Official Artbook Summary – Keywords Part 1

Independence War
700 years before the journey of Rain and friends, there was a great war that separated Paladia into two. Ardore and Hess were originally two different races but under the rule of a unified country. Unsatisfied with national structure that allows Ardore to dominate, Hess wanted independence. At first, Ardore dominated Hess with their superior technology of Magitek. Then, Hess invented Illusion Magitek that was superior to Ardore’s Magitek. Then it was inevitable that the independence movement began.

Birth of Ardore Emperor
Sometime before 700 years ago, Paladia was a unified country of Ardore and Hess. However, the king at that time and his successor, as well as their close aides died of accident. It coincided with the timing of Hess independence movement becoming more vigorous. In need of a structure with strong domination, Vrado, who was an aide of the king, became the first emperor, and started his imperialism. Although he was supported by the Sworn Eight of Paladia, he forsook them into Lapis and strengthened the dictatorship of the succeeding emperors.

Orders
Sworn Eight was an elite group that directly reported to Ardore emperor. After Ardore’s victory 700 years ago, emperor replaced Sworn Eight with Orders to serve the same purpose. The difference was there was a ranking system from Orders #1 to Orders #16. Lower ranked orders will be qualified to rise in rank if they could defeat a higher ranked orders. Or if non-member defeated an Orders member, they could join the Orders. Therefore unlike Sworn Eight, they did not consider each other as comrades. They only cooperated if they could serve their respective objectives.

Ardore Tower
A skyscraping tower that Ardore Emperor resided. By making it so one can view the tower from every corner or Paladia, it signified the absolute dominance of emperor. Since the tower used the finest technology of Ardore, the top of the tower lies in the height that is far beyond the stars where even high performance airships could not reach. So nobody knew the full appearance of the tower. Reagan and friends who just arrived in Paladia, wanted to challenge the emperor by conquering the tower. However they were defeated by the Orders and were forced to retreat.

Barrier Facilities
Energy facilities there were scattered throughout Paladia. They powered the barriers that protect Ardore emperor as well as the Ardore Tower he resided. The facilities consumed a tremendous amount of crystal to continue funcitoning. Crystals were once sleeping in the land while making the environment prosper. Due to the system that extracted them as energy, the environmental destruction around the facilities became apparent. Also, there were other facilities that also extract the energy out of crystals. The combination of these facilities was eroding the land of Paladia.