Due to the nature of this fanfic, all spoilers for Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
I know what you're thinking. How could a campaign, a war, of such a high stakes have occurred without the entire continent knowing? How could a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, an army consisting of everything from assassins to knights to half-trained civilians have saved Elibe? Well, this is my log, my testimony if you will, of everything that happened. My name is Katri, master tactician, and this is our story.
Opening of A Tactician's Testimony, narrated by Katri
A Tactician's Testimony
is a Fire Emblem fanfic written by katriona_subasa.
The fic is a novelization of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, told from the perspective of Katri (short for Katarina), the Tactician of FE7. It is part of the House Hanover of Elibe
series.
The other parts of the series include:
- "A Thief's Testimony
", told from the perspective of Amanda, an assassin in Ostia that assisted Uther in the investigation of a rash of murders that preceded the events of FE7. - "A Thief's Legacy
", told from the perspective of Hilda, Katri's distant ancestor that witnessed the Scouring and met the Eight Legends. - "A Tactician's Legacy
", a novelization of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, told from the perspective of Irene, Katri's daughter and Roy's main tactician.
A Tactician's Testimony contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The fic reveals the details of what occurred during the one-year Time Skip between Lyn and Eliwood's stories, focusing on Katri's exploits during that time; among other things, she assists Wallace in wiping out the Taliver Bandits.
- A Thief's Legacy is an entire prequel fic based on The Scouring, an event that took place far before the events of FE7 and FE6.
- Adaptational Nationality: Galle is revealed in the artbook to be Etrurian by birth, but due to the series being written before it got translated, here he's half-Sacaean, a survivor of the Lorca to be specific.
- Ambiguous Situation: In the series, Durandal's extreme dragon slaying powers that lead to Ninian's death was interpreted as part of its Power at a Price demanding the sacrifice of a loved one. However, it is uncertain how much of the Power at a Price involves shedding draconic blood.
- Ninian herself was a half-dragon that could transform, and thus could be affected by dragonslaying weaponry.
- Josephine, the first human victim of Durandal, was also a wyvern rider, and was killed by Durandal trying to cleave her and the wyvern.
- Rutger only tamed Durandal after killing a War Dragon in the Western Isles, having paid the sacrificial part of the price when he accidentally cut down his sister during the Bulgar Massacre.
- Anti-Hero: Katri isn't exactly morally pure at first, being prejudiced against Sacaeans and largely only helping Lyn get to Caelin because she wanted Marquess Hausen indebted to her. She gets better, even refusing getting paid after the Caelin Inheritance Dispute is over, and eventually the focus shifts more into her self-esteem issues, moving her closer to a Classical Anti-Hero.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite knowledge of such things as magic and healing staves, in "Sword of Spirits," Katri is in complete disbelief that the Mani Katti is sentient and chooses its owner. This is especially notable, as even after becoming more accepting of Sacaen beliefs, finding out about the existence of dragons, meeting Athos, and finding out about the dragons being scapegoats for the Scouring, she still doesn't buy the concept of sentient weaponry.
- Ascended Extra: The prequel fics A Thief's Testimony and A Thief's Legacy bring more focus to characters that had only appeared as NPCs in canon.
- A Thief's Testimony brings more focus to Uther, Eliwood, Madelyn and Hassar, relatives to the three lords in FE7.
- A Thief's Legacy focuses on the Eight Legends, with most of them being O.C. Stand-ins due to the lack of detail on their characters.
- Everyone Has Standards: Lyn's sheer venomous hatred for bandits was so strong that Katri, who was still using her for her personal benefit at the time and racist towards Sacaeans, got unnerved enough to try and make an effort to steer her away from such.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Early on, Katri suffers an injury to her right leg, which constantly reopens until Serra heals it. Nonetheless, Katri suffers from a limp from that point on. In "False Friends," the issue is partially resolved when she receives a leg brace, but she remains one of the less physically capable members of the army.
- Gone Horribly Right: Katri started the series wanting to make a name for herself serving in Etruria's army, but her interest in the idea wanes as she starts to understand that Etruria is nowhere near as noble as she thought it was, and her ideals begin to conflict with Etruria's. Eventually, due to her borderline miraculous accomplishments, Etruria considers her so valuable they consider going to war with Bern just to make sure she stays on their side, and potentially killing her to make sure no one else could have her.Katri: It's funny. I spent five years in the academy, training to be a tactician. Another year on field study, basically. Learned a lot, a lot more than I thought. Though, it wasn't until the end I really learned anything. But I learned so much. Too much, really. I learned the country I gave six years of my life to, devoted everything to, was a parasite. It shook me, so I traveled for another year. A year to get my head back on straight. A year to reassure myself that the endless nights I spent honing my craft, turning my talent into genius, was worth it. But, the longer I was away, the more I realized just how horrible everything was! And I keep putting it off, running away from it, but I don't know what I'm going to do when all of this is over because I don't want to serve Etruria!Lyn: Katri…Katri: And guess what I just learned! I learned that because of that talent I spent so long perfecting that both Bern and Etruria want to play psychotic exes on me. If they can't have me, no one will! Isn't that hilarious, Lyn? The country I wanted to serve for so long now just wants me dead for the same craft I had wanted to use to help it!
- Half-Human Hybrid: Humans with draconic heritage are heavily elaborated upon in the series in A Thief's Legacy and A Tactician's Legacy, due to the latter being a novellisation of FE6 and the former being based on the Scouring. They along with any relevant uneven hybrids fall under two categories:
- Part-dragons capable of transforming function similarly to Manaketes, including being Long-Lived and their weakness to dragonslaying weaponry. However, if they're triggered to transform by strong emotions, they risk going mad. It's worse for those with divine dragon heritage, since the madness from transforming is a possibility regardless of method.
- Part-dragons incapable of transforming function closer to humans, without a weakness to dragonslaying weaponry. the primary difference for them is that they are also Long-Lived to varying degrees, and if they come close to death, they may undergo Draconic Awakening, where their blood activates to grant them Elemental Powers. The power they get depends on the dragon they descended from, and if they survive what got them to that stage. Roy's draconic heritage became revealed this way, after nearly dying to Zephiel in "Rescue Mission".
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Lyn has no remorse for killing bandits in cold blood, openly telling Katri that "bandits aren't people." While somewhat justified, since Lyn's family and tribe were slaughtered by bandits, her attitude nonetheless unnerves Katri quite a bit, even before the latter's Character Development.
- Jerkass Realization: While Katri had a few smaller moments of such before then involving her personal motives, in "Blood of Pride," the strongest one hit when she had to watch Marquess Araphan openly badmouth Lyn for being Sacaean, calling her a "nomadic mongrel." The realization that she used to think the same as such a Jerkass leaves Katri remorseful and feeling sick to her stomach, and has her decide to be far more genuine in her help from that point onward.
- Lemony Narrator: Katri often makes snarky comments in her narration, and reveals such things as her disbelief in the Mani Katti's power. The same applies for the rest of House Hanover.
- Noble Bigot: Early on, Katri is prejudiced against Sacaeans and doesn't think highly of Illians, but nonetheless makes friends with Lyn and Florina and helps the former out of gratitude, since Lyn saved her life. After witnessing Marquess Araphan refuse to help them against Lundgren out of Fantastic Racism and spite, Katri is disgusted that she used to think of Sacaeans the same way as him and does her damndest to move past this mindset from that point onwards.
- No Hero to His Valet: Katri and Hector have far less tolerance for Athos and his cryptic and indirect assistance compared to Eliwood and Lyn. Katri has a particular strong amount of beef with him, especially since by the second time they meet, Katri only found out about having tuberculosis when they were very much not in the position to get it cured.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: In "Footsteps of Fate," Lyn recalls that many people are prejudiced against Sacaeans due to their ways of life, and tells Katri she's glad she isn't like that and is so kind. Unbeknownst to Lyn, Katri is prejudiced against Sacaeans, and remarks in her narration that she's never felt so guilty in her life.
- Oblivious to Love: Katri manages to be completely oblivious to Lyn's and Rath's feelings for her. In her defence, Katri's professionalism and lack of romantic attraction towards Lyn meant that she likely wouldn't have accepted it, and Rath is The Stoic.
- O.C. Stand-in: The tactician, as per usual for The Blazing Blade adaptations. It's particularly notable in this case, since it lead to her family line being involved in major events of Elibe's history for 4 separate generations.
- Power at a Price: The Divine Weapons, while as immensely powerful as they were indicated to be in-game, have prices that the wielder must suffer in order to use them. This was intentional, as Martin knew that they would be used far beyond their lifespans, and thus implemented them to ensure that their power was not used so liberally. Along with their power, the effects have lessened over time, but they remain present even in A Tactician's Legacy.
- Durandal demands a sacrifice, often a loved one, and never one of the wielder's choosing; until then, it will be nigh-uncontrollable, and will use the wielder as a vessel for its bloodlust until it is paid. Eliwood paid its price by Durandal controlling him into killing Ninian.
- Forblaze burns the memories and dreams of the its victims to memory, forcing the wielder to know anyone that was claimed by their flames. This property was exploited by Guinevere, who wanted to understand Zephiel while having accepted that killing him is necessary for Elibe to heal.
- Aureola breaks the body with each use, the user having their arms be split by the spell, the blood hardening to be like dragon scales. It is also the only price that was not intentional since Martin didn't want to harm his sister, simply a consequence of light magic innately taxing the user taken to a logical conclusion.
- Maltet grants the user Foresight, but not necessarily the ability to change what they see.
- Murgelis forces the user to know any allies that perished around them, opposite to Forblaze.
- Armads, as per canon, condemns the wielder to die on the battlefield. Even in peace, the power of the axe will slowly drive the user mad in its desire to fight. Durban died by fight off hundreds of bandits at once before Armads claimed his mind. Somewhat thankfully, the madness never got to Hector, partly because he died before it could claim him.
- Dark magic innately has a price, but Apocalypse demands everything that made the user's identity, from their memories, to their emotions, up to and including their physical appearance, in order to use it at full power even once. This is how Bramimond "died" in A Thief's Legacy, having become the Empty Shell in FE7, and only became free from its price after reviving Ninian. The only way to mitigate this would be to split the price, as Raigh and Sophia eventually achieve.
- Running Gag:
- Eliwood sighing, to the point that Katri started keeping a tally of his sighs over the course of the campaign. By the time she gives him the final tally at Hector's coronation, there's a small stack of nothing but tallies.
- Characters teasing Katri about Rath, and Katri being oblivious until she figured it out herself.
- Sadistic Choice: When Katri figured out that she had consumption while in Bern, when King Desmond very much wants her captured or dead, she decided to actively hide it from the lords to defy this. Matthew summarised is as such:
- Lyn would pick Katri, being her best friend and having lost everything before, and would feel guilty for every loss they would have without her.
- Eliwood would pick the army, having been raised on duty and using it to cope with his father's death, and would feel guilty for effectively forcing her to waste away.
- Hector would have decision paralysis, as he ultimately cares most about all of his loved ones making it out alive, yet neither option will allow for that, since Katri counts among his loved ones.
- Wham Line: In "Genesis", after the fight, Katri starts to question Athos about the events of the Scouring, as the journal she found on Valor Isle and what she learned about it conflict with each other. Athos cuts her off, bringing to light what the Scouring really was for them:Athos: Those were doctored after her death. The dragons were scapegoats. They were always scapegoats.
- Will Not Tell a Lie: The series gives a justification about this aspect of Sacaeans: to them, lying is effectively an act of blasphemy towards their gods. It's to the point that many of them would take offence to the notion of them lying, or being lied to, though a good number of them are aware that this doesn't apply to those outside the Sacae. That said, white lies are tolerated to an extent, and Lying by Omission is still valid.Rath: There are… stories that explain it better, but essentially, to lie is to be lower than even a bandit, a traitor to Father Sky and Mother Earth. Only kinslayers are held in greater contempt.
