The Steep Path Ahead [Familiar of Zero AU]

[aja318]

And yet in canon Gallian troops didn't had much qualms in fighting against a coalition that included Romalian forces. Not to mention the bullshit reconquista pulled with its theology.

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It was also time Gandalfr runes proved their bullshit hax power again by allowing Saito to march Tiger tank to battle and then use it for at least one more battle days later with only untrained team of mages with no special interest in science as support without breaking the thing.
The amount of engineering and technological wizardry granted by those runes is incredible.
EDIT: He also trained Kirche and Tabitha into semi competent crew on the march seeing as he was in hurry to save Louise...

 

[Alane1]

And yet in canon Gallian troops didn't had much qualms in fighting against a coalition that included Romalian forces. Not to mention the bullshit reconquista pulled with its theology.

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However a large number of the Gallian troops and fleet pointedly defected to the other side and Reconqestia only challenged the sacred authority of the royal families not the sacred authority of the church.

 

[Madou Sutegobana]

Keep in mind the church ruled Halk for 6k.And for 6k they keep trying and having crusades. And there was any major split like the Reformation, East/West split to curtail the church power. In Halk the church is a lot more powerful than Medieval World Catholic Church. So no the pope has a lot of power . Also after finding about the incoming Windstone Apocalypse or suffer any more attacks from the elves, Louise would be on board about the crusade.

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Which is why it confuse me why so many people praise the setting, while dissing the characters.

I mean its 6000 years of stasis! Borders remain unchanged, technology has dropped slightly. The same royal families have reigned for all of history.

And the church has pushed for one unsuccessful crusade after another with no one pointing out that Brimr's blessing appear to do jack and squat!

Whereas the characters are based on real historical individuals, just overlaid with anime stereotypes that consumers buy manga for. All someone that doesn't like the characters needs to do is replace their personality with their real world counterpart.

On another note; their are many manga dealing with the doomed forbidden love of brothers and sisters, but very few dealing with cousins and when they do its never portrayed as a forbidden love.

The reason being that cousins aren't forbbiden fruit, and thus not interesting to the people looking for such, in Japan.

 

[Felius]

However a large number of the Gallian troops and fleet pointedly defected to the other side and Reconqestia only challenged the sacred authority of the royal families not the sacred authority of the church.

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Do remember that even that defection happened mostly because the king was also bloody fucking nuts. An apparently good and pious monarch means it'll end in a very different situation.

And while, yes, reconquista hadn't by the time they were defeated in canon, officially challenged the church, it's theological beliefs were rather incompatible with the orthodox beliefs, at least with how Cromwell was all but deified if I recall correctly.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

I mean its 6000 years of stasis! Borders remain unchanged, technology has dropped slightly. The same royal families have reigned for all of history.

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First, technology has actually advanced, since they are currently in an Early Modern stage of development with widespread firearms which didn't exist in Brimir's time. For that matter, Brimir's people were nomads that lived in tents and they are living in castles and wooden buildings, so there's been a lot more advances than just gunpowder. I don't think Brimir's people had flying ships either. So, your claims about technology are not only baseless, but backwards.

Second, we don't know that the borders haven't changed repeatedly. All we know is that the church teaches that the same four families have been ruling these countries (and they're probably simplifying a little), not that these countries haven't been reshaped over time. A lot of the backstory with Germania seems to imply that the borders have moved repeatedly.

 

[shadenight123]

Notice that the official Theology basically goes like this:

Common Folk Prays To -> Kings and Pope

Romalia once did indeed rule over pretty much everything, but then they lost it all. So yes, there was a political landscape change which resulted in the current kingdoms, and Germania most definitely started out as warring barbarian tribes who later united and became an elective Emperor-Ship, which then became an Empire.

Basically, the Kings and the Pope have equal footing when it comes to faith, since they are both descendants, if with the caveat that the Kings actually hold a far stronger 'power' for being rulers under the laws and by 'Divine Blood' being direct descendants of Brimir.

So the Pope would be hard-pressed to excommunicate a Royal line unless something really big happened -or he did so with the aid of the other royals banding together, for example.

On the other hand, Valliére is a bastard royal line. They might be Dukes, but they aren't royalty.

And Saito most definitely isn't royalty. The Pope could easily excommunicate 'The Baron de La Baume' and risk absolutely nothing, knowing fully well how much it would hurt Louise.

You don't need to shoot the Heavy Wind to hurt her.

Shoot her crippled child, that will hurt her even more.

 

[Felius]

Second, borders almost certainly have changed repeatedly, we know this because of the backstory with Germania. The only thing that's supposedly stayed the same are the ruling families.

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Which may or may not be quite true, given how much time has passed and how hard it's to keep reliable records for that much time. The only real evidence is the void magic, but we lack enough evidence to make a definitive argument that it passes strictly through bloodlines. It seems so, yes, but given that it immediately jumps to a new wielder when the previous one dies it's clearly not genetic. Hells, it might even be semi sentient and kinda pick the successor based on some arbitrary criteria that we are not aware of.

 

[Alane1]

There is a genetic element to the void because it only passes to descendants of A. Brimir or B. the descendants of Brimir's apprentice who strangely also had the void.(a relative prehaps?)

Also while the Valliéres are not part of the main royal family and while they are a bastard line, they are still descended from royalty which would put them into the subcategory of royal nobles which historically carried a greater degree of protection and respect than normal nobles because of their royal connections.

One of the things that got Richard the second in trouble was his treatment of the royal earls which along with his violent putting down of a pro-royal peasant uprising lead to the end of the main English royal line when the nobles eventually deposed him and Henry the fifth claimed the throne.

 

[Felius]

Notice that the official Theology basically goes like this:

Common Folk Prays To -> Kings and Pope

Romalia once did indeed rule over pretty much everything, but then they lost it all. So yes, there was a political landscape change which resulted in the current kingdoms, and Germania most definitely started out as warring barbarian tribes who later united and became an elective Emperor-Ship, which then became an Empire.

Basically, the Kings and the Pope have equal footing when it comes to faith, since they are both descendants, if with the caveat that the Kings actually hold a far stronger 'power' for being rulers under the laws and by 'Divine Blood' being direct descendants of Brimir.

So the Pope would be hard-pressed to excommunicate a Royal line unless something really big happened -or he did so with the aid of the other royals banding together, for example.

On the other hand, Valliére is a bastard royal line. They might be Dukes, but they aren't royalty.

And Saito most definitely isn't royalty. The Pope could easily excommunicate 'The Baron de La Baume' and risk absolutely nothing, knowing fully well how much it would hurt Louise.

You don't need to shoot the Heavy Wind to hurt her.

Shoot her crippled child, that will hurt her even more.

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In theory yes. In practice while it wouldn't be much of a real problem to do it it'd still might be more trouble than it'd be worth due to politics. Hurt the Valliere even indirectly you made some bad enemies in terms of politics, and politics is a bitch. Money and influence means a lot, even for a pope. Not to mention it'd be directly counterproductive for the pope to do it. With him being sheltered by people the pope can't attack as easily the excommunication isn't that bad, main thing it'd achieve would be alienating all the other void mages to a greater or lesser extent.

If he's to act against them to use something as a leverage it'd more likely involve kidnapping or threatening assassinations (and if they don't collaborate it might be better to kill this void mage and hope the new one is more willing to cooperate ), but that would probably take a second place to bribery and possibly even honest pleas for help. Less chance of it blowing on his face and willing assets nearly always so better work than coerced assets.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

Which may or may not be quite true, given how much time has passed and how hard it's to keep reliable records for that much time. The only real evidence is the void magic, but we lack enough evidence to make a definitive argument that it passes strictly through bloodlines. It seems so, yes, but given that it immediately jumps to a new wielder when the previous one dies it's clearly not genetic. Hells, it might even be semi sentient and kinda pick the successor based on some arbitrary criteria that we are not aware of.

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It's possible that 'staying in the same bloodlines' still involved multiple cases of civil war and /or bastards/distant cousins replacing the main house on the throne, for that matter.

At this point, a lot of people are probably descended from Brimir or his apprentice.

 

[Alane1]

Well its not impossible for a tracable line to exist for thousands of years, the house of david was still active leading the Exilarchate in whats now Iraq until around 1000 AD when the exilarchate ended as they couldn't determine who had the clearest line of succession amoungst the Davidic line.

The Yamato Dynasty aka the Imperial house of Japan has existed since around 660 B.C. and pretty much everyone who held the title of Emperor of the Romans from the Frankish emperors to the Italian and German emperors were all direct descendants of Charlemagne as were the emeprors of the Austrian-Hungarian empire which admittedly wasn't hard given he had 18 children via 8 of his ten wives and concubines. Father of Europe indeed...

 

[Madou Sutegobana]

The elves have airships with long range cannons that are claimed to be older than Derflingr.


Which fits one of the common tropes of Japanese medieval fantasy stories - the past is always golden, present is lesser!


All of the changes mentioned are insignificant compared to six hundred years of earth's history, much less what you should expect from six thousand.


Heck if royalty wasn't marrying their cousins, everyone should be a descendent of Brimr's! Even so all peasants should have just as much noble blood as the noble's children, and should be equally likely to be born with magical ability.

First, technology has actually advanced, since they are currently in an Early Modern stage of development with widespread firearms which didn't exist in Brimir's time. For that matter, Brimir's people were nomads that lived in tents and they are living in castles and wooden buildings, so there's been a lot more advances than just gunpowder.

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General Gramont, both armies, Louise, and Salto all lived in tents too. That still remains the method of sheltering large groups of people that are on the move in Halkegina, so that really didn't change.

(In other words, Brimr's people were refugees fleeing to a place to live. Living in tents does not mean they don't know how to build houses.)

Also one of Brimr's children (as in the very next generation) was given rulership over Albion.(which was stated to have always been airborne as long as its been settled. And stated to have been settled by airzhip.!) So yes Brimr's people had airships back then.

 

[Alane1]

That's a theme in a lot of fantasy though admittedly I will note that people in the middle ages did at least bath regularly to keep clean unlike early modern Europeans who thought it would let evil air into their bodies that would make them sick and though simply changing ones cloths would make one clean and the ancient Romans, regularly bathed and used advanced medical techniques some of which would not be rediscovered until the late 20th century.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

The elves have airships with long range cannons that are claimed to be older than Derflingr.

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Sure, the elves. That's not the same as the humans having the technology. They don't exactly trade peaceably in this setting, you may have noticed.

All of the changes mentioned are insignificant compared to six hundred years of earth's history, much less what you should expect from six thousand.

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Doesn't that really depend on which six hundred? Because I'm pretty sure there were thousands and thousands of years without guns or large stone buildings.

Heck if royalty wasn't marrying their cousins, everyone should be a descendent of Brimr's! Even so all peasants should have just as much noble blood as the noble's children, and should be equally likely to be born with magical ability.

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If nobles didn't mostly marry nobles, yes. They do, though. Sure, there are bastards, but if they don't marry nobles then the blood ends up diluted. But even with nobles mostly marrying nobles, by this point practically everyone of noble blood probably has some of Brimir's genes.

Also one of Brimr's children (as in the very next generation) was given rulership over Albion.(which was stated to have always been airborne as long as its been settled. And stated to have been settled by airzhip.!) So yes Brimr's people had airships back then.

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Now that one I didn't know. I was thinking they were relying on domesticating flying animals, like manticores, to get up there.

However, I'll note that you are now arguing for humans not advancing technologically, rather than your original position of them losing technological knowledge, which is, as I pointed out baseless.

Now, if you want to talk about their average magical potential lessening, that's explicit.

 

[Madou Sutegobana]

Sure, the elves. That's not the same as the humans having the technology. They don't exactly trade peaceably in this setting, you may have noticed.

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If a group of refugees is thrown out of a modern nation, they are indeed considered to have had a downgrade in standards of living.

What does that have to do with the Halkeginians?

Well before Brimr's time the elves and humans did indeed trade peacefully and live in the same country.

So Halkeginians did suffer a downgrade in technology, not that I'm saying its anyone's fault. But it does support my 'position', which is no more than recalling what the author has actually wrote!

And that is in fact one of the major reasons they hate the Elves!

The 'Holy Land' was their 'Garden of Eden' and the Elves threw them out. And that is entirely an intentional comparison by the author.






SolipsistSerpent, am I bothering you? I really don't want to be, and I am sorry if I have bothered you!

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

If a group of refugees is thrown out of a modern nation, they are indeed considered to have had a downgrade in standards of living.
What does that have to do with the Halkeginians? Well before Brimr's time the elves and humans did indeed trade peacefully and live in the same country. So Halkeginians did suffer a downgrade in technology, not that I'm saying its anyone's fault. But it does support my 'position', which is no more than recalling what the author has actually wrote! And that is in fact one of the major reasons they hate the Elves! The 'Holy Land' was their 'Garden of Eden' and the Elves threw them out. And that is entirely an intentional comparison by the author.

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If that's true, then rather than losing technology since Brimir's time, they have instead been very slow rebuilding technology after that loss during his time. It would basically be a post-apocalyptic scenario, where the survivors took extremely long to recover.

 

[tarrangar]

Notice that the official Theology basically goes like this:

Common Folk Prays To -> Kings and Pope

Romalia once did indeed rule over pretty much everything, but then they lost it all. So yes, there was a political landscape change which resulted in the current kingdoms, and Germania most definitely started out as warring barbarian tribes who later united and became an elective Emperor-Ship, which then became an Empire.

Basically, the Kings and the Pope have equal footing when it comes to faith, since they are both descendants, if with the caveat that the Kings actually hold a far stronger 'power' for being rulers under the laws and by 'Divine Blood' being direct descendants of Brimir.

So the Pope would be hard-pressed to excommunicate a Royal line unless something really big happened -or he did so with the aid of the other royals banding together, for example.

On the other hand, Valliére is a bastard royal line. They might be Dukes, but they aren't royalty.

And Saito most definitely isn't royalty. The Pope could easily excommunicate 'The Baron de La Baume' and risk absolutely nothing, knowing fully well how much it would hurt Louise.

You don't need to shoot the Heavy Wind to hurt her.

Shoot her crippled child, that will hurt her even more.

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On the other hand Louise and Saito has the unique way out, of taking the Zero fighter and just flying off to Saito's world, where the Pope's word hold no power.

It's the height of foolishness that they plan to send it of alone, they really should just throw something though the passage with a message, then they would keep being able to walk of to another world, if people keep manipulating them to do things they really don't want to.

 

[shadenight123]

On the other hand Louise and Saito has the unique way out, of taking the Zero fighter and just flying off to Saito's world, where the Pope's word hold no power.

It's the height of foolishness that they plan to send it of alone, they really should just throw something though the passage with a message, then they would keep being able to walk of to another world, if people keep manipulating them to do things they really don't want to.

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Not really. The 'portal' opens once each time the moons come into alignment. This basically makes it meaningless once used until the next three generations have passed. (Siesta's Great-Grandfather came through with that) and considering the fighter was manufactured in the 1940s, it means at least sixty years must pass before the moons realign.

That it is foolish to renounce to a second world war fighter in exchange for giving (potentially) piece of mind to Saito's parents is indeed foolish, but hey...Saito's not the epitome of wisdom.

 

[tarrangar]

Not really. The 'portal' opens once each time the moons come into alignment. This basically makes it meaningless once used until the next three generations have passed. (Siesta's Great-Grandfather came through with that) and considering the fighter was manufactured in the 1940s, it means at least sixty years must pass before the moons realign.

That it is foolish to renounce to a second world war fighter in exchange for giving (potentially) piece of mind to Saito's parents is indeed foolish, but hey...Saito's not the epitome of wisdom.

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That's not how it works, just because a portal opens don't means that something will pass though it, it could just as well be a yearly event, that you just have to be at the right place at the right time to pass though, and most of the time at most a few pigeons fly though before it closes again, heck it might be monthly, and it's just that no one has had the bad luck to fly though it since Siestas grandfather.

Saito as far as I remember in the end didn't take the portal back to earth, and nothing came into Halkeginia instead, it's a portal high up in the clouds, probably not that big either, it makes sense most of the time the only thing that pass though is wind and birds.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Eighty-Three

The palace of Versailles was a beautifully crafted mansion surrounded by gardens filled with roses. However, the gardeners were hard at work removing said bushes, which was taking them quite a while considering the sheer amount of petals that drifted in the air. The scent of roses was thick in the air as the group, standing in formation, marched resolutely past the gates without much of a hitch.

The royal guards tensed to attention at Josette's passage, with Charlotte simply levitating past the gate rather than risk anything. They had to walk through the gardens rather than through the palace due mainly to the fact that the palace's doors had not yet been removed in their entirety.

"All Kings and Queens have a right to be mad," Louise muttered under her breath, "But to remove all doors from a palace? Think about the drafts."

"I do not suffer the cold, Louise," Charlotte said softly, having clearly heard her even when she was further ahead. Josette had already opened the door into what appeared to be the Queen's chambers, and as Charlotte easily levitated past it together with the rest of her knights, Louise simply muttered her Teleport spell, appearing right on the edge of the window.

Saito grabbed hold of Tiffania and jumped past the ledge, landing softly on the carpeted floor.

The room felt as if it had gone through a maelstrom, judging by the amount of sliced walls and ruined paintings. Most of the furniture had been broken and flung in a corner, cut into tiny pieces.

"Forgive the mess," Charlotte said. "The new furniture has yet arrive." There was no door on the other side of the room, and there wasn't even much of a doorway, only a smooth circular hole that went into the hallway.

Charlotte sat down on a lonely plush chair, and as she handed her cloak over to Bleu, who took it with a small bow, she clasped her hands together. "I assume you will be leaving without wasting a second?" Charlotte asked next, looking at Saito and Louise.

"Yes," Louise said with a curt nod. "Your Highness understands why we won't be stopping for the night."

"I see," Charlotte said with a sad wistful smile. "I do understand indeed. Very well then, I will be seeing you soon anyway," she added. "Be safe on your journey home, Lady Valliére, Lord Hiraga...and you too, Tiffania."

Louise unclasped her cloak from her shoulders, and folded it with a quick and practiced motion, "We'll be renouncing your Highness' knighting as well, as I am sure you will understand this too."

"Of course," Charlotte nodded. "I understand that too."

Saito imitated Louise, handing his cloak over together with hers. Derflinger stood atop the cloaks, as Saito had been given the sword during the time he had spent guarding Charlotte's way back, but now had no longer a need for it. Sure, a magic-eating sword was nifty, but he could feel Louise's glaring at the handle of it every single time her eyes fell by his belt. It was to a demure silence that they left the room, Josette being the one to accompany them out -through the no longer existing door- this time.

"We are going to need new cloaks," Louise said once they were out of the palace's gardens, and into the bustling streets of the city near the palace, filled to the brim with Lords and Ladies all going about their daily business with their noses firmly planted a few inches higher than others. "And you'll need a new sword."

"We could have waited one day," Saito hazarded. "Charlotte might have offered to call for a coach."

"I wouldn't trust a coach called by Her Royal Highness not to have a coachman ready to slice our necks in our sleep. If you want to return home with a coach, then we'd be better off paying for one out of our own pocket," Louise said briskly, starting to walk through the cobblestone street.

"Uhm," Tiffania said with a bit of hesitation, fidgeting with her fingers together. "If possible," she said as softly as she could, "Could we visit the nearby church? I want to see if Mister Marteau has arrived with the children safely," she added.

"I don't think they would have arrived already, but fine," Louise said with a scoff, even if she really wasn't bothered by it. "Let's head to the nearest church, and hope they've somehow managed to outrun a flying ship across land. If we make the trip back with more people, we'll be safer from bandits."

The church near Versailles was more of a cathedral than the small orphanage church Louise had lived for most of her life, and one of the priests there directed them to the actual orphanage run by the church that was found in the outskirts of the city, past the walls and just a short trip away into the countryside.

Thus, the first order of business became to acquire cloaks, swords, and refill their supplies. "We could have asked Charlotte-"

"Say that one more time and I'm making broccoli soup tonight," Louise said flatly, pointing a piece of jerky in Saito's direction, which made Tiffania giggle. "What's so funny?" Louise asked next, raising an eyebrow towards the girl.

"Oh-N-nothing," Tiffania said, shaking her head slowly.

"It's not nothing if you're giggling," Louise said once more, she narrowed her eyes, "You want broccoli soup too? Saito here thinks his taste is so much refined than mine-" she grumbled.

"No, no," Tiffania said hastily, "It's just...you both look so happy together, it's like you're newlyweds."

Both Louise and Saito stammered and yelped, turning crimson red on their faces.

"T-Th-That's possible!" Louise exclaimed, grumbling under her breath, but with a smile on her lips and a hand on her hip. "We are, after all, betrothed one to the other. Now, enough with this! We're wasting precious daylight. Let's move," but the skip on her step and the happy expression on her face fooled no one, and especially not Saito or Tiffania.

"I apologize," an old abbess spoke kindly, a small smile on her wrinkled face, "But we have yet to see them. We did receive word to expect a group of young orphans, but we haven't seen them yet," she added.

"See?" Louise said offhandedly, "I told you they'd still be on the road."

"I'm sorry I made you waste time," Tiffania said, apologizing to Louise and Saito. "I'm just worried. I've never left them out of my sight back in Albion-" she began, only for Louise to sigh.

"I know the feeling, I don't know what happened to my friends in the orphanage too, but I'm sure Father Christoff found them somewhere good to stay," Louise said, before bristling. "Well, thank you for your time, Abbess. We're sorry we wasted your time."

"It was no trouble at all, dear," the Abbess said.

Thus, the trio stepped onto the dirt road with the firm intention of heading back to Tristain by taking the long route.

"We could have asked Charlotte for horses," Saito said after the first few dozen of steps.

"Saito, say one more word about what we could have asked that girl, and I will plant my swordwand up your ass and make sure you like it."

"Lewd," Saito said. "Very lewd."

Louise spluttered. "W-What!? Th-There can't be people who like that! C-Can there...no!" she shook her head.

Tiffania simply giggled, the two such nice people she was sure her sister would love to know she had them as friends!

If only they weren't so hateful with Charlotte. The girl was such a nice and kind person, she had even provided her with a spare wand, since her own wasn't in the best of shapes.

Maybe she'd manage to put a good word in for the girl?

And if she did that, then she'd have her friends all happy with one another.

Happiness was important.

It kept the demons away, or so her mother had told her.

 

[Dimensionist]

See, that last line is bolded and italicized, which makes me think something's up ... but it's also a line a mother might tell her young daughter. Just as a normal interaction with her, an encouragement for her to be happy.

You trying to make us paranoid, shade?*looks suspiciously*

 

[Drakkon03]

You trying to make us paranoid, shade?*looks suspiciously*

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Given that we've already seen mind control, I'm guessing elves have mental problems that cause murderous behavior. Maybe Brimir cast an eternal curse with his death on elves. Or Tiffania is just that reliant on her mother's words to keep her sane from some other mental trauma.

I'm just spitballing outlandish ideas trying futilely to anticipate the next Shadetm​ angst event.

 

[sidestory]

, I'm guessing elves have mental problems that cause murderous behavior

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Or the elves simple noticed that the evil humans always start a crusade when a Void user is found and thus send regulary black OP elves across the border to identify and kill them before a crusade can be started

 

[BadRoad]

Or the elves simple noticed that the evil humans always start a crusade when a Void user is found and thus send regulary black OP elves across the border to identify and kill them before a crusade can be started

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As I recall, their preferred tactic is to abduct and lobotomize void mages, since killing them simply transfers the power to a new host. Which actually fits Louise's anti-Elf propaganda pretty well.

 

[shadenight123]

Given that we've already seen mind control, I'm guessing elves have mental problems that cause murderous behavior. Maybe Brimir cast an eternal curse with his death on elves. Or Tiffania is just that reliant on her mother's words to keep her sane from some other mental trauma.

I'm just spitballing outlandish ideas trying futilely to anticipate the next Shadetm​ angst event.

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Elves actually are pretty smart. They give you a 'Lost Heart' potion like the one Louise's mother drank which makes you mad and uncooperative, but otherwise keeps you alive.

That way, you get to live for forty-to-fifty years without passing the Void powers on to someone else. And the fun fact is that the Elf King (Nepthys III) has no qualms whatsoever in offering Saharan land, safe of passage past the Elf lands and whatnot provided whoever's in charge gives them a hand in dealing with the Void problems.

Bidashal was indeed sent as an envoy offering that sort of deal to Joseph, amusingly not knowing that Joseph himself was part of the problem.

Fun thing, uh~