlighted in Mystery of the Emblem, where Marth and Nyna's respective ancestors, Anri and Artemis, were barred from getting married with each other due to the opposition from Archanea's nobles at the time. The only one that can avert this trope is just Rhea, but only in a specific route and it's still optional.
• Politically-Active Princess: Or Prince. This character tends to have a great presence in the political world, though they usually strive to be a good politician.
• Took a Level in Badass: A Nyna that is playable will usually start weak like an Est archetype, but if the player babied them, they can turn out formidable.
  • Elincia is the only one who also takes on this narratively, as by Radiant Dawn, she grows into a competent princess even in the political world.
  • Rhea is particularly notable for being the Final Boss of two routes, a recurring boss in one, and the hero of the ancient setting shaping war of her game. She also appears as a very powerful allied NPC repeatedly.