one more that's tangentially worldbuiilding but in teh way where sometimes your worldbuilding can be solved just by looking at characters you already have and extrapolating. just like as the author making connections that feel right, which is less fun than doubling down on "the world was made by this asshole and he would make the world like this" but still a useful writing exercise, i guess,
or: musings about giving ywkon's tethe'alla a ruling body that isn't just a monarchy, and musings on blades who can see the future, and the way that puzzle all fits
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step 1: (i am not going to turn aap into an original work, BUT) so it's kind of boring that ywkon tethe'alla is just handwaved oh yeah it's a kingdom. like. just thinking full force about the worldbuilding post that's like okay if your world does not have sexism or homophobia then that needs to be reflected in the systems in which your world is run by, you can't just blindly instate a patriarchy
(which, to be fair, i think tethe'alla's is a monarchy, meaning that the gender of who is on the throne is irrelevant, but, monarchies are still boring and i haven't put any thought into it at all)
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step 2: even if i go with a monarchy or something like the japanese empire, in which you are ruling by Divine Right, i already know how the people in ywkon generally think of the divine, and it's... with Blades as the architect's tools, they aren't going to just sit back and take "because i said i have the divine right to rule, that's why", so i must involve a blade in the process
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step 3: there are actually many potential options here, but let's start with the first one and why it has its problems. siimply going for "only the royal family can resonate* with the royal blade, and that resonance is proof of their right to rule" sounds great! but ywkon has a few hiccups on this front, mainly that like
*resonate = implied the physical ability to resonate with the blade, and unlike xc2 - which limits resonance to only the strong... willed... ??? - ywkon has no real qualms about who can resonate with blades. there are sometimes people who can't, but it's much rarer than people who can.
"but can't you just go 'oh well the fact that basically anyone could resonate with the blade is part of the intrigue, like, obviously this doesnt make the royal family special, they aren't chosen, anyone could do that, ther'es probably a huge scandal about it once where a serving girl resonated with the royal blade and they had to pretend she was a bastard heir or something'" and honestly that is like, that could be fun
but we have to consider how much - in ywkon proper, in ywkon1 proper - how much emphasis is placed on seles and zelos, how much emphasis is placed on seles being hte first person in ten or nearly twenty years who could finally resonate with their aegis, and then we have something that is... similar in style and chafing against each other, in a bad way
and no this cannot be fixed by making the royal blade and the aegis the same blade - not without a massive upheaval of plot and setting - because 1) zelos is simply so very young in terms of the history of this country, and if this lore adjustment is for aap ANYWAY, then who the hell is in charge of the country who is commissioning scientists to create zelos? it's not the person driving zelos, because zelos doesn't exist yet
2) the point of the aegis and the aegis' driver is to be used, or to be used as leverage against the aegis, given that the only way an aegis can be used for massive destruction in ywkon is to make them a battery of a war machine, which they are unlikely to do willingly (unless their driver is very convincing and they love their driver very much, but the having memories of previous lifetimes really puts a damper on that one) and anyway the point of this is, while a country has been built on ideals that start and end at "she controls the magic nuke of a person, so she gets to be in charge!" this is directly counter to how the artificial aegises are explored in ywkon already, and i'm not about to throw that out
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step 4: okay, so, "she was able to resonate with the royal blade, that makes her queen" isn't the solution, then how ARE you involving a blade in the process of a country creating a long-standing tradition for choosing a ruler?
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step 5: blades do not remember, none save the aegises, but ah. aap introduces blades who have foresight, blades who can see the future. perhaps we just double down on that? a blade - who is the tool of god, and thus the tool of humanity, who are god's children - who has the power to see into the future, a blade who can - through this power of "prophecy" - create a line of succession. they know who is next in line because they have Seen the future, already, and they have Seen who their next driver will be,
settled conclusion, for now: a country that chooses its next ruler based solely on the ability of a blade to forsee them into a self-fulfilling prophecy
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step 6: let's pause a second to create a title for this ruler and their blade. I'm going with [The Wisdom], which perhaps is a term that doubles down on considering the blade and driver to be one unit, but realistically i know where the bigotry in this society is, and i know that it is "you want a blade to be on equal footing with its driver? lol. lmao.", so probably [The Wisdom] is the human ruler, and the blade is called [The Seer] - though I think I joked to myself briefly about the blade's name being Atlas
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step 7: get lost in the sauce of the societal implications before we even finish the actual thought process i was trying to recapture here. okay. if i am trying to fit in this new system of a ruler with what i have already written - trying to fit it into the continuity, so to speak - then i need to remember that 1) sylvarant is generally much more lax about blades being a separate unit from their drivers. i wrote that though they are not allowed to get college degrees, they can at least attend any classes they want, while tethe'alla won't let a blade into a class unless their driver is also taking it 2) so, this is the point where i really have to double down on tethe'alla being a strict Blades Are The Property Of Their Drivers, which must also apply to the ruler of the country
meaning that yes, of course, the idea is that the Seer (the blade) tells their visions to their driver, the Wisdom, and it is the Wisdom that shares the knowledge with their people. The Seer is not meant to speak to others - or at least not meant to share prophecies with anyone other than their driver. They are kept on a tight leash, and honestly you mostly refer to them as The Wisdom and their blade, which is the tool with which they see the future. you know? stuff like that.
atlas' name has been forgotten by all but themself - blades, at least, could never forget their own name - and the [Seer] title has nearly been forgotten, as well,
The Wisdom rules tethe'alla, with their blade as the divine means of ensuring we stay on a path to a brighter future.
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step 8: now remember to bring this back around. this is a proposed ruler for a theoretical rewrite of aap. atlas, the seer, who knows the future, and knows what path the universe is hurtling towards - the reunion of anna and kratos' souls, which have been separated for centuries. the birth of a boy named lloyd. the way lloyd will liberate blades. of course atlas, the seer, the forgotten, who does not remember being used as a tool for centuries but has the historical records to tell them that their life has never been anything but this, churning out prophecies for tethe'alla to follow... of course atlas sees lloyd and colette and zelos liberating all of bladekind, and atlas knows ah, yes, this is the future we want
or, at least, this is the future that i want.
and so atlas says to the driver, i have a new prophecy. we must create artificial aegises, to match the power of god himself. we must, if our future is going to be shining, and bright,
and the Wisdom, who cares about a better future for their people, but also thinks having the nukes functional again sounds like a GREAT idea given their constant war with neighboring country sylvarant, goes yes, of course, we shall see that it is so
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step 9: remember to bring it all the way back around. atlas is not the only blade with foresight. mythra has it. mythra, the first artificial blade with resonance, the grad student's thesis project, proof of concept, miracle made
mythra, who can see the future. some gifts that blades have are random happenstance. perhaps, this time, mythra's foresight was not.
perhaps, though not officially part of the thesis work - their thesis was about creating an artificial blade at all - perhaps klaus and galea knew that their country was ruled by the Wisdom and their blade that saw the future, and went, surely seeing the future is not divinely blessed upon this single person. surely they are full of shit, because i don't think god is that big of a deal anyway, and i don't think he was specifically making prophecies to lead us to war, or that he is specifically sending this one blade the divinely ordained path to the future, that's insane.
they're scientists. they tinker. they play. they study.
mythra's foresight is not strong. it's a little party trick, a little warning; the ability to see the next move in battle before it hits you. the ability to catch a mug before it hits the ground, when no one saw it fall. the ability to know that someone is coming who needs to not hear you having this converastion, so you shut up and change tact.
but mythra does have foresight. she can see the future. surely it is not divine blessing alone on the Wisdom of their country.
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step 10: take a moment to feel pleased with how all the puzzle pieces slot together.
these things didn't NEED to connect, but they do, and isn't that wonderful? how another facet to consider god, the divine, the future, has been added into the narrative?
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step 11: remember alvis.
alvis, whose whole existence is - yes, a bit more insurance to get them out of house arrest - alvis, whose whole existence is another proof of concept. alvis, who has better foresight than mythra by far, whose knowledge of the future is vast and possibly complete.
alvis, whose name comes from Norse, meaning all wise.
remember that you decided that the title of tethe'alla's ruler would be [Wisdom], and have a good laugh.
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so that's the punchline of this post, but for posterity, i am rotating a scene as such
>the Wisdom visits the scientists in aap, to see how the artificial aegis project is going, (and, of course, the Wisdom goes nowhere without their blade)
>Atlas, the Seer, the forgotten, who can speak to others but must never speak prophecy to anyone but their driver...
>well, the vibes between Jade and Citan are rancid. and Atlas sees a prophecy there, as well
>Atlas, for Jade's sake, very gently putting a hand on his shoulder, very gently whispering to him the prophecy: words of encouragement? words of need? words of warning? i'm not sure what exactly the story would need, or benefit from,
>(though Atlas giving Jade warning and Jade sourly going thanks! i knew that! that was no help at all!!! is an image that is bright and real to me)
>what matters here, most of all, is one leashed blade to another going. I see you. I am defying my own master for you. If blades do not look after other blades, who will? Take heart, take heart. It will be okay, in the end.
>(ha. take heart, huh? i dont think atlas - unlike alvis - is the kind of blade who cribs their prophecies in cryptic words, but lol. lmao. take heart. one of those things so good that i would have to use it, because how could i do anything else?)
