#Aur was already thinking of doing this after their last conversation but some events during the revel made him /really/ buckle down on

[arcxnumvitae]

Sometime later

“You summoned me?” Iomhar stepped into throne room, the space nearly empty save for him and the king for likely the first time that week. The throne sat empty as the king stood off to the side, eyes upwards and watching the night sky through a distant window set up above. 

The last time he had been here was for his punishment for killing Lord Arasgain. He still remembered the sound of the whip cutting through the air, and the agony as it dug through his back. The blood he’d shed had long since been cleaned, or possibly absorbed into the dirt itself, but still the fae couldn’t help from eyeing the spot as he passed.

The king didn’t respond, his face impassive and stony as he turned towards him. There was no warning, no twitch of muscle nor flicker of intent in the man’s face that could have alerted him before a whip was suddenly zinging through the air towards him. An image of another whip moving towards him, one tipped with iron and wielded mercilessly, ran through Iomhar’s head and his body moved automatically, arms raising to shield himself from the attack. 

It was when the woody material of the whip wrapped around his forearm without the expected bite of iron that the realization struck Iomhar, but it was too late. The enchantment in the king’s weapon sank in, Iomhar grunting as he could already feel the compulsion of it working against his will through the whip wrapped around unyielding stone skin.

King Camhlaidh’s voice was emotionless. “Tell me everything that you know of Sivel’s past and his actions.”

Sinking to his knees, Iomhar fought the magic that seemed to set into his veins and hook into his very being, threatening to claw the truth from him if he allowed it even an inch of opportunity. Iomhar grunted as he was already fighting to catch his breath. “I...will not.” 

“You will, it is an order.” The king growled as he strode closer without an ounce of concern for the way the fae strained. “It will do nothing but cause you harm the further you attempt to fight it.”

“I had already told you,” Iomhar strained, “that Sivel was no threat.” Muscles bulged with effort, the man so focused on fighting the effects of the royal family’s relic that he didn’t notice the king had fully closed the distance between them until a hand had fisted in his shirt, drawing him upwards to meet the other’s enraged gaze.

“No threat? Even now you believe that? I had asked you once already! Had I not been kept in the dark, I could have properly prepared, properly anticipated, and properly avoided what occurred.” Of course, he was talking about what had happened with...

The moss and plants around them began to brown in a circle that spread as the king’s anger seemed to grow. “I am far past taking you at your word regarding the king of Vasyri, Lord Mèinnearach. You are not the king of Seelie. You are not the one tasked with the governance of this land. Do not underestimate that I will do anything that I must for those under my protection.”

The hand holding the handle of the whip tightened and Iomhar felt the pull of the magic grow stronger, yet still he fought. Until a beat of dizziness surged through him body and the gentry could feel a trickle of what was undoubtedly silvery, cool blood seeping from his nose. His vision blurred, thoughts growing fuzzy, and it was in that unguarded moment that the man felt his mouth open.

And he told the king everything.

Every story, every deed, every detail of what Sivel had told him in confidence he shared with the king. It wasn’t until he had shared every last thing he had learned of Sivel that the whip fell away from his arm and the king’s hold released him, allowing him to fall against the now withered plants below that made up the floor with a gasp of relief.

"Your allegiances are tangled, and I have learned now of the dangers in allowing such encumbrances to go unchecked.” Still fighting to catch his breath, Iomhar watched from his place on the ground as Camhlaidh turned his back, voice stony. “If you truly believe that your lover is no threat and will never be a threat, then prove it. Swear fealty to me and show me that I will never have anything to fear.”

Swear fealty? Only the king’s personal guards were required to swear fealty to him, it was a point that had long existed throughout the history of Seelie that no gentry nor Council member would have it required of them, something the predecessors had fought for. To swear fealty would mean he could never act in any way against the king and the king could command him as he wished. It was the ultimate act of loyalty that a fae could give aside from sharing their true name. 

Iomhar’s jaw set, and he pushed himself up to kneel on one knee, gazing up at his king with a mix of anger and resolute determination. 

It was beneath the moonlight that the lord swore fealty to his king.

[afilitaria]

Could you please tell us more about your eo characters? They seem delightfully interesting ^^

I have homework to do so no doodles this time around but thank you for the distraction ehe

Which ones? To be honest I have way too many . _ . I love all of them and I’m ashamed of being bias to Snow ehehehe~ I’ll put down some of my faves here then; not everyone is here because that would take forever… hello wall of text

(Also, the writing tone is super inconsistent, whoops! Feel free to correct inconsistencies or offer suggestions, since these aren’t set in stone right now~)

Snow (EO3/EO2U/EMD): Runaway prince, prefers the title of Strategist rather than a Sovereign (I mean, it’s basically what he does? And he’s not -really- a Sovereign anymore). He’s naive and trusting to anything that seems amiable (”How was I supposed to see the guy’s face?! Am I the only one without x-ray vision in this party?!”) but will kick your ass in a game of chess or tactical warfare. He’s also sometimes a total wisecrack, like during the Ginnungagap third floor; he summarizes it as “So we’re not the chosen ones, but since you’re desperate, you’ll take anyone at this point?”

Also hands down abuses Proof of Nobility in EO2U early game just so the guild doesn’t have to spend money on inns, but would spend 420k en on a bow. “We’re so broke” - Snow Afilitaria Aurelis 2k17

I see EO3 as the prequel story to the EO2U arc, which is his adventures in Armoroad after leaving Afilitaria and before being reunited with the Aurelis brothers and Eden, who at the time are in the EOU arc. 

EMD, uh, it’s full of crack headcanons on my end because in my entire guild roster, only he, Alexander, Akihiro and Yukimura make it there (Aki being the blue haired Wanderer). So, after the events of EO2U, Snow wanted to go travelling with only Alexander, but the Mizuharus stow away on the boat ride to Aslarga because they figured it’d get boring in H.Lagaard. That’s EMD for me. Yup.

Alexander (EOU/EO2U/EMD): Snow’s royal guard and protector, the only one he accepted. Personality varies; early on in the story, he is very lighthearted, cracking jokes and puns (*cough Punvoke cough*), but as time goes on and he loses Snow for the nth time, he gradually becomes more and more serious, scared of how closer and closer Snow gets to death every time, to the point of becoming overprotective.

Anyway. The family of Aurelis was a powerful force in service to the Afilitaria noble family, and Alexander lived a carefree life, with the role of heir delegated to Orlandeau, the eldest. However, one day at the age of 13, their parents and servants were one day all assassinated, with the three children as the only survivors as Snow hurriedly sent forces to come to their aid. Seeing how they now had nothing but their lives, Snow took them in, and Alexander felt indebted to him and vowed to serve him for the rest of his life, in lieu of Orlandeau’s original duty, and he trained to be a knight.The story goes about as smoothly as you expect (not at all?), and Snow, being only 9 years old running a country on his ill parents’ behalf, constantly breaks down in stress when no one is watching. Alexander is the only one to notice and lend his shoulder for him to cry on, and well… I think you could guess the rest.

Hm? Why is Snow’s story summarized in Alexander’s section? Because Snow is a comic relief character. It wouldn’t feel right to put anything serious in his bio.

Orlandeau (EOU/EO2U): Anti-social, quiet, jargon spouting Orlandeau is generally regarded as a mad scientist by the Alchemist Union of H.Lagaard, but he does a lot for them; developing new technology and medicine with the help of Zero and Eden. 

Certain teams in said Union despise him however; in the past, he was in said team in the efforts to create homunculi, the perfect, superior life form. However, the project was largely abandoned and the team moved onto researching means to strengthening already existing life; however, Orlandeau refused to give up, taking copies of all of the team’s research and using it to create Zero; who was, by no means perfect, but something of an improvement; he made the mistake of using his own genes and as a result, Zero is slightly physically frail, though his magic power is beyond even his own. 

Zero (EO2U): I think you guys know about Zero; Orlandeau’s homunculi who developed a fascination with the War Magus Union. It took him a while to be accepted in there, seeing how he is an artificial life form, but in the end, they saw it as a means to end the sort of rivalry between the Alchemist and War Magus Associations, and work together.He’s a bright, bubbly, cheerful guy despite his looks, and is known as Doctor Zero to most, as he often volunteers in the hospital whenever needed with Eden.

Unfortunately, with these two, I’m not sure what else to say that I hadn’t covered already in a previous ask!

Vessalius (EOU/EO2U): Vessalius, like his eldest brother, is not so much a talker, but he is at least capable of holding decent conversation. He can be quite distant and hesitant to get close to others due to the trauma of losing his family.

He was the one whom took the news of their parents’ assassination the hardest, being only 10 at the time. Unlike Orlandeau, who regarded the event with calm, almost inhumane realism, and Alexander, who drowned his sorrows in favor of helping the one who saved them, he burned with the desire to exact vengeance on the people who ruined their life. He grew to be an assassin, learning thieves’ cant and slowly inching his way into their underground society, where he eliminated them one by one.

Then, with that done, what was left of his life? Snow was against his becoming an assassin in the first place even though Vess assured him he would not lay a hand on any innocents; Snow was still convinced nothing good would come of it and could not allow Vessalius to continue living in the castle if he wanted to continue this path. Safety precautions, plus Snow’s outlook for the country was of peace, not a stack of power-plays twisting into politics- thus, Vess left, and after his mission was finished at the age of 16, he abandoned his job as assassin and sought to become a survivalist. He settled for a while in a quaint little town and befriended the local medic, a fellow named Eden; who was being worked to death.

Eden (EOU/EO2U): Life Medic who loathes to hurt… though that changes during the events of EO2U, where he realizes he could be helping the team fend off their opponents, and thus, hello level 20 Medical Rod and Heavy Strike. He is generally cheerful, though clumsy and airheaded, but can recite ingredients for various types of vulneraries off the top of his head.

I mentioned before that Eden tires easily. He eats and sleeps a lot, and burns enough energy while adventuring to metabolize; but for the most part, the unnatural energy intake is due to the life energy that overflows in him.As a child, he never knew his parents; his mother died giving birth to him and his father completely unknown. He was raised at an orphanage, where his talent for healing was quickly recognized and taken advantage of. He spent many days and nights working, treating the endless stream of warriors who came to exchange coin for healing. He was willing to do this- though he received very little of the money, he believed this was at least what he owed to the people who raised him.

Let me reiterate that he was being worked to death. The survivalist Vessalius saw this and tried to convince him to stop, but he refused, and in another stroke of MoralityFail.exe, Vessalius kidnapped him and took him to Afilitaria, where he begged Snow to take them in. Eden wasn’t happy about this. It takes a good few years for him to forgive Vess.

The overflow of life energy is a result of his childhood spent tirelessly treating people; his body is so used to exerting so much magic that he grew to always generate far too much.

Valens (EO2U): Actual prince, Snow’s little brother and current Sovereign of Afilitaria. Due to in-country riot, he’s had to hide for an undefined set of time and the signal to return still hasn’t come. Asking Guild Aurelis to take him in may not have been the best idea, but at least not many people know who he is in H.Lagaard. He’s a bit of a brat and snarky as hell, and rules with an iron fist (which explains his country’s dismay, but he actually does a good job at keeping order.)

He hates Alexander with a burning passion and is always picking fights with him. Alexander is too happy to fight back, resulting in many bullet holes in his armor and slashes in Clover’s. Snow and Clover, while they both agree this rivalry is pointless, can’t really stop it at the moment.

Clover (EO2U): Gunner with no magical or physical prowess, but would probably attempt to disassemble a Yggdroid for analysis if he saw one. Would he succeed? Who knows.

He is Valens’ only royal guard because no one else would do it. He cares for Valens, to the point of aggressively going trigger happy on his assailants, but also understands the error of his ways and constantly tries to steer his direction into a less tyrannical and more peaceful rule. He is always very, very tired, drinks a lot of coffee (to the point of begging Regina to teach him how to make H.Lagaard Coffee out of Labyrinth materials) and is generally a calm and mellow person. Some exceptions apply on that last note.

Kiel (EOU/EO2U): The Hexer who swears too much in Latin (or the equivalent of thereof). I previously said he was a memelord, but unfortunately, memes don’t exist during the time period of EO2U, so in reality, he just has a personality that would translate to a memester in a Modern AU or something; loud, boisterous and mischievous.

He’s bound to Caeli by contract and has ownership of his soul in return for his magic power, but has yet to actually force control over him, if ever. He just appreciates Caeli’s company and probably just has the contract in effect so Caeli is capable of magical bardsong. Unfortunately this means they can’t be apart any more than a hundred meters or so, but Kiel probably enjoys this.He’s also really bad with names. He frequently calls Ginnungagap “Gingersnap”.

Caeli (EOU/EO2U): Also not really a memeadour due to timeline constraints. He just has the personality of one, though unlike Kiel, is a bit more mild and gentle about it.

So, did anyone notice the elven ears in the last drawing? Caeli is from a distant land where elves are hidden from normal society and prized as a slave commodity to humans. He was/is very good at singing and was kidnapped by adventurers who then sold him to a noble house that kept him caged up and forced him to play music for them. His magic power was sapped from him as they knew he would use it to escape, and thus Kiel, who was undertaking some sort of witch’s rite (which involved cursing/hexing those deemed fit to be punished), came to the castle and heard his beautiful, yet hauntingly sad song, and decided to set him free, soon after which the two fled to Etria.

Akihiro (EOU/EO2U/EMD): In which the second EOU/EO2U Ronin and male EMD Wanderer are all the same person. The rope ribbon’s under the kasa, apparently. He is the most undisciplined warrior you will ever meet, which translates to min-maxing the hell out of his stats whenever possible (high str and agi, but def and vit don’t exist, what is Clear Stance?). 

He was a Ronin that was second son of some Lord Mizuharu, from the Orient, and got disowned for bringing shame to the family time and time again. It’s because of this he set out to regain his honor, but his small understanding of the common language and his weak constitution weighed him down greatly, not to mention his abhorrent sense of direction. He ended up joining Aurelis during events of EOU, and accompanying them to EMD, where he picked up the class of Wanderer. He is proud of the great feat of scaling Muspelheim from start to finish by himself with only a bag full of sigils and bread. No one knows why he bothered to do it. Yukimura still mourns the loss of their supplies.

(You know, I was awfully close to making Akihiro in EO3 as a Shogun, were it not for deciding to instead make Natsume. He was so close to being everywhere.)

Yukimura (EO3/EMD): The first son of Lord Mizuharu, Akihiro’s brother, and a ninja. He has a very prickly personality and constantly scolds Akihiro for his lack of discipline. He does care for his younger brother though, and to this day, Akihiro still doesn’t know how much Yukimura has defended him from their parents’ ire. (He’ll never admit it.)

The events of EO3 has him travelling with the intent of finding his younger brother, knowing that if there’s one way he has to go about this, it’d be “go adventure all over the globe and hope you run into him, because chances are he’s doing the same thing.” Instead, he finds his long lost rival Natsume. “I’m surrounded by idiots.” - Yukimura Mizuharu 2k17

Natsume (EO3): Shogun, of the Ishikawa family. There’s a really weird love/hate relationship between him and Yukimura. He’s a complete and utter tease toward him, calling him the unauthorized nickname Yuki, much to his embarassment. He follows the EO3 crew around under the pretense to his family that it would be beneficial of them to have alliances with Mizuharu, Pendragon, Auditorre and Afilitaria, but that’s all lies; he just wants to get out of his duties and adventure.

He’s a smooth talker and constantly hits on Yukimura, who just jabs coldly back at him, though it’s pretty clear that said ninja doesn’t appreciate him flirting with other people either (that revelation came with a good concussion, courtesy of Snow). But, is he jealous or does Natsume just piss him off? Who knows.

Lyrald (EO3): Originally a cleric, he was the bastard son of a king from a distant land, and sought to gain his acceptance. After a mission to apprehend a drug-cartel gone wrong, he ends up framed for the crime and has to flee the country, knowing now he can never return, and is aided by a Ronin- who despite his lack of sense of direction, proved more than able to cut down their assailants. He learned basic martial and protective arts from the man and intended to follow him, but the two were separated after he elected to distract their pursuers for Lyrald to escape.

He doesn’t even know his name. Which results in many offhand allusions to Yukimura and him unwittingly describing the same person.He joins Snow and Yukimura, who both recognize him and are no fool to believe the media’s lies- later joined by Galahad, Edmund and Natsume.

Galahad (EO3): Zodiac scholar, the son of noble house Pendragon from a distant land. He’s travelling for no other reason to expand his knowledge, though his family insists he do it for their name (after all, they wanted him to be a knight, but instead he pursued magic arts and they didn’t even complain that much; it’s the least he can do). He’s very quiet and arrogant, often refusing to have level conversation to those who he deems not intelligent enough (and sassing those who are; Orlandeau being a case in point).

Edmund (EO3): Hoplite, Galahad’s assigned guardian during his pilgrimage. He actually does most of the talking on behalf of his liege and is quite friendly.Edmund is something like an adopted brother to Galahad, taken in by his father, and would gladly do any mission issued by him.

Lugh (EOIV): Sniper and head of the guild’s Tharsis branch. Honestly useless af in a fight,  but designs everyone’s clothes (and I mean every member from every branch’s redesigns) and calls all the shots. It me.

Varil (EOIV): Smol Medic. He’s 150% of Lugh’s self-restraint and will Caduceus him to the floor when his fudanshi-mode activates. Their origin is largely unknown and they will tear the third wall a new one.

(That ended up wayyy too long that’s like 2k+ words what the heck; anyway, thanks for the interest, Anon!)