@Grey
So far your description roughly aligns with what I had in mind as well.

I was thinking of making the little sister a prodigy, but one that lacked self-awareness and found it hard to believe she was one.
If her older brother is well-accomplished, then she might grow up in his shadow and believe that hypercompetence is the norm rather than the exception, even if her own capabilities could outstrip her brother's.
Maybe she admires him as well? A kind of hero worship? Which could also lead her into underestimating herself.

The matter of class is still up-in-the-air, but I was thinking of Tomes and Swords or Tomes and Knives/Shuriken/Whatev.

@BurningDaisies Oh, nice, so it all lines up.

I had him down as well-accomplished enough, but not to a legendary extent if that makes any sense. Basically he's supposed to be a guy who works hard behind the scenes to make sure that he can fit the image he's trying to shoehorn himself into. So I could definitely see her coming to that conclusion.

I actually support the idea of her underestimating herself and looking up to her brother, because I feel like that would make him suffer a bit more since he'd a) definitely interpret it as pity and b) there would be a mutual "BUT YOU'RE ACTUALLY COOL!" sentiment going on.

@Grey
@Genkai

I know it was left fairly ambiguous, but what social status should our characters have?
It would be interesting to be part of the Hoshido/Nohr royal line or aristocracy(?), but I could see us as the children of middle-class merchants too.

Any preferences?

@BurningDaisies No real preference, but I figure a family of some renown/nobility works better for plot and characterization

@Grey
I'm game for a potential court intrigue side-plot, if you want to be among the peerage or royalty.

Considering how Nohrian royalty uses absolute primogeniture for determining order of succession, I would assume the nobility would follow a similar tradition.

Is your character our family's heir apparent?
If not, who is the eldest sibling?
How many additional brothers and sisters are there?

If our characters ran away to go stop an unseen evil, did our family object to our actions?What ties might we have cut with our family?
Or do they support our decision? And, what consequences might our family suffer in aiding us? (if any)
Do they even know?

I made this assuming it might be more dramatic if they were all from the royal family (ie: like Ryoma, Xander etc). So if you'd like to go that route, I'm fine with that since it might make things more interesting. Of course if you guys don't want to, that's fine too. Since I haven't heard anything regarding Hoshido, it looks like I'll be playing as four roles since I also need to have the two twins who are associated with the pairs from both kingdoms. I'm up for the challenge though.

@BurningDaisies
@Genkai

If we're not playing the royals themselves, there's an interesting case for having our chars be the retainers of the Nohrian royals, what with the whole idea of turning against your friend and liege and all the fallout from it. Bonus points if Genkai is playing the Hoshido siblings as royalty because that's perfect fuel for misunderstandings.

But anyway, for your questions (answered assuming royalty as per above):

The character I've got works best as the heir apparent, so he ought to be the oldest yeah. I didn't really have anything in mind insofar as extra siblings, though.

With that in mind, if they know, the family reaction is probably going to be pretty adverse? You've got the best and the eldest running around god knows where, hanging out with national enemies.

But if they're supportive of our characters, that would open up some interesting avenues. If they don't believe us but still support us, maybe they're secretly Hoshidan sympathizers/spies or something. If they do believe us and support us, then that's that. But I imagine putting resources into a project that is traitorous if not insane would not fly with the severe nature of Nohrian politics.

If they don't know period, I'd imagine they'd be worried sick and probably send some people after them or assume the worst and take the appropriate courses of action (whatever those might be)

It is up for you two to decide the parameters of your roles in terms of whether they're royal, retainers (maybe a brother + sister pair for the eldest heir), nobles or common folk. I think considering the weight of the issues, somehow tied to the royals would be most interesting. Still, I can't make my twins (who will act as sort of this RP's hybrid of Azura and "Corrin") until I know how they'll relate to your duo since one will already be on friendly terms (depending if mine is a retainer or tutor or something). And I'll likely make my Hoshido pair as royals with one of my twins as retainer or maid...but as I said, once you can make a plan, then I can make mine. No rush though. XD

Another avenue is to be the children of landed nobles whose holdings protect the border. Perhaps something like a margrave?

It would be both politically and strategically damaging, if the lord responsible for holding the border was missing his oldest and brightest children on the eve of war with Hoshido.
Honestly, they would probably keep that under wraps. Even more so, if scouts returned with word that his kids were aiding "the enemy".
There's also the moral hazard of putting ones family in jeopardy in pursuit of "doing the right thing".

- - - - -

Edit;
@GM-sama, What class/options would be open to us?
Or are we using classes and their restrictions more as guidelines than any kind of hard rules to follow?

@BurningDaisies In terms of class options I'd say keep it to those in Fates save for those who change into dragons (urgh dragonborns). But hey wolfkin or kitsune would be okay with me. I saw what was being tossed around on page one and didn't have any issue.

I'm not going to be too picky with following class restrictions but I think they would be fair parameters to stick to since it's easy to know who uses which weapon(s). Did you have an example in mind that might be different?

@Genkai
An example that would be different?

Kind of? Not sure actually...

I really like the Witch class. Within the game, it's quite possible to have a hero or ninja reclass into Witch. But I wasn't sure how you would accomplish that roleplay-wise, except perhaps through intense in-character study.

It could all be condensed into Nohr noble I guess...

I could be overthinking it.
It's a definite possibility. xD

I never got to play as a Witch in Fates though I think that was through DLC? I also sort of remember a similar class in Awakening in terms of using elemental tomes. Were you eyeing the elemental tomes, hence the Witch class?

Witch gave you access to Dark and Anima magic. Any female unit could reclass into it.
It was great as an anti-mage mage unit, but it was a glass cannon of the highest calibre.
They eventually get the ability to use warp once per turn, which was incredibly useful and worth the squishiness.

I was thinking of combining Dark/Anima Tomes with some kind of bladed weapon: knives, swords, or axes.

The question is how does one accomplish that? There aren't too many tier 1 classes that offer that kind combination. In Fates, I don't believe there are any. It's exclusive to promoted classes, so it may be something I need to work towards. =o

It seems like quite a stacked class (reminds me of Master of Arms or Dread Fighter. I think having anima and dark magic plus a sword or knives or shuriken might be good though.

As Grey had mentioned, swords have a more royal aesthetic to them, so I was leaning in that direction.

Speaking of @Grey!
Have you given much consideration to which class you would take?

if anyone wants a retainer I could see myself joining this as one

@BurningDaisies Kitsune class, obviously. Gotta get dat floof.

Jokes, jokes. I actually haven't yet decided, but like I said yesterday I had some ideas brewing. Swords are a natural fit and I want a promote with two weapons, so I'm leaning Mercenary line (flavor text fits too!) or Thief->Trickster, which would put more emphasison the whole "not actually good at fighting" aspect, even if it's not right flavor.

However I'm also playing with the idea of Troubadour line since it might be funny to have the heir apparent be less a "glorious leader at the head of the charge" and more a support. Tho that does bring up the question whether I'd start pre-promote but eh.

By the by, if you want tomes and swords, Tactician seems to fit the character you're going for down to a T with the "good at magic, good at swords, good at strategy" combo.

@Grey
I haven't played Awakening, so tactician didn't even come to mind. Thanks~

Depending on how much older your character is, it wouldn't be a stretch to be pre-promoted. You could adapt the older version of Valkyrie, so you're a mounted unit with staves and swords.

Also! I do have some ideas about our shared character history.

Let's say we're royalty, but a few steps removed from the line of succession. We could the children of the king's younger brother. It wouldn't be a stretch to say our father could be the lord of an important duchy, either responsible for troops or natural resources. Perhaps both?
Assuming that, the eldest (being you) would be groomed for an administrative role, so being a "support" character on the field makes a bit of sense.

I was also thinking, that you might be the child of our father's first wife, and the sister be born to a second or third wife. That would give us an easy way to explain any age difference. We'd probably have some other brothers and sisters too, which we can flesh out later as needed.

Having a competent older brother as a role model, she grows up into somewhat of a tomboy. I imagine her tagging along to the general's meetings and such, being more interested in learning military strategy and technical studies than lessons in how to act at court or keeping up with fashion.

What do you think?

if anyone wants a retainer I could see myself joining this as one

@Alder
I think it would be fun to have a PC retainer, but @Genkai has final say on that one. =o

@BurningDaisies I'm assuming all the characters are above the age of majority, so to keep in line more with Genkai's original vision, we could probably just be core royals with important admin responsibilities. That would cover all our bases and also work better for GM, I believe.

But I do like the idea of having multiple parents, because it explains things away nicely and adds potential hooks to the plot. And a tomboyish sister would contrast nicely to what I've got.

Also. If your character's taking on Tactician and looking up to my character, I'm definitely gonna run Strategist since that's a lovely little alignment. Maybe-probably going to use the Radiant Dawn Valkyrie config for him.

@Alder I could probably work with you being a retainer but also distantly related to one of my Hoshido pairs if you'd like? Or it could be a strict retainer totally unrelated. Did you have a post sample I could check out by any chance?