Elliot "actual disney princess" Craig (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fiddlestick) wrote2017-08-20 01:33 am
fiddlestick) wrote2017-08-20 01:33 am
HISTORY
There's no good wiki synopsis of the series, so here we go. The games are crazy long, so I just covered the stuff that's relevant to Elliot otherwise we'd be here all day.
Trails of Cold Steel takes place in the fictional Erebonian Empire. Erebonia is a massive and powerful country with an ancient and heavily entrenched class system between nobles and commoners. For most of its long history, the power of the nobility was absolute - to the point that many believed their supremacy was a biological fact. However when the country began to experience an industrial revolution (via orbal technology- it's basically anime magic energy rocks), this tradition started being challenged by a growing middle class of commoners.
Fifty years into the Orbal Revolution, two main factions had formed within the Erebonian government and military: The Noble faction and the Reformists. The Noble faction were compromised mostly of nobility and their provincial armies (locally run militias that were commanded directly by the ruling duke of a region), and they strongly believed in maintaining the traditional status quo. The Reformists were commoners who had rose through the ranks of the Erebonia government and imperial military, managing to gain power through control of the capital of Erebonia and the railways that stretched across the nation. They believe that the class system should be abolished, but they also had a tendency of annexing neighboring regions. Tensions between the two factions were high and only growing throughout the years.
Elliot was born in Erebonia's capital city Heimdallr to a family of commoners. His mother was a musician and his father was a famous lieutenant-general within the Imperial Army known as "Craig the Red". While he was raised as a military brat, Elliot took mostly after his mother and had an incredible gift for music. After his mother passed away when he was 9, Elliot aspired to be a musician like his mother and planned to go to the Imperial Music Academy as both his mother and sister did.
However, his father objected to his plan, insisting Elliot join the military instead. They fought for a long time before an uneasy compromise was reached: Elliot would attend a military academy with a music program. So, Elliot enrolled into Thors Military Academy, received an Orbal staff for his weapon after his entrance exam, and prepared to hate the next two years of his life.
When Elliot arrived at orientation, he decided he'd at least try to make friends. He decided to start talking to Rean Schwarzer, a guy who by his accounts, seemed to be his complete opposite. Elliot and Rean hit it off and found out they were both in a brand new class called Class VII. Class VII had both nobles and commoners in the same class, unlike the other classes that were divided by social status and home region. Their homeroom instructor Sara Valestein kindly explained the whole situation to them.
Haha no I'm just kidding, she led them into an old schoolhouse and opened a floor trap on them, so they fell into a monster infested dungeon they had to fight through as a bonding exercise. Elliot got through this tutorial level by sticking close to Rean and Gaius, a foreign exchange student, while kicking himself for agreeing to come to this school.
After they survived the world's worst first day icebreaker, Instructor Sara explained that one of the reasons Class VII was formed was to help test the ARCUS units, a piece of tech that allowed fighters to synchronize with one another. Elliot agreed to keep being part of Class VII, claiming that maybe fate brought them together.lbr though he did it because Rean and Gaius are hot af.
Elliot settled into school life and joined the music club. Upon their first free day, the principal asked Class VII to investigate the old schoolhouse. Only Rean, Elliot and Gaius showed up and they found the interior had entirely shifted around. They decided to keep investigating the schoolhouse once a month, and did so throughout the year- with the rest of their class joining them later on when they got over themselves.
Not long after that, they were introduced to another aspect of Class VII's curriculum: field studies. The class was broken into two groups and sent to different parts of Erebonia to perform tasks. These are the notable ones (aka the ones that Rean goes on, since we aren't shown the field studies he doesn't attend):
- April: Rean, Elliot, Laura and Alisa travel to Celdic, a farming community known for their Grand Market, for their first field study. On the second day of their visit, they stumble upon an extortion ploy of the local provincial army where they hired a group to rob two stalls at the market - but then refused to investigate it unless the town agreed to pay some new taxes. The group caught the robbers, but were nearly arrested by the provincial army- but the Imperial Railway Police bailed them out just in time.
- July: Rean, Elliot, Laura, Fie, and Machias travel to Heimdallr during the Summer Festival. The group experienced a great deal of team bonding, encountered a Phantom Thief, and met the Prince who'd been responsible for forming Class VII. Things go south when during the first day of the Summer Festival, a terrorist group called the Imperial Liberation Front, attack the city and attempt to kidnap the princess and Rean's sister. They managed to save them, but also got badly beaten by the mysterious Terrorist C.
- August: On the second half of their field study, all of Class VII visit Garrelia Fortress - a large fortress on the border of Erebonia and Crossbell State where Elliot's father is stationed. During their visit, the Imperial Liberation Front once again showed up and this time attempted to hijack the fort's railway guns (massive cannons) in order to blow up the trade conference going on in Crossbell. They were able to foil their plan, but the terrorists got away.
- September: Rean, Elliot, Alisa, Fie, Machias, and Crow all visit Alisa's hometown of Roer for their final field study by hitching a ride on Prince Olivert's brand new airship. Elliot spends most of the trip working with Crow on planning a concert for the school cultural festival and becoming friends with him. On the final day, the Liberation Front attempt to take a nearby mine hostage. They foil their plan, and this time it seems like C was killed while trying to get away.
A month after the final field study, the school cultural festival happens, and they spend most of their time before then rehearsing their planned performance like crazy - with Elliot basically working them to the bone. The first day of the cultural festival goes smoothly until late at night, when the old schoolhouse begins emitting a worrying light. The festival is nearly cancelled, but Class VII make a deal to investigate the root of the problem so they don't have to cancel it. They manage to succeed, and they discover at the bottom of the school is a giant robot.
Cool.
The second day of the cultural festival goes well, and their concert is a massive success, much to Elliot's extreme happiness. Elliot's father and sister come to watch the concert and are impressed. Basically, Elliot has the best day of his life.
Which of course means things are about to go to shit.
That night, at the end of the post-festival bonfire, they receive horrible news: Garrelia Fortress had been completely obliterated by some strange power from Crossbell. A week later, Chancellor Osborne, the leader of the Reformist Faction, holds a speech to address this. However during his speech, he's assassinated by C, who was not only alive, but is also their classmate Crow. An army formed in secret by the Noble Faction invade Heimdallr, using their new technology to quickly overpower the Imperial army. Class VII then receive word that the Noble Faction was heading for Thors next. Welp.
Class VII insist on helping defend the town along with the teachers. They fought their hardest, Rean even found out he could pilot the giant robot they found, but in the end they were trounced by Crow who also has a giant robot. They decided that since Rean's giant robot was their best chance, they forced him to escape so he could recover from damage, while the rest of the class would do their best to buy him time to escape. They managed to pull it off, and before they were killed themselves, Prince Olivert showed up with their airship, giving them enough time to escape.
With his hometown now occupied, Elliot fled with Machias and Fie from Trista.
After the Chancellor's assassination and Heimdallr's invasion, Erebonia broke into a full out civil war between the Noble Faction and the Imperials. The Nobles took the Imperials by complete surprise, resulting in many early victories for that side. Meanwhile, Elliot, Machias, and Fie make it to Celdic. It too was occupied by the Noble Faction, but the townspeople, grateful for Class VII's help in the past, decided to help hide them from the military. They spent the next month hiding out in an old windmill, doing their best to keep a low profile while also trying to spy on the enemy forces to see if there was anything they could do.
Things changed when Rean showed up looking for them, after finishing his long recovery. After a heartfelt reunion, they worked together and found a way past the enemy line. They eventually reached Elliot's dad's military unit, who'd been holding their own against the Noble Faction. Elliot was relieved to see his father alive, and after hearing about the state of the war, the four of them decided that they needed to reunite with the rest of Class VII before deciding their role in the war. Before they left, Elliot's dad told Elliot that he was proud of how much he's grown, and that if they made it through the war, he'd have his blessing to attend the music academy.
After that, they went to Rean's hometown of Ymir using the giant robot (Valimar) to take a breather. Elliot reacted to having the first day he could breathe easy in over a month by having a near meltdown over a broken violin string, but Rean was able to calm him down.
The next day, they began searching for the rest of Class VII. Three were found with Gaius's tribe in the Nord Highlands, while another two were found in Laura's hometown of Legram. The last one, Jusis, was found the noble-run Bareahard because Jusis always has to be difficult. Along the way, they kept noticing that on top of the chaos the war was causing, weather patterns and monsters were taking a turn for the worse, so they'd often have to stop to help out the best they could.
A day after Class VII was reunited, Ymir was invaded by the Noble Faction who were looking for Rean. Rean, in order to spare his hometown, went with them. Prince Olivert found the rest of the class and they went to go rescue Rean- who turned out to have been breaking out himself along with Princess Alfin who the Nobles had kidnapped.
Once they'd escaped, they went back to Prince Olivert's airship to discuss what to do. Class VII decided that instead of joining either side, they would remain neutral and instead work towards ending the war as well as protecting the people caught in the middle of the war (though lets face it they had a heavy bias towards the Imperials on the account of the Noble Alliance constantly trying to kill them). Prince Olivert liked this idea so much that he gave them his airship and told them to take care of Eastern Erebonia, while his group would handle Western Erebonia. They thought this was nuts on the Prince's part, but they weren't going turn down a sweet airship, so they went with it. The class agreed to work towards on specific first goal: liberating Trista and their school.
So with the new airship, they began traveling all over Eastern Erebonia, recruiting fellow students of Thors that had escaped the invasion, and helping out people where they could. Their first big mission came when they received word that Elliot's sister had been captured by a Noble Alliance unit near Celdic in an attempt to get Elliot's father to surrender. Since it was Elliot's family on the line and a war crime, they intervened and rescued Fiona - liberating Celdic in the process.
From there, they continued working on their goal. More students joined their ranks, their reputation spread, they found materials to help build Valimar a better blade, and they were able to successfully convince Roer to pull out of the war, stopping the Noble Alliance's arms manufacturing in the process. But things went wrong again when forces commanded by Jusis's father razed Celdic, burning down half the town and killing civilians. They were forced to work together with the Imperial army to siege Bareahard and arrest Jusis's father for war crimes. Elliot, shaken by the destruction of Celdic, became to determined to help the surviving townspeople any way he could. He helped in the operation to arrest Duke Albarea, and then later put on a concert for the people of Celdic to soothe them and it worked so well it woke people from comas somehow.
Finally, after weeks of hard work, they found an opportunity to retake Trista. Working all together, they managed to break through the forces and reach the school - discovering that several noble students had stayed behind to protect the school and other students who couldn't escape during the invasion, led by Class VII's long time rivals from Class I. After one last duel to settle things between them, the students were reunited and Trista was successfully retaken. The celebration lasted all night.
But, their work wasn't over. They were contacted by the Imperial Army and the Railway Military Police and asked to help them in an operation to take back Heimdallr -- which could end the civil war once and for all. They were given the task of finding the remaining royal family that'd be imprisoned by the Noble Alliance.
The next day, the operation commenced. They were able to successfully rescue Rean's sister, the Emperor, and Empress - but it turned out the Crowned Prince had been taken elsewhere so they could use his blood in a special ritual. Said ritual then summoned force a giant evil castle right in the middle of Heimdallr that started sapping the energy out of anyone near. With every other force pinned down, Class VII was left to storm the castle.
At the top of the castle, they found Crow along with the witch Vita Clotilde and Duke Cayenne - leader of the Noble Alliance. Crow and Rean battled once more, with Rean managing to win. Just when Crow and Vita were ready to surrender, Duke Cayenne revealed that he was out for revenge over his family downfall over 200 years ago, and activated the Vermillion Apocalypse - basically a doomsday device from a bygone era. Class VII worked together with Vita and Crow in order to stop it. But during the battle, Crow was stabbed through the chest. He managed to get out some goodbyes to his classmates, including encouraging Elliot to pursue music, and died.
Devastated from losing Crow right after getting him back, things only got worse as Chancellor Osborne was not only not dead like previously thought, he was also was Rean's birth father. With the return of Osborne, the civil war was brought to a swift end, and they began annexing more neighboring lands - forcing Rean to participate.
The rest of Class VII returned to Thors to finish the school year. With the exception of Rean, they all decided they wouldn't return for a second year and would go their own ways. So after one last adventure into the old schoolhouse and a teary goodbye, Class VII disbanded.
Elliot returned to Heimdallr and enrolled in the Heimdallr Music Academy as a second year. Elliot worked hard to not only catch up to his peers, but excel. He performed at the summer festival and won the contest, generating some buzz about his name. Feeling that turbulent times for Erebonia were ahead, he also practiced his magic when he wasn't working on music. Basically, we have no idea if he slept.
In the meantime, he kept in touch with many members of Class VII. Some he saw more frequently in person due to location (Machias, Rean, Fie), while others he kept in touch via letters and phone. The only notable exception was Gaius, who fell out of contact with everyone.
At some point, he decided that after graduation he would leave Heimdallr and become a traveling musician. Not only did he want to spread his music across the empire, but he planned to use the job's freedom and relatively low profile as a front to gather information for Class VII regarding the state of the Empire.
About a month after his graduation, Rean took up a teaching position at a new campus of Thors. The rest of Class VII had concerns about these field missions the school was being sent on, so they worked up a strategy where some of them would be in the area whenever a field mission took place to help out. Elliot tried to keep this plan a secret from Rean, but Rean was pretty dang suspicious when Elliot just happened to be in Saint Ark the same time he was there, because they'd been best friends for a couple years and Elliot isn't exactly a great liar.
Turns out Class VII had rights to be concerned, as the first night of the field mission the students were attacked by Ouroboros. Laura and Fie helped fight them off while Elliot healed the students. Afterwards the government asked Rean to look into what was going on, and the three insisted on helping. So they launched an investigation and wound up learning a few disturbing things including:
Elliot and his friends resolved this situation by getting Ouroboros to withdraw from the region. Afterwards Elliot continued on with traveling, both to perform music and to gather more information. He'd contact or visit Rean occasionally, but mostly he wasn't around for the next couple months. Rean meanwhile continued with his teaching job and field missions, and encountered a few number of things. The most relevant to Elliot being:
In July, all of Class VII decided to meet up in Heimdallr. After a happy reunion, they sat down to share all the information they learned and what to do. TLDR, they decided that they should do what they can to prevent any war against Calvard or shady plan from happening, even if it meant going against the government because clearly Osborne is a huge threat. What do you know, Crow was right all along.
The next day Class VII split up to investigate the city, with Elliot going to perform at the royal villa. Turns out some Calvard soldiers snuck into the city to try to spy and figure out the situation, and then they accidentally ran into a demon curse in the sewer - triggering the potential return of a very dangerous dragon. Class VII went to go recover the missing soldiers and defeated the dragon- saving the city. They also ran across Siegfried who turned out to have Ordine, aka Crow's knight. Talk about sus.
Afterwards was the summer festival. Class VII got a public thank you for saving the city, and they went to enjoy the festival. That evening, they went to Valflame palace on invitation from the royal family to attend the ball. It was a nice time until one of Rean's students, Ash, decided it'd be a great idea to get cursed and shoot the Emperor. Teens these days amirite.
Anyway Osborne saw this as a great opportunity to blame Calvard for the assassination attempt and use it as an excuse to declare war on Calvard. Turns out he was also doing some sinister ritual, so Class VII went to try to stop that and well- it actually horribly backfired. The Courageous was destroyed, Millium was killed protecting her sister, Rean went berserk and accidentally unleashed a curse that spread all across Erebonia and herald in the end of the world known as the Great Twilight.
So. Could've gone better. But on the bright side Sieg turned out to be Crow and got his memories back. So. That's something.
After the failure to stop the Great Twilight, Class VII sans Rean, Crow and Celine managed to escape to Emma's village. They ended up sleeping for over a week, and kinda licked their wounds for a few days after that until Rean's students woke up and they all decided to work together to find Rean and figure out how to stop the Great Twilight from ending the world.
During this time Elliot alternated between traveling with his classmates for information and acting as a stand-in adult for Rean's students. He bonded with them throughout their time together, and it's safe to say if anyone harmed those kids he'd probably torture and kill them. What.
Eventually they tracked down Rean and rescued him. They also found Crow but Crow being Crow decided to be more difficult and was like FITE ME- so they did, but it turned out Crow was actually undead and almost died from the fight for real- until Rean soulbonded with him to save him, then he was like you moron we need you.
Yes it's as gay as it sounds.
After all that Class VII worked together to recruit allies to help them resist and stop the apocalypse. So much stuff happened but my god this has been going on forever so tldr they managed and they also managed to get Crow and Millium from being less dead yay.
Seriously I'll flesh this part out later because the game is long and Elliot's in most of it but you get the gist.
Background/Before the Series
Trails of Cold Steel takes place in the fictional Erebonian Empire. Erebonia is a massive and powerful country with an ancient and heavily entrenched class system between nobles and commoners. For most of its long history, the power of the nobility was absolute - to the point that many believed their supremacy was a biological fact. However when the country began to experience an industrial revolution (via orbal technology- it's basically anime magic energy rocks), this tradition started being challenged by a growing middle class of commoners.
Fifty years into the Orbal Revolution, two main factions had formed within the Erebonian government and military: The Noble faction and the Reformists. The Noble faction were compromised mostly of nobility and their provincial armies (locally run militias that were commanded directly by the ruling duke of a region), and they strongly believed in maintaining the traditional status quo. The Reformists were commoners who had rose through the ranks of the Erebonia government and imperial military, managing to gain power through control of the capital of Erebonia and the railways that stretched across the nation. They believe that the class system should be abolished, but they also had a tendency of annexing neighboring regions. Tensions between the two factions were high and only growing throughout the years.
Elliot was born in Erebonia's capital city Heimdallr to a family of commoners. His mother was a musician and his father was a famous lieutenant-general within the Imperial Army known as "Craig the Red". While he was raised as a military brat, Elliot took mostly after his mother and had an incredible gift for music. After his mother passed away when he was 9, Elliot aspired to be a musician like his mother and planned to go to the Imperial Music Academy as both his mother and sister did.
However, his father objected to his plan, insisting Elliot join the military instead. They fought for a long time before an uneasy compromise was reached: Elliot would attend a military academy with a music program. So, Elliot enrolled into Thors Military Academy, received an Orbal staff for his weapon after his entrance exam, and prepared to hate the next two years of his life.
Trails of Cold Steel I
When Elliot arrived at orientation, he decided he'd at least try to make friends. He decided to start talking to Rean Schwarzer, a guy who by his accounts, seemed to be his complete opposite. Elliot and Rean hit it off and found out they were both in a brand new class called Class VII. Class VII had both nobles and commoners in the same class, unlike the other classes that were divided by social status and home region. Their homeroom instructor Sara Valestein kindly explained the whole situation to them.
Haha no I'm just kidding, she led them into an old schoolhouse and opened a floor trap on them, so they fell into a monster infested dungeon they had to fight through as a bonding exercise. Elliot got through this tutorial level by sticking close to Rean and Gaius, a foreign exchange student, while kicking himself for agreeing to come to this school.
After they survived the world's worst first day icebreaker, Instructor Sara explained that one of the reasons Class VII was formed was to help test the ARCUS units, a piece of tech that allowed fighters to synchronize with one another. Elliot agreed to keep being part of Class VII, claiming that maybe fate brought them together.
Elliot settled into school life and joined the music club. Upon their first free day, the principal asked Class VII to investigate the old schoolhouse. Only Rean, Elliot and Gaius showed up and they found the interior had entirely shifted around. They decided to keep investigating the schoolhouse once a month, and did so throughout the year- with the rest of their class joining them later on when they got over themselves.
Not long after that, they were introduced to another aspect of Class VII's curriculum: field studies. The class was broken into two groups and sent to different parts of Erebonia to perform tasks. These are the notable ones (aka the ones that Rean goes on, since we aren't shown the field studies he doesn't attend):
- April: Rean, Elliot, Laura and Alisa travel to Celdic, a farming community known for their Grand Market, for their first field study. On the second day of their visit, they stumble upon an extortion ploy of the local provincial army where they hired a group to rob two stalls at the market - but then refused to investigate it unless the town agreed to pay some new taxes. The group caught the robbers, but were nearly arrested by the provincial army- but the Imperial Railway Police bailed them out just in time.
- July: Rean, Elliot, Laura, Fie, and Machias travel to Heimdallr during the Summer Festival. The group experienced a great deal of team bonding, encountered a Phantom Thief, and met the Prince who'd been responsible for forming Class VII. Things go south when during the first day of the Summer Festival, a terrorist group called the Imperial Liberation Front, attack the city and attempt to kidnap the princess and Rean's sister. They managed to save them, but also got badly beaten by the mysterious Terrorist C.
- August: On the second half of their field study, all of Class VII visit Garrelia Fortress - a large fortress on the border of Erebonia and Crossbell State where Elliot's father is stationed. During their visit, the Imperial Liberation Front once again showed up and this time attempted to hijack the fort's railway guns (massive cannons) in order to blow up the trade conference going on in Crossbell. They were able to foil their plan, but the terrorists got away.
- September: Rean, Elliot, Alisa, Fie, Machias, and Crow all visit Alisa's hometown of Roer for their final field study by hitching a ride on Prince Olivert's brand new airship. Elliot spends most of the trip working with Crow on planning a concert for the school cultural festival and becoming friends with him. On the final day, the Liberation Front attempt to take a nearby mine hostage. They foil their plan, and this time it seems like C was killed while trying to get away.
A month after the final field study, the school cultural festival happens, and they spend most of their time before then rehearsing their planned performance like crazy - with Elliot basically working them to the bone. The first day of the cultural festival goes smoothly until late at night, when the old schoolhouse begins emitting a worrying light. The festival is nearly cancelled, but Class VII make a deal to investigate the root of the problem so they don't have to cancel it. They manage to succeed, and they discover at the bottom of the school is a giant robot.
Cool.
The second day of the cultural festival goes well, and their concert is a massive success, much to Elliot's extreme happiness. Elliot's father and sister come to watch the concert and are impressed. Basically, Elliot has the best day of his life.
Which of course means things are about to go to shit.
That night, at the end of the post-festival bonfire, they receive horrible news: Garrelia Fortress had been completely obliterated by some strange power from Crossbell. A week later, Chancellor Osborne, the leader of the Reformist Faction, holds a speech to address this. However during his speech, he's assassinated by C, who was not only alive, but is also their classmate Crow. An army formed in secret by the Noble Faction invade Heimdallr, using their new technology to quickly overpower the Imperial army. Class VII then receive word that the Noble Faction was heading for Thors next. Welp.
Class VII insist on helping defend the town along with the teachers. They fought their hardest, Rean even found out he could pilot the giant robot they found, but in the end they were trounced by Crow who also has a giant robot. They decided that since Rean's giant robot was their best chance, they forced him to escape so he could recover from damage, while the rest of the class would do their best to buy him time to escape. They managed to pull it off, and before they were killed themselves, Prince Olivert showed up with their airship, giving them enough time to escape.
With his hometown now occupied, Elliot fled with Machias and Fie from Trista.
Trails of Cold Steel II
After the Chancellor's assassination and Heimdallr's invasion, Erebonia broke into a full out civil war between the Noble Faction and the Imperials. The Nobles took the Imperials by complete surprise, resulting in many early victories for that side. Meanwhile, Elliot, Machias, and Fie make it to Celdic. It too was occupied by the Noble Faction, but the townspeople, grateful for Class VII's help in the past, decided to help hide them from the military. They spent the next month hiding out in an old windmill, doing their best to keep a low profile while also trying to spy on the enemy forces to see if there was anything they could do.
Things changed when Rean showed up looking for them, after finishing his long recovery. After a heartfelt reunion, they worked together and found a way past the enemy line. They eventually reached Elliot's dad's military unit, who'd been holding their own against the Noble Faction. Elliot was relieved to see his father alive, and after hearing about the state of the war, the four of them decided that they needed to reunite with the rest of Class VII before deciding their role in the war. Before they left, Elliot's dad told Elliot that he was proud of how much he's grown, and that if they made it through the war, he'd have his blessing to attend the music academy.
After that, they went to Rean's hometown of Ymir using the giant robot (Valimar) to take a breather. Elliot reacted to having the first day he could breathe easy in over a month by having a near meltdown over a broken violin string, but Rean was able to calm him down.
The next day, they began searching for the rest of Class VII. Three were found with Gaius's tribe in the Nord Highlands, while another two were found in Laura's hometown of Legram. The last one, Jusis, was found the noble-run Bareahard because Jusis always has to be difficult. Along the way, they kept noticing that on top of the chaos the war was causing, weather patterns and monsters were taking a turn for the worse, so they'd often have to stop to help out the best they could.
A day after Class VII was reunited, Ymir was invaded by the Noble Faction who were looking for Rean. Rean, in order to spare his hometown, went with them. Prince Olivert found the rest of the class and they went to go rescue Rean- who turned out to have been breaking out himself along with Princess Alfin who the Nobles had kidnapped.
Once they'd escaped, they went back to Prince Olivert's airship to discuss what to do. Class VII decided that instead of joining either side, they would remain neutral and instead work towards ending the war as well as protecting the people caught in the middle of the war (though lets face it they had a heavy bias towards the Imperials on the account of the Noble Alliance constantly trying to kill them). Prince Olivert liked this idea so much that he gave them his airship and told them to take care of Eastern Erebonia, while his group would handle Western Erebonia. They thought this was nuts on the Prince's part, but they weren't going turn down a sweet airship, so they went with it. The class agreed to work towards on specific first goal: liberating Trista and their school.
So with the new airship, they began traveling all over Eastern Erebonia, recruiting fellow students of Thors that had escaped the invasion, and helping out people where they could. Their first big mission came when they received word that Elliot's sister had been captured by a Noble Alliance unit near Celdic in an attempt to get Elliot's father to surrender. Since it was Elliot's family on the line and a war crime, they intervened and rescued Fiona - liberating Celdic in the process.
From there, they continued working on their goal. More students joined their ranks, their reputation spread, they found materials to help build Valimar a better blade, and they were able to successfully convince Roer to pull out of the war, stopping the Noble Alliance's arms manufacturing in the process. But things went wrong again when forces commanded by Jusis's father razed Celdic, burning down half the town and killing civilians. They were forced to work together with the Imperial army to siege Bareahard and arrest Jusis's father for war crimes. Elliot, shaken by the destruction of Celdic, became to determined to help the surviving townspeople any way he could. He helped in the operation to arrest Duke Albarea, and then later put on a concert for the people of Celdic to soothe them and it worked so well it woke people from comas somehow.
Finally, after weeks of hard work, they found an opportunity to retake Trista. Working all together, they managed to break through the forces and reach the school - discovering that several noble students had stayed behind to protect the school and other students who couldn't escape during the invasion, led by Class VII's long time rivals from Class I. After one last duel to settle things between them, the students were reunited and Trista was successfully retaken. The celebration lasted all night.
But, their work wasn't over. They were contacted by the Imperial Army and the Railway Military Police and asked to help them in an operation to take back Heimdallr -- which could end the civil war once and for all. They were given the task of finding the remaining royal family that'd be imprisoned by the Noble Alliance.
The next day, the operation commenced. They were able to successfully rescue Rean's sister, the Emperor, and Empress - but it turned out the Crowned Prince had been taken elsewhere so they could use his blood in a special ritual. Said ritual then summoned force a giant evil castle right in the middle of Heimdallr that started sapping the energy out of anyone near. With every other force pinned down, Class VII was left to storm the castle.
At the top of the castle, they found Crow along with the witch Vita Clotilde and Duke Cayenne - leader of the Noble Alliance. Crow and Rean battled once more, with Rean managing to win. Just when Crow and Vita were ready to surrender, Duke Cayenne revealed that he was out for revenge over his family downfall over 200 years ago, and activated the Vermillion Apocalypse - basically a doomsday device from a bygone era. Class VII worked together with Vita and Crow in order to stop it. But during the battle, Crow was stabbed through the chest. He managed to get out some goodbyes to his classmates, including encouraging Elliot to pursue music, and died.
Devastated from losing Crow right after getting him back, things only got worse as Chancellor Osborne was not only not dead like previously thought, he was also was Rean's birth father. With the return of Osborne, the civil war was brought to a swift end, and they began annexing more neighboring lands - forcing Rean to participate.
The rest of Class VII returned to Thors to finish the school year. With the exception of Rean, they all decided they wouldn't return for a second year and would go their own ways. So after one last adventure into the old schoolhouse and a teary goodbye, Class VII disbanded.
Trails of Cold Steel 3
Elliot returned to Heimdallr and enrolled in the Heimdallr Music Academy as a second year. Elliot worked hard to not only catch up to his peers, but excel. He performed at the summer festival and won the contest, generating some buzz about his name. Feeling that turbulent times for Erebonia were ahead, he also practiced his magic when he wasn't working on music. Basically, we have no idea if he slept.
In the meantime, he kept in touch with many members of Class VII. Some he saw more frequently in person due to location (Machias, Rean, Fie), while others he kept in touch via letters and phone. The only notable exception was Gaius, who fell out of contact with everyone.
At some point, he decided that after graduation he would leave Heimdallr and become a traveling musician. Not only did he want to spread his music across the empire, but he planned to use the job's freedom and relatively low profile as a front to gather information for Class VII regarding the state of the Empire.
About a month after his graduation, Rean took up a teaching position at a new campus of Thors. The rest of Class VII had concerns about these field missions the school was being sent on, so they worked up a strategy where some of them would be in the area whenever a field mission took place to help out. Elliot tried to keep this plan a secret from Rean, but Rean was pretty dang suspicious when Elliot just happened to be in Saint Ark the same time he was there, because they'd been best friends for a couple years and Elliot isn't exactly a great liar.
Turns out Class VII had rights to be concerned, as the first night of the field mission the students were attacked by Ouroboros. Laura and Fie helped fight them off while Elliot healed the students. Afterwards the government asked Rean to look into what was going on, and the three insisted on helping. So they launched an investigation and wound up learning a few disturbing things including:
- The Hamel incident, where 14 years ago to give an excuse for war against Liberl, some Erebonian nobles hired jaegers to destroy the village of Hamel dressed as Liberlan soldiers. When the truth was discovered, the Erebonian and Liberls government covered it up as part of the peace treaty.
- The Imperial government was refusing to assist with the Ouroborus problem in order to make the local nobility look even worse, so they can make a power grab later on.
- Fie's very dead jaeger dad was somehow not so dead anymore. Also he had a Divine Knight.
- Ouroboros was back to making giant robots again.
Elliot and his friends resolved this situation by getting Ouroboros to withdraw from the region. Afterwards Elliot continued on with traveling, both to perform music and to gather more information. He'd contact or visit Rean occasionally, but mostly he wasn't around for the next couple months. Rean meanwhile continued with his teaching job and field missions, and encountered a few number of things. The most relevant to Elliot being:
- A mysterious masked guy named Azure Siegfried started showing up. This guy looked exactly like Crow, but seemed to have no memories.
- Gaius was MIA for like six months, much to the worry of his friends. Ok. So it was mostly Elliot that was worried because he's a clingy needy boy who doesn't like getting ghosted on. But still.
- The Imperial government was ramping up it's intent to exert control and also seemed to gearing up for more war. Damn.
In July, all of Class VII decided to meet up in Heimdallr. After a happy reunion, they sat down to share all the information they learned and what to do. TLDR, they decided that they should do what they can to prevent any war against Calvard or shady plan from happening, even if it meant going against the government because clearly Osborne is a huge threat. What do you know, Crow was right all along.
The next day Class VII split up to investigate the city, with Elliot going to perform at the royal villa. Turns out some Calvard soldiers snuck into the city to try to spy and figure out the situation, and then they accidentally ran into a demon curse in the sewer - triggering the potential return of a very dangerous dragon. Class VII went to go recover the missing soldiers and defeated the dragon- saving the city. They also ran across Siegfried who turned out to have Ordine, aka Crow's knight. Talk about sus.
Afterwards was the summer festival. Class VII got a public thank you for saving the city, and they went to enjoy the festival. That evening, they went to Valflame palace on invitation from the royal family to attend the ball. It was a nice time until one of Rean's students, Ash, decided it'd be a great idea to get cursed and shoot the Emperor. Teens these days amirite.
Anyway Osborne saw this as a great opportunity to blame Calvard for the assassination attempt and use it as an excuse to declare war on Calvard. Turns out he was also doing some sinister ritual, so Class VII went to try to stop that and well- it actually horribly backfired. The Courageous was destroyed, Millium was killed protecting her sister, Rean went berserk and accidentally unleashed a curse that spread all across Erebonia and herald in the end of the world known as the Great Twilight.
So. Could've gone better. But on the bright side Sieg turned out to be Crow and got his memories back. So. That's something.
Trails of Cold Steel 4
After the failure to stop the Great Twilight, Class VII sans Rean, Crow and Celine managed to escape to Emma's village. They ended up sleeping for over a week, and kinda licked their wounds for a few days after that until Rean's students woke up and they all decided to work together to find Rean and figure out how to stop the Great Twilight from ending the world.
During this time Elliot alternated between traveling with his classmates for information and acting as a stand-in adult for Rean's students. He bonded with them throughout their time together, and it's safe to say if anyone harmed those kids he'd probably torture and kill them. What.
Eventually they tracked down Rean and rescued him. They also found Crow but Crow being Crow decided to be more difficult and was like FITE ME- so they did, but it turned out Crow was actually undead and almost died from the fight for real- until Rean soulbonded with him to save him, then he was like you moron we need you.
Yes it's as gay as it sounds.
After all that Class VII worked together to recruit allies to help them resist and stop the apocalypse. So much stuff happened but my god this has been going on forever so tldr they managed and they also managed to get Crow and Millium from being less dead yay.
Seriously I'll flesh this part out later because the game is long and Elliot's in most of it but you get the gist.