Fire Emblem: Last of the Manakete

SoaringHawk218 said:

You're glad that Father decided to send you up here: while you would have argued for someone to be sent north to reinforce them,

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That colon should be something else, but I'm not sure if it's a comma, a dash, or a period. If it is a period, then that "while" should be "While".

SoaringHawk218 said:

A moment later, you feel a warmth engulf you as the woman casts Mend on you: strengthening your body and washing away the fatigue of the riding and fighting you've already done today.

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That colon should be a comma.

SoaringHawk218 said:

He can't stop both of you: the two crossing points are just too far apart.

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That colon should also be a comma.

SoaringHawk218 said:

He knows that whichever group he doesn't engage will surely overrun the nervous-looking infantry guarding the siege.

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"siege equipment"?

SoaringHawk218 said:

Your lip curls: while his tactics make sense…

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That colon should be a period, and that "while" should be "While".

SoaringHawk218 said:

You don't think that's going to happen: these men (and a few women) are unarmed and clearly not trained soldiers.

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That colon should be something else, but I'm not sure if it's a comma, a semicolon, or a period. If it is a period, then that "these" should be "These".

SoaringHawk218 said:

The older noble nods: for all that he still clearly thinks he'd be the better overall commander for this expedition,

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That colon should be a period, and that "for" should be "For".

SoaringHawk218 said:

the one your nearly shocked

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"you"

SoaringHawk218 said:

most of the Southern cavalry split off from the Northerners and ride towards the bridge where the remnants of the first Imperial cavalry group while the yeomen turned towards the castle.

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Something is missing between "group" and "while".

SoaringHawk218 said:

For a moment, you consider trying to discuss your idea that the First Mother and Sol Invictus are the same goddess,

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First, wasn't that Lacroix's idea?

Second, I was under the impression that Sol Invictus was a male deity.

SoaringHawk218 said:

"Nice lighting work,

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"lightning"?

SoaringHawk218 said:

so at least one talented White mage must be still working for the Regent.

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This might be nitpicking, but I feel like this should be "still be", not "be still".

SoaringHawk218 said:

but people might still make a grab for any valuable they see."

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I'm pretty sure this should be "valuables", plural, not "valuable", singular.

SoaringHawk218 said:

"Apollo said you were really good to,

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"too"

SoaringHawk218 said:

It got a little beat up, but I made sure they guy who had it didn't bleed on it too much."

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"the"

SoaringHawk218 said:

"See to the defenses: I don't expect the invaders to assault the walls, but if they do, inform myself and Lady Cartese at once."

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That colon should be a period.

[X] Take a closer look at the Knight Seal Belle found. It's intensely magical, but there's more to it than that…

Am I the only one who wants to figure out how these things work before we use it on Kelton?

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

Call it a hunch, but I suspect we're going to be needed up there very soon.

@JAGwin

Thank you as always. At some point, I should figure out some sort of bonus to give you as thanks for all the hard work you do.

JAGwin said:

First, wasn't that Lacroix's idea?

Second, I was under the impression that Sol Invictus was a male deity.

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It was his idea originally, but Ryza's come to agree that there's a decent chance that it's true. She's not positive, so she was thinking of having a talk to see if she can find some of the Mother's tenants in Sol Invictus worship.

In our world's mythology, yes Sol Invictus is male. On this continent, however, she is a she. I'm pretty sure I was consistent on that, but if I made a mistake and referred to her as male, please let me know so I can fix that.

SoaringHawk218 said:

In our world's mythology, yes Sol Invictus is male. On this continent, however, she is a she. I'm pretty sure I was consistent on that, but if I made a mistake and referred to her as male, please let me know so I can fix that.

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I just finished a search of the thread for any times you've mentioned Sol Invictus, and I didn't find any that used male pronouns.

With that said, the only instance of Sol Invictus being referred to with pronouns at all that I could find was this quote from the start of On Dragon's Wings;

SoaringHawk218 said:

"If Sol Invictus had intended for men to fly, she would have given them wings."
"…I don't recommend saying that around a Whitewing."
"I said men. Never said anything about women. We can do whatever we want."
- From the Divine Realm comedy The Priest and the Valkyrie

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X] Talk with Sister Selinda about Sol Invictus and the Mother, to see if you can figure out what connection might exist between them.


[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

Crusader Jerome said:

As Earth's history shows, syncretism is an imperialist practice anyway.

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Well, yeah, sometimes. But sometimes it's just the natural result of two cultures with different spiritual beliefs existing near each other for a while. And it's neat either way!

I mean, except when it's just one religion with the other religion's god names or something. But that's more common with the intentional imperialist kind.

Analyzing the Knight Seal has the potential to be a very, very valuable project. Or at least quite interesting.
[X] Take a closer look at the Knight Seal Belle found. It's intensely magical, but there's more to it than that…

The best defense is a good offense; we can't afford to be a punching bag. Plus, more raids gives us more opportunities to learn about the Empire's intentions in the Divine Realm anyway.
[X] Launch a lightning raid into the Empire. You don't have the numbers to fight the armies gathering across the border head on, but Artemis talks about using cavalry and flying raids to hit supply lines and other vulnerable points to slow them down and weaken them for when the major clashes begin.

[X] Spend some time with the other soldiers you know that came with Artemis. Elena still seems a little lonely, and you haven't had a lot of time to talk to Axton and Lancel and Phoebe recently. Plus, spending time with Kelton and Belle is always nice.

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

[X] Take a closer look at the Knight Seal Belle found. It's intensely magical, but there's more to it than that…

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

[X] Spend some time with the other soldiers you know that came with Artemis. Elena still seems a little lonely, and you haven't had a lot of time to talk to Axton and Lancel and Phoebe recently. Plus, spending time with Kelton and Belle is always nice.

We'll probably get other chances to look at the Knight Seal given it's in our possession, and we'll probably have a lot of time to investigate the interesting lore on the Divine Realm as well. Might as well try to raise the Bond Levels, right?

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

So while I was typing out my reasoning for doing this (beyond just taking advantage of the intelligence) I thought of a very interesting if potentially harebrained theory. It may not be the case as it's a wild guess but I'll share what I think: The Imperials aren't looking to invade the Divine Realms (yet), they're looking for long-lost Manakete ruins, after Ryza's existence proved ol' Wyrmblood didn't stamp them all out. If one survived, why not more? They doubtless have scores of information from that time in the capital-including documentation similar to the one Ryza found on the "Princess That Was Promised." Given Ryza appeared out of nowhere, it is entirely possible that the conspiracy would re-evaluate their opinion on the 'backwater dragon-worshipper superstition' once they dug it up again and make every effort to find (and kill) the Promised Princess before they can become another Ryza. For that matter, the Princess That Was Promised 'knowing the hearts of man' (or whatever it was) sounds suspiciously like the Soul-Scenting boon that we could have taken. It is entirely possible that such a Manakete actually exists, and the "Princesss That Was Promised" is in truth a member of the old Union that got hidden away from either the Imperial purges or Shyrlonay's uprising (or both) in the same way Ryza was-and waiting in torpor for someone trustworthy (like Ryza and Artemis) to free them from their long slumber.

It is entirely possible this is a totally bad call and nothing of the sort will happen, and if it is true, it is by no means a guarantee its specifically on the border of the Divine Realm-though the Imperials might not be hesitant to send troops over the border for fear of looking like a preemptive invasion and galvanizing the Divine Realm to action. Even if that's entirely not the case, the intelligence points this way so it'd be downright irresponsible to not take the opportunity handed to us-as they absolutely don't know we know, so if there is a scouting party we can catch them by surprise and potentially extract information from them and continue winning the information game.

... Semi-related, is there a world map or some description of the continent lying around? I know we had a map of Agirithe, but I have no idea what the continent looks like.

[X] Take a closer look at the Knight Seal Belle found. It's intensely magical, but there's more to it than that…

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

[X] Take a closer look at the Knight Seal Belle found. It's intensely magical, but there's more to it than that…

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

[X] Spend some time with the other soldiers you know that came with Artemis. Elena still seems a little lonely, and you haven't had a lot of time to talk to Axton and Lancel and Phoebe recently. Plus, spending time with Kelton and Belle is always nice.

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

SoaringHawk218 said:

However, thank you for reminding me to finally get around to updating it to the modern-day version. As with all my maps, please do not be too harsh with it, and the scale's imperfect. It's designed to give an idea where everything is rather than to be a perfect depiction.

Spoiler: Spoilers for Size

The stars behind cities represent capitols, colored names are various polities, everything else is a combination of major sites and cities.

Hope this helps.

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It definitely does, thank you! Interesting stuff here.

In a "future planning" note, definitely find it interesting now that the "Area of Eternal Lightning" is exactly where the Storm Library was-it looks like something is still there, and Ryza would probably have less trouble than usual navigating the area than what the title might imply. Assuming anything is left there other than lightning zapping the unwary. Perhaps an activity for when things cool down a little. Ascension Peak now being Fell Mountain tells me that's also going to be a point of interest for Ryza as well, but it is in Empire territory...

I wonder how 'Floating Human Dens' got replaced by The Lake of Pillars.

[X] Take a closer look at the Knight Seal Belle found. It's intensely magical, but there's more to it than that…

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

Emanyzal said:

I wonder how 'Floating Human Dens' got replaced by The Lake of Pillars.

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According to the stories: one extremely angry Red manakete going on a rampage.

[X] Take a closer look at the Knight Seal Belle found. It's intensely magical, but there's more to it than that…

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

*Stares at Manakete Era Map*

...Did I never notice before that there is quite literally a river called "River of Union" right in the vicinity of where Lacroix and Ryza think the Union might have been?

In my head, I see the choice to go investigate the border as like a paralogue we qualified for by visiting the village before it was destroyed and getting the letter. Like the Chapter ##x missions in FE7/Blazing Blade lol.

Emanyzal said:

I wonder how 'Floating Human Dens' got replaced by The Lake of Pillars.

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Specifically, I think Artemis gave us the most complete account of it:

Still, Artemis considers for a long time before speaking. "Humans have… have very different stories, when it comes to dragons," she says. "And we have no stories of manakete, at least none that I've heard. But I've heard a lot of stories about dragons…" She starts sketching in the dirt, and a moment later the map to Agrithe reappears. "Further down the Narrow River, in the east of Agrithe, there's a lake called the Lake of Pillars," she says, extending the line and drawing a circle further on. "It's said there was once a great city on that lake. A floating city that stretched from one shore to the other. It was a wealthy city, and a proud one, the jewel of the southeast."

"Was?" you ask.

"Yes, Ryza, was. That city is gone; all that's left are a few of the stone pillars that they used to support their grand structures. That's where the lake gets its name." She gives you a serious look.

"It is said that, during the time of the Fell War, a mighty and terrible dragon burned the entire city to the waterline in a night."

Those words hit you like a punch to the gut. "Wha-Why? Why did-"

"Nobody knows, though everyone has their theories. Some say that the dragon was simply envious, that it hated that humans had built such a grand place within its sight. Others say that it had demanded tribute, and that the people had refused to pay. The version I first heard claimed that the mayor's daughter was a woman of unparalleled beauty and that the dragon wished to take her for itself, but I always thought that was a little ridiculous." She grimaces. "Whatever the reason, everyone agrees that the dragon came, and that the city burned, scattering the few survivors to the winds."

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[X] Spend some time with the other soldiers you know that came with Artemis. Elena still seems a little lonely, and you haven't had a lot of time to talk to Axton and Lancel and Phoebe recently. Plus, spending time with Kelton and Belle is always nice.

[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

[X] Talk with Sister Selinda about Sol Invictus and the Mother, to see if you can figure out what connection might exist between them.
[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

[X] Take a closer look at the Knight Seal Belle found. It's intensely magical, but there's more to it than that…
[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.

ParadoxGamer1444 said:

X] Talk with Sister Selinda about Sol Invictus and the Mother, to see if you can figure out what connection might exist between them.

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Miho Chan said:

X] Talk with Sister Selinda about Sol Invictus and the Mother, to see if you can figure out what connection might exist between them.

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need to fix your brackets!

I know this is kinda off topic, but now I just wanna see Ryza in Fairy Tail for shits and giggles.

[X] Talk with Sister Selinda about Sol Invictus and the Mother, to see if you can figure out what connection might exist between them.
[X] Scout the border of the Divine Realm. The letter Kelton found has you worried, even though most of the nobles dismiss it. Artemis is willing to back you, though, so she's taking a group of yeomen up to check it out, along with your friends. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, but if nothing else you might get a chance to meet some Divine Realmers.