Mark

This article is about the character. For the currency in Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, see Forge § Currency.

Mark Lyn introduces herself to Mark (bottom-right).

Gender Chosen by the player. Race Human Birthday Chosen by the player. Family Roy (godson, Eliwood's Tale only) Lilina (goddaughter, Hector's Tale only) Starting class Tactician Appearance(s) The Blazing Blade Heroes

Mark (Japanese: マーク Mark) is a customizable tactician (Japanese: 軍師 tactician) from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade that acts as the player's persona within the game. The player can change Mark's name, gender, birth month, and—in the Japanese version—blood type; the default settings have Mark as a man named "Mark" who was born in January and has a blood type of A. Acting as the first player character in the series, the concept of Mark later evolved into nearly every game since Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem featuring some form of player character.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Role

Mark's purpose in-game is to act as a way for the player to link with the playable characters; many characters in-game will speak with Mark prior to at least one battle, and the lords in particular speak with Mark quite often, primarily to ask for their advice. Despite this, Mark has no direct effect on gameplay; while Mark does have an overworld sprite, it is not seen in actual battles, and Mark also cannot be placed on the map, preventing them from participating in battles. Of note is that this sprite features what appear to be thick, layered yellow and green (or faction-colored) robes, and Mark's sprite also does not change between genders.

Significant care seems to have been taken to avoid establishing too specific a visual appearance for Mark, likely because they are meant to represent the player, and no visual customization options are available in-game. While Mark can be barely seen in two CG images in Lyn's tale, these shots are mindful to not show their face or make them the focus of the composition; in the first, only the back of Mark's head is visible (and positioned such that even the length of their hair is ambiguous), while in the second, Mark's face is obscured with a hood.

Biography

As the player is supposed to be Mark, intentionally little information is given about them; both Eliwood and Hector note that they know very little about Mark despite having spent many days traveling with them, though the supposed resulting conversation is not actually seen by the player. Regardless, it can be assumed that Mark is a drifter of sorts; the game opens with Lyn finding Mark unconscious in the plains of Sacae, at which time she notes that their name sounds foreign. In addition, one year later, Mark is found in Pherae, where they volunteer to assist Eliwood on his journey. Hector observes that Mark is "very young", and younger than any strategist in Ostia.

In the end of the game, Mark chooses to continue their travels of Elibe. Just before leaving, however, Eliwood or Hector will designate Mark as the godparent of either Roy or Lilina. Additionally, depending on the player's ranking, different endings involving Mark are featured in the Epilogue.

Mark appears to have previously worked for an unspecified employer while in or traveling through Bern prior to the time of Eliwood and Hector's tales, though this is never elaborated on.

Tactician's bonus

Creating a tactician.

Mark is assigned an affinity based on the month of birth they are assigned when created. This influences the tactician's bonus, where units who share the same affinity as Mark gain small statistical boosts to their hit rate and avoid, which grow stronger as Mark's ranking increases throughout the game; additionally, every unit also receives a boost to dodge regardless of affinity. For every star displayed in Mark's Rank menu in preparations, units receive +1 to each calculation they qualify, for a maximum +10 boost per calculation. These bonuses are only present in Eliwood's or Hector's tales, not in Lyn's.

The Japanese versions of the game also feature the ability to choose Mark's blood type, which also factored into determining their affinity. As blood types hold a considerably lesser significance in Western culture, this option was removed in localization.

Affinities are assigned to Mark based on birth month and blood type selection as follows:

Affinities by month

International versions Japanese version

Month	Affinity
January	Light
February	Ice
March	Wind
April	Thunder
May	Wind
June	Anima
July	Fire
August	Dark
September	Fire
October	Anima
November	Ice
December	Thunder

Month	Blood type A	Blood type B	Blood type O	Blood type AB
January	Ice	Wind	Fire	Ice
February	Wind	Fire	Thunder	Anima
March	Ice	Wind	Anima	Thunder
April	Anima	Fire	Thunder	Ice
May	Light	Thunder	Fire	Wind
June	Thunder	Anima	Wind	Fire
July	Anima	Wind	Ice	Thunder
August	Wind	Dark	Fire	Anima
September	Fire	Ice	Anima	Thunder
October	Ice	Anima	Wind	Fire
November	Anima	Thunder	Ice	Ice
December	Thunder	Fire	Wind	Light

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Other effects

In the Japanese version, the five "emblem items" – Emblem Blade, Emblem Lance, Emblem Axe, Emblem Bow, and Emblem Seal – are instead named directly after the save file's tactician (e.g. Mark's Sword or Mark's Lance). The four weapons are described as "a tactician's [weapon]" in their description in all regions, and the Emblem Seal's description also cites it as belonging to Mark. This effect is purely cosmetic and otherwise has no impact on gameplay.

Playing without Mark

If the player elects to start the game without Mark by directly starting with either Eliwood's or Hector's stories, the character simply does not appear, and in many scenes, the role of the army's tactician instead falls to either Marcus or Oswin, as well as sometimes other characters. The usefulness of this, however, is questionable; in addition to not receiving Afa's Drops from Athos, the player also loses access to Mark's bonus and the Emblem Seal will lose its effects.

Additionally, in the Japanese version, the five "emblem items" will fill Mark's empty name space in both the weapon names and their descriptions with ♡♡.

Fire Emblem Heroes

Main article: Mark/Heroes

There is one variation of Mark available in Heroes.

Endings

Lyn's Tale

Mark, the Tactician
Mark leaves Lyn to continue his/her training. He/She plans on traveling throughout Lycia. Lyn refuses to say good-bye, believing in her heart that she will see him/her again.

Eliwood's and Hector's Tales

Mark - Superb Mind (With S or A ranking)
A tactician whose brilliance changed the course of history. Bern and Etruria so desired this skilled mind that they went to war.

Mark - Famed Genius (With B or C ranking)
The tactician vanished after the battle. Bern, Lycia, and Etruria all sought those famed skills, but none ever found the tactician.

Mark - Suspect Mind (With D or E ranking)
To this day, historians look back and question how these incomprehensible strategies ever led to victory.

Quotes

Main article: Mark/Quotes (Heroes)

Other appearances

Fire Emblem Awakening

While Mark does not appear in Awakening, they are referenced in a conversation between Lyn and Robin upon completing the downloadable content xenologue Smash Brethren 3. In this conversation, Lyn is convinced that the person in front of her is the same tactician from her adventures; when she learns the character has amnesia, she asks if they have any memories of their previous adventures. If the player says no, Lyn will be disappointed, but stays with Robin to see if they will remember their time together. If the player says yes, then Lyn will be happy that she has been reunited with her master strategist. Robin's child, Morgan, is also named after Mark (based on their default name) in the Japanese version.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U

Mark appears as an alternate color scheme for Robin in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, based off of their sprite on the map screen.

Trivia

• According to developer commentary in the Fire Emblem Official Staff Book, both Mark as well as the later avatar concept were inspired by the introduction of Commanding Officer characters in Advance Wars, another strategy game for the Game Boy Advance which was developed by Intelligent Systems.
• The Mage class is assigned to Mark's character data; they are set to appear as such in an unused test map exclusive to the Japanese version.
• For a time it was popularly believed that Mark's affinity increased growth rates by 5% for any character that shared their affinity; this was proven false by setting growths of some characters to 95, then demonstrating that some stats would fail to increase upon level-up.
• As of 2026, Mark is the only playable character in Fire Emblem Heroes that is not eligible to be voted in Choose Your Legends.

Etymology and other languages

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Mark

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Mark
Japanese	マーク	Mark. Likely named after Mark of Cornwall, a sixth-century King of Cornwall who was depicted as the uncle of Tristan from Arthurian Legend.
Spanish	Mark	--
French	Mark	--
German	Mark	--
Italian	Mark	--
Portuguese	Mark	--
Traditional Chinese	馬克	Mark

Tactician

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Tactician	--
Japanese	軍師	Tactician
French	Tacticien	Tactician
German	Taktiker	Tactician

Gallery

• 
  Lyn introduces herself to Mark (bottom-right).
• 
  Mark (right) and Lyn meeting Kent and Sain.
• 
  Mark's map sprite.

Heroes artwork

Character artwork

• 
  Artwork of Mark: Winds of Hope.
• 
  Artwork of Mark: Winds of Hope.
• 
  Artwork of Mark: Winds of Hope.
• 
  Artwork of Mark: Winds of Hope.

Meet some of the Heroes artwork

• 
  Artwork of Mark: Winds of Hope.
• 
  Artwork of Mark: Winds of Hope.
• 
  Artwork of Mark: Winds of Hope.

Other artwork

• 
  Artwork of Robin, Mark, Inigo, and Lyn for Heroes's seventh anniversary.

Prototype

Images from the Fire Emblem 0206 and 0219 prototypes.

• 
  Lyn introduces herself to Mark (bottom-right) in the prototype.
• 
  Mark (right) and Lyn meeting Kent and Sain in the prototype.