Crapmagak

So, after the Leda clip made me realise the Hunter was the sword beginner class, and that the Myrmidon had likely been bumped up to intermediate, I’ve had a little theory about how Fortune’s Weave will handle the class system.

In the second trailer, we are introduced to a weekly training activity that groups the skills into four families: Infantry, Heavy, Mage, and Mounted. Of the beginner classes we’ve been shown, we have the Hunter, which gives bonus exp to the Infantry’s specialties, and the Ornius Rider, which gives bonus exp to Lances, Riding, and Flying. These (Minus leadership) perfectly match the beginner classes we’ve seen so far.

As a result, I think the classes in Fortune’s Weave will be pseudo divided into families based around the four types. Bonus exp and class buffs will make it easier for members of a class family to promote into classes of said family. Especially when it comes to a class's movement type. The Hunter is designed to naturally promote into a myrmidon, rogue, or archer. The Ornius Rider is designed to naturally promote into an Ornius Knight (My guess at the English name), Cavalier, Pegasus Knight. And then we have the Charioteer, which is shown wielding bows, so while the Ornius Rider can still naturally promote into it better than others, the player will still need to put in extra work and care to raise the unit's bow level. And Activity’s like weekly training further promote this synergy. 

With this in mind, I wanna keep track of all the classes we’ve seen so far in a living document, categorized by guessing where each class that’s revealed fits in this family system.

Infantry Classes: Infantry is a new skill to raise, and I think it’ll mostly be modest movement boosts and resistances to being slowed down by certain terrains.

Beginner

Hunter (Swords, Bows, Gauntlets?, and Foot): A new class that focuses on speed and dexterity, designed to smoothly promote into the classes below.

Intermediate

Myrimidon (Sword, Foot) (Confirmed)

Rogue (Sword, Bow, Foot) (Guessing): Likely a renaming of the thief class.

Archer (Bow, Foot)

Heavy Classes: In 3H, leveling armor gave smite, and reduced the effects of weight. We’ll probably get something similar.

Beginner

Soldier (Sword, Lance, Axe, Armor): A reworking of the traditional class, specializing in the traditional melee weapons, designed to smoothly promote into the classes below.

Intermediate

Gladiator (Sword, Axe, Armor?) (Guessing): Considering the generic Gladiator’s bulk and helmet, I think it’s meant to be the heavy class that specializes in swords.

Armored Knight (Swords, Lance, Axe, Foot, Armor) (Guessing)

Brigand (Axe, Gauntlets, Armor) (Guessing)

Pugilist* (Gauntlets, Armor) (Guessing)

*I assume the Pugilist belongs to the Heavy family because it’s shown next to the Brigan in the Artbook leak. Could be wrong, though.

Mage Classes: These classes allow a unit access to their learned spells. However, they'll still be able to use specific weapons, so it's likely some intermediate and above classes will be mixed attackers like War Monks. 

Beginner

Diviner (Swords, Axes, Gauntlets, Reason, Faith): Likely a rename of the monk class from Three Houses.

Intermediate

Shaman (Reason) (Guessing): Potentially the new name for mages in Dagda, but could also be a separate class from mages and priests. Awaits further info.

Priest (Axes, Gauntlets, Reason, Faith)

Advanced

Cursed Master (Guessing) (Reason) (Guessing): Potentially a rename for the dark bishop class? Perhaps in Dagda, dark magic is known as curses.

Mounted Classes: These units have mounts that give strong increases to movement and potential resistance to terrains. 

Beginner

Ornius Rider (Sword, Axe, Lance, Riding, Flying) (Confirmed): A brand new class introducing a brand new mount type. Likely meant to be a midpoint between horse cavalry and flying cavalry.

Intermediate

Ornius Knight (Lance, Axe, Riding, Flying) (Guessing): An upgrade for the Ornius Rider. Likely becomes more specialized in its statline. Considering it gains the use of axes, I suspect this is meant to be the stronger and bulkier cavalry class.

Cavalier (Sword, Lance, Riding) (Guessing)

Charioteer (Lance, Bow, Riding) (Guessing): The first new class we saw. Likely plays a similar function to the nomad class from the Elibe games, being a weaker but more available version of the bow knight.

Pegasus Knight (Sword, Lance, Flying) (Guessing)

Advanced

Wyvern Rider (Lance, Axe, Flying) (Guessing)

Edit: As it turns out, the class system has been slightly overhauled in that weapon availability is locked to classes again. An interesting change to be sure, and one that’ll make certain units more likely to be promoted into certain classes through ambient skill growth. 

Damn, multiple veterans with their own epithets, what is this, a Trails game? (Affectionate)

In all seriousness, Mikaela seems cool. And it’s neat to have an actual mother recruitable unit without second generation shenanigans. Also the milf enjoyers get thrown a bone, so good for them (I’m a part of them).

Now, the question on everyone’s mind, who’s her daughter, because two units might be it. Mikaela’s last name is Augustus, while Tialla’s surname is August. On one hand, that sure is quite the coincidence. But on the other hand, there is that whole thing with Tialla’s grandfather intentionally trying to prevent her from reading. But on the other, other hand, why give these characters such similar last names. Like, someone in production would to have caught that and had it changed if it didn’t mean anything. Still, my gut’s saying it’s probably just a coincidence. 

However, there’s one other candidate. We’ve got that orange haired tomboy kid in Leda’s crew. I can see her being Mikaela’s kid. Something like, Mikaela wants her daughter to be a well educated young lady with a safe and stable job. But her daughter wants to be a famous fighter like her mother. So she joins the Rose Tempests to enter the tournament and prove herself. Eh, we’ll see.

Her cutscene clip is interesting in a few ways. 1, we see the cutscene clip takes place in a tavern, completely identical to the one we see Leda and Sirocco in. Maybe it’s the same location, maybe it’s just the stock tavern area. Dietrich and friends are described as having saved Mikaela, so there’s a decent chance we have a tavern brawl maps in this game.

But of course, the Aragonan elephant in the map, we finally see the pink haired lady dressed similarly to Sirocco again. She doesn’t talk in the clip, but she’s clearly part of the group conversation wise. I’ve seen a couple theory’s going around, stuff like that she’s some kind of organizer for the games. My theory, however, is that like Sirocco (also a theory), she’s a servant of the goddess Karla. Being a Time Dragon, she can gaze into the upcoming timelines and knows the four lords will be important, so she has some of her servants guiding them along to the games. So there’s a strong chance this pink haired woman is a neutral unit in this theory.

For the most part, the gameplay clip isn’t anything too special. All we really glean is that brigands are infantry units that give bonus exp to axes. And with that, well, it looks like my class family theory is probably not true. Oh to the wells.

And now we have Ultand. I’ll admit, I’ve been eager to get her profile for a while now. Priestess seemed like more than just her class, and with that, lore implications. Thankfully, such hopes were founded. She’s described as a priestess serving the “Aurora Temple”, which is interesting in a few aspects.

Now, credits to reddit user Cratou for pointing this out. 

All the way back in the first trailer, we can see two temples, one cyan, the other a purplish red. And in the second trailer, we can see Cai and friends in a big blue room with banners displaying the Crest of Aubin, talking with a manakete. The crest of Aubin corresponds to ice dragons. Auroras are associated with the icy north. So, safe to say Aurora is an ice dragon, one of the gods of Dagda. Though I am curious if they live in Dagsion, or are simply taking up residence there during the games.

I have a couple theories based on this information. First, Cai has a crest of Aubin. So either he’s had that mark from birth, and that leads the temple to help him out. Or a dragon at the temple ends up taking a liking to Cai, and ends up gifting him the mark via blood transfusion.

Second, I don’t think the pink haired manakete is Aurora, but rather a daughter or descendant of them. In fact, I think this game will make manakete units playable but not busted by going “oh, they’re a young dragon, so they're not as powerful and their draconic form is smaller (only occupies one tile)”, while older dragons are bosses depending on the route.

Third, there’s a strong chance the other lords will end up using temples as bases of operations, aligning themselves with manaketes.

Now, what the red temple correlates too could have some interesting implications. If it’s a crusher dragon, then these temples likely correlate to dragons that rule over nations, meaning Aurora probably rules over the nation of Brezarant. If not, I think the red temple belongs yo a Flame Dragon (Crest of Daphnel), since fire and ice dragons are the most common of the “normal” manakete species in FE. Also, fire, ice, they’re right next to each other.

If we get a yellow temple for Theodora’s team… I would have assumed a bloom dragon because of the cat masked girl, but she seems to be part of a separate faction. Perhaps an earth or lightning dragon. We never saw Cichol’s form, and since the four saints may be aligned to the four symbols, perhaps earth dragons are large and feline in nature to represent the white tiger? But lightning would also make sense with the yellow, and the sphinx creature is more lion like than tiger. Or maybe it is a bloom dragon, and the cat masked girl just isn’t aligned with Theodora at the start.

The real interesting one would be Dietrich, what with the corpse blade, the world's least subtle Agarthan, and a woman with a forbidden mark at his side. There’s a decent chance Dietrich won’t get involved with a temple. But if he did and we get a purple temple… there’s no real match for mage dragon in the crests. So either an Aegis Dragon who takes notice of Dietrich because he has the crest of Lamine. Or perhaps a dark dragon if they have good standing in the Dagdan Empire.

But that’s enough dragon speculation for now. 

The cutscene clip gives us a little plot snippet. It seems Cai and friends join the heroic games late, at the last possible second. This makes sense, since we know Cai and Theodora’s final qualifier matches take place at different dates, Cai’s significantly later than Theodora’s.

From the look of things, from a gameplay perspective, the heroic games will be structured like this. Preliminary match. 3 qualifiers. And then likely 3 final rounds where you fight the other lords/ other nations representatives.

I am curious about what Cai and friends will get up to before joining the games. Presumably there’s a tutorial chapter in his home village, and then the chapter where they help Ultand fight those goons. I assume each lord will have a similar number of story chapters and maps, after all.

Ultand also mentions Cai’s desire to save his father striking a cord. Perhaps she lost her father, or has a parent in a delicate situation.

As for the gameplay clip, we get a look at the priestess class, which gives bonuses to gauntlets, reason, and faith. We also know it can wield axes, though they don’t get bonus exp. The gauntlets and axes make me think we’ll be getting advanced classes like war monk and marital master in this game.

We also see her fight skellions riding undead orniuses (they made a whole new mount model and skeleton rig for this game and god dammit they’ll get their money's worth). From the looks of things, undead enemies will be a common monster unit to fight. They even have their own weakness signifier. 

This girl’s cute. Judging by her outfit, I think she might be a part of Theodora’s army. Bonaventure’s more a mage than a swordsman, so it makes sense for their squad to get a dedicated sword unit. I’ll admit, though, not a fan of her lower half. Baggy pants are fine. Mini skirts and thigh highs are also fine. Just, like, commit to one.

We actually get this guy's name, Nuzzo. He seems to be a neutral unit related to some kind of forest tribe. He looks cool, and hopefully we’ll get some good world building from his support.

But they saved the most intriguing one for last. 

Flowery Voice: Whimsical Wind

Leda’s left hand man has been revealed, Sirocco. It seems he’s our token flirty boi; smart, sophisticated, and mysterious edition. Both his bio and the cutscene clip reveal some very interesting tidbits. It’s set up that he joins Leda’s quest for vengeance because she’s hot, though it seems obvious he’s secretly helping her for another reason. He also likes the goddess Karla, so perhaps she’s a manakete Sircocco serves. And if so, perhaps this Karla also has a distaste for Leda’s target, or simply stands to gain in some way from his death.

In the cutscene clip, Leda is referred to as a “Goddess of Fortune”. So I guess the Dagdan gods aren’t as jealous of the Greek pantheon if people can just say that. But it also reminded me of something. The “Gods” of Dagda seem to be manaketes, and in the Sothisverse, there are implied to be twenty one or so dragon types each corresponding to the major arcana of Tarot. And one of those arcana is “The Wheel of Fortune”. How… How did I not make that connection earlier! I feel like such a fake Three Houses fan/ tarot knower.

The Crest of Goneril lines up with the Wheel of Fortune, corresponding to the Kalpa sign. From what I’ve been able to find, a Kalpa is a unit of time in Hinduism and Buddhism. Like, a ridiculously long, around 4 billion years. So in the Sothisverse, they’re probably some kind of time themed dragon. And, well, we have the pagan altar in Three Houses, said to be a Dagdan Deity of fate. One that kinda resembles Eshmel, the “Herald of the White Raven”. So perhaps Kalpa Dragons resemble big white ravens, and Eshmel is connected to them in some way? Either way, in a game called Fortunes Weave, this Goddess of Fortune, and/ or a Kalpa Dragon have to be important players in the plot.

There isn’t too much to say about the combat clip on it’s own. Still, it’s nice to finally get to listen to the Rose Tempest battle theme. We also get the little plot snippet that they’re fighting Lechner's army in this map. I’m further convinced he’s a minor antagonist on Leda’s path. 

One thing that does interest me, however, is that at this point we have a pretty consistent view of Leda’s exclusive early game crew. Leda herself, Buccaneer, Sirocco, the orange haired tomboy, the blond oujo-sama, and the pale braid woman. And yet, there’s one figure in the second trailer we haven’t seen since.

Tobias has been officially revealed. I didn't hate the design of his model, but his portrait is a lot more flattering, the pose and expression telling you so much about his personality before you even read his bio. Gives me Reyn/ Vadam vibes, for my fellow Xenoblade fans.

It does seem that the left hand “enhanced physical ability theory” is out the window, though. Instead, it seems like we’ll have a more general “smart sidekick, brawny sidekick” duo. This makes me very interested in who Leda’s other sidekick will be, because Buccaneer’s already a beefcake. Of course, Buccaneer’s differentiated from the other retainers because he’s smart in terms of practical experience and emotional intelligence over knowledge. So perhaps Leda’s other sidekick will be someone physically weak and young but down for throwing hands and revenge.

Back to Tobias, his support clip gives us a sneak peak at another member of Theodora’s army, Lysander, the pink haired ornius rider we’ve seen before. We don’t know too much about him, other than that he seems to be a younger, more straight-laced contrast to Tobias.

As for the gameplay clip, we see yet another character classed as an armored knight.

Interestingly, the music is pretty different from the track we heard in Bonaparte's gameplay clip. However, we hear the motif in today's clip in Bonaparte’s cutscene clip, where he’s talking about what it means to be a ruler. So this is probably Theodora’s actual faction theme.

We also get a look at some monster units as well. The small ones seem to be called “Flying Vouivre”. Vouivre seems to be a french mythical creature that’s similar to a wyvern, so in universe these are probably a type of wild wyvern. Too small to carry humans and armor, but still large enough to be a threat. Then there’s a bird monster that takes up four squares, though it only looks large enough to take up one. Either way, it’s cool to see more monster units.

This map is also interesting because it’s clearly the ship we see Dietrich on during that one cutscene. Considering the world map system, it makes sense a bunch of maps will be replayable since they’re physical places in Dagda. It also makes me think perhaps Dietrich’s prologue chapter will involve him fighting a bunch of Vouivre’s as well. A little nod to his weapons origin, and perhaps his overall goals.

It’s Esmeralda time!

It seems she's a commoner from a small coastal village. One that tried to sacrifice her to a sea monster before Dietrich rescued her. Hopefullu that’s a map, complete with us getting to fight the sea monster itself. I liked the idea of monster units, but the actual monster designs were kinda, eh… Demonic beasts were neat, but used pretty repeatedly in the war phase. And outside of them it was just, big wolf, big bird, big lizard. The crawlers and Titanus were cool, as were the saints, but they were few and far between. So hopefully we get some really cool monster designs.

Another thing of note is that Esmeralda is described as having super strength. Its origin is revealed later, but it is interesting when compared to Peter. He had super vision, Esmeralda has super strength, will the other left hand man retainers have some kind of enhanced physical capability? If the right hand retainers have eye conditions, symbolizing a greater connection to mental, emotional, and spiritual matters; then perhaps the left hand retainers have enhanced physical capabilities to symbolize their connection to more material matters?

Perhaps they’re also doing an inverse of the four monkeys. Peter is “see no evil”, and Esmeralda is “do no evil”. If I had to guess, perhaps Pompadour Guy has great hearing, and whoever Leda’s left hand is has a powerful voice?

On top of all that, I have been noticing a contrasting pattern with this right hand left hand retainer. Tiara is shown to be very confident and ambitious, eager to explore the outside world, while Peters more timid and unconfident. In turn, Fabio’s an uncharismatic intellectual, while Esmeralda’s a stronger fighter with a weakness for pretty boys.

The Cutscene Clip gives us some juicy info. It seems Crests are called “Marks of the Gods”, and Esmeralda has one. If you pause on just the right frame, you can see the Crest of Blaiddyd on her trident. However, the local priests said they’re no such god with that mark. 

So, it was obvious, but this basically confirms the gods that rule the Dagdion Empire are manaketes, perhaps even descendants of the Nabateans. And interestingly, none of them are Grim Dragons. So, either Esmeralda is a long lost descendant of Blaiddyd, a former god was erased from Dagda's history, or there's a Grim Dragon somewhere in Dagda who isn’t being worshipped for whatever reason. It’ll probably be revealed in Esmeralda’s paralogue. 

In the gameplay clip, we see Esmeralda’s an Armored Knight. They give bonuses to Lances, Axes, and Armor, but it’s also considered an infantry unit, and can use swords. So it’s safe to say classes will be able to wield more than just their specialties, even if it’s still not every weapon. Also, it’s funny that Armored Knight seems to be one of Esmeralda’s cannon classes, because she doesn’t swap to the generic class outfit, but as a result, she’s actually armored, just has a big shield. 

She seems to have a personal weapon, “Shinza’s Harpoon”. Makes me curious how many non lord units will get personal weapons in this game. Also, it appears mutton chops guy is another neutral unit as well. And finally, we get a look at the Brigand Class. They’re shown wielding gauntlets, but their sprite wields an axe.

Alright, and now we’ve been formally introduced to Peter. To contrast Cai’s more excitable shounen boy vibe, Peter is timid and cautious. Very Percy and Grover, for my fellow Percy Jackson kids. 

Now, a lot of people have noticed something. The past four retainers have some kind of eye condition. While Pieter is characterized by his incredible eyesight. And so a new theory is born, will each Lord's left hand man have improved eyesight. Or perhaps some other kind of improved sense? We’ll just have to wait until (presumably) Wednesday when Esmeralda gets her formal introduction.

Outside of that, not too much to dig into this time around. A “Catach” guy is mentioned in his support convo. Could be someone important. Could just be a guy from their village who’s mentioned in some supports.

Then there were four.

Honestly, I’ve found these retainer reveals to be very revealing for what each will be about, more than just “the lord wants X”, since these characters are so tied to the lord's worlds. Buccaneer is no exception, revealing more of Leda’s deal. 

As for the guy himself, he seems cool. A big, strong, dependable surrogate father figure for Leda. Like a combination of Saber and Dedue, two characters I’m rather fond of. It does interest me that we have a second Jaegan esc retainer (in terms of characterization, not gameplay), alongside Bonaparte. Meanwhile, Tiara’s a childhood friend, and Fabio’s a stranger. 

The gameplay clip doesn’t reveal too much. It doesn’t even give us a sneak peak at the Rose Tempests theme, the bastards. Still, soldiers indeed seem to be the beginner class for the heavy class family. We also see that armored knights can equip swords. And it seems at this point the paled haired ponytail woman will be a part of the Rose Tempests.

The main points of interest, though, is the weird scifi bullshit in the center of the coliseum, a bunch of pipes and such leading into some kind of statue. Considering the nature of Leda’s power, she could very well be involved with the Agarthans or a similar faction as well. And we see a return of the cat masked priestess as a green unit, with a green unit archer seen below her. Likely a bodyguard of some kind.

This is an interesting pattern. We now have 3 different duos of green units we’ve seen repeatedly. Gun nun and the woman with a green braid. The green haired man with a toothpick, accompanied by Ursula. And now Cat Mask and her archer friend. Obviously these are representatives of other factions attending the games. And obviously they’ll be recruitable at some point. But perhaps they won’t be recruitable until after that potential time skip, exclusive to certain lords. Plus there’s a good chance we’ll see four pair show up at some point.

The support clip, however, is where the real meat and potatoes of this character reveal are. From this we learn that Leda’s father was a legal officer who worked in Dagsion. 

At long, long last, we have a name for pirate Waluigi: Bonaparte.

I like this guy, and his vibes. And it’s interesting that writing is forbidden in Saramis. It honestly makes one wonder how you can have a kingdom function without a writing system, but that’s mostly just me being a pedant. This does interest me from a lore perspective, though. A major theme of Three Houses was powerful people limiting and falsifying knowledge to guide society to their liking. And well, regardless of what route you took, it never ended well for the culprit. If I had to guess, there must be some kind of ruins with powerful, pre flood artifacts and weapons in Saramis. And either the Sovereign or Magaera (if she’s a dragon) doesn’t want the humans in the kingdom finding out how to reactivate them.

The gameplay clip shows quite a bit of interesting things.

First, despite being a diviner, Bonaparte can use swords. And this is a couple days after it was revealed weapons were class locked again. However, magic works differently in the Fodlan games. So I guess it makes sense for mage units to be able to use melee weapons in case they run out of magic. 

Edit: Read through the Serenesforest analysis. Apparently in the japanese trailer Ultand is a diviner, and we can see that said class can wield swords, axes, and gauntlets. Naturally, I checked the english trailer where she’s a priest. They can wield axes and gauntlets. So there's a decent chance mages/ shamans will be able to wield swords.

Then we have the map. It looks like some kind of temple, with the big altar flames, statues of some kind of female figure, and the big stairs similar to what leads to Sothis’s throne. The enemies that are encountered seem to be undead. Their Japanese names are apparently hard to translate. Interestingly, their banner is the same as men fighting for the masked man from the trailer. So this could be the symbol of the underworld cult, or simply a faction that uses necromancy. Either way, it seems they’ll be a major antagonistic faction in Theodora’s route. Also, it looks like undead generic enemies have spooky glowy eyes in their portraits. 

We also get a look at a monster unit, which does have a full faced portrait; the hellbones (often localised as wight). So like, it makes sense that monster units have full portraits. But the fact that wights have faces makes it pretty jarring. 

Also, I really like the map theme and its guitar.

Now, for the story clip.

We’re introduced to Dayan, who looks like the forsaken love child of Validar and Shinji Matou. Very obviously an antagonistic figure in Theodora’s storyline. Probably her brother or cousin, seeking to steal the throne from her. So it looks like there will be members of Saramis’s royal court and family who’ll oppose Theodora. Good. Makes the story more interesting if Saramis isn’t a hegemonic entity that mindlessly follows Theodora.

I also took some serious notice of the winded lion statues, lining presumably the royal palace. It’s such a common, recurring symbol that at this point I’m convinced Magaera is a dragon goddess who founded or guided Saramis, specifically a bloom dragon, which resembled winged lions. Hence why the priestess girl wears a cat mask and the crest of Noa. Magaera set up Saramis to guard and protect some kind of ancient super weapon, and at some point died in doing so. Thus, she left her legacy to the people of Saramis. And perhaps the Sovereign made Saramis a vessel so he could also make sure said weapon never ends up in the wrong hands.

Anyway, the actual conversation taking place brings up a theme that’ll probably be core to Theodora’s story. What does it mean to be a queen, and what defines a nation? Can Theodora do what it takes to grab and maintain her power without becoming alienated from her people? And will upholding this national legacy ever come in conflict with her want and duty to do right by her people. As an example, lifting the ban on writing in her country? 

We have the official introduction of Fabio. Yet another character we’ve seen since day one, so it’s nice to finally know what his deal is.

All things considered, I was totally blindsided by him being a missionary for the Church of Seiros. It makes sense. Agarthans infiltrating the church is a reoccuring plotpoint of White Clouds, and BOY do that want to make it obvious he’s an Agarthan. And the church of Seiros is Fodlan’s defining political faction, so it makes sense to have someone rep that in the team from Fodlan.

I think this guy’s gonna come from the same mold as Hubert, coming off as your typical evil sorcerer when he’s your enemy, but having hidden nice sides as an allie. I’m very interested in his overall role in the story, though. He and Dietrich are strangers until the start of the game. But they’re both from the same hometown, and their goals clearly intersect on some level. 

To preface a theory, I think this game is a prequel. I’ve always thought that with the classical Rome inspired setting. What’s really made me sure, however, is that Fabio is a missionary for the Church of Seiros, which is dissolved at the end of Crimson Flower. And I highly doubt they’ll uncanonize one of the Three Houses endings. 

My current theory is that while Seiros scrubbed Fodlan of every advanced Agarthan ruin she could find, there are still a bunch of ruins of ancient Agartha’s colonies in Dagda. Ruins the Sovereign’s let stand for whatever reason. So using missionaries as a cover, the Agarthans send one of their spies over to try and get their hands on these lost technologies so they can reverse engineer them. But a lot of these places have automated defense systems, so Fabio teams up with the mighty swords Dietrich in order to get past them. In between matches, we’ll probably get some chapters where House Lamine heads off to investigate various ruins.

I do think Dietrich and Fabio are gonna have a buddy cop dynamic, bickering and clashing at first, but eventually becoming a strong team.

Also, while it is cool to see so many of the male characters have designs outside of the standard pretty anime twunk, it does kinda suck that the female characters don’t have as daring designs. Hopefully we’ll get, like, a butch woman or an old lady recruitable unit revealed later.

As for the clips, we’ve got a couple things of note.

First, we have the names of the two other members of Dietrich’s army we know of. Brazilian Miku’s name is Esmeralda, and we actually get a good peak at what she’s like via the support conversation clip. I like her, she seems very sassy and headstrong. And the orange haired axe lady is Michaela. She seems like a gentle giant type.

Also, with the combat clip, and the cutscene clip, we can hear a clear leitmotif and associated instruments. So it seems like every Lord and their team have their own leitmotif, included in their own cutscene tracks, and map themes. Now I really look forward to hearing Theodora’s and Leda’s themes. Especially Leda’s considering she’s so heavily associated with music and dance.

So someone on reddit made a really good observation about the retainers of the Fortune’s Weave’s four lords.

Link Here

All four of them have some kind of eye condition. Tiara wears (and presumably needs) glasses, Fabio has a lazy or glass eye, Pirate Waluigi has an eyepatch, and the scared axe fighter’s titular scar covers his left eye, which is always closed. This can’t be a coincidence. However, I don’t think it’ll be something that affects the material plot in Fortune’s Weave. Instead, it’ll be incredibly important in regards to symbolism and themes. 

In mythology and folklore there’s this recurring trope of someone missing one or both eyes to symbolize their connection to a higher set of knowledge and wisdom. The blind prophet. Odin sacrificing an eye to learn the meaning of runes. When Horus loses an eye, he’s gifted a new one by Thoth, a god of wisdom and knowledge. It symbolizes letting go of one’s perception of the things in order to obtain a more complete and enlightened view point. 

One of the likely themes of Fortune’s Weave is desire, the willpower and vigor needed to obtain it, and the conflict this breeds. This is made very literal by the Heroic Games, a tournament where people fight each other in order to get a wish granted. And blaze arts present another theme, willpower and vigor as dangerous, self destructive forces. Made literal in the way these powerful abilities literally consume the Lords hp in order to use.

All four lords are decisive, driven characters giving their all to obtain their wish. In contrast, I think the four retainers will be the blue oni’s to their lords red oni. The voices of reason and caution. Because their eyes aren’t as glued to the lords goals, they’re able to see and understand things their lord ignores. And when each of the lords inevitably crash out and almost get consumed by their cursed powers, they’ll be the ones to pull the lords back to their senses, and guide them to a more complete way of viewing the world.

Also, each retainer is clearly designed to compliment their lord. 

Tiara is very scholarly and a tactical thinker, while Cai’s a reckless little shounen scamp. Cai comes from a humble background, while Tiara’s grandfather was an esteemed tactician. Cai’s a very outdoorsy kid, Tiara likes reading in doors. To read into more potential parallels, Tiara wants to follow in her grandfathers footsteps despite his attempts to forbid her. Perhaps Cai wanted to be different from his father, who’ supportive of this, and now there’s all this guilt after he gets imprisoned.

Dietrich strikes me as the kinda guy who just does whatever he wants and is hot enough to get away with being odd, so I think Fabio will be someone very used to navigating polite society and having to be careful and conscientious with his words. Dietrich has a great bloodlust, so perhaps Fabio has a phobia of blood. And if Dietrich is someone caught between the two worlds of Fodlan and agartha, perhaps Fabio is someone born into a simple, clear legacy he’s expected to live up to.

Edit: Well, this one seems a bit off the mark. Let's see how badly I guessed with the other two retainers.

Pirate Waluigi is likely very conscious of political and diplomatic consequences, acting as an advisor/ vizier character. Someone who prefers to avoid needless conflict. Theodora is a queen, born into a royal legacy to uphold which she gladly accepts. Perhaps her retainer is someone who had no legacy, or deserted his in order to serve the crown. And while Theodora operates out in the open as queen, her retainer prefers to operate in the shadows.

The scarred axe fighter may be a childhood friend of Leda, and a fellow survivor of the attack on their village, hence the burn scar. In fact, he and Leda visually contrast each other more than any other lord + retainer pair. Leda is thin, feminine, beautiful, and dresses in reds. Her retainer is bulky, masculine, scared, and dresses in blues. Leda is someone who presents charmingly and seductive, but hides a fiery and vengeful side underneath. He presents as stoic and strong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a compassionate and emotionally intelligent side underneath to contrast Leda. Two different reactions to a shared trauma, one focused on vengeance and catharsis, the other focused on protecting and caring for what he has left. 

First up, we’ve got the face and name of Dietrich’s retainer/ companion character, Fabio. A very ironic name considering… well… I think only his right eye is meant to be lazy, and the neutral expression position of his left eye makes it look like he's doing the derp face. Predictably, he can use dark magic.

We also get a better look at the portraits for some of House Lamine’s other members. We already had a decent idea of brazilian miku’s face, but it’s nice to get a better look at the orange haired axe woman.

But of course, what truly catches my eye is the map. It’s some kind of dark dome full of large metal pipes, where Dietrich and company fight holographic foes called “defense soldiers”. 

So at this point, there’s undoubtedly some kind of Agarthan presence in Dagda. I guess it makes sense, their civilization prospered before they challenged Sothis, so their influence and technology probably made it to the neighbouring continent of Dagda. But it’s interesting that you never really see high tech ruins in Fodlan. Only Twsitd’s bunker. Obviously Seiros and her forces probably scrubbed Fodlan clean of them.

But in Dagda, the ruins still stand. They’re even shown in the heroic games themselves. Were the Dagdan Agarthans well and truly wiped out, so the sovereign saw no need to hide the remains of their civilization? Or maybe the Dagdan survivors were allowed to integrate into post flood society in some capacity. Or maybe the manaketes of the continent simply kept the remaining technology for themselves and the humans they ruled over.

As for this map specifically, it looks like Dietrich’s team went to investigate some ruins, and accidentally triggered a high tech defense system, summoning holographic warriors like the spirits warriors in Three Houses.

Also, this stage has a new piece of music too, which has an electric guitar playing. In Three Houses, there were light edm touches to some of the tracks, with outright dubstep used for Shambala itself. Obvious to communicate that the Agarthans are mysterious, alien to this medieval world, and have advanced technology. The electric guitar is an interesting choice, a halfway point between the physical orchestral instruments of the fantasy setting, yet still requiring modern technology to make its unique sound. So I think this theme is for House Lamine and Dietrich. Probably the theme for his non-colosseum maps.

So far, Dietrich is the most mysterious of the four lords. We only really have the most general idea of a goal and motivation for him. But at this point, he’s without a doubt connected to the Agarthans in some way. This specific instrument choice makes me think Dieitrich is a man of two worlds, possibly even someone who’s half agarthan, half foldanese. He knows of the Agarthans, dallying with their technology and magic, yet they do not accept him as one of their own. And at the same time, his forbidden knowledge alienates him from Fodlan’s culture as well. So perhaps one of his arcs will be about finding his own place in the world somewhere in Dagda, thus explaining the fall of House Lamine if this is a prequel. At least, that’s my current theory.

We finally have our first non lord character bio, this time for Tiara. She’s easily the second most prominent member of the Ribeira Winds besides Cai himself. So it’s pretty likely she plays the role of retainer/ confidant for Cai, like Hubert, Dedue, and Hilda did for their house leaders.

Through both her bio, and support conversation clip, we actually get quite a lot of intrigue about her. Her grandfather was a former tactician. And interestingly, it isn’t stated who he worked for, and he actively went out of his way to stop Tiara from following in his footsteps, and failed. So there’s a strong chance her grandfather will be some kind of plotpoint in Cai’s story.

Having a character that's a tactician be Cai’s second in command could also hint to him rising in political and military power in his story. I do have a theory that Cai and Leda’s actions in the heroic games will lead to them gaining positions of power in Brezarant and Arago respectively.

As for her crit clip, it looks like Diviner is the new mage focused beginner class, skilled in reason and faith.

Once again, we see the colosseum map where Cai and Leda team up. We even get a better look at the pugilist character we caught a glimpse of last time. His dark skin, blue hair, and yellow armor make me think he’s possibly the son or nephew of that one armored knight with blue dreads we saw with the pinked haired manakete. I’m guessing the two are her guards, who get lent to the Ribeira Winds when Cai and the Manakete form an alliance.

We can also see that Ultand is in the party as well, as well as Peter, the orange haired merc, and the bald bearded guy. We’ve consistently seen the oranged haired merc as a blue unit in other armies, so I think he’s a neutral unit. In fact, I think he’s the tutorial neutral unit that gets recruited early on in each route. As for the bald bearded guy, we’ve seen him as a blue unit in Dietrich's army, so he’s probably a neutral unit too.

As for the green/ teal units, we have Leda and the scared axe fighter. In every map where a lord shows up as a green unit, they’ve only had one member of their army join them. Cai with Tiara. Dietrich with the salo faced mage. Theodora with pirate waluigi. So I think it’s safe to say this guy will be Leda’s retainer character.

Then there’s the green haired guy with a toothpick, and Ursula. We’ve seen them together as green units in one of the press release shots, so there’s a good chance they’re a team too. My guess being Ursula’s a mercenary he hired.

Now, we’ve also seen Gun Nun show up as a green unit, consistently with the woman with green anime mom hair. So my best guess is that these guys are their own neutral teams. Some neutral characters are lone wolves with no connections, so anyone can recruit them. But these guys, they’re connected to other factions in Dagda. If they’re recruitable, and they likely will be, they’ll join your army automatically for story reasons. For all we know, they might not even join your army until some point after the time skip.

Edit: Oh shit, there were a couple things I forgot to talk about. 

So, in the gameplay clip, Tiara has a wind tome equipped which is interesting because Three Houses didn’t have tomes. Magic was a skill, every character having their own unique set of spells they could learn. And each spell had a set number of uses for each map. And then we see Sirocco use thunder in the second trailer, it marks down how many uses he has left in the battle forecast (this is not done for weapons), which indicates they’ll still be using that system. So what gives?

Perhaps in Fortune’s Weave, tomes are a sort of equipment that either lets people add a spell to their list, or increases the potency of a given element.