Ilyana

''Mordecai: I am Mordecai. You are Ilyana. We have not met. ''Ilyana: You're right... I keep to myself, mostly... Even though we're on the same side, I'm often forgotten. Ahhh... Whoa...  Mordecai: Mmm? What is wrong?  Ilyana: I'm... I'm sorry. I got a little dizzy, there. Don't worry about it. It happens all the time. Ilyana talking to Mordecai in a support conversation

Ilyana (イレース Irēsu) is a lightning-based mage that joins the Greil Mercenaries with a good ability in casting lightning magic.

Bio
Ilyana had been traveling with a merchant caravan, but when the Daein invasion occurred, they became separated, and she was forced into helping them fight the mercenaries. When she meets Ike during battle, she learns that the mercenaries are guarding the caravan, and is allowed to join them to fight off the Daein soldiers until she once again leaves with the caravan after the defeat of Mad King Ashnard.

Years later in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, she joins the Dawn Brigade after Micaiah rescues her and Aimee from a Daein prison; she subsequently fights to liberate Daein from Begnion's rule. She joins Ike's group in Part III when her merchant convoy arrives in Begnion. After the war, Ilyana continues traveling with the merchants.

Personality
Ilyana is particularly quiet, soft-spoken and kindhearted person.

She appears to have a special relationship with Zihark. When they first meet again in Radiant Dawn's Chapter 1-4, she says it's been "too long" since she last saw him and that she thinks of him often. Also in Chapter 3-7, if she talks to Zihark, he'll say he felt he's known her longer than the others and refuse to fight her. If they have a transferred A support from Path of Radiance, Ilyana can re-recruit him, making him defect from the Daein Army.

Ilyana also seems to have an interesting relationship with Micaiah. In Rivals Collide, when Ilyana gets close to Micaiah (not even next to her or attacking, right when Ilyana sets foot on the island she's on) a conversation starts up. In it Ilyana says she regrets being on the laguz side if it means fighting Micaiah and Micaiah shares her concern. Ilyana then says Micaiah's magic won't hurt her but her own magic isn't strong enough for Micaiah so neither of them will be seriously hurt. When Micaiah says that them fighting sounds wrong, Ilyana says "Of course it's wrong! The fact that we're fighting is all wrong! We don't even dislike each other!". When Micaiah is left speechless, Ilyana suggest they forget the conversation ever happened.

Ilyana's biggest trait is that she has an unusually voracious metabolism that leaves her hungry no matter how much she eats, and she can be on the verge of collapse due to hunger even after consuming a large meal. She makes a mental note to remember Heather, Zihark and Gatrie because they offered her food. However, she can become frustrated when someone makes fun of her eating habit. When you first meet her in Radiant Dawn, she was in a prison cell when she said "The food here... It was terrible, and...they hardly gave us any... I...will have vengeance." Also, when Ilyana meets Mia in Path of Radiance, she's actually so hungry at that moment that she collapses to the floor... and starts nibbling on Mia's boots, much to her horror.

One very strange quote pertaining to her hunger is her Info conversation with Heather in which Ilyana tells Heather that she wants something to eat after the latter offers to get her anything she wants. After Heather walks away, Ilyana says, "Heather. I'll need to remember her name...Heather. She likes to feed me."

Ilyana's constant hunger is similar to the symptoms of hyperthyroidism, though she may simply have an incredible metabolism. She is asked once by Lucia if she is a Laguz, though it is never revealed if she is either Laguz or branded, and she appears to be unaware if she is either.

Classes
In Radiant Dawn, Ilyana starts at Level 12 as a Thunder mage using only Thunder Magic. Upon reaching Level 21, she becomes a Thunder Sage with the ability to use Fire, Thunder and Wind magic. Her final class is an Archsage, at which she can achive at SS-Rank with Thunder magic, an S-Rank with Fire and Wind magic, as well as staves.

As the only Thunder-based Archsage, she is the only one able to reach an SS-rank in Thunder magic, thus making her the only person able to wield Rexbolt, the highest order of Thunder magic.

Recruitment

 * Chapter 8: Appears as an enemy. Talk with Ike.

Starting Stats
|Mage |Light |6 |20 |3 |8 |10 |9 |6 |3 |10 |5 |5 |5 |Thunder - DFire - E Wind - E |Shade |Thunder ElthunderVulnerary

Growth Rates
|45% |25% |50% |45% |30% |45% |15% |50%

Support Conversations

 * Zihark
 * Mordecai
 * Mia
 * Lucia
 * Gatrie

Overall
Her offensive stats are all lower than Soren's, but she has a higher growth rate in strength, meaning she is less likely to lose AS from a tome, which can somewhat compensate for her speed not being as high as Soren's (while Soren has a poor strength growth and has troubles obtaining over 4 strength without an energy drop). Despite the higher strength growth, give Ilyana staves instead of knives because A) knives require high strength to be useful in this game, and B) an extra healer is always good to have. Consider pairing her up with someone (preferably with a support partner) to fully utilize her useful Shade skill. That lower magic rating is compensated with her excelling in thunder magic, the strongest tome in the game; though thunder is less accurate, she has a decent skill growth rate to balance it out.

Overall, while her magic and speed are not as high as Soren's, she has a higher strength growth so she won't lose AS (but still, do not give her a knife; she won't be able to kill anything with it, except for maybe a priest).

Recruitment

 * Chapter 1-3: Automatically from start

Starting Stats
|Thunder Mage |Light |12 |22 |6 |12 |12 |13 |6 |3 |9 |5 |5 |5 |Thunder - C |Shove Shade |Thunder Elthunder

Growth Rates
|55% |45% |50% |60% |30% |40% |30% |50%

Overall
In Radiant Dawn, Ilyana returns as the only playable Thunder Mage. With a great magic and skill growth, the offensive problems with thunder magic are nullified. She can still be a useful backline unit, even if her speed growth doesnt look so hot it usually isnt an issue. Suggest pairing/supporting her with a frontline unit to utilize that useful Shade skill, and suggest giving her skills like discipline, resolve, daunt, adept, etc.

Ilyana is recruited in Part I, but then leaves the Daein Liberation Army to join the Greil Mercenaries for most of Part III. While this gives her arguably the best availability of any unit in the game, overusing her in Part I is not a good idea for this reason alone, as the Daein Liberation Army needs all the experience it can get during Part I in order to make chapters 3-6, 3-12, and 3-13 easier. If you do manage to train her to a reasonable level and becomes endgame potential, She can make the third chapter of rebirth Easier because she can damage dragons a lot with a blessed Rexbolt tome; she can also contribute to killing Dheginsea and it will make killing him easier (if her speed is <27, she will be doubled by Dheginsea, and will require speedwings to not be one-rounded)!

In comparison to the other mages, she has better magic than Calill or Tormod, but they have better speed. With Soren, he beats her in magic and has 35% growth for speed to her 30%. and she has more defence than him. With Bastion she has better growths than him in every area but a few (skill and speed slightly).

She is generally considered the second best mage in the game, second to Soren. Using her is a good idea if she greatly benefits from the PoR data transfer. Fortunately, however, reaching Level 20 promoted and capping the most important stats (Magic, Skill, Speed) is not hard in Path of Radiance.

Support converation with Lucia
Lucia: Ilyana!? Did something happen?

Ilyana: No... Just so... Hungry... So hungry...

Lucia: Hungry? Haven't you been eating?

Ilyana: No... Not enough... I just had five helpings...

Lucia: What?! Five helpings?!

Ilyana: Yes... Oh, and I took Soren's lamb shank when he wasn't looking.

Lucia: How much do you usually eat?

Ilyana: When I cook, I usually make... six or seven helpings...

Lucia: Er... You're not a laguz, are you?

Ilyana: No...

Support with Mordecai
Mordecai: You are like the furry little squirrels that live with us in the woods. Always stuffing food in their mouths. Half beorc, half squirrel. That's you.

Ilyana: Haha! Maybe you're right! Squirrels, huh? That's cute.

Mordecai: So...when do you hibernate?

Ilyana: Hibernate? I don't hibernate!

Support with Mia
<

Ilyana: So...hungry. Please...if you have anything...

Mia: Hold on a minute! Don't tell me you're always staggering around and fainting because you need a snack!

Ilyana: Yes... As soon as I finish eating, I get hungry again. That's why I faint.

Mia: Well, I don't have any food on me right now. I'll go get you something right away, though. We can't have you passed out on the ground like this!

Ilyana: Please...don't leave...

Mia: Whoa there! Let go! Hey! Stop trying to eat my foot!

Ilyana: Mmmm...so...tasty...

Mia: No, no, no! I can't have you feasting on my limbs! Somebody bring this girl some food! Anything, people! Old leather shoes, fruitcake...anything!

Support with Zihark
Zihark: Oh, yes they do! You're a beef jerky thief, aren't you? I know about the apple pie incident, too. Yeah... I know your tricks. Is it true that you don't remember their names, even after they buy you an expensive meal? That's just terrible.

Ilyana: No! It's just that... I collapse into a coma when I get too hungry! That's why I've got to accept everyone's generous food offers.

Zihark: Then at least remember their names! Even if you had ulterior motives, everyone likes... Er... Is kind to you.

Ilyana: Sorry...

Zihark: Don't apologize to me. You didn't take my apple tart.

Ilyana: All right.

Zihark: Well, shall we get going?

Ilyana: Pardon me?

Zihark: You're hungry, right? I feel bad about preaching to you, so this dinner is on me.

Ilyana: Are you sure?

Zihark: I'm sure. I can't have you going hungry on me. However, I'm not rich. All I can afford is two dinners.

Ilyana: That's...so kind. That should be enough. I'm so happy! Oh, thank you so much... Um... Er... Ike? No, wait! Um... Bill? Lance? Sword guy?

Zihark: Zihark.

Ilyana: Zihark! Oh, I really appreciate it...

A Conversation In Radiant Dawn in Part 1 Chapter 3: A Faint Light
Ilyana: Thank you... And yes, Sothe... I don't want to fight...but I'm glad I'll get to fight alongside you again... ,

Micaiah: Ilyana? If you're not up to it, don't feel pressured to fight. We can handle the soldiers. You look a little woozy. Are you sure you're going to be all right?

Aimee: She's fine, Micaiah. She's always like that.

Micaiah: But...

Ilyana: I can fight... I'm...very angry... The food here... It was terrible, and...they gave us hardly any... I... will have vengeance.

Micaiah: This girl takes her food pretty seriously. Interesting.

Death Quotes
"Ah..."

- Death quote in Path of Radiance

"No! Ahh... I'm dying... on an empty stomach..."

- Death quote in Radiant Dawn

Path of Radiance
'Muston and the others are going to Daein, and I think I'm going to go with them. Thank you for everything, General Ike. Hmm... I hope they packed enough food... I'm pretty hungry...'

Radiant Dawn
Ilyana returned to travel with the merchant caravan as she had before. Somewhere, right now, she is hungry.
 * Wandering Sage (放浪の賢者 Hōrō no kenja)

Etymology
Ilyana is a corruption of Iliyana, this name has been changed and altered throughout cultures in this order: Iliana (Spanish), Ileana (Spanish and Romanian), and finally Ileana-. In Roman folklore, she was kidnapped by monsters and rescued by a heroic knight, which is very similar to her situation in Path of Radiance.

Gallery
Ilyana