Edelgard is a playable character and one of the main protagonists in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. She is the princess and the future emperor of the Adrestian Empire. She possesses a Minor Crest of Seiros. In the Officers Academy, she is the leader of the Black Eagles. Edelgard is seventeen at the start of the game and wields axes as her main weapon. Born in Imperial Year 1162, Edelgard is the ninth child and fourth daughter of Emperor Ionius IX, the princess and heir to the Adrestian Empire, and a student at the Officers Academy in Garreg Mach Monastery. She is also the house leader of the Black Eagles. In Imperial Year 1171, at the age of nine, she was taken by her uncle, Lord Volkhard von Arundel, to Fhirdiad in the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus during the Insurrection of the Seven. Volkhard was one of the key conspirators against Edelgard's father, and with his help, Duke Aegir stripped the emperor of much of his power. Unbeknownst to Volkhard or Edelgard, her mother had also escaped to Faerghus under the alias Patricia and married King Lambert. She later met and befriended Dimitri, the crown prince of Faerghus, though he did not learn that she was his step-sister until years afterward. The two spent much time together, with Edelgard teaching him how to dance. Edelgard returned to the Empire in 1174 with her uncle, never learning that her mother was Dimitri's step-mother. Before she departed, Dimitri gifted her a dagger, which she has held onto since despite forgetting how she obtained it. Edelgard's childhood afterward was much more traumatic. Upon her return to the Empire, she, alongside her siblings, were imprisoned under the Imperial palace and subjected to torturous blood reconstruction surgeries by Those Who Slither in the Dark, who were said to be backed by many of the corrupt Adrestian nobles. Though her father vehemently objected, his reduced influence meant that he could do nothing to stop them. As a result, most of her siblings were driven mad from the experiments or died from exhaustion. By the end of it all, only Edelgard was able to survive and retain her sanity, leaving her as the only successful subject (which was possible because of the previous experiments conducted on Lysithea). As a result, she bore a second Crest, the Crest of Flames, at the cost of her hair turning white. These events would forever color her view of Crests, the Church of Seiros, and the caste system of Fódlan. Edelgard never learned that her presence in Faerghus was used by Cornelia to manipulate Patricia and eventually cause the Tragedy of Duscur in Imperial Year 1176. Edelgard holds herself with a dignified air, but is full of melancholy and solemn wistfulness. As heir of the Adrestian Empire, she is an exemplary student and a natural leader. She keeps a modest front, rarely cutting loose and maintains formality. Her colleagues express great surprise whenever she does relax. While she comes off as private in her own affairs, she knows the importance of her role as the leader of the Black Eagles and future heir to the Adrestian Empire, making effort to get to know her classmates. She is keenly aware of her allies quirks and has strong faith in them, though this does not prevent her from voicing her exasperation to some of them like Ferdinand's competitiveness with her and Bernadetta's overreactions. Edelgard is willing to make tough decisions due to her political role but acknowledges that she needs others to fill in the gaps that she cannot do alone. At her core, Edelgard is an inspiring leader ready to take on decisive actions and will follow through on them no matter how she may be perceived. Edelgard is a capable dancer, having taught Dimitri when they were children and the only house leader who is not embarrassed to be chosen for the White Heron Cup. During the war phase, she draws portraits in private. She admits that she is frustrated by her responsibilities to Byleth in their support and wishes that she could relax and gorge on sweets if given the chance. Though she tries to keep it a secret, Edelgard is deathly afraid of rats, as they remind her of a past she is uncomfortable with. She also fears the ocean since she cannot swim. She suffers from insomnia and nightmares, often wandering around outside after dark. She may have claustrophobia, and expresses a need to see the sky after one of her nightmares. Despite her private feelings about her past, she feels open to Byleth if they are her professor, admitting sensitive snippets of her past as early as their first important Support conversation. Despite Hubert's concerns of her openness towards their professor, Edelgard expresses an oddly strong belief in Byleth's importance. Edelgard's view of the world is mainly painted by the tragedies forced upon her and her siblings by the hand of the Adrestian nobility and Those Who Slither in the Dark, which resulted in the demise of her siblings and the decline of influence by her father. It is these horrid situations that lead to her utter disdain to the societal structure of all of Fódlan. Because the experiments involved Crests and witnessing the abuse of the Crests caste system by the nobility, Edelgard openly despises them, even her own, as she finds them to be the root of corruption in Fódlan. She also believes, to an extent correctly, that the Church of Seiros perpetuates this culture throughout all of Fódlan and by the War Phase, shows contempt for the Archbishop Rhea as the figurehead of these beliefs. Her disdain on top of the growing rebellions against the Central Church proves to be a rallying point for others who find discontent in the Church, further sowing doubt into the hearts of others and into her cause to reform all of Fódlan by force. Edelgard is not against the concept of pious faith and does not seek to remove religion as a whole. She seeks out Manuela in the Crimson Flower route to better understand it. Edelgard by no means would ever become pious and does not show worship in the gods despite her ancestor's alliance with Seiros herself. Fittingly, she has a subject weakness in Faith. By the time the player meets Edelgard for the first time, her plans are already in motion and has shown to be opportunistic and cunning, willing to use all at her disposal, even aligning with Those Who Slither in the Dark because their goals align with one another. However, she makes it clear that they are merely a means to an end and once she overthrows the Church, she would begin rooting out Those Who Slither in the Dark, a promise she begins undertaking in the Crimson Flower ending. Edelgard abhors needless death and actions if she can avoid it. She admits that her goals will inevitably end in bloodshed, but believes that such actions would actually save more lives after calculating the trade-off of other alternatives. She has bitterly sacrificed treasured allies and grieves their deaths, but pushes through regardless. She even is willing to push herself to extremes to accomplish her goals, even becoming a literal monster. Ultimately, Edelgard believes that the ends will justify the means, even if it means painting herself as a cruel, merciless conqueror. Unrelenting in her vision for the world, she would rather die than submit to forces greater to her own and pushes her own personal sentiments for her greater purpose. In the Azure Moon route, despite Dimitri's willingness to reconcile in the aftermath of their final battle, she still chose to attack him, leading to her demise. Inversely in the Crimson Flower route, she is ultimately the one to execute Dimitri, a decision she privately regrets and mourns, denying the supposed tears Byleth sees her shed. Nonetheless, she steels her self for her goals. Edelgard retains her humanity and truly believes that she will provide true peace through her vision and is both an inspiring figurehead to those seeking change to their lives. She is openly accepting to those who wish to fight for their own future and, as stated before, does not factor in one's status in her assessment of their overall value, believing that anyone can be worthy of greatness if they are willing to act for it. The incident involving Miklan, the disowned crestless eldest son of a Faerghus noble family, illustrated to her how much the caste system wastes perfectly capable individuals. She comments that despite being crestless, Miklan was able to become a rallying leader for his band of bandits and found his death to be an utter waste of such capabilities. At the end of her ambitions, Edelgard states that she does not wish to rule and in her endings, she abdicates her role to a worthy successor once she accomplishes her goals. Her endings in the Crimson Flower route indicates that years of further sacrifice and hardships does lead to the eventual reform of Fódlan. Once she does so, she quietly retires to a private life. She reflects privately on her happier childhood, even when in exile in Faerghus. Though she does not remember all of the details, she had a budding friendship with the young Dimitri as her mother, unbeknownst to her, became his stepmother. When news came to him that she was returning to Adrestia, the two were close enough for him to give her a parting gift; a dagger. Though she would forget the specifics of how she acquired it, she still retained it by the events of Three Houses and remembered vaguely that it was to remind her to "carve out her own ideals and face the numerous hardships she had to endure." If met at the Goddess Tower event, she admits that her first love was a Faerghus noble she cannot recall, implied to be Dimitri. However, she also comments that these feelings are in the past. Byleth immediately draws her attention upon their first meeting and like the other house leaders, believes that they will be important to the future of Fódlan. They are the only one she openly accepts her death against in the routes where they oppose her, even finding solace if they do. In the Crimson Flower route, Byleth becomes a central pillar to her as she admits to them by the War Phase that had they not instructed her, she feared she may have become "a harsh ruler with a heart of ice." She feels oddly open with them, sharing with them somewhat vague details of her dark history in their very first support conversation and by the second, shows them the implanted Crest of Flames. This also leads her to inviting them to her coronation. Their supposed death at the end of the Academy Phase deeply hurt her and, according to Dorothea, took their "death" the hardest, leading to a desperate search for them. Their reunion five years later was met with surprise, but ultimately could not help embracing her beloved professor once more and was elated to see them willing to help her ambitions come to fruition. She affectionately refers to them as "my teacher" in private and later permits them to call her "El", a nickname only reserved for her family. She had taken to painting portraits of Byleth in private and is highly embarrassed when they discover this. As a child, she would act like any normal child would just more traumatized and depressed. She can be seen to be a little impatient as seen when harshly directing dimitri when dancing. But she still has a soft side as she really cares for her friends and family since she was devasted after her siblings died. Edelgard's likes include sweets, such as peach sorbet and sweet buns, and she also enjoys savory dishes like vegetable pasta salad and fish and bean soup. She is also shown to love stuffed animals specifically teddy bears. She dislikes red meat and cheese, and has a general dislike for the Church of Seiros and their influential power, though her specific stance can be debated, as well as having a deep-seated fear of rats. Edelgard's current age: 11-12 Edelgard is a slim young woman with pale skin, purple eyes, and long white (originally brown before she had two Crests) hair with ties to the side. She wears a red cape, the color of her house, on the side of her uniform, red tights that look like magma shield, and black-heel boots. In her Flame Emperor persona, she wears black armor, a black robed surplice, red-feathered shoulder pauldrons, a helmet with a large red plume, and a white and red mask that conceals her identity and distorts her voice. In the five-year time skip, she puts her hair up in Odango buns and wears a red ballgown. In Three Hopes, Edelgard wears a red-grey armor, a red cape, and a yellow crown. As a child, she wore a red dress covering her legs and body. She has brown child sized boots and her brown hair is tied up in back pigtails. After the experiments, her hair would turn white.