#faerghan dads

[randomnameless]

Hm...

In one of her Nopes expedition lines, Mercedes says this :

"Both of my parents were great cooks. I even remember them teaching each other recipes when I was young. Cute, don't you think?"

Which is pretty odd, because I'm sure it references this line from FE Heroes, where she reveals she special sweets are made using her biofather's recipe, how he taught said recipe to her mom, but more importantly, how he died before her birth so she never saw him !

I told you before this recipe was passed down in my father's house. Before I was born, there was strife in the Empire, and he was killed. My mother and I lost our house and title. I didn't have any keepsakes of his. I had never even seen his face. All I had was this recipe he'd taught my mother.

Now, I would usually take Nopes over FEH in canonicity, but given how both Mercedes and Emile's recollection of Baron Bartels are, I doubt he is the one who was taught and taught recipes to their mother, and she wouldn't call any of their interactions cute!

So obviously, the "parent" who taught her mom how to bake sweets (and who was also taught how to cook too!) could only be Baron Martritz, a man Mercie never knew... and so, she couldn't remember a time where he and her mom were cooking together?

So unless Nopes suggests it's her Faerghan dad (the one who sent her to GM and wants her to marry) who cooked stuff, it's another case of Leopold "I have a major Crest of Cichol and a holy loincloth to prove it!" von Bergliez retcon.

[untitledgoosegay]

trans femme/nb dedue

is a headcanon i hold close to my heart

he is at minimum strongly gender-nonconforming -- despite the protective shell (literal; it's made of steel plate and chain) he wears, his key interests are cooking, gardening, and sewing. this is not someone who aspires to be the big manly protector. moreover, he never talks about his relationship with his dad; if his bio page didn't mention that he was a blacksmith we would know nothing about the man. dedue only ever talks about his relationships with his mother and sister, and how that shaped his interests and the way he prefers to connect with people even now -- especially now that it serves as a way to preserve their memories. his mother taught him to cook.

in his ideal life, Dedue gets to stay home and make sure the people he loves can come home to good food and warm clothes and beautiful things ... but that life was severed at the root, right at the time where gender and sexuality start becoming increasingly unavoidable; there will always be the question of who Dedue would have been in that other, peaceful world, and it will never be answered

headcanon -- at fourteen Dedue was just starting to run into the mounting pressure to join his father as a blacksmith, and, correspondingly, running into his instinctive reluctance/resistance to do so. at the time Dedue didn't yet understand why, and couldn't verbalize what was wrong, and his dad is -- was -- even quieter by nature than Dedue, so it remained this unspoken but increasing tension. sooner or later it would have had to break, and they might have had a fight about it or it might have resolved more quietly; Dedue knows -- he thinks he's certain -- that his dad loved him, and that ultimately that would have mattered more than having A Son™ ...

... but he'll never get to know.

maybe in that other world he would have grown into a woman. maybe, with a version of masculinity he didn't find abhorrent, he could still have been a man. maybe he would have settled between, or to the side, or never been asked to define himself in that way at all.

but in the world-that-is, the world of the Tragedy, where he's the last surviving Molinaro and right hand to the crown prince of Faerghus, he's not exactly given time or space to think about his gender. in the aftermath, embedded in the heart of Faerghan power, still very much a grieving, terrified child, his preferred presentation is "whatever's safest," and he's trying his hardest not to have an identity at all. he's submerged in Faerghan masculinity -- in the standards of Faerghan masculinity applied to its nobles -- which is inextricable from Knighthood™ and which prizes violence, and that is absolutely not helping. it's hard to make any concrete statements about the version of masculinity Dedue was raised with, but I think it's safe to say it was very different. and Faerghan manhood is absolutely not something Dedue aspires to.

and that state of affairs holds until the timeskip, where he gets five years to finally reconnect with other Duscur people, other survivors, out of Dimitri's shadow and away from the constant crushing threat of Fódlan's nobility -- five years to reconstruct a sense of safety and a sense of self; to live as part of a community, in (relative) peace; to start thinking about who he wants to be, not just what.

& then ... ?

i think, if you asked him, and if he thought you were worth an honest answer, Dedue would say that he's not sure whether or not he's a man, but he did (does) want to be a wife.

in the world-that-is, rejecting manhood & claiming femininity is a private rejection of the world that assumes of him -- & thereby demands -- masculinity-as-violence, and stoicism, and sacrifice. it puts space between him and the outward-facing self he's constructed; it frees more space for the heart he keeps secret, separate and protected. the part of himself that is safe, and untouchable, and unassailably his own. it's a claim to the softness, warmth, and fragility that Faerghus denies not just him but everyone around him, that it refuses to acknowledge is necessary or absent. it asserts that he is not expendable; his duty is not to inflict and endure violence; he can be beautiful, and precious, and worthy and deserving of protection

i don't think he'd ever be 'out' to more than a handful of people -- his partner(s), his absolute closest friends. Maybe more amongst the people who saved him, but not many. Not so much out of fear or repression -- Dedue is just a private person by nature, which is unfortunate, given that he's found himself in an extremely public position. He prides himself on being a cipher to strangers (check his B-support with Sylvain); he prefers to keep very tight control over who knows anything personal about him, especially given how much of his life is in the public eye. He sure as hell does not want a whole continent's worth of people feeling entitled to an explanation of his gender which most of them won't get anyway. Knowing things about Dedue is a privilege and it is not one he grants lightly.

To whatever extent she's a woman -- i don't think she could define it herself; self-knowledge is not one of Dedue's strong suits -- it's reserved for the few people she feels truly safe with

[slotumn]

Prompt for 3H fans:

You're building a cabinet post-canon, and you can assign anyone who's not Byleth, Shez, lords, retainers, or royals with obligations to other nations (so no Petra) to lead the following positions/departments:

Domestic affairs & administration (includes stuff like infrastructure, territory planning, etc)

Military & defense

Science & medicine

Education

Economy & finance

Law & justice

Agriculture & natural resources

Diplomacy & foreign affairs

Who do you pick? (Hopes characters allowed)

Basically it's a build your own house, except it's for an actual post-war government instead of just monthly missions at the academy.

My own picks + reasonings under the cut:

Domestic affairs: Lorenz

Like I said in this post, he's a practical guy. He'd get the roads fixed and the mail system running and he'd be good at negging the local lords into cooperating with the new government.

Military & defense: Holst

He's a good general with real-life experience, and is one of the people who's been trusted to do his own thing militarily in canon and was mostly successful with it (it's what he does offscreen in 3H). Mainly dealt with Almyrans but wasn't a slouch at Gronder against the Empire, either, so I assume he's flexible too.

Science & medicine: Manuela

Look, she might be a hot mess in personal life but I think she's one of the few people who'd be able to do a government job while also having insight and firsthand experience the field she's assigned to. Other possible candidates (Hanneman, Linhardt, etc) for this are better suited as researchers instead of ministers imo.

Education: Seteth

He's overprotective of Flayn, but when it comes to youth who aren't his daughter he's far more reasonable and pretty good at giving advice. Other candidate was Hanneman, but again I think Hanneman is more research professor than a minister in a government.

Economy & finance: Marianne

To be specific, Marianne with Margrave Edmund's tutelage. House Edmund is the money house™. And honestly I don't see many others in the cast who'd be anywhere near suited for this position. Anna doesn't count, merchant mindset and nation-running mindset is different.

Law & justice: Ashe

He wants to follow law/some sort of code and he has a sense of justice, but he also knows from firsthand experience why/how people break the law, so he wouldn't be unreasonably rigid/unyielding in the affairs. Also the token Faerghan of the administration; many others here are Leicesterian (can't help it I have GD bias) but I'd want a unified Fódlan's cabinet to have people from all regions.

Agriculture & natural resources: Leonie

This is probably my most unconventional pick, but my reasoning is that this department would especially require familiarity with on-site/field conditions, and Leonie already has some of that (from a hunter village) + would be willing to go around looking at things herself as needed. Sorry about your dream of leading a mercenary band Leonie but I'm going to stick you in this position until the continent gets back on track. Other possible candidates were Marianne or Lorenz considering their paired ending, but I think they fit the other positions above better. And Bergliez may have the Empire's breadbasket but I am not assigning Caspar or his dad to this position.

Diplomacy & foreign affairs: Ferdinand

He's good at talking, wouldn't mind the tiring schedule of being sent everywhere, and even has an actual ending where he becomes a foreign minister. Other possible candidates were Sylvain or Cyril, but I'd be afraid of Sylvain getting into some sex scandal abroad and Cyril would need more education and training (specifically in Government Official Speak™, if you send him as is he will cause a scandal by calling a foreign official a dumbass to their face).

[onyxedskies]

Rank the dad trio and their sons (+ Rufus, if you would) by who eats the most? I like to see how people interpret the most mundane little things.

ooh this is so fun

lambert. that man is huge, there’s no way he doesn’t eat an absolute ton. love him though

felix. he burns a lot of calories, and i think he just enjoys eating.

dimitri. even after he’s no longer feral, i think he just forgets to eat a lot of the time. and since he can’t taste, i feel like he would eat enough to sate himself but nothing more.

matthias. he has to keep himself functional, but food is somewhat scarce as far north as gautier is.

rodrigue. he enjoys eating, but doesn’t need to eat a ton typically.

sylvain. i think he needs less food than matthias, and doesn’t really enjoy faerghan food that much.

rufus. that man is Sickly. i don’t think he enjoys eating, so he really just eats what’s required of him and that’s about it.

now, i do think they as a whole eat a lot. but this is definitely how i imagine it lol

[deathbirby]

(lambert anon) It was racist because I guess liking a white character over a poc was inherently racist. Nevermind that I liked Lambert more mainly because he was a dad or self destructive in the extremely Faerghan way. According to the person I should have thrown away my preferences and made the 50000th post/work of Claude being the super best because its not like we don't have enough content for him. It didn't help that Hopes Claude was insufferable to me so they were one of those that acted like disliking the version who purposely tried to start a war to his benefit was somehow the same as hating him on the whole.

I still find the whole thing stupid because just boiling a character down to their race is always a disservice and it just made me bitter towards Claude and the people who just let that behavior breed in their circles.

That's definitely one of the worst things to come out of the discourse. You end up feeling bitter or hating characters because of the negative experiences you had with their stans.

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

Do I have the fortitude to write a piece of Matthias dying and thinking of Lambert and Rodrigue....? We'll see fkdhekw

[saviourkingslut]

i love faerghan dads they're all like yes i will wear the battle skirt with the weird knotted hip belt. might not be fashion but they sure look warm and comfortable

[butwhatifidothis]

Why wouldn’t Sylvain knew the empire played a role in Duscur? Dimitri isn’t quiet in white clouds about the mages and flame emperor being the ones he saw. The kingdom lords were investigating lord Arundel before hand. He probably picked it up from his dad. It was only a secret from the public not necessarily the government.

I’m going to preface this by saying that I don’t mean to be mean or rude and hope I don’t come across that way, but I need you to understand that for the Tragedy to make sense it must be the case that Dimitri was alone - or almost alone - in thinking that the people of Duscur had little to nothing to do with it and that it was believed as a whole that the people of Duscur had everything to do with it.

The Kingdom as an overall whole genuinely believing that it was Duscur that killed Lambert and everyone is what incentivizes them to commit the genocide against Duscurians. Dimitri’s denials of Duscur being involved were completely ignored by the lords and nobles he told them to, hence his desperation to get on the throne and make changes himself. It is said in multiple places that Dimitri is strange in being a Faerghan - let alone a Faerghan noble, let alone a Faerghan royal - that doesn’t believe that Duscur was involved in the killing of Lambert and everyone else. Kleiman’s involvement in the Tragedy as a whole is shown to be hidden before Dimitri found someone willing to point the finger at him directly

So the idea that Margrave Gautier, along with other high end members of the government if not all members of the government, saying nothing whatsoever about knowing who precisely murdered their king and almost murdered their prince, is, well... it makes no sense. What purpose does pinning this on Duscur serve? Why would they be alright with the Empire just waltzing into their territory and, again, murdering their king and almost murdering their only prince? The king that was beloved by his people? The king and prince who hold the busted af Crest of Blaiddyd? We know some Faerghan nobles and lords know who really did it, but they all side with the Empire when the war starts, which Margrave Gautier doesn’t do. What purpose does it serve for him to hide the fact that the Empire was involved, go along with the lie he knows is a lie, only to then fight like hell to help Dimitri on the throne? To repel the Empire? 

And this may be me forgetting some details, but can you tell me where (or about where) it’s said that the Kingdom lords were looking into the Empire? Lords that weren’t Dimitri? 

Like, the best I can give CF is that Sylvain heard Dimitri’s suspicions about the Empire and, putting it together with his already existing doubt about Duscur’s involvement in the Tragedy (the regicide part of it) due to its middling amount of power, just honestly believes Dimitri’s accusations against the Empire (which still doesn’t put CF!Sylvain in a good light at all), but otherwise there’s nothing that could reasonably point to Sylvain knowing about the Empire involvement that we see, to my knowledge

[irandrura]

Anyway, more serious thoughts on chapters five and six...

The Heroes’ Relics make people turn into horrific dragon monsters. Okay. I know people assured me that this game wasn’t playing the ‘Corrupt Church’ trope entirely straight, but still, the Church of Seiros, the thirteen relics, and the crests have a million warning signs going off around them right now. Maybe most members of the church are well-meaning, but there are clearly dark and horrible secrets in Fódlan’s past.

Knowing previous Fire Emblem games, my bet is that it’s something to do with dragons, gods, betrayal, and fraught relationships with humanity. The relics look like fossilised bone to me, and I suspect that Seteth and Flayn are either dragons themselves, or somehow related to them. (I have not read spoilers on this, or if I have I’ve forgotten them, but there is something very Ninian-ish about her.) Flayn’s blood was mentioned as being special, so I wonder if crests are the results of some ancient blasphemy where dragon blood was fused with humans, or something along those lines? Add in that we have Sothis playing a Yune-like role and it’s easy to guess what might be going on.

Still, the relics and crests themselves seem dangerous, and possibly maddening. I suppose it’s for the best that I’ve never actually used the Sword of the Creator in battle. It wasn’t a principled decision or anything: I just never needed to.

There’s been some discussion of crests. As I said before, I find it strange that Dimitri is taking such an egalitarian, meritocratic line. He thinks that lineage shouldn’t matter? Nor should race, religion, or crest? Really? That’s an odd thing for a prince to believe. Who taught him those ideas? For some reason it surprises me more with Dimitri than with Edelgard, who I already had pegged as an egalitarian revolutionary in the same vein as Ashnard (albeit less over-the-top evil). There has to be something interesting going on in terms of the intellectual history of Fódlan - maybe it’s the Fódlan equivalent of the Renaissance, and old aristocratic houses are being pressured by a rising tide of enlightened humanism?

Actually, what crests most remind me of is an old AD&D setting, Birthright. I always really liked Birthright despite its lack of popularity, mainly because I loved its colourfully monstrous collection of villains in the awnsheghlien. Fódlan’s crests seem to have shaped aristocratic politics in the same way that Cerilia’s bloodlines have.

Moving on to chapter six...

Right now I am stressing more about recruiting out-of-house characters. So far I’ve only managed to grab Leonie, but hopefully I can get a few more. I hear Dorothea is pretty much a gimme - maybe that’s why she’s always on the top of the list of most-used characters it shows me via the online feature.

It’s starting to nag me that Byleth has a very specific level of ignorance about Fódlan. He’s wandered all across the continent with Jeralt and has become an experienced mercenary, the Ashen Demon, but somehow he doesn’t know anything whatsoever about the church or about geopolitics. That’s rather straining the suspension of disbelief.

I say this every time, but I wonder if the game or the story couldn’t be improved by just cutting the avatar character? I suppose Byleth is useful for allowing the player to take the teacher role, at least, and maybe he’s necessary for the Sothis plot? Even so, right now I find myself wondering why Dimitri, Claude, or Edelgard can’t just be the protagonist. I don’t hate Byleth or anything, but he’s definitely less interesting than the others.

Other character stuff has been fun so far. I did the paralogue, ‘War for the Weak’, where you try to resolve a Duscur rebellion. I was a bit confused there: judging from Dedue, I thought the people of Duscur were generally dark-skinned, but that didn’t seem to be the case with the Duscur units on the map. I guess Duscur is in the northern part of the continent, and Faerghus is supposed to be quite cold, so it would be unusual for there to be a whole nation of dark-skinned people there? I don’t know. The impression I got was that Duscurs generally have bronze skin, dark eyes, and white or red hair, as opposed to the extremely pale and frequently blond, blue-or-green-eyed Faerghans. But I don’t know how much thought was put into the ethnography of this world.

On the chapter six battle itself... so, okay, the Death Knight and the Flame Emperor escaped, but I did defeat thirty or so of their minions. Did we not take any of them alive? I feel like we should be able to interrogate some of them. At the very least, I’d like to take this conspiracy a bit more seriously? Could we maybe ransack Jeritza’s quarters? Search for papers? Maybe Byleth’s class can’t do that - I would say that they’re students and shouldn’t be trusted with such sensitive assignments, except that they were tasked to recover the Lance of Ruin and trusted to keep quiet about the relics turning people into monsters - but it’d be nice to know that someone is doing that.

But instead apparently we’re going to go off and have a mock battle between the three houses. I feel like I should be able to make joke about the Hogwarts House Cup, but I can’t figure out a good way into it...

Finally, on characters and supports:

I have gotten a handful of supports with out-of-house characters, and they feel odd. It’s bizarre to have a C support with Ferdinand where he asks how I think he stacks up compared to Edelgard: it is clearly written with the assumption that I’m the Black Eagle teacher. If the game was going to allow you to do out-of-house supports, I would have expected the supports to be written to avoid that issue.

Among the Blue Lions, the supports so far have ranged from the genuinely insightful or heartwarming to the merely banal. I have gotten a few C supports that feel like this, although to be fair mostly featuring Felix, and Felix is an arse. Nonetheless, by being the only Blue Lion who’s just a jerk, Felix’s supports have actually helped to illustrate some of the internal tensions. He is genuinely awful to Dedue and Dimitri, but if he wasn’t, it would not clarify for the player that there’s some sort of dark, angsty secret in Dimitri’s past.

(I don’t know what that secret is: he didn’t explain it in Heroes. I believe it has something to do with knowing Edelgard as a child, and perhaps Edelgard’s secret second crest; and perhaps also it’s hinted that Dimitri was involved in a massacre? But I don’t know or remember the details.)

As for the others, oho, Gilbert is Annette’s dad, Mercedes has some Birthright-esque drama with a noble house in the Empire (and, okay, I did read enough to know about Jeritza), Ingrid and Ashe continue to be generally nice, and Sylvain would be an excellent person if he wasn’t bent on harassing women all the time.

I do wonder sometimes what’s going on with that... is it just a Fire Emblem series trope that there’s always a guy who vocally flirts with every women he sees and is genuinely unable to control himself? Is it a Japanese thing? To my Western eyes it’s starting to get a bit tiresome. I don’t want to get super-political, but I feel like after the whole #MeToo thing Western commentators are going to be a lot more sensitive to stories that depict constant unwanted flirting as a harmless, even entertaining character trait. I don’t know. There’s probably something going on there that I don’t get.

Oh, well. I still made Sylvain kill his brother. Was that cruel of me? I guess his brother was a horrible monstrous dragon at the time...

Anyway, on with trying to recruit more characters, and then the tournament!

[callmewishful]

[randomnameless]

Okay I can see various fire emblem lords being big horseback riders and skilled in equestrian riding.

The jugral lords being into dressage, the hoshido nobles being into horse racing, I can see the tellius lords being into cross country, and show jumping being popular in Valencia.

Thoughts on horseback riding and fire emblem lords?

Oh!

It depends for the Jugdral Lords, if you mean Siggy, Eldie and Quan then yeah, maybe dressage was prevalent in their places, maybe just to show their mastery over their horses.

However, Seliph and Leif weren't raised in the same "environment", with Seliph wanting to emulate Shanan rather than his dad through Oifey lol

As for Leif, being on the run since age 4 sure didn't help him take riding lessons, even if I'm pretty sure Finn wanted to have that covered!

TFW both Hoshido and Nohr enjoy horse racing (tenma racing for Hoshido, they don't have pony classes, so most likely no pony in Hoshido?).

Imagine Elibe : Lycian Lords love cross-country and love participating in contests... but then Lyn's grandpa has the idea to bring a Sacaen golden horse to the contest, and it's a drama : Sacaen Golden Horse can cross rivers and forests with ease, it can jump to 10 meters with his rider.

Lord Caelin is thus banned from ever entering a cross country contest with his "foreign" horses - which raises a shitstorm because it's not cheating, and maybe the Lycian horses should be trained just like their Sacaen cousins as well - have you seen Lord Eliwood's horse?

Lord Caelin being overjoyed when his great-granddaughter Sue asked him to name her first horse and writing him letters about how his horse loves the Caelin carrots

Tellius nobles don't usually ride horses for war, but more as an demonstration of etiquette and for leisure.

However, duke Persis, cannot ride horses for shit - even if he lost his powers, his laguz instincts are still there to make him fall from any horse, but hopefully, Begnion Senators aren't expected to ride horses unless necessary (which might or not be the reason why he lent warp powder to Lekain and oversaw the development of warp staves).

Alm'n'Celica?

Rode the hell out of Grandpapa's Mycen horse when their were kids, hell, Mycen taught every kid in Ram Village how to ride a horse - not necessarily how to fight on horseback, but just, you know, how to "not fall" when sitting on a moving horse.

Zofian Nobles enjoy horse racing for the "noblest/purest" ones, the others help in the fields, but in Rigel they're more valued so put under less stress - and when their time come, they're also used for their meat.

Fodlan wise?

Adrestia being in dressage too - which utterly puzzles Faerghans who use their horses for war or to plow the fields that can be worked even in winter (aka not galatea lol) - and while Leicester also had a history with horse racing, its nobles, who want to emulate Adrestia, thinks it's vulgar and want to start the trend of dressage too.

Too bad for them, horse racing has such a massive following and is actually a not that ridiculous part of Leicester's economy in Gloucester's own territory that horses are still, mostly, used for racing.

For their part, full-blooded Nabateans, much like Lehran, cannot ride horses for shit. Let it be Seteth or Rhea, whenever they "sit" on a horse, they fall within seconds. Flayn hopefully can ride better than the rest of her fam, and back in the days, Saint Indech was a beast at Chariot Racing in the newly founded Adrestia : but given how Chariot Racing became highly political in Enbarr, Empress Fredegund III banned it in 354.

[randomnameless]

"#also can we talk about how lorenz is apparently looking for a bride and how#his dad hasn't arranged a wedding since he was 4 to a noble heiress or something?#the barbarians had that with Ingrid and Glenn" I was thinking how weird that is since the empire also does it (Ferd with Bern) but iirc there was that shadow text about someone from Daphnel being in an arranged marriage so I guess House Gloucester is a "the person chooses who to marry not the parents"? Then I thought about (1/2)

Greg's deal with Ludwig to marry their heirs was interesting on paper, but cancelled due to Bernie being, well, Bernie.

You can interpret kid!Emile meeting kid!Constance as Baron Bartels wanting to secure a wedding between his son and the elusive House Nuvelle's heir... but that's only conjecture.

But let's be serious a moment, doylist wise, we couldn't have too many arranged marriages, because the player is supposed to be able to ship whoever they want and even have Billy marry everyone - even the disembodied gremlin in their head :(

There was nothing taboo, or said to be taboo in Nopes, about Matthias snagging an Adrestian to Barbarian Land (tm), or House Gautier frowning because Lady Gautier 1 was an Adrestian - if she was a noble... it opens another can of worms, can you imagine Miklan being Caspar's cousin, if Lady Gautier 1 was, idk, a noble daughter from House Bergliez? Let say she was, Miklan couldn't inherit Gautier because no crust, but what about his stance/role/title in Bergliez? Could he just roll over Caspar's older bro (never named) if he had more muhrit or something like that, and become Leopold's heir - even if he's part Faerghan?

As you noticed, we had instances of arranged marriages with the shadow note about House Daphnel - are we really supposed to believe the traditional House Gloucester, who puts much emphasis on its lineage and what not, would have let Lorenz pick anyone (even if he has his own criteria!) while Erwin wouldn't have arranged anything at his birth??

Jugdral wise we could have some "doomed by inheritance" pairings in the second gen, where Patty would have to return to Jungby as its Duchess if her bro Faval inherits something else (or died),even if she married, say, Ced who's staying as the King of Silesse.

But for all of its supposed "Jugdral inspiration", Fodlan didn't go there, so we will never know what happens with international marriages and their potential consequences.

Fodlan HC : Ionius's great-grandmother (who was a concubine!) was a scion of House Blaiddyd so Gertrude, Supreme Leader's second oldest sister, popped up a minor crust of Blaiddyd at birth.

Of course tensions arose between Gertrude's mom and Ionius (because the relationships between Faerghus and Adrestia were soured since Lambert beat Ludwig during the Battle of the Eagle and the Lion during their year together at GM) and she was exiled. Gertrude was designed to be the first kid to be "experimented upon".

[callmewishful]

concept: matthias lashing out at rodrigue after his first wife died and/or he disowned miklan and worrying that he destroyed their relationship

Ohhhh absolutely!!

He’s a man of few expressions but many emotions and his number one defense mechanism is to snap back (he gets it from his father, which he hates because he doesn’t want to hurt those he cares about. He’s a Gautier, his job is literally to protect! But in the heat of the moment it’s hard to control).

His emotions run far deeper than he lets on, and Rodrigue knows this the best which is why he takes it upon himself to check on Matthias after any major event or argument with Lambert (both men are very strong willed and very outspoken, which can lead to conflict, but they love each other!)

Matthias can be snippy and a jerk if he hasn’t calmed down enough after said event or argument (Rodrigue has learned to give Matthias a few minutes first for best results). But he does recognize, after he’s cooled off, that he was in the wrong and needs to apologize.

He’s often stuck between not wanting to push, because Rodrigue has every right to be mad at him, and being a man of action. Not doing anything doesn’t make things better, but sometimes people need a minute, just like him, and he wants to offer the same courtesy. That and he knows that trying to talk about things while angry often goes nowhere or makes things worse (case in point, himself). Most of the time he errs on the side of caution and waits to run into the person again, but with Rodrigue he’ll go seek the Duke out because Rodrigue cools off far quicker than he does and he worries.

Matthias is usually the Faerghan Dad known for having an uncanny read on people but somehow Rodrigue knows Matthias better than Matthias will ever admit out loud without some alcohol in him. And Daddy Fraldarius has seen him through the worst of times and always been there whether Matthias thinks he needs Rodrigue or not (he does).

Not to mention Rodrigue is one of the few people who tolerates him so he can’t lose that because if it’s after Duscur, he’s already lost one so if loses the other he’s screwed lol

I actually write a little about Matthias dealing with that loss in my “Wall of Ice” story (shameful plug here lol I’ll probably post it in text form instead of an Ao3 link today). BUT I don’t specifically write about how the interaction between Rodrigue and Matthias went. I definitely might have to do this now because you got my gears going and I’m apparently shameless in my Daddy Gautier affection.

[callmewishful]

Lambert is the type of man who always appears calm. Even when stuff hits the fan, he’s the one that’s got a level head and steps up to give direction. He’s always ready with a plan, even in the most unconventional of situations. Though these plans mostly include tackling the problem head on and winging it as he goes, somehow they always work out for him. He’s every bit a natural leader a King is expected to be and the people of Faerghus have never seen this man sweat.

Amongst his friends, his plans are terrible. Whose idea was it to try and ride a horse while standing? Lamberts. Whose idea was it to swap Captain Jeralt’s brand new bottle of expensive Adrestian wine for some of the cheap crap down at the market? Lamberts. And whose idea was to try and tame a giant wolf for the Faerghan Army? You guessed it: Lamberts. Papa Dorito is a chaotic disaster.

Rodrigue is the type of man who has quiet confidence coming out his butt. He’s not a bragger, unless he’s really trying to impress someone or someone riles him up or he’s drunk. But as the King’s right hand, he commands a room with his very presence. He’s not a big talker in public settings. He prefers to hear both sides, take some time to think carefully about the pros and cons of each, and then make his call. He’s an excellent listener and very in touch with the feelings of others.

Amongst his friends, he is the smooth talker. Someone has had to master the skill of communication to get them out of trouble or cover their butts with Lambert’s plans and it couldn’t be Lambert because he’s injured, laughing, or trying to drag a wild wolf back to the woods, and it sure as hell couldn’t be the emotionally constipated Matthias. He’s talked Lambert out of trouble and Matthias out of fights more times than he can possibly count. Papa Hot-Rod is a sweet-talking accomplice.

Matthias is the type of man who has no time to waste. He’s quiet, he’s serious, and he tells it like it is. He doesn’t do it to be a jerk, but he believes there’s no good that can come from sugar coating things. Not only does it give people false hope or security, but it accomplishes nothing because people don’t understand the weight or gravity of a situation. He hates skipping class, he hates missing training, and jokes during meetings or lessons are a waste of everyone’s time, goddess above Lambert some of us actually have work to do when they graduate.

Amongst his friends, he is one of the most thoughtful men you will meet. He cares deeply for everyone around him and that feeling has only been amplified by the fact that his house is the only thing between Sreng and Faerghus. His words can be ill thought out, but the love and worry behind them shines through clear as noon (if you know how to decode them). He’d do anything for his friends, including carrying them to a healer, distracting Captain Jeralt under the guise of a spar (it’s dual purpose for him), and coming up with the plan of taking the sides off of a few carts to make transporting the wolf easier. Papa Stone-Face is a silent protector.

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

Matthias had a sword from Lambert........oh I'm not normal about this at all