The "War Experience" section talks about how the Fou empire was formed and the two continents ended up at war.

Here's a rough version of it:

About 300 years before the game takes place, the western continent was in a time of unrest following a long period of imperial rule. The influence of the Muuru empire, the predecessor to the Fou empire, was waning, and the entire eastern continent had sunk into civil war. Judging the situation to be grave, the Muuru emperor came up with a scheme to summon a "god" from another world. The purpose was the reunification of the empire through its divinity. The summoned god, "Fou-Lu," unified the western continent a little over ten years later. And there, the Fou empire was born.

Meanwhile, during the period of unrest prior to the summoning of Fou-Lu, those in the east had taken advantage of the chaos, crossing the sea of mud and making repeated invasions. After the unification of his lands, Fou-Lu continued to carry out the ambitions of the old Muuru empire, which had summoned him, and constructed the great imperial bridge, a device that could transport people and things, in order to deal with the invasions from the eastern continent. He intended to make a counterstrike and completely unite both continents in one fell swoop.

However, shortly after the war's outbreak, Fou-Lu died (actually, he lost his strength due to the imperfect summoning and temporarily fell into a state of being sealed away). The empire's counterattack lost its initial fiercenesss, and the war ended up more or less in a deadlock.

After Fou-Lu's death, both continents, having misgivings about becoming involved in a prolonged war, offered compromises, and again and again, truces were put into effect. However, as many times as truces were called, they would be unable to reach an agreement on treaties, and the war would start all over again... and so the vicious cycle would go. The game begins in the middle of the time of the fourth truce.

(Okay, I got lazy. I'm just going to summarize the interesting parts of the Machine and Item section. ^^;)

The section about curses and the Carronade doesn't really have much more information than is given in the game, but there were a few things I don't remember hearing before. One is that, in addition to causing damage to the enemy, a curse causes the user's allies to be possessed, making them stronger. Curses, formed of hatred, suffering, and so on, work by contaminating the people and surroundings, first driving the people insane and then killing them. The reason that using someone closely connected to the person targeted is even more effective is that the connection allows the contamination to go that much deeper.

The part about Dragonslayer is almost all new information. Yuna made the sword from a god whose summoning he messed up. Apparently only its head appeared, and after studying it thoroughly, Yuna smashed it to pieces and used them to make a sword. The desire to find its body and its hatred are still within it, and it tries to absorb the abilities of any god like itself.

The sand ships are powered by a "magic square," as they call it, made of several different metals that respond to magic.

The "Racial Characteristics" section:

The Wing Clan

A clan with a winged god as its progenitor. Its history is long, and it's said that in the age when they were close to gods, they were able to freely fly through the sky. Now, however, their wings have degenerated, and they can only fly for a certain amount of time. That they have built their castle on elevated ground and that they like heights are vestiges of that earlier time. Their body weight is less than that of the typical person.

The Grass Runners

A clan ruled by a god with a beast's head. The people of the beastlike clans, such as the Furen and the Grass Runners (Scias, Ursula, etc.), are generally robust and physically strong. It's said that their progenitor, who was summoned in an age when magic was not yet very developed, gave the people of the clan a form with great fighting strength instead.

The Pabu-Pabu

A clan that lives in the archipelago to the north of the continent. Because their language and culture are so utterly different, no one has any detailed information on their origins, etc. A distinguishing characteristic of theirs is the extremely optimistic outlook they have, "pabu-pabu," or "things will turn out all right." Some theorize that perhaps they, in contrast to the other clans (all of which originated with a summoned god), might be a native clan that was there from the beginning.

The Sea People

A clan with a fish-shaped god as its progenitor. Pragmatists to the core with a rational way of thinking, they no longer worship the god that founded their clan at all, and it's not clear exactly what their history has been like. Similarly, how they ended up with such business expertise is unknown. However, the reality that, on a worldwide scale, their zeal for business has brought about great advances in civilization can't be denied.

The faeries living in the world of dreams

Faeries exist in the world of dreams. The world of dreams sort of overlaps with the real world and is a part that, long ago when the world was created, became a kind of "connector." Because of that, ordinary people can't go to the world of dreams.

The lifespan of a faerie is about ten years in human terms. The world of dreams is a tiny, closed-away world, so no matter how many times a faerie dies, it's simply reborn in the same place (though none of the faeries realize this). They're omnivorous, but their palate is far more refined than a human's, and so they constantly search here and there for Flanks.

The Earth-Eating Clan

A clan with an appearance much like moles. Using their strong forefeet, they can dig through the groud. They are small but strong, and are active as mercenaries and workers in hostile environments.

The Shell Clan

The most distinctive characteristic of the people of this armadillo-like clan is their gigantic bodies encased in tough shells. They have very mild personalities. Close to greenery and the earth, they make their living through farming and spend their entire lives in a single place.

The Creeping Clan

The people of the frog-like Creeping Clan are uniformly cheerful and narcissistic. Because of that, many of them lose themselves in the arts or specialized pursuits. They range from cooks and bards to professional fishers.

The Mountain Clan

The people of this clan are incredibly gifted in terms of althetic ability, like quickness and ability to jump. The best of the clan's warriors are known as Highlanders. Their personalities range from irrepressible jokesters to the ever-serious, from one extreme to the other.