#Anselma von Arundel

[xxwitchywhisperxx]

Behold… my vision of Anselma

[azelfandquilava]

”Local Church Man handed keys to an entire County”

Behold! A lore-accurate 3H edit of the real Volkhard Arundel and Ionius IX. Given that House Arundel wasn’t actually a thing until Anselma and Ionius married I’ve had this silly mental image of Volkhard suddenly being made a Lord and not knowing what to do.

(Ionius edit by shadowshrike2 on Twitter)

[koroart]

Hi, if it’s okay to ask, what are your thoughts on what’s going on between Lambert and Patricia? Especially considering what’s said in Dimitri and Hapi’s supports

Hm hm hm , this one is definitely a doozy — 🤔

Tbh… I definitely feel their relationship was in some way? Genuine? Not like, true love kinda genuine — it’s more so along the lines of ‘two lost people finding solace in one another’ because I do think at some point, they both cared for one another, especially in the beginning of their relationship. Especially on account with Patricia. But even Rodrigue pointed out in Hopes , that even he wasn’t sure if it was love between them — but it was something. It was enough for them to marry at the very least.

And concerning the things with Hapi and what information Hopes actually gave us— I feel like those small feelings of affection towards one another became gradually one-sided on Lambert’s side. Because Cornelia so often interfered between their relationship and kept Patricia separated from Lambert ( so she could probably be easier to manipulate) and I think Patricia definitely hid things from Lambert too — and wasn’t entirely honest with him, with and without Cornelia’s influence. He probably knew she had been the former consort of Ionius but I don’t think he knew she had a daughter ( after all, Edelgrad didn’t know her mother had fled to the Kingdom either and even when she was there — she was never made aware, otherwise her uncle may have mentioned it and she probably would have too, cuz what child wouldn’t want to see their mother? ) Cornelia probably twisted it in some way later down the line— making seem that Lambert knew and that he was purposefully keeping Anselma away from her daughter, and gradually Anselma began to believe her. ( which also seems to be the conclusion a lot of people in the fandom seem to make too — Intsys did a bad job in keeping the lore together and a lot of misunderstandings happened )

Which is probably why Patricia/Anselma seemed to have no issue in helping arrange Lambert and Dimitri’s assassination later down the line. Do I think she lived long enough to regret it? who can say really — but part of me feels she did regret it at some point but it was too late and she died with those regrets.

I want to take Dimitri’s recounts of their relationship with a grain of salt — in some way it was almost rose tinted because he’s never had a mother in his life, and Anselma being the only female presence in his life and my guess is he wanted to remember his time with her with some fondness despite the reality, and I felt his opinion on it, especially pre-time skip — shouldn’t really be given a lot of credence. Because chances are, he wasn’t privy to a lot of what was going on in the bg, and I’m sure his father wouldn’t want him to worry about such grown up things. What parent doesn’t keep pressing matters away from their children? ( let’s not forget Dimitri only found out Edelgard being his step-sister AFTER she left and AFTER Duscur I believe, so he wouldn’t have been able to get answers from anyone regardless )

Hm hm much to think about methinks

[edelgards]

arundel siblings doodle bc i felt like it

[ncfan-1]

Here, have some semi-disorganized thoughts, because the more I think about what’s implied about Lambert and Patricia’s relationship, the more I find myself side-eyeing… Lambert, actually.

(And to be clear, I consider Cindered Shadows and the information that arises from it questionably canon at best, but when it dovetails with what we already know from base 3H, it makes sense to include it. And when you’re talking about Patricia and Lambert’s relationship, you can’t really avoid Cindered Shadows, so here goes.)

First of all, as a disclaimer: I do believe that Lambert was genuinely infatuated with Patricia/Anselma. I’m not denying him that. It’s just… everything that comes after it that feels questionable. Because that doesn’t feel like why he married her, based on what comes next?

[That said, maybe don’t read if you have a particularly rosy view of Lambert. I don’t characterize him as a monster, not by any stretch, but like I said, I side-eye him hard.]

So you’ve got this banished former Imperial consort living in Kingdom territory. And she’s a woman of high rank (at least formerly, but her being the mother of one of the Emperor’s children is still going to be true, regardless of whether or not she is still regarded as one of his consorts), and upper-class Fódlan society as a whole is extremely heteronormative with all of the subordination of women that implies. So on the one hand: she needs to be kept according to her station, and that involves having her married so she can reside over a noble household once again, but the only man of high enough standing to marry her, a former consort of the Adrestian Emperor… is the widowed king. And on the other hand: she can’t be allowed to potentially run amok causing political strife in the Kingdom by trying to regain her old position (we don’t know precisely why Anselma was dismissed and exiled, but based on what we’ve seen of the Imperial nobility, it’s not unreasonable for Lambert and the Kingdom nobility to assume that she would be putting a lot of time and energy into trying to regain her former position, and it’s equally reasonable to assume that they’d want to stop her from doing that in Kingdom territory, since it could cause strife between the Kingdom and the Empire that they absolutely do not need), and the best way to keep her from doing that is to tie her down to a husband who can Control Her, but again, the only man of high enough standing to marry her, a former consort of the Adrestian Emperor… is the widowed king.

This does not feel like a spur-of-the-moment love match. It feels more like Patricia is equal parts charity case and quasi-political prisoner in Fhirdiad, with all of it smoothed over by having her marry Lambert, so that they can both avoid drawing ire from Imperial factions who wouldn’t want them sheltering Anselma in the Kingdom in a position of such high honor as being a part of the royal court (likely a large part of why she changed her name to Patricia in the first place, or perhaps why the decision was made for her that she’d be changing her name), and so they can avoid drawing the ire of Emperor Ionius, who by all accounts loved and favored her, by shutting her up in genteel imprisonment. Give it all a gloss of ‘new queen consort’ to appease the emperor, and give it a gloss of ‘her ties to her homeland have been heavily severed with this new marriage, to the extent that she’s even been stripped of her old name’ to appease those in the Empire who don’t want to see her come back. Patricia’s primary consolation is that her new husband is genuinely infatuated with her, and thus is likely to treat her well.

At least, that must be how it seems to her at first.

And I say all of this because some stuff that we learn about Lambert and Patricia’s marriage just does not make sense if you assume that this was a spur-of-the-moment love match?

First of all, Dimitri says outright in his and Hapi’s B support that “for all intents and purposes, [his] stepmother was completely cut off from the outside world. Suffice it to say few knew that [his] father had taken a second wife.” So first off… that doesn’t sound right for a normal marriage. At all. Even Dimitri acknowledges that the union between his father and stepmother caused a great deal of speculation; even Dimitri, who has a history of white-washing his past to make it all seem a lot rosier than it actually was, grasps that there was something not quite normal about this marriage. You would expect a queen to be engaged in charitable works across the Kingdom, you would expect her to leave Fhirdiad on pleasure trips, either with her husband or alone, but instead, it seems as though her movements were heavily curtailed.

Second, Dimitri states in his and Hapi’s A support that “although she was the queen consort, in truth, [his] father and stepmother were not even allowed the dignity of being alone,” further asserting that Cornelia constantly inserted herself between them. So you’re telling me that Lambert is so ineffectual that he can’t even ask, or use his authority as king to order, that Cornelia leave the room so he can be alone with his own wife? That doesn’t sound right for a man assertive enough to plan sweeping political reforms against the protests of a wide swath of his own nobility. What sounds a bit more like right is that Lambert doesn’t particularly care if he and Patricia are left alone together, and what suggests about the nature of their marriage is that Lambert is perhaps less her husband than he is her quasi-jailor.

Third, Dimitri will eventually admit that Patricia was fairly cold towards him. He states in his B support with Hapi that it was his stepmother who raised him, and Hapi notes that he shares many of her mannerisms. While it’s not fair of Patricia to be cold towards Dimitri, regardless of what the true nature of her relationship with Lambert may or may not be, if her marriage with Lambert was equal parts charity case and genteel imprisonment with a ‘queen consort’ coat of paint slapped on over it, I think it might explain her coldness. Patricia’s feelings towards both Lambert and Ionius are up in the air, but without a doubt, she loved Edelgard, her child. But not only has she been separated from her daughter for good and trapped in a gilded cage called “marriage” clear on the other side of the continent from her, she’s now had her quasi-jailor’s kid foisted upon her to raise, as well. Like I said, it wouldn’t be fair for Patricia to let her resentment regarding her position spill over onto Dimitri, but it’s still a pretty human reaction, and if things are as I think they are, then it unfortunately makes perfect sense that she has little to no interest in being a warm stepmother to Lambert’s son.

That brings us on to Edelgard’s time in Fhirdiad. We know that Lord Arundel, Patricia’s brother, abducted Edelgard and brought her to Fhirdiad during the Insurrection of the Seven, though the reasons for his abduction of his niece are murkier. Dimitri frames it in the Childhood Memories scene in ‘The Cause of Sorrow’ as Edelgard and her uncle being in exile together, and goes so far in his A support with Hapi as to state that Lord Arundel had sought asylum in the Kingdom. Edelgard herself frames it as an abduction, something that was done to her without her consent, let alone her father, the emperor’s, and again, though her uncle’s reasons for doing so are murky, I am inclined to think that Edelgard is in a better position than Dimitri to know if it was an abduction or not, so I am characterizing this as an abduction as well. Even if Lord Arundel was seeking asylum with his niece in tow, he did still kidnap her to do it, and we don’t know his exact reasons. They could be altruistic—Arundel trying to save Edelgard from being experimented on like her brothers and sisters—or he could have done it to seize an advantage over Ionius, as Edelgard was one of only a small handful of his children to have a Crest. We just don’t know.

We know from the Childhood Memories scene in ‘The Cause of Sorrow’, from Dimitri’s own lips, that he and his father visited Lord Arundel and Edelgard when they were living in Fhirdiad. But we know that Patricia didn’t find out that her brother and niece had been in Fhirdiad until after they were both long gone.

What?

Dimitri and Hapi’s A support frames Patricia’s predictably furious reaction as being all Cornelia’s fault. That Cornelia had planted the idea in her head that Lambert had deliberately withheld this knowledge from her, and that in reality, Lambert had been just as in the dark about Arundel and Edelgard’s true identities as Dimitri was. But I don’t buy that? Dimitri states that Arundel was seeking asylum in the Kingdom, and in order to be assured asylum, he would have needed to explain who he and Edelgard were, and spin some story to make this look less like an abduction. Edelgard is stated to strongly resemble her mother, as well; surely Lambert would have noticed.

And even if you believe that Arundel could have lied about who he and Edelgard were and gotten away with it, there’s still the fact that Dimitri found out that Edelgard was A) the girl he had known in Fhirdiad years ago, and B) his step-sister, before he entered the Academy, which would indicate that Lambert had known about it at the time. Again, Lambert is painted as being a very politically savvy man. At no point is he painted as being a dunce. So Lambert absolutely did know who they were, and he absolutely did conceal that information from Patricia. No tricks by Cornelia required! Likely all she had to do was voice aloud the thoughts already fulminating in Patricia’s own mind.

Dimitri dismisses the idea that he did this on purpose on the grounds that he can’t think of what his father would have had to gain from purposely concealing the knowledge from Patricia, but I can think of a few things. Dimitri doesn’t want to see it, because again, it contradicts the rosy picture he’s painted of his past.

The absolutely kindest explanation I can think of is that Lambert is perfectly aware that this is a political powder keg he has on his hands. Regardless of whatever story Arundel spins to him on why and Edelgard are in Fhirdiad, this is an abduction; it was done without the consent of Edelgard’s custodial parent, and thus he has a kidnapped Imperial princess in Fhirdiad. He has to be very careful about how he handles the situation—he could all too easily spark a diplomatic incident between the Kingdom and the Empire if he handles it wrong. It’s possible that he did not want to introduce Patricia to the powder keg out of the fear that she could be the spark that ignited it by understandably demanding that her daughter be given over into her custody.

But even this kindest explanation demonstrates that Lambert doesn’t consider Patricia an equal partner in their marriage. That’s probably not so unusual for noble marriages in Fódlan—again, upper-class Fódlan society is excruciatingly heteronormative, with all of the subordination of women that that implies—but he’s not even thinking about it in terms of introducing her into the situation to try and ferret out the truth of why Arundel and Edelgard are in Fhirdiad, not even thinking about the fact that Patricia’s brother and daughter might let something slip to her. Not only does he not consider her an equal partner, he doesn’t even consider her a useful tool.

And that’s the kindest explanation. Others include that he just straight-up never took her feelings into consideration, that he never stopped to consider her feelings on the matter for even a moment. Others include that he deliberately concealed it from her because he didn’t want Patricia to be reminded of her old life in the Empire, because he did not want her to reestablish her bonds with her old life. Whether it was because he didn’t want her causing political strife that could endanger the Kingdom, or because in his infatuation with her he simply didn’t want her to leave, that’s not clear. It could be some combination of the reasons I stated above. It could be something else altogether. It could be all of them at once, stitched together into some monstrous leviathan of the ways women are disregarded by their husbands in societies like these, and all of the suffering that derives from it.

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I used to think that Patricia had to be extraordinarily stupid to still trust Cornelia enough to go to her for help after she saw what she was doing to Hapi and was cognizant enough to be horrified by it, but nowadays, I think it’s more emblematic of how desperate she was. She wanted to be reunited with her daughter, and if she wanted that, if she wanted to be Anselma again, then Cornelia was the only person she could turn to for help. She had no support network in Faerghus. Equal parts charity case and political prisoner, she had none of the normal recourse against mistreatment. She couldn’t look to her husband for help. He had already demonstrated that he had no interest in reuniting them. Their marriage was a farce, after all.

And no matter where she lived, Anselma was never more than a pawn on somebody else's gameboard.

[cynical-gamer-media]

FE3H, Edelgard & Black Eagles Bonding, Anselma lore, ch.1/4.

Based on @rubytactician phenomenal idea of 'Anselma is turned into a Demonic Beast who constantly seeks out to reunite with her daughter, El'.

Alois returns from the Oghma Mountains, claiming that there is a Demonic Beast that utters the word 'El'. Recalling an incident with a sibling transforming before her eyes Edelgard ponders if the beast is one of her siblings. The Black Eagles are tasked with eliminating it, so will she figure out the beast's identity before it can be killed? (Edelgard is only partially correct: the creature is a family member, but not a sibling...).

[slotumn]

So I've been thinking more about East/West divide in Kingdom, and what are the chances that Anselma never being publicly revealed and going by a different name had something to do with that + her being Adrestian and coming to Faerghus not too long after Cornelia, who was also Adrestian

Again my personal headcanon that disparity in development/political power (latter related to Crests) is a part of what fuels resentment in Mach towards Faerghus. And as I wrote here, if the central gov't that's already perceived as neglecting a region suddenly appointing someone from outside of the country in an important position, I think that really wouldn't have gone over well in Mach.

And if the king announces that he's gonna marry an Adrestian woman, one that's friends with the other recent Adrestian hire at that, what would the reaction in the west have been. Hell even ones in the east traditionally loyal to the crown might have been (squints eye) at that one. I mean it would have been one thing if Anselma was never married before but she was a former consort of the emperor + had a kid with him + has another Adrestian friend in court? She'd never escape the "sent by the Empire to compromise the Kingdom" allegations alongside Cornelia.

Maybe that's also a part of why Lambert and Anselma kinda let bodyjacked Cornelia (Cleobulus) interfere so much in their relationship. Like, they knew Anselma's existence would cause problems for Cornelia too, despite all she'd done for the Kingdom, so they thought that was the least they could do or something.

[simonetheestan]

You know what's tragic? That no one in the Fire Emblem Three Houses fandom on Tiktok had thought to make an Dimitri edit with Mama's Boy by Dominic Fike before this shit with the record labels and congress went down. Especially with regards to his relationship with Patricia/Anselma. He loved her so much and mourned her to the point of madness yet..😭

[ladyniniane]

Anselma of Néa Agartha

Today we have...not exactly an OC but almost since it's my interpretation of the one and only Anselma von Arundel.

Making sense of her backstory was difficult, but she now lives rent-free in my head.

Here, she's depicted after the Tragedy of Duscur. Hence the burns on her face. Those who read my fic know that it's not just her face.

Her dress was inspired by Minoan fashion (here are my references) but adapted to the Faerghian climate. I headcanon the Agarthans as wearing this sort of clothing before the flood. The survivors opposed to TWSITD still wear it.

Since Anselma was rescued by such a group, she has adopted them too.

[hauntedaeon]

Imagine a setting where Dimitri and Edelgard were able to grow up happy siblings. Maybe the tragedy never happened and maybe Edelgard didn’t lose her siblings and get experimented on. Maybe it did but they pulled through together.

Edelgard, Dimitri, and their parents living in Faerghus together. At some point Anselma/Patricia reveals her identity to the public and Edelgard is officially recognized as a princess of Faerghus.

Dimitri and Edelgard go to the academy together, both in the Blue Lion house. At first Dimitri is still house leader but Edelgard is too in everything but actual title. Dimitri may be strong and have a good heart but he knows his limits and often looks to his sister for advice, it even gets to the point where they attend house leader meetings together. Ferdinand finds it odd but Claude doesn’t mind, Edelgard’s intelligence makes her fun to talk to (and to try and find her secrets).

It gets to the point where Byleth asks Rhea if they could be co-house leaders. Seteth hates the idea but Rhea is amused and allows it. After all the two are more affective together. And with their seconds (Dedue and Hubert) the Blue Lions are in great hands.

[dragongutsixofficial]

So somebody in a Discord server I'm in asked the question "what if Edelgard's mother, Anselma, was a Demonic Beast and was wandering around looking for her daughter" and now I'm in the process of drawing a big, scrawny, effectively blind, incredibly volatile murder lizard.

Ooooh i wanna see it when it's done so badly (only if you're comfortable with it of course) >=D

This is so angsty and I'm here for it ! Do you think she'd have some degree of sentience ?

On a similar note, if that ever were to happen I think that while Edelgard would be rather distraught (no shit), Loki has never really cared for his parents. My own take on it is that Anselma and Lambert's couple was already going to sh*t by the time he came around so they weren't as present nor as good a pair of parents as they would've wanted- so he clung to Dimitri most of all. He would be sad for her as a person but wouldn't grieve her as a mother, nor seek a relationship with her.

I feel like there'd be a lot of complicated feelings to unpack between Edelgard, Dimitri, Loki and Anselma- meanwhile Adel and Aline are just hanging out in the background using Ionius' portrait as a target for shooting practice

[theofficersacademy]

Hi! It's me, Ivy. I'm sorry to do this, but can I drop Isadora and reserve Anselma von Arundel/Patricia Blaiddyd instead? Thank you >x<

Isadora has been dropped and is now available!

Patricia Blaiddyd has been reserved!

You have one week (7/7) to submit your blog and application to the Masterlist. Thank you for your reserve!

- Mod Key

[azelfandquilava]

Cornelia Arnim and Anselma von Arundel (or "Patricia" as she'd later be known as) in their younger days. Remember, the two were friends once upon a time before Cornelia got Cleobulus'd.

Tbh I'm kinda disappointed how little fan content there is of these two, the little that does exist is mostly just about Anselma being played for a smuck by Cleo.

Commission by RavenClouk Design

[maelor321]

No, Anselma arrived in Faerghus long before the insurrection of the Seven, hence why she was a part of Dimitri's life for so long and when Edelgard arrived in faerghus following the insurrection of the Seven, anselma didn't knew and when she learned Edelgard and Volkhard had been in Faerghus, she was convinced by Cornelia that Lambert kept her away from her daughter.

Also, the suspicions of Volkhard working with Aegir come from the fact that Thales under Volkhard's guise became regent.

And remember, the insurrection of the Seven was the 6 leading houses+Hrym, it's brought up in Ferdinand's paralogue when Lysithea talk of how she never really understood why it was called that.

Volkhard also went into exile with Edelgard in faerghus following the insurrection, it doesn't look like the attitude of someone involved with the insurrection.

And the Fandom wiki is the one saying Edelgard and anselma left the Empire at the same time, and the Fandom wiki is full of shit.

Shaking everything like you don't understand I hate how 3H does not CARE about the people who the Agarthans took the place of !!! I hate that no one grieves for Arundel, Cornelia or Tomas !!! I hate that all that will be remembered of them is their desecrated corpses moved around like puppets and vomiting the worst shit known to man because the Agarthans do not care !!! Even the ones who do some sliver of effort to act in a similar manner to the ones they stole the identity for !!!!

Arundel was probably truly one of the rare person who cared for Edelgard and no one will know it because he's DEAD and THALES took his place !!!! This is fucking insane to me !!!!!!!

[cynical-gamer-media]

I am not sorry when I suggest FE3H Anselma von Arundel/Rhea.

Anselma: I am willing to do morally reprehensible and questionable things to reconnect with my family.

Rhea: I am willing to do morally reprehensible and questionable things to reconnect with my family.

Anselma:

Rhea:

-Makes out-

[anankos]

anselma von arundel i need to spin you in a microwave and pick your brains so bad