#actually its just like what if court drama full of noble houses but its rival theatre companies instead

[academy-x]

get ready for a brand new story full of intrigue and backstabbing, coming to a ttrpg near you, inspired by the real world of pro cycling but containing absolutely no sports i promise please please hear me out dont go let me explain the uci ranking system and the world tour and proseries its interesting and relevant

[letters-from-the-three-houses]

So have you seen translations for the three House Leaders' Cipher cards? If so what are your thoughts then? I know this question has been asked but it's such an interesting topic I want to hear everyone else' opinions.

yes i have! no worries about already asked questions; everyone’s thoughts add fuel to the fire~

for those who haven’t seen it/need a refresher, here’s the translation. all three of the cards are meant to be read at the same time, so the lines feed onto each other!

it gives the tiniest sliver of detail on the trio’s relationship, but it’s still pretty substantial. see this post for a nice explanation and a different perspective on the matter

now onto the analysis!

p.s. in light of the reddit ‘leaks’ thread, this blog will be spoiler-free. all speculations come from the current information we have at hand (currently, anything up to the most recent famitsu scans). see this post for more details

let’s look at this step by step. first up is edelgard’s:

“a wise ruler shouldn’t take one’s words purely at face value”

all in all, she sounds suspicious of others, which implies that the political climate in adrestia is more ruthless than the other nations. as an empire, adrestia is likely to be the most ‘antagonistic’ of the three. the only other fe empires i know—and note that they’re called empires in japanese (帝国 or teikoku)—are rigel and embla. the former is militaristic and bases its principles on glory and power, while the latter is seen as the ‘evil’ side that’s trying to conquer more territory. adrestia’s probably going to end up on a similar boat (implying that the reason for the impending war is adrestia breaking peace treaties, but let’s put that thought aside)

it gives me similar vibes to nohr’s political climate: full of backstabbing and stepping stones galore. edelgard has to constantly be on guard because a) her every move is judged (more on ‘by who’ later) and b) there’s always someone trying to take advantage of her/the situation. i think she has a similar personality to berkut + xander—nationalistic and loyal to her country, but harsh to those who try to steal her position. edelgard probably had two choices: adapt or get eaten. reading between the lines kept you alive, while taking everything at face value placed your trust in the wrong people

however, there’s one caveat! we don’t know if this behaviour is directed solely to the court or if it propagates towards adrestia as a whole. since she’s a noble (hence, having to constantly interact with fellow nobles), i’ll run with the assumption that the court is, in fact, a den of snakes. one wrong move and you’re dead meat

the civilians, on the other hand, are a wild card. we don’t know a whole lot about adrestia’s economy, social order, quality of life, etc. is food scarce? what percentage of the population is considered poor? are they dissatisfied with the emperor’s rule? is there discourse amongst commoners and nobles?

well, we have no clue. but we do know that the black eagles only has one commoner student. so the question is why?

i mentioned in my last speculation post about dorothea that it could be because of money or power (or presence thereof), but it could very well be that there’s a strict hierarchy in adrestia; nobles exert control over civilians. only the rich and influential—say, a renowned opera singer—would have the ability to stand equal with the nobles. in that case, it’d be understandable if they held ill will towards the nobility. edelgard, then, would also have to be careful outside of the court because the people don’t trust her

take note that she says “ruler” in this line, so she’s explicitly referring to her role as an emperor. to be a good and fair leader over nobles and commoners alike, she can’t just trust everything that people say. there could very well be a warmer/softer side to edelgard, but any matters concerning politics, leadership, military, etc. are seen through the lens of a queenly mask

“i’ve no desire to be accused of seeing only subtext in what others say”

in contrast, dimitri’s straightforward. what you say is the truth. makes sense because faerghus values honour above all else, being a country of knights

you know, dimitri’s profile irked me for the longest time because he reminded me of someone but i couldn’t figure out who it was

and then it hit me: marth

“sincere”, “chivalrous”, “cheerful”, and trusting of others? it sounds very much like marth! also notable is that the kanji for ‘the holy kingdom'—聖王国 (seiōkoku)—is the same for the kanji in ‘the sacred kingdom of archanea’. i’d actually love it if dimitri was a bit like marth/leif/eirika: kind, empathic, well-meaning, but a bit naive. at first, he looks like one of those 'ice queen’ characters, but if he’s the exact opposite then it’d be a pleasant surprise

the reason why i mentioned the whole adrestian public situation in the last section is because it would mean dimitri has a straightforward nature even if he’s (hypothetically) been through similar situations to edelgard. so he’d be a forgive and forget kind of guy, who despite being lied to before, will give you the benefit of a doubt the second time. again, it lines up with the whole knight thing

or, simpler, he’s never had to experience all that backstabbing before. but i wouldn’t bet on that because his profile does mention a “dark secret”. what the dark secret is could be anything—for all we know, dimitri could be a serial killer! of course, that doesn’t fit with what we know of him so far, so i’d scratch that idea off of the drawing board

nevertheless, that means he’s a pretty blunt guy. if you want the truth, ask dimitri; he won’t beat around the bush

also, i think he’s well-liked with the commoners in his country (faerghusians? faerghese?). as a knight and a noble, he likely lives by the code of noblesse oblige. he’s not personally involved—i’d gun more for respected at a distance—but he certainly has their favour

“oh how innocent - how naive - these two seem next to me, shiftiness incarnate!”

woah! claude!! what’s that supposed to mean?!

the way it’s worded is really weird, but i think it means that claude refers to himself as “shiftiness incarnate”. his bio implies he’s clever and knows more than he lets on, so he must be good at deception/fooling people

he calls the two other lords “innocent” and “naive”, which is a neon red flag for claude’s personality. dimitri, we’ve speculated, could have a vanilla backstory so i’d let it slide. but edelgard has probably been through tons and tons of political intrigue. even then, she’s naive in claude’s eyes? whatever’s going on in his life must be heavy. it seems to be a big secret that rivals even the most misleading adrestians. claude sounds like he’s got a lot to hide

that, or the three just constantly have kindergarten squabbles on who’s better than who (“you’re smart? well i’m smarter”)

the leicester alliance also gives me merchant vibes, if only because trade would be booming within an alliance. i’d like to think that claude’s personally close with the common folk, and he keeps good relations with all the houses within the territory

out of nice timing (as well as adding a lot more info because this is a late reply), the most recent famitsu scans detail a mini history lesson of the three nations. adrestia was the ruling government of fódlan, then faerghus and leicester became independent of adrestia. to this day, the three contest against each other. very interesting!

i don’t want to say that the three of them are enemies though. maybe rivals that respect each other. though the academy is on neutral ground, i think it’d be a terrible idea to have enemy nations all in the same place. just imagine if nohr and hoshido were put into a boarding school; they’d kill each other before the day is over

in that regard, i’m hoping we can get them to interact in free time events. maybe they can build up some sort of rapport and budding friendships, so by the time a full-scale war descends on fódlan, there’ll be even better drama on the battlefield

[asks are open!]