#I MEAN I GUESS sothis

[moeblob]

For that AU where Byleth runs the local church in a college-y town and Sothis is always hovering over him. He can see her when inside the church but he can always hear her even when out of the church (kinda like how she'll talk to him in game but you'll see her in Byleth's room specifically).

[randomnameless]

Since I'm neck-deep in this nonsensical mess of the half-lizard Lycaon AU :

In VW's infodumps, Rhea says this :

I was never able to forgive those who proudly wielded weapons crafted from the corpses of my brethren.

Which might explain her, uh, drive to hunt the Elites, even after Nemesis kicked the bucket.

From this we can have a sort of timeline : Nemesis dies, then Daphnel joins him and "zealots" aka, the Empire soldiers, are after the head of the Elite writing this (Maurice?). The author wonders why Seiros despises them so much.

And we know Rhea stopped hunting Maurice - when her drive for revenge was all that, supposedly, motivated her, when she will "never be able to forgive" those who wielded weapons crafted from dead nabateans who were in Zanado -

Not when Cethleann fell in a coma (that's heavily inferred to have happened post Tailtean), not when Cichol left, not when Macuil "died" during Tailtean, even without her relatives (brothers?) Rhea still pushed on to avenge her dead family members and kill the Elites -

The War of Heroes - thus Seiros's hunt for the Elites - stops when Lycaon dies.

We can suppose Rhea, who had no allies left anymore (the Saints left, the Empire is in turmoil) couldn't pursue the Elites... but they also had no one left with them, their clans already joined the Empire so they're just 10ish dudes running away from a very long lived, and furious, dragon : if revenge was the only thing on her mind, Rhea would have finished the job and killed Maurice.

And yet, even if the job was unfinished... Rhea stopped, and built Garreg Mach.

We went from a "revenge for dead family members" Seiros to a "only Sothis can guide and lead the world" Rhea.

Rhea could have switched and realised Adrestia would never be able to guide the people of Fodlan when Lycaon "was k-died" - if Adrestia becomes a viper's nest the second Wilhelm leaves the throne, then it cannot guide the people of Fodlan.

Yes, but what about Muriel, the Nabatean turned into Blutgang? Who gives a crap about what humans are doing or what will be the "state of the world" when one of Rhea's precious kin is still held by a bastard she will "never be able to forgive" ? Why should she bother about Fodlan now when one of her siblings is still missing?

If revenge was everything on her mind, why the frick did she stop and let Maurice run away?

But if Lycaon was her own kid - when he dies it's not only Adrestia's possibility to be something else than a viper's nest and to guide Fodlan who dies, but also the current possibility of having Nabateans live with humans -

There's no point in continuing to hunt Maurice, since whatever she does, there will still be a human out for Nabatean bones, willing to kill to gain power and that is something Seiros cannot prevent - Seiros + humans cannot build a world where Humans and Nabateans can coexist.

Who is the only person who can?

I also like this theory because it's a perfect parallel to FE16!Dimitri, with even more "crueler" result : being blinded with revenge doesn't kill her and all of her friends, but it has her survive everyone again - by wanting and focusing on the past, Seiros loses her present and her future (a future Adrestia where people would be able to live happily, a Fodlan where "might makes right" isn't the iron rule?). But instead of learning the "live for the present" lesson Dimitri ultimately does, Rhea... believes she is not the one able to protect the present+future, but Sothis is.

Sure, it'd feel kind of meh that Rhea doesn't turn to Sothis when Cethleann sleeps, Cichol leaves and, in general, 10k random humans die in the war, but when it's her kid who dies, she wants to bring back Sothis -

But in a way, Lycaon kicking the bucket after the War - after everyone fought and died to attain peace - is more impactful : they were in the "and they live happily ever after" part of the book, and he dies, meaning there is no "happily ever after" at all, rather, it never existed and will never exist !

Seiros the Warrior can warrior her way to get rid of Nemesis, but she cannot create a world where people - humans and nabateans alike - can live "happily ever after".

This realisation makes her break from "Seiros the Warrior" to become "The Archbishop" whose only goal is to bring back the Creator, so the Land can finally know peace.

----

Granted, this realisation could also happen if Lycaon wasn't a half-lizard but 100% human : if he was the golden heir picked by Willy, I suppose she supported his choice to inherit the Adrestia they both created, his "accidental death" could really have hit her like a truck, in the sense that she might have thought this human - just like Willy - was a human able to steer Fodlan in the right direction and it was alright to trust humanity again...

Only for him to be "accidently dead" 7 years after his investiture, and his successor pulling the "might makes right" rule to ensure the throne is still hers after a stupid "duel".

Humanity is fucked -> even if she recovers Muriel's bones Fodlan will still stuck because no one can guide it humans just proved it -> Sothis has to return.

[isephierreo]

Sothis' design symbols and colors are frequently represented in nabataeans design, game's UI and many more. In this post, we will address all of this.

Stars

These magical points of light would have always reminded people of other worlds and heavenly powers. According to spiritualists and astrologers, the stars transmit certain messages and energies that affect our own world. Stars are often seen as magical and mysterious, reflecting the mysteries of the universe. Also, the star would hold the meaning to something higher, beautiful, enlightening, mighty, and divine. All of these things unmistakably represent everything Sothis is in a game. The stars also symbolize guidance on the right path (either literally or figuratively), a role played by Sothis, Byleth, and Rhea in game.

Heart

The heart often symbolizes love and passion, but it also symbolizes spirit, the essence of life and strength, and this is in line with the concept of the crest of flames as the source of Sothis' power. Furthermore, the crest of flames is in the stylized shape of a heart, and in the Sothis' design it appears literally inside a heart in her necklace.

The similarity of the design of Sothis to the Nabataeans

In order to understand the method of my explanation of the similarity of the nabateans design with Sothis' tiara, I divided the crown parts and named each part as follows: P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7, P8, and P9.

Surely many have noticed that Rhea's adornment is very similar to that of Sothis, while the patterns on her cape are similar to those of Sothis' dress and the crest of flames. 

She has P1 and P2 in her outfit as Seiros.

Like Rhea, Seteth has in both his diadem and belt frame and tassels similar parts to that of Sothis’ tiara, but in a more stylized form as pictured below.

While Flayn's barrette may not look like the parts of Sothis' tiara at first glance, they are in fact stylized P1, P2/P3, and P5.

The distinctive pattern that Seteth and Flayn share looks like a stylized of Sothis' knot, and even the pattern on Seteth's back is similar to a P3.

Even the pendant owned by Sitri is the same as the P8.

Colors

Sothis generally wears blue (specifically dark blue), which is the color of the star Sirius. However, it is very important to note that the Sothis' ribbons are distinguished by the color white, which in Buddhist culture and most world cultures symbolizes learning, purity, longevity and knowledge, and pink symbolizes the traditional Buddha. So we see Sothis in crests mural wearing only white and pink. (I avoided golden and black because I felt that they are just colors used in general in design)

Besides, all the Nabateans wear the same Sothis’ color scheme, white, blue, golden and black.

The only color they lack is pink, which only Byleth and Seiros wear in her hair band.

The Byleth's dagger also has the same Sothis' color scheme, representing the relationship they have. But I guess I'll talk more about Byleth's design in another post.

The rainbow fish bestowing the Goddess Messenger has the same Sothis' color scheme.

I know that I ignored black and golden, and I know that some may think that the uniform colors of the Officers Academy represent the names of the three houses, but it also specifically represents the Sothis' color scheme, and evidence of this is the white shirts, and the dark blue which is the same color as Sothis' dress.

Its house leader insignia is similar to P1 and P4.

The pattern in uniform has P1 motifs, as does the infinity motif in Sothis' necklace.

The uniform brooch is stylized for P1, P3 and P4, but in rhombus pattern style.

Speaking of the rhombus pattern, some must have noticed it given its presence a lot in the game, and in any product for it. Sometimes 4 rhombuses major are combined to form a four-pointed star, and sometimes 4 rhombus minors are also combined with the major ones to form an eight-pointed star. The eight-pointed star is the one that represents Sothis and the Nabateans in general, which symbolizes god, protection, and victory. Over the years, it has also taken on different meanings due to a variety of cultures and customs adopting it. In many cultures the eight-pointed star is also a symbol of harmony, spirit, and matter. You could even think of this star shape as two superimposed squares that form the basis for the universe. Sometimes a square is confused with a rhombus, especially since a rhombus can also form an eight-pointed star with a square. 

This pattern is present in many parts of the game, including white magic units, church npc, and the pattern found in Rhea and Gilbert outfits.

The pattern found in Cathedral.

And in many UI game.

There are also many UI that contain a Sothis' design, as shown in the image below.

[butwhatifidothis]

You don't want a certain fic to be influential in the fandom because of what you perceive as racist and sexist undertones and that's all well and good, so does that mean you'll start sporking The Savior King, The Master Tactician and the Queen of Liberation soon? That fic has been criticized for pushing a white savior complex, a careless use of languages for cultures that don't fit them (Almyrans speak Japanese), consistently portraying Byleth as a hysterical woman who can't handle things without her boyfriends saving her from herself, and colonialist vibes of the Nabateans (a pair of Nabatean siblings are implied to be the background of the Almyran religion, which is just the white supremacist Ancient Aliens conspiracy theory but with dragons instead of aliens).

The Savior King isn't influential at all. No one is declaring it as good as or better than canon, the author never says she's trying to keep to canon or that her work is *~meta~*, and I haven't heard of any of the shit you listed ever existing despite me being in dimiclaude circles and once being in claudeleth circles.

People right now this second are saying Byleth isn't part Nabatean despite the game literally actually factually directly saying they have a straight up blood connection to Sothis comparable to Rhea's and despite Sitri literally being made through Sothis' actual literal physical heart. Take a guess as to who else said that and has been saying it for years in his fic (and thus his meta since he treats his fic as meta). Teacher Theory, Faerghus Toxic Masculinity and Faerghus as a whole needing to be uprooted and destroyed completely, the entire Edelgrid ship as a concept, CF being about fighting fate, all that shit and more is in a shit ton of places in 3H fandom and they either start from Cap'n or were popularized by him.

Popular =/= influential.

Hope that helps <3

[fireemblems24]

Azure Gleam - Special Chapters

Spoilers for the special chapters below.

SHEZ VS BYLETH

I didn't get the special chapter for SB or GW. SB, I just straight up did not care. GW, I tried, but it involved an "escort Claude" part and he just sat there and didn't move forward, and I didn't care enough to bother with the chapter a second time.

Shez sounds like Arval. Did Arval take Shez over? I'm guessing to go after Sothis?

Oh, cut scene! Shez vs Byleth again.

Byleth holding his own against Arval!Shez. Good to see. Shez is trying to hold Arval back though.

So . . . if we kick out Arval out in these chapters, does Shez loose their abilities/special class, because no :(((((

Felix, Dedue, and Dimitri are worrying about Shez and Byleth (also, awesome to see all my favs). Rodrigue has news about what happened.

Scouts report that Byleth and Shez are fighting. Felix accuses that Dimitri suspected this.

Dimitri tells how Shez worried that TWSITD would take over her. And Dimitri's promise to kill Shez to stop her from killing others.

Oh, we cut straight to the battle and have to defeat Shez. Makes sense. I'm guessing do it before Byleth dies?

My Shez is, eh, a bit stronger than Byleth, so I'm a bit worried. But Dimitri's such an overkill at this point, he's just going to blaze through this chapter like he did the last one.

It's weird not having Shez among my playable characters. I'm using Jeralt instead of Shez for my missing 8th person because he's the highest level (and I can't use Byleth either so).

Edelgard is around somewhere? Claude showed up to hunt her down.

My Byleth is like 10 levels below Shez. It's not going well.

Atrocity is one hell of a drug. Took Shez out.

Defeating Solon feels good. Got a cut scene too. He just ran away though. Wait, Arval/Shez killed Solon? Ohhh, like Solon killed Kyrona. A sacrifice is needed to open Zaharas. Karma I guess.

Claude and Dimitri talking is kinda cool. And weird Edelgard showed up. It's so amusing to me that they wrote themselves into such a corner with Edelgard they just yeeted her brain lamo.

ZAHRAS

Arval is talking to Arval.

Dark Arval created Normal Arval because Dark Arval wanted typical TWSITD nonsense, domination, restore the world to TWSITD, etc . . .

And in the most shocking twist, Normal Arval is programmed to kill Sothis, so therefore Byleth, and while Arval took over Shez.

Oh, Shez woke up! And Claude's there with Dimitri.

So they all got sent to this Zahras place.

Shez doesn't have a lot of memory of what just happened, and tells Claude and Dimitri about Arval, who's gone though.

Now they have to find a way out of this mess.

Dimitri found Edelgard. Since there's like 4 people, no one plans on fighting each other until they get out. Then it's time to kill people.

So Edelgard doesn't remember what happened and got some spell cast on her by TWSITD.

Claude cheerily tells her what a fuck up her country is lamo.

There's this mini map with the 3 lords just standing there, chilling, in this dark abyss place. It's pretty funny looking.

All my other units are gone, but I expected that. Dimitri's my most overpowered unit anyways.

DIMITRI & CLAUDE

Is this like some kind of support?

So AG Claude wants to get rid of the central church and kill Rhea. Like, I'm down for removing any sort of political power from a religious institution, but this fixation on Rhea is weird.

Lamo, is this game serious? Did it really just blame nobility and arrange marriage on Rhea?? OMG.

I knew Claude went completely dodo bird in this game, but he somehow became even more of an idiot?

I'm kind of impressed lol.

He drank the Edelgard koolaide.

Dimitri's like, well, as long as you just dislike the church and not Faerghus.

It's interesting for Dimitri to acknowledge that his personal beliefs and his beliefs as a king are sometimes at war.

He also lays out why Claude's plan is an awful idea. Meaning, all the death and suffering he'll cause.

It's just a classic, Claude is too rash - Dimitri is too cautious.

Claude tells Dimitri that he's too good for him. And that they could've been friends if kingly stuff didn't get in the way.

It's overall a fine support, except this absurd idea that the church is solely responsible for stuff human nature always comes up with, and I think it's more a symptom of a huge flaw in the Fodlan games as a whole than anything else.

DIMITRI & EDELGARD

Dimitri finds it hard to talk to Edelgard because of all the people she's caused the death of. But way more polite.

Edelgard doesn't feel that way. Which, not surprised. She doesn't really care too much about the people who've died like he does.

Lamo, she also is way less polite and is like "you don't want to talk to the tyrant who's gotten everyone killed." See, though, it's acknowledgements like this that make me like this game more. She knows that's what she looks like to everyone not in Adrestia.

Dimitri gets annoyed with her for placing words in his mouth. And good for him. That's always annoying.

Edelgard is less confident than Dimitri that he has no regrets of his actions and carefully considered all of them.

Oh, good, Dimitri asks about Patricia. But Edelgard doesn't know what happened either. So, still no answers about her.

Dimitri wants to just end the conversation. I am loving how much he really doesn't want to talk to her. It's so different from Claude who he was curious about.

She falls down because dark magic place does it's thing, then helps her stand up, and they get a picture, which is cool.

It reminds her of when she fell once and took the help without thinking about it. Now she thinks about it.

Dimitri remembers helping a girl up.

I see where this is going, but it's funny such a mundane thing will trigger important memories, lamo.

Edelgard is like, yeah, knowing you, you probably helped a lot of people get up who fell down.

I'm living for these supports acknowledging that Dimitri's a way better person than the other two lol.

He's like, naw, it was you. Edelgard keeps insisting it wasn't her.

He calls her El at the end.

Is this the same support in SB? It works for AG, but man, this asshole just killed Sylvain (and Annette, and Gilbert, and Ingrid, and Rodrigue, and tons of other people from Faerghus simply bc she wants that land back), so I'd be furious seeing it there.

In AG, though, it makes sense.

BACK TO THE CHAPTER

Dimitri's the only one who asks about Shez's wellbeing. Does their dialogue change in different routes?

Oh, cool, I had some access to stuff like the blacksmith, which makes no sense, but ok.

Bad Arval showed up behind Shez, but she alludes it.

Arval says none can escape. But I doubt it.

Dimitri's like, that's bullshit, bc there's no way they'd build this without a way out, and if they can get out, so can we.

And then Dimitri's proved right when Arval says he'll leave, alone.

Ok, I learned this other Arval's name, but I am not going to spell all of that.

So like, after this, do they all just go back to war? Because if they do . . . lol.

They let you use all the 3 lords, but I'll probably only use Shez and Dimitri. Neither Edelgard nor Claude impressed me much when I started this game (and at the time I started, I liked Claude a lot more than I do now).

Oh, so a dark Hubert, Hilda, and Felix showed up. A bit sad it wasn't Dedue, though. I feel like he deserved to be the BL rep even if Felix is more popular. But maybe it was for variety? Like Dedue is another axe like Hilda, but then switch Claude's people out.

At the same time, Felix makes sense, esp in Hopes. He and Dimitri are practically married lol.

Dimitri's like, that's not Felix. He wouldn't get mad at me for doing this and not avenging people. He's not wrong.

Ohhh, not they're fighting phantom versions of themselves.

They had some throwaway lines explaining why Edelgard is normal now.

Lamo, Edelgard doesn't trust herself.

Meanwhile . . . Dimitri . . . is like, really excited about this. Because he gets to kill a version of himself. :((((

Claude's line wasn't as interesting as the other two. I know. Shocking. /s

Dimitri wants to thank Arval for letting him fight and kill himself. I cannot with this man.

Evil Claude just about totaled regular Claude. Edelgard isn't scratched though.

Edelgard and Claude were way more normal about reactions to fighting themselves lol.

I had to make Claude an adjunct. He was nearly dead. It's actually surprising how much worse he is than Edelgard. (Dimitri's not fair to rate against them since he's more built out and not dropped into this map for a one-time battle).

Ok, he summoned more dudes to protect him, and one was a Shez copy the other Dedue. So Dedue got credit too. So now I'm less conflicted about Felix making an appearance.

Shez is upset at fighting herself.

Dimitri feels awful about fighting the shades this time. He's only motivated by all the people he's kept alive in real life.

I defeated Epimedes. That seemed too easy.

Cut scene fight between Shez and Epi. It's pretty badass looking in the dark magic place with falling rocks everywhere. Like, in a cheesy but just roll with it way.

Shez wins. Arval pops back up and they almost hold hands. Arval's never felt more alone :( Honestly, kinda sad things end badly for them. So not recruiting Byleth gives Arval a better ending? Will Arval not be there in the final map before the final battle?

They escaped!

Dimitri's like "it felt like a strange fever dream" and honestly, not a bad way to describe it.

They lost Edelgard and are we back to the normal stuff? Oh, no Shez asks to go back to the search for her and the others. Claude wants to get back to his people too.

Ok, so moving onto the final chapter now.

xxx

[raxistaicho]

find it funny the edelcrits are still going after you and this red character. How did u get looped in racist accusations, didn't one of them write that one horrid throuple fanfiction that was racist af to Claude and a total character annihilation of edelgard or is it someone else away from their circle?

Good luck as always

No, you're thinking of Reynaattheend, she's on the same wavelength in terms of analysis of the game, but since she's not on Tumblr (to the best of my knowledge anyways) I wouldn't call her an Edelcrit.

Her fic is pretty dang yikesy though, featuring such wonderful features as,

some Nabateans leaving Fodlan to go "fix" other nations and being the apparent source of all religions (not beating the colonizer allegations at all)

Dimitri being a white savior for Claude

Byleth struggling with her emotions to hysterical woman levels and constantly relying on her two boyfriends to save her from almost getting herself killed (to give an example, Byleth struggles for page upon page against the Death Knight only for Dimitri to show up and one-shot him)

Just... everything to do with Edelgard

The Agarthans and Almyrans, despite their cultures very strongly and clearly leaning Greek and Persian, having German and Japanese as their languages, as though Reyna just thought any foreign language was as good as any other.

Byleth taking measures to hide Rhea's knowing distortion of Fodlan's history.

Sothis's destruction of two city states being lauded as a good thing for which holidays should be thrown (because I guess it was a Sodom and Gomorrah situation where literally every living soul in both cities were evil and deserving of death, meaning double genocide is heroic!)

Characters just swearing constantly because I guess she thinks that makes the fic more mature

Really glad to see people are starting to treat her fanfic with a more skeptical eye, I've done my bit to help push things along there.

[deathbirby]

K here are some terrible takes I have collected. Short thoughts for each one.

"Rhea intentionally caused famine by not sharing knowledge with Faerghus"

We have no idea what kind of knowledge she shared. And pick a side! Rhea has to stay out of human affairs because she's not human, OR she has to involve herself with human affairs because otherwise she's bad?

"The Church is homophobic"

Nowhere is it even implied that same-sex relationships are frowned upon in Fodlan. Hell, the archbishop, goddess, and many devout characters are queer, and nobody raises a fuss about their love lives in their endings.

Their holy book also says that the goddess does not deny love.

The whole crest stuff is not the church's fault. They tell you not to abuse crests, and had no hand in the creation of them. Humans did. And speaking of humans, Edelgard says that the people are the ones who elevate crest bearers, not the church.

The Church also has no control over the nobles, who would be the homophobic ones in this scenario??

"Cyril is Rhea's slave"

Cyril was an actual slave at House Goneril until Rhea saved him, something he is expresses his gratitude for by doing chores. He wants to feel useful in some capacity. This is a child who wants to feel useful and takes on extra chores because of that. He's a stubborn little lad, and we love him for it.

"Rhea keeps Cyril uneducated on purpose"

Cyril says in his and Lysithea's support that he keeps his illiteracy a secret because he doesn't anybody to feel like he's not up to a task because of it. AKA: He wants to help out!

"Seteth is doing propaganda"

I'm guessing this refers to the Shadow Library. Seteth removes books there that are either inappropiate or have information that's extremely dangerous if it got out. Some books talk about bans, but since those books are in the shadow library, that likely means they're outdated.

Or this refers to him calling Edelgard mean things?? She declared war against them; of course he's not happy.

"Byleth regains their humanity in CF"

Byleth was never human. Their mother is VERY much implied to have been a Nabatean, and their heart belongs to their (likely Nabatean) mother and the goddess.

Byleth also embraces their Nabatean heritage. Remember that Silver Snow is called Byleth's Route.

Byleth's Legendary Alt in FEH is their Enlightened One version.

Byleth's Brave Alt in Feh is Sothis's regalia, and they sing the Song of the Nabateans.

Byleth's Halloween Alt is a Duo with Sothis.

Byleth's Summer Alt is a Duo with Rhea.

Byleth's Khadein Alt talks about the Goddess's hand in events.

Byleth's Fallen Alt's Forging Bonds has Sothis taking over their body to protect them.

This argument also implies that it's bad for someone to be Nabatean, which is like... yikes.

"Seteth kills the western church members cuz theyre heretics"

"Indeed. The Western Church is attempting to seize sacred ground by force."

- They explain it to you in the exact same paralogue!

"The Nabateans benefit the most from the current state of events" / "The Nabateans are the ruling/top class in Fodlan"

How does the nearly extinct group benefit most from a system where their people's bones are used as WMDs?

They are walking on glass, y'all. If the truth (or even a lie) got out, they would get hunted down.

"Lonato is a good man"

He incited an armed rebellion against a church and would've mowed down villages to get there. He also goes around the knights to attack the students. No, he is not a good man.

"Nabateans ruled over humans in the past and their rule was bad" / "Nemesis did the right thing by taking out the Nabateans"

The word the devs use for the Nabatean rule is apparently something like "cure."

It is also NEVER stated that their rule was bad? Just that the Agarthans hated it (because they hate everyone).

Even the Agarthans talk shit about Nemesis. Nobody liked him.

And you can't... justify genocide? What?

"Sothis and her kids are colonizers and the Agarthans are the natives who got wiped out"

Fun fact! Despite all my theories, it is never made clear whether or not humans already lived on Fodlan when Sothis got there! The beginning cutscene flashes (Sothis's memories) show us a gorilla first, which implies that either life was not advanced, or humans did not exist by then.

Let's say humans did exist then. Sothis landed there and just started her own family. She never took any land by force? She shared knowledge with the humans which allowed them to build modern cities. That's not colonization. Please look up cases of actual colonization; I beg of you.

Sothis is more accurately an immigrant who shares her own culture with others.

"Sothis is not a god but a space alien"

It's never confirmed if Sothis is a space alien so that's actually just theory/headcanon.

Even if, all of her feats (and the dev's words) say that she's a god.

There are many more takes like these, but these are the ones I remember from the top of my head.

[slotumn]

List of worldbuilding stuff we can over-extrapolate from tidbits in 3H, assuming* they are fairly parallel to the IRL equivalents (that assumption part is important, it does a lot of heavy lifting here):

Africa equivalent. Khalid is an Arabic name, Arabic is a language in the Afroasiatic family, guess what the Afro part refers to, etc.

Plus North/East/parts of West Africa have interacted with Europe and West Asia for a long time, so if we have Fódlan (fantasy Europe) and Almyra (presumably fantasy West and Central Asia) then it tracks that there should be a fantasy Africa in there; not to mention Sothis' name comes from Egyptian mythology. I'd also expect that parts of Almyra has pretty active trade with Ethiopia and Somalia (horn of Africa) equivalent.

Specifically for Egypt, they seem to use Latin alphabet (current day Fódlan, look closely at the spell circles) and Cyrilic or Greek alphabets (in Shambhala I think). Guess what the ancestor of those scripts are (Egyptian hieroglyphs)

India. Aside from the fact India is in Asia (no shit) the killer knuckle is literally just a katar. Also the Buddhist motifs (Englightened One is Nirvana in Japanese, Asura, etc)

East Asia. Wo Dao and Foreign Tome's descriptions both reference being made in an "eastern land," and presumably they mean the Far East, since I think they'd just say Almyra if it was made there

The Eurasian Steppe equivalent and the nomads who move around there, responsible for a lot of cultural transfers and trade (alongside invasions, but hey). While I'm on this, interesting thing about Sreng is that they have both Viking names (Leif) and Hungarian names (Zoltan). Hungarian took Iranic and Turkic loanwords at varying points in history, Sreng is just across the sea from northern Almyra in-universe, and we get tidbits of both having horse-riding warrior cultures, so I don't think it's too far fetched to say that the two cultures probably have interaction.

Combining everything above, some kind of Silk Road, where culture and religion and language flow alongside goods. I'd assume Fódlan traded more actively with other regions before they went isolationist, and even after they did, they still get influences here and there; not to mention that the things they must have accepted before still persist.

One detail that would make the... anthropological development? of 3H world pretty different from our world, however, is actually Brigid. A lot of stuff points towards Dagda being the Americas (like potatoes being from there), but instead of them not really having interaction with Afro-Eurasia before Columbus like in real life (aside from some stuff with vikings), Elites were running off to Dagda after losing in Fódlan (mentioned in the Yuri & Constance paralogue) back in the War of Heroes, the First Mach War happened, etc. Seems pretty clear the reason all that was possible is because of Brigid— they literally act as a bridge.

Personal headcanon for Brigid is that they're a bit like Pacific Islands in the Atlantic, and that they're also the reason why Dagda has coffee. The migration route to ending up in Brigid being something like: starting off in not!Taiwan and sailing west -> stopping by coast of not!East Africa and picking up coffee before ending up in not!Madagascar -> parts of population sails further around southern end of not!Africa -> find a series of islands aka Brigid -> have interactions with Dagda on one end and Fódlan on other, along the way it's discovered coffee grows well in Dagda so Dagda turned it into one of their main exports

Yeah I've spent a normal amount of time thinking about this fictional world what of it.

[fayesdiary]

I have been thinking about this and techincally Sombron is like Sothis. He came from another world, somewhere and she was somewhere too before arriving into Fodlan so this mean Sombron... is an alien ?

...I guess?

"Alien" would probably be the incorrect term given how the worlds work in the FEverse but yeah, I guess Sombron would be Sothis if she fucking sucked

[hapigairu]

Remember when Dimi and Seteth assume Edel is trying to become a new Goddess or replace the Goddess and then at the end of CF, she's the only one who has the Crest of Flames (which is Sothis') after Byleth's crest stone shatters? Hmm... 🤔

...Huh. Hmm... Correct me if I'm wrong (cause I haven't played CF in ages), but doesn't Byleth "only" lose Sothis' crest stone, meaning that the Crest of Flames could still be in their blood? Jury's out on this one. But even if Edelgard does end up being the only person with the Crest of Flames, she'd still be far more reminiscent of Nemesis than Sothis since you could, I guess, interpret CF as a story in which Sothis and Nemesis'... successors, for lack of a better word, team up (against... well... her children?). Like, what if Nemesis won and killed Rhea and everything that would entail afterwards. And, while I do understand where Dimitri and Seteth are coming from, I don't think Edelgard even intends to become the new goddess of Fodlan. Rather she thinks her way is the only way (which is also an excuse to annex two countries, lbr), so she's willing to do what it takes to see it become reality, even if it means, y'know, murdering people... It's more a case of "I'm right so I'll get to decide how things are going to be, and if you disagree, I have enough land to bury your corpse and anyone who's with you" imo.

[kyogre-blue]

Remire month! Uuuuurgh, this is dragging. I just do not care about the Eagles enough to feel motivated here.

There's a few points worth noting though.

First, regarding Solon. He came to the monastery posing as Tomas only a year prior, explicitly to target Flayn. From this, the implication seems to be that Flayn has only been at the monastery 1-2 years. Questions that remains:

Why was she targeted but not Seteth? Could be that she's an easier target because she can't fight, or it could be because headcanon: she's half human. Or could be a secret third thing.

What was her blood used for, specifically? During the Sothis paralogue, Hubert and Edelgard discuss how the demonic beast is a "wild" one, which is a distinction that makes sense only if they already know about creating artificial ones, so based on that and the overall timeline, I don't think Flayn's blood is tied to turning people into Demonic Beasts. And there isn't really a lot else the Agarthans do in the present day. Unless they used her blood to make Nemesis and his fake Sword of the Creator...?

Second, regarding monsters:

During the Sothis paralogue, Edelgard makes a clear distinction between "wolves" and "hawkes" that are beasts, and a Demonic Beast. Hubbie makes a clear distinction that this is a "wild" Demonic Beast, a stray. They totally know about making people into Demonic Beasts.

Poking at the descriptions of the enemy units, the animals are "Giant Beasts" which have ingested "Dark Stones" and grown to incredible size due to the magic they absorbed (presumably from the dark stones they ate). The Wild Demonic Beast on the other hand has a "Cracked Crest Stone" and is described as having lost all sense of reason.

Notably, Maurice could talk despite having been a demonic beast for nearly a thousand years. He was often overcome by his bloodlust, but he retained a degree of reason above that of this wild demonic beast and also Miklan. Extrapolating from that, it might be possible for other demonic beasts to also speak or retain an even greater level of control over themselves.

Since demonic beasts can occur "in the wild," this seems to mean that a human being could encounter a crest stone "in the wild" and get turned into one. It's really unclear how many children of the goddess there actually were or whether crest stones are a 1 dragon = 1 stone deal. Can Nabateans create additional crest stones aside from the one they presumably keep inside themselves? Or did some crest stones end up being passed around after the Red Canyon?

Third, regarding Hubert and Edelgard, the backstory they give about their relationship is kind of puzzling. Hubert was made Edelgard's retainer at a very young age and is insanely loyal to her from the get-go. Was Edelgard always the heir due to having a crest, and that's why Hubert, the heir to the house that specifically become the Emperor's retainers, got assigned to her?

But that aside, why is Hubert SO loyal? And why does he make it sound like that loyalty was instilled by his father, when his father betrayed the Emperor later? Did they fall out, or did Hubert's dad also get replaced lol

Additionally, the entire way their history is presented... Edelgard claims to remember meeting him when she was 4, and Hubert praises her good memory? Edelgard, who specifically has holes in her memories? Hubert basically says he's hiding things from her and also says he doesn't remember this meeting, so like... are some of Edelgard's memories outright fake? What are we even supposed to make of this?

Anyway, liveblogging notes:

Remire village has a variety of symptoms reported: restless movements, fits of violence, becoming bedridden or even impossible to wake.

It's interesting that the Church is looking into this. Remire is in Imperial territory. Technically, it's not the church's problem, since there's not really any Church-related involved.

Manuela guesses it's either a combination of poisons or else dark magic.

Hubert and Edelgard point out that the same people (Death Knight and unknown mages) were involved with both the Western Church and Flayn's kidnapping. However, they also state that this doesn't mean these incidents and Remire are part of the same plot. Rather, it may be "different motives overlapping." Presumably, because Edelgard wants to let Byleth in on her goals being separate from the Agarthans' goals.

Tales of the Red Canyon is available this month but not the prior ones. It doesn't seem to stem from doing the Eagle Lion Battle, so is it related to Byleth's mystery illness? One of the explore NPCs says that monsters are more active during Red Wolf Moon, so is it just that?

Petra mentions that Brigit is a small island caught between the much larger nations of Dagda and the Empire.

Hubert and Edelgard B: Edelgard says they met when she was 4 years old. Hubert praises her perfect memory, which in this context makes me wonder if she's misremembering something about how they met. Hubert says he was six and does not remember it.

He remembers instead when she was injured. Her father scolded him and told him to protect Eddie with his life. Which is interesting given that iirc Hubbie's father betrayed the emperor.

They were together a lot until Arundel took Edelgard to the Kingdom. Hubbie went nuts, tried to run after her and fought with soldiers sent to bring him back for three days before being dragged back. (lmao?? he was ten? Then Eddie was eight?)

Hubbie all but confirms that he's keeping things from Edelgard.

This whole support is.... hm. It sure portrays Edelgard in an interesting light. A vulnerable light lol

Bernie and Petra B... Bernie can't handle the thought of killing vegetables or plants, but we're supposed to believe she shoots people on the battlefield.

Speaking of Sothis's mystery illness, I wonder if it's supposed to be caused by the Remire experiments? She mentions that she feels sleepy and that this feeling is familiar to her.

Caspar mentions that his father came by during the Eagle Lion Battle and talked to Edelgard, even though the two of them previously did not get along. Probably planning the attack on Garreg Mach?

Catherine has been at the monastery for four years, Shamir for five.

Ferdinand explore mentions that yes, Remire is the village where the game starts, and also wonders if one of the house leaders knew there were mercenaries there when they sought shelter there during Kostas's attack. Can't be Dimitri and... seems to not be Edelgard? So are we supposed to suspect Claude for some reason? Could just be throwaway dialogue for some reason.

Sylvain brings up the plague in Faerghus, which was almost 20 years ago and killed the queen-consort (Dimitri's mom). It was dealt with by Cornelia. This is just making me more suspicious that the Faerghus plague was caused by the Agarthans too lol

Two-toned whetstone trading chain: books of crestology to Hanneman > book of saints to Manuela > Fire Amulet to Cyril > Glowing Stone to Mercedes > "The Path of Dawn" to Marianne > Medicinal Eyedrops to Linhardt > two-toned whetstone

Hubert B: He explains how he's been sizing you up for assassination, but you're a tough nut. He also explains how, when Arundel returned to the Empire with Edelgard, he worked with PM Aegir and Hubbie's dad to render the Emperor "politically impotent."

He says he can "almost see" a second self lurking beneath the surface of Byleth... just like Arundel! Who is an evil shapeshifter pretending to be Arundel, which Hubbie knows.

Alois and Shamir paralogue: Derdiu in Riegan territory... Gamer lean forward.

The Merchants' Association sent a request for protection via the Eastern Church. What exactly is House Riegan doing that the merchants are asking the church instead lol?

The Eastern Church doesn't have a standing army. They want to contribute to make their presence known in the Alliance. But the Central Church has too much on its plate, so they're sending one super badass mercenary and some noble kids instead.

GW doesn't have a Derdiu map, so it's cute to see it. It's got little umbrellas along the area we can't go to.

The pirates pretend to be Almyran navy. So like... people know this navy exists (because it has attacked before?) or are the pirates jus making shit up?

We deploy to Remire because the situation escalates suddenly. Villagers start killing each other and houses go up in flames. ...I already forgot what we were expecting to do there at the start of the month, when the situation wasn't as drastic.

Nothing terribly interesting at Remire. Oh, I forgot to check the enemy X info... I thiiink some of them were listed as being with the Flame Emperor? Man, the actual characters have only seen the Flame Emperor once before this, right? Uuuuugh when was it? At the Holy Mausoleum (the fake one)? Or during Flayn's kidnapping?

Solon does explicitly confirm he posed as Tomas and came to the monastery to get Flayn's blood. He also conducted the experiments at Remire specifically in regard to Flayn's blood. I do think, though, that they already had a way of making Demonic Beasts, since Hubert and Edelgard emphasize that the one in the Sothis paralogue was "wild" (as opposed to artificially created). Not sure what they really wanted from Flayn's blood. Given how bad this game is about loose ends, probably nothing specific.

Anyway, the timeline is that real Tomas joined the monastery 40 years ago, then 8 years ago went back to Ordelia, where he presumably was killed and replaced in time to return to the monastery last year. This implies Flayn has been at the monastery for maybe 1-2 years. It also lines up with Monica's disappearance, for what that's worth.

Flame Emperor shows up after the battle to tell us that "he" is working with Solon, yes, but they do not have the same goals, and if "he" had known about what Solon was planning, he totally would have stopped him. But like I said, Edelgard and Hubert discuss the wild Demonic Beast in the Sothis paralogue in a tone like creating artificial beasts is a thing that they know about, so I don't think Edelgard is unaware that the Agarthans are constantly doing human experimentation even in the present day.

Seemingly, the Flame Emperor shows up here just to test the waters about Byleth joining "him."

Funny how Hubert runs up "have you seen Lady Edelgard??"

Sothis says she does not recall a previous time that you were at the monastery (when Jeralt mentions both of you leaving there), but like... she ALSO specifically discusses how she wasn't awake before the game started. So did she flip through Byleth's memories, ooooor....?

Tomas was from the Alliance, Jeritza was from the Empire, and though they do not connect it, these mysterious foes (the Agarthans) messed around with the Western Church in the Kingdom. So the mystery is set up that this foe has infiltrated multiple nations and has great reach. But lmao this isn't going to get addressed in two of four routes....?

[turquoisetuber]

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: What DLCs Would Survive Galeem??

I always found it a little backwards that only Kirby survived. Even if he was the only one with the ability to live, he would've helped someone else (like Meta Knight or King Dedede), but I just bought it. But with the additions of the DLC Fighters, there's never an explanation as to how they got there or if they were a part of Galeem's army. So that's where I come in. I'm going to decide what DLCs would survive and who wouldn't!!

NOTICE: I am by NO means experienced in all of these games!! A lot of my knowledge is from Smash and Smash only, so if I get facts wrong, feel free to correct me!! I'd love to hear all of your guys' ideas as well!!

So of course, there are rules and limits. If there weren't, almost everyone would live.

Nobody can latch a ride with Kirby/any other potential survivor. As I said earlier, if they were able to do that, Meta Knight and Dedede would be alive.

As said earlier, most of my knowledge is based off of what they can do in SMASH. But that doesn't limit it. I researched several characters' abilities to make sure my claims were as accurate as someone with no idea can.

With that, let's get into it!!

Joker: Not a Survivor

Joker is pretty much a normal teenager, and Arsène doesn't have anything that would help Joker escape?? I'm pretty sure that there are a few things in P5 that might have allowed him to survive? But as far as I know, no, he wouldn't.

Hero: Not Sure?? Leaning: No

I know nothing about Dragon Quest, but I feel like Hero would be in the same boat as characters like Link and Cloud, where they can try but ultimately they're gonna get captured. The only reasons I'm not sure is because of Hero's reveal where they save Link from Marth and Meta Knight, implying they were alive? But I don't think they actually survived and that that was just a way to advertise them.

Banjo & Kazooie: Not Survivors

Banjo & Kazooie would be in the same boat as Duck Hunt. They don't seem to have anything outstandingly useful to win with, so unfortunately they probably wouldn't live.

Terry Bogard: Not a Survivor

Terry is the most human out of the bunch for DLC pack one (aside from Joker, but even then, Joker has Arsène). He really doesn't have anything to fight against Galeem with and almost no means of escape. Terry unfortunately wouldn't live.

Byleth: Not Sure?? Leaning: Yes

Byleth, unlike the other Fire Emblem cast, has Sothis, who I think has been seen helping Byleth escape one place to get to another. Of course, I'm guessing based on the reveal trailer, and have no prior context to what that cutscene actually was. I still think Byleth could survive.

Min Min: Not a Survivor

Similarly to Terry, Min Min is just a stretchy human. She doesn't have anything all that special other than her arms. Min Min probably wouldn't survive.

Steve/Alex: Survivors!!

Our first definite survivors of the bunch, and they're the minecraft reps. Any shock? Anyways, this one is situational. But I'm gonna count it since the Star Fox gang AND Captain Falcon conveniently had their ships. So, how would they do it? Nether portals. If Steve and Alex build a Nether portal and go through it, Galleem probably couldn't get them, since I think the light would just break the portal on contact since it acts more like a weapon than an entity. So congrats, Steve and Alex, to be the first of three definite survivors!!

Sephiroth: Take a guess. (Survivor!)

Listen, Sephiroth can slice Galeem in half. Considering that, I think he could avoid Galeem's attacks. Under the assumption that he doesn't kill Galeem so that World of Light can actually happen.

Pyra + Mythra: Not Survivors

As far as I'm aware, neither of them have any abilities that could help them escape, since they seem human or equivalent? So they wouldn't make it, most likely.

Kazuya: Not Sure?? Leaning: No

Kazuya was weird to me. I'm not a huge fighting game person other than SSB, so I knew nothing about Tekken. After some google searches, I leaned to the side he wouldn't survive. He's mostly human, but even with his Devil's Gene, more powerful characters (like Ganondorf) also lost, so he wouldn't survive. I think.

Sora: Survivor!!

My main!!! Even though I love Sora, I'm not biased! I haven't played Kingdom Hearts. But based off of a few searches, and his Final Smash, I believe he can open portals with his Keyblade. Unlike Steve and Alex, he can open portals under less circumstances. So the place of our third and final survivor goes to no other than Sora!

To finish it off, the DLC packs brought some very powerful characters that could survive World of Light. I wish we had gotten some explanation as to what happened to the DLCs, but I get it. Cutscenes are hard to make. Again, these are all my ideas, and I might not be right! If you have something to add, feel free! I'd be glad to hear from you! If you got this far, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!!

[randomnameless]

Will Marianne's actual in-game characterization ever be represented again in Heroes, or is she doomed to be flanderized into "Momo suffered so much sad uwu" for the rest of the game's timespan?

Mean me wants to say she has no characterisation to give anything substantial to FEH to work around, but it's me being mean.

I guess that anything relating to her Relic, and Relics in general, will be flanderised and the truth will never be revealed because tea bags, and even if FEH tried, last year, with F!F!Billy (was it last year?) to give more meat to that subplot by saying Sothis from Nopes was pissed and wants revenge because her kin were slaughtered, even FEH can't craft stuff KT/IS left purposedly hanging in their games.

Sobbing about Momo though, give the impression that the devs care about the "lore" of Fodlan and give another, imo, more interesting angle to Marianne even if it comes as the cost of woobifying Momo but hey, since it's a given that no one gives a fuck about Nabateans, it's alright, poor Momo was a victim of his curse uwu, let's just not/never talk about what that curse is.

[flower-of-knighthood]

Governance of Nabatea

I'm sure everyone remembers the Nintendo Dream Interview about Three Houses few years ago following the release of Cindered Shadows, bringing an end to the DLC of Three Houses. The interview revealed a bunch of interesting stuff like Claude's real name, but most relevant to this post is the discussion of why Nemesis attacked Zanado, specifically the mention of the nabataen's governance of the land following Sothis beginning her slumber after healing the world.

There is a school of thought, popular amongst Edelgard apologists especially in the Edelgard discord server that is known for being a haven for genocide apologists and the like, which is that the nabataens were oppressive tyrants, whose actions completely justified their genocide at the hands of the so called King of Liberation. Now before we can truly get into things, we need to understand what was said in the interview which has two main translations from what I gather, with the first from Serene's Forest being;

In that world, originally the race that could change into dragons, the so called citizens of Nabatea, were scattered about Fodlan in the different places/lands as governers (rulers) 

And the second from NintendoEverything and a translation done by dubstepkazoo which can also be found here is;

In that world, the Nabateans were a race of people who could transform into dragons, and ruled as gods over each territory across Fódlan.

Now then, neither of these translations don't appear to explicitly support the narrative that the nabataens were cruel and oppressive tyrants, with the closest being the second translation which says they ruled as gods, which by itself merely means they were worshipped by the people.

Additionally, there are still legends speaking of the nabataen's impact even after a more then a thousand years since their genocide at the hands of Nemesis, for instance Petra who speaks about how Byleth's appearance after their fusion with Sothis matches legends from Brigid about people who had spirits inside them. Interestingly enough, you would think that Petra would act uneasy and would talk with less awe about Byleth's appearance if the nabataens as a whole or at least on Brigid were cruel and oppressive tyrants. https://houses.fedatamine.com/en-us/monastery/11#event-base-58-0

I can only guess why people would take something vague as a statement like the nabataens ruled as gods, and take that to mean that the Nabataens were definitely without a doubt, cruel and oppressive tyrants who 100% deserved to be genocided.

[emblemxeno]

Thoughts on Emblem Paralogues #1

Doing this again with the base game paralogues cuz as a longtime FE fan it’s cool to see how a celebration game shows its love. I’m not really doing them in the order they unlocked, so this is mostly a random assortment. 

For starters I like how for the most part, the throwback maps have pretty much the exact same enemy composition. Very wonderful and nostalgic.

Lucina, The Exalt: This one’s good. It makes for a good start to the overall reference paralogues, cuz of it’s simplicity. Wish I had more to say, but it really is that cut and dry lol. I guess I wish there was more reference to the fact that Lucina traveled back in time to prevent the bad future, but I guess that’s what bond conversations are for.

Lyn, The Lady of the Plains: I had lots of fun with this one haha, though I guess it’s cuz I was a tad overleveled when I did it. I heard the OG map in FE6 was very hated, or at least the Sacae route was disliked a lot in comparison to the Ilia one. I read that the original version had fake-out thrones that spawned reinforcements, so I would think that’d piss first time players off. The one thing that I’m kind of iffy on though is just the decision of using this map for Lyn. I know FE7 doesn’t have notable Sacae maps to choose from (I think the first 3 chapters of Lyn’s mode are the only ones, which would suck as throwbacks lol), and that her association with Mulagir thanks to FEH means it’s appropriate to choose this map in particular, but I think chapter 10 or 15 from FE7 could’ve served as good rep maps for her. It’d let her discuss her mixed heritage and connection to Eliwood and Hector, I feel. Oh well, not too fussed about it, since I do love when Lyn talks about Sacae.

Ike, The Radiant Hero: This one’s great. Ike destroying the entire castle was fucking hilarious, and I think it’s a perfect choice for his paralogue given it’s when he first took leadership of the Greil Mercs and had to establish himself as a fighter and protector who can hold out against terrible odds. Though a complaint on that front is that I wish there was some kind of defense-like objective, even though like I said, Ike one shotting a whole castle is funny. Shout-out to the mage in the same place as Ilyana and drops Elthunder, neat reference.

Byleth, The Instructor: Very much liked this one, aside from one aspect: healers with warp aspects (lol plot teleporting in 3H). Byleth’s dancing I can handle, but damn my OCD ridden brain hated beating the map without protecting all the crystals. Though I think I got the best reward anyway, it’s very lenient. Liked the House Leader stand-ins, but surprise surprise, there’s nobody representing Rhea, Seteth, or Flayn despite this being the tomb of their brethren :/ It’s also again indicative of how averse the devs are of associating Byleth with anything beyond being a teacher, cuz one could argue that chapter 10 could’ve been a better choice and still had the “power depends on the heart of its wielder” aesop cuz it dealt with Jeralt’s death and Byleth being granted Sothis’ power in the first place. But whatever, details, details.

Sigurd, The Holy Knight: My favorite of the ones I’ve done so far. I think it’s a great way to represent Sigurd through a Gen 2 map and it gave a fair challenge. The Arvis stand-in with Meteor is hilarious. I really, really regret not getting the goddess icon from the tile that references Seliph’s talk with ghost Sigurd and Deirdre, that little easter egg is so fucking cute 😭 Sigurd’s talk about revenge and there being more than one truth shows just how great of a character he is (and his significance in Engage kind of points to more evidence that FE4 is probs getting remade soon). But the coolest part of the map are the Julius and Ishtar stand-ins. It took all of my brain power to take them out without anyone dying, but I did it! Using the Tiki bracelet came in clutch, cuz even if an attack like Ice Breath misses, it still damages adjacent enemies for the calculated damage. Widdling away at Julius was very satisfying.

I’ll do the rest of the paralogues some time, trust lol.

[mysticdragon3md3]

I found out Hresvelg is the name of some villain from Norse mythology? A big eagle, in fact.👀 And i think i finally understand the House Leaders' names now.

It's long been said that Claude is named after a devious character from Shakespeare, given that many other characters from the Liecester Alliance also have Shakespearean names. The irony being that if you speak to Claude for more than 2 minutes, you'll see that his self descriptions as an untrustworthy schemer are all a false front---as someone from the fandom once posted.

In fact, all the House Leaders' first names are misdirecting false fronts.

Claude is not devious like his Shakespearean namesake.

Edelgard's name means "noble guard", but she is actually the antagonist, working with unquestionably villainous Agarthans, and she plunges the entire continent into a 6 year war that multiple characters constantly remind you is tragic.

Dimitri's namesake is difficult to verify. I thought that since the name means "devout follower of the goddess Demeter", it could point to him being a pious prince of a "Holy Kingdom" that worships the goddess Sothis. But that wasn't consistent with both of the other House Leaders' names being misdirections. Since Claude's name was a reference to classic literature, i Googled Dimitri and classic literature. "The Brothers Karamazov" is a novel featuring the "sensualist" character Dimitri, who over indulges frequently and has no control over his passions. Very different from FE3H White Clouds' repressed Prince Dimitri Blaiddyd...who literally has lost most of his senses of taste and smell, so he cannot indulge in a majority of the most common sensuality. Dimitri Karamazov also, from a lack of self control, kills someone in his novel, whereas Dimitri Blaiddyd during FE3H White Clouds is constantly successfully suppressing his vengeful bloodlust. This sounded like the misdirecting namesake.

So the interesting thing is that the House Leaders' last names are more accurate reflections of their true natures. Or at least how they come to light after the timeskip.

Hresvelgr (alternatively spelled Hresvelg) is a Norse mythology giant eagle, with an entry in the Villains Wiki, and described as "bigotted" against the gods. Given that the Norse myths are often sympathetic to the gods as protagonists, Hresvelger opposed to the gods must be a villain. And so too is post timeskip Edelgard von Hresvelg, with her literal traditional devil motifs of horns and wearing primarily red. Post timeskip, there is no more hiding concerning her activities, as she invades, threatens, and warmongers. After the timeskip, she reflects her last name's inspiration, the mythological villain Hresvelger.

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd's family name's inspiration is pretty obvious: it is Welsh for "wolf lord" and after the timeskip, Dimitri looks and acts like a feral, shaggy wolf. It's actually still pretty odd to me that his derogatory nickname from Felix was "Boar" instead of "wolf". But i guess wolf might have too many positive associations to Amaterasu, versus wolves' worse associations in Europe, where the name comes from. But some parts of the British Isles actually revered some wolves, before the English decided all wolves were uncivilized (according to an anecdote from SuperEyepatchWolf). So i don't know if at the time the name Blaidd emerged if Welsh, if they meant it with reverence towards wolves, or with the same fear that mainland Europe had, turning stories of wolves in the French forests into werewolves, while Germanic fairytales warned of the Big Bad Wolf. Whatever the case, post timeskip Dimitri blatantly reflects the wolf meaning of his family name, reversing the misdirect of his first name and pre timeskip facade.

Claude von Riegan is interesting, because anyone who has studied any Latin based languages can recognize "Riegan" as sounding like words for "king": Latin's "rex", Spanish's "rey", French's "roi", Italian's "re", Portuguese's "rei". But according to mylofamily.com, "Riegan" originates from Irish and English, and tho means the gender neutral "little ruler" and "regal", is a name suggested for girls. Coincidentally, "Riegan" looks more similar to the Latin word for "queen", "regina". In all cases, Claude's family name clearly denotes royalty and rulership. This is interesting because FE3H marketed its narrative game structure, as no one is supposed to be clearly "right" or "good". That suggests no clear choice for who should be ruler of Fodlan. And yet, Claude's last name clearly marks him as "ruler". Maybe it was simply to hint his hidden status as Almyran royalty. But that doesn't align with both of the other House Leaders' last names clearly reflecting their visibly revealed natures/identities in the post timeskip. Claude's identity as Almyran royalty is never made as blatantly known as Dimitri's feral demeanor and Edelgard's antagonist role. Claude is even titled the "King of Unification" (in all his epilogue text cards and in Legendary Claude's title in Fire Emblem Heroes) in a game that starts by describing its second half as "the unification of Fodlan". I'm biased towards Claude, so i would like the Riegan name to imply the writers intended him as king of Fodlan. But it's equally likely that Claude didn't have any other big defining, post timeskip revealed traits, besides looking and acting more like nobility and leading like a proper/ideal king, especially in contrast to the mischievous and devious facade he put up pre timeskip. When Claude is first revealed post timeskip, he is most visibly nobility, royalty, a ruler, a "Riegan".

Anyway, this is just what I've figured out for myself and will keep as my personal favorite headcanon. It very nice and neat. The first names are the misdirecting facades; the last names are their true natures.