Claude von Riegan (Fire Emblem)

Note: Not to be confused with Claude Speed from Grand Theft Auto III

Claude is a main character in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and is a leader of the Golden Deer. Possessing the Crest of Riegan, he is the heir to House Riegan, the permanent house of its leader through his mother. Though he was born in 1162, he was not called an heir until 1179, a year before enrolling at the Officers Academy.

Why He Rocks

 * 1) He is described as an easygoing yet having a side that forces others to keep their guard around him.
 * 2) At first, he does appear to be casual yet lazy. However, he's far more astute than he lets on and is always a few steps ahead of his peers during conversations.
 * 3) Easily tends to get along with those he interacts with thus leading him to greatly care for those under his command, valuing their lives and advises them to retreat rather than fight to the death.
 * 4) He has a genuine amount of knowledge of the Alliance's current state of affairs and has enough diplomatic sense to understand the ramifications of certain potential actions of Alliance against the neighboring country of Almyra.
 * 5) He's a good strategist who loves to use mind games with his opponents thanks to his cunning nature. In fact, his skills as a tactician have grown significantly when he matures to an adult.
 * 6) Does not like killing, but he would rather do so if it's necessary. Furthermore, he wants to resolve disputes diplomatically.
 * 7) Because of his experience in both Almyra and Fódlan, Claude is driven to break the cultural barrier and have each nation more accepting of each other as equals. He even dreams of opening Fódlan to the outside world. Despite this, he doesn't attempt to force the issue unless the opportunity is appropriate.
 * 8) Out of all the Three Houses leaders, Claude is the most social bally connected with having the most conversations compared to the other leaders and has a better understanding of his peers than he initially lets on, even if it is simply to tease them.
 * 9) *Another unique trait it had is that Claude is the only house leader in Three Houses that can survive in the majority of the routes. He lives by default in the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes, and he can be either spared or killed by Byleth in the Crimson Flower route. His fate in the Silver Snow route, however, is left ambiguous and is reported to be missing.
 * 10) He would rather avoid brute forcing his way onto the people of Fódlan and is more than satisfied to let others achieve his dreams over him should someone worthy appear.
 * 11) He has a deep sense of trust on Byleth (as in the player character) and will refer to them as "Teach", even if you don't get to be his professor. He also extends this by referring to Byleth as the ultimate trump card for whomever they have aligned with. The Verdant Wind route also shows Claude never giving up hope that the player character is still alive.
 * 12) In the end of his story, Claude returns to his homeland of Almyra and assumed the role of a politically active prince. After inheriting the throne, he worked to improve relations with Fódlan. Under his guidance, the peoples of Fódlan and Almyra were finally able to set aside age-old prejudices, and over time, the fallacies of old were all but forgotten.
 * 13) If you were to pair Claude with Ingrid, both will have an ending where they raised many children together.
 * 14) His backstory is rather relatable if you think about it: He as a child often found himself discriminated like he was an outcast due to his mixed heritage, which caused Claude to make a goal about ending Fódlan's long-standing isolationism in an effort to bring about a new world where everyone accepts everyone else. These experiences also helped him develop his strong tactical prowess from a young age. Also, his real name is Khaild, but changed his name to Claude which is more fitting to Fódlan.
 * 15) Back at his home, he has a tradition where Claude would have a rowdy feast no matter if they win or lose.
 * 16) Claude can have the most skill proficiencies in the game with a total of six, after unlocking his budding talent in axes. He shares this distinction with Balthus.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Sometimes, his attitude to his duties as heir to the Leicester Alliance seems at odds with each other and sometimes frustrates his fellow nobility classmates. Especially Lorenz. But that does not make him unlikable.
 * 2) In any route where he fights at Gronder Field outside his own route, he tries to play it cool and out gambit the other armies, but he ends up underestimating the Kingdom and Empire, and winds up badly losing.
 * 3) *Similary, his desire to stay neutral fractures the Alliance, which generally prevents him from potentially gaining any aid from the Kingdom and leaving them susceptible to the Empire once they invade in earnest.

Trivia

 * Claude is a French given name derived from the Roman emperor Claudius. In view of the evident reference to the Shakespearean play King Lear that a majority of the Golden Deer (including him) play off of, his name may also have derived from King Claudius from Hamlet, the primary antagonist of the tragedy. It may also be a reference to Claudio Ranieri, who was the manager of Leicester City during their improbable 2016 Premier League-winning campaign.
 * His real name Khaild (variants include Khaled and Kalid; Arabic: خالد) is a popular Arabic male given name meaning "eternal," "endless," or "immortal.")
 * His last name Regan is a name likely derived from ancient Gaelic and means "little king." Furthermore, Regan is also the name of King Lear's second daughter, continuing the references to Shakespeare
 * His voice actor, Joe Zieja stated in an interview that in his audition for Three Houses, he did readings for other characters such as Dimitri, Dedue, and Ferdinand before being chosen as Claude
 * Zieja also sang a cover of God-Shattering Star along with renowned metal musician Jules Conroy, a.k.a FamilyJules. He premiered the song in his Twitch account and Conroy later uploaded it to his own YouTube channel.
 * Game director Toshiyuki Kusakihara stated in an interview that the writers drew inspiration from Rajendra from The Heroic Legend of Arslan and Yang Wen-li from Legend of the Galactic Heroes when creating Claude.
 * The interview states that Nader was intended to reveal that Claude's real name is Khalid, but this was eventually scrapped.
 * Stands at 157cm (or about 5'9).
 * Due to House Riegan being a cadet branch of the Blaiddyd royal family, Claude is distantly related to Dimitri.
 * Claude, Dedue, and Gilbert are the only route-exclusive characters that are confirmed to survive in more than one route.
 * Claude's design and characteristics share a lot of similarities with Persian culture. This includes:
 * His pre-timeskip design, being based off the Persian Achaemenid archers. They are depicted as wearing yellow, having a singular earring, and wielding a composite bow.
 * His post-timeskip design, being based off a Kontush Sash: an ornate band worn around the waist which originated in Persia. At the end of this sash, Claude possesses a garland of Turkish püskül which wards off bad luck.
 * Claude's personal battalion, the Immortal Corps, is a reference to the Persian Immortals—the name given by Herodotus to an elite heavily-armed infantry queued unit of 10,000 soldiers within the grand army of the Achaemenid Empire.
 * An Almyran ritual Claude celebrates, as mentioned in his C-support with Annette, is a reference to the real-life "Chaharshanbe Suri", a Zoroastrian fire festival originating in ancient Persia.
 * Meditation Claude partakes in every morning, as mentioned in his C-support with Ingrid, is another practice of Zoroastrianism.
 * Claude has placed high in several character polls done in magazines for Fire Emblem: Three Houses.