#wildchalice

How I became Soul

To get this patrol over with quicker, I jumped onto the flat roof of Shandon’s postal office. That vantage point would help considerably. With a bit of clambering and hoisting myself onto the roof, I managed to get myself up there. Thank you, monster serum. That was still a two-story jump I just made though. I could see the surprise on the faces of the few Shandonese passersby that were... driven enough to still be out at this hour. They didn't say anything because they must have seen the C3 uniform, but the surprise is dead obvious. Then again, they could just as well have been surprised to see the C3 uniform at all. I guess the people knew that a couple hundred soldiers wasn't a big number. Fuck's sake, I wish they told me that before I agreed to be dispatched here. Hell, if they just told Secretary Hughes we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.

Regardless, us of the "Shandon Division of C3" learned that the hard way when a few companies split off to address the threat to Steelknot, only for Baron Grimvuul to attack Shandon right after. That blasted overgrown fox could have killed us all too, according to his plan. Afterwards, Ilta and I came to the easy conclusion that a division this size had no room for error, which is just a little bit of an issue for this line of work. Not like this is a matter of life and death or anything. Moira didn't take it quite as seriously and just returned to turning any male heads that weren't hospitalized or buried. I guess we instead agree that we'd rather just live our lives. I don't know about Moira but alas, there's the matter of my dad. Of his idea of living his life. Which is roughly the equivalent of throwing your Croican Marks into a volcano, if the volcano could talk and promise to eventually return the coins tenfold. To summarize it for the back of a book cover: I work so dad keeps out of debt. Captain Haghen was even so kind to get a government official to monitor my dad. It's obvious I have to put in the work. No matter what the work is. Or how the Croican government expects me to pull that off.

As I touched on already, the issue was that we had no reserves since a lot of our division was either out of commission or dead. This included our own division captain, by the way: Duff fought alongside those of us that Baron Grimvuul caught by surprise. His command did absolutely nothing for our worries, but he pushed his magic and protective amulet to their limits. Or rather Duff pushed them past their limits, and Baron Grimvuul in turn pushed those of his skeleton. I tried tugging on my uniform’s right sleeve to get it back in order. Then I remembered there was no sleeve to get back in order, as that burned away in the fight and our resources weren’t doing that much better than our numbers. Still, that was secondary to me at this moment. With few soldiers and no leadership the next monster attack would mean a repeat of the Fellholz Disaster, so there was a lot to consider. To my surprise, the first thing I wondered was how long it would take for Duff to recover. He was always very calm, seeming to think problems would solve themselves, which didn’t work out well for us that time. And yet, when we didn’t have a giant monstrosity knocking our door down? I couldn’t deny Duff’s attitude was reassuring, so hopefully his Helix God would get him back in shape soon. Annoyingly, I was drawing blanks on other potential commanders. Commanding on a larger scale was probably an ordeal and a half, and the first person I could think of with that experience wasn’t even in C3: That’d be chief Sauer of the Shandon police department, and there was no way I was going to count on him. Not because he seemed to be a bit of an uptight pain in the neck. Okay, also because he was an uptight pain in the neck, but mostly just because the police weren’t going to be of much help during a monster attack. That’s what the Contra Creature Corps was for. It’s kind of in the name.

A gunshot. From the old manufacturing district, if I heard correctly. Multiple gunshots, actually. I decided to leave it to the Shandon police as I had enough to worry about, and so got right to worrying. Ignoring obvious complaints about unusual hierarchy, who would we listen to? It was not like- Something being smashed. Hard to tell what it was, but I still wasn’t inclined to care. Except I started thinking I should. If someone was being riddled with bullets, what would be doing the smashing? Whatever was happening started to look like a job for the C3. Potentially. I still didn’t know what exactly was going on. Regardless, I had no desire to jog for several hours as punishment for not doing my job. At least, not when there was a job to be done. I grabbed my communicator and called Ilta. “I copy, Vadim! What’s the situation?” “We have gunfire in the old manufacturing district. Also loud crashing noises. Makes it sound like a job for us.” That was just the gist of it. I still had to get to the plan, though I didn’t have to. “I’ll make sure the police don't get involved.” Ilta and I had our occasional disagreements, but the definition of good or bad ideas wasn’t one of them. “Send our squad to the general area! And whoever Moira’s interacting with, to get her out here!” A sigh, and confirmation. I continued. “Get as many other squads on standby as possible! Our squad is not to be involved yet. We don’t know what we’re dealing with. I’ll go ahead!” Another confirmation. Ilta sounded like she was going to object to that last part but I wasn’t going to give her the time.

Another smash. As I jumped from rooftop to rooftop, I was glad to see police officers starting to block off the road towards the district. They would stay out of trouble. For that matter, they also wouldn’t be trouble. Loud voices. I can imagine screaming during whatever we would be dealing with, but I couldn't make much out at all. Finally, I arrived at a large warehouse. It had gone quiet. I didn’t see any unusually large creature. Actually, I didn’t see a soul in sight, as I’d hoped. Except for a toddler. Wonderful. I jumped down the back wall. “Wow!” I really hoped whoever was left didn’t hear the toddler. This problem needed to be solved fast. “Okay kid, go home. C3’s on the scene.” I wasn’t holding my breath for this to work. “Alone, mister? There’s lots of people in there!” Made to feel old at 18 years of age. Oh well. Already wasn’t planning to ask for an eyewitness account from this brat. Still, he needed to leave or I would be blamed for whatever harm came to him. “Yeah, I’ll solve the problem.” I probably wouldn’t. I needed to scout out the situation. “Oooh! Cool powers?” Not really, but thank you for the idea. “Yep! I’ll zap them.” I couldn’t. That was Captain Haghen, not me. Might not have been the best lie given he was literally one of Central C3’s biggest heroes. But the brat bought it, and was about to scream in excitement before I covered his mouth. “I’ll tell you all about it if you go home.” Again, I wouldn’t. Thankfully, I was dealing with a kid, so he went home to have sweet dreams. That made my task less of a nightmare. Still, whatever was happening had quieted down, and there was a chance whoever caused it heard the kid. I couldn’t wait for the squad even if I wanted to, so I entered through the back door.

I first found myself in a corridor. A quick look around confirmed it was abandoned. The administration office was dusty and hardly a sheet of paper remained. I say it was abandoned, but an open door further proved something had happened here. I continued on my way until I almost reached the main storage space. Figuring that space was the scene in question, I looked around the door. The room did not look good. What shelves were still there were on the ground. Most weren’t in one piece either. Support beams were cracked. The place was barely structurally sound. I was done with the state of the warehouse rather quickly, as there were more corpses all around the room than I expected there to be. A lot of bodies were scrambled, stuck in impossible positions. After glancing over one whose head I just couldn’t see, I spotted a sign of life. A girl roughly my age had either survived or arrived. She had a poor look to her, with messy dark hair, a patched-up green tank top and stitched together pants. Something was strange about all this. I entered the room as quietly as I could.

Hang on. Wasn’t I concerned with a kid who wasn’t at a safe place at a safe hour just ten minutes ago? I froze in front of a troublesome-looking guy and a brick not far from where his head should have been. Most women would be begging for trouble in places like this. Why was this girl here? “That’s enough fun! Why don’t you take a break?” The girl cheerfully said to a corpse. As she was putting his arms behind his head like he had merely clocked out. Okay, she was looking for trouble. Then she turned around to look at me. Crap.

As she was turning I finally noticed her bare feet. Of course, Fiend Recognition 101: Pay attention to what someone’s outfit might be missing. While Common Fiends wore as much clothing as possible to hide their monster features, this was not the case for Vonhoff Fiends: They could transform into their more monstrous forms if they needed to, but this would rip apart any clothing not made for those forms. In the case of the girl, I now sincerely doubted her lack of shoes had to do with a lack of money. In other words, I probably had the terrible luck of running into a rogue Vonhoff Fiend. One with even greater strength than usual, judging from what remained of the band of thugs. And I had her attention while my Banneret 6 rifle was still on my back.

“Oh! Did you invite yourself to the party? Because you are late!” The girl addressed me with her earlier cheerful attitude as she began to approach. I considered the options that remained. Having been enhanced by the serum, a punch from her wouldn’t instantly leave me like a ragdoll. Still, the serum wouldn’t fully bridge the obvious giant gap in strength and it was unknown what else she was capable of. There were a couple possibilities, even given her strength, of which I know none because I’m a soldier and not a scientist of the RDMF department. “Ah well! Better late than never, even though you are a little boring.” She was drawing close. I expected the girl to transform at any moment. If I had my rifle at the ready I might have been able to shoot her before that happened. Maybe I could have hit the Vonhoff Organ, and have her patched up for questioning. Or just fire and forget, as I wasn’t a great shot. “...On second thought I take that back because you are not responding!” The girl had stopped, leaning in as she said that. She was right. I wasn’t responding. Or at least my legs were neglecting to tremble in fear. That surprised her? Make that two of us. Even more surprisingly, I decided to open my mouth. “What response were you expecting then?”

A deadpan reply. Truly one for the novels. The girl, clearly unimpressed, resumed her approach as she grinned and wagged her finger. “Pay attention now!” I certainly did as my personal space was invaded. “Arms like this…” The girl grabbed my arms and raised them high into the air. I thought it best not to resist. Not that this was an option: I could swear I felt physical strength even in her normal human state. Or was my understandably fearful mind playing tricks on me now? “Body like this…” I was forcibly turned one-eighty degrees. The girl took a step back. “And off you go running and screaming for the C3!” She pushed me towards the door, sending me stumbling across debris and a broken leg. Miraculously, I broke my fall and just stood back up, dusting off my uniform as more words left my mouth.

“I’m sorry, I don’t do screaming. But I can run for myself if you want.” The only truth in that statement was that I could run. Fear seemed to flash across the girl’s face when she realized my affiliation, before that uncanny joy partly returned. Taking a step back and looking a lot more defensive, she said: “N-now that’s funny! I hardly see you guys here! Go figure!” “Ugh, don’t remind me! We are horribly understa-” I trailed off as my brain finally started to obey me again. In the unfortunate fight with Baron Grimvuul we lost a bunch of veteran serum soldiers and Fiends. And here I was, talking to a rogue Vonhoff Fiend with the strength to tackle monsters several times her size and whatever else surgery granted her. She sure seemed to enjoy being a Fiend too. I started looking around, somewhat absorbed by the possibility that I could use this to my advantage. “Oh, that guy? Don’t mind him, he thought the merriment was to die for!” The girl snapped me back to the moment. My gaze accidentally found a bald corpse whose face sported the most forced grin I had ever seen. I could find no injury on him before the girl jogged towards him and stuffed the body inside a shelf as if that undid my discovery. No longer lost in thought, I decided it was worth a shot and started.

“Suuure… Look. I have a proposition.” It was hard to interpret the girl's exact expression, but I seemed to have her interest. “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess this is your idea of fun.” I continued as I gestured across the aftermath of her scuffle. Our exchange continued non-verbally. The girl brought her hand to her chest as she feigned surprise. Was she seriously acting innocent now? If the lack of bullet wounds on the corpses didn’t make it clear enough, her words and actions earlier did: This was not a normal gunfight and the girl didn’t pass by skipping and jumping. I returned this blatant lie with a very blatant head tilt to communicate my skepticism. With that point across, the girl dropped her act and gave a disappointed nod, a cue for me to continue. “You now know that I’m a soldier of the C3. And I’m pretty sure you know what the C3 does. Why throw ordinary criminals for a loop, literally, when you-”. I was swiftly interrupted with obvious enthusiasm. “I can beat up any Fiend criminals you find?” That arrangement wouldn’t last very long. Fiend Engineering was pretty thoroughly regulated. I wasn’t sure what she was on about, and it probably wouldn’t be the last time. “...At the very least. On the side, I guess. What I wanted to say was you get to punch giant monsters and whatever else it is you did to these dregs.” I finished, referring to whatever happened to the grinning corpse on the shelf. The girl darted towards me enthusiastically but stopped short.

“Hold on! Aren’t there commanders or… What do you call them?…” She was searching for the right word. “...politicians that decide this sort of thing?” That question filled me with a temporary dread, reminding me that recruiting a superpowered stranger off the streets indeed wasn’t standard procedure. Then I remembered where I wanted to shove standard procedure currently. This needed to be done. “The politicians are far away in Ariocester and command has… seen better days, thanks to a certain fox menace. My proposal stands, and I doubt anyone is going to argue it.” I thought it best to omit the condition that the girl not do anything stupid and out-of-line for now.

The girl dashed towards me, grabbed my hand and violently shook it. “Then yes, yes, and also yes! Let’s go! Did I mention yes?” That did it, thank goodness! But she did need to let go. The brutal handshake stopped before she asked: “So when, no, how do we start?” “First, let go of my hand. Second, we need to leave fast. We can talk later.” That wasn’t an exaggeration: Several minutes had gone by and I expected Ilta and the others to be near the premises at this point. Maybe they were even deciding to approach. If I had to explain this arrangement with my new ally, I preferred to do it away from the corpses she left. The girl let go, and followed me to the door I came from.

“So, names! I’m Lunet! Who are you?” Asked the girl, Lunet, as we went back through the corridor. “Oh, I’m just a single soul who’s horribly understaffed for this sh… city, as I said.” Even though I just recruited a very strong pair of hands, I knew that wouldn’t make all the difference. For all I knew, I could still be halfway to a grave. For a moment I lost myself in thought again. I later noticed Lunet was also pondering something, but she soon broke the silence as if she had a great idea. “Alrighty then! Soul it is!” Wait. Did Lunet just assign me a name? “What?! No! Okay, it’s Vadim! Vadim Baikal!” I immediately responded, hoping it wasn’t too late to introduce myself. Lunet, however, just examined me for a moment, which gave me a sinking feeling. “...you don’t look like a Vadim to me.” This, of course, begged the question of what your standard-issue Vadim looked like. Try as I might, I couldn’t articulate the question. I only got one word in before Lunet pressed on. “Why are you so down on this, Soul? I like it!” At least I knew how to answer that one immediately. “Maybe because I don’t like it?” The nickname made zero sense. It wasn’t even shortened, like Vad, or Dim. The latter sounded even worse on second thought, so I opted not to bring that up to Lunet, who was going all in on that brainwave of hers as I slammed open the warehouse door. "It gives you that mysterious vibe, like a handsome stranger on the corner! Drawing the attention of those streetside women!" I gave up on trying to understand Lunet’s utterly insane thoughts. We were back on the street, and the brainwave still wasn’t done. “Don’t be a Vadim! Be a Soul, Soul!” I then began to give up on my own name. As we approached the police barricade, I recognized Brittany among the police officers. She was definitely one to ask me questions. Today, however, she looked thoroughly confused. Brittany must have caught our bizarre exchange. That was fine by me, for I couldn't begin to explain this. As we passed Brittany, I quickly stated the obvious fact that there were corpses, and told the police they could start cleaning up the scene. “...You’re not going to stop doing this, are you?” I asked Lunet afterwards, more as a formality at this point. "Nope! This is your life now, Soul!" Lunet proclaimed.

Evidently this was my life now. I managed to survive a close encounter with the most manic character I’ve ever met, recruiting her on the spot. Our odds improved ever so slightly, provided I was correct and my allies wouldn’t be difficult about this. Only a minute later, I saw those allies. They were about to enter. I just knew.

“Vadim! We were getting concerned!” Moira said. “We received no communication at all! Why?... More importantly, what took you so long?” Ilta asked. I glanced at Lunet to make sure she didn’t say anything just yet. She seemed content to listen. “It’s a long story. This Fiend girl here is coming along. I’ll explain when we get back.” For a second, I could see a worried confusion on Ilta’s face in particular. Clearly she already had a rough feeling about what transpired. But then she grabbed her communicator, calling… Malger? “Sergeant Wolf, do you copy?... The situation at the warehouse is under control. When we get back, I suggest you talk to Vadim… I don’t know, but he’s concocted something.”

Ilta’s report was telling. It seemed that Malger Wolf took temporary command. The good thing about that was we now had someone to answer to again, and I could think of worse candidates. Of course, this also meant I had to explain and justify my spontaneous recruitment to him soon. Malger was a man of few words, so I couldn’t be sure if he would agree.

Regardless, I did what I needed to do.

End of Teaser

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Notes:

I can imagine there being some readability issues. I tried to indent every smaller linebreak, like I've seen books do. Unfortunately, Tab does not work that way on tumblr. I'm sorry.

Again, details are likely to change. I already had to stop myself from changing more than I did during the last pass I did. I'll worry about that when/if I actually start writing for real.

While a lot of stuff is up in the air, there's two things I am certain of: C3 of Shandon's predicament will royally suck and they manage to come back from it, and Soul does meet and enlist Lunet roughly like this.

I wholeheartedly understand if Soul seems dubious right now. Every single incarnation of this character hasn't been exactly the nicest guy on the planet. Don't come here expecting a goodie-two-shoes. However, also consider this is but a small part early in the story.

Now that I've finally got this out there, I've honestly no idea what is next. But while I thought for a while that maybe Wildchalice would be dying a common death, chances are I'll find something else to write for it and procrastinate.

Choros and Monsters

Darius has plans to visit Shandon to check on its C3 division, and has told me and Laura to come with. Both of us jumped at the opportunity to travel well beyond Ariocester and Glenstead. I think Laura would be able to travel anyways, as her mother is Secretary of Defense and her grandfather a decorated retired general, but I don’t have as many opportunities. Until the time comes though, I help prepare for departure during the day and return to the diary this evening. It’s hard not to think of our security, given it could use improvement and is also what Darius’ work most commonly concerns. Today though, this subject just would not leave my thoughts at all.

When I was five years old, I still thought that us Croicans could be completely safe. Of course, this was before I learned that nature and creatures can spontaneously come into existence through rifts. It is almost certain the Extrareality is related to this, as it’s believed to be a realm of infinite possibility. And indeed, just about anything is possible in regards to the monsters: The size, shape and capabilities can wildly vary. Sometimes the new monsters appear as a group or species, but other times they seem to be solitary and one-of-a-kind. Some scholars actually theorize that given thousands of years, evolution will occur and lifeforms will have greatly adapted. So far it remains a theory, as I can’t imagine most other creatures adapting to such a vast, unpredictable array of possibilities very well. It’s a miracle humans and similar beings like Thessans have managed to!

Depending on who you ask, we either band together because we’re social creatures or because of our individual weakness compared to what can come out of a rift. I’d say it’s a bit of both. It helps that we generally do not fight each other, with exceptions. Over the years, thinkers have even turned this wisdom into a principle: Any civilization that does want to wage war has to be prepared to fight on more fronts than expected. They may have to fight monsters that might not even have existed before, be it on the battlefield or near their own cities. An example often given in history is the short-lived Norban civilization in what is now Sastrales. Norba aspired to be an empire until a pack of Karmids appeared right on top of the imperial supply chain, cutting off the army from the doomed capital. This principle has been coined Monster-Based Equilibrium or MBE, because the eternal monster threat has been fairly effective at discouraging war. Small favors, I suppose.

In stark contrast with Norba in the past (and arguably Croica today), the Souzaki empire never forgets what world it lives in. Even though the people of Souzaki and those of the outside world rarely meet, the prosperity and relative safety of the empire are fairly well known. I say the people of Souzaki don’t venture into the rest of Choros, but in order to keep up with the world’s ever-changing nature, Souzaki scholars do travel far and wide. These Codifiers record information about Choros’ monsters at any place and any time. Their information is from time to time borrowed by Croica and other countries, at least if they don’t have similar projects going.

Probably the most well-known result of the Codifiers’ mission is the Hierarchy of Danger, though it isn’t one of their codexes. One of the Codifiers settled down in Labrua with a Labruan woman and had a son, Ralf Toreru, who took after his father quickly. Doctor Toreru quickly delved into his father’s work, although he started to notice a common omission in the Codifier’s approach: They would describe creatures and what they were capable of, but would be roundabout about the concrete danger a creature would pose. Would it be a risk? Or a certain disaster? In particular, creatures were never simply compared to each other. Doctor Toreru continued his labor at Anderlecht University, where it caught on to the point of becoming a group effort from the scientific world. This was a great help to him, as there was no way he could classify every monster, especially those not in his father’s codex. Honestly, if I didn’t already see the value of the Hierarchy of Danger I am sure Darius would have gladly enlightened me further. It is exceedingly relevant to his usual work after all, and he greatly respects Doctor Toreru.

The Hierarchy of Danger is a classification system used to assign threat levels to each monster. According to the classification, plans and decisions can then be made. The lowest of these is Ordinary Class. This is where harmless creatures like dogs and cats would go. Some more imposing creatures like bears used to be in the next lowest class, until the system had enough creatures classified to put a bear’s strength into perspective. This next class would be Concern Class. It is labeled such because creatures of this classification are dangerous to regular citizens and therefore a concern. That said, guns, magic or some other capability are more than enough to address Concern Class.

Creatures of Risk Class or above are what the Hierarchy of Danger is made for. It is agreed upon that creatures of this classification require military force to deal with, as all of them possess some manner of power that humans usually don’t. Risk Class also marks the point where creatures get bigger, usually ranging from about as big as us to the size of a house. Still, even our regular army is able to deal with these creatures, although the C3 is still preferred. Threat Class is a different story: It is the commonly agreed cutoff point for what mundane armies can be reasonably expected to fight. Creatures get even bigger, stronger and more versatile. Therefore, the C3 is always called in to combat Threat Class.

Unfortunately, humans can’t fight everything on Choros. The final classification, Disaster Class, is for giant monsters that are an uphill battle to fight at best. Lots of lives will be lost if this is ever attempted, and there’s no guarantee of success. Doctor Toreru’s own recommendation in the event of conflict with a Disaster Class creature is to evacuate all citizens, and this recommendation has been adopted by Secretary Hughes and the C3. It might be possible to fight Disaster Class with monsters of our own, but the Hierarchy of Danger does not assume that to be a possibility, and we don’t have much access to benevolent monsters to begin with. On top of these five classifications there’s also the group designation, where creatures are marked with one or more Gs. This denotes the possibility of creatures appearing in groups and becoming more threatening once they do. For example, Thessans are marked as Concern[GG], most likely meaning that fighting a group or an entire city-state is a very dangerous endeavor. I don’t like to think about this. Scholars say that all lifeforms must be classified for completion’s sake, but classifying beings like us alongside aggressive monsters feels wrong to me, especially when they are as friendly as the Thessans.

Now that I have put this all to paper, I feel my mind racing less and less. It should be much easier to fall asleep now, which is welcome since we depart for Shandon in a few days.

End of Entry

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Notes:

In addition to the in-universe use, I also turn to the Hierarchy of Danger for basic scaling, so that I can start having a better idea of what characters can deal with what monsters, because that's something I actually kinda struggle with.

As per usual, details may or may not change. I think the Hierarchy of Danger itself is pretty solid, but not what creature falls where inside the system.

Speaking of which, I will reiterate: You might wonder if I'll ever elaborate on a bunch of creatures. I don't think Gaspar's Diary is the place, and an outright bestiary is probably something I'll keep to myself for my own benefit.

The Thessans

My mind works in strange ways sometimes. Whenever I do chores, there’s always a chance my thoughts wander to any of Choros’ wonders. For example, I took out waste as yesterday came to an end, and thought of a very human-like species that had to put up with our pollution. I’m referring to the Thessans off our coasts. Well, these mystifying creatures live in just about any body of water large enough to accommodate them, not to mention any human settlements near the coasts.

Actually, the familiar human forms are not the true forms of the Thessans. A Thessan’s true form is that of a cephalopod which dwarfs us in size. Their most noteworthy natural trait is their elaborate shapeshifting though, and despite their ability to change any body part in great detail, it just so happens that Thessans have grown to really like us humans. Apparently that’s somehow a shared trait among all Thessan populations, which if true is an impressive coincidence.

It’s equally impressive just how well the Thessans have got our appearances down. Four of their sixteen tentacles probably make up their limbs, which leaves the remainder to simulate a hairdo. You eventually notice their relatively unchanged eyes, if not their greater average height, but it goes to show how dedicated the species has been over the years to getting closer to us. I’d say this is also apparent from how organized they are. The oceanic populations form city-states, much like many of us did in the distant past. We have a treaty with some states in our ocean like Nessinn, the biggest of them. The Thessans of Nessinn have been a great help in keeping our coasts safe, at least compared to our landmass. It makes me wonder what Thessans could be capable of if they formed nations like we did. Alas, the city-states often fight eachother, bringing strength, venom and transformation to bear. Evidently, the Thessans have hit their limit in how well they band together.

No such hostility can be seen when Thessans interact with us. If anything, we are sometimes unkind to them. I do not for the life of me understand how some people are not won over by their efforts to accommodate us, and instead see them as monsters. On the other side of the spectrum, some think the Thessans’ humanity is the problem, and call them wife or husband stealers. Most Croicans however return the warm feelings as far as I’m aware. The country’s most famous idol is a Thessan, after all. I’ve had the fortune of listening to one of Lorelei’s performances in Ariocester. She’s quite the sight to behold, standing tall as she works her vocal cords in a fashion I would describe as a little raw. Her few detractors call it rock-bottom, but I could see her style start a genre of music. Either way, Lorelei is not the only Thessan in the public eye.

As if by coincidence, there was a broadcast on the seaside Vaulting Tamarin, apparently the most successful establishment in all of Croica. Why was this a coincidence? Well, the inn's reputation grew as much as it did because of the Thessan barmaid that goes by the name Emerald Visconti and calls herself "your friendly Sixteen". I struggle to write words, actually. Give me a moment while I compose myself and find words.

Alright. I thought Thessans couldn't take more stunning forms than Lorelei’s, but... Emerald's immaculate form, agreeable smile and inviting body language are now burned in my brain. There's probably several men that follow that line of thought as well. To be fair, however, while Thessans get along with us the best out of all creatures, they are still somewhat of a rare sight. And here Emerald is, working at a bar for any human to see, a selling point for the Vaulting Tamarin. For that matter, she has also become an attraction for the entire city of Ouverford. From the few minutes she featured, I figure she makes a great barmaid. Can't leave that unsaid.

Darius was not pleased with that development, since it rendered me distracted and effectively cut my working hours short. First he resolved to remove the television from his laboratory, but later promised he'd pay for a trip to Ouverford sometime if I would please take out the scrap. My job is a good one and my boss is fair, don't get me wrong. And yet, getting to visit the Vaulting Tamarin to meet a Thessan in person, and one so stunning as Emerald at that, will probably be the greatest perk yet. I can see her handing me a mug while asking me about my day already.

But I should conclude this entry. Darius is almost yelling at me. Wants me to complete one more task for the day. End of Entry

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Notes:

Yeah, turns out I reinvented Inklings/Octolings by accident. I was looking for more humanoid races, picked the waters as their domain, and then went with shapeshifting cephalopods because octopi are already capable shifters. Only later did I realize I reinvented Splatoon, so it’s a funny coincidence.

I genuinely had fun coming up with the Thessans, even more so once I realized they are still distinct from Inklings and Octolings even if their fascination with humans is a shared trait.

I also could not pass up the opportunity to make good ol’ Emerald Visconti a cephalopod once more after briefly being a spirit instead. There’s more characters from Claimed by Squid Hell and Bottle Adrift that may go back to being cephalopods, though others (like Gaspar himself, actually) become humans. Lorelei was a minor idol in Claimed by Squid Hell, so making her a bigger but equally tentacled one in Wildchalice was perfect.

Ouverford is considered for a story, and if so, expect Emerald alongside a fair few CbSH returns.

Thankfully, this one’s a lot shorter than the second and fourth entries.

The House of Mavros

Doctor Darius is out today, but I nonetheless find myself back at my diary. My continued work for who was once supposed to rule Croica by birthright makes me think about the ways noble families had to deal with changing times. House Darkwin agreed to relinquish their power when our new constitution proved adequate. Likewise, House Renou in the neighboring Labrua decided to just disband while House Leovelt managed to keep a ceremonial function. Meanwhile, our lesser house of Von Reiter just sat there. All of these houses fell from power, like more revolutionary-minded Croicans would expect. However, there is one house that resides within our borders yet can practically pretend nothing happened. That would be House Mavros.

House Mavros has had holdings in Croica for centuries, but only fully relocated here a few decades ago. Some fellow Croicans do not like this in the slightest, but the house has been a source of security for our country before the creation of C3, even before the dwindling of our magical population. House Mavros owes its staying power and current wealth to two things. Firstly, they appear to be among the most naturally adept mages in all of Choros. Second, this talent has allowed them to bond with an eldritch being known as Crepuskul, and that bond has its origin in distant history, as does the birth of the house.

If there’s one thing people know related to House Mavros, it’s the story of their founder, Solon Mavros, who is also known as Solon the sage, or as Solon the reformer among the Sibyllite faith. His time was a tumultuous one. While he would bond with Crepuskul later, Solon wasn’t actually the first human to commune with him. That would be the patriarchs of the Esnarian League’s then dominant religion, the Dusk Orthodoxy. According to that faith Crepuskul was God, and all historical accounts suggest he was a merciless one, spurred on by the deceitful words the patriarchs spoke from their seat of Kosiliki.

With searing beams of light, shrouds of darkness, sheer speed and intangibility, the Twilit Figure was not easily defied. So when Solon came to Esnaria from Sastrales, he had a herculean task ahead of him, and he indeed took it upon himself to do whatever it took to stop the Dusk Orthodoxy. That meant eluding Kosiliki’s inquisitors as he did his research on Crepuskul’s kind, hoping to find a way to defeat him. Unfortunately, if there is a secret to killing them permanently, it has not been found to this day. If Crepuskul were to turn on us one day, the best we can do is force him to retreat to another dimension. I believe I’ve heard it referred to as the extrareality?

Anyway, killing the Twilit Figure was not an option, so Solon dedicated his efforts to communing with him instead. Eventually he managed to do so, apparently through the emblem that is now a family heirloom. Someone else being able to summon a supposed “god” was already a downer for a lying faith, but Solon took it several steps further: He conversed with Crepuskul, exposing the patriarchs, who were then swiftly destroyed alongside most houses of worship. With that, the curtain fell on the Dusk Orthodoxy, and nowadays, only the Sybillite Orthopraxy still sees Crepuskul as a god. The event was in fact so monumental that religion never got a foothold like that in Esnaria again. It marked the start of Esnaria’s worship of their best, which is still ingrained in their culture to this day.

Following the end of the orthodoxy, Solon and his bloodline were made part of Esnarian aristocracy, and the new House Mavros settled into Kosiliki, claiming the former religious center as their seat. Solon himself dedicated his life to fighting monsters alongside Crepuskul, but also to keeping the remnants of the Dusk Orthodoxy down. His descendants would also become mediums of Crepuskul, fighting alongside him, typically for the good of Esnaria… depending on who you ask. When one has as much power as House Mavros did, that power can corrupt. And unfortunately, that’s what a lot of people remember the house for, with Solon being the only member that’s universally respected.

History took a turn for the sour under Athos Mavros. At this point, House Mavros had become Esnaria’s leading house. Apparently, Athos figured he could use Crepuskul’s power to expand into the wilds. Now unlike Harold Lead, Athos was successful. Crepuskul’s powers proved too much for the monster populations to handle and so they migrated, driven into other countries. When those countries understandably began to object, Esnaria declared war on them.

The Athos War was probably the biggest war humanity has seen. Esnaria managed to last for years because of its sizable power, complemented by a eldritch monstrosity that could not be permanently killed. It would probably have lasted another decade if other Esnarian houses didn’t rebel. Eventually, House Mavros was defeated, and would have been extinguished there and then if not for Lior Mavros. Athos’ sister negotiated with the victorious alliance, and had managed to have only Athos executed in exchange for relinquishing some of House Mavros’ power and reforming the house’s workings. Up until this point, the leader of House Mavros could also be Crepuskul’s medium, but Lior decreed that this should no longer be the case. Eventually, she would pass down the emblem to her son Alerio, who became the first separate medium.

If you ask a Croican what they think about House Mavros, they either love or hate the house. In case of the latter, chances are they’ll bring up the Athos War. I can get behind that one. Today’s house members are not responsible for a centuries-past war, but I can only agree that it was an awful event. However, people will bring up any number of reasons to hate the house, be it supposed shady practices, idealistic sensibilities, or even straightup conspiracies about House Mavros plotting to take over Croica. To that last one I say they could already have done that, since a lot of our mages left. We already have trouble with lumbering beasts. How are we supposed to take on an intangible monstrosity? This might be why House Mavros moved to New Kosiliki in Maubruck following some trouble in Esnaria, but I don’t know the aristocratic intrigue that goes on there. I only know that the house has a lot of prejudice to deal with nowadays.

During Lead’s term, that prejudice reached a logical conclusion. That term was one of magiophobia and “progressing to a brand new age”, so Lead really did not care for House Mavros. Early into the term, anti-Mavros extremists saw an opportunity to kidnap one of the house members, Hadrian Mavros. It did not take long for house leader Alexander to respond. I still get shivers recalling how he hijacked both CBC1 and CBC2 to broadcast his displeasure. Alexander’s threats almost made me feel for the kidnappers.

Needless to say, that event soured relations between Ariocester and New Kosiliki, although I think Alexander speaking from his heart has actually increased support for the house. Recently, prime minister Knightly has issued an apology for the kidnapping of Hadrian to repair these relations. Some connect this apology to rumors that secretary Hughes is trying to recruit the current medium into C3. That seems plausible to me, as well as desirable. The house’s current generation was benign to begin with, but getting them to serve outright will be a tremendous boon in our fight against monsters.

Huh. It appears the sun is setting. How fitting I wrote from dawn until dusk on the sage’s house of all things. I finished this just in time too. Darius told us to expect him back tomorrow, so I should turn in for the night in preparation for another early day.

End of Entry

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Notes:

This entry may seem like a lot of information of which not a lot is relevant. However, trust me when I say there’s a couple of exceedingly relevant bits dropped.

In the big melting pot of all my creativity, House Mavros essentially hails from the “source material” which I build around a lot.

Fiend Engineering

We have a television tube in the lab, and today it gave us important news. It seems the government has finally completed new bio-engineering laws. Out of all of us, Darius himself was especially pleased. He has an extreme disdain of the practice known as Fiend Engineering. I knew little about this practice, other than the fact it involved using monster cells to change humans, making them stronger. Since Darius was in such a good mood he allowed us to inquire about it for an hour or so, and he would answer to the best of his ability. It may not be his field of expertise for obvious reasons, but he does have access to the scientific sources.

Us Croicans like to give ourselves credit for the practice, but it turns out we were far from the first to do this. Historians have found accounts that suggest it started well over a millennium ago. This is strange because during those times, no one batted an eye at magic yet. But it seems that the thinkers of ancient Sastrales were years ahead of us. They figured humanity shouldn't be picky, especially since humans aren't created equal in regards to magic potential and so can't always defend themselves. At least, it was written on a slate that belonged to the philosopher Archos, also known for his theories concerning the gods. It isn't certain, however, only the most likely possibility. Some historians have instead suggested that some crazy minds just discovered the applications for monster cells through rigorous trial-and-error... which is kind of what we do, or so I was told by an once again riled Darius.

Our ancestors also practiced Fiend Engineering at times... Or at least, our historians think so. It's hard to tell because supposedly the knowledge was passed on verbally, with almost no notes written. We only have certain materials to go by there. Maybe the Croicans of the past considered it taboo? Either way, it was rediscovered a couple decades ago, after which our scientists went for trial-and-error. About ten years ago, doctor Henry Common made a breakthrough with relatively refined blood injection. This was in no way without its problems but it did seem to yield okay results. From there, others tried to find more practical methods of Fiend Engineering.

If you know anything about blood, like the existence of blood types, you'd expect this to be a lot harder than it is. After all, our blood rejects whatever does not belong in our bodies. And yet, it's surprisingly easy to allow foreign cells into our bodies if you know what to add. The set of key substances for Fiend Engineering is known as immunorevisers, which tell bodies to adapt to whatever foreign cells are added. They’re produced by the Wildchalice subset of fungi, the most commonly used Wildchalice being Shaulsglass. This obviously implied there were more kinds of Wildchalice, but Darius understandably refused to elaborate on this particular detail. Though I am of course uneducated, I think it’s safe to assume some Wildchalices are more dangerous than others. Anyway, the result of successful Fiend Engineering, a Fiend, is a human that can adopt characteristics of the monster used. Fiends have strength well beyond what is humanly possible, as well as other abilities depending on the monster. Haghen Ziel had Tarannus cells, for example, so he crawls over terrain with extra limbs on his back like a spider, while also packing electrifying spines.

The most basic way to turn a human into a Fiend is to just inject monster blood alongside immunorevisers and a couple of extra components. It's a simple method, but one that comes with a big risk. See, if monster blood remains in our bloodstream for too long, it will start altering our biology. Now the details are lacking, but the theory is it makes us closer to the donor monster. If I was turned into a Fiend this way, I could start smashing buildings within a month for all I know, and that just seems counterproductive to say the least. That's why this method has been firmly outlawed, recently with greater punishment. However, the monster serum that's used by C3's rank-and-file is an exception. That one's basically a mixture of bloods that only grants enhanced strength. It being a mixture is supposed to weaken the side effects, but soldiers who use this are still supposed to inject an antidote of sorts within one week of taking the serum. This breaks down the serum before it can alter their minds.

Recently, a more advanced method has been found, one which is more practical if successful. The core challenge of Fiend Engineering is the lasting effects of the monster blood, and the solution is to break it down again. To this end, doctor Meinrad Vonhof developed a method where he makes an entire organ to implant in the body. Since this is essentially surgery, there is immediate risk to the subject. However, if no complications occur, the Fiend now has an organ dedicated to adding the blood to the bloodstream and breaking it back down. There's a couple of these Fiends in the ranks of the C3, Haghen and Sian among them. Secretary Hughes has plans to increase these numbers.

I can't say I disagree with those plans, and know we need to create a safer Croica through any means necessary. And yet, as we heard Darius explain, I grew to understand his aversion to the practice. A case can be made that we are transforming ourselves even if the Vonhof method is pulled off perfectly. You may be able to control your powers with no trouble, but there's no going back from having them in the first place. Some demagogues can have a field day with that as it is. Personally, I wonder what will happen if a Fiend were to defect from C3, or if one was never made for our benefit at all. That is a possibility, since there may be a black market for monster cells. Humanity would be crafting its own threats. Furthermore, I suspect an imperfect execution of the Vonhof method could result in permanent transformation anyway. Rather, I think our government is aware of this, since they also set up thorough supervision of any scientist using the Vonhof method.

But I should set these worries aside. In part because we can only wait and see. In part also because Darius is back to his strict self and will call me back to work any time now.

End of Entry

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So notes:

This entry, as usual, can potentially be rewritten in spots. Because of general details being revised, but also if anything about Fiend Engineering still makes no sense after elaborating a little bit compared to when I first wrote this. At the same time, I could just chalk that up to magic.

Maybe this entry begs the question if I’ll ever elaborate on a whole bunch of creatures, since two have now come up. However, I don’t think I can shove that into a dedicated entry. For that matter, I feel like I’ll keep an outright bestiary for myself for my own benefit.

The Contra Creature Corps

Yesterday I mentioned the Contra Creature Corps, our current greatest hope against monsters and other supernatural threats. Okay, maybe second greatest, as an arguably greater power does reside in Croica. But the current Contra Creature Corps has actually seen success. Also, the corps has been abbreviated to C3, which is honestly less of a mouthful so C3 it is.

Not that something like the C3 wasn't attempted before. The father of our democracy, David Degrance, encouraged science in all of its forms to improve our chances. He was a smart man, and I like to think he was aware of the upcoming challenges. The foundation was there for our first elected leader, prime minister Harold Lead, to address the monster problem. Lead made an attempt. I'm not so cynical as to believe otherwise. However, I also think most of my fellow Croicans agree that it was nothing more than an attempt. Lead continued to bolster our scientific solutions, but as I mentioned yesterday, science isn't quite up to the task. Personally I would have left it to mages for the time being. Unfortunately that wasn't in line with what we wanted Croica to be, especially at the time. We did not want mages. And so the people we really needed either left our country, physically or in spirit, or turned to House Mavros which was too powerful for our government to antagonize.

What was the plan in the meantime? Well, Choros has seen several advancements when it comes to vehicles of war. We had and still have a decent supply of biplanes and tanks, and are developing stronger military vehicles. Engineers were trying to use a single pair of stronger wings, now with some success, and I recall a demonstration of armed helicopters. That sounds well and good until you remember that human fighters and monsters tend to be different beasts. Still, prime minister Lead got it into his brain that enough tanks and planes could stop, say, a group of Belez. Yes, his solution to giant howling monster monkeys, among other things, was to throw a bunch of disposable steel at them.

Something else just came to mind also: While there are plenty of monsters that attack without provocation, we invited some attacks onto ourselves. We have several areas of untreaded, wild nature where monsters reside, much like other countries. We are also inclined to expand to make room for our growing population or any number of other lucrative reasons. Sometimes this brings us in conflict with monsters, when settlers either tread too close to or straightup enter the wild zones to deforest, for example. Now this has been an issue since the dawn of humanity, but with the advent of our democracy some politicians, particularly those of the Prosperity Movement, saw an opportunity to pick up the pace. Both Degrance and Lead weren't opposed to this, and perhaps had to endorse more than they liked as a way of compromise. But only prime minister Lead actively weakened our defenses at the same time by bullying practitioners of magic.

So what results did Lead's mechanical "anti-monster" units yield when the consequences came pouring out of the wilds? Scores of Croicans lost their homes or even their lives when monsters surged into their cities and often wreaked havoc there, despite the tanks and planes deployed. Some settlements were even lost completely, particularly those near the sprawling Fellholz Woods that the government wanted to cut to improve our infrastructure. Instead, the entire surviving population of the city of Fellholz now lives spread across tent encampments or nearby cities. Newspapers, radio and television have since dubbed the events the Fellholz Disaster, the biggest of tragedies during Lead's term.

Lead eventually tried to fix his mistakes, but to no avail because he realized them entirely too late. The subsequent elections saw the New Constitution Coalition decimated in favor of the new Croican Tempered Democrats. Our current leader, August Knightly, had his work cut out for him. He stopped his predecessor's blatant magiophobic policies to halt the ongoing exodus, and diverted a lot of spending towards our defense through any means necessary. Not everyone likes what we have to endorse sometimes, but frankly, only an idiot would argue against it after the Fellholz Disaster. My blood is starting to boil already.

Anyway, one of the first things prime minister Knightly ordered was a new attempt at an anti-monster corps. This became the task of the ministry of defense, under minister and veteran Gilbert Schneider and his secretary Felicia Hughes (her daughter Laura is a colleague of mine). To that end, Hughes pooled our resources together. Our strongest vehicles, our best and most promising soldiers, and all fields of science we could muster. I think C3 would even enlist anyone that somehow bonds with a monster. Given our army took a hit from the Fellholz Disaster, it would be reasonable to expect failure. And yet, Hughes’ C3 succeeded.

The C3 owes its success to its various means. On top of our best vehicles and some of Darius' creations, they also had some mages in their ranks, since Hughes had greenlit that. But C3's greatest assets have come from Fiend Engineering. Even C3's rank-and-file have high-powered firearms complemented by monster blood serum that enhances their bodies. The highest praises are sung of Haghen Ziel and Sian Spencer, who used their implanted Tarannus and Pelundur powers to turn the tide. They're now C3's commanders apparently, and rightly so I'd say. Thanks to the corps, some settlements lost during Lead's term have been reclaimed, though Fellholz itself may be a tall order.

While I of course applaud C3, it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Secretary Hughes still has only limited numbers to protect our entire country with. Losses were suffered during their first missions. Still, she presses on. A squad is to be sent to Shandon to form a new division of C3, working alongside its police. But as far as numbers go, the upcoming division seems... slight. How do I know that? Well, Laura came to work frustrated. Apparently she called her mother out on this during a rare family visit. I know there's also the Contra Creature Volunteers, or CCV, to assist. But they are even less numerous at the moment and also volunteers, so I'm not sure of how much help they are.

Speaking of Laura, I'm soon supposed to help her and Darius with tests. I think I may also be running out of ink after all that I wrote.

End of Entry

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Notes:

This entry is susceptible to rewriting for a couple reasons. First, there’s the usual of new details that could come up that are relevant. This one also hinges a lot on whatever the timeline of events will be, and that timeline will likely see some refining when I get to that point.

Not to mention, this entry is... uhh... really long?

However, the main reason is that this is the point where I’ve had to delve into Croica’s politics. While I think I got a decent enough idea, chances are I made a few errors. I can consult my politically knowledgeable brother eventually, and I probably have to change a bunch of things afterwards.

On the note of politics, I have written a whole bunch of notes as well, some of which has been incorporated into this entry, but I don’t think I’ll dedicate another entry to it. I’m thinking of pulling newspapers out of my ass for things that I can’t fit into this diary. Croican politics and some other events would be good to drop this way.

Choros is the name of the entire world. I’m currently playing with the idea that different countries call it different things, but for sake of consistency it’s just Choros now.

It’s interesting how I had to teach my brain to use last names, as that formality was very much needed when talking about politicians.

I’ve alluded to two stories now: Expect C3′s origin story and the tale of C3 of Shandon when/if the actual stories drop.

The House of Darkwin

Today was my first day working in the laboratory of Doctor Darius Darkwin. I haven't left our capital in forever, so many things in Croica will feel special to me. Even then, it's weird to see the trains of this day and age. One would wonder why they need to be armed to the teeth with heavy artillery. Then you remember Croica has to dread monsters of many sizes. This might be just me, but I can't help but wonder why we are so averse to mages. Every so often, someone would tell me that magic was a privilege people had in darker times, yet I just figure that at least people were safe. Some "darker times" those were.

How does our government in Ariocester intend to fill this hole? Supposedly they are working hard on just that. And the new Contra Creature Corps does seem to be a success. Still, science can't quite fill the gap that abandoning magic left, or so I heard Darius muse to himself as he worked. After the house of Darkwin relinquished its power, Darius remained relevant due to his ability as an inventor and engineer, so I trust his word on that.

It was quite easy to get this job. Not that I understand a whole lot of what Darius was doing. Science may as well be eldritch lore to me. He knows this, as I mostly have to tidy up his surroundings and hand him some tools. However, my parents worked for house Darkwin back when they were leading Croica, and Darius felt obligated to reward their loyalty by giving me work, no matter how simple.

Anyway, while Croica has seen an increase in bio-engineers, Darius takes a more mechanical approach and is quite famous for it. At the moment he's taking a bit of downtime... by which I mean he's taking a break from the automatons that he's made for fighting monsters. Instead, Darius is working on a machine that's supposed to do a variety of tasks and calculations on demand. Kind of like... these "electromagnetic computer" devices that are well-specialized? But you can alter their purpose, as it were? This is obviously beyond me. Judging from the doctor's disappointed musing, however, it's currently also beyond even him. Maybe magic resources would help, as magic alters the ways of the world that disagree with him at this time. But alas, he's allocated those to other creations.

Admittedly, Darius made the right call to spend these resources on the aforementioned automatons. The most notable of these are what he calls Erdebau units. They sure look the part as monster-fighting solutions, being mechanical, masked cicadas the size of... a large dog, maybe? I'm sure the ballroom masks are aesthetic touches. Erdebau units also have integrated firearms which they can use against smaller threats. Most power, however, is magical in nature. Magic grants them extra strength, and Darius' own units can shock foes. I'm guessing the semblance of intelligence can be chalked up to the same thing.

To be honest, when I saw the Erdebaus, I figured it'd be cool to take a couple units for a spin. Darius politely but resolutely dashed those dreams, explaining only a select few would be able to use them effectively. I am not among them, clearly. But Darius also knows his creations' capabilities from experience, since he sometimes goes out to fight monsters himself. Apparently he's an occasional comrade in arms of the Contra Creature Corps.

But that's enough writing. I am here to do a job, and right now that entails handing him new celluloid film for his computer.

End of Entry

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So now for a couple notes:

While this way of writing is really convenient for someone who hasn’t figured out everything yet or written on this scale, chances are I still have to rewrite parts of these entries down the line as this world takes shape.

It would be nice if I could release the entries in chronological order, but due to the freeform nature of my process, this likely won’t happen. I may not even be able to number particularly late entries right away. As this continues, I may make a chronological index.

It barely needs to be said, but this can take a while. There’s no schedule to this. Don’t expect it.

I can’t stress this enough: There’s some parallels to earth, but the existence of magic as well as powerful creatures also makes this world develop differently. There’s probably less wars, for one, because humans have other things to worry about. Just keep this sort of thing in mind in case you find yourself wondering “where is this thing?” or “why is that thing like this?”.

A huge portion of everything I ever made will probably be found in the stories (on top of the brand new things I craft on the spot). You’re probably familiar with almost none of it, but I just thought that was fun to point out.