Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing well and had a lot of candies if you’re celebrating Halloween.
I’m very happy with the amount of contribution you showed for the last rounds, whether it be the Fire Emblem round or the new Original Characters round, and I want to thank you all!
It seems that the expansion of time for the creative phase allowed more people to contribute. Therefore, for this round, I’ve decided to make it last a month and a half, right from the start, which makes the deadline December 15th. Of course, this information is reiterated again at the bottom of the post.
Also, it was confusing for some to have multple rounds at once, so this round will be the last one of this year, and starting in January 2026, there will first be a non-Fire Emblem round, with a Fire Emblem round started either during that same round but a bit later (for instance two weeks after the start) or at the end of that round’s creative phase, please tell me what you would prefer in the answers to this post.
I also added a line of trivia for each character I’m featuring, which shifts the tone to being more light-hearted, but perhaps less neutral and professional, especially if I included mistakes. If so, I apologise in advance. Please tell me as well if you like those sentences and would like to see more in the next rounds, or if I should scrap the idea.
If you're new to the concept, click here to learn more about it
What is the CCC
The CCC is an art contest where the participants create portraits for various characters to expand the FE Fangame Essentials, a resource that compiles Fire Emblem-related assets, including portraits, battle animations, music, amongst others, to create Fire Emblem content or rom-hacking in general.
The artists may represent the characters following the round’s theme in any way they like.
For existing characters, they can be in their classic attire or have re-designs, including but not limited to de-ageing or ageing the characters, giving them new outfits or attributes, genderbending them, cosplaying them, etc, as long as they are recognisable and keep defining features of said characters.
This contest isn’t targeted towards a specific audience. Despite being a contest, it is very casual, and everyone is encouraged to partake in this contest, no matter their skill level and experience. The main goal is to have fun and create portraits for the Community to use and enjoy!
Rules
1.
All submissions to this contest will be F2E by default unless stated otherwise by the artist! This contest involves expanding the resources available for the Portrait Repository, but I understand not everyone participating wishes their work to be F2U or F2E.
2.
Artists may create custom battle animations, music, map sprites, or any form of art related to the featured characters, however, only posts with a portrait will be eligible for the vote.
3.
Artists may create an alternate outfit/design/etc for one or multiple characters, if they wish.
4.
Artists may submit multiple designs, if they wish. They will all count toward their one submission vote. (Voters will vote on all of the works they created at once)
5.
No pre-existing artwork! The point of this contest is to expand the repository. It would be unfair to compete against artwork that may have had several weeks or months of editing work put into it ahead of time.
6.
Eye/mouth frames are preferable but optional. They aren’t necessary, but it would be awesome if they were included!
7.
Characters must either be from the main Fire Emblem titles or one of the Fire Emblem spinoffs, such as Heroes.
8.
All characters must be sprited in GBA format!
(Hackbox size is not necessary)
(Halfbodies/fullbodies are authorised)
(Please try to keep the colour count at or below 16, that would be great.)
9.
Submissions must at least somewhat respect the theme of the current round!
10.
First Place picks three themes, which are groups or categories that include a variety of characters (such as classes, roles in the story, related characters, and archetypes…), and Second Place picks two other themes for the next round, then the community gets to vote among the 5 they prefer!
Previous rounds
Fire Emblem rounds
Round One - Anna, Jake
Round Two - Eirika, Ephraim
Round Three - Karel, Karla
Round Four - Hugh, Cath, Lysithea
Round Five - Nino, Jaffar, Sonya
Round Six - Larum, Elphin, Homer, Phina
Round Seven - Mia, Astram, Flavia
Round Eight - Lance, Alan
Round Nine - Lachesis, Larcei, Rutger
Round Ten - Athena, Marisha, Erik
Round Eleven - Zane, Arete, Klein
Round Twelve - Anna, Ryoma, Hinoka
Round Thirteen - Cecilia, Pent, Saleh
Round Fourteen - Michalis, Minerva, Maria
Round Fifteen - Palla, Catria, Est
Round Sixteen - Camilla, Elise, Felicia
Round Seventeen - Alear, Louis, Yunaka
Round Eighteen - Hector, Jahn, Idunn
Round Nineteen - Cherche, Libra, Olivia
Round Twenty - Hanon, Rutger, Sue, Uhai
Round Twenty One - Silvia, Lara, Nils, Ninian
Round Twenty Two - Dorothea, Annette, Marianne, Yuri, Constance
Round Twenty Three - Tanya, Rebecca, Neimi, Python
Round Twenty Four - Finn, Amelia, Berkut
Round Twenty Five - Merric, Delthea, Asbel
Round Twenty Six - Dieck, Guinivere, Saber, Celica
Round Twenty Seven - Camus, Perceval, Seth
Round Twenty Eight - Caeda, Nanna, Lilina, Tana
Round Twenty Nine - Arden, Oswin, Effie, Louis
Round Thirty - Hartmut, Barigan, Hanon, Elimine, Roland
Round Thirty One - Manaketes, Xane, Nagi, Naesala, Ash, Freya
Round Thirty Two - Galle, Eldigan, (FE8) Selena
Round Thirty Three - Elbert, Eleanora, Hector’s Mother, Hussar, Ionius IX, Sitri
OC rounds
This new round’s theme is Dark Magic users, which works well considering the timing of release, around the spooky season.
The theme includes obviously characters from the dark mage/shaman class line, but isn’t limited to it. The way it is phrased includes every character that can use dark magic in their canon class (not including reclassing).
For characters that are from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, who technically don’t have canon classes when recruited, it will be based on their class as enemies, and if the character learns dark magic spells (Edelgard, Hubert, Lysithea, Hapi, Jeritza).
If you have any doubt about the legitimacy of a character, you can always ask me.
You can submit artwork for any character that would fit these criteria. Considering the period of this round’s release and the association with death, I’ll suggest a number of characters that match, being thirteen characters, below:
- Character 1: Gharnef, Dark Pontifex from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
He is likely the first notable dark magic user of the series and one of the main villains of the first game, making him quite iconic and leading other villains to adopt a similar role of the evil sorcerer who is the mastermind.
- Character 2: Salem, Dark Sage from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
He is the first playable user of dark magic in the series.
- Character 3: Niime, Mountain Hermit from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
She is the character that looks the closest to standard depictions of witches in fiction, and a powerful spellcaster both in story and gameplay in her original game.
- Character 4: Canas, Wisdom Seeker from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.
He is the son of Niime, whom we’ve shown above. He is a well-liked character amongst the community and is the only playable dark mage in his base game (excluding Athos), making him special for a lot of players, especially the western audience, for whom Blazing Balde was their first Fire Emblem. The contrast of dark magic and what is often associated with it, and his kindness, made him quite memorable as well.
- Character 5: Lyon, Shadow Prince from *Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones *
Spoiler
He is the main antagonist of his game and somewhat of a twist villain, being initially very close to the two protagonists. His complex and tragic character makes him a favourite for many who can empathise and relate to him on a deep and personal level.
- Character 6: Pelleas, Ashnard’s Orphan from *Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn *
He is a character who has a major role in the story of the game, even though he is almost absent from gameplay. In fact, he is a sort of secret character that can only be recruited through a second or subsequent playthrough; thus, some players might not know he can be playable.
- Character 7: Katarina, Wayward One from Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
She is a character exclusive to the remake of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, and she comes equipped with a Nosferatu Tome, which only female units can use.
- Character 8: Tharja, Dark Shadow from Fire Emblem Awakening
She is one of the most popular characters of the franchise, having a lot of alternative costumes in Fire Emblem Heroes, or being playable in Fire Emblem Warriors, despite only having a minor role in her original game.
- Character 9: Aversa, the Dark One from Fire Emblem Awakening
She is a prominent villain who can later be recruited via the Spotpass feature. Despite her base class, the Dark Flier not being able to use dark magic tomes, she has a personal skill called “Shadowgift” that allows her to do so.
- Character 10: Leo, Sorcerous Prince from Fire Emblem Fates
He is a prince of Nohr and an important character in the story. While his main weapon, “Brynhildr”, as well as all other tomes in his debut game, are never specified to be dark tomes, it is heavily implied that it is, through its aesthetic and its classification in other games. Also, Leo’s eye colour was initially inconsistent, being red in-game but yellow in official artworks. In later materials, his eyes are consistently depicted as red.
- Character 11: Hubert, Emperor’s Confidant from Fire Emblem: Three Houses
He is tied with the Death Knight as the most recurring enemy in the main-series games. Depending on the route taken, he can appear a total of 7 times in a single playthrough, leading to a bunch of memes about him retreating to appear later again.
- Character 12: Veyle, Gentle Dragon from Fire Emblem Engage
Spoiler
She is a dragon, but cannot transform during gameplay, unlike most of the Manakete units in the series. Similarly to Leo, while her signature weapon “Obscurité” isn’t specified to be a dark tome, its name literally means “darkness” in French, leaving little to no doubts.
- Character 13: Kiria, Cool Façade from Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
She is a popular singer and performer in her world, and is paired with her Mirage Partner, Tharja, whom we’ve already seen before.
For those of you who aren’t quite sure about what sorts of designs you could make, you can click on each character’s name to access their wiki pages, complete with alternate designs and artwork.
Reach into your imagination, and the first place could be yours!
The deadline is December 15th.
To not miss any future rounds, you can now join the CCC Discord Server, where I announce every new round, voting period and results.
You can also vote for which submissions you like the most amongst the round of Original Characters here
Have fun, everyone and happy holidays!
, so its F2E if anyone wants to fix it (don’t know why you would want to)
