Field RAM question

When adding characters to the party, I wanted to be able to have them in the start off in the back row.  Last night I was attempting to make a new event code that would simply switch the character's rows.

In the Field RAM page of the Wiki, there is this:

Code:

$0867-$1068 Object Data (50 items, 41 bytes each, $00-$0F are characters, $10-$2F are NPC's, $30 is camera ($07B0), $31 is showing character or for unused objects ($07D9))
-----------
     $0867 verbbppp Object Settings
           v: Visible
           e: Enabled (active)
           r: Battle Row (back row if set) \
           b: Battle Order                 |--> characters only, though $1850 is "master" data
           p: Party                        /

It took me all night to figure out that changing row in $1850 has no effect.  But, changing row in the $0867 block does.

It seems like the $0867 is the "master" data.

Where did this claim of "master" data come from?