#it was a huge compromise Cethleann had to make

[randomnameless]

Do you think Nabateans have a better snse of smell?

Oh, definitely !

(better than humans)

Birdie's is specially developped, while Seteth'n'Rhea's was toned down because they had to live with humans, and humans can be... very smelly.

(Or, human cities and human activites have all kind of strong odors someone straight out of Zanado cannot support, unless they have some time to adapt - Macuil suffered a lot but managed to push through - actually using wind magic to get rid of the unpleasant odors).

I also have the HC that Nabateans associate an emotion to a scent, or a concept. Cichol's wife can smell "joyful" or "bubbly", but Vestra I smelt "ghastly".

Young Nabateans - and hybrids - often imprint on a particular scent, Seteth will never forget how Flayn refused to sleep if he didn't carry her when she was a baby, and when it was impossible, he often left her with one of his belongings (a scarf, a shirt, a blanket...).

Trauma-ridden Rhea, after Zando, lost all of her marks and was afraid of the human world Seiros the Warrior was supposed to blend it, Wilhelm gave her one of his old pallium when she tried to find something to wear on her head, just in case the wind blows and her ears become apparent - the pallium, thus Willy's scent, became associated to "soothing" and somewhere "safe".

When Flayn first woke up, the thing that she immediately missed was her mother's scent - nowhere to find on her, or on her father. Even her past belongings lost it, meaning that effectively, her mother ceased to exist.

Relics smell to any Nabateans, even the ones who don't know what they are, horrible, like corruption and death. The smell is unpleasant, and while Seiros the Warrior hug the Sword of the Creator, it was thing done "in the spur of the moment" while Rhea craved Sothis's scent - Nemesis was finally done, so Sothis could return again, right? This thing smells like her (no it doesn't, this thing isn't Sothis). Let's say Rhea tolerates the smell, consciously or not, because this is the only thing left of Sothis, and her last hope to recover Sothis, all her family and a peaceful Fodlan.

(the other saints cannot support it, Flayn nearly threw up when Felix protected her with the Aegis Shield, and the BL in general note how she is always pale whenever they use their relics near her).

Constance doesn't have the same feeling of visceral revulsion at the sight of a relic - even if she is far removed from her Nabatean ancestor Noa, she has a stronger sense of smell than a random dude, like even base!Constance who never set foot in a forest to hunt like Petra or Leonie can smell a rabbit 3 meters away - but it makes her uncomfortable and she prefers to avoid them, for reasons she cannot explain.

Comes the idiot plot ball with the twin crested people - the nabateans should be able to smell something wrong with them, but since they tuned down their abilities (or neutralised it?) because living with humans is complicated - especially when melting Gautier Cheese is involved (Seiros the Warrior nearly passed out when Willy showed her a jar of garum) - Edel puts a ton of perfume to hide the scent from the lizards, while Lysithea prefered to avoid people of the Church to hide her secret, and since neither Rhea or Seteth or even Flayn came in close contact with her, her secret was kept hidden.

[agoddamn]

silketara replied to your post

“thanks for the in-depth response to my flayne questions! i think what...”

this is what I need. Thank you! a question regarding the war of heroes tho. I'm confused if it's the same with that Tailtean plain battle in which Seiros killed Nemesis or not (?) because I get the impression that it's the same war but some articles says it's different

There is no canon specification. Wikis saying there’s a canon specification are wrong.

I’m operating on the assumption that it was the Tailtean Plains battle for a few reasons--

I feel like the Saint lore would have mentioned if Cethleann and Cichol had vanished from history significantly before the final battle (because no way Seteth would have kept fighting without her). Huge attention is usually paid to Saint deaths in religion

Heck, I think it would have been mentioned if they weren’t at the final battle, period. Macuil’s legend gives us an example of a Saint ‘dying’ in the final battle but actually retiring from human society; I think it makes sense that Seteth followed his example

Seteth’s decision to not join Rhea in building the Church makes a lot more sense under the assumptions of everyone’s emotions running high. Rhea isn’t paying enough attention to how upset Seteth is because she’s juggling her new responsibilities with Wilhelm and frantically trying to figure out what to do with the Elites, working on striking a bargain with them, etc. Meanwhile, Seteth is way too broken up about his wife and child to even imagine offering a hand in whatever bizarre plan Rhea is cooking up. He’s not disgusted to the level that Macuil was with the compromise, but he’s really not in the mood to steward humanity right then

It’s just neater. The less I gotta spin complex events out of whole cloth, the better.