GriffinKnight

Huh, well, I will admit, I haven't looked to far into the crests and everything, so I suppose it comes as no surprise that I didn't really know about the Affinities of the dragons. Though I suppose I should have been clued in by the names of the crest Items, but to be fair, I only looked at them a grand total of like, 1 time, so I am a bit intrigued by the idea of the other dragons and what they possibly would have looked like.

So a Thought came to me as I was playing Three Houses. Rhea's Transformation is that of a Dragon, and it appears that the other Nabateans (Macuil and Indech) have transformations too (or at least bestial forms), but only Rhea seems to be a tried and true Dragon. While Macuil and Indech seem to be some other creatures ( a Bird/thing and a Tortoise/thing, respectively). So I guess what I am wondering, is are all Nabateans Dragons, or do they have their own individual forms, like Macuil and Indech? I suppose if you wanted to go there you can say that Indech and Macuil's forms seem to be hybrids with dragon-esque features, but it seems odd to not have them be a little more uniform if they were all Dragons. Also, what would Cethleann transform into? Cichol? For Cethleann, I imagine a Sea Serpent of some kind, mostly because of her unending love of fish, and for Cichol... I have no idea. I am curious to know if this little Idea has popped up through anyone elses head while playing Three Houses.

Usually, a new dynasty is founded through war. However, this is not always the case. It also happens through marriage, but not marriage of the immediate family to outside houses, becuase marrying your sister to the duke of some random place, would normally incorporate the husbands name/title to her own if her children inherited the kingdom, like the house of Habsburg after Maria Theresa became the house of Habsburg-Lorraine, with all Hapsburg's now being descended from this house. But this is just a branch of the family, not really an end to the line completely, just it morphing into something new. When a truly new dynasty is founded, is when you have a very distant relative inherit the throne. Such as with the passing of the throne from the Stuarts to the house of Hanover, when Queen Anne died childless, the English government chose a distant Protestant relative of the royal family, being, as I recall, 2 maybe 3 generations removed from the main Stuart line, thus the didn't take the Stuart name, not that they would/probably even could as they were branched from the granddaughter of a previous king,James I. So I think that a new dynasty starts when it is related to the old dynasty, but is far enough removed from the old dynasty that they feel no loyalty to the name of the former monarchs. Though there has also been in history people who just change their family names because of... some reason or another. This is most prevalent in Japan,(that I could tell anyway)the best Examples being Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Ieyasu was once called Matsudaira Takechiyo, only changing his name after claiming descent from some other legendary figure, and Hideyoshi changed his name multiple times, for no other reason than he felt that when he got more prestige, he should get more prestigious sounding names. So I have no idea if the Hraesvelgr name is new or not, but I assume not, as they hold a crest, so I don't think they changed it willy-nilly. But who knows, they could be a branch from the original imperial line, I suppose we will have to wait for the game to get a clearer picture. I just hope that we get something like the glossary/index from Radiant Dawn, because it actually had some decent information in it, and this game looks like it could have a lot of history in it, so a glossary/index would not go amiss, also it's a school, the glossary/index would make a lot of thematic sense to have... just saying.

True that, but we know how they managed that, through hero worship, love of the exalts and divine blood, as well as stable rulership... mostly, as I recall there was a bit of a crisis under Chrom/Emmeryn/Lissa's dad that almost destroyed Ylisse, which is something I expect to see the Adrestian Empire have in their history at least a little. Also Ylisse did appear to lose a lot of territory over time, what with them having once had control over all the continent, now they share it with 2 other countries. Also, and this is just a nit-pick, yes Chrom and his siblings are said to have descended from Marth, but without a last name for most Fire Emblem characters, it's hard to tell if they descended directly from the first exalt 100%. and what I mean by that is, they could be a branch of the family descended from some ruler in the pasts sister, as that has happened in real history, and in that case, they would be of a different house, while still being descended from Marth and all that. It's the unbroken dynasty thing that has me more interested, not the descent from Marth. As I said, a nit-pick, but I do concede to the point that yes, technically, Chrom is from Marth's bloodline at the very least.

All right, there is nothing more that I love than history, especially fake history. So I am so excited that The world of Fodlan appears to actually have some history, unlike say, Fateslandia. But one of the few tidbits we have gotten from the trailer in the most recent Direct, is that the Adrestian Empire is ruled by a dynasty that is 1,000 years old, and THAT is impressive. For anyone who likes to just peruse through history (or played any amount of CK2), then it would be impressive to anyone that keeping a dynasty on any throne for more than 400 years is a feat in of itself, but somehow the Adrestian's have managed something only the Japanese Imperial Family has managed to do by making it to over a thousand. So I'm curious, how have they managed this feat? Obviously, we won't know till the game comes out (hopefully...maybe) , But I do love a little speculation, so I will go over some I think possible, and others I think highly improbable. First on the list, and most probable to me , is that the imperial family of Adrestia claim to be of descent from Seiros. I say this, because that is one of the few reasons the Japanese Emperors have lasted quite so long, because they declared to be descended from Amaterasu, being the children of gods. It would not surprise to see the Adrestian Empire try to make such a claim (true or not, we'll have to wait and see), and it would make sense in a more historical light, as many rulers of nations in the past have claimed descent from any number of gods/goddesses, though I think Seiros, despite being the figure the church is most identifying with, seems to just be a regular person, who was blessed by the real goddess, so I'd say Seiros is more of a saint. But that still amounts to some sort of "Blessed Blood" in the Adrestian's (if my theory is true), which would explain the lack of people trying to kill them off so they could rule instead, and why their dynasty has lasted so long. The second likely way they have managed to stay in power, is by either 1.Keeping such a tight stranglehold on power that the people have no choice but to accept their fate, kind of like the Rigellian Empire. or 2. They have been so benevolent that everyone loves them and wants to keep them safe. This second one is far less likely, mostly because of the negative associations most peoples minds have with the word "empire" in the first place. Nothing with the word "empire" in it's name has ever behaved in a completely noble way. Just saying. And my least likely reason for their longevity is well, they control some sort of technological advancement that no other person has. I find this highly unlikely, based solely on the fact that this is Fire Emblem, and they are very strict on how advanced the tech is in the games, so I doubt the Empire controls cannons or matchlock rifles, as interesting as that would be. I just don't see this as a possibility. Well those are some of my guesses as to how the Adrestian Empire has managed to keep it's dynasty going for so long, what are some other peoples thoughts, I am highly curious, or does no one else care, which as a history nerd, I have run into that, but yes please, share your thoughts. Oh, and obviously, I know that we will (maybe) get the answer to this question in the game, but that is months away, and I just couldn't stop my brain from thinking about this.