Some backstory info from Rune Factory Official Memoirs

Covering Innocent Life (PsP/Ps2), Rune Factory 1 (DS), Rune Factory 2 (DS), Rune Factory 3 (DS/Switch), Rune Factory Frontier (Wii), Rune Factory Tides of Destiny (Wii/Ps3), Rune Factory 4 (3DS/Switch/Steam), and Rune Factory 5 (Switch/Steam).
cuc
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Since someone asked about Ivan's backstory, I may as well get this post started...

Back in summer, Darth-Paper-Boy of RanchStory.co.uk has kindly scanned quite a few pages from Rune Factory Official Memoirs. You can find them at their forum, in a stickied thread of the "Fantasy World" subforum. Please tread lightly, and don't bust the Photobucket bandwidth limit...

(there's no enmity between here and there, right? During the period I've been here, no one seems to ever to link to that site :oops: )

The text portion of the scanned pages include an interview with Hashimoto Yoshifumi the producer, an interview with Iwasaki Minako the character designer, a character list, and some "heroine guide".

The character list and heroine guide are basically the kind of superfluous "articles" editors use to fill up a coffee table book. The Iwasaki interview is also insubstantial.

The Hashimoto interview, on the other hand, is largely about backstory. What's strange is, most video game creators use the artbook as an opportunity to examine every aspect of the world that's impossible to cover in games, filling it with maps, family trees, timelines and so on. Instead, Hashimoto chose to give an interview full of hints and vagueness, as if all the lingering questions would be answered one day, which, let's face it, will never happen. If his belief is that the creator should only provide enough tantalizing hints to preserve the magic, well... he may have already revealed too much.

Here I'll sum up what I find relevant, especially things that may change your perspection of characters. Actually, with my limited Japanese knowledge, that's the only thing I can do.
Last edited by cuc on Nov 20, 2010 10:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.
cuc
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For characters, the English version names are used, except for RF3 characters. Major spoilers have warnings before them.

Geopolitics:

-The continent of Adonea (アドネア) has 2 large nations: the Sechs Empire and the Kingdom of Norad.
-There are also the Repulic of Eucraft (ユークラフト) and the Kingdom of Roland (ローランド). The games haven't mentioned them, except maybe as some character's birthplace.
-Besides these 4 major nations, there are still some other countries.
-All games so far take place in Norad.

-The idea of Kardia is basically like a small town on the Silk Road, where many different kinds of people and information can be found.
-Alvarna is a maritime city relatively far from Kardia. As a city, it's smaller than the capital of Norad.
-Trampoli is a much smaller place, and can barely be called a village. Lots of people come here from Kardia. It's not immediately close to Kardia, but at a reasonable travel distance.
-Sharance is a mountain city.
(EDIT: This sounds suspicious. Kardia is clearly a larger town than Sharance, and is surrounded by mountains, while Sharance has many travellers and a large inn to accomodate them, as well as a mixture of east and west culture reminiscent of the Silk Road. Could it be that he confused the two towns in the interview?)

-Sechs, ruled by Emperor Ethelberd, is pretty large.
-The world outside of RF1's Kardia is largely at peace. The conflict arises there only because it's at the border between two nations.
-Sechs technology and machinery are different from modern concept of machinery.
-To illustrate this, Hashimoto chose two examples: the concept of aether, an idea modern science has rendered obsolete, and Japanese scientists of Edo Period.
(In other words, Sechs science is similar to real world's old sciences like phlogiston, and unlike in real world, their science works.)
-Humanity originated in Norad.
-Unlike Sechs's machine civilization, Norad has developed a magic civilization.

-Most elves live in their own country.
-Races such as univir and mermaids still mostly only live in certain specific regions.

-The eastern nation is a small island country at the very east.
-It's style should be a mixture of Sengoku Period and Edo Period.
-Its people are samurai, ninja, merchants and miko (priestess / shrine maiden).
(Yeah, the usual cool Japan stereotypes. At least there's no geisha.)

-The elven nation is an island country larger than the eastern nation. The island is covered by forest.
-The elves are led by a queen and several elders.
-Recently many elves are coming out of the island.


Terminology:

-"Earthmates" are people capable of communicating with the land and the spirits.
-In ancient times, an earthmate has all the earthmate powers. In modern times, an earthmate is defined as a person who's inherited part of these powers.

-"Tamitaya" is essentially a magic that returns a person to where he belongs. Using tamitaya on a monster in the human world would send it back to Forest of Beginnings; using tamitaya on a human in Forest of Beginnings would send him back to the human world.
(In typical fantasy terminology, both the human world and Forest of Beginnings are planes of existence, regions of a fantasy universe. The concept is similar to heaven, earth and hell. But you may already know that.)
-The Gates are just portals linking the human world to Forest of Beginnings. As we know, the empire has developed machines to artificially "shift" monsters to the human world.

-"Rune" is the life force of everything. It's love, the source of life, whatever you call it.
-RP is a real thing.
-When vegetables are raised with care, they emit crystalized Rune.
(Oh no, why must he talk so much about rune? I'd rather think of RP and the effects of rune factories as abstractions.)

-Runeys are something very close to the spirits, capable of gathering the spirits and influencing them. When runeys create a great effect on the environment such as affecting crop growth or rainfall, whether postively or negatively, it's called a "rune wonder".
-While runeys have only appeared in 2 games, they are in fact everywhere. Different places call them different names.
-Ordinary people can see runeys.
-There's no deep reason behind the protagonists' amnesia beside gameplay convenience.


Characters:

-The de Sainte-Coquille family isn't nobility.
-They are also not merchants. No idea where their wealth came from.
-The head of the families are all big eaters; they don't live in cities because the food is tastier in rural regions.
-They periodically meet each other, but these meetings are more about food than anything.
-Will Max's body grow like his father? No idea, certainly sounds dangerous.

-Lynette comes from an elite family that has for generations contributed soldiers to the empire.
-Lynette tells people she wears a eyepatch because her left eye has been wounded in battle. You may already know this isn't true.
-Cururufa and Ondolfa are childhood friends. Cururufa is older.
-The age difference between them is about 1. However, one unit of univir age is equal to about 19 or 20 human years.

-The Kanno-Cinammon-Candy family is named after sweets in the original Japanese version, as Kanno was called Kanro, which can mean "nectar", and Cinammon was called Drop, referring to liquorice.



*WARNING: Rune Factory spoiler*
1) Mei
-Mei is a human. She's also more than 100 years old.
-Mei is in Kardia investigating something about the empire. (Or in words of the character list, "fighting against the empire alone".)
-It seems she once had to follow someone's order, but is now acting on her will.

Really, the game actually provides enough hints that Mei is a great warrior cursed with immortality, wandering the earth. It's not that hard to figure out.

In Freya's words:
Mei's past is shrouded in mystery. Evidently, she once had great power which she misused. She often will remind you that power carries responsibility with it.

2) Sharron
I said the character list and heroine guide are pointless, but actually buried in them are a few hints about Sharron.

-Sharron is a miko investigating the ruins.
-She is capable of hearing prophecies about the future of the world.
-She's probably not human.

Miko is generally translated as "shrine maiden" or priestess, but in Sharron's case, "oracle" would be a fitting description of her job. In real world history, miko did functioned as oracles. The Zelda series had translated "miko" as oracles. Also, "probably not human"? Why not just say she isn't one?

3) Ivan
-Ivan and Raguna are related to Gilbert, the king of Norad.
-Ivan is the king's second cousin.
-Raguna was separated from Ivan in a shipwreck at a young age.
-After hearing rumors of Raguna appearing in Kardia, Ivan disguised himself as a travelling merchant and went to Kardia in search of him.

That's all. He didn't even confirm that Raguna and Ivan are brothers.
*RF1 spoiler ends*


*WARNING: Rune Factory 2 spoiler*
Nothing new here.

1) Mana
-Mana wouldn't get married because she dreams of becoming a teacher, and puts higher priority on this dream.

2) Grimoire
-All 4 dragons look the same in their infant phase, and are all called Grimoire.

3) Kyle
-Kyle isn't of royal birth.
-Kyle's powers as an earthmate is weak. His children are strong.

4) Earthmate
-The earth script written on the tablets is the writing system of ancient earthmates.
-The ancient magic is stronger than modern magic, but has disappeared along with earthmates.
-Kyle's children has inherited the earthmate blood, that's why they can use it.
-Barret and Kyle's children are currently still working on deciphering this writing system.
*RF2 spoiler ends*


*WARNING: Rune Factory Frontier spoiler*
1) Nolan
-In the original Japanese version, Nolan was called Roland. See the names of nations above.

2) Iris
-Iris is not human, but a race "closer to spirits". She's not a vampire.
(Then I suppose there're no vampires in RF universe.)
-The Whale Island used to be a place where they live. The ruins are built centuries ago.
-Iris's race has a very low birth rate, and isn't very interested in reproduction. As a result, they have to crossbreed with humans to keep themselves from extinction. There may be no pure blood left now.


*RFF spoiler ends*


*WARNING: Rune Factory 3 spoiler*
1) Toona
-Her parent race is something similar to phoenix. Among monsters, its rank is very high, close to the dragon gods.

2) Shinonome
-Hazel and Shinonome didn't know each other when they are young. However, once they met, they realized as single mothers, they have much in common.
-"Shinonome's secret" is a joke. While she used to be a fighter, today she's just a mother, not some secret agent of the eastern nation. And her inn is definitely not a front for Mei and Yue's intel gathering. Mei and Yue are just two travellers who happen to stay at her inn.
*RF3 spoiler ends*
Last edited by cuc on Nov 22, 2010 3:24 am, edited 10 times in total.
cuc
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Post  Posted:

It's done! I don't have to translate the heroine guide, right?

EDIT: oh, something else from character list and heroine guide:

-The kanji for Uzuki's name is 卯月. (The word "Uzuki" means "April", but there are more than one way to write it in kanji.)
-The kanji for Sakuya's name is 咲耶. Shinonome is confirmed to be 東雲.
-Still no kanji for Yue's name.

Previously we only know this:
NNescio wrote:To clarify something about Shinonome's name, it's written in hiragana, but is probably meant to be 東雲, or Daybreak (lit: East Clouds), in kanji. Hiragana does lend sort of a Kansai feel. THen again, almost all of the (vaguely-) Japanese characters in the RF games have their names written in kana. Yue, Kansai accent aside, could be (vaguely-)Chinese as her name is written in katakana instead of hiragana. Mei has an inauspicious canon kanji name 冥 (dark/gloomy/death).
Last edited by cuc on Nov 21, 2010 4:43 am, edited 2 times in total.
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lemo_the_lemon
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Post  Posted:

Wow that was awesome <3 The way you peiced together information on the characters really made them sound a whole lot better than the games seem to potray. Mei as an immortal warrior? Sharron's a miko preiestest? The games soooo don't potray that enough, but it makes a lot of sense. I didn't read the RF3 bit though, since I'm getting it in Dec :3 Didn't read RFF since Im getting that later this week.. and I haate spoilerrrs.
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Post  Posted:

hey, thanks so much for doing this.~ I've always wondered how Raguna and Ivan got seperated; or their relation to the king, at that. And Meiiii. Head-canon has been confirmed. xD (coughfujiwaranomokoucough)


thanks again for the translations! :D
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touchmon
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Post  Posted:

Oh wow. This is awesome. ^_^. I read all of them but RF3(don't want to be spoiled) and it does explain a lot.
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Post  Posted:

Thank you very much for doing this! :)
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Post  Posted:

Thanks a lot, this clears up a lot of questions.

Also who thinks a rf set in the eastern or elf land would be awesome?
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AstraLunaSol
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Post  Posted:

Amazing, you cleared up quite a bit of my ideas.
Thanks.
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Chalis
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Post  Posted:

Fanfiction is being written; I can hear the typing and the clicking as we speak.

Thank you so much for thissss.
Elsch
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Post  Posted:

this is great~! thanks for all of this information
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MysticxRadiance
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Post  Posted:

Very interesting!!! :lala: I love reading all of this. :)
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LiliaoftheWind
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Post  Posted:

This is absolutely amazing. Thank you so dearly muchly so for translating this! This totally made my night!
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bozomeaw
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Post  Posted:

Thanks for your effort! :heart:
My suspicion has solve.
cuc
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Post  Posted:

EDIT: double post. See the 2nd page for my post.
Last edited by cuc on Nov 22, 2010 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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