Looking that the nations of FFXII’s Ivalice, in my opinion it could be said that they reference many of Earth’s major historical players. Maybe it is just my Post-Colonial studies showing, but here is a nice little write up of how I see the Nations of Ivalice relating to the lands of our world.
According to the game developers, the game’s designs are inspired from a mixture of medieval Mediterranean countries, Turkish architecture,art-deco from Indian architecture, the cityscape of New York and the Arabic culture found hidden in European countries, but the storyline could link to 16th to 20th century history. These were the years of Empires, Wars and Monarchy rule. Yes, it is a pretty big time frame, but the British Empire blossomed under the rule of Elizabeth I, and there was rather a lot of Britain vs Spain in the 16th century.
I decided to start with the rather unknown land of Landis, for anyone that knows me, it is obvious as to why. There are a lot that hints of Landis being that of European roots. Though we only know two characters in the name from that nation, they are both pretty important. To start us off, Basch refers to Landis as the Republic of Landis. Now there have been many republics in Earth’s history, though not many exist today. Looking back at European Republics of the past and even present, we are left with Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Switzerland. There are more, but I am writing this from memory and my poor Geography knowledge is showing. Moving on, the only other information that we are given is that Landis is no more, and the character names.
The name fon Ronsenberg is a very Germanic name, as is Basch. Both Basch and Noah is are names linking to Jewish or Hebrew origins, though Basch is a Jewish surname. With this information, you could argue that the people of Landis are a reflection of the Jewish population post WWII, even though the twins have what could been considered an Aryan look.It is possible to say that Landis is also a reflection of Germany, Poland or Austria.
Both twins have no true home anymore, instead they have to find a new one in a new land and start afresh. Basch fled to a land of citizens with American accents, another hint I would say seeing as though a large amount of individuals with Jewish origins travelled to America to escape War and death.
In my opinion, both Basch and Noah sound uncomfortable when speaking in game. As though they are used to a different language. According to an unofficial script, Basch’s accent is South East English. Surprisingly that is where I call home and I would argue against that very much so. I wish men spoke like Basch in South East England. Noah’s accent is supposedly a New Zealand accent, which is more believable but I still don’t buy it. Maybe that is me being stubborn and wanting accents to match up with my believed origins.
If you take theory that the fon Ronsenburgs come form a Germanic/Jewish based land into consideration, to me it is a bit ironic though that Archades is basically the land of the British. Yet the idea of a “Dynast King” isn’t. Britain was at one point the largest Empire in the world. Queen Victoria was even the Empress of India. And as a Brit myself, I can say that our rulers haven’t always been the best of people. Britain’s largest rival during it’s Empire stage was the Spanish, so it is no coincidence that Rozarrians have Spanish accents.
Vayne is the tyrant leader. A ruler that wants to own the whole world because he believes it will be better with him in charge. Postcolonialism would say that this is the belief that Britain as a nation held. When any country invalids and colonises another nation, they strip it from its religion, royalty, government. They change their cultural norms to that of the invaders, because they believe it is superior. In game, we can see this happen to Dalmasca. The royalty and Government is kicked out and a high ranking member or the invading Empire’s government is placed as ruler. The Solidor Emblem is placed around all of Rabanastre and the people are cattled by the military so that the conform. We witness the population of the town get sucked into Vayne’s act and speech, and we see the man himself basically call the city quant. It’s as if he is going around saying “Oh, haven’t they done well here, the architecture is rather nice isn’t it. This will make a nice new home for me to start plotting my evil schemes. I’ll have it as my vacation home.”
Larsa is like a modern day leader or an ideal. Nicer, peace loving, big ideas of how to restore everyone’s home and make Ivalice a better place. We are left to assume that he is a good little Emperor, probably tries to end poverty and suffering and all in all is a nice boy/later man. Whether he changes in age, we don’t know.
If Dalmasca is Ivalice’s America, American’s fighting the British for independence isn’t new either. Dalmasca is also home to a very large mix of cultures and races, just as American citizens have a large mix of ancestors and origins. Bhujerba is the city away from the conflict, rich with a large amount of rare minerals and citizens with a Middle Eastern accent. I would say that isn’t a coincidence either.
The game ending leaves Dalmasca as a new land of the free, Archadia as an Empire under softer rule what will probably end up giving independence back to the nations under its control. There is world peace, and everything seems rosy. Though, Landis and Nabradia are left unknown to us as to whether they are restored. And they probably never are … *SPOILERS!TACTICS!CATACLYSM!*
