The following is a series on Fire Emblem: Three Houses that analyzes the story elements, characters and theming. For reference, here are the links to each one:
Intro/Basic review, White Clouds (Common Part 1), Cindered Shadows (Ashen Wolves DLC Route - Part 1.5), Crimson Flower (Black Eagles/Eagle House Part 2, Adrestia route), Silver Snow (Black Eagles/Eagle House Part 2, Church route), Azure Moon (Blue Lions/Lion House Part 2), Verdant Wind (Golden Deer/Deer House Part 2) Non-house leader characters (Eagle, Deer, Lion, Church) Music analysis (very surface level)
PART 1.5: Cindered Shadows, or, The Make-up on Each Storyline’s Face
Lucky for me, Cindered Shadows is a Part 1.5 in the same way Lion King 1 ½ was a part 1.5 - it exists to bring support characters into the main narrative but is fairly easy to ignore in the long run.
For the sake of people who never bought the DLC, I will do a quick rundown of the storyline in play:
The three house leaders, Byleth, and a separate representative from each house (Linhardt, Ashe and Hilda) go through a passageway to an underground dwelling beneath Garreg Mach where the “social undesirables” seem to be living.
This is where we meet five notable characters: Aelfric, a major church leader and former friend to Byleth’s mother, Sitri; Yuri, a former hitman/former adopted noble who feels like Claude if his expertise was more exclusive to Fodlan; Balthus, a former noble who abandoned his house and is friends with Hilda’s family; Constance, a disgraced former noble who is prone to manic-depressive episodes; and Hapi, a rural girl who was imprisoned by a TWSD-led insurrectionist group in the Kingdom.
Through this failed plot, Rhea eventually reveals that Byleth has Sitri’s heart because Byleth’s heart wasn’t beating at birth. This leads to Aelfric transforming into a giant beast. The subsequent victory grants the Wolves status to walk the above-ground world again.
As I said, The story itself is fairly basic and uninteresting. What matters to me is how the four Wolves affect other characters and help shape the larger plot as a whole.
The impact of this, plus the whole resurrection attempt, seem to do more to paint Rhea’s motivations and much of what she does as a byproduct of grief. This is not a DLC story that reflects extremely poorly on Rhea as a person, when all is taken into consideration, but it does speak miserably of her as a leader.
Nothing is more damning to Rhea’s entire history than the library of Abyss, where Seteth has apparently been busy burying and burning texts that might give away uncomfortable truths about the world. Rather than paragraph form, here’s a short list of all the insane revelations that were censored:
A letter explaining an issue regarding Crest-based marriage and how it affected the breakup of House Daphnel of the Alliance. As a reminder, House Daphnel lost its ‘five major houses of the Alliance’ status before the start of the game. Additionally, since the writer was a daughter of Riegan, it’s possible that this hidden letter held pertinent details for Claude and Judith.
Multiple papers outlining the close relationship between Seiros and the first Emperors of Adrestia. One of which was a recipe that was meant to be prepared at the crowning of the emperors. As a reminder, Seiros/Rhea was traditionally present at every crowning since the Empire’s founding, until Edelgard got her turn.
A book/possible novel that Seteth had removed told a story about the early Empire, making particular note of a romantic relationship between the first emperor and Seiros/Rhea. It was likely removed due to both its less-than-academic nature as well as its peak behind the curtain at Seiros’s private life. Seteth appears hell-bent on keeping his family’s identities secret.
In a slightly hilarious twist, Seteth destroyed a love manual that specifically references a “love garland” named for Saint Cethleann. (If I haven’t mentioned it, Seteth and Flayn are Saints Cichol and Cethleann, respectively.) I’m going to assume this was removed at about the point where Flayn started living at Garreg Mach.
A report that seems to indicate Loog and the Kingdom of Faerghus managed their rebellion through the assistance of TWSD and other questionable individuals. Since they were using Heroes’ Relics (or at least close approximation replicas) and were the descendants of the 10 Elites, it seems the Church granted legitimacy to the Kingdom in order to maintain their false history and (possibly) avoid direct conflict with the Relics.
A report that the King of Faerghus was assassinated and a will faked to give nobles the idea that the Kingdom was meant to be split among three heirs, hence why a segment of nobles may have founded the Leicester Alliance in the first place.
A document that indicates that the Western Church was deeply critical of the Central Church after the Tragedy at Duscur and that the “dogma” of the church’s false history might get tested. It seems, to me, to imply that Lord Lonato’s son, Christophe, may have been targeted for silencing because he was a prominent critic.
A report that seems to believe Duke Riegan’s son was killed by Lorenz’s father so that a new noble house might take control. This obviously was thwarted by Claude’s arrival.
A book with a fake insect title that gave a list of scientific achievements that Rhea had suppressed - among them are a telescope/binoculars, crude oil, a printing press and autopsies as a procedure in general. Given that a standardized method of organizing bookshelves is absent, and the purchase of a single book set back Ashe severely, we can assume that books largely remain available in elite households, academies and the church itself.
An Agarthian text that sees the arrival of Sothis as their culture’s equivalent to the anti-Christ. Sothis, in their opinion, would bring down a great flood to drown everyone and wipe out the world. Given the Sothis we see in the game, I’m inclined to believe that the Agarthians were superstitious and prone to reactionary hysterics (can’t imagine that happening today!), but it does nonetheless inform why the group acts as it does.
A confessional from an early priest who seems to have realized the Heroes’ Relics were not made from a traditionally forged material. Though they lacked the words at the time, there’s a clear implication they understand the weapons are made from dragon bones and that the 10 Elites may not have been gifted these weapons.
A memoir from one of the Elites (likely Maurice, the Erased Hero). It seems that the false history was already being perpetuated by the Empire at the time they were fighting Nemesis because this Elite thought Nemesis was a divinely ordained king. This lack of understanding may be why Rhea didn’t simply wipe out the bloodlines.
A long discussion of how the first Emperor and Seiros altered the calendar to create an effective soft reboot of time. This made history harder to track from before the Empire’s creation and would help mask Seiros and her race’s histories and identities.
There is A LOT of deception here that has forced the church to double- and triple-down on lies. Heck, the whole reason three houses exist in the game is because the Kingdom rebelled, and that is because of the false dogma THE CHURCH wrote. What blows my mind is that Rhea has espoused so much false information that she actually internalizes a lot of it. She’s mad that the Western Church is rebelling due to a disagreement over how the rules SHE MADE UP should be followed. On one hand, yes, she wrote them, but on the other hand, SHE WROTE THEM, not Sothis.
One of the side quests that is particularly damaged by this information is the paralogue where you help Seteth and Flayn protect his wife’s grave. At the time, I understood his emotions far better than the Western Church. You don’t deface an innocent’s grave. But it feels like more of a self-inflicted wound considering he used his wife’s grave as the site for his tomb when he faked his death.
Heck, just consider how uncomfortable the whole battle is. The Western Church believes the Central Church is failing to uphold the ideals espoused in the false narrative the archbishop crafted herself. They seek to take Cichol’s gravesite to protect it from defacement, only to have Saint Cichol and his daughter march down to personally execute them. There is something deeply unsettling about how hard Seiros and Cichol fight to maintain this false narrative to everyone, to the point that they fight as if the made-up histories they concocted are true.
Anyway, I’d like to talk about the four Ashen Wolves to close this blog out and how they affect the main story. They won’t get the same character studies as the main houses, but I do feel they should get some discussion.
My explanation of the two as parallels of each other may be best described using Batman and Green Arrow. Both are attempting to stop crime in a city full of corruption. Both are unfathomably wealthy. Oliver Queen, however, has lived with nothing, both when he was on the deserted island and when he lost his fortune. As such, Green Arrow sees corruption at the top as the biggest problem and focuses the bulk of his work on stopping white-collar crime.
Batman’s origins are tied to street crime, and so while he does deal with crime bosses, his abilities are spent dealing with the street-level, everyday criminals in hopes it will lead to a bigger fish. Batman fights through the symptoms, hoping a path to the root cause will reveal itself. Green Arrow directly targets the root cause and only brushes against the symptoms if they get in his way.
I see Claude and Yuri similarly. Claude is trying to instill overarching change to the world, but he becomes so focused on the main issue that he forgets there are everyday problems that shouldn’t be pushed aside. Yuri prefers to help people on a personal level, but he has no real interest in the larger-scale world other than what avenues are available for him to navigate through it.
Interestingly, where this hurts Claude in terms of actual personal connections, it hurts Yuri, as he struggles to fully grasp the bigger picture when he’s not involved in it personally. Probably the worst example is where he goes through his history with Count Varley to Bernadetta. His conclusion is that he actually does care about her, but given what other things she’s gone through, that may not be a comforting place to leave such a conversation.
Obviously, Yuri isn’t aware of what Bernadetta has been through, but it shows he’s very capable of blind spots when he gets close to a situation. He views things through his own lens and stops looking at what he might have missed while he was more removed from the situation.
In any case, I find Yuri uniquely suited in relation to Claude, and since he has little personal connection with anyone beyond Bernadetta, I don’t really see a particular route where he’s best suited.
While I’m not a particularly big fan of Constance’s relationship with Byleth, her supports with Ferdinand, Jeritza and Mercedes are excellent. It’s through Constance that I really thought the situation with House Bartels got a more human touch to it. It’s nice to see Mercedes and Jeritza have someone around them who knows of their old lives, and it’s all the more tragic if they’re on opposite sides during Part II.
Silver Snow appears to be her true path, as she still seems to hold Emperor Ionius and the much Imperial nobility in low regard after all of this. But she’s still so obsessed with regaining what she lost that joining a side determined to end its significance as a whole does seem out of character. (Admittedly, this is addressed with her supports with Edelgard, but she still strikes me as a character who you recruit to replace Hubert for Silver Snow.)
She’s also a unique character because of how visibly (through her manic and depressive sides) the loss of noble status affects her. It gets to the heart of how broken the system is that it can literally break someone in two.
Balthus is the only one who actually deduces Claude’s origins before he reveals them and has somewhat of a connection to his mother (this conversation gets hilarious at points), so it’s great to see. His personal connection to Holst and, by extension, Hilda, also fits nicely into the larger story.
I will say, though, that because of the debt he feels he owes Count Ordelia, and the frustration with current society in general, I can see a real argument for Balthus being there for Crimson Flower. Without question, Verdant Wind is his main route, but his interests absolutely would align with CF, especially the part about protecting his brother from losing power to his mother (a system not based on blood would wipe out whatever footholds might give her a claim to influence).
Balthus is a pro-reform kind of guy and should be used in the pro-reform routes.
On one hand, she has a personal connection to Anselma von Arundel/Lady Patricia, so she informs the backstory that Dimitri is so obsessed with. Ironically, she also reveals the tragedy of Dimitri and Edelgard losing their connection to each other. The way that Dimitri responds to Hapi’s backstory, I get a real sense that had Edelgard and he spoken to each other, they might have been allies.
It’s through Hapi that I fully understand the Tragedy of Duscur and what TWSD was trying to accomplish. Anselma had deep connections to Emperor Ionius and King Lambert, both of whom were trying to make reforms to the current system. Hapi reveals that Anselma believed Lambert had hidden Edelgard from her while Dimitri knows his father was never in a position to speak privately to her in the first place.
By keeping everyone’s origins hidden from each other, isolating Anselma and Edelgard while both were in the Kingdom, and turning Lambert into a scapegoat, they were able to orchestrate a massacre that should have wiped out the royal bloodline, but as a consolation, left them a prince too young to rule and obsessed with vengeance.
So Hapi absolutely is needed in Azure Moon, and I love that Ashe’s pure idealism even wins her jaded heart over. Even so, I’d love an Edelgard support stream for Crimson Flower. They wouldn’t even have to bring up the connection to Dimitri; just the information that Hapi knew Edelgard’s mom and that she wanted to see her would be a worthwhile info-dump for Edelgard to have.
Hapi is vehemently against the Church of Seiros, so it seems natural to put her in Crimson Flower, but aside from Linhardt, she doesn’t have much to say to anyone.
As a final thought, I’d like to discuss my favorite character interaction in Cindered Shadows. In one of the exploration stages, you see Edelgard and Dimitri talking, and Dimitri asks if her hair was always white. Edelgard is confused how he would know about her younger, brown-haired self, but the two never talk any deeper about it, due to Edelgard’s wariness on the topic and Dimitri’s hesitancy to open up wounds from his past.
It’s a cruel irony. The two leaders in CS actually do start the conversation that needed to be had in order to create an alliance between the two, which would have rendered TWSD obsolete for Edelgard’s purposes and left Fodlan’s leaders united in a desire for major reforms, to the point that the Church would have to adapt or fight a destined-to-fail war. Instead, the scars of the world they live in render them unable to speak further on the matter. And even if the conversation had happened, it would have had to navigate the fact that both now view the world in such opposite lights. The world itself is too damaged to allow for a “Golden Path,” and that is the greatest tragedy of Cindered Shadows.
