tulip : how does your muse view people in general ?
so this is going to be long and full of headcanons! spoilers for rheas whole thing and the kusakihara's 10000.... year history crumbs for any who care
Okay so pretty obviously people come in two types to Rhea 1. Humans and 2. Nabateans
Humans first
For context, I tend to assume Rhea was born around the midpoint of humanity/agartha’s war against Sothis.
General timeline would be Sothis decides to have one (1) more mitosis baby > She puts the Torment in the Valley of Torment > Eventually humanity exhausts its nukes/agarthans retreat and Sothis gives up the last of her strength to heal Fódlan’s land
Strictly speaking we don’t know what Fódlan’s technology was like post Sothis going to sleep but I think we can assume it is about where 3H proper is just based on the particular technologies Rhea bans (no oil or electricity for u). I think that speaks volumes to how little Rhea trusts humanity and how foolish a collective she thinks them.
But then there’s Wilhelm.
“He saved me. Supported me. Gave his all to the cause of defeating Nemesis.”
Even after all these years Rhea still speaks of him like she owes him a debt. Fitting, since she would have met Wilhelm shortly after seeing the entirety of Zanado slaughtered by humans (sans nukes this time!) – and it was only with his help she was able to reclaim her mother’s bones.
(I think this was probably the most hopeful time for her: she would never have predicted that once her enemies were defeated the goddess simply wouldn’t return.)
And he’s certainly not the last in a line of humans she continues to trust. There’s Jeralt who would have basically been her son-in-law had Sitri survived, and Catherine who’s the sole person she relies on in the Crimson Flower route.
Two out of three of those humans first encounter Rhea-as-Rhea when she plays nursemaid to them. That, and the fact, in every route besides CF Rhea is willing to sacrifice herself just to prevent Garreg Mach from becoming another Zanado makes me think while Rhea certainly doesn’t entirely trust humans, she’s never been able to entirely hate them either.
Part of her putting her life on the line is absolutely because she thinks it’s what Sothis would do in her place, duty rather than sentiment. Largely she does sees the humans of Fodlan as her flock but the little details we get about her relationships with Jeralt and Catherine, and the simple fact she admits being archbishop is lonely in her teatime talk, makes it pretty clear that as foolish and ignorant as she thinks humans are she also cannot help but want to find companionship in them.
Rhea’s a fool too, after all.
And lonely! More on that in the next bit.
Nabateans
So the only surviving family members we know Rhea has are:
-Indech (currently chilling in a lake #respect)
-Macuil (got the hell out of Fódlan and became an angry desert hermit)
-Flayn (up until the last decade has been in dragon cryostasis)
and Seteth.
(The four apostles were also probably nabateans/their descendants based on Yuri’s backstory. Important to point out that Aubin would have been wandering Fódlan for some time before coming to save little kid Yuri and then peacefully dying.)
What do they all sans Seteth/Flayn duo have in common?
Oh, right. They all left her!
I imagine since Rhea is on her twelfth attempt to make a Sothis soul jar just twenty years prior to the game that this has been going on for… awhile. We know the apostles were involved in the founding of Garreg Mach, and I would assume the same of at least Indech if not Macuil. But bit by bit the years wore on them as did Rhea’s stubbornness and they went to go make the best of their long lives.
I think it’s important to note Seteth’s profile mentions he’s only come back to Garreg Mach recently ( I just double checked and it's legit the year after Jeralt sets a fire. Seteth is just the community pizza man gif.).** From a writing standpoint this is done to explain how and when Flayn awoke, and to give Seteth a reason for having no idea what or who Byleth is in the game proper until Rhea outright tells him.
But like. That’s the thirteenth vessel Rhea’s (albeit unintentionally) made. You really think that Seteth never knew about any of the others? I doubt it. He clearly disagrees with Rhea’s fixation on Sothis but continues to support her all the same.
Family means a lot to the both of them. Rhea especially.
I think she resents Seteth’s brothers for leaving, but I do think she’d welcome them back all the same, as for Seteth and Flayn: she may not say it but they mean more to her than anyone else, particularly in Seteth’s case because he always came back.
explains inoues banger performance here
**ok fire was 1159. Seteth comes back 1162. I still think Seteth pizza guy is funny and also a tldr of his relationship w rhea
