#silesse

[vieryplus]

Erinys & Fee

[heta-magisch]

Silesse, Grann year 761

[bunnytaba]

she is beauty, she is grace, i want to be the teddy bear she's holding on to and tell me that everything is going to be okay

god i love her so much can you tell

[mishamalda]

Casualties of Perspective: An Analysis of Díthorba

Introduction to Díthorba

Díthorba is an enemy boss character in the fourth game of the Fire Emblem series, Genealogy of the Holy War, recently added to the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes. She is a Heavenly Knight of Silesse, an elite pegasus knight. She is most often portrayed as something of a mustache-twirling villain, comically evil; however, the truth of her character is a much more complex one. Kaga told me so. I’m writing this essay because I got her in Heroes and I have ADHD. It’s a love story for the ages.

Context: Politics of Silesse & The Heavenly Knights

Silesse is, in general, a neutral country; during the game, it does not serve as a power, but a battlefield, suffering its own civil war rather than taking part in the larger battle. The history of Silesse is sparse, with its characteristics centering on the fact of its foundation being by Crusader Ced: as such, it is principally peaceful. The martial strength attributed to the characters from Silesse lies in their association to wind, whether that be through flight (in pegasus and falcon knights) or magic (in wind mages).

Among the pegasus knights, there are four elite warriors who are considered the best in the country. These are the Heavenly Knights: Annand, Pamela, Erinys, and Díthorba. Annand is the captain. Both Pamela and Díthorba express jealousy toward her that borders on hatred— and toward one another and Erinys, as well. The Heavenly Knights, despite being the crown jewels of a country which values peace, are thus shown to be an order constantly at one another’s throats. This may be because of the intense stress that they must have undergone in order to become as skilled as they are, or it may be because of the competitive nature of their stations. Regardless of the origin, however, this tension makes the eventual shattering of the order understandable.

During the events of Genealogy of the Holy War, the conflict in Silesse revolves around an attempted coup d’etat. The queen of the country, Lahna, is not of Silessean royal blood, having married into the royal family, and was therefore seen as not capable of holding the throne after her husband passed. Her son, Lewyn, was meant to take the throne, but his uncles, Lahna’s brothers-in-law, saw him as weak, and together they attempted to take the throne. Díthorba held these views as well, stating in her Heroes lines that she believes Lahna “invited crisis to Silesse”.

The coup was eventually settled by Sigurd’s army, and both of Lewyn’s uncles were killed, along with Díthorba and Pamela.

Motivation and Morality

In the context of the political situation in Silesse, it becomes easy to discern Díthorba’s motivations, although her morality is still gray at best. Unlike her counterpart Pamela, who fights in the name of her own lust for power, Díthorba seems to have some desire to see her country changed for the better. When speaking on her hopes in Heroes, she remarks that her two greatest wishes are to see her country thriving and her daughter happy.

Díthorba does express a desire to become the captain of the Heavenly Knights, actively competing with Annand and Pamela while dismissing Erinys as an “amateur”. She is consistently portrayed as ambitious and proud, and only seems to question herself when she is defeated and killed: unlike Pamela, who is proud to the end, Díthorba’s dying line is “What have I done?”, implying at least a measure of self-awareness. Extrapolating from this quote, it may be assumed that Díthorba genuinely did want what was best for Silesse, and it is only upon seeing her own pride disproven, her arrogance torn open and her weakness exposed, that she recognizes the reality of things. In this we see the keystone of her moral code revealed: to seek strength and success both in herself and in her country.

Ambition alone does not make a villain. In different circumstances, Díthorba may have been a great servant to a better cause. Her desire for power, though a factor in her choices, is peripheral to her actions in the civil war. Serving Myos does not actually further her in the Heavenly Knights. By shattering Silesse, she does stand a chance of becoming the new commander, but the order as an order does not exist thanks to the civil war; therefore, she cannot be acting in her own self-interest. She provides a contrast to Pamela in this respect.

Despite this, Díthorba is by no means a good person. She may be serving a cause that she believes to be right, but her methods are terrible, and she is not an honorable knight, threatening extreme violence to Erinys when confronted and failing to show her basic respect. Though from her own viewpoint she is doing the best thing for Silesse, she does not present her side of the conflict to her enemies— although, again, since the enemy she has dialogue with is Erinys, this may be due to the deep antipathy that the Heavenly Knights hold for one another. It is next to impossible to judge Díthorba’s morality from the player’s perspective. She is shown through a lens that does not allow her to be good.

Relationships, Attachments, & Misha

Díthorba has very few attachments. Her only known associates at the time of her death are the Heavenly Knights, who— as stated above— do not act as friends or even allies. This is likely why she is defined as a traitor: although she may have technically been “allied” with the Heavenly Knights, they provided no reason for her to consider them her friends. Her duty was never to the other Knights, but to Silesse, and she did attempt to fulfill it in her own way.

The only loving attachment Díthorba has is found in her daughter, Misha. She never mentions her in her battle quotes— again, this is an issue not with her character but with her framing as an enemy— but does mention her in Heroes, as referenced above. Misha, who is a playable character in the intermediary game, Thracia 776, references Díthorba not only in her quotes but in her personality. Misha expresses great affection for her mother, and resembles her in being a pegasus knight. When she is captured, it is said that “The Pegasus Knights of Silesse value honor above all,” further shining a light on not only Misha’s but Díthorba’s actions.

Furthermore, Misha is serious and proud, similar to her mother, but is presented as a hero, not a villain. Although her morality is also questionable, her cause (feeding the orphans of Silesse) is unequivocally good. Misha fights in a war she knows is wrong in order to save innocents, and when her actions lead her own soldiers to their deaths, her honor demands that she die with them. Like Díthorba, she is complex, and they seem to be very similar in many respects; the difference between them is that in Thracia 776, Misha does not have to be your enemy. The picture this retroactively paints of Díthorba is a tragic one. A person with a cause she thought to be just, fighting on the side of someone she thinks to be the best choice for her country, never given the chance to see the truth of it— Díthorba is not a villain, but a flawed hero whose heroism only exists in her own warped view of the world.

To redirect back to the relationship itself, Misha’s unquestioned love for her mother (and the same affection from Díthorba in Heroes) provides a softer facet to the broken image we receive. It can be assumed that Díthorba treated her daughter with love and kindness, and fights for her future as much as for Silesse, but we are never allowed to see any of Díthorba’s warmth. In including this detail, Sigurd’s action of killing Díthorba— thus orphaning Misha— becomes a tragedy, not a victory.

Conclusion

Díthorba will always be an incomplete personality. General ideas may be extrapolated about her, but she is a casualty of perspective, unable to be shown in her entirety simply because Sigurd’s army does not have the luxury of coming to understand her. However, enough of her is revealed that her relative honor becomes painfully apparent. In different circumstances, or in a different story, she could easily have been something more than just more meat for the Sigurd grinder.

Also, she’s a lesbian, because I say so. Thanks for reading!

[godai-adventurers]

Meet Silesse!

Silesse is a fairy magician (sorcerer). Born in the village of Dillinea, a small settlement of fey creatures next to a remote pond, Sillesse has lived a very sheltered life. While the village isn’t exactly cut off from the world, she has had little opportunity to leave or interact with outsiders. For this reason, she’s always yearned for adventure, and is more than excited when she is caught right in the middle of one. She rarely hesitates or holds back, and is very energetic. Oh, and did I mention that she’s 4 inches tall?

[skelezomperman]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem Series Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: OC - Character, Ferry | Erinys Additional Tags: Friendship, Comfort, Grief/Mourning, background Finn/Erinys, background Silvia/Lewyn, really a fic about Erinys through an OC's viewpoint, Worldbuilding Series: Part 7 of A Tale of Star-Crossed Knights Summary:

Dame Maria Viernitski, Heavenly Knight, loyal servant to four monarchs. Snippets of her life during the most turbulent years in Silesse's history.

---

AUTHOR’S NOTES

I’ve had a bad habit of making my A/N on AO3 way too long. I personally love sharing all of the thoughts I had while making the story but I realize that it’s probably been distracting to write so much. Instead, I’m going to leave most of it for Tumblr and see how that works. Please forgive me if I’m misunderstanding how to use Tumblr and let me know how to actually use it.

Maria, like most of the OCs I made in A Tale of Star-Crossed Knights, ended up being little more than set-dressing. Making a character arc for her, then, is something that I enjoyed doing. I would say that the main theme of Maria’s arc is a girl growing up and facing harsh realities. When she first appears, she’s just a young girl who aspires to be like her older sister. She ends up surpassing her sister by becoming a Heavenly Knight but that came at a cost. It took the deaths and suffering of many, including her sister, for Maria to get the opportunity to become a Heavenly Knight. So in her heart, she still remembers her sister and wants to do things for her even if she’s more like Annand than her elder sister. Maria’s viewpoint on Erinys changes during the story as well. She never really idolized Erinys but she still holds her in very high regard when they first meet. It’s only later when they’re both older when Maria gets to see Erinys as a human being. She sees her grief in being separated from Finn and how she’s forced to carry the weight of an entire nation on her back. The irony is the juxtaposition between Maria’s viewpoint and the viewpoint of most Silessians. The next generation of pegasus knights now holds Erinys as a superhuman idol not unlike how Maria’s generation viewed Annand. Maria is well aware of how Erinys is only trying to live to the next day just like everyone else, but Erinys has to conceal it. This isn’t a unique theme to her - we see it with a lot of FE lords where they try to project a strong face even if they have a lot of insecurities - but I wouldn’t mind seeing this theme with an older lord in the future. Worldbuilding wise, I’ll try to touch on a couple things. In my head, the idea is that girls in Silesse are allowed to start flying at age 12, they start training with weapons at 13, and then they become knights at 15. That’s not out of line with pegasus knights in other worlds. For Maria’s name, Stefanas is meant to be a patrynomic - I like to think that patrynomics are common in Jugdral and that the Baldos and Faris in Seliph and Leif’s names are patrynomics. Viernitski is just a respelling of Wiernicki which means loyal. If I touch up the original story I’ll probably cut the different languages crap but I think it’s a nice touch here.  This was definitely a story that I was motivated to write for some reason. I didn’t think I could ever write that much about OCs but it was fun when it provides a perspective on another character. Hopefully putting Author’s Notes here gets received well.

[places-in-games]

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War - Silesse