Final Fantasy XVI’s decades-long story takes protagonist Clive Rosfield across the continent of Valisthea. With so much space to play, developer Creative Business Unit III created five main countries at the heart of the game’s story and wars.
To begin with, let’s break down the important things to know about each of these kingdoms and their place in Valsthea as it pertains to the highly-guarded and highly sought-after Mothercrystals.
The Grand Duchy of Rosaria: Traditional Fortress
- A group of small independent provinces in Western Valsthea formed long ago to create this nation, are now relying on the Drake’s Breath Mothercrystal for the aether. That’s where the story of FFXVI begins, and home to Clive and Joshua Rosfield.
- Homepage of the ruler of the Phoenix
Sanbreque’s Divine Empire: Where Ambition Is Sacred
- The largest theocratic force in Valisthea, Sanbreque is home to the holy capital Oriflamme, built around Drake’s Head, a giant Mothercrystal that provides its inhabitants with a multitude of magical aethers.
- Home of the ruler of Bahamut
The Kingdom of Waloed: Indomitable in Its Isolation
- Waloed claims the eastern half of Valsthea as his territory, and while much of the country remains a mystery, we do know that it is powered by the Mother Drake’s Spine Crystal, making it the an attractive location for any kingdoms vying for Ether.
- Ruler of Odin
Dhalmekian Republic: Their fortunes change like desert sand
- Made up of five parliamentary states, the republic’s Mothercrystal, Drake’s Fang, sits in the heart of a mountain range, allowing it to keep its dominion, a large portion of southern Valistea, safe from the invaders. Intruders.
- The House of the Ruler of Titan
Iron Kingdom: Forged in Faith and Fear
- The Iron Kingdom consists of a small group of five islands off the coast of Storm, the western half of the twin kingdoms of Valistea, and here the extreme Crystal Orthodox faith rules everything beneath the shadow. of Mothercrystal Drake’s Breath, that very crystal. The Grand Duchy of Rosaria draws its power from it.
- No Ruler calls this kingdom home because its people regard the rulers as evil abominations, severely executed at birth.
The Crystalline Dominion: The Unblinking Eye of the Storm
- An armistice keeps this small piece of land home to the neutral Drake’s Tail Mothercrystal, but as the need for more aether grows among the other five nations, the domain’s neutrality could be in jeopardy.
- Because of this dominant state’s neutral status, no dominant nation calls it home.
I spoke with creative director Kazutoyo Maehiro about Validthea and its creation, and it all started with a look back at real world history and a map.
“A lot of times in medieval history you would have had a lot of kingdoms, and we wanted a lot of kingdoms too,” Maehiro said. “When we learned that we were going to be settling in the five main countries in Valistea, the fact that they were all kingdoms meant that everything would be the same – you would always have a king making all the decisions and everything. work will happen from there. And when it comes to telling a story, it becomes one-sided.
“We wanted something that gave the story a little more depth to make it more interesting for the players and also for us to write it. We started thinking we wanted to do something different for each country, maybe one country is a democracy and another is a kingdom so we can write from the perspective of governments. That’s different.”
Final Fantasy XVI Creative Director Kazutoyo Maehiro
Maehiro says that after creating the world, CBUIII used Valistea’s map to design “certain things” of this world. He told me that magic, Mothercrystals and Eikons were all just given things because they had been around for so long and now they were simply a part of everyday life. Society doesn’t consider them great things – this is just the way things are.
“[Then we] thinking, ‘Okay, if you have these Mothercrystals in these lands, that’s where the nations will form and then you’ll have people who want to compete for those countries,’ he said. “That’s where the conflict will increase between the nations that form around the Mothercrystals.
“After creating the world map in the first place, the next thing I did was create a world history based on that geography – the locations of the towns, the locations of the Crystals. After the history is created, you put Clive in it and say, ‘Okay, this is where Clive comes in. [and] these things led to his story.’”
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