⌠ History ⌡

[littlebro]

The Girl in the Meadow
Defying their parents, Asbel and Hubert went to explore Lhant Hill to see the flowers. There, they discover an older girl asleep in the meadow. Neither had ever seen her before. When she woke, the girl appeared to have lost all her memories, and her speech and behavior seemed slightly odd and disoriented. Asbel felt that he couldn't abandon her in such a state and decided to bring her back with them.

Named after a Flower
When Asbel and Hubert returned to Lhant with the girl, they found their longtime friend Cheria waiting. Together, they went to see Cheria's grandfather Frederic, who serves as Lord Aston's butler. They asked him about the mysterious girl, but he didn't recognize her. Disregarding his father's words, Asbel resolved to look after the girl himself much to Cheria's dismay. Going along with Hubert's suggestion to name the girl after a flower, Asbel dubs her as "Sophie". He then convinced the group to search for the important guest who was visiting from the capital but had been unexpectedly delayed.


The Friendship Pact
The guest from the capital turned out to be Prince Richard of Windor. Again ignoring his father's orders, Asbel took Richard and Sophie to see the meadow on Lhant Hill. Hubert and Cheria chose to stay behind and is asked by Asbel to cover for them. In the meantime Asbel, Richard, and Sophie bonded and made a friendship pact by carving their names on a tree there. Upon their return to Lhant, Aston had Asbel confined to his room. Ignoring his punishment, Asbel took Sophie and departed for the capital city of Barona, following Richard, who was returning to his castle, and Aston and Hubert, who were visiting for other reasons.

The Gathering Storm
In Barona, Asbel and Sophie were able to reunite not only with Richard but also Cheria, who had come to the city for a medical examination. As Richard was leading the three friends on a tour, they ran into Aston and a seemingly miserable Hubert. It is hinted here that Hubert was brought to Barona so he can meet with his adoptive father, a man from the Oswell family of Strahta. Richard proposed a late-night tour of the castle using a secret underground passageway. Asbel readily accepted, but Richard failed to appear at the time and place he had promised.

Childhood's End
The party found the secret entrance to the catacombs and discovered Richard lying motionless within. Just then, a mysterious monster attacked, gravely wounding everyone. An enraged Sophie managed to bring the creature down but was run through by its claws. Then there was a flood of light and . . . Asbel awoke to learn that Sophie had died and Hubert had been fostered to another family. Asbel and Aston fought, and even Cheria couldn't calm him down. Determined to run away, Asbel showed up at the gates of the Knight Academy.

* For the next several years, Asbel trains himself to become a knight at the academy while Hubert settles in with his new family at Strahta. During that time, Hubert begins to harbor feelings of resentment against his family for giving him up and refuses to write to them. He eventually attains a position as a lieutenant. 7 years later, Hubert learns of his father death during a struggle against Fendel who wishes to invade Lhant. Asbel also hears of this news and immediately rushes back home to become the new lord of Lhant. During another attack from Fendel, Asbel and Cheria lure them to Lhant Hill and are saved by a girl who looks exactly like Sophie.

* Afterward, he takes the Sophie look-alike back to Lhant and learns that she has amnesia as did the original Sophie had. Unable to deny the uncanny resemblance, Asbel begins to call her "Sophie" as well. He then begins to formulate a plan to perform a sneak attack on the Fendel army.

Exiled from Lhant
Asbel's plan ended in failure, as Fendel launched its assault while his forces were still moving into position. But Lhant was saved when Hubert arrived with a battalion of the Strahtan military. Hubert explained that Windor and Strahta had forged an alliance and that he would take responsibility for Lhant's governance. Outmaneuvered by his own brother, Asbel was banished from Lhant. Lady Kerri, their mother, tearfully asks Hubert how both of her sons could fight like this. Hubert coldly replies how she only has one son and claims that he belongs only to the Oswell family. He then addresses her as "Lady Kerri" and reassures that he won't drive her out of Lhant as well. Attacked by unknown pursuers outside of the city, Asbel worried about the safety of his companion, Sophie, and considered asking Richard to protect her.

* During the time of Lhant being governed by Hubert, the king of Windor was murdered by Cedric, Richard's uncle, so he can take the crown. Enlisting the help of Asbel, Cheria, Sophie, and the eccentric Pascal, the group was able to overthrow Cedric and give Richard his rightful place on the throne. However, Richard begins to develop an overly aggressive behavior foreshadowing unwanted events later on.

What Blood Breeds
Eager to rid Windor of any Strahtan influence, Richard decided to invade Lhant. He commanded Asbel to lead the force, presenting it as an opportunity for him to reclaim his honor and his lordship. Asbel appealed for a chance to avoid battle by convincing the Strahtan commander, his brother Hubert, to negotiate with Windor. Malik joined Asbel's party to lend a hand and together the group set off to Lhant once again.

A Seven-Year Reunion
Without waiting to hear the results of Asbel's negotiations, Richard launched a surprise invasion of Lhant. He declared that those who defied him must be shown no mercy and when Asbel forcefully disagree, the furious king declared him a traitor. Having reclaimed her memories from seven years earlier, Sophie was able to block Richard's attack, and after a ferocious struggle, Richard and his army withdrew. Victorious, Asbel and his friends relished their long-awaited return with Sophie who has regained her memories of them as children.

Just Like Old Times
Displeased with his handling of Lhant, Strahta sent recall orders to Hubert. Asbel resolved to travel to Strahta and appeal to have the orders overturned. Seeking to stop him, Hubert's aide and adoptive cousin Raymond abducted Cheria. When his plot was foiled, Raymond attempted to end it all, but Cheria used her healing abilities to save him. The kidnapping lead Cheria to finally reconcile with Asbel, and the group set off the Strahta once again while Hubert remained in Lhant.

Charming the Rockgagong
The road to the capital of Strahta was sealed due to the violent rampage of a creature known as the Rockgagong. Asbel's group went to investigate but ended up being swallowed by the beast. The charm Asbel received from Hubert contained pepper, and the group was able to use it to cause the Rockgagong to sneeze them safely out.

Quid Pro Quo
The man they met in the desert turned out to be the president of Strahta. Learning that Strahta's occupation of Lhant was due to problems with their own valkines and that overturning the recall order would be dependent on solving that, Asbel offered to have Pascal fix Strahta's valkines. Pascal succeeded, but Richard appeared on the scene and sucked all of the power from the valkines into himself. Asbel's group decided that their first priority should be reporting this development to the president.

Together Again
The party was stunned when they heard the news that Hubert had traveled to Strahta to deliver: Richard had also absorbed the eleth from Windor's valkines. Everyone agreed that Richard was most likely on his way to the last remaining valkines. The president takes Asbel's party with pursuing Richard and promised Strahta's full support. With Hubert now among their numbers, the party's next stop was an island known as Warrior's Roost. From there planned to infiltrate Fendel, the nation that held the final valkines.

* However before traveling to Fendel, Hubert challenges Asbel to another battle. Should the player win this battle Hubert will tell Asbel that he merely wanted to test his strength. When Asbel leaves to get Cheria, Malik comes by and concludes that Hubert has defeated Asbel once and the reasons behind the challenge was to give Asbel a chance to defeat him and save his pride. Hubert neither denies or confirms this claim.

Rulers of the Roost
The party had planned to reach Fendel with the help of a spy who had infiltrated the Fendelian platoon at Warrior's Roost, but she had already been captured. To save her, Asbel's group won a battle at Riot Peak. The spy secured their passage to Fendel, but Malik's mood darkened aboard the ship, and Hubert regarded him suspiciously.

Probing the Valkines
The government of Fendel has been collaborating with the Amarcian people to conduct experiments on their valkines. But Pascal declared that these experiments could cause a dangerous chain reaction. She revealed that she was herself an Amarcian and that the experiments were based on her own research. Malik admitted to being a Fendel native as well. Hubert was furious with them for not disclosing these facts, but ultimately reconciled with both after Pascal saves him from a charging monster. To gather more information about the valkines, the party decided to make their way to the Amarcian enclave.

Sisters and Brothers
It was Pascal's older sister, Fourier, who took Pascal's research and had been collaborating with Fendel. After showing her the outcome of the experiment, Fourier is overcome with anger and jealousy over Pascal's superior intelligence. When questioned by Asbel, Fourier suggested that the man in charge of the experiment would know the location of the valkines. His name was Kurt, and he seemed to be some sort of acquaintance of Malik's. After leaving the facility, Pascal is noticeably upset over her sister's harsh words. Hubert provides her with some comforting words and succeeds in cheering her up.

Inheritors of the Dream
Kurt used to be a partner of Malik's in Fendel's reform movement. He was determined to complete his research on the valkines in order to rescue his countrymen from poverty and left the group with no choice but to defeat him in combat. After Malik and Pascal swore to honor hid dying wish of saving the people of Fendel, Richard appeared once again to steal all of the eleth from the valkines. Poisson believed that his next target was something called the Lastalia. With her support, the group decided to head to the Amarcian Archive of Wisdom to gather more information.

The Lastalia
The Lastalia is the valkines' source of eleth, and if it were to somehow lose power, all life on Ephinea would die. Asbel and his party traveled to World's Eye, an island connected to the core of the plant, in order to protect the Lastalia. When Richard appeared there, he no longer seemed to be human at all. At one point, Richard seemed to briefly regain consciousness, but when Sophie proposed another friendship pact, Richard critically wounded her and triggered a powerful chain reaction.

For Sophie
Richard's attack blinded Sophie and even the strongest of medicines could not cure her condition. This, combined with the fact that Richard had called her Protos Heis, led Pascal to conclude that Sophie might not actually be human. If that were the case, she figured that they may be able to save her by going to the Fodra place mentioned in the Archive of Wisdom. In order to gather more information, the group decided to travel to Sable Izolle and search for the lost archive of the Amarcian people.

The Lost Archive
With the help of Strahta's president, Asbel's party learned about the existence of a shuttle that could take them to Fodra. To launch it through the aquasphere, they'd need to fire two heat rays from different directions at the same time. First, they needed to travel to Lhant to find the shuttle, which was said to be hidden in the Seaside Cavern. However, unusually violent monsters were flowing out of the cocoon over at World's Eye, and the party spotted a group of them headed towards Lhant.

Of One Mind
By saving Lhant from the monsters, Asbel was able to reconcile with Bailey and his mother and come to a deeper understanding of his father Aston. However, Sophie's progressively failing health took another turn for the worse. Fortunately, with modifications to the shuttle and repairs to the cannon their plan to travel to Fodra finally came to fruition. Just as Pascal gave the order to launch, monsters again appeared to attack Lhant. But Fourier, among others, suddenly showed up to help, and the shuttle to Fodra was successfully launched.

Fodra, the Other World
Having finally reached Fodra, the party discovered a city where a woman named Emeraude had been asleep for 1000 years. There they learned that Sophie was an artificial humanoid soldier and that they would need to go to a special facility to repair her. Together with Emeraude, who was herself a researcher at the facility, Asbel's party set out for the Humanoid Research Center.

Welcome Back, Sophie
The group learned that Richard was infected by a life form known as Lambda and that Sophie was a humanoid created for the sole purpose of destroying it. As the party was uncovering one new revelation after another, Sophie reawakened and with the help of her friends, reclaimed her lost power. Told by Emeraude that Lambda intended to merge with the Lastalia, the party resolved to return to their home world of Ephinea to stop Richard.

Return to Ephinea
The shuttle needed to be upgraded before the party could return to Ephinea. When creating the derris bit for this purpose, Pascal used the remaining materials to fashion rings that would grant the power to resist Lambda for herself and Malik. The rest of group did not need this due to Sophie having implanted some of her particles in them at the time of her "death". And with Emeraude's help, the shuttle was made ready for launch. Asbel decided that there must be some way to stop Richard without killing him and that he didn't believe Lambda's infection had taken over Richard's heart.

The Wages of Ambition
The shuttle landed within the cocoon that Richard had created. Sophie was determined to destroy Richard when she encountered him; Emeraude had given her the power to sacrifice herself in order to eradicate Lambda, and she had planned to use it. However at the last moment, Emeraude stops Sophie in hopes of instead using Lambda's power to restore life to Fodra. Lambda rejected her and, once again, left for the Lastalia with Richard. The group returned to Lhant to collect their thoughts.

Seeds of Destiny
After convincing Sophie not to sacrifice herself to defeat Lambda, Asbel resolved anew to save both her and Richard. They prepared for the battle to come by absorbing the eleth from the meadow on Lhant Hill, which would protect them from Lambda's influence. Asbel and his companions each spent their last night envisioning the people they loved and their futures to come. They all separated into individual areas throughout Lhant. When Asbel approaches his brother, Hubert will tell him that he'll speak with the president of Strahta about reinstating him as the lord of Lhant. After Hubert leaves the room, he approaches Lady Kerri with the desire to talk to her and addresses her as "Mother" again. The next day with a promise to return in each of their hearts, they depart for their final battle at the Lastalia.

The Story of Lambda
In the Lastalia, glimpses of Lambda's memories revealed his tragic past. As a new life form, he was made into a test subject on Fodra and was marked for termination when his natural abilities were deemed too dangerous. Cornell, who treated Lambda like a person and even made him smile, ultimately sacrificed his own life to save him. That experience instilled within Lambda a fierce will to survive and an empathy for the young Richard he would later find teetering at the brink of death caused by poison.

* When the group finally reach the Lastalia, they undergo one last battle with Richard, who believes that a world free of conflict can be achieved by eliminating humanity. After his defeat, he pleads to the group to kill him along with Lambda but Lambda foresees this and abandons its host. The group fight him again and Sophie, realizing that their methods are insufficient at killing him, is about to initiate her mutual-destruction but is interrupted by Asbel who refuses to see Sophie die and absorbs Lambda into his body. As Asbel lays limp on the ground, he and Lambda start to have a mental conversation that the rest of the group is able to hear. Although seemingly unconvinced that there is still good in humanity, Lambda agrees to live in harmony with Asbel.