Nils

Child of Destiny
Nils
Species	Human/Ice Dragon
Class	Bard
Hair color	Blue
Eye color	Red
Base	Realm of dragons
Relatives	Nergal (father) Ninian (sister)
Debut	Fire Emblem

Nils is a playable unit in Fire Emblem, and is the only playable Bard in the game. He shared a strong bond with his older sister Ninian, although only one of the two was playable at a time.

Background

Nils and Ninian were born to Nergal and a dragon woman around the time of The Scouring. However, their mother was captured by an angry mob of humans, at which point Nergal left to save her. He left the children back at his home with rations and asked them to retreat through the Dragon's Gate if he did not return in ten days. It seems Nergal did not return during this time period (and they became aware of their mother's death), and Nils and Ninian escaped through the Dragon's Gate to arrive in the realm where the other dragons had retreated to. Nils spent most of his time with Ninian, who was an oracle of the Dragon Shrine.

About a thousand years later, the siblings heard the voice of "an old friend" calling to them, at which point they impulsively opened the Dragon's Gate and returned to Elibe through it. After arriving on the other side, they found it was a trap set by Nergal. However, Nils and Ninian did not recognize him as their father (likely due to the many changes he had undergone over the years), while Nergal did not recognize his children in turn (this explained by Nergal having lost most of his memories when he gave himself to darkness). However, they lost most of their strength in the process and had to revert to their human forms. They placed their remaining quintessence within a dragonstone that Nergal stole in hopes of using it to summon more dragons. However, Nils and Ninian were able to escape.

Nils and Ninian, posing as a traveling bard and dancer respectively, then spent most of their time on the run from Nergal's dark minions. This eventually led Nils to his meeting with Lyn in Fire Emblem; in "Chapter 7: Children of Destiny", Ninian had been captured by Black Fang agents while they passed through Khathelet. Nils attempted to get help from the locals, but they were all too frightened of the Black Fang to help him. Luckily Lyn and her group were passing through and, after they heard of Nils's plight, they volunteered to help him. Nils also provided his own help in battle with his bard powers. Soon with the help of Eliwood, Ninian was rescued. Nils and Ninian then continued to travel with Lyn's group for protection for the rest of her journey. They did not tell Lyn their secret because they liked her and did not want to get her mixed up in their affairs.

After the adventure ended, Nils and Ninian quietly slipped away. However, they were snatched away at this point by Nergal's minions and brought back to the Dragon's Gate, where they were imprisoned. They spent the next year in Nergal's dungeon and at one point contemplated suicide. But that all changed when they received a cellmate in the form of Pherae's Lord Elbert. He knew what Nils and Ninian were but did not judge them. Instead, he raised their spirits by telling him stories about his family and his son Eliwood, whom the siblings came to feel would be the one to save them. Later on in "Dread Isle" (Eliwood Chapter 18, Hector Chapter 19), Elbert was able to free Nils and Ninian. They tried to escape from the island in a small boat, but he was tossed out during a storm.

Nils woke up back on the shores of Valor Isle. He eventually hid in the ruins until he sensed something very dangerous in "Dragon's Gate" (Eliwood Chapter 19, Hector Chapter 20). He raced back to the Dragon's Gate in time to find that Ninian had been sent into a trance after Nergal sacrificed Lord Elbert, and in this trance she was summoning dragons for Nergal. Nils was able to snap her out of the trance before the first dragon could completely pass through. After escaping Nergal's grips yet again, they traveled with Eliwood's group. In "New Resolve" (Eliwood Chapter 20, Hector Chapter 21), Nils saw that Ninian had been weak from opening the Dragon's Gate and so transferred part of his power to her. At the same time, Nils had trouble fitting in and particularly disliked Hector.

This caused the weakened Nils to collapse in the beginning of "Kinship's Bond" (Eliwood Chapter 21, Hector Chapter 22). The group spent the whole chapter protecting Nils. Then in "Living Legend" (Eliwood Chapter 22, Hector Chapter 23), Nils's opinion towards Hector softened after Hector gave him a piggyback ride through the desert when he was fatigued. This caused Nils to like Hector and wish that the people long ago were more like him. He told Ninian about this in "Unfulfilled Heart" (Eliwood Chapter 24, Hector Chapter 26) but at the same time warned Ninian that she should not get romantically attached to Eliwood because of their species differences. Nils was then nearly captured by Vaida, but Eliwood and the others were able to help him again. Around this time, Nils replaced the departing Hannah as the group's fortune teller as well.

Nergal returned for the children in "Cog of Destiny" (Eliwood Chapter 27, Hector Chapter 29). However, Ninian was able to convince Nergal to only take her away. Then in "Valorous Roland" (Eliwood Chapter 28), Nergal came to take Nils instead and knocked him out. Thus he was unconscious when Eliwood killed a dragon with Durandal, a dragon who turned out to be Ninian. Once Nils regained consciousness, Eliwood told him what had happened, and Nils began to grieve. Afterwards Nils grew distant and isolated himself from the others.

In "Victory or Death" (Eliwood Chapter 30, Hector Chapter 32), Nils was to remain aboard Fargus's ship while the others advanced to a final battle with Nergal at the Dragon's Gate. Before leaving Eliwood told Nils that he knew he could not be forgiven no matter how much he apologized but said he still had to fulfill his duty and Ninian's wishes, and Eliwood asked Nils to face reality as well at some point when he was past the pain. Soon afterwards Nils changed his mind, and Fargus came up with an excuse for Nils to rejoin the others by sending him to deliver an Earth Seal to them. He arrived just in time to alert Eliwood, Hector and Lyn of the looming threat posed by Limstella and prevented them from being fried by one of her bolts of magic. Nils then finally joined Eliwood's group in battle for the last chapters, saying that he could not run from the truth any longer and was willing to fulfill both Ninian's part and his own. After the battle, Eliwood convinced Nils to tell him his full backstory. Nils told him everything and also said that he would continue to protect Eliwood because it was Ninian's wish and his own as well.

Nils then accompanied Eliwood's group in the final battle of "Final Chapter: Light". After Nergal was killed (if Chapters 19xx and 32x were completed), Nils found himself crying without knowing why. But to his relief, Ninian was successfully revived by Athos and Bramimond. With the threat of the dragons gone, Ninian and Nils decided to return to their home realm and seal the Dragon's Gate for good so that no other crises like the one Nergal caused would be possible again. In the default ending both Ninian and Nils returned with their hearts warmed by the hopes that man and dragonkind could live together in peace.

But if Ninian and Eliwood had an A Rank support, Nils saw how much Ninian cared for Eliwood and Elibe so he told her to stay with Eliwood. Nils then returned alone, saying that he wanted to live a long life and did not have Ninian's curiousity. He asked her to live as long and happy a life as she could with Eliwood and said that even if they never saw each other again their bond would never be severed. The ending also says that those who saw Nils going through the portal never forgot his look of sorrow.

Abilities

Nils is only playable in his human form. In human form, he has the normal powers of anyone in the Bard class. He also has several other powers not seen in battle. Both he and Ninian have the power to sense incoming danger and predict weather changes. Nils later utilizes his powers of foresight for fortune telling. Just like the Manaketes of other Fire Emblem games, Nils can also shift into dragon form and use a wider array of powers in this form, although he is never seen in dragon form in the game.

Trivia

• As only one of the two is playable at the same time, Nils and Ninian share experience, stats and items so that the two are basically the same character gameplay-wise.