Another story idea just because LOL

Got sent a really interesting reminder and then had two hours (TRAFFIC UGH) in the car to work on this when the toddler fell asleep and I didn’t need to entertain her. Having already finished the outlines for all the fics for this month and even for the two Super Bowl presents I will choose from, I decided to spend it writing this up.  Was pretty interesting. Although again, it isn’t a fic that’s even in my top ten to actually write. 

Ranma the Great, King of Westeros, died.  He did not go in a great battle against the White Walkers.  Although winter had lasted a insanely long time of eighty years and been truly brutal across not just the North but much of the world, it had passed more than thirty years before. 

He did not die in battle. By the time the White Walkers launched the Second War Of Winter, the Wall had been reinforced by a recovered Westeros, one that had almost entirely healed by the War of Five Kings, and Daenerys’s two dragons had grown to a size they could decimate anything from far beyond the range of even the White Walker’s strongest weapons and magics.

An attempt by the forces of Slaver’s Bay to take advantage of the turmoil after Winter finally ended had been crushed at sea, barely touching even Dorne. Even that realm’s attempt at independence and assault on the Reach had withered on the vine when Ranma and the Royal Army had dammed up the few rivers into that land and taken the shoreline, threatening to slaughter it all by dehydration.

Perhaps, some said, it was of a broken heart, and this might be closer to the truth. Myrcella, the Maiden of Mercy, the creator of the by-then world-reknowned Healer Halls and, some still whispered, secret lover of the king and queen, had died of old age before winter ended.  Daenerys, who, like Ranma, would forever be given the appellation of ‘The Great’ for her deeds, had followed not five years later. Her dragons had long since been taken over by two of her many children, Prince Eddard and Princess Elia. 

One by one even the original ‘Wolf Guard’ those companions and friends who had learned from King Ranma from the start died over the years. Legendary names such as Smalljon Giant Killer Umber, Theon Seawolf, Arya the Wild Princess, were no more. In each case, their will to live gave out even as their bodies did not.

Only Jon Twinblade Stark, who had returned to the Court at Harrenhal after his own wife’s death, remained for years after everyone else had died.  The two men remained, the last of all who had gone through the turmoil of the War of Five Kings and the Endless Winter, surrounded by sons, daughters and grandsons, living legends with no new challenge, only memories.  Is it any wonder that the years had begun to wear on them even if their bodies remained hail and hearty?

So, perhaps there really was no big secret or even surprise when both Ranma and Jon passed on in the night, one after another.  Perhaps, despite the sadness their deaths brought their… exceedingly large… family, their time had simply come.   They left Westeros far, far better than they had found it, far more united than it had ever been, a single people that would soon go on to dominate the world.

And as for Ranma Stark? Or, as his original world had known him, Ranma Saotome? Those who knew him best could perhaps understand why, when such a soul finally passed on, the Gods had more in store for him than simply a long rest.

Dead, Ranma is given a choice: be reborn back in his old world, to live a life there, or to be sent to another realm, a realm whose Creator is caught in a cycle, a cycle where everything is leading to a final conflict. One the Creator fears will fail.  And having heard through the Divine Grapevine how well adding a new element can go, the Creator reached out to the Old Gods of the North.  An exchange of favors followed, and an offer was made, but not to just one soul, but two.

Ranma, no longer tired, no longer heartsick, simply the soul that conquered winter and Westeros alike, agrees, but not without some stipulations which halts all discussion for a moment.  The souls of his loved ones from Westeros are no longer available, returned long since to reincarnate, their memories stripped of them as was the normal method when it came to reincarnation. 

But there is another, an old flame who he did not even know he loved, and a Creator both worried and intrigued reaches out to Earth and the God who rules there.  For time speeds past differently from one dimension to the next. A long-ago memory, a chance to perhaps make right a long-lost love and a world of new challenges proves too much, and Ranma agrees… only to immediately regret it as he is faced with the reality of becoming a baby again. One born on the side of a mountain to a dying Spear Maiden. And what was that about going insane slowly while using some local power?

Yep.  This was the only way I could see a Ranma/Wheel of Time working.  And even that has some severe stipulations.  This Ranma’s a whole lifetime lived very well removed from his time in Nerima. He’s very much used to a world like WoT.  But… there’s some interesting caveats here. And stuff that can be very different indeed…

So, things this fic will contain:

1.      The obvious: Ranma reborn as Ranma Al’thor. This Ranma has been a king and general for much of his life, but that was due to duty, not desire.  After getting over being embarrassed about, well being a baby, he’ll want to grab onto the idea of just being a simple farmer with both hands.  But he’ll never forget the fact he’s here to perform in a battle of good vs. evil.  And, well, Tam will call his Ranma (yep, same name) an old soul in a young body, and will mean it.  So he’ll help train Ranma, until Ranma surpasses him, which will happen far quicker than is natural, heh.

a.      Mat – Ranma’s going to try and make Mat be a little more serious, and if that comes with beating him hollow with sword, staff, or halberd, yeah, that’s going to happen. Mat is still gonna grumble and whine, but he’s going to be an even firmer friend to Perrin and Ranma than in canon.  He’s also going to have issues with the Aes Sedai, although he won’t be alone in that.

b.      Perrin – In contrast Ranma would easily be able to to get Perrin to lighten up. He’ll also be able to easily see what’s going on with Perrin’s connection to wolves, and walk him through it so he accepts it and is happy about it.  If Mat’s going to be the spear, Perrin’s the shield, solid, dependable and always willing to pile in.  He’s also  

c.      Egwene will be even more interested in Ranma than she was in Rand in canon, but also be somewhat put off by him at the same time.  She’ll be attracted, but eventually more to the stories of the wide world than anything else, as Ranma’s wild attitude and unwillingness to care about being told what to do unless it’s by someone he respects is going to be a turn-off.

d.      Manetheren.  Ranma is going to learn a lot more about the history of the area, going on explorations, hunting through ruins and learning the Old Tongue. Indeed, he’ll lean heavily into it, since Andor really doesn’t have control over that area, why not? But that will be for when he’s older.

e.      Who’s my real mom? – Ranma will realize early on (from the start) that Tam isn’t his real father and his wife isn’t his mother, either, but won’t really care about it for a while.  He will still eventually start asking questions.

2.      Travels and Travails. Eventually, Ranma will want to spread his wings, to leave Two Rivers, mainly in search of information about his mother and father, and also to just have adventures and see the world. With Tam’s blessing he will do so along with his friends… eventually.  His first adventure away will take him deeper into the lands of Manetheren first, then into Andor.

a.      Things going right… nope, that’s suspicious. Quickly, Ranma will realize that something in this new world has doubled his trouble magnet ability.  But besides that, things seem to oddly go in his favor – finding the perfect book to learn about Manetheren, Meeting Min, running into a group of Whitecloaks who are even more annoying than usual, finding unusual ruins, etc.  This world also has a word for those who weave the pattern around them to their favor. That will tell him a part about how he’s supposed to fight against the Dark One.  Such thinking will occur to Ranma, and make him wonder if he can manipulate it, although Mat will be the first one to consciously do so.

b.      Trolloc hunting. Ranma and Perrin will especially go out of their way to search for trollocs.  Using the wolves, finding such even away from the Border Lands will be offputting given the trollocs use of the Ways.

c.      Myrdraal Menace.  The Myrdraal are used to being faster and stronger than men. Boy, won’t they be surprised.  For about five seconds.

d.      Galad… new brother confirmed.  Initiating Operation SUTAR, or Stick Up The Ass Removal.  Ranma will learn about his mother first, having the memory of what she looked like when his soul first merged and then overwhelmed the original Rand’s.  He will meet Galad when his is fourteen or so, and will, as stated, force Galad to be less stiff and formal, even while teasing him about being the older brother.  In this, his Ta’varen skill will be a big help.

e.      Lands Galore.  Ranma will possibly be traveling to every realm this side of the Aiel Wasts and even there, but will spend a lot of time in a few places, either solving problems or looking for trouble.

f.        Perrin vs. Red Ajah.  Perrin, thanks to his connection to wolves and the fact that power’s been seen previously in a Warder, will be the first of the trio of boys to run into direct Aes Sedai problems. 

3.      Kasumi reborn. This is not the Kasumi that Ranma knew in Nerima. She will, like Ranma, have lived out her own life, including having a husband and a real profession she loved, that of a doctor.  She will, by hook, crook, soulful sad eyes and ‘so kindly you can’t disobey it’ smile become the premier healer, whichever of the ladies in GoT she replaces, much like Ranma has Rand.  Yet who, specifically the maiden of the Tendos will replace is… unknown at present.  Here are the pros and cons… and also pairings:

a.      Nynaeve – honestly the first choice. 

                                                  i.      Pros: since this wouldn’t really change anything at first, but would have big impact later on. She won’t be remonstrating with anyone, simply looking at them with that calm, kindly smile will be enough, and might make her into a horror.  Not so self-righteous or arrogantly certain, but even more self-effacing, calm and introspective.

1.      She’s also already a healer so no big changes there.

2.      Having someone like this Kasumi learn woodcraft and simple medicines would be very interesting, considering she would be used to having high tech stuff, surgery, painkillers, and so forth

3.      Early Ranma meeting.  I think both Ranma and Kasumi will notice the similarities, and after much apologies about half-remembered slights, the pair will get along quickly.

4.      Saidar sighting.  While she won’t be the ki master that Ranma is, Kasumi will understand when she starts to channel, and will work hard to overcome any kind of block she hits.  I also don’t see her as someone who would be all that comfortable with the trappings of the Aes Sedai or even a matriarchal society, just as she wouldn’t like a patriarchal one, given how she fought hard to be recognized as one of the best doctors in Japan despite that. Putting the show on the other foot would not seem like justice to her.

5.      Kasaeve as a Wisdom would be almost frightening in how much control she could have over Two Rivers.

6.      Romance.  Kasumi and Ranma can get together a lot faster, if through a still bumpy road. But this way Kasumi will still be the older woman, technically.

                                                ii.      Cons: No Lan/ Nynaeve romance. Which honestly in the original is the best romance there is.

1.      Kasumi isn’t the type to want to leave Two Rivers, much like Nynaeve.  She might be even harder to shift out of there than in the original.

2.      A whole lot more tension with Morriaine.  Morraine isn’t going to be able to just shunt Ksaumi +Nynaeve like she did initially.  Moreover, Kasaeve is going to be a self-trained ‘wilder’ with way more power than Morraine, and with skill to boot.

3.      She might try and stop Ranma and the boys from leaving to explore the world just because that isn’t who Kasumi is, and that might bring a bit of angst into things.

4.      Lanfear will be very, very angry and very quickly.  Kasaeve might not look like Lews Therin’s wife, but she will embody a lot of what Lanfear hated about that woman.

b.      Elayne Trakand.  I quite liked how Elayne and Rand met in canon, it was random and weird and showed the Ta’varen effect.  I rather think that Elayne, the princess of healing and kindness, standing up to her mother and the Aes Sedai so harshly – Kasune won’t like Elaida’s demands to take Ranma and will also want to stop Ranma from overreacting -  will cause a lot of ripples.

                                                  i.      Pros: Andor would be very different.  Starting from the capital, Kasune will revolutionize medicine and medical knowledge, creating a whole new industry and a major social impact, while also garnering a lot of PERSONAL love and respect from the populace. And making her enemy number one for the Dark One’s people. 

1.      Whitecloak Annoyances.  Yeah, they aren’t going to like the fact Kasune has gathered so much good will and power, especially when she outright attacks them as being fanatical madmen who don’t actually believe in anything but their own power.  Which a lot of them are. Tensions galore,  and then along comes three Ta’varen.

2.      Politically trained Kasumi? OOooff. With her other skills and everything she’s doing with the medical sphere, she might become a real monster on the social/mercantile scene.

3.      Bodyguard angle – I could follow some of Shezza’s Altered Destiny fic here pretty easily.

4.      Elaida Antipathy. Oh yeah, they ain’t gonna get along at all.  Kasune will make no bones about it, will argue vociferously against the idea of a royal being sent to what amounts to a foreign power for schooling, and will loathe and hate the very idea of the Red Ajah and their goals. 

                                                ii.      Cons: Elaida might be the type to force a confrontation at a younger age with Kasune given her own moves than could be intercepted by Ranma and the boys. 

1.      A lack of exploration.  If I do follow the whole bodyguard route, I would be sticking Rand’s feet to the ground, cutting down on the world exploration he could be doing.

2.      Andor ascendant.  I’d rather enjoy Manetheren coming back more than Andor being stronger.  While it’s power will be mostly soft power, it will still be felt for all of that.

3.      Romance would be much slower to get to, and far less certain in the long term – while Kasune would, as always recognize Ranma and vice versa, here, Kasune will have been raised to be a queen, and that will stop her from making any moves towards Ranma or accepting such.  That would mean Ranma would need to have become known as the Dragon Reborn

4.      Familial angst.  Kasune’s strong stance against the Aes Sedai, the Red Ajah and Elaida in particular will have created a lot of turmoil between her and Morgane

5.      Kind of an overlap? Like there’s also going to be canon Nynaeve, so do we need more than one person being the healer of the party. 

6.      Dark friends instead of trollocs.  Due to the nature of the changes she’s making, outright assaults isn’t going to be the first choice of any of the Dark One’s generals to deal with her… except for the very stupid ones. 

c.      Morraine. This would be an interesting choice, and really would not be the way I would want to go. Morraine has the ear of the current Seat, has a lot of knowledge of the world, and was trained as a noble before becoming an Aes Sedai, so at present she is very important as an advisor… once it can be made clear she’s not in charge anyway.  Yet would Kasumi even become an Aes Sedai?  Would she decide to use Saidar at all if she could use her family’s political power to instigate some of the medical knowledge-type changes that she would want to? This would almost force me to make the story a two-POV story right from the start.  Kasumi and Morraine are just VERY different people.

d.      Not Min.  Min is pretty darn near perfect the way she is, and she’s canonically willing to go along with things, LOL.

e.      Not Aviendha.  The Far Dareis Mai’s style would not appeal to Kasumi at all, their whole attitude would be something she would fight from the start and find almost antipathic to her own.  And while I don’t think this particular version of Ranma would be so… reactionary when it came to tsunderes, that isn’t the same thing as finding them attractive either. And it isn’t like the Aiel will have a lot to teach Ranma about combat.

4.      Morraine’s Meddling Mended.  Morraine will not be able to browbeat, intimidate or otherwise overawe either Ranma, his two friends or Kasumi. That’s going to force her to change her methodology, and will come as a major wrench to her.  Still, she’s adaptable enough to do so, and once she has, I think that they she will enjoy being an advisor far more than she would a puppet master.  Especially of someone like Ranma, LOL.

5.      Limits to what ki can do.  Ranma will find that the taint of using Saidar will not be cleared through ki, which has no connection to the One Power.  It attacks his mentality, not his physical body, and thus Ranma won’t have any defense of it. So he will need to seek out other things. Moreover:

a.      Umi-Sen-Ken N/A.  Given their special senses, Myrdraals and trollocs will not be fooled or tricked by the quite thief technique.  However he will be able to use it against human opponents unless they have a Saidin/Saidar technique that allows them to feel movement through the wind.

b.      There will be enemies Ranma simply can’t combat with his own abilities.  Machin Shin for one – he’ll be able to blow bits of it away, but the rest won’t feel pain or be slowed because of it.

c.      Madness…maintained? A Curse searched for and accepted?  This could be a amusing and hilarious angle if, instead of deciding to fight the madness, Ranma, possibly because of Kasumi’s gentle teasing, would go out and look for a Ter’angreal which can change his gender with an application of Saidin or Saidar.  Could be honestly funny if, say it was created ages ago for particularly ‘adventurous’ couples and Ranma makes it into a way to use the

d.      Lews Therin in my head. Ranma will eventually start to be plagued by the Dragon’s voice.  It won’t go the way either spirit or Ranma wants it to, though. 

e.      Saidar used Sparingly.  Ranma isn’t the sort to go into huge, flashy attacks unless he has to, but when he does, he makes them as lethal as possible, or at least, this Ranma does. So while he will

6.      Angry and very, very confused Aes Sedai. Ranma odd abilities, his general toughness, his ki attacks and skills will frustrate the Aes Sedai and will infuriate the Red Ajah no end, since he will have taught them to others who are not Saidin users.

a.      Challenged Tower. If I go with either Nynaeve or Elayne being merged with Kasumi, there is going to be a growing number of women Channelers who either break with the tower or simply never go, creating their own. Egwene might be one of them from the start, given how much influence someone like Kasumi could subtly wield over her when they were younger, turning her away from admiration of Aes Sedai and to making her own path.

b.      Black Ajah rousted.  Ranma will have had decades of being a king to see through falsehood and lies.  He is going to be able to spot anyone hesitating or trying to obfuscate the truth, and eventually be able to

c.      Ta’varen Mat, chaos magnet.  Let’s just say that Mat’s abilities with the ladies will take a major step up in this fic. He will also be the one to make contact with a few Aes Sedai and warders who also don’t like the Red Ajah, and bring in Thom to help break the owner’s stranglehold on Channeling and recruit young women before they can be sent to the tower.

7.      Exceptionally bemused… and bizarrely turned on Lanfear. Yeah, it’s gonna be clear to Lanfear from the start there is something seriously wrong with this Dragon Reborn, and that’s before she hears about how he beats up Lews Therin’s persona in his head every time the guy tries to speak.  No, on the one hand, Lanfear thinks she’s in love with Lews Therin.  On the other hand, power and ability are attractive, and Lanfear’s going to be torn between being furious at the fact her former lover can’t overcome Ranma’s willpower and also very turned on by that very thing. What happens after that is going to be very interesting, because while Min’s willing to share, Lanfear ain’t.  And she’s the jealous type to boot. 

8.      Seanchan being schooled. Ranma does not like slavery, oh no he does not. the Seanchan will be the first large scale war that Ranma is involved in. He will be involved with a lot of small-scale battles, and a few stand-alone large ones, but pushing the Seanchan’s initial wave into the ocean is going to be his first war.

a.      Freed slaves.  The freed womenfolk among them will be the first to follow Kasumi and Ranma in creating their own center for learning and using the One Power. 

b.      Grateful populace. Ranma’s exploits up to this point will be small scale, spreading his legend but not really in connection to the Dragon Reborn.  And considering at this point Ranma won’t show any signs of madness, well, he’s gonna get super popular.

c.      Ally Logain.  Ranma and company will eventually meet Logain and, depending on timing, either help him against the madness or free him, making him the first of the male Channelers.  There’s going to be a major screening process with such, but after the Seanchan campaign, it’s going to be seen as a necessity by Ranma and his allies.

9.      War, dark, deadly war. Like a lot of it. While the Seanchan will be the first. The Aiel will still have their split, the Tower and several countries are not going to be happy about Ranma’s actions, seeing Manetheren rise again, and then there’s the whole Dragon Reborn thing. So yeah, he’s going to be warring from one end of the continent to another.

a.      Deadlier politics.  The Darkfriends, Whitecloaks and so forth are not going to go away, and will, in fact be a larger issue than the trolloc hordes for most of this work. 

b.      Padan Fain fuckery.  Not really understanding what he’s dealing with, Ranma won’t be able to stop Padan Fain from getting a certain dagger… or something else… from Shadar Logoth.  He’s going to be an independent operator, as there won’t be any

c.      General Mat.  Like Jon in Wild Wolf, Ranma’s going to eventually have Mat in a position of power where he can fight battles and even wars in one place while Ranma’s busy in another.

d.      Scout Master Perrin.  Perrin will work with the wolf packs of the world to create a network of information for Ranma as well as lead a specially armed and armored group of wolves in battle.

e.      Finn Finagling.  Ranma’s not the type to go to otherworldly creatures to answers, nor is Kasumi.  Their enemies though, won’t be so discerning.

f.        Kindness can be deadlier than any blade.  Coming from a modern world, Kasumi is going to instigate certain changes in how the way war is propagated, and in particular who pays for it in the end.  Ranma will, naturally, go along with that kind of thing.

g.      Forsaken fuckery.  The Forsaken are going to start making trouble soon after Slayer is dealt with, although at least three of them will die off the bat during a confrontation with Ranma at the Eye of the World.

                                                  i.      Graendal in particular will be trouble.  Mat will almost fall to her wiles several times, and even Ranma will be tempted occasionally, saved only by Perrin, Kasumi and Min. 

                                                ii.      A Different Minister.  Eventually, When the Dark One is more conscious, he will have to chose a Nae’blis, a overall leader for the Forsaken, but Ishmael will have been killed permanently before this. 

I have seen everyone’s comments and stuff on the other story ideas I posted, and will be answering them tonight (last day with the family, Hallelujah!).  I will also be ending the Ranma poll tonight, and posting the HP poll over on fanfic.  For some reason when I tried that here at the parent’s place the site wouldn’t load properly… no idea what that’s about.  Cloudflare something or other? Anyway, hope you all had a nice Holiday, and are enjoying this New Year, even if it’s already gone crazy, LOL.