Soren

[Paper Jam]

I've plagiarized most of this stuff from the Ike-Soren conversations in PoR and the "Dragons" and "Soren" conversations in Radiant Dawn. The rest is conjecture on my part. Criticism welcome.

Before Path of Radiance

In the early 620s, Princess Almedha of Goldoa had a disagreement with her father Dheginsea about Goldoa's strict military neutrality. As a result of this dispute, Almedha ultimately left Goldoa.

Her journey brought her to Daein, where she met Prince Ashnard, who had great plans for the future of Tellius... Impressed by the black dragon's strength, Ashnard quickly found a great deal of common ground with the wayward princess, and even a sense of physical attraction, resulting in Almedha's pregnancy and the birth of their son in the year 627.

But unions between beorc and laguz were forbidden by the Goddess, or so it was said, and in punishment Almedha lost her ability to transform into a black dragon after the birth of their son. Worse still, their son did not have the ability to transform into a dragon either. In fact, all that distinguished him from an ordinary beorc child was a curious scar on his forehead, the mark of the Branded.

Since Almedha had lost the one thing that had once attracted Ashnard to her, he abandoned her. Since their son never had the ability to transform into a dragon, Ashnard kept him just long enough to lure another dragon, Almedha's brother Rajaion, to his side. Once Rajaion was captured and drugged into obedience, Ashnard had no further use for the Branded infant, and so he abandoned him for the dead.

But the infant prince did not die. A woman reluctantly took in the homeless, parentless infant, gave him the name Soren, and kept him alive for three or four years. But that was all that could be said for the woman's deeds, for it was painfully obvious to Soren that she did not love him. His earliest memories were of her saying "Why me? The world isn't fair!" and "Stay away from me, child!"

In 631, when the boy Soren was four years old, an old sage from Gallia came to the woman's house and offered a large sum of gold in exchange for the boy. Seeing the scar on the boy's forehead, and believing the boy to have made a pact with a Spirit, the old sage drilled him hard in the magical arts, and Soren quickly became very powerful for his age. The sage knew that he was dying, and all that he wanted was to pass on his magical skill to an apprentice.

The sage died two years later, when Soren was six years old. It is unknown how long Soren stayed in the sage's hovel, eating the last of the provisions, but as soon as the food was gone, he left to seek other sources of food.

At every village Soren passed, the beorc villagers shunned him. They could see the mark on his forehead; they knew that he was Branded, and they scorned him for it. Nobody offered him food or shelter. Furthermore, Soren himself could not speak. The old sage had taught him to read and write, but neither he nor his foster mother had ever said anything that required a verbal response, so Soren had never learned to speak.

Then, exhausted and famished, he arrived at the outskirts of a certain village, where a blue-haired, blue-eyed boy found him collapsed on the ground, skinny as a twig, wearing rags and covered in dirt, looking as if he were on the edge of death.

The blue-haired boy offered his lunch to the starving child, but Soren simply shook his head, afraid that the boy simply intended to taunt him with his food. Then the boy put down the food and said that he would come back the next day with more.

The next day, Soren came to the same place where he had met the blue-haired boy, but the boy never came back. What was more, the entire village was in ruins. Dead Beorc littered the ground, and villagers were fleeing in panic. Soren searched the carnage but could not find the boy's body among the dead. Believing that the boy must therefore be alive, Soren stole as much food and gold as he could carry and fled north to Crimea.

On his way to Crimea, Soren encountered several groups of beast-tribe Laguz, but they sensed that he was Branded and ignored him. The way in which they looked at him and then turned away as if they had seen nothing hurt Soren more deeply than the scorn of the Beorc, and he hated them for it.

When he reached Crimea, Soren quickly came across a church, where he found sanctuary and learned speech and etiquette. The Crimeans had noticed the mark on Soren's forehead, but as with the old sage, they had mistaken him for a Spirit Charmer.

Years passed, and Soren set out again on his quest to find the boy who had saved his life. At last, among a mercenary company called the Greil Mercenaries, Soren found him: Ike, son of Greil. Ike had no memory of that day in Gallia, but Soren did not care; he only wished to see that boy again, the only one who had ever been kind to him.

I'll have the events of Path of Radiance up later, or someone else can continue where I left off... or whatever.

Ideas?

[VincentASM]

Finally got round to reading and the article looks great : )

In the early 620s, Princess Almedha of Goldoa had a disagreement with her father Dheginsea about Goldoa's strict military neutrality. As a result of this dispute, Almedha ultimately left Goldoa.

I'm not too familiar with FE10's script, but what's the reference for the event occuring in the 620s, just out of curiousity?

...resulting in Almedha's pregnancy and the birth of their son in the year 627.

Same question, here : o

[Santino]

Good grammar, good language, not hard to follow and correct about the story as far as I can see.

The only thing I can pinch on is that it's written more like a story than an article, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

[VincentASM]

The only thing I can pinch on is that it's written more like a story than an article, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

Don't worry, that's fine by me too : )

Edited December 27, 2008 by VincentASM

[Paper Jam]

The dates were conjecture on my part, so feel free to remove them. Nevertheless, I suspect that Almedha left Goldoa some time between 620 and 625, because I doubt that Ashnard would have been old enough to have grand ambitions prior to 620, or that Almedha would have left Goldoa after the Serenes Massacre in 625.

On the other hand, I'm fairly sure that Soren was born shortly before Rajaion left Goldoa, and we can deduce that year: In Spring 646, Ena said that Rajaion had left Goldoa "some nineteen years ago," and 646-19=627.

Also, the Ike-Soren conversations say that Ike and Soren were roughly the same age. Since Ike is officially 17 at the beginning of Path of Radiance (i.e. Spring 645), Ike must have been born sometime between Summer 627 and Spring 628.

In short, it is highly likely that Soren was born sometime in 627.

[VincentASM]

Oh yeah, I think I remember the Soren's age argument, but I wasn't too sure when Almedha left. I'll probably end up removing the years, but I'll have a think about it first.

Anyway, I'll be adding this to the main site soon ^^