Part 23: Mini-Update: Lots About Growlanser I
Mini-Update: Lots About Growlanser I
Some notes before we get to the GL1 backstory:
-The trip to the new world in the space-time tower is part of the plot of GL3.
-Featherians are people with wings that can't use magic, but instead know a lot about technology.
-Out of the people mentioned below (that don't die somehow), we only don't meet Sandra in the course of GL2. She's the Court Magician of Rolandia, and Louise and Carmaine's mother. There's an unlockable in GL2 that gives her backstory; I'll be playing through that after the main game.
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The tower used to come to the new world was a cooperative project of Featherians and humans. Featherians eventually came to distrust humans, so by the time of Growlanser I they live on an island up in the sky, rarely coming down to the surface. This island is destroyed during the course of the game and during GL2 the Featherians are integrating themselves back into human society.
A Growsian is a person born during an eclipse. They have extraordinary magical powers (the most powerful being those born during a total solar eclipse). (This magic power is gained from tapping into the Grow/Growshu that flows from the gap in the space-time continuum left from the trip to the new world). A Growsian civilization once ruled the continent. By the time of GL1, this civilization is gone and the continent is divided into three kingdoms: Rolandia (west), Burnstein (east) and Ranzack (south).
Much of GL1 concerns a war fought largely between Rolandia and Burnstein (Ranzack is eventually also involved). During GL1, your party fights for Rolandia (in GL2, of course, your party is fighting for Burnstein). The playable characters in GL1 are Carmaine, Louise (she's a Growsian), Wallace, Xenos, Karene, Misha, Ariost, Julia and Eliotte (if you're wondering why you can get an Imperial Knight and the king of Burnstein in your party when you're fighting for Rolandia, I'll get back to that).
For most of GL1, Burnstein is ruled by King Richard, who is actually a clone of the true king (Eliotte) and is controlled by Gevel. Near the end of the war there is a split in Burnstein with two of the Imperial Knights, Julia Douglas (who was at the time posing as a man and going by the name Julian Douglas because women weren't allowed to be Imperial Knights back then) and Kenshin Reaves backing Eliotte and the other, Ernest Lyell, backing Richard. The faction backing Eliotte fights alongside your party in invading Burnstein Castle, defeating Richard, and installing Eliotte as king. That is why Max refers to "King Richard" at the beginning of GL2 even though the king is Eliotte for every other scene in GL2. Anyway, after this battle, Richard is imprisoned and Ernest is allowed to remain an Imperial Knight, now serving Eliotte. But Ernest remains loyal to Richard...
About Venzern and the other bad guys in GL1:
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When the people of GL3 escaped to the world of GL1, they engaged in a war with the native creatures of GL1, Gevas and his clan. Growsian and Featherian fought together to seal Gevas into the tower, but as soon as Gevas was defeated, the two turned against each other. Featherians produced the clones of Gevas to fight against Growsians. But Growsians also acquired the same technology and made their own version of the Gevas clones. The Gevas clone made by the Growsians are the 7 Gevels.
Venzern, the king of Growsians, originally was a humble old man. But, he used his body to seal a portion of Gevas' soul, and that soul drove Venzern mad and made him into a tyrant. Venzern found a plan to fuse Growsian with Gevel, mixing two races from two different dimensions, which could give him ultimate power. First the testing is performed on a normal human, called Berga. And the experiment is a success. Venzern then proceed to test it on himself. The fusion is successful but at the cost of losing all the Grow in his body. The Growsian Civilization is also destroyed at the result of experiment. The 7 Gevels, losing their master, decide to take over the world, but are sealed away by the remaining Growsians. In GL1, only one awakened.
While Berga escaped to the future by using a power stone, and married Sierra who gave birth to Xenos. In the future, Berga leads a band of mercenaries (Wallace was a member back then) and encountered the awakened Gevel. Berga is defeated and loses his memory. Gevel mass cloned Berga knowing he was the fusion experiment sample. Carmaine is one of those clones.
Venzern, who lost his power still survived and sought to regain his power. For a time he served as a head master in Magic Academy (also as Sandra's mentor) and also a court mage of Burnstein. But the Gevel found him after being awakened and enslaved him.
Gevel first ordered Venzern to create the Shadow Knights. Venzern did so and but also began his plotting against Gevel at same time. Venzern secretly bred a few subordinates only loyal to him amongst the Shadow Knights.
Gevel then ordered Venzern to kill Richard at the time he was born and replace him with a clone. But Venzern left Richard alive, renamed him Eliotte and entrusted the baby to his subordinate. Then Venzern himself escapes from Burnstein, away from Gevel.
The Shadow Knights are also divided, those still work for Burstein and are directly influenced by Gevel, and those loyal to Venzern. These two factions carried out many back plot works in GL1. And they seem confusing as their actions seem contradictory because you don't know they are divided.
After Venzern escaped from Gevel, he helped Carmaine and co. out constantly in the game. And being Sandra's teacher, no one suspected him.
However, Venzern's true goal in all this is to recover his lost power. He left Eliotte alive and helped Carmaine and co. for the purpose of getting rid of Gevel. He shares a good relationship with Sandra only so he can get close to Louise to steal her power. He finally turns against them after Gevel dies, and proceeds to manipulate Richard and Lyell as he is the only person who can save Richard after Gevel dies. (All the Gevel made clones die if Gevel himself dies, as Gevel is the energy source of all his clones. Carmaine is lucky, as he gets a power stone that grants him a normal human life span.)
That should clear some stuff up! The next part of the game will be up this weekend. I'm gonna leave ending voting open until we meet all the girls, so there's no rush to jam votes in yet.