In fire emblem three houses Manuela explains the difference between healing magic and medicine. Healing magic and items like vulnerary are use to close the wounds. While items and staffs like antitoxin act like medicine that prevents or stops infections like poison. This is why simply taking a vulnerary wouldn't make the poison go away automatically.
So basically with magic all you're doing is preventing blood loss without treating the poison with medicine. Correct? Also that kind of sucks they don't have an all in one healing spell(s) for treating and healing in the FE universe. But then again there are spells that heal toxins without the healing--by that I mean recovering HP. But that's a game mechanic. Basically you would have to use two or more different spells to treat/cure certain stuff before actually healing. Okay ignore the second paragraph I don't know where I'm going with this already. 🤣
@@kingdombladesventus A Catch-all heal spell is kinda well... World breaking when you think about it. That's some society changing stuff right there. It makes sense that they're different though It's the difference between "Surgery" and "Medicine" in a modern sense.
So I’m gonna assume that drinkable vulneraries, concoctions and elixirs are healing potions that are infused with healing magic to make it more potent and be able to close wounds. Basically, its healing magic that’s literally consumed and more accessible. Whereas in Thracia and Tellius, they’re salves.
I chuckled. I literally stopped deploying my units with vulneraries in Thracia to give more XP to my staff users, and I was playing just 5 minutes ago. Too real.
The first shop that sells healing staves: My cleric(s): ILL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK FR though, they get ground to level 20 asap and given the first guiding rings
Did I just watch a ten minute video explaining the origins and etymology of a low level item in a video game? Yes, yes I did. Would I watch it again? Yes, yes I would.
Perhaps the vulnerary are actually just applied topically and happen to be in a potion-like container. Elixirs and concoctions are probably more like magical fantasy potions, hence why they heal more than a more than the more realistic vulnerary.
That was my though, too. Just because something's in a bottle doesn't mean it can't be applied topically. In fact, it's probably more sanitary than just putting it in a drawstring bag. Of course, that begs the question as to whether vulneraries are liquid enough to pour, or are something thicker like the Vaseline example...
When I heard people saying "drink a vulnerary" in a phrase related to Fire Emblem I thought it was a meme, I didn't think people literally thought characters drink them because, being Italian, I didn't know what vulnerary meant literally and just guessed it was the translation to "Unguento" so I thought people were joking about using it like a potion and drinking it instead of applying it to the wound or something lol
I played my first FE games in French, so for me it was the opposite, I thought vulnerary was just a fancy word for a drinkable potion. But thanks to Excelblem I now know better.
I'm just imagining Ephraim clutching a wound on his arm and taking out some ointment going "this will fix it right up" then going stonefaced and chugging it like a frat boy
Wow love the amount of research gone into this, I always I assumed the person drank it or something along the lines healing items are mostly weird because it’s always assumed to be potions but it could also be an ointment
I actually always thought that it was applied on the wound because I also treated final fantasy options in this way. Since I only played tactics, usually I would see potions being sprinkled or thrown at someone, not drank, like some weird magical balm.
If you search the Japanese name for Vulnerary きずぐすり with Fire Emblem (in Japanese), you actually get a bunch of image results for Wrys first. Because he was replaced with a vulnerary item in FE3. The same name for the item is used for the ‘potions’ in Pokémon. In that series it is a type of spray that goes onto an injury to heal the Pokémon.
I believe there was one or two supports or throwaway lines that directly refer to vulneraries as a drink, but I really can't say where that was. I'd be curious to the original translation though. Also, it's worth noting that in thracia, which is a kaga game, there is another item explicitly referred to as a stamina drink which uses the same sprite as the vulnerary, so I'm gonna continue to believe that vulneraries were always drinks. In my head the bags just always held the healing potions within, hence why there were 3 uses for the 3 potions held *inside* the bag, & also why the item in Japanese referred to a more general set of healing medicine, rather than just referring to the specific potions used.
Elixers and concoctions never appeared in Kaga directed FE games, but it’s more likely that S drinks don’t indicate that vulnerarys were drinks and that the S drink sharing a sprite is either a mistake, time constraint, or just it’s a potion in a bag and vulneraries still aren’t potions. Realistically, having 3 glass bottles unrestrained in a bag is a bad idea. And it’s also worth noting, that in tear ring saga, the vulerary stand ins are explicitly herbs.
@@samkeiser9776 I say that most vulneraries are ointments in bottles that you use sparingly, while the ones in Thracia and the Tellius games are salves that you apply to the wounds (with it seemingly implying that vulneraries became more potent and bigger in average amount in the 3-year transition from PoR to RD).
They could be drinks in some games, and be herbs or medicine in other games. The term "vulnerary" basically just means "medicine," and each region's medicine could be different. But they all get called vulnerary to avoid confusion from the player's perspective, so that whenever you play a Fire Emblem game and see "vulnerary," you understand what it does.
Shadows of Valentia doesnt have Vulneraries but it does have an item with the same function, Bread, bread can be eaten three times with each state twlling you how much you still have.
I choose to believe that even when Vulneraries are liquids, you just pour them on the wound. The liquid form just makes it quicker to rub the ointment on, cause all you have to do is uncork the bottle and dump it on. Not the most effective way of applying medicine/potions, but it IS a cheap, mass-produced thing used quickly in the heat of battle to touch up a bit before immediately being assaulted, so it makes sense, imo.
A word I was surprised Fire Emblem seemed to invent is "paralogue". It makes so much sense between prologue and epilogue as a parallel event during the events of a story. But Google searching "paralogue" brings up Fire Emblem; no implication of it being a general story structure term.
I've always been interested in the idea that Fire Emblem 1 was more classical in its styling than medieval, and it's only from FE4 (ish) onwards that things have settled into a more conventional medieval fantasy setting. That might require a longer video/more thorough analysis than feasible, though.
傷薬 is pronounced Kizugusuri, not Kizu Kusuri. Compound words in Japanese will often voice the first consonant of the second word, thus turning K to G. This is why one of the katanas in Dark Souls is called uchigatana (uchi + katana), or why the Japanese term for a sushi roll is makizushi (maki + sushi).
I honestly love how you are the "shitpost guy" who just randomly decides to make an in depth, well researched video about Fire Emblem or something every so often.
Being a general term, I don't see why the vulneraries you get in any Fire Emblem game have to refer to a specific thing. Heck, the apothecaries that make them probably wouldn't be using the exact same recipe in a medieval setting. A healing "potion" could also still be topical, like using alcohol to disinfect a wound, or some sort of liquid anesthetic. Personally, I always envisioned the vulneraries to be some sort of powder to promote coagulation. With that, it could come in the form of the raw powder in a little leather bag, or suspended in water to be poured on the wound.
This; I already made a comment a few minutes ago, but the older versions of them being kept as powders in a bag that just needed to be dusted onto the wound (Kinda like Baking Soda paste, I guess?) to mix with either the blood or some other liquid to turn it into a paste, with the later appearances I've just kind of thought of it as being an easier to apply version since it's prepackaged with water or some fantasy juice, dump it on the wound kinda like Peroxide, which is my mental image for how the Concoction works, the only one that mentally gets ingested for me would probably be the Elixir, which I kinda figure that with it being a mid/late game item usually basically just promoted full body healing (Some kind of increased Blood flow along with some fantasy herb stuff that might let it accelerate the replacement of blood?) so they didn't have to be precise with the placement. I love thinking about stuff like this, and while it's unrelated, Herbs in Monster Hunter getting mixed with Blue Mushrooms makes me think of them being kinda like Tea, so when Honey gets slapped in, the effect gets boosted even further, haven't done the most research on it, but as far as I'm aware, Herbal, Mushroom and Honey Tea all have various benefits alone, so when things start using the "More is better!" ruling, it makes sense from a conceptual standpoint, or something.
I always saw it as a potion because as I´m from Argentina the first fire emblem game I played was fire emblem 7, obviously in Spanish, so i saw is as "Poción" (that as was explained is just a potion that you drink), and when I started playing in English, i was suprised and somewhat confused as to what was this "Vulnerary" actually was, but i just saw it as a potion, or just as that thing that heals, never giving it such a deep thought. Nevertheless it´s just a interesting topic, and it´s nice to find the true origin of the term for "wound medicine".
the answer to 2 is that fire emblem is a fantasy game made in japan in 1990, and falchion is a cool-sounding foreign word for a type of sword so kaga or someone on his team decided to name their cool legendary foreign-looking sword falchion and that was the most thought that was put into the decision
I think in Awakening they mentioned it just naturally changed over time whether that’s evolving or devolving. If Valentia’s Falchion looks different it’s because it is a different sword. Both are made from divine dragon teeth, but they are two separate things so looking different could just be due to the craftsmen
It's kinda crazy that the two games whose EN descriptions of Vulneraries refer to them as potions are also two of the games that use the bag-type icon instead of the bottle-type one.
I ran a Fire Emblem roleplay. I had a rule that nobody specifies how they apply the Vulneraries, and if they did, they could never be consistent. It was pretty funny.
What about a look at the etymologies of legendary weapons and items? The names come from all sorts of different mythologies. It would be nice to have a roundup of their sources.
I woild argue with you but Im american so any argument i have is either overpriveledged, absurd to even a third world country or just wrong plus ur canadian so its always the last point
I thought it was weird because I’m from western Canada and we don’t have the bagged milk here haha. I’ll have to look for it sometime whenever I go over to the east though.
Dragon Age had a similar thing with Poultices being the healing item in the early games that the animation shows you drinking but you're not supposed to drink a poultice, it's applied to the wound. Something about video game healing ointments is just so drinkable.
If you can just drink something to heal you'd definitely appreciate it. That pink stuff with bismuth in it is pretty damn good for the few things it works on.
Now this, this is the content that I adore. Not that I don't adore the other content, but something about weird rabbit holes like this scratch my brain in just the right way.
4:28 I am Canadian and can attest to this. You cut the corner of the bag with scissors to pour, and store the bag in a jug for later. I both buy bagged milk and am weirded out by it.
This was actually quite interesting! I always wondered what the hell a Vulnerary was! Since you mentioned suggestions for a possible future topic, "myrmidon" comes to mind! FE leads one to believe the word may pertain to someone versed in sword fighting, but it looks like the Oxford definition is not that at all. Lol. And then you've got the origins of the word, which from a quick skimming of Wikipedia appear to alude to a group of people. So yeah, seems like there is a bit of history behind the archaic word!
the fire emblem series seems to have a consistent record of reusing/repurposing words and terms that already exist lances, falchions, vulneraries, myrmidons...
I guess the localization team didn't want to use the super generic literal translation "Swordfighter." Instead they got weirdly specific and named them after a band of warriors from the Illiad.
I'd like to point out that even if it's in a bottle, the vulnerary could still be some kind of liquid or cream that is applied in the wound instead of ingested
Seems like it will be an interesting little video, click in and see it's over 10 minutes. Welp, time to learn a lot more about Vulneries than I ever thought I would.
6:25 As a german: Heilmittel is a pretty archaic term, i think (i never really heard anyone use it). It is a more general term for a „thing/ stuff that heals“.
Speaking of Potions, Dragon Age uses the term Poultice, that also indicates as Dressing or Balm to heal wounds but that game uses Drinking animations when you use them. A later game on that series has a character complain to the apotecary that their healing potion tastes terrible, to the apotecary responding that its not to be drank.
When you zoomed into the sprites, it was pretty clear to me that *all* the vuln sprites up through Awakening are drawstring bags! You can see distinctly yellow strips on the DSFE/Awakening sprite, and FE6-10 have this noticeably brown squiggle.
Super-Hero logic, ez i've got nothing for the stat growth alterations though, aside from their molecules getting rearranged like Danny Phantom or something, but that's probably putting too much thought into it.
Great content my man, keep it up! Also, I think even if vulnerary is more of a liquid item, it could be also used to apply directly on the wound, preserving the original meaning. Alas, we can't be sure of anything
Proposal: In-universe, "vulnerary" is used as a catch-all term for a weak but relatively cheap healing item of any kind. While the term originally referred to topical ointments, its use has since expanded to refer to any healing item commonly given out to rank-and-file troops, therefore usually ones that are cheap and easy to manufacture, but typically not very powerful as a consequence. The shift in usage is thought to originate around the time of the Mad King's War (or as we'd know it, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance), as rank-and-file soldiers and mercenaries started referring to any weak healing item that they were given by their employers as a vulnerary regardless of the method of application.
And me thinking this was a video explaning the strategic role of vulneraries in Fire Emblem (like, "to allow tankier characters to roam around the map without worrying that a healer isn't close by"), rather than what I've always done, "never using any for fear of running out, and hoarding like 500 of them at the depot"... lol... Still, it was very entertaining, and living proof you can make a great video of basically anything! Keep up the great work!
Mekkah: “here’s how you should theoretically use summoners in Sacred stones, as well as examples of practical application.” Excelblem: “I have an inquiry: where does Sigurd pee?”
I've always thought of it like the Healing Juice from RE7/8; Kept in bags its more powdery and you'd probably have to add some water or liquid of some kind to get it to actually turn to a paste you can cover the wound with or something, and in later games they just kind of moved to the Aloe Vera bottle treatment for it. Dice some herbs and stuff up, grind em to a paste, dry it out, save for later; The concoction is where it gets iffy since they could still be dumping it on the wound itself to kind of sterilize and take care of the immediate damage, but I always figured the Elixer was magical to some degree and basically just did a refresh of wounds and stuff.
I think even if its a bit obvious one and might have been done before, it could be cool to explore the legends and myths most characters/weapons draw their name from. It sometimes just looks like its here for the cool factor, but I remember learning that Beorc and Laguz were actually real nordic runes with meanings that made sense in the context they were used in the game (I don't want to directly state that Beorc meant Human and Laguz Beast because I don't remember it clearly, also nordic runes have various translations it's a big can of worms I've barely scratched the surface of)
Just personal theories of mine: I'd say the possibility can also be in-universe that it can vary slightly between the different sagas, as they take place in different game universes (e.g. the Radiant Dawn/Path of Radius are the Tellius Saga). There's just many similarities, but it's entirely possible that such a loosely described item takes a slightly different form between them. In one universe, it may be a thick and goopy healing ointment stored in a clay vessel. In another it may have the consistency of an oil, allowing it to be stored in a glass phial and can in theory either be consumed or applied topically (possibly ingesting them might help to treat internal injuries). In yet another it might simply be an oral medicine consisting of anything from solids to fluids -- the point is that it's a basic healing medicine that's standard issue amongst many armies in battle. Often these are stored in cloth or leather sacks, possibly padded to provide a measure of protection to the more fragile inner vessels from being shattered due to accidental drops or shocks, and possibly also labelled or marked for ease of identification if someone is in critical condition. Like a first aid kit in modern times, having an iconic and uniform appearance can save lives when someone is bleeding out. Or the drawstrings of the bags might also make a handy way to secure such an item to your person in battle so it doesn't interfere with heated combat.
Canadian who works part-time in a grocery store here - I can confirm we have bags of milk. They come in packs of two 2 litre bags, and we put them in plastic jug-things. They’re actually more popular than cartons here.
I see vulneraries as either rubbing alcohol (in bottle sprites) or a dock leaf (in bag sprites), in short, something that numbs the pain of an attack. But that's a realistic perspective. And it's really needless to be hard on the realism of healing potions when you have people riding wyverns and summoning fire.
Even Fantasy needs some realism, when you make a Scenario, its too much work to replace everything with fantasy stuff, and even when you do its better to replace with something that makes sense. Healing potions are there so you can heal without using magic. Thats why most of them are medicine
A dumb theory but: What if the Vulnerary changes the way of administration between continents? Maybe in Awakaneia/Valentia/Jugdrall the vulneraries where an ointment used directly unto the wounds. However, in Elibe/Magvel/Tellius/Fateland/Fodland the ingredients are differentes and better used as some kind of Potion. Also, something to take into account are the Medicine Vases from Fire Emblem Conquest, the ones you break and cover enemies/Allies and can give Buffs, debuffs and heal PD: I would love to see this kind of video talking about the kinds of Magic (Light/Dark/Anima) or the changes of weapons between games (One good example are Killer Weapons, from being OP in Elibe to kinda suck in Tellius and just die by future games).
I'd definitely dig something talking about the different types of Magic; Light/Dark/Anima, and Faith/Reason, it's fun to think about what makes a type of magic be considered something in a certain category.
I love this type of video. It reminds me of back in my high school days when I was googling stuff like vulnerary or myrmidon to find out what FE was talking about.
it's just a drink that looks like a Hershey's kiss it actually makes more sense except for the Hershey Kiss part but it's a literally a bottle filled with medicine or a delicious drink that helps heal the wounds faster
Dude this is amazing man. I really do like this analysis man. I always thought it was a potion of sorts and yes I also questioned what is a vunaluary. In truth is was an ointment of sort which kinda explains the low HP recovery man. Amazing
A translation error wouldn't really account for Koei-Tecmo's interpretation of items in Fire Emblem: Warrirors, as they're a Japanese company who likely doesn't really pay attention to Nintendo Treehouse localizations or whatnot. It's more likely that the confusion over what this thing exactly is transcends language.
It’s a “design language” thing. If I’m quickly trying to identify enemy drops, I’m going to see sacks as loot or other items, not things that directly recover HP. I see the potion bottle and I know exactly what that item does. Nintendo has always had a more gameplay-first philosophy so the trade off of lore consistency for the sake of clarity would make a lot of sense, especially since only 10 people would care, and Excelblem is three of them.
A similar issue crops up in Ocarina of Time. In the original game, the item you need to give to the bum in Lost Woods is an "Odd Potion" even though it is clearly some sort of topical medicine in a bandage. The 3DS remake changes this to "Odd Poultice" which makes more sense. Every other Zelda potion is something you drink. Furthermore, the Japanese name for the item is あやしいくすり _ayashii kusuri_ or "Suspicious Medicine". However, other Zelda potions are *also* referred to as くすり or 薬 _kusuri_ "Medicine" (such as 赤いくすり _akai kusuri_ "Red Medicine" etc). They are called 命の水 _inochi no mizu_ "Water of Life" in the original NES game . To put it simply, the original translation for Ocarina of Time renders all instances of "Medicine" as "Potion" regardless of the context.
I hope this is a start of a series going into exhaustive detail of all the silly weird stuff that no one thinks about. The one I would love to see is a history of the spell noseferatu and how its yoyoed between being a useless light spell and a overpowered dark spell even in between games that take place in the same world
An alternate theory to consider: It can be used as both. For physical attacks, and Actual, Proper wound would appear, allowing it to be used as a Salve For Magical attacks, however, no proper wound would asurface (what the hell is a Flux), so one could use it as a potion (This helps Potent Potion and Quick salve both work in Fe Fates)
In path of radiance rolf and marcias A support implies its applied topically cause he doesn't drink but instead just says it burns, presumably when rubbed on the wound
On the GBA FEs (my first FEs) the animation for vulnerary was the same as the sprite animation for heal staves, so I never questioned that it was just a magic potion until now.
I think the usage of Concoctions and Elixirs are similarly ambiguous to Vulnerary. A concoction is just a mixture of things -- there's some connotation that it's often used with food or drinks, but it doesn't have to be. "I mixed together a few herbs and poured the resulting concoction over the wound" is a sentence that makes perfect sense. The term Elixir probably comes from alchemy, where it was supposed to be a mythical substance capable of curing all ills and/or giving eternal life. While a lot of people probably imagined the mythical Elixir as a drink, I'm pretty sure there are also portrayals of it being just like, a rock or something. It was another name for the "Philosopher's Stone" after all. There are various more modern definitions for Elixir such as a "medicinal concoction." "a cure-all," or "a tincture with more than one base," but most are similarly ambiguous in their usage. Some do imply drinking though, such as "a sweetened liquid usually containing alcohol that is used in medication either for its medicinal ingredients or as a flavoring." Honestly, you could do a whole video on the etymology of "Elixir."
Played Fire Emblem 20 years now, never thought about it in that time really, good to learn. I remember in FE7 Lyn also calls them a "salve" at one point too. What is interesting is this video really shows how the meanings of words can change. Because "Vulnerary" had it's usage limited to Fire Emblem, it's change in Fire Emblem effected the usage of the word as a whole in the English lexicon. Fire Emblem has literally changed the English language because some guy working on it didn't understand something and everyone just went with it.
This is a question I have had for years, I always thought it was a potion before, but then I saw some if the older sprites and decided to look up the term, which only served to make me less sure of what it was, so thank you for this. Also, I would just like to state that as someone who has lived in Canada their whole life, I have literally never seen bagged milk in person, and I think it's weird too. I'm pretty sure they only do it in certain parts of the country, namely the places where temperatures are below freezing for months at a time, and I'm sure there's a good reason for it, but I don't care enough to look it up.
It's also quite possible that the answer was always going to be "both," with the term referring to multiple kinds of medicine that can be used, all of them being about as effective as one another. As a second note, even if it's meant to be a potion that doesn't mean that it's drunk, rather than applied to the wound. Lots of settings have potions that are depicted as ointments, or even that are both poured on the wound *and* drunk, depending on the wound. Sometimes both at the same time for the same wound even, with part of the potion being used on the wound and the rest being drunk to finish the job!
To me, It just made a lot of sense that Vulneraries where some kind of weak ointment for pain, while anything else was something more serious, hence the low HP gains on Vulneraries. But this was really interesting actually, and kind of something I should take notice of since I want to be a translator someday
Judging by the progression from Vulnerary (which was originally unambiguously a topical medicine) to Concoction (which is just something that is mixed together) to Elixir (an unambiguously ingested healing item), perhaps Vulneraries are less potent or pure, meaning they have to be applied directly to the wound to have an effect. But their lesser healing is due to the fact that this wouldn't fix the deeper injuries caused. A Concoction, then, is a more potent Vulnerary which has been blended with other medicine to make it more effective. As a result, drinking it to give it more immediate access to internal wounds is the more effective use case. Finally, Elixirs are simply refined, perhaps enchanted Concoctions which are far more effective when consumed.
Things like the question of what the hell vulneraries are supposed to be is why I like videos games using flavor text instead of just utilitarian descriptions of what items' ingame effects are
Watching a 10 mins video on a random FE topic from Excelemblem was like watching one of those 4 hours long videos about a random sitcom from the 2000s, so out of the ordinary, unnecessary long and wonderful. Please do more like this one :)
