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

A neutral power based in the middle of Fódlan and the country's religious authority. They maintain peace around the continent by keeping the other three nations in check, and maintain a small but elite force of knights. They operate out of Garreg Mach Monastery where the Officers Academy is located and send out the Knights of Seiros to suppress bandit attacks and uprisings.

In Three Houses, most playable characters aligned with this faction can be recruited regardless of the house chosen at the start, barring one exception.

The route supporting this faction is called Silver Snow in Three Houses.

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In General

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe3h_the_church_of_seiros_banner.png

Banner of the Church of Seiros

^{Click here to see their banner on the Silver Snow route}

Tropes Associated with the Church of Seiros

Actual Pacifist: The Eastern Church branch of the Church of Seiros forbids its members from violence even in self defense. This gives them a good reputation among the common people but also means they have to rely on other groups for protection when danger threatens.
Adapted Out: Justified example in Three Hopes, due to the lack of a dedicated route supporting the Church of Seiros. As Shez becomes a student in Garreg Mach rather than a professor like Byleth, their loyalty ends up falling firmly on the House Leader they chose at the start of the game rather than the Church. Incidentally, Byleth never joining the Church means the faction is never given the opportunity to become Silver Snow's Resistance Army and thus adopt the Crest of Flames' banner after the timeskip.
The Alliance: After the Wham Episode in Three Houses, the Knights of Seiros can ally with the Kingdom or Alliance, depending on choices made earlier in the game. In Warriors: Three Hopes, they always ally with the Kingdom after the timeskip; on Azure Gleam, the Alliance teams up with them after Thales retakes control of the Empire.
Broken Pedestal: Played with on the Crimson Flower route. While Rhea's status as the Archbishop and the Church's credibility takes a hit, the faithful still keep believing the Seiros' faith (namely, the existence of the Goddess Sothis) to some extent.
The Church: They are the greatest religious power of Fódlan.
Church Militant: Effectively the role of the Knights of Seiros, the church's private militia. They are usually tasked with suppressing bandits and providing military support to other territories.
Color-Coded Characters: Each character wears a specific color in different classes:
- Seteth: Red
- Flayn: Pink
- Shamir: Green
- Catherine/Alois: Light Grey
Corrupt Church:
- The Western Church instigates a civil war and plots to usurp the Central Church under the belief they are the ones who properly worship the Goddess, suspicion and dislike of Rhea and Central Church, and manipulate others like Lonato to act as their pawns resulting in several deaths of innocent people. It's also stated that the Western Church was bribed by Mercedes's adopted father to allow adoption in the first place, and that certain people in the Western Church and even Central Church dislike how Garreg Mach Monastery accepts people from Brigid and Duscur.
- Downplayed but present with the Central Church. Though well intentioned, the Church rewrote history in the wake of the War of Heroes to establish a false faith among the people and instituted or supported repressive social practices as a means of maintaining control and stability throughout Fódlan. In particular, Church doctrine advocating isolationism and glorifying Crests and the nobles who have them, respectively, are the reasons why Claude and Edelgard identify the Church as an obstacle in their efforts to change Fódlan’s society for the better. Building on this, in every route the Church undergoes a reformation after the war, with the extent of the changes depending on the route.
Crystal Dragon Jesus:
- The Church of Seiros is heavily modelled on the Catholic Church, possessing archbishops, cardinals, cathedrals, and saints. The religion is founded by the half-divine offspring of their deity. Said Deity is rarely referred by name, and it is a sin to say their name in vain. The Church also has commandments and one of them is specifically about respecting and obeying one's parents, and several characters remark that the Goddess once used to send wicked people to burn in a place equivalent to the Christian Hell.
- The Immaculate One, said to be a herald of the Goddess, is a reference to the Virgin Mary, who is known for her immaculate conception. The Chalice of Beginnings has similarities to the Holy Grail, being an artifact of the Goddess that can revive the dead so long as their soul can return to their body. The Rite of Rising even evokes the idea of the Second Coming of Jesus.
Defector from Decadence: On the Crimson Flower route, several Church soldiers, including any Knights you recruited before the Time Skip defect from the Church and join the Empire out of horror of how far Rhea/Seiros has fallen into bloodthirsty insanity.
Dragons Are Divine: Their symbol is a white dragon, The Immaculate One, and this dragon is generally purported to be an agent of the Goddess' will. The Immaculate One aka Rhea is divine, being a literal child of the Goddess, but she goes demonic on the Crimson Flower and Silver Snow routes, albeit for different reasons.
Geodesic Cast: Similar to how the three main houses are organized with a general similarity, the church characters in the Silver Snow route are also arranged accordingly, although there are a few outliers and role overlaps.
- Seteth acts as both the leader and retainer, mirroring Edelgard/Dimitri/Claude and Hubert/Dedue/Hilda respectively. In the Silver Snow route, Seteth accompanies you in rooting out the bandits out of Garreg Mach, mirroring Dimitri and Claude in their respective routes, as well as giving you quests that are normally given by the retainer characters in other routes. Unlike the house leaders though, Seteth is never a compulsory unit in any chapters of the game and his defeat will not result in a game over.
- Flayn acts as a healer, mirroring Linhardt, Mercedes, and Marianne. Flayn is really Saint Cethleann herself.
- Catherine and Alois act as the brawlers/warriors with excellent offensive capabilities but poor magic and defense, mirroring Caspar, Felix, and Raphael. Similar to those three, both of them also have an affinity to Brawl.
- Shamir is the archer, mirroring Bernadetta, Ashe, and Ignatz.
Holier Than Thou: The Southern and Western Church have both believed themselves to be this to the Central Church, deluding themselves that they are the ones who properly worship the Goddess and the Saints. This got the Southern Church disbanded by the empire and the Western Church reorganized and the fanatics purged. The Saints the Western Church worship even condemn their actions when executing them in their current identities.
Hufflepuff House: The Eastern Church. Due to being the weakest branch, it doesn't do much and never intervenes in the plot outside of a few mentions that they exist.
Irony: Despite being the official army of the church, two of the five named Knights of Seiros^noteJeralt, and Shamir are explicitly non-religious with no loyalty to the church.
Light Is Good: On all routes other than Crimson Flower. The Church of Seiros is an institution associated with divinity and the color white, and dedicates itself to protecting peace in Fódlan. Rhea's personal flaws aside, she has a tendency to take in impoverished individuals like Shamir, Catherine, and Cyril and give them shelter and purpose. When the Empire declares war on everyone, the Church is the only faction guaranteed to be on Byleth's side through thick and thin.
Light Is Not Good: By the end of Crimson Flower, the Church has degenerated into a twisted mockery of itself as a result of Byleth turning on them. Rhea preaches about bloodshed and vengeance, and the Church has become willing to bully Brigid into taking their side through force of arms and burn Fhirdiad to the ground to kill Edelgard.
The Millstone: At the end of the Golden Wildfire route in Warriors: Three Hopes, Shez outright describes the Central Church as a millstone around Dimitri's neck. His continued obligation to the Church is forcing him into a losing war with the Empire and Federation, and in the end he has to use the Federation to cut the Church loose without inciting a civil war. It is not a decision he makes lightly, as he genuinely desired to save the Central Church and feels indebted to them, but in the end he has to prioritize his own people. He is willing to accept whatever scorn or punishment he may face for abandoning them.
N.G.O. Superpower: Despite not being a nation in and of themselves, they are still influential enough to sway nations and execute war criminals.
Out of Focus: While they serve as the main antagonist in Golden Wildfire they are notably far less impactful in the story of Three Hopes compared to their original appearance with the focus being placed on the respective Region's stories.
La Résistance: They always form a major part of the opposition to the Flame Emperor, even if Byleth's former students form the core of the resistance. It's particularly notable on the Silver Snow route, where the remnants of the Church join forces with the rogue Black Eagles and any other ally Byleth may have recruited in Part 1 to form a new faction exclusive to the route called the Resistance Army.
Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The Church is split into various branches throughout Fódlan, but not all of them necessarily agree with what is "proper" doctrine:
- The Central Church is the major power, overseen by the archbishop. Several times it has been forced to forcibly act out against the other branches to bring them in line with the "correct" worship.
- The Eastern Church operates within the Alliance. It's the weakest branch and doesn't even hold much in the way of an official military force, relying on the Central Church in such matters.
- The Western Church operates out of the Holy Kingdom. It possesses a sizable military force of its own and in the present day starts a small-scale civil war with the Central Church over proper worship of the goddess, among other things.
- The Southern Church formerly operated out of the Empire in the capital of Enbarr. However, about 120 years before the present day, they had a massive insurrection that resulted in the bishop being exiled by the emperor and the whole branch being disbanded. While the Empire reconciled with the Central Church, the fallout of this bred quite a bit of anti-church resentment within the empire and relations haven't been the same since.
Saintly Church: The Church by and large preaches showing compassion and benevolence to others and is a positive force in the lives of most people. The Church does things like operate orphanages and the primary duties of the Knights are to defend the people by eliminating bandits and pirates. Most of the criticisms leveled at the Church are aimed strictly at its leadership and many of those are the result of unforeseen consequences of well-intended policies. That said, the Church does have its problems and in every route undergoes dramatic changes meant to address these issues.
Unwitting Pawn: The Western Church loves convincing people to fight and die in the name of their cause. They are likewise pawns of the empire and those who slither in the dark, but are too arrogant to realize it.
Written by the Winners: When the fledgling Church and the Adrestian Empire were victorious in the War of Heroes, they became the dominant power in Fódlan. As a result, multiple characters state that this trope is in effect and that the Church proceeded to record events in agreement with their doctrine. In a nod to realism, a Nintendo Dream interview has stated that the Church wasn't able to truly rewrite history as they wished, as openly demonizing their former enemies would have only reignited the war, and even then, that didn't stop the Hresvelg family line from creating and passing their own preferred version of the story to future Adrestian Emperors.

Church of Seiros Members

Rhea

See her page here.

Seteth

Class: Wyvern Rider → Wyvern Lord (Three Houses), Cavalier → Wyvern Rider → Wyvern Lord (Three Hopes)

Age: ?? (12/27)

Height: 182 cm

Crest: Cichol (Major)

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Mark Whitten (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe3h_seteth_artwork.png

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

Ally of the Archbishop/Heir of Purpose/Seiros Adherent

"Now that you are a member of the church, be sure to familiarize yourself with our teachings and traditions."

The aide to the archbishop of the Church of Seiros. He values order and discipline. He respects archbishop Rhea's judgment of the protagonist, who was invited to the Officers Academy as an exception, though he doesn't let his guard down around them either. He dotes on his little sister Flayn, thinking about her often, but can be a bit overprotective.

His personal ability, Guardian, boosts the damage of adjacent female allies during combat. He bears the Major Crest of Cichol, which has a chance to prevent enemy counterattacks while performing Combat Arts.

Action Dad: He’s the father of Flayn, or rather Cethleann, and a skilled fighter on the battlefield from atop his wyvern.
Action Initiative: He learns Swift Strikes at A Lances, which allows him two consecutive attacks with any lance weapon for the cost of some weapon durability, even if he was unable to double before.
Actually, I Am Him: Claims to be a descendant of Saint Cichol, but it turns out he actually is Cichol.
Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: He's Flayn's brother and legal guardian but nonetheless still plays this role. Because of his over-protectiveness towards her, Seteth has been inadvertently disturbing Flayn's attempts to make friends and has been asking everyone what they think about her. This trope is played in full effect when it turns out that Seteth is indeed Flayn's father.
Ambiguously Related: While he is unquestionably family to Rhea due to being a Child of the Goddess, the exact nature of how close they are is kept vague during most of the game. Seteth never talks of her like a sibling, nor does he refer to Sothis as his mother like Rhea does. Furthermore, both Indech and Macuil are referred to by Flayn as uncle, but neither seem to really express any concern for Seiros if they were siblings, and on Crimson Flower if both Seteth and Flayn survive, Rhea speaks of them as if they were not truly Sothis' children like her, saying that she is "the only one left." The implications of this are not lost to Cyril, who in his A-Support with Seteth eventually asks him about this topic, and Seteth's reply essentially implies he's the child of another Child of the Goddess, explaining why Seiros frames herself as the last living child of Sothis.
Seteth: I am, of course, Rhea's servant. So, in a more formal context, I must maintain a deferential distance. But she and I are actually very old friends. In fact, we think of one another almost like family.
Ancestral Weapon: Both the Spear of Assal and the Ochain Shield are his, being Sacred items tied to his Crest. While the Ochain Shield is in the hands of House Aegir (as that family has carried Minor variants of the same Crest he has for generations), both the Spear of Assal and Cethleann's Sacred Caduecus Staff are located at a monument dedicated to Saint Cichol on the Rhodos Coast. Said monument is also his wife's grave. While both spear and shield are free for the player to obtain on most routes, Seteth will always have the Ochain Shield on him on the Crimson Flower route.
Badass Bureaucrat: Mostly deals with the administrative tasks regarding Church of Seiros, Knights of Seiros and the monastery. However, he is fully capable of fighting on his own.
Big Brother Instinct: He's very protective of Flayn. Though he later reveals during a paralogue, when he, Flayn, Byleth, and their class visit his wife's grave, that they are father and daughter, making it Papa Wolf.
Big "NO!": Delivers a heartbreaking one if Flayn dies in the assault on Garreg Mach in Crimson Flower.
Blow You Away: He learns an arrangement of wind magic like Wind, Cutting Gale, and Excalibur. This is a trait he carries over to Three Hopes, where his Unique Action is to suspend wind-bitten enemies in midair with yet more wind magic. Somewhat ironic, considering he's an Earth Dragon.
Blunt "Yes": Gives one if you view his C support with Byleth prior to completing Chapter 6.
Byleth: You don't trust me.
Seteth: That is indeed what it comes down to, if I’m being honest.
Brought Down to Badass: Seteth is one of the most powerful units in the game, thanks to his late acquisition and the scaling mechanic guaranteeing him excellent stats everywhere he cares about but Resistance. He used to be much more powerful — before his injuries at the end of the War of Heroes, he had a dragon transformation like Seiros and presumably generally comparable abilities.
Bus Crash: If he falls in Part 1 of the Azure Gleam route in Hopes, he'll be dispatched to reinforce Gustave before the timeskip and will die offscreen, with an NPC in Chapter 10 revealing he fell in battle.
…But He Sounds Handsome: Seteth's description of Saint Cichol paints him as being a tactical genius who played a major role in historic victories who wrote the book about military strategies and recommends Shez to read it. He is of course talking about his own achievements.
Call to Agriculture: His paired endings with Ingrid and Leonie state that he retires to a quiet life of farming and fishing with his partner.
The Cameo: He watches fights in the background of the cathedral section of the Garreg Mach monastery stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate alongside Flayn and Rhea.
Conflicting Loyalty: He is frustrated by this on the Crimson Flower route. Having seen Rhea change and that the Church is effectively doomed even if they win has left him unhappy with supporting her, despite being someone he cares about. Combined with his debt to Byleth for saving Flayn, and he's stuck in a situation he'd prefer leaving entirely. It is entirely possible for him to abandon the fight altogether as a result with his daughter if spared by Byleth when they attempt to retake Garreg Mach.
Convenient Replacement Character: On the Silver Snow route, Seteth assumes the deployment slot Dimitri and Claude usually take in the chapter "Reunion at Dawn" on their respective routes, which Edelgard can't use as she deserted the character roster and became your faction's enemy two chapters prior.
Curtains Match the Window: Both his hair and his eyes are dark green.
Dads Can't Cook: Downplayed. He is not the worst cooking partner Byleth can have but also not the best.
Defrosting Ice King: He initially treats Byleth a bit coldly, but mellows out throughout their support and through the events of the game, especially after Byleth rescues Flayn from the Death Knight, which proves to Seteth that Byleth can be trusted and is why Seteth allows Flayn to join Byleth's class. He comes to deeply trust and care for them, even pledging his unwavering loyalty to them.
Demoted to Extra: In Part 2, he goes from being one half of Byleth's Mission Control to fading in the background as either the Church's main representative (Azure Moon and Verdant Wind) or an enemy commander with a single appearance in the story (Crimson Flower). Silver Snow is the only route where this is averted, as he instead becomes the route's Deuteragonist.
Deuteragonist: He's the secondary main character on the Silver Snow route, as he has as much as equal importance as Byleth. That being said, he's not required to join every mission with you, but he can talk to you and appears in cutscenes. He and Flayn also serve this role in Three Hopes' Azure Gleam route, which is the only story where they are playable, acting as the Church's representatives and Seteth as the commander of the Knights of Seiros.
Distressed Dude: In Three Hopes, Seteth rides out ahead to scout a bandit's camp for a holy relic. Flayn, Rhea and Shez must find and save him when he doesn't return.
The Dragon: Even as an enemy on the Crimson Flower route, he's Rhea's most trusted advisor, her ardent supporter, and effective second-in-command of the Church of Seiros, though even he is Locked Out of the Loop on certain things.
Dragon Rider: His starting class is a Wyvern Rider, which, considering he is a dragon himself, is kind of funny.
Everyone Has Standards:
- He is Byleth's harshest critic, but when he begins to suspect that Rhea did something questionable during Byleth's birth, he confronts Rhea on the matter and makes it clear that he does not like the implications of his suspicions. Rhea herself is uncharacteristically subdued in the face of this criticism and doesn't try to defend herself beyond asking him to drop the subject.
- Though he is a loyal follower of Rhea, his supports with Cyril have him trying to convince the younger man that his single-minded devotion to Rhea is unhealthy and he should find personal goals to live for, and suggests that even Rhea would approve.
Fictional Disability: It doesn't interfere with his day-to-day life, but at some point, Seteth lost the ability to use his draconic form that all Children of the Goddess have.
Foil: He and Rhea contrast with each other:
- Rhea is the serene, friendly and motherly head of the church who has a brutal and merciless side if crossed, while Seteth is a stern, cold, and distrusting bureaucrat who has a warmer side once an individual gains his trust.
- They both are survivors of a horrific near-genocide of their species, but both deal with their grief differently, Rhea cannot escape her past, and longs to revive her mother, while Seteth is able to move on and find peace by raising his daughter.
- Rhea cannot connect with others in the monastery, is approached with caution due to her position as archbishop despite her warm demeanor and is quite lonely as a result, while Seteth writes and reads books for children, is able to connect with students, and is generally liked despite being seen as a strict bureaucrat.
- Rhea shows no mercy towards her enemies and paints them as wholly evil for opposing her, while Seteth, despite initially seeing the Flame Emperor as a power-hungry dictator, is able to at least concede that she isn't a wicked emperor on the Silver Snow route (while still acknowledging that she needs to be stopped).
- Rhea instantly favors Byleth and trusts them because she knows the full truth of them being the vessel for Sothis and the key to her revival, while Seteth is not in the know and is wary and distrustful of them due to how little information can be verified about their background, frequently protesting the amount of trust and favor Rhea extends to them.
- On the Crimson Flower route, Rhea is consumed by her hatred of Byleth and sees them as wholly evil despite them having helped the church before, and ultimately loses control of her anger to become the monster Edelgard considers her to be, while Seteth, despite having a similar hatred towards Byleth for turning their back on the Church, still feels a debt to them for saving Flayn and offers to flee and go into hiding if Byleth spares Flayn.
Foreshadowing:
- Mentions having a particular fondness for Saint Cethleann. This is because he is truly Saint Cichol, making him Saint Cethleann's father.
- The entirety of his and Bernadetta's support revolves around a fable regarding Saint Indech, who was close friends with Saint Cichol. Bernadetta reveals that she used Seteth as a model for Saint Cichol, much to his surprise. Furthermore, the last drawing she shows him has her standing next to Saint Cichol. They also become close friends by their A support. Also, Indech is not just Cichol's friend, but his brother.
- His birthday happens to fall on Saint Cichol's Celebration Day.
- His protectiveness of Flayn is a bit unusual for a older brother, especially given how Flayn seems to be significantly younger than him. He's actually her father, which is why there is such a gap and he is so protective of her.
- Seteth throws out some early hints of the true nature of Nemesis and the 10 Elites in his B Support with Ingrid. Ingrid assumes he's simply referring to the fact that they fought amongst themselves for land, but Seteth responded how they used their sacred weapons on anyone they chose, strong or weak alike.
Friend to All Children: He loves kids, and in a few of his endings, he will even write picture books for children to enjoy.
Gameplay and Story Integration: When Flayn ends up missing in Chapter 6, he's very distraught and unable to focus. Sure enough, he's unable to provide Faculty Training, have Tea Time, or do a lecture during the chapter.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: In chapter 4 of Azure Gleam in Three Hopes, he appears on the battlefield as a Wyvern Rider. After the chapter is over and he becomes playable, his starting class is Cavalier, which is not only in a different class tree than Wyvern Rider, but also doesn't even use the same weapon.
Genocide Survivor: Survived Nemesis' genocide of his race at Zanado along with Rhea, Flayn, Indech, and Macuil and is the main reason why he's very protective of Flayn.
The Good Chancellor: Serves as this to Rhea as her adviser, and in his paired endings with Female Byleth he stays as her adviser in Azure Moon or becomes Prime Minister in Verdant Wind/Silver Snow before they marry.
Happily Married:
- He always speaks highly of the time he spent with his late wife when the subject is brought up.
- In the present, his paired ending with Catherine explicitly describes their marriage as a happy one.
- His paired ending with Leonie states that several years after the end of the war a couple that is heavily implied to be them was spotted in a mountain village and that they looked happy together.
Has a Type:
- In his supports with Manuela, he notes that his preferred woman is kind, quiet, proper, straightforward, and honest. Fittingly, he has romantic endings with Bernadetta, Ingrid, and Leonie, all of whom exemplify those qualities.
- Most of his romantic endings are with women who are strong and talented warriors and are tomboyish (Byleth, Catherine, Ingrid, Leonie).
Hero Antagonist: On the Crimson Flower route, he opposes Edelgard and the empire, since they kidnapped Flayn to steal her blood, stole his family's remains from their tomb, and drove Rhea mad. Seteth is even a reformist in the Church and had little if anything to do with Rhea's policies, and his supports with Ingrid show he's quite a reasonable fellow when it comes to Crests. He can be persuaded to abandon the conflict altogether once Rhea's mental state starts to deteriorate.
Hidden Depths:
- He enjoys fishing in his spare time. His first wife taught him how to fish, and he often fishes in her memory.
- His C support with Ingrid reveals that even he's aware that peoples' troubles were caused by Crests, something that she is surprised to hear him say despite being a devout member of the church. He even tells her that her Crest should not define her as a person.
- He is also fond of making stories and fables of other saints, as shown with his supports with Bernadetta and Hilda.
Interspecies Romance: Seteth is a Child of the Goddess who no longer has the ability to transform, while his first wife is implied to be human, since according to Flayn, he met her in a church in Enbarr. All of his potential suitors are human, including female Byleth, though her status as human is ambiguous.
Jack of All Trades: Downplayed compared to characters like Ferdinand, Ingrid, and Leonie, but Seteth has five proficiencies, those being Swords, Lances, Axes, Authority, and Flying, and a single weakness in Riding. As a result, as long as he's kept a physical unit, he can pretty much be anything thanks to his amazing growths in physical-based classes. He even makes a decent Cavalier despite his weakness thanks to how good his growths are.
Jerkass Has a Point: He's initially very cold to Byleth, but he's not wrong when he points out how insane it is to trust some random-if-skilled mercenary to influence the minds of the next generation or wield the most powerful sword on the continent. He'll even point out in his C support with Byleth that, while he would like to believe they're on Rhea's side, it's hard for him to not be suspicious of someone who can't remember basic details about themselves, like their own age. Unfortunately he tends to take out his frustrations on Byleth instead of Rhea.
Jerkass to One: He's not the friendliest individual, but he isn't quite as cold or untrusting to people besides Byleth (initially). This is due to how Byleth was given such an important position without Rhea consulting him and without the background checks he normally does. He starts to mellow out after Byleth's class rescues Flayn, and eventually comes to trust Byleth fully.
"Just Joking" Justification: When Flayn tattles that he said Byleth would be better off patrolling a coffin, he quickly claims that that was stated "in jest, and in confidence".
Late to the Tragedy: It's implied that the reason Seteth was not killed like his fellow Children of the Goddess is because he was not in the Red Canyon when Nemesis arrived and slaughtered them. His interactions with Flayn also imply that this was the case for why his wife died, though it is not confirmed.
Lightning Bruiser: Has all-around high physical stats, with his great personal growths combining well with his class line’s growths. Since he starts off as a Wyvern Rider, his overall offensive power is on par with your units when you get him, or even more, and he has room post-timeskip to become one of the best units in the game.
Locked Out of the Loop:
- He doesn't know certain things about Rhea. Specifically, how tormented she still is by the events of the Red Canyon and the loss of Sothis.
- He is in the dark on why Byleth was made a teacher, as Rhea refuses to answer. He eventually realizes that they have Sothis within them on his own.
The Lost Lenore: His first wife is long dead when the story begins. However, it's implied by Seteth that she was a casualty of war against Nemesis, not old age. Her death influences Seteth’s intense overprotective attitude toward Flayn.
The Magnificent: Three Hopes reveals that like The Immaculate One with Rhea, The Immovable/The Lord Of The Lake for Indech and The Wind Caller for Macuil he also had a legendary Nom De Guerre. His is "The Hammer of Judgement".
Mayfly–December Romance: Given his actual age, his suitors are far younger than him. It's implied that his first wife was human. Though it's ALSO implied that she died rather young, even potentially killed during the war so this could have been moot anyway.
Mentor Archetype: Many of Seteth's supports with those younger than him involve him giving them advice, offering his availability should they need to talk about something bothering them, and reassuring them when they are uncertain about something. He encourages Felix to interact more with those that care about him, and reminds Ingrid to consider herself an individual before thinking of herself as a Crest bearer.
Mission Control: Together with Rhea for Byleth in Part 1. This stops when Part 2 begins ( or one chapter earlier if the player chooses the Crimson Flower route), as he takes the field under Byleth's command after the war breaks out ( or against Byleth on the Crimson Flower route).
Moral Guardians: Despite being a Reasonable Authority Figure, he is responsible for approving all new library books, and tends to not approve less-than-wholesome ones like romance novels, much to Flayn's disappointment. The Cindered Shadows DLC reveals that he personally signs off on the censorship of some books and their confinement to the Shadow Library, and contains the text of a number of documents that Seteth had banned. In addition to the aforementioned romance novels, Seteth helped suppress information that would lead to anyone learning the truth of the war between Seiros and Nemesis, along with the truth about Crests and Relics, or the development of certain technological and medical advancements.
Mr. Fanservice: In Heroes, Seteth looks noticeably ripped and his shirt is absolutely shredded in his damaged artwork just to showcase his muscles. For added points, one of his default skills is Brazen Attack/Speed, which boosts his Attack and Speed stats when his health is at 80% or lower, encouraging you to keep him damaged.
Multi-Melee Master: He is proficient in all three melee weapons in the game, and can even tutor Byleth in their usage.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members:
- In Three Houses Seteth will never fight alongside Edelgard or Hubert outside of his paralogue with Flayn where he is a Guest-Star Party Member, and never alongside Jeritza.
- In Three Hopes, he’s not playable outside of Azure Gleam; thus he cannot fight alongside Edelgard, Hubert, Caspar, Ferdinand, Monica, Manuela, Claude, Hilda, Lysithea, Leonie or Holst.
My Greatest Failure: His daughter Flayn was grievously wounded while fighting under his command during the War of Heroes, and had to spend centuries sleeping to recover. Worse still, his wife died during the same battle. Both of those events played a huge part in turning him into the Helicopter Parent he is in the present day.
My Sister Is Off-Limits: There is a conversation in which Seteth hears rumors of boys flirting with Flayn. He is... displeased. Becomes subverted when it's later revealed that he's actually Saint Cichol, Saint Cethleann's (Flayn's) father, turning this trope into Helicopter Parents instead.
Never Gets Drunk: Seteth states in one of his supports that alcohol doesn't have much of an effect on him. Most likely a result of him not being human.
Number Two: Serves as Rhea’s right-hand man and handles most of the administrative tasks of running the church. On the Silver Snow route, he serves as this to Byleth for the majority of the post-skip route, since none of the three lords are with you.
Oblivious to His Own Description: Flayn complains to Seteth about someone determined to get in the way of her making friends with her classmates. Even after she tells Seteth that it is him who she's talking about, he's simply confused, or rather he appears to block out the memory of her saying it. When she later reiterates the point, he maintains he isn't getting in the way but simply making sure everything goes properly.
Oh, Crap!: After Flayn shares his "patrolling a coffin" remark with Byleth, you can see him break out in a panicked sweat. His claim that it was a joke may have been after the fact, but he clearly wasn't expecting Flayn to spill the beans.
Older Than He Looks: He looks like he's in his late 20s or early 30s, and he admits to being older and faking his age to better sell that he and Flayn are siblings. As Saint Cichol, he's actually much older than you might think.
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In Three Hopes, Seteth and Rhea have a heartfelt conversation regarding a holy shield crafted by Indech for Cichol. Rhea, her voice noticibly saddened, recounts what could be a history lesson in how the shield was meant to be a gift for Cichol, but that Seiros instead gave it as a gift to the first emperor of Adrestia. Seteth brushes it off, calling the apparent bad blood between saints "ancient history." As Rhea and Seteth are Seiros and Cichol, this doubles as her expressing remorse for prioritizing her agenda over his feelings and all but stealing a gift from a close friend, and him admitting he'd forgiven her for the transgression long ago.
Only One Name: He’s one of the few characters to never have a surname revealed. Considering that he’s Cichol of the Four Saints, he doesn’t really need one.
Out-Gambitted: In the battle of chapter 14 of Scarlet Blaze (If the player recruited Byleth), Seteth and some church soldiers will launch a surprise attack on the Imperial base when Dimitri is out on the battlefield, which is something even Hubert finds to be well coordinated. But if the player picked out the Alliance Snipers strategy beforehand, then Claude expected that Seteth was hiding and would show up at some point, and with the snipers stationed near the base, they deal a massive blow to Seteth's unit.
Outliving One's Offspring: If Flayn is killed on chapter 15 of the Crimson Flower route before he is. Since Seteth's death is necessary to complete the chapter, he doesn't outlive her for very long. This can also occur if Flayn is killed as a playable unit.
Passive-Aggressive Kombat: His entire support with Hilda consists of him slyly criticizing her laziness and tendency to push off work onto others with friendly words of concern. He follows this up by writing a fairy tale about a lazy fox who nearly starved because she refused to prepare for winter, in contrast to the industrious squirrel.
Playing with Fire: He can learn Bolganone upon reaching B in Reason.
Plot Armor: He cannot die on the Silver Snow route due to being Byleth's second-in-command and will retreat if he falls on Classic Mode, becoming undeployable but still appearing in cutscenes, though his ending card will reveal he eventually died from his wounds shortly after the war.
Pointy Ears: Has these in concept art; his hair covers them completely in the game.
Powerful, but Inaccurate: Seteth can learn the Diamond Axe combat art upon reaching A rank in axes. It let him deal 14 additional damage at the cost of 20 accuracy.
Practically Different Generations: He looks like he's old enough to be Flayn's father, rather than her older brother. He actually is her father.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"Guide me well."
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"You shall not survive!"
"Do not try to resist!"
"Just a hinderance!"
"Judgement is passed!"
Promotion to Parent: Despite being her brother, he acts in a very fatherly manner to Flayn because he is actually just that.
Properly Paranoid: His repeated questioning of Byleth's swift rise through the ranks of the Church proves very justified on the Crimson Flower route, where they turn traitor.
Putting the "Pal" in Principal: Technically he is the aide to the archbishop, but as he runs the monastery day-to-day, he can be seen as school's principal or vice-principal variety. Some of his supports with students show his Reasonable Authority Figure side, but he doesn't hesitate to be a Psychologist Teacher for those that need it, or a Stern Teacher towards those who are slacking, either in school work (Hilda) or those who's behavior is less-than-professional (Manuela).
Quest Giver: He's one of the main people to go to for sidequests, not to mention the main person who requests supplies on the Silver Snow route.
Recurring Element: Seteth possesses elements of the Gotoh Archetype, as a well-respected and talented Big Good who's concerned for the state of the world and also a non-transforming Dragon. He isn't an endgame character, per say, but he arrives rather late by Three Houses standards.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite his stern attitude and high position, his more liberal views can take others by surprise. Ingrid in particular is surprised when he states the obsession with Crests is not a good thing, and that the quality of the individual's character is more important. It helps show just how separated he and the other saints are from the church founded by Seiros. The only time he fails to be this is whenever Flayn is concerned due to his overprotective tendencies getting in the way, though he does eventually manage to overcome this.
Red Herring: He's opposed to the protagonist becoming a professor and is cold to them, so a person playing the game for the first time might assume that Seteth is going to become an obstacle in Byleth's journey. Not only does he never become an obstacle (unless you're on Crimson Flower, where you're fighting the church, and even then, he's among the few enemies you can explicitly spare), if you're on any route other than Crimson Flower, he gradually becomes one of Byleth's staunchest allies (though partially because Byleth saved Flayn from the Death Knight and thus proved trustworthy).
Required Party Member: Zigzagged example:
- In the Silver Snow route, Seteth will always join Byleth's party in Chapter 12.
- In the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes, Seteth should be instantly recruited by Chapter 12 in normal circumstances. The only possible instance in which he will not join Byleth is if Flayn has already fallen in battle while playing in Classic Mode.
- On the Silver Snow route, he is Byleth's only other ally at the start of the battle in Chapter 13.
- In Three Hopes, he and Flayn are exclusive to the Azure Gleam route, and are required to participate in their paralogue, but are otherwise optional.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If Flayn is spared on the Crimson Flower route, he will go into hiding with his daughter, prioritizing her survival over Rhea's goals. Similarly on the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes, he will not join the player if Flayn has fallen in battle in Part 1 on Classic Mode, instead vanishing from the story once Part 1 concludes. Given that Flayn's ending card mentions she went to live in seclusion after the battle of Garreg Mach, he probably left to look after her.
Second Love: He lost his wife ages before the story begins, but Female Byleth, Catherine, Bernadetta, Ingrid, Leonie, or Manuela can potentially marry him, effectively becoming a Good Stepmother to Flayn.
Secret Identity: In his support with Hanneman, Seteth claims to be from an unremarkable commoner background. He’s actually Cichol, one of the Four Saints who fought Nemesis in the distant past.
Secret-Keeper: In his Support with Yuri in Three Hopes, the latter recounts to Seteth how he was stricken with the plague that ravaged Faerghus and was saved by a kind old man. The end of the support reveals Seteth knows the old man's identity: the apostle Aubin, though he says nothing and instead asks that Yuri value the life the old man gave him.
Shoot the Dog: At the end of Silver Snow, if you bring him to fight the final boss, he will express deep regret as if putting down a beloved family member who's gone rabid, and promises to carry on their legacy.
Seteth: I will inherit the pride of Nabatea. Rest in peace by Sothis's side!
Stern Teacher: Seteth generally acts like an authoritative headmaster despite his role as Rhea's aide, punishing students and Manuela for their less-than-stellar behavior but being an ear for others.
Stunned Silence: After Flayn irritably scolds him for getting in the way of her making friends he just stands in slack-jawed silence for a text box. Then he rights himself, seemingly wiping what Flayn said from his mind.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Seteth's default attitude towards anyone who isn't Flayn or Rhea is very stern, bordering on cold. However, given time and a bit of effort, he shows himself quite capable of warming up (though he never quite loses his professional edge). As Bernadetta puts it in her supports with him when she's explaining why she used him as a reference model for Saint Cichol:
Bernadetta: I got the feeling he was a very serious man, but also really kind. You know, like you.
Team Dad: Played with. He generally comes across as the stern disciplinarian type of man in contrast to Rhea's warmer exterior, but when the chips are down he's far more approachable than her and takes a more direct hand in helping people through their issues.
Took a Level in Kindness: In his solo ending, Seteth rebuilds the Church of Seiros. Having been softened by his experiences, he makes the new church into a more accepting and tolerant religion than the original was, even accepting people with different religious views.
Turns Red: As an NPC unit on his and Flayn's paralogue as well on the Crimson Flower route, Seteth will have the Defiant Strength ability, which boosts his attack stat considerably once he's low on health.
Unreliable Expositor: At the end of most versions of Chapter 11, he explains that Edelgard forced her father to step down and took power in what he makes out to be a bloodless coup. Anyone who viewed an optional scene at the beginning of the chapter if Byleth is instructing the Black Eagles will know that he is either misinformed or lying and that Edelgard politely asked an infirm old man on death's door to retire, and he immediately agreed.
Uptight Loves Wild: Seteth is restrained, professional, and a highly disciplined person, but he can potentially have romantic paired endings with Catherine, Manuela, and Leonie.
Unusable Enemy Equipment: On the Crimson Flower route, his Ochain Shield cannot be obtained nor wielded by any playable character.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: While not exactly villainous, if you chose to side with Edelgard in the Black Eagles route, he retreats from battle when he's defeated in Chapter 12.
Was Too Hard on Him: Implied during his and Flayn's A support when the former talks about the death of his wife and Flayn's mother. Her death made Seteth/Cichol re-evaluate his parenting strategies and became overprotective of Flayn/Cethleann.
Flayn: When I think of it, it is my own fault that you have become so overprotective. I cannot blame you.
Seteth: No. The fault is entirely mine. You were still so young. I placed far too much strain on you, and our lack of resources was no excuse. Worse, I failed to watch you during the battle. Your mother too. We... lost her because of me. Afterward, it broke my heart to see how much you would need to rest just to survive.
What the Hell, Hero?: Before the Time Skip, he confronts Rhea when he realizes that she implanted the crest stone of Sothis on Byleth as a baby to make them a vessel for Sothis, from reading Jeralt's diary. He outright calls the experiment questionable when he tries to get Rhea to explain in more detail. His reaction to this depends on whether he has supported with Byleth or not, either he accepts it and agrees to aid Byleth (if he has supported with Byleth) or he doesn't accept at the time due to uncertainty on if the plan is just (if he hasn't supported with them).

Flayn

Class: Priest → Bishop

Age: ?? (7/12)

Height: 151 cm

Crest: Cethleann (Major)

Voiced by: Yuuko Oono (Japanese), Deva Marie Gregory (English)

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

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

Slumbering Princess/Playing Innocent

"You recall how you helped me and allowed me to join your class, yes? I have learned a great many things since then. Indeed, I have truly grown so much! This personal growth is due, in large part, to you. And I wish to express my gratitute, sincerely."

The younger sister of Seteth. She resides at the Garreg Mach Monastery, but doesn't attend the Officers Academy. Flayn is usually a pretty calm person, but her inquisitive nature sometimes gets the better of her.

Her personal ability, Lily's Poise, reduces the damage taken by adjacent allies during combat. She bears the Major Crest of Cethleann, which has a chance to raise her Might while casting recovery magic.

Actually, I Am Him: It turns out she actually is Cethleann.
Altar Diplomacy: Though she marries Dimitri for love, their ending states that the public at large initially believed that the union was politically motivated.
Ancestral Weapon: A staff, in this case, with hers being the Caduceus Staff. It is located at a shrine dedicated to Saint Cichol on the Rhodos Coast along with his own Sacred Weapon, the Spear of Assal. If the player didn't do his and Flayn's Paralogue before Chapter 11 on the Crimson Flower route, she'll have the staff on her in battle. Three Hopes also gives her the Amalthea, a tome linked to her Crest of Cethleann.
Babies Ever After: In her paired endings with Byleth and Linhardt.
Bad Liar: She doesn't do a great job of hiding that she is secretly Saint Cethleann. She will openly tell Byleth that she was born a very long time ago, and when they request specifics, uses obvious attempts to dodge the question. In Three Hopes, she even refers to Saint Indech as "Uncle," something which Shez and Seteth immediately call her out on. Likely the only reason she hasn't been caught yet is that no one would think to ever connect the two.
Big "WHY?!": She lets out a heartbreaking one if her father Seteth is killed in the Crimson Flower route.
Blasphemous Boast: Her A Support with Ignatz has her agreeing to be Ignatz' model for a painting of Saint Cethleann, on the condition that he depicts her to be 'more illustrious' than the Saint's statue. While elevating herself to be more beautiful than a revered Saint might sound blasphemous, it's subverted when you realize that Flayn is Cethleann.
Born Unlucky: Tied with Gilbert and Lysithea for the worst Luck growth in the game. Ironic considering that her personal rally is Rally Luck.
Blow You Away: She has the same arrangement of wind magic Seteth does: Wind, Cutting Gale, and Excalibur.
…But He Sounds Handsome: Since she is Saint Cethleann, in many of her supports she likes to hear praise about Saint Cethleann and often enjoys expounding details about the Saint's history.
Calling the Old Man Out: Played for Laughs. Flayn becomes frustrated by Seteth's overprotective tendencies and tells him a problem she was having was a certain someone is getting in the way of her friendship with other people. And then flat-out tells him it's really him, to which Seteth stands there agape while she walks off in frustration. Why is it this trope? Seteth is really her father.
The Cameo:
- She watches fights in the background of the cathedral section of the Garreg Mach monastery stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate alongside Seteth and Rhea.
- She also appears in Engage as one of Byleth's Bond Rings.
Cannot Keep a Secret: Flayn is awful at keeping her identity as Cethleann secret. She claims she's not descended from Cethleann, which means that she has no way to explain her having Cethleann's major Crest. She refuses to pick a fake age and stick with it, which makes her always be evasive when the issue comes up. Lastly, she all but blurts out during her paralogue that her mother and Seteth's wife are the same person, revealing the true nature of their relationship. Generally, whenever a student confronts her about her background, she'll be evasive rather than tell a lie that'd rapidly assuage their suspicions. She seems to have gotten better with this, as paralogues fighting Indech and Macuil have her telling them to keep quiet with her real name.
Combat Medic: She starts off as a Priest, but her stats are good enough for her to be offensive thanks to having a Hidden Talent in Reason magic, and her proficiency in Faith magic means she works well in any class with Magic usage. Taken even further with the Caduceus Staff, which boosts her magic attack range and provides her HP recovery every turn. Dancer is often recommended for her to help her utility as a result.
Cloudcuckoolander: She has her moments. Her interpretation of Seteth telling her to stay away from Sylvain is to literally force him to stand several feet away from her when talking. Having a fishing tournament based around her, only to forget which fish she actually wants, also has to count.
Covert Pervert: In her C Support with Claude, she tries to find books on regular people and includes romance in her request, blushing as she does so, and Claude immediately gets her meaning.
Curtains Match the Window: Her hair and eyes are the same shade of light green.
Damsel in Distress: She gets kidnapped in chapter 6, forcing the entire monastery to search for her whereabouts.
Distant Finale: If she isn't paired off with anyone other than Seteth (and if you're not in Crimson Flower), Flayn disappears from Fódlan and history after the war. If Seteth lived, she emerges after a great many years or centuries to see the results of his efforts. If Seteth died, she emerges after a shorter time to see the Monastery restored to what it once was.
Exact Words: She tells Linhardt that she's not a descendant of Saint Cethleann with complete confidence and honesty. Because she IS Cethleann.
Foreshadowing:
- Flayn is the only student character whose portrait doesn't change post-timeskip. Given her actual age, what's another 5 years?
- Her birthday is Saint Cethleann's Day.
- She's very fond of fish, and it's traditional to eat fish on Saint Cethleann's Day.
- Flayn can form supports with Claude and Dimitri, but cannot form any supports with Edelgard, meaning that Flayn and Edelgard can never fight together beyond being temporary teammates, and one or the other will leave depending on the route for the Black Eagles.
- A few times during the game, characters will comment how they didn't know Seteth had a little sister. While Tomas's comment on it is initially meant to be written off after it's revealed he's Solon, Jeralt comments on not knowing much about him and him having a sister, and if you have the Cindered Shadows DLC and recruit Balthus prior to Chapter 6, he mentions being surprised to know Seteth has a sister. This hints at her actually being his daughter.
- When Seteth lists all the saints, after he mentions Saint Cichol, Flayn enthusiastically chimes in with "Saint Cethleann!" That's because she's Saint Cethleann.
Freudian Slip:
- She sometimes slips out accidental hints that she is Saint Cethleann, despite her best attempts to keep it a secret. She notes that Saint Cethleann isn't married — er, wasn't married — in her B support with Linhardt. Likewise, when Ignatz is doing research on Saint Cethleann, she ecstatically tells a different version of the legend than Ignatz knows. While talking about Enbarr to her allies, she remarks that it brings back memories from a long time ago, and while praising Dedue's cooking, she says it's the best food she's had in all her years.
- She always neglects to mention her brother, and she offhandedly mentions that her parents met in Enbarr and soon after had her despite Seteth supposedly being her older brother. All in all, she does not seem to regard Seteth as her brother, since he is her father, Cichol.
Genocide Survivor: Alongside Seteth, Rhea, Indech, and Macuil, Flayn is one of the only Children of the Goddess who are still alive after Nemesis and the Elites wiped out her race at Zanado.
Guest-Star Party Member: If Byleth is a member of the Black Eagles and deserts the Church to join Edelgard, Flayn abandons them.
Half-Human Hybrid: Implied. She reveals that her parents met in a church in Enbarr, and she was conceived through this union. Her father, Seteth (or Cichol), is a Child of the Goddess who has lost the ability to transform into his dragon form, and her mother seems to have been human based on what little information is given about her. This is likely why her enemies are literally after her blood, as a dragon's blood can develop Crests, and if she's half-human, she could produce a powerful Crest her enemies can use.
Hazy-Feel Turn: If you choose the Black Eagles and follow Edelgard in betraying the Church of Seiros, she deserts you.
Hero Antagonist: On the Crimson Flower route, Flayn opposes the Empire, both due to the war they started and the personal pain they caused her. She will defer to Seteth if he's convinced to abandon the conflict.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: She's the smallest, daintiest girl in the game, and readily supports with Dedue and Raphael, who are the biggest, tankiest lads.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Her supports with Seteth deal with her frustration over not being able to act normal and be open about who she really is and what exactly their relationship really is. In their final support, they agree to talk more openly to each other to help try and smooth things out.
I Just Want to Have Friends: Seteth's overprotectiveness has forced Flayn to live in isolation for long stretches of her life, and she eagerly welcomes the opportunity to join Byleth's class and make friends, while getting pissed off at her brother (actually dad) for interfering in her social life.
I Miss Mom: She has several lines mentioning her late mother, including if you invite her to a meal she particularly enjoys and her death quote.
I Owe You My Life: She is grateful to Byleth for saving her in Chapter 6. Because of this, if Byleth defeats her in Chapter 15 of Crimson Flower, she will flee and go into hiding, instead of fighting to the death.
Immortal Immaturity: Despite being Saint Cethleann herself, making her very old, Flayn is ignorant to many basic things and acts like a child a lot. For example, she seems mystified as to why a fish would float sideways on the surface of the pond, and wonders if it means it just gave up and decided to be caught and eaten. It's later revealed that in order to heal herself, she has been sleeping for ages since the ancient battle with Nemesis left her badly wounded, leaving her largely ignorant of the current era.
I Want My Mommy!: All of her death quotes (as a playable character, as an enemy on Crimson Flower, and even in Heroes) mention seeing her mother again.
Kiai: Her Supports with Raphael all revolve around her learning a properly intimidating shout while exerting herself to become stronger, as he does.
Kill the Cutie: It's possible for her to die on the Crimson Flower route when the Knights of Seiros attempt to retake the monastery after the fall of the Leicester Alliance. In front of her own father Seteth to boot, just to twist the knife even further.
Lethal Chef:
- She notes that people tend to flee the dining hall when it's her turn to cook. In her support with Dimitri, he eats it without issue and calls it delicious, but later reveals that he couldn't actually taste it. And then later, she manages to make a dish so sweet that it makes his tongue go numb. But this actually makes him happy as it was something compared to the usual nothing he tastes.
- If she reaches an A-Support with Dedue, their ending states that she eventually upgrades into a Supreme Chef.
Literal-Minded:
- When told by Seteth to stay away from Sylvain, Flayn interprets this to mean that he must stand several feet away from her when speaking to her.
- In her B-support with Sylvain, she reacts with genuine concern to him claiming to have a "sickness" that forces him to flirt with pretty girls, and insists that her healing magic can make him better. He awkwardly changes the subject to treating her to a meal to celebrate their friendship.
Locked Out of the Loop: For a short time at least. She knew Seteth had figured out the source of Byleth's oddities, but he refused to tell her more. She ends up eavesdropping on the conversation where Seteth confronts Rhea about the source of Byleth's changes, and reveals herself to voice her support in helping Byleth become whatever it is they really are.
Mage Killer: Flayn has the highest Resistance growth in the game and learns Seal Magic, meaning she can effectively tank magic attacks and weaken the offence of any surviving mage.
The Magnificent: Three Hopes reveals that like The Immaculate One with Rhea, The Immovable/The Lord Of The Lake for Indech and The Wind Caller for Macuil she also had a legendary title. Hers is "The Benevolent One".
Metaphorgotten: In her supports with Byleth, she compares them to the ocean, only to get sidetracked thinking about fish.
Morality Pet:
- She is Seteth's, as it's saving Flayn's life that finally causes Seteth to trust Byleth completely.
- She's one of the very few students that Felix isn't rude and hostile to in their support chain, instead humouring her request to chop things she throws at him.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members:
- A weird example. She will join Byleth no matter what house they are a part of in Chapter 7, should you accept her help at the end of the previous chapter. However, she will abandon a Byleth who allies with Edelgard and the Adrestian Empire at the end of Chapter 11, and cannot be re-recruited for the rest of the game; this means that she will never fight alongside Jeritza under any circumstances, since they join after she deserts.
- In Three Hopes, she’s not playable outside of Azure Gleam; thus she cannot fight alongside Edelgard, Hubert, Caspar, Ferdinand, Monica, Manuela, Claude, Hilda, Lysithea, Leonie or Holst.
Nice Girl: Flayn is a gentle, kind and sweet soul who abhors violence and the pain of others, and in her supports seeks to make friends and bond with people.
Non-Uniform Uniform: Her uniform is a dress rather than the skirt and blazer worn by the other girls. It also has bows instead of the fringing below the shoulders, and knotted lacework in place of the golden panels on the front. She wears it all the time, even before officially joining Byleth's class. Justified as she isn't actually a student at first.
Older Than They Look: She looks like a young teenager, but is much, much older. Due to her immaturity she can come across as easily two-three years younger than she really is as she slept for nearly a thousand years to survive her injuries.
Only One Name: She’s one of the few characters to never have a surname revealed. Considering she’s Cethleann of the Four Saints, she really wouldn’t need one.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Linhardt is able to find several similiarities in personality and mannerisms between her and Cethleann simply by reading old historical records, though he assumes it's because she is a descendant of Cethleann rather than the woman herself.
Playing with Fire: She learns Fire, instead of Bolganone like Seteth, upon reaching D+ in Reason.
Pointy Ears: Concept art reveals she has these. In-game, they're kept hidden by her hair. Her pointy ears are visible in her battle art in Fire Emblem Heroes, however.
Practically Different Generations: Despite being siblings, she and Seteth look like they're far enough in age for him to be her father, rather than her older brother. It's because he is her father.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"Let us away." (Pre-timeskip)
"Onward." (Post-timeskip)
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"Prepare yourself!"
"I'm sorry, it must be done!"
"If I must!"
"Stand aside!"
Recurring Element: Flayn fits several character archetypes used in many Fire Emblem games. At first glance, she looks like the 'noble little sister healer' archetype started by Maria, but she is also the Really 700 Years Old dragon in the form of a young girl, in the same vein as Tiki, Myrrh, and Nowi, although Flayn is somewhat older than the series' typical examples. Flayn is also unusual in that she lacks a class based on shapeshifting.
School Uniforms are the New Black: Flayn is the only character who still wears her academy uniform post-timeskip.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When spared on the Crimson Flower route she will go into hiding with Seteth, choosing to survive with the chance they've been given.
Flayn: Farewell, Professor. I do not imagine we shall ever meet again.
Secret Identity: Seteth tells Byleth that there are people who would wish to harm Flayn, and thus he keeps her isolated in the monastery. She’s actually Cethleann, one of the Four Saints who fought Nemesis in the distant past.
Secret Relationship:
- Played for laughs if she marries Claude. She becomes the queen of Almyra, but they somehow manage to keep their relationship hidden from Seteth.
- Also occurs in Linhardt's ending, where the two disappear from the public eye shortly after the war ends, the only hint to their relationship being when several children bearing the Major Crest of Cethleann join the Officers Academy.
Sixth Ranger: Flayn joins your house after chapter 6, but turns out to be a Guest-Star Party Member on the Crimson Flower route.
Spock Speak: Flayn has a very precise way of speaking and (almost) never uses contractions, and she herself is unaware of her Antiquated Linguistics until Claude points it out to her.
Squishy Wizard: Played to a T. Her high magic will decimate heavy armor units and her high resistance will make some of the most powerful spells look like love touches, but she can't take many physical hits.
Super Gullible: Flayn is naive for her age, something various characters remark on and find mysterious due to how she also seems very mature. In her C-support with Sylvain, she's immediately taken to believing rumors of Sylvain flirting with horses and chickens, and after scolding Sylvain for philandering, he later tells her he has an illness where he can't stop himself from sweet-talking a pretty girl, and she readily believes it. However, she's also Too Dumb to Fool: his attempt to flirt with her goes over her head, and she takes the comments as compliments.
Tarot Motifs: Through her Crest of Cethleann, she represents the Lovers. When upright it represents communication and relationships (romantic or otherwise), something Flayn wants to experience in spite of all of the circumstances surrounding her. Reversed, it represents separation and relationship issues. Flayn has a strained relationship with her brother (actually her father) Seteth due to him keeping her sheltered and losing her mother.
Trademark Favorite Food: Flayn loves eating fish. As she explains, her late mother was fond of fishing, and thus fishing and fish hold sentimental value for her.
Tritagonist: She's the third main character on the Silver Snow route next to Byleth and Seteth. Like the latter, she's not required to join you in every mission, but she appears in most cutscenes and tells you mission objectives.
Vague Age: Flayn is one of the few characters with an unknown age in the game. Adding to the mystery, Flayn has a habit of acting both older and younger than she appears. Byleth even gets several moments where they can ask her directly how old she is and she always deflects. One time she even simply says "I'm the same age as the other youths." In reality, due to her Child of the Goddess blood, she's actually Really Over 700 Years Old.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: While not exactly villainous, if you chose to side with Edelgard in the Black Eagles route, she retreats from battle when she's defeated in Chapter 12, and does the same thing if Byleth defeats her in Chapter 15.
Vocal Dissonance:
- In the dubbed version, Flayn sounds a bit older than how one might expect a teenage girl to sound. However, there's a reason for this: Flayn sounds older than she appears because she's not a descendant of Saint Cethleann; she is Saint Cethleann!
- Additionally, her manner of speech sounds refined, often lacking contractions. It certainly helps sell the fact that she’s been sleeping for centuries and is a bit out of touch with modern Fódlan.
Vocal Evolution: Her voice in Three Hopes has a noticeably higher pitch, making her sound a little more fitting to her appearance as well as to hide her true age.
War Is Hell: If Byleth talks to Flayn when exploring the monastery in chapter 18 of the Azure Moon route, after the Second Battle of Gronder Field, Flayn reveals how deeply traumatic having to fight her former classmates is for her, and hopes that the war will put an end to such "foolish" behavior.
Flayn: How inhuman war is—how horrifying. My heart feels shattered.
White Magician Girl: She starts out as as a Priest with high proficiency in the Faith skill. She’s also one of two playable characters who learn the Fortify spell ^notethe other one is Mercedes, which heals multiple units in an area.
Wound That Will Not Heal: Three Hopes reveals that Seteth's fears of Flayn overexerting herself are not without merit. Because she was so young when she exhausted her healing magic during a climactic point in the War of Heroes, she was left with a body permanently damaged, or rather, vulnerable, to what is supposed to be the healing sleep of her race. There is a real risk that were she to exhaust herself to a comparable level again, she would fall into dormancy and never wake up, eventually dying.

Aelfric (Unmarked Spoilers Below)

Aelfric Dahlman

Class: Monk → Verrat → Umbral Beast

Age: 38

Crest: Seiros (Minor)

Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Michael Sinterniklaas (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe3h_aelfric_portrait.png

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

Custodian Monk

A man who oversees the Abyss under orders from the Church of Seiros. Saddened by the ruined state of the Abyss, full of hunger and crime, he managed to guide the people to some semblance of order that can be seen now. He is calm and forgiving, and despite their distaste for the Church, the people of Abyss tend to trust him. The creation of the Ashen Wolves was also his suggestion.

He bears the Minor Crest of Seiros, which has a chance to increase his Might when using Combat Arts.

Affably Evil: Even after he betrays you, he never drops his polite, affable demeanor. Indeed he maintains he has no desire to hurt anyone, but obsessively believes he must for the sake of Sitri.
All for Nothing: In the end, everything Aelfric did to resurrect Sitri, even at the cost his own life, was for naught. Indeed, it was impossible from the start, as Rhea tried to tell him. The chalice inherently cannot return a departed soul.
Alternate Self: His Cindered Shadows version is a completely different individual from the one who appears in the main story. He appears under the name "Monk" asking for flowers to place upon Sitri's grave, and idle dialogue in Abyss explains that like his Cindered Shadows self this version of Aelfric was the one behind the Abyss becoming a civilized place, but he was forced out of the Church later on due to some undefined scandal. Clearly in the main game's continuity, while he is still focused on Sitri, he never became a villain, either never finding where Sitri's body is in Abyss, Sitri having been truly buried where her marked grave is, or the Church managing to stop him before he crossed the point of no return without getting Byleth involved.
Anti-Villain: Aelfric aimed to resurrect Sitri, resulting in him draining the blood from the Ashen Wolves to complete this goal. Even so, Yuri mentions that Aefric is bad at acting like an out-and-out villain.
Yuri: You're no villain, with that sticky conscience you call a heart tripping you up. Not like me.
Bad Boss: The Rite of Rising will kill everyone in the Holy Mausoleum except him. He begins performing it while his minions are fighting Byleth and the students, damaging everyone in the room in the process. Aelfric is completely unconcerned. Oddly, his soldiers (all apostates) don't seem bothered either.
Becoming the Mask: He came to really care about the Ashen Wolves to some degree. Didn't stop him from trying to sacrifice them, though.
Big Bad: While the story initially misleads the player to believe that Rhea and the Empire are the enemies of the Abyssians and the Ashen Wolves, it’s revealed in chapter 4 to all be red herrings as he is the true villain whom Rhea enlisted Yuri to investigate.
Big Good: Aelfric is first presented as a beacon of hope in Abyss, and had made it a more livable place out of the kindness of his heart. He's even responsible for the creation of the Ashen Wolves. However, the end of Chapter 5 reveals him to be anything but.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Aelfric is seen as the beacon of hope to many within the Abyss, as he did everything in his power to make their lives comfortable. It was also at his suggestion that the Ashen Wolves were formed to provide a semblance of leadership and normalcy to the students who left the Officer's Academy. In actuality, he's been after the fabled chalice that the Four Apostles once used and gathered their descendants in order to obtain it. How much he ever really cared about the Ashen Wolves is ambiguous, since he was fully willing to sacrifice them in order to reenact the Ritual of Rising and bring Sitri back to life.
Broken Pedestal: Goes both ways:
- The Ashen Wolves, as well as all of Abyss, looked up to and respected him as the only one from the church they could trust. His betrayal shakes the students who looked up to him.
- Rhea is this in his eyes. He rightfully assumed she had something to do with Sitri's death and why her body is still pristine years after her death. Even after Rhea tells him the circumstances of her death, he's not willing to believe it.
  Aelfric: Rhea, I am finished with you. The only thing that remains to be done is to complete the ritual.
The Cameo: In the main story, he pops up in Chapter 7 and gives you a sidequest to collect some flowers for your mother's grave.
The Chessmaster: He's surprisingly crafty for being a man of the cloth. He's the reason why the descendants of the Four Apostles came to Garreg Mach by falsifying their enrollment papers and was even the man responsible behind the ill-fated mission where Yuri was forced to murder the knights tasked with killing his friends. He made sure they all ended up in the Ashen Wolves so that they could seek out the chalice for him, later taking advantage of Byleth's presence and overall skills to sweeten the deal. That being said, even he admits that Yuri is a better strategist than him, and it turns out that Rhea had been onto him too.
Contractual Boss Immunity: Like many antagonist characters, he has the Commander skill, conferring immunity to Status Effects. Unlike other antagonists, he actually gets to keep this skill during his brief tenure in your party.
Contrived Coincidence: Not really. It seems like it's an awful amount of luck that the Ashen Wolf House he formed has the descendants of the Four Apostles, whose bloodlines are required to remove the seal hiding the chalice away. Rhea's investigation about the students' backgrounds and enrollment papers, however, reveals he's the one who made sure they ended up in his lap, purposely inviting them to Garreg Mach before falsifying their enrollment papers, and in at least one case arranging for the circumstances that led to one of them being put in Abyss (Yuri).
Did Not Get the Girl: He was in love with Byleth's mother, but lost her to Jeralt. Interestingly, that was never what bothered him but instead the fact that she's dead is what bothered him.
Dogged Nice Guy: In the past, despite his attempts to get Sitri to notice him, he wasn't able to make her smile as Jeralt managed to. His status as one is not his motivation for his actions however, he's more concerned with reviving her because of the sheer unnatural nature of her death than anything.
Doppelgänger Attack: As the Umbral Beast, he can summon Phantoms that take the form of his human self during his turn. Not only can they attack with fire magic, but any Phantoms that are alive by his next turn will have their health siphoned off to regenerate his own health. However, they don't have any sentience for themselves outside of mindlessly attacking others.
Dub Name Change: He's called Alphard in the Japanese version.
Early-Bird Cameo: He is one of the characters who can briefly appear in the Gatekeeper's attack animation in Heroes, appearing there a month before his own proper debut as a playable character.
Evil All Along: Despite the people of the Abyss’ high praise of him, it is revealed that he was the true Big Bad of the Cindered Shadows story, using the students of the abyss to enact his plot to revive Sitri, even if it meant sacrificing them to achieve this goal. Played With when Yuri notes that he was placed in charge of the Abyss, formed the Ashen Wolves, and worked tirelessly to improve Abyss and remake it into a shelter for oppressed people years before he found Sitri's body, leading to Yuri speculating that at first he may have had genuinely good intentions.
Faked Kidnapping: He worked with Metodey to stage his abduction as part of his plan.
Fallen Hero: He was once a genuinely devout follower of the Church of Seiros, but ten years before Cindered Shadows, he discovered Sitri's body, deciding then to revive her at any cost. It's also speculated by Yuri that he truly cared for the people of Abyss, as the Ashen Wolves were established 15 years before the start of the game.
False Friend: He acts like a Good Shepherd to the Wolves, but in reality, he's planning to kill them all to bring back Sitri.
Final Boss: He is the main antagonist and final enemy fought in the Cindered Shadows campaign.
Foil:
- To Rhea. Both of them conspired and manipulated those around them in order to resurrect a loved one back from the dead, and were both involved with the creation of the Ashen Wolves. They also cared for a lost loved one above most else. However, while Rhea (outside of Crimson Flower) eventually accepted the fact that her mother Sothis could never come back, Aelfric never stopped believing he could bring back Sitri, paying for it with his life. Further, while Rhea did once attempt to revive Sothis using the Chalice of Beginnings, it failed due to not having enough blood drained for it (or at least this is theorized to be the reason). Whereas Rhea was thus implicitly not willing to sacrifice the lives of the Apostles to revive Sothis, Aelfric is prepared to drain their modern day equivalents to death to revive Sitri. Not to mention that while Rhea acted Ax-Crazy in the only route she was an antagonist in (a.k.a. Crimson Flower), Aelfric was much more Affably Evil in Cindered Shadows. Lastly, when Aelfric is transformed into the Umbral Beast by the Chalice of Beginnings, he takes on an appearance that looks eerily like a zombified version of Rhea’s Immaculate One form.
- He and Jeralt were once devoted to the Church of Seiros, and both had fallen in love with the same nun. They both also had the Crest of Seiros, and became greatly disillusioned with Rhea at different points of their lives. To contrast, while Aelfric Did Not Get the Girl, Jeralt was Happily Married with Sitri. While Jeralt was able to move on from Sitri's death, Aelfric's entire motivation hinges on bringing her back. After seeing what being a teacher at the Officers Academy does for Byleth, Jeralt admits that they probably would have been alright if they stayed at the monastery, while Aelfric holds onto his resentment for Rhea to the bitter end. The way they both talk about Sitri after her death also contrasts. Aelfric talks about her like she was a goddess herself (perhaps not helped by the fact that her body is still in pristine condition) and after meeting Byleth talks about her quite often, indicating his inability to move on from her death, Jeralt on the other hand, while glowing, speaks about Sitri like she was just a person and rarely talks about her, showing he was able to some degree move on from her death. Additionally, Aelfric narrates the Cindered Shadows story, much like how Jeralt narrates the main game.
- For Alois. Both men have a history with one of Byleth's parents whom they hold in high regard, and as a result both hold Byleth in high regard simply for being their child. Both provide backstory for Jeralt and Sitri respectively. However, in most cases, especially when he's recruited, Alois considers protecting Byleth as much his duty as anything else he does for the Knights of Seiros, especially after Jeralt's death. Aelfric on the other hand will not hesitate to strike Byleth down for getting in his way despite knowing how lovingly Sitri nurtured them while pregnant.
Fusion Dance: At the end of "Cindered Shadows", the Chalice of Beginnings absorbs and fuses both him and Sitri's corpse, warping Aelfric into a horrific abomination known as an Umbral Beast.
Good Shepherd: He brought relative order to Abyss, which was originally just a den of thieves, is so kind and respected that many residents who hate the Church still trust him greatly, and he outright refers to the Wolves as his "flock" on multiple occasions. It’s revealed in Chapter 5 that this is all a front, though Yuri speculates that at one point he was genuine in his attempts to guide the people of Abyss.
Gratuitous German: His unique class, Verrat, is German for betrayal, appropriately enough.
Green-Eyed Monster: Averted. He wasn't angry or jealous of Jeralt when Sitri fell for the man, and if his conversations with Byleth mean anything, he was on good terms with him. His reasons for reviving Sitri seem more because he's horrified by the nature of her death, and because he hopes to see her again.
Guest-Star Party Member: You temporarily control him in Chapter 5, and must protect him from bandits looking to steal the Chalice of Beginnings.
Hidden Disdain Reveal: If he fights Balthus in Chapter 6, he declares him to be "ever the brutish thug", strongly implying he's always held him in contempt.
I Have Your Wife: Pulled a variation on Yuri, kidnapping his loved ones to make him comply with his plans. Unfortunately for Aelfric, Yuri had other plans.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He was in love with Sitri, but willingly stepped aside and was content just seeing her be happy with Jeralt.
Love Makes You Evil: Aelfric's actions were to bring Sitri back from the dead above all else.
Love Triangle: He and Jeralt vied for Sitri. Eventually, Aelfric gave up his initial pursuits after seeing Jeralt make Sitri smile.
Magic Knight: During his brief time in your party, he has a couple of steel weapons, and his Strength isn't too shabby for a man of the cloth.
Meaningful Name:
- "Aelfric" is the name of several churchmen of different religions in real-life history. Fittingly, he is one of the Cardinals within the Church of Seiros, whose identities are kept secret to the point where very few actually know about them.
- His Japanese name, Alphard, is Arabic for the solitary one, and indeed he is ultimately motivated by a desire to no longer be alone.
Necromantic: He is obsessively in love with Sitri, and is willing to do anything to bring her back from the dead.
No Name Given: In his cameo in the main story, he is simply referred to as "Monk" (though his name is mentioned by an NPC at an earlier point in the main story, said NPC giving you enough info to know that the "Monk" you meet later is Aelfric).
One-Winged Angel: In the final battle, with nothing else to lose, Aelfric adds his blood to the Rite of Rising in a last-ditch effort to revive Sitri. This results in him, along with Sitri, being absorbed by the Chalice of Beginnings, transforming him into the mindless Umbral Beast.
Parental Substitute: Acted as one to the Ashen Wolves, making his betrayal all the most shocking for them.
Playing with Fire: He heavily favors fire magic as his weapon of choice. He has Fire and Bolganone as a playable character, and gets Ragnarok and Meteor as a boss. Even his Phantom clones favor fire magic.
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"I do as I must!"
"I have no choice!"
"No turning back!"
"Submit!"
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Played with, Three Houses being the game it is. Aelfric wears a black robe with red trimmings and plotted to sacrifice the Ashen Wolves for his plans. However, his motivation was ultimately to bring back the love of his life, which is more than one can say for the likes of Solon.
Say My Name: As Aelfric turns into the Umbral Beast, all he can say in a distorted voice is Sitri's name.
Seeks Another's Resurrection: This is his motive behind the events of the game. He discovered Sitri's corpse, completely unaffected of the elements and devoid of rot, and later learned of the Ritual of Rising and set the events of "Cindered Shadows" into motion by gathering the descendants of the Four Apostles.
Single-Target Sexuality: He only has eyes on Sitri. He never found love again and remains single after Sitri's death.
Unbalanced By Rival's Kid: Averted. Aelfric is actually more than happy to meet Byleth, and, although he still inevitably betrays Sitri's child, he does not take any pleasure from it. He tries to justify his actions to Byleth by insisting that they deserve to see their mother revived. When they impede his plans, Aelfric is more shocked that they would stop the return of their mother than anything else, and doesn't understand why they would see his actions as wrong.
Unique Enemy:
- As the boss of Chapter 6, he is a member of the unique Verrat class.
- As the Final Boss of "Cindered Shadows", he becomes a unique Demonic Beast called an Umbral Beast.
Villain Has a Point: Aelfric calls Rhea out on lying about the circumstances of Sitri's death.
Rhea: Aelfric. Just as I viewed her, so do I view you. You are as my own child. Please, cease this futility.
Aelfric: Oho! You expect that I should believe you without question?! You see her lying here before you, and yet you 'owe no words.'
Villain Protagonist: Is briefly playable in Chapter 5, just before his true colors are revealed.
Villain Respect: When Yuri reveals that he Out-Gambitted him, Aelfric can do nothing but concede that Yuri was the better Chessmaster.
Walking Spoiler: Being Evil All Along will do that to you.

Sitri (Unmarked Spoilers Below)

Sitri Eisner

Age: Around 19/20

Crest: Goddess/Flames (Major)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sitri_1.png

A former resident of Garreg Mach Monastery, Sitri is the mother of Byleth and wife of Jeralt who died 21 years before the start of Three Houses.

Ambiguous Situation: The exact circumstances of her giving birth to Byleth and subsequently dying are shrouded in mystery. The only firsthand account the player hears is from Rhea and both Jeralt and Aelfric call her story into question. However, her status as Delicate and Sickly, confirmed by Aelfric, lends credibility to both her death and Byleth's stillbirth.
Artificial Human: She was created by Rhea as a possible vessel for Sothis, though this ultimately failed. She's still implied to be more Child of the Goddess than human, as her body is revealed to not rot, much like the bones and muscles used for the Heroes' Relics do not. To drive the matter further, like Rhea, Seteth, and Flayn, Sitri's hair always covers her ears.
Bookworm: According to Aelfric, she was always reading in the library.
Came Back Wrong: In the final battle of Cindered Shadows, Aelfric initiates the Rite of Rising by using his blood in addition to the Four Apostles... but the results are not pretty. Instead of bringing back Sitri from the dead, the Chalice of Beginnings instead absorbs her corpse along with Aelfric. This turns Aelfric into an Umbral Beast, a large, draconic monster with veins strewn about its flesh.
Death by Childbirth: A strange version. While she survived the birth itself, when Byleth was stillborn she demanded Rhea take the Sword of the Creator's crest stone, which acted as her heart and place it in her child to save them, which ultimately saved Byleth at the cost of her life. That being said, Rhea implies in Silver Snow and Cindered Shadows that she wasn't going to survive for much longer either due to her frailty.
Delicate and Sickly: It's mentioned that Sitri was physically frail and unable to leave the monastery at all. Learning of the outside world from Jeralt contributed to her falling for him.
Emotionless Girl: According to Aelfric, Sitri struggled to express her emotions just like Byleth. However, he claims that this trope disappeared when Jeralt was around.
Gender-Blender Name: Sitri is the name given to a Great Prince of Hell in the Ars Goetia.
Happily Married: Allegedly with Jeralt. From what he saw of her, she was only able to express herself around him, and Jeralt was clearly in love with her.
Like Father, Like Son: Well, more "Like Mother, Like Child". According to Aelfric and Jeralt in Three Houses, she was very stoic and had trouble expressing her emotions, except around Jeralt. Byleth ends up being almost the exact same way, only with their students. Given how Sitri has a Crest Stone in her and was an Artificial Human, it seems Byleth's stillborn birth and Rhea implanting said Crest Stone in them caused it. In Three Hopes, Jeralt also mentions that Sitri was particular about wanting to keep holding onto/using items as long as it's practical to do so, a trait Byleth also shares.
The Lost Lenore: For Jeralt and Aelfric.
Mama Bear: When it became clear that either she or her child (or indeed both of them) would die when she gave birth, she instructed Rhea to make sure the baby lived over her by giving Byleth her Crest Stone.
Mark of the Supernatural: Her green hair is the result of being a vessel created by Rhea for Sothis.
Mayfly–December Romance: Considering Jeralt was over 100 years old when they met, this was likely the case. However, considering she had the Sword of the Creator's crest stone in place of her heart, this may have instead resulted in Eternal Love if not for Sitri's untimely death.
Meaningful Name: The demon that Sitri gets her name from is associated with love. Fitting, considering how lovestruck she made Jeralt and Aelfric.
No Name Given: In the base game. It isn't until the Abyss DLC that her name is revealed, with her name then being added to her gravestone in the main game.
Poor Communication Kills: Jeralt was left completely out of the loop considering the Crest Stone transplant between Sitri and Byleth, leading him to blame Rhea for both Sitri's death and Byleth's Troubling Unchildlike Behavior, making him resent and fear her and ultimately faking Byleth's death and fleeing from Garreg Mach, not realizing it was Sitri that had chosen for these actions to happen. To be fair, Rhea did plan on taking advantage of the situation, so his fears weren't completely unfounded.
Plot-Triggering Death: Her death not only prompts Jeralt to leave with Byleth on tow shortly after their birth, subsequently setting up the events that will lead to Byleth's involvement in the main story, but is also the main motivation for Aelfric's actions throughout the Cindered Shadows DLC.
Posthumous Character: Sitri is dead by the start of Three Houses, with her backstory expanded on in the Cindered Shadows DLC.
Strong Family Resemblance: Byleth obviously gets their looks from her. Female Byleth in particular is almost identical to her.
Supreme Chef: According to Jeralt, she was apparently a wonderful cook.
Theme Naming: Both she and her child are named after the demons Sitri and Beleth.
Walking Spoiler: She barely has a role in the base game, and it's nearly impossible to discuss any details about her without spoiling Aelfric's motivations in "Cindered Shadows".
When She Smiles: As previously mentioned, Sitri struggled with expressing her emotions just as Byleth does, with the sole exception being when she was looking at Jeralt. However, according to Jeralt, she smiled the most when she was pregnant with Byleth.
Aelfric: It was only when she was gazing at Jeralt that I ever saw her smile... a smile that rivaled the very sun.

Knights of Seiros

Jeralt

Jeralt Reus Eisner

Class: Paladin (Three Houses), Paladin → Holy Knight (Three Hopes)

Age: ??

Crest: Seiros (Major)

Voiced by: Akio Ōtsuka (Japanese), David Lodge (English)

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

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

Blade Breaker

"I don't mind you settling into your life here, but don't let your guard down, ever."

A legendary figure who was considered the strongest knight in all of history. He was invited to the monastery alongside his child Byleth and was asked to rejoin the Knights of Seiros. He is Byleth's father and is the captain of a mercenary company.

His personal skill, Blade Breaker, inflicts a (-6) Strength and Defense debuff whenever he inflicts damage. He bears the Major Crest of Seiros, which has a chance to increase his Might when using Combat Arts.

The Ace: Considered the strongest knight in history. Jeralt's child is also so capable as a mercenary that they are trusted to teach the art of warfare to the continent's most elite at the Officers Academy. Since Jeralt is the actual leader of the mercenary group, it can be presumed that his skill surpasses even Byleth's and perhaps that of the Academy's other instructors.
Action Dad: One of the most reliable green units in the game demonstrating why he's considered the strongest knight.
Affectionate Nickname: Often calls Byleth and Shez "kid", even though it's implied that they're in their adult years.
The Alcoholic: An early quest requires you to find his lost drinking flask. Many conversations about him reference his love of bars, and Alois reveals to Leonie that he has unpaid tabs all across Fódlan.
Back in the Saddle: He has been retired from the Knights of Seiros for about 20 years, but at the start of the game he is called back into service.
Baritone of Strength: A Living Legend and powerful warrior with a deep voice to match in both Japanese and English.
Blatant Lies: He tells Rhea that Byleth was born years after he left the monastery, and that Byleth's mother died of an illness. Rhea doesn't call him out on it, but doesn't appear to believe him, especially since she already knows Byleth's name if the player declines to introduce Byleth.
Blue Blood: The fact that he has a middle name implies he might have originally come from nobility, though the only thing confirmed about his past before becoming a Knight of Seiros is that he was a mercenary from the Kingdom before he could grow a full beard.
Broken Pedestal: Towards Rhea after he becomes suspicious that she's somehow responsible for his child's oddities (being unnaturally quiet for a baby, having a pulse with no heartbeat) and that she wasn't being fully truthful about Sitri's death. He begins to ease up on this after several months back with the knights. He even wonders if perhaps he'd overreacted.
"I used to think the world of Lady Rhea. Now she terrifies me."
Child Hater: Downplayed. While he's never overtly hostile to the students (and is actually fond of Leonie), he invariably refers to them as "brats" in conversation with Byleth.
Deadly Deferred Conversation: He seals his fate when he tells you he has something important to tell you after the month's mission.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: Instead of dying due to a sneak attack by Kronya, in Three Hopes, Jeralt can potentially die by Shez's hand if they choose to persue revenge against the Ashen Demon.
The Drag-Along: After spending years avoiding the Knights of Seiros, he rejoins when requested by Rhea. He doesn't actually put up much resistance, believing he is incapable of declining a personal request from the archbishop herself, but his private musings with Byleth imply he's none too happy about being pulled out of his retired life as a mercenary.
Emergency Transformation: Rhea gave him her blood — something ordinarily exclusively reserved for her top underlings — in order to save his life after he Took The Bullet for her three centuries ago. This both gave him her Major Crest of Seiros and extended his lifespan to superhuman levels, essentially making him an equal of the 10 Elites (sans a Relic).
Famed In-Story: Pretty much everyone in the story already knows who Jeralt is. In fact, the first thing Edelgard talks to Byleth about after the prologue is how he's often regarded as the strongest knight who ever lived.
Feeling Their Age: In Warriors: Three Hopes, he often remarks as a playable character that he's getting in on his years and that his body is falling apart on him. Others find this hard to believe as he doesn't look that old and is still fit and strong, but Jeralt asserts that inside he feels just as old as he actually is.
Foil: To Catherine. Both are among the greatest Knights of Seiros of their time, with Red Baron titles to match their renown, have origins in Faeurghus, something of a drinking problem, and have once swore their fealty to Rhea for healing them after they were injured defending her. However, Catherine has a vehement Undying Loyalty to Rhea that only seems to subside in a few of her paired endings, to the point that she willingly, though not without some reluctance, sets fire to Fhirdiad and leaves the citizens to die on Rhea's orders in Crimson Flower, whereas Jeralt, while not growing to hate her, has long since grown disillusioned with Rhea due to the circumstances of Sitri's death and Byleth's birth. Additionally, Catherine is a Boisterous Bruiser Master Swordswoman, while Jeralt is a Stoic Lanceman.
Foreshadowing:
- At the start of Three Houses, Jeralt remarks that it's been centuries since massive armies have clashed on a battlefield like in Byleth's dream. Byleth's C support with Rhea has Rhea reveal that she saved Jeralt's life by giving him her blood after he saved hers during a battle. Three Hopes reveals that Jeralt is at least 320 years old and participated in some of those battles.
- In Cindered Shadows, Aelfric is impressed by Jeralt's ability to recite stories of events that took place a century or more ago as if he lived through them. Again, it turns out that he actually did live that long.
Game-Breaking Injury: If he dies in Three Hopes at Shez's hands, it's implied to be because of his arm injury preventing him from fighting at 100%.
Go Out with a Smile: He's both sad and happy as he dies, because him dying is the first time Byleth has cried, assuring them that Byleth's growing as a person.
Graceful Loser: If Shez kills their employer instead of going after Byleth, Jeralt returns in time to see the chosen lord victorious and orders them to stand down. He's not too broken up about the loss and even jokingly says he might not be able to keep calling himself the Blade Breaker if he keeps losing to Shez and their chosen lord.
Happily Married: Jeralt fondly remembers the times he spent with Sitri until her death. When you look at his diary after his death, Sothis brings up how most of the diary entries before Sitri's death are of a love-struck man.
Hidden Depths:
- When reading his diary after his death, Sothis notes that he has rather pretty handwriting.
- In Three Hopes he makes it clear he does not hate Rhea even when tasked with killing her in Golden Wildfire, calling his feelings for her "complicated", but that he owes her a great debt even now and has no desire to kill her. He just doesn't feel he can trust Rhea after the supicious nature of Sitri's death and Byleth's birth.
In the Back: Kronya kills him via a literal stab in the back due to Jeralt letting his guard down around her disguise as Monica.
In Vino Veritas: Alois recalls how Jeralt only really shared things about himself when drunk, including strange tales such as how Jeralt supposedly received a transfusion of Crest-bearing blood that has allowed him to live over a hundred years. Alois plays off these tales like a joke.
Interface Spoiler:
- Checking his status screen reveals his Major Crest of Seiros, whose significance only becomes relevant after seeing Byleth & Alois' B-Support in Three Houses.
- The fact that Jeralt doesn't appear on the support list at all in Three Houses despite being Byleth's father probably isn't a good sign for the players that notice.
I Owe You My Life: Implied he felt this way towards Rhea when they first met and for long after. Many years before the start of the game, he was protecting Rhea on a mission as a mercenary and was nearly killed if not for her giving him her blood, causing him to join the knights after. Come present day he repeatedly warns Byleth to be wary of her. In Three Hopes he notes he still considers himself indebted to her.
The Leader: Leads the mercenary group that Byleth is a part of prior to becoming a teacher. Before that, he was actually a member of the Knights of Seiros. His leadership is apparently so good that his child, Byleth, has as much skill in combat and tactics as the other elite professors at the Officers Academy, despite Jeralt presumably lacking the formal education that they received and have been trained to teach.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In his Three Hopes A rank with Shez, he keeps mentioning he feels like something terrible is going to happen to him and wants to make sure somebody looks after his kid. Considering in both games Jeralt is murdered - other than pursuing the "avoid The Ashen Demon" routes - his worry about his mortality nudges the fourth wall quite a bit despite his age being his actual concern.
Locked Out of the Loop: He had no idea what Rhea's plans were, what his wife was supposed to be in those plans, and what his child has become in those plans. Furthermore, he's never told that Byleth was stillborn.
Magically Inept Fighter: Datamining reveals that Jeralt has the second lowest possible Magic Growth at 20%^note. Combined with a similarly discovered neutrality in Reason and Faith magic, this suggests that he wouldn't make a good mage if playable.
Manly Facial Hair: He has a beard and is widely renowned as the strongest of the Knights of Seiros.
May–December Romance: Given that his wife died at 19-20 years old according to her tombstone and the fact that Jeralt has Crest-infused blood extending his lifespan, their marriage comes off as this, pushing a Mayfly–December Romance.
Meaningful Name: His name is possibly a corruption or deviation of Gerald, a German name meaning "rule of the spear." Fittingly, he uses lances as his weapons.
Mentor Archetype: To Byleth, having taught them everything they know, and he also served this in the past for Alois, another unknown squire, and Leonie.
Noodle Incident: Byleth and Leonie's B Support makes it clear that Byleth wasn't with Jeralt when she became his apprentice. They never learn since Jeralt is dead by then.
Not So Above It All:
- He's a stoic no-nonsense mercenary captain and knight, but Alois reveals that Jeralt is funny in ways, especially when he's drunk. The puns Alois keeps trying to use on people? The exact same kind Jeralt usually does, if with much better results than Alois.
- In Three Hopes, after dealing with the Sauin village paralogue, Shez is surprised to find out Jeralt expects a feast after saving everyone, a fact which Byleth is rather deadpan about while Jeralt denies knowing what they're talking about, but he admits that if there were a feast waiting he wouldn't refuse the offer.
  Shez: ...Is Jeralt usually like that?
  Byleth: Yes. Always.
Older Than They Look: He looks middle-aged, if rather grizzled, but various characters at the monastery note that he looks the same as when they last saw him some 21 years ago. He's not lying when he tells Leonie he doesn't know how old he is, however, what he leaves out is he stopped counting after he reached 100 years. This is because Rhea gave him her blood to save his life many years ago after he got mortally wounded protecting her, and as a result he gained her Crest of Seiros. As noted elsewhere in the game, first generation Crest bearers gain lifespans that last for centuries with no visible aging. In an interesting note, datamined files reveal he is physically 45 years old. Three Hopes has him double down on this, in some conversations rather freely stating that he is "ancient" despite how old he appears, and that he feels inside that he doesn't have many years left in him even if he looks like he could easily live for several decades more. An optional conversation should he fight Rhea reveals that the event where Rhea saved his life happened 300 years in the past.
Papa Wolf:
- When Jeralt lost faith in Lady Rhea, he made the bold decision to fake his child's death in a fire before grabbing the child and leaving to raise them on his own. This also extends to how much he taught Byleth about the world and of his own past, or rather, the lack thereof, just to ensure no one would realize Byleth is the same baby Rhea did something to. This in turn not only explains why Byleth was nowhere to be seen when Jeralt met Leonie in Sauin Village, but also why Jeralt claims to Rhea at the start of the game that Byleth is a different child to the one he had with Sitri.
- In Three Hopes, if he is deployed in the first secret chapter where Arval possesses Shez and tries to kill Byleth, he will be shouting out to them that he is on his way to their rescue.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Jeralt has one of these, but it is unable to be heard in normal gameplay, as he is only available as an NPC ally who cannot be controlled.
"What's the plan?"
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"No escape!"
"Outmatched!"
"Your guard's down!"
"I will break you!"
Private Military Contractors: Became a wandering mercenary with his own company after leaving the Knights of Seiros.
Promoted to Playable: He's a playable character in Three Hopes on the alternate story routes if Shez recruits Byleth. He's also playable in Heroes, albeit as a Grand Hero Battle unit.
Properly Paranoid: He noticed his child's oddities, namely how quiet and emotionless they were, even for a baby, then took them to a doctor to find that they had a pulse but no heartbeat. Now afraid of Rhea, after thinking the world of her, he used a fire that conveniently broke out to fake Byleth’s death and get them away from her. Given Rhea’s plans for them, Jeralt had every reason to be concerned. That said, after seeing how much good being in the monastery has done Byleth, his stance against Rhea softens to the point that he considers he may have never really needed to leave in the first place. Unfortunately he is killed before the potential effects of this new optimism can play out.
Punch-Clock Villain: In Warriors: Three Hopes, he doesn't have any grudge against Shez or their benefactors. He's just a mercenary out for coin.
Really 700 Years Old: Jeralt is over 320 years old at the time the game starts due to Rhea saving him once upon a time by infusing him with some of her Crest-bearing blood, becoming a first-gen Crest-bearer. He specifically says he stopped counting after he reached a hundred years in age, and is implied to have witnessed a number of historical battles.
Recurring Element: He's the father figure of the main character in the vein of Cornelius, Greil, and Emmeryn. Unsurprisingly he dies, though he lasts longer than the typical examples of the archetype.
Red Baron: He's known as the "Blade Breaker" for his prowess in battle. In Three Hopes, he jokes in the alternate story route where he might have to give up the nickname with how often Shez and their faction keep outshining him.
Red Herring: He looks nothing like a Byleth of either gender, and both of their pasts are shrouded in mystery. Several characters even wonder aloud whether he and Byleth are actually related, and the most definite statement Byleth can make on the matter is "that's what I've been told". Furthermore, early in the game Arundel upon learning Byleth has the Crest of Flames comments on how odd it is since Nemesis never passed down his Crest due to dying at the hands of Seiros, which combined with Jeralt having similar physical characteristics as Nemesis, seems to being setting up something about Jeralt. Turns out he actually is Byleth's biological father, though Jeralt definitely has his reasons for keeping things deliberately vague, and the Crest of Flames comes from something else entirely.
Sacrificial Lion: His death marks the tonal shift where everything goes south, and it gets worse from there all the way to Part II.
Shipper on Deck: If his request for Shez to stay by Byleth's side once he passes is of any indication, though he might have other motives for saying as much...
Shipper with an Agenda: In Three Hopes, this is one interpretation of why Jeralt repeatedly seeks assurance from Shez that they will stay with and look after Byleth after he passes away. He does think they suit each other, but is mainly concerned about how Byleth will handle living without him. While he does mention he thinks Byleth hanging with Shez and the rest of the army is good for them since they get to be around people their age, he specifically seems interested in Shez and Byleth's relationship moreso than anyone.
Silver Fox: He looks quite aged, but is still good-looking, if Manuela's comments in both games is anything to go by. Even moreso since he's over three hundred years old.
Single-Target Sexuality: Downplayed. He's not stuck in the past over the loss of his wife, but he's also clearly not looking to play the field again twenty years after her death. Heck, when he explains his love for her at the cemetery with Byleth, he uses the present tense. In Three Hopes, he even tries to dissuade Manuela from romancing an "old man" like himself, though he is flattered.
Sorry That I'm Dying: He apologizes to Byleth while lying on the ground, mortally wounded from Kronya's attack.
Spanner in the Works: He and Byleth blunder into the Flame Emperor's attempted assassination of the three lords (actually two lords), save their skins, and kickstart Byleth's involvement in the plot at large.
Spared by the Adaptation: In Three Hopes, while he can still die, this time at Shez's hands, he can potentially survive all the way to the game's ending if Shez focuses on dealing with their faction's enemies rather than settling their rivalry with Byleth, and even then, it's still much later than when he dies in Three Houses. The decision to kill him and Byleth alters the routes' stories.
The Stoic: Alois mentions that Jeralt can be a little difficult to read and wasn't one to show emotion easily. Like father, like child.
Tarot Motifs: Through his Divine Crest of Seiros, Jeralt represents the High Priestess, which when upright, represents mystery and spiritual insight, but when reversed, represents secrets. Jeralt is very enigmatic and insightful, but is also willing to keep his own child in the dark about their past.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: On the Azure Gleam route, if you recruit him and Byleth, he admits that he's not really that happy to be working with Rhea again, even indirectly, due to their complicated personal history together.
Tempting Fate: Time and time again, Jeralt tells Byleth he's not going to fall over and die. He finally meets his end when stabbed in the back.
Tragic Keepsake: His late wife's ring, which he gives to Byleth. He dies shortly after giving it to them. In Three Hopes, at the start of Part II, he gives them his sword from back during his days with the Knights of Seiros, which also ends up turning into this if Shez kills him.
Tranquil Fury: When the Flame Emperor shows up at Remire Village and tries to convince him and Byleth to cooperate with them, Jeralt links them together to Solon and the Death Knight and what they did to the village. As such, he is calm but clearly angry at them during the negociation.
Undignified Death: In Three Houses, he doesn't die in battle, or even something worthy of his reputation. Kronya does him in with a cheap shot and he dies with little fanfare.
Vague Age: He repeatedly claims to have lost count of how many years he's lived. According to Byleth's support with Alois, he stopped counting at 100, and he made this admission 20 years prior to the game's events. Three Hopes would eventually reveal he gained his Crest 300 years ago, but since he was already an adult then we still don't know precisely how old he is.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Downplayed. While not immortal, and plenty happy with his life overall, he still notes "living too long" as a possible regret of his.
Wild Card: In Three Hopes, due to never returning to Garreg Mach in that game's timeline, he becomes this. In true mercenary fashion, Jeralt and his mercenaries will work for whoever's willing to hire their services during the war, leading him to constantly switch sides in the conflict. He'll usually be seen working for the factions Shez didn't side during the story regardless of the route chosen, and should the player play their cards right, he and Byleth can even end up joining theirs eventually.
The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): He's spoken of with a reverence befitting the World's Strongest Man, is Byleth's father and mentor, and is the only protagonist who has an open skepticism of Rhea. He was assassinated expressly so he couldn't follow through on any of it, preventing anyone from getting wise to those who slither in the dark and starting the Disaster Dominoes that plunges Fódlan into war.
World's Strongest Man: He's lauded as the strongest knight who ever lived. Considering he's essentially a first-generation Crest bearer due to Seiros directly giving him her blood, this makes sense since physically he should be on par with one of the Ten Elites sans a Relic coupled with his years of battle experience. For him to die, he has to either be stabbed in the back with his guard down or overpowered by someone who is essentially a living Agarthan war machine (and even then, it's clear that he isn't fighting at 100% due to a lingering injury to his arm).

Catherine

Catherine/Cassandra Rubens Charon

Class: Swordmaster (Three Houses), Swordmaster → Mortal Savant (Three Hopes)

Age: 27 (9/15)

Height: 175 cm

Crest: Charon (Major)

Voiced by: Chie Matsuura (Japanese), Laura Post (English)

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

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

Guardian of Zanado/Free Knight/Thunder Knight

"Don't be a fool. You decide for yourself what's right and what's wrong. I believe Lady Rhea is right. So I won't allow anyone to bring her harm."

An alumna of the Garreg Mach Officers Academy, and a member of the Knights of Seiros. She is a fearsome swordswoman armed with the Thunderbrand, one of the Hero's Relics, and is loyal to archbishop Rhea.

Her personal ability, Fighting Spirit, reduces damage she takes if she doesn't have an equipped battalion. She bears the Major Crest of Charon, which has a chance to increase her Might when using Combat Arts.

Alliterative Name: Her real name is Cassandra, making her Cassandra Charon.
Ambiguously Bi:
- Catherine only has explicitly romantic endings with men and has no paired ending with female Byleth but she gets very flustered and noticeably blushes when Shamir (jokingly) suggests they get married if Catherine is so afraid of losing her during their A+ rank support conversation.
Shamir: We can wed if you're that worried about losing me. Though, I may tire of your company.
Shamir: You look a bit red. What's the matter, partner?
Catherine (blushing): That was just...unexpected! If you'll excuse me, I need some fresh air...
- She is also extremely loyal to Lady Rhea (who is bisexual) and while her loyalty has non-romantic justifications Catherine says during her A-Rank support conversation with Byleth that she loves Rhea (but she doesn't specify if her love for Rhea is platonic or romantic). Furthermore, Catherine's solo ending on the Azure Moon and Silver Snow (if Rhea survives) routes states that Catherine lives out the rest of her days together with Rhea in Zanado.
Catherine: Lady Rhea took care of me.
Catherine: She didn't mind getting dirty. She took my muddied, bloodied body into her arms...
Catherine: Since then, Lady Rhea has been my inspiration.
Catherine: I will always serve her, protect her... Love her.
- In Fire Emblem Heroes she blushes when Shamir mentions that people in Dagda can marry whomever they want regardless of gender.
Ancestral Weapon: Due to her ancestry she's one of two units who can wield the blade Thunderbrand, the Relic of House Charon, safely.^note To a lesser extent, Three Hopes introduces Suttungr's Mystery, a tome also linked to her Crest, but Catherine isn't a good fit for it due to her poor magical stats (as the tome is intended for Lysithea).
Battle Couple: With Caspar should she marry him, the two's fighting exploits making them famous for generations to come.
Best Her to Bed Her: In her paired ending with Dimitri, it's implied that Catherine marries him after a duel between the two. Likewise in her paired ending with Caspar, their A+ support has her stop him from explaining his desire to never leave her side, happily stating that she wants him to beat her in a spar first to prove himself.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's easy-going, friendly, and a nice lady all-around. But crossing her is a bad idea, especially when she has Thunderbrand in hand. In particular she is very protective of Lady Rhea.
Bifauxnen and Lad-ette: The Lad-ette to Shamir's bifauxnen, who while not truly bifauxnen or masculine, is a calm, stoic mercenary type to Catherine's Boisterous Bruiser antics.
Boisterous Bruiser: She loves battle and her job as a knight, and is an otherwise cheerful, energetic, and tough woman. On the other hand, she's actually quite shy when it comes to romance, telling Leonie she wishes she knew how to flirt with handsome men.
Bond One-Liner:
"All for Lady Rhea."
"Fighting is what I do."
"I'll never back down."
"I won't hold back."
Born Lucky: She's one of only two non-DLC characters to have a Major Crest that wasn't forced on them or literally being the originator of it.
Boxed Crook: Catherine's a very interesting example. She mentions in her A-Support with Byleth that, due to being falsely implicated in a plot to kill the King of Faerghus, she is technically a wanted criminal for the Kingdom, and it's only thanks to the Church's protection and her position as a Knight of Seiros that she has managed to avoid any sort of punishment. Three Hopes reveals that it was Lonato who framed her, in retaliation for her turning Christophe in and his subsequent execution.
Brutal Honesty:
- In her support with Byleth, she tells them without flinching that she doesn't understand why Rhea favors someone as unremarkable as them, and that she wouldn't hesitate to cut them down should she find out that they're working against Rhea. Byleth is stunned into uncomfortable silence.
- In her support with Shamir, Shamir claims that she doesn't "get" the Church of Seiros or Rhea. Catherine says without hesitation that if she was anyone else saying that, she'd cut her down.
The Brute: While Seteth is The Dragon, Catherine serves as the main enforcer to Rhea on Crimson Flower, Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire.
Chainmail Bikini: Her armor possesses boob plates, unlike her fellow knights.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: As an enemy, Catherine has access to Avoid +10, Sword Avoid +20 and Immune Status skills, which she can't normally learn nor use as a Swordmaster.
Climax Boss: In Scarlet Blaze, she and Shamir are the last bosses fought before the second timeskip.
Conflicting Loyalty: When she found out Christophe was involved with and going ahead in a plot to assassinate Rhea, she sided with Rhea, and had him turned in to the Church. She admits that the decision still haunts her in the present.
Contractual Boss Immunity: As an enemy in the Crimson Flower version of Foreign Land and Sky, she packs the Immune Status skill, making her immune to status effects such as Rattled and Poisoned.
Contralto of Strength: A strong and famous female knight, and one of the best playable units with a deep voice to match, courtesy of Laura Post.
Cool Big Sis: If recruited to the same house, Ingrid, Leonie, and Lysithea all start to consider Catherine this, with Lysithea outright calling Catherine the big sister she never had.
Cool Sword: Due to possessing a Major Crest of Charon, she's able to wield Thunderbrand, one of the legendary Heroes' Relics.
Crutch Character: If the player recruits Catherine early on, she will be a lot stronger than the students and comes equipped with Thunderbrand, but she does not have the 2-point minimum that the students get when she levels up, so her stat growths aren't as consistent as the students (i.e. she could end up getting 1 or 0 stats increased when she levels up). Additionally, Catherine's only skill strengths are in Sword and Brawling, giving her less versatility than the students (especially since she cannot be classed as a Warmaster).
Cultural Rebel: Downplayed, but Catherine is far more pragmatic about fighting than most Faerghus-born knights and in general cares little for notions of chivalry or honor.
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: While Catherine can use Thunderbrand without any apparent drawbacks like some other characters would have, her support with Linhardt reveals that she only uses it when needed as it wears away at her soul whenever she uses it. Three Hopes has Linhardt state to Shez that this is seemingly something that all Heroes's Relics have in common, even if their wielder is a Crest bearer.
Death by Adaptation: She can be spared in the one Three Houses route where she’s not recruitable if the player just focuses on the final boss. In Three Hopes, she inevitably dies on both Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire.
Devoted to You: Catherine makes it clear that Rhea is her number 1 priority in life, even in her supports with Shamir who is her closest friend at the Monastery. Most of her paired endings in the routes that Rhea actually lives (Azure Moon and Silver Snow should you achieve A-Rank support and Catherine is not paired up with Byleth, Dimitri, or Shamir) sees Catherine retiring to the Red Canyon with her and dedicating her life to protecting her.
Disc-One Nuke: She can be recruited by the 4th month of Part I as an advanced classed unit with a Relic weapon. Notably, she can defeat the Death Knight single-handedly when many strategies have the entire playable side gang up on him.^note
The Dragon: On the Crimson Flower route, after Seteth bites it or books it in Chapter 15, she becomes Rhea's most prominent commander and remains loyal to her even as she orders Fhirdiad burned to the ground.
The Dreaded: When she shows up in the Crimson Flower version of Petra and Bernadetta's Paralogue, the latter starts freaking out. For a very good reason, as she brings reinforcements and is one of the hardest to fight units in the entire game.
Easily Forgiven: Discussed and subverted. In her supports with Ashe, he's torn over trusting her as an ally and a knight, but also his grudge against her for turning in his adoptive brother Cristophe for execution. She tells him that he's perfectly justified in hating her and she'd smack him if he let it go without a fight.
Everyone Has Standards:
- She'll tell Shamir that she'll do anything Rhea ordered her to, but would refuse to commit suicide for her.
- She's rather eager about fighting, but is uncomfortable with the idea that the former students have become "hardened killers" after five years of fighting in a war.
- Subverted in the final chapter of the Crimson Flower route, she's reluctant when Rhea orders her to set the city of Fhirdiad aflame, but when Rhea insists she obeys and continues to fight for Rhea while denouncing Byleth as the true villain.
- In the Golden Wildfire route in Three Hopes, after killing Randolph, she's disgusted to learn that Claude was just using him and his forces as bait to lure her in, not that it does her any good, as she's killed soon afterwards.
Famed In-Story: She's legendary across Fódlan as "Thunder Catherine," one of the mightiest knights in the land. According to Caspar, kids used to fight each other over who could pretend to be wielding Thunderbrand.
Fallen Princess: Catherine was born into House Charon in Faerghus. After being falsely implicated in a plot to kill the king, she was forced to flee, and found herself at the monastery. Her name was later redeemed and Dimitri points out she can return home, but she'd rather serve Lady Rhea.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Despite being one of the Knights of Seiros she has no proficiency in Faith, is never seen in the cathedral and doesn't profess any prayers to the goddess. While she does state she serves the goddess and said service is one reason she fights, she is with the knights mainly for her loyalty to Rhea.
- Catherine gave up everything in her former life to serve as Rhea's sword. Her personal skill works best when she is alone and of all the characters in the game she has no battalion designed to capitalize on her abilities.
- Her strength is frequently touted and she has the stats to back it up. She is easily one of the most difficult enemy units to defeat in the game.
Green-Eyed Monster: Downplayed. While Catherine is aware of the special attention Byleth receives from Rhea, she is somewhat jealous but isn't outright hostile and instead wants to see why they earned Rhea's attention and hopes to emulate it to gain Rhea's favor as she admits in her supports with them. That being said she tends to be quite passive-aggressive in their interactions, even making threats and then laughing it off, saying that's how she usually behaves which, considering she never actually does behave like this unless angered, implies a lot more hostility than what she's willing to admit.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: On all routes other than Crimson Flower, this blonde-haired knight is one of the most selfless, kind, and cheerful members of the cast, and happily steps into the role of Cool Big Sis to many of the game's younger women. It's subverted on Crimson Flower, though; her worst traits start to come to the fore, leading her to lead soldiers to Brigid in order to intimidate the king into fighting alongside the Church and later burn Fhirdiad and all of its innocents to the ground out of devotion to Rhea.
Happily Married: Her paired ending with Seteth explicitly describes their marriage as a happy one.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Downplayed as Catherine only does so sometimes, and simply to have a little fun now and again. She also mentions respecting Judith for being able to drink with the best of knights.
Hate at First Sight: If confronted by Byleth in the final chapter of the Crimson Flower route, she admits she always distrusted them ever since the first time she laid eyes on them, and regrets not striking them down when she had the chance. Interestingly, when confronted after the initial betrayal she will rage at them that she did trust them, so it may be a case of Self-Serving Memory. This is foreshadowed in their supports where she warns that should Byleth betray Rhea's trust, she will cut them down with relish.
He's All Grown Up: Her relationship with Dimitri focuses on this in their A+ rank support, with her realizing he's not a boy anymore and accepts his Love Confession. She does admit that they'll have to wait until after the war to see if it will work out. Whether they ultimately get together or not is dependent on the player's actions.
Herd-Hitting Attack: She comes stocked with Foudroyant Strike, which lets her hits targets adjacent to her original one.
Hidden Buxom: In her default outfit, it's unclear if her breastplate indicates her actual chest size, or is just a pronounced piece or armor similar to past knights like Cordelia. Changing her to certain classes with the sternum uncovered makes it obvious her breasts are actually that large, due to the sizable cleavage she ends up showing off.
Hidden Depths:
- Catherine is more perceptive than she typically lets on, and she has a knack for realizing when other people have a painful past they're ashamed of, given her own experiences. Catherine regularly surprises people by revealing that she knew all along and didn't say anything. In particular, she realizes that Lysithea has two Crests artificially implanted in her at serious cost to her health all on her own.
- As cocky, belligerent, and carefree as she seems, Catherine struggles massively with guilt and regret. She shows this side of her most explicitly with Ashe (who is connected to the cause of her self-loathing) and Caspar (who she thinks idolizes her too much).
Hit Me, Dammit!: In her B Support with Ashe, she invites him to take a swing at her to help him vent his possible hatred of her for condemning his brother to death, even goading him into throwing the punch.
Humble Hero: In some respects. Catherine has a very healthy ego when it comes to Rhea and her fighting skills, but downplays any suggestion that she has talents beyond fighting.
I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: She says she's not a hero, as she fights only for the goddess. She wouldn't hesitate to turn her sword against children if ordered by Rhea.
Catherine: I'm not a hero. I fight only for Lady Rhea and the goddess.
"Instant Death" Radius: When fought as an enemy. She's a Swordmaster, so she gets bonus damage to swords and good speed to double you. But her Thunderbrand is a brave weapon, allowing her to preform quadruple attacks any unit she outspeeds. Very few units can withstand an assault from her unprepared. Notably, she can single-handedly take down the Death Knight during Edelgard's assault on the monastery at the end of Part 1.
I Owe You My Life: The main reason why she serves Rhea so faithfully. While she was still a student at the Officers Academy, she and her class were on a mission to kill some monsters, but they were ambushed. She was nearly killed in the event, but Rhea personally nursed her back to health. After that, Rhea became her inspiration in life.
Jerkass Has a Point: Much like Seteth, she's not wrong to be suspicious of Byleth and Rhea's sudden favoritism, and while Catherine can be very harsh towards some students in their supports, her attitude is usually born of hard-won experience and a sincere desire to get other people thinking early on about the costs and perils of the life they're contemplating.
Just Following Orders:
- She justified turning in Cristophe, a close friend and a former housemate, in by telling herself that it was for the good of the goddess. Despite this, the memory continues to haunt her to this day, as she simply stared while he was being taken away. She also states that if she could have found another way she would have, but Christophe was convinced he had to go through with the assassination plot and so she had to turn him in.
- This gets deconstructed at the end of the Crimson Flower route as Rhea, who has now gone completely off the deep end, orders Catherine to torch Fhirdiad in attempt to wipe out the Black Eagle Strike Force. Catherine is clearly disturbed by this order, as it would mean she's intentionally killing innocents in the crossfire, but goes through with it anyway.
Karmic Death: She was the one who turned in Christophe to the Church which subsequently resulted in his execution. It is then possible for her to meet her end at the hands of Ashe, Christophe's adoptive brother, on Crimson Flower in Three Houses and Scarlet Blaze in Three Hopes.
Knight Errant: In her solo ending, if Rhea is deceased at the end of the game, she goes traveling through Fódlan protecting the innocent and fighting the wicked.
Know When to Fold 'Em: At the end of Crimson Flower, she realizes that the remaining Knights of Seiros and Kingdom forces can't hope to hold on to Fhirdiad and suggests fleeing Fódlan to regroup. Unfortunately, Rhea is having none of it and orders the city burned to the ground with both the civilians and the Imperial army inside.
The Lad-ette: She’s tough, boisterous, loves a good fight, and struggles with stereotypically feminine activities. She herself says she prefers the soldier’s life to that of a noble lady. She's noticably the only female unit in the game who has a boon in Brawling with the exception of Constance's Budding Talent.
Lady and Knight:
- On the non-Crimson Flower routes Catherine's dynamic with Lady Rhea is of "The Bright Lady and White Knight" variety with Catherine doing her utmost to protect Rhea, especially after Edelgard declares war on the Church of Seiros.
- However, on the Crimson Flower route Catherine's dynamic with Rhea is of "The Dark Lady and Black Knight" variety (albeit downplayed) as Catherine continues to follow Rhea's orders in spite of the latter's obviously unstable mental state which ultimately ends with her complying with Rhea's order to set fire to Fhirdiad during the final battle.
Late to the Tragedy: Tragedy on her side at least. In Three Hopes at the beginning of the Scarlet Blaze route, Catherine and her barracks do not arrive at Garreg Mach in time to assist Rhea in defending it from the Imperial Army, which forces the Church of Seiros to relocate to the northern regions of Faerghus.
Lightning Bruiser: No pun intended; Catherine is an incredibly fast and hard hitting unit, and one that slaughters anyone who gets in her way. Thanks to the Thunderbrand's brave weapon effect, she also will hit everyone but the fastest units four times on her turn, and with her good crit chance, will typically kill everyone she fights. Her high speed also makes it hard for units to hit her too, so she'll blitz most enemies with ease while leaving the survivors helpless to retaliate. This makes her one of the hardest foes to fight in the Crimson Flower route, and the most difficult opponent apart from the final boss.
Magically Inept Fighter: She has great stats and growths in everything but magic and resistance, which is almost as low as an armor knight's, meaning that a powerful mage can destroy her easily, especially provided said mage uses long-ranged spells like Meteor or Thoron to avoid being counterattacked and has skill high enough to land the hit on her. She also has a weakness in reason, though leveling the Saint Statue of Macuil migates this.
Master Swordsman: She's renowned as a mighty swordswoman who is nearly unstoppable thanks to possessing Thunderbrand.
Meaningful Rename: Her original name is Cassandra, but she changed it as one of the devout.
Mundane Utility: When paired with Shamir in weeding the monastery's gardens, Catherine considers using Thunderbrand to get rid of the weeds faster, but Shamir talks her out of it.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members:
- She can't be recruited in Three Houses while betraying the Church is still an option; this means she can't fight alongside Edelgard and Hubert except in her and Ashe's Paralogue, and Jeritza under any circumstances.
- In Three Hopes, she's not playable outside of Azure Gleam; thus she cannot fight alongside Edelgard, Hubert, Caspar, Ferdinand, Monica, Manuela, Claude, Hilda, Lysithea, Leonie or Holst.
My Master, Right or Wrong:
- Deconstructed in her supports with Ashe and Caspar. While Catherine has chosen to follow Rhea's will as if it was her own, it becomes clear she does still have doubts. With Ashe, she makes no secret that she is still haunted by her decision to turn Cristophe in (though she won't go so far as to say she regrets it), even if it was the right thing to do. With Caspar, Catherine tells him she doesn't consider herself to be the hero he believes her to be, as she has a lot of blood on her hands and serves the goddess rather than a generalized ideal of justice. Indeed, Catherine argues that it is her faith in Sothis that justifies her unwavering faith in Rhea and her sense of justice. She reasons that no human's idea of justice can be perfect, so she chooses to trust in the goddess, and in turn in Rhea as she believes she knows the goddess better than anyone else. That said, she acknowledges this way of living isn't for everyone, for her the important thing is she knows what she stands for.
- On the Crimson Flower route, after Rhea commands her to burn Fhirdiad, despite having some doubts, and Rhea even demanding to be called Seiros at that point, Catherine still obediently sets the capital of the kingdom on fire, presumably killing countless innocent citizens. Even after that she still is so obsessed with Rhea that she considers Byleth the evil one, and tries to kill them during the battle.
Number Two: In her platonic paired ending with Alois, she becomes his second-in-command when he becomes Captain, and is the iron to his joviality to keep the Knights from playing pranks on him.
Odd Friendship: She has quite the friendship with Shamir despite the two girls being complete opposites. If the two meet each other in battle they'll note that they don't really have anything in common.
Only One Name: She introduces herself with only one name. While this hardly makes her unusual for a Fire Emblem character, it is somewhat out of the ordinary for a Three Houses character, where even many of the commoner characters have last names. During the battle with Lonato it is revealed Catherine isn't her real name, but the one she's chosen to go by as a devout of the Church. Subverted with her full name, Cassandra Rubens Charon, but she's long since discarded it.
Opposites Attract: The Lad-ette and a card-carrying Boisterous Bruiser, but can wind up marrying the likes of Lorenz or Linhardt.
Playing with Fire: She learns fire magic: Fire, Bolganone, and Ragnarok, when specializing in Reason.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"I'll crush them all."
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"Stay down!"
"Out of my sight!"
"Where do I start?"
"Repent from the grave!"
Recurring Element:
- She is the requisite powerful, female, swordswoman pioneered by Ayra. Her Relic weapon, personal skill and advanced class makes her one of the best foot soldiers in the game.
- On the Crimson Flower route, Catherine is the game's Ishtar, being the sympathetic female general with Undying Loyalty, though she's a Boisterous Bruiser instead of the usual stoic.
Red Baron: Was once famed as Thunderstrike Cassandra, and is now equally famed (if not more so) as Thunder Catherine.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The friendly, outgoing red to Shamir's stoic, calm blue.
Reformed Criminal: Admits she became a bandit after becoming a Fallen Princess, only to be redeemed and saved by Lady Rhea.
Required Party Member: On the Black Eagles route, Catherine will join the party automatically in Chapter 12 unless Byleth sides with Edelgard.
Sarcastic Confession: In her supports with Lysithea, Catherine remarks that for all Lysithea knows, Catherine may not be her real name and she may be a dangerous fugitive. Both these are true, albeit to an extent in the latter case- Catherine was framed.
Secret Art: Outside of New Game Plus, only she can use Foudroyant Strike, Thunderbrand's combat art. It deals 6 extra damage, increases hit and critical by 30, and is effective against armored and dragon enemies.
Shock and Awe: Subverted. She has the Red Baron nicknames of "Thunderstrike Cassandra" and "Thunder Catherine", her Heroes Relic is called "Thunderbrand", and the Crest of Charon is known as the Lightning Dragon's Sign. However, Catherine herself can't actually learn any Thunder-based spells even if trained in Reason.
Stealth Pun: She bears the Crest of Charon, Charon being the real-world name for the ancient Greek ferryman of the dead. Fitting for a Disc-One Nuke- She's quite adept at bringing people to the afterlife.
Tarot Motifs: Through her Crest of Charon, she represents the Tower.
- In the upright position, the Tower represents unforeseen change. Catherine's life took a sudden turn when she was falsely implicated in an assassination attempt against the king, which resulted in her fleeing to Garreg Mach. After Rhea saved her life, she completely devoted herself to the Church and shed the Charon name.
- Reversed, the Tower represents being trapped by one's own choices. Catherine is consumed with guilt and regret over decisions in her past, to the point that she threw herself at Rhea's feet because she no longer trusts her own judgment.
That Man Is Dead: In her support with Dimitri, Catherine reveals that she's entirely happy with her new identity and new life working for the Church, regardless of her status as a fugitive in Faerghus, and that the life of a knight fits her far better than life as a lady of the Kingdom.
Undying Loyalty:
- To the Church and to Rhea especially. As a result, she will never join you if you betray the Church to side with Edelgard.
- Deconstructed in her supports, as she tells Ashe and Caspar that she wouldn't hesitate to kill children if Rhea ordered her to. That said, the one order she will not follow is to die, as she wants to continue serving Rhea for as long as possible.
- Even when facing the rampaging Rhea at the end of Silver Snow, her priority is ending Rhea's suffering.
- In her supports with Shamir, Catherine in no uncertain terms claims not only to to be loyal to Rhea, but to respect her, admire her, and even revere her. She even says if she ever had to choose between Shamir and Rhea, she'd choose Rhea every time.
  Catherine: I've devoted my heart to Lady Rhea. She's the reason I wield my sword.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: While not exactly villainous, if you chose to side with Edelgard in the Black Eagles route, she retreats from battle when she's defeated in Chapter 12.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Shamir. The two often argue, and one quest has you forced to choose which of them will get the Two-Toned Whetstone, but they have a strong partnership and trust each other.
Would Hurt a Child: She declares that she will cut down anyone, even a child, if her mission requires it. She even proposes a few scenarios to Caspar in which doing so may be necessary, such as if the enemy is using Child Soldiers.

Alois

Alois Rangeld

Class: Warrior (Three Houses), Warrior → Great Knight (Three Hopes)

Age: 44 (12/1)

Height: 174 cm

Voiced by: Manabu Sakamaki (Japanese), Dave B. Mitchell^noteCredited as "Raymond K. Essel" (English)

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

Sun of the Knights/Family Man

"Hello, Professor! You're really on the move today. A lot to get done, I take it? I'm happy to help. Tell me, is there anything I can do to lighten your load a bit?"

A member of the Knights of Seiros. He was once a subordinate of Jeralt when the latter was the captain of the knights, and thus respects him greatly. He recommended the protagonist as a teacher after they saved students from bandits, something he rarely does. He is a cheerful and amiable person. He likes telling jokes, but they're not that funny.

His personal ability, Compassion, allows him to Rally an ally's Luck.

All of the Other Reindeer: Downplayed. In his support with Hanneman, Alois begs Hanneman to teach him magic because other knights look down on him due to his lack of a Crest and nonexistent magical skill.
Boring, but Practical: He has better bulk and strength than Caspar (in fact, he joins at base with strength comparable to some of the student units' in the endgame) while being faster than Dedue and Raphael, and even comes with a C in Authority to already use stronger battalions, making him a solid choice for players who are in need of a physical attacker. His biggest issue is that he only becomes recruitable fairly late in Part 1, at a point where players likely already have assembled their team.
Call to Agriculture: With the Knights of Seiros dismantled in his Crimson Flower ending, he takes up a life of farming with his family.
The Cameo: He is one of the characters who can briefly appear in the Gatekeeper's attack animation in Heroes.
The Captain: He becomes the new Captain of the Knights of Seiros in his non-Crimson Flower endings. He is also made Captain on the Crimson Flower route if he is not recruited, but has to be killed in that route.
The Cavalry Arrives Late: In the prologue, he shows up to rescue the lords just as you finish putting the bandits attacking them to rout.
Character Death: If not recruited on the Crimson Flower path, he is one of the commanders fought during the Church's surprise assault on Garreg Mach, forcing him to be killed off in order to progress.
Comically Missing the Point: Alois is well-meaning, but he can be dense about certain things; for example, his inability to realize that his shouting most things he says scares fish away when he tries to fish. Even when the truth is pointed out to him, he's often confused or doesn't believe it outright.
Cool Uncle: He acts a bit like one to Byleth, being a friendly, approachable and caring mentor due to seeing Jeralt like a brother, and Bernadetta comments that he reminds her of her own Cool Uncle.
Declaration of Protection: Tries to give one to Byleth after Jeralt’s death in his usual bravado, but realizes the situation really doesn’t call for it. He still means it, though.
Defector from Decadence: On the Crimson Flower route, if you recruit him before Chapter 11, he abandons the Church and joins the Empire after Rhea has her Freak Out and begins her descent into true fanaticism.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In Three Hopes if you end up killing Jeralt and Byleth, then Alois will appear as an enemy in the final chapter of Golden Wildfire, having rejoined with the Knights of Seiros.
Don't Explain the Joke: Normally, Alois would tell a joke, and whether anyone laughs or not, he will move on without dwelling upon it. Because Petra doesn't understand the nuances of Fódlan's language, Alois has to explain what every idiom and piece of wordplay means in the jokes he tells her. He says to himself that he feels a "strange shame" in explaining them.
Endearingly Dorky: He's optimistic and loves making puns. They don't impress the other knights, and The Comically Serious Dimitri only laughs at the jokes because he finds they're so unfunny that they go full circle to hilarity. Nevertheless, many characters like Alois for his positivity and good humor and don't try to dissuade him from telling jokes.
Fatal Flaw: His Support storyline with Catherine focuses on how Alois is overly trusting. He believes that to earn trust, you have to be willing to trust as well, but he takes it too far and ends up gullible because of it. Catherine has to save him from being cheated out of his money multiple times, first from a Snake Oil Salesman and then from a Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
Foreshadowing: In Three Hopes, after Shez tells Alois in the prologue they heard Jeralt's Mercenaries were staying near Remire, he shows interest on the rumor and comments he might go look there later. Sure enough, after the timeskip, Alois leaves the Knights of Seiros in order to join Jeralt and Byleth's mercenaries.
Friendly Enemy: If he and Shamir are on opposite sides during Rhea's attempt to retake Garreg Mach in Crimson Flower and engage each other, they'll playfully banter even as they prepare to fight to the death.
Gift-Giving Gaffe: For the past several years, Alois has been giving his young daughter ancient, historical coins for her birthday, and he doesn't understand why she isn't excited to get them. In his support with Manuela, he successfully enlists her help in picking out something his daughter will like more. His daughter writes back, thanking the person who bought the gift instead of her father. Alois isn't bothered, and asks Manuela if she'll help pick out a birthday gift for his wife.
Happily Married: Has an unseen wife who he gushes about, and a daughter.
Hazy-Feel Turn: In Three Hopes, Alois is an ally NPC during the Academy phase, but reunites with Jeralt during the Time Skip and appears as an enemy during the War phase. You face him a couple of times in all three routes, but he becomes an ally again if you bring Byleth and Jeralt onto your side.
The Heart:
- Shamir credits him as the most virtuous of the knights, and a positive influence on her. She also notes that unlike her, Alois' positive, cheerful nature strengthens those around him.
- He remarks (and Bernadetta confirms) that he's basically the only person in the monastery whom Bernadetta isn't initially terrified of. She feels he reminds her of her uncle, who is the only person she ever felt outright comfortable to talk to. She notes that he's always bright and cheerful and naturally makes people at ease.
- Even Hapi seems to like him, as he kept her company while she was imprisoned (even if she hates his jokes).
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Played for Laughs in his support chain with Mercedes, when an exasperated, anxious Alois calls himself pathetic for being terrified by Mercedes' ghost story, and that as a knight, he should be ready to battle even in graveyards.
Honorary Uncle: Although only Bernadetta accidentally calls him Uncle, Alois can be seen as one to Byleth, and can see him as a second father/uncle in their support after Jeralt's death.
Hypocritical Humor: One of his quotes at tea parties is that there is nothing worse than explaining a joke, yet there are several times where he himself would explain his puns.
Jerkass Ball: Alois is an all around nice and pleasant character, which makes his A-Support with Leonie, where he passes off Jeralt's debt onto her, all the more out of character.
Knight in Shining Armor: The most standout example in the story. He's clad in shining silver armor, is a constant do-gooder who never asks for recompense, and maintains an endlessly cheerful and optimistic outlook on life.
Lame Pun Reaction: Alois loves telling puns, and they usually elicit silence from his audience. Dimitri tells him that his jokes are so unfunny that they go full circle to hilarity.
Alois: If I went around kidnapping everyone who said that [his jokes were bad], the whole monastary would be empty!
Lightning Bruiser: Not as much as Catherine, but Alois has a solid Speed growth, and his Speed and Defense bases are both the same. He has high starting Strength as well, and a solid growth in it too, so he tends to be a strong fighter who can tank as well.
Locked Out of the Loop: Despite being fairly close with Jeralt, he never knew Jeralt came to fear and distrust Rhea after what they did to Byleth as a baby. Due to this, if not recruited on the Crimson Flower route, his rage at Byleth and the Black Eagles make him a victim of the deceit surrounding these events.
Large Ham: Almost all of his dialogue is shouted. This is aknowledged in-universe and Byleth can theorize that he can't catch anything while fishing because his yelling scares the fish away.
Magically Inept Fighter: His stats and growths give him very little chances to use Magic, plus he has a weakness in Reason magic. Despite this, he is interested in magic and tries to learn it from Hanneman to make up for not having a Crest, though by his B Support he hasn't made any progress.
Nice Guy:
- He’s a very friendly, courteous and upbeat guy, though a bit over-exuberant and excitable. Unfortunately for him, this makes him easy pickings for scammers and other ilk that seek to take advantage of his kindness, forcing Catherine to step in.
- He has no qualms about paying Catherine's considerable drinking tab, and does so with no expectations of being paid back, because she's a colleague.
- Shamir mentions that Alois is almost pathologically incapable of not giving away any reward he receives for the work the knights do. She also reluctantly credits him as the influence that gave her a more noble side to her nature.
No Indoor Voice: He is constantly shouting, which is something of a problem when your hobby is fishing. He unsurprisingly does not catch much, but refuses to believe that his voice is what's scaring them off.
The Not-Love Interest: While Byleth can S-Support with him, all of their endings are purely platonic with Alois taking on more of a fatherly role than anything else. This is justified in that Alois is a family man who is Happily Married to his wife.
Odd Friendship: Despite being loud and emotionally open, he's close with the quiet and unemotional Shamir.
Older Than They Look: Post Time Skip, he'll be fifty years old while still looking like he could be in his thirties.
Overshadowed by Awesome: He's a really good unit, but he has to compete with Catherine, who is able to use her powerful Thunderbrand and can be recruited in Chapter 4 at the earliest except if the player picked the Black Eagles, in which case she only joins if the player sides with Rhea in Chapter 11 and Shamir, who can join five chapters earlier with Heavy Draw and easily unlock the devastating Hunter's Volley. Even outside of those two, Felix has higher strength and speed and is one of the easiest student to recruit, and Balthus has comparable strength and bulk, and both can be obtained much earlier. That being said, Catherine isn't recruitable if the Black Eagles were chosen pre-timeskip, unless the player sides with Rhea in Chapter 11, and Edelgard leaves permanently if not sided with in Chapter 11, so he has an easier time finding a niche there.
Parental Abandonment: In his support with Byleth, Alois reveals that his parents died when he was a child and he was taken in to live at Garreg Mach Monastery.
Parental Substitute:
- He lets Byleth know that they can come to him if they need to if he approaches them in Jeralt's room after his death as well as in his support chain with Byleth. All of Alois paired endings with Byleth also note that their bond ended up developing into something similar to parent and child. This has the potential to end horribly depending on the player's choice.
- On the flip side, he all but admits that Jeralt was this for him.
Platonic Life-Partners: Due to Alois being Happily Married, his paired endings with Mercedes, Leonie, and Catherine all end on this note.
Playing with Fire: He only learns Fire and Bolganone when learning Reason.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"Ready and able!"
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"Now you'll learn!"
"Here I go!"
"You earned this!"
"Repent!"
Pungeon Master: Is fond of puns. His fellow knights are less than impressed with his jokes. Dimitri, however, finds them absolutely hilarious because they're so unfunny.
Replacement Goldfish: Jeralt only took on Alois because he had a strong physical resemblance to Jeralt's recently deceased apprentice. Alois is surprisingly okay with this, finding it a funny example of Jeralt's quirks.
Sad Clown: Alois uses humor as a coping mechanism of sorts. While he's not above a joke outside of it, Alois reveals to Shamir in her B support that he thinks about those he's had to kill and laments that it comes to violence constantly.
So Unfunny, It's Funny: In his support with Dimitri, Dimitri laughs at Alois' awful puns, after a long silence. He explains he doesn't find them funny, but thinks they're unfunny enough to go full circle to being funny. Alois isn't sure how to feel at first, but settles on being happy for making the prince laugh genuinely for the first time in a long while.
Spanner in the Works: The sole reason that Byleth gets involved with the plot, which ends up affecting every single character and faction in the game.
The Squire: He was previously one to Jeralt, although he's long since been knighted, earning it before Jeralt's disappearance before the story.
Surpassed the Teacher: If you get Alois' solo ending on routes other than Crimson Flower, he becomes the new Captain of the Knights of Seiros (Jeralt's old position), and the knights are even more unified and competent under Alois than they were under Jeralt; Alois the former squire becomes an even better captain than his former teacher Jeralt was.
This Is Unforgivable!: If not recruited on the Crimson Flower route, he is infuriated by Byleth supporting Edelgard's assault on the Church, seeing it as a betrayal of everything Jeralt stood for. He does however regret he cannot keep his promise to Jeralt to protect Byleth, and resolves to bury Byleth with his own hands after it's over.
Undying Loyalty: Despite being a Knight of Seiros, he places more of his loyalty in Jeralt. It's why he sticks with Byleth if he's recruited despite going against the Church on the Crimson Flower route, to the point where he willingly leaves the Knights during the timeskip to try and find Byleth. This is also the case in Warriors: Three Hopes where Alois reunites with Jeralt during the War Phase and fights by his Captain's side, even on the Azure Gleam route where Shez is aligned with Dimitri and is with the Church of Seiros.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Very sadly, he's the ultimate reason why Jeralt ends up dying. If he hadn't insisted that Jeralt visit Garreg Mach, the man wouldn't have been brought back into the Knights, and therefore wouldn't have been there for Kronya to murder.
What Happened to the Mouse?: If he isn't recruited before the timeskip, once the player reaches it, Alois vanishes and doesn't reappear in the game at all. The only route where he appears post-timeskip if not recruited is Crimson Flower. No reason is given for why, but its likely that with the war and the Church being almost ruined, he returned to his family rather than continue the conflict.
What Measure Is a Mook?: Discussed in his support with Shamir. A strangely morose Alois asks Shamir if she ever thinks about the people she kills; Shamir responds with a blunt "never," and Alois agrees, saying there's little point in thinking about it after they've fought for so long. In their B-support, however, it's revealed that Alois is haunted by the lives he's taken, and he believes that the ghosts of those he's killed will return one day to seek revenge on him.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Alois is terrified of ghosts, which he supposes is because he thinks a lot about the people he kills in battle. When Mercedes tells him a ghost story, he has to steel himself and still blacks out from fear partway through her story.
William Telling: When he was Jeralt's apprentice, he once was the target with the apple on his head while a drunk Jeralt boasted that he could hit the apple with a hatchet (apparently, a dagger was too easy). If Alois had not moved, he would've died at that pub. As Alois reminisces about that experience, he wonders if Jeralt actually was trying to kill him after trying to assure Leonie that he wasn't.
Work Off the Debt: His and Leonie's A-Rank Support reveals that he's taken it upon himself to gradually pay off Jeralt's myriad of drinking tabs all across Fódlan, admitting that he's unable to step foot in any tavern without being badgered for payment. He then gives her an "inheritance": all of said bar tabs.
You Are in Command Now: In Warriors: Three Hopes, if you kill Jeralt, Byleth leaves Jeralt's Mercenaries under his command while they set out to kill Shez.

Shamir

Shamir Nevrand

Class: Sniper (Three Houses), Archer → Sniper (Three Hopes)

Age: 25 (3/27)

Height: 169 cm

Voiced by: Yurina Watanabe (Japanese), Allegra Clark (English)

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

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

Distant Archer/Archer Apart

"I was living in my homeland of Dagda, up until the Imperial army destroyed it 10 years ago. But, being a mercenary, I have no real allegiance. That's why I'm working here now. Don't worry though. I don't plan to turn on you."

A master of the bow serving as a Knight of Seiros. She was once a mercenary from the land of Dagda, but joined the Knights to repay Rhea for past debts. She is not a believer of the Church of Seiros despite being a knight, which is a rarity, and she only pledges her loyalty to Rhea for now.

Her personal ability, Survival Instinct, grants her a temporary boost to Strength, Magic, Dexterity and Speed after attacking and killing an enemy.

Aloof Archer: One of a small number of archers in this series to fit the personality type, being an aloof mercenary.
Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She's always cool, calm and collected, and doesn't enjoy unnecessary socialization.
Ambiguously Bi: Exaggerated. She says she could get married to Catherine at the end of their support, and states that Shez could try flirting with her, regardless of their gender. In Three Hopes, her C Support with Balthus has her make an unclear statement about her taste in women not being the same as his. Her paralogue with Leonie in Three Hopes complicates matters even further as it has her mention that she stopped working for a noblewoman when she kept making unwanted advances towards her. However, Shamir doesn’t specify if her disinterest was due to not being attracted to women in general or because she was not attracted to that noblewoman specifically. It should be noted that Shamir's general 'deadpan snarker' attitude makes it very difficult to tell if she's serious or just trying to fluster (or both). Lastly, she can marry male Byleth but has no paired ending with female Byleth.
Babies Ever After: In her paired ending with Byleth she ends up having children.
Blow You Away: She learns Wind upon reaching D+ in Reason.
Blunt "Yes": Gives one when Catherine asks if Shamir really thought Catherine's first impression of her was "all talk, but useless in battle."
Boring, but Practical: Her kit in a nutshell. She doesn't get much out of reclassing beyond the usual Death Blow and Hit +20, but she joins early in a powerful class, gets access to one of the best combat arts in the game far earlier than anyone else, and can basically be a great player phase nuke with little to no investment on the player's part.
Born Lucky: Ties with Ignatz for the highest Luck growth and cap of the playable cast (55% and 76, respectively).
Brutal Honesty: Shamir doesn't mince word or hesitate to tell people what she thinks of them. She's also a bit more openly critical of the Lord's decisions during the war phase, such as Edelgard sparing Claude, or Dimitri changing his mind and deciding to liberate Fhirdiad.
Character Death: If not recruited on the Crimson Flower path, she is one of the commanders fought during the Church's surprise assault on Garreg Mach, forcing her to be killed off in order to progress.
Climax Boss: In Scarlet Blaze, she and Catherine are the last bosses fought before the second timeskip.
Cold Sniper: A powerful Sniper, and has quite the aloof personality to match.
Combat Stilettos: She wears high heels in her default Sniper uniform.
Consummate Professional: As a former mercenary, Shamir has a "get the job done" mentality that's unusual for a Knight of Seiros.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: As an enemy on the Crimson Flower route, she not only has the usual Bowrange+1 from being a Sniper, but has Bowrange+2 on top of it, which is locked to the Bow Knight class and as such, doesn't stack with Bowrange+1, giving her an effective Bowrange+3, a skill not seen outside of Echoes's Oliphantier DLC class.
Crutch Character: Shamir can be recruited as early as Chapter 6 and comes in a lot stronger than the students by that point. However, Shamir's growths aren't as reliable as the students since she doesn't have the 2-point minimum they get when leveling up, and she can eventually get outperformed by them.
Curtains Match the Window: Downplayed. Her hair is dark blue while her eye color is indigo.
Deadpan Snarker: Her humor is very dry befitting her stoic personality.
Dead Partner: She used to have a partner whom she had romantic feelings for in the Dagda military but he was killed in battle with the Empire. It was this loss that led Shamir to leave Dagda and become an independent mercenary in Fódlan. It's implied through her supports as well that his death is what made her a Cold Sniper, as she doesn't want to get closer to people out of concern she may suffer the same pain of losing someone she cares for.
Defector from Decadence: On the Crimson Flower route, if you recruit her before Chapter 11, she abandons the Church and joins the Empire after Rhea has her Freak Out and begins her descent into true fanaticism. She's well aware that she might have to fight her friends, but she is able to resist that worry.
Disappointed in You: Tells Leonie she's disappointed in their B support after learning that Leonie pointed her bow at fellow students.
Disc-One Nuke: Thanks to her high base strength, advanced class bases, built in Bowfaire and Heavy Draw combat art she can reliably kill most enemies and deal heavy damage to tough bosses which most of your other archers struggle with until they can become Snipers like her. If trained, she is also almost certain to be the first unit to unlock the powerful Hunter's Volley combat art, letting her one-shot a large chunk of the game's enemies all the way to the endgame.
Does Not Like Spam: She doesn't like dairy products as she dislikes all of the dishes that have cheese or butter in it.
Even the Girls Want Her: In Three Hopes, Shamir's paralogue revolves around her defeating mercenaries sent after her by a noble angry after she quit their employ. The final scene of the paralogue reveals that the noble was a woman, and Shamir quite clearly implies that the reason she quit working for her was the fact that the noblewoman kept making unwanted romantic advances towards her.
Everyone Has Standards: During the war phase, Shamir maintains her Cold Sniper mentality even if she has to face former colleagues like Catherine and Alois. The one exception is if she faces off against an Empire-affiliated Petra, because she views Petra as a war hostage who's getting forced to fight against her will.
Foreign Fanservice: While not quite as fanservicey as Petra, Shamir is from Dagda and is still quite curvy.
Friendly Sniper: Downplayed as she's emotionally distant, but she's still quite affable if spoken to. Even against enemies that she knows like Catherine and Alois, she holds no grudges at all.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Smacks Alois in their B-support after he cries out about how the spirits of the dead he's killed are coming back to seek revenge on him. Alois calms down and thanks her, claiming he needed it.
Glass Cannon: Shamir sports impressive growths in Strength and Dexterity, but her speed and defenses aren't the best.
Gone Horribly Right: Played for Laughs in her support chain with Raphael, where she teaches him how to be stealthy. He ends up being able to startle her.
Good Feels Good: If she's recruited before the Time Skip on any route, one of her victory quotes is that it feels good to fight for a cause.
Has a Type: The only paired endings that Shamir has that actually explicitly end with her falling in love and settling down are with Byleth, Dedue, and Hubert. Each of these three are The Stoic who tend to match Shamir in temperament. Every other ending leaves it ambiguous what type of relationship she has with her partner.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: If she achieves A+-support with Catherine, the two end up declaring how much the other means to them and that they're the closest out of all of their comrades, confessing that they would be devastated should they lose the other. Shamir outright says they could get married if it'd put their minds at ease. In their paired ending, the two end up resigning from the Knights of Seiros and going on a lifelong journey together, eventually ending up in Shamir's homeland Dagda.
Hidden Depths: Despite frequently displaying a Cold Sniper mercenary mentality when it comes to war, Shamir is actually quite shaken and reluctant to engage Petra in combat should they remain an enemy unit in the Crimson Flower route because Shamir believes that Petra is a hostage of the Empire forced to fight against her will.
An Ice Person: She learns ice magic when learning in Reason.
Improbable Aiming Skills: She's skilled enough that she can throw a dagger at a centipede on a far-off pillar and split it clean in half, to Leonie's utter amazement.
Irony: She believes in not letting personal feelings get in the way of the life of a mercenary. On the Crimson Flower route when killed as an enemy, she laments how she let her personal feelings towards Rhea cloud her judgement.
Just Like Robin Hood: Several of her endings, including her single ending, have her disappearing into obscurity, but rumors go around that she is working quietly as a vigilante eliminating those who prey on the weak and downtrodden. The fact that her default class is Sniper (ie. a bow using class) just adds to this.
Kill Streak: Her personal skill grants her +4 to Strength, Magic, Dexterity, and Speed for 1 turn after she scores a kill, not unlike Peri from Fire Emblem Fates.
List of Transgressions: She lists some of what the captured Western Church members have charged with- convincing Lonato to rebel, trying to assassinate Rhea and breaking into the Holy Tomb- before deciding that it's unnecessary to go on, since they've committed enough crimes to earn them the death penalty.
Maybe Ever After: Many of her endings have her cut ties and live outside of well recorded history. Her romantic supports often end with the other person joining her in ambiguity both in public and in private life.
The Mentor: Shamir serves as one to Cyril, being his reluctant archery teacher. Shamir's supports with Leonie and Raphael also involves her taking the two under her wing to improve their archery and stealth skills respectively.
Nothing Personal: Besides saying "nothing personal" word for word in one of her critical hit quotes, Shamir has this mentality towards her enemies. She isn't fighting her enemies out of malice but because that's what she's paid for as a mercenary. Also, should she defect from the Church of Seiros to the Adrestian Empire she has no qualms about fighting against her former employer since she considers her contract with Rhea to be over and now works as a mercenary for Adrestia.
Shamir: Hate us all you want. We're just doing our job.
Not in This for Your Revolution: Shamir doesn't fight for the Knights of Seiros out of faith, she does so out of gratitude to Rhea. If recruited to the Crimson Flower route, where Rhea and the Church are the antagonists, because she is from Dagda, Shamir admits she has no interest in the future of Fódlan. Instead, she initially claims as a mercenary, she simply fights for whoever pays her, but later admits she's fighting because she wants to protect the friends she's made alongside Byleth.
Not So Stoic: When she sees Leonie's drawing of a spider, she reacts in confusion before letting out a very noticeable laugh.
Odd Friendship:
- The person she's closest to is the boisterous Catherine, despite the two having essentially nothing in common at all. Meeting in battle cements the differences between the two, though neither seems to hold the other in contempt.
- She's also fairly close with the jovial Alois, enough so that they're paired up for their Paralogue, and they have unique dialogue if they fight each other in Chapter 15 of Crimson Flower, changing depending on who remained with the Church and who joined the Empire.
Of Corsets Sexy: She wears a bodice as part of her design, complete with visible cleavage.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"To work." (Pre-timeskip)
"Let's clean up." (Post-timeskip)
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"Hate me all you want!"
"Nothing personal."
"Right there."
"Going for the kill!"
"Taking aim."
Private Military Contractors:
- Formerly a mercenary before joining the Knights of Seiros. Many of her endings have her return to being a merc after the war in Fódlan is over. In her ending with Caspar, they even found their own mercenary company and accept missions that take them all over the world. In her ending with Leonie, Shamir joins her mercenary company instead.
- In Three Hopes she becomes the church knight that the Alliance gets because of this. When talked to at the start of Golden Wildfire's timeskip she will insist she was always a merc and The Alliance just happened to become her new contract once the war started.
The Quiet One: Downplayed. Shamir prefers to speak only when it's necessary.
Rain of Arrows: Bow aside, she learns Sagittae when learning in Reason, which summons a rain of energy arrows.
Recurring Element: Shamir is a prepromoted, mid game sniper following in the vein of Jeorge and Innes. She also acts as a mentor figure for Cyril, much like Jeorge does to Gordin in the Archanea duology.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The stoic, calm blue to Catherine's friendly, outgoing red.
Required Party Member: If she wasn't recruited beforehand on the Black Eagles route, Shamir will join the party automatically in Chapter 12 as long as Byleth sides with the church.
Second Love: In her support with Byleth, Shamir reveals that her late partner from Dagda was her first love, and though she hasn't forgotten him, doesn't like to dwell on the memory. In her S-support with male Byleth, she admits to trying to pretend her attraction to him was her yearning for the past, but finally declares she loves him outright.
Significant Birth Date: Shamir's birth date is in March, which on the Fódlan calendar is called the "Lone Moon." Fittingly, she's generally a lone wolf, independent mercenary type, though she opens up to others in some of her supports.
The Spymaster: She fulfills this role for the Knights of Seiros and will also play this role for your party later on in the game if you recruit her.
Stealth Expert: As a sniper and spymaster for the knights she specializes in stealth, and her supports with Raphael even have her teach him how to be stealthier.
The Stoic: Shamir has her emotions in check and is usually calm and composed. Should she marry Byleth she proposes to him as if she was talking to him about something mundane before trying to move on.
Shamir: I thought you might want to follow Fódlan tradition and exchange rings. Right. That's that. Shall we be off?
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: To the outside she's blunt, cold and somewhat reserved (though not rude) but the few people sharing with her a close bond can see a caring and sweet side of her, best seen in her S-support with Byleth.
Shamir: I can see this is important to you... Fine then. I vow to stay with you through all of life's many hardships. I will stay by your side, and you'll stay by mine.
Terse Talker: She is very blunt and is not one for small talk. She and Dedue actually bond over this.
Token Minority: She is the only major character of Dagdan descent.
Turn the Other Cheek: When Caspar confronts Shamir about his father's involvement with the Empire's past war against Dagda (where Shamir's past partner died), he assumes that Shamir holds a grudge towards the former as a result. Shamir refuses to hold him accountable, however.
Shamir: Yesterday's enemy is today's ally. You have to abandon old feuds. Only then can you face me as a friend.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Catherine. The two often argue, and one quest has you forced to choose which of them will get the Two-Toned Whetstone, but they have a strong partnership and trust each other.
Walking the Earth:
- She spent a good chunk of her life before coming to Fódlan traveling the world as a mercenary, and the majority of her endings show her returning to this lifestyle. Her paired endings with Byleth, Hubert and Dedue on the other hand have her permanently settle down.
- In Three Hopes, she admits to Hapi that after the Brigid/Dagdan war against the Empire, during her wanderings around Fódlan, she ended up in Abyss for a period of time. Hapi relates to this, having done much of the same during her life, though she's also curious to find out that the pagan altar down there is actually a Dagdan deity of fate, and wonders if perhaps she might visit Dagda with Shamir in the future.
Weaksauce Weakness: Despite her hardened demeanor, Shamir admits she's deathly afraid of bugs like spiders and centipedes. She claims she has gotten better about it, however, by drawing pictures of bugs and repeatedly using them for target practice.
Wild Card: Due to her status as a mercenary, Shamir's allegiances can be difficult to predict and understandably, Hubert closely monitors her if she should join the Adrestian Empire's forces on the Crimson Flower route. Shamir admits in the past there were times she sided with the enemy if her allies didn't pay her, though she doesn't like the idea of fighting an actual friend, she tries her best not to brood over it. She also says she joined the Knights of Seiros only to repay a debt she owed Rhea, which is fulfilled by the time Part II takes place as far she's concerned. That said, if she joins Byleth she will become truly loyal to whichever side Byleth has chosen and the friends she potentially makes along the way (though not necessarily loyal to the point of staying once the war is over).

Gilbert

Gilbert Pronislav/Gustave Eddie Dominic

Class: Fortress Knight (Three Houses), Fortress Knight → Great Knight (Three Hopes)

Age: 55 (1/26)

Height: 186 cm

Voiced by: Hiromichi Kogami (Japanese), Doug Stone (English)

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

Veteran Patriot

"I do not deserve your praise. I merely performed my duties to the best of my skill."

A member of the Knights of Seiros hailing from the Holy Kingdom. He is deeply faithful, serious and polite. His expression doesn't change much, nor does he talk much about himself. Because of that, it's hard to get to know him, though he does seem to love fishing and cooking.

His personal ability, Veteran Knight, reduces damage he takes if he has a battalion deployed.

Action Dad: A skilled knight and the father of Annette.
The Atoner: Deconstructed, he left his family to become a Knight of Seiros to atone for failing to be at the Tragedy of Duscur to protect his king. Many supports note that his atonement is torturing himself to try to make up for it and everyone feels that he is going about it in the worst way possible.
Bond One-Liner:
"On my honor as a knight!"
"You were outmatched."
Broken Pedestal: His C-support with Dedue reveals he is this for the younger knight, who modeled himself off the great knight Dimitri remembered from before the Tragedy of Duscur. Dedue calls Gilbert out from running away from his problems and wallowing when people, especially Dimitri, needed him.
Cain and Abel: He’s the Abel to his brother, the Baron Dominic, as the Cain, when Baron Dominic’s forces attack the Kingdom army after the baron declares that he can’t allow the Kingdom army to leave when Gilbert and Annette come to ask for the Dominic Relic Crusher. Downplayed in that his brother was strong-armed by Cornelia to side with the Empire. After his brother is defeated, he gives Annette the Crusher while promising to protect Gilbert’s wife.
Convenient Replacement Character: As Dedue is absent and presumed dead^note or actually dead^noteIf the paralogue wasn’t completed during the first part of Part 2 of the Azure Moon route, he comes in to serve as your tank.
Cool Old Guy: He’s the oldest recruitable character in the cast (Seteth and Flayn notwithstanding), and an experienced, armored and axe-wielding knight.
Crutch Character: Acts as one during Chapter 13 of the Azure Moon route, as your main tank, Dedue, is unavailable and he comes in after 3 turns, allowing him to soak up the physical damage. After that, his usage greatly diminishes as you regain access to all your out-of-house recruits in the next chapter, not being helped by the fact that Dedue, who has superior stats across the board, can return in Chapter 16 if his Paralogue was completed.
A Day in the Limelight: Has significantly more screen time and plot importance on the Azure Moon route, where he serves as the story's tritagonist, first as a Reasonable Authority Figure that helps Byleth assume leadership when Dimitri can't and later as Dimitri's second-in-command. By contrast he only makes minor appearances on the Crimson Flower and Silver Snow routes, and vanishes entirely from the story in Verdant Wind.
Dads Can't Cook: Inverted as he is one of the best available cooking partners for Byleth.
Death Glare: He is capable of a particularly menacing one, most notably when you fight him as an enemy on the Crimson Flower route.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In Three Houses, his only confirmed death was in Silver Snow off-screen, and in the only route where he's an enemy, his death could be avoided. In Three Hopes, he is written to die by the player's hands in Scarlet Blaze in two different ways while he and his family is trying to blockade the Empire's advancement into Faerghus.
Disappeared Dad: Gilbert left his wife and daughter to focus on his duty as a knight. There's still a lot of tension between him and his daughter, Annette, over this.
Everyone Has Standards: Despite understanding Lord Lonato's Papa Wolf rage over the dubious circumstances of his son's death, Gilbert still criticises him for completely forgetting that he had another son to look after, whom he was putting in danger by rebelling.
Failure Knight: He firmly believes that he failed in his duties as a knight when he was unable to protect Lambert during the Tragedy of Duscur, and he’s prone to self-flagellation as a result.
Fatal Flaw: His massive Heroic Self-Deprecation tendencies puts a strain on his relationships with people, including Annette who not only doesn't want to forgive him for being a Failure Knight, but that she only wants her father back, to the point that she thinks he doesn't care about his own family. Even Dedue calls him out of this behavior after being told the kind of man he used to be by Dimitri. Dedue also remarks him leaving the Kingdom when he did certainly allowed Dimitri's mental health to further decline.
Fiery Redhead: Inverted. Despite having red hair, he's one of the calmest and most stoic members of the cast, which makes for a jarring contrast with Dimitri, who is blonde, going totally Ax-Crazy post-Time Skip.
Formal Characters Use Keigo: In the original Japanese, he consistently uses kenjougo (self-humbling language) when talking with others, be they direct superiors, peers, or even just students. This serves to underscore his extremely low opinion of himself.
Heroic Sacrifice: In the Scarlet Blaze route of Three Hopes, if you find the secret passageway in Chapter 7, Gustave will lay down his life to protect Annette after she's beaten.
Humble Hero: In his support with Ashe, Gilbert refutes Ashe's wide-eyed admiration of his long tenure as a knight, claiming that he deserves no praise for simply doing his job.
Improbable Aiming Skills: According to Annette’s supports with Ignatz in Three Hopes, he apparently got his first promotion when he saw the then prince fall off one of the ramparts and threw his spear to pin him against the wall by his clothes, saving his life. After this, he adjusted his training regimen to include spearing hundreds of falling leaves.
Innocently Insensitive: In his support with Annette, Gilbert gives her a doll he's carved, claiming to have been thinking of her. Annette sadly recounts that Gilbert had carved and given dolls to her when she was young, and after he left the family, all she could do was look at them and weep in her loneliness. Gilbert regrets not thinking through his actions before turning away and leaving, claiming that she can discard the doll if she likes. Annette murmurs that he is cruel, but she can't bring herself to throw the doll away.
Killed Offscreen: On the Silver Snow route, he is counted among the dead at the Battle of Gronder.
The Lancer: Due to Dimitri being too aloof and uninterested in taking a leadership role during the first several chapters of Azure Moon, Gilbert serves as the main strategist and idea man until Chapter 17/18, when Dimitri manages to break out of his Ax-Crazy mindset and takes the reins of leadership back.
Mentor Archetype: As Gustave years before the story begins, he served as a strict, but caring mentor to Dimitri, instructing him in the ways of combat. After the Tragedy of Duscur, he disappeared from service of the Blaiddyd house to join with the Church of Seiros. Post-timeskip, on the Azure Moon route, he returns to protect and advise a broken, embittered Dimitri during the war with the Adrestian Empire.
Mighty Glacier: As an armor knight, he’s slow, but highly resistant to physical damage and hits fairly hard.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: He is only recruitable on the Azure Moon route and can never fight alongside Edelgard, Hubert, Jeritza, or Claude.
My Greatest Failure: He admits to Byleth that he wasn't there when the Tragedy of Duscur happened and by the time he arrived, it was too late. He feels especially responsible for why Dimitri ended up snapping from the trauma of the incident.
Offing the Offspring: If confronted by his daughter Annette on the Crimson Flower route, he can kill her. Unlike Rodrigue, he's doing it more out of his own sworn duty than any anger towards his child's betrayal.
Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: His age makes him an Older Hero when fighting the forces of the Flame Emperor, a Young Conqueror who is barely out of their teens. Crimson Flower can make him this opposite Byleth or even his own daughter, Annette.
Overshadowed by Awesome: Given that he's a Convenient Replacement Character to Dedue, this tends to happen:
- With Ferdinand, Gilbert is much slower. Additionally, while they can also become a Fortress Knight or Great Knight without much effort, they can also be trained to be the slightly less bulky but much faster and harder-hitting Paladin or Wyvern Lord.
- With Raphael, he can easily train up to become a War Master, which is overall a stronger class than Fortress Knight. Gilbert has no training in Brawling.
- With Hilda, Gilbert faces most of the same issues as he does against Ferdinand, just replacing "Paladin" with "Warrior."
- Even compared to Dedue, he has lower Defense and much less time to train his skills. His only real advantage here is his proficiency in riding, which gives him a much easier time reaching Great Knight than Dedue due to the latter's flaw in riding.
Papa Wolf: He may have abandoned his daughter before, but he shows his parental instincts after they reunite and reconcile:
- During the battle of Fhirdiad at the end of Crimson Flower, if you kill Annette before him, he will leave his stationary post and rush into the fires in the direction of the player units.
- In Three Hopes on the Scarlet Blaze path, should the player employ the secret passageway strategy instead of engaging Gilbert a second time in chapter 11, Annette will appear in the new area that appears. But once she's defeated, Gilbert jumps into the fray, begging her to retreat while he guards her escape from the Imperial Army, giving up his own life.
Plot Armor: As Gilbert serves a vital role in the second half of the Azure Moon route, he will simply retreat when defeated, even in Classic Mode.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
"My orders?"
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
"It's over!"
"I see right through you!"
"Make your peace!"
"So many openings..."
Quest Giver: Hands out the supply run sidequests on the Azure Moon route, at least once the war starts.
The Quiet One: Gilbert is a straightforward, professional man of few words who is averse to talking about himself and his past, to the point where he can be somewhat standoffish to those trying to engage him in friendly conversation.
Recurring Element:
- As an ally, his below average growths but solid base strength and defense (though not so much his other stats) and loyalty to Dimitri make him come across as this game's closest thing to a Jagen. While he isn't playable at all for the actual early game pre-timeskip, he does show up as an NPC in one of the earlier maps where he can be a crutch of sorts, plus he is the first to join besides Dimitri and Byleth themselves post-timeskip, and without Dedue around, he can be a crutch character if you need a tank, making him an odd example of a mid-game Jagen. From a storyline perspective, he also acts as an adviser and mentor towards the lord character.
- As an enemy, especially on the Crimson Flower route, he becomes much more like a Murdock, a normally affable older general that knows that there's something really wrong with his liege, but has already set his loyalty to said liege and is not willing to turn back. Being decked with armor and wielding axes by default helps too.
Religious Bruiser: He’s highly devout, and as a Knight of Seiros is no stranger to battle.
Rōnin: OK, he's not technically a samurai, but ideas about knighthood in this game are much more akin to those of samurai than of actual knights. Sure enough, when his liege lord perished, he abandoned his position and family in atonement and fought alone.
Required Party Member: On the Blue Lions route, Gilbert joins the party automatically after the timeskip, taking the slot Dedue would've used in said chapter under normal circumstances.
Shock and Awe: He only learns Thunder and Thoron when learning Reason.
Sixth Ranger: On the Azure Moon route, he joins you in Chapter 13. He's the last character to join the party (unless you count a re-recruited Lorenz), and he's one of only two characters who must be recruited post-timeskip (the other being Jeritza).
Spiritual Antithesis: As the game takes notes from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Gilbert could be considered an antithesis of Reptor, a distant father of a young sorceress (Annette and Tailtiu respectively) decked with armor and if they're to meet their demise, it would be in the midst of flames after being betrayed by their ally (Rhea and Arvis). As opposed to Reptor who's avaricious and only thought of himself and eventually condemned Tailtiu as a disgrace to their house, Gilbert is a good, humble father even if he has issues showing it to Annette and would never betray or condemn her, unless you make Annette do so by recruiting her in Crimson Flower route and pit them against each other. And even then, they both just sadly lament their different paths rather than accuse each other of betrayal. Furthering the antithesis is how the archetypes they fulfill are antitheses to each other as far as 'armored old man' goes: Gilbert is of the more sympathetic Murdock archetype, the decent general, whereas Reptor is of the more unsympathetic Jiol archetype, the scheming politician.
The Stoic: He’s usually wearing a neutral, stern expression, and doesn’t tend to emote much at all. Byleth remarks how unusual it is to see Gilbert smile when he does so in their support, while Hanneman also comments on Gilbert's "stiff" expression in his support with Gilbert.
Supreme Chef: He is one of the best available cooking partners for Byleth.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Mechanically, he serves as one for Dedue as the party's tanky warrior. As Dedue may or may not be dead depending on how you handled his personal quest in the first half (if you even did it at all), Gilbert joins at the start of the second half to fill his place. He does remain with the party even if Dedue returns alive later on in the campaign.
That Man Is Dead: His true name is Gustave, but after failing to protect Dimitri's father, he forsook his old identity and sought repentance as a Knight of Seiros. In his paired ending with Annette, he abandons the name Gilbert and returns to being Gustave.
Tranquil Fury: Whenever Gilbert is angry, he tells off whoever he is angry at without raising his voice at all, whether that be Cornelia when she tells him Dimitri killed his own uncle in Azure Moon, believing that she is lying, or to Byleth or one of their allies if they sided with Edelgard and confront Gilbert in chapter 12.
Tritagonist: He's the third main character on the Azure Moon route next to Dimitri and Byleth. He's not required to join you in every mission, but he appears in cutscenes and tells you mission objectives.
Undying Loyalty: When the chips are down, his true loyalty is to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. After Part I ends, he resigns from his post as a Knight of Seiros to return to the Kingdom and does not join your party unless you yourself are Kingdom-aligned.
Unstoppable Rage: Should one kill Annette before him in the finale of the Crimson Flower route, he will declare that he shall avenge her and immediately begin charging towards the player's party, leaving his position. This is despite the fact he moves very slowly, and will inevitably take massive amounts of damage from the burning city's tiles while doing so.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: While not exactly villainous, if you chose to side with Edelgard in the Black Eagles route, he retreats from battle when he's defeated in Chapter 12.
What Happened to the Mouse?: On the Verdant Wind route, he vanishes after the start of the timeskip and is only mentioned once if his daughter is recruited, where she says that Gilbert was seen carrying Dimitri's body after the battle at Gronder Field, leaving it unknown what happened to him after that.
When He Smiles:
- In Gilbert's support with Byleth, he subconsciously cracks a smile at seeing two children playing; Byleth, smiling themselves, remarks that it's unusual, and questions Gilbert's assertion that he "doesn't have the right" to do so.
- Hanneman is happy to get not one, but two laughs out of Gilbert in their support conversation, taking it to mean that they're friends after all.
- Manuela manages to get a smile out of him in their B support with one of her songs, proving to herself that she's "still got it".
- Alois also manages to make him smirk with some of his signature dad jokes.
The Worf Effect: Almost no enemies can damage him in his introduction chapter, in particular in lower difficulties. However, once Miklan turns into a Beast, Gilbert, being the closest, will usually get easily killed by him because of his low Speed allowing the Beast to double him. This serves to show how deadly Beast enemies are, and how charging ahead like usual will get your units killed, though thankfully Gilbert does not permanently die.

Characters / Fire Emblem: Three Houses – The Church of Seiros

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