Trust me, it'll feel like day has broken when we're done here.
Here is Phoenicis Hall, as distinguished from Kilvas's place by... slightly different mountainous terrain.
Nealuchi has made his way here to tell Tibarn about Reyson's plight.
And begs Tibarn for aid.
From Tibarn's point of view, a very good question. Naesala should be just as worried about Reyson as Nealuchi is (well, accounting for Nealuchi's personality).
Nealuchi doesn't have a good answer. Very concerning.
Janaff gets angry. Among the hawk trio, Janaff is by far the most impulsive and hot-blooded.
Tibarn is more restrained, but if you get him too angry, he's also a lot more powerful...
Very reassuring.
Generally true, but he did cast that spell at the end of the last chapter. Not that it... should have hurt, but details.
Nealuchi talked too long.
Ulki doesn't like talking much. If both he and Janaff have a line to say, Ulki's is going to be much shorter. He is a good listener, though.
This is pathetic.
If I were Naesala, I would be extremely terrified right now.
You're not helping your case, Nealuchi.
I think this was the plan. No matter the price, I don't see Naesala letting this stand forever.
But you try telling Reyson that. Reyson would hold Naesala down while Tibarn tore him wing from wing. Assuming he was physically capable of that.
Nealuchi continues begging.
Ah, to be a Kilvas raven. Even the fandom, with their external lens on the situation, hasn't figured out what's going on in Kilvas.
Nealuchi gives this "helpful" clue.
Nealuchi reminds Tibarn to keep his eyes on the prize. Mostly as a means of deflecting from Naesala.
Not that it'll do him much good.
Naesala doesn't have super-hearing like Ulki, but I'd be very much ruining my cool leather jacket with terror right about now.
As generally unpleasant as Naesala and Kilvas are, Nealuchi is still an old man and Janaff doesn't like being mean to him that much.
Oh yeah, Janaff and Ulki's super senses. Janaff can see basically anything he wants and Ulki can hear anything he wants. The logistics of how this works gets smoothed over, but Tibarn has some good men here. Caineghis mentioned "Phoenicis spies" earlier, but honestly, if Tibarn wanted to know anything about Gallian politics, these two could find out in a day without leaving Phoenicis.
Tibarn is not going to let any more suffering happen to the herons.
Meanwhile, Soren woke up early. When I put it like that...
It's Ike who woke up early.
This mission has been taking them forever, and Ike wants it over with. And we haven't even started!
Tanas has been prowling Serenes too. That's concerning. Well, not really, we can take him.
We covered basically all the forest in two days? OK, I guess I can buy that.
Eeyup.
Look at all that cash from selling miscellaneous goods and Sanaki's own pay packet. If I wasn't concerned about keeping stocked (which I probably shouldn't be), we could go find out what Volke's been hiding! I think I want a little more cash before I splurge on that, though.
Today in Supports, we get Jill/Lethe B. I think Jill's gotten a Support every mission here in Begnion.
I find "look what the cat dragged in" really hilarious in the context of Tellius. I hope Lethe takes every opportunity she possibly can to use this.
Lethe doesn't feel particularly generous to Jill after last time.
Jill has been thinking about what Lethe said, though.
Trying to reconcile it with the things she was taught growing up.
And Lethe calls her fundamental education garbage.
I think Lethe has done one too many "maulings in self defence" to feel much of a catharsis anymore. Maybe with the really awful ones...
For Jill, though, that's just been a way of life. And why should she have questioned it? Most real people have grown up believing werewolves are monsters by nature- well, ignoring the whole "werewolves aren't real" thing.
Jill's realising she's wrong now, though.
...Baby steps.
About my reaction.
Jill's curious about why beorc and laguz have to fight so much.
For what it's worth, the answer is apparently the latter. The lategame exposition kinda sidesteps fully explaining why the conflict started. And honestly, probably the better for it, otherwise we'd be basing our opinions on the race to land the first blow. And arguing which one it technically was.
Whatever started the conflict, the beorc have currently committed so many crimes that how the laguz treat them pales in comparison.
Lethe is about to give a history lesson. Surprising we get something like this from a B Support with Lethe. I feel like Mist and Lethe's Supports with Jill are intended to be required reading, or at least as accessible as Three Houses's Supports are. Shame about the mechanic as it currently works preventing that.
All nations of Tellius seceded from Begnion at some point during numbered history except Goldoa. Crimea, of course, is the only one that did so peacefully.
...Also, that's a huge wording choice I almost missed: "[back] when Begnion was still a monarchy". I think the idea is that Begnion is now a theocracy (I don't get the hype, it feels like basically the same thing). For what it's worth, the Japanese line ベグニオンがまだ 帝国ではなく、王国だった頃 (roughly "when it was a kingdom and not an empire") means about as much to me on a political minuate level. To be honest, it stunk then and it stinks now.
Goldoa does as Goldoa does best. This reclusiveness is Deghinsea's stubborn legacy on Tellius today and it looks like he hasn't changed his spots in centuries.
It was a short-lived peace in a long and bloody history.
So far, what's been gone over does come up again in Radiant Dawn, from another source. This part is the one thing that the Radiant Dawn version disagrees with. First of all, it's Begnion, it was a woman that was appointed to the top spot, and she went by Empress. Second of all, her reign was not particularly demonstrated to have been taken over by the laguz- perhaps a few of the Empress's personal laguz friends chipped in, but it's not like the laguz kinda exercised all her power for her.
This is where the Radiant Dawn version stops and the history that's largely confined to the artbooks and here begins. Of course, it's the goddess-forsaken senators. Lethe is ahead of her time and implying that the apostle didn't have a hand in this decision.
How did this happen? Was there a revolution in beorc weapons' technology between the goddess's time and this sudden uprising? Or did the beorc craft their plans so keenly that all the laguz royals were overpowered before they had fully comprehended war were declared? I feel like this moment defined a huge shift in the power dynamic of beorc and laguz.
For this leg of history, there were two types of laguz: slaves and "wild" laguz. With citation needed on the latter. Also Goldoa, of course, but Deghinsea wouldn't move if you told him his cloak was on fire.
Laguz slavery lasted 200 years. There are around 650 numbered years and the goddess left this world less than 800 years ago. That is a huge chunk of Tellius history here.
And the laguz escaped by going to the places beorc didn't want to, or couldn't reasonably be expected to, go.
And even then, the Senators still speak of the laguz nations with an asterisk.
Have you ever felt the weight of Tellius on you as thick as this?
Either it's too embarassing for humans or it's not worth mentioning. When was the last time you heard about your nation's embarassments in school?
Jill is appropriately gobsmacked.
Lethe continues to not have the patience for her blathering.
Unfortunately, due to how my Supports are going to be built, Lethe/Jill is going to end here. The A Support will still be in the supplementary posts, though.
Jill's just reeling.
We also got this. I think we could use a breather.
"And all the battles we've been fighting in together."
Welcome to Ilyana Supports.
I think "why don't you see a priest" is supposed to be taken as the equivalent of "why don't you see a doctor" today. You could probably make some extrapolations about the nature of Tellius's healthcare system from this one off line in a comedy support.
Ilyana says something worth screenshotting!
Mia doesn't believe it, though. If I saw a girl walking around like Ilyana does and she told me her doctor says nothing's wrong with her, I'd tell her to find a new doctor too.
It seems like Mia's not going to press too much further. Not sure what Rhys has had to say aboout this situation, though.
We can't keep her unaccompanied for five seconds...
Kinda cute, though. This side of Mia doesn't really come out... anywhere else, so I guess that's something Ilyana does for her.
Three Info conversations today, and... one of them's Jill. I wonder whether we're supposed to watch the Info first or the Jill/Lethe Support first. Let's watch the Info now, though.
Let's assume Jill has been standing there gobsmacked since Lethe left the conversation. How long it's been since then is to your discretion.
Ike is wondering why Jill is still here, since she's been free to go back to Daein for three chapters now.
He has some concerns about whether he can trust her.
Jill starts going over her backstory.
And why would she? She might not be a princess, but she clearly wanted for nothing.
Who's ready for the evils of propaganda?
Seems a little extreme for pre-schoolers.
So, probably the people Tormod saves and who don't decide to hang around him.
Ike seems rather disappointed with this idea.
But how was she supposed to know that was an option? At no point had she ever had reason to consider that perhaps what the teacher's been telling her is a pack of lies.
Yeah, Shipless Pirates'll do that.
"If there is one good laguz, could there be more? How are these laguz-as-people the same as the sub-humans I was taught to hate? How much of my life is a lie?"
Jill's hoping to learn from Ike and the laguz he's brought along.
Imagine the Jill from Chapter 12 being told she's going to continue to be cared for by these Crimeans. Especially the adorable little girl, who's going to sit her down and not move until she has eaten.
So where does Jill stand?
Jill has seen enough. She doesn't want to go back to being another Daein soldier.
Jill called the laguz "sub-human" twice in Lethe Support, and "laguz" zero times. I think this was supposed to come second after all.
Jill can't trust someone to teach her right and wrong the second time. It worked so well the first time.
And glad to hear it. We've invested too heavily in her.
You're very welcome, Jill.
So about that servant with the Relevant Information...
A priest has come to talk to us about our mission.
He used to work for Tanas himself. "Used to" being an important note there.
He even got taken into the Serenes Forest himself!
What does Oliver think he's summoning? Yeesh on the "chaste maiden" thing, but at least Oliver is the sort of man likely to leave them chaste on the way out.
Yeah, not bloody likely.
Well, not natural for normal people. Par for the course for Tanas.
A lot of people have the opinion that defying the apostle is a crime against nature unto itself. It's probably Sanaki's best shield against the Senate.
Thank you, good man. Anyway, about his advice, the forest is divided into four sections.
And it's all marshy and progress-slowing and such. Not everywhere, thankfully, this isn't a desert map with another coat of paint.
We won't get to resupply between each map. All we get are the ability to kit out two reinforcements, and spoilers, we won't be using those at all.
I think this is mostly about lore advice, with how samey the Forest is.
They say this as a warning, but those are mainly the units he uses most. We'll see how effective they are in time.
Now then, time to talk about the Serenes Massacre for a little bit- this is going to be a bit of a theme this mission, what with looking for one of the few survivors and all.
Begnion may have a genocide on its hands, but at least it knows that burden and its people are desperate to repent. How does one repent for a drunken genocide, though? That's not a question that I think anyone can answer.
There are a lot of ways that "helped" could be applied to this situation. I don't imagine many of them worked for him.
We will talk at great length about exactly this a long time in the future. But oh man, does Tellius have quite the thing to say about the people who are frightened by the Senators and remain silent.
This poor fellow, though, probably couldn't do much if he spoke up. Well, not alone, at any rate.
You can count on us.
Oh, and we recruited this guy last map. Devdan is... well, if there was ever a walking argument against the themes of this game, it would be this peculiar chap.
Ike isn't sure what to expect from him.
Ike, for some reason, is kinda insistent on his rank? Not something I expected from Ike.
I feel like Devdan is sassing Ike back with the way he says "Commander".
Ike doesn't have much to say about Devdan's gardening, though.
Which upsets Devdan.
Devdan prefers it when people are passionate about the finer things. It leads to one of the worst Supports in the series.
This quote, though? I feel like this quote summarises the entire point of this blog. It hit me right in the gut.
Devdan speaks in the third person. Doesn't reflect well on the writers, regardless of why they chose to write him that way.
Ike hasn't been Captain Commander Serious forever. Well, so he says. Not that we see much of this side of him.
Devdan hits him with this, though.
This is probably important for Ike to adopt before he works himself to death. I never thought I'd be afraid of Ike working himself to death.
Devdan leaves the conversation because he's Devdan and he's not bound to such niceties. I thought that was Stefan's thing.
Now these are some levels. Astrid needed a good one after last map. Everyone else is just being nice.
Jill and Astrid are the last two promotions we need to deal with, and Astrid has Paragon, so Jill might as well use this.
That is... a promotion, yep! The armour is obviously different, even if we'll only really see the head armour in practice. I'm not fond of the wyvern's new pose, though. It looks like it's drying its nails.
These, though, much better.
Wyvern Lords gain Axes as a subweapon, and I intend for Jill to switch to them completely. But it seems I don't have any Hand Axes left, and Muston isn't selling them this mission.
But Daniel is!
Might as well. Fix up the accuracy and make it hit a little harder.
If Jill is going to continue to stand at our side, this axe shall represent the bonds that have brought her thus far.
Now then, this mission is going to be a long one. So long that the interface started yelling at me for too many images if I did it all in one go. So it looks like we're cutting it in three! Hope you enjoyed those base conversations, though.
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