Fire Emblem Three Houses (Spoiler Thread)

Well I'm officially starting my series on my ideas for potential Three Houses sequels

I'm starting with my idea for a CF sequel. I've already posted about this previously back in July when I did my big post-AM post. To refresh your memory:

(And yes I will post my ideas for how to make a potential AM sequel somewhat interesting at a later point)

Back when I wrote that post I specifically restricted myself to stuff that pretty much everyone would have been able to come up with, keeping my more specific ideas for a later time like this. For example:

My idea for the avatar is someone from village in Leicester who lived under a tyrannic Lord until the empire invaded. Things have improved significantly for the village under the new management, but imperial soldiers under Thales killed several of the people close to you. You then join the empire as a spy/assassin under Hubert either to help emperor's new order or to get close enough to her to get revenge (I'm not making a game where the player works for Edelgard without giving the player the chance to kill her). A potential twist for later in the game would be for the player to discover that all your memories are actually fake and you're actually an Agarthan sleeper agent, although it seems Heroes is currently already doing something similar. When was the last time a Fire Emblem avatar had a non-complicated backstory? Kris? Mark?

As for the "lord", I'm actually going with Fleche, since she's already an established character, is still young enough after the timeskip to be the young teenage protagonist, is the only non-playable npc to survive on CF, and she already has an association with disguises and assassination through AM. She would also work with my avatar idea since she's pretty sympathetic to revenge motives. I'd imagine her main weapon type to be daggers, which you'd obviously have to bring back for this game. She could have the Crest of Macuil since it's the only Crest we don't have a playable unit for, it's confirmed that there's nobles with the Crest of Macuil in the empire, and House Bergliez is important enough that there likely should be some Crests in the family. As for her unique weapon, I think back to Kronya's dagger and how Manuela mentioned that something about it made Jeralt's wound impossible to heal. Whether you enter Zahras to take Athame from Kronya or find a similar dagger on some other Agarthan assassin I think such a concept would work pretty well for a legendary weapon for an assassin lord. I suspect this kind of magic/technology may even have been part of why Nemesis could kill the sleeping Sothis.

I already suggested Enbarr as the main hub, but once again, that was the "obvious" choice. I actually have a much cooler, but less likely, idea. The gist of it is that the attack on Shambhalla happens really early in the game (but Those Who Slither still survive throughout the empire) and then you have Shambhalla as the main hub. not only would it look cool as hell, but it would be a place that you know very little about that likely has lots of traps and hidden passages, it would be a perfect hub. You could also divide the game into three parts where the first part (that might take place simultaneously with CF) has Garreg Mach (or maybe just Abyss, to ease in the player) as the hub, the second part has you move to Enbarr, and the third and final part has you in Shambhalla.

Storywise I have several ideas. The main villains would be Thales and all those Agarthan leaders who don't get any lines in VW and SS. There might also be two new ones who've replaced Solon and Cordelia (probably Periander and Anacharsis). Due to Myson showing up next to Edelgard in AM I imagine him to be the one who interacts the most with Edelgard before the all-out-war breaks out, and he might even switch sides to her. I imagine Chilon being Thales' second in command due to his position in Shambhalla, and either Chilon or Myson would probably be the one to take over if Thales died partway through the story.

Another more sympathetic villain organization could be the Shadowed Order of the Knights of Seiros, who are menitoned in Abyss texts but are completely absent from the main story of Three Houses. They could be your main enemy before the church is defeated and still hang around after Rhea is gone. I'd emphasize that despite their job they're still knights, with chivalry and rules against killing innocents. They might even become allies eventually if you're trying for the Edelgard assassination ending. Another villain faciton could be rebelling nobles who want their old privileges back, which would finally give the player an opportunity to kill Count Varley and Viscount Kleiman.

As for Edelgard herself, I see a lot of potential for character development for her. If CF was about her achieving the power to enact her ideal world, this would be her trying to learn what an "ideal" world actually is and how it could be achieved in practice. You could have a divergent path thing where she becomes less or more evil depending on whether the player tries to help her or tries to kill her (partly to prevent either route from being a "bad" one). You'd also have to tie in Anselma/Patricia somehow, and have Edelgard meet her. Another story thread that was dropped by CF but I would like to see picked up is from the end of Linhardt's Paralogue when he tells Byleth that "When the time is right, can you fill in Edelgard about what happened?", which suggests that he believes Edelgard will change her views about the Nabateans in time. The writers seem to have tried for something like that during Edelgard's talk with Byleth before the final chapter, but I don't think it was executed properly. I think this could be picked up in a chapter where Edelgard makes a mention of how she's started to question her beliefs about the Children of the Goddess due to Byleth's (and likely also Seteth and Flayn's) actions, and Linhardt suggests that she seeks out Indech. This could then lead into a mission where you defend Indech from Agarthan assassins, and afterwards Edelgard could finally learn about Fodlan's history from a source other than her father who isn't Seiros or Thales.

Finally, since it's mentioned that House Vestra doesn't just deal with espionage and assassinations but also "ceremonies and rituals", I want an entire month all about planning a party, probably a victory celebration or something. Then you'd have to protect the party from a bunch of party poopers sent by the Church or the Agarthans or someone.

Oh by the way, I absolutely had to share this artwork from Reddit. These two are pretty good, too.

Saw that first one earlier and it’s glorious.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Sep 19th 2020 at 5:41:20 AM

Wow, there's a lot I missed.

No she can't and it isn't. The Imperial nobles who supposedly have the Crest of Macuil actually bear the Crest of Noa, and keep this a secret. Macuil never passed on his Crest to a human because he hates humans.

Just going to throw this out there: It's a bad idea to make an entire new game a sequel to Crimson Flower. Edelgard is the antagonist on three of the four routes, and making the sequel follow on from the one route where she's an ally implies that she was right all along and her route is the correct one, since her endings say that, thanks to lots of hard work, everything was sunshine and rainbows forever after. That's going to annoy a lot of people. It would annoy me if it happened.

That out of the way, this is just spitballing, so let's go with it. Here's another idea for you. The Empire has an Inquisition to root out rebels, dissidents, and Church loyalists; Hubert would be the natural choice to lead. At some point, you go on a mission to protect a town in eastern Leicester from an Almyran raid, but it turns out the townsfolk asked the Almyrans to come to protect them from the Inquisition. The Almyrans, much like the Mongols and the Zoroastrian Iranians, permit all forms of religious belief. This might even lead to Claude reappearing, still feeling a duty to protect the people of Leicester.

I must say, if Three Houses came out earlier, I probably would have sided with Claude over Edelgard.

But Edelgard came just at the right time for me. In most games and media I consume, there's always this well-intentioned villain who has such sympathetic goals and plans or so the plot wants me to think, off the top of my head, I can think of the Batman Tell Tale series, FF XIV and XII, among others.

So honestly, maybe because I got tired of constantly fighting the whole well-intentioned villains that have such a good motive but we can't support their actions that I decided to become one just to see if it felt satisfying.

And satisfying it was. I mean shit, i've played so many games that teased we were going to play a darker protagonist like Lords of Shadow 2, MGSV and EA Battlefront 2 and got the rug pulled out from under me, that I can thank KT and IS for actually having balls and letting us join Edelgard and keeping her morally ambiguous through her route.

Conquest's writing couldn't handle playing as the aggressor in war and ruined it with a stupid slime Garon twist, at least we see Crimson Flowers to it's bloody end. They actually had the balls to have Edelgard potentially execute Dimitri in cold blood. That's what makes CF so powerful to me, destroy your heart and morals to see your ambitions through is an interesting idea to me.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Sep 20th 2020 at 8:26:27 AM

Also I would love if they would go into more detail why Almyra attacked Fódlan in the first place?

My guess is that the Almyrans wanted to first find new resources and expand land, but then they meet Fódlan and attack and even sacked stuff and suffered a defeat thanks through the effort of the Alliance and the Empire. However they didn't fled or were truly beaten, but they veiwed the Campaign as too costly and Fódlan not rich enough for their liking and simply ceased to attack Fódlan with an real attack force.The battles we see in the story are simply raiding attacks and no true invasion force, because they don't consider Fódlan worth the hassle, which ties to their idea of the people of Fódlan being weak, as they do not fight against the true Almyrans and are just hiding inside their little Continent.

That is more interesting than the alternative, that being that Almyra is a savage country with weaklings.

Conquest is as well written as Rhea in CF.

Edited by Tropetalker on Sep 20th 2020 at 7:04:28 PM

Claude says they just like fighting.

That's all we need to know. Cyril also has this view.

Like part of his plan to convince Almyra to work with Fodlan is how great a fighting ally they can be.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Sep 20th 2020 at 8:50:24 AM

I felt like absolute garbage after playing CF, but I blame my inability to handle villain campaigns on the way I was introduced to the RPG genre originally.

What do you think a prequel set in Almyra could be like? Not necessarily a distant one, just sometime before Claude came to Fodlan?

Really?

My idea would be something similar with FE 4 in which the games does take place earlier than 3H and there are Connections bto Fódlan, but also Characters with their own Creation myths and even Gods in Almyra and our Lord would be a Flying Archer or an gifted Mage, who has to stop an takeover from a group of Mages worshipping a Dark God or even a group of Spirits or Jinn trying to invade Almyra.

Edited by Tropetalker on Sep 20th 2020 at 2:55:43 PM

Well, blame it on how VW doesn't have time to incorporated the Almyrans as much as they could, it's already a repainted SS. But I do agree that I think not all Almyrans are raiders. They must have great cooks.

Out of curiosity, what game was that.

I think the earliest JRPG that let me play as the villain is Live a Live.

Well it's still sufficient enough, but it could be better like showing us how actually advanced Almyra is.

Also Live a Live has an awesome Villian, poor guy.

Indeed, Odio is a shining example of how to turn the player against characters you supported through the entire game.

Edelgard is close IMO.

And on Almyra, how advanced do you think they are?

Also I'm imagining how the writers of Conquest would handle CF as a whole.

They'd make a plot twist that Ionius is actually an Agarthan probably. XD.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Sep 20th 2020 at 9:00:20 AM

Seriously when I saw the ending of that Chapter with Odio's reveal, I repeatedly shouted, until the End of the Credits:"Oh my god, oh my god oh my god"

Well assuming Cyril is an unreliable Narrator, they will have much better riding technology than Fódlan and if Claude is truly based on Persia, I think they would be around the same level as Fódlan and maybe in some aspects better. Seriously they could have pulled an plot twist with Almyra on the same level as Odio's rise to power, had they actually made them just as Advanced as Fódlan, but also in some aspects better like Magic, Medicine and even a City that rivals Enbharr.

They would just make Arundel the true ruler of the Empire and Actually have him be the final boss. They would make Edelgard actually say that she should have never started that War, just like Xander. Really, they would have failed, writing complex Villians is hard.

Edited by Tropetalker on Sep 20th 2020 at 7:24:31 PM

It would be interesting if Claude's route revealed that the rest of the world is far more advanced. Would actually make Rhea forcing medieval stasis relevant and not a show don't tell.

I shudder to think of a Edelgard and Rhea as written by Fates writers. Like they are the same writers who had all the male royals have the sacred weapons, and had Azura give her right to the throne to Corrin for SOME REASON.

I can actually see them writing Edelgard as giving up her throne to Byleth. And taking a job as their advisor.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Sep 20th 2020 at 9:13:26 AM

I would keep the People of Brigid and Svreng as they are and develop the Svreng more in BL(I have a lot of ideas as how to improve WC for every house). Dagda would also have less Magic, so they rely more on technology than Adrestia and have a better Navy and overall be on a similar level to Fódlan. Almyra would also be highly advanced and their Capital rivals Enbharr and explain why there are so many raids on Fódlan, namely that the region that borders Fódlan is led by corrupt leaders and often have many bandits and raiding parties attack Fódlan. Also I would have an Chapter with Khalid facing Walid( this is the name I gave one of Khalid's brothers) on a plain near an ancient ruin(which is also important btw) and have him instead of only Bow Knights and Wyvern lords have an huge variety of anti-fliers, anti-calvary, heavy units, Powerful mages and healers and even more exotic weaponry like Elephants and Magic Canons and a Sacred weapon for Walid.

Well Corrin IS the child of the Sister of the Queen of Nohr and he is the child of the God of Valla and his subjects will accept him/her...IF HE OR SHE HAD ANY!!!

Edited by Tropetalker on Sep 20th 2020 at 5:21:34 PM

Thank you for pointing out the biggest problem with Rev's ending.

EVERYONE IN VALLA IS DEAD THANKS TO THE CRAZY DRAGON RULING IT.

Long live Corrin, the king of nothing.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Sep 20th 2020 at 9:48:10 AM

Well there are other problems I really don't need to mention, because they are obvious like how the story promotes domestic abuse(Conquest).

Back to my idea for Almyra?

Sure go ahead. World building is fun.

What other kinds of unique unit classes would the Almyrans have?

Claude had to "cheat" with his story promotions by getting a version of Wyvern Rider proficient in bows instead of axes/lances (while El just swaps the Armored Knight's lance proficiency for authority, and Dimitri straight up upgrades from Lord).

Edited by YnK on Sep 20th 2020 at 7:04:17 AM

Well I have some classes in Mind:

Dervish: Magic unit with an proficiency in Faith and Authority unit with the ability to dance and they generally have much higher speed and luck growths than Bishops. They also get Whirling dance, which increases the Ally's STR/MAG/RES/ by +4. Mastery skill is ascetic and it makes them immune to debuffs.

Horse Archers: Similar to the bow Knight, but with more focus on Bows and higher speed and Dex growth. They also have almost the same skills as the bow Knight, but they have canto+, which gives them extra 2 movements after their move, so they can move more. the unique combat art "Hit and Run" Combat art with 1-3 range and it gives them 50% of their movement back by canto.

Finally there is the Elite-warriors,who are basically the Sentinels from FE 10 plus Axe and Armour proficiency, but also have proficiency in Armour, basically a more speedy Fortress Knight. Mastery skill is guard and shares damage with adjacent units like in FE 10.

I'm going to have some fun and ape what Dragonfire did and think of what classes from XIV the cast of Three Houses would be.

Edelgard: Warrior, but uses Magitek like the Garlean legates, uses a Gun Axe with a rocket at the back. May branch out to Machinist or Black Mage. Come to think of it, she would totally be the type to give out guns and magitek to people to piss off the Church and traditions. The latter of which is basically the Machinist storyline.

Hubert: Black Mage, but even he wouldn't stoop to human sacrifices or Voidsent deals. Also Garlean inspired.

Dorothea: Dancer. I imagine she would excel at the raising spirits of war torn nations part of the job.

Bernadetta: For shits and giggles, a bard. Good at supporting her allies so they can sooner stay away from her. Or maybe even an Astrologian just so she can avoid people by predicting the future. Or hell, why not a Dark Knight just to scare people away and channel her fury? YES DARK KNIGHT.

Linhardt: Scholar, and his fairy is Mirabilis.

Ferdinand Von Aegir: Gunbreaker. But uses the Garlean Gunblades to show up Edelgard.

Capar: Warrior. And mostly in beast mode.

Petra: Summoner, since Brigid has quite a lot of spirits. But then again, she has a problem with Reason and that involves books. Oh well.

Dimitri: Starts out as a Paladin, then Dark Knight, then once he gets better, Gunbreaker since he's more focused on protecting people and he does remind me a bit of Squall.

Felix: I would like to say Samurai, but something tells me he would be a Gunbreaker instead, since the type of Gunblades allow him to deal damage and protect his comrades. Plus he would totally geek out with them in private.

Mercedes: White Mage. She would be very devoted to the Elementals no matter how insane they are.

Annette: Bard. Imagine her songs buffing people up. HA!

Dedue: Warrior. It would give him a nice outlet to channel his rage to protect Dimitri.

Ashe: Bard. He does love stories after all.

Ingrid: Paladin, no other way.

Sylvain: Red Mage, since it would help him get ladies.

Claude: I would want to say bard, but I'm feeling a post reformed Ishgard Dragoon. Part of the Dragoon storyline is that the PC is so effective is because they combine the Dragoon fighting style with other forms and use it against things that aren't just dragons. Which is such a Claude move.

Still thinking classes for the rest.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Sep 20th 2020 at 11:44:29 AM

Doesn't Constance mentione that House Nuvelle created the illusion of the Crest of Macuil with the help of imperial nobles who actually had the Crest?

The reason why I'm so interested in a CF sequel specifically is because of how it ends on a less perfect sunshine and rainbows notethna the other routes. Instead of "and then Dimitri/Byleth became the best ruler ever" there's actual conflict and interesting scenarios. VW has some conflict too, but it's less interesting because it's just the original conflict recycled but with Edelgard and Thales gone so what is even the point.

By the way, is it correct that you have to unlock Rhea's B Support before the end of Chapter 9? What's the limit for her B Support? Can you do it during Chapter 11 or must it be before the Holy Tomb scene?

Rhea's C and B ranks have to be unlocked before Jeralt's death, probably because she mentions him in those conversations. Her A only unlocks after that, and is available until the end of Part I (unless you're on CF, in which case it must be unlocked before the Holy Tomb, but why would you need her supports on CF?).

If Dimitri or Claude do the happily ever after, no one questions it despite them also having flaws in their governments.

But if Edelgard does the happily ever after then people lose their minds XD.

Besides one troper here was saying that a sequel should star Claude and thus invalidate CF despite Claude being able to survive that route.

I see a double standard here.