2014-11-07, 05:08 PM (This post was last modified: 2014-11-07, 05:11 PM by Username.)
I think that I'm going to agree with Forsena being a quasi England. I thought Lance was a kind of young King Arthur. What with his wise old advisor and all. You also really get the feeling of some sort of established hierarchy from them. It all seems so orderly. Arthurian legend is often associated with the pre Anglo-Saxon, Romano-Celtic people. That's kind of what I see there. Also, Norgard is a pretty clear viking analogy. However, they could be pretty barbaric and maybe they are the Scottish Highlanders. I think of Caerleon as the Celtic people. Maybe to be more particular Welsh. Druidism, often associated with the Celts, is often interpreted as a very magic oriented tradition. This leaves Almekia or Esgares as a pre-Norman Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Seems to fit. Iscalio is the odd one out here, I think they seem to me, like Italy attached on to the island.
Edit: I have to say, Caerleon looks exactly like Cornwall. And Padstow kinda looks like Wales, if you squint hard enough.
2014-11-07, 07:40 PM (This post was last modified: 2014-11-07, 07:59 PM by Kammu.)
(2014-11-07, 05:08 PM)Username link Wrote:I have to say, Caerleon looks exactly like Cornwall. And Padstow kinda looks like Wales, if you squint hard enough.
damn, you're right... I don't even need to squint that hard
and norgard looks like Nordjylland (northern denmark)... at least to me
(2014-11-07, 09:08 AM)Rovole link Wrote:As you can see I've chosen to compare Forsena to mainland europe rather than Britain(because only an Englishman would refer to the whole island as "England",) with the map being set on an island to be more tidy. I suppose it could work both ways, but as you said before that makes it hard to place Iscalio. Roman remnants, maybe?
An Englishman would refer to the whole island as "the united kingdom"
I can definitely see Iscalio as Italy. The country name as well as the knight names Bagdemagus, Gallo, and Lecarra (who was from Iscalio) all have Roman sounding suffixes.
An interesting clue as to which country Almekia represented is found in the name of Lance's father King Hengist. Historically, Hengist was one of the Saxon king's who was invited into Britain by the Celtic ruler Vortigern to help him in his war against those pesky northern barbarians (Picts etc). But the Saxons under Hengist quickly turned on Vortigern and began invading Britain too- boy did that plan go wrong Since Hengist was a Saxon specifically associated with Britain, it seems likely that Almekia represents the the Saxons in Britain and that Forsena is a quasi-Britain rather than mainland Europe,. But that leaves the question as to why Italy is grafted on? Actually, moving Italy and having it grafted onto Britain sounds just like something Dryst would order his knights to do!
A translation note: I've been working on Norgard's events and came to the scene where Esmeree is reunited with her brother Vaynard after the fall of Esgares. I was happy to find that there are several extra lines in Esmeree's speech (cut out by Atlus in LoF). Also, what Atlus did include, had a seriously botched translation, so the GE version should provide significantly better insight. Her speech is one of the best insights into Zemeckis' personality in the game. I won't spoil anything, but I thought it eloquent and insightful. Almost makes me like Zemeckis....almost
After a translating marathon, Norgard's event text is translated and inserted.
In my estimation, Norgard's events rank as the "most botched" country in Atlus' LoF translation. Nothing earth shattering, but I think some interesting points were lost in LoF. For example in a line from Vaynard's extremely botched endgame speech: "The war is over, but the fighting continues. May there be further advances on our land"
It almost sounds like he's hoping for more war as in "the enemy advances on our land".
A rough paraphrase of what he's actually saying is: "The war is over;now we fight for our future. May our new land continue to progress".
(Most of this is from Wikipedia, everything I know about the UK comes from Top Gear)
Logres (also Logris or Loegria) is the name of King Arthur's realm in the Matter of Britain. It derives from the Welsh word Lloegr, a name of uncertain origin meaning "England".
Also there's obviously Kardiff and Humber in Norgad, although Humber is a river.. Cardiff is the capital of Wales. Camelford "is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall." There was a 'Battle of Badon Hill' (Baydon Hill in LoF). There was a Linnuis, or the Kingdom of Lindsey, which "lay between the Humber and the Wash".
Could just be a coincidence or a handful of them but I get the feeling it was intentional, and that all the castles would link to something.
By the way I hope life's treating you well HwitVlf, really looking forward to the translation!
2014-11-17, 02:37 PM (This post was last modified: 2014-11-17, 03:10 PM by Rovole.)
(2014-11-08, 09:43 PM)Verdite link Wrote:An Englishman would refer to the whole island as "the united kingdom"
I suppose that depends on where you stand on the issue of every country in the UK having their own dedicated government except England. Specific terms are very important in political rhetoric ;).
(2014-11-12, 07:14 AM)HwitVlf link Wrote:After a translating marathon, Norgard's event text is translated and inserted.
In my estimation, Norgard's events rank as the "most botched" country in Atlus' LoF translation. Nothing earth shattering, but I think some interesting points were lost in LoF. For example in a line from Vaynard's extremely botched endgame speech: "The war is over, but the fighting continues. May there be further advances on our land"
It almost sounds like he's hoping for more war as in "the enemy advances on our land".
A rough paraphrase of what he's actually saying is: "The war is over;now we fight for our future. May our new land continue to progress".
Anywho, onto the "new game" opening stories.
I can't thank you enough for translating this game. I studied many foreign languages including Spanish, German, French, Korean, and Japanese and I can say that Japanese by far is the most difficult, whose text I haven't even begun to be able to decipher. Many foreigners don't realize how much of a gobbledegook mess the Japanese written language is. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, 31 in Hangul, but in Japanese you have too many to count(most estimates state around 2,000-50,000, and thats just Kanji one of three commonly used written language systems.) Even a native Japanese speaker can end up running into characters he doesn't recognize, or he might even read the characters wrong(since, long story short, context is vital to a given Kanji's meaning.) I might as well be trying to learn ancient egyptian.
More on-topic, I feel like many characterizations were a little abbreviated... Esmeree especially, I just replayed Norgard on Hard(Taking lidney year 215 month 2 was hellish.) And one line in particular stuck in my mind, where in the banter between Vaynard and Zemeckis, Zemeckis refers to Esmeree as one of many palace women(that have been the object of his conquests,) a very callous way for a man to refer to his wife. I always thought there was more to his personality than we are meant to believe, which is why !!spoiler alert: he gives his life protecting the faction leader/faction leader's love interest/faction leader's companion, from Bulnoil.~~!! Now we know why.
Of all the features in Grand Edition that I anticipate, the one I anticipate most, even more than the Bulnoil bossfight, is the Esgares storyline.
Since Hengist was a Saxon specifically associated with Britain, it seems likely that Almekia represents the the Saxons in Britain and that Forsena is a quasi-Britain rather than mainland Europe,. But that leaves the question as to why Italy is grafted on? Actually, moving Italy and having it grafted onto Britain sounds just like something Dryst would order his knights to do!
