Cai. And it xxxing cost me a unit.

I admit I don't like Catania at first, her voice kinda annoyed me so I bench her until Leda's chapter 11. It's the first time I used her as wing soldier and ever since that she has always cleared the map and became the MVP. I also heard she makes a great mage, I would like to replay Leda's route and turn her into a mage. I remember Mu was also a bit weak on Leda's early chapters but wow she became a monster and obviously I have to recruit her on every route, I make her a Shido on my Theo's route and she still did amazing despite on how late I recruited her.

When Elephant Riders are dismounted, they don't have any restrictions on the type of weapon they can use. So it's possible to make a lategame unit with weapon combinations unavailable to other class trees, like Bow+Spear for two types of effectiveness. (Not sure if they can use magic, I never tested it, but I'm guessing they can't.) Technically you could also leave someone as a commoner/noble and also do this but the Elephant Rider has way better growths.

EDIT: Oops I misremembered it's only lances, axes, and swords :(

IS literally said:

What if David and Goliath are friends?

I initially don't like using guest units because i get flashbacks playing engage fell xenalogue on how useless nel, nil and the four winds were at my run as their stats were horrible without proper adjustment with their emblem. Whilst they just get in the way and are often left far from battle and are only needed unless necessary.

While I don't particularly like part 2 being solely focused on theodora and bertrand's perspective but they deliver to be an absolute monsters of a guest units. Their utilities and stats were on par with my flame lord and esmeralda.

Theodora in particular knocks out bothersome enemies and barriers while bertrand serves as my frontline killing machine when i need one. They also have strong defensive capabilities and tankiness that lets you not worry about them dying as they are highly capable of surviving hits after hits with their respective abilities (royal resolve and blaze art awakening).

Bertrand was especially fun to use during chapter 6 after receiving dagda's club because with his ruler's awakening and mar's blessing, he was completely wiping out enemies and one shoting lyrah.

Excited on the dlc coming up soon.

Hello! I beat the game a few weeks ago (it took me exactly a month, down to the day lmao). Three Houses is my favorite game of all time, so I absolutely love the additional worldbuilding that this game added. But, much like Three Houses, this game doesn't always wear its deepest lore on its sleeve. I have a few questions about the lore that are not directly answered, and I would like to theorize about it with some other lore-heads. Please "cite" any information you draw from, by at least telling me where it appears in the games, or linking me to a wiki article.

Today's question is:

What is the timeline regarding Epimenides and the creation of the Agarthan model of Heart Core? Were his soul-housing Heart Cores produced before or after The Great Undoing?

The Facts as we Know Them

Epimenides is, of course, the character we meet in Three Hopes, who created Arval. I'm thrilled that we got more lore on him in Weave.

Weave establishes that Heart Cores were in production long before the Great Undoing, and went through several iterations. Most of the characters we see in Weave bear the Generation 2 heart core, but it is said that Epimenides invented the Generation 3 heart core by inventing/discovering Epimenium and using it as part of its construction.

In Hopes, we learn that Epimenides' main goal was the rehousing of the human soul, and is a goal that he pursued prior to the Great Undoing. We can also reasonably infer that the Gen-3 Heart Core itself was not capable of housing a human soul, due to the way that Grand Megalith Hypatia describes both the gen-3 core and Epimenium.

Epimenides was eventually successful in storing the human soul within a Heart Core, which led to the creation of Arval. Arval was the prototype for soul-storing Heart Cores (which I will be henceforth calling Gen-4 Heart Cores). However, the Arval Core was lost during what Epimenides refers to as an "unforeseen accident". We do not know what this accident was, or when it took place. This feels as if it is the key to answering my main question.

Problem 1: Who is Epimenides?

We know that Epimenides was a scientist with the original AGARTHA. My question, more specifically, is "Did Epimenides originally have a heart core, and was he originally favored by Vritra?"

Epimenides' primary motivation is the rehousing of the human soul. I can see this as being a personal motivation to essentially bring immortality to humanity, or as something delegated to him by Vritra (especially considering that much of both iterations of AGARTHA seems to be sworn and beholden to Vritra).

In working with AGARTHA, I could reasonably believe that Epimenides has a gen-2 Heart Core during his research, meaning it could have gone on for who-knows-how-many years. However, there's one additional wrinkle:

Is Epimenides even human?

I wouldn't have even considered this at first, but the FE wiki has a line of trivia in his article:

In Fortune's Weave, it is alluded that Epimenides and his vessels, Arval and Shez may be or share some biology with Mediators, marked by the "feather like organ on the head" of Ikaros models.

Epimenides describes himself as "an ordinary man" so I have trouble believing this. I also don't entirely understand what it's getting at. Is it referring to that weird orange headdress that Epimenides has but Arval doesn't? Please educate me.

If true though, it would mean that Epimenides was likely only created around the time of Project Ouroboros, which would go to explain why all the crew used Gen-2 Heart Cores instead of Gen-3. It would also explain why Vritra may have ordered him to pursue this art, knowing that Vritra seemed to be aware of and fear the Nabateans.

Problem 2: When was Arval created, and when was Arval lost?

Arval is the first successful example of Epimenides implanting a soul into a Heart Core, and contains a backup of Epimenides's soul. We also know that the rest of the world was unaware of these soul-housing Gen-4 Heart Cores prior to the Great Undoing. This leads me to conclude that there are two possibilites:

1. Arval/Gen 4 Heart Cores were created right around the time of The Great Undoing, likely either just before or just after
2. Arval/Gen 4 Heart Cores were kept secret before the Great Undoing

These don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive.

So, then, what happened when Arval was lost? We know that Arval was lost during a flood. At the time of Houses and Hopes, we knew of the Great Undoing, and we knew that it ended with a flood called Despair (see: "Romance of the World's Perdition"). This makes it likely, in my opinion, that the flood that Arval was lost in was Despair.

But that poses a problem: is this the "unforeseen accident" that Epimenides is referring to? That seems like a weird way to describe biblical flooding.

 "Epimenides: I created you. The cycle of the world... The rehousing of souls... How desperately I sought this secret art!...I knew I must oversee the process myself in order to save my beloved people.

Arval: When my consciousness first initialized, I was nothing. I remember the sound of water... Of bubbles. The sound of a massive object slowly lurching along... I thought the noise would continue for eternity. But then...a change. Something gave way. The water began rushing rapidly. Pale shadows closed in around me. Amidst deafening sounds, I walked desperately in search of light.

Epimenides: That was an unforeseen accident. I was sure all had been lost to the waters. It was fortunate I had created you, for you proved useful in a way I never expected."

Is the accident that the Arval Core wasn't brought to Shambhala during the Undoing?

Assuming that the flood was NOT the Flood Despair, that means that Epimenides's lab must have flooded - but I don't know if that means it was his lab in Shambhala or the lab with AGARTHA.

Problem 3: When were the non-Arval Gen-4 Heart Cores made?

The cores either had to have been made before The Great Undoing and brought to Shambhala, or made in-house after The Great Undoing. Fabio says that the technology used to make Heart Cores is a lost art. So either they were made before The Great Undoing and brought to Shambhala in only the numbers that Epimenides and theoretical lackeys could carry, or they were made after, and the knowledge of the specific process died with Epimenides during The War of Heroes.

Problem 4: Are they Gen-4 Heart Cores at all?

I have been referring to the Agarthan heart cores as Generation 4 Heart Cores purely because it was easier to type than "soul-housing" or "soul-capable". But that is making an assumption about the lore, and assuming there was an extra model of heart core developed after the Gen-3. We have no evidence for this, but we do have a believable reason why there wouldn't be evidence for it (either produced in secret or produced too close to the Undoing to be recorded).

It is also theoretically possible that Epimenides designed the Heart Core first, and then figured out a way for soul transplantation to work with the design he already had. This is important, as it would help us to better understand the numbers and capabilities of Those Who Slither In The Dark.

Conclusions:

If Epimenides was an Ikaros-class Mediator:

Mediators were originally conceived to fly on the starships of Project Ouroboros. Therefore, Epimenides was likely created during Project Ouroboros at some point.

Pros to this theory:

1. Epimenides does occasionally talk with similar verbage to Anatolia (such as referring to humanity as "my beloved people"
2. This would explain why the crew on board these ships used outdated Heart Cores (although this could also just be an economics issue of the newer ones being more expensive)
3. It would give us a pretty definitive timeline.

Cons to this theory:

1. Epimenides refers to himself as "An Ordinary Man"
2. Why would Arval not have the "feather" that Epimenides has? Why does Shez partially develop it when he goes into his Awakening State?
3. I'm not sure I have enough evidence to actually buy that Epimenides is a mediator.

Gen-3 or Gen-4 Heart Cores?

This is an important detail. Either Agarthan cores are gen-3 cores that Epimenides used to figure out the whole soul-housing thing after the fact, or they're a new model that was produced in secret and/or just before the Great Undoing.

Gen 4 Heart Cores have next to no textual evidence in either game, but have a plausible reason for the lack of textual evidence. In addition, this could explain the Agarthans' shapeshifting powers on top of soul-housing. However, this means that the Agarthans' numbers are limited to how many cores Epimenides was able to make and bring with him to (or theoretically stockpile within) Shambhala. (Unless, of course, they were able to be produced in-house until Epimenides died, but that seems unlikely to me given Fabio's words.)

Repurposed Gen-3 Heart Cores would allow us to understand the context without having to "invent" a Gen-4 Core that is not necessarily present in the text. It also comes with the benefit of making it so that the Agarthans' numbers are not tied to how many Gen-4 cores there are, as many of them could be people who had Gen-3 Cores anyway, prior to the Great Undoing. But this then leads us back to the problems that a Gen-4 core would solve, such as the shapeshifting.

Was Arval lost during the Flood Despair?

I feel like the answer is almost certainly "yes", as it makes little sense for Arval to be so completely lost in a simple lab accident. But then that still leaves me scratching my head as to why Epimenides would refer to a biblical flooding event as "an unforeseen accident" (unless I am seriously misinterpreting his words). Granted, the immediate next thing he says is "I was sure all had been lost to the waters", which does fit Despair better than a simple lab accident.

Opening the Floor

I realize that was a long post, so you have my apologies. I just wanted to provide everything that I could.

So, let me give the floor to all of you. I would like to hear your thoughts, truly!

1. Do we think that the Agarthan cores are Gen-3 or Gen-4 cores?
2. By proxy, are the Agarthans limited in number by how many cores Epimenides was able to bring to Shambhala, or are they humans that had gen-3 heart cores prior to the Undoing?
3. When do we think Arval was created, and, by proxy, when did Epimenides discover how to rehouse souls?
4. Was the Flood Despair/Great Undoing the "unforeseen accident" to which Epimenides refers?
5. Was Epimenides a human or an Ikaros-class Mediator?

EDIT: Something occurred to me a few hours after posting this, regarding the Human/Mediator debate with Epimenides. As u/RavenRegime pointed out, there must have been a specific reason for Epimenides to opt for rehousing souls, given that functional immortality has already been achieved. By that logic, there must also have been a vessel for Epimenides to transfer into to be sure that the technique worked.

This could easily solve the Human/Mediator debate with Epimenides. What if it's both? What if, as a human, he tested the rehousing process by essentially making a Mediator clone of himself, and using that as his vessel? That could allow both versions of Epimenides to exist simultaneously.

The biggest thing to put pause to this theory would be that Shez gains some of the feather-y bits of Epimenides upon transformation. But since Arval doesn't have them, you could make an argument either way, honestly.

Personally I want prototype versions of blutgang, thunderbrand, Freikugel, and luin. With thunderbrand given to Bertrand, luin to anotolia, Freikugel given to orchel, and blutgang to talimun

Source: https://x.com/physpunch/status/2114431805444997503

I saw a post the other day about a user made custom website that has every character, class, weapon and items you can find but I can’t seem to find the post does anyone have it written down? It didn’t have a conventional name so I don’t remember off the top of my head.

All I see on this subreddit is everyone agreeing that Peppe is the worst unit, and I felt so bad for the young hero that I simply had to do my best to turn him into a viable unit.

Is he the most broken unit on my roster? No.

Does he dodge everything and crit every time like a mini Dietrich? Absolutely.

Just an idea I had, if the DLC routes get proper full Part 1s and 2s, which I'm currently 50/50 on happening, who would each of the other four Flame Lords get as their tutorial/auto recruitment. Used the FE Wiki as a chart of all the non-affiliated units you can recruit in Part 1, and color-coded my guesses + the base four auto recruits based on the specific teams' colors. But just to be clear, I would guess:

Bertrand - Peppe

Talimun - Io

Orchel - Noctula

Anatolia - Nydine

You get it temporarily by talking to Bonaventure before exploration 👀

The reinforcements are not infinite but this was a test of patience, this is my first part 2 after finishing cais part 1

So the Mage line goes through Ovate and Bishop first. Both very good classes with extra Hit and double Black/White magic uses. But then when you reach Master with Druid/Wiseman, you suddenly LOSE access to half of your magic.
Having a healer being able to dish out some extra damage, or having an Ovate being able to use high Recovery healing spells (Olympia/Tialla with Physic [granted, Olympia is the Avatar ofc, but that is irrelevant for this discussion]), is such a good thing to have.
Having more potential things to do with your units in any situation is just really neat.

Losing access to basically half of a units arsenal is just not worth it.

Valyrium is then very good again, mostly due to the extra mov and growth rates from a Mount.

So I recruited Io early since he has only a Renown 3 requirement on Dietrich's route. He started as a lv20 Light Cavalry.

I didn't think much about it until I recruited Kiroc shortly after and he was only a lv11 Hunter. In Chapter 5, I recruited Ultand and she was only lv15. Why did he start so high?
Is this a bug, or maybe it's intentional because Light Cavalry is the only way he could have access to his personal unique horse?

Just reached 200hrs gameplay, peak game & peak ost (moonlight visions, just one wish,...)

Sometimes, my brain started to think how many turns left before going to work/irl. Maybe 7hrs of sleep daily not enough.

I think Dagsion need bit more fun stuffs to do. Got huge ass lake but where fishing minigame? Maybe add fun flying/workout minigames.

Also, maybe need like online rankings and this game no support amiibo too right?

Remember FE Engage all that, cosmetics rewards from amiibo and swimsuits🤓.

No friend to rant FEFW stuffs. One friend not ok with $60-$100 game price but spent on gacha games for months.

Spoilers for parts 2 and 3.

The more I have played this game, the more I wish they had stripped out the broader plot of defeating Balor and just made the game eight playable stories about the Heroic Games.

I beat all four parts 1 and finished the game. The best and most satisfying part of the game for me were the four individual stories and the arcs among characters in each group. The transition to part 2 was extremely jarring - "suddenly, Dagda came back and declared war on Saramis." The three non-Theodora protagonists were pushed to the side for this war story interlude.

Part 3 went back to the gameplay of part 1, mostly, only again the protagonists you got to know were shunted aside.

It's just a very strange choice to complete the arcs of your four main characters after the first third of the game, and then just continue for 50 more hours. Genuinely, after completing each part 1 I said to myself that if that had been the whole game, I would have been satisfied.

I really liked this game but unlike Three Houses where the two parts were justified by the nature of the narrative, here it felt like two different games grafted together. I would much rather they had left out parts two and three and created full part 1 arcs for the other four heroes.

Goth gods finally graced me an amazing Ninae. While I was experimenting with Inn forecast, I noticed an abnormal amount of strength + other good stats hiking on this goddess.

Before this I could never stick with Ninae due to her constantly being outshined by other units, but this time she happens to excel in Theodora’s army as mage tank + battle medic.

Excited to get through part two with her 🖤

Who carried your team in part 3 and are they from Part 1? Are new units you get in Part 2 or 3 better than the ones you raised in Part 1? I am still in Part 1 and won’t be in Part 2 in a while still at my pace. I wonder if putting extra effort in Part 1 pays off in Part 3 and the final battle, or besides the flame lords, they get replaced by newer more powerful recruits.

Are there cleaning weapons for spears and axes and gauntlets as well? Or just the sword, im on cai's story and all I have is the sword given to me in the story, if its only swords, how do I get more? They're super useful against these undead who love abusing lifesteal.