Tales of the Grove

An OC Etrian Odyssey Fanfiction

By Nagone

Genre: Adventure/Friendship

Rated: T16 for blood and gore.

Author's Note: When I first began this piece, I wasn't sure how to go about writing about characters that I had created in the original Etrian Odyssey game. Now, if you've played, you'll recognize that attachment that comes to your team of five once you've felled your first major boss. I remember the first time I played through and I made it to the third stratum, "The Cerulean Wood", how excited I was. I recently decided to restart after having not played the game in the past two years, and out of that came Tales of the Grove, featuring all the characters of Etria along with my team of five, aptly named Volture. My hope is that this series will continue when I purchase the next two games in the series. I hope that you enjoy this story. I'll be posting up art for each chapter after the prologue, so feel free to look at that on my deviantART account when I post it both on my profile and dA.

Prologue: The Great Unknown

For as long as most could remember, there had always been carpeted hills and meadows in Etria. Children would often frolic in them, tossing balls and exploring the bright meadows of the forests. Young teenager lovers would go on picnics, and all of Etria's citizens would happily enjoy the soft, verdant fields. The sleepy, docile town of Etria could remember herself the meadows, until that day came.

It wasn't heard, but it was easily seen: a crack as jagged as a scythe, opening up into something akin to a deceitful Hell on their verdant Earth. It was mystical and so green, colors exploding in patterns and giving birth to jewels and medicines and materials never before seen. The glorious fauna that made up the earthen paths of emerald grasses and jeweled pebbles took many aback. Brave citizens brought back the glories of the mysterious forest, telling stories of their encounters and the beautiful, but dangerous beasts.

Although beautiful and majestic, the beast they encountered ranged from playfully deceitful Woodflies to a horrific being that the most mangled simply called a Stalker. None had died, but many had been returned to the Apothecary in mangled, silenced heaps. Even still, Etrians grew curious and curiouser and begin to seek the aid of the Radha, their governing body, to help fund the growing eagerness in seeking the foreign riches of the labyrinth.

Thus the Radha issued a decree: Anyone able-bodied citizen was thereby permitted to explore this great and vast wealth of the uncharted labyrinth. Many tried their best, devoting their livelihood to the labyrinth. The Radha, in return, cheered them on through copious amounts of en and talk of becoming legends, earning magnificent specimens from the forest and the destruction of powerful beasts that their forces could not fell.

That was nearly fifty years ago.

Now, Etria is a bustling city, flourishing with merchants and eager citizens with hopes of becoming legends. Every day brings in a new batch of wide-eyed children, women, and men. Etria turned its eyes towards to the adventurers, using their wells of information in order to fund them in return. Over time, the labyrinth became known as never-ending. Few had made it past the first five levels known rather deceitfully as Emerald Grove, and even less had managed to trek into the dangerous, dark, primitive jungles of the Primitive Jungle.

Still, adventure flocked like mad to the hellish labyrinth, seeking riches far beyond the knowledge of a common man…