As per a Famicom-era strategy guide: Magic in FF3's world is polarized due to an ancient war between Sasune and Saronia.
Here is the passage describing it, courtesy of the guide (via Google translate):
The origins of black magic were religious. It started out as a ritual to pray for rain, and was later used to treat illnesses, and there was no classification of black or white.
The reason magic became polarized in its history is due to the wars that broke out between two great powers.
King Sasune focused on magic as a means of attack, and placed the mages in his country under his control, creating a method of killing. This was the beginning of black magic. However, some mages thought that magic should not be used as a tool for killing, so they escaped from Sasune and moved to Saronia, where they established a new system of magic. This was the beginning of white magic. Eventually, as black magic developed, the war situation turned in Sasune's favor, and many Saronia soldiers were injured and killed by black magic. The King of Saronia, who took the situation seriously, asked the white mages for help. This was the first time that white mages entered the vortex of war under the pretext of protecting people from black magic.
However, this backfired, and the power of each side's magic escalated one after another. Finally, the white side perfected the ultimate slaughter magic, Holy, and the black side perfected Flare. However, at that time, no one realized the true horror of this magic. Then tragedy struck. The moment the enormous energy of their ultimate magic collided, tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides were instantly wiped out. This battle marked the end of the war. And with the end of the war, the enormous magical power was sealed away in the forbidden land of Eureka.
Overthinking Final Fantasy III Royalty Part 1: Symbols
Between the original, the Pixel Remaster and the remake, Final Fantasy III has undergone various aesthetical changes. Some of the more intriguing ones relate to the three kingdoms across the game.
Here's some thoughts about them! Starting with the emblems all around:
When it comes to royal iconography, there is a sort of science behind it known as heraldry. There is a surprising amount of thought that goes into the various symbols and creatures depicted on, say, a coat of arms. It's not specific to royalty: Stuff like governments, academies, religions etc all use it. It's something to keep in mind also keep in mind that I'm not at all an expert in this stuff, I just think it's neat.
Famicom FF3
Final Fantasy III was the first game in the series to give the nations emblems with charges on them. It would be far from the last, as later games would toy around with the concept, such as Final Fantasy 4 giving each of the regions their own emblem (with the 3D remake redesigning them).
As that last sentence implies, the nations of Final Fantasy III all shared the same emblem: That of a bird (possibly an eagle, one of the two most common charges) in the Displayed attitude (although it lacks legs).
The practical answer would be something such as time constraints, or simplicity for the sprite artists.
But what if we overthink it?
That brings us to two possibilities:
There is a mythological creature that all three kingdoms based their sigils on. This is possible, although we don't have much to go off of in III itself
The Ancients, between their airships and the Floating Continent, seemed to be interested in living in the sky. Thus, the emblems are remnants of the Ancients' era.
But, those are just theories.
GAME THEO-
Remake FF3
In the 3D remake of Final Fantasy III, a lot of elements were retooled or reinterpreted. When it came to the kingdoms' sigils, an interesting thing happened: Sasune and Argus kept the original "bird" charge (now with gold for Sasune and bronze for Argus)
But Saronia got a new lion charge.
The beast is in a tradition "rampant" attitude, with the front legs up and the tail pointed upwards.
Lions are not new to charges in Final Fantasy. Most notably, Final Fantasy Tactics had the War of the Lions, with both the Northern and Southern sky Orders having lions of their own (it's implied via Gafgarion's description that each of the cardinal directions have their own order, as a Western Sky order is mentioned). As Wikipedia explains:
It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts".
The 3D remake alludes to Saronia's history as a military power a bit more than the Famicom version via quotes.
(This was back when SE broke the text of the Steam version, my apologies)
So it's not too surprising that they went that route for the 3D remake.
Another change of interest are the carpets around the kingdoms. In the original FFIII, Castle Argus has a table with a unique sun-like pattern on it.
In the remake (as you're probably already noticed) the patterns can be seen on the carpets on each castle as well.
The remake places heightened emphasis on the sun compared to the original: Xande's flood of darkness is said to have severed the link between the earth and the sun, Desch says that the continent would be flung away from the sun if the reactor fails, in unused text Doga states that the sun used to revolve around the earth but now the earth revolves around the sun...
(Does this mean that castles in the World of Darkness would have either the Moon or the Earth for their logos)?
Pixel Remaster FF3
While the Pixel Remaster borrows from the remake in some places, it sticks to the original in others.
However, sometimes, it diverges even against the original. In the castle of the three kingdoms, the big change is to their charges: All of them now use the bird charge, but they are now differentiated in different ways:
Sasune keeps the traditional Displayed attitude, in both the original colors and white thanks to the new red banners all about (matching the colors of the Red Mage)
However Argus now has the Bird in the Volant attitude, as it is now flying sideways. There are also banners that seemingly depict a crown and a moon.
Meanwhile, Saronia has a variant similar to the Sasune one, but with some differences. You can just make out the bird's feet underneath the body and the wings, rather than being spread out to the sides, are now pointed upward. This appears to be more of an Issuant attitude. I don't remember think Saronia has banners like Sasune and Argus do.
And that's all for this segment. Next time, I think I'll discuss the legendary arms of each kingdom: The Wightslayer, the Royal Sword and... Gungir? The other lances Saronia has?
FF3 Fun Facts of the Whenever: A (Not) Complete History of Saronia
The Kingdom of Saronia is one of the largest in the NES-era of Final Fantasy games, so much so that the name of its theme in some versions of Final Fantasy III is “The Megalopolis of Saronia”.
Perhaps then, it should come as no surprise that Saronia has a lot of background material surrounding it. Most of it comes from the NTT Publishing guides for the Famicom version, but a little bit is surprisingly collaborated by unused text in the remake.
(As a note: Most of this info comes from a Japanese fanwiki, with the info collaborated by checking JP Twitter and the Japanese side of the internet in general for any mentions. This obviously isn’t perfect, but I do not have the material myself and cannot read Japanese (I use DeepL which is at least makes the text understandable, if potentially lacking nuance, but this is background info so...) so this is the best we have, unless someone who knows their stuff is willing to help.
With that said...
1. The Great Sasune-Saronia War
I’ve talked about this in the past, so I’ll just give a summary of it. Per the NTT Publishing guides:
- In the past, Black and White magic, as distinctions, did not exist. Magic was just magic.
- One day, Sasune and Saronia went to war.
- Sasune refined its magic to create Black Magic and gain an edge in the war.
- Some Sasune mages who disagreed jumped ship to Saronia, where they would eventually be put to work and create White Magic.
- Magical arms race escalates until Sasune creates Flare while Saronia creates Holy.
- The two magical nukes collide, creating devastation to the battlefield.
- Sasune and Saronia mutually end the war and the offending spells are locked up within Eureka.
- Red Mage are later born, using the original set of magic before specialization kicked in.
As far as I’m aware, this story has never been referenced in-game, outside of the implication of Saronia being a military superpower. Final Fantasy Tactics does allude to Saronia being a magical kingdom to the point of creating magicite though; While that proves nothing, it says a bit. The concept of two kingdoms going to war leading to the creation/advancement of White Magic was also used for XIV’s Amdapor, during an event known as the War of the Magi. Again, it is unclear, though likely a coincidence.
2: A Tale of Two Cities
Saronia differs from other Final Fantasy cities as it is not so much a single city as four cities; Each district counting as a separate city. It especially dwarfs Sasune and Argus, whose settlements are either not as heavily connected to the castle (Sasune: Ur, Kazus and Canaan) or are unclear (Argus: Tokkul?).
In-game, the cities exist primarily as a part of the whole “Megalopolis” deal, with no information as to how they were formed. Once again, the NTT Publishing guides spill some details:
The Southwestern and Northeastern districts are said to have been founded by two clans who both wielded swords: Knights who used positive energy and Dark Knights who used negative energy. Both of these clans served the royal family.
However, the king grew to fear the negative energies of the Dark Blade that the Dark Knights used and eventually banished one of them, Leonhart, with the others following suit, eventually establishing the village of Falgabard; The Knight clan eventually overtook the other city.
(For added irony, the remake has a line where someone states that Saronia was trying to take the secrets of the Dark Blade from Falgabard in their more militaristic days.)
The Southwestern District, at the time III itself takes place, holds the tavern and a Chocobo researcher. The NTT guide says that it is the industrial sector and the tavern is for the workers, but the remake keeps it ambiguous (though Alus’ words about the tavern seeing better business in older days imply it might’ve been more of an entertainment district?).
The Northeastern District, at the time III itself takes place, holds numerous shops. In the remake, Alus specifically calls it the economic center of the city.
3. Legend of the Dragoon
Early on Saronia had three cities. The fourth, and therefore newest, is the Southeastern District, which holds the Dragon Spire; The symbol of the Dragoons.
(Pardon the shoddy work on this restructuring)
NTT Publishing gave a backstory for this district: In the past, Saronia was under attack by winged monsters, but were saved by a Dragoon, who rode on a dragon and defeated him. Said Dragoon and his followers settled in the Southeastern sector, which eventually grew into the district that it is in-game.
The interesting, if not completely unexpected aspect of this particular story is that the remake actually has text supporting this to an extent.
In the final release of the remake, Alus merely explains that the tower was created by Dragoons. In the unused text for the district, he goes further in explaining: In the past, Saronia was attacked by Garuda a giant bird monster, only for it to be defeated by a knight riding on the back of a dragon, the knight leaping onto the monster. Alus also notes that said dragon’s weapons are the ones that await at the top.
Those statements taken together suggest a backstory similar to the NTT one. Whether it is coincidence or intentional, and what that says for the other stuff, is up to you.
BONUS: The Final District
By process of elimination, it can be inferred that the Northwestern District is the “first” city of Saronia, or at least the only one not settled by a clan of knights. Perhaps because of this, NTT does not give it any particular background details (that I know of).
In unused text for the remake, Alus notes that the district is full of academics, engineers, lawyers and politicians and notes that it’s been the preferred residence for key members of the royal family for generations.
In the Famicom version of Final Fantasy III, all three castles used the symbol of an abstract bird creature on banners around it. In the remake, Sasune and Argus retain this type of banner. Saronia, however, is changed to feature a lion prominently on its banners to the point of incorporating it into the tiles on the main field of the castle.
The reason for this change is unknown, though it might have been intentional, given that Saronia is the only kingdom (or at least, the only one with a castle) on the surface world.
FFIII Fun Facts of the Whenever: Saronia Storytime edition
So, with the world essentially under lockdown and boredom creeping in, let’s talk about the Saronia bits of the unused text of the FFIII remake, because quite a bit was scrapped.
Saronia in the either version of III is not a very lengthy place unless you go out of your way to do everything: There’s plenty of Dragoon equipment to be had, but nothing is stopping you fro going straight to Saronia Castle and fighting Garuda after you rescue Alus. The remake allows Arc to make a bond with Alus, but that also isn’t touched upon much differently than the four Onion Kids.
At one point however, it seems like the plotline was going to be far more fluffed up and more heavily point to the Dragoon equipment.
Now, I should make this clear before we begin: Arc’s negative attributes were toned down heavily in the final game. In general, while not nearly as dysfunctional as, say, the 4 Heroes of Light cast, the Final Fantasy III remake cast were portrayed as flawed, or at least, had their flaws more pronounced: Luneth comes across as more arrogant or “careless” with what he says or does (traces of this still remain; such as during one of the convos where he makes a crack about Arc being inspired by somebody shorter than him.), Ingus at one point questions the niceness of his colleagues (though the four old men get him to change that perspective) and Refia is more stern, especially towards Luneth and Desch’s tomfoolery.
Following on that trend, Arc’s significant negative trait was that he could be stubborn or prone to frustration, to the point of acting out as a result. Remember at the beginning of the game how he got fed up with being bullied over Kazus’ ghost problem and stormed off? That’s actually a bit toned down in the final version.
Got that? Good. Let’s begin.
Saronia has a lot of unused text, for being such a small place. There’s some stuff like Alus witnessing the battle in front of the castle and expressing concern, but the most notable standalone(ish) thing is an extension of the rather brief scene describing the Dragon Spire: Alus describes how a knight on a Dragon slayed the giant bird (Garuda) that terrorized the town and how it led to the creation of the Dragon Spire and the Dragon Knights/Dragoons. Alus muses that the treasure of the Dragoons is probably still in the tower and it will be helpful, but the Tower is locked (a key difference from the other versions of the game: The Dragon Spire is open and doesn’t need to be unlocked with a key). The mention of treasure peaks Luneth’s interest and the plan is made to aim for the tower.
But, the real meat of the scenario begins at a point where the group speaks with an old man who admonishes them for trying to climb the Dragon Spire, and teases Arc by calling him a little boy. Arc seems to get agitated by this, and not helping is Ingus and Refia telling Arc not to be rash in front of royalty (Alus). Arc promptly flips out at Ingus and Refia (His “I’m trying as hard as I can, and yet..!!” makes him sound kinda stressed?), shoots down Ingus’ apology to the point of telling him the equivalent of “You’re not my dad”, and leaves the group to find the Dragoon gear by himself. Alus is obviously apprehensive about this, but goes with Arc and both of them leave the party.
Ingus and Refia are naturally concerned. Luneth is surprisingly less concerned as he knows that Arc tends to be this way sometimes. Ingus decides that apologies are in order regardless, and the team searches the city.
Arc and Alus head for the Northwestern district to get some clues as to where the key to the Dragon Spire is. They wind up finding a maiden who mistakes Arc for Alus (a dropped plot point seems to be that the party was going to hide Alus from the public, for one reason or another), but gives him the key to the tower. Arc tries to play along (Luneth is particularly unimpressed by his “Thank you, my people”) and apologizes to Alus as soon as possible, but Alus takes it in stride. The subject of weapons comes up and Alus mentions the rumors of a weapon shop that’s still open (and indeed, there is in both versions of the game). Arc and Alus decide to look for it. Arc is, of course, wary of soldiers, but Alus is convinced that the two of them will be fine.
Eventually, they manage to hunt down the weapons shop and Arc asks for the best Dragoon weapons. The shopkeeper promptly asks for 10,000 gil, money that Arc does not have, prompting Alus to spot the bill. Then, the rest of the party shows up and Ingus spots Arc the money as an apology. Arc, needless to say, is actually upset at himself for having gotten into that situation and takes responsibility for the situation. Alus, however, decides that “it is nobody’s fault” and the two rejoin the party.
Cut to after Garuda’s death. Alus thanks the Warriors of Light for freeing his father’s soul, but is haunted by the fact that he doubted his father’s intentions. Arc reassures him, saying that it was clear that Alus loved his father. Alus continues by saying that he wants to be a good king to Saronia. Ingus supports him and Alus offers Ingus a position as a treasurer/minister after the adventure is done, which Ingus declines, mentioning his loyalty to Sasune. Refia says that she feels Alus will be just fine regardless and Alus offers her a job: Specifically, to become the royal nanny when he gets married and has kids.
Refia is... less than thrilled.
Alus tells the party that he’s thankful beyond words and to come down to the lab later to get something and the party leaves. Luneth points out that Arc wasn’t offered anything but Arc is okay with that because...
This one is tricky because most online translators trip up heavily at this point. Thanks to Romajidesu and some close looks at the text though, I think I found the meaning: Throughout the Saronia plotline (in the unused Japanese, not sure about the final version Japanese) Alus refers to Arc with the “さん“ or “san” honorific - basically the equivalent of “Mr.” or “Ms.”. When Alus thanks Arc for the last time directly, he does not use the honorific and instead simply calls him Arc. And that, is enough for the bookworm. Arc then leads the party in heading out, now more determined due to Alus counting on them. Refia concludes that Arc has grown up, though Arc himself feels that he’s the same size...
There’s a few more scenes, like Alus presenting the Nautilus to the party or the party noticing how Saronia is at peace now thanks to Alus and Arc, but this writeup is long enough as is. The bottom line is that Saronia had a shocking amount cut from it, considering how the scenario plays out in both the final version of the remake and the original game. It’s just fascinating.
Text can be found on TCRF as per usual and if I screwed up a meaning or a scene, then feel free to tell me.
FFIII Fun Facts of the Whenever: (presumably outdated by this stage) Job lore and trivia!
- The Red Mage is revered in Sasune, with one NPC mentioning that every soldier strives to be one. This is also partially why Ingus is one. The NTT Publishing guides furthers this by supposedly (if my online translator isn’t leading me astray) revealing that Red Mages used to be heirs to the throne in olden days and, while that tradition is no more, the Wightslayer is a remnant of those times. Considering that the Wightslayer is one of, like, two swords a Red Mage can equip in the original famicom game, it’s understandable.
- The guides also explain why Red Mages cannot use the higher echelon of magic that White/Black Mages can: It involves a background event known as the “Sasune-Saronia War” which caused Magic to become specialized into White Magic and Black Magic. The tiers of Magic that the Red Mage can use (1-4 in the original, 1-5 in the remake) are apparently the original tiers before Magic became specialized.
- Saronia, by contrast, has Dragoons. NPCs all around tell of how Saronia’s military forces consisted of airships and Dragoons and the backstory for Saronia involves the city being saved from Garuda’s wrath thanks to a dragoon. The Dragon Spire was also built as a result.
- - Saronia is the second kingdom to be heavily affiliated with Dragoons: The first being Deist from II and the third being Baron from IV.
- Dark Knight’s in III were a bit different compared to their later iterations: They were initially called Magic Knights, they could use up to tier 3 of White Magic and they lacked the “self-harm for power” aspects that their future iterations (starting with Cecil Harvey in IV) would have, instead overcoming one’s fear of darkness (maybe. It might just be worded differently). The remake reworks them by giving them the Souleater ability and the dialogue the job descriptor gives for the job to make them more in-line with future iterations.
-- The NTT Publishing books gave an account where a Dark Knight named Leon (an obvious reference to Leon from FFII) was exiled from Saronia out of fear for his power. He would go on to found the town of Falgabard, a quaint village where Dark Knights train their craft. In a bout of irony, an NPC in the remake mentions that Saronia, back when it was more militaristic, once attempted to take the art of the Dark Blade from Falgabard
A look at the Final Fantasy III manga: Alus Restor
Alus Restor is one of the characters the Warriors of Light meets whilst on the surface. Alus is the prince of Saronia, the largest city in the game, and he was ousted by his father, who had gone mad. He's encountered in a tavern where he's being bullied by a bunch of hooligans. Through some trials and jumping on a giant bird, Alus’ father sacrifices himself to save his son and Alus becomes the new king of Saronia.
That does not happen in the manga. In fact, Alus in the manga more closely resembles a different character...
Alus appears in the middle of the third chapter, rescuing the Warriors of the Light (or Warriors of the Wind, according to the wiki) from monsters on the surface. He makes his entrance by literally descending from the heavens with a group of ministrals.
Later, he and the warriors make camp amongst the many ruins where he relays the backstory of the place to them: He's the prince of Saronia Solrados, the kingdom whomst ruins the heroes are currently traveling through. Turns out, the flood of darkness didn't stop time in this version of III. Also, said flood is harsh apparently, because Solrados literally crumbles from it: Buildings collapse, the ground rumbles, people fall into the abyss... it's not pretty. All of this is capped off by a page showing Alus watching as his family is taken by the waves.
Yeah.
Alus accompanies the heroes on their way to find a crystal containing Unei (Desch told them maybe?), with his minstrals floating in the air nearby.
He also saves Melfi from falling off a cliff, only for the cliffside in general to collapse because the darkness is angry.
The heroes are close to the spot where the crystals are, however, and Alus' Entourage promptly spins and spins and spins until they make a cyclone.
Seriously.
In any case, the Crystal is recovered and Unei appears with an unconscious Alus and does... something, which results in him vanishing.
(Yes, that’s Unei. Don’t ask.)
The JPFFWiki helps clear things: As it turns out, that Alus was killed by Xande, but Unei binded herself to him in some fashion, turning him into a Dream Child. Thus, when Unei is freed from the crystal, Alus goes back to sleep.
I probably messed up some meanings here or there, but the point is that Alus and Unei are connected in the manga.
Overall, Alus' role heavily differs from the games. In fact, Alus' role seems closer to that of Aria's with some shades of the game elements. That probably makes him the furthest a game character gets since even Desch gets to act like his counterpart after being freed. Though, he has some stiff competition...
Next Time (which will be in a few months): Noah's students: Doga, Unei and Xande. Bit of a forewarning: None of them will really look or act on-point in this next look (except maybe Doga)...
So, NTT Publishing released a series of books on Final Fantasy in general and at least 3 on FFIII in particular. These books, released ages before the remake (I think) help build up the world in a few ways. If you speak Japanese, I’ve included a page on my links page that goes over a bit of the content of the books, so it might be worth a look.
If my online translator is correct, one of the most notable things is that, apparently, White Magic and Black Magic were originally just a singular type of magic. In those days, presumably before the floating continent was formed, Saronia and Sasune went to war and, due to each side refining magic for combat/healing purposes specifically, it created the two types of magic. It eventually led to the creation of the white magic spell Holy and the black magic spell Flare (the page also goes into how both of those spells work). The war ended when those two powerful spells collided and apparently wiped out the battlefield.
Again, not sure if I got it down correctly (feel free to tell me if I didn’t) and not sure if it’s even still canon. Still, it’s an interesting little nugget of lore.
