Flayn

Flayn is a character from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

She possesses a major Crest of Saint Cethleann.

Profile
Flayn is the younger sister of Seteth, aid to the Archbishop, Rhea. She began living at Garreg Mach Monastery in Imperial Year 1179. She is not a student, though she wants to become one someday. She lives at the Monastery, as Seteth is her only family. She is a gentle girl who interacts with others openly, but since her curiosity can make her act rashly, she makes Seteth worry a lot.

In reality, Flayn is actually Seteth's daughter. Her mother is buried in the Rhodos Coast. While she claims to be the descendant of Cethleann, she is actually Cethleann herself. As a survivor of the massacre at Zanado she and her father allied with Seiros during the War of Heroes. Injuries she suffered in the same battle that killed her mother would cause Flayn to need to enter a dormant state for many years in order to heal. Thus, after the war, she and her father remained in Zanado, isolated from the rest of the world until her father went to the monastery in Imperial Year 1162, leaving her completely alone. Having missed out on much of history due to this dormancy and isolation leaves her surprisingly naive despite how long she has existed. Though she is allied with Rhea, she is unaware of her true motives.

School Phase
Flayn greatly enjoys living at the monastery as it allows her to interact and socialize with others. During the Horsebow Moon, Flayn is suddenly kidnapped, putting the Monastery and Seteth in high alert. Rumors spread of a Death Knight kidnapping people in the middle of the night. Searching the Monastery grounds and discovering a hidden passage, they discover that the rumors are somewhat true as Byleth's house discovers an unconscious Flayn and another student being held hostage by the Death Knight. They are able to rescue Flayn after the Flame Emperor makes a sudden appearance and forces the Death Knight to leave the battle.

Relieved that Flayn has been found safe and sound, Seteth initially wants to take the two into hiding in order to prevent the situation from happening again. Flayn rejects the idea since it would at most delay an inevitable and she would be much safer in the Monastery, surrounded by capable knights and the growing students. By her suggestion, she joins Byleth's class as an unofficial student. Seteth agrees as Byleth had proven their merit by rescuing his beloved sister.

Personality
A calm and outgoing girl who quickly befriends others, Flayn also shows a lot of curiosity about the world. She can often behave eccentrically when her curiosity takes hold, as she is ignorant to many things, as she wonders the behavior of a fish, and somewhat gullible, as she readily believes Sylvain's flirt as something literal.

Her interests include making friends, and wandering. She most notably enjoys fishing, even hosting fishing tournaments at the Monastery. In her Support with Dimitri, she is not very good at cooking as whenever she enters the dining hall to cook, everyone, including Seteth leave with only Dimitri liking her cooking due to losing his sense of taste.

She dislikes Seteth's overprotectiveness, as it led Flayn to live in isolation for a long time, and she eagerly welcomes the opportunity to join Byleth's class and make friends, while getting angry at her brother for interfering in her social life.

As an Enemy
Battle at Garreg Mach

Growth Rates

 * 25%
 * 25%
 * 55%
 * 45%
 * 35%
 * 15%
 * 25%
 * 50%
 * 45%
 * }

Maximum Stats

 * 56
 * 37
 * 77
 * 62
 * 48
 * 46
 * 36
 * 72
 * 65
 * }

Learnt Magic

 * D
 * Wind
 * Heal
 * D+
 * Fire
 * Nosferatu
 * C
 * Cutting Gale
 * Restore
 * C+
 * B
 * Rescue
 * B+
 * A
 * Excalibur
 * Fortify
 * A+
 * }
 * Rescue
 * B+
 * A
 * Excalibur
 * Fortify
 * A+
 * }
 * Excalibur
 * Fortify
 * A+
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

Overall
Flayn is a Priest and will likely be the second healer for the player. She has decent growths in Magic and Resistance, allowing her to heal and attack magically while warding off enemy mages. Her Charm and Dexterity are both slightly below average, but are still solid enough to reasonably increase upon leveling, the former which allows her to use Battalions with effectiveness. She has one of the lowest physical bulk in-game and is lacking Speed, meaning that most physical units can fell her in a single round of combat. As such, she should be avoiding direct confrontation as much as possible, thus having a unit between her and the enemies are ideal. This also allows her to grant her Personal Skill Lily's Poise onto her adjacent allies, reducing the damage they receive by 3. This effect does not extend to her, however.

Flayn's strengths lie in Lance and Faith, the latter which establishes her as a healer while the former is a rather unusual as her Strength growths are low and unreliable. She does have enough mastery of Lances to immediately use an Arrow of Indra which uses her better Magic stat for damage if looking to make use of her Lance proficiency. Her Faith spell pool has Restore, removing any negative status condition on allies within her range such as Poison, Rescue to pull allies out of danger back to her side, and the extremely useful Fortify, which heals all allies within her range. She is one of two characters to have this in their Faith pool, the other being Mercedes, making Flayn incredibly handy for the non-Blue Lions routes if Mercedes is not recruited. She has a Budding Talent in Reason which in turn gives her more offensive magic options if focused as she has a focus on wind spells which are lightweight and deal decent damage. Unlocking its potential grants her Seal Magic, further helping her to bait mages, cripple them, and allow allies to engage with the enemy's damage reduced. Flayn's only subject weakness is Riding which is a minor hindrance as the only thing this does is slow her down from becoming a potential Holy Knight or Dark Knight.

Flayn naturally fits in her Priest and Bishop class path, but if her Reason Budding Talent is unlocked, she can also shift into a Mage and Warlock and later combine the two into the Gremory class. All of these choices will play off of her Magic focus. While investing in her Riding may prove difficult due to her subject weakness, her role as a Holy Knight or Dark Knight will be stellar.

Supports

 * Byleth (S-Support with male Byleth)
 * Ferdinand
 * Linhardt
 * Dimitri
 * Dedue
 * Felix
 * Sylvain
 * Claude
 * Raphael
 * Ignatz
 * Seteth
 * Manuela

Quotes

 * Flayn/Quotes

Possible Endings
Flayn - Slumbering Princess
 * Flayn disappeared soon after the war, and over time it was all but forgotten that she had ever existed. Many long years later, however, a young woman resurfaced in a completely transformed Fódlan. When she looked to the man who stood beside her, she wondered if it would be all right, in this new era, to call him Father.

Flayn and Byleth (Silver Snow route)
 * Byleth announced his marriage to Flayn shortly after becoming leader of the United Kingdom of Fódlan. Flayn did not get involved in government affairs, but instead focused on making frequent public appearances, where her calm and pleasant demeanor helped endear the new leaders to the people. When Fódlan was finally restored, the couple left the throne to their children and retired to a royal villa on the Rhodos Coast of western Fódlan. They spent their remaining years there in peace, fishing a great deal. It is said that no matter their age, they always retained a youthful appearance

Flayn and Seteth (Silver Snow/Azure Moon routes)
 * While Flayn disappeared soon after the war, Seteth stayed at the monastery and worked to restore the authority of the Church of Seiros. Doing away with his old strictness, he adopted a tolerant stance toward all, and encouraged his followers to do the same. When he was satisfied that the message was received, he vanished from the monastery. Several centuries later, a man and a woman in ancient attire emerged to a Fódlan that had drastically changed. When she asked the man beside her if it would be all right in this new era to call him "Father," he said that perhaps it would be better to remain on the safe side.

Flayn and Felix (Azure Moon route)
 * After becoming Duke Fraldarius, Felix married Flayn, and the couple worked tirelessly to restore their territory. Thanks to Felix's dedication and Flayn's compassion, they were well loved by the people, whom they visited and spoke with frequently. Felix served as Dimitri's sworn sword throughout his reign, but when the king passed away, he gave it up in favor of a quiet life with his wife. In his later years, the sword was only used for parlor tricks, such as slicing juggled fruit out of the air—a display of skill that never failed to delight Flayn.

Flayn and Felix (Verdant Wind/Silver Snow routes)
 * Even after the war's end, skirmishes continued to break out across Fódlan. Learning that there were still places where he could fight, Felix abandoned his noble title and chose to make a living with his sword. He traveled the land, seeking battle as if he had a death wish, but his violent path came to an end when he arrived at Garreg Mach. It was there that he reunited with Flayn, who was saddened to see that Felix had continued to use his sword to kill. She left to travel with him, and it is rumored that her kindness helped turn his life around. No one knows what became of them after that, but the tales of a deadly swordsman did suddenly cease.

Flayn and Ignatz


 * Soon after the war, Flayn disappeared. Ignatz searched unsuccessfully for her for a time, but finally gave up and went home. With hard-won permission from his family, he then set out to travel the world as an artist. Years later, his journey took him by chance to Garreg Mach, where the statue of Saint Cethleann inspired him to paint. It was then that Flayn finally appeared, wondering aloud why Ignatz was not painting her as he’d promised. Overjoyed, Ignatz devoted much of the rest of his artistic career to getting Flayn’s likeness just right. Her visage was finally captured in the work he called The Second Advent of a Saint, which was widely recognized as a masterpiece.

Flayn and Linhardt


 * Immediately after the war, Flayn disappeared from Garreg Mach. At the same time, Linhardt mysteriously abandoned his claim to House Hevring, and also vanished. It was suspected, among those who knew them, that they had eloped, although no one seemed to know just where they went. Over a decade later, well after the Officers Academy had been rebuilt, something strange happened. A sleepy young girl with antiquated clothing and the Major Crest of Cethleann enrolled. Over the next two years, a young boy and girl with that same Crest also enrolled. Though Crest scholars deduced that they must be siblings, the truth of their lineage was never definitely proven.

Etymology
Flayn may derive from Flynn, meaning descendant of Flann, or Flamn, meaning reddish.

In Irish mythology, Cethleann of the Crooked Teeth was a Fomorian and wife of Balor of the Evil Eye. She is the mother of Ethniu and thus grandmother of Lugh.

Trivia

 * Flayn shares the crest of Cethleann with Linhardt.
 * If the Black Eagles (Crimson Flower branch) are chosen, Flayn becomes one of the four characters in the game that will leave the army. The others are Edelgard and Hubert on Silver Snow branch and Dedue on Blue Lions path.
 * However, unlike Dedue, Flayn leaves on her own will. She also leaves permanently, while Dedue eventually comes back, provided conditions are met.