Part 7: Side Episode: Drakengard Recap #1
Side Episode: Drakengard Recap #1So, it's been a while since Drakengard and I'm sure you don't want to skim an entire LP to recall all the jerks referenced in this new title. So, I'm here for a little refresher on recent events. I'll try to have a recap at the end of each chapter to head off reoccurring elements from the first game. If something is not mentioned in a recap, assume it is some new bullshit invented for this game. This is to say, there won't be a whole lot of recap updates...
The Empire
The Empire was the big bad guys in the first Drakengard. They were basically a bunch of your usual stock fantasy imperialistic assholes attempting to expand across the continent. That was until the mysterious "Cult of the Watchers" set up shop in their borders and took over management. At this point, the Empire became pretty overwhelmingly powerful with crazy magic, 100 foot tall laser shooting Cyclops, flying fortresses, and fantasy atom bombs. That's around the time Drakengard 1 took place.
Needless to say, things didn't go all that well for the Empire by the end of that game. In so far that their forces where mostly annihilated, their capital of Notspain was razed to the ground, and the entire Empire crumbled.
The Union
The Union was the "good" army fighting against the evil Empire. It was a band of assorted kingdoms united in a single cause against the Empire's expansion. The Empire and the Union had fought for a few decades prior to the events of the first game and were pretty much evenly matched in strength until the whole Cult of the Watchers business started up and they began getting their asses kicked. Caim, a deposed prince from a fallen kingdom, was a member of the Union and...literally the only competent member among their ranks that appeared in the game. He also had a dragon, so that helped a bunch.
A little over half way through Drakengard, the Union managed to defeat the Empire in a final battle (single handedly won by Caim and Angelus.) They were then immediately carpet bombed from the sky by the Empire's fantasy nukes. But luckily enough of them called in sick to the final battle to roll in after the events of Drakengard 1 and take over thing. The core army of the Union went on to become the Knights of the Seal.
The former Hierarch Verdelet
Verdelet was a "party member" in Drakengard 1. He wasn't playable...and never did a damn thing useful. In fact, he spent most of the game just ranting and raving how everyone was doomed and the end was nigh. He did this so often that Caim kicked him in the face a few times to get him to shut the hell up. Following Drakengard 1, Verdelet helped re-organize the Union into the Knights of the Seal, as well as setting up a new set of seals in the form of the Districts of Drakengard 2. He also apparently took on Seere as an apprentice for his religious doomsaying bullshit and assorted mumbo-jumbo.
Hierarch Verdelet apparently perished three years prior to the events of Drakengard 2 in the same attack that killed Nowe's foster dad, General Oror. We'll find out more about that later on...
Seere
Seere was another party member from Drakengard 1. He was a six year old boy that made a pact with a giant stone golem in exchange for his "time". This means he's basically stuck being six years old forever. For reference, he's 24 in Drakengard 2. In as far as Drakengard 1's Ending A path, that is the default one and ending leading to this game's continuity, uhh...Caim and the gang never met Seere... You couldn't recruit Seere until completing the game once... Sequel consistency, who needs it!
As far as Seere's story goes, his mother dies and he made the pact with the Golem because the big, half retarded monster felt sorry for the kid. Other than that...he had absolutely no significance at all to the first game's plot. Or any of the plots that really mattered in the entire game. He was second only to Verdelet as most useless member of the party. So I guess it was only natural that he groomed the kid to be his successor.
Oh yeah, well...he's that Manah girl's twin brother. That might be important...
The Seals
The Seals were uhh...well gigantic magical seals. They kept the world from sinking into chaos, letting Lovecraftian horrors form between dimensions roll into the world, and held back the "Seeds of Resurrection", which were basically extremely powerful magic thingamabobs that could remake the world or...something. They were never really clear on that. They were bad, okay?! In the first Drakengard there were four seals: The Forest Seal guarded by the fairies, the Dessert Seal guarded by sand and a few Union dudes, and the Ocean Seal guarded by water and I don't know...angry fish? The better part of the first half of the game was Caim and the Union attempting to, and failing miserably, at stopping the Empire from destroying all these Seals. The Empire was just kind of dicks like that.
On top of those three seals was the Goddess Seal, which was a living being chosen out of a lottery or the like to have the ultra shitty job of being a living Seal binding together the other physical ones and having the world's biggest target painted on you by all evil in the land. Caim's sister Furiae had that crappy job in the first game. But she died due to uhh...well they didn't give a reason in the Ending A path. She was just kind of already dead when Caim finally caught up with her. I guess Manah just killed her? Who knows! Anyway, at the end of Drakengard 1, the red dragon, Angelus, offered herself up as the new Goddess Seal to prevent the end of the world and so the day was saved.
In between the 18 years since then, four new seals have been established as the Districts on top of the Goddess Seals. These ones seem to be far better defended this time around. But at what cost...? It's a safe bet that it is a very dumb one...
Manah
This little brat Manah was the main villain of the original Drakengard. She was the leader of the Empire and priestess of the Cult of the Watchers. She was also the possessed avatar of a pan-dimensional dark god; the very same one that went and fucked up the world in NIER. Said possession resulted in her going back-and-forth from sounding like a six-year girl and sounding like a monotone heavy smoker 40 year old man. It was pretty ridiculous. Manah apparently got possessed because her mother abandoned her in the woods since they only had enough money to pay for one twin and Seere won the coin flip. I guess whatever the Watchers were previously possessing was taking a crap out in said woods at the time and took over her mind in exchange for being loved. The power of love and friendship has no good end in any Cavia series.
Manah went on to do a bunch of assholish things like murder Caim's sister, possess his loser of a childhood friend and give him the dragon that murdered Caim's parents to ride around on for shits and giggles, and become the final boss in the form of making her body grow into a 50 story tall version of herself. Following her defeat, Caim elected to not kill her and instead...well, I guess we'll find out more about that later...
I think that's about all for now. Hope that helped.