Things I contemplated during my two-hundred-and-fifty (250!) mile roundtrip commute in the ice today:

1) If Archanea/Valencia/Jugdral take place on the same planet as Tellius (which I personally don't believe), then the destruction of the other continents can't happen at anytime remotely close to the gameplay era.  IIRC, the math works out so that FE4/5 have to happen approximately 1100 years prior to FE1/2/3.  But we know from the ending of FE2 that the dynasty Alm and Cellica establish on Valencia endures for at least 1,000 years.  If any sort of ocean apocalypse happened, Valencia would be the first thing wiped out-- Archanea is (we think) a far larger archipelago with mountains in excess of 1500 meters high (per FE3).  If Valencia survives, then Archanea and Jugdral wouldn't be affected either.  So either the Tellius games are in the far, FAR future of Planet Fire Emblem (or VERY distant past), or they don't take place on the same planet.

Or the other continents were never swamped to begin with.

2) So were Abel and Est actually married or not?  Relationship chart, you confuse me.  Abel, if you loved that girl so much that you were willing to Betray the Cause for her, yet couldn't be bothered to make an honest woman out of her... then what the hell is your problem?

3) Looking back over my former fandoms reminded me of all the stupidity from those days that I forget about when I'm being all nostalgic about the Good Old Days of recs pages and essential archives.  Things like people squabbling over who got to be miko of this, or miko of that.  People having to maintain lists of who was "officially" the Keeper of The Hairpick in Duo's Braid or the Keeper of Heero's Gym Shoes.  People who overdosed on Fushigu Yuugi tacking "no da" onto the end of very damned sentence.

4) Eine is such a crappy assassin.  How hard is it, really, to kill Marth using magic?  She can't have been trying very much, or at all, because a ten-year-old armed with a Thunder tome should've been able to pull that one off.

5) I had something else on par with the geekiness of #1, but the nap I took on getting home pushed it out of my brain.  Will edit if I recall it.  ETA: I remember now.  It was something to do with Alteans being losers.  Not the playable ones, the whole country.

 So, I got a tentative agreement (ie, an agreement with the company) on the second of my two contracts today and consequently went on a White Russian spree before stumbling home.  I walked, btw-- picked a drinking hole within walking distance for that reason.  Yay.  Now I just have to sell all the hardliners and malcontents on the merits of both contracts.

Anyway, so I posted my latest entry into fe_contest  on this weekend.  The inspiration for it came from "The Stranger Song" by Leonard Cohen, which features lyrics that wormed into my brain sometime last spring.  I tried to make use of the song somehow in original 'fic, but that stalled out, and the whole gambling theme ("dealing," rather) seemed suitable enough to weave into a 'fic I already wanted to write for Abel and Palla.  Said 'fic being a post-war encounter between them, set after any sort of youthful romanticism is long faded.

A friend from my college years who sported literary ambitions decried a genre of fiction and film that consists of "nothing happens but you still feel bad at the end," and that derisive phrase would sort of apply here.  Certainly nothing really changes in the lives of Abel and Palla, and Palla is no more happy at the end than she is at the beginning of the story.  Palla is perhaps a little wiser for the experience, but knowledge of your situation doesn't always equate to action, much less a change in your circumstances.  But knowledge of how you got to where you currently are is, at least, something worth reflecting upon.

While fe_contest  sometimes offers me a chance to step outside "standard" characterization for characters, the three featured here-- Abel, Palla, and Catria-- are basically in line with what is IMO a reasonable extrapolation of canon.  So reasonable, in fact, that I don't even go the Catria/Marth route in this one.  It's not part of the Tales of the Unified Kingdom, but it could have been if I hadn't already established in "Forsaken" that Abel never encountered Palla again after the War of Heroes.  Here, he does... not that it likely makes a difference to him.

 Over on my DA journal I keep an archive of TL;DR "Author's Notes," but I literally do not have time for this at present so I'll just natter a bit instead.  "Homecomings" is probably my favorite story to date, and if it had come out in 2009 I might have earmarked it as "most satisfying thing to have bashed out" for the year.  Having it complete also IMO justifies the whole "Unified Kingdom" project, since it is the genesis of the whole project as well as one of the cornerstone episodes.

Anyway, "Homecomings" is set in 647-648, or exactly forty years after the "War of Heroes" in FE3.  An entire postwar generation has come of age and started their own families, and the events of the Great Wars have already taken on a mythical quality for the citizens of Archanea.  The surviving war heroes (and there don't seem to be many) are all around the age of retirement-- the young blood of FE3 has reached the Jagen-Lorenz-Wendell tier of decrepitude (except for Tiki, duh).  Some are still active in public life, but their age is nearly over.  

[I use the "novelization" ages posted on Serenes Forest as my guidebook when it comes to character ages, so year 647 would place Abel as 64, and Catria at 58.  That is essentially the upper limit for playable characters in the Archanea-verse.  Sixty is not the "new forty" in Archanea (unless you're a Light Mage).  These people are old.]    

The 'fic itself relays plenty of details about everyday life and the economy of Altea, which is the primary setting for "Homecomings," but I'd like to mention a few points wrt the "big picture" backdrop of the Unified Kingdom.  
1) The place of women.  Sorry, it's still not a gender-neutral society.  If anything, the disastrous reigns of Nyna and Minerva likely convinced a good chunk of the populace that there are some things women can't do.  This ties into the public opinion of Catria, one of the most visible women in the government.  That said, the role of Elice and Linde in higher education has created an "upper middle class" of educated and cultured ladies, and some other signposts say that gender perceptions are changing for the better.
2) Culture-mixing.  War and upheaval has led to some areas becoming a real "melting pot," and contact with the neighboring continent of Valencia has mixed it up further.
3) Technology.  With the Orbs restored, and Gotoh granting humans access to the fabulous "dragon technology" described in the FE3 designers' notes, life in Archanea is easier than ever.  "Homecomings" shows the beginnings of a system of mass-transit via warp magic, and other 'fics will show more innovations.  Life in 647 is perhaps as far removed from life in 607 as our 1947 was from 1907.  OK, they don't have nuclear weapons yet, but still.... 

Also, one last thing about Abel.  I realize that in our world, knights did not come from the bourgeoisie unless a wealthy merchant was knighted for his services to the economy (or bought himself a knighthood).  I can't see Abel as anything but bourgeois, frankly.  In between his stint as a shop proprietor and his apparent loyalty to Altea as a nation rather than to the royal dynasty (x-ref FEDS script), he seems to be coming from a different place entirely than Cain and the rest of the Temple Knights.  That's how I see him, and that's how I write him.   

That's it for now.  More later.

ETA: Oh, yeah.  I started writing this back in my original Altea-as-England phase and switched to the current Altea-as-Spain phase partway through writing it.  I think there's some traces of the Netherlands in there as well.

 So, I finally finished one part of "Tales of the Unified Kingdom."  Unfortunately, it's out of order; "Forsaken" is a prequel to "Homecomings," which is the final story in the arc, but IMO "Homecomings" ought to be released first.  So I'll sit on "Forsaken" for a bit.

ETA: I posted it on ff.net anyway.  It doesn't really matter if the "Tales" are read in order or not, so why be weird about it?  

What is this mystery story?  This:

"Forsaken"

Rating: Probably K+.  No blood, no guts, no sex, just one mildly bad word and some mentions of death.
Length: 3,608 words
Category: Drama/Tragedy
Starring: Abel
Description:  After the wars, Abel immerses himself in a search for Est, and loses himself in the process.

Maybe now that "Forsaken," which has taken several months to complete, is done, I can finally finish/publish "Homecomings."