Alright, I know I said I was going to start with an overview of the first game, but instead I'm going to start with an overview of the setting and terms you'll need to know in order to follow along.
In the beginning, there was "darkness."
Then, the "darkness" shed a "tear."
From that "tear," the brothers Sword and Shield were born.
Shield claimed it could defend against any attack.
Sword claimed it could slice through anything.
The brothers began a legendary battle.
At the end, both Sword and Shield shattered.
Sword became the sky, Shield became the earth, and the sparks from the battle became the stars.
As for the jewels, they fell to the ground and became the True Runes--The runes that all other runes were born from
At the heart of Suikoden's setting lies the 27 True Runes. While it is unknown if the story of sword and shield is true, the true runes are very real in the world of Suikoden. These runes each govern some aspect of the world. The Soul Eater governs Life and Death, the Gate Rune allows traversal between different worlds. The five elemental runes allow the existence of fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning. The Dragon Rune allows for dragons to exist within the world. You get the point. These 27 Runes are the closest things to gods within the setting, as it becomes abundantly clear the runes each possess a will of their own and a terrible destiny for their bearer. In some ways, it's almost safe to say the runes are cursed, but people still seek the runes out. In addition to access to their powers the runes also grant immortality and agelessness. The only rule of the True Runes is one rune for one bearer. If you gain a true rune you cannot carry another, though it has also shown that if you are one who is chosen by a true rune, then the other true runes will accept you as well. The runes can be transferred to other people and objects by either the bearer's will or from the use of Sindar techniques, but the rune will always respond to the call of it's living chosen master.
In the course of the series, players have encountered or were told of 18 of the 27 True Runes names. They are:
- Circle Rune - Rune governing order and stagnation. It is currently in possession of the ruler of Harmonia.
- Gate Rune - Governs portals to other worlds. The rune was split in two centuries before the story began and the Front Gate Rune is currently lost.
- Dragon Rune - Allows Dragons to exist within the setting outside of their actual World of Scales, as well as the power to control them. It is protected by the Dragon Knights of Toran and is passed down through the leaders of the order.
- Rune of Change - It's powers are unknown, but it's likely responsible for the erratic history of the Sindar civilization. We only know that the leader of the civilization possesses it.
- Eightfold Rune - It's powers are also unknown but is owned by the mysterious Yuber whose origins are still a mystery within the series.
- Moon Rune - The rune of compassion and destruction, allows the existence of vampires in the world. This rune will actually take over the users mind until they learn to overcome it. In addition, a vampire in possession of the rune will be immune to weapons and spells that normally destroy their kind.
- Sun Rune - Rune of prosperity and also destruction, this rune grants the owner the powers of the sun, but tends to corrupt the users mind into a god complex leading to the use of its more destructive properties. This meglomania is often cited as the source of the Ancient Armes Kingdom's destruction. The Rune birthed two special runes, the Dawn and Twilight Runes which are required to keep the rune in balance. The Rune if the royal treasure of the Queendom of Falena.
- Night Rune - Allows for the existence of creatures of the nights like werewolves, zombies, and other creatures associated with it. The rune also has the power to destroy these creatures. This rune transformed itself into a blade called the Zodiac Sword to cut itself away from the Sun run of which they were originally joined together. Unlike the other True runes which often never directly communicate with its owner, this rune actually talks and has the personality of an incredibly short tempered and arrogant old man. So yes, it's a talking sword. It also has a habit of getting ''lost'' a lot when the current owner gets too sick of him.
- True Earth Rune - Controls the very earth around them. This rune is in possession of a Bishop within Harmonia
- True Wind Rune - Controls wind and air. This rune is currently lost.
- True Lightning Rune - Controls lightning. Last seen in the Grasslands
- True Water Rune - controls water and ice. Last seen in the Grasslands, it was partially sealed away in a Sindar temple using an imperfect technique.
- True Fire Rune - controls fire. Stolen from Harmonia and used by a brigand who led the Fire Bringers. The rune vanished somewhere in the Grasslands.
- Rune of Punishment - This rune governs punishment and forgiveness. Considered to be the most cursed rune. This rune powers itself with the life force of the user, slowly killing them so it can consume them. It will even warp fate around its user to force them into situations that will make them use it. Most wearers never get to experience the immortality part of the True Runes because of it. Once its user dies, it will jump to the closest living person it comes into contact with. The former owners souls are also trapped within the rune until a current user releases them. The rune is strongly associated with the region of the Island Nations.
- Sovereign Rune - This rune gives the bearer authority and immunity to all lesser runes. It was stolen from Harmonia and became the royal family treasure of the Rugnar family line. The rune was embedded in an ancestral sword. It is currently missing.
- Beast Rune - Rune representing animalistic rage and passion. It's abilities are not clearly explained but it's derivative runes curse the user with lycanthropy. This rune is considered to be uncontrollable and needs to be satiated with blood sacrifices. The rune was ''gifted'' to the Highland Kingdom by Harmonia but in truth it left Harmonia of its own will and settled there instead. Its whereabouts are currently unknown, but it may have possibly been reclaimed by Harmonia.
- Rune of Life and Death - More commonly known as the Soul Eater, this rune will feed off the souls of the owners closest loved ones in order to grow more powerful. Forcing them into a life of isolation. It is the other rune often claimed to be the most cursed. The rune will even warp the fates of those around the owner so that they will die tragically near them. It is considered to be one of the most powerful of the true runes. The current whereabouts of the rune are unknown.
- Rune of Beginnings - The rune of ''initial chaos of birth'' or creation and the power to judge war. This rune represents the very legend of the origin of the True Runes as the rune often splits itself into the Bright Shield and Black Sword Runes. It will usually seek out two people of close relationship and then force them to re-enact the conflict of the two brothers of sword and shield. If the conflict between the two is resolved, the rune will merge back together into it's true form for the victor. It's current whereabouts are unknown.
As one can tell from their descriptions, these runes have enough oomph that their appearance in a region is enough to cause a war over it, when the rune itself doesn't purposely cause the war to happen. The last nine true runes are unknown but since all most runes in the series are derivatives of one of the true runes, there are a few runes we've still haven't seen their parent rune from.
Likewise, in addition to true runes and their magic derivatives their are also technique runes, which allow the user to use special moves. The most famous is the Falcon Rune, which is a fencing technique created by the famous Roundier Haia of Kanakan who has famous fencing schools. Special martial arts techniques and weapon techs are also part of this sub-division but only a few of them have a history behind them.
The Setting
The Suikoden series takes place in a fantasy world that mixes Romance of the Three Kingdoms era China with western fantasy and other real world elements ranging from Egyptian, Native American, various European cultures, and Japanese elements. Most of the games take place on one main continent, of which players have yet to fully see.
The Holy Kingdom of Harmonia
The main continent is dominated by the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia. It is the oldest nation within the world and takes inspiration from Rome, the Byzantine Empire, the United States, ancient China, and Russia. It is a theocracy that was formed two years before the current series calendar of which Harmonia popularized. The leader of the nation is High Priest Hikusaak, a man who obtained the Circle Rune and conquered the lost Kingdom of Aronia who was likely the greatest power of it's time frame. The country has a strict hierarchy and caste system with native citizens being the First Class Citizens who are often the aristocracy of the country, Second Class Citizens are people born from conquered territories that have been naturalized into Harmonian culture. They are restricted from the aristocracy but have their own political faction as the People's party. Third Class Citizens are people from recently conquered territories and are often treated like serfs or slaves. Their children will often be taken at a young age to live in the capital of the empire as servants of first class citizens so they can be indoctrinated into the culture. Once a conquered territory proves their loyalty and adoption of Harmonian culture, they can apply for Second Class Citizenship. The final class are the sub0human class and these are for the various non-human races who find themselves within the empire. They are often treated poorly and serve as slaves for the human citizens. Their best reprieve is to either leave Harmonia or serve as mercenaries in their frontier military forces that border neighboring kingdoms.
Harmonia serves as a sort of boogie man within the series and is surprisingly the least explored setting despite its reputation. Hikusaak has made it a goal of the empire to collect all of the true runes and it's kind of staggering how many they have managed to acquire over time only to lose them. The vast majority of info on the place comes from the Suikogaiden games, Suikoden III, and supplement material within the series. When they do show up in the story though, things usually go bad for the opposing side. A testament of their strength is their general overwhelming strength in the series war battles and how they are often dealt with more often in story means then fair combat. Despite the fearsome reputation of their military might, the empire is also well known for it's great library and schools. Most of the prominent strategist and thinkers within the series have studies in the capital city of Crystal Valley.
Likewise, Harmonia usually doesn't get anything significant done because of political situation within. There is a five way, possibly six way conflict going on within the empire. It started when Hikusaak sort of vanished from public life within the empire about two hundred years into his reign. This fueled speculation that he may have been assassinated and now the two main political forces, the Temple Faction backed by the aristocracy and the People's Faction backed by the second and third class Citizens are fighting over control and direction of the country. The priests of the temples play both sides against each other and all three of them use the Howling Voice guild, a secretive assassination guild within Harmonia that knows the secret to gunpowder, to kill off political rivals. But even the Howling Voice Guild has gotten into the act and are manipulating things to get a greater foothold in the power vacuum. Meanwhile the military stays out of the conflict and seems to be still trying to fulfill Hikusaak's goal of acquiring all the True Runes, and there is strong evidence from Suikoden III that Hikusaak is actually alive and simply experimenting with a way to acquire all 27 True Runes for himself. Sadly, we'll probably never see how this plot thread ends.
Anyway, Hikusaak's absence did cause several rebellions and civil wars erupting within the empire and places like the Scarlet Moon Empire and the Highland Kingdom are former territories that became independent of Harmonia. Likewise, Harmonia still actively invades territories to go after true runes or simply to acquire more land as they did make a push into the Grasslands and managed to conquer some major territory from the Six Clans that rule that region, even managing to conquer one of the clans. So yeah, Harmonia is a place that has its fingers in the background of a lot of places and events within the series and for the first three games and the two gaiden titles, was being built up as the series big bad before the main creator left.
The only other nation/race that has vastly influenced the setting as much as Harmonia is the mysterious Sindar civilization. This group of people are one of the biggest mysteries of the series as they were/are and ancient civilization that had vast knowledge of runes, including the True Runes and how to seal them. Very little is known about them accept that they are a nomadic civilization that built ruins all over the Suikoden world. The reason for their nomadic tendencies is due to the leader of the group having the Rune of Change, which caused the civilization to wander the globe until they found the ''eternal city''. It is speculated by some fans that the Blinking Rune (teleportation magic) is a derivative of Rune of Change and that the people were being massed teleported across space and time. While the largest amount of ruins they left behind are found in Falena, ruins have been found in Dunan and the Grasslands as well. These ruins usually serve as plot points when dealing with the True Runes.
The Scarlet Moon Empire/ Toran Republic
One of the other more prolific nations within the setting. The Scarlet Moon Empire has quite a reputation and thumb print on the history of the world. Originally a part of Harmonia located to the south of it. Kranach Rugner, the Knight of the Scarlet Moon, stole the Sovereign Rune his family guarded and proclaimed independence from Harmonia with the help of Julian Silverberg. They conducted a bloodless secession from Harmonia which established the Rugnar royal line and made the Silverberg family one of the most famous strategist families in the world.
Despite the origin of the nation the Scarlet Moon Empire seemed to have no real conflict with Harmonia after the secession. Instead the empire dealt with conflicts with both the Jowston Alliance to the west and the Kooluk Empire to the south. The Kooluk Empire eventually collapsed due to a civil war and was implied to be absorbed into the Scarlet Moon Empire. The Jowston Alliance on the other hand proved to be a bigger thorn in the countries side as the JA tried to expand it's territory into the Empire. The empire is well known for the Six Great Generals who proved invaluable in the Succession War, the Gate Rune War, and the Dunan Unification War.
Also of interest is that Toran is one of only two nations (the other being Falena) that actually has a Dwarf community. The nation also has an elven society and a kobold group as well. The two most famous groups from Toran is the Dragon Knights, an order of knights who control dragons and protect the borders of the nation from foreign invasion. They also have the famous Warrior's Village which creates some of the strongest fighters within the nation and hold a tradition of naming their chosen weapons after the person they love. Another famous group from this region is the Maximillian Knights, an order of knights that travel across the land to smite evil itself in whatever form they find. The group has technically been disbanded, but has a tendency to either reform during major wars or simply has enough splinter factions from the original group that gets around. Funny enough, Maximillain is loosely based on Don Quixote
It is the setting for the first game and becomes the Toran Republic afterwards.
City-States of Jowston
Located in the region of Dunan, the city states are a left over alliance of republic city-states that are in a formal alliance to protect each other from the threats of Highland Kingdom, the Scarlet Moon Empire/Toran Republic, Grasslands, Hamronia, and honestly each other. Despite the alliance the City-States are fairly dysfunctional as an alliance with too many of the regions caring more about their own self-interests. The City States include:
- Muse, the largest city of the alliance and the main buffer and antagonist with the Highland Kingdom in the past. Muse serves as the closest thing to a de-facto leader among the alliance. It is a wealthy place due to all the trade it gets and how large it's territory is. The mayor's of Muse have had a long feud with Highland Kingdom and the Blight family leading to the frequent wars between the two.
- Greenhill was once a part of Muse but split off 100 years ago due to cries of separation of politics and education. This is because Greenhill is where the Greenhill Academy is located which is a major education spot for wealthy and influential people within Jowston. Despite this higher cause of education, Greenhill has a nasty history of conflict with the Karaya Clan of the Grasslands who border their territory. The former mayor invited the Chief of the Karaya to attend a peace conference between them and the Matilda Knights, but was instead poisoned by the two leaders only adding to the bad blood between the groups.
- South Window is the oldest political power of the region being the former seat of the Dunan Monarchy that predated the Jowston Alliance. South Window is largely the perpetrator of the conflicts with the Scarlet Moon Empire and Toran Republic as the two factions are bordering on each other with only the Badland desert serving as a natural barrier between them. When you hear about the Jowston Alliance invasions in Suikoden 1, they're mostly just talking about South Window. They are also associated with the ghost town of North Window which was destroyed by the vampire Neclord.
- Two River Principality is a city state that is actually a combination of three different communities that are separated by the two rivers that flow through the large city. It dates back to the Dunan Monarchy when it was a Kobold and Human community. In recent times, a third community of Wingers have settled into the dilapidated parts of the city thanks to the hero Genkaku but the other two groups look at them with suspicion. The city-state if rife with racism and political in-fighting.
- Matilda Knightdom was once an order of knights created to help the Jowston Alliance fight off Highland and the Grassland tribes but gained enough political power to eventually be counted as its own nation. They are three separate groups within the order with their own leaders but the White Order is generally considered the de-facto leader of the Knightdom. Despite being an order for defense, they are also bad about petty assassinations and playing the City-States against each other for more power.
- Tinto, just smurf Tinto. A mining centric city state that forced the Wingers from their native lands. They scheme with all the other factions to engage in reckless wars with the Grasslands and the Toran region for land grabs, and honestly don't even seem to want to be part of the Jowston Alliance unless it serves their self interest. They manage to somehow be the most unlikable faction of the City-States despite the fact the Matilda Knights have Gerudo. Suikoden III tries to soften their image a bit, but reading between the lines shows they're still a nation of greedy opportunistic assholes.
The Grasslands
Not necessarily a nation and more a region with a collection of factions. They are collectively just referred to as the Grasslands by the more ''sophisticated nations''. The Grasslands compose of the Six Clans and the Zexen Federation. The feel of the region is fairly reminiscent of the early colonial era of the North Americas but the Grassland tribes take their cultural cues from various tribal cultures around the world.
- The Karayan Clan is the most well known Grasslanders. A tribe of warriors who lie off the land, they take inspiration from mid-western Native American tribes with some elements of Africa mixed in as well. They are the most war like tribe and clash with the City-States and the Zexen Federation. Their fighting ability is good enough that they are often hired as mercenaries for foreign wars like in the Dunan Unification War. Interestingly, they have no gender role distinction within their clan. The current head of the clan is a woman and all the woman are expected to be powerful warriors just like the men.
- The Lizard Clan is you guess it, a clan composed of lizard people. They take their cues from Meso-American groups like the Aztecs and Mayans. The other hardcore warrior race among the Six Clans. They can be very hospitable and nice when you approach them with respect but they have also the quickest tempers and hold the longest grudges. They get along the best with the Karayans and clash with the Zexen Federation a lot.
- The Duck Clan, but not necessarily that one, is a clan of Duck people who are also surprisingly a warrior clan though generally more laid back than the Karayan and Lizard Clans. They are surprisingly the best war units of the Six Clans as well since they don't overspecialize. They are both the most ridiculous and best part of Suikoden III. Their clan is the most mercantile of the Grasslanders.
- Alma Kinan is an all female clan that take elements of some ancient Japanese clans that predate the Yamato imperial era. They are a deeply spiritual clan that lives in harmony with the woods they live in and they are powerful archers and rune casters. They have a strong connection with the True Water Rune and are the most spiritually inclined of the Clans.
- Chisha Clan is a pacifistic clan with strong ties to the Flame Champion and Fire Bringers surprisingly enough. They are more agricultural than the other tribes and they take inspiration from what I'm guessing is Eastern European, likely Hungarian or one of the Baltic states.
- The Safir Clan is never seen as they were wiped out by Harmonia but are still referenced. My head canon is that the original Flame Champion was from this clan.
- The Carna Clan was taken over by Harmonia in the first Fire Bringer War and are a third class ethnic group within the empire. There claim to fame is their close to relationship to a species of insects called Mantors that are basically massive beetles the clan have learned to tame and ride.
The Zexen Federation is a small nation to the far west of the Six Clans territory and borders the sea. They are a relatively new nation in Suikoden by the time of their introduction but they are a mercantile nation ruled by a council controlled by the merchant guilds that founded the nation. To protect themselves from the barbarian tribes to the east, they created an order of knights to serve and protect the territory. The Federation is constantly creeping into Clan territory and this has caused years of bad blood between the groups, specifically the Karayan and Lizard clans that border the Zexen territory. While Zexen feels distinctively Western European (mostly War of the Roses era France) it's relationship with the Six Clans takes most of its inspiration from Colonial North America.
A fierce federation of seafarers located south of the Scarlet Moon Empire and bordering the north of the Queendom of Falena, in the past they were a loose alliance of different island nations that would occasionally unify when their former neighbor the Kooluk Empire tried to invade. They have a tentative relationship with their northern neighbor or Toran and a fairly warm one with Falena. To the west is the Gaian Dukedom which expanded it's territoried within the Island Nation territory through the cities of Razril and Middlport but the Island Liberation War saw these territories abandoned by the main land and absorbed into the Island Nations proper.
Like Toran and Harmonia, the Island Nations are known for producing serious badasses (though you wouldn't know it from the game focused on it) and the nation tends to be more nonchalant and less formal than other nations. What is interesting is how their influence changed between games and lost of the main creator. The first person you meet from the Island Nations is Amada from Suikoden II who has a very distinct Japanese fisherman flavor to his design. But in the actual game its set in, the new team decided to change the culture to reflect the Caribbean era of piracy as its inspiration. With that said, Obel seems to take some cues from Hawaii and other Polynesian cultures in their formal clothing wear.
Oddly enough we've never actually seen this region but it gets named dropped quite a bit throughout the series. Fans will know it as the small nation that houses the school of fencing by Roundier Haia and they're infamous Falcon Rune technique, but in-game world, it's actually best known for the wine that is made there. Suikoden has a lot of alcoholics and heavy drinkers in it. While we've never seen anything about it, I always like to think it would have a Spanish/Mediterranean vibe to it.
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So that's all for the important places and runes you need to remember. I wanted to do something about recurring characters but I may leave that for the end.
Next Time: "...I believe your name was Schtolteheim Reinbach III