Bad Ending: An AU where the Lords witness Byleth getting replaced by Sothis in the Holy Tomb
Dimitri’s Ending:
The Goddess had come back to the world at long last, now restored to her full form. Her memories from before her disappearance had returned as well, with the only side-effect being that she could not remember what had happened to her during her absence. The reappearance of the Goddess was shortly followed by an attack in the Holy Tomb by the Flame Emperor. However, despite being present for these events, Dimitri fled the Holy Tomb and did not assist the others in fending off the attackers. Acting erratically, he left Garreg Mach, stating that there was no one he could trust. When the Church of Seiros took up arms alongside the Goddess to fight against the Adrestian Empire and Those Who Slither In The Dark, the citizens of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus expected to join the Church in its fight. The Kingdom waited for Dimitri to ascend to the throne, so that he would give the official order to join in the pushback against the evildoers. However, their prince had gone missing, and would stay missing for years. On the long-awaited day when he returned, weathered and scarred, he finally received the crown. Refusing to take a side in the war as his citizens had hoped, he mandated that anyone who killed must be killed in turn, calling for the slaughter of any soldier that approached Kingdom territory, regardless of whether they were with the Church, the Empire, or Those Who Slither in the Dark. Languishing from a lack of guidance and disheartened by the transformation of their king, the Kingdom fell further and further into disrepair. Much of the population fled the Kingdom to join the Church in its fight, while many others divided themselves amongst the Alliance and even the Empire. The few that remained in the decaying Kingdom reported that, on the day when the Adrestian empress, Edelgard, met Archbishop Rhea on the battlefield, Dimitri was heard stating that both had to die. He was seen heading towards the battle to meet them, moving as though possessed. He was followed by his retainer from Duscur, a daughter of House Galatea, a son of House Gautier, and a son of House Fraldarius. On that battlefield, they all perished.
Edelgard’s Ending:
The Goddess had come back to the world at long last, now restored to her full form. Her memories from before her disappearance had returned as well, with the only side-effect being that she could not remember what had happened to her during her absence. Edelgard, in an unusual show of emotion, raised her blade against the Archbishop as soon as the Goddess had revealed herself. However, it quickly became clear that she could not match the might of the Archbishop and Goddess together, and she fled the Holy Tomb. As ruler of the Adrestian Empire, Edelgard announced war on the Church of Seiros, and many long, arduous battles ensued. The Empress called for the support of any factions within Fodlan that might be willing to oppose the Church, but with the Goddess on the Church’s side, very few heeded the call. Most allied themselves with the Goddess, heartened and convinced by her return. Despite the Empire’s size and resources, it found itself against an overwhelming force, and the war dragged on with seemingly no end. The conflict was to become the greatest loss of life in all of Fodlan’s recorded history. As her troops were decimated, the Empress grew to rely more and more on Those Who Slither In The Dark to maintain the fight, going as far as transforming her body to combat the Archbishop as the forces of the Church invaded the palace in Enbarr. After much strife and bloodshed, Edelgard succeeded in striking down Rhea. The Empress sustained grievous injuries herself, but according to witnesses, her weary eyes betrayed no feeling at all. It was only when the Goddess appeared before her that her expression changed, although witnesses were unable to guess at what emotions she felt as she was felled under the Goddess’s wrath.
Claude’s Ending:
The Goddess had come back to the world at long last, now restored to her full form. Her memories from before her disappearance had returned as well, with the only side-effect being that she could not remember what had happened to her during her absence. The reappearance of the Goddess was shortly followed by an attack in the Holy Tomb by the Flame Emperor. Claude and his class assisted in fending off the attack, and then joined with the Church of Seiros in battling the Adrestian Empire and Those Who Slither In The Dark. The Leicester Alliance followed suit, fighting with its full might as the once-squabbling lords became unified by the return of the Goddess. With their combined strength, they vanquished the evil after many hard-fought battles. However, despite their partnership, Claude fell under suspicion after he was seen approaching the Goddess and making demands from her that the Archbishop deemed unreasonable. After the Archbishop forbade him from continuing to bother the Goddess, he fell further out of favor after allegations emerged that he was using his standing to spread rumors and manipulate the followers of Seiros from within. Though he was banished from Garreg Mach and sent back to live in the Alliance, spies would be found within the Church even years afterwards, all with traces leading back to him. To end his meddling, the Church sent forces to Derdriu to intimidate, and if necessary, silence him. Claude chose to cease his efforts and live, maintaining that he was waiting for his friend to come back. As the decades passed and his alleged friend did not return, Claude's resources dwindled. Former allies had sensed the increasing emptiness of his smile and found him to be untrustworthy. Fleeing to Almyra, where he would live out the rest of his years, he threw himself into his work. The land of Fodlan never saw him again, although he continued to meddle remotely in the continent’s affairs, puppeteering things so secretively that historians could not untangle the web of propaganda and strange events that may or may not have led back to him. However, all sources agreed that his was a solitary career. Towards the end of his life, he withdrew from the public eye as he grew ill, stating that he wished to be alone. On the night of his disappearance, sources claimed that they saw his wyvern flying into the night sky, towards the stars. It returned the next morning with an empty saddle.
