Sol Cluster's Tower of Origin.
The Tower of Origin (原初の塔, gensho no tou?, lit. "Tower of Origins") is an ancient ruin located at the very core of the Archia Think Tank, and obviously, of Archia City. Its exterior looks like a rocket broken in two parts, both of which can be seen from Archia City. Part of its structure is entwined in several of the plants that were born at the time the Tower of Harvestasha was created. As mentioned above, its main entrance is located deep inside the Archia Think Tank, while it also has an exit leading to the XP Shell.
History[]
Backstory[]
Establishment[]
The Tower of Origin is actually the very first structure that was built in Sol Cluster after the Seven Bloodstains Incident, and it was built by Kurogane and his followers with the miser budget the AAA assigned them after the Third Tower project was cancelled and its role reassigned to the Second Tower, which was still in construction. Even for this to happen, Kurogane had to go to the AAA headquarters in Sol Ciel and pester the executives until they accepted to let him continue the Third Tower project, although they just did this to get rid of him.
The Tower was built near the crater left by the Seven Bloodstains, in the very center of the Six Fangs said catastrophe formed, and was a floating station that also had a massive megalopolis in its topmost floor, as it can be seen from the memories contained in Tyria's Binary Field. Its name was taken from the prototype to the First Tower of Ar tonelico: Sol Ciel's Tower of Origin, in an attempt to imitate they way in which said marvel of engineering was built. It was here that the Kurogane Laboratories were established and prospered during many years.
The Anti-AAA[]
The main reason Kurogane did all of this was to continue dedicating himself to the Planet Regeneration Project in which he had been working as part of the AAA years prior, which had become even more important and urgent after the Grathnode Inferia hit and the Planet began falling apart due to it. However, not everyone supported the project, especially in the region of Sol Cluster, where there were a great number of protests against it. While one reason was because the leaders of the AHPP were from Sol Ciel, which they considered as their enemies, they also saw interfering with the Planetary Core as an extreme project, and looked at it with anxiety.
Even among these opposing factions, the most active one was the organization called Anti-AAA. What this organization saw as a danger was the Tower of Origin that was constructed in the ground zero of the Seven Bloodstains Incident. The fact that the AAA had built a research facility in the harshest place in this world gave birth to a great number of suspicions. And to make matters worse, the Anti-AAA became much more active because the AAA staff leaders leaked an information that said that "The goal of that facility is shooting a bullet into the Planet", and had also sent spies to the Tower of Origin to pry intelligence from the workers and cause disruptive activities in there.
Despite all the damage this provoked to the Tower of Origin, Kurogane was unable to procure any support from the AAA. They had decided that as long as the world paid attention to the Third Tower, it would be very hard for the Second Tower to become a target of the opposing factions.
Kurogane was already extremely discouraged due to the the results of his research being stolen, but once he learned about the subversive activities done by the Anti-AAA, he got greatly shocked. Despite having crossed over many difficulties, even going as far as trying to implement the Project himself, he didn't receive any credit for it. He didn't have even any money to continue with his research. The Planet Conversation Project had become insignificant to him. And then, when he was the most exhausted, he received the urgent news about the Grathnode Inferia. He thought this was the retribution they deserved when he heard about the First Tower being destroyed and Sol Ciel having been completely blown up. However, when he later on understood how grave the damage was, even he panicked. At this rate, even this place would be covered by the Sea of Death in less than ten years.
Tyria's Bodyguard[]
Due to the Grathnode Inferia, the First Tower was silenced, and Sol Ciel was completely destroyed due to being in the ground zero of the catastrophe. The survivors to the catastrophe were in complete despair. It might sound funny, but the AAA staff that got degraded and sent over to this possible were narrowly saved from death. Practically speaking, the AAA organization was annihilated at this time. However, that only happened to the administrative mother cell that was located in Sol Ciel. Unlike the Second Tower, which depended entirely on the First Tower, the Third Tower was disconnected from the mother cell, which allowed it to receive an insignificant amount of damage.
However, the Anti-AAA intensified its activities up to radical levels after the catastrophe. The worst example of this was the attempt to assassinate Tyria, which happened on 3041 AD, as this murder attempt wasn't done outdoors: it was actually done when Tyria was on break time, inside of the Laboratories' own installations. Fortunately, Tyria managed to come out safely of it, but once the Kurogane Laboratories saw the seriousness of the situation, it was decided that the security all around the place would be strengthened, beginning with a background check for all of the people that belonged to the Laboratories. A rigid bodyguard system was laid all around the Tower of Origin to guard and escort Tyria. Among them, there was a young man called Kusunoki Masakado.
At that time, Kusunoki was 18 years old. He was an extremely calm boy, almost to the point of being emotionless. Also, due to his lack of emotions it was that he got appointed as the leader for an small expeditionary platoon that participated in the West War between Sol Ciel and Sol Cluster, despite being so young. If it was necessary, Kusunoki wouldn't falter at all when it came to eliminating hindrances and intruders. He also had a mind cold as ice, and had never opened his heart to anyone. He was one of the people that Kurogane valued the most, and was very glad that Kusunoki was so well-mannered despite his coldness. Kusunoki also was the kind of person that could kill others with just an smile.
Kurogane recruited him from the Sol Ciel army and gave him the role of Tyria's childhood friend, and also, her personal bodyguard. From that moment on, he mostly spent his everyday life at Tyria's side during a few years. During that time, he always repelled all of the assassins that tried attacking them, but despite this, he never managed to gain Tyria's favor. Naturally, this meant that Kurogane didn't make a mistake on choosing him. And thus, Tyria continued with her life without any great incidents.
The Two Opposing Factions[]
However, these days of peace didn't last much longer. A certain day after the Grathnode Inferia, a cell of the original AAA which managed to escape alive from Sol Ciel came to see Kurogane. The same ones that had proposed to concentrate the resources of the project into the Second Tower using the results of the research on Tyria and the Third Tower. However, Kurogane's project ended being inappropriate to the situation, since the place where the Second Tower was planned to be built was above a hard bedrock. Also, Kurogane still remembered the unpleasant feelings that the acts of the AAA had brought him due to concentrating the resources in the Second Tower just for their own interests of gaining recognition among the world, instead of having invested them in the Third Tower as he thought they would have. Thus, the negotiations ended in failure.
From that point on, that cell, now known as Pro-AAA, began taking more drastic measures. First, they bought the Anti-AAA organization using the money they brought with them from Sol Ciel, and began planning to steal Tyria from Kurogane through the use of brute force.
Although Kurogane accepted the fact of the resources of the AAA being concentrated into the Second Tower, it was meaningless to him. For executing the Planet Regeneration Project, it would be necessary to have a facility that produced enormous quantities of energy for it, and due to the effects of the Grathnode Inferia, something like that didn't exist anymore in this world. Currently, while the First Tower of Ar tonelico hadn't been completely silenced, the uncontrollable Symphonic Power it emitted was still swirling around the world. If that power could have been used and controlled, the environment wouldn't have ended destroyed to such an extent. Because of that, Sol Marta, which also depended on the power from the First Tower, was left without any practical applications. There wasn't any other way left to continue with the Planet Regeneration Project aside of the Third Tower that Kurogane was still building.
And besides, the Anti-AAA had gained an unexpectedly large amount of power. At this time, the members of the Anti-AAA had gathered a large amount of members, each one having different kinds of feelings. The original members lived to "exterminate demonic technologies", but once they were acquired by the Pro-AAA, their goals changed to "wanting to kidnap Tyria". Finally, when they learned about the Tower Transformation that Tyria would undergo to create the Third Tower, their feelings became "we love Tyria". So their common goal ended becoming to prevent Tyria from becoming the Tower and capture her while she still was in human form.
Once he learned about the plan to kidnap Tyria, Kurogane got enraged beyond any other thing that had happened until now. Even now, the Pro-AAA was now attempting to take Tyria away, which he took as a terrible offense. He would never give over Tyria to these guys. He would never allow them to use Tyria in any way.
To Kurogane, Tyria was his masterpiece, the experiment that he prized beyond even his own life. He wanted her to bloom as a flower before the eyes of all the people in this world as the results of the research he once made, before anyone else stole her. He was the only one who had made possible for the research to reach this point, and he would lead the Planet Regeneration Project to its success. He would never hand it over to any other people. With this flood of emotions on his heart, he continued with the preparations to transform Tyria into the Tower.
The Demise of the Planet Regeneration Project[]
Once Kurogane learned of the plans of the Anti-AAA, he switched over all of the systems of the Third Tower to "Plan B", which ended being a project in which he had worked in secret during many years: the Human Evolution Project. The core of this project consisted of using the logic for Tyria's Tower transformation to transform the physical structure of the humans into something that could survive in the Sea of Death. However the main components of the Sea of Death hadn't been completely analyzed at the time, so it was a theory filled with flaws. Despite this, Kurogane still had his reasons to attempt executing this. He was terrified when he saw the course that the Planet was taking. He fell in despair from seeing the world being contaminated with these stupid humans, for which even the Planet Regeneration Project was being used just for their own benefit and to gain political power. The Plan B was merely a trap to the humans, which he left to that rotting world.
Thus, if the Planet Regeneration Project was going to meet its end, Kurogane decided that he would drop down the curtains on it with his own hands. If he handed it to other people and Tyria ended getting killed in vain or something, it would mean that the project would have ended in a much more pathetic way. So he though that in the moment in which Tyria would become the Tower, he would create a wound in her heart by using himself as the cause, completely breaking Tyria's personality and burying her off together with any possibilities of completely creating the Tower.
Once her feelings and senses had crossed an specific threshold, Tyria would be unable of singing anything further. However, Kurogane had already realized by then what would be needed to trigger such an emotional outburst. If Tyria really had any love for him, he would be able to unleash her true power.
On year 3047 AD, the project finally began to be executed. Tyria began singing the execution program that would create the Tower, EXEC_REBIRTHIA=PROTOCOL/.. And when the song reached its climax, Kurgoane aimed a gun to his forehead, and pulled the trigger. He didn't falter at all in sacrificing his own life in the name of his research. While this created an explosive feeling within Tyria's mind, her transformation into the Tower had already begun and she was rendered motionless. She wanted to save her beloved Kurogane, and as the time passed and she became the Tower, her mind was inundated by an unbearable sadness. Then, the song degenerated into a bunch of static. When an event traumatic enough to be unbearable to the mind of a person occurs, that person ends losing all of the memories related to that event as a protection for his or her own mind. This was what happened to Tyria, making her lose all of the memories of that event, together with the parts of the Song she had still to sing... together with the Song that was supposed to save this world.
Kurogane handled this by making delicate arrangements up to the completion of his plan. He could predict everything from Tyria's mental state to her actions based on all the observations he made on her, and thought that the best way to make sure that the project would never be carried out was with his own death. To him, even his own body was no more than another part of what he needed to make his research a success. He was so obsessed with it that he lost sight of the proper course for his life.
The Flawed Tower and Harvestasha[]
The one that was assigned to perform the most important functions in the Planet Regeneration Project was the Tower's Mainframe: Harvestasha. Harvestasha's system kernel was based on the existence of the Goal Algorithms, which could be programmed into her, and thanks to her artificial intelligence, she would be able of considering and setting the best course of actions to achieve the goals the algorithm contained. The most important Goal Algorithm for the realization of the Planet Regeneration Project was the "Main-Field Program". However, this program was never installed into her, until around 700 years after its development. The reason for this was that Rebirthia Protocol was executed incompletely.
The Song that Tyria sang, Rebirthia Protocol, is similar to Metafalica in the fact that it's an Hymmnos Extract made to accomplish several functions upon being executed. These functions are listed below:
- Transforming Tyria into the Tower, according to the blueprints that were programmed into her.
- Create a copy of Harvestasha.
- Execute the Goal Algorithm "Main-Field Program".
Because Tyria's Song was broken up in the middle, the third function never got to be completed, but the first and second ones did get realized. Because of that, there ended being two Harvestasha Mainframes: the XP Edition, and the VISTA Edition. Due to the nature of the Planet Regeneration Project, it was necessary to give different Goal Algorithms to these two Mainframes. XP would head to the Planetary Core, provide the support for conversing with the Planet, control the XP Shell, and execute the necessary processes to transform it into the new Core that would regenerate the Planet. On the other hand, VISTA would control the entire Tower and the firing of the XP Shell, and once the XP Shell and XP Edition had become the new Planetary Core, she would be bestowed the complete control over the Tower.
In other words, the Tower was made lacking some of its essential functions, but there were still some other essential components for the project missing. The main problem was that the theory about the Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loops (Heart of the Land) was still impossible to clarify. While the Kurogane Laboratories continued doing the best they could to research the Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loops, they were setback by the loss of their budget and the theft of their technological documents. However, given that Kurogane had already detached himself from the Planet Regeneration Project, he only made Tyria sing Rebirthia Protocol to make a reality her transformation into the Tower. After his death, the Laboratories continued their work, but they never managed to create a Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop.
Kurogane had already understood the importance that the Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loops would have prior to Tyria's Tower transformation. Because of that, the AAA had equipped Harvestasha with the Pre-Field Program Goal Algorithm, so she would be preprogrammed with the knowledge of how important these items were. It's because of this that XP Edition could ask Mir a long time ago if she had any idea of where to find the Tesseractal Nuclear Loops. It was because of this memory that Mir entrusted Cocona with the Heart of the Land and the mission to go to Sol Cluster and contact Harvestasha.
The Reyvateil Rebellion[]
After Tyria transformed into the Tower, the Reyvateils from the Tower of Origin started a rebellion because of being treated like tools. Taking advantage of the opportunity given to them due to the death of Kurogane, who exploited them the most; and Tyria's transformation into the Tower, which was a support to their hearts thanks to her charisma, they made all of their dissatisfaction explode. They initiated a strike and halted many of the systems that kept the Tower of Origin working. At the same time this happened, a man called Reston was appointed as Kurogane's successor as the Chairman of the Kurogane Laboratories. However, the methods that Reston used were so heartless that he ended being passed down in history as the greatest source of evil in Sol Cluster.
On a certain occasion, the Kurogane Laboratories were attacked by a rebel army mostly composed of extremist Reyvateils. In response to this attack, Reston initiated a forceful formatting of the areas that belonged to the SH Server, without any hesitations. In other words, he deleted the data that structured the Cosmospheres of the Reyvateils. This event didn't affect only the Reyvateils that formed part of the rebel army: this also dragged in the more moderate Reyvateils that didn't belong to it, making it an intentional genocide. This even caused the deepening of a trench between the humans and Reyvateils, and made the Reyvateils greatly despise the humans. However, since interfering with the SH Server would be a lethal act to the Reyvateils, the rebel armies calmed down. Thus, the Reyvateils submitted themselves to the humans once again.
Six years after the genocide, a large-scale human rights movement was initiated. However, it was around this time that the poison from the Sea of Death began covering the lower areas of the Tower and many refugees that once were native inhabitants of Sol Cluster (the Clusterian people) came day after day to seek shelter in the Tower. In response to this, the Kurogane Laboratories made them work to death, which only further enlarged the support to the human rights movement. Finally, the human rights movement became a terrorist party due to not receiving any response from the Kurogane Laboratories and Reston was murdered by radical Reyvateils. Another man called Crudele was appointed as Reston's successor, and despite lacking the same level of decisiveness and leadership qualities of his predecessor, he helped to keep the humans on their feet despite their numerical inferiority.
War between the Laboratories and the Great Fang[]
The frictions between the humans and Reyvateils only increased with the passing of years, and it turned bad enough that a war between them seemed inevitable. The situation in the world became equally distressed, although the fact that they simply lacked the energy and resources to start a war may have been the only consolation in this sadness.
And while there were enough problems already at this time, other difficult problem soon descended over the Tower: not being enough with the inability to bury away the antagonism of the Reyvateils, the Clusterians began having conflicts with the inhabitants of the Third Tower (which were Cielans).
Around this time, the surface was already inhospitable due to the Sea of Death making impossible to breath and all of the escaping Clusterians ended gathering in the Third Tower. This continued to the point in which they had to build refugee camps around the Tower, in the Six Fangs. Their goal was entering the Third Tower, which was considered the safest place remaining in the world. However, the Third Tower was protected by Cielans, led by the Kurogane Laboratories, who put a limit on how many outsiders could enter the Tower. When they started this practice, they originally allowed a great number of people to enter, but they had to stop it after a time or otherwise, they would have exceeded the Tower's capacity to shelter people. Since there wouldn't be enough resources for all that people, and this would cause them all to die, this made the Laboratories to stop accepting Clusterians inside the Tower.
However, the Clusterians replied that the ones that originally invited them were the Cielans and insisted that the main reason for the existence of the Tower's research facilities was to save the victims of the tragedy. And in parallel to this problem, several skirmishes occurred throughout the region during various years, which finally escalated into a full-blown conflict in 3084 AD.
The Clusterians assaulted the Tower using gigantic airships. While this attack was so abrupt that it threw into chaos all of the people in the Tower, the Kurogane Laboratories and the Reyvateils made a temporal armistice due to it, since this time they had common interests to fight this war, and combined their forces to expel the Clusterians. And in this way, a grand war was started between the Kurogane Laboratories and the Clusterians.
The Kurogane Laboratories decided to mass-produce Reyvateils in order to quickly end this conflict. They were completed after a few months, and thanks to the great difference in the war potential between both sides, the Kurogane Laboratories overwhelmingly won the war. Due to their defeat, the Clusterians were forced to withdraw from the Tower, back to the harsh and steep cliffs were the refugee camps were originally set. Since these camps later on formed communities that came to be called together as the Great Fang, this war was called by future generations as "The War Between the Kurogane Laboratories and the Great Fang".
While the Kurogane Laboratories managed to attain an overwhelming victory in this war, the mass-production of Reyvateils they made to end to conflict sooner caused a grand collapse in the balance of power between the Reyvateils and the Laboratories. While both of them saw the war with the people of the Great Fang was won thanks to their union, once the war concluded, they returned to their former relationship. However, their power relationship was turned 180 degrees around. Due to the mass-production of the Reyvateils, the difference of power between them and the Laboratories was so great, that the Laboratories didn't have any chance of victory against them.
Clustania's Foundation[]
Due to the war, the number of Reyvateils produced was so large that they overloaded the capacity of the Tower of Origin and had to be relocated to the Third Tower. Once there, they suddenly invaded the Tower, establishing near the Tyria Head area, and began forming an strong military power. And in this way, the organization we currently know as the Autonomous State of Clustania was founded by the Reyvateils.
The one that initiated these activities was a general that commanded the Reyvateils during the Great Fang War called Clustceres. She was a Pureblooded β-type Reyvateil that was designed as a commander by the Kurogane Laboratories for the Great Fang War, and was endowed with an overwhelming charisma and leadership power. However, this was the backfiring of having bestowed these qualities to her.
The Kurogane Laboratories fiercely opposed this, which started other conflict between both sides. While each individual Reyvateil had a very low fighting power, they had deployed a dispersed guerrilla warfare in the inner sections of the Tower, which drew out the war for a long time. Furthermore, the Laboratories were also having other problems because the people of the Great Fang were using this as their chance to invade the Tower. And once the problems of the Laboratories became large enough to make them collapse, Clustceres initiated negotiations with them. She told them that if the Laboratories recognized Clustania as an independent government, they would help them to expel the people of the Great Fang from the Tower.
The Kurogane Laboratories accepted these conditions, and Clustania was founded as an independent government. Then, they established a treaty in which Clustania would semi-permanently keep the Great Fang outside of the Tower. However, the SH Server that serves as the Reyvateils' lifeline could still only be administrated by the Kurogane Laboratories, making this their only actual weakness. Then, they added to the conditions of the treaty that the Laboratories couldn't use their administration over the Tower to forcefully shut down the Server.
There also was a certain episode that reinforces Clustceres' leadership qualities. After the war, there was one time in which the Chairman of the Kurogane Laboratories at the time, Weiss, threatened her in this way: "If we ultimately shut down the SH Server, you all would die", during one of their many negotiations. Then, Clustceres answered the following: "Then, do it if you can. In fact, if you are so inclined to do it, why don't you try doing so right now? If you can keep the SH Server off during two hours, we will go back to following your orders".
Actually, it's impossible to keep the SH Server off during two hours. This wasn't known a long time ago, but the increase in the Reyvateil population also increased the quantity of Symphonic Power that was supplied to the Tower, which was what made the energy it could use fly off the charts. Clustceres calculated the time limit the Reyvateils could survive without the SH Server, and convinced she had the right answer, the waged everything on the two hours setting. This is because the longest time the SH Server can be in standby awaiting for a reply (PING) from a Reyvateil is two hours. If the PING isn't returned within these two hours, the SH Server will sever the connection between itself and that specific Reyvateil, killing her. If the SH Server had actually been kept off during more than two hours, all of the Reyvateils in the Tower would die.
After Clustania won this bet, the Kurogane Laboratories agreed to allow the Reyvateils to participate in the routinely SH Server inspections. This was done as a preventive measure by the Reyvateils so the humans wouldn't attempt to do anything to the SH Server, now or later on. It wouldn't be an exaggeration that this is the beginning of the Clustania regime, which went on all the way to the current year: 3774 AD. However, their goals and motives have completely changed from the beginning, which is the reason for the great differences between that old regime and the tyrannical rule of the current times. That tyrannical rule was actually established during the Third Era.
Moocheriel's Design and Creation[]
After Kurogane committed suicide, the Kurogane Laboratories at the time perceived that Tyria's transformation into the Tower was successful. Since Kurogane was the only one who made everything of the transformation and never told anyone the specifics of it, it was thought this was the case, because Tyria's Tower seemed to be almost the same as it was supposed to be in its successful form. However, the growth of the Tower had slowed down so much that the researchers had to begin looking for ways to remedy this. The Tower finally stopped its growth in 3061 AD. The completion rate was only about a 44% at the time, and due to the gradual decrease in the growth speed, the researchers officially initiated a project to make a new energy source for the Tower. This was The Plan to Increase the Symphonic Power through Moocheriel".
The facility known as Moocheriel was originally built to create a Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop and was actually planned to be the next phase to be started immediately after Tyria had transformed into the Tower. This phase finally ended being executed after being delayed for 15 years.
At the time, there was still no established way to reliably create a Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop. Due to this, the project was remade to create one through the ranking up of a Reyvateil's Triangular Nuclear Loop, which was the most dangerous method for doing so. Then, the created Tesseractal Loop would be offered to the Wills of the Planet, with Tyria serving as an interpreter between the humans and the Planet's Consensus.
However, this project was filled with inconsistencies. Moocheriel was originally created to be an object that consumed great quantities of energy, but ended becoming the exact opposite of it: this Moocheriel actually siphoned energy from the Planet to create itself. Then, it uses the energy taken from the Planet to create the Heart of the Land and finish the construction of the Third Tower; which shows how messed up the directors of the plan had their priorities.
Now that they had repelled the people of the Great Fang, and were bound to Clustania by a non-aggression pact, the Kurogane Laboratories finally could continue with the implementation of the Moocheriel Project. Since the Laboratories still were unaware of Kurogane's true intentions, they earnestly strove for the realization of the Planet Regeneration Project.
Since Tyria's Tower transformation hadn't reached the Moocheriel stage yet, they had to build it from zero, using Parameno Crystals so it could absorb Dynamic H-Waves and attempt gathering the Symphonic Power they needed to complete both Tyria's Tower transformation and Moocheriel itself. However, this project also had an Hymmnos Extract that would execute its functions, and they needed a singer to sing it. Although that Hymmnos, EXEC_SEED/., existed from the start of the project, they had to modify it to accomplish its new functions. Then, a singer for this Song was born in the Kurogane Laboratories: a Reyvateil by the name of Mihoshi.
Due to her great importance, Mihoshi was grown in a prime field specialized to give her an obedient personality, which all of the Reyvateils from Clustania completely criticized. Although the criticisms were unfounded, Clustania marked this due to Mihoshi's excessively obedient nature could have been caused by the suppression of her mind. However, when it came to the Moocheriel Project itself, no one voiced any protests against the Third Tower being completed. Everyone was holding the same feelings when it came to the planet's regeneration.
The Kurogane Laboratories Fall[]
Then, the time for completing Moocheriel finally came. Mihoshi began singing EXEC_SEED/., but the effects that this Song brought forth were quite a shock to the Reyvateils. The Triangular Nuclear Loop that held Mihoshi's soul was destroyed and reconfigured into a Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop. At the same time, due to the absorption of her Dynamic H-Waves commencing, Tyria's Tower transformation continued at an extremely rapid pace and Moocheriel approached to its almost complete form. However, it stopped at just an inch of being completed. Then, everything fell silent... even the wind, even the water, even the Sea of Death... all of the world was enshrouded by a terrifying silence.
However, that only lasted for a few moments. Then, the Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop into which Mihoshi was transformed began spouting a countless number of "black animals". This was the moment in which the Antibodies were born. The Antibodies behaved like a menace: whenever they found life, they would instantly annihilate it. And also, they traveled in packs large enough to attack entire cities, which caused damage large enough to completely destroy the city in which the Kurogane Laboratories were originally located.
However, we could say that there was an small mercy: while it was thought that the Antibodies that were born when they first appeared were infinite, they actually only were born for a short span of time. However, once they stopped appearing, Mihoshi's Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop had completely disappeared.
This absurd number of Antibodies that appeared in such a short time continued behaving themselves like menaces for a long time. The Kurogane Laboratories, Clustania, and the people of the Great Fang only could defend themselves the best they could, so there was no time to pin up anyone as the culprit of this disaster. When the Antibodies appeared, the people of the Great Fang hid themselves using the complicated network of volcanic tunnels that was in the region and continued their lives in the underground. On the other hand, the Reyvateils of Clustania hid within facilities located inside of the Tower, like the Tyria Head or the Lymph Ducts. However, the Kurogane Laboratories were the ones that received the worst consequences from this disaster: they lived inside the Tower of Origin and there weren't any other cities or places to which they could escape. Due to this, the Kurogane Laboratories were essentially annihilated, and all the projects they had related to the Third Tower and the Planet Regeneration Project were annihilated with them. Thus, the Planet Regeneration Project became a lost technology at this point in time.
The Archia Association[]
The Tower of Origin was mostly destroyed, and more than half of the staff from the Kurogane Laboratories was killed. One part of the survivors went on to live in the underground as well, while other discovered a place in the cliffs where it was possible to live: a plot of land from which the Tower of Origin was visible. So they settled down, and built a city there, which was called the Ciela Gate by the future generations.
At this time, the person that became the central existence for this city was Archia Charen. He later on became the founder of the Archia Think Tank, but he originally was the Project Supervision Advisor of the Kurogane Laboratories. He later on formed a group that sought to reactivate the Tower of Origin, mainly composed by volunteers he gathered, and ended calling it the Archia Association. While the Tower of Origin was mostly destroyed, since most of the facilities that provided it with Symphonic Power were still intact, the Archia Association embarked on the task of rebuilding the facility.
However, a shocking event happened a few years after this. Clustania decided that they would expel all the humans that had ran away to the Tower from it. The only exception were the ones that were working at the Tower of Origin, which would be put under their surveillance. They were allowed to go to the Great Fang, but crossing to the Tower was forbidden, without any exceptions. And from this time onwards, Clustania began its excessive interventionism over the human organizations. To Clustania, the Grathnode Inferia and the Moocheriel Disaster were both caused by the actions of the humans, so they couldn't be trusted anymore.
They even went as far as interfering with the details on the investigations of the Kurogane Laboratories, and executed a plan to abolish their current conditions. This plan consisted in disconnecting the PING lines that connected Harvestasha XP and Harvestasha VISTA. Normally, these two Frames have an strengthened security due to both of them inspecting each other to prevent potential failures. However, if the PING lines are disconnected, the communication between both will be interrupted, which will cause the Tower of Origin to be recognized as "silenced". It was due to this that Clustania became more lenient when it came to the surveillance of the Tower of Origin, while the core members of the Archia Association remained in its deepmost areas, having received a research environment about which the Clustanians wouldn't be worried.
Establishment of the Archia Think Tank[]
Although Clustania had already begun their fear politics and used them to control the humans, they still continued protecting the Kurogane Laboratories for as long as they kept silent. On the surface, the Laboratories' staff seemed to follow Clustania's orders exactly as they were told, even going as far as voluntarily registering their own Control Names. Since they wanted to remain as inconspicuous as possible, they obeyed all the orders they received and continued with their projects in a way that didn't anger the Clustanians.
Then, 11 years after Clustania had instated the Control Name system, the time to carry out their actions finally came. Archia Charen's group went to Clustania, and applied for the permission to establish a new organization called the Archia Think Tank. While this petition was initially rejected, this was the same exact kind of reply that Archia Charen had expected. However, he expected to be able to settle this peacefully by just continuing with the application process. So although this application was rejected, Archia began with his activities. After this, many of the Clustanian Reyvateils began suddenly dying, and this repeated many times.
This was because of a project that Archia Charen had established in absolute secrecy: a system that used Harvestasha XP to perform maintenance (manipulation of data) on the SH Server. This was a project that no one aside of the staff of the Kurogane Laboratories knew, and it remained in secrecy during a very long time. This unbelievable situation caused a complete change on the behavior of Clustania's government. Then, the Clustanians came to the Tower of Origin, which was located inside the Parie Executive Treated and treated as a restricted area; and approved making the Archia Think Tank into the administrators for it.
The reason why Archia Charen's group had to take these drastic measures was because of the same exact reasons that Clustceres had to make that bet with the Kurogane Laboratories. However, this time that decision was taken by the other party, since they weren't capable of continuing with Kurogane's research under the severe restrictions that the Reyvateils put over them. Despite this, if they destroyed the SH Server and exterminated the Reyvateils by doing this, all of the Tower would have ended falling apart. It was on their best interests that the humans regained the administration of the SH Server and the balance scale tipped on their favor once again. Also, given that the Reyvateils had thrived so much, there wasn't any need to continue using the Symphonic Power-generating facilities of the Tower of Origin to provide energy.
Archia Charen tried to make this situation as advantageous as possible to himself and modified the conditions they would put on the Custanians. These conditions were actually pretty simple. Starting from that day, and irrevocably, the Archia Think Tank would have complete control over an administrative area of 1000 Stons (around 3 Km) of diameter around the Tower of Origin. Likewise, Clustania would be unable to interfere with anything that happened within this 1000 Ston special administrative area. Clustania accepted these conditions, and while they continued calling it the Parie Executive District, the actual government of this area was surrendered to the Archia Association.
Now that the Archia Association and the Kurogane Laboratories had gained their independence, they were fused and reborn as the Archia Think Tank. The only goal the Archia Think Tank has was succeeding Kurogane's will, and carrying out a certain project. That certain project wasn't the Planet Regeneration Project, but the Human Evolution Project. The current project chief for this was Archia Charen himself. At the time, the Human Evolution Project was known by the codename "Plan B", and most of the researchers in the Laboratories didn't even know about its existence. It was kept in such a high level of secrecy that not even the researchers of the Archia Think Tank knew about it until Archia Charen explained all the details on it himself. After this, the installations of the Archia Think Tank and Archia City were built around the Tower of Origin. However, the Tower of Origin itself was considered as too dangerous and was left abandoned.
The Discovery of Cosmoflips[]
Many centuries later, and 20 years after the Archia Think Tank was split into the Ancient and Neo Atlas Factions, the latter began getting so many breakthroughs that they had even developed a new theory called γ-Sublimation as part of their plan to accomplish the Human Evolution Project. Due to this theory, it would be possible to put a Will of the Planet and an obedient Reyvateil inside a single soul, as they had attempted to do with Ar Ru but miserably failed due to only getting from it a berserk Antibody in the body of a Reyvateil. While there was a long span of time between the time in which the γ-Sublimation theory was established and when the Reyvateils from it began to be produced, it still advanced steadily.
While the γ-Sublimation later on moved to the field test phase, to road to it was a pretty difficult voyage. When research was performed in why the ancestor to the γ-Sublimates, Ar Ru, went berserk, the conclusion was because it was nearly impossible to tame the brutal nature of the Antibodies. Due to this, it was decided that the research would be then conducted in parallel to the development of the vaccine Hymmnos, Arphage, which would allow to eliminate that brutal nature. However, there were many ones that protested against this plan due to it using the Nuclear Triangular Loop that serves as the basis for creating the body of the Reyvateils, because the mirroring of her Cosmosphere in the SH Server would cause many problems in the process, and it was decided to attempt seeking a Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop, which they had been trying to create since long ago. If they actually managed to obtain one of them, then it would be possible to push the project directly to its final stage.
On the other hand, the research of the Ancient Faction didn't progress at all due to having no access to the Third Tower's Rinkernator. It might because they were unprepared for the circumstances brought by Clustania's return to power, but the request they filled for exploring the Tower of Origin was finally granted. The Tower of Origin had suffered large collapses due to the attacks from the Antibodies centuries ago, and seemed to be completely shut down. While Harvestasha XP still functioned perfectly within it, meaning that all of its essential facilities were still operating, it was terminally forbidden to set foot in it. The Tower of Origin exploration squad, led by Kiraha, then discovered something that would serve as a tremendous breakthrough for the Ancient Faction.
What they discovered were the Hymn Crystal for Cosmoflips, and Harvestasha's boot keys. Cosmoflips was a Song that only Tyria could sing, but once she was revived and had it Downloaded into her, it would be possible to continue with the Planet Regeneration Project. As for the problem of the Symphonic Power remaining in the Tower, according to the research documents that were preserved in the Think Tank, just generating a large amount of power for a single instant would serve good enough as well. Because of this, the Ancient Faction immediately began establishing good relationships with the Moebius Factory, due to their Great Symphonic Power Disc, and helping them with the development of the DFP (D-Wave Flare Pulse Emitter).
While the Neo Atlas Faction was thought as superior, with these discoveries, both factions were now in equal standing. However, they still needed to establish how to create a Selfstabilizing Tesseractal Nuclear Loop, so it would be still some time before both factions could execute their corresponding projects: the Neo Atlas Faction and its transcription of Ar Ru into a Soulspace, and the Ancient Faction and their resurrection of Tyria.
Events During Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel[]
Normal Endings[]
Although the Tower of Origin is never visited during the game in these routes, Jack and Krusche appear briefly in it, helping the party as they fight against Harvestasha.
Krusche initially notices the DH-Wave pulses that Harvestasha is sending to try and kill the party members when they tried to Dive into her Binary Field, commenting on how she had never seen them with such intensity and that a normal person would die in less a minute from them. Jack screamed that she should finish up unlocking the computer them, which she was trying to do at that moment. She finally managed to do so and left everything to the party.
Ayatane's Invasion[]
Pursuing Ayatane, the party arrived at this place after infiltrating the Archia Think Tank. Aoto was amazed at the appearance of the place, despite not understanding why it had that name. Tyria explained that it was the place of birth for the current Sol Cluster, as this was where the Tower of Harvestasha was created when she sang her song. Aoto remarked it must be a very important place to her, which Tyria denied by saying she didn't have any memories of it, especially now it was just an abandoned ruin, which left her unable to feel any nostalgia for it. They then continued their way.
After climbing a few floors, they found Richaryosha and a few of her soldiers fighting against an Antibody swarm, which she remarked seemed endless, and eventually would wipe them out. At that moment, the party stepped in and offered them their help. After defeating the Antibodies, Hikari Gojo asked Richa if she was okay, which deeply moved her, as she always believed he would come to save her whenever she was in a crisis. Gojo asked her to tell him the truth about why the Antibodies were targeting the Tower. Richa at first denied knowing anything about it, but that Archia kept very important data stored in it and she had to guard it at any cost. Gojo insisted again, and as a friend, begged her to reveal to him everything she knew about the facility and the information it kept. Aoto asked as well, but despite this, Richa couldn't tell them anything. When Gojo asked her, she told him it was partially because of her duty as an officer, but also, because she believed Gojo would hate her if he knew about it. Gojo then told her that if it was something painful, he would help her to heal her wounds, and asked her again.
Richa finally gave in, and despite the shock of her subordinates, she would tell the party everything, but only if they helped the Archian forces to repel the Antibodies. Hikari Gojo accepted the condition and thus they continued climbing the Tower.
After a while, they reached a chamber that seemed very similar to the Beta Nurturing Center at the Clustania Executive District, as Finnel herself said. There, they heard Ayatane's voice, explaining this was where many Reyvateils were produced around 600 years ago, and he appeared in front of them. Richa announced he was who controlled the Antibodies, and that she felt sick from the fact he tried using them to annihilate the humans. Ayatane turned this back on her, asking her if she knew why he had come. He then proceeded to tell Richa she had defected Clustania to become a dog of the humans and they were paying the price of her actions. Aoto and Hikari Gojo were left confused to this until Ayatane explained to them that Richa used to do what he was trying to do now without any hesitations, as she was the former Supreme Commander of Clustania. Richa told him to shut up, as he didn't have any right to probe into her life. Ayatane told her she hadn't grown at all and that she should learn about Akane how to supress her emotions. Richa retorted that same emotion supression would begin causing suffering to Akane from now on. Ayatane remarked he didn't care at all about that, and he only cared for the results of Richa's achievements and past actions, as they were what allowed their aspirations to finally bear fruit. Richa told him that he hadn't grown at all, as he was still a self-centered loser. Ayatane turned this back on her, telling her she was every bit as self-centered as him.
Ayatane then asked everyone if they knew what this place was, to then reveal this was the location of the source of life for the Reyvateils, the SH Server itself; as the devices in Clustania were only mere terminals and the lives of the Reyvateils were all controlled here. Ayatane then explained that while Reyvateils were far superior to humans when it came to combat, the only reason why Clustania and Archia continued coexisting was because Archia could just kill them off by shutting down the SH Server. He then added that once they gained the control of the Server, there wouldn't be any obstacles to Clustania and he would be able to create his paradise of Reyvateilia. At Aoto's exasperation, Ayatane told everyone that the Reyvateils were the Mothers of everything and the only beings capable of creating a new planet, while the humans were mere garbage that had to be purged, and that's why he had made a pact with the Antibodies: in exchange for the body of a Reyvateil, they would help them to exterminate humanity. Finnel immediately realized she was the body Ayatane mentioned, which Ayatane confirmed immediately. This enraged Aoto, who screamed at Ayatane for all the suffering he had caused to Finnel because of his idiotic pact. Ayatane replied he didn't care at all for the emotions of the vessel, but before Aoto could do anything, Finnel told him to ignore the ramblings of this madman, and asked Aoto to defeat him to be able to save the world. Ayatane merely laughed at the idea, revealing he wasn't an ordinary human, and he actually belonged to the Teru: a race that had disappeared from Sol Cluster since many decades ago. And not having enough with that, he announced the Antibodies had given him much more power, more than what Archia could hope to attain with their Human Evolution Project. When Richa asked him what he would do, Ayatane went completely crazy, ordering them to behold his appearance, the body of the new divine ruler of the world. Thus, he transformed into a massive monster similar to a dragon. While everyone was still shocked at this, Tyria told them to snap out if they didn't want to die, which made Aoto charge head first into battle.
Ayatane was utterly defeated by the party, which left him badly wounded and shocked that beings he called trash could have defeated him like this. Tyria asked him if he had Harvestasha's reboot key, to which he replied Archia had been controlling Clustania during a long time, so they would be the ones that had it, and despite their claims of neutrality, they had been toying with the lives of the Reyvateils all this time. Ayatane then announced the party would regret having killed him, and that if they left the world in Archia's hands, it would become a true hell. He then fell dead to the floor.
Saki wondered which one of the factions was actually in the right, to which Finnel replied that neither: they both were trying to destroy their world for their own selfish reasons, which was an statement with which Aoto agreed. Raphael then arrived at the scene to Richa's surprise, and announced the Antibodies were retreating. They then headed back to his office in the Archia Think Tank.
Chasing Raphael and Discovering Luke's Fate[]
The party continued following Raphael from the Archia Think Tank to this place, although they had lost him by the time they reached the Beta Nurturing Chamber. There, they met up with Jack and Krusche, who told them that Raphael had gone further up with Richa, much to Hikari Gojo's displeasure. Cocona asked them if they were okay, to which Jack answered they were, and advised them to hurry up if they intended to stop Raphael, as he looked pretty serious and completely ignored them as he passed through the place. This gave Gojo a very bad feeling, so he urged the party to continue their way.
After they left, Krusche took the time to hack into Archia's computers through a nearby terminal, much to Jack's shock, as he was scared about the Human Evolution Project being executed. Krusche was very confident on the party preventing that from happening, and decided to make use of the chance to find information on her long lost boyfriend Luke. Jack told her to be serious, as they would die if things ended up badly. Krusche angrily told him that this wasn't the time to think about giving up, especially after having being the Archian's dogs for so long only to do this. Additionally, if Archia's network was destroyed during the battle, their journey and time in Sol Cluster would have been a complete waste. Jack finally gave up on her, and told Krusche to hurry up. Shortly after they began searching, Krusche finally found a record with Luke's name, so Jack told her to save it and leave the place quickly. However, Krusche had enough time to read that the record mentioned Luke's status as "Dead", which left her shocked. Although Jack initially insisted in hurrying up, after having read this, he shut up and let Krusche follow up with the reading of the record: Luke had volunteered to explore Ar Ciel's surface, below the Sea of Death, to back up the results of the Archia Think Tank researchers, despite them telling him to give up on that. After that, he departed on a airship and disappeared once he got swallowed by the clouds, so the Archia Think Tank officially declared him as dead.
Jack felt sorry about it, but told Krusche this wasn't the time to grieve about him. However, Krusche broke up, wondering what Luke had been seeking. Jack told her that they already had found what they were seeking, and they had to leave if they didn't want to share Luke's fate. Krusche just left in silence, while ignoring Jack's screams...
Reencounter and Farewell[]
During Richa's and Hikari Gojo's little date, Richa brought Gojo to this place, more precisely, to the Beta Nurturing Chamber. Upon arriving, Gojo remarked it was a very unusual place for a date, and asked her why she chose this place. Richa asked him to first listen to her story: she hadn't apologized properly for what she had done, and she wanted to tell Gojo the entire truth in person. Richa explained she used to be Clustania's Supreme Commander, and one day, she was sent to spy on Archia with a group of her agents, with the final objective of stealing the SH Server and bringing it back to Clustania. However, Archia's security was much tighter than they had thought, so her entire squad was annihilated, while she got up to the XP Shell, where she saw Harvestasha XP up and running. Gojo remarked she wandered into a very dangerous place, and that she was very lucky to have survived to that entire ordeal. Richa continued by saying she almost got killed too, but Raphael appeared and saved her, because she could be the Reyvateil that sung EXEC_Z/., the song that would supposedly save humanity. Raphael also added that she would be allowed to live for as long as she didn't reveal any of Archia's confidential information, but if she ever broke her word, they would delete her Cosmosphere from the SH Server, instantly killing her. This caused Richa to be always afraid and forced to obey every order he gave her. Gojo understood then the extent of Richa's suffering, and why she couldn't ever tell him anything. Richa apologized for having caused him so much trouble, to which Gojo replied it was also his fault, and apologized for not having ever known about it. Richa then asked if Gojo still hated Archia, to which he replied his sadness and hatred wouldn't disappear so easily. Richa realized how much he loved his younger sister, to which Gojo replied she was the only family he had. Richa then asked if he wanted to see her again and talk to her in person. Gojo couldn't really understand what she meant, so Richa explained it: Aisha's Cosmosphere was still alive inside the SH Server, and if they used the Archia Think Tank's facilities, he could Dive into it, although this didn't meant she was alive or that it could be possible to bring her back to life. And furthermore... in the state her Cosmosphere was, any sort of interaction would deplete the scarce H-Waves that still flowed through it and would cause her definitive death. Richa told him she knew this wouldn't make up for all the atrocities Archia had committed, or all the things she herself had done to Gojo, but she still wanted to do something for him, as he was the only person in the world who brought her happiness. Gojo thanked her, and asked her to allow him to Dive into Aisha's Cosmosphere.
Once the Dive started, Gojo found himself in front of the Tower of Life in Aisha's Cosmosphere, much to his surprise. Once there, he met up with Aisha, and both greeted each other after such a long time. Gojo couldn't really find what to say to her, calling himself the worst big brother, but he still wanted to see her. Aisha told him she really missed him, while Gojo asked her if she was hurt or what she was doing. Aisha told him she was alright, and that her Cosmosphere was used by the Archia Think Tank's researchers for the Human Evolution Project. It caused her a lot of trouble, but at least it was over now. Gojo was glad to hear that, to which Aisha replied she felt very lonely, but was very happy that he came to see her. Gojo told her they could finally meet each other again, and that he would come back to see her more frequently from now on. Aisha thanked him, but also told him... she knew this would be their last farewell...
Aisha knew pretty well that her energy had almost run out due to all the experiments, and that Gojo had come to say goodbye to her. Gojo told her that he went through hell after she died, and that his sadness was large enough to almost turn him crazy. He wouldn't be able of enduring such pain again. Aisha consoled him by saying that he was strong, and that he had always protected her. She then asked Gojo to find an amazing woman and form an wonderful family, so he could be happy for both of them. She then asked him to promise it. Gojo couldn't bring himself to do it, but when Aisha remarked she was getting drowsy, Gojo reacted again, and Aisha told him how much she loved him as she closed her eyes for the last time and her Cosmosphere vanished away...
Gojo awakened from the Dive breaking down into tears, making Richa remark she shouldn't have done this and apologizing. Gojo just told her that Aisha was just smiling, without holding any grudges or hatred towards anyone. Finally, he thanked Richa for having allowed him to meet Aisha for the last time. Richa asked if he could talk to her, to which Gojo replied she told him to be happy, and make a wonderful family with an amazing woman. He then told Richa that they would be very happy together. They then went back to Archia City to meet up with the rest of the party.
Cocona's Request and the Completion of the Third Tower[]
After having helped Jack and Krusche and receiving the necessary materials for completing Sasha's newest satellite, she Downloaded into Cocona a Song that would allow the party to transfer Symphonic Power from Infel Phira over at Metafalica to Sol Cluster, which they needed to complete the Tower of Harvestasha and start the Planet Regeneration Project. Sasha advised them to head to the areas around or right above the XP Shell, as that was the place with the best transfer speed for feelings. Therefore, the party returned to the Tower of Origin and boarded the elevator that was just right before the entrance to the Shell, carrying them to the highest point of the Tower of Origin.
Once they arrived there, Aoto remarked it was the time for Cocona to sing, and Tyria asked him if he thought it would go well. Aoto was fully confident in Cocona's skill, so he replied back that everything would go okay. A moment later, Hikari Gojo received a call on his Telemo from Sasha, who informed that she was ready to launch the satellite, while Gojo told her they had just arrived at the place. Sasha acknowledged this and told Cocona she could start singing whenever she wanted. Cocona began getting nervous again, and after inhaling deeply, she stood at the border of the platform where the party was to ready herself, while the others gave her their support and showed their trust in her.
Cocona was still unable to begin singing due to nervousness and uncertainty that her Song would be enough to convince the other IPDs to help her, but at that moment, she heard the cheers from everyone in Archia, and then, she understood why Gengai and Aoto had been acting so suspiciously that morning: they had been rallying support for her. She thanked them, after inhaling deeply once more, she put all her energy into it, and began singing the song: METHOD_HYMMELI/., under the watch of everyone in the party, Jack and Krusche, all of which were looking at her moved and impressed.
At the same time, Sasha launched the satellite, which a while later, was hit by a massive wave of Symphonic Power that came over from Metafalica: Cocona had managed to convince the other IPDs to lend her their power. Then, the Symphonic Power dispersed and fell through to the Kaira Absorption Plates in the upper areas of the Tower, finally materializing all the incomplete portions that couldn't be created 700 years ago due to Kurogane's sabotage. A gigantic manifestation of Tyria appeared shortly later, who then began aiming to the Planetary Core, getting ready for launching the XP Shell.
Cocona fell down to the ground after she finished singing, but told everyone she was okay when they ran over to check on her. Aoto congratulated her for having done such a great work, and to see how everyone below was praising her achievement. Saki and Finnel joined as well in congratulating her, and Cocona thanked them. Tyria then informed the stage was set for regenerating Planet, and that they should for the Core right now. However, she first asked them once more if they were sure about this, as this journey could cost them their lives. Aoto told her they were still going to do it, to which both Saki and Finnel agreed. They then went back to Archia to thank Gengai for his help, and to make their final preparations for the trip to the Planetary Core.
Layout[]
As you can imagine from the name, the Tower of Origin is a vertical structure, so it means that navigating its interior is mostly accomplished through the usage of elevators. The place is quite long and composed of several floors, only having a few treasure chests scattered around the place, together with some tough monsters, and two boss batttles. Most of the Tower has a very high-technology appearance, as it befits its history, although the areas leading to the top consist mainly in steel catwalks and stairs, together with a few warp points that ultimately lead to a lift leading to the highest point of the Tower, and to the entrance of the XP Shell.
Maps[]
Treasures[]
- ?Stick Medicine?
- ?Famous Protector?
- ?Radio?
- Synchro Evo Sap
- ?Stuffed Animal?
Number of Treasure Chests in this Area: 5
Enemies[]
Number of Random Encounters in this Area: 10
Encounter Probability: Middle