THE STORY THUS FAR...

Amaranth li Astellia, Princess of the Holy Kingdom of Astellia, found herself betrothed against her will to Finis Solomon, one of the High Ministers of Astellia.  Suspecting shenanigans, and hating Finis' guts, Amaranth fled her homeland, taking a boat of her own and fleeing the Land Turtle on whose back Astellia was built so that she might make her way to mainland Latveria.

Upon her arrival, she made her way to Julia and happened upon a Julian centurion named Augustus Hadrian Invictus, who sought to slay the calamitous beast known as the Plague Dragon.  Amaranth and Augustus became comrades and, joining with Augustus' lieutenant Alystra and a wanderer named Avius, they journeyed northeast, towards Egalstria.

At the border between Julia and Egalstria, the group joined forces with a mercenary named Igni and his companion, Byrne.  After a scuffle with bandits, the group split up, later rejoining in Pietravalle, the Egalstrian capital city.  Joining forces with a group of Egalstrian Paladins, the group met with the Egalstrian King Heinrich and was introduced to Klaus Revelle, the one destined to slay the Plague Dragon with the power of his family's hereditary weapon, the Omnilanze.

Later, Amaranth and Augustus parted ways after a spat over Augustus' racist tendencies.  While Augustus faced a series of trials alone designed to discover his true self, Amaranth and her companions met a young orphan named Lycoris and subsequently battled a Manakete bandit named Diana, who joined their party afterwards.

Shortly after Amaranth's group arrived at the small Egalstrian village of Ruhenheim, the Plague Dragon alighted on the village, causing mass destruction before Augustus and Alystra arrived on the back of a small Manakete girl named Ono to chase it off.  After a brief reunion, the group moved to pursue the dragon and engaged it once more in battle at the tragic cost of Alystra's life, whereupon Klaus resolved to carry out his duty... at the cost of his life.  Striking the defeated beast's heart with the Omnilanze, Klaus lost his physical form as his soul was subsumed into the lance, but the Plague Dragon was finally defeated for all time, never to return.

After a return to Pietravalle to report on their success, the group split up, with Igni, Byrne, AND ONO!!! remaining in Egalstria while the rest of the group returned to Julia.  Augustus discovered the existence of a daughter he did not know he had had by his late wife from his childhood.  (Re)uniting with this girl, named Auriel, Augustus returned once more to the capital... before tragedy struck.  His hometown burned to the ground by Raetic barbarians from the neighboring territory of Helvetia, Augustus led a massive war effort in which he decisively defeated the Raetic Confederation and annexed their territory into Julia, creating the province of Raetia.  He became the province's governor, and together with Amaranth, with whom he had begun a romantic relationship in the wake of the Plague Dragon's defeat, along with Lycoris and Auriel, he moved his home to Raetia to live there as its governor.

Meanwhile, Igni and Byrne AND ONO!!! sought to establish a mercenary company.  After a tip from Ono, the group flew to the small island of Registatt, a largely neutral power, where Igni used the money he got from aiding in the slaying of the Plague Dragon to set up a base of operations.  Shortly thereafter, refugees from the country of Luciferia beseeched him to aid their cause in a revolution against a corrupt child ruler.

And now, whisperings from afar have begun to reach the mainland, as Astellia begins to move to reclaim its lost princess...