#{ hc: the schemer; the dreamer

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i feel like almyra is in like the roughest more dire straits right now. like all their remaining allies? duscur, brigid, dagda? all fucked over by fodlan. how are they supposed to get the resources they need from fodlan? they arent even trying to conquer fodlan’s throat. theyre just throwing rocks at it and telling people to open the fuck up cuz they NEEEED SHIT. and yeah they proabably don’t like fodlan very much either because HELLO look what they DO to EVERYONE ELSE lol cyril probably makes claude’s heart break into itty bitty pieces

claude was never a spoiled prince. they were tough on him because they thought they had to be. they needed a warrior king. they got a schemer instead!!!! but there are a few parts of war that claude actually ‘likes.’ the stories, for one, he totally fanboys about history. and then the weapons. he’s so obsessed with weaponry. the fact that there’s no rock-paper-scissors in this game is a personal affront to claude’s sensibilities as a tactician. he loves weaponry and weapon maintenance so much he’s like obsessed with it imo lmao

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CLAUDE HC: humanity & the cynical idealist & tragic biracials

claude does believe in transactional affection / information and relationships. he’s a cynic by nature, with a chip on his shoulder---and he doesn’t very much like people who don’t like him and his people and the circumstances of his birth. he’s playing a long game---and i don’t think his people necessarily believe in him. this is a last-ditch effort to form ACTUAL trade bonds and allegiances with fodlan after his mother literally turned her back on her inheritance & the whole cruel world of it (for reasons that are both obvious and just. if only all women in fodlan could get away from its system of eugenics and misogyny).

claude doesn’t really believe that humanity is good as a default. children are just children, and they learn what they’re taught. he believes people are what they are raised to be---and he recognizes that fodlan will always have a bias against him. instead, his idealism comes from his belief that to be human is to be malleable and changeable, that every human can learn to grow & change & make great strides towards the future. humanity is a literal flower in a desert that must be tended to, whose thorns must be clipped, that needs to be watered and weeded and given JUST ENOUGH sunlight.

claude is angry, beneath the surface, and he’s hurt---the way any biracial is hurt when the white side of their family is racist towards them (i speak from experience, my white dad makes coronavirus jokes towards my mom), and claude’s had literal attempts on his life because of who and what he is. he’s grown around it, he’s learned from it for his own survival---but while that motivates him, it doesn’t make him stronger, it just fuels the fire in his heart to make humanity better the way he dreams it could be, in his idealist heart where he thinks humanity sucks ass, but could be so beautiful if everyone could learn to be better, the way he knows they can be with just a little push. but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still experience hurt. to say he just brushes it off is like. i don’t know. it feels weird to me, as if to invalidate the pain that comes with this specific brand of racism.

he HAS to use transactional conditional relationships for allegiances, he has to play chess games, he has to push his anger and his hurt down. i don’t think it makes him a ‘tragic biracial person’ that he has feelings about literal attempts on his life and the racist ideas that his own friends have against his people that he’s forced to spend time with every day (hilda and cyril). he’s half fodlan, and these people should accept them, they should let him have his birthright and their allegiance, but they wouldn’t let him if they knew where he really came from---and some people don’t want him to now, even assuming he ISN’T almyran. racism is real, and poc will always have feelings about the great tragedies that happen every day. he can be tragic and still have dreams, still keep people at an arm’s length to protect them and himself and WANT everyone to hold hands and be free to be who they are.

there are great moments of joy in claude’s life, even surrounded by people who hate him. and he believes that the growth of humanity through ending prejudice and war against his people isn’t just for him and people like him. it’s for his friends, who are missing out on the beautiful way of almyran life, and the beautiful way his parents love each other.

and just having tragedy in his past and not fitting into a fictional world that is divided by race, and admitting that he experiences both privilege (literally being able to come to fodlan and be the heir and pretend to be white bc he’s white-passing enough according to the game) and feelings of exclusion for not ‘fitting in’ bc he has a white mom and his people probably have feelings about her being born from the very nation that oppresses them on a global scale, bc that’s easy enough to extrapolate in the context of the game, doesn’t mean that he’s a ‘tragic biracial person.’ its like. just him being human that reacts in a human manner?

just. i don’t know! let him be hurt! let him have feelings! let him feel not enough part of one culture or the other and feel that is both his greatest asset in unifying them and also, something that makes him feel confused and enraged sometimes. let him be a human being that feels hurt!!!!! a lot of biracials (more white-passing ones especially) feel like they have to ‘pick a side’ when theyre young or theyre not genuinely one or the other and experience great discomfort because of it. thats a genuine experience and not like. something that can be boiled down to a harmful trope, if u give the biracial u are portraying the humanity and depth they deserve. claude is a complex character, and the way he percieves himself and his race and his two inheritances, which drives his whole character arc, can be complex as well, and still include pain and confusion about being biracial. ok end rant.

[charismastaticarchive]

CLAUDE HC: mommy issues

claude has issues with his mother! she was not affectionate with him. his dad was SUPER AFFECTIONATE with him, always roughhousing with him and ruffling his hair and picking him up and parading him around the palace. i picture his dad as a west asian zeus from disney’s hercules. just big and bold and loud with his affections, kind of goofy and easily excitable, but always so loving, always so proud. when he got angry at claude---which he hardly ever did, he just got quiet. disappointed more than angry. when claude revealed his plan to collect his inheritance and solidify an alliance between fodlan nations and almyra----his father got very quiet. his dad pretty much always reacted with enthusiasm---but then, there was nothing. just. if that was what claude had to do to be at peace with himself, if he thought it would work. then that’s what he has to do. he believes in his son---but it goes against some of his core values and the values of their people.

almyrans believe in transparency. they went to ‘war’ with leicester because they had to, the alliance wasn’t responding to their attempts to communicate, and in truth, they were pretty mad about what fodlan had done to their actual allies, basically stamping them off the map and like. stealing their kids like rhea does and not teaching them how to read or write or communicate. (almyrans are also very big on education, not just in war, which is obviously important, but also in language&ethics&their culture and the culture of their allies (tho some of this information is very outdated as the war between fodlan and the almyrans has been going on so long most almyrans haven’t been to dagda brigid or duscur in like thirty years)&as well as animal husbandry and artisan crafts.)

his mother was more secretive and sly. she pushed him harder than his dad did, because she didn’t want him to be soft. almyrans are more accepting than fodlan people are. claude was a transmasc kid, claude was biracial, part of her always knew he’d end up going back to fodlan, and that he’d need to be tough on himself to survive them. she pushed him away sometimes when she shouldn’t have. the truth was she didn’t know how to express love because as someone from fodlan, she’s only ever known real love (and not expectations that come from being the alliance heiress and being expected to have crest babies) from his father. she felt inadequate in raising their child compared to claude’s father. she retreated from the task often. claude asked so many questions and was so emotionally intuitive even as a child. she knew how to speak best through violence and she would never be truly violent with him. it was hard for her. she had come to almyra with the expectation she would never have children---and it just, kind of happened regardless. she wasn’t a bad mother---but she definitely wasn’t a perfect mother, and she often gave the duties of maternal comfort to servants and trainers instead of claude. and she never quite knew how to feel about him because of it.

all this to say, claude grew up craving her affection more, but also wanting to push her away just as much. he wanted to understand her, but also he felt rejected by her, because in his mind, every time she pushed him away or wouldn’t answer his questions, he was rejected by her. it was difficult for him. it still is. and yet, she seemed proud of him, and worried for him when he came to fodlan. which confused him more!

this is probably a large part of why claude appreciates secrets so much. he felt like in a way he was always in a chess match with his mom, always trying to trick her into giving him information about her past. and its probably why he finds himself more attracted TO people with secrets, people with mysterious pasts, people who don’t accept themselves, and have trauma. and, if he’s being honest, a part of the reason why he wants to fix fodlan is beyond trade agreements and the safety of people like him and dagdans and people of duscur and people of brigid. he also wants to help women like his mom not end up so fucked up and kind of broken. so they can lead more fulfilling lives, and be more chill with their kids.

he’s got a lot of motivations! lmao

[charismastaticarchive]

CLAUDE HC: LET ME KNOW THAT I’VE DONE WRONG / WHEN I’VE KNOWN THIS ALL ALONG. / I GO AROUND A TIME OR TWO. / JUST TO WASTE MY TIME WITH YOU. / TELL ME ALL THAT YOU’VE THROWN AWAY. / FIND OUT GAMES YOU DON’T WANT TO PLAY. / YOU ARE, THE ONLY ONE WHO NEEDS TO KNOW.

claude LOVES secrets. he makes this very apparent, all the time, and makes his love of secrets no secret. since everything with claude is a long con, a deliberate chess match of moving pieces forward while being as snarky and condescending towards all of fodlan (under the guise of charming, rogueish jabs at his ‘friendly rivals’), his love of secrets, and his desire to make said love known---is an important chess piece, a tool for manipulation and the self-degradation towards a casual aura that claude is so well known for.

this hc has two parts. ONE why does claude make  people THINK he loves secrets? how is that useful if he actually wants to uncover their secrets? wouldn’t that make people push their guard up even further?  and TWO. why does claude love secrets. does he REALLY love them, or are they just a tool he uses?

to begin with. there are a few things we know about claude for certain. they are the things he does not let ‘slip’ so much as tell with pointed accuracy because it suits his aims and goals in shocking his friends. he gives these secrets not freely---but as an exchange. he tells you something about his self that might have traumatized him, and u feel bad for him, bad enough that u decide to relate to him and tell him UR trauma, or bad enough that you pity him and feel closer to him.

 the things he tells about himself are things he does not SEEM to mind, because he tells these things just as freely as he talks about poisoning people with non-lethal poisons that can only give u food poisoning. this tells me two things: he tells half the story, and only the part of the story that doesn’t make him feel bad personally and that make him appear Different and Odd but also harmlesss. and the deeper issues at play when he talks about his past (namely, the attempts on his life, his warrior mother being vicious, him being dragged on the ground as he learned how to use a bow, how he wanted to wield byleth’s mountain shattering relic) DO bother him. 

the side of the story he’s telling is as simple as a non-lethal poison he wants to test out on a fellow student. but if you know how to make non-lethal poisons, it stands to reason u have better, ACTUALLY lethal poisons in ur arsenal. its a lot easier to kill people than to temper ur arrow and hit just the arrow in ur mouth. but he does so, and he does so in spades, literally all the time, to the point that no one ever really questions him or his intentions in even GATHERING secrets. so instead of people taking claude seriously as a manipulator----people see claude as a secret hound, that will always be obvious when he is being sneaky.

the reason claude makes it known he loves secrets----when people get tired of having their guard up all the time, they let it down, they get sloppy, they start to underestimate him as a hound instead of a true threat. then claude can hit them with genuine authenticity, and they open up as a FRIEND, even tho they dont know anything about claude really at all, and now? he knows JUST ENOUGH about them to hold it over their heads, to manipulate them further, and tbh, he’s already god enough at manipulating people in general just bc he’s got a good judge of character (though he does underestimate people, often), and is a cynical, analytical mind when it comes to patterns of behavior in humanity. and then? then people don’t view it as him ‘tricking’ their secrets out of them. they view it as opening up, as a cemented allegiance, and that’s worth a lot more---especially when claude NEEDS that before he can ever honestly open up to them.

so that brings us to part two. claude is only 17 at the start of the game, and he’s already had attempts on his life. if that’s what he’s TELLING US, if that’s what he WANTS US TO KNOW, then how much more horrible must it really be? he’s only 17 when he tells us this. he’s so fucking young. when did they start? how does he know about them? does he know anything about the people that attacked him? and then there’s the classic biracial kid story. his mom doesn’t look like any of the other moms. she’s tough and she’s strong and she doesn’t take any shit---but why does she look like that? and why won’t she say?

claude loves secrets, because, lets be real, he’s a prince from a fairy tale esque kingdom. there were secrets that were kept from him, secrets that were kept for a very long time, about who he really is, and why everyone seems to hate him so much that they’d try to kill him---but love him so much he still has people keeping him safe. you can see how claude, a genius and a prodigy at seventeen (so probably at least some time before then as well), would have a curious mind as a child, and want to know more information.... and therefore decide that, hey, knowledge is power. secrets are what connect you to other people. information and relationships are a currency that keep you safe and can also get you in trouble.

keep your secrets safe to your chest. dole them out when needed, exchange them when you have to, for sympathy, for love, for kindness, for allegiances. but learn everything you can about other people----not to the point they rule over you, but enough that that person needs you more than you need them.

secrets are EVERYTHING to claude. THEY’RE the real chess pieces. not just in his games of manipulation---but to his dreams, to his complete self-knowledge, to forging platonic and romantic relationships with other people (if he’ll ever let himself do that).

and the best lies aren’t lies at all. they’re half-truths. claude loves playing the game, more than he likes interacting with people in general, especially fodlan people, who he knows might try to kill him at a moment’s notice just for daring to be of almyran birth (and who have in the past). and while he hates that this system makes every drop of affection and connection he has feel transactional and also completely conditional---it makes more sense to him this way, makes PEOPLE make more sense to him, and the world make more sense. which is hard for him, because when u’ve been through some really, really terrible shit---sometimes it feels like there’s no way to come to terms with the awful things people have done to you, except to learn to live logically, and believe in a system that relies on you believing and knowing the worst about everyone all the time.

[charismastaticarchive]

there are a lot of little lines that are actually quite snarky with claude

like ‘hey teach! glad u could make it!’ when u show up late to the missions lol

[charismastaticarchive]

starting to replay fire emblem: three houses. gonna play golden deer for the first time!

notes on hcs so far:

claude is very outwardly resentful and bitter and absolutely pretentious and better-than-thou. he just frames it like its a joke and like its so ridiculous he would talk to anyone like this that he couldn’t POSSIBLY be saying that the prince & princess are both naive dumbasses who wouldnt possibly be able to rule if they dont get gud. he’s just SUGGESTING it. he’s not SAYING IT. but he’s challenging them, always, in every single way he can.

in other words, he’s... extremely passive aggressive.

i don’t even think he was running away in the opening scene. i think he was just trying to get rid of the knights of seiros---so he could show edelgard&dimitri the power of almyran training is way more intense than whatever their countries put them through. 

edelgard---realizes it isn’t a joke, bc she doesnt think its very funny or doesnt realize it was supposed to be read as a joke in the first place

dimitri---doesn’t realize it’s not a joke, and is made extremely uncomfortable by these jokes about the future when he can’t see himself having a future at all

#fun things

[charismastaticarchive]

claude handing over his hero’s relic is honestly a bit of an insult to whoever he hands it over to. because its like ‘i dont WANT it. i dont want to be part of your whole FUCKED UP EUGENICS RACISM SIMULATOR. u have it. u use it and turn into a fucking monster, asshole. get out of my face. i’m going HOME.’ lmao. thats really how i see it. obviously he handles it more maturely and subtly. but like. thats really what i feel like he feels like in the part of his soul he allows to be angry for rejecting him like it has. 

all his life he was told he was DIFFERENT for wanting to be diplomatic, for wanting to give fodlan a chance even tho his people know firsthand what leeches fodlan and all their customs are on the world. people wanted to kill him for just existing. i imagine it was both leciester AND almyrans. and yet. claude had a crest. he felt made to be a part of fodlan’s fucked up world. 

he felt that he could, perhaps, even wield the HERO OF LIBERATION’S sword. that’s so symbolic. he wanted to liberate his people, on both sides, both his mother’s---who obviously suffered as any heir of reigan would, she would’ve been forced to have crest babies etc. when she was in fact a fierce warrior queen---and his father’s people who have been just trying to live and reclaim their trade relationships with the rest of the world that has seemed to abandon them or be wiped off the face of the planet. he wants FREEDOM. for himself. for everyone. 

he wants to do it the right way, the just way, and yeah, he can be a bit of a war opportunist---because that’s the only way his dream can canonly come to fruition and he can mess up this fucked up world----but he also had such a genuinely good plan, and such genuinely good goals, and in the end, fodlan and the leicester alliance and all their nobles are just too rotten for his attempts at diplomacy, too pigheaded to actually listen to him, and they all fall, and the leciester alliance is no more, so who gives a shit about the relic!!!! and his only chance at his true dream of freedom for everyone!!! fuck all these bitches!!!! claude OUT....

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claude hc:

claude & fascade of civility ; claude & hilda

i don’t hc that claude had a rougher life than any other almyran child. i don’t think that he has a traumatic backstory on a PERSONAL level like edelgard&dimitri. yes, he experienced harsh war training that all the almyrans do. yes, his mother was a strict&brash woman, and yes his father roughhoused with him. but his trauma is generational & systematic, and no less important.

the almyrans are a people focused on war & strength, with no resources of their own save the precious jewels of their mines---but they have no one to trade it with, save their relations with dagda, duscur, and brigid---which are now ruled by an empire they can no longer get to. they focus on trying to ‘invade’ fodlan---to break down the barriers between them by fighting for the rights of their old allies---but they cannot get past fodlan’s throat, and the people that do---are captured, like cyril, their children not even told how to read and write as they are forcibly ‘adopted’ and not taught anything of their own culture.

their ‘invasion’ is one of justice for their people, and yes it is ruled by strength that can sometimes be brutal----but there ARE those among their ranks that believe in intellectualism despite the culture of strength. claude is one of those people---and he, along with some oc mentors, plotted for him to use his intellectualism and his birthright as part of the fodlan elite---to seek justice & equality in a foreign place that was just as much his home as almyra, if not, in claude’s head, (as a biracial child who was bullied for his femininity and his parentage) one more filled with potential as a home, a world he knew mostly from his fantasies and almost blank slate, where anything could happen and he could be ANYONE.

the ‘claude’ that we know is a carefully fabricated personality. he chooses to be humble (instead of self-conscious), he chooses to be silly (instead of self-righteous and justice-seeking), he chooses to be kind&friendly (instead of self-righteous and vengeful). he portrays a kind face, a friendly face, a humble face, and in the case of the most powerful characters in the game (dimitri, edelgard, byleth, and HILDA the most important), he is outright charming, harmlessly flirtatious in a boyish, innocent and silly way.

this is a ruse. it comes from a genuine place of love---claude has a deep love of all people, he thinks humanity is so funny and brilliant, so full of ideas and passion, and he especially loves seeing EXCEPTIONAL, passionate people, and bringing uniquness and love and passion out of them. but he has so many more complicated feelings than that. he’s not just a nice, popular, friendly guy. he has his own opinions that he knows that he has to dole out in small bits to educate the most elite of fodlan, in an attempt to change the system from within, by becoming everyone’s friends, and ruling the alliance in a way that benefits almyra.

but claude, in the beginning of the game. has every fucking reason to hate EVERYONE at this school besides petra, shamir, and dedue, and a part of him... really does. hilda especially. she never mentions almyra to him---but if she did, his blood would boil. it’s for this reason he carefully maintains the fascade, becomes her ‘dear old claude’ a person she can trust and rely on, be flirtatious with, even enter a relationship with. and slowly he comes to really care about her.

claude has felt, his whole life, that he had to pick facets of his personality to ‘show’ the world. he’s smart, and he’s well-read, and he knows there’s not really such ‘thing’ as one state of the self. we’re just what people think of us, we’re just what we do, our kindness, our love, the joy and the knowledge we spread.

as such, he’s able to work the system within. he doesn’t really know who he is---if he’s the almyran prince, or the riegen heir, and he only becomes both through his own route and being able to actually learn his own abilities and how far he can go when someone (that someone being byleth) genuinely supports and loves him as a friend, which he’s probably never had before in his life.

eventually, the golden deer do become the found family and friends he’s always wanted---that support him unconditionally, that love him as the almyran children just really didn’t through no fault of their own. (obviously it’s never okay to bully anyone, but after everything the alliance in particular had done to their families, how could they trust a prince that was half alliance-born?). but it’s not as easy as the game makes it appear. it’s very stressful for claude in addition to that. but the golden deer make it easier, they’re genuinely kind to him too, and they really prove to claude that humanity really is special despite borders and countries and nations. (hilda in particular, and her loyalty, grow on him immensely. and he really does think she is h*t as fuck lmfao)

[charismastaticarchive]

@valorwilled​​ : [ 🤗 Pull my muse into a hug (NON-VERBAL RP STARTERS) ] 🤗pai @ claude ( on non VW route maybe? :O )

claude is not like other boys. that doesn’t matter to his parents---because they would’ve raised him the same way regardless: weapons in his hands instead of toys; dragged through the scorching sands of the desert to be taught the bow he so treasured; a special ceremony at nine in which he would be left in the woods without food or water to survive all on his own, so that he could pick which dragon of the almyran royalty’s ancestral stock he would ride into battle one day (and how telling, that he would pick an alabaster wyvern, the same color as The Scholar King---who was also known for their greatest military defeats, though many instead chose to see it as him picking a wyvern with the same color of its scales as his unpopular, foreigner Mother’s pale skin).

almyra doesn’t care about what’s in your trousers, the gender or the name you call yourself; it cares about strength&passion, confidence&might. the same as their dragons, almyra wishes for all people to be free as a wyvern in the air, claws outstretched, far above the heat of the desert sun, clouds wet on your back. as it stands, almyra has many genders and names to call yourself, so many more than the church of seiros could even fathom, so many holy to them, warriors without genders, warriors between genders, people who lived and died to identify with the moon & the sun instead of manhood or womanhood at all.

it would make more sense then, to say that claude was instead not like other children, who worshipped almyra, who loved his father, who bent over backwards to uphold storied traditions of ‘might makes right’ & ‘justice means violence’ & who lived and dreamed to die for their country (and for their country’s allies, subjugated by the empire, faerghus, and even the alliance from which his mother hailed). it made sense that claude was bullied by other children, for being ‘soft’ and preferring books and bows to training and blood. but that did not bother claude so much, in truth---as he was just as ‘bullied’ by his warrior queen mother, and his boisterous father, always mid-laugh as he tussled claude’s hair too hard and punched his shoulders far too often ‘playfully.’

no. claude knows not being like other children wouldn’t have mattered in the end, that his people were not a monolith, that there were enclaves of intellectuals who still believed in a dragon’s freedom, secret societies that helped his father strategize and speak with vigor & wit he did not always seem to possess on his own.

the problem laid with fodlan---and his mother, and his heritage. half his birthright, the church, things almyran children were not allowed to know about except in secret libraries, hidden away to most. his mother thought he should at least learn about fodlan, learn why she had chosen almyra instead. thought it would make him understand.

after reading so much, spending night upon night with his eyes glued to parchment---claude could see, with certainty.... his mother would always choose to run away to almyra. she was better suited for this country than even claude, himself, and perhaps even his father. but claude? he had already made his mind up long ago. 

he would fix the problems of fodlan from within. he would use all his power and free his people---duscur, brigid, dagda---from tyranny. but also, in his heart of hearts, as every ‘outsider’ child does---who does not fit in in their home, or anywhere---he thought perhaps he could make a new world, where he would be accepted, where he could feel whole, and chosen, instead of settled for.

that was a long time ago. it feels like a lifetime ago---just since he picked up the name ‘claude von riegan’ since he found the golden deer and led them in battle, became friends with them, tried his best to ‘change fodlan’ from within.

but it wasn’t enough. and the worst part? it wasn’t like it almyra, where he wasn’t enough because he wasn’t strong enough, or tough enough, or almyran enough. no. no one in fodlan even knew he was half almyran, though he assumed some suspected, and that made his attempts at helping them even harder.

he was known his whole life, despite his ‘faults,’ for being smart, for having the answers, for playing mind games and politics. hell, he had even written a few of his father’s choicest speeches, giving him much needed military advice, when he could.

he wasn’t good enough for fodlan, and he wasn’t, because he wasn’t good enough at being himself. his only strengths weren’t enough. he wasn’t enough. he could never have done this. fodlan was too much for any one person to change alone.

and now he would have to give up his dream of creating a place where everyone could be completely themself, after realizing he wasn’t enough as a human being to do so---to one of the most irritating people he had ever met in his life.

all he could do as he handed over his birthright---the symbol of his dreams, the same alabaster bone as his wyvern’s horns---was look at his teacher with a kicked puppydog expression. he could never really lie to paimonia. they had always seen right through the fascade of friendliness and humility. that’s why they picked dimitri, right? because claude wasn’t good enough? 

as always, paimonia... surprises him. and wraps their arms around him, tight, and full, and yet still so cold, as if all their blood is caught in their throat.

he pulls up his hands. balls them into fists---a show of strength. hand to hand combat was so important to his father and mother, and they would never concede defeat---and then his expression softens even further as his brow bends and warps like the thread of a child’s bow. he holds paimonia to his chest, perhaps too long for any of fodlan, definitely too long for the soft-hearted, awkward dimitri to stare at as he does.

but almyrans believe in passion, and they believe in love, affection dealt out just as brutally as pain. and he has never needed to be held so much than in this moment. he does not know when he will let someone hug him like this in the near future, so close is he to tears, eyes wet as the sea salt air behind them. he pulls away, and thanks them both.

this isn’t goodbye forever, he reminds himself. his people will see to it, if he is still made their king after such a defeat. he’ll be called the second coming of the scholar king, but if they accept him---he’ll be back again some day, with an army at his shoulders, and no plan on his mind except to do as his people will with this unforgiving continent, that does at it will with dreams & the outsiders that bear them ever closer to their chest. as claude turns his back, he feels it burn beneath his clothes, as if he is once again being dragged away in the coarse, scorching sand. the shame stings and aches, like a blister. when he gets home he’ll pop it and let it infect with guilt&anger at himself, a wound so blank and white he’ll be able to salt&burn the fodlan soil.

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claude hc:

fodlan/birthright/other routes

when claude comes to fodlan, it is half a matter of pride. his mother is heir to house reigen, the leader of the leicester alliance. but she gave up that life. she didn’t want it. she wanted to be a fierce warrior queen alongside her husband, the almyran king---and while claude was given an seiros name that she was always fond of, the same way many asian children have names from their own culture and then an ‘american’/christian name---she lived her life according to almyran traditions, and did not make waves. it seemed often, in fact, that his mother fit into the life of almyra better than claude himself did, despite being born there. he never felt like he fit in.

when he hatched a plan to overtake the leicester alliance using his birthright---it was partially a test. of fodlan, for one thing. he wanted to see if they were really as bigoted and awful as everyone in his country always spoke of. but also, he wanted to see if this was the place he really belonged. a place he could change---unlike what every almyran ever told him. if this was place he could make his true home (EVERYONE’S home, if his plan worked) after all the bullying that he had experienced in his homeland.

claude says often u can choose to drop the burden off your back and not let it affect you. characters with similar views on this (lindhart) are told they are really running away from the real problem. but i don’t think claude really does let his perception of himself be entirely untouched by the people he’s known. he’s not as confident with himself as he lets on. he constantly thinks people are making fun of him, and he’s not confident in himself, always prepared to be insulted and play the fool because of it (so that people will underestimate him and open up to him).

and because he is not entirely unaffected by people, and always looking for that place where he belongs, i think that when he is defeated by the empire, especially in blue lions route, where the emperor never takes him on directly, it’s a blow to his self esteem. he feels like he was wrong to come here. that this was never a place he could call home. that he wasn’t good enough to hack it---as a tactician, as a leader, or as a person.

the truth is, claude goes with the flow rather easily. people talk about how smart he is, and he is, but he gets bogged down by public perception and backdoor politics, especially in the blue lions route, so much that he cannot be an effective leader. claude would never have declared war on the rest of fodlan on his own---but the harsh reality is, for any social change in fodlan to happen, claude needs a war like edelgard’s to take place so the power dynamic in fodlan can shift and make room for him. he needs edelgard, and her violent methods---just like he needs dimitri, and his soft heart.

but if he leaves fodlan, he is essentially giving up on finding a place where he belongs. and he’s giving up on his friends too, and everyone who ever complimented him ‘falsely’---and their belief in him. his dream dies in the process lol.

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claude hc:

claude’s favorite seasonal flavor is spiced apple cider. he will drink it and drink it and drink it until his stomach hurts. NO fall feast is complete without it!!!

in general, claude is a very seasonal guy. he loves holidays and celebrations even if he doesn’t celebrate them himself, and the coming of new seasons is very exciting for him always. because of this, he dresses for the calender and not the weather just to have FUN with it. scarves come out october 1st even if its 80 degrees (f) out (he’s used to hot weather anyway), and the shorts and sandals come out march 1st even if its only 50 degrees (f) out. he wears seasonal perfumes he makes himself---peppermint and pine in winter, pumpkin spice and apple in fall, lavender and green tea in spring, marshmellow and campfire in summer.

he likes planning all kinds of seasonal events for his friends---from haunted houses and costume contest to summer campouts/cookouts, to applepicking and pumpkin carving, to stargazing on various cosmologically significant dates. all his scheming is put to good use, and people from other houses are always invited to the party, a great chance for the borders of fodlan to fall and people to just have fun together!

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claude hc

almyra rambling

almyra’s got four main ideals. JUSTICE. FREEDOM. STRENGTH. AND PASSION. wyverns are sort of the ideals in which they live their life to. in communication, they mostly believe in HONESTY&being upfront about ur feelings and ideals. they are actually proponents of like, never lying about ur intentions or ur strategy, ESPECIALLY in war because they believe it to be unethical, and they REALLY care about justice. (they’re similar to edelgard in this respect and that’s part of the reason that claude really admires her, in additon to her being an exceptional person and claude really liking Exceptional People with secrets.)

they are mostly communist and function on a bartering for what is needed (or getting it from the the royal family that controls their army and resources).

the climate is mostly desert with their major cities surrounding large oasises where they are able to produce the vegetables & grains they need. they have access to mines with lots of gold and jewels---but as they are communist, they have only ever really used these things for artisinal purposes, and to trade with other countries.

almyra has always hated the church of seiros, as it constricts freedom, and they are Not About The Crest System at all, as they have like. complete and total gender equality (including trans genders, which they have many of, and most are assumed holy in their own religion). they love strong women and have had many queens (lgbt and otherwise) that are admired in their history.

interestingly enough, however, the almyrans religion of believing wyverns are holy guardians of mankind&the almyran ideals parallels sothis/etc being dragons lol. they actually do believe that dragons created the world as well but they believe the wyverns and humankind are their children lol.

the almyran royalty are seen as The Voice of the wyverns, which is why they’re most fit to rule. they have many traditions surrounding wyverns, most children get a wyvern when they come of age, but claude as a crown prince had to go through a ceremony when he was 11 in which he was left in the desert naked without food or water and had to find a dragon in the desert. he found his alabaster wyvern and the rest is history. (the almyran royalty can also sort of kind of talk to/hear wyverns also. why is this? WE JUST DON’T KNOW.)

alabaster dragons are very special in their history. one upon a time, there was a king called ‘the scholar king’ who tried to change the way almyra was ruled. he had a white wyvern and tried to go against tradition/war, but obviously that didn’t work out for him. while he made great progress in diplomacy/trade with the nations of duscur, brigid, and dagda, he was reviled by the empire, and that was when fodlan’s throat locked on him. but he had many followers becoming kind of a cultlike figure? so there’s now a secret society of scholars called the alabaster wyverns. these people actually approached claude when he found his own wyvern with albinism and he’s been in contact with them ever since & they’ve helped him learn strategy and about fodlan and the like tho he’s done much of it on his own. they are also the main supporters of him coming to fodlan, it’s actually a big scandal within the rest of almyra lol (because it’s not super ethical in their eyes to be lying like this!!!! that’s a WAR CRIME don’t be as BAD AS THEY ARE CLAUDE - the almyrans probably).

in addition to to the secret society, there are other sects of almyran culture divided into functionality. the most powerful sect of almyran culture is obviously the warriors, but the artisinal sector is also very respected because almyrans are really romantics&strongly family/friend-prone at heart. 

almyrans really care about giving gifts to each other, and obviously when there are jewels like everywhere nobody wants to just give each other a jewel. they like finding very special things for each other in markets. 

in fact, the artisinal class started because a king wanted to give his husband a special gift. he held a special contest for the miners to see who could create the most lovely gift for his husband---and no one was able to meet the king’s expectations of what was lovely enough for his husband for seventy years. when the the king finally saw a perfect, tiny earring, made of a wyvern’s horn----he immediately granted that miner a boon, and the miner had fallen so in love with creating lovely things, that he said that he just wanted their people to continue making things for the king&his consort forever. the king granted his request & created the artisan class as like, a real job with a government subsidy (so that these people would no longer have to work in the mines), and he gave the earring to his king consort. ever since lgbt almyrans would wear just one earring in the spirit of their love.

or at least that’s how the story goes! but claude loves that story and holds it close to his chest as like. an example of how his people don’t JUST care about war, they care about CREATIVITY and uniqueness and LOVE. claude really believes in love tbh lol

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claude hc:

favorite/least favorite students from other houses

in black eagles, his favorite AND his least favorite is hubert. they both acknowledge each other’s adeptness as schemes, but he hates that hubert uses his schemes to hurt people instead of to minimize unnecessary casualties. following that, his other favorites are petra, dorothea, caspar (who is HILARIOUS), and lindhart (and while he’s of the same mind as edelgard and hubert, that he’s wasting his talent, he can appreciate the need to rest and take a nap sometimes, and he thinks he’s funny in his own way). his other least favorite is, of course, ferninand, but he will admit that ferninand is easy on the eyes, despite how annoying he is.

in blue lions, his favorite is easily dedue, who he relates to, and genuinely wants to help, just like dimitri. he doesn’t think what’s happened to duscur is fair in the slightest---in fact, he considers faerghus rather disgusting for what they’ve done. besides dedue, he’s a BIG fan of mercedes despite her predisposition for the church bc she’s funny and cute and nice, and of course lil ashe. he thinks felix is kinda annoying and not-so-fun to mess with bc he doesn’t really put up with it, sylvain is a waste of scheming talent and also GROSS we respect WOMEN IN THIS (golden deer) HOUSE, and ingrid is.... problematique and her views on duscur go against everything he has ever believed in so.

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claude hc:

CLAUDE HAS!!! FRECKLES!!!! all over his nose. that is all

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claude hc:

wyvern

claude’s wyvern’s name is Shahrazad if you’re on the golden deer route (meaning: ‘free city’) or Shahnaz (meaning: ‘pride of the king’) if you’re on any other route, reflecting on the fact that he doesn’t really believe that he can free fodlan without byleth on his side, lol. she’s a beautiful lady wyvern, and she likes eating sugar cubes from claude’s hands. claude likes brushing her scales, though she is very sensitive and doesn’t like this nearly as much as getting treats, though she does appreciate the brushing around her horns as she seems quite proud of their appearance. claude and her are flawless teammates, and every time u miss claude in battle--it’s half due to his own power, and half to his lovely lady’s. HE LOVES HER SO MUCH.

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claude hc:

flirting

claude enjoys flirting with people, but mainly uses it as a distraction tactic. his flirting is always of the teasing variety, he’s never one to really come out and say what he feels about love unless the bond is extremely deep and built on trust and friendship and loyalty. he’s always more likely to make friends/allies out of someone than form a relationship with them---and by the time the timeskip rolls around, he’s never had a real relationship before that ever went farther than calling girls (and boys) pretty in jest.

claude finds it difficult to be genuine with people, and he knows that’s not a good start for a relationship. he wants a relationship like his parents had---something he’s willing to work for and even change his whole life for, even emotionally so, by opening up and communicating honestly.

when someone flirts with him first (which is rare), he’s quick to turn the tables on them or turn it into some sort of platonic compliment-fest that starts to seem like he wants something from the other person. the truth is he wants the same thing he wants from anyone---an ally who he can trust to help him make his dreams come true, even if he doesn’t let them know what that dream is for years to come.

it’s almost impossible to get claude to blush, though. not unless instead of flirting with him, you’re open and honest yourself and bare your secrets. he views such displays of putting yourself out there as incredibly romantic.