Nino

"Ah, hello! I’m Nino! Nice to meet you!"

- Nino in The Blazing Blade.

Nino (ニノ, Nina in the Italian version) is a playable character in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. She is a 14 year old mage, who later on becomes the mother of Raigh and Lugh in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. Nino has an exceptional talent for magic. Despite being woefully under-trained, Nino is clearly a natural genius at the art. Although illiterate as well, and never having been formally trained; she instead learned by memorizing the incantations which Sonia chanted.

Profile
Nino's family - her father Juge was a powerful dark mage. her mother Iris, and her older brother Kai - were powerful mages, and Nino had the potential to be one herself. They lived peacefully until they were suddenly visited by Sonia, one of Nergal's minions, who held Nino hostage and interrogated her family for their secrets about the dragons. Nino's parents and brother were killed, but Nino was spared by Nergal, who, thinking she could be of some use, had Sonia adopt the orphan mage as her daughter.

Sonia resented her "daughter" for as long as she has ever been her mother, and Nino found it impossible to bond with the cold Morph. Instead, she became close friends with her step-siblings Lloyd, the White Wolf, and Linus, the Mad Dog. She also became close with her new stepfather, the founder of the Black Fang, Brendan Reed and good friends with The Hurricane, Legault. In a support with Canas, it is revealed that Canas' wife is the sister of Iris (Nino's mother), making Canas Nino's uncle-in-law, and Hugh her cousin.

Nino makes her first appearance in Four-Fanged Offense, where she is to meet with Jaffar to give him a new assassination contract. However, Jaffar's last job has taken a toll on him, and he faints through loss of blood. Nino quickly nurses the Assassin to health, as well as tells any character (even Legault) that visits the house, "Go away! There's no one else here!!". When Jaffar wakes up, he finds himself alive and scolds her for not killing him as is the law of the Fang, which makes Nino cry.

She is later seen in Battle Before Dawn, where she, along with Jaffar, are to kill the budding Prince Zephiel. However, Sonia instructs Jaffar to kill Nino after the contract has been completed, her patience with the young mage at its end. But Jaffar, finding that he cannot kill Nino, instead protects her. Ursula, a Valkyrie and one of the Four Fangs, arrives and takes up the role of killing both targets.

Coincidentally enough, Eliwood, Hector, and the rest of their companions storm the castle and protect Zephiel and Nino. Ursula either dies during the siege or is killed by the morph Limstella soon afterwards. During the battle, Nino can be recruited by Eliwood, Hector, and their companions, and, if she talks to Jaffar before the battle ends, they can recruit him as well.

In the bonus Chapter 26x: Night of Farewells, Nino, still baffled by her "mother"'s wish to have her killed, runs away to question Sonia. Just before she and Jaffar arrive, Sonia kills Brendan for his Quintessence. They meet, and Sonia declares her undying hatred of her and confesses that she murdered Nino's parents and brother. In response, Nino, along with Eliwood and company, fight the morph who is trying to kill them. Nino at first does not want to fight. If Nino talks to Sonia, Nino realizes that Sonia is a morph, and decides to fight back.

After the battle, Nino receives a pendant from her step-uncle Jan which contains a portrait of her murdered family. Within the pendant, Nino finds a bloodstain from her true mother, when Sonia killed her.

Nino travels along with her new companions for the rest of their journey, showing deep regret for having to kill her remaining stepbrother in Cog of Destiny, and later on for having to kill their morph forms along with Brendan's.

At the end of their journey, Nino settles down in Pherae or marries Erk or Jaffar (depending on whom she has an A-support with).

Nino goes on to become the mother of Lugh and Raigh. It is unknown what happened to her during the events of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. Her epilogue with Jaffar states that she disappears looking for Jaffar after bounty hunters came searching for him. This may imply that she is still searching for him, that she found him and is hiding with him, or that she found him, and the two were killed together. Alternatively, if she marries Erk, the epilogue states that bounty hunters came looking for her instead. Also, in order to protect her newfound family, she disappeared.

In both cases, Raigh and Lugh are from an orphanage by the time of The Binding Blade. Lugh is a Mage and Raigh is a Shaman. Lugh inherits his mother's talents and stays at the orphanage until the start of The Binding Blade, whereas Raigh leaves the orphanage to see the world and study elder magic.

Personality
Nino, despite being neglected and hated by her foster mother on several occasions, has retained a sense of loving optimism and deep caring to those in need. She rarely receives compliments and treats them and those who give them with great respect. Despite her anger toward Sonia, she is hesitant to kill her, as she is with her stepbrothers. She is also very sensitive, as seen from her A support with Jaffar, where she quickly overreacts.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
Description: ''One of the Black Fang. True and innocent.''

Growth Rates

 * 55%
 * 50%
 * 55%
 * 60%
 * 45%
 * 15%
 * 50%
 * }

Supports

 * Canas
 * Erk
 * Florina
 * Jaffar
 * Legault
 * Merlinus
 * Rebecca

Overall
Nino fits the Est Archetype, a unit that joins late and at a low level, but has very high growths. She can be difficult to train when she is recruited, but all of her stats turn out very solid, though her strength and defense can be a little low. Additionally, if you have a spare Angelic Robe (which may be obtained in Night of Farewells), giving it to her would be a good option.

However, her low Con can cause her to take speed penalties from most magic tomes, even Fire, before promoting. Giving her a Body Ring will partly fix this.

Developing supports with Jaffar or Erk would both be good ideas for Nino as they would provide bonuses for her defense, evasion and critical evasion, increasing her chances at surviving. Developing a support with Rebecca would also be a solid choice as Nino would be a deadlier unit. Nino would also get an evasion boost from supporting with Rebecca. Jaffar's support would develop faster than Rebecca and Erk because of a higher starting value. However, they all develop at the same rate.

SpotPass
*Enemy only, joins unequipped

Description

 * Pious Mage
 * A kindhearted member of the Black Fang assassins. Longed to help her mother. Appears in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.

Base Stats
Rarity:

The Blazing Blade

 * Nino/The Blazing Blade Quotes

Heroes

 * Nino/Heroes Quotes

Possible Endings

 * Nino, Pious Mage
 * At Eliwood's invitation, she started a quiet life in a small village in Pherae. She plans to return to Bern to visit a certain cemetery.


 * Jaffar and Nino
 * They were married after the conflict and were gifted with twin boys. Their time in Pherae was happy until bounty hunters came for Jaffar. To protect his family, he disappeared. Nino vanished in search of him.


 * Erk and Nino
 * They were married after the conflict and were gifted with twin boys. Their time in Pherae was happy until bounty hunters came for Nino. To protect her family, she disappeared. Erk vanished looking for her.

Etymology
As a feminine name, Nino may derive from the Assyrian name Ninus, or Nina, the name of a Babylonian and Assyrian fertility goddess.

Saint Nino, a woman said to be a relative of Saint George of Cappadocia, is famous for introducing Christianity to Georgia in the 4th century, and the name is still popular among Georgian women (e.g. the famous Georgian princess Nino Chavchavadze). Although it is ironic since the word "niño" is the masculine Spanish noun for "child", whereas "niña" is the feminine equivalent.

Trivia

 * Nino shares her English voice actress, Sarah Blandy, with Kagero, Midori, Layla, and Fae.
 * Nino has known Legault for several years, considers him an uncle and refers to him as such.
 * In Fire Emblem Awakening, her SpotPass team shows reference to Black Fang members, having a Swordmaster (Lloyd), a Hero (Linus) and an Assassin (Jaffar).
 * On the official Japanese website for Nintendo, Nino won 1st place on the character popularity poll for Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword. The male-female vote ratio is 2:1.
 * Nino came in 19th place for females in the Fire Emblem Heroes Choose Your Legends popularity poll. She had 7,825 votes.
 * Nino came in 7th place for females in the Fire Emblem Heroes Choose Your Legends: Round 2 popularity poll. She had 15,532 votes.
 * In his A support with Melady, Lugh mentions that his parents died when he was 4 years old (as of FE6, he is 13, since he is 2 years younger than Roy). Because FE6 is set exactly 20 years after the events of FE7, and Nino is 14 years old in FE7, that means Nino was 21 when she had Lugh and Raigh, and 25 when she died.
 * In her A support with Canas, when she shows Canas the portrait of her real family, she says "I'm in the middle. The ones on the side are my twin brothers," but then only goes on to name one brother, Kai. This is because the former sentence is a mistranslation; in the original, she said, "I'm in the middle, and the person next to me might be my twin brother."
 * In Fire Emblem Heroes, her official artwork shows her using a red tome, despite her being a green tome unit.