Player character

Creating an avatar unit in Fire Emblem Awakening.

“	Welcome! Today, another hero will be born. One who will help decide the world's fate...	”	— Anna, introducing the player to the creation screen in New Mystery of the Emblem.

Throughout the Fire Emblem series, several games have featured characters that directly represent "you", the player, in varying levels of detail.

Initially starting out as the fairly blank and uncharacterized tactician character in The Blazing Blade, this evolved into the more dynamic avatar (Japanese: マイユニット My Unit) system for several games. Avatar units are notable for their high amount of customizability, with any combinations of name, gender, voice, stats, class, and appearance being customizable. In their initial implementations, they were referred to with the "avatar" terminology, though cameo appearances in games after their debut tend to use their default names.

Recent games have pared back the player character from the robust avatar system in favor of returning to being more minimally customizable; most recent releases featuring player characters only allow for customization of name, form (gender), and birthday.

In many games, though not all, the player character facilitates exploration of the world map and hub areas. In games without a specific player stand-in where the player needs to navigate, such as in Fire Emblem Gaiden or Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the player is instead given control of one or more of the predetermined main characters.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Lyn introduces herself to Mark (bottom-right).

Main article: Mark

The Blazing Blade was the first game to introduce the concept of a player stand-in. Known by the default name Mark (Japanese: マーク Mark) as well as the title "tactician", they give advice to the game's main characters. Mark's only customization options are name, gender, and birthday. Unlike every other player character, creating a tactician is optional in The Blazing Blade if the player starts a new playthrough from Eliwood's tale.

Mark is the most subdued of player characters, being non-playable and lacking of a portrait and dialogue. In lieu of being represented with a portrait, characters turn towards the screen, as if they are talking directly to the player, when addressing Mark.

Tactician's bonus

Creating a tactician.

Mark is assigned an affinity based on the month of birth they are assigned when created. This influences the tactician's bonus, where units who share the same affinity as Mark gain small statistical boosts to their hit rate and avoid, which grow stronger as Mark's ranking increases throughout the game; additionally, every unit also receives a boost to dodge regardless of affinity. For every star displayed in Mark's Rank menu in preparations, units receive +1 to each calculation they qualify, for a maximum +10 boost per calculation. These bonuses are only present in Eliwood's or Hector's tales, not in Lyn's.

The Japanese versions of the game also feature the ability to choose Mark's blood type, which also factored into determining their affinity. As blood types hold a considerably lesser significance in Western culture, this option was removed in localization.

Affinities are assigned to Mark based on birth month and blood type selection as follows:

Affinities by month

International versions Japanese version

Month	Affinity
January	Light
February	Ice
March	Wind
April	Thunder
May	Wind
June	Anima
July	Fire
August	Dark
September	Fire
October	Anima
November	Ice
December	Thunder

Month	Blood type A	Blood type B	Blood type O	Blood type AB
January	Ice	Wind	Fire	Ice
February	Wind	Fire	Thunder	Anima
March	Ice	Wind	Anima	Thunder
April	Anima	Fire	Thunder	Ice
May	Light	Thunder	Fire	Wind
June	Thunder	Anima	Wind	Fire
July	Anima	Wind	Ice	Thunder
August	Wind	Dark	Fire	Anima
September	Fire	Ice	Anima	Thunder
October	Ice	Anima	Wind	Fire
November	Anima	Thunder	Ice	Ice
December	Thunder	Fire	Wind	Light

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Other effects

In the Japanese version, the five "emblem items" – Emblem Blade, Emblem Lance, Emblem Axe, Emblem Bow, and Emblem Seal – are instead named directly after the save file's tactician (e.g. Mark's Sword or Mark's Lance). The four weapons are described as "a tactician's [weapon]" in their description in all regions, and the Emblem Seal's description also cites it as belonging to Mark. This effect is purely cosmetic and otherwise has no impact on gameplay.

Playing without Mark

If the player elects to start the game without Mark by directly starting with either Eliwood's or Hector's stories, the character simply does not appear, and in many scenes, the role of the army's tactician instead falls to either Marcus or Oswin, as well as sometimes other characters. The usefulness of this, however, is questionable; in addition to not receiving Afa's Drops from Athos, the player also loses access to Mark's bonus and the Emblem Seal will lose its effects.

Additionally, in the Japanese version, the five "emblem items" will fill Mark's empty name space in both the weapon names and their descriptions with ♡♡.

Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem

Anna guides the player through the avatar creation process.

Main article: Kris

The first to use the avatar terminology, New Mystery's incarnation of the avatar is known by the default name Kris (Japanese: クリス Chris). Kris's backstory can be chosen by the player somewhat, regardless of that, Kris's goal is always to join the Altean knights and serve Marth.

Creation

Kris does not have a personal class, with the player instead being given the option to choose Kris's starting class from a list of standard classes. Kris may also be reclassed after character creation through the standard reclass system. A male Kris also benefits from the expanded reclass options for male characters unlocked after completing the game on hard mode or higher, although all of these classes are potentially available normally depending upon his starting class.

Kris's portrait outfit changes depending on their starting class. However, this outfit will remain fixed once a starting class is selected, and will not change if Kris is reclassed later.

When starting a new save file, Anna will guide the player through the creation process as followed:

• Name: The player can rename Kris, allowing up to five characters.
• Gender: Choose whether Kris is male or female. This will affect class options.
• Class: Both genders have access to Cavalier, Archer, and Mage. If Kris is female, the Myrmidon and Pegasus Knight classes are also available. If Kris is male the additional options are Mercenary, Knight, and Fighter. A male Kris's starting class will also determine what reclass set he has access to if expanded class sets have not been unlocked.
• Appearance: Customize Kris' physical appearance by mixing and matching parts from three fields:
  • Hair: Each gender has thirteen hairstyles to choose from. At the end of certain chapters, Kris will be offered a new hairstyle; if they accept it, they will be given the choice to revert to the previous style or maintain the current one at the end of the next chapter.
  • Hair Color: There are ten colors to choose from.

    	01		02		03		04		05
    	06		07		08		09		10

  • Face: Each gender has ten face types to choose from. Some include additional features like an eye-patch, scars, face paint, and a monocle.
• Fortune: Anna will then ask about Kris's past, present, and future. While this will affect some minor dialogue, it is primarily used to determined their initial stats and growth rates. The player cannot choose multiple bonuses affecting the same stat; for example, if Kris is a Merchant's child, they cannot pick Wisdom as their present or Wealthy as their future since it already provides luck and resistance. The options are as followed:

  Type	Name	Base stat bonus	Growth bonus
  Past	Merchant's Child	Lck +2, Res +2	Lck +5%
  Priest's Child	Def +2	--
  Orphan	Str +2, Mag +2	Str +5%, Mag +5%
  Farmer's Child	HP +4	HP +10%
  Noble's Child	Skill +2, Spd +2	Skill +5%, Spd +5%
  Present	Beauty	Skill +1, Spd +1	Skill +10%, Spd +10%
  Wisdom	Lck +1, Res +1	Lck +10%, Res +5%
  Diversity	Str +1, Mag +1	Str +10%, Mag +10%
  Kindness	Def +1	Def +5%
  Strength	HP +2	HP +20%
  Future	Humane	--	Def +10%
  Honorable	--	Skill +15%, Spd +15%
  Enlightened	--	HP +30%
  Wealthy	--	Lck +15%, Res +10%
  Recluse	--	Str +15%, Mag +15%

Fire Emblem Awakening

Creating an avatar unit in Fire Emblem Awakening.

Main article: Robin

Awakening's incarnation of the avatar is known by the default name Robin (Japanese: ルフレ Reflet). Robin seems to be particularly inspired by The Blazing Blade's tactician character, being a Tactician in both class and character role. They aid Chrom and the Shepherds in defending the people of Ylisse.

Creation and customization

In all cases, Robin will begin the game as a Tactician, and can later be reclassed into any sex-appropriate class at will using Second Seals.

When starting a new save file, the player is prompted to create the save's avatar. The process comes in three stages:

• Gender: Choose whether to play as a male or female Robin.
• Appearance: Create the physical appearance of Robin from a set of five options:
  • Build: Each gender has three physical builds to determine basic size. In both cases, build 01 is the average, default size, build 02 is a smaller size with a younger appearance, and build 03 is a larger and somewhat older size.
  • Face: Each gender–build combination has five faces to choose from. For the most part these are subtle differences, although face 05 adds a scar or accessory not otherwise present.
  • Hair: Each gender–build combination has five hair styles to choose from.
  • Hair Color: There are a total of twenty hair colors which can be chosen.

    	01		02		03		04		05
    	06		07		08		09		10
    	11		12		13		14		15
    	16		17		18		19		20

  • Voice: In the English release, each gender has three different voices to choose between. The Japanese version has 8 different voices, each with a somewhat different style marked by their pronoun usage, as well as the option to have the Avatar be completely mute; unlike the English version, these also make minor alterations to the game's written script. The mute option was removed in international versions. The option itself makes Robin speak in nothing other than ellipses with exclamation points and question marks, with substantial script revisions to accommodate the lack of input from the Avatar, marking the primary reason it does not appear in releases outside of Japan.

    English voices
    Female 01	Michelle Ruff	Male 01	Dave Vincent
    Female 02	Wendee Lee	Male 02	Brandon Karrer
    Female 03	Michelle Ruff	Male 03	Chris Smith
    Japanese voices
    Watashi 01	Miyuki Sawashiro	Boku 01	Yoshimasa Hosoya
    Atashi 01	Miyuki Sawashiro	Ore 01	Yoshimasa Hosoya
    Watashi 02	Miyuki Sawashiro	Boku 02	Miyuki Sawashiro
    Atashi 02	Miyuki Sawashiro	Ore 02	Tōru Ōkawa

• Profile: Personalization options for Robin connected to gameplay.
  • Name: The player can, of course, rename Robin. The absolute character limit is 12 characters, achievable with thin characters like 'I'; realistically, the limit is around 8 characters due to variable-width font. There is a word filter in place to prevent potentially obscene names from being transmitted through StreetPass.
  • Birthday: Choose Robin's date and month of birth. This determines when they receive their birthday bonus at the barracks.
  • Asset and Flaw: Choose Robin's best and worst stats. This determines their initial stats, their growth rates, and the modifiers to their maximum stats they receive; the stat chosen as their asset will be the highest in all three categories, while the chosen flaw will be the lowest.

Fire Emblem Fates

Main article: Corrin

Creating an Avatar unit in Fire Emblem Fates.

Fates's incarnation of the avatar is known by the default name Corrin (Japanese: カムイ Kamui). Corrin is a notable departure from previous avatars, as they are not a tactician or other aide to the main character; instead, they themselves are the main character. As a result of this, their choices are integral to the events of the main story.

Creation and customization

In all cases, Corrin will begin the game as a Nohr Prince or Nohr Princess, depending on their gender. A secondary class is also chosen, which Corrin may reclass to with a Heart Seal later on in the game.

As previously, when starting a new save file, the player is prompted to create the save's Avatar. The options are similar to those in Awakening, but the organization of the user interface was redone using a graph system, where features are plotted based on attributes, such as long hair being at one end and short at another. Customization features are:

• Build and Gender: Create the physical appearance and gender of Corrin from a set of four options: Short Male, Short Female, Tall Male, and Tall Female.
• Hairstyle: Each gender has twelve alternate styles to choose from. Unlike Awakening, hairstyles are shared between builds. They are plotted between long, short, cute, and wild for females, and stylish, simple, wild, and slick for males.
  • Hair Decoration: This option is exclusive to female Avatars. There are six options:
    • None
    • Silver Clip
    • Butterfly
    • Black Ribbon
    • White Ribbon
    • White Rose.
  • Hair Color: Thirty options, increased from Awakening's twenty.

    	01		02		03		04		05		06		07		08		09		10
    	11		12		13		14		15		16		17		18		19		20
    	21		22		23		24		25		26		27		28		29		30

• Face: Each gender–build combination has seven alternate face customization options. They are plotted between mature, girlish/boyish, caring, and stern.
• Detail: The player may add scars, tattoos, beauty marks, bandages, or eyepatches to Corrin's face.
• Voice: Various voice options exist. In the Japanese version, all voice options—five per gender—are provided by the same two actors: Nobunaga Shimazaki and Satomi Sato. The English voices are as follows:

  English voices
  Personality	Female voice actor	Male voice actor
  Mature	Stephanie Lemelin	Cam Clarke
  Neutral	Marcella Lentz-Pope	Yuri Lowenthal
  Youthful	Danielle Judovits	Cam Clarke

• Profile: Personalization options for Corrin connected to gameplay.
  • Name: As usual, the player may rename Corrin. In the Japanese version Corrin's name be up to five characters long. In international versions, the absolute character limit is 12 characters, achievable with thin characters like 'I'; realistically, the limit is around 8 characters due to variable-width font. There is a word filter in place to prevent potentially obscene names from being transmitted through StreetPass.
  • Birthday: Choose Corrin's date and month of birth.
  • Boon and Bane: Choose Corrin's best and worst stats. This determines their initial stats, their growth rates and the modifiers to their maximum stats they receive; the stat chosen as their boon will be the highest in all three categories, while the chosen bane will be the lowest. This also affects the stat bonuses given by the statue created in Corrin's likeness in My Castle. In the avatar creation menu, the options are not labeled as the stats they affect, and instead are given the following names:

    Boon	Bane	Stat affected
    Robust	Sickly	HP
    Strong	Weak	Strength
    Clever	Dull	Magic
    Deft	Clumsy	Skill
    Quick	Slow	Speed
    Lucky	Unlucky	Luck
    Sturdy	Fragile	Defense
    Calm	Excitable	Resistance

  • Talent: Decides Corrin's reclass option, the class tree their supporting units can reclass into via Friendship and Partner Seals, and the reclass option inherited by Corrin's children. As the majority of classes are not gender-locked in Fates, male and female Corrin have nearly identical secondary class selection; the only exceptions are the Monk and Shrine Maiden classes, available to male and female Corrin, respectively. Some labels do not match the name of the class they provide, such as "Lancer" providing the Spear Fighter class. Corrin's options for secondary class are:
    • Cavalier
    • Knight
    • Fighter
    • Mercenary
    • Outlaw
    • Samurai
    • Oni Savage
    • Spear Fighter ("Lancer")
    • Diviner
    • Monk or Shrine Maiden ("Priestess")
    • Sky Knight
    • Archer
    • Wyvern Rider ("Dragon")
    • Ninja
    • Dark Mage ("Mage")
    • Troubadour
    • Apothecary

Fire Emblem Heroes

Main article: Kiran

Fire Emblem Heroes's player character is known by the default name Kiran (Japanese: エクラ Eclat), is, similar to Mark, a direct representation of the player summoned from the real world (call the "World of Steel" in-game). Kiran is not a playable unit in the main story chapters; they are only playable in certain event modes such as Mjölnir's Strike and Heroes Journey. They wield the legendary Breidablik, which allows them to summon heroes from other worlds.

When the game first launched, Kiran had a set appearance, and their gender could only be chosen in languages where grammatical gender is needed such as German. Starting from version 5.2.0, the player can customize Kiran's appearance.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Main article: Byleth

Three Houses's player stand-in is known by the default name Byleth (Japanese: male: ベレト Beleth, female: べレス Beleth). Byleth is a mercenary who is recently hired as an instructor at the Officers Academy. Byleth has only a few options for customization: form (gender), name (which has an eight-character limit), and birthday. Additionally, the player is regularly presented with dialogue options for Byleth to respond with in story events. Unlike the previous Avatars, Byleth has fixed base stats and growths, a fixed physical appearance, and fixed voice options, with Yūsuke Kobayashi and Zach Aguilar voicing male Byleth and Shizuka Itō and Jeannie Tirado voicing female Byleth in the Japanese and English versions, respectively.

Fire Emblem Engage

Main article: Alear

Engage's player stand-in is known by the default name Alear (Japanese: リュール Lueur). Alear is a divine dragon who woke up after 1,000 years of slumber and is tasked to collecting the twelve Emblem Rings across Elyos. Similar to Byleth, Alear has only a few options for customization: form (gender), name (which has an eight-character limit), and birthday. Alear has fixed base stats and growths, a fixed physical appearance, and fixed voice options, with Hiro Shimono and Brandon McInnis voicing male Alear and Aya Endo and Laura Stahl voicing female Alear in the Japanese and English versions, respectively.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

Main article: Shez

Warriors: Three Hopes's player stand-in is known by the default name Shez (Japanese: シェズ Shez). Shez is a wandering mercenary who comes into contact with Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude, then later joins up with one of their choosing before the war breaks out. Shez can only be customized by form (gender) and name (which has an eight-character limit). Similar to Byleth in Three Houses, Shez has fixed stats, a fixed physical appearance, and fixed voice options, with Tasuku Hatanaka and Damien Haas voicing male Shez and Miyu Tomita and Dawn M. Bennett voicing female Shez in the Japanese and English versions, respectively. Unlike Byleth, Shez is fully voiced but selectable dialogue options still exist.

Byleth themselves also appears within the game. Just like in Three Houses, their form and name can be chosen by the player. Should the player have Three Houses save data on their Nintendo Switch, the latest name used for Byleth will be the default suggestion when starting a Warriors: Three Hopes save file (unless that name was already given to Shez).

Trivia

• According to developer commentary in the Fire Emblem Official Staff Book, the avatar concept, and its earlier incarnation in the Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade tactician, were inspired by the introduction of Commanding Officer characters in Advance Wars, another strategy game for Game Boy Advance which was developed by Intelligent Systems.
• There is unused data in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon suggesting the feature may have been, at one time, planned to debut in that game.

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Avatar	Derived from the Hindu concept of an earthly manifestation of a god, in modern computing parlance it has come to widely refer to a graphical representation of the user of a service. Similarly, in gaming it refers to a playable character intended to represent the player, usually in the context of the character being able to be named and customized as the player chooses.
English (unofficial)	MU	Initials of "My Unit", the Japanese name; occasionally used in fandom parlance despite the official localization of "Avatar".
Japanese	マイユニット	My Unit
French	Avatar	--
German	Avatar	--

Gallery

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  Creating an avatar unit in Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem.
• 
  Creating an avatar unit in Fire Emblem Awakening.
• 
  Creating an avatar unit in Fire Emblem Fates.