Story Breakdown

Prologue: The cycles are revealed at the end, and Clive and the Eikons agree on a new approach to the problem. Only, as they're going through with it, Clive ends up on Ash briefly, and saves a 14 year old Barnabas Tharmr and his mother during the attack on Barnabas's village that should have sent the young man towards Ultima.

The First Year: Clive's initial expectations of time travel are shattered and broken as he has to live through his own infancy with the same mentality he had at 33 years old.

The Ash Saga: Building a nation is easier when you have someone you can trust implicitly, as Barnabas learns when Cidolfus Telamon enters his life. Now if only Veldermarke didn't believe they all-but owned Ramuh's Dominant, and so captured Cid shortly after his first Prime with the intentions of having him fight for them.

• Ethereal ice-blue feathers that remain in pristine condition no matter what occurs to them
• Black tattoos made of the strongest wyvern tail poison to both mark Bearers and keep them in check
• Blackened earth encroaching upon viable lands and water, limiting where everyone and everything can safely live

Clive's primary goals are to permanently end the threat that Ultima presents to Valisthea, and to save the star from the Blight.

Upon believing to have completed his goal, Clive learns that he has been trapped in a never-ending cycle by Ultima, where he and the Eikons are made to forget every time and struggle to stop the mad God each time.

Should Ultima succeed even once, the entirety of Valisthea will fall and be remade into a world meant only for Ultima and his brethren.

Due to an accident during Clive's birth, he has absorbed an additional fragment of Mythos's soul, the fragment that should have become his own soul. This will lead to him slowly ascending to godhood, taking Mythos's place as guardian deity of Valisthea, and leads to him questioning just who he really is, and if he's doing this for Valisthea, or himself.

Clive Rosfield is the primary individual whose point of view we experience the world through, and the primary protagonist of the overall story. While some storylines may focus on people and events that Clive has no part in, this does not discount his importance to the story as a whole.

Each of the Eikons are actively supporting Clive in the story, working together to reach the same goal. These are Ifrit, Titan, Ramuh, Odin, Garuda, Phoenix, Shiva, Bahamut, and Leviathan. Egi such as Sleipnir Harbard, Chirada, and Suspira also count towards these allies.

Barnabas Tharmr is both an ardent follower of the mad God, and almost singularly devoted to Mythos, and thus Clive. Due to a miscommunication when Clive saved Barnabas, the young King believes he has been given a divine commandment to free Bearers and create a land where all may live without prejudice.

Cidolfus Telamon just wants people to stop abusing others for things they have no control over, such as magic use, social class, gender identity, and religious views and beliefs.

Anabella Rosfield is Clive's personal antagonist, sitting in his orbit as a wolf in sheep's clothing, for all that others develop suspicions about her early on.

Overall, Ultima is the primary antagonist in the overall story, and not above manipulating anyone into doing his dirty work for him to undermine Clive's efforts.