Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light

The Binding Blade is set on the continent of Elibe, a setting shared with its pre-sequel Fire Emblem . Elibe was engulfed a thousand years before in a conflict between humanity and dragons called the Scouring: begun by humanity, the dragons were defeated and banished from the world. Victory was achieved using the eight Divine Weapons, which were subsequently scattered across Elibe. The story begins when King Zephiel, ruler of the kingdom of Bern, finishes the brutal conquest of Ilia and Sacae and sets his sights on Lycia.

In a small region called Pherae, Roy , the son of Pherae's ruling marquess Eliwood, is forced to return home when Bern begins its invasion. As Eliwood is unable to battle due to illness, Roy is assigned command of Lycia's army. Roy leads his forces to Ostia, another region of Lycia ruled by Eliwood's friend Hector and his daughter Lilina. He is unable to save Hector from death, but rescues Lilina from Bern's occupation and sees to the protection of Guinivere, Zephiel's sister who opposes his war and has fled Bern with its royal treasure, the Fire Emblem.

They also discover a small cave on the outskirts of Ostia where they obtain a Divine Weapon Durandal. Over the course of the journey, Roy and the Lycian Army locate the other Divine Weapons. The kingdom of Etruria contacts Roy and assigns his army to travel to the Western Isles, where heavy bandit activity is being reported. Though the Lycian Army repels the bandits, they discover from either a royal-in-hiding named Elffin or a dancer Larum that Etruria's nobility have allied with Bern and are enslaving the people on the Western Isles to work the mines.

They also learn that Bern has recruited Manaketes, powerful dragons who hide their might in human forms. To learn more about them, the Lycian Army travels to Arcadia, a hidden city in the vast desert where humans and dragons live in peace, and gain stronger insight from the elders. A child Manakete named Fae also befriends Roy during his stay and tags along with him. Roy and his forces later returns to Etruria and removes the corrupt nobility, allowing the kingdom's rightful rulers to restore order and the Lycian Army to merge with Etruria's.

Depending on the player's actions , the newly reformed Etrurian Army then continues through either the snowy tundras of Ilia and its many mercenary groups on Bern's contract, or through the plains of Sacae where nomad tribes have allied with Bern. Both paths ultimately take the Etrurian Army to Bern's borders, where Roy discovers a shrine housing the Binding Blade, a powerful weapon that rules over the other eight Divine Weapons. Combined with the Fire Emblem, Roy is granted its incredible power and wields the Binding Blade in the final assault on Bern's capital. Before beginning his march into Bern, Roy beseeches Guinevere to tell him the reason why Zephiel started this war.

Guinevere reveals that Zephiel's and her father, King Desmond, was envious of Zephiel's natural ability and charisma. She tells Roy that King Desmond, under the guise of a reconciliatory gesture, poisoned Zephiel's chalice. Zephiel was nursed back to health by his guard, General Murdock, and faked his own death. When King Desmond stood over Zephiel's open casket during his funeral, Zephiel sprang up, and impaled King Desmond with a sword he had concealed in his coffin.

Guinevere tells Roy that King Desmond's betrayal caused her brother to become bitter, and lead to his decision to resurrect the dragons in order to return the world to them. Zephiel is eventually killed by the Etrurian Army and his Divine Weapon is taken from him. If the player has not collected the eight Divine Weapons, the game ends prematurely at this point. If the player has collected them and they are unbroken, Roy learns that Zephiel ordered his remaining forces to gather elsewhere in Elibe and continue his plans.

The Divine Weapons suddenly emit a light that leads the Etrurian Army to this location: an ancient temple that had long ago been built by the dragons. Once inside, Roy is shown the true history of the Scouring. The dragons, despite their power, were unable to maintain their numbers due to how slowly they reproduced compared to humans. As the war came to a close, the surviving Fire Dragons captured a Divine Dragon named Idunn and sealed away her soul.

Enslaved to their will, Idunn reproduced dragons at an incredible rate and became known as the Demon Dragon, but she was defeated by a warrior wielding the Binding Blade. Her power was locked away until Zephiel, blinded by a deep misanthropy towards humanity, released her out of his insane desire to return Elibe to the dragons. As she has no emotion or free will, Idunn continues to follow Zephiel's orders even after his death and threatens to raise a dragon army that will destroy everything on the continent. On the topmost floor of the temple, the Etrurian Army battles and defeats Idunn and her endlessly spawning dragons.

In the war's wake, Elibe begins to rebuild itself. Guinivere is named the new ruler of Bern, while Elffin returns to Etruria after his long absence. Roy and Lilina, assuming the latter is still alive, become the new marquesses of Pherae and Ostia respectively. If Roy delivered the final blow on Idunn with the Binding Blade and if Fae is still alive, Idunn survives and is taken to Arcadia to live with Fae while her soul slowly returns to her.