Last week, we announced the Tellius Recollection translation project, a joint endeavour between Kirokan, MicrowaveIt and myself to translate the brand new Path of Radiance design book.

For those of you with busy schedules or who want a handy reference, here’s a recap of all the new translations and findings since the initial announcement.

To begin with, we have translations of two pages from the first chapter of the book, dubbed “World and Story”.

Warning: This article and the links provided contain spoilers!

History of Tellius

The first page explains the origin story of Tellius and the events surrounding the establishment of the mighty Begnion Theocracy.

Most of the information here is divulged during the endgame of Radiant Dawn or in the official timeline, so there’s nothing really new, although it’s nice to have an official summary of events.

The only new details are the names of Begnion’s 3rd Apostle, who was alive when the senate was formed (Toremeni), and the ringleader of the Laguz faction during Begnion’s ancient civil war (Keogh).

Timeline of Tellius

Speaking of the official timeline, the whole of the second page is dedicated to the timeline of Tellius, which was first revealed on the official Radiant Dawn background site several years ago.

Thus, there’s literally nothing new on this page and, in fact, you can find more detail in the background version of the timeline. That said, the way they’ve organised the timeline into a country-based chart is quite cool.

Moving on from the world of Tellius, we have a few pages from Chapter 2, which contains detailed profiles for all the playable characters and a few important non-playable characters (around 70 in total).

So far, Stefan and Petrine’s profiles have been translated. Additionally, for your convenience, Kirokan has translated all of the character quirks in this blog post.

Otherwise, if you’re interested in a particular character’s profile, Kirokan is currently taking requests over on the forums.

Stefan

Stefan’s profile explicitly states he’s a Lion Branded, which a lot of fans guessed due to his Japanese name (Soanvalcke) sharing part of the Lion hero Soan’s name and his Japanese ending title “Lion’s Descendant”.

Petrine

Meanwhile, Petrine’s profile explains that she’s a Tiger Branded, which I kind of spoiled earlier. Before the book came out, there were very few clues about what type of Branded Petrine was and thus no real consensus about her Laguz heritage.

Finally, we come to Chapter 3, which covers the concept art. This is also where the meat of the new translations is found–and for good reason, because the concept art is all kinds of interesting.

Mist, Elena and Greil

Here, we get a rare look at Elena–Ike and Mist’s mother. Considering she only appears for a few moments in a flashback scene, the fact that she has a full design is testament to the design team’s level of detail.

—And, no, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, Mist is indeed trying to flash you… sort of. By the way, the Valkyrie Mist concept art was first shown in the 20th Anniversary Encyclopedia, so it took, what, 5 years for us to get the rest?

Rhys, Rolf and Elincia

Elincia is the star of this page, wearing a striking turquoise dress, as well as a dress that closely resembles Elena’s. You have to wonder if the developers were going to play the “girl that looks like your mother” trope…

What’s really cool is that the Elena-like design actually exists in Path of Radiance, albeit unused. Before Elincia dons her Princess Crimea attire, she often appears in cutscenes as a non-playable female Bishop.

However, what most people don’t know is that this Bishop version of Elincia is fully functioning, as you can see below.

A bit of trivia: Series 3 of the Fire Emblem Cipher card game features a card of Elincia in her orange dress.

Reyson, Leanne, Naesala and Nealuchi

This page includes an alternate Leanne design. Despite Leanne being a minor character in Path of Radiance, the team likely put a lot of effort into her design since she features in the “Life Returns” movie (and movies are harder to edit).

Sanaki, Zelgius and Sephiran

One of the biggest gems we’ve found so far is in this page: the “older Sanaki” concept art. While the existence of “older Sanaki” was already known, this is the first time it’s been officially acknowledged.

In case you’re confused, we’re not talking about Sanaki in Radiant Dawn, but rather the unused, older version of Sanaki in Path of Radiance who exists only as a unit on the map.

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t explain where this older Sanaki comes from, so it remains a mystery. Most likely Sanaki was intended to be older, but later the developers decided to lower her age, perhaps to make her more memorable.

Ilyana, Calill and Stefan

Blue-haired Stefan is the highlight of this page. Could this be the same, early version of Stefan when he was loyal to Sanaki?

Height comparison chart

This final page is probably enough to make most Tellius fans geek out, but what’s most curious is the non-royal Heron to the right of Reyson on the left side of the page.

As most ought to know, the citizens of Serenes Forest were wiped out long before Path of Radiance started, so we never get to see a non-royal Heron in either of the games.

However, just like Bishop Elincia, traces of the non-royal Herons can be found hidden in the games.

Some more trivia for you: In the Japanese version, the royal Herons are called “Egrets” to differentiate them from regular “Herons”.

To finish off, if you want to keep up with all the latest updates, be sure to check out Kirokan’s website, Kantopia or the project thread!