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Fire Emblem: Last of the Manakete

What would readers prefer?

  • Pure narrative quest: no dice will be used, the author will have free reign to decide what happens.

    Votes: 25 59.5%

  • New dice system: the author will design a new, better dice system to add some randomness and risk.

    Votes: 17 40.5%
  • Total voters
    42
  • Poll closed .
Reader mode
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
 
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
- [X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
 
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
 
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
 
Honestly, I'm startled this many people are interested in the offer. Establishing Ryza's claim on the mountain is nice, but overall, I thought this was an Insta-Nope.

Over the course of the next thousand years, what are the odds every single one of Agrithe's kings will be cool dudes? Nil. Won't happen. At some point, a douchbag is gonna inherit the throne and notice "Hey, I've got a damn dragon! And those losers don't! ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!" and Ryza can either joint in and start frying random villagers or break her sworn oath. This situation eventually happening is essentially a certainty. Unless, of course, we're going into this thinking "Okay, I'll promise now, but I'll break it as soon as it's not my style" which is, frankly, a total dick move.

If we want to use Agrithe as a base of operations, it sounds like we're perfectly welcome to hang out with Artemis as much as we want. No need at all for the knighthood thing. Who's going to attack us when we're relaxing in the palace, anyway? They can't do it without both penetrating royal security and starting a war in the process.

Also, I don't doubt Ryza would be thoroughly unhappy as nobility. People would be trying to take advantage of her all the time, never mind social functions and politics. And considering her importance to the country, she is absolutely going to get dragged into politics.

There's other ways to lay claim to the mountain, too. Hell, Mantrae would probably just give it to us in exchange for Ryza agreeing to forget about that little incident where she tried to kidnap her--she doesn't need a dragon holding a millennia-long grudge against her heirs, and the land doesn't seem valuable anyway. Sign over the title to Ryza's mother's tomb as a goodwill gesture and it's water under the bridge!
 
[X] You don't know if you can tie yourself that strongly to Agrithe. You like it here, you like the people, but you've only known them for a few weeks. Things could easily change over the years and decades. Best to just stay friends. Besides, it'd be weird taking orders from someone younger than you. You'll probably respectfully decline.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.
 
Herofox said:
Tbh, I forget what we got for saving Arty
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iirc we went with "always having a home in Agrithe" over "help us reclaim our ancestral home". So even if we don't accept knighthood, local lord already swore that we are forever a friend of the family who is always welcome to stay here, which pretty much means we're set for a minimum of his rule + Artemis.

Now granted this is an FE game I'm sure that's all going to be upset in a few weeks when the Big Bad Empire spontaneously invades everyone and we have to abandon house and home and eventually help lead our plucky group of rebels to kill the Big Bad Emperor and the Totally Behind Everything Evil Advisor And Also At Some Point A Dragon, but that's technically metagaming:V
 
People are acting like agreeing will bind Ryza for the rest of her life, but the king specifically only mentions himself in the oath I believe? Additionally, we're fixing to talk to Artemis so they should catch any potential issues such as that and be able to address it. Maybe after the discussion with Artemis, Ryza could add an explicit allowance to retire after each generation passes or some such, in case timeskips become a thing and this actually becomes relevant.
 
Part of the thing that makes feudal oaths valuable and inducing of stability in governance is that they persist beyond individual lives and bind more than just those who swear them.

So, barring a special "just the length of my life with the opportunity to re-up with Artemis if you so chose" clause to it, it's gonna be a real hard sell to me.
 
Calico J said:
There's other ways to lay claim to the mountain, too. Hell, Mantrae would probably just give it to us in exchange for Ryza agreeing to forget about that little incident where she tried to kidnap her--she doesn't need a dragon holding a millennia-long grudge against her heirs, and the land doesn't seem valuable anyway. Sign over the title to Ryza's mother's tomb as a goodwill gesture and it's water under the bridge!
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An agreement that holds exactly zero water unless Ryza also has an actual title to back her up? That's not much of an alternative.

FE tends to gloss over it because most of the commoners you see interacting with the noble cast members on a regular basis are close friends, but this is still a class-based medieval world. A commoner's claim on a parcel of land is worthless if a noble decides to mosey on over and take it. And the commoner's life is worthless if they try to talk back to said noble.

Of course Ryza wouldn't enjoy the trappings of a noble title. But she's got no shot at staking/enforcing her claim on her ancestral home without one.
 
Random Sanity said:
An agreement that holds exactly zero water unless Ryza also has an actual title to back her up? That's not much of an alternative.

FE tends to gloss over it because most of the commoners you see interacting with the noble cast members on a regular basis are close friends, but this is still a class-based medieval world. A commoner's claim on a parcel of land is worthless if a noble decides to mosey on over and take it. And the commoner's life is worthless if they try to talk back to said noble.

Of course Ryza wouldn't enjoy the trappings of a noble title. But she's got no shot at staking/enforcing her claim on her ancestral home without one.
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There are other ways to obtain a title than permanent swearing to a Kingdom.

If we are going to end up war heroes anyway, gib the mountain.
 
Herofox said:
Can you quote this please? I don't remember this part at all.
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SoaringHawk218 said:
Archduke Letoro nods. "A wise question," he says. "If you were to accept, you would become one of my vassals. We would create a contract that would lay out the rights and responsibilities we have towards each other. At its most basic, that would include my promising to support and protect you from any who would threaten you, and you promising to lend your strength to me in any campaigns I might need you in."
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It appears to me to the minimum is only supporting Archduke Letoro's campaigns he needs us in, not complete subservience to the kingdom for centuries.
 
Random Sanity said:
An agreement that holds exactly zero water unless Ryza also has an actual title to back her up? That's not much of an alternative.

FE tends to gloss over it because most of the commoners you see interacting with the noble cast members on a regular basis are close friends, but this is still a class-based medieval world. A commoner's claim on a parcel of land is worthless if a noble decides to mosey on over and take it. And the commoner's life is worthless if they try to talk back to said noble.

Of course Ryza wouldn't enjoy the trappings of a noble title. But she's got no shot at staking/enforcing her claim on her ancestral home without one.
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At lots of points in the Middle Ages, non-aristocrats held land de facto or sometimes even de jure independent of local aristocrats. See the yeomanry of England for an example of this at a large scale, or the many, many prosperous burghers who lived in free towns and cities in the later Middle Ages and could make even kings regret crossing them.

Also, Ryza will have a strong bargaining position with all the good will she's accumulated with powerful aristocrats, alongside the fact that conceding land that's not being put to productive use (for the aristocracy) is a cheap way to gain good favor with a powerful ally who will likely be around to help your descendants long after all this is said or done, and impeding her risks making a mighty enemy who will make trouble for you and yours for generations. Starting a fight with a well-connected dragon-girl over such marginal land has enormous risks for very little gain.
 
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Brainwasher said:
It appears to me to the minimum is only supporting the the Archduke Letoro's campaigns he needs us in, not complete subservience to the kingdom for centuries.
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Yeah, minimum is the key word there. Not to mention campaigns could possibly include espionage, such as the mission we just cleared with Robin (with uh, various degrees of success? Probably? Maybe? Unlikely.)
 
[X] You find yourself… liking the idea. How many times had you been worried about people not liking how friendly you are with Artemis? This way, they won't have any excuse! Besides, having some people who have promised to help you could be useful. You think you'll probably take him up on it.
-[X] You definitely need to talk about it with Artemis first. Hopefully tomorrow, if she has time.

Obviously, this is not the final discission, but I think we should strongly lean for it. Let's be real, we like these guys and were going to help anyways. It gets us our home firmly in our control, and means others are politically inclined to take us seriously. And It's not like we can't still go leave on trips for our hunt for Manakete

And I'm sure between the lord, Artimis, and ourselves we have enough collective foresight not to make Ryza a pawn to an asshole great great great grandkid. And again, this will be something discussed later along with other issues we might have.
 
Herofox said:
I wonder if slavery is a thing here.

I mean, it makes sense given the age but on the other hand it's Fire Emblem.
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Fire Emblem, at its core, is a game about medieval fantasy warfare and the politics around and behind it (because as Clausewitz stated in his thesis, warfare is politics by other means).

Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the village in Chapter 11: Knorda Market is explicitly a major hub for the slave ring until Marth arrives to bust it up (also recruiting Linde in the process, whose main thing is her higher Magic compared to Merric and excclusive access to Aura). Shadow Dragon DS changed it from a slave market to a hostage situation for reasons unknown to me.

Jugdral has the child hunts, and I think Lene would have become a sex slave in Aed had Ares not turned against Javarro.

Elibe? The Western Isles mining operation overseen by Roartz and Arcardo made such heavy use of slave labor that the Isles rebelled.

Tellius? Duke Oliver would have made Leanne into a sentient peahen, for all intents and purposes, and Tormod was raised by escaped Laguz slaves.

In Awakening, Nowi said that people would force her to transform and do tricks like a common circus animal, which is commonly associated with slavery.

So yeah, slavery is a recurring element across Fire Emblem.

(Side note: I almost included the explicit use of slavery by the Cult of Gerxel before I remembered that Tear Ring Saga is not Fire Emblem, despite Shouzou Kaga creating both)
 
Random Sanity said:
Of course Ryza wouldn't enjoy the trappings of a noble title. But she's got no shot at staking/enforcing her claim on her ancestral home without one.
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I mean.

Even outside of the fact that without a noble title herself she still has some pretty strong friendship connections with the local nobility, who would probably be willing to swing by and help enforce her claim anyways, Ryza does in fact still have one fairly persuasive argument on her side.
SoaringHawk218 said:
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McFluffles said:
I mean.

Even outside of the fact that without a noble title herself she still has some pretty strong friendship connections with the local nobility, who would probably be willing to swing by and help enforce her claim anyways, Ryza does in fact still have one fairly persuasive argument on her side.
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That didn't help her parents overmuch.
 
Random Sanity said:
That didn't help her parents overmuch.
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Not to mention, dragon-slaying weapons are gonna be scary to fight around. Wonder how many the butchers got from dead Manaketes.

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SoaringHawk218 said:
Not to say the basic point does not stand, but Ryza's parents were not killed by humans.
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Yeah, they were probably killed for going against that what's-his-face.

Hope he was either killed by Mom and Dad, or still around so we can pound his face in personally.
 
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