Balk Fenzol and the unused Lucavi

[RandMuadDib]

Also Known As Barich Fendsor in the WotL Translation.
He seems like he'd make a great additional lucavi, especially since he supposedly was resurrected by a Holy Stone (according to the FFTimeline, http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/timeline.php)

Unfortunately, i cannot find which stone he held, and so cannot determine which lucavi to associate him with. According to the FFWiki, Balk's zodiac sign is Saggitarius, which is the stone carried by Meliadoul. The patcher also has his birthday set to Dec. 6th, which confirms him as a saggitarius. This in turn, would make him the Lucavi Shemhazai.

What do you think, should i take saggitarius away from meliadoul, or should i give balk a different stone and birth date to match, or is there somewhere that i have not been able to find that says which stone revived balk?

[LastingDawn]

Aries - Wiegraf/Belias - Virgo
Taurus - Mustadio/Besrodio (Found in Goug)
Gemini - Elmdor - Gemini
Cancer - Worker 7
Leo - Vormav - Leo  
Virgo - Vormav, later Alma - Leo
Libra - Orlandu
Scorpio - Cardinal Draclau - Scorpio
Sagittarius - Meliadoul
Capricorn - Rofel to Dycedarg
Aquarius - Beowulf
Pisces - Izlude
Serpentarius - Elidibs - Unknown

It's really amazing how many of the stones were kept in-house of the Church of Glabados, eight of the stones in total are in their possession in one way or another at the start of the game.

As for the "association" of Lucavi, birthdate seems to have something to do it. (but I think it is a more likely match when considered), The Stone holders who hold the same sign as their Lucavi is Elmdor, Vormav, and Draclau. Alma (The one who houses Altima!), Dycedarg, and Wiegraf do not have the sign of their Lucavi. Therefore I don't think you need to worry about sign when thinking of a Lucavi host.

(Aside: Now I think I understand all of those random Alma and Vormav Happy Birthday fanarts I found... their birthday is literally one day apart.)

He can keep the sign he currently has if you choose to go the "associated by sign" way. Famfrit is a Lucavi with a lot of potential, especially loved its role in Remix, but seeing Balk have it is a good idea as well.

[RandMuadDib]

Where did you get the information that Balk had the Aquarius stone? according to the FFWiki, Beowulf finds the aquarius stone at the bottom of the Gollund Coal mine and its required to activate worker 8.

[LastingDawn]

Gah, you're right... this is what I get for screwing up canon and fandom. Aquarius is indeed the stone that Beowulf gives to Ramza after taking him on as a permanent team mate. Balk had no stone, so I can see your reason for wanting to take one away from someone. I would actually consider either Aquarius or Cancer, Cancer does contain Zeromus and he would definitely be interesting.

[RandMuadDib]

Zeromus would be an excellent fit with his gravity attacks and balk being an engineer. Giving him the cancer stone would screw up the cloud sidequest, which isnt a problem if changing the requirement to trigger the event for Besrudio's device is simple enough.

[LastingDawn]

Yep, Zodiac has that all mapped out, it just looks for a specific trigger to have been hit, as I recall right it doesn't even look at the Treasure Cancer Stone.

EDIT: No, no it does look at the Cancer Stone, still simple enough to change.

[MagiusRerecros]

IIRC, Cancer is also the stone that transforms Dragon Reis to Human Reis; the fact that the battle against Worker 7 immediately precedes the scene where said transformation occurs suggests that Worker 7 possesses the stone (much in the way that Worker 8 uses Aquarius to function), and you take it from him when he's destroyed.

[LastingDawn]

Yep, that makes a good deal of sense, must be letting my knowledge be slipping slightly, heh. Thanks for the reminder, edited the above post.

[RandMuadDib]

Yeah. I think that I'm going to give Balk the Cancer stone (taking it away from Worker 7), then give him the Pisces Stone instead. Pisces is the stone that izlude has that he gives to alma, who drops it when vormav takes her. Ramza picks it up after defeating Velius and getting Aries, plus the Scorpio stone Malak got from Alma. No need to get three stones at the end of chapter 3.

I also think that the archdaemon syneugh will be in possession of the aquarius stone, so he can transform into famfrit, giving us another lucavi to fight.

And whatever happens to Taurus? Ramza gave it, along with Scorpio, to Alma before she was kidnapped. Barinten took both of them from Alma/Izlude, and somehow Malak ended up with Scorpio, but i don't recall Taurus getting mentioned or picked back up. It could find its way into the hands of some unsuspecting bad guy and give us Chaos to fight as well, assuming Ramza doesn't get it back at Riovanes.

I don't think there's a particular need for Orlandu or Meliadoul to have stones, so that also frees up Libra/Exodus and Sagittarius/Shemhazai. Just need to find a place to stick 'em.

I've toyed with the idea of making Zalmo more than just a heretic-hunter that knows nothing of the stones. Perhaps he can have one, and transform in Zalmo II with delita as an ally.

[LastingDawn]

Hmm, Delita never fights or finds out about the Lucavi and I always loved this angle, mainly because it shows Delita's cleverness and tact, he knew something odd was going on behind the scenes but at the same time did not know what it was, yet knew that only Ramza would be able to stop it. Ramza past their meeting in Zeltennia is only acting as Delita's puppet through and through.

Creating others to hold them isn't outside the realm of possibility though.

[MagiusRerecros]

I think the biggest point of Orlandu having Libra is so that Ramza's story is more believable to him. Since he's found one of the stones, he and Olan know that there's a plot somewhere in the Church to use the stones to some unknown end; Ramza just fills in the blanks. However, I could see Orlandu believing Ramza nevertheless, given Ramza's possession of various stones, and more importantly, the Scriptures of Germonik. It just means that Orlandu isn't aware of the plot as early as he is, so there's a conversation between him and Olan that would never take place, and I think the dialogue between Ramza and Olan at Grog Hill would have to be modified somewhat.

[LastingDawn]

I believe Orlandu mentions the stone as a family heirloom, I could possibly be very wrong on that, but the conversation that Olan and he have wouldn't change much at all, I would imagine. Since Olan is still basically a spy and uncovering what he can, with or without the Libra stone.

[MagiusRerecros]

I don't think Olan himself is a spy; he's just a part of the Nanten. He has spies in the Church though.

[RandMuadDib]

Just for confirmation, all the custom sprites on the main page are fair game as long as we give credit in the patch notes, correct?

[LastingDawn]

Sure, but the majority of them are Japanese fellows who we don't even really know the name of.