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Apr. 5th, 2014 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tip_the_scalesPLAYER
NAME: Stareyes
PERSONAL JOURNAL:beccastareyes
EMAIL: beccastareyes@gmail.com
MESSENGER(S): AIM: beccastareyes (I don’t sign on often, so contact me to ask me to sign in), Plurk: beccastareyes, LJ/DW message, beccastareyes (or use character journals).
TIMEZONE: Central US time
AGE (b. year): 30 (born in 1984)
PLAYED CHARACTERS: N/a
LINK TO RESERVE: http://saudade-mods.dreamwidth.org/332.html?thread=47948#cmt47948
CHARACTER
NAME(S): Robin (aka the Avatar/My Unit)
AGE: We don’t know Robin’s exact age (and Robin lost all her memories earlier than a certain point), but she seems to be in her early 20s. She’s definitely old enough to marry and consider starting a family.
FANDOM: Fire Emblem: Awakening
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
[Optional History Link: Fire Emblem wikia link.]
Fire Emblem: Awakening has a single customizer character (Robin), a couple of decisions that don’t affect the plot, and a lot of options for customizable character relationships. Should I canon-update Robin, the endgame has a branch-point that does affect the ending. Decisions that can vary between playthroughs are marked in red.
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.
We don’t actually know much about Robin’s background, thanks to her starting the game with amnesia that she never recovers from. We know she was born in the country of Plegia, to the fell 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 memories to Robin in an effort to get her to seek out her father and the tools for Grima’s resurrection 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 (actually 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 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 his fellow Shepherd, Sully, and fathered a baby girl, Lucina, and Robin married the knight, Kellam. 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 (some) 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. Also, Chrom shouldn’t trust Plegia, which worships Grima, but Chrom and Robin knew that. Robin is working under the assumption that Plegia is spying on them, and decides 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, 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 realizes they have to confront Validar, and what is likely to happen -- aka her vision -- once that occurs. Validare might still kill Chrom even if he can’t resurrect Grima without a complete Fire Emblem. She also knows that she can’t overcome his mind control directly. When they finally reach Validar, she and Chrom are separated from the rest of the army by Validar’s magic. After Validar’s apparent defeat, he attempts to take over her mind to strike down Chrom. Instead of trying to block him, Robin uses her own force of personality and bond with her teammates to weaken the ‘death blow’ he commands she give to Chrom. Chrom then acts as if he was more hurt than he was, so Validar would drop the barrier to allow their troops in. Robin also has Basilio and Khan Flavia (Flavia not knowing Basilio was still alive) waiting on stand-by in case they need reinforcements.
PERSONALITY:
Robin seems to be a people person, given her ability to talk to everyone in the army about something or other. She takes pleasure in the company of all of them 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). She wants to connect to people both to help the Shepherds do the best they can in the conflicts ahead but also because she genuinely enjoys them. 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’.
We know from Robin’s abilities that she is a good teacher (units gain more experience when paired with her) and everyone does better when she is giving orders (one of her abilities lets her use her attack to raise surrounding units’ stats instead of harming the enemy). She’s also versatile, both as a commander and as a combatant. She’s enough of a survivalist that doing things like eating bear meat doesn’t bother her, though she’s attempted to learn to cook (with mixed results). She values her sleep, though she doesn’t usually get enough of it (and can fall asleep anywhere).
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. She liked the 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. 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.
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’s weaknesses are her refusal to talk about her own problems with other people and that she takes things on her own shoulders instead of asking for help. In general, she isn’t fully comfortable with letting the bonds she develop flow both ways. She was willing to allow Lucina to kill her, rather than developing contingency plans, because she felt like there was nothing else she could do, and only came up with the idea to trick Validar (again) once Chrom vetoed killing her. Meanwhile, if she had discovered that anyone else had been compromised like that, she’d offer alternatives to death, but allow them to make their choice whether to take them.
Now that Robin knows her own background, she has a firm commitment to not falling into darkness or being used against her friends. She’s not very comfortable knowing that her father pretty much intended her to be subsumed by Grima, and that she doesn’t remember the mother that saved her and gave her the choice to be something other than Grima’s pawn. She worries about what that means for her future offspring -- especially having met her future son, Morgan. And, in general, she wants to find out what being of Grima’s blood means if she doesn’t chose to awaken Grima.
CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:
As mentioned, Robin has a relationship or potential relationship with practically every named character, and seems to be Second-in-Command of Ylisse’s army, with Chrom as Commander-in-Chief. So only call out the really significant ones here, or ones that go beyond ‘Robin and X are friends and spend time together, and she values...’.
Validar: Robin wasn’t raised by Validar, and she doesn’t remember her childhood anyway, so she doesn’t have a daddy-shaped hole or much worry that their enemy is her biological father. Still, it’s something that will make her unhappy: learning that she had a biological family, but that at least one of them sired her as dragon bait, and her bloodline is… well, fell. Basically, Validar dropped a big heap of personal problems on her right before she was pulled into the Darkness, that she’s trying to only deal with the immediate matters and not think about what others will think.
Kellam: Robin’s husband. Kellam has a reputation for being invisible and always-present (albeit often overlooked), and Robin values him as her steady support, while he values her as someone who not only is always noticed, but always notices him and makes sure others don’t forget him. Unless they planned on it. (Note that Robin’s spouse is a free choice among any male PC who is not Morgan, and Robin can finish the game single (though that means Morgan is not encounterable).)
Morgan: Robin’s son from the future, and her first encounter with biological family that she can remember (well, she does encounter Validar before this, but doesn’t know he’s her father). Like her, Morgan has some amnesia going on, and no one is sure if Morgan is even from Lucina’s future, since one of the few things he remembers is traveling with an older Robin. (Since, in Lucina’s future, Robin is the human vessel of Grima, that would suggest that that Morgan would have been her enemy if he worked with his mother.) Robin enjoys the fact Morgan takes after her and that they spend a lot of camp time trying to outwith the other. Morgan keeps her on her toes, and she wants to encourage him… and in some cases, that means being able to keep ahead of him to give him motivation. Now that she knows what her bloodline allows for, she’s also worried about him and wants to encourage him to keep being clever and stay out of the hands of any cultists.
Chrom: Lucina describes Robin and Chrom as best friends. This is true. The two are not just colleagues, but friends who spend a lot of time in each other’s company. Chrom’s idealism is one of the things that motivates Robin to be a better person, and Chrom values Robin’s pragmatism. Robin strives to be worthy of Chrom’s trust.
Lucina: Robin knew Lucina first as ‘Marth’, their mysterious sometimes-ally. It took some doing to reconcile the strange helper with her best friend’s toddler daughter. Robin initially got close to Lucina to use Lucina’s memories strategically, but she also feels she owes Chrom’s daughter (and all their kids) a better future than the one she got. This doubles after Robin realizes her own (potential) role in creating the future. Lucina is a bit overprotective of Chrom so it takes a bit for her to warm to Robin, but she does… only to find out she might have to kill Robin to save her father’s life.
Henry and Tharja: Robin is a bit uneasy about these two. It’s not the dark magic and hexing people, as much as Tharja is a bit obsessed with her and Henry is a bit too happy about death/the dead. She still values their loyalty, despite her personal ‘... why do I have these strange people in my army’. A lot of that cements Robin’s pragmatism, but shows that she does have some lines of ‘people are weird’. It also shows how Robin views things: it all depends on what you do with your magic, not what sort you have. Also, both are Plegian and raised in the Grimleal faith (aka as followers of Grima), but neither seems to have an objection to stopping Grima. (In Tharja’s case, that might be personal loyalty to Robin, and in Henry’s, he just thinks Grima coming back would be less interesting than fighting to stop him.)
Khan Basilio and Khan Flavia: Robin trusts these two as loyal allies, enough to bring Basilio in to help her once he was believed dead, but does keep the distinction of allies versus under Chrom’s command in mind. Especially since both have joked about employing her after the war. She’s not opposed to the job, but she does both like Chrom and Ylisse as well as ‘... one thing at a time’. That and given the two are perpetual rivals, she’s safer staying neutral by not getting involved in Feroxian politics.
STRENGTH OF HEART MOMENT SUMMARY:
This occurs in Fire Emblem Chapter 23: Invisible Ties. Valdiar had revealed to Robin that she was destined to be Grima’s vessel and isolated her and Chrom from the rest of the party to convince her to accept her destiny, while Chrom urged her to resist. Robin struck Validar down, and then took Validar’s final blow (intended for Chrom). Validar had planned for this, and Robin started hearing his (or Grima’s) voice, demanding she kill Chrom. Robin had known this was coming, so instead of struggling to not strike Chrom, she pulled her blow and Chrom acted as if he had been mortally wounded. Basilio then showed up to detail how Robin had him swap out the jewels in the Fire Emblem… which distracted Validar enough that Robin could zap him and get Chrom to his feet. They vow to finish this and go home.
This moment not only shows Robin’s strength of character in that she is able to subvert Validar’s intent (zap and kill Chrom) to keep Chrom alive, but that she does so in a clever way knowing that the direct solution is prone to failure. Instead she half-obeys in a way that fakes out Validar and then reveals that she’s been expecting something like this all along and had contingencies. And then rallies her friends to kick Evil Dad’s butt and save the world. I’m also taking her before Grima-Robin reveals that ‘yeah, about that saving the world...’, because as far as Robin knows, they stopped Grima and she can be elsewhere for a bit. If she thought Grima would still be resurrected, she’d be on the first trip home.
POWERS
SAMPLE - THE AWAKENING:
‘I must have been hurt worse than I thought’. Robin felt herself drifting, unable to recall if she had been hit in the battle. They were almost there. Validar’s troops were falling and they were advancing on the sorcerer. ‘Validar...’ It didn’t feel like the sorcerer -- her father -- was trying to take control of her again. But… she couldn’t see. “Chrom? Basilio?” She considered this a moment, and added… “Lissa?” Chrom’s sister was their best healer. If she was blinded, or injured, she needed magic, or to reach the elixir in her pocket.
There was light below her. Robin brought up her hand to shield her eyes, and tried to pull herself up. She felt like she was floating in inexplicably-dry water, but let the pull of gravity put her boots in a single direction… towards the light.
The floor reminded her of the palace in Yllise, but the light shining on it reminded her of the Mila tree. “This isn’t Plegia. It could be Ylisse, but…” she looked up, and to the side. Darkness, even with the light shining on the floor. She took a step, then another, walking to the edge of the circle, and looked down. It was definitely a drop, but she couldn’t tell how much. Robin wasn’t exactly going to drop anything she couldn’t get back. “Having a pegasus or wyvern knight show up would be really convenient right now. But not a Risen, please.”
She didn’t see any of her allies. But there was the sound of metal against stone, and she saw three pillars rise from the darkness. The first was close enough to touch, but she stopped to examine it first. The base was silver and blue, hoops of metal around a gem, and it took Robin a bit to realize where she’d seen the design before. “That’s a Second Seal,” she said. But, it was anchored to stone below and a shield above.
“That’s Morgan’s!” Robin said. Robin knew next to nothing about armor and shields -- despite a long conversation with Kjelle -- but she knew what equipment their knights favored. Especially since two of them were her husband and son. She reached out for it to take it, worrying that her son has been caught up in this… whatever this was. Gods, did Morgan even know about Validar, about their family? Lucina hadn’t known all of it until she’d heard what Validar had said. And Morgan said he couldn’t remember anything about where he came from except her. Did that include remembering their bloodline?
She reached for the shield, checking to see if there was blood on it. The seal below started to glow, and she heard a voice… female, and reminding her a bit of Tiki. “The guardian’s shield, for one seeking to protect her friends and loved ones above all else.”
The voice was enough to jar Robin out of her worry. “Wait, what did you say?” The voice didn’t respond. “So this isn’t Morgan’s actual shield. It’s some kind of test.” But a hard one. She was here to protect her friends. She’d sworn that, even at the cost of her own life. “If this is a test, the other choices have to be equally compelling, or it’d be too easy.”
She turned, inspecting the room -- sort-of room -- again. There were two more pillars, both with the seal design. The one to the left had a book of some sort, while the one to the right, a sword. “Clockwise, then.” Robin approached the book. It looked like the spell tome she’d used in the last battle, enough alike that she wanted to check her coat to see if she still had her copy. “Hnn, at least they’re using my things and not someone else’s.”
She brushed her fingers against the tome, feeling the leather, to trigger the voice. “The mystic’s tome, for those who seek inner strength, for good or ill.” Inner strength. Inner strength might let her fight better against Validar. Robin knew the strategy she just used wouldn’t work again. He wasn’t going to assume just because he could use his magic to get his hooks into her mind that she would follow his orders to the letter. If she had more strength, she might be able to brute-force her way past his spells.
“Of course, if I wanted strength, I could just accept his offer. Okay, third option.”
The third was a sword. Her sword, or one of the army’s just like hers -- perfectly serviceable silver-plated steel; not as specialized as some of the blades they had in the armory, but a weapon that required a skilled welder. “The shield represents defense, and the tome magic, so this probably represents physical attack.” She touched the hilt just to be sure.
“The warrior’s sword for those who seek courage to face their foes.”
Robin nodded. “Really, all three are good options. I wonder if they’re just symbolic, or if I can take my weapons back.” If that was the case, she’d take her sword and tome. But if that were the case, she wouldn’t have gotten the message. The pillars looking like seals was also a clue that it was more than just her weapons on display. On the other hand, if they were also the weapons she needed, she should at least take one she could use.
“I have courage, so I don’t need the sword. So the tome or the shield. But, if I’m going to need physical objects, the tome is more useful.” So, she walked back to the tome, taking it from its stand.
“You choose the path of the mystic?” the voice asked.
“I do,” Robin replied. The tome in her hands lightened and Robin saw it dissolving. “Hey, wait! I needed that!”
The voice didn’t respond to her comment. “Choose, now, what you will give up.”
“The sword, I guess. Since I’m not going to get it back anyway,” Robin said, loudly. “I’m keeping the ability to protect my friends.”
She watched the sword and shield dissolve into light, without even having to touch one. Which meant that someone was listening. The sword simply dissipated, but the light from the shield wrapped around her body before it dissipated, coloring her greatcoat a deep black for a moment, then collecting around her right hand. “Gee, thanks. Can I wake up now?”
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
Nearly all of Robin’s tactician class abilities can best be modeled by her mundane skills. Veteran (units paired with Robin gain experience faster) represents her teaching ability, and Solidarity (units next to or paired with Robin gain a boost to critical hits and evasion) and Rally Spectrum (instead of Robin attacking, all units within a short distance of her gain a boost to all stats) her ability to take advantage of anything to help her allies.
Robin’s default class in Fire Emblem is one familiar with offensive magic, so she’ll take to offensive magic quickly. She has less experience with cure spells directly, but has directed their use before. She’ll be most comfortably with Fire, Thunder and Air spells -- those being the sorts most common in the Fire Emblem universe. She is also aware of dark magic, though can’t use it herself.
One of Robin’s canonical special abilities (Ignis) lets her occasionally add her Strength stat to her magical attacks (or her Magic stat to her physical attacks), representing a hybrid of a physical and magical attack. She’ll be interested in developing this (and other, original) attacks as fusion spells, and in learning how this new magic system works.
INVENTORY:
Robin has her clothing, a coin purse with a few coins, a potion-like item (an Elixir) and a tome that allows her to use magic. She also has her wedding ring. Most of her possessions were not on her person, thanks to prepping for diplomacy/battle rather than being around camp.
Robin went for an Invoker’s path, so the sword she was carrying vanished.
NOTES/ASPIRATIONS
Summary of Branch Points:
Robin: Female, born 27 February, strong stat HP, weak stat Attack. Robin has the default female Avatar appearance (long, white hair, shorter build).
Robin sides with Emmeryn in Chapter 11.
Chrom marries Sully, has daughters Lucina and Kjelle (not yet born).
Robin marries Kellam, has son Morgan (not yet born, classed as Knight).
(Other pairings: Lissa & Virion, Frederick & Maribelle, Stahl & Cordelia, Vaike & Miriel, Sumia & Henry, Lon’qu & Cherche, Ricken & Panne, Gaius & Olivia, Gregor & Nowi, Libra & Tharja. All children were recruited.)
The optional Paralogues available via SpotPass (most of which let you recruit former enemies after revealing they survived) were not played.
Robin allows Lucina to kill her between Chapter 22 and 23.
If canon-updated, Robin will be the one to give the death-blow to Grima, with the change of ending that entails.
NAME: Stareyes
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
beccastareyes EMAIL: beccastareyes@gmail.com
MESSENGER(S): AIM: beccastareyes (I don’t sign on often, so contact me to ask me to sign in), Plurk: beccastareyes, LJ/DW message, beccastareyes (or use character journals).
TIMEZONE: Central US time
AGE (b. year): 30 (born in 1984)
PLAYED CHARACTERS: N/a
LINK TO RESERVE: http://saudade-mods.dreamwidth.org/332.html?thread=47948#cmt47948
CHARACTER
NAME(S): Robin (aka the Avatar/My Unit)
AGE: We don’t know Robin’s exact age (and Robin lost all her memories earlier than a certain point), but she seems to be in her early 20s. She’s definitely old enough to marry and consider starting a family.
FANDOM: Fire Emblem: Awakening
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
[Optional History Link: Fire Emblem wikia link.]
Fire Emblem: Awakening has a single customizer character (Robin), a couple of decisions that don’t affect the plot, and a lot of options for customizable character relationships. Should I canon-update Robin, the endgame has a branch-point that does affect the ending. Decisions that can vary between playthroughs are marked in red.
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.
We don’t actually know much about Robin’s background, thanks to her starting the game with amnesia that she never recovers from. We know she was born in the country of Plegia, to the fell 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 memories to Robin in an effort to get her to seek out her father and the tools for Grima’s resurrection 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 (actually 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 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 his fellow Shepherd, Sully, and fathered a baby girl, Lucina, and Robin married the knight, Kellam. 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 (some) 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. Also, Chrom shouldn’t trust Plegia, which worships Grima, but Chrom and Robin knew that. Robin is working under the assumption that Plegia is spying on them, and decides 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, 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 realizes they have to confront Validar, and what is likely to happen -- aka her vision -- once that occurs. Validare might still kill Chrom even if he can’t resurrect Grima without a complete Fire Emblem. She also knows that she can’t overcome his mind control directly. When they finally reach Validar, she and Chrom are separated from the rest of the army by Validar’s magic. After Validar’s apparent defeat, he attempts to take over her mind to strike down Chrom. Instead of trying to block him, Robin uses her own force of personality and bond with her teammates to weaken the ‘death blow’ he commands she give to Chrom. Chrom then acts as if he was more hurt than he was, so Validar would drop the barrier to allow their troops in. Robin also has Basilio and Khan Flavia (Flavia not knowing Basilio was still alive) waiting on stand-by in case they need reinforcements.
PERSONALITY:
Robin seems to be a people person, given her ability to talk to everyone in the army about something or other. She takes pleasure in the company of all of them 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). She wants to connect to people both to help the Shepherds do the best they can in the conflicts ahead but also because she genuinely enjoys them. 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’.
We know from Robin’s abilities that she is a good teacher (units gain more experience when paired with her) and everyone does better when she is giving orders (one of her abilities lets her use her attack to raise surrounding units’ stats instead of harming the enemy). She’s also versatile, both as a commander and as a combatant. She’s enough of a survivalist that doing things like eating bear meat doesn’t bother her, though she’s attempted to learn to cook (with mixed results). She values her sleep, though she doesn’t usually get enough of it (and can fall asleep anywhere).
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. She liked the 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. 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.
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’s weaknesses are her refusal to talk about her own problems with other people and that she takes things on her own shoulders instead of asking for help. In general, she isn’t fully comfortable with letting the bonds she develop flow both ways. She was willing to allow Lucina to kill her, rather than developing contingency plans, because she felt like there was nothing else she could do, and only came up with the idea to trick Validar (again) once Chrom vetoed killing her. Meanwhile, if she had discovered that anyone else had been compromised like that, she’d offer alternatives to death, but allow them to make their choice whether to take them.
Now that Robin knows her own background, she has a firm commitment to not falling into darkness or being used against her friends. She’s not very comfortable knowing that her father pretty much intended her to be subsumed by Grima, and that she doesn’t remember the mother that saved her and gave her the choice to be something other than Grima’s pawn. She worries about what that means for her future offspring -- especially having met her future son, Morgan. And, in general, she wants to find out what being of Grima’s blood means if she doesn’t chose to awaken Grima.
CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:
As mentioned, Robin has a relationship or potential relationship with practically every named character, and seems to be Second-in-Command of Ylisse’s army, with Chrom as Commander-in-Chief. So only call out the really significant ones here, or ones that go beyond ‘Robin and X are friends and spend time together, and she values...’.
Validar: Robin wasn’t raised by Validar, and she doesn’t remember her childhood anyway, so she doesn’t have a daddy-shaped hole or much worry that their enemy is her biological father. Still, it’s something that will make her unhappy: learning that she had a biological family, but that at least one of them sired her as dragon bait, and her bloodline is… well, fell. Basically, Validar dropped a big heap of personal problems on her right before she was pulled into the Darkness, that she’s trying to only deal with the immediate matters and not think about what others will think.
Kellam: Robin’s husband. Kellam has a reputation for being invisible and always-present (albeit often overlooked), and Robin values him as her steady support, while he values her as someone who not only is always noticed, but always notices him and makes sure others don’t forget him. Unless they planned on it. (Note that Robin’s spouse is a free choice among any male PC who is not Morgan, and Robin can finish the game single (though that means Morgan is not encounterable).)
Morgan: Robin’s son from the future, and her first encounter with biological family that she can remember (well, she does encounter Validar before this, but doesn’t know he’s her father). Like her, Morgan has some amnesia going on, and no one is sure if Morgan is even from Lucina’s future, since one of the few things he remembers is traveling with an older Robin. (Since, in Lucina’s future, Robin is the human vessel of Grima, that would suggest that that Morgan would have been her enemy if he worked with his mother.) Robin enjoys the fact Morgan takes after her and that they spend a lot of camp time trying to outwith the other. Morgan keeps her on her toes, and she wants to encourage him… and in some cases, that means being able to keep ahead of him to give him motivation. Now that she knows what her bloodline allows for, she’s also worried about him and wants to encourage him to keep being clever and stay out of the hands of any cultists.
Chrom: Lucina describes Robin and Chrom as best friends. This is true. The two are not just colleagues, but friends who spend a lot of time in each other’s company. Chrom’s idealism is one of the things that motivates Robin to be a better person, and Chrom values Robin’s pragmatism. Robin strives to be worthy of Chrom’s trust.
Lucina: Robin knew Lucina first as ‘Marth’, their mysterious sometimes-ally. It took some doing to reconcile the strange helper with her best friend’s toddler daughter. Robin initially got close to Lucina to use Lucina’s memories strategically, but she also feels she owes Chrom’s daughter (and all their kids) a better future than the one she got. This doubles after Robin realizes her own (potential) role in creating the future. Lucina is a bit overprotective of Chrom so it takes a bit for her to warm to Robin, but she does… only to find out she might have to kill Robin to save her father’s life.
Henry and Tharja: Robin is a bit uneasy about these two. It’s not the dark magic and hexing people, as much as Tharja is a bit obsessed with her and Henry is a bit too happy about death/the dead. She still values their loyalty, despite her personal ‘... why do I have these strange people in my army’. A lot of that cements Robin’s pragmatism, but shows that she does have some lines of ‘people are weird’. It also shows how Robin views things: it all depends on what you do with your magic, not what sort you have. Also, both are Plegian and raised in the Grimleal faith (aka as followers of Grima), but neither seems to have an objection to stopping Grima. (In Tharja’s case, that might be personal loyalty to Robin, and in Henry’s, he just thinks Grima coming back would be less interesting than fighting to stop him.)
Khan Basilio and Khan Flavia: Robin trusts these two as loyal allies, enough to bring Basilio in to help her once he was believed dead, but does keep the distinction of allies versus under Chrom’s command in mind. Especially since both have joked about employing her after the war. She’s not opposed to the job, but she does both like Chrom and Ylisse as well as ‘... one thing at a time’. That and given the two are perpetual rivals, she’s safer staying neutral by not getting involved in Feroxian politics.
STRENGTH OF HEART MOMENT SUMMARY:
This occurs in Fire Emblem Chapter 23: Invisible Ties. Valdiar had revealed to Robin that she was destined to be Grima’s vessel and isolated her and Chrom from the rest of the party to convince her to accept her destiny, while Chrom urged her to resist. Robin struck Validar down, and then took Validar’s final blow (intended for Chrom). Validar had planned for this, and Robin started hearing his (or Grima’s) voice, demanding she kill Chrom. Robin had known this was coming, so instead of struggling to not strike Chrom, she pulled her blow and Chrom acted as if he had been mortally wounded. Basilio then showed up to detail how Robin had him swap out the jewels in the Fire Emblem… which distracted Validar enough that Robin could zap him and get Chrom to his feet. They vow to finish this and go home.
This moment not only shows Robin’s strength of character in that she is able to subvert Validar’s intent (zap and kill Chrom) to keep Chrom alive, but that she does so in a clever way knowing that the direct solution is prone to failure. Instead she half-obeys in a way that fakes out Validar and then reveals that she’s been expecting something like this all along and had contingencies. And then rallies her friends to kick Evil Dad’s butt and save the world. I’m also taking her before Grima-Robin reveals that ‘yeah, about that saving the world...’, because as far as Robin knows, they stopped Grima and she can be elsewhere for a bit. If she thought Grima would still be resurrected, she’d be on the first trip home.
POWERS
SAMPLE - THE AWAKENING:
‘I must have been hurt worse than I thought’. Robin felt herself drifting, unable to recall if she had been hit in the battle. They were almost there. Validar’s troops were falling and they were advancing on the sorcerer. ‘Validar...’ It didn’t feel like the sorcerer -- her father -- was trying to take control of her again. But… she couldn’t see. “Chrom? Basilio?” She considered this a moment, and added… “Lissa?” Chrom’s sister was their best healer. If she was blinded, or injured, she needed magic, or to reach the elixir in her pocket.
There was light below her. Robin brought up her hand to shield her eyes, and tried to pull herself up. She felt like she was floating in inexplicably-dry water, but let the pull of gravity put her boots in a single direction… towards the light.
The floor reminded her of the palace in Yllise, but the light shining on it reminded her of the Mila tree. “This isn’t Plegia. It could be Ylisse, but…” she looked up, and to the side. Darkness, even with the light shining on the floor. She took a step, then another, walking to the edge of the circle, and looked down. It was definitely a drop, but she couldn’t tell how much. Robin wasn’t exactly going to drop anything she couldn’t get back. “Having a pegasus or wyvern knight show up would be really convenient right now. But not a Risen, please.”
She didn’t see any of her allies. But there was the sound of metal against stone, and she saw three pillars rise from the darkness. The first was close enough to touch, but she stopped to examine it first. The base was silver and blue, hoops of metal around a gem, and it took Robin a bit to realize where she’d seen the design before. “That’s a Second Seal,” she said. But, it was anchored to stone below and a shield above.
“That’s Morgan’s!” Robin said. Robin knew next to nothing about armor and shields -- despite a long conversation with Kjelle -- but she knew what equipment their knights favored. Especially since two of them were her husband and son. She reached out for it to take it, worrying that her son has been caught up in this… whatever this was. Gods, did Morgan even know about Validar, about their family? Lucina hadn’t known all of it until she’d heard what Validar had said. And Morgan said he couldn’t remember anything about where he came from except her. Did that include remembering their bloodline?
She reached for the shield, checking to see if there was blood on it. The seal below started to glow, and she heard a voice… female, and reminding her a bit of Tiki. “The guardian’s shield, for one seeking to protect her friends and loved ones above all else.”
The voice was enough to jar Robin out of her worry. “Wait, what did you say?” The voice didn’t respond. “So this isn’t Morgan’s actual shield. It’s some kind of test.” But a hard one. She was here to protect her friends. She’d sworn that, even at the cost of her own life. “If this is a test, the other choices have to be equally compelling, or it’d be too easy.”
She turned, inspecting the room -- sort-of room -- again. There were two more pillars, both with the seal design. The one to the left had a book of some sort, while the one to the right, a sword. “Clockwise, then.” Robin approached the book. It looked like the spell tome she’d used in the last battle, enough alike that she wanted to check her coat to see if she still had her copy. “Hnn, at least they’re using my things and not someone else’s.”
She brushed her fingers against the tome, feeling the leather, to trigger the voice. “The mystic’s tome, for those who seek inner strength, for good or ill.” Inner strength. Inner strength might let her fight better against Validar. Robin knew the strategy she just used wouldn’t work again. He wasn’t going to assume just because he could use his magic to get his hooks into her mind that she would follow his orders to the letter. If she had more strength, she might be able to brute-force her way past his spells.
“Of course, if I wanted strength, I could just accept his offer. Okay, third option.”
The third was a sword. Her sword, or one of the army’s just like hers -- perfectly serviceable silver-plated steel; not as specialized as some of the blades they had in the armory, but a weapon that required a skilled welder. “The shield represents defense, and the tome magic, so this probably represents physical attack.” She touched the hilt just to be sure.
“The warrior’s sword for those who seek courage to face their foes.”
Robin nodded. “Really, all three are good options. I wonder if they’re just symbolic, or if I can take my weapons back.” If that was the case, she’d take her sword and tome. But if that were the case, she wouldn’t have gotten the message. The pillars looking like seals was also a clue that it was more than just her weapons on display. On the other hand, if they were also the weapons she needed, she should at least take one she could use.
“I have courage, so I don’t need the sword. So the tome or the shield. But, if I’m going to need physical objects, the tome is more useful.” So, she walked back to the tome, taking it from its stand.
“You choose the path of the mystic?” the voice asked.
“I do,” Robin replied. The tome in her hands lightened and Robin saw it dissolving. “Hey, wait! I needed that!”
The voice didn’t respond to her comment. “Choose, now, what you will give up.”
“The sword, I guess. Since I’m not going to get it back anyway,” Robin said, loudly. “I’m keeping the ability to protect my friends.”
She watched the sword and shield dissolve into light, without even having to touch one. Which meant that someone was listening. The sword simply dissipated, but the light from the shield wrapped around her body before it dissipated, coloring her greatcoat a deep black for a moment, then collecting around her right hand. “Gee, thanks. Can I wake up now?”
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
Nearly all of Robin’s tactician class abilities can best be modeled by her mundane skills. Veteran (units paired with Robin gain experience faster) represents her teaching ability, and Solidarity (units next to or paired with Robin gain a boost to critical hits and evasion) and Rally Spectrum (instead of Robin attacking, all units within a short distance of her gain a boost to all stats) her ability to take advantage of anything to help her allies.
Robin’s default class in Fire Emblem is one familiar with offensive magic, so she’ll take to offensive magic quickly. She has less experience with cure spells directly, but has directed their use before. She’ll be most comfortably with Fire, Thunder and Air spells -- those being the sorts most common in the Fire Emblem universe. She is also aware of dark magic, though can’t use it herself.
One of Robin’s canonical special abilities (Ignis) lets her occasionally add her Strength stat to her magical attacks (or her Magic stat to her physical attacks), representing a hybrid of a physical and magical attack. She’ll be interested in developing this (and other, original) attacks as fusion spells, and in learning how this new magic system works.
INVENTORY:
Robin has her clothing, a coin purse with a few coins, a potion-like item (an Elixir) and a tome that allows her to use magic. She also has her wedding ring. Most of her possessions were not on her person, thanks to prepping for diplomacy/battle rather than being around camp.
Robin went for an Invoker’s path, so the sword she was carrying vanished.
NOTES/ASPIRATIONS
Summary of Branch Points:
Robin: Female, born 27 February, strong stat HP, weak stat Attack. Robin has the default female Avatar appearance (long, white hair, shorter build).
Robin sides with Emmeryn in Chapter 11.
Chrom marries Sully, has daughters Lucina and Kjelle (not yet born).
Robin marries Kellam, has son Morgan (not yet born, classed as Knight).
(Other pairings: Lissa & Virion, Frederick & Maribelle, Stahl & Cordelia, Vaike & Miriel, Sumia & Henry, Lon’qu & Cherche, Ricken & Panne, Gaius & Olivia, Gregor & Nowi, Libra & Tharja. All children were recruited.)
The optional Paralogues available via SpotPass (most of which let you recruit former enemies after revealing they survived) were not played.
Robin allows Lucina to kill her between Chapter 22 and 23.
If canon-updated, Robin will be the one to give the death-blow to Grima, with the change of ending that entails.
