Ragnell（ラグネル Raguneru）is Ike's second exclusive weapon in both Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. It also the main weapon of Paris in Fire Emblem: Awakening on Sidequest 23.
The weapon itself is a large golden sword with a black hilt. Ragnell was blessed by the goddess Ashera, making the blade unbreakable. In the storyline, Ike uses Ragnell to penetrate the blessed armor of the Black Knight during their duel. Early on in the game, Ragnell was offered to Ike's father by the Black Knight just before their duel. However, Greil refused the blade and chose to fight with his great axe, Urvan.
Ragnell, along with its sister sword, Alondite, was forged to smite the Goddess Yune. Both swords were used by the beorc hero Altina, also the first Empress of Begnion. Since the blade is a Begnion national treasure, Ike returned the sword to Apostle Sanaki after using it to reclaim his country of Crimea from the Mad King Ashnard. In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Sanaki stole the sacred blade as she escaped from the hostile senators and gave the blade back to Ike, so to lead the army faithful to the Apostle and retake Begnion.
Ragnell is one of the most powerful attainable weapons in the Fire Emblem series. It deals high amounts of damage, nearly always hits, and can attack from a distance, allowing Ike to simultaneously defend from both direct and indirect attacks. In Path of Radiance, this helps to counter the fact that Ike can only use swords, which have limited ranged options. Ragnell also has the ability to seal enemy critical hits (except when Wrath activates) in Path of Radiance only. In both games, it gives Ike +5 to his defense stat.
In Fire Emblem: Awakening, a weaker, although still potent, Ragnell with finite uses is wielded by the hero named Parion who claims to be the descendant of Ike. It is possible the blessing that gave the sword its power has weakened over time, as it is covered in small cracks and has a visibly duller blade.
Stats
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Template:WeaponStatFE7-11
|
Ragnell
|Sword
|Prf*
|Infinite
|18
|80%
|5%
|1-2
|20
|2
| -
|Negates non-Wrath criticals**, Defense+5
|}
* - Preference = Ike
**Only in Path of Radiance
Fire Emblem: Awakening
Template:WeaponStatFE12&13/start |Ragnell |Sword |A |25 |15 |70% |0% |1-2 |? | - |Def+5 |}
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Ragnell is also featured as Ike's weapon in the Wii game: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. With it he can perform his signature Aether attack and his Great Aether final smash attack. It also had magical fire properties, much like Roy's Sword of Seals, even though such power was only seen at the end of Radiant Dawn where Yune fuses her powers with Ike's.
Known wielders of Ragnell
Etymology
In Arthurian legend, Dame Ragnell (or Ragnelle) was a hideously ugly woman whom Sir Gawain was forced to marry, because she knew the answer to the riddle: What do women most desire? Gawain needed the answer to this either because he had killed (In the Canterbury Tales it says he raped) a woman and would be put to death himself if he could not answer, or because someone had challenged Arthur to solve the riddle, and Gawain was honor-bound to discover the answer for his king. In return for marrying Gawain, Ragnell told the King that what women want most is their own way. On their wedding night, Ragnell revealed that she was a young woman under a spell, and told Gawain that he could choose: either she would be old and ugly at night and beautiful during the day, or vice versa. Gawain, remembering the answer to the riddle, told Ragnell she could choose. This broke the spell and Ragnell regained her beautiful form. [1]
Gallery
