Natasha

"What I'm betting is my future. My happiness."

- Natasha in her A support with Joshua

Natasha（ナターシャ Natāsha）is a playable character in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. She is a beautiful cleric from Grado, forced to flee because her master (a very well-respected and loved priest, possibly Father McGregor, a "holy man" in her words) discovered Grado's plan to destroy the Sacred Stones and was killed for it, yet managed to entrust Natasha with the secret as he lay dying.

Natasha attempted to flee without being seen, but was discovered in the town of Serafew. Having failed to convince the Grado soldiers that she was no traitor, she immediately sought Eirika's help to make this plan known to other countries, also "recruiting" the myrmidon Joshua whom she encountered next to the local arena.

She is graceful, gentle and serious; according to Joshua, her skill to heal is not only limited to healing the body, but also the mind and the soul of those who ask her for help.

Personality
Natasha is a very serious, graceful, and loyal person. In her A supports with Joshua or Seth, she is rather doubtful of making a decision on their proposals, but chooses to accept it anyway.

She is also very kind-hearted and caring, portrayed in her support conversations where she is dedicated to help anyone in anyway that she can. After finding out the reason of Grado's sudden invasion, she is the first character to betray Grado despite the immense danger to her life. Despite this, she is very humble and when she is praised, she quickly claims that she doesn't deserve it.

Base Stats

 * FE8Priest Icon.png Cleric
 * GBAIce.gif Ice
 * 1
 * 18
 * 2
 * 4
 * 8
 * 6
 * 2
 * 6
 * 4
 * 5
 * Staff.gif Staff - D
 * Mend.gif Vulnerary.gifrary
 * }

Growth Rates

 * 45%
 * 60%
 * 25%
 * 55%
 * 60%
 * 15%
 * 55%
 * }

Promotion Gain
Cleric to Bishop
 * HP +3
 * Mag +1
 * Skill +2
 * Spd +1
 * Def +2
 * Res +2
 * Con +1
 * Move +1
 * Light.gif Light Rank: D
 * Skill: Slayer (Does 3 times the normal damage to dark creatures)

Cleric to Valkyrie
 * HP +3
 * Mag +2
 * Skill +1
 * Def +2
 * Res +3
 * Con +2
 * Move +2
 * Light.gif Light Rank: E

Overall
Overall, Natasha is an effective unit at the class she starts in and the classes she promotes to, making her a pretty typical female Priest. She has great Magic and Resistance, and Luck growths, along with above average Speed, and mediocre Skill growths. Unfortunately, she also reaps the downsides of being a stereotypical priest by having bad base HP, Defense, and Constitution bases along with bad growths in each stat. Even when promoted, these growths come together to makes her pretty unsafe in combat against most physical enemies, so try to stick her in the back (Where healers are most the time anyway) if you are moving her in with your front-line against physical troops. Assuming you can keep good formation, she will be a decent combat (When promoted) unit due to an above average Magic stat (only caps Magic in either promotion near the very end of her levels), and her decent combination of Spd+Skl+Lck+Light Magic.

As a Bishop (if chosen), she will gain the Slayer skill, which makes her attacks 3x more effective against Monsters. Assuming you are bringing her into the Monster campaign, this makes great use of her inherently high Magic growth, as you will be likely bringing her to Max level and letting that growth shine through. She becomes mounted if you choose Valkyrie for her progression, allowing her movement after some actions (Such as trading) in addition to being granted higher con, but at the price of a lower inherent Light Magic rank and no special skills. She also will get higher Resistance and Skill caps as a Bishop, compared to higher Speed and Defense caps for Valkyrie.

There is no truly "Optimal" path for promotion, so your decision regarding Natasha should be more dependent on your choices with other units. It is a rare day a player opts for leveling and using both Moulder and Natasha consistently throughout the game, so either one over the other is usually chosen for the standard Priest role. If you are heavily using Moulder and prefer him, he makes a much tougher Bishop with more durability and a higher base Constitution, with him losing out on raw power to Natasha. L'Arachel makes an overall more powerful Valkyrie than Natasha generally, with her being either matched or higher in every stat at Max level except HP (barely). Due to these reasons, many decide to place Natasha/Moulder in the Bishop role, allowing L'Arachel to stick to Valkyire, with Artur becoming a Sage.

Assuming you are using both Natasha and listed characters, Joshua is an easily achieved option. Their similar movement ranges for the majority of the game allow for easy build up for support levels, in addition to them recruiting on the same stage. Other supports are of course viable, but more difficult to build up due to either vastly different movement ranges, such is the case with both Franz and Cormag, or time of joining for other characters, for Cormag (On Eirika's Route) and Knoll.

Endings
Once the war was over, Natasha returned to Grado to help rebuild the empire. She dedicated herself to easing the grief of those families that lost soldiers during the war.
 * Natasha, Sacred Healer (癒しの聖女 Iyashi no seijo)

When Joshua returned to Jehanna, he took Natasha as his bride and claimed the throne as its rightful heir. Natasha was the perfect companion, and together, they carried the mighty desert nation to great glory.
 * (A Support with Joshua)

Natasha returned to Renais with Seth, where the two were wed. The reconstruction of Renais kept them busy, but when all the work was done, they settled down to live their days in peace and happiness.
 * (A Support with Seth)

Other Supports

 * Franz
 * Cormag
 * Knoll

Death Quotes
"My Fate is irrelevant...The world must have...Light."

- Natasha's normal death quote

"I can't let myself die here... Someone has to hear my tale..."

- Natasha's Chapter 5 death quote

Etymology
'Natasha' is a Russian variant of the name 'Natalie', which comes from the Latin 'natale', meaning 'birth' in Latin.