History Fanfic / Arcanum

* DidntThinkThisThrough: The Azure Arcana possesses the greatest libraries in the world and are the main draw for joining the Azure Arcana, and a great boon for the Collegiums... [[spoiler: but the Archives, in order to contain all the books and scrolls they can, are all physically connected to each other through spatial magic. In effect, the Azure Archives are a separate dimension that connects all Collegiums with a portal network, with only uncoordinated, noncombatant scholars to contest intruders. All it takes is one Collegium falling and a particularly determined force can bypass ''all the defenses'' of each Collegium, which is what happens when Grimm start wandering into it.]]

** This is a literally fatal flaw of the White Arcana as a whole: they will not allow themselves to compromise their principles, even under threat of death. [[spoiler:White Arcanist Corsac Albain poisoned his entire refugee caravan because he couldn't abide them accepting vital aid from a Wildmage. The White in general could fight off the invading hordes of Grimm by emptying the Sanctum of its powerful prisoners, but would rather the cities be destroyed and their people wiped out than admit that their dogma is counterproductive]].

* KillThePoor: While the yearly flooding of the city's lower levels is used as mildly horrifying way of controlling the 'dredger' population, it's cranked up to eleven in an effort to force the wildmage they believe hidden in the slums to reveal themselves. The White Arcanists destroy the city's damns to cause a single mass flood rather than several small waves, all to make the wildmage choose between revealing themselves and saving the dredgers, or watching as the entire lowest level of the city drowns. [[spoiler:Ruby is able to take a third option and divert the river into the Noble's estates, mostly by accident.]]
** [[spoiler:During the Grimm attack on the city, Arcanists from the White deliberately draw the Grimm into the lower levels by leaving the outer gates open while sealing them off from the upper levels, trapping the dredgers as bait and intending to flood the entire area to wipe out the attack. The Grimm attack is stopped cold...and the trapped dredger population almost completely wiped out.]]

* CheerThemUpWithLaughter: Sun, at Weiss's request, tries to and eventually succeeds in cheering up Ruby using dirty jokes [[spoiler:after she fell into a funk cause of Wildmage Adam's brutal arrest.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Ruby Rose, Wildmage [[note]]art by {{Z-ComiX}}[[/note]] ]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Ruby Rose, Wildmage]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Coming out of the slums and into high society gives Ruby access to more food than she'd ever had. She rapidly starts to put on weight and lose her emaciation, but it's revealed later that a change in diet doesn't fix all of her problems. Living in, and eating, filth her entire life has left her with chronic issues (including parasites and old injuries healed incorrectly) that need actual medical intervention to solve.
** It turns out that, divorced from the issues of setting-specific magical powers, staffing a facility almost entirely with people who have debilitating mental impairments isn't the best idea. [[spoiler:As the Grimm incursions towards Vale get worse and worse, the Collegium stops paying attention to the Sanctum. With no unimpaired minds to organize the day-to-day operations, the Huntsman guards are unable to do the job or take care of themselves properly because they simply can't function without a support network. Some have simply passed out standing up from exhaustion and hunger, fulfilling their last assignments indefinitely, and none of them have the presence of mind to get help from outside]].