Mercedes

"If you get injured simply say the word and I'll patch you up straight away"

Mercedes is a playable character who appears in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. She is a student at the Officers Academy and a member of the Blue Lions. She possesses a minor Crest of Lamine. She is 22 years old at the start of the game.

Early life
Born a noble in the Adrestian Empire to Baron Martritz, Mercedes' house was abolished when her father died in the year she was born. Her mother remarried Baron Bartels, and they had a son named Emile a year later, who bore a Crest. However, this proved to be her and her mother's undoing, as both began being treated as if they were expendable since her stepfather solely wanted a child with a Crest. Thus, in 1167, at the age of 10, she and her mother left House Bartels to live in a church in eastern Faerghus.

Mercedes was eventually adopted by a merchant from Fhirdiad and grew up as a commoner, though her adoptive father wanted her to marry well and have a child with a Crest. Before attending the Officers Academy, she attended the Royal School of Sorcery in the capital and befriended Annette.

Academy phase
Mercedes enrolled in Garreg Mach Monastery Officers Academy in Imperial Year 1180 and joined the Blue Lions. She is slightly older than the other students. She is a close friend of Annette, whom she met at the school of sorcery.

Crimson Flower
If Mercedes was not recruited by Byleth during the Academy phase, then she will appear as an enemy at Gronder Field with a few soldiers to support Dimitri repel the Adrestian Empire's attack. If Annette battles her, Mercedes comforts her after she shows hesitation that they are about to kill each other. Should Jeritza battle her, he asks her to move, but she refuses to, believing in Dimitri but hopes that they will meet each other again in another life. If ignored, her fate remains unknown after the battle.

Azure Moon
If Caspar has joined the Blue Lions, after Garreg Mach Monastery has been reclaimed by Byleth's army, he informs Byleth that a small battalion seems to be scouting the Monastery, lead by the Death Knight. Overhearing this conversation, Mercedes enters the conversation and asks to go meet the Death Knight, having the suspicion that he may be her younger half-brother Emile. Caspar follows her into the field to protect her from the Death Knight's forces. The Death Knight's forces attack her and her allies, but he does not enter the fray.

After the battle, Mercedes directly confronts him with Caspar and Byleth present. The Death Knight passively confirms that he is indeed Emile and that he decided to spare her for this one battle because they are siblings. Though she asks him to join their cause, he refuses, stating that he is beyond salvation. He, in turn, advises that she leave the monastery, but she refuses. Now at an impasse, the Death Knight allows her to leave and gifts her the Rafail Gem, a Hero's Relic of Lamine. He warns her that next time, he will not show her mercy.

After the liberation of Faerghus from Cornelia and the unification of the Alliance and Kingdom, the Blue Lions target Fort Merceus in order to begin their campaign against the Empire. Much to her displeasure, the one guarding the fort is none other than the Death Knight. A fierce battle ensues inside, but ultimately, he is mortally wounded. Mercedes removes his mask and comforts him in his final moments. She sheds tears as her brother expires in her arms.

Verdant Wind
Mercedes joins the merchant business during the time skip. She also appears alongside Dimitri and her other allies at Gronder Field. She may be killed during the battle or may rejoin if she has been recruited beforehand. If she is ignored until the battle ends, it is unknown what happens to her.

It is also possible for her to rejoin immediately after Garreg Mach is retaken. If she fights alongside the Golden Deer at Gronder, she tells Byleth after Dimitri is killed that she saw him praying but did not know what he was praying for.

Personality
Mercedes is a kind girl who watches her surroundings closely and can't ignore people in need. She has a "motherly" personality and she is shown in her supports to help out with her friends if there is a problem. Despite all that has happened to her in the past, she able to stay positive. While she can be normally calm as seen in her support with Lorenz, she is still capable of getting angry particularly. By her own admission, she can be scatterbrained and clumsy.

In a support with Byleth, she admits she tends to let people tell her what to do, rationalizing this to be the will of the Goddess. Thus, her reason for heading to the Garreg Mach Monastery and later during the war was the first time she chooses to act for herself, defying the wishes of her adoptive father. She also has a great dislike of Crests as they have brought her misery through her life and the many marriage proposals her adoptive father attempt to place on Mercedes. This allowed her to bond with Sylvain and Ingrid due to similar circumstances. She is also best friends with Annette since their time at School of Sorcery.

She's also a very religious person, having spent much of her youth in a church, and enjoys praying. She also enjoys baking sweets, as seen in her support with Annette and Ashe. Mercedes' likes are needlework, ghost stories, adorable things, painting reading, and fragrant flowers. However, she dislikes spicy foods and exercise.

She also holds a deep regret for leaving her younger brother Emile and being there to support during his time at House Bartels. Even when he became the Death Knight, she was still able to recognize it was him by the time of the War Phase. In Azure Moon Route, she comforts him as he is slowly dying, lamenting on the circumstances she could have prevented.

As an Enemy
Combat at Tailtean Plains

Growth Rates

 * 30%
 * 25%
 * 50%
 * 45%
 * 40%
 * 30%
 * 25%
 * 45%
 * 40%
 * }

Maximum Stats

 * 64
 * 37
 * 72
 * 62
 * 58
 * 54
 * 44
 * 65
 * 58
 * }

Learned Magic

 * D
 * Fire
 * Heal
 * D+
 * Thunder
 * Nosferatu
 * C
 * Bolganone
 * Physic
 * C+
 * B
 * Restore
 * B+
 * A
 * Ragnarok
 * Fortify
 * A+
 * }
 * Restore
 * B+
 * A
 * Ragnarok
 * Fortify
 * A+
 * }
 * Ragnarok
 * Fortify
 * A+
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

Recruitment
Mercedes requires Byleth to have 15 Magic and an Bow Proficiency C to be recruited out of the Blue Lions house.

Forming a C Rank Support lowers the Bow Proficiency requirement to D+, and forming a B Rank Support lowers it further to D.

Overall
Mercedes has a primary focus on standard mage growths, having a strong Magic growth and decent Dexterity, Resistance, and Speed. Tutoring her in Reason and Faith are her two subject strengths while she has a Budding Talent for Bow.

Mercedes is a natural Faith user for the Blue Lions and should be their primary healer, but can be a useful recruit for other Houses as well. Her Faith Magic pool has very useful spells including Physic for healing from a distance and Fortify to heal all allies in range and is one of two units able to use it, the other being Flayn. Luckily for her, she could theoretically take a stray hit and keep herself alive thanks to her personal skill Live to Serve, which heals herself the same amount as she heals an ally, giving her a decent method of self-regeneration in earlier levels where healing is rather thin.

As a Crest of Lamine bearer, she is the only playable character able to use the Tathlum Bow's full effect, having increased regeneration when equipped. While it has high base Might, Mercedes's overall Strength growths are low and are highly unlikely to outpace any of the other bow units available, and would only serve to help against foes with high Resistance that would wall her magic attacks, such as Pegasus Knights or mage units. If one is absolutely looking for damage directly from bows, the Magic Bow will best work for Mercedes, as it calculates her damage from her Magic stat rather than her subpar Strength, though the weapon will require Mercedes to have a Bow Mastery Grade B in order to use. If forged into a Magic Bow+, it gains additional range, allowing her to attack from two to three spaces away, thus able to avoid an attack from ranged weapons that isn't coming from Counterattack.

Given her overall strengths, Mercedes is best left in Magic oriented classes from the Monk line, having a respectable Reason spell pool to go through Mage classes. Still, as mentioned above, her Faith magic makes her one of the strongest healers in-game and as such the Priest line is a natural fit for her and by the time she reaches either a Bishop, where she not only has twice the amount of Faith casting but also increased healing overall plus another means of self-regeneration through Renewal and the ability to ignore damage from terrain through Terrain Resistance. Miracle isn't quite as useful to her, however, due to her subpar Luck. She can also go through two possible Master Level classes, namely Gremory which does weaken her healing slightly, but it also empowers her Reason by increasing the number of uses of her spells. She can become a Holy Knight as it allows her to maintain her Faith, but her subject weakness in Lances will make the effort difficult even with long term training due to the skill experience penalty towards lances, though the class rewards her with increased movement and access to White Tomefaire which increases her Mt by 5 when using her Nosferatu spell, even if it's her sole offensive move.

Theoretically, she can be built to go into the Fighter line with a focus on the Archer routes, but her overall potential with bows are severely limited as her promotional options bar her from using her Faith, as well as her aforementioned poor Strength growths. Hit Rate +20 could be a useful skill to acquire from the Archer line if she ever has issues with hit rates, though her solid Dex growths should not require it. For those who really wishes for it and isn't turned off by Mercedes' subject weaknesses in Axes and Heavy Armor, a player can train Mercedes in the Armored Knight classes, which would fix her Strength and Defense growths considerably, while also not hampering too much with her Resistance and Magic growths, effectively turning her into a tank of both worlds that would wall all but the absolute worst attacks. Additionally, keeping some Bows on Mercedes will let her still attack at range.

Overall, Mercedes is often regarded as the best healer in the game, having the best array of healing spells of any character, while also being less susceptible to damage thanks to her personal skill. Flayn is her biggest competition as a fellow Fortify healer as she is recruited via story events unlike Mercedes who must have her conditions met to recruit her outside of the Blue Lions house. However, Mercedes can be used in all four routes while Flayn cannot be used in the Crimson Flower route, thus giving Mercedes a particularly powerful niche in that route. Her offensive spell list also means she can do more than just heal, and she can often contribute a considerable amount of damage in any battle.

Supports

 * Byleth (S-Support with male and female Byleth)
 * Dimitri
 * Ferdinand
 * Dedue
 * Felix
 * Ashe
 * Sylvain
 * Annette
 * Ingrid
 * Lorenz
 * Ignatz
 * Hilda
 * Alois
 * Cyril
 * Jeritza

Fire Emblem Heroes

 * -|Original=
 * Kindly Devotee
 * Adopted daughter of a merchant family in the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. Former nobility with a gentle, easygoing personality. Appears in Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Base Stats
Rarity: ✯✯✯✯✯

Three Houses

 * Mercedes/Quotes

Heroes

 * Mercedes/Heroes Quotes

Possible Endings
Mercedes - Benevolent Soul (Crimson Flower)
 * Mercedes left home and opened a small orphanage in the Faerghus region with her mother. There, she took in and raised children who had lost their families in the war, regardless of their blood or circumstances of birth. It is said that, in the town which grew around this orphanage, the children never failed to smile.

Mercedes - Benevolent Soul (Other routes)
 * Mercedes left home and went to Garreg Mach, where she became a model cleric. She devoted the whole of her life to the service of the goddess and became well-loved by the people, who revered her for her piety and her boundless generosity toward those in need.

Mercedes and Byleth (Azure Moon)
 * Byleth announced his/her marriage to Mercedes shortly after being named archbishop of the Church of Seiros. Mercedes took on duties as a cleric and through that work ensured that the church offered special support to children who had lost their families due to the war. The couple was said to mingle frequently among the people, working up a sweat right alongside them. They happily spent their lives ushering in a new era.

Mercedes and Byleth (Crimson Flower)
 * Byleth and Mercedes wed in haste, that they might better focus on their battle against those who slither in the dark. The struggle was long and arduous, but their passionate love supported them through it. When at last the fight was done, they moved to a small village in the Faerghus region and started an orphanage. There they took in and raised children who had lost their families in the war, regardless of their blood or circumstances of birth. It is said that Mercedes was never happier than when she was surrounded by smiling children, free of all worry.

Mercedes and Byleth (Verdant Wind / Silver Snow)
 * Byleth announced his/her marriage to Mercedes shortly after becoming leader of the United Kingdom of Fódlan. Mercedes ensured that Fódlan paid special attention, in its rebuilding effort, to folks who had lost jobs and to children who had lost their families due to the war. The couple was said to mingle frequently among the people, working up a sweat right alongside them. They happily spent their lives ushering in a new era.

Mercedes and Dimitri
 * After his coronation, Dimitri assumed the throne of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and took his friend, Mercedes, as his queen. Most were shocked by his choice, as she did not come from a distinguished noble line. Still, when the people saw her devotion to healing the damage caused by the war, they decided she was the ideal match for the one they called the Savior King. It is said that the couple led busy but happy lives, and that they never failed to express their appreciation for one another, no matter the hardship.

Mercedes and Ferdinand (Crimson Flower)
 * After the war, Mercedes traveled to Fhirdiad to pay a visit to her adoptive father. Though she introduced Ferdinand, she left out the small detail that they were engaged to be wed. Married in secret, Ferdinand and Mercedes worked together to reform the new Duke Aegir's territory, and the effort was so successful that Emperor Edelgard named Ferdinand her prime minister. It was a busy life for him indeed, but as he was was known to say to his government colleagues, coming home to a smiling family made all the hard work worth it.

Mercedes and Ferdinand (Other routes)
 * After the war, Mercedes traveled to Fhirdiad to pay a visit to her adoptive father. Though she introduced Ferdinand, she left out the small detail that they were engaged to be wed. Married in secret, Ferdinand and Mercedes worked together to reform the new Duke Aegir's territory, and the effort was so successful that he was called upon to work as a leader in the central government. It was a busy life for him indeed, but as he was known to say to his government colleagues, coming home to a smiling family made all the hard work worth it.

Mercedes and Dedue
 * Two years after the war, Dedue and his wife, Mercedes, opened a school in the Duscur residential district in Fhirdiad. The school educated Duscur children, who had never been given structured learning before, in reading, writing, arithmetics, and even Duscur history. Many years later, when the Duscur people reclaimed their homeland, the people who attended this school were able to resettle there and revive their old culture. because of this, Dedue and Mercedes were forever renowned by the Duscur.

Mercedes and Felix (Azure Moon)
 * After the war, Felix inherited the title of Duke Fraldarius from his late father, Rodrigue. A year later he married Mercedes, who helped complete the rebuilding effort by paying special attention to children who had lost their families during the war. When their efforts were complete, they settled into a busy life together, with Felix serving as the king's trusted retainer, and Mercedes supporting him in all things. It is said that every so often, the pair would venture out of their territory in order to visit a graveyard for fallen Imperial soldiers. There, they left flowers on a mysterious, unmarked grave, and prayed for the one who rested there.

Mercedes and Felix (Other 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 reunited with Mercedes. She had begun a new life as a cleric in service to the goddess, and with her kindness and generosity, she was able to turn his life around. No one knows what became of them after that, but the tales of a swordsman who made warriors across Fódlan tremble with fear all come to an end at that point.

Mercedes and Ashe
 * After the war, Ashe was formally knighted and appointed the new head of House Gaspard, which had no successors. The young and inexperienced lord faced a great deal of difficulty in governing. Though he was famously tenacious and never lost heart, it was perhaps only due to the counsel of his wife, Mercedes, that he managed to overcome all obstacles. When not busy governing their territory, the couple lifted one another's spirits by baking delicious sweets for each other. The tradition was so heartwarming that it became popular for husbands and wives in that region to do the same for generations.

Mercedes and Sylvain
 * As Margrave Gautier, Sylvain devoted his life to improving relations with the people of Sreng. Under his leadership, nobles were persuaded that Relics and Crests were not necessary as they'd previously thought. Though he went down in history as an extraordinary lord, he could not have done so without the constant support and counsel of his wife, Mercedes, whose wisdom and guidance brought prosperity to the people. The couple built a loving home life, surrounded by happy children, and when Sylvain at last passed away, he was succeeded by his oldest child, who bore no Crest.

Mercedes and Annette
 * After the war, Annette and Mercedes lived separate lives: the former as a teacher at the school of sorcery in Fhirdiad, the latter as the proprietor of an orphanage in a village in the Faerghus region. Though they lived apart, they exchanged letters so frequently and shared their lives with one another in such detail that it was as though they were side by side. After many decades, Annette decided to resign from her post and move to the village where Mercedes lived to help run the orphanage. The life they lived there was modest, but it is said that they were happy to the very end.

Mercedes and Lorenz
 * After the war, Mercedes accompanied Lorenz back to his homeland. There, the young heir petitioned his father, Count Gloucester, to permit the couple to marry. The count initially disapproved of Mercedes's status as a commoner, he was persuaded by her virtues as a person to change his mind. In fact, he praised Lorenz for having a taste in character superior to his own. After Lorenz succeeded his father as lord of the territory, the couple finally wed. With Lorenz's stern approach to governance, and Mercedes's open mind, House Gloucester flourished under their rule.

Mercedes and Ignatz (Crimson Flower)
 * Mercedes left home and opened a small orphanage in the Faerghus region with her mother. There, she took in and raised children who had lost their families in the war, regardless of their blood or circumstances of birth. Some years later, she was reunited with Ignatz, who had persuaded his family that he should become a painter and traveled all through Fódlan painting beautiful landscapes. His greatest masterpiece, however, was a portrait that was entitled The Smiling Saint. It is said that the woman whose face inspired it became the love of his life, and that she spent all of her remaining days close by his side.

Mercedes and Ignatz (Other routes)
 * Mercedes left home for a life as a cleric at Garreg Mach. There, she took in and raised children who had lost their families in the war, regardless of the circumstances of their birth or bloodline. Some years later, she was reunited with Ignatz, who had persuaded his family that he should become a painter and traveled all through Fódlan painting beautiful landscapes. His greatest masterpiece, however, was a portrait that was entitled The Smiling Saint. It is said that the woman whose face inspired it became the love of his life, and that she spent all of her remaining days close by his side.

Mercedes and Alois
 * Mercedes left home for a life as a cleric at Garreg Mach. Alois, as Jeralt's successor, officially assumed the role of captain of the Knights of Seiros. Though the two were quite busy with their daily activities, they would often find time to get together in the evenings so Alois could hear Mercedes's ghost stories. No one can say for certain whether it was the constant exposure to spooky tales or some other cause, but from that time on, Alois's reputation became that of a totally fearless fighter. Mercedes's quiet support was widely credited for this increase in bravery. Her blessing came to be known as a guarantee of victory.

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)
Mercedes is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards:

Etymology
The first part of Mercedes, "merced", means mercy or grace in Spanish. This name is commonly associated with the full name and title, "Maria de las Mercedes", meaning "Maria of the Mercies". This title was given to the Lady of Mercy, the Virgin Mary, of the Christian faith.

Trivia

 * Mercedes shares her English voice actress, Dorothy Elias Fahn, with Rinea from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
 * Mercedes is one of the characters who can have S-Supports with both a male and a female Byleth. The others are: Rhea, Dorothea, Edelgard, Sothis, Linhardt, Alois (platonic) and Gilbert (platonic as well)
 * Mercedes has a unique post-timeskip battle model as a Priest and Bishop.
 * Mercedes stands at 169cm (or about 5’7”).
 * Mercedes is the oldest student; she is 22 years old at the start of the game
 * It also makes her older than Byleth, who is supposed to be 21.
 * In the E3 trailer, Mercedes is originally shown with chestnut hair.
 * Mercedes shares her Paralogue with Caspar but, differently from the other characters with a shared Paralogue, the two cannot support. The same goes for Linhardt and Leonie, and also Ferdinand and Lysithea.
 * In a survey conducted by Famitsu Magazine, Mercedes placed 6th for females and 10th overall with 721 votes in the character popularity poll for Fire Emblem: Three Houses. She also placed 9th among S-Supports chosen in the first playthrough with 120 votes.