After completing a large Valkyria Chronicles transcript, I was extremely intrigued by the universe that the game introduced. Really, VC is such a lush game and so ripe for development that I had to take it upon myself to go where SEGA did not go and has not gone. What they have developed past VCI, I've been pretty disappointed with (namely, VCII, and by the looks of it, VCIII). I have some very detailed outlines of the expanded universe I've created, and if this story seems confusing at first, consider that everything will be revealed in due time.

There are three stories in the saga: Beginnings and Ends is chronologically the first story in the saga, detailing the exploits of Belgen Gunther and others in EWI; Peace Breaks Out tells the events of the year after the end of the Gallian conflict in EWII; and Vicissitudes relates the stories of the Gunther family. I plan to concurrently update the three as we move along. I'm very excited about this, since this has been the first time I've planned something of this scale. I hope I will make things interesting for you, reader.

Rosalyn Gunther

March 22, 1997

The day my Grandfather died, my Grandmother was despondent. He was 84, a rare feat for a Gunther. After all, we do have a reputation for an early grave. Perhaps his longevity was due to the fact that he had something to live for every day: waking to the smell of bread, bugs to discover, children to teach...If death had not caught him sleeping, I'm certain he could have fought it off, just as he had fought off the Empire so long ago. How much had he survived through in all those stories he had told us?

But my Grandmother. The day after Grandfather's death was the first day in decades she didn't bake in the morning. She simply sat at the table, gazing down at her hands knobbled with bulging veins, yet smooth from a life of kneading bread. She was 81, with no signs of unhealthiness whatsoever. We all knew that this was from the gift, but she always denied it. After the war, there was only one time where she used the power of the Valkyria again, but it was out of complete necessity, and it is a secret that only the royal family and our family know.

Still, Grandfather's death wasn't such a great surprise. Even before I was born veterans of the War were being buried. Every Veteran's Day the seats reserved to the veterans always seemed one or two seats less than the year before. I knew this because I had gone every year to see my Grandpa speak, and every year my uncle Theimer would drive the Edelweiss to the grounds.

My Grandfather's body lay in one of our guest rooms. In death, he still had that little smile on his face, the face Grandmother called his "curious face." Then again, Grandfather was always curious, and so he was always smiling.

Within the next day, the Gunther family arrived at the Gunther house. Many came from Randgriz: of Grandfather's children, Isara, Theimer, Liesl, as well as many of Grandfather's grandchildren. My cousins came from all over Gallia: Kloden, Barious, even some around Naggiar. It's an amazing thing how the Gunther clan managed to grow so large from only one love that sprouted in the war…Grandmother always said that love was like a lion's paw, and that where it flourished it would spread its seeds and multiply.

My father, Faldio Gunther, was now officially the second Viscount Bruhl, the noble position given to Grandfather by Archduchess Cordelia herself for our family's merit. To our family, though, it was just a name: We felt no different from the normal people, and from a young age, we were educated and raised just like any normal Gallian family. If my grandparents ever disliked anyone, it was the nobles who sought to flaunt their status in everything. History knows of all the trouble that caused us.

Luckily, the manor was big enough to accommodate everyone. Many extensions had been done over the decades, and years of family reunions had guided our decisions. Bruhl was the homeplace of all of us…it was in our title and in our blood. Every Gunther baby that was born was given a sprig of Bruhlian lion's paw, and baptized by the sight of the Mill. We never forgot that.

In a way, Grandfather's passing was a blessing in itself. He was the oldest in our family and the first to go; he did not see anyone in his family beat him to the grave. He always told us that death was natural, and he wished that the natural way would stay in our house: that the oldest pass on first to leave room for the new.

So with all my kin in our father's house, there are no tears as we all gaze at his body in the candlelight. He is peaceful; he is at rest. Welkin Gunther is finally one with nature.