Rafal

A child of the Fell Dragon from another Elyos. He is Nel's younger brother and very much her counterpart. Appears in Fire Emblem Engage. Name: Rafal Gender: Male Race: Manakete (Fell Dragon) Birthday: December 31 Age: 1000+ Relatives: Xenologue Sombron (Father), Nel (Half-Sister), Nil (Half-Brother), Unnamed Twin Sibling, Xenologue Veyle (Half-Sister), Numerous Other Half-Siblings Weapon: Axes </Personal Information> As a manakete, Rafal have two forms: his human form and dragon form.

His human form appears as a pale skinned young man with red eyes and short white hair. His attire consists of a white and red slit robe with a black eye symbol on the chest, white baggy pants, black long boots, black arm guards and gold hairband.

His dragon form have black scales on most of his body. His eyes, underbelly and wings are pinkish red. Rafal appears to share a close bond with his sister Nel, working together with her to save their world.

Prideful and self-centered as well as strong-willed, the true Rafal in opposition to his Nil persona is supremely certain of himself and jubilant over his newfound strength. Many of his lines also reveal an extremely penitent and sensitive side to this impression, however, as Rafal offers to supersede the Divine One's place should they ever be in a position where they must give up their life. His Pact Ring wake up event covers the ground of his past regrets, as Rafal fears that he will lose his loved ones a second time to a final and shattering effect. He expresses shame over his reprehensible nature as someone who brought his world to the brink of extinction, citing it as the reason for why he cannot initially accept the Pact Ring or why others ought to avoid him.

Related to the above, his A support with Gregory reveals vital information in that he is willing to wear the 'mask' and push people away out of feelings of obligation rather than outright cruelty. Rafal's affected conscience compels him to keep his former allies and friends at arm's length. Further elaborating on the pretenses of his behavior, Rafal experiences difficulty in expressing both gratitude and affection due to the harsh disposition required to survive in the Fell Gradlon, where siblings must betray and murder each other to stay alive. Instead, he has a tendency to show appreciation in roundabout ways, such as gifting confections to show his gratitude or attempting to conceal them under the Divine One's pillow.

Per the norm, he is often prickly, mean-spirited, and obstinate in his point of view until proven otherwise. Other characters such as Alear, Alfred, and Gregory return this impression with understanding, catching onto the notion that Rafal is inwardly kind and well-meaning despite his undoubtedly spiky exterior. After a thousand years of isolation and self-reflection, he is ironically beginning to realize the merits of the kindness others see in him - a fact that is stated on his ally profile. This lines up with Rafal's stated admiration for Alfred's good nature and Alear's sincerity in their support chains.

Believing himself to have made a good impression of Nil, Rafal did not appear to suspect that both Nel and Sombron were already aware he was an imposter. Sombron used this to his advantage, corrupting Nel's dragonstone to foster feelings of resentment and envy in him over Nel's strength and ability to transform. Even after Sombron's death, Rafal continued to honor his father's wishes, hiding his strength and ability to awaken the bracelets from everyone else and did not care for his relationship with the others, going as far as to kill his former friends to do so.

After being defeated, Rafal considered himself a failure due to not being able to honor his father's wishes even with the immense power he had gained and felt that he deserved to die. However, when Nel killed herself to ease his pain and to avoid losing a second "brother", he expressed immense shock and was heartbroken over her needless death, revealing his true name to the others. When Alear revealed that Sombron had manipulated his feelings, Rafal did not accept it, stating that in spite of his father's manipulation, he was ultimately responsible for his own actions. Truly regretful for the events he had caused, he decided to spend his time imparting his life force to revive Nel, hoping for her forgiveness if she revived.

In his supports with Alear, Mauvier and Gregory, Rafal expresses regret over his actions; in his supports with Alear, should they present him the Pact Ring, he initially declines it due to feeling unworthy, even admitting that he would be unable to control his grief should he lose them. While he insists otherwise in his supports with Mauvier and Gregory, both men are able to discern that he genuinely regrets the actions he caused. In his supports with Nel, he is initially overprotective of her as he did not want to feel the agony of losing her again, though he accepts when Nel demands that she protect him too as they could not act as equals otherwise.

Rafal has a sweet tooth, though any sweets he makes are normal to him but too sweet for anyone else. Rafal is one of numerous Fell Dragon children of Sombron in the Fell Xenologue story. Like the other Fell Dragon children of his timeline, Rafal had a twin of his own, but said twins identity is unknown except that he had a inferiority complex towards that twin and they died.

Rafal had met his brother Nil sometime in the past and the two bonded over their shared feelings of weakness in comparison to their twin siblings. When Nil tragically died, Rafal was the one who discovered him in his death throes. Because their likeness was so similar, Nil pleaded for Rafal to take his place as Nel's brother. Rafal obliged, taking Nil's identity and making it seem that he had died that day instead. Despite putting on a convincing façade as Nil, Nel was immediately able to recognize that Rafal was not her other half. With time, Nel came to care for Rafal however and saw him as a true second brother. Sombron was also aware of the deception, but tolerated it since he considered the real Nil to be a failure.

While training, Rafal was soon able to awaken and harness the power of the bracelets, which impressed Sombron. When he wanted to reveal his new power, Sombron forbade him from doing so, instead having him act as if he was weak to hide his true power. Rafal obeyed the request and supposedly joined Nel in opposing Sombron, though prior to his death, Sombron used his magic to taint Nel's dragonstone to foster feelings of resentment and envy in Rafal over his sister's greater strength and ability to transform. By doing so, Sombron sought to stir conflict between the siblings and compel Rafal to take his place as his heir following his death to their world's Alear.

Continuing to masquerade as Nil and progressively losing sight of the reasons for his pursuit of power, Rafal accompanied his sister, Alear and the Four Winds in claiming the Emblem Bracelets to save their world. Attempting to honor his father's wishes, Rafal sent assassins to eliminate Nel at Lythos Castle, having already claimed two of the bracelets for himself. After Nel slew the Ivy and Timerra of their world and left to clear her head with the Four Winds following her, Rafal revealed his true nature and captured Alear along with the bracelets that Nel left behind. He then led Nel and the Four Winds into a temple full of Corrupted, kidnapping Nel and leaving the Four Winds to die. Alear's allies manage to break through Rafal's forces and defeat him. After witnessing the temple collapse, Rafal believes that his Corrupted had slew the Four Winds, unaware that he had only killed Mauvier, as he sacrificed himself to let the others escape. He then attacks Nel and demands that Alear meet him at the Fallen Somniel if they valued her life.

Arriving at the ruins of the Somniel, Rafal demand that Alear remove the seal on the Bracelet of the Three Houses, which they did. Immediately upon doing so, with the other bracelets in his possession that he had seized from Nel, Rafal transforms into a Great Fell Dragon and tries to kill the group, only to be defeated and the bracelets dissipated with them. Believing his fate to be sealed as he had failed his mission, he was instead surprised when Nel impaled herself with her sword and died in front of him. Even after Alear and Zelestia realized that Sombron had manipulated him, Rafal states that he was responsible for his own actions. He then asked Alear if it was true that dragons of great power could impart their life force to others, which Alear confirmed, though warning him it would take a thousand years. Rafal accepted the outcome nonetheless, believing the time spent in a dead world would be suitable punishment for him. Alear then extended him an invitation to their world, which he accepted under the condition that he would only join them if Nel would forgive him.

Alear took the remaining members of the Four Winds with them back to their Elyos, leaving Rafal with Nel's body. Rafal was eventually successful in reviving Nel with his life force, who forgave him and thus accepted Alear's invitation with her, joining their army.

The dragonstone created by the Emblems was large enough that Rafal was able to split it into four separate pieces, two each for himself and Nel, without its potency being reduced. With these, both are able to assume their dragon forms, even with Nel's original dragonstone destroyed. In his human form, Rafal uses axes as his weapons. As a manakete, he can transform into a dragon with a powerful breath attack.