this gets a bit lengthy, so here’s a sparknotes version! stuff i go into detail for is italicized and under the cut!
i am assuming askr, embla, nifl, and muspell are in the same realm: zenith. askr and embla are on one continent, while nifl and muspell are across the sea on another. they can travel back and forth via gates.
gunnthra is the oldest niflese royal sibling. hrid is always 3 years younger, and i default him to 24.
despite gunnthra being older, hrid has always been the crown prince-- as gunnthra’s power over dreams is greater than his, she was instead named the next oracle of dreams.
nifl’s peace and prosperity comes from the oracle and monarch working together-- the oracle’s prophetic visions and communications via dreams play a huge role in the running of nifl, but as a result they became so peaceful their army was too weak to put up a fight against surtr once war was inevitable. while concerned about ruling without gunnthra’s prophecies and aid, hrid wants to place less reliance on the oracle from his rule forward, as he... well, no longer has an oracle to work with. their over-reliance on future vision is what brought ruin to nifl, so he wants to be able to thrive without it.
the loss of nifl’s oracle has negative consequences for zenith as a whole, not just nifl.
the main exports from nifl are metalworks, minerals, furs/wools, and clothing made from said wool and fur. their cloaks especially are highly prized.
hrid’s presence in the order of heroes is a case of gameplay and story segregation. as a native of zenith, a contract from this world will not work on him. after book ii, hrid was crowned king of nifl and worked to stabilize his country with his council. once satisfied, he expressed a desire to repay his debt to askr and left day-to-day matters in the hands of the council. he will arrive back in askr to pledge his aid a few weeks or months before the start of book iii. he is still in correspondence with them at least weekly, and will return home if something requires his physical presence to deal with.
he has three (four, really) motivations for returning to askr:
repaying his debt to askr and the order of heroes for their help in the muspell conflict
forming a formal alliance and friendly relationship between the kingdoms of askr and nifl
growing stronger, so that he has the strength to protect his kingdom from further harm; he does not want to fail his people and family again
(spending as much time with fjorm as he can before she dies too)
his horse’s name is gylfi, from snorri sturluson’s gylfaginning. this is one of the only two times in norse mythology that niflheim is mentioned as a distinct realm, and not part of helheim.
alright, time for a few more details!
heroes tends to contradict itself when it comes to the ages of the eldest niflese royal siblings. fjorm states the following in book ii’s chapter 9-5:
“This is my sister, Ylgr. She's the youngest of the four of us. Gunnthrá, our brother Hríd, me, and then Ylgr. When Surtr's forces invaded Nifl, we were scattered... I had no idea if any of them were alive or dead. But you're here, Ylgr... Safe!”
this implies that gunnthra is oldest, followed by hrid, fjorm, then ylgr. meanwhile, gunnthra’s entry in meet the heroes, implied to be written in-character by sharena, states the following:
“The first prince of Nifl and Gunnthrá’s older brother. He has a cool disposition, and is always watchful for danger.”
i am going to be following fjorm’s implication for this portrayal-- hrid is younger than gunnthra! precisely, by three years. by default, hrid is 24 years old. i am willing to switch his age around as needed, but he is always three years younger than gunnthra.
while hrid is indeed younger, he is still the crown prince of nifl. this is not because he is the firstborn son, but because of gunnthra’s power over dreams. ever since its formation, the niflese royal family has harboured a special connection with their kingdom’s namesake. the blood of the ice dragon that runs through their veins gives the royal family the following abilities:
communicating with others through dreams
having prophetic visions of the future
the ability to perform the rite of dreams*
the ability to enter ljósálfheimr and dökkálfheimr at will in their dreams and bend it to their will, even without the pure heart of a child.
the ability to glimpse into hel, and show pleasant dreams to the lost souls of the dead to keep them from being used as rokkr.* ( thank you pearl!! )
remembering said dreams in great detail*
*only those with the true power of dreams, like gunnthra, can perform these feats.
gunnthra’s power over dreams is far stronger than hrid’s, fjorm’s, or ylgr’s. as she has the true power, it is her role in the niflese royal family to become the next oracle of dreams. this role was previously held by the siblings’ maternal uncle, who was due to officially pass it to gunnthra before surtr’s invasion.
usually it is the eldest child, regardless of gender, who inherits the niflese throne, while the one with the stronger power becomes the oracle. you can’t be both oracle and monarch; the idea is that the siblings will work as a team to ensure nifl’s continued peace and prosperity. once hrid was born and it was apparent gunnthra’s power was indeed greater than his, the roles were named appropriately.
the summonable gunnthra is from another world, so her dreams are tied to that world specifically. she can’t exactly predict how things will go in our zenith. ( you know, to keep our gunnthra’s death relevant. )
so yeah, gunnthra dying was actually pretty bad for all of zenith, all things considered: nifl lost their oracle. with no one to keep an eye on helheim, no one knew of hel’s true intentions and incoming invasion... and there isn’t anyone intimately familiar with the dream world beyond its native light elves to help out with the plot of book 4 anymore. so good going, surtr.
So Constance’s mental health is clearly rather delicate when she’s in the sun, and it’s quite a complicated matter.
It isn’t simply that the sun triggers some kind of personality switch, she suffers from two completely separate issues that unfortunately, make life difficult for Constance when afflicted by both.
Something she’s always suffered from is photo-sensitivity: it was mistaken as Constance being fussy, and a little too quick to burn as a child, but the sun’s rays can actually be painful to her, and leave her with awful rashes. With the amount of time she spends outdoors, it’s usually just redness and soreness that she suffers from, but she is at risk of swelling and blisters as well.
Whilst not a symptom of this condition, her eyes have also become sensitive. To minimise irritation, as well as her mood shifts, Constance avoids going outside when possible which means she’s not used to sunlight, causing her to squint and get uncomfortable at far lower intensities than most would. She can also get dizzy, but thankfully she can focus in battle just enough to plough through that. Her pegasus, Augustine, is also very used to its rider’s needs and can help compensate. Naturally, her avoidance of the sun means Constance is at high risk of illnesses connected to vitamin D deficiency.
Such a condition can improve with age, but it will take a while. In the meantime, it has no directly psychological symptoms, but still plays a heavy toll in that regard.
The trauma of the events surrounding the fall of House Nuvelle eventually led to Constance developing bipolar disorder. Constance has always been eccentric, but now she has periods where she is extremely productive, but it is to a point where she may even forget to eat or sleep. Her creativity flourishes, and she is full of energy and ideas that can assist in achieving her ambitions. However, this pent up energy also makes her easily distracted, and irritable.
As some of these traits match up to how Constance is naturally, to an outsider it may appear that she is simply in a good mood. Even when she isn’t having a manic period, Constance purposely hides any negative feelings by overcompensating. Close friends will be more able to tell the difference, but her flitting from project to project is a big give away.
Her depressive episodes are essentially what we see when she is out in the sun. Constance is lethargic, self-depreciating and rattled with guilt. She is plagued with thoughts of the day Brigid and Dagda invaded, and the terror that comes with them. Tremendous guilt and shame from remembering how she was forced to degrade herself and beg for her life as those around her were being killed overwhelms her, exaggerated by her mental illness.
Some of these feelings occur indoors, but Constance finds it much easier to hide them. The reason it’s so obvious is the photosensitivity: it’s much more difficult to keep up the facade when already suffering from the sun’s rays.
There is one particularly odd thing about Constance’s mood swings, however: usually manic or depression episodes associates with bipolar disorder last weeks or even months, whereas here they’re clearly more rapid. It is the only contradiction of the diagnosis, but it is a major one.
Her crest is a complicated matter. Being a major one, its effects are felt strongly by the bearer, and near constantly. The crest of Noa charges magical energy throughout the body, with it coming a rush of dopamine and cortisol that can leave the bearer feeling on top of the world.
This overdose of energy means that the bearer can exert themselves further before being too exhausted to continue with their spells. Muscle ache and fatigue, and the build of lactic acid aren’t prevented, but magic is not affected by any of these. When the crest activates in battle, the rush soon dissipates once shot into a spell.
It can overload a person if that energy stays stored in the body, but usually that isn’t a problem for Constance as she’s constantly experimenting with her magic in her free time. Usually, any excess just shows itself as giddiness.
That energy can only stay at such high levels for so long, however. When Constance crashes, so does her crest. The dopamine rush his highest at activation, but the effects of the crest are always there to some extent, as an undercurrent. That ‘current’ as such is disrupted when Constance’s system is suddenly shaken, which is why her photosensitivity triggers her mood swings. All those happy hormones suddenly go away when something is wrong with her, and the sudden loss brings on a depression episode. She will always come off a high eventually, but usually it’s when she goes to sleep or is otherwise resting. But such is gradual, and less harmful. The sun leaves no time for that.
Her crest does activate when outdoors, but as the energy is instantly put into a spell if she’s on the battlefield, it does little to improve her mood. In fact, that quick buzz that’s soon taken away just adds to the crash. Essentially, she’s in survival mode; all of her crest’s energy needs to go towards magic should she need to protect herself, rather than keeping her happy. If her crest activates when she’s simply experimenting away from the sun, she often feels somewhat tired afterwards.
She’s mostly fine when she comes back inside due to the sun no longer being a factor, and her crest starts working as normal, bringing her back to a point of neutrality or even a manic episode. With the former she is often shaky for a while, but disguises it well.
So to reiterate: her crest does not cause her mental illness. They are tied simply in that her crest causes the shift in episodes to be rapid, rather than the slow process they are in a typical person with bipolar disorder, and her sensitivity to the sun triggers the dopamine crash side effect of her crest.
i meant to do this like two weeks ago but better late than never, right?
uhhhh trigger warning for death mentions, i guess?
in general, almyra is pretty death-positive. while it’s always sad when someone you love dies, the people tend to just accept it as the natural order of things. of course this is mostly referring to natural deaths-- for every person that is born, another will someday die. it’s just the circle of life, and not something to fear or bemoan. murders, suicides, passing away due to illnesses, child death... those are all treated as the tragedies they are due to the unnatural ending of a life. meanwhile, dying on the battlefield and dying in childbirth are seen as very honourable ways to go, especially if the soldier died in an act of protection or the mother gave her life for the child.
when an elderly (or at least dying ) person is on their deathbed, it is common in religious families for a priest or religious figure to visit the family and perform their last rites. they will confess to any lingering sins and pray alongside the priest in a ritual cleansing of their soul so that they might pass on in peace. while non-religious families may opt to skip this, there are some individuals who want the visit anyways. even if they are not religious, the visit and confession still will at least bring them peace in their final days. they’ll be able to die without regrets, as they’ll have talked about them.
typically, children who have passed away before their coming of age ceremony are believed to always go on to a good place after death-- they are considered innocent, pure, and still learning the ways of the world, and thus will not be punished for any misbehaviour.
when the individual passes away and the corpse is discovered, no one is allowed into the room except for the individual who has discovered the body and those designated to deal with it. this is because a corpse is considered unclean and it is important to prevent contamination. the less people in the room, the less chance of contamination. funerary preparations begin as soon as the body is found; the body, its handlers, and the room are ritually cleansed as soon as possible, making the former safe to touch for a matter of hours. however, only those who have been designated to handle the body should be touching it. ( and even then, they will avoid direct contact where possible. ) if accidental contact has been made with the body when you really shouldn’t have been touching it, you must undergo ritual cleansing. anything the body touched will also be cleansed and possibly disposed of.
a candle or lamp is lit in the room after it has been ritually cleansed, to be kept burning while the ceremonies are underway. after being prepared for the funeral the body is transported to a community funerary hall, or the room in which the funeral will take place is prepared and ritually cleansed. funerary halls are common; there is at least one in every village. big cities will tend to have more, all within easy access for the residents. in the case of wealthy people, they may have their own private wing or small building; the royal family has a separate building on the castle grounds for funerary rites. another candle or lamp is kept burning by the body when it arrives and is set up for the funeral, incense being added to it periodically.
if a body was never found belongings with a lot of meaning to the deceased are put on display alongside a painting, if one is owned.
funeral goers will typically wear white, and the funeral itself is a celebration of the recently deceased’s life. there is a small feast, usually comprised of the deceased’s favourite things to eat, and the ceremony and reception are seen as wishing them well on their way to the afterlife; a proper sendoff rather than standing around crying. in the case of unnatural & child deaths, the proceedings are a little more somber and restrained than they would be otherwise-- but still a celebration nonetheless. much like the coming of age ceremony, it is absolutely forbidden to get drunk at a funeral. it’s tacky and gross, why would you.......
if the funeral is taking place at the deceased’s home, the guests will bring the food with them; it is a custom that no food must be prepared in a house where a death has taken place for at least three days. if the funeral takes place at home, it’s four days to account for the extended time the body was present.
after the funeral, the body is wrapped up in a white cloth and transported to the burial site. whether or not there is a procession is up to the family, but if there is, there will always be an even number of participants.
there are three common types of burials in almyra: sky burial, cremation, and ground burials.
sky burials are the most traditional, and especially common in deserts and mountainous regions. the body is placed atop a high tower for wyverns or vultures to eat; the deceased contributing to the circle of life one final time. this takes a few hours, and the bones are properly disposed of after they have been picked clean. the sites are kept far away from civilizations -- again, to prevent contamination and disease -- and are held to incredibly high cleanliness standards and regulations and both the sites and the staff must go thorough many ritual (and literal) cleansings. the teams who handle sky burials are given a lot of respect; they are seen as the final shepherds of the dead. they’re also paid incredibly well for adhering to such strict standards-- and for all the respect it garners, it is a sort of morbid job. as traditional as they are, in times of plague sky burials are prohibited.
if you don’t live near a sky burial site or you can’t have it done for whatever reason, cremation will be the most common substitution. though banned for some time in the past, given that fire is considered sacred in the almyran religion and must not be tainted by the contamination and decay of a dead body, some hundred years back this policy was revised. in addition to getting around not having sky burial sites everywhere, not every citizen of almyra is religious, and the nation has a history of conquest; not everyone practices the almyran religion, and the royal family does not enforce it. those who are religious and opt for cremation will put the body through several cleansing and purification rituals before allowing the flames to touch it.
ground burial is the other most common option, though this is generally the least common of the three. as a corpse is consided unclean and contaminated, most people do not want to contaminate the earth by placing one inside it. to get around this, burial sites will typically be protected by placing slabs of stone or concrete in the graves.
of course, as long as the environment is not contaminated, people are free to dispose of their dead in the way they believe is the most respectful. the one constant, religious burial or no, is that embalming is absolutely forbidden as it is believed to be bad for the environment and wildlife. (...and it is.)
after the funerary rites and burial are completed, no one is to enter the room in which the body was found for at least a week. ( once again to, you guessed it, prevent contamination. ) a candle or lamp is lit in another room of the house and is kept burning for a minimum of 3 days; perhaps longer depending on the season and circumstances of the death. this never exceeds a month, however. as mentioned before, no food is prepared in the house of the recently deceased for the three days it takes the soul to pass on to the afterlife. once it is “safe” to enter the closed off room, it is thoroughly literally and ritually cleansed one more time. any personal effects that were used in the funeral are thoroughly cleansed as well.
one month, six months, and year after death there will be a small, private ceremony in the deceased’s family to remember the dead as well as honour their ancestors. at minimum, assuming no one has recently died, this always takes place twice a year. remembering and honouring the dead is very important to the almyrans.
the royal family in particular keeps a collection of personal items belonging to past rulers and members of the family. often, kings will leave journals behind for their descendants to peruse in hopes that their accumulated knowledge will help them govern the kingdom.
pls note this absolute unit hc is based off discussions with @reztactics, so if the idea of posthumous canon character/oc based around a character who very definitely exists and is alive but we don’t see them bothers you, please replace said canon characters with just generic faerghus noblemen. this got lengthy so uh... under the cut it goes!
helena von riegan... godfrey von riegan’s younger sister by two years. while godfrey inherited the major crest of riegan, helena didn’t inherit a crest at all.
sovereign duke edgar von riegan saw an opportunity-- with godfrey secure as his heir, he could use his daughter to gain even more influence and power for house riegan by marrying her off to a family who lacked a crest of their own.
while not nearly as bad as bernadetta’s parents, edgar primarily raised his daughter with the intent of selling her as a product: the perfect bride, complete with a crest for any children she produces to inherit. she was taught to be seen and not heard, to be gentle and demure and ladylike, to attend to her lord husband’s every need with nary a complaint-- while godfrey learned archery, she learned to dance. when he would sit in on roundtable conferences to observe their workings, helena was made to embroider or play music. ( she enjoyed the music, to an extent. )
this fragile porcelain doll was not helena von riegan in the slightest. she was a sweet girl, friendly to all she met... but loud. rambunctious. wild. opinionated and unafraid to show it. she wished to learn to fight alongside her brother and support him when he became sovereign duke, and argued with their father often over being sold off like a pretty little trinket. godfrey would often step in to mediate and shield his little sister from their father’s anger, but there was only so much he could do-- especially with his time to study at garreg mach monastery fast approaching. ( he would be made leader of that year’s golden deer house. )
this led to an idea on godfrey’s part: framing it carefully, he presented the idea of helena accompanying him to garreg mach to ‘learn’ to be a proper lady from her peers. perhaps if she could find a suitable match at the monastery she could get along with, she would settle down. edgar considered it for a long while, but agreed. he sent a sizable donation to the church with a letter requesting his daughter be taught alongside everyone else, but not to allow her to join in on the class missions. while it at least got helena away from their father, godfrey lamented the circumstances in which she was being limited. while he truly wished to rectify house riegan’s failings and give his sister the freedom she deserved, there was little he could do with their father in the way.
where godfrey lamented, helena bloomed. she made friends with judith von daphnel while godfrey grew close with prince lambert egitte blaiddyd and rodrigue achille fraldarius of the blue lions... and presumably the leader of the black eagles, but i dunno who led the class. a prominent noble at the time, most likely. when she learned she wasn’t allowed to join her class on missions for practical battle experience, she took to training with judith anyways and bothering her brothers’ friends to help her too. determined to keep pace with her classmates, even with so few experiences to partake in a real fight, helena trained on. she noted she had particular skill with a sword and chased that skill, honing it whilst her brother focused on archery-- he would inherit failnaught someday, after all.
she soon found herself developing a very big crush on lambert. they took to training together, one on one, frequently. sparring sessions grew intense, and helena promised herself that the day she could best him in a practice match would be the day she confessed her feelings to lambert. the day came, she won, and the two became a couple. godfrey expressed concern-- a man as obsessed with his image as their father would explode at the thought of a daughter of riegan consorting with the blaiddyds, given their house spearheaded the crescent moon war and won leicester’s independence. helena boldly declared she didn’t care. godfrey agreed to keep the relationship from their father, dearly wanting his sister to know some measure of happiness.
unfortunately for helena, word got out nonetheless. an opportunistic noble of the golden deer house had set his sights on marrying her and earning his family that crest. determined to curry favour with edgar, he wrote to the sovereign duke shortly after the ball, detailing how helena had arrived on lambert’s arm, wearing kingdom colours ( her dress was blue ) and dancing the night away with the prince-- and that the duo had disappeared from the ballroom not long after. ( in truth, they had gone to the goddess tower to make a wish: knowing their relationship likely could not last, the couple wished instead to remain friends until the very end. no matter what happened. )
edgar, as godfrey feared, was furious. within a matter of days he arrived at the monastery, located the dorms, and marched on up to his daughter’s room to pull her out of school. literally. he grabbed her by the wrist to drag her to a waiting carriage, planning to have the school send back whatever personal belongings were left behind. the grounds were alive with the sound of edgar angrily berating his daughter for embarrassing him and helena’s protests, demands, and humiliated begging for her father to let her go. the scene was only stopped by the appearance of a knight of seiros ( i personally like the idea of it being jeralt, but it doesn’t have to be. ) who came to the teenager’s aid and escorted the belligerent sovereign duke off school grounds.
the incident would be another small stain on house riegan’s honour, a minor scandal talked about the lords and ladies of the alliance for days. lambert and helena ended their relationship by the end of the year, and the group of companions went their separate ways. lambert would ascend the throne and thankfully marry for love. rodrigue became known as the shield of faerghus. judith bloomed into a brilliant hero, and the von riegans returned home. godfrey resumed his preparations to become the next duke riegan. helena... was confined to the estate. while godfrey had smoothed things over a little with their father, the older man’s rage had not entirely subsided. it was difficult, but with judith’s help she managed to keep in touch with lambert all the same. the letters were sporadic, but a comfort.
and to helena’s horror, she soon found herself engaged to the very man who wrote to her father after the ball. unable to stomach the thought of marrying someone clearly only interested in sleeping with her and potentially getting the crest of riegan into their bloodline out of the deal, helena made a decision: she would run away from home, never to return. so long as godfrey was around house riegan would be set back on the proper path. there was no need to worry. no matter what happened, anything had to be better than this.
judith smuggled her out of house riegan’s estate, disguised as a simple soldier among the reinforcements edgar was sending to house goneril against the almyran forces ( holst had not yet been born or was still a toddler at best. ) from there, helena found herself engaged in battle with the almyran forces. it was exhilerating. it was freeing. it was her or them, and with the wind in curly dark hair and the clash of metal as blade met blade, she felt alive.
eventually, she would go on to cross blades with the man who would go on to be known as nader the undefeated. impressed by the woman’s battle prowess and ability to keep up with him, the almyran general couldn’t help but strike up a conversation as they fought. when helena shared her story, an idea struck her: she could escape to almyra, far beyond edgar’s reach. she could start anew in the foreign kingdom, and never have to worry about anything ever again. to her surprise, nader agreed to take her back with him.
also to her surprise, he turned out to be an almyran prince whose elder brother ascended the throne recently enough. king hasan amir shirazi was gracious, having heard an account of helena’s story from his brother, and offered her a place to stay in the castle. sparks flew between the king and the runaway, despite unease in the castle about a woman from fodlan being there, and soon bloomed into a passionate love... that would one day produce crown prince kian claude shirazi.
helena is still alive today, and judith is the sole person who knows where she escaped off to. the two exchange letters where possible, and it is because of judith that helena learned of godfrey’s death in gloucester territory. she did not want to bring her son with her back to the alliance when she returned long enough to pay respects at her brother’s grave, but claude insisted. he wanted to come and see his mother’s homeland for herself... and elected to stay behind in order to learn more about the crest system, how it worked, and his mother’s people. helena returned home to almyra. she is currently there and living with claude’s father today. they are not married, hasan sympathizing with helena’s experiences with the concept of marriage.
okay. with that absolute unit out of the way, paralogue time.
paralogue title: hear my cry.
required units: byleth, araceli.
chapter bosses: anankos, seteth (crimson flower only), lilith (crimson flower only, if not recruited), dark bishop (affiliated with twsid, verdant wind or azure moon).
availabilty: varies upon route. in crimson flower, it is ONLY available after completing chapter 14, but before the end-of-month battle of chapter 15. in verdant wind or azure moon, it is available from chapters 18 to 21.
summary: after hearing a strange voice calling out to her for days on end, araceli is fed up and chooses to follow it in hopes of making it stop. much like byleth and sothis set off on their own to zanado, she travels to the leicester alliance’s touma territory in search of the voice. the house leader and their subordinate (so edelgard/hubert, dimitri/dedue, or claude/hilda) notice the strange behaviour and enlist byleth’s help in following-- something is clearly wrong here, and they do not want to let an ally wander into danger.
venturing into a network of underground caves, araceli discovers a corrupted nabataen waiting for her: anankos. she puts two and two together, realizing this is her true father as he pleads that she bring an end to his suffering, as she’s the only one who can strike him down. unfortunately for anankos, araceli and friends aren’t his only company...
in the crimson flower route, seteth, flayn, and rhea have also heard anankos’ cries, seteth and rhea having identified the voice as belonging to their nephew. unwilling to leave a fellow nabataen alone out there (and eager to add more firepower to her army), rhea gives the order to retrieve him and bring him to fhirdiad.
in azure moon or verdant wind, those who slither in the dark decide the time is right to attempt to capture anankos once more.
upon anankos’ defeat he will regain his human form one last time and thank his daughter for bringing him peace at long last, commenting on how much she’s grown and telling her that he loves her, as well as where he hid the yato, before passing away in her arms. if lilith is present, she is part of this scene as well. araceli is devastated, but collects the yato and swears to make her true father proud.
House Vestra, like all high houses of the empire, has always been known to carry a crest, though those outside of their immediate allies don’t tend to know that it is the crest of Macuil, due to some house heads deigning to keep that detail under wraps. The less a potential enemy knows, the better.
As with most nobles, it is preferred for the heir to inherit a crest, regardless of strength. House Vestra was blessed with a child with a major crest of Macuil: Veronica von Vestra. Even better was that she was the eldest child of Barnat and Greta von Vestra, so should they have any future crested children, there would be no worries as to who would inherit the estate.
That was, until the child took ill. Her decline wasn’t sudden, but even at the age of three, a physician declared her future perilous, and made it clear there was a chance Veronica would never grow to inherit her birthright.
Her parents had already discussed the idea of giving her a younger sibling, but now there was a more practical purpose beyond simply growing a larger family: they needed a backup heir, in case Veronica’s health worsened. That backup would be born a year later, and granted the name Hubert. Only one problem...
He was born crestless.
There were no ill feelings towards the child, but with his sister growing weaker, the issue of an heir was still in question. And whilst Barnat could not fault his son for not being as special as his sister, another line of thought crossed his mind: why did his wife not give birth to another crested child? Was she even capable any more? And the one child she did have with such a thing was too sickly to make it to adulthood.
Slowly, his disdain grew and became more obvious. He began refusing Greta’s company, and some days couldn’t even bare to look at her. At the beginning, he recognised how illogical he was being, but eventually he came to blame her for Hubert’s lack of inheritance. As if she had done it on purpose.
Eventually, Barnat found himself growing closer to the sister of an old friend. He confided in her, and found himself laughing in a way he hadn’t managed since his daughter’s grim diagnosis. One thing led to another and... A month after his seven year old daughter’s death, a second son was born.
Throughout the pregnancy, there was talk of if Barnat would leave his wife for the mother of his third child. With the newborn also not having a crest, the discussion changed to who would raise him. So as to leave less of a stain (supposedly) on his consort’s name, Barnat took the boy in, and the relationship ended.
From there on however, women started to come and go from the estate, leaving Greta to try and think of how to explain it to her son. Why there were more children that became Hubert’s siblings, but not her flesh and blood.
Eventually, such behaviours stopped. Once Ivona von Vestra with her minor crest, the fifth of the children born from such affairs, came into existence, things changed rapidly. The most apparent of which was the re-marriage of the Marquis, to Ivona’s mother...
And the re-location of his first wife.
Greta had been gradually pushed out of the picture for years, a wife in only name. At first she had been allowed to be a mother to her younger child, but slowly his father began taking up more of Hubert’s time, and his to be lifelong relationship with Princess Edelgard had begun. With a new wife, there was no need for Greta: she was sent away, placed in a small but comfortable home near to Nuvelle... The opposite side of the empire to Hresvelg, and thus far from her son and former husband.
Despite his callous treatment of his first wife, Barnat did hold love in his heart for his children, even if his emotional distance suggested otherwise. History will remember his part in the Insurrection of the Seven being motivated by power, but few know of the suggestions that came his way, implying that the three younger children born by this point may find themselves in a tragic accident... That his eldest surviving child may succumb to a similar illness to his full-blooded sister.
Barnat von Vestra was not one for falling to idle threats, but a paranoia struck him at the mention of what could happen to Hubert. His current heir, Ivona not yet being born. He became convinced that Veronica hadn’t been sick naturally, but rather succumbed to a slow developing poison, or deliberately infected. Why else the threat towards her brother?
Years later, once Hubert got his father out of the way and took his position rather than Ivona, he would investigate the idea, having remembered something his mother mentioned about Veronica’s death being unnatural. He never found any evidence of foul play.
i’m posting this separately for nox and pea, don’t mind me--
i can tell you right now a lot of the history and culture is going to be inspired by persia, but with that fe twist on things? a lot of stuff in the game lends to the idea of almyra being persia coded, such as part of the kingdom’s emblem resembling a zoroastrian relic and the like, for a super quick example because i’m tired– on that note, their religion is going to be based heavily off zoroastrianism. church and state are very separate, and king hasan (claude’s father) does not pressure his people to follow the nation’s official religion.
a few things i’ve nailed down for certain are as follows:
while historically almyra has always been a kingdom with a warrior culture and they still are today, the royal family has been slowly dialing it back over the ages– especially now that fodlan has successfully repelled one of their attempted invasions and set up a successful border defense. claude’s paternal grandfather, king cyrus farzad shirazi, in particular worked hard to loosen trading restrictions with fodlan, and claude’s father would like to open a dialogue to properly discuss peace treaties and a potential alliance someday. with rhea in power, however, there has been no response– leading to those little skirmishes at the border. claude hopes to continue where hasan left off when he ascends the throne.
keeping up with the religion of the region being based off of zoroastrianism, there are many fire temples scattered throughout almyra, and within them are fires that have been kept burning since the nation’s founding. fire plays a very big part in almyran festivals and religious ceremonies, as it is believed to be a purifying and cleansing force of nature alongside water, as well as life sustaining.
the main exports from almyra are textiles (carpets and the like), fruit, vegetables, wines, salt, spices, and metals. with vast, fertile prairies, harvests tend to be bountiful, and there’s a booming mining industry thanks to the presence of both the mountains and the desert.
family is a very important concept in almyra, and the royal family in particular is huge– claude’s father is the eldest in a family of at least five, one sibling of his being nader. in a perfect world, claude would have had a similar amount of siblings as well– but the outright disdain for a fodlanese woman entering the mix and producing a child has put a stopper on that. while hasan’s siblings and their spouses view this rejection of helena and her son as protecting their family, ironically it also goes against these very beliefs. this is a point hasan has been slowly making over the years, and it has been getting better. slowly. claude will be able to win over his paternal family by the time he returns home.
alongside the art of the blade and the warrior lifestyle, art is highly appreciated in almyra. the nation is big on painting, calligraphy, poetry, theatre, song, dance, and has a very distinct style of architecture you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
festivals are usually held at night and outside, before a bonfire. there are big feasts and dances, the air is filled with laughter and music, and have i mentioned a big feast– the dead are always honoured during these festivals alongside the main reason for celebration.
almyran weddings are a very big deal, given the importance almyra places in family. ceremonies and the resulting receptions and parties can go on for weeks, especially in the case of the royal family. they pretty much follow the process for persian weddings, which i’ll link here!
alongside horses, wyverns are a very important animal in almyran culture, both in battle and in day to day life. it’s easy to make deliveries and travel when your mount can fly! most children are taught to at least ride a wyvern for day to day life, and the royal family has a select breeder that has been providing them with mounts for hundreds of years now. that said, a white wyvern is said to be unlucky as its pearlescent scales make it more easily spotted and shot out of the sky, and stories of misfortune occurring after encountering one of these wyverns are common. it’s really all just a superstition, but it’s a long-running one.
thanks to discussion with katya and pea i revamped araceli’s entire 3h verse to be much more black eagles aligned so have a quick post updating everything to include yuri as he has the crest of aubin as well! i was going to add a description of her paralogue as well, but this got incredibly long so that’s going to be its own separate post!
just note that any mentions of hubert and edelgard are katya’s and pea’s specifically!
the short version: araceli is abducted by garon at the age of five, submitted to twsid’s experimentation at age 13, and childhood friends with edelgard and hubert-- therefore she won’t abandon them so easily.
she will leave the party with edelgard and hubert in silver snow, but is recruitable in azure moon and verdant wind-- though unless dimitri has a b support or claude has a c+ support with her, she will not remain in the party after the timeskip.
if dimitri does not have a b support with her, she will not be able to stand feralmitri any longer and leave the party after gronder in azure moon, submitting to the empire as a prisoner of war.
if claude does not have a c+ support with her, she will not show up at all in verdant wind.
her motivations for following the kingdom or alliance are an effort to find a peaceful solution to the conflict that still benefits edelgard and hubert and if she’s still with byleth’s army she will openly grieve for them after their deaths.
i am so sorry this gets long, the backstory here is incredibly important to araceli’s paralogue! :’) if you want to skip to everything actually relevant to araceli, just ctrl+f to ‘in faerghus’!
aubin, a member of nemesis’ band of thieves, murders the ice dragon and obtains his crest upon consumption of his blood. two relics are made from his bones: whatever yuri’s canon relic will be, and the yato. hydra, son of the ice dragon, chases after and defeats aubin in combat... but offers to spare him on the condition that aubin’s descendants hide and protect him evermore. aubin, desperate, agrees. they settle in what would become touma territory.
centuries pass, and the house of aubin splits; the half that left becoming yuri’s family, while the rest remained hidden in touma. hydra took the false name anankos and continued to watch over humanity, growing increasingly worried about the crest system and the church of seiros’ influence over fodlan, but not wanting to reveal himself just yet.
he would soon fall in love with the second daughter of house touma, mikoto, and have two children with her: araceli, born in imperial year 1163 on the 14th day of the verdant rain moon (august 14th), and lilith, born in imperial year 1164 on the 31st day of the wyvern moon (october 31st). araceli bore the major crest of aubin upon her inner right thigh, while lilith bore a minor one.
unfortunately for anankos, the survival of a full-blooded nabataen did not escape the notice of those who slither in the dark. upon learning that a group of shadowy figures were spotted in the territory, heading for the mansion, anankos feared for the worst. he bid that mikoto take their infant daughters and flee to safety-- and to never tell them about him or their heritage, lest the enemy discover and track them down. mikoto complied, bidding her husband and family a tearful farewell and escaping to faerghus.
anankos, meanwhile, took the yato and fled into a series of hidden underground caves. when those who slither in the dark followed him in there, he used far too much power defending himself from his assailants and degenerated-- much like rhea does at the end of silver snow. with enough clarity of mind left to know what he’d become, anankos sealed the entrance to the network of caves. if he had his way he would stay there, alone with the corpses of his enemies, for eternity.
in faerghus, mikoto and her daughters had been taken in by sumeragi and ikona shirasagi, a prominent military family whose territory sits on the border between the kingdom and the adrestian empire. they’re accepted into the family, and the touma daughters grow up happily alongside stepsiblings ryouma, hinoka, takumi, and sakura.
in imperial year 1168 sumeragi’s longtime rival from across the border, garon von krakenburg, learned of the presence of a child possessing a major crest in house aubin. while already a prominent noble military family in adrestia, garon was power hungry and determined to rise through the ranks; he enlisted the help of house vestra to abduct the child and pass them off as his own “recently legitimized” bastard child, with the plan to marry them off to an incredibly influential family and tie his family to theirs. ideally this would be house vestra, as they are closest to the hresvelgs. with his heir crestless, marquis vestra was very open to the idea.
araceli was abducted as planned, and raised alongside garon’s own crestless children: xander, camilla, leo, and elise. she would closely befriend the children of house vestra, including hubert, as well as hubert’s new liege: a princess of the adrestian empire, edelgard von hresvelg.
in imperial year 1176, a child was born to house vestra bearing the minor crest of macuil. concerned about the state of the arrangement between himself and marquis vestra and having heard of a group performing certain experiments from the latter, garon sought a meeting with those who slither in the dark. eager to get their hands on the blood of a bearer of aubin, those who slither eagerly took araceli off garon’s hands to experiment upon her. she would spend one full year locked in the basements of house krakenburg with tws’ mages, and the minor crest of dominic surfaced within her with surprisingly few problems-- though the costs on her part were severe: an incredibly shortened lifespan, much of her constitution and physical strength being sapped. the shock and stress of the situation turned her hair stark white, and upon recovery she would soon discover an increased magical prowess.
the procedure complete, garon set about showing araceli off to potential other suitors-- most unsavoury but high in ranking. in the end, an arrangement between house krakenburg and house vestra was reached: araceli would marry marquis vestra’s eldest son as expected, though hubert insisted on any wedding preparations waiting until after he completed his education at the officer’s academy. while hubert had absolutely no interest in marrying his childhood friend, the situation benefited him greatly: his father would not be showing him off to noble women in hopes of securing a match, therefore his time would not be wasted. (with what he and edelgard were planning, he would also never finish his education.)
in imperial year 1180, araceli attends the officer’s academy and is placed in the black eagle house. she is reunited with her younger sister lilith, and depending on the actions of byleth, her role in the conflict will change-- by default, she will side with edelgard and hubert.
regardless of what her path will be, she will play a part in hubert’s assassination of garon von krakenburg.
