I made a thing. With some speculation notes.
edit: added a note that Vaddi and Kivik are obviously anagrams; with some speculation on what that means.
In the flashback Vikki says she'd make sure David and her would have a child. Something to read in to. Wilbur probably isn't royalty. If he was, he'd be part of the breeding program too I think.
edit2: added a few more tidbits. Noting Sven and Pep's color Scheme. And that Esperia visited Sven and Nola in their dreams.
There is a reference to Anne Rice books in the game. Kind of suggesting that Witch Hunters are Taltos, which are irl a type of Hungarian shaman. But something else in her books
Man I'm honestly so happy people have been having this much fun trying to work stuff out, can happily provide some confirmations here.
The 'Esperia having anne rice books' is just an offhand thing I didn't put much thought into.
Saxxis has zero involvement in the royal family, he was just an inventor / scientist that sought to improve the lives of everyday mammals, and is responsible for the vegetarianism most of the civilized mammals enjoy today. Reading into Esperia's journals can be very illuminating on stuff like this. His last name is just an ode to his palette, which looks quite cold, as it was based off of black ice.
I gotta give you props, Trisslebelle is indeed Tiramisa's mother and her royal family name, though Monkeus' lineage is unknown. it was kind of just a play on some of the old monickers people use to make for me based on my bizarre monkey alias. The Cookiedoe name comes from her mate, so he probably had a name like Hype or Speedy or something. It's likely Tiramisa let him name the child, as her goal was to make her newborn as unaware of her existence as possible.
David and Vikki are Nola's grandparents, while Kivik and Vaddi and her parents. David is an old friend of mine from Cambridge, and his sister is named Vikki. That's where those names and the "Worthington" name comes from. David Worthington is I think my second oldest internet friend.
Meribu and Eric were both cats in life, but when they ascended they chose Heldath, and became to possess new appearances. This isn't anything new, Esperia who was formerly a regular britishwoman is now a demoness, with pointy ears and a completel different appearance. In life she had black hair in a large braid and pale skin, the only striking similarity was her frigid blue eyes. Eric may have been one of Paulino or Janley's relatives, or the red eyes could just be because of his ascension.
Meribu's eye color is likely insignificant to Tiramisa because Tiramisa's devilish green eye color may be solely a manifestation of the devil-gene.
Naxon's cat in my mind at the time of writing that bio was a silly domestic one not unlike the ones we know. He is a character heavily inspired by Kel'thuzad- known for showing emotion when you kill his cat "Mr Bigglesworth". That's what that the reference was in short.
Wilbur is Kivik's bro. He is essentially a part of the royalty but the royalty's time had passed as it had for Kivik and Vaddi by the time they'd been born. Wilbur was indeed a witch hunter, which is probably why his corpse was but a puddle of blood, similar to the ones Esperia is known for leaving behind.
There's no crimson demon in the cookiedoe bloodline, Pep's eyes are red based on his devil gene, similarly, Sped's eyes are amber. We never see them because he'd lost them long before the events of the game.
The guard is just some nobody. Tiramisa's mate would have already been dead by the time of that meeting, as she was a month or so pregnant.
Pep, Xepp and Z'ppe (name not official, just what I could come up with.) are Pep's normal self, his devil gene and angel gene respectively. Pexepe is the culmination of his three minds cooperating as one, a cherubim.
Sven inherited the same genes as Pep, the reason he is a paler red is because he isn't quite as fond or obsessive about red cordial as his bro and father. The color of his coat is just one of the things i do with color theory, green means courtesy, while red means passion. Pep has a green jacket, too.
Kara's brother never met the union, their unnamed parents separated and took one kid each, one to continue the legacy of their parents, another to abandon it. Kara's sword was the one her brother wielded, it was given to Kara by him, saying she'd probably need it more where she was going. In some throwaway dialogue in Fantasia during an optional event, Kara mentions her cousin 'Mhi' which confuses Pep because he thinks Kara is saying 'me'.
Naxon is indeed from Nadine, in life he was one of the people who dwelled in Corr, an area never really visited in the game, similar to Moiyserr (kelp elves place), Shortirego (one of the several halfling outposts through the universe, it was evacuated and abandoned following the events of Menagerie), Suramar (extinct human kingdom that was decimated by the Beroshian bearman after humanity showed its ugly side to them), Elsenwood (High Elves nation, high elves in my games aren't particularly regal, they are just high all the time on hemp and other piecemeal leafy hallucinogenics.) and probably others I forgot. Corr had a race of weird dragon-like people who were mostly human but had dragon scales over different part of their bodies and other features like a thick dragon tail and sharp teeth. Naxon was among a sect of the Corr who practised dark magic and necromancy and accidentally opened a tear in reality, a blackhole which claimed him and the lives of several others. It's flow was halted by powerful magicks and was later disposed off by Naxon after his ascension, as a sort of 'paying back his people for their hospitality' kinda dealio. His cat was likely a variant of the Nagelkitty that were present in Evergrove, one of which even gave out a quest.
I found an old map of Nadine and marked out most of the locations.
Snowball isn't incredibly developed as a character so I dunno much about him, I suppose it's quite possible he was Naxon's cat, though that doesn't explain how he talks (all nouns, adjectives and even some verbs are replaced with food products or kitchen processes). It would certainly explain how he may be able to travel around the universe though. (Rolly and Pep are quite surprised to find him on post-apocalypse Nadine aka Hope when the last time they saw him was on Earth when they were stealing from his market.)
Galdath is indeed the progenitor of the angel gene in mortals, likewise it's confirmed on several counts that Seradath is responsible for the devil gene by "throwing lightning up a cat's ass" as he would say. This is as goofy and stupid as it sounds, he just shot a bolt of lightning through her to see what would happen.
Safael and Bubbles are unrelated, it's hard to find much info on it but it's revealed in Disk 2 of Fantasia that two of the Celestials of Zen Aneia were the originators of those powers. Nai: The Black Ocelot, is responsible for Witch Hunters. In a similar vain, Khaora: The White Tiger, is responsible for crimson demons.
Nai's existence is revealed in this video.
And I believe Khaora is mentioned in there somewhere, as well.
They are based on the four winds in chinese folklore. There's also Yaruri: The Azure Dragon (basically Yi) and Morzan is mentioned by Nanianne who states the following:
Nanianne said:
To the far south within the borders of Morzan lies the Shrine of Morzan herself. It may seem like we here have a tendency to say her name in vain but that's not really it. Celestials aren't vain creatures and are happy to become parts of our vernacular in whichever way we choose. Morzan has a fiery temper so we always swear to her because her rage means business!
In all likelihood, Morzan is an inflection of Wi Hellrider. Fiery Temper and lack of vanity being good leads, as well as that her color would be yellow, which is the color of Wi's eyes.
Tiramisa and Sped are purely devil-gene, while Svana and Svoli are purely Angel gene. Pep and Sven inherit both. There is no Crimson Demon or Witch Hunter in the Cookiedoe family.
Svana is not a witch hunter, her yellow eyes are due to the intensity of the angel gene within her. Svoli's aren't ever able to reach this stage because unlike Svana who like Tiramisa went under great training and unlocked the power at the source, Svoli was a late bloomer and died before she could become very strong.
It is a very common color for the eyes of an angel to become, similar to how demons often end up entertaining red. This is Svoli post-ascension so she no longer houses an angel gene, she actually just
is an angel at this point. However she doesn't have the yellow eyes shine through outside of extraordinary circumstances like in the video-- UNTIL she reveals the power she's been hiding.
She'd become a Serazen and had kept that little trump-card for when it was needed, and she had another even crazier trick up her sleeve.
As for why Esperia visited Nola and Sven in their dreams, there's a couple good reasons I can think of.
Keeping in mind, Esperia used to give Pep nightmares, too. Chances are no one in the family was spared, but it effected Sven because of the dormancy of his powers. Pep had an angel and devil gene to keep his dreams optimistic. Sped and Svoli were likewise, even though Svoli was not aware of it, she had used her angel gene powers in the past to revive Sped from the brink of death- so hers was awoken by the time Esperia had the mind to mess with her.
Nola's witch hunter power had not yet awakened, in fact they don't awaken until Act V: The Empress shortly before challenging Xepp. So Esperia had free lease to hassle her, as well. Nola made it difficult for her though, Esperia could only target her IF she knew her basic whereabouts. While in the heartwood Nola could sleep uninterrupted, and after Sped's death Nola never slept again until she spaded herself. Sven probably got some nice rest for that year in the heartwood as well.
That answers almost everything in the wall of conspiracy, beyond why Safael has cat ears.
That's just because his old design he looked very catlike, and his name was Safiercat, this was changed later to reflect the status quo of the origination council. (Unusual but easy to say names) The cat ears are merely an ode to his older self, though they also kinda foreshadow something.
You might notice the similarity, that Safael is the shaper of worlds while Nola's whole gimmick is "It's my world to protect."
At the end of Seraphim she becomes the next Earth Shaper or "Saharutiko" to replace Safael.
Concept by Risedemos
Alright! Now there's a couple more things outside the chart that I feel I should address~
The bit about Saxxis is stretching it. He's not technically "un"dead. But he has died, and Naxon revives him.
That's actually the definition of undeath. He can't ascend because his will is bound to Naxon's, however Naxon released his captive soul after learning of his defection, allowing him to take his own life, possibly feeling guilty over so thoroughly using him.
I was replaying Perseverance: Adherence last night. That was the VX Ace version, what I'd call the "pre-Clash" timeline. There's a lot of differences between it and the MV Full Clearance version. I personally think Adherence is a bit more coherent. Full Clearance added Kara and Tiramisa, and the whole Royal family. But it is also dropped a few details. Saxxis had a sympathetic character arc. In the promo material he's got the name "The Alchemist". I think that at least suggests some Chimera experiments. Maybe Gene splicing. The potential is there; even if it was never realized.
His character is sympathetic later in PFC as well, but you really have to look into things. He had always been in search of ways to better the lives of mammal-kind, between fixing the cannabalism problem, and searching for a limitless power source which is actually what led to the invasion of Heldath on earth in the first place. Like he says in PFC: The road to good intentions is paved with the bodies of the innocent. He just wanted to do science and Naxon promised him the ability to do so, and while he got what he wanted, he was always bitter about it later, which lead to his eventual decision to quit.
He never enjoyed immoral experiments, he always found them tacky and classless. His name of alchemist is literal, he makes a lot of alchemy happen. Doesn't mean he dabbles in bio-engineering, which is a very different field.
That's more M.F. Lazarus' shtick, the guy who created the halfbreeds and the Mountain Kangaroos (Tristy's breed.)
He's appearance changed a great deal between versions. His black and blue appearance gave him a dread appearance. And "the dread" was actually a curse placed on everyone by the monarchy. Were alchemy involved, I'd have to wonder if Saxxis could have been researching the dread and the monarchy.
I mentioned allusions to Anne Rice books before. The origin of vampires had to do with witches cursing Egyptian royalty. But because the elites were this cannibal cult, they figured out how to delude the curse by sharing their blood.
I watched Queen of the Damned recently too. Great movie. But not very informative lore wise.
We don't really know what goes on within Naxon's Cult, which Saxxis is the Archbishop of, but I'd be willing to bet it involves spreading the dread.
I should mention that I have never read Anne Rice's books, and the only reason I probably even know of them at all is courtesy of my mother.
His old black and blue appearance is where the bufudyne name comes from. Black Ice, which is still heavily portrayed in how his fur and eyes look.
He was effected by Archonite, the same stuff you see oodles of in the archonite caverns, and thats why you have other people with blue coloration as well. Heldath's influence is very corrupting and I'd wager while his mind has stayed mostly intact, his body isn't coping so well physically. The blue monkey was once one of the people who mined Archonite from those caverns.
Archonite, just to verify, is crystalized Archonfire, an element exclusive to Heldath. It is a fire so cold that it burns like frostbite, the majority of Esperia and Naxon's attacks are packed with this stuff. Saxxis doesn't like to rely on it, and his dependance on his inventions is probably why he hasn't lost his mind.
As for the Dread curse, there's not much information on that, we don't know if it was simply a vexation by one of the royalty or if it was simply a theory and the real reason dread pigs are is simply because exposure long term to a being like Naxon made them that way.
One thing is certain, those effected by it are no longer resembling of their prior selves outside of basic body types. Dread Thanes were once bulldogs, Dread Pigs were once just regular pig people, Dread swoopers (the impish creatures) were probably chickens or birds, Dreadcasters could be any number of mammal because the robes hide most of what they are.
Dread Summoners are similar to dread casters.
Dread Skeletons probably aren't worth thinking about.
The Dread Wasps which are never fought but seen in Esperia's legion in Act 1 are probably insects malformed by the curse or just who exposed themselves to too much archonfire.
Believe it or not many more dread enemies were suggested during a brain-storming session, there was a bunch of ideas that never made the release due to being overly ambitious.
Google spreadsheet with a bunch of stuff like that here!
Saxxis' position as Archbishop was an old fragment of the initial insurrection, Naxon got him to convert people from an abbey at St. Albans. He is actually found in an abbey in the very first playable version of the game which is no longer accessible to the public.
I detect a few Egyptian elements. Just small hints, that maybe aren't worth mentioning. But I love digging through old dev logs so I got to share this trailer with Yugioh music.
video
I have not considered using any Egyptian motifs within my fan story. Although I haven't really designed the final boss yet.
There is mild egyptian worldbuilding, most of it relays back to Naxon's third eye, the angular eyed sight. For some reason Naxon has a eye in the sky that slightly resembles the eye of horus, albeit without the same symbology. The triangle is similar to the ones very present in Fantasia- it's possible that when Naxon opened that rift he was visited by the demon with triangle eyes who bestowed him with that 'gift'.
That's merely conjecture though, I would have to think more about it.
It's more likely it has something to do with M.F. Lazarus. The big give away is that when Kara slashes it in two, the monitors in the secret jukebox basement of Splode lose power and the screens turn black. Given that lab is revealed in Fantasia to be a place where Saxxis and Lazarus meet, it's not unlikely the Angular-eyed sight was given to Naxon via Lazarus' deft hand. Being able to use it as a universe wide spyglass is similar to the function of the PYR4MID but much less interactive.
Been shaking off the caffeine withdrawals all week. I replayed Perseverance Full Clearance hoping it would give me some steam.
Got to admire Remi_Chan's attention to detail. There's story elements I didn't pick up on before in previous playthroughs.
Yeah there's a lot of hidden shit in a lot of my games. Menagerie and Intelligence are incredibly so for it, and Fantasia is quickly growing on the list.
I made another infograph thing for Fantasia. I'm really bad at remembering names. Remi_chan is nice enough to make informative dossiers or even information centers within the games. But it practically needs a wiki. I made a chart of Characters and their corresponding Ennui and DENUI/Archangels. I won't post it here since Fantasia is still in development. Some of what I know is outdated or misinterpreted, things I've grasped from dev notes here and there. And conversations we've had.
At the very least, it's an excuse to get my table out and open art programs. I've really fallen out of the habit of drawing and doing resource requests like I used to.
Well, I'd love to see it, so if you dm me on steam or discord I'd be down for discussing it.
I have begun making a wiki in the past only to realize it'd be so much work and I have better things to do. My hope is once i get popular enough someone will just do all the hardwork for me~
This has actually already started happening in a small degree.
https://rpgmaker.fandom.com/wiki/Perseverance:_Full_Clearance
at this point i have a pretty decent idea of the full plot of Fantasia.
ENNUI HOLDERS:
Lumi = Zen Naamah
Koko = Eisheth Zenunim
Lilac = Agrat bat Mahlat
Sacreblu = Lilith
M.F. Lazarus = Lucifrael
ARCHANGEL HOLDERS:
Disk 1
Pep = Chamuel the Wrathful
Svoli has no archangel, her DENUI is Cupid.
Kara = Michaella the Envious
Rolly = Barachielle the Gluttonous
Tristy = Gabrielle the Proud
Lyza has no archangel, her ENNUI is Saint Sophia.
Disk 2
Nola has no DENUI. Likely removed by Akra Olna.
Wizard has no DENUI, but rather is possessed by Wi Hellrider herself.
Limbo has no DENUI. Bubbles removed his long ago.
Tiramisa has no DENUI. She is being manipulated by her Devil Gene Xaramitsi.
Sacreblu = Eve the Originator. Not an Archangel, more like the mother of them.
Disk 3
Mad E. Lin has no DENUI.
Zardari = Raphael the Apathetic
Mira Crowspeaker has no DENUI.
Esperia = Azrael the Greedy
Fyori = Jopheline the Lustful
Although Mira doesn't have a direct DENUI, as she killed it herself during the plot of Crowfeast. The Sun God Ra is revealed to be a DENUI given form.
Mira and the whole world of Shale is basically where the Ancient Egyptians were moved to after Yi saw they were too intelligent to remain on Earth.
The Timeline of the Cosmos said:
5,000 BC: The Triangle is given weight.
Yi finds a group of people far beyond the rest of Earth in technology, and decides to make a long lasting civilization work in her image. The Egyptians see Yi as a malevolent but wise ruler, and do as she commands for fear of invoking her wrath. In mere years great feats were accomplished that made Stonehenge look like a cheap DIY project. Yi had made herself an empire. But this empire was too powerful for the slower developing Earth, so she relocated it elsewhere in space onto a Planet she would call Shale, and left two deities in charge, the Sun God Ra and his Consort Eset.
