Sanaki

“You stand in the presence of Sanaki, empress of Begnion! I am the apostle, the voice of the goddess!”
—Sanaki

Sanaki, full name Sanaki Kirsch Altina, is a non-playable character in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and a playable character in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. The empress and Apostle of Begnion, Sanaki is said to be the vessel of the goddess Ashera. She is a descendant of a long line of Begnion empresses, notably Altina, Meshua, Yoram, and Misaha.

Sanaki is 10 years old in Path of Radiance and 13 in Radiant Dawn. The fire tome Cymbeline is unique to her.

Profile[]

After the previous empress' death, Sanaki was backed by the public in the year 640 to become her successor despite being just five years old, with the senate appointing senator Sephiran guardian to the young empress. It is later revealed that Sanaki was installed to be no more than a puppet for the senate in order to quell domestic unrest. However, thanks in part to Sephiran, both he and the young empress not only had the public opinion in their favor, but kept the manipulations of the senate at bay.

Path of Radiance[]

At first, Sanaki treats Ike and Elincia coldly and with disdain, but it is in fact a ruse, as she needs Ike's help in uncovering a Laguz slave-trading ring that other Begnion nobles are participating in.

After being confronted with the truth around Serenes Forest, Sanaki bowed her head to the herons and begged for forgiveness. Her intentions were deemed genuine enough that even Prince Reyson of Serenes felt his cold feelings toward the Beorc lessen.

Radiant Dawn[]

Sanaki escapes Begnion when the Begnion Senate, led by Duke Lekain of Gaddos, seizes control of the Empire; she subsequently forms an alliance with Gallia, Crimea, Phoenicis, and Serenes to reclaim her throne. Lekain later reveals that Sanaki once had an elder sister: only the firstborn daughter of Altina's lineage can hear Ashera's voice, they claim, and so Sanaki is a false Apostle. Sanaki later joins the Silver Army on the march on the Tower of Guidance. Upon defeating Lekain, she discards the title of "Apostle" and rules only as Begnion's Empress. Unlike her older sister (who is later revealed to be Micaiah), Sanaki did not inherit the brand and therefore she cannot hear the voice of the goddess Yune.

Personality[]

Raised as the Empress of Begnion and the Apostle of the Goddess, Sanaki is far more mature and cordial than one would expect of a girl her age. She is used to her subjects bowing before her and does not tolerate rudeness or being spoken down to in most conversations. This makes Sanaki sometimes come off as rude herself or cold due to her position. She is well loved by her people and most of the commonfolk speak fondly of her in casual conversation, showing great faith in her role.

Beneath her harsh exterior forged by the decorum of her position lies a heart that truly cares for her people and all of Tellius in reality. While seemingly rude and brusque with Ike and Elincia in Path of Radiance, this was merely a ruse to uncover an illegal Laguz trading ring. In fact, Sanaki has a much more tolerant, if not accepting view of the Laguz as she never uses the sub-human slur, making her something of a rarity compared to Begnion's Senators. This was most likely due to Sephiran's influence when raising her. While kept in the dark of the Serenes Massacre, she later humbly apologized to the Herons for Begnion's role, accepting blame on behalf of her nation.

Her youthful age is something of a sore spot for her as she hates being looked down upon for it, usually quickly biting back by reminding them of her status. Though she projects her status proudly, she harbors great resentment that she is essentially an empress without the ability to hear the voice of the goddess as the past Apostles could. When it was brought to light that the Begnion Senate was manipulating her for their own nefarious goals, she was left embittered by how little power she actually had and how easily she was weaponized for their plans using her name. Nonetheless, she found the resolve to not only weed out the corruption within the senate, but also usher a future for Begnion of peace and good relations with other nations. While not shown directly in Radiant Dawn, Heroes shows that Sanaki, upon discovering that Micaiah is her long lost sister, wishes to establish a bond with her and two plan on working closely as the rulers of Begnion and Daein respectively.

In-Game[]

Radiant Dawn[]

Availability[]

Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Part 4	Endgame
P	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	E	P	1	2	3	E	P	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	E	P	1	2	3	4	5	E	A1	A2	A3	A4	A5
																															◎			◎			◎	○	○	○	○	○

◎=Forced　○=Available　□=Available for selected　△=Reinforcement

Base Stats[]

Starting Class	Affinity
Empress	Light
Level	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Con	Wt	Mov
1	28	2	33	22	23	32	10	28	4	4	6
Skills	Weapon	Starting Items
Shove Flare	Fire - S Thunder - A Wind - A Light - A	Cymbeline Arcwind Arcthunder Elixir

Growth Rates[]

HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
70%	40%	60%	60%	35%	55%	30%	50%

Biorhythm[]

Overall[]

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Sanaki is a potent force offensively; rivaling the best of magic users in terms of sheer power. Her personal tome, Cymbeline, is the second most powerful Fire Tome available with an unparalleled Durability of 45 points. Despite this, Sanaki's offensive potential is crippled by her low Strength; though it does not affect the power of her attacks, it causes most Tomes to Weigh her down considerably, preventing her from performing double attacks on all but the slowest of adversaries, and allowing even moderately swift units to double attack her, which is likely to be fatal, considering her low Defense and HP. Sanaki is capable of attaining an SS-Rank in Fire magic, granting her access to the most powerful of Fire Tomes, the SS-ranked Rexflame. However, Rexflame is also a very heavy Fire Tome (second only to Meteor), and even its +3 boost to Sanaki's Speed hardly negates the penalty for her having such low Strength. Unlike most Magic users, Sanaki cannot use Staves, further inhibiting her usability. On the other hand, she can attain an S-Rank in all Magic except for Dark magic, allowing her to use a wide variety of Tomes.

Statwise, Sanaki is very powerful but also very fragile when recruited, being capable of dying to a single hit due to her paltry HP and defense, though her HP will develop quickly due to her 70% growth rate in the stat. Assigning her the Shade skill is recommended to offset her low durability, as it gives her much greater chances of avoiding being targeted by enemies during their Phase. Sanaki will also be very slow when recruited due to her paltry base strength causing her to lose Weapon speed from her already low speed; giving her an Energy Drop will lessen the penalties from her powerful personal tome, Cymbeline to just a loss of a single point of attack speed, though this can also be remedied by assigning her Bonus Experience the moment she is available in Part 4 Prologue.

Fire Emblem Awakening[]

SpotPass[]

Starting Class
Sage
Level	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov
5	33	1	25+2	18	20	28	10	23	6
Skills	Weapon	Starting Items
Magic +2 Focus Rally Magic Luna	Tome - C Staff - D	Arcfire*

*Enemy only; joins unequipped

Fire Emblem Engage[]

Bond Ring[]

Empress of Begnion on Tellius, a continent in another world. The 37th empress and apostle was said to hear the voice of the goddess. She is young, but strong-willed and virtuous in her leadership.

C Rank	Mag +1
B Rank	Mag +1 Lck +1
World	A Rank	Mag +1 Lck +1 Res +1
Dawn Maiden	S Rank	Mag +2 Lck +1 Res +1

Fire Emblem Heroes[]

Quotes[]

Radiant Dawn[]

Death Quote[]

• Sanaki: I'm sorry that... I let everyone down...
• Sigrun: Don't talk such nonsense... I've failed you when you needed me. My life is...meaningless...

Heroes[]

Sanaki/Heroes Quotes

Ending[]

Holy Empress (聖帝 Seitei)

Sanaki elected to guide her people in a world without the goddess, and made treaties uniting the continent.

Non-Canon Appearances[]

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)[]

Sanaki is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards:

[]

Etymology[]

Sanaki's middle name, Kirsch, is the German word for "cherry", and the name of a type of German alcohol.

Trivia[]

• In the American version of the game, there is a notable typo in the Unit Profile referring to Sanaki's class as Emperor. It should be noted, though, that in the original Japanese version, Sanaki is likewise known as (皇帝 Koutei) which usually translates to the male "Emperor". Female forms of the word such as (女帝 jotei or 皇后 kougou) are not used in the game.
• The Falcon Knights in Sanaki's SpotPass team in Awakening represent the Holy Guard.
• One of her quotes in Heroes implies that she has already met Micaiah and has a strong bond with her, but still refers to herself as the Apostle. This is a contradiction due to the sequence of events in the Tellius series. Additionally, her Heroes quote "The truth is... I cannot hear the goddess's voice" also supports this claim. Most likely, it's an oversight.
• There exists unused concept art of an adult Sanaki for Path of Radiance.
• In internal files of Path of Radiance, Sanaki is known as Black Sanaki.

Gallery[]

See main article: Sanaki/Gallery.