Children of the Goddess

by Marengo227

This is a historical retelling of the story surrounding the Nabateans and Agarthans leading up to the events of Three Houses. It is composed of information that the game has provided, with the intent of being as objective as is possible. However, with lore as uncertain as that of Fodlan's, such objective knowledge is ultimately impossible to fully attain.

"It will bring extinction to all children of men, and salvation to all beasts of the land, sky, and sea. For the children of men who spilled too much of the blood of life, it promises only cruel retribution."

-Unknown Author

Long ago, before recorded history, a creature descended upon the earth. This creature, a massive beast the likes of which humanity had never seen, held godlike powers. Yet despite this, she took the form of man, mingling with the people of the land. While humans needed a man and a woman to reproduce, the creature was able to create offspring simply through her blood. Through this blood, her children were born. They bore no hearts, and instead housed their essence in stone-like objects with sigils carved within. These would come to be known as Crest Stones. With green hair and eyes, and pointed ears, they were immediately recognizable to any who saw them.

Humanity soon came to revere this foreign creature as a goddess, calling her Sothis, the Progenitor God. Humanity called her offspring the Children of the Goddess, but these children had their own name for their species: Nabateans. And thus, Sothis and the other Nabateans worked hand in hand with mankind to prosper.

With Sothis' incredible abilities, she achieved feats that could only be described as miraculous. But while the Nabateans used their powers to prosper, humanity soon showed that they were not helpless without these higher beings. Man's insatiable curiosity led to technological wonders whose effects rivaled that of the Goddess herself. And as mankind grew more powerful, so did they too grow more ambitious.

They challenged the Goddess, using their mighty weapons to wage war against the Nabateans. With massive javelins of light that rained down from the skies, they decimated the Nabatean lands of Thinis, Malum, Septen, and Llium, The Nabateans were left with only the canyon city of Zanado, where the Goddess herself resided. They fought the armies of man in a great war that resulted in immeasurable casualties on both sides of the conflict. But in the end, Sothis and her people were victorious. Most of the human armies had been either killed or forced to surrender, but there were still those who despised the Goddess and her people, wishing to wipe them out. They retreated underground with their technology and javelins of light, unbeknownst to the Nabateans, who believes all traces of resistance had been stamped out.

The lack of sunlight made the skin of these humans turn a deathly white, and their experimentation, devoid of morality, resulted in them becoming something other than human. They began to see humanity as no better than beasts, vermin, that deserved to be eliminated along with the Nabateans. They became known as Agarthans, named after their original homeland which they longed to reclaim. Long after these events, they would come to be known by a different name for those who dwelled on the surface. They would be known as Those Who Slither in the Dark.

The war had been won by the Nabateans, and humanity had been humbled, but the land had been scarred by the conflict. Sothis used her great power to heal the earth, but with damage so vast and deep, even her energy was depleted. Unable to sustain her current form, her body turned into that of a young girl. While a human would have died from such an immense effort, Sothis instead entered a deep sleep in order to recover her energy.

For a time, there was peace once more. The harmony between the Nabateans and mankind was restored. But little did either species know that the Agarthans, hidden away in their underground city of Shambala, had set into motion a scheme that would forever change the world. They contacted the leader of a group of bandits and offered him immense power that would allow him to rule over humanity. This man sought to slay all who invaded the land he inhabited, and so he accepted this offer, going to the tomb where Sothis rested. He eviscerated her sleeping form, took her corpse, and drank her blood. The power of her blood flowed through him, bestowing him with some of her power. This power, the Crest of Flames, allowed the man to become the strongest human alive.

This man would come to be known as Nemesis, the King of Liberation. Though his power was mighty, he would not have accomplished the feats he did without the help of the Agarthans. They crafted a sword out of Sothis' spine, using her crest stone to power it. This weapon, the Sword of the Creator, resonated with the crest of flames that Nemesis held, giving it the power to cleave entire mountains in twain.

With the Crest of Flames and the Sword of the Creator, Nemesis went to Zanado and butchered its inhabitants. With each Nabatean slaughtered, he and his followers grew more powerful, using their blood and bones to create more crests and more weapons. That fateful day, the canyon was said to be painted red with blood.

There were few survivors of what came to be known as the Red Canyon Massacre. Among them was a woman named Seiros, and though she was not the only remaining Nabatean, she was the last child of Sothis. Witnessing the massacre instilled within her a deep trauma that tortured her soul. That torture drove her to swear vengeance on the man who had stolen everything from her. She scoured the land for the remaining Nabateans. While not all agreed to assist her quest for revenge, she did recruit Macuil, Indech, Cichol, and his daughter, Cethleann.

The greatest obstacle in Seiros' way was not the might that Nemesis held, but his own charisma. He had become a king of men, just as the Agarthans had promised, and was beloved by his subjects. None knew the truth of Zanado save for him, including his most powerful warriors, known as the Eleven Elites, who each held a crest and a corresponding weapon crafted from the corpse of a Nabateans.

Seiros knew that few would believe her account of the Red Canyon Massacre. So instead, she told humanity that she was a mere human that had been gifted power by the Goddess. She claimed the Goddess had ascended to her home in the heavens, leaving Seiros as the only living being that could communicate directly with her. In addition, the four Nabateans that she had recruited were called saints, further supporting the divine nature of her tale. This narrative granted her loyalty from many humans, but it was not enough to defeat Nemesis. So she told the world that Nemesis was also granted power from the Goddess, but had been corrupted by power and turned into a merciless butcher. Seiros then gifted her blood to a man named Wilhelm, who with the power of her crest and her direct support founded the Adrestian Empire in the content that had now come to be known as Fódlan.

With Seiros' story now spread throughout the land and the empire at her side, a conflict erupted. This came to be known as the War of Heroes. Humanity was split between those who followed Nemesis and those who followed what they believed to be the will of the Goddess. In the Imperial Year 91, the final battle took place in the Tailtean Plains, where Seiros and Nemesis engaged in one-on-one combat. That day, Nemesis drew his final breath as Seiros plunged her dagger into his chest.

However, Seiros' victory was not yet absolute. The most devastating loss was that of Cethleann, who in a similar act to that of Sothis, used up all of her energy while healing her comrades during the final battle. She entered a deep sleep and was hidden away by Cichol in Zanado, where he swore to watch over her until the day she awoke. Indech and Maculi also went their separate ways, leaving Seiros to oversee the restoration of order.

The next few years were spent hunting down the remaining Elites, who Seiros had personally sentenced to death. One of the Elites, a man by the name of Maurice, was suddenly and horrifically turned into a monstrous demonic beast due to the power of his crest. He caused immense harm to all around him, eventually fleeing into the wilds in the eastern region of the land.

Seiros' work was not yet done. So long as parts of humanity opposed her will, the possibility of another uprising would remain. She dedicated her efforts to rewriting history in a way that would favor her. She wiped away almost all knowledge of Maurice, due to the fear that the populace would doubt the hierarchy of Crests that she was building if they knew of his gruesome transformation. Only his descendants, scattered like leaves in the wind, would know of the truth.

The Ten Elites were framed as heroes that fought alongside Seiros, and their descendants gained immense influence due to their legacy, becoming the nobility that would govern the world. The Church of Seiros was founded in order to further propagate the story she had created and keep control over the people. Only Seiros, her most trusted advisors, and the empire's current ruler would know of the true story.

However, Those Who Slither in the Dark had not given up, despite their repeated failures. Their next plan would take centuries to come to fruition, with them infesting the shadows of every level of society. Overtime, they gained sway over the empire, altering the story the emperor would pass down in a way that would make Seiros seem more monstrous and less benevolent.

In the Imperial Year 751, a rebellion was sparked in the north. This rebellion, led by Loog, the descendant of the Elite Blaiddyd, resulted in a new nation being formed. This nation became known as the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. Recognizing that the conflict would only grow worse over time, the Church of Seiros relented and granted their blessing to the newfound kingdom. This kingdom would see its own rebellion in Imperial Year 881, splitting it in twain and creating the Leicester Alliance in the east.

While tales such as Loog and the Maiden of Wind and The Sword of Kyphon would frame the founding of Faerghus as a noble and just endeavor, there were the occasional whispers of something malicious stirring under the surface of the movement. Loog's tactician, a man by the name of Pan, gathered an army seemingly out of nowhere, avoiding being detected by the empire. In addition, he provided weapons that were eerily reminiscent of the Heroes' Relics, which had been crafted by Those Who Slither in the Dark all those centuries ago.

Stranger still was the incident that sparked the founding of the Leicester Alliance. Upon the death of the king of Faerghus at the time, Klaus I, his will strangely requested that the land be divided into three states. This was entirely unlike him, and the resentment shared between his three sons who each governed a region resulted in the Crescent Moon War, which led to the Alliance's creation.

Even more recently, political turmoil has ravaged Fódlan. Adrestia saw the Insurrection of the Seven, where the noble houses of the empire forcibly removed the majority of the power that Emperor Ionius XI held, turning him into little more than a puppet leader. Duke Aegir stole away the emperor's children and performed horrific experiments on them, attempting to grant them the power of a major Crest, which none of them held. This ended in the children all either perishing or falling into insanity, save one: Edelgard von Hresvelg, who had been imbued with not just the minor Crest of Seiros that she was born with, but a major Crest of Flames, which had not been seen in Fódlan in over a millennia.

In the Kingdom of Faerghus, the current regent as well as many higher authorities were brutally massacred in the Tragedy of Duscur, named after the small nation under the kingdom's control that were held responsible. The only survivor of the horrific event was Dimitri, the heir to the throne. Duke Riegan, the head of the Leicester Alliance, had fallen gravely ill, with his direct heirs all dying in mysterious accidents. The future of the Alliance would have been placed in jeopardy if not for the emergence of Claude von Riegan, a legitimate heir who seemed to have come from nowhere.

All of these recent events seem isolated, but the whispers continue of a connective tissue binding them all together. Accounts and theories vary from a ploy for power from the Church of Seiros to anarchist movements trying to destabilize the three nations, but one common denominator continues to appear.

Those Who Slither in the Dark. Indeed, they continue to lurk in the shadows, plotting their final, ultimate vengeance against the world. Fódlan's future seems all but guaranteed to be war. The hierarchy of Crests which the church has worked so hard to maintain, erasing knowledge of potential technologies that could give non-Crest bearers advantages, seems to be crumbling regardless. Edelgard continues to be groomed by mysterious forces to become the ultimate emperor. Dimitri prepares for the day he must ascend the throne. And Claude walks across political tightropes in an effort to assure the Alliance's future.

Those Who Slither in the Dark have played Fódlan like a fiddle. Even the church, still led by Seiros, now under the alias of Rhea, is unaware of just how deep the Agarthans' roots have dug into the continent. Hope is becoming a rare commodity.

But tucked away in a library deep under Garreg Mach, the headquarters of the church, is a story that defies everything we have taken for granted about our history. This short story, entitled Romance of the World's Perdition, tells us a tale not of the Nabateans, but of man. And while we have no reason to believe it, it nevertheless has created a doubt that will linger in the hearts of all who read it. How much do we truly know about the Goddess?
In the land of Thinis, where the old gods are said to live, the False God has awakened. Its looming, heteromorphic vessel was resurrected to sink the world to the depths of the ocean. It will bring extinction to all children of men, and salvation to all beasts of the land, sky, and sea. For the children of men who spilled too much blood of life, it promises only cruel retribution.
The False God must be defeated before the world sinks into a watery grave. To this end, the children of men have erected pillars of light upon the land. Thinis, Malum, Septen, and Llium were utterly destroyed. Those lands have vanished from this world. Yet even still, the False God stands. And soon, a flood aptly named Despair will drown this world.
The children of men fled to the depths of the earth, beyond sight of the False God, beyond the embrace of the sacred sun, and beyond the reach of the waters of Despair. They swore a fervent oath of revenge against the surface world, ruled by beasts, and against their tormenter, the False God.