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.