something I'd scribbled up as an idea a few months ago, after finishing Suikoden V, but never had time or patience enough to pick up in the interim. Figured I might as well share.
---
The wind was neither loud, nor was it strong ... but even so, it was more than enough to shift and make airborne the fine grains of sand which covered nearly all of the surrounding landscape.
Lordlake.
Things had certainly changed here since the last time he'd visited. This ... desolate, broken wasteland which had been blasted into being in place of a lush, beautiful, fruitful landscape was an eyesore. The people, still clinging to their ancestors' homes and lands, somehow managed to remain unbroken ... then again, it really hadn't been all that long since the disaster that brought this into being had occured.
A year and a half ago ...
His hand cupped a measure of the top layer of the sand, and green eyes focused on it as it sifted through his fingers.
No. Not long at all, in the grand scheme of things. Though a lifetime if you changed your point of view.
He sighed, stood, and shook some errant grains from his gloved hand whilst the other pulled the cloth over his mouth back into place.
The air was dry, whatever moisture had been therein having been burned out by the display of power that had scorched the land.
Nowhere was this more apparent than from his vantage point, his travelling boots having sunk more than an inch into the top layer of what had once been the bottome of the magnificent lake the region had taken its name from.
Now, though? No fields. No forests. Just what was left of the once beautiful town, surrounded by a desert of sand and twisted, leafless trees. What remained of them, anyway.
From what he'd heard of the current ruler of the Queendom of Falena prior to this ... show of power ... there'd been no indication that she'd ever been inclined to this sort of excess in her reactions. That this would be the response for even something as offensive to a ruler as a rebellion, true or perceived, had not even entered into consideration.
But then, the man had known almost from the moment he'd felt the wild flare of power from half the world over, this had not been as clear-cut a situation as the temperamental response of a monarch. No. It went far deeper than that.
Turning, he began a trek back from the center of the onetime lake, and now barren expanse of bowl-formed ground.
There was a clinic that had been set up in town, despite the Queen's order that forbade any doctors or other healers to practice their craft in the region - some simply hadn't been able to turn their back on suffering, sickness and famine which was becoming increasingly common in the region.
He wasn't one, though there'd been times when it had been useful to pretend otherwise. Some skills stuck, and he had some time still before he thought he'd need to move on. Over the years, things may have somewhat changed, but compassion for those in need was still one of the defining points of his character.
Do what you can, while you can ... though the bigger picture hadn't really entered his mind in a while, there and then he found himself considering it.
Traveling was alright, he supposed. Kanakan had been a pleasant diversion and a bit of a learning experience - and you could never have enough of those no matter how long you'd been alive - but he'd been ... discontent with his inaction over the recent period.
Back before he'd gone on this latest excursion, he'd thought that maybe, just maybe, it was time to break the monotony of simple existence again. Just because.
He'd be the first to admit to being a bit of a loner on even his best days, but the way things had gone over the past decade or so had his Self demanding a chance at making a difference again.
Else, it had warned him, he'd turn into ... someone very sad, whom he'd met back when everything was falling apart and he was facing the realities of war for the first time.
For an instant, the image of a solemn bowman, little more than a child in body really, entered his mind before he could wave it off.
He shook his head, even as he entered the clinic and removed his cloak, hood, and the cloth he'd shielded his nose and mouth against the sand with.
It took a moment before the tired looking doctor who he assumed was in charge of place noticed and asked what he wanted - he didn't look ill or injured after all.
It was two months before he left again, walking off towards the nearest stretch of water - still a few days worth of travel by foot - and a small sailboat he'd kept for the longest while for both practical and sentimental reasons. He ended up leaving or using up most of his medicine supplies from the modestly stocked kit he usually kept on him.
When asked as to where he would go, his only reply had been: "To do my duty."
And after a longish trek, he aimed his little boat in the appropriate direction, and set off.
The Sacred Games of Falena - the traditional means for the daughter-heir's husband to be picked - were coming around early this generation, what with the princess only ten years old. The political factions were at one-another's throats, as usual, and jockeying for power and favor, and this little abbreviation would be yet another battleground for a war that had been going on for centuries already.
This interested him fairly little, other than as a means to an end.
After all, one could hardly deny an audience to the fiance of one's only daughter, even if he was a bit of a ruffian. He'd heard the current Queen's husband had likewise been one.
The back of his left hand felt 'off' in that particular way for a moment, emanating approval.
Matters of men were one thing, and sometimes best left alone.
Matters of rogue, megalomaniac True Runes, however, were another thing altogether.
Punishment had come to Falena. It didn't look to be leaving anytime soon.
For Want of a Hero
a Suikoden IV/Suikoden V fanfic concept
---
'What if Lazlo, the hero of Suikoden IV and chosen of the True Rune of Punishment, decided to intervene in the brewing events of the Queendom of Falena ... by going off to try and win the Sacred Games.'
Because, really, there's too few worthwhile Suikoden V stories out there (if any at all), and even fewer SIV ones.
-Griever
---
The wind was neither loud, nor was it strong ... but even so, it was more than enough to shift and make airborne the fine grains of sand which covered nearly all of the surrounding landscape.
Lordlake.
Things had certainly changed here since the last time he'd visited. This ... desolate, broken wasteland which had been blasted into being in place of a lush, beautiful, fruitful landscape was an eyesore. The people, still clinging to their ancestors' homes and lands, somehow managed to remain unbroken ... then again, it really hadn't been all that long since the disaster that brought this into being had occured.
A year and a half ago ...
His hand cupped a measure of the top layer of the sand, and green eyes focused on it as it sifted through his fingers.
No. Not long at all, in the grand scheme of things. Though a lifetime if you changed your point of view.
He sighed, stood, and shook some errant grains from his gloved hand whilst the other pulled the cloth over his mouth back into place.
The air was dry, whatever moisture had been therein having been burned out by the display of power that had scorched the land.
Nowhere was this more apparent than from his vantage point, his travelling boots having sunk more than an inch into the top layer of what had once been the bottome of the magnificent lake the region had taken its name from.
Now, though? No fields. No forests. Just what was left of the once beautiful town, surrounded by a desert of sand and twisted, leafless trees. What remained of them, anyway.
From what he'd heard of the current ruler of the Queendom of Falena prior to this ... show of power ... there'd been no indication that she'd ever been inclined to this sort of excess in her reactions. That this would be the response for even something as offensive to a ruler as a rebellion, true or perceived, had not even entered into consideration.
But then, the man had known almost from the moment he'd felt the wild flare of power from half the world over, this had not been as clear-cut a situation as the temperamental response of a monarch. No. It went far deeper than that.
Turning, he began a trek back from the center of the onetime lake, and now barren expanse of bowl-formed ground.
There was a clinic that had been set up in town, despite the Queen's order that forbade any doctors or other healers to practice their craft in the region - some simply hadn't been able to turn their back on suffering, sickness and famine which was becoming increasingly common in the region.
He wasn't one, though there'd been times when it had been useful to pretend otherwise. Some skills stuck, and he had some time still before he thought he'd need to move on. Over the years, things may have somewhat changed, but compassion for those in need was still one of the defining points of his character.
Do what you can, while you can ... though the bigger picture hadn't really entered his mind in a while, there and then he found himself considering it.
Traveling was alright, he supposed. Kanakan had been a pleasant diversion and a bit of a learning experience - and you could never have enough of those no matter how long you'd been alive - but he'd been ... discontent with his inaction over the recent period.
Back before he'd gone on this latest excursion, he'd thought that maybe, just maybe, it was time to break the monotony of simple existence again. Just because.
He'd be the first to admit to being a bit of a loner on even his best days, but the way things had gone over the past decade or so had his Self demanding a chance at making a difference again.
Else, it had warned him, he'd turn into ... someone very sad, whom he'd met back when everything was falling apart and he was facing the realities of war for the first time.
For an instant, the image of a solemn bowman, little more than a child in body really, entered his mind before he could wave it off.
He shook his head, even as he entered the clinic and removed his cloak, hood, and the cloth he'd shielded his nose and mouth against the sand with.
It took a moment before the tired looking doctor who he assumed was in charge of place noticed and asked what he wanted - he didn't look ill or injured after all.
It was two months before he left again, walking off towards the nearest stretch of water - still a few days worth of travel by foot - and a small sailboat he'd kept for the longest while for both practical and sentimental reasons. He ended up leaving or using up most of his medicine supplies from the modestly stocked kit he usually kept on him.
When asked as to where he would go, his only reply had been: "To do my duty."
And after a longish trek, he aimed his little boat in the appropriate direction, and set off.
The Sacred Games of Falena - the traditional means for the daughter-heir's husband to be picked - were coming around early this generation, what with the princess only ten years old. The political factions were at one-another's throats, as usual, and jockeying for power and favor, and this little abbreviation would be yet another battleground for a war that had been going on for centuries already.
This interested him fairly little, other than as a means to an end.
After all, one could hardly deny an audience to the fiance of one's only daughter, even if he was a bit of a ruffian. He'd heard the current Queen's husband had likewise been one.
The back of his left hand felt 'off' in that particular way for a moment, emanating approval.
Matters of men were one thing, and sometimes best left alone.
Matters of rogue, megalomaniac True Runes, however, were another thing altogether.
Punishment had come to Falena. It didn't look to be leaving anytime soon.
For Want of a Hero
a Suikoden IV/Suikoden V fanfic concept
---
'What if Lazlo, the hero of Suikoden IV and chosen of the True Rune of Punishment, decided to intervene in the brewing events of the Queendom of Falena ... by going off to try and win the Sacred Games.'
Because, really, there's too few worthwhile Suikoden V stories out there (if any at all), and even fewer SIV ones.
-Griever