Assorted Etrian Odyssey Ideas

This is a tumblr devoted to collecting and sharing Etrian Odyssey ideas. The games leave a lot of things open to imagination, so it's my goal to fill in some of the blanks with headcanon and worldbuilding. I'll also share some fanworks. If you'd like to contribute your own ideas, feel free. There is no need to adopt any of the ideas on this blog if you'd rather not. Shall we explore together?

[etrianarchive]

Wow, it’s been a while. Mod-chan isn’t dead, just a blend of busy and forgetful. Let’s get to it! I brought up piracy in an earlier post, the one about crime. Let’s take a closer look at that - it sure is time for a post about Buccaneers!

Pirates are probably plentiful in a world this unexplored. Water is essential to life, and as a geographical feature provides a lot of benefits. There’s a reason the world’s coastlines are more densely populated than its landlocked regions, and lakes and rivers tend to gather settlements faster than straight field or mountains. Where there is water, people will gather - and where people gather, there will be crime.

Naturally, a world so unexplored and back to basics would absolutely rely on the waterways and coastlines for a global market, making piracy one of the most profitable (if more dangerous) styles of crime. Besides that, the structure of a pirate crew meshes very well with the kinds of systems seem in the games. We can liken a crew to an exploration guild, or a team of investigators - a group of people who band together to share resources and expenses. They inhabit the same space and move toward the same goal, providing extra companionship.

The key difference between a pirate crew and a Guild or investigation team is that there is no governing body that runs them. Exploration guilds answer to officials, like the Radha or the Outland Count, while teams of investigators are organized by the Midgard Library. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some kind of ‘pirate king’ or ‘court’ of the captains of the most fearsome crews, but Buccaneers are, by nature, adventurous free spirits. They’re the type of people who seek fame and fortune to the point they disregard the law.

This doesn’t mean they won’t follow rules, though. Historically, pirate crews maintained their own Articles of Piracy, which created the law for the ship. Order had to be enforced or the crew would meet with disaster. It’s probably the same in Etrian Odyssey - Buccaneers, as wild and lawless as they may be, still have their own codes of honor or morals. It’s just that theirs are different from the world’s rulers. A key principle in any given Buccaneer’s code is likely to take care of their crew (or guild). Given the inherently social structure of a crew, it follows to think of Buccaneers as generally very people-driven, whether their people number few or many.

Given the fact they’re essentially criminals, why would they be allowed to join exploration guilds instead of being arrested on the spot? History suggests an answer. There was once a class of pirates called privateers, who were more or less allowed by one country to steal from an enemy country’s merchants. I expect it’s the same kind of deal in the games. Armoroad, a major port city, would want to protect itself, and the nearby Yggdrasil allows for a good bargaining point. If pirates naturally crave adventure, fame, fortune, and a social group, they can simply swap their crew for a guild and the high seas for the depths of a tree. Armoroad exists as a haven for Buccaneers who agree to never harm the city’s businesses. In some cases, this might even increase the city’s business, due to pirate attacks forcing waylaid merchants to make an extra stop in a nearby port...

So there we have it. Buccaneers follow their own rules, or at least adhere only to what laws please them. They’re the idyllic glory-seekers, and they like to form close-knit groups, making them perfect candidates as explorers. They’re highly adaptable people, too - the situation on the seas can change at any moment, so they need to be ready. Thus they’re trained in the use of both guns and swords. Versatility complements adaptability well, and help keep them and theirs alive.

[etrianarchive]

Holy fishsticks, what year is it? Sorry about the long delay! Well, let’s get right into it. I think today I’ll talk a bit about that most creepy of classes, the Hexer.

I usually go as (semi-)scientific as possible on my class headcanons to fit with the idea that this all exists in a possible future of our world, but Hexers are a little bit different. They seem to me to operate outside the bounds of what I can justify with remnants of advanced technology, and, if anything, are proof of the more medieval parts of the Etrian Odyssey world. I don’t pretend to know everything. There are a lot of things I can’t explain, and I’m sure a few things no one can explain. In medieval times there were even more; belief in (or at least some willingness to respect) the supernatural was widespread. Hexers kind of fall into that category.

 think it’s likely there are many people who don’t know how Hexers operate at all. They just seem to cause misfortune in their victims. They are, of course, feared - their standard dress is a restraining cloak with chains binding their arms. They only seem to need their bells and voices, perhaps eyes, to cast their curses, so it can be assumed that either they would be capable of far more with more use of their arms or that the general populace really understands nothing about them.

In truth, I think the way a Hexer’s abilities work is through an outpouring of sheer willpower. In some cases it could be likened to hypnotism, a way to force their victims to believe they’ve been afflicted with something. Other techniques follow a pure mind-over-matter approach where the assertion of enough will subjugates logic and forces the desired outcome on reality - a powerful Hexer could be called a minor reality-warper. The precise execution of their various skills probably varies a little from Hexer to Hexer. Some may rely more on intonation and rhythmic ringing of their bell to coerce the world into accepting their will, while others use more brute-force domination.

As a result of this, a Hexer is required to possess an exceptionally strong will. The kind of person who becomes a Hexer has probably had their share of hardship to power through. Maybe they’re more in tune with the spirits, like a medium, because with the Necromancer class in the upcoming Etrian Odyssey V, I think spirits must exist. They might also simply have seen much of the world by a fairly young age, but only ever resorted to their own words and will to get through.

No matter what furnace has forged the Hexer-to-be’s will, though, it is likely they were always seen as a bit ‘off’ compared to most people. This could be in a positive light - the kind of person who is just liked, because they’re a bit strange or mysterious - but is more often negative. They are the people who are withdrawn and kind of creep others out. Maybe their presence alone makes people uncomfortable because their strong will already has a little influence on their immediate surroundings... In any case, Hexers really seem to be more like psychics than witches.

[etrianarchive]

Deep in the mountains, there’s a tribe known for its skilled warriors and the creed its people live and breathe: “True justice for all!” That’s right, tonight’s post is about that most protagonist of classes, the Highlanders!

The Highlanders are interesting as a creation purely for the extra story elements of Etrian Odyssey Untold. They could have used a lot more fleshing out, but there are certainly a few hints. First, they seem to be known for wielding spears. This makes sense to me - the extended reach of a spear would certainly be useful in the rugged terrain they call home. That’s another thing: they clearly live in mountains. Judging by the early cutscene where the Highlander receives his mission, their mountains are dry and rocky more than forested.

I’m not quite sure which mountain range the Highlanders call home. Certainly not the Appalachians; I’m very familiar with those and they evoke an entirely different feeling from the ones shown in-game. It’s possible, because who knows what could happen to the scenery in a thousand years, but I’d think that if they’re forrested  gentle (as mountains go) now, they would be again after reclamation by nature. The Rockies, by my recollection, are taller and rougher, but similarly green and cool...though perhaps at their southern end, they’re less so. Parts of Utah look similar, after all. Dry mountains make me think of Africa, Australia, and possibly Asia more than the other continents. If you’re more familiar with other mountain ranges of the world, I’d love to hear your thoughts on where this could be.

That same cutscene shows the Highlander receiving his mission from an old man. I’d assume this means he’s the tribe elder, effectively its king or chief. He handles the affairs of the tribe, determines which missions they’ll accept and who will carry them out, resolves disputes, manages treaties, and so on. I don’t think the Highlander tribe is very large. It’s about the size of a small village. What trade they have is likely mostly in game meat and mercenary-style missions, due to the harsh climate they live in.

The creed “true justice for all” is an interesting facet. I’m not quite sure what to make of it, other than that it probably derives from the people who first formed the tribe. The idea of a corrupt and lawless society several hundred years pre-game appeals - the tribe’s founders would be those who sought something better and gave everything to reform their customs into an ideal... Another possibility I like is a situation like the one in the short story The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas, by Ursula Le Guin. This situation would be that one society’s happiness thrives on the suffering of a single innocent. The ‘ones who walk away’ woould then be those who couldn’t live that way, and in the context of Etrian Odyssey, would have found a place in the mountains to seek and create true justice. What are your theories?

I think the Highlanders are not the only such tribe in the world. There are probably many, those who live outside the bounds of normal civilization, for their own ideals, tucked away on the fringe of no-man’s land. They’d be famous for different things, and have their own ties... These tribes are probably somewhat nomadic, though confined to a general area. The Highlanders, for instance, stick to their mountain range, but where precisely in that range their camp is varies by season. This makes them difficult to contact, but adds to the stories and mystery about these reclusive clans. I can’t see many tribes being very trusting of outsiders, though I doubt they’d be unfriendly.

The Highlanders value justice, and thus dislike sacrifice...however, they seem to find some honor in the concept of self-sacrifice. In the end of the game, the one time the Highlander doesn’t seek to save Kupala’s life is when she is prepared to give it up willingly for a more noble cause. She had her own cultural values to uphold and saw the need to give her life, so ‘justice’ meant allowing her, rather than trying to complete the objective without any sacrifice at all. Furthermore, many of the Highlander’s skills involve sacrificing HP, either the Highlander’s own or the whole party’s, to power up his attacks. If these are the standard for the Highlander tribe’s renowned fighting skill, then it’s likely they value the willingness to cast aside one’s own safety for a cause.

This isn’t without its caveats. The cause must be worthy, such as defeating a powerful foe or saving the continent, and the level of sacrifice must match the need of the cause. Second, the sacrifice must be willing. This is why M.I.K.E.’s preferred route was unacceptable, it demanded the sacrifice of people who would never even know what they died for or even why it was happening. It might have been a different story if everyone who would be affected agreed and was ready to die for the sake of the entire Asian continent. Finally, there must be a worthy return for that sacrifice. In Kupala’s case, it was the survival of the continent, and some measure of revenge or closure for her people, who’d been driven to madness, as well as the fulfillment of her final duty to her god. In the case of the Highlander’s abilities, it’s the Turning Tide skill, that heals everyone if the Highlander fulfills his goal of killing the enemy. This effectively returns the sacrificed health, kind of like a thank you for lending it to increase his power in the first place.

[etrianarchive]

I’ll have a post for you all later (free at last!) but right now I have a question - would some kind of guild registry be a fun thing you all would want? As in, a list of guilds (and perhaps members) in each town, just as reference material for anyone writing or RPing their own guild members who might want to reference others without making up more... I don’t know. User palletred and I have been maintaining a coordinated headcanon wherein our guilds are more or less bar buddies. Would a larger-scale version be fun, or should I stick to culture textwalls?

[etrianarchive]

Sorry, once again - life is still busy (end of the semester, you know?), and I’m sick (though, in happy news, I finally got my hands on EOIV!). I feel bad leaving you all hanging for a spell again, though... It’s late, but I can do one super-quick post tonight! I was thinking about the most vital of supplies in-game, the Ariadne Thread.

These things are powerful items, they pretty much instantly teleport a group of up to five to safety. But how do they work and what are they?

As for ‘how they work’...I really have no idea, it’s probably best to assume either outright magic or fancy technology from the previous civilization until I get some more depth of thought. I like the technology angle - the people of the world probably assume it’s some kind of magic, because they don’t understand it. It’s something they’re able to replicate, though, and mass-produce as well as they’re able. Supplies are fairly limited, though, all the same, restricting their use to those with the greatest need: the explorers who delve into the most dangerous places, the Labyrinths.

The name Ariadne Thread comes from the Greek myth of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. Ariadne was a girl who loved one of those condemned to die in the labyrinth, so she gave him one end of a ball of thread and stood at the entrance with the other so he’d be able to find his way back. That would seem to indicate that the thread is actually just a means to get back to town by retracing your steps and the game skips that for you. However, there are four things that contradict that idea.

The first is that they can be used to immediately escape being cornered by a FOE, a feat that wouldn’t be accomplished by just following a line. The next is that they’re single-use (in most games), which might be understandable given how long the lines would need to be in order to reach as deep into the Labyrinth as they need to go, but the possibility of one use in that manner wearing them out would negate any chance of them reliably leading guilds back. The third is the cartography aspect of the game - if you’ve been mapping the Labyrinth this whole time, why would you need to follow a string to find your way back home? finally, the oldest game (or two, I’m not sure) uses the name Warp Wire for them instead, specifically indicating that they teleport the user.

I imagine each thread is similar to the Geomagnetic Field, perhaps channeling its power in one quick burst. Given the geomagnetic fields only really appear in Yggdrasil or places directly tied to it, I feel like it’s safe to assume this means part of the thread is woven with surface fibers from the tree. This is why they only take the user to the surface, and only to the town nearest to the corresponding Yggdrasil - they are called to their ‘home’, so to speak.

I imagine them to be fairly short, perhaps a foot or so long, and about as thick as a narrow yarn. The version of the Ariadne myth I read specified golden thread, so I think of them as gold in color, and the term ‘wire’ from the other name makes me think they’re a bit stiffer than string. The ends curl inward as the fibers are all woven into one set piece, instead of being cut off a larger spool. They don’t break very easily, but they can be cut - I imagine that’s how they’re used. Each member of the guild takes a firm grip on part of the wire, and then using a weapon or a very sharp tug of war, they snap the thread. This releases the geomagnetic energy bound within and carries them all to the surface. The experience is probably very alarming the first time or two, and newbie explorers might fall over or experience some nausea from the experience.

[etrianarchive]

Hello, everyone! Sorry, that break ended up much longer than expected. I’m back now, if still busy, but I should be free enough to post regularly again.

Today, I’d like to think about religion a bit. It’s an important facet of any dedicated cultural rambling, after all. A brief disclaimer: I know this can be a topic of contention, and I reference several modern religions and beliefs to try and explain my ideas. I will be the first to admit to a deficient knowledge base, and I hope my comparisons and theories aren’t disrespectful - that’s not my intent. I’m only trying to compare to familiar examples to try and explain what I envision for the in-game world.

Now that I’m done anxiously covering my rear end, let’s get started!

This is a tough thing to look at because, from all in-game indication I’m aware of, religion didn’t survive into the distant future. It’s possible a global culture devoted only to science and logic was born after the apocalypse I’ve described previously, but I find that pretty unlikely given the somewhat medieval or renaissance era technologies and the use of magic. We have many different races and nations, and while the world seems a bit more connected than in similar technological periods in history, there’s still a lot of mystery.

I think, much like modern times, there are probably many variations in precise religious beliefs across many cultures. If major religions like the Abrahamic traditions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) had survived, we’d probably see some kind of evidence or mention, but we don’t. I take this to mean that those specific traditions no longer exist - instead, I feel like the predominant belief systems are variations on a more animistic or polytheistic theme.

Naturally there are exceptions. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a cathedral or other major holy building lasted into their time and became the site of a religious tradition trying to rebuild what was once there. This practice would be a monotheistic tradition believing in a messiah, though I doubt the specific details would be the same. Consider how we now study Norse mythology. There aren’t many written records, so there’s an entire branch of gods, the Vanir, who have been completely lost to history while what we put together are only fragments of what were probably the most popular stories. Imagine, if you will, what would come out if you took the most popular stories from the Bible, Torah, and Quran, removed some detail, put them out of order, and then tried to codify them into a single holy text, because that’s all that remained in a distant future after war and centuries of neglect. That’s one of the traditions I expect could be found scattered about the world of Etrian Odyssey.

Of course, that’s in the minority, because there are only so many conceivable places where religious texts might be preserved that well. Yggdrasil is a major landmark on every continent, I’m sure there are religious traditions that sprung up worshiping the great trees, because surely something that large and that mysterious must be a higher power. The trees could be considered the home of the gods, if not gods themselves. Given how accepted the notion of exploring the Labyrinths is, I find it unlikely that these traditions see them as places humans are unworthy of going...more like the great benevolent tree, deity of prosperity, provides so many wonders for those brave enough to seek them. We can see a lot of references to Norse mythology throughout the games, so I think this tradition could take some cues from it. Idunn was a goddess who provided golden apples to the Aesir, apples granting eternal youth. Yggdrasil was a tree that bound the nine worlds together, and its destruction was part of Ragnarok, the end of the world. Blend those together and we have a tradition worshiping great trees as deities of youth and providence and fearing their destruction as a sign of the end. The obliteration of Gotham probably plays a major role in these traditions as Yggdrasil and the surrounding town must have been entirely wiped out.

A more common system of belief is animism, I think. Consider my previous thought that the two largest contributors to the language and culture could be English/American and Japanese. A somewhat medieval society without much organized religion would still need to find some way to explain the natural world around them, and with all of this in mind I think of both Shinto and Native American traditions that find spirits everywhere. The vast mysteries of the world they live in would definitely create a sense that nature is far greater than humanity. Humans are also no longer on the top of the food chain, meaning they can’t force everything to bow before them - they must live in harmony with nature, one way or another. This is why I expect variations of animism to be the dominant belief. There is something greater, nigh inexplicable, keeping the world balanced and working together, and humans have to acknowledge that - yet without much organized symbolism or practice. I’m sure there are many local deities, though, of towns or regions or rivers and hat have you. Everything has a spirit, though, and is worthy of respect.

Some cultures will have developed pantheons with myriad stories, in the vein of Greek mythology, but I think in most regard the best comparison is to ancient Egyptian mythology. Every part of Egypt, across its ancient history, had its own variation on some very similar gods and stories, and what we call “Egyptian mythology” is what happens when we try and mash what’s technically a lot of distinct, yet very similar, traditions together. It’s a mess. Now consider that kind of thing covering the globe.

As a side note, I think Buddhist and Hindu notions of reincarnation are probably prevalent. However, the Necromancers of the upcoming fifth main series game bring some kind of alarming implications to that, in that sticking around as a ghost might be another way to break the reincarnation cycle, though not exactly a good one... We’ll have to wait and see! I’d talk more about the customs of various races, too, but I’d like to have Etrian Odyssey 5 out before I do that, so I’ll save that for another post.

Another common tradition is the worship not of some kind of spirit or deity but of the past. We do see a form of this in the Forest Folk, as Shinjuku is their holy land and their god appears to be either Visil or the part of Yggdrasil he fused with, though it’s not so direct. I think there are probably places in the world where the people see the past civilization as the remnants of gods, not humanity’s predecessors. The advanced technology would surely seem like divine magical artifacts, and trying to emulate what they can guess of that society’s culture is this tradition’s goal. Something to the effect of ‘we are descended from gods, and when humans can reach that point we will be gods again’. This is, of course, a pretty dangerous tradition, since emulating the past precisely would just lead to another world-destroying calamity, but it isn’t in and of itself bad. The practitioners would be devoted researchers.

Which leads me to my final thought on prevalent traditions - the lack of firm belief in anything. Atheism and agnosticism are more concepts than actual religions, so those would have survived. The agnostics would be much as they are today (based on my experience as an agnostic) - unattached to any particular theory, but curious and welcoming of all. The atheists would be the ones mentioned at the top of this post who’d be devoted to research and reason (...magic notwithstanding, though so far every kind of magic explored on this blog has been boiled down to a hand-waving idea of very advanced technology). I find it easiest to believe that these would be the dominant religious sects found among explorers and among those of the Midgard Library, as people who have cast off solid faith for pursuit of something more. Not that the others wouldn’t be represented (and again, I’m loath to consider racial cultures until I know more), but those who already feel like they can explain the world probably wouldn’t be as inclined to go hunting for answers to its mysteries. There’s a lot of room for a lot of different beliefs, since the world’s gotten a fresh start.

[etrianarchive]

It’s kind of curious how much the various magic-using classes of the Etrian Odyssey world differ, don’t you think? The wonderful mod of Etrian Archive has already elaborated on Alchemists, so I’d like to talk about a different class–the ones who set their sights higher than even the highest boughs of Yggdrasil: Zodiacs.

(This is my first post of this type so bear with me and I HOPE THIS DOESN’T GET TOO RAMBLY OR REDUNDANT)

While Zodiacs superficially function like Alchemists in dealing elemental damage, they’re a different beast entirely, so to speak. They manipulate the energy of stars to perform their attacks–it’s something they can’t exactly touch or play with or just in general interact with all that much. Where Alchemists are curious chemists, Zodiacs are more along the lines of master astrologers and diviners (Fire/Ice/Volt Prophecy and Horoscope, anyone?), using the positions of the stars to predict how an enemy will act or where friends and foes alike will step in a battle and using energy they’ve collected from those very stars to inflict the wrath of the elements on their opponents. The books they carry? Full of star charts they’ve drawn themselves after carefully studying the sky and probably various predictions based off of them. (Of course while you have to buy new books every now and then, it’s easy to assume you’re buying a new one for them to fill up with more charts and predictions… Some Zodiacs might opt for the knives that virtually anyone can use, but it’s not very common.)

The etheric energy that a Zodiac channels in their attacks… I’d like to imagine that it’s collected as they go, drawn from the stars that shine down on earth even when they can’t be seen (or hell, maybe even collected from the sun–that’s a star too, after all!). They can only collect and control so much, however–that’s their maximum TP, and they can only collect it when that’s something they’re focused on, so no regaining TP during a foray in the Labyrinth (outside of resting anyway), where they’re occupied with other things! The use of Etheric Return is the sole exception to that–maybe the Zodiac is taking a moment afforded by an enemy’s defeat to focus briefly on replenishing some of the lost etheric energy, but it’s not meant to be an alternative to properly recharging, so to speak. As far as where this energy is stored, I’m thinking it’s probably in those devices they wear on their shoulders–which means the crystalline wings and laser blades seen in the Zodiacs’ art are probably powered by that same etheric energy they use in attacks. The devices hinder any ability to wear sturdier armor than clothing, and while their bright blades look menacing, they’re not really used to attack–maybe channel various spells, but not actually attack. As far as the wings go, they can’t really do more than hover. Zodiacs have been known to use their books as makeshift weapons in a pinch (especially if they’re real doorstoppers, or they’ll strike with the spine down–which stings quite a bit!), but they’ll try to avoid doing so, if possible. Close-range fighting is not their forte anyway, and with minimal armor, they put themselves at risk.

… As far as Meteor goes, I imagine it’s some combination of etheric energy as a catalyst and sheer hecking willpower–but it takes a lot to call down a meteor, especially if they’re far away, which is why the spell’s so expensive.

As far as what Zodiacs are like as people, I figure they’re just as analytical and observant as Alchemists, but where Alchemists seek to understand and play with the world around them, Zodiacs set their sights even higher than what they can touch. They’re still in pursuit of the unknown, but seek to predict and understand it. Their attention is usually not on what’s right in front of them, but in the future–a little ironic when you consider that the stars they observe aren’t quite accurate to what’s currently happening in space. Zodiacs probably come across as a touch more dreamy than Alchemists, but that’s only to be expected, considering they almost constantly have their heads in the clouds.

…. or perhaps it’d be more appropriate to say they have their heads in the stars?

Mod-chan’s note: I’d been thinking the stellar power they use could derive from harnessing radiation, since stars emit all kinds of things. Maybe the pollution of the planet destroyed the ozone layer in such a way that this radiation became usable, since we can’t use it now!

[etrianarchive]

I’m sorry for the sudden lack of posts - I can’t quite keep up at the moment. I should have something for you tomorrow, though. Thank you for your patience.

[etrianarchive]

I’m going to take a break from class headcanons tonight to discuss food a bit! Everyone likes food. Food’s pretty great for things like staying alive. It’s no wonder that food in general would survive into the future presented by the games, but I’m interested in what kinds of food exist.

Etrian Odyssey Untold provides us with Raquna Sheldon, basically the princess of Canada, and reveals that basically everything maple still exists. Some of the specific maple products have probably changed, but all broad categories still exist. We know that ice cream still exists. Basic ingredients are definitely still a thing. There are animals, so meat’s for sure, there are farms, so grain is obvious.

From what I can tell, based on that one soldier who feeds you every day, Regina’s restaurant in Untold 2, the food shown in the comic that comes with the bonus CD for Untold, and the other hints around, most meals - even in this future’s Japan - are western in origin. No doubt more exotic (from an American’s perspective) food still exists, but I’d expect much of the food culture of the world was forgotten after who knows how long in indoor shelters.

There are probably a lot of odd dishes, like that spider thing Regina cooks, made from people going out into the world looking for ingredients to experiment with. The Farmers of Etrian Odyssey 3 lend some credence to this idea. They’re noncombatants who are mainly there to be really good at getting stuff to be turned into other, more useful stuff. You’d be amazed what’s edible, really. Oysters don’t look very edible, but people love them.

Probably a lot of the food of the world is actually rediscovered dishes. Imagine a box of recipes handed down through generations until people could go out into the world again, imagine the hunt for the ingredients described...and imagine the joy when they got it right. I think there must be a lot of people who look to rediscover the art of the old world, including cooking.

The Labyrinths provided new, strange items with mysterious properties. If you think about it, almost everything there can be used in some way, by the right hands. The world at large puts an emphasis on creation and discovery, a stark contrast with the destructive investigation into all the world’s mysteries pursued by the past civilization. Perhaps this is indicative of a shift in the world’s population’s perception: adventure and knowledge are more important than absolute safety. The people look at the world and ask what they can make of it, rather than how they can protect themselves from it.

[etrianarchive]

Troubadours? Troubadours. Battletastic musicians who’d serenade you as soon as kill you. I haven’t used them very much so I don’t know a lot, but they’re interesting. Again, super-short post (also a few hours late) - I have very little time.

First of all, let’s take a moment to establish one fact: learning an instrument is super hard. I personally learned to play pentatonic flute, recorder, and cello, not to mention singing, and none of them were easy. A troubadour is someone who can play an instrument, maybe multiple, with ease - possibly while singing and dancing - in the middle of combat. Impressive as hell, honestly.

They’re quirky sorts, I think. Unconventional thinkers, and usually the sort to prefer fun to glory. They’re support, after all - and yet, in my experience, they’re incredibly versatile. This makes me think of an offbeat personality type. These are people who are nice and helpful, but kind of weird and open to trying new things, maybe even eternal children.

They’re also dedicated, for sure. It takes effort to do all they do. I haven’t thought enough about magic yet to be sure how they do what they do, but I feel like sound vibrations must be key here? The Troubadour is a master of timing, there’s an argument that they could strategize from the rhythm of a battle.

I think, also, of a book I read about pirates once. A few jobs, like the carpenter, were considered the artists of the sea - among them was the crew’s musician. A musician was important to boost morale among the crew and to terrify enemy ships. A Troubadour can fit the same role. Or imagine a ship powered by rowing and someone beating a drum at the head of the ship to keep the rowers in order, a kind of motivating and cooperative leader.

The Troubadour’s job is subtle, but vital. A guild with no teamwork can’t hope to survive. One way or another, the Troubadour uses music to keep their allies up and their enemies down.

[etrianarchive]

Let’s do Alchemists this time. Because scientific pursuits are important in this world, and Alchemists are curious as the earliest mage type of class.

Alchemists basically just use chemistry to fight. Their gauntlets are more or less miniature labs full of formulas just waiting to go. They’re among the more complex pieces of technology in the world, and require constant maintenance. They’re probably extremely personalized as a result, and one Alchemist wouldn’t be able to use another’s gauntlet easily. They know their own pieces inside out, and can take them apart and put them back together again in lightning time, in the dark. Note that you never need to buy your Alchemist a new gauntlet.

The gauntlets keep their formulas separate, yet at the ready. I think the standard ice formula is probably just liquid nitrogen, with more dramatic variations in spray and precise compositions for the different strengths and kinds. The fire formula is just a kind of liquid bomb - not too similar from the soda bottle bombs that sometimes show up in news reports, from when water, draino, and tin foil are sealed up in a soda bottle and explode on being moved. Of course, the chemical composition of the fire formulas is more sophisticated, but the principle. is the same. I don’t know enough chemistry to guess what the volt formula might be off the top of my head, but I do know that certain acids can be used to create an electric charge. It’s probably a far more dramatic variation on that.

The Alchemist’s gauntlet is their entire life. It hinders movement options, but they rely on it to fight, since they aren’t brawny enough to defend themselves well or be very good at bashing things with their staffs - a kind of fallback plan, if their gauntlets run empty. They need to prepare their formulas regularly to allow continuous use, although some tinker with their gauntlets enough to make them pull atoms from the air to regenerate the formulas used (this is that TP recovery skill!).

The interesting thing is that they aren’t just chemists. They seem to have mastered true alchemy, the conversion of one element into another. Assuming that, for Alchemists, TP refers to their gauntlet’s stored formula supply, then TP-restoring items would be converted into the formulas used. They also have a skill that turns discarded junk into ental, meaning they can shove bits of monsters through their gauntlets and turn them into money. My only explanation is that the gauntlets derive from an advanced technology that can change the structure of atoms. They can separate, store, and rearrange protons, electrons, and neutrons  as needed - meaning their formulas may not be chemicals we’re capable of creating today.

All in all, i see Alchemists as curious types of people. They see the world around them as full of possibilities if you just play with stuff a bit. and they do play. They mess with the structure of nature and discover new things constantly, even if it’s just “if I do this, it will explode and I will die in a chemical inferno”. They’re analytical despite their curious and playful natures, and they’d probably often be the type to do something just because they can. They’re learners, above all, and note down their experiences with quick minds and incredible observation...although their own mental notes may not be very easy to decode by anyone else.

[etrianarchive]

Dark Hunters. We all know they’re one big BDSM joke, right? It’s pretty obvious, from how they dress and their weapon choice and their skills... But how did they end up dominating the battlefield instead of the bedroom? Let’s take a brief look at that.

As a heads up, the next few posts will probably all be quite short. Life isn’t leaving me with much time to think or energy to write.

Can we just start off with me being really amused by the idea of an explorer going through some ruins and discovering a cache of adult toys and trying to guess what they were for, thus becoming the first Dark Hunter? And combat was their entirely innocent misinterpretation?

Amusing images aside, in a culture of, in simplest terms, weirdos who don’t fit into any organized group, it’s natural there would be a lot of people with odd tastes. Dark Hunters in general strike me as the kind of people who find great joy in battle. Of course, there are those who enjoy the thrill of the fight, but I’m talking about specifically the kind of joy that causes fixation. Perhaps it’s almost an addiction?

Dark Hunters are playful and teasing, and they take risks. Their ability to stay alive in battle is, in my experience, absolutely abysmal. I take this as a way to up the stakes intentionally, by wearing lighter armor (more provocative both for monsters and for people). They rely on their reflexes to stay alive instead of their armor or parry skills.

Among explorers, Dark Hunters seem like those who’d view everything as a game, a gamble. The fight for survival is the most primal of all games, a bet of one life against another, winner take all. The rush of that game is what they crave most. The other most primal instinct of all creatures is, of course, to reproduce, so there’s a similar kind of energy there, too. A Dark Hunter has seen fit to combine aspects of both areas. Maybe they also get a rush from making everyone else a little uncomfortable.

The whip is a natural choice in weapons, thanks to its association with both BDSM and fighting. It also gives the Dark Hunter a way to cover their weak spot. If they rely on their agility and speed to stay alive, then it’s important that they also prevent the enemy from moving around too much. Thus they specialize in using their whips to immobilize targets and slow them down, binds, making it easier for the Dark Hunter to dodge attacks. A fully-bound enemy is then, naturally, easy prey for these glass cannons.

It takes both confidence and skill to be a Dark Hunter. They crave challenge and are thrilled by high stakes, and neither of those are easy to handle. Finesse makes or breaks a fight, since their timing is everything, and running right into something like that demands having faith that there’s a decent chance at victory. Certainty is boring, whether it’s certainty of victory or of loss. Dark Hunters run along the blade of a knife, balanced, facing straight ahead, but knowing at any moment they could slip and meet a nasty fate.

As for the name, Dark Hunter... Hunter is obvious. They’re quick and precise, necessary traits for huntsmen. As for what they hunt...I suppose you could consider them the darker passions of life? Things best done under cover of night - gambles, fights, affairs. They might’ve been outcasts among explorer society for a time, considering their...uh, everything. Maybe it was an early fear that their particular love for battle would corrupt the pure curiosity of exploration. You could consider them a type of hunter that thrives in the darkness, or perhaps a dark version of a typical hunter., thus the name. Eventually they became accepted as just another class of explorer.

[etrianarchive]

This post is probably a bit on the short side - my real life is a bit hectic at the moment. Anyway, I’d like to look at the world’s calendar a bit. We know there is one, though it definitely took me a while to figure that out. In case you haven’t noted it yet - you know how on the menu screen, it shows a word and a number, like “Dormouse 23″ or “Capuchin 10″? That’s the in-game date.

The Etrian Odyssey calendar system has fourteen months. Thirteen of them have twenty-eight days each, while the last is only one day long. This all adds up to 365 days, the standard number in a year on Earth, fitting with the rest of the implications that this is the same planet we live on. To take Leap Year into account, I’d say ever four years the one-day long month expands to two days. That makes bookkeeping simple and prevents this outlier from slowly working its way around the year.

As for what this outlier is, exactly, in-universe... My best guess is that it’s a New Year festival. Having some kind of celebratory reverence for the day would be an easy way to mark the passage of time for our historians in the Midgard Library and would also explain the setting aside of days that don’t fit neatly into sets of twenty-eight. This day, two days on Leap Year, is a holiday, probably a time of great festivity. It’s the ringing in of a new year, as full of possibilities as the physical world is.

We run into a few problems with the calendar really quickly, though. For one, since the weather never noticeably changes in-game, we have no clue when any of these months are. Furthermore, the order of months has changed at least once in the series. In Etrian Odyssey 2, the holiday “month” is Khrysaor, and the next thirteen are, in order, Emperor, Dormouse, Taurus, Summoner, Tiger, Lapin, Stallion, Phoenix, Uroboros, Aries, Demiurge, Serpent, and Capuchin. In Etrian Odyssey 4, Summoner is the short holiday “month”, followed in order by Emperor, Dormouse, Taurus, Tiger, Lapin, Uroboros, Serpent, Stallion, Aries, Capuchin, Phoenix, Demiurge, and Khrysaor. Same names, different order.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this, and I don’t know if the calendars of the other games are any different. My first thought is to say the northern and southern hemispheres have their own systems, perhaps one putting the New Year holiday on the Summer solstice and the other on the Winter solstice, but that doesn’t account for the lengths and names all being the same, just in a different order.

I find it interesting that most of the months are named after animals. Tiger, Stallion, and Serpent are obvious. Capuchins are a kind of monkey, and Lapin refers to rabbits, Dormouse to mice. Phoenix and Uroboros are both mythological creatures, the firebird that rises from its ashes and the snake eating its own tail - interestingly, both are symbolic of cycles, with a particular nod to life and death. Aries and Taurus are both western zodiac signs, a ram and a bull. Emperor and Summoner both seem to reference humans, possibly the archetypes of ruling warrior and wise mystic. Demiurge is a creator being, and Khrysaor is a character from ancient Greek mythology, a son of Medusa (brother to Pegasus) often portrayed as either a giant or a winged boar.

All of this actually puts an eastern spin on the calendar. Consider the months in a separate order: Dormouse, Taurus, Tiger, Lapin, Uroboros, Serpent, Stallion, Aries, Capuchin, Phoenix, Emperor, Khrysaor, Demiurge, Summoner. Or, in slightly different terms, Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Boar, God, Cat. Sound familiar? They’re the figures from the myth of the Chinese zodiac (God invited animals to a feast, Rat tricked Cat about the date, Cat missed it and didn’t get to be in the zodiac, Rats and Cats hate eachother for all eternity). Uroboros and Serpent are mostly interchangeable, but one is mythical, so I used that one for the dragon. A phoenix is a bird, a rooster is a bird, that’s the best link there. I need to reach a little bit in the cases of Emperor and Summoner, but I think my logic kind of makes some sense. A dog is a hunter’s pet, symbolic of physical might, the kind of power wielded by an emperor. Cats are traditionally viewed as very mystical, witch’s familiars, as close as I could think of for Summoner.

So their months are somewhat based on the Chinese zodiac, albeit in no particular order nor maintaining a consistent naming theme. This makes me think this is a result of the combination of eastern and western influences on language and culture as well as the somewhat eclectic collection of information already gathered by explorers and historians. Somewhere along the line, someone must have discovered some record of a calendar system that somehow involved these twelve animals, a god, and a cat. Perhaps they combined this with some astronomical records telling them a year is 365.25 days long and achieved the calendar.

I don’t think we’ll ever have any clue when exactly these months fall, and I’m not sure in the slightest which of the two orders to use. I do like the idea of the New Year “month” falling on one of the solstices or equinoxes, as easy time-keeping reference points. Maybe in another post I’ll theorize some mythology or symbolism behind the months, some kind of connection between the names and what happens in that time of year.

[etrianarchive]

Today’s topic will be the Midgard Library. I mentioned in an earlier post that it’s likely descended from an exploration guild, Guild Midgard, if you will. I’d like to expand my theories about it a bit.

I assume the Library has a few hundred years of history. Two hundred sounds like a good number. In Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold, according to the wiki, it’s mentioned that there are many sakura trees around the Library, which leads me to think it’s somewhere in Japan. On the other hand, the world’s ecology could have changed drastically in the last millennium, and cherry trees can grow just about anywhere temperate. I’ve been favoring the idea that it’s somewhere in North America, possibly on the east coast. I’m really amused by the thought of it being in Washington, DC, because of the present-day Smithsonian museum. The Midgard Library could be a spiritual successor.

Guild Midgard was probably devoted to hunting down any remnants they could find of the past civilization. Signs of it were everywhere, scattered across the entire planet. Ruins held all kinds of strange devices, a few of which still kind of almost worked. There were books in indecipherable text to work on reading and all kinds of information to work with, if one knew where to look. For Guild Midgard, the map edges they sought to fill in were in time, not space. They had to have made quite a name for themselves in order to become what they did.

Over time, more people sought to join this guild that was digging up so many relics. Some were probably drawn out of a desire for the fame involved with the discoveries they were making, some genuinely wanted to help learn more, and some probably just wanted the thrill of being explorers without so much of the danger. The group grew. eventually they had enough people and enough money to buy a guild hall, and over time they expanded and upgraded it into what is now, most likely, practically a palace. As they got more people, their focus expanded as well. Instead of a guild that sought remnants of the past, they became a guild devoted to the collection of all kinds of knowledge.

Eventually, they lost guild status. By becoming a Library instead, they managed to gain the support of many noble families around the globe. I imagine the Library has become something of an independent city-state, free to govern itself, though with the requisite leader - I’ll call this person the chairman. The chairman works with a board of specialists in different major fields to make major decisions. Each of these specialists has their own division to run, with their own workers. Everyone at the library is both employee and student.

The Library is independent, politically, and also strictly neutral. They don’t have the manpower to engage in any conflict, and fortunately they don’t have the kinds of resources wars are fought over. The Library is entirely supported by donations from people across the globe - the wealthy donate money, which the Library uses to buy needed supplies like food and repairs. Residents of the Library are not typically paid, though they may be granted some funds if sent on an investigation or in emergencies. Because of its strictly neutral role, the Library can often act as a mediator in international disputes or a meeting ground for various nations. All people are welcome at the Library, provided they behave, and no one is forced to stay against their will.

Everyone at the Library is a student. The Library’s mission is to gather information of all kinds, so many people interested in many different subjects come together to teach one another and discover new things. Many young nobles spend some time there as part of receiving a rounded education. However, the Library is also a communal living space, and everyone is expected to help keep the place running. Jobs range from management and paperwork to teaching to cooking and cleaning. Even the youngest residents help, mostly by lifting and carrying and making deliveries from one part of the Library to another.

The Library is large. It houses a large kitchen and mess hall, many offices and private study rooms, many classrooms, many bedrooms, bathrooms, laboratories of various kinds, stables, combat training rooms, and, of course, an absolutely massive main room for books (many of them penned by various residents of the Library). For many of its residents, it’s the fanciest place they’ll ever live. Title and rank mean nothing there, as the willingness to learn is the most valued trait anyone can have. Those who don’t want to learn and only come to the library for its resources will be recognized and politely but firmly ousted. And yes, the Library does provide some combat training. Residents typically build their own curricula around what they’re most interested in studying, and for some this includes fighting. Largely, this is seen as stress relief and preparation for emergencies, but it’s also a requirement for anyone hoping to become an official investigator.

Investigators are Library residents who not only study within its walls but also head out in search of new answers. They might look into a problem in another part of the world, be sent to advise a noble family, search ruins for ancient texts and relics, or any number of external jobs. Missions for investigators are assigned by the Library’s board, and are usually assigned to small, balanced teams. Combat training is a must for investigators due to the high likelihood of needing to defend themselves in the field.

The Library has two other major roles, i think. The first is as a hospital. Due to its nature as a gathering of knowledge, many who study there are doctors and pharmacists seeking to improve public health. As such, the Library is also home to possibly the best medical center in the world. The other role is as an orphanage. The Library makes a point of taking in and raising orphans, many of whom stay at the Library their entire lives. Sometimes investigators bring orphans back with them from their missions, sometimes the children find their way there on their own power, sometimes a village will send a bright orphaned child to the Library, and in some cases children have probably mysteriously appeared on its doorstep. The Library doesn’t turn anyone away, and so it takes in these children, knowing they’ll have a much better home there than they’re likely to have anywhere else. Not all orphans stay, but many do, because the Library is a home where they’re always welcome.

[etrianarchive]

Two nights ago, I talked about crime. Tonight, I’d like to think about law enforcement a little bit. Naturally this demands looking at the legal structures of the world a bit, too.

I’ve said before I think there are pockets and clusters of small countries. This one more or less based off of France that one off of Spain, so on and so forth. These countries, naturally, have leaders. Kings are common. Most kingdoms are friendly with their neighbors, though of course wars still happen. However, kingly obligation levels vary. some probably take an active role in running their territory, others leave that in the hands of advisers and live lives of luxury. Of course, some of our rulers are queens, and some take different kinds of titles, and they’ve got all these noble families and courtiers. Particularly rich merchants can become practically nobles, I’d say they’re the aristocracy as opposed to actual royalty.

In any case, all the various rulers couldn’t be expected to govern everything themselves. They need help. Every town, city, and settlement has a government of some kind. In major cities or otherwise important towns, minor noble families take that role - I think the Radha of Etria is like this. Perhaps the family hires non-nobles to help run things and watch them in their stead, but the town’s government still takes their name. In other cases, the family rules the town more directly, such as the Duke of High Lagaard. Armoroad I lean more on the idea that it was granted to a family of the aristocracy rather than nobility, but it could go either way. The Mark Grand Court of Tharsis is another case of nobility ruling the town. In less important towns and cities, mayors are appointed or elected, varying by country in both duties and which method is used to choose them. In the smaller villages and settlements, an elder is usually selected to make important decisions and report events to the nearest government official.

Naturally, towns nearer to the capitol will generally be larger, and grow smaller as they approach more dangerous areas. Major cities tend to draw their own kinds of danger (swindlers, thieves, assassins), but they don’t have so much threat of monsters or bandit attacks. Some countries see those outer settlements as expendable, or only the problem of those who live there, while others are more concerned. Any country will want its borders defended, however, and so there are forts and guard outposts peppered across civilized land. Most settlements will be no more than a day or two away from such an outpost, on a fast horse.

These guard outposts form the main kind of law enforcement in the wilder lands. Local mayors and elders put out requests when a person or monster is making enough trouble, and the soldiers or wandering explorers will take care of it. In some places, the soldiers may welcome the explorers’ help. In others the kingdom would take shame in explorers beating them to the problem. Many of these small settlements are their own best defense - the people who live in them are workers. Farmers, lumberjacks, miners, perhaps sailors, sometimes blacksmiths. Most have a little combat training of some sort that they can use to defend their homes, and even if not, it doesn’t take much learning to throw a stone or a punch, or brandish an ax, or hit someone with a frying pan. They can mostly take care of themselves, and rely on helpful wanderers or the state when they can’t.

In larger or more important places, there will be many guards stationed within town. In the games, we see a number of soldiers around, as well as the explorers. They keep the peace and offer aid to those who need it. This sometimes includes sharing meals with those on early floors of the Labyrinth, sometimes mediating a dispute before it comes to violence. In Labyrinth towns, they’re expected to tackle all problems caused by people within the town itself, as the explorers will be busy with the Labyrinth. In non-Labyrinth towns, there are fewer explorers, and the soldiers are expected to take on all problems. In these larger cities and settlements, I’d imagine the soldiers wouldn’t be very happy about explorers intruding on their duties. Vigilantism is frowned upon here, though often considered heroic in more rural places.

On the seas it’s different. Pirates are a very difficult problem to tackle. Large port towns are the best defense for small fishing villages, mostly by virtue of having much more that’s worth stealing and thus being a bigger draw. Fortunately, these towns tend to have more soldiers and a naval outpost for fighting off the worst attacks, though defense against pirates is much more difficult and often doesn’t go nearly as well as against bandits. Explorers who happen to have ships and who are willing and able to fight off pirates are greatly appreciated. Officially, I don’t imagine the kingdom would like it, but that won’t stop the stationed officers from turning a blind eye and buying the helpful explorers a round at the pub. Occasionally a kingdom will organize a chase after a specific crew or a raid on a hotspot of pirate activity, if one is located nearby, and these may or may not go well depending on how much effort is put into organizing them as well as luck. Small fishing villages are on their own if they happen to get attacked.

Detectives are a thing, we know this from Autin’s presence in Etrian Odyssey Untold. However, he appears to be more like the classical detective (Doyle’s Holmes or Poe’s Dupin) than the hardboiled private detective. These are people sought out for their ability to think through a problem given only the barest of clues. They’d be approached by normal people or by the state if something came up that exhausted normal forms of address or that needed to be kept on the downlow, and the problems they take on are usually of the sort that won’t involve fighting (not that they can’t fight). I suppose they’d be best considered a kind of explorer - a freelance worker seeking their own kind of thrills, though, at least in Austin’s case, mostly of the intellectual kind. I don’t think official private detectives exist as we know them.

I’m running out of ways to think about law enforcement, so I think I’ll stop there. If I ever start writing my headcanons about actual countries I’ll address their policies in a bit more detail.

[etrianarchive]

Do you have any thoughts about how the first enemies you face in Etrian odyssey untold are some of the last in Etrian odyssey 4? Ex venom fly

I do! This is the result of how the Labyrinths formed. The Yggdrasil trees began as no more than saplings, most likely. Well, they started as genetically engineered seeds, but were grown to sapling size in a lab. They were then planted outside, once the research team was certain they could survive without more human support. I’m hesitant to discuss this in too much depth until I’m more familiar with the games (I have not played all of them!), but I’ll do what I can.

The strata probably developed in reverse order from the exploration order. In other words, first the roots of the trees grew deep and wide, creating the deepest reaches of the forest. This became the bloody, flesh-like Claret Hollows in what eventually became Etria. As the tree grew and the surrounding environment changed, trees, possibly sprouted from seeds dropped off of Yggdrasil, grew to overtake Tokyo. We know the fifth stratum was once ground level because it’s Shinjuku, part of modern-day Tokyo.

I expect tectonic activity had something to due with the rise in ground level in the area around Tokyo, since Japan is a volcanic country. This coupled with the sturdy mingling of branches and roots in the forest making up the Labyrinth to create the different floors. There was probably a very dry period that resulted in the sandy Barrens, where tougher trees formed and branches and roots wove together very tightly so less water could get through. This was followed by a very rainy period as the Azure  Rainforest developed, and those sturdy knots of branches gathered most of the water to form lakes and pools. This formed a good lush and fertile basis for the Primitive Jungle to form, which eventually calmed down into the Emerald Grove.

The slow growth of the Labyrinth over centuries allowed for different creatures to move to and evolve in the strata that best suited them. The processes that formed the Labyrinths of High Lagaard and Armoroad (and Tharsis as wel) were very different, causing wild variation. Etria’s labyrinth goes deep underground, High Lagaard’s climbs into the sky, Armoroad’s leads far beneath the ocean, and Tharsis’s involves multiple distinct yet connected Labyrinths. Naturally, the strata environments and the monsters within are different as well, although the monsters can be similar.. For example, you could think of the Icy Pincer from Etrian Odyssey 4 and the Ice Claws of Etrian Odyssey Untold, which are virtually the same monster by different names and with different stats, as the same broad type of animal (like lizard or bear, in this case “ice mantis”) but different species within that type (matching our examples, “newt” versus “chameleon” and “polar bear” versus “grizzly bear”, in very simple terms).

As for the scaling effect of strength in monsters of later areas, those places are older. The monsters there are thus more specially evolved, and have survived there longer. They’ve become tougher to match the competing species and maintain their own territory.

So, in short, poisonous butterflies found the parts of Tharsis’s Labyrinth that formed earlier the most suitable and fought hard to survive there, becoming a very threatening variant of Venomfly, while the poisonous butterflies of Etria preferred the newest environment and thrived there as a weaker species of Venomfly. It has much to do with when the original butterflies found their way into the forests.

[etrianarchive]

Where there are people, there will be rules, and where there are rules, there will be rulebreakers. Let’s consider crime in the world of Etrian Odyssey. Naturally, this subject can get heavy and dark.

I described in my last post a world where there’s a lot of unexplored areas. Filling them in is a slow process. This means there are plenty of places for people of sketchier persuasions to hide. In the forests, in caves, on long stretches of road connecting one pocket of civilization to another, and on the high seas - danger abounds from the people who saw freedom as a personal benefit rather than something for the good of all.

We know pirates are a thing - the buccaneers of Etrian Odyssey 3 suggest as much, if they don’t outright shout it. Sailing was probably one of the first technologies rediscovered. An ocean is much harder to map than a forest or cave, though, and accurate charts of more than the major trade routes are probably scarce. Considering our major language contributors are English and Japanese, the Pacific Ocean has likely become the center of naval activity. Hawaii makes a convenient (if volcanicly hyperactive) rest stop. Of course, the Atlantic is also traversed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Europe in its entirety experiences less attention than the Asian continent.

The Pacific being the more popular ocean of the time means it would also be a hotbed for pirates. In our history, various islands in the Caribbean were havens for them. In the time of the games, I’d say a similar thing occurs in the islands south of Asia, mostly in the Philippines. There are plenty of islands close together there, and they’re near enough to the routes between Asia, North America, South America, and Australia for pirates to make a profit. The whole area’s rife with them. If Armoroad is in fact in Sri Lanka (I’ll explore the locations of game towns sometime in the future), this puts it in a good position to have swashbuckling explorers.

Bandits prowl the land routes between civilizations. You know the silk road, the old trade route that connects Europe and Asia? It’s probably returned to prominence as the best way between the two continents. It’s also probably absolutely rife with highwaymen. The areas between Europe and Asia are vast and I imagine they’d be among the largest unexplored zones on the planet. Parts of the silk road can get very lonely, and while the various governments of the world have done their best to keep it patrolled, it’s still an easy place for a merchant to be vulnerable.

Between the less-traveled Atlantic Ocean and the stretches of no-man’s-land between it and Asia, Europe is fairly unconnected to the rest of the world. The northern edge of Africa is a good neighbor, but their others are far away. There are pirates here, too, of course, but not in such numbers as on the Pacific. It’s here that an even less savory trade might spring up - human trafficking. The purposes vary, from the typical images associated with the term today to the selling of victims as servants to wealthy households with few scruples to extra help on a farm. What happens depends more on the buyers than the traffickers.

So we have piracy on the Pacific, concentrated in Asia, brigands throughout Asia and Europe, human trafficking between Europe and Africa and extending into other areas of the world... I expect these are the main kinds of crime this world faces. People live in fear of not only the wilds, but the people in them who aren’t there to explore. The various leaders of the world do their best to police their territories, but I think freelancers, mercenaries, and explorers do plenty of work to run off criminals.

This is a world characterized by adventure and mystery. Most of the crime is varying forms of thievery because that’s the most conducive to profit. There are no complicated economic systems to exploit, no computers to hack. There are probably nearly as many, if not more, people who turn to the various bands of rogues - guilds of their own, sometimes, or families of crime; even calling themselves kingdoms when they’re expansive enough - as there are who call themselves explorers. In the end, both pursuits offer adventure and the thrill of skirting danger, as well as fame and profit for the successful.

Not that there isn’t honor among thieves. Most groups have their own rules they abide by. The most despised and dangerous of the world’s criminals are those who work alone. Nobody would trust a lone wolf to have a code to stick to. Pirates form crews, bandits form gangs, swindlers form troupes, assassins form bands, human traffickers form markets. There are many different groups within each category, each following their own rules. For example, one pirate crew may refuse to attack weddings or other ceremonies of particular dignity, another may make a point of it. Some assassin groups will only take on particular marks. Some human traffickers might refuse to sell to buyers interested in one purpose or another. The rules vary, but members are expected to stick to them. Punishment for breaking rules within these criminal groups is often crueler and harsher than punishments issued by legal institutions.

Most groups uphold certain values and virtues, though. Among pirates as a whole subculture, sinking an enemy or target vessel without good cause (”because I want to” is not good cause, “because we can’t win a deck fight and can’t outrun the ship” is) is one of the worst offenses. Some crews do it regularly, but most crews will avoid dealing with those that do and, if they happen to come across their victims, will do their best to rescue survivors and transport them and whatever they have left to the nearest port. At least one assassin guild has no scruples about targets, and the other underworld hired killers do all they can to get in that guild’s way. Having at least some respect for the victims of their attacks is the norm, among criminals, and they’ll often become more threatening to one another than official crime-fighters are as a result of the moral disagreements between groups.

Criminal politics are in constant flux, moreso than legitimate politics.  Ordinary people don’t know the details, they just know what kind of people are out there. Many criminals are decent people who crave a freer lifestyle than even that offered by exploration, and I bet many combine the rogue life with official exploration. Communication between towns and regions isn’t always very effective, after all, so a man could be a hero in one town and be banned from another.

They’re still lawbreakers, though.