#norzelian geography

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Hello! I only recently got into Triangle Strategy and I’m really so impressed by how detailed the world of Norzelia is. However one possible mistake I found is in Rudolph’s final character story, he talks about the sea breeze! And Giovanna later also talks to Hughette about a sea of salt, with Hughette somehow understanding what that means. How is it that these characters know what the sea is, when it’s clear that Norzelia has no sea? Is there anything in the notes that could explain this?

Not as far as I know, unfortunately! Cordelia also uses the phrase "ocean of blood" in one of her character stories, and when the group reads Orlaea's journal, none of them seemed super confused by the word "sea" either, only the idea that it actually exists.

My headcanon is that they have some carryover language from way back before their ancestors migrated to Norzelia, and maybe have a vague idea of what a sea/ocean is but kind of consider it a fictional or metaphorical thing (like the way someone might call the sky "the heavens").

That said, especially with Rudolph's character story, I'm tempted to think it was just a straight-up mistake. "Sea breeze" is a pretty specific and vivid image that has a lot to do with the smell of salt, so it seems weird that that particular turn of phrase would have persisted as a historical language thing. But who knows!

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Do you know which way the Norzelia River flows? I need to go back and re-review sometime but the ships in the game looked to be only sail powered and I swear they were still going between all the cities.

Yeah!!! There's actually a really funny amount of in-game literature for the Norzelia River including The Eternal Norzelia River and Norzelia River Ships, as well as shorter mentions in a few others like Winds of Norzelia and a fair amount of the Marvels of Norzelia volumes.

The rivers flow like this:

So there's definitely a lot of upstream stuff going on. But upstream travel is still feasible in some cases! According to all the war chronicle notes, the slope of the eastern/Hyzantian branch is pretty gradual, and there's often wind that helps people who are sailing upstream due to some temperature difference stuff going on in the air between Aesfrost and Hyzante. They also mention people using oars, as well as horses on the side of the river to pull the boat along.

The battle in "For You, My Heart" is a neat example of getting to see some boats in action when Serenoa + co. chase Avlora up the eastern/Aesfrosti tributary. It looks like Aesfrosti ships might have holes for people to use oars below deck, and Glenbrook ships look like they're designed to have people sit above deck and row from there (but neither boats are using them at the time of battle, just sails). It's worth noting that it starts raining during the after-battle cutscene, so it's possible the wind was especially strong preceding that oncoming storm, which might have allowed them to move as quickly as they did.

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Found a full bird's eye version of the world map in the data files! I'm not sure if it's the actual 3d texture or not, but either way it's kind of fun. If you zoom in there's a ton of text on there as well (assuming tumblr doesn't compress it too much), which is interesting

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Whiteholm Castle concept/reference art

Translation notes:

I’m not 100% what the distinction is between King’s Room, Boardroom, Assembly Hall, etc. is. The throne room definitely seems to be the King’s room, and the Assembly Hall is definitely the one with the staircases. However, when it comes to the Boardroom, I think it refers to the King’s Room (since that seems to be noted in the Assembly Hall image) but it felt a little unclear. I’ve probably mixed up some terminology throughout it all, so sorry about that.

As I’m going through more pages, it’s dawning on me that “A” references both Glenbrook AND Wolffort (and possibly Serenoa specifically). The note on the diagram that talks about “A’s territory” is most likely in reference to Wolffort. (As an aside, this means I’ll probably go back and update Lady Destra’s concept page at some point--there was one thing I translated as “Parent of A [meaning Glenbrook]” when it probably should have been translated as “Parent of A [meaning Wolffort/Serenoa].”)

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Map of Norzelia

Here’s a map of Norzelia I put together! I feel like I’m still missing some landmarks, but these were the ones I found on a quick run-through.

The screenshots I used to put this together are taken from the end of the golden route, so you’ll notice that a few things are burnt + blackened (Falkes is the big one I see, but there might be a few other places as well). General disclaimer that things’ll probably look different at different points of the game, but the position of things should be the same.

Edit: added Valley of Dunes.

[triangle-strategy-notes]

@roaldseth oh man yeah I think about that all the time!!! Aesfrosti ships specifically and how they must work is fascinating to me bc there are SO many issues they'd have to work around.

I like to play around with the idea that once Aesfrosti ships get up into the worst of the rapids they have some sort of chain boat thing built to haul the ships upstream and/or some sort of rudimentary engine + propeller setup that they use to power through those sections. The Twinsgate Marvels of Norzelia mentions that Twinsgate probably uses the subterranean source of the river to power its opening and closing mechanism, so it's possible they've got some sort of tech that they could repurpose for stuff like that.

That still doesn't sound like the most CONVENIENT way to transport things but!! maybe Zigmunt or Gustadolph or whoever just really liked boats lmao

Some other interesting things as far as the western tributary goes:

the Norzelia River doesn't actually seem to reach the Aesfrosti border and the game never mentions Aesfrost having any sort of designated harbor, so Aesfrosti ships are either setting sail from Telliore OR they have some sort of harbor tucked away in the cove created there (which would be cool as all get out aesthetically and might also explain why they were able to prep warships for the invasion without anyone noticing)

either way, Aesfrost would have to have all their ships go through the Telliore dam to get anywhere, so they've got to have some sort of lock or separate canal that they're using to go around it (and probably a whole host of taxation and toll-related issues going on as well). I looked up a screenshot from the dam explosion and it kinda looks like there is some sort of lock system here

(but more importantly now that I'm looking at this how does the reservoir even work???? Like I'm guessing that the long gate-looking thing can be sort of opened and closed to let boats through and then redirect the water into the reservoir when it's closed? But it seems weird that the reservoir is higher in water level than the river itself. Maybe it's just a restraint of the graphics since they have to animate the reservoir draining??? I also don't know much about dams so maybe it's just a setup I'm not familiar with. but anyways!!!!)

no matter where they're officially harbored, Aesfrost was definitely sailing a bunch of warships through the Telliore dam on their way to invade Whiteholm. Which you think would have raised some red flags, but Silvio doesn't seem to hear about it until after the invasion is already underway. This isn't necessarily surprising given Silvio being the way he is but it IS really funny to me

Do you know which way the Norzelia River flows? I need to go back and re-review sometime but the ships in the game looked to be only sail powered and I swear they were still going between all the cities.

Yeah!!! There's actually a really funny amount of in-game literature for the Norzelia River including The Eternal Norzelia River and Norzelia River Ships, as well as shorter mentions in a few others like Winds of Norzelia and a fair amount of the Marvels of Norzelia volumes.

The rivers flow like this:

So there's definitely a lot of upstream stuff going on. But upstream travel is still feasible in some cases! According to all the war chronicle notes, the slope of the eastern/Hyzantian branch is pretty gradual, and there's often wind that helps people who are sailing upstream due to some temperature difference stuff going on in the air between Aesfrost and Hyzante. They also mention people using oars, as well as horses on the side of the river to pull the boat along.

The battle in "For You, My Heart" is a neat example of getting to see some boats in action when Serenoa + co. chase Avlora up the eastern/Aesfrosti tributary. It looks like Aesfrosti ships might have holes for people to use oars below deck, and Glenbrook ships look like they're designed to have people sit above deck and row from there (but neither boats are using them at the time of battle, just sails). It's worth noting that it starts raining during the after-battle cutscene, so it's possible the wind was especially strong preceding that oncoming storm, which might have allowed them to move as quickly as they did.