Hannibal (Japanese:ハンニバルHannibal) is a prominent and renownedThracian general, widely known as the "Shield of Thracia". A powerful and devoted warrior and the leader of a batallion ofArmored Knights, his sense of honor and justice caused him to question the deceitful motives and actions of Thracia's KingTravant, who held his adoptive sonCoirpre hostage to ensure Hannibal's co-operation againstSeliph's liberation army; when Seliph freed Coirpre from captivity in the clash with Thracia, Hannibal turned on Thracia and joined Coirpre in Seliph's service. At the conclusion of the liberation war, Hannibal entered the service of the unified New Kingdom of Thracia underLeif.

Biography

In the year 776, Hannibal was stationed atMeath Castle whenLeif and theMagi, having escaped imprisonment inMunster, fled in its direction. He received a report that in a brief absence, four "bandits" (actuallyFinn,Osian,Halvan andRonan) had been imprisoned, but was more concerned by his suspicions about Munster's behavior in the north. Upon receiving word of the Munster army led byEisenau marching toward Meath (unaware ofLeif's presence), he and a squad of armored knights sortied in defense of Meath. After the battle, Leif (assuming a false identity, "Lugh Faris", though Hannibal was entirely aware of his identity) explained his plight, released Leif's captured friends and offered Leif assistance in the form ofCarrion escorting him to his western mansion.

A year later, in the aftermath of the loss of Meath toSeliph's liberation army, Travant travelled to Kapathogia Castle, where Hannibal was stationed, in order to ensure his loyalty in the oncoming clash with the liberation force. When Hannibal questioned the orders and threatened to turn on him, Travant took Coirpre* hostage to force Hannibal to obey. Soon after, the fight with Seliph's army began in earnest, and Hannibal chose to stay his hand and observe until the enemy approached, at which point he ordered a charge against them. After Seliph freed Coirpre from Kapathogia, Coirpre convinced Hannibal to turn on Travant and accompany him in joining Seliph, fighting for the wishes of the people of Thracia rather than for their king's ill means.

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Role

Hannibal is a playable character in the second generation. InChapter 9, Hannibal appears as an enemy unit, commander ofKapathogia. The player is expected not to kill him, but to go past him in order to seizeLuthecia. He is recruited whentalked to byCoirpre/Charlot. Recruiting him will causeKapathogia to be seized.

Starting stats and growth rates

General Level 20 Holy Blood -- Movement 5

Recruitment:Chapter 9, enemy, talk withCoirpre/Charlot StatsGrowth Rates Max HP 60 Speed 11 Strength 20 Luck 7 Magic 0 Defense 22 Skill 16 Resistance 6 Max HP 60% Speed 10% Strength 50% Luck 10% Magic 5% Defense 30% Skill 10% Resistance 5% {{{content3}}} {{{content4}}} {{{content5}}} {{{content6}}} {{{content7}}} {{{content8}}} {{{content9}}} {{{content10}}} {{{content11}}} {{{content12}}} {{{content13}}} {{{content14}}} {{{content15}}} Inventory Skills Silver Blade Wing Clipper 5,000 Gold Pavise Adept Vantage Weapon Levels A A B B -- -- -- -- -- --

Love growths and events

Hannibal is not capable of gaining love growth with anyone.

• InChapter 9,Coirpre/Charlot can talk to Hannibal while he is an enemy, recruiting him.
• InChapter 9,Charlot can talk to Hannibal, who gives Charlot aBerserk.
• InChapter 9,Seliph can talk to Hannibal. This conversation yields no reward.
• InChapter 9, Hannibal can talk toAltena, granting her +3 maximumHP.

Analysis

Hannibal is one of the latest-joining characters inGenealogy's second generation. He joins promoted, with a respectable 60 HP, 20 strength and 22 defense, as well as a decent 16 skill. These stats give him solid physical durability and allow him to deal plenty of damage with his attacks. As aGeneral, he has excellent weapon ranks; between an A rank in swords, an A rank in lances, a B rank in axes and a B rank in bows, Hannibal can use a variety of weapons, fromSilver Swords andSilver Lances to theBrave Axe andBrave Bow. This weapon variety makes it easy for him to clear the arena, as he can switch between the gauntlet for melee units and for ranged units at will by equipping a melee weapon or a bow, respectively. Aside from good physical durability and decent damage per attack, Hannibal also has three skills:Adept,Pavise, andVantage. Adept is the least useful of the three, because Hannibal's speed is low, so he does not have very good odds of activating it; however, when it does activate, Hannibal can potentially one-round the enemy he is fighting. Pavise and Vantage are the more useful skills for Hannibal, as they further improve his durability by allowing him to negate damage from attacks every once in a while and to attack before the enemy when he is at low HP.

Hannibal's primary problems are his low resistance, low mobility, and lack ofFollow-Up. Hannibal's resistance of 6 is terrible, and it is particularly problematic in the context of his join time. The player is about to face scores of magic-using enemies inChapter 10 andEndgame, as well as many status staff users, both of which Hannibal can do very little against. His high physical durability doesn't compensate either, asLeif andAres will have similar physical durability, but also have mounts and better offense. His movement of 5 is terrible for a promoted unit – even most other foot units outpace him, andGenealogy has very large maps, so Hannibal's mobility problem becomes more and more apparent as the player progresses through a chapter. Hannibal's lack of the Follow-Up skill means that he cannot double enemies without theFollow-Up Ring, and even with the ring, he often lacks the necessaryattack speed to reach doubling thresholds. Hannibal also has very low growth rates outside of HP, strength, and defense – which are his already high stats, so even though he has ten levels to gain, these levels will not improve him very much.

While Hannibal is competent at clearing the arena, he does not end up doing much on the actual battlefield due to his limited mobility and poor matchup against magic users. However, there is one way in which he can contribute – defending the player's castles in his joining chapter. Hannibal's high physical durability coupled with his skillset and starting inventory (which contains aWing Clipper) make him a good candidate for guarding a castle againstArion'sWyvern Riders in Chapter 9. He can endure many physical attacks before going down, he has a weapon that deals effective damage against flying units, and he does not contribute much elsewhere on the map, because he will be far away from the last two enemy castles when he is recruited. Making him a garrison's guardian is a good way to have him contribute, as the conquered castles in the chapter he joins will be under attack, so leaving him and a couple of characters, possibly with ranged weapons, to guard them is a good strategy. He is one point of Strength off from one-shotting theJavelin Wyvern Riders on counterattack with anIron Bow; a quick run in the Arena on his 50% Strength growth can patch that up, and failing that, theSteel Bow will suffice. However, it is also possible to clear the final castle before Arion arrives to attack, especially as castle Thracia lacks a guard.

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

Role

InChapter 7, Hannibal, along with fourArmored Lances and fiveArmored Sword, appear as ally units. They will emerge from CastleMeath once a player unit hasescaped beforeEisenau is defeated, and will cause Eisenau and the units under his authority to escape. Once all them are defeated, Hannibal and the units under his authority will move to escape back to Castle Meath.

Stats

See also:The Shield of Thracia

General Level 20 Action -- Authority ★★★★★

Stats Max HP 43 Speed 7 Strength 14 Luck 7 Magic 4 Defense 16 Skill 12 Constitution 19 Movement 7 FCM --

Inventory Skills Silver Lance Silver Bow -- Weapon Levels D A B A -- -- -- -- -- --

Personality

Hannibal is an honorable man; though he takes his role as a knight seriously and respects his lieges, he will nonetheless question orders and methodologies he does not feel to be wise,^[1] to the point of willingly turning on Travant in objection to the war with Seliph, which he (correctly) viewed as futile and harmful to Thracia's odds of survival. He bears none of the ill will or aggression toward theMunster District harbored by Travant, and secretly housed a number of refugeeLeonster knights led byDryas in his mansion.^[2] He devoted his life in full to the pursuit of his military career, and as such never married;^[3] he did, however, adopt Coirpre from an orphanage inDahna and considers him to be just as important as any biological child could be.^[4]

Endings

Genealogy of the Holy War

If Leif or Altena is alive

And so, Leif/Altena worked together with

[...]
the great General Hannibal,
[...]

to build a new nation for Thracia's people.

If Leif and Altena are both dead

The Thracian peninsula has lost both of its heirs, Lord Leif and Lady Altena, and with them died any hope of unification. Instead, the people turned to Seliph for their salvation, wishing to join with the Kingdom of Grannvale. Seliph, as the nephew of Queen Ethlyn and as the peninsula's liberating hero, had earned the trust of its people.

[...]
the great General Hannibal,
[...]

Seliph granted the Thracians their wish, and so the Thracian peninsula became Grannvale's Royal Province of Thracia, and was blessed with an era of peace.

Quotes

Battle quotes

Death quotes

Other appearances

Fire Emblem Cipher

Hannibal is featured on one card inFire Emblem Cipher.

Fire Emblem Cipher data for Hannibal
	Shield of Thracia, Hannibal
		"We ought to remain on the defensive. I'd prefer to avoid any needless skirmishes with the enemy."
		Attack: 60	Support: 10	Range: 1	Deploy Cost: 4
		Class: General		Tier:Advanced	Class Change Cost: 3
		The Renowned General's Treasure:[Always] During your opponent's turn, while you have an ally "Coirpre", this unit gains +20 attack. Armor Expertise:[Always] If this unit is attacked by a non- unit, this unit gains +20 attack.
	Card #B08-095HN • Artist:Ippei Soeda
Some card information translation provided by Serenes Forest. For more detailed strategic information on these cards, seetheir TCG wiki article on Hannibal .

Choose Your Legends placement history

Round	Placement	Character	Votes

CYL 1 (2017)

628

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

104

CYL 2 (2018)

683

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

72 (−32)

CYL 3 (2019)

599 (−1)

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

96 (+24)

CYL 4 (2020)

688 (+25)

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

54 (−42)

CYL 5 (2021)

777 (+89)

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

19 (−35)

CYL 6 (2022)

733 (−46)

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

36 (+17)

CYL 7 (2023)

743 (+10)

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

23 (−13)

CYL 8 (2024)

759 (+16)

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

26 (+3)

CYL 9 (2025)

782 (+23)

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

21 (−5)

CYL 10 (2026)

784 (+2)

Hannibal Genealogy of the Holy War

14 (−7)

Total results		This character has 10 entries across all Choose Your Legends polls.	465

Etymology and other languages

Gallery

Sprite Gallery
Genealogy of the Holy War General Sword (Silver Sword orBlade) Lance (Silver Lance) Axe (Steel Axe) Bow (Steel Bow)
Thracia 776 General

Official artwork

• 
  Artwork of Hannibal fromTreasure.
• 
  Artwork of Hannibal from theTrading Card Game.

Portraits

• 
  Hannibal's portrait inGenealogy of the Holy War.
• 
  Hannibal's portrait inThracia 776.
• 
  Portrait artwork of Hannibal fromThracia 776 Illustrated Works.

Cipher artwork

• 
  Artwork of Hannibal.

References

This article is part ofProject Characters, a project focused on writing articles for every character present in theFire Emblem series.