#and it brings Willy and house Hresvelg

[randomnameless]

About crest removal, I think it's a non issue for humans. the difference is I don't see it as mere blood, I see it as tangible power that was never theirs to begin with.

IMO, This power belongs solely with the Nabateans. We know from Rhea that Sothis' never intended for humans to get crests. This power was either stolen from the Nabateans through violence , forcibly put into people through vile experiments , or given by the saints only out of sheer desperation to stop Nemesis.

Crests that get passed down are just crests that their ancestors stole or got through magictechy means. Either way, they were never meant to have it and the only reason it ever became part of their identity is because of the toxic "Crest System" they created around it due to their obsession with power.

How is a crest all that different from hereditary titles to humans ? in Fodlan, Crests are a valuable commodity that they obsessively collect like land, titles, and relic weapons (Book of Seiros II) . It's a tool, its Power. It's not really part of their natural identity, it never was.

At best, Crests are part of someone's identity like Hereditary Titles and Class is. And i don't really have issues with removing people from the top 1% or stripping titles from people LOL.

Yes they'll probably have an identity crisis, but I suspect it's more a result of having lost access to power rather than losing a piece of their core identity.

Like is Edelgard going to give a damn she lost a crest? I agree, she would be PISSED ! But it has nothing to do with it being part of her identity. It's because it's power she can no longer use to wage her war with.

Hopefully this is making sense cause Ive never been good at voicing my thoughts LOL . I dunno what it is exactly but something about the idea that crests are part of their identity just sounds so... false.

My mind goes to the times when warmongers stole relics from the peoples they genocide and how they claim it as their own and continue to benefit from it years later. The exploitation and greed pisses me off I guess.

(Those are old asks, august and september - I wanted to write something serious, but then forgot, and here we are, in november lol, sorry anon(s)).

So!

To First anon,

I would agree about Crest only being something that doesn't belong to them and not "blood" for the Elites (or first generation crest wielders), but for their children who inherit it?

It's part of who they are (that's not the only part that makes them an invidual, of course) and they were born with this. Should you give away a "part" of yourself, because your ancestor, who ultimately passed it down to you, stole it 1k years ago?

Also, I think that there is something important about how Nabatean blood, thus Crest, can appear in humans : in FE16, we learn Nabateans and Humans can have offsprings together (Flayn and Linhardt's paired ending). Ergo, a being with both bloods (their resulting children have crests of Cethleann!) can "naturally" exist - and I am pretty sure if you exsanguinate said beings from 50% of their blood they die - humans can have Nabatean blood (or Nabateans can have human blood).

Besides, Nabateans can choose to share this "power" with humans to save them (Yuri, Jeralt).

We will never know what were the "rules" if there were any about sharing blood with a human, but both Rhea and Aubin (if he was a Nabatean, but imo, this blood = crest strongly suggests he was!) wished to save a dying human kid. Crests isn't only "power", it's also some sort of powerful "medicine" able to help and heal humans!

I agree though, Humans being humans and greedy would later create some sort of hierarchy using Crests as a mean to discriminate - and what is even more saddening, is how Adrestia, the place where the humans got their crests without "stealing" them from Nabateans - is the place that puts the most value on Crests as someone's identity (whereas the Kingdom values Crests for the power it can bring, Adrestia seems to value Crests just as a social "plus").

In the case of crested families, well, those games being what they are, we have no character who is thankful for their crest because it means they are able to help others or do things other people cannot do (maybe Dimitri?) - but take a person with a crest of Cethleann who prides themselves on being able to heal a flu by snapping their fingers, someone from a family that is well known for being the best healers in the region, if you remove the power of their crest, what are they now? Just healers, who cannot heal life threatening conditions and ailments that they could previously heal with their crest.

So while I agree a crest can be seen as power, and power is ultimately a tool, it can also be part of your identity. Miklan thought he wouldn't be anyone without a Crest, and resented Sylvain for being the person he was supposed to be (the future Margrave Gautier).

For Supreme Leader though, I agree, she'd more pissed at losing "power" and not part of her identity - and yet, the idea of "removing" crests from humans who got them, from the Elites, or from direct blood donation (or because those humans are hybrids!) imo feels wrong.

Annette was born with a crest of Dominic, should she get hers removed to "apologise" for what Dominic did eons ago? Should she lose a part of herself ?

I think the difference between Hereditary Titles and Crests is how Crests are basically part of that someone - yes, Annette technically should never have had a crest, but are we really going to exsanguinate her to remove "part" of her blood? Hereditary Titles are social constructs - Crests, in the Fodlan World, are biological parts of someone.

Oh, and now that I think about it, iirc, Yuri is quite proud to have his crest, because his crest is the proof Aubin existed and helped him, and motivated him to save/help people.

That crest is a part of his identity and what motivates him.

While it's still irksome that what was, at least in the Elites's families, stolen "property" being passed down as their legacy, the children of the Elites just happened to be born with those things - it is irksome, but again, I don't think they should "pay" for what the Elites did by "losing" parts of themselves - that, in any case, cannot return to the one from whom that "property" was stolen!

And again, Fodlan gives us the perfect counter-example with Adrestia - humans got "crests" from willing sources, but with time, they use that same power against the ones who gifted that power to their ancestors!

The Elite's descendants are the ones to protect the Nabateans, when the descendants of the humans favoured by Nabateans are the ones who now want to kill them! Yuri, in his most "canon" routes, sides with the Nabateans. Jerry refuses to work with them. And yet, they both got blood from a Nabatean.

It's almost as if the origin of the property/blood/crests doesn't matter, what matters is now what the current humans are doing with that "power".

I kind of understand your feelings about Crests, anon, even if I disagree! It's such a shame that the Fodlan games basically don't really care much about Nabateans to give, say, reactions to people learning where their relics and crests come from, and how Nabateans would react to that.

Ultimately, Rhea's choice of sparring the families and children born with those crests saves her in the BL routes, and yet, Macuil is ultimately right in GW, with the cruel cutscene from Nopes where we see Goneril oppose Seiros in Tailtean, and GW ends with Rhea opposing Goneril (and her pals)' descendant in the same plains!

Humans being greedy and exploiting something that weren't theirs to begin with is annoying, but put in balance with ultimately, striking children for the sins for their ancestors by depriving said children of parts of themselves feels, imo, as wrong.

Don't worry about voicing your thoughts even if it ends up as a messy ask lol, I always plan to write something coherent, then I remember I forgot a thing, and it ends up in, well, some sort of non-coherent wall of text lol

As for you, second anon -

Not everyone from the cast!

Adrestians got their Crests from, per Nopes, consensual "blood sharing", and then they passed it down to their descendants... who will later turn agains the very Nabateans who blood shared :/

Yuri ultimately got his crest because Aubin wished to save him, and did so by giving him his blood, ditto for Jeralt.

So I wouldn't say it's the worst way possible - but what I feel was the intention of the devs with this question (even if they clearly gave a quarter of a fuck about it!) is not what should befall the playable cast who got their crest from the Elites, but what the playable cast should do now, with that power. Will they use it for "good" reason, or use it for "bad" reasons ?

Like, in Rhea's lines from Nopes to the crest bearers who descend from the Elites :

"The goddess protects those who wield the power of their crest with a righteous heart."

or in JP : 紋章の力を正しく行使する限��, 主はあなた方をお守りくださるでしょう。

Which, googlised is something like " As long as you use the power of the emblem correctly, the Lord will protect you."

Those children cannot do anything about the dead Nabateans they share some blood with, but they can at least make sure "dead Nabatean"'s power isn't used for nefarious stuff.

Tl; Dr : Humans can get crests from 4 different ways (blood transfusion, directly descending from a Nabatean, descending from someone who got a crest or killing a nabatean), and only one is really condemnable, but for the other 3?

Crest "removal" procedures deus ex machina nonsense kind of piss on those differences and is the easy way out to, again, absolve humans of their agency, we go to an easy "well they don't have power so they won't use it for stupid stuff" route instead of going to the moer common and harder "no matter how you got them, use your powers responsibly" route.

[randomnameless]

Yep, as you said the execution sucks because...

Well, through the course of WC aka before the War of Unification, we can see/understand that while the three nations aren't besties, Fodlan isn't at constant war with chaos and mayhem all around !

So why is this unification needed?

I think KT forgot that FE is a preexisting series, and to push the "unification" angle you either have to get Archanea convoluted plot reasons to make the Lord unify the continent, otherwise the Lord lives in his kingdom and other lords live in other kingdoms and everything is supposed to be better at the end, without needing to remove every other leader.

@mwezina

I think the thing is, Edelgard isn’t just Cao Cao. Rather she’s more representative of a concept that lies at the heart of Three Kingdoms, the cycle of the empire.

"The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus has it ever been."

Fodlan united under the Empire, but as the Empire underwent moral decline and moved away from the Church it lost it’s control over Fodlan. It ultimately came to a point where the Emperor, trying to consolidate power on himself, was rendered a puppet by the Agarthans. The Agarthans then manipulate the next emperor into starting a war, passing on their ideals and beliefs onto her through her father, which includes their belief that the strong rule over the weak. She managed to turn her manipulators into her puppet, ultimately betraying them if she emerges victorious from the war as she proves to be both stronger and more cunning than them.

Much like how Cao Cao’s promotion of merit and ambition led to his descendants being ousted by the Sima clan, who would then go on to unite China, the Agarthans created someone who embodied what they stood for and lost in the end. Yet despite this, the Jin dynasty is considered a low point in Chinese history and it wouldn’t be long after uniting that China would again be divided.

It makes the future of Edelgard’s empire more uncertain, as there’s no Flayn ending revealing Fodlan changed in the long term. Hell, considering Byleth is linked to Nirvana, the idea of breaking the Cycle of Reincarnation, and they lose access to Nirvana at the end of Flower, it appears the cycle of empires continues on in Fodlan.

Edelgard identifies her path as hadou in her Japanese S support, indicating she uses the power of the government and violence to assert her rule over the masses. She is not a benevolent leader, she’s someone who should have been removed from power by Byleth, as Byleth held the Sword of the Emperor of Heaven. Instead, Byleth failed to uphold the mandate of heaven and lost access to Nirvana as a result. And some knowledge of Confucianism gives us an idea of what happens afterwards.

Edelgard’s empire, restored through her corrupt and immoral actions, is going to continue the cycle. The corruption will continue to fester, breeding resentment and urging the people to rebel against it. As wickedness and ass-kissing are rewarded, people will lose their sense of morality and give into selfishness. Those in power will seek to hold onto it, to keep it for themselves and their families much like the original Imperial nobility did, which would eventually erode the power of the Emperor. Fodlan will break up as the decline happens, but eventually another war of unification will happen again.

And maybe Sothis returns to try and stop the bloodshed, as the empire is also invading other nations like the Agarthans before them while Edelgard is still in power.

[randomnameless]

#Willy smut was written by the masses who ignored how manipulated he was! House Hresvelg is 100% human!!! I headcannon (in a comedic way) that it is Agarthan proganda. Thales after taking over Adrestia‚ comb through his diaries and discovers it has no secrets to exploit. Mostly boring things that happenned‚ something related to Seiros‚ something related to Seiros in a graphic "Please go back to writing anything else" way‚ and about Lycaon (and his relatives). Thales burns them and swears that no one can learn that he lost to someone who would rather write down smut than anything he considers important. And thus the "Willy" who sat back as Seiros puppets the continent was born (and also totally had a hard time fighting some pale guys that mysteriously show up‚ but "his words not mine" - Thales)! Also to play off your 120 children headcannon‚ Willy (way before Lycaon was a pincushion) said to remember him not as an emperor but a lover.

10k years of lore being what they are, the "poor dumb willy was manipulated by the evil lizard lady" could be Agarthan propaganda... or propaganda coming from the hresvelg themselves lol

Poor Thales having to read through pages and pages of "theological" discussions ("Seiros said the Goddess created her children in the image she took to resemble humans, but Cichol doesn't have big bazongas? Or he hides them using a transformation magic? Will Cethleann grow big bazongas too or not?") decided to take revenge against the Hresvelgs and swore to bring their demise.

After all, their line was founded by a beast who was much closer to a clown, and who willingly mated with an abomination and kept on writing about this sin, and the resulting monstruosity born from their fornication!

(infiltrating early Adrestian society where every human was horny about the saints was a challenge, even after their departure he couldn't escape the horny Macuil poems or graphic theatrical representations of "Saint Cichol's Holy Spear and the Blessed Maiden").

Willy thus became a moron - it wasn't difficult to convince his descendants since they resented the evil lizard lady who kept on calling him the "greatest" (what about them???) and, after the barbarian rebellion, it was even easier to instill hate and resentment towards the evil lizard lady and her viles who manipulated poor dumb willy (tm).

Sadly when Thales tried to slander even more Willy's memory by saying he was an inconsiderate horndog, Adrestian Emperors saw nothing wrong with that, and tried to hide this "achievement" to make sure no bastard would knock at their door to ask for the throne, and also, because "measuring one's worth based on their virility is something those barbarians do not us enlightened Enbarrites", even if some "romance novels" started to spread around 580 all around Fodlan about "Great Emperor Wilhelm" that were written by an anonymous author who was apparently so famous and popular that that author's style was well imitated and copied through the ages, until 20 years ago where people imitating the first novelist basically stopped writing about him.

they still kept on having several concubines for some reason that is totally unrelated to any competition they could have with their stupid ancestor.

[randomnameless]

Ultimate plot twist AU that'll totally change the face of the game (Fe16)

What if Ionius 9 had no crest of Seiros ?

It's the biggest secret in the empire, and immediately issues arose about his succession, what if his children are crestless too, all their spiel about MAGA and "we descend from Seiros and willy" will fall apart, especially since, thanks to his numerous predecessors there is a saying that everyone from Ochs to Boramas can trace their lineage to the imperial house (tfw emperors sow a lot of seeds).

Vestra Sr (Hubert's dad, let's call him Igor) tells Ionius not to worry, there are occurrences in the long history of Fodlan of crests jumping a generation. Maybe his children could have some, and he doesn't need to name a thrice removed cousin his heir.

Sadly, Ionius's first kid (he got it with the leading diva of mittelfrank of that time, but they were both 14 so it wasn't "problematic"! ) had no crest at birth (and no peepee !), kid and her mom were given some money to get the fuck out of Fodlan and ended up in Dagda.

After 3 crestless bastards, Vestra Sr was kind of worried, so he tracked a noblewoman who had "ties" to the imperial family, Viscount's Fenya's daughter (her grandma was Ionius's grandpa's cousin !), hoping their match will produce a crested heir. Fenya's daughter thus became Ionius's wife and they had Hans, a crested son, but who only had a minor crest.

Pissed, Ionius blamed his wife and slept with her cousin (who was also Ludwig von Aegir's cousin !) but still had a minor crested child, and worse at that, child was a daughter. Vestra Sr was kind of pissed, why doesn't he want to sire other children on his wife ?

"Your Majesty, why are you even obsessed with major crests ?"

Ionius then reveals Ludwig received a baby card from Charon Sr, as both were alumni of Garreg Mach's 1155, where Charon Sr "bragged" about the birth of his major crested heir, Cassandra.

After a few trysts here and there (even Vestra Sr's own sister !!)- that only brought minor crested children (the one he got from a Leopold's second cousin ended up with a minor Cichol crest !) but had to be legitimated through the consort kin system since the mothers were nobles- Ionius fucked Anselma and, just before the insurrection, Ionius wanted to woo Erwin Gloucester's younger sister (legends say Emperor Lycaon sired a child on the Elite Gloucester's thirteenth daughter ?) but Erwin raised a brow when he learnt his sister would only be a consort ; Vestra Sr disagreed with this idea, under the consort kin system, they would have to give some rights on Adrestia (land at least) to a foreigner who was already a leading force of an opposing country !

"I see no countries Igor, but mere offshoots of my Empire."

After reconsidering a lot, Ionius said everything would work in the end of they removed the consort kin system, but then it ultimately led to the insurrection.

Raging at this loss of power (before the insurrection, when Aegir'n'co were more and more disagreeing with him) he decided to order Vestra Sr to bring back that beast in Garreg Mach, it is a sacrifice he's willing to make to return Adrestia to its former glory.

Igor of course tried to talk some sense in his liege ("You cannot sire a child on the Archbishop your Highness !") , but already raging, Ionius saw this as a rebellion and warned Vestra Sr that he's ready to do everything to Make Adrestia Great Again, so Igor has to think a lot about his son Herbert, is he going to see the new world where Adrestia leads Fodlan or not ?

Vestra Sr understood this as a threat, he didn't even bother correcting him ("his name is Hubert, your Majesty"), and ultimately joined Aegir.

Too bad for Ionius, during his captivity he hit on a maid (given how Supreme Leader turned out to be the heir he wanted thanks to Volkhard, he only seduced that maid bcs horny or wanting to remind her he is the emperor) and the resulting posthumous son had a major crest of Seiros, but Hubert weeded out the Hresvelg line to convince his good tea time friend Ferdie that yes, Supreme Leader is the only legitimate heir of the Empire.

Seteth still has nightmares about the draft he saw in Igor von Vestra's desk requiring the Archbishop's presence to gift Adrestia with a heir, but whenever Flayn or Rhea ask him about his nightmare, he dodges the question (he had that draft burnt and scattered in Enbarr's harbour).

[randomnameless]

if in your headcannon rhea was really lycadon's mother, how would she have reacted to his deaht?

Oh -

Not well, that's for sure!

Still, I think that she had the "perfect solution" to this new disaster - Sothis.

When Sothis and her world died (Zanado), Rhea rushed to Nemesis to kill him. If Sothis isn't only her Mother, but also the Creator, maybe Sothis could also "bring back" Lycaon?

Canon!Rhea mentions how she wanted to bring back the Progenitor God and recover everything she had lost - does this include her dead family members (the people butchered in Zanado), so, hc wise, could it include Lycaon (and Willy, and Cichol's wife, and etc...)?

But imo, and sadder, there's this line :

I swear that upon this throne, I shall use my reign to lead Fódlan to a new dawn and achieve peace for all.

This is from Supreme Leader's coronation ceremony, and supposedly the words passed down from the Willy era to, well, Supreme Leader herself.

Rhea - I mean, Seiros the Warrior - trusted, at one point, Willy and House Hresvelg to "lead/guide Fodlan", something she later thinks - as Rhea - is a job only Sothis can do.

So what if Seiros the Warrior, who really believed the words she told Willy, came to believe the world, Fodlan, and herself, could continue and move on without Sothis, because other people will "guide" the land to prosperity?

And then, lol, Lycaon dies. Seiros the Warrior who "dared" to hope and to believe in a world that could go round without the Creator... receives the worst wake-up slap ever, no, Fodlan is fucked without Sothis, and she had to lose her kid to remember it.

And now, in 1180, Rhea thinks only Sothis can rule/guide the "wayward land", or mentionning how Zanado was only a "temporary haven" for Sothis.

Tl;Dr : of course she didn't party at the news, but for a desperate Rhea who really believed the shiny sword that is her mom is able to resurrect everyone, Lycaon's death isn't as hurtful as Sothis's death, because bringing Sothis back means Lycaon (and everyone else) will be brought back.

Now, it might also have ignited then fueled her drive and obsession to resurrect Sothis who could : make the world go round, protect the remaining Nabateans, and bring back the dead ones (including Lycaon).

Bear in mind Rhea only starts to build Garreg Mach after Lycaon's death, and not the second after recovering Sothis. Son or not son, his death was meaningful enough to her make her interrupt her Maurice hunt, and start to build the Monastery.

(Willy ditched his Empire after Lycaon's death)

[randomnameless]

WoH headcanon?

Uh...

Checking some lines about Hubert and House Vestra -

Hubert, in his Hanneman support, is really pissed about his Father, and how he betrayed 1100 years of loyalty and devotion to House Hresvelg.

(so much about nobility based on merit and family lines not being relevant, Hubert is pissed that his Father didn’t do... what his family was supposed to do?)

In the Library, House Vestra was also said to have been there since the Dawn of the Empire, acting in House Hresvelg’s shadow and, amongst other thing, taking care of, ceremonies, rituals, “darker tasks” and the Imperial harem since the “Dawn of the Empire”.

Does this also means Willy had a harem?

If Seiros was around and the CoS ultra besties with Adrestia, I don’t see why House Vestra should take care of ceremonies, if the Church is already there -

Unless House Vestra and Vestra 1 put a lot of importance on Adrestia being a separate entity from the CoS, and instead of letting the CoS organise the ceremonies, House Vestra coordinated the CoS and the Enbarr’s officials to perform ceremonies?

Now, for the fodlan nonsense, Vestra I stuff :

He was a slave who was "bought" by Willy's family, since might makes right in the back then Fodlan, Vestra 1 was caught on a Dagdan ship and enslaved.

Willy befriended him regardless of his supposed "inferiority" being a slave (to foreshadow how he won't freak out when a lady with pointy ears will pop up).

Vestra 1 helped Willy become one of the most important lords of Enbarr, which made Willy wonder why Vestra 1 was a slave and by nature "inferior" to the citizens of Enbarr if he has that much talent/with/smarts, shouldn't he get a place and a status based on his abilities instead of his birth?

(muhritocracy)

Of course Vestra 1 being the brains of the duo told him not to associate with the "Seiros sect of whatever" but we all know how it ended.

After the general massive hangover following the founding of the Empire, Vestra 1 started to think about the administrative and political and “complicated” stuff Willy - dumb as bricks Willy - being an Emperor entailed.

First, to support his Empire, he will need strong allies.

He has already “befriended” many women around, and even had kids with them!

Amongst his “lady friends”, he has a Princess of Palmyra, the daughter of one the strongest clansmen in Bridget, and a popular Dagdan merchant!

Now, Palmyra has the largest armed forces to protect the nascent Empire from the rest of the world, but Dagda’s naval forces can be used to secure Enbarr as a harbor, but also to secure their coasts, but with Bridget’s ressources, they could assure food income for several years, instead of only relying on the Gronder fields (if they lose it, Enbarr, no, Adrestia, will starve!).

So the usual plan is to make the most profitable ally his official wife, and name their child heir of the Empire, this way Adrestia will be backed up by an existing and powerful force !

Previsibly, everything fails when Willy says Seiros is really pretty (and she’s strong, and she helped him, and they really get along, and he really wants to help her! But to Vestra 1 who knew Willy for several years now, the “really pretty” is he's sure, the argument that convinced Willy.).

“Reconsider, I’m talking about Adrestia here. And Seiros wants to war against Nemesis! Will you throw Adrestia in her war?”

“Yes?”

Thus Vestra 1 created the “Vestra coffee”, because he needed something really strong to support Willy’s “opinions”, but it was a disgusting drink, just something “strong” (coffee beans from Dagda and the worst bacchus he could find).

After several “Vestra coffees”, Vestra 1 thought the child argument - and the forces a possible union could bring to Adrestia - would maybe hit the point home, Willy could still “befriend” Seiros from times to times, but they’re talking about politics here.

“With the child, the countries will be forced to support Adrestia, with men, weapons, ships, food and whatever else! The two countries will be united, and later on, Adrestia will come out on top! Seiros already supports Adrestia, there’s no need to force her to do so through an union!”

Willy seemed to be thinking, which made Vestra 1 happy, is he finally starting to think with his brain??

“Why force them though, can’t we just ask for weapons and all? Besides, if you’re worried, the kids we’re going to have will be super powerful too, they will be half dragons!”

20 minutes later, after Vestra 1 “pinky promised” to never reveal the truth about Seiros’s secret, Vestra 1 ran to Saint Macuil, begging him for help because his Emperor is decidely way too stupid, and he can’t deal with it anymore. 

Vestra 1 died from a liver defect and heart attack - too many Vestra coffees - but made his heirs swear to serve the Hresvelgs, because “dumb as they are they will destroy Adrestia in 3 days without their support”, begging the Goddess to save his descendants from his fate, serving a foolish Emperor.

Only Hubert’s dad interpreted his glorious ancestor’s words as “prioritize Adrestia over the Hresvelg if the Hresvelg is going to destroy it”, but Hubert followed the telephoned version of “support House Hresvelg whatever they do”.

[fantasyinvader]

WiTime for my thought of the day concerning 3H.

We all know that Edelgard’s line is supposed to be how she will reset the world to how it once was, rather than it being her that will forge a new world or whatever. She’s a regressive, pure and simple. But this really got me thinking. Hanneman’s support with Dorothea conflicts with Edelgard’s claim that the concept of nobility didn’t exist before Crests, by him saying nobility were originally supposed to be the best of the best that rose up. It really sounds like Edelgard is trying to restore how the nobility were originally supposed to be, something which failed because they used their power to cement their positions for themselves and their families.

Now, I could end it there by pointing out bringing Lorenz into CF brings his endings, specifically how decades later he can simply hand his position off to his son signifying that Edelgard’s reforms failed and history repeated itself. Case closed, but that’s not what I’m going to do.

It always felt ironic to me that in CF, your default units got their Crests from the Saints rather than the Elites. It’s the other side that has relics, having descent from those who were loyal to Nemesis. So Rhea, Seteth and Flayn being there had a certain sense of irony to it. She fought against these people’s ancestors while the descendants of those she worked with are now out for her blood. And we see Rhea’s reaction to Willy’s descendant being pretty severe.

But here’s the thing, look at the timeline. 41 years before the Empire was founded Rhea was in Enbarr, where she performed miracles. She didn’t create the Church, it was created around her. Four decades later, with the Church’s blessing the Empire is founded with Rhea giving her power to it’s leader. Three more decades pass and said leader begins a war to unify Fodlan under his control. To quote the library

Wilhelm Paul Hresvelg, the inaugural Adrestian Emperor, raised an army in pursuit of the unification of Fódlan. With his might, he hunted and destroyed any house's territory that dared to seek more power. 

And it was over a decade later that the Empire first faced off against Nemesis at Gronder field.

Wilhelm was trying to conquer Fodlan, and he had Rhea on his side. He was doing this for over ten years before they fought Nemesis in a war that would rage for another five decades. And in the Abyss library Wilhelm and Seiros were depicted as lovers in play in a novel. Even if him and Rhea weren’t together, they were still depicted as such.

Kinda like what CF Dorothea says will happen with Edelgard and Byleth. And the Japanese CF epilogue paints Edelgard’s war as one of conquest.

You see what I’m getting at here guys? Edelgard says she’s trying to reset the world, and what she envisions lines up with what the nobility was originally supposed to be, with a certain character hinting that history will repeat itself. She also claims that she’s basing her actions on a “true history” passed down through the Imperial line through Wilhelm. It all seems to link back to a guy who tried to take over the continent, using the Church to create himself an Empire. The Elites thought they were fighting fanatics, and Edelgard ends up taking over the Church in the minutia of CF’s endings.

I think it ultimately paints the great parallel, and irony, of CF.

Byleth is effectively Rhea, being misled by the Emperor. Rhea was Wilhelm’s tool in creating an Empire I’ve theorized as Melnibone-lite. Rhea turned a blind eye to what she was helping create, because he doesn’t seem to great of a guy if the Church’s own history makes it out that he destroyed anyone else who tried to gain power even before fighting Nemesis. Really sounds like Ionius trying to consolidate power there, but Rhea didn’t care just like how Byleth ignores all the warning signs about Edelgard. They end up being depicted as lovers despite this possibly not being the case (the library says she lent her power, but then again House Hresvelg does claim descent from her so who knows), and even over a thousand years later the idea that one of Wilhelm’s descendants turning their blade on her hurts her greatly.

It ultimately adds a new level to Byleth and Rhea’s S support. SS is based around Byleth understanding that Edelgard is the problem, could it not be that the war made Rhea realize that she too was used by House Hresvelg? The whole thing with Nemesis is he’s supposed to be seen as a strong man tyrannically ruling over those weaker than him, but that’s the same thing that Wilhelm was about. How his family had all this strength, how he would crush anyone who tried to get more strength, and how he intended to rule over all of Fodlan. Wilhelm and Nemesis weren’t as dissimilar as Rhea believed, and she may have realized that and what she helped create during her five years of captivity.