Emile von Bartels

**Emile**, otherwise known as **Jeritza** is a playable character from *Fire Emblem: Three Houses* and *Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes*. He is a teacher at the Officers Academy who is in charge of armed combat training, and the tertiary antagonist of the Cindered Shadows side-story DLC. He possesses a Minor Crest of Lamine. He is the younger half-brother of Mercedes von Bartels, and is the merciless killer known as **The** **Death Knight**. His main weapon is **The Scythe of Sariel**, and he also holds the **Dark Rafael gem**.

## Emile Von Bartels

* Normal
* As The Death Knight

### Relatives

Lamine (Ancestor)Baron Bartels (Father)Unnamed MotherMercedes (Elder Half-Sister)Unnamed Half-Siblings

## Appearances

### Appears in

Fire Emblem: Three HousesFire Emblem: Three Hopes

### Early Life

Emile was born in the Imperial Year 1158 as the son of Baron Bartels. He is the younger half-brother of Mercedes, as his mother was a commoner who married his father for financial security for her. He remained in House Bartels after his mother and sister left in 1167. In his supports with Mercedes, it is revealed that he remained behind to keep them safe, believing that his father would hunt them down and kill both of them if they fled with him. Some time afterwards, Emile learned that the Baron had discovered about Mercedes and her mother's whereabouts and that, since Emile's mother was past the age of bearing children, he intended to reclaim Mercedes as his wife. Upon hearing this, Emile snapped and immediately slew his father along with the entirety of House Bartels; though many believed he was responsible for its destruction, none had solid proof. It's heavily implied the incident caused him to develop his homicidal split personality known as the Death Knight, a persona born as he blacked out from sheer rage and didn't remember anything save for coming to at the scene of the massacre. House Bartels and all its lands were inherited to a distant relative after the massacre.

Emile was eventually found and taken in by Edelgard, who helped him erase his past and changed his name to Jeritza. He was then taken into House Hrym as an heir and given hunting grounds to satisfy his bloodlust. Since then, Emile has been entirely loyal towards Edelgard and will follow her every decision. Eventually, with the recommendation of Edelgard's uncle, Lord Arundel, Emile is given a position at the Officers Academy and was given a role as a fencing instructor.

He was also acquainted with Constance, whom he had met sometime before the Dagda-Brigid War.

### Academy Phase

Emile is a teacher at the Officers Academy. As the fencing instructor, his main duty is training students.

Emile is actually the true identity of the Death Knight—an imposing figure working for the Flame Emperor. As the Death Knight, he shows his bloodthirsty personality, using his scythe to fight against the Church at night.

He makes his first appearance as the Death Knight during a raid in the Holy Mausoleum. During this encounter, he remains uninterested in fighting Byleth and their party unless they approach or attack him. He then appears in a secret dungeon within the monastery during Flayn's kidnapping, eager to fight Byleth, but the Flame Emperor eventually orders him to retreat to his dismay. Afterward, Emile is no longer part of the Academy staff and can not be found in the monastery. The Death Knight arrives with reinforcements to support Solon in Remire Village.

During Edelgard's invasion of Garreg Mach, the Death Knight appears as a general leading the initial attack, though his defeat is not necessary. If Byleth sided with Edelgard, he will appear later on in the battle after Flayn has been defeated and seals off church reinforcements. Byleth is shocked at his arrival, but Edelgard states that he is an ally and will explain everything after the battle; however, Rhea transforms into The Immaculate One and knocks Byleth away, causing them to go missing for five years.

### Personality

Emile dislikes mingling with others so much that he will outright reject people who attempt polite banter. Despite his enigma, Emile martial prowess has earned him a place in the monastery. He is very perceptive, immediately seeing through Claude's schemes in the Golden Deer route and recognized that the "reinforcements" were enemies in disguise.

Emile suffers from dissociative identity disorder due to his isolation from Mercedes and his mother, switching between his normal and Death Knight persona.

Much like Bernadetta, Emile prefers to be alone and lets others decide what they think of him. However, he is considerably more calm and collected, not breaking into a panic when confronted by others. Emile's reason for isolation is due to his Death Knight persona, fearing that he cannot keep it under wraps, and that should he snap, fears that he would kill those he has a relationship with, and would be unable to cope with it. In his paired endings however, he appears to be successful in suppressing his Death Knight persona.

His Death Knight personality cares only for killing and murder over everything else, finding himself captivated by Byleth and seeking to either murder them or be murdered by those stronger than him. His lust for blood and dislike of authority leads him to dismiss and disregard others, whether it's Hubert telling him to retreat, obeying Edelgard's allies, or even getting angry at her when she interferes when he has Flayn captive or joins Remire to have fun. Not even Mercedes is safe from him, forcing Jeritza to come to the surface and falter when forced to fight his sister to stall the Death Knight from killing her.

Much like Felix, Emile enjoys the thrill of battle and appreciates a good combatant, but his isolation has turned him into a hardened man who cares little for the well-being of others. In the other routes he is not playable in, he informs Byleth of the incoming "javelins of light" so that they could escape and fight another day, indicating that he respects them well enough. In his supports with Byleth, he respects their swordsmanship, fantasizing of a legendary fight if he was ever given the chance to battle them, even in their S-Support.

Despite appearing to be cold and distant to others, Emile cares for the well-being of his mother and Mercedes. His supports with her reveal that he stayed behind with Baron Bartels because if he had gone with them, Bartels would have relentlessly searched for his heir and likely have both his mother and Mercedes killed. When he overheard that his father wanted to take Mercedes as his wife, Jeritza immediately slew him to keep her safe. In Mercedes' Paralogue, he decides to spare her, but only once.

He enjoys ice cream and other sweets, his mother's desserts being something he loved growing up, and only smiles in the presence of a select few. He dislikes his original name, as it reminds him of a past he is not fond of recalling, however, he allows Mercedes to call him that.

## Relationship

### Mercedes von Bartels

*Once those who slither in the dark were finally defeated, Mercedes left home and opened a small orphanage in the Faerghus region with her mother. After many years of kind service raising children who had lost their families, she received a letter bearing familiar handwriting. Its author, a prisoner in Enbarr, expressed his sincerest well-wishes to Mercedes and her family. Still more time passed until, one day, the man who wrote the letter paid her a visit. With joyful tears in her eyes, Mercedes smiled, took Emile by the hand, and at last welcomed him home*

## Trivia

* He shares his English voice actor, Patrick Seitz, with Lambert in *Three Houses*, Zeke in *Echoes: Shadows of Valentia*, Basilio and Laurent in *Awakening* as well as Hector, Draug, Garon, Brady, and Sirius in *Heroes*.
	+ Seitz also served as the English voice director in *Three Houses* and *Three Hopes*.
* Jeritza is the first DLC character in the *Fire Emblem* series to be free instead of requiring a purchase.
	+ He is also the first DLC character to be exclusive to a certain route, as he's only playable in the Crimson Flower route.
* Jeritza is the only DLC character that doesn't possess a Major Crest, he instead has a Minor Crest of Lamine.
	+ That is, of course, if Aelfric isn't counted in the Chapter he's playable in.
* Jeritza and Edelgard are the only characters in *Three Houses* able to learn both Black and Dark Magic by leveling up Reason.
* If Jeritza is equipped with an Axe as an infantry unit, he will use the Sword set of weapon animations instead, regardless of what type of Axe it is. If he is in a class that would give him unique Sword animations, he will perform the normal set of animations instead if he uses an axe.
	+ However if he does a combat art while using an axe, he will still perform the axe combat art animation instead of the sword variation.
* Jeritza stands at about 6'4" (193 cm) making him the tallest faculty member in the game.
* Jeritza is one of the characters who can have S-Supports with both Male and Female Byleth. The others are: Edelgard, Linhardt, Dorothea, Mercedes, Gilbert (platonic), Alois (platonic), Rhea, Sothis and Yuri.
	+ He is also the first DLC character to follow this rule, with the second being Yuri.
* Jertiza's S-Support with Byleth is the only one that doesn't take place at Garreg Mach Monastery, instead taking place at Shambhala.
* Jeritza shares his Paralogue with Anna but, differently from the other characters with a shared Paralogue, the two cannot support. The same goes for Ferdinand and Lysithea, Linhardt and Leonie, and finally Caspar and Mercedes.
	+ Additionally, Jeritza is the only playable character (excluding Byleth) that does not appear on the preview for any paralogue, even though he is required to be deployed for Crimson Flower variant of The Secret Merchant.
* On release, he only had two supports; Byleth and Mercedes. From update 1.2.0 onwards, he can also support with Bernadetta and Constance.
	+ With Bernadetta, the two are the only characters to gain supports without being new additions in the game (in this case, Jeritza was added in update 1.1.0, not 1.2.0).
	+ Also, if Byleth is female, Jeritza will be the only character to exclusively have Support conversations with people of the opposite gender, and thus the only one who can solely have Supports with women. This is also true in *Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes*.
* Jeritza uses black colors for his classes.
* In the fifth survey conducted by Nintendo DREAM Magazine, Jeritza placed 24th in the character popularity poll for *Fire Emblem: Three Houses*. The male-female vote ratio was 1:4. He ranked 24th among those who completed the game with 4% of the vote.

* Jeritza’s in-game affiliation is the Black Eagles, despite being a teacher at the Officers Academy. This is likely because he leaves the Church of Seiros and is only playable in the Crimson Flower route.
	+ The inverse is true with Gilbert. Despite also leaving the Church of Seiros and only being playable in the Azure Moon route, Gilbert's affiliation is the Church of Seiros, rather than the Blue Lions.
* Jeritza and Mercedes are one of the only pairs of siblings to be playable in Three Houses. The other being Dimitri and Edelgard.
	+ Unlike Dimitri and Edelgard, Jeritza and Mercedes are both related by blood and are playable on the same route.