Louise

Etruia

Louise is a playable character in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. She is the wife of Pent, Count of Reglay of Etruria, with whom she mothered Klein and Clarine. She is also the adoptive mother of Erk, and distant cousin of Queen Hellene of Bern, making her a distant relative of Zephiel.

Louise was born to a family of low nobility, and was both a distant relative and good childhood friend to another minor noble named Hellene. When she was 14, Louise was gathered among 20 noble ladies, all of whom were of higher status, for consideration to marry Lord Pent, the count of one of the biggest houses of Etruria. Rather than developing skills that showed good qualities of a high-born noble by doing duties seen as traditionally feminine like singing and dancing, like the other ladies of the court, Louise chose to learn to wield a bow. Honing her skills, she developed a deadly ability with the weapon. This was accompanied by her vow to protect Pent, regardless of whom he chose. The nobles in the room laughed at her, but to everyone's surprise Pent was impressed by her sincerity and selected Louise as his fiancée, making her the new Countess Reglay of Etruria through marriage.

Years later, Louise and Pent took Erk as their adoptive son when the boy was 12 years old and was found lost in the snow. Louise was extremely happy to have a new companion in the castle because Pent was too busy fulfilling his duty as a mage general and so was rarely home. She doted him with attention and treats, but Erk spent most of his time locked in his room studying and reading books until exhaustion, worrying her.

Louise accompanied Pent on his quest into the Nabata Desert in search of artifacts. Although they are nearly robbed, Eliwood, Lyn, Hector and their army arrive at the desert and protect the two. As thanks, the duo and Hawkeye lead them to Athos and subsequently fight alongside Eliwood for the rest of his journey. When Athos gave the three the mission to find the Shrine of Seals in Bern, Pent and Louise volunteered to join them on this mission to Bern, with Pent being intrigued by the prospect of fighting Nergal.

Due to her closeness with Queen Hellene, she helps Eliwood, Lyn, Hector and the army to reach her safely, to ask her help to access the Shrine of Seals. They achieve that when Louise has a diplomatic obligation in Bern: to attend the festivities surrounding the coming of age ceremony of Bern's crown Prince Zephiel. Through Louise's intervention, Hellene offered to listen to the group's request, on the condition that they go in a mission to find the missing Fire Emblem, which is needed for the coming of age ceremony.

After a visit to Bern Keep, they learn that King Desmond has hired the Black Fang to kill Zephiel, leading to Eliwood, Lyn, Hector and their group being attacked by a Black Fang army, Louise and Pent volunteer to actively fight alongside them, and the couple give him a Heaven Seal, which had earlier been given to them by Hawkeye and Athos. She and Pent continue to serve under Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn for the remainder of the conflict, even blowing off a need to return to Etruria and file a report on the Shrine of Seals.

During the battle against the Fire Dragon, Louise reveals to Pent that she is finally pregnant, news that elates him. Soon after, Louise gives birth to their first-born Klein. Several years later, they also have a daughter, Clarine.

They eventually hire the mercenary Dieck to protect Klein, and raise him as a member of the family. Around twenty years later, during the events of The Binding Blade, a coup was happening in their dukedom, but Louise and Pent did not intervene. Their lax attitude concerned their son, who was more aware of the political situation.

Louise is informal, spontaneous, and gentle, albeit somewhat childlike in nature. Her title as a powerful countess often intimidates the low-born members of the army, but she rejects stiff formality, always assuring that she wants to be treated as everyone else, asking to be addressed by her first name. Too much formality makes her uncomfortable, especially because she was not born in a powerful family. She also rejects other people's eventual attempts to protect her, assuring she can protect herself and instead taking the role of Pent's personal protector, as she promised in their marriage vows.

Despite not having very developed skills in arts seen as traditionally feminine such as dancing, poetry and singing as expected of most noble ladies, Louise is still very girly due to her rather feminine looks and especially her strong motherly instincts, as shown by her disposition of taking orphans to her castle and raising them as her own children, like she did with Erk and Dieck. She is very doting towards her adopted son Erk, despite him feeling unworthy and overwhelmed by her love, and she doesn't care about the nobles complaining of her raising commoners as proper nobles. She always wants to take care of members of the army by doing small acts of kindness like braiding Guy's hair and making Rebecca feel more confident with herself.

She loves Pent, even taking on the role of both his wife and protector, having taken up the bow as a means to catch his attention over his other suitors in the past, though she used to resent the small amount of time they spent together in the castle and finds solace in Erk's company. Despite many other men in the army finding her beautiful, she never once swayed from her feelings towards her husband.

As a ruler and mother, Louise is shown to be good-hearted and loving but rather lax. This is demonstrated by her carefree attitude towards the coup in the territory of her dukedom, the fact that her younger daughter Clarine ran away home bored with her lifestyle, and that Klein was almost killed by a lion in an arena when he was a kid.