Fanfic / Fire Emblem Fates: Aftermath

Fire Emblem Fates: Aftermath is a completed multi-chapter Fire Emblem Fates fanfic by The Apocryphal One.

Since this is a written to be a sequel to the Revelation path of Fire Emblem Fates, expect unmarked spoilers for it.

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Premise:

As its name would suggest, Fire Emblem Fates: Aftermath is written as a sequel to Fire Emblem Fates — specifically to the game's Revelation path. However, it is also in continuity with two earlier fics by the same author: The Invisible Princess and The Lost King. Aftermath is mainly focused on the rebuilding of Valla on the surface world between Hoshido and Nohr, along with the relationship between Corrin and Azura.

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Fire Emblem Fates: Aftermath contains examples of the following tropes:

• Abdicate the Throne: Played with. Azura does not want to be the queen of Valla, as she feels that she lacks the charisma and social skills needed to be a good ruler. She is, however, fine with giving the throne to Corrin and marrying him, meaning she becomes the queen consort and gets bestowed with responsibilities that she's more comfortable with.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: At one point in Chapter 7, the narration lists off many of Corrin's exploits and important life events from the past year and a half leading up the present. It then tops it all off by mentioning he's also had to do a lot of paperwork.
• Asian Rudeness: Hoshido is based off of Japan, and thus they have similar cultural practices. Many of these practices (such as averting prolonged eye contact) tend to offend Nohrians due to Culture Clash, especially in Valla where people of both nationalities are constantly in close proximity to each other.
• Assassination Attempt: There are a number of attempts on Corrin's life after he becomes king: the food at his engagement banquet is laced with wyrmsbane to try and poison him, a balcony is rigged to collapse with him on it, a venomous snake is planted in the castle garden to bite him, and some bandits attack him en route to Xander's wedding. Each attempt either fails outright or is thwarted.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Corrin's crown is ornately decorated, but it's also pretty heavy. He elects to have a more practical crown made to be worn on a daily basis, delegating the fancy crown to only be used for special occasions where it would be appropriate.
• Beard of Sorrow: While thinking Corrin is going to die after being stabbed by the Wyrmslayer lance, Leo coops himself into a library and doesn't come out until Corrin wakes up from his coma. He ends up forgoing shaving long enough to grow visible stubble.
• Big Fancy Castle: When it was still trapped in the astral plane, Castle Avalon and its surrounding grounds covered 20 square kilometers (about 12.4 square miles).
• Blatant Lies:
  • After Azura requests that Ryoma walk her down the aisle on her wedding day, Ryoma turns around and starts crying. He's quick to deny it when Azura presses the issue, claiming he just got some dust in his eye.
  • Kaze makes a comment to Felicia that he has two right feet to counter her claim of having two left feet. He's clearly lying to cheer her up, as Ninja have very good coordination.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In Chapter 2, Lilith mentions that Anankos had spies that he left alive instead of possessing since they were more useful that way. In Chapter 4, Corrin meets up with a Hoshidan noble named Lord Jiro who was very rude and racist. In Chapter 6, one of the aforementioned spies contacts Jiro during Corrin's coronation and they start plotting to replace Corrin with Azura as Valla's ruler.
• Cliffhanger: Jiro thrusting the wyrmsbane lance into Corrin's sternum, which leaves him writhing in pain and his fate uncertain.
• Combat by Champion: In Chapter 14, Jiro challenges Corrin to single combat in order to determine the victor of the rebellion.
• Continuation: Picks up where Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation left off, while also following the backstory laid out by The Invisible Princess and The Lost King.
• Continuity Nod: There are a couple references made to The Invisible Princess, another fanfic by the same author. Anankos' human form of Hydra is mentioned by Nestor and some old Vallite records, and Corrin's original name is also stated to be Kamui.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Old Vallite law states that traitors are to be executed via immolation. Corrin has it changed to public hanging.
• Culture Clash: Chapter 7 presents the natural result of two countries with different cultures being merged together—Corrin has to deal with an arguing Hoshidan and Nohrian noble who accidentally insulted each other because of cultural differences, and his narration mentions this is only one of many such incidents. It's implied to largely be fueled by generations of racism between the two nations, as the Vallites don't get dragged into these squabbles despite having their own cultural practices.
• Dead Person Conversation: As in Birthright and Conquest, Corrin is nearly killed and has a conversation with a deceased loved one. While this did not occur in Revelation, Aftermath remedies this by giving Corrin a near-death experience that brings him to Anankos, free of his draconic madness.
• Distressed Dude: Haru gets captured by Lord Jiro sometime before Chapter 10.
• Don't Say Such Stupid Things!: After hearing Flora talk down about herself, Felicia slaps her and bluntly tells her that she's a good person that deserves to be happy.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Takumi is not amused when Izana shows up, reveals that he faked his death, and proceeds to make jokes about it.
  Takumi: Dying isn't funny!
• Easily Forgiven: Defied. While handing out punishments to the rebels, Azura muses that Corrin would probably forgive Nestor for treason if given the chance. However, Azura is not her husband, so she has Nestor hanged like all of the other conspirators.
• The Exile: Direct relatives of rebels from the nobility end up being exiled from Valla, with their land also being appropriated.
• Face–Heel Turn: Nestor betrays Corrin to the rebellion. This contrasts with Gunter, who was Anankos' puppet in Revelation and left early in this story because of that, but proved his Undying Loyalty to Corrin in the end.
• Faking the Dead: In Chapter 5, Izana reveals that he faked his death so he could guilt-trip Takumi into helping Corrin.
• Fantastic Racism: While the Hoshidans and Nohrians who actually fought against Anankos overcame their racism towards one another, those who did not are still prejudiced and suspicious of the other country; several of Corrin's new vassals are mentioned to be displeased at the idea of either following a Child of Two Worlds like him, sharing space with Hoshidans/Nohrians, or both.
• Fiery Cover-Up: After learning that Corrin is coming for a visit to investigate a recent attempt on his life, Jiro burns a number of documents that would incriminate him as one of the conspirators.
• Game-Breaking Injury: In chapter 15, it's revealed that the wyrmsbane damaged Corrin's heart, forcing him to be careful exerting himself from now on. On top of it all, his sword arm was broken and has suffered permanent nerve damage.
• The Ghost: Xander's fiancé/wife is mentioned multiple times, but she never shows up in person and her identity is unknown to the reader. This takes into account the fact that in Fates, the player can decide who Xander will marry.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Corrin agrees to a duel with Jiro in chapter 14, expecting him to adhere to Hoshidan honor and accept his defeat. He's proven wrong when, after he wins, Jiro impales Corrin with a wyrmsbane lance the second he turns his back, sending him into a coma for two months and nearly killing him. When he awakens in chapter 15, Azura calls him out on it, stating he has to accept that not everyone is as good-hearted as he thinks.
• Hypocrite: Corrin has a couple of sympathetic moments of hypocrisy.
  • After the rebellion concludes, Corrin wants Gunter to stay with him, but Gunter points out that the rebels hung and that keeping Gunter around, who did the exact same thing way back when, would reek of hypocrisy and make him look bad.
  • Corrin tells Silas not to blame himself for Corrin being crippled in single combat with Jiro. Not a minute later, he starts blaming himself for Silas being unable to rescue his father from Haitaka, and immediately notes his own hypocrisy.
• Irony: Jiro, who is notably very racist, is forced to work with Nohrians for the sake of his rebellion.
• Kill It with Fire: The preferred method of execution for treason in Valla. Corrin finds it barbaric, and has it changed to hanging.
• Kissing Cousins: The Official Couple of the story is Corrin and Azura, who are cousins.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: GenderInverted by Camilla, and age-inverted by Takumi. Both siblings go on separate Roaring Rampages of Revenge in response to Jiro's Rebellion and Corrin's nearly dying at his hands.
• Let's Duet: Corrin and Azura perform a duet in the privacy of his personal quarters at the end of Chapter 7, with Corrin playing the piano while Azura sings. Corrin uses the last verse of the song to segue into his marriage proposal.
• Meaningful Name: The author likes drawing from mythology and different languages to sprinkle meaning into her original creations:
  • Nestor, Corrin's new Vallite steward, gets his name from the king of Pylos, a man who often severed as an adviser to Greek heroes and kings.
  • The name of the prison the Vallites are trapped in is Tartarus, and the name of the city that becomes Valla's new capital is Elysium. Effectively, the Vallites are imprisoned in hell before being rescued and brought to paradise.
  • Corrin names his castle Castle Avalon. Avalon is the dwelling place of the Lady of the Lake, a character his girlfriend Azura draws heavy inspiration from.
  • The surnames for the Hoshidan and Nohrian royal families, Minamoto and Aurelius, come from great Japanese and Roman dynasties respectively, while the surname for the Vallite royal family, Rheos, is derived from a Greek word meaning "to flow".
  • Laurel, the Vallite spy, gets her name from the mountain laurel, a flower whose leaves were used in Greek victory laurels. Its flowers are also poisonous.
• More than Mind Control: According to Gunter, Anankos did not have the power to forcefully take control of the living; they had to let him in. Gunter caved because Anankos promised to fulfill his desire for revenge.
  Gunter: He reached deep into your heart, found your greatest, deepest desires and secrets, and promised that he would deliver them. You could say no, but he would stay in the back of your mind, and every time you were reminded of your powerlessness, he’d be there, offering everything you wanted for so little in return…
• Mythology Gag: As in The Invisible Princess, both of Corrin's names are canon; his Japanese-version name Kamui for when he lived in Hoshido, and his English-version name Corrin as he's raised in Nohr.
• Nervous Tics: When Lilith gets nervous, she starts playing with her hair braid.
• No Name Given: Xander's wife is never referred to by name, making her identity ambiguous and leaving the reader to decide who it is.
• Now What?: In the first chapter, as all the royals sit around the table for breakfast in exhaustion and sheer shock from actually succeeding, Elise raises the question of what comes next.
• Official Couple: Corrin and Azura are established as together at the beginning of the fic, and have all but promised to get married soon.
  • Silas and Mozu, Kaze and Felicia, Laslow and Peri, Leo and Sakura, as well as Ryoma and Elise are also confirmed.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Nestor's normally pretty calm, but his reaction to seeing Lilith's human form is understandably furious. It's only Corrin's intervention that keeps him and his fellow Vallites from trying to hurt her.
• Original Character: Just like The Invisible Princess and The Lost King before, there are many new characters who populate their respective countries (e.g. Nestor, chamberlain of Queen Arete; Abdul Karim, ambassador of Nestra; Silas's parents from Port Dia).
• Pocket Dimension: While the nameless castle (the My Castle feature from the game) and its surrounding grounds are technically still in the "normal" world, the area is covered by an special magic barrier that effectively places it in its own dimension within the astral plane, courtesy of Moro and the Astral Dragons.
• Politically-Active Princess:
  • Sakura and Elise volunteer as diplomats to help ease the remaining tensions between Hoshido and Nohr.
  • Hinoka and Camilla are very knowledgeable about the various lords that live in their countries, suggesting that they spent a lot of time dealing with politics before the war. Hinoka is likely putting Jakob's refresher course to good use.
• Post-Victory Collapse: After Anankos is defeated, some of Corrin's soldiers drop from exhaustion. Corrin himself is barely able to keep conscious, but eventually gives in to his own tiredness once the army returns to the astral plane to rest.
• Public Execution: After the Vallite rebellion is quelled, all of the surviving rebel leaders are executed via hanging in public.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: All Hoshidan daiymos are trained in martial arts.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Lilith regrets her actions during her service under Anankos, and has done her best to make up for it by helping Corrin throughout his life. While Corrin forgives her when he finds out about her past, the Vallites are not as kind and act hostile towards her.
• Remember the New Guy?: The new character Nestor apparently worked for the Vallite royal family as their chamberlain during (and likely before) the events of The Invisible Princess. However, he was never mentioned in that story, only being introduced in this story's second chapter. The author attempts to justify this by having him say he spent most of his time with Arete and King Theophilus, not Mikoto and Hydra (the characters who were the focus of their story).
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After hearing about Corrin getting stabbed by the Wyrmslayer lance, Camilla and Takumi go on separate crusades against the Vallite rebels.
• Sacred Hospitality: While the Hoshidan lords that are now a part of Valla really don't like being put under the rule of a man they see as a Nohrian, they still provide Corrin with food and lodging when he visits.
• Scars Are Forever: Corrin receives permanent damage to his heart and sword arm as a result of being impaled by a Dragonpike at the end of Chapter 14.
• Shout-Out:
  • The scene in Chapter 1, with the royals sitting tiredly around a breakfast table, is remarkably similar to the post-credits scene at the end of The Avengers (2012).
  • Mozu mentions reading a book with a scene of a dungeon full of corpses and brainwashed shapeshifters, a reference to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
• Slave Race: Most of the Vallites who hadn't escaped or been killed by Anankos' initial invasion were kept alive and imprisoned. Anankos used them as slaves to support his undead army.
• Sore Loser:
  • After Jiro loses his duel against Corrin in Chapter 14, he lunges and stabs Corrin as soon as his back is turned.
  • Haitaka pushes his prisoners-of-war including Silas' father off of a cliff once he realizes he's lost to Silas and his forces.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Azura tends to be cold, quiet, distant, and will actively avoid social situations when possible. When she's alone with Corrin, however, she opens up and is very affectionate.
• Talk About the Weather: When Azura joins Felicia and Mozu for tea, Felicia brings up the weather as a conversation starter. It doesn't really work, leading to the trio just sitting their awkwardly without saying anything.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Jiro has one of his servants lace the food at Corrin and Azura's engagement banquet with wyrmsbane — poison that only affects dragons and wyverns — as part of a regicide plot against Corrin. Lilith eats some of the food and gets poisoned, but she's able to prevent Corrin from taking a bite and foil the assassination attempt, and she herself survives.
• Time Skip: Chapter 9 skips ahead 5 months to get to Azura and Corrin's wedding.
• Undisclosed Funds: Lilith provides Corrin with a large — but nonspecific — amount of gold bars to help kickstart the new Valla. Doubles as a Continuity Nod to the game, where Lilith would give the player gold bullion at regular intervals of food offerings and level-ups.
• Unpleasant Parent Reveal: Once Corrin is told that Anankos was his father, he's understandably shocked that he's the son of the insane dragon god that tried to destroy humanity. Even after it's explained that it was Anankos's good half that married Mikoto and sired him, Corrin cannot visualize his father as anything but evil.
• Wedding Episode: The entirety of Chapter 9 focuses on Azura and Corrin's wedding.
• Wham Line: Played for Laughs in Chapter 5. "Presenting Archduke Izana of Izumo and his envoy!" Understandably, Takumi is not amused.
• Wham Shot: After the Astral Dragon Moro returns the castle to the normal world at the end of Chapter 3, Corrin turns around to see Lilith has been restored to her human form.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Corrin gets chewed out by his wife and several siblings for engaging Jiro in single combat and nearly dying for it.
• Worldbuilding: One of the fic's biggest premises is focused on giving information about and reconstructing Valla.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Time that passes while inside the dimension of the nameless castle does not count for time in the "normal" world.

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