- For the location of the same name, see here.
—Embla to Letizia, Book VI, Chapter 8
Embla is the main antagonist of Book VI from Fire Emblem Heroes. She is the goddess of barriers and broken bonds, and the legendary dragon of the Emblian Empire. Her retainer is Elm.
Profile[]
The goddess of the closed kingdom which shares her name, Embla and Thrasir founded the Emblian Empire where Thrasir became the first empress and worked together with Askr to open and close gates to other worlds. While Askr was open and welcoming of mortals, appreciating the hope in their hearts despite all of the challenges they faced, Embla was less receptive to them. Eventually, Askr managed to coax Embla into forming a relationship with mortals, and for a time, she grew to find some appreciation, even as she remained stand-offish, with the people of Embla granting her gifts and adoration. However, she one day was forced to end the life of a mortal that approached with the intent to kill her. Distraught, Embla's trust in mortals was broken.
Separately, as she witnessed residents of Embla travel across the border to Askr to satisfy their curiosity about Askran customs, Embla forbade her people from leaving her nation's borders, and punished severely any who attempted to do so. The people grew to fear Embla, and the number that fled from her grew in size. When Askr tried to help Embla and explain why her people left her, she refused to hear him out.
Embla eventually used her power to completely close off her kingdom so that those people who were still with her would no longer have even the possibility of leaving, and proceeded to take control of their very hearts so there was no chance of betrayal. In addition, she placed a blood curse on the Imperial Royal Family of Embla, whose members carried her blood, causing them to be filled with a strong desire to kill the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Askr, whose members carry Askr's blood.
Eons later, in the modern day, Embla sets a plan in motion to wipe out everyone who carries Askr's blood, and she sends her retainer Elm to end the bloodline. Sometime afterwards, she absorbs both the Kingdom of Askr and the Emblian Empire into her realm. Deciding to enact her plan, she encounters and possesses Letizia, who she forces to fight against the Order of Heroes, who, along with Princess Veronica and Prince Bruno, were also absorbed into her realm. After the Order of Heroes defeats Letizia, Embla, sensing Letizia's hatred for Veronica, decides to free her from her control, hoping that she will use her final moments to kill Veronica. However, Letizia instead chooses to kill herself. Afterwards, Embla possesses Bruno and forces him to fight the Order of Heroes, wishing to see the Order of Heroes succumb to despair when they realize that Askr will not rescue them and has abandoned them. However, much to her shock and anger, Askr does arrive and frees Bruno from her control. After demanding to know why Askr has come, Embla decides to retreat for the time being, knowing fully well that Askr cannot remain in her realm for long. While Askr is leading the Order of Heroes, Bruno, and Veronica to his realm, Embla secretly possesses Veronica, forcing the others to retreat to Askr's realm. Deeming Veronica's form to be weak, she gives Veronica some of her power.
Initially, Embla was partially successful in her plan, as she manages to control Bruno to attack the Order of Heroes, resulting in the prince's death. However Bruno's sacrifice is not in vain. Before he is controlled, he manages to secretly give the Yggdrasil Key to Xander, who passes it onto Veronica, allowing her to free herself from Embla's control. With no members of the royal bloodline left for her to control, Embla retreats to her castle and despite her best efforts, the Order of Heroes finally defeat her. In her final moments, as she fades away, she says Askr's name, lamenting she'll be alone again.
Veronica, having seen moments in Embla's life flash in her mind, realizes that Embla's loneliness led to her downfall, and she comes to believe that the goddess is no different from her in that regard.
Sometime after Embla's defeat, Sharena and Veronica have a tea party together in one of Letizia's retreats. During the party, Sharena pulls out a small doll of Askr while Veronica pulls out a doll of Embla, and they arrange the dolls so that they hold hands, symbolizing that the war between their kingdoms has ended.
Personality[]
According to Askr, Embla used to be a kind deity who truly loved and cared for her people despite her cold, stand-offish exterior. Over time, however, when her people started leaving the nation of Embla, curious about other places, she resented it out of a belief that they chose Askr over her, leaving her to become spiteful and cruel out of envy. Her distrust in her people only grew when an individual mortal sought to hurt her for nothing but their own apparent gain.
Because of this, Embla has a deep fear of being alone or betrayed despite closing herself off to avoid the pain of further betrayal. These fears also lead her to jump to conclusions and make snap judgments out of paranoia. She places trust only in her retainer Elm, unaware that his guidance may have only worsened her paranoia.
In-Game[]
- God of Closure
- God of the closed kingdom, which shares her name. Spite and jealousy rule her, and she wishes death to any who side with Askr.
Base Stats[]
Rarity: ✯✯✯✯✯
 | Title | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God of Closure | |||||
| Group | |||||
 Flying | |||||
| Level | HP | Atk | Spd | Def | Res |
| 1 40 | 18/19/20 37/41/44 | 12/13/14 40/43/47 | 10/11/12 40/44/47 | 4/5/6 28/31/34 | 4/5/6 21/24/28 |
| Skills | Weapon | ||||
 Enclosing Claw Dragon Gaze |  Beast | ||||
Skills[]
Overall[]
|
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[]
Embla is the final Mythic Hero of Book VII and ends it as an incredibly potent Dark Blessed Mythic Red Beast Flier. With an impressive 43 Atk and 44 Spd, she is incredibly strong offensively. Her physical bulk is strong as well at 72 and has the means to further mitigate damage in her kit. This helps with her much lower magical bulk that scores 65 due to a measly 24 Res. Embla has a plethora of tricks at her disposal that makes her not only a potent threat, but also serves as a brutal counter to a common Aether Raids strategy.
Enclosing Claw provides the standard ability for Embla to transform into her beast form under certain conditions. Naturally, transformed or not, Embla requires one less attack to charge her special and at the start of her turn. If she has at least 25% of her max HP, she gains +5 to her core stats in combat, inflicts a penalty to her foe's four core stats in combat based on how many foes are within three rows/columns centered around her x3, maximizing at -9, and neutralizes any attack charge acceleration effect on her foe. Finally if there at least two foes within the same 3 row/column range, she also neutralizes any skill that guarantees her foe a counter and further slows their special charge. If she transforms, she gains 1 additional tile movement and +2 Atk. Normally, this is only done if she is adjacent to only Beasts/Dragons or is not adjacent to any allies, but Embla introduces a new inheritable skill that changes the standard transformation requirements.
Severance is Embla's exclusive Mythic Skill C that inflicts two status conditions and provides herself a bonus condition. At the start of Embla's turn, she inflicts【Undefended】and【Feud】on all foes within three columns/rows centered around herself.【Undefended】disables any Savior user from intercepting an attack until they take an action, thus stopping the fan termed tank ball strategy.【Feud】prevents that unit from receiving any effects from skills not originating from that unit such as Drive skills. For Embla herself, if there is a foe within three columns/rows centered around herself, she removes any【Penalty】on herself and also gives herself【Dodge】, reducing damage to herself up to 40% calculated based on how much higher her Spd is over her foe x4 of the difference. Overall, Embla is incredibly strong just from her weapon and Mythic Skill combination, giving her massive power boosts while dismantling teams that rely on tight formations.
Draconic Aura boosts her already strong 59 base Atk with Enclosing Claw. Attack Speed Catch at fourth tier increases her Atk/Spd depending on how many spaces either she or her foe moved +6. Thus Embla on her own, once transformed, gains +9 to both her Atk/Spd. In addition, if the movement was at least 2, she neutralizes any penalties to those stats as well. Due to her high mobility, Embla can easily reap the benefits on her turn and her foes need to be cautious of movement. Beast Agility is a new inheritable skill for Beasts that removes the transformation condition so she can be adjacent to all allies regardless of weapon type and still transform. If she has more Spd than her foe, she also neutralizes any skill that can disable her ability to perform follow-up attacks.
Counters[]
Embla lacks the means to deal with Ranged foes for the most part due to lacking a natural counter skill against ranged foes and given the sheer power of her kit, it is unlikely that Distant Counter would benefit her more than Atk Spd Catch does already. Given her much lower Res, Magic users, especially potent Blue Tomes like Legendary Female Byleth, Ascended Ishtar, and Summer Thórr are all potent counters, though if she has【Dodge】active, she may survive if they are not aggressive enough to overtake the mitigation. Hapi is a particularly strong counter due to Demonic Tome's effective damage against Beasts and having the inherent color advantage. Archers also are strong options since her flying weakness is still present and Deadeye users completely bypass the damage mitigation, so units like Valentines Chrom, Shinon, and especially Ullr naturally counter her with the latter having color advantage as well.
Skill Inheritance Options[]
Embla's kit is fine tuned enough that she can already immediately be put to work without replacing anything, though filling her empty Assist skill is important, in which Reposition is always a solid option. Given her fast cooldowns, Embla works much better with Luna as it is a two attack charge in her kit and the huge 50% defense ignoring effect can further dismantle tank ball teams.
Meet Some of the Heroes[]
| God of Closure Embla | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Embla is the god worshipped by the Emblian Empire, which is ruled by Veronica. She has the power to possess the heirs to her bloodline and control them like puppets! | ||
|
Unfortunately, she's somewhat of a jealous and spiteful god. Embla has hated Askr, the founder of our kingdom, for countless years—and over all that time, she hasn't forgotten her grudge for a second! | ||
|
The curse of her blood has possessed the Emblian imperial family, and none of her descendants can defy her. Having made them her puppets, she's now obsessively hunting down the Askran royal family! | ||
|
I have to admit that the way she laughs is a bit cute... But it's just not right for her to go around controlling Veronica and her family like this! You'd better put them back to normal, Embla—you're making Askr worry about what's gotten into you! | ||
| Closely Associated Characters | |||
| Veronica | Imperial princess of the Emblian Empire. She is seeking the whereabouts of her missing beloved brother, Bruno. She carries the blood of Embla. | ||
| Askr | God of the opened kingdom, which shares his name. Cheerful and benevolent, he concerns himself with the changes in Embla's heart. | ||
- Closed-Off Bride
- God of the closed kingdom, which shares her name. She has arrived at the bridal festival adorned with a wedding dress of sorts.
Base Stats[]
Rarity: ✯✯✯✯✯
 | Title | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closed-Off Bride | |||||
| Group | |||||
| Flying | |||||
| Level | HP | Atk | Spd | Def | Res |
| 1 40 | 17/18/19<br36/40/43 | 9/10/11 42/45/48 | 7/8/9 44/47/51 | 10/11/12 32/35/38 | 6/7/8 19/22/25 |
| Skills | Weapon | ||||
| Closing Florets Dragon Gaze |  Beast | ||||
Skills[]
Overall[]
|
|
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[]
| Closed-Off Bride Embla | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Embla is the god worshipped by the Emblian Empire, which is ruled by Veronica. She’s making a special appearance today to show off her bridal outfit for the festival! | ||
|
Who said that bridal dresses have to be white? Not Embla—she’s wearing a beautiful black dress that creates a sublime contrast with her pale complexion! | ||
|
I hear that the red roses stuffed into her bouquet contain hidden magic power…and I’m a little anxious about what kind of magic might be involved here! | ||
|
Embla tends to be withdrawn and reclusive. Still, it seems she doesn’t feel like wearing a wedding dress is so bad! | ||
| Closely Associated Characters | |||
| Veronica | Imperial princess of the Emblian Empire. She is seeking the whereabouts of her missing beloved brother, Bruno. She carries the blood of Embla. | ||
| Askr | God of the opened kingdom, which shares his name. Cheerful and benevolent, he concerns himself with the changes in Embla's heart. | ||
Quotes[]
Choose Your Legends Placement History[]
| Round | Placement | Character Version | Votes |
|---|
| CYL8 | 200 ↓119 |
 Heroes |
298 ↓490 |
Etymology[]
Embla and Askr were the first two humans, created by the gods. In Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both sources, three gods, one of whom is Odin, find Askr and Embla and bestow upon them various corporeal and spiritual gifts.
In Old Norse, Embla theoretically means "elm tree" or "vine". The crest of Embla also resembles a vine or tree.
Trivia[]
- Embla is the first main antagonist of a book that is a red unit (red flying beast unit), breaking the pattern that held through the first five books of Heroes in which the main antagonist of each book was a green unit.
- Embla is the third main antagonist from a book whose original form is obtainable in a playable format to be given a special variation, preceding Freyja and Surtr.
Gallery[]
- See main article: Embla (character)/Gallery.