Unanswered story questions/cliffhanger even after you played the game? (major spoiler warning)

[Timlugia]

I noticed many people brought up this topic, that how the game left tons of unanswered questions even after you played every route.

Since there is currently no dedicated thread about this topic, I think it would be beneficial to create one so we can brainstorm together and maybe later compared it when DLCs being released.

Here are some of mine, it could be overall unanswered, or the brought up in certain route was then went nowhere:

 

- Game presented two versions about origin of Sothis: Rhea told you she came from a far away land, but Sothis told you directly she's the creating god. (FEH even suggested she created other worlds as well), so which one is true?

- How did Sothis created "Children of Goddess"? And how are they related to her?

Did she actually give birth to them? Did she magically created them? Why is Rhea only one calling her mother compared to Seteth and two other saints?

- Who's wife of Seteth? If she too is a dragon, how closely she's related to the others?

- Flyan told you she was born in a church in Enbarr, but she's clearly born before the creation of church since she fought in War of Heroes as a saint, so was this story a lie? If so, why does she needs to lie to Byleth so late in the game when she knows who Byleth is?

- Pretty much everything about Agartha is unknown.

- Who is Byleth exactly in the end game (outside Crimson Flower)? How much Sothis is influencing him at this point? Saint Indech literally calls you Sothis reincarnated; in S support with Flayn, Byleth tried to convince her that he's not Sothis herself or she wouldn't marry him; Rhea address you as her mother, later told you she just want you to be yourself. All these inner circle characters presented confusing view on Byleth to me.

- Caspar's father and brother are mentioned to be the greatest fighters in the empire, yet they were never showed, doesn't even have portraits. Same applies to Lord Holst of Alliance. One would assume they would fight in their faction's last stand, but neither happened.

- Jeralt's diary: Sothis told you we will come back to read it later, never happened. Only Claude mentions it once later. In church and BL Seteth took it, while in GD Claude took it.

- Jeralt's background: Jeralt is proven at least 100 years old, but he talks about war of Alliance 300 years ago. It's possible he is actually that old, or just know war history well. I am also suspicious that he knows more about Rhea's plan than he revealed since he was top leader in the church before Seteth, especially he runs overall security. It's hard to believe he doesn't know who the "clone" was. It's even more interesting that he denies seeing anyone that looks like Sothis before when you described your dream to him, since the mother certainly has green hair as Byleth has very unique green hair to begin with, while Jeralt is light brown, so it much be from the mother side.

- How close Jeralt was to Rhea? Again I feel there was more than being said by Jeralt and Rhea. Rhea is quite unforgiving when comes to betrayal, yet she immediately forgive Jeralt for all the transgression he committed against her: including stealing Byleth away and setting major fire to the church. She gave Jeralt nothing but praise, even more strange, in C support if you pick Jeralt told you Rhea was terrifying, you would actually raised support with her. Not only that, she immediately reinstated him as captain despite objection from Seteth. This again is very strange, because if Rhea wants to "control" Byleth, she should separated them by only hiring Byleth and sent Jeralt away so he can't tell Byelth anymore secret about her. Another thing was Jeralt seems to reconcile with Rhea just before his death, by saying it was a mistake to leave monastery, but he didn't get chance to explain it.

- Byleth passed out several times in part one, even Sothis mentioned about this. What was that about?

 

There are more, but these are questions I can think about so far, Feel free to pitch in or trying to answer them if you have answers.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Timlugia

[unusual diaeresis]

I think most stuff gets an unsatisfying or incomplete answer.

- The Tragedy of Duscur gets built up to be a grand conspiracy that in the end boils down to "King's 2nd wife wants to see her first family again so she gets her current family killed and is mistakenly killed herself".

- Where do Javelins of Light come from. Who fires it and how? Why can't they fire it all the time?

- Everything about the resurrected Liberation Army.

- The procedure that Edelgard used to become Hegemon Edelgard.

 

My grand conspiracy theory about Agarthans and Sothis is that they are aliens that came here in Shambala, which is a crashed spaceship. I've got a lot of thoughts on this one, but basically it explains their futuristic tech, and is consistent with a lot of the star references and imagery between them.

Edited September 2, 2019 by unusual diaeresis

[Zapp Branniglenn]

How was Nemesis resurrected? Were the agarthans waiting for the right moment to unleash him? If so, why not the moment Shamballa is discovered? And what's the story behind his second creator sword? We saw Seiros take it from him in the opening movie. 

 

[Timlugia]

43 minutes ago, unusual diaeresis said:

I think most stuff gets an unsatisfying or incomplete answer.

- The Tragedy of Duscur gets built up to be a grand conspiracy that in the end boils down to "King's 2nd wife wants to see her first family again so she gets her current family killed and is mistakenly killed herself".

- Where do Javelins of Light come from. Who fires it and how? Why can't they fire it all the time?

I have more questions based on these two:

- Was queen Patricia really mastermined behind? What really happened to her? How much Corneilla was involved?  Usually in fiction, "disappear after a fire" = someone didn't die

- We know there is lore reason why Agrathan can't just bomb the church with their orbital weapons, but why didn't they just bomb Enbarr the moment Edelgard kills Rhea in Crimson Flower since Edelgard just told them they will resume war once Rhea is killed? They even used it to intimidated Edelgard recently from betraying them. Or more generally, what limits their usages and target area?

- In church route right before you fight Agrathian, Hanenman told you to beware Lord Arundel, this conversation went nowhere since next time you met Arundel he simply showed up as Thales in the very same chapter. Did I missed some conversation or transformation scene? I know that Lord Arundel is Thales, but that's from playing Crimson Flower.

 

Quote

How was Nemesis resurrected? Were the agarthans waiting for the right moment to unleash him? If so, why not the moment Shamballa is discovered? And what's the story behind his second creator sword? We saw Seiros take it from him in the opening movie. 

And why didn't Agarthans used him in Silver Snow or Crimson Flower? Especially in Crimson Flower where Agarthan gathered everything they need by killing Rhea and Byleth gave up his power. If they released Nemesis in Crimson Flower, I doubt Byleth and Edelgard could win without Crest of Flame

Edited September 2, 2019 by Timlugia

[Sentinel07]

11 minutes ago, Timlugia said:

Was queen Patricia really mastermined behind? What really happened to her? How much Corneilla was involved?  Usually in fiction, "disappear after a fire" = someone didn't die

Patricia wasn't the mastermind. It's stated during Dimitri's route that there was already growing resentment among many citizens due to Lambert's radical policies (though there isn't much info on what those were). Those who Slither in the Dark were the ultimate masterminds with the intention to destabilize Faerghus, with Patricia being one of its more significant contributors. At least that's how I took it.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Sentinel07

[Crysta]

Why did Lambert/the Kingdom subjugate Sreng?

What happened to the real Monica? And who was she?

Where did Cornelia run off to in the GD route?

Claude’s paired epilogue with Byleth is weird af. How did the Slitherers manage to recover to the point where they’re an actual threat to a consolidated Fódlan without Nemesis, in just a few months? Even if it’s a newly minted nation on the verge of implementing a new ruling system. And I think this is the only GD epilogue that mentions this happening at all.

[Hauke]

7 hours ago, Timlugia said:



- Flyan told you she was born in a church in Enbarr, but she's clearly born before the creation of church since she fought in War of Heroes as a saint, so was this story a lie? If so, why does she needs to lie to Byleth so late in the game when she knows who Byleth is? 

It's told in the game that Enbarr is way older than the Empire and the creation of the church. It's an old city. All details we learn in the game pretty much agree that she was really born in Enbarr and lived there for a time.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Hauke

[Timlugia]

1 hour ago, Hauke said:

It's told in the game that Enbarr is way older than the Empire and the creation of the church. It's an old city. All details we learn in the game pretty much agree that she was really born in Enbarr and lived there for a time.

Enbarr was 1400 years old and founded by Seiros according to Ferdinand I believe. So maybe that's her age, which is quite young for a dragon.

[Strullemia]

I expect (hope) that the questions you have in regards to Sothis, the agarthans and Sothis's her children will get answered in a prequel/Sothis centered DLC.

I will be really disappointed if they don't plan to answer these questions in a possible Sothis DLC.

[Timlugia]

- Why are there Russian language in Shambala? At first I thought it was a texture error, then I realized there were Russians written on the wall all over the place. Agarthan are Russian? Some kind eastern egg? Some kind reference to Metro?

[Dandy Druid]

8 hours ago, unusual diaeresis said:

My grand conspiracy theory about Agarthans and Sothis is that they are aliens that came here in Shambala, which is a crashed spaceship. I've got a lot of thoughts on this one, but basically it explains their futuristic tech, and is consistent with a lot of the star references and imagery between them.

My theory on the Agarthans is that they were once humans but started developing advanced technology. Rhea didn't like this because with their knowledge, they defied the teachings of the Church. Seiros defeats them, and the survivors flee underground to Shambala. Fodlan was purposely kept in a medieval state in order to keep the Church and Rhea in power.

[Etrurian emperor]

9 hours ago, Timlugia said:

- Caspar's father and brother are mentioned to be the greatest fighters in the empire, yet they were never showed, doesn't even have portraits. Same applies to Lord Holst of Alliance. One would assume they would fight in their faction's last stand, but neither happened.

Its a shame we never get to see Caspar's father in any form. He's said to be the greatest general of the empire, Caspar seems scared of him and he's got a special alliance with Edelgard. The story mentions him a lot but sadly its always off screen. Caspar's brother isn't nearly as impressive though. In Caspar's support with Edelgard she says he's inept and that she pities Caspar for having to play second fiddle despite being more competent than his older brother. 

[Timlugia]

22 minutes ago, Dandy Druid said:

My theory on the Agarthans is that they were once humans but started developing advanced technology. Rhea didn't like this because with their knowledge, they defied the teachings of the Church. Seiros defeats them, and the survivors flee underground to Shambala. Fodlan was purposely kept in a medieval state in order to keep the Church and Rhea in power.

That's not the case, because ancient war predates Church or Seiros by thousands if not more years, it was way outside written history of current Fodlan civilization thus only Rhea, Seteth and Agarthan knew.

Following my previous post about Enbarr,

Rhea first appeared as Seiros in Enbarr some years after massacre of Zanado and performed many "miracles" to gather her followers, who then built city of Enbarr to commemorated her (Enbarr used to known as City of Seiros), Church was then created, followed by the Empire to combat Nemesis. Since Enbarr was 1,400 year old and Empire was 1,185 years old, we know that church at oldest couldn't exceed the founding date of Enbarr, which is 1,400 years ago.

Furthermore, while it's a popular theory, there is no in game evidence suggest church attempt to stall technology advancement. Not only there isn't any written dogma against technology,  Fodlan isn't any worse technological wise compared to it's neighbor such as Almyra or Dagdar. Almyra soldiers both in actual gameplay or cutscenes carry similar weapons to Fodlan.

I personally incline such theory is based on real world Catholic church rather than in game support.

Quote

Its a shame we never get to see Caspar's father in any form. He's said to be the greatest general of the empire, Caspar seems scared of him and he's got a special alliance with Edelgard. The story mentions him a lot but sadly its always off screen.

Also Lord Holst of Alliance was known to win Battle of Eagle and Lion by himself, was the most popular option as heir before Claude shows up. But most impressive feat was that he was able to hold of Nemesis and his army by himself, so Alliance soldiers could retreat, and survived - All without a Crest or Relic. Yet he just like Count Bergliez, doesn't even have a portrait.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Timlugia

[Dandy Druid]

2 hours ago, Crysta said:

What happened to the real Monica? And who was she?

IIRC she was a noble from the Empire that attended Garreg Mach one year prior to the events of the story. During that year, close to graduation, she was kidnapped (presumably by the Death Knight or TWSINTD) was killed (presumably). Her blood may have been used for experiments if she had a crest (we don't know if she does). This is when Kronya started perfecting her Monica disguise. This implies that the antagonists of this game have been planning for its events a long time before they were even set in motion. Poor Monica was just a victim of their plans.

The real Monica was said that she wasn't as cheery before the kidnapping, so we know her personality may have been on the more serious or shy side. I feel like one NPC gave some more specific info about her family but I can't remember it clearly.

[Hauke]

About Monica: We know she was Monica von Ochs, which is an Imperial noble house.

2 hours ago, Timlugia said:

I personally incline such theory is based on real world Catholic church rather than in game support.

Which isn't even true for the Catholic church. Actually the Catholic church was behind a lot of improvements. They foundet universities, they were the only places were people could learn reading and writting etc. They basically safed books during the attacks of the Ge4rmanic and Hunnic hordes. Also they used all ancient authors they could get even translated them from Arabic and all. The whole 'Catholic church is against technology' was propaganda by the Protestants and than Atheists.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Hauke

[Flere210]

3 minutes ago, Hauke said:

About Monica: We know she was Monica von Ochs, which is an Imperial noble house.

Which isn't even true for the Catholic church. Actually the Catholic church was behind a lot of improvements. They foundet universities, they were the only places were people could learn reading and writting etc. They basically safed books during the attacks of the Ge4rmanic and Hunnic hordes. Also they used all ancient authors they could get even translated them from Arabic and all. The whole 'Catholic church is against technology' was propaganda by the Protestants and than Atheists.

This is why i hate Voltaire whit a passion. 

And i would point out that nothing seems to imply that Dagda,Almyra,Brigid or Sreng are more technologically advanced than Fodlan, wich is what would happen if the church actually held back technology.

[Etrurian emperor]

3 hours ago, Flere210 said:

And i would point out that nothing seems to imply that Dagda,Almyra,Brigid or Sreng are more technologically advanced than Fodlan, wich is what would happen if the church actually held back technology.

Sreng certainly won't be more advanced than Fodlan. Given the brief description they see to be a bunch of barbarian tribes. 

Since we know absolutely nothing of Dagda aside from the fact it exists we can't really say for sure. 

There's something interesting with Almyra though. Those ships that show up in the Derdriu chapters are probably theirs since its where Nadir and his army comes from. The ships in question have canons on them that seem a good century too early for a medieval setting. The canons don't do anything, no attention is ever drawn on them and they seem purely decorative but its interesting all the same. 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Etrurian emperor

[Timlugia]

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

There's something interesting with Almyra though. Those ships that show up in the Derdriu chapters are probably theirs since its where Nadir and his army comes from. The ships in question have canons on them that seem a good century too early for a medieval setting. The canons don't do anything, no attention is ever drawn on them and they seem purely decorative but its interesting all the same. 

Technically Fodlan isn't Medieval but middle Renaissance/early modern period when you consider art, Gothic architecture, weapon and plate armors.

And through gambit we know they also use gunpowder weapons, but only in the form of demolition weapon rather than cannon or handheld guns.

 

Quote

Which isn't even true for the Catholic church.

Yes, I should be more clear on that, which I should apologize. Most people probably got the view the "Catholic against science" because that's all the standard textbook says about the Catholic

Edited September 2, 2019 by Timlugia

[SpiceMan]

9 hours ago, Hauke said:

About Monica: We know she was Monica von Ochs, which is an Imperial noble house.

I'm curious, when is this mentioned. I don't remember ever hearing about it.

[Timlugia]

When you first met demonic beast Miklan, there is one option to ask Sothis "How do you know all these?", which Sothis never answered because the fighting.

But looking back it's kind weird, didn't Sothis died in the past before creststone or beast was even made? Wasn't first creatstone made out her heart by TWISTD?

 

Only explanation I can think about was that Agrathan has some kind artificial crest that they had even before killing Sotihs. Because they have crests that's outside current systems. They probably used it in their wars against Sothis and her forces.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Timlugia

[daisy jane]

On 9/2/2019 at 1:44 AM, Crysta said:

Claude’s paired epilogue with Byleth is weird af. How did the Slitherers manage to recover to the point where they’re an actual threat to a consolidated Fódlan without Nemesis, in just a few months? Even if it’s a newly minted nation on the verge of implementing a new ruling system. And I think this is the only GD epilogue that mentions this happening at all.

i just figured while they did some damage - maybe they didn't exactly stamp everything out or another faction. (I can't remember SPECIFICALLY what was said) - all I knew was that after i spent half the epilogue going BUT HE LEFT ME?! FOR REAL? i was like oh thank God the boy came back haha

 

the #1 thing that confused me out of playing this 5 times now (yeup; i started a new file!) - 
Dimitri came to Byleth in the BE: Church path (in a dream? in reality?) like. what?! WHY?!
(I mean in my head it's because it's very obvious that they loved each other, and she was crying that she didn't choose blue lions and save her beloved's life so he came to comfort her. but i mean in reality... did i miss something? i tend to press "skip" when i don't mean to). 

[Timlugia]

9 hours ago, daisy jane said:

the #1 thing that confused me out of playing this 5 times now (yeup; i started a new file!) - 
Dimitri came to Byleth in the BE: Church path (in a dream? in reality?) like. what?! WHY?!
(I mean in my head it's because it's very obvious that they loved each other, and she was crying that she didn't choose blue lions and save her beloved's life so he came to comfort her. but i mean in reality... did i miss something? i tend to press "skip" when i don't mean to). 

I don't truly understand it either, especially I was always plying Male Byleth on Silver Snow

At first I thought Dimitri was still alive, but later convo with others still saying he died, including Felix saying he will bring flower for his family and Dimitri after war. Sylvan says they finally avenged their king. Then I thought maybe it's Byleth's divine power allows them to speak with the dead?

 

Since it's mentioned, another major question I still have after the game is

- Exactly how much divine power Byleth has? The only thing in the game you gained after Sothis granted you full power of progenitor god was just a class (Enlightened One) with good physical growth but still shitty magic growth and spell list. Even Divine Pulse and Sothis Shield were powers you already have before.

What exactly Sothis's power can do? Can Byleth creates new world like Sothis said? Travel back in time more than a few minutes? Bring back the dead? Why can't he just annihilated enemy with an earthquake or storm?

 

BTW, you can watch most cutscenes in the library. But not in battle or monastery conversations.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Timlugia

[Crysta]

8 hours ago, daisy jane said:

i just figured while they did some damage - maybe they didn't exactly stamp everything out or another faction. (I can't remember SPECIFICALLY what was said) - all I knew was that after i spent half the epilogue going BUT HE LEFT ME?! FOR REAL? i was like oh thank God the boy came back haha

I'd expect some stragglers, but not on the level of being capable of nearly defeating Fodlan/Byleth and more on the level implied in Crimson Flower. It's strange because GD is the route where you kick their asses the most.

But whatever. Maybe it'll be explained in DLC but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

[Dark Kain]

17 hours ago, Timlugia said:

- Exactly how much divine power Byleth has? The only thing in the game you gained after Sothis granted you full power of progenitor god was just a class (Enlightened One) with good physical growth but still shitty magic growth and spell list. Even Divine Pulse and Sothis Shield were powers you already have before.

What exactly Sothis's power can do? Can Byleth creates new world like Sothis said? Travel back in time more than a few minutes? Bring back the dead? Why can't he just annihilated enemy with an earthquake or storm?

Aren't STR and MAG of the Enlightened One perfectly balanced? I think any fault here lies in Byleth's natural bases and growths (he starts with 13 STR and 6 MAG!).

S rank Sothis x Byleth claims that Sothis crest stone is now little more than an ornament in ALL the routes, so it is probably going to lose power in all the routes, and not only in the Crimson Flower ending?
In the same S rank Sothis also expects Byleth to eventually die in the future so he is definitely not immortal.

I think the supposed implication is that Sothis power was already fading and a whole bunch of it was expended to save Byleth from the dark dimension.

[Silverly]

Why does Edelgard simply throw Rhea in a dungeon in every route other than her own when one of her TOP PRIORITIES (at least displayed in Crimson Flower) is to kill her and destroy the church? 

I know Rhea is needed for exposition at least in Verdant Wind and Silver Snow but wow it makes no sense for Edelgard