#here we are again i'm never not thinking about skills analyses AJKHALF

[nelithic]

——— ₊　𝖲𝖪𝖨𝖫𝖫𝖲 𝖡𝖱𝖤𝖠𝖪𝖣𝖮𝖶𝖭 , nel.

sword

lance　　❪ boon ❫

axe

bow

gauntlet

reason　　❪ boon ❫

faith　　❪ budding talent ☆ → boon ❫

authority

heavy armor　　❪ bane ❫

riding　　❪ bane ❫

flying　　❪ bane ❫

——— ₊　boons.

lance 】　standard stuff, in-game weapon kind of thing. while i imagine fell dragons in gradlon are generally used to doing most of their intensive fighting in draconic form, upon rejecting sombron and joining the divine dragon in the fight against gradlon, nel opted for the polearm as a balanced weapon: more reach than the sword as she still preferred to keep a certain distance from her enemy where possible, in order to assess for weak points and opening and give herself time to react; while being less hefty than the axe given her fighting style emphasizing skill and agility over pure force.

overall, she sees the polearm as the most adjustable, adaptable weapon available: you can strike or stab or cut or throw; it's relatively easy to be nonlethal if you want to; and it also is easier to move in concert with its momentum than a sword or an axe. it's as good a defensive weapon as it is an offensive one, offering a variety of approaches.

reason / faith 】　this is where the delusions start coming in but i am gripping intsys and demanding to know why she has such a high starting base magic and pretty high ( 25% ) magic growth for a unit without much of anything scaling off magic available to her base class. her fell magicstone even scales off strength so like... why. making her a lovely user of magic weapons aside, i nudge forward the concept of her having a good amount of potential for learning magic if she were to ever pursue it. ( and this is only maybe partially somewhat sort of because of i have a great love for basara... toa when. )

— fell dragon dark magic. as with most other fe's, dark magic gets tied to fell dragon lore in engage. while this alone doesn't necessarily mean anything for nel herself, i think we can also look at sombron and veyle wielding obscurité, a tome that can only be used by fell dragons, and given that nel is also a direct descendant of the same lineage, it wouldn't be unimaginable for her to also have a propensity for magic buried somewhere in there, even if undeveloped.

— mixed / balanced attacker. having the potential for magic proficiency also fits in with nel's overall spread and combat approach of being a very balanced unit with mild preference for dexterity & speed over strength. on recruitment, she has almost completely even base stats, with relatively even growths in everything aside from the aforementioned slight preference. however, even this preference isn't as pronounced as the disparity often is in most other units who usually have more or less clear asymmetry in their growth rates. nel aims for a ' proficient at many and master of little ' approach to combat in order to maximize adaptability and readiness for any potential situation. she's rarely going to be the best choice to handle any one task, but there's also seldom situations where she would be at a clear disadvantage either. this is likely the rational behind her possessing a dragonstone that enables her to do magic damage, so it'd also make sense for her to be open to learning magic for the same reason.

— the faith budding talent. we already see some basic skill and inclination as a healer in nel's B support with alear; though this is physical first aid healing she offers here rather than magic, it's still an indication that nel has the foundations there: offering to take care of patching up someone who's injured because she has the means and skills to do so rather than "you should go see a healer" as we generally see from other characters in similar situations. again, in nel's case this likely stems from a self-sufficient lifestyle; basic first aid for self and others was almost definitely a prerequisite for how she survived in fell!gradlon and took care of nil both there and following their escape.

additionally though, the primary reason why i see this as nel's budding talent is due to her propensity for faith. despite being a fell dragon, she demonstrates a pronounced ability to ' staunchly believe even in the absence of proof '. from her faith that she would see her brother alive and protected for their entire lives; to her faith that they would manage to call on someone to help save their fallen elyos; to her faith that they ( she alone, arguably, given how she pushes away alear's leadership throughout the fell xenologue and shoulders the task herself ) would be able to gather the bracelets and save the continent; ( spoilers ) to her faith that there was still something good and salvageable in her brother up until the end, and her repeated assertions despite his very real murderous and destructive intent that "this is not you". ( end spoilers ) nel had proof for none of these things, and yet was able to act as though they were immutable truths. her foundation for faith magic doesn't come from belief in a higher power, but arguably belief in spite of a higher power.

plus, a fell dragon with a faith magic talent is just, yknow. chefs kiss.

——— ₊　banes.

heavy armor 】　similar to the boon in lances, the bane in heavy armor stems from the preference for a balancing fighting style. i don't think she would actually be bad in a suit of armor and utilizing a more defensive style, but it would likely chafe against her natural comfort zone of being able to adapt on the fly and not being restrained to one type of fighting style. what if the situation on the battlefield changed without warning? she wouldn't be able to adjust as readily, and that could endanger or cost a life ( rafal's ). as an armored knight, she would feel pigeon-holed into a set of tricks that might not always serve her.

it also goes against a bit of how she fights. i always thought it was really funny that her posture and style in combat is even more poised and trained than some of the actual royals HAHAHA. there's some budding headcanon here about it being a reflection of her only learning one-on-one combat in human form as a technical skill upon leaving gradlon and joining the divine dragon's army — prior to that it was a lot more ripping and tearing and blasting as a fell dragon, which isn't quite so much a skill or art form — but my noodles on that could be an entire meta by itself, so not going to go into that here.

but you can see it in her stance and the way her combat is animated: she's waiting for opportune moments, looking for openings, striking decisively. there's a clear emphasis on dexterity and agility, combined with a fierce, needle-point precision when the moment presents itself. it's all very deliberate and calculated; there isn't a single extra step, any unnecessary force applied, or movement wasted.

riding / flying 】　the first thing was just why would a dragon ever learn how to ride a mount when they're used to just being a dragon and getting everywhere themselves with no issue.

the second was a headcanon that nel naturally unnerves animals by nature of being a fell dragon, in the same way that animals can sense and are usually set off by the presence of an apex predator. even if nel is generally not going to exercise brutality unless it's necessary, she still has the fell dragon capacity for ruthlessness within her, and any self-respecting animal instinct would likely be able to detect that.