#this was also why i got into fire emblem awakening

[energeticpoltergeist]

Part 1: Mad King's War

Prologue: Diverged History(pages 1-4)

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

I don't get why people hate on different fire emblem games. I've had a lovely time with every game I've played, even fates, which people for some reason insist sucks? It's so good. Here's my favorite things about each game I've played just cause. I am very sick so no one can criticize me btw.

Binding: obviously goes for all gba games but the battle animations are so!!!!! Lovely and charming. Roy's just a silly guy, Lilina :], the cast is excellent, everyone from the most insignificant playable characters to the nastiest of villains like Narcian and Jahn is just so fun and nicely written.

Blazing: I LOVE THE ELIBEAN LORDS SO MUCH THEY HAVE MY ENTIRE HEART AND SOUL. I think fe7 has my favorite cast. Everyone is awesome like in fe6 but cranked up a notch. And I quite like how this game isn't about war!!! Lyn's just trying to save her grandpa and Eliwood is searching for his dad. There's some hints of civil war here and there but ultimately less war than usual which is quite fun and interesting.

Sacred stones: I adore how the game is like. almost horror. In my ideal fe8 remake they would lean into the horror aspect a more and maybe have a higher age rating. I really love how it starts out like any other fe game then you start to see monsters and then there's the necromancy and characters like Riev who worship this vile demonic thing. And the art director for this game was Wada Sachiko! She was such an excellent choice for the art director because her style leans into the darker feel than fe6 and 7. Also I'm a Christian so I do really enjoy L'Arachel's character where she's obviously inspired by Christianity but not in an offensive way. She's a nice god(s) (?) honoring teenage girl full of whimsy and optimism!!! Also I love Eirika. Did a cosplay of her once and gotta say, I felt drop dead gorgeous in it lol.

Path of radiance: I have yet to finish this one but oh MAN do I love the artstyle and combat and character design. Not a single bad character, they're all nicely written. Except Devdan but he's not real if we ignore him. I love how believable Ike and Mist are as siblings and I got say I actually find the bad voice acting to be charming, especially in that opening cutscene where Mist says something like "you're finally awake! 'bout time!" like she's so silly and cute I would die for her. I also really love how Ike is not royalty, he's just some guy!!! With autism!!! Like for a while my view of Ike was kinda skewed by looking at super smash bros content of him so then playing the game and discovering he's such a kind, reasonable and autistic dude was a very pleasant surprise. Seriously though this dude NEEDS to get assessed. Anyway I quite like the laguz too. Reyson, Tibarn and Caineghis are my favorites and I'm excited to see more of Kurthnaga because he's got such a pleasant design. Also just. Caineghis is probably one of my top favorite character designs ever, like top 20. It goes so unbelievably hard.

Awakening: THE TRAGEDY. THE TRAGEDY OF EMMERYN'S DEATH. UWAAAGHHHHH. I love LOVE how Emmeryn is written, how you can't save her despite Lucina being able to time travel, how you're given the options "save Emmeryn? Yes or no?" and it doesn't matter if you pick yes cause she dies anyway. The cast is not quite on the same tier as fe7 or 8 and there's certainly some characters I do not like but my favorites really are just so wonderful and lovely. I'd kill and die for Henry, Maribelle, Libra, Gregor and like 5 other people. The child unit mechanic is also very fun! It's such a clever idea for a time travel game and it gives you so much control over how your units end up. The self sacrifice ending also makes me feel sick. /pos "there's better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know. Here, give me your hand" and then Robin reaches out to Chrom and the symbol of Grima is gone and when he pulls them in closer, he says "it's finally over." just. Ahdhdjsjsjsj!!!!!!!

Fates: now, I've only played birthright but it was a very nice experience. I went in expecting nothing and had my socks blown off. Combat is fun, characters are so silly billy and it's got such a nicely done representation of a broken families. It's nice. The characters and supports are nice, even if I do feel like we could've had a few less support chains. And idc if I doesn't make sense story wise, bringing back child units was fun!! Again with the unit customization but also it's so fun to give your favorite character a teenage/preteen kid that they have to deal with. Azama and Mitama's supports are peak silly. I think people would enjoy birthright more if they took it a little less seriously. It's full of whimsy and people ignore that in favor of comparing it to more serious games which I think is kinda unfair.

Shadows of Valentia: oh MAN. I LOVE THE TWO ARMIES MECHANIC!!!! And bangin' cast! Absolutely adore almost every single one of those gay bitches!!! The artstyle is so gorgeous and I hated the combat at first but grew a soft spot for it, it's so strange and I like it!!! Also the game is less hefty so my computer had an easier time running it than POR, awakening and fates which is quite nice too. I love Berkut's character (I won't defend him, he's a son of a bitch) and MAN Ian Sinclair really went HAM on that voice acting!!! Also Zeke and Tatiana feel handcrafted for me specifically. Angsty married couple? Where one has amnesia?? And the other is worried he'll leave her if he remembers another woman he was dating??? And they're voiced by Patrick Seitz and Cristina Vee, two of my favorite voice actors ever??????? SIGN ME UP!!!! I'm excited to eventually play the Marth games and see what else is up with Zeke :] also adore Celica, Silque, Jesse and Boey! Very nice, solid characters.

Three houses: different routes! DIFFERENT ROUTES!!!! You get to see all sides of a war and it's so fun piecing together the history of Fodlan and nature of Rhea's character as you play each route. And again, excellent voice acting!! And it was fun being in the 3h fandom when it first came out and seeing all the silly things the VAs did together. I've got like 400 hours on this game and it holds a special place in my heart cause it was the very first game I finished without help from siblings and it was my first fe game. Also banging soundtrack, fun and unique combat (LOVE battalions) and amazing characters.

Enage: now I'm only 8 chapters in, I think? Haven't been able to play it recently. But it's so fun! Before getting it, I hated the bright artstyle and character designs but they've grown on me and I have been enlightened so I now know that f!Alear is a cutie patootie and I love her. I love the mechanic of adopting animals. Like I am quite happy recent fe games have, in some aspects, become more a little more lighthearted and silly. I love variation in game series' and when the devs aren't way too formulaic!!! That being said I also love the archetypes!!! I just really love fire emblem :]

I'm excited to finish engage and POR and play more of the games :]

Sorry about the long ass ask, I'm full of love and I want people to know it because I wish other people could learn to be a little more positive and focus on the aspects of fe games that they like instead of being hardcore haters. Okay now everyone say thank you Senri Kita (fe9 art director) and Wada Sachiko

.

[fiery-emblems]

Like a lot of people I sometimes ponder what my favorite characters might look like if they were allowed to grow older. I've been seeing a lot of good designs for older Soren specifically so of course I got to thinkin' about my own take!

Some notes on design process under the cut cause I think we should all share our thought process once in a while:

So, for this I didn't want to just want to go with "Soren, exactly the same but older". My thought was "if I was actually in charge of designing for a fire emblem game, one that takes place in a future Tellius perhaps and featuring this character as a guest (a la Tiki or the Awakening trio, which they should keep doing BTW) how would I go about doing that".

You have to think of course, about what the character is actually doing and what their role is. It seems pretty likely that after RD Soren is either traveling the world with Ike or wandering around (probably the former) so "traveler" was the theme. As far as the overall shape and the outer layer especially it seemed obvious to reference the dragons, who are also travelers:

I don't want to just straight up copy the look of the robes though for a couple of reasons. 1) that's boring and the idea here is for an updated visual style 2) I wanted to combine different elements to evoke a feeling of mixing cultures. I figure if this scenario takes place say, 80 years in the future or something, fashions will have moved forward and perhaps you would see elements of beorc and laguz fashions mixed together. Especially for Soren given what he is. So I went with an inner layer that looks more Victorian puffy sleeves (which you don't actually see a lot of in PoR or RD since the characters favor more stiff looking tunics, but they are there and I figured its the future and maybe Crimea has entered its puffy shirt era) with the outer layer looking more like what the dragons wear. 3) Staying with robes seems kind of stagnant. I imagine that a much older Soren who's lived a good life along side his love has probably chilled out a little bit. A little bit. 4) I think having more leg visible gives a more adult silhouette.

The other consideration is the hairstyle. As much as I love Soren being a carbon copy of Rajaion, it wouldn't be the most interesting design choice if I was the character designer of a game to just copy a past design 1 for 1. So I decided to just lengthen his hair a little bit and give it a look like its been blown around in the wind. Soren is the windy guy and I'm assuming he would be more chill here so why not let it be loose and free? This also helps avoid him just looking like Sephiran cause I see that a lot too lol.

Yes I also changed the shape of his brand. I've always been fascinated by the fact that it changed shape between games. I know it was likely just a design oversight but what if it changed because he isn't an adult yet and it changes more as he ages?

Lastly there's the why. Why would your fav show up as a guest character? What would he even do?? Well I think Soren could be really fun actually if we assume he went with Ike and that Ike kept Ragnell with him. I'm picturing a situation where Ike has lived out his natural life and died, leaving Soren to return to Tellius alone in order to tell Mist's family what happened (cause Ike just left without telling anyone anything lol), and to return Ragnell to them. Instead some conflict breaks out, you know how it is, and the more chilled out Soren is convinced to bestow the sword onto the new starry-eyed lord who reminds him of his beloved.

Oh yeah. I can see it now.

[quibbs126]

Also, because Fire Emblem Fates has also been in my head, I gotta say, it’s kind of shitty to basically make it required to spend so much money if you want the full story

Like, for starters you’d have to buy one of the games, at full price if you were like me and bought them when they came out (I also thought they were exactly the same other than different units, so my 12 year old ass who hadn’t played a Fire Emblem game since I was 8 ended up getting Conquest because I liked Awakening and didn’t know it was supposed to be the tougher game for more experienced players)

It also gives you a choice in game which family you go with, but you can’t actually choose because it’s dependent on which game you got. Makes it seem like they really shouldn’t have had the choice in the game to begin with, just have it start out one way or the other or make the choice for us

Anyways, if you actually want to make that choice in game or just see what the other side would offer, or you just would rather side with the other family, you’d have to either buy the other game for the exact same price, or buy it digitally, which you can no longer legally do

And on top of that, there’s Revelation, which I’m told is the true storyline of Fates, which you could only get by buying it in the eShop, which again, is no longer available

So not only can you not experience everything Fates has to offer without paying twice to three times the amount of a normal game (I don’t know how much Revelation cost), but if you wanted to play the game for the first time now, it’s literally impossible to play it fully without pirating

I really don’t know why they did this. Did they just not have enough space on the cartridge to do all three options, or was this a matter of money?

[ro-botany]

On the Characteristics of the Risen, and the Character of their King

The Risen King... Finally, a concept which once only existed in whispers and a single cipher 0 card, has made it into a Fire Emblem video game! Just the mobile game, sure, but it counts. And the Fell Exalt Chrom unit is so fascinating to me that I have not only this, but at least two other meta posts in the pipeline about it. I am so normal about him.

To kick things off... let’s talk about exactly what Risen King Chrom is, and also how he’s doing mentally. (Badly. He’s doing very badly.)

---

Real quick, we have to get one snag out of the way: the mechanism by which a Risen is made.

Shadows of Valentia introduced us to a prototypical version of the Risen created by Forneus, known as Death Masks. They’re made by fitting a dead body with a mask containing insects known as thanatophages. The thanatophages prevent the body’s decay and assert physical control over them in a manner not unlike certain real world parasites that control the muscular movements of their hosts.

I’ve seen a handful of my colleagues (lol) assume there are modern Risen made the same way. BUT. The Risen which exist during the events of Awakening are explicitly NOT Death Masks. During the xenologue Death’s Embrace, Brady states that “In the future, our wounded often turned to Risen just as we were tryin' to heal 'em.” This has to mean that Grima is transforming the dead and dying remotely, using some kind of magic; and at the height of their power, they may be either passively creating or deliberately casting an area of effect that turns dead bodies automatically. There’s nothing to suggest any Risen are manually created with thanatophages, or that Grima is manifesting thanatophages for that purpose.

Alas, we cannot do insect body horror with RK Chrom while also staying true to canon. But moving on...

---

Fell Chrom is, to make an understatement, very unique among the Risen. And to discuss why he’s unique, we first have to define what’s typical.

Behaviourally, typical Risen don’t appear to have sentience outside of their competency in wielding weapons and their tendency to form loose hierarchies based on individual strength. They’re incredibly aggressive by nature; it’s like their only innate drive is to fight and kill humans. Most of them are not capable of speech, though the stronger Risen Chiefs can grind out single words or even short phrases, which are usually just related to wanting to kill things. When being actively controlled through dark magic, they appear capable of basic tactics, though whether that comes from them or the person controlling them is unclear.

There’s no doubt that Fell Chrom is a Risen. He’s certainly got the appearance, the purple miasma, and the vocal distortion for it. Not to mention the giant glowing fatal wound in his side. Man certainly isn't alive.

He’s evidently still subject to control via dark magic too, if the fact that he was forced to war against his own country is anything to go by.

Fell Chrom also has the strong aggressive drive typical of Risen. Nearly all of his dialogue in battle situations suggests this. In order of increasing intensity: There’s the turn action quote “Find me an enemy”, which depending on your mood can read as either resignation or as chomping at the bit. There’s hostile level up quotes like “You shall count yourself...among the dead” and “You would...block my path”. His special trigger quotes are yet worse. He yells “This is your fate”, “No resistance”, and “Useless effort” with a fury you don’t expect from Chrom—and for the fourth one, he just shouts “DEATH”. And his voice clips for attacking aren’t words or even anywhere in the realm of a regular human noise, they're just distorted, monstrous growling.

But unlike with typical Risen, aggression is not all RK Chrom is. He can walk around the Askran castle and be around others without constantly trying to attack people. And in fact, he’s aware of and bothered by how violent being Risen makes him. One of his status page quotes is begging someone to “back away!” in a panic, as though he’s afraid of hurting them. It’s possible the violent instincts Risen have mainly only come into play for him in battle situations, or possibly when he’s in a state of heightened emotion.

And while RK Chrom displays the kind of difficulty with speech you would expect of a Risen, with his slow halting pace and gravelly tone, he speaks in complete, coherent sentences and displays remarkable clarity about who he is and what’s happening around him. He’s no husk. Chrom's mind is intact.

That is massive. That is completely unique among Risen, and deeply, deeply horrifying. Because even though he can think, he is by no means in control.

---

If the Forging Bonds supports are anything to go by, Chrom did try to resist Grima, at least in the beginning. From C through to A he moves from disbelief to outright despair at the very prospect of warring against Ylisse. But by the S support—which necessarily takes place years after the others due to how far Grima’s campaign has progressed—he’s given up. So much of his dialogue is mourning the past, or repeating Grima's belief that everyone is doomed and nothing can change. He’s not fighting it anymore. He's resigned to his fate as Grima’s executioner.

And why wouldn’t he be? After the initial confusion from being resurrected passed, he was lucid. He was fully mentally present when he was murdering his allies and slaughtering his own people. And between the deep, fundamental drive to kill and the direct influence of Grima on his actions... There wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop himself. He couldn’t protect a thing.

Even now that he’s free of Grima’s influence in Askr, he doesn’t exactly do anything to avoid being an instrument of violence. Otherwise he wouldn’t be a playable unit. Everyone he’s ever cared about is dead, and he’s been nothing more than a monster and an instrument of violence for years. Why not fight. It’s the only thing he has left.

This Chrom is a deeply broken man. Angry and utterly hopeless. It’s no wonder after all he’s been through.

And yet... there’s still a spark there. For all his rigid insistence that Grima’s bleak outlook is the truth, his ally growth quote speaks volumes: “If this power were mine...back then...”

If fate is so immutable and hope is so pointless, why deal in what-ifs? Why wonder about what could have changed? And he’s still trying to protect people he cares about from himself; why else would he yell for others to “back away” when he feels he might attack them?

Through all the years of horror and the terrible curse of undeath... he’s still Chrom.

[aretheyqueer]

Is he bi?

disclaimer: this is a hc, not speculating on what the writers intentions were.

reason: He’s got very strong subtext with the player avatar, Robin, who can be either male or female.

tag: @18-footer

[maagicmushies]

How Fates Classes Communicate Culture

It is kind of strange to say because horrible worldbuilding is one of the things that Fates has become known for, but I'm really struggling to think of a Fire Emblem game that manages to say more about its world through its classes. Nearly every single class in Nohr and especially Hoshido has a lot to say about the respective cultures of the two nations, either through their names or weaponry or design.

Religion

So, religious aesthetics have been a thing in Fire Emblem since forever. If you want to get healed in Archanea you don't go to a doctor, you go to a cleric. Jugdral with its myriad of references to Norse myth had Troubadours which sort of seem random for a northern european setting, but Troubadours went around reciting poetry and a lot of Norse myth was chronicled through poetry like the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda. The main religious house of Grannvale being House Edda also makes allusion to this. Even seemingly secular classes such as cavaliers and paladins can be seen adorned with crosses in most games. In Fates something interesting happens. Nohr has most of the "traditional" Fire Emblem classes, but loses all of these religious references. Troubadour stayed, but only in the English Localization with the class being called "Rod Knight" in the original Japanese. Troubadour's promotions in Awakening, Valkyrie and War Cleric, were pretty explicitly religious, but no more in Fates. Valkyries have been turned into Strategists, with designs that sort of resemble depictions of Viziers. In the place of War Cleric, we have the Maids, which I'm pretty sure are a reference to old mystery books and the cliche of rich statesmen being killed by their bitter servants. That's why they used hidden weapons. Another Nohrian class which is just a secularized version of an older class would be the Dark Mage and Sorcerer. Nothing within their names or designs have been changed, but they have gone from being followers of Grima in Awakening to a sort of analog to alchemists. I am a little torn on this because trying to draw the line between "religion", "philosophy" and "pseudoscience" with alchemy is EXTREMELY hard, but just like the maids this class has a reference to another icon of European literature - Frankenstein. The faceless that they create and can summon bare a striking origin and visual similarity to many depictions of Frankenstein's monster. That book is coated in a lot of religious subtext, but Frankenstein himself is staunchly a scientist and working within his world's realm of science. While Fates did remove these classes from their religious context, another take was to move classes with religious context over to Hoshido.

The way the religious Hoshido classes are handled is pretty funny because a lot of these classes have been in Fire Emblem before, but were references to western religion, typically Catholicism. Now they're mainly references to eastern religions. The most obvious case of this are priests and clerics who were turned into monks and shrine maiden respectively. This is one of the rare cases of Fates gender-locking and the only case of it having an actual effect on game play. Women in this class line are based on "Miko", Shinto shamans tasked with shrine upkeep and various other rituals. Shrine Maidens can promote into the very vague "Priestess", but the Japanese version once again clears things up by just calling them "Isuka Miko" or "Battle Miko". They're the standard shrine maidens, but with a slight bit more armor and armed with a bow, something that Miko actually would use both for ceremonial purposes and self defense in some cases. The male counterpart is the Monk. Before I go on, I have to clarify that I don't think that the localization made the wrong move by leaving out a lot of the cultural context, but I'm going to have to keep going back to the original Japanese to fully clarify what Intelligent Systems meant with some of these classes. While we got "Monk" they got "Shugenja", which is a lot more specific to what Fates' monks are. They are followers of Shugendo, ascetic mountain-dwelling priests. The lances that Great Masters use were likely a reference to walking poles that such a lifestyle would demand. I don't really like genderlock and it annoys me that Fates completely ignores it except for this one instance, but I sort of get why. Miko are one of the most recognizable symbols of pre-meiji Japan, so if IS wants to make a fictional country based on that era, it'd be such a miss to not include them. However, "Miko" is a strictly feminine title, so Fates used this limitation to just give us another cool cultural reference.

If all that wasn't enough, a lot of FE classes that had nothing to do with religion now do. Standard "mages" were turned into "diviners". One could argue that this was the localization actually adding in religious context where there originally was none, because the original word used for this class just translates to "spell user". I'm inclined to disagree with that because Orochi's entire thing is divination and the main Hoshidan scrolls revolve around the Chinese zodiac. Another hit against that view would be how Diviners, Shrine Maidens and Monks all can promote into the Onmyoji. For some reason, this is one of the few japanese terms that Treehouse refused to swap out. Sage would have worked just fine. Remember how I said Alchemy blurred the lines between "philosophy", "religion" and "pseudoscience"? The same could honestly be said about Onmyodo, from what I know. Going off of how Izana, the poster child for the class, comes from the Kingdom of the Gods and can straight up speak with the Gods, I'd say that Fates' interpretation of the belief is as a faith. By the way, Onmyodo means "The Way of Yin and Yang", a pretty clear reference to how Sages can use tomes and staves, black magic and white magic. Some other Hoshidan classes also got some minor religious flair to them, with Sniper, Swordmaster and Spear Master all having different japanese names in fates than they do in the japanese versions of other Fire Emblem games. In Fates they can be translated as "Holy Bow", "Holy Sword" and "Holy Spear" or “[Insert Weapon] Saint”. I will touch on this more in a bit.

So, that begs the question. What is Fates trying to imply with this? Well.... I don't really know? Like, sure, Nohr has scrubbed away almost all of its religious institutions while Hoshido holds tightly to them and even associates great skill with holiness, but why? As cool as all of this is, it doesn't really seem to mean much besides creating yet another cultural rift between Hoshido and Nohr. I could come up with something about how the Fire Emblem being in Hoshido means that they were favored by the Gods and decided to worship them while the Nohrians felt neglected and forged their own path but that feels like I'm veering off into the realm of fanfiction, it's pure conjecture. It is also possible that Hoshido's faith came from them hunting Nohrian monsters. Gaiden and Sacred Stones both had characters who mostly fought monsters and they came from religious institutions in both cases, with Bishops in the Sacred Stones being especially good at it. So perhaps that is why so much of Hoshido is themed as religious, but once again it feels like I'm trying to guide thread through a needle that just isn't there. There is one thing that Hoshido’s focus on religion says about their culture for a deeper level and I’ll get into that for the next section.

Warfare

If you’re a nerd about Fates’ gameplay, there may be something that you noticed about the “Holy” classes mentioned. They are all capable of attaining an “S” rank in their respective weapons. This could indicate that Hoshido views mastery in the martial arts as either a gift from the gods or something to be used in service of the Gods. In Hoshido, the “Art” aspects of “Martial Art” seems to be something they prioritize on honing. It isn’t just enough to pick up a sword and learn how to swing it, you should strive to master it. The S rank options in Nohr paint a bit of a different picture. First you have the Sorcerers and Maids, being the S rank options for tomes and staves. This is an extension of Nohr’s respect for academia. As Nohrian magic is a bit closer to Alchemy, this magic can be mastered and honed simply through learning enough about it. Nohr loves its Tomes, by the way. Dark Mages are the only base class to start with tomes, but Troubadours, Wyvern Knights and even Corrin’s Nohr Prince(ss) class can use them upon promotions. Leo and Camilla also start in tome wielding classes with it being pretty trivial for Xander and Elise to join them as well. If you want to be respected in Nohr, you seemingly have to be well read, even the nobility follow this rule.

While I think Nohr having the S rank option for staves fits their culture, giving this to Maids feels like a gameplay concession. Strategists have tomes, a horse and two really good skills, so perhaps IS thought this was needed to balance the two classes out. It doesn’t really work, I think Jacob might be the only one who likes that class. The last S rank class that Nohr has is the Berserker, which I think paints an interesting dichotomy with Hoshido. Here the mastery of the weapon is not revered, but instead feared. This could just be because axes are much more unwieldy than lances, sword or bows or maybe because axes in general are associated with lower class in Fire Emblem, so someone who is so proficient with them instead of switching to a more respected weapon should be seen as a mad man. While we’re on the topic of axes, this might be a good time to talk about how many Nohrian classes use those versus how few Hoshidan classes use their counterpart, the club. 4 classes on Hoshido vs 8 in Nohr. This could relate to two things mainly. The first is the status thing I mentioned earlier. On average, Nohr is poorer than Hoshido, so more classes would use this poor “commoner” weapon. The second is that Nohr is heavily forested and so axes would probably just be very common there. Just like how Bord, Cord and Barst went from lumberjacking to axe fighting, it wouldn’t be incredibly surprising to find out that most of Nohr’s army did the same.

Meanwhile in Hoshido, it seems to be normal for most soldiers, not to be equipped with a certain weapon, but to be equipped with some sort of non-scroll magic. And by magic, I mean the seal skills. We are never really told how they work, but because they fail to go off if the sealer dies mid battle, I am convinced it is some kind of curse. The poisoned hidden weapons do not work this way and will apply their effects whether you kill the user or not. Of the 5 stat sealing skills, 4 belong to Hoshidan classes that do not use scrolls. The odd one out, Seal Magic, belongs to the Nohrian Dark Knight, pretty much cementing this as a magical skill. The Hoshidan Kinshi Knight’s also have the magical “Amaterasu” skill, once again linking back to the Hoshidan religiosity. I suppose now that I’ve brought up Kinshi Knights, it is time to talk about another thing that shapes the warfare of these two countries and that is the wildlife. Whereas Hoshido has their Pegasi and Kinshi, Nohr has Wyverns. The most notable distinction here is that Wyverns are just bigger and suitable to carry more, so while Nohrians can afford to be heavily armed and armored while flying, Falcon Knights have to settle with one naginata and specialization into staff use, once again hammering in that link between Hoshido and Religion. Wyverns also bring up some more of that dubious Nohrian science because they have an entire class of “Malig Knights”, people who fight on crudely resurrected Wyverns. The thing I find interesting about this class is that its two skills, Savage Blow and Trample are implied to be the Wyvern fighting independent of its rider. Shooting flames in the vicinity of the rider’s attacks and also landing on people its rider chooses to fight. To my knowledge, this is the only instance of this in Fire Emblem. This could indicate that the resurrected Wyverns are hard to train and instead of seeing this as a weakness, Nohrians chose to experiment with how they could take advantage of this “downside”. The last wildlife boon that Nohr has is that they actually have horses! You might not notice it, but Hoshido has no ground cavalry. This gives Nohr a huge mobility advantage and they capitalize on that. Out of all of Nohr’s starting classes, the only two who don't start on a horse or have the option to get on a horse are the mounted Wyvern Riders and the Fighter class, which has historically had associations with poverty. This insistence to just hop on a horse might go back to how much Nohr seems to value versatility in combat. A sword fighting mercenary getting on horseback isn’t exactly the most natural progression, but it gives that mercenary a wealth of new options in how to fight. They don’t care about specialization and mastery, just getting their job done. Nohrian classes in general lack that flair Hoshidan classes have and while I could say that's because a lot of these classes were codified back in the NES days, I think it’s just an extension of Nohr wanting to be efficient. You don’t NEED to be ornate or masterful or graceful as long as you win.

Leisure and Arts

So, what do any of these people do when not trying to kill each other? Well, for Hoshido we have a wealth of answers. Hoshido is the nation that got the classic “villager” class, so we can pretty safely say that a lot of people in Hoshido just toil. They farm peaches and daikons and rice. The villagers can promote and I find one of these promotions to be very interesting. I’m talking about the Merchant. Merchants show up a lot as part of Hoshido’s army, but it is a bit strange that they would be deployed as merchants and not as any formally integrated part of the Hoshidan military. We could take this as meaning that Hoshido is not particularly suited for war, they need to arm common merchants to defend from Nohr and don’t exactly have time to properly train them into becoming Spear Masters or Sky Knights. Another possible take away from this could be that Hoshidan patriotism is such a thing that these people weren’t conscripted, they just decided to go out and fight for their country independent of their background. It wouldn’t be a first in Fire Emblem, as I mentioned earlier, most Axe Fighters from early on in the series were simply lumberjacks who wanted to contribute to the war.

On the topic of Hoshidan classes who don’t exactly fit the bill as soldiers, I finally get to talk about my favorite class from the game, the Basara. Basara is another japanese term that treehouse refused to translate, which basically means someone who lives unrealistically and with excess. Their skills further cement this with the flashy activation skill “Rend Heaven”, which can actually activate pretty often compared to other skills but it's pretty damn useless. And then there’s the second skill, Quixotic, which does not actually increase damage or anything useful like that, but instead increases the chances of these activation skills going off. If you like, you can see this as an extension of aspects of Hoshidan culture that I mentioned earlier. Basaras do not want to beat you, but instead want to flaunt their mastery. It’s just that while Swordmasters want to flaunt their mastery of hitting you hard with a sword, these guys want to flaunt their mastery of flashy skill combos. The skill name being “quixotic” is also a fun allusion to Don Quixote, but it only exists in the english localisation. Basaras sort of fill the role of wandering fighters which I find pretty interesting because that role has usually been held by Mercenaries and Heroes. The main difference is that Mercenaries and Heroes are going around and saving people to get paid while Basaras are doing it to prove that they can. It really shows the difference in priorities between these two cultures. It is also possible that most Basaras are nobles or former nobles, as the term “Basara” was coined to criticize the flamboyance of Japanese nobles during the 14th century. So perhaps they’re happy doing this for no pay because they don’t really need money. It is worth noting that Basaras promote from Spear Fighters and Diviners, two classes that I’ve already noted as having religious subtext to them. It was a common practice for noble families to have their second son adopt a religious life as the oldest would inherit their fortune. A family with a hand in both the secular political world and the religious world would have a lot of influence. These basaras could be sons who weren’t able to inherit their parents’ wealth, but also did not have the discipline to make it in religious life, so they simply absconded and lived as excessive wanderers. Not particularly exceptional, but very hard to ignore.

Does it feel like I’m dodging the topic of leisure in Nohr? That would be because I am. There are exactly two Nohrian classes which do not have a role in their military. There are Outlaws and their promotions, the Adventurer. That isn’t a joke, I’m not fucking with you. The only non-war hobby there is in Nohr is robbing people. If you’re kind, you could fit the maids into here, but it wouldn’t exactly be correct to say that they don’t have a role in Nohr’s military, they are the defining staff using class and seem to exclusively serve high ranking members within the Nohrian Court. You are either directly contributing to Garon’s war machine, subservient to someone who is directly contributing to Garon’s war machine or actively breaking the law. It paints a really dire picture of this country. Every aspect of it is literally just in service of this war. Let's pivot somewhat and look at art. Hoshido not only has a culture of poetry that is popular amongst its monks, but has the Mechanist class, tasked with making these very intricate puppets. When Hoshido wants to carry out missions without risking too many lives, they deploy these Puppeteers. When Nohr wants to do the same, they create monsters. The only form of artistic expression we ever get to see is literature, go figure. In general, Nohr just sucks. You would not want to live here under any circumstance. However, even if I am disappointed in how little flavor there is for Nohrian life outside of fighting, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A country so consumed with war that they forgot to develop a culture is in a certain sense a form of culture, look at how many so called “gross” british foods are just a product of wartime rationing. It’s bland and unpleasant, but it IS culture. The classes on display do such a good job of painting what life in these two nations are like and it’s sort of insane wondering what a slightly more tightly written game could have accomplished with this. One of the downsides of Fire Emblem embracing less and less restricting reclassing as the series goes on is that we will likely never receive anything that attempts to do this again, which is a shame to me.

[boundlesschaos]

TOA Anniversary Munday

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together. [Original by Neffi can be found here!]

Name: Ruru

Pronouns: any/all

Birthday (no year): 6/14

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Grew up in the East Coast, currently back living there. EST timezone.

How long is your roleplay experience? Easily 15+ years. I did RP on DeviantArt of all things (and even became a mod of said rp); moved to tumblr RP when it got popular, but then took a break for a few years when tabletop games took interest proper; returned to RP when Cecil and I found TOA.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Outside of DeviantArt, I grew up playing a lot of make believe games with friends, which eventually moved to text. But really, dA was the big one that hooked me to RP proper....wild...

How were you introduced to TOA? Cecil was the one who found it? But I was wishing for more tumblr RPs around the time, since discord ones felt too intimidating.

Do you have any pets? Viola! Cute lil cat daughter

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) I like the part of fall where the leaves change colours. Seeing flora change in general is fun for me.

What is your IRL occupation? IT Support; I also do game dev (mainly TTRPG) on the side when I can

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I like running TTRPG games, drawing, designing and coding spreadsheets. Making improv games on the fly, rules and all. I also like exploring new places, especially when they're local. Picnics on the beach or park are great.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? A lot, but the game I just beat is Xenoblade Chronicles. I'm the sole remaining World Flipper fan- I mean, I like JRPGs a lot, so games like LiveALive and Chrono Cross come to mind as well.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Bug type. Snom, Grubbin, Pinurchin, Trapinch, pokemon that have the shape (tm) are my favorites. I've always had a soft spot for the Lati duo as well.

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! I've lived in Japan for a fair bit, and became N5 proficient through that. I'm trying to study for N4. I will also never stop talking about TTRPG - namely that I make games and one of them is Fire Emblem based.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? NO JOKE BUT I first learned of Fire Emblem through some promotional pamphlet that came with Pokemon Sapphire I think??? And then saw them in Smash. Cecil definitely helped me get into it proper.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Easier to say what I haven't, which is FE1 and FE3 (or their remakes). Only played Echoes, not FE2. The only games I started and never beat are Warriors, Three Hopes, and FE5.

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: First exposure was one of the GBA, but Awakening was the first I beat proper, I think. My favorite FE games are 4 and 6.

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Niamh, Joshua, Hugh, Idunn, Lethe? Those are the first to come to mind that I consistently like.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! This would have been so long ago...I liked characters like Chad, Lugh, Ricken, etc because they were the 'small boy who might not be taken seriously' type. Which, given I was a lot younger back then, also treated younger than i was by my family, and starting to realize I don't define my gender neatly, they were important characters to sympathize with.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 All my crushes are in Tellius LMAO but like. Titania. Nailah. Powerful Women....

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Sully; might pick someone like Miriel? - Fates: Tsubaki; idk tbh....maybe him again - Three Houses: Shamir; probably Yuri? - Engage: Yunaka; maybe Kagetsu? [THIS WHOLE THING IS REMINDING ME that im not very attached to S supporting with the protag I GUESS]

Favorite Fire Emblem class? I like the ones where you can fly. Kinshi Knight is one of my favorites for the design and unique combination of flyer and bow.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? Probably a flier or a strategist type. My luck stat is either way too good or awful, no inbetween. Probably also a furry of some variety.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? I'm your generic NPC civilian.

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? - Boons - Faith, Riding (me remembering I rode horses as a kid) - Banes - Axes - Budding - Flying, Bows

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Probably Firene for being very flowery?

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) I pronounce it toe (the body part) + a (the letter). toe-a.

Current TOA muses: Niamh, Hugh

Past TOA muses? N/A

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Niamh

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? I like writing characters who appear composed, put together, etc, but are actually definitely not. Their ability to empathize is either super good or they struggle dearly (but are aware of that shortcoming). the more unconventional their gender, identity, etc is, the better.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Honestly any character with a sizeable amount of lore. I'd just spend way too much time worrying I interpreted one of their support conversations wrong or don't do the character 'the right way'.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I like writing situations where the characters learn a new facet about themselves, or discover a place beyond their wildest dreams.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? Maybe something that lets me explore Hugh's past or defines Niamh pre-meeting Cipher crew?

Favorite TOA-related memories? Candy game was fun. I also liked the teamwork and memery I had in BOEL this year.

Present or past tense? I think I write in present so that?

Normal size text, small text, no preference? Normal Text with no trimming because most of my replies are through my phone lmao...

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 Sommie :) Both joking and genuinely serious. I love a small Frienb and i think it would be interesting to dive into the fact that Sommie has been around for a very long time, but realistically I'd probably only play him for a few months. Aside from Sommie, there are a couple of FE6 characters (Lugh, Raigh, Idunn) who could be fun but I like sticking to one muse per game. Constance I think about off and on but she hits my 'has too many supports' and therefore I'd worry about playing right. I still rotate the Three Hopes supports I read though. Maybe someday

[amitieos]

toa anniversary munday!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Nic

Pronouns: they/them

Birthday (no year): 14th July

Where are you from? What is your time zone? UK, GMT (or BST but don't get me started on daylight savings I'll explode)

How long is your roleplay experience? Does playing A Bug's Life on the playground when I was 5 count? If not, I started with rping HP characters with my friends when I was like 11-12 over MSN after school and whilst there have been breaks it's something I've always found myself coming back to.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? As above, I made a couple of friends on (unrelated) forums and we all just thought it'd be fun.

How were you introduced to TOA? I thought I missed rp and looked for an FE based rp.

Do you have any pets? Yes, all hail Catcat the Great.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) Summer. I hate the heat and humiditiy but once there's no daylight the seasonal affective disorder bass boosts my chronic mental health issues and it's just a bad time really.

What is your IRL occupation? I've gone back to uni to study Law :)

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I love reading, I'm fascinated by linguistics and astrophysics, enjoy DnD and playing video games in my spare time. I'm a particular sucker for the Sims franchise.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Recently I've been playing BG3, Stardew Valley, The Sims & Fields of Mistria but I'm a big fan of the Persona series and really, really excited about Dragon Age The Veilguard

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: I don't really play Pokemon much anymore but I'll just say Sylveon I guess

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! I met the fourth Doctor when I was 11 and he complemented my vocabulary lmao. I once got published in a poetry anthology with a poem about Shadow the Hedgehog and my parents we so proud of me.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I think I saw a review on TV

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I've attempted to play every game except 1/2/3/5/11, although I've really wanted to play Thracia I just *need* some QoL updates and controls. I haven't finished every single one because of lost/deleted saves and stuff but I've watched playthroughs and read up on scripts on everything I haven't actually played myself.

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: My first was Fates but Jugdral, Magvel and 3 Houses are my favourite

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Elincia, Mercedes, Franz, Myrrh and ughhhh I can't choose between Chole/Yunaka/Sylvain so I'm cheating

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! I saw Ryoma in all that red armour and it grabbed my attention.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Miss Mercedes if you're free Thursday night

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom, originally be accident but now on purpose :D - Fates: My first was Takumi and I didn't know what an S support was and was very confused. Nowadays usually Kaze or Laslow if playing F!Corrin and Orochi, Nyx or Charlotte if playing M!Corrin. Niles for either. - Three Houses: Mercedes. She's still my go to ofc but I'm also fond of Dorothea, Dimitri and Sylvain. If I'm playing M!Byleth Yuri or Ingrid - Engage: Yunaka was my first and now it's either Yunaka, Diamant or Chloe. Or Mauvier maybe hahfsdgfsd

Favorite Fire Emblem class? I love Pegasus Knights!!!!!!!

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? Probably a reluctant recruit who accidentally gets involved. Weirdly magic based armoured character.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran) Either unaffiliated civilian or Blue Lions probably

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Lance, Reason, Heavy Armour Banes: Bow, Faith Budding Talent: idk Axes or Flying?

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon) No idea! Probably Elusia or Firene. The Solm heat would literally kill me.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) TOA ;) (like Noah)

Current TOA muses: Elincia & Mercedes

Past TOA muses? A lot but most memorable to me are Sylvain and Julia, though I'm so excited to see Sylvain in good hands <3

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Elincia and I still have her.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? White magic girlies though I'm trying to change things up.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Hm, I wish I felt I could write more of the male characters I enjoy effectively. In most other fandoms I've written in most of my muses have been men but it's just not so in FE. I'd also love to write a villain okay I once genuinely considered Hilda FE4 lmao

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) I like writing dialogue and characters bonding but I'm starting to like more action oriented scenes too.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? For Mercedes in particular I get excited to write her steel and strength, especially when it's combined with her gentleness rather than opposed to it.

Favorite TOA-related memories? Every thread I've writen with Elincia and Rua's Byleth <3

Present or past tense? I tend to default to present in TOA but usually past tense. I'm flexible though and will try and match my partner.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? I actually find small text easier to focus in on and read (I can find normal a bit too cluttered and it can send my eyes wandering lmao) but I'm perfectly happy to use normal text, it just takes me a bit longer to comb through.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 I can't see a shake up happening soon but... Zephia or Chloe are probably forerunners. I've thought about Palla and Astrid too but I'm not sure if I can see the longevity. Also Neimi, Myrrh and Rodrigue have sparked.... ideas. For muses I've written before, Julia is the most likely but I think she's having a nice break right now :)

[crimson-flash]

TOA Anniversary Munday Post

haha i haven't even been here for a month

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Penny

Pronouns: She/them

Birthday (no year): 8/19

Where are you from? What is your time zone?: I'm from the United States of 'Merica, Georgia in particulary.

How long is your roleplay experience? Uh, outside of Roblox, and a little bit of Amino, I basically have none, so a month!

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? I was introduced to roleplaying when I entered a Big Brother RP amino thingy when I was 12, and I won the whole thing while mascaraing as like double my age. It was crazy back then.

How were you introduced to TOA?: I was looking at Joshua art, and then I stumbled across an old Joshua muse which lead me to TOA. I know it sounds a bit crazy.

Do you have any pets?: I have a dog named Mellow! I will protect him with my life. He is my pride and joy.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period): Favorite season is Fall, favorite holiday is Christmas, and my favorite general period of time is whenever I don't have school.

What is your IRL occupation? I don't have a job at the moment, I am just a simple high school senior.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I enjoy coding little games, I like romhacking and just seeing my edits change the game, it's kinda like magic, lol. I enjoy going for walks, and racing other people, I also enjoy sleeping, who doesn't.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Pokemon, Stardew Valley, Wildermyth, Ace Attorney, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Kirby

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Water, Vaporeon (NOT IN THAT WAY)

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! Oh, a fun fact? uhhhhh

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I wanted to know where Marth from Smash Bros came from, so I decided I was going to play Awakening, and now I'm obsessed.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I have played FE7, FE8, FE11, FE12, FE13, FE17

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: FE13 was my first, and FE8 is my favorite!

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Nooo, I can't choose between my bab- Marisa, Henry, Clanne, Joshua, The 7th Platoon is it's own character right?

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! It was Clanne when I was playing Engage and got really good growths and he MVP'd like the whole entire game.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 A certain green-haired woman from a game I haven't even played yet.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: My first S support was Anna, and I would probably S support my baby Henry now. - Fates: N/A - Three Houses: N/A - Engage: My first S support was Ivy, but now it's probably Panette.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Armor Knight

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? I would be a reclassable very flexiable unit, but I would always been just below-average in everything, so just like very disappointing. One speed from doubling, and one attack from killing, but I force that luck will always be in my favor.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Yellow Team! Uhm, I mean Golden Deer

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Reason, Faith. Banes: Axes, Flying (fear of heights), Heavy Armor, Budding Talent: Bows

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Solm! I really love Solm and it's characters, it's like Jehanna if it was cool, and didn't have a queen who died in a pretty stupid way and didn't fight back EVEN THoUGH SHE'S A TRAINED SWOR-

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?): T-O-A, I will not accept any other pronouncations. 

[starrook]

anniversary munday

celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. repost, don't reblog. only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! happy anniversary, TOA! here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Bren

Pronouns: they

Birthday (no year): Nov 6th

Where are you from? What is your time zone? NJ, EST

How long is your roleplay experience? 10+ years

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Warrior cats official forums back when they were around! Stumbled into fanclans first and then went into human OCs with PJO. FERP was my first time playing canon characters.

How were you introduced to TOA? Heh.

Do you have any pets? I currently have Klein, 7 month old Standard Manchester Terrier. Recently said goodbye to Frisky, 15 year old terrier mix and my childhood dog.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) Right about now, late summer-early fall when the weather is starting to get reasonable.

What is your IRL occupation? Office admin/events coordinator.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I try to keep up with my art! I also like to listen to financial podcasts.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? HSR and Sudoku

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: If I had to pick a type, maybe normal? As for Pokemon I have a soft spot for all dog pokemon but Dachsbun and Mabosstiff knocked it out of the park for me.

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! I am allergic to raw apples. My favorite childhood snack was cut apple with salt and lime and I miss it so much. Apple juice hits but it's not the same. I also wrote a couple of supports for the Gay Fates hack way back when! Though I wouldn't want to read them now tbh hahah old writing....

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I was... maybe 14? I saw Awakening, thought it was interesting and picked it up only to rage quit at chapter 9 (was too focused on marrying Frederick asap that the rest of my army was behind). Then I got interested in Fates and the rest is history.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I've played Awakening, Conquest, Shadows of Valentia, Sacred Stones, Three Houses (GD Route) and Engage. ...The only games I played through the end were Sacred Stones and Three Houses—

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: First was Awakening! I have a soft spot for Fates gameplay.

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! I don't play favorites :weary: Alcryst grabbed me like no one else has tho tbh I'll give him that.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Volug/Nailah. I know I said I got into FE through awakening but my actual first introduction to Fire Emblem was through a youtube video that was showing off the laguz transformation and attack animations. Please understand this was in the midst of my middle school werewolf phase.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Not a crush per se but (slaps noise cancelling headphones on Alcryst before dunking his head into a toilet bowl) Diamant is neat :)

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: First Frederick, now Lucina - Fates: First Silas, now still Silas - Three Houses: First Claude, now probably still Claude - Engage: I didn't get that far. My first choice was Diamant but I fucked up and he's too far behind to support now, so I'd go with Pandreo

Favorite Fire Emblem class? A good armor knight is worth their weight in gold. Donnel!Kjelle, Louise, and Effie were beasts in my playthroughs.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? If I was a Fire Emblem character I would be dead <3 But if I had to be playable I would be an early game cleric/support unit type.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Regular civilian! But if I had to pick a house, absolutely Golden Deer

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Faith, Heavy Armor Banes: Literally everything else. Maybe Authority budding talent?

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Firene, they have good weather

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) Tee-Oh-Ay

Current TOA muses: Alcryst and Claude

Past TOA muses? Nanna, Lukas, Arval, Niles, Silas, Lyon

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Claude!

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? The fact that I wrote three moon-associated archers is completely coincidental!!!!!! I like grounded characters that can be both amicable and absolutely vicious when the situation calls for it.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Tiki is one of those characters that I think I could RP well but I'm not confident I would be able to keep up with the Archaneans. Rhea is similar, but where I trip up with her is that bc she is such an important central character esp to Fodlan's history I'm intimidated by the idea.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? Emotional scenes... anything where there's love and family involved gets me crying

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? FELL XENOLOGUE ALCRYST!!!! Alcryst in situations basically

Favorite TOA-related memories? Claude surviving Ree's Hundred Hand Snake bitch double boss from Unlocked Hell.

Present or past tense? Present.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? Normal, formatting is a pain

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 F!Shez! I'd like to play female characters actually.

[nevassan]

happy anniversary and munday, toa! credits to neffi for the munday form - thank you for all your hard work and love!

Name: harrow

Pronouns: he/she/it

Birthday (no year): 8/25

Where are you from? What is your time zone? US | CST

How long is your roleplay experience? 10+ years

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? roleplaying warriors on fanfic.net as any good soldier of the time did. i did it on my 3ds because i didn't have a laptop yet.

How were you introduced to TOA? i messaged leo in december and went "i missed tellius" and leo went "hey i rp tellius on tumblr" and the rest is, as they say, history.

Do you have any pets? four cats - hubert von vestra (black), odessa silverberg (calico), anakin (gray), and kaoru hakaze (tabby).

What is your favorite time of year and why? i love autumn so much i'm about to be thriving

What is your IRL occupation? math tutor & pizza delivery driver!

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? i like competitive games, drawing, old english literature, and really obscure jrpgs.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? obscure ass jrpgs - fragile dreams, eternal sonata, magical vacation, etc. i also play a lot of fighting games. catch me in guilty gear strive 10x streak.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: favorite pokemon type is fairy or normal, but my favorite pokemon is dhelmise!

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! one time when i was 6 a playdate i was having ended so me and the person i was hanging out with (i barely knew her and did not consider her a friend) decided our only course of action was to run away from home and i think it's really funny. we did get decently far.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? my ex in 2016 went "hey dude you should play this tellius stuff" and the rest is history

What Fire Emblem games have you played? every one except gaiden. I'm sorry n

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: first - awakening, favorite - radiant dawn

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! HUBERT VON VESTRA!!!!!!!!!!, Micaiah, Arthur (FE4), Olwen, Takumi

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! probably Sephiran. iyky

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 hubert von vestra i am free. i am free whenever. Please

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: i don't...remember? if i got the gay awakening mod now i'd probably do henry. - Fates: niles / still niles - Three Houses: i don't think i s supported anyone on my first playthrough, as weird as that is. nowadays i pick girleth so i can kiss hubie and seteth - Engage: i didn't ever beat the game on my own (thanks youtube) but i would like to marry pandreo or nel.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? i love mages. i love mage emblem. i like trickster a lot too.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? i would be a green unit and if you don't rescue me i die. like regardless of if the enemy units kill me i get executed in a cutscene after the chapter or something. i'm just a villager.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? black eagles forever baby!!!

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? boons - faith & dark; banes - axes & heavy armor; budding - authority.

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? firene realistically but i want to go to elusw

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔TO-AH

Current TOA muses: Diarmuid, Sothe

Past TOA muses? Hortensia, F!Morgan, Shez, Lukas

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Sothe, soooo...

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? I need you to not look at my muselist and look at this answer. I love silly girls. I love whimsical little girly girls so much.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? I want to be able to write really villainous characters/ Smart characters, but I'm not good at writing manipulative stuff and im too embarrassed to dm another mun like hey can you pretend i gaslit gatekept girlbossed your muse

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? i like battle and high-emotion scenes. stuff i can use prose for.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? i want diarmuid to break :thumbsup: make this guy cry

Favorite TOA-related memories? i've honestly just been really happy the whole time i've been here. even when my muse wanes i enjoy being in toa so much it overcomes the feeling of writer's block because i just want to be here with this group i've come to love.

Present or past tense? present

Normal size text, small text, no preference? no preference

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 monica and hortensia are playing tug of war w my last braincell that needs to be doing homework

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

The person who said that Awakening should have bene disconnected from the other series missed some things or got some things wrong: it's been 3000 years since Marth. Of course he's not going to be mentioned much. Of course Tiki is going to be very different from when she was a child. Also, it was Nowi, not Nah. But the devs thought it would make much more sense for Tiki, Naga's own daughter, to be able to "speak" to her, not some random other dragon who ~mysteriously~ heard Naga's voice. Walhart is almost certainly descended from Alm and Celica, and is a commentary when you know their story about how our legacies get twisted by history. No one knows Alm of the Deliverance, they know Alm the Uniter of Valentia. Also, the game was a swan song. It was supposed to be the end of the series. The writers just wanted to make a game full of references and connections as a love letter to the series. So of course they'd connect it to the biggest parts of the series. It's why Priam's supposed connection to Ike even exists!

So forgive me for not thinking you're correct, fellow anon, when you both can't get basic facts correct, but also seem to misrecall events around the time. Everywhere I looked when it came out, old fans mostly ADORED Awakening for going back to Archanea! It wasn't confusing or anything of the sort, it was recognized as a loving celebration of the series and we weren't sure if there'd even BE a Fire Emblem game after it! The references in the game flew over the heads of newbies, so they were ALSO not confused. But the ones that got them largely loved it, because they knew that the devs were paying homage--unlike a lot of younger people who came in with Fates and onward and never knew Awakening was the last game the Fire Emblem people thought they'd get to make! Heck, even the complaints about an easier mode were largely shot down by people who grumpily admitted after a bit that the choice wasn't bad, they could just play on Classic, because at least we were even GETTING a Fire Emblem at all.

The rewriting of history around this game is because people don't want to admit that the old model of the games wasn't selling and are bitter it became accessible and they're no longer some exclusive club of dying games. They're gatekeepers, end of. And it's all I can think of when I see people complaining that Awakening, a game designed to pay honor to as many other games in the series as possible, shouldn't have taken place in the world a majority of the games took place in.

.

[renaisguy]

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Ashera

Pronouns: they/them

Birthday (no year): 6th June

Where are you from? What is your time zone? England, GMT

How long is your roleplay experience? I think it must be like 10 years technically

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Naruto OC roleplay on Google+

How were you introduced to TOA? I played FE4 and the brainworms took over, so I started following the genealogy tag on tumblr. I kept seeing posts about X character being accepted to the officer's academy, so eventually I looked into what that was all about.

Do you have any pets? No.

What is your favourite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) My wardrobe is minmaxed for warm weather, I hate layers and I like having my window open, and having hours and hours of daylight. So summer.

What is your IRL occupation? IT.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? Pixel art and cross-stitch, card games, social deduction games, doctor who, long walks.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Zero escape, Aitsf, puyo puyo tetris, balatro, slay the spire, ace attorney, umineko, other vns.

Favourite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Delphox. I like dragon, fire and dark types.

Tell us some fun facts and trivia about yourself! (Optional bonus challenge: if you filled this out last year, try not to repeat what you said back then!)

I like dressing fancy. I regularly go to hang out with my friends wearing floor-length gowns, my grandad's boat cloak, and heels. I have a drag queen friend who sometimes gives me clothes he doesn't want any more, and it's great.

(Apart from the wrinkle where RD is technically my brother's and not mine) I own every FE game that got an English release.

I will always spell things the British way.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? At the time feh was released I was just playing every nintendo mobile game that came out. I thought the characters were cute and I found a second-hand copy of birthright sometime later. I then had to wait until Christmas to play it cause my brother's 3DS was broken.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Beaten: Genealogy, Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones, Radiant Dawn, Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Birthright, Conquest, Echoes, 3 Houses, 3 Hopes, Engage Played a decent amount of: FE1, Binding Blade, Path of Radiance, Warriors

First & Favourite Fire Emblem games: First: Heroes/Birthright. Favourite(s): Genealogy, Sacred Stones, Radiant Dawn

List your 5 favourite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Laylea, Dew, Forde, Larcei and Jeritza. Maybe. I have too many faves.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! I liked M!Robin's art in heroes and he was the first 5* I summoned. Also I fell in love with Kaden the instant I met him cause he's cute (unfortunately my Corrin was already married)

Any Fire Emblem crushes? Like so many. For brevity I'll give the biggest one from each game: Wolf, Sonya, Arvis, Karel (FE7), Joshua/Cormag, Nasir, Reina, Jeritza, Zelkov. Shout out to Arvis for being the reason I played FE4 to begin with, and Jeritza cause the morning he became playable and bisexual I went insane.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? I prefer to S support a new character each run cause I like filling the support log. The only time I've S supported a character more than once is the bisexual ones in 3H. So instead I'm giving my first and my favourite. Also at this point I've played 3H so much there's only like, 6 characters I haven't S supported. - Awakening: First: Miriel, Favourite: ??? - Fates: First: Jakob, Favourite: Kaden, Reina, Mozu - Three Houses: First: Jeritza, Favourite: Jeritza - Engage: First: Zelkov, Favourite: Zelkov

Favourite Fire Emblem class? Swordmaster

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? Mage cause they have cape. I'd have great stats (delusional)

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran) Black Eagles.

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Reason, Axes, Authority. Banes: Heavy Armour, Riding, Faith. Budding talent: Faith.

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon) Firene.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) Tee-Oh-Ay

Current TOA muses: Forde

Past TOA muses? Larcei, Tine, Dew, Yune, Laylea

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? I had Larcei for over a year and honestly I'm really happy with what I did with her (even if rereading her stuff makes me cringe). So as much as I love her I have no strong reason to pick her up... apart from that swordmaster drabble I never got around to.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) There's overlap between the 'old' and 'new' gens of my muses. There's a hotheaded sword girl, a mage with issues :tm: and a cute blond guy. I think I have an easier time writing characters that have a positive outlook, and say what they mean.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Idk really. I don't think I'm that good at writing sad shit, so muses that have heavier stuff going on I'd struggle with.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) I like being a little silly. Some of my favourite posts have been where I've just thought up some nonsense, and allowed myself to write it.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? I want Forde to be obliterated emotionally. I do not care if these emotions are positive or negative.

Favourite TOA-related memories? SO many this group is awesome. I loved coming back after some time off and seeing what muses were still around. There's one in particular that Larcei and Forde are both close friends with and it cheeses me so much. Anyway happyland was my favourite event ever thank you mods.

Present or past tense? Present usually, but sometimes I use past don't worry about it.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? The most formatting I do is the occasional italics.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? There is *someone* who's been on my mind... (but really I have no strong muse thoughts at the moment, and I don't think I have the energy to double muse rn)

[revelale]

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together. Credits to Neffi.

Name: lilly!

Pronouns: they/them.

Birthday (no year): april 4th.

Where are you from? What is your time zone? pst (gmt-8).

How long is your roleplay experience? well, i started when i was eight, so twenty? years now? embarrassing for me.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? neopets, LMFAO.

How were you introduced to TOA? i'd just finished up the gd route for 3h when chuu, an old member, posted about a fe group on twitter. so, i dmed her and then asked about it and then delusionally manifested a blog and url in like roughly 8 hours. fun fact: prior to that, i'd only ever played one canon, lol!

Do you have any pets? yes, my awful little dog.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) wiiiiinter. it rains the most and i can just get jackets to be warm if it's too cold.

What is your IRL occupation? used to be a journalist, now i'm? in product development for stationery, lol.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? mostly handicraft stuff? i like building lego sets, assembling dioramas, doing puzzles. i started learning how to crochet yesterday! i'm very bad at it!

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? mostly jrpgs, but lots of puzzle-y indie games. i started playing sea of stars reeeecently, but haven't gotten very far on it. a metric ton of otomes, lmao.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: dragon, and dragonite! close runners up are bewear and ludicolo, lmfao.

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! i jokingly mumble "i'm thinking miku miku oo ee oo" when i'm struggling, but so my brother took that as "i really like hatsune miku" and now i have four figurines of miku just spread out in my room. i fear every time he goes to round one because i will just have another one.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? an old friend of mine told me to give awakening a try because she thought i'd like that i could date people, lmfao. it worked. NJKLRENGJKLRGR.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? eeeeverything post-awakening, short of three hopes. i also gave sacred stones a try and then got intensely mad when tana kept dying, so i stopped.

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: awakening, then rrrr. i haven't touched one in a while, so i actually couldn't really say.

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! inigo, fogado, hubert (toa pilled)—this is where i admit i don't actually have any favorites in game, but i do in toa, lmao.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! sobbing, i don't have any. I'M A SHAM.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 naur, but i one day wish to experience chasing the high everyone else does.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: chrom by curse, but olivia. - Fates: inigo. PARDON ME, LAZZY. tttheeen, idk. kaze. lmao. - Three Houses: claude...... and sylvain now. i love a man that's all red flags. it's a parade, not a warning! - Engage: pandreo................. still pandreo.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? PEGAKNIGHT SUPREMACY.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? in my greatest delusions, i'd be an armored tank unit, but the reality is i'm probably the villager hiding in their house after you swung by to let me know something was coming to murk me/us.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? golden deer, lmao. i just like their vibe.

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? wwww, i actually started doing archery recently and i'm not bad at it, so i think probably something in that vein for a boon ....... i'm also weirdly strong, so maybe gauntlets? lmfao. everything else is what i'd be bad at, rifp. an athletic creature i am not.

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? probably firene. it'd make sense for my name to be lilly, eh.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔t-o-a, lmao.

Current TOA muses: shiro & pandreo!

Past TOA muses? cynthia, shigure, lon-qu, constance, bylad, kiragi, kinu—i forget all the other ones if any, oops.

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? cynthia! and maybe? lmao, she's evolved so much past her baseline in my head that i think it'd actually be quite difficult to pick her up again, but she also has such incredible capacity for interesting relationships.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? clown, usually with depression.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? oooof, really calculating and intellectual types! i'm not very good at it and my style of writing doesn't super lend itself to that because i tend to spell out their every thought, lmao. the only reason i could write constance is because she was simultaneously the smartest and stupidest person in the room at any given time.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? oh, i'm a comedy relief writer first and foremost. any situation where i can put people into a yes-and context is fun for me. but, i am realizing i do really enjoy dramatic scenes too for character study and exploration.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? nnnnnot right now. i find that most of the spiciest moments i recall are ones that just happen by circumstance instead of planning.

Favorite TOA-related memories? on chapril, i got the mods and everyone else to change to chad icons when a new member abruptly showed up and i died laughing.

Present or past tense? present! past? i do both. king of tense changes that make no sense.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? no preference. i just use small text because i like lookin' at it.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 if i entertain it for even a second, i will have to make the blog right now and i don't have time for that but god i want to.

[wolfhednn]

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: rai

Pronouns: it's complicated so she/he take ur pick

Birthday (no year): may 17

Where are you from? What is your time zone? the states, east coast beast coast. (not rly its swampy here)

How long is your roleplay experience? i regularly lose count. 17 years now i think?

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? neopets, p sure. at least i can't remember rping before that. warrior cats and gifteds rps on neopets were the one-night stands of my heart

How were you introduced to TOA? according to legend, ree was reported famously to have said "we could do it tho" and then i answered "yeah ig we could huh"

Do you have any pets? nah i've come to realize that im not very good at taking care of living things (including myself) and no lifeform should be subjected to that

What is your favorite time of year and why? i'm an autumn girlie, complete with the pumpkin spice. november specifically is my favorite time of year

What is your IRL occupation? i work at a community college writing center ob it's really rewarding to make a direct impact on other people's experiences

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? gacha games, reading, poetry, hearing the dank beat drop in a song and imagining some dramatic rp scene to go along with it

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? honkai: star rail, granblue fantasy, pokemon, jrpgs, otomes, vn's in general, whatever games my friends want to stream for me while i grind granblue fantasy

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: raichu, and flying types

Tell us some fun facts and trivia about yourself! 3 stuffed animals have pride of place on my bed and they are a fennec fox named luhan, a red panda named shizi (persimmon in mandarin), and whale tartaglia

How did you get into Fire Emblem? was browsing the nearby gamestop in college shortly after fates came out, decided to pick it up on a whim because it looked up my alley. got hooked and blasted through the rest of the series in short order afterward

What Fire Emblem games have you played? everything except jugdral, but i've studied jugdral like i did ff7 back in the day in order to rp it

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: fates as mentioned above. favorite depends on the metric jsdjgsk but, simplified, binding blade remains near and dear to my heart

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! i cannot do this i do not hold enough characters in my working memory at a time

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! i think tsubaki. he was pretty and a pegasus knight, and i only liked him more as i actually saw more of his character HAHA

Any Fire Emblem crushes? huh. surprisingly, not really? was definitely expecting to have some for this one

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? 　　Awakening: lucina. and yes. always always 　　Fates: tsubaki, nishiki, and leo. and yes. 　　Three Houses: felix bc i liked his character and i always tend to s-support my faves just to see their lines. ambivalent now tbh im kinda roulette w 3h s-supports 　　Engage: gregory, mostly bc i'm also roulette w engage s-supports rather than any overt favoritism for gregory. maybe fogado?

Favorite Fire Emblem class? nomad ranger / bow knight

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? i've been told i'd be mage into mage knight but wielding dark magic. magic nuke but kind of whatever everything else. lysithea but mounted i guess. if i'm somehow playable the circumstances must be EXTRAORDINARY because good luck peeling me away from my nice quiet life for your continental justice war no thanks

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? black eagles probably and i'd cringe abt it

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? reason and authority boon. gauntlet, heavy armor, flying bane. i don't rly think i'd have a budding talent in any of the rest

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? tbh i'd probably be from elusia

How do you pronounce TOA? individual letters

Current TOA muses: felix, caeldori, rosado

Past TOA muses? too fucking many yall. ugh lemme see. volug, sety, idunn, leif, yuri, kurthnaga, ephraim, lucius, etzel, nel, citrinne, nishiki

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? will smith gestures at the grumpycat

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? reckless boys with hearts of gold (felix, leif, zeiss, ephraim); perfectionistic dreamers (caeldori), charismatic cunning extroverts concealing a boatload of issues, somber cerebral sages (sety, etzel, kurthnaga arguably)

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? there's plenty of archetypes i don't gravitate toward, but i don't really wish i did either. so not really

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? i like dramatic, fast-paced action scenes. i also like anything that explores complex topics and reveals how subjective the world really is, situations that challenge a character's views and beliefs and force them to reflect on what makes right or wrong

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? not really right now. i don't usually have rp wishlists like this because my enjoyment of a scene depends more on how effectively i feel it's being executed rather than just getting to do the specific scene by itself

Favorite TOA-related memories? probably running team mercy in lock&key? that was a really fulfilling experience

Present or past tense? present tense

Normal size text, small text, no preference? small text but idc what my partner uses

Got any potential muse delusions to share? i have muses falling out my pockets. lately i've been fistfighting the ilios in my head constantly. sometimes you just want to play a loser