#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

[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]

POV you get killed by Artorius and the Innominat

[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

[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��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

[windor-truffle]

Ok enough boring things like "work" or "sleep," time for a BerZesty AU 😤 I don't think I'll ever actually write it because it'd take a while but I'd love to hear others' thoughts on how you'd do one! Here's my VERY long take (outline) on it:

In this World of Graces But With BerZesty Mechanics, resonance is something highly sought after among nobility as it puts them "closer to the gods." Thus many marriages are arranged in order to produce heirs with high resonance, supposedly, but since resonance is becoming rarer and rarer (probably due to inbreeding affecting life span 😅) many nobles actually lie about their abilities.

Lord Aston of Lhant, who has little to no resonance but comes from a family that did, similarly sought out an heir with high resonance so he married Lady Kerri who possesses it. She is a widow of a previous marriage, with her own son Hubert having high resonance. But when Asbel, Aston's biological heir, is born with high resonance, Aston goes full villain mode (sorry I'm sabotaging his character 😅) and has Hubert killed in what appears to be an accident so there will be no dispute over who will inherit his title. Thus Asbel grows up with the seraph of his dead half-brother Hubert, who does know their relation but not the truth behind his death. Hubert is a water seraph (of course) and despite being older than Asbel, appears younger due to aging more slowly as a seraph.

Kid Asbel is also friends with Cheria, a friendly fire seraph kid who reincarnated after her tragic demise from illness, but otherwise Asbel's social life is quite limited and sheltered, protected fiercely by his father who sees Asbel as a chance to develop ties with the royal family. Eventually Aston gets his wish and Prince Richard is sent to Lhant for a visit. Asbel and Richard immediately hit it off as they both aspire to be Shepherds, figures of legend who brought peace and purity to the world by forming pacts with the Empyreans themselves. Asbel swears to be Richard's squire someday, and together they'll travel the world and purify it.

During Richard's visit the kids also meet and befriend Sophie, an orphan of Lhant with surprisingly high resonance. They protect her from hellions, since hellions tend to target those that can perceive them, and bring her with them to Barona when Richard's stay is over. Once there, Richard invites them all to help him investigate a shrine he has uncovered beneath the castle to an unknown Empyrean (very Innominat-like 😅).

Unfortunately they discover too late that the summoning ritual they're attempting requires a human sacrifice, and as they are attempting to abort, a "monster" shows up and kills Sophie. The gruesome event causes a falling out between the royal family and Lhant, and Asbel and Richard are no longer permitted to see each other.

7 years later, armies of hellions begin to invade Lhant and Aston dies in battle. Asbel is sent to Barona to petition the king for help, as there are far more people there with the resonance needed to combat the hellions, but then Asbel learns that Archduke Cedric has killed the king and is leading a coup with said armies of hellions. He himself is a hellion of Lord of Calamity status that had secretly lived among the royal family, though Richard always knew and thus was targeted frequently.

The capital seems to be overrun with malevolence so Asbel and his two seraph friends take cover in the sanctuary where they find Richard currently fleeing for his life. When they venture further down the same path they followed as kids that led them to the abandoned shrine, they're surprised to hear the voice of an Empyrean asking if they will aid him in purifying this world as a Shepherd. Richard agrees, Asbel swearing to be his squire, and Richard becomes the vessel to the forgotten Empyrean Lambda. As they complete the ritual, the spirit of their old friend reincarnates before their eyes as the void seraph Sophie, though she has no recollection of her former life.

With their powers greatly improved by the blessing of an Empyrean and an additional seraph on their side, Richard and Asbel vow to take down the Lord of Calamity reigning over Windor, Asbel hoping to purify him, while Richard is more prepared to do what's necessary. They encounter Malik, an earth seraph who challenges them to test both his own strength and the strength of their wills as a new Shepherd and squire. He is fine with killing hellions, mainly because he knows someday he'll have to return to his homeland and kill his friend Kurt who became a dragon (very Zaveid coded), but the pair (mainly Asbel) promise they will try to purify him, and Malik tags along to see if they're up for it or not (very Edna coded).

They succeed in taking down the Lord of Calamity Cedric thanks to Lambda's power. With peace in Windor restored, Richard the Shepherd-King and his squire Asbel set off to awaken and receive the blessings of the four Empyreans throughout the land, starting with Gloandi here in Windor. However, the ritual seems to be less of awakening and embracing their powers as it is Richard and Lambda subjugating and devouring them, much to Asbel and the other's disturbance. His seraph friends are beginning to feel some malevolence from the pair, but Asbel's pure belief in Richard keeps them from feeling its effects.

They travel next to Strahta, who initially refuse to recognize Richard as a Shepherd, believing this to be a political takeover. They prove Richard's validity by taking down an enormous hellion that had been terrorizing Yu Liberte, though Asbel and the citizens are dismayed that they couldn't purify it as it used to be a beloved gentle mascot (RIP Rockgagong). As a reward for their success, Richard is granted access to the shrine of the water Empyrean, Duplemar.

But the same process happens again of Lambda devouring its power, and this time the boosted force of his will enables him to suppress that of seraphim across the entire world, including all of Asbel's friends except Sophie. Richard reveals that his and Lambda's plan for peace actually involves exterminating humanity, the source of the malevolence, and will do so by using seraphim as tools. Asbel can no longer deny what they've become: a fallen Shepherd led by a fallen Empyrean, able to command both seraphim and hellions alike. Heartbroken, Asbel is forced to break his pact as Richard's squire before Richard's overflowing malevolence can corrupt both him and his enslaved friends. Richard is furious at his betrayal but despite having Asbel at his mercy does not kill him, and Asbel runs away, bitterly hoping he can save both his suppressed friends and his fallen one somehow.

Asbel is at a loss on how to help his friends until he encounters the wind seraph Pascal, who besides Sophie is the only unaffected seraph (because no one can hope to control her lol). Her tribe has knowledge of a sacred land in the heavens far beyond, where the Empyrean of Void, Fodra, ascended to long ago. She and Fourier are able to take Asbel and his friends there, and since Fodra's domain is far apart from Lambda's, his friends have free will for as long as they remain there.

In order to make a pact with Fodra that could free the seraphim, Asbel has to clear 4 elemental trials, and each one forces the corresponding seraph to come to terms with their past (Hubert's cruel murder, Cheria's unfair demise, Malik's bitter regrets, and even Pascal's jealous sister, who envies Pascal's higher standing among their tribe so much she almost becomes a dragon). Completing each one not only ensures their free will but also allows Asbel to armatize with them. But before Asbel can take the final step of becoming a Shepherd under Fodra, he hears from her that Richard has located the fire shrine of Forbranir, and so he returns to Ephinea with his freed friends in order to try and stop him.

Unfortunately, Asbel's armatuses are no match for Richard's armatus with the Empyrean Lambda, taking on a form far more demonic than angelic (aka Richard's final boss form from canon, roughly). Richard succeeds in stealing Forbranir's power and this time seems to be suppressing the will of humanity, though Asbel is protected from its effects by the blessings of his friends. Asbel returns to Fodra in the hopes finishing his pact with her will free the humans, too.

The last step of Fodra's trial tests Asbel and the others' belief in humanity. They learn that Lambda was an artificially created Empyrean who lost faith in humans after those of supposedly divine blood murdered his Shepherd vessel Cornell and sealed Lambda away. Humans created their own god then turned on it when it failed to please them, they always tear down goodness for their own selfish ends. That is why he decided they were truly evil.

They also learn that Sophie, as the soul that was sacrificed to release Lambda, is now a part of him (like Laphicet), hence why she was unaffected by and can even decently match his powers. But even after learning of these origins, Asbel and the others still believe that humanity has a future that they wish to protect. With this Fodra gives him her blessing, and Asbel becomes a true Shepherd like he'd always dreamed. Now he just needs to reach his other friend and get him to believe in that dream again, too.

The humans and seraphim on Ephinea have regained their free will thanks to Asbel's Empyrean pact countering Lambda's domain, and they offer Asbel and his seraphic friends their prayers as Asbel chases after Richard into the planet's core, where the final Empyrean of Earth, Lastalia, dwells. They confront him at the core and battle again. Richard has the power of his Lambda armatus AND 3 devoured Empyreans, while Asbel has the power of 5 seraphim 1 Empyrean and the prayers of basically every human so it's one HELL of a fight 😅 But Asbel is able to win by pulling a fucking 5 way armatus (like the noncanonical ending of the Zesty anime I know it's silly but c'mon Asbel would TOTALLY do that if he could 😂 it's the power of friendship, literally.)

With Richard and Lambda defeated, Asbel is able to appeal to Richard and get him to believe again in the humans that he once wanted to save. But Lambda refuses to trust humanity again, and thus cannot be purified. Sophie offers to sacrifice herself to seal Lambda away again, since she can match his powers with her own, but Asbel opts to become Lambda's vessel instead despite his malevolence--- as long as Asbel believes in both himself and Lambda, it won't corrupt him, and he can attempt to purify it as he shows Lambda the world. Lambda accepts his terms, and Richard and Asbel renew their pact, this time with Richard as his squire since he no longer trusts himself and besides Asbel has proven himself a worthy Shepherd twice over.

...The end? 😅

[jessjustplay]

Tales of Berseria Quotes - Part 2 of 2

December 21, 2024

Lots of spoilers!! See Part 1 here.

"It's fine... I don't really care if I'm seen as a bad guy." - Velvet

"No matter how selfish you are, life's empty without anyone to share it with." - Velvet

"Sometimes living can be the hardest affliction." - Magilou

"Yes. The world may teem with hardship and sadness, but it's also filled with beauty." - Eleanor

"You just underestimate me. I have my own sense of humor." - Eizen

"If it happens, it happens." - Eizen

"It's always about the journey, not the destination." - Eizen

"I guess I learned something today. Never give up before you try." - Eizen

"The way humans think can sometimes be even more frightening than malevolence." - Freed Earth Malak

"I'm not saying you need to make light of everything. But try to leave a little room for joy in your life." - Fervent Believer

"To death, we are as equals. It comes to us all. There's no reason to treat it as something special." - Magilou

"Sure, it might hurt now, but in time, it will just be another memory." - Velvet

"Regrets don't change into memories. They hang over you like a living nightmare." - Velvet

"We're not good people, but we're not those kinds of villains, either." - Eizen

"No matter how much we see, life is still full of mysteries, isn't it?" - Rokurou

"Eyes like yours spell trouble, girl, but I like them all the same." - Grimoirh

"I don't believe the way to the future can be found through despair." - Freed Earth Spirit

"The more you resist, the more you'll suffer." - Innominat

"I am my own master!" - Laphicet

"We push on through the trials and tribulations of each and every day, we suffer through hardships and failure, we lose the ones we love, and then we die." - Magilou

"What I do know is that if success was guaranteed, we'd never get anything done. Uncertainty is what spurs us onward." - Magilou

"Well it seems I've finally found something that matters to me." - Magilou

"I do what pleases me just as anyone does." - Eleanor

"Parting is always hard. If you don't want that pain, the only way to avoid it is to shun all contact with humans. But to me, humans are an inspiration, living to their fullest with the limited time they have." - Eizen

"it's okay to feel lost. Let yourself wander for awhile. But whatever you end up choosing, decide it for yourself." - Eizen

See Part 1 here.

[kresnikcest]

Maybe I can design smol!Lambda if he’s like. like.

This is bad comparison but it’s the only one that makes sense to me lol

If he’s like Innominat or Edna where they’re smol but also snarky as hell

I’ll get used to the voice… I think????

[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.

[berryetto]

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

[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.

[hungrydolphin91]

Talestober 2023 Day 16: Reunited

"Eizen..?" I say his name experimentally, like an answer to a question I wasn't ready for. Seeing his real face, shed of its scales and cruelty, feels like a dream when all I've known recently are nightmares. In my dreams I had words for him, admonishing, teasing, in control, but the only thing I can muster forth now are big, fat, ugly tears.

They're enough for him. He pulls me into a hug.

---

I just want them to be happy together again ;_;