I made a discovery/theory that I thought I might share in case it's of use or interest to anyone else!
How big is Valisthea?
TL;DR - It's just Scotland, Cymru (Wales), Ireland, and England but flipped upside-down and photo bashed a bit.
These are just purely my observations, so I'm throwing them into the void!
So, for fan fiction purposes (and just general peace of mind), I really wanted to figure out exactly how big the twins were, considering how insanely quick everyone moves around. This is obviously true for video games in general but I felt it a lot more in FFXVI than other comparable games imo.
There's not a ton to go off of, just some throwaway dialogue lines here and there that give you the general sense that you can move from one location to the next in a day or two primarily by foot (chocobos are a whole other side tangent, as is the Enterprise or whatever the hell Dominants are capable of).
Some of those specific references include;
The trip from Rosalith to Pheonix Gate and back taking an expected 5 days total (with Clive, Tyler, and Wade arriving that night despite the detour through the marshes),
The boat ride from Port Isolde to Drake's Breath taking 3 days,
Someone from the hideaway referencing that they leave for Lostwing each day for work. (Couldn't find the exact example don't quote me on that one.)
Twinsides/Origin being "Hundreds of Leagues" away from The Hideaway
There's probably a few others, but most of the other examples I could find were open to interpretation, merely implying that travel took place in the same day but could be interpreted to have been spread out over longer were it not for 'video game logic and scale'.
That being said, I like things being a little more grounded for head canon purposes and wanted to know how much down time was reasonable in and between trips back and forth.
In general, I feel like the game should have been spread out over the full 5 years. But understanding game development limits, I get why that'd have been a nightmare! So the time skip makes sense practically, and I just choose to headcanon that events are a little more spread out. (Like them taking the full year in 873, from Clive and Jills rescue to destroying Drakes Head, rather than a couple of weeks like it seems in game.)
Shout out to this reddit post for doing an awesome estimate based on an average measure of the aforementioned "hundreds of leagues" quote. This was my starting point.
They concluded that Valisthea was likely closer in size to India or Australia, which I like a lot in terms of Valisthea being a full-scale continent. However, it does mess with the timeline a lot.
Also, I'm from a large country so my sense of what is a "reasonable" distance is pretty thrown off compared to a lot of other places. A 2-5 hour (200-400km) car ride to another city is nothing in my head until you realize that distance would take 1-4 weeks to walk or even ride (Horse metrics. Again chocobos are weird and probably a bit faster due to being all terrain and more robust than horses but are also birds so I don't know what endurance levels carrying heavy loads would be like).
Soooo, I began looking for European contemporaries since the game is very eurocentric (and all the criticisms that come with that).
Which led me to the realization that Valisthea is literally just the UK and Ireland, but flipped.
Now. Am I 100% certain this is what the devs did? Of course not. Is it so damn close that I'm 99.9% certain? Yes. Storm is Britain, and Cymru. The Northern Kingdom and the Iron Kingdom are Scotland but broken up. And Ash is Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Major cities or points of interest all have approximate real-world contemporaries and even follow geographical features on the map in that there are matching rivers, topography and even highways.
The biggest giveaway to me was Pheonix Gate just literally being London, as well as Norvant Valley matching exactly in shape with an upside down Bristol Channel (which would put Caer Norvent in Swansea). Even The Greatwood lines up relative to a major national park (forgive me UK peeps, it's hard to tell from a map alone if that's all one giant forest or several parks smooshed together).
So, if we're working off that assessment, with the quote from Tomes where he mentions that Valisthea is a small continent, then the time/distance ratio makes a lot more sense!
Of course, by our world standards – the UK alone does not a continent make.
But I'm honestly ok with that? I'd rather the land mass be small to match the timeline rather than warp the timeline to match the land mass.
So, here's a list of some of my estimated real-world contemporaries for all major landmarks on the Valisthean Map. Of course, they don't line up 1-1, and are not at all reflective of the locations themselves. It's all just for a relative sense of scale.
Rosaria;
Martha's Rest - Oxford
Eastpool - Reading
Pheonix Gate - London
Rosalith - Cambridge
Port Isolde - Peterborough (ignoring that it's not on the coast)
Deadlands
Cid's Hideaway - Stratford-Upon-Avon
Clive's Hideaway - Birmingham
Sanbreque;
Lostwing - Tauton
Caer Norvent - Swansea
Northreach - Exeter
Oriflamme - Kingsbridge
Kingsfall - Salisbury
Dhalmekian Republic;
Kostnice - Leicester
Drake's Fang - Sheffield
Dhalamil - Derby
Dravozd - Wolverhampton
Tabor - Shrewsbury
Boklad - Lampeter
Ran'Dallah- Tregaron
Waloed;
Shadow Coast - Belfast
Eistla - Kinnegad
Edge of Infinity - Westport
Ravenwit Walls - Wenagh
Stonhyrr - Cork
Other;
Twinsides - Fishguard
Kanvar - Chester
Drake's Breath - Ipswich
Dzemekys - Aberystwyth
Going off of those locations, I was able to get the rough time/distance of certain trips (using google maps metrics in pure walking hours not how long it took them because of *variables*)
Routes;
Rosalith to Pheonix Gate: 86km, 20hrs
Hideaway to Pheonix Gate: 172km, 39hrs (to Martha's Rest: 67km, 15hrs; +Eastpool: 41km, 9hrs; then to Pheonix Gate: 64km, 15hrs)
Hideaway to Oriflamme: 295km, 68hrs (Hideaway to Lostwing: 184km, 43hrs. What shortcut Cid?? +Northreach: 48km, 11hrs; +Oriflamme: 63km, 14hrs)
Lostwing to Caer Norvent: 199km, 46hrs (Benedika and Co were at that fort for days, not hours. Also, how hard did Cid knock Clive out if it took more than a week to get back to the Hideaway after the Garuda Fight?)
Shadow Coast to Stonhyrr: 755km, 171hrs. (Shadow Coast to Eistla: 169km, 38hrs; +Edge of Infinity and back: 181km, 41hrs x2; +Stonhyrr: 224km, 51hrs) meaning crew were gone in Waleod for WEEKS.)
So, all in all a bit longer than in seems in game but still well within range given that they probably shaved off arbitrary travel days for narrative flow.
That being said, I love the potential of more "down time" moments. And it really shows just how often/long everyone would be gone from the Hideaway at any given moment.
It puts into perspective Gav's side quest, "You keep sending me wherever you need to, I'll keep going. Safe in the knowledge that I'll have a home to come back to." And how they all remark that they never seen each other, or how much their trips away together were really meaningful.
(Also kinda excuses the fact it took Clive and Jill 5 freaking years to get together. They were too busy walking everywhere!)
Is it possible to just pop down to Martha's for a quick supply run? Yes. But unless you're on a chocobo, you're camping out at Three Reeds then staying the night at the Inn before heading back. It's more of a 4-7 day trip rather than an afternoon and back.
Anyhow, I hope this all makes sense!
Now, time to go write about Clive/Cid camping overnight in the Greatwood together on Clive's first real night of freedom. 😭😭😭
To celebrate I drew this artwork of young Jill praying to Metia, inspired by her theme, "My Star." This game is one of my favorites of all time. I love the characters, the story, the music, the boss fights, everything. My heart will always be in Valisthea. ❤️
Step into the world of Final Fantasy XVI and experience the epic journey of Clive Rosfield as he battles through the chaos of Valisthea. With stunning visuals, intense Eikon battles, and a gripping storyline, FF16 pushes the boundaries of RPG gaming. Whether you're a longtime fan of the series or a newcomer, this game will leave you breathless. Want to dive deeper into the action? Join the adventure now and don’t miss out on the fantasy!
My only issue with FFXVI is that we can't explore Valisthea's cities outside of the story
It feels like FFXII again where we couldn't go to the Rozarrian Empire but worse. I really wanted to go explore Port Isolde, Creag Loisgte, Oriflamme and Stonhyrr especially after the time skip and near the end of the game to see more of Valisthea.
#project hail mary
#lana del rey
#photography
