5# the show must go on

The preparation, creation and promotion of the blog has occasionally led to an interruption in writing, but this should now be resumed.

We are now in 16th century Spain and our protagonist Ark strides from east to west across the united kingdoms of Aragon and Castile. He starts on the east coast in the city of Barcelona, ​​which gives him unexpected experiences in just one day. Wait a minute, Barcelona? What is Ark doing in Barcelona? Nothing in the game, but Ark’s dramatic escape from Amboise in France across the Alps to Genoa resulted in … okay, okay. Am I still writing a Terranigma novel or what’s the point now? Somehow I remember the game very differently.

In the game, we travel from Lhasa to France within a few minutes, buy flowers, eat a croissant that is no longer so fresh, drink a glass of wine (clichés fulfilled: check), pay our respects to the mute princess (she is to be married to the one who brings her to speak again), put everyone to sleep in the castle, steal a bell behind the king’s bedroom, walk with little Mei-Lin through a forest in Sweden to get back in France, to bring back the princess memories, only to be thrown out by the king as a thank you. Now the elder speaks in a dream or telepathically so that we also know where we have to travel next. Over the mountains to the south, where someone needs our help. So far so good. It was fun and now on to Torronia to defeat the bloody mary.

Of course, I am presenting everything here in a somewhat abbreviated and incoherent manner, but the course given by the game makes it difficult for me to tell a halfway authentic story. I don’t want to compete with others for the hand of the princess, suddenly meet a child from the other end of the world who helps me out with her magical abilities and I don’t want to be whispered by the elder in which direction I have to move next after I helped found democracy, so to speak, before the eyes of the king.

After a short detour in Litz I storm the Torronia Castle and save Columbus, only to be the victim of my night’s rest again back in Litz, this time being equipped with my next to-do by the surprisingly appearing Fyda. Take the princess to the new world while I hunt down the kings murderer. The only stupid thing is that the princess doesn’t feel like it at all and breaks away from us in the city Freedom. Lots of sidequests later we see her again at some point in a castle near the futuristic Chinese city of Yamei.

I love this game, but I have to and want to tell its story differently.

So let’s go back to Barcelona in the early 16th century. The kingdoms of Queen Joanna of Castile, who is notorious as crazy, suffer from the consequences of the suppressed rebellion, the famine, the completed Reconquista against the former Moorish rule as well as the expulsion of the Jews and the ubiquitous hatred of everything different. But in the shadow of anger and misery, Ark also finds hope and mercy and it is a nun from the Jonqueres Monastery who supports him before his arduous journey through Spain, which is additionally burdened by winter. But as soon as he has left the heavy doors of Barcelona behind, he is on his own again. Well, not exactly, but that is not yet revealed.

The chapter that lies in front of me is called “DIVIDED LAND” and tells of Ark’s arduous journey over the rocky country, which is covered of mountains. On the way he meets a group of refugees traveling through the country in which a conflict is simmering between the groups of Christians, Jews and Moors. Whoever Ark encounters on his journey and whatever he may discover, it is certain that the Ark who arrives in Tordesillas at the Queen’s court is no longer the same one who set off confidently in Barcelona.

A note on some Spanish sources of inspiration:

There is no doubt that I was also inspired by the novels of Idelfonso Falcones, as well as the rather unknown novels and non-fiction books that I read for my research on Queen Joanna I of Castile. Joanna herself does not appear in the game and is presumably represented by her mother, who stands in our way as bloody mary gone mad. However, the real story of Joanna is much more interesting than the fictional and only briefly touched game story of her mother. I have to formulate this with caution, however, as I take a branch myself and tell Joanna’s very own story between fiction and reality. Nevertheless, I hope that the distressed and sometimes gloomy Spain and its crazy queen that I have put on paper will meet with acceptance from possible Spanish readers. As one of my (favorite) main characters from the late third act on, I would like to give Joanna her own article at some point.

M.X.H