#yeah the characters are based on quartz and its a love letter to quartz but its not slacking on the worldbuilding or messaging

[himehikoshrine]

The Central Nation of Kielce - a History

[I/D : Screenshot for Sissia of the Central Nation showing Levi, Adra, and Crowley on the wall. Crowley is saying "Hahaha! How have you been, little wall?! It’s like you’re a part of our origins!"]

Having now read through every route's game script of the Central Nation of Sissia, I figured I'd tried to put together all the Kielce lore across the different routes into one. If you want to read them yourself, you can do so either on the game menu if you've finished the game, or [here]. This will contain details unique to most of the routes, so technically, there are spoilers, but they are discussed entirely within the world of the play. I will edit in a few minor clarifying details with no route plot information from routes as I find them now that I'm going through things with a finer tooth comb. It will spoil some things that are in the stage script only epilogues too, so please read at least one of them before reading this, or you'll be really confused. Two, ideally, especially if the first one you picked was Crowley's.

Don't ask me why a rather big piece of character information, that is kind of a twist, is hidden within epilogues only on the stage script in the menu. We're nearly the full year into Havenna Lore drops, apparently this is just how Neji writes. (And given all the lore hidden in weird bonus material, also how Ishida and Towada write.)

The Nation of Arbine and the Republic of Quatra, which is to its east, were at war for 77 years. Many lives were lost on both sides, and there were plenty of children made orphans in the process. We know little about Quatra before the end of the war, but Levi describes it as having "warmth" and Crowley says it had a very strong culture in the arts, including song and dance. After Arbine wins the war, 20 years before Sissia joins the troupe, Arbine begins calling the 77-year-war the 'War of Joy.'

They force the people of Quatra into servitude, build a wall around the country, and mark them with a tattoo of a horse on their shin. The hostility gets so bad in the upper military ranks of Arbine, that they begin calling Quatra "the nameless country" or "the nameless servant country." The culture of Quatra is stamped out within the nation, possibly beyond simply forcing everyone into labor for the sake of Arbine, and anyone in Arbine who even discusses it with anything but scorn is suspected of treason.

Arbine is ruled by its "commander and king" (always said together like that) who has the surname "Arbine" like the nation he rules. His top advisor, confidant and strategist is Major Azur Hybird. The military elite make up the aristocracy of Arbine, and their positions are expected to be passed down.

Arbine is a strict military state, with border patrols and street patrols in addition to a standing military that citizens are quite acquainted with. They are able to freely interrogate and detain anyone, but murder seems to be considered a crime in Arbine, regardless of the nationality of the person killed, even, seemingly, for low ranking patrol officers. (We only have Crowley's potentially joking word here, though). The high ranks can order and carry out death sentences sans trial of any kind, of course.

The military aristocracy is also the high society of Arbine, and they attend parties and engage with what they consider 'high culture' including national dances - Arbine does have a national dance troupe.

Arbine's language is called "Arbine". It appears to be different than the language of Quatra or at least a different dialect, though one suspects they have some degree of mutual intelligibility. Carlo says the further east one goes in Arbine, the simpler the pronunciation of its language gets. Accents are shared to some extent in the border region, as well as words. Carlo says Arbine has 'a certain roundness' and that the first letter of Carlo is pronounced 'more elegantly' than Sissia's accent usually does.

Carlo illustrates the linguistic drift with the word Kielce - which is the Arbine term for Circus, a word used in Quatra. Carlo says no one but a historian or a suspected traitor would know that word these days, so maybe once it was also used in Arbine, or maybe a historian would merely be more familiar with the arts from Quatra.

So, 20 years ago, the war ends. As for the future members of Kielce at this time, Chance, at least, wasn't born yet.

Levi Caineman, who was born to Arbine parents, was orphaned by the war and was taken in across the then-wall-less border when he traveled there in search of food. Once the war ended, he was taken into an orphanage on the Arbine side of the wall, while his foster mother, a Quatra, was left behind it.

At some point, Levi will meet Crowley. Crowley is, though it's unclear who knows this but him, an illegitimate son of the 'commander and king' of Arbine, so his full name is, in fact, Crowley Arbine. It's never explicitly stated in the play if Crowley creates Kielce as a troupe or not, or the origin of its name "The Central Nation of--" but in the practice dialogue it is confirmed that Crowley and Levi are the founding members of the troupe.

As for when it was founded, Crowley considers the first Border Performance, which takes place ten years before the present of the play, and thus ten years after the end of the war "part of our origins." It is likely the name, too, partially a form of protest. Given the troupe's founders - an openly avowed revolutionary with a personal connection to the throne, and a fascination with Quatran arts, and an Arbine boy raised for a time by a Quatran foster mother, I'm sure this was very much part of their motivations.

Crowley is, after all, enthusiastically a traitor. (He maintains everyone in Kielce knows this, and no ones statements fully discredit that assertion in other routes. No one ever quite says the first performance WASN'T an act of rebellion or treason.)

Crowley says he's the one who brought Levi in and raised him up to be ringleader. At some point, Kielce, including Crowley and Levi, ends up performing at a party for military aristocrats. How this happened or how it went down, we don't know, other than apparently everyone was thoroughly amused. At this point, they aren't suspected of anything treasonous, but are considered 'low' entertainment.

In attendance is Major Azur Hybird's son, Adra Hybird. At this point, Adra has already been dancing for most of his life. It is unclear how old he is. But he decides that this is the kind of dancing he wants to do. He leaves the life of a Military Aristocrats son behind and runs away to join the circus -- Kielce.

(It is not implied Adra is younger than the other two - on Levi's route, Adra remarks that Levi has grown into quite the man, which, if anything, implies Adra may be a bit older than Levi.)

By the time of the first Border Performance, which is ten years before the present, Adra is a well established member of the troupe, enough that he is involved with choosing to do it. He seems to be one of the senior members in the troupe.

Fan Carlo Albus, on the other hand, is a newcomer to the troupe ten years ago. It seems she joined enough after Adra that she's talked about as another sort of 'generation' - when talking about Kielce's style being a talent showcase, Crowley says its more pronounced now that Carlo and Chance have joined.

Carlo watches the border performance from the side, not on the wall. Also watching that day is Isaac Bazmaz, an Arbine child from the border region who lives near the wall. He is watching with a friend of his. On Isaac's route this friend is explicitly Sissia, a girl from Quatra who he met through a crack in the wall. Isaac talks about the wall as having always been near his house, suggesting that he is under 20 years old, or at least, not much older. Chance Orlando, as stated, is under 20. He doesn't watch the border performance, but hears rumors about it as a kid in Arbine that later inspire him to join.

Crowley is one of the leads in the performance, which he also wrote. This is, to him, intentionally an act of rebellion and revolution. The fact that it doesn't overthrow the nation makes it kind of a failure in his book. Adra says his motivation is sort of to stick it to the military aristocracy and their backwards ideas, both about Quatra and discrimination and their authority and control in general. Adra is also quite annoyed at their elitism. Levi doesn't give an explicit reason for it the first time, but when asking to do it again, he mentions love of theater and love of freedom as absolute principles he leads Kielce by. One imagines his foster mother on the other side is a motivation, as well.

The performance is seen as treasonous and puts the entire troupe on a watch list. According to Major Azur, the 'commander and king' of Arbine has pushed to imprison everyone in the troupe since that day. (It is completely unclear if either the Major or even the 'commander and king' himself have any idea who Crowley is.) Every member who was around at the time tells Sissia that it was quite the controversy and ordeal, and caused a lot of trouble.

Isaac makes a promise to his friend to one day stand on the wall with Kielce together. Sissia, watching from the Quatra side, is already being forced into labor, despite seemingly being a child. Sissia dreams of one day standing on that stage, too. Both Isaac and Sissia will eventually follow that dream to Kielce.

It seems that despite the displeasure of the ruling elite, Kielce continues to operate and have many fans. Their popularity is seen both as a threat, and, one assumes, a bit protective, as it's quite clear that Arbine is aware of the precarity of it's absolute control.

Adra notes that even members of the military attend the shows. Not all the fans share their ideals, of course, and will report things to the authorities.

Kielce has a standing theater within Arbine, but their base seems to keep a very 'traveling circus' aesthetic. It is possible they are both a traveling company and one with a home base. It's unclear when this was built.

Chance and Isaac are recruited the same day by Crowley. Isaac says that if it weren't for Kielce, he'd 'still be working at a factory'. They are still considered relative newbies by Carlo by the time Sissia is recruited, but they seem to have been around long enough to be pretty established as staples of the troupe.

#sissia of the central nation #jack jeanne #jack jeanne meta #lore hunting #kielce #i told you i have kielce brain rot #yeah the characters are based on quartz and its a love letter to quartz but its not slacking on the worldbuilding or messaging #like the characters may feel less inspired since they're taken from their actors but damn if this play doesn't have a MESSAGE and LORE #if we get an isaac character poem for sou's next birthday i will be digging a grave #i have so many more thoughts to share but lets get the history down first #so many. thoughts.

[cupcakeshakesnake]

Watching SWR for the frist time: Through Imperial Eyes

Yep, been looking forward to this episode. Again, not sure if I’ll do any more SWR reactions, but yeah, I’m gonna do this one for sure.

(spoilers ahead)

-Through Imperial Eyes.  If you take the first letter of every word, you get TIE.  What else has the word TIE in it?  Yes, the TIE fighter.  Let’s take a look at the TIE fighter, shall we?

According to Wookieepedia, it was “the standard Imperial starfighter seen in massive numbers throghout most of the Galactic Civil War and onward.”

-But wait!

Did you see that?

ILUMANITI CINFORMED!!!11!1!!

-*cough cough* Okay, let’s get back to the actual episode.

-Did he just wake up? What time is this, 2a.m.?

-He sleeps in his uniform?

-”Battle stations, sir!”  “Yeah i’m just gonna ignore that and go back into my room to waste water.”

-If the top button closes doors and the bottom one opens doors, what happens if you press one of them repeatedly?

-If I was on a Stardestroyer I would get to the nearest one of those doors and just keep pressing the two buttons alternately until the troopers throw me out of the airlock. I love buttons. I’m so gonna break all their doors.

-He sleeps in his armor?

-I finally understand all the Kallus Simulator jokes on my dash.. but seriously, Imperial Agent Simulator 2017 v3.16, created with Unity Engine and supported on Space Windows Vista, 8, 10 and Space Mac OS 7 and up...

-At first I was like “Holy hell, his room is dark,” but then I realized I had turned down my monitor brightness a lot over the past few days.

-*turns brightness all the way back up to 100* That’s better.

-His sink doesn’t have a drain?

-Yep, he’s definitely been sleeping.

-How do time zones even work in space? You could determine it based on the part of the planet you’re orbiting on, but then you could go to the other side in a very short time. Maybe time just loses its meaning when you’re in space. Only relative. Two hours of sleep, sixteen hours awake, ten hours sleeping because you're going to a faraway planet, it’s not “Lunch on 2o’clock”, it’s “Lunch 5 hours after your last meal”.

-Eyyyyyyyy it’s Yogurt List again

-If you’re not under attack then why the fuck did you ring all those sirens

the fuck did you wake me up for bitch

-That shuttle looks like a plastic lunchbox.

^+kallus= the sideburn squad.

for a moment I thought either the stormies were super short or Kallus was on stilts.

-DUN DUN DUN it’s Ezra

-Nice voice changer mask Ezra, did you get it on eBay?

Sabine Paintjob™

-You were expecting Ezra

bUT IT WAS ME, DIO!

-(I’m so sorry.)

-AP-5, sassy as always, and Chopper, with that Imperial paintjob tactic again.

-I just realized the letters C1-10P are supposed to look like ‘CHOP’.

-WHY DOES AP-5 SOUND LIKE SNAPE FROM HARRY POTTER

I see an A, a B, an X, a Y, aaannnnd some illegible symbols.

-Wait, sure the Empire is big, but if Ezra is a rebel Jedi on the loose, wouldn’t there be posters of him all over the place?

-Kallus: *stands and does nothing*  Ezra: “Stop! I’ll tell you anything!”  Lyste: wow he’s good

-THRAWN

-WE’RE SEEING THRAWN

-I’m sure AP-5 would have winked there if he had eyelids.

-Poor Lyste. On the other hand, I don’t think being summoned by high-ranking officers in the Empire is all that good. They might be out for your throat for all you know.

-How the hell did Thrawn get that drawing on his ship?  Seriously, that’s an Imperial Class Star destroyer according to the Internet, it’s supposed to be 1.6 km long, did he just get a bunch of droids to turn the ship upside down to get that gigantic paint job?

yep, no visible barrier, nothing is being sucked out into space because Star Wars.

-KANAN AND REX ARE WEARING STORMTROOPER ARMOR AGAIN

-DID THEY STEAL ANOTHER SHUTTLE

-Jesus Christ the Empire needs better anti-theft mechanisms

Heyyyy it’s that officer again, what was her name? Oh yeah right, Captain Brunson. I spent ten minutes looking for that name on the internet.

-But Lyste has a cylinder right there...

-I feel like I am constantly reminded of how those are not pens these days. Okay, okay, I get it. Also I know in some other places I said those were insignia, and it’s not a precise term but it’s not wrong either because 1) the code contain information about the officer wearing it including their rank, and 2) the numbers and colors of the cylinders differ based on said officer’s rank/position.

is that a fucking hat

-THERE’S THE CLIP THE ENTIRETY OF TUMBLR WAS GOING CRAZY OVER.

-Override code: *german word*

-(I know it’s not German but it just sounds like it... I am learning German and their ‘ch’ is so hard to pronounce correctly...)

-How tf did he close the door though

-I have a feeling he let them hear the override code on purpose.

-Or... HE WAS SIDING WITH THE REBELLION THE ENTIRE TIME

-DUN DUN DUUUUN

-Sorry.

-Oh it’s that guy now. Disney certainly didn’t feel like modeling any new Imperial officers.

-Ahahahaha lizards  Let me guess, ysalamiri?

-YULAREN

-YOU’RE CANON NOW- hold on, A New Hope.  YOU’RE 3D ANIMATED NOW- oh wait, Clone Wars. YOU’RE IN REBELS NOW

-WOOHOO

-When Yularen has had more canon appearances than Thrawn.

-Every single Imperial acquaintance seems to come from ‘the Academy’.  “Hey, remember me? We ate lunch in the Academy together.”  “Remember me from the Academy bathroom?”  “I’m from your Academy, remember?”

His eyes are saying “yes you Kallus, you little shit, i know you’re fulcrum you lil bitch yes you right there”

He still has the Phoenix Squadron graffiti... and the lothcat doodle

-”--must be unmasked quickly”  Idk why but at first I thought he said “must be on Mars”

Free the Rose Quartzes-- oh, wait, wrong show.

-And now we run into Irina SpalkoPryce... It’s like they scraped all the Imperial characters together and put them on one ship.  Except those who are dead.  R.I.P. Aresko and Grint,Grand Inquisitor, Minister Tua, Fifth Brother, Seventh Sister, Eight Brother, and countless stormtroopers.

-Kallus: whoops another person i hate, let me just get rid of this person i hate so he can go with her

-Kallus: actually lemme just make them hate each other

-Kallus: i am such a genius

-Kallus you manipulative mutton chop

Aw come on, you can’t get tired of his shit already! How are you going to survive among the Rebels?

-Was Ezra hanging by his chin or something

-Lyste is so serious about this omfg  He wants to prove himself  Poor dude

-EZRA IS WEARING AN OFFICER’S UNIFORM

-Wait

-How the hell did they find the right size

-Are there smol officers on board

-ARE THERE

-”We’re not here to steal art!”

-Yep, because Thrawn’s definitely gonna look at that map later and go “Welp I guess this one planet here suddenly moved twenty light years to the side, nothing weird about that”

-Lyste’s in big trouble now. I feel sorry for that guy.

-Thrawn smells the traitorous scent.

-KALLUS WAS HIDING THERE

-WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY

-HE DIDN’T PULL ANY CLEVER ANTICS, HE JUST WENT AND HID IN A DITCH IN THE WALL

Is... that supposed to be Imperial insignia as well?

-How the hell did Kallus change the override code

-Wooo, Thrawn action!

-Ouch.  He alright tho

-What did he say? “Nix”?

-”Shuttle TY992, you are clear to land.″  NO IT’S NOT  IT’S A TRAITOR SHIP WITH TRAITORS IN IT

-”There must be some kind of mistake sir--”  Pryce: HOW DARE YOU ASSUME MY GENDER

-But really, gotta love how she didn’t even let him finish the first sentence, didn’t take any of the Jedi bullshit and just said “shoot him”

-She chill af

-DAMN SHE’S A BADASS

-I feel really sorry for Lyste but I can’t help cracking up for some reason

-Yularen why did you come alone

-You could have just brought a bunch of stormtroopers and tased the lot from a distance, or would Ezra’s huge plot shield deflect that too

-Annnnd Pryce faints. Again.

-Dammit Lyste.

-Poor Lyste, and poor Kallus.

-THRAWN’S ACTUALLY PAYING ATTENTION TO THAT PURPLE LOTHCAT DOODLE

-Thrawn knooooowwwssss... He aaaaalwaaaaayyyyssss knooooowwwwwssssssssssss...

-But seriously damn I’m gettin’ chills here.

-”I believe Agent Fulcrum will prove far more useful to the Empire than Kallus ever was.”  DAAAAmn

-Kallus is so screwed

-KALLUS. IS. SO. FRICKIN. SCREWED. D’YOU. HEAR. ME.

-This is such a good episode; I don’t usually rewatch episodes, no matter what franchise, but this one I want to watch again.

#wow i just started this post with a bullshit illuminati ramble #watching for the first time #star wars #swr #star wars rebels #swr season 3 #through imperial eyes #agent kallus #grand admiral thrawn #wullf yularen #lieutenant lyste #yogurt list #disney #disney xd #ap-5 #c1-10p #kallus is screwed #kanan jarrus #rex #arihnda pryce #stormtrooper #reaction #review #long post #spoilers