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“Hrmph. I can live with the strong and reliable part, but leave the slow bit out of it, ok?”
—Arden in Genealogy of the Holy War

Arden is a playable character from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. He is a Knight of Chalphy under Sigurd, and is constantly insulted for his inability to carry out actions swiftly. Arden will eventually perish in the Battle of Belhalla, alongside a good number of his comrades.

Personality[]

Arden is a strong and reliable individual, but is often mocked for being slow and moving cumbersomely, a trait which he is revealed to be rather frustrated about. He is also shown to be jealous of Alec, noting that the latter is much swifter and more charming than he is.

Arden is humble, as can be seen in a conversation which he shares with Erinys if he is paired up with her, in which he expresses amazement at being able to get someone as pretty as her for his wife.

If married, he sees his wife and children's well being as a motivation to fight and sacrifice himself, putting the safety of his family in first place, as stated in his monologue in Phinora.

In-Game[]

Genealogy of the Holy War[]

Base Stats[]

Starting ClassHoly Blood
FE4 Sword Armor SpriteSword Armor-
LevelHPStrMagSklSpdLckDefResMovLeadGold
336130543130502,000
SkillsWeaponStarting Items
AmbushVantageFE4 SwordSword - BFE4Ironsword Iron Sword

Growth Rates[]

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
90% 50% 5% 10% 20% 10% 40% 5%

Promotion Gains[]

Promoted Class
FE4 General Sprite General
+1 0 +1 +2 +2 +3 +0
Weapon Levels
FE4 Sword +1 FE4 Lance A FE4 Axe B FE4 Bow B

Overall[]

Secret Book (Artwork)
Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Arden is a rather difficult unit to use effectively. On one hand, he is very durable with very high HP and Defense, meaning he would make an ideal tank for choke points. However, due to his low Movement, it will basically be impossible for him to fill this role effectively on most maps since Genealogy of the Holy War's maps are very large and half of your army is made up of mounted units with twice as much mobility as Arden. This makes it difficult for him to not only act as a tank, but to even keep him relatively close in level to the rest of your army will require you to intentionally slow your assault so that Arden can participate. On the other hand, through engagement in Boss Abuse, Arden can easily promote and reach maximum level early on since his high durability makes it rather easy for him to gain tons of experience from any Level 20 boss. However, even if special care is taken to level Arden, he will still be slow and difficult to use effectively. Even after promotion, his primary purpose will be to defend a castle rather than take an active combat role.

One way to ensure Arden sees combat is to simply let him occupy the player's castle (or liberated one) and let enemies go to it, past your main offensive force (i.e. don't make Arden go to the enemy, make the enemy go to him). In situations where this is feasible, it might also reduce some headache on player's part, so one doesn't need to hunt down every single enemy unit of the platoon. However, player should not let him deal with excessive numbers and avoid letting magic-users and certain strong units (Ayra, Eldigan for example) from reaching him.

Mobility issues aside, Arden himself is somewhat mediocre in combat. He can handle large groups of enemies due to his high durability, but his damage output is abysmal until he promotes, and even after promotion it merely becomes average as he will gain access to more powerful weaponry but lack the means to Follow-Up Attack. While Arden is quite strong, his choice of weapons and lack of Speed/Pursuit means his only real damage can come from single hits from B-level Swords until he promotes, resulting in extremely low damage. So while Arden can take damage well from physical sources, he is not very proficient at dishing it out.

A few chapters in, it is possible to obtain a Pursuit Ring for Arden. However, in almost all cases players choose to sell the ring to another character because Arden's very low Speed means he will not activate it very often. There are many other characters with higher Speed that lack Pursuit that can make much better use of the item (Naoise, Tailtiu, Lewyn, or Dew being much better choices). If Arden keeps the Pursuit Ring for himself, he can become fairly effective against Axe wielding units as they may have low enough Speed for Arden to Follow-Up Attack them. It is also possible to give him the Leg Ring in Chapter 3 giving him +3 movement.

Father Overview[]

Arden is one of the weaker father choices available in the game. Part of the reason for this is that Lex makes Arden obsolete. They have very similar growths they give to their children, with Arden giving slightly better Strength and Lex giving slightly better Skill, Defense, and Luck. They both give their children Vantage. Where they differ more significantly is that Arden is given more freedom to pass on weaponry to his children where Lex offers the Elite skill. Though Arden is outshone by Lex, he can still make some decent pairings.

Arden is best paired with Ayra or Tailtiu. The rest should generally be avoided due Magic-oriented children where his stats are a poor fit, his lack of Pursuit/skills in general, his poor overall growths, or some combination of all of those reasons making the pairings unremarkable.

  • Ayra: Ulster and Larcei will automatically have Pursuit, and Vantage is a decent skill for them to inherit. They get some nice durability to survive frontline fighting and Strength growth to compliment their class. Arden will be able to pass on some good weapons to Ulster. This pairing is not particularly spectacular, but the children will turn out well nonetheless.
  • Edain: Both are foot units, and the fact that Edain is a healer and stay behind due to being unable to defend herself before promotion, makes easy to pair them up. Arden has access to bows when promoted, and can pass bows to her son Lester, along with the pursuit ring. Their daughter Lana will have bulkier growths for a priest.
  • Tailtiu: This pairing can be decent for the same reason Lex makes a good pair with Tailtiu; the Vantage and Wrath combo. While Tailtiu's children will have poor Magic growth, they will become explosive killing machines when being attacked. One problem with this pairing is that Arden will need the Magic Ring and Pursuit Ring to make Arthur a lot better, and the Pursuit Ring is usually heavily contested and often used by other, better characters.

Conversations[]

In Chapter 2, if Arden moves to a certain spot on the map, an event will occur, in which he will gain the Pursuit Ring.

In Chapter 5, if Arden moves to a certain spot on the map, an event will occur, in which he will gain five points of Skill.

In Chapter 5, after Phinora Castle is captured, if Erinys/Ayra and Arden are lovers, she may speak to him, but nothing will result of it.

Love Growths[]

Supports
Character Bonus
Adean
Edain
0+2
Ira
Ayra
0+2
RaquesisFE4
Lachesis
50+2
Fury
Erinys
50+2
Sylvia
Silvia
0+3
Briggid
Brigid
50+4
Tiltyu
Tailtiu
120+3

Fire Emblem Awakening[]

SpotPass[]

Starting Class
FE13 NPC Generic Knight Map SpriteKnight
LevelHPStrMagSklSpdLckDefResMov
12311607541814
SkillsWeaponStarting Items
Defense +2Defense +2
IndoorBattleIndoor Fighter
Vantage (Kakusei)Vantage
LanceIconFE13Lance - CSteel Lance FE13 IconSteel Lance*

*Enemy only, joins unequipped

Fire Emblem Engage[]

Bond Ring[]

Hero from beyond Elyos who served under Sigurd as an armored knight. Member of the Grünritter order of the Knights of Chalphy. Known by allies as strong and tough, but unfortunately slow.
Bond Ring Arden
FE17 C Rank Bond RingC Rank Str +1
FE17 B Rank Bond RingB Rank Str +1 Def +1
World FE17 A Rank Bond RingA Rank HP +2 Str +1 Def +1
Sigurd Emblem Ring Holy Knight FE17 S Rank Bond RingS Rank HP +2 Str +2 Def +1

Fire Emblem Heroes[]

Strong and Tough
An armored knight from Chalphy. Dreams of fighting on the front lines, but is often assigned to castle defense. Appears in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.

Base Stats[]

Rarity:
✯✯✯✯
Heroes Arden SpriteTitle
Strong and Tough
Group
Heroes Armored Armored
LevelHPAtkSpdDefRes
1
40
24
57
10
34
2
14
13
39
2
14
SkillsWeapon
FEH skill offense Brave Sword
FEH skill special Buckler
FEH Sword Sword
✯✯✯✯✯
Heroes Arden SpriteTitle
Strong and Tough
Group
Heroes Armored Armored
LevelHPAtkSpdDefRes
1
40
25
60
10
36
3
16
13

41
3
16
SkillsWeapon
FEH skill offense Brave Sword+
FEH skill special Buckler
FEH Sword Sword

Skills[]

TypeNamePrerequisiteDefaultUnlocked
FEH skill offenseIron Sword---
Steel Sword---
Brave Sword-FEH Star Rarity 4-
Brave Sword+-FEH Star Rarity 5FEH Star Rarity 5
Arden's Blade--FEH Star Rarity 5
FEH skill specialBuckler-FEH Star Rarity 4-
Pavise--FEH Star Rarity 4
BFEH Follow-Up Ring Follow-Up Ring-FEH Star Rarity 5
CFEH Spur Def 1 Spur Def 1--
FEH Drive Def 1 Drive Def 1FEH Spur Def 1 Spur Def 1-
FEH Drive Def 2 Drive Def 2FEH Drive Def 1 Drive Def 1FEH Star Rarity 4

Overall[]

Secret Book (Artwork)
Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.
Base Set[]
Counters[]
Skill Inheritance Options[]

Meet Some of the Heroes[]

Strong and Tough Arden
Arden strong and tough pop01 A number of stalwart knights serve Chalphy, the duchy governed by the descendants of the crusader Baldr. This time, I'll be introducing Arden, one of the knights of Chalphy!
Arden strong and tough pop02 Arden's allies often poke fun at him for being slow because he's weighed down by his heavy armor, but his unshakeable tenacity and fearsome swordsmanship make him the core of Chalphy's defenses!
Arden strong and tough pop03 When the neighboring duchy of Yngvi came under invasion, Sigurd led a force from Chalphy to come to its aid. This left a shortage of manpower at the castle, but it was in good hands with Arden assigned to keep the place safe!
Arden strong and tough pop04 So you can see that people rely on Arden a lot already, but he's got lofty goals for himself—he wants to be able to pull off flashy flurries of attacks and impress the love of his life, whoever she may be! I'm rooting for you, Arden!
Closely Associated Characters
Sigurd Heir to Chalphy, descendant of the crusader Baldr, and Seliph's father. He's courageous and has a strong sense of justice. Arden's lord.
Alec A knight of Chalphy in service to Duke Sigurd. He has a cheerful, breezy personality. Fought alongside Arden.

Quotes[]

Genealogy of the Holy War[]

“Sir Sigurd... I`ve served you my whole life, I have no regrets.”
—Arden's death quote

Awakening[]

“I'm strong and reliable, but...”
—Arden's SpotPass parley quote
“...Don't call me "lumbering"!”
—Arden's SpotPass battle quote
“*sigh* It's not easy being me.”
—Arden's SpotPass recruitment quote
“Who are you? And why have you come to this land?”
—Arden's battle quote as an enemy, in Lost Bloodlines 1
“Ah, so you have that problem, too? And here I thought I was the only...Wait, why are we talking? Fight me!”
—Arden's battle quote versus Kellam in Lost Bloodlines 1
“However noble you think your purpose, it won't stop you from losing.”
—Arden's battle quote as an enemy, in Lost Bloodlines 3
“Was it now? Pah! Do your worst!”
—Arden's battle quote versus Kellam in Lost Bloodlines 3
“How did you dent my...armor?”
—Arden's death quote as an enemy, in Lost Bloodlines 1
“Damn...I've been bested... Next time I'll come better prepared...”
—Arden's death quote as a NPC, in Lost Bloodlines 2
“This blasted armor...slows me...rrgh...”
—Arden's death quote as an enemy, in Lost Bloodlines 3

Heroes[]

Arden/Heroes Quotes

Non-Canon Appearances[]

Fire Emblem: Light Inheritors[]

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (Mitsuki Oosawa Manga)[]

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (Nattsu Fujimori Manga)[]

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Gag Paradise[]

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War - Sigurd's Tale[]

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War - Last of the Earth Dragons[]

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War - Forest and Lake Country[]

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)[]

Arden is illustrated in the trading card game with the following cards:

Choose Your Legends Placement History[]

Round Placement Character Version Votes

CYL7 259
↑31
CYL Arden Portrait
Genealogy of the Holy War
183
↓88

Etymology[]

Ardan was a brother of Naoise (Noish) in Irish mythology. The name has Celtic origins and is related to a lot of locations, it means "high".

Trivia[]

  • Norton from Tear Ring Saga: Utna Heroes Saga bears an uncanny resemblance to Arden.
  • In one of the manga adaptations of the game, Arden was left behind at Chalphy throughout the entire duration of the Prologue and Chapter 1. He is, however, called to Evans Castle to attend Sigurd and Deirdre's wedding.
  • If Ayra and Arden are lovers in Chapter 5, their final lover conversation may prove to be rather confusing. In the alleged conversation, when Arden admits his love for Ayra, she will appear to be rather doubtful, almost as if she is unaware of his feelings.
  • The "Choose Your Legends" event of Fire Emblem Heroes revealed that Arden was 93rd place out of 791, with a total of 3,094 votes. This makes him the third highest scored character of Genealogy of the Holy War. The other characters of the game that were placed in the top 100 are Sigurd and Ayra, who were 55th and 65th place respectively.
  • Arden in Heroes wears blue armor akin to his official artwork from Genealogy of the Holy War rather than the grey color of the armor in-game.
  • In Fire Emblem Awakening, Arden uses the generic knight model when he appears as an enemy in SpotPass or DLC battles. When recruited however, the armor covering his head and shoulders are removed.

Gallery[]

See main article: Arden/Gallery.
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