#history of fodlan?

[randomnameless]

My husband came up with this idea that made me see Ionius in a slightly different way: Edelgard mentions that the Empire "demands many heirs" in her Goddess Tower support w/ Byleth, hence why Ionius had a load of kids by different women. Normally I'd think "wow that's stupid, way to invite a power struggle after you're dead" but what if it's actually an Empire tradition? Like, Ionius maybe is the first Emperor in a while to try to consolidate power but maybe only one of many to have a ton of kids, AND the reason is not only to have a kid with a Crest, but that the Slitherers practice Crest experimentation on each generation of heirs with the hope of creating a two-crested Nemesis clone to help them kill off the Nabateans. Ionius just happened to be the survivor of his batch of siblings. Maybe having 10-11 kids is to make sure that some of them will live long enough to be the next Emperor, and that's why the "Empire demands many heirs."

Oh!

FWIW, the Index of Imperial Nobility mentions how House Vestra is supposed to "coordinate things such as Imperial Consorts", adding to that how House Vestra has been at the Hresevelgs' back since the danw of the Empire, yeah, we can make a pretty good case that Adrestia has a long standing tradition of, uh, imperial consorts and all.

It can be seen as dumb because it invites power struggles, but it avoids the issue that could very well have happened with the Kingdom, aka Dimitri ded = the King's direct line is dead and it's chaos because one of the first duties of a King/Emperor/Leader under those kinds of hereditary systems is, well, to secure a heir - the lineage cannot be broken!

(that's where we usually have sekrit heirs popping up from nowhere in some kinds of stories, or bastard children !)

Having multiple Consorts - thus a large number of heirs - makes it sure that the line will not be broken as easily as, idk, a baby choking on a pretzel or a serious flu.

However, as Hanneman mentions in Hubert's support, having dozens of consorts means creating dozens of families who suddenly have to get some privileges bcs the Emperor is figging their daughters - and depending on how powerful those families are, if the Emperor obviously favors one kid over the others (or pisses on one over the others) one of those families might not be happy and start shit in the Empire - taking more and more consorts means shaving little by little the power of the Emperor in Adrestia!

(and guesses who spearheads the insurrection? Arundel, one of those "consort kin"!)

The topic of Ionius' 11 children is sadly forgotten by the plot - but iirc Word of God said the Ordelias (Lysithea) were experimented upon as a test, and when the Agarthans had, uhhh, conclusive results, they experimented on the Hresvelgs.

Given who was in charge when Ordelia was ran over by Adrestia - even if no character mentions the consequences or make a link because you have tea bags to sell - imo it would totally make sense that Ionius killed two birds with one stone : flexing his underdeveloped muscles at peons who helped people who dared to betray him, and getting guinea pigs for his plans to get the strongest Emperor ever.

Bear in mind that the Ordelia fuckery was done before the Insurrection aka, Ionius had this plan before Ludwig'n'co decided to depose him!

(Was Vestra aware of what was going on? Who were the Agarthans working with Ionius? Is it a situation à la Manfroy'n'Arvis, people disapproving of the Emperor listening at shady people?)

The Ordelia experiments leads me to believe the plan to become "super strong with dual crests" was hatched and developed during the Ionius era, but again, the game is so crappy at lore building that we don't even know if Ionius had 10 (legitimate) sibs, or only 5, and what they are doing when Supreme Leader is running the show, or did when Ionius was defanged.

Granted, we don't know since when Agarthans are slithering in Adrestia - if we believe the "Willy's sekrit history" was tampered with and assume Supreme Leader was telling the truth, that it was passed down in generations, maybe Agarthans were slowly manipulating Adrestian Emperor to get their revenge on Nabateans (in Nopes, a book about the rebellion of the Southern Church mentions how the Emperor wanted to cut ties with the Central Church anyways since a long time, but doesn't explain why).

And so, maybe Agarthans devised several plans, that all failed, to make the Hresvelgs turn against the Church and be strong enough to be flattened in 5 seconds, and it only worked during Ionius' era ?

We will never know, but it's still fun to think and headcanon about!

To bounce back on the "Adrestia demands many heirs" thing, given how I am fond of a certain AU, what if

This came up as a reaction to the entire Lycaon debacle?

Wilhelm 1 picked a heir, his heir died "to a mysterious illness" and instead of assuming rulership or helping another heir to rule - like he did for Lycaon - Wilhelm bailed out of Adrestia.

It could be explained by Lycaon being the golden child and favourite kid of his dad, so if he's not the one ruling, Dad doesn't give a fuck anymore about his Empire... or -

What if Lycaon was Willy's only child, and the subsequent Hresvelgs are "cousins" or members of a branch family?

In that case, it wouldn't be Willy playing favourites, but bailing out because his own son "suddenly fell ill and died" and he wouldn't be as involved as he was in helping his own kid, if now we're talking about helping a great grand-nephew or someone else.

(Rhea would have had to give a transfusion to the subsequent Emperor - i name her by convenience Hildegarde bcs no imagination and it's faster to type than "the female emperor who succeeded Lycaon and dueled against Ferdie's ancestor who wanted the throne" - to make people believe there is a direct continuity between Wilhelm, Lycaon, Hildegarde and her future heirs).

In that "only kid" scenario, it would also justify why House Hresvelg became so obsessed with taking Consorts and having a lot of heirs - Adrestia was nearly left Emperor-less after Lycaon's death because they had no other heirs to pick a successor from...

[cutestrival]

have you heard of the Astra sword technique? take notes

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

just got to the stupid zaharas chapter and went through dimi and claude's conversation and my god

they really did not use a single quarter of a brain cell when putting that conversation into ag

"your issue is with the church, not with faerghus?" eh wot hootie tootie claude never had a problem with faerghus and hasn't been acting like it. makes it sound like they've been fighting each other (i.e. this is meant to fit gw but and they just copy/pasted the whole conversation bc it just makes no sense).

"we have nothing to gain by fighting you." yeah, you... haven't been and never said you were planning to.

"we could've been friends." and whhhhyyyy can't you? there is an entire zero bad blood between y'all and lorenz has already pretty much said this whole second half of the war thing has been proof of the friendship between the kingdom and alliance soooo...?

"had i joined with you" uh um but you literally did this has been ongoing for half the war now

additional funnies are claude just being so butthurt that dimitri is like this might endanger your life and claude is like aw shucks my life has been endangered since i was born i'm basically an endangered species!

also, dimitri saying it brings guilt to do the things claude would do bc he's been there. lel. claude had no guilt in gw tho (for killing rhea and all that shit).

but fr tho, it just seems like gw claude and dimi got warped into zaharas and the ag ones are just passed out in the normal world having the same yeehaw ass fever dream LIKE

this entire conversation legitimately makes worse than zero sense. i can only imagine how confused people were who played ag first and got this conversation bc it like, legitimately has no place in this route. this is like a fever dream on steroids that were laced with drugs.

i was lucky i was playing ag while simultaneously watching the other routes on youtube or i would have also been absolutely bonkers confused.

[astranova]

headcanon crumbs for sothis? pls i beg. that art slaps so hard.

aaa yes!!!! omg i have so many like a whole document full!!!

i really do hc sothis as an actual captial G, some kind of celestial god or creator being that chose to fall or create a physical or “mortal” form around herself intentionally to be around life on planet. because mortal people literally wouldn’t be able to comprehend something like that it was depicted as a meteor or earned her a reputation for bringing disaster. like okay, the cosmic alternative universe in league of legends (cringe) i guess?? i kinda imagine she’s a being like that. ik sothis is connected to sirius so in my hc thats the last star she made or the remains of the body she shed to become mortal idk, like stripped of its spirit and godhood it just became a dead husk

i hc she stood at 10 ft tall in a human form at her most mature and for funsies!

she speaks w/ multiple voices!! like more than just the usual nabatean distortion in their dragon form

she bleeds ichor, which makes her different from other nabateans who’s blood becomes green when they shift forms. i also hc that nabateans come from her just existing (like fairies popping out of flowers and stuff!! her “divine influence” made them, and they are in her image. and then her children were immaculate conception by pulling from nature imo :p, i think thats the difference between “saints” “apostles” etc. im also a saints being her literal kids truther) but that at her core she’s not just limited to the title “nabatean”. like a square is a rectangle but not every rectangle is a square?? if that makes any sense????

i hc her dragon form as looking more owl like! since everyone in fodlanverse loves owl feathers and can all receive friendship up points w/ them. shes a giant, very long serpentine-owlish dragon, specifically barn owl bc i like them the most. i usually draw her about the size of a mountain but she can be any size! she’s beyond physical limitations so she can be super tiny too. and that the inside of her wings reflects space and she has multiple pairs.

okay this one is weird and personal but hear me out :’), i hc that her original hair color, as a celestial was like cosmic dust or gas and starlight, bright, colorful. and that when she fell she evolved according to what the environment demanded, lots of greenery and nature, so her hair and eye color became green as an evolutionary trait. like environmental camouflage. so she wears the ribbons to emulate her original “color”, so i reject the CoS sothis being depicted w/out them

i also hc that she’s a little bioluminescent, or has some bioluminescent spots!! like how stars shine at night

she also makes the sound of bells or chimes wherever she walks! her entire being just screams unreal

i hc she can manipulate time anywhere, in any reality, since that seems to be some of the least of her powers, despite what the team at heroes depicts

in my headcanon she didn’t sleep within byleth, when they were a baby she was a baby and they grew up together etc. ik that for gameplay sake the literal mechanic had to be introduced and she had to be introduced as a game character, but in my mind palace (bc im more important) she was completely reborn alongside byleth and they grew up like siblings and she acts like that to her children because she’s influenced through byleth and she has no memories of her life after the fall at all, or even before, just a base instinct of the things she’s capable of. and the arrogance she displays is just the usual for someone that young and in possession of that much power and how they might behave. i do think she was still dead/unconscious in sitri though, just her magic sustained sitri’s life.

[soulcluster-moved]

@svnsworn / felix fraldarius “care for a dance?”

Eirika stared in blatant surprise, but collected herself within moments.

"It would be my pleasure. Admittedly, I did not think you had an interest in dancing." Similar to her brother, his focus seemed always on improving his combat skill. She offered her hand to him, far from upset at his offer and really quite pleased.

[randomnameless]

Popping (lately!) in,

Speaking from a strict political sense...

I can't see it happen at all.

As close as Rhea is to Willy's descendants, that fondness didn't prevent her from organising a mediation that ultimately led to Faerghus being independant from Adrestia.

On the contrary, I'd say that if Adrestia tries to push the legitimacy "we have the saint's crests!" angle, the CoS will judge them even more harshly for the state of their own country, and the fact they are :

1/ the only ones who gave the boot to their regional branch

2/ the ones who are currently "negotiating" with a relic, aka in Yuri's paralogue, Gerth basically tells us that he's using the Relic as leverage against the Church, which isn't something you'd do to a potential ally...

No matter how hard they'll push on the legitimacy angle or on the "we will right the current wrongs in Fodlan and rule those places better than those people do", judging by their recent history I can't see the CoS being convinced : how can they pretend they'd fare better than Leicester, politically speaking, when Ionius was deposed by his nobles a no less than a decade ago, after a rebellion that happened because he terminated House Hrym ?

Depending on how far we follow the canon events, accusing the Kingdom of misusing their relics and crests - or not looking after their people - would be seen as pretty hypocritical after the Remire (located in Imperial land!) incident, especially since it's the Church that takes care and looks after the ones who survived!

Lipservice or not, I can't see Rhea - who ran the CoS for 1k years - thus her Church, give a thumbs-up to an Adrestian annexion of the world.

Hell, in Nopes (depends if you see it as canon or not), she lends her troops to the Imperial Heir, but explicitely says that her knights aren't supposed to see any fight (and she calls Faerghus the CoS' child or something?)

I could see a point being made about making allies with the strongest force on the continent, who has historical ties with them, and yet alienating the only current ally they have (Faerghus) to side with someone who betrayed and disappointed (kicking out the Southern Church, in Nopes a book suggests the Empire wanting to part ways with the Central Church even before the Southern Church incident!) isn't a choice I'd see Rhea - who kept a modicum of continental peace for 1k years - do.

In 3H canon, it's kind of taken for granted that Church sides with either Faerghus or Leicester. Leicester also gets treated as sidekick/allies to both Faerghus and Adrestia by canon and fanon; see the amount of combined BE+GD or BL+GD route works. And although it's much rarer than the others, I've even seen BE+BL combined route tag.

However, I think that a Church-Empire team-up route to conquer the other two nations would actually be very convincing in-universe politics wise, and convenient. If Edelgard wasn't as dead set on getting rid of the Church first, or if any other Adrestian emperor tried to re-conquer the rest of the continent at any point, I think allying with the Church and getting their blessing to do it would almost certainly have happened.

It's stated in-game that the Empire has grown distant from the Church as of late, but despite all that, Adrestian connection with the Church runs way deeper than other two countries. The nobles of Adrestia literally have the saints' Crests! If anybody could claim the legitimacy to being the truest and oldest believers, it's them. Plus Empire is still the largest and presumably the strongest nation in Fódlan, so the Church probably won't mind getting close to them again, either.

It wouldn't even take much for the Adrestian imperial heir to repair relations with the Church, too, especially if they go directly to Rhea. Rhea would have a soft spot for Wilhelm's descendants, so Edelgard or any other Hresvelg saying the Southern Church will be reopened might literally be all it takes to win her over.

Then the stuff like the Miklan incident can be used to accuse the Kingdom of not taking good care of Crests/Relics like they were meant to. The political disarray in Leicester can be used to accuse them of being unable to rule themselves. And if the Empire pays a bit of lipservice, swearing that they will retake those lands and rule justly under the guidance of the goddess as their founders did, the Church would probably give the stamp of approval and tell them to go for it.

Whether this alliance lasts or whether the Empire turns on the Church once the conquest is done and take all the power for themselves would depend on the emperor (if Edelgard is in charge, it would definitely be the latter).

But the prospect of a Church-Empire team up is actually way more politically plausible in-universe than fandom thinks imo.

[hyun3hk3y]

Symbolism in "Portrait of Lady Edelgard Von Hresvelg"

This is something that I’ve usually never really felt comfortable doing. If you ever wonder why some artists are a bit more reluctant to actually *talk* about the “meaning” of their work, its because it strikes the same tenor as having to explain why a joke is funny.  If I have to actually lay it out for the viewer why certain decisions were made in the execution of a work of art, the magic of the whole experience may be lost.  Moreover, many artists avoid making definitive statements on their work because they do not wish to deprive viewers the opportunity to derive their own unique explanation. 

While I chiefly view myself as a fine artist, most of my artistic training was as an illustrator.  As an artist, this can lead to an interesting dichotomy when it comes to creating paintings.  During my studies, I was told that the job of an illustrator is to solve pictorial problems for people often by making pictures that tell a story or convey an idea.  Fine art’s definition, in contrast, tends to be more nebulous.  But I digress, on to the painting…

A number of people on reddit and Tumblr have remarked on the candle with the snuffed-out flame.  No interpretations on it have been offered, the mere presence of a candle with a smoldering wick is a strong enough implication.  However, this is one instance where I drew inspiration from art history so I believe it is worth elaborating on.  The animus for the candle originates in the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck.  Below is an image of the painting with the pertinent candle circled.

Art history scholars have a number of different readings about the candle’s presence, but the one I was taught in Art History is that the lit candle indicates the presence of the holy ghost or the watchful eye of God.  Three Houses draws from a number of religions for its world building, in the case of The Church of Serios, the developers took the majority of their cues from The Catholic Church.  If a lit candle would suggest Edelgard’s faith in the Goddess, then an extinguished one must imply Edelgard’s *loss* of faith. 

In addition to the extinguished candle, I would also like to direct viewers to the reflection of the candle in the polished wood table surface. In the reflection the candle is still burning very brightly, almost down to the base of the candelabra.

The purpose of this image is to recall a saying from old Taoism Philosophy in China: “The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”  Those who are familiar with Edelgard’s back story in Three Houses will find its relevance obvious.  I doubt I am the only one to make the allusion.

This brings me to the next major piece of symbolism I employed in the painting, the dagger and the drapery on the table.  The dagger’s significance should go without saying, but its application as a device will become more apparent after I explain the table cloth.  To put it succinctly, the majority of the dark shadow shapes made by the tablecloth are arranged to evoke the shape of the crest of flames.  Below is another visual to help illuminate this detail. 

The immediate implication here is the detail of Edelgard possessing the crest of flames.  As for why I decided to depict it in a more concealed way…When I first got the idea for this painting, the whole concept was that if a person saw this painting in a gallery, they would be looking at an actual artifact from Fodlan, one that created by an artist who actually lived there.  This is why the second row of the inscription reads “In the Imperial Year” on the left side and “1179” on the right.  This means the painting would have been completed just before Edelgard starts attending Gareg Mach, and long before the greater public would know she has the crest of flames.  How the artist came to know this would remain a mystery.  I like to imagine it as a detail that Fodlan’s historians would debate over for years after the game’s narrative.

There is also a second message that I have intended with the dagger’s placement cutting (heh) across the crest…Gripping the dagger over the crest of flames is a statement about what the path is that Edelgard will take, especially when the crest is examined as representing the Goddess Sothis.  In fact, there are two (technically three) lines of dialogue from Three Houses I had in mind for this symbolism.

That about sums it up!  I may do a couple more posts in the future where I show how the painting evolved from thumbnails, to studies to the finished image if theres interest in that sort of thing.

[fantasyinvader]

@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]

What would Supreme Leader have done if she found out Crests were just dragon blood? Would she hate them more because eww icky pointy ear blood or would she think they were based because humans genocided the icky pointy ears like she wants to?

Assuming she doesn't know what "crests" are, which is hypothetical because canon wise, we have clues that she actually knows what they are... and clues that she doesn't know.

Well, assuming she doesn't know to reply to your ask, I guess I'd say...

She ultimately wouldn't care.

Crests - and everything Nabatean related - are incompatible with her idea of humanity and any "meritocracy".

So imo, that'd be a double incentive not to value crests at all, and either only see it as "weapons" or something to be weaponised, like tools.

As for Nemesis'n'pals "spreading crests" around... Well, I suppose she'd not see them in a good light - bar the humans vs lizards angle - because their rule wasn't hers that effective/peaceful, people were killing each other so much that her fool of an ancestor managed to topple him by raising his armies from Southern Fodlan to conquer the continent.

Nabateans/their parts shouldn't be worshipped/valued because they're not humans thus cannot have any sort of hold over humans, but if they can be "used" for humanity, then I suppose it's just a tool like any other.

Thinking about it, that mindset would be pretty close to the Agarthans, but hey, who works with her and most likely "taught" her stuff about Nabateans - bar Willy's sekrit history - ?

[randomnameless]

The biggest thing that bothers me with Willy's sekrit History is this :

In the end, Seiros was victorious. The Immaculate One and her family then took control of Fódlan.

Nopes wise, Willy was around after Nemesis's death, aka he saw Cethleann'n'Cichol yeet away, ditto for Macuil and Indech retreating in his hamlet or his pond.

So what "family" members is this talking about ? The Apostles? They only popped up after GM's completion.

Tinfoil hat theory :

Nemesis ded, who's left to rule over Fodlan? Seiros (her bros have left) and the Hresvelgs. Seiros dgaf, so the Hresvelg, claiming descent from Seiros herself - thus being her fam - take control of Fodlan. Now, was this entire "we're her fam" grounded in reality, a cop out to explain their crests, or something they sprouted out of nowhere to give legitimacy to their rule, as in it's something else that "we were stronger than your previous leaders so we now we're in charge?"

Something like :

Willy : "wow Seiros is a dragon!"

Lycaon 1, writing in his dad's journal : "if I have Seiros's power, does it mean we're related? Am I her son?"

Hildegarde 1, taking over Lycaon's entry when he dies "accidently" : "as Saint Seiros's last living kin, it is our right and duty to us, Hresvelgs, to rule over Fodlan. Yeah, that sounds nice, I should use this against any barbarian trying to challenge my rule."

Emperor Ionius 5, who is very salty about the entire Faerghus issue "Seiros is a dragon and her disgusting kin is ruling over the world, that means we, humans, aren't even masters of our own destiny!", completely oblivious to the fact that per the Totally Legit History (tm), House Hresvelg is also part of Seiros' fam.

TL;DR : we were robbed of Supreme Leader's big self realisation moment when she finally found "dah truth" about "History" and cried tears of joy discovering she was not a lizardspawn.

Edelgard’s lack of interest in looking into the history of Fodlan beyond what her (dubiously reliable) father and (fantasy Nazi torture squad) TWSITD tell her is such a clear and glaring character flaw that so many of her “did nothing wrong” fans defend as Good, Actually. Like I can’t wrap my head around it, we know that there’s so much about the history of the continent that El either doesn’t or refuses to learn and while it’s understandable in some ways why she can’t it’s still like. Bad. It’s so clear that if her actual goal was liberation then she would’ve done more research, gone to the church and told them that hey, the Slitherers™️ are at it again and we need to do something. But she doesn’t, because that’s not actually her goal… it’s conquest of the other two nations and an overturning of the current system to favor her (mostly already privileged) friends, plain and simple. But people who either didn’t play any routes but CF or just didn’t pay attention/have poor media analysis skills love to say otherwise. Bluh.

I still can't get over how she was tortured and lost all her siblings to TWSITD and decided that the CHURCH was the biggest threat.

Edelgard 100% believes she is in the right and is the ONLY person who is right and thus is the ONLY person who can bring about change. And with "change" I mean "unify Fodlan and bring it under the control of the Adrestian Empire like it was in the past".

At no point does she consider that Wilhelm's history could've been tampered with, or simply been misunderstood after a whole millenia has passed. And why not? Because it's the only thing that drives her hatred for the church, and if it was disproven then she has no leg to stand on? Probably!

[curse-d-owl]

Fire Emblem Three Houses and Hopes suffers from having a very poor foundation for the story and making their characters uncharacteristically dumb to have conflict between eachother. In their attempt to write a morally gray story where each side is valid and posses depth and nuance they instead wound up with an idiot plot that's extremely black and white. Same as Fates.

Rhea had no reason to keep crests and heroes relics, falsify history for her aggressors, promote nationalism and allowing Fodlan to conquer innocent nations when all it took for a group of unsatisfied nobles to tell her that's not good.

If she marries Byleth ( which is extremely gross ) in Silver Snow she returns to her position as archbishop and helps the others get rid of Fodlan's problems proven by Petra's, Seteth's, Sylvain's, Mercedes's, Lysithea's and Hanneman's endings.

In Hopes she supports Dimitri having official talks with foreign nations, has no problems with Duscur being a part of the army, helps them by sending her followers to help Duscur in Dedue's and Catherine's support and Dimitri allows commoners to achieve knighthood and nobility should they have the skills for it in his support with Sylvain.

And Edelgard had no reason to immediately jump to war. None.

Her delusion that Rhea is this cutthroat villain that violent crucifies anyone for being non believers and for disagreeing with her is based on nothing and a massive projection since 1. Edelgard demonizes the goddess and defended a scumbag like Miklan infront of an extremely pious and high ranking knight like Gilbert and 2. Shes the one being hellbent on ruling Fodlan, killing her opposition by any means necessary and refusing any chance at cooperation.

Plus she's entirely wrong about the origin of crests, heroes relics, Nemesis, the founding of Adrestia, Faerghus and Leicester.

If the ironically named Intelligent Systems wants to write a morally gray story then they need to try harder than making their characters uncharacteristically stupid and refusing to treat villains like villains.

[emblemxeno]

Once again Mr stalker raxy pal posted an ask of yours. What’s crazy about it this time is like? Dude edited it a bit I’m sure? Like? That is so crazy to me that effort is being put into this shit that you’d think these added seconds of time would help him reflect “hey maybe I should stop being a total loser and leave people alone”

Lol.

Conveniently leaving out this tidbit where...

Humans tried to exterminate manaketes after they had just protected them from degenerated dragons. Earth Dragons sucked for their pride and views of humans, but 1) they never chose to actively attack people, they degenerated and went feral, so 2) it's not equivalent to or worse than humans being fully aware of what they were doing when trying to kill manaketes and 3) none of what the Earth Dragons believed nor what they did once they were feral-i.e. not of sane mind-warranted innocent manaketes being attacked.

And the core foundation of the Archanea games is Marth, a human who's not a total fuckbag, stopping the dark cycle of hatred and retaliation. It's why his opposite is Gharnef, a human but also a fuckbag, who does awful things to people (causing both the War of Shadows and the War of Heroes) and uses dragons to achieve those things. It's why a major enemy is Hardin, a human who sunk into despair, sloth, rage, and jealousy due to his connection to Marth and Nyna. The reason why the War of Shadows got as bad as it did is because Camus was tragically attatched to his duty above his beliefs, and Micahlis had selfish, grand ambitions. It's almost like the pattern here is that humans do shitty things in the name of selfish ideals and good humans have to end conflict on behalf of the *remaining dragons wiped out due to aforementioned shitty things* and the other good people.

Similarly, Grima was made by a crazy fuck human who indiscriminately killed and sacrificed people for his own science project, and Loptous would never have even gotten to Jugdral were it not for Gair's power hungry ass.

Humans were also responsible for starting the Scouring and the Ending Winter, revising history to erase the Manakete involvement in Magvel, revising history and oppressing laguz in Tellius, and all of the fuckass business in Fodlan.

The only games that can be argued-though still with difficulty-to support his point are Valentia (which even then wasn't ashamed to whack the people themselves for feeding into their own reliance), Fates and Engage, the latter two he doesn't like, so... I reiterate, do they play any other FE games and not just screenshot stuff from wikis?

[cherrypikkins]

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

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

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

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

Click the read more for more lore :3 !

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chance of inflicting Silence on each attack.

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

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

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

[butwhatifidothis]

Dimitri: *has much of his dream be restoring and clearing the name of Duscur, a land and people that are hated by most of Faerghus - including one of Dimitri's own childhood friends*

Dimitri: *literally has Dedue, a man of Duscur, be his right-hand man, and who he openly defends against people being cruel to him even at the expense of his own reputation/safety*

Dimitri: *has his ending talk about how he made an entirely new form of government that lets commoners be participants instead of only nobles*

Dimitri: *has his ending talk about bettering foreign relations*

"Analysis" people: So as you can see, Dimitri is representative of maintaining a harmful status quo, because one time he said that it's understandable that some people hold extreme value in Crests (even though he himself doesn't)

Edelgard: *explicitly says she wants to put Fodlan back under a strictly Adrestian banner*

Edelgard: *believes the other two countries of Fodlan to be pale off-shoots of Adrestia*

Edelgard: *thinks the "meritable" (read: strong) should have a right to rule over those born in certain families, which is literally how Adrestia initially worked (because in practice those "meritable" families would just become nobility and repeat the cycle over again)*

Edelgard: *has her dream of reunifying Fodlan be what many nobles in Adrestia have been dreaming would happen for years*

"Analysis" people: And if you look here, you can see where Edelgard is representative of progress and change, because she talks about getting rid of Crests' importance from society (which doesn't even happen on CF)

insane to me that people will still do character analysis of 3h characters and then say dimitri's representing the "extreme of tradition" or some shit (when edelgard is the extreme of progress or whatever) like do y'all ever use ur brain to look at and engage with the actual canon material without picking bits selectively or wilfully misinterpreting lines and events so that your argument seems substantiated or are you completely without integrity whatsoever. 'analysis' my fucking ass.

[raxistaicho]

find it funny the edelcrits are still going after you and this red character. How did u get looped in racist accusations, didn't one of them write that one horrid throuple fanfiction that was racist af to Claude and a total character annihilation of edelgard or is it someone else away from their circle?

Good luck as always

No, you're thinking of Reynaattheend, she's on the same wavelength in terms of analysis of the game, but since she's not on Tumblr (to the best of my knowledge anyways) I wouldn't call her an Edelcrit.

Her fic is pretty dang yikesy though, featuring such wonderful features as,

some Nabateans leaving Fodlan to go "fix" other nations and being the apparent source of all religions (not beating the colonizer allegations at all)

Dimitri being a white savior for Claude

Byleth struggling with her emotions to hysterical woman levels and constantly relying on her two boyfriends to save her from almost getting herself killed (to give an example, Byleth struggles for page upon page against the Death Knight only for Dimitri to show up and one-shot him)

Just... everything to do with Edelgard

The Agarthans and Almyrans, despite their cultures very strongly and clearly leaning Greek and Persian, having German and Japanese as their languages, as though Reyna just thought any foreign language was as good as any other.

Byleth taking measures to hide Rhea's knowing distortion of Fodlan's history.

Sothis's destruction of two city states being lauded as a good thing for which holidays should be thrown (because I guess it was a Sodom and Gomorrah situation where literally every living soul in both cities were evil and deserving of death, meaning double genocide is heroic!)

Characters just swearing constantly because I guess she thinks that makes the fic more mature

Really glad to see people are starting to treat her fanfic with a more skeptical eye, I've done my bit to help push things along there.

[butwhatifidothis]

Do people really not see the inherent disconnect of the claim that Houses Claude is genuinely an amoral opportunist when his dream is to break down barriers to foster unity and peace? Like, is there not a fundamental incompatibility in having a desire for everyone to get along yet being a backstabber that throws people under the bus for their own benefit? From a personality/character standpoint, all that does is make Claude look like a ginormous ignorant hypocrite, and an idiot even though he's supposed to be smart. Because if his end goal is to create a diverse and harmonious community, how is he going to bring people together if he constantly betrays every side? And from a writing perspective, it makes no sense to have a character's actions and goals be completely contradictory and never address it.

Also for someone who is amoral, it sure is interesting in Balthus' Classroom QA Part 2 that Claude likes "ensure the fewest casualties" and dislikes "do anything to eradicate the enemy" when the question was "the war has been dragging for long so let's end it quickly". It's kinda like he has some principles or something.

Like, the idea of Claude being an untrustworthy backstabber who opportunistically takes advantage of everyone without ever growing close to them is just Hubert minus Lady Edelgard could be an interpretation of his character that aligns with at least his initial showing, or a surface level understanding of him. He calls himself the embodiment of distrust, he never fully opens up to anyone, he can in fact be fairly manipulative and callous; the crumbs are there, for sure.

But it also has to ignore how far he's willing to go to protect his people (putting himself in high danger when he is not sacrificial like, say, Dimitri is), or how he supports others having dreams for themselves (Goddess Tower), or how open he is to criticisms against what he thought (Cyril's support), or how he tries to be there for his friends (Marianne's support), or how he's open-minded enough to listen to people he initially thought needed to be his enemy (Rhea), or how violence is not just not something he considers but is something he actively rejects as a means of getting what he wants (The Alliance Leader's Ambitions, near the end), or how putting the people's lives in danger is something he is adamantly against (as you point out, Balthus' classroom question). A staggering amount of Claude's character has to be deliberately ignored in order to come to the conclusion that he's just a backstabbing opportunist who does anything to get what he wants (who magically gets fixed by Byleth's mere presence), because a backstabbing opportunist who does anything to get what he wants who magically gets fixed by Byleth's mere presence does not describe Claude.

Even if one were to take the game's writing failure of properly presenting Claude tackling racial issues (like never addressing Petra's situation despite having supports with her) you can't really deny that Claude is, in fact, a caring person after taking everything in his character into account. For all his flaws, he never abuses the trust people have in him to the extent that they are actively put in danger, nor is it ever the case that the "doesn't truly tackle racial issues" ever translate to anything so drastic as "which means he'll actively worsen relations between two countries." And, well, yes; you still do have to take into account that his dreams are of bringing people together and disregarding past bad blood. He never stops trying to achieve this dream, and he wants it to come true so badly that he is willing to let other people that he trusts rule Fodlan to work together with him to achieve it, shown in VW and even AM. That means a lot for someone like Claude, who is otherwise pretty slow to trust other people so deeply.

That's not someone who would use Leicester's bad history with Faerghus as fuel to violently invade it. That's not someone who would use Almyra's navy to make it look to Sreng like Faerghus tried to invade it. That's not someone who wants to conquer other nations and make his own come out on top. Those things describe Hopes!Claude, which 3H!Claude is not.

It's like. You know how some 3H's fans see 3H as "Edelgard, Dimitri, and the third guy that justifies my fave"? How a lot of people in 3H's fandom don't really see Claude as his own character with his own perspective and ideals and beliefs and morals that are unique to him, and only see him as a battering ram to try and knock down one of the other two lords? And so don't really care how he's characterized in other things (like fanfiction, fanart, meta, or in this case spinoff media) because they never really cared about him as his own character? But then get really, really, really defensive when you point out the flaws in their perception of him, saying that you're the one who never understood or liked Claude, because if you did you'd "realize" that he was always [insert vague, bland description that happens to prop up the lord they actually like]?

Yeah that's basically what's going on here. Most people who prefer Claude as their fave lord do not like Hopes!Claude, some of the loudest voices in the JPN Amazon reviews were of people who hated Hopes!Claude and were literally trying to warn Claude/GD fans away from Hopes as a game because of how awful their writing is, while nearly every Hopes!Claude fan that I've seen vastly prefers Edelgard as their fave lord and are - you guessed it! - very defensive when it comes to Claude fans venting their frustrations over Claude's shit-end-of-the-stick treatment he got in Hopes.

So like, yeah. It's less that people aren't directly computing that Claude's ambitions and character don't match how he's depicted in Hopes, but that they just don't care that it doesn't since 1) it justifies their fave and 2) they never really gave a shit about Claude anyway