After completing a large Valkyria Chronicles transcript, I was extremely intrigued by the universe that the game introduced. Really, VC is such a lush game and so ripe for development that I had to take it upon myself to go where SEGA did not go and has not gone. What they have developed past VCI, I've been pretty disappointed with (namely, VCII, and by the looks of it, VCIII). I have some very detailed outlines of the expanded universe I've created, and if this story seems confusing at first, consider that everything will be revealed in due time.

Beginnings and Ends is chronologically the first story in the saga, detailing the exploits of Belgen Gunther and others in EWI. There are two other stories that are part of the saga that will be released in due time. Peace Breaks Out tells the events of the year after the end of the Gallian conflict in EWII, and Vicissitudes relates the stories of the Gunther family. I plan to concurrently update the three as we move along. I'm very excited about this, since this has been the first time I've planned something of this scale. I hope I will make things interesting for you, reader.

Beginnings and Ends

Dedicated to My Parents: Welkin and Alicia

And to My Siblings: Isara, Theimer, Liesl, and Lilly

Foreword

Much has been written about the two Europan Wars that gripped the nation, and the creation of heroes who fought and died for it. Mention Squad 7, or the Gunther family, or Faldio Landzaat, and all of Gallia knows. We teach it to our children in our history books, of the horrors and heroism of war. In the recent trend of literature, though, we see a different message, that of various paths intersecting and diverging, and then meeting again.

The landmark book is, of course, Irene Koller's On the Gallian Front, which combined years of research and clarity of prose to create a gripping story—the story of my family. Perhaps it was fitting for someone so close to our family to share the story that she did; she was my godmother and later my professor of Europan War History at Randgriz University. But the story I tell comes to our roots, and the roots of many, and perhaps it was fitting that someone entirely in the family take this task on.

It started as I searched through the Diary Archives, the collection of wartime diaries from EWI and EWII now housed in the Faldio Landzaat Library. It was, and is still, a passion of mine to read through these diaries. I found the diary of an Annica Bakker, a soldier who had fought in the militia's Squad 3, the squad that had propelled my grandfather Belgen to fame. His sudden rise to commander of the armed forces and his brilliant victory at the Jutland Plains demonstrating the skill of his 1st Armored Division may be his most remembered accomplishments, but the battle where he demonstrated the fullest extent of his strategy was at the Battle of Skaal. This was also the battle in which my grandmother, Camille, lost her life and caused my grandfather so much guilt.

When I opened the diary of Annica Bakker up, two pictures fell out. I shall never forget the moment as long as I live. There was a woman in both pictures who I could not doubt was Annica Bakker, but when I saw the pictures, I thought immediately that it was my mother, Alicia. The same eyes peered at me; the same healthy physique that passed down to us was evident. In one of the pictures she was next to a handsome militiaman, and in another she was next to an older woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to her. These were but two of the pictures in the diary that had fallen loose over the years, for her diary was much like a scrapbook.

I read the diary voraciously. I could not believe it. I read it again, and then again. I showed it to my father and mother, and they read and reread it with amazement. In the end, we had finally filled in two gaps in our family tree: Annica Bakker and Alexander Melchiott.

But the research had just begun. There were people to meet and interview, other diaries to read, places to visit…the hunt was on, as I looked to find out a piece of history and a piece of my family's roots. It was a story I found that told of new beginnings from old ends, and new ends from old beginnings.

September 23, 1967

Faldio Gunther

Viscount of Bruhl, Heir Apparent