Battle of Belhalla

"I hereby sentence you to death for your acts of treason. No visits to the king today, Sigurd."

- Arvis during the prelude of the Battle of Belhalla



The Battle of Belhalla, also known as the Belhalla Massacre, is an event at the end of Chapter 5 of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, occurring in Gran Calendar Year 761. It is the final event in Sigurd's tale, and it is planned by Arvis in order to remove all obstacles in his plan to unify the whole continent.

The forlorn prelude of the Battle of Belhalla starts after Reptor of Freege is defeated, when Sigurd confronts Arvis’s confidant, General Aida in Velthomer. Aida says that Arvis knew that Sigurd was innocent all along, and that the Royal Guard, that Arvis leads, has prepared a celebration for Sigurd’s army near Belhalla.

Sigurd suspects nothing, and goes to Belhalla, and after Sigurd talks with Arvis for a little while about King Azmur, Arvis decides to cut him off, and tells him that he is still a traitor for killing Prince Kurth, even though he and his father Vylon, who was also blamed, did not. Arvis then brings Deirdre out long enough only for Sigurd to be in shock and for Deirdre to suspect that she knows Sigurd (she had her memories of him erased during Chapter 3, and then Arvis kills Sigurd with Valflame. Sigurd’s army is bombarded by a storm of meteors cast by the Roten Ritter, and they are trapped since they are surrounded by the Royal Guard, but some of his army manages to escape.

Aftermath
Regarding those who died at the Battle of Belhalla, here is what is known aside of Sigurd's death:
 * Quan and Ethlyn died in the Yied Desert during Trabant’s ambush, which is known as the Yied Massacre, occurring just a short while earlier than the Battle of Belhalla;
 * Lewyn was killed by Manfroy, but was later revived by Forseti.
 * Finn survived because he was in Leonster at the time of the Battle of Belhalla,
 * Dierdre survived because she was brainwashed by Manfroy in order to have Arvis take her for his wife. She would die some years later at the hands of a Loptyr-possessed Julius
 * Ferry, Tailto, Raquesis, Adean, Sylvia, and Briggid are known to have survived, meaning that Ayra was the only playable woman that was at the Battle and was presumed to have died. It is unknown whether Ayra was dead or alive at the time of the ending of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
 * By the time of Seliph's tale, Ferry and Tailto had died. Ferry, the Queen of Silesse according to Thracia 776 and the manga, died of an illness, but it is unsaid as to what the illness actually was. Meanwhile, Tailto died of illness and depression after years of being forced to live in the Freege castle and enduring abuse from her sister-in-law Hilda; her health took a big hit for protecting her daughter, Teeny, from Hilda's abuse, making sure that the girl would not be physically attacked but taking the damage for herself.
 * Around the time of Seliph's tale, Adean had become an abbess and was conducting church services in Issach; Briggid lost her memories and became Leif, Nanna, and Mareeta's caretaker Eyvel; Raquesis left Leonster to try to search for her son Delmud and disappeared in the Yied Desert, and Sylvia's whereabouts are unknown. One scrapped possibility is that Raquesis and Sylvia were captured by the Lopto Sect and turned to stone by Veld.

The army of Sigurd, all of whom that lived or died, were branded as traitors, and it is hinted in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 that those captured were turned into stone by Veld, as it is stated by August that the stone statues in the Yied Shrine included "the captives of the war in Belhalla from a decade ago".

During Chapter 10, Seliph kills Arvis to avenge the Battle of Belhalla, and then he battles and kills Manfroy alongside others in the Final Chapter

Trivia
The Battle of Belhalla is one of few times in the Fire Emblem series where a main character (but not an antagonist) is canonically killed. Other examples include Ninian in Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken and Hector in Fire Emblem: Binding Blade. The Battle of Belhalla is, however, the only time when a main Lord of a given game is canonically killed.