‪MAJOR Azure Moon/ Marianne Paralogue Spoilers:

After re-watching cutscene of Hegemon Edelgard being de-transformed,‬ and the story of Maurice Edmund, I was reminded that the Demonic Beasts transformation is kinda similar to titans from Attack on Titans. Some retain sentience and some wander aimlessly for centuries till they are killed. Titans can regain human form by eating Titan shifters while Demonic Beasts only retain human form when the demonic beasts is killed. Like a titan shifter when a Demonic Beast is killed the human body is always found in the remains of the beast. In the case of Maurice, nothing remained except his Hero’s Relic: Blutgang and his human skeleton remained. The same thing happens to Miklan when the Lance of Ruin transformed him. Gilbert comments that only Miklan and the lance remained. Sothis also described the transformation as the Lance swallowing him whole. This confirms that when humans transform ‬into Demonic Beasts the human body is basically trapped within a giant husk(the Demonic Beast) forced to wander aimlessly. Interesting note, Edelgard’s class as a demonic beast is literally called Hegemon Husk which we see the “husk” dissipate off of her body like ashes once she’s been defeated.

Also Edelgard is like the equivalent of a titan shifter in that she retained her intelligence and sentience, and was able to survive when her “husk” was defeated. The game didn’t explicitly call Hegemon Edelgard a Demonic Beast or explain the catylist of her transformation it’s entirety, other than that it was by “archaic methods” but it’s heavily implied to be by using some form of crest stones as her weapon is simply a just a Crest Stone weapon like all other Demonic Beasts.