*A soft but urgent knock sounds in the night. The door is opened to reveal a small child with suspiciously dark green hair, sleeping unaware. A note is read, "Will you raise this child as a weapon to those who would defy Her Majesty? Or purely as a shield for humanity? Or perhaps he would be allowed to live among them and raised alongside them, with no other purpose but to live and discover life?"
You see no sign of anyone else in the area...
*Hubert picks up the child with the familiar ease of someone who has cared for children often*
You stay with me. First, we notify the guards and my agents to be on alert for whoever brought you here. Next... Well. We shall see.
...I cannot fathom why anyone would bring a Nabatean child here, of all places. We are entirely unprepared to know what sort of care you need, if anything about that is unique to you whatsoever.
It could be a scheme to reveal Rhea’s location. But our options are limited, little one. It is her or Seteth, and I fear even a temporary compromise with him for your sake is too risky.
I suppose we should start with Linhardt and Byleth. The former to make sure you’re in good health, as much as we can tell, and the latter for the sake of decency. I’m sure they would prefer to be among the first to know you’re here.
/*there’s a letter sitting on Seteth’s desk, unmarked save for the name Cichol*/ Dear brother, Are you well? I find myself growing more interested in returning to the human world of late, and would like your advice. Should I make up a new name? Teach myself new colloquialisms, since the ones from our time have fallen out of fashion? How are Seiros and little Cethleann? Have you heard from Macuil lately? Ah, so many questions, not enough paper... I do hope you are all well. - Your brother, Indech
[He looks around before sitting down to write.]
My dear brother,
I am well, thank you. It is preferable to have a human name. People have been after Cethleann... I do not wish anything to happen to you. While I am sure it can be played off as you’ve moved from a new country... It would help to learn of how those of Fodlan behave now. I have attached papers on the customs from the Empire, Kingdom, and Alliance so it is easier to adapt.
Seiros and Cethlean are doing well. Many people have attempted for Cethleann’s hand in marriage so I wished to leave the monastery and hide away... But our new professor has taken her into her class. Seiros insists we will be safe when I confronted her later... I didn’t understand much, only something about Mother...
Macuil reached out to me recently. He was being himself and once more insulted the circlet of mine. He does not know when to give it a rest... No matter his antics I miss him all the same. I hope life as been treating you well in your current state. Seiros may not be able to join me, but I should be able to visit with Cethleann.
Ah before I finish, if you do decide to join us I suggest searching for us by our new names. I go by Seteth, with Cethleann as Flayn, and Seiros as Rhea. It is only for our safety as Saints.
Your so-called Prince has done something awful. He might get expelled from Garreg Mach. It’d be for everyone’s good.
He's my prince no matter what he does. That's how loyalty works. I’m sure there’s a reason for what he did, even if it’s not a great one, and I have confidence in His Highness just the same. I always will.
If he gets expelled, I’m going with him. Sure, Dimitri’s got a temper, and he overreacts to even the tiniest threat, but I’d like to see how you turned out after all he’s been through. He’s not perfect, but he’s my prince and I’ll serve him with everything I’ve got.
I don’t care if the person condemning him is Lady Rhea or the future emperor of Adrestia. He’ll always have me.
Do you really think Rhea was responsible for the Cress Class system or was that more of something humanity/society. People tend to put those with power in high positions.
Rhea might have been complicit in the system but I doubt many stuffy nobels would listen to the Church say "Crests arent gifts from the goddess and the extra power it gives you means nothing, everyone is equal even though having a crest means you technically arent"
Basically it was easier to just go along with that becuase it gave more time to try and resurrect her mother, who she thought could "fix" everything and properly rule instead of her.
Perhaps not solely, no, but she was intrinsic in its establishment. Legends say it was she who bestowed the Crest of Seiros onto House Hresvelg, after all, being Saint Seiros at the time. It was her endorsement that elevated Lord Wilhelm Paul Hresvelg to the famed status he held.
They were the victors in the War of Heroes. They did not need to offer amnesty and high social class to those with stolen Crests, the Ten Elites of old, as documented in secret by Emperor Wilhelm. But they wanted to render them indebted to the Empire, and the Church by extension, as a poor imitation of fealty.
By erasing their misdeeds, the Church essentially destroyed all means of accountability. Such a hollow peace would never last, and yet, she made it all possible regardless.
Lord Wilhelm, you might rationalize as gravitating towards power by way of the people simply supporting him. What documents exist on him suggest he was largely a compassionate, wise individual. The rest are not so fortunate. Beyond which, Rhea has shown no reservations with begrudging humanity in the past. I see no excuse for her to suddenly make an exception for those with Crests unless she stood to gain from that. Hardly a selfless motive.
Furthermore, she has never taken issue with using force when saying something did not suffice. Nobles could resist the Church’s decree if they wished to, but they would not even be nobles without her. Having Fódlan in a stranglehold was her true intent. But as with muzzling any wild beast like these depraved “nobles” of yore, there inevitably comes a time when the beast comes free. She would be safe, but everyone she left in their care would suffer. Yet Rhea did nothing.
The very fact of the matter is that Crests do not make a person special. No more than height or a lack thereof provides advantage or disadvantage. It is simply a whim of inheritance, and it alone is not enough to consider a person more worthy or deserving. You would do well to remember that.
I imagine it was easier, however, to ignore the horrors visited upon the people by corrupt leaders such as Lord Varley, Count Gloucester, and Ludwig von Aegir. They were merely inconveniences best neglected for Rhea and her supposedly righteous Church. This selfish negligence only condemns her further.
The amount of people who could lead Fódlan better than Rhea is vast enough to not warrant counting.
Seteth and Flayn have worked in high positions in the Church for at least a year, they know how Rhea ran the Church and its plain to assume they said nothing. Would they not be deserving of Edelgards wrath and punishment for allowing that vile dragoness to rule humanity?
That they have. But there are other factors beyond simply their employment at the Church that shed greater light on the situation.
When the professor was first hired as staff at Garreg Mach, for example, Seteth reacted as any rational person would: with protest and shock. This stranger, with no instructional qualifications to speak of, was suddenly a teacher? Rhea’s disregard of his sound arguments showcases her indifference to his input when in pursuit of her atrocities as well as a tendency to keep him in the dark.
Had he known the experiments she ran on Byleth and supported them, Seteth would have agreed with her choice. Flayn, insofar as I can tell, has not been involved in human civilization for an incredibly long time. I doubt she knew anything of note to object to.
As much as Fódlan's rebirth is a violent, bloody ordeal... There must be an element of mercy if the world is to change. Her Majesty visits the graves of fallen soldiers to deliver flowers. And, on occasion, we turn a blind eye to certain members of the corrupt Church. Those who were swept up in the schemes and lies of the archbishop are at fault only for their willful ignorance.
Perhaps they do deserve her wrath and punishment. But, simply put, if we all got what we deserve, I very much doubt you and I would be speaking now.
Just as Linhardt’s and Caspar’s fathers were excluded from our campaign against the nobility, Seteth and Flayn may begin their lives anew.
How can you justify being allies with the very people who plunged Fodlan into chaos by murdering the Goddess and most of her innocent children, using their bones and blood as weapons, further experimenting on innocent people in Fodlan (Edelgard and her family included) and also murdering the professors father?
Do "the ends justify the means" when so much damage and strife has been caused because of the monsters you work with? Yes, you supposedly defeat them in the end, but don't they technically win if the rest of the few endangered Nabateans are either dead (Rhea) or have likely fled Fodlan for their safety (Seteth and Flayn) or go back into miserable hiding (Indech and Macuil)? How can you claim to want equality for all when the actions of your allies cause direct suffering?
How do you justify leaving humanity to fend for itself as a corrupt, secretive society operates unchecked and preys on the defenseless? How do you justify stifling education to better control the masses? How do you rationalize your moral decrying of our conduct while you have done absolutely nothing to intervene on these mounting atrocities surrounding us all?
What is rumored to have occurred in Ailell is horrific, but simply put, I was not there. I did not bear witness to these tragedies, and I did not dictate that their bodies should be desecrated as weapons turned against their own. It is a unique nightmare that should never have come to pass.
But Rhea has had centuries to hunt down the guilty parties and show what becomes of those who raise a hand against those she cares about. Instead, she has smothered humanity in an oppressive rule that has left us exposed to horrors all our own.
It is because of her fracturing of humanity and its power that we lack the strength to fight Those Who Slither in the Dark alone. If we were to seek aid from other nations in Fódlan, we could not do so without garnering attention from the Church. As yet another guilty party, do you truly believe they would allow us to amass our strength against the Agarthans?
If she wanted those creatures dead, they would be. It is not the fault of myself or Her Majesty that she neglected that duty.
Therefore, if you wish to blame someone for the experiments and deaths that have persisted without consequence, you ought to turn to your beloved archbishop.
Because I can promise you, without a shred of doubt, that I will see to it that those responsible for what occurred to Lady Edelgard and her family, among others, shall pay with their lives. I will not suffer their existence a second longer than is necessary to eradicate Rhea and her false faith.
We have an end to the torment. When the means are what humanity has been enduring with no rhyme or reason for generations, yes: the ends do justify those means. The pain, the suffering, it has meaning. There will come a day when we no longer fear unseen threats that will go unanswered should they descend upon those we love most.
That is more than your vile pretender could ever claim.
Rhea orchestrated her own demise, and there is no one else to blame. Seteth and Flayn played their part, and it is enough that they may start again in another region. Their own Lady Rhea would not be so merciful. As for Indech and Macuil, they will go undisturbed so long as they don’t turn against humanity. So you may mourn Macuil now if you wish. The documents I have access to suggest he is more extreme than Rhea herself, and that bodes ill for his survival.
I did not bring about the ruin of the Nabateans. Rhea did when she elected to use us as pawns and shields, nothing more, in her desperate ploys to restore the goddess to life. Had she focused on those who were still living and deserved her protection, the story of her people might have ended differently.
We cannot provide equality to those who see us as lesser, mere sacrifices in the grand scheme of their unnatural lifespans. And if Rhea’s people suffer in the process of us wresting back control that was never theirs to take, then they may consider that their due retribution.
The rest of us were already suffering. They simply did not wish to see it or did not care.
Should the Nabateans have any ruling or leadership positions due to their long lives or is their too much of a risk of another Rhea cropping up, no matter their supposed good intentions?
Of their own people, certainly. I see no reason why they wouldn’t be able to govern themselves with no more than the usual risk of oppression.
But with how easy it very clearly is for the Nabateans to see humans as lesser for having one form and nowhere near their longevity, it simply would not be acceptable for one of their people to govern ours.
What do they know of our needs? Our well-being? Even the best of intentions would be worthless without the direct insight and involvement of the people. For the very same reason, Brigid will have sovereignty and Petra as queen when she is content to lead it. Lady Edelgard may care for Petra and wish Brigid well, but she cannot understand what they need to the same degree that Petra does.
Her good intentions make Her Majesty a reliable ally, not a suitable replacement as queen. The same applies for the Nabateans regarding humanity, no matter how superior some among them may feel themselves to be.
We are far better at ruling and leading ourselves than Nabateans could ever hope to be.
Why did none of the other BE ever question Edelgards connection to the Flame Emperor? Did they ignore her own crimes while condemning Rheas?
I’ve been given the impression that these discussions have taken place privately between Her Majesty and our various companions. As well, some of the crimes attributed to the Flame Emperor were truly perpetrated by Those Who Slither in the Dark to further divide Lady Edelgard from any potential allies. Any power she amasses is a threat to their schemes. True to their coercive style, they sought to get ahead of that risk.
In the case of a certain monarch, it was rather effective. I do hope his evolving shrewdness will awaken his sense of reason soon enough.
Due to the private nature of the conversations Her Majesty had with them, I cannot tell you the outcome. Some did approach me to ask about these atrocities to get the whole story, even if it was not always what they wished to hear. But I have full confidence in our allies that they would not simply overlook misdeeds that weighed on their conscience. It could be that they have determined that Rhea’s transgressions were more severe between them. While I can’t say what their stance is, you are well aware of mine.
Any and all horrors that we have had to commit or will in the future are the fault of your archbishop. Were she not so resolute in oppressing humanity, we would not need to resort to these measures. When she is dealt with, morality may make a return to Fódlan at last.
