Neuvillette

Neuvillette is a solitary person.

Fontainians who have tried to get close to him have, without exception, been politely rejected. To this day, no one even knows his first name, since he has always asked that he be referred to by his last name.

He believes that close personal ties will lead to suspicions about the justness of one's judgments, while he must remain a symbol of absolute justice.

Of course, there will always be people who just won't give up. They will say, "Come now, Monsieur Neuvillette. Not everyone will stand trial, nor will you always have to remain in the judge's seat."

But is that really the case? If there is an answer in his heart, Neuvillette will not reveal it.

Given enough time, every river will overflow and flood. Every last Fontainian is guilty, with judgment and doom certain to one day fall upon them — this is neither metaphor nor rhetoric.

Yet, Neuvillette can share this fact with no one.

Truly, he is a lonesome person.

Neuvillette is not known for his personal desires.

Curious members of the public and journalists are wont to seek high and low for him all across Fontaine when he is not sitting in the Chief Justice's seat of judgment. He may sit at a seat for specially invited guests during performances, appear by the shore when the skies are just on the cusp of weeping, or be standing within the shadows cast by the afternoon sun.

There was once a time when all believed that he was some kind of demon who existed solely to preside over trials and judge, forcing him to clarify that... Well, the gist of it was "to bear witness and judge is my great honor, but I am not a trial aficionado. Iudex is simply one of the hats I wear, and my time as a judge is but one phase of my life."

This successful clarification led him out of the frying pan, and into the fire, as they say, with still more troublesome rumors emerging — "Shocking News! Neuvillette Claims 'Iudex' to be 'Springboard' Post! Unspeakable Plans Next; Where Will His Ambition End?"

As for the new rumors, Neuvillette paid them no heed. Perhaps they were, in fact, right on the Mora, and he simply did not correct them out of principle? No one knows.

Neuvillette is also not much of a drinker, nor does he like Fonta — indeed, he has never even been known to have given any sincere praise to the local chefs' most renowned dishes. This has led people to suspect that his lack of consumptive desire might come down to him simply not having a sense of taste.

His response was to organize a water-tasting salon party, at which all were gobsmacked by the wide variety of flavors water from different regions could possess and floored by the Iudex's most refined tastes. Of course, the amount of authenticity present in such interactions cannot be known.

But whatever the case, Neuvillette really is devoid of selfish want.

Neuvillette is a just person.

If not for that quality, he probably would not have been qualified to serve as the Iudex in the first place.

To the children, the job of the man in the judge's seat is nothing more than wearing a wig, maintaining order in the court, and being the Oratrice's messenger pigeon. In truth, however, there are many administrative affairs that he must handle in private to keep the justice system up and running.

Due to certain historical and traditional legacies in Fontaine, the Iudex also has the right to prosecute, as well as the power to enforce the law in person. This was originally intended to make it easier to maintain law and order during chaotic times, but as the system became further refined, this rule, which represented the spirit of the pioneer far more than that of the law, became maintained only symbolically. When the Iudex investigates a case or serves as the prosecutor, they must recuse themselves as judge, and have someone else take the seat. And in the few instances where he has personally investigated cases, Neuvillette has unerringly followed this rule.

One thing to note is that he has been the only Iudex in the land for a very long time, so much so that people often speculate that he must have been given an unimaginably long life due to divine favor. As such, it is well that he is nothing if not fair-minded, or such an extensive term would surely lead to problems someday.

As to what he is precisely — a familiar of the Hydro Archon, or a mysterious Hydro elemental creature, perhaps — there are a great many opinions, though Neuvillette has never once commented on such talk.

Indeed, he is a person most impartial.

Due to a variety of reasons, Fontaine's legal codices retain all manner of odd articles from days past. Neuvillette himself contributed this clause: "A Melusine shall be addressed as 'she,' rather than 'it,' for they are people too."

This might look strange on its face, but the more one considers it, the more it makes sense. After all, Melusines have been found all over Fontaine since near-modern times, and fighting for equal rights for them beginning with terms of address sent a powerful signal.

Indeed, Fontainians have noticed that Neuvillette displays different amounts of warmth toward Melusines and humans. Most regard this as the understated goodness in his heart having found an outlet, becoming the love of a father.

Oddly enough, this one only gets stranger the more one knows about Neuvillette.

For he is the Hydro Dragon, and in this capacity, he regards Melusines as dependents and successors, and also as the finest example of a new sort of Hydro Vishap species. Yet he is also the destroyer of the present order, the one who shall judge all gods, and the foe of humanity. So why, then, did he secure human rights for the Melusines?

You alone could ask him this question, and this was his reply: "It wasn't up to me. Melusines simply prefer being around humans, that's all."

Neuvillette has always favored rainy days over sunny ones, as the moisture-laden air helps him relax. However, it has been a long time since he last delighted in standing under the rain.

It seems that from the time he chose to walk alongside Fontaine, he began to play the role of a strictly law-abiding normal person. Of course, normal people would not walk through the rain without an umbrella, allowing the rain to drench their hair.

It is worth mentioning that the role of Chief Justice is as much his true self as the Hydro Dragon is his essence. Only the role of "normal human" is one he must play.

It was in their solitude and guilt that humans invented a god to judge them, and in their greed and guilt that they created a god to save them. And with that god no longer present, it falls to Neuvillette to fulfill such expectations.

He has pardoned humanity, and has regained his original form.

Now, he can finally walk in the rain and enjoy it.

Indeed, he did do exactly this, and standing in the rain, he gazed into the distance, reminiscing about that day, so long ago, when he had received that letter.

Yes, a letter had found its way to him by some unknown means. The name of the recipient had been left blank, with the text only addressing him bluntly as "you."

A special you. A unique you. Neuvillette was not opposed to such a manner, but neither did he approve of it. He felt, vaguely, that the powers-that-be of the present world had no real right to judge him so.

He knew that this letter had been written by the Archon Focalors, who was inviting him to come and see Fontaine, claiming "I shall leave you a seat with the best view in the greatest theater."

Later, he would indeed come to receive that very seat — in the middle of the front row of the Opera Epiclese on the island known as Erinnyes. He would watch all manner of performances there, and the view was indeed excellent, just as Focalors had claimed.

What happened later was not made public knowledge. In all likelihood, the people had no way of understanding what it meant that the throne was shattered, or how the power of water was fully restored to its original owner. As to their being pardoned, and why they had to be forgiven in the first place, that was an even broader and more complex tale.

And thus did the curtain fall — Fontaine witnessed a happy ending to the greatest drama in history.

Or was it? A happy ending, that is. It was then that Neuvillette understood that the "seat" mentioned in the letter was not merely a chair in an opera house.

Focalors — or Furina, he should say — had given up her seat in the audience, come onstage alone, and become the heroine of the drama.

There were only ever a fixed number of seats, and for one to sit down, was for another to depart. That letter had been an invitation, issued several centuries in advance.

Well, Hydro Dragon? How do you feel about becoming a member of the human audience?

Are you enjoying this human drama?

One as great as he should have no need for a constellation to shine over him. After all, "fate" is merely the manner in which the present ruler of this world plays with living beings.

Now that he has obtained one part of seven of the authority over the mortal realm, and reforged the throne and title of a "Fully Fledged Dragon," he is one strong enough to equal and rival "the human realm," and logic would dictate that he need not subscribe to this system known as "fate."

He can see, in the skies of destiny, how many stars contend with one another, creating a complicated, fragile world. He did not initially care much about such, for the puppet strings glossed as "divine rules" would one day be burned away by the fires of judgment. But he too was taken in by certain pleasing rhetoric.

"In that case, why don't you just watch over the Fontainians? They were born from the Primordial Sea, after all. That makes them part of this planet's native life, too, and a form of life that requires your care."

He would never admit that he himself had become quite fascinated with the joys and sorrows of humanity. Was it not so, he would argue, that humans find their gaze stolen by the ripples from falling raindrops in puddles? And could it not be, he would explain, that King Nibelung had been wrong, and that the black void could only be opposed if all life were to band together as one?

Thus did he, in the end, come into his own "fate." The skies had left a special, ennobled place for him, one reserved for the overseers and those who could defy the world itself — that of his own reflection.

—Of course, he was born in the form of a human. But why, then, is his constellation the image of the great leviathan? Well, this leads us to a more mundane explanation for the situation, one quite separate from grave matters of the world's fate:

As the one named "Neuvillette," he would often be roped by Melusines (especially Sigewinne) into a bit of astrology via The Steambird's constellation columns or astrology guides from Sumeru. Would it really do, at that point, to tell them that he "didn't have a constellation" or that his own constellation was just "Neuvillette"?

"Hydro Dragon, Hydro Dragon, don't cry."

No one knows who composed this children's song, or when, but it has organically spread throughout Fontaine all the same. Neuvillette has been somewhat perplexed by this. No matter how much time he has spent with Fontainians or how much they've been through together, he still cannot quite put a finger on how people view the real him — or that is to say, the Hydro Dragon.

In addition to commanding the power of Hydro, the Hydro Dragon also had mastery over the sea that was the source of life. Before any outside life forms were ever created, all life on this planet traced its origins to the Primordial Sea. Indeed, those placid waters were worthy of the title of "birthing waters" or "amniotic fluid" given by those who came after. And the Hydro Dragon could, in turn, be regarded as this planet's original "God of Life."

Neuvillette knows all this, of course, just like he knows that all rivers meet again in the great ocean. These birthing waters might not be of any special importance to humans, but for Neuvillette, he can differentiate every drop, every minute memory. He still remembers the foreign usurper appointing their own "God of Life" to order the living. He still remembers how the usurper had made "her" to suppress the original vital force of this planet. And of course, he also knows how "she" came to commit the original sin...

Having considered all this, Neuvillette decided, then, that whoever had penned that rhyme, as well as the Fontainians who came to believe in it, must not have known the Hydro Dragon all that well, considering that they thought the Hydro Dragon could cry. What did they take said Dragon for, some sort of bleeding heart who grieved for humans and the heavens alike?

Neuvillette does not need a Vision to manipulate the elements. However, there were some things he learned only after regaining his complete form:

Severely wounded in the great war of vengeance, the usurper had their functions ruined, and could no longer use their absolute authority to suppress the original order of this world. To continue to subdue and control the resentments and loathing of the world, the usurper and one who came after created the Gnoses together. So it came to be that an order was made to be upheld, and thus did humans come to only possess these seven remembrances, and all fragments of the primordial were driven to devour each other.

From that day on, whenever a person's wishes reached the heavens, the seven overseers of the material realm were duty-bound to grant them a gift. Though they might know nothing of who or what wish had stepped into the threshold of the sacred, the Seven Archons still had to impart a shattered shard of their mastery to that person. And when one so gifted completed their duty... the gift the gods would receive in return would be more abundant still.

Neuvillette obeys no edict from the heavens, but he does acknowledge human will. So he too set aside parts of himself, as like unto the dragon-treasure hoards of old, awaiting valiant humans to come and claim them.