NOTE: This page is only for Rhea/Seiros in the Crimson Flower Route, which is the only route where she serves as a villain.
| “ | So, this is the choice you have made. You are just another failure. Your presence soils this Holy Tomb and disgraces my brethren. I will not allow one who would lend our enemies strength to wield the power of the goddess Sothis! I have passed judgement! And now, I shall now rip your chest open, and TAKE BACK YOUR HEART MYSELF! | „ |
| ~ Rhea's villainous breakdown upon seeing Byleth side with Edelgard von Hresvelg. |
| “ | I have no patience for foolish questions. I shall sacrifice as many lives as it takes! That apostate who insists on taking everything from me WILL BE CRUSHED BY MY OWN HANDS! | „ |
| ~ Rhea/Seiros to Catherine regarding Byleth. |
| “ | NONSENSE! Fools who do not accept their own sins are undeserving of salvation! You humans are the ones who betrayed! You betrayed me, and you betrayed my mother! | „ |
| ~ The Immaculate One fighting Edelgard. |
| “ | So be it! I WILL CRUSH YOU WHERE YOU STAND! | „ |
| ~ Seiros to Edelgard in the Scarlet Blaze route/Claude in the Golden Wildfire route in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. |
Seiros, also known as Rhea and the Immaculate One, is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside the Flame Emperor) of Fire Emblem: Three Houses and one of the two main antagonists (alongside Thales) of its spin-off Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
She serves as the founding saint and Archbishop of the Church of Seiros, and is also revealed to be the daughter of Sothis. While she isn't exactly evil and does have good intentions, her actions still caused a lot of problems in the story, especially her false propaganda of Crests, which motivate the actions of Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude to change the Crest system.
She is voiced by Kikuko Inoue in Japanese and Cherami Leigh in English.
Biography[]
Origin[]
Before Church history, Rhea and the other Children of the Goddess (known as Nabateans) were born of the Progenitor God, Sothis, upon her arrival in Fodlan. They lived peacefully for a time within Zanado, the Red Canyon, coexisting with the native peoples of the land and sharing Sothis's knowledge with them. However, a betrayal by humans that led to the murder of the Goddess Sothis, massacre of the people living in Zanado, and genocide of the Nabatean race left Rhea, the sole survivor of the massacre, fearful and distrustful of humanity. Years after the massacre, Rhea took on the disguise of Seiros--dyeing her distinctive green hair blonde, hiding her ears, and portraying herself as a human woman who had received a revelation from the Goddess--and began a quest to take revenge on the man responsible, Nemesis.
According to the Church's legend, Seiros is the founder of the Church of Seiros, which was named after her. It is said she was a human woman who received a revelation from the Goddess that was a "gift to guide the lost." However, the myth of the Church is a deliberate partial distortion of real history to hide her true, inhuman origins. Seiros was not a human in fact, but a member of the Nabatean race, the children of the Goddess Sothis, who lived in Zanado, the Red Canyon, before Sothis was betrayed and murdered by Nemesis, whom history portrayed as a former savior of Fodlan with the Goddess's blessing who became a bandit after being corrupted by his power. In reality, Nemesis was never a heroic figure, but a bandit empowered by a Sothis's enemies, the Agarthans, also known as Those Who Slither in the Dark, who fed his bloodlust and quest for power by directing his violence against their Sothis and the Nabateans. Those Who Slither in the Dark forged the Sword of the Creator from Sothis' bones, which Nemesis then used to commit genocide against the Nabateans, whose bones were then also forged into weapons by Those Who Slither in the Dark and gifted to his allies, the Ten Elites.
Traumatized, Seiros became distrustful and vengeful towards humans, believing Nemesis' hunger for power and subsequent treachery to be a consequence of human nature. She became obsessed with reviving Sothis, who she believed could guide and heal the world.
War of Heroes[]
As Nemesis' power grew, he began to terrorize and wage war across the land of Foldan. To end his tyrannical reign and exact her revenge against Nemesis for the murder of her mother and genocide of her people, in Imperial Year 91, Seiros formed an alliance with Wilhelm Paul Hresvelg, the founder of the Adrestian Empire, by sharing her blood with him, giving him the Crest of Seiros. With the combined forces of herself, Wilhelm, and the survivors of the Nabatean genocide, the Four Saints, Seiros led the battle against Nemesis and the Ten Elites, killing him in hand-in-hand combat at the Tailtean Plains.
During the War of Heroes, Seiros helped Wilhelm establish the Adrestian Empire, crowning him as its first emperor. After the War, she founded the Church of Seiros, rewriting history via Church doctrine to obscure the existence of Nabateans and protect the few that remained. These revisions included claiming that the Crests were gifts from the Goddess to humanity (rather than the stolen blood of Nabateans), that the Ten Elites were heroes (rather than allies of Nemesis who helped in his conquest of Fodlan), and obscuring Nemesis' original, villainous past, instead portraying him as a hero (initially blessed by the Goddess) who was corrupted by power and fell from grace. She also claimed that the weapons forged from Nabatean bones were "Heroes' Relics" gifted to humanity by the goddess, rather than the bodies of her massacred family, in order the hide their true nature and the Nabatean genocide that led to their creation from the people.
After the establishment of the Church, Seiros began her endeavour to revive Sothis, whom she believed could restore the land after all the violence and war it had seen. She created artificial homunculi to serve as vessels for the Goddess, though these experiments never proved successful.
Becoming Rhea[]
As Nabateans have a longer life span than humans, Seiros faked her death to not arouse suspicion and instead controlled the Church from behind the scenes. A thousand years later, she assumed the alias of Rhea and once again assumed direct control of the Church as Archbishop. During her tenure as Archbishop, Rhea shared her blood with Jeralt to save his life, granting him the Crest of Seiros and extending his lifespan. She also attempted a twelfth try at creating a vessel for Sothis during this time. While the experiment failed at reviving Sothis, she successfully created a living artificial human with Sothis's Crest Stone as her heat, whom she named Sitri and came to view as a daughter. Sitri and Jeralt fell in love and married, but due to Sitri's poor health, she was unable to bring a viable pregnancy to term, giving birth to a stillborn and dying in childbirth. On her deathbed, Sitri begged Rhea to use her own heart (Sothis's creststone) to revive her child, Byleth. Rhea implanted Sothis's Crest Stone in their heart when they were a baby, which gave them life. Because of this, Rhea believed that Byleth would be the perfect vessel for the Goddess.
However, Jeralt grew suspicious of Rhea due to the circumstances of his wife's death and Byleth's condition, who had a pulse but no heartbeat and never cried. Losing his faith in Rhea after believing his wife died of something else, Jeralt faked his and Byleth's deaths and left the Knights of Seiros with his child. Twenty years later, after being discovered by students of the Church's Academy, Dimitri, Edelgard, and Claude, and a Knight of Seiros who knew Jeralt, Alois, Jeralt was compelled to return to the Church's service and reveal his child's existence to Rhea. In the years following Jeralt's disappearance, two of the Four Saints, Cichol and his daughter Cethleann, joined Rhea at Garreg Mach Monastery, taking the names Seteth and Flayn respectively and masquerading as brother and sister.
Black Eagle (Crimson Flower)[]
Note: This route can only be achieved by choosing the Black Eagle, reaching rank C+ in Edelgard's Support, aattending her coronation ceremony in time and choosing to spare her.
Rhea becomes the main antagonist of the Crimson Flower route. After Byleth betrays Rhea and the Church of Seiros, choosing to defend Edelgard instead of killing her when she attacked the Holy Tomb of the Church, which held the remains of many Nabateans the Church was protecting, Rhea grows furious with Byleth, transforming into The Immaculate One. Before she can defeat them, though, they flee. After the Adrestrian Empire and the Black Eagles successfully storm Garreg Mach Monastery, she transforms again and attacks Byleth. Byleth goes missing for five years and, unlike other routes, Rhea is not captured. In those five years, Rhea and the Church of Seiros are granted asylum within the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus by the newly crowned King Dimitri, forming an alliance with him against Edelgard and the Empire and fighting them to a standstill.
She slips further down into madness and revenge over Byleth's betrayal and eventually chooses to discard her alias as Rhea and just be called Seiros again. While Edelgard and the Black Eagle Strike Force capture what is left of the Leicester Alliance and either kill or exile Claude, Rhea plans an assault to recapture the Monastery in their absence, with Seteth and Flayn appearing in the battle. If fought by Byleth, Seteth notes that even he can't follow Rhea/Seiros' course anymore, despite being her advisor for so many years. They can be spared if defeated by Byleth, after which the two will go into hiding. In this scenario, Seteth will send Seiros a letter after the battle, explaining that while he despises Byleth for their betrayal, he prioritizes Flayn's safety above all else. Regardless of the outcome, Seiros becomes even more furious at Byleth for taking them away from her as well.
She appears alongside Dimitri in the penultimate chapter as an optional enemy commander, hoping to intercept the Imperial army on their way to conquer Fhirdiad, the capital of Faerghus. Seiros is, of course, defeated and retreats. As the Imperial army nears Fhirdiad, she orders Catherine and Cyril to torch the city, disregarding the civilians still residing there; Catherine initially objects, but reluctantly agrees. For the final battle, Seiros transforms into The Immaculate One once again and fights the Empire out of blind hatred. Upon her defeat, Byleth and Edelgard strike her down once and for all, causing Byleth's Crest of Flames to disappear and their hair and eyes to return to normal, and their heart to start beating for the first time in their life.
Personality[]
Like most characters, Rhea's personality differs depending on the path Byleth chooses. When Byleth sides with her and the church, she does everything she could to help them, even turning into the Immaculate One to destroy the Imperial soldiers and monsters. In Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, during the Timeskip, after she was rescued by Byleth from the Empire, Rhea reveals to them the truth about everything, which included Byleth's identity, as well as hers. She also feels regret for the actions she has done, because while she admits that she was trying to keep peace of Fódlan, she was also driven by her selfish motives. She also feels sorry for treating Byleth as a tool to revive Sothis, which is how she abandoned her goal of using them, since she realized that Byleth is their own person.
In the Crimson Flower route, where Byleth chooses to side with Edelgard instead, the kindness Rhea showed towards Byleth completely vanishes, replaced with a ruthless and angry personality. She swears to kill Byleth and take back their Crest from their heart in an attempt to get Sothis back, as she deems that Byleth is a failure for a vessel. During the Timeskip, Rhea sends the Knights of Seiros to take back the Monastery, but hears from Catherine that they have failed. Depending on if Byleth chose to spare or kill Seteth and Flayn, Rhea stays angry, but in different ways. If Seteth and Flayn are spared, Rhea assures to herself that she is now the only Nabatean left to stop Byleth and the Adrestian Empire, and tells her mother to wait until she "frees" her from Byleth. If Seteth and Flayn are killed, Rhea expresses more anger at Byleth for not only "stealing" Sothis, but also killing Seteth and Flayn as well. Soon, in Tailtean Plains, Seiros discards her alias as Rhea and commands her knights to call her by her real name. After hearing that Dimitri has fallen as well, Seiros becomes more vengeful on killing Byleth, even believing that they are just the same as Nemesis. In the final chapter, her most villainous side is shown. She orders Catherine to set fire on Fhirdiad, despite that the civilians are still there. She is highly obsessed with killing Byleth, Edelgard, and the Adrestian Empire that she is even willing to sacrifice others, the fact that even Catherine is horrified by this action.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Sothis (mother)
- Sitri (creation/daughter)
Allies[]
- Seteth
- Flayn
- Byleth (determinant)
- Edelgard (formerly)
- Dimitri
- Claude (Three Houses)
- Shez (Azure Gleam only)
- Shamir (determinant)
- Catherine
- Alois (determinant)
- Gilbert
- Cyril
- Manuela (determinant)
- Hanneman (determinant)
- Knights of Seiros
- Adrestian Empire (formerly)
Enemies[]
- Nemesis (arch-enemy)
- Thales
- Solon
- Kronya
- Edelgard
- Metodey
- Byleth (determinant)
- Claude (Three Hopes)
- Shez
- Hubert
- Those Who Slither in the Dark
- Adrestian Empire
Other Media[]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[]
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Seiros in her Rhea form both appears as a background character in the Garreg Mach Monastery stage and as one of Byleth's DLC spirits. As a spirit, she is an Ace level spirit under the Neutral type. In her spirit battle, the fight is set to being a stamina match on Bridge of Eldin, with the player first required to beat a Palutena, then a giant white Charizard. When equipped, she grants stronger magic attacks.
'Fire Emblem Heroes[]
In Fire Emblem Heroes, Rhea is available in several playable forms. As Seiros, she is available as a Mythic Hero (Seiros: Saint of Legend). As Rhea, she is available as a Halloween themed Special Hero (Rhea: Witch of Creation) and as the secondary hero in a pair of Summer themed Duo Heroes alongside Byleth (Byleth: Fell Star's Duo).
Quotes[]
Fire Emblem: Three Houses[]
| “ | Tell me, Nemesis! Do you recall the Red Canyon?! You'll die for that! Die! DIE! You took..everything..THAT I LOVED! | „ |
| ~ Seiros to Nemesis before she stabs him. |
| “ | You... How dare you betray me... You worthless piece of garbage... I will punish you myself! | „ |
| ~ Rhea preparing to fight Byleth. |
| “ | Rhea: No matter your reasons, I cannot permit you to go on living any longer! Edelgard: The feeling is mutual. I must put a stop to your reign of tyranny! Rhea: You must know what a fool you are. The greatest of sins is to make an enemy of the goddess herself! Edelgard: I have only made an enemy of the church, not of the faith. |
„ |
| ~ Rhea before fighting Edelgard. |
| “ | Rhea: Seteth... Flayn... First my mother, and now those two have been stolen away as well? MUST YOU TAKE EVERYTHING FROM ME?! Catherine: Lady Rhea...?! Rhea: No amount of repentance will bring your wretched soul salvation. YOU WILL BE CHAINED TO THE VALLEY OF TORMENT… ETERNALLY WALK THE DESERT UNTIL THE SKIN ROTS FROM YOUR BONES!!! I will ensure that you pay for your sins, Professor! In the name of the Nabateans, I SWEAR IT!!!! |
„ |
| ~ Rhea getting angry if Seteth and Flayn were killed and Catherine getting surprised in the process |
| “ | Call me Seiros now. I am no longer the archbishop, but rather a warrior. | „ |
| ~ Seiros discarding her alias as Rhea and calling herself by her real name again. |
| “ | I once walked this world as Seiros, the warrior... and defeated the Fell King Nemesis. Now, here I stand, facing one who wields the same sword as he... The fate you have chosen is also the same as his... To die in torment upon my sword, as the very lifeblood you have forsaken spills onto the earth! | „ |
| ~ Seiros vs. Byleth in Tailtean Plains. |
| “ | An ancestor of the Hresvelgs, who became Adrestia's first emperor... He saved me. Supported me. Gave his all to the cause of defeating Nemesis. That I should find myself here at Tailtean, striking down his scion... | „ |
| ~ Seiros vs. Edelgard in Tailtean Plains. |
| “ | How could this be? I lost to that thief?! UNACCEPTABLE! | „ |
| ~ Rhea/Seiros after she loses her battle in Tailtean Plains. |
| “ | Give her back...! GIVE BACK MY MOTHER! GAAAAAAHH! | „ |
| ~ The Immaculate One |
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes[]
| “ | Shez: Sorry, but I think I'd rather fight you instead. Seiros: I will correct the mistake I made when I took you in...by ending your life. |
„ |
| ~ Shez vs. Seiros |
| “ | Seiros: You look so much like--No, that can't be. Were it true, why would you fight me? Byleth: You act as if we've met. |
„ |
| ~ Byleth vs. Seiros |
| “ | Seiros: I knew it. You are Sitri's child. Has fate been leading us to this moment? Byleth: I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm only here to fight! |
„ |
| ~ Seiros realizing Byleth is Sitri's child. |
| “ | Shamir: I owe you a lot, but the debt's been paid. If you expected more, that's on you. Seiros: Yes, your debts with me are settled, Shamir. Your actions now, however, are another story. |
„ |
| ~ Seiros vs. Shamir |
| “ | I will not allow you to sully this sacred place! | „ |
| ~ Seiros to Thales in Scarlet Blaze. |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Seiros/Rhea is the only final boss of the game that is fought in two routes.
- Rhea is the only major (potential) supporter of Byleth that remains unplayable in all routes, even in the Silver Snow chapter/Church route. Through datamining, however, there are unused data for Rhea/Seiros that she was meant to be a playable and recruitable character during the production, like Sothis and Jeralt, but was eventually finalized as an NPC character. In Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, she, along with Sothis, became unlockable playable characters in New Game+, while Jeralt can be recruited and become playable if the player spares him.
- Etymology: Rhea is named after a Greek titan known as the "Mother of the Gods" due to being the mother of major Olympians including Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Hera. The name may also refer to the mother of Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome.
- Seiros may be derived from Seirios, Greek for "scorching", and an alternate name for the star Sirius.
External Links[]
- Seiros on the Fire Emblem Wiki
- Rhea on Heroes Wiki.
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