Scrapped Princess - Story

Story

The story takes place in what appears to be a fantasy world (but is in fact this world in the distant future) and revolves around a 15-year-old girl named Pacifica Casull, the sister in a pair of twins born to the royal family of a kingdom called Leinwan who is, literally, thrown away at birth. The 5111th Grendel Prophecy predicts that she will be the "poison that will destroy the world" if she reaches her sixteenth birthday. To prevent this she is dropped off a cliff as an infant ("scrapped"). Believed to be dead, her survival remains no more than a rumour until she is already 15 years old.

Pacifica is rescued by a court wizard and adopted by the commoner Casull family. Her foster siblings, Shannon, a swordsman, and Raquel, a wizard, become her protectors. Both siblings are extremely powerful, and more often than not they easily break out of whatever difficult situation they face.

Her siblings travel with her throughout most of the story, protecting her from the numerous attempts on her life by people who fear the outcome of the prophecy. Both siblings' skills see constant use. By contrast, Pacifica is mostly a typical fifteen-year-old, and her inability to defend herself is a recurring source of self-doubt for her, as is the constantly repeated insistence that she will destroy the world. As the series progresses, the truth about the prophecy slowly comes to light, but even as more of the truth is revealed, more questions arise. Pacifica must discover her hidden destiny, even as powerful beings called Peacemakers, who are worshipped in this world as demi-gods, continually manoeuvre to have her destroyed, and, at the same time, a mysterious being called a Dragoon comes to the assistance of Pacifica and her guardians, offsetting to some extent the attack of the Peacemakers. It turns out that Pacifica is not only not "the poison that will destroy the world" but, in reality, mankind's last hope, and all part of a plan that was set in motion 5000 years before by scientists among the human resistance to aliens during what were called the Genesis Wars.

Before the Genesis Wars, the Peacemakers were created by humans as weapons against mankind's alien foes, but, determining to protect their human creators and prevent them from destroying themselves, the Peacemakers switched sides and assisted the aliens by imprisoning the survivors of the war in an artificial environment, and at the same time backing up their cultural development to the Middle Ages. The Peacemakers were able to do this with the help of a gifted psychic named Celia Mauser, who, like the Peacemakers themselves, had originally been a tool of the defense. Her powers were used to enhance their (i.e. mankind's) weaponry to the point where it was possible to predict enemy movements. The Peacemakers encouraged Celia Mauser to leak information to them in exchange for the lives of her brother and sister. (Celia and her siblings bear a noticeable resemblance to Pacifica, Shannon, and Raquel). She was too late, her siblings died, and Celia Mauser's treason was for nothing. Celia was then kept in an area of phase space in a sort of virtual reality for 5000 years while mankind continued to live on unknowingly in an intangible cage, isolated on a single continent called Dusbin (literally, Dust bin). Her powerful mind was programmed into the artificial environment's control system, and the religion concocted by the aliens to control humanity worships her as a god.

For 5000 years the Peacemakers have watched over mankind, keeping cultural development at a standstill, and empowered to wipe out much of the human race if it ever showed any sign of stepping beyond its apportioned limits (as the Kingdom of Leinwan does toward the end of the series when the attempt is made to coerce the Peacemakers into helping them conquer the world). As the Peacemakers put it, "You don't know you are trapped if all you've ever known is your cage." Humans are completely incapable of resisting the will of the Peacemakers. Just looking a Peacemaker in the eye renders a human obedient - even Shannon and Raquel are not immune to this. Pacifica Casull is the only human being in 5000 years who is immune to this control, and her ability will become communicable to others once she reaches her sixteenth birthday. (There are occasional previews of this when extreme emotion causes Pacifica's power to radiate.) This is why the Peacemakers are determined to destroy her, and why they have used the Grendel Prophecies to induce anyone who can to do the job for them. (Pacifica cannot be directly attacked by the Peacemakers. She must be attacked indirectly by a controlled human or group of humans). As things turn out, Pacifica's real brother, Prince Forsythe, who has seen the suffering inflicted on his people by the Peacemakers in their attempts to eliminate Pacifica, asks to meet her, and when her guardians allow it, he stabs her in the back, ten hours before she turns sixteen. This causes her to be removed to the phase sphere, where she meets Celia Mauser, who allows her to choose whether mankind will remain in their prison or not. Pacifica chooses freedom.