#sasune

This first piece, and my first commission overall, is by N0nsenseMob on The App Formally Known As Twitter:

I like to portray Onion Knight and Ingus as foils or parallels and this piece is one of those times, having a light and dark theme.

Onion Knight in this piece is wielding the Will of Light from Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia. The sword is designed to be evocative of the Warrior of Light's Braveheart for reasons I refuse to go into but will implicate by mentioning that it is Onion Knight's FR weapon. And the Warrior of Light is based heavily on the Warrior/Knight job(s) so...

Ingus wields the Masamune from the Final Fantasy III remake. It was between that and the Murakumo (the black and red blade), but the former one out because A. the Murakumo is the Ninja's mastery item while the Masamune is a Eureka weapon and can be wielded by both Ninjas and Dark Knights and B. The purple compliments the darkness aspect nicely.

The next piece, or rather set of pieces, is from JenCommissions, via the aforementioned app, though she's more active these days on the Butterfly app. She does Dissidia Opera Omnia art by using characters on the roster as a base. Considering the sheer amount of characters OO had, there's good mileage to be gained.

The characters this time are Ingus as well as Nacht from Final Fantasy Dimensions.

(In hindsight, I should've swapped their character bases, that's on me.)

If you've been reading my posts on here, you can probably guess why these two specifically, but if you haven't: Unused text in the FF3 remake heavily implies that Ingus was once born in the Dark Knight village of Falgabard (In case it isn't becoming clear yet, Ingus and Darkness are going to be a recurring theme in these images). Final Fantasy Dimensions includes numerous references to past games, particularly the Nintendo-era stuff. Nacht is a Warrior of Darkness (more FFV dual worlds than FF3, if you catch my drift) and he's a serious-minded youth who turns out to be the son of a Dark Knight from a particular castle. Guess what that castle's named!

Ingus wields the Tyfring: In Famicom FF3, it was one of two swords that Red Mages could wield and because a certain someone already had the Wightslayer, I went with that. Nacht is wielding Graham's Sword. I won't go into details, partially because I have yet to sit down and actually play Dimensions and partially because the reason for Nacht having that sword is particularly spoilery, but needless to say, there is a reason why I picked that sword.

In my hypothetical Dissidia chapter, The Emperor finds Nacht and decides that he would make a decent minion. He attacks and steals Graham's Sword and lures Nacht into a cave. Said cave turns out to be a recreation of the Cave of Shadows, where Ingus just so happens to be. The two meet with a third party (a certain Dark Knight whose name has the initials G.G.) who claims he has been hired to protect them while they make their way out of the cave. Meanwhile, the main group enters the cave for plot related reasons and they soon figure out that something is amiss. Complicating matters even further is that Princess Sara is in the Cave, but it's the Sara from Onion Knight's timeline. She travels with the trio for a time, but when a splinter of the group led by Onion Knight finds them and Sara recognizes him, Ingus awkwardly lets her go and refocuses on Nacht's mission. (In this hypothetical, Luneth, Arc and Refia are already in the group and promptly freak out when they realize that Ingus is nearby) Meanwhile Ramza learns of his former mentor's presence and is suspicious of who he could be working for. Things come to a head and then part two of the chapter sees the group storming a replica of Castle Falgabard.

My Dissidia fanfic aside, I feel there's enough similarities or thematic elements (of course an FF3 character, from a game that introduced the concept of the Warriors of Darkness, would get an FR with a Warrior of Darkness) for it to function beyond just a cheeky nod to an unused scene that may or may not be canon.

This next one should be familiar. @CaramelHero did this one, which I'd call Scarlet Delirium (The joke is it's a Dark Knight skill in FFXI)

Turns out, pumping yourself full of the world's negative energy greatly empowers your shadow. Who knew?

In all seriousness, the inspiration for this one was Granblue Fantasy's "Alter Ego Conjurer" skin. The short of it is that the Captain is taunted by Man With Overwhelming Horny Energy into empowering several weapons. He/She does and promptly loses his/her mind in the process, but just narrowly pulls him/herself back from the brink.

Oh, and their body is being puppeted by this thing.

Or maybe they turned into that thing to puppet their body, I dunno.

Beyond just "Alter Ego neat", my other inspiration was a fanfic crossover idea I had. Let's just say that Ingus' descent into... (madness? Sure let's go with that.) isn't entirely natural.

The sword Ingus is wielding is the Ragnarok. Technically speaking, it is a Dark sword and with a name like that and being locked up in Eureka... yeah. The design itself takes influence from FFXI's iteration of the sword, which is on-brand for the FFIII remake.

The Dark energy on the sword is influenced by the Jamba Hearts from Kirby Star Allies. Considering what those hearts do and are implied to be, it's fitting.

And last but most certainly not least is HELD on VGen. One of the types of commission he specializes in is gatcha-esque splash art. Which is why the end result came out like this:

The quality speaks for itself.

As much as I've been channeling that parallel reality where the Falgabard-related scenes made the cut, Ingus is still a soldier of Sasune. And one of the things I had wanted to see was Ingus in a variation of the Sasune outfit worn by the soldiers in the 2D versions and the manga.

Hence, this.

Of course, it isn't a 1:1 recreation. We hashed out some details and tweaks, which should be clear by comparing the images. Even the background holds a nod to III's royalty.

Ingus in this one is wielding the Wightslayer: He's wearing a Sasune outfit, so it's only natural that he wield the Sasune blade. The sword itself is a combination of it's artwork and the equipment sprite for it in Brave Exvius (itself taking cues from the in-game versions of it). HELD did invent a scabbard for it though, which is a nice touch.

The last in this gallery is a bit different. It's not a picture, but a music track.

Threads of Oblivion by Desolo "The Grand Sunset/Contra Void" Zantas. Desolo occasionally does "30 for 30" commissions: $30 dollars for one of 30 slots for a music commission. I bit the bullet and went for it.

I decided to ask for a "The 13th Reflection" style for this (as mentioned prior, the AU that Freyr/Ingus' alter ego was inspired by isn't strictly FF3-related) and it came out very nicely. Desolo even made it so that it naturally loops.

And that about sums up my commissions for the year. Hopeful next year Hopefully, I'll be in a position to do some more next year. While obviously, Ingus and FF3 in general will be things I'm considering (yes, I have somehow not exhausted all of my ideas with this Red Mage/Dark Knight bastard), but I'll try to branch out into my other interests (If FF3 art is hard to come across, then Evolution is once in a blue moon).

Japanese text (via Google lens):

あまご きとう ぎしき 魔法の成立はそもそもが宗教的 であった。雨乞いや祈祷の儀式に おいて使用されたのに始まり、や がて病気の治療に使用される程度 で、白、黒といった分類は存在し なかった。

魔法がその歴史において二極化 を見るのは2つの大国間において 起こった戦争に起因する。時のサ きいん

スーン王が攻撃手段の1つとして まどうし 魔法に着目し、国内の魔道師を配 さっしょう 下に置き、殺傷の手段として産み 出されたのが黒魔法の始まりであ る。だが、一部の魔道師は魔法を 殺傷の道具として使うべきではな 「いと考え、サスーンを脱出、サロ ※ニアへと移り住み、新たなる魔法 S の体系を確立した。これが白魔法 の始まりである。やがて黒魔法の せんきょう 発達とともに、戦況はサスーンに 有利となり、多くのサロニアの兵 士たちが黒魔法によって傷つき、 倒れていった。事態を重く見たサ ロニア王は白魔道師たちに救いの 手を求める。ここで初めて白魔道 しろまどうし 師は黒魔法から人々を守るという たいめいぶん 大義名分のもとに戦争の渦へその

さつりく そして遂には究極の殺戮魔法とし て白はホーリー、黒はフレアの完 成をみる。だが、その時誰一人と してこの魔法の本当の恐ろしさに 気がついた者はいなかった。そし て悲劇が起こった。その互いの究 極魔法の巨大なエネルギーがぶつ かりあった瞬間、両軍の数万人の 兵士が一瞬にして消滅してしまっ たのだ。この戦いを機に戦乱は一 気に終結へと向かう。そして戦争 の終結とともに大きすぎる魔法の 力は禁断の地「エウレカ」へ封印 されたのである。 ふういん 身を投じることになるのである。

When it comes to royal iconography, there is a sort of science behind it known as heraldry. There is a surprising amount of thought that goes into the various symbols and creatures depicted on, say, a coat of arms. It's not specific to royalty: Stuff like governments, academies, religions etc all use it. It's something to keep in mind also keep in mind that I'm not at all an expert in this stuff, I just think it's neat.

Famicom FF3

Final Fantasy III was the first game in the series to give the nations emblems with charges on them. It would be far from the last, as later games would toy around with the concept, such as Final Fantasy 4 giving each of the regions their own emblem (with the 3D remake redesigning them).

As that last sentence implies, the nations of Final Fantasy III all shared the same emblem: That of a bird (possibly an eagle, one of the two most common charges) in the Displayed attitude (although it lacks legs).

The practical answer would be something such as time constraints, or simplicity for the sprite artists.

But what if we overthink it?

That brings us to two possibilities:

There is a mythological creature that all three kingdoms based their sigils on. This is possible, although we don't have much to go off of in III itself

The Ancients, between their airships and the Floating Continent, seemed to be interested in living in the sky. Thus, the emblems are remnants of the Ancients' era.

But, those are just theories.

GAME THEO-

Remake FF3

In the 3D remake of Final Fantasy III, a lot of elements were retooled or reinterpreted. When it came to the kingdoms' sigils, an interesting thing happened: Sasune and Argus kept the original "bird" charge (now with gold for Sasune and bronze for Argus)

But Saronia got a new lion charge.

The beast is in a tradition "rampant" attitude, with the front legs up and the tail pointed upwards.

Lions are not new to charges in Final Fantasy. Most notably, Final Fantasy Tactics had the War of the Lions, with both the Northern and Southern sky Orders having lions of their own (it's implied via Gafgarion's description that each of the cardinal directions have their own order, as a Western Sky order is mentioned). As Wikipedia explains:

It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts".

The 3D remake alludes to Saronia's history as a military power a bit more than the Famicom version via quotes.

(This was back when SE broke the text of the Steam version, my apologies)

So it's not too surprising that they went that route for the 3D remake.

Another change of interest are the carpets around the kingdoms. In the original FFIII, Castle Argus has a table with a unique sun-like pattern on it.

In the remake (as you're probably already noticed) the patterns can be seen on the carpets on each castle as well.

The remake places heightened emphasis on the sun compared to the original: Xande's flood of darkness is said to have severed the link between the earth and the sun, Desch says that the continent would be flung away from the sun if the reactor fails, in unused text Doga states that the sun used to revolve around the earth but now the earth revolves around the sun...

(Does this mean that castles in the World of Darkness would have either the Moon or the Earth for their logos)?

Pixel Remaster FF3

While the Pixel Remaster borrows from the remake in some places, it sticks to the original in others.

However, sometimes, it diverges even against the original. In the castle of the three kingdoms, the big change is to their charges: All of them now use the bird charge, but they are now differentiated in different ways:

Sasune keeps the traditional Displayed attitude, in both the original colors and white thanks to the new red banners all about (matching the colors of the Red Mage)

However Argus now has the Bird in the Volant attitude, as it is now flying sideways. There are also banners that seemingly depict a crown and a moon.

Meanwhile, Saronia has a variant similar to the Sasune one, but with some differences. You can just make out the bird's feet underneath the body and the wings, rather than being spread out to the sides, are now pointed upward. This appears to be more of an Issuant attitude. I don't remember think Saronia has banners like Sasune and Argus do.

ANCIENT SASUNE - THE PAST

- Sasune becoming a “Kingdom of Magic” is generally thanks to its Mythril mine in Kazus: Because Mythril is a good conductor for magic, this encouraged them to both use magic and push it further and further. It is also a reason they initially had an edge in the Sasune-Saronia war.

- Odin’s exile is a direct result of the war: Odin had unknowingly been descended from an “illusion beast” from the Feymarch (Yes, the Feymarch was initially planned for the FFIII setting, per the Ultimania’s description. The scrapped Guardian summon was meant to be the king) and the sheer scale of bloodshed he caused traumatized him into sealing himself away out of fear of his power. With their ace gone, the Saronian army had to turn to the defected Sasune Mages.

- The aforementioned Mythril mine is the reason why Sasune eventually returned to magic: While Saronia would focus on developing its aerial forces, Sasune would eventually focus on balancing magic, still affected by the war. This would lead the way to Sasune idolizing Red Mages, to the point of having Red Mages succeed the throne.

- The development of Mythril weapons was different prior to the Flood of Light. As a result, Red Mages cannot handle modern Mythril swords very well (more a Famicom headcanon than remake one)

- Sasune was quite close to working out Spellblade capabilities at one point. Unfortunately, the Flood of Light killed those aspirations and the Flood of Darkness buried them entirely.

MODERN SASUNE - THE PRESENT

- Of the nine protagonists, only Muuchi, Doug, Melfi and Onion Knight are Sasunians by blood: J Bowie’s parents coming from the Argus region and the remake orphans from the Surface World/Motherland.

- Soldiers vary in terms of where they came from: Some come from families already serving, others are orphans that are raised around the castle and others still willingly enlist.

- Combatwise, Sasune soldiers are trained in both swordsmanship and magic, usually using one to set their opponent up for the other. Etiquette-wise, soldiers are trained as gentlemen and in extraneous talents such as playing stringed instruments.

- Princess Sara is trained in using white magic and rods/scepters, but she has also been training in swordsmanship as well. Her father was hesitant, but as she kept “borrowing” weapons from the armory, he eventually relented.

- Swords used by the soldiers tend to have a Mythril coating, if not made of Mythril themselves.

- The soldiers generally have a sense of camaraderie with each other. They act more formal in the presence of others.

- Ingus arrived at Sasune when he was four. As a result of the airship crash, he spent his first several weeks in a state of shell-shock before eventually settling into his current personality. The other soldiers note that Ingus’ uptight demeanor is unusual, even compared to the captain.

NOTABLE SOLDIERS

Note that I based most of these soldiers on NPCs from the actual game (who go unnamed, but I base them on their dialogue). Appearance-wise, they’re based on background characters from the manga. They are as follow:

Biggs: Somewhat of a blowhard, but will usually admit his faults. Favors Fire magic.

Wedge: Somewhat of a worrywart who prefers being careful more than anything. Favors Ice magic.

Vicks: Captain of the guard.Somewhat stern but overall supportive. Favors Earth magic. MoH related headcanon: He’s the soldier mentioned to have adopted Ingus

Tomok: One of the top Sasune guards and one of the further along in regards to the path of a Red Mage. Initially resented Ingus for always besting him while sparring, but eventually grew to have an almost-brotherly relationship with him. Has seen Ingus smile a grand total of twice, which is still twice more than the other soldiers or anyone not named Sara. Does not favor any specific type of magic.

While typing this up, I realized that these four (or at least, the first three) have similar personality traits to Ingus.