"Never forget your duty, and never forget your oath. When you became a soldier, you swore to fight for those unable to fight, to protect those unable to protect themselves. Remember that always, and believe in those words!"

Master Admiral Kelaan, head of the Malgraan Interstellar Forces (the other half of the Combat Branch), the man in charge of the defense of the frontier, is also the bearer of the titular Star Insignia, a treasured medal made with the combined efforts of the Malgraan and Balloh to commemorate the declaration of their alliance. He is well-known, well-respected, and is able to keep a level head and issue orders in a crisis. His primary goal is always to protect civilians; as far as he's concerned, if he can't do that, then he isn't worthy of his rank.

He spends a lot of his time on the Flagship Hy'ata, a massive starship, but tries to see his family as much as he can on his days off, with the exception of Merridan, who he frequently sees while on duty. Under his command and leadership, the frontier has known relative peace, with almost all criminal attacks being stopped or repelled and only a small handful slipping past - and always providing new lessons for the Malgraan to learn from when that happens.

Full Name: Kelaan Ellriam
Joins As: Commander, Level 20+20 / Master Admiral
Homeworld: Malgaria
Age: 64
Likes: Organization, responsible amounts of brandy, being in space, his family
Dislikes: Chaos and disorder, casualties (both civilian and military), foes that get away, incompetence
Dream: To toughen the frontier's defenses until they are impenetrable

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Kelaan is a guiding figure for most of the campaign, trusting the player with bigger and bigger tasks as they prove themselves. He co-ordinates a lot of the action off-camera (so to speak) and provides useful pieces of intelligence to the player as well. While Jerin is the squad leader and is generally the one the player goes to for authority, Kelaan is the next step up for more large-scale issues.

It's a common theme in most military-related games for the top brass to be Total Bastards who sacrifice soldiers for their own selfish goals, are playing both sides, will gun down civilians for no reason, and so on. I dearly, dearly wanted to break away from that for a number of reasons, not least of which is that Fire Emblem is a game of heroism; the player should feel good about what they are doing. You're fighting to save people and protect them from outside threats, not attempting to uncover some internal contrived conspiracy that involves murdering hundreds of thousands of people for some reason or other. In order for a setup like this to work, the player has to be able to trust in the army's commanders.

It's also hackneyed as hell and has been played to death. I was watching someone play The Last Of Us and didn't stick around much past the beginning; aside from the inexplicable spider sense, the done-to-death 'hide behind waist high cover to magically heal all your wounds' mechanic, and the protagonists being rude and unlikeable, the main protagonist's daughter gets killed by the military in the prologue for no immediately good reason except to serve as a Player Punch.

A better example is probably with Mass Effect, where Shepard is never at the top of the food chain - Admiral Hackett and (at least initially) David Anderson are above him and serve to guide Shepard and offer as much help as they can. By the end of it all you can certainly feel that you're able to trust that they're doing the right thing. Probably more than you are, depending on whether you go Renegade or Paragon.

With all this in mind, Kelaan makes frequent appearances throughout the game to try and cement the idea that he is definitely on the player's side and that they're doing the right thing by following his orders.

Character belongs to me.
Art by  not-fun. Original here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/10072892/