Alternate Universe Details
Details of Natalia's Alternate Universe
differences in a nut shell:
Four hundred years ago, Yulia read the Score. It was likely not her intention, but in doing so she had a major impact on society. The female, as her more obvious descendant, came to be seen as the clearly superior gender, and a revolution began. Those who, in canon, considered knowing the future to be hazardous, now had new reason for fear -- but as in canon, their faction was subdued, and these many generations later, it's simply accepted fact that men are delicate -- gentle, necessary for the raising of children, but (and it's been proven scientifically) simply not capable of even intelligent dinner conversation on complicated matters like politics or war.
The queendom of Kimlasca is more enlightened than most, and Natalia considers men to be people, too. It is a woman's duty to look after them, treat them well, and keep them safe!
differences world-wide:
Gender relations are reversed, and polarized. Females in canon are only sometimes and lightly discriminated against, but males in this reality are treated far more archaically. Scientifically proven to be feebler than women (their increased testosterone makes them irrational, they have a lower tolerance for pain, superior physical strength makes them the ideal laborer and servant for their more intelligent mistresses, etc), they are thought to require gentle handling and even coddling. A man is at his most attractive when he knows his place, submissiveness and deferentiality are the height of masculine sex appeal, and so on.
Some specific repercussions:
+ There is a particular fonic arte, utilizing the Seventh Fonon, which essentially eliminates menstruation. It must be performed each month, but can be done quickly and easily by anyone with any talent for the Seventh Fonon. Unlike conventional methods of birth control in our world, this can be done without adversely affecting the nervous system. (No potential for causing heart attacks, for example.)
+ Male children cannot inherit in their own name, and are married off as quickly as possible. They do occasionally enter into the military, but they are usually kept out of the divisions that see heavy combat and away from real rank. (As such, Jade is extremely unusual.)
+ Succession did not initially pass to Ingobert, but rather to his sister, Suzanne. It was a matter of some scandal when Suzanne's first born was a son, and Natalia was originally raised with the expectation that she would marry Luke, thus assuming the throne as his wife, but the stress of ruling, coupled with the shock of her son's disappearance, proved to be too much for Suzanne's poor health. She collapsed, and died some months later, leaving Ingobert and his wife Adeline to take the throne. Adeline has now also died, but Ingobert is allowed to continue ruling in her stead, as the father of the crown princess, until Natalia comes of age.
+ Luke's lessons in swordplay are atypical, and a sign of his father's indulgence.
+ Mohs is a minor clergyman somewhere. The Grand Maestro is a fiercely-devoted woman named Phedre. Naturally, the Fon Master himself is still male, but only because of the scarcity of Seventh Fonists, and all the real power, all of the influence, is vested in the Grand Maestro. Because of this, there is no schism within the church -- no Fon Master faction. Protected and sheltered, Ion rarely so much as speaks in public.
+ In smaller villages and nations less enlightened than Kimlasca (*kofMalkuthkof*), it is rumored that male infanticide sometimes takes place. Natalia is already lobbying to pass a law against this.
+ Fashion is somewhat different. Men's suits are made in a wide variety of different cuts, fabrics, and colors to heighten their attractiveness. As a general rule, they wear their hair long, the rich in elegant styles and with occasional ornamentation. Women, on the other hand, generally keep their hair short and practical. As a member of the nobility, Natalia could break this convention if she chose, and most aristocrats do -- but as a down-to-earth princess of the people, she has kept her hair short for years now.
(Tear's hair is long and flowing, as in canon, but even she keeps it in a tight French braid.)
differences in the game plot:
+ Van joins the party in Tear's place. Tear is, naturally, the final boss, although Luke will probably have more difficulty killing his Mistress, Legretta.
+ Jade is still a colonel, but one of very, very few males of such high rank; the military is an unusual career choice for them.
+ There have been some alterations from the canon lineup of God-Generals. First, there are seven, not six; Marybelle the Empty Heart, bitter survivor of Hod, is the seventh. Second, Dist is not a God-General, or even anyone the player will meet -- he actually grew up relatively normal, and is quietly and contentedly married somewhere. Nephry, however -- specifically, Nephry the Voracious -- is. (Wait for it...)
+ With Suzanne deceased and Luke unfortunately male, informing Natalia of her real birth would completely destabilize Kimlasca, rather than merely screwing with the party as it did in canon. Since Grand Maestro Phedre still wants Kimlasca to win the war, as prophesied, she would likely never have resorted to revealing this particular truth.
differences in individual characters:
:: Luke and Asch ::
Although sheltered and coddled after his "kidnapping," Luke was still raised to be a gentleman -- which, in this reality, means quiet and deferential. Being led out into the wide world and discovering how ignorant he was about, well, everything, only increased these traits, and so Natalia will be completely incredulous to hear what a pain in the ass he was in canon. Her Luke was a sweetheart, the perfect man, and she will not hear ill spoken of him. (There was a brief moment of something like brattiness over the destruction of Akzeriuth, but while Luke was confused by the responsibility his party expected him to take for the events there, he was less indignant than simply baffled and frightened: he has never done anything, in his entire life, important enough to claim responsibility for it.)
In a world where women propose, Natalia was only slightly put out by Luke's failure to remember her first proposal when they were children, and promptly proposed again when they were older. As such, they are engaged to be married, and she is less torn when she meets Asch. Natalia feels terrible about it, but because he was raised to be somewhat more aggressive, she just doesn't -- find herself -- as attracted to him.
(Some women do like aggressive men, but Natalia is of the firm opinion that they are all deviants.)
:: Vandesdelca and Mystearica ::
Essentially, these two switch places. Van was used to destroy Hod, but in this reality -- rather than turning to vengeance -- he curled in on himself, emotionally crippled, and for years was so traumatized that he could not speak. Tear grew up with him, and she loved him dearly, but it was only later, when she was older, that she realized he hadn't always been mute; hadn't always been broken. Because of this, she was the one to react with fury and outrage, decrying the Score and gathering the God-Generals together to rid the world of it.
Van, only recently recovered, is the one who kidnaps Luke -- and, in his reality, he does this intentionally, with Guy's assistance. He is extremely skittish, speaks very rarely, and has a tendency to stutter when he does. Rather than Tear's canon vacillation, Van is never willing to kill or even attack his sister directly, and when fighting her, he is very nearly incapacitated by this reluctance.
Meanwhile, Tear works with Legretta, who (as in canon) intended to assassinate Van... until she saw his nigh-comatose state. Although officially Legretta would seem to have adopted Van's role -- she is Commandant, and Dorian General, in charge of the Oracle Knights and Luke's beloved Mistress -- this is really only a pretty smokescreen. The truth is that Mystearica (as she is now more commonly known) leads the God-Generals, and Legretta owes fealty to her.
On the battlefield, Van is a Melodist in this reality, and does his best to stay back from the battlefield, using his TP to heal the party and tossing items rather than actually attack enemies. (And yes, for those of you paying attention, that means that your entire party would be extremely reluctant to kill human beings prior to gaining Jade, Anise, and Ion.)
:: Gailardia and Marybelle ::
Guy was not the heir at the time of the attack on Hod, but his sister was, and so the soldiers still flooded their home with murder on their minds -- and were neatly slaughtered by Mary and her ladies in waiting. Because of this, Guy does not have his canon phobia, but he does have a very... strained relationship with Mary.
Extremely bitter and coldly angry over the destruction of their home (an event which killed most of her family and ruined her life), Mary was a prime candidate for the God-Generals. She raised her little brother to fight, then slipped him into Luke's home to exact vengeance. Guy was never all that eager to kill someone, and as in canon, he became friends with Luke, increasing his reluctance -- but it wasn't really until Suzanne's death that he gave up the cause completely.
Having failed her in this regard, Guy has been essentially disowned by his sister, and she has vowed to kill him when next they meet. This whole experience has made Guy rather reluctant to raise his sword to anyone, even enemies.
:: Peony IX ::
Peony should not and, legally-speaking, cannot be Emperor. However, as in canon, a series of accidents and assassinations rendered him the only surviving member of his bloodline. To prevent Malkuth from descending into decades more of bloody civil war, a decision was made, and so Peony's advisers have created an elaborate deception. It helps that the child kept in Keterburg had very little public exposure, and that "Peony" is not the most decisively masculine name.
His public appearances are few, and when he does make them, it is under layers of bright blue and gold fabric.
By the end of the game, as willing as they were to accept deviation from the Score if it came under his banner, the people of Grand Chokmah would probably also accept that they were being ruled by a man -- but to reveal such weakness on the verge of war...? No.
Peony hates the deception, but in his lighter moments, he does have some fun with the Empress's elaborate costumes.
:: Jade and Nephry ::
(This section is very long. Well, you can't just say something like "Nephry went crazy" without explaining, you know? D:)
Jade had an extremely unpleasant childhood. Very early on, he learned to hide his true intelligence, to answer questions in the way that would make his teachers happy, and perform his experiments in private. Only his sister, Nephry, had any idea of how brilliant he really was -- and that alone was enough to terrify her.
When Professor Nebilim came looking for exceptional pupils and saw through his artifice, she knew at once that, whatever society said, this boy needed to learn more than etiquette and penmanship and basic math. Taking him on as a student would have horrified the populace, however, as well as ruining whatever chances he had of living a normal life, so she did what she had to: she adopted him and his sister both, claiming pleasantly (because boys were so rarely adopted) that of course it would have been cruel to separate the two of them.
Nephry was thrilled at first, of course -- every orphan has memorized this tune: our adopted families are only more special than biological families, because these kind mommies and daddies chose us to love and take home and live with forever. She thought this had finally happened to her. When she realized the truth... it was devastating. Mommy wanted a boy -- and not just any boy, but her freak of a brother -- more than her?
Of course, Nebilim was never less than kind to Nephry, Nephry was a dear girl and quite bright, but compared to Jade she was nothing, she could have been taught by anyone, and everything about him always had to be kept so secret. The focus was always on Jade, how far he'd progressed this month, this week, your brother really is something amazing isn't he, but oh Nephry tried to be nice about it, she even helped them with their horrible little deception.
And never mind that Jade seemed to break this rule whenever he felt like, letting that noble boy tag along and sit at the back of the room and ignore everything Mommy taught them, she was a good girl and never said a word.
She was such a good girl. And do you know what thanks it got her?
Jade killed their mother.
She helped him drag the body out into the snow, of course, and she tried to stop him from using the fonic artes that would bring her back to life -- what do you think you're doing, you can't, even you aren't that good -- but he didn't listen. He never listens.
Well, Nephry decided she would make him listen. She hadn't been the one stupid enough to try and bring Mommy back from the dead, but when he forsook fomicry on the advice of that friend of his, when he gave it up as wrong and impossible... for the first time in her life, Nephry had a chance to show her brother she could do something better than him.
She is not on Jade's level, and not on Dist's either, but Nephry has drive, verging on mania. There were many, many Ions -- and many Lukes -- but by scavenging her brother's old notes and the fon machine built to his precise specifications, she manages even the perfect isofon of Luke.
(TL;DR: Very nearly driven insane by having a brother more intelligent than her in a world like this, Nephry becomes one of the God-Generals. Her obsession with Jade fuels her interactions with the party, and Jade tells the others that she has a "brother complex". Natalia is probably misinterpreting a little, but totally horrified.)
differences in the woman herself:
Natalia is really very much the same, in spite of her radically different upbringing, but what differences there are start in her early childhood, where the woman she believes to be her mother (for all of that happened right on schedule, albeit motivated less by Adeline's blind grief and more by her grim insistence) taught her to be this reality's version of a proper young lady. Natalia is thusly much more aggressive, in battle and elsewhere.
(In this reality, Natalia's weapon of choice is a long narrow blade, like a rapier. She is capable of healing, and will do so in a pinch -- there's nothing terribly unfeminine about preventing your companions from dying, after all -- but for the most part she spends her time on the front lines, attacking enemies.)
Luke's forgotten their promise? Natalia won't let that stand in the way of their engagement. As soon as he's remembered how to walk and talk again, she simply proposes again. The date is, in fact, already set -- and some progress has been made in the kissing-and-touching department. (A lady does not reveal sordid details!) The party wants her to stay at home where it's safe? That's ridiculous, she can more than take care of herself, and they'll need her help -- which they will, because Luke can hardly function as a diplomat on his own.
She feels the pressure of her future more acutely, and as such is at times even more serious than her canon counterpart; this version of Natalia and most Peonies would have a lot to talk about. (Once she's gotten over the shock of some of them being men, which will... take a while.)
differences in a nut shell:
Four hundred years ago, Yulia read the Score. It was likely not her intention, but in doing so she had a major impact on society. The female, as her more obvious descendant, came to be seen as the clearly superior gender, and a revolution began. Those who, in canon, considered knowing the future to be hazardous, now had new reason for fear -- but as in canon, their faction was subdued, and these many generations later, it's simply accepted fact that men are delicate -- gentle, necessary for the raising of children, but (and it's been proven scientifically) simply not capable of even intelligent dinner conversation on complicated matters like politics or war.
The queendom of Kimlasca is more enlightened than most, and Natalia considers men to be people, too. It is a woman's duty to look after them, treat them well, and keep them safe!
differences world-wide:
Gender relations are reversed, and polarized. Females in canon are only sometimes and lightly discriminated against, but males in this reality are treated far more archaically. Scientifically proven to be feebler than women (their increased testosterone makes them irrational, they have a lower tolerance for pain, superior physical strength makes them the ideal laborer and servant for their more intelligent mistresses, etc), they are thought to require gentle handling and even coddling. A man is at his most attractive when he knows his place, submissiveness and deferentiality are the height of masculine sex appeal, and so on.
Some specific repercussions:
+ There is a particular fonic arte, utilizing the Seventh Fonon, which essentially eliminates menstruation. It must be performed each month, but can be done quickly and easily by anyone with any talent for the Seventh Fonon. Unlike conventional methods of birth control in our world, this can be done without adversely affecting the nervous system. (No potential for causing heart attacks, for example.)
+ Male children cannot inherit in their own name, and are married off as quickly as possible. They do occasionally enter into the military, but they are usually kept out of the divisions that see heavy combat and away from real rank. (As such, Jade is extremely unusual.)
+ Succession did not initially pass to Ingobert, but rather to his sister, Suzanne. It was a matter of some scandal when Suzanne's first born was a son, and Natalia was originally raised with the expectation that she would marry Luke, thus assuming the throne as his wife, but the stress of ruling, coupled with the shock of her son's disappearance, proved to be too much for Suzanne's poor health. She collapsed, and died some months later, leaving Ingobert and his wife Adeline to take the throne. Adeline has now also died, but Ingobert is allowed to continue ruling in her stead, as the father of the crown princess, until Natalia comes of age.
+ Luke's lessons in swordplay are atypical, and a sign of his father's indulgence.
+ Mohs is a minor clergyman somewhere. The Grand Maestro is a fiercely-devoted woman named Phedre. Naturally, the Fon Master himself is still male, but only because of the scarcity of Seventh Fonists, and all the real power, all of the influence, is vested in the Grand Maestro. Because of this, there is no schism within the church -- no Fon Master faction. Protected and sheltered, Ion rarely so much as speaks in public.
+ In smaller villages and nations less enlightened than Kimlasca (*kofMalkuthkof*), it is rumored that male infanticide sometimes takes place. Natalia is already lobbying to pass a law against this.
+ Fashion is somewhat different. Men's suits are made in a wide variety of different cuts, fabrics, and colors to heighten their attractiveness. As a general rule, they wear their hair long, the rich in elegant styles and with occasional ornamentation. Women, on the other hand, generally keep their hair short and practical. As a member of the nobility, Natalia could break this convention if she chose, and most aristocrats do -- but as a down-to-earth princess of the people, she has kept her hair short for years now.
(Tear's hair is long and flowing, as in canon, but even she keeps it in a tight French braid.)
differences in the game plot:
+ Van joins the party in Tear's place. Tear is, naturally, the final boss, although Luke will probably have more difficulty killing his Mistress, Legretta.
+ Jade is still a colonel, but one of very, very few males of such high rank; the military is an unusual career choice for them.
+ There have been some alterations from the canon lineup of God-Generals. First, there are seven, not six; Marybelle the Empty Heart, bitter survivor of Hod, is the seventh. Second, Dist is not a God-General, or even anyone the player will meet -- he actually grew up relatively normal, and is quietly and contentedly married somewhere. Nephry, however -- specifically, Nephry the Voracious -- is. (Wait for it...)
+ With Suzanne deceased and Luke unfortunately male, informing Natalia of her real birth would completely destabilize Kimlasca, rather than merely screwing with the party as it did in canon. Since Grand Maestro Phedre still wants Kimlasca to win the war, as prophesied, she would likely never have resorted to revealing this particular truth.
differences in individual characters:
:: Luke and Asch ::
Although sheltered and coddled after his "kidnapping," Luke was still raised to be a gentleman -- which, in this reality, means quiet and deferential. Being led out into the wide world and discovering how ignorant he was about, well, everything, only increased these traits, and so Natalia will be completely incredulous to hear what a pain in the ass he was in canon. Her Luke was a sweetheart, the perfect man, and she will not hear ill spoken of him. (There was a brief moment of something like brattiness over the destruction of Akzeriuth, but while Luke was confused by the responsibility his party expected him to take for the events there, he was less indignant than simply baffled and frightened: he has never done anything, in his entire life, important enough to claim responsibility for it.)
In a world where women propose, Natalia was only slightly put out by Luke's failure to remember her first proposal when they were children, and promptly proposed again when they were older. As such, they are engaged to be married, and she is less torn when she meets Asch. Natalia feels terrible about it, but because he was raised to be somewhat more aggressive, she just doesn't -- find herself -- as attracted to him.
(Some women do like aggressive men, but Natalia is of the firm opinion that they are all deviants.)
:: Vandesdelca and Mystearica ::
Essentially, these two switch places. Van was used to destroy Hod, but in this reality -- rather than turning to vengeance -- he curled in on himself, emotionally crippled, and for years was so traumatized that he could not speak. Tear grew up with him, and she loved him dearly, but it was only later, when she was older, that she realized he hadn't always been mute; hadn't always been broken. Because of this, she was the one to react with fury and outrage, decrying the Score and gathering the God-Generals together to rid the world of it.
Van, only recently recovered, is the one who kidnaps Luke -- and, in his reality, he does this intentionally, with Guy's assistance. He is extremely skittish, speaks very rarely, and has a tendency to stutter when he does. Rather than Tear's canon vacillation, Van is never willing to kill or even attack his sister directly, and when fighting her, he is very nearly incapacitated by this reluctance.
Meanwhile, Tear works with Legretta, who (as in canon) intended to assassinate Van... until she saw his nigh-comatose state. Although officially Legretta would seem to have adopted Van's role -- she is Commandant, and Dorian General, in charge of the Oracle Knights and Luke's beloved Mistress -- this is really only a pretty smokescreen. The truth is that Mystearica (as she is now more commonly known) leads the God-Generals, and Legretta owes fealty to her.
On the battlefield, Van is a Melodist in this reality, and does his best to stay back from the battlefield, using his TP to heal the party and tossing items rather than actually attack enemies. (And yes, for those of you paying attention, that means that your entire party would be extremely reluctant to kill human beings prior to gaining Jade, Anise, and Ion.)
:: Gailardia and Marybelle ::
Guy was not the heir at the time of the attack on Hod, but his sister was, and so the soldiers still flooded their home with murder on their minds -- and were neatly slaughtered by Mary and her ladies in waiting. Because of this, Guy does not have his canon phobia, but he does have a very... strained relationship with Mary.
Extremely bitter and coldly angry over the destruction of their home (an event which killed most of her family and ruined her life), Mary was a prime candidate for the God-Generals. She raised her little brother to fight, then slipped him into Luke's home to exact vengeance. Guy was never all that eager to kill someone, and as in canon, he became friends with Luke, increasing his reluctance -- but it wasn't really until Suzanne's death that he gave up the cause completely.
Having failed her in this regard, Guy has been essentially disowned by his sister, and she has vowed to kill him when next they meet. This whole experience has made Guy rather reluctant to raise his sword to anyone, even enemies.
:: Peony IX ::
Peony should not and, legally-speaking, cannot be Emperor. However, as in canon, a series of accidents and assassinations rendered him the only surviving member of his bloodline. To prevent Malkuth from descending into decades more of bloody civil war, a decision was made, and so Peony's advisers have created an elaborate deception. It helps that the child kept in Keterburg had very little public exposure, and that "Peony" is not the most decisively masculine name.
His public appearances are few, and when he does make them, it is under layers of bright blue and gold fabric.
By the end of the game, as willing as they were to accept deviation from the Score if it came under his banner, the people of Grand Chokmah would probably also accept that they were being ruled by a man -- but to reveal such weakness on the verge of war...? No.
Peony hates the deception, but in his lighter moments, he does have some fun with the Empress's elaborate costumes.
:: Jade and Nephry ::
(This section is very long. Well, you can't just say something like "Nephry went crazy" without explaining, you know? D:)
Jade had an extremely unpleasant childhood. Very early on, he learned to hide his true intelligence, to answer questions in the way that would make his teachers happy, and perform his experiments in private. Only his sister, Nephry, had any idea of how brilliant he really was -- and that alone was enough to terrify her.
When Professor Nebilim came looking for exceptional pupils and saw through his artifice, she knew at once that, whatever society said, this boy needed to learn more than etiquette and penmanship and basic math. Taking him on as a student would have horrified the populace, however, as well as ruining whatever chances he had of living a normal life, so she did what she had to: she adopted him and his sister both, claiming pleasantly (because boys were so rarely adopted) that of course it would have been cruel to separate the two of them.
Nephry was thrilled at first, of course -- every orphan has memorized this tune: our adopted families are only more special than biological families, because these kind mommies and daddies chose us to love and take home and live with forever. She thought this had finally happened to her. When she realized the truth... it was devastating. Mommy wanted a boy -- and not just any boy, but her freak of a brother -- more than her?
Of course, Nebilim was never less than kind to Nephry, Nephry was a dear girl and quite bright, but compared to Jade she was nothing, she could have been taught by anyone, and everything about him always had to be kept so secret. The focus was always on Jade, how far he'd progressed this month, this week, your brother really is something amazing isn't he, but oh Nephry tried to be nice about it, she even helped them with their horrible little deception.
And never mind that Jade seemed to break this rule whenever he felt like, letting that noble boy tag along and sit at the back of the room and ignore everything Mommy taught them, she was a good girl and never said a word.
She was such a good girl. And do you know what thanks it got her?
Jade killed their mother.
She helped him drag the body out into the snow, of course, and she tried to stop him from using the fonic artes that would bring her back to life -- what do you think you're doing, you can't, even you aren't that good -- but he didn't listen. He never listens.
Well, Nephry decided she would make him listen. She hadn't been the one stupid enough to try and bring Mommy back from the dead, but when he forsook fomicry on the advice of that friend of his, when he gave it up as wrong and impossible... for the first time in her life, Nephry had a chance to show her brother she could do something better than him.
She is not on Jade's level, and not on Dist's either, but Nephry has drive, verging on mania. There were many, many Ions -- and many Lukes -- but by scavenging her brother's old notes and the fon machine built to his precise specifications, she manages even the perfect isofon of Luke.
(TL;DR: Very nearly driven insane by having a brother more intelligent than her in a world like this, Nephry becomes one of the God-Generals. Her obsession with Jade fuels her interactions with the party, and Jade tells the others that she has a "brother complex". Natalia is probably misinterpreting a little, but totally horrified.)
differences in the woman herself:
Natalia is really very much the same, in spite of her radically different upbringing, but what differences there are start in her early childhood, where the woman she believes to be her mother (for all of that happened right on schedule, albeit motivated less by Adeline's blind grief and more by her grim insistence) taught her to be this reality's version of a proper young lady. Natalia is thusly much more aggressive, in battle and elsewhere.
(In this reality, Natalia's weapon of choice is a long narrow blade, like a rapier. She is capable of healing, and will do so in a pinch -- there's nothing terribly unfeminine about preventing your companions from dying, after all -- but for the most part she spends her time on the front lines, attacking enemies.)
Luke's forgotten their promise? Natalia won't let that stand in the way of their engagement. As soon as he's remembered how to walk and talk again, she simply proposes again. The date is, in fact, already set -- and some progress has been made in the kissing-and-touching department. (A lady does not reveal sordid details!) The party wants her to stay at home where it's safe? That's ridiculous, she can more than take care of herself, and they'll need her help -- which they will, because Luke can hardly function as a diplomat on his own.
She feels the pressure of her future more acutely, and as such is at times even more serious than her canon counterpart; this version of Natalia and most Peonies would have a lot to talk about. (Once she's gotten over the shock of some of them being men, which will... take a while.)