Fic Update: "Motherland"

[mark_asphodel]

 I think I need a certain amount of external pressure to be productive.  The pressure is on now, and my brain is flowing over.

Here is an exploration of Caeda I wrote 80% of last year and have polished up for publication.  It's my attempt at depicting her between the wars, based on a curious glitch in the Archanean timeline.  It would appear that, in Year 607 when the War of Heroes is about to erupt, that Caeda has arrived in Altea fairly recently-- she and Marth are just on the verge of getting married when the whole Grust diversion unfolds.  Yet the War of Darkness wrapped up approximately two years prior, back in 605!  That's a rather lengthy engagement-- wouldn't there be a certain amount of hurry-up involved, what with Marth being the last of his bloodline and all?

I present the following excuses: 

1) One or both of them are deemed underage.  This is pretty feasible, given Marth isn't crowned king immediately.  Archanea, unlike primogeniture-happy European kingdoms, doesn't like child kings, and doesn't seem to go for child marriage, either.  We know he can't be any older than seventeen in 605, and I suspect Caeda to be a year or two younger than that, and perhaps that's just too young. ("Old enough for war, but not for voting," I guess.)

2) Altea is a mess and needs to be stabilized first.  OK-- but FE11 kind of indicates Caeda zips out there immediately, regardless.  And she kicks her heels for two long years doing what-- playing dolls with Elice?  Learning how to be a lady?  Your guess is as good as mine.

3) Talys is a piece of unfinished business.  Specifically, it's a recently unified "modern" kingdom, whose first king appears to have one (1) young daughter as his heir.  Seriously, if Caeda had a brother or three, wouldn't they have popped up somewhere in the plot?  Sending Caeda off to Altea to marry means that, in essence, Talys goes bye-bye in one generation.  Married heiresses in Archanea hand over all their authority to their husbands.  Witness Nyna.  Witness Artemis.  In the time it takes to say "I do," independent Talys becomes, in effect, an eastern province of Altea.  A neglected province of Altea, given they're at opposite ends of the archipelago.   

If I'd dedicated my life to making Talys one solid nation, I'd have second thoughts about that scenario.  Wouldn't you?

Comments

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

*thinks*

The caveat is that Marth owes his life and those of several of his retainers to the King of Talys, since he provided sanctuary to the Alteans for several years, possibly at risk to his own life and kingdom. IMO, it is quite possible that, for that very reason, a deal for the autonomy of Talys might have been worked out. :-) That region of canon is blank, of course, but that is how I feel about it.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

" IMO, it is quite possible that, for that very reason, a deal for the autonomy of Talys might have been worked out."

I think it's very likely that just such an arrangement happens, and my "main" post-war stories actually do have Talys kept as a semi-autonomous region in which Caeda's authority overrides Marth's. He has the entire rest of the continent, after all, so not having Talys to micromanage gives Marth one thing fewer to worry about.

But if I were Caeda's father, I'd want to be as certain as I could possibly be that giving Caeda away in marriage doesn't equate to selling Talys out. And I might want more evidence than just the promises of a teenager with a tendency to get kicked out of his own country. ;)

[shimizu-hitomi.livejournal.com]

Eeeeee.

Yay worldbuilding (given that one-off line about Lawrence, err Lorenz? and Mostyn's backstory, Talys as you've portrayed it is basically everything I've ever randomly thought about it solidified into a coherent vision <3) Yay Caeda, and Marth being Marth, and Caeda actually having a living mother (THANK YOU), and Mostyn actually being an effective ruler. He'd kind of have to be, but sheesh if the game (and the anime...) doesn't screw him over, as if TRYING to make it easier for Marth to become the logical choice for ruler of the known world........

Even the Red Dragon figure makes so much sense in the cultural milieu of the story. I just seriously love the details you put into this one.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

basically everything I've ever randomly thought about it solidified into a coherent vision

Aw, thanks so much. I'm really pleased to hear that as, on the one hand, I'm basically making stuff up. Lots and lots of stuff. But it all just seemed to make sense based off the canon-crumbs I was using... and I guess trying to make sense out of, say, Sacae involves just as much imagination on the part of the writer. There may be more details, but the mechanics of a society aren't necessarily spelled out.

Caeda actually having a living mother (THANK YOU)

Yeah. Common sense just says that she does. Aging king, one young daughter... if Caeda's mom is dead, then she's either currently saddled with a stepmother or temporarily "between" them, with the prospect of a younger brother dangled ever in front of her. And that just doesn't gel with anything we actually see. Her mother was alive in the manga, IIRC.

He'd kind of have to be, but sheesh if the game (and the anime...) doesn't screw him over, as if TRYING to make it easier for Marth to become the logical choice for ruler of the known world

Hmm. I'd never thought of it in quite that sense, as I felt that by simply being marginalized after Chapter One, he actually got off easier than almost any other elder statesman in Archanea. But I guess being held hostage in your own castle and rescued by your adolescent ward is kind of a burn. The FE11 ending treated him respectfully, at least. (Everyone was screwed over in the anime except for maybe Navarre. And Barst, who had one more line of dialogue than he gets in the games.)

Even the Red Dragon figure makes so much sense in the cultural milieu of the story. I just seriously love the details you put into this one.

Thanks! That was one part where I thought I might be overreaching... and I was drawing here on a lot of Robert Graves horsepuckey about the primordial goddess figure being supplanted by sun-worship and all that. But I liked the idea of some ancient figure of feminine power as an underlying influence in the land that gives us a rather unconventional pegasus knight (there's no knightly order, no other female characters from Talys, the "Peg Knight nation' is on the other side of the map, and so on), interwoven with clues about the true history of humans and dragons.

Re: Marth-- I'm glad you like what I do with him! I just love what FE11 gave me to work with. And really, his love letters would be boring and stilted.