The Enchanted Crown

***The Enchanted Crown*** is the 29th literary work by Coeur Al'Aran. This work features the earliest known Point of Divergence, as Salem kidnaps and tortures Ozma in the 1000s BB until he is mentally broken. The subsequent setting is a fantasy setting where technological progression halts during the medieval ages.

> "*I had this wonderful idea that if I broke your mind completely, it wouldn't matter if you returned upon death. You would only be a gibbering wreck of a voice in the back of someone's head.*"
> ― Salem, Headmaster Arc Chapter 79[[source]]
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## Background

### General Fantasy and Fantasy Remnant

Coeur had interests in exploring fantasy settings from his early history interacting with fantasy media such as the *Harry Potter* series, *Stormrider* by David Gemmell, playing video games from the *Final Fantasy*, and the *Fate/Stay Night* visual novels. These works served as inspiration for several fantasy-related stories, such as a dropped story from 2001 that gave rise to his username. Coeur first explored the idea of a Fantasy setting for Remnant without advanced technology someitme between September 2015 and February 2016, as he mentions in *Forged Destiny* that the original story was inspired by exercises from *The Writer Games* with College Fool. On 2016 July 11, Coeur released his first Fantasy-based *RWBY* work through *Forged Destiny*, and it was one of his longest literary works that concluded in 2020 January 20.

### Breaking an Immortal

Coeur hypothesized the idea of an immortal being tortured into insanity as early as chapter 38 of *Not this Time, Fate* on 2016 May 20, where Jaune pondered the worrying prospect that if his unreliable Aura failed, it would result in him being trapped in a perpetual loop of death by Beacon Academy Initiation until he went insane. It is likely Coeur had similar ideas earlier on as more information came out about the nature of Ozpin's immortality.

### Torturing Ozma

In chapter 64 of *Headmaster Arc*, published 2020 June 18, Salem had been chased away after Jaune played chicken with her pretending he had the remaining relics to summon the Brother Gods back to cause judgement day. Ozpin implies that it is within Salem's character to potentially capture him and torture him, although he comments that he would reflect on the moment Jaune scared her off with a broomstick and cigarettes as a humerous moment to keep his spirits. Salem confirms this judgement as she is talking with Oscar Pine, the then-host for Ozpin, in chapter 79 of *Headmaster Arc* on 2020 October 1. Salem states she had the idea around the 600s BB and tortured Ozma for three months before he died. Coeur writes Salem as having a similar idea in the first chapter of *Knight of Salem*, published 2021 January 4, where she had Jaune kidnapped and tied up on a wooden cross, likely with malicious intent, though Salem's plans are never discovered since it is revealed Ozpin was sick with a "mundane, but highly contagious virus." Even when it was revealed that Jaune was not Ozma, Salem still considered torturing him in retribution for turning her back into a human instead of a Grimm-based abomination.

## Reception

### Initial Release (December 14-15)

On the first day of release, 2021 December 14, most reviewers were interested in the work and anticipated to reading more. As *Arc Royale* ran concurrently with other works starting on 2021 November 2, some were curious whether this version of Jaune with Ozma in his head would appear anchored to any other character. These questions permeated to the Professor Arc Forum, as Gerboled asked whether that iteration of Jaune would appear in *Arc Royale*, to which Coeur replied stating he would not to avoid spoilers. Several users on the PAF speculated the given details and potential future, such as the uncomfortable torture scenes, stillasleepXD speculating Jaune discovering Aura using Ozma's memories, blaiseingfire and Ernand considering the extent of the plot divergence, and SlayerOfTears offering predictions.

1. ↑ Tbnf, Prof Arc wasn't planned., Early days - write from hp.
2. ↑ **The Book was Stromrider by David Gemmell. I read it when I was around 14-15 and it made me cry at the end, but I am a real book lover.**
3. ↑ Used to like FF until say 11, where it never improved. Again, the issue to me seemed obvious... 12-13-whatever never had a WORLD to lore build in.
4. ↑ Anyway, Coeur al'Aran was a character I made for a story i wrote in High school, around the age of 14 or so. I used to write a chapter a month and have a few friends who would read it and ask for more. It was actually a female character, a woman who was a healer in a fantasy world.
5. ↑ **Oh, and for any who wonder, this is *another* fic inspired by The Writer Games, since College Fool prompted me with "The World of Remnant is an RPG" - At the time I think he expected I would come up with a WoW or SAO game-playing idea, or VR. Instead I went with this. CF then liked it so much he suggested I do it in full.**
6. ↑ *Would my mind shatter from the strain, or would it be worse…? What if I got a new mind each time, never able to escape the endless cycle of being thrown to my death before a forest filled with Grimm I could never hope to defeat?*
7. ↑ "Why shouldn't I be? Salem has been bested – tricked even – and sent scurrying away with her tail between her legs. What's more, victory was won with only a box of cigarettes and a broom."
8. ↑ "If she catches me a thousand years from now and puts me through the worst torture, I'll think back on this moment and ride it out. I'm never going to let her forget it."
9. ↑ "That was fun," Salem said with a whimsical smile. "I had this wonderful idea that if I broke your mind completely, it wouldn't matter if you returned upon death. You would only be a gibbering wreck of a voice in the back of someone's head."
10. ↑ Angrily, she let her hand drop down, giving up on the knife. There really was no telling if killing the boy would reverse the effects of his Semblance. Torture, then? No, that was just as dangerous. He might expire.
11. ↑ I wonder if this Jaune will appear in Arc Royale
12. ↑ He won't appear for sake of avoiding spoilers, etc
13. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20211221011223/https://www.fanfiction.net/topic/189701/184779453/1/The-Eternal-Crown-Discussion