2013-04-09, 08:26 AM
The geography of Elegria the continent, from what I can gather of the (From Software) manuals is thus...
It's conceptually a diamond. Verdite is in the middle. Granitiki in the west. Ygrec in the south. The east is a feared wasteland that the 3 kingdoms do not even have maps of. I think anyway. It could be the deep south that is that. But there is not a kingdom in the east, so I'm going with that until I stumble across that bit in the manuals again.
I don't know where Elfos and Elwin are mentioned in game. I got them from a website, and have heard they are in strategy guides. Anyway, I like Elfos for water, and as a girl. I don't know if gender or elemental affinities are mentioned anywhere. I'd rather not change them. I think if one is going to be the moon and the other the sun (again just something I've spun of hay) the girl should be the moon. And moon I associate with the tides, so water, and Elwin sounds like a dude, and Elfos sounds like elf, and so I think the elf race should be named after the mother, or the female god. Plus usually sky/sea god couples put the guy in the sky because he is the top.
So Elwin is wind. I associate Wind with the west. Not the east. Because Granitiki uses Hebrew sounding words. So Jews are from the desert, wind and sun feel like desert to me, so I have the west is a desert kingdom.
Likewise I have the Asian tribes (with a proper kingdom on an island off the coast like Japan) being water. Because Japan has tsunamis, and fishing is a huge part of the eastern esthetic.
Anyway. I think this setup is better than anything in the original games. So I would give it primacy even if it disagrees with the games.
Finally the North of Elegria doesn't have a kingdom. It has a sea in the middle of it called Veld that is landlocked as far as I can tell. There is thick forest around the sea on all sides. And Melanat is in the middle of the sea. I think Veld and Verdite are a play on dialects. In other words, the local dialect of Verdite eventually drifted until it was pronounced Verd instead of Veld, and ite, probably means something in addition to the general vicinity.
Its possible that Verdite is closer to Veld in the north than being strictly in the middle of the continent. But Veld is a place where people pilgrimage to during the summer months where people bathe in the beaches and camp out. Its a tradition to bring the peoples of the kingdoms together to encourage peace and probably to discourage inbreeding or whatever. Also the kings meet there to discuss international affairs.
My impression on the champions is they just want to decide who to let carry their swords and lead their armies. I think originally they led two armies of men (including half elves and dwarves) against one another in a great war. So you'd have both sides fighting with the dragons visible on the battle field and making strategic decisions. So the champions were like standard bearers for moral. One dies and they find a new one...
But that time is long past. And only the elves of Melanat carried on the memory of the dragons. And even they are long gone in KF2.
PS: Since I haven't mentioned it. I like the idea that Meryl (or Merril) and Merrel, are the same word that is a title for the fountain maiden depicted in the Dragon Fountain on Melanat and in the Seath idols. Its a word chosen because its one of the few words that the pure elves and men share in common pronunciation wise. Its just fun with words. But I think a good explanation for Meryl in KF2 is she is or was the current fountain maiden. And that's how she can move around the island easily through secret passages, which only fountain maidens can do. Basically the maidens are ambassadors since the pure elves never interact with others on the island except for the maiden.
Anyway, and then in times when the island was more populated, the men (half breeds etc) would assign a guard to the fountain maiden called Merrel Ur. I don't know if it would be a company of guards, or just a single man. Probably a company. But anyway, eventually that just became a generic title for the most accomplished warrior among the high elves. And then the Merrel Ur that became the final champion of Seath over time led to the confusion between the fountain maiden and Seath. Until the high elves began to think they were one in the same.
Anyway, the only alternative to this explanation is Seath deliberately masquerades as a woman. Or just that there is no explanation.
PPS: Just on Dias' army as you say. They don't look like Verdite soldiers to me. Obviously they don't look like the group dispatched to the island. But anyway to me Verdite is a very metropolitan kingdom but especially a fusion of the Franco-German and English empires. To me his army looks almost eastern if not at least more like a religious order than regular soldiers. If they weren't already doing something on Melanat they wouldn't have all of those uniforms handy. Plus I am pretty sure that the island is considered to be cursed. People only go there to risk their lives to mine crystals. So it seems like they'd have to be a cult or religious order of sorts already established on the island. They don't even bear a resemblance to the townspeople or miners, but still I like their look.
It's conceptually a diamond. Verdite is in the middle. Granitiki in the west. Ygrec in the south. The east is a feared wasteland that the 3 kingdoms do not even have maps of. I think anyway. It could be the deep south that is that. But there is not a kingdom in the east, so I'm going with that until I stumble across that bit in the manuals again.
I don't know where Elfos and Elwin are mentioned in game. I got them from a website, and have heard they are in strategy guides. Anyway, I like Elfos for water, and as a girl. I don't know if gender or elemental affinities are mentioned anywhere. I'd rather not change them. I think if one is going to be the moon and the other the sun (again just something I've spun of hay) the girl should be the moon. And moon I associate with the tides, so water, and Elwin sounds like a dude, and Elfos sounds like elf, and so I think the elf race should be named after the mother, or the female god. Plus usually sky/sea god couples put the guy in the sky because he is the top.
So Elwin is wind. I associate Wind with the west. Not the east. Because Granitiki uses Hebrew sounding words. So Jews are from the desert, wind and sun feel like desert to me, so I have the west is a desert kingdom.
Likewise I have the Asian tribes (with a proper kingdom on an island off the coast like Japan) being water. Because Japan has tsunamis, and fishing is a huge part of the eastern esthetic.
Anyway. I think this setup is better than anything in the original games. So I would give it primacy even if it disagrees with the games.
Finally the North of Elegria doesn't have a kingdom. It has a sea in the middle of it called Veld that is landlocked as far as I can tell. There is thick forest around the sea on all sides. And Melanat is in the middle of the sea. I think Veld and Verdite are a play on dialects. In other words, the local dialect of Verdite eventually drifted until it was pronounced Verd instead of Veld, and ite, probably means something in addition to the general vicinity.
Its possible that Verdite is closer to Veld in the north than being strictly in the middle of the continent. But Veld is a place where people pilgrimage to during the summer months where people bathe in the beaches and camp out. Its a tradition to bring the peoples of the kingdoms together to encourage peace and probably to discourage inbreeding or whatever. Also the kings meet there to discuss international affairs.
My impression on the champions is they just want to decide who to let carry their swords and lead their armies. I think originally they led two armies of men (including half elves and dwarves) against one another in a great war. So you'd have both sides fighting with the dragons visible on the battle field and making strategic decisions. So the champions were like standard bearers for moral. One dies and they find a new one...
But that time is long past. And only the elves of Melanat carried on the memory of the dragons. And even they are long gone in KF2.
PS: Since I haven't mentioned it. I like the idea that Meryl (or Merril) and Merrel, are the same word that is a title for the fountain maiden depicted in the Dragon Fountain on Melanat and in the Seath idols. Its a word chosen because its one of the few words that the pure elves and men share in common pronunciation wise. Its just fun with words. But I think a good explanation for Meryl in KF2 is she is or was the current fountain maiden. And that's how she can move around the island easily through secret passages, which only fountain maidens can do. Basically the maidens are ambassadors since the pure elves never interact with others on the island except for the maiden.
Anyway, and then in times when the island was more populated, the men (half breeds etc) would assign a guard to the fountain maiden called Merrel Ur. I don't know if it would be a company of guards, or just a single man. Probably a company. But anyway, eventually that just became a generic title for the most accomplished warrior among the high elves. And then the Merrel Ur that became the final champion of Seath over time led to the confusion between the fountain maiden and Seath. Until the high elves began to think they were one in the same.
Anyway, the only alternative to this explanation is Seath deliberately masquerades as a woman. Or just that there is no explanation.
PPS: Just on Dias' army as you say. They don't look like Verdite soldiers to me. Obviously they don't look like the group dispatched to the island. But anyway to me Verdite is a very metropolitan kingdom but especially a fusion of the Franco-German and English empires. To me his army looks almost eastern if not at least more like a religious order than regular soldiers. If they weren't already doing something on Melanat they wouldn't have all of those uniforms handy. Plus I am pretty sure that the island is considered to be cursed. People only go there to risk their lives to mine crystals. So it seems like they'd have to be a cult or religious order of sorts already established on the island. They don't even bear a resemblance to the townspeople or miners, but still I like their look.