When Ixbal and Hunna perform the Lullaby of the Stars, they enter this pseudo-evolved form channeling the primordial powers of the cosmos through their Adamic crystals. When the chant is performed Adam Kadmon is devolved into his fetal stage.
Right then, Hunna and Ixbal fuse to become the vessel of the fallen god, Aeternitas. In this short moment, Adam looks at her and realizes Aeternitas is the one at the end of his visions, the mother he desperately is chasing through space and time, or at least that's what he thinks. Adam's mind cannot fully remember the true identity and appearance of his real mother, Entropy, thus all this time he has been chasing an illusion he desperately wanted to believe.
In some Maya interpretations, Ixbalanque and Hunnahpuh become the moon and the sun, thus creating the concept of time. That's why it made sense to me that absorbing Adam, a fragment of Kaos that controls time, would turn Aeternitas into the goddess of eternity, a lesser deity of time.
Kaos, the only child of Entropy, was born with the ability to manipulate Time, Space, and Energy, powers beyond anyone's imagination. However, he lacked the knowledge to properly control these forces of existence, ignorant of the repercussions reckless use of them could have in the great scheme of things. While Kaos was a little trickster who liked to have fun at the expense of the absolutes, these jokes never had any true malice nor went too far.
That changed when Zereg approached him, "advising " Kaos on how to aid his mother in her burdensome cosmic duty. Unfortunately, that was only deception from Zereg who was trying to get Kaos to commit a mistake so big that couldn't be forgiven. Kaos was just a kid by human standards so he trusted Zereg wholeheartedly and acted upon his counseling which sadly caused the first Cataclysm in history, erasing approximately 50% of existence and universes in Uriin Dod Jivana, greatly hurting the all-creator.
This wasn't a kid's harmless prank anymore, this was "proof" of the danger Kaos' mere existence posed to the fabric of reality, and that was exactly what Zereg wanted. The absolutes agreed to Zereg's logic and decided Kaos needed to be sealed to avoid any further damage to reality.
Kaos was just a child who didn't understand why this was happening, he desperately cried for his mother but she wasn't strong enough to stop the absolutes. His family not only manipulated him but betrayed him and decided to dismember his existence into 3 parts, scattering them through different points of space-time and reality, isolated from everything and everyone.
His mind was deeply fractured and these 3 parts of Kaos only had small hazy fragments of memories that led nowhere, they lost any sense of identity because of it and were renamed the Kadmonic artifacts, objects of great power that could be summoned by the absolutes and ordered to complete a task for them or anyone that knew how to forge the pathway.
Kaos Kadmon is composed of these 3 Kadmonic artifacts: Adam Kadmon: Artifact of Time Phanes Kadmon: Artifact of Space Qáyin Kadmon: Artifact of Energy
When Entropy fell into madness and became a dangerous force of destruction against the stability of reality she was banished to The Void, the primordial space between universes. Zereg ordered Adam Kadmon the artifact of time to fulfill Entropy's previous role and it became the new Keeper of Cycles. It was of utter importance to complete the task to perfection since any error could lead to the death of a universe, in which the borders of reality that keep universes separated start to decay. This would create the perfect opportunity for entropy to access the multiverse by cracking these weakened walls, infecting everything she touches, and increasing her influence through the insides of Uriin Dod Jivana.
Kaos's original form is on the top left, while Kaos Kadmon: Trauma (on the right) is a violent facade created to protect himself from the outside world, a sign of his fear of hurt and connection. It also represents what the absolutes painted him to be, the grim reaper of the universe.
After Entropy lost her memories due to the curse inflicted by Skotadi and Zereg, she returned to her role as the keeper of cycles, watching and restarting universes reaching instability. But the cyclical nature of her work kept reminding her of the loss and suffering that merely existing meant for others and herself. With every death and family separated by a universal restart, she couldn't shake off the feeling she was forgetting something, something important.
Entropy continued to spiral into depression and confusion to the point she started becoming unstable and neglecting her role. Her sisters, Lykt and Skotadi, couldn't bear to see her like that anymore, constantly reminded of their fault in all of this, so they decided to tell her of the son she lost and how he ceased to exist by Zereg's orders. Entropy initially refused to believe the tale her sisters were telling, she wouldn't forget the existence of her only son so easily but as Skotadi and Lykt kept talking, everything started to make sense and at the same time, Entropy slowly fell into madness.
"if existence is suffering, if change means loss, then I'll make all existence cease turning it back to nothingness. No one will experience pain or lose anything or anyone loved again, I'll freeze this moment into eternity and it will be nothing but an eternal dream."
And so Entropy, because of all the guilt and pain she had to experience watching others suffer for her actions, decided she would end everything, the multiverse, and existence itself. You would think this is what Zereg would have hoped to happen but, entropy wouldn't stop at the multiverse, the prime universe and the higher dimensions would crumble too, and Uriin Dod Jivana would become nothing but an undead god trapped in a never-ending nightmare disguised as a sweet dream, as every lifeform in existence will, turning them into what they call "Nox" (night).
That's the Tale of Entropy, and how she became the Grim Reaper of existence Zereg always painted her to be, if only he knew it was his abusive actions and the other absolutes that turned her sister into the end of all, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you've been following Arcadia lore since Exodus Reports, you might remember that "entropy " was mentioned once before describing it as a multiversal disease. Entropy is the main antagonist of the trilogy Arcadia Nights is a part of (Trinity Kosmos Apocrypha), yet reducing it to the root of evil that Adam was trying to eradicate would be deceiving, cuz the real story is far more complex.
When ÜriinDødJivana, the creator of everything, came into existence they first gave birth to the Absolutes, the fundamental forces that would shape the cosmos:
Antariksa: Space Vremya: Time Zereg: Order Lykt: Light Skotádi: Darkness
After the stagnation of the primordial universe, Uriin originated its last offspring, Entropy. Her purpose was to create the concept of change and evolution, so she was the catalyst for the initial singularity, which we now know as the Big Bang. This event took all the preexisting energy, matter, and anti-matter that the absolutes created before and concentrated it in a single spot called the Eye of God (ÜriinDødJivana) which later on would be designated as a "black hole" by humans.
From that moment Zereg, the absolute of order, started to resent Entropy profoundly as she took the harmony he carefully crafted and disrupted it with the concept of change, but that would only be the beginning of their conflict.
After Entropy fulfilled her initial purpose, which create the prime universe, she became the keeper of cycles, basically watching over the Absolute's creations until these started to reach an energy limit that would endanger the stability of reality. When that moment comes she will be the one to purge the universe devolving it to its cradle, the Eye of god, starting the process over again. For Entropy, this became a monotonous task that only came with affliction, as she watched how her siblings forge stars, planets, and life from basically nothing, her duty only consisted of observing all these precious creations and becoming the grim reaper at the end that would plunge it all into nothingness.
All the suffering her celestial purpose inflicted on the existence of other lifeforms started to become unbearable making her question her reason for existing: -is this all I'm good for? destruction, suffering, nothingness, is that all I can do? am I not allowed to create like them?--Entropy whispered to herself. She knew very well that creation was something forbidden for her, a thing only the absolutes must do as Zereg arrogantly imposed, but the more she had to endure the cycles, the more she desired she could change that fact. Uriin felt the heartache of her youngest daughter across the cosmos and pronounced itself: -I, in my infinite might, created you as the principle of transformation, there is nothing in this reality you cannot change, that's the only truth of your existence and nobody can ever take that from you, my daughter.
Entropy took the words of the all-creator as permission and, with all the power she had was able to create a miracle: a son named Kaos Kadmon (primordial chaos). The progeny of entropy could control time, space, and energy, making it so powerful that its existence started to split reality into branches of infinite possibilities, what we now know as the multiverse. This new shape of reality went against all Zereg believed the cosmos should be, it destroyed the new harmony he crafted through the machinations of fate and disrupted a cycle of existence putting everything on the brink of destruction, it needed to be controlled or better, eradicated.
Kaos was only a newborn, it didn't have full control over its abilities, he might be mischievous sometimes but still had an innocent spirit. That was what entropy said to the absolutes, but Zereg couldn't accept such an unstable existence holding so much power, he had to do something and knew Vremya and Antariksa wouldn't be too happy either knowing that their domains could crumble with a hand movement from Kaos. Zereg tried convincing them to help him take Kaos away from entropy in order to seal him but they were hesitant to go that far, yes the multiverse was difficult to maintain compared to the previous cosmic model but it was still doable as long as he didn't mess with the domain of Lykt and Skotadi: energy.
The absolute of order knew that the only way everyone would agree he was the cosmic level hazard he thought it to be was if Kaos committed a mistake so grand not even the All-Creator would be able to protect him from it. So he decided to play the part of the good uncle and told Kaos that his mother was exhausted with work because of him, since his existence made the multiverse a reality Entropy had to take care of every single universe to prevent an overload of information that could create a chain reaction destroying everything including Uriin Dod Jivana. -If only the multiverse was easier to manage, you could be less of a burden to your mother- Zereg said to the infant -I don't wanna be a burden to her, I wish I could help somehow..- the kid said - Well, if the multiverse was smaller it could benefit the order of the kosmos and your mother wouldn't have to work so much, but it needs a lot of knowledge of Magh- the elder god told him -Magh?-Kaos exclaimed -You have been using it since you were born and you don't know what it is? Magh is the code of reality, the instructions that configure the existence, once you know how they work reality could be reshaped in more specific ways, if you reconfigure the energy channels of the multiverse, branches could be fused making them easier to maintain.
With that Kaos put all his might into learning the code of reality, and once ready he went to the heart of Lykt and Skotadi's domain as Zereg advised him to do. Kaos modified the energetic heart of the kosmos and that was all it took for Zereg to triumph.
Just like that 50 % of the multiverse collapsed and vanished taking with it millions of lifeforms and severely injuring Uriin, all because Kaos tinkered with the code. The absolutes all pointed to him, as Entropy abruptly arrived to see what was going on she saw Kaos trembling in fear, she knew he wouldn't have done this willingly, and as much power he had he didn't know how to make such precise changes to the code of energy . Kaos tried to explain but nobody but his mother believed him, he even tried to reveal that Zereg coerced him to do it but Zereg played the fool and said he had no idea what the child was talking about. With that the absolutes agreed Kaos proved to be too dangerous and had to be sealed, Entropy wouldn't allow it so there was no other option but to fight.
Zereg was able to sever her mind and Skotadi was able to inflict a curse that would allow the absolutes to control her, meanwhile, Lykt, Vremya, and Antariksa sealed and split Kaos into 3 parts. These later would be known as the Kadmonic Artifacts, which would be hidden in different points of time, space, and energy making them hard to find. Thus Entropy woke up with no memory of the confrontation and continued to play her role as the keeper of cycles.
Although everything seemed normal she was unable to shake up the feeling she was missing something important...
it is certainly not arcadia but an extra wouldn't hurt. Some people on Twitter were asking for this art in high quality to use as wallpaper for their phones so hopefully this satisfies their desires!
The sad boy finally got his frontal ref sheet! Kaius is very insecure about his curse mark so even though he has the armor gauntlet covering his arm most of the time, he also uses bandages to cover it in case he has to take his clothes off. He gives the excuse that his arm got badly injured in his last mission and that is still recovering or vulnerable but he is just ashamed of the curse marks since it constantly reminds him what happened that night.
Another fact about Kaius is that he gets barely any sleep at night to prevent the curse from developing further, that's why he always volunteers as the vigilant of the group, so people do not question his irregular sleep schedule. Eventually, the accumulated fatigue will make him faint due to exhaustion and the party will question if his companion is hiding something from them. Kaius also can rely on the Light Roots pills, a rare medicament that allows him to sleep at night peacefully while blocking the Curse from development temporally. Although this medicine is really helpful, it is hard to come by since the ingredients are anything but common. The pills are the last resort and he has to use them wisely before they run out or find a way to make more.
I'm trying to be more consistent with the motifs and influences so I wanted to try and add engraved patterns in Ixbal's armor to connect it more to the Nephilim and the overall Mayan inspiration for Sophia's Technology.
As for her Undergarments, this concept might change given that the Liberation mode now exists haha
In case you guys were curious about how his outfit works or is layered, here are the references. For starters, the black top piece was supposed to be a kind of swimsuit that covered the crotch area and connected with the back but, I decided to change it since Basil has something similar and it would be difficult for Asher to undress easily.
I haven't made an official back reference but the sprite can give you an idea of how it works.
It's been a while since we saw these guys, right? As time has gone by after the exodus reports, I have been slowly filling some gaps about the Ancestrals lore and his connection with Adam.
For Starters, the ancestral evolved quickly as they came into contact with Adam, they went from wild animals to advanced sages in a blip compared to the natural evolution of other species. Adam divided the Ancestrals into 2 species, the dark holders and the light-bringers (just like the ixim and the humans).
The dark holders formed 80% of the ancestral population, and these had access to magh thanks to Adam's direct influence in their evolution. At the same time, the Lightbringers were raised apart from the darkholders and never given the ability or knowledge to use magh. This was intentional, Adam knows light is a principle of change and primordial light can be unpredictable, so the light-bringers must not become aware of their power nor find ways to use it, if they do they can put Adam's system in danger. The Lightbringer were always in controlled spaces, and to the eyes of the majority, they were treated favorably by their god, so envy was a common sentiment towards them, but they were nothing but sacrificial lambs and their spares, all of them.
Ancestral venerated Adam as their god, which isn't a false claim to make since thanks to him they became what they are now, but it was a matter of time before they started suspecting the ulterior motives of their creator. They were raised in a culture in which sacrifice was normalized, something necessary to ensure the future not only of them but the universe, and while part of that is true, as the number of sacrifices got faster and increased to alarming levels, the ancestral started to get worried their god might not have their wellbeing into account. Of course "ascending was seen as an honor but, some of the ancestors couldn't help but question the nature of this system, and those where the ones who discovered the whole truth.
It is still unknown to me how they got to the truth but, maybe they were so advanced in their use of Magh that they could see fragments of the past, or the future, to a lesser level compared to their creator, visions beyond comprehension triggered by Adamic crystals, created by the landing of Adam in their planet and conserved as important relics. The tesseract crystal may have time and history encrypted in it, which with the right knowledge would make the information accessible. They could be just Adam's memories in the crystal or from those that formed part of him from similar civilizations as the ancestral, there are many possibilities.
The Ancestral discovered the end goal and couldn't let it happen so they started creating Tartarus to negate the Tree of Life and imprison Adam, sadly it was too late by the point Tartarus sealed the dark god, the Universe 89X vanished. It is possible that a few Ancestral got locked in Tartarus and are sleeping in Cryogenic pods waiting to wake up and become the guardians of the dead moon. Sadly if that's the case, I think most of them would have died, Adam might be sealed but his power and influence can transcend, he might have found a way to damage the cryogenic pods, especially if they use Adamic to code their technology.
Why am I leaving this ambiguous end for them? Cuz I'm considering the idea of one ancestral waking up while Asher and company visit it, and giving them exposition (Steve is back bitches) although the ancestral will not last longer, Syzygy might probably kill it.
Anyway, that was longer than I expected. Hope you enjoy the extra lore.
Camarona is back! Now as an intrepid historian and archeologist obsessed with uncovering the hidden history of Arcadia, which might get her into trouble since the believers of the ekpyrosis do not take any attempt to expose forbidden knowledge lightly.
Cameron might respect the religious customs of Arcadia but, she doesn't let those beliefs stop her from questioning things, which very few Arcadians dare to do, fearing the wrath of a vengeful god.
Now let's talk about how Cameron and Tony came back. You all might know by now that the new humanity that lives in Arcadia, called Ixim, is the creation of Adam and Adonai, who used the Ark of Soma to achieve it, The Ark of Soma is a data bank created during "The Awakening" Era to serve as a back up for the genetic code of humanity, in which individuals like Cameron and Tony are included. In principle, this system was made to recreate bodies for individuals who never had one or lost theirs, unable to wake up from "Hypnos" (pocket dream universe) because of it.
I have 2 options(although after talking with Madprism in the server, one might be more interesting to explore.
Option 1:
inspired by Causality from Berserk, history does not exactly repeat itself, but it rhymes, so by principles of causality and Probability, any system that persists long enough is destined to produce similar results from time to time. Applying those principles to the recreation of humanity, this law suggests that with enough time, a person similar enough to one from the past might reappear when many combinations through generations end up recreating an almost identical code. So patterns of genes repeat themselves with long enough time.
Of course, this is an ambiguous way to explain things but it just leaves a lot of space for me to do whatever I want hahaha.
Option 2: This option has the premise that while the Ixim are constantly reproducing themselves, the level of violence present in Arcadia instigated by the ekpyrosis is so high, that to keep a constant quantity of ixim for Adam to replenish his energy, the Ekpyrosis creates new clones and throws them into the world from time to time to inflate the population numbers. That would easily explain why Tony and Cameron are back exactly as we know them and also give more depth into why orphanages like the one from Omelas, where Basil lives, are always full of kids. Thinking about it, Malik, the Midnight blade behind Vidia's atrocious actions, might be aware of this fact and see these new waves of orphan kids as a way to make a profit, they are created to die anyway.
This one is the simplest route, which might be for the best but for some time I was a bit worried about this topic while I explored the Zoe fields idea. These fields are maize fields in the depths of Necropolis, but instead of maize, we are talking of Ixim pods. Initially, we would have the party reach the Necropolis and react to the pods with babies in them by having a mini existential crisis, but then I thought, why would the pods be active anyway? these already served their function, the pods would be empty and turned off, making the scene I had in mind lack impact. But thanks to my conversation with Prism, I think this option might work, while the Zoe fields might be mostly unfunctional, some sectors might still be creating new humans and thus I can have the moment I planned with the party reacting to this.
Anyway, none of these options are set in stone but option 2 might be giving me more to play with lore-wise. What do you think?
Your favorite Geologist is making a comeback! The Rock himbo Antonio will return as a very particular Blacksmith and Artisan. Don't let his muscles and flirty attitude deceive you, his smart brain and knowledge about mineral composition and attributes will make him the best option when enhancing weapons or crafting powerful accessories.
Especially in Asher's case, Antonio is the only Blacksmith able to understand to some degree how the Heaven's key works, he notices a powerful crystal that serves as a core that he calls Luciferite (the adamic crystal). Knowing so, he's capable of creating a new type of equipment specific to Asher, the weapon modifiers. Since Asher can't change weapons due to the special abilities that Heaven's key grants him, the modifiers designed by Antonio will give the weapon some boost in stats or special effects, some would even change the weapon's appearance.
But all this craftmanship is not for free, to create these outstanding pieces of equipment you will need to obtain the rarest minerals in Arcadia for Anotnio as side quests so he can create these special items for you. His clients call him Antonio, but you can call him Tony ;)
Tony won't be the only blacksmith you can consult regarding weapons and equipment, but he is the only one who can provide very rare items and weapon modifiers for Asher. You will often see him around the same towns you'll visit in your journey, always accompanied by his best friend Cameron, a historian and Scholar intrigued by Arcadia's lost history.
You might be wondering how Tony comes back from what happened in Exodus Reports....Well, he is obviously a clone like most first-generation Ixim are, the original Tony is "mostly" gone. Of course, even with that explanation, there are more questions than answers, I'll try to talk about the actual options when I post the Redesign for Cameron.
I was thinking that Ixbal would have a change of appearance in the last arc of the story during Asher's rescue after he became Iblis and the World is slowly being destroyed and absorbed by the gates of Rebirth. At that point, Ixbal has already grown as a character, finally finding her voice, identity, and autonomy, breaking free from her shell (armor) which used to constrain her into being Syzygy's submissive tool, a symbol of imprisonment to her role.
Ixbal's character has always been about objectification in the most literal sense, that's why I'm aware that her "Reveal" could lead to a conflict of themes, but on the other hand, I think by that point in the story, Ixbal has come to her own conclusions and wishes to feel free and show herself fully, not sexually but symbolically. Another aspect is that Ixbal has always been designed to look like a futuristic angel, and angels have been shown nude in art begging the question if nudity is inherently sexual or sexualization is the eye of the beholders. If you see ixbal in this outfit and all you see is a sex doll, then you missed the point of her character arc and you are doing the same thing as Syzygy, you are objectifying her.
Ironically, it's as if the story is telling you that what she is going through is wrong, now let's see if you, the player/reader learned from her story, or if you are about to do the same thing that made her miserable but from the sexual angle.
To be clear, I'm not saying that you can't find Ixbal sexy or have naughty thoughts about attractive people in Arcadia, I'm not a hypocrite hahaha, it's more acknowledging that while people can be sexy and attractive, they are still people and shouldn't be reduced to an object for someone else's enjoyment.
Anyway, imagine the cool figures that could be made of this Version of Ixbal :3
Burst mode is the equivalent of a Bloom form for Ixbal, given that she is an Android and she possesses an Adamic crystal the shape she takes is a bit different from a usual Bloom form like the ones we can see from anyone in the party.
This form intentionally turns her more into a machine, symbolizing her status as a Tool rather than an individual or a human, which is the way Sophia/syzygy saw her when she was created.
Ixbal might feel at times that her only purpose is to be useful to Asher and company, so she might think the only way of achieving that is to renounce everything that makes her human in search of more power. A dangerous line of thought that conflicts with her desire for freedom and search for her identity.
A situation showing these themes might take place during the main story, maybe ixbal while using her Burst mode, she is unable to get out of it almost like she has entered a trance where her reasoning is not working properly since she has become what everything wanted, a Weapon with no voice. This might remind us how powerful and dangerous Ixbal is and also a cautionary reminder for Asher to not push people too hard in search of strength.
(I'm thinking of a similar scenario/vibe to the Skullgraymon episode with Tai forcing Agumon to evolve in search of power in Digimon)
These pods and the humans birthed by these are called Children of Ixim, Ixim for short when only referring to the new humans. Ixim in Mayan means Maize, this is a reference to the Mayan creation myths, where gods tried to create humankind 3 times, they failed twice (this refers to the Repha'im and the Crocolyd in the Arcadian Mythos version) and in the last attempt they used Maize and their blood which then turned into the humankind of today.
Ixim also sounds like Ishim, the name for the lowest hierarchy type of celestial beings in judeo-christian angelology, which is described as the closest to mankind. So in this sense, the Ixim of Arcadia are pseudo-heavenly beings created by Adam and Adonai to mimic human likeness. Still, they are fundamentally more powerful than real humans since they can effortlessly harness Magh's power. These analogies are also important in context with Asher's journey since as I've mentioned before, in some sense Kyrios represents Christ, and Asher does represent Lucifer and his dichotomy. Lucifer incited a Rebellion against god convincing many angels to join their army for many reasons, one of them being because Lucifer declined to bow to God's newest and perfect creation, humankind but more specifically, Adam. The second one is that Lucifer rejected the idea of serving Christ, God's son.
So Asher, different from the Ixim (new humans), rejects the current status quo created by Adam Kadmon and starts recruiting Ixim (comparable to Angels by name alone) to aid him in his search for Truth and ultimately rebellion against Adam's control. On the other side of the coin, we also have Asher eventually rejecting Kyrios (Christ), since he won't accept the idea that he just exists to be a vessel for Kyrios (serve the messiah) and that he's supposed to abandon his identity/individuality for the sake of God's plan (syzygy).
This is another concept for the final phase of adam's boss fight, you will find this iteration as the heart of the final dungeon, the insides of the tree of eternal return.
This idea was a evolution of a previous concept I showed before as a sketch! I was dying to develope it further to see if it would an interesting idea, and i happy that did it cuz im very satisfied with this!.
Granted I could (and I will ) make more ideas where the cosmic horror and body horror are more prevalent but for now i like this one a lot.
As extra Lore bit for those who aren't in the discord, Adam Kadmon has the title of "The Endless" but also in his more basic form he is called the "Orphan of Chaos", that's because due to recent lore updates it has been decided that Adam Kadmon is one of the 3 fragments of the original Kadmon, Entropy's Child.
If you remember part of the exodus lore, entropy is referred in the steles as the corruption and illness that will destroy the structure of the multiverse if is left unregulated, but actually she is one of the primordial entities of the universe. Entropy had a child which was χάος (chaos, this is a temporary name, I have more options) , this offspring had so much power that was constantly disrupting the order of reality, since their abilities manipulated Time,Space and Energy. The absolutes decided to Face Entropy and take Chaos from her, then they divided chaos into the 3 kadmonic artifacts: Adam, Cain and Phanes. These last 3 become eventually the antagonists of each of the stories in the trilogy, Trinity Kosmos Apocrypha, which includes: Arcadia Nights, Sleep Walkers and Dead Eye Syndrome.
We can talk more about entropy later but for all i have thought so far, I can say that after Chaos was taken from her, the absolutes knew she would become unstable due to this, so to prevent any instability, they cursed her with an eternal memory loss, the more she exists the more she loses, they thought this would make her more manageable but entropy after carrying her role of managing the change and evolution of the universes for eons, ultimately experiences an existential crisis after experiencing the suffering of all of those existences she had to suddenly take away, like her child was taken from her. She decides that the multiverse should not continue the cycle of Death and rebirth (of evolution and change) but that it should return no the stagnant nothingness, where everything is eternal and nothings changes, nothing hurts, nothing really exists (so it can't be lost).
Entropy was unable to overcome the loss of her only child, even if her memories were corrupted she still felt incomplete, and to never experience it again she rejected change. (you might not know this but Entropy as a word literally means "change" (she was the force of change and evolution in reality), so the trauma was so hard that her existence became a contradiction, and her ultimate plan is a reference to the "big freeze" or the heat death of the universe theory where the universe reaches levels of entropy that make it so disconnected and where everything ultimately cease to exist as we know it.
Adam, unknowingly, is then pit against her mother when he is assigned to regulate entropy's attempts to corrupt the whole universe and protect them by reenacting the cycle of death and rebirth that his mother used to be in charge of. All 3 kadmonic artificats have disconnected memories, corrupted by the partition of self the absolutes forced into χάος, so while they are unable to recognize the true identity of their mother, they know they had one, and Adam is desperately looking for her. He has seen a vision where this motherly figure appears in front of him, and mistakenly believes is Urin Dod Jivana, the God of creation , who he sees during the Restart process of a universe (the 3 black holes are their eyes). That's why he is committed to his function as keeper of cycles, he is hoping he will ultimately see his mother again.
As another spoiler, the motherly figure of his vision ends up being Aeternitas, the fusion of Ixbal and Hunna who then become the living prison of Adam.
Asher's Hometown is a beach town that is also really close to underwater ancient ruins from an unknown kingdom which some rumor it might be Cebelis, the lost empire and cradle of the Summoners. Some of Asher's Clothes are made of Materials or objects he found in the Cebelis Ruins which then he customized and made into his current attire, that's why Asher might feel a bit out of place in terms of looks in Elnid'oh since Cebelis was an advanced civilization doomed to destruction for their constant violations against the Arcadian God, Sol Hunab Ku.
Al' Runica is the capital of Durashonia, and this great structure here would be the Palace Where the King of Durashonia, Kin Itzaes.
Al'Runica is a very old city if not the oldest of the whole continent, and that cultural legacy is something Durashonians are very proud of, although many of them might be adopting Exicom's ways of living. Durashonia was already its own empire when Exicom decided to conquer them, a reign that lasted until 20 years ago when Durashonia started the fight for their independence, a war which they won.
At first, it was easy for Exicom to take control of the kingdom due to their technological advances and war weaponry with magh implementation, but when Durashonias started the war of independence they knew that they could not beat Exicom with technology so they trained their forces to become strong sorcerers, Magic was something Durashonia had always aced at, their Fire users where so powerful and reliant that Exicom's machinery wasn't enough to win the fight this time.
That is how the Itzaes lineage won back the throne for the people of Durashonia and started their reign.
While the Mayan influence in the aesthetics of the Palace is pretty noticeable, there are also some colonial aspects to it, and you can even notice some Spanish church-like structures inside the pyramids, something representing that Exicom has found a way inside the forces that control the kingdom and might be manipulating behind the scenes. (if you have read Kin's concept info, you already know what's about)
This was the first concept I made for the Capital, while I like the colors and the shapes, I'm afraid it reads more as southeast Asian rather than Mayan or colonial so that's why this concept might not be used as it is right now, but nonetheless is part of the process of arriving to the right idea.
These are mainly architectural ideas for Al' Runica, the kingdom's capital. Al' Runica is mainly formed by colonial-European buildings with a prehispanic structure, such as pyramid structures with European facades. This is influenced by how the Spanish destroyed or built on top of prehispanic monuments and buildings during the conquest of Mexico. This means that while the surface is different, at its core the people of Durashonia will always be connected to their roots no matter how hard Exicom tries to erase their identity or absorb them as part of their empire.
Most of Durashonia is heavily inspired by Mexico and sometimes specifically Southeast Mexico (where I live haha) since it is more connected to Mayan culture, which Arcadia uses as an influence.
This Reaper is the Guardian of the Advent Tree of Valdosarel's capital (Tentative name: Ulrica or Orb Helgen) where our healer Leila lives.
The reason why Uriel is a dragon is not that attached to the source of Magh but to his role of punisher of the sinful and pagans. In many ways, dragons might be metaphors for natural disasters, and that is the case for Valdosarel since this dragon causes the eternal storm with its 6 wings.
Formerly Uriel was going to be a bird type of beast, but I wanted to include a dragon so badly somewhere and I didn't want to implement it without it being meaningful. So I started investigating more to see if there were any ways to use it and then I remembered that Drakengard had this concept of dragons representing Fallen angels, which tickled my fancy and led me to investigate more about Seraphims and then everything clicked. You see Seraphim are entities heavily connected to Fire to the point they are called "burning ones", and not only that, there are Gnostic texts that refer to the Seraphim as the ones in charge of burning Sodoma and Gomorrah with Fireballs since they use fire to purify. In addition, there are some obscure religious representations of Serpahims as winged snakes (the reason as to why I didn't give it lower extremities) which to me was the cherry on top, it made sense for this particular Seraphim to look like a dragon.
Seraphim are also depicted with 6 wings and eyes all over their wings. Although the 4 faces are normally attributed to Cherubim (I swear I read somewhere some seraphim also had it) I decided to incorporate that detail, making the faces in its chest, the one in its core, and the dragon face.
The design was inspired by the dragons in Drakengard, Final Fantasy's Bahamut, and the Mass production of Eva units from the End of Evangelion.
As the last piece of info: The seraphim Uriel was chosen as the name since its meaning is " fire of god" and also being called the Angel of Salvation.
This high level Reaper is the guardian of the Advent Tree of Omelas, Basil's hometown. I had this idea that, since the reapers are made of pure magh, they might adopt different forms depending of the source, in this case, the Advent tree they emanate from.
Since the advent tree of omelas has been feed with children for more than a decade, it might be a natural occurrence that the guardian started to take the shape of the source.
In this case, the guardian Gamaliel responds to Vidia's prayers for salvation by eating her, representing a symbolic holy punishment for her acts of abuse towards the orphans.
Here we have some of the lower-heaven reapers and what I consider it could be a middle-heaven Reaper (I think the Rav Malahk might be considered a Middle Heaven as well, or at least the most powerful kind of a lower heaven).
The Lower, Middle and High- Heaven classification are basically indications of power and hierarchy, I will show you the first real High Heaven Seraphim and Cherubim next Week. Those 2 are the boss fights for both Leila's Arc and Basil's Arc.
The artifacts are part of a number of other sketches that I might upload later, they were sketched with the Arks of Soma and Anima in mind but they could easily end up being becoming other devices.
As for the reapers i was mainly exploring the differences between the seraphim, ophanim and cherubim types and how these would show variations when it comes to hierarchy.
Corruption is known in Arcadia as a sickness originally found in powerful witches or sorcerers who gave in to their ambition for more power, and as holy punishment for abusing God's gift (magh), they slowly lose any trace of humanity until all that is left is a horribly deformed creature.
As such illness it is thought to be as contagious as the flu, be it by the mere contact with a corrupted one, a bite, wound, or a direct transmission of fluids. Some even think that their breath or mere presence is enough for infection.
As you can see Acadians have a very fantastical and fear-mongered idea of what corruption is, yet the truth of its origins is a bit more complicated. For starters, corruption came to be from different sources: Adam, Syzygy, and the Exicom Empire.
As for Adam as the source, it is possible that the corruption could be either an intentional or accidental genetic mutation present in the DNA of the Ixim. This mutation, if triggered, could cause the glands that produce magh to overdevelop and produce exaggerated levels of Magh which ultimately would be too much for the host to contain in their original form, thus their form starts to mutate accordingly making the subject start to show physical similarities to the Reapers, which are entities made of pure magh. The ixim and Reapers aren't as different as you might think, In the end, both of them are products of Adam's blood (magh), one is mixed with ancient human genetic codes and the other is just but the manifestation of pure magh, so the more an ixim starts to produce magh the more it starts to get closer to purity and thus look like a Reaper. It is also a possibility that Adam could trigger a mutation in any ixim at will if so he desires.
What triggers the mutation? To be honest, it could be caused by many factors, it could be just that some individuals are more prone to it than others, although Arcadians might be on to something when they think that too much magh triggers it. For example, being exposed to a large amount of Magh during extended periods could have a similar effect as radiation and trigger the mutation. So if a witch or sorcerer were looking for unusual ways to get stronger, it's not out of the table to think that could lead to corruption.
As for syzygy, the AI used many ixim subjects as guinea pigs for her research on Magh and how to take advantage of it, ultimately her experiments led to failures (uncontrollable corruption) and Triumphs as the Nephilim, which have a mutated ixim as the core. Most of the failures were discarded or thrown out in Arcadia.
In the Case of the Exicom empire, if you have read Belias's backstory I do mention his involvement in the development of a virus that could trigger the mutation. Although his investigation was discarded shortly after seeing the collateral damage that it caused, later on, King Frederick would resume the experiments to try to contain divinity (reapers) in Human vessels that he could control for his own gains.
As a side note, Resident Evil and Silent Hill inspired these designs!
The Ekpyrosis church emblem is important as it symbolizes the power and presence of the religion and the influence of Adam over all of Arcadia, so you will find this emblem in flags, official documents, religious ceremonies, and so many other things.
I explored various ideas for the emblem at first but the main things I wanted to depict in it were: Adam's influence, the twin keys, and Infinity (as a symbol for the eternal cycles).
In the end, I arrived at the 2 main concepts: 1- number one is more influenced by real religious imagery like the cross representing Adam or the twin keys as a reference to the Vatican Emblem with the keys of heaven. Infinity as though it might not seem like it, is present in a more subtle way as an Alpha and Omega in Adamic script in both sides of the cross also referencing both the gates of Alpha and Omega ( white magh and dark magh, Life and Death, Chaos and Order)
2- Number 2 is more influenced by fantasy emblems like the Ivalice universe in Final Fantasy, and while it also incorporates the infinity, the keys, and Adam maybe it doesn't feel as well thought out as the first one, this feels more superficial I guess.
That's why I might be inclined to go for number 1, but hey let me know which one is your fave in the comments!
