Medeus

150px
Medeus
Species	Manakete (Earth/Shadow Dragon)
Class	Earth Dragon
Affiliation	Dolhr Empire
Hair color	Gray
Base	Dolhr
Debut	Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Higari no Tsurugi

Medeus (also commonly known as Mediuth in previous fan translations) is the fabled Shadow Dragon who acts as the final boss of Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Higari no Tsurugi, both books of Monshou no Nazo and the remake Shadow Dragon and the ultimate enemy of Marth.

Background

Rise of Medeus

Medeus was originally part of the Earth Dragon tribe hundreds of years ago and served as its king. The Earth Dragons had ceded from the rule of the divine dragons when the elders began ordering dragons to seal their powers within dragonstones to become Manaketes (humans who transform into dragon form with the stone). Otherwise, staying in dragon form too long could cause them to degenerate into mindless beasts. The Earth Dragons refused this notion and left for their own tribe. It is uncertain if Medeus was ruler at this time, but he tricked his own tribe by becoming a Manakete himself.

The rest of his tribe eventually did degenerate and to stop their savage rampage across the continent, the dragon hero Naga sealed them within the Dragons' Altar. Medeus was appointed its guardian and served loyally for many years. However, he was bothered by humans' mistreatment of the Manaketes, as mankind became aggressive after gaining power and attacked even the Manaketes living in peace. This led Medeus to gather the other angered Manaketes at Dolhr and together they formed the Dolhr Empire in the year 490, with Medeus (being the last Earth Dragon, the type second in strength to only a divine dragon) as its emperor.

The Dolhr Empire began terrorizing the continent. They faced some trouble against Duke Cartas's liberation army, its leader being armed with the Shield of Seals, but Medeus began crushing them after he started entering battle himself. The tides began to turn in Medeus's favor when Anri challenged him wielding the blade Falchion, which was Medeus's primary weakness, and succeeding in slaying the beast in 498. In Monshou no Nazo it is implied that Medeus never really died due to Earth Dragons being harder to destroy, and he merely entered a one-hundred year sleep in which he would resurect himself (which makes it unclear whether or not Gharnef actually played a role in his resurrection).

Modern Age

Almost exactly one hundred years later in 597, Medeus resurrected at Dolhr and planned to re-establish his empire. He formed an allegiance with the dark sorcerer Gharnef and together they began conquering all of Archanea while manipulating the various kingdoms into helping them. Gharnef acted mostly as the figurehead while Medeus remained within Dolhr Keep while he recovered his strength, as the seal on the Earth Dragons prevented him from transforming outside of the castle at that point.

Eventually in the final chapter of Ankoku no Ryuu/Shadow Dragon/Monshou no Nazo Book 1, Anri's descendant Marth led a march into Dolhr Keep. Marth was able to use the Falchion to slay Medeus, although in his last words he claimed that he would not die as long as evil lived in men's hearts.

In Book 2 of Monshou no Nazo, it was shown that Medeus had not truly died but gone into another hundred-year sleep to recover within the Dragons' Altar. However, Gharnef initiated a plan to resurrect Medeus early by transforming him from an Earth Dragon into a Shadow Dragon (which is somewhat confusing considering how often he was previously referred to as a Shadow Dragon in all games save for Monshou). To do this, Gharnef had four women of pure and noble blood captured (Elice, Nyna, Lena and Maria) so that they could be used as a sacrifice to initiate Medeus's transformation and resurrection.

Medeus was successfully awakened and transformed by the time Marth and his men arrived at the Dragons' Altar, although strangely the "sacrifices" were still alive, although they were all protecting Medeus in a hypnotic trance and Medeus could drain their strength to replenish his own. Marth and his men were able to either break the spell over them or reluctantly slay them to reach Medeus, at which point Marth once more slayed Medeus with Falchion. He once more insisted that as long as greed lived in men's hearts, he would be resurrected again, but Gotoh afterwards confirmed that Medeus had been completely destroyed.