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Could Ilia function economically as a country?


Lord Tullus
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22 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Is it ever actually stated that all of the pegasus riders you face are Ilian mercenaries?  If not, is it possible that Ilia may trade in pegasi?

Nothing is directly stated about the pegasus knights you face in the game, but every time pegasi are mentioned at all, it's taken for granted that they are all Ilian mercenaries.

The only places where you fight pegasus knights are Lycia (in Hector's tale only), the Dread Isle, and the Black Fang hideouts.

The most logical explanation for the pegasus knights on the Dread Isle is that they are morphs created from Fiora's fallen comrades, whom Fiora intended to avenge.

Come to think of it, that could serve as an explanation for where the pegasus knights in the Black Fang hideouts came from too, since Nergal and Sonia had been gradually replacing the Black Fang mooks with morphs (and you don't attack either Black Fang hideout until long after Fiora's ill-fated venture on the Dread Isle).

But whether those pegasus knights were living or morphs, I think it's telling that the Black Fang only used them to defend their hideouts, not to go on assassination missions.

I haven't yet spoken of the pegasus knights in the early chapters of Hector's tale because I'm not entirely sure that they were supposed to be canon, given their conspicuous absence from Eliwood's tale.

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I like to think of Ilia and their Pegasus Knights as a FE counterpart to the Switzerland and the Swiss Mercenaries except on a bigger scale. Ilia itself seems more like Russia due to the climate being harsher and its location related to Sacae (which itself is FE Mongolia). So pretty much a mix of the two which is kind of odd since Switzerland is also Bern. Obviously Ilia has a bigger dependency on mercenary work as it seems to more snow covered but it's probably not snow covered year round.

Honestly, I don't think it could function as a country. You'd need a lot of Pegasus Knights and Horses to keep up their work just going by the Ilian Merc units that we've seen so far which would require a lot of food to maintain and a lot of good land to grow that food which we know they don't have.

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I'll agree the Hector Pegasi are probably not canon. They're there to add difficulty and provide Hector some more exp snacks. However, I'd imagine the Hector Mode exclusive chapters and Uther revelations not shown on Eliwood mode are canon.

I know swidden agriculture is only good in the short-term, but that could help Ilia a bit. 

 

If we assumed a world economic system, international trade would probably go something like this:

Sacae: Horses, meat and other animal products. The plains are probably too infertile for intensive agriculture.

Ilia: Timber, furs (those forests gotta be rich in them), mercenaries. If cold waters = good fisheries, maybe fish too?

The Western Isles: Mineral resources. Maybe fisheries. Looking at the Western Isle chapter maps, they appear to be of bad soil.

Etruria and Lycia: Have no idea. They're probably both breadbaskets. With decent supplies of minerals (Lycia), fish (Etruria), and timber; but they're saved mostly for the home market.

Nabata: We don't get much of an idea of this place either. Arcadia obviously isn't part of the international system. If other oases exist, they and any coastal communities plus the island of Kafti might be internationally connected though. Besides a small and fabled treasure market from excavating the desert, I'd like to imagine we have limes, spices, incense and other exotic items grown in a warm climate.

Bern: Being mountainous isn't good, but it does appear to have forests, and at least one great river and lake, and it's warmer than Ilia. It's probably a lesser Etruria/Lycia, capable of everything for domestic purposes. Internationally, given the high quantity of armor units and the abundance of mountains, it's fair to say that it probably has a load of minerals.

 

Outside of Jugdral, Elibe is probably the easiest to guess and imagine world trade in. Magvel lacks world-building and its countries seem too similar outside of Jehanna. Tellius sweet Tellius is undermined by the Laguz being antisocial and Begnion having everything. Valencia and Hoshido-Nohr, we have slight ideas of, but nothing more. Archanea lacks distinction among its locales and appears to be a little more in the Dark Ages than Elibe. Ylisse-Valm is not a world.

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