| Eliwood Pherae | |
|---|---|
 Eliwood, with Durandal - The Blazing Sword | |
| Vital Statistics | |
| Title(s) | Courageous Noble of Pherae |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Human |
| Faction | Noblesse Oblige |
| Relatives | Elbert (Father; deceased), Elanora (Mother), Roy (Son) |
| Alignment | +4 |
| Level | 4 |
| Status | Alive |
Eliwood, also less commonly known as Eliwood Pherae, is a one of the main characters of the strategy game Fire Emblem 7 or Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword. He also appears as a minor character in the game's chronological sequal Fire Emblem 6, also known as Fire Emblem: The Sword of Seals. Fire Emblem 7's story largely revolves around Eliwood's quest to unearth his father's mysterious disappearance, while Eliwood's own son, Roy, is the protagonist of Fire Emblem 6.
Eliwood was taken as the fifth character of one Celestial Refresh's founding admin in 2008, who was the first to take up the character and has had him ever since.
Background[]
Eliwood was born of the noble house of Pherae, one of the many territories of the Lycian League, to Lord Elbert and Lady Eleanora. His childhood best friend was Hector, the younger brother of the Marquess Ostia. These two attended school together and as they grew older their friendship grew as well. Much of Eliwood's childhood beyond that is unknown; however, it can be assumed that Eliwood learned of courtly matters and how to rule a territory from his father, his mother, and in school, while learning the art of combat from his guardian, Marcus, who served under Elbert at a much younger age. Eliwood's skill and weapon of choice largely imply that while he is not as physical strong or as stalwart as his peers, his finesse and fleet of foot allow him to hold his own in a fight. Eliwood's journey in Fire Emblem 7 actually begins a year prior to most of the game's events, when he stumbled upon a group of bandits who had kidnapped a young girl by the name of Ninian. He was originally scheduled to meet up with Hector, but eventually rescues the girl from the bandits' clutches, returns Ninian to her comrades, Lyndis' Legion, and goes on to aid Lyn in her own quest to liberate her grandfather by convincing the surrounding territories to stay out of Lyn's heir dispute with Lord Lungren, who had been secretly usurping the throne by way of poison.
Eliwood sets off on his own quest after his father mysteriously disappears. Leaving with only Marcus, his loyal guardian and mentor, Lowen, a junior knight of Pherae, and his own wits about him, Eliwood soon find that his homeland and the surrounding region is being plagued by bandits who are being urged on to create chaos by an unseen force. Along the way, the lord runs into Hector and his own men, and the two lords recruit more allies as they move across the region and unearth what has befallen Eliwood's father. Eventually, Eliwood once again crosses paths with Lyn, who has been driven from her grandfather's castle and proceeds to aid her in retaking it and rescuing her grandfather. From then on, the three united lords travel the lands, and eventually discover that the Black Fang - a seedy group of bandits and assassins - is partly to blame for the turmoil overtaking their lands, but is being directed by a much more sinister foe.
By the end of his journey, Eliwood is reunited with his father, who has been captured by the Arch Druid Nergal, and is later killed while averting a cataclysm. Eliwood journeys into the depths of the earth to attain Durandal, the legendary Blazing Sword and fabled weapon of Roland, founder of Lycia, and uses the weapon to kill Nergal along with a Fire Dragon which was summoned by the villain. He also sparks a healthy, albeit fledgling romance with Ninian, who in the course of their quest is revealed to be half-dragon, and is most likely the canonical mother for Roy.
Involvement[]
First arriving into the multiverse in Crimea, Eliwood was at first unaware that he had been in fact ripped into a completely different universe. He had been enroute to a meeting of the various lords and ladies of the Lycian League to be held in Ostia when he and Marcus were pulled through a rift and stripped of most of their abilities. Despite the areas rather keen likenesses to his own domain, Eliwood soon discovered that he was indeed not even on his home continent anymore and set out with Marcus to the local castle to seek audience and answers. After a few scuffles with bandits - nothing the lord and his guardian weren't used to - he found that Castle Crimea was in fact housing several allies from his homeland including Florina and Hector. After spending some time amongst the familiar and unfamiliar faces in the castle, and even recruiting some new members, Eliwood set about trying to find a means of returning home, and traveled to the Tower of Twilight where he ran into Lyndis. It was then that the lord began to discover that the multiverse wasn't a mere new territory to explore, but housed real dangers and woes, as he had run into his former comrade in a rather distressed state. She had given no indication as to the reasons of her distress, but Eliwood suspected that something was amiss.
In an attempt to regain some of his former battle prowess and learn more about the multiverse's denizens, Eliwood decided to partake in a few spars in the Crater Coliseum. Comically, most of his combatants turned out to be female, but posed quite a challenge with skills that the young nobleman had never seen before. Most notable of these spars was with a young knight named Tear, who Eliwood eventually befriended and brought back to Castle Crimea, and a mysterious woman by the name of Sheik. Although he had technically lost the battle with the sheikah, he inadvertently revealed the woman's gender by cutting a section of her top which caused her to recoil and cover herself in a way only a woman would. Little did Eliwood know that his fateful disgracing - and immediate pursuit - of Sheik would lead him down a path that would dominate his time and attention in the multiverse.
For the price of shaming Sheik in the way he had during their spar, Eliwood was charged with locating four boys by the name of Link. After finding the boys, the lord eventually reunited them with the sheikah, and they had an afternoon of bonding by way of fighting and rough-housing in the moondust. Amidst his interactions with the Links, and particularly Sheik atop the Tower of Twilight, he learned that they hailed from a kingdom known as Hyrule, a kingdom that had recently began to recover from an era of hardship. Despite Eliwood's pressings to find out more, however, he was kept at arms reach from most of the country's history by Sheik. He does, however, learn of the dilemma plaguing the woman in returning home, and urges her to do so as he feels that her people need her more than the harm her return would cause.
Eliwood returned to Crimea to find his wayward comrades in disarray, and his best friend kidnapped by a literal devil from Florina's past. Following the ransom note left by Hector's kidnapper, and one of his henchmen, Eliwood and most of the other heroes of Noblesse Oblige finally came face-to-face with Mephistopheles, who had not only taken Hector hostage, but had warped the Ostian's mind and turned him into an evil tyrant of his former self. As if to add insult to injury, Ike was also tainted by the devil by way of a cursed sword that was originally meant for Eliwood, and the entire faction was sworn to protect Mephistopheles' own holdings lest their comrades be killed and their new home destroyed. Hector's corruption quickly created a schism in the Noblesse Oblige, with those who were not as acquainted with the Ostian wanting to cast him out, or even end him, while Eliwood, Florina, and a few others tried to employ negotiation and even confinement. Eventually, it became apparent that the taint of Mephistopheles and the schism created in its aftermath could not be resolved by Eliwood as he was at the time, and others needed him more.
In eventually finding his way to Hyrule, Eliwood discovered that the accomplishments of his comrades were not perceived as the triumphs that had been toted. Areas of the kingdom were beginning to show signs of tension between the natives and the Noblesse occupying forces, while resentment was beginning to build over the relative lack of contact between the would be guardians and the royalty of the kingdom they were allegedly guarding. After righting some of the wrongs that had been set, Eliwood eventually became privy to a wedding between the crown princess of Hyrule, and a prince of a neighboring kingdom.
Eliwood arrived at the Temple of Time to find Sheik there. Although he had thought them friends, the sheikah chides his friends' involvement with the kingdom, forbids him from entering the castle walls despite his wishes to seek audience with the princess, and urges him to leave the kingdom as soon as possible. He only lately learned that this cold dismissal was that she wanted him to continue his vigil over the Links - something he had been found lacking in when he had to deal with Hector's kidnapping - and that she didn't want him to be around for the wedding.
The next day, Eliwood managed to sneak into Hyrule Castle with the help of Malon and Talon, who he had helped the night prior, and found his way to Zelda's chamber to say his piece despite Sheik's forbidden. He was once again dismissed by Sheik, but not before warning the princess not to marry unless it's out of love, and leaving her fresh Lon Lon Milk since he had heard she was fond of it.
Once more going against Sheik's attempts at distancing him, Eliwood found his way into the wedding itself, watching in the seats with distress as Zelda was set to marry a prince she had no feelings for. It was during the ceremony that Eliwood realized Sheik's true identity, but was forced to muse over it later, as he emerged to fight Ganondorf when the usurper crashed the wedding. After a brief exchange of blows, Eliwood was stunned and cast out when Zelda accepted Ganondorf's hand, seemingly disheartened by the discovery that Violet Link had been taken by the gerudo.
Deciding to go about rescuing Violet rather than be angry with Red for not telling him about the former boy's capture, Eliwood led his small force of Marcus, Rebecca, and Soren into the very heart of Ganondorf's other fortress, the headquarters of the Lords of Midnight. Although outnumbered, and running into Phantom Ganon, Eliwood and his companions managed to liberate Violet and escape with their lives, making good on his word to protect the Links regardless of the peril, and reinstating Zelda's trust in him. Zelda instructed Eliwood to seek out the Forgotten Hunters, and inform them of Sheik's incapacitation.
Despite the grim situation in Hyrule, Eliwood had not forgotten about the turmoil in Crimea, and returned to find that his life-long friend had broken from the bonds Eliwood and Florina had placed upon Hector after the lords had dueled before his departure. Eliwood found himself easily outmatched by a reinvigorated Hector, but was saved from a possible tragic end by Florina, who managed to subdue the Noble Devil. With Florina as his companion, Eliwood traveled to Death Mountain where he once again managed to obtain the legendary Durandal, and even slew one of Ganondorf's mighty abominations with the aid of the Pegasus Knight. Upon their departure, the duo was waylayed by Hector himself, who had yet again broken free from the bonds imposed upon him in Crimea. After a grueling fight in the volcano and above it, Eliwood and Florina succeeded in defeating Hector yet again, and with the power of Durandal once again in his grasp, Eliwood was able to destroy Hector's link to Mephistopheles and the source of his taint. Unfortunately, it was learned during the battle that Hector had come across Ike on his way to find them, and the Ostian had ended the ranger in cold blood to finally settle a petty feud spawned at the outset of Mephistopheles' taint on both.
The feeling of slight healing was short-lived, however, as Hector was brutally assassinated by Kuroudo Akabane while Eliwood, Hector, and Florina was in the goron's village recovering from their fight. Because of their wounds, both emotional and physical, they were only barely able to keep the transporter at bay, and the battle ended with Florina crippling Akabane to the point that he could no longer be a threat. Eliwood had spent himself fighting the monster of a man and protecting Florina, so he was unable to exact his vengeance, and was accepting of Florina's decision not to kill Akabane.
After revealing to Soren the matter of Ike's death, Eliwood decided to return to Hyrule in hopes of at least keeping the kingdom from falling anymore into chaos. With the recent deaths still heavy on his mind, Eliwood focused instead on a flower Zelda had left for him, which had been pre-arranged to help teach him about Hyrule's history, and better prepare him to aid the kingdom. A small accident led Eliwood to the past via the Master Sword, and after a brief adventure with the Link that Zelda had sent back to his own time, Eliwood was recognized as the spiritual successor to Link for the Master Sword, adding it to his fledgling collection of legendary blades.
Not long after claiming the Master Sword as his own, Eliwood was embroiled in a massive battle for the sake of Hyrule, as Mephistopheles had invaded the kingdom as part of a vendetta against Ganondorf. Eliwood had originally organized a militia formed from refugees of Twilight Hyrule and Termina in order to weaken Ganondorf's grasp on Hyrule, but they were all forced to fight alongside the King of Evil as he warred against a foe much worse than he. In the end, Eliwood's involvement in the battle was instrumental in turning the tides against Mephistopheles, as the lord's newfound weapons and combat prowess allowed him to stand fast against the devil himself on the battlefield... with some help from the others.
In the wake of the battle, Ganondorf invited some of the generals - Eliwood included - to Hyrule Castle of a massive celebratory feast.
Powers and Capabilities[]
As with his in-game incarnation, Eliwood focuses less on raw power and endurance, and more on finesse, speed and skill. As such, his combat strategy revolves around feints, parries, and dodge in the form of DP, while employing skillful strikes that are harder to evade and deadly accurate in the form of +DP to dodge. Eliwood's time in the multiverse, has, however, made him quite a bit more stalwart, so he is able to shrug off a few blows before tiring, and has gained the ability to dual-wield weapons, utilizing their capabilities simultaneously in battle. Perhaps one of Eliwood's greatest aces is the amount of effects that he may "add-on" to his basic strikes, ranging anYwhere from making them even harder to dodge, or even enchanting them with fire, or causing them to be crippling to their unfortunate target.
Unlike many other characters, Eliwood also possesses a few followers who can also hold their own in a fight. He has rich reserves of LP with which to coordinate them with his own attacks, and their variety of techniques and skills complement his own, making his total army a force with which to be reckoned.
The easiest way to take Eliwood down would be to sap him of all his EP, systematically slay his followers, and then score several high damage, hard to dodge attacks.
Quotes[]
Trivia[]
- Eliwood is a moderately popular character to make when members of CERP play Soul Calibur IV online. His incarnations there include: Voldo!Eliwood, Loliwood, and pinup!Eliwood. Most players give their Eliwood chest hair or unusually-colored underwear, as he tends to lose clothing easily.