Cornelia Arnim

A mage from the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. She was once considered a saintly figure before one day becoming something quite different. Appears in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Name: Cornelia Arnim Gender: Female Race: Human Height: 168 cm Occupation: Court Mage of the Royal Family of Faerghus Weapon: Staffs </Personal Information> Cornelia is a tall curvacerous woman with light complexion, long wavy rose gold hair and teal eyes. Her attire consists of a purple sleeveless dress with slits that shows her legs and a neckline that shows her cleavage and navel, silver tiara, black heels, long dark fingerless gloves, and dark shoulder accents with orange feathers on them. Cornelia was once a kind woman, who was willing to cure the plague of the Kingdom.

Currently, Cornelia is a power-hungry woman who is more than willing to claim the throne for herself, even if it means murdering Dimitri's uncle and framing the former for her crimes. Furthermore, she is a self-serving tyrant, as she was willing to given her territory to the Empire.

However, it is strongly implied that the real Cornelia was killed and replaced by Those Who Slither in the Dark, as several people note how her personality and behavior changed quite suddenly and with another member of Those Who Slither in the Dark referring to her as 'Cleobulus' (Note: In the English version, Thales refers to Cleobulus as 'he', but in the Japanese version no conflicting gender is given). In regards to impersonations, this much is also said about Volkhard, Tomas and Monica), and at one point after the time skip, a merchant wonders why she has imposed ridiculous levels of taxation on the parts of Faerghus she rules over, pointing out that it makes no sense to drain a region so completely if they intend to keep making use of it as a conquered land. Dimitri furthers that argument in Three Hopes by pointing out to her that if Cornelia really wanted to destroy Faerghus all along, she simply had to fail in curing the plague, with her answering that it was "another lifetime completely".

She's also considerably pragmatic, as when Dimitri's return inspires uprisings among the Kingdom citizens, Cornelia refuses to send troops to suppress them not out of any sense of mercy to the people, but rather because she knows she has to confront Dimitri with every soldier she has and can't afford to send any elsewhere if she is to have any chance of winning. Cornelia was once a researcher studying in the Adrestian Empire. Shortly after Hanneman left the Empire and was given a position at Garreg Mach Monastery, Cornelia also left and was hired by King Lambert to go to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus to put her knowledge to good use. She was given top priority to improving Fhirdiad's infrastructure and was able to end the epidemic that plagued the Kingdom, being praised as a saint.

After she ended the epidemic, one day Cornelia had a sudden shift of personality. Whether this is her true personality and she is from Agartha, or she was killed and replaced with an agent of Those Who Slither in the Dark is left ambiguous, but since that day she is only loyal to Those Who Slither in the Dark and doesn't care for anyone else. Despite people noticing this change, she was still trusted and the king appointed her a high post as a mage in service of the royal family.

When the second Queen Consort Patricia's daughter, Edelgard, was taken away by Those Who Slither in the Dark, the desperate Patricia turned to Cornelia and said she wished to see her daughter again, no matter who or what she had to sacrifice to do so. Cornelia claimed that the one truly keeping Edelgard away from her was King Lambert, and then said she could make Patricia's wish come true at the cost of the king's head, henceforth starting the Tragedy of Duscur.

Cornelia also used a young girl named Hapi in magical experiments related to the girl's mysterious Crest of Timotheos and its abilities. She had befriended the once-street urchin in order to get her trust before completely shattering it via first offering her good housing and food, then making her a guinea pig. The results of Cornelia's experiments resulted in monsters being drawn to Hapi whenever she sighed. Patricia was indignant towards Cornelia's treatment of Hapi and supposedly considered exposing her experiments, before she disappeared during the Tragedy of Duscur. Cornelia uses staffs as her weapon.