Roy

Roy (ロイ, Roy) is the protagonist of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the sixth game in the Fire Emblem series.

Origin
Roy hails from Lycia, one of six nations of the land of Elibe, and is the son of Eliwood, ruler of the Lycian noble house of Pherae. The game begins with Roy called back home from his studies in the province of Ostia in response to the militant nation of Bern launching invasions of Elibe's other realms. As Eliwood has fallen ill, Roy is entrusted with leading Pherae's army alongside the other armies of the Lycian League against Bern and its ruler, Zephiel, who displays a mysterious thirst for the destruction of human rule. Zephiel's errant younger sister, Princess Guinivere, escapes Bern and comes to Roy in defiance of her brother's motives, hoping to negotiating a treaty with Lycian nobility. Roy quickly agrees to her proposal to search for a peaceful means to end Bern's aggression.

The war, and their quest to end it, takes Roy and Guinivere across Elibe. They fight the forces of Bern and opportunistic traitors within other countries, unite other lands behind their cause, and learn of Zephiel's ambition to return Elibe to dragon rule to right what he views as a wrong: The Scouring, an ancient war in which humans drove dragons out of Elibe. To achieve their mission, Guinivere entrusts Roy with the Fire Emblem, an important gemstone in the culture of Bern which Roy uses to unlock the Binding Blade, a powerful weapon from the age of the Scouring once wielded by the forefather of Bern, Hartmut.

Once he has the Binding Blade, Roy invades Bern and defeats Zephiel in his own castle, then—in the game's good ending—embarks on a quest to find Zephiel's ally Idunn, a soulless Demon Dragon created by ancient dragons to fight back against humanity, seeking to undo the damage that the dragons did to her. Regardless of the ending the player achieves, the game ends with Roy returning to Pherae and helping rebuild, eventually succeeding his father as its marquess.

Roy is an upstanding and thoughtful fifteen year-old young man with a natural proclivity to help and support others. While he would prefer to avoid bloodshed and works to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict, he maintains a strong resolve to see peace return to Elibe. He is a talented tactician in his own right, and unusually is perceptive and cunning for his age: he is able to trick a traitorous vassal in his group into exposing himself, and he reacts calmly and tactically to surprises and disturbing news.

Roy's childhood friend Lilina describes him as somewhat socially awkward, and he is quite oblivious to the obvious feelings that some of the women in his army develop for him. Roy is similar to Marth with respect to both characterization and gameplay role, and is the only character in The Binding Blade to be of the Lord character class. As the commander of his army, it is necessary for Roy to seize castles and thrones held by enemy armies to complete chapters and progress in his quest, but if he is defeated in battle, the game is over and the player must restart from their last save point.

Intelligent Systems followed up The Binding Blade with a prequel set twenty years prior to Roy's adventures in Elibe: Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (originally released outside Japan as just "Fire Emblem"), the franchise's seventh installment and the first internationally-released one. The game stars Roy's father Eliwood, whose somewhat older resemblance to Roy was meant to appeal to players of Melee; Roy himself appears as a five-year-old child in the game's epilogue. The game's story is laid out with ten introductory chapters starring one of Eliwood's allies, Lyn, meant to introduce players to the Fire Emblem style of tactical play, with the other 20+ chapters containing the main story. Though it is a prequel, The Blazing Blade is structured so that no knowledge of The Binding Blade is required to understand its story.

Although he did not appear in a new game for nine years after The Blazing Blade, Roy started making regular appearances with Marth and Ike in various Fire Emblem crossovers and spinoffs in 2012 when he appeared as a bonus SpotPass and DLC Einherjar in Fire Emblem Awakening. In 2017, Fire Emblem Heroes featured him as a summonable legendary hero, debuting Ray Chase as his English voice actor, and Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia allows players to summon an illusory phantom of Roy using his Super Smash Bros. amiibo. Roy has also made frequent appearances in the Fire Emblem Cipher trading card game since 2016.