Thread:MMYP999/@comment-27109830-20190720105636/@comment-27416494-20190827210156

They're both sympathetic anti-villains who are largely motivated by their shared hatred of the ruling religious societies of their worlds and the subsequent social systems set up by the Crests and the Score, which they believe are responsible for all the problems plaguing their lands over the past millennia. Much of their motivation stems from the secretive, immoral experiments they were subjected to as children that lead to the deaths of the vast majority of their closest family members.

With that in mind, they're both willing to resort to any means necessary to put an end to the Crest and Score systems, even if it means repeating the same atrocities that started their own descents into villainy in the first place. With their authoritative and charismatic personalities, the two would go on to build up a loyal faction of supporters that shared their beliefs, all while maintaining an innocent facade as steadfast allies of the main characters and church. Further still, they're entirely willing to sacrifice their closest allies and stab former comrades in the back when deemed necessary.

Though the opposing protagonists of the setting would eventually come to agree with their views in some fashion, Edelgard and Van's extreme actions and unwillingness to communicate or compromise would still force them into conflict anyway. In a fit of irony, their grand plans also suffered from a fatal misunderstanding of the histories of the systems they hated so dearly, as Edelgard never found out the real story behind the origin of the Crests, and Van's actions were inadvertently set to fulfill the fate of destruction foretold by the Score.