Fixing Fates story issues (spoilers)

[Alazen]

I've thought of the Fire Tribe being indigenous to the East. Dragons travel around the world on ships where they hunt for new servants. They bring them over to Fates' continent where after centuries noticeable populations form in the East and West. After the dragons go through their disasters, the world is left to pick up the pieces. After even more time Hoshidans go into conflict with Fire Tribesmen.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Alazen

[Time the Crestfallen]

Sounds good so far. I had a chuckle at the desert and frozen wastes not being the worst places to be.

Some comments:

-I feel like too much of the eastern half of the continent is neutral. If the jungle has no crops to harvest, and the crossroads are neutral, how much of that area even supports extensive agriculture? Hoshido proper doesn't seem large enough by itself to match off against Nohr (although, that could be the point).

- (going by the playable map) The pathway between Nohr and Hoshido seems... too impractical for large armies to pass through. How would any invasion begin unless it was naval? How did Marx and his soldiers get past the Hoshidan soldiers at the border if it's so well fortified?

-Yeah, the crossroads was a little bigger than I intended it it be. As for agriculture, the majority of Hoshido and Izumo can support agriculture. Kouga and Fuuma have less land that can grow crops, but they have a much lower population, so they can still support themselves and the Wind Tribe (and all the Tribes in general) are nomadic and move from place to place within their given territory, so they have even lower populations and resource requirements. As for why the crossroads are neutral, well, every Kingdom/Duchy was fighting over who should get to own it and they just agreed that nobody would own it if they couldn't decide amongst themselves who should.

-Yes, each side is heavily-fortified and the worn-out bridges make travelling either very slow or very dangerous. However, the alternatives are just as difficult. Nohr learned the hard way in the last war that Hoshido has a far better navy, so naval invasions are mostly out of the question and the only way to get around the Infinite Chasm on land is to go through the Frozen Wastes (not a good idea). On the Hoshido side, going through the Frozen Wastes is just as stupid an idea for them as it is for Nohr and while a naval invasion is their best option, they'd have to land on either the heavily-fortified Nohrian coast (as Muse refuses to let them land troops to maintain their neutrality) or the Tabora Desert (only slighly less suicidal than going through the Frozen Wastes) and they'd then have to go through countless Nohrian occupied countries, the Devil Bog, the Garou peaks or risk accidentally walking into the Great Blight if they try to go around the bog. It mightn't be a perfect explanation, but I'd like to think it's better than 'magic portal that makes people not want to fight'.

-As for how Xander and the Nohrian military gets through? Well, the Infinite Chasm does contain a portal to an Kingdom populated by invisible demons and a dragon so strong that it's treated as a God/Devil figure by many different cultures. The Nohrians wake up one day to find the Hoshidan Fortresses filled with corpses and decide to take advantage of it.

-Lastly, you're correct in assuming that it doesn't look like Hoshido should be able to fight Nohr by themselves because they can't. One of the things that bugs me about the premise is how the 'peace-loving' Hoshido are able to fight on even terms with the 'glory-seeking and warlike' Nohr. So while I've mentioned that Hoshidan elite soldiers are better than Nohrian elite soldiers, Nohr will eventually win the war due to a combination of better equipped and more skilled rank-and-file troops, the ability to cross the Infinite Chasm freely and vastly more experience with land wars.

[NekoKnight]

-Yeah, the crossroads was a little bigger than I intended it it be. As for agriculture, the majority of Hoshido and Izumo can support agriculture. Kouga and Fuuma have less land that can grow crops, but they have a much lower population, so they can still support themselves and the Wind Tribe (and all the Tribes in general) are nomadic and move from place to place within their given territory, so they have even lower populations and resource requirements. As for why the crossroads are neutral, well, every Kingdom/Duchy was fighting over who should get to own it and they just agreed that nobody would own it if they couldn't decide amongst themselves who should.

-Yes, each side is heavily-fortified and the worn-out bridges make travelling either very slow or very dangerous. However, the alternatives are just as difficult. Nohr learned the hard way in the last war that Hoshido has a far better navy, so naval invasions are mostly out of the question and the only way to get around the Infinite Chasm on land is to go through the Frozen Wastes (not a good idea). On the Hoshido side, going through the Frozen Wastes is just as stupid an idea for them as it is for Nohr and while a naval invasion is their best option, they'd have to land on either the heavily-fortified Nohrian coast (as Muse refuses to let them land troops to maintain their neutrality) or the Tabora Desert (only slighly less suicidal than going through the Frozen Wastes) and they'd then have to go through countless Nohrian occupied countries, the Devil Bog, the Garou peaks or risk accidentally walking into the Great Blight if they try to go around the bog. It mightn't be a perfect explanation, but I'd like to think it's better than 'magic portal that makes people not want to fight'.

-As for how Xander and the Nohrian military gets through? Well, the Infinite Chasm does contain a portal to an Kingdom populated by invisible demons and a dragon so strong that it's treated as a God/Devil figure by many different cultures. The Nohrians wake up one day to find the Hoshidan Fortresses filled with corpses and decide to take advantage of it.

-Lastly, you're correct in assuming that it doesn't look like Hoshido should be able to fight Nohr by themselves because they can't. One of the things that bugs me about the premise is how the 'peace-loving' Hoshido are able to fight on even terms with the 'glory-seeking and warlike' Nohr. So while I've mentioned that Hoshidan elite soldiers are better than Nohrian elite soldiers, Nohr will eventually win the war due to a combination of better equipped and more skilled rank-and-file troops, the ability to cross the Infinite Chasm freely and vastly more experience with land wars.

-I don't see a reason to have neutral territory. If a territory contains resources worth harvesting (or can be farmed) there is no reason not to take it. Everyone coming to a mutual agreement that useful territory should remain neutral sounds about as farfetched as "Hoshido is only full of good people". It's just human nature to take as much as they can. The same might be said for the jungle. I don't exactly buy "super dense trees that can't be cut". I'm sure Hoshidans like lumber just as much as anyone.

-I guess I'll have to see how your story pans out before I can say much else on the Chasm. The setting seems to suggest a lot of conflict going on between Nohr and Hoshido and yet, it's nearly impossible getting across the Chasm so... where and how are these battles happening?

-Isn't there a logical inconsistency with Hoshido having the best elite soldiers and them being a generally peaceful people? If Nohr is constantly fighting/conquering, I'm sure they're going to have more combat experience, ie better soldiers and more experienced generals. I feel like Hoshido is the Nights Watch and the Chasm is the Wall. The Chasm is really the only thing stopping them from getting steamrolled.

-Maybe you mentioned this in an earlier post, but is there a reason Nohr hasn't annexed Muse and Nortudea? Is there nothing worth taking from them? The reason I chose was Hoshido refusing to directly trade with Nohr, so Nohr allows the western duchies their autonomy in exchange for trade deals (they invade Muse and Nortudea after Hoshido is conquered).

[Time the Crestfallen]

-I don't see a reason to have neutral territory. If a territory contains resources worth harvesting (or can be farmed) there is no reason not to take it. Everyone coming to a mutual agreement that useful territory should remain neutral sounds about as farfetched as "Hoshido is only full of good people". It's just human nature to take as much as they can. The same might be said for the jungle. I don't exactly buy "super dense trees that can't be cut". I'm sure Hoshidans like lumber just as much as anyone.

-I guess I'll have to see how your story pans out before I can say much else on the Chasm. The setting seems to suggest a lot of conflict going on between Nohr and Hoshido and yet, it's nearly impossible getting across the Chasm so... where and how are these battles happening?

-Isn't there a logical inconsistency with Hoshido having the best elite soldiers and them being a generally peaceful people? If Nohr is constantly fighting/conquering, I'm sure they're going to have more combat experience, ie better soldiers and more experienced generals. I feel like Hoshido is the Nights Watch and the Chasm is the Wall. The Chasm is really the only thing stopping them from getting steamrolled.

-Maybe you mentioned this in an earlier post, but is there a reason Nohr hasn't annexed Muse and Nortudea? Is there nothing worth taking from them? The reason I chose was Hoshido refusing to directly trade with Nohr, so Nohr allows the western duchies their autonomy in exchange for trade deals (they invade Muse and Nortudea after Hoshido is conquered).

Sorry, I'm noticing that I don't do a good job of explaining things the first time, that's my bad. What I posted was a very tl;dr version that I was going to expand on when when I got to writing about miscellaneous territories. Let me explain:

[spoiler=Neutral Territory]

The 'crossroads' used to be a Kingdom during the days of the Fourth Hoshidan King (i.e. during the rebellion). When shit really started to hit the fan, that Kingdom (the name has been long since forgotten) was the main staging point for a guerilla assaults that drove most of the occupying forces out of the country. The Hoshidan King then decided that he was sick of these Vassal States making a mockery of him and decided to 'teach them a lesson'. The result was one burnt-to-the-ground Capital and hundreds of thousands of dead civilians. However, rather than cowing the rebelling Vassal States, the slaughter only served to fuel their hatred and desire for freedom while convincing the majority of the Hoshidan population that they'd crossed the line and the Palace staff smuggled in a group of Fuuman/Kougan ninjas and helped them assassinate the king. The king's son (partially because he was much less of a jackass and partially because he was afraid of suffering the same fate) promptly granted the Vassal States independance...with the exception of the one that just got ruined. The new king argued that because there was no government anymore and the land officially still belonged to Hoshido, that the Kingdom's should remain Hoshidan territory. The recently-freed Kingdoms and Duchies than pointed out that the only reason that there was no government to turn it over to was because Hoshidan soldiers had killed them all. In the end, nobody claimed official ownership of the land except for the independant townships that survived the slaughter. So there ARE people living there, but there isn't a central authority that everyone has to obey and the towns and villages are mostly self-governing.

As for the wilderness, ALL of the trees are about the size of the real-life Giant Sequoia. Bearing this in mind, remember that they don't have any chainsaws or modern cutting equipment, so they have to use axes. In Hoshidos case, all the imported mineral resources are used for construction, farming equipment and weapons for the Samurai Caste, so their wood-chopping tools are made of their equivalent of Japanese Pig-Iron (notorious for its shitty quality) and blunt very quickly as a result (and this is without going into digging out the stumps and then colonising the land). Izumo and Fuuma don't have the manpower necessary for such a massive undertaking, with Izumo and Kouga also having to take into account transporting the wood across the Crossroads (for Izumo, which is no small distance) and Fuuma dealing with the aftermath of conquering/destroying Kouga. So to sum it up, Hoshido doesn't find the lumber resources they would acquire to be worth the mineral resources and time/energy they'd lose gaining it while Izumo and Fuuma don't have a large enough population to fulfill the manpower required, along with other issues.

[spoiler=Skirmishes]

There is conflict, but it comes in the form of small skirmishes within the Infinite Chasm as each side tries to gain the upper hand. The Hoshidans are unable to make ground because the Nohrians are very good at defending territory while the Nohrians superiority as an army is offset by the fact that most of their army is composed of heavily-armoured units which don't tend to be very safe or effective for the terrain (the biggest causes of death for Nohrian soldiers in the Infinite Chasm are 'fell of cliff' and 'fell through bridge').

[spoiler= Skill vs. Experience]

The reason that Hoshido is able to have the best 'elite' troops is because the Samurai Caste train with weapons as soon as they can hold a weapon while Nohr and its Vassal States have an age restriction (16 if you're wondering). In addition, only a small fraction of Nohr's military are full-time soldiers while the vast majority are part of a rotating 'reserves force' with only a portion of the army being active at a given time (the grand total number of registered soldiers for the Nohrian Empire is around 1 million, but only 200,000 are active at any time so that they can be sent home when tired and replaced with fresh and combat-ready troops). What I'm going for is a 'skill vs. experience' set up, where the Hoshidans are the more skilled fighters but the Nohrians have more combat experience and fight pragmatically. For example, General vs. Trueblade; the Trueblade has an S-Rank in his/her chosen weapon while the General has A-Rank in Lances and B-Rank in Axes. While the Trueblade can be considered a more skilled fighter, the General gets Defensive Formation to negate double-attacks and the weapons triangle advantage, so the fight can be considered favourable to the General, who can also pull out his/her axe as a secondary weapon if they have to fight a Holy Lancer.

[spoiler=Nohrian Conquest]

There are two reasons why Nohr hasn't conquered Muse; the first is that standard procedure for Nohrian occupation is to surpress and destroy the conquered nations culture as much as humanly possible and real!Garon had a well-known love for the culture of Muse and would personally track down and torture to death any General who tried to mess with it, so slime!Garon has to keep up appearances and leave Muse be. The second reason...well, just read the section about Switzerland in the link I'm going to put here and you'll have the gist of it.

http://www.cracked.com/article_20301_the-5-most-secretly-badass-countries.html

As for Noltradia, to make a long story short, one of the trade agreements between the Noltradia Isles and Hoshido is naval protection from Nohrian forces (tourists are an exception). As I've mentioned, the Hoshidan Navy utterly outclasses the Nohrian Navy, so the Generals don't consider it worth the effort.

On another note, I've been giving stats to various NPC's so that I have an idea of how strong they are in the story (I feel like having a guideline for these things is important) and I've finished the ones for Anankos:

[spoiler=Characters possessed by Anankos]

+ 15 HP and Str

+10 Mag, Skl, Spd, Lck and Def

+ 5 Res

Gain Skills: Divine Shield and Status Immunity as well as proficiency with Breath Weapons

Gain Weapon: Astral Breath (Mt- 10, Hit- 85, Crit- 0, Avd- 0, Rng- 1~5. Magic weapon. Cannot Double Attack)

[spoiler=Anankos]

*Note, these are his stats when not in proximity to Yato-Final and yes, they are supposed to be this unfair

Anankos

Class: Invisible Dragon

Inventory: Invisible Breath 1, Invisible Breath 2)

Skills: Rightful God (Prf. Skill), Status Immunity, Limit Breaker, Eclipse, Mantle, Galeforce

Stats:

HP- 160

Strength- 61

Magic- 60

Skill- 65

Speed- 63

Luck- 58

Defence- 62

Resistance- 62

Rightful God- Adds 30% to Skill Activation Rates

Limit Breaker- +10 to All Stats

Eclipse- Skill% chance of negating enemy's defense and multiplying Strength (if Physical Weapon) or Magic (if Magic Weapon) by 5

Mantle- Reduces all damage by 3/4. Immune to Poison and Counter-type skills. Prevents enemies from activating special skills and critical hits. Recover HP equal to Luck at the start of each turn.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Phillius

[NekoKnight]

Sorry, I'm noticing that I don't do a good job of explaining things the first time, that's my bad. What I posted was a very tl;dr version that I was going to expand on when when I got to writing about miscellaneous territories. Let me explain:

[spoiler=Neutral Territory]

The 'crossroads' used to be a Kingdom during the days of the Fourth Hoshidan King (i.e. during the rebellion). When shit really started to hit the fan, that Kingdom (the name has been long since forgotten) was the main staging point for a guerilla assaults that drove most of the occupying forces out of the country. The Hoshidan King then decided that he was sick of these Vassal States making a mockery of him and decided to 'teach them a lesson'. The result was one burnt-to-the-ground Capital and hundreds of thousands of dead civilians. However, rather than cowing the rebelling Vassal States, the slaughter only served to fuel their hatred and desire for freedom while convincing the majority of the Hoshidan population that they'd crossed the line and the Palace staff smuggled in a group of Fuuman/Kougan ninjas and helped them assassinate the king. The king's son (partially because he was much less of a jackass and partially because he was afraid of suffering the same fate) promptly granted the Vassal States independance...with the exception of the one that just got ruined. The new king argued that because there was no government anymore and the land officially still belonged to Hoshido, that the Kingdom's should remain Hoshidan territory. The recently-freed Kingdoms and Duchies than pointed out that the only reason that there was no government to turn it over to was because Hoshidan soldiers had killed them all. In the end, nobody claimed official ownership of the land except for the independant townships that survived the slaughter. So there ARE people living there, but there isn't a central authority that everyone has to obey and the towns and villages are mostly self-governing.

As for the wilderness, ALL of the trees are about the size of the real-life Giant Sequoia. Bearing this in mind, remember that they don't have any chainsaws or modern cutting equipment, so they have to use axes. In Hoshidos case, all the imported mineral resources are used for construction, farming equipment and weapons for the Samurai Caste, so their wood-chopping tools are made of their equivalent of Japanese Pig-Iron (notorious for its shitty quality) and blunt very quickly as a result (and this is without going into digging out the stumps and then colonising the land). Izumo and Fuuma don't have the manpower necessary for such a massive undertaking, with Izumo and Kouga also having to take into account transporting the wood across the Crossroads (for Izumo, which is no small distance) and Fuuma dealing with the aftermath of conquering/destroying Kouga. So to sum it up, Hoshido doesn't find the lumber resources they would acquire to be worth the mineral resources and time/energy they'd lose gaining it while Izumo and Fuuma don't have a large enough population to fulfill the manpower required, along with other issues.

[spoiler=Skirmishes]

There is conflict, but it comes in the form of small skirmishes within the Infinite Chasm as each side tries to gain the upper hand. The Hoshidans are unable to make ground because the Nohrians are very good at defending territory while the Nohrians superiority as an army is offset by the fact that most of their army is composed of heavily-armoured units which don't tend to be very safe or effective for the terrain (the biggest causes of death for Nohrian soldiers in the Infinite Chasm are 'fell of cliff' and 'fell through bridge').

[spoiler= Skill vs. Experience]

The reason that Hoshido is able to have the best 'elite' troops is because the Samurai Caste train with weapons as soon as they can hold a weapon while Nohr and its Vassal States have an age restriction (16 if you're wondering). In addition, only a small fraction of Nohr's military are full-time soldiers while the vast majority are part of a rotating 'reserves force' with only a portion of the army being active at a given time (the grand total number of registered soldiers for the Nohrian Empire is around 1 million, but only 200,000 are active at any time so that they can be sent home when tired and replaced with fresh and combat-ready troops). What I'm going for is a 'skill vs. experience' set up, where the Hoshidans are the more skilled fighters but the Nohrians have more combat experience and fight pragmatically. For example, General vs. Trueblade; the Trueblade has an S-Rank in his/her chosen weapon while the General has A-Rank in Lances and B-Rank in Axes. While the Trueblade can be considered a more skilled fighter, the General gets Defensive Formation to negate double-attacks and the weapons triangle advantage, so the fight can be considered favourable to the General, who can also pull out his/her axe as a secondary weapon if they have to fight a Holy Lancer.

[spoiler=Nohrian Conquest]

There are two reasons why Nohr hasn't conquered Muse; the first is that standard procedure for Nohrian occupation is to surpress and destroy the conquered nations culture as much as humanly possible and real!Garon had a well-known love for the culture of Muse and would personally track down and torture to death any General who tried to mess with it, so slime!Garon has to keep up appearances and leave Muse be. The second reason...well, just read the section about Switzerland in the link I'm going to put here and you'll have the gist of it.

http://www.cracked.com/article_20301_the-5-most-secretly-badass-countries.html

As for Noltradia, to make a long story short, one of the trade agreements between the Noltradia Isles and Hoshido is naval protection from Nohrian forces (tourists are an exception). As I've mentioned, the Hoshidan Navy utterly outclasses the Nohrian Navy, so the Generals don't consider it worth the effort.

On another note, I've been giving stats to various NPC's so that I have an idea of how strong they are in the story (I feel like having a guideline for these things is important) and I've finished the ones for Anankos:

[spoiler=Characters possessed by Anankos]

+ 15 HP and Str

+10 Mag, Skl, Spd, Lck and Def

+ 5 Res

Gain Skills: Divine Shield and Status Immunity as well as proficiency with Breath Weapons

Gain Weapon: Astral Breath (Mt- 10, Hit- 85, Crit- 0, Avd- 0, Rng- 1~5. Magic weapon. Cannot Double Attack)

[spoiler=Anankos]

*Note, these are his stats when not in proximity to Yato-Final and yes, they are supposed to be this unfair

Anankos

Class: Invisible Dragon

Inventory: Invisible Breath 1, Invisible Breath 2)

Skills: Rightful God (Prf. Skill), Status Immunity, Limit Breaker, Eclipse, Mantle, Galeforce

Stats:

HP- 160

Strength- 61

Magic- 60

Skill- 65

Speed- 63

Luck- 58

Defence- 62

Resistance- 62

Rightful God- Adds 30% to Skill Activation Rates

Limit Breaker- +10 to All Stats

Eclipse- Skill% chance of negating enemy's defense and multiplying Strength (if Physical Weapon) or Magic (if Magic Weapon) by 5

Mantle- Reduces all damage by 3/4. Immune to Poison and Counter-type skills. Prevents enemies from activating special skills and critical hits. Recover HP equal to Luck at the start of each turn.

I think the weapon ranks are just a gameplay function to make mono-weapon users not outclassed by multi-weapon users. The idea that Hoshidans suddenly become super badasses just because they train with a single weapon type (so do most units, before they promote) is a little.. eh. As far as the "trained to be warriors from childhood vs teenage years" I think any nation with active need for soldiers is going to train their kids from as early as they can. And again, Nohr does a lot more fighting than Hoshido, so there is even more reason for them to not waste time.

So Muse has a bunch of badass soldiers hidden away? Huh... wouldn't have thought it. Considering Garon just does whatever he wants there (like killing the dancers), you'd think they were all under his thumb.

But don't let me rain on your parade. It's your story after all.

@Those boss stats, Yikes. Easy on the Lunatic++++, Phillius.

[Time the Crestfallen]

I think the weapon ranks are just a gameplay function to make mono-weapon users not outclassed by multi-weapon users. The idea that Hoshidans suddenly become super badasses just because they train with a single weapon type (so do most units, before they promote) is a little.. eh. As far as the "trained to be warriors from childhood vs teenage years" I think any nation with active need for soldiers is going to train their kids from as early as they can. And again, Nohr does a lot more fighting than Hoshido, so there is even more reason for them to not waste time.

Eh, I know it isn't a perfect excuse, but 'Nohr curbstomps Hoshido within a month' isn't a very interesting story, so I did what I could.

@Those boss stats, Yikes. Easy on the Lunatic++++, Phillius.

And that's when he's weakened/not really trying. He's like a sadistic child tormenting ants when he fight; he could just crush his enemies in an instant if he wanted to, but he's more interested in seeing them suffer than a quick victory and the fact that good!Anankos is constantly fighting on the inside prevents him from using some of his more ludicrously overpowered abilities (the story would end very differently if Anankos could see the future or rewind time). In fact, the story (well, one of the stories, but more on that latter) comes down to a one-on-one fight between Kamui and Anankos and it's made painfully clear that the only reason Kamui is able to fight them at first is because Anankos wants him to join them (also because the merge between good and crazy Anankos does make Anankos love Kamui to a certain degree, albeit in a very abusive and controlling kind of love) and when it becomes clear that Kamui isn't interested, he gets basically one-shotted.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Phillius

[NekoKnight]

Eh, I know it isn't a perfect excuse, but 'Nohr curbstomps Hoshido within a month' isn't a very interesting story, so I did what I could.

Couldn't you just have something like "Hoshidan soldiers are well fed and healthy compared to Nohrians who often become malnourished and more likely to contract illnesses"? When it comes to war, disease can kill even more than the fighting so it could just be that Hoshido always has fresh batches of healthy soldiers vs Nohr who really has to struggle to support a sizable fighting force. In other words, Nohr can blitzkrieg the hell out of it's neighbors when there aren't serious natural obstacles between them but in a war of attrition with a well defended and well stocked Hoshido, it will always lose. I think addressing simple matters of logistics is easier than adding dubious cultural differences that require more suspension of disbelief.

And that's when he's weakened/not really trying. He's like a sadistic child tormenting ants when he fight; he could just crush his enemies in an instant if he wanted to, but he's more interested in seeing them suffer than a quick victory and the fact that good!Anankos is constantly fighting on the inside prevents him from using some of his more ludicrously overpowered abilities (the story would end very differently if Anankos could see the future or rewind time). In fact, the story (well, one of the stories, but more on that latter) comes down to a one-on-one fight between Kamui and Anankos and it's made painfully clear that the only reason Kamui is able to fight them at first is because Anankos wants him to join them (also because the merge between good and crazy Anankos does make Anankos love Kamui to a certain degree, albeit in a very abusive and controlling kind of love) and when it becomes clear that Kamui isn't interested, he gets basically one-shotted.

As long as you don't write yourself into a corner with him being a physical god. I recall the manga Bleach pumping up its Big Bad so much, that there wasn't even the remotest chance of anyone in the universe beating him... and then he just chooses not to use his powers and the protagonist one shots him with a convenient, single use, never-to-be-used-again power-up.

I think there is something charming about the final bosses in FE titles that AREN'T world-devouring cosmic-entities that can end existence by blinking. Like defeating a Fire Dragon at the end of Rekka was badass but it's not the same as punching out Cthulhu. I guess "defeating the undefeatable by the power of teamwork" becomes tired after a while.

Edited October 1, 2015 by NekoKnight

[Time the Crestfallen]

Couldn't you just have something like "Hoshidan soldiers are well fed and healthy compared to Nohrians who often become malnourished and more likely to contract illnesses"? When it comes to war, disease can kill even more than the fighting so it could just be that Hoshido always has fresh batches of healthy soldiers vs Nohr who really has to struggle to support a sizable fighting force. In other words, Nohr can blitzkrieg the hell out of it's neighbors when there aren't serious natural obstacles between them but in a war of attrition with a well defended and well stocked Hoshido, it will always lose. I think addressing simple matters of logistics is easier than adding dubious cultural differences that require more suspension of disbelief.

But the problem with that is, if the majority of Nohr's population is malnourished/ill, then how can the country support itself? I was thinking that maybe Hoshido learned about the usefulness of Guerilla tactics when it comes to taking on a superior foe. You said that logistics were important and I think that ninjas playing havoc with Nohrian supply lines would slow them down quite a bit. Add the fact that the generals are too busy being paranoid of one another to make any decent headway while Hoshido is (more or less) unified under each others banner. You might also be able to do something with Hoshido/Izumo's fortune-telling apparently being somewhat accurate, but I don't really like the idea.

As long as you don't write yourself into a corner with him being a physical god. I recall the manga Bleach pumping up its Big Bad so much, that there wasn't even the remotest chance of anyone in the universe beating him... and then he just chooses not to use his powers and the protagonist one shots him with a convenient, single use, never-to-be-used-again power-up.

Don't worry, Anankos has plenty of flaws, but they're more to do with personality than physicality. I'm trying to characterise him as close to how a real-life sociopath would act as opposed to movie/TV portrayal, so he's got a lot of problems with long-term planning and impulse control. He's also incredibly lazy and considers 'leg-work' to be beneath him and sends minions to take care of tasks that could be done infinitely easier if he did it himself. To top it off, like I said, he draws out fights for no reason other than his own amusement, so if he loses it'll be because he was winning and then loses it in a fit of suicidal overconfidence where he brags about how much better he is rather than just finishing his opponent off. Besides, it's like I said in an earlier post, the Yatogami was created to kill dragons, so god-like power or not, two-or-three good hits is all it takes to bring him down.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Phillius

[Alazen]

How about having Hydra turned into a gestalt of essences/souls/whatever who operates in Touma? Through a combination of Dragon Magic, Touma's location, and conveniently placed runes Hydra is able to use his power throughout the continent. This is a nod to indigenous Japanese worship having kami able to represent a group of dead.

Lilith is his agent who goes around doing what works for his plans or what she views as such.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Alazen

[NekoKnight]

But the problem with that is, if the majority of Nohr's population is malnourished/ill, then how can the country support itself? I was thinking that maybe Hoshido learned about the usefulness of Guerilla tactics when it comes to taking on a superior foe. You said that logistics were important and I think that ninjas playing havoc with Nohrian supply lines would slow them down quite a bit. Add the fact that the generals are too busy being paranoid of one another to make any decent headway while Hoshido is (more or less) unified under each others banner. You might also be able to do something with Hoshido/Izumo's fortune-telling apparently being somewhat accurate, but I don't really like the idea.

Malnourished doesn't mean dead or dying (although it could lead to that, hence what I said about being susceptible to illnesses). It just means that while they may be numerous and well armed, they aren't in peak form, unlike Hoshidans. That would only be part of the problem (mostly a concern of the poorer soldiers) as Hoshido will never run out of food but Nohr will eventually collapse on itself if all its hard workers are at war. You mentioned most of the army being in reserves, but what that means is that Nohr has the option of mustering a lot of soldiers and winning quickly (not possible because of the Chasm) or mustering only a fraction of their soldiers and not having enough to break the Hoshidan lines. It's a lose-lose situation for them. I like the idea of these problems compounding by espionage work of ninjas.

One idea I had about how Nohr gets the advantage over Hoshido and gets past the Chasm is the development of Warp staves. Nohr already has superior magic research (hence all the classes that use magic and stronger healing magic) so it makes sense they would have tools Hoshidans have never encountered. It would let platoons of Nohrian soldiers pass into Hoshido and attack the Chasm defenses from both sides, cutting them off from reinforcements and supplies.

[Alazen]

It's occurred to me that the Big Choice and the events leading to it should be reworked.

Even if Garon or whoever lied about Kamui's parentage, short of the king acting like a cartoon villain Kamui really shouldn't care enough about Hoshido or his Hoshidan relatives to ditch Nohr. Since I'm assuming a rewrite would fix Fates' Black (Dark Grey) and White portrayal of the two kingdoms then you shouldn't go with Kamui ditching Nohr because morals (or at least you shouldn't play it straight).

So, I propose that Kamui joining Hoshido is framed as Kamui ditching Nohr for him to gain a higher position in Hoshiodan society than he would have in Nohr.

[NekoKnight]

It's occurred to me that the Big Choice and the events leading to it should be reworked.

Even if Garon or whoever lied about Kamui's parentage, short of the king acting like a cartoon villain Kamui really shouldn't care enough about Hoshido or his Hoshidan relatives to ditch Nohr. Since I'm assuming a rewrite would fix Fates' Black (Dark Grey) and White portrayal of the two kingdoms then you shouldn't go with Kamui ditching Nohr because morals (or at least you shouldn't play it straight).

So, I propose that Kamui joining Hoshido is framed as Kamui ditching Nohr for him to gain a higher position in Hoshiodan society than he would have in Nohr.

Switching to a completely foreign culture to get a minor promotion doesn't strike me as a logical move. Not to mention it would mean betraying his/her family for personal gain. Not a very smart or sympathetic protagonist.

[Alazen]

Kamui is not a birth child of Garon. He would unsurprisingly be at the bottom for inheritance and/or land grants. Going with Nohr being Medieval Europe, not only would it have the traditional royal inheritance but Kamui would have grown-up with the knowledge of such.

Assuming Kamui is indeed a sibling towards the Hoshido siblings in a rewrite, she could figure she has better prospects regardless of being a man or woman. And she doesn't have to be one to think of it first. A Hoshidan character could propose a position for Kamui in Hoshidan society if he joins Hoshido.

I'm not seeing the problem with Kamui not being the paragon of virtue (or not treated as so).

Edited October 1, 2015 by Alazen

[NekoKnight]

So he would go from low-ranked prince to middle-ranked prince. It's not like Kamui's going to have a bad life either way (well, besides Nohrdor being a shitty place). To reiterate, Kamui would abandon his family and culture for a country he knows nothing of, because someone suggested he'd get a pay raise.

Even if Garon had no intention of giving Kamui anything of value, after he dies, Marx will be king and he can give Kamui whatever he feels he is due.

[Alazen]

Together with blood as prestige, it's one of the the better approaches to having Kamui join Hoshido I can think of. Because morals (or at least if you're playing it straight) is dependent on factors I'm trying to avoid or tone down. Because they're so close doesn't work since Kamui shouldn't care enough about Hoshido.

Really, I'm not seeing a better way to keep with Fates' premise (a royal of one kingdom is abducted by the king of another, and much later must choose which kingdom to side with) while also rewriting assorted problematic elements. Another way I thought of that can go in line with that is spinning Kamui as a rube who gets used by multiple parties.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Alazen

[Time the Crestfallen]

You mentioned most of the army being in reserves, but what that means is that Nohr has the option of mustering a lot of soldiers and winning quickly (not possible because of the Chasm) or mustering only a fraction of their soldiers and not having enough to break the Hoshidan lines. It's a lose-lose situation for them. I like the idea of these problems compounding by espionage work of ninjas.

True, but consider that if they wanted to mobilise every soldier thay had, they'd have to outfit them with gear, make sure they remember everything they learnt during basic training and get them across the Nohrian Empire and the Infinite Chasm. That would take a long time to do, especially considering that the ninjas are messing with supply lines. Additionally, the reserves all work civilian jobs when not on military duty and sending them all of to war would leave every other business/employment severly understaffed. Lastly, I think I mentioned this in the Nohr post (but I don't remember), but the majority of all active Nohrian soldiers are used to keep already conquered territory under their control, so the number of soldiers invading Hoshido at any one time is lower than you'd think (30,000-50,000).

It's occurred to me that the Big Choice and the events leading to it should be reworked.

Even if Garon or whoever lied about Kamui's parentage, short of the king acting like a cartoon villain Kamui really shouldn't care enough about Hoshido or his Hoshidan relatives to ditch Nohr. Since I'm assuming a rewrite would fix Fates' Black (Dark Grey) and White portrayal of the two kingdoms then you shouldn't go with Kamui ditching Nohr because morals (or at least you shouldn't play it straight).

So, I propose that Kamui joining Hoshido is framed as Kamui ditching Nohr for him to gain a higher position in Hoshiodan society than he would have in Nohr.

My rewrite of this is that the reason Kamui doesn't remember his Hoshido family is because Nohr has a series of tomes that can tamper with/erase memories, but the process is reversible (albiet taking a long time) and his time spent in Hoshido consists of him slowly recovering his memories of them. Besides, after Azura ends the dragon roid-rage they suddenly remember being abducted by Garon, which I guess would symbolise getting all their memories back.

How about having Hydra turned into a gestalt of essences/souls/whatever who operates in Touma? Through a combination of Dragon Magic, Touma's location, and conveniently placed runes Hydra is able to use his power throughout the continent. This is a nod to indigenous Japanese worship having kami able to represent a group of dead.

Lilith is his agent who goes around doing what works for his plans or what she views as such.

I'm actually considering something similar to that; when Anankos was still sane and the symptoms of insanity started appearing, a lot of the things he did to preserve his mind resulted in him losing a lot of his power and sociopath!Anankos tried to fix it by ritually absorbing the souls of everyone he kills to try and replace what he lost (somewhat similar to what Alucard does in Hellsing).

Edited October 2, 2015 by Phillius

[Ebony]

Just curious but... what if Hoshido actually ended up sending out food shipments and such, but some extremists managed to block it at the last possible moment, making it so they never get in...?

Jus' a thought.

[NekoKnight]

True, but consider that if they wanted to mobilise every soldier thay had, they'd have to outfit them with gear, make sure they remember everything they learnt during basic training and get them across the Nohrian Empire and the Infinite Chasm. That would take a long time to do, especially considering that the ninjas are messing with supply lines. Additionally, the reserves all work civilian jobs when not on military duty and sending them all of to war would leave every other business/employment severly understaffed. Lastly, I think I mentioned this in the Nohr post (but I don't remember), but the majority of all active Nohrian soldiers are used to keep already conquered territory under their control, so the number of soldiers invading Hoshido at any one time is lower than you'd think (30,000-50,000).

Sorry, I worded my response poorly. I was agreeing with you. I was suggesting that with the limitations on Nohr's ability to continue a long war/maintain a large active army, you don't need "Hoshido has the best elite troops for some reason" (although I do like them having a superior navy).

Just curious but... what if Hoshido actually ended up sending out food shipments and such, but some extremists managed to block it at the last possible moment, making it so they never get in...?

Jus' a thought.

That's an option, but I'd prefer the main government not being completely blameless (ie, the governent is saintly but extremists ruined their goodwill efforts). For my possible Hoshido story, Ryoma may have offered food to Nohr under different circumstances but ever since his father was murdered, he's held a strong grudge.

[Ebony]

That's an option, but I'd prefer the main government not being completely blameless (ie, the governent is saintly but extremists ruined their goodwill efforts). For my possible Hoshido story, Ryoma may have offered food to Nohr under different circumstances but ever since his father was murdered, he's held a strong grudge.

Eh I never meant to imply they're saintly, just that they attempted to at least do something to kind of get them "off their backs" like SEE WE HELPED

[Time the Crestfallen]

Sorry, I worded my response poorly. I was agreeing with you. I was suggesting that with the limitations on Nohr's ability to continue a long war/maintain a large active army, you don't need "Hoshido has the best elite troops for some reason" (although I do like them having a superior navy).

Ah, I see what you mean and I think I've come up with a compromise; the Hoshidan Military is better than the Standard Invasion Force, which is all Nohr is willing to send in at first since they've gotten much better at the whole 'war' thing and now consider conquering Hoshido to be 'business as usual' and nothing more. The logic of the Generals is that 'if they win, hooray' and 'if they lose, big deal, we'll just send in the Omega Legion (name is still a work in progress)' who are the most well-equipped, best trained and most experienced Nohiran soldiers in one legion, who would steamroll everything Hoshido has to throw at them with ease. However, the Omega Legion is usually spread out across the entire Empire and comes together as a whole only rarely. In gameplay terms, the Standard Invasion Force is normal difficulty, the Hoshidan Military is Hard and the Omega Legion is Lunatic/Lunatic +.

Edited October 2, 2015 by Phillius

[False Prophet]

Not the right thread to ask about this, but which era of real life do you think is equivalent to Hoshido and Nohr?

Hoshido would definitely after 1500, maybe even just before the Warring State era. The armours, especially Ryouma's, is not laminated but made of several big plates (but not one-piece like the Namban armors, which are famous for Sekihagara.) Also, they call swords as "Katana", not "Tachi".

[Taka-kun]

Not the right thread to ask about this, but which era of real life do you think is equivalent to Hoshido and Nohr?

Hoshido would definitely after 1500, maybe even just before the Warring State era. The armours, especially Ryouma's, is not laminated but made of several big plates (but not one-piece like the Namban armors, which are famous for Sekihagara.) Also, they call swords as "Katana", not "Tachi".

I know it's not adressed to me, but I just had to jump at the chance.

As Alazen has outlined it (which is much more detailed than the game itself), the Nohrian military feels very much similar to the Roman military back in its heyday. There is always the "core" Roman legions which do basically all the heavy lifting, with their skills and discipline and might. Then there is the "auxuliary" forces which fill up the rest of the ranks (skirmishers, scouts etc.) and considering Nohr has conquered several smaller nations/tribes/duchies, foreign elements will be in their ranks if they mean to fill it to match the larger Hoshidan military. If we are going to be more specific, maybe the Byzantine army would be more suitable, since they were famous for using cavalry (cataphracts).

Since there exist samurais in its commonly interpreted form (a warrior caste as opposed to a noble family serving the emperor), Hoshido is definitely Japan after the Genpei war, at least culturally-wise when Bushido became a thing. Placing it in the sengoku period is definitely not wrong technology-wise (except for the lack of arquebusers and cavalry and the presence of pegasi and magic) though I am not sure if we can say they have the same thinking and morals. The Sengoku guys were definitely not "good" nor prosperous as Hoshido and loyalty was schieze for the most part. They were more interesting than the goody two.shoes in Hoshido.

[NekoKnight]

How do people feel about swearing in a Fire Emblem game/fanfiction? I know the games proper are generally pretty PG as far as language goes but at times I feel swear words could be used to better emphasize a characters lines. I mean, I don't think it should be as gritty and modern sounding as the language in Game of Thrones but something more mature than "Moldy onions!"

Would "bitch", "bastard", "shit" sound out of place? What is the most extreme language that has been used in the games?

Some more questions. In the the Japanese script, they will refer to Femui as "Kamui-sama" which could be translated as "Lady Kamui". On the other hand, she's also sometimes referred to as "Princess Kamui". Is there any rhyme or reason to why someone who refer to her as a lady or a princess? Should male soldiers be called "Sir" and females soldiers "Lady", or would those titles only apply if they are anointed knights/nobility?

Even if we are to call the leaders of the Hoshidan government "shoguns", is there really much to distinguish them from kings and queens? If Ryoma is the son of the shogun, should he be referred to as Prince Ryoma, or is the title non-applicable? Related to the above, would Kazahana be "Lady Kazahana" considering she's from a higher ranked samurai family?

Edited October 3, 2015 by NekoKnight

[Time the Crestfallen]

How do people feel about swearing in a Fire Emblem game/fanfiction? I know the games proper are generally pretty PG as far as language goes but at times I feel swear words could be used to better emphasize a characters lines. I mean, I don't think it should be as gritty and modern sounding as the language in Game of Thrones but something more mature than "Moldy onions!"

Would "bitch", "bastard", "shit" sound out of place? What is the most extreme language that has been used in the games?

I'd say it depends on the character. It'd be pretty out-of-place for the clumsy (Sumia)/stoic (Black Knight) characters to swear, but then you get people like Boyd, Vaike, Sully, NPC bandits ETC and I could imagine them swearing. I want them to still say 'dastard' though, that never stops being funny for me.

No idea about titles/honorifics though.

[The DanMan]

How do people feel about swearing in a Fire Emblem game/fanfiction? I know the games proper are generally pretty PG as far as language goes but at times I feel swear words could be used to better emphasize a characters lines. I mean, I don't think it should be as gritty and modern sounding as the language in Game of Thrones but something more mature than "Moldy onions!"

Would "bitch", "bastard", "shit" sound out of place? What is the most extreme language that has been used in the games?

Pretty much what Phillius said, as long as it's not excessive.

Got nothing on titles/honorifics.