Sothis

[RexBolt]

3 hours ago, Enduin said:

 

There's a good chance, adding to the above about Sopdet. She's the Eyptian goddess of Sirius, which also happens to be known as the Morning Star, along with Venus and Mercury. Morning Star also happens to be the nick name of a certain fallen angel....

Also if you get into the origins of Byleth's name you find yourself with Beleth a Demon King of Hell who commands many legions, when summoned will teach you everything you want to know about maths, or get men or women to fall in love, and has been depicted as both a man and a woman. Also Beleth is thought to be a fallen angel.

So take that as you will.

Whenever people start using Byleth's name beyond it's most wikipedia-worthy use i get a kneejerk reaction to it. Like trying to extrac and entire plot/character arc from a name.

For all we know they are going at it Evagelion style, like in Genealogy or Sacred Stones. 

[Sleepy Tortoise]

4 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

And the final battle will be Edelgard & Co against Byleth

Don't break my poor heart like that D:

[silverserpent]

On 2/15/2019 at 12:25 PM, SimplyUnknown said:

I'm leaning towards Sothis having some time-related powers mainly due to the name. The Egyptian goddess Sopdet is known as Sothis by the ancient Greeks and there's also a reference to the Sothic cycle, which is related to how the Egyptians accounted for the missing day lost after every 365 day year without a Leap year being a thing.

I knew it! I knew I recognized Sothis' name from somewhere! Yeah, her having time-related abilities would make perfect sense if that is the inspiration for her.

[Guest Boatcat]

Back during the E3 trailer, Seiros (maybe) was so serene during the battle, maybe that has to do with this future sight ability.

 

I mean, if you could see the future, you wouldn’t be too worried.

[Onestep]

I have a sneaking suspicion that Sothis is going to be the game's Midgame Manakete. The class is so engrained into the series now that it NOT having one would be a huge surprise, and she's the most likely candidate. If that is the case though, then I have some concerns about her possibly being S-supportable. Nowi and Nah at least existed in the periphery of Awakening's plot, but Sothis seems to be one of the core characters. I'm not sure how I feel about her possibly being one of Byleth's romantic interests, or even the central one.

Or I could be completely wrong and she's basically the Lilith of this game.

[HappyHawlucha.]

17 minutes ago, Onestep said:

I have a sneaking suspicion that Sothis is going to be the game's Midgame Manakete. The class is so engrained into the series now that it NOT having one would be a huge surprise, and she's the most likely candidate. If that is the case though, then I have some concerns about her possibly being S-supportable. Nowi and Nah at least existed in the periphery of Awakening's plot, but Sothis seems to be one of the core characters. I'm not sure how I feel about her possibly being one of Byleth's romantic interests, or even the central one.

Or I could be completely wrong and she's basically the Lilith of this game.

I could see the big catalyst for the war midgame which forces you out of the academy being Byleth managing to "revive"(she wasn't technically dead I don't think but you know what I mean) Sothis through the destruction of some of the crests or the awakening of the sword. Then Sothis decides to accompany Byleth's army for whatever they are doing after she is brought into the world.

[Thane]

One has to wonder just how big a role all this timey-wimey stuff will play in the plot. Mila's Turnwheel was promptly forgotten about, but if Sothis appears frequently in cutscenes and everything, I'd assume it'll affect the plot somehow; it seems to have already saved Byleth's life. 

Or that was a one-off and Sothis just appears to unlock new gameplay abilities.

[HappyHawlucha.]

7 minutes ago, Thane said:

One has to wonder just how big a role all this timey-wimey stuff will play in the plot. Mila's Turnwheel was promptly forgotten about, but if Sothis appears frequently in cutscenes and everything, I'd assume it'll affect the plot somehow; it seems to have already saved Byleth's life. 

Or that was a one-off and Sothis just appears to unlock new gameplay abilities.

I did like the idea that Sothis reverses time and allows you to play with all 3 houses in order to destroy all the crests by getting close to all of the students, to set her free.

[Thane]

2 minutes ago, HappyHawlucha. said:

I did like the idea that Sothis reverses time and allows you to play with all 3 houses in order to destroy all the crests by getting close to all of the students, to set her free.

Please stop, these theories are too good to ever happen and that makes me sad. Sothis will probably just be the excuse for a second generation. "Hand me your babies and I can turn them into adults immediately!". 

[Azz]

I have a feeling it's going to be very RD esc in that Sothis will turn out to be a goddess of chaos or smth (not chaos because that would be to close to RD) that was sealed away by the 'true' goddess and somehow Byleth is able to contact her through his/her subconscious and she'll either be a) a true villain all along which I would actually like if it were the case (and done well) or b) a goddess of something normally bad and was misjudged for that and sealed away unjustly.

Or an option c) she's Byleth's mother in a younger form

[RexBolt]

1 hour ago, ΔZZ said:

I have a feeling it's going to be very RD esc in that Sothis will turn out to be a goddess of chaos or smth (not chaos because that would be to close to RD) that was sealed away by the 'true' goddess and somehow Byleth is able to contact her through his/her subconscious and she'll either be a) a true villain all along which I would actually like if it were the case (and done well) or b) a goddess of something normally bad and was misjudged for that and sealed away unjustly.

Or an option c) she's Byleth's mother in a younger form

It would be cooler if we were Sothis reincarnation or something and can remember because powers were passed down or because we used to be dragons.

[Aiddon]

16 hours ago, Enduin said:

-Snip-

Sirius doesn't have the same connotations as Venus, mostly because it depends on culture. Sirius is a Latinization of "seirios" which means "scorcher." For the Egyptians, the star was actually meant as a symbol of a good harvest as its rising indicated the flooding of the Nile (it rises during the summer solstice) thus why it was deified. For the Greeks, the star was something of an omen as they believed it coincided with bad harvests due to arid summers, same with the Romans (hence why its name means "scorcher"). Furthermore, Sirius is where we get the phrase "dog days of summer" because of that (its constellation is Canis Major). 

[Strullemia]

2 hours ago, Thane said:

Please stop, these theories are too good to ever happen and that makes me sad. Sothis will probably just be the excuse for a second generation. "Hand me your babies and I can turn them into adults immediately!". 

That would be such wasted potential. If they pull the time chamber nonsense again I would be really disappointed.

I really hope IS got the message with Fates that people didn't like kid units that much anymore and got rid of them for 3H.

[Onestep]

1 hour ago, RexBolt said:

It would be cooler if we were Sothis reincarnation or something and can remember because powers were passed down or because we used to be dragons.

Honestly, I've had more than enough of 'Avatar is actually a DRAGON'. I mean, Byleth is clearly going to have a connection to Dragons (because everything in FE of importance does), but I'll pass on actually having the body/soul of one. More likely, Byleth just has Holy Blood or is actually a royal who was secretly adopted by his mercenary father or something.

[Thane]

6 minutes ago, Hekselka said:

I really hope IS got the message with Fates that people didn't like kid units that much anymore and got rid of them for 3H.

I think people still like second gen characters. It's just that the setting has to accommodate that, otherwise it feels forced. The Fates children were such an obvious afterthought, with the baby realms making the first generation characters seem like callous assholes, which is why the reception was so poor, I believe. 

I was mostly joking about Sothis allowing for child units, but you never know with Intelligent Systems. Hopefully her role will be more intriguing, and this time power will allow for nifty story and gameplay opportunities, rather than creating a lot of plot holes which many time traveling stories tend to do. 

[SimplyUnknown]

4 minutes ago, Thane said:

I think people still like second gen characters. It's just that the setting has to accommodate that, otherwise it feels forced. The Fates children were such an obvious afterthought, with the baby realms making the first generation characters seem like callous assholes, which is why the reception was so poor, I believe. 

I was mostly joking about Sothis allowing for child units, but you never know with Intelligent Systems. Hopefully her role will be more intriguing, and this time power will allow for nifty story and gameplay opportunities, rather than creating a lot of plot holes which many time traveling stories tend to do. 

Personally, I don't mind the child characters as characters. They're usually interesting and can bring some interesting supports to the table. That being said, they do need to make sense in the story that they're used in. Otherwise, it comes off as either stupid, pandering, or both. And having Sothis providing the ability for child units to exist is something that I believe would undermine her character because that would probably be what most people would talk about with her. 

[Thane]

4 minutes ago, SimplyUnknown said:

Personally, I don't mind the child characters as characters. They're usually interesting and can bring some interesting supports to the table. That being said, they do need to make sense in the story that they're used in. Otherwise, it comes off as either stupid, pandering, or both. And having Sothis providing the ability for child units to exist is something that I believe would undermine her character because that would probably be what most people would talk about with her. 

Heh, you'll get no counterargument from me. Well, aside from thinking that a lot of the Fates child characters were subpar, but that's neither here nor there. 

I do hope Sothis doesn't just became another Mila's Turnwheel, introduced as a big deal and then just used in gameplay. 

[Strullemia]

17 minutes ago, Thane said:

I think people still like second gen characters. It's just that the setting has to accommodate that, otherwise it feels forced. The Fates children were such an obvious afterthought, with the baby realms making the first generation characters seem like callous assholes, which is why the reception was so poor, I believe. 

I was mostly joking about Sothis allowing for child units, but you never know with Intelligent Systems. Hopefully her role will be more intriguing, and this time power will allow for nifty story and gameplay opportunities, rather than creating a lot of plot holes which many time traveling stories tend to do. 

People still liked them but in general they weren't liked anywhere as much as the Awakening children if we're to believe this Fates poll from Japan.:

Spoiler

I agree. I've read a lot of different theories on Sothis and a lot of them sound great. If IS could build around some of the things I've read with some surprises here and there (without going into weird Azura plot twist territory) I would consider that a success.

[Disclaimer]

@Enduin and I have talked about this elsewhere, but here's what I think's going on with Sothis (and the game's mythology):

In the opening mural, we see the Goddess as a winged angelic being, surrounded by white dragons. Given series conventions, Sothis is obviously a manakete herself. However, looking at the similarities between her and the (two?) Seiros, I would speculate that the Seiros is, in fact, another immortal manakete. (It's possible IMO that the first trailer Seiros and the second trailer Seiros are one and the same, accounting for very different art styles, and the former being dressed for battle.)

Sothis, we know, has/imparts the ability of precognition. I've speculated elsewhere that the first trailer Seiros seemingly displays the same ability (which would make sense if they're both manaketes), given that she stands passively and confidently amidst a battlefield, unfazed by an oncoming assailant as a knight jumps in to save her at the very last second.

Sothis has the same black symbol on her chestguard that was emblazoned on the Old Man in the first trailer — the one warring against the Seiros. That makes me think Sothis is 100% opposed to the Church of Seiros, that perhaps she was another draconic servant of the Goddess, but was imprisoned in another realm for defying the Seiros and her dissemination of the corruptive Crests — or perhaps the Crests themselves are what locks her away. 

The Old Man, I believe, was a previous beneficiary of Sothis' powers, only he was defeated by the Seiros' armies. Byleth (whose name derives from a Demon King — i.e., the opposite of the "divine" [yet probably evil] Church, in the same way Sothis could be the Lucifer to Seiros' Michael) is another opportunity for Sothis to oppose the Seiros and free herself. If the Sothis-Old Man-Byleth connection wasn't enough, we've seen screenshots of Western Church enemies, and Edelgard's narration implied they were about to embark on a dangerous path, and there'd be no greater danger than opposing the Church unifying Fodlan with powerful Crests.

Personally, I kind of doubt Sothis ever becomes playable, unless perhaps at the very end as an Athos-type unit. But all of this could be wrong! 

[Temaeya]

I think she will have a similar story like Tiki, but overall idk what to expect. She looks rlly cool tho

[Onestep]

On ‎17‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 6:31 PM, Temaeya said:

I think she will have a similar story like Tiki, but overall idk what to expect. She looks rlly cool tho

That seems unlikely. Tiki was very much a child in thought and role. She was mostly passive. Sothis seems far more driven, what with her offer to 'guide' Byleth.

[Shrimpica]

She seems more like a Dragon Shinobu tbh

[May]

All of this discussion about Sothis being an antagonist reminds me of Airy from Bravely Default. Now that’s a twist for dragons. I actually hope IS goes with this direction.

[Faustino]

I rather just wait and see than to speculate what sort of role Sothis plays. But if she’s anything like Tiki, Lilith or anyone else like them then who am I to complain.

Edited February 20, 2019 by Faustino