Hardric62

Ouch for all this stuff, I hope it will get better for you from now on. The job done with this translation has been awesome so far, hearing of progress is just nice.

Well, That would be why I acknowleged it out loud, and I tried to make it a bare minimum, as in 'basic logic', where you do not let known enemies free reign in the shadows to destroy the society you're trying to build. Or that make Rhea so insanely incompetent and stupid it hurts. Also, from the way she talked about knowing the Mole People were the group proping up Nemesis for his slaughter of the Nabateans when she is freed in Verdant WInd/Silver Snow, and her elaboration after Shambhalla is razed in Verdant Wind, where she very much paints the Mole People as the descendants of these people who got the obliteration treatment when they rose against Sothis... Yup, she totally knew about their existence, and the fact that they survived Mama's anger to make Nemesis the threat he was. If they could survive the devastation she described, I do think it is rather elementary logic to assume that they would survive a mere military defeat of their cronies, and try to locate them to make sure they never try a stunt like that ever again.

Okay, I'll admit that I'm going in headcanon territory here, but since Rhea does know the Mole People exist and fought them the first time, that she also knows that they proped up Nemesis, and likely survived his defeat when they survived the near-total devastation of Fodlan, she had two courses of action offered: 1) Ignore them, hope they die/become irrelevant. 2) Prepare herself form some shadow war to root them out for good, like Edelgard does in Crimson FLower. Given than 1) would be an idea so inasnely foolish and a display of the most epicly gross incompetence ever, I'll give Rhea some credit and consider she chose 2). For making the link with the situation you presented, I'm going to presume she lost that shadow war. The Mole People managed to play dead convincingly enough for long enough, or offered her a decoy Shambhalla to ruin to make her think she had won so she dropped her guard, and by the time she realized they had played her in the present, it was too late. Beause again, the idea that she did nothing during one thousand years against the true culprits of her mother and people's murder, and just assumed they would stop after Nemesis' fall to bring ruin to Fodlan, or were too dead to do it despite surviving a far more punishing defeat, is a way of thinking so grossly stupid that I refuse to consider she could have followed it.

Well, what is she supposed to do exactly, leave the Mole People free to act as they desire? Oh wait, that happened, and it worked out so well too, when everything crumbled around her. She could also, you know, tell her that her Knights are searching for other threats to make sure the job was done right. I mean, if you find a band of Mole People, at what moment did they strike you as looking as law-abidding and peaceful citizens up to no arms while taking their Totally-No-Demonic Beasts on a walk through the countryside to totally not eat peasants or something? Or, I dunno plant covert agents inside a Knights party to do that secretly, and go for the 'Scout for bandits/threats' excuse if someone spotted, after all, scouts have to be discreet to not be spotted while investigating threats. Again, the Knights have assassins teams (Shamir/Hubert support), so what is one more covert ops team?

One last time, slowly: Use. Hired Jobs. As. Excuses. For. Covert. Search. Of. Mole. People. Because. Hired. Jobs. Offer. Possibility. Of. Explaining. Action. All. Across. Fodlan.

Again with moving the goalposts? The game already established that the Knights are pretty much deploying all across Fodlan. They didn't get the reputation they got for collecting bottle caps, you know? Besides, what is so unacceptable about doing things like searching for bandits camps, magic beasts, or whatever plausible cover excuse to do these searches? Well, not exactly. Her holy book does present the Crests as the Goddess' gifts, but is also talking about how greed made these heroes fall, and make the goddess turn her gaze away from Fodlan. That, and Nemesis is a pretty perfect ur-example of 'Bad Crest Bearer'. And in theory, there is a whole commandment for 'Don't abuse your power'. Lack of luck, when nobles build the argument for 'divine right to rule', they do what people with holy books: they cherry pick, keeping the Goddess' favor part, and likely 'forgetting' the other ones. Or at best doing thins like 'Abusing Crests, me? Look at Nemesis, the Bad Crest Bearer. The Church literaly took arms to remove him. They are not condamning me/taking arms against me. Clearly it means what I'm doing is acceptable, and henceforth blessed by the Goddess'. Circular thinking, fallacious, but there is that. Rhea didn't seem in any hurry to actualy apply the relevant parts of her holy book. And complicity by inaction is a thing. And the gaming to get the Crests, while despicable, is just one part of the problem. You have a social class which has been told for one thousand years 'Thanks to this tangible proof of the Goddess' favor, you have a divine right to rule', with Crestless nobles likely settling for the next best thing by arguing that they act under the rulership of blessed nobles, surely it counts for something. One thousand years of that mindset can breed some serious... Entitlement, to say the least. And with it comes the potential for abuse against the population, corruption... And actually, increasing desperation to get the dang Crests, because now they have the sold the idea that they are divine favor, if they disappear, then 'clearly' it is a sign they lost that divine favor for the wider population, and are not fit to rule... I smell revolts incoming. And yet the Church still sat without issuing even a condamnation for these things, putting that moral authority to actual use before the situation was too wide-spread to be dealt with. And well, I do think an interpretation of 'debasing the Goddess' gifts with crass politics and odious behavior' could have been pushed. It's not the things you mentioned, but the medieval Church did took a quite adamant stance against consanguinity within the nobility in the real world, and they tried their damnest to apply it during most of the Middle Ages. Surely Rhea could have at least tried something rather than watch it all go down the drain?

' I began pointing out that Rhea had an army to use as a tool for her own ruling, then had to point out that, yes, this army is able to go all across Fodlan for search and destroy against the Mole People, as long as she can back this up with requests from help to the Knights in the area they are sent to. ' See the bolded part of my precedent quote? She doesn't have to tell the Knights are hunting for Mole People, heck most of the Knights don't even need to know they're hunting Mole People. They just have to do their usual work of bandit/whatever threat-squashing, and if for some reason, she suspects the Mole People are around, not just their hideout, but that they are involved, she hides some agents inside the group with what they need to know, as 'scouts', and if/when they spot Mole People, they point the knights towards the strange spooky people with a skin as white as a corpse, clearly aggressive, and who keeps ranting about other humans being beasts while keeping these Demonic Beasts around them.

Well, the paralogues and the like do paint a picture of rampant banditry, that the nobles are unable to keep under control, when they are not joining the fray themselves (Felix, Sylvain and Ignatz/Raphael's paralogue). So, all happening? Maybe not, but I do think they have at least some reflection in the lore. Like you said, mercs are booked over, that usually means the situation is bad, and traditional autorities are unable to fix it. Well, my point evolved because MrPerson0 keeps moving the goalposts. I began pointing out that Rhea had an army to use as a tool for her own ruling, then had to point out that, yes, this army is able to go all across Fodlan for search and destroy against the Mole People, as long as she can back this up with requests from help to the Knights in the area they are sent to. Back to the overthrowing lords? Welp, I was more envisioning something like that Rhea could have done when the Crest System began to go toxic: -One lord begins to have funny ideas about Crests and divine right to rule. -Rhea uses her position as well, archbishop to condamn that duck, calling back to the fall of Nemesis and the likes, to kill that sort of idea. -If one lord keeps pushing? Using that moral authority to condamn them further, plus some diplomacy with the Emperor (I am talking about niping that idea in the bud, so probably back when it is the Empire only), to just send her army to remove the offending noble after singling him out thhrough these condamnations (Lonato's fate show that at this scale at least, it is possible). The Emperor should not mind too much, since that would mean he remains the only noble having direct sanction from the Church to rule (archbishop as 'witness' of each new crowining). -Poor sod who got removed becomes an example of the fact that, no, you don't get to have funny idea about Crests. Admittedly, the knights could have been overestimating themselves. That being said, elite groups could also potentially not be that much of a downside. Medieval armies often weren't actually that big, and one of the reason knights lasted that long was, welp, because they were just that more effictive than drafted levies. Question then become just how much they overestimated themselves. (As an interesting PS note, they also seem to have assassins teams, if that Hubert/Shamir support is anything to go by).

I was talking about possibility for deploying her Knights all across Fodlan, which was the point you were discussing about when I provided the answeer you quoted. And guess what, it does mean Rhea can get pretexts to send her Knights all across Fodlan. And for the control thingie, when you have an armed force patrolling a territory and removing hostile forces across it or keeping the order/peace, you are usually considered as controlling the terrotiry. Euh, even in medieval times, by 14, you had kings and queens go through this thing called regency, where others ruled in their stead until they were deemed old enough, and that was generally closer to 20 years than 14. Also, that thing called the Insurrection of the Seven also had been in full force by then. Edelgard was nowhere near even a scrap of power by then, so planning something like the Tragedy of Duscur...

And it took her years to shake them off that much, and Tharundel is still sitting on a massive army, loyal to only him, she still has to play nice with him, bails out his cronies (Hubert Paralogue), or leave him do things like snatching all Alliances' Relics, and then shows that he has nukes to use to make sure she 'minds her manners'. Outright confrontation would have meant bloody civil war, and more than likely ruined her chances of winning her war. And that's assuming they would have left her go that far while she was in the phase 'get the Empire behind her' if it became clear she was going to attack them first. And that is with Best Case Crimson Flower. They clearly can manage to have an even deeper grip in other routes. Tharundel does refer to her as their 'prized weapon', remeber? That usually means you take precautions to make sure this sort of people remain under control for at least as long as you need them for your own objectives. Almighty Gygax, you are serious. Here is another secret: these are but a sample of the requests sent to the Church of Seiros. Remember things like, the story missions? The other paralogues? The skirmishes you can go for all across Fodlan with the Battle option? Knights are clearly having way more missions than the ones seen on-screen (they are repeatedly mentioned as streched thin. You know, that would imply they are already been sent to the four corners of Fodlan). Also, another mind-boggling fact: it's only over one year. Just imagine how many other requests they could have gotten over the one thousand years they existed. And yet the one thing he snapped for was Duscur, aka something you could not rationnaly pinpoint on Edelgard, owing to her age and position at the moment of the Tragedy. That does not point towards a very rational reaction to this sort of revelations, or a reaction subtle enough such as the one required here. Oh, and the fact they would have diverging opinion on how to settle this (Dimitri thinks the statu quo is to be bettered, Edelgard that it should be shattered, up to including the Church. COnflict looks rather hard to avoid here). There is also the fact he considers himself that things with Edelgard are beyond the point of discussion (his Ball scene). And again, that's assuming they don't take umbrage of something like, oh I dunno, their pet Nemesis 2.0 project taking a course of action leading to her openly and directly rebelling against them.

Was the case with the Claude example I pointed out, and welp, my point was more to show what sort of reaction Dimitri could have had to that sort of revelation. Hint, not exactly stellar. Little secret: they took over, remember Tharundel and that thing called Insurrection of the Seven? And they have been in control of Adrestia for what, the better part of a decade now? You bet that Edelgard was given a free 'choice' here. And they also do that routinely for bandit squashing all across Fodlan, plus covering students during their assigned mission. Is it that hard to use these pretexts for covert ops?

Except they acted like that, in BL and GD routes respectively. That scene of the Flame Emperor Reveal for Blue Lions, and the scene with Claude and Edelgard in the library of Golden Deer are there for a reason. . . . Okay, what parts of the definitions of 'coup', handler' and 'puppet ruler' you didn't understand? And just because they need Edelgard alive doesn't mean they cannot deep-six any intiative to get things to get out from under their thumb. Actually, it looks like an excellent reason to watch her closely and do just that. Seriously? Her Knights have pretty much a free pass to go anywhere on Fodlan, as long as a pretext exist. So... I freaking dunno, use these pretexts, and when they are not enough, create other ones?

Dimitri: ... You serious? Because I can't help but hear people getting neck-snapped with a one-hand grip when you say that. Claude: That was tried. No one was willing to do first step, it died. Chose to work with the Mole People: Again, the same Mole People controlling her Empire. Because I only need one look to both Aegir and Tharundel to see the one who was wearing the pants in that plot, no matter which one was ostensibly the ruler. It does give them a tiny bit more leverage than you think, and one relatively hard to shake off (it takes years in CF, and Arianrhod is there to show you that it is not an easy processus). Also, friendly reminder that before the well was terminally poisoned with Remire and Jeralt, you always had at least one Mole People in Garreg Mach, ThomaSolon and MoniCrony, and later one (MoniCrony) literally glued to Edelgard harder than her Doki Doki namesake. You generally call that 'handlers', aka people you put there to control covert assets so they play the script as intended and do not entertain funny ideas of going rogue. Euh, did you looked at that map? The only part of Fodlan not controlled by one of the three kingdoms is Sreng. I think there were aplenty chances to find them.

Well, no. Just no. For several reasons: 1) Discussion was already dismissed and attempted. Dimitri's scene for the Ball? He openly acknowledges him and Edelgard have driften apart too much for that. Golden Deer? Claude and Edelgard don't manage to trust each other enough, and nothing happens. 2) Rhea was preparing to hand over the Church to Mama, important distinction. She marginally switches her position after the Flame Emperor disrupts her ritual, but she didn't seem that happy with its results even before that. Not sure of what would have happened if no Flame Emperor Interruption. 3) Heck, the very fact things progressed that far regarding Sothis is pretty much the ultimate perfect storm, from the bandit attack to the Holy Tomb, to that fusion... and the coincidences only started to pile up because that bandit attack started it all. No war, no tricks like that, and the whole sequence gets out of sync. And Fodlan is already on the verge of collapse and war anyways because of how rotten things have gotten, so any delay just short out that possibility. 4) Edelgard had things to gain from the war. Yes. But ultimately, it was the Mole People's war. You know, the people who used Aegir's little coup to take control of the Empire? And who clearly wanted that war? At what moment did they give the impression they would tolerate the idea that Edelgard would do anything else than declare that war for them exactly? And at what moment do they give the impression they would call off said war? 1) People cherry-picking the holy books for proping their position. It's new how exactly? And why the Church, you know, that supreme moral authority with an army said to be able to rival with any kingdom of Fodlan, never cracked down on the earlier cases to make it clear they couldn't paly at that little game? Dress it in 'Remember Nemesis, Sinner!' and voila. 2) Immortal ruler means for me that she had centuries to see the rot sip in and try to extract it from her system. While using that supreme moral authority position she built for herself, or that freaking army she commands. She is the one talking about how she wanted to impose peace and order on Fodlan, I will hold her accountable for the failure. 3) They also use catastrophes like Duscur to hide their execution of would-be assassins (Cristophe), while doing jack shit to rein in shit like Duscur, and their way of mediating seems... skewed (War of the Eagle and Lion. A frakking Knight is the one to tell you that yup, the Church was really leaning on Loog's side here. Yes, they were winning, but mediation is usually supposed to be a neutral party, not help one party to bleed dry the other). 4) ... Just how far would Hanneman have been allowed to go though? His research with crests was bound to touch upon truths Rhea didn't want to be revealed, and awake some nice flashbacks to the Mole People regarding tech. And if you can't control a scholar by making him agree with secrecy through money, or discredit them, there are only so many ways of keeping them under control... Oh, and how could I forget the Mole People? What happen when they take interest, be it for assassination or taking control? I mean, there is no shortage of corrupt noble they can use as strawmen for that type of actions. Also, it has been one frakking thousand years. I refuse to believe he was the first to think about that over the centuries. And yet, nothing changed so far. If anything, that's a bad mark against Rhea, and a big one. She knew the buggers had proped Nemesis up from two-bit thug to 'King of Liberation', that they were no quitters and would come back to sink the boat. The fact she either couldn't be assed to think about fighting them in the shadows to make sure they didn't rock her boat, or failed to win that fight after making it her responsibility by erasing trace of the Mole People is not exactly a sterling achievement to boast about. At least in the second case she tried rather than gift-wrap them Fodlan. And heck, you really think she is an incompetent moron if you figure she couldn't even try for an old-fashioned searching over one freaking thousand years and just let the guys do the duck the wanted accross Fodlan. You can cover lots of ground with that sort of time, you know?

*Look at Edelgard, Hubert, Petra, Dorothea, Bernadetta, Dimitri, Dedue, Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain, Ashe, Mercedes, Claude, Ignatz, Raphael, Lysitheia, Marianne, Leonie's backstories, both the bad and the close calls.* You have a strange definition of sheltered. 1) Well, it is her Church, her moral authority shaping a society, and she doesn't seem to have expanded that much effort on fixing that mess. Also, okay, it didn't happen in canon but... She would have to do that sort of things over these one thousand years, because these things would challenge the authority she needs to play peacekeeper and supreme moral authority on the continent. Monotheistic religions don't take kindly to competition, especially when there is a malicious outside group dedicated to ruin it all known by the surpeme echelon of the church's hierarchy. I was also talking about Claude's support in general, not just the Church when I was mentioning the 'beasts' issue. And I spotted quite a few discussions involving the Japanese versions of the texts saying he was actually willing to go that far if needed. Does it look bad? Probably, but welp, Rhea couldn't be assed from pushing for preaching more tolerance so far, or nip in the bud the obsession on Crests before it went toxic (her holy book paints them as divine favor, and she is the immortal who would get to see the society evolve around that idea, it's squarely on her head), and if she was doing things so well, the Mole People wouldn't have got their hooks on two kingdoms of Fodlan out of three and sparked a continent-wide war. You generally want to remove rulers who haven't been up to the task, and Rhea is only willing to budge here in exceptional circumstances which materialized through insane chance and others characters couldn't have known about without reading the script. It only leave so many ways of removing her of power if she doesn't want to. 2) Yes, but the ones which get the removal treatment are the ones about the sensitive data about the parts fo history Rhea is censuring. And given Garreg Mach's position in Fodlan, I expect it to be a quite important center of learning for scholars too (eh, Hanneman moved here fo his studies for a reason). Looks pretty obvious to me than other people than the students will be concerned with this censure.

There is some slight problems with the 'But... Cyril! Shamir!' argument: 1) Rhea's opinion is clearly not the wider one inside the Church and society. And given the warm opinion on Dedue for being from Duscur (and yes, I know, assassination plus genocide... except this sort of escalation generally has to be built on a sizeable amount of less obvious at first glance resentment to happen), I have... doubts about how the rest of the Church and society sees them (friendly reminder that Claude supports also point out that foreigners are seen as 'beasts' in Fodlan). I also recall that the Church is noted in epilogues to be reformed toward a more tolerant stance, which means there was some intolerance before for this to happen. Heck, Catherine's support with Shamir does not hint at a wider tolerance for that type of stance either. 2) Direct service of Rhea for both of them has to buy them some tolerance... But, welp, it does not necessarily translate into wider tolerance. Heck, the Crusades and the Reconquista both saw either side involved going for mercs from other confessions, and the tolerance wasn't that good both during the hotter phases of these conflicts, or in the aftermath. And beyond that: 1) It's pretty much the costs of 'doing business'. Rhea rules a religion professing about an omniscient, omnipotent goddess, aka a Catholic expy, down to most of the titles used. These religions are generally quite intolerant because, welp, they preach as if they wre absolute truth, they can hardly tolerate 'competition' without reneging on their own creed. Especially here in Fodlan, where the Mole Men can use that to foster troubles (see Solon happily offering Claude 'forbidden informations'', they clearly know how to use that type of moves). And in both her supports and tea conversations, she does not hide she sees the Church as Fodlan's peacekeeper, her mean of enforcing peace and order on the continent. It's harder to do when you are not the unquestioned moral authority. 2)Also, between the warnings of heresy, and the active suppression of forbidden knowledge... Forgive me if it does look like Claude is in for more trouble than a stern lecture when this kind of warning is used. 1) Like you said, they just said it, pretty much to their face. Could we please not take the students for complete and utter morons please? I dare think these 'denials' were more in the lines 'just how fucked up is that duck' that outright negations of reality. 2) People often say 'Rhea is a medieval leader, she gets to do that'... While it is actually a bit more delicate than that in reality, there is the fact Fodlan is a more violent society than modern times, so I will go out on a limb and assume that violent punishments for crimes are more wide-spread. And point out the fact than more often than not, medieval executions did end up as impromptu spectacle for the population. And the students are still unerved. I guess you can call it personal interpretation, but I don't get the idea that this sort of execution is all normal to them from that.

And yet most of the students who fought them, and killed most of their buddies, are still unnerved when Rhea decides to execute the survivors. That doesn't exactly scream 'swift executions are par of the course' in Fodlan to me. Claude's supports with Lorenz and Leonie. In both of them, he gets warned by his friends that he should keep a lid on his idea that nature, not the goddess, is responsible for fertility, because it would be grounds for heresy. That doesn't seem like the sort of environment when outspoken contestation is allowed to exist.

I'm going to guess it's because the dubstep missiles can't actually be used willy-nilly, because even outside CF, missile strike to Enbarr during VW or SS (heck, even AM, I don't think Tharundel was the only one to know how to fire them) would have atomized both Edelgard, Rhea, the 'Fell Star' and their best elements in one move. And they're not the sort of choir boys to shy away from that type of tactics.

Ow. Best of luck with this, Parrhesia.

Beyond the spiritual leader part you forgets and the considerable influence a medieval pope could get, you forget that Rhea's goals, as said by herself, was imposing peace and order on Fodlan. From the moment she works to create and enforce such political situation... This is ruling. A hands off approach to the day to day stuff thanks to nobles doing that work, but it is still ruling. And she has an army with which she can potentially enfore that ruling, with mandate to act anywhere on Fodlan. Oh, and the political capital to broker deals between Kingdoms. And such a system require influencing and shaping the nobility the right way, an approach well-suited for an immortal controling the continent's faith (and education, the Church was doing that for the Middle Ages to better reinforce its power and influence, Rhea is smart enough to think of that even before the Officiers Academy)... Theoretically, because that rule clearly failed, and hard. HRE Emperors Frederick II (How dare he negotiate during a Crusade?) and Henry IV (Canossa) would surely like to discuss that point. And the pope managed that one without real armies under his direct command. Pretty sure Rhea can manage one better.

Except Aztec society was one of the root causes of their downfall. The Aztec Empire was actually the Tenochtitlan Empire, with one city and some relatively closer allies beating up and browbeating other cities under their rule through sheer rule of strength, while getting prisoners slaves for these sacrifices they held so often, and being embroiled in several wars with other political entities of the region. And no 'colony', just Tenochtitlan, so the city was actually quite isolated in the big order of things. It meant Cortez had no shortage of disgruntled Mesoamericans to ally for getting auxiliaries and the numbers of troops actually needed to besiege Tenochtitlan and just fight his war, that the Aztecs' defeats led to more defections from disgruntled subjects and allies not really profitting from the political situation anymore, something compounded by the fact Tenochtitlan was the main target. Nobody was rushing to help the pricks because their only actual bonds of them were those of might, which had just been shattered by the conquistadores, and once Tenochtitlan were gone, goodbye to any form of unity, allowing the Spanish troops to finish the conquest later, piecemeal. The Incas got the same problem, except the ' extreme centralization' was embodied by the emperor, plus a civil war of succession helping to get in there in the first place. Mesoamerican empires fell in big part because their societies had big faillings which allowed the few hundred of Europeans to destroy them so utterly. The mole men are also exploiting Fodlan's failings.

I get the impression you keep missing that one, but here it is again: Shamir and Alois Paralogue, Alliance can't even defend its own capital against a pack of pirates, and the ducktards pretend they are Almyrans, so I dare say such a thing should trigger a priority answer when they attack your duchy's freaking capital and big money-maker. If the situation is reaching that freaking point in the Alliance, these attacks certainly don't look remotely minors, and man Fodlan doesn't look remotely peaceful. And most Paralogues are about established noble houses unable of jugulating that banditry too. That level of low-key anarchy looks like a pretty bloody situation to me, and is clearly not something that happened in one day, some build-up had to happen. And anarchy like that to the size of the continent would be accumulating quite the body count, and welp, that looks like something quite close to constant warfare by itself. Because of course, going by Lorenz and Ignatz and Raphael's Paralogues, you get petty wars between nobles, nobles trying their own hand to banditry, rebellions which have to be crushed (Lysitheia got to feel that one pretty bad)... Seriously, the whole continent is falling apart. Because I'm sorry, when groups of armed people are killing themselves everywhere, that is a form of warfare, and one the current nobility seems unable to contain when they are not joining the slaughter. And also, I guess you'll say headcanon, but my memories of history and things like 'Pax Romana' tells me that you can rebellions aplenty even during 'peace times', so i will wonder how many Lonatos got the axe accross the centuries, because again, you don't reach a point where the ruler of half the continent can go 'Fuck the Church' during medieval times and not have their country fall apartnor at least no major intern troubles beyond mole people rocking the boat where they can because of that deicision without some serious institutional failure from the Church.

Heck, and just look at the other three paralogues in the Alliance: Raphael/Ignatz: Corrupt nobles slaughter merchants for the pettiest pretexts, using monsters. Lorenz: While being targetted by other corrupt nobles for petty wars. Alois/Shamir: The kicker. The knights go to defend Deirdriu. Seat of power of House Riegan, capital of the Alliance and its main trade port, and henceforth main money-maker, from pirates, because no one else is available for the job. When a noble house can't muster the troops to defend its own capital and money-maker like that against bandits, even/especially ones caliming to be Almyran troops, it's generally a sign that things have gone to shit.

Euh, not wanting to be a cynical wet blanket or anything, but inertia in society can be a mean thing, and you'd be surprised how many people maintain a system they dislike because they just can't imagine the world can change so tremendously. And honestly, many students in the academy show signs of that mindset in Supports and their behavior (Sylvain, Ingrid, Mercedes, Marianne... Pre-support, there is some serious degree of resignation to their position in life). They also sho the potential of moving past these issues, yes, but that is not an easy route by any means. And that's without interference of the rest of the corrupt nobility, who already tanked reforming in two countries already, and the mole men who want to rock the boat. And there is the fact that deep enough changes will become contestations of the Church's power by virtue of questioning one of its core creeds and showing it is not actually true. Real Life Churchs never took to such things gracefully, and... Rhea doesn't exactly strike me as the sort of open-minded person able to see this happen without reacting violently.

Because by that point her system had utterly collapsed, Claude made it clear he knew about the buullshitting, and, welp, said bullshitting had been one of the factors leading to the whole bloody mess? Like he said, by that point, time for secrecy was very much over. If anything I'd hold how long it took her to fess up against her. Because she refused to acknowledge her mistakes up to her deathbed. Again, my dream ruler, Rhea is most emphatically not. Yes. But in Fodlan, Rhea had a direct hand in shaping society in Fodlan for one thousand years, in the name of her own brand of ruling. And that makes Fodlan's failures very much hers. But ultimately, Sothis isn't in the driving seat, hell she isn't even driving shotgun, only showing up after the end in one specific scenario. Ultimately, it is Byleth alone, with 'bonus' powers, yes, but it is Byleth, and that's it. Some people can choose to link them and Sothis more closely, but ultimately, I dare think Byleth would have taken similar choices without the hair and eyes color change. Yes, I know that would suppose moving past the several points where the fusion with Sothis gave them the means of surviving some of the ordeals on the way. But ultimately, that fusion only cleared these obstacles, the rest is pretty much the professor/teach.