The Clustania Executive District (クラスタニア行政区, kurasutania gyouseiku?, lit. "Clusternia Administrative District"), also known by the names of Clustania District and Governorate, is a dungeon in Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel. This is the place in which all of the rules and laws followed by the Clustanians are passed, and where the rulers of said city reside. Several of its rooms have an appearance similar to conference halls and storage rooms.
History[]
Backstory[]
This place has always served as the point of administration for the Clustanian government, ever since it was founded by the Reyvateils that rebelled against the Kurogane Laboratories, and it's also where the facility in which new Reyvateils are born every certain number of years.
Events During Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel[]
First Arrival[]
Finnel and Akane were called to this place by Harvestasha after Aoto and his party were captured by Clustania. Harvestasha congratulated her for work, and complimented on her strategy of taking advantage of the enemy's hacking by giving them false information. She then told Finnel that Akane had given her all the details: that she had infiltrated in the human society and found the owner of the Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop. Harvestasha then asked where that person was right now, to which Akane answered that her and her companions were currently undergoing Purification in the Slave District. Harvestasha ordered Finnel to go and bring them to her presence, which Akane put some objections to, as they didn't know if the Purification had been completed by now. Harvestasha just told her to do so, and they left the place. On the way to the Slave District, Akane told Finnel to not do anything stupid, as she wouldn't be able to protect her anymore if anything happened. She had some other business to attend, but as proof of her trust, she didn't send anyone with Finnel, so she asked her to not betray her. Finnel then entered the elevator to the Slave District. Akane then called one of her subordinates and ordered her to send their entire fleet to the Great Fang and focus their attacks on Archia.
Meeting Harvestasha[]
Later on, Aoto and his friends arrived at this place in search of Harvestasha, who Cocona had to give the Heart of the Land as Jakuri had instructed her to. When they first entered this place, they were received by a group of Clustanian Reyvateils, which were surprised to see Finnel around and began saying all sorts of mean things to her, including the fact that she only was allowed to enter this place due to her friendship with Akane, and that if she did anything embarrassing she would lose her protection. This made the party step in the conversation to defend Finnel, which made the Reyvateils shocked from the fact that there were Unpurified humans walking around Clustania, and discussed the possibility of reporting them. Finnel stopped them from doing anything by telling them that the party was invited here personally by Harvestasha, which caused them to retreat in fear, but not before telling Finnel who she thought she was. Finnel began crying after they left, but Aoto reassured that she would never have to face people like that again, and that he and the others were on her side.
When they finally entered Module Harvestasha, where Harvestasha resided, she welcomed them by calling them lowly lifeforms. Akane scolded Finnel for bringing Unpurified humans to this place, to which Cocona replied that they had threatened her into bringing them to the Module, so Finnel wouldn't be punished for it; and also mocked the Clustanians as cowards because of that same rule. Harvestasha replied to this that she was far too divine to be seeing the hideous souls of the humans, which made Cocona hesitant to hand over the Heart due to how arrogant and unpleasant Harvestasha was acting, and because she didn't see how using the Heart to restore Ar Ciel would be connected to extending Finnel's life. Harvestasha insulted her, and told her that accomplishing one of these goals would accomplish the other as well. After this, Cocona complied, and using an Hymmnos Spell to extract the Heart from her own body, she gave it to Finnel. Then, Harvestasha chanted another Hymmnos Spell to use the energy of the Heart to supposedly extend Finnel's life. However, while this happened, Luphan appeared and slashed Cocona from the back.
At this point, Luphan revealed his true name: Ayatane Kureha Kirinami, and told the party that he was a Clustanian spy, which prompted Aoto's rage, but before they could do anything, the effect of the Hymmnos Spell Harvestasha had used on Finnel did what it was designed to actually do: force a yet unknown persona to surface, much to Akane's displeasure. Harvestasha was overjoyed while Ayatane explained that this was the ancient Goddess of songs that had lost her name, and with her power, they would be able to annihilate humans and create the ultimate Reyvateil paradise: Reyvateilia. Then, Harvestasha and Ayatane surrounded the party with Guardians and prepared to kill them off.
At this point, the unknown persona, which was still under Finnel's control, broke down into tears upon seeing what her actions had caused to her friends, knowing that the life she was supposed to be given wasn't even hers'. Aoto didn't understand this, but Harvestasha explained it to them: Finnel would be reborn as a Will of the Planet, losing her current memories and identity in the process, and called these useless, as they would only serve as poison to her new form. Cocona called her crazy, while Akane was furious upon seeing how Harvestasha had used both Finnel and herself, and how she was ignoring Finnel's own will.
At that moment, Finnel thanked everyone, and decided that to save her friends, she would even be willing to throw her life away, as they had given her a reason to live. Upon saying this, Finnel returned to her normal form, and instantly crafted and begun singing a new Song: EXEC_FLIP_FUSIONSPHERE/., which began causing the entire area to shake. Aoto yelled at Finnel to try to make her stop, but Finnel just told Aoto to run away. Harvestasha began freaking out and ordered Akane and Ayatane to stop Finnel, but Akane disobeyed the orders, summoned Kukuro, and put herself between Ayatane and Finnel to protect her, having seen that Harvestasha had no intentions of saving Finnel, and instead wanted her body to become a mere vessel for the Goddess of songs. Ayatane couldn't believe that Akane was betraying them and called her out on it, which Akane turned back on him, as both him and Harvestasha had betrayed her and Finnel's wishes first. Ayatane threatened with killing Akane, which she mocked due to her combat experience, and summoned Kukuro to her side, which prompted Ayatane to remark he had made a mistake on entrusting that thing to her. She then ordered Aoto and the others to escape while she took care of the situation, and told him he had two options: trust her and the devotion she had for Finnel, or distrust her and die in the spot. Hikari Gojo told him to trust Akane, and they ended up running away, while Aoto screamed to Finnel to remember the promise of watching the stars at Clustania together to give her hopes to continue living. Eventually Harvestasha shut down from the surge of power caused by the song, and thanks to this and the chance that Akane gave them, Aoto and his friends managed to escape.
After walking a little away from the Module, Aoto and the others encountered Richaryosha and Katene. Katene was rescued by Richa, while the latter had come to take Saki back to Archia. Aoto refused to allow this, but Sakia Lumei appeared and tried to force him to heed Richa's words. However, they didn't have time to continue talking, as Raphael, Jack and Krusche, taking advantage of the fact that Harvestasha had shut down and disabled the hacking the Clustanians were doing in Archia's network, deployed a virus program over at the Module Harvestasha of the XP Shell, which was based off the viruses that Mir had used in the First Tower, and this caused all the Reyvateils, excepting Saki, to fall unconscious due to the interference this caused on the SH Server. This also caused Finnel to collapse and stop singing.
Noticing that Finnel had fallen silent, Akane tried to check her out, but ended collapsing herself too. Before Ayatane had the chance to do anything, though, Soma told him that Archia was trying to get their way now, and Clustania was doomed. Thanks to the fact that the Wills of the Planet are independent of the SH Server, she took the control of Finnel's body and manifested herself. She immediately called Ayatane a filthy liar for never revealing that they intended to kill off Finnel all along and for unnecesarily harming Cocona, to which he replied by telling her to go away and calling her an "inferior persona" who didn't have any right to talk to him. Soma then warned him to stop acting so cocky, since as she was a manifestation of one aspect of Ar Ciel's Will, she could destroy him easily if she wanted, to then ask herself if she had been following Clustania's orders for such a pathetic goal.
Back with Aoto and the others, they noticed that Finnel's song had stopped, making them think that something terrible could have happened to her, while Richa collapsed right before their eyes. Sakia's time ran out, and Saki surfaced again. She told the others she was worried about Finnel, and suggested to Aoto going back to check on her while Hikari Gojo and Katene took care of Richa and Cocona. When they were near the gate to Module Harvestasha, they saw Soma carrying Akane's inconscious body out. Soma told them that both she and Finnel were all right, but wouldn't be able of moving for a while. She then explained that Archia had hacked into Clustania's network and used it to spread a virus through the Reyvateils' Cosmospheres, causing them all to temporarily stop functioning, which is what allowed her to surface again. She then suggested leaving the place for the time being and going to Akane's house to rest. Aoto thanked her for the help, and blushing, she said it wasn't anything, and she would leave everything in his hands upon disappearing once they arrived at Akane's house.
Heading to Tower Block A[]
The group returned to this place after Akane, Cocona and Finnel had recovered, and Akane had agreed to operate the Rinkernator to help Saki and Finnel. When they entered, Aoto mentioned he felt sorry for the Reyvateils, but this was their best chance to go through, while Cocona told him to not drop his guard in case Ayatane was still lurking around, but Akane told them to not worry about him, as he wouldn't be a threat as long as Harvestasha was inactive. Katene expressed his excitement to the possibility of reviving Tyria, to which Hikari Gojo told him to try and keep his composure, to which he replied that was impossible now he was so close to accomplishing his lifelong goal and his years of research would be put to test. Gojo could only reply that Katene's ego was as tall as the Tower itself.
Upon reaching the Pureblooded β-type nurturing chamber, which they needed to go across to reach the Rinkernator, Akane explained them that this was the place where she and Finnel were born, and that Clustania didn't have overpopulation problems because only a set number of Reyvateils would be born each year. Cocona voiced her opinion that this seemed too mechanical and inhuman, which prompted Akane to answer that this was the reason for Clustania being self-sufficient and not needing any Cleansings. This enraged Aoto, who felt it was unfair that they killed many people whenever they felt the region was getting overpopulated, but Akane merely replied that this wasn't done for genocidal reasons, but to keep what remained of Ar Ciel stable. She then explained that humans only kept using and wasting the resources Ar Ciel gave them, ignoring the life of the Planet herself, and that if they kept doing so without giving any regard to the Planet, all life would eventually perish. Aoto agreed with this last statement, but he also told her that massacring a large part of the population wasn't a solution, which was why the humans continued fighting against the Clustanians. Akane only agreed that this was inevitable, as both sides despised each other. Aoto then told her that all humans weren't so stupid, and that there also were some of them that wanted to coexist with the Reyvateils. Akane then told him he was a very peculiar human, and suggested to move on.
Upon reaching the uppermost floor, they saw a completely destroyed nurturing tank, which Akane recognized as the tank in which Finnel was born. Aoto asked her if she was so violent when she was a baby, to which Finnel angrily replied that this wasn't her fault. Hikari Gojo then asked who could have done this, and Cocona theorized it must have been Soma, which made Aoto remark on what a fiery nature she was born with. Then, they proceeded to Tower Block A.
Akane Disappears[]
After returning from the Rinkernator, the group was greeted by two Reyvateils, prompting amazement from both Aoto and Katene, who expected them to be still unconscious, and wondered if Clustania had restored itself, or if Archia stopped their hacking. The Reyvateils noticed Finnel and asked her if Akane wasn't with them. Finnel worriedly asked if she hadn't gone back yet, and the Reyvateils told her they had been searching all over for Akane, and that the army was falling apart without her. The Reyvateils then told her they would be going to Module Harvestasha to continue the search, and worried about Akane, Finnel told Aoto to go that place too.
Upon arriving at the Module, they began searching for Akane, but upon not finding any traces of her, Gojo remarked on how the general of the Clustanian army had gotten lost in her own city, and Katene that the army had lost their charismatic leader, and that if anyone had orchestrated these events, it had a very wicked mind. A voice then echoed behind them, telling them that was a compliment to him, and they turned back to see Ayatane smirking at them. He then told Aoto that he came to get revenge for ruining his plans to eliminate Archia, and that thanks to their sabotage, the humans had managed to go up all the way to Clustania, which only left him to use his last resort. Cocona then asked him what that was, and he answered that it would be making Finnel do the role for which she was created. He then explained that Finnel was actually the host for the Antibody Brain, Ar Ru, although Raphael had informed them that they had captured the Antibody Brain. Ayatane then began explaining everything, but not before flashing the Heart of the Land he had stolen from Cocona to the party: Akane was set as a decoy for Archia when she was given Kukuro, and Archia fell right for it, as Ayatane personally surrendered her while making the Archians believe she was the Antibody Brain. Then, he began piling all of the blame for these events on Finnel, telling her everything that had happened to her friends was all her fault, and that she would only keep making them suffer. Aoto tried to make Finnel ignore these evil words, but she was already emotionally broken from this, which Ayatane took advantage of to chant once again the Hymmnos Spell to attempt to bring out the unknown persona. Upon feeling she was trying to force her way out, Finnel, believing she was Ar Ru, tried to stop her as the party encouraged her to not give up, but Ayatane told her to just submit to her destiny, and scared, she ran away. The party chased her, but when Ayatane tried to stop them, Cocona put herself in front of him to protect her friends, and told him he would pay for everything he had done. She then began singing a song. Ayatane just mocked her by telling that as long as the Rinkernator was open and the Tower was in suspended mode, she would be worthless as a Reyvateil, which Cocona dared him to prove true. Unfortunately for him, Ayatane was ignorant that Cocona was an IPD: a Reyvateil that depended on an entirely different Song Server from Harvestasha, so when he saw Cocona's Song Magic, METHOD_HYMME_GRANZERO=SPEAR/., manifesting, he was left in awe, wondering from where in the world she was getting the Symphonic Power to do so, while Cocona told him she could use just a 30% of her total power, but that would be enough to defeat him. She then released the song.
As for Aoto and the others, they managed to catch up with Finnel, and asked where she was going. Finnel answered that she couldn't wait anymore now that the other persona was trying to get out, and asked Aoto to kill her before she lost control and became unstoppable. Aoto told her he would never be able to do that, and thus she ran away once again. Hikari Gojo and Aoto managed to catch a glimpse of her some floors below a few moments later, as she took the lift that led to the Slave District.
Reencounter with Tyria[]
The party visited this place once again after getting word on Tyria being in the area, so they rushed to the Module Harvestasha to meet up with her. Sure enough, there she was, wondering why Harvestasha was shut down. Upon their arrival, Tyria greeted them, saying she was expecting their arrival. Katene immediately got excited to see that his holography techniques had been succesful, and wanted to interview Tyria for a while, to which she declined as she had more important things to do. Aoto then told her that they already had learned that both Saki and Finnel were part of the Wills of Ar Ciel, while Hikari Gojo told her he now understood what she meant back then at the Rinkernator: she was talking about the Planet's regeneration. Tyria joked that they won a trip around the world in a hot air balloon due to their correct guesses, to which Cocona chalked up to her talking gibberish again. Saki then chimed in, asking her how to start the Planet's regeneration, but she didn't know, as she had forgotten the song that was needed for that purpose. If she remembered it, she would remember as well how the project should proceed and be able to configurate the Tower for doing so.
Finnel then asked if she didn't remember any of the song, to which Tyria answered that she remembered the first part, and that it was the song she always sung inside the Tower, which Aoto recognized as the song that echoed in places like Tower Block A and the Lymph Ducts. Hikari Gojo guessed correctly that it was an Hymmnos Extract, and was surprised to hear that a such a song could be forgotten like this. Tyria then explained that it was because the song was interrupted during its execution, which is what left the Tower incomplete. Katene suggested using what she remembered of the song and expanding it through the ω Spectrum to load it again in her memory (in other words, using what she remembered to Re-Download the song into her mind), but Tyria dismissed this as impossible. She then asked him if they would be willing to help her, to which Katene excitedly replied that this was his lifelong mission. Hikari Gojo mentioned that theoretically it was impossible to create an spectrum of feelings in the time axis through ω expansion, upon which Aoto said that he didn't understand anything.
Cocona summarized everything as making Tyria remember the song, as Katene suggested going back to the VR21 and using it to analyze Tyria's Binary Field to make her remember the song. For this purpose, he left the rest of the party and returned to Eternus Shaft in order to prepare the machine for this, telling the others that he would call them as soon as it was ready. Tyria then told the party that it was time to reboot Harvestasha and asked who was currently administrating the Tower, to which Akane replied it was her. Tyria then asked her for the reboot key, which left Akane confused, as she had never heard about it. Tyria dumfoundedly asked her how she managed then to updat, repair or train Harvestasha, to which she replied that only Ayatane could control her aside of herself, and unfortunately she didn't know if he had the key or where he was at the moment.
An alert sounded at that moment, telling everyone that Clustania's unmanned fighters and guardians were scrambling one after other, preparing to attack Archia and the Tower of Origin inside it. Akane recognized this as Ayatane's handywork, as Aoto asked Cocona if she hadn't defeated him, to which she replied that she wasn't completely sure and that he could have escaped. Fearing the worst, the party decided to go to Archia while Akane tried to stop the guardians from causing trouble. At that moment, Saki noticed that Finnel seemed to be in pain, which was because the persona was trying to force her way out again, but she managed to supress her, at least for the moment. Tyria then urged them to go to Archia, and she joined the party.
Tyria Meets "Shitframe"[]
The party returned once again upon vanquishing Raphael and obtaining Harvestasha VISTA's boot key. Once they reached Module Harvestasha, Tyria told Aoto to prepare the boot key, and then she pronounced an Hymmnos Spell to reboot her. As soon as the reboot was completed, Tyria greeted Harvestasha like an old friend, while Harvestasha sarcastically called her "Ms. Defective" and wondered how she could walk so normally. She then began making fun of the fact that Tyria was currently in a holography body, which prompted Tyria to ask who had customized her into "Shitframe" mode. However, at that moment, Harvestasha recognized Aoto and his party, and angry over the fact that Finnel forced her to shut down, disabling her DH Sensors and controllers, she sent a group of Guardians after them. Tyria was already fed up with her, and thus pronounced other Hymmnos Spell to shut her down, to then inform the party that Harvestasha was broken because someone had fiddled with her programming, and unless they reprogrammed her, the Planet Regeneration Project would be impossible to accomplish. Saki asked if it was actually possible to modify her personality, to which Tyria answered that they would need to go to Ku in order to do it. Aoto almost fainted when he heard that Ku was located at the very top of the Tower, and that they would need to climb through the Tower to reach that place, as no airships could reach that point due to the Blastline. Cocona then asked why they put Harvestasha's maintenance terminal in such a difficult-to-reach place, to which Tyria answered that if it wasn't done that way, it wouldn't be possible to perform maintenance on both of Harvestasha's cycles, which would render useless any reprogramming they did; and that the terminal was there due to security reasons. Akane then left them to oversee the work the Clustanians were doing to help the Archians, while the party left for Ku.
Conclusion of Rebirthia Protocol[]
After Harvestasha was reprogrammed and Tyria remembered the song with Aoto's help, the party returned to Module Harvestasha one final time. This time, Tyria rebooted Harvestasha, who gave them a very warm welcome. She then asked Tyria to confirm the current date, as she told them it currently was 22/7/3353, to which Tyria answered that they would have to adjust her clock, as the current year was 3775 AD, which left Harvestasha astonished as she asked if she had slept so long. Tyria then informed her that she had good news: she finally had remembered the song, and it was time to restart the Planet Regeneration Project. Tyria thanked Aoto for his help, to which he replied that she should better save her thanks for after the planet was regenerated. She then asked Kurogane if he was watching over her, wherever he was, and told him she would succeed his will. Tyria then began singing the song she waited 700 long years to sing: EXEC_REBIRTHIA=PROTOCOL/.. As she sang, Harvestasha XP appeared in the Module, and thus, both Harvestashas began exchanging information protocols as the Mainfield Program was installed into them, making them aware of the roles they were supposed to play during the Planet Regeneration Project, and programming them with all the required information for it.
Once she finished the song, Tyria confirmed that all processes had been executed successfully. Aoto then asked in amazement if Tyria was actually going to use the XP Shell to head to the Planetary Core, which she confirmed: the XP Shell was actually a bullet they would use to send the Heart of the Land to the Planetary Core and embed it as the new heart of the Planet. Hikari Gojo asked if this was everything that the Planet Regeneration Project was about, which Tyria confirmed, and compared it to the implantation of an artificial heart. She then asked the party to accompany her into the core, to which Hikari Gojo asked if it wouldn't be enough to just put the Heart into the XP Shell and let Harvestasha handle the rest. Unfortunately, that couldn't be, as it would require to put to sleep the (metaphysical) immune system of the Planet, which is pretty much impossible without strong enough feelings. Otherwise, if they just launched the Heart into core, the Planet would instantly reject and melt it away, so they would need to persuade the Wills of the Planet into accepting the new Heart first. This would be no easy task, given that the Heart was man-made and the Planet had decided to exterminate mankind. This is why Tyria asked the party to accompany her: so they could protect her while she communicated with the Planet using a song.
Tyria then said she wouldn't force them to do it, given the large risk of them dying during this mission, but Aoto still decided to go forward with the plan, and the rest of the party decided to go as well. However, Harvestasha XP had to crash their little celebration, as there was still a problem that prevented them from going to the Planetary Core: the Tower lacked the Symphonic Power necessary for the launch, as well as completing the parts that weren't materialized when Tyria sang Rebirthia Protocol 700 years ago, and this was what rendered the project impossible during the last 700 years. Cocona then suggested bringing Symphonic Power from outside Sol Cluster: from her own Tower, located over at Metafalss. Tyria told her it would be possible if they managed to send a large amount of energy and absorb it through the Kaira Absorption Plates. Cocona then told them that Sasha could figure out a way of doing this, and thus, they decided to go to Archia to consult it with her.
Prior to departing for the Planetary Core, Aoto and the others came back here to challenge Akane to a few sparring fights in order to gauge their own strenght.
Layout[]
The Administrative District has earned the distinction of being the longest and most annoying dungeon in the entire Ar tonelico series, given the place is a veritable maze of elevators composed of six floors, its high encounter rate, and the fact the game lacks the mini-map feature found in its predecessors. And not being enough with it, it has to be visited several times during the course of the game, either to reach Module Harvestasha, or to proceed to Tower Block A. This is also the place where Akane and Kukuro can be fought during the final stages of the game.
Maps[]
Treasures[]
- ?Sparkling Water?
- Raw Meat
- ?Fishy Powder?
- ?Incense?
- ?Precious Metal Suit?
- Yuteria Material
- Synchro Evo Sap
- Headgear
- ?Pistol?
- Gold Material
- R2 Solvent
- Platinum Material
- Soul Charger
- Mandragora
- Ice Pop Can
- Burning Launcher
- Stress Doll
- Shockback Band
- Battle Tape
- Twister Machine
- Heart Apron
- Numbing Stick
- Rainbow Coat
Number of Treasure Chests in this Area: 23
Monsters[]
- Type 1: Sand
- Type 3
- Type 3: Crimson
- Type 3: Void
- Furia Model I
- Furia Model I-B
- Advanced RT C
- Advanced RT D
- Light RT C
Number of Random Battles in this Area: 15
Encounter Probability: Low
Bosses[]
Talk Topics[]
- Did you break out? (exit and enter again the nurturing room after watching the event about Finnel's birth)