this does confirm several things for us:
- Shiva and Ifrit were lovers (previously mentioned in Shiva's bestiary entry
in German, but not in English or in Japanese)
- Ifrit did, indeed, gift humans with fire (there has been a bit of debate about this, as
Ifrit's English bestiary entry said literally that he "bestowed the gift of fire upon man," but
the Japanese version said he bestowed them with "the flame of wisdom" and
the German version said he "fanned the flames of their knowledge")
- Seemingly tells us that Solheim was destroyed in the gods' crossfire rather than because of the Starscourge, so it's still unclear whether the parasite had arrived on Eos by this point
- Ardyn turned Ifrit into a daemon -- rather than "the Pyreburner is sought by a man who draws him away from the Light," the Japanese script literally says "someone turned Ifrit into a daemon": イフリートは何者かによりシガイにされてしまった. This was also apparently in the recent past rather than ancient times (approximately 11 years ago), so his actions during the war of the gods were his own
Worth mentioning:
- The English script here reiterates what Ifrit's German bestiary entry said about the people of Solheim rebelling against all the gods rather than just Ifrit (neither the Japanese nor English entries said this; the Japanese version, in fact, didn't even mention rebellion at all). However, the Japanese version of this newest material makes it sound as though they rejected just Ifrit, saying だが 人の文明 ソルハイムは高みに達し驕った人は 神を排斥しようとした ("However, the people of the Solheim civilization reached great heights, and the haughty humans tried to cast out the god"), using "kami"/神 (singular) rather than "kamigami"/神々 (plural), even though the script doesn't hesitate to use the plural form on several other occasions
- Shiva saying "the mortals created in [the gods'] image" isn't in the Japanese script
- That "High Messenger" title isn't mentioned; Gentiana/Shiva just refers to herself with "watashi" (i.e. "I")
- This new stuff sadly still doesn't blatantly answer (or even allude to) where the Starscourge came from, nor does it recount the Meteor's arrival
-This still leaves open the question of to what extent Gentiana and Shiva are separate beings. They certainly were at one time, as Gentiana began living with the Fleuret family while Shiva was still sleeping in the Ghorovas Rift. However, Gentiana's voice comes out of Shiva here (in the English and Japanese versions) -- and in Japanese, she's referring to herself as "watashi"/"I" while referring to things both Gentiana and Shiva did
- In Japanese, Shiva's past contempt for humanity comes across way more strongly:
かつて私は——数多の生命の中で『人』は星に心要無きものと考えていた
儚く 脆く それ故可能性や希望といった曖昧なものを信じる人が星にとって有要だとは思えなかった
"Once upon a time, I thought ... the many 'human' lives were unnecessary for the planet.
They are fleeting. They are fragile. Therefore, I couldn't believe that the humans who believed in such ambiguous things as possibility and hope were necessary for the planet."
