Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 is a midquel to Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, and the last game in the series written and designed by Fire Emblem's creator, Shouzou Kaga. It is the 5th installment in the Fire Emblem series. Like other games in the series, it is a turn-based tactical role-playing game featuring linear progression through a series of maps and a large cast of recruitable party members. 
==Story overview==
Thracia 776 takes place on the Thracian peninsula of the continent Jugdral, and follows the story of Prince Leif of Leonster, who must liberate his kingdom, Leonster, from the enemy forces of South Thracia and their allies, Grannvale. He starts the game with few resources, gradually recruiting allies and becoming stronger until it appears victory is at hand. However, after pressing forward too recklessly, his mentor Dryas is killed and he, his childhood friend Nanna, and their guardian Finn are left to guard Leonster castle after suffering heavy losses. Though he emerges victorious at the end of the game, the continent remains at war even once Leif's personal quest is over, as Thracia ends before Seliph's eventual victory in Genealogy of the Holy War.
==Gameplay==
This installment is notorious for being extremely difficult, despite generally having enemies with weak stats, due to its complex and obscure mechanics and game design. Some unique features include:
* Fatigue: Units become 'fatigued' after participating in a certain number of battles and cannot be deployed for the next mission.
* Capturing: Capturing involves an ally with halved stats bringing an enemy to 0 HP (or vice versa), at which point they can steal inventory items of the captured unit. 
Players who have experienced this difficulty are usually able to laugh about it once they manage to complete the game.
==Fandom==
Gameplay-oriented fans often praise Thracia 776 for its innovative mechanics and heavy emphasis on utility units like staff users and thieves, which sets it apart from other Fire Emblem games. These quirks have made it into something of a cult favorite among parts of the fanbase who look up to it as the culmination of Shouzou Kaga's work on the series. 
The transformative fandom for this game is very small. As of 11/15/2021, there are 195 works in the AO3 tag, many of which are crossovers with other Fire Emblem games and don't heavily feature Thracia itself. The Jugdral transformative works community tends to focus on the larger-scale Genealogy of the Holy War. In addition, casual fans may be intimidated by the infamously steep learning curve of Kaga's gameplay mechanics, as well as the perception that Thracia is a game for 'elitists,' so Thracia remains a niche interest among the wider Fire Emblem fanbase.
===Shipping===
Unlike its companion game Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776 does not heavily feature romance, and doesn't have a strong shipping fandom. However, it does canonize the pairing Erinys/Lewyn, which was left to player choice in Genealogy, and heavily implies a romantic relationship between Leif and Nanna (a popular pairing among fans). 
Thracia 776 also added fuel to the Lachesis ship wars. Lachesis' two children grew up separately - Nanna was raised by Finn and considers him a father (whether that is adoptive or biological is left ambiguous). Diarmuid was raised in Isaach with Seliph's resistance army, but joins Leif towards the end of the game to be with his sister. His starting inventory includes the 'Beo sword,' which can only be used by him or Fergus, who is heavily implied to be Beowulf's illegitimate son. However, Nanna cannot use the Beo sword. This has led many fans to theorize that Diarmuid's father is Beowulf while Nanna's is Finn. 
This theory, along with Finn's ending, which implies that he spends three years searching for Lachesis in the Yied desert, led some fans to declare that Thracia 776 canonized Finn/Lachesis, despite no official materials stating a canonical father for Lachesis's children.
=== Reinhardt ===
Reinhardt, a nonplayable boss character in Thracia 776, became the most well-known character due to the advent of Heroes. He was one of the first Thracia characters readily available and a powerful unit to boot, making him extremely common in competitive play and fodder for memes. This also brought a storm of backlash against the character, though, from people sick of facing him in arenas or believing he didn't deserve his popularity. Actual fans of Thracia were bitter that he'd made it into the game before its protagonist Leif.
When Ishtar from Geneaology made it into the game, Reinhardt's canon feelings for her became common knowledge. This was further reinforced by the 2019 Splendid Soiree event giving both characters alts and having them talk about the many times they'd danced together at formal events. Many fans fought against the Ishtar/Reinhardt ship due to their age gap and Ishtar having a canon lover, Prince Julius, but the couple also gained a small but fiercely devoted following.
==Fan works==
===Fanfiction===
* AO3 tag
* The Jugdral section of ff.net (combines Thracia 776 and Geneaology of the Holy War works)
===ROM hacks===
Fire Emblem has always had a rich modding and hacking community. Though the GBA games are more popular as a base for hacks these days, there are plenty of Thracia hacks as well, especially from the Japanese fandom.
* Thracia 776 Overclocked by Miacis - Thracia features something called 'movement stars', which give each character a small chance to move twice in one turn (the exact percentage varies by unit). Overclocked changes them so that every single unit, player and enemy, has a 100% chance to do so. This seemingly simple change shifts the game balance quite a bit. 
* Super Thracia 776 by LIN◆LIN/XxX/gw - An infamous hack that significantly increases the difficulty of gameplay and changes the story to include characters from other games. Often a source of ridicule in the fandom, not many people have actually managed to complete it.
===Gameplay videos===
* Fire Emblem 5 by Mangs
* Let's Play Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 by MageKnight404
Category: Fire Emblem