#like shes not dead but twsitd used a crest stone on her turning her into hegemon husk form:(

[chainreh]

they raised ferdinand death flags and then killed off edelgard instead wtf is this game

[stormhaven13]

How do you explain Edelgard using the Slithers as pawns to "free humanity from tyranny" when they are a direct danger to anyone and everyone? Rhea is not the "bigger" threat when the Agarthans turn people into beasts and still actively pursue genocide of a race/species while all Rhea does is reactionary.

When Edelgard invaded the Holy Tomb, she threatened to kill anyone who stopped them from stealing Crest Stones, is it not understandable that Rhea would take some huge offense to that? Not to mention the "Flame Emporor" being involved in other crimes as well.

If Edelgard needed to "use" anyone (lets face it, she was the pawn all along cause the Slithers ultimately got what they wanted in the end, Rhea dead and possibly being used by them and the other few Nabateans leaving Fodlan for good and Sothis and her power disappering from Byleth) she would have used the Church to wipe out Slithers before forcing Rhea to step down.

So. I don’t really know why you’re asking this as if it’s a big gotcha. Like your whole point of “Edelgard is really the pawn”. Yeah. That’s. That’s just the point, that was the whole intention of TWSITD. They literally made her to be a weapon, and she could not get out from under their thumb. So instead, she decides to use their plan to enact her own, to try and change the world for the better.

I’m guessing you haven’t done Edelgards route in Three Hopes, because it actually looks at one of your points. The whole premise is that given the first opportunity she uses the church against TWSITD, which requires a massive series of coincidences and her plans going perfectly, and all that does is annoy Thales rather than outright beat him. I haven’t had time to finish it yet, so I don’t know how it ends, but yeah. Three Hopes’ Black Eagles route is exactly what you said.

The thing that makes it pretty clear that this ask isn’t really in good faith is that I’m not a particularly active blog, so if you looked at the stuff I’ve posted you’d see that I’ve never said I don’t like Rhea, or think that she’s always being unreasonable or whatever, im really not sure how you’ve drawn that conclusion. Best guess is you saw my response about Seteth and Flayn being only spareable by Byleth and made a few logical leaps.

I personally don’t have a huge amount of interest in Rhea, but there’s plenty of nuance to her character rather than the kind of flat and boring characters of TWSITD. She makes an interesting antagonist in Crimson Flower, which is my favorite route, but I just don’t personally have a lot to say about her that other people haven’t already said.

And the fact that you seem to think TWSITD has more power than Rhea is frankly a bit laughable, and requires ignoring most of the text of the game. Are they a threat, absolutely there’s a reason they are the final antagonist of one of the routes, but the whole point is that they are attacking the far stronger force of the Church.

Do I think Edelgard using TWSITD the way she does is “morally right”? No probably not, especially on routes other than Crimson Flower where she feels forced to rely on them even more. But she has been put into an impossible position, where there are no morally right options, and we aren’t given enough text to really analyze what her other options would have been, besides in Three Hopes, which makes it pretty clear that that path would not have been possible in the original Three Houses.

But all of that is not the point of Three Houses, none of the house leaders, or Rhea, are “perfectly moral”, they are all put in difficult situations that require impossible choices, and to differing degrees they all do “bad” things in various routes, or in their histories. The point, at least to me, is that what happens when someone like that is given an out, what happens when they’re given support is that they improve. All of them, when given support, learn to trust again, to rely on others. I personally just find Edelgards version of that the most compelling, for reasons others have said far more eloquently than I am willing to try now. If you want to understand why people like Edelgard, I encourage you to go look (just look, no need to start arguments) at other posts in the tag about her.

TLDR: I’m a small blog who has never said I dislike Rhea as a character, or view her as this total monster or whatever. I simply like Edelgard not just despite, but because she is flawed, she is human, because she makes sometimes crappy choices in the pursuit of a better future against impossible odds. Three Hopes specifically answers and examines one of these points in great detail, so I invite you to either play it yourself, or watch a playthrough if that’s not possible. Do I personally find Crimson Flower to be the most compelling path, yeah I do. I’m just not black and white about it, and just because I don’t personally find interest in a character doesn’t mean I think that they’re a bad character, or unreasonable, or whatever. You’ve ascribed thoughts to me that simply do not exist.

[frozenartscapes]

does dragongard have a crest stone?

So, I think this would be a good time to talk about how I’m approaching Crest stones and Relics in this AU (partially because this is a good question and partially because I’m not sure if it will ever come up organically in the story and I hate writing exposition dumps within a story)

Short answer: yes, technically she does have a Crest stone

Long answer: I’ve always interpreted original Crest stones as being the hearts of dragons. The stones in all the Relics, and the one grafted onto Byleth’s heart, were all once the organic, beating hearts of living people. However, when those people died, the magic contained in their bodies rushed into their hearts and the whole organ calcified, trapping the magic within.

So this would have happened to all the Nabateans who became the Relics (we don’t know their names because the weapons crafted from their bones and hearts are named after the humans who possessed the weapons, not the Nabatean themselves). And any Nabatean Rhea was able to lay to rest in the Holy Tomb, assuming their bodies were intact.

We know that TWSITD are able to eventually manufacture artificial Crest stones (and Relics, from the look of it). But they still needed Nabatean blood (it’s implied they only get this technology once they get their hands on Flayn’s blood). So this is partially why, in this AU, they go for turning Edelgard into a Nabatean over just giving her two Crests. It would be far easier if they had a more reliable blood source - since it would seem that they had to figure out how to artificially manufacture blood, too. Finite resources, and such.

So, going back to the question: yes, Edelgard technically has a Crest stone, because her heart is her Crest stone. It won’t look like a traditional stone unless she dies, but it functions very similarly. It grants her additional strength, boosts magical abilities, and allows her to access Nabatean-specific skill sets like turning into a dragon or healing sleep cycles. There is the complication that she is still technically human, so as a result things like age-based immortality have been significantly affected. (As in: she’ll live a long time, far longer than most humans, but not to the extent that someone like Rhea has.) This is also how I interpret the other living Nabateans, like Rhea, Seteth, Flayn, and the other saints. They all have “Crest stones” but until they die the stones are in reality their hearts, their source of life and power.

Ok, now I’m just going to ramble about the Relics for a sec, but I’ll put it under a cut because this post is becoming long

So: the Relics. Imma be real with you guys for a moment: I grew up Catholic, and I minored in Art History (with a heavy lean to Medieval and Renaissance history). So these Relics... Ok, here we go.

Relics in Christianity, and specifically Catholicism, are things not many people know of if they aren’t part of the religion. If you are they are something so weirdly normalized half the time you don’t even think about it. But many things about Catholicism are. (Like Transubstantiation. That is such a fun thing trying to explain and not sound like a lunatic.) But we’re talking about relics, here, because the creative choice to call them Relics in the game was fucking phenomenal.

Catholic relics are basically dead people. There are some that aren’t - the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns are notable, non-dead people relics. But for most relics boasted about by various churches, they are either part of or a whole person. Whether or not that person is the saint they are claimed to be can get rather dubious, but yeah... Dead people. Often displayed in gilded boxes or holders, covered in gold or jewels, surrounded by paintings done up by famous artists. (Also note, too: If they aren’t a person-based relic they still have some morbid connection to how the saint they are connected to died, like, for example the True Cross - an execution device, or St. Paul’s Chains - chains that bound him before his martyrdom). It’s all very morbid and a little creepy but what’s more creepy is how normal it is to walk up to a box with a perfectly preserved saint just eternally sleeping away inside before asking her to shoot you a little prayer before your big test. But I digress.

In Three Houses, the Relics are also dead people. Dead dragons, to be more specific, but the Nabateans were both dragon and human so my statement still stands. The Relics themselves are bones (which are common for a church to hold as a relic of a saint). And in order for a Relic to function properly, it also needs the Crest stone (heart) of the dragon the bones came from. 

We also have seen that the Relics are highly unstable. If someone were to wield a Relic without possessing the Crest that matches it, the weapon can turn them into a Demonic Beast. And even having the Crest might not save you, as we see with Maurice, it’s possible to still be turned into a Demonic Beast through the power of the Relic/stone combination anyway.

So here’s my take on this: In Christianity, relics are meant to be a strong link between the physical world and the saint being represented by the relic. Praying with St. George’s arm present provides a better link to the saint than just praying to him normally. Sort of like, calling his office via an extension rather than using the main office line. The spirit of the Saints are closely linked to their relics, which is partially why they’re venerated so much.*

*I should note, however, that many of these relics are listed as the “real” relic, but in reality are more like a piece of wood or random body part discovered on a Crusade and brought back as a “treasure” from wars that ravaged many parts of the Middle East. They might hold spiritual significance, but just remember that the acquisition of many of these relics was certainly not the Divine miracle people claim - which also conveniently relates back to Three Houses when you realize what the Relics truly are and how they were obtained

So in Three Houses, every Nabatean crafted into a Relic still has their spirit present within the bones and Crest stone. They can’t really interact with anything outside of the Relic, but there is a strong connection between their spirits and their heart/bone/blood. This is why only someone possessing a particular Crest can wield the corresponding Relic. A Crest (the blood) ignites the power in the stone (the heart), which then prompts the body to come alive (the bones of the Relic itself). If any one of those things is missing or incorrect, the spirit behind the weapon will do one of two things: nothing, or react to the error. The angrier the spirit, the more violent the reaction. And I don’t know about you, but if I was ever murdered so my body could be twisted into a grotesque weapon to then be used to kill more of my family, I’d be pretty pissed about it.

If the bodies of the Nabateans are not laid to rest, they cannot be at peace. And the anger they feel about what happened to them and their brethren will continue to burn and fester. For some Nabateans, their anger was stronger than others. Whoever Maurice killed to get his Relic was so furious that it didn’t matter Maurice also had their blood - that rage still turned him into a Beast anyway. (But at the same time, Maurice was also the asshole who did the deed. Marianne, however, is a kind, gentle soul who does not enjoy raising her hand against any living creature. That would be something the spirit of the Nabatean could sense, and it would reflect how they respond to the user of the Relic.)

This is also why, in the canon game, characters with weapons made from artificial stones/bones did not face any issues. It’s implied that Aymr, for example, was created specifically for Edelgard. Despite holding the Crest stone of Maurice, she has no issue using it, because they reconfigured the stone to be attuned to the Crest of Seiros. (It’s also entirely possible that they just created this stone, and the Crest of the Beast was carved on it for ??? But this would effectively make the stone a blank slate to pair with any Crest that was available.) So these artificial weapons would not have a spirit of a Nabatean connected directly to them, and would be safer to use as a result.

(In terms of Crest stones being able to turn people into Demonic Beasts, even without the Relic, I see that more like handling something like a radioactive substance. The sheer amount of raw draconic power contained in a Crest stone would be enough to transform a human into a monster, just through contact alone. Even the artificially created ones still stem from that same magic, so holding one of those without any sort of protection would result in the same thing. That's why I'm starting to headcanon that, rather than just her two Crests activating at the same time, Edelgard just ripped the Crest stone out of Aymr when she turned into the Hegemon. Real or not, holding a Crest stone in your bare hand is a lot like that scene from Chernobyl when a firefighter unknowingly picks up a chunk of the exploded reactor core with his bare hand: You're dead before you even realize what you're holding.)

[luckythereviewer]

The Truth about Fodlan

This is certainly something a lot of people have discussed and looked into. Ever since the release of Three Houses as well as the Cindered Shadows DLC, people have been looking over ever detail they can find to figure out how Three Houses fits into Fire Emblem as a whole. Some believe it’s simply a different world, some believe it isn’t and there has been debates about everything for a while. Today, I would like to bring up some information that possibly clears up the confusion around Three Houses.

To start off, let me simply lay out the premise now. What if Fodlan is Jugdral 3000 years after the events of Genealogy and Thracia? I know that sounds crazy but think about it. In Awakening, a game that was suppose to be the last game in the series and give us one last look at the world that started it all long after Marth had passed, there is barely any mention of Jugdral. We travel all over Archanea, now called Ylisse, and go to Valentia, now called Valm, but we never see anything Jugdral related. The only time we ever see such a thing is during Chapter 22. The chapter where we face Risen Deadlords and some of them are wielding Holy Weapons: specifically, we see Valflame, Gungnir, Helswrath, Balmung, Yewfelle. Now whether the Risen Deadlords are the actual Dead Lords used in Genealogy and converted to Risens or simply a new take on the Dead lords of old is up to debate. The question here is, how did the Grimleal get their hands on 5 Holy Weapons from Jugdral when we have no mention of them throughout the game.

To this, I ask another question: how come the Three Archanea Regalias and Hauteclere are absent from Awakening yet rusted versions of them can be found in Three Houses? These weapons never have appeared outside the Archanea games (the sole exception being SoV but the fact they have to be forged makes their canonicity dubious at best) yet we can end up finding them by battling special monsters and forging the rusted weapon they drop. What’s even more confusing is how the in game description for Hauteclere reads “An Empire Wyvern Corps Axe, wielded in the War of Heroes, that has a high hit rate and might.” These weapons were used during events of the games. Mercius was used during the War of the Eagle and Lion and Gradivus was used by a defender of Fodlan’s throat. Parthia lacks a sort of description but 3 of the 4 having such descriptions means these weapons were used throughout Fodlan’s history. But that begs the question of how these weapons ended up in Fodlan? One would guess that, since they could be forged in SoV (something I don’t consider cannon) that it means they were forged in Fodlan and yet we have no one that takes credit for them. They aren’t considered Sacred Weapons forged by Maculi, They aren’t Heroes Relics made by TWSITD. They are not stated to have been made by the only other legendary Blacksmith, Zoltan. Meaning these weapons have to be the orignal Regalias and Hauteclere. 

With this we now have two questions from both Awakening and Three Houses. How did 5 of the Holy Weapons end up in Archanea and How did the 3 Regalias and Hauteclere end up on Fodlan? First off look at 4 of the Holy Weapons given: Balmung (a Sword), Gungnir (A Lance), Helswrath (A Axe), Yewfelle (A Bow). Then you have Mercurius (A Sword), Gradivus (A Lance), Hauteclere (A Axe), and Parthia (a Bow). Here’s my idea. During the War of Heroes, TWSITD likely wanted to give an edge to Nemesis and his army in the form of more powerful weapons. This lead to them getting into contact with the Grimleal in the early days after Grima’s first defeat. The Grimleal, likely aware of Jugdral’s amass of Holy Weapons, offered a trade. The 3 Regalias and Hauteclere for 4 Holy Weapons. Given that TWSITD likely did not know or simply could not make use of the full power of the Holy Weapons agree and threw in Valflame as a sign of good faith as well as an item they likely would not need, seeing as all of Fodlan operate on non-tome magic. Of course, the description for Hauteclere shows that the shipment carrying the Regalias and Hauteclere did not make it to TWSITD and said weapons ended up in the hands of the Empire. While some would say TWSITD wouldn’t be dumb enough to give away Holy Weapons, remember these are people who were arrogant enough to try and fight Sothis. From their perspective, they would simply see a group of people offering really powerful weapons with no real requirements and asking for weapons that nobody can make full use of in exchange. Then there is the questionability of TWSITD even having Holy Weapons and to that I say this: The Heroes’ Relic and the Holy Weapons act in such a similar manner that it’s very likely TWSITD found the Holy Weapons, found out what they were and how they worked and figured out they could replicate them if they took the remains of Nabateans and crafted them into weapons. Once they figured out how to do this, the Holy Weapons were just taking up space. 

Now that’s only the first piece of evidence but it’s certainly the biggest and one that took time to explain. These next ones will be much simpler and quick.

The second piece of evidence for this theory is the maps of Fodlan and Jugdral. When you compare both maps, they are very similar in shape. Given that we have examples of continents ending up with different names and changing over time, Archanea being Ylisse and Valentia becoming Valm. Given how Jugdral would have an additional 1000 years to change comapared to Valentia and Archanea, it’s possible that Fodlan is Jugdral after that long of a period. The only other thing of note here is how Thracia and Almyra play similar roles for Jugdral and Fodlan. Thracia tries to invade and conquer the Munster District while Almyra tries to invade the Alliance. The difference being Thracia does it due to lack of food while Almyra does so as a show of strength. Not as strong of evidence as the first example but it was still worth mentioning.

The final example is how the Nabateans were created. We know they were created by Sothis via her blood. Now, the first question would be why Sothis did it this way. If this was any world, why not simply have kids the traditional way as we’ve seen with almost all dragons in FE outside a few notable exceptions (Grima and Lilith being such exceptions). Well, playing devils advocate and saying Fodlan is within the world of Archanea, then people would quickly remember a certain issue that plagued dragons alongside the degeneration: their loss in fertility. These two factors are what lead to dragons becoming Manakete and stepping to the side to allow humanity to become the leading race in the world. Given how many crests there is in the game, there simply no plausible way for Sothis to have so many kids and possible descendants unless she went the blood route. Not to mention this explains why none of them are Divine Dragons like Sothis. (Yes the whole debate of if Sothis was a Divine Dragon or not is a thing but given how we’ve seen how dragons like Mila and Naga can not only control the passage of time but repair the lands as Sothis did after the war with TWSITD, it’s more or less pretty open and shut case Sothis is a Divine Dragon). 

Now as for how she discovered the whole creating dragons through blood method, there is only one known instant of a dragon being created this way before Sothis: Forneus. What’s even a odder coincidence is how Sitri, Byleth, and Forneus’ names are names of demons in the Ars Goetia. Sitri and Byleth being connected via this piece of trivia makes sense. Forenus, on the other hand, a person who only just got named during SoV’s post game, is something to think about. Regardless, Sothis had to have found out or find something that would give her the idea of creating the Nabateans via her blood somehow and Grima and his creation is a very strong possibility. 

Now some might bring up how they’re called Nabateans and not Manaketes or how the Crest Stones are something we’ve never seen before. To answer the Nabatean and Manakete thing, Manaketes are usually referred to as dragons who sealed their draconic powers into dragon stones. The name is likely just to avoid confusion. Ultimately, it’s a name. The core that makes Nabateans the same as dragons is the method of which they transform. We’ve seen how crest stones are integral to this, given what happens to Miklan and other characters that use the crest stones and end up as demonic beasts. We know that the crest stones are quite literally the heart of these dragons. What did dragons do to become Manaketes? They sealed their dragon forms in stones and took a human like form. This is the detail many have missed. Nabateans are not just a different race of dragons. They’re how dragons used to be before they were forced to take on the forms of Manaketes. The entire reason we’ve never seen these crest stones is due to the fact that, in Valentia/Valm and Archanea/Ylisse, dragons have either become Manaketes or they were well respected as to not have their bodies scavenged and turned into weapons. 

There are plenty more details I could bring up like Anna’s existing in Genealogy and Thracia, explaining the Anna we see in Three Houses and why she has a crest, and more, I think I’ve made enough points here. Maybe there are details proving this is wrong or something but this post was mostly to bring up a possible idea I don’t think I’ve seen people really touch upon in regards to Three Houses. 

[airshipcanon]

So, like geez, I was expecting Fire Emblem, not “Symphonia Redux”.

But then the Cruxis arrived.  No, really. Rhea. Let’s talk about Rhea. She’s the leader of the church. You’re warned immediately--- DURING THE PROLOGUE-- to keep your distance, she’s up to something no good. Obvious set up for Evil Church Plot, but it’s kind of backlined... only, it’s not. You get an introduction to Hero Relics, and then their source of power-- Crest Stones. They grant amazing combat ability, but if you don’t have an appropriate crest, they turn you into a monster. Lovely, seems familiar though.... And then you find out [On Golden Deer Route] they’re made from killing a sentient being-- in this case, dragons. Well, gee, if they didn’t give an Exsphere vibe then, they do now.

And they’ve been part of the church’s manipulation of every power on the continent. Lovely.

And the TWSITD faction are trying to make more, and some superweapons. But need to get things from the Church in doing so. Hi, Rodyle.

Back to Rhea, guess what she’s been up to? Well, besides literally purging all dissent, and sending out students as the Inquisition, and making WH40K Commissars seem... reasonable.... Oh yeah, I should mention, she has the biggest Mother Complex ever. Like, she’s OBSESSED with her mother, Sothis. And for the past millennia, she’s been behind the scenes manipulating marriages and controlling a bloodline to create a vessel for her mother. And then she implants crest stones into said vessel in an attempt to revive said mother. Yeah. She does that.

Never mind the genocide she carried out in the ancient past. 

So, yeah, father’s a mercenary, there’s an ally who uses some evil means to do some real good, there’s a faction building superweapons to rule the world and is involved with said “evil actions ally”, and the church? They’re evil, lead by a family complex maniac who’s bent on killing people to revive the dead. It’s fucking Symphonia all over again. Now can I equip 2 swords for double might?