Fateslandia: Realm of the Worst Worldbuilding in Fire Emblem History

Historical Lore:                                                   1  / 10

                                  The lore in Fates barely exists and little exists isn’t very well developed. We don’t get a timeline so there’s no sense of when everything happened and how distant it was from the current events of the game. We do get more information about Valla, but once again the lack of a timeline really hurts here. Not only that but the historical background we do get about Fates tends to be a little too similar to Holy War’s historical lore. Even Fire Emblem Wiki points this out in the “First Dragons” page. Here’s the relevant text:

            “Long ago, twelve powerful dragons waged war on each other to determine who would control the world. One of the Dragons, the Rainbow Sage, forged the legendary weapons Yato, Fujin Yumi, Raijinto, Brynhildr, and Siegfried as a means to fight them. Humanity was selected to wield these weapons, plunging them into the Dragon's’ war.

           

            Trivia: The fact that there were twelve dragons who bestowed their power and weapons to their human champions could possibly be a reference to the dragons of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, as they also had formed blood rites with Twelve Crusaders. However, only the Dawn Dragon, Dusk Dragon and Anankos are confirmed to have made blood rites.

                                 However, unlike the dragons of Genealogy of the Holy War, where each dragon created a weapon to aid their champions, the Rainbow Sage had created all of the sacred weapons of Fates on his own. Also, much like the dragons of Genealogy, not much is known about them, and only a few have been identified by name.”

(Source: http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/First_Dragons)

                                 

                                     Yeah, when Fire Emblem wiki is pointing your similarities with another game you know you’ve done something wrong. At the very least the games manage to explain why the royals can use Dragon Veins and how the nations are formed. Even with that taken into account though it’s pretty lackluster and other Fire Emblem continents do this so much better.

Politics:                                                         1  / 10

                             Yeah this is another really weak point for Fates. Birthright doesn’t have much going for it outside of “good guy nation fighting back against the big, bad militant one.” I mean sure there’s the Nohrian siblings going against Garon’s wishes at different points in the game but that’s basically it. Revelations has Corrin trying to unify both sides against Valla, but the way it’s done is also rather poor and for at least half of the game you’re basically beating down on Valla. Conquest does the best job at trying to give us some semblance of complex politics but even then that’s found to be incredibly lacking. Mostly it’s comprised of the Nohrian royals putting their heads down and doing Garon’s bidding up until after the invasion of Hoshido. Even then, that’s still really meager. Heck, Conquest doesn’t even give an adequate explanation about why Nohr is invading Hoshido.

                               The explanation that Fire Emblem Wiki gives (and I’ve been told a random support conversation in Birthright gives one too. Can anybody confirm or deny this?) is that Nohr is invading Hoshido because “Nohr envied Hoshido’s bountiful lands”. (Source: http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Hoshido) Going back to my Holy War comparison this was the exact same reason why Thracia invaded The Manster District.

                              Then there’s the bit about Valla. Why was Anankos trying to get Nohr and Hoshido to fight each other again? Because, to quote Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, “I’M FLIPPING INSANE!” Yeah that doesn’t really do much when it comes to politics. There isn’t much that Fates does in terms of explaining political boundaries or how certain nations and their relationships with one another came to be. Heck, there isn’t even much of an explanation for why Garon chose to ambush King Sumeragi. You’d think an important event like that would have a clear cut explanation but nope Fates skips over that as well. 

Family Tree / Relationships                          9.5 / 10

                               Finally a positive aspect about Fateslandia! I consider the family tree in Fates to be the second best out of the entire series. Valla, Nohr and Hoshido all have family trees that make sense. Fates has the returning child mechanic which definitely helps a great deal in this category (although I still don’t understand why Fates chose to have the children be connected to their fathers. It just doesn’t make any sense to me). Nohr has a Holy War esque family tree considering the fact that not all the Nohrian siblings have the same mother. The Vallite royal family is the most developed with the majority of the members of it actually having names. Most of the cast consists of servants and retainers to members of the royal family which makes for an easy and transparent connection which is exactly how you score a lot of points in this category.

Nation Development                                       1.5 / 10

                                 I remember being surprised to read on FE Wiki that Mokushu, Nestra, Notre Sagesse and Izumo were actually considered countries. They seemed more like one-off places to be forgotten about rather than legitimate countries. Nohr, Hoshido and Valla are really the only nations that have any semblance of development or distinct characteristics. We’re not given a clear sense of boundaries or political ties in Fates at all. The war between Hoshido and Nohr is just between these two countries and the other “countries” are neutral.

                                  Fates takes its cues from Gaiden when it came to designing Nohr and Hoshido. Nohr is Mordor, Hoshido is Paradise. Nohr is militant, Hoshido is peaceful (despite the fact that in Birthright it’s really easy to kick the crap out of Nohr. Wouldn’t it make more sense from a storytelling perspective to have Birthright be the more challenging path while Conquest is the easier one?). Valla is already a ghost country by the time our heroes get to it. Interestingly enough it somehow gets more development in terms of why it is the way that it is and what it’s rulers were than either Nohr or Hoshido. 

                                 Despite the fact that both Nohr and Hoshido have colonies of shape-shifters we never learn much about their relationships to the various kingdoms in which they live. They just exist so both routes have a chapter that involves wiping out every shape shifter on the map. Neither of the tribes get that much development either. It just seems like they exist so that the player can beat them down in whichever path one chooses to take.

Geography                                                      7 / 10

                             Here we have a decent category for Fates. Nohr, Hoshido and Valla all have distinct geographies that are easy to recall. Fateslandia is chock full of examples of memorable landmarks. For example, there’s the Bottomless Canyon. Hoshido has a giant wall (that King Sumeragi made Nohr pay for. Maybe that’s why the war started. Instead of refusing to meet with Sumeragi Presidente Enrique Garon decided to pull a Walder Frey on him. Now it’s starting to make sense), Nohr has Castle Krakenburg which is pretty memorable too. Valla’s also got some trippy looking geography. For all the things I’ve bashed Revelations for a lack of pretty geography isn’t one of them. The Opera House is another great location too. I am docking it points for not having enough in comparison to other games that have more developed world maps. 

Magic Critters                                                     7 / 10

Fates has a unique assortment of magic critters. Here are the following magic critters I could come up with:

• Kitsune / Wolfskin: A much better idea than bunnies but unfortunately kitsune and wolfskins are implemented into their respective plots about as well as the taguel were in theirs. Fateslandia gets points for having them but they don’t count for much because they’re shiny gimmicks.

• Faceless / Stoneborn: These creatures are implemented better than the Wolfskin or the Kitsune. These guys exist in order to fight off the barrier that Mikoto puts over Hoshido. They mostly serve as mindless hoards to help out the enemy.

• Slime Garon / Anankos: Yep they count. There’s only one of each but hey every little bit counts.

• Vallites: Basically they’re the Fates equivalent of the Risen. Undead armies count for this category and boy are there a lot of them in Revelations. 
  
  
  

                           Overall, Fates definitely is better than most other continents in this category seeing as how they have a variety of different choices that aren’t hard to come by. Unfortunately only some of these things are well implemented into the plot so it does lose points for that. Still, this is one of the better categories for Fateslandia.

Bonus Categories

Connections to Other Worlds                          3 / 5                   

                                     There’s a few different ways in which Fates is connected to Awakening. The most obvious one comes from the fact that Owain, Inigo and Severa are in it as playable characters. Not only are they playable characters but there’s a DLC called “Hidden Truths” where Anankos specifically gets them to help out Corrin. There’s also Rhajat, Caeldori and Asugi. Another major connection comes from the DLC “Before Awakening”. Here Chrom says that Hoshido and Nohr are “mythical kingdoms” (see here for more details: http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Before_Awakening/Script)

and that Hoshido and Nohr are well known. This does make me wonder if Hoshido and Nohr exist in the same world as Archanea, Jugdral and Valentia.

Presence of Female Rulers                                 3 / 5

• Female Corrin: Main character of the game, leads armies has a significant impact on the plot. Definitely counts.

• Mikoto: Sole female ruler of Hoshido. Granted she doesn’t live for very long but she counts due to being the sole leader of a country.

 

• Arete: As far as I’m aware Arete does actually lead the Vallite forces against the Hoshido / Nohr alliance.

• Hinoka and Camilla: This one may be a bit of a stretch but they are bosses in two different chapters if you pick the route opposite of the route they’re in. It’s debatable about whether or not this should count but I thought I’d add it in here just in case.
  
  
  

    Hoshido:                                             + 3 points

                                      Having a nation that doesn’t take after a European one is pretty cool. Something that I like about the way that Fates does it is that it’s not just limited to aesthetics. Hoshidans also have renamed weaponry that sometimes have different gameplay effects (ie katanas, yumi, etc). They also have renamed classes like Samurai instead of Myrmidons and Oni Savages, etc. The food that you eat in The Dining Hall of My Castle is also different and distinctly Japanese. The names of the characters being distinctly Japanese actually works here too. I loved all the little touches here and I think that Fates deserves some appreciation for it.

Lack of a Name for a Continent:              - 16 points

                                      Last, but not least, we have the single biggest worldbuilding flaw in the history of the series: The lack of a name for the continent. The reason why I’ve been saying “Fateslandia” is because Fates has no name for their continent so I quoted a YouTube reviewer who initially coined the term. There is absolutely no valid excuse for this. It doesn’t make sense why the writers would do this and it comes off as extremely lazy storytelling. To me the lack of a name for the continent is a negative that easily outweighs the positives. 

Overall Score: 20 / 60 points. Was anybody surprised that Fates was in last place? I mean where do I begin? The politics are virtually non-existent when they should be front and center, the nations here are poorly developed and of course the continent doesn’t even have a name. While there are some good things that it does they are clearly overshadowed by all the glaring flaws and what’s worse is that Fates had 3 games. That’s one more game than what most other continents get and yet none of these games do a good job at building up the world like they should. It’s a real shame too because this game could have easily been one of the best with all the things it had going for it.