User Profile

Character Name: Ranulf
Character Series: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Age: Not mentioned, but around 100. Appears around 20.
Hair: Blue
Eyes: Green (left), blue (right)
Extras: Blue cat ears and tail
Taken From: End of Path of Radiance

Background: (WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS AND SPECULATIONS BASED ON PATH OF RADIANCE AND RADIANT DAWN)

Okay, first, background info! Tellius, the world of FE9/10, is home to two humanesque races -- the beorcs and the laguz.

Beorcs are pretty much normal humans, and have formed three countries -- the large Empire of Begnion, and the two smaller Kingdoms of Crimea and Daein, both of which were once a part of Begnion. Begnion is ruled by the Apostle Sanaki, Daein by the King Ashnard, and Crimea... er, well, near the start of the game, Crimea's entire royal family was slaughtered, save for the Princess Elincia.

Laguz are... part animal. Kind of. In their normal forms, they look like humans with animal features, but they can fully change into animals at will. (Well, at will story-wise, and during certain times gameplay-wise.) There are three tribes, each with different clans: beast, bird, and dragon. The beast tribe includes cats and tigers (and lions, but royals only) and reside in Gallia, ruled by King Caineghis, longtime friend and ally of the Crimean royal family. The dragon tribe lives in Goldoa, and separated themselves from the rest of the world, for the most part. The bird tribes are most widespread -- in location, I mean. They include hawks, ravens, and herons. The hawks, ruled by Tibarn, and the ravens, ruled by Naesala, control the islands of Phoenicis and Kilvas, respectively, and attack ships on occasion; hawks attack ships of Begnion only, whereas ravens loot everyone. The herons live -- lived -- in Serenes Forest in Begnion, until a massacre 20 years ago destroyed the forest and nearly decimated them all -- such is the cause for the hawks' hatred of Begnion.

Basic point is, beorcs and laguz do not like each other. Beorcs call laguz "sub-humans" as an insult, and, in return, laguz say "humans" as a title of contempt. The kings of Crimea and Gallia have been trying to restory amity between the two races, but, so far, it really only extends to the royal families and those close to them. The citizens, far removed from the throne, barely pay any attention to this treaty.

Anyway! Ranulf! Ranulf is a cat from Gallia, working for the king. Presumably, he has a rather high rank, with several points in the game as evidence. Firstly, Ranulf was the one leading the group of Gallian soldiers to Ike's rescue, when they were attacked by Petrine, one of Daein's top generals, and also the one sent to fetch Princess Elincia. Then, he was with King Caineghis on the night that Ike's father died; given the situation, I'd say he was one of a trusted few. Very few. He was the one who brought the king's money to aid Elincia, and the one who secured a ship for Ike's group. And, furthermore, the Black Knight called Ranulf the king's aide, though I'm not sure if he meant the king's personal aide literally (or one of them?), or if it was just a figure of speech. Furthermore, he got sent to guard/supervise/etc Caineghis's heir later in FE10, so whatever it is that he is, he's got an enormous amount of trust. Anyway, he seems to be the one sent out most often to do the king's work, even including dealing with beorcs, as shown in the getting-a-boat-for-Ike part.

When he's not busy running errands, Ranulf trains little laguz soldiers in the Gallian army. Apparently, Lethe, one of the other laguz in Ike's company, has a little sister in Ranulf's troops who's quite troublesome. From the storyline descriptions, Ranulf and Lethe are two of the strongest warriors of Gallia, though under Giffca, the king's "shadow", though I think Ranulf's supposed to be a little better. His gameplay stats don't live up to it, though. *shot* (But they're not bad.)

All right, as FE9's story starts with Daein's attack in the year 645, it would be safe to assume that Ranulf was born a little after 550 or so. He was born in a time of relative peace, with treaties all around. Considering his position in present times, I would say he was likely born to somewhat well-to-do family, at least. Though... laguz ascension is mostly through power, not birth, at least in the bird tribes -- but, then again, Caineghis's heir is his nephew, so maybe it's somewhat of both? In either case, Ranulf was raised well, and trained both in strength and intelligence from an early age, though he had quite a few complaints at times. Still, he persisted -- or, rather, his parents persisted -- and grew into a great fighter and a quick thinker.

When he was in his early 30s, in the "early teen"-ish stage of laguz (even though they live 5-6 times that of humans, I don't think they'd age at the exact same rate -- they'd just stay adolescent and hale adults longer, I think), Misaha became the Emperess of Begnion. She was a passing interest, though only passing; the life of the laguz spanned many times that of beorcs, after all, even emperors, and Ranulf was an eager young man laguz, strong and smart, with a bright future in front of him.

...A very bright future, in fact -- he had just recently joined Gallia's army. Though difficult, the training was not that much more so than what his parents subjected him to, and he had the eager attention of many young females. He flirted, sometimes, but never all that seriously. He always was ambitious, though not harmfully so, trying to reach for higher and higher goals.

Aside from military prowess, another thing set him apart -- he was one of the relatively few laguz willing to treat with beorcs. From his childhood, his village had been in close contact with one of the small beorc villages in Gallia, and he was quite used to them, and knew their customs well. When he rose in ranks in the military, he became a captain of a border patrol team. There, he met not-so-friendly beorcs from across the border, in Crimea, but those meetings taught him to be careful, and he learned and devised simple but effective ways to disguise himself and pass off as them.

When he was promoted again, he was brought back to the castle, though he associated quite freely with the beorc villages in Gallia. Higher in rank, now, and somewhat wiser, he began to look into politics, keeping his ears open for news, especially from Begnion, distrustful of its silence, as it had tried to attack Gallia time and again in the past.

What he learned, however, was a surprise, and not an unpleasant one.

In 624, when Ranulf was stationed near the castle, he learned that the Begnion Empire, contrary to their past of cruelty to laguz, passed the Laguz Emancipation Act, freeing captive laguz all over the empire. His opinion of beorcs improved...

...until, one year later, the Empress was killed, and the Serenes Forest herons blamed and massacred. Ranulf decided that, perhaps, beorcs were not to be trusted, after all. There were a few exceptions, there always were, but it was best to err on the side of caution. That was not to say that his outward actions changed; no, he was still just as friendly in his actions, but his thoughts have changed a little.

Another year, another change -- the next came from Daein, and Phoenicis. Phoenicis made a vow to avenge the herons, which he expected, but Daein's news, he did not. Against all likelihood, one of Daein's generals, Gawain, escaped, and ran off to Gallia, of all places. There was, however, no mentions of a "Gawain" there, but, then, who would be stupid enough to announce his identity like that? Still, there was a newcomer, Greil, in one of the villages close to the castle, along with a wife, Elena, who arrived at a rather coincidental time, and who suspiciously fit the descriptions of the runaway Gawain and his fiancee. Still, even Ranulf could not find any sort of confirmation, and that was as far as curiosity led.

There were bigger events shaping the world, or so it seemed: one year later, Ashnard became king of Daein, and Begnion's wyvern riders desserted. After that, however, things quieted down again.

It was not until nine years after Greil's arrival that something different happened. Ranulf, by then working as something similar to a spy -- not an actual spy, mind, but he went to beorc towns outside of Gallia to gather information -- and training new recruits when back in Gallia, was suddenly called to the castle. There, he was offered an interesting position -- something like a foreign ambassador. He was, presumably, chosen because he had good relations with beorcs, and was smart and capable, proving both in the military, and was fairly high-ranked, proving his trustworthiness as well. However, even then, he wasn't told much, only that Gawain had been there, as he had already known, and that Gawain was now gone, as he had only just begun to guess. And not only was Gawain there and gone, but he was there and gone with something extremely important, so important that Gallia could no longer mind its own business.

With his quicksilver mind and network of information, it did not take too long for Ranulf to figure it out. Greil was, indeed Gawain... and when Greil left, with his son and daughter, he left without one Elena. And when he went to visit the town Greil was at, he found it half-deserted, most of the men dead. No one said a word, not directly, but there were whispers of a demonic force, and of Elena's blood spilled...

There were tales forgotten beorcs that were kept alive, still, amongst laguz. With his new position, Ranulf had no trouble gaining access to the royal library, where he found out about a certain artifact that he remembered hearing hits about, a "Lehran's Medallion". There, the effects were listed, the main one being that anyone who touched it would be driven to madness from chaotic energy. It was almost impossible to think that King Caineghis might not know of this, but if he did not, the danger was immeasurable.

...Ranulf went immediately to the king. And for his intelligence and integrity, he was rewarded with trust.

From that point on, Ranulf had a spot as one of the king's closest vassals, becoming even closer as he proved his worth again and again, uncovering information on Greil's movements in Crimea and the passing of events in the world, the biggest being that of Sanaki's ascension as the new Empress of Begnion. In return, Ranulf gave his complete loyalty, working tirelessly and effectively for Gallia. In a way, he was a bit of an errand-boy, since he was good at traveling quickly and secretly, as well as blending in with beorcs, though, really, it was a pretty high honour to be the king's own errand-runner. When he was not off somewhere, he generally stayed by the king's side, possibly second in importance only to Giffca, the king's "shadow" and honourary brother (hey, game said they were raised together). He also still trained troops, though, instead of the newer, regular recruits, these were probably ones destined to be a kind of elite unit.

This kind of life continued for another ten years, until Ranulf caught wind of a disturbing rumour -- Daein attacked Crimea, and killed the royal family. Though Gallia grieved, for they had friendly relations with Crimea -- the rulers, at least, and those close to them -- but they could do nothing. With the threat of war hanging in the air, Gallia began to prepare for an eventual attack.

And thus was the state of things when Ike & co. came into the picture.

Anyway, as far as FE9 goes... Ranulf first entered the story when Ike, his father, and their mercenaries got trapped in an old castle by Petrine, as mentioned above. He hit it off quite well with Ike almost right from the start, after a small snag in which Ike called him a "sub-human" without realizing that it was insulting, and corrected himself. After escorting Elincia back to Castle Gallia, he went with King Caineghis to check on the mercenaries, only to witness Greil's death. After that, he was the most frequent contact between Caineghis and Ike, bringing messages and monies and whatnots.

He parted with Ike & co. after getting them a ship, because he was worried about Daein movements and wanted to report to the king, and because he was far too strong a unit for us to have at that time. On his way back, he ran into the Black Knight and fought him, only to do absolutely nothing. Wounded (or at least bruised), he escaped with the aid of Begnion's prime minister, Sephiran, in disguise as a pilgrim (Sephiran, not him).

Ranulf didn't enter the picture again until far later. While Ike and his people fought Daein, Ranulf returned to Gallia, presumably gathering intelligence on Ike's progress and the movements of the Daein army. It wasn't until Nasir, the captain of the ship Ranulf "found" for Ike and a spy for Gallia, reported that Elincia was worthy until he moved out with the Gallian forces to join Ike and offer him their aid. They had a... er... lovely reunion, and he stayed with Ike's group until they defeated King Ashnard and won the war. At that point, Ranulf parted from Ike's company to return to Gallia once again, this time taking with him (well, Lethe, Mordecai -- another of Gallia's soliders, a tiger -- and him) Reyson, the prince of the heron clan.

Personality:

Ranulf is very happy-go-lucky, especially in Ike's presence. The first time they met him, he was rather formal, and he still was a few times when on King Caineghis's business, but, for the most part, he loosened up, often joking around the mercenaries, particularly Ike. He particularly liked to poke fun at Soren, whether in his presence or not, such as once when he called Soren Ike's "nervous little staff officer" and "high-strung" before asking Ike if Soren snapped yet. XD; He makes cat jokes... mm... presumably fairly often, though the only time we hear said jokes are in one of his support convos with Ike.

Ranulf is also one of the few laguz who get along with beorcs -- well, not get along, since the beorcs don't return the sentiment, but he honours the accord between them. He's polite even from the get-go, and seems to know his way around beorc towns pretty well, likely from long-practiced ease born of gathering information in them.

He's very loyal, a point connected to the previous. He would do everything his king asks of him, including keeping the peace between Crimea and Gallia at any cost. In fact, he let a bunch of Crimean beorcs beat him up, and probably would have let them beat him to death had Ike not stopped them, because he couldn't afford to jeopardize relations between the kingdoms.

Despite his exterior, Ranulf is really smart and capable underneath, and cautious in spite of the way he acts. He is very friendly with Ike's company, particularly Ike himself, but, in truth, he trusts them less than Lethe, who claims to hate humans. Even though he appears to be nothing more than a jokester on the surface, he really watches and gauges everyone. He knows far more than he lets on, as well, dealing with a network of spies -- Nasir can't be the only one -- and info for the king's sake. He's also somewhat distrustful of people -- well, of beorcs, at least. He's actually really trusting of other laguz, it seems, except maybe the ravens, but, then, I doubt anyone in their right minds would trust them... =D; He is not, however, wholly fake -- the cheerful attitude is real, though he tends to be more serious more often with his own people, and despite not fully trusting Ike & co, in the end, he doesn't actually distrust them either.

Random tidbit! This isn't shown so much in FE9 as in FE10, but Ranulf is really, really good with kids. I didn't get to FE10 yet, but I found one convo in the game where he was trying to calm a little girl down, ending up offering to let her sleep on his belly, and earning the nickname "kitty-cat pillow". XD

Item Lost: The memories of King Caineghis. I mean, Ranulf would know that he's the king and that he works for him, but... y'know, the personal things. The way he looks, the way he sounds, the way he moves, the quirks and whatnots he might have. In the end, I think this really is his most important memory, as his loyalty is to Caineghis first and foremost.

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