The Schrödinger Saga

- Sept. 17th, in Iceberg’s ancient past, several centuries before the current series of tyrannical rulers took over control of the land, the hero Ciegfroyd von Schrödinger, together with his spouse, Clotilde von Saxemeningen, founded the early version of the Schrödinger clan on the small piece of territory he received as a token of the recognition he (Ciegfroyd) gained from the royal family for having successfully defended his homeland of Iceberg from the devastating onslaught of the Great Leviathan.

- On Sept. 17th, about a few centuries after its founding, Ciegfroyd and his spouse, Clotilde had retired and eventually passed on, leaving the clan’s management and future to the next generation which expanded it a bit, giving it some more influence than it had in the founder’s time period. From then on, each new generation adding to the clan’s territory, wealth, power, and influence more and more as time moved forward. At last, after a fair few generations had passed, the head family in power at the time decided to create a secret society by using their now vast hoards of wealth upon the new territory that had been annexed to the original clan estate’s land. They christened this group with the name “Mercurius” after an ancient god of commerce and trade since they thought such a name was auspicious for the newly founded organization.

- On Sept. 17th, a few more centuries after the founding of “Mercurius”, the group had grown in membership, wealth, power and influence as more and more of the subsequent generations joined its ranks, expanding its reach. It was now powerful enough that it could start buying out many of the small mercantile groups in Iceberg and even small pieces of other much larger groups similar to itself. With the affluence that came with this subtle, gradual takeover, the clan was able to expand its reach into the political and military spheres of influence in Iceberg, all the while making sure to stay in the shadows such that most of the general populace thought the clan and the associated secret society were nothing more than an urban legend.

- Several centuries passed with the clan and its “Mercurius” secret society maintaining a steady but ever so subtle influence in the country. Things were rather peaceful till the first of the tyrannical rulers had overthrown the former ruling family and began to terrorize the whole of Iceberg with the cruel new laws. It was at this time that the head family governing the Schrödinger clan had decided that things were becoming too troublesome for them to continue their original plan of eventually dominating the entire country through commerce and politics with a side branch in the military.

- So on Sept. 17th, nearly 10 centuries after the founding of the Schrödinger clan, the head family came to the conclusion to move to Fiore, a distant land across the sea where they figured it would be easier to carry out their plans. Thus, the diaspora happened, with the head family (Zieg’s direct ancestors) and a handful of their most trusted retinue fled from Iceberg and set up shop in Fiore. Simultaneously, as per the clan’s decision, each of the 5 branch families migrated to one of the major countries of Earthland to establish a branch of “Mercurius”, the clan’s secret society and the merchant group they controlled in those new lands. Once they had set down roots in these new lands, slowly but surely over the next several centuries, they starting to expand their influence into all the small mercantile groups and eventually, entered some select members of the clan into their new homeland’s politics and military.

- Time marched on for main house of the Schrödinger clan in Fiore and all the branches that had settled in other lands with the clan as a whole slowly and steadily working towards its eventual goal of world domination through the use of economic, political, and military influence. Of course, in all these lands, the clan branches made sure to always stay in the shadows while extending their tendrils of influence as deeply as they could into their new homes. Eventually, on Sept. 17th, another century or so after the head family had moved to Fiore, Zieg’s “parents”, Ziegmund von Schrödinger & Freyja von Schrödinger, came to power and then Zieg was brought forth into the world under the name, Ziegfreud von Schrödinger. The first lady in power (aka Zieg’s “mother”, Freyja von Schrödinger) had the misfortune of being totally barren and so could not naturally birth an heir to the clan. This was kept secret from the rest of the members and a search began to try to find an answer to the head family’s quandary.

- So, together with Zieg’s “father”, Ziegmund von Schrödinger, the clan’s research division came up with a solution, this solution being the creation of a never before seen experimental humanoid homunculus created through the fusion of cutting edge homunculus technology from the alchemical arts and state of the art magical prosthetic technology. They had used all the arcane knowledge at their disposal to install several features into this homunculus which they thought would be useful to him later on and which would in turn make him useful to the clan as an elite operative and ideal clan secret society head position’s heir in the foreseeable future.

- Zieg was a promising prospect from the start since all his parameters had been set to ideal or near ideal human ones. He continually picked up all that he was taught and mastered all the most basic lessons on magic theory and how to harness his robust magic power pool. He even cooperated with the demands placed before him beyond that and learned all he could about statecraft and running a multinational business combine properly and how to ensure its success. However, it was when they tried to force him to become the next clan head that his rebellion began in earnest. However, unbeknownst to him, it was not his original idea, but rather had been planted in his head by the subliminal suggestions given to him by his father who was the mastermind behind his creation all along. His father and the scientists under him wanted to see just how far a humanoid homunculus could develop and evolve on its own.

- So, they had come up with this master plan and orchestrated it such that Zieg never suspected a thing. His father had set up the events that had occurred till that point such that Zieg would feel oppressed and the desire to be free would grow stronger and stronger in him as this would allow the clan to witness whether or not a humanoid homunculus (Zieg) was actually capable of evolving a personality all its own beyond the basic programming it was given by its creators (the Schrödinger clan).

- Eventually that’s what had happened on Sept 17th, 15 years or so after Zieg’s creation. On that night, right before his parents had decided to announce that he was to become the next clan head and leader of “Mercurius”, the clan’s highly exclusive invite only secret society, Zieg ran away from home, not knowing of course that even his decision to run away and the relative ease with which he had made his escape was all part of his father’s plan since his father had organized that day’s events such that at the most apropos time, the security would have just enough of a gap that Zieg could slip through their blind spot, seemingly by using his own genius, not that Zieg noticed it at the time because his focus was solely on escaping the confines of the Schrödinger clan’s sprawling estate.

- Some time after he managed to run away, Zieg encountered his role model, the legendary pirate captain, “James the Swallow”, and somehow managed to convinced said pirate captain to take him on as both his pupil and cabin boy. From then, for nearly 3 years, Zieg served as a cabin boy to his role model and together with him and his crew, had plenty of adventures which took him to many ports and islands all over Earthland and developed into a somewhat decent looking, strapping young man who was known most for his razor sharp intellect, his strategic acumen, his superlative ability as a manipulator, and his command over an ancient form of weather magic that many thought was lost to the pages of history, although this was just in its most basic form. Unfortunately for him, his adventures came to an abrupt end when his captain James and the flagship he was on had run into the “Satan’s Square” area of the ocean on their way back to Port Hargeon in Fiore. The incredibly rough waters had trapped the flagship and suddenly there was a freak storm that fell upon them and seemingly sucked the flagship, its captain, and all the crew other than Zieg into oblivion, leaving no trace of their presence at all. Zieg was lucky enough to have caught the storm winds in such a way that he was flung out of the “Satan’s Square” region of the ocean and landed in the waters a few miles away from it, completely comatose.

- Lucky for him, a mermaid scout squadron had found him and took him down to their undersea kingdom of “Lemurantis” because they just happened to be feeling generous since that was the exactly the time for the once in a century festival they used to hold in honor of Amphitria, the legendary founder of their undersea kingdom whom they worshipped as a goddess. They then nursed him back to health and after the festival was over, they took him before their mermaid queen, Calypthis Parthenos so she could render the proper judgement now that their 100 year sacred ritual. The queen had kept him under observation and had determined that he had the skills she was looking for and so, in exchange for sparing his life and nursing him back to health, she demanded he help her and her people henceforth whenever they had need of his assistance. After laying that injunction upon him and forbidding him from ever talking about her kingdom and its exact location to any landlubbers, she had him escorted to the ocean surface by an armed squad of her mermaid warriors to ensure he didn’t try anything funny.

- They then left him there, floating on a large piece of driftwood and left him to whatever fate was to befall him. However, lady luck apparently still had the hots for him for soon after he was left by the mermaids, a fishing vessel picked him up and brought him back to Fiore following his earnest entreaty and him paying them a nice sum of jewel. After he landed in Hargeon, he barely had a day or two to get his bearings back when the “Valkyries” who were the all female secret operative squad of the Schrödinger clan finally came to get him, once again according to the master plan concocted by his father, not that Zieg knew that, of course. After returning to the clan estate he was interrogated under the pretext of a formal inquiry into his desertion of the clan several years earlier and what he had been up to since then till the point he was caught by the “Valkyries” and brought back to the clan.

- Upon hearing all that Zieg had to report about his experiences, his father was overjoyed that his master plan had met with such resounding success, far beyond his initial expectations even, but he did not let his joy show on his face and instead played the role of the strict clan head and gave Zieg his due punishment publicly before the entire clan so that he could show the blood relations did not keep the head family exempt from punishment if they broke the laws of the family, but this was again, all just one big, elaborate act to keep the rest of his peers in the dark about his true plans. After all that drama was over and done with, he was formally inducted back into the fold and once again began to be roped into becoming the next clan head. This time, however, Zieg’s father had devised a plan that would tie Zieg down permanently and keep him coming back by giving him a powerful motivator for doing so. Unbeknownst to Zieg, his father had been preparing for this phase of his master plan for a long while before the present time. For the sake of reaching his ultimate goal, he had even subtly instigated a conflict between another major, old stock family in Fiore and now was moving forward with his plans to initiate a peace treaty with that same family. And with Zieg’s return, now the stage was finally and brilliantly set for the turning point and eventual climax of the script he had been writing this entire time.

Zieg had just come back to Fiore and landed at the port town of Hargeon a few days ago and now, he was facing the utterly troublesome situation of being publicly accosted by the “Valkyries”, the Schrödinger clan’s special forces unit. Their quarrel and confrontation had been going on for a good few hours by now. So, realizing the implications, he groaned aloud, muttering with a totally disgruntled expression on his otherwise somewhat handsome face

“Ugh…why me…couldn’t you fraulein foursome come some other day to pick me up?…I was just rescued a couple days ago and would like to have some more time to myself before being dragged back to face my even more troublesome parents…don’t you four have any compassion at all? Sheesh…”

He openly showed his discomfiture and while pleading with them, he layered on the guilt trip even thicker by shooting his infamous puppy dog eye look. Of course, the Valkyries were not fooled by this since they had worked closely with him on several missions during his training during the time before his desertion. So all four of them chided him with disapproval written clearly on their enchanting faces, even going so far as to lean over him since they knew full well his tastes in women and intended to take full advantage of that particular weakness

“Now now, Zieg, don’t you go giving us that pitiable look and spouting those lines that only a petulant child would think of! Shame on you!! You know where your duties lie, don’t you? Besides we have cut you enough slack as it is…Time to come back home and finally accept your birthright!!”

By now, Zieg’s disgruntled expression had morphed a bit and now he was practically glowering at them as he realized his strategy of trying to manipulate them by pulling at their heartstrings was a failure, but he didn’t give up on it just yet. He tried one last time, making himself look even more pitiable than before and even going so far as to kneel on the ground on both knees with his hands clasped in front of his broad herculean chest as he made his supplication

“Come on, pretty please, my divinely beautiful war angels, please let me go...I am beseeching you most humbly…with sugar on top!!…How about a cherry on top too…and whipped cream?! I know you four like that...”

Sadly for him, the “Valkyries” didn’t buy into this ploy either and instead, while reprimanding him in perfect sync

"Quit it with those kinky lines, dammit, Zieg!!"

They proceeded to tie his hands and feet up securely so that he couldn’t use his escape artistry to get out of the shackles they had placed on him as easily, though they knew it probably wouldn’t stop him for too long. Then they dragged him off to the Schrödinger clan’s headquarters in Magnolia quickly, and rather unceremoniously at that. Seeing their determination, and realizing they would be punished if he were to resist any further, Zieg finally gave in and let himself be captured and taken back to his home, while muttering

"Che... so much for that plan...oh well, but man this is gonna be so damn irksome, I just know it..."