Byleth getting invited into Smash wasn’t the only big news today! Nintendo also surprised fans with a trailer for Wave 4 of the Three Houses DLC, featuring the new “Cindered Shadows” side story.
In this new story, you’ll join forces with four members of the Ashen Wolves, the secret fourth house living in the Abyss below Garreg Mach Monastery. From the looks of things, members of this house are rejects from society.
By progressing through this side story, you can recruit the new characters–Balthus, Yuri, Constance and Hapi–to the main story, while unlocking new classes, paralogues and activities.
Also, during the side story, it looks like you can use all three three House Leaders alongside other impossible recruits (like Hilda fighting alongside Edelgard!).
Cindered Shadows will be available for Expansion Pass owners from 13th February 2020* (UTC).
* 12th February 2020 (PST).
For more details and screenshots, please keep reading!
Balthus is a new male character who seems to enjoy fighting with Gauntlets. He has a new hero’s relic called Vajra-Mushti, which seems to grant a new Combat Art–Pneuma Gale–that can apparently attack enemies from range.
From the data-mined information, we can deduce he belongs to a new Gauntlet wielding class that can also wield Axes and Faith Magic decently well.
Yuri is the second male character, although he’s a bit more androgynous. All signs point to him sporting a new Trickster class, which has a very similar design to its Awakening incarnation.
I don’t think you can see it here, but in the data-mine, Yuri has a hero’s relic that’s a Ring.
Of the lot, Constance probably looks the most like a disgraced noble. To further cement this theory, she seems to have lines in the data-mine suggesting that she’s from House Nuvelle in the Adrestian Empire.
Later, you can see Constance in a new flying mage class, reminiscent of the Dark Flier class. There’s a decent chance they’re one and the same. Of note, the data-mine suggests that this class is locked to females.
Finally, we have Hapi, who doesn’t seem too happy (sorry!) to be here. She’s another spell-caster like Constance, except she seems to prefer a regular house and not a flying one. Her class also appears to be new and it may be locked to females as well.