Fire Emblem (item)

Fire Emblem
Debut	Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi

The Fire Emblem is the titular item of the Fire Emblem series. Its exact appearance and role differ depending on the continuity. This article will examine all incarnations of the Fire Emblem.

Information

Archanea/Valencia

The Fire Emblem was originally known as the Shield of Seals, and the divine dragon hero Naga used it to seal away the Earth Dragons that had become savages and begun to wreak havoc upon Archanea. The shield was encrusted with five orbs - the Lightsphere, Starsphere, Geosphere, and (the latter two having yet to be localized) the Life and Dark Orbs. After Naga's task was complete, the divine dragon left the Shield behind the in Fanes of Raman. It remain there until ten years before the start of the Archanean calender, when the temple was ravaged and the Shield stolen by a thief.

The thief removed the five orbs, which gave the shield its power, from the shield and sold it to build an army, eventually becoming the first king of Archanea which he formed. The shield became known as the Fire Emblem, the symbol of Archanean throne and was often lent out to great heroes who were believed capable of saving the world, acting as Archanea's brand of approval. However, it was also said to be cursed, and that those who wielded it would lose the ones they love.

Several hundred years later, Medeus's Dolhr Empire wiped out the Archanean royal family with the exception of Princess Artemis, who went into hiding with the Fire Emblem. She entrusted it with Duke Cartas, who used it to battle against the Dolhr Army, although in the end it was Anri who saved the day by defeating Medeus. However, even though they loved each other Artemis was forced to marry Cartas due to Anri being a former peasant. She believed this was due to the Fire Emblem's curse and the end of war was the end of love. This led the curse to become known as Artemis's Curse.

During the War of Darkness one hundred years later, Princess Nyna escaped with the Fire Emblem and entrusted it with Marth upon meeting him, believing that he had the potential to save the world from Medeus. As it did not the orbs, the Fire Emblem's only power at the time was allowing Marth to open any treasure chest. He returns the Emblem to Nyna at the war's end. Although Marth was not affected by the curse (unless Caeda had been killed in battle), Nyna had lost the man she loved, Camus in battle (Camus did turn up alive later, but further complications arose which seemed to prevent them from being together) and was pressured by society to choose between Marth and Hardin, neither of whom she loved, as her husband.

Nyna married Hardin, who truly loved her, but after finding out she did not love him in return he was driven into a depression which turned into madness when he became corrupted by Gharnef's Dark Orb. Nyna was locked away, but sent Linde to deliver the Fire Emblem to Marth as a sign to him that Hardin was not worthy of ruling Archaneia anymore and that Marth had her blessing in dethroning him. Marth once more held the Fire Emblem throughout his quest and this time learned about its true nature as the Shield of Seals. Throughout his quest he slowly gathered the five orbs and finally gained the last one, the Dark Orb, after killing Hardin. With all five orbs, he was able to restore the shield and move on to the final battles with Gharnef and Medeus. The Shield's power allowed Marth to seal the Earth Dragons away again as well as weaken Medeus. Whatever happened to the Fire Emblem/Shield of Seals following the war is unknown.

Judgrel

A Fire Emblem is alluded to in the epilogue of Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu as the heirloom of House Velthomer; Azel's son promises to make the "Emblem of Flame" (using a different Japanese name then the normal Fire Emblem) known as a mark of justice again to atone for his predecessors' sins.

Elibe

The Fire Emblem is a national treasure of the county Bern and resembles a tiny gem. During the time of the Scouring, the founder of Bern, Hartmut, had used the Fire Emblem in conjunction with the Sword of Seals to seal away the Dark Dragon Idoun. Afterwards, the Fire Emblem was used to seal the Sword of Seals away within the Shrine of Seals.

For generations afterwards, the Fire Emblem was used for a coming-of-age ceremony for heirs to the throne of Bern. In Fire Emblem, King Desmond makes an arrangement with the Black Fang to steal the Fire Emblem in an attempt to sabotage his son, Prince Zephiel. Eliwood and his company were commissioned by the queen to retrieve the Fire Emblem. They eventually found it in the Black Fang fortress and retrieved it after defeating either Kenneth or Jerme. It was returned in time for the prince's ceremony.

In Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi, Princess Guinivere stole the Fire Emblem in a vain attempt to prevent Zephiel from starting war with other countries, as she thought that Zephiel valued the Fire Emblem and would not take action while it was possibly in enemy hands. But Zephiel went on the warpath regardless. Just before Roy started his attack on Bern, Guinivere entrusted him with the Fire Emblem (having kept it secret due to her hopes that the war could reach a peaceful resolution). Roy swore to use it to bring peace to Elibe. Roy used it to draw the Sword of Seals by placing the gem in the opening on the sword's handle.

Magvel

In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the Fire Emblem is one of the five Sacred Stones that were used to defeat the Demon King. The Stone of Grado in particular was used to house the demon's soul and because his rage burned inside, it became known as the Fire Emblem as a result. It subsequently became a national treasure for the country and was carefully guarded for centuries.

Centuries later, Prince Lyon began to seek a way to harness its power. Though the bishop forbade him from directly interfering with it, he searched for ways to harness the power it radiated and was able to save the life of a peasant girl near death. When his father fell deathly ill, Lyon began to investigate it more vigorously, even after his father's death. Over time the deed was done and Lyon's father, Emperor Vigarde, was revived.

The result left the Fire Emblem in two pieces. The original Sacred Stone and the Dark Stone which contained the demon. Lyon had become possessed by the demon and decided that the Sacred Stones were unnecessary and 'in the way', He shattered the Stone of Grado and initiated a war against the rest of Magvel to shatter the stones of the other nations. After the stones of Jehanna, Frelia, and Renais were shattered, the only one that remained was the Stone of Rausten. It was able to seal the demon's soul, though what happened to the Dark Stone afterwards is unknown.

Tellius

In this continuity, the Fire Emblem once was a medallion that Altina, one of the three legendary heroes, sealed the goddes of chaos Yune within 800 years prior to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Due to the great amount of chaos energy from Yune, anyone who touched it could be driven into a Berserk rage where they would ruthlessly kill anyone nearby and sometimes be given enchanted strength. However, this side effect was negated if the medallion was held by someone who had great balance in themselves, although such people were very few. The medallion fed off of chaotic energy radiated by warfare and would glow with what resembled blue flames in such times, which caused scholars to nickname the medallion the "Fire Emblem". Dheginsea had managed to alter history books in order to say that Yune was a dark god and would destroy all if awakened through the forces of war; however, Yune was not truly evil, and Dheginsea had done this to discourage people from starting wars because awakening Yune would also awaken Ashera, who would judge the world harshly for not following up on their promise of stopping war for one thousand years.

The medallion was entrusted to Lehran, a member of the heron tribe and Reyson's ancestor, and thus it became known as Lehran's Medallion. Centuries later, Lehran (who by then had become known as Sephiran) entrusted the medallion to Ashnard, who would soon become the Mad King of Daein. Sephiran wanted Ashnard to start a great war and awaken Yune, because Ashera would also be awakened and Sephiran wanted the world to be destroyed by her righteous fury. Ashnard believed that a galdr of the heron tribe would be able to free the dark god. Because of this, he sent his men to capture a heron princess, Lillia, during the chaos and confusion of the Serenes Massacre. She was imprisoned in the Palmeni Temple, where she grew sick and died and could never revive the dark god. Unbeknownst to Ashnard, the only way to awaken Yune without war would be if the release galdr was sung to the medallion by a descendant of Altina. Around that time, Elena stole the medallion at Lillia's request, and she fled the country with her husband Gawain, who changed his name to Greil.

Elena was able to hold the medallion without being driven berserk. But at one point, Greil held the medallion and went into a berserk rage, killing various neighbors, friends and soldiers. Elena was killed into the rampage as well, but in her dying moments she was able to take the medallion from him and free him from the curse. Afterwards, the medallion was given to their daughter Mist, as she was balanced like her mother. However, neither Ike nor Mist were aware of the medallion's true powers, and Mist believed that it contained her mother's soul (and after Greil's death, his soul as well).

Ike and eventually Mist slowly discovered the truth about Lehran's Medallion in Path of Radiance. At the same time Ashnard set into motion a plan to start war across Elibe, due to the belief that all the rampant warfare might be able to revive the dark god even if he didn't have the medallion. In "Chapter 20: Defending Talrega", Nasir betrayed Ike by stealing the medallion from Mist while she was sleeping and giving to the Daein. So it once again came into Ashnard's hands. He attempted to have one of the last herons captured for him, but Leanne was rescued from them by Ike's army.

In the final battle, if the game is played on Hard Mode, Ashnard uses Lehran's Medallion to go Berserk after being beaten the first time and must be beaten a second time in order to kill him. Mist then reclaimed the medallion and gave it to Reyson and Leanne, but said goodbye to her parents first. Afterwards, Ike learned the true identity of Altina from Sephiran and that her only known remaining descendant, Sanaki, was the person who could awaken the dark god with the release galdr.

The three herons (Reyson, Leanne and Rafiel) watched over Lehran's Medallion in Part 3 of Radiant Dawn and used their galdr to keep it under control while a war was waged between most of Tellius's nations. However, in "Endgame: From Pain, Awakening", both Reyson and Rafiel had been lured away to help the others in battle. Alone to guard the medallion, Leanne was eventually overwhelmed and passed out. Luckily at that point Mist and Micaiah were guided there by visions from Yune. Yune possessed Mist to tell them that singing the galdr of release would be better then letting Yune be awakened by the chaos of war (which was true, because Ashera would have instantly destroyed the world out of anger if awakened by war). They brought in Sanaki to sing the galdr, but she failed; rather it was Micaiah who was able to awaken Yune by singing the galdr, and only she knew the lyrics to the galdr. With Yune awakened, the medallion itself was no longer an important plot point and was unmentioned for the remainder of the game.