Azama

"Oh ho! That's an interesting argument. I agree that it can be sad when another entity leaves this plane of existence. But I am comforted by the very nature of the universe! We are all mere manifestations of a much larger consciousness, of course."

- Azama's A-Support with the Avatar

Azama (アサマ Asama in the Japanese version) is a playable character in Fire Emblem Fates. Azama is an ally on the Birthright and Revelation routes. He is voiced by Kenji Hamada in the Japanese version and Matthew Mercer in the English version.

Profile
One of Hinoka's retainers, Azama is a priest with a barbed tongue that belies his seemingly well-mannered personality.

Azama is known to be the second son of a priest based in an unnamed shrine. Prior to the events of Fates, as a result of his ill behaviour, he was forced to ascend a number of mountain ranges, during which he found penance and developed a calm, serene demeanour that is considered befitting of a priest. While meditating on one of these mountains one day, Azama encountered Hinoka, who had been injured due to unknown causes. This prompted him to heal her wounds to the best of his abilities before taking her to safety. Departing immediately after rejecting Hinoka's offer to reward him, Azama left the impression that he was a wise, selfless priest, a fact that later saw Hinoka deciding to hire him as one her direct subordinates.

Azama also possesses a powerful charm that he obtained from a holy deity during one of his meditations, although he is not able to use it for "entirely selfish" purposes.

If he achieves an S-Support, he will conceive a daughter named Mitama with his spouse. In his supports with her, Azama reveals his eyes share the same star pattern as her.

Birthright
Azama first appears in Chapter 8, where he, along with Setsuna, accompanies Hinoka on a mission to join up with Ryoma and Takumi's forces. While attempting to pass through the region that the Wind Tribe Village is situated in, the group runs headlong into the conflict that arises between the Wind Tribe and the Avatar's forces. The group is introduced at this juncture in a rather comical fashion, with Setsuna absentmindedly getting ensnared by quicksand and Hinoka attempting to help her while exasperatedly chastising Azama for his lighthearted, sardonic regard of the situation.

Conquest
Azama first appears in Chapter 11, where he, along with Setsuna, accompanies Hinoka to defend the Rainbow Sage from the Avatar's army. The defence staged by the Hoshidans fails, and Azama, alongside his comrades retreat thereafter.

Azama appears yet again in Chapter 24, where he and Setsuna aid Hinoka in the defence of Castle Shirasagi. Although he initially makes light of the situation, Azama adopts a sombre demeanour as he resolves to protect Hinoka from coming under harm. Despite their valiant efforts, the Hoshidans are defeated by the Avatar's army. Hinoka unhesitatingly steps before the Avatar and demands that they take her life but spare those of her soldiers. The Avatar responds by pretending to slay Hinoka with the Yato, and thereafter urges her to flee with her retainers.

Birthright/Revelation
Azama appears in Paralogue 12, where he, aware that his daughter Mitama's village is under attack, expresses his fear and anxiety to Saizo. Initially inappropriately philosophising that death will eventually occur to everyone, Azama is snapped back to reality by Saizo, who urges him to lead his daughter's rescue. A battle thereafter ensues when Azama and Saizo enter the village and notice that it is overrun by a horde of invisible enemies. During the course of the battle, a series of three comical exchanges will be shared between Azama and his daughter each time he visits her "perfectly sound house". These exchanges see Azama trying to convince Mitama to flee her dwellings unsuccessfully due to her desire to sleep before finally succeeding on his third attempt. Following the conclusion of the battle, Azama stops Mitama from returning home, insisting that she continues to aid the army with her healing abilities.

Personality
Despite holding the position of a priest who is expected to represent the values of benevolence and compassion, Azama defies such expectations, as he adopts a demeanour of breezy apathy in his regard of others, heavily employing sardonic wit and black humour in his speech. Indiscriminate in the disagreeable manner by which he treats people, Azama is known to delight in making biting remarks that induce pronounced discomfort, and even his liege and social superior Hinoka is not spared; through his supports with her, he reveals, albeit rather disturbingly, that her positively charming look of fury and frustration during their first meeting as she fought to preserve her life was what compelled him to rescue her.

Azama's sardonicism is deeply steepled in the realm of nihilism, where he airily considers life to be devoid of any meaning or purpose. Apart from him cheerfully remarking that "death comes for everyone" when he defeats an enemy unit, Azama's nihilistic inclinations are also best illustrated through his supports with various characters. His supports with the Avatar is one such example, as he, after dismissively stating that death can be a sad affair, casually reveals his belief that he, alongside every other life form, is merely a manifestation of a larger conscience.

Taking up the art of meditating as a hobby, Azama enjoys retreating from the company of others and engaging in the act during his free time. Using meditation as a means of escapism to avoid the chaos of warfare, Azama is known to become irritable when he is interrupted in the practice, a fact that surfaces through his supports with the Avatar.

Azama is the only one out of the whole army that never cries. His birthday is September 9.

Base Stats

 * -|Birthright Chapter 8 - Fierce Winds=


 * -|Revelation Chapter 16 - White Flames=

Conquest Chapter 11 - Rainbow Sage

 * -|Normal=


 * -|Hard=


 * -|Lunatic=

Conquest Chapter 24 - Hinoka

 * -|Normal=


 * -|Hard=


 * -|Lunatic=

Xenologue 20 - Heirs of Fate 6: Lost in the Waves

 * -|Normal=


 * -|Hard=


 * -|Lunatic=

Growth Rates
Class:


 * 55%
 * 55%
 * 30%
 * 50%
 * 60%
 * 55%
 * 40%
 * 40%
 * }


 * 65%
 * 65%
 * 25%
 * 45%
 * 60%
 * 55%
 * 50%
 * 30%
 * }


 * 55%
 * 50%
 * 40%
 * 50%
 * 60%
 * 40%
 * 40%
 * 35%
 * }

Max Stat Modifiers

 * +2
 * -3
 * 0
 * +1
 * 0
 * +1
 * 0
 * }

Standard Sets

 * }

Friendship Sets

 * -|Birthright/Revelation=


 * }
 * -|Revelation=


 * }

Partner Sets

 * -|All Routes=


 * }
 * -|Birthright/Revelation=


 * }
 * -|Revelation=


 * }

Special Classes

 * }

Supports
Romantic Supports
 * The Avatar (Female)
 * Azura
 * Felicia
 * Mozu

Hoshido

 * Hinoka
 * Sakura
 * Kagero
 * Setsuna
 * Oboro
 * Hana
 * Rinkah
 * Orochi

Nohr (Revelation)
Other Supports
 * Beruka
 * Effie
 * The Avatar (Male)
 * Subaki
 * Hayato
 * Kaden
 * Arthur (Revelation)
 * Mitama
 * Kana (if Azama is his father)
 * Shigure (if Azama is his father)

Overall
Azama is a monk that does not start out with the usual magic/luck stats most healers have. While his magic growth is not on par with other healers, the extra health points recovered with festals does not scale much higher with magic anyways. Since poor magic does not hinder his abilities that much, his stats allows him to exist as a semi front line tank while providing sustain to the other front line tanks/bruisers. With the increased range from Rods, he can share incoming damage by backing up. While he cannot handle magic users like most healers that naturally have high resistance, Azama's defence can make him shrug off a good amount of physical damage and his Personal Skill is a free counter as long as he has no weapon equipped. With a solid Speed and Defence growth, Azama, even as a Monk, will most likely not be doubled as well as shrug off some damage. His high Strength growth can prepare him for his Great Master promotion.

Out of all his promotions for Monk, Great Master befits him better due to allowing Azama to wield a physical weapon: Naginatas. With Renewal, Azama can become a healing bruiser: shrug off damage and deal as much damage while healing a good amount using Renewal. With Countermagic, he can return magic damage to the caster, even if they're at a range. While his Resistance is low, his HP could take the hit. With his physically offensive growths being amped up, Azama can use his physical potential to its fullest while remaining a decent healer. By the time he promotes, he is a formidable fighter and will double most of his enemies. For the cherry on top, giving him the Guard Naginata will help keep even more physical damage at bay while his mage problems disappear for good due to the combination of +5 resistance, lance vs tome advantage,and Countermagic.

Onmyoji is for a more magic focused Azama. While his magic growth is slightly increased, he will not be dealing much damage compared to other healers. Nonetheless, he will most likely have solid Speed, allowing him to double most opponents at an early level. Out of all the healers, he will have a better time dealing with physical units due to his defensive growths, but will not fare too well against magic users due to his subpar Resistance (compared to Sakura or Elise). Tomefaire will increase his tome damage which can help the mostly physical Azama to deal more damage with tomes. With a slightly increased magic growth, his healing potential slightly increases.

Secondary Class
His Secondary Class is Apothecary. Reclassing him into Apothecary allows him to use his physical power to its fullest early at the cost of not being able to use staves. Azama becomes more durable, but he will have lower speed, so he will double less often. Despite the latter, he will likely have max or nearly maxed speed, but is not enough to double most foes. While he can deal a good amount of damage, his biggest weakness are swift swordsmen like Swordmasters or Ninjas. Skills gained are mostly utility to himself. Both skills involve consumables like Vulneraries and Tonics. Quick Salve can be utilized to ensure Azama to be healthy before battle, or healing or buffing himself before healing others.

Promoting to a Merchant makes him much more tanky and powerful, but still retaining a low speed. His decent luck growth can allow him to activate Profiteer sometimes, which makes activating Spendthrift quite likely. With Spendthrift, his damage and defence increase while attacking, promoting his already physical focus.

Friendship Classes
Azama has four friendship units: Kaden, Hayato, Subaki and Arthur.
 * Kaden/Hayato: Both Kaden and Hayato provide Azama with Diviner, a class that utilises magic for a more offensive purpose than Monks and trades Luck and Resistance for a slightly stronger Magic growth to fit the use of Scrolls as a weapon. While it is already known that Azama is built to utilise his Strength in combat rather than magic, players can change him to a Diviner if they plan on putting his magic to greater use. Magic +2 can help in that situation and Future Sight can help him level up a little faster when reclassing. Because he already has access to Onmyoji as a Monk, the other promotional class Diviner has is Basara, a class similar to Great Master only that it can access Rank A Naginatas and uses Scrolls instead of Healing Rods. Rend Heaven is a skill learned by Basaras and Azama can utilize it to add damage to his already surprisingly unusual Strength. Quixotic, another skill learnt by Basaras, increases the skill activation rate by 15 and Hit Rate by 30 for both Azama and his enemy and it carries high risk despite Azama's already suprising Defence, so don't use this skill on any enemies with attack/defend skills and save it for when Azama is using a ranged Naginata/Lance to increase its effectiveness.

Quotes
Refer to Azama/Quotes.

Possible Endings

 * Azama - Calm Philosopher
 * After the war, Hinoka assigned Azama to a remote post on the very fringe of the kingdom. Despite initially clashing with the locals, he gained a cult following--and ultimately founded a new religion.


 * Azama and Effie
 * Azama decided to use his talents to inspire and heal the people of Hoshido—rather than taunt them. Effie retired after getting married, but she and Elise remained best friends for the rest of their lives.


 * Azama and Hana
 * Azama decided to use his talents to inspire and heal the people of Hoshido—rather than taunt them. His wife, Hana, continued to serve Sakura, brightening all of their lives with her infectious optimism.


 * Azama and Hinoka
 * Azama decided to use his talents to inspire and heal the people of Hoshido—rather than taunt them. His wife, Hinoka, became general of the Hoshidan royal army, and the two remained together always.


 * Azama and Orochi
 * Azama decided to use his talents to inspire and heal the people of Hoshido—rather than taunt them. His wife, Orochi, was completely indispensable, both through her intelligence and her future sight.


 * Azama and Rinkah
 * Azama decided to use his talents to inspire and heal the people of Hoshido—rather than taunt them. Rinkah's fiery personality ensured her husband's life was not boring, and they loved one another well.


 * Azama and Setsuna
 * Azama decided to use his talents to inspire and heal the people of Hoshido—rather than taunt them. Records show that his wife, Setsuna, stayed by his side and was a great source of support and joy.

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)
Azama is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards:

Etymology
The origin of the Japanese name Asama is uncertain, but it seems to be linked to mountains and volcanoes. As a matter of fact in Japan there are over one thousand Shinto shrines nearby Mount Fuji called "Asama shrines", where it is possible to worship the divinity of the mountain.

It is also the name of: a volcano between the Nagano and Gunma Prefectures, a Japanese cruiser used since World War I, and a type of Shinkansen train.

Trivia

 * Azama shares his English voice actor, Matthew Mercer, with Ryoma, Shigure and Chrom from Awakening.
 * He also shares his Japanese voice actor, Kenji Hamada, with Nichol, Gregor, and Yen'fay.
 * Azama, Laura, Elise, and Sakura are the only named characters who are staff-locked and can't be recruited in chapters they appear as enemies.
 * Azama is the only Monk in Fire Emblem Fates, including every soldiers among the characters the the game.
 * Azama's portrait depicts him with a Bloom Festal.
 * Azama was voted as the 20th most popular male character in Nintendo's official Fates character poll.
 * Azama is the only retainer to not have a weapon or staff named after him in the English version of the game.