Written by Levallia Lunaire
Very possible orgin-article concerning myths. It's about where Square and Tri-ace possibly got their inspiration from, since both companies are known to get their inspiration from myths.
"For years now, Celtic history/mythology/culture/etc has been my pet research topic. I just love it. Now that I'm in college, I have access to a HUGE library and immediately sought out all their books on the ancient Celts. I picked one up about their myths and legends and have been reading it like mad.
In the first page of the book, it listed a few Celtic deities, one of which it called "Nuada of the Silver Hand". Being the Albel-obsessed fangirl that I am, this immediately brought to mind Albel's gauntlet. I laughed at my silliness and continued reading.
Later, as it went more into depth on the Celtic deities, I came across a lot of information about Nuada. Nuada was the Celtic god of war and, because battle was so important to the Celts, their "King of the Gods". As I was reading a legend about the battle between the Celtic gods and demons (called Fomors), I read that Nuada lost his hand or arm (it's impossible to tell which, as the Celtic word means both) in that battle and it was replaced by "...an artificial hand of silver, so skillfully that it moved in all its joints..." and so on and so forth. Interesting, no? It gets even weirder...
As I read on, it said that he wasn't allowed to be king anymore (because Celtic tradition stated that no maimed person could rule). However, he did eventually get to return to the throne.
I assume that, given SquareEnix's and Tri-Ace's tendancies to use names and characters from mythology (especially with TriAce's "Valkyrie Profile"; the legend of the Valkyries having originated very near the Celts, as well), perhaps Albel was loosely based on Nuada. Consider...
1. The metal arm. Dead give away there.
2. He lost his position in the military (though for different reasons) and was imprissoned (Nuada wasn't though, so that part doesn't count), but got it all back in the end.
3. Enchanted swords. While they don't have the same powers, they're both enchanted. Nuada's sword was supposed to kill, without fail, anyone struck by it.
4. "The silver hand" in the Celtic speach, was "Argetlam", so they called him Nuada Argetlam, the initials being N. A., which is Albel's initials backwards...
So, when the fangirls say "Albel is god!", they may be partially right on a mythological level..."
"The info in my first post is from the Irish Celtic myth, while now I've read into the British Celtic myth. Seeing as they're all Celts, there are similarities and variations between the information.
The British version of Nuada is Nudd or Lludd (Two names, same deity.) and his nickname is "Llaw Ereint", which means "of the Hand of Silver". Most of the information regarding this British variation of Nuada has been lost, but is estimated to be very similar to the Irish legends. One thing that may link this incarnation of the deity to Albel is that he was said to be the leader of one of three deity clans, which may have slightly inspired the idea for the three brigades of Aeriglyph; he's also reffered to as one of "three heroes of the Isle of Britain" (After the old deities had to be disguised as historical figures to escape destruction by the Christian invasion. This is also why he appears as a king in British history.), perhaps something like the three generals of Aeriglyph. When you consider that the capitol of the country looks a lot like what medieaval Europe did, and has A LOT in common with it in social structure etc, it seems plausible. While no records of him in battle remain, it is said that he ended supernatural plagues which oppressed the country, which seems something like what we see in SO3 with the invasion of the Vendeeni and such.
While the book doesn't provide much information on his supposed appearance, it does say that (unlike most Zeus-like deities, which it reffers to him as often) he appeared young."