AN: Welcome!
So, for anyone who's already read my other (and first) Glee fic, this is the rewrite of it. Long story short, I didn't like the way I wrote it the first time, so I'm going to just scrap the whole thing and try again.
This is just the introduction to the story, hence why it's so short (I just used the word "hence"...), and I'll be updating in about a month or so when I have a bunch of chapters written, since if I write through everything I want to write, the whole story could take well over 50 chapters.
That was a lot of commas.
Storyline is based off of Suikoden II, a game very close to my heart, but with a couple (okay, a bunch) of twists. If you already know what Suikoden is, I will give you a big hug and a cookie.
Characters (most of them, anyway) belong to Glee and FOX, and storyline to Konami.
LET THE REWRITE COMMENCE!
In a faraway land in a universe that is of no concern to the history of our own planet lies a country by the name of Ohio.
Yes, in this world of a faraway universe and an unknown time period, Ohio is not a rural state in the middle of the United States of America, but a small country.
And within this country lie seven independent provinces, each with similar laws and customs, but separate purposes and specialties that, as a whole, bind the country together.
In the far north lies Carmel, the official military center of the country. Here, the well-renowned and expertly disciplined Red and Blue Knights are trained under the instruction of the ruthless Sue Sylvester and her elite legion of White Knights. They are all in charge of maintaining the security of the nation as well as fighting in wars against invading neighbors if they should attack.
To the west lies Crawford, the intellectual center of Ohio. The very middle of the province is graced by the largest and most esteemed university in the entire country, teaching all subjects imaginable from fine arts to military strategy to healthcare and medicine. The province was once governed by an innovative university graduate by the name of Alexander Chang, but he mysteriously disappeared only a few years prior to the present, leaving his daughter, Tina, as the acting mayor.
To the southwest lies Westvale, a land of diversity. Split into three sections by two long and winding rivers, this is the homeland of all the different races of Ohio. In one portion live the humans; In another the Wingers, a nature-worshipping tribe of a human-like species, only with wings; And in the last the Kobolds, a species of speaking dogs who walk on two feet. Despite the equality of the three tribes within the country, the leadership role has fallen to a strange and eccentric single human by the name of Sandy Ryerson.
To the south lies Portland, the center of manufacturing in the nation of Ohio. Located within the closest proximity of just about every natural resource in the country, the large province has a great range of environments, from abundant mines in the far south to lush forests more near the north. Most of the resources are then traded or sent to the huge capital city to be manufactured into all sorts of useable goods, which are then shipped to many parts of the country. Portland is led by a very wealthy man by the name of Ken Tanaka, who, although accused of corruption in several courth trials during the history of his leadership, has managed to keep the bustling province under control for many years.
To the southeast lies McKinley, the main source of agriculture for the rest of the country. Made up of mostly fields and a few small forests, the province provides the perfect environment for all sorts of farming and is responsible for the majority of the food that reaches the rest of the country. Unfortunately, due to the underespected nature of the labor, the residents of McKinley are among the poorest of the country. In a political standpoint, however, McKinley is seen to be the most fair to the people, being the only democratic province in the entire country. Instead of having a single leader control the whole area, an elected council governs the province, with four representatives being elected every four years. At present, the elected representatives are Nicolas Duval, esteemed rural-born swordsman; Jeffrey Sterling, mysterious yet greatly skilled warrior who is closely associated with Nicholas due to origins unknown; Drake Palomo, the former village head of Vogyl, a small village in the east of the province; And Kyle Ryan, a McKinley-born scholar who was one of the few from the province to graduate from Crawford University with a proper degree in law.
To the northeast lies Dalton, the political center of the country. Ohio, though divided into independent provinces, still requires a single leader in order to function and to remain unified, so Dalton could be considered the capital of the country. Therefore, despite being the smallest province, it is by far the most powerful in all of Ohio. Nestled within a mountain range in the center of the country is Dalton Palace, home to the royal family that governs the nation as well as home to the hand-picked and carefully trained Royal Guard, also known as the Warblers. The current king of Ohio (yes, that does sound strange, but that is only because you, dear reader, are still in the mindset that Ohio is a rural state, which it is not) is none other than Solomon Goolsby, a fair and honest leader who is well-liked amongst all the provinces he governs.
Lastly, in the very center of all the provinces, lies Diamant, the center of all trade. Being between literally every single other province, Diamant is the richest and grandest province of them all. Sure, there are a few small villages and towns scattered around the area, like all other provinces, but its capital city is truly a sight to behold. Only the most successful of businessmen and entrepreneurs can afford to take residence in the capital city, the epitome of wealth and grandeur in the nation. The wealthiest of them all, second only to the royal family themselves (who have a second home in the Diamant capital, of course), Emma Pillsbury, is the mayor of the province. However, despite being so rich, Emma is a relatively shy and modest woman who often travels to the smaller villages of Diamant to mingle with the residents, making her universally loved by not only the residents of Diamant, but most of Ohio.
The peace that rests in Ohio sounds as if it is ages old, as if it is the way that the country has always been run since the old ages of its founding. However, that is not the case.
Only a century ago, Ohio had been a single, unified country ruled by Dalton. There were no independent provinces, just many large cities with their own specialties. All villages, towns and cities were under the direct control of the Dalton King, who had his own followers and officials appointed in the government positions of each of the places he ruled over. This was how the nation had been run since it had been created.
Unfortunately for Dalton, the old regime had been toppled in a massive rebellion only 55 years ago.
The final absolute king had ruled 60 years ago, and was named Anton Goolsby. He is now notorious for being the worst ruler that Ohio had ever seen. Where former kings and royal families had taken only a portion of the tax money (the nation was mostly self-sustainable, so the income of the royals came from taxes on goods and services as opposed to profits from exporting goods), leaving the rest to be distributed to the poor and those who needed it, Anton took it all for himself. He spent it all on lavish foreign goods from faraway countries, so the money he spent couldn't even be re-circulated into the system that had been so carefully established in the nation. Without the tax money going to them, the peasant farmers of McKinley began to produce less and less food, and the drought that had come upon them was no help, either. Food prices soared, yet nobody in the nation was making a penny more than what they'd been earning before. Workers lost their jobs because bosses simply couldn't afford to pay them any longer. Prices of all goods, education and resources nearly doubled in a desperate effort by everyone to make enough to afford to eat. Ohio residents everywhere were starving, and King Anton did nothing about it.
The McKinley peasants were the first to rebel, since they were the ones being denied their money, as well as because their farms are nearest to the borders of Dalton. Thousands of peasants stormed into Dalton and towards the royal palace. Even the perfectly-trained army of the royals wasn't enough to halt the advances. After all, it's pretty hard to stop a couple thousand hungry and muscular farmers at once.
However, just as the McKinley Rebels (as they had been called by the Dalton Royals) approached the castle, their siege was faced head-on by the soldiers of Carmel, whose young leader, Doris Sylvester, was a strong (and most likely bribed) supporter of King Anton. Thus began the Ohio War for Independence (or simply the Independence War, as many call it today).
The war raged on for five whole years, with the small armies and commoners of McKinley, Crawford, Diamant, Westvale and Portland (who had taken up the name "New Directions") teaming up to face off against the well-trained and powerful military forces of Carmel and Dalton. The war ended with a victory by the New Directions (abbreviated to ND about a year or so into the war), and new negotiations about the country were made. The leaders of all the large cities held a conference in Diamant, where they decided to split the country up into self-governed provinces. The newly-formed provinces also agreed to allow the Dalton royal family to maintain power, so long as the king was well-suited for the job. The provinces also gained the power to topple the king from his throne (by popular vote) if he was not doing his job correctly. Thus, the provinces of Ohio were formed, and had been well-maintained up until present day.
But the peace couldn't last forever. In fact, in this case, it couldn't even last for a mere 60 years.
After a half a century of peace, war will rage in the country of Ohio once again, the fate of the country placed in the hands of two men. Boys, actually, both of them being but nineteen years old at present.
Yes, the fate of the country lies in the hands of Kurt Elizabeth Hummel and Blaine Anderson, two Warblers-in-training that will fall into a most unfortunate destiny.
Our story begins today, on the outskirts of Dalton, perched upon a high cliff overlooking the river, where the two boys, hand-in-hand, are about to take their first leap into the most daring, exciting and earth-shattering adventure of their lives.