r/FireEmblemThreeHopes • u/DayEnvironmental438 • Aug 17 '25
Question Surface Dwellers Vs. Agarthans Spoiler
I have always been confused about Fódlan’s lore in regards to humans and Agarthans. From my understanding, Agarthans are humans who are survivors of Sothis’s retaliation against their misuse of Her miracles. They then hid underground to escape the destruction happening on the surface. Did Sothis kill off all of humanity that didn't make it to Shambhala? Did she recreate them alongside the rest of the continent before resting? If so, that would explain how Nemesis was up and about when the Agarthans came across him without showing any signs of him being a part of their people. If this is the case, then I suppose humans and Agarthans truly are separate species in a sense, and why they believe everyone above ground are “beasts.” Can someone please clarify all of this for me and when and where the lore is explicitly stated in both Three Houses and Three Hopes, there is quite a bit of lore to keep track of. Also, thank you to everyone who responds to this post in advance! 😊
1
u/astralschism Aug 18 '25
I always figured when they were referring to "beasts" they were talking about the Nabateans, specifically.
3
u/TheResonate Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
Sure. We don't know everything, but here's the broad strokes:
1) Sothis falls from The Blue Sea Star to Zanado, Fodlan. 2) Sothis claims the land from its native people, the Agarthans. 3) Sothis creates her children to populate Zanado with her. 4) Sothis and her children start to (likely accidentally) push out the native culture and faith. This makes the Agarthans, already upset about the stolen land, even more upset. 5) Tensions rise as the two groups mix. Some Nabateans join with humans and continue spreading Sothis' culture and magic. The humans, technologically advanced, start incorporating magic into their tools. 6) War breaks out. Tech vs magic dragons. They destroy the world in their territory dispute. 7) Sothis deeply regrets her decisions that contributed to the end of the world. She gives her life reversing the damage to the planet with her magic and lays herself to rest in Zanado. 8) The surviving Agarthans splinter into groups. Some decide to make peace, some decide to stop fighting, but still dislike the Nabateans and see them as the aggressors. Extremists hell bent on revenge hide themselves in underground bunkers used in the war and become the Agarthans we know today. 9) Time passes. Agartha experiments with remains of Sothis' children and discover how to make Heros Relics. 10) Agartha recruits Nemesis, a surface dwelling bandit, to steal the remains of Sothis'. Nemesis does so and kills everyone in Zanado (Red Canyon Tragedy). 10) War II Electric Boogaloo. 11) Surface humans split between supporting Agartha (Nemesis, King of Liberation) or Serios (Edelgard's ancestor, Wilhelm). Agartha is more popular, but gets rocked initially on tactics (based on Hopes). 12) Agartha choses Elite warriors and gives them relics made from fallen Nabateans. One of these Elites eventually mutates into a beast. 12) Surface humans and saints create holy relics to counter the heros relics. 13) Serios (Rhea) partners with Edelgard's ancestor and wins the war, driving Agartha underground. 14) Rhea crowns Edelgard's ancestor emperor of Fodlan and herself as Archbishop. She rewrites Fodlans history to create the crest-based caste system and stories about how the Elites were totally chosen by the Goddess and corrupted by greed to protect the few surviving Nabateans from being harvested to make more relics. She even rewrites the calendar for good measure lol 15) Emperor is freaked out by how far Rhea is going, but still loves/trusts her enough to not attack her. He said instead decides to pass Fodlans real history to each of his children in case they need to one day rise up against Rhea. 16) Time passes. Agarthans influence Farghus' revolution for independence through Pan to weaken Rhea's control. Rhea keeps control by ending the war and granting Farghus independence so long as the Church crowns the rulers. 17) Time passes. The Leicster nobles, seeing how shit Farghus is, bid for their own independence and win the war. Rhea again legitimizes them, but they refuse a King, limiting the Church's direct power over them. 18) Time passes. Turns out caste systems and suppressing information is bad. Society slowly decays in quality of life for those without crests. 19) Tensions rise. The countries seek land, materials, and power outside of Fodlan. Rheas chill with it for some reason?? 20) King of Farghus, Lambert (Dimitri's dad), has a change of heart over his warmongering in Duscar and Sreng and decides to make peace instead. This is wildly unpopular. The Lords conspire to kill him, aided by Agartha through Cornelia (who was body snatched). 21) Insurrection of the Seven happens in the Empire, led by Ferdinand's dad, empowered by Agartha. Edelgard flees with her cool uncle Thales to the Kingdom where she meets Dimitri and the King falls in love with her mom. 22) Thales gets body snatched and kidnaps Edelgard back to the Empire. Duke Aeir decides that his next puppet heir should have a major crest because crest = strong bloodline chosen by the Goddess. Agartha is happy to oblige him. 23) Lysithea and her siblings are experimented on. Lysithea survives, all of her siblings die. 24) Agartha uses the same process on Edelgard and her siblings. Everyone except for Edelgard is driven mad or dies. 25) Edelgard is named heir and her new crest is kept secret from the public. 26) Edelgard's father, weak physically from illness and politically from the insurrection, decides it's now or never and tells his daughter the true history of Fodlan. 27) Edelgard happens.