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I am currently trying to translate a game manual. Right now Im struggling with the story part of it. Most of the grammar is at least somewhat familiar to me. I think my confusion may be due to the syntax. Here is an excerpt:

プレイヤーの皆さんは、魔法が使える不思議な世界の住人です。強い力を秘めた瑪瑙の剣が眠っている古代都市が発見されたため、剣を手に入れようと各地から集まってきました。

The first sentence seems pretty straightforward. I translated it as "Players, you are the inhabitants of a mystical and magical world." It is the next sentence, and much of the rest of the the paragraph, that is confusing me a bit. I can more or less translate fragments of this sentence. For example:

強い力を秘めた瑪瑙の剣- a sword of agate imbued with a strong power

眠っている古代都市- a sleeping (lying dormant?) ancient city

剣を手に入れようと- in an attempt to obtain the sword

I am having a hard time putting them together in a coherent sentence, though. In this section "強い力を秘めた瑪瑙の剣が眠っている古代都市が発見されたため" I'm not sure if the sword or the city it the subject of "発見された." Also, while I know the usual function of "ため" is to give the purpose of an action, I'm having a hard time making that work here. Perhaps it's serving a different function?

In the next section "剣を手に入れようと各地から集まってきました" I am not sure who/what the subject of "集まってきました" is but I suspect it might be the players mentioned from the previous sentence.

Any help with the above points would be extremely appreciated! :-)

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  • Does it really say 「各他」? If so, i makes no sense. I know what the correct word should be, but I would rather have you check it.
    – user4032
    Mar 18, 2018 at 1:44
  • @l'électeur After a triple check I now realize that your suspicions are correct. It in fact is "各地." Thanks for pointing that out! :-)
    – TLRooks
    Mar 18, 2018 at 2:09

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［（強い力を秘めた）瑪瑙の剣が眠っている］古代都市が発見されたため

強い力を秘めた瑪瑙の剣が眠っている is a relative clause modifying 古代都市. So the subject of 発見された is 古代都市.

The ため here expresses "reason" (≂ ので・から), not "purpose".

"Since/Because an ancient city [where a sword of agate (imbued with a strong power) is sleeping/buried] was discovered, ... "

You're right that the subject of 剣を手に入れようと各地から集まってきました is the players mentioned from the previous sentence (=「プレイヤーの皆さん」).

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  • Oh! That makes so much more sense. Relative clauses still trip me up. For some reason it becomes hard to tell where one ends and another begins. Thank you for that clarification! As for "ため", what clues in the sentence lead one to understand that it means "reason" instead of "purpose"? Is it that it appears as "ため" instead of "ために"?
    – TLRooks
    Mar 18, 2018 at 13:11
  • @TLRooks Both ため and ために can mean "reason" and "purpose". eg 「謎を解明するため(に)、現地へ赴いた。」(purpose), 「あまりに残虐なため(に)、本編より削除された。」(reason). Here, you can see it indicates reason since it follows the past tense form されたため. (「Past tense + ため」 cannot indicate purpose)
    – chocolate ♦
    Mar 18, 2018 at 13:39

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