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Lord of the Revel (continued)
-I meet Lyse at the fishing village of Isari.
-YAY AND ALISAIE JOINS US! She escaped from the fight with the Red Kojin. What a badass.
Lolol Lyse is so happy she runs up and hugs her. Alisaie is embarrassed and Lyse doesn’t give a fuck.
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Tide Goes In, Imperials Go Out
-No imperials around. Maybe the Confederates drove them out entirely. Or Yutsuyu enacted some horrific retribution on all around her, imperials and Confederates alike. 50-50 chance.
-My fears are unfounded. It’s a resounding Confederate victory. The imperials fled, Yotsuyu included. Gosetsu and the Confederate leadership are safe.
-The Confederacy is going to have some hard times coming. The Empire won’t continue to look the other way with them.
-Our next step is Yanxia. That place was the heart of the rebellion. Sounds like Yotsuyu really did a number on it.
RASHO: “Remember this: fear changes men. Have care in whom you place your trust.” This is probably doubly the case when Yotsuyu is the one inflicting fear.
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A Silence in Three Parts (Yotsuyu)
-Scene change, to the shores of Othard. Some Red Kojin are carrying treasures away from the Vault to find somewhere new to store them.
-OH SHIT YOTSUYU FINDS THEM! SHE FOUND DESERTERS WHOSE DESERTION LED TO HER DEFEAT
I’m remembering this scene from Stephen King’s “The Stand” where the villain finds out one of his soldiers messed up:
"HEY BOBBY TERRY, YOU SCROOOWED IT UP!" the dark man bellowed, and fell upon the hapless Bobby Terry. There were worse things than crucifixion. There were teeth.
-She’s pissssed. She was forced to flee because her Red Kojin forces got distracted by our attack on the Vault.
-I think for a second she’s gonna go HAM on us herself, but no. She sends that brute jerkface Grynewaht to wreck their shit.
-I like that we haven’t even seen Yotsuyu fight on her own yet. You just know that when we she does, when we finally see the Witch of Doma uncloaked, she’s gonna be a force.
-lolol destroying Kojin just doesn’t scratch the same itch as destroying Domans:
“There needs to be some investment. They were some negligent **** deserving of punishment, but it was hardly personal. Ten thousand such Kojin could not satisfy me half so well as a single Doman.”
I knew it. Something about the Domans in particular gets her. I’m really looking forward to learning her backstory.
I don’t expect to sympathize with her, or to say, “Oh poor baby, now I get why you DO YOUR BEST TO DESTROY AND TORTURE A NATION, keep it up!” But I’m interested anyway.
-She spies a red sword on the beach, one of the Kojin treasures. Some sort of idea strikes her. Ruh-roh.
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A Silence in Three Parts (the party)
We move to Yanxia. Cinematic. Beautiful zone with bamboo copses.
-WHOA check that out! A giant magitek barrier. And beyond that, Doma Castle itself.
LYSE: “I’ll never forget the sight… or the anger I felt that day.”
-All these cinematics feature Lyse narrating all of this in the past. This framing reminds me strongly of FFX, how so much of it was Tidus telling a story.
-Gosetsu pauses on our journey, telling of what happened to Yanxia.
-When Zenos defeated the rebellion, he immediately appointed Yotsuyu viceroy. Yotsuyu and her soldiers stormed villages randomly, killing and torturing “radical elements” (probably whoever they felt like).
-All of these “purges” at the front end of her rule terrified the populace and suppressed all shows of resistance. Few imperials now patrol here.
After all, why would they need to when Yotsuyu has already traumatized the region into quiet?
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Life After Doma
-We approach a small village on the road, Namai. No imperial soldiers there currently.
-As soon as Gosetsu enters, everyone recognizes him. “The General.” “Lord Gosetsu.” I wonder – will they remember him for his loyalty, or will they remember him for his actions when he fought on the Empire’s behalf?
…was he part of the purges we just learned about?
-It seems like they know him mostly as an enemy of the Empire, one of the leaders of the failed rebellion. If he’s seen here, Yotsuyu will crash on this poor village like a tidal wave.
-A freaked out boy beckons us over, pulling Gosetsu out of plain sight. He explains that in the wake of the rebellion, nearly everyone was killed. They’ve just begun to find some form of peace.
His very presence here could bring their tentative peace crashing down. I really don’t blame the villagers.
-We’ll leave the village be for now and make for the Doman Liberation Front. Hopefully Yugiri’s there!
-I really like the zone name where the Liberation Front is located: Valley of the Fallen Rainbow.
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A Glimpse of Madness
-The Liberation Front HQ is called “House of the Fierce.” Not many people here.
-HI YUGIRIIIIII I MISSED YOU! I love her scarf.
-We catch her up on our trouble in Ala Mhigo.
-Yugiri has been searching for Lord Hien, the son of the fallen Lord Kaien. Hien was wounded badly in a battle with the Empire and vanished.
Yugiri found him on the Azim Steppe. We get a sepia flashback to her conversation with Lord Hien:
HIEN: “If Doma yet thirsts for the blood of patriots and tyrants, I shall offer unto her my blade. But if she has had her fill of bitter draughts, I shall offer unto her conquerors my head.”
He’s playing things cautiously. He doesn’t want to start back up that his country isn’t ready for. I like Lord Hien already.
-Lord Hien sent Yugiri back to Doma to learn “the truth of [Doma’s] heart.”
-I speak to some of the soldiers here, learning more about the massacre they survived when Zenos put them down.
-Zenos yae Galvus didn’t overwhelm the rebellion with numbers, but with strategy. He was efficient, surprising, brilliant.
And brave. Near the end, he came out to challenge the rebels to one-on-one combat.
”One… after… another. He made us watch. Do you understand? He made us watch.”
And cruel. He knew he’d win. He did this to deflate them, and in hopes they’d challenge him.
“He desired a new battle. A new enemy. A new challenge. The hunt, I am told he called it. A hunt without end. And when all our best lay dead and broken, he left muttering that we had ‘bored’ him.”
-But one fallen samurai’s sword interested him. He took it. Whose sword?
-Oh, it may not matter. I think he just liked Far Eastern blades and hadn’t seen one before. He collects them now, blades with storied histories.
-The music here is especially great. It’s not overwhelming. Just this pulse of strings and percussion, an unintrusive backdrop to the story.
-Gosetsu mentions that part of what defeated their rebellion was “Yotsuyu and the secrets she told.” Did she have some kind of inside info on the Domans? Could she even be Doman herself?
-Gonna call it here for now. But this last quest rewarded me with a new hat. I’m really digging Ququshu’s new look!
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Next time: plotting next steps with the Doman Liberation Front.
