The Theology Of … is a series in which we tell parents about the overt or subtle spiritual worlds of various popular media. Each article will explain the theological landscape of a relevant series, and when appropriate, we’ll provide ways for parents to use said content as a way to teach their child about Christian theology.
Introduction to the Series
Death is little more than a temporary setback in most games.
Sure, Bowser might defeat Mario. But you, as the player, always get to try again until you win.
But in Fire Emblem, death is a plot point.
The series began in 1990, when Nintendo released Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light to Japanese audiences. And gamers quickly took to the franchise for its then-unique gameplay, which combined the elements of a role-playing game with turn-based strategy. Its characters were fleshed out: they had rich backgrounds and complex personalities. And most importantly, they could die.
But unlike most games, characters who perish in Fire Emblem typically don’t come back from the dead (a mechanic known as “permadeath”). There’s no respawn—the game simply continues without them. The franchise made it abundantly clear that your actions, as the player, had gotten this soldier killed, and there’d be no more seeing them grow as a character. As you might expect, Fire Emblem stands as one of Nintendo’s darker, more mature franchises.
And those rich, complex characters are deeply impacted by those deaths, as well. They “feel” the loss of their comrades. Indeed, in later games, characters can form deep friendships with each other—and romantic ties, as well—affecting performance on the battlefield.
Outside of combat, players watch as their soldiers expressed their hopes and dreams. Some games even showed what your surviving units chose to do after the game (and the war) ended.
The game, lauded for its RPG elements and unforgiving tactical gameplay, began releasing in the United States in 2003 with its seventh entry: Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (released simply as Fire Emblem in the U.S.). American audiences were introduced to this cutthroat world full of medieval knights, spell-casting mages and dragons across subsequent releases, the most recent to date being 2023’s Fire Emblem Engage.
But as my soldier dodges yet another potentially lethal blow from an enemy’s lance, the biggest question on my mind is: Were I to give up my save-scumming ways and allow my favorite soldiers to perish…where would they go? What’s heaven like in Fire Emblem? And what God or gods might they meet there?
So, without further ado, let’s take our favorite 12-15 units out to battle and leave the rest to remain as backup benchwarmers as we figure out this franchise’s spiritual themes.
Overarching Spiritual Worldview
Those themes, as it turns out, are not as easy to discern as you might think. In fact, as far as my research shows, the afterlife never officially comes up.
As of posting, the series contains 17 core Fire Emblem games and a handful of spinoffs. However, while a couple of these games are sequels to others or at least somewhat connected, most of them follow their own, separate stories that contain different lands, peoples and even gods. And, unlike The Legend of Zelda (as we mentioned in our “The Theology of … The Legend of Zelda” blog), Nintendo has never released an official timeline. We can only speculate on whether they’re meant to connect.
Regardless, the following is what we can piece together from Fire Emblem lore.
In the beginning was the world—but not as our characters know it today. Back then, it was a world of nothing but ocean, until the goddess Ashunera appeared and created both land and life (Note: Ashunera does not appear in the vast majority of Fire Emblem games, as most games are disconnected from one another. However, for simplicity’s sake, this section is written under a creative choice in order to connect the games under an easy-to-digest creation narrative). The human life she created were divided into two races: the Beorc and Laguz. While the Beorc were like normal humans, the Laguz were chimera-like, with some sprouting wings, fur or claws. The two races soon went to war. In attempting to stop them, Ashunera lost control of her emotions and unintentionally flooded the world, only sparing one continent.
Not wanting to flood the world again, Ashunera separated her emotions from herself, which then took the form of Yune, the goddess of chaos. Having no emotions, Ashunera became the goddess of order, now known as Ashera. (Although this split eventually causes issues, too.) In time, other continents rose from the waters, and other gods similar to Ashunera would appear (though whether these deities are gods on the same level as Ashunera is disputed). Those gods would provide humans with the ability to channel their elemental abilities into magic.
This seems to be the overarching theology of Fire Emblem—but these gods wax and wane in their importance. For instance, despite playing a large role in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Ashunera has little impact in other games.
A race of dragons also arose, many of which often serve as the series’ main antagonists. These dragons were very powerful beasts, and the most powerful of them all were a subgroup known as Divine Dragons. While not gods themselves, these creatures were so powerful that many would worship them as if they were. However, their power also betrayed a cost: Though it may take thousands of years, dragons eventually succumb to madness and seek to kill humans.
The dragons could avoid this outcome only by taking on human forms, a form known as the Manakete race. These people, while typically weaker than the average human, could temporarily transform back into their dragon forms provided they met certain requirements (varying by game). Additionally, their bones could be used by others to fashion magical dragon-slaying weapons, and their blood, when consumed by humans, could grant magical abilities.
At various times throughout this lengthy Fire Emblem history, war would break out across continents—between dragons, between humans and between dragons and humans. These wars would send many to their dooms, and heroes—including your character in the game—would rise up. Typically, these heroes rally an army of soldiers to assist them, search and find some magical weapon or device that just may change the course of battle (known as a fire emblem) and save the day by slaying a mad dragon or an evil cult of dragon worshipers.
Glossary of Important Characters/Topics
Fire Emblem – A “fire emblem” is the object around which the story of each game ultimately revolves around. This object can be anything from a weapon or shield to a family crest or genetic attribute. Regardless of its form, the player will typically need to find the fire emblem in order to beat the villain.
Dragons – Dragons play a large role in Fire Emblem games. Though there are many types of dragons (such as Ice or Earth Dragons), the strongest and rarest—the Divine Dragons that we mentioned—typically side with humans (or at least the humans who fight for good). While some of the other types of dragons use their magical powers for good, others actively (or unintentionally, if they’ve gone mad) become evil.
Gods and Goddesses – There are many gods throughout the Fire Emblem series, and some seem to contradict accounts from other games. For instance, there seem to be four gods that have been described in some way as a “creator” god. But from what we can discern, Ashunera seems to be the franchise’s ultimate goddess. Other gods tend to be based around the elements of the world (such as earth, air, fire and water), and some draw directly from Norse or Egyptian mythology. For example, the gods found in Fire Emblem Heroes take their names directly from the Norse gods.
Other Spiritual Elements – Some spiritual elements in Fire Emblem don’t easily fit into a single category but are still worth mentioning. These include:
- Resurrection – Some characters, such as Alear from Fire Emblem Engage, have died and risen from the dead. Resurrection is possible, often as a result of extreme magical or divine power. However, others have attempted to resurrect loved ones with little success, unintentionally raising zombified corpses.
- Possession – Some characters become possessed via foul magic or otherwise placed under a sort of mind control. Likewise, wicked people and objects can cause the negative emotions of characters to become amplified. And in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the player controls a man who holds the spirit of a deity within him.
- Souls and Emblems – Despite little information about an afterlife, the franchise does make use of the concept of the soul. Some beings remain in the world despite their bodies being destroyed, and others use magic to steal life force from other people. On a similar note, Fire Emblem Engage contains many magical rings which can summon “emblems”—sentient translucent copies of famous heroes from previous games.
Connecting, And Contrasting, the Gospel
Despite the franchise’s disconnected narrative, we can still pick up on spiritual themes that are common across the board. Consider using the following comparisons as ways you might tie Fire Emblem back to the gospel.
- Starting Over – Due to the difficulty of the Fire Emblem games, many entries in the franchise allow the player to use a limited amount of “undo” functions in order to retry strategies so as to save troops who would otherwise perish. More recently, this ability has been linked to some kind of divine power, whether given by a god or through a magical object. While these powers may need to rewind time to make sure things play out the way they intend, biblical Christianity depicts a God who has set forth an unfailing plan since before the dawn of time itself. This is exemplified in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, as He willingly laid down His life in accordance with the Father’s plan (John 10:17-18, Acts 2:23-24 and 3:18). Though the battle may at times feel lost, Christians can rest in comfort knowing that our God doesn’t need to fix any mistakes, as He has never made one and never will. Men cannot thwart God’s plans—rather, He oftentimes fulfills His plans through their actions (Genesis 50:19-20, Daniel 1:1-2, Habakkuk 1:5-11, Acts 1:16-19).
- Permadeath – When a soldier dies on the Fire Emblem battlefield, it’s a tragedy. Their stories end, as do all their hopes and desires. And with little information about the afterlife, we can only assume that death is their ultimate end. But in Christianity, we do not need to fear death as the end. Rather, death is the transition to glory, wherein we are finally brought into the presence of our God to worship and enjoy Him forever. As those who are raised in Christ, we do not need to fear death, knowing that what lies beyond is far greater than the world we live in now. Death therefore has no sting for a Christian (John 11:25-26, 1 Corinthians 15:50-57, Philippians 1:19-26).
- Sacrificial Love – Many characters in Fire Emblem sacrifice themselves in order to save their friends, counting them greater than themselves. While theology isn’t really the focus in these moments, their sacrifice points to a bigger truth. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Indeed, Jesus gave His life for His friends just a few hours after speaking these words, saving all His friends from the wrath of God due their sins. Jesus took the punishment for our sins upon Himself that we would be seen as righteous before God. And as we believe in His effective final sacrifice for sins as our Risen Savior, we too will rise with Him into new life (Romans 5:9 and 8:11, Hebrews 10:11-14).
Conclusion
We hope that this serves as a helpful primer for parents looking to understand the spirituality in Fire Emblem so that you can be equipped with the knowledge you need to lead into a gospel conversation or to decide whether the franchise is for you.
And be sure to check out our other Theology Of guides!
4 Responses
As a Fire Emblem fan, I think the thing important to note is that each game is, with some exceptions, is disconnected with the others. Unlike Zelda, there is no single, overarching plot. For instance, Ashera is exclusive to only Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn. Each game builds its own unique theology.
Just nitpicks.
Honestly this gameplay feature of characters not simply resurrecting if they die means players will be less likely to simply give up if their avatar starts losing, knowing they can just restart quicker if the character does not fight back. As Christians we should not give up and we should have hope that we and others can overcome adverse circumstances. I hear people say that kid has no chance due to their parents or lack of parents, but when someone has no hope for a child, it is much more difficult for that child to succeed.
I know this because my dad had died when I was a kid and I didn’t get the grades my mom wanted so I thought I could not learn things like algebra until I realized that for me failure at algebra was simply a self-fulfilling prophecy. I know I am extrapolating here, and apparently the Fire Emblem game allows for some redos, but I think your review highlights some interesting parts of this game even for people not otherwise interested in the game.
Wasn’t expecting to see my favorite Nintendo franchise featured like this on plugged in, I figured it wasn’t mainstream enough to warrant such an article. Very neat!
Anyway, unfortunately the author of this article seems a bit confused about the lore. Most of the 17 Fire Emblem games take place in separate universes from each other. There are some exceptions to this, as the first 5 games + the 13th game take place within the same universe, but many of them are standalone titles that have their own history, theology, and lore. There is no timeline that can connect them all together into one coherent narrative, the series is an anthology series like Final Fantasy that features recurring themes and archetypes.
Ashunera has little impact in other games… because Ashunera is a goddess that only exists within the world of Telius featured in FE9 and FE10. She’s also the only being in the franchise that truly can be considered to be god-like in the Abrahamic sense (a single, all-powerful, eternal creator), but even so she is very much a flawed being so that comparison isn’t 1:1. Other worlds might feature a diety-esque dragon such as Naga or Sothis, but they are ultimately just mortal draconic beings with very strong inherent magical power.
Hi, thanks for commenting!
Your comment is completely correct. Our team actually had many talks about how we might cover the Fire Emblem theological worldview with a single blog, since we were aware that most of the games stand apart from the others with their own theology. We ultimately recognized that, were we to cover every individual creation narrative or theological framework introduced per game, well…this blog would become far too long. Therefore, we chose to take a more creative approach in order to simplify the issue for parents by assuming Ashunera as the premiere goddess with only casual reference to other figures who, as you mentioned, were considered by some to be gods, though arguably less divine or omnipotent than Ashunera (Sothis, for instance).
In essence, the disconnected format of Fire Emblem doesn’t mesh well with the way we format our Theology Of posts (specifically the section on “Overarching Spiritual Worldview”), since there’s not that much which could be noted as “overarching” for the whole franchise (unless you attempt to smash histories together through the various heroic emblems in Fire Emblem Engage). This was our attempt to do something along those lines by consolidating those disconnected fragments into an overarching worldview, while still attempting to remain as faithful as possible to the game’s main spiritual themes.