Story of Sol Ciel
From The Ar Tonelico Wiki
This is the story of the setting of the first Ar tonelico game, the region of Sol Ciel. [1] [2]
[edit] The First Era
Once upon a time, there was a great civilization on the world of Sol Ciel. And now, we will be showing you all how the remains of it, the Tower of Ar tonelico, was created.
This wasn't the work of only one man, neither the birth of the love of one man. For my daughter, with love from her father. One song. One feeling. One power...
Story of the Genesis
Everything started when one member of the Tsukikanade discovered the substance called "Songstones". And hidden from his wife, he made a orgel for his daughter, Shurelia, out of Songstones, which ended having mysterious powers. Whenever it was played, it would release particles of light, which covered the surrounding surfaces of where it was positioned. With only looking to that light, all the people began to feel a deep peace. Very soon after that, both father and daughter opened a orgel shop, and since it became very popular very quickly, the man was invited to the capital of the country to lead a investigation focused on the powers that the sounds carry. This man is known to the people of the current era as the Father of Sound Science. Roughly 90 years later, his direct descendant, Eleno, was born, and he was raised having heard during all his life about how great his grandfather was. He went on studying very diligently, since he wanted to keep making progress for the Sound Science, and when he reached the University, he became a very passionate investigator, since he passed his days and nights researching and studying, and in a very short time, his achievements were acknowledged by the government and he was scouted to the National Research Center. His work in there was this one: he was assigned to be the main planner behind the leading edge in Sound Science: the expansion project for the amplification tower of "Ar tonelico". However, the job of the country's rebels was to get rid of him. And, since the investigation was done for military purposes, Eleno wasn't even able to see his family for many days. Because of this, his morale went down each day more, reaching the bottom when this tragedy occurred: his only daughter, Shurelia, died in an accident, which was more than enough to make Eleno resign from the project. Because of his extreme depression, the government offered an idea for the project. The development of a human-like mother brain that could synchronize with the tower perfectly, and could control it as it was part of its body. While Eleno was working in the new project of the floating continent, the [Wings of Horus], he met the artificial life-form, Eoria, which was going to be turned soon into the [Administrator] for Ar tonelico. Eleno doubted his eyes when he saw her for the first time. Eolia looked exactly like how his daughter Shurelia was at the time of her death. Then, Eleno began calling her [Shurelia], and began to love her as if she was his own daughter. At the time, thanks to the exceptional feelings carried by the Reyvateils, Shurelia found a special person, and as a consequence of that, she learned about what the feeling of love is. With the power of the Sound Science and Ar tonelico as its settings, the small country from the Sol Ciel region, [El Elemia], in a few decades was able to grow and raise its power a lot, which amazed the other countries, since it was unexpected that such a small country could turn out to be so powerful. However, the subjectivity of the world was gripped by the suzerain state of El Duel, from the Sol Cluster region. After the long war, El Duel dispatched members of the Teru Tribe to do subversive activities in Ar tonelico. But they only ended breaking the main power lines that connected to the Grathnode Discs, causing them to shatter, and provoking the catastrophe known as the Grathnode Inferia.
[edit] Important terms and incidents for this time period
[edit] Tsukikanade (Moon Chanters)
Previous to the development of the Sound Science, the music was created for praying. To ward off evil, call upon the rain, and praying for good harvests. And thanks to the [Festivals], where there were musical performances and singing, the people received various [powers] to improve their lives. The people built altars in the places where the effects of these powers were stronger, and later on, they built shrines for the altars, however, they were scared of these holy places. Their knowledge and experience were passed on during generations, since only a part of the people could harness the power of sounds, and these people became known as the Moon Chanters, and they were revered like the priests and priestesses of the Gods.
[edit] Ar tonelico
Ar tonelico means the Only Divine Tree. Everyone could use the [powers carried by the sounds], however, they wanted to amplify them to increase the power and blessings they could receive from the songs, and for the purpose of building a tower that would amplify that magic, both the Humans and Teru worked together in its construction. The other kind, the Teru, had access to very advanced technologies, and also, learned to harness the powers of magic, and even if they waged war against humans, soon afterwards, they began cooperating with them. The [Magic] that the Teru posses, and the [Science] of the Humans, eventually ended intermingling and uniting with each other. The Science of the Humans alone wouldn't have been enough for creating Ar tonelico, since various of the functions and powers that the tower was going to have couldn't be explained by science alone, and because of that, half of the engineers that planned and supervised the construction of the tower were humans, while the other half were Teru.
[edit] Eleno's Daughter
When Eleno was working in the El Elemia Research Institute, he at first was allowed to return home frequently, but with the passing of time, the frequency of his trips back home gradually diminished, making him unable to meet with his beloved daughter, Shurelia, for a long time. And then, tragedy struck when, one day, Shurelia was killed by a malfunction in the Tower Security Systems. The father quickly returned home since he couldn't get in touch with his daughter... In these times, there weren't many people remaining to control the systems, and until this wasn't solved, the Operation Failures continued. Eleno lost all of his will to live because of this incident.
[edit] The Powers of the Songstones
It's a natural law that the music and the songs, via the Songstones, transform into magical power. The higher the quality of the Songstone that is approached to the source of the song, the greater the transformation of the songs and melody in magical effects. When the "Father of Sound Science" used for the first time a Songstone as an alloy, the Songstone absorbed the melody and the feelings he put into it when he crafted them for his daughter, and turned them into particles of light. The Songstones have an small delay before releasing the magical power, and when the needle of the orgel touched its plate, it executed the magical power from the music that was recorded in it. In the researches that came later on, it was possible to create higher quality Songstone crystals, greatly improving their magical transformation capacity. Of course, that also reduced greatly the delay before the release of magical power. However, if these crystals were broken, they would release all the magical power they had accumulated inside at once, making them very dangerous items.
Flowchart for how the Songstones work:
Song (Song) -> Songstone (Transformation) -> Magic (Magical Power)
[edit] Grathnode and Parameno
When the Songstones are refined and crystallized, their special characteristics are divided between [Absorption] and [Release]. The crystals that have only Absorption as their special characteristic are called [Parameno], while the ones that have only Release are called [Grathnodes], and in Ar tonelico there are various gigantic discs, 4 for each kind of crystal. The Parameno discs capture and receive any source of magic (such as melodies), which then are sent to the Quantizer (optimization process) and cancels any noises they can have before sending them to the Grathnode discs. When it reaches the Grathnode discs, it's released as magic. For the service form of the sound science, the people sang in special terminals to interact with the Tower, which then would change into embodiments capable of receiving the magical power. Furthermore, the center of the Tower was a Restricted Access area, given that the highest quality Parameno discs are located in there. Also, the little orgel that the "Father of Sound Science" made for his daughter was established and managed as the main power source for the Tower, given that it only continued to play the melody called the "Pure Melody".
[edit] Climax of the West War with Sol Cluster
The suzerain state of El Duel, together with other 48 allied nations formed the region of Sol Cluster, and they totally denied the [World Commune Demands Treaty] that El Elemia proposed. In that moment, both countries started a cold war, and after that, El Elemia turned into a small country that had abundance of Songstone reserves, which were the main proposed resources for Ar tonelico, and since they were now enemies, they demanded their removal from Sol Cluster' s signatory nations (allies). This got into light the fact that El Duel had sent a large contingent of the Cluster Allied Forces in an area that was in a radius of 100 km near the core of Ar tonelico, and destroyed a chaff called the Noise Post, whose function was to neutralize the long distance layer of waves of the tower. The only thing that El Elemia could do, since they couldn't continue canceling the effects of these waves, was point them to other direction (to the earth's surface) and send in these strong waves, but the reaction of that strong resonance with the delicate mantle of the planet produced an unexpected result. The earth splinted, and magma and magical sound power gushed out from the cracks, and this enormous wound that was leaved on the earth was called "the Seven Bloodstains". The extent of the area damage was calculated as various thousands of kilometers of diameter, which also triggered a great commotion in El Elemia.
[edit] The Tower Administrator
After the war, El Elemia decided to seek methods that allowed humans to directly control the Tower, and for that purpose, they created a life-form that had complete synchronity with it, the [Administrator]. Because they already were doing it as part of the "Reyvateil" project, creating beings that were able to contact directly the tower through their songs, the most important role on the project befell on Eleno, who had to connect the nerves of one of the original Reyvateils, Eoria, to the Tower. To complete synchronization with the Tower, he had to Install an absurd number of Grathnode and Parameno crystals inside her body, though he didn't want to do it, given how painful it was for Eoria. The other two Origin Reyvateils that were created during that period of time were transferred to the lands they would have to administrate, and a similar process was used in them to turn them into the Administrators of the other two towers.
[edit] Abilities and Weaknesses of the Reyvateils
The Reyvateils can absorb a special material called Grathnode inside of their bodies to give a boost to their Song Magic. However, forcing them to undergo this process causes a great damage to them. Inside of the bodies of the Reyvateils, there is a mechanism called the LEM* (Life Extending Mechanism). And one part of it is another mechanism called the Checksum, which regulates the flow of magic from the Tower inside of the Reyvateil. The Grathnode Crystals derail the evaluation criteria of the Checksum, allowing the Tower to send more energy than what the organism really needs, which, in the worst cases, usually ends leaking out into the body, causing a great number of health problems
- The original JP acronym was NEE, but it had to be changed because of the impossibility to find suitable words that conveyed the same meaning.
[edit] Origins
The 3 α-type Reyvateils, made for the purpose of being the Tower Administrators. They are artificial life-forms created thanks to Sound Science, and the substances that make up their bodies are the same as proteins of the human body, but their main parts (the Spiritual Wave Frequency = Soul) are made out from Sounds. When they craft and use a Song, they take the resources for its execution directly from Ar tonelico, via the deepest parts of their minds.
[edit] β-types
The abilities of the Reyvateils surpassed humans' greatly. Therefore, the government decided to begin researching how to create Reyvateils designed to be used as weapons, the [β-types]. They were mass produced clones of the Origins, and they were deployed in the inner areas of the Tower as important war personnel. Each individual β-type was designed to be equal to the Origins in power and abilities, but actually, their powers were somewhat inferior to the Origins', as their life spans also were.
[edit] Hymmnos
There are two kinds of songs that a Reyvateil can sing. These are [Songs that use the power of the Tower to execute magic], and [Songs for Controlling the Tower]. The former are common attack and recovery magic, that any Reyvateil is able to use. The latter are songs capable of system control actions such as rebooting the Tower, and to sing them, the Reyvateil needs to fulfill a special condition. That condition is being registered in the Tower's database, and the proof of that is the Reyvateil having an official identifier called the [Hymn Code]. And for adding new hymns so the Reyvateil can sing them, the Hymn Crystals are used. If a Reyvateil possesses that identifier, agrees to perform the ceremony that requires her Hymn Code, and accepts the song that she is receiving [Hymmnos (Control Song)], she will be able to execute these songs.
[edit] Eleno and Shurelia
Eleno called [Eoria] by the name of his beloved lost daughter, and he began loving her from the bottom of his heart, so she could bear the pain of being connected to the Tower. Eleno took Shurelia to play and have fun inside of the Tower, but the area of the core, where the [Orgel of Origins] was, and the route it had for sending energy, was her favorite place, and these excursions always made her happy. Eleno got permission for bringing her to that room whenever he was to connect her to the Tower. That was a small and rustic room made from wood, and surrounded by countless shafts and gears, there was a small disc-type orgel. Shurelia felt so happy when she entered in that room for the first time that she said then her first selfish request [I don't wanna go back]. And that day, they decided to stay in that room for the night. The face that Shurelia had when Eleno gently touched it while she slept was the happiest he had seen on her until now, and he wished with all his heart that she could continue being as happy as she was in that moment. The tower connection took 2 years, and when Shurelia's 6th birthday came, Eleno gave to her an orgel pendant as a present. It played the melody of the Orgel of Origins, the same melody that Eleno's ancestor composed for his daughter on her birthday. Overjoyed, Shurelia hugged Eleno, and began to dance to the rhythm of the pendant's melody, she looked so happy that it sounded as if she asked [How do I look? does It suits me?]. After that, even if during the connection sessions when she couldn't make the Orgel play, at least they became more enjoyable than before. [Even if the connection methods are very painful, I'll do my best for you, dad], when Shurelia said that to Eleno while showing an ear-to-ear smile, it was apparent that they had turned into real father and daughter.
[edit] The Grathnode Inferia
Even after the war, Sol Cluster tried many times to destroy the amplification tower Ar tonelico. Still, because of the absolute defense network of the Tower, it was very hard to even approach to the systems that originated magic, let alone to destroy them. Because of that, El Duel, to shut down the tower, planned another strategy after the war. They decided to use the Teru that were living in Sol Cluster for this plan, who played a very significant role in the technological advancement of the last years. Using their Teleporting abilities, they easily infiltrated in the inner zone of the tower. 16 Teru, all with important knowledge and skills about the towers, were dispatched. They destroyed the power line that went up to the Grathnode Discs, thinking that would silence Ar tonelico. However, that only was the beginning of the worst tragedy in this world's story. The tower was no longer able to release magical power to the outside, but the power continued spouting out from it. Without a destination, the power went out of control, rendering useless the extremely delicate system that protected the Grathnode Discs, the [Ardelberg Buffer Band], and the resultant atmospheric absorption and sparks quickly caused an overload in the Grathnode Discs. The consequences of this were that the Grathnode Discs shattered to small pieces, and at the same time, the sonic booms impacted the entire world. These released energy which formed a Plasma sea, the [Blastline], and the sonic booms, together with the eruptions, shattered the land and formed the [Sea of Death]. This enormous catastrophe would be known as the "Grathnode Inferia" years later.
[edit] The Second Era
Because of an unprecedented tragedy, in this era both the sky and the land disappeared from the world. However, the people still had their advanced technology from before the great catastrophe, furthermore, they worked so hard that they ended building one of the most advanced civilizations on history.
The World After the Catastrophe
The people that still remained on Sol Ciel, ended relocating in the world over the Sea of Death, the floating continent [Wings of Horus], and built a new world. The new capital of this world was called [Neo Elemia]. The Supreme Council, voiced through Shurelia, announced that a new sound science system called the "Silver Horn" was planned to be built as part of the plan to restore the magic energy conversion faculties to the Tower, and restore the world to its former abundance. The power of the sound science was restored by a great margin, but the people didn't thought about proceeding with the restoration project for Ar tonelico, and instead began to thought other ways of using it. And in a certain day, many monsters appeared and began attacking the people. Their origin was [The Investigation for Evolution of Life in the Floating Continent], which itself was part of the investigation that made possible the creation of the Wings of Horus. These abnormal creatures were so awful that no one was able to look at them, and their strength was so great that humans seemed to be doomed. Under these circumstances Shurelia came to a decision. During these days, the knowledge of [Reyvateils] wasn't made public, so the normal people didn't know anything about them. Shurelia made the first Pureblooded Beta-type Reyvateils, and they defeated the abnormal creatures. Then the people began making one Reyvateil after another, bringing a lot of activity to fields like medicine, defense and rescuing, and many others. However, with the great increase in the numbers of the Reyvateils, the humans feared that the normally gentle Reyvateils would try to grasp the total control of the government, and under that time enshrouded in feelings of impending disaster, the strongest Reyvateil of the Second Era, thanks to the removal of her free will and feelings, the Reyvateil, Mir was born. This greatly enraged the Reyvateils, and they declared war to the Humans. Shurelia called the people to a meeting to try to preserve peace, but as soon as she got to the place where the reunion was supposed to take place, she was restrained, and her captors tried to apply to her the process to "tame" the Reyvateils to make them similar to Mir. But they did a miscalculation in their plans. Mir didn't have feelings since her birth, however, with the passing of time, her feelings sprouted by themselves, and she began to hate humans more and more. Mir had overtook the control of all of the functions of the Silver Horn, and immediately, she began using it to attack the humans and rescue Shurelia. However, Shurelia, after her rescue, saw the extreme measures that Mir had taken, including the drop of the right Wing of Horus, taking thousands of lives with it, and decided to fight against her. With the powers of a Teru girl, Tastiella, Mir's body was sealed, but she just turned into a virus life form called [Shadow], and continued her attacks. In order to seal Shadow's movements, Tastiella had to sacrifice her body to create the magical machine [Crescent Chronicle], while the Reyvateil, Lune sang the [Chronicle Key] Hymn to stop Shadow. The world was at peace again, and to avoid anything that could reawaken [Shadow], and avoid the repetition of these tragedies, the humans and Teru signed a pact called the [Covenant of Elemia]. And because Shurelia pleaded for the use of Sound Science to be banned, a new technology system called [Grathmeld] was established.
[edit] Important terms and incidents for this time period
[edit] In the Other Side of the Great Catastrophe
In the middle of the Grathnode Inferia, Shurelia lost control of the power of Ar tonelico, and it almost spelt certain death for her. She was secluded inside of the Parameno Room (a sound-proof chamber) for her protection, and she kept on singing a song inside of it. Even if her connection to the Tower was still incomplete, she could still know and feel what was happening in the lower zones of the Tower, where the Booster was sending rampaging magic power all over the land, while the energy that reached the Grathnode Discs dispersed all over. And when they reached their limits, the Grathnode Discs shattered one by one. When Shurelia's body was about to reach the limit, the magical power stopped flowing. [I'm glad...] was the last thing that Shurelia thought as her consciousness faded away, and was sustained by the shoulders of Eleno's direct subordinate engineer, Rovar. He climbed the Tower only to make sure that Shurelia was all right. During her unconsciousness, Shurelia said something. [Hey... Why do people fight each other...?] Rovar's shoulders got very wet. Once Shurelia regained consciousness, Rovar had to explain to her everything that had happened, so she wouldn't be kept out from the current events. The first thing was that Eleno stayed in the lower zones of the Tower to try to keep the Booster from going out from control. When Shurelia heard that, she was shocked, and then broke up and cried for three days and nights. During that time, Rovar was beside her, and spent all his time consoling Shurelia. When Shurelia began to recover, she began smiling little by little, and in that time, Rovar asked her a request. "Please, I want you to come and be part of the Supreme Council".
[edit] The Supreme Council and the Peace Conferences
The Supreme Council was formed by the people that could receive refugee during the great catastrophe, and from the start was created as a place where the people living in the wings of could discuss their problems. Its first president was also the one that was the president of Elemia at that time: Fropth Yivardi, and it was formed by around 100 members. At first, its duty was to find the causes that triggered the catastrophe, and then it advanced more when, at a certain time, the president thought of fusing with the rest of the bureaucracy, but one of his direct subordinates, a man called Neath Reghin, made a speech that made the president change his mind. He thought in less than one day the best ways that he could use to tell everyone that the council was very important, and it appealed to the people so much that they encouraged him, and a big contingent of engineers, Rovar Lony between them, stood up for him as well. Then, a certain day, after many times attending to the council reunions, Shurelia decided to stand up in the podium. She had the knowledge of all the systems of the Tower inside her, and she had designed a new Sound Science system called the "Silver Horn" from that knowledge. That was a system that would allow everyone to sing Songs directly without needing an interface terminal, and it would service all the magic power it would receive. "Inside of myself is the knowledge of all the systems of Ar tonelico, and I have a very high percentage of direct connection to them. In that knowledge, there are blueprints I made myself, and I want everyone to create what is depicted in them with me, and if we do it, I think that it would mean the reboot of Sound Science in the world... However, I have only one request to make about it. Please, absolutely don't use this new form of Sound Science power for the sake of hurting anyone], President Fropth replied to these words with clapping, and gradually, the council room was filled with applauses. Then, the president himself promised to Shurelia that the new system would not be used for war, it would be used for peace. So then, the remaining engineers, and the students of Sound Science theory were recruited for making the new Sound Science system, and the construction of the Silver Horn began.
[edit] Shurelia's Depression
Shurelia made friends with two of the men of the Council. One of them was one adventurer that also was a direct subordinate to President Fropth, Neath. Shurelia began to care for him deeply, and to Neath, Shurelia was like a little sister. And she as was in love with the man that was leading the construction plans for the Silver Horn, which was Rovar. As time passed, Neath turned into the second President of the Council, and together with other three people, he built an airport in the Tail of Reminiscence, but he had to be succeeded when he departed on a journey to the ends of the world. This was because Rovar and Neath themselves were in disagreement about the suspension of the building of the airport, and this was so shocking to his beloved Shurelia that she couldn't look him in the face after this. She was so angry, that the day of Neath's departure, she didn't want to say even a word to him, and she understood for the first time, how human relationships could carve scars in the heart. After that, Shurelia didn't lose the capacity of loving anyone, but she didn't want to establish a close relationship to anyone again either.
[edit] How Shurelia and Tastiella Met
When the feelings that Shurelia had for Neath swelled up to the point she couldn't keep them under control, she began to suffer a lot, but somehow, she still spent a little more time being happy. Gradually, her inability to cut off these feelings only made them occupy more space in her heart. She began to got to the Tail of Reminiscence alone, and went there a lot of times. She usually would spent a lot of her time there gazing up to the Silver Horn, absentmindedly. Shurelia had been planning various sound science systems during various days, as part of her job, but in these days, she was losing a lot of her motivation. And a certain day, while she was dazed in the Tail of Reminiscence, contemplating the sky and the Silver Horn, something that appeared suddenly in her field of vision snapped her out from daze. It was a person from the race called the [Teru]. The Teru was riding a broom, and Shurelia said that she had thin eyes, like the ones of the rabbits. [Hi~, young lady. If you please could give something to eat...] Shurelia gave to that Teru her own lunch box (If I don't eat; I'll still live, plus, this reminds me of the lunch boxes that my "father" used to make for me, and of the picnics we used to go to... I really loved them). That was what Shurelia had realized in that moment. The Teru are supposed to be always accompanied by a small fairy. However, this particular Teru didn't have a fairy. [Huh? And your fairy?] The Teru bursted into laughter when she heard Shurelia's casual speech style. [Well, that's... I'm still an apprentice, and I'm currently in the middle of searching for my familiar... It looks like all the other kids have found them in about 30 days after they started, but I have been searching for it during 70 days, and from a little time ago, I ran out of food and water I had for my journey... Looks like I'm not a girl that any familiar want to be attached to...] the Teru girl began to eat much more excitedly after saying these words. Shurelia whispered that the girl seemed like a dropout. [Then, what about if we stay together?] [Huh? Did you say to be together, but why?] Shurelia's casual way of speech again surprised the Teru girl. [Only in case you can't find a familiar. I am Shurelia. And you are?] [I-I am Tastiella.] Tastiella and Shurelia kept on talking for a little while more, until she said it was time for her to go. [I need to find my familiar by myself to become an adult, and I'll also help Shurelia to look for her "familiar"!]. Shurelia was a little embarrassed and shook her head while humming. [I-It's OK! It's not that! ...It's only... that I want to meet with you everyday!] [...?] Tastiella thought it for a little while, and once she understood what Shurelia meant, she began leaping joyfully, and smiled sweetly. [All right! There's a person I really like now~! It's okay~ young one~! But don't be so reserved! If you do it, then your big sister will grant you her love! And that's because I am Teru!] [I-it's OK... (How... quick did she became an older sister...?)] [All~ right~, if that's settled, then I have to go and search for my familiar now! And a lot of thanks for the lunch! I'll remember this favor all my life! See you later!] While she said this to Shurelia, Tastiella began to fly, and then, she went away. Shurelia stood still in there, without saying anything and her face red, because she didn't want to say good-bye to Tastiella yet. Some days later, Tastiella appeared with a little winged dragon perched in her shoulder. But, even if she had realized the wishes for love of a certain someone, Shurelia didn't reveal that they got closer by other ways. The other request she had made, Tastiella gave to Shurelia a star-shaped musical instrument called the Pentangle, and told Shurelia to play it whenever she needed her, and she would come to her.
[edit] Mir's Birth
To deal with the threat of the abnormal beings, Shurelia taught to the people the method for creating the [Pure-Blood Beta-type Reyvateils], but how the Betas were propagated so much between the people made her feel a great anxiety. [Please, don't use the Sound Science for the sake of warfare or violence] that was what she wished, and fighting against the abnormal beings was an exception to that promise, since it was to continue protecting everyone. However, she soon realized that the people had betrayed that promise. Because of the birth of Mir, the Reyvateil without free will or emotions. Shurelia received quite a shock from this. Thanks to Mir, during the age called the Second Era, the people lived on the best environment, and had the best life quality. In the area that was under Mir's administration, the weather was always regulated to be good, and there was a complete amenity. The people praised Mir... but only as a [System]... only as a tool. And then, after seeing the results with Mir, they desired to turn all the other Reyvateils into life forms similar to her, and gradually began to do it. And the roots for the events that occurred later on, were that the humans began to look to the Reyvateils as superior life forms, and began [fearing] them.
[edit] Reyvateil Control
Mir was created by the humans, and because of it, the Reyvateils began to manifest their hatred to humans through violent acts, and this led to a human-Reyvateil war. The humans called the revolting Reyvateils [Oldtypes], and sent Reyvateils stripped of their emotions and wills, led by Mir, to spread conflicts between the [Oldtypes]. However, the so-called [Oldtypes] were quite numerous in these times, but the people gradually went on replacing them by the newborn Reyvateils. Finally, the representatives of the people decided to implement a [Reyvateil Control] in the Silver Horn, and set up Mir as its Controller. That wasn't made for the sake of peace or the benefit of the society, it was only done for the purpose of completely controlling the Reyvateils. Mir was considered by them only as a complete failure. But with the passing of time, Mir began to develop emotions little by little, until they sprouted. These emotions began as compassion for everyone equally, but later on, they turned into indifference towards humans, and they finally turned into hatred. Mir was extremely intelligent, and kept concealed the development of her own emotions and judgment. She waited eagerly until the right [time] came. And when she was turned into the Controller for the Silver Horn, she almost immediately seized control of all the functions and facilities of the Silver Horn. And through the Silver Horn, she managed to link directly to Ar tonelico, and finally, she began her rebellion.
[edit] Mir's Rebellion
After seizing the control of the Silver Horn, Mir began her attack, and she did it with the most extreme measures she could. The security facilities, the administrative sections, she paralyzed the functions of all the important facilities, disrupted the networks, and made the people unable to use any kind of magical power. The people appealed to Shurelia for restoring the peace and invited her to a reunion, but it was only to restrain her, with the only purpose of taming and [processing] her. Mir directed her attack to the research facility where Shurelia was being held and analyzed, while Shurelia was completely unable to do anything. As soon as Shurelia regained her consciousness, she was greeted with an awful scene of carnage and destruction. As a result, Mir would never receive any sort of thanks from Shurelia. [Why... something like this...]
[You are me. I am you. My actions are your actions.] Mir smiled as she replied with these words, and from the Silver Horn, she began hacking into the main area of Ar tonelico, and began conversing with Shurelia through a song. It was a gentle song, like the lullabies that the mothers sing for their children. In that moment, Shurelia felt in her body an unpleasant sensation, as if she was being corroded. She felt as if something was gripping her, and the cause became apparent immediately, because in the next few seconds, the right wing of Horus collapsed and fell into the Sea of Death. Shurelia went completely blank. Then, she confronted Mir, with the grief spouting from each of her words. [You are a friend of the humans, right...? Then... why?]
Shurelia was taken aback by the response, but it also made her come to her senses. [A friend? An enemy? I'm not any of those!] If Shurelia could have seen the inside of Mir's heart, she would have felt that something extremely important was snatched from her. [You... what do you think that the lives of the people are!?] Mir simply replied. [What do the people think that our "lives" are?] Shurelia immediately replied. [You don't have any right to say these words! In the collapse you caused a moment ago, how many lives do you think you killed with it!? Sure, the people have been trying to erase the right to live for the Reyvateils. But, I'm sure that if we could continue living together, the day when we would understand each other would have come... That's what I used to believe in... But you have destroyed these wishes!!]
Then, Shurelia proceeded to try to regain the control of the world by herself and decided to delete Mir from it. However, that proved to be impossible, given that Mir could feel anything she tried to do, and the war began. Shurelia continually tried to attack and exterminate Mir. But in these times, Mir already had a big part of the resources of the Tower available for herself, and both were basically in a stalemate, since both had the same life force and energy available for themselves.
With the passing of the time, each time that Shurelia confronted Mir, Shurelia was unable to do any movements because Mir had already predicted what she would do. And when Shurelia was reaching her limits, she remembered a certain girl she had met.
[Whenever you need my help, please call me...]
That was what Tastiella told her. Sitting on her broom, the angelic face she had seen on that day looked exactly the same as then when she came to her help. Tastiella accepted all of Shurelia's feelings. And then, she calmly began to sing a song. It was something that almost no one had heard before, a song being sung by a Teru, which was thought to be impossible. Mir gradually was encased into Grathnode Crystals. However, she stayed calm. And until the end, she kept on smiling, and said this:
[Shurelia. Both you and me have feelings, but it looks like we differ in our outlooks of the world. However, you are me. I am you, but you are an excess part I have to remove and delete. I will certainly turn you into a part of me, so we both can be one...]
[edit] Special A Class Virus, Codename "Shadow"
In the instant that Mir was encased into Grathnode Crystals, via the SIlver Horn, she transferred her entire soulspace into Ar tonelico. Inside of the Tower, she turned into a parasitic virus, and resumed her attacks. The virus in which Mir had turned was codenamed as "[Shadow]". Then, Shurelia, together with the Teru, began searching for countermeasures to combat Shadow. The easiest method for deleting Shadow was completely shutting down the Tower and all of its systems and energy sources. However, if they did that, the Wings of Horus would have fallen into the Sea of Death, and the shutdown of the Musical Corridor would have made the climate and atmospheric pressure unbearable for the people and any other life form. They realized immediately that it wouldn't be possible to shutdown the Tower. And the search and debugging methods they were trying didn't produce any positive results, and during that time, the Tower continued being hacked, and the people continued being attacked. Everyone thought that it was too late for a counterattack. Until Tastiella, putting a grim face, said the following words. [We have only one method now. But... Shurelia, until the day this world ends, I'll be fated to carry a burden, one that will turn into the seal that will continue to protect this world...] And thus, the [Crescent Chronicle] was created.
[edit] The Crescent Chronicle
The magical machine Crescent Chronicle was the last thing built by the collaborative efforts of humans and Teru. That Shadow had moved to the inside of the Tower after Mir's sealing inside Grathnode crystals, meant that Mir's body was still in contact with Shadow by some way, and that allowed it to continue hacking. The function of the Crescent Chronicle is basically being a watch system that, whenever Shadow tries to do something, it accesses to Mir's body, and from there, it completely halts Shadow. The planning of this system was made by Shurelia and Tastiella, but given that Shurelia wasn't able to understand completely this system, Tastiella was essentially the one that designed it. And so, Tastiella sacrificed her own body, and became the main program for this system. It was like herself had chosen to volunteer as a sacrifice. However, this super noble action should have allowed to bind and restrain Shadow's movements and revolving inside of the Tower, so no one else would have to carry that burden. Tastiella, as the following centuries passed on, was always inside of the Crescent Chronicle, continuing to confront and hold Shadow.
[edit] The Pureblood Beta-type "Lune"
The singer of the Crescent Chronicle had a very important task entrusted to her, and in these times, it was assigned to the Reyvateil that was called the second most powerful one after Mir. That Reyvateil was [Lune]. When she received this task, she understood that she would be continuing to sing inside of the Crescent Chronicle all the time. The Reyvateil that took on that role was called since then the [Hoshiyomi (Star Singer)]. However, Lune was still only a Pure Blood Beta-type Reyvateil. One that had a limited life span. And since the Crescent Chronicle would need a new singer with the passing of time, given that Lune didn't have an eternal life, it couldn't be helped that the role had to be inherited later on. That inheritance was given through the delivery of an [Hymmnos] to the new singer. The successor Hoshiyomi would download that Hymmnos, called the [Chronicle Key], and would be given the task of continue singing that song inside of the Crescent Chronicle, as much as her body would be able to resist. Lune's genes were preserved and safeguarded, and at fixed intervals of time, a new Lune Reyvateil was created from them. Thanks to the Crescent Chronicle, Shadow's attacks could be stopped, and the peace returned to this land. But what was left from the war was a destroyed civilization, a continent that was half-dropped into the Sea of Death, and a relatively small number of humans and Reyvateils. The seal for Shadow was built by the cooperation between human engineers and the Teru people, and to make sure that the tragedy didn't repeat itself, they agreed to create a document with the guidelines for avoiding the repeating of such sad, catastrophic events, called the [Covenant of Elemia].
[edit] Shurelia versus Mir
Shurelia wouldn't have been able to defeat Mir.
During the last years of the Second Era, the science of creating Pureblood Beta-types had surpassed by much everything that was done in the First Era. Even if the life spans, the resistance and toughness of the bodies of the Pureblood Beta-types didn't change almost in anything, the ability of accessing to the Silver Horn made them able to have a much better performance in the processing cycles of their Cosmospheres. Between them, Mir, the Reyvateil that was called the most powerful of all, had surpassed even Shurelia's processing speed. If both of them tried to convey their emotions to the Tower at the same time, Mir would surely win because of the superior process speed of her Cosmosphere.
[edit] A Warm Restart
Because of the Reyvateil War, and Mir's Rebellion, which followed it, Sol Ciel lost the [Right Wing of Horus], and with it, the lives of many people. These events ended carving a great scar inside of Shurelia's heart and psyche. The betrayal of the people, the rampage of the Reyvateils, and the collapse of the world. Still, Shurelia believed in the conscience of the people. And thus, for the sake of the stability of the world, she took a decision. She would erase from the world the existence of the [Songs] and the magical power of the Grathnodes. The creation of the Reyvateils by human hands, the conflicts, and also, the sprouting of evil in the hearts of people, she thought that giving such a great power to the people was the cause of all of this. That power made the people delusional, and that caused for the second time the tragical conclusion of an era. That's right, this world, which had lost the oceans, land and sky would stop receiving the blessings and power from the [Songs], so it wouldn't end being destroyed. And since Shurelia banned the use of Sound Science, a new different system was established as a replacement. That new technology system was called [Grathmeld], and, the Silver Horn, with some modifications, became the energy provider for it.
[edit] The Third Era
During the Reyvateil War, the world lost half of its only floating continent. The people that survived and succeeded the previous civilization lived clinging to the Wings of Horus, and a near-collapsing Ar tonelico for their lives.
Story of the Reconstruction:
The survivors of the war ended gradually making their own districts, with their own government systems. The biggest between these self-dependent districts was the agricultural district of Nemo, located in the hills that surrounded the Tower. The district of Nemo, thanks to its location and its population, slowly began growing into the very center of the civilization. A certain day, a man and a woman came to visit the landlord of Nemo. The name of the man was Gasaki, while the woman was called Leila. They carried a mysterious power, and showed to the landlord various tools, and told him that they wanted to spread their knowledge through the world. For that reason, they came to him to see if he wanted to invest in their methods. Since at the time, the landlord of Nemo was the richest man in Sol Ciel, he agreed, and built a research facility in the city. After some time, no one saw Leila or Gasaki ever again, but their knowledge, called Grathmeld, extended through all the world, and gave prosperity to the people. The world was becoming again a prosperous place, but it still wasn't something that could be called a [nation]. During that time, the corporation [Tenba] and the [Church of El Elemia] came into being, and both turned into the factions that carried the political power of the world. As for the Reyvateils, the Pure Blood Beta-types weren't seen since many years ago, so the people called the [Reyvateils] were actually the children of a human and a Reyvateil, mixed blood ones, and they were called Third Generation Reyvateils.
[edit] Important terms and incidents for this time period
[edit] Meld
The technique used by the people to create various magical items from the Grathnodes is called "Grathmeld". Regarding the items themselves, they receive their powers from the Grathnodes, can save lives, and are called "Magic Enhanced" items. Though the main research and development is done by the [Tenba] corporation, the Church also has its own unique recipes. Being able to create anything from medicines, to tools for flying through the skies, currently Grathmeld is a transcendental technique, which combines organized research with the flowing of the rumors. If it could be perfected, it would allow everyone to escape from this limited world, or at least that is what everyone says. However, this technique is no different from the Sound Science that prospered during the First Era.
[edit] Structure of Grathmeld
In the world of Ar tonelico, the person called [Shurelia] is the artificial life form that controls and maintains it. The Tower and her emotions are shared with her life, that is, the Tower maintains her life. However, her linkage to the Tower wasn't completed before the Grathnode Inferia occurred, but even with her incomplete connection and knowledge, she saved the world with her earnestness. She rescued the people she could and allocated them over the Sea of Death, and while she continued governing, she also leaded and developed in secret an investigation on evolution, using the floating continent of the [Wings of Horus] as a test ground. And also, she modified the programs of the Tower. Because the people wasn't able to use magical power by interfacing directly with the Tower, she built a technological system that allowed the use of simple magic via the Grathnodes as a replacement. By using the Silver Horn, the Grathnodes can emit the spectrum of sounds that they receive, and Shurelia had structured it as system that could change these sounds into power and invoke magic. In the current times, the inhabitants of the Wings of Horus are unaware of this, and they believe that the use of magic through their Grathnode technology was created by their own hands.
[edit] The Attack on Skuwat Village
The Battle of Skuwat Village happened when Bourd kidnapped Misha from the Crescent Chronicle and fled away with her, and his pursuers from the Teru Tribe caught up with him on Skuwat. His raiding of the Crescent Chronicle was actually done under the orders of Bishop Falss from the El Elemia Church, whose true name was Kyle Clancy. He ordered to kill Misha, so the [Hoshiyomi] wouldn't become a hindrance in his plan to revive Mir, but Bourd, seeing how powerful Misha was, he decided to bring her back with him to Tenba. The incident caused the destruction of Skuwat Village. The houses of Claire and Aurica were burnt down, and both of Aurica's parents were ruthlessly killed in the battle.
[edit] Refences
- ↑ Ar tonelico: A Reyvateil's Melody forums: Official Materials Collections Translation Project thread
- ↑ Ar tonelico: Official Materials Collection - History section, pages 64-71.
