#Saint Macuil

[mantareidraws]

Fishing trip at Rhodos Coast 🎣

I was recently commissioned to draw the cabbage patch family~ 🥹💚 Credits to @enbeeon for Cichol's wife's design!! Thank you so much for the comm, this one was really special~!!

For those who are unfamiliar with my HCs and designs of the Four Saints, from left to right: it's grumpy middle child Macuil, micromanaging baby brother Cichol, best daughter and niece Cethleann (followed by a special guest, her lovely mother), and lastly, timid eldest brother/peacemaker Indech.

[endlydraws]

Lettuce family have a picnic ✨💖🐉

Inspiration taken from the painting “Holyday” by James Tissot

[battry-acid]

fe3h dragons, canon and fanon :3

seteth and flayn dragon designs co-conceptualized by @merlyybird

[mildlyeldritchcats]

(mostly) complete nabatean family tree

this is an improved version of a post i've made before

1 - rhea states that she 'called [herself] Seiros' (teaspoon translations says the same), which implies that it isn't her first (i.e. the first non-dragon-title (i.e. not the immaculate one) name that she went by), but it's also not stated whether rhea is another alias or not

2 - going by both this reddit comment and teaspoon translations, rhea's statement that she is sothis' 'last child' means that she was the youngest nabatean to be born directly from sothis, rather than just the last surviving one

3 - while flayn calls both indech (also in three hopes) and macuil her uncles, they aren't necessarily brothers of seteth or each other; if flayn's mother was a nabatean, they could either both be her maternal uncles or one of them a paternal uncle and the other maternal

4 - as far as i am aware, nothing in three houses, three hopes or heroes states whether indech, macuil & seteth were direct children of sothis or not; the term 'children of the goddess' (which seteth uses to refer to himself and flayn; teaspoon translations translates it as 'kin of the goddess') refers to nabateans as a whole rather than just sothis' direct children, and none of them (indech, macuil or seteth) ever refer to sothis as their mother or to rhea as their sister

5 - as far as i am aware, the species of flayn's mother isn't stated anywhere; all that's stated is that she was flayn's mother, seteth's wife, she met seteth in enbarr, that she liked fishing and the rhodos coast (which is where she was buried), and that she died in a battle (presumably during the war of heroes). i've seen quite a few people say or suggest that she was human, but there doesn't seem to be anything significantly supporting this. it may be implied that she was a nabatean in both the english and japanese versions of flayn and seteth's a support, but it's still not explicitly stated anywhere, and if she is a nabatean her relation to seteth would still be unknown

6 - while rhea does explicitly state that she created sitri and that sitri saw her as a maternal figure, the method by which she created sitri (and her other 11 sothis homunculi, which i probably should've added but oh well) is not specified beyond the fact that she put the crest stone of flames in a body that she created. it is likely that sitri (and, by extension, the other 11) was something of an artificial nabatean going by her green hair and eyes, lack of decay (explicitly stated for sitri, implied as a general nabatean thing by the heroes' relics still existing after 1000+ years and some of them twitching as if they're alive) , and consistently hidden ears (nabatean ears are pointed, as shown in sothis' appearance as well as rhea, seteth and flayn's concept art)

image sourcing:

generic/placeholder portrait from the cutting room floor

rhea, seteth, flayn, jeralt, female byleth and male byleth's three hopes portraits from the fire emblem wiki

indech and macuil's three houses portraits from the fire emblem wiki

sothis artwork from serenesforest

three houses dialogue ui and cutscene artwork ripped by dakress on the spriter's resource, sitri's portrait taken from the image of her with aelfric then edited by me because of the original image's filter

font used is plantin

the 'markers' used for each character (the circles before the lines) are from a three hopes playthrough (didn't pay much attention to who uploaded it, since it was kind of annoying to find a video that showed the between chapter map screens)

[iusedtohavesixtoes]

WIP Wednesday!

For the 5th Anniversary event next week, day five.

I couldn’t exactly figure out what sneak peek to post, so heres several rough paragraphs from the beginning start of the story. (You’re welcome maybe??)

For @kimikaami for (very lightly) peer pressuring me into writing some Seteth shenanigans.

Now wish me luck on getting this completed and edited next week.

. . .

There was light, healing, a blast of white magic. It soothed the burns from the dark spell in this moment of the fall, but not in his chest. Cichol hit the ground, the world turning black.

Let him lay in darkness. Let this war consume him whole.

Let his wife welcome him to the heavens with open arms. Beyond the stars, the visages of his mother and father amid those lost decades before. Maybe Sothis—oh, if she were there!—would bless him in the afterlife, and wouldn't let his sacrifice be for naught.

Cethleann’s face was not among the dead. Cichol awakened with a gasp.

Macuil and Indech were on either side of him in the grass, the stench of decay swarming around them. The memory of violet fire twisting around his body did not keep him from trying to sit up, stomach heaving at the flickering ache. Indech moved a hand to his chest to steady him. “Do not move, little brother,” he said softly, a frown twisting onto his face as a tear left his eye. With the scorching burn eating away at his side, Cichol grasped the arm keeping him tethered.

Ceara, mother, father. “Cethleann, I did not see her—did she, is she alive?” The thought of his only child ran through near where her mother lay dead. It choked him, left him drowning.

There was a grunt that had both looking down at their sibling. “She sleeps.” Macuil wrote another sigil with a finger, casting a chilled white spell over Cichol’s ravaged body. It licked the fire to ice before the spark of pain hastened forth afresh on his leg. Cichol flinched, but didn’t look away. Macuil lifted his face to him, and suddenly he knew. The sting of salt rose to his eyes as fingers tightened still around Indech’s wrist.

Macuil repeated the words, relieving and shattering his hope in the same instance, “she sleeps, Cichol. It is a wonder, maybe a curse, either of you survived.” The fate of his daughter had been sealed.

“And you need a healer.” Indech’s hand firmly pressed into his chest. Cichol’s breath stuttered, catching on a wail. “Macuil.”

“Sleep.” He said once more, but not for Cethleann. Cichol’s eyes closed.

[catspar99]

I've been playing ponytown on and off again. So i just want to show off my Fe3h ponys lol.

So it's the Saints of Serios as ponys lol. I used my pony designs i did for Indech and Macuil. :3

[latenitewaffles]

The Wind Caller: ... You. You possess the Crest of Macuil... and my Tome.

Lukas: Your tome...? Wait, are you-

The Wind Caller: Ah, figured it out, have you? You're smart, maybe too smart for your own good. Now, let's see if you're truly worthy of both my Crest and my Magic.

Lukas: You know Macuil?

The Wind Caller:

[almoststedytimetravel]

I hope one day heroes adds characters who we know exist but never see. Like there are so many characters: the twelve crusaders, the human forms of Indech and Macuil, Forneus, Anri. I want faces to these names. I want to know what sweet lore they know.

[randomnameless]

Seeing a GK chibi art on FEH made me wonder what the frick is the name Hresvelgion Whiskers

And then I realised I always pronounced it wrong in my head, which called for a shitpost :

Adrestians love the idea that their Emperors are a strong and, uh, manly, as lions, because Emperor Wilhelm had a lionhead shield (tfw no one knows it used to be Cichol’s) and totally 120% true and legit sources said Saint Seiros called Willy “the Hresvelg Lion” because he was super manly and he had a big - no a giant - white sword, and cats were named in his honour “Hresvelg Lions”.

(This rumour is popular in Adrestia)

Other rumour apparently says Saint Seiros was fond of cats, and one of them scratched Emperor Willy which left him with a scar for a few days ; his friends hid his humiliation by saying he was “scratched by a lion” - which is why, random cats in Enbarr were called “Hresvelg Lions” to mock him

(This rumour is popular in Faerghus)

Both rumours end with “Hresvelg Lion” being changed after Faerghus’s birth as an independant nation - since they “stole/recovered” the Lion imagery, thus the cats were named Hresvelgions.

Only Rhea knows the truth.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

I’m not here to discuss Fódlan discourse, I’m here to talk about something far more based: Fódlan Theology!

In all /srs-ness, I’ve been thinking about the Church of Seiros a lot and what real world theology inspired it, it’s more than just fantasy Christianity, though it very much is still fantasy Christianity given that it tends to fall into the trope of making things worse more often than better, like fantasy Christianity tends to do…

Ahem, back on topic. So people meme about Byleth being Fire Emblem Jesus, right? Well, I’m here to say, “No, That’s Wrong!” to that statement. SEIROS is Fódlan’s Jesus, given that she’s the one who’s actually Sothis’s child. And when people pray at church in Fódlan, they’re not praying Sothis and Byleth, they’re praying to Sothis and Seiros. Heck, it’s called the Church of SEIROS, just like how CHRISTianity is named after Jesus CHRIST.

Of course that leaves the question, “what’s Byleth meant to be, then?” Well, they’re the Second Coming of Seiros of course. Obviously with creative liberties taken given that Seiros never actually died in Fódlan, people were simply lead to believe she did, and nobody’s ever really discussed or believed that a second coming of Seiros was a thing, Byleth seems to be more seen in Universe as a second coming of Sothis instead, but I think that’s just a case of creative liberties being taken.

I’d like to circle back to Seiros though, as she’s not just based off Jesus, but she and her saints are based off the 4 Heavenly Kings and their Draconic Leader from Japanese mythology.

We never see Seteth and Flayn transform, but given that there are 5 of them in total and the beast forms of Rhea, Indech, and Macuil are a Dragon, Turtle, and Bird respectively. By process of elimination we can determine that the remaining two are a Serpent and a Tiger, or rather a cat in Flayn’s case.

Now some of you might be wondering why they’d have different forms despite being parent and child? It’s because we know they’re canonically different types of Dragons, the Dragon Seals that hold the power of their Crests explain as much. Seteth is an Earth Dragon while Flayn is a Light Dragon, she likely takes after her mother. Odds are if she survived, Flayn’s mother would’ve been the Tiger, but as Flayn had to fill in, and still being a child she would be a cat, rather than a grown Tiger.

As for why I know she’s the tiger and not the serpent. A: she likes fish to an almost obsessive degree. B: she once napped for centuries and cats are known for sleeping a lot. C: she dressed as a cat in her Halloween alt. And given how bad she is about being subtle, I feel like that last one is all the proof I need.

I’m sure there’s still more to Fódlan Theology that I didn’t bring up/haven’t noticed yet, because honestly the Seiros Faith is shockingly layered, which makes sense since Intsys has been writing FE for a long time so it’s not surprising that they’re gotten good at fleshing certain things out.

.

[edelgards]

i had a train of thought about saint seiros and catholic canonization and ended up yapping about how rhea's sainthood isn't a symbol of her divinity but is an allegory of her humanity instead.

sainthood in the catholic church is the recognition of people who performed miracles, did acts of goodwill, etc. in the name of god. these individuals are then canonized by the church who acknowledge their good deeds and are now considered as holy people, the closest we—original sin bearers, according to them—get to divinity i guess and a lot of canonized saints were people who weren't the best nor the ones you'd expect to be saint.

in fe3h, of course we know the church was not exactly what we thought it was and such rules might or might not be in the seiros doctrines. seiros is a self declared saint lol yes, it was a ruse but it made me think and compare that situation to catholic canonizations.

rhea was born a divine being, a child of the goddess. she doesn't need to be elevated to sainthood, she IS divine. you don't need to sanctify what is pure from the very beginning. that's like calling an angel a saint or something and implying that a divine entity had been a sinner/impure and is only holy because of canonization which i think, from a religious fanatic pov, is an insult. anyways seiros, however, is called a saint... which i'd like to think implies the opposite of the catholic church's meaning of sainthood.

rhea/seiros' sainthood is a symbol of her humanity.

of her being flawed, her imperfections. everything that happened after zanado was her, a divine being, becoming human. her vengeance, righteous fury, her grief and most of all, her kindness despite all that's happened are what makes her human.

honestly don't know where i'm going with this but i guess you could look at the tragedy being her rebirth? from "holy" to human. her humanity began the second she lost her mother. it spiraled her grief and drove her to vengeance—her war with nemesis and his 10 elites. and then, there's her church. what started out as damage control and a self-preservation driven lie turned into something genuine that allowed her to learn to love the people that killed her own.

her continued service to the people (albeit morally questionable at times i have to admit) is, to me, her continued acceptance of her humanity–whether conscious, not, or figuratively. as opposed to indech and macuil yeeting out of human affairs the moment the war was over, a refusal of their "humanity" and choosing "divinity" instead.

ok, that's all. my point is rhea's humanity is what makes her holy. her ability to be kind after all that she went through is what makes her a saint and that makes me insane sometimes because can you imagine losing your people and you're the only one that knows, surrounded by the mirror image of the people that took your own?? anyways, talking to empty chairs: thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[slotumn]

I think it's possible that because Rhea has spent her important developmental years as young adult around humans + overall spent more time with humans (and pretending to be one) than other Nabateans at the beginning of canon, and as a result, acts and thinks and even subconsciously sees herself somewhat closer to human than Nabatean.

It's hard to scale nuke dragon ages to human ones but I don't think she was older than the human equivalent of preteens when the Zanado massacre happened, and based on that it probably means she spent early part of her adolescence running from the Elites and gathering other Nabateans + later one establishing herself as a saint at Enbarr and winning over Wilhelm and co. Saint Seiros as we see her at the opening movie is probably in the human equivalent of late teens~early 20s�� the insane drive and peak physical performance stage of your life.

I don't think she was completely cut off from her birth culture in those years since there were other Nabateans she'd gathered, but it wasn't an environment where she could be open about it— and after she took on the identity of Saint Seiros, it probably means she spent just as much, if not more, time connecting and talking to humans than others of her kind.

At any rate, this results in her thinking and acting like she is something close to a regular human, rather than a big near immortal dragon shifter. It's even more prominent when you see Indech and Macuil, who have very clearly drawn a line between their existence and the humans'. Seteth isn't as severe, but I think that's partially because he lost his ability to transform (+has a daughter), hence he had to adjust to being more humanlike out of literal physical necessity.

Meanwhile Rhea retains the ability to turn into a living flying missile launcher slash anti-missile system, however you would not be able to guess this based on how she moves politically.

And this is not because she can't do politics, she clearly can based on the War of Heroes, it's just that she keeps doing everything how a human with a human mindset and outlook would. Even if there are factors like the Agarthans still lurking around and contacting humans to butcher her into another Relic (or her fearing that they would, even if it's not actually feasible)/running low on transformation juice and needing to save energy behind why she doesn't make the specific move of revealing herself to be the Immaculate One, there are other places where she tries to adhere to regular human standards about it even though she doesn't really have to, and it would arguably be easier for her not to.

Most notably, becoming and keeping her position as Archbishop— she's the founder of the religion, she could have said some shit like "the goddess blessed Saint Seiros to be immortal so now she gets to be archbishop forever," yet she does not do that. People would already know she doesn't age at a regular rate too, she was already around in public life as Saint Seiros 100+ years when she became archbishop, but instead of leaning fully into that she claims Saint Seiros had a kid(!) and pretends to die every once in a while to act as her own descendant.

The behavior doesn't make sense if Rhea has completely internalized her divine/"different" status and is trying to rule over humans from that perspective alone; it does make more sense if she was already halfway mentally assimilated into the human way of things when she came into power, and she only internalized human standards further as she pretended to be one for centuries. Of course she hasn't forgotten that she's Nabatean, but again, for any line she draws between herself and humanity, it's not so severe and literal like Macuil and Indech's are.

Tl;dr there are lots of "what if a human had a god complex and fucked things up" characters but Rhea is a "what if a divine being had a human complex and fucked things up" character

[cherrypikkins]

Here is my contribution for today's prompt for @fe-oc-week! Oct 9 - Introductions. I'll be posting about my fe3h oc, Kitt Burgess, as well as some related lore.

Kitt Burgess (they/them) Date of Birth: 14th of the Ethereal Moon (12/14) Place of Birth: Annwen, a village in the southern Oghma Mountains, Adrestia Height: 159cm/168cm Affiliation: Church of Seiros Crest: None (?) Strengths: Axes, Riding, Flying Weaknesses: Faith, Heavy Armor Budding Talent: Reason

Personal Ability: Demonic Resonance - Bonus to critical hit when within the attack range of a monster.

Interests: Wilderness survival, monster hunting Likes: The outdoors, superstition and fortune-telling, peculiar tasting foods Dislikes: Fighting against people, church politics, insect swarms, bland tasting foods

Click the read more for more lore :3 !

Kitt Burgess, Ward of the Church - Part I Kitt is a mysterious orphan who was taken in by the Church of Seiros at the behest of Seteth and Flayn. Though they are enrolled as a student at Garreg Mach, they have yet to officially join a house. Prior to arriving at the monastery, they lived in a remote village deep within the southern Oghma Mountains. Today, that area is but a burnt ruin, infested with Demonic Beasts.

Though outwardly polite and accommodating, they are known to be elusive, especially when asked to speak about themselves and their past. They are reluctant to use their full strength in combat, yet show an unsettling sort of enthusiasm when fighting monsters. They harbor a mutual distrust towards various members of the Church of Seiros, due to the latter's politics and secret-keeping. However, they seem to like the Professor well-enough and view them as a calming presence. They have an interest in superstition and local folklore, especially with matters concerning fate. They spend much of their time exploring the wilderness, investigating any reports of monsters or other unusual activity.

Should they be recruited, they will gladly follow Byleth to the end in any of the four routes. Otherwise, they will remain with the Church of Seiros.

Carnwennan, The Illusory Blade A forgotten relic associated with Gwyn, the Unsung Hero. The history of its usage and origins are unknown to Fodlan at large, as it has been discovered only recently by the Church of Seiros. However, the nature of its very creation is suspected to be 'monstrous beyond comprehension'.

It has the shape of a short blade, though it has the ability to suppress its own relic powers and take on the appearance of an ordinary knife. This would be explain why it has been highly difficult to track throughout history. Its true form is yet unknown. How it ultimately came to be in the possession of one Kitt Burgess is a story that they refuse to tell.

Despite taking the shape of a knife, it can be equipped as a sword.

Requires the Crest of Gwyn/Sign of the Mist Dragon to properly wield.

Chance of inflicting Silence on each attack.

Exclusive Combat Art: Spectral Sword - Might increases based on user's Resistance. Effective against Dragon foes and Mage-type units

Canopus, The Blessed Axe A sacred axe crafted by Saint Macuil, at the commission of Saint Seiros. Its powers are intended to be awakened when wielded by someone bearing the Crest of Gwyn. Because the 'true' bearer of the Crest of Gwyn has been lost since ancient history, Saint Macuil required the assistance of Saint Cichol and Saint Cethleann in order to correctly calibrate the weapon.

During the war between Seiros and Nemesis, this weapon was presented to the warrior Gwyn, who wielded it in defense of Enbarr when it was under siege. Upon Gwyn's departure from the battlefield, it was returned to the Church of Seiros and was last noted as being in the custody of Saint Cichol. Its present location is a secret closely guarded by the inner circle of the Church.

[mildlyeldritchcats]

rough nabatean family tree

1 - rhea states that she 'called [herself] Seiros' (teaspoon translations says the same), which implies that it isn't her first (i.e. the first non-dragon-title (i.e. not the immaculate one) name that she went by), but it's also not stated whether rhea is another alias or not

2 - going by both this reddit comment and teaspoon translations, rhea's statemtn that she is sothis' 'last child' means that she was the youngest nabatean to be born directly from sothis, rather than just the last surviving one

3 - while flayn calls both indech and macuil her uncles, they aren't necessarily brothers of seteth or each other; if flayn's mother was a nabatean, they could either both be her maternal uncles or one of them a paternal uncle and the other maternal

4 - as far as i am aware, nothing in three houses, three hopes or heroes states whether indech, macuil & seteth were direct children of sothis or not; the term 'children of the goddess' (which seteth uses to refer to himself and flayn; teaspoon translations translates it as 'kin of the goddess') refers to nabateans as a whole rather than just sothis' direct children, and none of them (indech, macuil or seteth) ever refer to sothis as their mother or to rhea as their sister

5 - as far as i am aware, the species of flayn's mother isn't stated anywhere; all that's stated is that she was flayn's mother, seteth's wife, she met seteth in enbarr, that she liked fishing and the rhodos coast (which is where she was buried), and that she died in a battle (presumably during the war of heroes). i've seen quite a few people say or suggest that she was human, but there doesn't seem to be anything significantly supporting this

image sourcing:

three houses placeholder portrait and adult sothis from the cutting room floor

three hopes portraits of seteth, rhea and flayn from the fire emblem wiki

three houses portraits of indech and macuil from the fire emblem wiki

[iusedtohavesixtoes]

In the sands of Sreng. For the June prompt.

“I can only think of one time I saw that happen, the ceasing of the itch.” Macuil stretched out into the sand, Seteth leaning down to sit next to one clawed hand. “You were in Enbarr, but one of our elders had lost his partner unexpectedly.” Seteth could not think clearly of that time, his life so wrapped up into his own life and church.

Macuil leaned his head down, and Seteth could see the pain that always lingered when his brother’s mind went to all they had lost. A pain he shared. “You know that when we lose our other half, it can drive a Child to death itself.” Macuil laughed bitterly, his one golden eye turning to his brother next to him. “Somehow we have lingered through it all, Cichol.”

“Yes, somehow.”

[aubins]

⧼ ＊ ⧽　on aubin, his crest, and the fetters of dromi.

this post is mostly my personal masterlist on my meta and headcanons for any aubin, crest, and relic related lore. some of it i pull from evidence in canon, others i pull out of my ass. i do discuss some of the other apostles while talking about aubin, but any future ashen wolves musers are more than welcome to disagree with me. additionally, it's been a while since i've properly played through the fódlan games myself, so if there's lore i've misremembered here, do feel free to correct me on it!

three houses & hopes lore spoilers to follow under the cut.

*　who is aubin?

i've been working on this on and off for about four years now, so the old version of this section quite obviously dated this post with all its long-winded arguments about why aubin was the elder that saved yuri as a child because some people were quite adamant that he wasn't. now, it is comically short in comparison.

in case you didn't know, this silly little game called fire emblem warriors: three hopes has come out since then and made my life much easier. as seteth and yuri's support chain confirms:

Seteth: You always cursed the blood that flowed through you. But in the end, it saved that child's life. Seteth: It brings me great relief to know that you found salvation in your last moments. Aubin, my friend… Be at peace. 　— Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Seteth & Yuri A-Support

the elder who saved yuri as a child was, in fact, aubin himself. he passes shortly after this from natural causes, which i'll touch on in more detail a bit later. the basic rundown of his character is this: aubin was one of the four apostles who participated in the rite of rising in an attempt to resurrect the goddess. after the ritual failed, he and his fellow apostles went into seclusion and their names were all but erased from history. their crests were similarly believed to have died with them; however, the four ashen wolves are later discovered to bear one of each of the apostles' crests. for yuri's part, he bears the crest of aubin.

*　the apostles' nabatean heritage.

another point of contention is whether or not the apostles are nabatean or human. the fandom wiki has them listed as human for some reason, even though this is not confirmed anywhere in the game as far as i am aware, and i know many believe that the apostles are first generation crest-bearers like the ten elites. personally, i am of the mind that they are nabateans, not humans.

the game refers to the four apostles as saints several times (in the opening narration of cindered shadows and in constance and edelgard's support chain), a title we've only really seen bestowed upon nabateans such as the four saints—cichol, cethleann, indech, and macuil—as well as seiros herself, of course.

(there is also a saint luca mentioned in a readable in three hopes; however, it is, to my knowledge, the only mention of them.)

additionally, we see for ourselves that aubin, at least, is able to transfuse his blood and crest into a human. as far as we know, this is something that can only be done by nabateans.

but there are two points i tend to see brought up as arguments for the apostles being human, so i wanted to quickly touch on them here.

　　›　THE FETTERS OF DROMI EXISTED DURING THE WAR OF HEROES.

this notion, i believe, comes from something that duke gerth says during constance and yuri's paralogue:

Duke Gerth: It's a priceless treasure that ended up in Dagda. After the truce, they sent it to us in friendship. 　> Why did Dagda have a Hero's Relic? Duke Gerth: One story holds that Saint Seiros subjugated the 10 Elites and the clans who followed them. Duke Gerth: There may have been a few clan elders who fled across the sea to escape suppression. 　— Fire Emblem: Three Houses, A Cursed Relic: After Battle

if we take this at face value, it means that the fetters of dromi existed during the time of the war of heroes (32-98). thus, the original nabatean bearing aubin blood would have to already be dead by this point. if this is true, it completely negates the idea of aubin being said original nabatean because he is very much still alive in 185 for the rite of rising.

i'm not exactly jumping to believe this story is actually true, though. the way duke gerth puts it, it's only one of several stories about how the relic arrived in dagda and not entirely reliable. if the fetters of dromi existed during the war of heroes, then it would have had a wielder: a human bearer of the crest that we're assuming is aubin. supposing the clan elder who followed aubin fled to dagda with the relic as duke gerth's story says, surely they would have known the value of the relic? never mind how they even took the relic from aubin to begin with. these were significant and powerful weapons and accessories used by the ten elites—if they managed to run away with one, surely they would have done their best to keep it for themselves, and then within their families after they passed.

but let's just say this important message got lost amongst the clan elder's descendants somewhere, so they see the fetters of dromi and decide it's a piece of junk they can get rid of. did the agarthans not know that the fetters of dromi were in dagda by this point? like surely there would have been some word that a group ran off with one of the relics when it first happened? it couldn't have been that hard for the agarthans to get it back if they knew it was there. they wouldn't have even had to contend with the church of seiros, because they didn't seem to know where the relic was either until it ended up in duke gerth's hands. so, word of the “marvelous, but benign treasure” in dagda just somehow didn't reach either parties' notice when they were well-aware of the missing relic?

suffice to say, i don't really buy duke gerth's story, and certainly not as hard evidence disproving the apostles being nabatean. for a relic to have been missing for so long with neither the agarthans nor the church seeming desperate to find it doesn't seem super realistic to me. to me, it seems more likely that the fetters of dromi were only newly created, and thus their disappearance only a recent concern.

　　›　AUBIN'S ELDERLY APPEARANCE & PASSING.

with the nabateans being a long-life species and the ones we see in canon still appearing quite youthful, i can understand where this sentiment comes from. unless aubin is just incredibly old in comparison to the likes of rhea, seteth, and flayn, he probably shouldn't be looking anywhere near old enough for yuri to be describing him as an elder when they meet.

for me to explain my take on this, let's talk about the rite of rising first.

In the Imperial year 185, the construction of Garreg Mach was completed. Saint Seiros held a sacred ritual to honor the occasion. Four saints, known as the Four Apostles, were led to a tranquil place to perform the ritual. They poured their holy essences into the Chalice of Beginnings—a gift from the goddess herself—in hopes of bringing about her second coming. Alas, the Rite of Rising failed… 　— Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Cindered Shadows: The Fourth House

the opening narration of cindered shadows describes the rite of rising as the four apostles “pouring their holy essences into the chalice.” while this is likely just a fancy way of saying they gave it their blood, i'm choosing to instead interpret this as the apostles having literally given up some of their essence or life force for the ritual. the sacrifice they made was more than just some blood, and whether the rite succeeded or failed, it was always going to take its toll. the fact that it did failed only exacerbated the consequences.

when the chalice absorbs both sitri and aelfric to create an umbral beast, rhea says that the same thing happened last time the rite of rising was performed. as the ritual was said to have been performed in a tranquil place, presumably away from any bystanders, the only people around to actually become the umbral beast would have been seiros herself, alongside the four apostles.

what mostly makes me hesitate to say this for certain is that the description of the final battle in cindered shadows describes aelfric as “forever lost, transformed into an umbral beast.” the four apostles were, obviously, not forever lost, considering the existence of all four ashen wolves bearing their crests.

perhaps the beast was subdued and the apostles were somehow reverted to their regular forms. or the chalice only absorbed the body they were using for the ritual to create the umbral beast, and that was what was forever lost upon its defeat. since i can't say either way with a hundred percent confidence, i'm just going to elect to put a pin in this particular idea for now.

whatever the case, the rite of rising took a significant and long lasting toll on the apostles well-being. as such, after the failure of the rite, all of them chose to vanish from the world. despite how important you would think an attempt to revive the goddess would be, what is remembered of them is that they journeyed to obscure corners of fódlan where they settled and all but disappeared from history.

you could say that this was them adhering to the fact that they were not meant to pass down their crests, and thus decided to find a place where they could simply fade into obscurity for the rest of their days. however, considering all of them end up passing down their crests anyway, i don't think this was their biggest point of consideration.

for aubin's case, this is what i attribute his older appearance to. the rite of rising quite literally stole his life and aged him significantly more than what would have been natural for nabateans. he goes into seclusion because he doesn't have the energy to do much else, having lost most of his strength. similarly, this i believe this lack of strength is also the reason that he dies shortly after saving yuri's life.

aubin is in awful shape when yuri and his mother take him in. i imagine he never truly recovered from the toll the rite of rising took on his body, leaving him quite worse for wear. saving yuri required expending a kind of power that he simply didn't have much left of, and was the final straw that ultimately led to his passing.

*　the crest of aubin.

honestly, i think the way i've described the crest of aubin's effects in narrative previously changed whenever it was convenient to me HAHA but in the interest of staying consistent from this point forward, let's refer to its in-game effects first.

A Crest long lost to history. Occasionally prevents enemy counterattacks when using a weapon. 　— Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Crest of Aubin Ability Description

30% chance chance to land a critical hit with strong attacks. 　— Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Crest of Aubin Ability Description

three houses and three hopes are very different games when it comes to gameplay, so the crest's ability obviously changes between them. i'll pull from both versions for my purposes.

preventing enemy counterattacks doesn't really translate all that nicely into writing. i generally interpret this as increased agility. passively, yuri is already relatively light-footed and quick on his feet; when his crest activates this is increased to a superhuman degree. think dramatic cinematic shots of characters with super speed where the world slows around them. something like that for short periods of time.

crit chance is much easier to translate: his crest gives him increased strength. unlike his agility, this isn't also a passive thing. the strength only really activates when his crest does, otherwise he's just as strong as anyone else who works out on a relatively regular basis would be.

as aubin is the ice dragon, yuri has some level of resistance to cold. nothing that would really save his life if you threw him into a blizzard, but if the weather's a bit chilly, he'll still be able to walk out under-dressed for it and be fine. yuri doesn't think this is a crest thing, though, he just thinks he's more used to the cold as someone that grew up in faerghus.

unnaturally quick healing. this has no canon basis, it's just an idea that i like. yuri is very particular about his appearance and potential scarring considering his line of work, but considering all the trouble he gets into, saying that he's only ever gotten one scar in his whole life isn't all that realistic. magic blood making you heal fast isn't all that realistic either, but the two can just cancel each other out or something.

in a similar vein, he requires less rest than most people. considering the nature of his work, yuri is running around basically 24/7. if he rests, it's probably only for a few hours at most. guy's a control freak and incredibly restless—i don't know if he could ever really settle down comfortably for long enough to get a decent night's sleep, but he has to be able to be everywhere all at once without collapsing from exhaustion somehow.

　　›　YURI'S PROLONGED LIFESPAN.

i didn't realize this was a point of contention to some people until i started poking around more online, but i'm always happy to talk about yuri so let's dissect it. why not.

in non-crimson flower routes, yuri's ending with m!byleth says that the pair lives a very long life together:

[ ... ] Constantly at his side during that time was his husband, Yuri, whose policy proposals led, time and again, to better education and opportunities for the less fortunate. After working to ensure a bright and prosperous future for Fódlan, the couple stepped back from the public eye and vanished from official record. Curiously, informal notes and letters from friends suggest that the pair was extraordinarily long-lived and that their youth was untouched by the passage of time. 　— Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Byleth (Male) & Yuri Ending Card

i've seen people argue this is a byleth thing (as in byleth gave yuri a blood transfusion and that's why he's long-lived) which i personally doubt is true. mainly because f!byleth's ending doesn't mention a word of this and i don't see why it wouldn't if it truly was a byleth thing as opposed to a yuri thing.

i've also seen people argue that this can't be true because he is specifically mentioned to pass away in his ending with constance:

After the war, Constance devoted herself to her magical research. Her unorthodox methods allowed her to make great strides, which earned her acclaim and eventually enabled her to restore her noble house. Afterward, almost as if to spite her detractors, she married Yuri. The pair made a happy, if unconventional, couple, as the husband frequently ventured away for months on end. In the long years of their marriage, however, Constance laughed off any concerns—she was known to say that Yuri always knew how to find his way home. Many decades later, he passed away in bed alongside his beloved wife. 　— Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Constance & Yuri Ending Card

maybe they just lived their very long lives together? who knows how long ‘many decades’ really means, after all. except constance will likely just live a very normal crest-bearer lifespan. unlike yuri, she doesn't actually get her crest via blood transfusion. saint noa left to live the rest of her days in what would later become nuvelle territory and had children. constance's crest is inherited, passed down to her by bloodline.

Constance: Close to a thousand years ago, Saint Noa parted ways with Saint Seiros. She lived out her days in seclusion on what would become Nuvelle territory. Constance: Her children obscured their origins before serving the Empire. It wasn't long before they were ennobled. [...] Edelgard: Hmm… House Nuvelle was known for producing as few heirs as possible. Edelgard: It was also known for keeping its offspring "pure," mostly by disallowing marriage with other houses. 　— Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Constance & Edelgard B-Support

so if yuri's so long-lived, why do these two ending contradict each other? well, i don't really think they do. he dies in his ending with constance, yes, but we don't know what actually causes his death. i guess old age is the natural assumption for most people, but it never actually states that and we've already been given a different instance of him living for much longer than is natural for a human.

in the japanese version of their ending, the last sentence reads, “数十年後、その言 葉を証明するかのように、ユーリスは寝台の 上、愛した妻の傍らで病没したとされる。” to be clear, i don't speak a lick of japanese, so if any japanese speakers would like to tell me what this really says, i would forever be in your debt. but, you know, i squint at it anyway and see the character “病” and go :index_pointing_at_the_viewer: hey. hold on a second.

anyway, i checked the chinese text instead because it's the only other language the game's localized in that i can somewhat comprehend and what do you know? it says yuri dies of illness. so, you know. not old age.

at the same time, we know it's confirmed in lore that recipients of blood transfusions live longer lives.

To face this evil force, the goddess created a new well of power. She gifted certain chosen individuals with sacred blood, allowing them to wield mystical weapons, that they may prevail against the darkness. These souls, buoyed by their divine gifts, conquered the evil ones and drove them back to the north. They came to be known as Heroes. The Heroes experienced unnaturally long lives, persisting for hundreds of years. 　— Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Book of Seiros II

if you want proof that isn't just a readable in a spin-off game, jeralt is also right there and at least three hundred years old to show for it. we know through several sources that first generation crest-bearers live very long lives—there's no reason to believe that the same wouldn't apply to yuri.

*　the fetters of dromi.

ah, hero's relic lore. how i adore you, horrifying as you are and all.

before we talk about it somehow ending up in dagda, let's just talk about the relic itself. in case you haven't seen it, the fetters of dromi are effectively hand, finger, and wrist bones bound together by what looks like some cloth, chains, and rings.

once again, i'll pull up its in-game effects for reference:

Grants +1 Movement and Canto when equipped. Grants Pavise and Aegis to units with the Crest of Aubin when equipped. 　— Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fetters of Dromi Description

+6 Speed. Grants Earthshrinker to user. Grants Pavise and Aegis to units with the Crest of Aubin when equipped. 　— Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Fetters of Dromi (Unleashed) Description

Enables 【Canto (２)】. At start of turn, unit can move 1 extra space (that turn only; does not stack). After start-of-turn skills trigger, if 【Stall】 is active on unit, neutralizes the "unit can move 1 extra space" effect of this skill. Inflicts Atk/Spd/Def/Res-4 on foes within 2 spaces of unit during combat. 　— Fire Emblem Heroes, Fetters of Dromi Description

unlike the crest of aubin, the fetters of dromi's effects are relatively consistent across its different iterations. it gives the user canto, increased movement, and pavise and aegis.

the fetters of dromi's purpose is primarily to amplify the crest of aubin's effects.

increased movement and canto similarly just translate into increased agility again, improved from its passive effect when yuri isn't actively using the fetters. it will take a lot for him to feel exhausted while wearing the fetters of dromi, but if he overextends himself, it'll still hit him the moment he takes the relic off.

similarly related to the crest allowing yuri to persist on less rest, the fetters of dromi allows him to take more hits and sustain more damage. he still gets hurt, of course, but he feels it less than he would without the relic. as with the previous point, when he takes them off, the weight of his injuries will still hit him as they normally would unless he had them healed beforehand.

　　›　HOW DID IT END UP IN DAGDA?

let's establish a timeline for its creation first.

the illness yuri contracts as a child is specifically the plague that was going around faerghus. according to sylvain, this plague happened almost 20 years ago, and according to yuri, he caught it when he was really young. excellent measures of time, the both of you.

i tend to place yuri as having been four when he caught it. since aubin passed shortly after curing him, he would have died vaguely around 1164-1165. the fetters of dromi would have made it to dagda by 1175 at the latest, since that's when the dagda and brigid war took place, and they would've had to have it by then to send it over after the truce. the fetters of dromi were likely made sometime between 1165-1175, then.

but how did the agarthans find out that aubin was dead? yuri ends up in adrestia sometime during this ten year period when the fetters of dromi could have been made. considering the agarthan presence in the empire, i suppose the most likely scenario is that they somehow discovered this random kid with the crest of aubin and decided to investigate further. this eventually led them to yuri's hometown, from which it wouldn't have been difficult to learn from the townsfolk of the story of a strange man who came by a few years ago, saved a child's life with some red liquid, then passed shortly after.

from there, they dig up the body, take the bones and crest stone, then craft the fetters of dromi. as for how it ended up in dagda...um. you know, i'd love to find this out myself HAHA but i can't even conceive a situation for what happened here. i guess they lost it somehow? a bit silly but it had to get there in some way.

　　›　MISCELLANEOUS.

a relic like the fetters of dromi is too new and obscure to have any heavy history or mythology behind it. but there are still some tales—tall and false ones, certainly—like the story of the fetters that reached duke gerth's ears.

some say it is the hand of a master swordsman, cut off in battle and preserved afterward. whoever has the courage to wear it upon the back of their own will find their sword always strikes true. others believe that the relic is a sign that the heroes of history still walk among them, waiting for the day they must once again take up arms to fight for fódlan.

and some still believe that it is both a warning and a curse. that should you hear tell of it, you'll have to lock your home up tight and light a blazing fire, for merciless winter storms are sure to follow.

yuri doesn't believe any of the stories. but what he does know is that sometimes, when he finds himself so lost in his own head that the real world vanishes, bone so often cold to the touch will warm without him calling upon its power, reminding him to return to earth.

sometimes, when he overexerts himself in the midst of battle, the activated relic's steady warmth instead turns searing like a scolding to mind himself. it tightens faintly over the back of his hand like the one that had gently guided him when he first learned his letters, now guiding the swing of a blade rather than the stroke of a pen.

but it is, in the end, just a hero's relic. so it must be his mind playing tricks.