Unless you’re a die-hard Cipher follower or merchandise collector, you might have missed the birth of the real-life “Cavalier Duo” during 2016.

Perhaps better known for their roles as Sound Director and Music Composer in Fates, Hiroki Morishita (left) and Takeru Kanazaki (right) performed in a series of Fire Emblem mini-concerts during the Cipher Caravan events from June to August 2016.

Around this time, the pair became known as the “Cavalier Duo” (“Social Knights” in Japan, based on the Japanese name of the Cavalier class), with Morishita being the red Cavalier and Kanazaki being the green Cavalier.

Later, during the end of 2016, the pair released a soundtrack CD containing music they performed at the Cipher Caravan event, dubbed “Sounds of Fire Emblem from Cipher Caravan – Horse and Rider as One”.

Slightly annoyingly, the CD was sold exclusively at Comiket 91, meaning not all fans were able to secure a copy. Fortunately, a very generous individual has given Serenes Forest a copy of the CD, which we’ll take a look at below…

The front of the CD is simple and effective. Along the top is the title of the CD; by the way, “Horse and Rider as One” is a rather crude translation–as we understand, it’s meant to refer to the Cavalier and his steed being one entity.

Below the title is the artist–the “Cavalier Duo”. The bottom half features adorable pixel art of Cain and Abel playing the piano and guitar, which is a reference to the instruments Morishita and Kanazaki use during their performances.

On the reverse side is the track list.

Don’t worry if you can’t read Japanese, as these have been translated by Prince Of Iris:

It’s a bit hard to see from the photographs (sorry, the forest wasn’t very bright at the time), but the background is based off the ancient murals in Awakening, seen in background materials.

In fact, if you take a look at the ancient text, it’s just the same writing found on Awakening’s Fire Emblem. Which is sort of lazy, but it looks cool, which is the important thing.

Inside, we get a good look at the CD itself, which again features sprite art of the Cavalier Duo, plus the various Cipher faction icons.

For those that don’t follow Cipher, the icons are: the Brand (Awakening), Hoshidan and Nohrian crests (Fates), Blade of Light (Shadow Dragon etc.), Divine Weapon (Binding Blade etc.) and Holy Flag (Genealogy etc.).

When you take out the CD, you can see the faction icons more clearly and the pixelised Cavalier Duo in an alternate pose, holding their weapons up. Somebody obviously had a fun time drawing those sprites!

Next, let’s take a quick look inside the booklet at the front of the CD. On the left side, there’s the track list again in case you needed it, while on the right side is a message from the Cavalier Duo accompanied by more cutesy sprites.

Here’s what the message says, courtesy of Kirokan:

You have our deepest thanks for purchasing this “Horse and Rider as One.” We were deeply honored to have all your support, and thanks to that, releasing this CD was possible. It brings us the greatest joy that we can feel close to you all through Fire Emblem Cipher.

Meanwhile, inside the black obi strip is a pretty neat “Thank You!” message.

Moving on to the most crucial part of the package: what’s inside the CD. Rather than try to explain everything, you can find a sample of the included tracks right here.

While you can no longer buy this specific CD, if you want to support the Fire Emblem sound staff, you can purchase the official soundtracks of Awakening, Fates, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn from places like CDJapan.

(For this reason, we won’t be uploading tracks from those soundtracks to Serenes Forest.)

Finally, each CD comes with a pair of Cipher promotional cards of pixel Cain and Abel. These are simply versions of their Series 1 cards with alternate artwork. However, they’re sure to be a talking point if you have these in your deck.

Not directly related to the CD, we were also given a promotional card of Lyn, available to anyone who made a purchase at Comiket 91. We like to think Lyn is having a fun snowball fight with you–the player. It makes sense, right?

On a final note, the Cavalier Duo will make an appearance at the upcoming Cipher Festival 2017 events as well.

Anyway, we hope you learned something–and enjoyed some awesome music while you were here!