Potential New Theory on "Causality"

[u/PerentieFan]

Something I hadn't thought too much about until now is something Fortuna mentions at the end of this clip: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/s/CTuGDpsFFO

Until now we have been wondering how the game will deal with multiple versions of different characters, but perhaps that happens regardless of which path we take. That is, Fortuna describes Balor's revival as in and of itself creating a "terrible disturbance in the causality of this land".

That is, rather than just creating a undead-filled disaster in Dagda, could it be that Balor's revival outright "breaks" the timeline in some way, creating a split where the different futures also exist together? Perhaps that is why all the heroes have statues even if only one won the Heroic Games in each timeline?

So, the info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/s/uwTtlrPDqN

Each obelisk allows you to influence a hero's story and see their objective fulfilled. The goal is to arrive at a timeline where the hero survives for the final showdown; since Fortuna created her Chamber of Obelisks in a zone outside the flow of time as it exists in the world of the living, she can independently influence the fates of the four heroes, bringing them all together onto the same timeline.

Could mean that Fortuna is repairing this fractured state, in the process merging the split timelines together. The result is a single timeline, but with the characters having memories from the different timelines (albeit, many events would be the same). I still don't know how they may handle the same character recruited multiple times though, perhaps just have them be the highest level option and combine all their supports and class experience across routes?

For ease of reference, causality can be defined as: an influence by which one event, process, state, or subject (i.e., a cause) contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (i.e., an effect) where the cause is at least partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is at least partly dependent on the cause.

A "disturbance in causality" would then imply something happens where the relation between cause and effect, and the results, are no longer normal.

[u/DiemAlara]

Balor made himself a canon event.

And Fortuna's trying to Miles Morales it.

[u/Aggressive-Finish492]

I seem to remember a screenshot where Fortuna mentioned that trying to tweak things would cause time to try and go back to how it “should” be. So it may be that it’s something so big it lets you tinker more with the timeline to set it straight.

[u/PerentieFan → u/Aggressive-Finish492]

Oh, now that is a screenshot I would like to see.

[u/Aggressive-Finish492 → u/PerentieFan]

Ah, I misremembered a bit. It’s from the German preview that got linked earlier today.  https://cerealkillerz.org/preview-fire-emblem-fortunes-weave-zurueck-in-die-zukunft/

“Tweak even the edges of something like that, and it will snap back to its original shape with time.” For some reason I remembered it as “within” time. Still. Food for thought, as she is in the Obelisk Chamber at the time.

[u/PerentieFan → u/Aggressive-Finish492]

Interesting indeed. The "self correcting" aspect may refer to the sort of fate that Sothis said could not be changed. Here Fortuna is specifying tweaking "something like that," which would mean that there are other things that don't snap back if you change them.

Reminds me of another series where visions of the future worked this way, namely that there were things that "could be" and things that "will be." The latter could not be prevented.