The real world places I think Fire Emblem nations are based on

[Vera]

Note: There are plenty of games I haven't played. Feel free to add your takes on those. This post will cover Blazing Blade, Awakening and Fates. And borders don't apply the same way they do in the real world. For instance, An Indian based nation could border a French based nation.

Blazing Blade

Sacae-Mongolia. The clothing style and nomad lifestyle that the Sacaen's use is reminiscent of old Mongolia.

Bern- Russia. Bern is a war torn kingdom on the eastern skirts of Elibe. With it's cold temperatures to the north and the look of Bern characters, Russia is my pick.

Pherae - Spain. Not super confident about this one but going loosely based on the general European atmosphere, climate and character names Spain is my choice.

Ostia- France. Same reasoning as Pherae.

Nabata - Holy land in a desert? Imma say Israel

Awakening

Halidom of Ylisse- Roman Empire. Ylisse seems to take some design from Latin based culture. Simple enough.

Regna Ferox - Ancient Greece. While Khan is certainly a Mongolian term, the way Regna Ferox is split, the way it's set up led me to think that it's probably more like Sparta.

Valmese Empire - This ones a mess. Chon'sin is clearly based off of Japan. Virion speaks with a Frence accent, and Cherche and Cervantes are French names. It's like a split between the French area and Japan.

Plegia - Ancient Egypt. The Plegian architecture, clothes and landscape have strong ties to Ancient Egypt. The markings and sorcerer outfits especially.

Fates

Hoshido- Feudal Japan.

Nohr - Germany with splashes of the UK and Scandinavia. While it also takes some pretty heavy Norse influences (Mijolnir, BiFrost, Bolverk, Brynhildr) I choose Germany as the ultimate winner partially due to Askr's existence. Askr is just a pile of Norwegian overload. While there can certainly be two nations based on the same country, Nohr has so much European influence that Germany ultimately stands out. The architecture is far closer to Germany than Norway. Castle Krakenburg and the village areas all could pass for Germany easily. Krakenburg is a German style name, though it is made up. Elise is named after the German song "Fur Elise," and Xander's sword "Siegfried," is named after a prince from a German myth. The Nohrian music doesn't sound German. The music seems more based on the UK. Dusk Falls practically shout UK and Dark Wastes has some solid hints of it.

Crykensia- Turkey. The small city between Nohr and Hoshido is home to many dancers and a lively culture. We barely see Crykensia but its theme, architecture and notable features as a nation resmble Turkey.

Valla- Sumerian Empire. Sumeria was an Ancient Empire based in Modern day Iraq. They were a highly advanced civilization that fell in around 1700 B.C. . Castle Gyges looks like the Ziggurats made by the Sumerians. The interior isn't as clear a comparison but it fits. Seems like a good fit.

Hopefully this was laid out well enough and was an interesting read. I've always enjoyed looking at cultures in fiction and hope that others find this intriguing as well.

 

[Etrurian emperor]

12 hours ago, Vera said:

Bern- Russia. Bern is a war torn kingdom on the eastern skirts of Elibe. With it's cold temperatures to the north and the look of Bern characters, Russia is my pick.

I think Russia would be a decent analogue for Bern. After all Bern is a more authoritarian nation with expansionist ambitions that its neighbors are all wary about. Lycia being a bunch of smaller nations uniting themselves against foreign powers also has at least some similarities with Europe. 

12 hours ago, Vera said:

Pherae - Spain. Not super confident about this one but going loosely based on the general European atmosphere, climate and character names Spain is my choice.

Ostia- France. Same reasoning as Pherae.

I think Etruria might more be the Elibean France since its the more cultured of the great powers with a strong nobility and a traditional rivalry with another great power. Lycia strikes me more as medieval Italy, Switserland or the Greek city states. 

[Vera]

I realize now that Ostia is actually a town in Italy that I believe dates back to Ancient Rome. So I goofed that one up. I think you're right about Eturia being Elibean France. 

Plus, Bern not being part of the Lycian league is similar to Russia not being in the E.U. , not that that's extra evidence.

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by Vera

[ping]

I wouldn't put too much stock into what the names of the various countries are based on. Lycia is in Anatolia, Bern is a major city in Switzerland of all countries. Pherae was a city in ancient Greece, so that would admittedly not be too far-fetched, but just in general, I think that Fire Emblem just picks historical or mythical names for places or characters that they think sound cool. Maybe with a consistent theme (there's a bunch of Arthurian knights running around in Elibe/Lycia, for example), but not really hinting at a deeper inspiration than "sounds cool", unless Lance and Lot secretly have affairs with Guinivere, or Hector's brother Uther slept with Igrene while magically disguised as her husband.

[Etrurian emperor]

As for some of my own ideas.

I think Adrestia is pretty deliberately modeled around the Holy Roman Empire of Frederick II. A giant war between pope and emperor was the running theme of that era, and Frederick's HRE was chiefly centered around the Italian part which fits with the Mediterranean vibe Adrestia seems to go for. Then there's the big presence of German names in the Empire too.

The Leicester Alliance seems a mix between medieval Poland and the Netherlands. Its like Poland in the sense that its a divided semi democratic nation surrounded by great powers, and its like the Netherlands in the sense that its a mercantile Republic with its capitol being a giant port city. It having no king but one family hereditary being the first among equals also fits with the comparison.

[Parrhesia]

Moved to General FE.

[lenticular]

I think that, for the most part, Fire Emblem locations aren't supposed to be one-to-one analogues of real-world locations. They certainly draw inspiration from different places and cultures throughout Earth history, but then they mix and match things together and reshape it into something new. So, for instance, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to quibble over whether Nohr is more like Germany or more like Scandinavia. Better to just say that it's a mishmash of medieval Europe, with a vaguely Germanic aesthetic.

On 7/5/2022 at 4:39 AM, Vera said:

Nabata - Holy land in a desert? Imma say Israel

I'm not really familiar with Blazing Blade, but from the name alone, I'd assume that Nabatea was one inspiratin here. Especially sicne it was reused as an inspiration in Three Houses.

On 7/5/2022 at 4:39 AM, Vera said:

Regna Ferox - Ancient Greece. While Khan is certainly a Mongolian term, the way Regna Ferox is split, the way it's set up led me to think that it's probably more like Sparta.

I don't really see this one. Yes, Ferox and Sparta both had martial cultures, but so do a whole lot of places. But beyond that, they're extremely different. I guess you could say that they were both diarchies, but the way they worked was so different that I don't really see that as a commonality. What is it about Ferox that specifically makes you see Sparta?

On 7/5/2022 at 4:39 AM, Vera said:

Elise is named after the German song "Fur Elise,"

Elise is just a name, and predates the piece of music. "Für Elise" is just German for "For Elise". It's a dedication. I wouldn't use that to link Nohr to Germany (or anywhere else).

21 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I think Adrestia is pretty deliberately modeled around the Holy Roman Empire of Frederick II. A giant war between pope and emperor was the running theme of that era, and Frederick's HRE was chiefly centered around the Italian part which fits with the Mediterranean vibe Adrestia seems to go for. Then there's the big presence of German names in the Empire too.

The Leicester Alliance seems a mix between medieval Poland and the Netherlands. Its like Poland in the sense that its a divided semi democratic nation surrounded by great powers, and its like the Netherlands in the sense that its a mercantile Republic with its capitol being a giant port city. It having no king but one family hereditary being the first among equals also fits with the comparison.

Interesting. I've always thought of Leicester as being a little akin to a later HRE, probably Habsburg era. The loose afiliation of semi-allied states, but with a single family which is hereditary leaders in all but name, and also with a lot of infighting between different duchies. And in that sense, I also see the Almyrans as (very loosely) being the Ottoman Empire, the threatening great power to the south-east of people with darker skin and a different religion (even though Almyra is more Persian than Turkish, in other ways). Though, fighting against the Ottomans is something that would also fit Poland.

Though, again, given how often history rhymes, it's not surprising that it's possible to draw parallels to multiple real world states and locations.

[Vera]

On 7/6/2022 at 5:31 PM, lenticular said:

I think that, for the most part, Fire Emblem locations aren't supposed to be one-to-one analogues of real-world locations. They certainly draw inspiration from different places and cultures throughout Earth history, but then they mix and match things together and reshape it into something new. So, for instance, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to quibble over whether Nohr is more like Germany or more like Scandinavia. Better to just say that it's a mishmash of medieval Europe, with a vaguely Germanic aesthetic.

I'm not really familiar with Blazing Blade, but from the name alone, I'd assume that Nabatea was one inspiratin here. Especially sicne it was reused as an inspiration in Three Houses.

I don't really see this one. Yes, Ferox and Sparta both had martial cultures, but so do a whole lot of places. But beyond that, they're extremely different. I guess you could say that they were both diarchies, but the way they worked was so different that I don't really see that as a commonality. What is it about Ferox that specifically makes you see Sparta?

Elise is just a name, and predates the piece of music. "Für Elise" is just German for "For Elise". It's a dedication. I wouldn't use that to link Nohr to Germany (or anywhere else).

Interesting. I've always thought of Leicester as being a little akin to a later HRE, probably Habsburg era. The loose afiliation of semi-allied states, but with a single family which is hereditary leaders in all but name, and also with a lot of infighting between different duchies. And in that sense, I also see the Almyrans as (very loosely) being the Ottoman Empire, the threatening great power to the south-east of people with darker skin and a different religion (even though Almyra is more Persian than Turkish, in other ways). Though, fighting against the Ottomans is something that would also fit Poland.

Though, again, given how often history rhymes, it's not surprising that it's possible to draw parallels to multiple real world states and locations.

I know that there are no perfect real world equivalents. I just really like the way Fire Emblem takes inspo from cultures as I've always been a geek for that kinda thing. 

Nohr is a solid mix of France, Germany and Scandinavia. So I agree that pinning it down is hard. I've also considered Russia due to climate and their relations with Hoshido vaguely resembling Feudal Japanese/Russian relations. Mark and Leon are famous communist names but Marx was German. It's like they tried to combine all of Europe while making Hoshido solely Japan.

Ferox could be Roman due to the names being Latin (Ferox=Fierce, Flavia=Blonde, Basillo, Basil, Regna,=Kingdom.) The city states of warriors fighting for power lead me to Greece. But Regna Ferox has the coliseum for political duels so Roman might be the answer. Ylisse becomes kinda hard to place though. 

[SnowFire]

Don't forget that Fire Emblem is the series that uses buddy cavaliers called Cain & Abel, and there's absolutely no hint of rivalry or murder or cosmic destiny or curses or anything associated with mythological Cain & Abel.  They just thought the names were cool for a pair.  In the same way, a lot of names can be picked just because some JP developer thought they sounded cool.  They can sometimes be a clue if the cultural cues are there.  (As others have already noted, Elise is not even an exclusively German name, it shows up in plenty of European cultures - it's a form of the same name as "Elizabeth".)

To respond on the FE7/Awakening ones...

* Sacae: You're close with the Mongols, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was...  the Sacae.  Also known as the Saka (same pronunciation with the Latin hard "c").  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saka if you're curious, but they were central Asian nomads who did a lot of raiding, similar to the Mongols, but living 3-4 thousand miles to the southwest of Mongolia.

* Bern, Pherae, and Eturia are all "fantasy Western European stew."  Not sure we can get any deeper than that.

* Halidom of Ylisse - I can't see a Roman influence here.  We know very, very little about internal life in Ylisse (despite starting there!), but it doesn't seem to correspond to Rome at all.  Notably, what little we do know is that Emmeryn/Chrom/Lissa's dad led some sort of religious crusade against Plegia that cost a lot of lives on both sides, but then Emmeryn made peace afterward.  Neither side of that corresponds to Rome: they were nearly always at war and would have considered Emmeryn a humiliating failure for backing down, not a loved figure.  And when they went to war, it wasn't generally religiously-motivated (in the expansionist Republic & early Empire era).  We have some snarky comments about Carthaginian religion practices, but Rome fought Carthage not to blot out a false/evil religion or anything, but over matters like who would rule Sicily.  Maybe if you're talking the Byzantine Empire's wars with the Islamic Caliphate, as they called themselves the Romans too and had cycles of religiously driven war and truces afterward, but the Byzantines certainly aren't a Latin culture.  This aspect of Ylisse is probably closer to 1600s Europe during the Wars of Religion - so more like Germany, maybe, which tore itself to pieces with internal wars of Protestants vs. Catholics vs. Others.

* Plegia - I actually agree here.  Plegia seems to be Middle Eastern themed, maybe Egyptian.  (And there's definitely some Japanese media that uses "Middle East" as code for "dangerous religious fanatics"...  that could fit here too as well, unfortunately.)

* Regna Ferox - We know so little about them - even less than Ylisse - that I'm not sure what to say.  Yeah, Sparta had 2 kings too so I guess it's as good as any place to start?  Any militaristic civ like Sparta could work too.  Not much else directly "Greek" going on, though.

[Vera]

Turns out I wasn't right about Valla, but someone else found the perfect fit!

In what is now Xianjiang China there are the remains of the Loulan Kingdom. Which is actually the name of Castle Gyges in the Japanese version of the game. It was a major part of the silk road and considered the link between east and west. Sound familar? Worth nothing that Arete is also named Shenmei in the Japanese version which in Mandarin relates to the arts. 

It was once prosperous kingdom that suddenly disappeared and was entirely forgotten and nearly unheard of until its rediscovery more than 10 centuries later.

I got this information from a post from reddit and repeated some of that here but this is the full post and it's absolutely amazing. 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Vera

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:39 PM, Vera said:

Bern- Russia. Bern is a war torn kingdom on the eastern skirts of Elibe. With it's cold temperatures to the north and the look of Bern characters, Russia is my pick.

I don't know, Bern always struck me as more Germanic in character. It seems more Swiss or Austrian than Russian. Maybe it's just the name being of Swiss origin, but you have a stern and militaristic culture living in high mountains. Imposing stone castles over cold but still green places, and no Orthodox church to contrast the clearly Catholic-inspired Church of St. Elimine.

On 7/6/2022 at 12:22 AM, Vera said:

Plus, Bern not being part of the Lycian league is similar to Russia not being in the E.U. , not that that's extra evidence.

I think that's perhaps a bit too contemporary.

Now, I generally think Fire Emblem isn't committed to making parallels to real-world nations, though I do think this happens, the question is whether it's conscious or unconscious on the part of the developers. The fact is that real countries inspire archetypes which are easy to read and effective to use, but which can also be applied to multiple different countries.

Different cultures also have different countries filling the same archetypes- there is a reason the Spartans have Scottish accents in some Shakespeare adaptations. Athens saw the Spartans as barbaric, violent, and backwards people living in the hills. England saw Scotland much the same way before the Scottish Enlightenment. Many cultures see nearby hill-dwellers in that way.

These archetypes are much easier to use than drawing parallels to modern countries and political situations, to the point where people do this subconsciously all the time when making fictional countries.

On 7/4/2022 at 11:39 PM, Vera said:

Regna Ferox - Ancient Greece. While Khan is certainly a Mongolian term, the way Regna Ferox is split, the way it's set up led me to think that it's probably more like Sparta.

I don't know about this. Regna Ferox is a cold nation of little learning- going with common images, it resembles the barbarians to the north more than it does Greece. Because Awakening has fairly sloppy world-building, I'm not sure Regna Ferox has enough substance for either the audience or authors to actually know what it's deal was.

On 7/6/2022 at 3:19 AM, ping said:

unless Lance and Lot secretly have affairs with Guinivere, or Hector's brother Uther slept with Igrene while magically disguised as her husband.

No that's good keep going.

[KMT4ever]

Considering Elibe's geographical similarities to Western/Central Europe, it's pretty easy to pin down likely inspirations for the various lands.

• Etruria = Bourbon France: One of the continent's two major powers, located in the flat and fertile west and famed for its culture. Aside from the southeast belonging to Lycia it even looks somewhat France-like what with jutting out to the northwest.
• Bern = Habsburg Austria: The continent's other major power, located in the more mountainous east and famed for its military might. It also looks very similar to the Austrian Empire sans its coastal lands, again occupied by Lycia in this case.
• Lycia = various Italian states: A long, narrow country with a long coastline that's divided among many smaller states and caught in between its two more powerful neighbors. Ostia and Laus sharing names with ancient Italian cities lends more credence to this.
• Sacae: The name, as already stated, is directly shared with that of a real nomadic group.
• Ilia = Viking-era Scandinavia: A northern, snowbound land famed for its mercenaries who often still adhere to an older religion (worshiping the dragons/paganism) rather than the new faith (Elimine/Catholic Church).
• Western Isles = Pre-Roman British Isles: Geographically the resemblance is obvious, being an island grouping to the northwest of the main continent. The etymology of the various locations is also heavily British. Caledonia and Fibernia are references to the Roman names for Scotland (Caledonia) and Ireland (Hibernia). Eburacum was the Roman name for modern York, Armagh is a city in Northern Ireland, and Edina is Latin for Edinburgh. Even the capital Jutes is named after a Germanic tribe that settled in England.
• Nabata = Nabatea/Arabia: Already suggested. A barren desert peninsula with a sparse population that largely interacts with outsiders by raiding them.

Other than Elibe I don't think any other FE continents have truly overt inspirations, particularly due to the lack of geographical similarities.

[Vera]

58 minutes ago, KMT4ever said:

Bern = Habsburg Austria: The continent's other major power, located in the more mountainous east and famed for its military might. It also looks very similar to the Austrian Empire sans its coastal lands, again occupied by Lycia in this case.

Doesn't that more accurately align with Russia? I've been to Salzburg and am relatively familiar with Austrian culture but I just don't get where people get Germanic influence in Bern other than just the fact that its European. Russia is better known than Austria for military might and strength. Also the more mountainous east is a perfect allegory for the Ural mountains that separate European vs Asian Russia.

Edited July 10, 2022 by Vera

[Jotari]

On 7/8/2022 at 10:23 AM, Vera said:

I know that there are no perfect real world equivalents. I just really like the way Fire Emblem takes inspo from cultures as I've always been a geek for that kinda thing. 

Nohr is a solid mix of France, Germany and Scandinavia. So I agree that pinning it down is hard. I've also considered Russia due to climate and their relations with Hoshido vaguely resembling Feudal Japanese/Russian relations. Mark and Leon are famous communist names but Marx was German. It's like they tried to combine all of Europe while making Hoshido solely Japan.

Ferox could be Roman due to the names being Latin (Ferox=Fierce, Flavia=Blonde, Basillo, Basil, Regna,=Kingdom.) The city states of warriors fighting for power lead me to Greece. But Regna Ferox has the coliseum for political duels so Roman might be the answer. Ylisse becomes kinda hard to place though. 

Technically Ylisse is a theocracy, so if its similar to any real world state it's like the Papal States. Only hereditary and without any real influence over other nations. Or even much religious influence in their own nation from what we see. Plegia aside, not a whole lot went into really establishing any of the nations. Most other games at least try to have you fight a recurring type of enemy per nation but Awakening just throws it's whole class roster into any given scenario (I don't even think Chon'sin has soul swordmaster access for npcs, not that we ever really fight specifically in Chon'sin). Half the time it's not even clear what country you're in, especially when you're just wandering the world for the catalogues. None of them and the scenarios tied to them are actually tied to their location on the map. Aside from the two that serve as direct references to Gaiden, you could swap their locations around with no adverse effects as they have no basis in the culture, geography or government of where they're located.

[SnowFire]

14 hours ago, Vera said:

Doesn't that more accurately align with Russia? I've been to Salzburg and am relatively familiar with Austrian culture but I just don't get where people get Germanic influence in Bern other than just the fact that its European. Russia is better known than Austria for military might and strength. Also the more mountainous east is a perfect allegory for the Ural mountains that separate European vs Asian Russia.

If we're talking Habsburg Austria, they certainly were a major military power of the era.  The Habsburg family ruled greater Austria, parts of Germany, the Habsburg Netherlands (modern Netherlands + Belgium, loosely), Spain, Spain's colonial empire, and (via marriage) Portugal & Portugal's colonial empire.  Even if we ignore the Iberian & Dutch parts, just the Austrian / German / Hungarian part was a big deal, considering that neither Italy nor Germany were very unified in the era, despite theoretically being part of the Holy Roman Empire. They were large enough to fight the Ottomans and Poles plenty, the nearest rivals, and generally win.  They were so large that Catholic France threw in with the Protestants in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War to try to keep the Habsburgs under control, and despite the fight being Habsburgs vs. everyone else, they do okay!  They suffer some setbacks in the 1700s that are frankly due to some astonishingly good luck for their rival Prussia, and they get owned by Napoleon (but so does everyone else), but were still a major threat.  It's only once you get to the 20th century that Austrian military power starts looking really creaky.  Still, 200 years of being a top dog (~1500-1700) and 200 years of solid contender status (~1700-1900) ain't bad.