Ashera

Ashera is a charcter from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. She is the Goddess of Order revered across Tellius. She is what remained when the ancient Goddess Ashurena casted away her emotions in the form of the Goddess of Chaos, Yune. As a result, Ashera is unable to feel any emotion and only desires Order at all cost. She serves as the main antagonist of Radiant Dawn after she awakens to realize that humanity is unable to find order like they promised to her not long after her birth from Ashurena.

History
Over 800 years before the events of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the world had multiple continents and was under the protection of the Goddess Ashurena, which was like her creations able to feel emotions. After her sentient creations, the Zunanma, evolved into the Laguz and the Beorc, which went to war due to their genetic differences. Ashurena tried to stop them but lost control of her emotions and flooded all of the world except Tellius, which was the highest point of the land.

Ashurena was horrified by what she had done and blamed it on her ability to feel emotions, so she expelled all of her emotions into a being that would be known as the Goddess of Chaos, Yune. Her emotionless body became what she hoped to become, the Goddess of Order, Ashera. The now emotionless Goddess believed that as long as Yune existed, her own emotions would be a threat to the world. She tasked three heroes to get rid of Yune: Altina, a Beorc, Soan, a Laguz from the beast tribe, and Dheginsea. To Altina the Beorc, she gave two blessed swords, Ragnell and Alondite with the power to harm a Goddess in order to kill Yune.

The three heroes felt that killing Yune would be a mistake and negotiated with Ashera for an alternative. Yune was to be sealed in a medallion sealed by Altina's lover the laguz Lehran. Meanwhile Ashera would also go to sleep for a thousand years and when she would wake up alongside Yune, she would judge her creations. If they prove to her that they were able to live without conflict for this long, she would accept that emotions are a necessary part of this world and would merge with Yune to become Ashurena once more. However, if they were to fail to prevent Tellius from falling into chaos, she would direct her divine retribution for the people's sins upon them instead of Yune. She also declared that, if during her slumber, there were doubts as to whether or not the world could be saved, they should wake her up early by singing the Galdr of Release to free Yune, after which she and Yune would speak with each other and decide on which actions to take.

The heroes and Lehran agreed to this covenant and soon after the Goddess of Order fell into a deep slumber. The four then decided to spread the rumors of a dark God that would be freed in case of large scale conflicts being trapped into the medallion to discourage warfare. These rumors were helped by the fact that the Goddess' emotions concentred into Yune would manifest in the medallion and that anyone without true balance in their heart would be overtaken by irrational bloodlust if they came into contact with it. During her sleep, Ashera's nature was deformed over the years and she was remembered as a kind and loving Goddess all over Tellius due to the influence of Begnion instead of the emotionless being she really was.

It did not take long for the peace to be broken with the realization that children born from a Laguz and a Beorc resulted in the loss of a Laguz' animalistic features and thus their very identity. Lehran was the first affected by this after the birth of his child with Altina now Queen of Begnion. The four tried to hide this by faking Lehran's death and refusing to acknoledge the child's existence until Altina was publically married to a new beorc husband who would pass as the father. They also started to spread rumors about the Goddess being against unions between a Beorc and a Laguz, which severly limited them and made the loss of a Laguz' identity seem like a divine punishment. This however had the secondary effect to bring back the racism both races had against each other before the flood over time.

Around 800 years after the covenant, the geopolitical situation of Tellius was very tense due to racism and slavery having developed across Tellius due to the extreme prejudice the Laguz and Beorc had against eachother. King Ashnard, an insane man with the desire to see the world burn, eventually rose to power in Daein by assassinating everyone who had a claim on the throne and started to plot to realize his dream of creating a war that spread to the entire continent. He also tried to free Yune, not knowing who she was and believing she was indeed a dark God that would end humanity. He failed and Yune wasn't freed due to Dheginsea and his country Goldoa refusing to join the war to protect the covenant.

The Mad King's war still caused a lot of problems as the continent was very instable and the racist tensions were still there despite Ike's effort. Another war started, this time between Begnion and the Laguz. In the meantime, Yune started appearing to Micaiah because she sensed that this war would break the covenant if nothing was done. She managed to have her sing the Galdr of Release to the medaillon, which freed her and awakened Ashera. Due to the nature of the awakening, Ashera was forced to negociate with Yune on what to do with the world. Ashera still petrified everyone but the Branded who symbolised the union between the two races as punishment while she waited for Yune's arrival. Most of the playable cast was also with Yune at the time of the petrification and were protected by her powers.

Yune then led Ike, Elincia, and Micaiah's forces to the Tower of Guidance. To defend herself, Ashera de-petrified a select army of Begnion soldiers and senators as her Disciples of Order alongside the servants who were by her side when she awaoke. None of the disciples actually understood that Ashera was the one who petrified the world and they blamed Yune for it, which served as their motivation for going after her army.

With Yune's help, Ike, Micaiah, and the most elite beorc and laguz are able to power through Ashera's forces and make their way to Ashera's dwelling. Consistently failing, Ashera resurrected the disciples from the dead over and over to ceaselessly bombard Ike's company as they prepared to scale the Tower of Guidance. At the top, Yune finally confronted Ashera and tried to reason with her by telling her that the evolution of Zunanma into the Beorc and Laguz, and ultimately the Branded meant that their creations had the potential to overcome their imperfections in time but Ashera refused to acknoledge her proposition by stating that the chaotic nature of evolution is the reason the world is in such a state.

With their pleas falling on dead ears, Ike's party thus engaged Ashera in battle, defeating the auroras shielding her and the elemental spirits in her service, with a divinely empowered Ike managing to overpower Ashera, striking her down with the divine sword Ragnell. Her judgement at an end, Ashera dissipated and vanished completely. After Ashera is defeated, Yune is able to reunite with her other half, and the Goddess Ashunera reappears to protect Tellius 1,200 years after the events of the game.