In the beginning, the Goddess Rhea crafted the sea. It was beautiful, but she grew bored of the flat blue surface. And so she raised up the land from beneath the still waters, and it was wonderful. But soon, she tired of it as well. Rhea made the plants and, soon after, the animals. This occupied her fancy for a time. Then, at the dawn of the First Age, Rhea made man.
For hundreds of years Rhea shepherded man. But as the humans flourished, they began to fight amongst themselves. The goddess worked tirelessly to quell the squabbles of man, but the fire held in men's hearts is not so easily quenched.
The First Age ended when Vissar the Damned, armed with the first sword, Protafyng, slew a man whose name has since been lost to time. Rhea was shocked beyond words that one of her children would slay another. As battle erupted around her, the goddess knelt upon the ground, clutching herself tightly. She never rose, and eventually turned to stone.
At the dawn of the Fourth Age, the king of Izzarra is dead and gone, and soldiers of Mordo rule the country with an iron grip. In an age when the Goddess is gone and our King lies dead, can we still hope for salvation?
— Opening narration in the OOC thread.
Three years ago, at the end of the third age, Isaac, Lord of Izzarra, leads a body of trusted soldiers in an attack on their neighbor, Kalart. Tazok of Kalart is forced to muster his meager standing forces to mount a desperate defense. For a full week, Isaac and his forces hammer at Kalart's defenses, pushing ever closer to Tazok. By the seventh day, all appeared lost for Tazok.
At the end, however, a force from Kalart's neighbor and longtime ally, Mordo, arrives at Isaac's back, led by the Queen, Norona. Her fresh cavalry crash into Isaac's drained and battered fighters, and slam them into the wall that is Kalart's remaining defenders. One day, historians will decide whether this was a wondrous turn of events, or unfortunate happenstance.
The people of Izzarra have already decided. With Isaac's death, Norona claimed stewardship of the nation of Izzarra. Mordo soldiers patrol the street, enforce heavy punitive taxes on the citizenry, and punish any who would dissent with deadly force. Resistance has risen and fallen across the nation, but beneath the might of Mordo, none have stood the test of time.
The flames of rebellion are fanned by hunger and mistreatment. Will they burn high, or be snuffed out forever? In the end, the answer lies with you...
— Opening narration in the IC thread.
Fire Emblem on Forums: Liberation of Izzarra
is one installment in the series of Fire Emblem on Forums roleplays on the Bay 12 Forums. Set in the wake of the occupation of the titular nation of Izzarra after a war with Kalart goes horribly wrong after Mordo shows up to turn the tides, Liberation of Izzarra revolves around the attempts of the protagonists to lift the brutal regime that Mordo has imposed upon Izzarra. As the last of the resistance cells of Izzarra, the protagonists end up having to flee the country, but, not giving up their hopes of one day freeing Izzarra from Mordo's grasp, seek aid from likely and unlikely places around the world, all the while fighting off both the forces of Mordo and other enemies of theirs around the world.
The IC thread can be found here and the OOC thread here.
Liberation of Izzarra contains the following tropes:
- Actual Pacifist: The entire religion surrounding the Goddess Rhea, extending to the vast majority of Rheane, with the exception of the White Knights and Bertholt.
- Ambiguously Evil: King Vaster. On one hand, he offers to help the party by placing an embargo on trade with Mordo and builds up a decent rapport with the protagonists. On the other hand, he knows far more about Devil Weapons than he really ought to when he speaks to Kaldach, and considering what we know of what Mordo intends to do with the weapons, this does not bode well. It's also heavily implied he lied to the party about the content of the memoirs that Martyn retrieves.
- Back from the Brink: The protagonists are the last of the Izzarran resistance, and are actively attempting to invoke this with the resistance by calling for help.
- This is also what happens to Kalart in the backstory, with their capital almost taken until Mordo appears to bail them out and destroy the Izzarran forces.
- The Cavalry: Mordo was this for Kalart in a quite literal sense, destroying the Izzarran army when they come close to taking over Kalart with an army of horsemen....and then proceeding to brutally repress the Izzarran people.
- Crapsack World: Izzarra under Mordoan occupation and Chilcenne are, respectively a occupied territory where people are routinely executed for showing any dissent with the regime and robbed of food and money, and a lawless hellhole where bandit clans rule the majority of the nation.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: The entire plot of the story revolves around the protagonists attempting to invoke this in Izzarra by heading to every nation not allied with Mordo to rally help for Izzarra.
- Heroic BSoD: Rhea in the backstory suffers this when Vissar the Damned murders someone, committing the first murder, becoming Taken for Granite as a result.
- In regards to the cast, Sharne ends up in one between Kaldach's lack of communication with her as to his true nature and her failure to act as an adequate bodyguard for Esther and Kaldach. Bertholt also has a minor one shortly before attempting to persuade the Rheaneans to send help to Izzarra, praying to Rhea to aid him through his time of doubt.
- Hot Goddess: When she wasn't petrified, Rhea was said to be the most beautiful thing in all of existence.
- La Résistance: The protagonists are the last cell of the Izzarran resistance, all others either having gone underground or been suppressed and likely executed by Mordoan authorities.
- Make an Example of Them: Rina's fate is to be hung and have her bloated corpse be left out for everyone to see the results of aiding the Resistance.
- Martial Pacifist: The White Knights of Rheane, and Bertholt himself, who is willing to raise arms to fight for the cause of the Izzarrans.
- Multinational Team: The party consists of three native Izzarrans (Sam, Martyn, Esther), three Chilcenneans (Roux, Liam, Brock), a Rheanean (Bertholt), two Aneccans (Sharne and Farra), and a Mordoan (Kaldach).
- Might Makes Right: The rule of law in Chilcenne is that the strongest take all and kill anyone who gets in the way of so doing.
- Proud Merchant Race Guy: The people of Anecca are proud traders, and are the first to level embargoes against Mordo.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The people of Chilcenne are very proud fighters, as can be seen with Roux and Skulltaker.
- Super-Soldier: Mordo is attempting to produce many of these, of which Kaldach is one, using the Devil Weapons.
- Taken for Granite: The Goddess Rhea in the backstory, who turned to stone after the first murder was committed out of grief. The country of Rheane has risen up around her body as a pilgrimage site.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Bertholt and Gustav deliver a mutual one of these to each other when Bertholt gives his proposal of aid to Izzarra; Gustav to Bertholt for suggesting that the pacifist people of Rheane actively throw their food and supplies where the Mordoans will easily take them, Bertholt to Gustav for suggesting that they abandon people in greater need than Rheane as worshippers of Rhea.
- World of Snark: The entire party gets many opportunities to snark, even Bertholt and Kaldach. Many of the (friendly) allies the party receives are eager to return the favour.
