Magvel: The World Building Middle Man

Historical Lore                                          4.5 / 10

https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Magvel

                The best way for me to describe Magvel’s lore is that it’s Elibe’s lore but slightly less developed. Everything begins with the defeat of the Demon King and then the heroes who beat him go on to start building nations. Unlike Elibe we only learn the names of two of the five founders. I guess you could say that we also know about Morva’s name too, even if he’s not one of the founders. The only other bit of lore that the timeline mentions that I’m counting towards this category is the founding of Carcino. Everything else mentioned is backstory for the characters. So Magvel’s got some things going for it in terms of lore, but I still find it comparably weaker than the four other continents ranked above it.

Politics                                                        4 / 10

                  We get some semblance of politics in Magvel. Renais and Grado had a treaty prior to the start of the game and then Grado broke it. Frelia and Carcino also have a pact which plays into the story later on. Carcino experiences a schism in its politics which caused problems for our heroes, and that’s about it. I wish I could give it more points but the quest for the Sacred Stones tends to simplify the politics.

Family Tree / Relationships                        3 / 10   

                              So let’s take a look at a sample of some of the relationships in Magvel:

• Eirika - Ephraim
• Eirika - Ephraim - Lyon
• L’Arachel - Dozla - Rennac
• Joshua - Natasha
• Franz - Forde
• Ephraim - Innes
• Innes - Tana
• Gerik’s band of mercenaries: (Gerik, Marisa, Saleh, Ewan)

                        So you get the point. There are different types of relationships between characters. However the characters in Magvel don’t feel quite as closely knit as the characters in other continents. You get pockets of relationships here and there but when you measure it up against what some of the other continents have done it does look a little...underdeveloped to say the least.

 

Nation Development                              2.5 / 10

                     I consider Magvel’s nation development to be on par with the nation development of Ylisse / Valm. After looking through FE Wiki articles and drawing upon my memory of the game I can’t say that there are too many distinct characteristics of most nations in Magvel. Almost all of them got founded in the same year, they have their own sacred stones and their own regalia. Outside of that there aren’t too many distinctions between the nations. Jehanna and Grado are the better developed nations since they have distinct geographies and there’s a little more information about them. Renais, Rausten and Frelia aren’t terribly well developed either.

Geography                                                   8.5 / 10

          https://serenesforest.net/the-sacred-stones/miscellaneous/world-map/

                    Here’s the world map of Magvel. It’s not quite as good as Valencia but it’s still solid. You’ve got ruins, rivers, a peak,  and borders and boundaries, etc. There’s a marsh, a couple of forests (one of them being Darkling Woods. A distinct, creepy forest will definitely earn points in this category) and a plateau. There’s a lot of different locations and landmarks here and the world map does wonders for Magvel in this category.  

Magic Critters                                         9 / 10

                  https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Monster

                        Magvel gets 2nd place in this category. All of the monsters that were present in Valentia are in here in addition to a few more monsters of Magvel’s creation. Some of the new creatures that Magvel added to its world are:

• Spiders
• Centaurs
• Feral Dogs
• Gorgons
• Phantoms
• Cyclops

                               Sure Gaiden had the White Dragon which is something that Magvel doesn’t have but yeah Magvel has the clear cut advantage here. Sacred Stones also explains why there are so many of these monsters in Magvel. More monsters appear as more Sacred Stones get destroyed. So not only does Magvel have a lot of monsters, it also ties them directly into the plot. That’s what I’m looking for when scoring points in this category.

BONUS CATEGORIES

Connections to Other Worlds                 No points

                       Magvel has no connections to any of the other Fire Emblem continents. 

Presence of Female Rulers                    3.5 points

• Eirika: Princess, main character and is shown leading armies.
• L’Arachel: She’s the niece of Pontifex Mansel and leads Dozla and Rennac around.
• Ismaire: Sole ruler of Jehanna.
• Selena: One of Grado’s Generals.

                        I think there’s a couple of others like Syrene but I think the aforementioned characters are sufficient for this category. Yeah, Magvel actually does pretty darn good in this category.

Non Monarchies / Empires                       (+ 2 points)

• Carcino: The only country in the series where the rulers are actually voted on. Nice!

• Rausten: It’s a theocracy. That counts for this category. 
  
  
  
  
  

                              Overall Score: 37 / 60. When it comes to worldbuilding Magvel is basically a middleman here. It’s clearly better than Fates, Awakening or Gaiden but it’s also clearly outclassed by Jugdral and Tellius. The problem that’s holding Magvel back is the fact that there’s only one game that takes place in the Magvel continent. That hurts the worldbuilding a lot. Fortunately Sacred Stones takes place on the GBA so worldbuilding is much more doable. It makes me wonder how much better the world building would be here if Sacred Stones got either a prequel or a sequel or a remake. Perhaps we can see Echoes: Shadows of Magvel in the distant future?