Alfion is so funny to me because imagine being Therion. You find yourself stuck with some random guy from the Riverlands, and from the moment you meet, everything about him repulses you. He's full of idealism and he's altruistic in a way you didn't think existed. So you convince yourself he's full of it. Every time you talk, you hang onto every word, waiting for a lie that never comes. You know it's cynical, but you convince yourself it's necessary. It's a precaution. But the reality is that as long as you can drag everyone and everything down to your level, you'll never have to admit how low you really are. It's a comfort, so even in the face of somebody so stubbornly good, you believe the universe is bound to break him. So you watch him, town after town, while your merry band faces everything fate has to offer. He never wavers, he probably even doubles down, and eventually you stop thinking about it. Then it happens. His world shatters before your very eyes. He cries in frustration, cursing his naivety, another man's blood dripping from his shirt. You're conflicted. This is what you've been waiting for. This is what you wanted. Order has been restored, yet you feel no relief. Instead, you're angry. Not at him. At the world. Because somewhere along the way, without noticing and without meaning to, this man dragged your old, beaten sentimentality out of hiding. It's unnerving and you're vulnerable in a way you haven't been in years, but as you look at that tear-stained face, you decide in that moment that some things are worth your fear.
chapter order, character development relationship development, protagonists, classes, story changes, potential crossed paths, extra chapters. anything you can think of in excruciating detail with a borderline illegal amount of words
keep the ball rolling (check out @/lola-legendary @/sly-s-n0nfusion and @/fulgurbugs versions too they have great takes)
most of my story and character hcs are based around connecting the travelers more, so I decided to include some of my brief notes with my hcs!
(cw for mentions of trafficking and domestic violence)
Ophilia: I like the general idea that her parents were farmers in the Riverlands. I hc they specifically grew herbs and flowers and did a lot of trade with apothecaries and chefs. When the war hit, her parents halted trade and focused on providing supplies to local shelters and passing soldiers. She had older sisters who were around their mid teen years that worked alongside their parents. The day Creek was invaded, Ophilia's house and crops were targeted specifically because Pardis III is a really nice guy. Ophilia survives, but suffers severe burns. She's found a couple days later by a relief team sent by the church, lead by Josef himself.
I also think Ophilia would have a much harder time adjusting to Flamesgrace than the game suggests. She's used to biodiversity and seasoned food, so the Frostlands is a whole can of environmental whiplash (as a side note I hc Ophilia struggles with SAD too, but the symptoms became less noticeable the longer she lived in Flamesgrace). The only prayers she has memorized are for good harvests (which are useless here), all the water is frozen over, and people treat injuries with magic instead of medicine. As a child, she spent a lot of time fantasizing about traveling the world and finding something she's passionate about.
Ophilia joins the church anyway as a young teenager because she thinks doing otherwise would be ungrateful towards the family that took her in. This is the same girl who calls her adoptive father "your excellency" and took on a life-threatening pilgrimage with no training because she thought his real family deserved to be together as he died. She's not exactly happy in Flamesgrace or in the church (this changes throughout the course of the story as she finds her own faith and convictions), but being around people she loves is enough to convince her that she has to be.
Previous experience w/ apothecaries chefs and merchants. Alfyn H'aanit and Tressa make her think of home sometimes (more Alfyn and H'aanit than Tressa)
Tressa and Ophilia on the same "there is so much more to the world than what I've seen" type shi
Alfyn ch 2 the twins make her feel smth
Adds finding your faith dimension to her story to parallel Primrose
Cyrus: I don't love how I wrote this one because everything seems pretty one-dimensional but whatever. He is the only traveler with absolutely zero (0) pre-canon flashbacks iirc (Tressa doesn't have any either but she has a lot more backstory info already). I agree with the common hc he's from minor nobility. His parents were very stereotypical "haha poor people" people. Cyrus himself was mostly left alone. His family already had an heir (he has multiple older and younger siblings, but is not close to any of them), so his parents only really looked to him when he had something of value to offer.
His parents sent him to Atlasdam as a form of punishment. He was about fifteen and his parents were tired of him "consorting with riffraff" or some Hikari ch 1 kind of dialogue. The idea was to force him to see what kind of hard work it takes to make it in the world and why you shouldn't give the fruits of your labor to people who haven't "earned it". It goes as well as expected and Cyrus develops the kind of idealism you can only get from facing pure cynicism first. He shows up at home once every five years or so and he normally gets annoyed and leaves early. Albright family dinners belong on Bravo.
Definitely at least knows of Primrose. Doesn't recognize her until learning her name
Tressa: I have nothing extra to add
Olberic: Tbh I only have basic info on his parents because the most relevant parts of his backstory are in the army. His father was also a soldier who died when Olberic was younger (early-late teens) and his mother was a musician and a poet mostly because I thought Hornburg falling would hit harder if Olberic had close memories with traditional songs and mythology. His mom dies from illness when he's ~20 which is when he enlists in the army. King Alfred filled the parental approval shaped hole in his heart.
Cyrus and Primrose(?) are the two canonical musicians (idk abt Prim ot2 at least combines singing and dancing tho). Synergy
Alfyn lost mom at the same age
Therion and Olberic military dads?
Primrose: The game already covers most of the important points of her backstory (ie her dad). What bugs me is that there are absolutely no canon interactions between her and Odette. Because of the age gap Primrose probably saw her as more of an older cousin than a sister, but to her Odette was like the coolest person of ever. She doesn't have to deal with politics and she gets to study magic? I hc younger Primrose wanted to be a scholar before the crushing sense of responsibility settled in.
I don't have a lot of thoughts on Primrose's mother. We know based on Simeon's play that she presumably survived childbirth, but there's no mention of her after Geoffrey's death. I'm of the belief that she died at some point when Primrose was a child. I think it would be interesting if Simeon poisoned her with the same method Mattias later used on Josef to mimic illness. It adds an extra layer to Simeon silently directing Primrose's life and gives him room to worm his way to her.
Ophilia Primrose "the blacksnakes killed my parents" club
Mega interactions w/ Cyrus abt Odette and magic. Accidentally initiates world's most awkward family reunion
Alfyn: I hc that Alfyn's mother had him young (16-19) and ran away to Clearbrook with her smelly boyfriend once her family discovered she was pregnant. She worked at the tavern and picked up other odd jobs to support her son. She suffered from epilepsy, which was treated by Zeph's father (and later Zeph when his father dies), so she got really close with their family. She would leave Alfyn at their house during the day so he wouldn't be home alone with his father, who was becoming both physically and emotionally violent. He leaves Clearbrook, partially on his own volition and partially at the insistence of the village, when Alfyn is ~8. Everything else is pretty much the same with Graham and the plague. Age 11 and onwards is mostly apothecary work.
Mom dies from SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy) when Alfyn's 20. He spends half a year depressed which is when he really starts considering leaving Clearbrook. It starts off as a grief thing. He can't stand being home because he remembers his mom's not there anymore, every time he goes to the tavern he remembers his mom used to work there, every time he makes rounds, someone asks him how he's holding up, etc. He tables the idea after he starts processing everything, but it sticks with him until canon starts.
Therion: His in game backstory is so nothingburger so I have a lot for Therion.
I mentioned in another post that I hc Therion is from the same village in the Riverlands as Ophilia and the two of them just never crossed paths. His father was a soldier who taught him how to use a blade and his mother was a jeweler who taught him how to identify geodes and precious metals. His father died earlier on in the war and since luxury goods were in lower demand, his mother made money as a seamstress instead while Therion helped around her shop. They manage to flee when Creek is invaded, but are intercepted by traffickers from Sunshade, who take his mother. She stays in Sunshade for a little while before ending up in Obsidian Parlor where she dies.
Therion himself ends up in one of many overcrowded and underfunded orphanages in the Riverlands. His life of crime actually starts off as a noble cause where he’d steal jewelry from the rich and use the money to buy food for the other orphans. This, unsurprisingly, got him chased out of a handful of towns and into a handful of prison cells until the cynicism finally settles in. He runs away and adopts a very forced lone wolf persona that implodes the second he meets Darius.
I sort of bs’d a character connection when it comes to how he survived the fall. I hc he met Ogen ten years pre canon (after Therion met Darius, before Ogen’s wife was murdered). Therion (~12 at the time) tried to pickpocket him, Ogen sees a homeless and clearly malnourished child and gives him a couple vials of medicine instead of turning him in. Flash forward a few years and those old vials (idk if they’d still be good by then but based on the thirty seconds of research I did they should be ok just a bit weaker) keep him alive long enough for some hunters to come across him at the bottom of canyon Rinyuu COTC style.
Ophilia Therion Creek conversations
Primrose Sunshade connection less of a dick with her at first
Alfyn ch 3 fun with Owen (Therion probably does not remember him)
Experiences an emotion when Olberic tries to help him with swordplay
Joins the obsidians killed my parents club
H'aanit: The game already has most of the relevant information on her backstory. The biggest question mark is how her parents died. The Obsidian's have canonically tried to assassinate Susanna so technically it's not completely random for them to be involved with the death of H'aanit's parents. Idk how many people play COTC but there is a story involving the Obsidians and divine beasts. I like the idea that maybe H'aanit's parents had access to obscure knowledge on them and (weaknesses, lore, etc) and were killed shortly after H'aanit was born in order to make it harder to fight against them. If H'aanit's parents were killed by the Obsidians it would also make more sense for Z'aanta to be on guard about them targeting Susanna someday.
Uhhh octopath family headcanons in strong detail inspired by @fulgurbugs and @sly-s-n0nfusion
Ophilia: Her parents were middle-class merchants who sold weapons to various people. It ended badly because they tried selling polearms to kind of shady men and they got stabbed. Everyone attributed it to the war, no one knows for sure exactly who those men were (it’s the obsidians. it’s always the obsidians.)
Cyrus: I’m actually starting to hate myself for talking so much about him. Post here
Tressa: we know exactly what her deal is. But I will mention that I hc her family business to be kind of failing when she was 12 or smth? (or maybe it’s canon. I don’t know i haven’t consumed octopath in a very long time)
Olberic: He’s the youngest of 6 siblings, and the only boy. He’s also the smallest of his family by a decent margin, which is terrifying. He looks exactly like his dad and uses his sword (it’s a family heirloom… sobs). His dad was a great swordsman but died just before Olberic was born. His mom is a matchmaker. She and three of his five siblings are alive and in Saintsbridge. One of them is dead. The other is in Solistia, somehow.
Primrose: Not many details here. But I like to think she was betrothed to Cyrus when they were younger, and they were friends before the Fall
Alfyn: Alfyn’s mom and dad were happily married, but his dad wasn’t big on responsibility (since he was a thief) and they split amicably, with Alfyn staying with his mom. Alfyn’s dad never spoke to him, but he’s been shadowing Alfyn’s travels (without being noticed by Olberic. he’s a very good stalker but not good at actual thieving).
Therion: Therion’s dad is a hit-and-run kind of guy, and so his mom went to a Riverlands town, she had him there but had to abandon him due to reasons. She now lives in Quarrycrest and doesn’t know he’s alive. (She’s also Cyrus’ aunt, making him and Therion cousins, but no one has a damn clue). Therion isn’t his true birth name, it’s Carnelian, but when he finds out (like 3 years post canon) he has it changed so that Carnelian becomes his middle name
H’aanit: I really don’t have much to say. They got gored by a wild boar when she was two lol
(Putting this under a read more for sensitive topics and possible spoilers)
Ophilia: we know she's an orphan- she lost her family during the war when she was like 4. I like to think she had an older sister. They lived in the countryside until her whole family got killed by enemy soldiers who broke into their house for supplies. She only survived because she was outside to pick berries and came back to an empty home. She was then sent to a nearby orphanage and then to Flamesgrace's church. I think part of the reason why she struggled to talk to Lianna in the beginning is because she felt like she was betraying and somehow replacing her dead older sister
Cyrus: comes from a well-adjusted, upper-middle class family from Atlasdam. Is an only child and inherited his dad's love for knowledge so they sent him to the Royal Academy- his mom probably dies when he is 11 because of an illness but his dad is still out there in the countryside near Atlasdam after his retirement. Nothing particular to add- he was a curious child who often got lost. Apart from his one friend Odette he is quite lonely but he doesn't mind (answered an inbox ask about his family headcanons here )
Tressa: We already know her backstory so. Nothing else to add
Olberic: I hc him as an only child of minor Hornburgian nobility- his dad was probably one of the king's most loyal commanders and definitely not the most talkative man around, but still a honorable knight. I like to think that Olberic was actually quite reckless and often gave his mom headaches when she tried to keep him still. His dad regularly took him to the tavern along his comrades and to the arena to see tournaments instead so he became a formidable swordsman as soon as he was able to hold a sword. When he turned like 10 he joined the young squires (where he actually gets kinda popular among them) and he meets Erhardt when he's like 15. Then sadly loses both of his parents and all of his comrades because the aforementioned man decides to behead the king and start a civil war
Primrose: I agree with Dux's post so. Nothing to add
Alfyn: We don't know anything about Alfyn's dad so I like to think that he just never met him. Perhaps he was a merchant passing by, who happened to stop in Clearbrook and soon after his leaving Alfyn's mom found herself pregnant so she just raised him on her own. Finds a reliable father figure in Zeph's dad as they become inseparable and the rest is history. Iirc we don't know what was the reason for his mom's death but it was probably a terminal illness (I like to think that Alfyn and Cyrus bond over their grief of losing their mothers way too early)
Therion: I'm sorry Therion for giving you the hardest battles- I hc that he is a sex worker's unwanted son. Since he's presumably from the Riverlands he just appears in front of the local orphanage's door inside a basket. That's where they give him the name "Therion" (wild animal) because of his unfriendly attitude and his tendency to isolate himself. When he's like 9 he escapes the orphanage and the first thing he does is stealing a dagger from a hunter passing nearby and that becomes his weapon. He does not know who his mother is, he does not know when his birthday is. He lives off of stealing from merchants and random people, meets Darius and the rest is history.
H'aanit: Her parents died when she was like 2, probably because of a plague of some sorts or while defending S'warkii from the attacks of a nearby clan in the Woodlands (in cotc Ashlan mentions several different clans existing in the Woodlands). I don't think they were hunters but they sure gave her a necklace with their wedding rings on it. Z'aanta took care of her like an uncle and he was the one to bring Linde to her when she was like 16 - probably a snow leopard cub that got lost in the woods.
prev anon: as in how their thoughts about their birth family (example how Therion thinks of his parents who abandoned him or Olberic’s family members
i’m gonna answer this with text because i’m having trouble getting the hands to work drawing wise (and some shit has happened today and i’m a bit tired to draw like 8 doodles pages) but i wanna answer this ask anyways
i also want to preface this with i didn’t go back and watch all the cutscenes and shit again, nor do i know any of the COTC lore and i wont until OT0 releases, so if i contradict anything its because im just the awesomest at knowing
also this is long so i’m putting a readmore
Ophilia: obviously ophilia is a war orphan, lost her family when she was 5. personally my headcanon is that she came from a farming family, and was the youngest or second youngest, probably had older brothers who were old enough to either be conscripted or work the farm. the family farm burns (likey as collateral during a conflict) and no one but ophilia survives this. no one comes to claim her afterwards, so she’s sent to the flamesgrace church as an orphan.
i also believe personally that ophilia had trouble adjusting to her adopted family even through the early teen years. for her first year living as a member of the clement family she barely speaks, before finally warming up to lianna. and even then, in their early years as trainee clerics, ophilia lags a bit behind lianna in aptitude, and there is constantly that asterisk when people talk about her that she’s the archbishop’s *adopted daughter. it’s never that she’s rude or argumentative, or even outwardly resentful at this (though i think she certainly would be justified if she did) but she is quite sad and withdrawn often. as she gets older she also does start to forget her birth family, just as her childhood memories get fuzzier. nightmares become less frequent and she starts to truly feel like a member of the church proper. still, sometimes she thinks about them and feels woefully, mournfully sad.
Cyrus: in my opinion, there’s nothing super tragic going on in his family history. i imagine his family were very minor nobility, perhaps with some level of influence (probably very small) over a some jurisdiction in the brightlands. while cyrus’s family certainly had a comfortable amount of money for his education, he was a ravenous reader, question asker, and overall kind of handful child, but put him in a library and he’s the happiest kid you could find. i imagine him to be the youngest sibling, maybe something like an older brother and sister, then cyrus. there’s already heirs above cyrus in line, cyrus doesn’t really have the disposition for nobility intrapersonal politics, and he craves more difficult school knowledge incessantly, so i think it’s likely that eventually he’s sent off to atlasdam for schooling, maybe to live with a relative like an aunt or an uncle who already lives there. while cyrus isn’t on bad terms with his family by any means, be basically leaves the nest once he gets to atlasdam and becomes a scholar and teacher, probably writing them occasionally but not incessantly.
Tressa: we’ve seen her family, don’t think this one needs much explaining. she’s an only child of a merchant family. we don’t know much beyond that, but i guess i’d assume being a merchant is a family buisness, so maybe her grandparents and so on were also merchants.
Olberic: i go back and forth on if i can see olberic having siblings, but idk lol. i’m gonna write this as him as an only child. what i do think for olberic was that his father was probably also a swordsman or soldier, and also that he died when olberic was young, probably in battle. olberic himself was partially trained by his father up until this point, at which point he enlists himself probably as a teen. dedicating himself to the sword even more. olberic kind of just strikes me as the kind of guy who’s had a sword in his hand his whole life. i do think olberic and his mother were quite close, though in her heart she always knew he was going to be a fighter and constantly worried after him. i would imagine however much he made as a soldier, he sends some back home to take care of her. i think his mother probably lives quite a long time but eventually falls ill and dies sometime before the events of the story take point, but also well into olberic’s adulthood. i imagine him and erhardt meet in the army as older teenagers when they’re more ready for the front lines, giving them a long time to develop their gayass warrior’s bond. oh i also think it’s funny if his mom is pretty short and his dad was really tall, so once moment he just turns 14 and shoots up like full foot taller than his mother lmfao
Primrose: we know about her dad, but her mom doesn’t appear in like. barely any of those flashbacks. based on the fact that we only ever hear her wanting to avenge the murder of her father, i think its safe to say that her mother died before her father was murdered. maybe she was one of those sickly types who has always been a bit frail, and one day she just got sick and never got better. the one time we see her she’s wearing a very nightgown looking dress, so perhaps she was sometimes bedbound. i like to think she helped nurture primrose’s creative side, maybe painting was one of her favorite hobbies that she could do without too much exertion, and she loved that primrose was interested in dance, music, and art as well.
Alfyn: we don’t know too much about his dad as far as i know, only that he died when alfyn was very young i believe. personally, i think alfyn’s dad probably died in some kind of accident, the kind of bad luck that can happen to anyone just living life and going about their business. my personal headcanon is it was just that, an accident. he was on the water for some reason or other, fell, hit his head, drowned. alfyn doesn’t remember this at all, being a good goo ga ga baby, but as he got older, his mother would say that alfyn was the spitting image of his father. of course, in terms of father figures he had zeph’s dad, a loss that felt much more raw to him and inspired him and zeph to become apothecaries. i also think clearbrook overall is quite close-knit, and alfyn definitely had that village style upbringing of him and his mother being close to pretty much everyone in town, so there was no shortage of community love and support during his childhood. the loss of his mother though was very hard on him, as the sole blood family he had left. losing both his parents does frequently remind him how easy it is to lose the people you love, and bolsters his apothecary philosophy.
Therion: it’s back to orphan time! personally, i think therion never met or even heard much about his father, but does remember a bit about his mother. my headcanon is that his mother died during the riverland plague (the one that almost killed alfyn) since in all of his childhood flashbacks he seems to be in the riverlands, im making the general assumption that thats where he’s originally from.
i think that his family was a victim of quite severe poverty because of the ongoing war, and his father is dead maybe before he’s born. (war related) his mother, while doing her best to care for therion all by herself, is not super well equipped for this and has a pretty avoidant personality, and so never speaks of therion’s father, and he doesn’t really ask or care because he’s too busy being a little kid. when she eventually gets too sick to work at all because of the plague, she holes up and avoids therion to avoid getting him sick but also because she’s quite sensitive to feeling like a failure as a mother. so, being too poor for treatment and even those who can afford the treatment finding this plague deadly, when she accepts she’s going to die she drops therion off at the nearest church orphanage and leaves to die alone. of course, it’s hard to communicate this to a like, 5-6 year old and therion isn’t all that able to comprehend his mothers behavior, so this does contribute to his abandonment issues, as one of the only things he can remember about his mother is that she abandoned him, and he never saw her again. therion doesn’t remember his own last name even, and he doesn’t take well to the orphanage. he’s used to being mostly left alone even from a young age, and during an ongoing plague there’s a severe shortage of food and healthy staff and too many other orphans. he probably toughs it out for like a year or so, probably being one of the staff’s least favorite rudest orphans before deciding he’s better off as a street urchin anyways, where he starts to develop his theiving skillset, by the time we see his first flashback he already seems very familiar with the being in gaol, so i imagine he’s been on his own for most of his life.
H’aanit; i tried to find what age she was when her parents died if it’s mentioned and couldn’t lol but the wiki says infant…. idk i was under the assumption she was a bit older and possibly still able to remember them a little. but anyways that aside i think they probably died to monsters, considering how dangerous the area around swarkii can be. regardless, i don’t think her parents were hunters. most of swarkii doesn’t seem to be, so i think it was just a matter of wrong place wrong time while they were traveling, leaving poor baby h’aanit all alone. i think it’s probably not super clear what happened to them from an outside perspective (they got eaten) but having hunters around like z’aanta they probably peiced together from whatever evidence was left what had happened. i imagine maybe they were tanners or some such, dealing in preparing hides from hunts and making leather. Z’aanta obviously raised her since, though obviously they have a somewhat parent/child relationship they also have a master/apprentice one and h’aanit often has to be responsible for him since he has a several…. bad habits. h’aanit notably considers him to only be like a father but not quite as her adoptive father, and i think she does quite often think of and mourn the lost relationship with her parents. she keeps their wedding rings for luck of course, and i imagine she’s always been quite keen on seeking out stories or information about what they were like from her small and close-knit village in her way of feeling close to them.
I have completed all of chapter one of Octopath Traveler!! I am so happy I have everyone. I need to grind before heading off to chapter two because my party is underleveled as hell. Even ophilia and she's level 16 or 17. I think I'm gonna go around the eight towns stealing and getting into everyone's business and doing quests for the people. If this game had a moral system, I'd have none. I know if you fail four times, your reputation goes down. It's genuinely so funny to me that my reputation improved when I got Therion given his profession as a thief. Also!! I'm excited to see everyone interact. What interactions between party members are your favorite? No spoilers please, just list names. I have ophilia as my main.
I wanna know what happened to Darius. They left me hanging and I'm positive I'll find out in later chapters because the game gives no indication of what happened based on therions reactions to his memories so I'm intrigued. I want to know more about therion, his backstory, everything. Man is shrouded in mystery at the moment. And you know what? That makes me wonder about ophilia!! Like, I'm just curious about everyone.
It's so funny to me that ophilia, a woman on a pilgrimage, is like, "Yeah, we'll help you break into this mansion and steal a bunch of treasure." 😭 and therions all about working alone, but he begrudgingly goes along with it too. It'd be so fucking funny if you could take your whole party into fights. "Yeah, let's break in through the window. All 8 of us." Lmao
Im so curious about the dragonstones. Can they turn into dragons with the stones??? Don't answer that!! (I heard dragonstones and went, "fire emblem fates.") I'll find out what they are exactly later. Also, the Heathcote fight was not hard. I'm kinda glad tho bc I was just chilling.
Cyrus comes in clutch as my mage. It's so funny how ppl just willingly talk to alfyn. But cyrus, he has a harder time getting information out of people, but alfyn could literally go up to the captain of the guards and get his backstory.
No spoilers or backseat gaming please!!
I love how every town so far in orsterra feels and looks different. I genuinely love the level design (is that the right term?) For example, Bolderfalls has stairs and uses a bunch of oranges and browns to fit the desert aesthetic while Flamesgrace looks so pristine with its whites and blues. Cyrus' town sprawls, and it makes sense that these places vary in size. Alfyns home is small because it's a backwater town. That kind of detail is so good.
While I'm still talking I have a few more ot1 relationship hcs and observations (platonic this time)
Ophilia and Therion were both born in Creek. All we get about Therion's past in game is that he's presumably an orphan from the Riverlands, but has no attachments to any given town in the region. The closest thing to non-Darius related backstory dialogue we get from him is a cagey comment towards Ophilia in her ch2. I don't think they were friends or even recognize each other, but I can imagine Therion hearing Ophilia mention Creek and instantly becoming attached to her against his will. It makes him agreeing to travel with such a large group earlier on in his character arc easier to believe. The way they might see each other is interesting too. Ophilia envies the way Therion moved forward on his own and developed such resilience and Therion envies the way Ophilia rose above tragedy and became someone so archetypically good. In reality they're just two very different outcomes from the same situation.
Alfyn tried to save Yusufa. I've seen this a couple times in fics and I like to think it's the reason Primrose agrees to let Alfyn "life is a wonder" Greengrass tag along on her revenge quest. I have my own octopath canon in my brain and in it Alfyn and Primrose are the only two present for Primrose's ch1. Alfyn and Yusufa get along famously so when she dies Alfyn literally can't bring himself to leave Primrose. Alfyn historically does not handle death very well, so the idea of letting the woman Yusufa died for walk away on a suicide mission somehow makes him sicker than the fact he just watched that same woman kill several men with nothing but an old knife and some magic.
Speaking of Alfyn's relationship with death there is so much untapped potential between him and H'aanit. They both have ideologies based heavily around mortality. Alfyn spends the majority of his story considering the relationship between morality and the worth of a human life while H'aanit acknowledges death as something that should be balanced and unbiased. H'aanit canonically helps Alfyn gather ingredients for medicine while Alfyn's secondary class in the ot2 ex battle is hunter. They are constantly learning from the other's ideas to the point it changes the way they approach the world around them.
Ophilia met H'aanit first and immediately decided to travel with her when she found out Z'aanta was missing. Ophilia barely thinks about her father for most of her story and I choose to read that as repression instead of a writing oversight. She's barely a week out of Flamesgrace and the first person she meets is a young woman fretting over the unknown status of her father. Of course she's going to project and do everything in her power to help.
Eisenbright is so funny to me because what if you were Olberic and you’re in your tiny village and one day this random guy shows up mid-crisis and just so happens to have encyclopedic knowledge about your fallen kingdom. This guy probably wrote his thesis about the most traumatic day of your life and the second he learns who you are he asks you question after question about the home you failed which probably sends you spiraling back into all the unresolved grief you’ve been rotting in for the past eight years. You probably resent him for that at first because the more you think about home the more you hate yourself for failing it. He does not understand your grief and you never tell him because your grief is far too precious a thing to talk about, so he keeps asking questions. He probably knows folk tunes and folklore you thought you left in a past life and he talks about the world you lost in a way you wish you could remember it. He holds every detail with reverence and care and, slowly, you begin to feel it too. His questions feel easier and you even begin to look forward to answering them. You teach him songs he’s never heard before and every mundane thing you lost eight years ago. He hangs on to every word like it’s more than just a second hand memory to him. You realize that this man is the closest you’ve felt to home in a long time. You crack and spill the grief you kept so close to your chest and suddenly your conversations are about more than just questions and answers. You talk to him about your day and his and you spend the time you normally would alone discussing battle tactics and strategy. He tells you about his own life and baggage and bombards you with trivia every time you pass through a new town. Eventually he himself has become home to you.
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