If you’re a fan of dark, heavy, and emotionally provoking stories, but you’re tired of the all too common “edgy political strife” or the “Unsung, rising hero from the dirt” type hacks and want a story that truly brings you face-to-face with unfiltered existential terror? Then you’ve come to the right place. Take a seat, friend.
WARNINGS AND READER CONSENT:
This hack will contain many instances of disturbing content ranging from strong adult language, possibly sensitive religious elements, violence, gore, adult content (non-sexual), with a focus on demons, devils, monsters, and possessed humans.
If you have read the warnings and choose to continue forward, then you are consenting to seeing and reading the above content. Continue at your own discretion. I am not held responsible for any sensitive subjects, topics, discussions, or issues that may arise from a potentially disgruntled reader. What you choose to view after you’ve been adequately warned is your business. Nothing stated or expressed in this hack is indicative of any of my own personal or religious beliefs, it is purely a story of fiction of my own imagining, for the sole purpose of entertainment.
Main Plot:
This is a reimagining of Fire Emblem 8: The Sacred Stones from the viewpoint of Hell and its demonic forces invading Magvel, rather than the traditional story of monsters rising and Grado unexpectedly invading Renais. This story will focus on Eirika and her place in this story. Ephraim will never be the “main” lord, there will be no route split, although they will both be playable together at a certain point. Grado is no longer an enemy country, this story will follow along the lines of the peace the lands had right before the traditional events of Fe8. Grado is in just as much danger as everyone else. Your first goal is to regroup and rally survivors of the initial attack and destruction, fleeing to neighboring ally, Frelia. Trying to find information on this newfound and devastating enemy, you are taken to the royal library of Frelia. There you will find a VERY minimally translated book of infernal codices, labeled as the: Book of Vile Acts. After trying in vain to decipher the demonic passages within, your next goal is to find someone knowledgeable on the inner workings of Hell, perhaps someone that can read and speak the language, maybe even someone that’s been there and back…
That’s all I’ll say on the main plot. The rest you’ll have to discover for yourself.
Character Changes:
There is a story set romance between Eirika and Seth, regardless of supports between them, as well as 2 possible romances for Ephraim with either Tana or L’Arachel that IS based on supports gained. If no supports are gained with either, then it will default to Tana.
Duessel, Cormag, Amelia, and Knoll, are no longer defectors of Grado, instead they are recruited into allies through alternate means. I won’t spoil any of it here.
Any pre-existing strife or conflicts with characters from Grado will not be present at all, including any and all of the imperial generals or commanders, etc.
All support conversations will be altered massively to reflect the current affairs. Conversations regarding a shared past between two units, unless related to the destruction of Renais or the invasion of Grado, will not be altered.
All characters have had their growths adjusted to be more in line with their class/previous bases. I made sure everyone has 300% total for their character growths with exceptions to Tethys and Myrrh. Buffed most boss characters that didn’t have luck to have at least a little, like a minimum of 5 or so. Raised the base con of a few boss characters.
Character Specific Changes:
Franz: His default class is set to soldier instead of cavalier. I also fixed Franz’s character description to no longer say “An earnest and compassionate cavalier of Renais”, it now says “A skilled and dedicated soldier from Renais. Looking to discover himself.”
Lute: She begins with an E rank in dark magic, as well as creating a prf tome for her. (Has low durability and cannot be repaired by the hammerne staff)
Garcia: He now starts with a prf axe that is effective against swordsmen and negates criticals. (Has low durability and cannot be repaired by the hammerne staff)
Class Changes:
Changed the trainee classes to allow 3 base promotion choices without prerequisites.
Recruit: knight, cavalier, and wyvern rider.
Journeyman: fighter, pirate, and mountaineer.
Pupil: mage, shaman, and monk.
“Lords”: Prince and Princess now have 3 class promotion options each. When first prompted to use the Lunar and Solar brace, decline this option, then use them afterwards in the inventory menu to access the 2 new additional classes. I won’t list what they are here, you’ll just have to see for yourself, but I will say that they do retain their default “Great Lord” promotion as an option for those that don’t like the 2 new options. “Great Lord” is the default promotion if you choose to use the Lunar and Solar brace when first prompted to.
Changed the Brigand class to “Mountaineer” and added a new class animation as well a new class card for them.
Added a custom animation to a few classes, fighter, pirate, mage, sage, Erika’s base class and default promoted class.
Increased the base con on some classes, like soldier, mountaineer and druid.
Soldier: Can now promote to general, paladin, and great knight.
Troubadour: You can now sacrifice the use of a mount to become a bishop. The options are now valkyrie or bishop. (Mageknight removed as an option from Troubador)
Summoner: The summons have a max HP of 20 and a max Def and Res of 5. I also raised their con and gave them Axefaith.
Bishops: No longer has slayer as their class skill, instead they now have the sol skill.
Gameplay Changes & New Mechanics
Increased Difficulty:
Be advised as this can 100% be considered a difficulty hack. It isn’t absolutely mind melting, but you will definitely need to pay attention to what you’re doing and be very aware of what the enemy is capable of and what they’re equipped with. Easy mode and tutorials are disabled.
Heavily adjusted enemy density, inventory, positioning, and ai. Bosses specifically received large upgrades, as well as receiving a personal skill and extensively upgraded inventories, but don’t worry, most of those powerful items will be yours, if you can defeat them.
Monsters are now very deadly, and their promoted versions are borderline lethal. Not even the humble revenant and entombed are easy picking anymore, they’re still pretty slow, but pound for pound, they’re some of the hardest hitters, and seem to bounce back awfully quick…
Thieves will receive a small spotlight in this hack. I personally guarantee multiple stealables per map. Not all will be particularly valuable or “good” but there’s always a place for a thief on your side. And by no means will you substantially miss out if you choose to abstain from this particular feature, I simply added it as a way to incentivize the use of a thief beyond just opening doors and chests.
Light magic is effective against monsters and demons without the slayer skill, (the base slayer skill on bishops has been replaced) but likewise hell-forged demon weapons are effective against holy units.
Skill System:
I installed the skill system, but its very limited right now to avoid skill bloat, so basically everyone just gets one unique character only skill that usually is in line with their strengths or personal design, including every boss. Also all of the monster classes have 1 skill to make them more challenging. Also the classes that do get a skill already like the general, bishop, and assassin etc will have more than 1 skill for the characters as those classes. The thief class gets Steal+ at level 20. Eirika and Ephraim’s base lord classes both receive 1 additional skill at level 20 and their promoted lord class will also receive 1 more skill at level 10.
Weapon & Item Changes
I have rebalanced basically every single item in the game, as well as added descriptions to items without them and added more informative descriptions to existing ones. Massive changes to weapon durability, essentially anything not iron or steel will probably have around 20 durability. The hammerne staff will be a valuable asset, if you can acquire one. On that note, staves have been massively upgraded, just a few examples would be their range, almost every utility staff will have increased range, typically 1-3 range, like the unlock, barrier, restore, hammerne etc. Staff durability was also increased, all staves with 3 uses will have 5 uses. Base uses of heal, mend, and recover have been adjusted to, 40, 30, and 20, respectfully. (Trust me, you’ll need them) Also do keep in mind that with the increased durability, comes an increased price.
Silver weapons are now B rank and deal effective damage to devils, demons, and monsters. They have no effect on demon possessed humans, since their body is now technically mortal flesh. Brave weapons are now the pinnacle of standard weapons, with an A rank, they are the endgame weapons that aren’t legendary or unique. All legendary (sacred twin weapons formerly) weapons will most likely deal some form of magic, with only 2 of them being the exceptions to this, and those are the Vidofnir and Garm. All the rest will innately do magic damage and have a corresponding magic ranged animation. For example, Siegline does anima magic damage with the bolting ranged animation, Siegmund does anima magic damage and uses a modified version of Flametounge ranged animation. Audhulma will use the Fimbulvetr ranged animation and will also do anima magic damage. Those are just a few of the changes to the legendary weapons, more will be added later during the final edits.
The economy has been dramatically reworked, no longer are you swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck. The arena has been disabled for this reason. Silver weapons will be your best friends in this game, not only are they precious metals to begin with, now with the invasion of Hell itself, the prices have increased exponentially. Your main source of income will be the acquisition and bartering of weapons and enemy droppables. Weapons like the Horseslayer, the Hammer, the Zanbato, are all now fairly valuable in their own right. It’s up to you if you wanna use them, or sell them.
Some items have been reduced to make things a little more challenging, for example elixirs are now 1 time use, and quite pricey, to encourage using healers a little more. Also, weapons like hand axes, javelins, spears, and tomahawks were reduced. Also the niche weapons like horseslayer, heavy spear, zanbato, etc all got large reworks and are worth using. I also removed the 5 crit off of all the reaver type weapons.
Poison weapons got a big buff, particularly their damage and accuracy. I never liked how they did substantially less damage and had way less accuracy than an iron weapon, because in my head I always viewed it as they should do at least as much damage as iron weapons and be similarly accurate.
All stat boosting items were made into various “rings” of different colors, and they were all made to have 2 uses each, but only increasing a stat by 1 point per use. The Angelic Robe also has 2 uses but it increases HP by 4 each time, so technically it boosts 8 total HP instead of the previous 7.
Monster Changes:
Major adjustments to all monsters to be more deadly, more in line with the terror and carnage I imagine they’d inflict. Make sure you carefully inspect the monsters before you engage them, some are far more deadly than they appear at first glance.
Changed Mauthe Doog and Gwyllgii to “Hellhound” and “Garmr”.
Changed Bael and Elder Bael to “Stone Spider” and “Mountain Spider”.
Changed Bonewalker and Wight to “Skeleton” and “Skeleton Lord”.
Changed Tarvos to "Maelduin to “Centaur” and “Centaur Lord.”
Gargoyles remain the same, changed Deathgoyle to “Gargoyle Lord”.
Changed Revenant and Entombed to “Zombie” and “Undead”.
Vendor Changes:
Heavily modified the creature campaign secret shops to not all be so repetitive with what they sell, they all have unique weapons from one another now. One will now sell all the promotion items, one will sell all the stat boosters. Rausten will be primarily magic and Grado will be primarily non magic and Jehanna will be a mix of both.
Edited a few starter shops and armories, specifically Ide by removing Hand Axes and Javelins and adding torches. Also added a couple utility staves to the Serafew shop to help prevent potential early staff shortage issues.
Added the option to purchase steel weapons from the convoy as well as single use vulneraries.
WARNING: Optional Spoilers Ahead!
You’ll eventually fight the embodiment of the 7 Deadly Sins as major plot point bosses, kind of like the Grado imperial generals in base Fe8, or the Black Fang in Fe7
There are various “silver coins” that are obtainable throughout the game, 7 of them to be precise, and they are numbered accordingly. Each of these will be very difficult to collect, but not necessary for plot or story continuation. So don’t worry if you miss a few, or even all of them. Each of these coins have unique abilities, some are useable items that can grant stat boosts, a skill, etc, some are simply hold items with various effects. These are secret in game items related to the story of Judas betraying Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Obviously from a gameplay perspective this would be a LOT of items to find. So it’s 7, think of it as a dual nod to the 7 deadly sins as well. During the final release or final integration of them, spoilers will be added with their exact requirements to obtain them.
In a gaiden chapter after the base game final battle, you’ll fight a supreme Demon Overlord named Xolgrammand. He is completely optional and not at all considered a “true ending” or anything canonical, so if you made it to that point, congratulations you’ve already won the game 100%. He is entirely just for fun or bragging rights, because he is immensely powerful. Like genuinely overpowered. He makes Fomortiis and the Fire Dragon look like common enemies at best. So the likelihood of all of your units surviving a fight against him, if at all, is…not high. His concept was from an endgame boss in a D&D story that was intentionally meant to be unbeatable due to plot purposes that I wrote many years back.
Credits:
7743 for FEBuilder!
[Fighter-Reskin] Tellius-Style Clothing [M] by Leo_Link.
[Mage-Reskin] [M] Hatless by GabrielKnight.
[Sage-Reskin] [F] Lute FE8 Variant by Levin64
[FE8 Eirika-Reskin] [F] T1 Leotard and cape by Kimeru el perro.
[FE8 Eirika-Reskin] [F] T2 Eirika by Redbean
[Pirate-Reskin] Variant [M] by Nuramon
Gladiator (M) class portrait by L95
[Hector-Reskin] T1 Gladiator Repal v2 +Sword by Waleed
Gladiator (M) standing & walking map sprites by Pikmin, L95
All custom item icons done by me!