Royphia

"I want to see you smile more than your power. I'm sure we'll face more hardships as we go along... But the least we could do is keep our spirits up, right?"

- Roy to Sophia in Binding Blade

Royphia is the het ship between Roy and Sophia from the Fire Emblem fandom.

Canon
Roy is the main charater of the 6th Fire Emblem game, scion of the house of Pherae of Lycia. Sophia is a shaman and a half dragon from Arcadia.

Roy and Sophia first meet after a battle between his army and the kingdom of Bern, with whose they were at war. Due to her heritage and resisting the attacks of enemy kingdom to her village, Sophia was captured by Bern's forces and imprisoned in the same cell of Cecilia, who happened to be Roy's teacher, leader of the resistance. Roy manages to free them both from their dungeon, and Cecilia explains to Roy that she is alright thanks to Sophia, who has healed her wounds. It's revealed that Sophia possesses a power that permits her to see the future. She explains that in her homeland, the mystical hidden village of Arcadia, the dragons and the human live in peace. She told Roy that Arcadia is being attacked by Bern, and begs him to save the village.

She proceeds to lead Roy and his army through Arcadia in the desert, joining his forces, fighting against the Bern's forces. After the battle, they discover that their enemies had entered to the temple where is hidden the divine weapon Forblaze. Roy is worried that Bern already took the divine weapon but Sophia reassures him, by revealing that she senses that the weapon is still here. They manage to defeat the Bernians. Sophia opens the altar allowing his to take the legendary weapon, Forblaze. After this, Roy continues to fight Bern and Sophia stays in his army aiming to end the conflict that endangered her species, seeing that Bern was using dragons like her, as weapons.

In the conversation that leads to their romance, Sophia says that she has a bad omen and asks Roy to not go to the front lines. He thanks her, but explains that due to his duty, he had to fight alongside the others on the frontline. In the following events, she apologizes to him for her negative predictions, but Roy answers that she doesn't have to be sorry since thanks to her, he was more careful on the battlefild and wasn't hurt due to her advices. He then asks her to warn him if she senses something more. Then, Sophia explains that her power isn't very strong and that she is worried that something can happen to him because of that. He reassures her and promises that he won't be too reliant on her power. He then says that he want to see her smile and that the best is to keep their spirits up.

After the war, having their romance unfold, Sophia follows Roy to Pherae, the land ruled by Roy's father, Eliwood, and they are wed, making Sophia the future marchioness of Pherae once Roy gets crowned. Together they help to rebuild the kingdom, and Sophia is stated to be a quiet figure in the side of Roy, but her wisdom played a major role in the reconstruction of Lycia.

Fire Emblem: Hasha no Tsurugi
The Hasha no Tsurugi manga, translated as "The Champion's Sword", is an adaptation of the game Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, protagonized by Al, Tiena and Gant. Here, Sophia is one of the characters with major role and accompanies Roy, helping him with her foresights as a prophetess. In this adaptation they don't develop any romantic relationship and both return at their home after the war.

Fanon
The ship is quite popular in the Binding Blade fanbase. Though, due to the fact that the game was never released outside Japan, Royphia isn't very known in the Fire Emblem fandom overall, since the game is quite obscure.

This ship is often shipped alongside Elnini due to the fact that both ship share some similarity: Both Roy and Eliwood are the main character of their games, both Sophia and Ninian are shy half-dragons with the power to sense the future and both Sophia and Ninian are first rescued by respectively Roy and Eliwood. This ship is also liked because if Roy is Ninian's son his child with Sophia will have 3/8 dragon blood. Also some Elfiora and Elilyn fans tend to like the pairing was well, seeing it as a good closure for the story, since Roy and Sophia have a happy ending in which dragons and humans can finally live in harmony, a thing impossible in the previous game, since Ninian has a tragic end no matter if she stays on Elibe or returns to her place. Some people may also enjoy Roylia, RoySue, Roylili and other ships involving Roy, but may consider his romance with Sophia the second best. Overall, the fans consider that their union has a beautiful meaning of dragons and humans being able to finally cohexist in peace.

The main rivals of the ship are on Roy's side RoyLili, Roylia, Roysue, Roylarum and Royshanna. On Sophia's side, Raiphia is also quite popular. Another reason for this ship not being more popular, is that Sophia is often considered as a bad unit mechanically since she is too frail and joins the army considerably late, therefore, she is rarely utilized because of that. However part of the fandom ship Roy with Sophia because their interactions are considered cute.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

FAN ART