SPOILER KINDA
Fire Emblem: Awakening
Speculation (Updated: 23rd February 2012)
Just some random thoughts (and intelligent guesses) about the game. Few of this has been confirmed (yet), so don't go using this page as a source of information!
Masked Marth
= 
?
The latest trailer shows a mysterious masked character (pictured to the left) who appears to have an important presence in the game, featuring heavily in the opening cutscene, as well as having a prominent position on the box art and the promotional pre-paid card. Curiously, their design strongly resembles Marth (pictured to the left), the main character of Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem, right down to the blue hair, tiara, colour of clothes and emblem-shaped pin for their cloak. The masked character also wields a blade that looks identical to Krom's Binding Blade Falchion, while Marth wields the Divine Blade Falchion in his games--so not the same weapon, but still very similar.
It's also possible that the masked man is not Marth, but a descendant of Marth. However, the fact that he's masked could mean that Intelligent Systems has a good reason to hide his identity, which makes more sense if he's a returning character such as Marth and not a brand new character. Besides, it's not the first time a returning character has come back with a mask (see Sirius)...
If the masked man is Marth, what exactly is he doing wandering around wearing a mask? This is just my crazy fan theory, and I'd laugh if it turned out to be true, but I suspect Awakening continues from the Bad Ending in Mystery of the Emblem, where Marth fails to defeat Medeus and Medeus returns to start another war. After Archanea is ruined by war, Marth is one of the few survivors and discovers a gate to an alternate time and reality where he swears to help stop the war, wearing a mask because he's ashamed of his inability to prevent his world from being destroyed.
Relevant images
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A masked man runs alone following the wake of destruction |
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Krom and the masked man fighting together |
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My Unit and the masked man can be seen in the Binding Blade Falchion |  |
Krom and the masked man appear in the centre of the game's boxart |
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The promotional pre-paid card featuring Krom and the masked man |  |
Krom facing the masked man in combat |
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Marth's official artwork from Shadow Dragon |
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Marth's official artwork from New Mystery of the Emblem |
Return to Archanea
Up to now, Intelligent Systems have kept tight-lipped about the game's story, as well as the world where the game takes place. Nations such as Iris, Perezia and Feria have popped up, but we still don't know the name of the continent. There might be a good reason for that, especially when the continent looks suspiciously like Archanea, Marth's homeland. There are some slight differences between the two continents, like extra islands, but the general shape of the continents is the same.
Adding to the fact that the nations in Awakening don't appear in Archanea during Marth's time, then if the new continent really is Archanea, it must be from a different time period, presumably a long time after Marth's exploits considering Archanea's history, strengthening the masked man = Marth's descendant theory. That or it's Archanea in an alternative dimension--if this idea sounds a bit odd, this isn't the first time Fire Emblem has mentioned other dimensions (see further down).
Relevant images
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World map from the opening movie |
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World map in-game. |
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World map in-game. |  |
Map of Archanea from New Mystery of the Emblem |
Another Binding Shield
= 
?
As if having a Marth, Falchion and Archanea lookalike in the same game wasn't enough, there's even a lookalike of the Binding Shield (also known as the Shield of Seals), a key item in Archanean lore, created by the divine dragon king to seal away the evil Earth Dragons. Awakening's "Binding Shield" (pictured to the left) makes an appearance in the game's opening movie and while the design is slightly different to Archanea's (pictured to the right), missing the flame crest in the middle, it has the same 5 iconic gemstones, with the correct colours and in the exact same positions. As such, I believe the shield in Awakening in clearly meant to be a Binding Shield, but perhaps not the same one as in Archanea.
Marks of the two dragons
One last similarity for now, but one that has a higher likelihood of just being a trope and that's the story behind the game, explained in the logo text (above). Fire Emblem's always had dragons, except maybe Gaiden, but if you're looking for an opposing pair of dragons, you need look no further than Naga, the divine dragon king and mankind's guardian deity, and Medeus or Loputousu, both evil Dark Dragons with a vendetta against mankind. During Marth's time, Naga was stated to be dead, but according to the Naga = Nagi theory, Naga is simply sleeping in an alternate dimension. Similarly, Medeus and Loputousu both claim they will return when evil returns to mankind's hearts. Basically, all the aforementioned dragons have the opportunity to make a return.
As for the "two heroes marked with the symbols of the dragons", Krom clearly has a symbol on his arm and he's one of the main characters, so he's very likely one of the two prophecised heroes. The other main character is My Unit, so he/she may be the other prophecised hero. However, Emelina throws a slight spanner in the works because she has a very similar symbol to Krom on her forehead, not to mention she has an important presence in the opening movie, arguably larger than My Unit, who only appears briefly in the Binding Blade. That said, it's possible there are more than two characters with dragon symbols, but some are more important than others?
Relevant images
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Krom has a mark on his right arm (his point of view) |  |
Emelina has a mark on her forehead |
Dimensional Gates
Previously, I've put forward the possibility of Marth appearing in Awakening from another dimension and the world of Awakening being an alternate version of Archanea. However, just how likely is this all and how exactly did Marth travel between dimensions? Well, there have been hints in previous games about the existence of other dimensions. In Blazing Sword, the dragon siblings Nils and Ninian came to Elibe from another world, which I've always suspected was Archanea.
"We had no place to go… not on this world. So we used the Dragon's Gate to flee into another world. When we passed through this chasm in space and time, many of us were lost. Still, we endured the journey." --Nils in Victory or Death
In Shadow Dragon, if Marth did not recruit Tiki and failed to obtain the Falchion, Gotoh sends him to the Alterspire, a tower in another world, to seek help.
"…Select a handful of your best warriors. I must send into an unseen dimension." --Gotoh in The Dragonkin Realm
"A place outside the confines of our world." --Gotoh in The Dragonkin Realm
Moving back towards this game, towards the beginning of the opening movie, we see the masked man running towards a gate. This could just be any old gate, but the way they've emphasised the scene makes me wonder if there's a special meaning behind the gate. Perhaps the gate is a Dragon's Gate--an entrance to another time and reality or, in other words, the world of Awakening. Additionally, a strange vortex-like object can be seen apparently spitting out people--perhaps showing them during the moment they travel between dimensions? There is also a curious gate-like structure towards the bottom of the world map, in a similar location to the Dragon's Gate in Elibe. So have we already seen the entrance, corridor and exit of this cross-dimensional transport?
Relevant images
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The masked man running towards a gate |
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People falling out of a mysterious vortex |
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World map in-game. Towards the bottom, a mysterious gate can be seen. |
