Edelgard is the princess and then Emperor of the Adrestian Empire. She has grown up in a land controlled by the Church of Serios, lead by Serios herself, going by the name of Rhea. Rhea is an immortal dragon and the child of Sothis, an alien/god dragon who brought many gifts to the world before being killed in her sleep by Nemesis. Edelgard is one of the few people who knows Rhea's true form. Edelgard and her siblings were tortured by the ancient enemies of the church/Rhea/Sothis, Those That Slither In The Dark. They were tortured in experiments to give the child crests, crests giving the user more power and being caused by the blood of Sothis. Edelgard is the only child to survive the experiments but her lifespan is dramatically shortened and well... Her siblings are dead and she was just experimented on.
Now the narrative of Three Houses is somewhat messy and has a few many holes as there are four plot lines, thousands of years of lore, and 200 hours of writing so not everything is super clear. However, it seems that Rhea's church is responsible for the currently existing crest system according to statements from not only Edelgard but also Claude, but the details are not given as to how. It's possibly implied that Rhea caused this system into being by claiming that crests are gifts from Sothis herself and the receiver must be blessed and good. Now crests are extremely important to nobility, with some children of nobles being disowned if they do not have a crest, and with noble society being built around crests.
Edelgard's plan in Three Houses is to ally with Those That Slither In The Dark to kill the existing nobility, kill Rhea and the other dragons and the church, and then betray Those That Slither in The Dark and kill them, ruling over all of Fodlan. This plan will destroy this crest-based society and she hopes it will create a better society before her quickly approaching death.
Now, Edelgard's plan is very revenge driven, it's morally questionable, it's questionable whether this will lead to a better society or if other divisions will arise, it's questionable that the means are worth the ends as thousands will have to die in Edelgard's plan, you could argue that Edelgard should have pursued other non-violent routes to changing society in the short time she had left to live. But her motivations and future ideal system have nothing to with fascist Italy or Germany. Edelgard is a revolutionary whose philosophy can be compared to dozens, maybe hundreds of leaders closer to her than Adolf Hitler. George Washington and Vladimir Lenin are two very well known leader in history who seem a lot closer to Edelgard than Hitler or Mussolini. One of the many princes or princesses throughout history who wishes to restore their family to power (as while Edelgard's father has the throne, he has been usurped in true power) are much more comparable to Edelgard than Franco...
tl;dr, Edelgard is a violent revolutionary responsible for thousands of deaths and you can question what she did, she also has nothing whatsoever in common with fascist states in real life history.
Now the narrative of Three Houses is somewhat messy and has a few many holes as there are four plot lines, thousands of years of lore, and 200 hours of writing so not everything is super clear. However, it seems that Rhea's church is responsible for the currently existing crest system according to statements from not only Edelgard but also Claude, but the details are not given as to how. It's possibly implied that Rhea caused this system into being by claiming that crests are gifts from Sothis herself and the receiver must be blessed and good. Now crests are extremely important to nobility, with some children of nobles being disowned if they do not have a crest, and with noble society being built around crests.
Edelgard's plan in Three Houses is to ally with Those That Slither In The Dark to kill the existing nobility, kill Rhea and the other dragons and the church, and then betray Those That Slither in The Dark and kill them, ruling over all of Fodlan. This plan will destroy this crest-based society and she hopes it will create a better society before her quickly approaching death.
Now, Edelgard's plan is very revenge driven, it's morally questionable, it's questionable whether this will lead to a better society or if other divisions will arise, it's questionable that the means are worth the ends as thousands will have to die in Edelgard's plan, you could argue that Edelgard should have pursued other non-violent routes to changing society in the short time she had left to live. But her motivations and future ideal system have nothing to with fascist Italy or Germany. Edelgard is a revolutionary whose philosophy can be compared to dozens, maybe hundreds of leaders closer to her than Adolf Hitler. George Washington and Vladimir Lenin are two very well known leader in history who seem a lot closer to Edelgard than Hitler or Mussolini. One of the many princes or princesses throughout history who wishes to restore their family to power (as while Edelgard's father has the throne, he has been usurped in true power) are much more comparable to Edelgard than Franco...
tl;dr, Edelgard is a violent revolutionary responsible for thousands of deaths and you can question what she did, she also has nothing whatsoever in common with fascist states in real life history.
