On Holy Blood
Mar. 8th, 2012 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelSo, now that we have Holy King Emelina (no, really) and her brother Krom both sporting markings that resemble the decorative headgear used by Tiki and Nagi, it appears the Holy Blood concept from FE4/5 is back in business. (Tellius fans-- it's kind of like the Branded, except instead of being hated, you're the most specialest people alive.) That's the assumption, anyway-- Krom is gonna be one of the warriors "marked by the dragons," and that thing on his arm is the mark.
Time for a trip down memory lane...
1) Archanea. Actually, unless they retconned it into FE12, there's nothing about Marth having any sort of physical mark that guarantees he's the designated Falchion user. Everybody from Elice on down just knows-- or assumes that he is. Super-weapons kind of work along contractual lines in Archanea-- fathers pass the weapons down to their sons, mentors can gift them to prized pupils. There's comparatively little hocus-pocus involved. Gotoh's rigging it all somehow, but we don't know the details (see Q3).
2) Valencia. This may be the first glimmer of the entire holy blood concept. Alm has a cross-shaped mark on his arm that identifies him as the heir to Rigel. It's not stated if this is a birthmark, something Rudolf cut into the kid's arm before giving him away, or a genuine holy blood marking. Since we don't know, we can't make assumptions about what it means. Also, Alm's title is "Holy King," something forgotten in all the frothing over Marth of late.
3) Jugdral. Whoo. And here the Holy Blood concept is front and center, and boy is it ever confusing.
1) Holy bloodlines are what happens when dragons make a pact with human champions via some ritual. Don't ask. And don't ask why big badass Naga changed into a pretty chick for the ritual.
2) The inheritance of the "major" holy blood follows no known rules of genetics. The major carrier can be the eldest son, elder daughter, younger son, younger daughter, or one out of a pair of identical twins.
2a) If a major line of inheritance goes extinct, it can be reconstituted through the mating of two minor carriers. You can use cousins for this, but pairing half-siblings definitely does the trick.[*]
3) The major carrier is identified by a marking on their body. This can occur at any time in life, which sure must be aggravating to parents who want to know which of the little darlings has the god-powers.
4) If a "major" holy warrior's powers are suppressed for some reason (see: Briggid), then the mark on their body vanishes.
5) More than one major carrier can be alive at one time-- Shanan and Mareeta both have major Odo blood, for instance. [So, Krom and Emelina might both be equal carriers, while Liz has "minor" blood or whatever.]
5a) And the same set of parents can produce major carriers of two different bloodlines-- see Julia and Julius.
6) Major carriers can apparently also be identified by a visible aura, which is a really cool concept. Except it's mentioned all of once in FE4, never in FE5 that I recall, and its existence opens up too many plotholes to count. Either aura perception is incredibly rare in the general population or the majority of characters, playable and otherwise, are really, really, REALLY dense and not capable of adding 2 and 2 and getting 4.[**]
7) With god-powers come really bizarre consequences. Especially in the Naga, Loptos, Holsety and Ulir bloodlines. Memory loss comes up a lot, even more than is typical in FE.
* So, even if, say, Altenna had died, the Nova bloodline could've been resurrected by cross-breeding Leaf's grandkids. It's what they'll have to do to resurrect a couple of the bloodlines (like Tordo) anyway if they ever want to use those weapons again.
** Not kidding. Given the number of mistaken identities, incognito royals, and impersonations, a method of spotting a holy warrior at a hundred yards raises more questions than it answers. And my first question would be, "Why are these characters so clueless?"
So, what does this say about Krom and Emelina? Maybe nothing. But if FE13 is indeed taking place on the same planet as FE1/2/3/4/5, and evidence is mounting that this is the case, then perhaps the implementation of this "dragon mark" will echo earlier games.
Time for a trip down memory lane...
1) Archanea. Actually, unless they retconned it into FE12, there's nothing about Marth having any sort of physical mark that guarantees he's the designated Falchion user. Everybody from Elice on down just knows-- or assumes that he is. Super-weapons kind of work along contractual lines in Archanea-- fathers pass the weapons down to their sons, mentors can gift them to prized pupils. There's comparatively little hocus-pocus involved. Gotoh's rigging it all somehow, but we don't know the details (see Q3).
2) Valencia. This may be the first glimmer of the entire holy blood concept. Alm has a cross-shaped mark on his arm that identifies him as the heir to Rigel. It's not stated if this is a birthmark, something Rudolf cut into the kid's arm before giving him away, or a genuine holy blood marking. Since we don't know, we can't make assumptions about what it means. Also, Alm's title is "Holy King," something forgotten in all the frothing over Marth of late.
3) Jugdral. Whoo. And here the Holy Blood concept is front and center, and boy is it ever confusing.
1) Holy bloodlines are what happens when dragons make a pact with human champions via some ritual. Don't ask. And don't ask why big badass Naga changed into a pretty chick for the ritual.
2) The inheritance of the "major" holy blood follows no known rules of genetics. The major carrier can be the eldest son, elder daughter, younger son, younger daughter, or one out of a pair of identical twins.
2a) If a major line of inheritance goes extinct, it can be reconstituted through the mating of two minor carriers. You can use cousins for this, but pairing half-siblings definitely does the trick.[*]
3) The major carrier is identified by a marking on their body. This can occur at any time in life, which sure must be aggravating to parents who want to know which of the little darlings has the god-powers.
4) If a "major" holy warrior's powers are suppressed for some reason (see: Briggid), then the mark on their body vanishes.
5) More than one major carrier can be alive at one time-- Shanan and Mareeta both have major Odo blood, for instance. [So, Krom and Emelina might both be equal carriers, while Liz has "minor" blood or whatever.]
5a) And the same set of parents can produce major carriers of two different bloodlines-- see Julia and Julius.
6) Major carriers can apparently also be identified by a visible aura, which is a really cool concept. Except it's mentioned all of once in FE4, never in FE5 that I recall, and its existence opens up too many plotholes to count. Either aura perception is incredibly rare in the general population or the majority of characters, playable and otherwise, are really, really, REALLY dense and not capable of adding 2 and 2 and getting 4.[**]
7) With god-powers come really bizarre consequences. Especially in the Naga, Loptos, Holsety and Ulir bloodlines. Memory loss comes up a lot, even more than is typical in FE.
* So, even if, say, Altenna had died, the Nova bloodline could've been resurrected by cross-breeding Leaf's grandkids. It's what they'll have to do to resurrect a couple of the bloodlines (like Tordo) anyway if they ever want to use those weapons again.
** Not kidding. Given the number of mistaken identities, incognito royals, and impersonations, a method of spotting a holy warrior at a hundred yards raises more questions than it answers. And my first question would be, "Why are these characters so clueless?"
So, what does this say about Krom and Emelina? Maybe nothing. But if FE13 is indeed taking place on the same planet as FE1/2/3/4/5, and evidence is mounting that this is the case, then perhaps the implementation of this "dragon mark" will echo earlier games.
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Date: 2013-12-10 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-10 01:02 am (UTC)