#also for the record edelgard was not involved in duscur

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Yeah, this is one of the lords of the area when you fight in Adrestia.

Also, during this attack, none of the named characters are killed. Like, if anyone chooses to surrender and/or flee, they're not hunted down and killed (in complete contrast to Dimtiri fleeing in SB in Ailell and Edelgard literally saying outright that they were going to hunt him down). The Kingdom army lets anyone go who stops fighting. So, for all this NPC lord's complaining, they're only killing people who won't stop fighting.

Mind you, that's pretty damn generous of them considering Adrestia's forces attacked them in the first place and yet they're still letting people surrender with their lives. The implication is that if someone came after them in the initial invasion of Faerghus, who was now in this area during this chapter's attack, and had every intent on killing them in their own home in that initial invasion, Dimitri was still willing to let them live if they surrendered here. It's literally "you attacked us first in our own home, but during our attack we won't pursue people who are no longer fighting".

That's the not innocent people, for the record. That's just the people who have been fighting/helping in the Empire's unprovoked invasion efforts. Evidently this lord thinks they're all innocent simply for being attacked in their home, despite that all these people were still involved in the first place.

Either that or this lord is just absolutely idiotic and is making shit up to convince themselves of a reason to fight. No innocents were targeted by the Kingdom army, but innocents were being killed by the Empire's army. Thales was spearheading the chaos, but it was the (also) Imperial army itself that was ransacking and burning villages.

They literally explain that the Empire's army is out of control, implying if not outright expressing that they have no discipline. Even without one's leader in charge to keep things together, if soldiers are going to pillage because there's no leader to stop them, that speaks to the morality of the army's soldiers and what they'd do if left to their own completely free devices. If Edelgard is out of commission, her soldiers will feel free to pillage and destroy. So basically, the people in the army themselves are corrupt, just as badly as TWS.

The burning of villages sounds like TWS, which I'm just guessing based on the Duscur. They didn't specify who it was who actually straight up burned the villages (of, you know, innocents), but I'd guess that part was Thales and Friends. Dimitri and Friends, meanwhile, are completely disgusted at the sight of, wouldn't you know it, innocent people being harmed like this and losing everything.

But well, sure, yeah, it's totally the Kingdom army who has been doing all this for months now even though they just got here. Mm. Yeah. Point blank accuracy.

lmao... imagine if someone could talk to edelgard this way

and also lol

how dare you guys come in and attack us after our emperor we we all loyally follow and fight for attacked you first! how dare you retaliate just because we haven't attacked you particularly recently! there's a warranty on invasions! if you don't retaliate in a certain window of time, you can't anymore! you have to wait until we attack you again!

[iturbide]

Hfjdhjf can I please have more information?? I think the reason I managed to float by so spoiler free was half because up until recently I never was super interested in Three Houses, and my knowledge was limited to what I was told about the routes. WHICH WAS APPARENTLY VERY LIMITED. V E R Y.

friend of course you can have more information

legit though I am so impressed that you’ve managed to stay spoiler free regardless of the context, I am massively spoiled for fandoms I’m not even in and yet you’re managing to come at it fresh like I did when I started my Golden Deer playthrough.

also this came in and frankly your wish is my command

But okay.  So.

Dimitri is honestly fascinating and a tragic, deeply flawed character in his own right.  But understanding his break requires backstory.  His mom died when he was still pretty young due to a plague that swept through Faerghus, and when he was around ten his father re-married an Imperial woman named Patricia von Arundel (who is also Edelgard’s mother, hence the step-siblings thing).  Edelgard, as it happens, had come to the Kingdom with her mother and uncle, Volkhart von Arundel, in order to escape the chaos caused by the Insurrection of the Seven, where the Imperial nobles seized power from the Emperor (Edelgard’s father), and the two became friends: she taught him to dance during the three-ish years she was in the Kingdom, and just before she left Dimitri gifted her a dagger, symbolic in the Kingdom of a hope for someone to cut their own path forward.

Two years later, Dimitri’s life basically becomes hell.  While he and his family are traveling through the neighboring lands of Duscur, their caravan is attacked: his father Lambert and his bodyguard Glenn are both brutally murdered, his step-mother goes missing, and he is the sole survivor.  He witnessed the people responsible, but although he tried to tell people what happened, the people of Duscur were blamed for the attack, and the genocide soon followed.  The whole incident came to be known as the Tragedy of Duscur, and it left Dimitri with massive trauma that went completely unaddressed: he suffers from survivor’s guilt and PTSD, he completely lost all sense of taste, he’s had a constant headache since the incident...oh, and also he sees hallucinations of the people who died.  So there’s that.

Now, because Dimitri was only 14 at the time and he couldn’t take the Faerghus throne until he reached his majority at 18, his uncle Rufus stepped in as regent in the meantime.  Rufus is pretty fucking terrible!  In fact, he sent Dimitri at age 16 to go put down a rebellion in Western Faerghus -- and again, Dimitri is a traumatized teenager who’s been getting no help or support.  The people around him, notably Gilbert and Felix’s father Rodrigue, are trying to foster him into the next King of Faerghus rather than tending to his very real mental and emotional needs following the events of Duscur, so Dimitri has been silently bottling up all of his problems for the better part of two years.  He...kind of snaps during that rebellion, and it ends up as a brutal slaughter; Felix bears witness to it, and ever after he treats Dimitri like a wild animal, calling him a beast and a boar.

This is all just piling on the trauma, as you probably noticed.  He manages to hold it together and keep up a calm exterior, though he’s deeply afraid of the darkness within him, and does his utmost to bury it and keep it under control.  At age 17 he comes to Garreg Mach, and over the course of the school year things just get progressively worse: he starts slipping and growing more violent over the course of repeated encounters with the Flame Emperor, since he recognizes the masked mages from the attack on his family’s caravan in Duscur and believes that the Flame Emperor must have been responsible for the Tragedy.  But he pretty much snaps during the revelation at the Holy Tomb, where Edelgard is unmasked as the Flame Emperor -- in the Blue Lions route, he literally crushes an Imperial soldier’s skull with his bare hands in his attempts to get at Edelgard.  It’s shocking, especially since up to that point the super strength that came from his Crest was played for laughs more than anything else.

He continues slipping in the weeks leading up to the attack on Garreg Mach, publicly alluding to his hallucinations and how they whisper to him and vowing to take Edelgard’s head himself.  CF is the only route where he actually stays pretty sane, so we’re going to focus on non-CF routes: in the battle for the monastery, Edelgard’s forces end up victorious, and he’s forced back to Faerghus, expecting to take the throne and rally a counterstrike against her...only to arrive and be accused of regicide when it’s revealed that his uncle Rufus has been viciously murdered.  Cornelia (who is, in fact, a Twisted agent) takes power in the Kingdom and basically hands it off to Edelgard as the ‘Dukedom of Faerghus,’ then orders Dimitri be imprisoned and later executed; but before he can be killed, his vassal Dedue manages to break him out of prison, though the escape attempt apparently costs him his life (he can be saved by other Duscur survivors depending on the results of an earlier paralogue, though -- the important point is that Dimitri thinks Dedue is dead).  After that, Dimitri spends the next four-ish years wandering alone in the Faerghus forests, the isolation exacerbating his already poor mental health until he’s openly conversing with his hallucinations; he also starts attacking Imperial forces he comes across in Faerghus and basically ripping them apart, leading to a lot of rumors about a wild beast on the loose.  Also, somewhere in this five year span he loses an eye.  No, we have no idea how.  Fandom burns for answers.

Now, Dimitri’s fate varies significantly depending on playthrough here.  In Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, he’s literally consumed by his rage and guilt and his desire for vengeance on behalf of those taken from him, and he ends up dying in pursuit of it.  In Azure Moon, he’s lost any real ability to tell reality from hallucination, and believes even Byleth is nothing more than a figment; he continues his single-minded pursuit of Edelgard, committing atrocities of his own and admitting to being nothing but a base murderer, the beast Felix accused him of being so long ago.  But eventually, through the intervention of Byleth and his classmates, he starts to come around a little more -- though it takes Rodrigue’s death and his final words, encouraging him to live for himself rather than those who have already gone, to really wake him up and get him moving forward.  The game takes the turn a little fast, but it’s still really touching to see Dimitri coming back from the edge and recognizing the importance of his own desires.  The campaign continues, they retake Fhirdiad, there’s a parley with Edelgard where she refuses to back down and continues to insist that war is the only option, things get crazy with the final boss like holy shit, but in the end after Edelgard’s been defeated, Dimitri offers his hand to her...and her final act is to throw the dagger he gifted her when they were children at him, and he instinctively kills her in retaliation.

Look, Dimitri doesn’t come out of this smelling like roses.  He killed a lot of people in very, very violent ways.  But he recognizes that what he did, even if he wasn’t mentally sound at the time, was pretty atrocious and spends the rest of his life seeking peace with as little bloodshed as possible.

But okay I have gone on for a long time about Dimitri so if you’re still here, congratulations let’s talk about my favorite Lord.

Claude is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.  That’s literally how he’s presented in the game, and it’s great.  He’s sociable, amiable, friendly, mischievous, and has a reputation as a schemer.  He jokes about his own reputation a lot, especially when he’s called out, but he’s wickedly smart, especially where tactics, information gathering, puzzles, and secrets are concerned.  We literally go through the whole first half of the game getting only the tiniest hints about him personally and what his aspirations are -- we don’t even know where he came from, he legit just showed up out of the blue when Duke Riegan named Claude as his heir -- and meanwhile he’s out there trying to unravel the mystery behind Crests, the Church, and the Flame Emperor -- and while he doesn’t manage to succeed before the timeskip hits, he manages to uncover an alarming amount of information.  Also, despite his reputation as an untrustworthy trickster, he cares deeply about the people around him and does his best to keep them safe, even if it means resorting to underhanded (but ultimately non-lethal) methods.

Once we hit the timeskip, we find out more of the secrets that he’s been hiding.  For context, Fodlan’s neighbor to the east is Almyra, and relations between the two nations have been...tense, to say the least: a few hundred years ago Almyra invaded Fodlan and a bad time was had by all.  In order to prevent it from happening again, the Alliance built a fortress called Fodlan’s Locket in the pass connecting the two nations (the pass being called Fodlan’s Throat).  Presently, the Alliance is headed by a communal council of nobles from the major families, who meet at regular round tables in order to debate business that affects their territories and pass legislature; the round table is headed by Duke Riegan, who had two children, a son set to inherit the title and a daughter who went mysteriously missing years ago.  Unfortunately, House Riegan and House Gloucester have never been on the best of terms, and when Duke Riegan’s heir was attacked and killed on the road while traveling to visit Duke Gloucester, there were a lot of rumors that Lorenz’s dad might have been involved, though nothing was ever proven in that regard.  It left Duke Riegan in a tough spot, though, since he was getting on in years and suddenly had no heir...at which point, Claude ‘miraculously’ steps in with his Crest and is named heir to House Riegan.

Turns out?  Duke Riegan’s daughter didn’t go missing: she eloped with an Almyran.  And that Almyran, as it turns out, became king of Almyra.  So Claude’s an Almyran prince.  Turns out, he didn’t exactly have a great time growing up, though: Almyrans view the people of Fodlan as cowardly and weak, so they viewed Claude’s mom as such...and Claude himself, too, since he was half-Fodlan.  No matter how much he argued or fought, it never seemed to matter.  He got bullied a lot, and started picking up tactics and poison mixing as ways to defend himself...but more than anything, he hated how small-minded Almyrans were when it came to him and his mother.  Then Duke Riegan’s heir died, and his grandfather reached out to his daughter, hoping to have Claude tested for a Crest -- which, as it happens, he bore.  Claude was so excited, believing that things in Fodlan would be different, better...

...and instead, he found that things in Fodlan were exactly like they were in Almyra.  People hated him for half his heritage -- just this time, it was for his ‘savage’ Almyran half instead of his ‘cowardly’ Fodlan half.  It was hilarious, in a sad way, how alike the people of Fodlan and Almyra were when it came to hating things they didn’t know...and that was how he decided on his goal.  What Claude wants to do is destroy the borders between people and forge understanding between them.  He found through hard experience that people always fear the outsider -- but if you break down the walls, there’s no ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ anymore.  There’s just people.  What he wants to do is unify the Alliance, then Fodlan, then perhaps even the world...not through force or subjugation, but by bringing them together, uniting them through what they share in common and helping them understand and find value in their differences.  His aspiration is to ensure that no one has to suffer like he did growing up.

And so, once things are all settled in Fodlan (and he’s assured that he managed to achieve his goal in small scale with his friends in the Alliance), he leaves Byleth in charge, forgoes leadership in the Alliance, and heads back to Almyra to continue working toward that aspiration.  He becomes the king of Almyra so that he can start working toward that larger goal from the other side of the border, intending to open roads toward peaceful diplomacy and trade with Fodlan.  He knows their bonds are strong, even when they’re apart, and he knows that they’ll all be reunited someday.  Also Claude is the only Lord who has the possibility to live in all routes (barring Silver Snow but he’s only listed as ‘missing’ not ‘dead’ so I hold out hope) which I think says a heck of a lot about how great he is.  He’s just so good and so kind and cares so much about people and he makes my heart warm and yes I’m done yelling about how much I love Claude for a moment.

So hopefully that fills you in a little on the other Lords at least in part please enjoy my novel-length ramble.

[agent-cupcake]

The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus: A History

Basically, this is a more coherent version of the Fódlan’s history document I’ve been spastically adding to for a while now as a reference for myself. I don’t know if anyone’s even interested in this sort of thing aside from me, but I had fun with it regardless. Potential spoilers if you haven’t completed the game, I suppose. 

Strap in, this one’s a doozy.

-

What was to become the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus was originally the northern part of the Adrestian Empire, a monolithic country covering all of Fódlan after the War of Heroes. 

In the Imperial Year 747, the nobles of the northern Empire acted upon their desire to gain independence. This movement was led by Loog, a descendant of Blaiddyd from the Ten Elites, his mysterious tactician Pan, and Kyphon of the Fraldarius line and Loog’s close friend. 

However, it doesn’t seem as if things were as simple as that. I’m going to use an excerpt from Burnt Remnants of a Report, a book found in the Abyss library. It’s unclear who the author is, but this document was very interesting while compiling Faerghus’s history together. 

Item 18, Part 5

… The Faerghus rebellion … I harbor doubts about the army Loog has raised. How did he recruit soldiers without raising suspicions in the Empire? How did he acquire those mysterious weapons, so like Heroes' Relics? What is the true identity of Pan, the tactician rumored to have been integral to Loog's victories? And Those Who Slither in Dark…

The first point of interest was that one of Edelgard’s reasons for beginning the war was that the Church had artificially segmented Fodlan for their own benefit, but this implies that it was actually Those Who Slither in the Dark. At this point in history, it makes sense that Slither’s would have a desire for a segmented Fódlan, as the Adrestian Empire was crafted at Seiros’s will. Moreover, this would be ideal in regards to causing malcontent and constructing war, doing what they lacked the strength to achieve on their own. 

This document also seems to imply that Pan was a member of Those Who Slither in the Dark - an Agarthan - which could make sense considering how little was recorded about him. Although that makes it especially funny that Ferdinand compares Byleth to Pan. 

The “mysterious weapons, so like the Heroes’ Relics” could be stolen Sacred Weapons, lost Crest Stone Weapons, or the copy weapons Slither’s was shown to be capable of making. The Sword of Moralta is a Sacred Weapon of Fraldarius, and there’s another document in the Abyss library that might relate to this connection and possibly that Slithers could have ownership of it... But I digress.

In 747, the War of the Eagle and Lion, the battle for the Kingdom’s independence from the Empire, began. It lasted four years until Faerghus’s victory in 751 on the Tailtean Plains. At this point, the Church of Seiros stepped in and helped to mediate peace between the two countries. House Charon was integral to these proceedings, seeing that the Kingdom’s independence was recognized by all parties and secured by the Empire and Church.

On the founding day - the twenty-first of the Red Wolf Moon in Imperial Year 751 - the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus became an official country, and Loog, King of Lions, ascended to the throne as king. Despite the potential involvement of Slithers in the rebellion, Faerghus’ identity was forged out of gratitude and respect towards the church for mediating their founding which created a culture with an emphasis on piety and support of the Church.

Soon after Faerghus’s independence was assured, the Empire constructed Arianrhod, the Fortress City occasionally referred to as the Silver Maiden. The city was built in Rowe territory on the border between the countries. Once construction was complete, Rowe changed allegiances and gifted the city to the Kingdom in exchange for the title of Count.

In Imperial Year 801, only a few decades after the founding of Faerghus, the nobles of the Leicester region also rebelled against the Empire. They found themselves unable to maintain control, however, and were commandeered by the opportunistic Kingdom who wished to establish their power as a young nation. 

With the Leicester territory still under Kingdom control, King Klaus I ruled until his death in 861. Details of his rule are seemingly unimportant, as his name is only notable due to the will he left after he died which laid out plans for his three sons to divide the Kingdom and rule as archdukes of the Eastern Kingdom, Western Kingdom, and Leicester territories. To return to the report from earlier:

Item 22, Part 2

The shadowed order of the Knights of Seiros believes that King Klaus I of Faerghus was assassinated. Everyone believes that his will, which demands the territory be divided among the three princes and fails to name a successor, is a fake. The purpose was likely to involve the Leicester region and display a greater military force than the Empire...

Once again, if this report is to be believed, the events that caused the involvement and subsequent fragmentation of the Leicester Alliance were orchestrated by Those Who Slither in the Dark.

Whoever created the will meant to undermine the power structure of the Kingdom, as failing to name a successor meant that when the Archduke of the Leicester territory died in 881, the nobles of that area were able to once again make a bid for independence. This time, they were led by the Duke of Riegan. This rebellion began the Crescent Moon War, which ended in 901 with a victory on the part of the Leicester territory, which formed their own country under the banner of the Leicester Alliance.

In Imperial year 1101, the Kingdom and Empire cooperated with the Alliance to construct Fodlan’s Locket as a safeguard from the Almyran threat to the east.

King Lambert ascended to the throne of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus sometime before 1162. Although he was the second child,  his older brother Rufus lacked a crest and thus wasn’t seen as fit to rule. Late in 1162, Prince Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd was born, the first and only child of King Lambert and his unnamed wife.

In 1168, King Lambert and Rodrigue set out to claim the southern half of the barren, tribal country of Sreng, likely because of the constant threat the warrior clans posed to the northern territories of Faerghus.

The fact that they stopped with only taking half the country leads me to believe that it was something like a scare tactic, a display of overwhelming dominance. It doesn’t seem as if the land had any real value, but King Lambert might have seen a dominating display of strength as the only way to deal with the warrior culture of Sreng. More than that, Faerghus’s own warrior culture might have prevented any other means of dealing with Sreng to be discussed.

Around 1169, a plague tore through Faerghus, claiming the life of the queen consort - Dimitri’s mother. The year isn’t explicitly stated, but in 1169 Dimitri would have been seven and Yuri (who got the plague and was subsequently cured by Aubin) was nine, so that date is late enough to match up with a reasonable timeline for Yuri but early enough that Dimitri’s lack of memories about his mother can make sense. 

Around this same time, a woman named Cornelia, a highly capable scholar and mage, managed to cure the plague as well as aid in fixing the unfavorable conditions of Faerghus and especially Fhirdiad. For her efforts, King Lambert gave her a court position and became reliant on her aid.

While I don’t subscribe to the idea that Cornelia was always a member of Those Who Slither in the Dark at first, there is an argument to be made about the nature of the plague and her appearing out of nowhere. It doesn’t make sense to me that the game would go out of its way to mention her major personality shift. I also don’t believe that Slither’s had very much sway in the Kingdom up to this point, not until the Tragedy of Duscur. Either way, if Cornelia was switched out with a member of Slithers it would have had to be soon after she cured the plague, as Hapi was kidnapped for Cornelia’s experiments in 1169.

In 1171, the Adrestian Empire was thrust into turmoil due to the Insurrection of the Seven. Despite his involvement in the event, Lord Volkhard Arundel - given a title by the marriage between his sister Anselma and the now powerless Emperor Ionius IX - helped his sister Anselma and niece Edelgard escape the Empire to the Kingdom. He trusted Cornelia with care of his sister - whose name was changed to Patricia - and settled elsewhere with his niece. Cornelia mediated the relationship and secret marriage between King Lambert and Patricia, becoming Patricia’s only outside contact aside from her new husband and step-son, Dimitri.

In 1173, Lambert and Dimitri visited Volkhard and Edelgard, presumably so the two heirs could get to know each other and arrangements between Lambert and Volkhard could be made. At this point, Volkhard’s situation was incredibly precarious, and Lambert was taking on a lot of risk with his interactions with Imperial nobility. Ignorant to all that, Edelgard and Dimitri spent the year becoming friends. Dimitri was not told that his step-mother was Edelgard’s mother, and Lambert did not allow his new wife to reunite with her brother or daughter. Aside from Dimitri, Edelgard was as isolated as Patricia, neither allowed contact with others. It is possible that Volkhard and Lambert planned to arrange a marriage between the heirs in an attempt to salvage the Imperial throne and bolster it with the Kingdom’s strength, although there was a risk of uprising or being attacked by doing something so drastic. In 1174, however, Volkhard’s identity was taken by Slither’s leader Thales and he and Edelgard abruptly left the Kingdom to return to the Empire.

Around this time, King Lambert began to build relations with Duscur. In 1176, Lambert made a bold display of peace - or a bold power play against the weaker country - by setting out with his family and all his best knights to Duscur so he could finalize relations between the two countries. This ended in the fiery deaths of nearly everyone who had gone on the trip, Prince Dimitri being one of the only survivors. This was, of course, the Tragedy of Duscur.

I’d like to go over some of my thoughts about this all. There’s a lot to unpack.

1) King Lambert’s treatment of Duscur was far more peaceful than the way Faerghus interacted with Sreng. I’m a bit of a cynic so my first thought was that Duscur’s resource-rich land was valuable enough that it was smarter to avoid a full-scale battle that could damage the area. Then again, his willingness to interact with Lord Arundel shows that he isn’t as separatist as others of Faerghus. Besides, the circumstances of both situations are different and we don’t know much about either... or King Lambert for that matter. Something to think about, King Lambert is an interesting character to me.

2) As I mentioned before, it seems to me that the involvement of Slithers in the Kingdom was minimal before the breaking point of the Tragedy of Duscur. Discontent wasn’t overt in the same way as the Empire, the rot hadn’t taken hold within the higher powers because the most powerful men in Faerghus were still loyal to King Lambert. There was displeasure in the hearts of men and lords who called themselves loyalists to Faerghus ideals, and there was major tampering with the Western Church, but no chance for something like the Insurrection of the Seven to take place. Slithers needed to wreak havoc upon the entirety of the Kingdom’s structure. It feels like there was something vindictive in this all. If King Lambert had truly been considering a marriage between Edelgard and Dimitri in order to consolidate power, that would have undermined all of Slither’s hard work of separating the countries to begin with and put a wrench in all their devious machinations within the Empire. Then Lambert made an attempt at peaceful interactions with another country, which is completely unheard of as far as Fodlan’s extreme aversion the outside world and could have weakened the hold Slithers had overall. So, ultimately, Slithers weaponized all of this against him. Maybe I’m way off base, but Cornelia seems like a petty gal.

3) A few thoughts about motives:

The Kingdom Lords: No matter what King Lambert’s reasons, to a loyal Faerghus lord or knight - a man living in a place characterized by its hatred of anything outside of their own people - the idea of having a relationship with or even peacefully folding another country into their way of life would be unthinkable. Radical. Combined with the possibility that there were rumors spread about Lambert’s relations with the Empire, it’s easy to see why rallying the soldiers against King Lambert would be doable. 

Anselma: Cornelia was her only friend. She had a husband who fell in love with her at first sight and a son that was not her own. Anselma, Patricia, was a woman - a mother - who had been isolated and living in a place where she was utterly powerless. And matter what her reasons or how far her involvement went in the plot, it seems pretty clear that she never even got what she was promised. 

The men of Duscur: There are always radicals, people who can be rallied into violence. Moreover, the people of Duscur had reason to fear and even hate the Kingdom. The noble king of Faerghus arrived with all his plated knights and shining weapons. They marched in a grand parade past their borders, speaking of peace but imbued with the unknown powers of their foreign goddess and trailed by the reputation of their country's war-hungry past. 

Bringing all of this discontent together was probably not as hard as it might have seemed, which is another reason why I think the Tragedy was the catalyst for Slither’s power in the Kingdom, not a result of it.

Continuing on, following the Tragedy of Duscur, the kingdom was thrust back into the Faerghus grand tradition of violence. Prince Dimitri was too young to take the throne, so King Lambert’s older brother, Rufus of Itha territory, took on the title of Regent to rule in his stead. After condemning them for the crime of Regicide, Faerghus destroyed and subjugated Duscur without the slightest bit of mercy, enacting absolute violence without further investigation into the causes of the Tragedy. The young Prince Dimitri was one of the few who actively disagreed with the treatment of Duscur, saving Dedue and taking him on as his vassal.

The previously small House Kleiman rose to prominence during this time, secretly taking part in the Tragedy and then receiving the noble title of Viscount as well as the land previously known as Duscur as rewards for his part in the vengeful conquest against the people.

Slither’s took this chance and distraction to take more complete control of the already weakened Western Church. Taking another passage from Burnt Remnants of a Report:

Item 49, Part 18 ...

The Tragedy of Duscur, after which more members of the Western Church are strongly criticizing the Central Church. Among them are those who claim the incident in Duscur was the work of the shadowed order of the Knights of Seiros. It seems a confrontation over the dogma's legitimacy is inevitable. Soon, the child of House Gaspard...

This note illustrates that while weakening the Kingdom was undoubtedly a priority for Slithers, taking control of the Western Church was the greater of the two goals as it gave them a chance to undermine the foundational control of the Central Church.

The line about the child of House Gaspard is in reference to Christophe, Lonato’s son and Ashe’s adopted brother. In the same year as the Tragedy of Duscur, 1176, he was killed on false charges regarding his involvement with the Tragedy. This was a lie, as Christophe was actually killed because of his plans to assassinate Archbishop Rhea. The use of the word “soon” could refer to the author’s knowledge of Christophe’s plans, or his execution. 

The lie the Church uses to misdirect panic from the idea of the Archbishop being assassinated is interesting, as it ties in with the way everyone else uses the Tragedy to their own ends - Faerghus blaming Duscur, the Western Church blaming the Knights of Seiros, and Dimitri blaming Edelgard.  

In 1178, Prince Dimitri joined in the campaign to quell the widespread rebellion in Western Faerghus, demonstrating his exceptional aptitude for battle. 

And, finally, two years later in 1180, he left Faerghus to attend Garreg Mach Officer’s Academy.

[gascon-en-exil]

what do you think of the homoeroticism between felix’s dad and dimitri’s dad? like, Rodrigue is obssessed with Lambert to the point he neglects his own living son to parent this dead dude’s child as his own. it’s like how Gilbert was also obsessed with Lambert but even more and I feel like it goes beyond normal King/Shield behavior and that every man in farghus is hopelessly gay but what do you think?

Funny that you should mention them, because just the other day I came across some Rodrigue/Lambert porn on AO3 and was momentarily baffled by its existence until I realized that, yeah, it’s not that surprising at all. It’s a type of relationship subtext FE has explored before; Elihec is much the same in its later years, and Genealogy’s Gen 1 lord trio - the group whose school days inspired the basic premise of Three Houses, at that - carries hints of it as well. 

I’ve brought it up before when discussing the route, but Faerghus and Azure Moon are so heavily gendered in a way that feels like it’s deliberately picked up a bunch of disparate threads of male intimacy in wartime that the series has played with previously and woven them together into a narrative that is unmistakably homoerotic, both for good and for ill:

Dimidue, Dimilix, and Sylvix all reflect the martial culture in which these men bond with each other, whether it’s cherishing battle scars or making vows to die together or coping (or not) with trauma born of violent military action. Dedue/Ashe is the odd one out, as both characters are on the outside looking in at Faerghus’s cult of knighthood.

As you said, Rodrigue and Gilbert go above and beyond in their devotion to Lambert and his son to the point of neglecting their own families. In Rodrigue’s case - and later, Felix’s - their intimacy explicitly belongs to a tradition enshrined in the near-mythical bond between Loog and Kyphon.

Dedue specifically represents a partial subversion of the status quo right from the beginning, as he replaces Felix as Dimitri’s shield and retainer figure on account of the tragedy of Duscur throwing everyone and everything in the Kingdom off. I would also argue that the Dimidue ending is the most transgressive of the four Lions M/M endings, with Dimitri taking no queen and instead having Dedue as his consort in everything but name. Fandom has been quick to establish that fanon!Fódlan has marriage equality for every popular pairing, so it can be easy to forget that very few of the same-sex paired endings imply, much less state outright, anything as close to a publicly-acknowledged union as this one.

Annette and Ingrid represent two different viewpoints on how women are damaged by all this furtive male bonding running side by side with standard heteronormative patriarchy. Annette’s father cares more about his duty to his king - and might possibly be a heavily repressed gay (but see below) man himself - than his duty to his family, while Ingrid struggles to reconcile her dreams of breaking into the male-dominated world of knighthood with her duty to marry as imposed on her by her father. Sylvain meanwhile takes his resentment of the Crest system out on the many women he pursues, in a take on compulsory heterosexuality that’s pretty hard to take sympathetically.

It would not be unreasonable to headcanon that Faerghus’s culture not only condones but encourages romantic and possibly sexual relationships between noblemen provided they also marry to pass down their Crests. That’s why I left a note on calling Gilbert gay above - standard sexuality labels don’t work very well for a culture like that, which is neither strictly heteronormative (for men, at least) nor fully egalitarian. We have very little idea how much of this would impact commoners, removed as they are from both the institutions of knighthood and personal vassalage and from the need to make Crest babies. We also don’t know if Faerghus is more or less accepting of female homosexuality than Adrestia where it’s apparently the norm; Annette/Mercedes, like everything else involving Mercedes who is herself not from Faerghus, feels removed from the Kingdom’s culture. I sometimes wonder actually if Mercedes was an Eagles character when first designed and was only moved to the Lions when the developers realized that A) a sincerely pious Adrestian such as Mercedes would absolutely not ally with Edelgard by default, B) the Lions needed a primary healer and/or another woman, or C) both.

I’ve seen some of my Tumblr mutuals remark that they sometimes feel like other fans played a completely different game from them, usually in regard to Edelgard. I’m of a similar mind with the Lions and how outside my own circle and a few other little corners of the internet the most common consensus is that Dimitri is a straight guy healed by f!Byleth’s loving hand, the Lions is the house with all the bromance, and Azure Moon’s biggest missteps are ignoring the Agarthans and Rhea (and also presenting Edelgard at her most supervillain-y, for her fans). Well, I would be, but then the game does such a good job of anticipating the way some players as well as the in-game historical record will glide over the subtext that it’s easy to dismiss it when Byleth’s romantic same-sex S ranks exist.

Tl;dr, do I think every man in Faerghus is gay? I wouldn’t go that far, but I think it’s not a big deal for Faerghus noblemen so long as they take time out from plowing/getting plowed by their buddies to make a Crest baby or two. The obsession with passing down Crests is something that’s lessened by gradual reforms in the AM endings, so presumably things just get even more openly gay from then on - especially if the king is publicly getting in on the action.

[drewinator23]

FE3H MBTI [Dimitri — ISFJ]

lol so. it looks like a lot of people are subscribing to the idea that dimitri is an ENFJ, in contrast to edelgard, who is supposedly an ENTJ. i believe that misses the point of these characters — and their dynamic — almost entirely, especially in dimitri’s case. while i will say i think edelgard is an INTJ, at least that isn’t too far off from ENTJ. the cognitive difference between ISFJ and ENFJ though...oh boy, where do i start.

the whole dimitri/edelgard conflict isn’t so much a clash between Fe and Te as it is a clash between Si and Ni — with dimitri, of course, representing the former. Fe vs Te does come into play a little (ISFJ’s auxiliary Fe vs INTJ’s auxiliary Te), but i honestly think the main focus of their clash is the past vs future dynamic typical of Si/Ni conflict.

ISFP seems to be a popular choice for dimitri too, but tbh i think a lot of people are mistaking his Si for Fi. i just want to say, right now, that this man...does not have Fi. lol. not in his main functions anyway (yes i will be getting into shadow functions, and cognitive loops, and all that good stuff, so if that’s not your cup of tea then here’s your warning!) ...but yeah let’s get into it.

Dominant Si 

“I must never forget that day. I must never allow their deaths to be forgotten.”

dimitri has a very strong connection to the past. and this doesn’t just apply to his past, but to the concept of the past in general. in stark contrast to edelgard, dimitri vehemently believes in “preserving what deserves to be preserved,” which is an important factor in why his methods are far less radical than hers. he believes it’s possible to improve the system currently in place without tearing it from the ground up the way edelgard does. he places a lot more focus on honoring the fallen, on reminiscing about days gone by, and on respecting tradition in general. and this isn’t to say he’s a dense fuck. dimitri is very much capable of criticizing tradition where it’s due, and we see him do this on multiple occasions. it’s just that he has a lot more appreciation for the positive aspects of tradition/“the past” which edelgard seems to ignore completely. where edelgard wishes her “worthless dreams of the past” would go away, dimitri legit admits to relying on his headaches/nightmares of the past as reminders because he is genuinely afraid to forget the faces of those he “let die,” along with those he killed. he believes forgetting their faces would be an insult to their memory. he talks about his history with edelgard far more than she talks about her history with him. he becomes furious when edelgard’s forces attack the holy tomb and “desecrate the dead.” i think you guys get where i’m going with this. while it’s true that a substantial amount of dimitri’s connection to the past is unhealthy, that’s largely due to the trauma he suffers, along with the cognitive imbalance stemming from his Si-Ti loop. obsessing over the past the way dimitri does is far more indicative of an unhealthy Si user than it is of shadow Si, which is more likely to just abandon the past altogether...or uh, “trample the past underfoot” (looking at you, hegemon edelgard). 

“I owe you, just as I owe the spirits of those I let die.”

second point — duty. (i’m guessing this is the point a lot of people confuse for Fi. dimtiri’s pretty preachy, yeah, but not all talk about justice is inherently rooted in Fi. more on that later though.) this guy literally constructs his entire life around the idea of fulfilling his duty, be it his duty to his father, his duty to dedue’s people, his duty to his kingdom, etc. he constantly talks about his need to fulfill these duties, and pretty much all the effort he puts into anything is driven by this. even his earlier, more light-hearted supports tend to carry a running theme of him making promises (which he takes almost comedically seriously), encouraging his classmates to be responsible, creating debts to be repaid, and so on. the only reason he even goes to the academy in the first place is, by his own admission, to fulfill what he perceives as his duty as the Sole Survivor of the Tragedy of Duscur™. obsessive revenge is a fucked up conception of duty, sure, but it transforms into something healthier by the end of the story while remaining very distinctly Si. his duty to ghosts becomes his duty to the living — to the people in his kingdom who need him now. essentially, he develops a more constructive attitude toward duty that helps both him and the people he constantly feels he “owes.” my boi snaps out of his Si-Ti loop and becomes a bro again once dat aux Fe and inf Ne come back to balance shit out, y’know what i’m saying? anyway speaking of aux Fe,

Auxiliary Fe

“This victory is the result of everyone’s hard work. Thank you, my friends.”

academy phase dimitri (and i guess uh...post-post-timeskip dimitri) is just about the nicest guy ever. he can be stiff and awkward to the point of being comically serious at times, sure (thanks dominant Si), but he’s generally very polite and agreeable. he’s conscious of the atmosphere in his conversations and always makes an effort to keep things comfortable for everyone involved. tbh he could make do with less of the whole constantly-falling-over-himself-apologizing thing, and it would be kinda cool if “sorry” didn’t make up over 90% of his dialogue, but i digress. regret is dimitri’s middle name so it kinda makes sense for it to permeate even his most mundane interactions. ANYWAY my point is — dimitri’s always trying to make sure everyone gets along and he generally prioritizes harmony over being fully honest about his own feelings, which strikes me as a lot more Fe than Fi. a simple but hopefully effective example of this is his support with flayn where he eats her awful fucking food and tells her it’s delicious even though he can’t taste it. he later admits to her that he was only saying what he thought she’d want to hear, which is like...peak Fe my dudes. a good chunk of his support and even main story dialogue involves him trying to smooth things over, prevent conflict, let people know they did a good job, and so on. and this isn’t just with respect to the other blue lions, but to the other house leaders as well. a lot of the praise he dishes out commends hard work and effort (thanks dominant Si), but his focus is also largely on teamwork and cooperation. 

“I saved someone—saved you. That and that alone has always been my crutch.”  

now on to the darker side of...not-so-healthy Fe users. dimitri openly admits to dedue that saving him gave him a reason to live, that it makes him think it was worthwhile that someone “like [him]” survived. and this savior complex doesn’t just apply to his relationship with dedue, but to his behavior and decisions in general. it’s exacerbated by the sense of genuine responsibility and duty he attaches to everything (thanks dominant Si), and it sparks up in many different ways. he admits that he feels like it’s his responsibility to help the orphans at the monastery, since he lost his family like they did. he tells byleth he wants to become like rodrigue, whom he describes as “someone who can reach out and save a lost soul.” he apologizes to byleth for not being able to save jeralt (?? BRUH.) he begs byleth to tell him how he can “save” the ghosts of his loved ones, even though they’re...you know. dead. i think this prob comes from his endless regret that he couldn’t actually stop anyone from dying in the tragedy, so he’s just obsessed with saving everyone he can now. in any case, dimitri feels the pain of loss in war very, very acutely, which is why he freaks the fuck out in remire. he later admits the flames in remire reminded him of the flames in duscur, which flung him into the same rage he associates with what happened in duscur, even though he had no particular connection to the villagers in remire. he absorbs the suffering of people around him like a sponge and surprise surprise it breaks his mind. eventually his Fe gets overloaded af and shuts down (hello Si-Ti loop), but even unhinged dimitri shows an occasional connection to others’ feelings — endearingly so when he pats a random orphan’s head, and eerily so when he sympathizes with fleche’s bloodlust and allows her to join the party because of it.

Tertiary Ti

“He’s dead. There goes our chance to gain more information.”

dimitri’s introverted realm is one of Si and Ti. he wants to reconcile his understanding of what happened in the past with a logical, substantial explanation, and he works tirelessly to find this explanation. this becomes increasingly apparent when he actually spends time alone — when he isn’t in the company of others, dimitri is far more research-oriented than he is overtly sentimental. he is interested in learning the facts of his circumstances, and he spends hours in the library looking for answers, trying to find out for himself what really happened. he is skeptical of the generally accepted “truth” that duscur itself is to blame, and instead believes that the blame foisted on it is meant to cover up something far more underhanded. of course, he is right about this, and he conducts as much research as he can to get to the bottom of the event. he spends hours in the library, late into the night. he reads about his uncle, lord arundel, and immediately suspects his involvement because the church’s records of his donations abruptly stop right before the tragedy. dimitri questions the man himself about this during their brief encounter pre-timeskip, though it (predictably) doesn’t really lead anywhere. he tries this again post-timeskip, but arundel dies before dimitri can pry too much out of him, which the latter bitterly laments. 

“That is merely the logic of the living. It’s meaningless.”

much like dimitri’s Si, his Ti becomes warped once he enters his Si-Ti loop — feeding into a harsh, twisted, self-deprecating sort of logic that only reinforces itself and ignores other viewpoints (thanks to Fe and Ne shutting down). he becomes uncharacteristically blunt and critical, and the colder, more cynical view of the world we see glimpses of pre-timeskip becomes far more pronounced. in his mind, it doesn’t make sense for the living to move on in hopes of appeasing the dead. turning a blind eye to the dead is blasphemous, and anyone who believes that the dead would want the living to do so is merely adopting “the logic of the living” — a delusion to make themselves feel better. this belief likely helps him rationalize his own desire for revenge, and inability to let go of his past, and so the Si-Ti loop reinforces itself. to reiterate though, dimitri’s Ti is incredibly helpful and constructive when he isn’t loopy (ahahah. get it.) but anyway yeah, in short, his analytical process is typically far more introverted than the sensitive, emotion-focused approach he maintains externally. also, his attention to detail and refusal to accept things at face value are more subtle, covert elements of his personality, but they are definitely there. it’s not as pronounced as claude’s auxiliary Ti, sure, but tertiary Ti ain’t a force to be reckoned with either.

Inferior Ne

“Lineage, race, faith, ideologies... If we could just accept each other and make mutual concessions, one step at a time... Perhaps... Who knows if that’s even possible.”

again, this is one of claude’s functions but more baby. take upside down man’s dominant Ne and make it a bit smoller, more scared, and quicker to shut down. inferior Ne is brilliant, but unfortunately the fourth function tends to be one of insecurity. dimitri aspires to be open-minded and accepting (there’s a reason the inferior function is sometimes called the aspirational function), but it’s something he admittedly struggles with at times. he believes in compromise and understanding, and not just in an Fe way — dimitri advocates for reaching out to other perspectives in war, in politics, and in various other contexts throughout the story. it isn’t the first thing on his mind, but it’s an ideal he genuinely admires. and later in the game, once he snaps out of his loop (which is inherently tunnel-visioned due to its introverted nature), he opens up to the idea again and seeks to understand edelgard’s point of view. he asks to speak with her, to get a better idea of where she’s coming from, to negotiate and hopefully reach a mutual understanding. this echoes his dialogue in chapter 3, where he laments the incident with lord lonato and expresses his belief that they shouldn’t have cut him down, but talked to him instead. dimitri’s Si-Ti loop effectively shuts this desire down, for a very long time, but it finally wakes up again once byleth reminds him “there must be another way.”

“I wonder which is best, Professor... To cut away that which is unacceptable, or to find a way to accept it anyway.”

again, as long as byleth is there to steer him back on track, we all know the answer dimitri gets to this in the end. there is always an air of uncertainty about it all — and he definitely needs someone to help kick that inferior into “aspirational mode” — but he is ultimately capable of it. it begins as more of a question than anything, but with guidance it becomes an ideal he can properly believe in and seek for himself. it’s what allows him to finally reach for edelgard’s hand in the end. once he accepts the parts of himself he previously couldn’t, he finds himself able to accept edelgard as well — to extend that same mercy to her. once he’s out of his loop, he doesn’t just regain awareness of his loved ones’ needs with Fe, but becomes invested in understanding their perspectives and motivations again with Ne. he listens to people again, lets them help him, asks them questions, and shows genuine curiosity in their answers. claude would be proud eh?

Shadow Functions

okay here we go. i’m going to make this part shorter since it’s the main functions that matter most, and i know not everyone subscribes to the idea of shadow functions. but anyway here’s the dirt.

Opposing Se

“It’s not that I have grown weary...more that I find it difficult to be around everyone at the moment.”

this man literally cannot taste food. do i even need to elaborate? okay for real though, dimitri often finds it hard to remain present. he’s often caught up in his duties with Si, or worrying about the atmosphere with Fe, or stuck in his research with Ti, and so on. he is very much capable of making pleasant conversation, but actually feeling present is very difficult for him, and he even goes so far as to describe joy as “fleeting.” he struggles to enjoy festivities, claiming they “don’t suit [him],” and prefers instead to chat with byleth about his childhood. he can’t truly enjoy the meals he eats with others, but he remarks about the dishes he “used to love as a child.” trauma aside, dimitri finds genuine comfort in reminiscing about the past, and he often brings it up in his conversations with others. this is a classic dynamic between dominant Si and the opposing Se that comes along with it.

Critic Fi

“Whatever my feelings, it is all the act of a monster.”

dimitri’s personal feelings are...very, very low on his priority list. and despite all his preaching, he ultimately believes that whatever his personal moral compass may be, it doesn’t justify his actions. and he extends this belief to everyone else as well. simply put, dimitri doesn’t think any set of ideals or morals can justify the actions committed in war. as Aleczandxr words it, “the only reality of war is tragedy for him. there is no such thing as a ‘glorious’ or ‘romantic’ death, and sacrifice is blasphemy.” this is evident in his disgust at people trying to glorify glenn’s death (which dimitri ironically shares with felix — who of course has demon Fi — but that’s a topic for another time.) no subjective concept of morality could possibly justify murder, in any context, and this belief is a burden dimitri admits he believes he will carry forever. dimitri’s introverted realm is a reconciliation between Si and Ti, not Si and Fi. although he believes this should apply to everyone in theory, he often struggles to voice it outright, leading to the hypocritical dynamic that often comes with auxiliary Fe and critic Fi. an example of this is when he tells ashe not to beat himself up for what happened with lord lonato, in an attempt to comfort him, but then proceeds to beat himself up for the exact same thing as soon as ashe leaves. furthermore, the advice he gives marianne in his support with her is to understand that she doesn’t have to “force [her]self to smile as [her] soul bleeds,” though that is exactly what he does for the majority of the academy phase. in any case, the fact that he chooses to give her this specific advice, of all things, is telling.

Trickster Te

“I do not want you to die a death like that. Not even for the sake of loyalty or duty.”

dimitri struggles with efficiency. his intense loathing of sacrifice, regardless of context, makes it very difficult for him to strategize as a commander the way that edelgard does. his rational side is, for the most part, internal; he uses it for his research, his theorizing, his personal endeavors to obtain more information and better understand his circumstances. but he struggles to apply that same level of cold, hard logic while commanding his troops, especially in battle. this comes up in his support with ingrid, who remarks that any good king innately understands some of his soldiers’ lives must be sacrificed for the greater good. she then proceeds to call dimitri’s ideals soft-hearted, which is as good an encapsulation as any of how his Te compares to edelgard’s. war and battlefields aside, dimitri struggles with being harsh in general, preferring to speak to others in softer, more personal terms rather than being blunt. he translates his Ti findings into “acceptable” Fe terms, except for when he enters a loop and said Fe shuts down. during these phases, dimitri is harsh in a manner far more characteristic of “unfiltered” Ti than it is of unrestrained Te, as he snaps at others to leave him alone more than he is inclined to order them around.

Demon Ni

“Do I have the right to live for myself?”

as soon as dimitri snaps out of his Si-Ti revenge craze, his first instinct is to ask who or what he should live for now. and even after byleth tells him to live for what he believes in, it’s very clear in dimitri’s subsequent supports that “what he believes in” is still fulfilling his duty to his kingdom. the difference is that he now has a healthier conception of said duty, and is finally open to accepting his loved ones’ support. that said, he has never been naturally inclined to follow his more personal desires, plainly admitting that he has rarely — if ever — given his own dreams any thought. furthermore, he struggles considerably with looking toward the future, and is unable to do so without byleth, who needs to physically stop him from looking back and guide him onward in the final cutscene. even at his healthiest, dimitri is a defender of the past. he criticizes edelgard by asking her if she would really force people to “throw their lives away for the future,” and warns her that regardless of how strongly she believes in her vision, the future she creates will be “built on a foundation of tears.” this is because he understands, better than most, just how critical the past can be in any individual’s life.

Conclusion

the internet needs to stop hating Si and just let characters be well-written “and Si” at the same time lol. especially in such obvious, practically textbook cases of high Si. one of the most common arguments against Si dimitri is that his devotion to the past is only caused by his trauma, and “isn’t the real him.” the fact of the matter is, dimitri’s Si manifests in so much more than just his duty to avenge the fallen. it plays a huge role in so many other elements of his personality, as do the other functions that come with being an ISFJ. i’m tired of these implications that Ni is some inherently higher, “healthier” form of being lying under literally any indication of Si, which automatically gets discarded as trauma or something lmao. c’mon guys ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[grandschemed]

the original blaiddyd and his most famous descendants.

mikhail & his wife, galina — the original blaiddyd.  he served in nemesis’ army and received the gift of the blaiddyd crest from the goddess, sothis, herself.  he was a dark knight and wielded areadbhar, the lance that was also known as the slaughterer and atrocity.  he was the first tempest king and lightning struck upon the ground he walked upon.  beautiful and golden, he was half a god himself, divinity mantled upon him like cream and he was the paragon of justice.  easily, mikhail could’ve been mistaken for a lion were it not for the great wolf furs he wore draped around his broad shoulders.  it was said that galina, his beloved wife, was a wolf herself, a powerful match that resulted in their divine offspring.  before loog, founder of faerghus, house blaiddyd was always remembered as a house of wolves.

king koschei & his wife, marya — the firstborn son of mikhail with the major crest of blaiddyd.  blood still strong and as a direct descendant from mikhail, koschei was the second tempest king and inherited his family lance, areadbhar.  he too would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a dark knight, riding atop a blood-red horse to seek his own wolf bride, marya, who was a heroine in her own right.  after overcoming baba yaga’s trials, koschei and marya were wed and fought to protect their territory together.  it was said that koschei was immortal as was his queen, marya.  their heroic and unheroic tales are recorded throughout history and now serve as fairytales to read to young children at night.

baba yaga — koschei’s twin sister, younger, with the major crest of blaiddyd.  while koschei became a dark knight, baba yaga was a powerful gremory.  none would surpass her talent.  she traveled the realm in a mortar and pestle, residing in the deep heart of the winter forest in a hut standing on chicken legs.  like koschei, she has appeared in history and fairytale books as a grandmother, benefactor, friend and villain, but always, she is associated with the forest wildlife.

countess yelena the first & her husband, vladimir — a famous dancer with no crest.  so beautiful was she that men would kill themselves for the opportunity to watch her perform.  it was said that she was so cold she could hold ice in her mouth and it would never melt.  she spent her childhood years living on the street as an orphan, but soon joined a traveling dance company and rose swiftly through the ranks.  eventually, yelena stole the hearts of many across the kingdom but ultimately won the attention of count vladimir, a noble with a minor crest from a well-respected family who dabbled in black magic.  yelena and vladimir raised several children together, but her firstborn son, morozko, and lastborn daughter, svetlana, became the most famous of all.  while her husband was completely forgotten, yelena was remembered for her beauty and dancing, said to inspire countless artists, poets and musicians to this day.  today, many academies of art and dance stand in her honor.

morozko, otherwise known as “father frost” — yelena’s firstborn son.  a traveling mortal savant said to carry and bring winter with him wherever he goes.  it is said that morozko is a demon of winter and he is neither malevolent or benevolent.  as legends go, if he is treated with respect, then he will always guide lost travelers home and keep them safe.  however, if he is treated poorly, then he will eat their soul and they will never be seen again.  morozko has many forms, but the snow is his domain that he shares with his sister, svetlana, otherwise known as the snow queen.

queen svetlana, otherwise known as “the snow queen” & her wife, vasilisa — yelena’s firstborn daughter is a legendary gremory.  she is queen of the snow bees, which are snowflakes that resemble bees and she is seen where the snowflakes cluster the most.  it is said her first kiss will numb you from the cold, her second kiss will make you forget about your family and friends and her third kiss will kill you.  queen svetlana, alongside her beloved wife, vasilisa, ruled her territory for many years with an iron fist and it was said that during her rule, every day was winter and every day was snow until the birth of her first daughter, odette and then the long winter melted into spring.

queen odette, otherwise known as “the swan queen” & her husband, king siegfried — odette’s birth signified the beginning of spring and was widely celebrated throughout the territory after enduring many years of a brutal winter.  however, lord rothbart was not invited to her nameday feast and he cursed odette to transform into a swan.  as the story goes, siegfried stumbled upon her dancing and saw the lovely maiden that she was and broke the curse, slaying rothbart despite his trickery and married odette, his one true love.  theirs was a happy marriage and odette was recorded as a benevolent, gentle queen and greatly beloved ruler.  it was said that her dancing was greatly reminiscent of her grandmother, countess yelena.

king radomil, otherwise known as “the rat king” & his wife, marie — radomil will always be remembered to be the most wicked, vile king in all of blaiddyd history.  he was a petty man and started wars for every slight, real or imagined and mistook caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance.  he was cruel and greedy, a regular womanizer and ordered the gautier family to execute whomever he wished regardless of the crime.  he was ultimately executed by the adrestian empire for his crimes committed against the crown, but perhaps most famous and peculiar of all was that the head they beheaded did not belong to a man, but a monstrously sized rat.  radomil was the last wolf of blaiddyd and his firstborn son, loog, casted them into a new century — the era of the blue lions.

king loog & his wife, anastasia — the son of the cursed king, radomil, and beloved holy knight with a major crest of blaiddyd, loog and his resistance army sparked a rebellion against the adrestian empire in imperial year 747 and emerged victorious in 751.  the church of seiros intervened and house charon served as mediator, resulting in the founding of the independent holy kingdom of faerghus.  loog was crowned as the nation’s first king and has been hailed as the king of lions ever since.  he remains a popular figure long after his death, with books such as "loog and the maiden of wind”, which recite his many chivalrous exploits and the great love story between loog and his wife, anastasia.  while completely lost to history, it was known to a select few that loog actually loved none more than his precious advisor, kyphon.

king klaus the first & his wife, tatiana — an early king of faerghus with a minor crest of blaiddyd.  he reigned until his death in imperial year 861.  his three sons, princes with competing claims to the throne, agreed to become archdukes and divided the faerghus between them into three separate territories.  these were the eastern kingdom, the western kingdom and leicester, the last of which had been annexed from the adrestian empire by faerghus after a rebellion in 801.  this arrangement precipitated leicester’s secession from faerghus after the mysterious death of the archduke in 881 and the formation of the leicester alliance in 901.

archduke evgeni & his wife, yuliya — king klaus’ third and youngest son with a minor crest of blaiddyd.  after the death of his father, he yearned for the faerghus throne, reluctantly agreeing to divide the kingdom into thirds with his older brothers and ruled leicester until his untimely death in 881.

king lambert & his wife, yelena — as a crest bearer, lambert ascended to the faerghus throne over his older brother, rufus, who did not bear a crest.  he loved his queen and wife, yelena, dearly despite the fact that their marriage was arranged ( and rumors surrounding him and his advisor, lord rodrigue — the nature of their relationship was often compared to the legend of loog and his beloved advisor, kyphon ), but lost her to the plague soon after his son, dimitri, was born.  around 1168, lambert personally led a campaign to subjugate the peninsula of sreng with lord rodrigue serving as his right hand.  the conflict resulted in the kingdom’s annexation of the southern half of sreng.  during the insurrection, lambert accepted patricia von arundel’s hand in marriage and welcomed her daughter, edelgard, into the royal household.  in 1176, lambert was assassinated in the tragedy of duscur.  with crown prince dimitri too young to ascend to the throne, lambert’s elder brother, grand duke rufus of itha, assumed regency over the kingdom.

king regent rufus & his wife, radinka — rufus, lambert’s older brother, lacked the family crest and was passed over in the line of succession as a result.  instead, he was given the title of grand duke of itha while his younger brother inherited the crown.  when king lambert and various other nobles were killed in the tragedy of duscur, rufus assumed regency over the kingdom.  during his regency, however, it was speculated that rufus had taken part in his brother’s assassination.  these rumors were never confirmed nor denied.  under rufus’ rule, the kingdom declined due to negligent government on supposed account of his womanizing.  sadly, he is not close to dimitri and avoids being involved in his life.

king dimitri & his wife, queen byleth eisner — upon the end of the war, dimitri and byleth were married as the newly-crowned king and queen of faerghus and gave the people of fódlan much to celebrate.  the two were devoted to the war restoration efforts, improving life for people and reforming the government and church from the inside out.  most famously, dimitri and byleth, in particular, devoted their efforts to helping the lives of war orphans and broken families.  at times, dimitri and byleth engaged in heated debate, but friends and family remember dimitri and byleth fondly as a couple desperately in love for the rest of their years and raised several children together.