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Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of Octopath Modern AUs
Stats:
Published:
2022-12-06
Updated:
2023-11-10
Words:
104,628
Chapters:
32/?
Comments:
14
Kudos:
45
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6
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2,146

Tempered Quicksilver

Summary:

Therion was a hacker who was on a rampage for six years, but his crimes caught up to him and he was arrested by Heathcote, an agent of the Orsterran criminal department. To avoid punishment for his crimes, Therion begrudgingly went to college in the Atlasdam Academy of Medicine and Science as part of the department's youth rehabilitation program, where he met his roommate, Alfyn Greengrass, a country boy. Little did he know that their stories were more deeply intertwined than he remembered.

Notes:

Hello! This is my first time posting to this website, so please be patient if I don't quite get the etiquette down right away. I'll use this note to clarify things that I mentioned in the tags.
- Content Warnings at the start of chapters
I will post warnings before a chapter fully starts if there's any graphic descriptions, which is primarily gore. These don't occur often in the story, but warnings will be given as needed.
- Modified Backgrounds
The primary focus of this story is a slow buildup between Therion and Alfyn, and while the other characters in the story have their moments and side plots, some weren't easy to modernize, or the events of their stories are past. For example, Primrose isn't on an adventure for revenge, Za'anta isn't petrified, Erhardt didn't betray Olberic, though Hornburg still technically fell.
There are more characters present in the story than the ones listed, though most others will have relatively minor roles, or more prominence in side plots.

And here are a few of the standard disclaimers; This work is a free-time thing and I make no money off of it. I don't own the rights to any characters, I'm just a huge fan of the game.

Chapter 1: Forward: Worldbuilding

Chapter Text

Hello, I just wanted to make this section for some additional worldbuilding content that I can't explain within the story. Originally, I was planning on using a standard calendar for the story's timeline, but then I bought the Octopath Traveler Tabletop RPG, and translated it, and I found that they used a specially made calendar for the world, which I decided to use.

Each "month" is referred to as a moon, and consists of five weeks, with each week consisting of six days. The months are; Alephan's moon, Dreisang's moon, Dohter's moon, Draefendi's moon, Winnehild's moon, Brand's moon, Sealticge's moon, Steorra's moon, Balogar's moon, Aeber's moon, Bifelgan's moon, and Aelfric's moon.

The days are as follows; Firesday, Iceday, Thundersday, Windsday, Lightsday, and Darksday, with Lightsday and Darksday being equivalent to our Satudays and Sundays. Darksday is also commonly referred to as the Sabbath, as the followers of the Church of the Flame spend the day for worship.

The story starts during Balogar's moon, which spans from September to October.

Another note, I had some special ideas with the Woodlands area of Orsterra, and that explanation will be below. Chapter 14 of the story has this same note at the end.

The idea I had was that the Woodlands was split up in terms of culture. There's the people of the Victor's Hollow and Valore areas, who follow the same general culture of the rest of the continent, but then there's those who live around Duskbarrow and S'warkii who willingly abide by a slightly less modernized culture. 

Typical ranching and farming practices aren't used, with the norm being to hunt for meat and gather plants, not really having any desire for luxury technology. They take advantage of electricity, construction machinery, cell phones, and other essential advances, but tend to ignore things like televisions and computers. 

That isn't to say that some of them don't have those things, as some are definitely adopting them, and the culture in the region is starting to become a bit more homogeneous.

I will update this with more worldbuilding information if needed.