#one of our village founders turned insane after reading it but anyway. we have better things to do than investigate any of that

[obihoe]

just realized that when hashirama tells his and madara's story - including the bit about madara telling him about the writing on the uchiha monument - the uchiha monument is actually right there next to them? madara told him that he could decipher the writing using his ocular powers which im thinking means that u need EMS cuz madara was the first one to obtain them .. sasuke has EMS too and he demonstrates that at some point to everyone there. why didnt anyone think about whether he might be able to read the writing w them?

hashirama at this point - with exception of the few hints that he got from madara - has no clue what the writing says but he does know that it had smth to do with madara leaving the village and when sasuke and orochimaru later tell him that madara has been resurrected and plans to trap everyone in his infinite tsukuyomi .. why wouldnt he connect the dots and realize that maybe thats what he meant back then with his "real dream"? wasnt he curious to find out more specifics? cuz orochimaru and sasuke just say that he wants to control everyone, kill everyone, cause the world to go under etc. and bc they dont know madara thats enough of an explanation for them. but hashirama has much more intimate knowledge of him, he still regards him a fundamentally kind man, refers to him as his gift from the divine, says that he looks forward to reconnecting with him etc. etc. so surely he must have wondered whether there isnt a little more to the infinite tsukuyomi than just world domination for world domination's sake? and the monument was right there, if sasuke had turned out to be able to read it, they couldve gotten a better understanding of it. even without hashirama's perspective on madara as a person - the writing could have had crucial information on how to stop him. so why didnt anyone think about having sasuke try and read it?

[ghoultyrant]

FoZ Notes 13

Come on, let’s go. Hit me.

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Romalia history lesson: pretty much they were Rome (conquer, civilize, lose control over most of their territory), except instead of turning into the Christian religious center later they basically started as that. Also it's indicated it was a deliberate move instead of a product of blind luck. Oh and they were originally a citystate, so I guess GrecoRome?

Also, Romalia is dead south of Gallia. The basis of their claim for religosity maximus is "Brimir died here, so it's sacred." For no explained reason, the king is called the pope -it's not an actual separate position or anything. This is REALLY fucked up, as the actual papacy functions as an ostensibly-neutral arbiter, and that’s rather important.

There's a giant temple called Forsythe Shrine, named after the first Romalian king, who was a disciple of Brimir. The peninsula Romalia occupies is called Ausonia Peninsula.

Salvation knights of the Maltius Brigade, passing out soup. Evidence that Romalia showers its clergy in money while feeding its non-clergy barely at all: a huge divide of wealth.

Weapons -including wands- are forbidden to be readily at hand in the Romalian capitol. Unless you're a Templar Knight. Who are men that ride unicorns, so apparently unicorns are pretty goddamn lame. [And if you’ve forgotten: we were originally told unicorns can only be ridden by pure virgins]

The pope's seat of power is a pentagram of towers around a bigger tower. This goddamn better be foreshadowing a mega-demon summoning. [Future note: Probably not]

Mazarin apparently got offered the papacy, but turned it down? So we're back to Vittorio being stuff and nonsense. Oh, and gibberish about the pope and Gallian king ranking above Tristain's royalty. No.

Aaand Vittorio is also a Void user. I thought there were FOUR? I count five.

At the Academy, at least, the towers get named after elements. So... that's confusing.

Romalia's southern airport is called Cittadella. It's a fortress city next to a lake that is where airships normally land. And I guess it's also a seaport?

Apparently Halkeginia has an equivalent to Christian luddites, in that Wind Stones are holy blessings from God or something and steam power is heresy. Okay? [Future note: Never crops up again, never makes sense]

There's a square-class "face change" spell that can hide elven ears. This can be rapidly and quietly cast by the author to avoid elf drama with Tiffania when he doesn't want to deal with that inconvenient racism thing while pretending his setting is consistent.

Derflinger can pop out of his scabbard on his own, and people are STILL treating a talking sword as mildly novel. Come on, show us a different talking sword already, make this have an actual foundation! [Future note: It gets worse]

Romalia has pegasi, too. Paladins ride them for some reason. They're apparently as fast as a wind dragon. They glimmer like Twilight vampires for some reason. And as far as I can tell, they have nothing going for them. [Future note: They also never crop up again] Oh, and paladins are Judge Dredd. All of them.

Derflinger hates Forsythe for some reason.

Supposedly the Flight spell requires a lot of concentration, which is why it doesn't get used for long distance travel. Ugh.

Apparently Romalians don't drink wine in public during the day unless they're heretics? Okay.

Remember that one-time plotpoint about only royals knowing how to do combined spells, and how insanely powerful two Triangles together were? Forget that, Paladins can have a couple dozen or so guys all cast a spell together that, though impressive, doesn't remotely match the scale. Consistency! [Future note: After this volume, we never again see people combining spells at all]

Paladins have lightsabres, because of course they do.

Julio is a tremendous asshole willing to spread rumors of the pope being kidnapped for the express purpose of fucking with our 'heroes'. Also, he has author fiat on his side in general. Following people does not normally mean anticipating where they will go and being there well before they had any reason to go there.

On the one hand, I'm glad to see someone considers Julio's bullshit to be bullshit. On the other hand, that it's Saito being mad means agreeing with Saito and oh god. [Future note: Also, Julio is just the Sasuke to Saito’s Naruto anyway, so actally he pisses off Saito because That’s Just How This Relationship Works, but because, like the author realizes Julio is a heinous jackass]

Fuck. Of course Julio is the pope's familiar. Vindalfr. I guess this explains his affinity with his dragon.

Vittorio believes all wars are a product of losing the holy land. [Future note: Probably lying]

I cannot get past how Henrietta and Vittorio keep unironically talking about threatening people to achieve peace. And nobody thinks this is retarded.

Vittorio wants to lure out Sheffield to capture her so the Gallian king can't just summon a new familiar. He's using his status as a Void user as bait.

Julio is all "our status as Void familiars makes us like brothers!" I foresee gory hilarity in Gaara of Zero.

Romalia has an ancient, secret stockpile of Earth weaponry they've been smuggling out of the holy land and holding onto for centuries. I feel like I'm reading a bad Naruto fanfic. [Reader note: There is a depressing number of Naruto fanfics that try to justify the ‘shizotech’ of the setting by saying Summoning spells occasionally pull through widgets from Earth]

Oh god Julio, stop equating women with animals you creepy fuck.

Dubious-but-probably-canon statements about how the sword/spear thing means Derflinger/weapons with reach, and that guns and tanks and so on fill the "spear" slot.

Of fucking course the Vittoria lady that got Agnes' village torched is Vittorio's mother. And of course Colbert has been carrying around Vittoria's ring which is actually the ring of fire Plot Importance. Vittorio himself is a creepy fanatic who has no issue with his mother being butchered, the filthy heretic. And he asserts she was scared of his Void magic? This seems unlikely.

Colbert, stop being a Tinker. This isn't Worm, I don't even want to write that cross.

The Founder's Prayerbook tosses out different spells for different Void casters. And apparently you need the matching rings, because we've got a quota for arbitrary complicated nonsense. Vittorio gets "World Door", which promptly opens a path to Earth riiiight as Saito is trying to get a wireless connection on his notebook because this goddamn plot runs on contrivance. Vittorio, Julio, and Henrietta proceed to try to talk Louise into not telling Saito because ASSHOLERY. And they try to justify it as Not Assholery!

Some men just want to see the world burn. Like Joseph. He also kills his wife because she loves him (Which Sheffield is only idly curious about) and apparently is basically dead emotionally and is doing all this nonsense because he's trying to feel SOMETHING. I guess. Also we have Louise resolve to send Saito back by DRUGGING HIM because why should people ever talk to the people they love?

End Volume 13

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We actually have a LOT of background dumped on us, but the actual plot barely moves at all. This is a slight improvement over the previous volume, where the plot barely moved at all and we learned little of interest, but not much of one.