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InFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, we are first introduced to the lavish and storied continent of Archanea. This land serves as the setting for the first-ever Fire Emblem game, and a few subsequent titles.
Related:What Is The Fire Emblem?
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade was the first game in the series to not take place within the same world as Archanea, and we wouldn’t be taken back there until the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening. From the start, it was a land ruled by dragons, but over thousands of years, several things changed within Archanea.
What Is Archanea In Fire Emblem?
Archanea is the name of the landmassthat plays a hugely significant role in the story that begins with the very first Fire Emblem game. Within the continent of Archanea, there exist several nations, the largest of which shares the name of the continent,called the Holy Kingdom of Archanea.
One of the more important places on this continent is Altea, and it’s one you will recognise most easily if you’re a fan of the series.You will know Altea since Marth is the princeof that nation by the time the events of the first game, Shadow Dragon, take place.
As a continent, Archanea has been around for thousands of years before the events of the first Fire Emblem, where it was home to the Divine Dragons.
The History Of Archanea
The in-game calendar of Archanea explains to us that the continent is at least 4,000 years old. We know this because the official calendar begins at the founding of the Holy Kingdom of Archanea, the nation. The wider Fire Emblem community considers thisyear 1 of the Archanean calendar (AC).
4,000 years in the past,the continent is inhabited by a technologically-advanced race of dragons, known as Divine Dragons. The leader of this race is Naga, while some other key players areDuma, Mila, and Medeus. At some point during this time, humanity as we know it arrives on Archanea and thedragons aid them in beginning their civilisation.
Humans And Dragons Live In Harmony
Naga and other dragons teach humans aboutfire, metalworking, and the capabilities of magic. With help from the dragons, humanity thrives.The advanced nation of Thabes was created,where one human known as Forneus tried to find a way to bring his dead wife back to life. During his experiments, he accidentallycreates a being known as the Creation,which would later be known as theFell Dragon Grima.
Frightened by this, The Creation wassealed inside a vast labyrinth underneath Thabeswhere it will stay for thousands of years. Following this, the Divine Dragon siblings Duma and Mila are at some point exiled from Archanea, where they set off to the west and found theland of Valentia, eventually creating the nations of Rigel and Zofia.
Civilisation continues to thrive on Archanea over the years, but Naga is worried about theinevitable degradation of her fellow dragons.
The Introduction Of Dragonstones And Conflict With Earth Dragons
Thousands of years later, Naga begins to see therapid degradation of the dragons. To mitigate the damage this could cause to the thriving countries on Archanea, Naga degrees that the Divine Dragons shouldseal their powers away in Dragonstones, turning themselves into a lesser version of themselves known as Manaketes.
This decision causes a rift between Naga and the Earth Dragons, the latter of whom refuse the decree.The prince of the Earth Dragons, Medeus,secretly complies with this request without anyone knowing of it. Due to the refusal, the Earth Dragons eventuallybecome corrupted and start acting chaotically violently.
The Creation Of The Fire Emblem And Falchion
A few hundred years later, Naga leads her fellow dragons intowar with the Earth Dragons. Within the same year, Naga creates two important items:the Binding Shield and the divine sword Falchion,the latter of which is the only weapon capable of killing a Divine Dragon.
Falchion is intended to be agift to humans, so they have the means to fight dragons.
Within the Binding Shield lie five precious gemstones:Sable, Gules, Vert, Azure, and Argent.
With the Binding Shield, Naga defeats andseals the Earth Dragons within a place called the Dragon’s Tableand orders Medeus to keep an eye on his fellow Earth Dragons sealed there.This is considered a punishment, of sorts.
Tiki’s Birth And The Death Of Naga
A few hundred years later, Naga dies. Before she does, she stores the Binding Shield in a location known as theFane of Raman.Naga’s daughter,Tiki, is taken to the Ice Dragon Temple and kept safe there along with Falchion.Naga’s death is seen as the generalend of the dragon civilisation.Many of the dragons slowly die out or turn hostile to humans.
The Creation Of The Holy Kingdom Of Archanea.
This catches us up to the beginning of the AC calendar. In the game’s lore, a man namedAdrah breaks into the Fane of Raman and steals several important items. These are the Binding Shield, the lance Gradivus, the sword Mercurius, and the bow Parthia.
Adrah supposedly sells these weapons and the five gems embedded within the Binding Shield toraise an army and lay claim to the land of Archanea.With the breaking of the Binding Shield,the seal that keeps the Earth Dragons locked in the Dragon’s Table weakens.
With Adrah’s conquest complete, he founds the Holy Kingdom of Archanea and is crowned king of that land. Adrah, still in possession of thenow gemless Binding Shield, renames it the Fire Emblem.
Medeus Founds Dolhr
Hundreds of years later, Medeus, who has seen humans take and fight over everything, creates thekingdom of Dolhr.This nation is whollyhostile to humans, offering them no place there. Seeing his fellow Earth Dragons enslaved to the Table for so long,he wishes the same for humanity and begins a conquest across Archanea.
This kicks off a period known as the War of Liberation.
Princess Artemis of Archanea flees to Altea – a small town at this point –where she meets a young man named Anri.
Through a series of events, Anri is directed to the Ice Dragon Shrine where he meets Tiki and is granted Falchion to slay Medeus.Together with his allies, Anri kills Medeus using Falchion.
The Founding Of Nations
After Medeus is killed, Princess Artemis restores Archanea and several new nations come a cropper.Anri returns to Altea and proclaims it a kingdom, and the Falchion becomes a treasure of Altea. The new kingdoms are:
Years after Medeus' defeat,Anri dies without an heir. The throne of Altea passes to his brother, Marcelus.In the year 588 AC, Marth is born in Altea.Nine years later, astudent of the arcane called Gharnefsuccessfully resurrects Medeus andthe nation of Dolhr is reformed.
Shadow Dragon And The Blade Of Light
20 years later, Medeus is ready to begin his conquest of Archanea anew. He begins with an assault on Altea, which is where the very first Fire Emblem game begins.
In a bid to stop Gharnef and Medeus,Marth’s father Cornelius launches an attack on the Dolhr army. He is betrayed by a close ally and killed,allowing Gharnef to steal Falchion. Medeus and Gharnef then turn to Altea, and Marth flees the castle with his retainers and friends as the castle falls.
The fall of Altea marks the period known as theWar of Shadows,as explained during the events of Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light.
Marth’s sister Elice was captured in the attack andused by Gharnef as a hostage. Marth goes into exile and takes refuge in nearby Talys, where heresolves to reclaim his homeland. Throughout his journey, Marth faces the Dolhr army and bests them at every turn.
Eventually, he is granted the Fire Emblem – the Binding Shield restored to its full potential – and the Falchion is reclaimed from Gharnef after Marth’s allies kill him.
With Gharnef’s death, Marth is finally reunited with his sister Elice. With the Fire Emblem and Falchion in hand,Marth kills Medeus and reclaims Altea.This is the end of the first game.
New Mystery Of The Emblem
In the sequel to Shadow Dragon, we see Marth fight against a resurrected Medeus. In terms of the story, it plays out extremely similar to the first game, meaning not a whole lot changes in Archanea.Medeus is resurrected and begins laying waste on the land, destroying several kingdoms.
Marth and the Archanean army defeat every kingdom loyal to Medeus, eventually following him to Thabes. Once again, Marth goes into the fight with the Fire Emblem and Falchion,emerging victorious over Medeus and killing him for good.
Due to the damage caused by Medeus,all of the kingdoms decide to abdicate their stations, instead electing to letMarth become the Hero-King of Archanea,uniting and unifying every kingdom under the same banner.
With that, the story of the second game comes to an end. We can expect Archanea enjoys thousands of years of relative, albeit implied, peace.
The Future Of Archanea
The next time we come to Archaneais in the game Fire Emblem: Awakening.This game is set 2000 years in the future,from the point Marth was crowned the Hero-King of Archanea. Because of this, the entire continent has changed dramatically.
Between the end of New Mystery of the Emblem and the beginning of Awakening,the Fell Dragon Grima came into power,seemingly freed from its prison underneath Thabes. At some point in the history of Archanea, Grima was killed by an unnamed hero wielding the Fire Emblem and Falchion.The one who slew Grima is known in Awakening as the First Exalt.
The First Exalt then led a bloody campaign across the kingdom, earning himself a dreadful reputation and staining the image of the line of Exalts.
In this new land, the old kingdoms of Archanea have risen and fallen, and at some point, the entire landmass has beenrenamed to the Halidom of Ylisse. Within this land, there exist four main kingdoms:
Chrom, the main character of Awakening, and the rest of his familyare descended from Marth. Chrom’s sister,Emmeryn, is the current Exalt of Ylisse, acting as the ruler. Because of this link to Marth, the Halidom of Ylisse holds the Fire Emblem and Falchion as national treasures, but the gems have once again been separated from the Binding Shield.
In the interest of fairness and camaraderie; and to undo the devastating damage caused by the First Exalt, each gem is separated from the Fire Emblem and distributed to each of the main kingdoms in Ylisse.
The story of Fire Emblem: Awakening follows the return of Grima, thanks to thenefarious religious group known as the Grimleal. At the start of the game, Chrom meets a strange character called Robin, who turns out to be a brilliant strategist.
King Gangrel of Plegia, who has decreed all in his land must obey the Grimleal, wages war against Ylisse. The reason for this is to attempt toclaim the Fire Emblem and the gem that Ylisse holds.
Exalt Emmeryn sacrifices herself during the campaign to stop Chrom from having to cave to Gangrel’s demands to hand over the Fire Emblem. Chrom and his band, known as the Shepherds, kill Gangrel, but the land mourns the loss of Exalt Emmeryn.
A few years after Emmeryn’s death, Chrom is crowned the Exalt of Ylisse, and he has a daughter named Lucina. Shortly after Lucina’s birth, the force that has been amassing on the land of Valm, led by a man named Emperor Walhart, invades the land of Ylisse.
Ylisse and Ferox, led by Chrom, join forces to repel Emperor Walhart, with the aid of Validar, the new king of Plegia who succeeded Gangrel.Validar, a devoted scion of Grima, manipulates and orchestrates several events leading to Grima’s return.
It seems that during the time between the first game and Awakeningthe continent of Valm, which is Valentia, has moved to become part of Ylisse.
Fire Emblem: Gaiden and its remake Echoes - Shadows of Valentia takes place on this land. The dragons Duma and Mila vie for power, and both eventually go mad.
The story follows Alm and Celica, who fight against Duma andfree the land from the whims of dragons.
Valentia, now renamed the kingdom of Valm,has undergone some changes. Once unified by Alm and Celica at the end of Fire Emblem: Gaiden,the land has splintered again.
This leads one man, Emperor Walhart, no doubt inspired by the stories of the heroic Alm,to set out on his quest of unifying Valentia once again.
The Fire Emblem community debates whether or not Emperor Walhart is a descendant of Alm and due to several factors, it is heavily implied he could be. The other way to look at it is that Walhart would have grown up hearing legends of Alm, rising against adversity and unifying an entire land.
Regardless of his reasons,Walhart soon begins his conquest of Ylisse, but he is ultimately thwarted by Chrom.
During the events of the game, one ofChrom’s allies, who goes by the name Marth, reveals that she is Chrom’s daughter from an alternate timeline. With her identity revealed asLucina, she fights to stop Grimaand tries to avert Chrom’s death in her timeline from happening here.
Chrom’s adventure brings him into contact with Tiki, who is waiting at the Mila Tree in Valm.They present to Tiki the Fire Emblem and all five gemsfrom each nation so that she can use it to grant Chrom’s Falchion the power to slay Fell Dragons and fight against Grima.
In the final battle, Chrom is faced with a choice. He can deal the final blow to Grima, but this will only seal it away until Grima inevitably returns. Or,Robin can deal the final blow, sacrificing themselves so Grima can never be resurrected.
The ending is ultimately your choice when you play, but Grima is dealt with in both outcomes. With this, Lucina’s bad timeline is averted, and Chrom survives.
Chrom rules fairly and justly. Peace reigns in Ylisse, and this is the last time a main Fire Emblem game has been set in the land that was once known as Archanea.
