#lb7r

oh he's a piece of shit. Thats the point. In my version, anyways. Idk and idc what official fgo intends for Berserker, @agnerd-bot's idea was so insanely good I had to find a way to use it for my Lb7 rewrite.

Like i said, he's an objectively terrible person. Not even in the Columbus sense where there's like, a sort of deluded idealism to it, no Cortez is just a selfish bastard and the whole point of him being a grand is that it makes you realize that grands arent the "best" of humanity, they're the peak of humanity. That means the bad as well as the good, and even with Daybit actively helping it's everything some of Chaldea's servants (namely Nitocris-Ammit) can do to not try and kill the bastard before their mutual enemies even get a chance. I also want him to be berserker rather than pretender because i don't want to lean into so much as the same post code as the pseudoscience of "white gods" and all that if I can help it. The idea of someone flagrantly and falsely claiming godhood is more interesting to me than someone convincingly imitating it anyhow.

TLDR Cortez's role specifically plays on his connection to the indigenous peoples of the lostbelt. It's not a good connection and its not meant to be, its meant to be vile and infuriating and it's never portrayed as anything different or more glorious than that. Just as a Beast of Humanity isn't necessarily evil, a Grand Servant isn't necessarily righteous.

can i just say as an aside i dont mean these in terms of general vibes I mean i can go over them note by note/line by line explaining how and why I picked that for who :)

Main themes:

Prologue: Rekindled

7.1: Pandora Palace (Khamydrian Lyrics)

7.2: Red Sun (Go Light Up!! Cover) 

“Final Act”: Eater of Worlds

Battle themes: 

Hell’s Rejection (7.1)

Temperance and Vengeance (7.2)

Za Hando (Requiem) (7.2 Alternative)

Time For Your Medicine (7.1 Alternative) 

Operation Pyrite (Lyrical)

Grand Battle themes [Depending on current arc]:

Invasion 

[BIG SHOT] (Hobo Habo Remix)

Warlord -> Courage (Requiem)

Broly’s Rage and Sorrow

Various chapter/ambiance BGMs:

Meeting Mictlantecuhtli (Awestruck): Resurrection

Kukulkan’s Past (Flashback): Observatory

So much grief, never enough time (Contemplation): Tooth Paste

A shepherd’s gaze never wanders far (Foreboding): Shipwreck

Even in death, life persists (Community 7.1): Moongrains (Seiiccubus remix)

The Land of Death is ALIVE (Community 7.2): Fractured Shrines

 “The Swarm” / Endurance Battle cue: Megalo Strike Back (Rednas Remix)

The End: Is Nigh

Chaldea/NPC themes:

Ritsuka: Dreaming of Me -> Your World Will Fail  Mash: Need Somebody ->Sweet Dreams are Made of Seven Nation Army Daybit: Come With Me Now Bacab: Chirality Huitzilopochtli: Fading Light Tzitzimitl: Hailstorm / Sacralize or Strike

Servant themes:

But ignoring that because it’s ultimately your decision, Daybit will lack a purpose without ORT (assuming he has a purpose that relates to his mission) and will have no servant. Not that he needs a servant per-se, since he can handle himself well enough, but he does lose out on someone to talk to. Every other Crypter had someone to interact with, so it would be a loss to not give Daybit someone to interact with in absence of Tezcatlipoca.

Well, if nothing else, the only thing pettier than killing off Tezcatlipoca before the Lostbelt begins is having the reason for his death be the bad meat he ate in India.

Dont worry the pettiness is very much the point lol. I actually didn't plan for him to die because I wanted to try and use as many of the same servants as I could, since the point is to make a better version of the existing story. The way things lined up though it ended up making the most sense for Tez to not appear at all, and at that point I know how I'm already seen well enough to embrace the pettiness.

So that said while a funny coincidence it actually is just how the cards ended up falling, and that's shown in the whole reason he's already dead as well as the consequences of his self-sacrifice having actual narrative weight (TLDR it both was the reason the lostbelt didn't collapse in on itself, but also something that IMMENSELY backfired in a way no one expected)

As for Daybit....what makes you think I didn't give him a different servant? Someone much more fitting Grand Berserker at that (hint: ask @agnerd-bot who their Grail War Berserker is).

Same goes for his purpose! ORT being there doesnt mean he's meaningless, it just means he has a different meaning. I will definitely say that Daybit has been the one consistent thorn in my side in trying to rewrite Lb7, but that's cause there's a lot of stuff that isn't easy to work with, not because there's nothing to work with at all.

But never forget that nothing was won this day. Even should I lose everything, you will have won none of it. That is our destiny, oh eater of worlds, to only know success, and never victory. Soon you will know the truth of what lies past that endless veil of branches, and sits atop the stars that have blanched this world and the next.

And as you gaze upon that truth, I will be with you still. Feast on my heart, and destroy my mind, but you will never be rid of me. I need no curses nor cries of vengeance to mark my end, for no natter your actions here my end is yet to come. I will be with you always, last master of humanity, and there is nothing you can do about it. Not anymore…

Well it's not actually my take, it's @agnerd-bot's, but either way OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH. This is the "Conquest is both intrinsic to humanity and one of its greatest evils" blog. Do you really think I'd just put him in for no other reason to be an easy villain?

In the meantime, here's Lostbelt 7 Rewrite poorly explained in 12 images, in no particular order

[Finals won't be finished for another week and change so here, have the beginning of the rewrite as a holdover until I can really get working on it]

—---

Aaaaand we're off to a bad start. As soon as Chaldea exits void space, the storm border is at risk of collapsing entirely from what seems to be a sort of deep sea pressure that normally shouldn't be a problem for Nemo, and yet it’s very much about to kill them all. But suddenly, Georgios is summoned! Without so much as a leyline! What’s more, his very presence seems to lessen the effects immensely. 

Using this chance, Mash and Georgios fight off some foreigner-class beings that seem to inhabit the depths of this tar(?)-filled cave system they’ve ended up in. who are unusually weak for such a class type, while Nemo and Da Vinci are able to make emergency precautions against the pressure and secure the storm border, but at the cost of being completely grounded where they are. 

It seems impossible to venture far however without the bounded field created by border protecting from the unknown corrupting influence. As a last ditch effort, they use a weak leyline signal to summon whoever they can afford, with Nitocris and Geronimo springing forth! It makes sense only casters can be afforded when things are so dire, and it’s certainly better than nothing, especially when Nitocris’s protection acts like a protective field around them that’s more than strong enough to wander! 

However, the summoning process didn’t go unnoticed. A massive corrupted beast slinks forth, big enough to devour the Border itself! …But before anyone can make so much as a weak attempt to fight it off, a figure comes crashing from above, caving in the beast’s skull in one blow. She then reveals herself to be none other than the Mayan goddess Kukulkan! Though, she er…doesn’t seem all that dignified. Inattentive, easily excited, with that power she may clearly be a goddess but she also clearly isn’t that worldly. She must have noticed the summoning, same as that horrible beast, so that’s one more good thing to come out of it! Though…she apparently doesn’t know what a servant or summoning even is?

Soon it becomes clear this isn’t the best person to answer any questions the group has, but thankfully Kuku knows someone who is! At her insistence to meet “Miki” the group are lead even further down into the caverns, but something about Kuku seems to be protecting the Chaldeans from the corruption that nearly overwhelmed them before. Thank goodness too, because it doesn’t seem like Nitocris could have handled much more of that…well, whatever this almost radioactive-like slag is.  

And so, after more talking with Kuku, with more questions for Chaldea than Chaldea has for her, they finally arrive at….the tree of emptiness?! ….….or, rather, its roots…? What lies before them is undeniably a tree of emptiness, but it disappears into the earth above, and seems weirdly small compared to something like Olympus. And yet, in spite of such, it’s visibly full of life; every tendril is in bloom, as if each root is itself a miniature glimpse into another galaxy.  But much more notable than what lies within is what lies outside of those roots. Strung up, as if crucified and bound, is a giant humanoid figure. A woman whose long raven hair flows from out of her shattered headdress, down and over her flat chest, what scraps of clothing she has doing little to hide countless scars across her body, none more pronounced than the one at her neck.