The Moon Arcana

While looking through Wikipedia after what has probably been a three month absence from this project, I stumbled upon Hypnos, the god of sleep. Hypnos is a very interesting being, in my opinion.

I took a look at his siblings, Phobetor and Morpheus. Phobetor is the god of nightmares, while Morpheus is the god of strange (but not necessarily bad) dreams.

All of this talk about dreams made me think of the Moon Arcana, which, well... symbolizes dreams.

With this in mind, I thought that it would be a good idea to create a character who possessed personae that fell under the Moon Arcana. Phobetor would be their initial persona and Morpheus would be their ultimate persona. I figured that Phobetor would represent the character's internal conflict being partially resolved, because Phobetor is the god of nightmares. Morpheus would be more fitting as the ultimate persona, because he is associated with dreams in general, good or bad, as opposed to Phobetor, who is mainly associated with just nightmares.

But then another thing caught my attention -- Hypnos.

I thought against using Hypnos, since he was simply the god of sleep and therefore not as closely associated with the Moon Arcana as the other two gods. But Hypnos was a fairly important god (I think?), which made me want to use him as the "ringleader" of the entire conflict of the story. After all, the culprit in Persona 4 was the goddess Izanami, and the one behind the dark hour in Persona 3 was the goddess Nyx.

What if Hypnos was behind it all? The world in the house is based off of what the child (the antagonist mentioned in an earlier post) sees as his perfect world, and that itself is an illusion. Dreams, which are seen as illusions, are connected to sleep, in fact, so what if Morpheus was behind it as well? He is the brother (or son in other stories) of Hypnos, so it could make sense. The situation would be similar to Ameno-Sagiri and Izanami, who both used Adachi as a pawn. In this case, Morpheus and Hypnos would work together, and use the child as a pawn to carry out their plans.

And perhaps their plan would be to place the entire area under a peaceful slumber.
With the residents of the area asleep, they'd be held captive inside the house, and the boy would always have company.

Or maybe, it is their mind that is asleep. Their inner selves are trapped inside the house, while they remain an empty shell outside the house.

Their behavior outside the house could be classified as apathy syndrome, a term used in Persona 3. It could apply to this scenario, because the victims' will to live, their attachment to their lives and loved ones, their identity -- everything that makes them who they are -- are left behind in the house. The only thing that remains is the empty shell of who they once were. They would still be conscious of their existence and would still perhaps partake in their daily activities, but they would not be the same person "on the inside". People around them, such as a family, for example, would in such a situation, take notice of this person's changing personality. Perhaps they become more passive, more quiet, and less active. They may appear more distant to the people around them, who may in turn feel as if they are interacting with a stranger.

Perhaps instead of disappearances, the initial conflict could be an increasing amount of residents placed in a zombie-like state. Or maybe as it gets worse, disappearances do occur.

This led me to think a whole lot about the shadow selves, but it's so long that it needs its own entry. I'll save that for later.

But I would like to get on the topic of the Oneiroi. I don't know why... but it led me to believe that it was the world of dreams. I think that in the Odyssey, they are referred to as such, which does make sense, because the Oneiroi consists of all the manifestations of dreams (brothers of Hypnos). I don't know if I would like to use this as the world inside of the "house", now that I've given it some more thought, but I would still like to play around with the idea some more. Perhaps it could be a cult or something -- like in Persona 2.

I did come across another concept: Asphodel Meadows. It is the purgatory of Greek mythology. The world is neutral -- between Elysian Fields, which is equivalent to Heaven, and Tartarus, which is equivalent to Hell. It is where ordinary souls who have neither done good or bad rest. I thought it would be rather fitting, because in the Wikipedia article about the Asphodel Meadows, the people are described in a similar manner as the the people with apathy syndrome.

...while the people are neither good nor evil, so are their lives treated, as they mechanically perform their daily tasks. Other depictions have also stated that all residents drink from the river Lethe before entering the fields, thus losing their identities and becoming something similar to a machine.

This conflicts with the idea of the victims obtaining apathy syndrome outside of the house, but I still thought it would be an interesting idea to use. Persona 3 has Tartarus Tower, Persona 4 has Mayonaka TV, and this side story has Asphodel Meadows, in a sense.

But I won't get in too much detail with the world either. That will be saved for another post.

With all of that being said, it can be safe to say that this side story will potentially be revolved around Hypnos and his brothers/sons.

The only objection that I have to this is that Thanatos is his twin brother. However, Thanatos played somewhat of a minor role in Persona 3. From my understanding, he was the protagonist's persona, who mysteriously arrived at the beginning of the game. Later on, the player has to obtain Thanatos by reaching the maximum social link for Pharos. I think Thanatos simply served as a source of information -- that the protagonist had a portion of death sealed inside him.

Still... I like the idea of Phobeus and Morpheus used as personae. Maybe a character could play a vital role to the situation. Feedback would be most appreciated.

Also, this is unrelated, but I cannot believe I just watched a marathon of South Park. WTF.

Something New

So this is perhaps a step in the right direction.
I found a program that allows you to create visual novels, which is what I was aiming for in regards to presenting the story. If I can get the gist of how it works, then there will definitely be something to work with.

Also, this may not be clear, but I've figured out that a girl can possess the magician arcana. I'm not entirely sure if I mentioned this before, but the characters and their personalities are reflected by their personae and their respective arcana.

To make a long story short, I am now completely sure of my decision of giving the magician arcana to a female character. Although the tarot is symbolized by a male, there has been a female character wielding a persona under the magician arcana. She is Yuka Ayase from the first installment of the Persona series.

I will try to create some... concept art?

A Little Note About Personae

So this is probably a bit obvious, but in each game, the personae are related to one another, meaning that they are from the same sort of mythology.

In Persona 3, the personae came from Greek mythology.

You had Orpheus, Hermes... those folks. Even the boss was Nyx and Erebus, who are also from Greek mythology, if I'm not mistaken.

The same goes for the personae of Persona 4. All of which are from Japanese mythology. Ameno Sagiri and Izanami too...

So keeping this in mind... I think that it would be fitting to create personae and boss characters from one "source" of mythology. I'm leaning towards Norse mythology at the moment, but that might change.

That's all for now.

Some Changes Made to Chapter 3 and Other Notes...

This probably won't be as proffesional-looking as the others.

I came up with something else. Instead of there being a strange mirror in one of the rooms, there will be a hallway closet linking to the other world. Will there be some sort of symbolism behind it? Well, I suppose, but it really does inch towards a Persona 4 look-alike.

I was thinking...

The little boy, with the feeling of loneliness, would hide away in the hallway closet and pretend to be somewhere else - like a little kid playing doctor or something. He eventually came across the idea of another house. These thoughts became so detailed and in depth, that his dreams and ideas eventually came to life. There soon was another house inside the hallway closet - another world.

And then there, he saw his shadow, who convinced him to kidnap the residents in the area.

The hallway closet, I guess, sort of represents things that people store away and do not revisit - like an issue or something. But the world is something wonderful for the boy. He wouldn't want to hide it away... It's more of an escape, like the TV world in Persona 4. That's what I'm afraid of. How can we avoid this? Come up with a completely different plot? *shudders* Perhaps.

The conflict spawns from human grief.

So...

I wanted to tie in something about there not being any hope - like the theme or something. I was thinking it'd be appropriate, because, well... I thought it was neat when Nyx stated that had there been more people like S.E.E.S., then the fall could have been prevented. I thought, what if people did strive to be like the members of S.E.E.S.? It's almost as if the students in Persona 4 and the people influenced by the game's protagonist added on to the list of people who could prevent the fall. What if it spread to others? And maybe the theme could be something about not losing hope? Yeah.

Perhaps the boy loses hope on his past life and accepts the world he invents in the hallway closet. Maybe the closet doesn't have to represent anything at all. ha ha. Or maybe it represents the consequences of losing hope - giving in to despair. It's almost like a false sense of security. Dangit. And we get right back to the Persona 4 thing. It's like a merry-go-round.

Well, the real motive for kidnapping all of those people is to allow them to wallow in despair and hopefully engulf the area in some sort of... hopeless aura - the more people who wish for death, the better. In the long run, it could contribute to bringing about the fall. The child, on the other hand, believes that by kidnapping the people, he is really obtaining company for his perfect world.

This can be combated by hope...? Yeah? Because of the mind over matter thing. And taking the good with the bad... Life is a tough thing to handle and sometimes it takes that. Both Persona 3 and 4 revolve around the will live - applies to Persona 4 if you squint. I'm thoroughly ashamed for not having done my homework on the first two installments.

So when you get down to it, it's the will to live versus the hope lost on life.

I think our conflict is more defined now. At least for me. I'm sorry if this didn't make any sense. I typed this off of the top of my head. But perhaps I can eventually present it in a way that the audience can understand.

If this entry actually did make some sort of sense, I definitely wouldn't mind some feedback.

At this point, I don't know where to go from here. I might just move on to the characters.

Chapter 3 - Conflict Analysis (Section 2)

Okay. Long post is loooooong. I'm so sorry.

But what you have here is a bit of background information on the rumor of the house, what really happens, and the origin of the entire ordeal. At the end is a side note, I guess, on the current state of the little boy and perhaps his victims when they end up trapped in the house. I guess I'm trying to create what our heroes will end up fighting at the end.


So now that we've grasped the concept of "the evil behind the evil" (as explained in the previous chapter), it's time to do some brainstorming.

The house contains the evil. Let's start there.

The Rumor

The house gets the center of attention. It's rumored to be haunted since it had been abandoned for several years.

The urban myth consists of unsuspecting victims being lured into the house and killed. The original owners of the house seemed to had suddenly disappear without a trace years ago. This fact led people to believe that the ghosts of the previous owners reside in the house and are the ones killing off the victims.

Residents in the suburban area also believe that the rumor has connections to the recent cases of disappearances in the area. The reason:

The disappearances are recorded to have happened at night, around the hours of midnight and four AM. According to superstitions, the midnight hour is referred to as the witching hour, and the hour of three AM is referred to as the devil's hour. So naturally, people thought some stuff would go down. 8|

And if some stuff would go down, it might as well happen at that house, right? Gosh. The mentality of these people.

The Truth

In all actuality, the house is completely normal. It's what's inside the house that makes people believe it's haunted. In one of the rooms is a mirror, which turns into a portal starting at midnight and ending at four AM. The portal leads to another world, which is filled with monsters called shadows. They are dangerous when they come in contact with humans.

The Origin
Okay. The world's origin. It was created by the original owner of the house. It fed off the owner's feelings of anguish. I was thinking of a small child who had to deal with loneliness. The scenario is this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The kid and his family move into the house. He becomes lonely. It hurts him so much to the point that he spends his days staring into a mirror. One day, his reflection beckons him to the other side. To his surprise the little boy is able to pass through the mirror.

On the other side, he sees a nicer version of his house -- the way he had imagined it before he moved. According to his "reflection", the other side of the mirror is the boy's portrayal of his perfect world. The boy then points out that as nice as the other world is, he would still end up alone. The boy's reflection then resolves to help him find some friends to live in the new world.

And of course, that method is luring people into the house and trapping them there. lol.

Over time, the boy gave in to his reflection's lies, and in turn succumbed to the shadows. Falsely believing he was truly happy, the boy's feeling of anguish was never resolved and the world transformed into what everyone in the area knew as the haunted house.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Side note:

I actually don't know if I would consider the victims dead or not. If they die, then the little boy would not have company, right? Perhaps they would merge into shadows, like the kid.

Yeah. Merging with shadows sounds retarded, but it works. Trust me on this. In Persona 4, you have the option of accepting or rejecting your "shadow self". If you reject it, the shadow gets upset and tries to kill you. Hence the boss battles. If you accept it, you obtain your persona. Win.

However, there have been instances where people in the game have transformed into the monsters, instead of traditionally rejecting their other self and that other self transforming into the monster. Namatame and Adachi both transformed into a monster, but did not confront their "shadow selves". It can be confirmed that they merged with shadows to become these monsters (note how they both transform the same way in the cut scenes). And well... to do that you must accept your other self, I'm sure.

So to get back to the point, there are two ways to accept your "shadow self": positively and negatively.

When the characters of the game gained their personae, they accepted their other selves in a positive manner. They acknowledged their internal conflict as opposed to denying it. Once they were honest with themselves they learned to accept the good with the bad and well... accepted their other self.

I'm guessing that Namatame and Adachi merged with their shadow selves by accepting them negatively. They may not had denied their nagging feelings, but they agreed with their other selves. It's almost like they gave in.

It's kind of like the concept of mind over matter. If you agree with someone who says that you are unable to do something, you really won't be able to do whatever that something is. Then, that feeling of inferiority starts to eat away at you.

Namatame and Adachi gave in to whatever their shadow selves told them, or probably had such strong negative emotions that they merged with the shadows, which is made up of that stuff.

I'll make a separate chapter for the boy, since there's so much, because there are actually other examples from other installments in the Persona series that can be recycled.


Uh... The next section will revolve around the nature of the world inside the house. We'll get even more in depth.

Chapter 3 - Conflict Analysis (Section 1)

Because, well... there's always a culprit behind all of the mess. I don't really know if that makes sense, so here is an example:

In Persona 3, the heroes of the game were trying to get rid of Tartarus Tower and the dark hour, because it placed people in danger.

They later found out that the shadows inside the tower were planning to destroy the world. If I remember it correctly, the heroes believed that the combination of the twelve shadow arcana (these huge boss battle monsters), would create Nyx, who would descend upon the earth and destroy it.

So they go around winning boss battles in an attempt to prevent Nyx from showing up, when suddenly...
They figure out that it's actually the death of these things that creates Nyx and not their combined "powers".

So... they go and fight Nyx anyway. lol.

They do end up defeating Nyx. They seal her away, actually, because she's like this being that can't be defeated. She's sorta like a metaphor for death, which cannot be destroyed.

So... afterwards, the heroes figure out that it wasn't actually Nyx who would destroy the world. It's actually the combined efforts of her and some creepy looking fool named Erebus. Nyx is sealed away so Erebus won't come in contact with her. So, the main, main, MAIN objective was to destroy Erebus.

Recap:

Erebus was going to get with Nyx and destroy the world.

When scientists found out about this, which was explained in a prophecy, they accepted it and tried to create Nyx themselves. However, an accident happened and the nearly completed Nyx was broken in to twelve arcana.

In addition, this accident created the dark hour and Tartarus Tower.

Now, for the fall to happen, Nyx would have to be created by the twelve shadow arcana. To do this, they would have to be killed. The death of these shadows would free parts of Nyx, which combine into...well... her.

Lucky for them (Erebus and Nyx), a few misled teenagers killed these shadows in hopes of preventing the coming of Nyx and destroying the dark hour.

For these teenagers, the dark hour was not a desirable thing to possess. It terrorized their city and endangered the world. That was their motivation for killing the twelve shadow arcana.

Makes sense? There's an evil behind the evil.

Chapter 2 - Plot Development (Section 2)

I did consult some folks who actually played the game, and they seem to be okay with the plot, so I guess it's fine the way it is.

So to tie this all together:

Conflict: A series of disappearances in a suburban area.

Residents of the suburban area think that the disappearances are linked to an urban myth involving a deserted house. It's said that people are lured inside and killed at a certain time of night.

They are partially correct. The house isn't haunted, but strange occurrences do happen late at night, which endanger anyone who wonders inside the house.

A mirror located in one of the rooms of the house transforms into a portal at a certain time at night. It links to another world filled with monsters called shadows . If anyone is unfortunate enough to stumble into the world defenseless, they could have the potential of getting killed by the shadows.

This is the conflict, the enemy, where they reside, and the reason why our heroes have to fight off the enemy.

Next: Chapter 3 - Conflict Analysis (Section 1)