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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 8784080" data-attributes="member: 6680772">Further exploration of the World of Sword World...This next section is called the People and Things that Make Up the World. It starts with a description of the jinzoku. This word is something of a translation trap. I've been translating it as "the good peoples," and occasionally "humankind." Literally, it's a neologism that means "people-tribe", and refers to "the general term for the intelligent lifeforms brought about and guided by Lyfos and the other gods of 'harmony.'" In other words, the PC races. As I noted in the previous post, it says, "While these people are basically of a warm and peaceful nature, after many long years of war, there are an increasing number of individuals who have warlike personalities."Next are the banzoku, another translation trap. Literally, this means "barbarian tribes." Therefore, the designers thought it would be clever for their in-world name to be "Barbaros," (barubarosu) the Greek word from which "barbarian" comes. Because even if the Japanese audience might know the English word "barbarian", they're not likely to know the Greek word it comes from! Which kinda puts the translator in a tough spot: translate banzoku as "barbarians" and the name "Barbaros" is going to be a bit on-the-nose. (The fan translation translates both banzoku and "Barbaros" as "barbarous", which I dislike because it uses a regular English adjective as a non-capitalized proper noun.) What I've done is just always use "Barbaros," which naturally suggests "barbarian" to English-speakers, for both banzoku and Barubaros, even though in-world the former is humankind's name for them, and the latter is their name for themselves. The game defines this group as "the races, such as bolg, ogres, and drakes, transformed into fiendish forms by the power of the savage gods of 'release' wielding the Second Sword." As a class of monsters, banzoku refers to the monstrous humanoids of that world.The game next describes "mana" as the magic element scattered through the world when the Third Sword, Caldier, destroyed itself. Mana is all around and cannot be seen, except in that it powers magical effects. Underground, however, it crystalizes. These mana crystals can be used to augment one's personal supply of mana. From this, some believe that the Swords of Genesis were mana crystals of the highest purity.Next are Runefolk and Generators. Runefolk were created by the Magitec Civilization, using Generators that combined tissue (hair, nails, blood) of living creatures with a special culture solution, magic and technology. If a Generator is working right, the Runefolk can choose their appearance and gender, but if it is malfunctioning, the Runefolk end up resembling their "parents", that is, the people who contributed the tissue. There is not large amounts of the culture solution remaining, so generally one generator only makes one Runefolk in a year. The Runefolk tend to settle around these generators to protect them, and the one's who have been operating them longest become the community leaders. After a few years of education, Runefolk leave to travel and find their own way of life.Next comes a small passage on "souls" and "Impurity." "Souls" is pretty straightforward, but "impurity" translates kegare, which can mean, along with that, "uncleanliness," or "defilement." (Fan translation calls it "soulscar.") In Sword World, souls were spread among the living things by the gods, and when a soul's body dies, the soul goes to the gods to be a warrior in the coming battle among the gods. But weaker souls are sent back to the world of the living, in order to accrue more power through life experience. So, Sword World cosmology is something of Buddhism through Norse myth: reincarnation, but also dying to became a warrior for the gods.However, if a soul breaks this cycle by being resurrected, then the soul takes on some amount of "impurity." A small amount of impurity can be washed away by going through the cycle, but a great deal of impurity will require many turns through the cycle to deal with. And if the impurity becomes too much, the soul will become undead. The Barbaros already have a heavy amount of impurity, given to them by the savage gods to "release" their innate power. So if they die, they aren't resurrected, as they will immediately become undead. Because the humankind societies avoid "impurity", they have a tendency to put distance between them and the resurrected and Nightmares.Astronomically, Raxia is a world like our own, of essentially the same size, with twelve 30-day months, and 24 hours in a day, one sun, one moon, and stars at night. During the Magitec Civilization, it was known that Raxia was one of a number of celestial bodies, but now it's widely believed that there's nothing but a expanse of nothingness outside of Raxia, and its status as a planet is now known only by a few sages.Raxia history is split into four ages. The Shunelua Age, over 10,000 years ago, was the time of the Divine Civilization. A time of peace when the gods walked the earth, and many wondrous things were made. This civilization ended when Dalkrem started the God War. Then came the Durandil Age, the time of the Magic Civilization. This was when the first advancements in magic as we now know it were begun, and the civilization was ruled by powerful Mage Kings. Many powerful artifacts were created in this age. It fell 3,000 years ago. In most of Raxia, it is not known why, but in Alfleim it is believed that this was when the Abyss was opened. (The Abyss is a portal to another dimension which we will discuss later.) After this civilization came the Al Menas Age, the time of the Magitec Civilization. This civilization fell 300 years ago, with the advent of the Diabolic Triumph.The Barbaros had been hiding underground for hundreds of years, gathering their strength. Then they suddenly attacked with extreme force and ferocity. There were terrible changes in the weather, lands split apart, the seas were turbulent, and there were great disasters that changed the face of continents. Due to this, it is thought that the king of the Barbaros has obtained Ignis, the Second Sword. Many nations, and much of civilization was destroyed as the Barbaros expanded their domains. Then the war ended when the king of the Barbaros was slain. No one now knows exactly how this happened. The most common theory is that it was done by a single hero wielding a Magic Sword, possibly Lumiere itself, or perhaps Fortona. Another, less widely believed theory is that there is no way this could have been done by a single hero, and it was the result of a surprise counterattack by some nation.Now, 300 years later, many nations have been lost, and many of the links between surviving nations have been severed. But humankind civilization was barely saved. Now many are hard at work at restoration. There are many projects to excavate ruins, and find the treasures of the old civilization. And then there are still areas where the Barbaros hold sway, or try to invade. It is now an age of adventurers, who are highly valued as they search for old treasures and fight off the invading hordes.Next time, the role of Adventurers in Sword World.</blockquote>

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