#the moment karna pops up i'll become so wonderfully obnoxious

[claire-starsword]

Child, listen well to these words.

The twilight of the gods' era was a long time ago. It began when the gods decided to create new gods with their own hands.

The Ashen Gods combed through their own knowledge, and created the Light Gods. However, this very filtered knowledge was what also made it possible for Dark Gods to be created.

At last, a war broke out between the Light and Dark Gods. The Ashen Gods fought too, on both sides.

At the end of this long, long conflict, the Light Gods used their power to seal the Dark Gods in pillars of this world. Because they were not capable of destroying them.

To seal the Dark Gods, who would later be also called Demon Kings, the Light Gods used up all of their power. As the price for putting the Dark Gods in a deep slumber, they too had to fall asleep.

Most of the Ashen Gods perished in the war as well.

The few remaining ones began to plan for the future. The future of their children, of the children of the Light Gods, and of the children of the Dark Gods… In short, the future of all that lived on in the world.

After a thousand years, power would return to the Light and Dark Gods who slumbered. Once they opened their eyes from their long sleep, they would once again fan the flames of war. And the Ashen Gods knew they would be no more in that age.

The Ashen Gods kept watch over the lands where the Light Gods slumbered, and where the Dark Gods had been sealed. They built towns there, which grew into countries.

To pass on their knowledge, the Ashen Gods wrote many Manuals, books containing their secrets. In these books brimming with light were recorded the way to unleash the legacy of the gods, and how to seal it as well.

And, to protect the Manuals, and properly instruct those who came to seek them, the Ashen Gods created a new form of life.

They created the noble race of the Sacred Dragons. They created us.

To protect the manuals is the Sacred Dragons' one and only duty. For a thousand years, they have done it well. Everything was for the sake of this duty, and the duty was everything to them.

However, there was but a single problem. At that time, the race had no children. Looking back at it now, it sounds very strange, but back then, they did not know the concept of children. They didn't even think of unions between men and women. It was natural after all, since they had been given birth by the hands of the Ashen Gods. They never knew a mother or father.

Their numbers would decline as the years went by, and nothing could increase them in return.

For Dragonia, country of Sacred Dragons in East Rune, that was a serious problem. As things were, their tribe would face extinction. They began to harbor this primal fear for the first time.

That's when they appeared. The humans of Rudo Village.

They worshiped the Sacred Dragons as children of the gods, with blind devotion. Our race was confused at first, but came to accept them. It quickly became clear that they had no evil intentions, and also, the dragons did not worry over anything besides their duty, so they thought nothing of it.

The people of the village learned much from the dragon tribe, and the dragons too learned much from them.

Finally, after almost a millennium, the first child of the tribe was born.

The dragon child had a completely white body, and was named Bleu. His birth brought great happiness, and also a final hope.

Years later, he became the last Sacred Dragon.

Bleu's first adventure was exactly a thousand years after the Ashen Gods had created the Sacred Dragons.

In order to break the seal on Dark Dragon, a man named Darksol stole a Manual. Bleu became a member of the Shining Force fighting against the demon army, and left Dragonia. That's a tale full of honorable deeds.

Thanks to Bleu and the other heroes of the Shining Force, Darksol and the resurrected Dark Dragon were defeated in the end. However, during the war, the Manual was lost, and could not be returned to the dragons' hands.

Bleu and the other members of the Shining Force went separate ways. He returned alone to Dragonia, and lived a quiet life there for ten years.

And then one day…

From beyond the ocean, a new adventure called out to him. A great adventure, to decide the fate of our Sacred Dragon blood…

Shining Force

Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons

To Chapter 1>

Translation notes:

I took some liberties with the gods' titles. The text refers to them as White (白き), Black (黒き) and Gray (灰色) Gods. However, 黒き is already the term used in Dark Dragon's name (and the reading Dark Dragon is not just a localization, but used in the JP text as well), and everything in this series is a light vs. darkness thing, so I felt it flowed better to call them Light and Dark Gods. And with that it felt right to give a similar flair to the gray as well, so I went with Ashen which fits well for a ruined civilization. Also, the kanji for ash is in the color name already.

Sign. The Manual. You might remember that I once boldly proclaimed that the game's wording, 秘伝の書, is more accurately translated as Book of Secrets (like in the GBA localization) than Manual of the Ancients (like in the Mega Drive localization). I even brought up this very novel as reasoning (for no good reason now that I look back at it). Come this book, and... "Manual" is given as the actual reading, even though the kanji used is the same. So yeah! This is why we don't make assumptions based on books we didn't read! I'll be sticking to Manual from here on.

And finally, let me stop pretending this is a regular thing to toss on your dash without introduction. Welcome to what I believe is the first ever translation of Shining Force - Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons, the official novel written by Sami Shinozaki and illustrated by SUEZEN, Shining Force 2's character designer. These scans were given to me on the same day the encyclopedia scans were. It was like it was my birthday or something. I was so busy with everything I didn't even have to celebrate here, and then I thought, what if I really don't tease or announce this in any way? What if I just drop it on them? And yeah, I hope you enjoyed the surprise, I'm absolutely full of joy to finally read and share this. And eternal thanks to the person who offered the scans in the first place.

All translation posts will be tagged as #shining force novel translation. Also please note, this is a rough translation as I don't have full scans yet and thus haven't read the full book, this might get updated as I get more context.

Also, the pages were scanned with only a phone camera, so I did some editing to smooth over some stuff and enhance contrast. You might notice the smell of digital print but don't worry about it, the contents are unchanged. I made a folder with more versions of the pics, as well as other illustration scans I've found across the internet.

[Update Feb 10: there are now scans in better quality, so I've updated the post, but my original folder remains. I'll be using both sources as I see fit.]

Now let's get to some initial stuff I skipped for the sake of surprise, such as, you know, the cover.

After that war, Bleu lived alone in Dragonia. But his destiny as a Sacred Dragon calls him to the battlefield once more. A survivor of a shipwreck, Camallia, washes up in the shores of the harbor, claiming to be seeking the Manual of Secrets to save the Sacred Dragons of Parmecia. Searching for the Manual, Bleu and his friends are off to adventure! Monsters come to attack them from the distant land of Parmecia. What is their true goal… A new Shining Force is born, running across the two continents of Rune and Parmecia. An original side story.

The map of Rune is cool, but has nothing of note. While all locations from the game are pictured, only a few are labelled: Dragonia and Rudo Village in East Rune, and Rindo, Manarina, Bustoke, Pao Plains and Uranbatol in West Rune.

The map of Parmecia depicts only the southwest part. While the kingdoms of Granseal and Galam can be seen in Grans Island, the only label there is for the land itself, Ground Seal. Mt. Volcano is also labelled, along with Hassan at the southern coast, and finally, the triangle of mountains to the west, Fire Dragon's Tail. It seems it is not yet known as Devil's Tail. It also has a big volcano on it.

Worth noting, this map is quite squished to fit all of this in a single page. In the actual game, the path to Devil's Tail looks a bit longer, and the same goes for the distance between Grans and the mainland. Devil's Tail also has no sign of a volcano in the actual game, and has some desert ground within the mountains instead.

Also, there is a town here in the western coast of the mainland, but this is many years before SF2, so it can't possibly be New Granseal.

Finally, let us finish with the preview of what's to come.

Chapter index:

An Old Tale.......................................................................7

Chapter 1: The white Sacred Dragon of Dragonia...19

Chapter 2: Chasing the Manual... ....................64

Chapter 3: Wind and Light crossing the plains......136

Chapter 4: Sacred Continent.....................................191

Chapter 5: Origin of the Light...................................245

Chapter 6: Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons.........330

Long, Long Ago...........................................................338

Afterword......................................................................339