—Salem, in Thracia 776
Salem is a playable character from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. A Loptrian Mage who is disillusioned with the ways of the Loptr Church, he is a member of Perne's Dandelion Gang. Salem is the only playable dark magic user in Thracia 776, and the first Dark Magic user in the series.
Contents
Profile
Before Thracia 776
Salem was once a devout member of the Loptr Church. However, he reached a point where he began to grow disillusioned with their ways, and this was considered treasonous and punishable by death.
Fearing for his life, Salem attempted to flee, but he was caught and attacked before being left for dead. He would have died if not for Perne, who rescued him and tended to his injuries.
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Salem first appears in Chapter 12, where he urges Perne to let him stand as sentry for the Dandelion Gang's hideout in Dakia Forest. Not knowing the identity of Leif's army as it passes through the forest, he attacks it with a Sleep Staff on hand. Leif's army eventually defeats Salem and captures him, and gets him to join its ranks.
If Salem is chosen to accompany the group who heads into the Dandelion Gang's hideout in Chapter 12x, he requests for Leif to let him speak to Perne. He explains that Leif's liberation army shares the same ideals as the Dandelion Gang, and Perne thus decides to lend his aid to them.
Salem then goes on to continue supporting Leif in his cause to liberate Northern Thracia from the Grannvale Empire. He retires to a small rural village thereafter, where he pens memoirs of his life, which proves to be valuable for historians in the future to understand the workings of the Loptr Church.
Personality
Salem is portrayed as very calm and collected, almost somber. He seems to express no fear as he personally spearheads the defense of the Dandelion Gang's hideout in Chapter 12.
Salem is also known to be loyal to Perne, displaying his gratitude to the thief for rescuing him in his time of need by choosing to work as his subordinate. This is despite Perne urging him to rest in view of him not having fully recovered from his injuries.
In-Game
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Recruitment
| Name | Class | Chapter | Affiliation | Recruit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Salem |
 Loptyrian Mage |
12x | Player | Automatically from the start if he was captured in Chapter 12 |
Base Stats
| Starting Class | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loptyrian Mage | ||||||||||||
| Level | HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Bld | Mov | LS | MS | FCM |
| 5 | 22 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Skills | Weapon | Starting Items | ||||||||||
| - |  Fire - D  Thunder - D  Wind - D  Dark - C  Staff - C |  Jörmungandr  Sleep | ||||||||||
Growth Rates
| HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Bld | Mov |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60% | 5% | 30% | 45% | 40% | 10% | 15% | 15% | 2% |
Promotion Gains
| Item Required | Promoted Class | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Knight Proof
|
 Dark Mage
| ||||||
| 1 | 0 | +3 | +2 | 0 | +4 | +1 | 0 |
| Weapon Levels | |||||||
 +1
| |||||||
Support Bonus
| Character | Bonus |
|---|---|
 Perne |
10% |
 Sara |
10% |
- Supports give a bonus to Hit, Critical, Avoid, and Dodge
- Supporting characters must be within a three tile radius for the support to come into effect
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.
|
Salem is the game's sole wielder of Dark Magic, but this element is mostly incidental in his kit. It does enable him to wield the high-might Jörmungandr, but its colossal weight of 12, combined with tome weight ignoring his Build, means that Salem will have 0 Speed when using it most of the time. The tome is not useless, as early on, Salem doesn't tend to double anyway, but it will rarely one-round enemies, and its weapon triangle boosts are almost completely negligible. He is the only character capable of wielding the Fenrir, which can give him some utility as a long-rang siege unit, but he will require a lot of grinding to hit A-rank in Dark tomes. Thankfully, he can use the more plentiful and lightweight Anima tomes as a backup. As a fairly low-level unpromoted unit for his joining time, Salem will usually gain XP quickly, and his growths are passable, especially as this is the point when the player has obtained a fairly large arsenal of Crusader Scrolls (particularly the Ced Scroll). Unfortunately, even when invested in, his offense is nothing special for a mage unit: most others possess exceptionally powerful personal tomes (Olwen), strong skills to compliment their abilities (Homer, Sara), unusually high critical multipliers (Linoan), or all three (Asbel), of which Salem has none.
Salem's true utility is as a staff-user. He starts with a C-rank, enough to wield the Sleep staff in his inventory if he was captured before he could burn through it, along with Restore, Physic, Magic Up, and Recover. Furthermore, upon his promotion to Dark Mage, he receives a boost to his staff rank, bringing him up to B, or possibly even A if the player has been making heavy use of Salem's staff skills. Open Fire is a particularly good place to train him, as he has many opportunities to use Physic. It is very likely that he will be the second character in the army to have A-rank staves after Safy. Combine that with the boost to his defenses from promotion, and Salem becomes a fairly strong utility character: while Safy tends to struggle with surviving on the frontlines, Salem can perform perfectly adequately as a combat unit, letting him stay closer to the action while he heals and cures his allies or throws out powerful status effects. Having two characters capable of using Warp is an opportunity that cannot be discounted.
Fire Emblem Awakening
SpotPass
| Starting Class | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dark Mage | |||||||||
| Level | HP | Str | Mag | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Mov |
| 14 | 31 | 1 | 15 | 12 | 14 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| Skills | Weapon | Starting Items | |||||||
 Hex Anathema Despoil |  Tome - C |  Nosferatu* | |||||||
*Enemy only, joins unequipped
Quotes
Thracia 776
—Salem's battle quote as an enemy, in Chapter 12
—Salem's death quote as an enemy, in Chapter 12
—Salem's death quote
—Salem's release quote
—Salem's escape quote
Awakening
—Salem's SpotPass parley quote
—Salem's SpotPass battle quote
—Salem's SpotPass recruitment quote
—Salem's battle quote as an enemy, in Lost Bloodlines 1
—Salem's battle quote versus Nowi in Lost Bloodlines 1
—Salem's battle quote as an enemy, in Lost Bloodlines 3
—Salem's battle quote versus Nowi in Lost Bloodlines 3
—Salem's death quote as an enemy, in Lost Bloodlines 1
—Salem's death quote as an enemy, in Lost Bloodlines 3
Ending
Salem - The Sorcerer (暗黒魔道士 Ankoku madō-shi)
- "After the war's end, Salem moved to a rural area and became a recluse. He recorded the story of his life in writing. His memoirs told the tale of a man who had once been a member of the infamous Loptr Church. To historians, they were an invaluable resource, offering a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Loptrian society."
Choose Your Legends Placement History
| Round | Placement | Character Version | Votes |
|---|
| CYL1 | 609 |  |
118 | ||
| CYL2 | 630 ↓21 |
|
107 ↓11 | ||
| CYL3 saw the transition to different counting mechanisms involving versions of characters and ties, so change measured between CYL2 and CYL3 shouldn't be taken at face value. | |||||
| CYL3 | 502 ↑128 |
|
108 ↑1 | ||
| CYL4 | 459 ↑43 |
|
152 ↑44 | ||
| CYL5 | 374 ↑85 |
|
140 ↓12 |
Etymology
Salem could have been named after the village in Massachusetts where the infamous 1692 witch-hunt trials took place.
Salem, incidentally, is also the setting of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, where he retells the events of the witchcraft trials in the form of a play.
Trivia
- In Salem's SpotPass team in Fire Emblem Awakening, there is a Thief with the Sol and Vantage skills. This thief is very likely meant to represent Perne.
Gallery
