—Raigh to Niime in a support conversation in Binding Blade
Raigh (レイ, pronounced "ray" or "lay", given as Lleu in Japanese sources and also transliterated as Ray and Rei in the fan translations) is a playable character in Fire Emblem: Binding Blade. He is a Shaman and the twin brother of Lugh. He is sarcastic, rude and cynical, the opposite of his brother. Despite his rude behavior to all the people around him, people like Lugh and Sophia say that he is really a good person at heart and is just hiding it. He is on relatively good terms with Chad despite his departure from the orphanage. His dream is to make dark magic more known throughout Elibe and to study ancient magic, joining Roy's army because it may help with his dream.
He is the second playable Dark Magic user in the Fire Emblem series, following Salem.
Profile
Raigh is the son of Nino, and the identical twin of Lugh. The difference in looks between the twins is their eyes. Lugh's eyes are more soft like Nino's while Raigh's eyes are harder. He is rough around the edges, rude, and overall mordant, having been raised in an orphanage in Araphen alongside his brother and Chad. After hearing that the father was slaughtered and that Bern charred said orphanage to the ground, Raigh pretends to be standoffish to the fact and while he exclaims that he does not care what happens to the orphanage or the orphans, Lugh insists that it is merely a barrier and that he is truly lighthearted and caring by nature.
In Game
Binding Blade
Recruitment
Speak to him in chapter twelve with either Lugh or Chad.
Base Stats
| Starting Class | Affinity | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Shaman |  Ice | ||||||||
| Level | HP | Str | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Con | Mov |
| 12 | 23 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 5 |
| Weapon | Starting Items | ||||||||
 Dark - C |  Nosferatu | ||||||||
Growth Rates
| HP | S/M | Skl | Spd | Luk | Def | Res |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55% | 45% | 55% | 40% | 15% | 15% | 35% |
Promotion Gains
| Item Required | Promoted Class | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Guiding Ring
|
 Druid
| |||||||
| 1 | +3 | +4 | +2 | +2 | +2 | +2 | +1 | +1 |
| Weapon Levels | ||||||||
+1  E
| ||||||||
Supports
- See also: Raigh/Supports
Overall
Raigh is the first shaman you receive. He has very good starting stats for his level, and good growths too. He will easily max Skill, and will likely almost max Speed and Magic also. Though his Speed stat will be fairly high, it is lowered by his extremely low constitution. With dark tomes being so heavy, he will never be as fast as his stat suggests. Also his evade is not great due to his poor Luck (although he is a good candidate to give a Goddess Icon and Body Ring). His avoid is sub-par, and his Defense is similar to Sophia's at equal levels. However, he is easier to train than Sophia, though both have their merits.
Awakening
SpotPass
| Starting Class | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dark Mage | |||||||||
| Level | HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Mov |
| 16 | 36 | 5 | 17 | 14 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 5+1 |
| Skills | Weapon | Starting Items | |||||||
 Hex Anathema Movement +1 |  Tome - C |  Nosferatu* | |||||||
*Enemy only, joins unequipped
Quotes
—Raigh's Death Quote in Binding Blade
Ending
Raigh - Child of Darkness (闇の申し子 Yami no mōshigo)
- Raigh traveled around the world, honing his dark magic skills. Although dark magic had been all but forgotten, Raigh's efforts brought it back to people's awareness again. He was known for being hard on both himself and others, but for some reason he was generous towards deprived children.
Etymology
The Japanese transliteration of Raigh's name, "Lleu", comes from the Welsh mythlogical figure Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who was born when his mother, Arianrhod, was running for the door after giving birth to Dylan Ail Don during a magical virginity test and is raised by Arianrhod's brother Gwydion. When presented with the child, Arainrhod places a tynged, similar to a curse, on him that only she could name him, which Gwydion tricks her into doing, as well as later tricking her into arming him to counter a second tynged, and making a wife out of flowers to counter a third. He is considered to be the equivalent of the Irish Lugh.
The change in his name in Fire Emblem Awakening was likely due to pronunciation - The Welsh ll (ɬ) sound is very difficult to pronounce for most native English and Japanese speakers so it might have been a pragmatic choice to translate according to the Japanese pronunciation towards a variation of a common English Language name rather than try to maintain the intent and pronunciation of the original word.
Trivia
- On the official Japanese website for Nintendo, Raigh won 4th place out of 80 in the character popularity poll for Fire Emblem: Binding Blade. The male-female vote ratio is 1:2. The voter comments seem to mostly center on him being a kind and caring person despite seeming cold and cynical on the surface.
Gallery
