Ike

Origin

Ike is the son of Greil and Elena, as well as an older brother to Mist. Ike’s father, being the leader of the legendary Greil Mercenaries, trains his son so that he can become a honed warrior like his father. As the newest member of the Greil Mercenaries Ike is looked down upon and mocked by other veteran members, but rarely lets their doubts put him down or discourage him. Unfortunately later on Ike’s father dies in combat against the Black Knight, and Ike is the new assumed leader of the Greil Mercenaries forced to lead the path for the army. As the new leader Ike enters many conflicts and faces many wars, and through his uprise eventually earns his infamous title as the “Radiant Hero”.

Creation

Ike first appears in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. Ike is first written by Ken Yokoyama in Path of Radiance.

Character Evolution

In Path of Radiance Ike originally starts off as the newest member of the Greil Mercenaries, but became their assumed leader after his father is killed. Eventually Ike manages to sway the Greil Mercenaries becoming their true rightful leader. Later Ike becomes known as the Hero of the Mad King’s War in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn due to his victory over King Ashnard, and his successful aid to Crimea.Ike only adds to his legend even more in Radiant Dawn as he managed to defeat the goddess Ashera with the help of the Goddess of Chaos, Yune. Throughout lore in Fire Emblem: Awakening, Ike is referenced as the Radiant Hero.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Ike is introduced as the son of Greil, who is the leader of the Greil Mercenaries, and also the newest member of the Greil Mercenaries. Ike trains with his father only to be very easily beaten by him in their battle, and Ike understands through this that he has much to learn before he can become like his father. As the newest member of the Greil Mercenaries, a number of other members look down on Ike, and mock him for his inexperience, and they consider their selves superior to Ike skill-wise. When Greil learns of Daein’s invasion he pushes Ike twice as hard to ensure that Ike is prepared to take over the Mercenaries, if it be necessary.

Ike eventually comes across an unconscious woman in a forest who turns out to be the Crimean princess, Elincia Ridell Crimea, and they both travel together from here on after getting to know one another. Later on Greil is killed by the Black Knight, and Ike takes over leadership of the Greil Mercenaries, although he faced opposition and distrust from the likes of other members such as Gatrie and Shinon, both of whom left the mercenaries because they refused to serve someone who they believed was inferior to them. Eventually Ike promises Elincia support in her cause to defeat Daein and restore Crimea’s royalty to the thrown.

Ike after staying in Gallia and seeking help from Caineghis, King of Gallia realizes that Gallia is unable to help him. He leaves the country of Gallia , and is escorted to Porth Toha by some Laguz, namely Ranulf, Lethe and Mordecai. Ike with the assistance of his growing band of mercenaries travels all around the continent of Tellius seeking support for his cause to help Elincia reclaim her home kingdom of Crimea. He eventually gains the support of Empress Sanaki of Begnion in overthrowing Daein, becoming the leader of the newly formed Crimean Liberation Army.

Towards the end of Path of Radiance, Ike reveals the divine blade Ragnell, admitting that he has been keeping it ever since the night Greil was slain by the Black Knight. Ike with Ragnell later challenges the Black Knight to a duel in the tower of Nados Castle with the assistance of his sister, Mist. The is concluded when the tower collapses and the Black Knight is presumed dead.

Ike at the end of Path Radiance succeeds in defeating the Mad King Ashnard of Daein, fully reclaiming Crimea from Daein’s grasp, and allowing the Crimean Princess Elincia to rise to the Crimean throne.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Ike returns in part 3 of Radiant Dawn where he is hailed as the Hero of the Mad King’s War. Ike leads the Greil Mercenaries into interrupting the execution of Elincia’s milk sister, Lucia. He is later visited by a sub-commander of the Gallian army, namely Ranulf at the mercenaries’ headquarters. Ranulf provides Ike with information about the oncoming war waged by he newly formed Laguz Alliance and Begnion. It is later revealed that the war has been instigated due to the Laguz learning of the extermination of the bird race of Laguz, Herons, by the Begnion Empire. Although reluctant at first Ike decides that he would lend the mercenaries’ forces to the Alliance.

The conflict between the Alliance and Begnion eventually escalates to the point where the goddess Ashera is interrupted form her thousand-year slumber. With her immense power Ashera turned everyone on the Tellius continent to stone, except for the strongest warriors from both armies. Then later on the Goddess of Chaos, Yune breaks free of her shackles with a medallion held by the Prime Minister of Begnion, Lehran, and possess the leader of the Dawn Brigade, Micaiah. This causes Ike to form a truce with Micaiah’s forces, as they traverse to the Tower of Guidance.

While traversing the tower Ike encounters the Black Knight who was presumed dead. Ike avenges his father’s death by defeating the Black Knight in a uninterrupted one-on-one duel. Upon the Black Knight’s defeat Ike claims possession of the legendary sword Alondite, also known as the sister sword of Ragnell, from the Black Knight.

In Radiant Dawn it is later revealed that Ike bore witness to Greil’s accidental murder of Ike’s mother, Elena while Greil was under the influence of Lehran’s medallion. Ike is forced to face serious trauma after remembrance of this, and to stop this Lehran proceeds to seal Ike’s memories of the scene.

At the end of the game Ike ends up travelling to a foreign land, leaving Tellius, and he is remembered as a great and legendary warrior and a man, for everything he has done.

Powers and Abilities

Initially Ike possessed waht was considered as mediocre level of skill for a warrior within the ranks of the Greil Mercenaries. He could barely keep up with father Greil, in their training sessions and was always beat by Greil, who was even holding back. However, throughout the progression of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Ike has honed enough skill to effectively lead the Greil mercenaries into battle against the forces of Daein, and win all his battles. Ike eventually is able to take on a fight from someone as skilled as the Black Knight, who is the same person that killed Ike’s father. Ike’s beginning class in Path of Radiance is Ranger, and he can be promoted to a Lord in Chapter 17, this means he went from a D rank proficiency in swordsmanship to a C rank proficiency.

In Radiant Dawn Ike starts off as a Hero wielding Ettard and possessing swordsmanship rank of S. He also the shove ability which allows him to push other adjacent allies a tile space in the forward direction. Ike later promotes to a Vanguard with a weapon rank of A in Axe mastery. He also possess the skill Aether, which in game upon trigger allows Ike to perform two consecutive hits, one that heals for 50% of the damage dealt, and the final that deals damage as if unit gains triple the strength and the foe has his defense negated.

Weapons and Equipment

Ike always wears his typical mercenary outfit with a single shoulder-guard on his left shoulder.

In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Ike starts off with an Iron Sword. He later is able to wield Ragnell towards the end of the game. Each weapon has it’s own Rank: a usage level denoted by a letter rank ascending from E (lowest) to A(very high) to S and SS (2nd highest-highest), Uses: the number of times a weapon can be used in a battle before it breaks, Mt; the might or the amount of strength or magic added to a unit’s stat when it attacks, Hit: the percentage rating that determines the hit rate of an attack with the weapon, Crt: critical ability attack chance, Rng: the range or number of a tiles a unit can attack from with a certain weapon, Wt: the weight that determines the users ability to dodge incoming attacks the greater the weight the harder it is to attack, WEx; the level of experience that a weapon grants after use in combat, Worth: the cash value of a weapon. Some weapons also have their own special effect and some can only be wielded by a single individual character or unit, such a rank is denoted by the term Prf. In this case Ike has been the only unit in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn to wield Ragnell, and he is the only other unit to wield Alondite.

Iron Sword

Ragnell

In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Ike’s initial and preferred weapon of choice is the Ettard. Ike eventually defeats the Black Knight and obtains the Alondite from him in addition to Ragnell. Ike also gains his father’s axe Urvan, after Caeinghis returns it to Ike believing it’s what his father would’ve wanted for him.

Ettard

Alondite

Urvan