Timlugia

Wait, since when Ordelia was opposing the church? Wasn't them opposing the empire during Hrym rebellion and was crushed then experiment on as result? I don't remember they were mentioned to be against church, it's why Lysithea fits well in both side of conflict.

Interesting Rhea FByleth is named Fell Star Duo, at first I thought it's another Sothis' alt (I don't think Rhea was ever referred to as Fell Star in the game, only Sothis)

Also another difference is that Rhea became very protective of Byleth if you sided with her, to the point she's willing to die for Byleth If you side against her in CF she lost her mind though Hubert's personality is pretty much the same regardless which route you choose

Only thing we were told about was from Rhea's theory: But turned out that Rhea was wrong, and it was implied such ritual was never attempted before. And even using Rhea's words, what does "become one with the power contained within" even means? It could be interpret very differently depends on circumstance 1. Sothis overwrites Byleth's personality, which basically means de facto death of Byleth 2. Sothis and Byleth's memory, personality and conscious fused into one, they became one but neither Sothis or Byleth thereafter The way Sothis explained it to Byleth, and that she no longer speaks to them, makes theory 2 sounds closer to the truth IMO. If their conscious fused into one, of course that Byleth no longer hearing Sothis. As for personality, in the following chapters player could choose options that suggesting they have a change in personality post fusion. The only problem here is memory, we didn't gain any new memory from Sothis' side for player to recall after fusion.

My theory is that this map was originally not a final map, but a regular field battle, they later reused it as Verdant Wind finale. But decided to keep the chests I agree, Rhea should be a playable unit in this level and the next one. Making the stake much higher. There is no lore or gameplay reason not able to. In chapter 12 you were supposedly to protect her, but since she's so far back on the top of map guarded by lots of knights, enemy almost never even able to get close, making this objective pretty much meaningless. In fact I think every level Rhea that was present should be playable, including Ashe's paralouge and Shambhala, again, no lore reason not able to, and can flash out some of her arc more. As for me, I don't really like lava maps in any FE title. Especially if your force has lots of armor rather than flyers.

Problem is that everyone actually know he was the one and same Jeralt that lead the Knights. And Leonie knew very well who he was, or she would just think it's a random strong mercenary they hired.

My thought was, if there were others like Jeralt and Wilhelm, they would probably quite well known in history considering their superhuman abilities. While church might have purged some history to censor these individuals, it would be hard to completely erase stories like folklore. Or that after Empire turned against Church, they would keep their own record. As for reinstatement, I found it interesting Rhea gave him commander post back, and basically fired the previous commander by forcing him to retirement. We are told there are several levels of knights, including higher level like Holy Knights, yet Rhea just give him the command rather than other position. Rhea must trusts him very much, since as a commander Jeralt wields the whole military force of the Church. Jeralt could theoretically start a rebellion against Rhea or at least sabotage the knights (like by giving away military secrets) if he wish to. I think Jeralt was the primary suspect in the fire. Not only Seteth, but Tomas also accused him "disappeared" right after fire. Rhea must at least heard about the rumors. It would be hard to conceal Rhea's secrets from Jeralts though, since Jeralt commands the whole knighthood. He also runs the general security of the monastery, that means he would have deep inside knowledge in personals movement, events that happened, rumors and keep daily records. Rhea is also guarded by knights almost 24/7 according to her "notes". Since she doesn't like it, they are probably not some special personal guards that she confides secret with. It seems to me it would be very hard to secretly moving people and material for rituals, or conducting experiments without Jeralt knowing over 100 years span. For example, when Sitri was first added into Monastery, Jeralt would likely very soon notice a new child has been taken into their care due to him being the security commander.

You said "Those who are first-generation recipients of Nabatean flesh or blood also seem to have Major crests" That's incorrect, since enemy in Silver Snow has minor crests, and Seteth already identified them as people received blood from Rhea. It's simple fact: there are people getting blood from Rhea with only minor crests, so not every first gen recipient a major crest. I don't understand why you keep bringing out 10 elites or Apostles for they are irrelevant to this argument, as it doesn't matter if 99 people out of 100 getting major crests, but just one person getting minor crest that still means you could get only minor as first gen. And how is Aelfric irrelevant? He's a Cardinal, the high ruling member of the church, according to Tomas. And Seteth just said all higher member in the church has to take blood from Rhea. Where do you think he's minor Crest of Seiros came from? As for your argument of crest fragments making them minor crest, that's at best your own headcanon unless you can find in game source to support it.

They have minor crests. Not just Aelfric but all the ones in Silver Snow Ch21 Final Battle https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Aelfric#In-Game And I never argued four Apostles were first generation, you might confused me with another person. I was the person in another thread questioning if Four Apostles could actually be dragons themselves since the game also called them saints and they somehow has same dresses as the Five Saints. Aubin also seem to implied to live all the way just before the game begins. Seteth made very clear that those humans received blood from Rhea as part of ritual. Rhea calling Aelfric as one of her "children" also proved this. Besides White Beasts, a few of enemy humans also carried Minor Crest of Seiros in this level.

I brought up this in another discussion, but think these questions deserve their own thread. Even after playing every route, some multiple times, I still don't know much about Jeralt and his background. Some of the questions I have asked in the past, like if Jeralt knows about the plan, but decided to include them anyway to make it more complete discussion since there is no reason to exclude them. I wonder if anyone has similar questions, or have some speculation to these - Why among all people Rhea saved him? In the past thousands of years, there must be many soldiers served Rhea. How come we have never met anyone with similar background with Jeralt? We have never met other Seiros crest bearing knights. Assuming the story Rhea told Byleth about their encounter was true to begin with - Why does Jeralt has major crests? While Cardinals also received crest from Rhea, Jeralt is the only one with Major Crest of Seiros. Is crest power directly correlated to amount of blood transfusion? Is so, Rhea must really want to save Jeralt, - How long has Jeralt served Rhea? All we know is Jeralt is more than 120 years old at the start of the game. He mentioned great wars in the prologue, this is likely implied War of Eagle and Lion. But this could either be him studying history well or that he actually fought in one - How did Jeralt conceal his long life? Did he faked his death like Rhea did? Considering unnatural long life isn't a common occurrence in Fodlan, Jeralt must have to conceal his age to avoid suspicions. Did he use same method as Rhea, by faking his death and assumes new identities later? - Is Jeralt even his real name? Following previous questions, if Jeralt indeed assumed different identities, then Jeralt is likely not his real name either. Just like Immaculate One used Seiros, Rhea and likely many other names before. Why was there no record about him (or his alter egos) in the past being the strongest knight lived? Regardless if Jeralt used alter egos, it's interesting there is no record of "very strong knights" being mentioned before his era. It might also further proving Jeralt was unique as no other received major crest of Seiros before. Or that Church was very good at purging historical record all over Fodlan, but other factions like Empire who were hostile to church recently would likely maintain their independent record vaults. - How much Jeralt knows about Rhea's greater scheme? Considering Jeralt was literally Rhea's right hand before Seteth, and controls the whole military force (knights) he must involved in many church secrets. I wonder how much he know about Rhea's plans? - Why did Rhea trust him so much after he "betrayed" her and burn down the monastery? Jeralt afterall, "betrayed" Rhea's plan when he left with Byleth and burns down a large section of the monastery (seems like mostly library). Yet when he returns, Rhea immediately reinstated him as commander, even under protest of Seteth. - Why did Jeralt keep using his "real name" during exile? How could you conceal yourself from church leading one of most prominent merc group named after yourself? Pretty self explanatory, how are you going to hide from the church using your name in exile? How could he not encounter government official or church representatives when he took jobs from high profile clients? Especially when Kingdom has very close ties with the Church. Did Jeralt knew that Rhea wasn't going to arrest him to begin with? Also Rhea doesn't seem to worry about Jeralt using his inside knowledge to blackmail the church or damage it's reputation either.

Not necessary actually, all the cardinals only has minor crests despite Which makes Jeralt's circumstance even more unique.* The most obvious speculation is the crest power is correlated how much blood they received from Nabatean.

There is no crest stone on Sword of Creator because Byleth has it in their heart, thus Byleth is automatically compatible to all relics without fear of turning into a monster. As for take over, we simply don't know. From the way Rhea talks about it throughout the game, there was no precedent example on any of these, so even Rhea herself doesn't know how the fusion would work other than she believes Byleth is compatible due to them born from the "woman carrying Crest of Flame and man who carries her own blood." The dev in the interview does mention that Sothis hasn't fully recover her power yet, thus she looks like a kid. But again, we don't know what would happen down in the road between Sothis and Byleth as she slowly recovers her power either.

I think she died in VW regardless, but question is if she's "dead" dead lorewise. Like does she die a permanent death? or did she die in the sense of Sothis, Tiki, Flayn and Byleth, being sealed away for long period of time (maybe hundred or even thousands years), but eventually return to the mortal world? As far as we know, Nabatean has some really strange physiology, like how Sitri does'n decompose even after her heart was removed, or that Relics all contain beating heart of it's original owner. Furthering that, if Sothis could return to mortal world by implanting her heart into a compatible body, does that mean it could be done on all other dead Nabatean (including those in Holy Tomb) as long as their crest stones (heart) remain? Story writing wise I agree with eclipse. It's more a way to get Rhea out of picture in Verdant Wind politics. But I too think it's cool if Rhea "returns" centuries later to witness a new society. Maybe then she will finally enjoy the peace with rest of her remaining families.

I brought this up because the game earlier, especially in Silver Snow implies the Byleth actually "died" fell off the cliff, but recovers from their injury using Nabatean slumbering It seems to me the game strongly hints the slumber is actually Nabatean way recovering from severe or near fatal injuries, like Tiki did in Marth games. (Young Tiki would go back to slumber she "dies" in the game). **Another question here, what's the chapter name here "A King without a Kingdom" referred to? Who's the king, who's kingdom? It's definitely not Dimitri since he has minimum screentime in Silver Snow.

Just some thoughts from my recent replay of VW: In the ending of VW, it is implied Rhea died from her wounds (despite not being fought by Byleth as final boss) But do you think she really "died" there? I think it is possible that her "death" was in the same vain as Sothis, Byleth or Flayn earlier, that rather than true death like human, she's being sealed away again in a long slumber to recover from her wounds. Her death in VW was not directly from violence, but slowly progression from exhaustion during imprisonment followed by the wounds (which she recovers from in Silver Snow) Sounds very similar to how Sothis exhausted her power following fighting the war and rebuild the world. I don't think there really is a definitive answer in the game, just wondering what people think about this.

Well, I think you are confused who I was referring to, I was asking about the four other saints from DLC Aubin, Chevalier, Noa, and Timotheos.

Yes, twice each route so far. Still looking for easy to missed conversation though.

Hi, I got some questions about Four Apostles, wasn't sure if I missed out some detail - What species exactly are the Four Apostles? I always think they are Nabateans, since narrator addressed them as Saints. But wiki claimed they are humans. Is there any evidence supporting they are either way? - If they were humans, why were they on the side of Seiros rather than Nemesis or 10 Elites? - If they were humans, why were their crest named after themselves rather than the dragon who the blood originally came from? - Where did Relics regarding to Apostles came from? - Was the old man mentioned by Yuri actually Aubin?

There is also one half developed character in the datamine, which profile strangely updated with DLC Dev said they were done with DLCs, so maybe there is nothing related. There is a slight chance they would do free updates later, but as I said, only slightly chance.

We basically know nothing about Agarthan at all. Like if Shambhala is there only stronghold? (the music title "Area17 suggests there could be others), how many Agarthans are there? Do they have similar lifespan as surface human? (Thales says "we remember you kind" could be interpret both ways) Why is there Russian language written in their facility?

I think it's a little derailed here: I brought out Naga fully knowing she has very different style than Rhea or Sothis. My point is that human worshiping non human beings even in the real world, Naga happen to be an actual deity some culture worships. Had a snake god turned out to be real, I am sure many people will start to follow her, while others might indeed call her a monster. Same would be said for Rhea, when she transformed into a dragon, some like Edelgard obvious would call her a monster, but the others, like Church believers, both students and non students would likely considered her to be their leader. And in Awakening Chorm and company didn't get scared by manaketes or view them as monster despite they have never seen one before Nowi. One interesting note is that many people don't seem to realize Rhea is actually Seiros even after the transformation, even among her own soldiers. And even Claude had his doubts on who Immaculate One really is despite seeing the dragon form battle himself.

This I actually want to discuss further: You are assuming everyone considers the dragon as a monster, but is that really so? Immaculate One is the center of Church of Seiros's worship, they called her the emissary of the goddess, and heavily featured on church arts and worships, such as on the flag and murals. We also have Jeralt narrating the world building for us: It seems that for many, especially those who followed Serios's faith, not only Immaculate One wasn't considered as a monster, but a guardian sent by the goddess. While some might be dread of her transforming such as Edelgard considering her an enemy to human race, Church believers might actually be encouraged by the sight of Immaculate One, viewing it as some kind prophecy fulfilled. Furthermore, wyvern seems to be quite common animals in Fodlan and Almyra, making a true dragon less alien to their people than to us. Or compared to some previous Fire Emblem titles, such as Archanea series, dragons are also worshiped. Yet few actually ever met a dragon in the later titles since they were mostly in hiding. Chorm and his company never met a real manakete until they found Nowi, yet no one considers Nowi or Tiki a "monster" because dragon is part of their core religion already. This deal could be similar to how some Fodlan people reacted to Rhea. In the analogue the real world religion, many religions feature deities or powerful beings able to transform to non-humans, or are non-human taking human forms. For example, how Naga was based on south Asian religion. Had a snake god really appear, she might actually attract quite some followers while others grew weary of her in the same time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nāga TLDR: While some people would definitely consider dragon Rhea a monster, I doubt that's universal stance since their core religion worships dragon (particularly Immaculate One) to begin with.

Petra probably joins whoever promised independence and winning since that's her end goal. I think we need to remember that Edelgard deployed Demonic Beast here against player, which by this point is known to be human twisted by the crest stones. That alone could convince many students to fight her* Also while some students hold suspicion toward Rhea, there is equal if not stronger accusation that Edelgard is either "the mastermind" or at least working for them at the point (since we don't know who TWISTD is yet) * I think it's interesting none of the character highlights the Demonic Beasts being used as weapons here. In fact, strangely topic of empire using demonic beast seems being glossed over in every route, no one other than Hanneman ever comments on it despite it should be a major topic in the war. When I first played CF, I was expecting Edelgrad would give some kind defense or at least explanation about using such terrible weapons in the Holy Tomb, and reason we don't see them in this route, yet it was never brought up. Not even during paralouge Darkness Beneath The Earth Hubert ever discussed it. Like why did Edelgard use such weapons? How deep did empire collaborate with TWISTD? Who were the victims? Why and when did Edelgard suddenly stop using them in CF? And to the extension, how did Sothis know about Demonic Beasts? Which shouldn't existed until long after her death. Even Byleth could question her this in Tower of Black Winds yet she never answers you.

Like I said, post split most characters could go both ways, Constance included. Likewise in any non CF she would say Empire's violence shaken her to the core. But pre-split in Chapter 11 she did say she would stop Edelgard if given a chance, which I considered as her neutral stance since she's hasn't been influenced by Byleth or other character's choices, contrary to what vikingsfan92 claimed

You claimed that quote isn't a neutral stance, but only it is. It's Constance before Byleth made any choice or influencing her. All your other examples came from War phase, after they made their minds to follow Byleth, (no matter how unbelievable the reasons were) but this Constance one is from the part one. I wasn't ignoring CF quotes, like most characters, post route skip she could be argued going both way. But in Part One she clearly states she would stop Edelgard.