#Rune Factory Native Dragon

[burningfestivalpersona]

In the Rune Factory series, you explicitly are not killing the monsters, but banishing them to another world. Or at least that's what they say you're doing. Usually.

And then there are Ethelberd's clones of the Native Dragons, who are explicitly reduced to a pile of ash once you're done with them. These things are not constructed well if weapons enchanted to be non-lethal can reduce them to ash. How do you fuck up this bad.

[thunderberryart]

So wait a second...

In official Rune Factory 4 lore, Ventuswill was supposed to die many, many centuries ago. It's uncertain how many, but it's generally accepted that Leon likely became the first Guardian around 1000 years ago. The big thing is that, in theory, Ventuswill's natural lifespan could have been much longer with no need for Guardians or Rune Spheres, but she was born in a land where the runes were beginning to die out and was thus weak. The Earthmates creating the Rune Spheres was as much about restoring runes to the land as it was saving Ventuswill because while the world can go on without Ventuswill, the world cannot go on without runes. Without runes, the land becomes barren, crops won't grow, and all life eventually ends.

Now, I don't know much about Rune Factory 2 since I haven't actually played it (and anyone who has is free to correct me on the below points), but from what I've read online in terms of the lore, Fiersome's apocalypse would have happened a thousand years ago had the ancient Earthmates not placed their seal on him--roughly when Ventuswill was originally supposed to expire. And every thousand years, the seal on him has to be renewed; if not, the world is destined to be destroyed in Fiersome's raging apocalyptic hellfire, after which Terrable will awaken and restore life to the charred landscape at the cost of eliminating whatever remaining life has survived--in other words, a total rebirth of the planet.

Between the close timing of these two past events--the point that Ventuswill's life was originally supposed to end and the point when the seal was placed on Fiersome--and the fact they were to occur when the world's runes were starting to dry up, the Earthmates both past and present have been staving off the inevitable End of the World for centuries. The world, as we know it, could have been destroyed a thousand years ago as it was supposed to, but the Earthmates said "Nope! It's too nice to let it all die!" and have done everything they can to extend its lifespan.

And that's when we get to Rune Factory 5 and an incredibly dark statement from the main antagonist, Gideon. According to Gideon, Alice/Ares is the last known Earthmate--not the last, but there are so few Earthmates that if there are any others left, they're most likely in hiding and are on their way to becoming an extinct species. Now, Ventuswill's longevity has been ensured thanks to the actions of Lest/Frey during RF4 and she'll probably still be munching on pancakes in 1000 years, but if the Earthmates wind up going extinct, there's no way to restore Fiersome's seal because only Earthmates are capable of renewing the magic used to keep him locked up. And Fiersome is not the only godlike creature capable of causing the world's inevitable destruction; Tides of Destiny gave us the Legendary Golem, whose cataclysmic battle with the Native Dragons led to the creation of the current world, and RF5's potential apocalypse was that of the Fathomless Dread, an eldritch abomination that literally had to be sealed in another dimension to prevent it from destroying the world.

The Rune Factory world has brushed time and time again with total annihilation and the only reason it has managed to avoid catastrophe was because there was an Earthmate around to stop it. What happens when there are no longer any Earthmates to stop the end of all? Or is it possible that the Earthmates are going to experience a revival of some sort? Besides a castle-esque design, the logo for Rune Factory 6 does suspiciously feature a seraph/halo motif, after all...

[violasarecool]

rune factory: native dragons are sapient beings with complex thoughts and motivations

rune factory 4: ....and you can own them as pets!

[runefactorynonsense]

Spooktober - Day 7 - Zombie/Undead

That's right, Earthmate! I JUST WANT TO SEE YOU SUFFER

[cozmostreet]

so uhm hey yall im working in a fantasy interactive novel which is called The Heir Quest and it would mean a lot to me if you gave it a chance! 😭😳

ill be posting about it on this blog, where you can find the details

it's actually inspired by a lot of things i simp about here lmao like dragon age, bolas, percy jackson, tabletop rpgs in general, rune factory, etc... so yeah give it a try

in advance, sorry for my english, it isnt my native language

signal boosts are really appreciated and ty for you attention 😭💞

[yvesaffection]

One of my fav rune factory fics is https://archiveofourown.org/works/5074438/chapters/11669320

It's super long so it's fine if you aren't into it but the story has so much love and worldbuilding put into it that it's one of my all time favorites (it's not centered on any one character really and will switch povs in diff chapters and sometimes backtrack to events in an earlier chapter but what was happening to a different character during it.) And it introduces other earthmates and fledgling native dragons <33333

Ooooh Excellent. I’ll take a look! Thank you! <3

[thinwatermelon]

rune factory 5???

i wonder what marvelous inc. and neverland will do for rune factory 5 in terms of bosses, monsters and maybe even characters like............. they put all 3 games into rune factory 4!! all the bosses and monsters, native dragons,, they’re done!! will they add like a fifth dragon or sumn?? it might be possible since the terrable, fiersome, aquaticus and ventuswill only rule over like (iirc) life, destruction, resurrection and time so it’s kinda flexible but it’ll be pretty funky if they do add another dragon

also all the bosses and monsters appear in rune factory 4 at some point like it was their last hurrah (it pretty much was unless you count lord of magna) so won’t they have to make up a BUNCH of new monsters so that rune factory 5′s not just another compilation project/game? i bet marvelous and neverland can pull it off tho! just kinda worried but kinda excited at what they’ll put out at the same time

[lazzledazzler]

RUNE FACTORY 5 I WANT SUM FUK?????????????

SOME AMNESIAC PROTAGONISTS?????

SOME GOT DAMN EARTHMATES??????

SOME DE SAINT COQUILLE??????????

SOME NATIVE DRAGONS??????????????

SOME SUSTAINABLE FARMING????????

SOME RUNIES??????????????????????

[burningfestivalpersona]

Fishing is easily the most useful skill in RF3, because it’s not just a source of money and food, but also a way to win the affection of nearly half the bachelorettes.

Carmen: Likes fish.

Sakuya: Likes sashimi.

Pia: Likes squid.

Sofia: Likes trash.

I just can’t think of anything with a more immediate payoff.

[beardycarrot]

Rune Factory 4 has me pretty confused. In the first two games, the idea was that it’s Harvest Moon, but with dungeons... this feels more like it’s an RPG, with a farming mechanic as an afterthought.

In the older games, when your crops reached the point at which they could be harvested, little glowing spheres (the titular runes) would pop out of them. These could be used to restore your Rune Points, the games’ form of an energy meter, which was important because basically everything you did depleted it. Each of the dungeons contained several farming plots, allowing you to both grow crops outside of their normal seasons (the lava cave or whatever maintained summery temperatures even in winter), but more importantly, they provided runes. That’s why the game is called Rune Factory... You’re basically using this magical earth energy that’s naturally released through the process of farming to turn plots of soil into little rune factories so that you can venture deeper into the dungeons.

Rune Factory 4, so far, has none of that... I’ve beaten two little tutorial dungeons, and not only were there no farm plots, they would’ve been completely unnecessary. Maybe things will change when I find more expansive dungeons and am using more advanced tools, but at the moment, I’m struggling to even expend my Rune Points. Restoring RP seems to be less common this time around... When crops mature, they don’t automatically generate runes, the runes are just something that occasionally appears when they’re harvested. They don’t stick around for very long, either; if you don’t collect them within about a minute, they disappear, so I’ve just been shooting off my magic spells over and over to use up RP (and level up my skills a bit) before collecting them. Every night I have a bunch of RP leftover, so cook some super fancy onigiri or pickled turnips to use up as much of it as I can.

I hope that this is just a clumsy handling of the early game. Who knows, maybe the better tools will make RP feel meaningful, and the later dungeons (presumably four seasonal ones, each associated with one of the Native Dragons) will be better. At the moment, though, I’m just kind of plowing through and... tolerating, the game.

All that said, I have to remind myself that I really didn’t like Rune Factory 2 when I started it. Yeah, despite preordering it, despite it eventually becoming my second-favorite farming sim, I was complaining just as much then as I am now. I’m not even sure what it is I didn’t like, but I started playing it within minutes of finishing the first game, and I really wasn’t into... whatever changes they made. I ended up only playing for a few hours, and then not touching the game again for five years. Obviously, I’m pretty resistant to change... and I tend to complain about fairly minor things. With my luck, it will immediately stop being an issue the next time I pick up the game, just to make me feel stupid.

[forestofbeginnings]

Another idea for a potential Rune Factory 5: I'd like it set outside of Norad. I consider 4 the end of the "Native Dragon" arc and I'd like to see the rest of the world explored. They could pull a Sen no Kiseki / Trails of Cold Steel (all four games being set in the Kiseki series's military empire) and have it set in the "evil empire" of the series aka the Sechs Empire post RF4, particularly where technology with farming VS Earthmate affinity with the land will be explored as a central theme.

I agree with you there about 4 being the end of the “Native Dragon” arc, since we’ve already hit all four main dragons. And the next Rune Factory game being set in the Sechs Empire is actually on the top of my wishlist! I think it would be really interesting to finally see what the empire looks like from the inside.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

the thing that really fucks me up about rune factory is... how sentient are the monsters anyway? in rf3 in one of raven’s heart events, a wooly briefly talks to her, but usually they just seem like regular sheep. in rf4, ambrosia seems like another mindless boss but you can have multiple extended conversations with her in amber’s event. sano and uno are not only fully sapient but also apparently serve a dedicated purpose? especially if we are to assume they’re the “temple foxes” leon occasionally refers to.

the green fairy you save in idra cave (i. think that’s idra cave. i might be wrong) talks to you and will attempt to pledge their service to you, but the silver wolf in sechs territory acts like a normal dog, and you can’t talk to green again if you accept. it’s not like you can talk down any of the bosses. but the native dragons are unquestionably sapient, does that mean their clones are too?

and what WAS the thing that showed you the first rune sphere shard? and told you to tell venti “we’re all watching over you”? is that the collective consciousness of everything in yokmir? some sort of other entity, maybe terrable, acting through them? 

[chigau-mirai]

(Rune Factory 4 Spoilers)

The final boss of arc 2 is really well-foreshadowed, I feel. The Sechs grunts use the power of the Rune Spheres to cast Etherlink and combining themselves with monsters, and you fight the Native Dragon clones - one of them at the bottom of a research facility, no less! In retrospect, it’s obvious that Ethelberd was going to combine himself with Venti.

[runefactorynonsense]

Spooktober - Day 19 - Ruin

Thousands of years ago, Fiersome was sealed away...

[gemees]

Rune Factory 4 Special

Rune Factory 4 Special

Welcome to Selphia, a region ruled by the Native Dragon Ventuswill…and you! Journey to the vibrant world of Rune Factory and experience the legendary fantasy farming adventure like never before. After falling from the sky and landing on the back of a friendly dragon, the young hero or heroine is invited to live in the local castle and, as a newly designated ruler, begins their life anew while…