Elthlead Knights?

High_King_Tir

Be Prepared for a rather long post.

I happened to stumble upon the Elthlead Manual for the PC9801 Release (which I can put up later if anyone wants, I haven’t been able to the locate the Manual to the History of Elthlead, so I’m not sure if it provides anymore information).

I noticed among other things that it provides a little more details on the characters mentioned in the work and helps to connect some dots with characters seen in Guyframe.

That is Roveck and Bellwood both have descendants in Guyframe.

I’d like to get more of characters on the wiki just to fill out the Elthlead page but was wondering if there was any ideas on some of the names not present in Crest of Gaia Translation.

I realize most people probably don’t care about Elthlead and are content to just say Langrisser 3 retcon everything and be done with it. But I’d still like to get what information I can on this up on our wiki. I’d like to get the names to fit into the translations seen in the Crest of Gaia and the preliminarily translations seen in Guyframe.

(seen in part here: https://community.langrisser.info/d/1324-script-translation-complete and in other places on the .info).

I also realize that no one may be do any more than I can, but still I figured I’d see what help I could get from the community. I know form previous forum posts D had some of the manual's history stuff in rough notes, so I didn't know if perhaps he had any notes on these guy.

The names I’m specifically wondering about are:

Marquis Ricefield ライスフィールド侯

Is there any way this could be another way to spell Woodfield (ウッドフィールド)? The only reason I ask is because there are three guys that join Elvin in Guyframe, Roveck, Bellwood, and Woodfield, but I don’t see any mention of Woodfield... in the Ethlead material which seems odd, as the three warriors seem to be pointed to ancient Elthlead Knights.

(I personally wonder if at some point, Langrisser I’s Albert, Throne, and Hawking might reflected these three familes. Maybe its a stretch but eh... I guess that's my head canon).

Hence I was wondering if the names could be more connected than the final part, although I doubt it. My suspicion is that the developers meant to the connect the two and simply messed up. Much how they suddenly make Sieg a dynastic name in Guyframe and not realzing that Sieghart was the name and not Sieg Hart.

Anyhow all that the manual seems to say, about the Ricefield is that he’s the Prime Minister.

ライラス Rylas (Spelling in the Profile Section) Talus テイラス (spelling used in the Leadership Structure)

Rylas was one of the ways I’ve seen this translated so I’m pretty okay with this. Talus seems okay enough to me too. I have no idea which its supposed to be.

Sealuck? Or maybe Sherlock シーラック

Sealuck doesn’t seem much of a name, but that was the machine translation. I know that its not the typical way Sherlock is rendered into JP, but I and I freely admit I maybe wrong, I thought the Japanese still might reflect Sherlock.

I’d like to know if this particular’s warrior is a woman, the Rall Knights haev a face in History of Elthlead (in what i think is the two player mode) which I think look femine. I assume, rightly or wrongly the faces are the character mentioned, but they it only give the army names. (Again I have some screens which I can upload if anyone wants).

The profile in the manual is this

ラーレの塔を守る騎士団。シーラック卿の郯郁は、近衛騎士団のロヴェック卿とは対称的「技」が光る。そのあざやかな剣術は、ロヴェック楖も拇されるくらいである。

(This is also repeated below, formatted as the manual has it.)

Ryzih ライリッヒ

Lord Third Bridge? and his Frontier Knights 辺境騎士団（サードブリッジ卿

Thridbridge just seems... odd Sādoburijji?

Rauvard’s division which I got a machine translation of Security Guard 警備騎士団, but it would be nice to know for sure what it is

And Roveck’s division The Imperial Guards, but would Royal Guards maybe work? 近衛騎士団

Authority structure:

The manual gives the order of authority in Ethlead and shows the names as follows the [] are where translations come from

King
ジークハルト
Sieghart [Translation used throughout .info and fan patches]
ライト·ロード
Light ·Lord [Light Lord is used in Crest of Gaia Fan Translation]

Prime Minister
宰相
Marquis Ricefield
ライスフィールド侯

Imperial Knights (Lord Roveck) Elthlead Castle [Roveck is used in Guyframe Fan Translation]
近衛騎士団（ロヴェック卿）工ルスリード城

Dragoons (M. Bellwood) [Dragoons and Bellwood is used in Crest of Gaia Fan Translation]
竜騎士団（M.ベルウッド卿）

Land Dragon Corps (Lord Arkaroth) [Land Dragon Crops and Arkaroth is used in Crest of Gaia Fan Translation]
地竜軍団（アーキョーシ卿）

Kingdom Fleet, could it be Royal Fleet? (Admiral Eiferlöck) [Eiferlöck is used in Crest of Gaia Fan Translation]
王国艦隊（アフターロック提督）

Kingdom Knights

王国騎士団

Knights of Reitel (Lord Talus) Reitel [Reitel is the translation used in Der Langrisser’s Fan Patch]
レイテル騎士団（テイラス卿）レイテル

Knights of Rall (Lord Sherlock? Sealuck?) Rall Tower [Rall is used in Crest of Gaia and Der Langrisser Fan Patch]
ラール騎士団（シーラック卿）ラーしの塔

Knights of Diehl (Lord Ryzih) Diehl [Diehl is used in Crest of Gaia Fan Translation]
ティール騎士団（ライリッヒ卿）ティール

Security Guard (Lord Rauvard) West Tower [Rauvard is used in the Crest of Gaia Fan Translation]
警備騎士団（ラワード卿）西の塔

Frontier Knights (Lord Third Bridge ) Fort Auger [Fort Auger is used in Crest of Gaia Fan Translation]
辺境騎士団（サードブリッジ卿）アクルの砦

Profiles

The manual also provides Profiles, which I have below. I can machine translate these and probably might but if anyone can hazard a guess so I can try to fill in a few articles that would be helpful.

Roveck
近衛騎士団……ロヴェック卿
エルスリード軍の中でも最強の騎士。
彼、専用の剣は他人ではとても振り回せぬほど重い。
人並みはずれたパワーを持つ。

M. Bellwood
竜騎士団……M.ベルウッド卿
エルスリード軍の空戦部隊。
ドラゴンの扱いはお手のものでどんなものでも、すぐおとなしくさ
せる。しかし、空戦では戦術にさえを見せる智将。

Lord Arkaroth
地竜軍団……アーキョーシ卿
地竜をあやつり、敵軍へ先陣をきる勇猛な軍団。
その中で、最も過激をきわめるのがアーキョーシ卿である。
無暴とも思える戦いでも、必ず勝つ無敵の超人

Admiral Eiferlöck
王国艦隊……アフターロック提督
海の男である。作戦行動のない時は必ず宴会を開き部下ともども
酒を浴びる酒豪である。
必勝の海戦戦術でボーゼル軍をことごとく撃沈。
ボーゼレ軍から「ハリケーン艦隊」と呼ばれ恐れられている。

Kingdom Knights
Lord Rylas (Talus above)
レイテル騎士団……ライラス卿
特にこれといった特诫は若いが、なぜか、レイテル騎士団をまかさ
れている。

Sealuck? Sherlock?
ラール騎士団……シーラック卿
ラーレの塔を守る騎士団。
シーラック卿の郯郁は、近衛騎士団のロヴェック卿とは対称的に
「技」が光る。
そのあざやかな剣術は、ロヴェック楖も拇されるくらいである。

Lord Ryzih
ティール騎士団……ライリッヒ卿
ボーゼル軍侵攻の拠点となったディールの騎士団。
ライリッヒ卿は、圧倒的な不利の中、民間人を救出させたため、
「国王光騎士章」の受与者でもある。
どんな状況でも冷静さを失わない適確な判断力に部下の信頼も厚い。

Rauvard
警備騎士団……ラワード卿
水の都、レイテルの近くの為、ライラス卿とは、よく演習をする。
レイテし騎士団とは絶好のコンビネーション。
「アーマーナイト」の考案者の1人。

Lord Third Bridge
辺境騎士団……サードブリッジ卿
アグルの砦の守備隊。
この人自身はあまり表に出す、もっぱらグレーテアン第1団長が
指揮をとる。
また転属するらしいと広まっている。

I'm hope I got the Japanese done right, but if something is funky let me know. I've already fixed one mistake that I noticed.

Anyways any help would be appreciated. 😃

Note: Edited because I noticed a few mess ups サードフリッジ should be サードブリッジ
And that テイラス and ライラス are both used for the name guy

langrisser_knight

I'm not an expert, as in I don't know Japanese but asked people better suited about the names. First thing I was told was that japanese doesn't usually fit well with foreign names. The following is only for the names that we don't have translation for, which I believe is just the Kingdom Knights minus Rauvard.

テイラス卿 (teirasu kyou) Sir Talors

シーラック卿 (shīrakku kyou) Sir Shirack

ライリッヒ卿 (rairihhi kyou) Sir Riley

サードブリージ卿 (sādoburīji kyou) Sir Sadbridge

Now I don't know if any of these is better then your suggestion, they aren't more Germanic not even sure if some are even real names. As it seems you did some research rather then just google translate I wouldn't be opposed to some of your choices.

High_King_Tir

So I guess I'm going to go with

ライスフィールド侯 Marquis Ricefield

テイラス Talus/Talors
ライラス Rylas
シーラック Shirack is better than Sealuck... but eh.
ライリッヒ Riley
サードブリッジ Sadbridge....

Either is fine with me, I'd go with Talors since honestly, Talus was just what google spat out to me real quick. Talors also seems to be a real surname. I still have no idea if テイラス or ライラス is more correct. I would have to see if the History of Elthlead Manual for Sharp X1000 has to say on that.

サードブリッジ Seems like such an odd name, Sadbridge seems better than third bridge. It does appear to be a surname at least.

Now to see if Can make any sense of those profiles. It'd be nice to include more than X was the commander of x.
I've included two pictures from the manual. The Command Structure and the Elthlead Lineage, just to have them up

leadership-structure.png

155kB

sieghart-lineage.png

164kB

D

Ricefield is Leisfield. It’s a real name.

Thurbridge is probably what was meant by your Sadbridge.

Riley is probably Rajlich, a Czech name.

Sealuck could be Chirac, the French name.

Rylas could by Lilas written by someone who doesn’t know the final s is silent.

As for the names in the fan translation, I am open to changing them where there are better suggestions. Some like Rovek and Bellwood are spot on、others like Arkaloth were probably pulled out of my ass.

High_King_Tir

D Thanks D those names look good to me. Honestly better than what I was coming up with.

I hadn't ever thought much about Arkaroth/Arkaloth or I'm assuming Eiferlöck being the other odd one, but I always rather liked Eiferlöck. The names in the Crest of Gaia translations had a nice european/fantasy flair to me which is what I thought the rest of these names should have I think that fits.

I've got my eye on a copy of the Crest of Gaia choose your own adventure book, that I'm hoping to pick up after Christmas to see what that has to offer (or at the very least get the pictures scanned). But the characters there seem to have some rather boring names like カイル Kyle and ジェーン Jane especially compared to the Elthlead Knights.

Looking through the manual and the History of Elthlead game on the SharpX100 its been neat to see what Langrisser I&II reference from this series.

Such as the Knights of Reitel later having the name dropped as the Dark Rod's temple name. As well as the Rall Knights with the Rall river. I keep meaning to look up the Resty Mountains and see if the Kanji is similar to III's Railym Mountains.

Below is a screenshot of the armies that be selected in that versus modes of sortts in the History of Elthlead, 01 is Elthlead, 02 is Velzeria. The faces I guess give a glimps of what some of these commanders can look like and why I was wondering if Sealuck - Chirac might be a woman.

commanders-from-history-of-elthlead-01.png

33kB

commanders-from-history-of-elthlead-02.png

32kB

D

My script dumps for that game are a mess. Must have been a missed bit or something that shifted it all into katakana.

The three prologue files can be found on my GitHub. Diacritical marks are on the line above because I couldn’t be assed to do a better job of parsing 🙁 https://github.com/sobodash/crestofgaia/tree/master/resources/scripts

Suggestions are definitely welcome. If someone wants to suggest some translation fixes I’d be happy to put out a new patch.

If memory serves me (this is 15 years ago), I translated using screens from History of Elthlead because I needed the kanji. Then I rewrote a lot to try and tie things a bit more into the later Langrisser storyline. In hindsight, while a cool idea, it may have been a mistake.

Picorat

For Eiferlock is the ta silent? アフターロック - In Japanese it reads more like Afterlock. アイファーロック would be a better rendering in Japanese of Eiferlock.

I'm no expert on German pronunciation but Ei is usually rendered アイ.

Arkaroth seems odd. It comes out weird in Japanese. Arkaroth should be rendered something like this: アーカロス or アルカロス. In Soul Calibur Astaroth is アスタロス.

I wish I could say it's Akiyoshi but the extension after A(could be Ar) and kyo are throwing me off. Maybe Arkyosh? That doesn't sound German at all but the names are weird in this game.

Also, Chirac is シラク, could it be Searack?

Is Rauvard a Kurdish name? I found this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rawadid_dynasty

That was the only result I got referring to a name or place. It can be spelled Rawwad.

Ryzih is the correct translation. See this link can scroll down - you'll see Lisa Ryzih rendered with the katakana.

https://blog.goo.ne.jp/mccreary/e/db7812cea5a05614d2a386bc1e3a37e4

High_King_Tir

Picorat

Despite liking Eiferlöck, would Afkarlöck be any better? Its still a made up Germanic name, but I think it may pronounce slightly closer. It's still probably not much better...

For Rauvard would Rovald or Rawald work? Both are Germanic/Nordic type names,

Arkaroth sounds like a lost cause...

Not to be annoying but how different in pronunciation is Chirac from Searack? Is it just an S vs /SH? This me just not having a clue.

As an aside in the 1.0 path of Crest of Gaia
Eiferlock vs Eiferlöck, but I think the later patches added the umlauts to various characters.
Rauvard was Raward
Arkaroth/Arkaloth was Arkyros

I can also offer you if you want the screenshots of the prologues from the History of Elthlead.

Sorry if none of this is really helpful. I just figured I'd give some of my thoughts.

Picorat

@D I found a copy of the Elthlead manual online. The manual has the descriptions in kanji and they line up with the katakana in GitHub. There are some minor changes between the two games but I can take a stab when I have some free time.

Picorat

@High_King_Tir We basically need a J.R.R. Tolkien who's fluent in Japanese lol. Japanese sometimes takes some liberties with pronounciation but generally a foreign word has some phonetic approximation to it's source. Therefore it's very difficult to say that Eifer or Afkar would work. The only situation that would apply would be if fer or Kar produced a t sound in German. Also don't forget that After is a Germanic word 😃 and is rendered in Japanese as アフター. So I think Afterlock is pretty darn close.

Just as a rule I hesitate to say one rendering is better than the other, excepting for obvious mistakes, without input from the source. At this point, unless we uncover some design documents from the 1980s we have to take our best guess. So as to Rauvard I was just offering my take but not implying it was wrong.

But Arkaroth and Eiferlock stick out me as being incorrect.

The difference between Searack in Chirac, in Japanese at least, is the number of syllables. Chiraq has 3 syllables and Searack and has 4. Also between the ra and ku is a small tsu which makes the ku a harder sound. It's rendered the same way as rack, ruck or luck. Chiraq in Japanese doesn't have the hard ku. The shi- in Japanese can be rendered in English as Si, sea, she, shi etc.

Also if the screen grabs are in hiragana/katakana they are less helpful than the instruction manual. Old games only use kana which can make diving the words out difficult. The great thing about the old manuals is that they pretty much give away the entire history of the series (Sieghart is the 5th in his line though I guess L3 tosses that all out the window.) The manual accounts for the rise of Elthlead and Velzeria and their destructions. In Elthlead's case many generations later the power of light is abused and sealed leading to Elthlead's destruction, while Velzeria is considered a ruined nation, although it is shrouded in mystery.

This doesn't line up with the Langrisser back story - Elthlead eventually becomes Baldea, but it's inevitable destruction seems more due to the passage of time then abuse or dereliction of duty. I'd have to play Langrisser again (units aside) but I think any references to Elthlead are in passing and II/DL are much more explicit in linking the Langrisser series to the Elthlead games.

High_King_Tir

Picorat That's fine, I did a bunch of Screen Grabs when I was ripping sprites, and they're just sitting around collecting digital dust.

You're right that Langrisser I direct references are pretty slim, its referenced at the end of Great Dragon in the cave level and of course, Boser popping up. I've wondered if a Great Dragon itself was a throwback to the two dragons at the end of Crest of Gaia. I do think the various units are I's biggest reference to the series like the fact that Heroic Grand Knights (Grand Dinos) are orange while Evil ones are white (Horn Dino) are from Elthlead, I think the Krakens are also a nice reference.

It's a shame Langrisser never gave us the Turtle Knights or AquaKnights 😀

Doesn't the first game, at least for MD make it out more like Ledin and co are descended from Elthlead than per say Baldea being Elthlead itself? Maybe I'm remembering wrong.

II certainly had more, especially with referencing Reitel, Rall, and other place/people names from Elthlead and of course Der summoning Sieghart. I always hated that III basically threw out all that the First Trilogy had to offer.

The book certainly does add a bit of background information. I miss that instruction manuals used to do that. I always prefer reading lore stuff outside of the game.

D has a listing of the Bösers and Sieghart Kings, they're on the wiki, but the Elthlead lineage is a bit hard to find so I'm just going to pop it up here. If I remember correctly he assumed they had for whatever reason saw Sieg as a throne name, and so figured they meant to do the whole thing? It fits Langrisser III well enough I suppose with Raymond taking a throne name.

Sieg Herman / Herman (Sieghart I) ジークヘルマン
Sieg Krich / Krich (Sieghart II) ジークリッヒ
Sieg Vogel / Vogel (Sieghart III) ジークフォーゲル
Sieghart / Hart (Sieghart IV) ジークハルト
Sieg Schwarz / Schwarz (Sieghart V) ジークシュハルツェ
Sieg Joachim / Joachim (Sieghart VI) ジークヨアヒム
Sieg Kaiser / Kaiser (Sieghart VII) ジーク・カイザー
?
Sieg Stallman / Stallmanジークシュタルマン (That is Elvin Lambert エルビン・ランバート)

There's also the random Sieghart Kaibert in Guyframe ジーク・カイベルト (Guyframe does separate the Sieg part in all names that appear in that game, specifically, Stallmann, Kaiser, Kaibert, and Herman )

It looks like he missed one though or least I don't see it referenced anywhere. ジークヘルツェ Sieghart III, a quick google search popped up Herze, which sounds good to me, but I dunno I'm sure you could figure that out better.

Bösers
Stromann (Founder of Line) シュトルマン
Nalianth (Brother of Wehlmann) ナルヒアンス In an earlier forum post he had Nalhians
Wehlmann (Böser I) ウェルヒマン・ボーゼル In an earlier forum post he had Welchman
Verheim (Böser II) ヴェルハイム・ボーゼル In an earlier forum post he had Willheim
Yolen (Böser III) ヨーレン・ボーゼル
Görtz (Böser IV) ゲルツ・ボーゼル
Gwenalich (Böser V) グエナリッチ To Veldman ヴェルツマン・ボーゼル

Others
Varlin (Basically Jessica) バーリン
Bernalich (Basically, Evil Jessica) ベルナリッヒ

D

Picorat If I recall the main mention to Elthlead occurs in Langrisser I when you summon the Efreet to help you. He mentions serving King Sieghart once in the past.

This is obviously before the entire Sieghart line laid out in Guyframe was retconned out of existence by Langrisser III.

Picorat

@High_King_Tir At some point I'll translate the entire lineage and backstory. In the manual the Elthlead Kings have a single name (like historical kings.) The Bosers distinctly have a first and last name. ・ is a separator between words. Here is my take on the King's name's below (each King inherits from his father):

The Light to Balin and Balin later returns to the heavens

Descended from the tribe of the guardian(s?) of the Tower(? Palace? ) of Strength
Sieghermann (Elthlead's First King)
Siegrich
Siegherze
Siegvogel
Sieghart
Siegschwartz
Siegjoahim
? Disappears from records
Siegschtalman

The manual makes it clear that the 8th generation king's (manual does say 8th generation Sieg but this may just refer to their naming convention) record's are currently unknown. One theory suggests that Kingdom of Elthlead was already destroyed by this point. This remains unverified.

The manual also says that Elthlead's ruination comes during Siegschtalman's (if it was stallman we should see su instead of shu) reign. When Gaia is misused (apparently this was thought to be impossible since Gaia can only be used by the pure hearted) and the spell of light is sealed. During this era there was a global cataclysm that engulfed Gaia. As a result all of the countries within Gaia were destroyed.

Velzeria lineage:
Light to the Tribe (?) of the Guardian(s?) of the Power of Darkness
Bernalich - seduced by the power of darkness and unleashes it (Balin is clearly descended from heaven - Bernalich is more likely a tribe member than Balin's equal/opposite
Shtulman (Bernalich's close fried) who teaches Nalianth and Welchman Boser
Welchman Boser (Velzeria's first king)
Verheim Boser (could be Wölheim?)
Jochen Boser
Wertzman Boser (who aligns with Guenarich [im not close but its not Gwen since Gwen is グウェン] who learns from an unknown disciple of Nalianth

Shtulman is not founder of the line. Lineage is indicated by double lines under the name. An arrow just indicates a relationship.

Balin is clearly divine. He teaches the line of Elthlead Kings the light spell that repels the threat from Velzeria. Bernalich is a human seduced by the darkness and he shares the power of darkness with the Boser Kings. The third Boser is especially powerful.

Also the next Boser isn't determined by parentage but by who succeeds the power of darkness,

And I was reading through the Guyframe script and I see the mysterious 8th King is accounted for - along with his Boser. Guyframe takes place 4000+ years after Elthlead so I'm curious why Elvin is the 9th King but I guess that's explained in game - I'm guessing cryogenic sleep?

High_King_Tir

Picorat Honestly I was just being dumb about Bernalich... but perhaps because so little is known I shouldn't have been quite that flippant about that.

I don't know if Elvin is explained too well, except space-time shenanigans. There it says that Sieg Kaiser and Gortz fought and in the process a wormhole was made that shot him to the Guyframe Era.

Ripped real quick from D's github page

ゲルツのあとのだいのおう
が「ガイア」のはんさようり
ょくにめをつけ，おなじことを
したら...
わたしのよそうはげんじつと
なった.

And Darkness Savior's translation

I once fought against Velzeria’s Gerts Bozer. During the fight, I opened the depths of time and space. I did this to turn the tables on Bozer’s plans for Gaia, and make sure he never succeeded.
Because of my actions, the bastard disappeared, and I was thrown into this time period. And then I found out that both Elthlead and Velzeria had faded into the pages of history.

That whole conversation is fun, but there seems to be a bit of weirdness in English Script, which I know was a WIP, but I think stems partly out some context missing. I know I ended up looking at videos to make a better of sense of it.

Picorat

@High_King_Tir That's fine I'll have to run through all the scripts. The biggest problem with these old games is the lack of kanji. I would love to get my hands on the PC 88 or X1 manual for Guyframe - maybe during my next trip to Japan?

Anyway my best guess from the rip above is. (Adding in the additional proceeding 2 paragraphs)

I once fought Gortz Boser and we reached the end of time and space. He tried to activate Gaia (says reverse or counter) and failed.

As a result he disappeared and I found myself in this era. I learned that both Elthlead and Velzeria had faded into the pages of history.

The king that succeeded Gortz had his eyes on the reactive power from Gaia. And once he did the same thing...

My prediction became reality.

The earlier translation makes it seem like reaching the end of time and space was intentional (it wasn't) and that Kaiser (I assume that's who's speaking) did Gortz in (he didn't.) The spell basically blew up in his face and in the after math Kaiser got sent 4000 years in the future.

The PC88 version has kanji - wonder if extracting that would make our lives easier.

Also, the title of the game is Gaiflame - the game is labeled as such on the PC-88/Sharp X1 discs and inside the instruction manual - https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/retrowith.in/PC98%20Manual%20Pack%20v.20100629/Gaiflame%20%28NCS%29%5Bdocs%5D/Gaiflame%20Manual%20%5Bincomplete%5D/

Picorat

I watched a long play of Elthlead (obviously vI skipped around) on the PC-88

https://youtu.be/3nbRq6bCjhE

Other than a splash screen that appears at the end of each scenario there's no real story until the ending. Basically all of the story is contained in the instruction manual - pretty par for the course in those days.

Scenario 16 of Warsong has the following line of dialogue:

The Magic Knight, Ganelon, freed the power and covered the entire world in darkness...

The King of light, Galafron in Elthlead, fought against it and with the sword, Warsong, he confined darkness into Senefaria.

Substitute Boser for Ganelon, Sieghart for Galafron and Velzeria for Senefaria and obviously Langrisser for Warsong.

Langrisser is never mentioned in Elthlead though one of the final images is a sword in the ground.

But per the Crest of Gaia/Elthlead manual it's the Light Spell that repels the darkness.

The Elthlead games were an initial blueprint that was refined with Langrisser. Except for Elthlead (in III we witness the founding of Elthlead, while Sieghart is the fifth king in Elthlead), and Velzeria, the other 2 countries, Heizel and Gilgard are not mentioned in Langrisser. The continent known as Gaia in Elthlead is renamed to El Salia in Langrisser. Certain names and locations (cities) carried over.

Langrisser III has it's own revised take on Elthlead but the original story is fascinating. There are 4 countries and 50 years prior to start of the game Velzeria invades and takes over another country. One country falls apart and the other agrees after their initially alliance to be subsumed into Elthlead.

There are elements of this in III but the battle between Sieghart and Boser takes nearly 30 years!

And the conversation about fighting Gortz Boser is by Balin (I have a translation of the Elthlead backstory I'll be posting shortly):

わたしはウ゛ェルセ゛リアのケ゛ルツ・ホ゛―セ゛ルとたたかい，そのとき，じくうのはてにあしをいれてしまった. ケ゛ルツか゛「カ゛イア」をぎゃくりようし，しっは゜いしたためた゛.

やつはそのちからて゛きえ，わたしはこのし゛た゛いにきた. そして，エルスリ―ト゛もウ゛ェルセ゛リアも，れきしのなかて゛しょうしつしたことをしったのた゛.

ケ゛ルツのあとのた゛いのおうか゛「カ゛イア」のはんさようりょくにめをつけ，おなし゛ことをしたら...わたしのよそうはけ゛んし゛つとなった.

My revised translation below:

I fought Gortz Boser and we found ourselves at the end of time and space. All because Gortz tried to reverse Gaia and failed [translator's note - at this time Gortz Boser is being threatened by a Giant of Light that Balin has summoned. Right before the light hits that would have destroyed him, Boser tries to counteract the spell which results in both Balin and Boser disappearing to the end of time.]

Boser vanished and I found myself in this era. Then I learned that both Elthlead and Velzeria had faded into history.

The kings succeeding Gortz turned their attentions towards Gaia's counteraction, and once they did the same thing...my guess (prediction, hypothesis) became reality.

An additional note about the above because the last line is a little unclear to me. In the Elthlead manual it's mentioned that Gaia's power is sealed around Siegshtalman's time because someone abused Gaia - and it's unclear what happened. In Gaiflame we learn that Gortz attempted to abuse Gaia which wound up sending Balin 4000 years to the future. I'm pretty confident that Elvin's Boser or one of the evil mages used Gaia on Elwin which sent him to the future. Siegrich was the king at the time of the battle with Gortz. I'm wondering if the Boser in this game is a time displaced Boser as well.

High_King_Tir

Its Varlin speaking? I could have sworn it was Jack Brown. I thought the conversation happened when Elvin finally meets with Jack Brown. I swear that its Jack Brown (in truth Sieg Kaiser) who is doing the speaking. But its been a while since I've looked at the game.

Picorat

I found the video:

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12576438

Around 37 minutes in. And it is Jack Brown aka Sieg Kaiser.

Clearly I need to read the Gaiframe manual. Also I mixed up Gortz with Jochen who fought Siegrich. But Gortz was the Boser that fought Sieghart (I assume because it says he died in battle, unlike the others - but then why mention Guenalich lending power to Boser 5?) But there are time travel shenanigans in Elthlead - they travel to 1988 Japan.

I have the PC engine game on order but I bet the PC-88, Sharp X1, etc manuals go into the full story...

In either case for Gortz to fight Kaiser he needs to be resurrected or the Gaia power that wipes out the darkness is really a time portal. He also has to survive 5 Elthlead Kings (obviously the Boser in Langrisser can do this but this Boser was already succeeded )

One of the commenters in the video said that Jack Brown's dialogue made no sense lol.

High_King_Tir

The conversation did seem off to me. I wonder if it has anything to do with that particular port. Then again was the script updated much between any of the ports?

I also still don't get why a Sieg Kaibert gets brought up in the conversation and how he's all connected to anything. Could it be a mistake?

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a playthrough of any other version than the PCE.

I wonder much material the earlier versions manuals have in them.

I have found a part of the X1 Elthlead manual here https://ameblo.jp/koorogiyousyoku/entry-12017997369.html But I have no idea how much of it is shown. It does at least seem to include a bit of the story...

Picorat

Here's the Elthlead Senshi (Crest of Gaia/Elthlead single release) manual:

https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/retrowith.in/PC98%20Manual%20Pack%20v.20100629/Elthlead%20Senshi%20%28NCS%29%5Bdocs%5D/Elthlead%20Senshi%20Manual.pdf

I don't think the full plot of the game is covered in the text. Compare the plot details in the manual with what's in the actual game and it's a world of difference. Gaiflame was released within a year so I'm guessing the manuals contain the backstory the same way Elthlead/Crest of Gaia's did.

The PC engine manual I'm guessing is about 10-20 pages since it had to fit in a CD sleeve. I know the PC-88/X1 manual is at least 45 pages. The portion of the manual I did see has detailed descriptions of the cities and drawings of the units.

https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/retrowith.in/PC98%20Manual%20Pack%20v.20100629/Gaiflame%20%28NCS%29%5Bdocs%5D/Gaiflame%20Manual%20%5Bincomplete%5D/

Picorat

I just played the PCE version. Scenarios 14-16 make all Elthlead references. I don't recall that exchange with the fire elemental but he does call the party the descendants of Elthlead.

I noticed some plot changes between my very fuzzy memory of L1/Warsong MD and PCE. Nicolis mentions in scenario 19 that he manipulated Emperor Diegos to after Langrisser and unseal the darkness/revive Boser.

I'd love to compare the PCE script against the MD script to find out other changes but I have no idea how to do so ..