#train infodump inaccessable

[starsshiningabyss]

Ingo: yeah i think falling through the rift broke my body as well as my mind, i find the oddest of sensations unbareable, certain fabrics for example make my skin crawl.

Emmet: Nope! you had sensory issues before. its the autism.

Ingo:... What is autism?

Emmet: hm.

[sweetpea-sprite]

Hey I'm here to ask you a lore question! A few, actually. Please infodump on me all of the information you have on how Ni No Kuni was during Lucien's time, before he became Shadar. How many kingdoms were there besides the big three, since obviously Halcyon and Bellicosia aren't a part of those big three? Why did that time in particular have so much conflict? (Also this isn't really lore but if you have any general info on Lucien's friends I will give you my life, love, and first born child)

OKAY. HI. sorry it took me a while to answer this but i LOVE these questions i'm so excited. unfortunately: we don't know a lot about what nnk was like in lucien's time, but we can very easily take a guess.

obviously: it was not a time of peace, at least in autumnia. we don't know why exactly the war started, but lucien's diary in dotdd sheds a little insight: "If there were no magic in this world in the first place... then we wouldn't have such horrifying wars, either." "But, the innocence of all the people caught up in this world of magic keeps eating away at me. I want to devote myself to protecting innocence."

so essentially... while the sages were having a power contest, the non magical people were literally just trying to live. we literally have a book from that time, the wizard's companion, that details how awful non-magical tech is, while magic is beautiful and powerful. literally: "Magic can only be used by those who possess a pure heart and who have undergone the proper training. Wizards borrow some of nature's power and use it to humans' benefit. Only those with a pure heart, one uncorrupted by evil, are able to do this. Using machines to triumph over nature is not the behavior of the pure-hearted." not to mention... have you noticed how a few of the battle spells in the wizard's companion describe using them against not creatures, but other wizards? in fact the only ones that describe using them against creatures are things like veil, which are Only used against creatures.

the war was a result of wizards trying to one-up each other, while completely ignoring the people caught up in the conflict. that's the jist of what we can guess. the soldiers - such as lucien - were told they were defending their country, only to go to battle and raze a village to the ground to attack a sage.

just to add more to the pile of how insane this classism was, by the way: non magical people were not allowed to make machines, unless it was for combat. cloud sweepers were a loophole - they're magi-mechanical, so they're very begrudgingly allowed. before the magic was added to them the person who invented them was literally told to throw out everything he'd done so far because it was unnatural for a non-wizard to have that power. they CLOSED THE DOOR BETWEEN WORLDS because ichi no kuni started innovating and people started coming back from there talking about the machines they have and the wizards got scared that their magic would become irrelevant and, quote, "why, powerful wizards could still cast the spell known as "Gateway" and travel to the other world any time they pleased!"

ni no kuni in lucien's time was a power trip for wizards and sages and completely inaccessible for non-wizards, helped by the fact that they weren't allowed to make it more accessible themselves. lucien was a non-wizard who, upon joining the army, trained his magic and discovered how absolutely horrible the system was. and that's why he banned magic.

as for kingdoms... well. halcyon, bellicosia, rubicon of course - though rubicon was a village. fun fact by the way: there's a weird localisation thing in wotww where lucien's punishment is that his whole village is burned to the ground. in dotdd, where the translation was done by fans and is therefore more direct... it's just his house specifically. i don't actually think he lived in a village he lived in bellicosia itself which feels like a city of some kind

as for other kingdoms... the tombstone trail used to be one. in dotdd yuri (i miss her) says that it was a village of mages - and shadar came and destroyed it. the trail was full of flowers. in nazcaan times, it was under the wizard king - hence why he is buried there. it's so wild to think about the tombstone trail as being a place where people lived rather than... a mass graveyard.

i ASSUME there were more kingdoms than there are in wotww. i mean, of course there were - xanadu was destroyed as well. but more than that - i expect places with a majority population of sages were targeted heavily by shadar. ALSO, not info on a past kingdom, but HAMELIN. hamelin is so so interesting because in dotdd it is implied that the roof is a RECENT addition, PLUS the fact that machines like... weren't allowed? in lucien's time? so all of those cropped up in the last few decades, PLUS the fact that it's STILL forbidden for a non sage to ascend the throne... it's a very interesting political landscape where sages, such as the old emperor, are still trying to cling to the past and have it so nobility are ONLY magical, but the people of hamelin are finally allowed to create these things and are stripping the continent for resources and taking over the city to do it. they have had centuries to think of these things. the only problem is... they're innovating too fast, and now the pig iron plain is stripped bare, and like a lot of people have lung disease (which is a big thing in dotdd). it's SO interesting. i wonder what hamelin was like before shadar...

there isn't really much personal info on lucien's friends - there are three of them that you meet in the dlc quests in dotdd. they say they were all different ages when they met. they still talk about lucien fondly despite his reign as shadar - calling him the "kindest friend anyone could've ever asked for". they're ghosts when you meet them in the dlc quests, kept around by the regret they have for not sticking up for lucien back when he was banished - they say they betrayed him by not valuing their friendship over their positions. you retrieve lucien's diary for them, and it says that he had forgiven them from the start, and that he understands their feelings and pain - and they fade away to finally rest. that's about it. i like them a lot.