Erk

Studious Mage
Erk
Species	Human
Class	Mage
Promotion	Sage
Affiliation	Etruria
Hair color	Purple
Eye color	Purple
Age	15
Base	Etruria
Relatives	Nino, Priscilla (possible wives) Lugh and Ray (possible sons)
Debut	Fire Emblem

Erk is a playable unit in all three tales of Fire Emblem and is the first playable mage in the game. He is known for being a very studious mage, but not as good with social skills.

Background

Erk was chosen by Pent, whom had recently become Etruria's mage general, to be his student when he was twelve years old. Erk was taken to live in Pent's castle with Pent and his wife Louise. In an attempt to gain Pent's approval, Erk shut himself in his room spent all his time reading his books- never eating and barely sleeping. Eventually Erk collapsed. Pent then brought him a book filled with pictures of nature and told him that training to be a mage required not only studying books, but going out into the world and communing with the spirits. Pent decided that he would take Erk outside on walks when he recovered.

Two years later, Erk began performing mercenary work. He was sent to escort the cleric Serra to Ostia. However, their personalities clashed and resulted in constant bickering throughout their journey. They eventually got lost by the border seperated Lycia from Bern. In "Chapter 5: Beyond the Borders", they saw Lyn and her group of mercenaries getting into a bout with the Ganelon bandits. Erk and Serra at first tried to avoid the confrontation, but they were forced to join in when the bandits confused them with Lyn's teammates. After the battle, Serra decided to remain in Lyn's group and forced Erk to follow her. After Lyn's adventure was complete and her teammates went their seperate ways, Erk finished escorting Serra to Ostia and then returned to Pent. Apparently Erk left soon afterwards due to some sort of "evil premonition".

One year later, at the age of 15, Erk was again working as an escort and bodyguard, this time to Priscilla, the adopted daughter of Count Caerleon. They appear in "Chapter 14: False Friends". At the time Erk and Priscilla were passing through Laus, but the marquess had learned of Priscilla's true identity and so would not allow her to leave. Erk went out to nearby villages looking for help, but he found none and wound up fighting off soldiers of Laus. But Eliwood's group eventually arrived in the area, and when Erk learned that they were also fighting against Laus's soldiers (from either Serra or a recruited Priscilla), he would agree to join their group. Erk decided to remain with Eliwood's group in their journey, in order to further his training.

Possible Fates

Erk has four different endings in Fire Emblem, depending on which characters he has A-Rank Support with.

• Default Ending- Erk returns to Etruria. After Pent retires, Erk is asked to succeed him as mage general. However, Erk refuses and devotes his life to studying magic.
• Nino and Erk's Ending- Erk and Nino are married and give birth to the twin boys Lugh and Ray. They lived happily in Pherae until bounty hunters came looking for Nino. Nino disappeared to protect her family, but Erk then left to search for her. This resulted in their children being left in an orphanage.
• Priscilla and Erk's Ending- They fell in love and wanted to marry. Since Erk was not of noble birth, he earned the peerage he needed to marry Priscilla from a combination of his talent and his link to Pent. He became a trusted magic teacher and lived a happy life.
• Serra and Erk's Ending- Erk returns to his studies, with his feelings for Serra an unwelcome distraction. Serra later leaves Ostia and decides to "live for love" with Erk. It is not mentioned whether or not this relationship works out.

Support Conversation Summaries

Erk is capable of having Support conversations with five other characters.

• Louise- Louise is glad to see Erk again but disappointed that he is always distancing himself from them. She said that he and Pent loved him like a son, but he spurred them and thought of them as strangers. But Erk explained that his behavior was only because Pent and Louise's love for him was so strong that it sometimes scared and paralyzed him. Erk then admits that both of them are precious to him. As Louise automatically has an A Level Support with Pent, Erk can only have two conversations with Louise.
• Nino- In the first conversation, Nino introduces herself to Erk while he's reading a book and tries to look at the book. Erk politely asks her to leave him in peace with his book, but then he gets angry at himself for being incapable of talking to girls. In the second converation, Erk decides to lend his book to Nino, but he discovers that she can't read. When he finds out that Nino learned all her magic by imitating Sonia, he is amazed, and Nino begins to cry out of happiness because someone finally appreciates her. In the final Support conversation, Erk gives her the same picture book that Pent had given to him after he collapsed and tells her the story of how he got the book. Erk tells Nino that she remind him of Pent. Ninoo continues to doubt herself due to Sonia's treatment of her, but Erk shouts at Nino to forget about Nino and trust him. Erk then leaves after his little outburst, but Nino pursues him.
• Pent- In the first Support conversation, Erk and Pent are reunited. Pent talks about Nergal and how hard it will be to face him. He asks Erk to tell him everything he knew about Nergal. In the second Support conversation, Erk had used up all of his magic in a battle, and to restore him Pent transferred half of his own magic to Erk. Pent chastised Erk for nearly killing himself and also told him that everyone made mistakes, but he shouldn't make that mistake twice. As Pent is already at Support Level A with Louise, Erk is only capable of having two Support conversations with him.
• Priscilla- In the first conversation, Erk checks up on Priscilla's every need, remembering how needy Serra was. However, he finds that Priscilla does not need the same special treatment as Serra. In the second conversation, Priscilla asks Erk is his previous employer was a woman and how close they were. Erk actually takes offense to this question and clearly expresses his dislike for Serra. Priscilla pretends she was asking for no particular reason. In the third Support conversation, Priscilla notifies Erk that his contract with her has just expired. Priscilla decides to stay with Eliwood since she is indebted to him, but since she left without her parents' permission she has no gold to pay for a contract extension for Erk. Erk then reveals that he is staying with Eliwood as well, to further his own training, and that he will still guard Priscilla as part of that training. Priscilla did not object to this and also asked Erk to call her Priscilla instead of Lady Priscilla.
• Serra- In the first conversation, Serra tries to find some way to talk Erk into becoming her servant, but he ignores her and walks away. In the second conversation, Serra makes Erk protect her and claims that she is practically the leader of the army, having Eliwood and Hector "captured by her charms". Erk says that she actually envies her. In the third Support conversation, Serra tells Erk that she is always around Erk because only she understood his "dark, secretive personality", and if she was not there to look after him he would probably get killed. Erk then says similarly to Serra that she's so annoying, he looks after her because no one would probably look for her if she disappeared.