#✧﹙headcanon.﹚❛ 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐮𝐩.

[goldguile]

bp posted a modern verse for dimitri so i guess i gotta slam dunk one down for claude

goes by his real name kian in this verse; his life is not in any danger if his identity is exposed, so he isn’t hiding it. 

grandfather oswald heavily disapproved of his mother’s relationship with hasan, she didn’t care and in this verse married him anyways. the pair moved to almyra, where kian (and potentially twin brother elyar, depending on the verse) was conceived, born, and raised bilingually. while he was met with some prejudice growing up, it wasn’t nearly to the extent that he suffers in canon. 

he moves to fodlan to live with grandpa for college, taking forever to decide on a major and constantly switching, and eventually decides that he wants to pursue teaching. enriching young minds to build a better tomorrow is important to him, after all.

grandpa is awful and racist as hell, though, so after working as many odd jobs and volunteering as much as he can to amass the money and connections he moves out into his own small apartment. he allows his younger cousins cateline and amelia to visit whenever they want, but avoids his grandfather.

one of these volunteering gigs was at an animal shelter, and at the end he adopted a burnese mountain dog puppy named lear. lear is his precious baby and spoiled absolutely rotten. 

much like his twin, kian teaches history and social studies at the same high school. he’s as protective as his students as elyar is of his, and they find it incredibly hilarious that they ended up doing the same thing in the same place-- and take advantage of it at times for harmless shenanigans. he has little faith in the student resources team, and does his best to be a safe space and good authority figure for his students.

[goldguile]

in verses where claumitri is endgame, claude refuses to bear the brunt of healing dimitri’s psyche and emotional trauma by himself. he wants to be there for him and be as supportive as possible, yes. dimitri is always welcome to talk to him when he is upset or in need. but claude is well aware he can’t fix all of dimitri’s problems-- he’s not a professional, he’s not emotionally equipped to DEAL with all of that. he is not obligated to, and he will not let dimitri take advantage of the kindness he shows him in trying to help, either.

during the war? sure, if this is what keeps dimitri stable, fine. but after that he intends to set dimitri up with a therapist and take much more of a supportive role in his recovery than an active one. if dimitri refuses to make the effort, then they simply do not have a future together. he will not budge on this.

he loves him and wants him in his life, but he’s not about to throw his whole life away and become dimitri’s caretaker. 

[goldguile]

you know, i’ve been thinking about cindered shadows’ setup again and i was wondering what was going on before claude noticed the shady guy headed into abyss and they all followed-- i mean, how often do you actually see the house leaders together in-game?

and what i’ve come up with to explain it is as follows:

a few times a month (at least twice, perhaps weekly), the house leaders of the black eagles, blue lions, and golden deer come together to hold meetings supervised by one of the professors at the academy. they discuss current events in the school, improving academly life, potential extracirricular events, monthly missions and funding for each class... essentially, they’re the student council. the house leaders have extra responsibilities related to ensuring what they discuss with regards to school improvements in each meeting comes to pass, which is why they are often let out of doing more common chores like kitchen duty or dishes. 

in addition to acting as the student council of the school, this also teaches the house leaders -- always nobles or the next emperor/king or queen/sovereign duke or duchess of each respective country -- diplomacy and how to interact with each other once they ascend their thrones or take on their positions. because they know each other and how to work together, they uphold peace. 

cindered shadows opens with one of such meetings having concluded, it being byleth’s turn to oversee the meeting rather than hanneman or manuela. it being late, they were returning to the dormitories for the night when claude spotted the shady guy then chose to follow him.

[goldguile]

okay here we go uwu 

claude’s mama and uncle, school age. 

godfrey doesn’t really need an adult design, but i do imagine him gaining some form of facial hair? an older helena design can come later but my hand is starting to cramp, so have some riegans

[goldguile]

as you can see my pen pressure is starting to fight with me so have a school age godfrey (and helena!) wip....

lately all i can draw without getting frustrated is chibis and that’s. mildly annoying. but it’s fine.

[goldguile]

a small thought dump on godfrey von riegan: 

an earnest, determined young man who wants nothing more to fix his father’s mistakes and redeem house riegan. he’s a diplomat at heart, prioritizing making peace and solving problems above all else, but he should not be underestimated because of that-- much like his nephew, he’s very talented at scheming and working around people. 

the blue oni to his younger sister’s red oni, and very protective of her in certain circumstances; he knows she can take care of herself for the most part. this traces back to always being the one to get helena out of scrapes and arguments with their father when they were young, and it was his persuasion that allowed her to attend the officers academy alongside him. 

major crest of riegan sits proudly on his right hand, and he has his sister’s and nephew’s bright green eyes. 

an archer who wears glasses much like iggy, and i’m totally taking inspiration for his uniform from this edelgard art. he also has a talent in swords and riding, but a weakness in axes and heavy armour. he also has a budding talent in reason and would have the wind spells if he pursued it.

had a minor crush on the black eagles house leader of the year, but whether anything came of it is up for debate. he fell deeply in love with his eventual wife hermia, and was a very proud and loving father to amelia... even if she was born crestless.

initially didn’t really like lambert, finding his frat boy tendencies and enabling by rodrigue... rather annoying? once lambert begins dating helena and cleans up his act, godfrey’s opinion changes for the better.

a huge fan of the arts! a huge huge huge supporter of creators! ... this led to his downfall, as that love of art was exploited by count gloucester to lure him into a trap. 

[goldguile]

trying to figure out what exactly each noble house with voting power will task the church/riegan+goneril forces with doing to earn their support in the verdant wind rewrite... and which order they’ll be done in...

so far i’m thinking it’ll go edmund -> ordelia -> gloucester, with judith’s forces showing up after you help margrave edmund? 

margrave edmund: requests assistance in ridding his ports of pirates, who are using the fear and uncertainty of war to plunder and steal from incoming ships brave enough to engage in trade. upon ridding his territory of the seafarers, margrave edmund offers his support-- not in troops as they need to continue protecting edmund territory, but in resources.

lord ordelia: probably agrees to lend their aid pretty quickly thanks to lysithea, possibly with byleth showing up to the meeting too-- especially now that houses daphnel, edmund, and goneril are all backing the riegans on top of having the church of seiros’ support. the chapter conflict comes in their return from ordelia territory-- house gloucester, supporting the empire and possibly having help from those who slither in the dark, sends a group of demonic beasts to intercept the army and hopefully take out claude (and the rest of them, but shhh.)

count gloucester: this is straight up just a fight. even with lorenz present the alliance-church forces have to battle their way into count gloucester’s territory and defeat him in combat. from there, lorenz finally convinces his father that they have the strength to combat the empire and that they should turn against edelgard.

from there, claude will officially invite the almyrans into the army. it’s earlier than when he does it in-game, yeah, but that’s the point-- he wants the people of fodlan and the people of almyra to start interacting faster and sooner; to start forming bonds and realizing they have more similarities than they think-- it’s rough at first and the alliance is like what the fuck, claude, but hey: the gonerils allowed it. and even with everyone’s forces combined with the church he doesn’t think they have enough firepower to actually make a dent in el’s forces. with the king of almyra offering his support, they do. 

so the almyrans help them take the bridge, and while they may not participate in the gronder bloodbath they’re around for it. they definitely help take fort merceus, enbarr, and enbarr castle... and may stick around for shambhala, but by the time nemesis crops up they have definitely left for almyra again.

speaking of the gronder bloodbath, i’ve reworked things slightly wrt dimitri’s offscreen death: 

if you target edelgard’s forces and defeat her before fighting dimitri, he will survive the battle and be brought back to garreg mach for treatment, as he’s in critical condition. he will remain in the infirmary for the rest of the game undergoing healing. dedue will join your party, and any unrecruited, surviving blue lions who were on gronder field will become npcs around garreg mach.

he will not gain possession of the continent of fodlan despite his survival, being deemed too unstable and traumatized to enact the reformation the continent greatly needs. like in canon, byleth will become the ruler. his psychosis will be treated and he will eventually stabilize-- at which point if he wants to help with governing the new fodlan he can, but he’s also free to pursue his own life. he will play a major role in the battle with those who slither in the dark when they resurface.

if you target dimitri’s forces and take him out before you defeat edelgard, a scene would play in which dimitri clashes with imperial forces to try and get at el. they duel, and edelgard comes out on top, expressing some form of regret that things had to turn out this way or commenting on his obsession with revenge upon her before killing him. dedue will still join your party in order to avenge dimitri, but you will not get the surviving blue lions as npcs around the monastery.

[goldguile]

@ofostia​ sent...  how does claude assess a person? that sounds like an odd question, but for someone like him, i imagine he picks particular traits to form some sort of basic opinion. is that a wrong assumption? ( prompts. )

oh it’s not odd at all, it’s a very interesting question! thanks so much for asking! 

claude assesses people slightly differently depending on whether he knows anything about them or not upon meeting them-- his assessing of say, lorenz, heir to house gloucester, was different from his assessment of leonie, commoner hunter and mercenary in training from sauin village.

when claude has information about the person in question, he will keep it in mind throughout the interaction, checking it against the impression he’s getting from them. from there, he starts to form his opinion. he also considers things like their family’s standing and relation to house riegan (or the shirazis, if he’s in almyra), potential end goals they might have in opening a dialogue with him, their skills in combat (ie; whether he’s heard they’re a swordsman, mage, etc.)... he also thinks about what he might get out of a potential camaraderie and ensures he’s carrying himself the correct way to maximize the chances of doing just that. 

when he knows very little (ie; he knows dimitri is the crown prince of faerghus, but nothing else) or nothing at all, he’s actually more guarded than he would be going in with information at his disposal. he feigns a genuine interest in connecting with the person, asking questions and familiarizing himself so he has some form of reference to fall back on in future interactions-- from there, it’s more or less the same as before. it takes him a little longer to form concrete opinions on a person if he’s meeting them for the first time, as he’ll want to observe them for longer.

to claude, knowledge is power. the more he knows about people, the better he can plan for and around them and keep himself safe. the more he knows about them, the better he can exact revenge or escape if he was wronged or threatened. he wants to make friends, but thanks to his childhood in almyra he doubts people would want to be friends with “the outsider” for more than just the chance to cozy up to the riegan heir-- either to stab him in the back and get him out of the way or use his status and influence to their own ends. it’s better to treat people the same way and act in his own best interest, as far as he’s concerned.

the longer he spends around the golden deer however, the more that mindset changes, and slowly as the school year goes on he opens his heart to his classmates-- and any friends he makes outside the deer, though only his direct classmates (or an outer-house significant other pre-skip) earn his genuine, unyielding trust.

in short, he thinks about a lot when he’s meeting someone, and tends to adjust his interactions with them in the best way to keep himself alive, further his goals, and not cause a scandal to his house (...where possible, anyways). i hope this makes sense? i don’t know if i articulated this as well as i wanted to... but i sure tried! ;w;

[goldguile]

me, laughing because claude's mom actually wouldn't like balthus.... she'd be happy to see him and see how he's grown but after hearing how he makes her son uncomfortable and seeing him do nothing but booze and sleep around? nnnnnnnope.

[goldguile]

🌺 𝐩𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 🌺Today at 11:36 AM

so anyways prepare to be decked if you ever call her tiana, lambert

Kitty Today at 11:38 AM

Just give him a headsup when they meet

🌺 𝐩𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 🌺Today at 11:38 AM

well yes, that's his one freebie

if they've never met he wouldn't know

tiana is her father's perfect doll, meant to be sold off into some noble family to keep their influence. helena is the living, breathing woman oswald (because yeah, they named him too) refuses to acknowledge.

[goldguile]

side note claude mentions his mother is married in the a support... time to go full canon divergent and say he’s lying there to make balthus shut up- his mother, after almost being sold off to a noble house’s heir as thanks for “keeping house riegan’s pride intact” -is very uncomfortable with the idea of marriage. she’s devoted to king hasan, but they are not married. he respects her too much to force her into a label she doesn’t want. commitment is more important than ceremony.

[goldguile]

okay. so. teensy revision on my thoughts about claude and magic, heavily based off this post!

once again i am mostly ignoring his actual magic growth for this, as that’s an arbitrary limit put in place for the sake of Video Game and i firmly believe that in-universe anyone who wanted to put the time and effort into learning could excel at magic. 

claude’s magical potential is actually pretty high! if he applied himself to it and put in the work he could make a pretty decent mage; he learns the full line of wind magic alongside sagittae-- out of himself, edelgard, and dimitri he is the only one who masters the third tier from his branch of anima magic. ( granted, el also gets dark magic and dimitri has fucking aura ) 

he also learns silence, a type of support faith magic, where el and dimitri once again learn offense-oriented faith magic. 

i do headcanon this potential is actually something he inherited from the riegan side of the family as opposed to the shirazis! while riegan himself was not a mage by any means ( he was a bow knight, obviously ), a wind mage married into house riegan some generations ago and her descendants with magical aptitude have had an affinity for wind magic ever since. i’m strongly considering having claude’s mother capitalize on this by making her a trickster, but that can wait until i see how yuri and the trickster class play. similarly, i am strongly considering dark flier for his cousin amelia when she grows old enough to attend garreg mach. (otherwise, i’m locking her into pegasus knight with a bow.)

all in all, if the boy wanted to put the work in, he could definitely go far with magic... but here’s the thing: he doesn’t want to.

claude is interested in magic from a theoretical point of view, not a practical one. he’s interested in how magic works and how energy is weaved into the elements to produce the intended effect. the better he understands the ins and outs and limitations of magic, the better he can find ways to use it to improve his people’s quality of life when he ascends the throne. he’s not interested in combat magic at all, which is what is taught at garreg mach because... military academy. he learned wind and heal for the sake of his classes with the help of brail, but aside from those two spells he’s content just studying the theory. 

this is in large part because in almyra, magic doesn’t see a lot of use in combat; it’s much more geared to use in daily life. oh, there are mages in the army, definitely, but they’re much rarer and see use in much more specialized situations like clearing rubble or indoor battles where a wyvern or a horse might not fit-- and there are limitations on the type of magic you can bring into battle; for example, you will never see an almyran warrior use fire magic in battle as fire is sacred in their religion. in addition, magic and wyverns tend to not mix very well, which makes it useless to, say, a member of the dragoons who relies on their wyvern. it’s harder for them to take to it than a pegasus might so they’re more prone to panic. not that it can’t be done-- it just takes a lot of time and effort and it’s faster to just swing an axe around or fire a bow from wyvernback.

so yeah! he could take his practical learning further if he wanted to! he... just doesn’t want to lmAO.

[goldguile]

headcanon: death & funerals in almyra.

i meant to do this like two weeks ago but better late than never, right? 

uhhhh trigger warning for death mentions, i guess? 

in general, almyra is pretty death-positive. while it’s always sad when someone you love dies, the people tend to just accept it as the natural order of things. of course this is mostly referring to natural deaths-- for every person that is born, another will someday die. it’s just the circle of life, and not something to fear or bemoan. murders, suicides, passing away due to illnesses, child death... those are all treated as the tragedies they are due to the unnatural ending of a life. meanwhile, dying on the battlefield and dying in childbirth are seen as very honourable ways to go, especially if the soldier died in an act of protection or the mother gave her life for the child.

when an elderly (or at least dying ) person is on their deathbed, it is common in religious families for a priest or religious figure to visit the family and perform their last rites. they will confess to any lingering sins and pray alongside the priest in a ritual cleansing of their soul so that they might pass on in peace. while non-religious families may opt to skip this, there are some individuals who want the visit anyways. even if they are not religious, the visit and confession still will at least bring them peace in their final days. they’ll be able to die without regrets, as they’ll have talked about them.

typically, children who have passed away before their coming of age ceremony are believed to always go on to a good place after death-- they are considered innocent, pure, and still learning the ways of the world, and thus will not be punished for any misbehaviour. 

when the individual passes away and the corpse is discovered, no one is allowed into the room except for the individual who has discovered the body and those designated to deal with it. this is because a corpse is considered unclean and it is important to prevent contamination. the less people in the room, the less chance of contamination. funerary preparations begin as soon as the body is found; the body, its handlers, and the room are ritually cleansed as soon as possible, making the former safe to touch for a matter of hours. however, only those who have been designated to handle the body should be touching it. ( and even then, they will avoid direct contact where possible. ) if accidental contact has been made with the body when you really shouldn’t have been touching it, you must undergo ritual cleansing. anything the body touched will also be cleansed and possibly disposed of.

a candle or lamp is lit in the room after it has been ritually cleansed, to be kept burning while the ceremonies are underway. after being prepared for the funeral the body is transported to a community funerary hall, or the room in which the funeral will take place is prepared and ritually cleansed. funerary halls are common; there is at least one in every village. big cities will tend to have more, all within easy access for the residents. in the case of wealthy people, they may have their own private wing or small building; the royal family has a separate building on the castle grounds for funerary rites. another candle or lamp is kept burning by the body when it arrives and is set up for the funeral, incense being added to it periodically.

if a body was never found belongings with a lot of meaning to the deceased are put on display alongside a painting, if one is owned.

funeral goers will typically wear white, and the funeral itself is a celebration of the recently deceased’s life. there is a small feast, usually comprised of the deceased’s favourite things to eat, and the ceremony and reception are seen as wishing them well on their way to the afterlife; a proper sendoff rather than standing around crying. in the case of unnatural & child deaths, the proceedings are a little more somber and restrained than they would be otherwise-- but still a celebration nonetheless. much like the coming of age ceremony, it is absolutely forbidden to get drunk at a funeral. it’s tacky and gross, why would you.......

if the funeral is taking place at the deceased’s home, the guests will bring the food with them; it is a custom that no food must be prepared in a house where a death has taken place for at least three days. if the funeral takes place at home, it’s four days to account for the extended time the body was present.

after the funeral, the body is wrapped up in a white cloth and transported to the burial site. whether or not there is a procession is up to the family, but if there is, there will always be an even number of participants. 

there are three common types of burials in almyra: sky burial, cremation, and ground burials. 

sky burials are the most traditional, and especially common in deserts and mountainous regions. the body is placed atop a high tower for wyverns or vultures to eat; the deceased contributing to the circle of life one final time. this takes a few hours, and the bones are properly disposed of after they have been picked clean. the sites are kept far away from civilizations -- again, to prevent contamination and disease -- and are held to incredibly high cleanliness standards and regulations and both the sites and the staff must go thorough many ritual (and literal) cleansings. the teams who handle sky burials are given a lot of respect; they are seen as the final shepherds of the dead. they’re also paid incredibly well for adhering to such strict standards-- and for all the respect it garners, it is a sort of morbid job. as traditional as they are, in times of plague sky burials are prohibited.

if you don’t live near a sky burial site or you can’t have it done for whatever reason, cremation will be the most common substitution. though banned for some time in the past, given that fire is considered sacred in the almyran religion and must not be tainted by the contamination and decay of a dead body, some hundred years back this policy was revised. in addition to getting around not having sky burial sites everywhere, not every citizen of almyra is religious, and the nation has a history of conquest; not everyone practices the almyran religion, and the royal family does not enforce it. those who are religious and opt for cremation will put the body through several cleansing and purification rituals before allowing the flames to touch it. 

ground burial is the other most common option, though this is generally the least common of the three. as a corpse is consided unclean and contaminated, most people do not want to contaminate the earth by placing one inside it. to get around this, burial sites will typically be protected by placing slabs of stone or concrete in the graves.

of course, as long as the environment is not contaminated, people are free to dispose of their dead in the way they believe is the most respectful. the one constant, religious burial or no, is that embalming is absolutely forbidden as it is believed to be bad for the environment and wildlife. (...and it is.)

after the funerary rites and burial are completed, no one is to enter the room in which the body was found for at least a week. ( once again to, you guessed it, prevent contamination. ) a candle or lamp is lit in another room of the house and is kept burning for a minimum of 3 days; perhaps longer depending on the season and circumstances of the death. this never exceeds a month, however. as mentioned before, no food is prepared in the house of the recently deceased for the three days it takes the soul to pass on to the afterlife. once it is “safe” to enter the closed off room, it is thoroughly literally and ritually cleansed one more time. any personal effects that were used in the funeral are thoroughly cleansed as well. 

one month, six months, and year after death there will be a small, private ceremony in the deceased’s family to remember the dead as well as honour their ancestors. at minimum, assuming no one has recently died, this always takes place twice a year. remembering and honouring the dead is very important to the almyrans.

the royal family in particular keeps a collection of personal items belonging to past rulers and members of the family. often, kings will leave journals behind for their descendants to peruse in hopes that their accumulated knowledge will help them govern the kingdom. 

[goldguile]

some observations about magic

HELLO NAUGHTY CHILDREN IT’S TIME TO REPORT BACK WITH MY FINDINGS BECAUSE I GOT IN TOO DEEP

a few notes before i get into it:

because everyone in the game has a spell list, i’m plowing ahead with the idea that everyone in the world of fe16, not just fodlan, can learn magic. it’s a fantasy setting, it’s chill.

i am ignoring actual stats and damage output that you would see in the game in favour of an in universe application, because like... the stats are obviously just for the game. in universe, there wouldn’t be such a thing. anyone could achieve similar results with enough study, perseverance, and hard work, though it might be more difficult to produce those results consistently.

rhea has a spell list but i am ignoring her because she’s not actually playable. it’s almost identical to byleth’s anyways, she just gets agnea’s arrow and loses aura.

this includes jeritza, anna, and the ashen wolves.

given the uniqueness of the spells sagittae and agnea’s arrow, i am placing them in their own “general anima” category-- i know agnea’s arrow is most likely a fire spell given its description but this is less headache.

crests are not considered here, as they generally conserve uses of magic, make one’s cast spells stronger... it can pretty obviously be assumed that a mage with a crest has an advantage over a mage without, but those without crests can still be formidable opponents in their own right.

okay, without further ado, time for peppermint to ramble about magic under the cut! ... this might get kind of sloppy and messy, whoops. if you want to get somewhere specific, i recommend ctrl+f-ing to (1), (2), (3), or (4).

(1) DISTRIBUTION OF MAGIC.

first off, i wanted to see if there was a specific type of magic that seemed easier to learn-- or at least, more common, so i compiled a list of all the spells with who learns what. ... by copying it off the wiki, shhhh. i also added the total number of people who learned it after everyone’s names.

REASON MAGIC: 

everyone can learn fire, as it’s the class skill, so the below mention is of those who can learn it naturally. 

fire: byleth, edelgard, ferdinand, caspar, linhardt, dedue, mercedes, sylvain, lorenz, raphael, leonie, flayn, catherine, alois, anna, balthus, constance, lysithea (enemy only, mage class though) (17/18)

bolganone: byleth, edelgard, ferdinand, caspar, linhardt, dedue, mercedes, sylvain, raphael, leonie, manuela, seteth, catherine, alois, balthus (15)

ragnarok: byleth, dedue, mercedes, sylvain, lorenz, leonie, hanneman, catherine, balthus (9)

thunder: byleth, dimitri, dorothea, ferdinand, bernadetta, felix, mercedes, hilda, manuela, gilbert, jeritza, anna (12)

thoron: dimitri, dorothea, ferdinand, bernadetta, felix, ingrid, hilda, marianne, hanneman, gilbert, jeritza (11)

bolting: hilda, manuela, constance (3)

wind: claude, petra, linhardt, ashe, annette, hanneman, seteth, flayn, shamir, cyril, yuri (11)

cutting gale: claude, linhardt, ashe, annette, ignatz, marianne, seteth, flayn, cyril, yuri (10)

excalibur: claude, linhardt, annette, seteth, flayn, yuri (6)

blizzard: bernadetta, ingrid, ignatz, marianne, shamir (5)

fimbulvetr: bernadetta, ingrid, ignatz, marianne, shamir, constance (6)

sagittae: claude, dorothea, petra, annette, sylvain, lorenz, hanneman, shamir, yuri, constance (10)

meteor: dorothea, hanneman, anna, hubert (enemy only) (3/4)

agnea's arrow: dorotha, lorenz, constance (3)

DARK MAGIC: 

without access to a dark seal, only edelgard, lysithea, hubert, jeritza, and hapi can learn dark magic naturally, otherwise every male character can learn miasma. fitting, as all of these characters except hapi MAYBE???? have ties in some way to those who slither in the dark.

miasma: hubert, lysithea, hapi

mire: hubert only

swarm: lysithea, hapi

banshee: hubert, hapi

luna: edelgard, lysithea

death: hubert, jeritza, hapi

dark spikes: hubert, lysithea

hades: edelgard, lysithea, hapi

hubert is the only character in the entire game who can learn mire, making him the only cast member with a unique spell.

FAITH MAGIC:

every character in the game can learn heal and nosferatu. thanks to this twitter thread, i headcanon that as much as the church of seiros would have you believe, faith in sothis and seiros are NOT what makes faith magic work-- it’s belief in something in general. because the church spreads the goddess narrative about faith magic super heavily, this accounts for, say, hubert’s weakness in it, for example. while not very religious, linhardt simply believes his spells will work, so they do.

recover: byleth, edelgard, dimitri, claude, hubert, caspar, dedue, felix, annette, lorenz, hilda, raphael, hanneman, seteth, cyril, catherine, alois, shamir, yuri (19)

physic: dorothea, bernadetta, linhardt, mercedes, ashe, sylvain, ingrid, ignatz, marianne, leonie, hapi, manuela (enemy only, but can’t use it due to being in the assassin class) (11-12)

restore: ferdinand, petra, linhardt, felix, mercedes, leonie, flayn, balthus (8)

fortify: mercedes, flayn (2)

ward: ferdinand, lorenz, ignatz, manuela, hanneman, gilbert, anna, constance (8)

silence: claude, marianne, manuela, yuri (4)

seraphim: edelgard, sylvain, ingrid, lysithea, balthus, hapi (6)

aura: byleth, dimitri, marianne, yuri (4)

abraxas: annette, lysithea, constance (3)

rescue: bernadetta, flayn, anna, constance (4)

warp: linhardt, lysithea, manuela, hapi (4)

(2) MAGICAL AFFINITY 

the next thing i looked at was actually magical potential but it makes more sense to put it as the last thing on the list SO ANYWAYS. 

while theoretically any aspiring mage could learn any magic with enough hard work and study, most will note a specific element is easiest to work with and have a tendency to lean towards it. this affinity may also be hereditary and run in the family. sometimes a particularily lucky mage will feel comfortable with all aspects of anima magic, simply picking one to start with. even rarer still, a mage may feel equally comfortable with two elements at once and focus on both of those at the same time.

below is a breakdown of who has which magical affinity! the criteria was simple: if x character learned x reason spell, they had an affinity for that element. if they learned more than one element, the one that popped up more often was the affinity and the other one was learned. if they were equal, the character possesses both affinities.

reason affinities:

if a character can learn additional magic to their affinity, i’ve made a note of it as their secondary. i do not count sagittae for this except for in the case of constance, as she learns both sagittae and agnea’s arrow, then only one other spell per element-- giving her a clear bias towards what i call general anima. meanwhile, lorenz learns an equal amount of fire and general anima magic, hence his own category in the list mentioning both.

as mentioned before, marianne can learn both cutting gale and thoron, but also learns both ice spells-- still making her affinity ice.

fire: caspar, dedue, mercedes (secondary: thunder), sylvain, lorenz, raphael, leonie, balthus, hanneman, catherine, alois, anna (secondary: thunder)

thunder: dorothea, dimitri, felix, hilda, manuela (secondary: fire), jeritza (secondary: dark), gilbert,

wind: petra, linhardt (secondary: fire), ashe, annette, claude, yuri, seteth (secondary: fire), flayn (secondary: fire), cyril,

ice: ingrid (secondary: thunder), ignatz (secondary: wind), marianne, shamir

dark: hubert, lysithea, hapi

fire + thunder: byleth, ferdinand

fire + dark: edelgard

thunder + ice: bernadetta

fire + general anima: lorenz

general anima: constance

faith affinities:

everyone learns heal and nosferatu, so they are not being counted here. typically, a unit will learn either recover OR physic as a secondary healing spell, not both, so the spells being evaluated are the ones learned after the first of the two. this makes healing the most common faith affinity.

mercedes learns both physic and fortify, cementing her faith affinity as actually being healing as opposed to just being the "learns no more faith spells" variety. she is the only character in the game with this affinity.

gilbert, balthus, anna, and constance are interesting in that they do not learn a second healing spell at all!

a balanced faith affinity is much like being comfortable with all brands of reason magic and simply picking a starting point. the characters listed there have an equal amount of support, healing, and utility spells!

flayn only learns a secondary healing spell at a-rank faith, keeping her in the balanced category as she only learns one support and one utitlity spell before that.

healing (physic/recover/fortify): hubert, dorothea, caspar, dedue, mercedes, ashe, hilda, raphael, seteth, jeritza, cyril, catherine, alois, shamir

offensive (seraphim/aura/abraxas): byleth, edelgard, dimitri, sylvain, ingrid, lysithea

support (ward/restore/silence): ferdinand, petra, felix, claude, lorenz, ignatz, leonie, manuela, hanneman, gilbert,

utility (rescue/warp): bernadetta

balanced: linhardt, marianne, yuri, balthus, constance, hapi, flayn, anna

(3) MAGICAL POTENTIAL

to determine this, i looked at were the amount of spells each character learned in total. while we’ve established that anyone can learn magic and those that apply themselves usually find themselves leaning to one aspect of reason/faith magic or another, another factor in magical study is potential. 

everyone can learn magic, but obviously some potential mages have a better aptitude for it than others. personally i don’t see it as a level of skill, per se-- a mage with lower magical potential can be just as deadly as a mage with high magical potential; the latter may just have more tricks up their sleeves. this is exemplified in the amount of spells they can learn! a mage with lower magical potential can master and cast powerful spells, but may find branching out from their affinity-- that’s the gist of it. for example: 

hilda can learn the most powerful thunder spell, bolting, but she still only learns six spells in total and all of them fall into the thunder or healing category.

8 spells seems to be the average potential, with 4 reason and 4 faith. nosferatu and heal ARE counted for this! some characters tend to skew into a preference for reason or faith, but i’m not getting that deep into it, that’s too much--

10 spells: linhardt, lysithea, constance, hapi

9 spells: mercedes, marianne, yuri, manuela, hanneman, flayn

8 spells: byleth, edelgard, hubert, dorothea, ferdinand, bernie, annette, sylvain, claude, lorenz, balthus

7 spells: ingrid, ignatz, leonie, seteth, shamir, anna

6 spells: dimitri, dedue, felix, hilda, raphael, jeritza, catherine

5 spells: caspar, petra, ashe, cyril, alois, gilbert

(4) takeaways

fire magic, as is a trend in most games, is the easiest to learn. even ragnarok, its most difficult spell (not counting meteor), has the most characters who can master it at 9.

bolganone, thoron, and cutting gale, despite being intermediate spells, are relatively easy to learn if you have experience with magic in general. ingrid, marianne, and ignatz can learn those spells without needing to know thunder and wind respectively, as they already have a preliminary ice spell mastered. seteth learns bolganone after mastering a preliminary wind spell.

the same goes for the highest tier spells-- even without being versed with their prerequisites, it is still possible to learn them; it just may be more difficult to do so.

despite thunder magic being generally accessible and easy to learn, its highest tier of magic ( bolting ) is the most difficult to master-- only hilda, manuela, and constance can. damn, hilda, you go. only constance can do so without issue-- 

ice magic is rarer and therefore more difficult to master without an affinity for it.

healing and offense-oriented faith spells are easier to cast than support or utility skills like restore or warp. close range healing is obviously easier than long range healing.  

for those with lower magical potential, faith magic (specifically healing) tends to be the easiest to grasp.

[goldguile]

ok ok ok in all seriousness, claude knows how to reliably cast two (2) spells: wind and heal. like i mentioned in the hc ask, i hc everyone in the world of fe16 has an innate ability for magic-- it’s why the playable cast all have spell lists, even if some of them are... very short. 

what makes or breaks a mage is their aptitude for magic and how easily they can master it. dorothea, for example, has incredibly high potential and therefore can learn and master many spells, where someone like claude might not be so lucky. it’s just the luck of the draw and how willing you are to work at it in order to see results. one can be an accomplished mage without an affinity for magic if they put in enough study and resources to mastering it. 

claude, however, much prefers physical combat to begin with; he learned wind and heal to pass his classes in the officer’s academy, and after the timeskip can only really reliably use wind... which he would rather not, as he has weapons he can rely on. he can heal, but only very very very minor wounds. he... wouldn’t be much help in an emergency.

[goldguile]

fact: that little strand of claude’s bangs that falls free when the rest of it is slicked back will never stay in place. never. it doesn’t matter how often he (or anyone else) brushes it back, it’ll have fallen again. 

side note: claude with his hair down. that is all.