Volug

Volug is a character from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and is Queen Nailah's retainer. He is a Wolf Laguz, hailing from the lost nation of Hatari.

Profile

Micaiah's party first encounters Volug when searching the desert for Prince Pelleas, alongside Queen Nailah and the heron Prince Rafiel. Nailah orders him to protect Micaiah, where he remains for the rest of the game, proving to be a valuable asset to the Dawn Brigade. As a result of the possible backlash that could arise from having a Laguz accompany the Dawn Brigade, Volug, utilizing the Wildheart skill, poses as a pet dog in his transformed state.

If Volug is placed in the same team as Nailah in Part 4, he will be able to initiate a Base Conversation with Ike. In this conversation, Volug promises to teach Ike the Ancient Language, in exchange for Ike teaching him the Tellius Language.

After Ashera is defeated, Volug returns to Hatari. It is said that he was in his wolf form when he did, having grown comfortable in it due to his time in the Dawn Brigade. If Nailah is dead, Volug will tell Hatari of her hopes and make preparations to migrate the nation to Gallia as she had desired.

Personality

Volug usually holds his silence, and is very serious about accomplishing any tasks that he is set. He mainly speaks in the Ancient Language, and has, towards the end of the game, picked up a stuttering command of the Tellius language.

Volug is also shown to possess a sharp sense of humor, which can be seen on the battlefield when he is spoken to. An example of such an instance can be seen in his A-rank support conversation, where he comments: "You know how hard it is to be charming when you never say anything? You should try it. It's hard".

In-Game

Availability

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

Recruitment

• Part 1: Chapter 5: Automatically from Base.

Base Stats

Starting Class								Affinity
Wolf (Untransformed) ↓ Wolf (Transformed)								Earth
Level	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Con	Wt	Mov
15	49	11 ↓ 22	2 ↓ 4	12 ↓ 24	13 ↓ 26	13	9 ↓ 18	5 ↓ 10	11 ↓ 20	18 ↓ 40	7 ↓ 9
Skills				Weapon				Starting Items
Howl Shove Wildheart*				Strike - A				Fang Vulnerary

*This skill cannot be removed in Part 1.

Growth Rates

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.

Volug possesses the Wildheart skill, allowing him to Halfshift, therefore allowing him to remain in wolf form for prolonged periods of time. In Part 3 of the game, Volug will stay in normal form, but can Halfshift whenever he is in his untransformed state.

Volug is considered to be a highly competent unit, owing to his Earth affinity and solid base stats. This usefulness of his is rather limited, as his slow EXP gains and low growths in Strength, Defense and Resistance all serve to pull him down. Due to a translation mistake, people think this can be easily fixed in Parts 3 and 4, where he may remove the redundant Wildheart skill and gain EXP normally. Unfortunately, the Halfshift skill only allows him to merely raise his stats by 1.5x, as opposed to twice when he transforms normally, but does not alter EXP gains by battle.

Were you to want to make Volug your centralizing unit - carry -, you could give him the "Jill special treatment", which ranges from an energy drop and a seraph robe to an energy drop, 2 seraph robes and a dragonshield. With this, Jill would get 1 HP away from her tier 1 HP cap of 40, 13 strength and 15 def, while Volug in halshift would get to 63 HP, 13/19/26 strength with which he OHKOs mages in part 1 and avoids a counter and 11/16/22 defense which is higher than anyone in the Dawn Brigade in early tier 2. With Bexp levels he most often gains HP/spd/lck, which can easily push his speed to his 18 human cap - 5 points from his base) for 18/27/36 speed, which doubles every part III enemy except for the 3-13 optional boss in halfshift and doubles almost every enemy in endgame without white tide - the exception being a few auras in the Sephiran chapter. Volug is the only Laguz guaranteed to hit S strike and he does so easily in part I while playing at a fast pace - and thus lowering his opporunities to build strike experience. He is the most likely Laguz to get SS strike, which equates to 2.5/5 points of strength in human/wolf form and makes up for his shaky strength growth - although feeding him a lot of Bexp results in capping his stats much sooner and with 2 seraph robes, he only needs 7 levels to cap HP, 5 for speed, at which point he will prioritize luck/skill/strength in Bexp levels. Volug is, like Ranulf, one of the Laguz with sufficient bases to perform well from start to finish with low investment and to perform extraordinarily well if heavily invested in, his only competition in the GMs being Zihark who has half his bulk and Jill who has half his bulk and offense with similar investment and costs a lot more and even then struggles to be competitive with GMs in part IV while draining the entirety of the Dawn Brigade's resources to do in part III what base Volug in halsfhift as a support with a Zihark carry or base Tauroneo with a specific set up at base can do far more reliably and Volug can do that even more reliably than them if he is the carry, although he might take 1 turn to transform without a stolen Laguz stone to use his full stats. Volug is the most reliable carry for the Dawn Brigade and the only one who can tank and dodgetank enemies longer than any other member of his army, and his earth affinity gives him the opportunity to use a lightning or earth partner to get even more effective bulk between the additional avoid - 7.5 rounded up per earth partner, 2.5 rounded up per lightning partner - and if lightning the additional defense - 1 at C and 2 at A rank.

Being melee-locked doesn't bother Volug after part I since part III is mostly Laguz enemies and player phase destruction against Beorcs or NPC time, and Volug's bulk and speed lead over the entire army makes it easy for him to maximize strike experience in each chapter. Endgame chapters have a lot of player phase-oriented maps where 2 range doesn't matter often. Everyone wants Volug's support, so he can find a spot on your team, but better get him to A support in part III with some unit you intend to keep playing with Volug - like Zihark, the most likely Dawn Brigade unit to be used in parts IV and Endgame, and Jill, the unit who has the closest movement range to Volug's and can follow him everywhere.

Ending

Black Wolf of the Sands (砂塵の黒狼, Sajin no kuro ōkami)

Strangely, Volug was still in wolf form on the day he went home. When asked why, he only said, "It's more comfortable".

If Nailah died

Volug returned to Hatari to tell of Nailah's hopes and the great war. He hoped to migrate the whole nation.

Non-Canon Appearance

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)

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

B05-067HN

B05-068N

Choose Your Legends Placement History

Round	Placement	Character Version	Votes

CYL1	265	Radiant Dawn	838
CYL2	271 ↓6	Radiant Dawn	839 ↑1
CYL3	210 ↑61	Radiant Dawn	1,100 ↑261
CYL4	218 ↓8	Radiant Dawn	684 ↓416
CYL5	183 ↑35	Radiant Dawn	507 ↓177
CYL6	116 ↑67	Radiant Dawn	822 ↑315
CYL7	113 ↑3	Radiant Dawn	576 ↓246
CYL8	144 ↓31	Radiant Dawn	482 ↓94

CYL9

134 ↑10

Radiant Dawn

396 ↓86

Gallery

Concept artwork of Volug from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Memorial Book Tellius Recollection: The Second Volume.

Volug as a Wolf in Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher).

Volug as a Wolf in Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher).

Volug's portrait in Radiant Dawn.

Volug's battle model as an untransformed Wolf.

Volug's battle model as a transformed Wolf.