- Location
- USA
Idk i think for this a nat one is still gonna be a nat one with all that it entails. lets just hope that our spies can keep doing what they have been doing.
Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest
- Thread starter Questor
- Start date
Omake: Grand Order: An Alter of the Emperor
- Location
- A house
Alright, wanted to make a short omake based off FGO. well, 'short'. Very much on the serious side of things... @Questor
It was a scene of carnage akin to a nightmare.
What had once been a pristine fields of green had turned into nothing more than a charred remnant of what it once was. Spires of twisted metal and crystal, their shapes warped and unearthly, jutted out of the ground, looking like twisted sunflowers bathing in a rain of ash. Black fire replaced the grass, the heat too intense for her to approach, even from where she stood a significant distance away. Charred corpses, unrecognizable from their origin, rested in the spots where the flames had yet to take hold, even now disintegrating into dust as the fires drew nearer.
And at the center of it all, a cloaked figure stood, his armored claws alight in black and blue flames, the tips of his cape similarly aflame, with what was visible beneath fully covered in blackened metal.
"Tch. Useless."
Even from her vantage point atop the hill, his voice, a deep, layered, echoing tone, felt as though it had come from right next to her.
The figure turned, and gave her a glance, eyes glowing from beneath his metallic mask, before a gout of twisting fire erupted from beneath him, before a similar pillar appeared much closer to her, a wave of heat blasting over her form. The metal clad being stepped out of the fire, jumping into the air and spreading out a pair of great, metal wings, before landing right next to her.
"Was my performance... satisfactory, Master?" He spoke once again, his voice cutting with a sarcastic arrogance.
Even with the heat radiating off his form, Ritsuka couldn't help but shiver. "Ah, yeah… good job, Avenger." She managed to say, "Just, ah, maybe tone it down a little, next time…?"
He took a step forward, his form towering above hers, and glanced down at her, "That, Master, was my attempt to restrain my ability to account for your weakness."
"...Oh. I see…" She gulped, "Well, um… Thank you for taking me into account….?"
Avenger shook his head, "I tire of your idiocy. Fool in charge, return us to Chaldea at once."
Next to her, a blue hologram showing the face of a fluffy maned earth pony appeared, a look of concern on his face, "Avenger, I understand that-"
"No, it's fine Romani," she interrupted him, "We came here and accomplished what we set out to do. It's about time we head back anyway."
"... If you say so. Prepare for Rayshift in five seconds..."
She gave one more glance at Avenger as they both disappeared in golden particles, another shiver running through her.
Ritsuka wandered through the halls of chaldea, a destination in mind but with no urgency to get there.
The reason being her mind was preoccupied elsewhere, running circles around an enigma that she couldn't understand in the least. That bening the latest servant she had summoned to chaldea.
"Hmph. Avenger. What a pitiful class for a pitiful gryphon… Very well. I, the Stygian Sovereign of Griffonia Ataraxia, have come in response to your summons. Pray that you do not fall as far as I have."
They were words that still rang in her ear, even days later.
Avenger…
An Extra Class in the summoning system. One eternally burning with a hatred that would never go away. A flame that would devour reason, memory, and emotion, until all that was left was the desire for retribution.
That was the kind of being she had summoned.
Truth be told, Avenger scared her.
No, scratch that, Avenger absolutely terrified her.
She had summoned dangerous Servants before. Daybreaker, for example, an Alter of Celestia, a tyrant of similar caliber to Avenger, had vowed to erase her from existence should she show weakness… But even though Ritsuka was wary of her, she didn't fear her.
Not like him…
But, as the last Master of Chaldea, she had a duty to push past her fear… And so she came up with a plan.
She halted in her meandering as she spotted someone standing idly next to a door further down the corridor.
"Matthew!" She hollered as she skipped on over next to him, "Thanks for getting them all together for me!"
Matthew… She couldn't help but smile every time she saw him. Her first servant and her first friend here at Chaldea, the gryphon was just so… innocent. Even after all the horrors they'd faced together, he always looked on the brighter side of things, even when fear was clearly etched on his face. If there was one person she trusted implicitly, it was him, for he was always willing to be the first to put his life on the line for her, as he had proven many times before.
He raised a scaled claw up to his hooded head, ruffling his crest feather slightly in bashfulness. "Ah, i-it was nothing… I wasn't really doing anything anyway." He gave her a curious glance, "So, why'd you need to gather the G4? Are you planning on bringing them to the next singularity or…?"
She let out a sigh, "No, just wanted to talk to them about the… newest… arrival."
Had she blinked, she would have missed it, but for a moment, his usual blue eyes turned a very familiar shade of grey, before turning back, "Oh… him."
She let out a light sigh and shook her head, "Listen, I know you two have your issues-"
"He killed you."
"-And I got better! But really, he's on our side now, so, just… you know… try to get along with him? At least when we go out and fight?"
He gave her a hard look before sighing himself, "I'll try, for you. But you already know why that'll be difficult."
She quietly nodded. Being a demi-servant for one of the people you hated the most certainly threw a wrench in things…
"Knowing you'll try is good enough for me!" She walked over to him and gave him a quick hug, "Thanks for being the best~!"
He hesitantly returned the hug before quickly backing off, a small blush on his face, "W-well, uh, I-I gotta go and checkup with Romani and see Tadakatsu. S-see you later?"
"Yup! See you then!"
He slowly retreated before hastily turning around and bolting down the corridor.
Ritsuka couldn't help but shake her head, giggling slightly under her breath. For a gryphon, he really couldn't handle physical contact all that well. She was sure with enough teasing though, maybe one of these days his first response wouldn't be to just run away.
Well, she'd been standing around in this hallway long enough. She did call a meeting to attendance.
Opening the door to the nearby room, she spotted four distinct figures, all gryphons, sitting around a table, cards in claw and on the table.
"Hey guys! What's going on?"
The four figures looked up acknowledging her presence, before returning to look at their respective hands.
"Nothing much. Archer decided it'd be a good idea to pass some time playing some poker while we waited for you to arrive," The youngest of the four, a thin, handsome gryphon with three floating slabs of metal floating on his back, spoke, "Not that it matters much, since Rider's cheating again."
"Merely existing is not cheating, Shielder." Rider, The oldest replied, fiddling with the cape that attached to his usual regalia, "My luck is higher than all of you, yes-"
"-And you have pioneer of the stars, golden rule, and imperial privilege to go with it-"
"-And I do have those three, that is true, but if you look at the table, you can clearly see that while I have most of the spoils-" He made a flourish at the pile of Saint Quartz pieces in front of him, "-I have not clean swept the board. Saber also has a significant pile in front of him."
The draconic gryphon next to Rider gave a small shrug, "I simply have a better grasp of when to fold compared to those two."
Archer, the last of the four, sighed, resting an armored claw on the table and letting his hand show to the world, revealing four 9's for a four of a kind, "Beating Rider is a fool's errand anyhow. Allow me to take and educated guess... royal flush?"
Rider raised an eyebrow, laying down his cards and revealing it was as Archer predicted, "How did you know?"
He leaned onto one of his claws, a small smirk on his face, "Discounting how all the previous rounds wound up as such? Call it a lucky guess." He turned to face her, the smile still etched on his face, "So, Master, what did you bring us all together for? My guess is it's not for fun and games."
Ritsuka let out a breath of air, "Ha, I wish… But today is going to be a bit more on the serious side. I'm sure you all can guess the reason?"
Saber stared at her, yellow slitted eyes appearing to peer into her soul, before he responded, "Avenger."
"Got it in one."
Rider huffed, "Why can't things ever be simple…?"
"It was bound to come up eventually," Archer interjected, "Guess now's a good a time as any. Ask away, master."
She walked over to the couches and took a seat next to Shielder, "Alright, I guess I'll just come out and say it… Please help me understand him."
For a moment, the table was silent, with not a sound between the five that had gathered. However, soon enough Rider straightened his back and opened his beak.
"... You know of his story. There is not much more to explain." he said, "He is a possibility… a version of us that took his path and regretted every second of it, but even then, he would not, could not stop. As you know very well."
She slowly nodded, shutting her eyes as a memory pushed itself to the forefront of her mind at his words.
She couldn't breathe.
The oxygen had been burned out of the air, replaced with the approaching cursed fire. Her nerves no longer registered pain, the waves of heat having already ignited her form long ago, setting her ablaze. Voices called out to her, but she could not respond, her vocal chords burned out and her ears no longer functioning. She attempted to take a step forward, but instead found herself collapsing onto the ground, her muscles no longer responding to her attempts to move.
Her eyes, the only thing that still seemed to function despite the inferno around her, managed to lock on to the only thing they could see.
The sight of a metal mask seared into her skull.
The last thing she saw before her eyes failed her was the him turning around and her front leg disintegrating, leaving not even ash.
Ritsuka unconsciously pressed a claw to her side and shook her head, "It's just... I want to hear your thoughts on him… He may not be you, but you are all similar enough to him to understand why he did what he did, right…?"
Rider sighed, the crown on his head shifting slightly at the movement, "More than I would prefer to admit… "
"At our core, all we wanted was what was best for our people," Archer interjected, his eyes directed more at the shine of his armor than at her, "His goal, his motive, is simply the logical extreme of that ideal."
"Griffonia must live. No matter what the cost." Saber finished, "Himself, his people, the world… all expendable, as long as the ideal of Griffonia lives on."
"There. That part." She found herself saying, pointing at him, "That's the part I don't understand. What he did, what he planned on doing… If that was his goal, then his entire plan just doesn't make sense."
"Does it not?" Rider replied, a sad smile on his face.
"... A king with no subjects is no king at all. And a nation with no subjects is not a nation in the slightest." She eventually managed to say, "And he… he burned his entire nation. All of it…. Every single living thing in that dreary place… All of it, just… gone…"
She had heard tales of Tartarus in her youth.
A place only the most dangerous would go… a location where all the world's evils were sealed, guarded by the three-headed dog, cerberus.
Some had described it as an endless pit, where spires rose from the bottomless depths to impossibly high locations. Others described it as level after level of increasingly harsh terrains, from ice colder than any temperature recorded as far as the eye could see, to an endless sea filled with creatures that could drive one mad just by seeing them, to a landscape of fires hotter than the surface of the sun.
What lied in front of her was reminiscent of those horrid tales.
She and her partner stood atop a spire, high in the sky, looking down at what appeared to be a sprawling city that seemed to stretch off to the horizon, but unlike one they had ever seen.
The architecture was… twisted. Tall buildings of steel, glass, and crystal that reminded her of buildings she'd seen in cities back in her own time, but they all seemed to intersect with one another, an array of pipes and clockwork traversing between each building such that, if her eyes were not as keen as they were, the entire city below would look like nothing more than a hedge of crisscrossing iron.
Small, narrow areas which she would consider streets seemed to zigzag with no rhyme or reason, looking more akin to a maze than anything else. But, she was hesitant to label them streets, as rather than being areas for walking they instead seemed to be troughs for mysterious waves of black and blue fire to traverse, likely burning anything they came across.
Doting the area were mysterious contorted spires of blackened crystal and metal, rising high above the buildings with pipes leading out of them. She herself was standing atop one of these strange spiraling spires, the strange pulsating warmth beneath her claws making her feel as though, rather than strange objects of unknown origin, they were instead… alive, in some way.
And off, far, far in the distance, a distinct backdrop to the crimson sky above, was a clockwork tower that seemed to have spiraled itself out of the earth, going higher and higher into the air far beyond what she could see, the aforementioned pipes following suit and rotating themselves up and around it.
Even from such a great distance, she could hear it groan and tick, the large gears making up its frame rotating slowly, working steadily toward something beyond her comprehension.
"Matthew, where are we…?"
Matthew, in his draconic servant form, turned to look at her with an equally confused expression, grey eyes fluttering here and there as he tried to take it all in, "I… don't know? This doesn't look like it could have been built in 60 A.D…"
"That is definitely 60 A.D. Griffonia, to be exact.." The familiar voice of the acting director, Romani, chimed in, his face appearing on the usual floating holographic screen with a burst of static, "But… that makes no sense. This... this isn't how Griffonia is supposed to look like! And these readings... they make no sense at all!"
This… this was actually Griffonia? Had a grail already done so much damage to this era…? "Come on, Romani, what are they telling you? I need some information here."
She watched as he hurriedly zipped between computer screens, frantically tapping away with is hooves, "There's so much to say… the foundation value here, I said I couldn't evaluate it until you arrived, right? Well, I can tell you now, and it's not good. If this singularity is allowed to continue to exist, then the amount of damage it could cause would be on a similar scale to the cause of the singularities in the first place. So for now, I'm designating it EX."
"So failure here is not an option," Matthew whispered under his breath.
"It's never an option." Ritsuka replied, a bit of bitterness leaking into her voice, "But! we'll just do as we always do! And as tempting as it is to just go for the big shiny building in the distance, got anything on the radar for us, doc?"
"That's one of the other problems." He stressed, "I'm not picking up… well, anything down there. No life signs. No monsters. Nothing. It's like the entire city is empty."
Nothing? "Nothing at all? Not even rats?"
"Nothing," He reaffirmed, "I am picking up heat signatures that correlate to the flames down below, but other than that…"
"I see something," Her partner called out, gazing over the edge, "Looks… large. Kinda bell shaped...? Black and grey. Wandering between floors in that building over there."
Standing next to him and gazing down his arm, she followed the talon at the end to a building that was slightly taller than the ones around it, where she could just make out a slightly mismatched bit of color displacing the strange blue glow inside.
"I'm not getting any readings from it… Whatever it is, it's most likely just more machinery." Romani said offhandedly.
"I wouldn't be too sure…" Mathew replied, a bit of trepidation in his voice, "It seems to have noticed us."
It was only for a moment, but Ritsuka blinked.
In that time, the entity seemed to have phased through the various structures down below, and was already nearly upon them.
A ghost.
That was the only way she could describe it. Transparent, pale white, covered in similar flames to the ones below. Nothing more than the skeleton of a gryphon in armor, its empty eyes boring into their own.
A burning remnant of what once was.
"Mathew! Take point! We've got trouble incoming!" She ordered, suppressing the bit of fear she felt within her.
He responded by jumping in front of her in a protective manner, meeting the ghost head on with a burst of his own golden fire.
She took a step back, carefully ordering Mathew around their makeshift sky high battlefield, while her mind burned with questions.
What in the world had happened here…?
Shielder tapped her on her shoulder, breaking her out of her remembrance, "You have to understand Master, Avenger is a broken gryphon. What to us, was but a nightmare, to him, it became a reality."
"Losing your wife, your children, your people... " Archer continued, "It's enough to make even the most iron-willed go insane."
"But that doesn't excuse anything." She countered, pointing at him, "So what if he lost everything? So what if he couldn't stop Sombra? Others have gone through worse and they didn't decide to sacrifice everyone in some convoluted ritual…"
"I don't believe any of us ever said to excuse him." Rider leaned forward, eyes locking on to hers, "Merely that there are methods and reasons to his madness."
"... But still… why? Why did he do it?" She pleaded once more, "Why destroy Griffonia with his own talons if he wanted it to keep existing?"
"And here I believe you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes Avenger different from the rest of us, Master. He may be a version of us, yes, but as he is now, I do not believe he can be said to be 'Garrick Golden Feather,'" Saber spoke, his armor clinking as he shifted his form slightly.
"... Huh? What do you mean…?"
"I'm sure you know of my skill. A Light of Possibilities… It provides me with this form," He trailed the scales crawling along his face with a talon, ending at the base of his horns, "The legendary Emperor of Dragon blood, blessed by fire and ruler of lightning… Not something I was, but something bestowed upon me by the people who believed in me, who believed in my legend. What he is… perhaps the best descriptor would be a corrupted, twisted version of that.
"When Avenger did what he did, he did not sacrifice anyone… not in the way you are thinking. The Yaks had been shattered, his people left in remnants, his nation crumbling around him, his lands cursed by Sombra to no longer prosper, and with no allies because he had never found the Qilin… He turned to the only way he could help his people."
The top of the tower was the eye of the storm.
Stretching beyond the planet, beyond reality, into its own bubble of another space, another time. Streams of black floated up from the floor and from the pillars of crystal around her, acting like flames, yet gave no warmth, instead instilling the round arena with a sense of stillness and cold. A pattern of royal purple lighted the way toward the center, a spiral of various designs, glyphs, and letters, glowing eerily against the inky blackness surrounding her.
It was familiar to her. She'd already seen it, after all… while climbing the tower, looking out at the empty city below. Streets and buildings morphed into a ritual on a grand scale, the full scope of which now rested below her.
And at the center of it all, a pillar of pitch black icor, shaped in a parody of life. At best, it's closest resemblance was a tree, yet it carried no leaves, and its 'branches' were only at the top, several prongs forming a makeshift crown, caging within a miniature sun of the same black and blue flames that she had seen down below.
What had once been a gryphon, had once had a chance to turn back, had now progressed far beyond that point and had become a demon fit to rule this fake tartarus he called Griffonia.
"Magic." She answered, "He used magic…"
Rider nodded, "As a Gryphon, one would think magic barred from us… but, Grails are a different story, as you well know. Vast stores of magic… with the only thing required being intent. I'm sure you recall those crystal golems you faced in that singularity…?"
"The big rock guys who tried to lop my head off? Yeah, I think I remember them pretty well…"
"They were originally meant to try and replace labor for farms. To try and relieve those who remained."
"But nothing grew," Archer added on, "Nothing would ever grow on those lands. It would no longer rain. Fish would rot and die out. Plants would wither. And the sick and injured would never recover... So was Sombra's last hurrah."
That she recalled well enough. She had nearly died of dehydration until Matthew had managed to find the Qilin and save the both of them.
"At that point, he may have had weeks, or perhaps even days before everything collapsed around him… And while I don't know exactly what happened, I can take a guess. Sombra managed to make a duplicate, Corrupted Grail by simply placing the souls of the crystal ponies in a container and melting them down into pure power. Avenger most likely saw the ritual and tried something similar," Rider continued.
"So he sacrificed the many to save the few, or in this case, just him. Melting down his people into a grail to save himself..." She replied, "But I already knew that. And that makes no sense."
Shielder shook his head, his eyes downcast, "But he didn't do that, Master… None of us, even at our lowest point, would think to do that unless there was absolutely no choice… What I assume they mean is rather than making a Grail, he took the souls of his people into himself to save them. Every single one, so that they could all live on through his body. That's why Saber said he really couldn't be counted as 'Garrick Golden-Feather' anymore. Rather than being a representation of Griffonia, he is Griffonia."
Ritsuka couldn't help but blink at the revelation, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to comprehend what he had said, "That… that's not possible… you can't hold that many souls in one body. And even if you could, you can't have that many voices in your head or you'd go insane!"
"And is he not? I'm sure you noticed he had Mad Enhancement EX." Rider let out a somber chuckle, "Although, in this case, it may be the only thing keeping him sane… All those voices, calling for revenge, for retribution, to act out against the world that abandoned them… He can never forget the call, but his own unshakable will in carrying out his duties as the emperor to his people has kept him as both the forefront of all those voices, and relatively reasonable.
"And as for your other question on how he hasn't come apart at the seams… Well, I'm certain you noticed his armor? It is made of a rather special metal…" He tapped his sword, a small clink sounding out, "Souls and magic are intrinsically linked. By wrapping himself in such and creating a space for them to reside in, in the form of the crystal heart grafted to his own body, he created a prison for all those within, never letting them escape. No doubt should that armor have been removed while you had been in that singularity, he would have fallen apart, being nothing more than a ghost in a shell."
The room became silent for a moment, allowing Ritsuka time to think. This… This was a bit more than she had thought. She had not been aware of much of what had happened in the previous singularity, being dead or unconscious for part of it, but to have missed this much? "Then what was the point of it all then? Why sacrifice so many others? Why make that tower?"
"Because Griffonia must live on, Master," Saber replied, "Wherever he steps, that is Griffonia. Any land that is Griffonia provides him with more power, because, as stated, he is Griffonia. The two are linked. Of course, it takes power to claim a certain amount of land as his, but once enough had been covered…"
"Then it would have caused a chain reaction that would have made all the world into Griffonia," Ritsuka finished, "A world with no enemies against it. A world where Griffonia would live on for all time…"
"A nation of not but one, Griffonia Ataraxia…" Rider concluded, "And forever more, only one. Spreading backward and forward in time until there was nothing but him and his desolate world. Such is the madness of the Stygian King."
Another moment of silence passed.
"I... Thank you for your help, guys.... You've given me a lot to think about... " She spoke as she got off the couch, "I think... I need some time to process this. I'll see you all later..."
"Just remember, you can always ask us for anything," Shielder called out, "We're your servants. That's what we're here for."
"Mmm…" She gave a slow nod in confirmation, "Always have, always will."
"Good." He shot her a smile before turning back to the table, "So… Want to go another round? Or do you want to play a different game?"
"Well, I was getting tired of poker… How about Monopoly? Or Mahjong?"
"No games of luck. Rider just winds by default. How about-"
She missed the rest of what was being said as the door shut behind her, locking all sound within.
Ritsuka let out a sigh… well, that was more information than she had been planning on attaining. But at the very least, she now had some insight into exactly who he was.
And that was more than enough an opportunity for her.
She made her way down the hall once more, a plan of attack already forming in her mind.
So, wanted to write something on an alternate version of Garrick. Since I've been playing FGO, the idea of "Garrick Alter" popped in my head, and this happened. Was supposed to be pretty short, but instead kinda turned into this.
I'll keep this in short blurbs instead of actual stat sheets.
Saber: Garrick's "legend." The dragon blooded warrior, with aspects of a thunderbird and a nemean lion, uses flames, lightning, and his sword to attack. An attack heavy Garrick thats a mix of him and the most famous of his armies, like Hardbeak. In a straight fight, hardbeak would probably beat out this version of Garrick though. Has anti-evil traits and uses his sword as the crystallization if his legend, a representation of his right to rule, lighting on fire to smite all evil.
"My wish? To face evil so that it may be smote."
Archer: Garrick as a Commander, appearing as he did during the first half of the winter war, toned, but not musclebound. Uses a cannon he can materialize at will. Kinda of a mix of Alexander the great and napoleon in terms of character. Uses bombs, explosives, anything and everything to assure victory. His Noble phantasm would be the Peregrine line, creating a choke point against those that would wish to attack. It is also possible to use it to attack as well, creating instant high ground wherever is needed. The more heroes atop the wall, the stronger it is.
"I wish to defend Griffonia against its enemies."
Rider: Garrick as an emperor. Probably him at his strongest. The griffon that led a nation of innovation and protected it against evil. Him at his peak post winter war. Has skills that let him accumulate money, fight against the odds, and get whatever skill he needs at the time. Has a couple of other skills not revealed at this time. His First NP lets him use and spawn anything ever created in Griffonia, from vehicles, to buildings, to weapons. His second NP lets him call upon the Heroes of Modern Griffonia, including people like Hardbeak and his wife. Rather Mgic intensive, so he tends to only use very little of his capabilities.
"I don't really have much of a wish… I suppose the continued existence of Griffonia? Or perhaps see my family again..."
Shielder: Garrick at his youngest, in a limbo between not yet taking the throne and only just. Much more laid back, as he has his personality of when he was still a merchant buying drinks for an entire tavern. Represents possibilities. Carries Three orichalcum shields and the crystal heart, the conceptual phantasm of coming together to defend against annihilation. Each shield represents a different race, and the more different races come together, the stronger those shields are. Has the ability to summon heroes, like rider, but only one. Can use the crystal heart, but not as well as a true crystal pony, so its ranked down from EX to A+
"There are only two truths in this world, alcohol and money! … but, what I'd actually wish for…? I guess I'd like to see my wife again… summon her quickly for me, would you?"
Avenger: An alternate garrick, where a grail was dropped into sombras lap and he ruined both the yaks and Griffonia. Garrick eventually prevailed, attaining a corrupted crystal heart, a grail, and a corrupted copy of a grail, but at significant cost. Also fell for the vault door trap, but as reality had become his nightmare, he passed it that way. Later on, upon seeing Garrick using the grails, Koryu thought this was the evil he had sensed before, stealing his daughter away, the last of his family, and the good grail, leaving the corrupted one there since garrick managed to drive him away before he could take that too. Eventually killed the dragon emperor despite Ritsuka's attempts to keep him and the grail he carried safe. Eventually made a plan to save his nation, and failing that, send his nation to imaginary space and memetically spread the idea of Griffonia to the real world, where he could then manifest should conditions be correct, similar to TATARI. His presence overrides the surrounding world, turning wherever he is to a space he can control, using his signature fire, crystal constructs, and steam and clockwork machinery. Can also pull a soul out from himself and control it, using those to attack. His NP would probably just be creating a massive construct and firing a laser of black fire from it, kinda a cross between Gorgon and sherlocks NP. Answered the call to chaldea because at his core, he just wants to see Griffonia continue, and since his plan is shot, Chaldea is the only other option for the continued survival of the world, even if it isn't his version of Griffonia that will continue on. Somewhat a demented cross between jalter, lancer artoria, and Dr. doom. The singularity he appears in had different garricks appearing to stop him, with Garrick alter summoning people such as corrupted versions of his knights to counter them, such as a corrupted hardbeak.
"I care not for wishes. What one must take, they must take with their own talons."
Ruler: Ritsuka's first servant, a demi-servant of Emperor Koryu.
The original draft of this was supposed to be kinda funny, with a 1* E- mad enhancement berserker Garrick hating koryu for 'taking his precious daughter' away from him, but it kinda got... serious... yeah...
Originally tossed around the idea of "garrick alter" actually being an alternate version of gawain who saw his kingdom fall, but decided against it.
Might not make a ton of sense if you don't know much about FGO or fate. Anyway, wrote this to try and get over my writers block.
Grand Order: An Alter of the Emperor
It was a scene of carnage akin to a nightmare.
What had once been a pristine fields of green had turned into nothing more than a charred remnant of what it once was. Spires of twisted metal and crystal, their shapes warped and unearthly, jutted out of the ground, looking like twisted sunflowers bathing in a rain of ash. Black fire replaced the grass, the heat too intense for her to approach, even from where she stood a significant distance away. Charred corpses, unrecognizable from their origin, rested in the spots where the flames had yet to take hold, even now disintegrating into dust as the fires drew nearer.
And at the center of it all, a cloaked figure stood, his armored claws alight in black and blue flames, the tips of his cape similarly aflame, with what was visible beneath fully covered in blackened metal.
"Tch. Useless."
Even from her vantage point atop the hill, his voice, a deep, layered, echoing tone, felt as though it had come from right next to her.
The figure turned, and gave her a glance, eyes glowing from beneath his metallic mask, before a gout of twisting fire erupted from beneath him, before a similar pillar appeared much closer to her, a wave of heat blasting over her form. The metal clad being stepped out of the fire, jumping into the air and spreading out a pair of great, metal wings, before landing right next to her.
"Was my performance... satisfactory, Master?" He spoke once again, his voice cutting with a sarcastic arrogance.
Even with the heat radiating off his form, Ritsuka couldn't help but shiver. "Ah, yeah… good job, Avenger." She managed to say, "Just, ah, maybe tone it down a little, next time…?"
He took a step forward, his form towering above hers, and glanced down at her, "That, Master, was my attempt to restrain my ability to account for your weakness."
"...Oh. I see…" She gulped, "Well, um… Thank you for taking me into account….?"
Avenger shook his head, "I tire of your idiocy. Fool in charge, return us to Chaldea at once."
Next to her, a blue hologram showing the face of a fluffy maned earth pony appeared, a look of concern on his face, "Avenger, I understand that-"
"No, it's fine Romani," she interrupted him, "We came here and accomplished what we set out to do. It's about time we head back anyway."
"... If you say so. Prepare for Rayshift in five seconds..."
She gave one more glance at Avenger as they both disappeared in golden particles, another shiver running through her.
Ritsuka wandered through the halls of chaldea, a destination in mind but with no urgency to get there.
The reason being her mind was preoccupied elsewhere, running circles around an enigma that she couldn't understand in the least. That bening the latest servant she had summoned to chaldea.
"Hmph. Avenger. What a pitiful class for a pitiful gryphon… Very well. I, the Stygian Sovereign of Griffonia Ataraxia, have come in response to your summons. Pray that you do not fall as far as I have."
They were words that still rang in her ear, even days later.
Avenger…
An Extra Class in the summoning system. One eternally burning with a hatred that would never go away. A flame that would devour reason, memory, and emotion, until all that was left was the desire for retribution.
That was the kind of being she had summoned.
Truth be told, Avenger scared her.
No, scratch that, Avenger absolutely terrified her.
She had summoned dangerous Servants before. Daybreaker, for example, an Alter of Celestia, a tyrant of similar caliber to Avenger, had vowed to erase her from existence should she show weakness… But even though Ritsuka was wary of her, she didn't fear her.
Not like him…
But, as the last Master of Chaldea, she had a duty to push past her fear… And so she came up with a plan.
She halted in her meandering as she spotted someone standing idly next to a door further down the corridor.
"Matthew!" She hollered as she skipped on over next to him, "Thanks for getting them all together for me!"
Matthew… She couldn't help but smile every time she saw him. Her first servant and her first friend here at Chaldea, the gryphon was just so… innocent. Even after all the horrors they'd faced together, he always looked on the brighter side of things, even when fear was clearly etched on his face. If there was one person she trusted implicitly, it was him, for he was always willing to be the first to put his life on the line for her, as he had proven many times before.
He raised a scaled claw up to his hooded head, ruffling his crest feather slightly in bashfulness. "Ah, i-it was nothing… I wasn't really doing anything anyway." He gave her a curious glance, "So, why'd you need to gather the G4? Are you planning on bringing them to the next singularity or…?"
She let out a sigh, "No, just wanted to talk to them about the… newest… arrival."
Had she blinked, she would have missed it, but for a moment, his usual blue eyes turned a very familiar shade of grey, before turning back, "Oh… him."
She let out a light sigh and shook her head, "Listen, I know you two have your issues-"
"He killed you."
"-And I got better! But really, he's on our side now, so, just… you know… try to get along with him? At least when we go out and fight?"
He gave her a hard look before sighing himself, "I'll try, for you. But you already know why that'll be difficult."
She quietly nodded. Being a demi-servant for one of the people you hated the most certainly threw a wrench in things…
"Knowing you'll try is good enough for me!" She walked over to him and gave him a quick hug, "Thanks for being the best~!"
He hesitantly returned the hug before quickly backing off, a small blush on his face, "W-well, uh, I-I gotta go and checkup with Romani and see Tadakatsu. S-see you later?"
"Yup! See you then!"
He slowly retreated before hastily turning around and bolting down the corridor.
Ritsuka couldn't help but shake her head, giggling slightly under her breath. For a gryphon, he really couldn't handle physical contact all that well. She was sure with enough teasing though, maybe one of these days his first response wouldn't be to just run away.
Well, she'd been standing around in this hallway long enough. She did call a meeting to attendance.
Opening the door to the nearby room, she spotted four distinct figures, all gryphons, sitting around a table, cards in claw and on the table.
"Hey guys! What's going on?"
The four figures looked up acknowledging her presence, before returning to look at their respective hands.
"Nothing much. Archer decided it'd be a good idea to pass some time playing some poker while we waited for you to arrive," The youngest of the four, a thin, handsome gryphon with three floating slabs of metal floating on his back, spoke, "Not that it matters much, since Rider's cheating again."
"Merely existing is not cheating, Shielder." Rider, The oldest replied, fiddling with the cape that attached to his usual regalia, "My luck is higher than all of you, yes-"
"-And you have pioneer of the stars, golden rule, and imperial privilege to go with it-"
"-And I do have those three, that is true, but if you look at the table, you can clearly see that while I have most of the spoils-" He made a flourish at the pile of Saint Quartz pieces in front of him, "-I have not clean swept the board. Saber also has a significant pile in front of him."
The draconic gryphon next to Rider gave a small shrug, "I simply have a better grasp of when to fold compared to those two."
Archer, the last of the four, sighed, resting an armored claw on the table and letting his hand show to the world, revealing four 9's for a four of a kind, "Beating Rider is a fool's errand anyhow. Allow me to take and educated guess... royal flush?"
Rider raised an eyebrow, laying down his cards and revealing it was as Archer predicted, "How did you know?"
He leaned onto one of his claws, a small smirk on his face, "Discounting how all the previous rounds wound up as such? Call it a lucky guess." He turned to face her, the smile still etched on his face, "So, Master, what did you bring us all together for? My guess is it's not for fun and games."
Ritsuka let out a breath of air, "Ha, I wish… But today is going to be a bit more on the serious side. I'm sure you all can guess the reason?"
Saber stared at her, yellow slitted eyes appearing to peer into her soul, before he responded, "Avenger."
"Got it in one."
Rider huffed, "Why can't things ever be simple…?"
"It was bound to come up eventually," Archer interjected, "Guess now's a good a time as any. Ask away, master."
She walked over to the couches and took a seat next to Shielder, "Alright, I guess I'll just come out and say it… Please help me understand him."
For a moment, the table was silent, with not a sound between the five that had gathered. However, soon enough Rider straightened his back and opened his beak.
"... You know of his story. There is not much more to explain." he said, "He is a possibility… a version of us that took his path and regretted every second of it, but even then, he would not, could not stop. As you know very well."
She slowly nodded, shutting her eyes as a memory pushed itself to the forefront of her mind at his words.
She couldn't breathe.
The oxygen had been burned out of the air, replaced with the approaching cursed fire. Her nerves no longer registered pain, the waves of heat having already ignited her form long ago, setting her ablaze. Voices called out to her, but she could not respond, her vocal chords burned out and her ears no longer functioning. She attempted to take a step forward, but instead found herself collapsing onto the ground, her muscles no longer responding to her attempts to move.
Her eyes, the only thing that still seemed to function despite the inferno around her, managed to lock on to the only thing they could see.
The sight of a metal mask seared into her skull.
The last thing she saw before her eyes failed her was the him turning around and her front leg disintegrating, leaving not even ash.
Ritsuka unconsciously pressed a claw to her side and shook her head, "It's just... I want to hear your thoughts on him… He may not be you, but you are all similar enough to him to understand why he did what he did, right…?"
Rider sighed, the crown on his head shifting slightly at the movement, "More than I would prefer to admit… "
"At our core, all we wanted was what was best for our people," Archer interjected, his eyes directed more at the shine of his armor than at her, "His goal, his motive, is simply the logical extreme of that ideal."
"Griffonia must live. No matter what the cost." Saber finished, "Himself, his people, the world… all expendable, as long as the ideal of Griffonia lives on."
"There. That part." She found herself saying, pointing at him, "That's the part I don't understand. What he did, what he planned on doing… If that was his goal, then his entire plan just doesn't make sense."
"Does it not?" Rider replied, a sad smile on his face.
"... A king with no subjects is no king at all. And a nation with no subjects is not a nation in the slightest." She eventually managed to say, "And he… he burned his entire nation. All of it…. Every single living thing in that dreary place… All of it, just… gone…"
She had heard tales of Tartarus in her youth.
A place only the most dangerous would go… a location where all the world's evils were sealed, guarded by the three-headed dog, cerberus.
Some had described it as an endless pit, where spires rose from the bottomless depths to impossibly high locations. Others described it as level after level of increasingly harsh terrains, from ice colder than any temperature recorded as far as the eye could see, to an endless sea filled with creatures that could drive one mad just by seeing them, to a landscape of fires hotter than the surface of the sun.
What lied in front of her was reminiscent of those horrid tales.
She and her partner stood atop a spire, high in the sky, looking down at what appeared to be a sprawling city that seemed to stretch off to the horizon, but unlike one they had ever seen.
The architecture was… twisted. Tall buildings of steel, glass, and crystal that reminded her of buildings she'd seen in cities back in her own time, but they all seemed to intersect with one another, an array of pipes and clockwork traversing between each building such that, if her eyes were not as keen as they were, the entire city below would look like nothing more than a hedge of crisscrossing iron.
Small, narrow areas which she would consider streets seemed to zigzag with no rhyme or reason, looking more akin to a maze than anything else. But, she was hesitant to label them streets, as rather than being areas for walking they instead seemed to be troughs for mysterious waves of black and blue fire to traverse, likely burning anything they came across.
Doting the area were mysterious contorted spires of blackened crystal and metal, rising high above the buildings with pipes leading out of them. She herself was standing atop one of these strange spiraling spires, the strange pulsating warmth beneath her claws making her feel as though, rather than strange objects of unknown origin, they were instead… alive, in some way.
And off, far, far in the distance, a distinct backdrop to the crimson sky above, was a clockwork tower that seemed to have spiraled itself out of the earth, going higher and higher into the air far beyond what she could see, the aforementioned pipes following suit and rotating themselves up and around it.
Even from such a great distance, she could hear it groan and tick, the large gears making up its frame rotating slowly, working steadily toward something beyond her comprehension.
"Matthew, where are we…?"
Matthew, in his draconic servant form, turned to look at her with an equally confused expression, grey eyes fluttering here and there as he tried to take it all in, "I… don't know? This doesn't look like it could have been built in 60 A.D…"
"That is definitely 60 A.D. Griffonia, to be exact.." The familiar voice of the acting director, Romani, chimed in, his face appearing on the usual floating holographic screen with a burst of static, "But… that makes no sense. This... this isn't how Griffonia is supposed to look like! And these readings... they make no sense at all!"
This… this was actually Griffonia? Had a grail already done so much damage to this era…? "Come on, Romani, what are they telling you? I need some information here."
She watched as he hurriedly zipped between computer screens, frantically tapping away with is hooves, "There's so much to say… the foundation value here, I said I couldn't evaluate it until you arrived, right? Well, I can tell you now, and it's not good. If this singularity is allowed to continue to exist, then the amount of damage it could cause would be on a similar scale to the cause of the singularities in the first place. So for now, I'm designating it EX."
"So failure here is not an option," Matthew whispered under his breath.
"It's never an option." Ritsuka replied, a bit of bitterness leaking into her voice, "But! we'll just do as we always do! And as tempting as it is to just go for the big shiny building in the distance, got anything on the radar for us, doc?"
"That's one of the other problems." He stressed, "I'm not picking up… well, anything down there. No life signs. No monsters. Nothing. It's like the entire city is empty."
Nothing? "Nothing at all? Not even rats?"
"Nothing," He reaffirmed, "I am picking up heat signatures that correlate to the flames down below, but other than that…"
"I see something," Her partner called out, gazing over the edge, "Looks… large. Kinda bell shaped...? Black and grey. Wandering between floors in that building over there."
Standing next to him and gazing down his arm, she followed the talon at the end to a building that was slightly taller than the ones around it, where she could just make out a slightly mismatched bit of color displacing the strange blue glow inside.
"I'm not getting any readings from it… Whatever it is, it's most likely just more machinery." Romani said offhandedly.
"I wouldn't be too sure…" Mathew replied, a bit of trepidation in his voice, "It seems to have noticed us."
It was only for a moment, but Ritsuka blinked.
In that time, the entity seemed to have phased through the various structures down below, and was already nearly upon them.
A ghost.
That was the only way she could describe it. Transparent, pale white, covered in similar flames to the ones below. Nothing more than the skeleton of a gryphon in armor, its empty eyes boring into their own.
A burning remnant of what once was.
"Mathew! Take point! We've got trouble incoming!" She ordered, suppressing the bit of fear she felt within her.
He responded by jumping in front of her in a protective manner, meeting the ghost head on with a burst of his own golden fire.
She took a step back, carefully ordering Mathew around their makeshift sky high battlefield, while her mind burned with questions.
What in the world had happened here…?
Shielder tapped her on her shoulder, breaking her out of her remembrance, "You have to understand Master, Avenger is a broken gryphon. What to us, was but a nightmare, to him, it became a reality."
"Losing your wife, your children, your people... " Archer continued, "It's enough to make even the most iron-willed go insane."
"But that doesn't excuse anything." She countered, pointing at him, "So what if he lost everything? So what if he couldn't stop Sombra? Others have gone through worse and they didn't decide to sacrifice everyone in some convoluted ritual…"
"I don't believe any of us ever said to excuse him." Rider leaned forward, eyes locking on to hers, "Merely that there are methods and reasons to his madness."
"... But still… why? Why did he do it?" She pleaded once more, "Why destroy Griffonia with his own talons if he wanted it to keep existing?"
"And here I believe you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes Avenger different from the rest of us, Master. He may be a version of us, yes, but as he is now, I do not believe he can be said to be 'Garrick Golden Feather,'" Saber spoke, his armor clinking as he shifted his form slightly.
"... Huh? What do you mean…?"
"I'm sure you know of my skill. A Light of Possibilities… It provides me with this form," He trailed the scales crawling along his face with a talon, ending at the base of his horns, "The legendary Emperor of Dragon blood, blessed by fire and ruler of lightning… Not something I was, but something bestowed upon me by the people who believed in me, who believed in my legend. What he is… perhaps the best descriptor would be a corrupted, twisted version of that.
"When Avenger did what he did, he did not sacrifice anyone… not in the way you are thinking. The Yaks had been shattered, his people left in remnants, his nation crumbling around him, his lands cursed by Sombra to no longer prosper, and with no allies because he had never found the Qilin… He turned to the only way he could help his people."
The top of the tower was the eye of the storm.
Stretching beyond the planet, beyond reality, into its own bubble of another space, another time. Streams of black floated up from the floor and from the pillars of crystal around her, acting like flames, yet gave no warmth, instead instilling the round arena with a sense of stillness and cold. A pattern of royal purple lighted the way toward the center, a spiral of various designs, glyphs, and letters, glowing eerily against the inky blackness surrounding her.
It was familiar to her. She'd already seen it, after all… while climbing the tower, looking out at the empty city below. Streets and buildings morphed into a ritual on a grand scale, the full scope of which now rested below her.
And at the center of it all, a pillar of pitch black icor, shaped in a parody of life. At best, it's closest resemblance was a tree, yet it carried no leaves, and its 'branches' were only at the top, several prongs forming a makeshift crown, caging within a miniature sun of the same black and blue flames that she had seen down below.
What had once been a gryphon, had once had a chance to turn back, had now progressed far beyond that point and had become a demon fit to rule this fake tartarus he called Griffonia.
"Magic." She answered, "He used magic…"
Rider nodded, "As a Gryphon, one would think magic barred from us… but, Grails are a different story, as you well know. Vast stores of magic… with the only thing required being intent. I'm sure you recall those crystal golems you faced in that singularity…?"
"The big rock guys who tried to lop my head off? Yeah, I think I remember them pretty well…"
"They were originally meant to try and replace labor for farms. To try and relieve those who remained."
"But nothing grew," Archer added on, "Nothing would ever grow on those lands. It would no longer rain. Fish would rot and die out. Plants would wither. And the sick and injured would never recover... So was Sombra's last hurrah."
That she recalled well enough. She had nearly died of dehydration until Matthew had managed to find the Qilin and save the both of them.
"At that point, he may have had weeks, or perhaps even days before everything collapsed around him… And while I don't know exactly what happened, I can take a guess. Sombra managed to make a duplicate, Corrupted Grail by simply placing the souls of the crystal ponies in a container and melting them down into pure power. Avenger most likely saw the ritual and tried something similar," Rider continued.
"So he sacrificed the many to save the few, or in this case, just him. Melting down his people into a grail to save himself..." She replied, "But I already knew that. And that makes no sense."
Shielder shook his head, his eyes downcast, "But he didn't do that, Master… None of us, even at our lowest point, would think to do that unless there was absolutely no choice… What I assume they mean is rather than making a Grail, he took the souls of his people into himself to save them. Every single one, so that they could all live on through his body. That's why Saber said he really couldn't be counted as 'Garrick Golden-Feather' anymore. Rather than being a representation of Griffonia, he is Griffonia."
Ritsuka couldn't help but blink at the revelation, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to comprehend what he had said, "That… that's not possible… you can't hold that many souls in one body. And even if you could, you can't have that many voices in your head or you'd go insane!"
"And is he not? I'm sure you noticed he had Mad Enhancement EX." Rider let out a somber chuckle, "Although, in this case, it may be the only thing keeping him sane… All those voices, calling for revenge, for retribution, to act out against the world that abandoned them… He can never forget the call, but his own unshakable will in carrying out his duties as the emperor to his people has kept him as both the forefront of all those voices, and relatively reasonable.
"And as for your other question on how he hasn't come apart at the seams… Well, I'm certain you noticed his armor? It is made of a rather special metal…" He tapped his sword, a small clink sounding out, "Souls and magic are intrinsically linked. By wrapping himself in such and creating a space for them to reside in, in the form of the crystal heart grafted to his own body, he created a prison for all those within, never letting them escape. No doubt should that armor have been removed while you had been in that singularity, he would have fallen apart, being nothing more than a ghost in a shell."
The room became silent for a moment, allowing Ritsuka time to think. This… This was a bit more than she had thought. She had not been aware of much of what had happened in the previous singularity, being dead or unconscious for part of it, but to have missed this much? "Then what was the point of it all then? Why sacrifice so many others? Why make that tower?"
"Because Griffonia must live on, Master," Saber replied, "Wherever he steps, that is Griffonia. Any land that is Griffonia provides him with more power, because, as stated, he is Griffonia. The two are linked. Of course, it takes power to claim a certain amount of land as his, but once enough had been covered…"
"Then it would have caused a chain reaction that would have made all the world into Griffonia," Ritsuka finished, "A world with no enemies against it. A world where Griffonia would live on for all time…"
"A nation of not but one, Griffonia Ataraxia…" Rider concluded, "And forever more, only one. Spreading backward and forward in time until there was nothing but him and his desolate world. Such is the madness of the Stygian King."
Another moment of silence passed.
"I... Thank you for your help, guys.... You've given me a lot to think about... " She spoke as she got off the couch, "I think... I need some time to process this. I'll see you all later..."
"Just remember, you can always ask us for anything," Shielder called out, "We're your servants. That's what we're here for."
"Mmm…" She gave a slow nod in confirmation, "Always have, always will."
"Good." He shot her a smile before turning back to the table, "So… Want to go another round? Or do you want to play a different game?"
"Well, I was getting tired of poker… How about Monopoly? Or Mahjong?"
"No games of luck. Rider just winds by default. How about-"
She missed the rest of what was being said as the door shut behind her, locking all sound within.
Ritsuka let out a sigh… well, that was more information than she had been planning on attaining. But at the very least, she now had some insight into exactly who he was.
And that was more than enough an opportunity for her.
She made her way down the hall once more, a plan of attack already forming in her mind.
So, wanted to write something on an alternate version of Garrick. Since I've been playing FGO, the idea of "Garrick Alter" popped in my head, and this happened. Was supposed to be pretty short, but instead kinda turned into this.
I'll keep this in short blurbs instead of actual stat sheets.
Saber: Garrick's "legend." The dragon blooded warrior, with aspects of a thunderbird and a nemean lion, uses flames, lightning, and his sword to attack. An attack heavy Garrick thats a mix of him and the most famous of his armies, like Hardbeak. In a straight fight, hardbeak would probably beat out this version of Garrick though. Has anti-evil traits and uses his sword as the crystallization if his legend, a representation of his right to rule, lighting on fire to smite all evil.
"My wish? To face evil so that it may be smote."
Archer: Garrick as a Commander, appearing as he did during the first half of the winter war, toned, but not musclebound. Uses a cannon he can materialize at will. Kinda of a mix of Alexander the great and napoleon in terms of character. Uses bombs, explosives, anything and everything to assure victory. His Noble phantasm would be the Peregrine line, creating a choke point against those that would wish to attack. It is also possible to use it to attack as well, creating instant high ground wherever is needed. The more heroes atop the wall, the stronger it is.
"I wish to defend Griffonia against its enemies."
Rider: Garrick as an emperor. Probably him at his strongest. The griffon that led a nation of innovation and protected it against evil. Him at his peak post winter war. Has skills that let him accumulate money, fight against the odds, and get whatever skill he needs at the time. Has a couple of other skills not revealed at this time. His First NP lets him use and spawn anything ever created in Griffonia, from vehicles, to buildings, to weapons. His second NP lets him call upon the Heroes of Modern Griffonia, including people like Hardbeak and his wife. Rather Mgic intensive, so he tends to only use very little of his capabilities.
"I don't really have much of a wish… I suppose the continued existence of Griffonia? Or perhaps see my family again..."
Shielder: Garrick at his youngest, in a limbo between not yet taking the throne and only just. Much more laid back, as he has his personality of when he was still a merchant buying drinks for an entire tavern. Represents possibilities. Carries Three orichalcum shields and the crystal heart, the conceptual phantasm of coming together to defend against annihilation. Each shield represents a different race, and the more different races come together, the stronger those shields are. Has the ability to summon heroes, like rider, but only one. Can use the crystal heart, but not as well as a true crystal pony, so its ranked down from EX to A+
"There are only two truths in this world, alcohol and money! … but, what I'd actually wish for…? I guess I'd like to see my wife again… summon her quickly for me, would you?"
Avenger: An alternate garrick, where a grail was dropped into sombras lap and he ruined both the yaks and Griffonia. Garrick eventually prevailed, attaining a corrupted crystal heart, a grail, and a corrupted copy of a grail, but at significant cost. Also fell for the vault door trap, but as reality had become his nightmare, he passed it that way. Later on, upon seeing Garrick using the grails, Koryu thought this was the evil he had sensed before, stealing his daughter away, the last of his family, and the good grail, leaving the corrupted one there since garrick managed to drive him away before he could take that too. Eventually killed the dragon emperor despite Ritsuka's attempts to keep him and the grail he carried safe. Eventually made a plan to save his nation, and failing that, send his nation to imaginary space and memetically spread the idea of Griffonia to the real world, where he could then manifest should conditions be correct, similar to TATARI. His presence overrides the surrounding world, turning wherever he is to a space he can control, using his signature fire, crystal constructs, and steam and clockwork machinery. Can also pull a soul out from himself and control it, using those to attack. His NP would probably just be creating a massive construct and firing a laser of black fire from it, kinda a cross between Gorgon and sherlocks NP. Answered the call to chaldea because at his core, he just wants to see Griffonia continue, and since his plan is shot, Chaldea is the only other option for the continued survival of the world, even if it isn't his version of Griffonia that will continue on. Somewhat a demented cross between jalter, lancer artoria, and Dr. doom. The singularity he appears in had different garricks appearing to stop him, with Garrick alter summoning people such as corrupted versions of his knights to counter them, such as a corrupted hardbeak.
"I care not for wishes. What one must take, they must take with their own talons."
Ruler: Ritsuka's first servant, a demi-servant of Emperor Koryu.
The original draft of this was supposed to be kinda funny, with a 1* E- mad enhancement berserker Garrick hating koryu for 'taking his precious daughter' away from him, but it kinda got... serious... yeah...
Originally tossed around the idea of "garrick alter" actually being an alternate version of gawain who saw his kingdom fall, but decided against it.
Might not make a ton of sense if you don't know much about FGO or fate. Anyway, wrote this to try and get over my writers block.
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Dr.Degenerate
The Resident Furry
- Location
- A Trash Can
Fate Grand Order
- Location
- A house
I'll give you a run down of it. Basically you are a part of an organization that looks through time and tries to fix problems before they occur through use of time travel and summoning heroes. Although, you can summon evil alignment villains too, so hero is kind of a misnomer. There can be multiple versions of the same hero.
In grand order, a big incident happens involving holy grails being sent across time and time itself being burnt up to remake the entire timeline. You play the master, who summons servants, the catch all title of heroes you summon, and retrieve the grails to fix the problem.
It's a lot more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it.
An alter is like an evil 'what if' version of a servant. Usually.
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Its Fate Grand Order a mobile game where you basically summon various type moon servants and to stop evil from destroying humanity by use of time paradoxes
- Location
- Maryland
While I'm afraid I know pretty much nothing about Fate: Grand Order, this is a supremely well-written Omake that I can tell you put a lot of work into.
+20 to a roll.
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Turn 20 Results
- Location
- Maryland
Martial: The dual revelations of Maretonia and Libertalia have whipped Redbeak into a frenzy of activity as he draws up plans for military actions both offensive and defensive in nature. Unfortunately, most of your defensive assets are tied up in the massive purge of your territory's internal threats, leaving you presently incapable of acting on these plans. (Two Actions per Turn) One Action Locked
-The Great Hunt: While the greatest external threat to the Empire (that you know of) has been dealt with, the internal threats still remain. Trolls, Manticores, Hydras, Chimeras, Cockatrices, Feral Diamond Dogs and common bandits infest the lands of your Empire, and their numbers have only been growing while you have been occupied with Sombra. Local militias and the Knightly orders are enough to protect your settlements, but few are comfortable with the fact that roughly half the land within your borders is dangerously infested with monsters. You have no shortage of veterans willing to get their talons dirty. Gather the full might of the Empire and purge the land of these dangerous beasts. Time: Three Years. Cost: 1500. Reward: Imperial Lands Purged of Monsters and Bandits, New Actions Unlocked. Will Finish Next Turn
The military sweep of your heartland continues. Army battalions coordinate with local militias and elements of the three Knightly Orders to go over every inch of soil within their assigned sectors, smoking Trolls and Manticores out of their burrows and caves while special teams of blindfolded Diamond Dogs use their superior sense of smell to hunt cockatrices without risk of making eye contact while their Griffon comrades deal with any pockets of feral Dogs. The rare groups of bandits and brigands try to hide or flee, but all are cut down by the superior numbers, equipment and discipline of the Imperial Army, their camps burning like beacons in the night.
The butchers of the Empire find themselves nearly overwhelmed, and the price of meat nosedives as the corpses of dozens of Hydras, Chimeras, Manticores and other creatures are disassembled and sold to the public, some even finding its way onto ships for export to Neighpon. By the end of the year, nearly two-thirds of the Griffonlands have been scoured of monsters and outlaws, the army moving into the final stages of the purge as the higher ups draw up plans for a potential war with the land of Maretonia. Though all are eager to finish the hunt as quickly as possible, all are equally committed to doing the job right and not letting any patch of ground go unchecked. If your Empire is to fight a war, the land within its borders must be secured first. Will Finish Next Turn.
-Ships of the Line: With the new cannon armed Carracks available for construction, its time to start building them and putting them into service. While more expensive and difficult to build than their predecessors, they are expected to be supremely effective in naval combat. Put the foundries and shipyards to work building some of these new vessels to reinforce the Imperial Navy. Time: Two Years. Cost: 1000. Reward: +15 Warships (Carracks) added to Imperial Navy.
The newest class of ships, designed only last year, goes into production, over a dozen slipways and drydocks playing host to hundreds of laborers as keels are laid down and sails stitched together. The foundries of the Empire go to work, smelting down ore and pouring the molten iron and steel into cannon molds, dozens of the tubular black-powder weapons taking shape in the forges as the ships they are destined to serve aboard are gradually assembled. Captains are scouted from amongst the mariner community, sailors trained in all the activities needed to keep a ship of war functional. By the end of next year, you shall have a whole new weapon in your naval arsenal. Will Finish Next Turn
Diplomacy: Elva is busy as she's ever been, going over old first contact protocols and reports from the Neighponese to formulate a plan to establish diplomatic contact with the newly discovered kingdom to your South. Her first priority is the recovery of citizens taken in the Pirate raids that were subsequently sold into slavery. All else is secondary. (Two Actions per Turn)
-A Guiding Talon: The Yak elder councils, at the behest of the increasingly vocal Modernists, have begun to slowly adopt a more sedentary lifestyle, exchanging cloth yurts for more permanent stone and wood dwellings, erecting permanent settlements on the little arable land present in the Northern Steppes. But they have little experience with sustained agriculture or advanced metalworking, and you're sure they would appreciate some advice and assistance. Such a project would strengthen the bonds between the Clans and the Empire, and bring you a step closer towards having a strong neighbor to guard the West from any potential foe. They haven't technically asked for help, but you're sure offering can't hurt. Time: Two Years. Cost: 800. Reward: Griffons assist Yak modernization efforts, Increased Gryphus-Yak Relations. Chance of Success: 70%
Required: 30. Rolled: 32+18=50
The Yak Elder Councils, stubborn and proud as they are, prove hesitant to accept your offers of assistance, but they soon change their tune when their people begin to very loudly demand that they accept your generous offer. Funds, materials and experts pour into Yakyakistan as Gryphus begins to invest heavily in the development of it's Western neighbor. Griffons host classes on metallurgy and agriculture in the centers of brand-new villages, teaching the inhabitants how to best make use of their limited resources. Diamond Dogs dig mines and irrigation ditches as teams of hired Yaks pound the ground flat along pre-determined routes, preparing the foundations of roads. Imperial advisors oversee Yak laborers as they plow fields, fell trees, and construct their first mills and smelters. Every clan receives the same amount of assistance, with no favoritism or regard for political allegiance. Such an egalitarian attitude engenders a measure of trust amongst the Yak communities as they work to build a new nation with your people's assistance. While much work still needs to be done to properly improve Yakyakistan's infrastructure, a great deal has already been done. Will Finish Next Turn.
-Let My People Go: You only know two things about the Kingdom of Maretonia: it's location, and the fact that your citizens are being held as slaves there. Before you do anything else, you must rectify this. While a military option is available, it is unappealing at this point in time. Ideally you'd like to resolve this with a minimum of bloodshed. Have Elva organize a diplomatic mission to make contact and sort out a method of getting your people back. Cost: 200. Time: One Year. Reward: Establish Diplomatic Contact with Maretonia, begin negotiations to ensure the release of your enslaved citizens.
To be Continued in "Awkward First Encounters"
-International Anti-Piracy Force: Alternatively, if you're planning on dealing with the pirates in a more...direct fashion, it would be prudent to include the Neighponese in your efforts. They have as much reason to despise these pirates as you, and their great navy would prove an equally great help in purging the island of its corruption. Have your ambassador propose the establishment of a joint task force similar to the one that took down Sombra and sort out the numerous bureaucratic issues involved. Cost: 100. Time: One Year. Reward: Guarantee of Neighponese assistance in any future Anti-Piracy Operations. Chance of Success: 70%
Required: 30. Rolled: 50+18=68
Kōryū is just as upset about the loss and enslavement of his people as you are of yours. He is therefore quite open to the idea of merging your fleets and coordinating naval action to ensure such things do not happen again. Admirals of both nations meet to discuss strategy, deployment plans, supply distribution, convoy escort schedules, and how to best coordinate naval operations. Between the combined fleets of your two kingdoms, a vast armada now stands ready to wipe out any and all pirates that sail the waves. Guarantee of Neighponese Assistance in Anti-Piracy Operations Acquired.
Stewardship: With most of the crises facing you being in the realm of Foreign Policy, Frida is much more relaxed than she was the previous year. She's still busy mind you, but she's not about to tear her feathers out over her workload anymore. (Two Actions per Turn) One Action Locked
-The Bronzeclaw Plan: While its inhabitants are doing their best to rectify the situation, the lands of your new Protectorate are still largely in ruins. What infrastructure wasn't destroyed in the war was seriously neglected under the rule of Sombra. Frida has proposed a comprehensive plan to rectify this, drawing inspiration from her predecessor's successful program to modernize the infrastructure of Aquileia in the aftermath of the Unification War. The plan essentially involves supplying the existing Crystal Government with vast sums of funding and support from Griffon and Diamond Dog experts to be directed where they are needed. Naturally, rebuilding a nation is going to be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor, but it's an investment that needs to be made if you're going to start making a profit off your newest territorial acquisition. Time: Two Years. Reward: 2000. Reward: Crystal Protectorate rebuilt, Increased Tax Income. Will Finish This Turn
After massive amounts of spending and much hard work on the part of the Crystal Ponies and their Imperial Sponsors, the Crystal City and the surrounding lands have been brought up to a level of development similar to pre-unification Griffonia. That may not sound like much, especially given the resources it took to make it happen, but considering the state of the Crystal Empire immediately after its liberation from Sombra, it is nothing short of a miracle that such a level of economic development was reached so quickly. Further improvements will no doubt be made in the future, as your Protectorate's economy becomes further integrated into the wider Empire and further investments are made in its infrastructure. But at least now the Crystal Ponies have an actual economy of their own, one that is fairly productive for its size.
While it's status as a Protectorate limits its tax obligations to the wider Empire, the Crystal Ponies are such ardent supporters of you and Gryphus that they voluntarily give you more tax revenue than they are required to under the terms of the Crystal Treaty. This is still less than what you would have received via an out-and-out annexation of the territory, but it is still a significant windfall. +200 Tax Income
-From Water to Steam: Many mills and factories within your Empire rely on water or wind-powered machinery, the tides of nature driving the gears of industry. While this has numerous advantages over muscle-power, it is not without issues of its own. Archimedes' new Steam Engines are more reliable and more efficient than relying upon the whims of nature, and several of the more prosperous mills have already begun to slowly phase out their older machinery in favor of the newer, more productive method made available to them. Adoption is still slow however, and many of the smaller mills are unable to afford the new machinery. Subsidizing the modernization of your industrial infrastructure would go a long way towards improving your economy. Cost: 800. Time: One Year. Reward: Modernized Mills, Increased Tax Income.
As has become the norm in your Empire, the crown sets aside funds to subsidize the purchase of new technologies, an investment in the national economy. Dozens of mills replace their water-wheels with Archimedes' new steam engines, significantly increasing productivity and overall efficiency.
While the coal industry is momentarily disrupted by the sudden upswing in demand for fuel for these iron beasts, the rapid exploitation of new deposits allows the market to return to normal, leaving the national economy in a better place than before. Many Imperial citizens have begun to take notice of the benefits of these new devices, and are taking an interest in their use and implementation, further encouraging widespread adoption of this new technology. +200 Tax Income
Learning: Archimedes and Genevieve continue their work as the Empire's top scholars, Archimedes focusing on improvements to the Imperial War Machine while Genevieve focuses on more Domestic improvements. This does not mean that the two do not collaborate and share information, merely that the two Griffons divide the work between them. They are further joined by the Neighponese trio, the Magical Experts you convinced to work for you. (Two Actions per Turn)
-Open Hearth Furnaces: While Genevieve's blast furnaces have revolutionized the field of metallurgy, the scholarly griffoness has been refining her design, incorporating lessons learned from the process, and claims to have an idea for an improved version capable of producing stronger steel in larger batches more efficiently. Naturally she's going to need funds and time in order to see about installing these improvements to the existing metalworking infrastructure. Cost: 800. Time: Two Years. Reward: Increased Tax Income, Decreased Army Recruitment Costs.
Genevieve goes to work, overseeing the improvements to the blast furnaces she designed what seems like so very long ago. The changes are relatively small, in the scheme of things, but the results are predicted to be quite dramatic: a large overall increase in output, and an even greater availability of steel, something that will doubtless prove useful in the future.
After spending several months observing the effects of the modifications on the first furnace, Genevieve has confirmation of her theory, and begins applying the changes en masse to steelmaking facilities across the Empire. It will be some time before the upgrades are finished, but the results will be more than worth the wait. Will Finish Next Turn.
-Movement through Steam: Archimedes and Genevieve have raised the idea of a new form of transportation powered by the new steam engines. The idea is simple: an engine powers the movement of wheels attached to a carriage which will run along tracks much like those of a mine cart. Simple in theory, but they might need some time and funding to work out the flaws in the design and make sure it's actually suitable for real-life use. Cost: 400. Time: One Year. Reward: First Steam Locomotive, New Actions Unlocked.
Archimedes supervises the construction of a "testing range" in an isolated stretch of the wilderness, laying down a series of tracks of varying materials and size. Over the next few months, these tracks play host to a series of metallic monstrosities of different shapes and sizes, prototypes for the new "locomotive", many of which are deconstructed after Archimedes derides them as "inefficient" or "too complex". But, after many months of work, the grey-feathered scholar finally settles on a final design.
It's an...unusual looking thing. It clearly wasn't built with aesthetics in mind. It's also not very fast. You're fairly certain any able-bodied Griffon could outfly the thing with ease. Still, as you watch the steam-belching engine chug along the test track, you can't help but feel that this machine, and others like it, will have a profound effect on your nation and people. First Locomotive Invented.
Intrigue: Ravenburg is busy this year. Between the recently discovered Maretonia, the Den of criminality that is Libertalia, the troubles in Yakyakistan and the constant need to keep an eye on things at home, he has no shortage of work to do and assets to coordinate. (One Action per Turn)
-South of the Brand New Border: You know next to nothing about Maretonia, and that's a problem. Its government, culture, inhabitants, economic and military strength are all things you need to know about if you're going to have any chance of dealing with them...in either sense of the word. Ravenburg's agents have proven adept at infiltrating hostile territory, and until you know otherwise that's what Maretonia is. Cost: 500. Time: One Year. Reward: Information on Maretonia and your Enslaved Citizens. Chance of Success: 65%
Required: 45. Rolled: 95+13+10(Crystal Protectorate Anthem Omake)+15(Steel Night Omake)=133 (Super Crit)
To be Continued in "Awkward First Encounters"
Personal: You refuse to let your duties as Emperor take up every moment of your day. (Two Actions per Turn)
-Keeping up with the Golden-Feathers: Gawain has been rubbing shoulders with the children of the Empire's movers and shakers, making connections that will serve him well later in life. At the risk of being an overbearing parent, it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with those he's been associating with. Purely out a desire to be involved in your son's life, of course. Cost: 0. Time: One Year. Reward: Gawain Interlude, Choice of Childhood Friends and Future Contacts.
To be Continued in "At the Gala"
-Overtime-International Anti-Piracy Force.
Hazard/Random Event Rolls
3 (To be Continued...)
82 (Passed)
Sorry for the delay. Final exams plus the graduation ceremonies have kept me busy, but I'm back and focused on writing up new content.
-The Great Hunt: While the greatest external threat to the Empire (that you know of) has been dealt with, the internal threats still remain. Trolls, Manticores, Hydras, Chimeras, Cockatrices, Feral Diamond Dogs and common bandits infest the lands of your Empire, and their numbers have only been growing while you have been occupied with Sombra. Local militias and the Knightly orders are enough to protect your settlements, but few are comfortable with the fact that roughly half the land within your borders is dangerously infested with monsters. You have no shortage of veterans willing to get their talons dirty. Gather the full might of the Empire and purge the land of these dangerous beasts. Time: Three Years. Cost: 1500. Reward: Imperial Lands Purged of Monsters and Bandits, New Actions Unlocked. Will Finish Next Turn
The military sweep of your heartland continues. Army battalions coordinate with local militias and elements of the three Knightly Orders to go over every inch of soil within their assigned sectors, smoking Trolls and Manticores out of their burrows and caves while special teams of blindfolded Diamond Dogs use their superior sense of smell to hunt cockatrices without risk of making eye contact while their Griffon comrades deal with any pockets of feral Dogs. The rare groups of bandits and brigands try to hide or flee, but all are cut down by the superior numbers, equipment and discipline of the Imperial Army, their camps burning like beacons in the night.
The butchers of the Empire find themselves nearly overwhelmed, and the price of meat nosedives as the corpses of dozens of Hydras, Chimeras, Manticores and other creatures are disassembled and sold to the public, some even finding its way onto ships for export to Neighpon. By the end of the year, nearly two-thirds of the Griffonlands have been scoured of monsters and outlaws, the army moving into the final stages of the purge as the higher ups draw up plans for a potential war with the land of Maretonia. Though all are eager to finish the hunt as quickly as possible, all are equally committed to doing the job right and not letting any patch of ground go unchecked. If your Empire is to fight a war, the land within its borders must be secured first. Will Finish Next Turn.
-Ships of the Line: With the new cannon armed Carracks available for construction, its time to start building them and putting them into service. While more expensive and difficult to build than their predecessors, they are expected to be supremely effective in naval combat. Put the foundries and shipyards to work building some of these new vessels to reinforce the Imperial Navy. Time: Two Years. Cost: 1000. Reward: +15 Warships (Carracks) added to Imperial Navy.
The newest class of ships, designed only last year, goes into production, over a dozen slipways and drydocks playing host to hundreds of laborers as keels are laid down and sails stitched together. The foundries of the Empire go to work, smelting down ore and pouring the molten iron and steel into cannon molds, dozens of the tubular black-powder weapons taking shape in the forges as the ships they are destined to serve aboard are gradually assembled. Captains are scouted from amongst the mariner community, sailors trained in all the activities needed to keep a ship of war functional. By the end of next year, you shall have a whole new weapon in your naval arsenal. Will Finish Next Turn
Diplomacy: Elva is busy as she's ever been, going over old first contact protocols and reports from the Neighponese to formulate a plan to establish diplomatic contact with the newly discovered kingdom to your South. Her first priority is the recovery of citizens taken in the Pirate raids that were subsequently sold into slavery. All else is secondary. (Two Actions per Turn)
-A Guiding Talon: The Yak elder councils, at the behest of the increasingly vocal Modernists, have begun to slowly adopt a more sedentary lifestyle, exchanging cloth yurts for more permanent stone and wood dwellings, erecting permanent settlements on the little arable land present in the Northern Steppes. But they have little experience with sustained agriculture or advanced metalworking, and you're sure they would appreciate some advice and assistance. Such a project would strengthen the bonds between the Clans and the Empire, and bring you a step closer towards having a strong neighbor to guard the West from any potential foe. They haven't technically asked for help, but you're sure offering can't hurt. Time: Two Years. Cost: 800. Reward: Griffons assist Yak modernization efforts, Increased Gryphus-Yak Relations. Chance of Success: 70%
Required: 30. Rolled: 32+18=50
The Yak Elder Councils, stubborn and proud as they are, prove hesitant to accept your offers of assistance, but they soon change their tune when their people begin to very loudly demand that they accept your generous offer. Funds, materials and experts pour into Yakyakistan as Gryphus begins to invest heavily in the development of it's Western neighbor. Griffons host classes on metallurgy and agriculture in the centers of brand-new villages, teaching the inhabitants how to best make use of their limited resources. Diamond Dogs dig mines and irrigation ditches as teams of hired Yaks pound the ground flat along pre-determined routes, preparing the foundations of roads. Imperial advisors oversee Yak laborers as they plow fields, fell trees, and construct their first mills and smelters. Every clan receives the same amount of assistance, with no favoritism or regard for political allegiance. Such an egalitarian attitude engenders a measure of trust amongst the Yak communities as they work to build a new nation with your people's assistance. While much work still needs to be done to properly improve Yakyakistan's infrastructure, a great deal has already been done. Will Finish Next Turn.
-Let My People Go: You only know two things about the Kingdom of Maretonia: it's location, and the fact that your citizens are being held as slaves there. Before you do anything else, you must rectify this. While a military option is available, it is unappealing at this point in time. Ideally you'd like to resolve this with a minimum of bloodshed. Have Elva organize a diplomatic mission to make contact and sort out a method of getting your people back. Cost: 200. Time: One Year. Reward: Establish Diplomatic Contact with Maretonia, begin negotiations to ensure the release of your enslaved citizens.
To be Continued in "Awkward First Encounters"
-International Anti-Piracy Force: Alternatively, if you're planning on dealing with the pirates in a more...direct fashion, it would be prudent to include the Neighponese in your efforts. They have as much reason to despise these pirates as you, and their great navy would prove an equally great help in purging the island of its corruption. Have your ambassador propose the establishment of a joint task force similar to the one that took down Sombra and sort out the numerous bureaucratic issues involved. Cost: 100. Time: One Year. Reward: Guarantee of Neighponese assistance in any future Anti-Piracy Operations. Chance of Success: 70%
Required: 30. Rolled: 50+18=68
Kōryū is just as upset about the loss and enslavement of his people as you are of yours. He is therefore quite open to the idea of merging your fleets and coordinating naval action to ensure such things do not happen again. Admirals of both nations meet to discuss strategy, deployment plans, supply distribution, convoy escort schedules, and how to best coordinate naval operations. Between the combined fleets of your two kingdoms, a vast armada now stands ready to wipe out any and all pirates that sail the waves. Guarantee of Neighponese Assistance in Anti-Piracy Operations Acquired.
Stewardship: With most of the crises facing you being in the realm of Foreign Policy, Frida is much more relaxed than she was the previous year. She's still busy mind you, but she's not about to tear her feathers out over her workload anymore. (Two Actions per Turn) One Action Locked
-The Bronzeclaw Plan: While its inhabitants are doing their best to rectify the situation, the lands of your new Protectorate are still largely in ruins. What infrastructure wasn't destroyed in the war was seriously neglected under the rule of Sombra. Frida has proposed a comprehensive plan to rectify this, drawing inspiration from her predecessor's successful program to modernize the infrastructure of Aquileia in the aftermath of the Unification War. The plan essentially involves supplying the existing Crystal Government with vast sums of funding and support from Griffon and Diamond Dog experts to be directed where they are needed. Naturally, rebuilding a nation is going to be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor, but it's an investment that needs to be made if you're going to start making a profit off your newest territorial acquisition. Time: Two Years. Reward: 2000. Reward: Crystal Protectorate rebuilt, Increased Tax Income. Will Finish This Turn
After massive amounts of spending and much hard work on the part of the Crystal Ponies and their Imperial Sponsors, the Crystal City and the surrounding lands have been brought up to a level of development similar to pre-unification Griffonia. That may not sound like much, especially given the resources it took to make it happen, but considering the state of the Crystal Empire immediately after its liberation from Sombra, it is nothing short of a miracle that such a level of economic development was reached so quickly. Further improvements will no doubt be made in the future, as your Protectorate's economy becomes further integrated into the wider Empire and further investments are made in its infrastructure. But at least now the Crystal Ponies have an actual economy of their own, one that is fairly productive for its size.
While it's status as a Protectorate limits its tax obligations to the wider Empire, the Crystal Ponies are such ardent supporters of you and Gryphus that they voluntarily give you more tax revenue than they are required to under the terms of the Crystal Treaty. This is still less than what you would have received via an out-and-out annexation of the territory, but it is still a significant windfall. +200 Tax Income
-From Water to Steam: Many mills and factories within your Empire rely on water or wind-powered machinery, the tides of nature driving the gears of industry. While this has numerous advantages over muscle-power, it is not without issues of its own. Archimedes' new Steam Engines are more reliable and more efficient than relying upon the whims of nature, and several of the more prosperous mills have already begun to slowly phase out their older machinery in favor of the newer, more productive method made available to them. Adoption is still slow however, and many of the smaller mills are unable to afford the new machinery. Subsidizing the modernization of your industrial infrastructure would go a long way towards improving your economy. Cost: 800. Time: One Year. Reward: Modernized Mills, Increased Tax Income.
As has become the norm in your Empire, the crown sets aside funds to subsidize the purchase of new technologies, an investment in the national economy. Dozens of mills replace their water-wheels with Archimedes' new steam engines, significantly increasing productivity and overall efficiency.
While the coal industry is momentarily disrupted by the sudden upswing in demand for fuel for these iron beasts, the rapid exploitation of new deposits allows the market to return to normal, leaving the national economy in a better place than before. Many Imperial citizens have begun to take notice of the benefits of these new devices, and are taking an interest in their use and implementation, further encouraging widespread adoption of this new technology. +200 Tax Income
Learning: Archimedes and Genevieve continue their work as the Empire's top scholars, Archimedes focusing on improvements to the Imperial War Machine while Genevieve focuses on more Domestic improvements. This does not mean that the two do not collaborate and share information, merely that the two Griffons divide the work between them. They are further joined by the Neighponese trio, the Magical Experts you convinced to work for you. (Two Actions per Turn)
-Open Hearth Furnaces: While Genevieve's blast furnaces have revolutionized the field of metallurgy, the scholarly griffoness has been refining her design, incorporating lessons learned from the process, and claims to have an idea for an improved version capable of producing stronger steel in larger batches more efficiently. Naturally she's going to need funds and time in order to see about installing these improvements to the existing metalworking infrastructure. Cost: 800. Time: Two Years. Reward: Increased Tax Income, Decreased Army Recruitment Costs.
Genevieve goes to work, overseeing the improvements to the blast furnaces she designed what seems like so very long ago. The changes are relatively small, in the scheme of things, but the results are predicted to be quite dramatic: a large overall increase in output, and an even greater availability of steel, something that will doubtless prove useful in the future.
After spending several months observing the effects of the modifications on the first furnace, Genevieve has confirmation of her theory, and begins applying the changes en masse to steelmaking facilities across the Empire. It will be some time before the upgrades are finished, but the results will be more than worth the wait. Will Finish Next Turn.
-Movement through Steam: Archimedes and Genevieve have raised the idea of a new form of transportation powered by the new steam engines. The idea is simple: an engine powers the movement of wheels attached to a carriage which will run along tracks much like those of a mine cart. Simple in theory, but they might need some time and funding to work out the flaws in the design and make sure it's actually suitable for real-life use. Cost: 400. Time: One Year. Reward: First Steam Locomotive, New Actions Unlocked.
Archimedes supervises the construction of a "testing range" in an isolated stretch of the wilderness, laying down a series of tracks of varying materials and size. Over the next few months, these tracks play host to a series of metallic monstrosities of different shapes and sizes, prototypes for the new "locomotive", many of which are deconstructed after Archimedes derides them as "inefficient" or "too complex". But, after many months of work, the grey-feathered scholar finally settles on a final design.
It's an...unusual looking thing. It clearly wasn't built with aesthetics in mind. It's also not very fast. You're fairly certain any able-bodied Griffon could outfly the thing with ease. Still, as you watch the steam-belching engine chug along the test track, you can't help but feel that this machine, and others like it, will have a profound effect on your nation and people. First Locomotive Invented.
Intrigue: Ravenburg is busy this year. Between the recently discovered Maretonia, the Den of criminality that is Libertalia, the troubles in Yakyakistan and the constant need to keep an eye on things at home, he has no shortage of work to do and assets to coordinate. (One Action per Turn)
-South of the Brand New Border: You know next to nothing about Maretonia, and that's a problem. Its government, culture, inhabitants, economic and military strength are all things you need to know about if you're going to have any chance of dealing with them...in either sense of the word. Ravenburg's agents have proven adept at infiltrating hostile territory, and until you know otherwise that's what Maretonia is. Cost: 500. Time: One Year. Reward: Information on Maretonia and your Enslaved Citizens. Chance of Success: 65%
Required: 45. Rolled: 95+13+10(Crystal Protectorate Anthem Omake)+15(Steel Night Omake)=133 (Super Crit)
To be Continued in "Awkward First Encounters"
Personal: You refuse to let your duties as Emperor take up every moment of your day. (Two Actions per Turn)
-Keeping up with the Golden-Feathers: Gawain has been rubbing shoulders with the children of the Empire's movers and shakers, making connections that will serve him well later in life. At the risk of being an overbearing parent, it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with those he's been associating with. Purely out a desire to be involved in your son's life, of course. Cost: 0. Time: One Year. Reward: Gawain Interlude, Choice of Childhood Friends and Future Contacts.
To be Continued in "At the Gala"
-Overtime-International Anti-Piracy Force.
Hazard/Random Event Rolls
3 (To be Continued...)
82 (Passed)
Sorry for the delay. Final exams plus the graduation ceremonies have kept me busy, but I'm back and focused on writing up new content.
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- Location
- A house
Eeeey, thanks! Really needed to get over my writers block and that helped. Just think of it as a look at an alternate path for garrick should Dice have not fallen in our favor.
OUR SPIES ARE THE BEST!
007 STATUS BABY
... also, oh shit, a 3 on hazard. why hazard why
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- Location
- sweden
I see that we are keeping the super intrigue tradition alive. Although this time I am really fucking interesting in how this particular (hypothesized) political shit-storm turned out
- Location
- Florida
Our spies continue to be masters of infiltration and scouting, absolutely fantastic.
The three is annoying, but that 82 is great.
I swear if it's not Black it's East and if it's not White it's Up.
Evaunit02mark1
S-s-smell the Prey, S-s-start the Hunt.
Welcome to MLP, where there's an ancient threat under every goddamn rock and a forgotten evil in every grandmother's attic.
Whatever it is we'll stab it. Even if it's the weather, we'll find a way to stab that too.
We're going to keep stabbing our problems until they get the good sense to get the fuck out of our territory.
- Location
- United States of America
It is the year 20 AD and there is only war and the laughter of dice gods
- Location
- Texas
Truly the Griffon way, enemies are far away, stab them with big sticks and metal balls launched through the air, alot of enemies coming at you? blow them up with explosives.
Heaven Canceler
I would like to have a cool title.
- Location
- Austria
Worst case, we just get Hardbeak out of retirement and have him stare angrily at whatever is threatening the nation.
Our new foe should spontaneously explode from the sheer fear.
Our new foe should spontaneously explode from the sheer fear.
- Location
- Syric
and our spies continue to be glorious bastards. I salute these phenomenal men o7
Frozen Flame
Fragment of the Devourer
- Location
- The Darkness Beyond Time
So, does anyone else think we officially qualify for a tsun dice tag now?
In before we manage to contact an Abolitionist revolution movement that immediately goes live at the knowledge that there are two neighboring empires that have very negative feelings over slavery.
EDIT:
It would be just like us that we accidentally cause a civil war that benefits us, at this point.
EDIT:
It would be just like us that we accidentally cause a civil war that benefits us, at this point.
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ChaosTheVoid
Beyond the Outer Gates
Really looking forward to scouring Libertalia with canon fire.
- Location
- Borderworld, Xen
Are spies are secretly Changelings who are working behind the shadows to make us prosper, so that love can bloom and they can feast without worries... ITS ALL A CONSPIRACY I TELLS YOU! A CONSPIRACY!
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Yup, the producers for G4 MLP really stuck to the spirit of G1 MLP.
- Location
- A house
Like really, there should be a mission impossible/007 omake for em, given their continued ASTOUNDING success. I mean, I could try, but I'm not sure I could do it proper justice for the sheer badassery of our spies
Personally I was thinking something more along the lines of The Penguins of Madagascar.