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Riou's Journal
Bright Shield : Lost in the Dark
Created on 2007-03-16 07:26:23 (#12509492), last updated 2009-02-24
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Basic Info| Name: | Riou aka 'Hero 2' |
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| Location: | North Window Castle, Dunan Republic |
Contact:
darkluna.com@gmail.com Bio
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Is Fate Unchangeable? Riou is the officially nameless hero from the RPG game Gensou Suikoden 2.(The name 'Riou' comes from the game's novelization) In it, he and Jowy Atreides are childhood friends who's youth brigade is slaughtered by their own commander lead by their Highland kingdom's prince in order to incite a war with the neighboring Jowston City-State. Riou & Jowy, along with Riou's adopted sister Nanami, are branded traitors and escape to the neighboring state and take refuge with the mayor of the capitol city of Muse.  Jowy proves himself a spy aligned with Highland when he murders the mayor and escapes with the half of the true rune known as the Black Sword (known for its offensive powers), leaving the other half, the Bright Shield(known for its defensive & healing powers, and once possessed by Riou's adopted father) with Riou. Due to circumstances, Riou finds himself pushed into becoming the leader of the remnants of the Jowston Alliance, gathering forth an army centered around the prophesied 108 Stars of Destiny and building a new headquarters and capitol from the ground up. Meanwhile, Jowy rises through the Highland ranks, culminating with his marriage into the family followed by the subsequent murder of the king and mad prince. At a supposed peace conference between Highland and what would become known as the Dunan Alliance, Jowy's plan to assassinate Riou & company upon their failure to unequivocally surrender is thwarted by a last minute change of heart due to the child Pilika's presence. This eventually leads to the invasion and conquering of the Highland's capitol by the Dunan Army led by Riou, leading to its annexion into the new republic. Riou comes from the beginning of the default ending of Suikoden 2-- he has accepted his role as the leader of the new Dunan Republic, his sister Nanami had 'died' trying to protect him, and Jowy's whereabouts remain unknown as Riou has failed to return to the place where he & Jowy's adventures began and their paths seperated. Index | ||||||||
Polychromatic Riou || Default Ending || Taking the Darker Path Note : While the Thumbnail Bio is Canon, this section applies only to this particular Riou as it assumes a certain path and assigns motivations never clearly stated in the game. I've also incorporated bits from the first Suikogaiden and the Suikoden 2 novels (as well as things revealed in creator interviews, artbooks etc) but nothing that directly contradicts the game. Overview Riou is sixteen years old (Perhaps seventeen with all the time he's spent in the City, although his birthday is unknown and uncelebrated by him and he plans to remain 'sixteen' for the duration of his stay here. As befitting the bearer of the Bright Shield Rune, he is supportive and protective, not only of his loved ones but of anyone in general who hasn't already proven themselves to be a psychotic murderer or something of that ilk. He has no problems extending his friendship to shadier characters-- thieves, lechs, conmen-- if not exactly his trust after what he's been through. Riou can be described as gentle, slow to anger, quick to forgive, polite, gracious, charming and amusing at times --and definitely goofy-- and sometimes naive or idealistic. Although he wants to believe in the best of people, he's been confronted with a far starker truth too often to have remained so innocent.  Kind enough to the point that he does not mind being taken advantage of-- within reason-- his urge to protect and defend, in conjunction with Bright Shield, has caused him to develop one hell of a hero complex. He is also a warlord, considered a traitor who turned against his own kingdom and killed its prince, has killed hundreds if not thousands with his own hand, been personally responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers (not to mention any 'collateral damage' when retaking cities such as L'Renouille), and utterly annihilated the opposing army by trapping and burning them alive in a forest. When push comes to shove, he will always do the right thing... even if that means killing his best friend. Although on the surface they may have many similarities, this is not the typical Riou presented in the Happy Ending. This Riou gave up Jowy for lost after the ambush at the peace conference, left the other boy for dead in the collapsing royal palace, and would have killed him in the final duel and taken possession of the entire Rune of Beginning. And so the duality reflected within the complete True Rune is also perhaps reflected within his own nature. The kind, sweet tempered protector who's first instinct would be to strive for compromise and peace, also has a darker more aggressive aspect that rears its head when deemed necessary, that will attack to defend, and does not flinch at killing or spying or a host of other things that might have galled the younger, more innocent Riou. However, in this time, in this place, he possesses only the Bright Shield half of the True Rune, and in his own way is trying to suppress the darker aspects of the warlord leader. He believes that there is no need for someone such as that within the already chaotic sphere of the City, especially with his sister, Nanami, now present, who has remained more or less oblivious to exactly how far her brother went to end the war. While, curses notwithstanding, he has been more or less successful with this, sometimes things will leak out in odd ways, such as his nonchalantly mentioning that a darker carpet would hide blood stains better. Far more open about exactly who and what he was when originally arriving in the city, he now takes sanctuary behind the guise of --if not exactly a normal kid, then at least a normal martial artist-- or a soldier when he's pushed for more of his background. So he turns a smiling face to the world-- with smiles that are mostly, if not exactly entirely, real-- and tries to remember what it was like to just be a goofy kid. Index Suiko-world Background Once upon a time, Riou's world revolved around his adopted sister Nanami -- so close that he never even mentions the adopted part except when explaining such things as why he doesn't know his birthday --and his best friend For various reasons the trio of friends were outcasts in their hometown of Kyaro -- Riou and Nanami for being the adopted children of Genkaku, the (unknown to them) exiled hero from an enemy country and Jowy for being the studious heir, if possibly illegitimate, to the richest family in town-- which made them a very tightly knit group as all they had in the big bad world was each other. Riou and Jowy both being boys (and smack dab in the girls have cooties stage for quite a bit of their life) would have had a certain closeness that excluded Nanami. As Jowy once put it "it's a secret between boys". In a way Jowy was probably the closest person to Riou, even above his own sister. Riou as the youngest and weakest -- enough so that little Nanami was able to beat him up to become the older sibling!-- was the most protected of the group and grew up wanting to get stronger, strong enough to be able to protect himself and others. After the death of Genkaku and the failure of their dojo, this took the form of Riou --followed by Jowy-- joining their town's Unicorn Youth Brigade, training to protect kingdom and king, home and prince from the nearby country that they were on and off again always at war against. And so the stage was set for the tragedies of Suikoden 2. Whatever ideals Riou may have once had about knights and princes, royalty and the romance of fighting for one's kingdom would have been rather brutally dashed as soon as Prince Luca lead his own unit into slaughtering the youth brigade of the town used as the royalty's summer home in order to frame the nearby Jowston Alliance and rekindle the war which had been in an uneasy cease fire for the past few years. Directly after this, Riou's main focus would have been on surviving and reuniting with his important people (Jowy separated after they jumped off the waterfall to escape the massacre and Nanami waiting for their return back home. Rather importantly, before they leaped into the river far below, Riou refused Jowy's request to strike an 'X' in the nearby stone and swear to return to that spot if they should become separated. Instead Riou insisted that they would make it together-- unfortunately, something that the strong river currents made a liar out of him. This lack of a promise has strong influences on the ending and marks the beginning of the somewhat darker path Riou embarks upon.)  But as time went on and Riou and Jowy met and befriended more and more people, quite a few of them from the 'wrong side' of the war, found more and more things they wanted to protect, and came across the horribly grisly aftermath of the insane Prince Luca's rampage across the countryside, a sense of frustration over their own helplessness would have pervaded both boys as they were forced to run and run again.It would have seemed greatly fortuitous when the boys stumbled across the shrine to the Rune of Beginning and were offered the chance to actually become the bearers-- and wield the great powers of-- the two rune halves. All or nothing, both boys would have to take a half for either of them to appear. Both of the boys had done their best to try and help the people impacted by the war, even up to donning armor and fruitlessly fighting to defend the fort and cities of what was once considered enemy country. Yet Riou still argued against taking the runes... It was only a few years after the nearby Toran Liberation/Gate Rune War and surely the tales of the cursed true rune Souleater that took the souls of the ones closest to its bearer must have made the rounds. Yet Riou would not have been anywhere near as well-read as the more proper Jowy, not about the greater world around them or the runes in particular, so its no great surprise that he eventually acquiesced to his dear friend's pleas. After all, while more reticent, Riou also wanted the power to protect. Did Jowy really know what the true price of Bright Shield and Black Sword was? Did he think Riou and he could avoid it, or was he so willing to sacrifice a friendship that once meant so much in order to achieve that power? Riou does not know, but must have often wondered. For a while the three companions continued together on their way, the two boys trying to master their runes (with his higher magical affinity, this would have been easier for Jowy, especially with Riou's early exasperation over a rune that could only merely heal at that point) Until the climactic moment that Jowy killed the leader of the Jowston Alliance, the woman who had offered the group protection, and symbolically betrayed his friends (and more than symbolically betrayed the city they were staying in when he opened its gates to the Highland Army leading to the place's destruction) This was even more shocking than the Youth Brigade's slaughter, coming from the person Riou trusted above all others, sending his already crumbling world into another tailspin. And for the first time in years, perhaps since they had met, Riou and Jowy's paths parted. But Riou had to retain a strong front for Nanami, the little child Pilika that Jowy had picked up(and abandoned after his betrayal), and the other companions amassed along the way. And Riou still had faith in his friend, hoping beyond hope for some mitigating reason behind Jowy's actions, and wondering if Prince Luca had somehow gotten to Jowy when the other boy stayed behind to cover the tracks of Riou, Nanami, and friends during their retreat from a reconaissance mission gone wrong. (Yet another time that Riou acquiesced to his friend even though he knew better.) Fate marches on and Riou, revealed to be the adopted son of the long-lost Jowston hero and the bearer of the rune that once protected the country, was chosen to lead the remnants of the Jowston resistance. Although he has fought (and killed!) his countrymen already, this is the unequivocally irrevocable step that will truly make him the traitor to his homeland that he had once been falsely accused of. He accepts, with some hesitation. He knows it will be dangerous. He knows others will try to use him as a pawn. He knows that it is more or less the place of a figurehead, a symbol for all the others to rally around, and that it is not really on his own merits that he has come to this position. But he wants to help and despite what Nanami may say otherwise, this is his war ever since it began back in Kyaro. Because he could not get out the truth about the youth brigade's demise in time, because he could not protect all those towns and people who offered him hospitality and then were destroyed, because he bears some of the responsibility in what he allowed Jowy to do. And because it's the right thing. He will concede no more. Under the guidance of Shu (lead strategist and the brains-- and some believed to be the true leader-- of the army) the whole sale massacre finally turns into an out and out war as Riou, now declared the Tenkai Star, sets out to assemble the 108 Stars of Destiny, a gathering of fated people who are meant to restore the balance of the world when things have gone awry. Meanwhile, Jowy is on his way to rising through the ranks of the Highland Army and soon the two boys would meet once again-- only this time as enemies, just as the two rune halves had willed. To say that Riou is greatly angry at his friend's helping out their murderous countrymen is to put it lightly, yet still he and Nanami try to lure Jowy back to them while Jowy tries to get them to abandon Jowston and flee to safety. Jowy's plan all along finally comes to fruition as he managed to send Prince Luca to his death-- directly at Riou's hand. The 'hero' that Shu created to unite the fractured Jowston Alliance has in earnest been born. This leaves Jowy as King of Highland and Riou as leader of the Jowston Alliance, making peace between the enemy countries seemingly inevitable. But the greatest betrayal yet was still in store for Riou. The peace conference supposedly set to create a treaty between the two countries is revealed to be an ambush by Jowy, who threatens to kill everyone in the envoy- Riou, Nanami, the other peace ambassadors, and all the previous friends Jowy had made amongst the Jowstonians-- if Riou does not have Jowston surrender unequivocally and put itself under the rule of Highland. It is only because of Shu's foresight and the sacrifice of Pilika to the Highlanders that the group manages to escape, Riou all the while blaming himself and cursing his naivity. Riou's faith in his once friend is finally shattered and Bright Shield has finally gained its wish... Riou has utterly given up on his childhood friend as lost and will kill Jowy if necessary. At this point the last link to the boy Riou of Kyaro instead of the Bright Shield Bearer and Hero of the New Alliance that still remains is his sister Nanami. The war continues onward, Riou agreeing to the ever more devious strategies of Shu without complaint. Not because he's a passive pawn overwhelmed by circumstance, or because he was tricked and used by Shu, but because enough of his fundementally gentle nature has been changed by the horrors he's seen that he agrees that such strategies are needed to end the war. Nanami increasingly unhappy with the way the war has been going, gives one final pleading to her brother, asking him to run away with her during the zombie outbreak at Tinto. Riou refuses, for he believes it's far too late for that then, as he has too much honor and a sense of responsibility towards those he is truly leading, not only in name but in actuality at this point. That decision that will haunt him for a long time to come. The final turning point comes during the retaking of Rockaxe, when the treacherous Gorudo who had already betrayed the Jowston Alliance also turns against his Highland allies and tries to kill Riou and Jowy both. The two boys are too caught up in their own personal battle at first, both of them believing that this fight is inevitable, leaving Nanami to solely protect them both. While she manages to deflect the arrows from her brother and friend, she is struck herself and dies before the arrow can be removed for Riou to heal her. Even though Riou and Jowy briefly teamed up once again to immediately take down Gorudo and Jowy pulled back his troops to give the doctors a chance at helping Nanami, the death of Nanami marks the point where reconciliation with Jowy is irretrievable.  Riou at this point has been completely severed from all ties to his past. As the leader of Jowston and the lord of the New Alliance Army, he cannot be allowed to fall apart and so he pushes forward, knowing that he is lost if he looks back. With no time to properly grieve over the death of Nanami, he lives entirely for the people he has sworn to protect and is dedicated only to ending the war. That has become his entire purpose for being.Jowston and Riou had led an entirely defensive war up to this point, only retaking the lands that Highland had taken by force and allowing the enemy troops to retreat mostly unharried. No more. In a move with influences very similar to Jowy's thought processes during the peace conference ambush-- that no lasting peace can be gained while the two countries existed separately-- for the first time the New Alliance Army took the initiative and invaded Highland. The defendor had finally become the aggressor. Most of the Highland Army was annihilated during this final campaign, with a good portion being burned alive in a gambit that put Shu, Riou's most trusted advisor, in danger and nearly killed him. The New Alliance Army finally descended upon L'Renouille the capitol of Highland, fought off the enemy kingdom's own true rune, the Beast, and concluded the war establishing the ex-enemies as one new nation-- the Dunan Republic. Unlike the earlier raids by Highland, the New Alliance's intention was certainly not destruction of the city, but amidst so much physical and magical fighting later history books would describe the city as being 'razed'. Without a word, Riou leaves his former best friend for dead within the collapsing royal palace, and with no promise to remind him of Tenzan Pass where Jowy supposedly waits for him, he lets the past fall behind him and steps forward as the de facto ruler and president of the newly established nation. A short scant weeks later, before things have calmed down anywhere near enough for an official victory celebration, Riou is teleporting back to the L'Renouille region to help quell an uprising by the scattered remnants of what remained of the once mighty Highland Army. It is from this point at the very beginning of the Default Ending before the epilogue that scatters the 108 stars of destiny to the winds that Riou is taken. Index City Background Riou coming from a world where teleportation and summoning creatures from other worlds while not exactly common is far from unheard of was perhaps more prepared than usual to adapt to the strangeness of being plunked down into an odd otherworldly city. However, his being taken right before battle while the country that he sacrificed so much for and who's well-being his entire purpose of living has began to revolve around still lies in chaos made him understandably frantic to find a way back. Added to his discomfort is the presence of Jowy and Black Sword in the city. While Riou had sworn to kill Jowy if necessary and held some bitterness towards the other boy, enough of his love for his former best friend remained that he did not wish to force a confrontation that might have lead to one of their deaths, especially in a place that has no connection to Highland nor Jowston. So Riou did his best to avoid his ex-friend and for his own part Jowy seemed content to hold his distance until such time that he could initiate the scene that had thus far been avoided at Tenzan Pass. Meanwhile Riou rushed about the City, absorbing as much information as he could and trying to make the best of his circumstances as he-- by then rather used to having advisors, strategists, detectives and researchers etc at his beck and call-- tried (to varying degrees of success) to do the various jobs that his companions performed back home. While normally mellow, even to point of accused laziness, Riou's determination and focus once he has fixed upon something is remarkable, even frightenly so. He is no booklover but will dive into the library for weeks at a time if needed, he is no chef but will learn all the vagaries of cooking to help his companion. However, without the distractions that came from the war and being lord of the Dunan Republic and bereft of his support structure from home, along with the complications introduced by the curses (such as the one that covered him in the blood of all those he had killed) Riou found far too much time to think back on what had happened and was forced to finally confront the feelings he had been surpressing all that while. The anger of the various betrayals and the resentment over his circumstances and fate that had simmered underneath all his previous calm acceptance, and most especially his grief and guilt over the loss of Nanami, which even until now remains the source of his greatest regret and sorrow. Riou's downward spiral commenced with a curse that erased both his and Jowy's memories of the war sending them in a beeline to each other, whereupon they ended up spending over a week with the other in a city induced second childhood. It's a severely conflicted Riou that finally awakens in the same Thus Riou, who's stength always laid with others, secreted himself away to conceal his deteriorating health as he struggled to deal with his own unresolved emotional issues while engaged in a battle of wills with Bright Shield, all the while trying to muddle through the curses and help with the chaos over the supposed end of all the worlds going on at the same time. Riou's lowest point was perhaps the curse that inverted his morality, sending him off to stalk and try to kill Jowy, who had meanwhile regained a new lease on life.  Oddly it may have been this out-of-control murder attempt that finally prompts Riou to fully forgive his ex-friend, and when the other is himself cursed back into the despair and death wish that Jowy had carried upon first arriving in the city Riou again tracks him down, this time to offer a new chance at rekindling their friendship. For the moment Bright Shield's will has been suppressed by Riou's and the Rune of Beginning briefly appears, giving hope that there really is a chance at a different fate back home.While the two friends had more or less made their peace, things remained awkward between them (all the lust/love curses that had Riou may-or-may-not acting out on another repressed emotion didn't help) even with the arrival of the final member of the trio into the city. At this, Riou finally puts the well-being of another over the good of the whole country and sets about to find a way to save Nanami at Rockaxe, even if he wreaks bloody havoc upon the timeline to do so. Nanami (not to mention everyone else horrified by what Riou might inadvertantly end up doing) rebuffed all his attempts and again went to her fate, returning to the City past the Rockaxe incident, where it's revealed that she had faked her death. While still unsure if he and Nanami are still part of the same timeline and relieved that at least this version of her survived, Riou is shocked and horrified what a false death might have meant for Jowy who had returned back home, as Riou knew damn well that marked the point of no return for them both in his timeline. And so while Nanami enjoys an unprecedented amount of open affection from Riou (up to being called 'big sister' for once, as Riou still wibbles enough over his 'dead' sister to surpass any latent 'sister cooties' feelings he might have from childhood), things were far from paradise between the two siblings as they continued to fight and Riou continually fussed over the recklessness he thought he saw in his sister. This reached its peak during the Trap Curse where Nanami died, after which Riou struck a deal with a deity --something he had been reluctant to do even for himself due to his observations-- sealing away one of his runes so that Nanami was sent back home. Unfortunately for Riou he was correct in his suspicions, and Nanami returned to the City less than a day later. And so Riou's greatest motivations became keeping Nanami safe and finding a way back home for her, even above his own return which he has become rather conflicted over with time. For though he has managed to return to his world at least twice, both visits were far too short (in the manner of minutes) for him to ascertain what was really happening back home. And through his interactions with others from his same world, including Nanami herself, Riou has begun to doubt if he's actually the same Riou that they remembered, from the same timeline, until later circumstances have made Riou give up nearly all hope that he is in fact the Riou who travels the world with Nanami and Jowy in the future. His time in the city has told Riou that he must confront his fate at Tenzan Pass, but he greatly fears what he might find there, as a curse has already made him live through the bad ending where he kills Jowy. (Unknown to Riou, he has been taken early enough in the default ending that if he returns to his home world with his memories of the city intact and meets Jowy at Tenzan Pass than the happy ending is still possible. However, a Riou who loses his memories upon returning and is reset to his mindset upon first entering the city will most assuredly kill the other boy if he comes across him.) Riou's sense of self worth has taken quite a hit, the curses and circumstances of the City having reintroduced Riou to that feeling of helplessness that he had hoped to never experience again from the beginning of the war. For though he tries his best, there are simply many in the City that he cannot hope to help, and yet he refuses to brush away such things as merely 'temporary death', fearing the encroaching apathy that such an attitude might bring. Perhaps even more than his fear of failing the people back home (as symbolized by the visions of North Window burning in the fountain and in his various invoked nightmares), Riou has begun to doubt if he really has a place in his world to return to. He fears to finally return home and find Nanami truly dead, Jowy still an enemy to be fought, and that it was his memories of that time that were wrong or misunderstood. That he really was nothing more than a figurehead who's purpose was fulfilled and who the country would be better off if he did disappear. Yet still he searches for a way out for himself, because even if they are lost to him, Nanami & Jowy live on somewhere else, he was granted his greatest wish in seeing what would be deemed the official end of the war, and perhaps, just perhaps he is still needed there. While Riou had been a pretty open guy growing up in Kyaro and still remains so to some degree, he was always more of a people pleaser, often subjugating his own feelings in order to give people what they wanted to hear. (Such as his assuring Jowy and Nanami that they would one day return to Kyaro, even though Riou himself had absolutely no wish to do so.) This has been further exacerbated when people started relying on Riou as their leader and symbol of hope and wellspring of optimism during the war when Riou himself was filled with doubts and thought he had no clue what he was doing. As since then any showing of weakness tends to backfire horribly on him, Riou may give the appearance of being very open but emotionally is rather closed off, especially as he's still rather alienated from Jowy, the one person he'd be the most inclined to confide in. Riou has mellowed over his stay in the City, his anger and grief giving way to a more subtle melancholy that can sometimes be seen peeping through his smiles and nearly ever present optimism. For Nanami's sake and for the sake of finding a way back home, he has more or less relinquished the role of leader and has contented himself with being a more or less 'normal' (normal for the City anyway) slightly goofy kid who helps run the nearby dojo and also runs off with the city watch time to time when his hero complex gets the best of him. EDIT : Due to the vagaries of the city, Riou has become the Head of Special Assault & Tactics within the city's police force. This was originally meant to merely be a temporary position until someone better suited was found, but all attempts by Riou to choose a second-in-command of the unit to step down and pass his own position over to has failed (due to the city continuously booting said person out first.) and thus Riou remained the division head for nearly a year. (And during this time, Riou failed to return to his homeworld for any stretch of time to reset his body clock, and thus, he has physically aged up a bit.) This position has lead Riou to seeing perhaps the very worst of the city at work including various grisly crime scenes, murders, nasty curses that required city watch intervention, and being blamed by the citizens at large for the police's inability to protect everyone. While Riou would be used to many such things from the war, he is still young (sixteen to eighteen, even taking into consideration his time within the city) and this does have an affect on him. In addition Riou was forced to see Nanami die before his eyes once again during the week long zombie invasion (where she remained dead for the entire span). Due to these circumstances Riou has actually been darkening during his latter stay within the city. While he continues to put forth a strong optimistic front and tries to continue to treat all with kindness, the darker aspects of his personality have been rearing their heads more and more often (a thing which he generally tries to keep away from the attentions of his friends and sister.) During the span of time while Nanami remained dead in the city, Riou would have come across as very cold, closed off, and robotic -- not particularly caring about who he snapped at it or inconvenienced. Riou at this time is very conflicted and full of self doubts, wondering if he still truly believes in all the hopeful things he still says or has merely become nothing more than a front. Most of his own hopes and dreams regarding being part of Nanami's timeline or even being needed by the people back home have been crushed and thus, he really no longer seeks a way out of the city for himself. Instead he continues to actively search for exits especially for Nanami and for all his other friends and acquaintances and other unknown other people who wish to leave the city. This lead to the city's first known group effort against the city barrier during the summer of 2008. Unfortunately this was another case of Riou charismatically leading others into horrible ambush (with no Shu to back him up and pull everyone's keister off the flames) and thus the attempt backfired and backlashed across the city, greatly hurting the people directly involved and leaving Riou himself within a coma for the subsequent week. However, when Riou finally noticed the signs that pointed to his own exit of the city during the early months of 2009, he is greatly conflicted. He is very glad that this seems to indicate that Nanami will soon be free of the curses of the place and continue happily traveling with Jowy and his other self back home, but he does not know what this would truly mean for himself. Two years have passed. He is not the same, nor does he wish to be. He has many doubts about his true position back home. But nothing will be settled until he finally confronts what is truly waiting back there. And so it is a bittersweet moment as Riou prepares for his departure, turning over the recently depleted ranks of the police to those who will come after, leaving behind his research notes for others (and in some cases for himself if he ever returns to the City sans memory), and finally takes his leave of his sister and the city. Holy crap, did anyone actually read all that? Index TL;DR Version The War Riou & Jowy(bff) : War sucks Jowy : I will end this and all future wars by... backstabbing you, Riou!!! Riou : . . . . . . jackass. The City : Part 1 Riou : I think I may have to kill Jowy. Jowy : Yes, kill me! Riou : . . . . . or maybe not. *keels over* Jowy : Riou, are you keeling over? Riou : *keeled over* . . . . . no. Jowy : . . . . . . cursed!Riou : All better now! Prepare to die!!! Jowy : No thanks, I changed my mind. cursed!Riou : NO BACKSIES!!! *blows up Jowy* Jowy : *is blown up* . . . . . well, crap. Riou : I have overcome the curse and the will of my true rune! No, I could not do that before I blew you, myself, and the random nearby scenery up. *goes into coma* Jowy : *joins Riou in coma* Riou : *in coma* Jowy : *in coma* Riou : *in coma* Jowy : *in coma* Riou : *in coma* Jowy : *in coma* Riou : *wakes up* Oh god, the emo. Jowy : *in coma* Ha ha, I won the 'who can stay in the coma longest' contest! Riou : . . . . . jackass. The City : Part 2 Nanami : *arrives in the city* Riou : *gets mauled by Nanami* Riou : Don't go to Rockaxe! Nanami : I'm going to Rockaxe! Riou : DON'T GO TO ROCKAXE!! Nanami : I SAID I'M GOING TO ROCKAXE!! Riou : I'LL BLOW UP THE GOD DAMN TIMELINE BY SENDING SECRET MESSAGES TO SHU THROUGH THE CITY INSIDE THIS PAGER AND-- Nanami : Riou. Riou : *gets mauled by Nanami* Nanami : I'm back Riou : What the hell? You faked your death? Nanami : You don't seem happy to see me. Riou : You faked your death?!? Nanami : Are you not glad your dead!sister came back to life?! Riou : YOU FAKED YOUR DEATH?!?! Nanami : . . . . . Riou : *gets mauled by Nanami* Nanami : *dies* Riou : *makes an idiotic deal with the deities to send her back home* Nanami : *one second later* I'm back! Riou : *gets mauled by Nanami* Nanami : . . . . . Riou : . . . . . . Nanami : . . . . . Riou : . . . . . . Nanami : . . . . . Riou : . . . . . . Nanami : . . . . . Riou : *gets mauled by Nanami* Nanami : ^_^ Riou : Damn you, Jowy, where are you so I can call you a jackass?! The City : Part 3 Jowy : *arrives back in city* Riou : Hey Jowy, long time no see! Jowy : I'm from during the war, you know. Riou : . . . . . Jowy : . . . . . Riou : . . . . . have I called you a 'jackass' recently? Jowy : That does sound vaguely familiar, yes. Riou : Hey Nanami, I'm going to be acting as heavy magic back-up to the city watch! Nanami : *stares* Riou : It's only back-up! *Becomes a full time member a few weeks later* Riou : Hey Nanami, I'm going to be acting as temporary Head of Special Assault for the city watch! Nanami : *staaaaares* Riou : It's only temporary! *One year later, still Head of Special Assault* Riou : Hey Nanami, the Chief of Police just disappeared and-- Nanami : *STAAAARES* Riou : . . . . . . Nanami : . . . . . Riou : *gets mauled by Nanami* Riou : Together we can overcome anything, we can take down this city barrier, we can take hold of our own destiny! People Being Lead to Their Doom : HURRAY! Riou : Oops, I think I forgot to mention how during the war, I had a penchant for leading people... People Being Lead to Their Doom : HURRAY! Riou : . . . . . leading people into horrible ambush. City Barrier : BACKLASH BITCHES!!!!!! Jowy : Now do I finally get to call you a jackass, Ri-- Riou? Riou : *in coma* Jowy : If I could just remember the last time this happened I'd be facepalming right now. Jowy : *leaves city again* Riou : . . . . . . Nanami : . . . . . Riou : . . . . . . Nanami : . . . . . Riou : . . . . . . Nanami : You're not even going to mention him, are you? Riou : LA LA LA LA LA LA I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT ANYONE LEAVING RECENTLY Nanami : My brother the king of de nile. Riou : After spending years searching for a way out, I have finally found one... Nanami : Hurray? Riou : . . . . and I think I changed my mind about wanting to leave. Nanami : Kind of late now, aren't you? Riou : Yeeeeah... Nanami : Once more for the road? Riou : *gets mauled by Nanami* Index | ||||||||
Other History : Riou has brief bits of history that take place outside of his game canon or his stint within Polychromatic. These include brief wanderings through the Konami Dressing Room and In-character Secrets. (The first of which lead to a 2-on-1 scuffle with him and Jowy against Luca Blight.) While Riou does retain the memories of the events that took place there, he dismisses them as merely extra-weird dreams. And one gets used to very weird dreams, to say the least, within the nameless city. Index | ||||||||
Powers :  In the beginning, there was "darkness" Then, the "darkness" shed a "tear" From that "tear" the brothers Sword and Shield were born Shield claimed it could defend against any attack Sword claimed it could slice through anything The brothers began a legendary battle At the end, both Sword and Shield shattered Sword became the sky, Shield became the earth, and the sparks from the battle became the stars As for the jewels, they fell to the ground and became the True Runes-- The runes that all other runes were born from. Like almost all of the magic-users from his world, Riou's spells are derived from the runes attached to his body and weapon. Physically they'd look like a cross between tattoos and body jewelry when attached, tend to gleam or glow when activated, and can usually only be attached and removed by a rune master/mistress. (True Runes notwithstanding, who can come and go at their own will and who leave their bearers upon death, often disappearing from the world for centuries at a time.) Unattached normal runes would look a bit like crystals and sometimes be transmuted into temporary spell scrolls for those lacking in magical affinity. Outside of weapons, runes can normally only be attached to three places-- the right hand, left hand, and forehead, with the right hand having the weakest affinity and the forehead the strongest (reserved for those with high magical affinity who have worked with runes for a long enough time, such as Riou) Riou, like all rune users, can only cast so many spells within a single battle/set time period without having to stop to rest and replenish his energy. Runes are more-or-less alive in their own way with wills and voices of their own for those sensitive to such things. This usually doesn't have much of an effect outside of True Runes.  Bright ShieldBright Shield is half of the Rune of Beginning, the rune that rules over the powers of creation and war, and one of the 27 True Runes of the Suikoden world. The True Runes are basically the forces of nature/gods/controllers of fate/pillars that allow the existence of Suiko-world, from which all other runes are descended. Their voices and wills are very strong, liable to overwhelm and possess any bearer not sufficiently strong-willed, and often have 'curses' attached to their powers. Being only half, Bright Shield does not confer the agelessness and immunity to poison, illness, and other natural causes of death that the full True Runes give their bearers. It represents the protective/defensive/supportive side of creation and its powers center around that. The use of these spells however, burns up the bearer's lifeforce. At this point, this is not really noticeable with Riou unless he uses several higher level spells without rest, after which he'll start showing physical weakness/faintness with him completely keeling over/passing out in one of the more worse case scenarios. (The worst case scenario of course being that he overexerts himself to the point that he dies.) The will of the two halves of the Rune of Beginning (Bright Shield, Black Sword) is to reunite through a reinactment of the first battle that caused the creation of the Suiko-world. They will twist fate, causing further war and conflict, and try to force their two bearers against each other until one has killed the other, thus creating the Rune of Beginning. If their bearers should fight this fate, the rune halves will drain them unto death. As in most of the Suikoden 2 endings, Riou at this time has currently struck a balance with Bright Shield so that their wills are no longer in direct conflict.
 Darkness RuneA descendant of the Rune of Life & Death (aka the True Rune 'Souleater'), the Darkness Rune uses death and darkness magic. This was originally picked up and used by Riou as it reminded him of Jowy's Black Sword Rune, and he kept it attached over all other offensive-type runes because he later befriended Tir McDohl the hero and bearer of the Souleater. Darkness is a rare type rune that is basically only found in the Dunan region (as it was only used during Suikoden 2)
Violence Rune Somewhat rare and obscure, this is a technique rune, which unlike the runes which allow their bearers to cast certain spells, grants a single ability. The Violence Rune activates when Riou has become seriously injured, surrounding him in a glowing red aura and briefly putting him in a beserker state where all his attacks are increased 400%. Riou attached this as his final rune to be one last ditch ace up the sleeve and it has never been activated within the City.
 Rage RuneThe somewhat hard to find Rage Rune, like its lesser brother the Fire Rune, is a child of the True Fire Rune. When attached to a person it allows them to cast mass offensive-type spells but it can also be used as a technique rune when attached to a weapon. In the latter case, it increases melee damage by 50% and adds the power of fire to direct attacks. This rune was sealed away in a deal with the deities to return Nanami to their homeworld and thus Riou's melee abilities have taken quite a hit. Besides that, the sealed rune has compromised the physical integrity of Riou's weapon of choice, although this has yet to be a problem up to this point.
Index | ||||||||
In Game Choices :
Background Taken from Novel :
Names Used : There are many places in the Suikoden world that have no official names as they were to be determined by the player in game. I've tried to use the ones most commonly used (if anyone has any better ideas, please LMK)
Index | ||||||||
Things (for Stalkers) to Watch Out For
Random Ramblings on Default Icons The default icons used by Riou act as a rather good chronicle of his progression within the Nameless City.
Index | ||||||||
Permissions : Feel free to stalk, insult, hack(even stuff marked unhackable if you drop me a note first), read his thoughts(that's what the strike-outs are for!), break the fourth wall(it's been pretty well broken considering he found the Suikoden 2 game in the City's arcade), info-mod (please, as much as I like Suikoden, I didn't ramble hideously here for my own sake XD), or otherwise do whatever-the-heck is in character for your character to try with Riou. Backdating is a go (as I'm a backdating ho), with the caveat on no creating time paradoxes please. Index | ||||||||
For more information on Suikoden 2 try... Riou Wikipedia Suikoden 2 Wikipedia Suikosource Due Fiumi S.A.R.S. This journal was part of the Polychromatic Multi-fandom Roleplay |
Super Deformed Faces : Riou uses these when he's relaxed and feeling silly, but also when he's trying to cover up something or trying to be underestimated. While he drops these when being serious, the lack of these icons being used when he normally would signals that secretly he's very upset
Social : Riou being naturally social and a 'united we stand, divided we fall' guy should almost always be mixed up in group activities of some kind or another. Being pulled back all by himself for an extended period of time signals something Big is up.
Mood : While over the year+ that he's been here, Riou has learned how to lock and change various aspects of his journal (making entries, the location etc) private, the mood setting is still one of the few completely honest barometers of his feelings. In particular the 'drained' setting means Bad News ConnectInterests (26):
108 stars of destiny, allied army, barriers, black sword, bright shield, chinchirorin, dunan republic, dunan unification war, flying, genkaku, home, jowy, mukumuku, nanami, new alliance army, north window castle, polychromatic, riou, roleplay, rune of beginning, suikoden, suikoden 2, tablets, time nexus, timelines, true runes
External Services:
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 | darkluna.com@gmail.com | |
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