I've jumped time periods between my articles without paying much conscious to it. I had WWII-era in mind when I wrote the Stellar Express and an Imperial China-esque country with Mirror, Mirror by the River.
I've somewhat imagined a setting similar Hunter x Hunter which is a mishmash of modern and fantasy elements but that's just whats been in my head so far.
Regardless, I need to get work on my next article. Enough babbling.
Edit: Here is my first attempt at trying to incorporate the Ruse into something. I hope it's sensible.
"I've always wondered why Avolire Castle has yet to be gifted to a lord."
"The castle has remained vaccant for well over a hundred years."
"Enlighten me. I'm sure there must be a reason why such a magnificent abode has gone to waste."
"Because he still roams its halls to this day, paying the price for the kingdom's sin."
The Kingdom of Oadren was and still is a prosperous nation. A land of vibrant pastures, rolling hills, jolly peasants, and sophiscated lords, from the outside looking in one would think of Oadren as highly cultured and consider it a bastion of civilization.
But, as we all know, in this world even the most alluring of things carry the darkest secrets. And that is just what the case is for Oadren.
Once upon a time Oadren was not the magnificent kingdom that it is but a rather unremarkable land ruled by Everard the Hungry, one of the earliest kings in the nation's long history. As his name may suggest Everard was a man who wanted to consume everything he could both literally and figuratively. Unlike his predecessors he had the quality needed to bolster Oadren ahead of its rivals - ambition. And it was that very ambition that nearly drove an entire continent in chaos.
In an era which the world was commonly thought to be flat, it is sensible to think that the Ruse was far from understood. Everard's predecessors shunned the Ruse and thought that meddling with it would bring about the downfall of their people. Everard disagreed and who exactly shall be named as right or wrong should be left to the interpretation of whoever is reading this record. Regardless, the previous kings were right about the Ruse in that it would prove destructive in the wrong hands.
And Everard's hands were barely fit to hold a spoon correctly.
Desiring swathes upon swathes of territory, Everard sought to raise an army. An army that could quite possibly be the biggest the era ever saw. Obviously, Oadren did not have the men or resources to supply the forces that Everard required. That was when he turned to the Ruse. With it Oadren thought to turn every man, woman, and child dead or alive into a soldier. His hunger had taken form and it threatened to infect all of Oadren and beyond.
Ceolmaer, the famed Paragon of Light, could not allow his king to wrong his people in such a way. After failing to appeal to his majesty about his course of action, he decided that betrayal was the only way to prevent the land from falling into despair. He decapitated Everard to stop his hunger from swarming all of Oadren and beyond but by then it was too late. Everard's hunger no longer needed him and was able to thrive on its own. The people of Oadren were consumed by the hunger and became vicious fiends, invading and devouring its neighbors without command. Ceolmaer, by virtue of his honor, was able to resist the hunger and took it upon himself to be the driving force in fighting against it.
It wasn't until after putting down countless amounts of fellow countrymen and even his own family that Oadren realized his cause was futile. Oadren, in its current state, was lost. The hunger was spreading and there was no that Oadren, a mere warrior with armor and a greatsword, could do anything to stop it.
Then he thought. And, thankfully, thought is the Ruse.
What had birthed the hunger that ravaged Oadren would be what birthed the means to save it. However, a price needed to be paid for such a travesty. All that hunger could not just simply disappear from the world. It had to be redirected.
And it was with the Ruse of sacrifice that Ceolmaer took on that hunger and subdued himself within Avolire Castle. As humanity cannot withstand the vicious plague that is the hunger, Ceolmaer quickly became the very enemy he fought against - only greater. Fortunately, for us all, he became bound to Avolire Castle and with him Everard's hunger.
Miraculously, due to their proximity to Avolire Castle and its prisoner, Oadren and her people recovered from the hunger. Her neighbors, alas, did not fare so well.
"And that's how Oadren became what she is today."
"Preposterous! I've read through the entirety of our history and never have I encountered such events! As far as I know there was never a Paragon by the name of Ceolmaer!"
"Perhaps we are better off believing that."
