Possible inspiration for the game

[SuperNova125]

So the title is not the most accurate one considering what the topic is about. So after looking at the trailer you can tell that the world has had more thought put into it and I do believe that IS was inspired by actual nations and houses. So this is an account of all the possible inspirations I could find and parallels between the game and real life history. Take a note I am not a historian so please be gentle.

1. The seios will act for this as parallel to the catholic church of 16th-18th century Europe (not the modern one just not to be misunderstood). The story at the beginning is just the background of the game. Plus that place shown during trailer where Byleth walks inside could be a church.

2. The Holy Roman Empire was a country in Europe that existed around these centuries and was in fact a confederation in a way, between German speaking countries and even though there was an emperor he was selected for life and was mostly decorational. Each local ruler held power over his realm. The HRE was in fact a catholic mostly nation so the church held a lot of power inside the catholic states (there some protestants too).

3. Edelgard von Hresvelgr is obviously a name of german nobility. Her shield / coat of arms is a double headed eagle which has been a symbol associated with the Holy Roman Empire so this could mean that the house Edelgard belongs into is the ruling family of the empire. Before moving on I will comment on her hair as white hair was the craze of the time for women and men so that's a nice parallel. Back on topic the main ruling dynasty of the said empire was the house of Habsburg and thus there is an association with the eagle to make.

4. Dimitri Alexander Blaidad gets away from the German climate and resembles Russian nobility. First there isn't Von and second his House's shield / coat of arms resembles the imperial Russian one if you pay attention and third his names, especially Dimitri are very common I believe Russian and Orthodox nemes. However there is a problem, if we compare Edelgard and her house to that of Dimitri you can understand that he is neither catholic nor German. I believe that he still is inside the in game's version of the HRE due to the church of seios having major influence over the entire continent.

5. Claude Von Regan, now he is a hard one. First he is also German nobility due to the Von. However his skin colour makes it hard to guess where he comes from. His coat of arms at first might confuse even more however later on you can draw parallels from the moons, as they have been the symbol of Islamic countries and what country is Islamic and inside European ground during this period? The Ottoman empire, this can also explain the tanned skin as this is not the skin colour of European nobility during this period.

6. So here's the organisation of the in-game country. All states are inside the church of seios thus the big influence (language is easy whatever is selectable in-game). The local lords have powers over their respective realms and the church generally has a lot of power due to common religion and lack of centralised power. However the three houses of the protagonists are the most powerful. 

7. The crests of the Goddess that are tokens of her power and according to Edelgard the reason behind the "main conflict" are up to speculation as I don't know any actual parallels. But they could be:

      Part of the crown jewels of each state that has them

      Connected to legendary weaponry 

Sure thing is that they have an important religious role and powers sought out by everyone perhaps that's could be even a prophecy thing going on.

8.The final point before summing up and closing, the main conflict. Considerind the period the characters and everything I have made a speculation inspired by real events. If Edelgard's house is the ruling one works like the Habsburgs (nearly always getting elected) then Edelgard would pose a problem to current HREmperor as the she couldn't inherit the throne perhaps the house would be lost by her marriage. In that scenario then our axe lady would be compared to Empress Maria Theresa. Now on the other hand lie the other two main houses both trying to take the throne and the actual house of Edelgard itself for their own and gain a lot of power. That war begins by the death of the current HREmperor and Eds father. The three houses declare war on each other over the throne / the succession of the house (and possibly Eds marriage) and the land and titles. During this was the church takes that period of anarchy to control the nation and the houses seek the crests to fight each other and end the was to their favour however this creates more tensions. If it is like this then there would be split paths as the protagonists fight within one another and it could work like a free and single game version of Fates. Byleth is a teacher of the selected protagonist.

So that's it. It took me lot of research to write this and a lot reading from many different sources and it might be wishful thinking and some facts wrong however this is the best that I can do and the result of a month of research. If you have any opinions on this or corrections please write them ( I am not double checking this due to length so there will be grammatical errors and it took me 2 hours to write)

[Tryhard]

Good analysis. The last names of the characters can be found on the world map suggesting they all come from prostigious families (Regan is in Leicester, Bladud is in Fergus, Hræsvelgr is in Adrastea). This is a little strange because:

Adrastea is most likely derived from Greek for modern Turkey. While Claude would most likely to be a denizen of Greek/Ottoman faction, he seems to be the Leicester noble instead. Leicester is clearly English in etymology. 

Leicester might make more sense for Edelgard, but she 'seems' to be swapped with Claude.

The name Fergus is Celtic in nature (there is also a place labelled in Fergus that looks like 'Claymor' at the top of the map, which is probably a reference to the Scottish two-handed Claymore sword) and there are some kilt-wearing forces in the trailer, but once again, a Russian noble doesn't really make sense here unless there's some alliance of cold northern places (I'm fine with it)

I'm starting to wonder if IS just splurges out random etymology for their games. Considering the heavy use of Irish and Norse mythology previously for naming a good portion of the Fire Emblem series, that's probably not a bad guess. I do think it will mostly borrow from European theming and setting, though.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Edgelord

[AnonymousSpeed]

1 hour ago, Edgelord said:

I'm starting to wonder if IS just splurges out random etymology for their games. Considering the heavy use of Irish and Norse mythology previously for naming a good portion of the Fire Emblem series, that's probably not a bad guess. I do think it will mostly borrow from European theming and setting, though.

While I would agree that the names are mostly European in origin, I would lean towards saying they just use names from whatever languages they want.

2 hours ago, SuperNova125 said:

So that's it. It took me lot of research to write this and a lot reading from many different sources and it might be wishful thinking and some facts wrong however this is the best that I can do and the result of a month of research. If you have any opinions on this or corrections please write them ( I am not double checking this due to length so there will be grammatical errors and it took me 2 hours to write)

Well, I certainly enjoyed reading it, so you didn't waste your time. Especially since you came out with a greater knowledge of history.

[MacLovin]

23 hours ago, Edgelord said:

I'm starting to wonder if IS just splurges out random etymology for their games. Considering the heavy use of Irish and Norse mythology previously for naming a good portion of the Fire Emblem series, that's probably not a bad guess. I do think it will mostly borrow from European theming and setting, though.

could you please slowly explain to me on why Brynhildr is a dark magic tome that makes a tree pop out of the ground to kill someone.

I think it's legit random. Sometimes a general theme is followed, but then I gotta ask why is Siegfried a sword when Sigurd was a lord.

[Slumber]

7 hours ago, Mister Rogers said:

could you please slowly explain to me on why Brynhildr is a dark magic tome that makes a tree pop out of the ground to kill someone.

I think it's legit random. Sometimes a general theme is followed, but then I gotta ask why is Siegfried a sword when Sigurd was a lord.

Fates royally screwed the pooch here. Every other FE had weapons that were at least based on weapons, places, or at the very least, non-human animals... barring Siegmund and Sieglinde, but let's not question those ones. Eirika and Ephraim are already uncomfortably close for siblings without looking into this. Sometimes, it was just straight up nothing, like Lyn's weapons.

[Etrurian emperor]

Western Europe is a pretty likely place of inspiration for the world map. You got a southern peninsula in the south that's seperated from the rest by a mountain rage to represent Italy, in the northwest you got a nation that somewhat resembles France and Leicester to the east might be similar to Russia/Germany.  There's even a river heavy area that might take cue's from the low countries and an island to the west that's named Albion AKA Britain. 

12 hours ago, Mister Rogers said:

could you please slowly explain to me on why Brynhildr is a dark magic tome that makes a tree pop out of the ground to kill someone.

Same reason as why anima mages pretend to be dark mages. Dark magic got scrapped except for nosferatou but IS thought dark magic sounded more impressive and so that's what they called these obviously anima spells. 

[Robert Stewart]

On 7/23/2018 at 8:51 PM, Edgelord said:

I'm starting to wonder if IS just splurges out random etymology for their games. Considering the heavy use of Irish and Norse mythology previously for naming a good portion of the Fire Emblem series, that's probably not a bad guess. I do think it will mostly borrow from European theming and setting, though.

That's always what it seemed like to me. FE's use of mythological/ historical names felt less like deliberate references and more "hey look, here's a ready stockpile of cool sounding names we can use that don't require much effort on our part or infringe on any copyright."

[Quiyonce]

A very interesting read! I like your take on what the main conflict will be. 

Hopefully, some of the confusion with the naming conventions will be cleared up with more lore.

 

11 hours ago, Slumber said:

barring Siegmund and Sieglinde, but let's not question those ones. Eirika and Ephraim are already uncomfortably close for siblings without looking into this. 

I looked into it...I should not have

Edited July 25, 2018 by Quiyonce

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 7/25/2018 at 3:50 PM, Robert of Normandy said:

That's always what it seemed like to me. FE's use of mythological/ historical names felt less like deliberate references and more "hey look, here's a ready stockpile of cool sounding names we can use that don't require much effort on our part or infringe on any copyright."

Do you wonder if they couldn't make something up, or if they just feel compelled to use things from legend and mythology, based on the idea that this will somehow lend more credence to their artistic fancy?

[thecrimsonflash]

On 7/27/2018 at 10:02 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Do you wonder if they couldn't make something up, or if they just feel compelled to use things from legend and mythology, based on the idea that this will somehow lend more credence to their artistic fancy?

I would guess the former, I don't blame anyone, mythological names sound cool most of the time and thinking of something new is hard, just trying to think of what to name a character can take weeks and even then you can change your mind halfway through and it is only further complicated by using original names causing you to second guess yourself, just name your ultimate weapon gungnir and let's call it a day.