Fanfic / Those With Ruinous Envy

Those with Ruinous Envy is a complete Fire Emblem: Three Houses fanfic and fic one of the Conflict of Kin Series, written by DawnedOnMe33. It details an Alternate Universe, giving a major part of the spotlight to Sylvain's brother Miklan, where the major difference is that Miklan is no longer the Lone Wolf Boss he is in canon.

After Miklan steals the Lance of Ruin, he attracts the attention of a dangerous group, people who promise to give him everything he ever wanted... for a troubling price. Meanwhile, Sylvain travels to the Gautier Margravate with the order to bring Miklan down, unaware that he is walking directly into a trap.

This is the story of the Sons of Gautier and the collateral damage their feud has caused for Faerghus— and for the other students of Garreg Mach.

Those with Ruinous Envy contains the following tropes:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Miklan is obviously much, much more of a threat here then he is in-game. His alliance with Those Who Slither In The Dark gives him access to a Crescent Sickle that can both corrode metal by touch and give Wounds That Will Not Heal, in addition to personal assistance from their members and access to their Villain Teleportation. And thanks to being given Sylvain's Crest, he can also use the Lance of Ruin at its full power without issue.
  • While she definitely wasn't harmless, Kronya wasn't ever shown or implied to be all that impressive in-game. Here, she's introduced casually assassinating Church Golems.
  • An odd example in the form of the aforementioned Crescent Scythe that Miklan uses. In-game they were simply above average weapons used by the Death Knight's entourage, effectively being weaker knockoffs of his personal Scythe of Sariel. The one Miklan uses can corrode metal by touch and tear through it like butter, and can inflict nasty, scarring wounds to its victims.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Miklan is the primary one, going from a Villain of the Week to full-blown Villain Protagonist.
  • Kronya is also given much more focus, being TWSITD's primary liaison to Miklan.
  • Margrave Gautier is a Downplayed example. While Miklan does kill him early on, it is an upgrade from his in-game status as The Ghost.
• Death by Adaptation: Margrave Gautier is decapitated by Miklan in Chapter 3, whereas his game counterpart survives the story.
• Demoted to Extra: As Miklan and Sylvain are the primary viewpoint characters, Byleth, Claude, Edelgard, Rhea, and (to a lesser extent) Dimitri are all given much less focus. Edelgard has the worst of it, as she doesn't even get a POV scene until Chapter 14.
• Disease Bleach: Like Lysithea and Edelgard, Sylvain's hair begins to turn white after TWSITD transfers his Crest to Miklan.
• Face–Heel Turn: After war breaks out, all of the Black Eagles turn to Edelgard's side.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Sylvain does admit the role his parents played in Miklan's fall from grace, he makes it clear that it does not excuse his actions. Claude espouses the same opinion during their confrontation.
  Claude: We have similar circumstances and similarly selfish family members. But people are more than their circumstances. We are not the same. There comes a point where you can't blame anyone else for your choices. You’re a man. Not a wind-up toy.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: In Chapter 28, Miklan joins the Adrestian military, and goes from working from unrepentant monsters to a tragic Anti-Villain.
• He Knows Too Much: In Chapter 32, Lorenz and Ignatz overhear Edelgard and Hubert plotting against the Church, forcing Hubert to immediately incapacitate them both.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Edelgard considers Ignatz attempting to save Lorenz rather than abandoning him so he can escape and alert the Church of her ill intent to be the type of foolishness that can only hold back progress.
  • During the siege of Garreg Mach, Claude is concerned that his allies will throw their lives away out of a misplaced sense of pride rather than retreat, live to fight another day, and continue to keep their subjects safe if the battle turns against them.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All chapters are named "Beyond [whatever]".
• I Have No Son!: The story starts with Florizel officially disowning Miklan for his actions. His mother is initially regretful, but fully embraces this trope later when Miklan kills his father.
  Phoebe Gautier: I WISH YOU'D NEVER BEEN BORN!
  Miklan: I know you do. [Knocks her out]
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: At the end of Chapter 26, Miklan runs Claude through with the Lance of Ruin.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite all of the changes to the story, some things stay the same.
  • Jeralt still dies in an incident involving Thales, teleportation, and a failed attempt to change fate with Divine Pulse.
  • The siege of Garreg Mach ends the same way: Byleth is knocked into a ravine and Dimitri and Claude are forced to retreat to their respective nations and allow the monastery to be captured by the enemy.
• It's Personal:
  • When Miklan learns that it was Rhea who went on a draconic rampage at Conand Tower and killed all his dudes, he wants blood.
  • By the end of the siege of Garreg Mach, Felix doesn't give a damn about Rhea or the ideals in conflict. He just wants Miklan's blood for all of his crimes against his friends.
• Jerkass Realization: Miklan has a Downplayed one in Chapter 13 when he realizes that he can't refute Sylvain's claim that his friends will still want him even without his Crest. It occurs to him that Sylvain's friends love him regardless of his Crest, while he doesn't have anyone left even though he has one.
• Misplaced Retribution: Edelgard blames the Church for Dimitri's fall to madness. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Dimitri's personal history would know that it was actually caused by the Tragedy of Duscur, which the Church had absolutely no part in.
• Morality Pet: Edelgard accepts Miklan into their army on the condition that he take his rage at the Crest system out on the people who propagate it, not innocent victims like Sylvain.
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: Downplayed when Claude nearly gets nuked off the face of Fódlan by the javelins of light; he notes that while his whole life isn't flashing before his eyes, his regrets are.
• Named by the Adaptation: Prior to the release of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (where his name is revealed to be Matthias) Sylvain and Miklan's father was only ever referred to as Margrave Gautier, while their mother was never named at all. The story gives them the names Florizel and Phoebe.
• Never My Fault: Even at the very end, Miklan denies any fault for his lot in life.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Edelgard initially didn't like Miklan very much, but revised their opinion when they realized that they are both willing to sacrifice anything to upend the current Crest-based system.
• Oh, Crap!: Rhea is incredibly alarmed to learn that Miklan is working with the Agarthans, especially since Byleth was assigned to deal with him. It's enough to get her to transform into The Immaculate One, rushing to Conand Tower in an attempt to end the affair as soon as possible. When she doesn't find Miklan there, she levels the tower, killing Miklan's entire gang in the process.
• Ominous Adversarial Amusement: Despite being defeated in personal combat, Edelgard remains confident that they retain the advantage, much to Dimitri's worry.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Felix realizes that something is seriously bothering Sylvain when he sees him not even react to two women waving at him on their way to investigate the attack on House Gautier.
• Perky Female Minion: Kronya, who's shown to gleefully comment the various crimes Miklan carries out like they're some kind of game.
• Pet the Dog:
  • At the end of Chapter 38, Miklan gives a sincere apology to Sylvain for everything and asks him to join him in the Empire.
  • At the end of the story, Edelgard gives Jeralt a proper burial in the monastery cemetery, implicitly next to his wife.
• Pyrrhic Victory: After Miklan finally takes Sylvain's Crest, he realizes that it's effectively worthless. His actions have ensured he'll never be welcomed back to House Gautier, or any noble family for that matter, his only friends in the form of his gang are dead, and the he's fully aware that the only allies he has left (Those Who Slither In The Dark) pretty much regard him as a tool at best and a test subject at worst. Sylvain at least has his friends who don't care about his Crest, while Miklan has nothing and no one left.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sylvain gives a brutal one to Miklan in in Chapter 6. Despite Sylvain's pity over his brother being The Unfavorite due to him lacking a Crest, he's fully accepted that Miklan has gone off the deep end and absolutely snaps when Miklan accuses him of being spoiled.
  Miklan: You’re a fool. You and mother and father abandoned me and now you’re saying that things would have been all right if I had just been kinder? Bold words from someone who's had a perfect life.
  Sylvain: PERFECT!?
  [Sylvain gets closer to Miklan]
  Sylvain: My life was NEVER perfect! How could it have been?! Do you honestly think I was happy being treated like a— a purebred puppy?! Do you have any idea what that did to me?! And on top of it, I suffered years and years and years of abuse. From you! I took it because I wanted a brother! I wanted to love you! Ah. If you had just been there for me, I would have adored you. I would have done anything for you. DAMN IT!
  Miklan: Do you honestly think your cries will change anything?
  Sylvain: No. I’m smarter now. I understand that some of this was about crests. But some of it was because you are just a bad person, Miklan. I don’t care if I never see you ever again.
• Rival Final Boss: Miklan is the final enemy battled in the story. He's a bit player in the grand scheme of things, but he's a very personal foe to the Blue Lions.
• Rivals Team Up: Miklan's attack on the Gautier estate makes the situation so dire that Rhea decides to send Dimitri, Claude, and both of their respective classes to investigate.
• Self-Made Orphan: One of Miklan's first acts after allying with Those Who Slither In The Dark is to invade the Gautier estate, killing his father in the process. As for his mother, he settles for knocking her out and taking her hostage, primarily so he can use her as bait for Sylvain.
• Sinister Scythe: Since he finds out he can't use the Lance of Ruin without the proper Crest, Miklan instead switches to using a Crescent Sickle gifted to him by the Those Who Slither in the Dark as his weapon.
• Stupid Good: The Gatekeeper's naivete and blind optimism bites the Church hard in Chapter 32. He never even thinks to suspect the possibility that one of the students could be a spy, and Edelgard almost effortlessly convinces him to hand over the letter that would have accused her of ill intent so she can destroy it and replace it with a fake.
• Suicidal "Gotcha!": After being defeated in the siege of Garreg Mach, Edelgard jumps off a rampart and is caught by Petra on a pegasus, promptly making her getaway.
• Trauma Conga Line: Lampshaded by one of the author's tags on Archive of Our Own being labeled "I'm pretty mean to Sylvain in this one". His brother kills his father, ransacks his childhood home, and takes his mother hostage. When he gives himself up in her place, he's promptly imprisoned, starved, and is put through the incredibly torturous (And potentially lethal) procedure of having his Crest ripped out of him and given to Miklan. While he does manage to survive that last part, it's heavily implied that, like other victims of TWSITD's Crest experiments, his lifespan has been greatly reduced.
• Villainous Friendship: Ironically, Miklan actually has a pretty good bond with his bandit gang. He's devastated when he finds out that they were all killed in the destruction of Conand Tower.
• Villain Protagonist: Miklan is the primary viewpoint character, and is given next to no Adaptational Heroism.
• Villain Team-Up: One of the primary elements of the fic is Miklan, who's in-game a Lone Wolf Boss, teaming up with TWSITD/The Agarthans.
• Weak, but Skilled: Dimitri describes Edelgard as compensating for her small size through technical skill.
• We Can Rule Together: Miklan offers Sylvain a place at his side in the Empire. Sylvain refuses.