[FE8] Life of Seiros (9 chapters, sort-of Act 1 done?)

[Augenis]

This is my first attempt at a romhack, and understandably it doesn’t have much depth nor many bells and whistles, but I do hope to improve it over time so that it hopefully stands up on its own merits! Until then, I hope for help, feedback, criticism and points to improve.

Concept

In the beginning, amid the great
cloudless ocean, Fódlan came to be.
At the end of a long journey, Sothis
glimpsed that land and there alighted.
With her blood, she birthed offspring, and
shared her gifts with all of humanity.
Yet, not all of humanity was thankful…

Nemesis, once a mere bandit in northern Fódlan, has pillaged the tomb of the Goddess of the Nabateans, and now, imbued with near endless power, marches on Zanado, where the last survivors of this ancient civilization hold a last stand. In the midst of the slaughter, the Goddess’s youngest daughter attempts to use this havoc to flee and is thrust into an alien, unforgiving world, where she must cling on and avenge the slaughter of her people.

The romhack aims to tell the story of two lords, Rhea and Wilhelm, in the lead-up to the War of Heroes, the ancient conflict in the backstory of FE Three Houses that led to the rise of the Adrestian Empire and the Church of Seiros.

Main characters

(Credit to Vlak for the great Rhea portrait!)

Rhea
Youngest daughter of Sothis, the Goddess of the Nabateans, Rhea feels a deep connection with her mother and sees her will in her life, powers and destiny - moreso than any of her siblings. Witnessing the slaughter of her people and saved by a miracle, she clings onto one purpose - to avenge her mother’s death, no matter how much trial and hardship it takes.

Cichol
Cichol was once a respected wyvern rider in Zanado and considered one of Nabatea’s strongest warriors, but abandoned it all once he realized that he could not tolerate the views of his kin. He settled in the countryside, became a fisherman, got married and raised a daughter. Yet, a chance meeting with another survivor will lead him to pick up his lance once again.

(Credit to RedBean for the original Flayn/Cethleann portrait!)

Cethleann
Cichol’s sole daughter, Cethleann never saw Zanado and grew up among humans - thus forming a completely different worldview than any of the other survivors. She is curious, inquisitive, and desires to experience the world - and though she is only fifteen years old, she has a natural talent in magic that even her strict father has recognized.

Wilhelm
Once heir to the House of Hresvelg, Wilhelm now wanders the continent, expelled from his home when it was seized by the nefarious Duke Maurice. Travelling alongside his two loyal knights, Wilhelm believes he has no purpose in this treacherous world, but finds joy in the simple things - a bandit beaten, a townsman helped, and the land a little more peaceful, one stop at a time.

Content

• ~20 chapters planned (Currently Prologue + 9 chapters finished)
• Skill System patch integrated (with Skills reflavored as Crests!)
• New weapons, item types (shields!), enemy types
• A story that takes you to Three Houses’s distant past

Screenshots

Credits to the creators in the Fire Emblem Graphics repository for battle animations, sprites and other content:
Axe Ephraim by Belle, St jack; Magic Eirika by Lisandra_Brave; Bowgunner by Epicer; Sword of the Creator item sprite by Batima; FE13-style Cleric by BatimaTheBat; Sword Zephiel by Hairyblob; Iron Knuckle item sprite by VelvetKitsune, LordGlenn; Claw Brawler and Grappler by Dora Drago; FEDS Thief by DerTheVaporeon; Male Anna portrait by CanDy; Cultist 1 and 2 portraits by RandomWizard; Sword Cavalier map sprite by Leo_Link; Mercenary portrait by CanDy; Executioner sprite and map sprite by Huichelaar; Dark Prince Julius by Obsidian Daddy; Portrait (for Gerth) by JiroPaiPai; Ranger Hat Repal by Orihara_Saki; Acheron by SaintRubenio; Male Recruit by Waleed, Brave Uhai by Garytop (for Khosrow), Bandit by Sideburns, Flayn portrait (edited) by RedBean, Living Doll by DatonDemand, Living Armor by Sphealnuke, Axe Cavalier class card by Leo_Link, Sword Nomad class card by Pushwall, Charlotte sprite by Datondemand, Ines sprite spliced from Wendy by RedBean, Female Mercenary by TheBlindArcher, map sprite by Flasuban
catball style ModularMinimugBox
SkillSystem Patch

Music credits:
Chasing Daybreak - SurfingKyogre
Fodlan Winds - SurfingKyogre
Indomitable Will - Azula
Life at Garreg Mach Monastery - SurfingKyogre
Main Theme - Pikmin1211
Paths That Will Never Cross - Azula
Respite and Sunlight - Mikey Séregon
Somewhere to Belong - Sme
The Long Road - Azula
A Funeral of Flowers {Thunder} - MrGreen3339

Feedback and advice is always welcome! I’m still learning and I appreciate all feedback.

Download link:

FE8 - Life of Seiros (October).ups

Previous versions

FE8 - Life of Seiros.ups - Google Drive

[LewynCollins]

@Augenis

At the moment, I am uncertain how many chapters this romhack will have, but definitely less than 30 - depends on where I decide to cut it off, as the entire period between Rhea/Seiros’s appearance and the defeat of Nemesis took 70 years in the story and that’s infeasible to depict with a single story/romhack.

Currently, I have finished the Prologue and Chapter 1.

Screenshots

It’s an interesting premise. However, can’t you make timeskips in your game? I mean, Wilheim appeared at some point in those 70 years, probably around the middle of it or even the end of it. You can start the story from Wilheim’s perspective, then he finds Seiros. Then, you could implement the years previous to Wilheim’s appereance in side chapters (the most important stuff, at least) or with some heavy yet interesting texting, like Deity Device did (may it rest in peace).

Of course you’d have to skip a lot of time anyway until the dawn of the Adestrian Empire, but there had to be some moments of respite during a war as long as that (the calm before the tempest, we could say), and in a conflict this long those periods could easily take some years of stalemate with barely anything happening, you can skip those too.

In other words, I believe this project is feasible. I hope my words can help you in some way.

Edit: also, at some point you could do your own customized Rhea, Seteth and others’ designs in order to fit 3H’s characters design a little more. That is, if you have the skill to do so, this is not so important.

[Augenis]

Thank you for the answer. It’s feasible to make timeskips, but the issue, as I see it, is that the extreme length of the war (even after the foundation of the Adrestian Empire, which is the latest possible point when Rhea and Wilhelm could have met - I personally believe that they did much earlier and Wilhelm was maybe even one of the first to meet Rhea, given how fondly she remembers him) means that the characters who aren’t ageless like the Nabateans will grow old, die, be replaced by new characters and so on.

Not that FE games haven’t done this, but I’m not sure how well I could handle a generational conflict like this in a way that is actually fun for the player, and isn’t simply wiping your party every handful of chapters for a completely new one. At least, with my current level of knowledge, which is rather little.

I can’t say I am good enough to do entirely new Rhea/Seteth/Flayn designs, at least for now anyway. I’ve tried to remake them as best as I can with existing material though.

[LewynCollins]

@Augenis

I personally believe that they did much earlier and Wilhelm was maybe even one of the first to meet Rhea, given how fondly she remembers him

Mmmm well, maybe not. Remember that the Hresvelg house bears the Crest of Seiros. That could mean either of 2 things:

1- Seiros gave Wilhelm a sip of her blood, like the elite soldiers of the church do in 3H, Jerald himself as an example.

2- Seiros falls in love in with Wilhelm, or at least she is fond enough to bear his children.

If you were to choose the second option, it would be feasible to make them meet by the latest part of the war.

[Augenis]

@LewynCollins

Mmmm well, maybe not. Remember that the Hresvelg house bears the Crest of Seiros. That could mean either of 2 things:

1- Seiros gave Wilhelm a sip of her blood, like the elite soldiers of the church do in 3H, Jerald himself as an example.

2- Seiros falls in love in with Wilhelm, or at least she is fond enough to bear his children.

If you were to choose the second option, it would be feasible to make them meet by the latest part of the war.

This is basically all headcanon territory, but I personally assumed it was the first. After all, the other noble families explicitly received the blood of the corresponding Saint/Nabatean rather than married into them - Flayn points it out herself when she says that Saint Cethleann (i.e. herself) did not have any children, yet the Crest of Cethleann was passed down regardless.

That’s probably another thing, this romhack will require a lot of headcanon’ing

[LewynCollins]

@Augenis

Flayn points it out herself when she says that Saint Cethleann (i.e. herself) did not have any children, yet the Crest of Cethleann was passed down regardless.

It is true that she didn’t, and same with Seteth. However, none of the two seem to remember the people they offered their blood to fondly (or remember them at all, for that matter). Meanwhile, as you said, Seiros does remember Wilheim fondly. This could solve a big part of the time gap problem, forcing it into the final part of the conflict. Besides, we know crests do pass from parents to children most of the time, so it’s not far fetched to assume that they could be together for a time. In any casem you should still do whatever you see fit.

[Augenis]

Working on Chapter 2 right now, with two familiar faces…

[Augenis]

I have updated the download link with Chapter 2 of the hack.

Plus a few other additions: Wilhelm now starts with a prf axe (Nothung) and has a Talk conversation with Rhea during Chapter 1.

Looking forward to any feedback, as always!

[sirsherbo]

This looks really cool! Gonna check it out now

[sirsherbo]

Prologue worked fine but I am on chapter one and the game freezes as soon as I select any of my units. Not sure if this is just on my end or an issue with the hack

[Augenis]

@sirsherbo

Prologue worked fine but I am on chapter one and the game freezes as soon as I select any of my units. Not sure if this is just on my end or an issue with the hack

Thank you for giving it a go! I don’t seem to run to this issue

I assume you are patching a clean vanilla FE8 rom, right?

[sirsherbo]

Yeah, I patched a clean FE8 rom. Might be an emulator issue on my end, I’ll fiddle with it later. The prologue and what I saw of chapter 1 looked very promising though!

[Augenis]

Thank you for the kind words! If you figure it out, I hope you’ll try the rest as well! I will look into it from my end as well, see if there is some unexpected behavior with Chapter 1.

[Augenis]

Working on Chapter 3 right now, the map itself has been designed, all that’s left is all the bells and whistles around it, plus obviously the storyline…

[Augenis]

The download link in the OP has been updated.

What’s new?

Chapter 3

Set in the poor, dinky town of Enbarr, with 1 more recruited character.

Skills

I’ve integrated the Skill System patch into the hack. This includes skills, a str/mag split (this will be relevant for Rhea, who will be a mixed sword/magic class!) and all the other QoL features.

Skills will be treated differently in this hack. Rather than having all characters have unique skills, Skills will instead be used to represent Crests. The Nabatean characters start with Crest traits, and, in the future, you will be able to choose which human characters to give Crests to (changing history, in a way, even if you win )

Also, as you can see, a new Rhea portrait, done by Vlak!

[Telos]

As some notes also from me:

Indech and Macuil could be interesting to see if theyre not already in there. While Indech is less hateful of humans, I can definitely see Macuil being easily someone who only very reluctantly passed his crest to someone else.

He even as a human form that’s a statue- so he definitely didnt always hate them.

If I had to guess specifically what it was that made him lose respect for all humans, it’s finding out about what the Sword of the Creator is made from.

Using the blood of the dragons to gain power is one thing. But the bones being used to make weapons to kill said dragons I feel like was what made him lose all faith in humanity.

He’s also fairly prominent- he was Seiros’s chief tactician after all, and also a mage.

I could go on and on but I think this is a good place to stop for now.

[Augenis]

I indeed have plans for both Indech and Macuil! They will certainly show up during the hack.

[Telos]

Oh good!
Honestly, I hope some of the darker stuff really makes it in- because I can easily imagine Seiros only with absolute reluctance having to praise someone like Nemesis despite what he did, all in order to maintain appearances.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one. Though I have to ask- why call Seiros ‘Rhea’ and not well… Seiros?

(And personally, I imagine Wilheim and Seiros’s relationship being that there definitely was something between them- but its probably the fact that humans were responsible for what happened to her people that keep her from truly being able to get close to him… and also because when you think about it, it’d be a lot harder for her to vanish if she was the Empress).

[Augenis]

@Telos

Oh good!
Honestly, I hope some of the darker stuff really makes it in- because I can easily imagine Seiros only with absolute reluctance having to praise someone like Nemesis despite what he did, all in order to maintain appearances.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one. Though I have to ask- why call Seiros ‘Rhea’ and not well… Seiros?

I chose to use Rhea, because unlike Cichol, Cethleann, Indech and Macuil (who all follow the same naming style of being taken from Irish mythology), Seiros is explicitly an invented alias which she assumed during the War of Heroes. She does refer to herself as Seiros in cutscenes but since the story also depicts the end of her time in Zanado, before she becomes “Seiros”, I figured that it wouldn’t make sense to use it as her in-game name.

Granted, Rhea is probably also invented (it’s Greek, not Irish, after all), but it’s not been explicitly confirmed that it was, and I was not comfortable with inventing a new “original” name for her t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ i̶f̶ I̶ d̶i̶d̶, i̶t̶ w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ b̶e̶e̶n̶ s̶o̶ f̶u̶n̶n̶y̶ t̶o̶ c̶a̶l̶l̶ h̶e̶r̶ M̶o̶r̶r̶i̶g̶a̶n̶, so i settled on using Rhea.

Thank you very much for the kind words! I’m always eager to hear any feedback on the content I have made so far as well.

[Augenis]

The download link in the OP has been updated.

Chapter 4

Set on the border of the Duchy of South Fódlan, on the road towards the great city of Merceus.

With two new playable characters.

Music

To further get into the Fódlan mood, I’ve integrated several GBA Three Houses music tracks into the hack to replace vanilla FE8 music. You may still spot some vanilla tracks here and there, but for the most part, battle music, cutscene music and field music should be familiar 3H tunes. Credits for all tracks used are in the OP.

Other changes

After testing feedback, I’ve altered some growth rates and nerfed Cichol to prevent him from being completely dominant (he still is, but at least now he should be a little less so). I’ve gone through the previous chapters’ text to clean up some dialogue, added a portrait to a prologue boss which previously used a generic FE8 portrait.