Substitute character

This article is about the inheritance mechanic in Seisen no Keifu. For the spare units in Shadow Dragon and Shin Monshou no Nazo, see Replacement units.

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In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, substitute characters are playable units who replace the second-generation children characters in the event that their corresponding mother failed to have children. The eight female characters in the game's first generation, all potential mothers, are not guaranteed to be married before or to survive until the first generation's end, and so if a mother dies or is not paired up before the conclusion of Chapter 5, their corresponding children characters are replaced by a pair of substitute characters who function in a near-identical role in the game's plot and gameplay. Deirdre's children, Seliph and Julia, do not have substitutes as Deirdre being married to Sigurd is entirely unavoidable in the course of the game, and as she is not Sigurd's daughter, Julia's stats are determined outside the standard inheritance system.

For the most part, the substitutes are identical in class and functionality to their matching children, with a small handful of exceptions: Amid is a Wind Mage as opposed to Arthur's Mage, and Radney promotes to Forrest instead of Swordmaster as Lakche does. As the substitute characters do not receive any form of inheritance from either parent in the course of gameplay, as a general rule they are inferior to their corresponding child characters, though still entirely usable. The only substitutes to possess Holy Blood are Amid and Linda, who are still part of House Freege. The game goes to some lengths to provide minor compensation for the inferiority of the substitutes: some of them have access to extra events and rewards which the corresponding children do not, and others start with otherwise unobtainable items.

While Fire Emblem Awakening also features a similar multi-generational children system, unlike that of Seisen no Keifu, the children are not the sole focus of part of the game and are optional units, fighting alongside their parents through time shenanigans. As such, Awakening does not need - and thus does not have - substitute children characters. The exception is Lucina, who is critical to the game's plot: if Chrom does not have any support relationships with an eligible female character (Sumia, Olivia, Sully, Maribelle or Avatar) by the end of Chapter 11 for whatever reason (all five are dead or already married to someone else), he will marry an unnamed generic village girl as a substitute wife. Similarly to the Seisen no Keifu substitute children, this results in a generally statistically inferior Lucina.

List of mothers, children and corresponding substitutes

style="Template:Roundtl; border:none; color:#fff"|Mother	Children	style="Template:Roundtr; border:none; color:#fff"|Substitutes
File:Portrait diadora fe04.png Deirdre	Seliph and Julia	N/A
File:Portrait ethlin fe04.png Ethlin	File:Portrait altenna fe04.png Altenna and Leif	N/A
File:Portrait adean fe04.png Adean	Lester and Lana	File:Portrait dimna fe04.png File:Portrait mana fe04.png Dimna and Mana
File:Portrait ira fe04.png Ira	File:Portrait skasaher fe04.png File:Portrait lakche fe04.png Skasaher and Lakche	File:Portrait roddlevan fe04.png File:Portrait radney fe04.png Roddlevan and Radney
Lachesis	File:Portrait delmud fe04.png Delmud and Nanna	File:Portrait janne fe04.png Tristan and Janne
File:Portrait sylvia fe04.png Sylvia	File:Portrait leen fe04.png File:Portrait corpul fe04.png Leen and Corpul	File:Portrait sharlow fe04.png Laylea and Sharlow
File:Portrait ferry fe04.png Ferry	File:Portrait sety fe04.png File:Portrait phee fe04.png Sety and Phee	File:Portrait femina fe04.png Hawk and Femina
File:Portrait tailto fe04.png Tailto	File:Portrait teeny fe04.png Arthur and Teeny	Amid and Linda
style="Template:Roundbl; border:none; background-color:#222222"|File:Portrait briggid fe04.png Briggid	File:Portrait faval fe04.png Faval and Patty	style="Template:Roundbr; border:none; background-color:#222222"| Asaello and Daisy

See also

• Inheritance
• Love