tip_the_scales | Robin: Full Bio for Labyrinthium

basics

full name: robin

canon: fire emblem awakening

species: human

age: ??? (mid 20s)

pronouns: she/her

appearance

details

height: 5’5”

build: average

hair color: white

eye color: grey-brown

Robin isn’t particularly remarkable looking, save possibly for her coloration. She typically wears her hair in two ponytails, which does have the effect of making her look slightly younger than she actually is. She does regularly wear her signature hooded coat even in circumstances where it might be odd, and has not gotten out of the habit of wearing some sort of gloves (even fingerless ones) concealing the backs of her hands.

personality

Robin is a people-person and can be quite charismatic. In a game mechanic sense, this comes off in her having a support conversation with every other character, and in many of her skills being focused on supporting others/others’ EXP growth. But in the narrative, there is the sense that Robin can connect to everyone else in the army if she spends enough time around them. Robin takes pleasure in the company of all of her allies and will often use a sense of humor as a bonding tool, and may even stage pranks (such as convincing the other Shepherds that Kellam had supernatural abilities, since he was so easy to overlook or a longstanding prank war with Lissa (who did start it -- Robin tends to favor jokes that already exist, as a show of good manners to people who find those things funny).). She wants to connect to people both to help the Shepherds do the best they can but also because she considers them her friends. She devised the ‘Pair Up’ strategy to help train troops to work together: for example, getting mounted units used to carrying foot soldiers or mages, and armored units comfortable with guarding healers. Virion even notes that one of the things that makes her a good tactician (but a poor board-game player) is that she will go to great lengths to never lose a unit, even in games like chess where trading a low-value unit for a high-value enemy unit is considered ‘good tactics’. Ultimately, what has kept Robin alive (and let her stave off some of the fell influence from her past) was that she was connected to her allies, and they wouldn’t let her give up hope.

Robin is also the sort of person who is constantly thinking about her job. She reads military histories and biographies for fun, and can be found on the training field even in downtime. About the only thing that will interrupt her preparations is her need for a good night's sleep; though even then, one can sometimes find Robin sleeping with a book as a pillow. Robin can be quite insecure about anything that isn’t her tactical abilities (and even then, she gets dejected when she can’t beat Virion at strategy games). Some of that is just admiring other people’s skills: Robin is the sort of person who values many kinds of ability. But some is that she doesn’t have a past that she recalls beyond ‘wakes up in field, Chrom semi-adopts her into the Shepherds as soon as they get into one fight together’. She worries about not being able to handle camp chores like cooking (which has been hit or miss with the other humans) and other parts of non-combat life, like learning how to paint or play board games.

Of course, when Robin finds out her past: that she was literally the end result of a selective breeding plan to create the perfect vessel for the Fell Dragon Grima, and her amnesia (and repeated headaches, and dreams of murdering friends) was a result of mental influence from the future Grima-Robin, that gives her another reason that she doesn’t think her friends can count on her. When you know for a fact that the dark future some of your allies come from comes of you getting possessed and murdering your best friend, it makes it hard to trust that all your talents won’t become liabilities for the people you love. Robin was willing to let Lucina kill her as the most expedient solution to the problem of ‘I think I’m destined to kill my best friend’, something she’d never ask for as a preventative measure for an ally. She was willing to let Emmeryn die to protect the Fire Emblem, but only when Emm was literally standing on a cliff about to be executed and even the army’s Pegasus Knights couldn’t get to her in time. It also represents a blind spot about Robin’s perceptions, which are quite good when it comes to her allies or on the battlefield. Somehow she figured ‘one of our own murders our tactician in cold blood and fully aware of her actions’ would be better for the army morale than ‘our tactician has a risk of being possessed and killing people and/or ending the world’. Truthfully, it represented Robin’s own fear that she was a liability in ways Lucina’s ruthlessness would not be, and that this was the only way she could take hold of her own destiny that her father had engineered from her birth. Her deciding to deliver the final blow on Grima could be seen as more of the same, but the context matters. While Robin is willing to risk her own death to make sure no one will ever have to deal with this again, this time she does it with the faith that because of what she has gone through, the power of her friendships mean there is a chance she survived. Robin isn’t sure if she died or not by killing Grima when she shows up in the Dream Width, but it does make her determined to find a way home.

Thanks to time-travel shenanigans, Robin has met her son, Morgan, and that added another layer to this complexity: while marrying on her own with no knowledge of her past probably meant that whatever creepy selective breeding problem the Grimleal religion had planned was ending with Robin and not passed to her son, knowing that her fell bloodline was affecting someone she was starting to think of as family (even though 'adult son from the future' is a bit weird, but what in Robin's life is normal?). In some ways, Morgan reminds her a lot of herself, and forces Robin to reflect on her own nature (and also not slack off her own self-improvement; the kid is getting very good at tactics). Morgan seems a bit more upbeat than she is (in contrast to the other future children: Morgan has amnesia too, and is not from the same future), but Robin does pay special attention so that she doesn't see some of her own flaws and what she feels are her inadequacies passed on.

Robin is a bit more pragmatic than some of the army, but she also values their ability to make choices for themselves, even as she (or Chrom) are the ones giving the orders. This was why she affirmed Emmeryn’s decision to martyr herself since she couldn’t see a third option. (If she could, she would have taken that, as she was willing to do for herself once Chrom vetoed ‘let my future daughter murder my best friend, just in case’; Robin devised something that would keep Chrom alive and make Vallidar think he had control over Robin (and she had killed Chrom) for long enough that he would drop his defenses to let the rest of the army come to her aid.) Robin liked Emmeryn (despite agreeing with Chrom that she was an idealist, but also thinking that maybe that was what Ylisse needed in an Exalt) and was aware that it would devastate Chrom and Lissa, but Emmeryn had to make her own choice as to what her life was worth. This is the sort of decision that Robin does only make if backed into a corner: that under most circumstances, a life is worth more than a thing, but when that thing is a magical artifact that the person making the threats wanted to use to destroy a kingdom (at least), she can make the call that keeping the Fire Emblem out of Gangrel’s hands was more important than Emm’s life (especially since Emmeryn made the same decision). The pragmatism and a bit of a devious mind meant that Robin did keep some secrets from the army when concerned about Plegian spying, something that bothered her a bit but she hoped she would be forgiven for. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her friends, but she was afraid of eavesdroppers more than one of them letting something slip. She also minimized the migraines she got from the memories she inadvertently picked up when Grima-Robin attacked her, and didn’t really discuss them with others.

Robin does have some points where she isn't the pragmatic, clever tactician. Her entire support conversations with Chrom come across as awkward freakouts by Robin about first Chrom not recognizing that the tent she was in was the bathing tent, and then her stumbling into the men's bathing tent while distracted (and not putting it together until after she threw a soap dish at Chrom's head). She also gets quite cross with Vaike when policing his bad behavior caused Sully's warhorse to decide she was in cahoots with Vaike and terrorize her. (Though perhaps that was understandable as horses are terrifying.) She also has trouble with not getting cross with Maribelle's complete inability to talk to anyone who is not titled nobility.

Robin was slightly vain about her appearance: she freaks out when she realizes her then-new friends are royalty and that she's going to meet the ruler of a country, but quickly goes to yelling at her friends when, for instance, Frederick compares her eating habits to an animal or Chrom is skeptical of her needing 'beauty sleep'. On the other hand, she doesn't see it as important as, for example, Maribelle does. Robin also seems to have some preconceived idea about how ladies look: when Sully is complaining about her figure, Robin assumes it is about weight gain rather than Sully actually worrying about muscle mass.

story

family
Father: Validar
Mother: (unknown)
Spouse: Kellam
Child: Morgan (future)

history

Fire Emblem: Awakening takes place across two continents -- one with the countries of Ylisse, Plegia, and Ferox and the other with the Valm Empire. Humans are the dominant species, with the manaketes (dragons who have sealed their true form into stones to preserve it) having long been in decline, and other shapeshifters like the taguel (humanoids able to turn into giant rabbits with the use of stones) often hunted. Magic is present and used by humans, but requires items (tomes and staves) as a focus. Other creatures, such as wyverns, griffins, and pegasi, are used as mounts.

Robin was born in the country of Plegia, to the bloodline chosen by Grima, the Fell Dragon -- a dragon who had been sealed away millennia ago, and retains an incredible amount of power. The goal of her family was to create a human capable of becoming a vessel for Grima to awaken, and Robin was a total success. Robin’s mother spirited her away from her father, Validar, giving Robin a chance to grow up outside of her own destiny. Given that Robin wears Grimleal iconography on her coat, it’s possible Robin’s mother (and pre-amnesia!Robin) still kept the Grimleal faith but Robin’s mother objected to sacrificing her daughter in particular to the Fell Dragon.

Some time in her early adulthood, however, Robin had a series of fateful encounters. The first was with a future self who had become Grima’s vessel. Grima-Robin had attempted to transplant her power and memories to Robin in an effort resurrect Grima in the current time, but only succeeded in wiping present-Robin’s memory and leaving her with a vision (one of Grima-Robin’s memories) of battling a sorcerer (Validar) with an ally, only to turn on him and slay the ally after Validar’s defeat.

The next encounter was with the ally from her vision, Chrom, who found her and offered to help. Chrom was the prince of Ylisse, younger brother of the ruler, Exalt Emmeryn, and ran the Shepherds, an organization of Ylissian fighters and mages charged with fighting bandits, securing the borders and all sorts of problem solving. Robin found herself mostly welcome among the Shepherds, thanks to her amnesia leaving her combat training and an incredible tactician’s mind intact. As Chrom struggled both with the threat of another war with Plegia and the appearance of the ‘Risen’, mindless undead warriors, an expert tactician was welcome help.

Sadly, war with Plegia became unavoidable as the country sought to repay wrongs committed by Emmeryn’s father, the previous Exalt, and to gain one of Ylisse’s royal treasures, the Fire Emblem. Emmeryn was nearly assassinated by a strike force led by Validar, who seemed to die at the mission’s failure. The warning was given by ‘Marth’, the alias of a masked woman who had been aiding Chrom and Robin. Despite this, Emmeryn was later captured on a parley attempt and was set to be executed. Plegia’s king, Gangrel, offered Chrom a trade: Emmeryn’s life for the Fire Emblem. Emmeryn asked Chrom to not make the trade and Robin took her side, but Chrom insisted on saving his sister… at least until Emmeryn jumped to her death to keep the Fire Emblem out of Plegia’s hands. Emmeryn’s words and sacrifice demoralized the Plegian army and people, allowing Chrom to defeat Gangrel and allow for Plegia’s surrender.

The next two years were mostly uneventful, though many of Chrom’s Shepherds took the time to court and marry within their ranks. Chrom himself married and had a baby girl, Lucina. The peace was shattered when word came that Walhart, ruler of the neighboring continent of Valm, was preparing an invasion fleet after having conquered most of his neighbors. Plegia’s new king, Validar, offered its fleet and treasury to help, while refusing to answer the question of why Validar was still alive, and why his High Priest had the same name and face as Robin. The northern country of Ferox also supplies troops.

Chrom’s diplomatic party was ambushed on the way out of Plegia’s capital city towards their port, and rescued by Marth. As part of that, Marth’s mask slipped and it was revealed she was a member of Ylisse’s royal family (as she had a brand that only occurred in members of the royal family). Upon questioning, she revealed she was Lucina from years in the future, sent back in time with others of her age to prevent the resurrection of Grima. Chrom and Robin thus had a secondary mission: to locate Lucina’s allies -- all children of current Shepherds -- and provide assistance.

Lucina is able to provide some information. She knows Walhart is defeated, though he kills one of their Feroxian allies, Khan Basilio. She also knows that Chrom’s own death is due to a betrayal of an ally. Robin worked under the assumption that Plegia is spying on them, and decided on a gambit. When Lucina warns Khan Basilio that he will die if he confronts Walhart at the next battle, Robin asks for Basilio’s assistance: if Basilio lives, he pretends as if he died. If he stayed concealed, he could move without being followed by spies. Robin, still worried about Plegia’s interest in the Fire Emblem, and having discovered it is needed to channel the power of dragons, has Basilio borrow some of the gems required to complete the Emblem and replace them with replicas.

Even with Basilio’s defeat and seeming-death, the troops rally to defeat Walhart. Of course, then Plegia reveals that they had just played along to get Walhart out of the picture and weaken Ferox and Ylisse’s armies -- hence refusing to send troops but helping Ferox and Ylisse’s army get to Valm. Also, they would like the Fire Emblem and its gemstones so they can resurrect Grima now. Validar plays his trump card here: because Robin is his biological daughter and specifically intended as Grimm’s vessel, he can use magic to control her. In this case, he has her steal the Fire Emblem from Chrom and hand it over. At this point, Robin finally understands what her vision means, and Lucina finally understands who is going to kill her father. Lucina confronts Robin, demanding she die and Robin agrees she’s too much of a risk as long as Validar can control her. However, Chrom interrupts and tells both women that no one is killing anyone today. Robin tells Chrom that if she can’t resist Validar’s control, he has to kill her, which he reluctantly agrees to.

Robin uses her own foresight not to stop herself from attacking Chrom, on Validar’s defeat, but to pull her blow and be ready to take advantage of Validar dropping his guard. However, Grima-Robin reveals that, while it would have been useful to have Robin’s assistance, she can resurrect Grima in the present day on her own. The Shepards barely escape and recover the Fire Emblem. When seeking out the power to re-seal Grima, the Divine Dragon Naga hints that the only way to truly slay Grima is by his own hand. Robin realizes this means that because she is intrinsically tied to Grima, she can kill him, but Naga warned that would be likely to kill Robin as well.

In the final battle, Grimes first attack devastates the Shepards and Grima (through Grima-Robin who is largely acting as a human voice for the giant dragon) offers to spare them if Robin finally merges with Grima. Otherwise, Robin will watch all of her friends die. Robin refuses, saying she thinks Grima will kill them anyway (which Grima agrees was the plan), and Grima teleports her to a void to keep her out of the way while she kills the Shepards; Robin resists well enough that Grima tries to kill her, but her bonds with her friends pull her back to reality and consciousness. This firms Robin’s decision to make sure Grima won’t be around to trouble her friends’ descendants, and she makes sure she is the one to deliver the final blow. She summons her own magic to a horrified Grima, and strikes Grima-Robin down. She then dissolves, promising Chrom that they will meet again in a better life.

powers

Canonical:

Robin can use a sword quite well, though she’s not as hard-hitting as a dedicated physical fighter.
If Robin has a specially-prepared tome, she can cast fire, lighting and wind magic. Each spell is linked to a different tome.
Many of the Tactician and Grandmaster special skills can be representative of Robin’s mundane skill as a tactician; having her around helps people learn faster, evade serious hits and generally fight better.
The exception is Ignis, which lets Robin combine her physical and magical strength during an attack.

In Labyrinthium: