Fire Emblem Theory regarding the Magic of this Game

[Malcolm Belmonr]

During a scene in the trailer you can see someone preform Ice Magic which is interesting topic all on itself but something more interesting is a rat thing you see while the magic is preforming the magic spell. Thanks to The Tree's Apprentice's theory i think i may have a theory on what it is.

I think the Magic in this game is going to be based on Feng Sui which is the theory that there are five elements these are:

Fire,Water, Earth,Wood and Metal:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/FiveElementsCycleBalanceImbalance.jpg

The Metal element can take the form of ice, and the magic being used in the trailer was Ice magic, represented by a rat spirit. There is something that goes

against this theory..The Rat in Chinese mythology is represented by Water not Metal. On the other hand the Rat like the other Chinese Zodiac Animals can be combined with the 5 elements and Water is associated with Ice so it's not a stretch to assume they choose the Rat to represent Ice. This makes me wonder: Will they introduce a Complete Magic Triangle back into the new game with each element being effect and weak to another. Only time will tell.

If you are curious about which element each animal represents:

Rat: Water

Ox: Earth
Tiger: Wood
Hare: Wood
Dragon: Earth
Snake: Fire
Horse: Fire
Ram: Earth
Monkey: Metal
Rooster: Metal
Dog: Earth
Pig: Water

[Jedi]

This would be quite awesome if it works out this way, although 5 elements in an FE setting may be tricky to balance out, but would still be awesome to see.

[Malcolm Belmonr]

This would be quite awesome if it works out this way, although 5 elements in an FE setting may be tricky to balance out, but would still be awesome to see.

It would be rather simple kinda like Pokemon with One Element beating another. Water Magic is effective against Fire Magic Users. Fire Magic Users effective against Metal Users ( Hell they could change this to armour units). Metal Users effective against Wood Users and Wood Users effective against Earth Users and Earth effective against Water

Edited January 16, 2015 by Malcolm Belmonr

[Dragoncat]

Where do you see the rat?

But yay, ice magic! Something that's already in my headcanon :)

[Malcolm Belmonr]

Where do you see the rat?

But yay, ice magic! Something that's already in my headcanon :)

http://youtu.be/58Zqxus179o

At 28:05

[Dragoncat]

Took me awhile but I saw it.

[Malcolm Belmonr]

Took me awhile but I saw it.

It seemed weird to me..why would a Rat of all things be there..i doubt it would be there just to make the animation for the Ice look better. I feel there is a reason why its there

[Chloe Neo]

If ice magic is involved then maybe a new class may be introduced along with it.

[Thunderfox]

Given than the Ice-Rat-Thing appears to becoming out of a circle of Ofuda(the paper seals/tags) perhaps a remake of the Summoner class from Sacred Stones?

[hammerene]

If it's based off Feng-Shui and Zodiac animals, that would be so awesome. That makes me wonder when the next informational video/trailer comes out...

I wonder how the weapons triangle would work though, with so many elements. And would we still have the Wind and Thunder elements? If we do, that'll come out to seven elements. Sounds kinda tricky to balance out, unless they group up elements together or something like that.

Given than the Ice-Rat-Thing appears to becoming out of a circle of Ofuda(the paper seals/tags) perhaps a remake of the Summoner class from Sacred Stones?

Hm, if the Summoner class does make a return, I wonder what kind of summons you can do. If we do get a Summoner class, hopefully we'll get a variety of summons?

[Ryo]

I wonder how the weapons triangle would work though, with so many elements. And would we still have the Wind and Thunder elements? If we do, that'll come out to seven elements. Sounds kinda tricky to balance out, unless they group up elements together or something like that.

If we don't count Wind and Thunder (which are probably exclusive to the western side), and goes with the five Taoism elements, we will probably have a magic pentagram instead (basing on the Wu Xing - lit. "5 elements" - philosophy in Taoism).

Read more on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Xing

Edited January 17, 2015 by Ryo

[Kirie]

I could see a Metal-element being used for weapons that have magic effects (think: Levin Sword and the like). It would be interested to see those weapons have their own place in the balancing, rather than being lumped in as other types.

[hammerene]

If we don't count Wind and Thunder (which are probably exclusive to the western side), and goes with the five Taoism elements, we will probably have a magic pentagram instead (basing on the Wu Xing - lit. "5 elements" - philosophy in Taoism).

Read more on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Xing

Reading the Wikipedia article, I'm reminded of biorhythms, especially at the part talking about phases. Haha, now I'm wondering if terrain/weather will influence the damage/accuracy of the magic used. (Highly unlikely but it's just a curious thought.)

If Wind and Thunder is exclusive to the Western faction, then does that mean it's just neutral when against the five elements and the five elements have their own magic pentagram? Hm, if we do get a magic pentagram instead of a magic triangle, I wonder how Wind and Thunder will fit into this...

[Aiddon]

Would be a nice shakeup of the magic triangle; weapon advantages will never go away in the series, but we could use some expansion beyond just the three. Although, one thing I'd like to bring up is that due to Wu Xing being Chinese, that's not a thing in traditional Japanese. Their elemental system is the same as ours, except the fifth element, Aether, is replaced with "ten", which means "emptiness." I do think the rat silhouette is important because I don't see why else they would incorporate it.

[Gima]

Would be a nice shakeup of the magic triangle; weapon advantages will never go away in the series, but we could use some expansion beyond just the three. Although, one thing I'd like to bring up is that due to Wu Xing being Chinese, that's not a thing in traditional Japanese. Their elemental system is the same as ours, except the fifth element, Aether, is replaced with "ten", which means "emptiness." I do think the rat silhouette is important because I don't see why else they would incorporate it.

Maybe it's not the elemental system involved here? The Chinese Zodiac is part of Japan, so it could be involved in some other way.

[Murdok Dracul]

This is a very interesting theory.

Reading the Wikipedia article, I'm reminded of biorhythms, especially at the part talking about phases. Haha, now I'm wondering if terrain/weather will influence the damage/accuracy of the magic used. (Highly unlikely but it's just a curious thought.)

If Wind and Thunder is exclusive to the Western faction, then does that mean it's just neutral when against the five elements and the five elements have their own magic pentagram? Hm, if we do get a magic pentagram instead of a magic triangle, I wonder how Wind and Thunder will fit into this...

Wiki says 'air' comes under Wood and 'storms' come under Water.

Fire > Wind/Wood

Wind/Wood > Thunder/Water

Thunder/Water > Fire

This would also make Wind good against Earth and weak to Metal, and Thunder good against Metal and weak to Earth...which all seems to make sense to me. Pokémon logic, right?

However, I'm not sure they'd introduce new elements just to make them the same as pre-existing ones, so this might not be the case. The existence of Metal and Earth would keep things fresh, though.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Murdok Dracul

[Jedi]

Well if anything can be assumed from FE's of the past, after a successful game or a great FE. They tend to shake up the formula a bit.

FE3 was very successful

FE4 proceeded it with a very VERY alien style in comparison and introduced what we now know as the weapon triangle. Was pretty successful

FE5 Proceeded that with a more traditional albeit altered style

Just for one example.

[Mirron]

It's possible that Ice will just represent Water, and then we still have a Metal element. Could see them making Metal be Thunder and Wood for Wind though. Might not be fitting, but I've seen the elements paired up like that though in the past. We'll see though. I'm excited for sure. I hope they do Light and Dark though, makes it like Yin and Yang.

[The Hero of Headbands]

Perhaps the dancer one of those fighters with the magic fans. You never know.

[Leif]

I mentioned this in another topic, but I imagine it will go like this:

The Western army will have the traditional Fire, Thunder, Wind, Light, and Dark, with the triangle operating like it did in FE4, 5 and 10.

Then the Eastern army will have the Taoism elements, but operating like so:

(Fire > Wood > Water > Fire) > Metal > Earth > (Fire > Wood > Water > Fire). Essentially, Metal is going to be the eastern equivalent to light and Earth the equivalent to dark. The Fire, Wood and Water triangle is like the traditional Anima triangle.

[Mirron]

4/5, if I recall right, have a different system than 10 does. I'd prefer 10's of the options, though I think that it'd be better if it was balanced more like the Wu Xing than a triangle within a triangle, for both groups.

[TheCaptain]

I do like these theories, but I honestly think you are all reading into it a bit too much. We have already seen ice magic in FE (fimbulvetr) which was just anima (wind). If anything, I think this means the return of more tomes, but I doubt they'll introduce new mechanics that are that different, especially since it will still be operating on awakening's general engine. It could mean the return of the anima/magic triangle though. I don't know what the rat could mean though... It might just be to give an added visual effect an nothing more, but I can't say for sure...

Edited January 22, 2015 by TheCaptain

[Leif]

4/5, if I recall right, have a different system than 10 does. I'd prefer 10's of the options, though I think that it'd be better if it was balanced more like the Wu Xing than a triangle within a triangle, for both groups.

You are right. I forgot that FE4 had Anima Magic at a disadvantage to both Light and Dark.

Then in that case, I hope FE14 treats magic like FE10 in some way. I love the variety. I don't like magic grouped up under one "Tome" weapon level. I love my Wind, Fire, and Thunder mages.

However since FE14 is using the FE13 engine, magic will most definitely be handled like it was in Awakening.

[Mirron]

It may use the same engine, but they could still implement some sort of triangle or the like. It could just turn out like Mages in RD where they had access to all Anima Magic.

And I definitely agree. All of them being lumped under "Tomes" is pretty dull. I'd like multiple categories of tomes. It helps provide variety.

[Ryo]

It may use the same engine, but they could still implement some sort of triangle or the like. It could just turn out like Mages in RD where they had access to all Anima Magic.

And I definitely agree. All of them being lumped under "Tomes" is pretty dull. I'd like multiple categories of tomes. It helps provide variety.

I also agree with the multiple categories of magic. But the magic system needs to be rebalanced because different mages who're skilled at different types of magic would not work well with how Awakening handles tomes. In Awakening, Fire magic is close to useless (because it lacks a special effect), while Wind magic is broken (exclusive Anima brave weapon), at least Thunder has bonus Crit.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Ryo