Azura

Azura (アクア Akua, Aqua in the Japanese version) is a main playable character and the deuteragonist in Fire Emblem Fates. She is a Princess of Nohr, but was captured and held prisoner by Hoshido, similar to the Avatar's situation. In the Japanese version, Azura is voiced by Lynn while her singing voice is provided by Renka. In the English version, she is voiced by Rena Strober.

Profile
Azura was born in Valla as the daughter of its king and his consort, Arete. When her father was killed by Anankos and Valla fell, Arete, and Azura, along with Azura's aunt Mikoto, and her child, the Avatar, fled Valla to the world outside the Bottomless Canyon. Azura then became a princess of the Nohrian royal family and daughter of the second queen consort of King Garon, Arete. Sometime after the Avatar was kidnapped by Garon, Yukimura formulated a plan to kidnap Azura, hiring Shura and his gang to do the job. Since she was not as well guarded as the Avatar, the plan went out smoothly. Hoshido kidnapped Azura in hopes that Nohr would negotiate with Hoshido for a swap.

When Garon refused, she was raised in Hoshido in a fairly similar fashion to the Avatar, and Queen Mikoto ordered the people of Hoshido to treat her like a princess of the kingdom. As time passed, Azura felt that she had no connection to her family in Nohr and happily remained in peaceful Hoshido. She is a gifted songstress and dancer, singing Lost in Thoughts All Alone several times in all routes. This song that has great power when used in conjunction with her pendant. If she achieves an S-Support, she will have a son named Shigure and can possibly be the mother of other children except male Kana.

Shortly before the start of the great war, Azura meets the Avatar and they discover their similar origins and situations. She allies with the Avatar through the story of Fates, regardless of what route they choose, though the circumstances of her joining change. Her birthday is March 3rd.

Prologue
The Avatar first meets Azura when the Hoshidan siblings bring them back to the castle. During a celebration at the capital square, the Avatar's Ganglari explodes and kills most of the people attending, including Mikoto. Along with Ryoma and Sakura, they watch the Avatar transform into a mindless dragon. She warns the Avatar to avoid the Wyrmslayer-wielding mercenaries and assists them to defeat the Hooded Man. After the battle, Azura uses her powers to revert the Avatar back into a human. The Avatar is confused about their dragon form, and Azura gives them a Dragonstone, telling them that it will allow them to turn into a dragon again but will also keep their mind intact. She advises them to keep it with them at all costs, or the next time they turn into a dragon again without it, she may be unable to save them.

Birthright
Azura remains a playable unit in the army immediately from Chapter 6. During Chapter 10, Azura can be brought onto the battlefield against the Mokushu forces. When Takumi arrives and attempts to kill the Avatar, having her talk to him will allow her to banish the presence controlling him, and results in Takumi joining the Avatar's army.

On the way to search for Ryoma, during Chapter 12, Azura offers to help Kaden repay a local songstress called Layla, who wants to visit her dying grandmother but is unable to because she has to perform for Garon. With Zola's magic, he disguises her as Layla and performs a dance in front of Garon, using her water manipulation skills to cause him slight discomfort. However, during the performance Zola betrays the group, the spell drops, and the Avatar's forces barely escape from the opera house. Outside, Azura collapses from exhaustion. Alarmed, the Avatar tries to find out what is wrong, but Azura tells them not to worry about her.

During Chapter 20, Iago traps the Hoshidan forces inside Fort Dragonfall by reanimating the dragon, causing their weapons to have difficulty penetrating the walls of the fort. Azura tells the Avatar that with her powers, she can weaken them. The Avatar refuses to let her because of the consequences that came with it, but allows her to after she convinces them. After the battle, the Hoshidans escape the fortress and Azura sneaks away while the power harms her. The Avatar notices that it is getting worse, and she admits that the more powerful the target, the more energy she uses and using it too long would kill her. The Avatar asks her not to use it too long again in fear of her death. Azura complies but tells them that she will need to use it on Garon to end the war.

When the Hoshidans arrive at Windmire, Shura and his gang attack them after the Avatar refuses to give up the Noble Yato to them. Azura remembers that there was a secret passageway her kidnappers used to escape the castle, although she was unaware of their identities.

After Garon is defeated, Azura collapses and dissolves into water as the result of overusing her necklace's power, with the Avatar bursting into tears. In the ending, they converse with Azura's spirit by the lakeside where they first met her before Azura disappears and Ryoma calls them back.

Conquest
After the end of the battle at Hoshido Field, Azura returns to Hoshido after the Avatar decides to stay with their Nohrian siblings. The Hoshidan people become suspicious of Azura because of her Nohrian origins. Though Ryoma does his best to quell any doubts of Azura's sincerity, Azura is captured by a faction of Hoshidans. She is later reunited with the Avatar at Fort Dragonfall in Chapter 9, when their party coincidentally travels through the fort on their way to Notre Sagesse. Grateful for being rescued she joins their party.

When the Avatar's party reaches Cyrkenzia, she sings and dances before Garon and Nohrian troops, although wearing a different dress and a facial veil to disguise herself. The dance causes even more pain to Garon compared to the dance in Birthright. After the dance, Iago notices Garon is in pain and attempts to capture the songstress as he believes that she had inflicted a curse on him during the dance. After Kumagera appears and attempts to end Garon's life to end the war, Azura surprises the Avatar, who did not see her leave her seat during the performance and like the other Nohrian troops, are unaware that she was the mysterious songstress. Afterwards she travels to Valla, unknowingly followed by the Avatar. After rescuing Gunter and returning to the Bottomless Canyon, she reveals to the Avatar that she was the mysterious songstress. However, the song she performed was not a curse, but a purification ritual meant to drive out the evil force controlling Garon. She reveals that it was too late to save him, and the man known as Garon is no more. She explains that the only way to defeat to evil presence is to get Garon to sit on the Hoshidan throne, meaning they would have to gain Garon's trust, continue the war and conquer Hoshido.

Later, when the Avatar is reunited with Xander, they introduce him to his long lost sister, Azura. Although Azura initially unsure of how Xander will react to her, Xander explains that he was aware of the hardships she faced as a child in Nohr as the people were upset at Garon marrying her mother after his own mother's death and that he, Camilla, and later Leo were discouraged from interacting with her. He then assures her that he is happy to see her again and is glad that all his siblings are reunited and that they can be a family again.

As in Birthright, Azura overuses the necklace's power against the possessed Takumi instead, knowing full well it would kill her. Later, as the Avatar meets Azura one last time at the lake, she dissolves into light. The Avatar thanks her for everything, and Xander calls them back.

Revelation
After the Avatar refuses to join a side, the war breaks out between the two nations. Needing a way to catch the attention of Xander and Ryoma, Azura, the Avatar, and their assistant (Either Felicia if the Avatar is Male, Or Jakob if the Avatar is Female) take down the front commanders of both armies. Believing that Azura and the Avatar have betrayed them, both are labeled as traitors and are forced to flee. Needing a safe place to escape, Azura takes the Avatar and Felicia/Jakob to the Bottomless Canyon. Asking the Avatar to trust her, they leap off the bridge into the chasm. Landing in an unknown land, Azura takes the Avatar into a cave and explains that they are in the kingdom of Valla, lead by King Anankos, who has been orchestrating the war between Hoshido and Nohr. Azura reveals that she is a Vallite princess and is the daughter of the previous king. Additionally, she reveals that she could not tell anyone in the world above of her origins as doing so causes a curse to activate, dissolving the body of anyone who speaks about Valla.

This route also confirms that Azura is the Avatar's cousin by blood through their mothers, Arete and Mikoto, who are sisters. It's also explained that Garon isn't her father; Azura's father and Arete's first husband was the former King of the mysterious realm of Valla, Ryuurei, murdered by the Avatar's birth father Anankos. Arete and an infant Azura ran away from Valla and reached for Nohr, becoming a part of the royal family until Arete's death and Azura's kidnapping.

Azura crowns the Avatar as the new ruler of a newly created Valla after the original Valla is sealed up after Anankos' death, serving as their personal advisor. If Azura has obtained an S-Support with the male Avatar instead, she will become the new queen of Valla.

Regardless of the route chosen in the end, Azura is eventually forgotten to history, with Shigure and her marriage being the only evidence that she had ever existed at all.

Personality
Due to the heavy rejection and discrimination she faced in her time as child in Nohr, Azura developed a reserved and stoic personality, sprouting from her fear of provaction and rejection, only opening up to people she is close to. This stoicism can sometimes cause her to hurt others' feelings without meaning to, though via bluntness rather than naiveté, as she is not afraid of telling someone what she thinks of them.

When she does open up, she proves to have quite the mischievous side, such as teasing Sakura by scaring her with ghost stories. Despite that, however, she is never cruel, and tries to help those she criticizes overcome a flaw or problem by pointing it out to them. This tends to make her view herself as a replacement for the Avatar's Hoshidan family. Her supports with her adopted siblings Ryoma and Hinoka have her telling them they don't have to pretend to love her anymore now that their real sibling is back, and she apologizes to the Avatar in their Hoshidan supports for "stealing" their birthright from them. Ryoma and Hinoka tell her their familial love for her was never faked, and the Avatar assures her that they don't blame her at all.

Although she can get slightly emotional at times, Azura is kindhearted and surprisingly knowledgeable about many things, some of which others would not know about. Examples include the history of Valla, her unique ability to manipulate water through the use of her necklace and a brief history about dragons and degeneration from her mother. Azura's singing holds great, but mysterious powers, which hold a multitude of uses, namely for breaking spells, re-energizing friendly units during battle (similar to the dancing mechanic of previous games) and calming the madness the Avatar suffers from when they transform into a dragon for the first time in Chapter 5. Although she is more cynical and world-weary than the Avatar, she shares their conviction in trying to make the world a better place. Normally neat and tidy, she has the worst cases of bed hair in the army and is a restless sleeper. She also has a weakness for cute things and enjoys telling scary stories.

Chapter 5 - Mother
Vulnerary, Chest Key
 * Inventory when rejoining in Conquest Chapter 9 - Another Trial

Growth Rates

 * 25%
 * 60%
 * 25%
 * 80%
 * 80%
 * 60%
 * 15%
 * 35%
 * }

Max Stat Modifiers

 * 0
 * 0
 * +1
 * +3
 * 0
 * -3
 * 0
 * }

Standard Sets

 * }

Friendship Sets

 * -|Birthright/Revelation=


 * }
 * -|Conquest/Revelation=


 * }

Partner Sets

 * -|All Routes=


 * }
 * -|Birthright/Revelation=


 * }
 * -|Conquest/Revelation=

* Azura only has access to the Apothecary, Oni Savage, Spear Fighter, or Wyvern Rider class if she marries an Avatar with that class as his secondary class.
 * }

Special Classes

 * }

Supports
Romantic Supports
 * Avatar (Male)
 * Jakob
 * Kaze
 * Silas

Nohr

 * Laslow
 * Odin
 * Xander
 * Benny
 * Keaton
 * Arthur
 * Leo
 * Niles

Hoshido
Other Supports
 * Subaki
 * Hinata
 * Kaden
 * Saizo
 * Ryoma
 * Takumi
 * Hayato
 * Azama
 * The Avatar (Female)
 * Elise
 * Hinoka
 * Sakura
 * Shigure
 * Any of Azura's other children

Base Class
Azura is a typical Dancer-like unit in her unique Songstress class, allowing her to reinvigorate one allied unit per turn through her Sing command. Like other units from past games like her, Azura is a fragile unit with low HP, Defense, and Resistance growths, but offset by high Speed, Skill, and Luck growths to help her avoid attacks altogether rather than enduring them. In stark contrast to the Dancers from previous games, Azura has a high Strength growth, and can use this to destroy stray enemy units in a pinch. While Azura is generally better off using her song to give units an additional turn, she can still deal reasonable damage as a secondary attacker while in Attack Stance. However, her low defensive stats make her fragile to almost any attack and should avoid facing groups of reasonably strong enemies.

Normally, past units like her were typically mid game units, putting them at a severe disadvantage from the enemy units that tended to be nearly over 10 levels higher than them or promoted. Azura instead is received early in the game, allowing her to level up with a lot less risk. Additionally, another advantage is the Songstress class' weapon choice of Lances, allowing Azura to attack and retaliate to distant enemies. However, the Songstress' class' Lance rank caps at C rank, limiting her offensive options. Finally, her personal skill Healing Descant gives her a two tile heal zone around her that recovers 10% HP to all units within her zone.

The Songstress class has no promotion, but gains a total of 4 skills in its 40 Level cap. Azura will start off with Luck +4, giving her some respite from enemy critical chances, but will lose usefulness later with better skills from other classes. At level 10, Azura's singing becomes more potent with Inspiring Song which grants a 3 point boost to the Speed, Skill, and Luck of any unit that she sings to. Her final two skills Voice of Peace and Foreign Princess gives her two more zone skills that reduce the damage dealt by enemies by two in her two tile zone from the former and a two damage reduction plus a two damage from received ally attacks from the latter. Overall, Azura plays well as a supportive unit and benefits greatly off of tighter gameplay as she can support other units much more easily. She makes an exceptional unit for Rally usage due to the nature of most of her given class skills and especially her personal skill. However, this skill set requires a lot of external help from other player's StreetPass teams or the player's own subsequent playthroughs.

Players are recommended to keep her as a songstress whenever possible; although she can deal considerable damage to enemies, reasonably strong enemies can easily kill her rather fast, nullifying her offense. Her songs can also allow for a wide range of use in PvP, such as placing a strong unit (or pair) next to her and rush the enemy before being rescued back by another user.

For balancing reasons, both Einherjar and replicated versions of songstress Azura are unable to use their singing skills to give allies a second turn.

Secondary Class
Azura's secondary class is the Sky Knight class, which will have a decent head start thanks to her base class' usage of lances as well as her naturally high speed and skill matching this Class set's naturally high skill and speed stats as well. As such, if looking for an more offensive oriented Azura, her secondary class provides that option. The Sky Knight's first skill, Darting Blow, is good for an offensive Azura as it will increase her double attack chances when she initiates a battle. The second ability Camaraderie syncs well with Azura's zone play by providing herself a 10% HP regen when units are within a two tile radius of her at the start of a turn, though is not nearly as good as Renewal if she can get access to the Shrine Maiden class from a Sakura or marriage with Azama or the Avatar with the Priest as his secondary. As a Falcon Knight, she gains Rally Speed to boost all allies within two tile range of her with a 4 stat boost upon using the Rally Command and Mirror Strike to make her an aggressive anti-mage unit. As a Kinshi Knight, she gains Air Superiority to avoid aerial units, but her Amaterasu skill gives her zone play the largest regen boost by giving her turn heals an additional 20% HP, giving her a 30% HP recovery for all allies in her zone each turn in tandem with her personal skill.

Friendship Class
Azura gains a Friendship Class from Elise and Sakura:


 * Elise — Elise provides her with the Troubadour class. Notably, she will gain Demoiselle first as another zone skill to aid male units in her zone with a nice 2 damage reduction. The Strategist class gives her Battle Command which is basically another Heathen Princess skill, but not limited to "Heathen Army" units. Additionally, Rally Resistance is provided by this class for those seeking a Rally Azura. The Maid class gives her mainly Tomebreaker to avoid Tome/Spell damage and Live to Serve if keeping Azura in this healing class is more what the player desires.
 * Sakura — Sakura gives her the Shrine Maiden class. Her base class provides Miracle which could save her in case she is hit by a deadly blow. Rally Luck can be obtained from this class as well. The Onmyoji class provides Rally Magic and is essentially the only useful skill from the class if planning on keeping Azura as a songstress. As a Priestess, she gains Renewal, which is a much more suitable self-recovery skill than Camaraderie since it heals her 30% and does not require her to be around other allied units to activate it. Countermagic is worth considering given her fragile nature and can dish back magic damage taken if needed, resulting in high counter damage.

Quotes
Refer to Azura/Quotes.

Birthright/Conquest
Azura - Lady of the Lake (泉の歌姫 Izumi no Utahime lit. Songstress of the Spring)
 * There are no official records or stories of Azura from after the war. She was such a mysterious figure that later generations wondered if she truly existed, or if she was merely a spirit in human form.


 * Azura and Laslow
 * Laslow vanished after the war, but he inspired generations of dancers and rallied the spirits of many. Few records of Azura and her husband survive. She remains a historical mystery.


 * Azura and Leo
 * Leo sacrificed much for Nohr, leading the effort to spread King Xander's radical new policies. There are few records of Azura beyond her marriage. She remains a historical mystery.

Revelation

 * Azura and the Avatar
 * The two spent the rest of their lives together, Avatar ruling as a wise King of Valla. There are few records of Azura beyond her marriage. She remains a historical mystery.


 * Azura and Xander
 * As King of Nohr, Xander laid the foundation for a new era of peace and prosperity for the kingdom. There are few records of Azura beyond her marriage. She remains a historical mystery.
 * As King of Nohr, Xander laid the foundation for a new era of peace and prosperity for the kingdom. There are few records of Azura beyond her marriage. She remains a historical mystery.

Etymology
Azura comes from the word azure, a shade of blue.

Aqua, her name in the Japanese version, is the Latin word for water. It is also a greenish-blue color.

Trivia

 * Azura has two diferent voice actresses in Japanese: her normal voice actress is Lynn while her singing voice is provided by Renka. This has already been seen in the Fire Emblem series when other characters had to sing (like Ashunera and Sephiran in Radiant Dawn and possibly Micaiah).
 * Despite Azura being considered the deuteragonist, the development team actually considers her to be the main protagonist just as much as they do the Avatar. In the West, conversely, the Avatar is instead mainly considered to be the protagonist due to them being meant to be the visual reflection of the player, resulting in the level of control and customization for them to be much higher.
 * Azura's official artwork and portraits depict her wielding the Blessed Lance.
 * Azura placed 5th most popular female character in the official character popularity poll held on the game's official site.
 * Azura placed in the top ten of the Famitsu Popularity Poll at 8th place, and 1st place in the top ten married poll as well.
 * Azura's birthday, March 3, falls under the sign Pisces and evokes the element of water. It is also the same day as Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day.
 * There are files in the game that depicts a potential sibling conversation shared between Shigure and a male Kana, which created speculation about Azura being originally intended as a same sex marriage option. Despite this, no traces of a potential S-Support conversation between Azura and the Female Avatar were found.
 * Azura is the only character whose supports with the Avatar change depending on the path chosen. This also changes what her confession quotes are as well.
 * Azura draws many parallels to Lady Nimue in Arthurian legends. Both are considered key women in their respective stories, are responsible for giving the protagonists key weapons (a Dragonstone and Excalibur respectively), and both have the epitaph of "Lady of the Lake."