Fanfic / Fell Horizon

Alear awakes to the world to find that a thousand years have passed during her slumber. Now she must fit into a role that she was never meant to take as the conflict from a thousand years ago begins to reignite, all the while she does her best to hide what she truly is from her new followers. However as a thread from Alear’s past reappears and threatens to reveal the truth that was forgotten she will suddenly find herself more lost and alone than ever.

Or, Alear still has her memories when she wakes up.

Fell Horizon can be read here.

Tropes found in Fell Horizon:

• Abusive Parents: Besides Sombron's canon-typical treatment of his children, it's implied in chapter 21 that Alear's mother Vermilla was not a good parent either (Zephia just mentioning her made Alear scowl).
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Alear - due to having all of her memories of living under Sombron - is extremely troubled mentally, to say the least.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Nel, Refal, and Nil only appear as their Alternate Universe selves in the DLC, being long dead in the main universe. Here, they get a few appearances in Alear's flashbacks, establishing them as the siblings Alear was closest to after Veyle.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Alear is far less pleasant than her canon self, due to possessing all of her memories of Sombron's first war against Lythos and her extremely Dark and Troubled Past.
• Already Done for You: The Hounds and Evil Veyle were making plans to use Alear's true heritage to Divide and Conquer her army in the future - only for Alear to reveal said heritage herself in order to protect Veyle.
• Always Chaotic Evil: This is the view of most of Elyos's citizens (save the Elusians) toward Fell Dragons, due to all the horrors inflicted by Sombron and his brood. Learning that Alear is one of said brood is world-shattering for those in the know, and it takes her army a while to reconcile their initial views on her with her true nature.
• Anti-Hero: Alear is unquestionably on the side of the good guys - or at least, the side that opposes Sombron. This does not mean she is always pleasant to be near, unless your name is Lumera or Veyle.
• Big Sister Instinct: Veyle is the one person (after Lumera dies) who Alear is capable of opening up to and treating with unconditional love. And if you do anything to hurt or threaten Veyle, start praying.
• Blackmail Backfire: Alear apparently blackmailed Nel and Rafal in the past after she realizes they were mourning Nil, Nel's twin - granted, she mostly used it to make them get treats she could give to Veyle. Eventually, the two of them started blackmailing Alear back for taking care of Veyle. Ironically, the three actually bonded over the knowledge.
• Broken Pedestal: Alear has a sad tendency to cause this to people who meet her, as they all believe her to be like a saint and are understandably disappointed when she proves to be more of Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Then Chapter 24 sees her friends utterly crushed and betrayed to learn that she is a fell dragon.
• Brought Down to Badass: Alear notices that she is considerably weaker after a millennia-long slumber, and has also lost her ability to use dark magic spells such as Obscurite due to the side effects of Lumera's essence transfer. She's still the deadliest fighter in the entire army, even without her dragonstone.
• Combat Pragmatist: Alear does not care - at all - about honor or a fair fight. Alear doesn't even like fighting - and as a result, tries to end it as fast as possible.
• Commonality Connection: Alear develops this with Ivy, in Chapter 21, noticing how she's afraid for her sister (like Alear is for Veyle, unknown to Ivy).
• Dark and Troubled Past: Alear. Good grief, has Alear had it rough.
• Dark Secret: Alear is a Fell Dragon by birth, and was adopted by Lumera during the war. Most of Elyos views Fell Dragons in general as Always Chaotic Evil, even centuries later, which leaves Alear feeling she has no choice but to hide the truth for her own protection. She finally reveals the truth in Chapter 24, and - due to Poor Communication Kills, Veyle's presence, and her Sanity Slippage, flat-out leaves the army behind, taking Veyle with her.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Lumera did this in the past with Alear after she adopted her, and Alear is deeply loyal to her as a result.
• Elite Army: Alfred reflects that while Firene's army is extremely skilled and well-trained, Firene is also very peace-loving, which means that they don't have a very large army. He admits that it's mostly meant to keep any Firenese monarchs from getting designs on conquest, but with the Corrupted and Elusians on the warpath, it's a massive problem, since they don't have enough troops to defend everything.
• Evil Matriarch: It's implied this was the case with Alear's mother, Vermilla, as just hearing her name causes Alear to scowl.
• Fantastic Racism: Alear, in the first war for Lythos, apparently was first sent to Brodia on a campaign, and - among other things, saw a lot of her siblings die, including several who were killed and stuffed by Brodians. It left a very negative impression on her of Brodia's culture. Also, most of Elyos, save Elusia, views Fell Dragons as Always Chaotic Evil - while this isn't entirely unfounded, the truth is that Alear and most of her siblings were Forced into Evil by Sombron.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Diamant views Alear's Tragic Bigot tendencies this way - he's genuinely shocked and disturbed to hear her story about how in the past she saw Brodians murder dragons and mount them on their wall then brag about it (especially after she's revealed to truly be a Fell dragon, and he realizes that said dragons were very likely her brothers and sisters). He doesn't think it justifies her blatant disgust towards his country, but he understands why she feels that way.
• Friend to Psychos: Alfred - and to a lesser degree, Celine and Yunaka - are the only people in the army who have any real bond with Alear on a personal level. It literally scares Alear.
• Happily Adopted: It's very clear in the few interactions they have that Alear loves her adopted mother Lumera very much, and that the feeling is entirely mutual.
• Heel–Face Turn: It's made clear by Alear's POV that she did a lot of unquestionably evil things while serving Sombron (Zephia mentions that she gave the order to burn down Brodia's original capital in the first war with Sombron), making her joining Lumera this.
• Hope Spot: When Alear first wakes up, she starts to feel hope that she might be able to relax and live a normal life, since nobody is aware that she's a Fell Dragon by birth - and then, Lythos Castle gets invaded, her mother dies, and it all goes downhill from there.
• Hypocrite: When Ivy expresses her dislike of Veyle and calls Alear out on bringing her to their camp, Alear immediately points out that they just let Ivy's sister Hortensia into their army despite Hortensia antagonizing them up until this point. Incidentally, Alear also invokes an unintentional version of this, as Hortensia was mind controlled yet none of her army is willing to entertain the idea that Veyle was similarly mind controlled.
• I Am a Monster: Alear views herself as this - she's a Fell Dragon and a Reluctant Psycho who was never given any chance at a normal life.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: At her core, Alear just wants to have a happy loving family. The problem is that her father and mother were absurdly abusive and sent most of her siblings to their deaths in wars they started (or in Sombron's case, personally killed said siblings when they failed him), her only surviving sibling is Brainwashed and Crazy at times, her adoptive mother was killed by said sister, and her upbringing makes it difficult for Alear to bond with the rest of her army.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Alear is this to Lumera from the viewpoints of most of the cast - herself included.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: Alear's hair is half blue, half red, but as the story goes on, it starts changing to full red. This is a visual indication that she's slipping toward her past self, who had full red hair.
• Knight Templar Big Sister: If you lay a finger on Alear's family, or seriously threaten them, she will kill you, no matter who you are - unless you happen to be another member of her family, as seen with the brainwashed Veyle. A civilian who was threatening Veyle - and his family (who survive because they weren't) - learn the hard way that Alear is willing to use lethal force to protect her, and in the past, Alear personally tracked down the woman who killed Nel and butchered her and her entire battalion in retaliation.
• Moment of Weakness: Alear hands over Marth's Emblem Ring to the Four Hounds and (Evil) Veyle in order to get closer to the latter, after suffering Sanity Slippage when she realized that Veyle killed her mother. It's part of what sends her spiraling into despair when she starts to think clearly again.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After finally getting the whole picture about Alear, her friends - at least, the ones who know her better - are clearly ashamed of how they pushed her away.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Alear's typical response to enemies that won't back down is to butcher them quickly and without remorse.
• Not Brainwashed: Most of the army, after the Destinea Cathedral fiasco, get the impression that Veyle has somehow been messing with Alear's head for as long as she's known her, since Alear only truly became unstable after she saw Veyle in Destinea Cathedral. They learn in Chapter 24 and 26 that there was no brainwashing of any kind involved - in reality, Alear is spiraling into despair because she's a Fell Dragon, Veyle is her sister, and she learned in the worst way possible that Veyle's Split Personality killed her adopted mother Lumera, who she loved dearly.
• Odd Friendship: Yunaka ends up having this with Alear - while the latter ends up blackmailing her over her past, the assassin is surprised by how sincere Alear is when she offers promises of future aid and camaraderie. She lampshades this during Chapter 26, noting that for how absurd things between them were, Alear was the one person she could probably call a friend.
• Pragmatic Heroine: Alear is fully aware that war is bloody, and while she dislikes sacrificing lives, is willing to do it if she thinks there's no way around it (In Chapter 6, she decides to attack the Firenese palace despite knowing that the Elusians will likely start killing hostages because they would likely still be hurt if they did nothing, and it would allow Sombron to claim Queen Eve's sovereign blood to empower himself).
• Relative Button: Threatening, or even mentioning Alear's family (besides her birth parents) is a wonderful way to get on her bad side, if you are her enemy. She may hate and fear her father Sombron, and have at best poor feelings for her mother, but she admits that she couldn't really hold any real ill will towards her siblings, despite the incredibly toxic environment they all grew up in, and - well, insulting Lumera or Veyle is a very bad idea unless you want her to hate you.
• Reluctant Psycho: Alear is fully aware that her head isn't entirely stable as the war goes on (seeing hallucinations of Veyle after she learns about the evil Split Personality in her sister's head that murdered her beloved adoptive mother would do that), and even before that, tends to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold to her allies. It's also revealed that she tends to reside in the Somniel's underground areas as a result of this, so that they won't have to deal with her, and only cooks her own food (her tastes are skewed towards extreme, on average, like Nel, Rafal, and Veyle).
• Reluctant Warrior: Downplayed. Alear doesn't really like having to fight, especially if she can avoid it, but she has no issue whatsoever with killing her enemies if they anger her or refuse to back down.
• Revenge Before Reason: Hortensia tries to kill Veyle immediately after learning that she was the one who turned her father into a corrupted, despite the fact that not only is Alear defending her sister, but the Hounds are currently torching the city she is in. Once she has time to calm down, Hortensia reflects that she was Blinded by Rage and is ashamed of her actions.
• Sanity Slippage: Alear's mental state starts to decline as the story goes on, due to seeing her mother die, and then having to let her sister go without telling Veyle she's the sister Veyle is searching for, and then learning her sister's evil Split Personality killed her mother. Chapter 24 is when it hits the breaking point due to accidentally revealing her heritage to the army, who immediately turn on her for being a Fell Dragon. She ends up grabbing Veyle and flying off a crying mess.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Alear's got a vast amount of baggage from her upbringing, and only really started healing mentally after she met Lumera. And then, seeing her mother killed - and learning that her beloved baby sister (and her last remaining sibling) was brainwashed into killing said mother sends her downhill all over again.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The fact that Alear Took a Level in Jerkass compared to her amnesiac canon self leads to this. In particular, the Brodians get along very badly with her, due to her disgust for their culture, which leads to Diamant outright attacking her when he learns she's a Fell Dragon and Citrinne initially thinking she was Evil All Along until the Emblems correct her.
• Terror Heroine: Alear, when she's fighting the bandits at the oasis Timerra is at, butchers every last one she finds in order to protect the civilians there without stopping, to the point she's literally coated in blood by the time she meets back up with the rest of the army. The civilians she rescues are both grateful and scared.
• Tragic Bigot: Alear's Fantastic Racism towards Brodians was apparently started by the fact that she was dispatched to Brodia early in Sombron's first war against Lythos, and got to see a lot of her siblings die there at the hands of the locals (the crowning moment being where one of them was apparently killed by a Brodian and then stuffed and mounted).
• Tragic Keepsake: Revanche and Resparailles, the weapons that once belonged to Rafal and Nel respectively, were retrieved by Alear after their deaths. She keeps them as a reminder of her family, and is protective enough of them that she refuses to let anyone else handle them (to the point of warning Clanne to not touch them, and slapping then terrifying him when he didn't listen).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Veyle ends up torpedoing her sister's burgeoning friendships with her companions by insisting on meeting them despite Alear's reservations, as Alear's efforts to explain why she is welcoming in Lumera's murderer end with Alear accidentally revealing that VEYLE’s her sister, and by extension, that Alear is a Fell Dragon.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Alear personally murdered the woman who killed her sister Nel (a Brodian soldier) and every single soldier who was with her at the time - she admits that while she did feel a brief sadistic joy from it, immediately afterwards she just felt even emptier than she was before.
• Wham Line: In Chapter 24, when everyone is immediately suspicious of Alear bringing Veyle to them, Alear ends up Saying Too Much:
  Ivy: (after Alear points out all the effort they went through to rescue Hortensia) I did so because Hortensia is my sister.
  Alear: AND VEYLE'S MY SISTER!
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Downplayed. Alear knows what love is, and clearly loved her siblings Veyle, Nel, and Rafal even before she met Lumera, but she also has serious trouble, even after being given it by Lumera, of grasping the idea of unconditional love (Alear thinks that it's normal for friendships to only exist when one or both of the friends have blackmail on each other, due to her abusive upbringing in Gradlon. Yunaka has to point out to Alear that this isn't how things normally work, and Alear has genuine trouble understanding it even after that).
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Downplayed - while she's willing to hurt them if they are her enemies (as Hortensia, Goldmary, and Rosado learn the hard way), and she slapped Clanne when he picked up Resperailles (Nel's old spear) and didn't put it down despite her warning him, Alear usually will go more out of her way to ensure children are safe or aren't killed if she isn't provoked.
• Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Alear grew up in an extremely abusive home as a Child Soldier, where showing excessive kindness could literally get you killed, and has a - fairly skewed view of things like friendship, as a result. (Yunaka, a former assassin, is very disturbed to learn that Alear is willing to trust her after Alear started blackmailing her over said past and doesn't consider it unusual).