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| “ | Don't mess with the princess! | „ |
| ~ Hortensia. |
Princess Hortensia is a major character in the 2023 tactical role-playing video game, Fire Emblem: Engage. She is the secondary antagonist of the Brodia arc, the main antagonist of the Solm arc and a major protagonist onwards.
She is the younger daughter of King Hyacinth, the younger sister of Princess Ivy, and the second princess of the Kingdom of Elusia.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Hortensia is the illegitimate daughter of Hyacinth, the king of the Kingdom of Knowledge Elusia and grew up in a court whose queen had a tendency to torment the king's mistresses and their children. However, Hortensia's mother survived in the court and won over the queen thanks to her charisma, which led Hortensia to look up to her and emulate her by adopting a cute and bumbling persona in order to charm others and gain their trust so she could manipulate them into giving her what she wanted. Hortensia ultimately managed (unlike all of her father's other illegitimate children) to survive in the court rather than being chased away by the queen, even after her mother died while she was young. She also befriended her elder sister Ivy, the country's crown princess and Hyacinth's only legitimate child.
Hortensia ended up leaving the castle of Elusia (named...Elusia Castle) and went to the country's best academy in order to study. She quickly turned out to be a genius, which led her to skip grades. She also ended up befriending two of her classmates named Rosado and Goldmary. However, when her country's god, the Fell Dragon Sombron, was revived and brainwashed her father; Hyacinth ordered Hortensia to leave the academy, return to the castle and gather the emblem rings which Sombron needed in order to access the multiverse. Despite sensing that something was off about Hyacinth, Hortensia agreed to help him and brought Rosado and Goldmary along with her, making them her unofficial retainers.
During Engage[]
Hortensia first appears in Chapter 7, where she leads an attack on Brodia, the country near Elusia that invaded her kingdom for years, in an attempt to claim its emblem rings. She takes over the bridge between Brodia and its neighbour Firene, in an attempt to block the access to the Kingdom of Brodia to the Divine Dragon Alear, the deity opposing the Fell Dragon who was trying to get the emblem rings before him. She ends up confronting Alear, Alcryst (the second prince of Brodia) and Alfred (the crown prince of Firene) when they try to cross the bridge and attempts to take their rings with the help of her retainers and of the ring that her father gave her, but she is defeated, lets slip that Ivy is going to attack Brodia Castle and runs away with Rosado and Goldmary.
After Alear's army stopped her sister's attacks twice in a row, Hortensia and her father end up face to face with them at their base, Destinea Cathedral, where they plan to perform a ritual in order to temporarily restore the powers of Sombron by using the king of Brodia Morion as an human sacrifice. It works, Sombron regains his strength and turns Morion into a zombie known as a Corrupted. Hortensia, believing that Ivy died facing Alear since she did not come back from their fights tries to avenge her sister with the help of their retainers but fails. After the battle, the Fell Dragon betrays her father and eats him alive, while his daughter the Fell Princess laughs at Hortensia's face, which leads the latter to push her away out of anger, only for the Fell Princess to knock her down in return.
Afterward, Hortensia isn't seen again until Chapter 14, where she invades the palace of the Kingdom of Solm. Having learned offscreen that Ivy survived her clashes with the Divine Dragon but joined their forces; an heartbroken Hortensia decides to invade Solm Castle, gather the emblem rings and use them in order to revive her father. She kidnaps the queen of Solm Seforia and threatens to kill her if Alear, Ivy and Seforia's daughter Timerra refuse to give her their rings. That said, Alear calls out her bluff and points out that she would most likely not kill Seforia in front of her child after losing her father in a similar way, which leads Hortensia to break down into tears. Unfortunately, Sombron's right-hand Zephia shows up, brainwashes Hortensia and captures the queen; forcing Ivy to face her own sister. Thankfully, Hortensia snaps out of brainwashing as soon as she and Zephia are taken out and she apologizes to Seforia for what she did earlier. The queen lets her go if in exchange she helps stop Sombron, which she agrees to do.
She then joins Alear's army but does not get another big role until Chapter 16, where her retainers escape to Zephia's subordinates Marni and Mauvier (after stealing an emblem ring) and reunite with her. They believe at first that Alear captured her, but Hortensia quickly explains to them that she switched sides and asks them to give the stolen ring to Alear. Rosado agrees, gives the ring to the dragon and Alear uses their powers in order to awaken the spirit inside the ring before giving it back to Rosado so he could use it in battle. They then stop their foes and recruit Rosado and Goldmary.
Hortensia's last role in the main story is in Chapter 17, where the Fell Princess brings back Hyacinth as a Corrupted. The latter tries to trick Ivy and Hortensia into defecting back to Sombron's side, but they refuse since they know that he is only a shadow of the man he used to be. They defeat Hyacinth, who breaks free from Sombron's mind control and spends his last moments apologising to his children and telling them that it is now up to them to take the throne and save their kingdom.
Hortensia continues to help Alear and Ivy up until the end of the game, at the end of which she returns to Elusia's academy after making a grave for her father.
Appearance[]
Aged 14, Hortensia has unnatural dyed pink hair with white highlights and pink eyes with a heart on her right cheek, her tied into buns with a tiara and wears a blue and white dress adorn with roses with boots.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Hortensia shares the boss battle theme "Enforcer of Knowledge" with her elder sister Ivy.
- She and the Fell Princess are the only bosses who are fought thrice during the main story of Engage.
External link[]
- Hortensia on the Fire Emblem Wiki
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 Villains
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