Notes for "Another Piece of Blue"
So, way back when in this post, I outlined for a massive Archanea fic-project dubbed "Tales of the Unified Kingdom," a good-faith effort at showing a positive, if complicated, outcome for the continent after the War of Heroes. The idea first arose from the 'fic "Homecomings," an Abel-centric story that takes place a whopping four decades after the gameplay conclusion of FE3 and which consequently required rather a lot of effort on the world-building front.
I rather liked that world. So, inspired by shimizu_hitomi 's series of interconnected Elibe stories, I decided it wasn't a unforgivable self-indulgence to write a series of 'fics in the same continuity-- though these were primarily post-game 'fics rather than "between the games" stories (though I wrote a couple of those as well). Writing it was a blast, especially when Valencian elements from FE2 got into the mix-- and, ultimately, some cross-references to Jugdral once we had confirmation they were all on the same planet. As far as the characterization went, it was a challenging and frustrating project of grafting two unevenly matched halves-- the characterization from FE11 with the plot of Book Two of FE3-- and I had to make my "best effort" at extrapolating what these characters were and what they ought to become. [And, in light of FE12, apparently I was way off. Oh well.]
Anyway, Abel's misadventures started the ball rolling, but the character I was most interested in pretty quickly became Cain. So while "Homecomings" was one key part of the series, "Another Piece of Blue," which featured Cain struggling to adapt to the post-war era and its realities, was its bookend. I sketched out a whole character arc for him to span a series of three or possibly four stories, though my interest in the later multi-part stories has flagged thanks to OCs and FE12. But APoB, which took more than a year to write, is finally done... and at about 26K words, is about four times the length it ought to have been. Oops.
So. The fic follows about a year and a half of "real time," picking up in the summer of 608 and concluding at the end of 609. During that time, Marth's empire expands from just Altea and Gra (with Grust under temporary occupation) to basically everything on the Archanean world map... and Cain's self-conception as a knight of Altea takes a beating in the process. The narrative goal is to transform Cain from knight to advisor (and as seen in Homecomings, ultimately the Chancellor and the éminence grise of the land), which per FE3 is his future role in Marth's government even if FE12 took that away. And, since Cain doesn't live in a vacuum, the people around him are adapting, too-- from Marth right down to the new generation of knights. In the process, I touched on some of my hot-button hypothetical issues re: Archanea, like "Grust Twins: what gives?" and "So is Elice's school an intentional end-run around Ellerean?" The answers are not necessarily nice answers, but politics are absolutely not nice.
Specific stuff from Chapter Five:
Coinage: Big, big issue in late 17-th century England, to the point where all the currency really was recalled and melted down. See: Newton and the Counterfeiter.
Calendar: Obvious reference to the Julian vs the Gregorian calendar controversy. Resonant for me personally because I've lived for eight years in a household that observes Julian holidays. Also inspired by Hardin's own calendar reform of starting the calendar from his own reign...
Stupid laws: Hey, did you know you can shoot any Scotsman inside the old walls of York as long as you use a bow and arrow? Except on Sundays. And so on.
Catria's salute: Derived from alleged explanation of how the modern military salute evolved from ancient Rome.
"They have come to be Touched...": Actual practice in England up to the reign of Queen Anne. When her predecessor William III arrived in England to take over the place, his reaction to this archaic ritual was pretty much the same as Marth's is here.
Panchaea: Ob ref to Utopia and other, er, utopian works.
Dulcinea: Ob ref to Don Quixote. I imagine young Jagen cut quite the romantic figure in his glory days. As to Jagen and Cain being related... the hair, dude. Spiky hair for the win.
The ending: If you got any "He loved Big Brother" Orwellian vibes from that scene, that was indeed the point.
Also, the line about Grust being too much for a "diffident child"? Yes, that's a total piss-take at the expense of FE!canon Marth.
Well, that was fun. Now what?
I rather liked that world. So, inspired by shimizu_hitomi 's series of interconnected Elibe stories, I decided it wasn't a unforgivable self-indulgence to write a series of 'fics in the same continuity-- though these were primarily post-game 'fics rather than "between the games" stories (though I wrote a couple of those as well). Writing it was a blast, especially when Valencian elements from FE2 got into the mix-- and, ultimately, some cross-references to Jugdral once we had confirmation they were all on the same planet. As far as the characterization went, it was a challenging and frustrating project of grafting two unevenly matched halves-- the characterization from FE11 with the plot of Book Two of FE3-- and I had to make my "best effort" at extrapolating what these characters were and what they ought to become. [And, in light of FE12, apparently I was way off. Oh well.]
Anyway, Abel's misadventures started the ball rolling, but the character I was most interested in pretty quickly became Cain. So while "Homecomings" was one key part of the series, "Another Piece of Blue," which featured Cain struggling to adapt to the post-war era and its realities, was its bookend. I sketched out a whole character arc for him to span a series of three or possibly four stories, though my interest in the later multi-part stories has flagged thanks to OCs and FE12. But APoB, which took more than a year to write, is finally done... and at about 26K words, is about four times the length it ought to have been. Oops.
So. The fic follows about a year and a half of "real time," picking up in the summer of 608 and concluding at the end of 609. During that time, Marth's empire expands from just Altea and Gra (with Grust under temporary occupation) to basically everything on the Archanean world map... and Cain's self-conception as a knight of Altea takes a beating in the process. The narrative goal is to transform Cain from knight to advisor (and as seen in Homecomings, ultimately the Chancellor and the éminence grise of the land), which per FE3 is his future role in Marth's government even if FE12 took that away. And, since Cain doesn't live in a vacuum, the people around him are adapting, too-- from Marth right down to the new generation of knights. In the process, I touched on some of my hot-button hypothetical issues re: Archanea, like "Grust Twins: what gives?" and "So is Elice's school an intentional end-run around Ellerean?" The answers are not necessarily nice answers, but politics are absolutely not nice.
Specific stuff from Chapter Five:
Coinage: Big, big issue in late 17-th century England, to the point where all the currency really was recalled and melted down. See: Newton and the Counterfeiter.
Calendar: Obvious reference to the Julian vs the Gregorian calendar controversy. Resonant for me personally because I've lived for eight years in a household that observes Julian holidays. Also inspired by Hardin's own calendar reform of starting the calendar from his own reign...
Stupid laws: Hey, did you know you can shoot any Scotsman inside the old walls of York as long as you use a bow and arrow? Except on Sundays. And so on.
Catria's salute: Derived from alleged explanation of how the modern military salute evolved from ancient Rome.
"They have come to be Touched...": Actual practice in England up to the reign of Queen Anne. When her predecessor William III arrived in England to take over the place, his reaction to this archaic ritual was pretty much the same as Marth's is here.
Panchaea: Ob ref to Utopia and other, er, utopian works.
Dulcinea: Ob ref to Don Quixote. I imagine young Jagen cut quite the romantic figure in his glory days. As to Jagen and Cain being related... the hair, dude. Spiky hair for the win.
The ending: If you got any "He loved Big Brother" Orwellian vibes from that scene, that was indeed the point.
Also, the line about Grust being too much for a "diffident child"? Yes, that's a total piss-take at the expense of FE!canon Marth.
Well, that was fun. Now what?