#fe9 meta

Tanith: You see, a plague had struck the capital, spreading out to affect the surrounding region of Nevassa and beyond. Ashnard was crowned the year after that great tragedy finally subsided. In the entire history of Tellius, no calamity has claimed the lives of so many beorc and laguz--not since the great flood. Two years before, it struck Begnion, and the entire population of Serenes was nearly obliterated. The year after that, close to a thousand beorc--nobles and peasants alike--perished in Daein.

Found this while looking through base conversations, and is this a localization error, or a legitimate piece of world building that was never expanded upon. I consult the local Tellius Lore Master!

Hi! Thank you so much the ask!

I think, if anything, it was a localization gaffe. @docidoci did some work on an informative analysis of the script differences between the original Japanese script and the English script. I highly recommend reading through their posts and taking a peek at their analysis for Chapter 18, where the line you're asking about comes from.

It's important to keep in mind that the scripts for these games were translated piecemeal by the translation team, and they often didn't have an idea of the bigger picture, so they were trying to make heads and tails of the bit they were given to work on out of context, which likely led to the issue docidoci mentioned.

That base conversation wouldn't reasonably contain a "cover-up" for the massacre. We just had a whole arc for the last 4 chapters exploring laguz slavery and the senate's crimes against the herons, including the extreme guilt the citizens of Begnion feel for the massacre. It'd be extremely silly for Tanith to be trying to hide what happened to Ike, who was there, working for Sanaki to help make peace with the herons for the massacre the entire time ("Yes, Ike, I did watch you learn that Begnion burned down Serenes Forest and commit genocide of the herons after falsely accusing them of assassinating the prior apostle from Apostle Sanaki herself, but let me sell you a lie about it now." See how silly that sounds?).

It's more the feeling of just lamenting the huge tragedies happening so close together. So, maybe something to the effect of "In the entire history of Tellius, nothing has claimed the lives of so many beorc and laguz outside of war--not since the great flood. Then, twenty years ago, the entire population of Serenes was nearly lost when the forest burned down. The year after that, close to a thousand beorc--nobles and peasants alike--perished in Daein" would have been a little better.

The translation team didn't have that context and were trying to just make the conversation make sense here (so linking them together makes sense if you're just looking at it on its own), but it now doesn't make so much sense in context.

I do think the original script is still a little flippant (though I rely entirely on Google Translate and vibes or fan translations/analysis, as I cannot read Japanese, and I have not found a fan translation of this so GT it is), as it's "oh what a tragedy that the herons were almost all lost 20 years ago" and likening it to a natural disaster (the plague), since it was a genocide and closer to an act of war than a calamity no one could have prevented, but I wouldn't say she's trying to lie about the cause outright, just play down the severity of Begnion's actions (which does make sense, countries that do a genocide don't often admit how heinous it was).

I'll share the original script from PegasusKnight here for anyone more knowledgeable about Japanese to judge any flippancy for themselves.