FFXII Fic: 20 Things the Late Emperor Left Behind (Larsa, Larsa/Penelo)
If I was to blame for this jubiliant piece, Mithrigil is in turn the inspiration for this! Really, I blame her-- and the apparently terrifying Vulcan mind meld of fic about Older Larsa that we share together. ;)
In any case, this was something I felt that more or less needed to be written. And this is yet another part of The Uses of Enchantment series, though reading the earlier parts aren’t necessary to understand this piece.
And as always, comments, criticism and corrections are always welcome and loved. ♥
Title: 20 Things the Late Emperor Left Behind
Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Series: The Uses of Enchantment
Characters/Pairings: Mostly Larsa gen, some posthumous Larsa/Penelo, Cast
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Every man, especially a great man, leaves behind some imprint of himself within the world.
“A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.” -Jorge Luis Borges
---
20 Things the Late Emperor Left Behind After He Was Gone:
1. First and foremost, 23 words from his eldest son.
“His Majesty has departed for better parts now. Please alert the populace that we are all due a rather interesting change in times.”
2. A rather curious lack of wet eyes among the royal family in the wake of that announcement, except among his grand-children.
The youngest daughter of the late Emperor, having sojourned from her court and medical conclave within Ordalia, spoke dismissively when asked about the lack of grief among the eldest in her family. “What is there to mourn anyway? He was a great emperor and an even greater man and I know that wherever he is now, he will carve his own happiness out.”
3. The once-scandalous and now almost quaint custom of reveling to Dalmascan dances while court is being held. Though often attributed to his late wife, those grand lords and ladies who still recalled the forty-some years of the Emperor’s marriage assured his biographers that the both of them had done their part to popularize them on the dance-floors of the royal palace.
“I didn’t particularly care for her,” one of the eldest ladies of the court recently admitted, “though I’d have to be a complete fool to tell the Majesty-- old and new-- that. No, I thought and still think he could have made a better political match for himself if he wanted such-- or a better looking mistress if he was after that much. But she did make him happy, even if she was a complete ninny when it came to court manners. And the way they used to dance up till the time she fell ill-- well, it was almost enough to make you believe that he could have done worse in choosing a wife after all.”
4. The disappearance of an old retainer, who had remained faithfully by His Majesty’s side for the last of his days but vanished shortly afterwards.
“Perhaps,” another senior judge suggested, any hint of a smile hidden by his helmet, “he and His Majesty merely found themselves treading the same path at the same time. But then, Judge Gabranth always was the most faithful of us all, to both the late Emperor and the Empress. Where they walked, he would eventually follow.”
5. Over 200 new parks, museums and libraries, open to the public with only nominal fees.
His eldest daughter and chief architect had smiled about such when asked about such. “My father always did have a tendency to appreciate public spaces, didn’t he? But then, out of all else in the world, I think he knew how important it was to properly appreciate what beauty we have in us to find, both inward and out.”
6. Even more importantly, over 300 new grade and trade schools throughout the territories of his empire, open to the public as long as they have the talent to do well at them.
The same daughter had beamed even more proudly when asked about such. “Do you not believe that the real might of our empire now lies more within our minds than in our arms?”
7. The words of a Viera beauty whose age could not be discerned by conventional means.
“He always did reach forward to a future that seemed ready to embrace him, did he not?”
8. Over 242 archives worth of papers, containing a total of over 200,000 paper documents, forms, signed notations and treaties detailing a little over five million words altogether.
Anyone who enquires will be told that the clerks of Archades hope to finish sorting and making sense of all and sundry by the time this period is properly considered antiquity.
9. A few scandalous tid-bits from a retired washer-woman who had once worked at the palace while the late Emperor had been a famously uxorious newly-wed.
Apparently, the laundry staff in those days often had to go through his late Majesty’s bed-sheets with concentrated Marlboro-derived bleach to preserve the beauty of the linens he had once laid upon. “I know His Majesty and Her Majesty were just hitched,” the dame later said, “but some of the things they got up to-- dear God! When those two got started, especially after she had just come back from traveling, you knew you had to break the heavy-duty stuff out.”
10. Joyeux and sword-breaker, recently gifted to his eldest grand-son.
“I am,” the boy recently admitted, blushing a bit, “perhaps not as competent at wielding them as I ought to be. I fear that I might do them less honor than they deserve. And yet, given that I am his name-sake, I am honored that they have been passed down to me.”
He looked up and smiled just then.
“Given how wonderful a grand-father he was, how could I not be?”
11. A rather astonishingly large industry of biographers and scholars who still struggle to reconstruct the more intriguing facts about the Emperor’s personal life.
“It’s a pity, however,” one sighed in a recent interview, “that though the late Emperor was a public figure since the age of 12, he proved to be so adept at concealing what he felt ought to be concealed within his private life. Even in his private memoirs, he remains maddeningly unwilling to give any reason other than personal enchantment for why he became so enamored with a young Dalmascan street dancer-- not that I slight the late Empress’ personal charms of course-- before his voice had even broken. What in the world could that be?”
12. The promise of peace for at least a few more generations hence.
“If you think of it carefully,” the new Emperor said, hands lightly resting against his father’s old staff of office, “my father was even more brilliant than most gave him credit for. It was not enough for him to ensure that practically all of Ivalice had been bound in treaties and ties that assured that destruction for one meant a round punishment for all others. No, he went even further and assured that destruction for any of us meant an even worse economic drubbing for all of us, considering how interdependent our economies are now. Rulers might gladly sacrifice their people for further power but their pocket-books are risked far less often!”
13. Three famous lines from a love-letter sent to his wife on one of her first diplomatic trips abroad:
“You move me, deeply; you move me, gravely; you move me as no other on earth could ever harbor the hope to do so, either in this world or thereafter. You move me, love, till I know not when I face north and when I face south, since I always find myself looking toward where you are. Tell me that you shall come back as soon as you can-- it shall not do to expire of longing now that I’ve finally won the right to touch you anytime I like.”
14. Three even more famous lines from the letter back:
“Larsa, what am I supposed to do with a man as sweet and strange as you? I suppose I’m just going to have to fly back as fast as this rickety old air-ship can manage. After all, you’re perfectly right-- I can’t have you die now that I finally won the right to have you anytime I like!”
15. The subsequent conversation among his children.
“Does this mean we’ll have to start revising the original ‘No patricide, no matricide, no regicide, no genocide’ revision to our coat of arms?”
“Ah, I think we ought to just leave it. With all the in-breeding we’re still doing, our own children might need the reminder in the future.”
16. From the grave of his wife:
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
17. From his own marker:
"Who knows of what dreams will come when we leave this body?"
18. The following comment from an old friend, otherwise known as the Dread Pirate Ratsbane:
“Bah, the old bastard always did know how to go out with a bang, didn’t he? Too bad he always had to drag my best friend along.”
19. Curiously enough, not his wedding ring.
20. And finally, the nagging suspicion of some of the highest in Ivalice that the funereal services rendered to him might have been a tad embellished, when all was said and done.
“You do realize,” Queen Ashelia of Dalmasca said when prompted, “that His Majesty always did like keeping a few tricks up his sleeve, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if, perhaps, the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.”
She tapped her staff of office almost gently against the floor of her court.
“Oh no, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”
---
And a few attributions that need to be made:
"...What dreams will come when we leave this body?" -William Shakespeare
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.” -Lao-Tzu
And finally, the idea of Vaan being the Dread Pirate Ratsbane is yoinked from the ever-excellent Mithrigil. I thieve from her with much audacity now!
In any case, this was something I felt that more or less needed to be written. And this is yet another part of The Uses of Enchantment series, though reading the earlier parts aren’t necessary to understand this piece.
And as always, comments, criticism and corrections are always welcome and loved. ♥
Title: 20 Things the Late Emperor Left Behind
Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Series: The Uses of Enchantment
Characters/Pairings: Mostly Larsa gen, some posthumous Larsa/Penelo, Cast
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Every man, especially a great man, leaves behind some imprint of himself within the world.
“A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.” -Jorge Luis Borges
---
20 Things the Late Emperor Left Behind After He Was Gone:
1. First and foremost, 23 words from his eldest son.
“His Majesty has departed for better parts now. Please alert the populace that we are all due a rather interesting change in times.”
2. A rather curious lack of wet eyes among the royal family in the wake of that announcement, except among his grand-children.
The youngest daughter of the late Emperor, having sojourned from her court and medical conclave within Ordalia, spoke dismissively when asked about the lack of grief among the eldest in her family. “What is there to mourn anyway? He was a great emperor and an even greater man and I know that wherever he is now, he will carve his own happiness out.”
3. The once-scandalous and now almost quaint custom of reveling to Dalmascan dances while court is being held. Though often attributed to his late wife, those grand lords and ladies who still recalled the forty-some years of the Emperor’s marriage assured his biographers that the both of them had done their part to popularize them on the dance-floors of the royal palace.
“I didn’t particularly care for her,” one of the eldest ladies of the court recently admitted, “though I’d have to be a complete fool to tell the Majesty-- old and new-- that. No, I thought and still think he could have made a better political match for himself if he wanted such-- or a better looking mistress if he was after that much. But she did make him happy, even if she was a complete ninny when it came to court manners. And the way they used to dance up till the time she fell ill-- well, it was almost enough to make you believe that he could have done worse in choosing a wife after all.”
4. The disappearance of an old retainer, who had remained faithfully by His Majesty’s side for the last of his days but vanished shortly afterwards.
“Perhaps,” another senior judge suggested, any hint of a smile hidden by his helmet, “he and His Majesty merely found themselves treading the same path at the same time. But then, Judge Gabranth always was the most faithful of us all, to both the late Emperor and the Empress. Where they walked, he would eventually follow.”
5. Over 200 new parks, museums and libraries, open to the public with only nominal fees.
His eldest daughter and chief architect had smiled about such when asked about such. “My father always did have a tendency to appreciate public spaces, didn’t he? But then, out of all else in the world, I think he knew how important it was to properly appreciate what beauty we have in us to find, both inward and out.”
6. Even more importantly, over 300 new grade and trade schools throughout the territories of his empire, open to the public as long as they have the talent to do well at them.
The same daughter had beamed even more proudly when asked about such. “Do you not believe that the real might of our empire now lies more within our minds than in our arms?”
7. The words of a Viera beauty whose age could not be discerned by conventional means.
“He always did reach forward to a future that seemed ready to embrace him, did he not?”
8. Over 242 archives worth of papers, containing a total of over 200,000 paper documents, forms, signed notations and treaties detailing a little over five million words altogether.
Anyone who enquires will be told that the clerks of Archades hope to finish sorting and making sense of all and sundry by the time this period is properly considered antiquity.
9. A few scandalous tid-bits from a retired washer-woman who had once worked at the palace while the late Emperor had been a famously uxorious newly-wed.
Apparently, the laundry staff in those days often had to go through his late Majesty’s bed-sheets with concentrated Marlboro-derived bleach to preserve the beauty of the linens he had once laid upon. “I know His Majesty and Her Majesty were just hitched,” the dame later said, “but some of the things they got up to-- dear God! When those two got started, especially after she had just come back from traveling, you knew you had to break the heavy-duty stuff out.”
10. Joyeux and sword-breaker, recently gifted to his eldest grand-son.
“I am,” the boy recently admitted, blushing a bit, “perhaps not as competent at wielding them as I ought to be. I fear that I might do them less honor than they deserve. And yet, given that I am his name-sake, I am honored that they have been passed down to me.”
He looked up and smiled just then.
“Given how wonderful a grand-father he was, how could I not be?”
11. A rather astonishingly large industry of biographers and scholars who still struggle to reconstruct the more intriguing facts about the Emperor’s personal life.
“It’s a pity, however,” one sighed in a recent interview, “that though the late Emperor was a public figure since the age of 12, he proved to be so adept at concealing what he felt ought to be concealed within his private life. Even in his private memoirs, he remains maddeningly unwilling to give any reason other than personal enchantment for why he became so enamored with a young Dalmascan street dancer-- not that I slight the late Empress’ personal charms of course-- before his voice had even broken. What in the world could that be?”
12. The promise of peace for at least a few more generations hence.
“If you think of it carefully,” the new Emperor said, hands lightly resting against his father’s old staff of office, “my father was even more brilliant than most gave him credit for. It was not enough for him to ensure that practically all of Ivalice had been bound in treaties and ties that assured that destruction for one meant a round punishment for all others. No, he went even further and assured that destruction for any of us meant an even worse economic drubbing for all of us, considering how interdependent our economies are now. Rulers might gladly sacrifice their people for further power but their pocket-books are risked far less often!”
13. Three famous lines from a love-letter sent to his wife on one of her first diplomatic trips abroad:
“You move me, deeply; you move me, gravely; you move me as no other on earth could ever harbor the hope to do so, either in this world or thereafter. You move me, love, till I know not when I face north and when I face south, since I always find myself looking toward where you are. Tell me that you shall come back as soon as you can-- it shall not do to expire of longing now that I’ve finally won the right to touch you anytime I like.”
14. Three even more famous lines from the letter back:
“Larsa, what am I supposed to do with a man as sweet and strange as you? I suppose I’m just going to have to fly back as fast as this rickety old air-ship can manage. After all, you’re perfectly right-- I can’t have you die now that I finally won the right to have you anytime I like!”
15. The subsequent conversation among his children.
“Does this mean we’ll have to start revising the original ‘No patricide, no matricide, no regicide, no genocide’ revision to our coat of arms?”
“Ah, I think we ought to just leave it. With all the in-breeding we’re still doing, our own children might need the reminder in the future.”
16. From the grave of his wife:
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
17. From his own marker:
"Who knows of what dreams will come when we leave this body?"
18. The following comment from an old friend, otherwise known as the Dread Pirate Ratsbane:
“Bah, the old bastard always did know how to go out with a bang, didn’t he? Too bad he always had to drag my best friend along.”
19. Curiously enough, not his wedding ring.
20. And finally, the nagging suspicion of some of the highest in Ivalice that the funereal services rendered to him might have been a tad embellished, when all was said and done.
“You do realize,” Queen Ashelia of Dalmasca said when prompted, “that His Majesty always did like keeping a few tricks up his sleeve, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if, perhaps, the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.”
She tapped her staff of office almost gently against the floor of her court.
“Oh no, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”
---
And a few attributions that need to be made:
"...What dreams will come when we leave this body?" -William Shakespeare
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.” -Lao-Tzu
And finally, the idea of Vaan being the Dread Pirate Ratsbane is yoinked from the ever-excellent Mithrigil. I thieve from her with much audacity now!