Fanfic / To Weather the Dark Collection

A long journey that encompasses loss, love, and the promise of happiness.

The To Weather the Dark Collection is a series of fanfics authored by AdraCat on Archive of Our Own. It is nine works long and ongoing. The series covers the five-year gap for Fire Emblem: Three Houses in the Crimson Flower route and post-war stories spanning from Brigid to Sreng. Minor and major alterations to canon are included.

Series list:

• To Weather the Dark: Complete. Pairing Edelgard/Byleth. The monster is unveiled and a war begins. An Emperor moves her soldiers into place as the world tries to intercept. All the while, ghosts of what was and might have been linger. An attempt to bridge the gap between one woman's long sleep and another's struggle for liberation.
• The Theory of Connection: Complete. Pairings Edelgard/Byleth, Dorothea/Petra. The world is finally as it should be, and love has bloomed in full. An Emperor takes time to visit a vassal state where clouds loom on the horizon. A tale of crisis and devotion in small parts.
• In water, Their Reflection: Oneshot. A small piece dedicated to Byleth and Jeralt's relationship. A girl wakes and a man talks; between the spaces of dream and reality.
• A Question of Gifts and Wanting: Oneshot. Pairing Edelgard/Byleth. As an Emperor acts increasingly strange, her beloved General takes notice. An investigation is conducted.
• On the Merit of Saint Cichol: Complete. Pairings Edelgard/Byleth, Hubert/Ferdinand. A strange Holiday takes hold of Enbarr. The Emperor investigates with some unexpected results.
• One day, On the Garland Moon: Oneshot. Pairing Edelgard/Byleth. A glimpse of the past told to the present. A comparison of the same day at different times.
• To Forge and Temper: Complete. Pairing Catherine/Shamir. A journey between two women amid the ashes of war. One chained to the past, the other unwilling to face it. A tale of forgiveness disguised as vengeance.
• Beneath the Waters: Complete. Pairing Dorothea/Petra. Many revelations come to light as a songstress questions the Queen she loves. The waters are deep and dark with secrets, but is it worth braving the depths?
• To Herald the Dawn: Complete. Pairings Edelgard/Byleth, Catherine/Shamir. As the Empire settles in the wake of war, whispers of rebellion reach the Imperial throne. The past collides with the present as several ghosts are unearthed.
• The Spaces Between: In-progress. A series of disjointed one-shots within the series. Pairing Edelgard/Byleth so far.
• The Captain and Lady Merciful: Complete. Pairing Ingrid/Mercedes. Unrest stirs in Galatea as its current lord rails against the Emperor and fails to better the region's strife. Ingrid—captain of the Empire foremost—returns to demand his abdication. Among the personal turmoil, her path crosses with an apothecary and her enigmatic protector.

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To Weather the Dark Collection provides examples of:

• Activist-Fundamentalist Antics: In the flagship fic, To Weather the Dark, a village is burned to the ground by people exemplifying this trope. Edelgard is horrified since these actions were inadvertently caused by her.
• Action Girl: With most of the main cast being female, this is a large focus.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Byleth. Mostly in the second work of the series, The Theory of Connection, but there are hints of it throughout. Catherine is also hit with this hard in To Forge and Temper as her actions in Fhirdiad and her dedication to Rhea are explored.
• Adaptational Expansion:
  • Several major characters are given expanded backgrounds. Edelgard, Byleth, Catherine, and Shamir especially.
  • Many landmasses in canon are explored with new lore and politics.
  • Certain relationships only alluded to in canon are expanded such as Edelgard and Thales, Catherine's ties to Christophe Gaspard, and Byleth with her father.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Catherine is written explicitly as only attracted to women even though she had several romantic endings with men in the original game. Likewise, Jeritza is explicitly nonbinary and referred to with they/them pronouns.
• Adaptation Deviation: The first few fics were written before the DLC Cindered Shadows was released. Because of this, details such as the status and members of House Nuvelle and Patricia's true name are changed.
• Allegory: The author has these in multiple fics. A shorter list would be which fics don't.
• Almost Kiss: Shamir nearly kisses Catherine in chapter 7 of To Forge and Temper. While it's clear the attraction is mutual, Catherine stops her.
• Always Save the Girl: Shamir has a knack for always digging Catherine out of trouble even at the risk of her life. This trope is lampshaded heavily when the latter is taken captive in Charon.

Catherine: Reminds me of that time we got snagged by those rogues near the Myrddin.

Shamir: I saved you then too. Reckless and inconsiderate as you continue to be.

— To Forge and Temper, Chapter 6

• Amazonian Beauty: Catherine's height and physique are often observed by certain characters, mostly from Shamir's point of view. In To Herald the Dawn, her stature seems to be a point of annoyance for Edelgard.
• Ambition Is Evil: Played with. Some threats the cast encounters after the war is because of political jockeying for power.
  • The titular conflict of To Herald the Dawn is Edelgard fending off a usurper, however, said conflict is only brought to them at the behest of an ambitious baron.
  • Two Brigid's dukes conspire together to seize the throne in Beneath the Waters, though the situation is also irregular.
• Ambiguously Related: Ferdinand invokes this in To Weather the Dark. He notices Edelgard and Lysithea's silver hair and concludes the latter must be Ionius's bastard. Edelgard is quick to scold him.
• Anachronic Order: The first work explores the five-year gap from Edelgard's perspective. Later in the series, this is used again to explore the burning of Fhirdiad and its aftermath from Catherine and Shamir's perspectives. In To Forge and Temper, frequent flashbacks are utilized.
• An Arm and a Leg: Played with. Byleth shreds Catherine's leg in Fhirdiad and the wound later rots. The narrative seems ready to head in this direction but Catherine ends up keeping the leg. However, the events still leave her unable to fight or walk without a limp. By To Herald the Dawn, she appears to have regained most of her mobility.
• Anchored Ship: The persistent dynamic of Shamir and Catherine in To Forge and Temper.
• Animal Motifs: The author uses these liberally and several characters get this treatment across the series. The most prominent comparisons are-
  • Edelgard and snakes/eagles.
  • Byleth and wolves.
  • Catherine and lions.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Byleth delivers one of these to Catherine during the burning of Fhirdiad.
  • "...do you really think the Goddess you know, the one you believe in, would ask this of you?"
• Ascended Extra: Various family members only briefly mentioned in canon make an appearance.
  • Petra's grandfather is given a name and characterization in The Theory of Connection and Beneath the Waters.
  • Ashe's deceased brother, Christophe Gaspard, plays a major role in To Forge and Temper. Catherine's family is also described and expanded upon in great detail.
  • Ingrid's father Gunnar is given more characterization, and his fraught relationship to both Ingrid and Estrid is given a closer examination. Even moreso in The Captain and Lady Merciful where Gunnar's refusal to comply with Edelgard's reforms is what kickstarts the plot.
• Assassination Attempt:
  • In line with her Byronic Hero nature, Edelgard is not above doing this. In To Weather the Dark she orders Count Charon and his heir to be assassinated so the Kingdom's supply of ore would be halted.
  • Brigid as a whole is revealed to be rife with similar methods. Petra herself is the one who killed Count Charon and later does away with a prospective usurper. She doesn't enjoy the task but it's also necessary considering her culture and position.
  • In To Forge and Temper, Christophe attempts to assassinate Archbishop Rhea. While his reasons are understandable, Catherine doesn't hesitate to turn him in.
• Avenging the Villain: Catherine attempts this for the Archbishop. It doesn't end well.
• Badass in Distress: Edelgard falls into this occasionally.
  • In the first story, she almost falls to her death after being precision sniped from a pegasus. Luckily, Ingrid swoops in for the save.
  • In the latest installment, To Herald the Dawn, this comes into play again as Edelgard nearly drowns.

• Battle Couple: Both Edelgard/Byleth and Catherine/Shamir fit the bill in To Herald the Dawn.
• Back Fromthe Dead: Hinted with Rhea's corpse and Thales's plot. While this trope is not confirmed it's discussed by Edelgard, Shamir, and Catherine.
• Bawdy Song: Caspar sings one in To Weather the Dark, but is quickly stopped by Lysithea.
• Because Destiny Says So: Edelgard invokes this a few times in To Weather the Dark. Her feelings stem from the loss of her siblings and lead her to believe she alone was destined to change the world. Rufus Blaiddyd appears to be operating off the belief his son is destined to be king given his comments in To Forge and Temper.
  • "...The Goddess blessed him thus, and so he shall sit the throne as King. It is written in the stars.”
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Edelgard's intense feelings for Byleth are in part due to this. Edelgard even mentions the moment when she fell in love was when Byleth chose her in the Holy Tomb.
• Beta Couple: Dorothea/Petra in To Weather the Dark and Ferdinand/Hubert in On the Merit of Saint Cichol.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Byleth's Character Development has her occasionally making fantastic conclusions, spinning into unrelated tangents, or simply being too curious for her own good. However, she's still a skilled fighter and strategist. Byleth even casually threatens Catherine in To Herald the Dawn. In the same chapter, she expresses how far she would go to avenge Edelgard if something happens to her.
  • "...Warfare was the teat I grew upon and blood my milk. I would make sure Blaiddyd knew what that meant. And if this country served him, so would they."
  • Later, when Edelgard is taken, Byleth is shown to be just as ruthless as she previously threatened.
• Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: Ferdinand/Hubert and Byleth/Edelgard respectively. Though it's made clear the former's bickering is more playful than Edelgard assumes.
• Big Damn Heroes: After Edelgard is nearly captured by the Knights of Seiros, Alois saves her alongside Jeralt's remaining mercenaries. It's all the more surprising considering Alois hadn't been seen or mentioned before this.
• The Big Damn Kiss: An emotional, alcohol-induced one happens for Shamir and Catherine in chapter 8 of their fic. Yet rather than bring them closer together, it leads Shamir to believe her partner is in love with Rhea.
• Big Damn Reunion: Between Edelgard and Byleth. The scene is as thoroughly sappy and sweet as you would expect.

Edelgard: I must look frightful. Like a nightmare.

Byleth: You will always be a waking dream to me.

— To Herald the Dawn, Chapter 12

• Bilingual Bonus: A few different languages are used to signify different nationalities in the series. All of the words are left untranslated for the reader.
• The Blacksmith: Catherine, under an alias at the time, apprentices under one. Later, this becomes her new career.
• Broken Ace: What Catherine is depicted as in the series. In the first fic, she's a cocky and terrifying zealot as you would expect. Yet in To Forge and Temper, she's revealed to be a horribly flawed and beleaguered woman haunted by regret.
• Broken Pedestal: Played with. Catherine doesn't entirely change her opinion of Rhea, but she does come to understand her fallibility. She even admits Edelgard might have been right in some ways.
• Broken-System Dogmatist: What Rufus is shaping up to be in To Herald the Dawn. Potentially, Ingrid's aunt as well, but it's unclear what she believes beyond serving her lord.
• Cain and Abel: In "The Captain and Lady Merciful", Ingrid turns out to be the Abel to her older brother Erik, who is the true identity of The Bull, and murderer of their father.
• Came Back Wrong: Rhea, or rather the Immaculate One becomes this at the climax of To Herald the Dawn when it's revealed Thales spirited her corpse away from Fhirdiad to Sreng. When he reanimates her, it becomes clear that no trace of Rhea's original personality or intelligence remains, leaving only a rampaging monster driven solely by rage and instinct. Even Edelgard expresses some pity for what Rhea has been reduced to.
• Cassandra Truth: Christophe attempts to convince, ironically, Cassandra (Catherine) of the Central Church's corruption. Sadly, this impassioned plea leads to his death at her hands.
• Cast Full of Gay: All the significant pairings and protagonists are w/w or m/m. The only prominent heterosexual couples are those established by canon.
• Character Catch Phrase: Catherine frequently says Ha! when amused or incredulous.
• Character Development: Many of the characters evolve as the stories continue but the most drastic are Byleth, Catherine, and even Edelgard. Byleth in particular has progressed from a logical, stoic woman to a Cloudcuckoolander with a dry sense of humor.
• Closet Key: Mercedes/Lady Merciful is Ingrid's, who comes to terms with her attraction to women, and Merciful specifically. Played with, in that Ingrid had been just as attracted to Mercedes during their Academy days, but kept rationalizing it away.
• Cold Ham: Byleth, both Played for Laughs and seriously. She tends to be overdramatic and flowery while remaining utterly nonchalant.
• Combat Pragmatist: In her confrontation with Dimitri, Edelgard is revealed to fight like this. She wins by using the dagger he gave her to stab him in the leg and punch his throat.
• Commonality Connection: Between Byleth and Catherine of all people. During an impromptu fishing trip, they talk about their mutual worthiness (or lack of it) in regard to their respective lovers. It seems to ease some of the tension between them.
• The Confidant: Dorothea serves as this for Edelgard in To Weather the Dark.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Ingrid's arc in To Herald the Dawn has shades of this. In her case, she's divided between the knightly values she once carried, the duty she feels toward her family, and her desire to do what she wants in spite of everything else. Her aunt brutally calls her out for the latter in a nearly deadly confrontation.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: After a tense sequence where Edelgard narrowly escapes Thales in To Herald the Dawn, Shamir displays this trope. Though they don't exchange words, she pulls Edelgard atop her horse and they flee.
• Corrupt Church: Explored thoroughly and unflinchingly with little sympathy for the Central or Western Church.
• The Coup:
  • In Beneath the Waters a key part of the plot deals with a potential one in Brigid.
  • In To Forge and Temper, Catherine is approached by Rufus Blaiddyd to assist in overthrowing the Empire and reclaiming Faerghus. She refuses, but this doesn't stop him moving forward with it in To Herald the Dawn.
• Covered in Scars: Like most fanworks, this series depicts Edelgard's scarring from the crest experimentation. Yet the most significant one To Weather the Dark harks back on is only tangentially related to torture. Turns out, she partially degloved her hand trying to escape from the chains. Ouch.
  • Mercedes did not escape her assumed death at Tailtean without getting some scars of her own, and now wears a veil as Lady Merciful both as a means to hide her identity and also cover at least some of them.
• Creation Myth: This series contains two crafted myths to flesh out the cultures of Brigid and Dagda.
• Creepy Child: What Byleth feared her father saw her as.
  • “I wonder how he really felt about me. This broken thing who should have been a daughter, but wasn’t.”
• Cycle of Revenge: Discussed in To Forge and Temper. The twist here is Catherine has mostly moved on from any notions of revenge when the topic pops up. Nonetheless, she considers joining a potential uprising out of a lingering sense of duty to the Archbishop.
• A Day in the Limelight: Byleth is not usually the pov character for the series but she gets her chance to shine in In Water, Their Reflection, and A Question of Gifts and Wanting.
• Dance of Romance:
  • In the first fic, Edelgard is tricked into one by the machinations of her friends. She forgives them as the dance progresses.
  • Another example is in To Forge and Temper as a sectioned flashback. It doesn't end as pleasantly as the former.
• Dark Fic: The canon material is already serious, but the series takes bleak twists with Byleth's character, religious extremism, and Fodlan's eugenics.
• Deadpan Snarker: Shamir counts but her snark is usually reserved for Catherine. Otherwise, it's mostly contained in her thoughts. Edelgard's portrayal in the series is noticeably snarky. Her enemies take the brunt of this.

Dimitri: I'll have your head, Edelgard. If nothing else, I promise you that.

Edelgard: You want it? Be a good dog and fetch.

— To Weather the Dark, Chapter 3

• Delicate and Sickly: Rufus' son is in poor health after Thales implants an artificial Major Crest of Blaiddyd. Even after the insurrection is put down, it's a real question how long he has, as his body is outright rejecting the Crest. Fortunately, Shamir points them towards Bothild, who is able to make a tonic that eases the symptoms and causes his health to improve, but it's mentioned he'll have to take it for the rest of his life.
• Discriminate and Switch: Edelgard initially believes Petra's grandfather is against Petra and Dorothea's union because they're both women. The truth is he fears the decline of his heritage and the eventual take-over of Adrestian culture.
• Draconic Abomination: The way the Immaculate One is described leans heavily into this. Even Catherine, knowing it's someone she admires, cannot stop herself from being unnerved. It gets even worse when Rhea is reanimated by Thales into a mindless beast to use against the Empire, as there's nothing left of the woman she was.
• Drama Queen: Invoked by Catherine regarding Byleth and Edelgard.
• Dream Sequence: Three of them. The first is a melancholic goodbye between Edelgard and her childhood memory of Dimitri. The second is a nightmare Catherine has where she fights Shamir as Fhirdiad burns. This one also has elements of Erotic Dream, though it's more agonised and fraught than typical examples. The third is the majority of In Water, Their Reflection between a dreaming Byleth and Jeralt.
  • The Captain and Lady Merciful opens with what appears to be a memory of Ingrid at the Academy and talking with Mercedes about her transferring to the Black Eagles, but then turns into a representation of Mercedes dying at Tailtean, revealing it as a dream Ingrid is having.
• Dysfunctional Family: Multiple examples from canon are fleshed out and new dynamics are written.
  • Edelgard is given a tenser relationship with her father. She still loves him, but also holds him accountable for his ineffectiveness and her own tragic circumstances.
  • Catherine's family plays this trope straight. Her brother resented her position as their father's favorite, her step-mother loathed her husband's first children, and her father cared little for the children who didn't have crests. The only healthy relationships in the family are her sister, Melaina, and youngest brother.
  • Sylvain has a blatantly strained relationship with his family in To Herald the Dawn.
  • Ingrid has a much more strained relationship with her father, who is presented as being much more overbearing and uncaring about her own desires. It's mentioned that her brothers are either ineffective or take after their father in that regard as well. Estrid also describes her relationship with him as almost non-existent, as Gunnar couldn't accept Estrid after her transition.
• Eating the Eye Candy:
  • Edelgard does this a few times in The Theory of Connection.
  • Shamir has several moments during her and Catherine's Dance of Romance and afterward.
  • The biggest offender of this is Catherine. She often ruminates on Shamir's appearance even before they get together, usually when Shamir is bathing.
• Eldritch Abomination: Those Who Slither In the Dark are presented this way in the series. Edelgard sometimes muses on Thales's 'otherness' from humanity. In a flashback with a creature wearing her mother's face, Edelgard is so terrified she pushes it down the stairs.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Downplayed but still present with Petra and Shamir. Shamir especially has poetic and clever insights when she thinks in 'Dagdan'.
• Environmental Symbolism: Occasionally across all the author's works but heavily invoked within To Herald the Dawn. After a difficult and exhausting battle during the night, Byleth likens dawn to Edelgard. Since Edelgard returns in the same chapter it's very fitting.
• Epic Ship-on-Ship Action: An action-packed naval battle takes place in To Herald the Dawn. Though it's less ship-on-ship, and more pegasi-on-ship.
• Everyone Can See It: After Byleth's return in the first work, Edelgard's feelings are an open secret among the Black Eagle Strike Force. All of them conspire in various ways to nudge the two together to Edelgard's embarrassment.
• Existential Horror: Byleth suffers from this in The Theory of Connection.
• Faking Amnesia: It's mentioned Edelgard would pull off this trope whenever Dimitri tried to address their shared past. See Laser-Guided Amnesia below.
• Faking the Dead: Mercedes is doing this after apparently having been rescued from Tailtean by Jeritza, and now travels the former Kingdom territory as the apothecary "Lady Merciful", believing that Mercedes von Martritz should stay dead.
• Flower Motifs: This is a prominent aspect of the first fic. Notably, Edelgard muses on the color of Byleth's eyes and likens it to cornflower or blue hydrangeas. She proceeds to leave bouquets of the latter atop Jeralt's grave in remembrance.
• Fool for Love: Shamir's depiction in the series has shades of this. Despite the loss she suffered from her previous partner, she ends up hopelessly in love with Catherine. This serves as the catalyst for most of her actions.
• Foreshadowing: There are several clues sprinkled throughout "The Captain and Lady Merciful" that point to the true identity of the People's King/The Bull being Ingrid's older brother Erik, ones Ingrid picks up on in-universe, though it's implied she knew on some level from the start and was simply in denial about it.
• Foreign Fanservice: Discussed in relation to Shamir. Catherine details occasions where fellow knights lusted after Shamir simply because she was exotic to them. Shamir doesn't linger on the issue but she doesn't dispute it either.
• The Fundamentalist: How Rhea is primarily portrayed. Her rage over Edelgard's heresy is depicted multiple times. She continues to have shades of this from Shamir's pov in To Forge and Temper, though her portrayal is more sympathetic there. In Catherine's opinion anyway.
• Fuzz Therapy: Early in the first story, Edelgard is given a kitten by Bernadetta. Edelgard is hesitant until she sees the cat's eyes, which remind her of Byleth. Touched, she calls the cat 'Professor' from then on. Once Byleth returns, the cat's name changes to 'Tiny Professor'.
• The Ghost: The true leader of Galatea's rebellion against the Empire, a mysterious figure called the People's King, who convinced Gunnar to reject Edelgard's reforms, than killed him and took control of the province. It's later revealed by Dagny, a peasant girl who served him that he also goes by the moniker of The Bull, and wears a mask to hide his identity. His real identity is so far unknown and he has not actually appeared in the story so far, but has been talked about by others. He finally appears in the penultimate chapter, and is revealed to be Ingrid's older brother and formerly the presumptive heir, Erik, a fact Ingrid had already worked out before she challenges him.
• God Is Evil: Played with. Edelgard vacillates between despising the goddess and acknowledging some people need the extra security of the seirosian religion.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Twice in To Herald the Dawn. The first is a spontaneous emotion-filled brawl involving Catherine and Byleth. The second is during a brutal duel.
• The Ghost: Sothis never appears in the series, though she's mentioned by Byleth. It's unclear whether she still exists in any capacity. However, she is confirmed to exist in a standalone fic that appears to take place in the same continuity.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: A few are given throughout the fics.
  • In To Weather the Dark, Edelgard receives a book with an altered fairytale ending, one that ends happily for her and the 'wolf'.
  • In A Question of Gifts and Wanting, Edelgard gives Byleth a ship for her birthday. Crosses with Chekhov's Gift too as of To Herald the Dawn, since it's this gift that teaches her to sail.
  • In To Forge and Temper, Catherine gives Shamir a bangle she forged from the dagger her former partner gave to her.
• Granny Classic: To Forge and Temper has a side character named Bothild that embodies this trope. Later in the story, Bothild admits to exaggerating these qualities so Catherine and Shamir would help her village.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The core goals of Edelgard are portrayed heroically, but her methods can be undeniably under-handed in the series. Similarly, her enemies are written with varying degrees of sympathy. No one is depicted as unambiguously right or wrong with the exception of Rhea and Those Who Slither in the Dark.
• Guilt Complex: Edelgard has this throughout the series. A past conversation with Byleth reveals she believes the burden of guilt to be on the people with the most authority. This leads to her continually taking the blame for any setbacks or tragedies that take place, including the major example below.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: A minor plot point in To Herald the Dawn is Byleth's desire to go ice fishing. She finally does in chapter 7, convincing a reluctant Catherine to teach her. It's not as humorous as typical examples since it follows a heated misunderstanding between Edelgard and Byleth, and explores her insecurities.
• Heroic BSoD: Edelgard has a brief one after she discovers the result of her actions toward the Western Church. See Activist-Fundamentalist Antics above. She gets better but as of To Herald the Dawn, the choice still weighs on her.
• Heroism Incentive: Once Edelgard discovers Catherine and Shamir, she offers them a deal in exchange for their potential freedom. Should they assist her in capturing Rufus at least. The caveat here is that she needs to be satisfied with their service, but it's left ambiguous whether she intends to honor it. Considering Shamir and Byleth's dialogue in chapter 8, Shamir recognizes it's a flimsy assurance at best. That doesn't stop her from doing everything she can to secure Catherine's freedom, including putting her life at stake. It pays off, as Edelgard pardons Catherine at the end of the story, recognizing she's not the same woman who burned Fhirdiad, and allows her and Shamir to live in obscurity.
• Hidden Depths: Several characters are given greater complexity and deeper motivations to follow Edelgard.
• Hiding Your Heritage: Sylvain does this in To Herald the Dawn to disguise he's part Srengian
• I Hate Past Me: Catherine doesn't like thinking of 'Cassandra' at all and speaks about her as if she was a separate person. On the occasions she does reflect on who she was, it's always with self-loathing. By the end of To Forge and Temper the trope is subverted since Catherine accepts her actions as Cassandra and allows the villagers to call her by that name.
• I Owe You My Life: Stated explicitly by Edelgard towards Shamir after she's saved from imprisonment.
• I Shall Return: Edelgard invokes this in chapter 11 of To Herald the Dawn, vowing to save Rufus's infant son.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: Shamir thinks she's in competition with Rhea even after the Archbishop's death. In reality, Catherine just has some awful hang-ups concerning personal agency and deep insecurities because of it.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The first encounter between the Imperial army and Rufus's forces has a squadron of pegasi recruits impaled by ballistas. Ingrid is understandably horrified. In a later chapter of To Herald the Dawn, Sylvain is impaled with Ingrid's relic by her aunt. Poor woman just can't catch a break.
• Important Haircut: Leonie is revealed to retroactively have one of these pre-timeskip. In The Spaces Between, Leonie reveals to Edelgard that she cut her hair so the bandits wouldn't assault her like another girl. She's very matter-of-fact about it, but Edelgard is horrified.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Rufus Blaiddyd believes himself to be one to his deceased brother and nephew, and pins all his hopes on making his infant son a better ruler. But when Thales offers the chance to bring Dimitri back, similar to how he has revived Rhea, by using his own son's blood, Rufus quickly decides to go through with the sacrifice. This proves to be too much for Estrid, who immediately runs Rufus through with her lance and tries to flee with the boy.
• Insecure Love Interest: Edelgard has moments like this, but it's Dorothea who plays the trope straight. She constantly doubts her worth in comparison to Petra. As of To Herald the Dawn, Byleth is revealed to also feel inadequate.
• It Was a Gift: Shamir receives a dagger from her former partner the moment before he died. She holds onto it up until the events of To Forge and Temper.
• I Will Wait for You: In the last year of the time skip, Edelgard harbors hope Byleth will return. She expresses this trope in a story she tells to Dorothea, Petra, and Lysithea. Later, her resolve is so infectious Leonie comes to believe too.
• Just Friends: Invoked across To Forge and Temper. It's more Catherine insisting upon this than Shamir, who is very upfront about her feelings throughout the fic. It's subverted by the end of course.
• Large Ham: Edelgard can be very hammy at points. Most notably in titular battles where she leads.

Edelgard:The giant opens its maw! Storm the belly and bring me its head!

— To Herald the Dawn, Chapter 8

• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Averted. Unlike canon, Edelgard never forgot her time in Faerghus. She is aware of her mother's marriage to King Lambert and her step-sibling tie to Dimitri. Despite this, she remains unwavering in her dedication to dismantling the church.
• Last Words: Played with in To Herald the Dawn. Luckily the trope is averted as Byleth is saved last minute by some warriors from Sreng.
• Light Equals Hope: Light is used as frequent symbolism in the series, coinciding with Dark Is Evil. Edelgard in particular embodies this, and the trope is played straight once she receives Aymr from Thales.
• The Lost Lenore: Shamir's deceased partner is mentioned from time to time. She laments his passing but is able to move on as she slowly grows closer to Catherine. She still thinks of him occasionally and remarks on Byleth's similarities to him.
  • Mercedes has become one to Ingrid after the war. Once Ingrid comes go terms with her attraction to Lady Merciful, she mentions not wanting to repeat the mistake of being honest about her feelings. Subverted however, in that Merciful is Mercedes.
• Love Epiphany: On two occasions. Edelgard's epiphany occurred once Byleth chose to defend her in the Holy Tomb. Catherine's happened spontaneously after coming to terms with her past... and seeing Shamir partially undressed.
• Machiavelli Was Wrong: The major conflict of Beneath the Waters is resolved by Dorothea expressing compassion for the leader of an insurgent faction.
• Marriageof Convenience: It's revealed in chapter 7 of To Herald the Dawn that Sylvain intended to broker one of these with Ingrid. His reasons are pragmatic but Ingrid is understandably angry with him.
• Martyrdom Culture: Discussed and deconstructed with Faerghus. The opposing characters in To Herald the Dawn are a prime example. Ingrid's pov sections also discuss this.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's not clear if Byleth's dream about fishing with Jeralt and the ensuing heart-to-heart during In Water, Their Reflection, is really just a dream, or if Jeralt's spirit is genuinely making contact with her via some implied off-screen string-pulling from Sothis. There's some suggestion it might be the latter, but nothing is ever outright confirmed. Either way, it helps Byleth get some much-needed closure regarding her relationship with her father.
• Moe Greene Special: Edelgard pulls this off on Thales in chapter 11 of To Herald the Dawn
• My Greatest Failure: This is what Catherine perceives killing Christophe to be. This spurs her to join the church and forfeit her agency. After the events of To Forge and Temper, she changes Fhirdiad to be her greatest shame.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Invoked by Estrid Galatea, who continues to serve Rufus Blaiddyd after he flees to Sreng and begins his insurrection, due to her devotion to the ideas of chivalry, and tells Ingrid repeatedly her niece will have to kill her, an idea that Ingrid struggles with and hopes to avoid doing. It's averted in the end when Rufus decides on sacrificing his son to allow Thales to resurrect Dimitri, and Estrid kills him to protect the baby. She is later convinced by Ingrid and Edelgard to stand down, and not die fighting.
• The Nicknamer: Dorothea follows this like in canon, but Catherine joins her with some unflattering nicknames for Byleth and Edelgard as of To Herald the Dawn.
• Nothing Personal: When Shamir explains why she attacked Leonie this trope is invoked.
• Not Quite Dead: Catherine is left to die in the fires of Fhirdiad, yet she is saved by Shamir in To Forge and Temper. Edelgard and the rest are oblivious to this until To Herald the Dawn.
• Not What It Looks Like: In On the Merit of Saint Cichol, Edelgard mistakes the city celebration to be a disguised conspiracy. Hubert and Ferdinand get in on the theory, as they discuss whether the Crest of Cichol is a coded message.
• Nurture over Nature: Edelgard considers this regarding her father and Thales. In To Weather the Dark she hates how much of the latter has influenced her over the years.
• One-Sided Arm-Wrestling: Averted. The cast briefly has a small encounter where Catherine arm wrestles Leonie and Byleth. Rather than display this trope, Catherine realistically has the advantage.
• Patricide: In a non-villainous example, Edelgard poisons her father so he passes peacefully rather than continuing to suffer the ravages of illness. Later, Felix also invokes the trope by killing his father at Arianrhod.
• Perspective Flip: To Forge and Temper is one for the events of Fhirdiad and the aftermath of Crimson Flower.
• Pragmatic Hero: Edelgard. Arguably more than in canon. She does many questionable things in the pursuit of her goals, including assassination and intimidation. Petra can be just as pragmatic for similar reasons, though it weighs on her.
• Professional Killer: Before Shamir joined the knights, it's revealed she was hired to assassinate the Archbishop. However, Rhea spares her life and in return orders Shamir to kill her noble client. From Rufus's dialogue, this was likely the main role she filled during her service.
• Protectorate: Rufus Blaiddyd's infant son becomes this to the Faerghan loyalists when his Major Crest miraculously "manifests", but he's this to Estrid Galatea specifically, and keeping him safe from the Empire and other enemies drives her actions throughout the story. She even prioritizes his safety over her own vows of service to Rufus, when she kills him after Rufus decides to go through with sacrificing his son to fuel Thales' resurrection of Dimitri. By the epilogue, he's also become one to Edelgard, who adopts him as her ward following the insurrection, to give him the love and happy childhood she never got.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: A major aspect of To Herald the Dawn is how Edelgard and company clash with Catherine and Shamir during their reluctant truce. It's as fraught with tension as you would expect, particularly with Byleth and Catherine. Though mostly on the latter's side.
• Transparent Closet: By the time of The Captain and Lady Merciful, Ingrid's attraction to women is noticeable to many people who are not Ingrid. Estrid especially teases her over it. Ingrid herself realizes it Midway through the story when she accepts she's fallen for Lady Merciful.
• Trial by Combat: Byleth is forced to partake in one after she mistakenly kills innocent people from Sreng, thinking they were Rufus's soldiers.
• Rank Up: At the end of "The Captain and Lady Merciful" Ingrid is appointed as Galatea's new lord to bring it in-line with Edelgard's reforms as her father is dead, her oldest brother Erik was the one who killed him and started the rebellion and her other brother Hugin was seriously maimed and will be remaining with Estrid and her family in Enbarr.
• The Reliable One: Ingrid fits this perfectly. She's unwaveringly loyal from the start, with an understated but capable presence. As of To Herald the Dawn, her role seems to be expanding, as seen in The Captain and Lady Merciful where she becomes the protagonist of her own story.
• Second Love: Catherine fills the role for Shamir. Lady Merciful becomes Ingrid's, but played with in that she is actually Ingrid's first love Mercedes in disguise.
• Secret-Keeper: At the end of "The Captain and Lady Merciful" Edelgard and Byleth make some comments implying they're aware Mercedes is alive thanks to some less than discrete inquiries Ingrid made about her adoptive father's fate, but also see no reason to make an issue of it. Byleth even notes that Faerghus appears to be full of former enemies from the war who turned out to be Not Quite Dead.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: While characters are depicted in intimate situations, it is never explicit. The implications can toe the line though.
• Single-Target Sexuality: While not written explicitly, there isn't a hint of Edelgard expressing attraction to anyone except Byleth. The same can be said about Byleth for Edelgard.
• Stepford Smiler: Mercedes is revealed to be one in The Captain and Lady Merciful even back during the Academy, believing herself guilty of abandoning Emile when she and their mother fled the Empire. This persists even after being saved by Jeritza and reuniting with them as Lady Merciful, and why she resists telling Ingrid who she really is.
• A Storm Is Coming: Happens frequently, particularly in To Weather the Dark and To Forge and Temper to coincide character growth/conflict.
• Strength Equals Worthiness: Brigid lauds strength over everything else. Petra has to demonstrate her right to rule by undertaking a grueling task where she swims around the island before climbing a cliff. Brigid Pride indeed.
• Stunned Silence: It isn't often for Edelgard to be at a loss of words here. But after a significant reveal in The Theory of Connection, she has one of these.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Discussed in To Forge and Temper when Catherine is visited by her brother. Shamir's insight on it follows this trope.

Catherine: And you don't want to go back home?

Shamir: I don't think you can ever truly go back. The home you want to return to is the one in your memory, but you can never go there. There will always be something different than you remember. A dislocation you can't quite describe.

— To Forge and Temper, Chapter 5

• Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person: Ingrid's aunt has her backstory detailed in chapter 15 of To Herald the Dawn which includes this.
• Think Nothing of It: Invoked by Catherine after she helps Lysithea fend off invaders of an empire-controlled fortress.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: A key part of Catherine's backstory is portrayed as this. Rather than obey the orders of the crown, Catherine impulsively sides with innocent Duscur citizens escaping slaughter. She kills several of her countrymen including a noble, leading to her seeking sanctuary at Garreg Mach.
  • In chapter 8 of To Herald the Dawn, Edelgard is blinded by her desire to kill Rufus. This causes her to be taken by Thales.
• Unrequited Love: Edelgard initially believes this to be her situation with Byleth. She is content to merely have her returned to them, but thankfully this trope is subverted by the end. Shamir also suffers from this with Catherine, though her situation is more severe because of her belief Catherine is in love with Rhea.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Shamir and Catherine have this in spades. A lot of it is because of various internalized issues on Catherine's behalf. Luckily, she gets over it towards the latter half of To Forge and Temper.
• Unwitting Pawn: Gunnar Galatea was this to the People's King, also known as the Bull. As a guest he convinced Gunnar to reject Edelgard's attempt yo force her reforms on him.and attempt a rebellion, only to be killed by the Bull who seizes his castle, strings Gunnar's corpse up, and takes direct control of the insurrection. In actuality, Gunnar intended to capitulate to the Empire as an attempt to atone for his mistakes, but was killed by his oldest son and would-be heir Erik, who proceeded to plunge Galatea into rebellion.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Byleth, tragically so. Shamir occasionally fits the bill.
• Warrior Prince: In this instance, it's Warrior Princess and later, Warrior Queen. Brigid's warrior culture and Petra's role within it is expanded upon both in The Theory of Connection and Beneath the Waters.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Christophe toes the line between this and The Unfettered. Catherine both recognizes and admires it. Doesn't stop her from cutting him down when he continues to pursue his plan.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • An incident is detailed in The Theory of Connection where, as a young girl, Byleth kills a boy because she doesn't understand the moral consequences of it. After becoming fully human and recalling this, she is naturally horrified by her past actions.
  • Briefly discussed between Catherine's sister and Shamir when the former is initially uncompliant. However, this is ultimately revealed to be a bluff when Shamir explicitly says she wouldn't in a later chapter.
• Wrong Genre Savy: Catherine spends the early chapters of "To Forge and Temper" believing she's in a gritty revenge tale, seeking justice for Archbishop Rhea by killing Edelgard and Byleth, and not in a slow burn romance with Shamir.
• You Killed My Father: Catherine explicitly invokes this when she corners Edelgard. However, Edelgard is impressively unrepentant even in the face of possible death.

Catherine: One of your pretty little Eagles was seen riding away from the ravine that day. Admit it, Emperor. Admit to the crime of murdering my family.

Edelgard: I didn't kill them. The carriage did.

— To Weather the Dark, Chapter 6

• Ingrid to the Bull, for being the one to kill Gunnar Galatea, in "The Captain and Lady Merciful". Of course, as her older brother Erik, Gunnar was his father too...