Originally, director Toshiyuki Kusakihara considered giving Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave eight story perspectives as a way to try and surpass Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which only had three story perspectives. This was dropped down to only four story perspectives due to concerns that having eight protagonists would be too much for players to keep track of. Despite this, Eshmel was created partway through development after Kusakihara realized that the four stories coming together as one for the game's second half couldn't be done in a satisfying way, and needed a character who could provide a broader view of the overall story similar to Byleth from Three Houses. This resulted in Eshmel's creation and the story being rewritten to include time travel as a plot element.