Sothe

"I fight for my family, and I fight against tyranny. That is enough."

- Sothe talking to Numida before battle.

Sothe (サザ Saza) is a playable character in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

Sothe appears as a Trophy and a Sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Path of Radiance
Sothe first met Micaiah when he was a young child, and the two eventually formed a close bond, treating each other as brother and sister. During Path of Radiance, Sothe first appeared as an orphaned stowaway seeking a lost, unnamed companion; in Radiant Dawn, it is revealed that that this companion was Micaiah, who fled Daein to prevent him from being affected by her identity as a Branded.

Radiant Dawn
Sothe was the first character of the Path of Radiance cast that was announced to return in Radiant Dawn. After The Mad King's War, Sothe returned to Daein's capital of Nevassa, found Micaiah, and expressed how upset he was that she had abandoned him. As a result, Micaiah realized how important she was to him, and she swore to never leave him again.

However, Sothe and Micaiah continue to have their disagreements. Throughout most of the game he argues with her, mainly over Sothe's strong respect for Ike, whom Micaiah views as responsible for destroying Daein in The Mad King's War. Nevertheless, he is very protective of her, and he stays by her side during their battles against Ike. He promotes to Whisper in the fourth section of the game after receiving a blessing from the goddess Yune. If he and Micaiah have an "A" level support rank at the end of the game, they wed and he becomes her pillar of strength as they work tirelessly to help the poor, thus becoming the 15th King of Daein.

Personality
Sothe shares a protective, close, and brother-sister type friendship with Micaiah. Due to his childhood life with Micaiah he has an unshakeable faith in her, even to the point he can be a bit of "Micaiah's boss", though that could be due to her leading the army or due to their childhood friendship because she looked after him when he was little.

He has a bit of a rivalry with the Black Knight, who has come to protect Micaiah, much to Sothe's annoyance. Much to the annoyance of Micaiah, he also gained a slightly more-than-healthy admiration for Ike from serving under him in The Mad King's War, aggravating Micaiah to such a point that she refers to Ike as the "father of Sothe's children." Sothe's overall personality is very calm. According to an Info Conversation with Micaiah, it seems that Sothe does not smile much.

Recruitment

 * Chapter 12: View the Base Conversation, "Boy"

Without Blossom

 * 60%
 * 55%
 * 10%
 * 70%
 * 65%
 * 55%
 * 35%
 * 30%
 * }

With Blossom (Random Mode)

 * 84%
 * 79.8%
 * 19%
 * 91%
 * 87.8%
 * 79.8%
 * 57.8%
 * 51%
 * }

With Blossom (Fixed Mode)

 * 66.7%
 * 61.1%
 * 11.1%
 * 77.8%
 * 72.2%
 * 61.1%
 * 38.9%
 * 33.3%
 * }

Support Conversations

 * Astrid
 * Tormod

Death Quote
"Oof... Is this the end? I...cannot...die yet... Hate to do this, but I'm leaving."

- Sothe

Overall
In Path of Radiance, Sothe is obtained after Volke, greatly hurting the former's usability, and starts out weak in combat, as he is unable to Promote. However, unlike Volke, Sothe will pick locks for free, an advantage all but negated by the large amount of funds available in Path of Radiance. His Blossom Skill gives him great stats for an Unpromoted unit, but due to his low Stat Caps it can be a struggle to not be overshadowed by Volke. His low strength cap can be negated if he is given the Stiletto Knife, as it boosts the critical hit rate, though it is still largely ineffective should enemies have high enough defense.

Availability
◎=Forced　○=Available　□=Available for selected
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Base Stats
If Sothe manages to max out his stats in Path of Radiance, his base stats will be as follows:

Growth Rates

 * 30%
 * 60%
 * 20%
 * 80%
 * 45%
 * 65%
 * 20%
 * 30%
 * }

Overall
Starting from Chapter 2, the player is inevitably forced to use Sothe throughout the game due to his importance to the story. Fitting the Oifey archetype, Sothe's stats are very good early on, as he can kill most enemies that other units, like Edward and Leonardo, may succumb to. However, this can also cause him to sponge up valuable EXP from the rest of the Dawn Brigade. He holds an A support by default with Micaiah, so putting them close together is an advisable practice as much as possible. He is also capable of picking locks, making him a decent asset.

When Sothe becomes playable again in Part 3, his stats are not as useful as they were before, but the massive amount of enemy Laguz makes his ability to use a Beast Killer allows him to be a very useful unit. However, for the rest of the game he is plagued with an unusually low strength cap that offsets his high Growth rate. He also has low defense, which makes him a bit fragile. However, if Edward (or Nealuchi/Nephenee after reaching Part 4) is not being planned to be used in the Endgame, then Sothe can take his/her Wrath skill to increase his Critical rate when his HP gets too low.

In Part 4, after the Prologue, he is promoted by Yune into a Whisper due to game events. Notably, Bane, the default skill of Whispers, is very useful, but it only has a 19% chance to activate each turn, making it a bit of a liability should it fail to activate given his low defense. However, his strength cap as a Whisper is very low, and it will cut into his offensive abilities if he is not supported with a character that can increase his offense.

Overall, Sothe is a forced character to use, and his strength and defense will start to suffer towards the end of the game, but he can still prove to hold his own, with decent Speed (stat), luck, and passable HP, skill, and resistance.

Base Stats

 * -|SpotPass=

*Enemy only; joins unequipped
 * -|Xenologue 2=

Possible Endings
Zephyr (緑風 Ryokufū)
 * Becoming a pillar of strength for Queen Micaiah, Sothe worked tirelessly to assist the poor and downtrodden.


 * (A support with Micaiah)
 * Becoming Queen Micaiah's husband and her pillar of strength, Sothe worked tirelessly to assist the poor.

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

Etymology
Sothe's name sounds like the word "sooth," which means "truth" in Old and Middle English. "Sothe" was a variant spelling of the word. The Japanese pronunciation of his name, Saza (サザ), means "small."

Trivia

 * While Sothe is a required unit for the DB chapters and for the Tower of Guidance team, he can be left out of the Tower fights.
 * Sothe's luck cap as a Rogue is higher than his luck cap as a Whisper. When he is promoted at the end of Chaos Named, a negative "gain" may appear next to his luck.
 * Sothe has a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl with a description that reads, "he is a talented swordsman". However, he never formally uses swords, only knives and daggers, until his appearance in Fire Emblem Awakening, where he comes equipped with a Silver Sword and a Levin Sword when fought as a Spotpass character, and an Armorslayer in Champions of Yore 2 DLC map.
 * Sothe is one of the few units whose status screen portrait changes at some point of the game, a trait he shares with Marth, Ike, Volke, Micaiah, Lucia, Avatar (New Mystery of the Emblem) and Lucina. His change happens when he promotes at the end of Chaper 4-P in Radiant Dawn.

Gallery
Sothe