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Fire Emblem story information
Part 2 Synopsis - Radiant Dawn
By: FreelancerSealBoy
Of Countries and Kings
While stability returns to Daein, the same cannot be said of its
neighbor, Crimea. Its new queen, Elincia is still very young, and in
the minds of many of the nobles too inexperienced to be a good ruler.
Their overly-critical opinion towards her reaches a peak when she
recognizes Daein’s new king, Pelleas. Distrust of their neighbor runs
high among the nobles and most share their worries with the queen
herself. After one such meeting, Queen Elincia takes to the skies
hoping to sort out this turn of events against her. She encounters the
heron Leanne and the elderly raven, Nealuchi in her flight, and
following them a group of Begnion Wyvern Riders intent on capturing the
heron. With the aid of her knight, Marcia, Elincia succeeds in driving
the intruders back. Curious as to why the two laguz are in Crimea,
Elincia invites them back to the Crimean capital of Melior, though this
act only drives a wedge further between her and the nobles of her
court. Elincia learns that Leanne is seeking Crimea’s hero, Ike, who
helped Elincia reclaim her throne. Ike and his band however have
disappeared. Until they are found, the queen requests they remain with
her as her guests.
While many of the nobles are critical of
Elincia’s reign, none acted on it. That is, all except one. In the
countryside town of Oma, two former fighters in the Mad King’s War, the
farmer Brom and his friend, Nephenee, overhear a plot against their
queen. An odd purple-haired man is heard recruiting men and arming them
for battle. Unable to remain silent, the two speak up and a battle
ensues. After fighting off the recruits and meeting the alluring thief
Heather, the instigator of this brief uprising is killed, but not
before he reveals the greater plot at work. Brom and Nephenee learn
that this man is a pawn of Ludveck, the powerful Duke of Felirae. It is
the duke’s plan to overthrow Queen Elincia and take the kingdom for
himself. Alarmed by this revelation, the pair journey to Melior to warn
their queen of the impending storm.
Upon learning of the
uprising in the countryside, Elincia attempts to resolve the matter
with as little bloodshed as possible. She decides to first find proof
of Brom and Nephenee’s claim before taking any action. Lucia, her
milk-sister, and loyal bodyguard volunteers to go to Ludveck’s castle
in Felirae and uncover any evidence to support the account. Leanne and
Nealuchi choose to accompany her. Upon their arrival, they are greeted
warmly by their host. After staying for an undetermined amount of time,
Lucia discovers a cave on the castle grounds. In that cave, she
discovers a document implicating the duke as a traitor. Lucia escapes
Felirae with the document in hand, but not before killing another of
Ludveck’s agents who had discovered her. While Lucia returns to Melior
unharmed, this event alerts Ludveck to her deception.
Once in
Melior, Elincia is saddened by the news brought by her friend. The
queen decides the best course of action is to arrest the duke before he
can strike and plunge Crimea into civil war. She expresses despair over
the recent events, but after some encouragement from Leanne, she
decides to press on. Elincia sends her knights led by Lucia's brother,
Geoffrey, to Felirae to apprehend her enemy while she flees the capital
for the safety of nearby Fort Alpea. The knights do battle outside the
gates of Castle Felirae. Though many rebels are killed, they discover
Duke Ludveck is nowhere to be found. Geoffrey guesses they’ve walked
straight into a trap meant to draw them away from Melior while the
rebel force attacks. He orders a beacon lit to signal his sister who is
in the captail awaiting news of the battle. Meanwhile, to defend his
queen, he begins to lead his troops to Fort Alpea.
After seeing
her brother’s signal, Lucia also guesses the battle was nothing more
than a ruse. She leaves the castle to warn her queen of the danger
heading her way via her network of spies. She arrives at a contact
point, a village house, only to be roughly seized and dragged inside.
She discovers, to her horror, she has fallen into Ludveck’s hands. The
duke interrogates Lucia hoping to determine the queen’s location.
Though she refuses to answer any of his questions, it proves to be of
no help to the queen as the duke has already learned of Elincia’s
whereabouts. He leaves with his army with Lucia as his captive, but not
before leaving a bundle of Lucia’s hair as a message for the queen.
Queen
Elincia learns of her milk-sister’s fate the next day and fears for her
greatly. She resolves to not only stop this rebellion, but save Lucia
as well. With the aid of the Wyvern Rider Haar, Brom and Nephenee, the
sage Calill, and laguz, Leanne, Nealuchi, and the two beasts, Lethe and
Mordecai, the queen rallies her troops for a final stand. Their wait is
short as Ludveck’s army arrives at the fortress ready for battle.
Elincia at first chooses to wait-out a siege to allow Geoffrey and his
troops time to reach them, but a servant on the side of the rebels
opens the fort gates allowing the enemy to enter, turning the wait-out
into an actual battle. Ludveck himself leads the final charge. At
first, the battle appears to turn in favor of the duke, though Elincia
and her forces fight hard. The tide turns when Geoffrey arrives much
earlier than expected. With his forces falling around him and facing
the onslaught of the queen and her knights, Ludveck surrenders and is
taken prisoner. The rebels flee the fort upon their leader’s capture.
Elincia hurries to speak to her enemy and force Lucia’s location from
him, but is alerted to the rebels presence just outside the fort.
Much
to Elincia’s horror, Ludveck has prepared one last assault, though a
much more underhanded one. His men gather around the gallows outside
Fort Alpea on which Lucia stands about to be hanged. The soldiers give
Elincia an ultimatum: she can either release the duke or watch her
friend die. The rebels give Elincia only half an hour to decide Lucia's
fate. The queen speaks to Ludveck in prison hoping to learn why he’s
sunk to such a level. He tells her that she is not fit to rule; that
while she is a kind woman, she must also be ruthless as a queen. She
learns this rebellion was a test to see if she could prevent a civil
war. The duke reminds her that with Lucia’s life at stake, she has only
one choice: free him and surrender her throne. Elincia however refuses
Ludveck’s offer telling him that since he cares nothing for the people
of Crimea and seeks his own interests first, he has proved himself
unfit to be a king. As she leaves, the duke admits defeat but hopes
that she’ll return to him weeping over her choice.
Elincia
declares that Ludveck will not be freed. Lucia shows pride at her
queen’s decision knowing that though it will cost her life, Crimea will
go on. She praises Elincia before her execution begins. As she is
hanged, an arrow flies from out of nowhere severing the rope around
Lucia’s neck, and she falls from the gallows into the arms of none
other than Ike himself. Ike draws his sword with the unconscious Lucia
slung over his shoulder and engages the rebels. The other members of
the Greil Mercenaries emerge from the crowd one-by-one and overtake the
surprised rebels. Lucia is handed off to Ike’s sister, Mist, and the
healer Rhys who succeed in healing her, and she regains consciousness.
Later,
after Elincia and Lucia are reunited, Ike explains that Count Bastian
had approached him. He reveals Bastian predicted Ludveck’s plans and
hired the Greil Mercenaries to follow the rebel army to thwart the
duke. For this mission, secrecy was necessary and so Ike had to
disappear until the time was right. Elincia reflects over the past few
days and realizes if she were again forced to make a choice between her
friends' lives or the life of her country, she would again choose
Crimea. With resolve, she decides the surviving rebels will be wiped
out to prevent them from stirring up disorder among the people. In a
private conversation with Ike, Elincia reveals that Bastian had been
investigating the ruins of the fallen Nados Castle, where Ike
challenged the Black Knight in the Mad King’s War. His findings
indicate the Black Knight is still alive. Hearing that his enemy lives
on, Ike decides to go to Daein.
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