Alle Kunst ist der Freude gewidmet

Has anyone else noticed that the older men (guessing at about 50) in Magvel (Duessel, Fado, Hayden, Viggy, Mansel, maybe Riev) all have hair that reaches at least their shoulders/covers most of their neck and is smoothed back? Intentional or coincidence? It's already my headcanon that longer hair is a traditional (or maybe just the fashion at the time? Though I'm not sure if some of the men mentioned above would care about fashion) hair-do for men of that age, but I'm wondering if someone else noticed.

I don't remember where it came up, but somewhere anyone wondered how the male/female ratio in FE 8 was (Maybe it was me in reaction to someone saying that we have no female knight from Renais? I don't know. It doesn't really matter, honestly) It kinda bugged me that I didn't know concrete numbers so I had to make a little table:

	Male	Female
Frelia	Gilliam, Moulder, Hayden, Innes	Tana, Vanessa, Syrene
Renais	Seth, Franz, Forde, Kyle, Ephraim, Orson, Fado, Ross, Garcia, Colm, Artur	Eirika, Neimi, Lute
Grado	Lyon, Vigarde, Duessel, Cormag, Knoll, Glen, Valter	Natasha, Amelia, Selena
Jehanna	Joshua, Gerik, Ewan, Caellach, Carlyle	Marisa, Tethys, Ismaire
Rausten	Dozla, Mansel, Riev	L'Arachel

Saleh (Caer Pelyn), Rennac (Carcino), Myrrh

That gives us: 43 characters from the countries that really count 8D Saleh, Rennac and Myrrh as the odd ones out. (Mostly because they have no "contrast" so to speak; they are the only ones coming from their respective homelands)
    30 are male, 13 are female. Interestingly apart from Rausten (which has such a little number of characters anyway) EVERY country only has three female characters. Frelia still has only three even though it has the unfair advantage of being the country with the pegasi knights. However, it still looks better than Renais because the male:female ratio is better; 4:3 vs. 11:3. Grado lies between it with 7:3. Jehanna has almost the same ratio as Frelia with 5:3. (L'Arachel counts as much as a dozen "normal" persons anyway XD)

( Have some tl;dr about the countries )

I have no idea if I had a point or not. But I like ratios. Yay 8D

On a different but related topic:

Did you also notice that only Frelia and Grado (and Rausten, of course) have "court priests"? Moulder serves directly at court (and is obviously close to Hayden since he is introduced as a "most trusted vassal"). In Grado you have Father McGregor and Natasha, in a way. Renais and Jehanna don't have them (Renais doesn't have any healer, period. Artur can become a bishop later, but at the beginning he can't heal). Coincidence? 8D I don't think so~ Which reminds me that I have to put down my thoughts on Religion in Magvel.

Also, I was looking at my pirate AU stuff earlier. I really feel like doing a bit more research 8D

Why is writing Vigarde/Minna so hard ;A; At least when Minna is alive. Oops.

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So, I remembered that I've wanted to ramble a bit more about the "re-marriage not possible in Magvel" idea. I've noticed, uhm, on Monday I think, in my lecture about religion in the early modern times that the Catholics had more or less the system I was thinking about; namely that the marriage oath is unbreakable and can only be give once. So even if the partners manage to get "divorced" or become a widow/widower, they can't remarry because their oath doesn't die with their partner. And I do like that concept (because of angst 8D At least a bit~); mostly because in Viggy´s and Fado´s case, and Izzy´s actually, that would mean there is not only a reason why they don't have new spouses (not Izzy, because we more or less know why she hasn't remarried), but should they have affairs that would add an interesting facet. Though in my headcanon Fado has another reason why he wouldn't remarry anyway (about which I wanted to write a story >> for the fe_contest actually, but then I wasn't inspired enough). And Izzy would probably also have the issue that a new husband might try to diminish her authority and push her back, which she probably wouldn't like.

Now, should the wife/husband die before any children can be born, that pretty much sucks for a king/queen. Which doesn't mean they get the permission to remarry, because no, not possible. But. It is made easier to recognize bastard children and make them legal. So a child from a concubine can be made heir relatively easy. (Even against the wish of the father; you just have to prove that it's his child.) So they can't have another official spouse, only a semi-official life partner, or so. Now, if you're a non-noble person, well, sucks to be you, mostly. It's not like concubines were viewed as really respectable and normally you didn't make it public that you had them. And how probable is it for a farmer to have a concubine? Nah, you either have to be quick or hope that you have nephews/nieces who can inherit your property.

Or. That oath thing only happens if you marry in a church of Latona. But I don't believe that you have to do that. Yeah, I have to put down my thoughts on religion in Magvel soon; to make it short: there is still mostly polytheism in Magvel and you can marry with the blessing of another god/goddess as well. It's mostly that the church of Latona is slowly supplanting the other gods and goddesses (and the progress is far from finished). And the royalty at least is probably part of the church of Latona (mostly due to the fact that their ancestors were so close to Latona). The people are just... whatever.

Anyway, the concept is interesting 8D And an interesting type of drama happens. (Remarrying is awesome, of course, but drama is as well~ In a modern times AU I would totally remarry Viggy and Hayden, and maybe even Fado, but as I said he has some issues with it)


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Now, I was also thinking a bit about bro university shenanigans. Then I noticed that I didn't know what they were studying anyway.
( Brokings shenanigans )

The Moulder/Hayden story processes nicely if slowly, which surprises me 8D But it also makes me happy~

But, I also had to think about Magvel again and I feel like I have to note down a few things about it, because I can't keep everything in my head (oddly enough, it is easier to remember it if I wrote it down at some time). So, the following will probably be a bit jumpy and maybe not completely coherent. And at the moment probably mostly about the countries. This is also by no means complete.

( Much babble ahead )

That's all for now. There will be an icon post later, because I made Turisas icons 8D I <3 them so badly~

Why is coordinating character ages and meeting years and getting to know years so haaaaaaaaaard D8

Anyway.

I've heard something interesting in a lecture today; something that I already knew before but of course forgot 8D And I noticed how prefectly it could fit Magvel. I mean, we all noticed that the "all countries are friends" thing is pretty strange and unrealistic. But. If we assume that "friend" is not used as meaning "a person we like and like to spend time with", but in the sense of "amicitia" then it makes sense.

Since there is no wiki page in English fo "amicitia" let me quickly summarise it. "Amicitia" is a Roman concept which means that the Romans made a "friendship contract" with another country which elevates the country from a subordinated partner to an equal partner, i.e. they are on the same level. It's a "friendship" that is based on a contract; the signees are obligated to be friendly, support the partner, be fair and they have equal rights in commerce. It has nothing to do with personal emotions; you can totally hate your partner, but if you signed the contract, you're obligated to act friendly and supportive.

And that is what I see between the Magvel countries. They all have such contracts. In case of Renais and Grado, I believe that there are also mutual friendly feelings between the Royal families. The fact that the twins and Lyon know each other well is a sign that they had much contact and spend a considerable amount of time with each other. Also, Fado´s reaction in the beginning indicates, for me at least, that he is disappointed on an emotional level. Also, it's pretty obvious - for the same reasons - that Frelia and Renais are friends in the normal sense as well. See Tana and Eirika, and Ephraim and Innes.

In case of Frelia and Grado, I believe there are no really deeply friendly feelings. There are no negative feelings, but personal headcanon dictates that there are tensions between the countries (or at least the after-effect of earlier conflicts). I always found it strange that Innes doesn't seem to know Lyon. Or at least he didn't spend much time with him. Maybe that's because Innes didn't like Lyon, though it honestly doesn't sound like that in game. So I conclude that Frelia and Grado are not as close as Grado and Renais. Hayden and Viggy like each other well enough, but a deep friendship, no. Personal headcanon also dictates that they first met when they were 17/19, while Hayden and Fado met at age 9/9, and Fado and Viggy at 12/14. It mostly has to do with their fathers and a move that Frelia hasn't forgiven Grado at that point of time.

Neither royalty from Frelia and Renais recognized L'Arachel or Joshua so they haven't ever met. I conclude that Jehanna has a strictly "amicitia" relationship with everyone.

Rausten is a bit tricky, but I think they're a bit similar to Jehanna. L'Arachel might have met any royal child before, but then they would've been so young that they don't remember each other.

And now for something completely different:

Turisas is the perfect soundtrack for pirate sheningans.