Timlugia

While some evidences suggest that the game had fairly high level of completion by the end of last year (already have English localization UI even on E3). I doubt the game are in distribution more than 2 months from release date.

The problem here is that both the Church and the mural were clearly built after the war, not before they split. Yet the other ten crests are on the mural. It's like seeing Judas Iscariot being kept in the same, or even higher level than other Apostles in a Christian church painting

Why would they put "heretics" on their mural, even above some ten heroes then? Wouldn't they be wiped out from the history?

It seems that Crest owner could actually "pull out" the crest like an item or projection. One of the screenshots on JP official site was Edelgard showing her crest in front of her subjects.

This is very likely IMO, maybe "Liberation king" was like Rudolf, who wants to cast away all influence from the dragons.

The weird thing are the names: according to the lore, Seiros defeated Nemesis then created both Empire and the Church under one banner. Yet her new country was named Adrestia, which is the alternative name for Nemesis. Why would you name your country after your enemy? There must be more to this...

I was assuming the woman in trailer one was Seiros herself, due to also being depict on the mural (but with hood on). I think the church is powerful because of the goddess, she's likely actively interceding somehow in Foldlan. We don't know what exactly the goddess looks like, she's almost certainly a white Divine Dragon from the previous Famitsu posts, but no in game reference at all so far. (We don't know her actual looks, her name or how she communicated with church) Or that what's her relationship with Sothis either.

It would depends on the origin of the church: Did Seiros created the current church herself? (like as an imperial cult) or the Church was created in the later times by people worshiping her? If it's the former, then Edelgard should be related to Rhea somehow (could be very distant through), if it was the later, the two could be completely unrelated. I am also very puzzled by how Nemesis is also known as Adrasteia, why would St. Serios using the name of enemy for her empire?

I wouldn't be surprised that St. Serios and Rhea are both manakete from their appearance (green hair, green eye female wielding powers), and as mentioned, not showing ears. My problem with "church/Rhea is inherently evil" is that so far every description about the Church except one vague line about Rhea is positive: The lore states they were the keeper of peace, how they stop three countries fighting recently; how Jeralt willing to come back to work for them with his child; and how three countries all sent their best students to the church (wouldn't make sense if Church was an Empire's puppet or propaganda machine), There is currently no mention on any atrocity committed by the church. Edelgard also blamed the Crest rather than the Church in the trailer.

Well, technically Saint Heim, Emmeryn, Chorm, Tiki were all in the same role. We also had the previous Exalt who launched a crusade over decades against Grimleals..

Just wondering, what real evidence we have so far that Rhea was evil, other than one line of she passes strict judgement on her enemy? We don't even know what kind enemy being mentioned here, knowing how Fire Emblem works, they could be another totally nonredeemable doomsday cultist group. (We already saw enemy called "cultists" in the last publishes)

And comparing it to Record of Lodoss War, tell me again that Fire Emblem wasn't anime back then. My bet is that OP didn't watch fantasy anime in the 90s...

We know they also have battle lines, we saw it in Nintendo JP commercial last month

Because clickbait writers always compared it to Yoshi's Island 1 , which was considered as main line Mario game rather than a Yoshi's standalone game, thus reflecting it's budget and advertisement difference.

I would say Naga or one of well known Divine Dragons, because despite some people claimed earlier that Fodlan is brand new setting, many currently design and setting makes it possible to me it's actually related to Archanea-Jugdral, like how Gaiden or Genealogy at first advertised as new worlds. - Design and setting for Divine Dragons (Green hair, green eye, silver dragon, being worshiped as gods, manipulating times) - Falchion looking sword - Legend of ten ancient heroes and their decedents

E3 this years is on June 11th. Maybe we will get a trailer with Expo, then final trailer on E3. (Trailer on E3 is pretty certain one)

Don't we already see in Trailer 2 Edelgard ordering a charge? I think her Cipher card also has skill called "Charge in unison"

Well, he has a demonic name, and design that's very antagonistic in the sense of previous FE games. (pitch black armor with hexagram star). We also have scene that dark aura surrounds Byleth, and the final line from Edelgard in the trailer 1. So yes, prota could turn out be in league with villain, at least some part of the game. Also think about the lyrics, a Sothis possessed Byleth could fit into the song Yet still I hide, behind this mask that I have become My blackened heart, scorched by flames of force I can’t run from I look to you like a red rose seeking the sun no matter where it goes I long to stay where the light dwells, to guard against the cold that I know so well The last part is particularly standing out here, who do we see in the trailer staring at each other? Sothis

I want to point out that in the new screenshots, there are a few new type of enemies, including "Cultist" ( 教団兵 ) Another thing was the bandit looking old man fighting church solider with Falchion like sword in trailer one had a cape bearing Sothis' crest... My theory is that Sothis is the true villain, being a younger Divine Dragon, she wants to overthrow the current one (White dragon of the Church) ruling the continent, so she enlists various humans including Byleth to wage war against Seiros and her follower. Byleth is also quite suspicious too, having a demonic name and very traditionally antagonist design don't help...

If you read my first posts, I already explained this. Dragon loli isn't unique to Archanea , but dragon girl with green hair, golden flying dragons with four feet, goddess with white wings, with a background of dragon centered monotheism religion all together is unique to Archanea series so far. Magvel, Tellius, Fate dragons all have very unique designs and settings apart from Archanea

If it was just homage/reference, why would it so focus on Archanea though? All the elements we saw were very unique to Archanea series, why not include also very popular Tellius or Fates designs?

I have strong feeling that Byleth was more than a traditional MU/protagonist... It's very possible Byleth was a hostile character some point in the game, as hinted in the trailer: - His name Byleth is based on a powerful demon king in the hell - His crest doesn't belong any of the house, in fact the symbol on his chest looks like a hexagram. Dark scheme armor is also strong contrast to three lords colorful design - The soldiers under him are different than the three lords, the lords soldiers only wore circlets, but Byleth's men wore a face covering helmet. In fact, in the volcano scene it's clearly that Byleth was fighting soldiers loyal to three lords. I suspect the game would have twists about Byleth being a turncoat/traitor, but still redeemable later since the ending line in the trailer sounds like Edelgard was trying to save her teacher. In this case, the game probably began as player controlling Byleth, introducing each lord and background as prologue. In main chapters, Byleth disappeared/betrayed three lords, and player controlled lords have to fight and capture Byleth The third section would be Byleth being imprisoned/sealed away, with Edelgard with trying to find a solution to help Byleth. The game could have divided paths at this point, features at least one lords disagree with Edelgard, forcing player to choose sides. Or having three lords strike out on there own like FE10 Then final chapter would bring all character together and decides the fate of the land.

Honestly, I think the trailer is implying Fodlan is part of Archanea-Jugdral universe, if we take a closer look at the dragons and did some elimination - Dragon religion, absent in Tellius series, in Tellius dragon is just powerful shape changing beasts. - "traditional" design of dragon: Western flying dragons with four feet, especially white-silver Divine Dragons with golden horns. Elibe and Fates had very different design of dragons, such as chicken looking Fae, bat winged Myrrh, and deer looking Corrin. - Traditional design of Divine Dragon Manakete: the Goddess human form shown with green hair and green eyes, dragon tiara, and mural showing her with feathered wings(similar to Tiki), again another tradition from Archaena. Another minor detail is her choice of purple ribbon band tying to her hair, similar to Nagi/Tiki traditional dress. While some people doubt if the goddess in the mural was the same as the woman on the battlefield, I think they are. Why would they introduce two characters side by side, alternating while narrator explains about their religion? Both characters also wear the same flowers and clothing scheme. And mural was never meant to be a realistic portrait to begin with, in FE3 Naga was depicted as a giant blond man slaying dragons with a sword. - Falchion looking weapon: The Goddess later was holding sword that bear strong similarity of Falchion, a weapon only created by Naga. With dragon wing guard, red crystal in the hilt, and long fuller. the only series left then would be Archanea-Jugdral. And I doubt they would decide to create a new series using so many iconic old designs from particular one series.

Mural was never meant to be realistic portrait of the actual character. Remember in FE3, the mural depicted Naga as giant blond man killing dragons with a sword? It couldn't be further from the truth. Barring from the non-canon drawing tome in Heroes, FE series hasn't have anything like a camera yet. Furthermore, the trailer clearly state the goddess doesn't live with her people (watching over Foldin from her kingdom on the sky), the mural was very unlikely created in the same generation with Saint Seros, so the artist was based on oral tradition and their imagination when depicting the goddess. On the other hand, the trailer strongly indicated the woman was the goddess, not only both wear the same flower, they alternated the mural and the woman when narrator was addressing the background of goddess.