golden boy *:･ﾟ✧

Heightened senses sprawled across the room    (    the slow drip of blood on the concrete, the shifting of mice in the walls, the temporary light of the moon shifting through the branches beyond the windows reach    )    ---    waiting    ?    or keeping watch. Bodies lining the floor    &    piled in corners    (    shells of the people they used to be; one blunder    &    it all falls down    ).    Unsurprising with a demon on the loose. Harder, still, after the rampant years of the kill thrumming in his veins. It was the way of a world such as theirs    (    a world rife with monsters prowling the night    ---    &    if so, what was he    ?    ).

All paling in comparison to the luck of the draw, one such strapped within blessed chains.

It was always interesting    (    comparing the actions of the ensnared    ).    Most cases originally found their quarry relishing in spewing vitriol. Words meaning nothing, in the end. For how could the likes of their ragtag group care about the verse of a creation made of deception    ?    demons who love spinning truths just shy of their mark; fermenting in the chaos of their own kind. No, it is right to believe all demons lie    ---    lie until they’re forced to speak their truths, anyway. But the importance in all this residing on the fact demons do fear,    &    that which they fear is of the heavens. A pity    (    if a star falls, is the sky still it’s home    ?    is it still one of the divine    ?    or is it required to accept it’s fate. seek new grounds with which to cultivate its dreams    ---    to fall is spoken of in whispered words    &    secrets from guarded gates, yet those of his mother could still distantly fly amongst their brethren    ),    &    a mistake for which it would pay. There is a human saying    ---    revenge is a dish best served cold    ---    but cold is incalculable with the wet warmth of blood on his hands.

I was just talking to Shinya about this the other day but like, there’s a lot of reasons nonnie that more or less come down to how I’m reading the game  &  utilizing my knowledge of things outside the game, specifically, in order to extrapolate pieces that fit into my view of canon while still keeping true to the original content…  if that makes sense  ?

for starters look at how Almyra is described in canon  —  

“Almyra is a vast land replete with fertile prairies, deserts, and mountain ranges. Eastern Almyra contains pine forests. The people of Almyra are known for their horsemanship and love of battle, and elite warriors are known to wield bows from astride wyverns.”

while it is hard to grasp today, due to the changes between the landscape in ancient times versus modern times, Mesopotamia was a vast landscape made up of the mountain ranges  (  most notably being the Zagros mountains of Elam  —  modern Iran  —  to the east  ),  fertile plains  (  between the Tigris  &  Euphrates rivers, which they worked hard to live alongside  &  utilize  )  &  deserts stretching out farther still. from the Zagros mountains, are believed to have risen the great cedar forests of which Humbaba resided  (  today believed to have been located in modern-day Lebanon  ).  sound familiar  ?.

on top of that  (  which I understand is a baby interpretation in comparison  )  are the wyverns. like okay in ancient Mesopotamia there were dragons  —  not dragons as we know them  —  that are known as the Mušḫuššu  (  𒈲𒄭𒄊  ). essentially it’s a hybrid creature that is known as a “fierce serpant”  &  sometimes is believed to be the embodiment of chaos. it is believed to be the serpent related to the story of Daniel in the Bible  (  if you wanna see what it looks like, it’s on the Gates of Ishtar  !!  ).  now like the wyverns are pretty straight forward but they also don’t look like our modern understanding of wyverns imo but the mythological wyvern isn’t too far off of the Mesopotamian dragon,  &  the Fire Emblem interpretation lends itself closer to that idea.

then okay I know this is a basic thing but when speaking to Rhea at the beginning of the game  (  after your first mission  )  you see an image of Zanado at the time of Sothis still watching over Nabatea  (  ancient Fódlan  )  —  the image shown looks a lot  (  to me anyway  )  like a mix between the ziggurats of ancient Sumer  (  although the Akkadians, Assyrians,  &  Babylonians also built ziggurats; dating ‘round 3000-300 bce  )  &  the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut  (  at  Deir el-Bahri; dating ‘round 1479-1458 bce  ).  not that I expect anyone to just go “oh yeah” when looking at stuff in-game in relation to Mesopotamia; it’s not exactly taught about in most people’s history classes  &  I am a graduate of both ancient history  &  language hopefully within the next five years starting on my doctorate.

fun fact to go with a few of my other Mesopotamian hot takes on this blog  —  the ziggurat to Marduk in Babylon was called Etemenanki which means “the foundation of heaven  &  earth” in Sumerian.

because the older wyverns were much too large he started off on some of the younger ones; they have like 0 real control of their wings in regards to compensating for someone on their back so he got hit in the face a lot  (  &  ended up under their feet which is not the best location  ).

he falls of more than he stays on for a good while  —  especially at first, which is part of why now he so chaotically flies wherever the fuck he wants  (  gotta go fast  &  high  ), but he still has some smaller scars from hitting stuff or landing funny ( his hands & knees got the worst of it  ).

when he came to Fodlan  &  was recognized as heir he picked up horseback riding as a kind of practice  —  horses are a bit easier to work with  &  it helped him train certain strengths  (  legs, for one,  &  getting more comfortable in a saddle  )  —  but that was just the basics. he still has a fondness for horses post that  &  will volunteer to help in the stables if needed.

after being away for so long  &  not having ridden a wyvern properly in a while, he absolutely ended up in the dirt  (  again  ).  while older wyverns are better mounts their size isn't comparable to the younger wyverns of his youth or the horses he rode in Fodlan.

while some of his flips  &  tricks he practiced on horseback he had to start all over again after getting on the back of a wyvern. due to hand raising Ophelia she's much more patient with his antics but no wyvern was really willing to sit around while he practices some gymnastics.

he's used to ending up on the ground, clearly.

like for starters I’m just gonna say this is all stuff I have half written up I’ll get more into later but of the suits, the swords are the ones associated with air ( ie: wind --- Claude’s route being verdant wind ) & represent the concept of literally the phrase “a double edged sword” & is often skewed towards more negative meanings? & is deeply rooted in thoughts/beliefs. it’s about the clarity of your thoughts & decisions & facing the reality of such. a lot of Claude’s character is about handling the experiences of his past in a way that better promotes a kinder future. while, do not get me wrong, he isn’t the kindest character by a long shot he does have a very strict set of beliefs he is working towards & that harmonzies nicely with the suit of swords grasp towards a goal while still being seeped in negative associations. his character is as doubly sharp as a blade in this --- an outward apperance that changes at the flip of a switch. the suit of swords represents both the good & the bad & how both essentially exist in this same surface without rendering the other useless. walking the fine line between explosive intellect over raw power; referred to as an “unseen power”

which like okay I’ll expand on the other’s for him to while I’m here & rambling but the moon is such an interesting one to place him in explicitly from tarot standards. it literally stands for illusions & deceptions. Claude’s whole character starts off as a deception you have to unravel over the course of the game, sure, but even moreso it relates to the plotline of the Golden Deer as well --- you are literally unveiling mysteries that the other routes never fully address. the moon is about only seeing half the picture; the creset ( Claude doesn’t get an opportunity in game to show himself as he fully is, for most if not all he is just the heir to house Riegan ). while a card who’s purpose is deceieving if pulled in a future position it means a favorable outcome !! following its present position meaning an opportunity to change your future.

which !!! is why the tower for house Riegan is interesting !! it, too, symbolizes change but not in the good way the moon mostly implies. the tower means a chaotic sudden change & acts as a forewarning of dangers to come. in a past position the tower literally means an unresolved situation --- whether this is Claude’s own backstory, a commentary on the crests history, or more is up to interpretation of course but I would argue it’s all & more. it speaks of inevitable change of which we see literally happen before our eyes in game, especially in regards to Claude who can survive all the routes & has his own change still at that.