Part 78: Did Someone Ask For Exposition

Entry 75 - Part 1: Did Someone Ask For Exposition



The following portion of the game contains large amounts of exposition with a minimum of animation or imagery. As this is not a visual novel, the decision is an unfortunate example of telling instead of showing in a format built around playing.

As such, I have undertaken emergency measures to try and alleviate the situation for the Let's Play format. Supplementary images have been scribbled and will be provided, hopefully giving a small amount of additional context to the proceedings.

Complaints can be directed to middleware/game developer Silicon Studio, or Square Enix, they of infinite life-giving crystals.



With the defeat of the sixth elemental dragon, the party has completed DeRosso's trial. They return to the Vampire Castle and, one by one, set the keystones into the door.

Once the last is placed, there is a sound of creaking heavy metal.



That was anti-climactic. He could've at least included a flash, a bang, or a puff of smoke.

Let's head in before Ringabel has a chance to flap his gums again.



Here's a better view of the complete door. How cheery!


Their handiwork now fully admired, the party steps inside.



Look at all those paintings.

Did we just stumble into an art gallery?

They all have a sort of forlorn look to them.




Vampire Castle is an optional dungeon.



DeRosso keeps hellish residents around, presumably to ward away intruders who somehow bypass his keystone lock.



The creatures all have a connection with legends of vampires.



Wolves are sometimes seen as allies of vampires.



These hellhounds can easily wreck the party's day, by the way. DeRosso was at least kind enough to not give them three heads.



The last type of encounter is an actual demon. Whether DeRosso summoned them or they took up residence here on their own, who knows.



Melusine is a water spirit/fairy from western European myth. She isn't known for doing anything particularly evil. Maybe she's just helping DeRosso out.



This seems like it should be the start of a Drakengard weapon story. You know, where in the end the patron murders everyone, then himself, in a frenzy of bloodlust to try and appease an insatiable demon god. But this is Bravely Default, so it's more likely the patron wanted the sword because he thought it sounded cool and stuck it on the wall of his castle unused where he could admire it every so often.



One painting has pride of place on the first floor, just before the staircase leading up. The party pauses to take a closer look.




His wife was sure an attractive one. Oh, and it says something under the painting.



So that's his mother, not his beautiful young wife. And that little baby is Lord DeRosso.

Clergyman? Of the Crystal Adventists?

Hm? Is something the matter, Agnès?

The Crystal Adventists were the predecessors of the Crystal Orthodoxy. It is now known as the old Faith.



How could he have been a member of the Adventist clergy? According to this portrait, Lord DeRosso is incredibly old. Even...ancient.

Yes, indeed, for I was born of these frozen lands in a time some two thousand four hundred years from this day.

And right on cue, in a cloud of smoke:




The party glances back when he shows up, but is far too experienced at this point to be alarmed.

And this portrait?

I was but an infant, as you can see. This is a reproduction, however. The original was lost long ago to fire.

And what of the part that reads, "Clergyman of the Crystal Adventists and cardinal of the Crystal Orthodoxy"?

Hmm, yes... As wind vestal, you would be expected to take interest in such matters. But ere I delve into the matter of the Old Faith and the Orthodoxy, allow me to tell of the founding of this land.



However, fifteen years past, the templar rose up and occupied their lands. Thus was the Duchy of Eternia born.



Yes, my father attacked the Orthodoxy's head temple and seized the Earth Crystal.

Indeed, it was the templar's military might that was the Orthodoxy's ruin. In the eyes of a vestal, he was a traitor and usurper.

......

However, the templar did not found a new state. In truth, he restored an ancient dynasty.

He did?

Long before the Crystal Orthodoxy ruled this land, it was known as the Kingdom of Eternia.



The Highlands were not as lofty as they are today. People and ideas flowed freely from other lands.



To the west lay the castle of the House of DeRosso, hereditary dukes of Eternia with royal blood in their veins.

Relations with the royal family were good, and ever did the kings of Eternia treat the dukes of our house with kindness. In return, the House of DeRosso did faithfully serve generations of Eternian kings.

DeRosso trails off there, disappearing again in a poof of smoke.


The party takes one last glance at the painting.



Little did he know of the approaching maelstrom--such tragedy that we could not possibly fathom.


Ringabel does writeups on each of the paintings. These are mostly a repeat of the conversations, but sometimes they have new info, so they're worth reading through if you want the max number of plot questions answered.



On the second floor, the party scrounges around DeRosso's shoe closets. Score!



They couldn't find a matching belt, but I guess this'll do.



Their closet raid is interrupted when they spot a second eye-catching painting.



DeRosso pops up behind the party.




I was born of the House of DeRosso, hereditary dukes of Eternia.



And the king bestowed favor upon me as well. Upon royal recommendation, I was made a cleric of the Crystal Adventists, the Old Faith, in my nineteenth year.

I devoted my body and soul to my clerical duties. For king, for kingdom, for faith. Sleep became an oft-missed luxury. But before long, a new tide began sweeping through the Crystal Adventists.



That belief formed the core of the Crystal Orthodoxy. The Eternian royal family, keepers of the Earth Crystal, immediately assented to this new way.

I soon found myself appointed to the position of cardinal in the Orthodoxy--me, a mere cleric. Cardinal DeRosso... Those were my days of glory. Even now, the mere sound of the then new title is dear to me.



Thereupon, cardinals throughout the world gathered for a conclave to elect the first grand patriarch. Amid the conclave's maelstrom, I was approached by a cardinal who wished for me to vote for his choice.



But that was my downfall, for I was forced from the position of cardinal by the fraudulently elected grand patriarch.

I had been but fervent in my beliefs and ideals. What I did, I did only for the Orthodoxy and for the people of this world.

The Old Faith and the Orthodoxy... The Kingdom of Eternia and the Duchy... That was all a bit hard to follow.

I agree.

There are no major differences in teachings between the Old Faith and the Orthodoxy. They both revere the four crystals. I have heard that the Adventists gave way to the new and truer ideas of the Orthodoxy, and faded away.

No wonder the Old Faith was abandoned.

Yet there is more to the story, for history is naught more than accounts recorded by the victorious.



So it was those who held the reins of power within the Orthodoxy relentlessly pressed for the Adventists' eradication. No one recalls the words of the vanquished if the victorious write them out of history. 'Tis as if they had never existed.

I'd been taught that the battle between the two faiths had been fierce, and in its wake, devastation persisting to this day covered all the lands.

That is an uncharacteristically accurate account for the Orthodoxy, save for their false reckoning of time. It was after the Orthodoxy had begun ruling the world that the endless conflict with the Adventists began.

I should know, for I was there to bear witness firsthand.

Lord DeRosso, how could you possibly be that old!?

Good point. We know DeRosso is old, we know he loves bragging about it, we don't know how he got that old in the first place.

But DeRosso does not answer, electing instead to do his vanishing act.




Sawing logs?

She means you were sleeping.

Ah, so it was that obvious?

Obvious? You were snoring like a bear!

I was!? You'll have to forgive me. Even I know that's really rude.

That it is. Even if that was an incredibly long bit of oratory.

That's right, Ringabel! You were really rude!

I mean, your snoring even woke me up!

What!? You mean you were sleeping, too, Edea!?

Tiz sighs and turns back to the painting.



From the Old Faith to the Orthodoxy... Lord DeRosso's fate was sealed upon his ordainment.

To recap, since this is the foundation of the rest of these conversations: The Old Faith/Crystal Adventists were Luxendarc's crystal-worshipping religion back over 2400 years ago. They had the whole vestals, temples thing going on. They also had other members of the clergy, implied to be made up of holy men (as compared to the crystal temples being occupied solely by holy women). Eventually, these holy men decided they wanted more power, so they restructured the religion to center around themselves rather than the individual temples. This new version of the religion was christened the Crystal Orthodoxy.

To solidify the power shift, these clergymen elected a grand patriarch as their leader. This grand patriarch position was decided by vote, and some of the clergy banded together to threaten and pay off others to get their guy elected. DeRosso got caught up in this political game and ended up on the unpopular side of the vote, putting him on the outs with the current grand patriarch.



As mentioned before, Crystalism, both in its Old Faith but especially its Crystal Orthodoxy form, is heavily based on the Catholic Church. Japan in general has never had a great relationship with the Catholic Church, as shown in the number of media where the church is depicted as comically evil. To Bravely Default's credit, the depiction of the Crystalist faith is more nuanced and realistic, with various factions within battling for control.



Having all these paintings is understandable -- a guy's gotta have a hobby when he's alive for millenia. But the coffins lying around? Is DeRosso also a really morbid carpenter?



Thamasa is a reference to a village in Final Fantasy 6. Though outwardly a normal village, the residents were secretly the last descendants of the powerful Magi, the only humans able to naturally use magic.



At the end of the third floor...



Is another large painting. The party crowds around.



A large army surrounds it. It looks as if it could fall at any moment.

Is this not this very castle? See, this is the western corridor right here.

There's another castle burning in the distance. It's near where Eternian Central Command is today.

So then, that's the Orthodoxy's head temple in flames?




Exposition-Man to the rescue!

Nay, the distant castle in flames belonged to the king of Eternia. And the castle in the fore...

...'tis the abode of my family, the House of DeRosso.

But why? Why would such a terrible thing...!?

The Kingdom of Eternia was suddenly beset by a great host from another land.




They had been told that the king of Eternia sought a return to Adventism and was arming for war against the Orthodoxy. The grand patriarchy used this fiction to order a great muster of forces from across the lands.



...but he succeeded in luring votes from other factions, and his became the ruling faction of the grand patriarchy.

It was they who wished to establish Crystal Orthodoxy as the uncontested world religion. Under their orders, the castle of the Eternian king was besieged. It fell in mere weeks.

Before long, the great host was at the gates of our castle, and my father lay brutally murdered.



By then, the castle sheltered naught but the elderly, the young, the wounded. There was no hope of resistance.

I was forced to sue for peace, even offering my own mother as hostage per their demands. Yet that failed to break the siege. The commoners who had placed their faith in my family and me slowly starved to death.



The fiend was now the officer in charge of the attack. He wrote that he would not accept my surrender. Such was the hatred he bore for me. Such hatred that he was willing to let countless innocents die.

My mother had been murdered.

......

Our castle was consumed in flames. That is the painting you see here.

How could the Orthodoxy do such a thing?

This all reminds me of what happened during the Great Plague.

Indeed... Perhaps the templar and I are not so very different. To be betrayed by what you believe in... To have your family and those you protect murdered...

Though we do not see eye to eye, perhaps it is a shared sorrow that binds us.

DeRosso leaves the party once again.

Lord DeRosso's castle siege painting...



The party would love nothing more than to go after the cardinal, but it's far, far too late now. Heroes aren't always there to save the day.


Ringabel's writeup has details on how DeRosso's father died. Everyone involved with DeRosso was doomed far before the siege started.



Moving on and up to the fourth floor, the party finds a nice new pair of gloves to add to their wardrobe. There are no dwarves in this game so far as we see. Are they a myth or an ancient race?




The next painting is to the north. Something about it is...

Unsettling.



This looks fun.



Such fierce flames.

Lord DeRosso appears once again.


Ah... Though I wish not to remember that day, it is indelibly etched upon my mind.

How did you survive?

The Orthodoxy lay siege, yet would accept no surrender. My mother, father, relatives, and my people lay dead. It was then that I set my castle ablaze. But as the flames began to lick my body, something slipped into me...

Betrayed by the precepts I believed in, was I not bitter? Robbed of my beloved homeland. My dearest of kin, my people, slain... Amidst such despair, was I content to simply welcome death? Nay!! I heard a voice:



Did I forge a dark pact with some fiendish entity that day? Or was it a rebirth, triggered by a future me reaching back to the past?

Panicked upon failing to find my body, the Orthodoxy chose to denounce my family and me as ghoulish vampires. Thus have I been living an immortal existence ever since.

Then the name Vampire Castle is...

A lie that has been perpetrated by the Orthodoxy for some two thousand four hundred years. Though it is true I am immortal, I am no vampire. I find the smell of blood too revolting to ever drink it.

Having said that, I have done naught to quell the rumors. In truth, I endeavored to embellish them.



Tell me, O Vestal of the Wind... What does the Crystal Orthodoxy have to say about the passing of the first grand patriarch?

He chose the second grand patriarch, and prayed for peace and the wellbeing of the faithful as he passed peacefully from this world.

Hmph, passed peacefully from this world, you say? I know the truth to be far different.

What do you mean?

The first grand patriarch was assassinated, along with his archbishop--the man who had been my bane. The assassin himself tells you this. There is no other truth.

Agnès flinches, but doesn't respond.



I became a veritable duke of darkness, forging ties with those bearing hatred toward the Orthodoxy and those it had oppressed.



And after some five hundred years, a fateful encounter with one whom you all know well...

No, let us leave the matter for another time.

DeRosso leaves.


The portrait depicting Lord DeRosso's immortality...



In fiction, immortality can sometimes drive individuals to insanity. All considered, DeRosso's been handling it well so far.

But we aren't at the top floor yet.


Next: A vampire, an angel, a prophecy, and a new job!

--

Event Viewer
Sub-Scenario:
Worthy of the Truth
Into Vampire Castle
Family Portrait - A
Family Portrait - B
Ordainment Portrait - A
Ordainment Portrait - B
Castle Siege Painting - A
Castle Siege Painting - B
Immortal Portrait - A
Immortal Portrait - B

Party Chat:
Lord DeRosso's Epic Oratory