#octopath lore

[viridiave]

too much work went into this. I'm sorry Octopath fandom.

So I couldn't sit still sometime around last month and wondered what the HELL darkness magic actually is, but it spiraled out into something completely. ugh

if i'm honest this is my excuse for putting down some very specific observations about the games and its magic system, including but not limited to:

distinctions between different types of magic

lore behind certain skills

the fucking remnants and revenants

@sly-s-n0nfusion thanks for starting me on this road this got blown way out of proportion

NSFW version of this paper under the cut. Read responsibly lmao

What the hell is Dark Magic_NSFW version - Google Docs

this is the original purpose of the doc tbh. imagine I actually fill in the application section

[satsuha]

been thinking about this tweet all week

[loregoddess]

some more thoughts I had while reviewing a few banters, that I can't quite fit into the analysis I'm currently writing...

In the "New Paper Plays" banter between Temenos, Agnea, Castti, and Partitio, Temenos mentions that he wrote and illustrated his paper plays himself, noting that he specifically tailored them to be appealing to children. This got me wondering about all the "mistakes" he makes while reading these plays to children, which I've wondered about a lot because Temenos is clearly very familiar with all the scriptures (to the point where he can share certain stories at a moments notice when he feels they're fitting for the situation), so it seems strange that he would mess up the details.

And then it hit me--Temenos is probably making the mistakes on purpose. This would achieve three things: 1) It allows the children to have fun learning the scriptures because they can laugh and correct Temenos on the details he messed up, 2) It helps the children to build their confidence because they feel smart when correcting him and aren't afraid to speak up and correct him, and 3) It teaches the children not to blindly rely on and trust others for things they either know to be true or could otherwise investigate and learn the truth themselves, even when (or especially when) the information comes from someone who should "know what is correct"--which is the core of Temenos's approach to his faith. The third point I feel is what Temenos is specifically trying to get at with his mistakes, since he is an "authority" figure, and if the children aren't afraid to stand up and correct him, then they may become adults who likewise aren't afraid to question and investigate things for themselves.

It's rather clever really, since Temenos isn't outright saying "hey, you should doubt things that are presented to you as true and told not to question". Instead, he's modelling the actual actions for the kids by presenting them with something they know isn't correct from someone who should "know best", and allowing them to question and correct him.

It's a very "Temenos" approach to teaching the scriptures, and considering that doubt and questioning and coming to one's own conclusions can be a form of faith, it isn't even antithetical to his role as a cleric. It's a really neat bit of characterization that I didn't even notice until I realized that Temenos clearly put a lot of thought into how his plays were constructed, and that his purposeful and careful thought process is central to a lot of his characterization, so of course the "mistakes" he makes while reciting the plays would be thought-out and purposeful as well.

[fulgurbugs]

The only modern AU thought I’ve ever had and ever will have I think

[ramblesbiab]

worst thing a video game can do is show me a woman who has been traumatized and/or abused because I will immediately start vibrating thinking about how badly I want to stop playing the game and write a fanfic of her having the most disgustingly wholesome and loving lesbian sex anyone has ever seen

[dualdeixis]

[Image description: First is a digital drawing of Kaldena which is styled after the painting Smiling Girl, a Courtesan, Holding an Obscene Image by Gerard van Honthorst. Kaldena wears a wide-sleeved mustard coat, a red waistcoat with blue buttons, and a white shirt and cravat. She grins as she holds up a medallion with one hand and points to it with the other. The medallion depicts Ophilia Clement and Therion with blue haloes, Ophilia's also being detailed with stylized flames. She is dressed similarly to a Solistian cleric as she lifts up Aelfric's Lanthorn and looks down benevolently at Therion; he shows his bangled wrist and crouches before her, meeting her gaze and weeping. The engraving in Orsterran script at the bottom of the medallion, partially obscured by Kalenda's finger, reads "NOLI ME TANGERE."

Second is a collection of digital doodles of Kaldena. She sits on a cliff while listening to Yomi play the biwa; polishes a sword; casts a spell as a scholar; and combs her hair. End image description.]

@maverickflare your images

[roaldseth]

OGEN, WITCH OF THE BLACK BRANCH A concocter of conjuring ink, Ogen travels the peninsula and offers his expertise to other traveling witches in a pinch. The renown of his knowledge and skill in the trade makes him sought after amongst the upper echelons, but his concoctions do not sell for common currancy. His ink is only bought at the price of a witch’s merit, one determined by the hand of one who stares at the abyss of forbidden magic, the healing arts, waiting for it to answer back to him from the black.

Listen. I know I said it as a joke because Olruggio enjoyers would love Ogen, but I do think WHA fans would enjoy Octopath Traveler actually.

[unparalleledfocus]

Was rereading the OT2 travel banters recently and now that I think about it, was this ever explained?

Since this is in the context of Castti being lucky lately it probably isn't spying (emphasis on probably).

Then who could it be? Malaya? Dohter? The player themself?

[deathemayor]

you cant be saying that white baby

[calico-strawberry]

Mm, honestly love most of the stories of OT1, but yeah the final chapter is leagues better in 2 than it is over 1.

Namely actually having the travelers interacting with each other (love the campsite scene at the start) and... Ya know actual dialogue from them. This last bits more of a personal opinion but I do also prefer how much more personal to the travelers the whole situation in Journey for the Dawn chapter is, with the Moonshade Order members involved (though, still upset the Tanze thing is never brought up by neither Agnea nor the troupe Tanze was in because they were very strict in having the only travel banters be between the crossroads pairings, which i think was a bad move).

That being said, a boss rush is way better gameplay then. Walking up some stairs, as far as the actual finale goes, though in both games I wish there was an actual final dungeon.

[cordatumcape]

Claude's team for Pokémon AU. He uses Void Shadows to replicate Pokémon relevant to characters ether in Throné's story or her Crossed Paths with Temenos.

[loregoddess]

has this been done before or...?

[fulgurbugs]

Doodle comic - practical magic

[cornmazehater]

man I wonder what new hyperfixations im gettin this month

octopath traveler 2 and meteorology about to double team me: >:)

[smilepebble]

i want to note first that erhardt is an NPC, and given the design philosophy of octopath this means we don't really get much of a chance to get into his head (we do get to know him better than most, if not all of the other NPCs in the game, but even still). sometimes my personal analysis of his character starts to teeter on the edge of Just Making Shit Up, but i will work with what we have officially for this post.

nonetheless, no matter what your opinion on king alfred of hornburg is (if you even have one), it doesn't change the fact that he was at least partially responsible for what happened to erhardt. he, as king, had a duty to protect and care for his subjects. and so when erhardt's hometown of grynd was razed in the war, and king alfred didn't even bother to send aid, that's a failure on his part.

and even 21 years after the fact, after erhardt has long since killed the king and has been stewing in his regrets for 8 years, he's still furious over king alfred's negligence. it's not surprising he feels that way. he saw everyone he knew and loved burned and slaughtered for the sake of a civil war that he, as a civilian, had no part of. his entire revenge plot, although shaped, manipulated and enabled by werner, is still a result of the enormous loss erhardt suffered and the need to do something about it. he wanted to prove it happened, that it mattered, that it hurt.

and even though his friendship with olberic meant so much to him, it wasn't enough to stay his hand. it was only after the fact, after he'd killed his king and pushed hornburg past it's tipping point to ruin, that he realized his life had been destroyed again, this time by his own hand.

yet even still, if he was given another chance, i don't think he would do anything differently. to live life letting the man who chose to do nothing while his loved ones died continue to live in luxury... not only that, but to let this same man be the one he directly took orders from, to let his home and his loved ones fade into obscurity... i just don't think he could take it.

there's something uniquely tragic about the fact that even though erhardt regretted killing his king, if he could do his whole life over he probably would have done it again

[roaldseth]

Since I don't think I'd ever expand Full Wage (fanfic)'s continuum outside of a really short one-shot not at all relevant to this, but recently had the absolute pleasure of meeting Y'nuush in CotC (H'aanit's Traveler Story), so thoughts on how I'd fit her in to that story because she honestly is not the wrench that I thought she would be, but rather, to my surprise, easily insert-able.

[Dear reader, this is the disclaimer that's to say this isn't meant to be reasonable. It's meant to forward my own agenda of making my blorbo Special(tm) for fun because I'm the one who's stuck in hell unwell about him]

First, I cannot (can) believe they just made genderbent Z'aanta because--for gacha reasons--they couldn't "get the rights" for regular Z'aanta to appear, I GUESS. Though my thanks go out to her comically done fusion of Z'aanta and Susanna if only for being able to appeal to my own inner world.

• Susanna (S'ooshana) and Y'nuush: for Full Wage's lore, they could easily be sisters if not twins. It would explain the Susanna bits in Y'nuush's character. I also made Susanna of the Woodlands in that fic for red string reasons that she herself is also a beast tamer, and that's why Z'aanta was initially under her (previous generation's tamer) tutelage despite taking vastly different studies (scholar).

[ OG Octopath Traveler itself doesn't say she was his mentor/master, but I personally did not interpret "like a son" to be casual given one of the central themes in H'aanit's story/character being interpersonal bonds. ]

Then, given Y'nuush's direwolf companion, she could also hold the talent/talent to some extent, but Z'aanta wasn't handed off to her initially because--given she is heavily Z'aanta designed for obvious reasons--she could have simply traveled too much on commission. Susanna, on the other hand, settled down in one place and would've been a more ideal environment to rear, at the time, a very young prentice. Then, in adulthood where Z'aanta was cautioned to return home (S'warkii) because of apparent perils, Y'nuush takes him at Susanna's behest.

[ As much as I also know what they meant when they said "met" in the Traveler's Story. H'aanit saying "met Z'aanta" in regards to Y'nuush's retirement gave me the impression that it was kind of a later experience, because why not say something like "teach" or something then? IDK that just how it rubbed me.]

• Thud, the direwolf: Z'aanta's direwolf pup given before his leave could have been thanks to Y'nuush, and with running with Susanna and her being sisters, that year in Full Wage whatever time before that summer solstice, Susanna could have reached out because the fic identifies it as a Woodlands breed and not really something in the Frostlands.

Thud's eerily relevant to Full Wage demise is me somehow, unintentionally making Z'aanta a unknowing companion killer by sheer random association given I had given Susanna a lynx companion (Sága) who also perishes, albeit from human intervention, during the narrative to protect Z'aanta on the dragon hunt (his greatest feat, parallel to the gigantes who was the one beast Y'nuush could not hunt).

• Y'nuush's retirement: the streamlined relevancy of my intricate Z'aantaganda lore in my head seen in Full Wage is Susanna, as a scholar who noticed Z'aanta as her better in the beast taming talent*, tried her best to nurture what she saw as an already above average latent talent in his youth. Then, it's Y'nuush that sees the full fruits of this nurture, and only the end result.

*It was edited out in the refinement process but originally I did have dialogue of Susanna admitting to Grotoff (OC) that Z'aanta was her better in this regard. The text still expresses that he's Oddly Good At It and she's Not That Good but it's more putting multiple pieces together instead of one nice, clean, clear line.

Then, the thing is, she sees him hunt. She sees him hunt in the combined experience of both a bright eyed young man--friendly, upbeat, open, and of all green and naive--but also the remnants of the fact that someone had put a bounty out for his (and Susanna's) head, and they had done so with a dragon, leaving a forlorn, tarnished outlook. And I like to think she sees Ische in some sense, and in a way that's similar to Grotoff's realization about Z'aanta: it's both magnificent yet horrifying to watch him.

And then she looses Thud, and it's just enough for her to stop. Whether or not to parallel what I had written in Full Wage with Sága (OC) with Thud, I haven't really thought about it tbh.