Can I ask which is canon paired ending for Edric?
Edric and Elyse is the canon paired ending for Edric. This is the ending that is assumed to have occurred in the upcoming sequel, set 10 years after The Dark Amulet ends.
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I love the dark amulet as well and the hag in white both fantastic fire emblem game hacks and fire emblem illuminated too
Full spoilers
I don’t believe I mentioned this in my review, but Elyse was my favorite unit to use, and I really enjoyed her screentime. You can imagine how annoyed I was that I couldn’t use her for a substantial segment of the game (although her promotion scene was quite epic). I unfortunately didn’t get her paired ending with Edric, but still, I liked her a lot. I just checked what the paired ending is and…
…Let’s just say I sure do hope you didn’t kill her offscreen 
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It’s more complicated than that 
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Unfortunately, Sophia is not Edric’s biggest fan 
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I am so sad after playing chapter 16x: All That Was Lost. They were all so innocent why did it have to happen like this? Great Music choice for the chapter. The song has a melancholic feel to it. 
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Help I can’t Talk to Morgana with Edric to recruit her in chapter 17
You should have said in your Recruitment Guide that Morgana and her guards will switch side on turn 4 I kill both her guards thinking they would not switch side
I suppose so, but it is incredibly difficult to get to Morgana and her guards before they switch sides. You yourself admitted that you boosted your character’s stats, making them much stronger than usual. Because of this, you broke the intended sequence of the chapter.
I can’t account for that in the game’s design.
The good news is that killing the guards is inconsequential. You lost out on a silver lance by not saving. Not too big of a deal. 
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A little nitpick but could you change the sprite for Alexis to match his portrait.
In His portrait he has no hood but his battle Spirte has a pointy hood for his Unpromoted and Promoted Class. Which I don’t think suit him, it make him look silly
You could use the basic Sage’s Sprite and change the hair color to yellow to fit Alexias
I love Morgana Sentinel Class 
Giving this a replay on a whim, might give some feedback on the 1.5 and 1.6 changes. Probably been too long since 1.4 to really judge anything, though.
Hilda heard you cut her base strength and took that personally.
Dwalt still sucks.
Chapter 10 was notably easier. Still had plenty of ground to give by the end, while in 1.4 that was an exceptionally intense and satisfying defend map, fighting for every turn and inch. It’s also pretty odd to still give you control of Forness on the same turn as in 1.4; now he joins when the map’s about to end anyway and barely gets to do anything.
Also, considering this is a second playthrough, could I possibly get a list of all the prfs?
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Sophia only gives the fanciest of interjections
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Lovely Battle animations and sprite quality. I love it
Look at this I place my unit in the tile that Zeddard Spawn in
I think you mean conniving
All the Ending I like after finishing the Hack
The text is overflowing
Love Ruslan Ending with Tigerlily
I am so sad Hadrian could not find the cure for his Illness 
Please get Sophia a man to love in the sequel
So Edric and Elyse’s Daughter will be the main protagonist in the sequal yes or no?
Thanks for the Great Experience you are a good writer @Vorgus Everyone in my army was so likable and had such depth to them thanks to the support conversations you wrote. I bonded with so manyy of them listening to their support conversations.
This Hack is probably in my Top 3 favorite Hacks along side
- Seven Siblings
- The Road to Ruin
All 3 has great story and with great Sprite, Battle Animation and unique Class. All 3 hacks gave me the endless desire to know more about the world and the characters in it.
I feel no shame for cheating to beat the game as fast as possible to learn the full story of the Hack.
I hope that everything will go well with your life and work so you can make the sequel to this Hack so I can immerse myself in the Depth of the World and the Characters once again.
Love You Man!
PS: I gave everyone stat booster and exp cheat so now everyone stats look like this now
Hey Diealot ! So glad you enjoyed the game, the story, and the characters. Making The Dark Amulet was a labour of love, and it really is my great joy to see others having fun with it.
To your question - yes, I am actively working on the sequel, and it should be out this summer. The sequel will be called The Shadow of Dawn and it takes place ten years after The Dark Amulet. Edric and Elyse’s daughter, Princess Elyia of Redenze, is just eight years old in the sequel, so while she’s a character in the game, she is not the main protagonist.
The game actually pulls away from the Kingdom of Redenze and focuses on the politics of the other parts of the continent, specifically the smaller kingdoms to the south (called The Southern Kingdoms) as well as the Ghormar Empire. But don’t worry, Edric and many other characters from The Dark Amulet get pulled into the plot and some of them are even playable characters again.
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Hi Vorgus! Just wanted to pop in with some of my unsolicited thoughts on The Dark Amulet after recently finishing it and having some time to stew on things.
I’ll just get it out of the way by saying that this may be my favorite rom hack that I’ve ever played. I was so pleasantly surprised when I read the design ethos that you outlined in your original post and played the game to find that it was a perfect representation of what you sought to do. It felt like it fit naturally in with the design of the other GBA FE games and respected itself enough to stand boldly beside them. The love and care for this game is so apparent and I was enraptured the whole way through.
I’m not much of a systems and mechanics guy, so that’s not what I want to focus on. I’ll just say that I enjoyed the maps, objectives, and overall gameplay. At no point did it intrude on my enjoyment of the story or characters. I’m sure you’ve gotten a lot of feedback in that realm anyways. Instead I wanted to focus on something that was a bit more specific to my experience with the game: the gay rep.
Representation in FE rom hacks is something I value a lot because I think rom hacks are uniquely positioned to push FE design philosophies beyond where IS is usually comfortable to take them. I never expect that I’ll be able to see a main lord have a romantic paired ending with another man (holding out hope for Ike in a hypothetical FE10 remake), but it is totally possible with a rom hack. I wanted to touch on that for the Dark Amulet because it’s something that is very important to me.
I want to be clear that this is not me just trying to get the rep I want in the games I like or to try and insert my beliefs into others’ writing. What I’m seeking is to help rom hack creators make informed and well-intentioned decisions in their portrayals of gay characters. I’m only focusing on gay men for this post because that’s the group that represents me most directly and the one I naturally have the most experience with. Representation of other minority groups is obviously also very important and deserves to be celebrated when done well, but I don’t feel the most qualified to speak on them.
I can’t believe I just typed all that preamble without even really mentioning anything specific about the game, so I’m going to hop right into it.
My thoughts on the game's gay rep
I was really excited to learn that Shorn was gay and that he was such a present figure in the story. He’s not incredibly plot relevant in terms of the over-arching conflicts, but he is nonetheless right beside Edric throughout the whole thing. Once I started to dive in to the game and see how well it was written and how well its characters were portrayed, especially its women, I found myself looking forward to learning more about Shorn. And when pairings like Julia and Harlan were getting me all sappy, I knew it was going to be good. I don’t normally gush over straight romance, so that was all the evidence I needed!
Shorn is a great character and a fun unit. I enjoyed using him and seeing his dynamics play out with the other characters in their supports. The biggest issue I had, and probably one of the bigger issues I saw with the game overall, was how his gayness was explored. I’ll get right in to why.
In both of Shorn’s romantic A-Supports, Shorn mentions his ex-lover who died in his arms, and we see the underlying trauma that informs us as to why he’s been so cold and detached up until that point. I think that’s a reasonable writing decision and it is a realistic way for something who suffered like that to cope. I can also tell that it is well-intentioned. My main issues with it are twofold: 1) it resembles negative tropes that have harmed gay men in the past; and 2) that it seems unrealistic and unreasonable for Shorn to enter a romantic relationship immediately after sharing the trauma of his past lover’s death. It is A LOT to work through and develop in just one conversation.
On my first point, a lot of media commit what I call the “dead backstory gay” trope in an effort to kind of represent gay people, but do it in a way that is more acceptable for straight audiences. They can have their cake and eat it too by claiming that they have gay rep, but not risk alienating homophobic audiences because the only thing actually gay about them on screen died before the story even began. It equates the experience of gayness with tragedy in a way that can be really hurtful for some gay people to view. It is worth noting that this is just how the trope makes me feel personally and not all gay people might view it the same way.
In fact, this trope so prevalent that as soon as I learned Shorn was gay and I was exposed to his demeanor, I knew for a fact that he had a dead boyfriend in his backstory.
The second one I feel is more a consequence of the limited 3-convo structure of supports, but I think it is worth noting that other romantic subplots get room to be fleshed out in non-support conversations and in story events. Having the reveal of Shorn’s ex-lover’s death happen in the same conversation as the romantic confessions with Edric and Gareth deny him the opportunity to process his trauma in a more meaningful way and then subsequently build chemistry with his romantic pairs. I would have much rather seen Shorn work through his issues in a paralogue-esque scenario (not literally a paralogue dedicated to him, but some side bar where he gets some lines of focus), which then unlocks his ability to A-Support with Edric and Gareth. That way their full A-Support convo can be dedicated to exploring their romantic chemistry, which otherwise feels truncated and sudden, especially in Edric’s case.
I’m specifically looking at this issue through the lens of Shorn because, while there is an implied queerness in Edric and Gareth because they can enter a romantic relationship with him, only Shorn’s is really spotlighted. I didn’t explore Gareth’s character as much so I didn’t really get a sense of what was intended with him, but I thought it was pretty clear that Edric was written with the intention to be straight. And from what I understand, canonically, he is straight and marries Elyse.
So it’s hard for me to really even qualify Edric in this conversation. It exists, and I like the dynamic he has with Shorn, but I can’t help but feel my enthusiasm of the pairing deflate because of that. I absolutely understand that you can’t rewrite the sequel for every potential paired ending, and I was happy with the step we got, but I just can’t help but want to see that full step be taken. As I mentioned towards the beginning, it feels like such a distant dream to see a main lord like the ones we get in traditional FE games have a paired romantic ending with another man and have it feel meaningful. This makes Gareth feel like the only option for Shorn which plays into another trope of the “token gay option.” That’s not super important, but it is another thing that can make people like me who feel otherwise represented by these characters feel less valued.
I will say that Miley’s conversation with Shorn in one of the resupply chapters was really well done! I can see how some people might be turned off by it because it could play into the trope of straight women fetishizing gay men and things like the “gay best friend,” but I thought it was charming and funny and it made sense given their characterization.
I bring up these tropes a lot because they give minority folks a way to categorize the way that they’re represented and outline the impacts these tropes have on them. It gives writers more tools to make well-informed writing decisions. If writers don’t have the ability to talk to groups of people that they’re trying to represent, the next best thing they can do is educate themselves on the tropes that may harm them. That’s the best thing anyone can do imo.
This went on for much longer than I anticipated, and I feel like I spouted enough word vomit. Thank you for indulging if you managed to trudge through all of that. Lived experiences in any community are never a monolith, and I try to remain cognizant of that, but I’m happy to expound on my thoughts for anyone interested. Love the hack, and I’m super looking forward to The Shadow of Dawn!
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Thanks so much for your detailed feedback. I think your analysis of the gay romances and their shortcomings is spot on. I found myself agreeing with you as I read what you wrote. Why did I do that in terms of ‘hiding’ the romantic side of the gay pairings in the A support conversation for both Shorn/Edric and Shorn/Gareth? Its an especially good question because Catrine/Leandra get a little bit romantic in their B support, and that’s also a gay pairing (of two women). So, what’s going on here?
I think, to be completely honest, it was a lack of courage. Stuffing the gay male romance purely into A supports mean players will only ever see it if they’re looking for it. Unless they are inquisitive, a player could easily play through The Dark Amulet without even realizing that Shorn is gay. Stand-offish, sure, not affectionate with women, yeah, his supports with Miley are purely platonic… but without the convo with Miley in the resupply chapter or the Gareth or Edric A support convo, nothing else is mentioned.
So I guess I made sure it was there, but also ‘out of the way’ in case people did not want to see it. After writing this sentence down, I want to be clear about two things. (1) This was not intentional during the writing. I’m simply now looking back on what I did subconsciously and trying to explain it. (2) This isn’t a good thing to do. It feels rushed from your perspective because it is rushed. The writing would have been better if it wasn’t so out-of-the-way.
But I also have a bit of a mitigating point. Shorn is a gay character who isn’t obviously gay because romance and sexuality just aren’t very important to him (any more). He keeps to himself, so naturally you wouldn’t clue into his orientation very quickly. That goes towards explaining a bit of why his romance supports are more downplayed… but I think there’s still room for improvement on my part here and I don’t think this explanation / excuse totally covers me.
One point of disagreement I need to bring up is how you described Edric as not even qualifying as gay, since he’s canonically straight. Edric is not canonically straight. Edric is bisexual - but only really opens up to this facet of himself through a relationship with Shorn. Yes, his ‘canon romance’ for sequel purposes is Elyse, but even in this world-state he’s bisexual.
And yeah, my bad on the ‘dead gay boyfriend’ trope. Didn’t even realizeI was doing it. In early character sketches, Shorn always had a dead comrade that was the cause of his edginess. Later on that comrade because a past lover. So, I kind of sleptwalked into that one.
There will be some LGBT characters in the sequel - I’ve learned from my writing of The Dark Amulet and I do hope I can improve in this space in the next game. I love creating and writing characters. I love writing romance. I feel like a bit more of a novice when it comes to gay romance writing, but I’m of the firm belief that people are people, connection is connection, and therefore I can totally write some captivating and believable queer characters with non-tropey non-cliche romances!
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