Includes ideas of character development, ship dynamics, and some post-canon ideas
During meetings and hangouts between the Dawn Brigade, Micaiah would sometimes excuse herself and watch her companions friendship from afar. Deep down, she’s scared of getting close, since she knows she’ll have to leave eventually to hide her branded self. She acts distant and dismissive to Sothe sometimes too, since she wants to soften the blow. Muarim was the first person besides him to acknowledge her brand and show her acceptance, which gave her some hope that perhaps her connections won’t be temporary
She also catches a glimpse of Pelleas’s spirit mark or blood pact. Thinking it’s a brand, she attempts to drop a few hints to form a connection, which of course go unnoticed. She deflates upon learning it’s spirit protection. (edit: replaying Radiant Dawn and Pelleas literally tells her its a spirit pact anyway and thinks she has the same)
Whist Nailah and Tibarn engage in battle, Reyson and Rafiel met again. Reyson tears into Rafiel for fighting on Daien’s side, to which Rafiel laments upon his brash, hawk-like demeanour in comparison to how timid a nestling he was as a child. It's in this heated exchange that they both begin to feel ill from the conflict.
The night after Gritnea Tower, Ike checked on Ranulf, who’d isolated himself from the rest of the camp. The cat put on a cool facade, but the mercenary saw right through it. Being not one for words of condolence, Ike silently draped his own cape over Ranulf’s back before leaving him in peace. Ranulf secretly chopped off a tiny piece of the cape before returning it, tying the small red ropes around his gloves (the Heroes design)
When in public, Nailah is less openly affectionate towards Rafiel, rather she acts in a way that asserts her protectiveness over him. In private however, she’s much softer, the two taking many domestic moments, such as early mornings in bed or cooking together. Just as she (canonically) enjoys braiding his hair, Rafiel finds amusement in doing her hair too, knowing every day that she’ll only mess it up in battle for him to fix it again.
Also, Micaiah would absolutely turn to them for any kind of romantic advice post-canon.
Pelleas secretly watched the exchange between Soren and Almedha - he was glad to see his mother so happy, however he stays in fear of how she would treat him after. But even after meeting Soren, Almedha assures Pelleas that he is still her son, regardless of birth. She offered him a place in Goldoa, but he chooses to stay and help Micaiah as queen. However, he still keeps consistent contact. He also often wonders how Soren - who he views as an estranged brother figure - is doing on his travels.
Following their exchange in Radiant Dawn, Aimee finds much joy in teasing Soren in front of the other mercenaries. Once, she did so in front of Ike and Titania, the two laughing hysterically as Soren threatens Aimee with magic. Rumours surface of his and Aimee's secret love affair behind Ike's back, the name "lady-killer" sticking because of Shinon the fellow mercenaries. Gatrie once unironically asked for romantic advice, and was met with a swift reminder that he is in fact a low-res armoured unit
Furthermore, whilst convincing Soren to go on their post-canon travels, Ike drops in the titbit that he won't have to deal with shopping anymore. In this moment, all doubts and reservations Soren may have instantly drop, and he's all too eager to get moving.
For the next 2, I have so many divergent Ike/Soren/Ranulf ideas in mind, that I have several AUs with different variations of the characters’ orientations and relationship dynamics. These are only a few:
Regardless of who's shipped on a playthrough, Ike, Soren and Ranulf all travel together (unless it’s tragic unrequited Ranulf hours - Skrimir can be a good friend to him there) . In a timeline where Ike/Soren has already happened, Ranulf turns down their offer, choosing his duties to Skrimir instead. However, Skrimir ends up ordering Ranulf to go with them. "A duty to protect the famed Radiant Hero" he insists, but really he just wants to show gratitude to Ranulf for dealing with him for such a long time.
While I usually see Soren as gay, in an alternate universe, Soren is aroace, and very self conscious about what that means for his relationship with Ike. Is their companionship not enough? Will Ike just abandon him the moment he finds a lover? This further fuels his insecurities along with being branded. Of course, by the time Ike and Ranulf get together, Soren had developed across the games story and is assured in his own importance to Ike, and knows he’s just as special to the mercenary on their travels - if I was any good at writing fics, this would definitely be a premise
Ike keeps regular contact through letters, especially to Mist, Titania and Elincia. He’d try and write to Lethe about his skill growths, but she’d be too tsundere stubborn to reply. Only Lyre knows she keeps all his letters. Whenever he returns to visit Tellius, the two always have a training day.
On their travels, they have a consistent experience of bumping into Mia, still in search of new rivals. Soren dreads it every time, knowing she and Ike will go on an impromptu training mission only to come back with cuts and bruises from run ins with bandits or other foes. He never knows when she’ll pop up next, always keeping an eye over his shoulder whenever they enter a new area
So I hc that Soren’s favorite season is autumn. His preferred magic is wind, and wind seems to be particularly strong in the autumn. Plus it’s chilly, and since he already enjoys wearing multiple layers, he gets to be comfortable without being too hot or too chilly
And then there is the food
Ike canonically doesn’t care for sweets, but I like to imagine that Soren does, though he also prefers warm, earthy, and fruity flavors. I’m thinking specifically about stuff like pumpkin spice, sweet potatoes, maple candy, apples and cinnamon, dried cranberries, roasted pecans, etc. So autumn foods are Soren’s favorite.
Ike’s favorite season, on the other hand, is spring: the exhilaration of nature waking up after a long frost. But autumn is his second, if only because he can see how much Soren enjoys it.
Not that anyone who isn’t Ike would be able to notice how much Soren enjoys the autumn. To others, he seems infuriatingly apathetic to the passage of the seasons.
But Ike watches Soren closer than most, and he can tell when his lover is secretly enjoying something even when he feigns indifference. And the moment Ike takes notice of something Soren enjoys, he makes it his mission to indulge Soren with it at every given opportunity.
So to Ike, autumn starts the beginning of his yearly task of spoiling Soren with all the fall treats that his petite frame can stomach.
Soren only allows it because Ike makes an effort to be inconspicuous about it, sneaking him food when he thinks no one is watching. That, and Ike’s self-satisfied smile is too cute for Soren to argue against.
Just a lot of thoughts on the Heron Royal Family and Lehran's possible relation to it based on canon information. I have English Literature and Creative Writing degrees. No amount of lack of information in the source material can stop my hyperfixation!
Rambling and spoilers below the cut, as always. The rambling is more dis-jointed than usual.
Lehran
The first thing I wantwe will need to contend with is Lehran's relation to the heron royal family:
Reyson: We, that is, the descendants of Lehran, we have a gift...Through the power of the slumber galdr, we have the ability to suppress the chaotic energies of the dark god in the medallion.
Chapter 25, Strange Lands, Path of Radiance
Lehran had children with Altina, lost his powers of galdr and transformation, and was stated to have died shortly thereafter. Are the heron royals really his descendants?
Well, to answer that, we need to know which word Reyson was using in the Japanese script. Now, as I have said many times before, I'm a fair bit too dyslexic to learn to read Japanese properly, but I can muddle around with google translate and work done by fans with actual Japanese reading comprehension.
私たちエルランの末裔は……
(Google Translate says: We, the descendants of Erlan...)
Reyson here is using the word "末裔" or Matsuei. To read a more in-depth explanation about matsuei and how it applies to Priam/Ike and Marth/Anri, please check out this amazing analysis by XKAN of Kantopia, the tl;dr is that matsuei implies that they are of the same bloodline, but given the fact that Intelligent Systems uses matsuei and shison (another word for descendant that seems to imply direct lineal descent) rather interchangeably with Priam, and uses shison on Marth being Anri's descendant despite the fact Marth is directly descended from Anri's brother Marcelus rather than Anri himself, there is absolutely no clarity to be gained here as to how they are related, but they are almost definitely related...somehow. Pls no discussions on Ike/Priam. We are not here to have a debate on that. Thank you.
The other clue we get is from when Rafiel talks to SephiranLehran in the endgame of Radiant Dawn:
Rafiel: It is you… Now that I’ve seen your face… I know that you once went by another name.
Sephiran: You are mistaken. I am known as Sephiran, and nothing else.
Rafiel: You have closed your heart. Why?
Sephiran: …I have nothing more to say. Nothing.
Chapter 4-F-4, Rebirth, Radiant Dawn
Rafiel seems to have some recognition of Lehran. I don't know why. By all accounts, Rafiel should have never met Lehran before. So then why? Well, the herons and the dragons are both said to be able to sense the state of their loved ones from far away.
Reyson: It's not your fault. Please don't apologize. I know Leanne is alive. These battlefields are filled with chaotic energy, but I can still sense her… It's faint, but I know it's Leanne.
Tibarn: Which is all the more reason for us to hurry. There may be other ways to finish this, but crushing Daein is the surest.
Reyson: Agreed.
Ike: Reyson, is this mysterious power that you use to sense Leanne something only herons possess?
Tibarn: It's not something any of the hawk clans have! That is a certainty!
Reyson: That's not true, Tibarn. The power may differ in potency between us, but all laguz possess it to some degree.
Tibarn: Ah, so it's just that my sense isn't developed, is that it?
Reyson: The power is distributed something like this…Among the bird tribes, it's very strong in the heron clan. Among the beast tribes, I've heard it's most developed in the cat clan, though not as strongly as in the herons. As for the dragon tribes… It's said they may be equal to, or even surpass, the strength of the herons.
Chapter 26, Clash!, Path of Radiance
Ena: We dragons have the power to sense the presence of our allies. If that ally is someone we care for very much, then we can communicate telepathically. With the sending stone, we can use this telepathy across extreme distances.
Chapter 3-F, From Pain, Awakening, Radiant Dawn
Even more interesting is what Ena says in the Extended Scripts, available on Serenes Forest.
Ena: Yes. We dragons have the power to sense the presence of our own kind. In particular, if we share blood ties with someone… or care for them very much, we can know their condition… as well as understand their thoughts, even across extreme distances.
Ike: When Nasir felt your presence at Crimea… and when Reyson could sense Leanne’s presence, it was because of this ability?
Ena: That’s right. The heron clan… possess that same ability. With the sending stone, we can increase the natural strength of this ability, so that no matter how far apart we are, we can communicate using telepathy.
Chapter 3-F, From Pain, Awakening, Radiant Dawn, Extended Scripts
So even if they don't know the person well, if they share blood ties, they're likely able to sense them. Thus, when Rafiel sees Lehran's face, he's able to tell that this man is someone else. Or he saw a portrait of Lehran somewhere. Idk. I don't make the rules. I'm only explaining my headcanons here and showing the canon evidence I'm using to support myself.
So, if they are related, how so? Did Lehran have a wife before Altina? Did she die in the Flood?
I think it's more like the devs are doing the whole "descendants, but not like literal descendants" thing again like they did with Marth/Anri, in that Lehran is likely their uncle/grand uncle/great-grand uncle/great*whatever many times*grand uncle. And yes, the technically correct term is grand uncle and not the "great uncle" that is used colloquially. If you use great uncle, I will never correct you. I don't have the energy and I use great uncle when speaking so people know wtf I'm saying, but I'm trying to pretend to have standards here.
So which one is it? Great question. This is the father of the herons we see in game and King of Serenes, Lorazieh:
My moderate guess for his apparent age is 60ish, maybe 50ish. Based on my previous work on laguz aging, Lorazieh could be anywhere from about 400-700! What a range!
The Great Flood happened about 803 years prior to Radiant Dawn, and the pact was formed about 780 years prior to Radiant Dawn, and the war against Yune happened a little before the pact forming. Therefore, Lorazieh would not remember those events. However, since Reyson is using the variation of descendants that implies a more distant relation, I wouldn't think Lorazieh and Lehran were brothers. I think Lehran would at the very least be Lorazieh's grand uncle.
My take is that around the time of the war against Yune, Lehran had a younger sibling that was a child still, and their parents died in the flood. I believe that this sibling is someone who, when Lehran has a child twenty-ish years later and is going insane, is too young still to help console Lehran at all, someone young enough that Dheginsea, Soan, and Altina can convince that Lehran died and had no child, or otherwise convince them to go along with the lie that Lehran died and had no child.
I would then need to fix Lorazieh's age to determine how many generations could have passed between Lorazieh and Lehran's younger sibling. I'm going to fix Lorazieh's age to 497 years old in Radiant Dawn, looking 58 or so and born in the year 151.
I'm not touching Lehran's age in this post (because that's complicated, I am also not touching his appearance of black hair/black wings here where the heron royals have white wings and blonde hair because that's another theory), but with the Great Flood happening in the year -155, I'll say the younger sibling was born in the year -161, making them 6 when the flood happens, 30 when the war against Yune happens, and about 40ish when Lehran's child is born. So they would be about 6-14 in apparent age.
So that's about 300 years between the two of them. With the way herons age, that could be Lorazieh's parent or great-great-great grandparent. I will pick the most distant option just for space's sake. But did Lehran have a younger sister or younger brother? That brings me to my next point.
Naming Conventions of the Royal Family
There seems to be a theme of heron royal family names. Lehran and Lorazieh start with "L." The sisters of the current generation also have "L" names: Lillia and Leanne. The brothers have "R" names: Rafiel and Reyson. I should note that there is no "R" or "L" in Japanese, the sound the language uses exists somewhere in between those two letters, but the character representing the sound is most commonly translated as an "R." That said, Japanese game developers often know what they want it to be in English, and the Japanese versions of the Tellius Recollections books have the names spelled out in the English alphabet using L or R, so we'll consider the differentiation between "L" and "R" to be completely and wholly distinct for the herons. I just want you to know I considered that angle.
In Japan, there's a tradition (iirc, it's an older, more archaic one) of taking a portion of the parent's or parents' name(s) and giving it to the child (Japanese names being formed from one or more kanji, so one or more kanji are taken from the parent(s) names and given to the child). While the Fire Emblem games are supposed to be sort of equivalent to medieval Europe, Japanese values and traditions show up as at least a subconscious bias in the writing of the games (see: Three House's dowries that work the exact opposite of European dowries, but function in the way Japanese dowries did), so it wouldn't be too surprising to me if the names of the heron royals worked in a similar fashion, in this case taking the first letter of one of the parents. I would assume that the daughters inherit the first letter of the father and the sons the first letter of the mother.
Given that Lehran has the letter "L," then, I would assume the younger sibling then was a brother, who had a daughter, who had a son, who had a daughter, who had a son named Lorazieh.
Since the princes of the current generation start with the letter "R," then, it would be safe to assume that the mother had a name beginning with "R" if were going with my above deductions. (We dont have to, but I am.)
As Rafiel is listed as the first prince, Reyson the third prince, Lillia the third princess, and Leanne the fourth princess, we know that the current generation had at least 7 children. More over, when Reyson is describing the family he lost he says:
My mother, my brother, my elder sisters… Even my infant sister, Leanne!
Chapter 17 Part 4, Day Breaks, Path of Radiance
In Japanese, he says:
母…兄…姉たち……そして…小さな私の妹リアーネ…
He uses the word 姉たち, anetachi, which Google says is elder sisters, while 兄, ani, seems to be either generic "brother" or "older brother" according to Google. Since we know Reyson is the third prince and Rafiel, the first prince, was not in Serenes during the massacre, we know the second prince was likely there and therefore it is safe to believe that Reyson has no other, younger, brothers. Reyson describes Leanne as "小さな私の妹" seeming to use the words "小さな" (small) and "妹" (sister/little sister). I don't know if "infant sister" as in "my literally infant sister" is the vibe of that phrase, and given that Leanne is described as Naesala's "childhood friend" and he jokes about being as handsome as always with her and Tibarn asks her if she remembers him, I don't think she was literally an infant during the massacre. I think at most it was meant as "my baby sister" as when I describe my little sister as my baby sister, despite her being old enough to drink (which should be illegal. She cannot be that old), but I am not familiar enough with Japanese to determine the correct translation. I will simply hold fast to the point that I doubt Leanne was meant to literally be a toddler/infant during the massacre given the way she is described and talks to the other characters upon waking. Either way, it's a safe bet that Reyson is the second youngest of the family and Leanne is the youngest.
Given that Rafiel is designed with an apparent age of 24, Reyson an apparent age of 22, and Leanne an apparent age of 18, making them approximately 115, 95, and 65 respectively, I don't feel like there's enough room for Rafiel to be old enough to have four other siblings within twenty years, given that there's thirty years between Reyson and Leanne, and I will do what I want with the approximate ages.
The Most Recent Generation of the Heron Royal Family
Using all of the above, this is what I view as the most recent generation of the royal family. Did Lorazieh have siblings? Perhaps. However, Serenes founded itself as a kingdom in protest of the war Begnion was waging against Kilvas and Daein in 470. There are a lot of wars waged by Begnion whenever a new country forms. (Timeline translated by VincentASM on Kantopia)
So I imagine that one way or another, Lorazieh is the last one of the white winged herons left until he marries his wife and has Rafiel, thus making the white winged herons the royals of Serenes. If you look at the below, you can see that I have written that Rafiel is born shortly after the kingdom is established, and I imagine Lorazieh married shortly after forming the kingdom of Serenes. I also don't know why I decided to throw twins in there, for some reason I had it in my head that if Leanne and Naesala have an A support, they have twin children (and twins appear if there is a history of twins), but upon re-examining the epilogue, that does not appear to be stated as clearly as my head had tricked me into believing. But I'll still stick by Leanne having twins and having twins as older siblings as a head-canon.
Lorazieh - King, born 150 (495/498) apparent age 58
Rheanna - Queen, born 167 (458 at death, 478/481 if alive) apparent age 54 (56)
Rafiel - First Prince, born 474 (171/174) apparent age 30
Laila - First Princess, born 490 (135 at death, 155/158 if alive) apparent age 24 (28)
Rosaire - Second Prince, born 502 (123 at death, 143/146 if alive) apparent age 25 (27)
Lorelle - Second Princess, born 502 (123 at death, 143/146 if alive) apparent age 24 (26)
Lillia - Third Princess, born 517 (109 at death, 128/131 if alive) apparent age 23 (25)
Reyson - Third Prince, born 548 (97/100) apparent age 22
Leanne - Fourth Princess, born 564 (71/74) apparent age 19
Also, for Reyson, one of the wikis states that he's 97 in POR and 100 in RD, but there's no evidence to support those ages that I can find. However, it fits in well enough with his apparent age based on my aging chart, so I'm just going with it. If anyone knows where that comes from, I'll be happy to have that information, but I couldn't find anything to support it from official sources.
The Heron Royal Family Tree
Without further ado, here is my take on the heron family tree from Lehran's parents to the current generation of heron royals. I am including my headcanons on the spouses, so Rafiel married Nailah (though that's more or less official), Reyson married Tibarn, and Leanne married Naesala and had two children with him (twins, b/c I've been believing that since 2007 by mistake and I am not able to get rid of that image now).
So, directly following the Mad King’s War, when the Greil Mercs were staying in Melior to support Queen Elincia in her efforts to rebuild Crimea, Ike and Soren finally had their first taste of peace in a little over a year.
The only problem was… it was difficult for them to adjust, especially for Ike.
The two are both very serious people, and they were both so used to always keeping their guard up, even more so than when they were mercenaries, that it takes them a very long time to finally relax.
For Ike, this looks like him remaining in gruff, terse commander mode, losing his patience quickly, and struggling to sleep. He lays awake at night, thinking of his father and his fight against the Black Knight. There’s a part of him that feels like it can’t really be over. He keeps expecting the Black Knight to reappear, and flinches whenever he sees anyone in dark armor out of the corner of his eye.
For Soren, this looks like him overworking himself. He is used to being in charge of an entire army. Once all of those responsibilities are taken off of his hands, Soren starts making work for himself in order to fill the void. Relaxing for even a second invites rumination of the past, of how he never told Ike his suspicions about Nasir for fear of having his secret exposed, how his cowardice might have cost them the war. And when he’s not being haunted by the past, he cannot help but worry about the future.
Ike is a Lord, now. And as much as he hates it, he has chosen to dedicate himself to the reconstruction of Crimea.
Sure, they still tackle some mercenary work here and there, but most of their energy is put towards supporting Elincia in whatever capacity they can.
Soren makes no complaints, but he’s deeply uncomfortable at Melior. He hates hearing all the gossip spreading through the castle, how everyone anticipates an announcement of Ike and Elincia’s engagement.
And sure, Soren is well aware of Ike’s utter disinterest in the affection of women. But it’s true that Ike and Elincia spend so much time together, so he cannot blame anyone for imagining that there must be romance blossoming between them.
Frankly, they both do themselves no favors. Soren overworks himself, limiting the time he gets to spend with Ike, and thus adding fuel to his fears about how much time Ike is spending with Elincia. And Ike’s fatigue leads to him being snappy and irritable, and drives away the people that try to help him.
In the end, they end up helping themselves by helping one another. It’s Ike who first notices how much Soren is avoiding him, and who starts badgering him to relax a little.
Which, of course, leads to Soren calling Ike a hypocrite, which forces Ike to take some time off himself.
In short, they both strive to achieve a better work/life balance in order to be a good example for one another, and because they’re each more likely to take time off if it promises time with one another.
Due to a childhood spent having to be frugal, Oscar is the type of person who prefers to make gifts rather than purchase them from a store. Kieran, on the other hand, used to be spoiled by his parents.
So the first time Oscar gives Kieran a gift he made himself — knitting him a scarf to keep him warm in the winter — Kieran is certain that he is the better gift giver (because of course he made it into a competition in his head.) That is, until he learns that Oscar’s gift was made by hand, and Kieran, well…
He got rather emotional about it.
Kieran will claim that he didn’t tear up, but Oscar knows the truth.
So Oscar is the king of the domestic, right? That man oozes maturity, calm, and order. We already know that he loves to cook, and that he can mend clothes, and that he always has a good brotherly piece of advice for anyone who asks for his opinion.
For this reason, Oscar is pretty much in charge of the house. Despite his desire to compete with Oscar in every other arena of life, Kieran is completely content to take direction from his lover when it comes to chores. Oscar just has to point him in a direction, and Kieran will set to his assigned task with all the passionate zeal that he devotes to his training.
(Of course, sometimes Kieran’s determination to finish the task as swiftly as possible means that the results are… not always the best. Oscar likes to make a little game of inspecting Kieran’s cleaning jobs.)
However, when it comes time to relax and enjoy the comforts of their shared abode, Kieran has a hard time sitting still.
Luckily for him, Oscar doesn’t mind, and has figured a great many tricks for getting Kieran to slow down and focus on the present moment. And once Kieran actually manages to relax, he finds “lazy days” are, in fact, worth it.
Ooooh, sure can do! Because it’s not OSHA-friendly, it’s going under a readmore.
I’ve probably said this one somewhere before, but I love the idea of Soren being super oversensitive and reactive. Since he’s spent most of his life not touching or being touched by anyone, even seemingly innocent touches can overwhelm his nerves. When other people touch him, it makes him feel gross. But when it comes to Ike, Soren suddenly finds it impossible to hide just how much he enjoys Ike’s touch.
Additionally, while I hc Ike as on the ace spectrum, I think he genuinely enjoys seeing and hearing evidence of Soren’s pleasure. To him, it’s a very easy way to connect and get past Soren’s emotional walls. They basically fall into a sexual relationship purely due to Ike’s curiosity/determination to find all the ways he can make Soren react.
