#Loptyr speaks

[theofficersacademy]

At last the temperature begins to rise a little, the blizzard relents, and the snow melts just enough to allow travel to and from the monastery again. A backlog of mail arrives in one giant cart and the couriers spend the next several days sorting letters and packages for their recipients. Among the care packages, the notes from doting mothers, and the pining essays from distant lovers are letters describing situations far more dire. Unfortunately, many are dated from months ago, stalled by the storms until now, but that makes their contents all the more pressing.

In Valentia, without their new king and queen, without their gods, the people grow restless for something to believe in. Some groups have begun to take matters into their own hands, write concerned aides, and rumors have reached the castle about their aim to resurrect Mila and Duma. With resources already stretched thin by the recovery efforts, they could use some help with the investigation and subsequent quelling of such delusions.

In Jugdral, shadows still linger in forgotten places. Now that many of the continent's war veterans and nobility have traveled abroad for education, they have seized this moment to crawl back out into the light. From Grannvale comes news of remnants of the Loptyr church attempting to bring back Loptous. While the letters insist that these are, most likely, simply rumors at best, or a failure in the making at worst, they are not without a note of concern. Children have started going missing again. Others have been kidnapped in broad daylight. It would be wise to return home soon to assess these problems yourself.

In Elibe, whispers surge anew, and they speak of a second coming of The Scouring. Dragons have been sighted in distant skies, they say, real dragons breathing fire and ice and shaking the earth to its core. Elimine's church preaches acceptance, and its criers herald the beginning of a new era of peace and harmony. Those less optimistic instead sharpen their weapons and bolster their defenses in preparation for war.

While Garreg Mach monastery has its own troubles still in the aftermath of the blizzard, permission is granted to students and faculty from Valentia, Jugdral, and Elibe to return home this month if they so choose. A handful of knights and other students will be sent with them, in case trouble is indeed to be found. This is not a mission sanctioned by the church, however. This is entirely personal.

You make your decision to return. It's just for the month, and you're hopeful that these rumors are just that: rumors. Along with the allies and friends you've made from other lands, you travel to Enbarr to set sail.

What’s Going On?

Welcome to Sabbam Vitatham, the fourth anniversary event for the Officers Academy! Please continue reading below for information and rules.

This will be an evolving event. Instead of a traditional mission board, each of the six groups will be given a setting to explore. New information will come to light weekly, and situations will shift as time moves on. Use what your muse knows (or doesn’t) about the country they're in to make decisions, brainstorm threads, and ask questions.

Muses who are not participating in the event will be left behind in Garreg Mach. However, characters from Valentia, Jugdral, and Elibe who did NOT sign up to participate in the event but would narratively be involved (e.g. Celica, Seliph) can be assumed to be tagging along as well. Their participation will be off camera.

The Snowglobe mission board will be extended through the end of this month, but no new missions will be added. Use this month to catch up on past threads or thread together about your classmates and colleagues who have left for the event.

Sabbam Vitatham General Rules

Signups are closed and will not be reopened. The ship has sailed.

Find your muse's boat here.

You must submit your inventory by 11:59PM EST on August 3rd using this link. You can only bring items that you have claimed and classes that you have mastered. Do not include your class' mastery abilities as separate inventory slots. You can choose to not bring a weapon.

You will not be allowed to switch teams.

You may only start Sabbam Vitatham threads between August 1st and August 31st. Event threads may be continued after the event, but no new ones may be started. Likewise, only IC posts made between 8/1 and 8/31 will count toward prizes.

Your muses are already on their boats, so you will only be able to make event interactions with those who are on the same boat with you. As groups are split into different teams, you will only be able to thread with your teammates. However, if you wish to make farewell interactions with other characters who are being left behind at the monastery or journeying elsewhere, you're free to do so. These interactions will not count as event posts.

We encourage creativity and exploration. This is not an event that will solely be focused on combat. The results from your signups will be revealed as the story progresses, so ask questions, think outside the box, try new things, and do what your character would do in these situations.

We also highly encourage “Paralogue” threads. These are mini threads focused on character development or exploring something that interests you or your muse, parallel to whatever main objective your team is after. These do not have to be related to any prompt given by the mods. Paralogue threads enrich your campaign experience, so thread away as the inspiration strikes!

Please tag all event-related IC posts with #toasabbamvitatham2023. When split into your individual teams, your tag will change.

This event will allow muses to die. This can happen at any point during the event. Regardless of what happens to your muse, you will still receive all prizes at the end.

Sabbam Vitatham Schedule

August 1st - 3rd : EMBARK August 4th - 10th : ?? August 11th - 17th : ?? August 18th - 24th : ?? August 25th - 31st : ??

Discord

There is a new lobby channel for general event discussion and a new #openthreads channel for event-use only. Plotting channels for each team will be opened on the 4th. Please use these channels for event-related discussion or planning.

Prizes and How to Get Them

Two sets of prizes will be awarded for the Sabbam Vitatham event.

PARTICIPATION PRIZE.

All muses entering the event automatically receive one of these prizes upon joining. You may message the masterlist as soon as you have made your first event post.

Canon Lord characters: You are granted access to your exclusive promotional class. This class will have mastery requirements of a Master Tier class and will also require rank A in Authority and a drabble. Please message the masterlist to claim it. To see muses that qualify and their corresponding prizes, please refer to the fourth page of this sheet. You will also be granted your Personal Skill. Please refer to the section below.

Characters who have not claimed a Personal Skill: You will be allowed to claim your Personal Skill. Please refer to this sheet for examples and guidance on crafting one for yourself. Characters who already have personal skills in their respective games will receive their canon skill, so you do not need to design one. If you need help designing your skill, please ask for advice in the personal skill workshop channel in the Discord server. All personal skills must be submitted to the masterlist’s inbox to be approved though.

All others: If your character participated in past lore events and has already received all participation prizes that they are eligible for, you may claim an additional ability that you qualify for from the ranking chart.

If you prefer to hold off on choosing your participation prizes (i.e. waiting on skill points, etc.), you may do so until the grand prize claim period after the event. However, keep in mind that you may only feature any new abilities in threads after claiming them.

If you have already received your personal skill but would like to retune it, please submit a new proposal for the skill during this event. Mod Ree will also be rebalancing the ones that have already been claimed to fit the new rules.

GRAND PRIZE.

This will be awarded at the end of the event to any muse who reaches a minimum of 10 IC event posts. Contains:

One free skill point

Two choices from an event-limited selection of prizes

And a third prize — unknown for now

More information on that will come at the conclusion of the event, so for now, use what you know about Valentia, Jugdral, and Elibe to lend your help.

And as always, feel free to message the masterlist or use the Discord if you have any questions.

- The House Leaders

[iturbide]

to talk about Pelgia being dessert got me wondering; what if this a result of the first 'war' with the first exal? Especially before the deal with Naga, in the end, we don't know how long that was going on. But the fact Naga went into a deal that bond herself to the royal family for good sounds like they didn't had many other choices left. So the destruction might had just been so bad it could never recover?

and at worse, it was Nagas doing for punishing those people worshipping Grima, if I recall correctly she wasn't exactly kind to Robin either.

OKAY SO. BEAR WITH ME HERE. CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME.

So according to Echoes, Naga was once very close with Duma and Mila: Duma, who protected Naga with his martial prowess, earned the title of Kingshield; while his sister, who blessed the dragon tribes' land with prosperity, earned the title of King's Grail. It's that last bit that I've always found most interesting -- that Mila specifically is the one credited with blessing the land and bringing it prosperity. It's something we see further enforced throughout Echoes, where Mila's half of the Valentian continent became a rich and fertile land under her guidance.

So I've always kind of had this thought: what if the desertification of Plegia is actually because Naga exiled Mila? If Mila's power was the only thing keeping the western half of Archanea green and arable, her departure across the sea would immediately begin to unravel the ecology her presence had supported. It could also explain why Naga withdrew her influence to the eastern half of the continent, which would eventually become the halidom of Ylisse: this half of the landmass was naturally fertile and didn't require Mila's blessing, making it easier to support a population (human or dragon).

Naga abandoning the western half of the continent would also explain why Grima was able to hang out for a thousand years before she decided to do something about them: she didn't have eyes on the desert because she was more focused on the "desirable" part of the continent east of the mountain range. On top of that, Grima in Awakening seems to be pretty consistently surrounded by stormclouds -- and there's always the possibility that the people who lived in the desert began their worship of Grima because they brought shade and life-giving rain with them wherever they flew. Water is a vital resource for sustaining life, and all the more in a desert where it's in such short supply.

Of course, this possibility would also mean that when Naga and the First Exalt sealed Grima away, they were -- intentionally or otherwise -- consigning the people who lived there to death. They failed, obviously, but still. That in general would be consistent with Naga's overall track record: in Genealogy's history, Naga gave her blessing and the Book of Naga to a human and then left mankind to deal with Loptyr, which...didn't exactly end well. She may have been a little more hands-on, fighting Grima alongside the First Exalt, but anything after may have been beneath her notice.

(You are right about how she treats Robin, though: she uses Robin's name when speaking with others, but the one time she speaks to Robin directly, she calls them "Fellblood" instead. That always rubbed me the wrong way, personally.)

[themoomoorn]

LA SAGA DE BAGUETTE PART QUATRE: L'AMITIÉ C'EST MAGIQUE

Last we saw our Rent Rejects, they were en route to the Evil Winter Kingdom That Worships The Yellow One, as Diamant and Alcryst's dunderhead dad charged on ahead and is en route to getting his ass kidnapped and fulfilling FE's Dead Dad quota. But wait! There's more! Order now, and we'll throw in an extra Dead Dad absolutely free! But you gotta pay for shipping and handling.

Emblème, engager!

We begin with King Moron dueling with King Whoreacynth (more on that later) in one of the game's cooler cutscenes. The fact that Hyacinth is a Martial Master instead of a traditional Gharnef-like sorcerer is a fun touch to all of this too. As the 100-decibel alarms had predicted, however, Morion falls in battle and is promptly consigned to fate as a gruesomely undead puppet. You know, as you do.

We beat Ivy in the previous two Chapters, and punishment naturally awaits her. She's pretty resigned to her fate, however, and after Alear points out the obvious about how Daddy Dearest DGAF about either one of his daughters anymore, Ivy opts to jump ship...sort of. She doesn't actually join us until Chapter 11, but being the Sympathetic Sensual Heroine(tm) that she is, she knows her role well and heeds Alear and Diamant's advice. We also learn that...

...she's a worshipper of the Divine Dragons, unlike the rest of Elusia.

Minor Spoiler Alert: She worships the Divine Dragon as a form of rebellion, as court life in Elusia, as we learn later on, is complete garbage. It's a good reason, for sure, but it's also hampered by the fact that there are plenty of people, especially her younger sister, that treat her father like a paragon of goodness when we are shown nothing but contrary.

Plus, as we see later on, the faith of the Fell Dragon is treated like an actual faith instead of the stereotypical death cult that tends to follow dark-aligned dragons in older FE games. Normally this would make for an intriguing story and lore-building, but the problem is that Sombron isn't much different than Grima or Loptyr or Medeus, or Formortiis. There's sympathetic elements to him - probably more than Grima or Formortiis, for sure - but he's nevertheless as cartoonishly evil as both of those guys. There's no real reason to worship the guy, seeing that the Divine Dragons, in their fleshy glory, usually bestow true blessings that humans would want and need. The Fell Dragon's one big claim to fame was trying to raze the world to ashes. Okay???

As the lore says, Whoreacynth is trying to raise him up in Destinea Cathedral, and he needs the blood of regnant royalty to help him, and that includes Morion, who as a result is a beastlike Corrupted.

Despite the man being as intelligent as cement, he was still a good father to his sons. We get some surprisingly poignant send-offs from Alcryst and Diamant, which I quite liked. After taking out Morion, we then grind Whoreacynth into a pulp. Unfortunately, Morion's blood was just enough that Sombron could come back to life.

Sombron is ugly and not intimidating at all and I hate him.

Whoreacynth Outlives His Usefulness(tm) and we get him dying in this bizarrely titillating scene. We also see Hortensia having a Big Sad(tm) over the fact that her asshole dad is now dead. Whoop-dee-doo.

We see Sombron's dragon form for the first time. It looks cooler in cutscenes than it does in-game, for sure, but it's still a cobra's head glued to the body of a western-styled dragon. Meh.

Omnomnom~

With the obligate sacrificial men dead as doornails, we then are treated, with great shock, to his second-in-command, the one who helped assist in Hyacinth's sacrifice...

...our waif, Veyle. How convenient. Do note how her once purple eyes are a lovely shade of red now...

Unlike before, where we had our innocent sweet waif, Veyle now speaks with a "dangerous contralto" voice, gloating evilly of her hatred of humans. She's also the one who killed Lumera and stole Lythos' Emblem Rings, if the cloak she's wearing didn't make that clear.

Here we also meet the Black Fang/Four Heavenly Kings analogue for this game: The Four Hounds. They're lead by Seductive Evil Lady Zephia, the masochistic scene kid Griss, the bratty sociopathic womanchild Marni, and finally Mauvier, the one who is going to make a Heel-Face Turn about ten-ish Chapters down the line.

The looks make it a ringer, yes, but in battle he's also the only Hound who has a Personal Skill. Goddamn, that's pretty bad.

Mauvier demonstrates his affable nature, and he secures a spot on my shit-list for the time being.

One thing I forgot to mention is that before going to the Cathedral, Marth warned Alear not to go, predicting something terrible would happen. Alear doesn't heed the warning, but it's forgivable because they were in pursuit of Morion and were seeking to rescue him.

It's still treated as some kind of hubris anyway, because the Emblem Rings get stolen. Alear promptly goes into hysterics.

Given that Roy's ring isn't great and Leif's is mainly good for giving out free weapon proficiencies, I think you'll actually be fine without them, Alear.

With the Emblem Rings now corrupted and in the hands of the Hounds, Alear and company are forced to run. Fortunately, this plot point brings us to Chapter 12, which is the game's sole map where escaping is the main objective. You are given the option of fighting the Hounds, but they all have revival crystals and they each get an emblem that's been corrupted by Veyle and Sombron. They can't draw out their full power, but are still able to access the Emblem's skills and weapons. Also, the Emblems glow red and can't talk.

While the other three Hounds have basic promotions (Marni is a General, Griss a Sage, and Mauvier a Royal Knight, which is a mage knight-type that uses lances and staves), Zephia, being a 2500-year old dragon, has a unique class called "Melusine." What is a Melusine? Courtesy of Wikipedia, we know that she is a fey who resembles a serpentine mermaid. Their most famous story involves Melusine (the eldest daughter of a humanoid fey named Pressyne) locking away her father in a mountain after learning that he broke an oath he made with Pressyne - to never see her bathing herself or her children, as her nature would be made clear to him. Pressyne punishes Melusine by giving her a serpentine tail that would manifest on Saturdays. She would then go on to marry a French nobleman named Raymondin, and like her mother she imposed a contract that he never witness her bathe on a Saturday, as fey impose harsh punishments on those who break such promises. They lived happily (with Melusine bearing him ten sons, even) until he broke the promise one night and witnessed her bathing as a serpent. He exposes his crime in the heat of the moment after watching two of his older sons kill one another, and as punishment, Melusine transformed into a dragon, dropped off two magical rings for no particular reason, and flew off, only to return in order to nurse her youngest sons, who were still infants. Phew!

Wait.

Ten children? By a self-serving man who eventually scorned her?

...Keep a pin on that.

Ivy joins us for good in this Chapter, and in order to counteract the loss of the six Rings Alear had gathered up to this point, she steals the Ring of the Lady of the Plains (Lyn) and the Ring of the Exalted Princess (Lucina) in order to give the group a chance at fighting back. Of course, anyone who's obtained some or even all of the DLC Emblem Bracelets at this point will be unaffected by the loss, at least from a gameplay perspective. Whoops.

Her and her sister are Wing Tamers, which are basically pure mages that fly; she has a wyvern while Hortensia has a Pegasus. While the latter is geared towards staff utility, Ivy is a powerful mage...on paper, anyway. Because Ivy's evasion and build are below-average, she is prone to getting wiped out easily and struggles to double. Lyn does give her some extra speed, but her poor strength here means she can't take advantage of her weapons or specials.

Also, her and Zephia riding side-saddle the way they do looks...not great. As mentioned in the last post, how the frick can they stay on like that?

In any case, Alear gets away, yadda yadda. The next stop is the last Kingdom that we haven't seem: the Summer Kingdom of Solm. They have two Emblem Rings, we need them, and as we will see in Part 5, they're little more than a Glorified Plot Device in terms of worldbuilding, which is kind of sad considering its real-life inspiration. We march on as Alear goes through three tissue boxes over the loss of his bedazzled swag...

Yeah, I'm sure you'll do that Veyle. Such dark. Very convince. Wow.

Somniel Extras:

Sigurd/Amber Bond Convo, where we learn that Amber has lived up to his chosen gimmick since youth. It's been pointed out that out of all the Cliff Notes Emblems, Sigurd is the worst of the lot, and it's easy to see why. Initially he's inoffensive, but as time goes on, we realize that this is basically a bland Sigurd who's already dead and may have a memory problem...

Now I'm not saying that Alcryst is the Bernie of this game, but that is exactly what I am saying.

Okay, this isn't 100% the case, as gameplay wise Alcryst is better all-around and unlike Bernie, Alcryst's self-deprecation isn't played up for fetishistic/fantasy purposes. But boy howdy is it grating and executed about as well as Bernie's agoraphoia.

Diamant/Alear Support. Whereas Alear is deeply spooked by Corrupted, Diamant is spooked by hairy caterpillars. 🎵 One of these things is not like the others 🎵

'Till next time.

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

speaking of that gosh awful family wreath lol I haven't actually found any evidence besides that serenesforest tree that saias has loptyr blood i have no idea if a parent can pass down two holy bloods and I haven't found anything going either way

Yeah, I know I read on some wiki that it was an assumption considering his mother doesn't have any holy blood, so since people can have two, that he'd get both of Arvis' - but that's a good point that everyone else we know who has both a major and minor inherits one from each parent.

[deetvar-moved]

Made this bit earlier, thought you'd like it. I hope no one else made the joke before

[deetvar-moved]

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is by no means a perfect game or a perfect Fire Emblem game. However, in a game where Black Knight, Bertram, and Oliver seemingly come back from the dead THE ONE CHARACTER THEY DECIDE NOT TO BRING BACK IS PETRINE. I don’t know how it would work but I high key interested in Petrine & Micaiah bonding over being Branded. How does she handle Pelleas, a boy who by all accounts nothing like Ashanrd? I don’t know how it would work but I want it.

[deetvar-moved]

Uh, any details on the fandom’s misinterpretations on Sigurd, Deirdre, and Arvis you’ve seen?

A Compilation of Every Misinterpretation of Alvis I’ve seen SO Far. - A bad Dad to Julia (Alvis is actually one of the better loving parental figures in all of Gen 2 especially ON THE ENEMY SIDE) - Alvis knew Deirdre was his half-sis. (He didn’t find out until AFTER Julia & Julius were born).- Alvis hates Sigurd. (It’s more accurate to say he was indifferent to Sigurd, he was obstacle in his goal and he had no real attachments to Sigurd to have a serious moral issue in killing him)- Alvis deliberately chose to bring back Loptyr. (He tolerated the Lopto Sect because he had to, otherwise they would reveal his heritage and that would lead to his own death. He even expressively states to Manfroy he has no intention in allowing the resurrection of the Lopto Empire). - Something about Alvis calling Deirdre a “thot.” Yeah no, Alvis genuinely loved Deirdre, and he did everything in his power to make sure she was happy albeit the whole amnesia thing is still REALLY MESSED UP. 

[deetvar-moved]

Soren has a knife. And you, a throat. Lets hope that the two never meet.

With a 5% Strength? The boy is going to give me a paper cut at best.

[deetvar-moved]

More shitposty but honestly memes of Sigurd being compared to Jonathan Joestar actually make sense.

1) Both Characters possess a Heart Of Gold but also lack of knowledge of the world at large. Jonathan is rather innocent as demonstrated his fight with Speedwagon. While Sigurd is kind of an idiot accidentally conquering 2 nations and earnestly invading his own to prove his innocence.

2) Both character have a one true love that inadvertently leads them to their death.

3) Both are outwitted by their rival and it is up to their future descedant to defeat them. Sigurd is avenged by Seliph, and Jonathan is avenged by Jotaro. This is reinforced even further in Diego Brando still defeats Johnny Joestar despite being the Steel Ball Run universe. It is Fate itself that will now allow Sigurd to defeat Alvis or Jonathan to defeat Dio.

Anyway take away from this is Sigurd is alright lord (Leif is better) and go watch more JoJo

[deetvar-moved]

No Fear. “A variant of Takumi as a Kinshi Knight becomes the first Flyer Archer over Reina”. One Fear.

No no, Archer Flier is Reina's niche. I don't want Takumi to steal that from her.

[deetvar-moved]

Merry Christmas & Happy Holiday to all of you nerds. Best wishes to everyone tonight.

[deetvar-moved]

I thought Priscilla was here bc 2/3 of her unique endings involve her being heartbroken since she can't marry Heath and Guy bc of social classes :|

I prefer this over the other prevailing theory why she's there. IDK I felt this Gauntlet would have been better with canon couples than...what we actually got.

[deetvar-moved]

Dark Mage Gauntlet: Raigh, Henry, Odin, Sophia, Salem, Pelleas, Etzel, Canas

Perfect.

[deetvar-moved]

Since you mentioned SeliphXLarcei, any thoughts?

1. My take on their canon relationship: Better ship for Larcei and her presdestined, best ship for Seliph among the Tirnanog kids.

2. Do I ship them: Yes whenever I’m not shipping Seliph/Tinny

3. Reasons why I do/don’t ship them; Ayra is Sigurd’s first enemy to ally in FE4. Ayra despite having no obligation to help Sigurd by the time of Chapter does fight to the death (and probably did die in Belhalla) for Sigurd. Ayra and Shanan are used as pieces of evidence for Sigurd being a traitor.

Then we reach Gen 2 and Seliph is raised in an entire town of Isaacians. Seliph repays them for their care in letting Shanan take back Isaac as King…and he brings an Isaachian Princess to the throne with him.

So poetic across generations.

4. Headcanon, if any: Seliph hosts a traditional Isaachian wedding. I mean the boy lived his whole life immersed in their culture and his wife to be is Isaachian Princess no less.

5. How much do I ship (%): It’s back and forth on this and Tinny/Seliph.

[deetvar-moved]

So as demonstrated a growing trend in FE is the love interest who has an unhealthy obsession in the main lord/avatar.

So imagine if you will FE5 gets remade and the Subs get included (Janne, Femina, Asaello, and Daisy).

I have a strong feeling & fear, that there will be a Leif/Nanna/Janne love triangle. You're free to hate me now.

[deetvar-moved]

FE8??

Character I first fell in love with: I think it was Eirika.Character I never expected to love as much as I do now: DuesselCharacter everyone loves but I don’t: Amelia? Too much work. The only support I read for her is Duessel. Or I guess the Merc crew of Tethys, Marisa, and Gerik. IDK don't care for much.Character I love but everyone else hates: Does Duessel count? I mean like I always see people talk shit about him as a unit. I don't see it, he rocks hard.Character I used to love but don’t any longer: N/a?Character I would kiss: SelenaCharacter I want to slap: Can I stab Vaulter instead?A pairing I love: Eirika/L'arachelA pairing I hate: Arthr/Tethys. Zebra showed me and I hate it so dam much.