| Possible origins of the citizens of Nibelheim (a theory put together on the fly). |
[Mar. 16th, 2009|02:41 am] |
This has been sparked by Joudama's latest installment of "The Things You Never Knew About People", which got me thinking once again about how the heck a small mountain village on the western side of the central continent of Gaia managed to produce someone who looked like Cloud Strife, and why he's apparently the only blond in the village. The history of Nibelheim is something I've been worriting over for a while now, so here's a whole heap of what I've pieced together.
1) Nibelheim and the Shinra Family
There are some very strong indications that the Shinra family got their starts as feudal "lords of the manor" in the Nibelheim region. The strongest of these is the presence of the (decrepit) Shinra mansion just outside Nibelheim. The level of decrepitude the manor has attained by the time of the game seems unlikely for a single generation's neglect, and it is also implied in both Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus that the mansion itself was never really occupied by Shinra's scientists. Instead, said scientists occupied an extensive underground tunnel complex (possibly with links to the tunnels in Mt Nibel itself).
The next major indicator of a long-term Shinra family presence in the Nibelheim region is the Mt Nibel mako reactor, which appears to be at least one generation removed from the later reactors in Corel, Midgar, Junon and elsewhere. It is highly likely that the Nibel reactor was the first one created, and its successful creation provided an impetus to the creation of further reactors. I strongly suspect the next to be created was the Gongaga reactor (the wreckage of the Gongaga reactor implies it was built along a similar design to Mt Nibel, but the explosion of this second reactor may have triggered a revision of the design).
Either way, it is fairly likely that the blond, pale-skinned, pale-eyed Shinra family have some form of ancestral connection to the Nibel region.
2) Invasion and colonisation
[NB: A lot of this is going off Joudama's fanon for the world of Gaia.]
It's been speculated there have been waves of invasion and colonisation across the three continents of Gaia, of which the Wutai War was merely the latest installment. In particular, it seems clear from the original game that there was a strong Wutain influence on the development of Midgar city, which may well have predated the creation of the Plate. Against this background, I'd originally postulated Nibelheim as being a Midgarian colony town, ruled over by a family adept in trimming sails with the prevailing political winds.
However, the mention of Modeoheim during Crisis Core (and the strong implication given that Modeoheim is actually on the Northern continent, in the Icicle region) gives me another possible origin for the people of Nibelheim, one which is probably a better accounting for the name of the town, and the distinctive paler skin and hair of at least two of the prominent families from there.
I had previously been wondering how one town with such an obviously Germanic name had managed to be on the same continent as a number of other places which clearly had names of Romantic origin (ie the core of the name is from a Romance language). The most obvious of these is of course Costa del Sol, but it includes Corel and Cosmo Canyon. I exclude Rocket Town from my candidates, since this town is clearly one manufactured by the Shinra corporation for a purpose (as the name implies). The existence of a single Germanic holdout would therefore be unlikely, particularly since the town is on the western (Wutai-facing) side of the continent, close to existing shallow-water waterways, and capable of being reached easily from the Wutain eastern coast.
It seems more likely that the town of Nibelheim is instead a relic of a far earlier wave of colonisation, possibly dating back some two thousand years, to the arrival of the Jenova calamity and the loss of a large part of the Cetra civilisation. It is stated clearly that the ancestors of ordinary humans "hid" when faced with Jenova, and the most straightforward way of interpreting this seems to be that they fled. Given Jenova's arrival on the Northern continent, it seems fairly likely they would have fled southwards - possibly first to the continent of Midgar, and then to the central continent. It may well be that the inhabitants of Nibelheim at the time of the birth of Cloud Strife were the final remnants of the last of the escapees from the Northern Continent - this would account for such artifacts as the gates of the town, its secluded (and strategic) location athwart the one safe passage through the Nibel mountains, and its clear isolation from outside influences: Nibelheim was intended to be either a last defence, or possibly a last stand.
This possibly also accounts for the locations of a number of other settlements on the central continent. Many of these are in mountainous regions, defensible areas, or isolated from other contact. Corel is located on the edge of the desert, Gongaga in the midst of thick jungle, Cosmo Canyon on a mesa with an excellent view of anything approaching, Costa del Sol on a peninsula. Each of these regions is separated from others by either mountains, strong rivers, or both. The placements of these settlements were deliberate: it was intended to escape unknowing infiltration by people infected with the Jenova virus.
While it's very hard to get an idea of what the cultural memes of Gaian society might have been from the little we were given in the games, I suspect there were some rather strong cultural aftershocks as a result of losing almost all of the Cetra in one fell swoop. One of these might have been a long-standing distrust of strangers; another a legend about something evil waiting in mountainous regions and cold places.
(As was stated earlier, this is a very rapidly put-together theory. If anyone can pick holes in it, or provide corroborative detail, feel free.) |
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