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The many questions about Jeralt's background


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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.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Timlugia said:

Why does Jeralt has major crests?

I think the theory that transfusion from Nabatean to human results in a Major Crest for the human is a pretty solid one.

2 hours ago, Timlugia said:

Why was there no record about him (or his alter egos) in the past being the strongest knight lived?

We don't know that there weren't rumours/a record of this. But there could be any number of reasons for it, including that he wasn't always a strong knight, that he didn't display his skills on purpose, or that he didn't get the opportunity to. Like a lot of your questions, though, the game unfortunately just doesn't give answers.

2 hours ago, Timlugia said:

How much Jeralt knows about Rhea's greater scheme?

Thing is, Rhea didn't really have a greater scheme that we know of. There was a strong desire to resurrect Sothis (which it's unlikely anyone knew about except Rhea before the events of 3H), but we don't know what she did during Jeralt's lifespan to that end apart from the Byleth plan, or if she did anything else at all. And of course, it seems clear that Jeralt knew fairly little about Sitri/Byleth anyway. 

2 hours ago, Timlugia said:

Why did Rhea trust him so much after he "betrayed" her and burn down the monastery?

This is pretty weird for us as players being thrown into the narrative, but she does have at least a century's worth of history with Jeralt at this point, as well as being his saviour, which is probably where her trust comes from.

2 hours ago, Timlugia said:

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?

Jeralt was probably expecting having left the knights to be enough - he didn't leave on particularly bad terms, remember. He only wanted to conceal Byleth from Rhea - she had no reason to go after Jeralt at all because she didn't think he had anything she wanted.

Also, mercenary groups probably weren't very official things, like we imagine guilds or parties to be in a cliche fantasy setting. The mercenaries were "Jeralt's Mercenaries" because Jeralt commanded them and paid them - it's unlikely that they were well-known to the public at all, and even to their clients they would have just been 'mercenaries'. The only reason we have that name is because of the battalion named for them, and Byleth/Jeralt's faction in the prologue - in both cases the name is just for gameplay convenience, because all battalions/factions need names of some kind. 

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3 hours ago, Timlugia said:

- 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?

Just because he doesn't age (or ages very slowly) doesn't mean Jeralt is immortal. It's entirely possible that Rhea saved other people in similar ways but that they subsequently died. Being a Knight of Seiros is a pretty dangerous occupation, after all. Doubly so when you consider that she only saved Jeralt when he risked his own life to save her, and may have done similarly in the past. Being a Knight of Seiros with a habit of putting yourself in harm's way to help others definitely can't have a long life expectancy.

3 hours ago, Timlugia said:

- 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.

I can think of a lot of possible reasons for this. Ultimately, I think that she knows that a lot of what she did with Byleth was morally dubious at best and that she wronged Jeralt in the process, which would make it a lot more likely that she'd forgive him, especially if they'd had decades or centuries of trust built up beforehand. Beyond that, reinstating him is probably the only way she'd get to keep Byleth close. If she'd told him that he wasn't welcome at the monastery but his child had to stay behind, then I can only assume that his response would have been along the lines of "over my dead body". Even if she had managed to force him into it then that would have ruined any chance of getting Byleth to trust her. It's also the best way to keep Jeralt close. Even if she doesn't trust him at all, I can definitely see that she'd want a powerful individual who knows some of her secrets to be somewhere she could keep an eye on him. She also knows that, regardless of Jeralt's feelings towards her personally, he's not the sort of man who risk innocent lives to spite her. She could feel justifiably safe knowing that she could send him on missions like the one to Remire and that he'd give them his best, if not out of loyalty to her then for the people. Finally, there's the fact that Alois was the one to bring him to the monastery. Alois is many things, but discrete is not one of them. He'd probably told half of the knight corps that Jeralt was back within a day of getting back to the monastery, which would have meant there was no way she could have quietly had him disappear again without it raising more questions. It could be a combination of any or all of the above.

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6 hours ago, Timlugia said:

- 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?

Well, we know that Rhea saved Catherine's life, much more recently. But in that case, it's unknown whether there was a blood transfusion involved, or if her lifespan was affected. I believe Catherine had her Crest of Charon from birth (although I'm not sure if this is made explicit), so that might have prevented her from receiving another Crest, even if she received similar help.

6 hours ago, Timlugia said:

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.

It's not clear that Rhea knows, or even suspects, that Jeralt set the fire before he left. Likely, Rhea felt sympathy for him at losing his wife (and, she believed, child), and wanted to give him some "breathing room" to process his grief.

6 hours ago, Timlugia said:

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?

We don't know exactly. This is speculative on my part, but it may be that Rhea is willing to share more with Seteth, due to their shared background, than with a human like Jeralt. Of course, even Seteth found Rhea keeping secrets from him, so if there's anything we can count on, it's Rhea holding her cards close to her chest.

6 hours ago, Timlugia said:

- 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.

Re: Blackmail, the thing is, if Jeralt doesn't have proof, people are going to likely continue believing the word of the Church. And speaking out, or attempting to blackmail them, would turn him into a target.

But yeah, Jeralt's "hiding in plain sight" doesn't make much sense. Nor does Byleth being ignorant of Fodlan politics and the Church of Seiros. This stuff would've worked better if you had Jeralt and Byleth living in a "faraway land" - say Morfis, or Albinea, before being found and coaxed back to the monastery. We could still have the "three Lordlings" under attack, only this time they're on a field trip gone awry. And Leonie, rather than personal experience with Jeralt, could idolize him based on his exploits (which, for "the strongest knight who ever lived", the game never really provides us with any details).

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7 hours ago, lenticular said:

Just because he doesn't age (or ages very slowly) doesn't mean Jeralt is immortal. It's entirely possible that Rhea saved other people in similar ways but that they subsequently died. Being a Knight of Seiros is a pretty dangerous occupation, after all. Doubly so when you consider that she only saved Jeralt when he risked his own life to save her, and may have done similarly in the past. Being a Knight of Seiros with a habit of putting yourself in harm's way to help others definitely can't have a long life expectancy.

I can think of a lot of possible reasons for this. Ultimately, I think that she knows that a lot of what she did with Byleth was morally dubious at best and that she wronged Jeralt in the process, which would make it a lot more likely that she'd forgive him, especially if they'd had decades or centuries of trust built up beforehand. Beyond that, reinstating him is probably the only way she'd get to keep Byleth close. If she'd told him that he wasn't welcome at the monastery but his child had to stay behind, then I can only assume that his response would have been along the lines of "over my dead body". Even if she had managed to force him into it then that would have ruined any chance of getting Byleth to trust her. It's also the best way to keep Jeralt close. Even if she doesn't trust him at all, I can definitely see that she'd want a powerful individual who knows some of her secrets to be somewhere she could keep an eye on him. She also knows that, regardless of Jeralt's feelings towards her personally, he's not the sort of man who risk innocent lives to spite her. She could feel justifiably safe knowing that she could send him on missions like the one to Remire and that he'd give them his best, if not out of loyalty to her then for the people. Finally, there's the fact that Alois was the one to bring him to the monastery. Alois is many things, but discrete is not one of them. He'd probably told half of the knight corps that Jeralt was back within a day of getting back to the monastery, which would have meant there was no way she could have quietly had him disappear again without it raising more questions. It could be a combination of any or all of the above.

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.

Quote

It's not clear that Rhea knows, or even suspects, that Jeralt set the fire before he left. Likely, Rhea felt sympathy for him at losing his wife (and, she believed, child), and wanted to give him some "breathing room" to process his grief.

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.

Quote

We don't know exactly. This is speculative on my part, but it may be that Rhea is willing to share more with Seteth, due to their shared background, than with a human like Jeralt. Of course, even Seteth found Rhea keeping secrets from him, so if there's anything we can count on, it's Rhea holding her cards close to her chest.

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.

Edited by Timlugia
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3 hours ago, Timlugia said:

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.

During the chapter where you first get to explore (right before you pick a house, the part where you have to talk to all house leaders) if you go upstairs and talk to Jeralt, he says he's technically reinstated right under the current commander. But since the current commander is very old he is hardly in the picture.

I always figured Rhea actually believed the child died in the fire. Only upon seeing Byleth after their return she immediately saw the resemblance to Sitri and didn't believe the story Jeralt told about Byleth being born years later at all. Yet she pretended to believe it for a better chance at keeping Byleth close.

As for Jeralt, I could imagine Jeralt being a common name, and people don't usually live long in this time and hardly draw pictures of knights or mercenaries. It doesn't sound like too big a stretch to me to see this working out.

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8 hours ago, whase said:

As for Jeralt, I could imagine Jeralt being a common name, and people don't usually live long in this time and hardly draw pictures of knights or mercenaries. It doesn't sound like too big a stretch to me to see this working out.

Problem is that everyone actually know he was the one and same Jeralt that lead the Knights.

Quote

Edelgard: I appreciate your help back there. Your skill is beyond question. You’re clearly an experienced mercenary. And your father, that would be Jeralt, the Blade Breaker? Former captain of the Knights of Seiros. Oft praised as the strongest knight to ever live. Have I missed anything?

And Leonie knew very well who he was, or she would just think it's a random strong mercenary they hired.

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