Fire Emblem: Three Houses – Ashen Wolves / Characters

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/FireEmblemThreeHousesAshenWolves

A secret "fourth house" in the hidden society called Abyss, which exists underneath the Garreg Mach Monastery and is available only in the DLC. The Ashen Wolves are a house In Name Only composed of criminals and outcasts; their faction leader is Yuri Leclerc.

The Ashen Wolves get their own side-story upon purchasing the Expansion Pass that takes place entirely during Part I of the main game, called Cindered Shadows. Completing specific chapters of it is the only way in which the Ashen Wolves can be recruited during the main story.

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In General

Ashen Wolves' Banner

"We're a unique bunch from all walks of life. Once you get to know us, I'm sure you'll love it here."

— Yuri introducing the Ashen Wolves

Tropes Associated with the Ashen Wolves

All of the Other Reindeer: Those who have been ostracized on the surface, whether it's the elderly, orphans, the infirmed, or merchants that have been persecuted by nobles, come to reside in Abyss and reject those who live on the surface that rejected them first.
Animal Motifs: Keeping with the theme of the other houses, they have this as well. Their house animal is the wolf, specifically based on special legendary wolves said to guard the goddess' home. Rhea is the one who gave the house their name.
Ascended Extra: They go from DLC in Three Houses to part of the main roster in Three Hopes, and they are integrated into the main story as opposed to being a side story entirely separated from the main plot.
Blue Blood: Balthus and Constance are nobles, though formerly as they admit to feeling as though society turned its back on them. Yuri, like Ashe, was adopted into nobility, but he abandoned it for plot reasons.
Broad Strokes: While the Cindered Shadows story contradicts a number of things in the main game DLC ^noteByleth meeting the Ashen Wolves before the Cindered Shadows events started, the Ashen Wolves having their relics during Cindered Shadows, Aelfric having been forced out of the church some time ago due to a scandal instead of still being a Cardinal and caretaker of Abyss (and by extension, Byleth first meeting Aelfric a few months after they do in Cindered Shadows), the different timings of Byleth learning things about their mother, and working with all three house leaders without mentioning what class they teach, there are implications that some version of the Cindered Shadow's events still took place during the main game:
- A quest in the main game has the appearance of Aelfric and involves paying respect to Sitri, showing this version still has history with her.
- Chapter 9 has all the Ashen Wolves members outside Abyss. The end of Cindered Shadows has Rhea disband the group, and they all leave Garreg Mach but promise to return.
- Both of their Paralogues (one with Balthus and Hapi, another with Yuri and Constance) have them obtain the Heroes' Relics that were shown during the events of the DLC and they are unlocked before Chapter 9.
- Events of the main story are mentioned in the DLC, such as the raiding of the Holy Mausoleum and how Byleth knows a little bit about their mother and even foreshadows some events in the future.
- A Nintendo Dream interview also had the developers support this view, stating that in their minds some variation of Cindered Shadows' events still happen during the main game routes, just without Byleth being involved, and that Cindered Shadows is simply the version that shows "how that story would have gone if the protagonist had been there."
Chained by Fashion: The Ashen Wolves all wear some kind of black chain in their outfits.
Color-Coded Characters: Like the original members of the cast, they have unique time skip outfits with colors associated with them and their classes:
- Yuri - Purple/Grey
- Balthus - Brown
- Hapi - Green
- Constance - Red/Pink
Defeat Means Friendship: The first battle in "Cindered Shadows" is against the Wolves, who mistake the party for aggressors. After defeating them, and resolving the misunderstanding, they join forces with you.
- In Three Hopes, almost every time the Wolves are met, it is as an enemy general that must be defeated and recruited:
  - On Scarlet Blaze, Yuri starts with the Kingdom. On Golden Wildfire and Azure Gleam, he starts with the Empire. Recruiting him in Golden Wildfire is done the chapter prior to the Empire reaching a pact to work with you.
  - On Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire, Balthus starts with the other side between the Empire and Alliance, working a mercenary contract. On Azure Gleam, he is encountered in the middle of quitting working for Metodey, and thus is recruited by aiding him, not defeating him.
  - On Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire, Constance and Hapi start with the Church, having been pressed into service straight from Abyss. On Azure Gleam, they start with the Empire, their homeland.
Defector from Decadence: Averted, as the Ashen Wolves are already vagabonds twice over, both from their homelands, and after having disbanded in the main story before you recruit them. The characters can be recruited on any route in, but you must complete certain chapters of the DLC to make them available for recruitment in the main story in Three Houses.
Demoted to Extra: After Cindered Shadows, the four of them are extra playable characters, and have limited plot influence and limited supports.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Ashen Wolves are an ostracized house living in the basement of Garreg Mach and haven't had a teacher in a long time. They're essentially a delinquent class from high-school dramas.
Downloadable Content: They are only available in Three Houses with the fourth DLC expansion side story "Cindered Shadows".
Dysfunction Junction: Even though the Ashen Wolves are only four people strong, between Yuri's Dark and Troubled Past, Balthus's constant troubles with debt, Constance's split personality, and Hapi's unstable powers, they have enough dysfunction between them to compare to the main houses.
The Fellowship Has Ended: At the end of Cindered Shadows, Rhea decides to disband the Ashen Wolves because she feels that the house's existence pressures its members into remaining in Abyss. The four students depart Abyss to tend to their own affairs, but they all know that they will return soon enough because Abyss has become their true home.
Foil: Serves as one towards those who slither in the dark. The Ashen Wolves, and as a whole the residents of Abyss, live underneath Garreg Mach and are ostracized, and they in turn reject the world because of personal experiences and prefer to live in the shadows comfortably. In contrast, those who slither in the dark are descendants of an ancient civilization that was wiped off the earth when they attempted to kill Sothis and detest the inhabitants of Fódlan, referring to them as mere "beasts" and actively plan on subjugating them.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Balthus is Sanguine, Constance is Choleric, Hapi is Melancholic, and Yuri is Phlegmatic.
Gender-Equal Ensemble: The Ashen Wolves have two males (Balthus and Yuri) and two females (Constance and Hapi) as students.
Got Volunteered: In Three Hopes on the Scarlet Blaze route, Hapi and Constance are pressed into service by the Church to aid in the defense of Garreg Mach against the Empire's invasion since they need as many fighters as possible with several Knights of Seiros missing. Deconstructed in that while Constance is far more reluctant than Hapi to be fighting the Empire, neither are very happy about the situation and can be recruited by offering them a place in the Empire's forces via spending Strategy points and after being beaten.
Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: The two men are geared towards physical classes and their primary weapons are swords and gauntlets respectively, while the two women are both geared towards the long-range magic classes.
Hazy-Feel Turn: Poaching the Ashen Wolves to Edelgard's side is this, due to Yuri, Constance and Balthus being aligned with the Church Of Seiros. Hapi is an odd case, as she openly shows disdain for the church in her supports due in part to her Dark and Troubled Past. Constance at least expresses that her turn is understandable after talking to Edelgard and finding out her motivations.
Ironic Name:
- Yuri is a male Gay Option. In Three Hopes, he also notes the irony in his real birth name, which is presumed to be "Regulus", pointing out its meaning was too ostentatious for a poor adoptee.
- Balthus (Japanese name Balthazar) isn't particularly wise most of the time.
- Hapi is frequently The Eeyore.
- Constance is very inconsistent.
Ironic Nickname: During Cindered Shadows Aelfric often calls the Ashen Wolves "[his] flock". Although considering Aelfric's involved potentially killing them, you could say he raised a flock of sheep for the slaughter.
Irony: Despite living underground, the Ashen Wolves wear bright silver clothes, in contrast to the above-ground students' predominately black uniforms.
Mole Men: Residents of Abyss live underneath Garreg Mach Monastery. In general, they are a more noble and passive version of this trope than those who slither in the dark.
One Degree of Separation: The DLC characters have backstory connections to several members of the main cast.
Punny Name: The group is basically a group of Lone Wolves that are astray from the rest of the houses. The fact that they also have an unofficial house makes them a Wolf Pack.
Putting the Band Back Together: They can be reunited over time in Three Hopes. Doing so also unlocks their exclusive paralogue, fittingly titled The Ashen Wolves' Reunion.
Sixth Ranger: They are the unofficial "fourth house" of Garreg Mach, being smaller than the official houses, and have members who can only be recruited in the Wave 4 DLC expansion. Uniquely, they don't have stat requirements for recruitment, but rather become available for recruitment based on how far you've completed the Cindered Shadows DLC (with Constance being the earliest available after completing Chapter 3, followed by Balthus with Chapter 4, Hapi with Chapter 5, and Yuri after completing Chapter 6).
- In addition, to an extent, the Ashen Wolves fit neatly into each faction due to their origin, reinforced by their support conversations in Three Houses.
  - Constance, a former Adrestrian noble, integrates with the Empire in hopes to restore her house, and has supports with Edelgard and several imperial childhood friends in Three Houses.
  - Balthus, "Leicester's King of Grappling" with close ties to House Goneril, has supports with Claude and several Golden Deer in Three Houses.
  - Yuri was born in Faerghus but spent time living in Adrestia as well, and as a result can bond with both Eagles and Lions in Three Houses, but not with house leaders. However he can support in Three Hopes with Dimitri and Seteth, and can be seen as a Sixth Ranger for the Kingdom and/or Church.
  - Hapi, who ran away from home in Adrestia and faced traumatic experiences in Faerghus, doesn't have strong ties to either location. She can support with Dimitri in Three Houses and Claude in Three Hopes. She shares a paralogue with Edelgard in Three Hopes, as well.
Remember the New Guy?: In Three Hopes, all other students (except for Bernadetta) are met prior to choosing a house in the prologue. While there is some mention of the existence of Abyss, the Wolves all show up in different places on each route without any build-up.
Targeted Human Sacrifice: In "Cindered Shadows", the Big Bad's evil plan is to use them as fuel for the Rite of Rising in a mad attempt to bring Byleth's mother Sitri back to life. The Rite specifically has to be done using them as sacrifices because they carry the blood of the Four Apostles within them; when he adds his own blood to the mix, it ends very, very badly for him.
What Happened to the Mouse?: If unrecruited in part one of the main story, they disappear entirely from part 2 and cannot be recruited. Unlike most units from the main game, they also don’t show up as enemies on any route.

Students

Yuri

Yuri Leclerc

Class: Commoner → Myrmidon → Thief → Trickster (Three Houses); Assassin → Trickster (Three Hopes)

Age: 19 (8/12)

Crest: Aubin (Major)

Voiced by: Jun'ya Enoki (Japanese), Alejandro Saab (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe3h_yuri_artwork.png

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Houses)}

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Hopes)}

^{Click here to see Yuri in Fire Emblem Heroes}

Underground Lord / Ashen Valiant

The leader of the Ashen Wolves. After living in the Faerghus and Adrestia, he became a student at Garreg Mach, but he was expelled and moved to Abyss. Behind his crude language is someone who wants to protect the people living in Abyss.

His personal ability, Honorable Spirit, increases his Attack if he engages an enemy one space away by himself and he is not adjacent to an ally. He bears the Major Crest of Aubin, which has a chance to prevent enemy counterattacks when he uses a weapon.

Actually, I Am Him: In his C-Support with Bernadetta, the latter tells him about her childhood friend and how he reminded her of him. Yuri adds in a bit of the story by reminding her about the time when she nearly cut her friend's face while playing with a pair of garden shears. Bernadetta is confused as to how Yuri knows about this and he explains to her that he is her childhood friend, much to her surprise.
Ambiguous Situation: Yuri mostly deals in theft and con artistry, but some of the things he says are just vague enough to leave the audience thinking he might have engaged in prostitution like his mother. His adoptive father may have also adopted the "gorgeous" young Yuri for reasons other than kindness, which according to Yuri is exactly what he planned.
The Ageless: His non-Crimson Flower paired endings with male Byleth states that the pair was extraordinarily long-lived and that their youth was untouched by the passage of time. Three Hopes reveals that he is a first generation bearer of the Crest of Aubin, meaning that his youth could easily stretch for centuries.
Ancestral Weapon: A variation in that Yuri's Relic is an accessory rather than a weapon. The Fetters of Dromi is a Hero's Relic worn on the hands that grant Yuri the Pavise and Aegis effects, as well as Canto. In Three Hopes, it boosts his movement speed to that of a cavalry unit. It was lost to Fódlan for a thousand years when some of Nemesis' army left the continent with it after losing the War of Heroes, but ends up getting found and brought back during the events of Three Houses and Three Hopes.
Babies Ever After: With female Byleth in their non-Crimson Flower paired endings.
Bash Brothers: Balthus declares them to be this in their A-support.
Becoming the Mask: He admits to Bernadetta that while he was hired to kill her, he hesitated because he genuinely felt like her friend, and that hesitation is what allowed her father to find him.
Big Brother Instinct: In Three Hopes, Yuri is noticeably protective of Ashe. Alongside Catherine and Shez, he goes to rescue Ashe during their paralogue, and if they're both recruited during Golden Wildfire, Yuri will express concern that Claude is forcing Ashe to fight against his former allies in the Kingdom. They're not technically related, but Yuri was adopted by the liege lord of Ashe's adopted father Lonato, and Yuri explicitly notes that their similar backstories make him want to root for Ashe.
Bodyguarding a Badass: In their support in Three Hopes, he winds up becoming Dimitri's reluctant escort, after he strongly objects to them wondering around the slums on their own.
Bow and Sword in Accord: He has a budding talent in Bows, allowing him to gain the Combat Art Deadeye, which allows him to hit enemies at long range, and he also has a proficiency with swords. His secret skill Sharpshooter in Three Hopes is also unlocked by mastering the Bow Knight class.
Campy Combat: He's a pretty young man with long light purple hair and can be quite charming and flirty. He's bisexual, being a Gay Option for Byleth, and is the only playable character whose canonical class is the Trickster, more flashy than other classes and incorporating acrobatics in the fight animations.
The Charmer: He puts on this persona in order to manipulate the more privileged into giving him what he wants.
The Chessmaster: He describes himself as being a villain when it comes to strategy, and his plans certainly show.
- In Chapter 2 of the side story, he purposely left behind trails for the bandits to follow in order to gather them into an underground area away from the living quarters of Abyss so the Ashen Wolves, the three lords and Byleth could rout them easily. The only kink in his plan was the unexpected appearance of the Death Knight, who was drawn to the proverbial blood in the air.
- Almost the entirety of Cindered Shadows has been part of his plans. He was working with Aelfric in bringing the descendants of the Four Apostles together and keeping tabs on their movements, when in actuality he was also reporting what he could to Rhea (he was hampered in this by Aelfric having his mother and people hostage) since he knew full well that Aelfric couldn't be trusted and plotted to sacrifice them all. In the event he did somehow fail, he subtly informed Byleth as to where the attempted Rite of Rising would take place. Aelfric concedes that Yuri was a step ahead of him in this aspect.
Childhood Friend Romance: Maybe with Bernadetta due to the tone of the ending. While it's unambiguously a happy ending for Bernadetta, due to her going down in history as an excellent lord, the ending implies that it was more of a Marriage of Convenience due to Yuri being the only one able to make her close the distance between her and the villagers. This is more apparent in the original text, where it's stated that the marriage was perplexing not only to the villagers, but to Yuri most of all, going as far as to state that Yuri had to drag her into the town to manage her people. Coupling this with the fact that they only married because she wouldn't let him go, it leans the ending more on a humorous note than anything overtly romantic, befitting of their established dynamic.
Combat Stilettos: Gender inverted. His boots have a rather prominent heel to them.
Curtains Match the Windows: His hair and eyes are lavender.
Deadpan Snarker: Oh, very much so. He even puts the likes of Hubert and Claude to shame.
Yuri: [to Constance] Let me cut through the mud here—you're broke, and you'll pay me after you get what you want. Wow. I love how irresponsible you are! Refreshing!
Decomposite Character: He seems to have absorbed Claude's traits of being shady and underhanded to achieve his goals. As noted in Claude's page under The Artifact, Claude was originally conceived to be a lot more morally grey than what he ultimately ended up being, so the shifty, manipulative Lord character seems to have transferred to Yuri instead, although Claude still retains his own brand of scheming and Yuri does prove to ultimately be a good person at heart.
Developers' Desired Date: As per usual with the house leaders, though to a lesser extent likely due to him technically not having a dedicated route. He gets a fair amount of deliberate Ship Tease with the player in Cindered Shadows due to his status of being The Tease and is soft on them from their first meeting onward. As an added bonus, he (like Edelgard) is capable of getting an S-Support with Byleth regardless of their gender.
Disappeared Dad: He admits he has no idea who his father is or if he's even alive, but it's clear he doesn't miss the man.
Does Not Like Spam: He generally dislikes spicy food as he dislikes four out of five spicy dishes that can be served at the dining hall.
The Don: Serves as this to the people of Abyss, as he maintains order in the town. His "Savage Mockingbird" reputation also heralds him as the de-facto kingpin of Fódlan's underground.
Double Agent: He's been working with Aelfric in obtaining the relic needed to conduct the Rite of Rising, though Chapter 6 reveals that he's actually been working with Rhea the entire time and informing her of his actions. Indeed, he'd been working for her before he even went to Abyss, as Rhea was suspicious of Aelfric's intentions.
The Dreaded: Despite his looks, Yuri can be quite frightening when he wants to be. His reputation as the Savage Mockingbird all but establishes him as western Fódlan's very own kingpin, and few dare to cross him.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Partially subverted. Yuri has been mistaken for a woman by certain characters at the first glance, at least until he starts speaking since he has an inarguably masculine voice and manner. Three Hopes has Sylvain accidentally try to pick-up on Yuri thinking that he's a chick, something that he holds over him even when he admits that he wouldn't mind going out with him. His overall appearance could be a nod to European nobility of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Even the Guys Want Him: Heavily implied, as he says nobles have fought to near death to win his affection but never specifying whether they were male or female. He can also be romanced by a male Byleth.
- Made even more apparent in Three Hopes, where Sylvain mistakes Yuri for a woman, flirts with him, and then eventually keeps flirting with him anyway after feeling embarrassed about his mistake.
Everyone Has Standards:
- Yuri holds absolute contempt for Miklan if you talk to him during Chapter 5, calling him a slimebag for being a more repugnant criminal than he is, along with declaring that he could run Miklan's gang in a better way.
- Like Sylvain and Dorothea, he does not flirt with Bernadetta, instead he wants her to understand the truth of what happened when they were childhood friends.
- In Three Hopes on the Scarlet Blaze route he acknowledges it would be improper to indulge his vendetta against Count Varley, but all the same holds the man in considerable contempt and is especially offended/confounded as to how the Empire could not have found someone remotely better to represent the Church of Seiros. He remarks that he hopes in the future Edelgard will show more consideration toward such things.
Finger Gun: He casts spells by pointing finger pistols at the enemy and miming a shooting motion. This is especially weird, considering that guns don't seem to exist in this setting.
First Friend: To Bernadetta. He was the gardener who she befriended, with her not knowing he was actually sent to kill her.
Foil: To Claude and Ashe.
- Claude and Yuri are both schemers who hide personal secrets from their friends and allies, but that's as far as the similarities go. Claude happens to come from the closest thing there is to royalty in the Leicester Alliance as House Riegan is the ruling power in the Roundtable, specializes in using bows and riding around on a winged mount, and is Almyran royalty. Yuri, on the other hand, is a commoner from Faerghus who was adopted into a noble household, specializes in swords and magic, and commands his own little band of thieves. Claude hides his true heritage out of fear, whereas Yuri goes by an alias and has no idea who his father is. Lastly, while Claude is at best highly skeptical of religion, Yuri is a fairly dedicated follower of the Church of Seiros.
- Ashe and Yuri grew up in Faerghus and resorted to thievery before being adopted by nobles. Unlike Ashe, who Lonato treated as though Ashe were his son and Ashe giving up thievery, Yuri's adoption by Count Rowe was implied to be for more unsavory reasons involving his looks, and Yuri never gave up his criminal lifestyle, even becoming a kingpin of crime.
Forced into Evil: Aelfric has been holding his friends and loved ones hostage to ensure he complies with his demands in regards to the Rite of Rising.
Forgotten First Meeting: Yuri is Bernadetta's childhood friend that she told Dorothea about in their B-Support. Bernadetta however doesn't recognize Yuri as she thought her friend was taken away by her father many years ago. Taken tragically in Three Hopes as Bernadetta can kill Yuri without knowing about their past friendship.
Fragile Speedster: He has an impressive Speed growth, but his physical stats are incredibly low.
Friend to All Children: He responds positively if you talk about children at the market with him during Tea Time and Dorothea comments she noticed him singing to some children in Abyss - Yuri explains they were having nightmares so he sang a lullaby for them.
The Gadfly: He likes to tease Constance and Bernadetta to get a reaction.
Gay Option: Bisexual technically, the third male character that can be romanced by a male Byleth, following Linhardt and Jeritza.
Gayngster: He is not above stealing and murder and he is also bisexual.
Gender Nonconforming Equals Gay: He uses makeup and is also bisexual.
Guile Hero: Yuri gets by through most of his life and keeping the safety of his friends and people of Abyss through cunning plans and strategies.
Guyliner: His eyelids are covered in purple liner. One of his lost items is even a makeup brush.
Happily Adopted: Subverted. Count Rowe is implied to have adopted Yuri for reasons other than kindness, which Yuri himself was actually banking on. By the time Byleth meets him, he's long since cut ties with House Rowe and makes it very clear he has no intention of returning. Yuri is still annoyed by Count Rowe even after his death on the Azure Gleam route of Three Hopes.
Happily Married: His paired ending with Constance explicitly describes their marriage as a happy one.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: He really doesn't think much of himself due to his shady past. He tells a young girl that she should never say she wants to grow up to be like him. And despite being flippant about it initially, he seems genuinely shamed by the killings that landed him in Abyss, to the point of objecting when Rhea states she'll allow him to leave. As Rhea puts it, Yuri must live with what he has done.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Balthus in their paired ending, where it’s stated that Balthus stayed with Yuri for the rest of his days.
Hidden Depths:
- His support conversation with Dorothea reveal that he is quite a good singer, enough to be on par with Dorothea's level.
- He notes that while he may not seem all that devout, he still cares a lot about Rhea's role in the church and doesn't want anything to happen to her. In routes where he ends up on a side opposing Rhea, he makes it plain he does not like this aspect at all, even if he accepts it.
I Fight for the Strongest Side!: States this is why he sides with the Empire on Crimson Flower as he doesn't like fighting losing battles and wants to ensure the safety of his people. It’s notable that he doesn’t stay in the nation he allied himself with in his solo ending on any route, always returning to the underground in the end to ensure the prosperity of the Abyssians.
In Touch with His Feminine Side: He wears make-up both pre and post timeskip, likes sweet things, is quite flirtatious with people and the majority of his supports are with women.
In-Series Nickname: Hapi calls him "Yuri-bird" while Dorothea calls him "Yurikins".
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He uses crude language and has a mean-streak at times despite his usually charming nature, even outright threatening Byleth in their C-support, but he has these tendencies out of the protectiveness he feels toward the residents of Abyss, all of whom he considers to be his people.
Just Like Robin Hood: He swindles, participates in illicit markets and manipulates others for a living in order to help the less fortunate making him this essentially.
The Leader: Of his house, being that it hasn't had a professor to guide it for a while.
Like Brother and Sister: He has this dynamic with Bernadetta.
Locked Out of the Loop: In Three Hopes. The old man who cured him of the plague as a child never revealed the exact methods of how he did so. Seteth eventually deduces that this old man was a dying Aubin, who transferred some of his own blood to Yuri, but choses to keep this information from Yuri.
Long-Lived: In his support with Seteth in Three Hopes, Yuri discovers that the Ten Elites supposedly lived very long lives after they obtained their Crests, which makes him believe he'll also live a very long life. The extended lifespan applies to those who are first generation crest bearers, of which Yuri is one thanks to receiving a lifesaving blood transfusion from Aubin as a child. The extended lifespan is only explicitly mentioned in his and male Byleth's paired ending in Three Houses. In his and Constance's paired ending, he died of old age with her, though given Constance was also a Crest-bearer, it's uncertain how long both lived.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He becomes one of these after the time skip.
Magic Knight: Being a Trickster, he can use swords and white magic. He leans more towards the Knight side of said trope.
Mama's Boy: One of his interests is caring for his mother. The entire reason he worked for Aelfric was because of him holding Yuri's mother hostage.
Meaningful Name: As he reveals in his A-Support with Shez in Three Hopes, his real name comes from the star "the Goddess made into a disciple". It's implied his actual name is Regulus; in Latin, "Regulus" means 'prince' and was common throughout ancient Rome. It was also the name used by early saints and is the brightest star of the Leo constellation.
The Mole: Was blackmailed into working for Aelfric, but in truth he caught on to the fact Aelfric was using him a long time ago and was coordinating with Rhea to save his mother.
Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: Leads a criminal outfit and is known throughout west Fodlan's underworld as the "Savage Mockingbird", though according to his solo ending the money that comes from all his shady dealings went to establishing orphanages and poorhouses.
One Degree of Separation: He has this with more characters than the other DLC characters and it’s touched upon in several of his supports and unique dialogue:
- He was born into a poor town in Faerghus, which was affected by the plague that happened around the time when Dimitri was 2 years old. He survived the plague and also gained his crest thanks to recieving a blood transfusion from Aubin. Seteth AKA Cichol figures this out over the course of their support in Three Hopes.
- He was the disappeared Childhood Friend that Bernadetta mentioned in her support with Dorothea.
- He saw Dorothea performing in the Empire and became a substitute for the nobles that wanted Dorothea but couldn't have her.
- He was adopted into House Rowe and there met Ashe, who was the adopted son of Lord Lonato.
- Ingrid had to clean up Sylvain's mess at House Rowe when they were kids.
- When he was enrolled into the Officer's Academy by Rowe, he was a Blue Lions student.
Passed in Their Sleep: His paired ending with Constance states that many decades after the events of the story he passed away in his bed alongside her.
Papa Wolf: Whatever you do, do not harm or dare to threaten those close to him. You won't live long enough to regret it, especially if you have the balls to pick a fight with his friends from the Ashen Wolves.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"Sure thing." (pre-timeskip)
"I'm in." (post-timeskip)
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"Better accept it!"
"Kneel!"
"Smile for me!" (pre-timeskip)
"Let's dance!" (pre-timeskip)
"Step aside!" (post-timeskip)
"You had your fun!" (post-timeskip)
The Punishment Is the Crime: At the end of Cindered Shadows, Rhea tells him she will not punish him for his transgressions, that having to live with himself for killing innocents is punishment enough. His troubled expression implies he definitely feels it.
Really Gets Around: Played to a depressing degree in his support with Dorothea.
Recurring Element:
- For Julian, being a thief who is good-natured at heart. He partakes in shady deals and deceives others to help the less fortunate in Abyss.
- He also has some elements of Lucius. He is a beautiful, feminine-looking young man who is a Gay Option. His advanced class is Trickster, allowing him to use Faith Magic to heal allies.
Red Baron: He's known in Fódlan's western criminal underground as the "Savage Mockingbird".
Religious Bruiser: He is a very skilled fighter and assassin and is also a devout believer of Seiros.
Removed Achilles' Heel: His Combat Art from the Trickster class allows him to swap places with your heavy armour units from a distance, thus alleviating their biggest drawback (i.e movement). His relic even allows him to move again after said action, so he can easily dart back to the frontline.
The Runaway: He is a former adopted son of House Rowe, but he ran away and refuses to come back.
Yuri: I know you... You're the one Lord Lonato adopted. Isn't that right?
Ashe: That's right... Wait, I recognize you too! You're Count Rowe's adopted son! I don't know how you ended up here, but your house is no doubt worried sick! Let's get you home, ok?
Yuri: You'd really think I'd choose to go back there? Haha! Better watch yourself — you might lose a limb... or your life.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Prior to coming to Abyss, Yuri was enrolled at the Officer's Academy and was ordered to kill his friends (a gang of thieves) prior to his adoption by Count Rowe. He refused his orders, giving away to an argument between him and a few knights before murdering them. He would have been executed, had it not been for Aelfric intervening. He later realized that it was Aelfric who sent him on that mission knowing what would happen, taking both his mother and his former gang captive. This led him to work for Rhea and find a means to foil Aelfric's plot.
Sixth Ranger: He has trades of being this to the Blue Lions in Three Hopes, which is fitting as he was born in Faerghus. He is recruitable one chapter earlier in Azure Gleam compared to the other two routes and is the only route where he is recruited before the timeskip, his paralogue that isn't shared with the other Ashen Wolves is locked to Azure Gleam due to Catherine being required for it, and three of his six non-Shez supports is with Blue Lion students^noteDimitri, Sylvain and Ashe. And he also supports with Seteth, who is exclusive to the Azure Gleam route, meaning that half of Yuri's supports can only be seen in that route^note.
Son of a Whore: His character notes state he was born to a prostitute in western Fódlan.
Stone Wall: Once he obtains the Fetters of Dromi, he transitions from Fragile Speedster to this. While his offensive stats are lackluster at best, his speed is high enough for him to avoid being doubled, and his Relic allows him to proc Pavise and Aegis a lot, allowing him to tank attacks if they actually hit him.
Superhuman Transfusion: Three Hopes reveals that his mother took in and nursed a dying Aubin when Yuri was a child. Aubin then transferred some of his blood to Yuri to save his life after Yuri took ill with the plague, turning Yuri into a first generation Crest bearer in the process.
Supreme Chef: Yuri's support conversations with Ingrid involves Yuri cooking some food for her and Ingrid praising his skills. Yuri is also the only one of the Ashen Wolves who can give stat bonuses if he is chosen for kitchen duty with Byleth.
Tarot Motifs: Through his Crest of Aubin, Yuri represents the Hanged Man, which represents surrender, sacrifice, or stopping to gain new perspectives. Yuri is the leader of a House made up of criminals and outcasts, a position he earned after refusing orders by the Church to kill his old gang. He is also very methodical.
The Tease: He flirts with Byleth of either gender consistently, even outside of their supports.
The Twink: Downplayed. He is an attractive androgynous-looking young man and is bisexual as he can be romanced by both versions of Byleth and flirts with Sylvain in Three Hopes.
Together in Death: He dies in bed with Constance in their ending together.
Unspoken Plan Guarantee: How his plan to stop Aelfric and save his people and mother works out. It was so unspoken that no one realized he even had a plan until midway through it, having only told Rhea (offscreen) and Byleth enough for them to piece things together in time for them to take the needed actions. There were a few hiccups (namely he didn't realize that the Ashen Wolves wouldn't be able to stop their blood being drained on their own), but overall things went as planned.
The Unreveal: He claims that his real name isn't Yuri. He tells Byleth in their S-support in a whisper, and the audience never finds out what it is. The closest we ever get to hearing it is in his support with Shez in Three Hopes, the latter having accidentally found it in a letter from Yuri's mother. He was apparently named after a "star the Goddess made into a disciple" beginning with 'Reg', though Yuri cuts Shez off before they can say it.
Vocal Dissonance: In both the English and Japanese dub, his voice is quite deep and masculine despite his androgynous appearance.
Weak, but Skilled:
- His offensive growths are relatively low for a Magic Knight, such as having a modest 40% and 35% growth in Strength and Magic respectively, and he has both low Defense and Resistance. Furthermore, the Trickster class he starts off with in the side story gives no growth buffs to Strength or Magic, meaning his already lower growths in those areas are remaining exactly where they are. However, he's insanely fast with the best Speed growth in the game, and his Dexterity and Luck stats are fairly solid too. He won't deal much damage, but he can easily avoid just about anyone trying to hit him, making him very good at holding chokepoints or going after enemy mages, and with his Heroes' Relic he can easily lend support.
- His Combat Art from the Trickster class, Foul Play, allows him to dart around the battlefield and helping the movement-challenged characters to get into fights sooner, alleviating their biggest weakness like some kind of human APC. And as added bonus, his Relic allows him to move again, likely back to his original position.
Withholding Their Name: It’s revealed in his Byleth supports that “Yuri Leclerc” isn’t his real name and is simply a name he adopted to fit in. At the end of their S-support, he tells Byleth his real name, however the player never gets to hear what he says. It’s stated in his ending with female Byleth that somewhere down the line, she had begun to call him by his real name. He reveals in Three Hopes that the only ones who know his real name are his family and the people special to him.

Balthus

Balthus von Albrecht

Class: Noble → Fighter → Brawler → War Monk (Three Houses); Brawler → War Master (Three Hopes)

Age: 26 (7/9)

Crest: Chevalier (Major)

Voiced by: Subaru Kimura (Japanese), Nathan Hedrick^noteCredited as "Aaron Hedrick" (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe3h_balthus_artwork.png

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Houses)}

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Hopes)}

^{Click here to see Balthus in Fire Emblem Heroes}

King of Grappling

A rowdy man hailing from the Leicester Alliance, he is the self-proclaimed "Leicester's King of Grappling". His hearty and careless personality are what lead him to fall into debt and become a fugitive, which resulted in him living in Abyss.

His personal ability, King Of Grappling, increases his Strength and Defense if he is at below half health. He bears the Major Crest of Chevalier, which will sometimes restore his health based on the damage he deals using Combat Arts.

Abusive Parents: Balthus' stepmother apparently sends rogues and thugs after him almost on a daily basis, thinking he plans on returning to claim the position of House Albrecht's head. While Balthus is quite annoyed by this, he actually prefers that she's so fixated upon him, because otherwise she might turn her 'attention' upon his other loved ones, which is the last thing he wants.
Adaptive Ability: A variation of this trope is used by his Vajra-Mushti gauntlets in Three Houses, Three Hopes and Fire Emblem Engage
- In Three Houses, the exclusive combat art for the Vajra-Mushti, Eviscerate, is a single, powerful punch that always target a foe's lowest defensive stat between Defense and Resistance.
- In Three Hopes, Eviscerate now deals physical or magic damage depending on which of Balthus' attacking stats is higher than the other, in addition to said attack dealing bonus damage to all enemy types and cannot be guarded against.
- In Engage, the Vajra-Mushti will now always target a foe's lowest defensive stat when attacking, while retaining the effect of attacking twice if initiating combat.
The Adjectival Superhero: He often places an adjective before "King of Grappling" whenever he talks about himself. Even Hilda gets in on the action in their supports.
Affectionate Nickname: Hilda calls him "Baltie."
Age-Gap Romance: With both Hilda and Lysithea, being 9 and 12 years older than them respectively after the timeskip.
Ancestral Weapon: The Vajra-Mushti, a pair of gauntlets. Uniquely, they aren't a Heroes' Relic, but a replica.
Badass Longcoat: He wears a long white coat during the academy phase. He dumps it five years later.
Barbarian Long Hair: His time-skip design has him basically wearing a mullet.
Bare-Fisted Monk: He is the so called King of Grappling for a reason, having a proficiency in Brawling, and he can wield the Relic gauntlets Vajra-Mushti.
Bash Brothers: He declares Yuri and himself to be this in their A-support. Three Hopes reveals he's also one with Holst.
Berserk Button: A downplayed example, but he often gets annoyed when people point out that he's older than them. For instance, he calls himself "the Ageless King of Grappling" during Cindered Shadows when the others point out his age. In Three Hopes, he also objects to being called old when Caspar says he has "the disadvantage of age."
Big Brother Instinct: Keeping his little half-brother safe is one of the reasons why Balthus wants his stepmother to keep sending ruffians after him, because he fears that she would get his brother involved in their drama.
Big Damn Heroes: During his supports with Hilda she recalls how when she was a child she, Balthus, and her brother Holst were attacked by a wild beast. Holst held it off while Balthus took Hilda to safety and then ran back to help Holst. Even Hilda had to admit she was in awe of them managing to come back alive.
The Big Guy: Is the second tallest and most well-built of the students. Justified by the fact he's 26 at the start of the game (by far the oldest student, over even Mercedes who's 22 by the start of the game) and already a fully-grown adult.
Boisterous Bruiser: Quite confident in his skills and loves a good fight.
Bond One-Liner:
"You're fresh outta luck!"
Brief Accent Imitation: In his C support with Edelgard in Three Hopes, he does a scarily accurate impression of Hubert.
Cain and Abel: Subverted. He was close with his younger half-brother and always believed he was better suited to be the head of their family, making handing his inheritance to him that much easier. The problem comes from his stepmother, who is convinced Balthus wants to usurp his half-brother's position as the family head.
Careful with That Axe: When picked for choir practice, his remarks allude to this:
Balthus: I'm not good, but I'm loud; you might wanna run for cover.
Casanova Wannabe: He tries his hardest to flirt with women and get their attention, but usually it fails as most of the girls he flirts with are not into him at first. It takes a while for his support options to come around to him.
Cassandra Truth:
- Balthus makes it clear that he has zero interest in becoming the head of House Albrecht, preferring to hand that title over to his younger half-brother who he feels is better suited. His stepmother thinks he's actually planning on usurping his half-brother and constantly tries to have him killed.
- In his own paralogue, he tries to warn Baron Ochs that the Vajra-Mushti will turn him into a monster if he tries to use it without a Crest. Baron Ochs brushes him off, with predictably disastrous results.
Combat Medic: As a War Monk, he can crush his enemies with his axe and fists and heal nearby allies with his magic.
Critical Status Buff: His King of Grappling personal ability grants him +6 Strength and Defense at half health or lower. It combos well with the Defiant skills learned from the Master classes, Vantage from the Mercenary class and Desperation from the Cavalier class.
Defeating the Undefeatable: His support with Edelgard in Three Hopes makes mention of how Balthus holds the honor of being the first and only person who's ever beaten Holst in a Goneril tournament. Of course, the context in which this comes up is pointing out that while Balthus' strength isn't in doubt, it's the other problems that make the idea of hiring him as a personal bodyguard worrisome.
Everyone Has Standards: In Chapter 10 of Azure Gleam, Balthus is revealed to have had worked as a mercenary for the Adrestian Empire, but the imperial general he works with at the time is Metodey. Balthus gets disgusted over being given orders to murder innocent people, saying that it goes against the merc code and defects.
Extremely Protective Child: While he isn't a child anymore, he still loves his birth mother and wants to make sure nothing bad happens to her. He even sends some of the money he earns to her instead of spending it on either gambling or drinking. He also reveals at the end of his, Holst and Hilda's paralogue in Three Hopes that he's happy his stepmother is sending assassins after him specifically, because then she won't be targeting his mother or his father.
The Friend Nobody Likes: He has developed a bit of this reputation in Three Hopes, where people tend to keep him at arm's length and regard him as a drunkard and troublemaker. Edelgard's and Shamir's supports show they're among the most disgusted with him, though in Edelgard's case, Hubert had exaggerated his faults beforehand and she later comes to realize they were somewhat overstated (though not entirely incorrect, either). Shez, a fellow mercenary, is able to get along with him just fine but bickers with him over his tendency to gamble his life on purpose.
Balthus: Ah, Edelgard. Perfect timing. Got a minute?
Edelgard: [annoyed] What is it, Balthus?
Genius Bruiser: He looks like a thug and a Barbarian Hero post-timeskip, but his budding talent is Reason, and in the Cindered Shadows DLC, he manages to trick Claude, of all people, into blurting out his true identity. His assessment of Claude even has him successfully deducing that he's half-Almyran during their Supports, although Claude cuts him off and denies it before he can say it.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Balthus is pretty reckless with his life, not caring about solving his debts or whether bounty hunters will have his head. He reveals in his B-support with Hapi that the reason for this is because he knows that he himself is responsible for his situation and that if he dies, he just has to accept that he has no one to blame but himself. He also refuses to accept money from those outside of it like Yuri or Holst, his two closest friends.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Yuri in their paired ending, where it’s stated that Balthus stayed with Yuri for the rest of his days.
Hidden Depths:
- His Budding Talent is Reason, which is the magic skill that focus on logic and knowledge. This shows that he is much more than just some Dumb Muscle.
- He's noticeably the only member of the Ashen Wolves to have actually graduated from Garreg Mach, only ending up back in Abyss to escape the bounty hunters going after him.
- He Supports with Claude, and he's the only person who can not only keep up with his defensiveness over his past and his prodding, but he even turns it back on him, leaving Claude genuinely indignant and hypocritically getting upset at Balthus for trying to get a read into his past.
- He's not only very non-judgmental, being one of the few to not fuss over Lysithea's age and fixations, but he's also surprisingly empathetic, likely because of his origins and how he spent a disproportionate amount of time living in squalor. Being born into two cultures, he even tries to genuinely empathize with Claude. The latter rebuffs him at first, but comes around during Part II.
- Despite his actions and disposition, he is actually very religious, this being one of the reasons he can promote into the War Monk class.
- In Claude's supports with Saphir in Engage, while Balthus is not mentioned by name, it is hinted that he's able to predict the weather.
- In his support with Edelgard in Three Hopes, he's able to do an unnervingly-perfect impression of Hubert's voice.
Honor Before Reason:
- Hilda and Holst both point out to him in Three Houses and Three Hopes, respectively, that Balthus could simply ask his best friend Holst to help him with his debts, but Balthus refuses out of pride, even though some of the people he owes money to want him dead for his failure to repay them.
- In Chapter 14 of Azure Gleam, Balthus worries that a guy he owes money to has been captured by the Kingdom's army. Him getting killed would release him from that debt, but this would make Balthus feel like he unfairly skimped the guy out of his money.
Hot Blooded Sideburns: Has the beginnings of them during the Academy phase, but grows them in properly during the War phase.
Kamehame Hadoken: As a War Monk, he learns the Pneuma Gale combat arte, which allows one to throw a blast of magic from his gauntlets.
Kung-Fu Wizard: As a War Monk, he can use magic spells alongside his fisticuffs. His Faith spells are mostly healing and buffing spells, though raising his Reason skill allows him to use offensive spells as well.
Life Drain: Balthus's Chevalier crest gives him a chance to restore 30% of the damage he deals as HP when he uses a combat art. In addition, he learns the Draining Blow combat art, which restores 50% of the damage he deals as HP. With these combined together, he can restore a lot of HP from a single strike.
Lightning Bruiser: Downplayed, as while he doesn't have the high speed growth both Caspar and Alois have, he is significantly much faster than Dedue and Raphael ^note and has a better maximum defense stat and growth rate than Caspar and Alois. Him being available early on really helps.
Likes Older Women: His support conversation with Claude reveals that he used to have a crush on Claude's mother Tiana. If he's recruited on the Verdant Wind route, he'll also speak lovingly of Judith if you talk to him as you explore the monastery after Chapter 15. He also mentions finding Rhea attractive as well.
Mad Libs Catchphrase: He likes to refer to himself as the "King of Grappling" with some kind of adjective beforehand, like the Ageless King of Grappling, or the Almighty King of Grappling. Said adjectives tend to be tailored to the situation or conversation at hand ("Ageless King of Grappling" being used when his companions are talking about how much older he is than the rest of them).
Mage Killer: In Three Hopes, his innate ability Nullify Magic, obtained by mastering the Dark Bishop class, allows him to No-Sell all magic attacks and given his natural proficiency towards War Master, allows him to effortlessly rip through opposing mages. He's also one of only two units, the other being Raphael, who can learn the Tomebreaker skill in Three Hopes.
Magically Inept Fighter: Like Felix, this is zig-zagged. While his canon class line appears to be War Monk, and he does have a Budding Talent in Reason and a proficiency in Faith, his Magic growth rate is 30% similar to Felix. However, like Felix, while Mortal Savant is a questionable class for him, it does allow him to wield Levin Swords to a great extent.
Martial Arts Headband: Wears a headband in Three Hopes, and he defaults to the fistfighting Brawler class line.
Mr. Fanservice: Oh yes. He's tall, ripped, and ruggedly handsome. He's proud to be one too.
Balthus: I'll be training later. Shirtless. You're welcome.
My Fist Forgives You: Within the Cindered Shadows DLC, he forgives Yuri for lying to the house only after giving him a good punch.
My Sister Is Off-Limits: Not him, but implied in his ending with Hilda that Holst feels this way. In order to get Holst’s blessing to take Hilda out of Fodlan and to the kingdom of gold that they found together, it’s stated that he had to beat Holst in a duel.
Navel-Deep Neckline: After the timeskip, he wears a jacket that exposes the upper part of his chest, proving that men can also carry the look.
Nice Guy: If you can get past his gambling and drinking problems, Balthus is a pretty easy guy to get along with. He's also a good friend to those close to him, even though they butt heads from time to time. He values them so much that he refuses to accept their help in solving his debts because he doesn't want them involved with his troubles.
No Shirt, Long Jacket: Is bare-chested save for the coat he wears. His Three Houses time-skip design tosses it aside. His time-skip outfit in Three Hopes has him sport a chest exposing coat again, this time a brown one with metal pauldrons.
Older Than They Look: He's actually 26 years old, making him the oldest student in the game (he already graduated even!). This is especially jarring when you consider students like Hubert, Dedue, and Raphael.
One Degree of Separation:
- He was a classmate and friend of Holst Goneril back during their academy days.
- Balthus once received aid from House Ordelia when he wound up in trouble with the Imperial army during the time House Ordelia was occupied by the Adrestian Empire.
Playing with Fire: If you raise his Reason skill to an A rank, he learns three Black Magic spells, Fire, Bolganone and Ragnarok — all of which are fire-themed. He also learns the Essence of Fire skill in Three Hopes from the Monk class line, powering up all of his attacks that make use of fire.
Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: If he's the one to kill Hilda on the Crimson Flower route, he states that he will bring her home for burial and allow Holst to kill him.
The Pollyanna: He has had to keep his rare Crest hidden from the whole of Fódlan on orders from the Church and for that reason, he fled his house and lived free, where he gets hunted by bounty hunters and debt collectors for all the debts he has, Crest researchers for his Crest, and assassins hired by his stepmother. And he eventually ended up in Abyss where he plans to lay low until it's safe to come out again. Despite this, he is very okay with the situation and remains upbeat and positive, and he's also happy with himself while being fully aware that he brings everything upon himself.
Balthus: But don't get me wrong. No matter what life's thrown at me, I'm no victim. Like I've said, I prefer it this way. I've gotta be free. Even if things were different, I'd still choose this life.
Powerful, but Inaccurate: Balthus can learn the Diamond Axe combat art upon reaching C+ rank in axes, dealing 14 additional damage at the cost of 20 accuracy.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"Let me at them!" (pre-timeskip)
"Oh yeah!" (post-timeskip)
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"Ready to bleed?"
"Do or die!"
"You strong enough?" (pre-timeskip)
"See ya!" (pre-timeskip)
"Heh, watch this!" (post-timeskip)
"Time to die, pal!" (post-timeskip)
Religious Bruiser: Is a devout follower of the Church of Seiros and can be promoted into the War Monk class.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: He's subject to several of these in Three Hopes, with several units criticizing him for his habits and demanding he make changes. Edelgard's, in particular, hits home for him.
Secret Art: Outside of New Game Plus, he is the only unit that can use Eviscerate, Vajra-Mushti's combat art. It deals 10 extra damage, increases 10 extra hit and critical, and has the effect of targetting the enemy's weakest defensive stat.
Shipper on Deck: Teases the idea that Judith might have a thing for Nader in the Verdant Wind route, and admits they might actually make a cute couple.
Smarter Than You Look: His rough appearance and demeanor belie a man with Reason as his budding talent, who is smart enough to work out Claude's true identity through simple knowledge of House Riegan's recent history. In his B support with Lorenz in Three Hopes, Lorenz is baffled that Balthus is a noble and knows the ways of noble society very well.
Tarot Motifs: Through his Crest of Chevalier, he represents the Sun, which when upright, represents happiness and harmony, but when reversed, can represent an abdication of responsibility. Balthus is the most boisterous and carefree of the Ashen Wolves, but he went underground to escape from his debts and bounty hunters.
Unblockable Attack: In Three Hopes, the Eviscerate combat art is this, in addition to being effective on all enemy types.
Unskilled, but Strong: He has good HP, Strength, and Defense growths, but the single worst Dexterity growth in the game. This means when he hits, he hits very hard, but he has horrible accuracy and will almost never hit any enemy that has good Speed and Dexterity.
Use Your Head: For the third hit of his unique warrior special in Three Hopes, he headbutts baddies with his noggin, before unleashing a Megaton Punch.
Wicked Stepmother: His stepmom, mother of his younger brother, has made his life crap and targeted him because of his Crest. For his part he chose to Turn the Other Cheek out of fear of what she'd do to his mother, his father, and even her own son.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: While he will for gameplay purposes, he makes it clear he dislikes the idea of killing girls, especially what he considers pretty ones. He doesn't seem to mind fighting them if they seem tough enough, such as Hilda before he recognized her, but killing bothers him. This is actually accounted for if he is recruited to the Black Eagles; if he is the one to defeat an un-recruited Lysithea after the timeskip, he will ask Byleth to step in and recruit her, before knocking her HP down to 0 which doesn’t kill her. Byleth still has the option to kill Lysithea despite this request. Interestingly, Balthus doesn’t ask Byleth to recruit Hilda on Crimson Flower, likely due to the fact that gameplay mechanic wise, it's impossible for her to join Edelgard; his unique dialogue has him promise to bring her body back home to Holst, offering his life to him after being forced to kill her.
You Just Told Me: Uses this tactic to trick Claude into revealing his identity. When Balthus asks if Claude is the new heir to House Riegan the first time they meet, Claude tries to brush it aside by saying that Claude is a common name. Balthus counters that by saying that there is only one Claude enrolled at the academy, followed by Claude asking how Balthus knows that, giving himself away.

Hapi

Class: Commoner → Monk → Mage → Valkyrie (Three Houses); Mage → Warlock (Three Hopes)

Age: 20 (1/15)

Crest: Timotheos (Major)

Voiced by: Sachika Misawa (Japanese), Christine Marie Cabanos (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe3h_hapi_artwork.png

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Houses)}

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Hopes)}

^{Click here to see Hapi in Fire Emblem Heroes}

Freed Spirit / Beast Master / Drawn-out Sigh

A passive woman who hails from the hidden village of Timotheos in the Adrestian Empire. While she doesn't bother to hide her apathy and holds a disinterested attitude in everything, she fights against the intruders as part of the Ashen Wolves. It's said that the reason she lives in Abyss is due to her unique "constitution".

Her personal ability, Monstrous Appeal, makes all her attacks effective against monsters at the cost of drawing aggro of monsters to herself. She bears the Major Crest of Timotheos, which gives her a chance to not consume a use of recovery magic.

Adaptational Skimpiness: In Fire Emblem: Cipher, Hapi’s first post-timeskip card makes a significant change to her original outfit. In the Cipher illustration she ditches her modest tights that she typically wears, which exposes her thighs and greatly exposes her butt.
Ambiguously Brown: She has noticeably darker skin compared to most of the other characters in the game and she stands out among other Ashen Wolves who have pale skin. The only other characters in the who have darker skin are Dedue (who is of Duscur descent), Cyril (who is of Almyran descent) and Claude (who is half-Almyran). However, her parents are never seen or mentioned by name, making her ancestry ambiguous. Her hidden home village is also implied to be located in Fódlan, meaning she wouldn't have any heritage that comes from outside the continent.
Ancestral Weapon: Three Hopes gives her the Hrotti, a tome linked to the Crest of Timotheos that allows her to deal damage based on the higher of her Strength or Magic. You get it by defeating Epimenides, who wielded this Hero's Relic in the War of Heroes and retains it when he appears in Zahras. Thus unlike most Hero's Relics that are passed down through the ages, other than being made from the dragon whose blood was used to give Hapi's ancestor their Crest and possibly being wielded by said ancestor before he switched to Seiros' side, it doesn't have any link to Hapi's family line.
Awesome, but Impractical: One of her budding talents is in Axes, and she learns Exhaustive Strike if her budding talent is maxed. However, Exhaustive Strike uses up the weapon's entire durability in exchange for might, making this a not so useful option unless one is willing to reclass her as a Bolt Axe-wielding Wyvern Lord.
Babies Ever After: With Ashe in their paired ending. Implied with Byleth in their Crimson Flower ending as, compared with certain supports that are explicit with having children after the war, their ending has someone claiming to be their descendant appear in public after Byleth and Hapi disappear post-war against those who slither in the dark.
The Beastmaster: Her endings note that she eventually becomes able to control the monsters she summons.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Zig-Zagged. She mentions that she has scars from the experiments Cornelia performed on her, yet despite showing a good amount of skin in all of her appearances, said scars are nowhere to be found, so they are most likely hidden in the spots she doesn't show.
Big Eater: Hapi has the most favorite dishes in the game at a whopping 21, and only 3 disliked. Several of her tea time voice lines involve her expressing interest in the snacks or asking for more, and Three Hopes reveals that a big part of her motivation for learning about plants is to know which are edible or have edible berries.
Blessed with Suck: She summons monsters whenever she sighs, literally transporting one random monster per-sigh near to wherever she may be. Ultimately Subverted. The power itself is ultimately awesome, but Cornelia's experiments on her as a child twisted it into something dangerous. Her solo endings have her finally awaken the proper power to lead an army of Demonic Beasts and wild animals upon those who slither in the dark.
Bizarre Taste in Food: Hapi is one of only two characters who likes the "Small Fish Skewers" in the Dining Hall^noteThe other is Jeritza, a dish noted to have a strange, muddy aftertaste and as such is very unpopular. Three Hopes reveals in her Supports with Bernadetta that she likes to prepare and eat carnivorous plants.
Born Unlucky: Hapi's had a pretty sucky life, and her Luck growth rate of 20% reflects this.
Broken Bird: Ever since she was abducted by Cornelia and exprimented on, which took away Hapi's ability to sigh without causing massive damage around her, Hapi has been very cynical about the world around her as she now views herself as a walking calamity. She is very blunt in her criticisms of things she dislikes, especially the Church, and expects everyone who is in the room she enters is gonna clear out at the sight of her. She doesn't either have high hopes that she will ever be cured from her curse as she doesn't fully understand it.
Brutal Honesty: She’s not afraid to say what’s on her mind, especially when it concerns the surface dwellers.
Casting a Shadow: Just like Hubert and Lysithea, Hapi's Reason magic list is made entirely of Dark Magic.
Character Development: While she remains quite critical of them, her disdain for authority (and potentially even the church) decreases over the course of the game as she finds more people she can trust and witnesses things that make her admit those she's critical of are not all bad, especially if she gets paired endings with certain characters like Dimitri and Ashe.
Commonality Connection: With Hubert in Three Hopes. In their C-Support, she can't stand him due to the fact that he proposes to use her monster summoning abilities for the Empire army's benefit without considering her feelings, and rebuffs his attempt to apologies when he offers her tea, the preferred drink of most of the cast. They clear up their issues in their A-Support, where he introduces her to coffee and they have a conversation that has nothing to do with combat, solidifying their newly-formed friendship.
Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: She has noticeable bags under her eyes, reflecting on her dour personality and mental exhaustion from keeping her emotions in check. She loses them after the time-skip.
Curtains Match the Windows: Her hair and eyes are magenta in her official art though they appear to be more on the red side in her portrait as well as her in-game model.
Cynicism Catalyst: Had two. The first came when as a runaway child she was betrayed, imprisoned in a Gilded Cage, tortured and experimented on by Cornelia, who claimed she was going to help her. The second came when (in the main game version of her story) the Knights of Seiros rescued her and promised to help fix the curse that had been placed on her. They legitimately did try to help her, but when no solution was able to be found they forced her to stay in Abyss "for the greater good" for what's implied to be a few years. Hapi readily acknowledges that her powers are dangerous and that life in Abyss is better than what she was rescued from, but to her this was still a excuse to make sure that if her powers did hurt someone then it wouldn't be anyone important, and was a betrayal of her trust regardless. This led to her being quite critical of society in general, the church, and knights in particular, seeing them as self righteous and only doing good when it's convenient for them. She ends up softening her views over time and acknowledges they aren't all bad when the church does truly charitable things (such as taking in the Remire villagers). It's also implied she was a little cynical to begin with, as she left her home village due to being tired of their way of life.
Dark and Troubled Past: She mentions at one point that she underwent "experimentation," implying that she suffered similar circumstances as Lysithea and Edelgard, though with rather different results. The result of being able to conjure monsters by simply sighing didn't do her any favors. In Cindered Shadows she was almost locked away in the church's underground prison to prevent her "gift" from running amok but was saved from this fate by Aelfric arguing she could live in Abyss, whereas in the main game she was forced to live in Abyss when no cure could be found for her condition. Her support conversation with Dimitri reveals that Cornelia captured her on the pretense of helping a runaway and kept her captive in a Gilded Cage where she had to go through the experiments that gave her the power to conjure monsters by sighing in exchange for having a place to live, and that is before she made her escape (or was rescued in the main game version of the DLC.
Deadpan Snarker: Along with being brutally honest.
Draw Aggro: A variation. Her personal ability gives her a passive effect of making all her attacks deal effective damage to Beast enemies, but doing so means she will always be targeted first by Beasts once within range, unless it is diverted with a Gambit.
Earn Your Happy Ending: In some of her endings, such as her S-Support with Byleth, her curse is able to be treated/removed, allowing her to express her emotions freely. In others (such as with Linhardt) the secrets of her powers are unlocked through great study and effort so that she can finally control them enough to relax and live the free and leisurely life she has long desired. And in others like Ashe or Yuri, her curse might not be stated to be cured, but she can still live Happily Married to someone who loves her for who she is. This is reflected in her end card titles. In any ending where she gets to live happy, cured or not, her title will be "Freed Spirit". The only character she doesn't have this title with is Balthus.
The Eeyore: She has a rather depressing atmosphere and is easily the most cynical among those at the Officer's Academy. She isn't a full out nihilist, but does have a rather negative view towards authority and society in general, feeling constrained by it and having been repeatedly betrayed by it. She becomes more positive over time as she finds more and more people worthy of trusting.
Embarrassing Nickname: According to her she got one after the time skip thanks to a well-meaning Byleth spreading the idea that she hasn't sighed in five years, leading to people calling her "half decade Hapi." She's bothered by this name because she has sighed multiple times over those past five years, and it took a lot of effort to keep people from getting hurt by the monsters she summoned.
Everyone Has Standards: Despite being one of the characters most critical of the church and of Rhea, Hapi does not seem to actually hate her. In Three Hopes on the Golden Wildfire route she is one of the few allied characters to directly state they are against killing her, with Hapi's support points going up if Shez agrees with her hope that Rhea will surrender and she can simply live in peaceful seclusion in a village like the one Hapi grew up in.
Friend to All Living Things: The actual power of her Crest is the ability to communicate with and summon animals and monsters as allies. Unfortunately, the power manifests in an unstable manner thanks to Cornelia's experiments. In her solo endings, it is said that she leads a horde of beasts against those who slither in the dark.
Glass Cannon: Her Magic growth is high enough to make her dark magic hit very hard, and has a passable Strength, HP and Speed growth, but her Defense growth is abysmal (though her Resistance is high enough to at least tank enough magic attacks). Her low Luck also makes her more vulnerable to critical hits.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Constance in their paired ending which states that they remained best friends for the rest of their lives. According to her support with Constance in Three Hopes she once told the latter that she would be so lonesome without her company that she would not be able to resist the urge to sigh.
Hidden Elf Village: Her home village is a secluded village named after Timotheos, hidden deep within the forests somewhere in the Empire.
Internalized Categorism: Being able to summon beasts just by sighing has made people in Abyss talk about how Hapi is the most dangerous of anyone down there, especially since it was the reason why she was put there by the Church to begin with. She adapted to it and got used to people clearing the room when she entered, since she lost the hope that she would ever be cured. She's also easily accepts the blame put on her for monster attacks, no matter if she did it or not. Even when Ashe stands up for her against such accusations in their A-support, she tells him that it would be easier for everyone if she just took the fall.
Hapi (after defeating an enemy in battle): Didn't you hear? I'm dangerous.
Ironic Death: Lampshaded by her. If she is killed in Scarlet Blaze by the Imperial Army as she defends the Church at Garreg Mach, she is annoyed that she now has to die in a similar way as knights do, the very thing she hates.
Ironic Name: "Hapi", despite her name, is the most cynical character out of the entire roster.
Irony:
- Her Crest, Timotheos, is represented by the Dark Dragon Sign. Said crest's effects are saving recovery magic charges, which is governed by white magic.
- She has a very negative view of the Church of Seiros (though this softens on most routes), but if she is recruited on the Silver Snow route she ends up fighting in the war under the banner of the Church-aligned Resistance Army. And if she marries Byleth on the Azure Moon route, she becomes the wife of the Church's new archbishop.
Love at First Sight: Or at least something similar with male Byleth, who in her support she reveals she had a crush on from the get-go.
Magic Knight: Her growths are relatively distributed in the average range, and even though she has a fairly low Strength growth, its just enough to make her passable physically. She leans more towards the Magic side of this trope though, as both her Magic and Resistance growths are high.
Maybe Ever After: While her paired ending with Constance is explicitly that of friendship, several of her paired endings with male characters (Dimitri, Linhardt and Balthus) don't specify if the relationship was romantic or not, only that they remained together for the rest of their lives. Romantic implications may still be present in the supports themselves though, such as Linhardt repeatedly saying how Hapi is more important and interesting to him than napping or even the war.
Meaningful Name: She's named after an Egyptian god, one of whose titles is "Lord of the Fish and Birds of the Marshes", fitting for one attuned to animals.
Ms. Fanservice: Lets see.. she’s a beautiful young lady with big breasts, wide hips, and shapely legs. She is the only female character that exposes her midriff in her Officer’s Academy outfit, and while she no longer exposes her midriff after the timeskip her outfit shows off a generous amount of cleavage. Said outfit is subjected to Adaptational Skimpiness in her Fire Emblem: Cipher illustration which was changed to show off her exposed legs and butt. To top it all off in the illustration Hapi is doing a Boobs-and-Butt Pose.
Must Have Caffeine: After being introduced to coffee by Constance, Hapi instantly develops cravings for it.
Nature Lover: She seems at her happiest when she's somewhere outdoors, excelling in Riding and Flying and her lost items are a Basket of Berries and a Shiny Striated Pebble. She also prefers simple dishes because they "remind her of home". Her Three Hopes Supports with Bernadetta also reveal she likes carnivorous plants (albeit to eat them more than looking at them).
The Nicknamer: She refers to her friends and sometimes her acquaintances by nicknames which vary between the English dub and original Japanese; Yuri-bird (Yuri in the Japanese dub^Explanation) for Yuri, Coco (Connie in Japanese) for Constance, B (Balt or Bal in Japanese) for Balthus, Elfie for Aelfric, Didi for Dimitri (Dimi in Japanese), Freckles for Ashe, Claudester for Claude (Clau in Japanese ^Explanation), Lys for Lysithea, Judy for Judith, Eddy for Edelgard (not pronounced the same as Dorothea's nickname "Edie"), Linny for Linhardt, Bernie-Bee for Bernadetta, The Bert for Hubert, and Chatterbox for Byleth. Hapi is the only character who does not give Byleth a nickname based on their profession.
Odd Couple: Should she get her paired ending with Ashe. Not only is Ashe something of an eternal optimist whereas Hapi tends to focus on negatives, but Ashe is one of the biggest fans of knights while Hapi is their biggest critic. Hapi ends up being won over by Ashe's devotion to living by the ideals she believes most knights only pay lip service to, and is touched that he trusts her to the point that he'll take her side even if it means going against other knights. She also is charmed by how "racy" the knight stories he shares with her can be. For his part, Hapi helps Ashe to rethink or at least look deeper into his position on certain issues regarding the behavior of knights, what is right and wrong, etc. A commitment to honesty is, interestingly enough, something they share in common and bond over.
One Degree of Separation: Has this with both Dimitri and Edelgard due to being adopted by Cornelia as a child and experimented on. She also met and befriended Patricia, Edelgard’s mother and Dimitri’s stepmother, at some point, becoming friends with her.
Only One Name: She has no surname, likely due to being born in a reclusive village away from civilization.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"Yup." (pre-timeskip)
"Why not?" (post-timeskip)
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"Quit bugging me!" (pre-timeskip)
"Back off!" (pre-timeskip)
"You're in my way!" (pre-timeskip)
"You asked for it!" (pre-timeskip)
"Don't blame me!" (post-timeskip)
"Not giving up!" (post-timeskip)
"You should run!" (post-timeskip)
"Better in you than me!" (post-timeskip)
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Downplayed. Her eyes are red but she is at worst just a bit grumpy and cynical and otherwise a perfectly well-adjusted person. However, she does possess a dangerous ability to summon beasts by sighing.
Redhead In Green: All of her class outfits are forest green, while her default timeskip outfit (derived from the Valkyrie uniform) is a lighter green.
The Red Mage: She is a very flexible unit, able to fight physically, magically, or provide healing utility. Unlike a lot of other Magic Knight in the game, she is well qualified to fit as both a physical unit and a mage, and most of the end game magic classes fit her well.
Reluctant Warrior: Unlike her fellow Ashen Wolves, Hapi is very uncomfortable with having to fight the other nations due to how much she dislikes the idea of fighting people she once knew. On the Crimson Flower route for example, she will constantly let you know she is not fully onboard with the war, and only fights because she believes in you. Like Dorothea, her quotes change to her being more remorseful and having an air of self-justification.
Rejected Apology: In her C support with Hubert in Three Hopes, he suggests they use her summoning abilities for the war effort, which she finds inconsiderate. She rebuffs his genuine apology in their next interaction in the same support, assuming he was trying to manipulate her, which can match his nature. If the player reaches their A support, he confirms his attempt was genuine, she finally forgives him and apologizes for her own stubbornness, and their connection becomes much warmer.
Scars Are Forever: In Three Hopes on expeditions she may mention she still has the scars from the experiments Cornelia did on her years ago, they just aren't anywhere you can see with the clothes she wears.
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: She acts like this during her supports with Ashe. As someone who dislikes knights and their actions, Hapi tries to tell Ashe about how the knights whose ideals he look up to do horrible things that are only righteous to them, and that he shouldn't support them unless he wants to be betrayed in the future.
Hapi: But seriously, watch yourself, OK? I don't want you to learn I'm right the hard way.
Spanner in the Works: After being kidnapped and experimented on at a young age by Cornelia to further those who slither in the dark's ambitions, it's only fitting that in many of Hapi's endings she takes the curse they caused her to have and uses it to destroy the remnants of their organization.
Squishy Wizard: She has a solid magic growth and some strong spells, and also a very low defense growth and cap. Heavy Armor is also one of her banes.
The Stoic: Justified; due to her curse, she has to keep her emotions in check lest she accidentally sigh and summon a horde of monsters she has no control over. Downplayed compared to some examples, as she clearly still expresses emotions of many sorts (most notably in her English dub voice), she just has to be careful. And even then, not every loss of control results in disaster, as shown when she panics in a support while falling out of a tree but nothing bad comes of it.
- In Three Hopes during their shared paralogue, Edelgard and Lysithea are both a bit unnerved by how oddly calm Hapi is exploring and discussing the rooms where she underwent some of Cornelia's torturous experiments, given they are both freaked out simply by how similar the feel of the rooms are to where they themselves were experimented on. Hapi talks about how much the cutting Cornelia did on her hurt as if she were discussing what she had for breakfast that morning.
Summon Magic: Her sighing allows her to naturally cast summoning spells that bring forth monsters. Unfortunately, they're never under her control and are just as likely to attack her.
Tarot Motifs: Through her Crest of Timotheos, she represents the Star, which when reversed, represents despair and lack of faith. Hapi is the most cynical of the Ashen Wolves.
Terrible Artist: She tries her hand at painting after getting inspiration from Ignatz in their support in Three Hopes. She tries to make a picture of him that he mistakes for a deer because of how she drew his glasses.
Third-Person Person: She refers to herself in the third person in Japanese.
Thong of Shielding: She sports one in her Valkyrie class for Fire Emblem Cipher.
Token Religious Teammate: Inverted. Out of all the Ashen Wolves, Hapi is the most critical of the Church of Seiros, seeing it as a Corrupt Church that only cares about what's best for itself, and will openly share her disdain for it with Byleth.

Constance

Constance von Nuvelle

Class: Noble → Monk → Mage → Dark Flier (Three Houses); Mage → Warlock → Gremory (Three Hopes)

Age: 18 (3/20)

Crest: Noa (Major)

Voiced by: Sarah Emi Bridcutt (Japanese), Kirsten Day (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe3h_constance_artwork.png

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Houses)}

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Hopes)}

^{Constance in the sunlight}

^{Click here to see Constance in Fire Emblem Heroes}

Sorcery Incarnate / Scion of Nuvelle / Fallen Noble

The daughter of the viscomital House of Nuvelle in the Adrestian Empire, which collapsed a few years ago during the Dagda/Brigid War. While she now lives in Abyss, she hasn't given up her dream of reviving House Nuvelle.

Her personal ability, Circadian Beat, grants her increased Strength and Magic on maps where there is no sun, and increased Defense and Resistance on maps where the sun is out. She bears the Major Crest of Noa, which gives her a chance of not consuming uses of attack magic.

Absent-Minded Professor:
- She aspires to restore House Nuvelle's glory, and regularly experiments and invents new spells to make a name for herself. Problem is, these spells tend to have questionable value such as turning boot into licorice to make boot-licking more palatable, or a spell that gives a rainbow hue to tea, which Edelgard admits is beautiful, but does not have much practical use. She also claims to have devised a spell that makes flowers burst open and release pollen in front of intruders as an alarm, though she admits she's still "fine tuning" how to make such a quiet action actually alert anyone.
- Tragically, it's implied that this is what kills her if she's defeated during Part 1 on Classic Mode, as it is said that she died in a research accident.
Adaptational Badass: Her Heroes incarnation gives her significantly more Speed than what she could have in the original game, while maintaining her powerful offensive prowess.
Ancestral Weapon: Three Hopes gives her the Scroll of Talos, a Sacred Weapon linked to the Crest of Noa.
And Now You Must Marry Me: A non-villainous example and one that's Played for Laughs. If you chose to S support her, she declares that you now must marry her, as it's the only logical step (in her mind) for you to remain as both her assistant, and also still be able to work wherever the route's ending takes Byleth. As soon as Byleth reveals the ring he was going to use to purpose with, she loses her cool and is embarrassed, but she accepts for romantic reasons in the end.
The Archmage: Close contender with Lysithea for the highest Magic stat, a potential 84 vs Lysithea's 86 while only having one Crest. She also comes with a powerful spell list comprising all 3 elements plus Non-Elemental (in contrast to Lysithea's Dark-only spells). In-universe, she aspires to be this as her house had produced many magical scholars in the past. Finally, her title of 'Sorcery Incarnate' is something commonly associated with Archmages.
Babies Ever After: With Ferdinand in their ending. It’s stated that they had many children.
Big Sister Worship: She adores Mercedes, thinking of her as the big sister she never had.
Breast Plate: Of a sort. Post-timeskip, she wears what appears to be a leather one that's shaped for her now-larger chest.
Brother–Sister Incest: Constance implies her family did this in her support with Edelgard. Unlike most examples, it was to keep their vow to their ancestor Noa, keeping their family's Crest a secret from those who would misuse it. This was a factor in their downfall as it left them with no ties to other houses and thus a lack of allies when Dagda invaded.
Bullying a Dragon: In her B Support with Balthus, two soldiers at Garreg Mach are spreading lies about him. Constance spells it out for them (even if Balthus takes it in stride when he finds out) that spreading lies about the "King of Grappling" without a reason isn't a good idea.
If you attempt to spread lies that strain credulity so, it will be your own reputations that suffer. Your reputations or your bones, should Balthus ever learn of this deception.
Chronic Self-Deprecation: If spoken to when exposed to sunlight, she's so down on herself that she actually puts Marianne and Bernadetta to shame in this regard.
Classy Cravat: Wears a blue one as part of her outfit after the timeskip.
Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed - she's normally pretty aware of what's happening around her, she's just got a one-track mind, being obsessed with magic and restoring her noble house. In her supports with Yuri, she creates a spell that will turn boots into liquorice. Why? So that the act of bootlicking will be more enjoyable, as she failed to understand that Yuri was using a metaphor and didn't literally mean that she should lick people's boots.
Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: The entire upper half of her face is shadowed when she's in her dour sunlight mode.
Determined Defeatist: Her sunlight-self's outlook on her Goal in Life of restoring House Nuvelle is incredibly dim. She openly claims in some supports that she has no chance at all of succeeding, but persists because it's still the only way forward. Outside of sunlight, she's a lot more confident about it.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She does NOT like to be reminded of what befell her house and despises being given empty platitudes.
The Eeyore: She's a total misery-guts when in sunlight, constantly putting herself down, dismissing her own efforts as futile, and apologizing for the burden she believes her very presence places on everyone else. Most of the time, this is Played for Laughs.
Et Tu, Brute?: If you're a Black Eagle, her reaction to the revelation of the Flame Emperor's identity is second only to Dimitri in how badly she takes it.
Constance: What has possessed you to go through with this?!
Edelgard: I have considered every angle. I have wavered and suffered, and now my resolve is firm. Now confess... Had I told you, would you have kept my secret?
Constance: Absolutely not! I would have moved against you without a moment's hesitation!
Edelgard: As I thought. That is precisely why I did not tell you. Now get out of my way.
Everyone Has Standards: If she had known about Edelgard being the Flame Emperor, she admits she would have done everything in her power to stop her, even if it stopped her chance at restoring her family. She also has multiple unique dialogues against Edelgard opposing her. She further notes in a monastery conversation that she sympathizes with Edelgard's goals, but doesn't like the idea of shedding blood to achieve her ideals. This ends up being averted should Constance be recruited to Crimson Flower, though, as she’ll have a line of dialogue admitting to forcing information out of Edelgard, which likely led to her changed viewpoint.
Fallen Princess: House Nuvelle fell out of favor in Adrestia when it stood alongside the Emperor during the Insurrection of the Seven, with the rebelling houses not taking kindly to their act of loyalty. House Nuvelle was then used as a sacrificial piece during the invasion by Dagda and Brigid, with nearly the entire house save Constance herself dying as a consequence and the other great houses of Adrestia declaring their line over as a result, stripping her of the titles, lands, and servants that would have been hers by birthright. It is her goal to rise once more.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: Along with the non-elemental Sagittae, she learns Fire, Fimbulvetr, and Bolting, making her one of the most elementally diverse mages.
Goal in Life: Restoring her house. Most of her supports deal with her attempts to find some way to restore it, or discuss the fallout of its loss. Her supports with Byleth are mainly about her trying to find some unique magic spell that will allow her to make a name for herself. She accomplishes this in most of her endings either alone or with the assistance of whomever she’s paired with.
Graceful Ladies Like Purple: She has purple highlights and is a refined former noblewoman.
Green Thumb: Seems to dabble in this a bit with her magic:
- In a monastery conversation she explains she has made a spell that causes flowers to react to intruders by bursting open and releasing pollen.
- If Byleth S-ranks her, Constance celebrates by showing off a spell that causes flowers to grow and bloom all over the Goddess Tower.
Hartman Hips: Disguised in her pre-timeskip outfit, but her post-timeskip getup reveals that her hips are nearly as wide as her shoulders. Her dress in Three Hopes highlights this even further, emphasizing her hourglass figure so her hips look even wider than her shoulders.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: She puts even Marianne to shame when in the sun, barely able to make it through a sentence without putting herself down.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Hapi in their paired ending which states that they remained best friends for the rest of their lives. In her support with Hapi in Three Hopes she admits that she would be despondent if Hapi wasn't with her.
An Ice Person: She's one of the few characters who can learn Fimbulvetr.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: She's essentially this trope in character form, with her regular personality operating under a superiority complex but sunlight always revealing the inferiority complex beneath it.
Ironic Name: Despite being named Constance, her demeanor is the most inconsistent. Others are visibly shocked at her rapid and drastic changes in attitude.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On one hand, when not under sunlight, Constance is haughty and very prideful, befitting a former noble. On the other hand, whether under sunlight or not, she truly appreciates the people she's closest with, including her fellow Ashen Wolves, Mercedes and Jeritza (her Childhood Friends) and, if supported enough with, Byleth. In fact, on her A-Support with Hapi, Constance outright calls the former her "dear friend".
Lady of Black Magic: A haughty former aristocrat with sophisticated speech and behavior. She has Dark Flier as her advanced class, high Magic growth, and rare, powerful spells, making her one of the best offensive magical units in the game. She herself states that House Nuvelle was well-known for consistently producing heads that were scholars of magic. She also frequently creates new magical spells - her supports with Byleth revolve around the constant creation of new magic, and she even eventually learns how to transmute matter by turning leather boots into black licorice.
Large Ham: Whenever she's not in sunlight, she's very passionate and full of energy.
"Tremble in fear at my magical might! Ahaha!"
Last of Her Kind: The rest of her family was killed during the war with with Brigid and Dagda which makes her all the more determined to restore her house to its former glory.
Letting Her Hair Down: Grows out her hair loose post-timeskip.
Literal-Minded: In her supports with Yuri, he suggests that she lick the boots of some nobles in order to gain their favor. Constance takes this literally and tries to lick her own boots (discretely, in her room) to try it. She somehow comes to the conclusion that she should create a spell that turns boots into liquorice, so that the act of boot-licking will be more palatable.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Her Hidden Talent is in Brawling, which makes her a viable War Cleric. However, unlike all the other characters with an aptitude for Brawling, her low Strength stat means she must usually rely on Mystic Blow or Aura Gauntlets when brawling. Her sky high Magic stat though means she is likewise potentially the best user of both the art and the weapon. As a character she considers mastering brawling to be another facet of fulfilling her potential and bringing glory to her house.
Missed Him by That Much: A subdued example occurs in her supports with Mercedes, who is a childhood friend she hasn't seen since the latter left House Bartels. Constance turns out to have attended the Royal School of Sorcery and graduated the year Mercedes attended, and she expresses dismay had she waited a little longer, she might have reunited with Mercedes far earlier.
Mistress and Servant Boy: Constance's supports with Byleth has her hilariously force Byleth to assume this role with her, with Constance promising that after she restores House Nuvelle she intends to make Byleth her personal attendant.
Mood-Swinger: She acts haughty and prideful normally, but when exposed to sunlight, she becomes a borderline Shrinking Violet, which is heavily implied to be due to her childhood trauma ^note. Her profile has different likes and dislikes depending on what mood she's in, and this is even reflected in her personal ability Circadian Beat, which gives her better offensive stats when in the shade/indoors, or better defenses in the sun. The Gatekeeper lampshades this in Constance's C support with Balthus, commenting that Constance is usually the one yelling at Balthus rather than the other way around.
Ms. Fanservice: Post-timeskip she becomes much curvier, with larger breasts, wider hips, and an outfit with a short skirt^note, exposed thighs, and a form-fitting leather Breast Plate. Her outfit in Three Hopes emphasizes this further, wearing a variation of the Gremory's dress that clings to her hips even more tightly than in Three Houses and showcases her ample cleavage and bare shoulders quite nicely.
Noblewoman's Laugh: In the Japanese dub she does this. In the English dub, it's often transcribed and acted out as an "Ahahahaha!" but the sentiment is the same.
Ojou Ringlets: Has the beginnings of them during the Academy phase, but during the war phase she grows her hair out.
One Degree of Separation: Outside of being childhood friends with Ferdinand, Jeritza and Mercedes, it’s stated that she graduated the Fhirdiad Royal School of Sorcery during the year that Mercedes attended. Constance Lampshades this in their support by pointing out how they were so close to reuniting at said school.
Parasol of Prettiness: Carries one with her at all times in Fire Emblem Heroes as a way of sidestepping the issue of that game having no mechanic to determine if there is sunlight on the map or not.
Picky Eater: According to Mercedes, she used to be quite fussy about what she ate as a kid, much to Constance's embarrassment.
Powerful, but Inaccurate: Constance's spells are very strong, but she has below-average Dexterity, so they have an unfortunate tendency to miss if steps are not taken to compensate for her accuracy. Thankfully, her Crest has a reasonably high chance of activating, which allows her to save spell casts even if she misses, meaning she can at least still attack. She also thankfully gets Sagittae, one of the more accurate spells in the game, and can fairly easily get Dexterity +4 from raising her Riding and/or Uncanny Blow from mastering the Valkyrie class, both of which increase her accuracy (though the latter only on her turn).
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Like her Critical Quotes, Constance's lines change depending if she's in the sun or not.
"Sally forth!" (Shade)
"The sun..." (Sunlight, pre-timeskip)
"Sunshine..." (Sunlight, post-timeskip)
Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Unlike the other characters, Constance's Critical Quotes are divided based on her mood as well as by time.
"Hahaha!" (Shade)
"Ever so sorry!" (Shade, pre-timeskip)
"A parting gift!" (Shade, pre-timeskip)
"Keep yourself prepared?" (Shade, pre-timeskip)
"Fate turns against you." (Sunlight)
"Don't make me do this." (Sunlight, pre-timeskip)
"This brings me no joy." (Sunlight, pre-timeskip)
"This will be over soon." (Sunlight, pre-timeskip)
"Respect your betters!" (Shade, post-timeskip)
"Look upon your doom" (Shade, post-timeskip)
"Shall I test your defense?" (Shade, post-timeskip)
"Shed no tears." (Sunlight, post-timeskip)
"As the goddess wills it." (Sunlight, post-timeskip)
"Fortune is kind." (Sunlight, post-timeskip)
Pride: She has an ego the size of a mountain — but only when she’s out of the sun.
Princesses Prefer Pink: Intended viscountess, in this case. Despite Constance evoking True Blue Femininity with her hair and pre-timeskip school uniform, her class outfits are all pink and white, and her default post-timeskip outfit (a derivative of the Dark Flier uniform) is almost all dark pink.
Proper Lady: Acts very proper in both speech and posture, but only while not in direct sunlight.
Proud Beauty: Constance knows she's very beautiful and the only thing preventing her from declaring it at all times is sunlight.
The Proud Elite: Subverted. Her regular personality is very prideful and self-assured, on account of her noble heritage and capabilities. However, though she may wish otherwise, she’s no longer an elite, having no wealth or titles to her name. She can also be genuinely kind towards her friends, including the far less cultured Hapi.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Absolutely tears Ferdinand a new one during their first support conversation, ripping apart his concern for her as callous as she knows full well what she suffered and that he never had to endure what she did. It's enough to prompt him to apologize, except he tries to apologize to her in the sunlight.
Secret-Keeper: In the Crimson Flower route, it's implied during her supports with Jeritza that she's one of the few people in the Imperial army who are aware he's actually Emile von Bartels.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: A trait both personalities share; when Constance talks, she talks a lot and rarely uses a few words to describe something when she can use ten(-or-more) instead. It might be her overcompensating to sound like a proper noble and stay connected to her roots.
Shrinking Violet: When in sunlight, Constance's Proper Lady personality changes to this. Her personality would give Marianne a run for her money.
The Smart Guy: Among the Ashen Wolves. Hapi puts up a bit of a front with her bluntness and Yuri does a lot of planning, but Constance is consistently the Ashen Wolf with the most knowledge and insight, even to the point that she's the only human character to call Sothis "The Progenitor God", during the battle against the Umbral Beast. Her connections to Imperial nobility and the fact she takes those connections very seriously allow her to recognize the Death Knight's true identity, however briefly,, and she catches onto people quickly - she soon suspects Aelfric as a blackguard and is only unable to act on that knowledge due to Yuri doing everything he possibly can to throw her off the scent, and even then it's implied by a conversation with her later that all Yuri merely did was cause her to question her conviction on that theory.
Sole Survivor: She's the last survivor of House Nuvelle after it fell, due to failing to prevent Dagdan and Brigid forces from making landfall.
Split Personality:
- She's basically a completely different person when exposed to sunlight: she has separate likes and dislikes for shade and sunlight mode, and some of these are contradictory (e.g. liking 'showy spells' vs 'modesty'), indicating that this is more than just a shift in mood. It's indicated that her real/original personality is the shade mode, as characters who knew her in the past (before she lost her family) all react with confusion when they see her in sunlight.
- Three Hopes goes further in suggesting that her different "modes" could actually be distinct individuals, as she gets annoyed with how Linhardt keeps approaching her "other self" to extract information that her "shady side" would rather keep secret. In her ending letter to Shez, her "sunny side" expresses gratitude for Shez accepting "all of her". In general, both of Constance's sides refer to each other as if they were separate people, and can each be aware of information that the other is not.
Squishy Wizard: She has a high Magic growth rate, one of the best spell lists in the game, and the Dark Flier class makes her very powerful. However, her Speed growth is very low, and both her Defense and Resistance aren't very good either, so she hits hard but takes a lot of damage if the enemy has the ability to retaliate.
Stepford Smiler: While her shade personality is determined to restore her house and remains undeterred no matter what, her support with Petra in Three Hopes reveals just how truly devastated she is in her sunlight personality after she lost her family and her people, and wonders why she even continues to live on. It's one of the rare moments where her sunlight personality isn't Played for Laughs.
Suspiciously Specific Denial: If the player joins Edelgard in Chapter 12, Constance will say this about demanding the truth from Edelgard's actions.
Constance: It would have been rude to hound her relentlessly until she revealed herself yes? Then that's certainly not what I did. Ahaha!
Tarot Motifs:
- Through her Crest of Noa, she represents the Hierophant, which represents tradition and spiritual wisdom when upright, but when reversed, represents a change to the status quo. Constance is the last remaining member of House Nuvelle, but she is also dedicated to resurrecting it. However, she shows disdain for the Adrestian Empire due to the role it played in the near-extinction of her family, as her family supported the emperor during the Insurrection.
- The crest House Nuvelle pretended to have, the Crest of Macuil, represents the Magician. Upright, the Magician represents resourcefulness and charisma, fitting with Constance's goals of restoring her fallen House from nothing. Reversed, the arcana can represent poor planning or untapped potential, much like how Constance's self-esteem occasionally evaporates.
This Cannot Be!: If she confronts the Death Knight in the Cindered Shadows DLC, she'll take note of his posture and the way he handles his scythe as if he reminds her of someone she once knew, but immediately dismisses it with these words. This is of course because she knew Emile/Jeritza in their youth.
True Blue Femininity: Very sophisticated and wears a blue cravat and headband, though the majority of her outfit are pink.
Unskilled, but Strong: A magical version of this. Her Magic stat is very high, tied with Lysithea as the highest in the game, and with her Crest allowing her to potentially save her spell uses, she's one of the strongest magic units in the game, but she has below-average Dexterity and Speed, so her accuracy is not very consistent, and with her Speed being lower, she can often only attack once per turn (unless she opts to become a War Cleric).
Weakened by the Light: Her personality turns weak and meek when exposed to direct sunlight.
Why Did It Have To Be Bugs: One of her Lost Items is Repellent Powder, for someone deathly afraid of insects.

Characters / Fire Emblem: Three Houses – Ashen Wolves

In General

Students

Yuri Leclerc