About those islands in the southeast...

[Acacia Sgt]

I don't know if this has ever been discussed before, but I'm bringing it up just in case. Recently, it came to my attention that those islands off the southeast coast of Magvel, seen here, don't seem to actually be owned by any of the continent's countries. Not even the ones closest to them, Jehanna and Grado. It's very hard to see with Grado, as Vigarde's mug is covering them up almost completely, but you can still see a small piece of the big eastern island, just below Vigarde's hair, and they're not glowing.

So what's the deal there? Someone forgot to include them? Was it deliberate? Are the islands really no man's land? Assuming it was a conscious thing to leave the islands as belonging to no country, the only other area of Magvel that this applies to is Darkling Woods, and you know what's in there. Are the islands are in a similar situation, which is why they haven't been claimed, not even by Grado?

It could go either way. I think it's more interesting if they were also a monster infested stronghold, instead of the developers forgetting to light them up. So, thoughts?

[AnonymousSpeed]

Do monsters even roam before the events of the game? I don't remember. I always assumed they didn't.

That being said, while it's more likely they were neglected by the developers, I prefer the idea that they're just unruled islands. You know, got people hangin' out, living free of the tyranny of the state or whatever. I mean, Sacred Stones doesn't let you look at its map a lot but I don't recall its nations ruling over very many islands and there exist like two ports on the whole continent, so some islands might have been a bit out of the way for them to pursue.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Do monsters even roam before the events of the game? I don't remember. I always assumed they didn't.

That being said, while it's more likely they were neglected by the developers, I prefer the idea that they're just unruled islands. You know, got people hangin' out, living free of the tyranny of the state or whatever. I mean, Sacred Stones doesn't let you look at its map a lot but I don't recall its nations ruling over very many islands and there exist like two ports on the whole continent, so some islands might have been a bit out of the way for them to pursue.

Roam as in expanding across the countryside? Yeah, they didn't until the Sacred Stones were being broken. However, the monsters have always been around. At least, the ones in Darkling Woods. Then again, dialogue in Chapter 6 implies the Bael were always in the nearby mountains, so the monsters were certainly around. Just, not roaming the countryside. There's probably other examples as well.

Part of me doubts it was a neglect. Depending on the way they had to code the areas in the map to light up, it looks more like they did it on purpose to not have the islands included. I mean, they made sure the area of the Darkling Woods doesn't, so with those islands it could be the same. To be fair, Magvel doesn't have that many islands to begin with, but only the ones in the southeast don't light up. Any other does. Like the northwest one lights up to show it is part of Freila.

About the ports, there's more than two. Bethroen, Taizel, and Kiris. That's only what is shown on the map. There's always the chance of being more ports we don't see because they're not relevant. Like whatever port in Rausten Eirika would've arrived to if she hadn't been diverted to Carcino.

I doubt the countries don't have their fair share of naval power. Grado certainly does, we even get to fight ships at Bethroen. Carcino as a mercantile republic is bound to have its fair share of ships. Heck, Port Kiris, which is part of Carcino, is stated to be visited by people of all nations. So there exist at least enough naval prescence if the port receives such a wide scope of visitors. Well, when the Phantom Ship is not around, at least. As such, I doubt the islands would really be left alone. Specially if they have Grado right next door.

[AnonymousSpeed]

...right, my bad. That leaves me out of ideas; sorry.