Part 7: Clean Slate Part 1: Seth and the Council.

Clean Slate Part 1: Seth and the Council

So, since some parts of the Clean Slate story actually do come up a bit in Master of the Wind, I wanted to summarise this pretty bad game. Volrath himself admits calling it rough around the edges is a great understatement. But it's... kind of interesting. It also shows how much he's improved since it definitely feels like it was written by an 18-year-old.
I'll do one of these updates now and then over the course of this LP. Hopefully we'll cover certain points before they come up in MOTW. Good for building up certain things, you see.



In his intro video for the Clean Slate VLP, Volrath says he started the game in 2001, as he was starting college in NYU, literally days before 9/11.
... Curiously, he uploaded this first video on Sept 11, 2012.

He then emphasises he went through a lot while making Clean Slate.

The game never wound up being released since he only became active in the RPGMaker community after he'd already finished it, and it sounds like he was reluctant to release it since he'd made it almost entirely in RTP, and well, the RPGMaker community in the time of RPGMaker 2k usually took that as a sign of low quality and laziness.
He wonders briefly why he was so drawn to doing a story about an amnesiac, because he knew it was hardly original but the idea just wouldn't leave his head.



Clean Slate starts with a ship being wrecked in a storm. An amnesiac Gallian knight washes up on a beach and is found by a minotaur named Galdar and an old man.
When they realise he has no memory, they decide to take him in.



Galdar gives the knight a minotaur name, Arius, because it'd be insult to a Gallian, or a subtle way of testing to see if he still has prejudices like a Gallian.



Then Arius has a flashback. Then they all go back to a town named Guardia. Guardia is a place hidden from Gallia, a sort of safe haven for people fleeing its oppression.


Arius goes to sleep. Arius has a dream.



Arius has a dream of himself and a woman and the woman refers to him as Lord and General and they talk about the nobility being jealous of his promotion. And then they arrange to have dinner together.

Arius is invited to join Guardia's espionage unit by Galdar, and meets Turnus, a foulmouthed ninja type, and...



His love interest.

During these talks, there's stuff about Seth, a dragoon (some manner of winged human). Seth and his girlfriend Villea were the last two dragoons left. But the Guardia council had Villea executed for some reason, and since then Seth's been waging a one man war on Guardia. Arius, Galdar and Turnus get sent to investigate Seth by the Guardia council, who are strongly implied to be purposely mismanaging Guardia.



During the investigation they meet this guy, also a part of the espionage unit. His real name is Morias. He's actually the father of the Morias we know and love as a bank robber.



Here's the man himself. He beats everyone up, but is badly wounded by Arius and leaves, but not before ranting about how he knows who Arius really is.

The group quickly realises Spider betrayed them by warning Seth, and when they confront him, Turnus is critically injured, and Arius kills Spider.

Arius is complaining this whole time about the councils evident mismanagement and the fact that no one has ever seen them but for their 'contacts', but he keeps getting shut down by everyone... until he barges into Nova's house one night.
Nova, in turn, tells Arius her own story about how her parents were murdered by Gallians... except she doesn't think the Gallians really were responsible for various reasons. She suspects the Guardia council had her parents killed for being outspoken opponents of their policies...

Turnus gets better. Seth abducts the weapon shop owner and his huge shipment of weapons.
Arius gets approval for his request to have an audience with the council which shocks everyone because even Galdar and Turnus get told no all the time. Also literally no one else has ever seen them.






Pictured: Arius being introduced to.... the............ council...? ARIEL?? We haven't heard about her in the context of Master of the Wind yet, but we will, in the same way we've heard some about Lysander.
But where Lysander wasn't a complete monster... Ariel is, and she aligned herself with Gallia more out of a desire for power than anything.

Anyway, Ariel is very curious about Arius' amnesia and whether or not he's happy in Guardia. The council gives Arius bullshit answers for his concerns and refuses to say what Villea did that was so bad they condemned the dragoon race to extinction.
Arius leaves unhappy but the scene continues.



The council is left at a COMPLETE loss what to do about this, since Lysander is essentially their boss.


Nova and Arius decide to tail one of the council members, an 'Azor' into a hidden pathway just outside Guardia. Then they get attacked by lots of worms and pass out. Then, elsewhere, Seth treats us to a length cutscene about his backstory.



Kloe!? I thought I left you behind in The Way LP.

Anyway, Villea and Seth live happily with their people until Gallian knights come and slaughter them all. The two dragoons wind up in Guardia, make friends and one day the council just has Villea executed, refusing to say why to Seth when he asks. And then they try to kill him too. Seth manages to flee.



Azor saves Arius and Nova from the worms, and they bicker for a while about nothing really.



Seth shows up and murders Azor and then goes to slaughter the rest of the council.


HMMM LOOKS LIKE WE'RE SHORT A COUNCIL MEMBER


Anyway, Seth reveals Arius is General Lysander. It's a bit of an odd reveal since Lysander hasn't been mentioned outside of the council scene and we don't know who he's meant to be (this is literally the first time Arius has heard the name), just presumably a high ranked Gallian guy I guess. Also it's kind of odd to have this kind of reveal so early, but there's actually a lot more to this than you'd first think. Not that it makes it any less goofy.

They fight, and Seth reveals Guardia only exists because of Lysander and that his memory loss is the only thing that kept it from total destruction. Arius remembers Lysanders plan was to have Guardia attract all dissidents and active enemies of Gallia so they could be slaughtered in one battle.



And then Arius starts having split personality issues.



Uhm...



Ahhh! After 3 days I'm free! Time to conquer Solest!

So they literally split into two people. Volrath only suggest some kind of magical occurrence, and Lysander's dialogue implies he was using lots of magic while he was 'trapped' in his own mind. He IS meant to be an extremely powerful dark mage.

Arius passes out, and Lysander flees.

the end