

By the end of the war, Ike's deeds have earned him respect across the world, from beorc and laguz nations alike. Ike's journeys with Elincia – fleeing to the Begnion Empire, assisting its Empress Sanaki in destroying a slave trafficking ring, being knighted by Elincia, and raising an army to march on Daein and take back Crimea – brings him into contact with the ancient racial tensions between the laguz (clans of animal shapeshifters) and his fellow beorc with a plot by Daein's Mad King, Ashnard, to unleash a dark god sealed within a bronze medallion and remake the world and with the sacrifices his parents made to try and stop that plot decades prior. Elincia hires the Greil Mercenaries to assist her in escaping Crimea, but after Greil himself is killed by his former student, the Black Knight of Daein, Ike is forced to take command of the Mercenaries. Having only recently been allowed by Greil to join missions with the Mercenaries, Ike encounters Princess Elincia of Crimea on the run after the neighboring Kingdom of Daein attacked and conquered Crimea. Path of Radiance follows Ike's exploits through the Mad King's War. Notably, Ike is currently the only protagonist of a Fire Emblem game to have absolutely no royal, noble or divine ancestry at all this is reflected in his initial character class in Path of Radiance not being the usual Lord, but rather the unique Ranger that ultimately promotes into a Lord when he is temporarily knighted. He and his younger sister, Mist, live with the mercenaries in a remote Crimean fort. Ike is the son of Greil, a legendary warrior who leads a band of mercenaries which operates in Crimea, a minor kingdom on the continent of Tellius. The international success of the former prompted developer Intelligent Systems to begin work on a more ambitious, large-scale Fire Emblem game for the Nintendo GameCube: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Ike's debut game, which released in 2005. Melee and its inclusion of Fire Emblem protagonists Marth and Roy, Fire Emblem established itself outside Japan with two Game Boy Advance titles: Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. Following the release of Super Smash Bros.
