Rhea (Fire Emblem)

Seiros, also known as Archbishop Rhea and the Immaculate One, is the tritagonist within the Fódlan Saga of Nintendo's Fire Emblem franchise. 
She is the tritagonist of the 2019 tactical video game and one of the two main antagonists (alongside Thales) of its 2022 spin-off sequel . 
She is the founder, patron saint and Archbishop of the Church of Seiros. She's also revealed to be the daughter of Sothis. Despite being present as a benevolent figure, Rhea often commits questionable methods and sometimes, her actions tend to have negative effects, especially with the Crest system.
She serves as the overarching protagonist of the Academy Phase. If the player chooses to support her, she will serve as the deuteragonist of the Silver Snow route (as well as its final boss) and the overarching protagonist of all the other routes. If not, she will serve as the main antagonist of the Empire routes in both games.
She is voiced by in English, who also voiced both Mae and Caeda in the same series, Ilia Amitola from RWBY, Makoto Niijima in the Persona series, and female V in Cyberpunk 2077. In Japanese, she is voiced by .
==Biography==
===Backstory===
Seiros is the founder of the Church of Seiros, which named after her. It is said she 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. Seiros was not a normal 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 murdered by Nemesis, a bandit who was coerced by Those Who Slither in the Dark. 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 also forged into weapons by Those Who Slither in the Dark.
Traumatized and embittered, Seiros became distrustful and vengeful towards humans, blaming Nemesis' hunger for power and subsequent treachery for a consequence out of human nature. She became obsessed with reviving Sothis and returning the happiness of her childhood.
In Imperial Year 91, Seiros went to get revenge on Nemesis. She, along with Wilhelm (one of Nemesis' former allies) and the survivors of the Red Canyon, the Four Saints, Seiros led the battle against Nemesis and the Ten Elites, killing him in hand-in-hand combat at the Tailtean Plains.
After the War of Heroes, Seiros founded the Church and created the Adrestian Empire, crowning Wilhelm as its first emperor. She then rewrote history, claiming that the Crests were gifts from the Goddess to humanity, that the Ten Elites were her devout followers, obscuring Nemesis' original past and only leaving intact that he was a hero who fell from grace. She also claimed that the weapons forged from Nabatean bones were "Heroes' Relics" gifted to humanity by the goddess, in order the hide their true nature from the people.
After the establishment of the Church, Seiros began her endeavor to revive Sothis, using the Church to control Fódlan from the shadows, eliminating any who would oppose her.
===Becoming Rhea===
Since Nabateans have a longer life span than humans, Seiros faked her death and continued to control the Church under the name Rhea. As Rhea had shared her blood with a man named Jeralt Reus Eisner to save his life, she also used the Crest of Flames to revive a newly born child named Byleth Eisner, implanting its Crest Stone in their heart when they were a baby. Rhea believed that Byleth would be the perfect vessel for Sothis.
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 or laughed. Losing his faith in Rhea after believing his wife, Sitri, died of something else, Jeralt faked his and Byleth's deaths and left the Knights of Seiros with his child, though he was later forced to return many years later after being discovered by Dimitri, Edelgard, Claude and Alois. In the years following Jeralt's disappearance, two of the Four Saints, Cichol and his daughter Cethleann, joined Rhea at Garreg Mach Monastary, taking the names Seteth and Flayn respectively and masquerading as brother and sister.
===The Azure Moon Route===
In the aftermath of the Fall of Garreg Mach Monastery, Rhea is captured by the Adrestian Empire, forcing the Knights of Seiros to join Byleth's forces to rescue her. After Edelgard's death, Rhea is found alive but severely weakened. She steps down to live in seclusion in Zanado and entrusts her role as the archbishop of the Church of Seiros to Byleth.
===The Verdant Wind Route===
When the Alliance defeats Edelgard and takes Enbarr, Rhea is found alive but seriously weakened. Claude urges Rhea angrily to tell him and Byleth all her secrets, but Rhea does not answer them immediately.
Rhea then accompanies Byleth and Claude as they travel to Shambhala and defeat Thales, the leader of Those Who Slither in the Dark. However, Rhea becomes gravely injured when she attempted to protect Byleth from Agarthan missiles in her dragon form. This leads Claude to recognize she is the Immaculate One. In an even worse condition than before, she decides to reveal everything that she knows, and tells Byleth and Claude that she is Seiros, the goddess Sothis, Agarthans, Nemesis, the Ten Elites, and the origins of Crests and Heroes Relics. Her fate in this route is left ambiguous, although considering her earlier claim of not having much time left during said exchange, and Catherine's S-Support stating she has nowhere to go, it is implied that she died shortly afterwards.
===The Silver Snow Route===
Her role in this route is nearly identical to her role in Verdant Wind, but with a slight few changes to it. In the Silver Snow route, Rhea reveals the truth about Byleth and apologizes to them, before her powers turn her berserk and transforms into the Immaculate One. She then flies off to Garreg Mach with several White Beasts and frenzied Church soldiers, prompting Byleth and the others to battle her to stop her and her "children" from rampaging across Fódlan. They are able to defeat her, despite the discovery of a "second" form, and she crash-lands into the cathedral, where Byleth catches up. Rhea assumes them to be Sothis as she dies from her injuries. If Byleth has obtained an A-rank support with Rhea, she will survive, where she decides to step down and has Byleth replace her as the archbishop of the Church of Seiros, before living in seclusion at Zanado. If Byleth obtains an S-rank support with her, she returns to her position after recovering and works with Byleth as her mate to bring peace to Fódlan. 
===The Crimson Flower Route===
See Seiros on Villains Wiki for her Crimson Flower counterpart.
==Other Media==
===Fire Emblem Heroes===
Rhea is a playable character in the gacha mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes. She first appeared in Byleth's summer variation, that was a duo unit, her halloween variation was added on October 7, 2021, under the "Shared Bounty" banner, and her fallen variation was added on May 10, 2022, under the "Beyond Control" banner.
===Super Smash Bros.===
Rhea appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate both as a background character in the Garreg Mach Monastery stage and one of Byleth's DLC spirits, he is a ace neutral spirit that increases the user's power on magic attacks. Her spirit battle is a stamina battle on the Bridge of Eldin stage against Palutena, after Palutena got defeated, a giant Charizard appears, representing the Immaculate One.
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