Relate Fates' setting to real life

[False Prophet]

As its name implies, this thread is to discuss about Hoshido, Nohr and Touma as equivalents to real-life nations.

Let's start with Hoshido for the first post.

Japan is the equivalent to Hoshido, of course. As one guy in the "Fixing Fates" thread pointed out that since the samurai class is potrayed in their commonly interpreted form (a warrior caste as opposed to a noble family serving the emperor), we can go to after the Genpei war, at least culturally-wise when Bushido became a thing.

However, one should also take into account the design (if they're any reliable) of the armours, most notably those of Ryouma and Yuugiri, aren't the famous lamellar-type like the o-yoroi, but instead made of various plates, which made them one of the "modern armours" that advent after 1500s. The only thing I'm sure that this the time cap is the end of the Sengoku era, since they aren't the two-piece escucheon body type that was introduced 20 years prior and made famous because of Sekihagara. (However, there is no firearm in this world. Just magic)

Meaning: Between 12th and 16th century.

Now, onto location. It has been said in canon that in Hoshido, the weather is always nice with plenty of sun, and people don't suffer the harsh winter like in Nohr. It makes (but not limit) Hoshido very close to Shikoku and Kyushu (but of course, these islands do snow in some places, like west of Takachiho in Gokasho which houses a ski slope.)

Or not. Remember, Hoshido and Nohr are on one and the same continent, the former in the east and the latter takes the west. So how could the climates so different? My only explaination is that the continent itself is on the cold end of the temperate zone, but thanks to a warm current running along the coast that Hoshido is so unlike its neighbor.

Then, what about the Frozen sea on the south?

To end this post, I want to talk about races. We have Hoshidorian, Wind tribemen and fox spirit. Is this the same with Japanese, Ryukyukan and Ainu people? If yes, then it is a terrible connection.

Edited October 3, 2015 by False Prophet

[gayserbeam]

Well the continent is split by a magical fissure that leads to another dimension, so I would ignore the issue of climate as this is a magical kingdom with a series of radically different unchanging climates. It's clear that the designers had no interest in making the geography believable, only diverse.

I'm interested in the inspiration for Nohr. There is Irish flair in the music and some English architecture, and the armor is so stylized that it's hard to give it any real-world equivalent.

Of course, from a writer's perspective, the imagery, plot and atmosphere are more important than drawing an exact or even loose parallel to a real place. Nohr was meant to give a feel of the Medieval and post-Medieval West to the Japanese audience, like most Fire Emblem locations, and may not have any intended real-world parallel.

Edited October 3, 2015 by gayserbeam

[NekoKnight]

At first I thought the thread title was "Relate Fates to your life" and thought "A disappointing story!"

I think it's important to keep in mind that while the setting, factions, names and designs take inspiration from real world cultures, they are not intended to be exactly the same or from a single source. It won't fit neatly in any place or time period. Another thing too is that Fates does a poor job at world building most of the connections we try to make will simply be headcanon.

You make some good analytical points, however. I don't see any Ryukuan influence but it's possible that the Fire Tribe takes some cues from the Ainu ("wild" people living in the far north). The weather of the continent is a curious thing, but for a place as desolate as Nohr being so close to a verdant place like Hoshido, I can only offer the explanation of "magic".

[Alazen]

Hoshido is a whitewashed version of pre-Meiji Japan.

Nohr is a fusion of Western societies set in Mordor.

[False Prophet]

Magic, of course, is the answer to all abnomalities.

That further concretes Tiki's claim in Awakening that Manakete is no God to human - How magic deelply imbued within nature might suggest that magic itself is nature.

Anyway, back to topic: This post will cover Hoshido's economy and military as a whole

- Economy: agriculture, of course. Not much could be said about this aspect - I expect it is a traditional system, which the land was owned by feudal lords. The lord maintains his followers by allocating a specific area of land to each, and the land is worked by the peasants, who provide labour services to the lord for part of the year but also have some free time to cultivate their own plots. By the harvest, the peasants are expected to pay a fixed stipend in rice.

In the real Japan, there had been dozen of large famines between Heian and Meiji era. Does this happen with Hoshido? For now, no. They still have enough rice to go for a war. If you think about it, Hoshido might actually have two rice seasons in one year. This both enable theur reserves to take on a long-drawn war, and the peasants to fufill their duty to their lords when called (Distributing men to farming or war duty has always been a question in feudalism.)

However, it must be noted that there exist a number of fortresses all over Hoshido (we did visit some in the game, correct?). That means the feudal lords are now retreating into large fortified castles, which in turn encouraged the warriors attached to each feudal daimyo to move into the castles, while artisans concentrated in areas near the castle to service the needs of the wealthy for luxury clothing, fighting equipment and more basic commodities (Oboro's parents is an example). Very soon would these turn into castle cities with a booming retail and commercial market (look at chapter 5's setting).

In short, urbanisation, and might even at a faster rate than in Nohr.

Military: Once again, we look to the real life. Each clans has their own army, made up of a relativeluy small number of professional soldiers, while the grunts themselves are peasants living on the domain. The royal family is no exception. However, different to Nohr where the Royalty employs vessels of all origins (freelancers like Odin, Luna, Lazward; common men like Zero, Effie, Belka; and noble like Piery), the Hoshido princes princesses's direct subordinates are usually heir of various noble families, serve under the rules of an ancient pact. This, once again, have an air of the Edo era - the Tokugawa shogunate's hostage policy.

It suggests that either someone like Setsuna or Hinata will serve until their parent die, or, they have another siblings - feudal clans don't usually send their direct heir as hostagge, you know.

Next post will be the extension of this, but on tactic, morale,...

[False Prophet]

Continue

Rank and file: Organized into provisional regiments, each station in a specific domain. Every village is expected to provide a specific number of young men (in feudal Vietnam, it's usually 1-in-5. Don't know about the other countries, though.) It's like modern compulsary duty, but the men spend most of their life still working on the fields - combat drill courses are organized regularly after a specific number of time.

As Hoshido military itself can't and don't want to cross the border (extended marching and long periods away from home can dwindled any conscript). That means it's a fully defesive forces, fighting on its own ground. Guerilla warfare always favors those of the natives that can supply themselves, organized into irregular (but not unorganized) forces that can be set up as easily as to disperse.

An arguable point, because of Birthright scenario. I'd say that their resistace failed after a short time is, not because that they didn't know how to fight as guerillars, but because most of they don't have good leadership to begin with. Cordinating, while very important with an unified army, is crucial between various small groups. That is because of the imperial Japanese military structure has, unlike very few and elite officers - the top tail of the ability distribution (cognitively and physically), and trained in an extremely demanding academy. First- and second-line leaders were invariably NCOs, promoted into leadership positions (and trained for those positions) based on ability and proven performance.

This mean the government couldn't made an organized resistance by dispersing its officers into the rural areas, because their aren't enough. If you're lucky, there will be one or two retired soldiers in your village. But putting the responsibility solely on the hands of the farmers isn't good enough, as between villages there will always be bad blood (for example, Ninja originated from Iga because various conflcts between villages fighting for the sparse flatlands between the mountains.)