#tainted!sorey

[mewnia]

Late-night doodles of AU Soreys? More likely thank you think, uh-oh scoob

[kresnikcest]

the sheer despair of going from zestiria where everyone's alt colour palettes are bangers (or at least sensible like alisha's) to x2 where i literally do not like any of ludger's alternate colour palettes and my dude has like five :(

[xemocatgirlx]

ToZ Tainted Sorey fan art + speedpaint

I drew tainted Sorey, drawing his clothes was kind of a pain in the ass.

'You made me a monster' - tainted Sorey probably

Software: Procreate

Song: Cure my tragedy by Cold

Character: Sorey

Video game/anime: Tales of Zestiria

The song is relatable to me cuz I lost my cousin to car crash in Bangladesh back in early 2023.

I miss him so much :(

[mistbow]

Sorey, Mikleo, and Growth

Mostly from the manga. It’s known that Shiramine, the author of the manga, consulted both Hase Yuuta (Zestiria game director) and Yamamoto Naoki (Zestiria game head writer), but from her tweets, we know she put her own spin as to tell another side to the story that the game couldn’t tell, that when put together (with the game as well as the novel), we could glean the message of Zestiria as a whole. (As such, I would also like to bring to your attention what the director of Zestiria attempted to achieve with the game.)

Since every panel is drawn with that thought above, I think there’s more to this too. (Using original Japanese version because the official English localization seems to translate things rather liberally, even though every word, every sentence was carefully thought up according to the author.)

SOREY: This is where I became the Shepherd... feels like it was long time ago. MIKLEO: Really? We were running all over the place that it all happened so fast to me. SOREY: I wonder if we really can pass on the wishes of the previous Shepherd, Gramps, Muse, and the others... MIKLEO: I don’t know, but all Gramps told us back then was to be free to live our lives the way we wanted to. SOREY: Yeah, I became the Shepherd and came all the way this far because of my own will. MIKLEO: Still though, it's thanks to Gramps and the others that we've come this far, and that you've grown up from such a small boy to such a fine man.

SOREY: You’re still growing too. MIKLEO: I’m not talking about our heights!

In Zestiria, it is said that seraphim can control their own growth, it is different from humans in that external things affect their growth. Unlike seraphim, the way of being of humans change with time and experience (人間は天族と違い、時間・経験と共にその在り方を変えていく). Whereas seraphim can be seen as static figures that don’t change—since they’re manifestation of human’s feelings, the very bare “hearts of humans” themselves (天族とは誰かの想い、誰かの祈りから生まれた露わな＜人の心＞そのもの). This is why they can’t lie to themselves, nor can they taint themselves (yes, they can’t produce malevolence).

Speaking of time, it is a concept that I feel is important in Zestiria with the way it keeps being brought up again and again, and if you notice, in Japanese (in the game, in the novel, in the manga... it’s consistent), it is often written in the archaic form 刻 rather than 時, even though both are read the same way as とき. There’s a bit of nuance lost in translation here, as 刻 means “cut” in that “time” used to be represented to be cut up in old Japanese. This kind of explains what they mean by “time flowing differently for seraphim and humans” i.e the passages of time for seraphim and humans are different, measured in different units of time, so to speak.

SOREY: ...I never... want to forget this pain... SOREY: It’s exactly because I felt pain that I was able to continue this journey. SOREY: We're grieving, suffering because of the reality across this world... and that's why we are able to rise up for hope. ROSE: ! SOREY: Many feelings even beyond that I had never known before were shining through! That being case, we— MIKLEO: (Humans accept [receive] something, and with that, they change their way of being.)

SOREY: We’re not afraid to go down this road!! MIKLEO: (With time, you grow taller. With your calling, you don the mantle. If you, with all that, are willing to accept the pain that tries to dye you...) MIKLEO: (Then I, the seraph that resides within you, as the thought that you are who you are, will draw the bow together with you.)

Emphasis mine. And sorry for the awkward translation, but this part is especially lost in the English translation for some reason. Here the manga focuses on the very difference of humans and seraphim—humans grow (affected by time, accepting that it changes them) while seraphim are the feelings of those humans taking form.

It’s definitely deliberate that the panel where Mikleo thinks about how Sorey has grown taller and with the Shepherd’s burden, donned the mantle, is Sorey’s back, seemingly distant, with his Shepherd’s cloak too. Ohsaka (Mikleo’s JP VA) has commented before that when Sorey pulled out the Sacred Blade and became the Shepherd, perhaps Mikleo thought that Sorey became so far out of reach for him, that at that time he probably wondered where the Sorey he knew (the childhood friend he knew) went. There’s the fact that they used to be around the same height too, until Sorey grew much taller than Mikleo was. And it was not spelled out exactly why Sorey was adamant about not making Mikleo a Sub Lord, but Mikleo in the manga understood it as Sorey not wanting the last piece of their peaceful childhood, where even the thought of becoming the Shepherd and Sub Lord didn’t cross their mind, gone.

Also, love the wording for “don the mantle”... it’s both figurative and literal, of course, meaning that with that Shepherd’s cloak he took upon the burden and responsibility himself. What’s more in JP though, 羽織る (“to put on [cloak]”) when translated very literally is “to weave feathers”, and from his feather motif (which the Taizen book has described as symbolizing Sorey being a bird who doesn’t know of malevolence taking flight off to the world) and the Elysalark skit really early in the game, it can become a very nice double meaning. I don’t even need to go to the whole “blank canvas being dyed over” imagery here that’s also in the game and even in the theme song, White Light.

Then we go to Mikleo declaring himself being the thought of Sorey being who Sorey is. Again, seraphim being the manifestation of feelings, thoughts, and prayers of humans themselves.

MIKLEO: I've been wondering about this true name that I had felt in my heart long before I even learned words. Its meaning has always felt mysterious to me... MIKLEO: But now that I've seen that memory, I understand. A sorrowful wish in despair gave birth to me; it is the name of that wish. MIKLEO: It might be a curse, or fate, but we know of [comprehend in its entirety, sense, viscerally feel] the hope that resides within this vessel called life. SOREY: ...Yeah, we can’t let everyone’s, our wishes to be tainted. SOREY: Reach it out, Mikleo! SOREY: Luzrov Rulay [Mikleo the Enforcer]!

So seraphim are the very hearts of humans themselves, but especially those who bear the name “Enforcer” are incarnations born as the purest form of those hearts, carrying out the will of those humans (執行者の名を持つ天族は、その心の最も純粋な形として生まれた化身), hence the name. Shiramine said that in the case of Mikleo, he was born out of Michael’s despair, which paradoxically was also his hope. Then he decided to act as Sorey’s purest will.

By the way, it’s not just manga that has Mikleo snapping Sorey out and becoming the first to offer himself as the first bullet to sever the bond between Heldalf and Maotelus. In the novel, he also offered to go first.

「この旅の終わり、僕が嚆矢となる」 “At this journey’s end, I will become the whistling arrow.”

Whistling arrows, in the Heian era, are fired before the battle not just to alert the enemy, but also friendly kami (the beings seraphim in Zestiria are based on) so that they would lend their support. Befitting of a seraph whose armatization uses a bow.

Also, take note on the Japanese quote of Aqua Limit Ultima (which kinda is horribly translated) (and also, it’s called Aqua Limit: Reunion in JP btw):

スレイ「ヘルダルフ…！蒼華たる霊霧の執行！」 ミクリオ「僕が決める！」 二人「「アクアリムス！！」」

SOREY: Heldalf...! The enforcement of the azure spiritual mist! MIKLEO: I will end it! BOTH: Aqua Limit!!

And that’s the will that they finally carried out. It is because they are human and seraph, that they are two people of different kinds (exactly because they’re different, not the same), each aware of their own way of being, that they can grow this far.

水魚の交わり 側に居て当たり前。互いが��んな存在か考えるまでもない。そんな関係。

Like Water and Fish It’s only natural to be by each other’s side. They don’t even need to think what they are to each other. It’s such a relationship.

異体同心 種族は違うが、同じ想いを抱いて育った。人と天族の可能性を示す。

One Heart in Different Bodies They are of different kinds, but they grew up embracing the same feelings. Showing the possibilities of humans and seraphim.

唯一無二の 互いに誰よりも負けたくない相手。だから成長できる。今までも、これからも。

The One and Only They do not want to lose to each other more than anyone else. That's why they can grow. Until now, and from now on.

応えしもの もう言葉はいらない。友の決意を心で受け止めた親友に捧げる称���。

One who Answers No more words needed. A title granted to the best friend who has taken his friend’s decision to heart.

Truly the embodiment of what a human and a seraph can be. That’s the kind of bond that is, and the way they grow together also illustrates that.

[honey-filled-lungs]

Sorey for getting raped im sorry that msde me tainted and unloveabele im sorry that getting raped is mt fault

[ednaeflowers]

❛  It's a rat's instinct to stay safe, I suppose,  ❜ she comments, absently. ❛  Guess we're lucky there aren't any here. That only leaves just about ... everything else we could encounter in here, such as the golems and zombies—  ❜ She is already counting her fingers boredly. ❛  —but not limited to goblins, mammoths, slime, skeletons, giant spiders, wolves, or even wyverns. Maybe there's a giant wyvern waiting for us somewhere. I'm counting on you to take it down, fearless leader.  ❜ Of course, this is all said in jest. Nothing like a good scare or two to make someone more attentive. ( Not to mention, his jumpiness is a little entertaining. )

Oh, now he's stuttering again. She briefly wonders if she can pinpoint a pattern to this. ❛  Ghost ship?  ❜ Now she's piqued. That seems like the perfect place to scare Rose silly. Edna once again despairs that she isn't here. Giving a small hum, she instead replies, ❛  As a seraph, it's sort of the same with me. Aside from you and a few others, ordinary humans can't see me. We can't be seen in mirrors either, so in a way, you already know another kind of ghost.  ❜ At least she's a cute ghost. ❛  There were some ghosts like you've mentioned in a few places my friends explored in, but they weren't really dangerous threats.  ❜ A pause as she tries to remember those gruesome spelunking detours Sorey and Meebo always went on. She didn't really enjoy them that much, but had to go along anyway, so Edna's had her fair share of unfortunate encounters. ❛  Unless you count the floating eyeball and glowy spectre. They were super annoying—  ❜

There's a scream and Karol is suddenly tumbling down. Startled, Edna stares quietly at the sight of him on his backside, the bottom hem of his pants tainted with a few splotches of ... mud? Her eyes direct towards the puddle and, slowly, she starts understanding what just happened. ❛  Nevermind,  ❜ she finally says, flatly, and shakes her head. Hanging her umbrella at the crook of her elbow, she ambles over to scrutinize the puddle, then she lightly thumps her foot on the ground to channel her powers through the earth. The edges of the puddle start glowing in yellow, extending out to cover the whole thing until it looks as if there was never a puddle at this spot to begin with. There's a reason why Sorey relies on her to do cleanup work whenever they run into obstacles on the road. 

❛  Yeah, you certainly should.  ❜ Edna's body is frail and dainty, so she doubts she can help up a kid who seems roughly her size, but at least she can easily solve their little puddle crisis. Patiently, she picks up the lamp he dropped and holds it as she waits for him to stand up. Looking forward at their path, she squints and can make out something bright on the ground, somewhat obscured by a boulder in the way. It's still close to where they are, so she curiously wanders over to inspect it, squatting down and peeking at—

❛  Is this a clue?  ❜ she asks, already walking back to Karol to hand him a piece of cloth she picked up. Its stark red color greatly contrasts the dull brown of the cave, the edges seem like it was ripped, and it's slightly lathered in dirt. ❛  You said the doll had a red and white dress, right? Maybe something decided it'd make a good afternoon snack, judging from this rip.  ❜ A beat passes to let the implication process for him, then she regards him more solemnly this time. She doesn't know if there's actually a monster up ahead or if the doll is simply caught on something, but if they're going forward, then the decision should be clearly made now before it's too late. ❛  Well? Still want to proceed?  ❜   

“Believe it or not, yes actually.” Karol cringed a little. He didn’t mind rats, honestly. And it wasn’t his first time in an underground cavern like this one with said rats scurrying from place to place. He’s been in plenty of caves, caverns, and more during his travels with Brave Vesperia and this one didn’t seem any different from the ones he had visited in the past. “I don’t mind rats too much. They very rarely bother with you unless they feel cornered. And even then, they’ll go out of their way to avoid you.”

Rationalizing that part made Karol feel a bit better… for a moment. But then the idea of Zombies and Golems being around had been suggested and… well, Karol couldn’t deny that a chill ran up his spine at the thought of it. Golems weren’t scary as they were just a problem. They hit hard, they were hard to take down… With his large mallet, he could maybe manage but if they got overwhelmed, that would be a problem. Zombies on the other hand… those… were scary. Did they really have to talk about what could possibly be lurking within the shadows of this creepy dumb cave?

“W-We’ve… uh…” Karol forced his brain to move away from the images of growling groans of a zombie as he tried to remind himself of how he had survived scarier situations. As his brain jumped from scenario to scenario, he realized that in such a short amount of time, he had truly gone through a lot of scary scenarios, hadn’t he? He just had to remember that he came out of them alive…

“...Oh! Uh… Well, this one time… Everyone else and I had to climb onto this ghost ship.” Had to was a bit of a stretch. Their ship had broken down as the ghost ship drifted up next to their own ship. It was Yuri who suggested they take a look at it. Karol was completely freaked out at the time but at least he wasn’t as scared as Rita. He was lucky that he was too scared at the time to make fun of her for it. She would’ve burned him alive. “There were actual, for real ghosts on it! Like… ghost monsters that you could only see if you were looking through the mirror for them! It was like major creep city on that thing.”

He’s momentarily distracted as he tells the story that he almost forgets to watch his footing as he’s walking. At the mere mention of sinkholes, he jolts back to attention, eyes snapping to the ground in front of him… a bit too late, however, as his foot slips in a puddle. His feet slide out from beneath him as he falls backwards onto his backside. The loud yelp followed by the small ‘oof’ as he hit the ground was the only thing that came out of his mouth as he went down.

Well. At least it was just a muddy puddle and not an actual sinkhole. “...I should probably pay more attention… Ow.”

[dual-mayhem]

Every heard of the Tainted au for tales of Zesteria.  I know we cant have it normally but what if, hear me out.  They used Mikleo to be the catalyst to slowly corrupt Sorey.  It would have succeeded 100%

[theblackbutterfly02]

Fictober Day 6: “Didn't we already have this conversation?” and 17: “I'm with you, you know that.”

Title: Against all Common Sense

Fandom: Tales of Zestiria; Pairing: Sorey/Mikleo

Rating: T

Warnings: none

Summary: Having to watch his malevolence weaken the one person he couldn't afford loosing, Sorey betrays his heart for his brain as he repeats the words Mikleo must know by heart now.

[multiakimo]

tainted!sorey x alisha............. is criminally underrated..........

[mewnia]

“I’m sorry. This is all I can do for you.”

[kresnikcest]

zestiria negative under the cut

i made this remark to mauro when i was doing the asteria transcript and rereading the end of arc 3 but really my problem with canon sorey and mikleo's relationship is that the stakes aren't especially high for their relationship specifically.

zestiria as a whole has really low personal stakes for the main story, but sorey and mikleo especially end up shafted because the game starts pretty strong with interactions between them, but eventually peters out.

so stuff in asteria with things like sorey actually losing mikleo briefly hit harder than in zestiria when like, the closest comparison is when sorey loses his resonance and he reaches out for mikleo first, and even then he's also lost sight of lailah and edna so it's not really only about mikleo.

it is nice to have a relationship where the characters are just supportive of each other, but idk, i'm not that attached to ones where nothing really happens to them specifically.

the tainted au has become a bit of a meme in later years for being so edgy, but i still get why it was so popular because sorey... really doesn't face the threat of losing hope or falling to malevolence. but i've already rambled about that.

[waters-turn]

Ough your fire seraph ingo design thoughts sound so pretty… there are just too many options for what to do with these boys!!

Ah yes the inverted outfit. I am familiar with that one *frantically kicking old tainted!au fics i was obsessed with in like 2016 under the table* It definitely works so well with them!!!!

Well now because you mentioned Lailah im thinking about the twins in her role… perhaps the burden of the prime lord was too much for just one to carry, or they insisted on not letting the other shoulder it alone? Could also provide some interesting alternatives to why in ToZ Sorey had issues with the armatus at first? Instead it’s that Elesa (assuming she’d be the shepherd here) can only at first fuse with one of them which leads to a partial armatus but if she fused with both it’d be too much to handle that early on,,,

Hm. I just remembered how Mikleo became a seraph. I will surely not use this to create more angst options like one of the twins having died—

What a coincidence, I haven't finished finding all the Normins, either.

We can scour the continent together (in mounting despair, probably, I'm terrible at collecting things like those little guys).

Also, while I'm here, your fics are great.

I hope you have a good day!

Eee thank you so much! I hope you have a great day too!

I made the ultimate mistake of trying to find every single one in an area before moving on to the next… which is theoretically a sound idea except for when you get stuck smashing Sorey’s face against a wall for 3 hours trying to find a way up somewhere before realizing you don’t have the seraph ability needed to get up there =.=

[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.

[looveel-realm]

@sormikweek

Day 4, August 8th:: Red Rose {Desire ; Romance} Anemone {Unfading Love}

Please be lenient with my thirsty ass for today (and my ghibli syndrome that makes me ALWAYS crave Mikleo with mid-length hair). Surprisingly I've never done dragon tainted Mikleo before °-°

[michimichi-cocopop]

I've been watching a lot of Bendy and the Ink Machine playthroughs and I wanted to attempt that cartoony style, but of course with ya boy tainted!Sorey ;3

[gigafawn]

met a boy who commanded angels today, he was terrifying