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memshare | joanna
CWS: canon compliant racism, body horror monsters, child death, gore, someone gets eaten offscreen (??)
Things in Martira start out as a mess, and slowly, go from bad to worse.
Your initial plan - to capture the head of the evil knight Heismay, who was kidnapping children - turned out to be incredibly wrong. Heismay, first of all, is not evil. Depressed, certainly. Being scapegoated for something he didn't do - even more so. The three of you decide to bring him along with you as an ally, and he proves to be a powerful one. Wise, just, and really bloody fast...even if he's a bed thief.
Though you lost your initial bounty for the first round of the tournament, you keep on the path of the missing children of Martira. All of you are bleeding hearts to say the least, and you want to see it through. You learn that the guardsman who gave you a bad tip about the sandworm's den and nearly got you killed was in fact part of the problem. You learn, in the goriest way possible, that the children who went missing have almost certainly been eaten, fed to a human living in the basement of Castle Kriegante.
That's bad enough. You have your own trauma around humans and the horrors they can be, let alone for the loss of fifteen innocent lives. You're nearly eaten by the damn thing itself when the guard captures you, but as you work your way through the immense underground dungeon where the human is hiding, there's this sense of dread that comes not from children's bones or blood on the castle floor, but a ruined nursery.
In that nursery, you read the diary of the Sanctoress, the kind woman who agreed to offer you her support in the tournament if you could help solve the case of the missing children. She writes of a pregnancy, a beloved child - and of a man who she was not wed to, of a different tribe. The cruelty of a country town, suspicious of miscegenation, where children of mixed blood are curses. Bad luck. The devil born.
She writes of her son, smothered in the night by a nurse. It's a tragic tale, and one not all that uncommon across Euchronia, but as the pieces start to click together and four of you finally corner the Sanctoress, you're faced with the horror of her grief.
to 1:24:02
I have only done to them what they have done to me!
--
By the time you're able to kill the human - because that's what it is, Joanna has gone mad, it is not her son - there are no feelings of great joy or triumph. It has to be done because it is a monster. It ate a man in front of you, it has eaten fifteen innocent children and many more besides. But Joanna's palpable, naked grief, her scream as it finally ends, will haunt you for the rest of your life. Heismay speaks to her upon grief, on losing a child, and as she wails and sobs, you stand there, complicated and messy and understanding and deeply missing your own family, suddenly, all the same.
to: 1:40:11ish
I will atone for my sins. For my son's sake, I must.
When Joanna rises, she does so with grace. She pulls herself together, looking at the corpse of the human one last time, and she tells you to take her to the tournament of the brave, and present her head as the monster. It surprises all of you - it is one of the single bravest things you've ever seen someone do, but you agree to take her to Brilehaven.
Her final act is to present herself as the monster in the arena by her own choice. Joanna is a stark contrast to the sea monsters and deadly creatures that came before her. She walks with her head held high, and speaks softly to the crowd at large.
to: 4:08.
Please...lead this country with the truth.
Things in Martira start out as a mess, and slowly, go from bad to worse.
Your initial plan - to capture the head of the evil knight Heismay, who was kidnapping children - turned out to be incredibly wrong. Heismay, first of all, is not evil. Depressed, certainly. Being scapegoated for something he didn't do - even more so. The three of you decide to bring him along with you as an ally, and he proves to be a powerful one. Wise, just, and really bloody fast...even if he's a bed thief.
Though you lost your initial bounty for the first round of the tournament, you keep on the path of the missing children of Martira. All of you are bleeding hearts to say the least, and you want to see it through. You learn that the guardsman who gave you a bad tip about the sandworm's den and nearly got you killed was in fact part of the problem. You learn, in the goriest way possible, that the children who went missing have almost certainly been eaten, fed to a human living in the basement of Castle Kriegante.
That's bad enough. You have your own trauma around humans and the horrors they can be, let alone for the loss of fifteen innocent lives. You're nearly eaten by the damn thing itself when the guard captures you, but as you work your way through the immense underground dungeon where the human is hiding, there's this sense of dread that comes not from children's bones or blood on the castle floor, but a ruined nursery.
In that nursery, you read the diary of the Sanctoress, the kind woman who agreed to offer you her support in the tournament if you could help solve the case of the missing children. She writes of a pregnancy, a beloved child - and of a man who she was not wed to, of a different tribe. The cruelty of a country town, suspicious of miscegenation, where children of mixed blood are curses. Bad luck. The devil born.
She writes of her son, smothered in the night by a nurse. It's a tragic tale, and one not all that uncommon across Euchronia, but as the pieces start to click together and four of you finally corner the Sanctoress, you're faced with the horror of her grief.
to 1:24:02
I have only done to them what they have done to me!
--
By the time you're able to kill the human - because that's what it is, Joanna has gone mad, it is not her son - there are no feelings of great joy or triumph. It has to be done because it is a monster. It ate a man in front of you, it has eaten fifteen innocent children and many more besides. But Joanna's palpable, naked grief, her scream as it finally ends, will haunt you for the rest of your life. Heismay speaks to her upon grief, on losing a child, and as she wails and sobs, you stand there, complicated and messy and understanding and deeply missing your own family, suddenly, all the same.
to: 1:40:11ish
I will atone for my sins. For my son's sake, I must.
When Joanna rises, she does so with grace. She pulls herself together, looking at the corpse of the human one last time, and she tells you to take her to the tournament of the brave, and present her head as the monster. It surprises all of you - it is one of the single bravest things you've ever seen someone do, but you agree to take her to Brilehaven.
Her final act is to present herself as the monster in the arena by her own choice. Joanna is a stark contrast to the sea monsters and deadly creatures that came before her. She walks with her head held high, and speaks softly to the crowd at large.
to: 4:08.
Please...lead this country with the truth.