—Eliwood in Chapter 20
The Tactician (軍師 Gunshi, lit. Military Adviser) whose default name is Mark (マーク Māku) is portrayed as a mysterious traveler who is found unconscious on the plains by Lyndis at the beginning of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. The tactician was introduced to give the player an actual role in the game and was a means to introduce players into the gameplay mechanics of the Fire Emblem series, of which The Blazing Blade (simply titled Fire Emblem for outside territories) was the first of the series to be launched outside Japan.
The tactician is a male named Mark by default at first, though the player can change the name, gender and birth month at the start of the game. They act as the player's avatar and is a non-playable character during the whole game, but will never appear during actual gameplay. Most of the time, they are only addressed by other characters during story sequences. The tactician can be seen, but only during the few scenes involving movement on the battlefield, appearing as a sprite resembling a brown-haired individual wearing green robes over yellow garments. The sprite itself will never change between genders, regardless of the player's choice in the beginning of the game.
Lyn, Sain, Kent and the Tactician, barely visible on the right border
Despite never having a set appearance or any dialogue in the story, some snippets of the tactician's personality are seen in conversations with other characters. They are compassionate, willing to let Lyn journey with them and helping her take back her land, family and inheritance. They can be rather incredulous at times, shown when Serra wonders why the tactician is giving her a strange look at her "generosity" when offering to heal Erk. They are also willing to go to any lengths for their friends, shown when they even join the final battle against Nergal.
Depending on the gender, characters will react on the tactician differently. For example, Sain will try to flirt to both Lyn and the player if the tactician is a female and Florina will hesitate to speak to the player if the tactician is portrayed as a man, but will talk in a more comfortable manner when speaking to a female tactician. Nonetheless, everyone in the army respects the tactician greatly, offering suggestions and putting their faith in his or her orders.
The tactician is asked at the end of Eliwood and Hector's story to name their children and to become the godparent of Roy and Lilina, respectively. There are also alternate endings, though they may change based on the playthrough and the ranking of the tactician at the end of the game. At the lowest ranking, the tactician's strategy is viewed as so incomprehensible that historians of Elibe in the far future are puzzled as to how he achieved Eliwood and his army victory with such a strategy. However, at the better rankings, the tactician is highly revered by many because of their skills in tactics. So much in fact, that Bern, Lycia and Etruria are searching for them. At the highest ranking, Bern and Etruria go so far as to start a war in order to procure the skills of this brilliant mind. Regardless, it is implied that the tactician was never found.
In Fire Emblem Awakening, at the end of Smash Brethren 3, Lyn speaks to the Avatar. Due to the many similarities between the two tacticians, Lyn believes the Avatar to be her old friend. Lyn asks the Avatar if they are in fact her old friend, and the player is given a yes/no choice that Lyn will respond to accordingly.
Gameplay
Tactician Stars
The tactician will never appear on the field of battle, but they can contribute all the same. Starting in Chapter 11, the game will keep a hidden tally (only revealed in the results screen) measuring the player's overall aptitude throughout the campaign. Each chapter has four hidden 'thresholds' for each of the five criteria featured in the ranking screen:
- Tactics: Turncount for the current chapter. Some chapters, namely Hector-exclusive chapters, have an unreachable '0' for its easiest threshold, making it impossible to score above 1/5 in this area.
- Combat: Number of enemies killed vs. number of battles fought. Roughly 40% of all battles should end in an enemy dying, for a 5/5. Many enemies are frail and tend to die in two battles or less, so this rating is trivially easy to score well in, as long as the player doesn't Boss Abuse.
- Experience: Number of Experience points gained in the current chapter.
- Funds: Change in net worth during the current chapter, including the buy value of all items in the player's inventory. Because an item's sell value is always lower than its buy value, selling items (particularly Gems) will always hurt a player's funds rank.
- Survival: Number of units, if any, that died during the current chapter. A unit's death will instantly prevent a 5/5 score for the chapter.
The game will calculate a total score for the chapter, based on the best threshold the player reached for each area. Depending on the player's score, they will be assigned anywhere from 0 to 5 points. 0 Points corresponds to an overall 1/5 ranking in virtually every area, with none of the lowest pars reached. 5 points corresponds to a perfect 5/5 in every area, with all of the hardest pars reached. It should be noted that achieving a perfect 5/5 score is literally impossible in some chapters, primarily bonus missions from Hector's campaign and Survival missions in which killing the boss will not end the chapter, as a 5/5 tactics ranking is impossible in both cases.
For every 12 points the player earns this way, the tactician will be afforded a tactician star, up to a maximum of 10.
Tactician Stars-effects
Units whose affinity is identical to the tactician's receive an additional point in both hit and avoid for each star the tactician earns. For all units, regardless of affinity, an additional point is added to critical evasion for each star that's earned. If the player decides to not use a tactician at all, no units will receive this bonus. Because all units receive a boost to critical evasion as a result of Tactician Stars, enemy criticals are extremely rare in The Blazing Blade, usually only achieved by Swordmasters or enemies with dedicated critical-hitting gear. This boost can be compared to Leadership Stars from Thracia 776. Depending on the player's aptitude, the player can expect to receive an additional star anywhere from once every three chapters to about once every ten chapters.
Affinity
The affinity of the tactician is determined by the tactician's chosen birth month. In the Japanese version of the game, an option exists to choose the tactician's bloodtype, which will also factor into determining affinity. Due to a lesser cultural importance of bloodtypes, this isn't included in the English version and affinity is determined purely by birth month. If the player elects not to use a Tactician, no units will receive an affinity boost. Some affinities are generally considered better or worse than others. The Dark affinity, for example, only has four representatives, two of whom are rarely used prepromotes and one of whom is Merlinus and should never see combat to begin with. Wind, on the other hand, has nearly twice as many representatives, including a Lord, a Thief, and a powerful cavalier who would very much appreciate the accuracy boost.
Other
If the player elects not to use the tactician at all, they will never receive Afa's Drops.
Tactician Conversations
Eliwood's Story
—Dorcas's conversation in Chapter 12
—Lowen's conversation in Chapter 13
—Merlinus's conversation in Chapter 13x
—Marcus's conversation in Chapter 14
—Erk's conversation in Chapter 15
—Eliwood's conversation in Chapter 16
—Lucius's conversation in Chapter 16x
—Guy's conversation in Chapter 17
—Dart's conversation in Chapter 18
—Fiora's conversation in Chapter 18x
(Tactician is male) Leave him to me!! (Tactician is female) Mark my words!
”—Sain's conversation in Chapter 19
—Ninian's conversation in Chapter 20
—Isadora's conversation in Chapter 21
—Canas's conversation in Chapter 22
—Hawkeye's conversation in Chapter 22x
—Heath's conversation in Chapter 23
—Pent's conversation in Chapter 24
—Geitz's conversation in Chapter 25
—Harken's conversation in Chapter 26
—Nino's conversation in Chapter 27
—Hector's conversation in Chapter 28
—Vaida's conversation in Chapter 29
—Bartre's conversation in Chapter 29x
—Nils's conversation in Chapter 30
—Eliwood's conversation in Final Chapter
—Eliwood's conversation in Final Chapter
Hector's Story
—Matthew's conversation in Chapter 13
—Serra's conversation in Chapter 14
—Oswin's conversation in Chapter 15
—Florina's conversation in Chapter 16
—Hector's conversation in Chapter 17
—Raven's conversation in Chapter 17x
—Priscilla's conversation in Chapter 18
—Rebecca's conversation in Chapter 19
—Kent's conversation in Chapter 20
—Ninian's conversation in Chapter 21
—Wil’s conversation in Chapter 22
—Rath's conversation in Chapter 23
—Hawkeye's conversation in Chapter 23x
—Legault's conversation in Chapter 24
—Florina and Fiora's conversation in Chapter 25
—Louise's conversation in Chapter 26
—Wallace's conversation in Chapter 27
—Karel's conversation in Chapter 28
—Jaffar's conversation in Chapter 29
—Eliwood's conversation in Chapter 30
—Farina's conversation in Chapter 31
—Karla's conversation in Chapter 32
—Renault's conversation in Chapter 32x
—Hector's conversation in Final Chapter
—Hector's conversation in Final Chapter
Possible Endings
Note: Mark is the default tactician's name. You are given the choice to replace "Mark" with a name of your choosing.
Lyn's Story
Mark - The Tactician
"Mark leaves Lyn to continue his training. He plans on traveling throughout Lycia. Lyn refuses to say good-bye, believing in her heart that she will see him again."
Eliwood/Hector's Story
Mark - Superb Mind (Tactician Rank A or S)
"A tactician whose brilliance changed the course of history. Bern and Etruria so desired this skilled mind that they went to war."
Mark - Famed Genius (Tactician Rank B or C)
"The tactician vanished after the battle. Bern, Lycia, and Etruria all sought those famed skills, but none ever found the tactician."
Mark - Suspect Mind (Tactician Rank D or Lower)
"To this day, historians look back and question how these incomprehensible strategies ever led to victory."
Affinities of Birth Months
- January: Light
- February: Ice
- March: Wind
- April: Thunder
- May: Wind
- June: Anima
- July: Fire
- August: Dark
- September: Fire
- October: Anima
- November: Ice
- December: Thunder
Trivia
- In Chapter 24E/26H, when entering one of the houses, a villager will ask the unit who enters the house if they know the tactician. She will tell how she helped out a traveler who happened to be a tactician who cared for their soldiers and won several battles without casualties. This implies that they had been in Bern before, since the chapter takes place there, and that the tactician served an army before joining Eliwood's group.
- In Fire Emblem Awakening, Lyn suspects that the Tactician and the Avatar might be the same person. This is an allusion to the possibility of Lyn remembering the player from The Blazing Blade. This isn't the only allusion made to the Tactician in Awakening; the Japanese name of Morgan is Marc.
- In Fire Emblem Heroes, Lyndis (Bride), upon reaching level 40, mentions that the Summoner reminds her of the Tactician she traveled with and the friendship they shared.
- Also, Lyndis (Brave) mentions how the Summoner resembles the Tactician in one of her quotes on the Info Screen.
- Strangely, Lyndis (The Blazing Blade) doesnt mention the Tactician in any way.
- In Lyn's History Mode, when she speaks with male version of Robin in Fire Emblem Warriors, she mentions that Robin looks very much like the Tactician. This is further supported in both genders of Robin and Lyn's Support Conversation where they have many similarities.
- When Lyn speaks of how the Tactician can somehow command the others without words, remarking that there's an invisible arrow that helps them understand. This is a reference to how the player controls the characters, though Robin believes that the Tactician is telepathic.