Fragments of Chaldea

All of you should be pretty aware of how Redemption from Sin handled a lot of canon scenes that are roughly “intact.” As a quick reminder, RFS was to Babylonia Singularity as Wicked was to Wizard of Oz. You could understand and piece together the story by just watching Wicked, but if you’ve seen the Wizard of Oz, you know exactly what scenes were omitted. As a reminder, I do that because I need to keep the stories concise to their points without straying too far from their core.

As nice as it would have looked, it would have essentially been distractions/filler.

That said, I did offer a sampler platter while simultaneously showing a progression with each scene. They all manage to rescue the incapacitated Chaldean servants, and then open up with their full might, and rough teamwork/coordination, to suppress the pillars for the main Chaldean force. It’s a show of teamwork forced by dire circumstances, but there’s even some comedy mixed in. I even threw in a few nods here and there for some ‘fan service’ type stuff without feeling it went too far away from the point.

Then, we arrived at the first “gut punch” of the singularity. Since I stick close to canon, it was bound to happen. I just simply raised the stakes so it wasn’t just Gudao Mashu was shielding, but everyone in the Chaldean fleet too. Goetia was going to wipe all of them out in one go, which was essentially check on the chessboard. The castle just happened to move in the way to buy precious time, and I hope I portrayed the swirling emotions Mashu felt in those final moments of hers.

As one final pointer to give all of you some speculation fuel (partly as apology I have to go back to regular update schedule for a week), I will offer a very vague hint: There’s something similar about which point of views that have been shown within the singularity.

It was hard to pick one since this entire section held such a variety of emotion. Just went with a generalized but fitting battle theme that played while I was writing it.

I felt this one captured the final scene very well. It was used before in RFS, but it’s quite the nice dramatic & emotional piece.

The real focus of the chapter is obviously on Roman though. It’s his final motivations for doing what he needs to. So I decided to end the whole ship teasing with Da Vinci thing with the obvious reveal. They weren’t actually in a secret relationship, and that’s one of Roman’s last regrets. Instead, he does get one kiss to soothe the regret, even if it builds a thousand more. Gotta twist the knife a bit, right?

Then there’s David. The whole “he didn’t know” thing would have been a good angle, but David’s interlude inferred he did know. So instead, I went with that, and made it remove another of Roman’s final regrets. The scene probably didn’t go the way people thought, but that’s fine. Just remember, David apparently still doesn’t know what his third noble phantasm does. No one else does for that matter anyway besides Da Vinci. Gotta twist the knife more, right?

So, with both those out of the way, his only remaining obstacles are now physical, and that’s being taken care of now. Canon storyline had it that the bonds of friendship were inferred to be part of the reason all those servants came to assist in their time of need. I just added a little bit more ‘possibility’ with Merlin lending a hand or two indirectly so it had a little firmer footing. It’s still pretty much what happened in canon, just at a different point in time and Jeanne’s monologue got cut short a bit.

Otherwise, a rare setup chapter with little action just so we transition to more of the good bits. In particular, some splices of the canon suppression to enjoy.

There’s two tracks to pick from. Either work for the ending, but I personally prefer the second.

I knew long, long before I started this that I wanted Chaldea itself to play a crucial role in the final battle. It wasn’t enough for me that Chaldea came under attack in the canon storyline: I wanted them to have a piece of action. They, the normal staff of Chaldea, should play a role in the salvation of humanity. I didn’t want the battle to be solved by servant and master hands alone. It’s more poetic that way.

Of course, that also meant I was going to put them into serious danger. I did just that, and I did all I could to try and put you in their shoes. They’re normal people, gripped by emotions and fear and unadapted to war at its scariest. I tried to make them feel natural, but at the same time, gave them that glimmer of hope and determination they’d likely grab by the bonds they formed and their experiences in their impossible reality.

I also wanted to see how attached some of you got to my OCs. Writing characters in an original screenplay is far different than inserting new ones among beloved, canon favorites. I’m glad so very many adore the OCs. Are they still alive? Are they dead? That’s for me to keep a secret, and you’ll just have to hang on to those seats just a little longer. Gotta keep that tension up since the big bad is still looking to kill Mashu and Gudao… until Good ol’ Merlin pops up!

In the end, I hope the surprise nearly all the major OCs played a part was fun and exciting to read. They played a key role in pushing Doctor Roman’s motivations into high gear, and we veterans all know what that means. The time draws nearer, but no one is out of the woods yet even if they managed to deliver the grail!

Fun to think the night is still fairly young, huh?

This caught the general mood of last minute victory at the end. Nothing that played while I was writing really captured the “despair to hope” swing through the whole thing. Maybe I’ll find something later when writing the other chapters.

First off, let’s be honest. If there was anyone who can get away with pulling bullshit maneuvers at the drop of a hat, it’s Merlin. I just didn’t let him get away with it for free because then that would have really been bullshit. That said, if there’s a small side-tagline I could give to this supplement, it’d be about how much planning time was set aside just to figure out who could get away with what and how to stop that from happening. I’d say I did a fairly decent amount to give myself the leeway to allow some things to thread the needle.

There’s been a lot of curious speculation from some of you as to what exactly happened last chapter, but this should definitely clear things up. I haven’t changed anything from the last chapter except removed the author’s note, so some may probably perceive a different picture based on my purposefully tricky writing. I did try to do a good job of pointing your beliefs in the right direction though, and by the reviews and comments, it definitely worked.

Some FoC OC’s have finally made a showing, but at this point you should already know my track record for OCs and supplement stories. I didn’t quite put them in nice situations, nor have I swatted down any death flags (but rather raised them). We’ll see what happens, and while I believe some of you will be surprised, you really shouldn’t be if you’ve followed what I’ve written for a while (year plus).

While I still am using large swathes of canon dialogue, I’m still adapting it as I go. Some of them don’t fit quite as well as they do considering what’s developed in my series’ depiction of the timeline. It’s still pretty much accurate to what it is, but obvious developments (like Gudao and Mashu being in a relationship) would shift a few things.

All said and done, I hope this chapter depicted the feeling of helplessness the characters are surrounded by… then the glimmer of hope at the end that you want to reach out and grab too. Hopefully that’s the case.

Here’s something to set the mood for the sad tension at the beginning. It could work for the desperate action scenes too, but in an artistic way.

I think the hardest part about making this chapter was just making sure it was obvious Lev and Goetia were talking at the same time. I tried to make it clear with cues, and then added a few extra links at SKYS’ recommendation. Hopefully it did the trick.

In case any of you were wondering why the final team seemed to be a magnet of occasional errors and discrepancies… well, now you know: Goetia was going to press the reset button anyway, so whoever was on the team was easily interchangeable save for a few key servants that played a big role. I thought it was pretty obviously foreshadowed something bad was going to happen anyway. I practically dropped anvils with the prologue’s lingering paranoia.

The only differences were what attacks would be displayed to showcase Goetia’s special ability I’m sure every FGO JP player remembers. As a small and fun note, part of the reason Jalter was present is as a notable member of the “Buster Meta” in-game wise. It’s a small reference, and may even make it a tad bit humorous that it cast her, Merlin, and Waver aside as if to say, “No. We know what you’re planning here. Stop that.”

That said, I obviously left you with one hell of a cliffhanger. Goetia wasn’t kidding when it said they’re taking them seriously. While the canon final singularity showed it’s partially letting its anger and disbelief get to him, I decided to do it differently. This one is calm, and it’s doing things accordingly without leaving room for doubt. It wants Chaldea removed as a threat to its plans, but it wants to do it a specific way. Thus, it placed Chaldea into one hell of a corner.

I’ve provided more than enough information for everyone to mull over while I’m away. Any veteran of the Fate series will be able to decipher everything correctly, even with the thoroughness of Goetia’s overall trap. Even if it may be fairly predictable for some, I can still assure it’s going to be a fun, short ride though this singularity.

Some may remember it from when it was used for Gilgamesh vs. Enkidu in RFS.

Minor Error: Original entry had Tamamo listed twice by mistake during a reorganizing flub. #16 is Shuten. The mistake has been fixed.

So, for all the JP players out there, I’m sure the alarm bells were ringing pretty thoroughly. If they weren’t, they should have by the time Solomon made his appearance… or should have. As stated in the preface, this isn’t going exactly like the canon story like RFS did. It’s more akin to TGL’s “dealing with the butterfly effect”, and you’re all in for a new ride that still sticks close to canon.

Most of you know I hate making exact rehashes, so it’s only to be expected.

So, we’ll go into the first interesting thing to note: The point of view for the prologue is from various people again, but mainly the Masters and Roman. The original canon storyline had a lot of philosophy on the value of human nature, so I figured what better way than showcasing the regular humans narration this time around. It’ll switch between more as the time comes, but for the most part, this is a supplement that focuses on the “humans”.

Obviously, the servants will still get showcased. Obviously. Don’t worry about that. They’ll get their just desserts.

There’s really almost nothing to say since this is just the prologue, so I’ll just leave it at that for now. The entry spoke for itself, and should have hopefully set the mood for the rollercoaster to come.

I’ll also include a map of the singularity for reference since it’s not exactly easy access anymore. Bonus points for showing the mat drops for nostalgia!

As tradition, I choose unofficial soundtracks for my supplement entries. These are chosen based on what “roughly fits” when I wound up writing the supplement’s chapter. It might not fit perfectly, but they were never tailor-made to begin with, so that’s to be expected.

However, this entry I’m keeping it official and ominous. These should put the proper vibes into you. First for mostly dialogue scenes. The latter is for the smattering of action, though mainly the short air-invasion scenes.