For what it's worth, I do appreciate that Sombron's villainy is his choice and not his nature
Just like his kids, even he wasn't born evil. He became evil after getting chased out of his homeworld and he gained the title of Fell Dragon because he made the conscious choice to hurt others
That could've been an interesting contrast with Lumera
What were the actions that led to each of them being worshiped as a sovereign and a demon respectively? A Divine Dragon must show care into behaving like a paragon. A Fell Dragon can do whatever they want and still gets worshiped like a deity
IMO, I actually think the Four Hounds aren’t that bad as antagonists.
Because I see them and EVeyle as an evil foil to Alear and the Four Royals. Have you heard of the Psycho Rangers trope? The Psycho Rangers are basically meant to be evil Power Rangers.
This, IMO, how the Four Hounds work. Alear’s team is the Four Primary Royals that Alear meets on their journey to defeat Sombron (Alfred, Diamant, Ivy and Timerra). While Veyle (or at least EVeyle)’s team consists of the Four Hounds (of whom Zephia considers to be “family”).
The Four Hounds, however, are family by name only. Zephia’s actions towards the Hounds, especially being with Sombron (who could give zero thought about bonds) would ultimately be the downfall of the family Zephia created.
The main difference between the Four Royals and the Four Hounds is how they treat Alear and Veyle. The Royals respected Alear initially because they were the Divine Dragon, but Chapter 20 shows that Alfred and the others accept and know Alear for who they are as people.
The Hounds (except Mauvier) more or less treat Veyle as a means to an end. Zephia follows Sombron in order to win his favor. Griss (as follower of the Fell Dragon) needs EVeyle to inflict pain on him because it’s his devotion to the cult of the Fell Dragon, which required blood. Marni wanted EVeyle’s praises. Marni saw good Veyle as the “boring one” because she never got praise from Good Veyle. This mentality changed by the time she learned Veyle’s backstory, but by then, it’s too late.
The Royals could have been like the Hounds if they only saw Alear for their status rather than as a person. In their supports, Alear and the Royals get to form relationships outside of battle and they get to understand each other better as a result.
Alear, Alfred, Diamant, Ivy, Timerra and eventually Veyle all eventually became the real family that the Four Hounds failed to be. They may not express this dynamic outright, but they don’t need to. It just makes these facts all the more telling.
Emblem Zero; Part One: What do we know about Emblem Zero?
In Chapter 26; The Final Engage, is where we learn the most about Emblem Zero. Sombron is the one who describes the mysterious Emblem and how it motivated him to forgo all bonds to achieve his goals. This motivation is unique to the Sombron encountered in the main game, the Sombron in the xenologue has different motivations and ambitions.
What does Sombron tell us about his Emblem?
The Emblem is not from Elyso, but is from the same world as him.
He brought the Emblem across from his world and it has enough power to survive the distortions.
It was known as the Emblem of Foundations.
The Emblem was unable to speak when awoken with Sombron's power.
The invocation to summon the Emblem was ‘Burn us, Emblem of Foundations'.
Emblem Zero fought without aid. Without allies and with only ambition they became strong, or so legends say.
He believes that Emblem Zero abandoned him once he was found by villagers because the Emblem wanted him to bond with the people of Elyso.
As he dies, he claims to see Emblem Zero, Alear, Marth and Veyle see no one. When shown the scene from his perspective, light, Alear and Veyle are seen.
The ring disappears with Sombron. Emblem Rings and Bracelets only vanish completely when their purpose is served.
Sombron feels his Emblem in dark and dim places such as the shade of a tree.
I have a few things to note here. How Emblem Zero lived their life was something Sombron learnt from legends. Legends are not always accurate. In some cases they can be exaggerated or the tale altered to fit political or social motivations. The truth can simply be lost with the passage of time. Everyone conceives a story differently and the interpretations differ. In some cases information can be ignored and only the details that fit with the desired interpretation taken. Legends are not a reliable source of information and neither is Sombron's interpretation.
The Emblem could not speak. Sombron's Fell Dragon powers rob an Emblem of their free will. They are forced to fight and serve him. It is possible that Emblem Zero was captive and actually did not want to be with Sombron. The encounter with villagers could have been the only opportunity to escape. Emblem Zero could not communicate with words and had to obey Sombron because of the absence of free will. If this is truly the case then the bond with Emblem Zero was one sided. Sombron imposed his will upon his Emblem, just like everyone else in his life and used them for his own selfish ambitions. It is possible that Sombron is not describing the Emblem but he is describing himself. He has imprinted who he wants to be onto Emblem Zero.
The word ‘foundation’ means a basis upon which something stands or begins. The game does tell us exactly what Emblem Zero is the foundation of. A little word play hints at Emblem Zero being the foundation of Fire Emblem because the invocation is ‘burn us’ and in his final moments he looks towards Alear, who is the Fire Emblem, and believes they are Emblem Zero. Alear is the archetype hero, something that is the hallmark of the series. Another suggestion is that it is someone involved in the creation process, who helped when the series first began. The ‘foundation ‘ could also be something much more abstract, such as imagination. It takes imagination to create games. I will explore the identity of Emblem Zero further. I just think it is important to consider the meaning of ‘foundations’. Could the Emblem be the ‘foundation‘ of Sombron's ambitions? Could Emblem Zero be the very first Emblem ring. The word ‘foundation’ might have been used to symbolise multiple themes.
Zero means ‘nothing’. Sombron's Emblem is literally nothing. It could be argued that ‘Zero’ refers to the number of bonds or allies the original Emblem had. It could be a reference that no Emblem with the characteristics that Sombron lists exists, therefore the Emblem is his imagination or a hallucination. A little bit of a stretch but I think it is worth mentioning but zero could refer to the shape of a ring.
The final point I would like to make is that in Sombron's final moments he would have mentally been incapable of clarity. Did he really see Emblem Zero or was he hallucinating? I think both theories are possible. As the only Elyso Emblem with a physical form, Alear might feel similar to Sombron's Emblem or they might be his Emblem. Alear could have caused him to hallucinate for that reason. Sombron might have hallucinated in desperation. It is also possible that an Alear from another universe is the original hero who Emblem Zero is based on so typically Sombron does see a version of his Emblem in his final moments.
For those confused or unsure. There are omega spoilers below so don’t read until you have finished the game.
We start at Sombron’s unnamed world in another dimension. It has its own Emblem Rings with its own Emblems. But it’s also at war.
Sombron’s family is killed one by one by his enemies, but Sombron being young is spared under the condition that he’s exiled. He’s exiled to a peaceful world called Elyos where Engage takes place. Unbeknownst to his enemy, he also took an Emblem with him called the Emblem of Foundations.
This Emblem is super powerful. It has the power of an entire army AND can travel dimensions which is unheard of.
He keeps it with him as company as it’s the last connection he has to his world. He hopes its strength will some day give him the power to go back to his home world and exact revenge. But his plans are interrupted by a friendly group of villagers that take him in as family.
He grows a bond with them, but as this bond is forged he realizes the Emblem of Foundations is gone, leaving only the ring behind. Sombron believes this is because he made connections with people from Elyos, so he kills everyone in the village.
He vows to not make anymore connections and to search the multiverse for the Emblem of Foundations so that he may return home.
Which is what he does. He wages a war, taking territory and Emblem Rings.
In the process he has children. A LOT of children. One of them is Alear and another is Veyle.
Alear does try to get close to their siblings but Sombron has a nasty little habit of killing his kids when they fail him. He doesn’t remember their names, doesn’t really care to. He just sends them to get rings and kill random people. When they outlive their usefulness to him, he burns them alive, drowns them, and sometimes feeds them to the corrupted. Feeding them to the corrupted sticks with Alear, making them fearful of them in the game.
But somewhere along the line Alear meets Veyle, the one Sombron hasn’t murdered due to her being too young to fight. They give Veyle their Dragonstone as a gift. The Dragonstone won’t break as long as Alear is alive and kickin, so Veyle treasures it.
Alear gets sent on a mission to get more rings for Sombron, but is defeated by a future version of themselves (the one we play as). Alear knows that going back to Sombron means death. They lie in the snow, but in comes Lumera, the last Divine Dragon, being kind to them—something Alear never experienced. This encourages Alear to defect from Sombron and join Lumera. Lumera treats Alear like her child.
Alear fights alongside Lumera and defeats and imprisons Sombron. While doing this Alear is wounded by Sombron, leaving them to sleep for 1000 years. During this 1000 year nap, Lumera slowly gives her Divine Dragon powers to Alear so they’ll wake, making them part Divine Dragon in the process (hence the blue hair and eye).
With time the story becomes that Lumera had a child, Alear and Sombron only had one kid left , Veyle. Which isn’t the truth.
Now, Veyle. She was too young at the time to fight in the war. When Sombron is imprisoned she spends most of her time on the run. She knows not to many people like Fell Dragons so she avoids folks as much as possible to avoid being killed. What keeps her going is the hope she’ll reunite with Alear and be siblings again.
Eventually she finds some loyal Sombron devotees and they allow for her to sleep in their temple. But she sleeps for a few centuries and when she’s up they’re all dead.
But lucky for Veyle Sombron is alive! But unlucky for Veyle Sombron is also an asshole.
And he hates Veyle because she’s not up to Fell Dragon standards. She doesn’t really like the whole killing thing, but Sombron can’t be choosy because he doesn’t have anymore kiddos. They either died in the war or he yeeted them himself. (At least none he remembers because remember Alear is alive and has Divine Dragon juice pumping in their body lol)
So he enlists Zephia to mess with her mind in order to make her more Fell Dragon-y. This version of Veyle will fuck shit up.
Alear wakes up with Emblem Marth on their finger and then BOOM start of the game. Lumera comes, Lumera is murdered by New Veyle and—
Well, if you played the game you know.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if I got any of the more wrong.
