Lord Arundel (backstory character)

Volkhard von Arundel
; Artwork of Lord Arundel from Warriors: Three Hopes.
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Family	Anselma (sister); Edelgard (niece); Dimitri (step-nephew); Ionius IX (first brother-in-law); Lambert (second brother-in-law); Five unnamed nephews (all deceased); Three unnamed nieces (all deceased); Two unnamed niblings (both deceased);
Nationality	Adrestian
Title(s)	Lord Arundel
Voiced by	Chris Smith; (English, Three Houses); Masaki Terasoma; (Japanese, Three Houses;
Appearance(s)	Three Houses; Three Hopes;

Lord Volkhard von Arundel^[2] (pronounced /⁠ˈvoʊlkɑɹd vɑn ˈɑɹʌndɛl⁠/^[key]; Japanese: フォルクハルト＝フォン＝アランデル Volkhard von Arundel) is a non-playable character mentioned in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. He was the maternal uncle of Edelgard.

Biography

Volkhard von Arundel was an Adrestian noble who was granted the title of Lord Arundel and rule of a region on the Adrestian border with Faerghus after his sister Anselma became one of Emperor Ionius IX's consorts. After the events of the Insurrection of the Seven, a soft coup in Imperial Year 1171 that rendered Ionius IX a politically impotent figurehead, took place, he and his niece Edelgard von Hresvelg fled to Faerghus where they lived for three years while concealing her niece's public presence, as he feared she could be used as a political pawn.^[3] Despite this however, in 1174, Volkhard returned to the Empire alongside his niece and stopped donating money to the Church of Seiros, which caused his step-nephew, Dimitri, to speculate years later that he might have had a hand in orchestrating the Tragedy of Duscur. Afterwards, he allied himself with Duke Ludwig von Aegir in 1174 in a sudden move that led him to be credited as one of the chief instigators of the Insurrection of the Seven^[4]^[5], and allowed her niece and her siblings in secret to be experimented by those who slither in the dark. Some time after, he was granted the title of regent and supported Edelgard's war against the Church of Seiros and the rest of Fódlan in 1181.

Due to Lord Arundel's sudden shift in personality in 1174 and connections to those who slither in the dark, it is heavily implied in Three Houses and later confirmed in Warriors: Three Hopes that he was disposed of and later replaced by Thales, the leader of those who slither in the dark, for the sake of infiltrating the Adrestian Empire and abusing Volkhard's position in it.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Role

Lord Arundel (or rather, Thales impersonating him) is an NPC that appears briefly in Chapter 4, Chapter 8 in Blue Lions, Chapter 19 and 21 of Azure Moon (the latter in a flashback), Chapter 16 and 18 of Crimson Flower, and in the paralogue Darkness Beneath the Earth.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

Role

Lord Arundel (or rather, Thales impersonating him) is an NPC that appears in Chapter 3 of the Black Eagles' route.

Personality

It is described Volkhard was a pious man in the past – to the point he donated his money to the Church of Seiros for many years – and even cared for Edelgard's actual wellbeing, being the reason he escaped to Faerghus in secret with her to secure her protection.

Choose Your Legends placement history

Round	Placement	Character	Votes

CYL 4
(2020)

720