Archanea Food Headcanon
Jan. 4th, 2011 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelI'd post this kind of thing at the anon meme except most people don't care about Archanea so discussion of it is not very anon, is it?
Food. Characters in stories gotta eat. Archanea and Valencia have almost no detail regarding food up until FE12, wherein we learn that Caeda can cook and that Linde has never seen wild strawberries. Also, there's that scene in FE11 where the old woman is fleeing Altea carrying what looks like red delicious apples and a baguette of white bread. Hello, anachronisms... unless Altea is so well-off that commoners eat nice fluffy baguettes. And maybe that is the case, which would explain why everyone seems to hate Altea.
Ahem. History geek that I am, when I started writing for FE I decided that Archanean cuisine would be strictly Old World (Pre-Columbian contact) food. That means no potatoes, or sweet potatoes, or corn, or Lima beans, or tomatoes, or other things we mostly take for granted as, well, FOOD. Also, no chocolate. Or vanilla. No wonder these people are miserable! I also decided to be sparing about the kinds of things that made their way to Europe via the Crusades or contact with China-- the original vibe of FE1 is clearly ancient Greece, so I wasn't averse to cracking open Homer in search of menu advice. But the remakes added some different cultural vibes to some of the countries, especially the distinct Romanesque feel to Pales (domes!), so that opened up some more variety.
First off, Archanea is not a great landmass like Magvel, or Elibe, or Tellius. It's an archipelago, with a "mainland" surrounded by islands. Fake!Europe feel aside, a comparison to Japan might not be unwarranted. That doesn't necessarily mean everyone eats fish, though. Great Britain is an island, and what are they known for? Beef.
Altea:
Let's start with the homeland of Our Hero, a place canonically cited for "rich soils and clear water." A glance at the world map shows that Altea has a striking lack of forests or rugged terrain. The battle maps of the country show a broad river winding through the heart of the island, though it can't be to scale as it doesn't show in the world map. Anyway, it all means that Altea is a place where people aren't going hungry, at least not until the wars. Initially I based fanfic!Altea off another other smallish, prosperous island kingdom (England) and assumed that farmland was likely feeding happy cows and fat sheep. Ditched that after a couple of 'fics and went instead with Altea (kinda) = Spain, which is my prevalent take on it.
So, good eats in fanfic!Altea encompass a variety of land crops and "fruits of the sea," with dishes based around both wheat and rice. Trademarks of Altean cuisine include the use of saffron in cooking, a variety of citrus fruits, and liberal use of cane sugar, as Altea is the main source of sugarcane in the region. Favored spices include cloves, anise, and cilantro. Grapes grow well on the island and wine is more commonly consumed than ale or beer. The water here is drinkable, though.
Gra: Altea's sister island features many of the same cultural traits but less variety in the available ingredients. The emphasis is less on veal, pork, and lamb and more on game (see: large forest) and fish. Drinking water is not so good here.
Grust: Canonically a bad place for crops. People subsist upon fish and what crops can be farmed in the thin, rocky soil. Overall Grust has more of a military culture and a lot of the regional specialities are things than keep well and transport well. Hard liquor plays a major role in preservation of food... and in pacifying people. Don't drink the water.
Macedon: I go full-bore on the ancient Greece thing in fanfic!Macedon-- fish, lamb kebabs, soft cheeses and yogurts, use of honey rather than sugar, and liberal use of nuts... especially chestnuts, which in my mind are many of the "tall trees" in Macedon's forests. Chestnuts were a key staple of pre-Columbian cuisine (before corn arrived in Italy, polenta was made of chestnut flour). Another grape-growing region where the wine flows freely.
The place with barbarians: Uh... hunter-gatherer culture? Or something. Regardless, there's some weird stuff going on in between Grust and Khadein.
Khadein: The Oasis of Magic features glorious food akin to Persian cuisine-- expect lots of sweet-sour combinations with the fruits and meat, elaborate dishes with rice and noodles, sherbets and fruit ices (so nice in a desert!), and gallons and gallons of coffee. Its a university town. Of course there's coffee. Not to mention lots of junk food and street-vendor snacks for poorer students to grab a bite between classes.
Thabes: Khadein's culture is derived largely from the fallen city of Thabes, which in my headcanon was kind of like Troy. No, the one in the Iliad, not the one in Michigan.
Archanea/Holy Kingdom: Quasi-Italian, though I figure the five regions (Menidy, Samsufe, and so on) are culturally and geographically distinct. Pales itself would be very "civilized"-- more like Rome under the Borgias than rural Naples. Very elaborate recipes, in particular banquets with exotic things-- think "turducken" and other abominations. Lots and lots of sweets and desserts.
Aurelis: Plainsman culture is a big question mark, but I view Aurelis as the Old France to Archanea's Old Rome. I kind of pegged it as having a Norman influence, even. The area is known for dairy-- milk and cheese both-- and for apples. And apple cider. And apple brandy. Wheat is definitely the staple here-- the plains are the breadbasket of the continent.
Pyrathi/Port Warren/Galder Harbor-- cultural hodge-podges. Marine-based diets featuring the influence of many other nations. Also, moving eastward we're getting into the beer-drinking region of the continent. Not to mention the hard stuff.
Talys: The token Celtic kingdom with food and drink to match. Lamb and game play a role in cooking (though the forests on Talys don't register on the world map), breadstuffs are more beloved here than elsewhere, and desserts are more hearty and rustic than mainland confections. Apples and berries are the most common fruits, used in both sweet and savory dishes. People on fanfic!Talys like big breakfasts and they really like ale-- wine barely registers outside of dilettantes who look up to the mainland for culture.
Bonus Valencia Material!
Fanfic!Valencia is the New World to Archanea's Old World. Sofia features colorful, flavorful, "exotic" cuisine-- meat in chili-chocolate-nut sauce, rich stews with bean, corn, and peppers, and a variety of wonderful fruits. Rigel gets by on potatoes. ;P
I'm hungry now. -_-
Food. Characters in stories gotta eat. Archanea and Valencia have almost no detail regarding food up until FE12, wherein we learn that Caeda can cook and that Linde has never seen wild strawberries. Also, there's that scene in FE11 where the old woman is fleeing Altea carrying what looks like red delicious apples and a baguette of white bread. Hello, anachronisms... unless Altea is so well-off that commoners eat nice fluffy baguettes. And maybe that is the case, which would explain why everyone seems to hate Altea.
Ahem. History geek that I am, when I started writing for FE I decided that Archanean cuisine would be strictly Old World (Pre-Columbian contact) food. That means no potatoes, or sweet potatoes, or corn, or Lima beans, or tomatoes, or other things we mostly take for granted as, well, FOOD. Also, no chocolate. Or vanilla.
First off, Archanea is not a great landmass like Magvel, or Elibe, or Tellius. It's an archipelago, with a "mainland" surrounded by islands. Fake!Europe feel aside, a comparison to Japan might not be unwarranted. That doesn't necessarily mean everyone eats fish, though. Great Britain is an island, and what are they known for? Beef.
Altea:
Let's start with the homeland of Our Hero, a place canonically cited for "rich soils and clear water." A glance at the world map shows that Altea has a striking lack of forests or rugged terrain. The battle maps of the country show a broad river winding through the heart of the island, though it can't be to scale as it doesn't show in the world map. Anyway, it all means that Altea is a place where people aren't going hungry, at least not until the wars. Initially I based fanfic!Altea off another other smallish, prosperous island kingdom (England) and assumed that farmland was likely feeding happy cows and fat sheep. Ditched that after a couple of 'fics and went instead with Altea (kinda) = Spain, which is my prevalent take on it.
So, good eats in fanfic!Altea encompass a variety of land crops and "fruits of the sea," with dishes based around both wheat and rice. Trademarks of Altean cuisine include the use of saffron in cooking, a variety of citrus fruits, and liberal use of cane sugar, as Altea is the main source of sugarcane in the region. Favored spices include cloves, anise, and cilantro. Grapes grow well on the island and wine is more commonly consumed than ale or beer. The water here is drinkable, though.
Gra: Altea's sister island features many of the same cultural traits but less variety in the available ingredients. The emphasis is less on veal, pork, and lamb and more on game (see: large forest) and fish. Drinking water is not so good here.
Grust: Canonically a bad place for crops. People subsist upon fish and what crops can be farmed in the thin, rocky soil. Overall Grust has more of a military culture and a lot of the regional specialities are things than keep well and transport well. Hard liquor plays a major role in preservation of food... and in pacifying people. Don't drink the water.
Macedon: I go full-bore on the ancient Greece thing in fanfic!Macedon-- fish, lamb kebabs, soft cheeses and yogurts, use of honey rather than sugar, and liberal use of nuts... especially chestnuts, which in my mind are many of the "tall trees" in Macedon's forests. Chestnuts were a key staple of pre-Columbian cuisine (before corn arrived in Italy, polenta was made of chestnut flour). Another grape-growing region where the wine flows freely.
The place with barbarians: Uh... hunter-gatherer culture? Or something. Regardless, there's some weird stuff going on in between Grust and Khadein.
Khadein: The Oasis of Magic features glorious food akin to Persian cuisine-- expect lots of sweet-sour combinations with the fruits and meat, elaborate dishes with rice and noodles, sherbets and fruit ices (so nice in a desert!), and gallons and gallons of coffee. Its a university town. Of course there's coffee. Not to mention lots of junk food and street-vendor snacks for poorer students to grab a bite between classes.
Thabes: Khadein's culture is derived largely from the fallen city of Thabes, which in my headcanon was kind of like Troy. No, the one in the Iliad, not the one in Michigan.
Archanea/Holy Kingdom: Quasi-Italian, though I figure the five regions (Menidy, Samsufe, and so on) are culturally and geographically distinct. Pales itself would be very "civilized"-- more like Rome under the Borgias than rural Naples. Very elaborate recipes, in particular banquets with exotic things-- think "turducken" and other abominations. Lots and lots of sweets and desserts.
Aurelis: Plainsman culture is a big question mark, but I view Aurelis as the Old France to Archanea's Old Rome. I kind of pegged it as having a Norman influence, even. The area is known for dairy-- milk and cheese both-- and for apples. And apple cider. And apple brandy. Wheat is definitely the staple here-- the plains are the breadbasket of the continent.
Pyrathi/Port Warren/Galder Harbor-- cultural hodge-podges. Marine-based diets featuring the influence of many other nations. Also, moving eastward we're getting into the beer-drinking region of the continent. Not to mention the hard stuff.
Talys: The token Celtic kingdom with food and drink to match. Lamb and game play a role in cooking (though the forests on Talys don't register on the world map), breadstuffs are more beloved here than elsewhere, and desserts are more hearty and rustic than mainland confections. Apples and berries are the most common fruits, used in both sweet and savory dishes. People on fanfic!Talys like big breakfasts and they really like ale-- wine barely registers outside of dilettantes who look up to the mainland for culture.
Bonus Valencia Material!
Fanfic!Valencia is the New World to Archanea's Old World. Sofia features colorful, flavorful, "exotic" cuisine-- meat in chili-chocolate-nut sauce, rich stews with bean, corn, and peppers, and a variety of wonderful fruits. Rigel gets by on potatoes. ;P
I'm hungry now. -_-
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Date: 2011-01-04 10:22 pm (UTC)Turkish, yeah, there's a bit of that as well in my headcanon. Egyptian, though... interesting!
I had Archanea pegged only generally as a place where lots of cream-based and butter-based food would prevail
Yeah, I have Aurelis doing the dairy-decadence thing, heh, whereas Archanea Kingdom I see as engaging in more out-and-out frivolity. The kind of place where they'd have the servants bring in a sixty-pound sturgeon, drop it deliberately, and then haul in an eighty-pound sturgeon. Just because they can. Meanwhile, half of Macedon is starving to death...
I'd say I'm being unfair to those countries, but in light of canon events... fair cop.
Do you mind if I just pretend that your speculation on Altea and Talys is canon?
As long as it doesn't end up on FE Wiki, go for it! Heh, I'm just pleased it makes sense to someone other than me. :D