Suikoden 3 takes place in the Grasslands, and its plot focuses on the war that takes place between the Grasslands, Zexen, Harmonia, and Tinto. The plot seems to make it sound like conflicts between the various forces are numerous, and their histories riddled with war. However, Suikoden history speaks a different story--The Grasslands have not had a war at all before the year 407, when the Flame Champion staged an uprising against Harmonia.

Dunan and Toran have had greater numbers of wars in their respective histories, yet it feels as if the Grasslands is constantly in conflict. Why is this? Probably because there have been 4 major wars within the Grasslands within the span of 80 years since the year 407--

1) First Fire Bringer War (1st Grassland War)
Duration: 407-425 (18 years)
Participating Nations: Harmonia, Zexen, Grassland Clans

Half of the Grasslands have been under Harmonian rule for a very long time, and the Flame Champion started an uprising. Initially, the uprising was nothing more than a small band attacking Harmonian convoys. Over the years, the movement grew to encompass all of the Grassland Clans. Despite facing a vastly superior force, the clans fought tenaciously. Eventually, the Flame Champion's forces became known as the Fire Bringer. The war had its ups and downs--for example, many Fire Bringer members were captured by Harmonia during their struggle, and the Flame Champion gave himself in as an exchange for all 5000 of the prisoners. The Fire Bringers kept fighting for years with the absence of the Flame Champion, and they managed to help him outfrom Harmonia in a spectacular escape. The war ended in 425 after a huge explosion caused by the True Fire Rune, which destroyed the Harmonian Regional Army along with many Grasslanders. A truce was agreed for 50 years as a result of the war.

Based on history, one can assume that Tinto expanded its territory very fast after it broke off from the Jowstone Alliance (Map is based on the writer's guess, and may not reflect the actual geography)

2) Tinto-Grassland War (2nd Grassland War)
Duration: 465 (1 year)
Participating Nations: Tinto, Grassland Clans

Following its secession from the Dunan Republic, the Tinto Republic started to realize its age-old ambition to expand into the Grassland to secure a trade route and add more land for its people. Tinto invaded the Grasslands in 465 with its army lead by Gijimu, initially to quell an uprising that occured within Tinto's newly acquired lands. The Grasslanders responded, specifically the forces of the Karaya, Lizard, and Duck clans. It is unknown how this war ended, but it is likely that Tinto gained some territory--enough to allow a border skirmish to occur between itself and Zexen in the future.

3) Second Fire Bringer War (3rd Grassland War)
Duration: 475 (1 year)
Participating Nations: Harmonia, Zexen, Grassland Clans, Tinto, Camaro.

This is basically the plot for Suikoden 3, which starts as a war between Zexen and the Grassland Clans. The war escalates when Harmonia invades the Grasslands, crushing the Safir, Chisha, and Duck clans as it conflagrated towards Zexen. Feeling danger, Zexen and the Grassland Clans unite their forces along with Tinto, Camaro, and other tribes from the north. The combined forces defeat Harmonia temporarily--but the allies were aware that Harmonia still had reserve forces within their mainland. As they prepared, they were surprised by Harmonia's sudden request to join their forces in their battle against the renegade Bishop, Luc. Luc's defeat ended this war.

4) Zexen-Tinto War (4th Grassland War)
Duration: 478 (1 year)
Participating Nations: Zexen, Grassland Clans, Tinto
Happening five years after the Second Fire Bringer War, the Zexen-Tinto War started with a border skirmish between Tinto and Zexen forces. The skirmish led to a war which gradually included the Grassland Clans, namely the Lizard Clan.

Based on the above, one can come to a conclusion regarding why there are more wars the Grassland history since the year 407--Zexen. Although the Zexen Confederacy was formally declared in the year 420, the Zexen region was already a busy trade center. As trade grew in the area, trade routes through the Grasslands obviously increased in importance. For Tinto, the Grasslands was the only other route besides trading through Dunan. As an independent nation, Tinto obviously would want to have more than one route for trade, so it is natural for them to have the ambition to expand its territory into the Grassland. Harmonia obviously would be interested, because Caleria is not only a center for Zexen/Harmonian trade, but is also a center for Zexen/Harmonia/Dunan trade. Making sure the trade routes are free from clan threats is an obvious priority. In fact, traders usually hired Grassland clan members as escorts, but to merchants, this probably appeared more as tithing for safe passage.

Zexen would also be a cause of more conflicts by the virtue of its own expansion and difference in its culture. Zexen's culture is a stark contrast to that of the Grassland clans--much like the difference between 16th century Europe and 9th century Mongolia. Zexen, as a growing nation, needed more land for itself. It was natural and inevitable for them to march into clan territory, and the difference in culture made it difficult for them to share their land.

The above two points become obvious once one imagines the Grassland area without Zexen. Without Zexen, the region possesses no real value politically or economically. The Nameless Lands north of the Grassland seems to be of little importance in the scope of the Suikoden world. In fact, without Zexen, the Grassland clans alone would probably have lost against Harmonia in the First Fire Bringer War, which would most probably eliminated the possibility of the future conflicts we know about.

This illustrates the effect commerce has upon history, and this happens quite a lot in our world as well. One of the greatest things about the Suikoden series is that the cause of conflicts often reflects our world. We can obviously see such parallels in the other wars mentioned in Suikoden history.

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