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calling4glaives · 8 months

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Kingsglaive Maps

Maps!

Thank you all for your patience! RL has been up to its normal tricks, but we have been working away just to spite it. Now, after much teasing, the long-awaited map analysis post!

We’ll start with some of the maps in the Kingsglaive briefing room. Some of these are familiar, and some of them are…less so.

Thanks so much to @starjunco who grabbed the screenshots and made the comparison graphics. Any images not from the movie are courtesy of the wiki.

Lucis Map

First off is a pretty standard map of Lucis. It matches the in-game map pretty well, except that Cavaugh and Insomnia have been sized up and shifted north.

In fact, Insomnia is laughably oversized if you consider Lucis to be continent size, even allowing for projection distortions (and regular projection distortions seem unlikely given the uniformity of the walls in the map). Likely it’s exaggerated for propaganda/tradition reasons. Given its location and lack of annotation, it’s likely not being used for actual reference. That said, the maps are also just wildly inconsistent regarding the placement and relative sizes of the continents/islands.

Behold! As best you can, at least, given the darkness of the in-game map.

It is also interesting that this map seems to exclude the parts of the outer islands, both east and west. Whichever side you think Galahd is on, it appears to often suffer the fate of New Zealand.

Political Map

The map on the left, which appears to be a political map divided into regions, doesn’t seem to match the world as we know it. It’s likely an easter egg, actually, because of its close resemblance to an early attempt at the FFXV map from the developers:

That said, echos of this map can be found in the world as we know it, from the odd bay on the eastern side of Tenebrae to the rough shape of the island of Cavaugh on the right edge.

World Map

Speaking of the “actual” world of Eos, the map behind Libertus seems to be just that, though the angle and the distance make it difficult to determine many details.

Troop Movement

Forgive the fragmentation of this one, but the pesky glaives actually doing plot stuff in this scene kept getting in the way of this map and the next.

Judging by the first image over Tredd’s shoulder, this appears to show anticipated landfall in Cavaugh of troops, likely Imperial ones. If this map is more than just dressing, it implies a much more imminent threat on the Crown City than just the existence of the Diamond Weapon.

Seeing the map from further away (and blurry, but we will blame Nyx and Tredd for hogging the focus for that), we see there are actually two (anticipated?) lines of attack into Cavaugh.

Interestingly, this map shows the larger and more northern Cavaugh position. Perhaps it was moved in the game to better fit on the map? Actually, Cavaugh here might be even larger than in the other map of Lucis in this room.

WHO IS MAKING THESE MAPS? DID BAHAMUT KILL ALL THE SURVEYORS?

The dots seem to indicate individual armies or commands, which also has interesting implications for the organization of the Imperial Army and possibly of Insomnian intelligence.

Mainland Lucis - Positions

On the far left, there is another blurry map that seems to show a close-up of the lower “staging” region in the previous map, with hints of red around the peninsula, and possibly around the disc of Cauthess. This could be further illustration of detailed Imperial positions, or could indicate where the Kingsglaive had been posted before they were pulled back.

Globe

And how could we miss our other favorite easter egg, the globe proving Eos is, indeed, round. Or at least some world is. ^_^

(If you don’t recognize what that world is, I’d recommend a second look)

Nyx’s Corkboard map

It’s very hard to see this through every interesting detail that Nyx has piled on top of it, but there is a map as the bottom layer of Nyx’s Corkboard.

Starjunco has taken a good look at it here, but for a quick summary:

Here is Nyx’s corkboard. The map we’re referring to is the black square with gold images on it covering the upper right corner of the board, underneath the articles, ticket, sticky notes, and pictures. In the lower right of the map, just under the picture of young Nyx and Libs playing in Galahd is what appears to be the compass:

You can see the landmass is covered in a grid and otherwise unmarked, which is an interesting choice. It’s anyone’s guess what the original purpose of this map was, but now it appears to show the edge of Niflheim around the picture of Selena and Mama Ulric:

And Lucis is covered up by most of the images. Compare it with the image of the continent found in Episode Ardyn, where the landmasses are much further apart, but the shape of the Western islands match what is found near the bouquet above:

Also of note is the small silver “x” that appears above the pin in the picture of a younger Nyx and Libertus in their uniforms. Is this where they are from, or where they first fought, or something else?

Opening Map

Our last map from the movie is the one from the opening narration. This one seems to show Niflheim’s advance across Lucis, taking more and more territory, though in the game the Imperial presence doesn’t seem quite as entrenched as this gradual increase might imply. That is a whole different discussion, though!

It is nice to get the name for the Lucinia Sound, though, as well as the road maps. Enjoy speculating on what those might imply about cities and development!

#kingsglaive #ffxv #deep dive #maps #kglegends23

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railwayhistorical · 5 months

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Traverse City Turn

Having heard the train in town today, I resolved to get out and shoot it despite the terrible weather: cold with snow and wind.

By the time I got out there I’d missed the train here in town, so rushed up to Mayfield to see if I could re-shoot something I done in warmer months. I wanted the train alongside a piece of ancient logging equipment on display in a park there.

The side views were taken July 22nd 2022 and today, December 18th 2023. The going-away shots were taken August 2nd 2019 and today, December 18th 2023.

I was hoping to see more of the locomotive here with the re-shoot—sans foliage—but I’m not thrilled with the results as it’s simply too dreary. (I think what I really need to do is go back in summer—with a saw.) The updated going-away shot, with snow on trees and the green of the confers is passable—in that it illustrates winter in northern Michigan nicely.

The railroad here in the northwest lower peninsula of Michigan is the Great Lakes Central; the railroad utilizes several former lines with this portion being the Grand Rapids & Indiana. While it ran up the middle of Michigan between Kalamazoo and Petoskey, this happens to be a branch line from Walton Junction to Traverse City.

Four images by Richard Koenig.

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rabbitcruiser · 1 year

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Castle of Santa Ana, Castro Urdiales (No. 1)

The castle of Santa Ana is a fortress located on a rocky promontory in Castro-Urdiales, on a peninsula where there is also the fortified church Sta. Mª de la Asunción (xiii century), the ruins of another previous church (that of San Pedro, from the xii century), and the hermitage of Santa Ana, built as a watchtower, linked to the castle by a bridge. The complex has very good views of the sea, the port and the town. A lighthouse was built inside the enclosure in 1853, whose machinery occupied the chapel. It is one of the best preserved castles in northern Spain.

It has a pentagonal floor plan with cylindrical corner towers 15 meters high, which protect a rectangular enclosure of 22.75 x 12.35 meters; Inside this, in turn, there is a hall of 17 x 7 m covered by a barrel vault. One of the cylinders is actually covering a triangular space that advances from the inner rectangle towards the villa, while the other four act as buttresses of the vault of the living space. Another defense, crenellated and lower, is visible in the part of the lighthouse. It completely lacks gaps, so that the defense could only be done from the towers. The factory is made of cyclopean stones taken with lime. The castle, as well as the citadel, was protected by a wall between 6 and 7 meters high, which preserves a small canvas very deteriorated with the original battlements and merlons.

The access is located on the sea side, through a small door.

It is not known for sure when the castle was founded, speculating that the beginning of the works could coincide with the foundation of the town; However, the founding charter has not reached us. A defensive structure probably existed even earlier.

The current building began its construction in the twelfth century, undergoing various modifications and additions and being abandoned in the sixteenth century.

During a restoration in the twentieth century the lighthouse keeper's house, built inside the enclosure, was demolished. Along with all of Puebla Vieja de Castro-Urdiales, it was declared a historic-artistic site in 1978.

Source: WIkipedia

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shutterandsentence · 2 years

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Photo: Arcadia Dunes, Michigan

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kemetic-dreams · 8 months

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Early northern Africa dispersal

Populations of Homo sapiens migrated to the Levant and to Europe between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago, and possibly in earlier waves as early as 185,000 years ago.

A fragment of a jawbone with eight teeth found at Misliya Cave has been dated to around 185,000 years ago. Layers dating from between 250,000 and 140,000 years ago in the same cave contained tools of the Levallois type which could put the date of the first migration even earlier if the tools can be associated with the modern human jawbone finds

These early migrations do not appear to have led to lasting colonisation and receded by about 80,000 years ago. There is a possibility that this first wave of expansion may have reached China (or even North America )as early as 125,000 years ago, but would have died out without leaving a trace in the genome of contemporary humans

There is some evidence that modern humans left Africa at least 125,000 years ago using two different routes: through the Nile Valley heading to the Middle East, at least into modern Israel (Qafzeh: 120,000–100,000 years ago); and a second route through the present-day Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea (at that time, with a much lower sea level and narrower extension), crossing to the Arabian Peninsula and settling in places like the present-day United Arab Emirates (125,000 years ago) and Oman (106,000 years ago),and possibly reaching the Indian Subcontinent (Jwalapuram: 75,000 years ago.) Although no human remains have yet been found in these three places, the apparent similarities between the stone tools found at Jebel Faya, those from Jwalapuram and some from Africa suggest that their creators were all modern humans.These findings might give some support to the claim that modern humans from Africa arrived at southern China about 100,000 years ago (Zhiren Cave, Zhirendong, Chongzuo City: 100,000 years ago;[note 9] and the Liujiang hominid (Liujiang County): controversially dated at 139,000–111,000 years ago ). Dating results of the Lunadong (Bubing Basin, Guangxi, southern China) teeth, which include a right upper second molar and a left lower second molar, indicate that the molars may be as old as 126,000 years.

Since these previous exits from Africa did not leave traces in the results of genetic analyses based on the Y chromosome and on MtDNA (which represent only a small part of the human genetic material), it seems that those modern humans did not survive in large numbers and were assimilated by our major antecessors. An explanation for their extinction (or small genetic imprint) may be the Toba eruption (74,000 years ago), though some argue it scarcely affected human population

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officiallordvetinari · 2 months

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Below are 10 articles randomly chosen from Wikipedia's Featured Articles list. Brief descriptions and links are below the cut.

Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 American science fiction horror film, and the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 film Frankenstein. As with the first film, Bride of Frankenstein was directed by James Whale starring Boris Karloff as the Monster and Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein. The sequel features Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of Mary Shelley and the bride.

Chew Stoke is a small village and civil parish in the affluent Chew Valley, in Somerset, England, about 8 miles (13 km) south of Bristol and 10 miles north of Wells. It is at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, a region designated by the United Kingdom as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is within the Bristol and Bath green belt.

David Hillhouse Buel Jr. (July 19, 1862 – May 23, 1923) was an American priest who served as the president of Georgetown University. A Catholic priest and Jesuit for much of his life, he later left the Jesuit order to marry, and subsequently left the Catholic Church to become an Episcopal priest.

Denbies is a large estate to the northwest of Dorking in Surrey, England. A farmhouse and surrounding land originally owned by John Denby was purchased in 1734 by Jonathan Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens in London, and converted into a weekend retreat. The house he built appears to have been of little architectural significance, but the Gothic garden he developed in the grounds on the theme of death achieved some notoriety, despite being short-lived.

Courbet was the lead ship of her class of four dreadnought battleships, the first ones built for the French Navy. She was completed shortly before the start of World War I in August 1914.

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that in conventional medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates.

The football match between Manchester United and Ipswich Town played at Old Trafford, Manchester, on 4 March 1995 as part of the 1994–95 FA Premier League finished in a 9–0 victory for the home team. The result stands as the joint record, with Southampton having subsequently lost by the same scoreline at home to Leicester City in 2019 and away at Manchester United in 2021, while Bournemouth also lost 9–0 to Liverpool in 2022.

M-185 is a state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan that circles Mackinac Island, a popular tourist destination on the Lake Huron side of the Straits of Mackinac, along the island's shoreline. A narrow paved road of 8.004 miles (12.881 km), it offers scenic views of the straits that divide the Upper and the Lower peninsulas of Michigan and Lakes Huron and Michigan.

Santa María de Óvila is a former Cistercian monastery built in Spain beginning in 1181 on the Tagus River near Trillo, Guadalajara, about 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Madrid. During prosperous times over the next four centuries, construction projects expanded and improved the small monastery. Its fortunes declined significantly in the 18th century, and in 1835 it was confiscated by the Spanish government and sold to private owners who used its buildings to shelter farm animals.

Sarcoscypha coccinea, commonly known as the scarlet elf cup, or the scarlet cup, is a species of fungus in the family Sarcoscyphaceae of the order Pezizales. The fungus, widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, has been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia.

#going back to basics on this one #I'd appreciate reblogs

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tapewormzz · 7 months

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YAPPING PT2: TERRITORY

So um. I have to draw a better version of this since this was made on Mspaint. But it gives u a good idea of Hicothea.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥. ───────── ⊰｡ﾟ.*

The enlightened is an east-facing faction ruled by Solis Arevik. It borders The shadowed through their co-owned lands: The eclipsed. The pearlescent occupy their coasts through an alliance between The drowned and The enlightened. The enlightened is generally the most land-based faction, along with it being the largest in regards to landmass.

↳ The factions within the Enlightened territory are of a warmer, varying between a dry climate in the mid-regions of the territory and a tropical climate along the southern coast of the territory. The eastern and northern coasts are occupied by the Drowned and the Pearlescent, respectively, with one north-eastern protruding peninsula between the two territories, accompanied by a single island. The Enlightened is riddled with deserts, oases, jungles, and beaches.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘥. ───────── ⊰｡ﾟ.*

The eclipsed is a faction nestled between The shadowed and The enlightened. The people of the eclipsed were brought together due to an alliance between Lune Speculiy and Solis Arevik in order to prevent border arguments. The people are ruled by both and have the essence of both Lune and Solis. The eclipsed briefly border The drowned at the southern part of the entire faction, and slightly on the upper north.

↳ Being nestled between the Enlightened and the Shadowed, the Eclipsed encompasses a wide variety of climates. Along the Eastern border, it is mainly a dry climate, before transitioning into a temperate climate in the heart of the territory. On the western side of the territory, it is much colder, adopting the Shadowed's cool summer continental climate. The southern coast is occupied by the Drowned, along with a fraction of the northern coast.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥. ───────── ⊰｡ﾟ.*

The shadowed is a west-facing faction ruled by Lune Speculiy. It is briefly occupied by The pearlescent and shares the lands of The eclipsed. The shadowed are very coast-heavy and many of the borders are set due to natural restrictions: 𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘪é𝘴, or 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴; part of the large mountain-system 𝘝𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘰î𝘵.

↳ The factions belonging to the general area of the Shadowed are colder and fresher with a cool summer continental climate. The upper north of the faction is hugged tightly by the mountain-system 𝘝𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘰î𝘵; and all mountains are referred to as 𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘪é𝘴, or 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴. The upper north is the coldest area of the territory, whereas the Eclipsed and lower southeast are the warmest. The mid-point of the territory is an average continental temperature, riddled with pine forests and cave-systems. Most of the population is focused on the middle and lower south of the area.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵. ───────── ⊰｡ﾟ.*

The pearlescent factions are scattered over the lands as extensions of The drowned. They are allied lands depending on their locations, and are most often formed through these alliances to allow The enlightened and The shadowed citizens easier access to The Drowned.

↳ Being extensions of the Drowned, the Pearlescent are mainly situated on coastal areas and adopt the climate of the territory on which they are occupying. They are often accompanied by a saline air and warm winds.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘥. ───────── ⊰｡ﾟ.*

The drowned is the faction of the ocean, ruled by Opthalina Vudya. It owns the entirety of 𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘔𝘢𝘳é𝘦𝘴 𝘐𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴, or 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘛𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴. It has two main land-bases and four co-owned coasts through The pearlescent lands. The ocean may be owned by The drowned (and therefore all underwater beings), however some slivers of seas and partial oceans are allowed co-ownership from the other factions.

↳ Similarly to the Pearlescent, the Drowned's land bases are accompanied by saline air and warm winds. However, their northern-most base is much cooler the closer it is to the Shadowed, where the temperatures are unnaturally cold and almost arctic.

#divinitytpwrm #oc posting #realmbuilding

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peoneys · 1 year

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Just as he was thinking about him, he fell face to face with the object of this fiercest headaches.

The man was lazily sprawled unto his divan, surrounded by diverse cushions and fabrics thrown astray, one of his feet resting upon his shin as the other rested upon a cushioned stool.

He already could feel the start of a blossoming pain between his temples and just as he took in the state of dress -or rather undress- of the man in front of him, he could tell this one would be one his worst yet.

It was known far and wide that Dorne housed vastly different ethics than its northern neighbors. But being witness to it was far more shocking than just hearing about it in court talks.

By the Seven.

If his mother was ever to witness such a behavior -and she probably would by the end of their stay in the palace- she would surely grow gray hair in her brown curls.

She had always favored high-collars dresses who hid perfectly any inch of skin on her chest and shoulders. And if by any chance eyes were to drift lower on her frame, they would be greeted by the cold gold of her seven pointed star necklace she adored so much.

Many omega gladly followed his mother’s fashion, and since the day she had been crowned queen, the followers of the court would be dressed in similar ways.

And yet, now, even his older sister’s plunging necklines could not compare to the levels of scandalous shamelessness he was presently witnessing.

“Must you stand there and gape like a dumb stricken fool ?”

Ah. There it was. The headache.

“And must you always be of such disagreeable company.” it was a question he already had the answer to, unfortunately.

His remark had earned him a small round of low chuckles. The movement of it making every piece of jewelry the prince was wearing emit a light tinkling.

Bare chested, with a long piece of cotton barely hiding his lower half in the proper ways, this was far from the memory of the simply clad boy he had kept with him for the thirteen years they had been apart.

“I only aim to please,” he said, voice dripping with bitter sarcasm. “You should get used to it. Your family is here to stay for yet more insufferable moons.”

He scrunched up his face at the evident venom in the prince’s tone.

Where had the soft spoken and tender boy he had grown up with disappeared, he wondered. He had barely been four years of age when it was decided the eldest prince of Sunspear was to be fostered at the Red Keep, for the time the tensions with the Rhoynish peninsula would ease and cease.

The prince, of ten then, had appeared a small thing of agreeable temper. Silent unless spoken to. He could remember a time when no jewels would ever adorn his frame. Always dressed in the most simple of ways even during grand events where frivolity was expected of someone of his status.

Even his hair had been worn the shortest, shorn close to his scalp for the near decade he had spent at King’s Landing. The court at the Red Keep would often mistake him for an attending boy then.

And yet, the same could not be said now.

Before him unmistakably sat none other than a prince, dressed in fine linens the colors of his house, bejeweled from head to toe. You could hear him minutes before appearing just by the chiming sound of his accessories.

“Do not forget, it is my family’s kindness that allowed you to be treated accordingly to your rank during your stay at the Keep. When others would have considered you no more than a war prisoner.”

It was the wrong thing to say and he immediately noticed it. He was met with a glare full of disdain.

“Ah, yes, the famously known royal family’s merciful tendencies,” he said, with a slight dismissive wave of one of his ringed hands.

His eyes immediately traveled to the numerous scars the prince adorned on the back of both his hands, just to be raised again, this time on the dainty silver choker he knew rested upon the long line of the scar he wore at the side of his neck. The scar he had earned the same night he had lost his eye himself.

Wasn’t life funny.

“I’ll do you a kindness, your Grace, and remind you. As kind as your family was during my boyhood,” he huffed with a sharp smile, a storm gathering in his eyes. “You. Are currently staying in mine own ancestral home, to discuss peace treaties. And your peace is but hanging by the threads of my moods.”

As to display the finality of his words, the dornish prince took hold of the long braid which held his hair together, flashing the sun shaped pins at the end. And, as the ringing of the trinkets echoed in the room when he threw his braid over his shoulder, the words of house Martell resonated in his head like a warning.

#my art #oc #ahahah I HAVE WRITTEN #it's been a while ;w;#it okay #i really like what i did #okay so officialy tagging this as #fanart #asoiaf #hotd #got #i'm embarassed sharing this but let's pretend i am not #i don't usually share oc inserts

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raxistaicho · 10 months

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Ronan the Philosopher! Edelgard in Thracia, chapter two

On to chapter two, my fellow Red Lady fans!

It gets worse.

Before we start,

DO NOT FUCKING GO PESTER REYNA IN HER COMMENTS SECTION. I DON'T WANNA SEE PEOPLE COPY-PASTING MY ARGUMENTS HERE IN COMMENTS TO HER EVER AGAIN.

Anyways, I figured it'd be useful to give a brief rundown on the setting in which this story takes place, because not a lot of people will have played Thracia 776, I imagine.

So, first, the story takes place on the Thracian peninsula:

It's split between the north and the south.

North, once an independent coalition of kingdoms known as the Munster District, was subjugated years before this story began and is now under occupation by the Granvalle Empire and has been renamed the Kingdom of North Thracia. Duke Bloom of the Granvalle ducal family Friege is the appointed governor of the Imperial territory, making him king of the northern half of the peninsula. The north used to be a federation of smaller kingdoms, including Leonster (the former head kingdom, and the one which Leif is the heir of), Munster, Ulster, and Connacht. Ulster now serves as king Bloom's capital.

South, AKA the Kingdom of Thracia, ruled by king Travant. A mountainous, barren country inhabitated by wyverns, which the Thracians fly into combat. Formally they're independent of and at peace with the Granvalle Empire, but Travant is ambitious and desperate to save his starving kingdom by conquering the fertile north. Its capital is also called Thracia.

The border between the north and south is a roughly diagonal line that slithers between Tahra and Meace on the map above (Tahra in the north, Meace in the south). Though the peninsula is collectively called Thracia, usually anyone called a Thracian is specifically a southerner.

Now that we got that out of the way, on to the chapter itself:

Edelgard's helping out around Iz to keep her mind off of things. For some reason they're calling her Edie, even though that's... a very weird nickname for a bunch of peasants to call someone. It's explicitly the same nickname as the one Dorothea uses.

Because of her Crest she's super strong, as she herself says:

But everyone was treated that way; she simply stood out more because of her strength. (Serios's strength, that – that beast's strength, not hers. Not her family's-)

Edelgard never considered herself inhuman or beastly because of her Crest, Reyna. Definitely not her Crest of Seiros, in any case.

We then get a moment of Reyna trying to portray Edelgard as out of touch:

And the labor was ceaseless in Iz. In the weeks she'd first arrived in this strange place after her death(?), while she'd been recovering, Edelgard had thought it a little odd that she almost never saw Ronan and his mother sitting down to play a board game, have a snack and talk about something frivolous, read a book or play games with the locals.

Because it makes total sense for the woman who started a rebellion to give the lower class the same opportunities the nobility enjoyed to expect peasants to live a life like that of nobles.

Oh, and, this is coming from the canonical workaholic whose most furtive desire is to just be able to enjoy a day off.

That said, Reyna does a really nice job painting the kind of bleak and toil-filled life a medieval peasant would endure:

There was never time to be sitting idle; there were always repairs that needed to be done, always food that needed to change hands, always wood that had to be collected to keep the houses warm, animals that needed to be wrangled, baskets that needed weaving, fish to be caught, and that was just the more important chores. Edelgard had lost count of how many times she'd had to trek to the wells and draw up buckets of water over the past few months; there wasn't a single house in the village, including the church, that had a running water system. Washing clothes for the house was another hours-long chore that started before the sun rose and ended late in the afternoon at best; without the soaps and wheels Garreg Mach had, it stunned her how much more effort such a basic and necessary chore took. The town hadn't known anything about the relation between keeping their streets clean and keeping sicknesses away; when Edelgard had impressed the importance of it on them, she'd created another job that caught her flat footed with the time and energy it demanded. She would return to the guest room that belonged to her now and crash into it, unable to think, and fall asleep knowing she would have to do much of it again the next day. Food was always in short supply. The villagers all took a tough man attitude on the matter when she asked why they had so little, about how they were no nobles who would die of starvation if they didn't have three course dinners with cake included; but Edelgard had gotten alarmingly used to skipping her morning meal so Ronan and Contessa always had even the crumbs of a meal in their too-bare cupboard.

Unfortunately, this is not leading to, "I was right that we should have improved society somewhat," but, "this is only because of Arvis's occupation and I did the same thing to Fodlan :(((("

How was it that she was living a rougher life here, in a town where she was welcome and accepted, than when she'd been reduced to an exile living on King Lambert's charity by her bitter stepmothers? How? How was that possible?

So much to unpack in one little paragraph.

First off, "living on King Lambert's charity." She wasn't mooching in Faerghus, she was kidnapped (it's implied Arundel did it to keep her safe during the Insurrection, but still) and living there against her will.

Secondly, there's nothing to support the assertion that she was living in Faerghus because of Ionius's concubines.

Thirdly, no, Edelgard's time in captivity underneath Enbarr is not going to be mentioned, why the fuck would it be, Reyna has a narrative to push!

She wants to make us think of Edelgard as some spoiled little princess who doesn't know anything about a hard life. Because Edelgard detractors have this notion in their heads that Edelgard knows nothing about the lives of the commoner-class so as to convince themselves that her ideals are built on shifting sand.

We're skipping ahead a little bit in which Edelgard delivers some wheat to the local baker, and she pauses a moment to worry about,

what the village might think of her if they found out she was a born and bred noble.

I'm sure this is leading up to some shocking twist in which they're fine with nobility, so that Edelgard can look foolish and ignorant again. Anyways,

She'd tried to learn about the history and geography of this country, Thracia. Oh, she'd tried. But the village's lack of means had stumped her at every turn

It shouldn't, you're in a fishing village out in the sticks, probably everyone here is illiterate. Much like in Fodlan, which Edelgard would be aware of. Hell, Christopher fucking Paolini got this right, Reyna!

only the church had a map or two along with anything resembling historical texts, and the priest had ruefully explained he'd been forced to bury books that were less than complimentary to the current regime.

...Why? Iz is in Thracia (as in, the Kingdom under Travant) judging from FE4's map, and there wouldn't be any kind of new big shakedown by Travant's soldiers.

But anyways, the reason why is Reyna's gonna paint the picture of an authoritarian anti-book regime and then probably suggest the same thing was happening in Fodlan under Edelgard. Even though. You know. The church was doing that themselves. They were literally burying the books, when you consider that the Shadow Library is underground!

Thracia was a land divided by the tragedy of the crusaders Nojurn and Dain

Njörun and Dáinn, Reyna. Look, I know Jugdral has big Spell My Name With an S problems, but the wiki is right there! All these names are official now! (Njörun and Dáinn were the crusader siblings - think the Ten Elites but genuinely heroic - who founded Leonster and the Kingdom of Thracia, respectively.)

Nojurn wasn't even a past fan translation of her name!

sister and brother who's conflict had accidentally resulted in the death of Nojurn's husband and the splintering of their people along that bloody line

Njörun's husband was fighting Dáinn, Reyna. Njörun herself was not said to be part of the conflict. Njörun accidentally killed her husband while trying to stop the fight, killed herself out of grief, and then Dáinn died mysteriously a few years later. The whole tragedy of Gáe Bolg was because Njörun used it (it being the weapon tied to her bloodline) to strike her husband down accidentally.

Several years ago, this historical tragedy had repeated itself when King Travant of Thracia, descendant of Dain, hunted down Prince Quan and Lady Ethlyn of Leonster – son of Nojurn and his wife – and slaughtered them in a brutal ambush, stealing their lands for one shining moment… only to be promptly subjugated by the Empire of Granvelle with barely a few months to enjoy his ill-gotten gains.

There was a lot more to the Munster District's (the northern half of the Thracian peninsula) downfall at Travant's hands, but that's more or less the long and short of it. Reyna's retelling implies Grannvale also took over the Kingdom of Thracia but they most certainly did not. Thracia is one of the few countries to remain independent throughout Arvis's reign, up until Seliph rolls on in.

“I hear Travant spoke a lot of pretty words about giving us food and honey that Leonster were hoarding from us in their lush and fruitful lands,” She told Edelgard over dinner when she'd asked about it.

I'll take, "something Travant would never do," for 500, Alex!

Now to give some credit, Thracia 776 smoothed out a lot of Travant's... unsavory portrayal from Genealogy of the Holy War, and his motive is really just to re-unify the peninsula to end the starvation in the south, but I just can not see him going to the commoners and pretending he's going to make everyone's lives better.

This is just a bit of mischaracterization so Edelgard can be erroneously compared to Travant.

“Well, I lived through that war and the Empire's arrival and I and my boy are still struggling. I'd say nothing has changed, but it has – for the worse." The densely populated land that she was introduced to were nominally under the control of a single ruler – the Emperor of Granvelle, Arvis.

It'd be under Bloom's rule, technically, though Arvis is obviously Bloom's superior. Yeah, don't expect much acknowledgement of Bloom, since he's not useful for the narrative Reyna wants to push in which she'll be comparing Edelgard and Arvis (and he doesn't appear in person in Thracia ever so she might genuinely have forgotten about him).

Edelgard committed the former kingdom names to memory – Chalphy, Yngvi,

Those are dutchies, not kingdoms. Houses Chalphy and Yngvi (for fucks' sake, she gets Njörun wrong but she gets Jungby's fucked up official translation right???) are two ducal houses of the former kingdom (now empire) of Grannvale. Sigurd hailed from House Chalphy.

Leonster, Augustria, Silesse, Verdanne, Issach,

Those are (or rather, were, thanks to Grannvale invasion) all kingdoms. Of them, only Leonster should be important to this story.

along with a few minor principalities like Darna.

Dahna's just a fortress city in the Aed Desert, there's no known prince there. These words have meaning, Reyna.

Then there was the Loptous Religion – cult, it was a cult, the priest told her not to confuse them with a normal religion. He told Edelgard that the head of the cult, a man named Manfroy, had taken advantage of the crown prince going mad after his mother's murder to become emperor in all but name, pushing Arvis to the side. Then he'd plunged Jugdral into horror and darkness the likes of which was only spoken in legend, of the time before the Crusaders.

This is gonna be compared to the Agarthans later on, even though Edelgard canonically had a much tighter lid on Thales than we ever see from Arvis with Manfroy.

I also can't imagine rando people out in the middle of nowhere knowing much about Manfroy.

Is it gall, that she still feels righteously outraged at the stories of a cult with a dead dragon at the helm bringing harm to humans?

I'm pretty sure the people of Jugdral didn't know that Naga, her companions, and Loptous were all dragons. They would have just viewed them as gods, much like how the people of Archanea ended up warping Naga into a giant human warrior.

And in any case, as I've said before, the word "dragon" does not appear to exist in Fodlan, so these commoners calling Loptous a dragon would have about as much impact on Edelgard as someone calling Satan a Smyrp would have for us.

I mean I know what Reyna is doing, Edelgard needs to have her Come to Seiros moment in this fic and part of that involves her realizing Dragons Good, Actually, but that Reyna has to warp Jugdral and Fodlan's established setting to get her message across demonstrates how poorly-applied it is.

Oh, but anyways, no that is not gall, Edelgard, it is normal.

She'd been so confident that she could be a hero and bullrushed head long into being that cult's pawn.

She was not anyone's pawn but yours, Reyna.

Why is she clenching her fists in rage and planning how she'd defend the town if minions of Loptous came calling?

Because Edelgard just kinda be like that: a protective, compassionate woman who can't stand to see innocents victimized. Anyways, Edelgard catches up with Ronan, who was out hunting. She ponders going to the closest village - implied to be Fiana, where Leif is secretly living in hiding - but Ronan tries to warn her off going.

The naked care for her, audible in his voice, makes Edelgard wince a little. It had been like this ever since they'd met months ago, and she's still not used to it.

Edelgard's just so unused to people being nice for the sake of it! In the hands of a better writer this could be a sad demonstration of Edelgard having lost the ability to trust thanks to all the suffering and betrayals she's endured in her short life, but since this is Reyna this is probably just her not being familiar with the concept of compassion in general.

There's so much I haven't told you about me. If you knew, you would reject me like you reject Travant and Manfroy. ...How she would even tell him, she doesn't know, but... the knowledge that Ronan thinks she's something she's not...

Oh, Edelgard, you siwwy, these people love the Good Nobles! Ronan suggests they go skip stones, which they've evidently done enough times that Edelgard has a reputation for being better than him. I thought these people had no time for leisure, Reyna? You wrote several paragraphs about that earlier in this same chapter!

Anyways, Edelgard asks whether Ronan's ever considered leaving in search of a better life, and we get this:

Ronan hesitated for a moment; Edelgard stood up and tossed her rock out. It skipped several times before vanishing beneath the water. “I do want better for us,” he confessed. “But… I mean, even if we managed to make the trip across all that water, there's no guarantee that things will be better wherever we land. Isn't it better to fight for the home you have than run away and just hope for the best?”

We did it, boiz!!!

This is literally just, "we can't risk making things worse in our attempts to make them better," liberalism. And it doesn't even work within the context of either Thracia 776 (because Lief... you know... he starts conflict to better the lives of his people...) or Three Houses (because Edelgard was literally fighting for her home, that home being Fodlan itself and not just Adrestia).

Edelgard points out how nobody seems to have the guts to fight with Ronan. Ronan then gets distinctly un-provincial.

“Yeah. It's true a lot of people are too scared to fight… or don't have the balls to.” He grimaced, glaring at the horizon. “But it can't stay like that forever. At some point we're either going to stand up in fight, or lie down and die. There's no point in surviving under the boot of monsters like this, with no one willing to uphold justice.”

Yeah, that's how a medieval peasant talks, dipping into abstract concepts like justice!

Then we get,

“Didn't the Emperor Arvis call creating this very Empire justice?” Edelgard prodded pointedly. Ronan snorted like a bull. “Of course he did; he had to pretend it was, after massacring Lord Sigurd and every other heir to Judgral who was in his army. And what was his 'justice'? Handing all of us over to the cult of Loptous, who he cozied up to in the first place to even get the crown.”

Who the hell handed Ronan the Genealogy of the Holy War game script? How would he know all this? I've mentioned he lives out in the sticks, now it's time to show how far away he is:

Ronan would be living right around where I circled there. Unlike Fiana, where Leif lived, Iz doesn't even have walls:

Like seriously? How does he know all this? Traveling bards spreading the word? Reyna's just twisting the world this story takes place in so she can have Ronan unknowingly blame Edelgard for unleashing terrible wrongs upon Fodlan.

“Justice to me is the food being hoarded at Belhalla and Travant's palace being distributed among people who actually need it.

I very much doubt Travant is hoarding food, at least not for himself. Famine is Thracia's biggest problem. Also, again, Ronan would probably be more likely to complain about Bloom hoarding food at Ulster, not Arvis at Belhalla (the capital city of the both the Kingdom of Granvalle and the Granvalle Empire).

Here's the thing. Arvis is so far removed from the wrongdoing at Thracia. In Thracia 776, the vast majority of the Imperial forces you fight are specifically the armies of House Friege, which, as I mentioned, is Bloom's ducal house. But that doesn't work for Reyna's narrative, because Arvis has several comparisons to draw with Edelgard and Bloom has none.

Justice is the children being taken by the hunts being returned home unharmed and the monsters participating in those sick games all being hung.

This sure does sound like something a medieval peasant would say. Also notice how Ronan's grammar and punctuation got a lot better?

By the way, this is how Ronan's dialogue is written in the newer fan translation:

Ma, I can't stay outta this any longer. I'll go and fight alongside— Oh, you must be with the Freeblades! I want to join y'all! I'm good enough with a bow and I can get around pretty fast. I won't hold you back none. That don't matter none! Every battle is somebody's first, right? Guess this'll be mine. I mean, maybe you can stand holing up in here an' waiting to die, but I sure can't!

Anyways, getting back to the more inexplicably well-read Ronan:

Justice is us actually getting all those pretty things Arvis promised us; education and safety nets and better roads and soldiers who aren't just thugs in armour protecting us.

Whatever Arvis actually promised is really vague - text limitations from the SNES days n'all - but this is so comically twisted to be similar to what Edelgard might've talked about that it's funny. Reyna has all the subtlety of a flying hammer.

Justice is getting back the families that actually cared for us and kept us safe, like Leonster and Chalphy.

"We want our good nobles back, please >:("

Dimitri needs to be validated in his belief that both sides have a point in the commoner vs noble divide. Now, obviously it does make sense that Ronan would want the families that didn't cause chaos back, but it's still such an unsubtle dig at Edelgard's "let's remove the nobility!" ideals.

Edelgard brings up the rumors that Leif's still alive, and Ronan remarks he'd join up with him in a heartbeat. Edelgard tries to warn him off jumping into war so eagerly - this is supposed to be her having second thoughts about war, guys! :D - but before the conversation can go very far, Lifis's pirates appear over the horizon to raid Iz.

This is very likely going to coincide with the events of Thracia 776's second chapter, in which the Fiana Freeblades - which Leif is not the leader of by the way, we'll see if Reyna gets that right - while marching to Munster to rescue the kidnapped Mareeta and Nanna, reach Iz as it comes under a raid by Lifis's pirates.

I'm not sure I'm ready to see what Reyna does with Leif, folks.

Anyways, that's the end of the chapter, so on to the author's notes!

Edelgard is interesting to write here at the beginning; I think that in a world where she survived past losing, she is very very subdued in the best case scenario.

There's a very good reason she asks for death, by word or by knife, in all three routes where she loses.

...

Please tell me Reyna doesn't think Edelgard was trying to kill Dimitri when she threw the knife at the end of AM.

Her ideals ruled her, and if they were broken by her war being a mistake and a failure,

Failure yes, mistake no.

she doesn't have much else at all. This is a broken Edelgard, who's going to rebuild herself upon being attached to a new cause.

The cause of coming to Seiros!

That process shall be…interesting.

I say "painful", but that's just me.

And to conclude, here's a couple choice takes from the comments.

From someone other than Reyna:

I really like the detail of Edelgard slowly learning how starkly different "a hard day's work" means for noble vs commoners: Garreg Mach gave a taste of that through chores, but it could never really replicate what it means to have to work day-in and day-out to scrap by during hard times.

"Hard times", being "all the time" when you're a medieval peasant.

Plus, her using her Crest enhanced strength for everyday labor is really great! It really lets her get a feel for just how helpful a power like that would be for commoners, while also letting her help the little guy out directly.

Yuuuuuup, you know where this is leading! "Crests good, actually!"

Reyna herself replies:

I'm glad you like it!; there really is no comparison. It always annoyed me how Edelgard claims in 3H proper that she's saving the 'oppressed' when it becomes so incredibly clear she has no idea what their lives are like -

"But Dimitri knows! Dimitri knows!" Except not Reyna's Dimitri because he never had that arc, but it's okay: he evidently just wanders around Faerghus, helping people with his super duper Crest strength. Because the sole living heir who almost died once when the king was murdered would be permitted to do that.

she hadn't even considered making free education available to them, given how startled she is when Ferdinand suggests it in their supports.

(weak laughter)

Of course Reyna buys into the "Edelgard didn't think of something that didn't exist until around the 1800's IRL, stupid girl!" argument.

And yes, her Crest strength is incredibly useful for things like this!

Edelgard didn't even CONSIDER the value of Crested laborers! What a foolish, short-sighted girl!

There is a reason that the exultation of Crests lasted for a thousand years; they have a tangible affect on people's lives.

Dimitri's criticized for being out of touch when he says this for a reason, Reyna.

Also the reason Crests were exalted for a thousand years is because the church decreed it so. The vast majority of Crested nobles would never use their Crest powers to directly better the lives of the people.

From another non-Reyna:

Regarding my stance on Edelgard, I like her, same with all the Lords and Rhea, but unfortunately, her stans who keep on white-washing the bad stuff she does on all the routes ruined her and her routes for me, like, I prefer those who straight up admit "yeah, my white-haired gurlboss is a war criminal, whatcha gonna do?" instead of the "my female anime waifu will never do anything bad.", despite the devs and the game itself stating that non of the lords are literal saints.

I love the ones who are all "I like her as a villain, why can't her stans admit she's a war criminal? :)"

Yeah, get back to me when Dimitri fans stop having a chronic issue with trying to excuse or downplay literal torture.

That's all for today! Later people!

#fire emblem three houses #edelgard discourse #edelgard von hresvelg #edelgard positive #thracia 776 #reynaattheend #sporking Reyna's fic #fanfic

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