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Meta Month 15 - Branded Powers, Inheritance, and Dormancy
Stefan:
My laguz blood gives me great power.
I thought about using my power to gain revenge against the people who scorned me, but I decided against it.
I have found friends, people who live outside the normal worlds of the beorc and the laguz.
People who bear the brand.
- PoR Stefan/Mordecai A support
Outside of Micaiah's unusual bloodline, little is said about the nature of the Brandeds' special powers. But it is consistently implied that the laguz blood affects the nature of that power. The Apostles can read natures like the herons. Soren managed to find Ike in a sea of people while Greil had deliberately tried to throw his pursuers*. Stefan, Zelgius, and Petrine have the less supernatural merit of what seems to be unusual physical strength, which makes a great deal of sense for beast tribe and non-heron bird tribe descendents.
* It is suggested that dragons are aware of the movements of other people from great distances -- see Ena's report on the movements of Ike's band in PoR 7, Almedha's comment that she sensed Ena nearby in 4-F-B "Dragons".
It makes sense, given that the laguz parent "loses" these same powers. Maybe it's magical genetics. The power leaves the laguz parent and lies dormant in their bloodline to re-emerge in their offspring.
This is what caused me to speculate that laguz parents who have lost their power would become infertile afterwards, because I don't want to begin to imagine how this would affect any further offspring.
But it also makes me wonder about concurrent Branded in the same line. For example, Misaha and Micaiah. In this case, Misaha "conveniently" died while Micaiah was a very young age, and you could argue that Micaiah would then inherit the powers of her bloodline after Misaha's death. But surely it wasn't always so crystal-clear? The Branded live a long time, and...
Sanaki: There is no clear age at which previous apostles heard the goddess for the first time, but all of them had heard by now.
- RD 4-2 Post-Battle. (Sanaki is around age 14 at this point.)
... Could it really be the case that each Apostle did not live more than 14 years beyond the birth of the next child? Or maybe... Brandedness is not always determined from birth?
Stefan
Not always. It means that laguz and beorc mixed blood somewhere along the line. Beorc and laguz rarely associate in that way. For them to conceive a child together is an even rarer event. What's strange is that the child bears no laguz characteristics. It's just a normal beorc infant. However, the laguz blood lies asleep, waiting, in the child's veins.
Yune
Oh...
Stefan
One day, the laguz blood shows itself, marking the child's body with a brand.
- RD 4-F-B "Visitor"
The Brand itself, at least, seems to appear sometime after birth... alongside the rest of those laguz powers, if the Apostle line is to be believed.
Suppose that the Branded inheritance could only visit one descendent at a time. Then, suddenly, the phenomenon of dormancy makes a ton of sense.
But once the bloodlines have mingled, the trace of it can remain hidden for countless generations.
- Stefan, PoR Stefan/Mordecai A support
Under this model, the first result of mingling is always Branded. Then the Brandedness is passed on to the most directly related or firstborn child under the age of adolescence* at the time of the Branded's death.
* I say adolescence because a curious fact about all Branded is that their aging difference only kicks in later in life. Soren and Micaiah both seem to be stuck right before puberty. This also fits in with Sanaki's observation that the Apostles all gained their powers before 14. Also adolescence = sexual maturity, and for something passed down through bloodlines it makes weird sense to me.
So for example, let's say Misaha had a female firstborn, let's call her Eve. Eve becomes old enough to have children and has Micaiah. When Misaha dies, the Brand's Magic Genetics first checks Eve, but Eve is too old to be eligible. So it checks the next direct female descendent, Micaiah. Micaiah was very young, so it went to her at that time. The Brand would have emerged on her hand at this point and she would have heard the voice of the goddess (Yune) starting from that time.
Given Branded lifespans, you can imagine that it can sometimes take a long time for that first Branded to die. Thus resulting in the apparent centuries-long dormancy noted by Stefan.
I think this may very well be the designers' intentions. After all, it mirrors some Eastern spiritual beliefs about reincarnation.
In summary:
- When Beorc and Laguz have an offspring, the laguz essence is transferred from the Laguz parent to the Branded child, who shows the Brand very shortly after birth.
- When Branded and Beorc have an offspring, the laguz essence still remains within the Branded.
- When the Branded dies, the laguz essence transfers to the most direct descendent who has not yet reached puberty.
no subject
Sounds like the Holy Blood from FE4... though the "genetics" in that case allegedly have no pattern to them. Maybe another look at those bloodlines is in order. Hmm...
When Beorc and Laguz have an offspring, the laguz essence is transferred from the Laguz parent to the Branded child, who shows the Brand very shortly after birth.
This "laguz essence" thing is one of the most off-putting things in Tellius, to me.
That and vegetarian peacenik herons.As fictional mythology, it doesn't work for me, and as a metaphor for "race relations" it just really falls apart for me. It's probably my biggest stumbling block in getting into the mythology of that world.no subject
IMO the idea of a being's essence floating around isn't new to Tellius in the least -- it's that quintessence aegir theme that's been running through FE since the dawn of time.
I find Tellius problematic on a few fronts with respect to their handling of race, but much less so in comparison to Sacae and so on. At worst it's toothless. But then it does want to focus upon it, so one might expect better.
no subject
No, but the whole cross-breeding/loss of power thing is. And, as it turns out to be rather important to the game plots, it's not some irritating thing that can be easily ignored.
. It's interesting, however, it that it suggests that the non-racial state is not to be beorc, but a laguz with no power
Hmm. True.