Prologue IV

Prologue IV

Location Altea Outskirts New units Gordin, Draug, Norne Boss(es) Captain Previous chapter(s) Prologue III Next chapter(s) Marth Embarks

Prologue IV (Japanese: 序章　結 Prologue: Conclusion) is the fourth chapter in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon on Normal difficulty, and the final chapter of the game's prologue.

Plot

Main article: Prologue IV/Script

Marth lays low in a forest on the Altean border, waiting for an opening to escape the kingdom. Eventually, the enemy watch begins to weaken, and Marth and company seize the opportunity to flee. Malledus explains that the plan is to escape to Talys, an island kingdom to the east which is allied with Altea. The group will cut through a prison to reach the northeast shore, where a boat will take them to safety. Malledus reminds Marth to be on the lookout for enemies who are fighting against their will or better judgement, who may be convinced to defect to Marth's side.

As Marth makes his way to the prison, the enemy captain decides to set a trap for Marth. The Gra forces dress up a captured Altean archer named Gordin in their uniform and leave him restrained and gagged in the prison, hoping for Marth to mistake him for an enemy soldier plotting an ambush. If Marth kills him, it will damage Altean morale by making Marth look like a tyrant who kills his own men.

If Marth sees through the ruse and frees Gordin, who promptly joins his group, King Jiol of Gra outflanks them with a retinue of Grust's elite Sable Order knights. Malledus realizes that their only hope of survival is to send a decoy dressed as Marth to lure the Sable Order away. Marth protests, realizing that the decoy would have almost no chance of survival, but Malledus insists. One of Marth's men dresses as Marth and flees, and Jiol and the Sable Order fall for the ruse and chase him. The Gra captain then unlocks the north door, allowing Marth to proceed. If Marth falls for the trick and kills Gordin, the captain mocks him for his foolishness before unlocking the door. The captain also unlocks the door if Marth's entire retinue is wiped out.

Marth overcomes the last of the enemy forces. An Altean knight named Draug arrives with a boat to flee Altea discreetly; if two or more of Marth's men have been killed during the escape, he is accompanied by a volunteer archer named Norne. If Marth recruited Gordin, Jiol and the Sable Knights realize their folly and prepare to kill the decoy, who bids Marth good luck before facing his fate. As Marth and his crew finally make for Talys, Marth laments the loss of his family and kingdom. He again vows to save Altea and defeat Gra and Dolhr.

Chapter data

Chapter Data
Conditions	Unit Data
Victory: Seize	Player	Partner	Other	Enemy	Third
Defeat: Marth dies	5+1	{{{partner}}}	{{{other}}}	9+15-1-10	{{{third}}}
Map dimensions: 19 columns by 30 rows

Character data

Characters
New Units
Gordin Archer HP 18 Inventory -- Level 1 Enemy, talk to with Marth Draug Knight HP 20 Inventory Iron Lance Level 1 Automatically at the end of the chapter Norne Archer HP 16 Inventory Iron Bow Level 1 Automatically at the end of the chapter, if two or more units died in the prologue
Required Characters
Available Characters

Item data

Items

Name Obtainment Method Door Key Automatically at the start of the chapter Iron Bow Dropped by enemy Archer Steel Bow Visit the village Vulnerary Dropped by the Captain

Enemy data

Stats with a decimal can vary randomly; the decimal represents the chance for the stat to increase to the nearest integer, or otherwise be truncated.

Enemy Units

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Def Res Cha Con Mov Inventory and Skills Gra Mage 1 1 16 0 3 1 3 0 2 3 6 Fire Begins moving if the northern Soldier is provoked. Gra Soldier 1 3 16 3 0 3 4 0 3 0 6 Iron Lance • The northern one begins moving if the Mage is provoked. • The southern two both begin moving if either of them or the nearby Archer is provoked. Gra Archer 1 1 16 5 0 3 4 0 6 0 5 Iron Bow Begins moving if a southern Soldier is provoked. Gra Archer 1 1 16 5 0 3 4 0 4 0 5 Iron Bow Begins moving if a nearby Fighter is provoked. Gra Fighter 1 1 20 5 0 1 7 0 2 0 6 Hand Axe • Vulnerary Begins moving if the nearby Archer or Fighter is provoked. Gra Fighter 1 1 20 5 0 1 7 0 2 0 6 Iron Axe Begins moving if the nearby Archer or Fighter is provoked. Captain Cavalier 2 1 18.6 5.35 0 2.3 6.2 0.2 7.3 0.2 -- Javelin • Vulnerary Stands on the chapter's seize point.

Reinforcements

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Def Res Cha Con Mov Inventory and Skills Gordin Archer 1 1 18 5 0 3 4 4 6 0 5 -- -- Gra Pegasus Knight 1 4 16 4 2 5 7 0 4 6 8 Iron Lance -- Gra Knight 11 10 35 11 0 5 2 0 17 1 5 Silver Lance Leaves the map once a decoy is chosen.

Reinforcements

• Enemy phase of turn 1
  • Gordin appears in the prison
• Turns 7 and 14
  • Two Pegasus Knights from the western forts
• At the end of the turn Gordin is recruited
  • Ten Knights from the southwest corner of the map
    • These reinforcements leave the map once a decoy is chosen.

Boss data

Main article: Captain

Stats with a decimal can vary randomly; the decimal represents the chance for the stat to increase to the nearest integer, or otherwise be truncated.

Cavalier Level 2 Movement --

Stats Max HP 18.6 Speed 6.2 Strength 5.35 Luck 0.2 Magic 0 Defense 7.3 Skill 2.3 Resistance 0.2

Inventory Javelin Vulnerary Weapon Levels E C -- -- -- --

Strategy

This section details unofficial strategies that may help with completion of the chapter. This may not work for everybody.

The same cautious strategy will serve you well for the final chapter of the prologue. You can recruit the archer Gordin in this chapter. His base stats and growths are all sub-par, but this is a problem endemic to all of the game's starting bow units. If you choose to recruit Gordin, you will be attacked by a group of invincible Knights, forcing you to sacrifice one of your units. The best choice is Gordin himself, who has low stats and is a poor unit. Sacrificing Jagen has the novelty side effect of changing a couple of scenes later on in this chapter and the next and replacing him with Draug, though it should be noted Frey is the canonical sacrifice in this chapter. Make sure to trade the decoy's items to your other men before making the sacrifice. If you decide to sacrifice Gordin, you may as well simply kill him for a little free experience, as the north door will automatically open if Marth kills him. If Marth's entire party save him is wiped out, the north door will also open automatically and allow you to progress, though obviously this is not an ideal outcome. You'll want to stick around and let a couple of Pegasus Knights show up for some extra experience, particularly for Gordin, if you decide to use and not kill him. The Captain may seem good target practice for the Rapier, but other units likely need experience more than Marth, and he is an extremely weak boss; it amounts to a waste of a Rapier use, and Rapiers are very uncommon weapons to begin with in addition to being better spent on more difficult bosses in later chapters such as Jiol and/or Camus.

Finally, if two or more units have died during the prologue (including the decoy), an archer named Norne will join you. Norne is a faster, but frailer and overall inferior version of Gordin; the choice of archer is yours. You could also theoretically elect to use both archers, though the requirement of an additional Cavalier unit being lost to recruit Norne for the sake of having two archers, when Castor is recruited in Chapter 2 and reclassing is available from Chapter 4 onwards, is even less ideal from most viewpoints.

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Prologue IV	--
Japanese	序章　結	Prologue: Conclusion; "conclusion" here is the fourth of four phases of a narrative with the kishōtenketsu structure.
Spanish	Prólogo IV	Prologue IV
French	Prologue IV	As above.
German	Prolog IV	Prologue IV
Italian	Prologo IV	Prologue IV

Gallery

---

This section has been marked as a stub. Please help improve the page by adding information.

---

References

← Prologue III •	Prologue IV	• Marth Embarks →