Post-FE8 Magvel 'fic contemplation. Oh, and worldbuilding, too.

[xirysa.livejournal.com]

 Crossposted from my journal; apologies in advance for the very stream-of-consciousness style this is in.

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Essentially, a while back raphien and I were discussing culture and society in Magvel after this post was made in the community. A lot of it stemmed from figuring out the holes in Jehanna's culture--from the identity of the Hero that founded the country, to how much of it was based on RL cultures (Middle Eastern, specifically ancient Persia/modern Iraq+Iran). I tried to implement bits of such a culture when I was writing "Prelude", a response to a Carlyle/Ismaire prompt on fe_fest--though I must confess that Bollywood/aspects of (specifically north) Indian and Pakistani culture unintentionally made their way into story as well, most noticeably in the use of red as a "holy" color for a wedding, playing into fertility and the like.

From discussing Jehanna's hero, we went on to the actual gender of the hero in question. Personally,  I'm torn between a "Woman King"  (roflmao) and an actual male warrior who founded the country. I can see it working both ways, for a variety of reasons, and I can't seem to figure out how I see it. Another thought I had was that the country, regardless of whether it was founded by a man or a woman (or both--behind-the-scenes-politician!wives are made of so much awesome) what if the country was actually named for a deity in an archaic Jehannan pantheon?

It could be that ancient religion, I think, from which Latona's teachings were derived, and as I believe crimsonmorgan mentioned, there's evidence of polytheism in Magvel. 

My thought is that it was that archaic polytheistic religion that gave way to a monotheistic religion centered around Latona's teachings, and here's where we have the conflict: Jehanna as a whole practices this "pagan" religion that worships many different deities and Rausten, which shares a border with them directly to the north, is known for following a "true" religion based on Saint Latona's teachings. With the rest of the countries, headcanon says that they all practice offshoots of Latona's religion with varying degrees of piousness.

Needless to say, conflict abounds--with differences in belief systems come differences in culture and society, and it's safe to say that those differences have the potential to cause a lot of political turmoil, especially in postgame Magvel. Because of the continent's geography, it makes the most sense for Jehanna to ask Rausten for aid. (Carcino gets ignored for now.)

So now. I've just a general idea for where I'd like this post-FE8 story to go, but I was just curious about what other people thought of everything I've mentioned above, regarding both the idea and the political/socio-/religious aspects of everything.