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... nerd.
I'm a complete nerd.
I just spent the last two hours trying to figure out culture clashes and histories of conquest in the Final Fantasy 7 world. Because they have Wutai as their China/Japan analogue, but you see kanji and japanese names used almost everywhere and people tend to have asian-shaped eyes even with the most weirdass hair colors, but then there are names like Midgar and Nibelheim, but then there's the random black man, and... Okay. What happened there.
Okay, so, the ethnic groups I'm starting with are... Norse, Nihonese, Han, Tribes (sort of native american/indians but i can't call them that in another world, now can I. XD), Hellenes, Corellians and Xaymacans.
Since the ff7 makers didn't see fit to name them, the continents shall be designed as Northern, Wutai, Middle, Eastern and That Bunch Of Islands Down There. Okay, no, let's go with Mideel. >__>
Norse people start out on the Northern continent. *gaspu*
Han start out up north on Wutai, Nihonese on southern.
Corellians are in the northern area of Middle Continent, immigrated from Eastern. (Corellians are actually Roman analogues in terms of civilization, which makes me LOL because they get wiped out super quick.)
Middle Continent still, Tribes are spread out over Cosmo arid almost-desert and Gongaga crazy-thick forest, some cousin tribes even spread into the gold saucer area's sandy desert. (they don't have much contact with those anymore though.)
Eastern Continent is full of various shades of Hellenes. (for all intents and purposes, Europeans. Mixed Greece/Roman influence, that's where the roman alphabet we see used in FF7 comes from.)
Mideel has the Xaymacans, who are Jamaicans analogues and the only source of black ethnicity. (sorry guys, I don't have enough continents to develop y'all further. Also, really not enough black people in FF7 to justify a huge starting area anyway.)
So then the barbarous Norsemen decide they're tired of freezing their bollocks off and they invade Eastern's north area, from Midgar to the grasslands. Some also make a foray into Middle Continent and completely flatten Corel civilization and people. Byebye, Corellians, hope you don't mind all your wimenz having little Norsekids from here on. Then some of them big Norse warriors are all "The coast is for pussies, I think I'll stretch my legs down that here mountain range" and when they found a place that was almost colder than back home on Northern that's when Nibelheim was born. Because those mountains are scary as fuck and if there's one thing Norsemen like, it's mountains that tell it to you loud and clear, THIS IS WHAT HELL LOOKS LIKE. >:E ♥
Meanwhile the Han and the Nihonese are conquering the shit out of each other, in a very civilized way. Very Warring States.
Eventually they hammer out something and there's a ton of inter-marriages, but the tension is still there underneath so of course what better way to unify everyone and make sure there's enough space for those guys who can barely stand each other than to spread out, right? Hello, Middle Continent, here we are. So since the sea currents go that way, they land around the Cosmo Canyon area first. They spread along the coasts instead of going inland, so they don't really clash too hard with the Tribes, who are very disorganized anyway. Then they stretch toward the Nibelheim area coast, and the area where Rocket Town will be and it's all pretty pretty flat grasslands and they're all YAY and then the Norsemen are all OI. WE GOT DIBS. ROAR.
(the few left over Corellians try to say THEY were here first thank you v. much but the Norse barbarians tell them to get back to the kitchen and make them a sammich.)
Meanwhile in Eastern the cultured and decadent Hellenes welcome their new Norse overlords with legs wide open, and force their roman alphabet on those heathens while they're at it. Some of them open up trade routes for spices and stuff with the Xaimacans, who are warriors but the friendly sort. Also there's tone of poisonous snakes and stuff in their islands and the Norsemen really don't feel like poking at them ATM. (but one thing they understand and respect is warriors, and the xaymacans are pretty badass so there's some mutual respect there. I think the difference between their attitude to the Xaymacans and the Wutainese is based largely on the individuals who had the first contact with the indigenes. ... Also the Wutainese wanted to take the Norsemen's beloved temperate climate and wide open areas. The Xaymacans were welcome to keep their sweltering heat, claustrophobic greenery and giant mosquitos.)
So... The next centuries are pretty much all about Wutai and the Norsemen having a pissing contest over Middle Continent. Mm, tugs of war. The Tribes retreat deeper into the deserts in order to be left alone. Nibelheim is a bastion of Norseitude but one that is often attacked they develop a HISS STRANGERS attitude, the Rocket area has been burned down and razed and taken over more times than they can count (therefore they have no real old cities there, they never last long) and Corel is a mishmash of mixed-bloods.
The Wutainese put in a MASSIVE effort that gets them all the way to Midgard, but they overextended themselves and even though they hold the area for a short time, there are too many pockets of resistance, too many problems coordinating with back home, and eventually they have to retreat. Then the Norsemen push them back almost all the way back, being all roar and stuff.
Eventually a century or two before Game Time the Wutainese start getting all "... well, the Outside sucks anyway so fuck y'all, we're taking our ball and going home." By that time Middle and Eastern have long since become a melting pot of Norse and Hellene with pockets of traveling Xaymacans and traces of Corellian, and kind of more civilized and starting to slow down on the barbarousness. (I don't think they even still use Norse and Hellene as ethnicity names; it would be kind of like me saying I'm from Gaul. Not sure what they use instead though.) (also, Gongaga? Norse/Corellian/Tribes. Weird mix. Hay Zack.)
So basially the Shinra corporation is only building onto a fine old tradition of beating on Wutai, and if everyone is going along with them and being all YAY CONQUEST even though Wutai wasn't even fighting them anywhere at the time it's because there's an undercurrent of "we're gonna END THIS for GOOD." which is why they insisted on ruining that nation and then abandoning it undeveloped and beaten and only good for tourists. It was more about winning the war once and for all than about the resources they might find there. And Shinra used that political climate to justify their grabbing for more influence. They were preemptively protecting Midgarians against the Wutai menace! Anything they did with that goal in mind was already more than halfway justified in the minds of many people.
But anyway, that's how come so many people have Wutainese eyes and names and whatnot and you can see signs in both roman alphabet and kanji.
I'm a complete nerd.
I just spent the last two hours trying to figure out culture clashes and histories of conquest in the Final Fantasy 7 world. Because they have Wutai as their China/Japan analogue, but you see kanji and japanese names used almost everywhere and people tend to have asian-shaped eyes even with the most weirdass hair colors, but then there are names like Midgar and Nibelheim, but then there's the random black man, and... Okay. What happened there.
Okay, so, the ethnic groups I'm starting with are... Norse, Nihonese, Han, Tribes (sort of native american/indians but i can't call them that in another world, now can I. XD), Hellenes, Corellians and Xaymacans.
Since the ff7 makers didn't see fit to name them, the continents shall be designed as Northern, Wutai, Middle, Eastern and That Bunch Of Islands Down There. Okay, no, let's go with Mideel. >__>
Norse people start out on the Northern continent. *gaspu*
Han start out up north on Wutai, Nihonese on southern.
Corellians are in the northern area of Middle Continent, immigrated from Eastern. (Corellians are actually Roman analogues in terms of civilization, which makes me LOL because they get wiped out super quick.)
Middle Continent still, Tribes are spread out over Cosmo arid almost-desert and Gongaga crazy-thick forest, some cousin tribes even spread into the gold saucer area's sandy desert. (they don't have much contact with those anymore though.)
Eastern Continent is full of various shades of Hellenes. (for all intents and purposes, Europeans. Mixed Greece/Roman influence, that's where the roman alphabet we see used in FF7 comes from.)
Mideel has the Xaymacans, who are Jamaicans analogues and the only source of black ethnicity. (sorry guys, I don't have enough continents to develop y'all further. Also, really not enough black people in FF7 to justify a huge starting area anyway.)
So then the barbarous Norsemen decide they're tired of freezing their bollocks off and they invade Eastern's north area, from Midgar to the grasslands. Some also make a foray into Middle Continent and completely flatten Corel civilization and people. Byebye, Corellians, hope you don't mind all your wimenz having little Norsekids from here on. Then some of them big Norse warriors are all "The coast is for pussies, I think I'll stretch my legs down that here mountain range" and when they found a place that was almost colder than back home on Northern that's when Nibelheim was born. Because those mountains are scary as fuck and if there's one thing Norsemen like, it's mountains that tell it to you loud and clear, THIS IS WHAT HELL LOOKS LIKE. >:E ♥
Meanwhile the Han and the Nihonese are conquering the shit out of each other, in a very civilized way. Very Warring States.
Eventually they hammer out something and there's a ton of inter-marriages, but the tension is still there underneath so of course what better way to unify everyone and make sure there's enough space for those guys who can barely stand each other than to spread out, right? Hello, Middle Continent, here we are. So since the sea currents go that way, they land around the Cosmo Canyon area first. They spread along the coasts instead of going inland, so they don't really clash too hard with the Tribes, who are very disorganized anyway. Then they stretch toward the Nibelheim area coast, and the area where Rocket Town will be and it's all pretty pretty flat grasslands and they're all YAY and then the Norsemen are all OI. WE GOT DIBS. ROAR.
(the few left over Corellians try to say THEY were here first thank you v. much but the Norse barbarians tell them to get back to the kitchen and make them a sammich.)
Meanwhile in Eastern the cultured and decadent Hellenes welcome their new Norse overlords with legs wide open, and force their roman alphabet on those heathens while they're at it. Some of them open up trade routes for spices and stuff with the Xaimacans, who are warriors but the friendly sort. Also there's tone of poisonous snakes and stuff in their islands and the Norsemen really don't feel like poking at them ATM. (but one thing they understand and respect is warriors, and the xaymacans are pretty badass so there's some mutual respect there. I think the difference between their attitude to the Xaymacans and the Wutainese is based largely on the individuals who had the first contact with the indigenes. ... Also the Wutainese wanted to take the Norsemen's beloved temperate climate and wide open areas. The Xaymacans were welcome to keep their sweltering heat, claustrophobic greenery and giant mosquitos.)
So... The next centuries are pretty much all about Wutai and the Norsemen having a pissing contest over Middle Continent. Mm, tugs of war. The Tribes retreat deeper into the deserts in order to be left alone. Nibelheim is a bastion of Norseitude but one that is often attacked they develop a HISS STRANGERS attitude, the Rocket area has been burned down and razed and taken over more times than they can count (therefore they have no real old cities there, they never last long) and Corel is a mishmash of mixed-bloods.
The Wutainese put in a MASSIVE effort that gets them all the way to Midgard, but they overextended themselves and even though they hold the area for a short time, there are too many pockets of resistance, too many problems coordinating with back home, and eventually they have to retreat. Then the Norsemen push them back almost all the way back, being all roar and stuff.
Eventually a century or two before Game Time the Wutainese start getting all "... well, the Outside sucks anyway so fuck y'all, we're taking our ball and going home." By that time Middle and Eastern have long since become a melting pot of Norse and Hellene with pockets of traveling Xaymacans and traces of Corellian, and kind of more civilized and starting to slow down on the barbarousness. (I don't think they even still use Norse and Hellene as ethnicity names; it would be kind of like me saying I'm from Gaul. Not sure what they use instead though.) (also, Gongaga? Norse/Corellian/Tribes. Weird mix. Hay Zack.)
So basially the Shinra corporation is only building onto a fine old tradition of beating on Wutai, and if everyone is going along with them and being all YAY CONQUEST even though Wutai wasn't even fighting them anywhere at the time it's because there's an undercurrent of "we're gonna END THIS for GOOD." which is why they insisted on ruining that nation and then abandoning it undeveloped and beaten and only good for tourists. It was more about winning the war once and for all than about the resources they might find there. And Shinra used that political climate to justify their grabbing for more influence. They were preemptively protecting Midgarians against the Wutai menace! Anything they did with that goal in mind was already more than halfway justified in the minds of many people.
But anyway, that's how come so many people have Wutainese eyes and names and whatnot and you can see signs in both roman alphabet and kanji.
I'm a complete nerd.