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Wardens of Ivalice: The Meta Post
Now that I've posted the first part of my Final Fantasy XII/Dragon Age crossover, I wanted to step back a little bit, think about the world I'm creating and how it's going to work. Spoilers for DA:O, FFXII, and also for the story itself behind the cut. Thoughts and suggestions are more than welcome!
So when![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
renay first suggested this idea to me, I assumed it would be too hard to bring the two universes together. I'm not one who can just throw together characters from different canon settings willy-nilly -- I need to have an explanation for why they're in the same place at the same time. But the concept settled in the back of my mind, and the next time she brought it up I had the following epiphany:
-- Darkspawn emerge from beneath the ground.
-- Ivalice is filled with caverns, mines, and other underground settings.
And voila, I had a mechanism of connection. That was where my vision began: darkspawn bursting from the Zertinan Caverns, with Grey Wardens not far behind, Queen Ashe and Warden-Commander Elissa Cousland coming together to make a stand against the enemy. (I never even considered using any other Warden in that role. The idea of these two women working together was just too appealing.) Of course, there are many factors to consider when you combine two worlds and stories that are so different. These are some of the thoughts I find the most interesting.
1. Magic. How magic works may be the largest gulf between the two universes: it appears that anyone in Ivalice can learn how to cast spells, whereas only those Thedans born with a connection to the Fade will have any magical ability at all. I brought this difference up in "The Joining" but didn't even bother attempting an explanation. I have a feeling I'm going to need to get into a little more depth in Part Two, especially if Alistair and Ashe (whom I always consider a paladin-type) go into battle together. Nathaniel brings up the possibility that Alistair may not be able to use his Templar abilities to dampen magic, and I haven't decided whether or not that will be a problem. Will the Fereldens be able to learn magic here? Does the Fade even exist in Ivalice? Questions I have not yet answered, and which will take more pondering.
2. Merging different levels of technology. Ivalice is an odd mix of high and low technology, and in truth I've always had a hard time deciding what tech they're likely to have in any given situation. Airships and aircars exist, but the common people seem to mostly walk or ride chocobos. Do the people of Ivalice have electricity? Computer tech? Long-range communications? Are the "technologies" we see mostly driven by magic?
Meanwhile, Dragon Age is a medieval tech world beyond doubt. I underplayed this aspect in Part One because I didn't really want to deal with the implications of the Fereldens being overwhelmed by wonders at every turn, but I may do more with it in the future. Have to admit, the business with Nathaniel and Alim's first ride on an airship was a lot of fun to play with.
3. Mist vs. Darkspawn Corruption. One of my first thoughts when pulling these worlds together was the potential to draw a parallel between the way a Blight corrupts the land and the devastation at Nabudis. This led to other ideas, such as the darkspawn going out of their way to avoid the Wood, and Fran's ability to sense the taint (and it's really too bad that I can't write her as romantically involved with Balthier, because how delicious would *that* angst have been?). I see a connection to Mist here, and maybe nethicite, but I think I need to do more research to figure out how that's going to work.
4. The Occuria as "Old Gods". One of the big questions, of course, is why the darkspawn have been drawn to Ivalice in the first place. If the archdemons are the Old Gods of Thedas, then might it be logical for the Occuria, or one of their number, to serve the same function here? I've thought of involving Morrigan or Flemeth -- Morrigan, especially, although whether she would be working for or against the Wardens isn't clear to me -- but that leads me to the question of why either of these women would take an interest in Ivalice. Magicite, perhaps, or the Occuria themselves? This is probably the aspect of the merger I'm fuzziest on.
So, that's where I am right now, at least in terms of bringing the worlds together. I have a lot of thoughts on the characters, too, and why I created the connections and teams I did, but that can wait for another day.
So when
renay first suggested this idea to me, I assumed it would be too hard to bring the two universes together. I'm not one who can just throw together characters from different canon settings willy-nilly -- I need to have an explanation for why they're in the same place at the same time. But the concept settled in the back of my mind, and the next time she brought it up I had the following epiphany:-- Darkspawn emerge from beneath the ground.
-- Ivalice is filled with caverns, mines, and other underground settings.
And voila, I had a mechanism of connection. That was where my vision began: darkspawn bursting from the Zertinan Caverns, with Grey Wardens not far behind, Queen Ashe and Warden-Commander Elissa Cousland coming together to make a stand against the enemy. (I never even considered using any other Warden in that role. The idea of these two women working together was just too appealing.) Of course, there are many factors to consider when you combine two worlds and stories that are so different. These are some of the thoughts I find the most interesting.
1. Magic. How magic works may be the largest gulf between the two universes: it appears that anyone in Ivalice can learn how to cast spells, whereas only those Thedans born with a connection to the Fade will have any magical ability at all. I brought this difference up in "The Joining" but didn't even bother attempting an explanation. I have a feeling I'm going to need to get into a little more depth in Part Two, especially if Alistair and Ashe (whom I always consider a paladin-type) go into battle together. Nathaniel brings up the possibility that Alistair may not be able to use his Templar abilities to dampen magic, and I haven't decided whether or not that will be a problem. Will the Fereldens be able to learn magic here? Does the Fade even exist in Ivalice? Questions I have not yet answered, and which will take more pondering.
2. Merging different levels of technology. Ivalice is an odd mix of high and low technology, and in truth I've always had a hard time deciding what tech they're likely to have in any given situation. Airships and aircars exist, but the common people seem to mostly walk or ride chocobos. Do the people of Ivalice have electricity? Computer tech? Long-range communications? Are the "technologies" we see mostly driven by magic?
Meanwhile, Dragon Age is a medieval tech world beyond doubt. I underplayed this aspect in Part One because I didn't really want to deal with the implications of the Fereldens being overwhelmed by wonders at every turn, but I may do more with it in the future. Have to admit, the business with Nathaniel and Alim's first ride on an airship was a lot of fun to play with.
3. Mist vs. Darkspawn Corruption. One of my first thoughts when pulling these worlds together was the potential to draw a parallel between the way a Blight corrupts the land and the devastation at Nabudis. This led to other ideas, such as the darkspawn going out of their way to avoid the Wood, and Fran's ability to sense the taint (and it's really too bad that I can't write her as romantically involved with Balthier, because how delicious would *that* angst have been?). I see a connection to Mist here, and maybe nethicite, but I think I need to do more research to figure out how that's going to work.
4. The Occuria as "Old Gods". One of the big questions, of course, is why the darkspawn have been drawn to Ivalice in the first place. If the archdemons are the Old Gods of Thedas, then might it be logical for the Occuria, or one of their number, to serve the same function here? I've thought of involving Morrigan or Flemeth -- Morrigan, especially, although whether she would be working for or against the Wardens isn't clear to me -- but that leads me to the question of why either of these women would take an interest in Ivalice. Magicite, perhaps, or the Occuria themselves? This is probably the aspect of the merger I'm fuzziest on.
So, that's where I am right now, at least in terms of bringing the worlds together. I have a lot of thoughts on the characters, too, and why I created the connections and teams I did, but that can wait for another day.
no subject
Oooh, Judge Magister Alistair. Not that I see him staying behind, at least not in my current vision of the later parts of the story, but giving him a similar ability set/battle style is very appealing. Do any of the Judges fight with sword and shield? Gabranth I remember being dual-wield, but what about the others?
It could definitely be something like that -- similar to my comment to
How much do we know about the connection between Mist and magicite? Is magicite crystallized Mist, or does Mist leak out of magicite? Or is it a more circular relationship? Hmm...
no subject
Other than Gabranth, I think most of the Magisters had rather showy, impractical weapons, with Bergan being the worst: his two massive monstrosities that look more like nightmare fuel than proper weapons.
Oh, duh, I missed what zen_monk posted and yes, Ivalice has a very non-Western (or non-Judeo-Christian-Islamic) approach to the supernatural whereas Dragon Age feels far more like the European Middle Ages. I like the idea of the Fade as the collective unconsciousness.
From what I've been able to glean from the bits of mythology factoids scattered throughout the FFXII bestiary, mist is an energy that can be contained inside (the space within? the bonds of?) various stable molecular structures and magicite just happens to be very good at "hold[ing] high concentrations of condensed mist within its crystalline structure" (Sage Knowledge 09). And, that "a property of magicite that it loses its mist over time, and once spent, a stone's mist cannot be renewed. Magicite without mist is mere rock. The ability to manufact magicite of some power has only recently been attained, and this after many long years of research" (Sage Knowledge 12).
So, via some natural means (only recently replicated in Draklor Laboratory), natural magicite apparently needs to undergo a physical process such that mist is condensed and stored within it in rich ore, underground. Perhaps it is a slow geological process? Maybe layers of decaying organic matter that contains psychic-spiritual energy (i.e., mist or the magic-stuff that composes the Fade) is slowly crushed and heated through through geological crushing, breaking up the organic molecular bonds and simultaneously condensing the mist as the molecular structure crystalizes. That would give us the veins of magicite-rich ore in mines.
And, perhaps, in other places the decaying organic matter is in loamy or boggy soil and the decaying matter emits mist up through the soil and into the air. That wouldn't give a condition where rich magicite ore is produced but it would create a continual feedback loop where mist is let off into the air and absorbed into other living things who eventually die and decay.
I have *NOT* yet found an explanation in any of the FFXII materials of how mist is formed. Where does it come from??? I make the assumption that it is some sort of psychic (??) energy purely because of how it is used to project dream-like images and, also, to manipulate people and viera.
The other puzzling bit is how mist can be either "active" or "cool/inactive." It seems like the active mist is able to set of catalyzing reactions, like sending Viera into mist-frenzies or making Nabudis into a strange, uninhabitable place. Cool/inactive mist just seems inert.
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I'm not sure if this rambling gets you any closer to figuring out how Thedans make use of Ivalician magic. Perhaps the difference is this: Thedans are less likely (while living in their world) to have the ability to do magic because the energy drawn from Fade is more distant and requires greater strength to harness. Ivalicians are more likely (while living in their world) to have the ability to do basic magic because the energy--the Mist--is more directly available and takes far less strength to harness it. But, other than that, maybe the bio-psycho-physical processes of casting magic are the same?