Manakete

Manaketes (マムクート Mamukuto, Mamkutes in the Japanese versions, alternately translated "Mamukoot" in Rekka no Ken in an unused weapon description), also referred to as simply Dragons, are both a race and character class in the Fire Emblem series. Manaketes are dragons that permanently took on a humanoid form for various reasons and can only transform back into their true dragon form by using a Dragonstone. Members of the class usually have low starting stats, but good Growth Rates, after a couple of level ups their potentially excellent stats are increased further by the use of a dragonstone.

As a race, Manaketes are often shown to be in conflict with humans during the games story or backstory. They are sometimes divided into tribes based on their element, such as fire, ice, flying, and earth dragons, although tribes not based off a particular element, like magic and divine dragons, have appeared as well. However in the third game and its remake, the playable Manaketes, like Tiki, can use a dragonstone from a different tribe via the Secret Shop.

Although Manaketes are similar in concept to the Laguz of Tellius, specifically the Dragon tribe Laguz, they are different in most other ways, the most evident being that Laguz lack a stone to use in transformation. Manaketes were originally planned to appear in TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga, but were replaced with the similar Emiyu race in the final version. The direct descendants of the Emiyu race transform using rings instead of dragonstones.

Appearance and Characteristics
Most male Manaketes appear as hooded, hunched-over humanoids with small wings extending from their back, although more notable ones may appear younger and thus stand upright. They usually wear robes instead of clothing. Many Manaketes display draconic features like fangs, claws and unnatural skin tone, though the Divine Dragon tribe appears more human-like. Manaketes generally have long or pointed ears while in human form. Hybrid Manaketes may or may not inherit this.

Manaketes have extraordinary lifespans, lasting over several millennia. Manaketes age slowly, as shown with Tiki first appearing with the appearance of a young girl during Marth's time, 1000 years after her birth, and having the appearance of a young adult by the time Chrom is born, 2000 years later. The human body of a Manaketes is much weaker than that of natural human's making a severely exploitable weakness that led to humanity's victory in The Scouring.

This longevity comes at a price: Tiki remarks that due to this long life, they will lose many of their human friends to their shorter lifespans. Additionally, Manaketes have an extremely low birth rate and infertility is a problem. Also the most severe problem of the Manaketes had ever faced is the threat of degradation, the longer a dragon live in their dragon forms, the more likely their will go mad, thus the some of the dragons in Akaneia saga had to turn into Manaketes in order to avoid this, and the dragon in Fates turn into spirits for the same reasons as well.

While Manaketes will eventually feel the effects of old age, it is unclear if they ever outright die from old age. An example of this is the elderly Bantu still being alive 2000 years later in Awakening. However, it has been shown through Ninian that is possible for certain factors such as an unsuitable atmosphere can significantly shorten their lifespan.

Manaketes presumably have an ability to put either themselves or other into suspended animation. For example, the Divine Dragon King Naga sent her new born daughter Tiki into suspended animation, which is why Tiki, over had lived for over 1000 years at the time of the War of Darkness, only spent 10 years awake and thus has the emotional maturity of a child her physical age. Manaketes can dream in this "sleeping" state as shown by Tiki's talk of having constant nightmares. Tiki is the most prominent example of this.

When mortally wounded, extremely powerful Manaketes will often go into a sleep until they recover their strength, an example being Jahn, who rested in the 1000 years after the Scouring. According to Nah, some Manaketes also possess the ability to 'smell' a person's true intentions, but it seems unlikely that all if any manaketes have this ability. It is suggested by Nah in her S-rank support with Brady that Manaketes are able to transfer part of their lifespans to others via the use of their Dragonstone. However, this is not known to be true, as Nah admits that she only heard this from Nowi and does not know if it is actually possible or not.

Story details in Mystery of the Emblem and its remake, as well as Support conversations in Awakening, indicate that each Manakete has only one Dragonstone and cannot use any other, but this is contradicted by gameplay mechanics.

Jahn in Binding Blade says Manaketes, excluding the Divine Tribe, do not feel strong emotions the way humans do.

Hybrids
Manaketes are also able to mate with humans, creating fertile half-breeds, such as Al, Sophia, Nah, and potentially Morgan. These half-breeds usually use normal human classes, though in some cases the hybrid children can change into their Manakete form. These hybrid children also gain the Manakete's long lifespans, though not to the same extent as their full blooded parents. In Nah's entire support conversations with the Avatar (female), it is discussed how being a hybrid affects their health due to their destructive urges. Nah brings up her need to uncontrollably "exercise", generally by reigning destruction in some remote locale like a dragon undergoing degeneration would once every month or so, but for the most part be perfectly sane, only Nah has shown these urges in the series.

Nils, Ninian, the Avatar of Fates, their child Kana, and any other children they have are special type of hybird in that they are more like humans with strong amount of dragon blood due to having a non-Manakete dragon as one of their parents. These types of hybrid are never called Manakete in the games they appear in, and they seem to age like any normal human would like the Avatar of Fates, and their children, and while Nils and Ninian are nearly a thousand years old, they lived in different world in their dragon form for most of them, explaining their slow growth, as Lyndis commented on Nils' slight growth after meeting each other a year after their first adventure, and they quite possibly have the same life expectancy cycle as a normal human's. Half Dragon-blooded hybrids like Nils, Ninian and the Avatar of Fates have red eyes as proof of their dragonic lineage, yet those with one-fourth dragon blood like Kana and their possible siblings do not inherit this trait.

These hybrids have three distinct advantages to Manaketes. One, their human bodies are as strong as normal humans, making less frail than a normal Manakete. Two, some have special abilities that they can outside of dragon form, like Ninian's dances, and the Avatar's Dragonic Rage. And three, they can transform into their dragon form without the use of a Dragonstone, but they can only do so, if they are overwhelmed by powerful emotions, and transforming in this manner cause them to go berserk with anger.

As Units
The main factors to remain consistent with Manakete units are their use of Dragonstones either as items or weapons and having low stats that shoot up when their dragonstone is used. A recurring factor is for different manakete tribes to have different abilities such as the Divine Tribe being specialized against fighting other Manaketes or the Mage Tribe's immunity to magic.

In Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi, dragonstones are used weapons, have 1 range, infinite durability, and cannot be used outside of the Manaketes tribe, such as Bantu being the only playable manakete to use the Firestone. The class was changed in Monshō no Nazo, now Manaketes used dragonstones as items to transform into a different dragon based class. The amount of turns player Manaketes would remain in this form was based on their luck stat. Enemy Manakates who had no luck stat would spend the rest of the map in their dragon form. The dragon classes have 1-2 range with their breath attacks. Dragonstones had finite uses and could break if overused. Tiki could also use different dragonstones. This incarnation is very similar to the Laguz

Starting with Binding Blade and The Sacred Stones, Manaketes would mostly revert to their original class mechanics, though dragonstones would remain breakable. In the DS remakes Dragonstones were usable by every manakete, excluding the Divinestone and Earthstone which were exclusive to their respective tribemembers.

In Awakening, Dragonstones now have a 1-2 attacking range and can be bought in shops. An enhanced version, Dragonstone+, which resembles the Divinestone, can be bought later in the game. The type dragonstone used in Awakening is ambiguous, generally seen to be of Divine origin due to Tiki's use of them, and the Dragonstone+'s strong resemblance to a Divinestone. However, this could be a symptom of reused assets, as Nowi mentions being able to breathe fire, but attacks with ice in animations, while Manaketes of the divine dragon tribe have generally used Mist Breath or Ice Breath. Though it should also be noted, Nowi mentions using icey breath in the official Fire Emblem Awakening manga making matters more confusing. These stones cannot be forged or renamed. All Manakete units retain their Dragon Unit, in other words, are weak to dragon-slaying weapons, status even if they have been reclassed into a non-Manakete or other Dragon Unit class.

In several continuities the more powerful Manaketes, such as Naga, Forseti, Loptyr ,Grima, and Anankos are worshiped as deities.

Akaneia and Jugdral
Tens of thousands of years ago, in Akaneia, the Dragon Tribes did not need to seal their power into Dragonstones and spent much of their time in dragon form. They cultivated a powerful empire and ruled the continent. However without warning, the Dragon Tribes eventually started to decay. First they became infertile, then finally they began to lose their sentience altogether, becoming wild beasts.

To avoid this terrible fate, the Dragon Tribes were forced to seal their powers into stones and spend their lives in human form, only assuming their dragon forms when needed. Humans took advantage of their weakened state and attacked them, even if the Manaketes in question were benevolent.

To get the revenge on the humans for treating them as outcasts, most of the Manaketes formed the cruel Doluna empire.

Zombified dragons appear in Valentia, indicating they might have lived on the continent at some point.

While no Manaketes appear directly in the Jugdral series, several legendary manaketes are mentioned in the backstory as traveling to the continent to stop a rogue dragon. These Manakates created powerful tomes, some of which pass on the will of their creators.

Ylisse
A few Manaketes appear in Fire Emblem: Awakening including Naga herself.

Curiously their Dragon tribes aren't stated, though the other Manaketes have a similar Dragon form to Tiki, can communicate with Naga, and can use what appear to be Divinestones.

The infertility issue goes unmentioned; it is unknown if Manaketes simply have less difficulty producing hybrids or if there is another factor at play.

Elibe


In the distant past, the Dragon tribes shared the continent with humanity and lived separately in peace, however this peace would not last. While the exact details of the war's beginning has been lost, it is known that humanity was the first to declare war and only the Divine Dragon Tribe remained neutral.

The result was The Scouring, a continental war that lasted for generations. Eventually Eight Human Generals armed with Divine Weapons managed to turn the tide in humanity's favor. The clashing of these godlike weapons managed to cause a world changing cataclysm known as the Ending Winter to occur. Due to the ending winter, Dragons were forced to conserve their power in stones to survive, a similar situation to what happened in Akaneia.

Having lost the war, the Dragon tribes fled the world through a portal known as The Dragon's gate. The dragon soldiers who were unaware of the gate. remained on the continent and were routed out by humanity, barring one. The only Dragons to remain on the continent were the Divine Dragons and allies who formed the hidden civilization Arcadia where humans and dragons lived in together in peace.

The dragon tribes known to exist on Elibe were Fire, Ice, and Divine, with Mage Dragons (called "Demon Dragons" in Rekka no Ken) existing as an unnatural creation created by transforming Divine Dragons.

Magvel
In Magvel, only one unique type of Manakete is shown and it is unknown if there are other dragon types. Described as "halfway between man and monster", the Manaketes turn into yellow fire breathing dragons.

Eight hundred years in the past, the Demon King Fomortiis ruled the continent, suppressing human and Manakete. Eventually a powerful Manakete known as Morva led a group of Five Heroes and together they sealed the Demon King. Dracozombies also exist, with some residing in the Black Temple and Lagdou Ruins, these former Manakete were presumably killed and used against their own tribe by Fomortiis.

Purposefully remaining uncredited, Morva led a solitary existence in Darkling Woods, guarding the Demon King's corpse. During this time, Morva adopted an orphaned Manakete known as Myrrh.

While others are known to exist, only Morva and Myrrh directly appear in The Sacred Stones. Both are also called Great Dragons.

Fates
Thousands of years before the story of Fates, twelve ancient dragons waged war between each other. To gain an advantage against each other each dragon used humans like pawns to fight for them, empowering them with drops of their blood, the dragon blooded humans became the royal family of various nations as a result. Eventually the bestial urges brought on by their growing power lead the dragon race to discard their physical forms, becoming spirits leaving the world for humans to. Only two known dragons are known to not do this: the Rainbow Sage and Anankos.

While the Rainbow Sage took a human-like form to delay his own degeneration, Anankos saw that one day he would inevitably become a mad beast and took step to delay it. Anankos created three version of the song, Lost in Thoughts All Alone and a dragonstone of his own to limit his power, but eventually only a fragment of it remained, which was used in a ritual by songstresses taught by Anankos to continue suppressing and weakening him but this would eventually cost the songstresses their lives and thus fall out of practice, leading to his own foreseen madness. Azura uses a dragonstone to seal the Avatar's dragon form into it, so they can transform without succumbing to their destructive urges.

The Astral Dragons are known to exist inside their own world separate from Fates.

The word Manakete is not used in this setting and it is not likely that, but they have a similar history.

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

 * HP: 60
 * Str: 20
 * Skl: 20
 * Spd: 20
 * Lck: 30
 * Def: 20
 * Res: 20

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

 * HP: 60
 * Str: 20
 * Skl: 20
 * Spd: 20
 * Lck: 30
 * Def: 20
 * Res: 20

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon/Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~

 * HP: 80
 * Str: 20
 * Mag: 20
 * Skl: 20
 * Spd: 20
 * Lck: 30
 * Def: 20
 * Res: 20

Fire Emblem: Awakening

 * HP: 80
 * Str: 40
 * Mag: 35
 * Skl: 35
 * Spd: 35
 * Lck: 46
 * Def: 43
 * Res: 40
 * Dragonstone, Dragonstone+

From Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem

 * Tiki (Divine Dragon)
 * Bantu (Fire Dragon)
 * Nagi (Divine Dragon)
 * Mannu (Fire Dragon)
 * Khozen (Fire Dragon)
 * Morzas (Mage Dragon)
 * Xemcel (Mage Dragon)
 * Medeus (Earth Dragon)

Former Manaketes

 * Gotoh (Divine Dragon)
 * Xane (Divine Dragon)

From Binding Blade

 * Fae (Divine Dragon)
 * Idenn (Mage Dragon, former Divine Dragon)
 * Jahn (Fire Dragon)
 * Ain (War Dragon)

From The Sacred Stones

 * Morva
 * Myrrh

From Fire Emblem: Awakening

 * Tiki (Divine Dragon)
 * Grima (Fell Dragon)
 * Nowi (unspecified)

From Binding Blade

 * Roy (If mother is Ninian, Ice. Unknown if actually a Manakete.)
 * Sophia (unspecified)

From Rekka no Ken

 * Nils (Ice Dragon)
 * Ninian (Ice Dragon)

From Awakening

 * Nah (unspecified)
 * Female Morgan (If mother is Nowi or Nah (Unspecified) or Tiki (Divine Dragon))

Trivia

 * The names "Mamkute" and "Manakete" are trademarked by Intelligent Systems
 * In Rekka no Ken when Flametongue is selected to use for an attack the description states "For Mamukoot only!". (This description can only be seen if the item is placed in a player units inventory that is also hacked to be able to use the Flametongue.)
 * Other than Bantu, all recruitable members of the Manakete class have been female, with the other playable male Manaketes using other classes, such as Xane and Gotoh.
 * In Fire Emblem: Awakening, the Manakete class is only used by female characters.
 * The Manakete's Dragon form in Awakening seems to be based on the leafy seadragon.
 * A Manakete class portrait exists in the data for Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū~. However as all manaketes in game are named characters or bosses, it is only viewable by exploring the games file or using cheat devices.