Mark

The Tactician (default name マーク Mark) is portrayed as a mysterious traveler who is found unconcious on the plains by Lyndis at the beginning of Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken. The tactician was introduced to give the player an actual role in the game and was a means to introduce players into the gameplay mechanics of the Fire Emblem series, of which Rekka no Ken (simply titled Fire Emblem for outside territories) was the first of the series to be launched outside Japan.

The tactician is a male named Mark by default at first, though the player can change the name, gender and birth month at the start of the game. S/he acts as the players avatar and is a non-playable character during the whole game, but will never appear during actual gameplay. Most of the time, s/he is only adressed by other characters during story sequences. The tactician can be seen, but only at the few scenes involving movement on the battlefield, appearing as a sprite resembling a brown-haired individual wearing green robes over yellow garments. The sprite itself, however, will never change between genders, whatever the player's choice in the beginning of the game.

Depending on the gender, characters will react on the tactician differently. For example, Sain will try to flirt to both Lyn and the player if the tactician is a female and Florina will hesitate to speak to the player if the tactician is portrayed as a male, but will talk in a more comfortable manner when speaking to a female. The affinity of the tactician is also set by the chosen birth month. Claims exist that the affinity has an effect on playable characters if they share the same affinity as him or her, but this has been proven false by setting character growth rates through hacking. However he is able to affect some things; all characters (on your side) receive +1 Critical Evade for each star that you earn, and those characters with the same Affinity as the Tactician receive an additional +1 Accuracy and +1 Avoid for each star. In the Japanese version of the game, an option exists to choose the tactician's bloodtype, which factors into deciding affinity, due to a lesser cultural importance of bloodtypes (and its anachronistic nature) this isn't included in the English versions and affinity is determined purely by birth month.

The tactician is asked at the end of Eliwood and Hector's story to name their children and to become the godparent of Roy and Lilina, respectively. There are also alternate endings, though they may change based on the playthrough and the ranking of the player at the end of the game. At the lowest ranking, the tactician's strategy is viewed as so incomprehensible, that historians of Elibe in the far future are puzzled as to how he achieved Eliwood and his army victory with such a strategy. However, at the better rankings, the tactician is highly revered by many because of his/her skills in tactics. So much in fact, that Bern, Lycia and Etruria are searching for him/her. At the highest ranking, Bern and Etruria are even going so far by starting a war, in order to procure the skills of this brilliant mind. Either way, it is implied that the tactician was never found.

Possible Endings
Note: As Mark is the default tactician name, you may replace "Mark" with the name of your tactician character.

Mark - Superb Mind (Tactician Rank A or S)

A tactician whose brilliance changed the course of history. Bern and Etruria so desired this skilled mind that they went to war.

Mark - Famed Genius (Tactician Rank B or C)

The tactician vanished after the battle. Bern, Lycia, and Etruria all sought those famed skills, but none ever found the tactician.

Mark - Suspect Mind (Tactician Rank D or Lower)

To this day, historians look back and question how these incomprehensible strategies ever led to victory.

Affinities of Birth Months

 * January: Light
 * Febuary: Ice
 * March: Wind
 * April: Thunder
 * May: Wind
 * June: Anima
 * July: Fire
 * August: Dark
 * September: Fire
 * October: Anima
 * November: Ice
 * December: Thunder