#kilvas

like HEAR ME OUT HERE. THINK ABOUT IT.

they fought in the civil war in begnion alongside the other laguz, only to lose and be enslaved when the begnion theocracy began. they fled begnion, first to pheonicis with the hawks, and then wound up making their own country, only to be conquered by begnion. the king made a deal with the senators after 50 years of post-surrender subjugation, and wound up under the blood pact. in the story lekain tells in radiant dawn, the king of kilvas rebels a little too much against begnion, and lekain uses the blood pact to massacre the ravens as a punishment for disobedience.

you can see basically all major events of the ravens’ history as a series of failed rebellions and subsequent falls into hell.

they’re demonized by basically all of society (even the other laguz, the beasts and the hawks, consider them conniving cowards at best) for their crimes against the undamned, (such as piracy), which they do only out of necessity or spite against the ones who put them in this situation in the first place, like lucifer tempting eve to spite god.

all this is literally information from either the games or the artbook, and i don’t even have to reach to find this narrative or this take, it just fits together.

i have no conclusion to this besides that i am sad at the lack of attention kilvas gets bc even from the little bit of canon information we have its got such a compelling story around it.

I actually went and did the timeline math and realized that there are only 167 years between the Treaty of Sarasa and the start of Path of Radiance, which means there are ravens alive who remember what Begnion rule was like before that. The "plague" could have killed a lot of them, but hell, Nealuchi was definitely alive during the occupation and probably even lived through Kilvas's entire duration, cause the country is only 225 years old in PoR. (225 ÷ the raven lifespan modifier of 3.5 only makes him at least the equivolent of 64 for this, and he looks like he could vary well be older than that.)

I'm also realizing now there are probably only three total sovereigns: the founder (my Queen Kilv in my mind), who probably died in the war or was executed in its conclusion, her probably son? who signed the pact, and then Naesala. That's it. She's only Naesala's... great aunt, probably. Nealuchi could have met her.

naesala can and will destroy everything i love and i would thank him for it

@touyuxiao, let me know if I get something wrong pls

proposes - Kilvas does and it’s extremely heartfelt and sweet that Raph frickin’ cries tears of joy oh my goodness

shops for groceries - Kilvas

kills the spiders - Kilvas, Raph’s deathly terrified of them even though he rides a gigantic war elephant into battle

comes home drunk at 3am - Raphael

remembers to feed the fish - Kilvas

initiates duets - Raphael

falls asleep first - Kilvas, but he carries Raph into bed to join him. That way, Raph won’t end up grumpy in the morning

plans spontaneous trips - Both

wakes the other up at 3am demanding pancakes - Both, but Raph’s more energetic about it

sends the other unsolicited nudes - RAAAAAAAAAAAPH

brags about knowing karate even though they never made it past yellow belt - Raphael

comes to a complete halt outside bakeries/candy shops - Kilvas

blows sarcastic kisses after doing ridiculous shit - Both

killed the guy (also, which hid the body) - These boys did nothing wrong

wears the least clothing around the house - Raph