Hikusaak's nature continues to be shrouded in mystery. Image assembled by SARSadmin

I wrote I Am Harmony on a whim last night, and to my surprise, found that I couldn't get the idea out of my head today. Did I study? Sure I did! I also wasted an hour on the contemplation you're going to read below. Was it worth it? You be the judge!

Hikusaak and his rune are subjects of endless fascination for me. Konami hasn't told us anything about him at all. Technically, we don't even know that'he' is male, although I'm willing to make that assumption, looking at Luc and Sasarai. Yeah, maybe you can screw around with clones as much as you want during the development stage, but he wanted vessels, didn't he? Gender experiments would be rather pointless.

We know how old he is, and that until recently, he served as head of state and temple in Harmonia. We know he bears the Circle Rune. Four hundred some-odd years ago, he led what came to be called "The Hero War" and toppled Aronia to replace it with his own country, Harmonia. He is searching for the true runes, and a way to confine them and keep them under his control.

But why? What kind of a person is he? How much of Harmonia is a product of his leadership, and how much is the rune responsible for? What effect has the Circle Rune had on him after four hundred years?

I'm willing to guess that Hikusaak was a Tenkai star at one time. He seems to follow the pattern: a lowly, obscure young hero finds a true rune, rises up to fight an unjust nation, and establishes a new (supposedly better) government in its place. True runes and destiny go hand in hand, after all. He chose to lead the new government, instead of leaving as Tir and Riou did*, but that isn't unprecedented, now that we have Suikoden III.

What I'm undecided on right now is how and when he got the Circle Rune. That has the potential to make a big splash in the storyline - what he did and how he did it can be changed drastically by that one little detail. At least, I think so. And that little detail depends on Aronia, which I know almost nothing about. (I really hate that.)

I read somewhere (and don't bother asking - I don't remember) that when Hikusaak toppled Aronia, he reversed the social classes so the slaves would be on top, and their former rulers would be at the bottom. The most notable group of third-class citizens I can think of off the top of my head are the non-humans. The others are foreigners, or subjects of conquered nations, and I don't recall any other notables. So from this, one can guess that the rulers of Aronia might have been non-humans. I'm a little iffy on that, but I suppose it isn't out of the question. What have the elves been doing all this time? Maybe it was them. Or maybe they were human, and simply not worth mentioning. It doesn't matter much, but I'm curious.

Regardless, in order for a slave rebellion to be successful in a sovereign kingdom, at least as indicated by the research I've done to this date, the kingdom must be suffering from some kind of conflict. Aronia might have been fighting a war, or maybe it was split from within by warring political parties, as Harmonia is today. Were they trying to conquer, or in danger of invasion? Maybe someone wanted to secede. (Scarlet Moon, I'm looking at you. You were a bunch of troublemakers to begin with, weren't you?) It's possible someone took pity on the lower class. As we see in American history, that kind of division can be serious trouble.

Oh, that would make my day. It really would. Southern Aronia secedes from the Union! Um. That would be the perfect climate for a rebellion, wouldn't it?

So, the country is ripe for splitting. Where and how does Hikusaak come into this?

Going back to the game formula, it seems most Tenkai stars have some kind of education and/or leadership ability. All of them had some kind of military experience. Now, that doesn't mean Hikusaak has to follow suit, but if he led a war of any kind, he had to have that magic touch. Charisma helps, but it isn't everything. If your charismatic hero is dumb as a block, he won't get very far.

In the story I toyed with the idea of a generic field slave. More likely, I think, is the possibility that he was somehow involved with a person of higher class. A priest or mage, maybe, or just a wealthy noble - someone who would make use of an educated slave who could do fine work, or even use magic. Let's face it - if Luc and Sasarai are anything to go by, Hikusaak isn't the robust type that would be good for manual labor. It's not unheard of for slaves to rise high. Heck, the Ottoman government at its height was run by slaves.

If this person had sympathy for the people ground under Aronia's boot, I can see how Hikusaak would find the power to rile people up. He would have backing, funding, and a channel for alliances with other people of like mind. Said person would probably want to be in charge, but that's what plot devices are for. Odessa and the mayor of Muse (what is her name again?) are the example here.

A country divided enough, or weakened enough, could be torn apart by such a movement. It borders on the unrealistic, so there would probably have to be other factors at work here as well. But if Aronia was on its way down anyway, it might make sense. More on that later.

Now, where does the Circle come into this? There are a few possibilities.

In I Am Harmony, I wrote the story as if he found the rune before the war. Tenkai stars have this habit of just stumbling across big, important runes like that, so it's a possibility.

We don't quite know what effect the Circle Rune has upon its bearer. Most people I know assume it's stagnation, because Order + status quo + aversion to change = stagnation. As an extention of that, someone I know has given the rune the power to freeze things, literally or... well, I'm not sure what to call it. My mind isn't giving me a word that describes 'imposing order on something to keep it stable,' for some reason.

But why would stagnation be a direct effect of the rune? To my mind, it's more of a side effect. As a result of the reactions the rune's nature inspires, we have stagnation. And what does it inspire directly? Peace. Harmony. Calm. An orderly room is one in which everything is organized and in place, and pleasant to live in. Everything moves smoothly. In a word... stable. I hesitate to call it happy, since some people can't stand that sort of environment.

On the surface, I think that would really work against the goal of fighting a war. War is chaotic. Why would the Circle Rune want to encourage chaos? I suppose it might be able to look ahead to the possible results. If Aronia itself is already descending into chaos, perhaps the compulsion to smooth it out would be enough to spur its bearer into action, even if he didn't intend to do anything at first. And we can't forget that it also wants to control, though again, overturning a country kind of works against that goal at first. Unless you consider that a sort of control. And in war, there's really no telling who will win.

The other senario Suikoden's creators seem to like is one in which the Hero finds his rune during the course of the war, either because he's looking for it (legendary power, anyone?) or because he gets lucky and stumbles across it before the enemy does. That's what destiny is - dumb luck. The addition of a true rune to the war effort can rally a fragmenting army, seduce enemies into becoming allies, and make a big dent in the opposing army, depending on the rune. That's assuming, of course, that these potential allies know what true runes are. I suppose it depends on the reputation of the rune, too.

I'm propbably being short-sighted here, but if this senario took place, I don't think the progression of the war would be much different from what we've seen in previous games. The effect of the Circle Rune on the army is an unknown factor because Hikusaak's ability is an unknown factor, but motivation to achieve control and harmony wouldn't be particularly detrimental after a certain point. What motivation! Let's hurry up and crack Aronia so we can make everything pretty and quiet and happy. And if we need a rigid social order to satisfy Circle, we can just flip Aronia's society on its head so we are in charge, and everything'll be good!

Another idea, which I wouldn't have thought of on my own, places the securing of the Circle Rune at the end of the war. It's definitely possible the rebellion could have gained enough steam on its own to overturn Aronia. It sounds like living there was miserable for a lot of people. And when victory was at hand, and Hikusaak confronted the leader of the empire, perhaps the rune chose him then. If the former leader of Aronia was also the former bearer of the Circle Rune, why not? I'm not sure how picky the rune is about its bearers being inclined toward order, but if you think about it, the circle is more than just perfection; it's also a cycle. 'Coming full circle' could be very meaningful here.

With Circle Rune in hand, Hikusaak turned around and brought order to the country, which became Harmonia, and he ruled the state for four hundred-something years. Unfortunately, human culture can only stomach so much stability before it explodes, and it looks like Harmonia is definitely in decline. It happens to the best of us.

Unfortunately, this doesn't help me decide when he should get the rune. All three choices are reasonable, and I'm sure there are other possibilities I haven't thought of yet. This is the first time I've seriously contemplated the subject. And naturally, rebellions aren't as simple as I make them out to be, but that's an essay in itself, as is the state of Harmonia at the time of the games. I bet I could write either of those better than I wrote this one.

This is all speculation. I tried to be careful, but some of the 'facts' may not be as factual as I think they are. I haven't kept track. Who knew I'd talk so much about something I know nothing about? (Shut up.)

Sources include Suikosource, SARS, and certain members of my friends list who will not be mentioned so their names remain unsullied, none of whom should be blamed for the way I used their information. Speaking of that, some of my information may be off because I didn't take the time to double-check. (I'll do that later, after you all tell me I suck. =p) I don't think that's the case, but hey. You never know. I'm not an expert on Suikoden and I'm really, really lazy.

* Just to note, I know Suikoden II lets us choose the ending we want, but since the 'best' ending happened only under certain circumstances, I'm just going to assume it's the true ending for now.

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