Sandbox / Fire Emblem Three Houses Sliding Scale Of Gameplay And Story Integration

Story

• A few paralogues cannot be played on Crimson Flower because they wouldn't make much sense in the context of that route.
  • Caspar and Mercedes' paralogue, "The Face Beneath", is inaccessible because it heavily involves the Death Knight, which works on the other routes, but not when allied with the Flame Emperor, because Jeritza is a playable character there; Ferdinand and Lysithea's paralogue, "Retribution", cannot be played here due to it involving Ferdinand trying to track down and rescue his father near Lysithea's family's territory, which would be tricky on CF due to Ferdinand siding with the Empire and being fully aware; and Rhea's paralogue is unavailable even if Byleth achieved a C support with her, as it involves Byleth trying to find a treasure that Rhea left for them right before the war began, which she wouldn't do on CF due to Byleth siding with Edelgard, thus becoming Rhea's enemy.
  • Linhardt and Leonie's paralogue, "Legend of the Lake", can be played on the Crimson Flower route, but it comes with a catch. Due to their hostility towards the Children of the Goddess, Edelgard and Hubert cannot be deployed on this map, as the legend in question is heavily implied to be Saint Indech, one of said Children. And if Seteth and Flayn are not spared in Chapter 15, it will no longer be available, primarily due to the fact that Saint Indech would probably not take kindly to those who slayed his kin.
• If allied against Edelgard, Constance expresses her surprise at the Empire's violent actions in the monastery dialog after the Holy Tomb mission. Normally she will also state that she wishes to talk to Edelgard directly before judging her actions completely. However, if you used Constance in the Holy Tomb battle against Edelgard and thus got the special dialog of her confronting her, Constance instead declares that Edelgard is beyond being reasoned with and fighting her is unavoidable.
• If you assign a group task to Annette and Gilbert before viewing their C support, they use basic voice lines typically used by casual acquaintances. In their C support, she confronts him about treating her like a stranger. After seeing it, they immediately begin acting like father and daughter during group tasks.
• In the Silver Snow route, after the timeskip, the player is still able to hire battalions affiliated with the Adrestian Empire, despite them being the primary enemy faction for most of the game. While it seems like the opposite trope at first, the non-Crimson Flower routes, particularly Silver Snow, will have multiple NPCs express that there are many within the Empire who never wanted Edelgard's war, thus making allowance of Byleth still being able to buy Empire-aligned battalions more plausible^note The only potential exception to this is the battalion Imperial Guard, whose description states it's comprised of soldiers "that serves as the Emperor's personal guard". By contrast, this situation is averted on the Crimson Flower route, as you do lose the ability to hire battalions affiliated with the Church for mutliple reasons stated both in and out of Flower: Rhea's extreme disgust with the Empire's actions, the Empire's cool relationship with the Church even before the war, and the manifesto pushed by the Empire in all routes that accusses the institution of being the root of Fódlan's problems.
• Many missions sharing locations between routes (and even a general idea) can present minor to major changes due to the context they take place in. Cases in point; Chapter 12's story mission switches your starting point and even the enemy composition depending on whether you're in Crimson Flower or not, as it's the natural result of siding with either the Imperial army invading Garreg Mach, or the Church trying to repel the Imperial forces. Byleth's invasion of the Imperial Palace also changes between Azure Moon and the Verdant Wind & Silver Snow routes, as without a map of Edelgard's stronghold, the party enters the palace from the bottom of the map rather than its middle. Lastly, Fhirdiad's landscape in Crimson Flower differs a lot from Azure Moon's version due to Rhea's fire, to the extent that many walls have been destroyed, paths have been blocked off, and its overall terrain is very hazardous to grounded units.
• Personal skills return a la Fire Emblem Fates and they are all related to the personality, skills, or backstory of the character they belong to.
• The various teachers of the Officers Academy teach specific skills to their students. Their in-game stats and proficiencies reflect their teachings, with them being good at what they teach their students.
• Post-timeskip, for the first four chapters of the Azure Moon route, Dimitri is Ax-Crazy and scorns anything except getting revenge. During this time, he's unable to deepen supports with people, doesn't attend war meetings and thus can't be instructed, and cannot be invited to bonding activities like teatime or meals. This is also reflected in his combat lines, where in the first four chapters, he sounds much more murderous towards opponents and angry at his teammates; once he calms down, his lines are noticeably less bloodthirsty, he goes back to thanking his teammates for healing him, and so on.
• Characters who deeply are devoted to the worship of Seiros, like Mercedes and Marianne, tend to have Faith magic as one of their talents or proficiencies.
• Any unit can use any of the Heroes' Relics or Sacred Weapons (other than the Sword of the Creator, which is more limited). However, if those wielding Heroes' Relics do not possess the proper Crest, they will suffer stat reductions or HP loss like Miklan did while wielding the Lance of Ruin.
• In Chapter 10, when Sothis, the Goddess of the Church of Seiros, merges her soul with Byleth’s and blesses Byleth with her powers, the latter unlocks the Sublime Creator Sword and the Enlightened One class.
• When Flayn is kidnapped, Seteth is so distraught he will not be available to train Byleth's skills.
• Taming wyverns is considered a rite of passage in Almyra. Cyril and Claude will mention this if they request to fine-tune skills to be Wyvern Riders. Claude's exclusive promotions also have him riding one.
• Early on, it is revealed that Byleth and Marianne and Edelgard carry Crests that are not identified. Until it is, whenever they activate, it will say "Unknown Crest."
• Characters you recruit, including faculty members, will actually remain with you in your chosen route, complete with reasons to do so... with one exception: if you join forces with the Flame Emperor, you will lose out on several Church loyalists. Seteth, Catherine, and Cyril will become unrecruitable, and Flayn will leave regardless of support level.
• Thanks to cross-house recruitment, you can make characters get put at odds with their former comrades and even their family members after the timeskip. But unlike Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, they will not refuse to attack one another just because they were once friends or family — meaning that it's fully possible to have Felix attack and kill his father, for example.
• While Hilda can be recruited out of the Golden Deer team, (1) the process is rather tricky, and (2) she won't agree to join the Black Eagles until after you've passed the point where you can join forces with the Flame Emperor. This reflects her rather strong devotion to Claude, if not to the extent seen in the cases of the other two retainers.
• On the Crimson Flower route, Edelgard's ambition is to revolutionize Fódlan regardless of whoever is in the way. Not only is it the path with the least amount of recruitable characters where some can even leave^note Hilda, Gilbert, Seteth, Catherine, and Cyril cannot be recruited at all, while Flayn will leave you upon siding with Edelgard — although unused S-Support pictures with all of the aforementioned save Gilbert imply that the original plan might've been different, it is also the only one where, as of version 1.1.0, Jeritza can join you. There's even a month less to recruit from other factions to boot.
• On the default routes, the story is more a typical Fire Emblem fare of facing an evil Empire. True to form, you can recruit the most amount of characters in those routes as the Church of Seiros and Hilda will support your cause. The only special recruitment case is Gilbert, who only joins you during Part II of the Azure Moon route due to his allegiance to the Kingdom of Faerghus.
• In Dedue’s support with Annette, he ends up spooking a horse with his presence alone, and Dedue explains that animals don’t take kindly to him due to his intimidating appearance. In game, he’s got penalties to his chance of leveling his riding and flying skills.
• In practice battles, any units you lose won't die on Classic Mode. However, you will still lose if Byleth or your Lord is defeated.
• The only source of Dark Seals, which are required to promote units into Dark Mages and Bishops, come from beating the Death Knight. As of the third wave of DLC, when Jeritza joins you post-timeskip on Crimson Flower, he will provide a single, free Dark Seal in his inventory.
• Edelgard and Hubert are the only playable characters who are antagonistic towards the Children of the Goddess. As such, neither of them can be deployed in the paralogue "Legend of the Lake", as it involves the party meeting The Immovable, a giant draconic turtle who is in fact Saint Indech and one of the Children of the Goddess.
• The last DLC wave is about discovering and exploring a secret civilization underneath Garreg Mach, which would go far in explaining why they have classes and characters not available beforehand.

Characters

Non-Student Characters

• Byleth
  • They grew up outside of the influence of the Church of Seiros, hence not having a particular affinity or weakness for faith at the beginning of the game, but become one of the Church's strongest knights, find out that the goddess of Fódlan was implanted within them in their infancy, and in one route ends up as the new Archbishop after Rhea retires, hence a budding talent in faith.
  • Despite having the potential to be classed as a mage or Magic Knight, Byleth's Magic base stat and growth rate are barely above average. Byleth spent their life being raised by Jeralt as a mercenary. Jeralt himself is a Paladin who does not use magic at all. So it makes sense that Byleth's own growth in magic is lacking compared to the students who were trained in it since a young age.
  • On a similar token, while Byleth is nominally a Jack of All Trades, being usable in potentially any class they classed in, the actual combat arts that Byleth is capable of learning favors them towards Sword- and Brawling-oriented classes. It's another hint at Byleth's relation to Rhea.
• Cyril
  • He mentions he does a lot of wood chopping as part of his daily chores. His highest starting skill is in Axes. He's originally from Almyra, a country with a strong wyvern culture. As an enemy unit, he is a Wyvern Rider pre-timeskip and Wyvern Lord post-timeskip, both being classes that are proficient with Axes.
• Rhea
  • She has issues opening up to others due to her past trauma and position as archbishop, yet she shows a great deal of trust in Byleth with areas Seteth openly questions initially. Fittingly, the only person she can support with is Byleth.
  • The kindly and delicate-looking archbishop can train Byleth in brawling, of all things. Of course she can; after all, that's how she beat Nemesis after disarming him in the opening cutscene.

Black Eagles

• Edelgard
  • In addition to the Lord-friendly prerequisite boons of swords and authority, Edelgard's boons of axes and heavy armor are tied to one of the preferred infantry fighters the Empire uses (heavy armored axe wielders; the Empire is also noted for its magic wielders). Very early in the game, Ferdinand will even tell the player that the black heavy armor worn by Empire soldiers is one of the inspirations for the Black Eagles' class name.
  • Aside from bows, her main bane in Faith is deeply rooted in her pronounced misotheism and her desire to end the Church of Seiros and remove the Children of the Goddess from power, to the point that she initially shares the Agarthans' goal of wiping out the few of them that remain. However, she will soften that outlook with Byleth on her side and allow them to live as long as they're out of power — an offer that Seteth and Flayn may accept but Rhea won't. Tied to this is that she's one of two characters who can't be deployed in the paralogue "Legend of the Lake", as it involves the party meeting The Immovable, a giant turtle who's heavily implied to be one of the Children of the Goddess: Saint Indech.
  • As one of the victims of Crest Experimentation, whose intent was to create a Supersoldier with enough power to kill Sothis and the remaining Children of the Goddess, Edelgard has among some of the highest stat caps in the game, and the second highest overall stat cap total at 390 (only Cyril exceeds her at 395, and that is primarily because of his Aptitude skill). An interview with the development team even cites that the experiments Edelgard and her family went under were a more "refined" version of the experiments that Lysithea and her siblings went through, which explains not only her far higher stat caps, but the fact that Edelgard is generally more robust and powerful, whereas Lysithea is weaker and more prone to bouts of illness. Edelgard even has a Magic cap on par with other Magic-inclined units (72) in addition to the second highest Strength cap (81) after Dimitri (87).
  • Her Hidden Talent is in Reason Magic, which is rooted in knowledge. She's also one of five characters who can innately learn Dark Magic, which makes sense as someone who's had contact with those who slither in the dark. Ironically, despite presenting herself as someone who epitomizes cool, hard logic, Edelgard's perception of history - rooted in both the false history the Empire had created for generations as well as the Agarthans' long-standing hatred of both the Goddess and surface-dwellers - is ultimately incorrect, and Edelgard is too stubborn to accept anything different.
  • Unlike the other Lords, Edelgard only has three support partners from outside her house rather than the five Dimitri and Claude get: Lysithea (who also has two Crests); Hanneman; and Manuela (both of whom hail from the Empire), reflecting her distance from others. The Cindered Shadows DLC added a fourth in Constance, but much like Hanneman and Manuela, Constance is from Adrestia. Additionally, Constance has every reason to seek Edelgard out, meaning that even if Edelgard didn't want to grow close to Constance, there was no way Constance would let her stay away.
  • Edelgard has a hard time trusting other people and only confides in the ones close to her. The player has to reach her C+ support level to be invited to her coronation in Enbarr, which in turn is an obligatory pre-requisite to get an opportunity to side with her after the Holy Tomb battle later. Choosing her route is a prerequisite for her B-support (unlike most other characters, whose C- and B-supports are accessible pre-timeskip). In other words, you must get to know Edelgard better to stay on her good side.
  • Edelgard is most open about rewarding trust, hard work, and dedication. As such, she gets supports with professors Hanneman and Manuela, which the other house leaders don't. Additionally, she has a paired ending for every support except her one with Petra, making the greatest proportion of supports among house leaders to reach an ending. Her support path with Petra, and Petra's solo ending, also implies what their ending would entail.
• 'Hubert
  • He is afraid of heights, and naturally flying is one of his weak points as a unit.
  • He shares his mistress' hatred towards both the Church of Seiros and the Goddess, resulting in him having a pronounced bane in Faith.^{"Pronounced" meaning...}Units that generally skew towards Strength over Magic tend to only know the same three Faith spells - Heal, Nosferatu, and Recover - with some picking up a fourth spell, such as Claude being able to learn Silence despite having an experience bane in Faith magic. Meanwhile, units that are skilled with Magic but may have a bane in Reason or Faith still have some variety in their spell lists, such as Manuela being able to learn Bolting despite a Reason bane. While Hubert is one of the more devastating Magic-inclined units in the game, he only learns the generic three Faith spells mentioned above, effectively crippling half of his utility potential.
  • He, like Edelgard, shows disdain towards the Children of the Goddess. As thus, he can't be deployed on the paralogue "Legend of the Lake", as it involves the party meeting The Immovable, a giant turtle who's heavily implied to be one of the Children of the Goddess: Saint Indech.
  • He isn't available in the penultimate couple of White Clouds missions in the Black Eagles route. This is because he's making preparations for Edelgard to ascend to the imperial throne and launch an attack on Garreg Mach.
  • He mentions in a few supports that he has trust issues. As such, in Three Houses, he has no supports with anyone from the Blue Lions, Golden Deer, or Ashen Wolves houses (Three Hopes mitigates this by allowing him to support with Lysithea and Hapi).'
• Petra
  • Petra is a skilled game hunter and has proficiency with bows. In addition, she learns Bane of Monsters as a sword Combat Art, which is effective against Monster-type enemies.
  • Despite being extremely intelligent, her weakness in Reason (magic) comes solely from her dislike of math.
  • Her personal skill makes it easier for her to finish off wounded enemies. Her preferred class, which she has a unique uniform in and the one she has as an enemy, is Assassin.
  • While religious, Petra subscribes to a different faith system than the Church of Seiros, resulting in her weakness in faith magic.
  • Brigid has a tropical climate. Petra is naturally one of the slowest characters to heat up in the sauna.
  • One of her favorite gifts is a Sunflower, which symbolizes loyalty; this reflects Petra's determination to carry out the will of Brigid no matter what.
  • Petra is a princess of Brigid, so her being classed as a Commoner might seem like Gameplay and Story Segregation. However, Brigid's status as a Vassal state of the Empire with little independence and Petra's hostage situation brings it around to this trope instead.
• Linhardt
  • Linhardt is Afraid of Blood and is one of the most affected by their first killing, and the class he is associated with the most is Bishop, the primary function of which is to heal allies. His weaknesses in axes and brawling are a result of them being the most violent weapons.
  • He stands out as the only playable character who does not learn any Combat Arts unique to a select few characters, due to a combination of having no strengths or budding talents in swords, lances, axes, bows, or brawling. Given his hatred of violence, he obviously doesn't want to learn any powerful techniques to help him kill his enemies more effectively.
  • His love of Crest research gives him a strength in Reason.
  • Some of his supports show when it comes to Crest research, Linhardt can act tactless (shown especially in his supports with Lysithea and Flayn) and he's noted as a person who doesn't care about what other people think of him. He fittingly has one of the lowest charm growths in the game. ^note 20%, the lowest in the game after accounting for Cyril's personal skill.
  • Linhardt is Afraid of Blood and a Reluctant Warrior. As an enemy unit both pre- and post-timeskip, his AI prioritizes healing his allies and will rarely initiate combat on his own, even if there are no allies in range.
  • He's part of the handful of students with the lowest recruitment requirements (the others being Caspar, Petra and Marianne). Given his fascination for Crest research and the fact that Byleth possesses a Crest that was thought to have been lost, it makes sense he'd want to join Byleth's class for more opportunities to study them.
• Dorothea
  • In her A-support with Felix, she mentions that back when she was in the opera, she was trained to wield a sword. She has a strong proficiency with sword and one of the best candidates for the Levin Sword, which uses magic.
  • As her primary goal in life is to find a romantic partner, few of her supports lack a romantic resolution, with one of those two only lacking any because Ingrid is 100 percent straight (rather than lack of trying to seduce her on Dorothea's part). A lot of her endings, including her solo ending, end with her in a relationship.
  • She admits that she doesn't have much in the way of combat ability and dislikes fighting. Her growth rates are some of the lowest in the game, notably having the lowest Magic growth of any designated spellcaster at 40%. That in and of itself is also integration, as she was a street orphan turned Opera Diva turned student. She doesn't have the same history of learning or a Crest to help her studies or power with magic as the rest of the designated spellcasters do.
  • Dorothea is the character most fitting for the Dancer Class. Her history and intelligence means that she has experience being the support for more powerful and capable people.
  • All of her supports are with nobles (except Byleth and Yuri, and Yuri was adopted by Count Rowe), which makes sense considering she's seeking to marry one.
• Caspar
  • He's a Hot-Blooded musclehead who does nothing but train while struggling in his studies. This is reflected in his relatively high physical stats but poor proficiency in Reason.
  • His recklessness earns him a lower defense growth than some of his other physically-oriented peers, notably his counterparts Dedue and Raphael from the other houses.
  • His shouting does boost the morale of people under his command, but as Hubert notes, it makes it difficult for Caspar to do anything covert and can make it difficult for his unit to function. In addition, most of his strategic approaches to combat boil down to 'hit it until it dies.' Naturally, he has a weakness in authority as a result, having a difficult time learning how to command others strategically.
• Ferdinand
  • He's a major Determinator who doesn't give up. He's one of the few students without a skill weakness.
  • His affinity for horses gives him a strength in riding and bonuses on stable duty, even coming with an initial D in the skill. His favored class line is, naturally, the Cavalier line.
  • Part of Ferdinand's character arc is coming to terms with the fact that he was never anywhere near Edelgard's equal. His preferred weapon type (lances) loses to hers (axes) with breaker skills involved, and Edelgard will typically be a more powerful unit than him, having bonus exp gain and a comically overpowered personal weapon and combat art.
  • In order to recruit Ferdinand from the Black Eagle house, one of the requirements is for Byleth to have a high proficiency in Heavy Armor. Not only is this Ferdinand's budding skill, but it's one that Edelgard excels at, so Ferdinand is prioritizing anybody who can help him gain an edge on his rival.
  • Ferdinand is shown in many conversations to be full of confidence and pride. However, it doesn't take much to shatter that confidence, like after he duels (and loses to) Edelgard in their supports. This is reflected in his personal skill Confidence, which grants him stat boosts, but only if his health is full.
  • He much prefers tea over coffee. The Coffee Beans are one of the few gifts he dislikes.
• Bernadetta
  • She has preferences and a Crest built to allow her to wield a Sacred Weapon, The Inexhaustible. The paralogue involving it is done by a completely different character not even in her class. Additionally, the effect of the Sacred Weapon to self-heal is at odds with her personal skill. It takes a lot of work to put the Eternal Loner in the spotlight and none of it will be her idea.
  • Bernadetta prefers to be out of reach of her enemies, and as such has proficiency in bows and lances and a weakness in brawling, axes, and swords. She will explain this preference during tutoring sessions. Furthermore, she's the only unit besides the crafty Claude to gain the Encloser bow art, which freezes enemies in place, a skill anyone afraid of retaliation would jump for joy to have. The same can be inferred from her access to Deadeye, which allows her to strike from a great distance away.
  • As her family ruled over the Empire's Ministry of Religion, she has access to powerful spells such as Fimbulvetr and Rescue if Byleth drills her skills in Reason and Faith respectively, but due to her abusive upbringing her progress as a mage ended up stunted.
  • A few of her supports have Bernadetta explain that she wants to make friends at the Monastery. Along with Sylvain and Lysithea, she has the most supports among the students.
  • Bernadetta is able to pull off some amazing feats while nervous in her supports with Felix, as in, when she's feeling anxiety. In gameplay, this is reflected in her personal skill, Persecution Complex, which makes her hit harder when wounded (no matter how slight the wound may be, even a scratch will activate her nervous power).
  • She states in her A-support with Byleth she loves carnivorous plants - the Pitcher Plant is one of her favorite presents.

Blue Lions

• Dimitri
  • Dimitri is stated multiple times to be very strong, frequently breaking weapons by accident from swinging them too hard. He even broke a sword as a child! He also has both the highest maximum potential strength stat at a whopping 87 points and the highest personal strength growth in the game at 60%, above even bigger and burlier guys like Dedue and Raphael. The effect of his Crest also reflects both his enhanced strength and his tendency to accidentally break weapons, as it doubles his attack and weapon durability usage for combat arts.
  • He is noted as a One-Man Army in canon, and this very much applies to him in gameplay as well. It's common for him to take on multiple enemies and come out the victor, and with the Vantage Battalion and Wrath ability he can effortlessly slaughter dozens of enemies during the enemy phase.
  • Post-timeskip on the Azure Moon route, Dimitri is so consumed by his rage and single-minded desire to murder the Flame Emperor that he actively pushes people away from him and even throws Ineffectual Death Threats their way. He doesn't attend war meetings, snarls at his allies that they're wasting their time if they heal him, can't build supports, be invited to monastery activities, or be given gifts. After Chapter 17 and his Redemption in the Rain, he calms down, seeks to atone, and once again can build support points and be interacted with as normal. He even loses his Creepy Shadowed Undereyes (present on both his portrait and his model) once he comes around.
  • According to Sylvain in the Crimson Flower route, ever since the Tragedy of Duscur, Dimitri has held resentment against the Empire due to suspecting they had played a role in the Tragedy; Sylvain also notes that even during his time at the Academy, Dimitri never tries to connect with anyone from the Empire. While Dimitri himself doesn't dislike any of the Black Eagles students ^note Ferdinand, Dorothea, and Caspar even have positive remarks about Dimitri late in Azure Moon, hinting a lack of animosity aside from Edelgard and (to an extent) Hubert, after The Reveal, or any Church members hailing from the Adrestian Empire (at least outside of his moments of insanity), he cannot support with any of them in Three Houses. The only exceptions to this are his interactions with Mercedes^note who was a former Adrestian noble living in the Kingdom since 13 years before the events of the main story, some possible offscreen interactions with Caspar and Ferdinand in Azure Moon (the former notes that Dimitri apologized for threatening to torture Randolph), and lamenting the deaths of an unrecruited Manuela and Hanneman if they were killed in his paralogue in Part II. In Three Hopes, Dimitri supports Bernadetta, and is the only Black Eagles student whom he has supports with.
  • For growth boons and banes:
    • The Kingdom's knighthood tradition and his status as a prince inclines him towards swordsmanship, authority, lances (the Royal Family's Hero's Relic being one), and he has a hidden talent in horse riding. In fact, one of his Part II lesson plans (Lances and Riding) has him mention that his late father, Lambert, was a cavalryman in his prime.
    • His two banes are in axes and Reason magic. For axes, other than being a weapon that's somewhat at odds with his fighting style, axes can be associated with barbarism and savagery, traits that Dimitri negatively associates with the Tragedy of Duscur; as for his weakness in Reason, while Dimitri is perceptive, intelligent, and can be wise, he also wears his heart and inner demons on his sleeve (and struggles to visibly not do so). His mental state fracturing compromises his ability to reason with others, forming one of the major obstacles he must overcome come Part II.
    • Faith Magic: While Byleth has a Hidden Talent in it (Being Sothis' vessel and whatnot) and Edelgard and Claude have growth banes in it, Dimitri's growth is neutral. On one hand, he finds that the Goddess has no real presence in Fódlan, and like the other Lords, he is not entirely happy with the state of the church as it is. On the other hand, he acknowledges that faith, especially its charitable aspects, is an excellent motivator and aid for the commonfolk and especially the poor. Heavily reforming the church and promoting its charitable nature to the forefront are two major changes that come about on the Azure Moon route, with Byleth leading as the new Archbishop.
    • There's even a pragmatic component to his stance on Faith and the church: On the Crimson Flower route, he uses the Kingdom's good relationship with the Central Church to take them in as allies during the war, and they will fight together during the Tailtean Plains battle. However, Dimitri shows surprisingly little concern for the Church forces (led by Rhea) that try to ensnare the Black Eagle Strike Force, barely acknowledging their retreat if Rhea is beaten first.
  • Dimitri has no sense of taste (literally). He only dislikes one item in the dining hall (Peach Sorbet), and said item is described as cold.
  • His upbringing revolved a lot around training in combat as the future king whether he wanted or not, which didn't allow him to try out any other activities. All of Dimitri's lost items and preferred gifts have some involvement with weapon maintenance and training.
• Dedue
  • His B+ rank support with Annette reveals that animals have never taken to him. In game, he's one of three units (the other two being Dorothea and Yuri) that has experience banes in both riding and flying.
  • Like with the other non-natives of Fódlan who have differing faith systems, Dedue has a faith magic bane.
  • In his supports with Gilbert, he reveals that he modeled himself after the kind of Knight Dimitri described Gilbert as. Along with sharing stoic demeanours, Dedue is also similar to Gilbert in regards to stats and skills, with the both of them having high Defence Growths and sharing strengths in Axes, Lances and Heavy Armor, making them both suited for the Armored Knight class line.
  • Like his fellow Number Two Hubert, Dedue cannot support with any students outside of his own house, making them the only two students in the entire game with no inter-house interactions (in the base game; Three Hopes allows Dedue and Hubert to interact with Petra and Lysithea, respectively). While he and Hubert both have a hard time getting close to others, in Dedue's case, he's very difficult to hold a conversation with and prefers to keep his distance due to tensions against the people of Duscur.
• Sylvain
  • He's an infamous skirt chaser and tends to follow any woman who remotely catches his attention. Female Byleth can recruit him instantly, no matter what her stats are.
  • He secretly dislikes the girls he dates for dating him for his crest and dumps them in a short while. He has a total of 4 potential wives, female Byleth included, and accepts any offer of Better as Friends. In fact, he only has 5 A ranks at all, and that's his four potential wives and Felix.
  • Along with that, likely due to his skirt-chasing ways, Sylvain is a character with the second highest amount of supports in the game after Byleth at 17.
  • While a friendly and outgoing person, Sylvain is not particularly open with people, having some of the fewest A-rank supports in the game due to his trust issues. Not even Dimitri, one of his childhood friends, can A-support him, nor can Annette, Ashe, or Dedue. Contrast his prickly friend Felix, who has over twice as many A-supports and far more romantic endings.
  • Sylvain comes from the coldest and northernmost region of Faerghus and "hot places" are one of his dislikes, even complaining when the team has to head out to the Valley of Torment. Naturally, he's one of the fastest students to heat up in the sauna.
  • Sylvain's Defense growth of 40% is one of the highest outside of obviously-bulky characters such as Dedue, Raphael, or Gilbert. He's also implied to have a high tolerance for physical pain in general. Given how Miklan treated Sylvain, this makes sense.
  • During his supports with Annette, she comments on how he can effortlessly do just about anything, despite the fact that he puts on an obvious veneer of laziness. Sylvain only has a penalty with bows. He has strength in axes, lances, and riding, with a budding talent in reason. Every other skill is neutral, meaning they grow normally. Essentially, Sylvain can be good at just about anything and be a unit with immense versatility, just as Annette is more or less pointing out in the conversation. This can also be brought up by Sylvain himself, as sometimes he can approach Byleth to ask about switching his study goals over to something like magic to expand on his skills, and is a feasible path for him to take.
• Ingrid
  • She dreams of being a knight which are normally associated with lances, her strongest weapon proficiency. The classes she excels the most in are, fittingly, cavalier and pegasus knight.
  • Ingrid loves taking care of the mounts at the academy, and she has a strong aptitude for flying and riding skills.
• Felix
  • Felix hails from one of the coldest and northernmost regions of Faerghus. ^note In fact, it's only slightly to the south of Gautier territory (Sylvain's home). He heats up very fast in the sauna, naturally.
  • He's almost obsessed with training and improving his swordsmanship - naturally, he is almost always in the Training Grounds or the Blue Lions classroom if you're exploring the monastery.
  • His initial three proficiencies are in swords, bows, and brawling. On top of at least two of these boons being specialties of classes that could be considered to be highly non-chivalric (Assassin, War Master), Felix eschews the rules of "chivalry," rule-bound combat often observed by knights, favoring pragmatism and having a diverse arsenal to rely on. These three weapon types certainly fit the bill in terms of diversity - and furthermore, if you unlock his Hidden Talent in Reason Magic and flip it to a boon, you can get a Swords-Reason lesson plan for him in Part II where he'll explain that he'd like to study magic in order to gain an even bigger advantage in battle.
  • He's Brilliant, but Lazy in regards to tactics and strategy, and thus has an authority penalty. This also applies for his initial bane in Reason Magic; while it's hinted that he's Book Dumb to an extent, Felix has a knack for outside-the-box thinking when actually in battle and simply prefers field experience to books.
  • A few supports mention he doesn't like sweets. Fittingly, a few of his disliked dishes are of the sweet variety.
• Mercedes
  • Her clumsiness and loathing of exercise results in penalties to learning all melee weapons and heavy armor.
  • As an ally, she can only obtain the Rafail Gem from the Death Knight. If you join forces with Edelgard after she's revealed to be the Flame Emperor, which also gives you the Death Knight for free, not only does the Death Knight not have the Rafail Gem, but Mercedes somehow has it as long as she's an enemy.
  • She mentions in her C-level support conversation with Ashe that she dislikes spicy food and she dislikes four out of five dishes at the dining hall that have spices in them.
• Annette
  • She scored high at the school of sorcery. She's also one of the few characters to start with a proficiency in Reason at D+ instead of the usual D or E+.
  • Annette is Good with Numbers and enjoys studying tactics. She's one of the few non-lord characters with an authority boon.
  • For her boon in axes: While Annette is not a physically-oriented unit, the basics of knighthood and battle were taught to her due to being the daughter of a family of Barons who have served as knights for generations, one of them being her father Gilbert. House Dominic is also one of the noble houses that possesses a Hero's Relic, and theirs is the magical axe Crusher.
  • She says her high marks at the school of sorcery were due to hard work instead of natural talent. She lacks a budding talent.
  • She has a bane in Bows, which makes sense as Annette is clumsy and archery requires a lot of precision unlike the other methods of attack.
• Ashe
  • His supports reveal that he turned to theft to support his little brother and sister after losing his parents, stealing from passerby, shops, and even mansions. A personal variation of the Lockpick skill is his personal skill; It is normally only available to Thieves and Assassins, hence Ashe can pick doors and chests no matter what class he's in.
  • Despite being a bookworm, he has a minus modifier towards Reason, which reflects his lowly birth and tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve rather than think with cold logic.
  • For any non-Azure Moon route, despite the fact that Ashe is an archer, recruiting him to any of the other houses requires sufficient skill in Charm and lances. This sounds almost arbitrary until you remember that Ashe idolizes knights and knighthood, so having skill in a weapon typically associated with one is what will win him over to another house.

Golden Deer

• Claude
  • Like Edelgard, he has a weakness in faith. Though unlike her very complicated reasons for it, Claude's is just due to his own spirituality not aligning very well with the Church's.
  • He is shown to be very good at sneaking around undetected. After the time skip, he gains a personal variation of the Pass skill, which allows him to move through spaces occupied by enemy units.
  • He has difficulty opening up to others due to his trust issues. His C, B, and B+ supports with Byleth can all be missed and have to be completed before certain points in the story. He is the only playable character whose B support must be completed before the timeskip. Conversely, because he comes to trust Byleth so immensely during the end of Part I, he's the only Lord whose A-Support can be unlocked right away come Part II, providing Byleth has enough Support points carried over; In contrast, Edelgard takes a very long time to attain A-Support, while Dimitri's is unavailable to be accessed until the player reaches Chapter 18.
  • On the flipside, Claude, unlike Edelgard and Dimitri, supports with characters from all three houses (Annette and Ingrid from the Blue Lions; Petra from the Black Eagles), and he subsequently also supports with every non-native of Fódlan except for Dedue. His seeking out different kinds of people are for both pragmatic purposes (seeking people with multiple talents, as well as another Almyran ally in Cyril's case, although the latter shuts him down on that front due to having no love of his homeland) as well as a more hopeful purpose of bringing different kinds of people together.
  • In cutscenes, Claude is shown to be an incredibly accurate archer, able to shoot another arrow out of midair. He also shoots Nemesis by firing up into the air and having his arrow come down on him while he's fighting Byleth. He's tied with Lysithea for the highest Dexterity growth (which affects hit rate) in the game at 60% and has the highest Dexterity cap at 89.
• Hilda
  • She hails from a noble house who possesses an axe (Freikugel) as a Heroes' Relic, hence her boon in them. A neat detail tying this to her laziness applies to her solitary axe-teaching lesson plan (it being one of several plans that offers 1.5× weapon experience for sacrificing getting experience in another category); it's charmingly named "Stick With What you Know," citing an inherent disinterest in learning anything new. Hilda also only has one other boon (lances), in addition to a hidden talent in armor.
  • This works two ways with her bane in authority. On one hand, she's uninterested in commanding troops and is terrified of letting people down; on the other hand, she's excellent at tacitly manipulating others and passing off work with her charms, which manifests in game with a very high Charm growth (50%) and cap (76).
  • Owing to the fact that Leicester Alliance has no official King or leader they swear fealty to, Hilda is not actually Claude's retainer despite how close the two are. Unlike Hubert and Dedue, Hilda can be recruited to join other houses. Hilda will not join the Black Eagles in the Crimson Flower route but can in Silver Snow, implying that it's specifically Edelgard's presence that keeps Hilda from wanting to join. Optional dialog has her mention to Byleth that even if she wanted to join Edelgard, she doubts Edelgard would accept someone like her.
• Raphael
  • Raphael is Book Dumb and prefers simple approaches. This is shown by giving him a weakness in Reason and Bows, befitting someone who is blunt and to the point.
  • He spends a majority of his time either training his muscles or eating to help his muscles grow. This is reflected in Raphael having the highest health growth (65%) and the highest health cap (114) of any unit in Three Houses.
  • And fitting to him being a Big Eater, he can be frequently found in the Mess Hall during exploration.
• Ignatz
  • He admits he's not cut out for being a knight and would prefer to pursue more artistic/intellectual areas. His budding talent is in Reason, which in game is often associated with the sciences and arts.
  • His high Dexterity stat is due to his talent as a painter, meaning he would have to be observant and accurate.
• Lysithea
  • She is noted to have a frail constitution and a shortened lifespan due to the strain of bearing two Crests. True enough, she has the lowest HP cap (48) and growth (20%) among the playable characters. She's also one of three characters to have growth banes in the classic weapon triangle (Swords, lances, axes) along with heavy armor, contributing to her fragility, although she can overcome her sword bane since it's also her hidden talent.
  • Lysithea is an academic prodigy who is eager to learn about new things, and excels at schoolwork due to her grit. Her personal skill, Mastermind, doubles weapon and class experience gains across the board. This also indirectly ties to her being one of the few non-Lord units having a growth boon in authority, as she has a decent command of basic strategy and tactics.
• Marianne
  • When her Crest activates, it will say "Mystery Crest" until you learn just what it is in her Paralogue. Sure enough, many of her supports depict her hiding just what her Crest is.
  • Since she is very religious, she is often found in the Cathedral. Her devotion to the Goddess is also reflected in her Faith proficiency.
  • Her love of animals is shown in her personal skill, which heals her when she's adjacent to a mounted or a flying unit, in addition to having proficiency in both Riding and Flying.
  • Marianne dislikes herself, as such bringing up any topic in teatime that has to do with her will result in failure.
• Lorenz
  • Lorenz fancies himself a charmer, but he really doesn't have much luck attracting them, as some of his supports demonstrate. He is also The Friend Nobody Likes as very few admit to liking him at first. While he has a decent Charm growth (35%), he has a low cap (46), and he has the lowest base Charm at the start of the game, at a pitiful 3.
  • While he's more geared towards knighthood, Lorenz has a boon in reason magic, having attended Fhirdiad's School of Sorcery in the past. In fact, he has one of the best reason spell lists with the powerful Ragnarok and Agnea's Arrow at his disposal before specialized mages like Dorothea or Constance. His House also has a staff as a Hero's Relic.
  • Lorenz is extremely proper and prim in his behaviors, takes pride in his hygiene and looks, and despises vulgarity, which manifests as Brawling being his one growth bane.

Ashen Wolves

• Yuri
  • Discounting Byleth's Hidden Talent in Faith Magic and potential alignment, he's the only Lord with a Faith Magic growth boon. While it's low-key by his own admission, he is a follower of the Seiros faith, and he's also the only Lord to genuinely hold Rhea in high esteem. Furthermore, one of his favourite gifts is the Goddess Statuette.
  • His leadership abilities as an underground boss is reflected in his Authority boon, while his fighting style gears him towards either magically inclined or swift-footed classes. His Personal Skill boosts his damage output when he's both two spaces or more away and not surrounded by allies, further playing into his Boon in Reason Magic and his Hidden Talent in bows.
  • Contrasting the above are his banes in lances and axes, which clash with his preferred fighting style. He's also one of three units (the other two being Dorothea and Dedue) to have banes in both types of mounts; while his preferred fighting style may have something to do with it, an oft-missed piece of dialogue hints that Yuri has an allergy to some animals, namely horses and cats, likely hindering his ability to ride. Made easier to see in Three Hopes, where Yuri's allergy to most animals comes up in his supports with Marianne.
  • Due to equal parts shyness, equal parts his checkered, unpleasant past as a prostitute at the Mittlefrank Opera house, Yuri does not like singing in public. He has a Faith EXP penalty for the Choir activity, and one of his disliked gifts is the Sheet Music set.
• Balthus
  • In a similar vein to Caspar and Raphael, his heavy bulk and boisterous behavior gives him axe, brawling, and heavy armor boons. His lack of dexterity, aforementioned bulk, and preferred fighting style, naturally, give him banes in lance, bow, and flying growth.
  • He's quite an enthusiastic believer in Fodlan's Goddess, and also finds value in his homeland's own traditions. These reflect in his Faith Magic boon.
  • He has a Hidden Talent in Reason Magic. As noted on other parts of his section, Balthus is far more astute than others give him credit for and is excellent at both reading others and research when he puts the effort in.
  • In Three Houses, Balthus says that the Vajra-Mushti gauntlets aren't a real Heroes' Relic, but a replica. In Three Hopes, obtaining the Vajra-Mushti doesn't count towards the achievement of obtaining all Heroes' Relics, nor does it have a standalone achievement for obtaining it like the other Relic weapons do.
• Hapi:
  • Hapi is one of five units who can cast Dark Magic (and one of three whose Reason Magic lists are exclusively made of Dark spells), sharing this trait with Edelgard, Hubert, Lysithea, and Jeritza. Those who can cast Dark Magic inherently have had contact with those who slither in the dark, and in Hapi's case, she's a victim of experimentation like Edelgard and Lysithea, albeit her own experimentation was much different than theirs.
  • While it's downplayed, Hapi is an Animal Lover, giving her growth boons in both riding (which is picked as a focus for her default study plan) and flying. If you unlock her Hidden Talent in axes, one of Hapi's study plans that comes out of that has her explaining to the player that she finds axe-swinging to be a cathartic substitute when her urge to sigh comes about, despite the weapon not suiting her stat spread.
  • On top of being far more suited for magically inclined mounted classes and a disdain for excessive violence (Banes in brawling and heavy armor), Hapi's exhaustion, apathy, and disdain for authority in general (and the Church in particular) manifests in both a growth penalty in Authority and a low Charm cap (43).
  • One that's rather amusing; Hapi has had a bit of an unfortunate life. Her Luck stat? It's one of the worst in the game.
• Constance:
  • Constance's demeanor changes when she's exposed to sunlight, which is reflected in her personal ability, Circadian Beat (Three Houses) or Personality Shift (Three Hopes). Despite the description of her Circadian Beat ability stating that it changes effect depending on whether she is indoors or outdoors, in reality an overcast or rainy outdoor map will indeed trigger the "indoor" bonuses.
  • Constance is extremely motivated to accomplish great things and get attention for them, to shine for all to see, and this interview confirms she was given the Dark Flier + Bolting combo specifically to help her really shine as a unit in the DLC.
  • Constance has great magical prowess but is also a bit scatterbrained, creating spells with dubious utility or taking idioms too literally. In game, her spell list is powerful and they hurt... But she has a harder time landing or doubling them due to poor Dex and Spd growth, making her Unskilled, but Strong compared to the more mainstream surface mages.
  • One of her favorite gifts is Lily of the Valley, which symbolizes a return to happiness - her overall goal in restoring House Nuvelle.

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