[Meta #3]: Real World Countries as Equated with FE Nations and the Nature of Fantasy

[writerawakened]

(please excuse the overly long and probably pretentious title; also, excuse this entire post its daily derpery)

Comments

[raphiael]

I definitely agree with this. I think it's fun to be like, oh there's an influence of this, a bit of that, that kind of thing. And sometimes it helps close the gaps left behind in the canon world. If you say, well, I think Renais has a kind of French feel, you can look to French traditions to help make your own stuff up when you're stumped.

But, as you said, FE itself is way too mishmashy to draw any solid, absolute connections between the game countries and real world areas. I think it's most interesting to roll with the influences you feel best with - like for example, when I write Sacae I'm pretty influenced by my volunteer work in South Dakota and that just feels right to me - but also to not be afraid to just make stuff up.

[writerawakened]

Sometimes going with your gut and trusting your instinct is the best route. Especially when it comes to creative inspiration :D

[gunlord]

*rubs WA happily*

That said, I think the "occasional clash between nations" mentioned in FE6 should be taken with either a grain of salt or as a statement of merely relative terms. If the continent really was that peaceful, all the countries wouldn't have standing armies as large as they were...and the Ilians wouldn't be able to find enough work to feed their country. :o

[writerawakened]

Yeah. It certainly seems like we're supposed to take the "lotsa peace" thing at face value, but the idea of armies and mercs points in another direction (although having a trained standing army could be handwaved as self-defense and simple preparedness, I suppose.) The fact that they mentioned the other conflicts only briefly in the intro says to me that those instances of strife were the exception to the rule. Although there's plenty of wiggle room there, for sure.

[amielleon]

Particularly given that Tellius's past is as "a history of warfare".

[mark_asphodel]

Simply by the fact that several FE worlds are astonishingly peaceful (between the 800-year peace in Magvel and the only "occasional clash between nations" in Elibe mentioned in FE6, I think I can safely say that trying to pin down analogues to any Earth society, given how different the two universes' political climates are, is very slippery (though admittedly fun :P)I'm inclined to think of that as the same sort of hand-waving as some of the other Heroic Founding Legends in FE games... that turn out to be either whitewash or hogwash. As Gunlord says, if they're so peaceful, why are entire societies based around supplying mercenaries? Why do we see the level of military development that we see? Etc

[xirysa]

GO, NOW, IF YOU WANT IT
AN OTHERWORLD AWAITS YOU--

Ahem.

No, but I really liked this. I think it's important to note that the real world "equivalents" really aren't equivalents--they're just inspirations. Sure, some places may have more of an influence than others, but in the end they're their own places and not the Mongolian empire in a world of magic and flying ponies.

[amielleon]

I think the reason certain places give off strong vibes of a certain real life equivalent have to do with Japanese stereotypes. When the developers at IS reached for the plainspeople box, they thought of a cultural ~plainsmen~ type that was probably heavily influenced by the Mongols (given their region), but also mishmashed with centuries of Japanese cultural myths. Thus it may have a strong flavor of something -- just as any depiction of ~native people~ in American art is bound to have a flavor of Native American culture -- but any authentic analogy would be tenuous in a number of ways. Like, as you said, the interaction between societies.

[writerawakened]

I guess so...but I still think the Sacaeans have decidedly little to do with the actual Mongols, unless someone points out to me otherwise how so.

Of course, we each bring our own unique set of Western stereotypes into the interpretation as well, which probably fogs the lens a bit.

[amielleon]

Their dress. They're remarkably like Mongolian deels. I believe there was also a line about goat milk (though that may be a regional thing) and some other stuff. I know its prominence in LJ started with SH's post at wariskind.