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lilinagaming · 1 month ago

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So... Why Shaman?

Deirdre and Julia are the first characters in the Fire Emblem series to bear this title through their class. Out of all the class name changes made compared to Project Naga, Priestess > Shaman is perhaps the one I feel the most passionate about. It's a choice that will no doubt raise a few eyebrows, but to explain why we made this change, it's important to consider why "Priestess" was chosen.

The chart we provided gives a simple explanation, noting that Shaman has been used as a localization of the standalone katakana rendering "シャーマン" (pronounced Shaa-man) since Fire Emblem The Blazing Blade, which is true. This same rendering is used in Genealogy of the Holy War, so therefore, it should follow rules of consistent localization that the class should be called Shaman in FE 4 as well... right? The matter is more complicated than that, however.

(Apologies for the crusty quality lol..)

In Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, its class names are written in kanji with additional katakana as a guide for how the name should be read. Micaiah's tier 3 class, Light Priestess, is displayed in Japanese as:

巫女(with シャーマン in parenthesis in certain menus)

The kanji used here is Miko, conveying the idea of a shrine maiden, a priestly woman, etc. Due to the kanji used here, Priestess (or Light Priestess) is an apt localization of what's being conveyed for this class. Additionally, it is the use of that Shaman rendering in katakana that make people believe this is the same class as the one seen in Genealogy of the Holy War, and should thus be named differently than the Dark Magic class found in the GBA games.

When translating Project Naga, bookofholsety took the stance that Radiant Dawn's kanji could be used as a reference for class names.

For example: Although, in Japanese, Scathach's class is Sword Fighter rendered in katakana, he argued the use of kenshi (剣士) in dialogue to refer to Scathach justified translating the class as Myrmidon, as Radiant Dawn did the same. He argued the same point for Deirdre, as dialogue about her refers to her using the kanji miko (巫女), the same kanji Micaiah's class uses in Radiant Dawn. He felt that connection served as strong enough evidence Shaman was meant to be interpreted the same way in both of these instances.

Many also wish to conflate the two classes (Shaman and Light Priestess) because of their similar weapon ranks and function.

All of these are fair points to make; however, recent localization trends by NoA show that these may be faulty lines of reasoning.

For starters, both Heroes and Engage saw the return of FE 4 and 5's unique "Fighter" themed classes, such as the aforementioned Sword Fighter, and rather than translate them in traditional series terms (Myrmidon, Fighter, Archer) they were instead faithful to the katakana and differentiated these classes from those adjacent to it. Notice that Lapis is a Sword Fighter, not a Myrmidon.

What this means is that not only does NoA seem to care about keeping these class names distinct from each other, but it also suggests there are flaws in BoH's claim that usage of RD's kanji in dialogue is a reliable reference for Genealogy's class names. Following FEH and Engage's examples, Ayra, Scathach, Larcei, and Chulainn would most certainly have their class translated as Sword Fighter if an official FE 4 translation were to come out today.

Unless you want to start bending the rules to make Shaman an exception, this would then mean the usage of 巫女 in relation to Deirdre in dialogue is unreliable as well, leaving us with just the standalone katakana rendering of Shaman used in GBA. However, not only does 巫女 fail to make a case as a reliable reference for Shaman for this reason, it also fails because FE 4's manual (included with the game) directly refers to the class using kanji that is notably different than 巫女

Pictured is a page of the manual. Under the entry for Shaman, the kanji Kitoushi (祈祷師) is used, which almost always conveys the idea of a Shaman esc person (witch doctor, healer, etc). Notably different than miko, and is the term that Gaiden and SoV use to name the "Cantor" class in Japanese. We believe this to be sufficient evidence to suggest that Shaman in FE 4 was NOT intended to be interpreted the same as its usage in FE 10, and thus that conflating the two is invalid.

Not only that, it didn't exactly sit well with us to give Julia and Deirdre the name of a class that was reserved for Micaiah only, as it would take away from its uniqueness. As for gameplay reasons, we argue that conflating this as part of the "Priestess" group of classes is just as, if not more, confusing than conflating it with Shaman. Fates and SoV both use very functionally different renditions of Priestess, and adding this unpromoted light magic user into the mix would create a situation where three very different classes all have the same name. Localization trends by NoA suggest they don't seem to care super much about this point to begin with, though, as they had no problems showing off Gaiden's quirkyness with restoring the Mercenary > Myrmidon class line. I digress.

At the end of it all, we feel most confident in allowing Deirdre and Julia to be the original Shaman of the series once more. Hell, the fact that this class is later used for dark magic could even be seen as cool in the context of Deirdre and Julia possessing a relation to Loptpus, not to mention other elements of world building around them (Deirdre being raised by a fortuneteller and having access to unique magic and such).

#fire emblem #fe4 #genealogy of the holy war #Lil' Nordion #radiant dawn

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lilinagaming · 1 month ago

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Might just take you up on that offer! Stay tuned for updates :3

Greetings, everyone! From this day forward, my Tumblr will serve as the primary place where I give script revision updates, in-depth explanations for changes, and much more for the Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Lil' Nordion translation. I am ecstatic to finally be able to talk about this publicly. Huge thanks to my partners (Miacis, NMC, ThePsyShyster) who helped put this initial release together and will continue to provide aid going forward!

As indicated, one of my partners runs the Etymology of the Emblem page on tumblr and is taking input of his own, so check that out if you're interested and want to help with our more indecisive translation/localization choices!

So yes, for clarity the ENTIRE script is being retranslated from the ground up, leading to a fresh take on the story which I hope can live up to the quality expected by modern FE players. A few screenshots are shown above of some of the work done thus far, with much more to come. The new world map translations are in the current version, however, so even now there's still some new text to see.

That's all for now, so in the meantime, I'll say that I do accept tumblr asks as an avenue to explain certain things if anyone wants to ask questions. You can also find me in the FE5 Hacking Hel discord and on my socials posted here. That all said, happy 29th birthday to Genealogy of the Holy War!

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lilinagaming · 1 month ago

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There's A New FE4 Translation—How YOU Can Help!

I am happy to announce that Lil' Nordion—a new fan translation of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War—is in development! I am deeply involved in the project as a translator and localizer, and that includes updating names and terminology. In addition to implementing the official names used in Fire Emblem Heroes, the current release features new localizations of various terms yet to be officially localized with the intent of better capturing specific references to historical and mythological figures, locations, and events. That said, even when collaborating with my three brilliant colleagues, there were some names we simply struggled to reach conclusions for.

This is where YOU come in! This post will shed light on the more contentious names in Genealogy of the Holy War to gauge fan opinion. If you have any comments to give regarding any unofficially localized name, please leave it on this post, or in DMs if you prefer. We also ask you to share this with fellow fans for a wider scope.

Azmur (アズムール) → Ásmundr: The primary opinion I’ve seen from Japanese fans is that his name is derived from Auðhumbla (アウズンブラ; アウドムラ), the primeval heifer of Norse cosmology that fed the jötunn Ymir and unearthed the father god Búri. When I worked on the Spanish translation of this game, I opted to localize this as Auðumbla. For this project, we were initially using the name “Auðmir” due to the Japanese name also having a resemblance to Ymir (ユミール), also called Aurgelmir (アウルゲルミル). Later, our team became rather divided between Auðmir and Ásmundr (アースムンド), a name found in two Icelandic sagas. Ultimately, Ásmundr won out, primarily on the basis of it being an actual name, rather than cobbling together two mythological figures.

Cesare (スサール) → Cessair: This name comes from a post-Christianized tale of the first inhabitants of Ireland. It is said that Cessair, granddaughter of the biblical Noah, led a group to settle Ireland in an attempt to avoid the deluge. However, the name スサール has few search results beyond its use in Genealogy of the Holy War, and the renderings of Cessair in Japanese are very inconsistent. The renderings the most resemble what is used in-game are クェーサル andr ケーサル. With Oifey’s namesake being a notable and powerful woman of Irish mythology, and the name of his grandfather appearing only once in the game’s entire script, we decided to not give it any more thought and signed it off.

Gerrard (ゲラルド) → Gerald: The primary opinion I’ve seen from Japanese fans is that this comes from Gerald FitzGerald, a poet and the third Earl of Desmond in Ireland. He vanished in 1398, and quickly became mythologized, said to be sleeping beneath Lough Ger. Locals adopted a legend originally attributed to Ailill Aulom, king of Munster claiming that Gerald had unpleasantly treated the Celtic goddess Áine. With how the Verdanians ill-treated the abducted Edain, and my belief that Ayra was named after Áine, I quickly accepted this and used it for the Spanish translation. My colleagues were less favorable of Gerald, with Ger[r]ard being considered. Nothing was ever agreed upon, and we opted for Gerald as a placeholder.

Imca (イムカ) → Imka: We did not spend much time looking into Imka. Our best idea was a resemblance to インカ, invoking the Inca Empire. The Inca Empire was known as the “Realm of Four Parts” because it was divided into four regions that unified at the capital city of Cusco, where the Sapa Inca ruled from. The Quechua word inca/inka means "ruler," so with the resemblance, we ran with Imka.

Cuvuli (クブリ) → Kabeiri: When I worked on the Spanish fan translation, I interpreted this as coming from Erc mac Cairpri (エルク・マク・カルブリ). In the Ulster Cycle of Irish myth, mac Cairpri collaborated with Lugaid mac Con Roi (speculated by Japanese fans as the namesake of Lewyn) in claiming revenge against Cu Chulainn for the death of their fathers. In an attempt to differentiate from the playable Coirpre, I used the name “Chairbri.” My colleagues disagreed with this interpretation, instead being favorable of a Greek name befitting of other names tied to Silesse. Kabeiri (カベイロイ), also called Kabiri, were the gods of a mystery cult based on the island of Lemnos. The Kabeiri were also thought to be protectors of sailors, which also works well with names tied to Silesse being associated with water.

Bramsel (ブラムセル): Of the four of us currently involved in this project, none of us have had solid hits for a namesake for this guy. The closest matches we’ve found have been Bramshill (ブラムシル), historically known as Bromeselle and Bromshyll—a civil parish in Hampshire, best known for the Bramshill House—and Brömser (ブレムザー) a German castle. Other names mentioned were Bremser, Bramshall, and Breasal/Brasil (ブレサル/ブラジル); that last one was used for the king of a mythological land known as Hy-Breasal/Hy-Brasil, an island in Irish myth compared to Atlantis. In the end, we decided to leave the name untouched unless we find something we're pleased with.

Muhammad (ムハマド): Our team is unsure how to handle this one. We recognize that Muhammad is the name of the primary prophet of the Islamic faith, and using the name for a minor antagonist is very dubious. However, we also recognize that this is one of the most commonly used names on the planet; when I was involved in the Spanish translation, this was the reasoning for leaving the name be, and the same logic has been brought up on this team. We left the name unchanged for now, but we implore that any Muslim practitioners in our fandom voice their opinion of how this name is used, if it needs to be altered, and to what extent that change should be. We have played around with using some common variants of the name to keep the primary reference in-tact but stripping some of the religious attachment, but we really think the public opinion should come first.

Ovo (オーヴォ): When conducting research for this name, I found a Japanese source claiming that the similar アヴォ was a name belonging to the Norse figure Aurvandill (アウルヴァンディル), who was carried across the icy rivers Elivagar by Thor. Following this lead, I found Viktor Rydberg's Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland, Vol. 3, in which he asserts that the archer Orvandel, enemy of Halfdan Berggram, is the same as Aurvandill, and that Orvandel is the same as the archer Avo, enemy of Halfdan Berggram. With this interpretation being supported by Rydberg's words alone, to our knowledge, the rest of the team rejected this connection. We remained with Ovo, as the katakana used for this character is the same as Castel dell'Ovo in Naples.

Coulter (コルータ) → Gortach: This name our team mostly agreed upon for the thematics. Fear Gorta[ch] lit. “Man of Hunger” is a human-like phantom of Irish folklore that appears in times of famine. Depending on the tale, they can either be bringers of fortune amidst the famine, or the very entities that have brought the famine. With the conditions in Thracia, we found the name rather apt. However, it must be noted that Fear Gortach is rendered in Japanese as ファ・ゴルタ. The earlier-used Coulter would be written as コウルター or コールター, which certainly shares a resemblance to what is used, but lacks any notable uses that stood out to us.

Distler (ディスラー): Another name we’ve had no luck finding anything for. This katakana is used for the names Disler and Distler, of which the most notable people we have found are artist Martin Disler and composer Hugo Distler. My only other idea here is possibly the character of Abelt Dessler (デスラー) from Space Battleship Yamato.

Tyakov (チャコフ) → Tchaikov: This is the Thunder Mage in Chapter 2’s arena. I initially asserted that, despite being rendered rather differently in Japanese, he could be named after Russian writer Pyotr Tkachev (ピョートル・トカチョフ). His philosophies, influenced by Karl Marx and Revolutionary France’s Jacobins, served as a major inspiration for Vladimir Lenin. With Agustria being associated with social upheavals, with the Jacobin’s referenced in the very next chapter, and this arena also referencing Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin, I thought it would be appropriate, even if the katakana didn’t match. However, the rest of the team found the disparity between the Japanese names as a dealbreaker. Instead, Tchaikov was used in reference to Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (ピョートル・チャイコフスキー) and Russian sculptor Joseph Tchaikov (presumably チャイコフ). Of course, neither of those match the Japanese, either, so we may all be wrong.

Chaimos (ケイモス) → Keimos: This is the Forester that replaces Chulainn in the Chapter 2 arena. As far as we can tell, the only use of this name before Genealogy of the Holy War was in the manga From Far Away, in which Keimos is a vicious swordmaster seeking revenge against the only man to have defeated him, Izark. Interestingly, Izark’s name is written the same as the kingdom of Isaach in Japanese, イザーク, so perhaps this is what they were going for. The only only other idea I have for this name is Chemosh (ケモシュ) also called K[h]amos or Chamos, the patron god of the Moabite people according to the Bible.

Geller (ゲラー) → Guerre: This is the Bow Armor in Chapter 3’s arena. The Japanese name is typically used for the surname Geller, which is most associated with self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller. As such a reference doesn’t seem to fit here (unless it’s meant as tongue-in-cheek commentary), I had the idea to interpret the name as something that fits the chapter better. Martin Guerre (マルタン・ゲール) was a French peasant that vanished after being accused of thievery. Eight years later, he was replaced by a near-perfect impostor. He would eventually be taken to court, but would appeal and have Guerre’s wife and uncle tried for false accusation. In the nick of time, the real Martin Guerre appeared. Despite his hazy memory, he was promptly accepted and the impostor imprisoned and executed. This name works well in the context of this chapter featuring the abduction of Deirdre and the appearance of the missing Brigid. Additionally, the story of Martin Guerre has been retold many times, with one adaptation being by Alexandre Dumas; there are three other references to Dumas’ work in this arena, including his own name, so it seemed like an appropriate change. That said, we recognize that it is a creative stretch, and is only partly liked on our team; if there is a bias to keep the name as Geller or a better reference to be made, we’ll likely change this one.

Kraft (クラフ) → Graf: This is the Mage Knight in Chapter 4’s arena. The idea was presented by one of my colleagues that it could be meant to be Graf (JP: グラーフ), in reference to Ulrich Graf, one of the first N*zis and bodyguard for their leader. It surprisingly fits this arena, as there are names of other notable figures from the 1900s like Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Alexey Kaledin, and Léopold Senghor, and the name is ambiguous enough that it doesn’t just spark thoughts of that specific individual. However, a more conservative reading of the used katakana would be Clough, which has little of note.

The Chapter 7 Arena: It seems that multiple names within this arena are minor alterations of infamous figures of N*zi Germany. Bottsman (ボツマン) resembles Martin Bormann (ボルマン), head of the party chancellery and secretary to the state leader. Kruger (クリューゲ) likely is named after Günther von Kluge (クルーゲ), field marshal and commander of the 4th Army. Mannstein (マンスタイン) is likely from Erich von Manstein (マンシュタイン), field marshal and Chief of Staff for the Army Group South. Wolfen (ウォルフ) is likely derived from Karl Wolff (ヴォルフ), the adjutant of Heinrich Himmler. Hoepner (JP: ヘプナー) is not even altered from Erich Hoepner, commander of the 4th Panzer Group. With how deliberate this was, we were uncertain if we should avoid such direct references to these people. In the end, we figured these names are common enough and their bearers have not come to own their names in the same way that their leader had. If there are objections to this, we will see about altering these names.

Randoch (ランドック) → Languedoc: This is the Warrior in the Chapter 7 arena, and the only name in that arena we have no idea about. Our best approximation was Languedoc (ラングドック), a historic region and former province of France best known for their wine production.

Malder (マーダ) → Marder: This is the Mage Fighter in the Chapter 8 arena. When considering this mage’s massive defense stat and Shield Ring, we interpreted the name as referencing the Marder (マルダー) series of German tank destroyers. Other than that, our only other idea we were considering was Mada (マダ), "pride," one of the Arishadvargas “six enemies” in Hinduism, feared even by Indra, king of the devas.

Heirhein (ハイライン) → Hochrhein: We cannot confidently say what the intention behind this name was. A common interpretation I’ve seen from Japanese fans is that it is derived from the Scottish Highlands (ハイランド); when I worked on the Spanish translation, I called this castle Hielan, a Scottish variant of the word “highland” that better resembles the katakana used. However, the more popular opinion on this team was it was meant to invoke the High Rhine (高ライン), also called the Hochrhein, a section of the Rhine River that serves as the natural border between Germany and Switzerland. More recently, I've considered a possible reference to science fiction writer Robert Heinlein (ハインライン). That said, none of these names really fit well with Agustria or the family over this castle thematically, though Agustria seems to be a bit of a mess with names anyway…

Munster/Miletos District (マンスター/ミレトス地方) → Region: One of the biggest struggles we had with localizations was determining how to translate chihou (地方). Typically read as “region” or “area,” the Japanese version of the World Map labeled these as “districts,” which was retained by Project Naga. Project Exile would later change this to “province,” as they deemed it more appropriate, arguing “district” to denote a smaller administrative area than what we find with Munster. However, the same can be said of “province.” Truly, we felt that 地方 was an ill-fitting word to be used for both of these independent nations, but felt that a drastic change (especially with discussions of using different terms for both Munster and Miletos) could not be sufficiently defended by us. In the end, we settled for the more general term of “region.”

Lord (ジュニアロード) → Lordling: The Japanese name of this class “Junior Lord,” though technically a position in the United Kingdom, does not carry over into English all that well, giving a far more juvenile impression. We initially were considering calling this class “Lord Scion,” interpreting “junior” as emphasizing Seliph inheriting both Sigurd’s lineage and conflict in the manner that a “junior” inherits their father’s name. After a few weeks, the buzz around this name was lost, and we returned to the drawing board. We settled on Lordling, a diminutive of Lord, typically used to denote a young or inexperienced lord, or a lord of minor standings. This had a bit of tension at first, as it has been used in an inflammatory way from one lord to another, but it seemed like the most flavorful way of adapting the class name beyond just ��Young Lord.”

Bow Knight (アーチナイト) → Archer Knight: Fairly early on, it was agreed to revert Project Naga’s rearrangement of the names Arch Knight and Bow Knight; the only instance “Bow Knight” has not referred to a promoted class was in Tellius. However, we knew that, with Arch having a connotation of superiority, the base class name could not remain. We never found a name we could all agree on, and just settled for Archer Knight.

Nihil (見切り): There would not have been any debate here if not for Engage. In the most recent entry in the series, the ability Perceptive shares the same icon and name as the Nihil skill. We were evenly split on this for a while, but we decided that, with the skill effects being different between the two games, that we should keep the older name attached to this specific skill effect.

Accost (とつげき) → Onslaught: Perhaps the subject of most debates on the project so far. Our team does not find the Japanese name to be an accurate description of the skill’s effect. 突撃 is typically used in regards to a military charge, in which troops rush their enemy in an attempt to make a decisive shift in the battle. Both “Charge” and “Accost” were deemed ill-suited for a skill that makes combat continue so long as the attacker with the skill is healthy. Things also got confusing with other uses of the skill icon and uses of 突撃 in other entries of the series with different context and effects. However, among the terms we were considering, Onslaught seemed the best match for the relentless nature of the skill, but it was definitely not a unanimous acceptance.

Miracle Bracelet (いのりのうでわ) and Miracle Sword (いのりの剣) → Prayer Sword: You would think that naming these items that grant the Miracle skill that already have Miracle’s Japanese name in their names would have no room for debate. However, Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses both have the Prayer Ring (祈りの指輪), which instead literally translates Miracle’s Japanese name as “prayer.” We decided that, as all of Genealogy of the Holy War’s skill items include the skill name (with the exception of class-specialty skills), we agreed to leave the Miracle Bracelet unchanged. However, with no such precedent for weaponry, we decided to try Prayer Sword, though there was interest in going for a more creative localization.

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lilinagaming · 1 month ago

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An Explanation of Our Mentality With Localization

Almost a day removed, and I have to say I am very happy with how everyone has responded to the announcement of Lil' Nordion. It's still a work in progress with many changes up for debate, but I figure it may do well to further explain the primary mentality we had when making some of our more... out there terminology choices.

First and foremost, the job of a translation is to make it playable for the intended audience, no doubt about it. It was constantly in our mind that this patch would be for those experiencing Jugdral for the first time, switch era fans if you will. As such, we wanted to cater to the most recent localizations the series has used as of Fire Emblem Engage (Perceptive is a bit tricky, see ThePsyShyster's blog). Off of face value, some of our decisions may also seem to contradict that by deviating from series staple terminology in English.

That's where the middle ground comes in. Making things approachable for new fans, but also honoring the game's uniqueness as well as we can. Especially for terms which don't have official localizations (like the zantetsu no ken and Forrest, though the former at least had zantetsu localized as ironbane/piercing in FE Warriors) we wanted to elaborate on what the unique Japanese text was trying to convey. Using Forest Knight > Ranger in Sacred Stones gave us the idea of trying to do something unique with Duke Knight, which is how the historical reference in Banneret, seasoned (bannered, heh) knight commanders who often lead lance knights in specific, was born. We followed a similar idea with Forrest > Forester (called Hero in PN), completing the correlation that class had with Forest Knight/Ranger. These are decisions in line with what NoA does even today, Timerra's classes in Engage being a great example; Vigilante > Sentinel, Pitchfork > Picket. The decision to revert Shaman is another interesting one I could make an entire post about as I was the strongest soldier in favor of the change.

Admittedly, we wanted to find something more flavorful for Mage Fighter and Thief Fighter as well, Spellblade came up often for the former, but figured it might be safest to stick with the other "Fighter" themed classes for now. Of course, we are always open to suggestions.

This reasoning is related to choices like Heal and Ironbane Sword as well. With the primary goal still being to appeal to that modern audience, we also want to preserve FE 4's unique terminology when we can — that middle ground. Part of a game's flavor and identity comes from its namechart, after all. I was against Lord, Hero, Priestess, etc. in PN because it removed so much of the intentional differences in how FE 4 presents itself compared to the rest of the series. Heal (assumed to be a precursor to Renewal) being named differently to match the adjacent Recover skill is part of that. Yes, Renewal is what more recent fans know a skill that heals you every turn to be, but simply naming it that also removes the intentional parallel FE 4's devs wanted to draw with the naming conventions of the skills and staves at the time. FE 5 went on to call this skill of similar effect by its modern name, but with "heal" returning in a skill context as of Three Houses (although doing a different thing), it feels a bit wrong to blatantly ignore what the Japanese text says here just for simplicity sake. It's tricky, as something is missing no matter what name is decided.

Now, a lot of these points were just argued off of vibes prior to FEH and Engage making the conscious decision to bring back the classes of Sword Fighter, Axe Fighter, etc. In a post Engage world, however, where Sword Fighter has been differentiated from Myrmidon twice now, I can't help but feel NoA cares about these small and unique differences in terminology as well. Thus, we followed suit. Like I said many times, this doesn't mean we aren't open to change, far from it! We will even have a discord taking feedback coming soon. This post was just to explain our perspective better than a chart could, provided I did a good job explaining myself, haha.

#fe4 #fire emblem #genealogy of the holy war

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