#innominat

[koalchicine]

The births of two gods.

.

Happy 8th Anniversary, Tales of Berseria!!

(See the backgrounds under the cut)

[tales-of-asteria-rips]

[cavity-core]

Brain: Time to draw charm designs of characters and series' that are popular!

Hands: How about characters and series I like : )

Sick and tired of making all my own food tbh

[mewnia]

The song has been lurking in my head and these were born from it

[berryetto]

The Symbolism of Velvet’s Comb

In Tales of Berseria, Laphicet copies one of Arthur's book to exchange it for a comb to give to Velvet. Additionally, Arthur also gives Velvet Celica's comb as a gift in the Tales of Berseria novella, A Witch's Tale: A World Full of Daemons.

If you studied Japanese it's probably not a good idea to give a comb to someone as a gift. The reason for that is due to the fact it's a homonym of suffer and die.

Comb in Japanese is 櫛 (くし) or kushi in romanization which is a homonym for

苦死

苦 (く) [ku] - pain, suffer, anguish

死 (し) [shi] - death

Throughout the narrative, the comb served as memory of Velvet deceased brother Laphicet, as well as her late sister Celica (in the novella). However, it could also be a foreshadowing of Velvet’s grim future from the time she was given the comb. Towards the end of the game, that comb breaking could possibly represent moving on from that grief or breaking away from her continuous suffering.

[nettochu]

There’s something about those blonde little brothers

[pancetto]

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕞𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕪-𝕘𝕠-𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 𝕕𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕒𝕚𝕣,

𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕤𝕝𝕚𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕞𝕠𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕕𝕣𝕠𝕡𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟 𝕠𝕗 𝕨𝕒𝕣.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕪 𝕟𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕒𝕝 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕖𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕤.

[hungrydolphin91]

Talestober 2023 Day 26: Starcrossed

Mikleo walks before me, closer to the way he looked when we parted, but with a little extra hair spilling past his chin to rest above his shoulders. He strides through blades of waist-high grass, illuminated only by a silver crescent moon. There is no one around, no path, no familiar landmark in sight, yet his eyes do not leave the vast expanse of stars shining above. It seems like he's using them to navigate.

It's comforting to me, to know that the same stars I departed under on my final night in Lastonbell are still here to guide my friend in my place. But Mikleo's expression holds no wonderment of their beauty, nor joy in their familiarity. His eyes are filled with longing and loneliness, as if the endless ribbon of stars he looks upon is only an empty void. In a whisper as soft as the breeze in the grass, his lips utter one word:

"Sorey..."

---

Epileo angst is the best angst

[konfizry]

when the party was about to board the ship in Arise (the smaller ship before they infiltrate the USS Almeidrea Class) my mind immediately went to who was gonna be The One Who's Not Good With Boats? Cause there's gotta be one, right? And my gut instinct told me it had to be kisara because that's just the funniest choice for reasons I can't quite explain (I mean there is the fact that she's a fishing maniac, but I'm not sure that's all of it). And I was right! Kisara was the seasick one, hurray! My poor girl! Funny!

Then later on the gang flies a starship to outer space and there's a skit where Law has flying anxiety and.... LISTEN I JUST THINK IT'S NOT FUNNY. like, we've already seen the New Mode Of Transportation Upsets One Party Member gag!!! Like ok for kisara it's queasiness and for Law it's a phobia but like the patterns the same pretty much!!!! booooooring.

What the Space Travel situation could have brought forth instead, is a humorous confrontation of one character's previously undisclosed worldviews and misconceptions with reality (along with the rest of the group's reactions and possibly judgement).

What I'm saying is they should have made Law a flat-earther.

[dropespeon]

falls to my knees. got to innominat

[lastthroes]

i have talked about this in the past but i don't think i made a post about it:

if you go to aball, you can find an inscription written on the pillar for celica and arthur's unborn son:

(read more for berseria lategame spoilers)

it's easy to see how this ties into the ending, with laphicet's (the reincarnation of that child) dialogue when he makes the oath to become the empyrean maotelus and spread the silver flame in the world

as well as his monologue during the after credits

it's a very recurrent theme: as you fight artorius and innominat during the first battle, laphicet also has a chat where he tells velvet that he'll fly right by her side

but what's not as easy to see is something else

i realized in my last replay that the tombstone's translation is actually not accurate: it got localized as "this little life will spread its wings and soar through the skies", but the original inscription in japanese was 『この小さき命が為、“理想の翼”は空に羽ばたかん』, which in the most literal way i can think of, it'd be: "for this small life, 'wings of an ideal' will flap its wings in the skies" (where 理想, which i translate as 'ideal', is also composed by 理, as 'reason', and 想, as 'thought' or 'conception')

now, what was it that artorius said right before he armatized? what was the true name he used for innominat?

ネブ＝ヒイ＝エジャム -> nevn hiw ejuam -> translated from the ancient tongue, its easily arranged into "wings for an ideal"

and again, in japanese, the reference to the tombstone is even clearer: 「今すべてを鎮めよう。我が羽ばたきで、人に相応しい静寂を……」which, in the most literal way, would be something along the lines of "now, let's suppress it all. with the flapping of my own wings, i will give humankind its adequate stillness". his armatized form, besides letting him use his right arm again, also gives him wings

it makes sense artorius was the one who put all the tombstones up and therefore eventually the engraving: velvet and laphicet were very young, and after the incident and melchior's words he probably lived disconnected enough from the rest of villagers to want anyone else getting close to them. but what's interesting to see is that just as much as he engraved that inscription in the stone, he also engraved those words deep within him

[cetra]

how the fuck are you a velvet stan when her entire story revolves around being in love with her little brother and finding a replacement for him!!!!! the game literally ends with her stuck in eternity with him!!!!!!! what the hell

HUH...... okay first of all her entire story arc is about coming to terms with her trauma and finally being able to let love & light into her life. also about finally getting revenge on an institution that betrayed her and caused her to become a monster. it's a great arc, she's the best Tales of protagonist and that's why we #stan

Second of all Velvet wasn't in love with her Laphi dawg what game did you play 😭 that was her BROTHER..... dont be weird. and she makes it abundantly clear that the way she sees Phi is as a brother. Yes he starts off as a replacement for Laphi and I recognize that's a weird thing to do but she's not supposed to be a good person, this is a game about a lot of traumatized jerks and Velvet is one of them. Phi definitely had a precocious crush on her but Velvet seems pretty unaware of it from what I understand, she only sees him as a little brother. Although in time she starts to back off from this when Phi expresses that it makes him angry/uncomfortable. iirc that's also around the time you start to see her develop healthier relationships with some of the other members of the Menagerie. her going from treating him as a replacement for Laphi to viewing him as more of a treasured friend (and maybe like.... a kid she babysits let's be real) was very obvious to me so again, idk what game you played

as for the ending 😭 c'mon man. that's not even Laphi she's with, that's Innominat. Velvet recognizes that Laphi is gone forever and the reason why she decides to spend all of eternity with Innominat is because SHE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN CONTAIN HIS POWER. literally the only one. She knows that this is the only way the world can be saved and it's a huge moment for her character bc she previously never viewed this as a world worth saving and now not only does she see that it is, but she also feels she was in part responsible for its ruin so that's why she chooses to sacrifice herself in this way. it's a beautiful and bittersweet ending and your reduction ignores like tens of hours wort of critical character development.

ANYWAYS all that being said please enjoy this beautiful art of Velvet that @lexsnotdead made for me

I suggest you change your ways immediately or just leave me and my favorite fictional woman in peace God bless 🫡🧡

[sakuraswordly]

As you can see from this theory by @autisticshadowthehedgehog

In Tsubasa of Phantasia, Maria saves herself(Amy Rose form) and Laphicet first and later, Maria is being shot, but she still gains her last strength and saves Shadow. Maria releases Shadow, and one where she releases another- or, possibly, the others, the two pods that were logged as escaping. But unlucky for Shadow cannot escape and next 50 years, Dr Eggman finds Shadow and using a Chaos Emerald, and the password M.A.R.I.A., he soon discovers that he is a hedgehog. So, he mistakes Shadow the Hedgehog for his enemy Sonic the Hedgehog, and nearly fights him. Then Shadow proves himself by defeating the military guard fighter. After Shadow defeats him, he leaves, heading for Space Colony ARK and tells Eggman to bring more Chaos Emeralds and meet him on the ARK.

That is why Shadow is still traveling because he hopes to find Laphicet, and later in Tsofph Season 6, after Innominat カノヌシ's event, the Laphicet that Shadow met long ago is actually Sonic.

[mistbow]

Right and Left, Human and Seraph, Physical Body and Spiritual Heart

Warning: Zestiria and Berseria spoilers.

右手は身・体の、左手は霊・心の在処

The right-hand side is where the physical body is, while the left-hand side is where the spiritual heart is.

I think it is already pretty well-known that humans are mostly right-handed and seraphim are left-handed in Zestiria, which is why Sorey and Mikleo stand on the right and left sides respectively when with each other, except for when Sorey was blind on his right eye in which Mikleo would switch to the right side to cover Sorey’s blind side. Referenced again during the night before the final battle, as a way for Sorey to ask for support.

But aside from this, I think there's some pretty interesting stuff. The obvious one is that Sorey was specifically blind on his right eye, representing his humanity. As the Shepherd’s burden got into him, his senses that make him human got dulled. In this case, he lost his sight too. Let’s go earlier than this though.

Obviously, the right hand being his dominant hand made him catch Mikleo in the beginning of the game with his right hand, in reflex. He was very much still “Sorey, the human” (albeit among the seraphim) here, not even a Shepherd.

The Shepherd’s glove is on his left hand, by the way. Pretty apt since the left-hand side is for the heart/mind. Pretty relevant later on. Also, as someone brought up in a seraphim community, his sword sheath funnily is on the right side, even though he is right-handed, making it look a bit difficult to pull out.

In the epilogue, which is a callback to that scene mentioned above, he used his left hand (with the Shepherd’s glove) to catch Mikleo. Sure, it might be to show through the Shepherd’s glove that it is undoubtedly Sorey who caught him, but think back to the whole right eye being blind and the side-switching. This is Zestiria, the game where the director explicitly said to read too deep into it. He now used his left hand instead of his dominant right hand like in the beginning.

Also back to the night before the final battle scene. Sorey walked to the left side specifically after Mikleo asked, “But... you understand the implications, don’t you?”

Physical senses are a way for humans to receive information from the outside world. When they are shut off, the physical body basically ceases to function. Sleep can be read as a metaphor for death as a human in this case.

MIKLEO: By bonding with Maotelus, you'll be abandoned in time. It could take years... It could take centuries.

Note the use of “刻” for “time” here, as explained before. The passage of time differs between humans, and seraphim (and also Storytellers... while we’re at that. EDIT: Here’s another thing to think about, if you want to go into that rabbit hole of Storytellers.)

MIKLEO: What about your dream? Weren’t you going to go off exploring ruins around the world? SOREY: My dream will live on, so long as I don’t forget.

Why bring up “so long as I don’t forget” in the first place? Will Sorey even forget about his dream that is basically the core of his character? Unless he knew of the implications?

Makes you think....

(A bit of a sidetrack here, but I feel the “オレが忘れない限り[夢は]終わらない” line is a nice nod to the OP of the very first game in Tales series, Tales of Phantasia, titled “夢は終わらない” which translates to “the dream will not end”)

If such seraph and human—heart and body could exist together, if the physical body could not lose sight of its own heart, could listen carefully to its voice, and could feel its presence, then humans should be able to live the way they want to live, without being tainted. Sorey, who has lived with the seraphim, is that proof.

By the way, speaking of heart and body, let’s talk about Innominat. Innominat seems to be a special seraph/malak in that a ritual has to be done to resurrect him, which is done by sacrificing one person to be the body and another to be the heart. There’s a distinction between “resurrection” (復活) and “reincarnation” (転生). According to Berseria Official Complete Guide, this is normally done at the same time, but during the events of Berseria, the revivals for the body and the heart were done at different times. It’s not known how the normal process would end up, but there’s a chance that the normal process would result in Innominat as a whole with his body and heart in one instead of separate like in the game. As a note, the anomaly process done in the game resulted in Innominat using Laphi as yorishiro; meaning that he’s not actually Laphi reborn as a malak, just inhabiting his (reincarnated) body without having any heart. Basically a heartless being with Laphi’s body and memories, which he can use to taunt Velvet. Because of this, even though Innominat says “I love you” to Velvet, there’s no actual emotion in that (Berseria Official Complete Guide). The heart lies elsewhere in Phi, who has Innominat’s calming and raising resonance powers.

So, ironically, since he’s basically a hollow body, Innominat, despite being a seraph, uses his right hand in his MA.

Aaaaand while we’re at this, since we’re on tangent anyway, here’s other stuff relating to right-hand and left-hand sides (human and seraph, physical and spiritual, body and heart) in both Zestiria and Berseria.

Eizen’s glove that gets handed down to Edna was the right-hand side one, while the flower that symbolizes her as the early bloomer is on the left-hand side, if you want to think more about it.

Velvet’s daemon arm is her left arm. Her humanity (right hand) is pretty much still in tact, compared to...

Artorius, whose right arm he had lost use of already.

Phi said he didn’t care if Velvet ate his [right/human] hand, as long as he still had his [left/seraph] hand, which he used to reach out to Velvet’s [right/human] hand. Just as Sorey and Mikleo are the “right” and “left” to each other, Velvet and Phi have been described as the “dark” and “light” to each other.

When Sorey reached his hand out* to Maotelus’ past in the manga, he used his left hand, while the one he reached out to used his right hand. Maotelus taking the form of dragon (a basically tainted seraph with no way of going back) as a part of his oath is because he believed in humans, that no matter how tainted he becomes from their ugly side, it is still a part of those humans, and that someone will come save him someday too.

*Shiramine has been on record saying that even if it is believed that a Shepherd’s powers are needed to save others [from malevolence], on the contrary, Zestiria actually pushes for other ways of salvation. Not just death, which Sorey had to learn (sometimes the hard way), but also salvation by reaching out. Though, even then, there are places that even Sorey’s hand cannot reach.

Also, if you notice, when using the Map Actions (of which the powers belong to the seraphim), Sorey activates those using his left hand. The same as when he armatizes, his left hand becomes his dominant one.

[jessjustplay]

Currently playing Tales of Berseria - 50 Hours Update

July 27, 2024

Alright, so... since my last save, the story got crazy.

AND MY QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW BERSERIA AND ZESTIRIA ARE CONNECTED HAVE BEEN ANSWERED!

Teresa joined us as we went to find Oscar and the next therion. Turns out the experiment that the Abbey has been working on is Armatization - the same technique used in Tales of Zestiria.

This was an epic fight scene.

The emotion on Velvet's face after she realizes what she has done. Her entire story is based on the fact that she watched someone kill her brother in front of her, and now she did the exact thing to Teresa.

She's very confused, angry, but her resolve is set. She does what she needs to do in order to avenge Laphicet's murder.

Also, Magilou... you're so intriguing to me. I want a game about her, I want to know what her story is. No one becomes this mischievous and playful without some bad shit happening.

Laphicet (Phi) is likely one of the best characters ever. I want to cry thinking about him. LOL

Eizen has always been pissed about the Abbey, but even more so when they learn the Malakhim are dying from the unperfected Armatization.

The thing with me, is I don't like to guess or predict what's going to happen. I loooooooove riding the wave and seeing where things go. So I was SHOCKED when Laphicet (Laphi) showed up as Innominat.

GAME... WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO VELVET? This whole story has been a shit storm for her. First she loses her sister, then her brother, then brother-in-law, kills another brother, is fueled by vengeance and hatred, kills a ton of people, all in the name of her brother, only to find out that he has been in on the plan with Artorius all along (maybe??), then comes to find out that the big bad Empyrean that she needs to kill off in order to kill Artorius IS her brother...

Ahhhhhhhhhhh~

And that's where I decided to stop the game because Velvet was looking mighty scary and I needed to collect my thoughts about everything that just happened.

I LOVE THIS GAME!

[berryetto]

" Help the world I ruined. Help people like me. Help the weak. This is my last selfish request. "