BaronNoir
01-04-2005, 08:33 PM
Note : the general style of the story is quite close to the large FFT fanfiction I also posted)
Well, this is some info about a FF (6) project I'm making. Still in the DESIGN phase : no programming have started (I hope to lure some persons with a lot of time to loose into this by making that kind of post). The project Lunenoire is very impressive in term of story and PLANNED battle system. The following post is divided into two part.
Part A is about the STORY. Lunenoire is nothing short of HUGE in that departement, casting a stagerring crew : 25 main characters, 250 playable characters in all (ALL with background and a lot of story) I should also add that our very numerous female characters (more than 150...) are not DOA style : they have normal proportions (still they are quite pretty...) and they have also a very deep background (logical : making 150 characters look different is going to be hard. Easier to make them different with background) The scenario involves five worlds, and a lot of stuff was added :history, towns, city...
Here is, as an example, the storyline for four secondary characters (playable) : Miyuki, Sarah, Malintza, Relm.
Miyuki
Locke is quite close to Miyuki, but not in the way you cold think. Miyuki is Locke�s milk-sister, and they had been raised as brother/sister. Miyuki�s parents were middle class merchants, and they took Locke�s mother as a nurse (The french term, Nourrice, is clearer. It was for breast-feeding Miyuki) Both Miyuki�s parents were involved in one small conspiration and were promptly killed without trial. Locke�s mother, to her credit, did not even ask herself if she had to place Miyuki in an orphanage : she raised her as her own daughter (Note : Both Miyuki and Locke see themselves as brother/sister. No hidden love interest) Like for Locke, she succeeded in making of Miyuki someone that have an overall very high sense of ethic...but a catastrophic respect for the law...Miyuki, like Locke but more than him, always had a deep interest for politics and was an enthousiast member of the Republican underground (immediate note : Republican in the sense that they want a Republic instead of the Old Regime. There was an Old Regime in Kholingen and class-struggle against the Nobles ? We added a lot of stuff...) altought she was not really involved in it...During their teens years, Miyuki and Locke were often making operations together, that Locke called ��treasure hunts�� and Miyuki ��revolutionnary expropriations�� (they were ��liberating�� stuff from the mansions of Nobles) Miyuki was one of the few persons knowing the relation between Rachel and Locke and she had very mixed feelings about it : Miyuki is quite cold-headed, and feared that sooner or later, her brother would have trouble with this, as the Orsanis were not going to let that matter down. Anyway, Miyuki cheered the end of the Old Regime (two years before FF6) and the instauration, with Imperial help, of the Republic. She was in Kholingen during the Second War of the Magi, doing her best to try to cope with various troubles that happened. Her world collapsed one year after FF6, as the Warlords backed various aristocrats from the Old Regime, to coup the Republic...Despite the desperate resistance of the small Republic Army, unoficially commanded by General Chere (ennemy casualties were quite high...The remnants of the Imperial-trained Republic Army eitheir dispersed in the countryside, or were evacuated to Figaro or the Archipel), Kholingen was invaded, and a quite bloody Restauration was put in place, under the control of Orsani. The fall of the Old Regime had been quite bloodless, Nobles being allowed to leave the country with their riches, the ones staying in Kholingen were not prosecuted...This generosity was quite unpayed : the Nobles used their stolen wealth (note : it�s a core element in Miyuki and Locke conception of things that what they took from Nobles, Nobles had take it from the people) and every single person who had Republican sympathies was eitheir killed on the spot, subject to a fake trial, or sent into death camps. The fall of the Republic, the horrible death of many of her friends make Miyuki sees red (Note : In French, ��see red�� (voir rouge) means to be completly outraged by something. I don�t know if the expression exist in English, but there is an quite obvious second sense to it....C�mon...see RED...) She refused to go in Figaro with Locke and C�l�s, staying behind to fight against the Restauration, for the cause of the Revolution : this time, the Nobles would not come back...(The Revolution is much more radical than the previous republican underground, having for key goal of destroying the Nobles power..altought, technically, not the Nobles themselves. Many sympathizers of the Revolution cause have in it a faith that can be only described as almost religous. It�s Miyuki�s case) Miyuki was one of the founding member of the largest underground movement of the Alliance, the A.L.K. (Arm�e Libre de Kholingen/Kholingen Free Army) ALK, after few months of atrocities from the Restauration, quickly become to have the overwhelming support of the Kholingenians, either in rural areas or in the towns (Main cities of Kholingen : Kholingen proper, the coastal towns of Lowian and Cyrene, and the interior towns of Novi-Sad andVyserad) The ALK-I (Interior) fights the Nobles in Kholingen using guerilla warfare (they are partly supplied by airdrops from Alliance bombers) while the ALK-E (Exiled) fights regular operations with other Alliance forces, mostly within the new 7th Infantry Division in the Archipel, made up of Imperial soldiers and foreign volonteers (from Kholingen, but also from Thamassa and Maranda) Miyuki is a prime target for Orsani, as if she is captured, Locke Cole will do anything to save her...thus giving a chance to the Count to kill it�s prime ennemy.
Sarah
The lone child of Kholingenians refugees in Cilicia, Sarah is the heir of a medium seized shipping company. Cilicia being a neutral state, she is able to trade both with the Alliance and the Warlords...Officially. Actually, Sarah is using her contacts with the Alliance to smuggle weapons to the ALK, either by land toward their bases in the High Region, or by sea toward the ports of Lowian or Cyrene. She is extremlly useful to the cause of the Alliance that way...The problem is that, you see, she want to do more for the Alliance...which means, in her mind, doing armed operations against the Nobles. The problem is that, altought she is decently skilled for direct combat, she is much more useful to the ALK as a weapon supplier (Miyuki prefers to have her anti-mechs rifles and mines rather than one more soldier) On the lighter side, Sarah really admire Locke, as many Kholingenian does...She is even, to a certain point, smitten by him (One more time, I have trouble with the exact good English word. The idea is that she is seduced by him, yes, but not in a sexual way...) Still quite young (she is eighteen), Sarah have a lot of enthousiasm and idealism, but lack a bit of caution...On the most serious side, a key element about Sarah is in her origins...You sse, Sarah is an Hasai, the member of an completly harmless (in the sense, they don�t have secret powers or secret plots for world domination) ethny used as scapegoats by various movements that are clearly identified as extrem-right...Not by the Empire, however. In Lunenoire, Imperials are very progressive with inner policies, and have been actually greeted as Liberators in the Archipel and Kholingen (The problem was not that they considered all Humans to be equals, without distinction of origins or gender, which is a very good thing, but the fact that they have a very agressive foreign policy. This leads to a very acute problem : the ennemies of the Empire were in part movements like the Rebels, but also very evil organizations such as the clearly facist Order and Honor, which was ruling the Archipel before the Liberation...For instance, Doma was maybe the ennemy of the Empire, but it also a very backward society. The problem was that the ennemies of the Empire inner politics were counfounded with the ennemies of the Empire expansion. As a result, Order and Honor, the Nobles of Kholingen, Figaro, and Doma gained a lot of political weight after the defeat of most of the Empire. In Lunenoire, there is one Imperial state style in one piece, the Archipel, which makes with Figaro the Alliance) Despite what Ennemy propaganda says, there is almost none physical (apperance) difference between, for instance, a Figarese and a Figarese Hasai. The only clear difference is the cultural background, symbolized by the names. The fact is, since almost all Hasais characters have been submitted to humiliation when they were children, they have a huge tendency, when adult, to accept that heritage, and not hide it...The Old Regime was hard on Hasais (this is why Sarah�s parents emigrated in the nearby Cilicia) but the Restauration is even worse, saying that Hasais are not really Humans, justifying this abomination by the fact that Hasais are massively supporting the ALK and the Alliance(the best commander of the ALK-E is an Hasai too, Marianne, while two of the new main characters, Lara and Kyria, are also of Hasais origins, altought not Kholingenian) Of course, Orsani and the bunch of reactionnaries making up his governement never considered that Hasais had no reasons of support a governement that say openly that it�s perfectly legal to kill an Hasai anytime...Thus, Sarah is sure of having a very painful death, after torture, if she is ever captured by Orsani...
(Note : There is an crystal clear parallelism between Hasais and an Earth concept)
Malintza
As Lunenoire starts, the Figarese Kingdom is under siege, as the Warlords have started an invasion that have taken the Figarese completly by surprise. Numerous small coastal towns, such as H�la, have fallen, and Figaro-South is bessieged, wreaking havoc in Figarese war economy and war production. With no navy, no aircraft, and almost no mechanized forces, the Figarese have however holded up, despite tremendous losses in manpower. With the arrival in the Desert Kingdom of several fighters and bombers squadrons from the Archipel, then of some limited mechanized forces (Mechs and Katiousha style artillery), Figareses forces began at least to hold their ground in front of the Ennemy. There is however a serious problems : the Nobles and the Church. The father and the grand-father of Edgar destroyed the power of the Nobles and the High Clergy with numerous laws (including one called the Concordate) and they are willing to do anything to regain power. Including treason : The noble showcasing that is Shyde, an feudal coming from the inner town of Shydian, on which he have almost total control. Shyde was an Chancellor, and lost all political credit during the reign of Edgar�s father. He prefer to have power as a pupper under the Warlords. He had thus organized a Fifth Column (Note : Fifth Column is a term used in France and Spain for point out traitors or collaborators with nazis or facists during the Spanish Civil War or World War 2...), a conspiration for strike Figarese armies in the back and make certain the victory of the Warlords. King Edgar response was the devastating Operation Sovereign : a perfectly planned action that decapitated once and for all the Fifth Column in Figaro (Sovereign is a very complex political plan including turning out collaborators against each others, deception, intoxication...) Including Shyde, that was immediatly put on trial for high treason in wartime. Edgar was never stopped by considerations of ranks in those matters. No one was really surprised, however, when Edgar did not arrest a very minor conspirator, Malintza, lured by Shyde in his plot...No one can completly be impartial...Malintza�s story starts sixteen years before FF6, as the then Prince Edgar have to leave the Capital for a few days, because of a slight misadventure with a married lady...(Just for let the matters quiet down...) He was supposed to go see one of his aunt (80 years old...) What a surprise, he is not very enthousiast. When, stopping in a remote place, villagers approch him (they see him as a envoy from the Capital) for help, he accept with joy. Alas, the problems of the villagers are serious...but BORING. They have a problem about the local Noble, who refuse to use the 2.5% special taxe on arable land for restore the roof of the municipal church (what an epic quest ! Another thing is that Edgar can also investigate a dark affair of dead sheep, which is nothing less than...an insurance fraud...Very, very epic...) Edgar accept to go see the Noble for that passionating matter. The Noble react in a normal way : he menace to make a trial, he offers a bribe...nothing impressive. But the guy cannot believe that the Capital send someone for a such trivial matter ! He then ask if the (incognito) Prince came for her. Edgar is puzzled, persuaded of having found a slavery net. He say yes, answer evasively, and ends with a some weeks old female baby in the hands. The Noble had the task of ��take care of her�� until someone came to take the girl, Malintza, away. Of course, as Edgar is leaving the place, a couple of guys arrive, from the Capital...Some hours later, the Noble attack the village with his soldiers, for retake Malintza. The villagers counter-attack ends with his mansion burning (for destroying property titles...but also any file that could have lightened Malintza�s background...) Edgar came back to the Capital with Malintza...What was the public reaction when they saw the Prince, which was already known as a ��friend of the ladies��, coming back with an infant girl ? That the mother was certainly one close friend...(Everyone thinks that it�s Edgar the father !) The reaction of the King is officially a scream of outrage...Altought in private, he is delighted, finding his supposed grand-daughter adorable...There is also the fact that for a real king, having heirs is critical. If a King does not have children, it�s lead to wild rumors about the identity of the next king. In Edgar�s case, it�s not very critical, as he have a brother (Note here that Lunenoire�s Figaro is not a fairy tale Kingdom. The father of Sabin and Edgar realized that having two heirs with the same rights for the throne could lead to disaster...He did not use violent methods such as a murder, an accident, or an iron mask. He pushed (discretly) Sabin for an occupation resolving much of the problems : Monk...) but as Sabin can�t have children because of his status, this would be only displacing the problem. With a natural child at only fifteen, no one would ever say that Edgar would be unable to have a direct heir (Figare sucession law, made up of course for Lunenoire, says that any legitimate child can asses to the throne...and to be legitimate, marriage is not even necessary !) Edgar tried to tell to his father the truth, but he only laughed, thinking that Edgar was worried about the mother�s reputation. Edgar realized after a moment that if Malintza passed up as his daughter, she would have a much easier life (as, even if natural, she would be considered as a member of the royal familiy...) For the sake of appearances, the King sent Malintza to her ��real�� father, a little Noble very faithful to the Crown, Valois (Note that Valois, his mother and his sister really took care of Malintza...A strange things was that the luck of the family of Valois in the following years. There was certainly the help of the Crown...but others things too...) But this fooled no one...including Malintza ! However, when she was seven, Edgar tell her the truth, which hurts her a lot. That, basically, he tooks her away from her family. Edgar tried to show to her that the said family was probably planning to sell her at the higgest bidder...(Malintza finely pointed out that according to this story, Edgar was never asked money...) What Malintza�s said made Edgar realize that, yes, he had done something that could be wrong. He was sure that no normal parents would give away their daughter to strangers, that someone would have make enquiries about her...But what if the Noble was really her father, and her only family ? What if there was a normal explanation ? It�s since that time than an idea began to appears in his mind...He had done something wrong to Malintza...He had to correct that. But how ? The traditonnal way was to arrange a marriage with a wealthy heir (more often then not, this turned out as unhappy things...Edgar did not want that for Malintza, which he actually loved as his own daughter ! ) He had a better thing he could do to her...Make her the future Queen of Figaro. For that, he just needed to find a woman willing to play the role of the mother, and sign a couple of paper making her officially his daughter (Nobles would probably not even think to DNA tests...) Two things bothered him, however. First, Edgar felt that, this way, he would be doing something very cheap to his ancestors and the Figarese...Second point, this would be a lie for both him and Malintza...As the politic disturbed the delicate negotiations for a marriage with a foreign princess (and moreover, the very progressive Edgar had not many things in common with the reactionnaries daughters of the Kholingen or Domasian houses...) this question is still not settled currently. Malintza was enlisted in the conspiration because Shyde toyed on her weak point, the fact that she was desperatly wanting to know her true parents...Shyde had a lot of little details about her that make Malintza trust what he says, that her parents had been killed by the Crown (Note here that Malintza have a lot of feelings for Edgar, mixed with anger about the fact he removed her for her family...) Shyde had an excellent reason of knowing this : he is Malintza biological father ! She nevers really entered the conspiration, and never learned anything signifiant...But why Shyde make this complicated plot about her fifteen years ago ? (He wants to use her as a tool for political conquest...) Sure, now, Malintza is priceless (she is an almost offical blood princess...) but she was note in this case fifteen years ago....Shyde could not know that Edgar would adopt her ! The explanation is about the identity of the mother of Malintza, who was seduced, than killed by Shyde after Malintza�a birth...(SHE WAS NOT AN ESPER. SHE WAS NOT AN ESPER. However, the explanation is not natural...) Design wise, Malintza, now sixteen years old, is a astonishingly pretty and smart girl that have a puzzling ability to gain the trust of everyone, including the initially very hostile toward her High Clergy (she was a natural child, the prime target of any sermon against the Crown...)
Night
The Thamassian Insurrection against their pro-Warlord governement was overall a disaster for the Alliance : Thamassa was too far from the Alliance strongholds of the Archipel and Figaro. Alliance�s military aid was thus limited to some airdrops of supplies from bombers. This was not enough to stop the Ennemy, and despite some daring actions, the Alliance could not support their new allies. One of those daring acts was made by Night, a member of the personel of the Archipel Consulate passed into clandestinity. With the help of an handful of Thamassians volounteers, she blowed up on a airstrip several bombers and fighters, an action that gave her the rank of Lieutenant in the Archipel Intelligence. One of the said volounteers was Relm, as this time fourteen...Night admired Relm for her role in the Second War of the Magi, while Relm hoped that with Night, she could do more concret stuff this time that ��just drawings�� (at this time, Relm have very cold relations with her father) In the addition to some Archipel or Figare survivors, several hundreds of Thamassians (including Relm) reached the Archipel in ships or air transports...Night was delighted to present Relm to her family and friends, mostly made out of her little brother, Thierry, also enlisted in Archipel Armed Forces, as a radio...Night have one weakness : she want to become a true heroin. So, she ported herself volonteer for the more risky mission...until she get one, that would be made by a small commando, leaded by her and a friend, Bridget. Night mission was a deep penetration raid in Warlord territory near Albrook, using a long range glider. This means, a way in...but no way out. However, this was not a suicide mission, far from it : Night�s commando had to simply recon a couple of facilities, then gather data on them, either for an air attack using strategic bombers, or for an ground attack made by another commando. Night�s little brother was also volonteer for the ops, a thing that really worried Night... Under her orders, there was also a certain ��specialist of survival in forested terrain��, or a ranger, as you like : Gau (heck, this is certainly a rationalization of his job class) The problem was that Relm, in a very classical FF way, Relm, tired of being treated as a child, decided to join the mission, as a storaway on the glider. Night is completly devastated when she learn of her presence, after the point of no-return : if the ennemy captures her commando, well, this is very bad for her and the Alliance, but if they capture Relm, this is a major psychological blow for the Alliance (she is not really worried about the possibility of Gau being captured, as they are very, very, low) The fact is that Relm is intelligent, full of goowill, but complety inexperienced...Night relation toward Relm, that could make her only chance to do something impressive fails, then cools off considerably...Relm is always put out at the rear, and treated almost as luggage, which considerably insults her. As the commando is nearing Albrook, Fate began to play. Earlier in Lunenoire, a man made an abominable treason that nearly make Terra gone mad : Duran. Terra spared his life because of the some info he gave her, and he fled in Warlord lands...He met Relm when she is with Bridget and Thierry in the streets of a small city near Albrook (Megara) for buying supplies and recon the area (Relm is pretty much unknown, and no one could have recognized her...except persons that have met her in person in the past, like Duran. Night sent her in Megara for...basically, get rid of her while she was making the recon of the objective) However, Relm is not aware of his treason ! She remains very cautious when she see him in the middle of the Ennemy stronghold, however Duran insistance to assist her and the two others, raise a lot of suspicion...and they leave the place quickly. But it�s too late...That bastard of Duran quickly warns the local garrison that there is an Alliance commando in the region, with maybe very big names in it...In that hope, the ennemy deploy everything : artillery, aircraft, mechs, and whole companies of infantry, to completly lock the sector. Things turn bad, really bad. Night�s team is ambushed as they are trying to withdrawn toward the coast...half of them are killed, the other half, including Night and Bridget, captured. The Warlords are furious : instead of getting big ��fishs�� that could have a political weight, they got an handful of no-name soldiers and officers. The survivors are sent to Albrook...Three persons escaped to this fate, however, because they were left behind in Megara in the optic that ��No one would be mad enough to stay in place when we are searching the area...�� The fact, as Night is resisting torture in Albrook, the Ennemy is quite sure that Duran lied about the presence of important Alliance personnel in the commando team, to increase it�s reward, and thus, release it�s pression.The three survivors are Night�s little brother (officially because he was the radio, and thus an non-combattant. Actually, well, it�s pretty obvious), Relm and Gau (the later for serve as bodyguard for the two others) They will be later recuperated by a daring mission made by the Archipel Navy, after some actions that shows that Relm was really more than luggage...But, stills, she is feeling very guilty, as, basically, that�s because of her that the others were captured...And Night�s and Bridget last words toward her were very, very harsh...Night is tortured at Albrook to give info. At first, she hold, but crack down when they start torturing and killing her soldiers in front of her. She talk when it�s the turn of the last one, Bridget. When, months latter, Night is exchanged for another prisonner, her moral is devastated, and she will attempt several time to commit suicide (Bridget�s moral is a bit higher, mostly because she did not talk) And she will really, really, really be hostile toward Relm, as because of her she is now a traitor...
(Hmm...already quite long. Point B), Gameplay, will be posted is someone is interested...)
Well, this is some info about a FF (6) project I'm making. Still in the DESIGN phase : no programming have started (I hope to lure some persons with a lot of time to loose into this by making that kind of post). The project Lunenoire is very impressive in term of story and PLANNED battle system. The following post is divided into two part.
Part A is about the STORY. Lunenoire is nothing short of HUGE in that departement, casting a stagerring crew : 25 main characters, 250 playable characters in all (ALL with background and a lot of story) I should also add that our very numerous female characters (more than 150...) are not DOA style : they have normal proportions (still they are quite pretty...) and they have also a very deep background (logical : making 150 characters look different is going to be hard. Easier to make them different with background) The scenario involves five worlds, and a lot of stuff was added :history, towns, city...
Here is, as an example, the storyline for four secondary characters (playable) : Miyuki, Sarah, Malintza, Relm.
Miyuki
Locke is quite close to Miyuki, but not in the way you cold think. Miyuki is Locke�s milk-sister, and they had been raised as brother/sister. Miyuki�s parents were middle class merchants, and they took Locke�s mother as a nurse (The french term, Nourrice, is clearer. It was for breast-feeding Miyuki) Both Miyuki�s parents were involved in one small conspiration and were promptly killed without trial. Locke�s mother, to her credit, did not even ask herself if she had to place Miyuki in an orphanage : she raised her as her own daughter (Note : Both Miyuki and Locke see themselves as brother/sister. No hidden love interest) Like for Locke, she succeeded in making of Miyuki someone that have an overall very high sense of ethic...but a catastrophic respect for the law...Miyuki, like Locke but more than him, always had a deep interest for politics and was an enthousiast member of the Republican underground (immediate note : Republican in the sense that they want a Republic instead of the Old Regime. There was an Old Regime in Kholingen and class-struggle against the Nobles ? We added a lot of stuff...) altought she was not really involved in it...During their teens years, Miyuki and Locke were often making operations together, that Locke called ��treasure hunts�� and Miyuki ��revolutionnary expropriations�� (they were ��liberating�� stuff from the mansions of Nobles) Miyuki was one of the few persons knowing the relation between Rachel and Locke and she had very mixed feelings about it : Miyuki is quite cold-headed, and feared that sooner or later, her brother would have trouble with this, as the Orsanis were not going to let that matter down. Anyway, Miyuki cheered the end of the Old Regime (two years before FF6) and the instauration, with Imperial help, of the Republic. She was in Kholingen during the Second War of the Magi, doing her best to try to cope with various troubles that happened. Her world collapsed one year after FF6, as the Warlords backed various aristocrats from the Old Regime, to coup the Republic...Despite the desperate resistance of the small Republic Army, unoficially commanded by General Chere (ennemy casualties were quite high...The remnants of the Imperial-trained Republic Army eitheir dispersed in the countryside, or were evacuated to Figaro or the Archipel), Kholingen was invaded, and a quite bloody Restauration was put in place, under the control of Orsani. The fall of the Old Regime had been quite bloodless, Nobles being allowed to leave the country with their riches, the ones staying in Kholingen were not prosecuted...This generosity was quite unpayed : the Nobles used their stolen wealth (note : it�s a core element in Miyuki and Locke conception of things that what they took from Nobles, Nobles had take it from the people) and every single person who had Republican sympathies was eitheir killed on the spot, subject to a fake trial, or sent into death camps. The fall of the Republic, the horrible death of many of her friends make Miyuki sees red (Note : In French, ��see red�� (voir rouge) means to be completly outraged by something. I don�t know if the expression exist in English, but there is an quite obvious second sense to it....C�mon...see RED...) She refused to go in Figaro with Locke and C�l�s, staying behind to fight against the Restauration, for the cause of the Revolution : this time, the Nobles would not come back...(The Revolution is much more radical than the previous republican underground, having for key goal of destroying the Nobles power..altought, technically, not the Nobles themselves. Many sympathizers of the Revolution cause have in it a faith that can be only described as almost religous. It�s Miyuki�s case) Miyuki was one of the founding member of the largest underground movement of the Alliance, the A.L.K. (Arm�e Libre de Kholingen/Kholingen Free Army) ALK, after few months of atrocities from the Restauration, quickly become to have the overwhelming support of the Kholingenians, either in rural areas or in the towns (Main cities of Kholingen : Kholingen proper, the coastal towns of Lowian and Cyrene, and the interior towns of Novi-Sad andVyserad) The ALK-I (Interior) fights the Nobles in Kholingen using guerilla warfare (they are partly supplied by airdrops from Alliance bombers) while the ALK-E (Exiled) fights regular operations with other Alliance forces, mostly within the new 7th Infantry Division in the Archipel, made up of Imperial soldiers and foreign volonteers (from Kholingen, but also from Thamassa and Maranda) Miyuki is a prime target for Orsani, as if she is captured, Locke Cole will do anything to save her...thus giving a chance to the Count to kill it�s prime ennemy.
Sarah
The lone child of Kholingenians refugees in Cilicia, Sarah is the heir of a medium seized shipping company. Cilicia being a neutral state, she is able to trade both with the Alliance and the Warlords...Officially. Actually, Sarah is using her contacts with the Alliance to smuggle weapons to the ALK, either by land toward their bases in the High Region, or by sea toward the ports of Lowian or Cyrene. She is extremlly useful to the cause of the Alliance that way...The problem is that, you see, she want to do more for the Alliance...which means, in her mind, doing armed operations against the Nobles. The problem is that, altought she is decently skilled for direct combat, she is much more useful to the ALK as a weapon supplier (Miyuki prefers to have her anti-mechs rifles and mines rather than one more soldier) On the lighter side, Sarah really admire Locke, as many Kholingenian does...She is even, to a certain point, smitten by him (One more time, I have trouble with the exact good English word. The idea is that she is seduced by him, yes, but not in a sexual way...) Still quite young (she is eighteen), Sarah have a lot of enthousiasm and idealism, but lack a bit of caution...On the most serious side, a key element about Sarah is in her origins...You sse, Sarah is an Hasai, the member of an completly harmless (in the sense, they don�t have secret powers or secret plots for world domination) ethny used as scapegoats by various movements that are clearly identified as extrem-right...Not by the Empire, however. In Lunenoire, Imperials are very progressive with inner policies, and have been actually greeted as Liberators in the Archipel and Kholingen (The problem was not that they considered all Humans to be equals, without distinction of origins or gender, which is a very good thing, but the fact that they have a very agressive foreign policy. This leads to a very acute problem : the ennemies of the Empire were in part movements like the Rebels, but also very evil organizations such as the clearly facist Order and Honor, which was ruling the Archipel before the Liberation...For instance, Doma was maybe the ennemy of the Empire, but it also a very backward society. The problem was that the ennemies of the Empire inner politics were counfounded with the ennemies of the Empire expansion. As a result, Order and Honor, the Nobles of Kholingen, Figaro, and Doma gained a lot of political weight after the defeat of most of the Empire. In Lunenoire, there is one Imperial state style in one piece, the Archipel, which makes with Figaro the Alliance) Despite what Ennemy propaganda says, there is almost none physical (apperance) difference between, for instance, a Figarese and a Figarese Hasai. The only clear difference is the cultural background, symbolized by the names. The fact is, since almost all Hasais characters have been submitted to humiliation when they were children, they have a huge tendency, when adult, to accept that heritage, and not hide it...The Old Regime was hard on Hasais (this is why Sarah�s parents emigrated in the nearby Cilicia) but the Restauration is even worse, saying that Hasais are not really Humans, justifying this abomination by the fact that Hasais are massively supporting the ALK and the Alliance(the best commander of the ALK-E is an Hasai too, Marianne, while two of the new main characters, Lara and Kyria, are also of Hasais origins, altought not Kholingenian) Of course, Orsani and the bunch of reactionnaries making up his governement never considered that Hasais had no reasons of support a governement that say openly that it�s perfectly legal to kill an Hasai anytime...Thus, Sarah is sure of having a very painful death, after torture, if she is ever captured by Orsani...
(Note : There is an crystal clear parallelism between Hasais and an Earth concept)
Malintza
As Lunenoire starts, the Figarese Kingdom is under siege, as the Warlords have started an invasion that have taken the Figarese completly by surprise. Numerous small coastal towns, such as H�la, have fallen, and Figaro-South is bessieged, wreaking havoc in Figarese war economy and war production. With no navy, no aircraft, and almost no mechanized forces, the Figarese have however holded up, despite tremendous losses in manpower. With the arrival in the Desert Kingdom of several fighters and bombers squadrons from the Archipel, then of some limited mechanized forces (Mechs and Katiousha style artillery), Figareses forces began at least to hold their ground in front of the Ennemy. There is however a serious problems : the Nobles and the Church. The father and the grand-father of Edgar destroyed the power of the Nobles and the High Clergy with numerous laws (including one called the Concordate) and they are willing to do anything to regain power. Including treason : The noble showcasing that is Shyde, an feudal coming from the inner town of Shydian, on which he have almost total control. Shyde was an Chancellor, and lost all political credit during the reign of Edgar�s father. He prefer to have power as a pupper under the Warlords. He had thus organized a Fifth Column (Note : Fifth Column is a term used in France and Spain for point out traitors or collaborators with nazis or facists during the Spanish Civil War or World War 2...), a conspiration for strike Figarese armies in the back and make certain the victory of the Warlords. King Edgar response was the devastating Operation Sovereign : a perfectly planned action that decapitated once and for all the Fifth Column in Figaro (Sovereign is a very complex political plan including turning out collaborators against each others, deception, intoxication...) Including Shyde, that was immediatly put on trial for high treason in wartime. Edgar was never stopped by considerations of ranks in those matters. No one was really surprised, however, when Edgar did not arrest a very minor conspirator, Malintza, lured by Shyde in his plot...No one can completly be impartial...Malintza�s story starts sixteen years before FF6, as the then Prince Edgar have to leave the Capital for a few days, because of a slight misadventure with a married lady...(Just for let the matters quiet down...) He was supposed to go see one of his aunt (80 years old...) What a surprise, he is not very enthousiast. When, stopping in a remote place, villagers approch him (they see him as a envoy from the Capital) for help, he accept with joy. Alas, the problems of the villagers are serious...but BORING. They have a problem about the local Noble, who refuse to use the 2.5% special taxe on arable land for restore the roof of the municipal church (what an epic quest ! Another thing is that Edgar can also investigate a dark affair of dead sheep, which is nothing less than...an insurance fraud...Very, very epic...) Edgar accept to go see the Noble for that passionating matter. The Noble react in a normal way : he menace to make a trial, he offers a bribe...nothing impressive. But the guy cannot believe that the Capital send someone for a such trivial matter ! He then ask if the (incognito) Prince came for her. Edgar is puzzled, persuaded of having found a slavery net. He say yes, answer evasively, and ends with a some weeks old female baby in the hands. The Noble had the task of ��take care of her�� until someone came to take the girl, Malintza, away. Of course, as Edgar is leaving the place, a couple of guys arrive, from the Capital...Some hours later, the Noble attack the village with his soldiers, for retake Malintza. The villagers counter-attack ends with his mansion burning (for destroying property titles...but also any file that could have lightened Malintza�s background...) Edgar came back to the Capital with Malintza...What was the public reaction when they saw the Prince, which was already known as a ��friend of the ladies��, coming back with an infant girl ? That the mother was certainly one close friend...(Everyone thinks that it�s Edgar the father !) The reaction of the King is officially a scream of outrage...Altought in private, he is delighted, finding his supposed grand-daughter adorable...There is also the fact that for a real king, having heirs is critical. If a King does not have children, it�s lead to wild rumors about the identity of the next king. In Edgar�s case, it�s not very critical, as he have a brother (Note here that Lunenoire�s Figaro is not a fairy tale Kingdom. The father of Sabin and Edgar realized that having two heirs with the same rights for the throne could lead to disaster...He did not use violent methods such as a murder, an accident, or an iron mask. He pushed (discretly) Sabin for an occupation resolving much of the problems : Monk...) but as Sabin can�t have children because of his status, this would be only displacing the problem. With a natural child at only fifteen, no one would ever say that Edgar would be unable to have a direct heir (Figare sucession law, made up of course for Lunenoire, says that any legitimate child can asses to the throne...and to be legitimate, marriage is not even necessary !) Edgar tried to tell to his father the truth, but he only laughed, thinking that Edgar was worried about the mother�s reputation. Edgar realized after a moment that if Malintza passed up as his daughter, she would have a much easier life (as, even if natural, she would be considered as a member of the royal familiy...) For the sake of appearances, the King sent Malintza to her ��real�� father, a little Noble very faithful to the Crown, Valois (Note that Valois, his mother and his sister really took care of Malintza...A strange things was that the luck of the family of Valois in the following years. There was certainly the help of the Crown...but others things too...) But this fooled no one...including Malintza ! However, when she was seven, Edgar tell her the truth, which hurts her a lot. That, basically, he tooks her away from her family. Edgar tried to show to her that the said family was probably planning to sell her at the higgest bidder...(Malintza finely pointed out that according to this story, Edgar was never asked money...) What Malintza�s said made Edgar realize that, yes, he had done something that could be wrong. He was sure that no normal parents would give away their daughter to strangers, that someone would have make enquiries about her...But what if the Noble was really her father, and her only family ? What if there was a normal explanation ? It�s since that time than an idea began to appears in his mind...He had done something wrong to Malintza...He had to correct that. But how ? The traditonnal way was to arrange a marriage with a wealthy heir (more often then not, this turned out as unhappy things...Edgar did not want that for Malintza, which he actually loved as his own daughter ! ) He had a better thing he could do to her...Make her the future Queen of Figaro. For that, he just needed to find a woman willing to play the role of the mother, and sign a couple of paper making her officially his daughter (Nobles would probably not even think to DNA tests...) Two things bothered him, however. First, Edgar felt that, this way, he would be doing something very cheap to his ancestors and the Figarese...Second point, this would be a lie for both him and Malintza...As the politic disturbed the delicate negotiations for a marriage with a foreign princess (and moreover, the very progressive Edgar had not many things in common with the reactionnaries daughters of the Kholingen or Domasian houses...) this question is still not settled currently. Malintza was enlisted in the conspiration because Shyde toyed on her weak point, the fact that she was desperatly wanting to know her true parents...Shyde had a lot of little details about her that make Malintza trust what he says, that her parents had been killed by the Crown (Note here that Malintza have a lot of feelings for Edgar, mixed with anger about the fact he removed her for her family...) Shyde had an excellent reason of knowing this : he is Malintza biological father ! She nevers really entered the conspiration, and never learned anything signifiant...But why Shyde make this complicated plot about her fifteen years ago ? (He wants to use her as a tool for political conquest...) Sure, now, Malintza is priceless (she is an almost offical blood princess...) but she was note in this case fifteen years ago....Shyde could not know that Edgar would adopt her ! The explanation is about the identity of the mother of Malintza, who was seduced, than killed by Shyde after Malintza�a birth...(SHE WAS NOT AN ESPER. SHE WAS NOT AN ESPER. However, the explanation is not natural...) Design wise, Malintza, now sixteen years old, is a astonishingly pretty and smart girl that have a puzzling ability to gain the trust of everyone, including the initially very hostile toward her High Clergy (she was a natural child, the prime target of any sermon against the Crown...)
Night
The Thamassian Insurrection against their pro-Warlord governement was overall a disaster for the Alliance : Thamassa was too far from the Alliance strongholds of the Archipel and Figaro. Alliance�s military aid was thus limited to some airdrops of supplies from bombers. This was not enough to stop the Ennemy, and despite some daring actions, the Alliance could not support their new allies. One of those daring acts was made by Night, a member of the personel of the Archipel Consulate passed into clandestinity. With the help of an handful of Thamassians volounteers, she blowed up on a airstrip several bombers and fighters, an action that gave her the rank of Lieutenant in the Archipel Intelligence. One of the said volounteers was Relm, as this time fourteen...Night admired Relm for her role in the Second War of the Magi, while Relm hoped that with Night, she could do more concret stuff this time that ��just drawings�� (at this time, Relm have very cold relations with her father) In the addition to some Archipel or Figare survivors, several hundreds of Thamassians (including Relm) reached the Archipel in ships or air transports...Night was delighted to present Relm to her family and friends, mostly made out of her little brother, Thierry, also enlisted in Archipel Armed Forces, as a radio...Night have one weakness : she want to become a true heroin. So, she ported herself volonteer for the more risky mission...until she get one, that would be made by a small commando, leaded by her and a friend, Bridget. Night mission was a deep penetration raid in Warlord territory near Albrook, using a long range glider. This means, a way in...but no way out. However, this was not a suicide mission, far from it : Night�s commando had to simply recon a couple of facilities, then gather data on them, either for an air attack using strategic bombers, or for an ground attack made by another commando. Night�s little brother was also volonteer for the ops, a thing that really worried Night... Under her orders, there was also a certain ��specialist of survival in forested terrain��, or a ranger, as you like : Gau (heck, this is certainly a rationalization of his job class) The problem was that Relm, in a very classical FF way, Relm, tired of being treated as a child, decided to join the mission, as a storaway on the glider. Night is completly devastated when she learn of her presence, after the point of no-return : if the ennemy captures her commando, well, this is very bad for her and the Alliance, but if they capture Relm, this is a major psychological blow for the Alliance (she is not really worried about the possibility of Gau being captured, as they are very, very, low) The fact is that Relm is intelligent, full of goowill, but complety inexperienced...Night relation toward Relm, that could make her only chance to do something impressive fails, then cools off considerably...Relm is always put out at the rear, and treated almost as luggage, which considerably insults her. As the commando is nearing Albrook, Fate began to play. Earlier in Lunenoire, a man made an abominable treason that nearly make Terra gone mad : Duran. Terra spared his life because of the some info he gave her, and he fled in Warlord lands...He met Relm when she is with Bridget and Thierry in the streets of a small city near Albrook (Megara) for buying supplies and recon the area (Relm is pretty much unknown, and no one could have recognized her...except persons that have met her in person in the past, like Duran. Night sent her in Megara for...basically, get rid of her while she was making the recon of the objective) However, Relm is not aware of his treason ! She remains very cautious when she see him in the middle of the Ennemy stronghold, however Duran insistance to assist her and the two others, raise a lot of suspicion...and they leave the place quickly. But it�s too late...That bastard of Duran quickly warns the local garrison that there is an Alliance commando in the region, with maybe very big names in it...In that hope, the ennemy deploy everything : artillery, aircraft, mechs, and whole companies of infantry, to completly lock the sector. Things turn bad, really bad. Night�s team is ambushed as they are trying to withdrawn toward the coast...half of them are killed, the other half, including Night and Bridget, captured. The Warlords are furious : instead of getting big ��fishs�� that could have a political weight, they got an handful of no-name soldiers and officers. The survivors are sent to Albrook...Three persons escaped to this fate, however, because they were left behind in Megara in the optic that ��No one would be mad enough to stay in place when we are searching the area...�� The fact, as Night is resisting torture in Albrook, the Ennemy is quite sure that Duran lied about the presence of important Alliance personnel in the commando team, to increase it�s reward, and thus, release it�s pression.The three survivors are Night�s little brother (officially because he was the radio, and thus an non-combattant. Actually, well, it�s pretty obvious), Relm and Gau (the later for serve as bodyguard for the two others) They will be later recuperated by a daring mission made by the Archipel Navy, after some actions that shows that Relm was really more than luggage...But, stills, she is feeling very guilty, as, basically, that�s because of her that the others were captured...And Night�s and Bridget last words toward her were very, very harsh...Night is tortured at Albrook to give info. At first, she hold, but crack down when they start torturing and killing her soldiers in front of her. She talk when it�s the turn of the last one, Bridget. When, months latter, Night is exchanged for another prisonner, her moral is devastated, and she will attempt several time to commit suicide (Bridget�s moral is a bit higher, mostly because she did not talk) And she will really, really, really be hostile toward Relm, as because of her she is now a traitor...
(Hmm...already quite long. Point B), Gameplay, will be posted is someone is interested...)