Where Is Harkan
let me tell you of the commander of Goldensky Seas and her musketeer
Where Is Harkan
The Goldensky Sea marks where the god of the sun last touched the world. The waters there shine like gold
Where Is Harkan
So when the endless eclipse began, and the darkness spread across the world, it was at the archipelago in the Goldensky Sea that humanity made their last stand
Where Is Harkan
All hope seemed lost until seven heroes forged themselves anew in those golden waters
Where Is Harkan
And became seven new gods, dedicated to saving the world
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Two of these god heroes were Admiral Rose Stanton, and Captain Lawrence Homer
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Admiral Stanton (I’m changing the title from “commander” to “admiral” because this sounds like a setting with a lot of boats)
Where Is Harkan
Was a brilliant tactician, always thinking ten steps ahead over everyone around her
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So when she descended to godhood, her voice whispered in the ear of every officer and soldier and sailor under her command, keeping everyone on the same page, marching together, and running circles around the disorganized hordes of the eclipse
Where Is Harkan
Captain Homer, her right hand man, was a sharpshooter second to none
Where Is Harkan
(He didn’t actually Captain a ship. The title was mostly for show)
Where Is Harkan
(He didn’t actually Captain a ship. The title was mostly for show)
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So when he became a god his shots rang around the world
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Taking down the leaders of the eclipse one after another as they dared to show their faces
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With the help of their five companions, they beat back the darkness and ended the eclipse, and light returned to the world
Where Is Harkan
Lawrence retreated from command to a massive tower, from which he could sit back and watch the world
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And if he deemed it necessary, well
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No one could hide forever from the Musketeer’s Tower
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Admiral Stanton took a more direct role in the new world
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It always low key frustrated her that her companions never looked ahead enough
Where Is Harkan
They were unstoppable warriors, but most of them didn’t really think too hard about what was happening next
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So Stanton took command when no one else would and saw about building up a mighty nation that would always be ready for whatever disaster came next
Where Is Harkan
The Musketeer peers ever over the horizon
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The Admiral peers ever towards the future
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Some people suspect that they were once lovers
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All they have to say on the subject is
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“Mind your own business”
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More thoughts
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Lawrence and Rose have some kind of shared past
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That is dark as hell
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Rumors of everything from child prostitution to being raised to be hunted for sport
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Neither of them have ever confirmed or denied anything
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The past is a closed book
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The future is their interest
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Okay Doom put WAY more effort into this than I did so I gotta step my game up
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Gonna think for a minute
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Okay
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A distant island nation had had minimal outside world contact for centuries
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Their society had grown stagnant
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With a highly stratified social structure
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Based on slavery
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Rose and Lawrence were born slaves
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Their lives weren’t terrible?
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Their master wasn’t particularly cruel or controlling
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It wasn’t a good life, but it was at least not an actively torturous one
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Up until Lawrence got sold to another master. A cruel and terrible man who was known for going through slaves at alarming rates
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In their eyes this was a death sentence
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They couldn’t run. There was no where to run to
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Lawrence decided to just accept his fate and was trying to come to terms with that right up to when Rose stabbed her master in the eye with a pair of scissors
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She didn’t want to lose her best friend
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Unfortunately, they now basically had two options
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1: be executed as runaways
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2: overthrow the empire
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So Rose went with 2
lily!
Do you think it's possible that the empire that enslaved them was Bramant and Sevka's homeland?
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I’d have to read yours more closely
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I’m at work
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But it could be possible
lily!
yeah i hit on the whole "age of the sail" aesthetic and that immediately brought to mind "huh isn't that when colonialism really hit its stride" and made their awful home nation the decaying imperial core actively overextending itself on conquest because it's won for so long it's blind to the possibility of failure
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I think they’re different nations, actually
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Because Rose, with Lawrence at her side, ended up burning down about two thirds of it
lily!
ahhh yeah that makes sense
lily!
i was just thinking it could be a funny character beat if they know that sevka and bramant were nobles from this place and having all kinds of tension and then sevka quietly approaches them one night, they're ready for a confrontation, and sevka just goes "i'd just like to thank you for destroying our home that place was a stain on the world"
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They didn’t WANT to but at every step of the way they still had the same two options
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Keep tearing apart the entire world you know
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Or die
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So they fought dirty. They sent infiltrators to engineer more slave uprisings. They harried supply lines. They massacred scouts, they used assassins
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Rose quickly grew into a tactical genius, taking on armies twice the size of her own and better equipped
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Lawrence was always at her side with his musket, ready to make any problem she had disappear
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The emperor, secure in a world of lies that nothing could ever threaten his power, refused to ever negotiate with the slaves
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All the way up to when they took the capital
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The emperor stepped out into the palace garden, confident in the words of his generals that the problem would soon be under control
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And Lawrence shot him from a rooftop
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By the end of the day, the capital was in flames
Where Is Harkan
Actually roll it back a bit
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I have a better idea
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Rose’s army was besieging the capital
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When the eclipse happened
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Unable to accept the reality of the situation, the nobility did nothing
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Worse, they actively stymied evacuation efforts
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“Have you know pride in your nation?!” They asked as creatures of darkness butchered the people
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Rose, on the other hand, was much more used to thinking on her feet and could see that they were fucked
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So she led the evacuation herself, taking former enemies under her command as easily as breathing
lily!
if you do want this character connection this fits EXACTLY what i had in mind for what sevka and bramant's home nation would be like, down to the intensely stubborn pride and it actively crumbling before the eclipse even happened. if you don't that's fine it's just that this connects very well
Where Is Harkan
Anyone who had the wits to see that fighting each other in the face of this greater threat was foolish and who would accept Rose’s command was welcome
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TheDoomkitten: I was mainly just trying to reconcile the timeline
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Of Bramant and Sevka having all their noble skullduggery and dueling while Rose and Lawrence are also burning down cities
lily!
you think the idiots that run this country wouldn't engage in this petty political bullshit even while this is happening?
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Would Sevka, though?
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I kinda feel like they might join Rose out of spite
lily!
Hm...
lily!
She probably would've, honestly?
Where Is Harkan
“Fuck all’a y’all were taking our legendary sword and joining the rebels”
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Maybe it’s just
lily!
Maybe the reason why the emperor's son finally went for the sword is that his house needed a symbol of strength with how much of the empire was crumbling to Rose's invasion
Where Is Harkan
The rebellion takes place later on in their story
lily!
Probably the big reason why she didn't join earlier is that she still needed to protect her little brother over anything else
lily!
Joined because she had nothing else to do after Bramant went missing
lily!
And then immediately bolted looking for him once she caught word he resurfaced and joined back up later
Where Is Harkan
So for a while Sevka WAS a rebel
lily!
yeah which sorta puts the initial hook i had out there moot but i like this because it makes since for her
lily!
She's quiet but she had this boiling, seething resentment toward the country that put her and Bramant in this position in the first place
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I think as PEOPLE
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Lawrence is the kind of guy you just forget is there
lily!
i was actually wondering what the hell she was doing those 5 years bramant was gone because she's clever enough to try and track him down unless there was something that really demanded her attention so this actually fills that hole
Where Is Harkan
And Rose is the kind of woman who is either perfectly poised and in control, or looks like she’s about to pass out from exhaustion and stress
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There’s no middle ground
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Basically only Lawrence ever sees tired Rose
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Can’t show weakness when you’re in charge
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Even as you order artillery to bombard the city your parents were born in
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TheDoomkitten: I think Lawrence and Bramant end up as friends
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As just
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The dependable guys who make sure the ones they see as the “real heroes” can keep going
lily!
I really like that idea, yeah. Especially because of the contrast of Bramant seeming like The Hero to a bunch of people when really he's still in awe of Sevka and trying to measure up to her in his mind, he probably has a very big focus on always being sturdy, reliable, and there when he needs to be.
lily!
On the other hand, I'm not sure if Sevka and Rose were particularly close, but Sevka definitely admired Rose for her tactical skill a lot.
Where Is Harkan
Sevka and Bramant are nobles right?
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If of reduced circumstances
lily!
yeah and that would be a very understandable reason why there would be kind of a barrier there
Where Is Harkan
I think Rose wouldn’t have any problem accepting Sevka’s aid but there would be a bit of an emotional wall between them
Where Is Harkan
Very polite and distant
lily!
just because, like. even though sevka and bramant went through some awful shit and even though they didn't really have control over the circumstances of their birth their family and their estate and their lives were built off of the profits of exploiting colonies like rose's home
lily!
every month sevka had to fight for her and her brothers' lives, but also she was only put in that position because her family was off trying to conquer another country and got justifiably killed for it, and when she wasn't actively preparing for a duel sevka and bramant still lived, like, not extravagant but comfortable lives off the saved fortune
lily!
which again came from exploiting colonies and slave labor
lily!
sevka from when she was very young had to reckon with how fundamentally fucked that all was and so respects the distance rose wants to keep, but i think bramant like... doesn't really get why there's that emotional wall is there and always felt weird about it, like it was something that he personally did
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Lawrence is just kinda chill with everyone so he’s a good person to unload the kind of thing on
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Until he gets into murder mode
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Don’t distract him
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