worldbuilding Let's Write more/better lore for the Spring Festival

[RainbowToRosie]

I'll just start by saying this: Yeah, it's pretty late for me to write down a form like this considering we have shifted on to the next focus characters, but I thought it was better late to put this down than never. At least I wrote it on Easter! 

Anyways, I'll move on to the actual topic. I am not sure how many other people have, but I have always been interested in thinking about lore for things that aren't completely explained or that could have been written better. For some odd reason, the Spring Festival grabbed my attention. I know it was mostly made for Spring character fan service, but I saw it as a new piece of lore added to Awakening and even Fates, even if Heroes is not considered canon in the other games (from what I have seen anyways), which is why most of this is pretty much hypothetical.

Just in case you want a better explanation about what we'll be discussing here, I'll give you a brief explanation! We're going to be thinking about potential lore for the Spring Festival from how it was shown in Heroes. Most likely most of the things that will be added in the discussion will be adding lore to it since we don't have too much lore for it from what Heroes has given us, but some things we talk about may be changing to what was already written to make it better if it were to be canon. Also, feel free to talk about any lore related to our Spring Festival characters, (Lucina, Chrom, Xander, and Camilla) too.

By the way, I don't know exactly where this topic will be leading exactly, but I guess I may as well say it now that there may potentially be spoilers, specifically for Awakening and Fates (presuming we do have spoilers).

I guess I'll start with a few of the things that I have been thinking about!

Addition: The reason as to why royalty from Nohr came to celebrate the Spring Festival in Ylisse is because they heard of it from one of the Annas, who advertised it as being a good way to represent their country to otherworldly neighbors, especially by showing deep appreciation and involvement into the festivities. It most likely would be the reason as to why Xander was willing to go along with his siblings putting him in that different costume and acting... like a colorful character. 

Since the Spring Festival seems to be obviously based off of our Easter, (it may even have been called Easter at one point in Heroes, but I don't remember for sure) I think that the roots of the Spring Festival may be similar to Easter's roots. I think it would be a holiday originally set as a day to celebrate something related to Naga. Perhaps it has something to do with Tiki becoming the Voice of the Divine Dragon.

Change: I don't think Ylisse would have a festival be set as an excuse to fight each other, so they, in particular, would not celebrate Spring by fighting; however, I know a certain northern neighbor of Ylisse who would celebrate a holiday like that: Regna Ferox. Because of this, I would have set the fighting tradition to be in Regna Ferox instead of in Ylisse. Of course, I doubt that would make people like Chrom not want to participate, but that is just my opinion. 

Those are just a few things I was thinking about, but I am more interested in what you guys think about improving the lore of the Spring Festival! I hope that this forum ends up running smoothly with great, yet polite, discussion. ^^

[Ryu Yuki]

This seems like a pretty interesting topic! I'll try throwing in my own food for thought in that case, although it's all very subjective and not something I'm prepared to thoroughly back up with tons of evidence and logic. It'll mostly involve explaining what the heck is going on without trying to conflict too much with what was given to us. 

Anyway, playing through the Paralogues, the impression I got was that we weren't really fighting in any real capacity. For the sake of gameplay and giving us players something to do, it's true that we were given a few maps to battle through. But even though the game called it a "fight"... Since Chrom and Xander were wielding literal carrots it honestly felt more akin to playing around and having family-friendly fun than a Feroxi type of competition. The way I see it, what happened in-universe was just a bunch of somewhat effeminate men brandishing collapsible carrots with the females tossing kinda-magic eggs at each other. A type of outlandish competition that you might occasionally see in the real world, played by actual children. Only without magic eggs. Like, perhaps something akin to bean-tossing competitions if you need some kind of comparison. So I can kind of see it as a Ylissean tradition without too much difficulty. Ylisse does feel like a Spring-ish place too. So much green and sunshine...

As for how the Nohrian Scum Siblings were convinced to join the Spring Festival... First and foremost, I imagine that Nohr somehow came into contact with Ylisse through the Deeprealms sometime before the event. They clearly established friendly relations, and Nohr probably decided to enter in the competition as a gesture of goodwill. Camilla would probably enter of her own accord because it seemed amusing, while Xander was probably pressured into it by Elise or Female Corrin or something. Xander is clearly screaming internally throughout the whole fiasco, so someone bullied him into it. On a side note Garon is probably dead in this version of Nohr, because there is no way in hell Xander wouldn't be disowned after donning his spring regalia here. Anyway, establishing friendly relations with Ylisse is probably a very important aspect of this version of Nohr's politics. If you played through Fates, you'll know that Nohr is rather lacking in natural resources and is a rather dreary place. Ylisse is almost certainly abundant with natural resources and is more than willing to trade with friendly nations; hence the Nohrian royalty probably felt it was important that they themselves partook in the festivities as a gesture of good faith and to to solidify relations. By maintaining close ties with Ylisse, they can secure their own nation's needs while also having some occasional fun on the side. Hence, while Xander would normally stand his ground and refuse the silly costume, he probably went ahead after a little bit of outside pressure by someone else. Plus, it was probably Xander's long-lost dream to keep a rabbit in his hat or something. Seriously, he a has living bunny in his hat... No way he didn't do that on purpose...

As for why Chrom and Lucina have those outfits... Well it's totally in-character for Lucina to wear that, going by the numerous evidence of her peculiar fashion taste in Awakening's supports. Lucina probably got excited and managed to talk Chrom into doing the same (Kind of like the support Lucina has with her mom), who probably just agreed so that Lucina has a chance for something resembling a normal life. 

[Arthur97]

I suppose inter dimensional politics could be an interesting go. I considered that maybe they were actually in the same world (we know very little about Fates world after all). This is unlikely, I'll admit, but just something I thought of. Though Chrom seems to know about legends of all the past (and apparently future) games whether they are in the same world or not. Just what did they teach him growing up?

[Lyrai]

4 hours ago, Arthur97 said:

I suppose inter dimensional politics could be an interesting go. I considered that maybe they were actually in the same world (we know very little about Fates world after all). This is unlikely, I'll admit, but just something I thought of. Though Chrom seems to know about legends of all the past (and apparently future) games whether they are in the same world or not. Just what did they teach him growing up?

Fates is the only proof for Chrom so far. It's certainly a curious thing how Chrom knows, but for Chrom to actually know about it (haha), must've mean that Archanea once made a discovery of the Fates world sometime in the past. (Well, "anything" can happen in a thousand year timespan!) The problem here is that nothing else is known. I believe others would know as well, but is never mentioned.

[Arthur97]

11 hours ago, Lyrai said:

Fates is the only proof for Chrom so far. It's certainly a curious thing how Chrom knows, but for Chrom to actually know about it (haha), must've mean that Archanea once made a discovery of the Fates world sometime in the past. (Well, "anything" can happen in a thousand year timespan!) The problem here is that nothing else is known. I believe others would know as well, but is never mentioned.

He knows about Sigurd and them in the DLC, but are they from the same universe? I admit that my knowledge of Japan only games is fairly limited. Of course, the Before Awakening DLC was pretty much just a shameless attempt to connect the two games somehow. Plotholes should be expected I guess. 

Edit: I think I should point out that I was not insinuating that Genealogy and Fates were the same world. I was just using it as a case that Chrom seems to know about all of the games.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Arthur97

[Ryu Yuki]

18 hours ago, Arthur97 said:

I suppose inter dimensional politics could be an interesting go. I considered that maybe they were actually in the same world (we know very little about Fates world after all). This is unlikely, I'll admit, but just something I thought of. Though Chrom seems to know about legends of all the past (and apparently future) games whether they are in the same world or not. Just what did they teach him growing up?

To be perfectly honest, I'm under the impression that all main series FE games are set in the same general world. Chrom knowing Hoshido and Nohr is probably an indication that they existed in the same world a very long time ago. Anankos was probably a Divine Dragon that got exiled or left because reasons. He went mad most likely because he didn't get the memo about dragonstones halting the dragons' regression. At least, that's what it seemed to me. The deeprealms and outrealms are probably gates to alternate realities of the same world, although I don't have much backing on that one. Either way, I feel like the 'main' reality of each FE game is actually set in the same world.

I mean, we know that Archanea, Jugdral and Valentia are definitely in the same world. Tellius is also heavily implied to be in the same world due to Priam's existence and the Ylissean folks knowing about the "Radiant Hero". That just leaves Elibe, Magvel and the Fates kingdoms. Elibe is heavily implied to be part of the same world, because the Binding Blade plot more or less provides an explanation for why dragons went mad, when every other game failed to explain the exact reasons. The Scouring probably affected the whole world and is probably why every dragon on the planet suddenly started degenerating into madness and had to go manakete. It's very hard to explain otherwise since none of the games ever address another reason at all and make it sound like it was spontaneous. As for Hoshido/Nohr/Valla, Chrom knowing about the first two and the fact that Anankos was clearly suffering from the same problems as the Earth Dragons seem to indicate that the Fates world is indeed the same one as the others. I don't exactly have a lot of evidence for Magvel, but I like to think it's in the same world just because every other game has strong evidence for their case.

 

Edited April 17, 2017 by Ryu Yuki

[Arthur97]

2 hours ago, Ryu Yuki said:

To be perfectly honest, I'm under the impression that all main series FE games are set in the same general world. Chrom knowing Hoshido and Nohr is probably an indication that they existed in the same world a very long time ago. Anankos was probably a Divine Dragon that got exiled or left because reasons. He went mad most likely because he didn't get the memo about dragonstones halting the dragons' regression. At least, that's what it seemed to me. The deeprealms and outrealms are probably gates to alternate realities of the same world, although I don't have much backing on that one. Either way, I feel like the 'main' reality of each FE game is actually set in the same world.

I mean, we know that Archanea, Jugdral and Valentia are definitely in the same world. Tellius is also heavily implied to be in the same world due to Priam's existence and the Ylissean folks knowing about the "Radiant Hero". That just leaves Elibe, Magvel and the Fates kingdoms. Elibe is heavily implied to be part of the same world, because the Binding Blade plot more or less provides an explanation for why dragons went mad, when every other game failed to explain the exact reasons. The Scouring probably affected the whole world and is probably why every dragon on the planet suddenly started degenerating into madness and had to go manakete. It's very hard to explain otherwise since none of the games ever address another reason at all and make it sound like it was spontaneous. As for Hoshido/Nohr/Valla, Chrom knowing about the first two and the fact that Anankos was clearly suffering from the same problems as the Earth Dragons seem to indicate that the Fates world is indeed the same one as the others. I don't exactly have a lot of evidence for Magvel, but I like to think it's in the same world just because every other game has strong evidence for their case.

 

I think another theory is that Elibe's dragon gate thing actually led to the Archanean world (or Fire Emblem Prime if you will). It's an interesting prospect.

The one must consider that this was apparently not the Heroes crew's first time attending the festival. Perhaps a lot of people just sneak in from other worlds during the festival posing as foreigners coming for a visit. It would admittedly make for decent cover for anyone wanting to explore other worlds without letting them know that you were in fact from an alternate dimension.

[Ryu Yuki]

15 hours ago, Arthur97 said:

I think another theory is that Elibe's dragon gate thing actually led to the Archanean world (or Fire Emblem Prime if you will). It's an interesting prospect.

The one must consider that this was apparently not the Heroes crew's first time attending the festival. Perhaps a lot of people just sneak in from other worlds during the festival posing as foreigners coming for a visit. It would admittedly make for decent cover for anyone wanting to explore other worlds without letting them know that you were in fact from an alternate dimension.

I've heard about it before, but I'm legitimately curious, how do people arrive at that conclusion? I mean, I think it was made clear that the dragons on the other side don't suffer from degeneration. That doesn't really add up with Archanea's world, where basically every dragon in existence is suffering from that particular handicap. Wouldn't it make more sense to assume Archanea/Elibe are in the same world, since Elibe is the source of the degeneration and could serve as an explanation for what happened to Archanea's dragons? Of course, I might be missing something here, but I did wonder about that theory for quite a while.

[ForumLurker]

They lost a bet.