Theia

Just a mad woman talking about Fire Emblem with a Tellius bias. she/her, 30+ years old 💙💜💖

[theia-eos]

A Compilation of Links

This account is mostly to expand on the information I use for what I post on AO3

Find me on AO3: Theia_Eos

Find me on BlueSky: @TheiaEos.bsky.social

Find me on Reddit: u/Theia_Eos

You will not find me on Discord, and I no longer use X/Twitter

If you don't understand why I'm having tea with Satan: Check this out

Tellius Recollections Scans Master list and scan request instructions

A list of my theories and headcanons

[tellius]

Heron-blooded Mist, please

[theia-eos]

[felikatze]

Sad little orphans in their sad little orphan cloaks: a meet the heroes compilation

Rest below the cut. I have 19 of these.

This is what Sharena thinks poor people look like

[theia-eos]

Basically IS too

[lieserli]

okay this change is just kind of plan irritating to me in the english version. in the localization, skrimir talks about how dragons are the strongest laguz and how hes always wanted to challenge a dragon as a reaction to them being in goldoan territory and yet...he does not in the japanese version!!!!!! because theres such a thing called a character arc and hes being more serious now!!!!!! this is not the time to say that when his mens lives on in his hands and he knows it!!!!!!

[theia-eos]

It's actually funny, because in the normal mode script, even in Japanese, he says something similiar.

Ranulf: Goldoa, the land of the dragons... By the goddess, did we mess up. Skrimir: The dragons... It is said they are the most powerful of all the laguz tribes. I've always wanted to fight a dragon, but I never expected it would happen like this... When our king finds out about this, I will have much explaining to do.

[ライ] (Ranulf) 竜鱗族の国ゴルドア…か… (Goldoa the land of the dragonkind...) やっちまったな。▼ (We really went and did it this time) [スクリミル] 竜へと化身するラグズ… (The laguz who transform into dragons...) その力は、ラグズでも (Their power is said to be the mightiest--) 最強と言われている。▼ (even amongst the laguz) 一度手合わせしてみたいとは (I had thought I'd like to fight them) 思っていたが… (someday...) まさかこんな形でまみえるとは。▼ (But I never imagined we'd meet like this) 不可抗力とはいえ、(Even if it was an act of the goddess,) 国境を侵したとなると…… (If words get out that we violated the border...) 叔父貴に知れたら大目玉だ。▼ (My uncle is going to tear us a new one.)

(Above uses my best Google Translating, I do not claim absolute accuracy)

The normal mode script seems to be for people who never played the original Path of Radiance or any other Fire Emblem game or don't want to read ten thousand pages of lore, so here they're using Skrimir as a vehicle to explain to the inexperienced players how strong dragons are (they're the mightests laguz, so strong I once dreamed of fighting them), whereas Path of Radiance players (or players replaying Radiant Dawn) know good and goddam well how strong dragons are after fighting them the last couple of chapters of the game so they don't need that shoehorned in in the Hard/Maniac scripts and the conversation can flow without lore dropping.

But, because of that difference, we do get to learn that Skrimir dreamed of fighting dragons in glory, but now he's horrified at the idea of achieving that goal because he knows what the consequences are going to be, which I think is fun as well (as well as he's more scared of Caineighis's reaction than actually fighting the dragons is great to me).

[katofvalentia]

solace.

[mortalityplays]

there is no single argument against including trans women in sports that doesn't boil down to "women aren't supposed to be good at this" and it's fucking insane to me that every woman in the world isn't up in arms about the way this issue has laid institutional misogyny bare to the bone

[mortalityplays]

then again it has also revealed how many misogynistic cis women believe in their own exceptionalism to the point they feel they benefit from "women aren't supposed to be good at this" and will use every tool in the white imperial torture kit to ensure the acceptable categories of 'woman' and 'good' remain shallow and narrow enough for them to force themselves into a position of supremacy.

[theia-eos]

you should check out the latest feh banner

...I guess I'll reopen the app after months of-

STEFAN?!!! SWORD LESBIAN DUO?! SAGE SOREN?!

Fuck.

[theia-eos]

Hello!

I was re-reading your story "Despair" and the last chapter got me wondering about something.

If Soren eventually goes to Goldoa after Ike's passing, it means he probably met his cousin; how do you think Soren and his cousin feel about each other?

I don't think Kurthnaga, Almedha and Ena would hide Soren's existence from them but I don't know how much they'd tell about him. I wonder if Soren would feel some kind of guilt toward his cousin because of what happened to Rajaion.

Anyway, sorry if this is poorly worded, I just really like to hear your headcanons about Tellius and it's characters! 💚

Hello!

Thank you for the ask!

Given that Kurthnaga is over a hundred years old and still looks quite young, designed to appear 17 according to Tellius Recollections, I imagine that Soren's cousin would still be quite young after about 70 years, maybe looking to be 14-16 all told. I think they* would have grown up with stories about Ike from everyone, and I think Soren, being Ike's right hand would come up. I imagine Ike would come up a lot if that child met other laguz royals or even the beorc (Sanaki), Ike more than Soren, but Soren was a very large figure and the new king of Gallia was quite impressed by Soren. Knowing about their familial relationship, however, perhaps or perhaps not because that's an extremely difficult subject and a conversation to have when the child is old enough to handle it all, but Kurthnaga doesn't like hiding the truth, so I imagine the child would know before meeting Soren. I think it would come up eventually, especially if Soren were to visit Goldoa, and I believe that they would most excited about meeting someone who was so close to Ike. There could possibly be some resentment towards Soren, but since Ena harbors none towards Almedha, I honestly don't see that happening/lasting very long.

As far as Soren goes, while I imagine living in peace (or as much peace as they could manage) with Ike for about 70 years was good for Soren, as much as watching Ike grow old and die obviously broke Soren's heart. I don't see Soren doing a complete 180, so I don't imagine him ever being trusting or a people person. If he were to visit Goldoa, I don't imagine that it would be with the intent to stay there forever. I think he might also have some complicated feelings on meeting this child, given his own difficult childhood and emotional estrangement from his family. I don't know that Soren is invested in his aunt/uncle/mother enough to feel a crushing guilt over Rajaion's death strong enough to have a large impact on his relationship with his cousin. Just more of a "I don't trust anyone other than Ike" problem.

*I'm aware that the child is a boy and called Rajaion in Gareth's Japanese Epilogue, but I like Rajaion and Ena's child being a girl personally

[theia-eos]

Hello!

Out of curiosity, how big do you think the population of each Tellius nation is? And how many branded people do you think there are in the continent as a whole?

Have a nice weekend!

Hi!

Thank you so much for the ask and I hope your weekend is going well too! :)

This kind of estimation certainly isn't something I'm an expert in, per se, but I do like worldbuilding, so I have dabbled in it before. That is to say, take these numbers with a pound of salt. The only way I know to get even a baseline number is from the size of the armies.

We know in Part 2, Elincia's Royal Knights have about 6,000 soldiers/kinights, but Ludveck and the rebellion have thousands of their own traitorous soldiers. In Part 3, 3,000 soldiers from Gallia, 5,000 elite troops of Crimea, and 2,000 soldiers of Phoenicis join up with whatever army Sanaki has managed to obtain in Chapter 11 of when they go to take control of Begnion back from the senate. Later on, at the end of Part 3, when Daein has been backed into a corner, and the fact that they only have ten thousand troops to fight back against Ike's combined army with is so low that it's considered suicidal. It's therefore likely that Sanaki had 5,000-15,000 troops herself, in addition to the 10,000 pledged to her by her allies. And while thousands died in the canyon with Micaiah's attack, devastating the Begnion and Crimean forces in the joint army, Sanaki still has enough troops left to have the superior army size to Daein's ten thousand. (So 5,000~ laguz less whoever's died and then the survivors of the canyon attack, whatever that looks like. 壊滅 is the word used in the Japanese script). It's hard to imagine the army is only 5,000 laguz and that superior to Daein's 10,000 troops.

Crimean Rebel: The Royal Knights have left the capital! We estimate roughly 4,000 soldiers are marching on Felirae. Ludveck: That means about 2,000 are left in the capital… That's more than I'd expected. …Hmm, I suppose it can't be helped. The column headed toward Felirae is primarily cavalry, is it not? Radiant Dawn Chapter 2-3, Geoffrey's Charge

[ライ] ガリア王国から 大将スクリミル率いる獣牙兵三千、 ただいま到着しました。▼ Ranulf, Radiant Dawn Chapter 3-11, Just Cause

[ジョフレ] 神使様！ クリミア王国軍より、精鋭五千… 準備完了しております。▼ Geoffrey, Radiant Dawn Chapter 3-11, Just Cause

[ティバーン] よお、待たせたな。 フェニキス軍二千。 今から加わるぜ。▼ Tibarn, Radiant Dawn Chapter 3-11, Just Cause

Ranulf: Ten thousand? They aren't really going to try to fight us with only ten thousand men, are they? It'd be suicide! Radiant Dawn 3-13, Blood Contract (about the insubstantial Daein army)

And this is after the very long war with many deaths that has already been fought in Part 3 already, and the Daein army is also recovering from their war against Crimea 3 years prior and the occupation of Begnion. I would say that all the armies are at about one-quarter to one-half their normal size at the end of part 3. And we also have to consider that there are more armed forces in each country that are not being sent for the fight for Gallia, Phoenicis, and Crimea, and that Sanaki only has a fraction of the army size of Begnion since the senate still has a lot. Ten-thousand is likely the best Daein can scrounge up at that particular point in time to defend itself from the invading army and will be our best key for total size.

From here, we can try and guess at the population. This is very difficult work. Pre-modern army counts and censuses are, how do we say...unreliable? Demographics from back when are difficult in general. Army sizes could be rounded or overestimated, or only include the higher-ranking members of society, to say nothing of population counts. There's a university TA Historian who goes into a bit on his blog.

The Seleucid Empire, to take one example, seems to have had a maximum military capacity around 80,000 men; being generous we can assume maybe another 20,000 in garrison duty (though in practice, many of these garrisons seem thinned out for major military activity, so we’re at risk of double-counting here), giving us perhaps 100,000 troops total, out of an empire that may have numbered anywhere from 10-20 million – so roughly 2.5-5m military aged males; the effective military manpower is anywhere from 4-8% of the free, adult male population. In contrast the figure for the contemporary Roman Republic that, in a single year approaches 25% and for Roman citizens over the first four years of the Second Punic War seems to have been above 70%; the possibility for variation here is enormous – so much depends on where on that sliding scale from 4% to 25% you think the society you are looking at is. (If you want, the full post is here and very insightful)

Most others online agree that around 5% of the population could be part of a regular army, maybe getting up to 15%-25% in times of great need in the medieval period, but that couldn't be sustained for long because of farming/resources. That is to say, I'm just going to have to give my most reasonable guesstimate, also accounting for the fact that all armies have men and women fighting in it, not just men (so about 50% of the total population is eligible to serve, instead of the usual 25%, so about 2% to 4% from the figures of the Seleucid Empire).

For the human countries, this is a campaign lasting several months, over summer, into fall and winter. With harvest and crop plantings, they're likely not getting above 4% for the war. For Daein in particular, all of the able bodied men and women of military age have been put through labor camps in the Begnion occupation, and a lot of them were killed during the events of Path of Radiance. Ten-thousand is a rag-tag number for Daein. For laguz, they might have a higher ratio of soldiers to total population, but probably not by much as they do have farmers and civilians. However, given that the laguz live much longer than beorc, I'd expect them to have a lower total population.

So, let's say this for each nation before Ashnard invades, inclusive of all garrison/guard/royal/elite/regional armed forces:

Begnion: Has a standing army size of about 60,000-90,000 troops, including the Holy Guard and all various army factions (Northern/Central), which accounts for about 3% of the eligible population. (roughly 4x to 6x the size of the army Sanaki may have had available to invade Daein with)

Crimea: Has a standing army size of about 25,000-35,000 troops, which accounts for about 2% of the eligible population (roughly 4x to 6x the size of the royal army Elincia had to fight against Ludveck with)

Daein: Has a standing army size of about about 30,000-50,000 troops, which accounts for about 4% of the eligible population (3x to 5x their rag tag total available forces in Radiant Dawn)

Gallia: Has a standing army size of about 9,000-15,000 troops, which accounts for about 6% of the eligible population (3x to 5x the total army they lend to Sanaki)

Phoenicis: Has a standing army size of about 4,000-8,000 troops, which accounts for about 7% of the eligible population (2x to 4x the total army they lend to Sanaki)

Kilvas: Has a standing army size of about 2,000-4,000 troops, which accounts for about 5% of the eligible population (half of Phoenicis)

Goldoa: Has a standing army size of about 2,000-5,000 troops, which accounts for about 4% of the eligible population (numbers here are based off of vibes. We'll also set the eligible population to 75% of the total population as children are uncommon and they stay in their prime for thousands of years)

Serenes (Pre-Massacre): I just want to include them. We'll set them at about 75% of the average population size of Kilvas and Phoenicis

To reverse a percentage, you just divide the number by the percentage so 4% of 100 is 4, and 4/0.04 = 100. Doing that to the rough figures I made above and then again for the 50% to 75% of the ratio of eligible population to total population gives us these figures:

Begnion: Has a total population of 4-6 million people

Crimea: Has a total population of 2.5-3.5 million people

Daein: Has a total population of 1.5-2.5 million people

Gallia: Has a total population of 300-500 thousand people

Phoenicis: Has a total population of 114-228 thousand people

Kilvas: Has a total population of 80-160 thousand people (after losing 5,050 to the Blood Contract killing people for 100 days)

Goldoa: Has a total population of 66-166 thousand people

Serenes (Pre-Massacre): Had a total population of 72-145 thousand people

So about 8.5 to 13 million people total in Tellius.

These figures doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. Based on work that I've done previously to figure out the size of Tellius, we can see that it's actually probably quite small.

Looking at medieval demographics (again, taking those figures with a few grains of salt because of "reliability") these numbers fall about in line. Tellius looks roughly equivalent in size to modern France or Germany, and we're not out of range of either of their pre-Black Death figures. Phoenicis and Kilvas are a lot smaller than the other nations, so I'd be concerned, but they're about one-half to one-quarter the size of medieval Wallachia.

Germany/Scandinavia – The population in Germany and Scandinavia rose from 4 million in 1000, to 11.5 million by the 1340.

France – In 1328, France is believed to have supported between 15 and 17 million people (in a smaller geographical area than today's) and 20 million people (in the present-day area), the latter not reached again until the early modern period.

Wallachia – The region in the Southern part of modern Romania had a population of around 400,000 in fifteenth century.

So it seems sustainable to me, especially if we're on the lower end of things. Honestly, the beorc nations and Gallia could gain quite a few more people and still be within the realms of realism. I'd say the bird and dragon tribes are about what I'd expect, if not a little higher than I'd think based on the story telling, but not entirely unreasonable.

As far as the Branded go, given the fact that it can pass through bloodlines I'd set it to about 0.01% of the total population of a beorc nation, or 1 in 10,000 people in a beorc nation are Branded.

Thus we get:

Begnion: 400-600 Branded

Crimea: 250-350 Branded

Daein: 150-250 Branded

You could set it higher or lower, of course, but 1 in 10,000 feels about right to me. (Though for the game it's about 6 Branded characters in approximately 100 total characters, so....)

[theia-eos]

I wonder what Naesala uses those little knives he has in his concept art for

You mean these knives?

It's probably a similar reasoning as Lethe or Kurthnaga even. In the game, Lethe says that she carries a beorc made dagger around for her food, cutting up fruit or deboning meat. The fact that it comes from a beorc doesn't mean it isn't useful, but she'd never use it to fight. Kurthnaga's very ornate weapon isn't ever brought up, but it's in his official portrait, and he certainly isn't stabbing anyone with his, given his fear of blood!

Though Naesala also most likely has some nefarious purposes for his, as knives can be useful for prying locks/windows open and stealing artwork and the ravens are pirates/thieves (he should absolutely have the lock touch skill as a player unit)

Ike: But...Lethe, you're carrying a dagger, aren't you? In the scabbard on your leg? Lethe: This...is not for fighting. Ike: Then what's it for? Lethe: I use it to remove small bones from meat. It can also cut fruit into bite-sized pieces. It has proven quite useful. Ike: Hmm... Lethe: What? If you've got something to say, spit it out! Ike: You despise beorc, but you don't mind beorc-crafted tools? Lethe: If something's good, it's good. Denying something's obvious worth out of petty spite is foolish. It's not that I...I do not despise everything beorc. If every beorc could get along with us as well as you do, I'm certain... "Lethe", Path of Radiance, Chapter 10, Prisoner Release

The laguz hold the belief that weapons are for the beorc, and that laguz should only fight with their own strength. Naesala is willing to abandon a lot of the ideals typical of laguz pride, but I'm uncertain that he'd go so far as to kill anyone with a weapon (the only violent use those could have as far as I see is a quick assassination, but I'm on the fence on that, tbh). It's been pointed out in the comments that they're drawn like throwing daggers, so I'm not sure what impact that has on their utility for him, though I imagine he could throw them with fairly good precision.

[tellius]

GREIL NO

[tellius]

😭

[charmwitch]

Final drawings for the 20th Anniversary of Path of Radiance. Thanks everyone for being here with me. I've been having a lot of fun. I'll get back to webcomic work soon.

[theia-eos]

I like when stories have happy endings so I really liked the bird tribes reuniting at the end of RD. I imagine that it would have been a bit awkward in the beginning and even if they don't fully forgive Naesala I think the hawks can recognize that it was because of the blood pact that the ravens had to betray them so they might put the blame a bit more on the senate. So I think it got better with time and that they eventually feel a sense of unity like the beast tribes seem to do, the three bird tribes all have different talents so I imagine they would be quite formidable for other countries. Raven/hawk couples would be cute too :)

Sorry for rambling but I'm curious as to what you think?

Thanks for the ask!

I do imagine that the unification of the bird tribes would be slow-going. I imagine it took a while for the ravens and the hawks to reconcile, even if the knowledge of Blood Pact became public knowledge. It would have taken some time, but I think it would have been for the best once they could start working together and had a sense of unity as one nation. Given how long they live, that might have taken a while, though lol! I don't, even, believe that Kilvas joined with Phoenicis/Serenes for a good few years/decades possibly because of their differences and needing to negotiate that.

The game seemed to be in a hurry to lump like with like at the end and call it a happy ending, even if it was to the detriment of the characters/world that it had built. So while I don't mind the Bird Tribes forming one united kingdom, I prefer to imagine them keeping the islands and having the forest as well. I think the island/seafaring life became a particularly large part of the hawks' and ravens' cultures, and hunting and fighting is so intrinsic to their nature/culture, but so harmful to the herons that I think it makes more sense that they populate both the islands and forest than relocating everyone to the forest and forcing all the hawks/ravens to give up their way of life, as the end of the game was suggesting.

In the same vein, but unrelated to your ask, I don't really care for the game saying that Nailah was going to move the people of Hatari across the desert and into Tellius. Hatari is explicitly shown to be a country with beorc, branded, and laguz citizens that logistically isn't going to settle in well within Tellius, and I refuse to accept Nailah subjugating her branded citizens to the hatred and discrimination they would face within Tellius.

[theia-eos]

I love your fics.

That's it. That's the ask.

Thank you! :)

[theia-eos]

Hello! A really big fan of your works! Though I do have a question regarding the Prince of Shadows fic, how does Soren's branded sense of work? It's a very cool detail, but he seems more attuned to it than any of the Laguz. Nasir could only sense Ena when they were in the same country, but Soren's able to do so across Tellius. Did he train to do it? Or was it a part of Izuka's experiments?

Hello!

Thank you for the ask and I'm glad you like my fics! :) I'll answer your question below the cut.

Regarding the branded connection to their loved ones, I'll leave it being buffed a possible effect (intentionally or not) of what Izuka did to Soren unsaid for the moment.

To my mind, the laguz and branded are always subconsciously aware of this connection, but their mind can play it off/fool itself so that when they're conscious they might not even be able to feel it at all. In that fic, I believe I had Ena and Soren discuss this briefly, once Almedha was brought to Daein Keep, Ena was suddenly aware she was there (and alive), but had believed her to be dead, despite being in Daein for years. The herons, also, even when Reyson is in Serenes Forest briefly with Naesala, he's not suddenly aware that Leanne is sleeping there or even wakes up, despite practically being on top of her the whole time.

So when awake, it's something they have to take a moment to reflect on and try and feel it out, but if they're convinced the person is dead, or they're not particularly aware of this sense, they cannot really use it to sense them out, and for Nasir, Ena had just been captured and imprisoned by Petrine's men the moment that they reached Crimea. To me, it's not the arbitrary border of a country, but he could feel how much danger she was in suddenly, and had to go find her, if that makes sense.

Rafiel is also shown being able to sense the great pain of his people during the massacre from all the way in Asmin, which about the same distance from Daein to Goldoa, so I think particularly strong feelings, especially suffering, carry further. With a sending stone, they can sense in much greater detail while awake, to the point where they can communicate through their feelings with each other (it's not verbal communication to me, through the stone).

So long as I didn't get too carried away writing the story, Soren's only ever seen sensing it across Tellius when he's asleep. He is acutely aware of what sense he has, what his family's situation is, and what his dreams would mean. But I also have that for the herons and the dragon laguz too, so I wouldn't say that's something that's going to be unique to the AU version of Soren. I do have a fic where Reyson is shown being awake and aware of his sibling's general state from a great distance, as well (set pre-massacre, obviously).

Regular canon Soren isn't as well versed in what any of that means, but I did use that sense to help him try and find his way towards Ike, but it wasn't infalliable or perfect, and it took him three years to find Ike that way, worrying the entire time that Ike was maybe actually dead.

[master-of-winds]

I translated this little bit of the Japanese Radiant Dawn script a while ago for a friend, because I think it's hilarious, but I don't think I ever shared it here. More people should see Ike being sassy at Dheginsea in different ways though, so here goes!

This is an excerpt from Part 3 Chapter 8: Incandescent Glow

Dheginsea: …Our country is neutral. It has been since its foundation and it will continue to be so. That is not up for debate.

Ike: … Then why don't you just kill us now? if breaking the law is so grave you would stand by as someone is killed… If that's what this country stands for Then pass that judgement with your own hands!

Dheginsea: You… are beorc.

Ike: Yeah, that's right. I'm beorc. And yet I'm much more of a laguz than you are.

Dheginsea: ….........