AEHU/Premise
Some weave dreams. Others devour them.
Angelus Errare: Heroes Unsung is a feature-length CT modification that covers the transition between Crimson Echoes/CT:DS and a planned Magus-centric Chrono Cross modification codenamed CC:DBT. Shortly after the CC:DBT plot team began fleshing out that project's storyline, it became clear that the plot might still be overburdened by all the details and backstories the team planned to include. In November 2008 the CC:DBT project team decided to create a spinoff CT hack in which some concepts could be offloaded and further developed. AE:HU addresses topics such as how Belthasar might have acquired the knowledge necessary to open a gate to the Darkness Beyond Time; a possible course for the life Schala lived in Zeal and the gradual development of nihilistic underpinnings within her character; Magus' confrontation with the Dream Devourer during the bonus conclusion of CT:DS; how Dalton executed his plan to overthrow Guardia; and how Magus, Slash, Flea, and Ozzie might have ended up in the present era's El Nido. While working with ideas far outside the realm of canon, the project team will strive to ensure that the plot meshes well with prevailing Compendium Theory at the time of production.
AE:HU's overarching theme is the relationship between dreams and hope - "dreams" not in the literal sense, but in the figurative sense of the purpose that drives a person's life, the far-off goals toward which he or she works that lend fundamental meaning to human experience. Wittel, the teenaged Choran protagonist, dreams of becoming a "hero" but arrives at the conclusion that his initial conceptualization of heroism is extremely naive. Nevertheless, Wittel's evolving search keeps him upbeat and his wits sharp even as the medieval world into which he was born seems to collapse around him, throwing others into chaotic despair. Wittel's polar opposite is Raqh, a man once hailed as hero under a different name but who has lost the ability to dream following a certain climactic incident. Finding life devoid of meaning, Raqh seeks an irrevocable escape from the cycle of life and rebirth, threatening to sweep all those who grieve in a plague and famine-stricken era with him. Their rivalry plays into the first phase of Project Kid and Belthasar scrutinizes incidents closely from Chronopolis, often making use of the Robo deposited in 600 as his eyes on the ground. Wittel's effort to stop Raqh ultimately leads to a confrontation with the literal Dream Devourer, a being whose origin is explored during Schala-in-Zeal chapters interspersed throughout the story.
All dates in the CC:DBT project are expressed in terms of AG/BG -- literally anno Guardia and before Guardia, with 1AG marking the year of Guardia's birth as a nation. Events shown in AE:HU take place during three time periods -- circa 12,000BG, 606AG, and 2300AG. With the exception of Robo, Frog and Magus, the main cast of Chrono Trigger is relagated to occasional cameo appearances while formerly supporting characters and villains take the spotlight alongside Wittel. Neither time nor dimensional travel factor in heavily, although there is serious interplay between events occuring in the examined separate eras.
