Author's Notes: No, I haven't ditched the RO fandom for FFT. I'm just obsessing over how awesome FFT is xD The RO shorts will still be updated when I feel like it, but Things Unforgotten really needs a rewrite.
Edit: Some minor adjustments.
Disclaimer: I'll only say this only once throughout this story. I do not own FFT.
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Final Fantasy Tactics
False Truth
The Manipulator and the Subservient
Prologue
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I once read, "The truth will set you free." How ironic that ever since I learned the 'truth', I spent many months living life on the run, hunted as a heretic. There is little freedom in fleeing for your life. There is little freedom in having to keep secrets…
As a child, I was told by my eldest brother that I could never be like them. That I was a bastard, an illegitimate child. I was a part of the nobility, but I wasn't a noble. I was a part of the peasantry, but I wasn't a commoner either. In the eyes of the noble, as was the lowest of their caste, an impurity, nothing more than a speck of dirt on their boots. I was the 'bad-blood' of my family. In the eyes of the peasants, I was just as despised. I was like all the other street bastards born outside of wedlock, yet I was treated better than they because of my name. Such unfairness, all because the nobles were 'above' the peasants.
That brother told me I could never truly lead, for a bastard's role is to serve under the 'real' carriers of the family name. Bastards were entitled to none of a family's estate. Bastards could not be leaders. Male bastards like me could not even be married off to a higher family. Bastards were virtually worthless.
"Never believe that you are higher than your real station," he told me. "You may be a favoured bastard, but you are a bastard, nothing more, nothing less. You cannot change who you are."
Sadly, for many years, I believed him. I tried to be respected like my elder brothers. I tried to be renowned like my father, only to have the tower I built to reach those dreams crumble around me. So I withdrew, sweeping those shattered pieces of my dreams under the bed. It was a long time before I picked up the tools to start again, shying away from my previous mistakes. The result: shame upon the family name. I had thought my renowned father, the pillar of justice and strength, would have been disappointed in me if he knew. Yes, he had made mistakes, and my sister and I were the results of one. Who doesn't make mistakes, though? It is human to err. However, to me, my father was everything I wanted to be, he was the reason I tried so hard to make him swell his chest in pride. I had thought he would have been ashamed to be my father, but I know now, that somewhere, up in the starry skies, my father is proud of me.
In the end, the truth of it all is that I am not just a bastard with a well-known name, nor am I an infamous heretic. I am a human. A living, breathing, human, just like any other citizen of Ivalice. I am someone who can make a difference, just like anyone else. No matter what caste you belong to, no matter your gender, anyone can make a difference, not matter how small or insignificant it may seem. It does not matter that my blood is not pure, it does not matter that I am convicted of heresy, it does not matter that I know the one sitting on the throne is a lie. None of those things are significant.
What is the truth? Even the most intellectual scholars cannot agree what the 'truth' is. Is it something that only God knows? Maybe. Perhaps I am living a lie, believing I can make an impact on the greater scheme of things with my small deeds, my minor achievements. But if you believe in a lie strongly enough, it becomes the truth.
- Ramza Beoulve
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Author's Notes: Hmm…there are many things I want to do with this. I understand that there are many FFT novelisations around, and perhaps mine won't be different enough to garner interest, but this is pretty much a thing to work on my writing without having to worry about the plot. The first reason I wanted to start this is for group battle scenes, which I don't get to write very often :) I won't be sticking to the script exactly though, as you can sort of see already. I was heavily debating whether I should have this as the prologue, or the epilogue. In the end, laziness won out, so here it is as a prologue.
If you have any comments, critiques, or corrections on events and stuff (I'm not completely clear on some aspects of FFT because…well…I haven't quite finished it yet? Dx), feel free to review if you want. I'd like to improve my writing, so that I can inspire others to write, just like those fanfiction writers who inspired me.