Dragrath

I was trying to multiquote and more or less gave up sorry I was actually trying to edit but I couldn't post into the prior sorry ignore the mess From that first picture it did look like it had a stem but that probably has to do with the blurriness. Success two comments in one post yes!!

Yeah as Omegaxis said you can clearly see a stem pointing away from Mila toward the observer. There is even the inward slope towards the stem that matches an apple exactly suggesting that it is indeed an apple.

Yeah it even has a stem sticking out towards her right. I agree with you that that is 100% an apple or apple like fruit.

I didn't see anything contradictory there with all the magical powers these godlike divine dragons have (as well as how easily affected their forms are by their powers) it would make sense for two divine dragons who are living among humans to take a more humanlike form. (Noting that their "human" forms are less human than most Manaketes) Plus seeing how much Naga loves humans as well as Naga crafting at least one Falchion well before degeneracy and the likes It makes more sense why such weapons might exist pre-degeneration. Changing shape seems to come easier to them than other dragons and I don't think we should forget about Xane who took shapeshifting to a whole new level After sealing his power(meaning who knows how potent it was before) I can easily by this as a divine dragon trait after all IS never said they couldn't shapeshift before... It also gives precedent to where they might of gotten the idea. So while it is a retcon I don't think it is a goof for the divine tribe at least.

Before looking at this thread I had assumed it was because they degenerated into wild animals more or less that they stayed able to reproduce but really this bit seems to be one of those lore details that has either been intentionally dropped for them or retconned considering it seems to be a perfect example of "Writing yourself into a hole" Lorewise their best bet to deal with these kinda details is to actually come up with what triggered the degeneration in the first place as we still don't know the underlying mechanics of it. So it might be the degeneration signs are akin to primitive diagnosis. i.e. you have a set of typical symptoms but they can vary in how they appear. But that said The similarity of the species that formed the Necrodragons and Wyverns might very well be the same tribe with far larger numbers and a global distribution. Perhaps they were the "insects" of the dragon tribes producing lots of weak offspring instead of a few strong offspring. Thus the hit from degeneration was insufficient to remove there reproduction? From what we have seen would it be ok to hypothesize that the more magical the dragon the harder they seem to have been hit by degeneracy? My personal speculation/headcanon is that perhaps wyverns are more like the Ancestral line of dragons that never really ventured deeply into magic and thus came out relatively unscathed when whatever unexplained plot device caused degeneracy. But really anything in this department seems to be grasping for straws from a canon that has been trying to work their way around the literary hole they worked themselves into lorewise.

Yeah it is quite disappointing especially since they missed what could have been an excellent reference (As the wind spell Excalibur is named after King Authur's sword...) I am heavily disappointed they didn't give her Excalibur(If I were them I would have honestly made that her only spell alas...)

I think it is pretty much confirmed that neither were Manaketes nor that they knew about them. From the reconned lore of Echoes the banishment should have happened well before Degeneration was first detected during the heyday of dragons. (no idea precisely how long before though) Since both of them were in exile (Mila willingly following her brother) they wouldn't have known about the dragonstone solution. You can notice that even in their "human" forms they posses draconic traits that Manaketes do not (namely tails) plus both freely use their powers without a stone medium(Mila forms a concentrated ball of energy during the cutscene but she doesn't use a stone) which would be required for Manaketes. Both showed signs of degeneration Duma's was likely accelerated by his obsession for Power

Sounds like you got blessed as my Zeke was better right out of recruitment and became more prevalent with each level Zeke's 2-4 stats on level up compared to Clives 1-2 with rare +3 gains. The only stat My Clive wins in is Attack and that was probably particularly blessed as he has slightly higher attack than Mathilda (though all other stats are vastly inferior)

Yeah Omega's only real advantage is that it doesn't count as magic allowing it to bypass the Dreadfighter class skill which halves magic. And I know how you feel regarding signature weapon's >_< She really got screwed over with those last two skills (Though I can't say I really use Sendscale all that often. Once Alm Promotes and gets Bow access it is easier to simply switch to a bow abusing the convoy (as with his speed and bow properties only Dreadfighters will really be hurt by sendscale more from experience) And the health cost is dangerously high for a front line fighter basically requiring Physic/Fortify Support right afterwards. :p

Well even excluding legendaries without DLC there is a limited quantity of most desirable or ideal items particularly The Lady Blade(only 1) Mage rings etc. Given that most units will have to resort to "lesser" options. As an aside though depending on how luck plays out I have actually used Priestesses with swords that give regen. If you limit the list to a particular act for instance then then a zero weight sword it particularly came in handy against the myrmidons and Dreadfighters fought in Grieth's Citadel were Mae and Kamui(saber was slightly too slow) using even fire would ruin that speed in the given situation. The Beloved Zofia and Blessed sword are far superior to a Blessed Ring for instance. Also shields seem better placed on clerics who tend to be frailer and less dependent on speed due to their primary healing role the only time I typically give a shield to a mage is when their speed is irredeemable *cough* Boey *cough*. (Plus while clearly not ideal It feels wrong to not use a character's signature weapon! Though I feel the Blessed Zofia kinda got pushed aside skillwise on compared to Alm's Royal sword with regards to their 2nd skills Alm gets the godly Double Lion, while Celica gets... Swap the skill of the leather shield... For Clerics I would have to Vote for The Dracoshield as it gives major defensive buffs and regeneration allowing for your cleric to stay on heal duty at least far longer if not indefinitely as needed Additionally Ilwoon while often dismissed by people due to its subpar 70 accuracy it has the invaluable skill Lunge which lets you rip enemies off dangerously advantageous Terrain and take it for yourself. Note that this skill has both a +20 hit and it happens even if you miss your attack. Thus I recommend keeping one around for the lunge skill.

Both Python and Forscythe may come underleveled but they haven't disappointed. Both have abnormally high speed growths for their respective classes which automatically gives them an edge if trained Python in particular has excellent speed growth tied for 4th highest in the game and thus becomes the only archer that has a chance to reliably double enemies though pulling this off on faster enemies requires particular bow choices (2 weight ideally) admittedly it is only 55 as a growth but in Echoes that is actually amazing. Forescythe initially comes with all the downsides of the soldier class namely shit movement and speed, but he has the highest res and has a decent chance to level speed unlike Both Lucas and Valbar. If trained he will for all intents and purposes leave Lucas in the dust. Sadly the 4 move is such a crippling blow as even though he can be good at combat he often arrives late to the battle like all other low movement units given some of the maps are very large and terrain heavy... (armor really makes this much much worse than other 4 move units)

Well They were banished before the degeneration if I read the changes correctly. Moreover Tiki is Naga's daughter and from what we have seen Naga seems to be leagues above other dragons. Tiki's potential was comparable to her own which I think is why Naga acted so distinctly there. Tiki's mind couldn't handle the power and Naga was afraid Tiki would degenerate into what probably would have been the most powerful monstrosity ever... I would guess that Duma and Mila post recon wouldn't be strong enough to warrant the same level of response. Though You would think they would be contacted regarding the treat of degeneration? Or at least dealt with similar to other degenerate dragons... Unless Naga thought they were dead? It is a plot hole as far as I can tell unless we are told that they were just presumed dead... meh. As for FE 4 I get the tension as IS hasn't shown good writing ability in recent entries... However part of me would love to see Loptyr's motives explored more though I am afraid they will try and connect him to Grima... I can see those bugs as being related to Loptyr but Grima is too mindless to be Loptyr. Unless whatever Loptyr sought to do failed? Loptyr has the potential to be one of FE's better villains if done right so I hope Loptyr gets done well if IS ever decides to go there...

Yeah It seems I forgot to replace one when I copy and pasted... Opps... Outside of that how is my argument?

This makes sense for the Archanean chronicles I mean they all take place in the same world and all mythos so far as we know was driven by Dragon power prosperity and for the strongest of dragon kind worship. Then some event happened that triggers dragons to descend into madness. So far Dragons only really are present in Archanea and Elibe and some point later presumably Magvel(If I remember right there only appeared Manakates and Dracozombies there and they fought against Formortiis) In Elibe the dragons were if memory serves non native or at the very least chose to flee the world after a magical cataclysm caused them to undergo degeneration(though do we know if it is the same type of degeneration? ). An interesting thing to note is all the worlds with Draconic degeneration there seems to be a major magical conflict. Even the abysmally vague Fates world features this trait with all the dragons leaving but two one of which threw away his power. As we know the games can be connected by the Dragon gates this leads to my speculation that the degeneration might be related to unsustainable abuse of the magic in the world. Elibe humans created super weapons that upset the balance. Fates had dragons fighting among each other with human pawns that they fed magical weapons and the likes as their fodder. In comparison in Archanea we are told of great magical creations/cities and the like having been created by dragon kind. And if artifacts are considered the Starsphere(Azure) Geosphere(Vert) Lightsphere(Ardent) Darksphere(Sable) Lifesphere(Gules) are suspicious as while we are told the shield was created to seal the earth dragons the gems seem to have strangely excessive abilities for that leading me to wonder if perhaps they were reused from something else?...(the shield's appearance is similar to Naga's other creation Falchion(now known to be both versions at different times which makes sense as well Naga has multiple fangs and they can presumably regenerate) which would make sense as they both originated from Naga's fangs Plus there are also lots of ancient dragon relics either mentioned or shown. We also know that weapons of old but unknown origin exist namely Gradivus Paritha Hauteclere and Mercurius come to mind. All of these things could have played into magical depletion if that were to be the trigger for degeneration to occur in the very magically attuned dragon kin. For Magvel we don't really know enough to make any presumptions but perhaps Formortiis played a role? after all he is interesting as the closest FE has to an Eldrich abomination. As long as Formortiis and Ashera/Yune(Ashunera) remain non dragon entities this does open up the series to expand into what other than dragons exist in the FE universe. Tellius makes sense from the concept of being very early in the FE storyline where presumably the major races of the later games had yet to come into existence. (As well as probably a separate realm) But in all honesty it is pretty speculative given how barren the lore is for this universe. Personally I'd love to have them explore more into what triggered the various degeneration events (we know the scoring in Elibe and degeneration in Archanea (which was once the heart of dragon society) The TDLR Is I suspect that like the Human caused Scouring Archanean Dragons similarly doomed themselves by upsetting the magical balance of the world via artifact creation magical works or quite possibly by some dragons becoming Too strong to sustainably support.

From the Japanese version of the game which is released...

The dragon bit is yeah honestly disappointing though I feel that was probably more to limitations/laziness than anything. The part about the stones being mined could actually be true as a remnants from dead Manaketes as after all couldn't Tiki use other dragonstones? (I assumed it was more like archaeological digging taking stones from the past to be honest) But yeah Awakening feels like they forgot a lot of the world building bits from before or something. However descendants of say Merric or even a city over two thousand years later might not be very significant or likely honestly... Though more connections would have been cool.

As long as the growth to enemy strength is balanced to the player leveling curve then any growth rate works honestly. That said I actually prefer higher growths due to the feeling of actually seeing your units improve so I see it as a positive change to be honest.

I'm wondering about this myself to be honest... That enemy portrait is quite fiery...

This is an interesting note as on earth this is exactly what happens during an ice age on earth. If the conflict removed the water either by triggering an ice age (which would be easy considering how Grima blighted out the sun during their revival, then pretty much all of the geography changes can be explained simply though many years of perpetual darkness cooling the world long enough for a runaway freezing affect. Also importantly that doesn't preclude hot environments from occurring in the world either deserts tend to be hot during the day due to lack of water to mediate the affects of light (and conversely tend to get cold at night) Now FE doesn't necessarily, if at all, follow real world logic but the fact that a real world explanation can cover the geography changes makes this seem like a minor thing when cataclysmic monsters exist. As for the Falchion being male only thing I'm 99.9999...% sure that is wholly a localization thing and not actually canon

He honestly looks pretty cool I notice the sockets that seem to indicate the former presence of more draconic eyes(or something similar) though It is a shame we can't see what Mila's draconic form looked like. (Also am I the only person who would love to get a playable monster character if only as a post game "trial map" type deal? Seeing all these monster portraits really brings it to mind... FE honestly hasn't really used undead to their full potential Doma and Grima and to a lesser extent Fomortiis are really the only foes to use undead in FE...

I guess it was his art appearance that lead to that presumption in the other thread. I agree that Loptyr is one of the series best villains though for any future content in the Jugdral/Archanea/Valentia world all he needs to plot another return is to form a connection to the physical plain. There are so many ways it could be done too as Loptyr seems to be a villain that does things for a reason with an endgame that we never learned. Quite unlike the unstable Grima who simply wanted to erase humanity... *cough* At least we now have a possible motive in an inferiority complex and trying to erase its creators. Being an unstable artificial undead abomination might help explain Grima but nothing can ever save Validar from being pathetically evil for no reason so that will be a sad loose end that only a remake could fix... I did have a thought while writing this is it possible that Grima might have been a potential pawn for Loptyr? I can see Grima looking up to Loptyr but Loptyr looking down on the "fake" dragon. I mainly bring this up with Naga's claim that neither she nor Grima can destroy each other as the one possibility that I can think of to explain that is if Grima had help from someone who CAN... Perhaps Naga's death in future past is simply part of Loptyr's plan to remove the thorn that is Naga from play? Naga expects to fight Grima to standstill only to face an attack launched and prepared by Loptyr or something. It would explain that pesky plot hole in a way at least(would have worked w/out extra dimensional aide)

That is a good counterpoint though I would argue Loptyr probably was above the average earth dragon due to delving deep into magic particularly dark magic/becoming a dark dragon. Dragon wise he probably could be more of an earth dragon equivalent of pre Manakete Gotah. Now the real issue is what went on at the dragon's table... (If the timeline is ever revisited I don't get why they don't use the wonderful potential of Loptyr to well be a competent villain. This hits the heart of the issue. The fusion theory was so strong because it accounted for those elements. Now a possibility that comes to mind for the artificial undead horror Grima is that the earth dragons might still be sealed but Grima could be siphoning off some of the remnant powers from the Dragon's table. The sacrificing humans and the use of the stones on the shield of seals could simply be a conduit to drain that power w/ Grima in a weakened state. (the sacrifice also because of Grima's disdain for humans due to being created) The similarities to Loptyr could then be a literal example of "imitation is the greatest form of flattery" rather than an earth dragon connection.

Sigh a bit sad to hear the supports are short because I was and still am hoping for conversations to add depth to the world. My favorite supports are the ones with the meeting of differing ideologies explaining to the other side or ones that reveal key details about the world such as how people think act etc. As for the actual convos I'll skip them until the game actually comes out :) (namely I want to see how the official translations differ and compare the two with as little bias as possible)

The problem with awakening was the tracks feel out of place on their own for the most part due to how they were meant to flow through battle transitions. At least for me it really bothered me as listening to the out of game audio really was underwhelming as you didn't get the mixing of the theme+ablaze versions. On their own the themes in Echos feel over all more complete which (in my biased opinion) boosts them up a notch (For me Fates and the themes of RD are overall preferable to Awakening though awakening did have some good themes)

Aye it also sort of provides motivation for Walhart (though it would still need more of a connection to strengthen the connections to that plotline as Alm's descendants) Say Alm's line that eventually led to Walhart carrying down the knowledge that Alm regretted awakening "Grima". Thus post near apocalypse That heavy burden would drive him to try and rectify things. That could have left an opportunity to make a less Deus Ex Machina like end solution for the final battle...