Birth of a Holy Knight (Japanese:聖騎士誕生Birth of a Holy Knight) is the prologue chapter ofFire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. The chapter chronicles the short-livedVerdane invasion of a relatively defenselessGrannvale, Sigurd's movement to defendYngvi and rescue its LadyEdain, his rise as a Holy Knight of Grannvale, and the beginning of his slow descent into a grave predicament.

Plot

Main article:Birth of a Holy Knight/Script

While the bulk of the armies of Grannvale are off to war inIsaach, the country itself is largely undefended. Grannvale's former allyVerdane takes advantage of this in a surprise assault led by PrinceMunnir, storming the country and assaulting the dukedom ofYngvi. In response to this news and the threat facing Yngvi's LadyEdain, neighboringChalphy's LordSigurd convenes what few knights remain in Chalphy to depart to aid Edain. As the fight passes, others arrive to support him - firstAzelle ofVelthomer andLex ofDozel, both against the wishes of their family, thenQuan,Ethlyn andFinn ofLeonster. Meanwhile, at Yngvi,Midir of the Yngvi knights is gravely wounded by Munnir in attempting to protect Edain, allowing the Verdane forces to seize the castle. Munnir takes Edain back with him to Yngvi, leavingDiMaggio in charge of the Grannvale effort.

Upon reclaiming Yngvi, Sigurd finds Midir, who informs him of Edain's capture and volunteers to assist despite his injury. Meanwhile, at Evans Castle on the other side of the border,Gerrard of the Verdane army learns of Dimaggio's failure and orders that the bridge across the Jun River be restored, and that the remaining forces move in. At this time, DukeArvis of Velthomer arrives from the north to observe the situation; he finds Sigurd and entrusts him with aSilver Sword, a gift from KingAzmur, then departs. Sigurd eventually seizes Evans Castle; finding Edain was not there, he establishes a headquarters there and prepares to sortie directly into Verdane to find her.Filat arrives as a messenger arrives fromBelhalla, delivering the news that Sigurd had been appointed a Holy Knight of Grannvale for his efforts and commissioning him to guard the Verdane border.

Chapter data

Chapter Data
Conditions	Unit Data
Victory: Seize Evans Defeat:Sigurd diesor Chalphy Castle is seized	Player: 4+6 Partner: 1+1−2 Other: 0 Enemy: 32+15−1
Chapter Map InitialAfter YngviBlank {{{content4}}} {{{content5}}} {{{content6}}} {{{content7}}} {{{content8}}} {{{content9}}} {{{content10}}} {{{content11}}} {{{content12}}} {{{content13}}} {{{content14}}} {{{content15}}}
Map dimensions: 62 columns by 30 rows

Character data

Characters
New units
Sigurd Knight Lord HP 33 Inventory Steel Sword Iron Lance 5,000Gold Level 5 Automatically from turn 1 Naoise Cavalier HP 33 Inventory Steel Sword 2,000Gold Level 3 Automatically from turn 1 Alec Cavalier HP 32 Inventory Iron Sword 2,000Gold Level 2 Automatically from turn 1 Arden Sword Armor HP 36 Inventory Iron Sword 2,000Gold Level 3 Automatically from turn 1 Azelle Mage HP 30 Inventory Fire 5,000Gold Level 1 Automatically from turn 2 Lex Axe Knight HP 33 Inventory Iron Axe 5,000Gold Level 4 Automatically from turn 2 Quan Duke Knight HP 34 Inventory Steel Lance Javelin 5,000Gold Level 4 Automatically from turn 3 Finn Lance Knight HP 32 Inventory Iron Lance 2,000Gold Level 1 Automatically from turn 3 Ethlyn Troubadour HP 28 Inventory Slim Sword Heal 4,000Gold Level 1 Automatically from turn 3 Midir Arch Knight HP 32 Inventory Iron Bow 2,000Gold Level 2 Automatically after seizingYngvi
Available characters
None

Item data

Items

Name Obtainment Method Speed Ring Village, south of Yngvi Castle Silver Sword Talk toArvis with Sigurd

In addition, fivevillages are present on the map, which can be visited to obtain up to 5,000gold each.

Castle data

While the town can be visited from the Chalphy or, once conquered, Yngvi castles, the arena and armory are unavailable. The other four facilities—the blacksmith, pawnbroker, supply, and augury—are normally accessible.

Event data

Events

Initiator Recipient Criteria Reward Azelle Sigurd -- -- Lex Sigurd -- -- Quan Sigurd -- -- Ethlyn Sigurd -- -- Sigurd Arvis* -- Silver Sword for Sigurd

Unit data

Evans

Enemy Units

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Wlv Def Res Cha Lck Con Mov Inventory and Skills Verdane Barbarian 1 14 36 5 0 0 7 0 5 0 6 Iron Axe -- Verdane Barbarian 10 4 45 8 0 3 10 0 8 1 6 Hand Axe -- Verdane Hunter 1 3 36 7 0 0 7 0 5 0 6 Iron Bow -- Verdane Brigand 1 5 36 5 0 0 7 0 5 0 6 Iron Axe Prioritizes raidingvillages. Verdane Barbarian 5 3 40 6 0 1 8 0 6 0 6 Iron Axe Authority: DiMaggio Will not move until Yngvi is seized. DiMaggio Axe Fighter 10 1 45 11 0 6 13 0 11 1 6 Steel Axe Authority: ★ Does not move; guards Yngvi Castle after Munnir seizes it. Gerrard Axe Fighter 20 1 55 14 0 9 16 0 14 2 6 Steel Axe •Hand Axe Authority: ★★ Does not move; guards Evans castle. Munnir Warrior 20 1 60 17 0 11+5 18 0 16 5 6 Hand Axe •Skill Ring* Authority: ★★ Seizes Yngvi Castle and leaves the map in a scripted story event on turn 1.

Reinforcements

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Wlv Def Res Cha Lck Con Mov Inventory and Skills Verdane Barbarian 5 8 40 6 0 1 8 0 6 0 6 Iron Axe -- Verdane Hunter 5 5 40 8 0 1 8 0 6 0 6 Iron Bow -- Verdane Barbarian 10 2 45 8 0 3 10 0 8 1 6 Hand Axe Authority: Gerrard

Reinforcements

Once Yngvi has been seized, 10Barbarians and 5Hunters emerge from Evans Castle.

Yngvi

Partner Units

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Wlv Def Res Cha Lck Con Mov Inventory and Skills Midir Arch Knight 2 1 32 9 0 7 9 3 7 0 8 Iron Bow Follow-Up •Accost Guards Yngvi Castle; defeated in a scripted story event on turn 1.

Arvis

Partner Units

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Wlv Def Res Cha Lck Con Mov Inventory and Skills Arvis Sage 25 1 60 15 30+10 27 30 0 8+10 22+10 6 Valflame •Recover Ring Adept •Nihil Moves towardsSigurd to talk to him; leaves the map upon doing so.

Major units

Evans

Main article:DiMaggio

Axe Fighter Level 10 Holy Blood -- Movement 6 Authority ★

Stats Max HP 45 Speed 13 Strength 11 Luck 0 Magic 0 Defense 11 Skill 6 Resistance 1

Inventory Skills Steel Axe 2,000Gold -- Weapon Levels -- -- A -- -- -- -- -- -- --

• DiMaggio is the guardian of Yngvi Castle and a sub-boss affiliated with Evans.

Main article:Gerrard

Axe Fighter Level 20 Holy Blood -- Movement 6 Authority ★★

Stats Max HP 55 Speed 16 Strength 14 Luck 0 Magic 0 Defense 14 Skill 9 Resistance 2

Inventory Skills Steel Axe Hand Axe 2,000Gold -- Weapon Levels -- -- A -- -- -- -- -- -- --

• Gerrard is the guardian of Evans Castle, and the boss of Evans after Munnir leaves.

Main article:Munnir

Warrior Level 20 Holy Blood -- Movement 6 Authority ★★

Stats Max HP 60 Speed 18 Strength 17 Luck 0 Magic 0 Defense 16 Skill 11+5 Resistance 5

Inventory Skills Hand Axe Skill Ring 3,000Gold -- Weapon Levels -- -- A B -- -- -- -- -- --

• Munnir is only present in the chapter for the first turn. He departs after a cutscene where he defeats Midir at Yngvi, and as such is unfought.

Yngvi

Main article:Midir

Arch Knight Level 2 Holy Blood -- Movement 8

Stats Max HP 32 Speed 9 Strength 9 Luck 3 Magic 0 Defense 7 Skill 7 Resistance 0

Inventory Skills Iron Bow Follow-Up Accost Weapon Levels -- -- -- B -- -- -- -- -- --

• Midir is the guardian of Yngvi Castle and boss of Yngvi before being defeated by Munnir in a cutscene.

Arvis

Main article:Arvis

Sage Level 25 Holy Blood Movement 6 Authority ★★★★★

Stats Max HP 60 Speed 30 Strength 15 Luck 0 Magic 30+10 Defense 8+10 Skill 27 Resistance 22+10

Inventory Skills Valflame Recover Ring 5,000Gold Adept Nihil Weapon Levels -- -- -- -- B ★ B B B --

• Arvis appears on the turn Yngvi Castle is seized, and departs after Sigurd talks to him. He will actively seek out Sigurd and will only attack enemies which get in his way.

Strategy

Castle Yngvi

Sigurd's party sets out to save Castle Yngvi from a Verdanite invasion, but there's nothing they can do asMunnir will critMidir out of the way and seize the castle at the start of the first Evans phase. For the time being, they need to fight their way over through the manyBarbarians andHunters. Sigurd is the best unit for the job as he can consistently one-round enemies and has a lot of avoid.

Thevillages will begin burning, thanks to the enemy Brigands. They take their time wrecking the place, however, and only after ten turns of inaction on your part will the villages be completely destroyed. However, the sooner it is saved, the greater the payout; 5000G for an undamaged village, minus 500G for each turn it was being attacked. Some villages, such as the southernmost one on this map, give out items or have special events associated with them when visited; these items and events are unaffected by the amount of damage the village has received, except if the village is completely destroyed, at which point that item/event is lost forever. Because gold is stored on an individual unit basis, the player should distribute the gold to whatever units need the gold the most.

On turn 2,Lex andAzelle join, this time at the top of the map, quite convenient for killing the nearby Brigand on the village.

While Sigurd's party continues pushing toward Yngvi, Azelle and Lex should focus on clearing out the nearby enemies; Lex baiting out enemies and softening them up while Azelle roasts them with his magic damage. If either of them take damage, they can wait on the nearby Church tile. Churches fully heal the unit on top of them at the start of their turn, at the cost of 5G per point of HP recovered; if you can't afford a full heal, you will be healed for as much as your funds permit; broke units get no healing whatsoever. The same applies to Castle healing, be it guarding a Castle or being inside the Home Castle; Castle healing is capped at (20% of Max HP)-1 per turn however, but the same interaction occurs with units too poor to afford part or all of the healing.

On turn 3, even more player units join,Quan,Ethlyn, andFinn, this time just south of Chalphy. These units are the reason Arden was safe to walk off of Chalphy earlier if the nearby Barbarian was killed; any other enemy unit that could threaten Chalphy would simply not arrive in time before these units showed up to defend Chalphy if necessary.

Sigurd's party should continue their attack on Yngvi; if any of them are too damaged to fight, they should retreat to get healed by Ethlyn. Quan's party should move south to back Sigurd up, while Azelle and Lex continue clearing out the enemies in the north.

Once the initial situation has stabilized, it is time to move on to other objectives. Take out the Brigand on the southernmost village; that village contains the valuableSpeed Ring, that grants +5 Spd to whoever holds it. Thetrade command does not exist; to transfer items between two units, one unit must sell it to the pawnbroker, and the other unit needs to buy it from the pawnbroker. As the Speed Ring takes 20k to buy out of the pawnbroker, whoever plans to hold onto it for the next few maps should be the one to visit the village, unless that unit joins later (in which case the person visiting should be someone who will need the gold). Finn usually wants this item, as he needs it to reliably double in the next map, while Sigurd can use it to increase his Avo and solo enemy armies more reliably. Meanwhile, Lex and Azelle should NOT move towards Yngvi; they should instead focus on securing the remaining villages, as they are unlikely to arrive in time to be useful in Yngvi's conquest, but are in position to go after these villages that are out of the way.

Afterwards, it is time to recapture Yngvi. Defending Yngvi is the first instance of a recurring enemy formation best described as a "three-man guard". These formations are all over the game, and they behave very similarly; they do not move at all while the boss, on top of the castle, is alive, but will begin aggressively moving to attack whatever is near once the boss is dead. Their lack of mobility, initially, makes them fairly easy to pick off, however, and their behavior also means their movement ranges can be mostly ignored if one does not intend to fight them yet.DiMaggio is on top of the castle, and as such, he gets +30 Avo and castle healing. However, he's not much of a threat; all he does is be bulky and hit you fairly hard, but not hard enough to one-shot your units if they are fully healed. He also lacks 2-range, but Azelle takes way too long to reach him and Quan'sJavelin has horrendous accuracy anyway. Just have Sigurd besiege the castle until he goes down.

Castle Evans

Once Sigurd seizes Yngvi, the remainder of the Evans army will emerge on their next turn. Instead of wastefully waiting for that to happen, have all non-Sigurd units continue to move towards the left side of the map. Additionally, Midir joins the party, having recovered to full HP after being crit earlier in the map. He is anArch Knight, who is unable to fight back at close quarters. He is exactly fast enough to double the remaining enemies on the map, and has Follow-Up to do so. He also comes with Accost to allow him to continue firing upon his enemies, very appreciable against 1-range enemies as the extra attacks are effectively free damage. Midir has no doubling issues in the short term, but while his speed growth is decent and his strength, skill and defense growths are average, he may have trouble doubling fast enemies later on if his speed grows too little; the Speed Ring can help with that, but overall other units benefit from it more in the short term, in regards to consideration for Midir to visit the village and grab the Speed Ring immediately.

Arvis spawns at the top of the map at this time, and moves to hand aSilver Sword to Sigurd, and leaves once he does. He is comically invincible; not only are his stats absurdly high, hisRecover Ring fully heals him each turn; nothing on the map can kill him, and anything that tries gets cooked by his 70 Atk. As he can speak to Sigurd on his own turn, there is little reason to have Sigurd go out of his way to do so; it is sufficient to simply leave Sigurd in Arvis' melee range, and this can easily be achieved by having Sigurd fight on the front line, andCanto towards Arvis after attacking once Arvis is sufficiently near. Once Sigurd has the Silver Sword, he has no need for hisSteel Sword (as the Silver Sword has objectively better stats than the Steel Sword besides the higher rank), and it should be sold to a unit that would appreciate it like Alec or Arden.

The bulk of the enemy Barbarians and Hunters have been beefed up to Lv5; this gives them +1 Def and +4 HP, requiring units like Alec and Naoise to get a few levels in Str to continue killing them in a timely manner. Additionally, Sigurd now requires 2 Str level ups to continue one-rounding with hisSteel Sword, but speed-ties the Hunters with hisIron Lance; a single Spd level up or the Speed Ring enables him to continue one-rounding without picking up his Silver Sword just yet; remember he can swap back to his Steel Sword during Canto to keep his evasion up. Otherwise, as long as the entire army retains cohesion and either performs hit-and-run attacks to stay out of enemy range, or rushes in to kill as many enemies as possible, the player's units should survive without too much issue.

Gerrard sits alone atop Castle Evans. He is mostly just DiMaggio, but with higher stats and aHand Axe to do damage at range. Sigurd can still handle him easily with Ethlyn's healing, but it's recommended not to kill him too quickly, particularly if other units have the HP to deal some chip damage to him. In FE4, EXP gain is determined solely by the level of the units in combat and the difference between their level and the enemy's level, and a unit being promoted or not doesn't change anything; while most of the enemies were Lv1 or Lv5, with DiMaggio and a few Barbarians being Lv10, Gerrard is massively overleveled at Lv20. While this means he gives out a truckload of EXP to whoever kills him, it also means that anyone who damages him and lives gets a ton of EXP too. This EXP, typically about 25 EXP per combat, is almost as much,if not more than actually killing some of the enemies on the map, so it may be a good idea to let as many units as possible get some hits in on Gerrard for the EXP before moving in for the kill, and you may use this technique on later bosses so that some units can gain experience faster. Once he dies, seize with Sigurd to clear the map.

Etymology and other languages

Gallery

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  Map of the chapter