Fire Emblem and its real-life inspirations.

[NewDisplayName]

I made this because i've noticed Fire Emblem games do take inspiration from reality, Especially historical and mythical items or stories.

- Hannibal is a playable character: class = General

- The Mouth of Truth appears in Fire Emblem Fates.

[Jose_Darkeye]

And they take inspiration from typical weapons and make them legendary ones *cough*falchion*cough*

[Leif]

Well, let's see here...

Valkyries were figures in Norse Mythology; they were mythical female warriors.

A Marquis is a european nobleman that's ranked above a count (Eliwood's father was Marquis of Pherae).

Pherae is an English translation of two towns in ancient Greece.

Edited November 15, 2015 by Leif

[Knight]

I have assumed that each continent in Fire Emblem takes from a different mythology or history. Archanea takes from Roman, Greek and Judeo-Christian history, folklore and mythology, Jugdral takes heavily from Norse, Elibe is French and other parts of mainland Europe, Tellius is English, particularly Arthurian in inspiration. This is at least where much of the names come from and where the stories parallel.

Apart from that, almost every other name in FE is a reference to something.

[blah the Prussian]

The Mad Kings War is basically WWII. Ashnard/Hitler follows a Social Darwinistic set of ideas and invades Crimea/Poland, France, etc, while attempting to commit genocide against the Laguz/Jews. Meanwhile, the heroes get help from Begnion/the Soviet Union, a massive empire with some moral issues, who proceed to do the heavy lifting in defeating Daein/Germany, only for a guy named Ike to get the credit. Begnion/the Soviets then proceed to install their own oppressive regime over Daein/Germany, which is toppled through the efforts not only of rebels but also from people in the government, particularly Sanaki/Gorbachev.

[Azz]

The Mad Kings War is basically WWII. Ashnard/Hitler follows a Social Darwinistic set of ideas and invades Crimea/Poland, France, etc, while attempting to commit genocide against the Laguz/Jews. Meanwhile, the heroes get help from Begnion/the Soviet Union, a massive empire with some moral issues, who proceed to do the heavy lifting in defeating Daein/Germany, only for a guy named Ike to get the credit. Begnion/the Soviets then proceed to install their own oppressive regime over Daein/Germany, which is toppled through the efforts not only of rebels but also from people in the government, particularly Sanaki/Gorbachev.

*Mind Blown*

I never actually realized this. Thank you sir for opening my find to such things.

Well a lot of the weapons are based on mythology like the Crusader weapons are very heavily influenced by Norse mythology (The swords, Yewfelle, Helswath and Gungnir, Mjolnir, Forseti, Loptyr and the Valkyrie Staff) while Gáe Bolg is from Irish mythology.

Most of Elibe's weapons are base don the Frankish epic La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland).

Caladbolg, Tarvos and Lughnasadh are also Irish.

[Radiant head]

The Mad Kings War is basically WWII. Ashnard/Hitler follows a Social Darwinistic set of ideas and invades Crimea/Poland, France, etc, while attempting to commit genocide against the Laguz/Jews. Meanwhile, the heroes get help from Begnion/the Soviet Union, a massive empire with some moral issues, who proceed to do the heavy lifting in defeating Daein/Germany, only for a guy named Ike to get the credit. Begnion/the Soviets then proceed to install their own oppressive regime over Daein/Germany, which is toppled through the efforts not only of rebels but also from people in the government, particularly Sanaki/Gorbachev.

Yeah I thought this was pretty heavy handed when I first played PoR. Still works pretty well.

[Star and Moon]

Cain and Abel from the Archanea series are named after the biblical Cain and Abel. Often makes me think of them as brothers, but I don't actually think that's true.

[Bullwine85]

Cain and Abel from the Archanea series are named after the biblical Cain and Abel. Often makes me think of them as brothers, but I don't actually think that's true.

There are a lot of biblical references in the Fire Emblem series, at least in terms of names

Though I'm wondering when we'll get a support conversation where Lot talks about his wife turning into salt

Anyway,

There are Shakespearean references in the Tellius games, ranging from Bastian's speech patterns (particularly in Path of Radiance), to the ancient language in the main menu of Path of Radiance, which, when translated, reads:

Doubt thou the stars are fire;

Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.

A reference to Hamlet

[sirmola]

LOTS of things are named after mythology. Including almost everyone and everywhere in FE4 being named after irish and norse mythology. There are also 2 bosses in the general class in fe5 named truman and eisenhower. Another name from fates is bifrost (the ultimate staff), which is a bridge in norse mithology conecting this world with the world of gods.

THe empire of granvale in FE4 is based on the roman empire, but most of this similarity is given in the currently untranslated timeline in the opening cutscene. Just like the roman empire, they were a republic before major political upheavel. The whole "cargo cult" plot element, where a buch of dragons are mistaken for gods due a power disparity, is probably heavily based in incidents like the ones where pacific island tribes started worshiping WWII airplanes, compleate with "landing" rituals to attract them (there are other examples, too).

[blah the Prussian]

LOTS of things are named after mythology. Including almost everyone and everywhere in FE4 being named after irish and norse mythology. There are also 2 bosses in the general class in fe5 named truman and eisenhower. Another name from fates is bifrost (the ultimate staff), which is a bridge in norse mithology conecting this world with the world of gods.

THe empire of granvale in FE4 is based on the roman empire, but most of this similarity is given in the currently untranslated timeline in the opening cutscene. Just like the roman empire, they were a republic before major political upheavel. The whole "cargo cult" plot element, where a buch of dragons are mistaken for gods due a power disparity, is probably heavily based in incidents like the ones where pacific island tribes started worshiping WWII airplanes, compleate with "landing" rituals to attract them (there are other examples, too).

Wait, when was Granvalle a Republic? I always thought of them as being closer to the Holy Roman Empire, given its German references and feudalism.

[sirmola]

Wait, when was Granvalle a Republic? I always thought of them as being closer to the Holy Roman Empire, given its German references and feudalism.

Before galle took over. Unfortionatly, the only place that this is mentioned is the timeline in the opening cutscene, which the current patch does not translate. Fortionatly, a translation can be found here: http://acenoctali.free.fr/f-fe4/judgral_chronology.htm

Here's the relevant bit:

001 Gran Kingdom formed west of Jun River

230 Shift to republican government

310 Territory expansion - Era of Prosperity

440 Dark Lord decends to Archbishop Galle

'Loput Sect' religious order formed

447 War of the 12 Dark Warlords

fall of the Gran Republic

448 Archbishop Galle takes throne

Loput Empire formed

Edited November 16, 2015 by sirmola

[blah the Prussian]

Well, that does sound like Rome, though I don't think that the Lopt Empire is all that fair to the Romans. In any case, the Granvalle Empire would be in its HRE phase, although maybe Alvis is a bit more like Napoleon; not originally monarch but becomes one and has a utopian vision.

[VincentASM]

I don't really have much evidence to support this, beyond a few lines of code in the game, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Battle of Sekigahara was the inspiration for Fire Emblem Fates.

In particular, the idea of people switching sides during mid-battle. Plus the Western and Eastern armies. Beyond this, the two battles aren't really that similar (so if you're afraid of spoilers, don't worry : P).

Edited November 16, 2015 by VincentASM

[Yojinbo]

Kain, Abel, Samson, Maria and Luke are all biblical names from the Archanea saga.

Jugdral has tons of germanic/norse/irish names: Sigurd, Finn, Beowulf, Kurth, Johan, Leif, Hilda, Halvan, Karin, Robert, Ralph and Reinhardt.

People have suggested that Elibe has links to french mythology but apart from Roy's name I'm not seeing it. There are a lot of greeko-roman references though: Marcus, Merlinus, Saul, Lalum, Hector, Lucius, Athos, Fargus, Etruria, Ilia, ... there's probably a ton more I'm missing/am not sure about.

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

I don't really have much evidence to support this, beyond a few lines of code in the game, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Battle of Sekigahara was the inspiration for Fire Emblem Fates.

In particular, the idea of people switching sides during mid-battle. Plus the Western and Eastern armies. Beyond this, the two battles aren't really that similar (so if you're afraid of spoilers, don't worry : P).

I thought about it too. I don't think this assumption is too far off, even if there is not much evidence.

PoR, at the beginning phases, took inspirations from the Iliad, from what I know. Ike's name was Paris, Shinon and Ulysses(Bastian) are also a sign of this connection, and Elincia is kind of similar to Helena, as a name.

Priam is called such as a callback to this, I guess.

Now, onto other things:

Many names for cities and countries through all the pre-Awakening games are taken from real life places, both old and new. Most choices don't make much sense though, I guess they were chosen because they sounded nice.

Examples: Crimea, Genoa, Etruria, Lycia, Miletos and many, many more.

And Kaga is still going on with this FE trend. I already saw one of the cities in his new game is called Venezia...

[Soledai]

I don't really have much evidence to support this, beyond a few lines of code in the game, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Battle of Sekigahara was the inspiration for Fire Emblem Fates.

In particular, the idea of people switching sides during mid-battle. Plus the Western and Eastern armies. Beyond this, the two battles aren't really that similar (so if you're afraid of spoilers, don't worry : P).

Does this make the player the "Hideaki Kobayakawa" of the game?

But seriously, that's an interesting way to look at it, one that I hadn't really thought about.

Certainly makes it seem slightly more appealing than it is.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Soledai

[sirmola]

Ephraim is also a biblical name. It is the name of one of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Edited November 16, 2015 by sirmola

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

Oh yeah, this reminds me, IMO Basara are inspired from Kabukimono.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabukimono<- I suggest you to read this to get a general idea of what was a kabukimono.

Wikitionary says this on Basara:

"a term in Japanese aesthetics associated with the challenge of traditional ideals during the Muromachi period"

Kabukimono were part of the Muromachi period.

Basara is a class that looks very extravagant, dresses extravagant, has a weird, unusual (for FE standards) weapon combination and also they wear tiger fur, which is something the pop culture versions of Maeda Keiji wear (for example the one drawn by Testuo Hara).

Now, I do not know if the real historical character was known for wearing tiger fur, but Maeda Keiji is probably the most famous kabukimono that ever lived, and the version of Keiji by Tetsuo Hara seems to be rather popular and famous too (googling "かぶき者" shows a lot of pictures of him), so I wouldn't be surprised if the tiger fur the Basara wears was there due to his influence.

Basically, I think everything about Basara screams "kabukimono", and that's why I think they are the coolest new class.

Now, I might've written some bullshit, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm far from being an expert on this subject.

[General Banzai]

Bern is the capital of Switzerland

Cervantes is the author of Don Quixote

Virgil is the author of the Aeneid

[sirmola]

Some of the non-irish fe4 names:

Lord Byron is a famous Victorian writer.

Lachesis Is one of ancient Greek mythology's three fates (i actualy know this one because the "golden sun" series names a set of 3 endgame weapons after them and "Lachesis's Rule" is the best one, and the best staff in the game).

Edited November 17, 2015 by sirmola

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

I wonder why the name Lachesis was chosen for Lachesis. She does have an unlucky life with death all over the place, but I guess that can be said for all the Jugdral characters.

And I also wonder why 8-4 thought it was a brilliant idea to translate it as "Raquesis". So much for being a translation group known for their localization work and culture... :/ It's like calling Minerva Minerbah, or Mars Marth---- oh wait.

[Tamanoir]

Most of Elibe's weapons are base don the Frankish epic La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland).

Many names come from la Chanson de Roland. Roland is obvious, but Durban comes from Turpin (who is actually a War Priest).

And obviously, Ganelon, the perfid traitor (Lundgren being named Ganelon would have made more sense actually.)

Hamon/Hanon, Baligant/Barigan (an ennemy in the text), and Bramimund/Bramimond are also there.

And Ogier too, for FE6

It's mostly there from the naming, than the actual accuracy (Olivier not being present, and the 8 legends not corresponding to the cream of the French Knights.)

And Bern comes from Stephane Bern, obviously.

[Roflolxp54]

Eirika and Ephraim's endgame signature weapons -- named after a pair of incestuous twins in Norse mythology.

[Azz]

Eirika and Ephraim's endgame signature weapons -- named after a pair of incestuous twins in Norse mythology.

I couldn't help but chuckle at this.

And people said they were not pushed as being an actual ship by that A support and ending