—Arden in Genealogy of the Holy War
Arden (アーダン Ādan, Ardan in the Super Tactics Book) is a playable character from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. He is a Knight of Chalphy under Sigurd, and is constantly insulted for his inability to carry out actions swiftly. Arden will eventually perish in the Battle of Belhalla, alongside a good number of his comrades.
Personality
Arden is a strong and reliable individual, but is often mocked for his slow and cumbersome movements, a trait which he is revealed to be rather frustrated about. He is also shown to be jealous of Alec, noting that the latter is much swifter and charming than he is.
Arden can also be said to be humble, as can be seen in a conversation which he shares with Ferry if he is paired up with her, in which he expresses amazement at being able to get "someone as perdy as [her] for [his] wife".
In Game
Genealogy of the Holy War
Base Stats
| Starting Class | Holy Blood | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sword Armor | - | ||||||||||
| Level | HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Mov | Lead | Gold |
| 3 | 36 | 13 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2,000 |
| Skills | Weapon | Starting Items | |||||||||
 Vantage |  Sword - B |  Iron Sword | |||||||||
Growth Rates
| HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90% | 50% | 5% | 10% | 20% | 10% | 40% | 5% |
Promotion Gains
| Promoted Class | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 General
| ||||||
| +1 | 0 | +1 | +2 | +2 | +3 | +0 |
| Weapon Levels | ||||||
+1  A  B  B
| ||||||
Overall
Arden is a rather difficult unit to use effectively. On one hand, he is very durable with very high HP and Defense, meaning he would make an ideal tank for choke points. However, due to his low Movement, it will basically be impossible for him to fill this role effectively on most maps since in Genealogy of the Holy War, the maps are very large and half of your army is made up of mounted units with twice as much mobility as Arden. This makes it difficult for him to not only act as a tank, but to even keep him relatively close in level to the rest of your army will require you to intentionally slow your assault so that Arden can participate. On the other hand, through engagement in Boss Abuse, Arden can easily promote and reach maximum level early on since his high durability makes it rather easy for him to gain tons of experience from any Level 20 boss. However, even special care is taken to level Arden, he will still be slow and difficult to use effectively. Even after promotion, his primary purpose will be to defend a castle rather than take an active combat role.
Mobility issues aside, Arden himself is somewhat mediocre in combat. He can handle large groups of enemies due to his high durability, but his damage output is abysmal until he promotes, and even after promotion it merely becomes average as he will gain access to more powerful weaponry but lack the means to Double Attack. While Arden is quite strong, his choice of weapons and lack of Speed/Pursuit means his only real damage can come from single hits from B-level Swords until he promotes, resulting in extremely low damage. So while Arden can take damage well from physical sources, he is not very proficient at dishing it out.
A few chapters in, it is possible to obtain a Pursuit Ring for Arden. However, in almost all cases players choose to sell the ring to another character because Arden's very low Speed means he will not activate it very often. There are many other characters with higher Speed that lack Pursuit that can make much better use of the item (Lex, Tailto, Lewyn, or Dew being much better choices). If Arden keeps the Pursuit Ring for himself, he can become fairly effective against Axe wielding units as they may have low enough Speed for Arden to Double Attack them.
Father Overview
Arden is one of the weaker father choices available in the game. His growths are all poor other than his HP, Strength, and Defense. On top of this, he has no Holy Blood and the only skill he can offer his children is Ambush. Even making Arden a father can be problematic because it will be difficult to keep him close to his potential wife for most maps, and he has no conversations that boost his Love Points. There is never really an instance where Arden is the ideal choice as a father, but he can still make some decent pairings.
Arden is best paired with Ayra or Sylvia. Ferry and Briggid are passable choices with some flaws, while Adean, Tailto, and Raquesis should be avoided entirely, With Ayra, Arden will boost her children's durability and give them Ambush making them a bit better at surviving frontline fighting. Sylvia's children are both support type characters, so unless you pair her with Claud to pass his staves on to Corpul, her husband should primarily have stats related to durability. Since Arden is among the most durable in the game, he makes a rather good fit for Sylvia. Ferry and Briggid are okay choices, where Ced will suffer tremendously if you pair Arden with Ferry, and Patty will suffer quite badly if you choose Briggid since she'll lack Pursuit, though their other children will do just fine. The rest of the possible pairings should be avoided because Arden cannot pass on the Pursuit skill to Adean's or Raquesis' children while Tailto has Magic focused children that Arden will statistically ruin.
Conversations
In Chapter 2, if Arden moves to a certain spot on the map, an event will occur, in which he will gain the Pursuit Ring.
In Chapter 5, if Arden moves to a certain spot on the map, an event will occur, in which he will gain five points of Skill.
In Chapter 5, after Phinora Castle is captured, if Ferry/Ayra and Arden are lovers, she may speak to him, but nothing will result of it.
Love Growths
- Deirdre: N/A
- Ethlyn: N/A
- Adean: 0+2
- Ayra: 0+2
- Raquesis: 50+2
- Ferry: 50+2
- Sylvia: 0+3
- Briggid: 50+4
- Tailto: 120+3
Awakening
SpotPass
| Starting Class | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Knight | |||||||||
| Level | HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Mov |
| 12 | 31 | 16 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 18 | 1 | 4 |
| Skills | Weapon | Starting Items | |||||||
 Defense +2 Indoor Fighter Vantage |  Lance - C |  Steel Lance* | |||||||
*Enemy only, joins unequipped
Quotes
—Arden's death quote in Genealogy of the Holy War
Etymology
Ardan was a brother of Naoise (Noish) in Irish mythology.
Trivia
- Norton from Tear Ring Saga bears an uncanny resemblance to Arden.
- In one of the manga adaptations of the game, Arden was left behind at Chalphy throughout the entire duration of the Prologue and Chapter 1. He is, however, called to Evans Castle to attend Sigurd and Deirdre's wedding.
- If Ayra and Arden are lovers in Chapter 5, their final lover conversation may prove to be rather confusing. In the alleged conversation, when Arden admits his love for Ayra, she will appear to be rather doubtful, almost as if she is unaware of his feelings.
Gallery
.png "Arden (FE4 Concept Artwork).png (13 KB)")
