(Part III)
Tying up loose ends: the decline of clans leading into BOFII, the rise of BOFIII’s pluralistic society under Windian Monarchy.
Goonheim... a world undone.
We know it was a ugly war that predates the events of Ryu’s adult journey. Was it a single battle or part of a much wider war? I previously suggested that HighFort and Evrai’s technology were harnessed at some point before the events of the game, and may have led to cataclymic events that involved Sten’s defection and the awakening/intervention of Deis.
Considering how dramatically different the landscapes of BOFI and BOFII are, and where these shifts take place, I would first suggest that the destruction of Tyr/Myria has lasting impacts on the land surrounding Scande. We can see that most of the continent there is reduced to a long, snaking mountain range. The shell (Rand’s clan) have since moved in and are perhaps restoring the land to life, I suspect the Grassmen and the sea of trees have a role towards this as well.
But what happened to the landmasses around Guntz/Gant and Arad? Were the Iron Ogres (Ox’s people) implicated in the conflicts around Goonheim? I suspect so. They were already known for their technological prowess in BOFI, conscripted to develop a torpedo to be used against Prima. What if the destruction of Zog’s empire, and the gradual retreat of the Dragon clan, created a power vacuum that led to an arms race between new clan players? Highlanders get ahold of Obelisk/Carronade tech, and maybe the Iron Ogres recreate it? Is it not suspicious that Eichichi is adapt at ancient tech?
As tensions and ambitions escalate, who’s bankrolling this an interclan conflict? Perhaps the Manillo’s pick a side and engage in a trade war with the other centre of wealth in BOFI – the port city of Auria?
Whatever the exact outcome – we know that there isn’t a clear winner.
BOFII’s state of the World
BOFII lacks a militaristic superpower, the world is quite fractured, compared to BOFI...
- Guntz is now an island, and the city zone is much smaller. This is where Eichichi is found, and she just so happens to have a curiosity and talent towards the ancient machine below Township. It is reasonable to assume that other Iron Ogres before her would have found interest in, and be able to eventually figure out, other such machines (Evrai).
- Arad and Wisdon are also gone – with only Deis’ mountain cave filled with what looks like booze, suggesting she’s in a rough patch in her life and had to leave Wisdon.
- Auria’s gold is no more. What’s in its stead, is Hometown, which has a sort of feuding minor aristocracy, and private guards, but has otherwise fallen quite far from its glory days as a wealthy port city. There appears to be no other major port cities to trade with in BOFII (Capitan appears more of a backwater).
- With the wealth of Auria gone, Bleak looks inwards for fortune and becomes for games and gladiators in a world with a large number of disbanded soldiers.
- Manillos still feature as a merchant class/clan, but many are found randomly out in the wild, the strangest of islands.. it almost suggests that they are a little diminished/lost and are trying to connect to markets again (again, perhaps Prima and Auria fuelled one another’s growth)
- Windia and Tunlan appear to have endured – chiefly as isolationist monarchies. By cell-size, they are both smaller than in BOFI, and Windia’s Great Bird power has diminished. Tunlan still retains a language barrier to the outside world, accessible to only royal family (HighFort’s Treasure), and Windia doesn’t really hold a military presence outside its immediate kingdom (which is consistent with BOFI). The thriving Manillo market of BOFI’s Tunlan is nowhere to be found here. I suspect Prima’s trade empire collapsed, and Tunlan has withdrawn further from the world.
- SimaFort and the Creeper Clan are new, and don’t really have much outward military capability (it might all be for show, as the self-destruct feature below SimaFort revealed). Frogs existed near Gant in BOFI, perhpas they fleed/migrated to occupy the area around Spring.
- Other clans appear to have lost ancestral homes on the overworld: Forest Clan (Bo), Digger Clan (Mogu), Worens (Lin/Tiga), Aradians.
So, the world at conclusion at of Goonheim saw many of the great clans/regions of BOFI broken and in a sort of Dark Ages.
Was it Goonheim? Its not explicit one way or the other – but an inter-tribal/global conflict around a rediscovered Obelisk/Carronade magiteck would certainly explain: the shifting landscape, disappearance of kingdoms, and diminished world order. If the Dragon Clan were absent during this conflict (having shifted to Dologany), it would make sense that the other tribes might have risen up and the world lacked a moderating/pacifying force to steam the tide of war.
- (Aside) BOFI Nina tells BOFII Nina that the clan’s loss of the Great Bird was due to her intermariage with an outsider (presumably Ryu I). Maybe the Goonheim conflict, and Carronade magitek had a role in this as well?
It could be theorised that the Goonheim conflict, and the power it summoned, awoke Deis. Whether or not she had a direct hand in the conflict (with or without a band of adventurers) – she was a witness to its conclusion. However it was, she lost Wisdon, and was neither the heroic or ambitious stewart the world needed to guide its people to heal. She’s lost her home, turns to drink, is now restlessness, and entertains flights of fancy (cosplaying a student at the academic).
- The thing about an Endless, however, is that this isn’t her first rodeo of Empires rising and falling. She’s probably a bit of a moral relativist and, if Myria/DeathEvan/Carronade Tech are not active on the scene, she’s likely to not be overly concerned with the weight of the affairs of mortals (hence why her personality seems relatively the same between BOFI and BOFII). Without knowing her involvement in Goonheim, she seems even less interventionist, compared to BOFI.
Altogether, these are perfect conditions for a new world-religion (St. Eva) to spread without a significant opposing threat.
---Time passes, the destined child grows up, opens the gate, and defeats DeathEvan.
The ‘Good Ending’ of BOFII à the emergence of a pluralistic society, situated under a puppet monarchy.
So Ganer saves the day, Ryu is the hero a broken world can turn to after it is revealed that St Eva was a lie. Nomadic tribes and broken kingdoms find sanctuary in Township’s expanding wealth and technology. Our BOFII player actions of recruiting random NPCs for this village offers a pluralistic alternative to the inter-tribal warfare of Goonheim and BOFI. This is proven with the recruitment of Shamans, player party allies, humans, a Creeper sculpter and an undercover HighFort Princess*. Over time, a pluralistic society becomes the norm.
Over an undisclosed time - Caer Xhan happens, Myria also becomes guardian of the world. As per her BOFIV Elena template, Myria fashions herself as a Fae (with off-white, upside-down wings), and provides a safe haven from the dying world (cause directly by her, or by the magicteck of the Carronade Township or the void scar of DeathEvan), managed under the kingdom of Windia. The Windian royal family remain her willing or unwitting vassals, while any new clans that emerge are no more than regional identities under service of Myria (Urkans). Under this kingdom, a pluralistic society endures as the norm: Aradians live alongside Iron Ogres, Creepers, Shells, Grassrunners, and others. This can be found in the area surrounding Gemel (the Cafe), Dauna Mines, Rhapala Port and Junk Town. A pluralistic society works for her in that clans united, might find their strength and purpose (Rei). Faes’ are historically relatively pacifist and isolationist – so they make non-threatening and virtuous figureheads of state.
The outlying areas at the peripheral of Myria’s grasp, recieve less direct attention, and thus the maleficence of her Carronade-corrupt Endless nature enables the empowerment of the SinCity Syndicate as a more ‘blunt-force’ instrument at managing her ‘children’. As a syndicate, they are a bit of managed chaos, hence his henchmen keeping tabs on McNeil, rising stars of Gemel's Coliseum and our favourite orphans Rei, Teepo and Ryu?
- Mikba looks suspiciously like a Guardian, does he not? Maybe his role is to keep power and ambition in check as a sort of Mafia boss? Doesn’t Garr act sort of the same way when we meet him? Gaist’s transformation is a more extreme version of Mikba, because he was charge with Dragon hunting, vs. Mikba is for managing non-Endless mortals. Wish we could have seen what was north of the checkpoint... Maybe Mikba was trying to escape the reach of Myria and ‘he’ of all people, would know best where it might be possible to hide form her grasp?
Why is it only Nina that actually compels action against the Syndicate’s corruption? Why are there two portals in Windia, one in the castle basement? Another portal close to the Syndicate in Dauna, and others at Steele Beach, near Kombinat, and the Container Yard near Caer Xhan? If I had suggested Jade and Ganer’s relationship to a sort of thrall to Myria/DeathEvan... maybe that’s the same case with Windia’s King and Queen? BOFIII Nina certainly thinks they are out of touch with the real world and the going ons of their kingdom. The people of Kombinat show that there's no shortage of people in the land beyond the sea that have succumbed to an empty thrall-like existence.
- Honey, Momo’s companion, is revealed as one of Myria’s mechanical servants from Caer Xhan. As only she is able to initially operate these magicteck portals – it would be feasible that Myria (who lives at the epicenter of this tech) has sent/recieved agents through these. Explains Mikba and the Balio and Sunder as her direct agents, as you can fight prototypes of Mikba and Stallion within her station. It would have been nice if the game gave you a bit more insight into Honey’s creation and role. Does she belong to Caer Xhan, or Myria? Is her existance pre-, or post-Myria? Is there a reason (self-fear of her Carronade) that she lives only in the company of these machines, monstrous experiments (Chimera) and a neutralised Teepo?
Final Sign-Off (for real): I said I was done with theory crafting, and now I really hope that’s true. From this, there’s a foundation to the state of the world leading up to BOFII’s setting, and there’s a possible map of events that lead to the structure of Myria’s world under the BOFIII kingdom of Windia. Again, it should remain logically consistent and thematically cohesive. Any of these ideas that make way into your future patches would be a joy. Perhaps they just give you some prompting to think about how your own ideas work to close some loose ends, and propel the story forward.
With appreciation.