Xenogears Headcanons

I'd like to start a thread for this because I see the one-sentence headcanon stuff on Tumblr and it usually brightens my day.

Headcanon: In an orchestra, Dominia plays the hammer.
(Inspired by this tumblr post - http://katimus.tumblr.com/post/112447209496)
(I kinda wanna trace this gif and put Dominia on the hammer guy, and Cherubina and Tolone on the trumpet and clarinet guys)

I have some headcanons to share but I also would enjoy it if we could do some group brainstorming about stuff we wonder about the game/story/world/characters but that don't have a canon explanation (or didn't have a chance to considering the Xenogears series was aborted... it's great that Perfect Works even exists).

So, headcanons (including stuff that contradicts PW/canon things) :

- Queen Mariel (Bart's mother) was a fiery woman with strong instincts (mostly ignored by her husband until it became too late) while King Edbart was a quiet and trusting man who was manipulated by his advisor, Shakhan. The queen didn't die from mere shock, as PW explains it (unless she was pregnant or something, I could buy shock creating complications and resulting in death). She was killed instead, trying to protect her son (which fits a certain major theme Xenogears seems to have going... mothers protecting their children).

- When Bart rescued Margie, it was the first time they saw/talked to each other face to face since the coup d'état. I just think it makes the reunion (+ considering the fact that Bart has a picture of him and Margie as kids in his room) more touching. It may also fix a plot hole regarding Bart's "cover". People aren't supposed to know who he is and the story in the game didn't portray that very well. It makes sense that Sister Agnes and Margie (and a few select Nisan leaders) know. But it seems that all Nisan knows instead. When you get to the mausoleum part and some Nisan folks are like "But, who are you, young lad?"... it is difficult to buy their surprise (unless they're very very forgetful... or dumb *because it's not like Sigurd and co even bothered to give Bart an alias or dye his hair or something*). So, there. I think it would have been better if Bart wasn't allowed to set foot in Nisan for secrecy sake (sending Sigurd as representative instead).

- Tolone is way older than her teammates and was part of the many experiments Krelian did to develop his machine/man fusion project (that Nikolai ended up helping with). She was saved from being scraped by Ramsus (of course).

- Yui worked as a teacher in the Lahan region. She resumed to work as one of the queen's agents in Shevat when she got back. She would have developped a mentor/protegee bond with Alice if she hasn't died. Her and Jesiah could have been guest characters for the Anima dungeons the game didn't get (that would have been cool, imo).

- Maria slowly became adopted within the Uzuki family. But she has a protegee/mentor bond with Queen Zephyr. She reunited with her grandfather at Taura's place (beginning of disk 2). Maria is a gifted mechanic (which would be no surprise considering her family). One who is still learning though.

- Claudia (Maria's mother) really is Siebzehn's brains/soul and mercy killed Nikolai/Achtzehn. The truth is revealed to Maria in Disk2 when comes the difficult choice to set her parent free (Anima Relic dungeon).

- Grahf/Lacan was put to death by Roni and his people. Roni's personality became somber and harsher as the events of Episode 4 happened. But he was strong enough to build the beginning of a kingdom, hoping the world/his people would see better days.

- Rene and Roni lived with their people in the desert (I didn't check PW so I don't know if it is specified... but I guess their community were victimized at the time). Their old mother was of great influence in their travelling community. She dies before Sophia and Krelian go back to Nisan (from old age maybe).

And talking about them... both Krelian and Sophia were influenced by the brothers to help make a difference (Krelian became the most devoted to god AND Sophia among them... while Sophia realized she couldn't let people be victims *imo, she was too sheltered and surrounded by power hungry people who killed others in order to get to her before that it's only when she met the brothers that she started to become stronger and fought to help people... it probably touched Krelian and made him admire her even more* and it gave her the courage to come back to Nisan and assume the burden of sacred duty).

I also think Sophia got along well with Rene... who I imagine to be the most cheerful/energetic of the brothers (Sophia/Rene would have a cheerful brother/sister like relationship). I think he's described in PW as cheerful, which is a good choice for a character that the author ends up killing (sadistic maybe but soooo efficient storywise... look at Hughes in FMA).

- The Black backstory. As people said in this gamefaq thread, there are oddities in canon.

My headcanon is that Black is Jessie's real name. Blanche is Joshua's (why didn't they pick "White" as a name by the way ? Why choose the french *and feminine* equivalent instead ? After all, "Joshua/Jesiah White" has a ring to it, not to mention it fits the cowboy american thing more than a french name... imo). Which makes it less odd that Billy is fine with his last name (indeed, why would he accept to change his last name considering the antagonistic relationship he has with his father when he comes back ?).

Also, the whole "Joshua gets killed and insist that Jessie gets plastic surgery to look like him for unknown reasons" is not only weird and vague, it reduces the emotional weight this story could have. So my headcanon is that BOTH Jessie and Joshua get horribly injured during a Solaris ambush. Someone saves them (could be a team member/collaborator of Jessie/Joshua, someone who would follow Jessie later on, as I think there is NO WAY Jessie didn't have a back up team to help fight against the Ethos). And then, barely conscious, Joshua decides to sacrifice himself to save his companion's life (I imagine Jessie got head/face injury, which would explain why he would need plastic surgery), knowing Jessie has more to live for than him (meaning Joshua probably lost a lot in his life and maybe saw a lot of himself in Jessie... I also think Joshua was probably older).

As for Racquel. Yes, she had a military training. I think she was wary of Stein/Stone (I get the feeling he kind of harassed her in the past, seeing how obsessive the guy was). It is explained in PW that she kept a gun to defend herself. And she used it when the Wels attacked. Of course, Xenogears had a lot of epicfail moments when it came to guns (first one being Elly in the forest... seriously). But even with training, I imagine being surprise attacked by a bunch of zombies could be fatal. I learned from zombie games that no one is safe, ahah. But yeah, no, there is no way Racquel pulled a Febronia (though this scene in Xenosaga 3 was a clear reference to what happened to Racquel in Xenogears, both involve a traumatized little girl, an altar and zombies *and boy, did that moment punched me in the feels, chapter 7 of Xenosaga 3 is one of my favorite part of a game ever, one of the most memorable moments*). She did fight back while trying to protect her children.

- Latina was a good friend of Rico. Rue Cohen could have been a minor villain when the party comes back to Nortune to get the ship.

- The Contact and Antitype may be soulmates but they are perfectly able to fall for other people (Alice for Fei... maybe Krelian for Sophia... a little bit). I like the beginning of Disk2. It is beautiful. But I don't buy the "I only ever loved that one woman/man". I also think they reincarnated many times. The game only told us about the relevant history changing incarnations. I also think everyone can reincarnate in the Xenogears universe (and I believe it is canon in Xenosaga). But only the Contact and Antitype can inherit memories from past lives (and under special conditions).

I'll complete this post later (it is getting late and I'm tired).

But here's a few silly questions that drives me crazy :

- Do you think Lahan had electricity or did they use fire to lit their houses ? Why is Fei painting in the basement ? Aka the worst place ever to paint.

- What is a Memory Cube for a lamb dweller ? A computer ? Why do they feel compelled to use them ? Solaris uses them to record data about the population (and know where the player/Fei actually is during the story). So they must expect the people to use them daily.

- Shouldn't Zeboim be filled with water when we visit it ? At least the city part ? Also, how does the Lighthouse, city and dig site connect to each other ? We know so little about the city. It's a shame. Care for some Bioshock inspired headcanons ?

Ohhh, I love these, RD!! I'll try to find time to respond to these in greater detail tomorrow!!

And apparently by tomorrow, I meant 2 days from then. >_< Sorry, I got dragged out of the house!

Anyway...

RadicalDreamer wrote:Queen Mariel (Bart's mother) was a fiery woman with strong instincts (mostly ignored by her husband until it became too late) while King Edbart was a quiet and trusting man who was manipulated by his advisor, Shakhan. The queen didn't die from mere shock, as PW explains it (unless she was pregnant or something, I could buy shock creating complications and resulting in death). She was killed instead, trying to protect her son (which fits a certain major theme Xenogears seems to have going... mothers protecting their children).

I love this one. Totes accepted. I think she would have been on to Shakhan. I think she would have never had anything against Edbart for the thing with Shalamar over the fact that Sigurd's conception happened before they met (but maybe not before they were betrothed). Had Shalimar lived, she may not have been as forgiving.

RadicalDreamer wrote:Tolone is way older than her teammates and was part of the many experiments Krelian did to develop his machine/man fusion project (that Nikolai ended up helping with). She was saved from being scraped by Ramsus (of course).

I like this one a lot, too! How old were you thinking she might have been? Older than all the ex-Elements, or around Citan/Sigurd's age?

RadicalDreamer wrote:Claudia (Maria's mother) really is Siebzehn's brains/soul and mercy killed Nikolai/Achtzehn. The truth is revealed to Maria in Disk2 when comes the difficult choice to set her parent free (Anima Relic dungeon).

I really like this one a lot, too! Man, if only Siebzehn's and Crescens' Anima Dungeons and mech designs made it into the final game...

RadicalDreamer wrote:The Contact and Antitype may be soulmates but they are perfectly able to fall for other people (Alice for Fei... maybe Krelian for Sophia... a little bit). I like the beginning of Disk2. It is beautiful. But I don't buy the "I only ever loved that one woman/man". I also think they reincarnated many times. The game only told us about the relevant history changing incarnations. I also think everyone can reincarnate in the Xenogears universe (and I believe it is canon in Xenosaga). But only the Contact and Antitype can inherit memories from past lives (and under special conditions).

Agree here. I also think it's a little farfetched that Fei and Elly would reincarnate with the same features and genders every time, too, but that could also be part of their connection to the Wave Existence. Elly being named Elly every time across culture gaps is also kinda farfetched.

I also really liked all your comments on Jesse and Raquel. Getting badly beaten is a much better explanation for getting reconstructive facial surgery than "lol I did it to honor my friend." I was reading an article about Mark Hamill's car accident and reconstructive surgery while watching Star Wars on May 3rd, and with all the dangerous stuff Jesse gets into, it's much more plausible for him to have needed it and just ended up not looking the same, even if the surgeon was dedicated to trying to make him look the same.

RadicalDreamer wrote:Do you think Lahan had electricity or did they use fire to lit their houses ? Why is Fei painting in the basement ? Aka the worst place ever to paint.

I think they had some kind of primitive electric generator. Lahan seems like it's too small to not have basic electricity. I think when Citan moved in, the small bit of electric power they had to run things got a lot more manageable, but I'm thinking of Lahan as a small colony of people who really just wanted to get away from the wars, but didn't want to live completely without electricity. I imagine most Lahanites being refugees from Nortune's ghettos that combined with peace-loving defectors from Aveh.

RadicalDreamer wrote:What is a Memory Cube for a lamb dweller ? A computer ? Why do they feel compelled to use them ? Solaris uses them to record data about the population (and know where the player/Fei actually is during the story). So they must expect the people to use them daily.

I haven't thought a whole lot about that. If they were computers, there would be a memory cube for every person in every town. The big Memory Cube in Razaiel makes me think they were just scattered everywhere by Emperor Cain and/or The Gazel back in the first era. It could be that the Memory Cubes are small extensions of of Deus' will and are slightly sentient, and could move to points of sympathetic energy around places that became more important during the course of history. (I haven't really thought about this TBH.)

RadicalDreamer wrote:Shouldn't Zeboim be filled with water when we visit it ? At least the city part ? Also, how does the Lighthouse, city and dig site connect to each other ? We know so little about the city. It's a shame. Care for some Bioshock inspired headcanons ?

I really would love to know much more about Zeboim. The parts I'm making up for my fic kinda place it fairly below the ocean floor, in kind of a very elaborate nuclear bomb shelter capacity. So much ancient stuff in Xenogears has survived in-tact, I'm surprised there isn't more of a complex above-ground where the Lighthouse is. Since I've never played Bioshock, I'm afraid I can't elaborate on any Rapture similarities, though they do seem similar. orz The expansiveness of Zeboim makes me think that these people had consigned themselves to nuclear disaster above-ground, so they made as much of a space as they could for themselves underground.

katimus_prime wrote:And apparently by tomorrow, I meant 2 days from then.  >_<  Sorry, I got dragged out of the house!

No worries. I understand perfectly   .

katimus_prime wrote:I like this one a lot, too!  How old were you thinking she might have been?  Older than all the ex-Elements, or around Citan/Sigurd's age?

Both is possible. Maybe she was a test subject before Nikolai started working (and improving) on the M Plan (that could make her older than all the ex-Elements). Or maybe Tolone was turned into a cyborg by Nikolai (working on a smaller body before trying bigger things like Gear/human fusion). If we imagine she was turned into a cyborg as a young adult or older (18 or above 20 years old), plus adding 13 years (knowing Nikolai was captured 13 years before the start of the game by Solaris... his first experiments probably happened during the first years, so I think Tolone became a cyborg AT LEAST 10 years before the start of the game). It would make her around 30 years old or slightly older (around the same as Jesiah maybe, who is the older member of the old Element).

Of course, it's my headcanon. There is the possibility Solaris used the body of Tolone when she was a child and turned it into an adult looking body. But I dunno... I prefer to imagine she's older.

katimus_prime wrote:Agree here.  I also think it's a little farfetched that Fei and Elly would reincarnate with the same features and genders every time, too, but that could also be part of their connection to the Wave Existence.  Elly being named Elly every time across culture gaps is also kinda farfetched.

 

The "same feature" thing used to bother me so much. But I came to accept it as a "Zohar/WE" thing. The Contact and Antitype are special people (and when it comes to gender... yeah... I think the Contact and Antitype were meant to be born and reborn as male and female, respectively... Elly in particular was given a mother persona after all *but hey, maybe there were a few different incarnations... look at Zeboim Miang... there were TWO of them at the same time... maybe unexpected stuff happened too with the Contact and Antitype*). And thinking of Sophia's portrait now... it actually amuses me because we DO see similar things in real life with old portraits looking EXACTLY like current people (hello Keenu Reeves). I thought the portrait was too obvious but I realized that life is weird anyway.

Still, when I do fanarts of the previous incarnations of the Contact and Antitype, I can't help but at least alter their hairstyle (I do wonder what kind of clothes Lacan would have as well... too bad Tanaka couldn't find the time to design a specific outfit for him). I like Kim with short hair better for example. Nurse Elly also has shorter hair than her other incarnations. Sophia has the longest hair, lighter (maybe it's because she lived in the desert for seven years... or maybe she was born like that) and curling at the tip. Lacan has longer hair than Kim... but not as long as Fei's. And current Elly has slightly shorter hair in my art than in the game (because such rapunzel hair is impractical in combat situation... and she ties them too when needed).

As for Elly's name staying the same... it still bothers me. I can accept the first Elly and the last to have the same name for symbolism (First and Last, Beginning and the End sort of thing lol). But the other incarnations ? I like them having different names given by their various parents. Sophia, for example. PW explains that "Sophia" isn't her real name but one given by the clergy. But I like it to be the name her parents gave her (she was born in a very religious family that was probably pretty engaged in those "games of holy throne"... so it would make sense that the parents would treat their girls as potential holy mothers from birth *I remember PW stating that Sophia had 2 sisters... I wonder if she ever saw them again btw*). Actually, it reinforces the idea that Sophia feels "trapped" in her life. It doesn't have to change the fact that the Contact/Lacan enjoys to call her Elly... and that it is the name she prefers as well.

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

So, I have other headcanons (with this game, it's easy to have many) but I realized I need more time to write them all down (and check some stuff in PW and the script). And it inspires me to do ambitious fan stuff I'm not sure I can do (damnit).

Some other headcanons :

- assuming a scenario where Marguerite is a party member, as it was first planned. I'd imagine she would ultimately get rather pissed at Shevat after Elly gets captured by Krelian and Zephyr tells the story of Sophia. Pissed because they would try to keep her protected at all cost and Margie, stubborn as she is (also, let's remember that her character motivation was to help Bart, not sit back), would say that the world needs to fight back instead of hiding. What would be interesting here is showing Marguerite and Bart cooperating (by sharing Andvari) in a way that Sophia and Lacan didn't back in the days. Showing that Marguerite isn't like Sophia and wants to live. It can also greatly influence Zephyr's character.

- Sigurd may be gay. That's more or less headcanon. I mean, it's not canon but Soraya Saga would probably agree judging by her doujins so...

- Ramsus killed his "host"'s parents (as they became scared of their changed son, which became a danger for Ramsus who feared to be discovered by the government for what he is) and passed it as an accident.

- About half of the Gazel Ministry were female (honestly, if Animus *human* = male and Anima *relic* = female... why could Sophia fuse with Dinah ? Why were Maria and Emeralda first planned to fuse with a relic ? Maybe because a few of the ministers were female as well ? Or because gender doesn't matter after all ?).

- Aquvy's population is Spaghetti Western inspired (well, it's kind of implied in canon with Billy, Prim and Jessie's designs... the orphanage too maybe), mostly gathered on islands and coasts. My headcanon of course is that there are more towns/people than what we are shown in the game. Of course, it applies to the other continents as well.

- talking about Billy. Stone/Stein didn't take Billy and Prim under his "protection" right away (but Billy is aware that there was a man in the house, firing at the wels *and finishing Racquel but he doesn't know this... Soraya Saga actually draw/wrote a moment like that where Stein talks down to a dying Racquel*). Maybe Billy and Prim run away from their home alone.

The thing that bothers me with Billy's backstory as explained in game is that... why would Billy decide to sell his body if Stein/Stone/the Ethos really took them under his protection right after their mother's death ? I know shady things (with children involved) happened within the Ethos, but I think it makes more sense that Billy had the "I almost sold my body" episode outside the Ethos. As Billy is supposed to believe the Ethos does good things for people. He looks up to the institution. I don't think he would look up to people who let him and his sister starve and/or introduced him to prostitution. Billy isn't supposed to know the terrible things the Ethos do behind the scenes.

So, I like the idea of him and Primera having a few rough years in town, on their own. Maybe in a shady orphanage. Or maybe they became part of a community of misfits. Think of an Oliver Twist sort of episode for them. In my headcanon, it allows Billy to meet a few genuinely good characters that may help him run his future orphanage. After the disastrous prostitution bit, maybe Billy steps into an Ethos church, has an epiphany and introduces himself to the Ethos. Then he meets Stone/Stein again, who passes himself as the man who tried to save them from the wels' attack, a few years ago (and who thinks maybe he can use those children, after all). After he joins the Ethos, he opens the orphanage in his old abandonned house (or a new one... either way, it is an old farm). And he orders the building of a cool garage for the Gear the Ethos gives Billy for his... work (Renmazuo, of course).

- Gears can fly but have limits to what they can do. So no, we wouldn't have been able to reach Shevat with them alone without losing power/fuel or overheating (which happened in Nortune when the party tried to save the city). The way Xenoblade X seems to handle mechs (which was inspired by Xenogears in particular... but now using better technology to do better in a bigger world) makes this theory even more plausible.

- Emeralda would have been Episode 6's main character. I like this idea because :

• main female protagonist is always welcomed
  

• daughter of the two most important protagonists of the previous episodes
  

• she has fun abilities (super-heroine worthy, really... she would fit so well in a fighting game)
  

• she was created as the hope for humanity. The hope Kim had about her was twisted by Krelian (same thing happened with MOMO in Xenosaga). Episode 6 could explore the hope thing differently (in a more positive and pro-active way for Emeralda).
  

• very long lifespan (which allows the story of Episode 6 to take place anytime you want in the future... possibly create angst for the character, à la Highlander)
  

• I always liked her (and her chara-design... and name, which reminds me of Captain Harlock) and would like to see her personality explored more, that's all.
  

- Despite Krelian's experiments, Cain is still immortal. He is physically altered and suffering (not that we can see it) but he still cannot die. He actually doesn't need life extension treatment (PW states that he does need it). Maybe he gets a treatment against pain but that's about it (though, considering Cain's guilt about Elhaym and humanity... he probably feels like the pain is deserved). Which gives Ramsus' existence and his manipulation a real purpose... instead of existing to kill a dude Krelian could have killed himself by stopping the life extension treatment. PW explains that Krelian couldn't kill Cain because of the ministry's power/influence. Except the Ministry wanted Cain dead at some point ? And it was apparently quite easy for Krelian to dispose of the Ministry in the end. What makes killing non-immortal-anymore Cain such an issue for Krelian, really ? Based on canon explanation, it makes Ramsus' character absolutely pointless. Even if there was a political reason to keep Cain alive for a while... I think it makes more sense that Cain didn't lose his immortality/protection at all. Hence a real need for an existence like Ramsus.

- Deus attacked the Eldridge when most civilians were sleeping. This is why Abel looks like he wears pajamas. I think his mother dragged him out of bed and they lost each other in the confusion. Previously locked doors became unlocked and that's how he could run into the Zohar room (or maybe Deus tricked him into this by opening certain doors, I don't know). When the WE suddenly made a connection with the boy, it picked the one thing Abel was searching for at the moment : his mother. There is the possibility that Elly looks totally like Abel's mother as a result (the WE had access to Abel's memories and everything, it was easy to physically recreate her).

- The gun in the Yggdrasil that Billy comments on ends up being offered to him, late in the game's story (could have been a nice final weapon obtained at the end of a sidequest developping the bond between Bart and Billy further).

- Bart didn't entirely disolve the monarchy during his speech. I thought it was a low blow in the game considering how much Sigurd and Maison fought to take back Aveh from Shakhan and raising Bart as the future king, without Bart EVER telling them about his father's will. Not that dissolving such a structure goes against the theme of the game. Actually, it supports it. But it felt too brutal (especially considering what happened to people in Disk2... at some point, I think Bledavik's population needed the guidance of Bart as much as Nisan needed hope with the Holy Mother). I think the Xenogears LP parodies kind of nailed the feeling. I do think Aveh ended up switching to a republic/democracy eventually... but not before the world returned to a somewhat normal state. As a king, I think Bart tried to give the people more freedom... and used more democratic means than the previous generations. Also, maybe Sigurd was elected Prime Minister several times (especially at first). In fact, I'm pretty much thinking about current England or Japan.

- there was a huge celebration in Bledavik after Bart returned/his speech (and before the party started searching for the gates in order to get to Solaris). Which allowed for nice/quiet character/relationship moments (one of them being the canon Sigurd/Bart moment at the balcony). I have a feeling that Elly felt a bit disconnected from the celebration (happy for them but quiet), knowing what would come next (insert Fei/Elly moment here).

- The second Yggdrasil actually DOESN'T look identical to the first one. It makes sense that they would look very similar but I think it's more fun to think they have differences here and there, like a few different rooms and stuff (pretty sure it wasn't done because they couldn't include a second homebase with different features in the game). I mean, differences beyond the fact one is a real submarine while the other is designed for a sea of sand (and this Shevat crest I don't remember seeing on the Yggdrasil 2 because the model of the ship wasn't altered at all *unless my memory sucks*).

- Talking about the second Yggdrasil, it was found docked in an underground cavern, on a lake leading to the sea (kind of reminds me of FF9's underground docks somewhat). I don't know what is canon anymore but I think it's Sigurd who knew about another royal ship kept hidden underground. So, the crew explored the caves until they found the place and the ship. I should re-read it but I think the fan novelization had a cool chapter about this unshown part of the game's story.

- Aveh's desert has a sea of sand, litteraly (somewhat similar to FF12's). The Yggdrasil (and other similar ships) can only dive/navigate on the sea area. Aveh's desert is large and not every area is safe to walk on (let's not talk about heavy machines/cars/Gears). Dazil was built on a safe area. As was Bledavik (in fact, it seems like it was built on an elevated rock with underground water) And of course, Aveh's desert formed itself on top of rock formations (caves). When Fei and Bart fell into a cave, it was because they fought on top a hidden hole and were sucked by the sand (thus, it was too late to fly off). There are various ways to explain why they couldn't fly through the hole once in the cave... I guess.

- remember how Bart had to swim all the way inside the waterway to the castle's reservoir ? Later in the story, he comes back with several men. I'd like to imagine that the waterway is larger than we saw and that it is possible to navigate with a small boat in it... except Citan forgot to mention it to Bart the first time. I imagine a funny scene involving Bart being outraged the second time they cross the waterway. Honestly, the concept of having Bart swim to the castle and probably looking like a drown grumpy rat until he reached Margie is kind of hilarious. But more hilarious is the idea that he could maybe have avoided this in the first place if he wasn't so reckless.

- talking about non serious moments... Margie totally knew Chu-Chu was alive and not a doll. She hid this fact during her escape with the boys. Also, when Fei and Bart found Chu-Chu blocking the way on the ship, I think they took her with them (still believing it's a doll) so that Bart could have a little chat with Margie. I mean, in the game, it's a bit ridiculous how they don't move Chu-Chu out of the way on their own. It's a little detail I guess.

EDIT : adding some questions here :

- Grahf in Lahan : was he on Kislev side or Solaris side here ? Did he accompagny Elly's team or was he the one chasing after her team ? Because it's clear that soldiers respected him enough to follow his orders and open fire on Timothy.

- Why did Citan build a house high on a mountain instead of living closer to Lahan as a doctor (aside the "he's a troll" joke) ? I have my own theory (and headcanon) but I'd like to hear someone's else opinion.

- Why do you think Bart, Sigurd (and Margie) waited so long to use/get Andvari ?

- also a question about when they get into the mausoleum. Did Margie seriously cracked open the coffin to look at her mother's corpse ? When I first played the game, I didn't think much about some details (because the story is huge) but really... this is extremely disturbing to think about now. And if Shakhan planned to use her mother's retinas, does that mean that Nisan preserved the corpses (using a freezing method or something) ?

- I was reading the game's script and :

PRIEST
Why does Jessie attack the 'Ethos' buildings? I heard he was once an amazing Etone...

WHAT ? Is that a mistranslation ? Or was this priest fed false information ?

- talking about awkwardly translated lines, I'd like to know if anyone knows what Citan is exactly saying here :

CITAN
"Is Timothy and Alice's wedding really tomorrow...
It might actually be better to live an ordinary life, in this condition... As a son of man..."

It's probably not too important but it's been bothering me a little.

- oh yeah, and lastly : What do you think about the music box Citan found ? And the message on the side ? I never could make sense of its origins because the angel statue seems like something from Sophia's era but the message is from a father to his daughter. For a long time, the fandom seemed to believe it was a gift from Kim to Emeralda. But now, I don't know anymore.

I owe some replies on this! I'll try to get to it during the week!!

- assuming a scenario where Marguerite is a party member, as it was first planned. I'd imagine she would ultimately get rather pissed at Shevat after Elly gets captured by Krelian and Zephyr tells the story of Sophia. Pissed because they would try to keep her protected at all cost and Margie, stubborn as she is (also, let's remember that her character motivation was to help Bart, not sit back), would say that the world needs to fight back instead of hiding. What would be interesting here is showing Marguerite and Bart cooperating (by sharing Andvari) in a way that Sophia and Lacan didn't back in the days. Showing that Marguerite isn't like Sophia and wants to live. It can also greatly influence Zephyr's character.

I think that's a very appropriate headcanon there. I imagine Margie would be fairly unseated by some of the things Sophia did/felt she had to do as Elly revealed them.

- Sigurd may be gay. That's more or less headcanon. I mean, it's not canon but Soraya Saga would probably agree judging by her doujins so...

I honestly have a hard time picturing Sigurd with any woman in canon. I would be sold on a well-written female fancharacter pairing with him, but yeah, even though I think there's a streak of bisexuality in him, if someone came out and said Sigurd was gay, I wouldn't be surprised (and I'd be impressed because canon gay characters in 90's rpgs are really rare).

- Ramsus killed his "host"'s parents (as they became scared of their changed son, which became a danger for Ramsus who feared to be discovered by the government for what he is) and passed it as an accident.

That seems pretty solid to me. My headcanon about Ramsus' altered appearance from Kahran Bekka was that Bekka was a lot less pale in the face and in the hair, and his eyes were blue instead of orange/amber, so Bekka's parents would have picked up the change immediately in him. Making it look like a horrific accident would have given Ramsus a more valid reason to rename himself after the fact, too, to separate himself from the trauma and circumvent applicable background checks.

- About half of the Gazel Ministry were female (honestly, if Animus *human* = male and Anima *relic* = female... why could Sophia fuse with Dinah ? Why were Maria and Emeralda first planned to fuse with a relic ? Maybe because a few of the ministers were female as well ? Or because gender doesn't matter after all ?).

I'm totally on board with this, too. This makes perfect sense to me. I do kinda wish that they had showed more female-looking members of the Gazel, though. Gender-neutral by design or not, all of the character art I've seen for them looks exclusively masculine.

- Aquvy's population is Spaghetti Western inspired (well, it's kind of implied in canon with Billy, Prim and Jessie's designs... the orphanage too maybe), mostly gathered on islands and coasts. My headcanon of course is that there are more towns/people than what we are shown in the game. Of course, it applies to the other continents as well.

I can definitely pick up on Aquvy's pioneer-looking population. I don't think of Westerns when I think of island scenery, but I think the frontiersman/woman outfit/lifestyle is pretty appropriate for them.

- talking about Billy. Stone/Stein didn't take Billy and Prim under his "protection" right away (but Billy is aware that there was a man in the house, firing at the wels *and finishing Racquel but he doesn't know this... Soraya Saga actually draw/wrote a moment like that where Stein talks down to a dying Racquel*). Maybe Billy and Prim run away from their home alone.

The thing that bothers me with Billy's backstory as explained in game is that... why would Billy decide to sell his body if Stein/Stone/the Ethos really took them under his protection right after their mother's death ? I know shady things (with children involved) happened within the Ethos, but I think it makes more sense that Billy had the "I almost sold my body" episode outside the Ethos. As Billy is supposed to believe the Ethos does good things for people. He looks up to the institution. I don't think he would look up to people who let him and his sister starve and/or introduced him to prostitution. Billy isn't supposed to know the terrible things the Ethos do behind the scenes.

So, I like the idea of him and Primera having a few rough years in town, on their own. Maybe in a shady orphanage. Or maybe they became part of a community of misfits. Think of an Oliver Twist sort of episode for them. In my headcanon, it allows Billy to meet a few genuinely good characters that may help him run his future orphanage. After the disastrous prostitution bit, maybe Billy steps into an Ethos church, has an epiphany and introduces himself to the Ethos. Then he meets Stone/Stein again, who passes himself as the man who tried to save them from the wels' attack, a few years ago (and who thinks maybe he can use those children, after all). After he joins the Ethos, he opens the orphanage in his old abandonned house (or a new one... either way, it is an old farm). And he orders the building of a cool garage for the Gear the Ethos gives Billy for his... work (Renmazuo, of course).

I agree that I don't think Stein would have gone so far as knowingly let Billy become a prostitute while supposedly under his protection, since half of Stein's plan of revenge against Jesse is to completely turn his children against him. That makes a lot of sense to me.

- Gears can fly but have limits to what they can do. So no, we wouldn't have been able to reach Shevat with them alone without losing power/fuel or overheating (which happened in Nortune when the party tried to save the city). The way Xenoblade X seems to handle mechs (which was inspired by Xenogears in particular... but now using better technology to do better in a bigger world) makes this theory even more plausible.

I agree with the super-high altitude parts, as in, after a certain point, no Gear would be able to reach Solaris or Shevat by themselves going upwards, so there would be legitimate need for carrier ships and ascending Babel Tower in order to get to Shevat. A lot of my favorite fight sequences in Gears are aerial fights (see Vendetta versus Weltall at the end of Disc 1) but they're still possible even with limited flight capacity.

- Emeralda would have been Episode 6's main character. I like this idea because :

main female protagonist is always welcomed
daughter of the two most important protagonists of the previous episodes
she has fun abilities (super-heroine worthy, really... she would fit so well in a fighting game)

she was created as the hope for humanity. The hope Kim had about her was twisted by Krelian (same thing happened with MOMO in Xenosaga). Episode 6 could explore the hope thing differently (in a more positive and pro-active way for Emeralda).

very long lifespan (which allows the story of Episode 6 to take place anytime you want in the future... possibly create angst for the character, à la Highlander)

I always liked her (and her chara-design... and name, which reminds me of Captain Harlock) and would like to see her personality explored more, that's all.

I think that'd be a really neat avenue to take. I have a hard time glomming immediately onto main characters, but I can see a lot of things being able to come off of Emeralda's story that I could get into.

- Despite Krelian's experiments, Cain is still immortal. He is physically altered and suffering (not that we can see it) but he still cannot die. He actually doesn't need life extension treatment (PW states that he does need it). Maybe he gets a treatment against pain but that's about it (though, considering Cain's guilt about Elhaym and humanity... he probably feels like the pain is deserved). Which gives Ramsus' existence and his manipulation a real purpose... instead of existing to kill a dude Krelian could have killed himself by stopping the life extension treatment. PW explains that Krelian couldn't kill Cain because of the ministry's power/influence. Except the Ministry wanted Cain dead at some point ? And it was apparently quite easy for Krelian to dispose of the Ministry in the end. What makes killing non-immortal-anymore Cain such an issue for Krelian, really ? Based on canon explanation, it makes Ramsus' character absolutely pointless. Even if there was a political reason to keep Cain alive for a while... I think it makes more sense that Cain didn't lose his immortality/protection at all. Hence a real need for an existence like Ramsus.

I'm sold on this 100%

My lunch is over so I'll have to attend to the rest later. ;_;

My lunch keeps getting cut short, so I'll reply on these because I have time for them:

- Grahf in Lahan : was he on Kislev side or Solaris side here ? Did he accompagny Elly's team or was he the one chasing after her team ? Because it's clear that soldiers respected him enough to follow his orders and open fire on Timothy.

Since the gears that appeared to fire on Timothy in the in-game scene looked to be of Kislev make, I always assumed Grahf had infiltrated Kislev's military somehow.

- Why did Citan build a house high on a mountain instead of living closer to Lahan as a doctor (aside the "he's a troll" joke) ? I have my own theory (and headcanon) but I'd like to hear someone's else opinion.

I think as an aesthetic choice, it was very similar to how Nikola Tesla lived, but I have a headcanon that when they first came to Lahan, Citan and Yui lived with the rest of the town for a time until Citan started tinkering with junk so much that the town kind of advocated that he relocate to the pre-existing house on the hill that maybe used to belong to a recluse or village leader. Citan is still a dick for being a doctor on the top of a hill, though. He should have at least had some kind of office or house within the village while on the clock.

- Why do you think Bart, Sigurd (and Margie) waited so long to use/get Andvari ?

Considering the whirlwind of events that occurred in succession, I think the earliest they could have retrieved it was when they first got back to Nisan, but to upgrade Bart that early in the game would have unbalanced it. I'm willing to believe that since it was close to/near the crypt, there was kind of a taboo not to go down after it out of respect for the dead, which wasn't compromised until Shakhan invaded.

- also a question about when they get into the mausoleum. Did Margie seriously cracked open the coffin to look at her mother's corpse ? When I first played the game, I didn't think much about some details (because the story is huge) but really... this is extremely disturbing to think about now. And if Shakhan planned to use her mother's retinas, does that mean that Nisan preserved the corpses (using a freezing method or something) ?

Depending on how long Margie's mother had been dead, I think her eyes might have still been physically in-tact. In a desperate situation that she had to know, I think Margie had the guts to swallow her fear to make sure Shakhan hadn't desecrated her corpse. Margie seems to have to grin and bear a lot of heavy crap (see also, her poker face when Ramsus tries to convince her he and Miang have 1/2 of the Fatima Jasper already), so this situation just seemed like another one of those to me.

I'm writing for my fancomic (doing what I can while I'm feeling a bit better) and I was wondering something.
In Perfect Works, there is a very helpful calendar that indicates every past events. So, the year Fei was brought to Lahan was 9996. The problem I have with using this date is that the Church/Ethos is supposed to be hiding/falsifying history. What do you think would be the calendar given to the land dwellers ?
But then again, I'm using the narrator voice so maybe using the correct date is good (unless I make the narrator one of the characters, who would be used to their calendar... a bit like we're used to ours... it's not exactly 2015 after all... it's only so because of Jesus). But still, I think the reader, like the player in the game, isn't supposed to know the story's secrets at first. BUT THEN AGAIN, if we consider that the game was Episode 5 and people had played the previous episodes, then the player would know the truth about the world's true history.

Another question that I don't think the PW or the game has an answer for : How many days there is in one year on the Xenogears planet ? How much hours there are in one day ?
And what about seasons ? Looking at the map though, PW explains that Ignis (Ignas in the game) is mostly hot during the day while really cold during the night... but the Kislev area is more moderate (meaning, it does have noticeable seasons).

Also, I just realized that it must be rather cold on Shevat. But I guess they just found a way not to freeze to death.

Another note. Each continent has a name based on the elements :
- Ignis = Fire.
- Terran = Earth.
- Aquvy = Water.
But the last one (the one with Taura's house and Elru) is unnamed. I bet everything I have that it's something like "Ventus" for "Wind", ahah.

Now, based on the map and info from PW, I'd say that :

- Ignis (North-East) : the south is a desert area so it is the hottest. However, the weather is nicer near the sea. Somehow, Lahan and the Blackmoon Forest seems to have a nicer weather... so I guess they benefit from being that close to Kislev. And like I said, Kislev has a moderate weather (like Nisan)... and I guess the higher you get, the colder it gets.
- Terran (North-West) : PW call it the harshest area of the world. It also says that it is the continent that is the most affected by the sea and its cold currents (so I guess the weather is mostly cold). And it is populated by hunters and wanderers of various lifestyles (I guess they're mostly nomadic people though)... who we never come across in the game. This is the continent where Deus is to be found at the end of the game.
- Aquvy (South-West) : so, this is a large group of islands, kind of like the Philippines. Hence the association with water. Seems like a moderate area but a bit messed up by the past nuclear problems. So maybe it is hotter than normal (nuclear winter is supposed to make the temperature drop significantly... but after 4000 years, what would happen ? From what I read, it's possible temperatures would be higher than normal once the nuclear winter is over... I'm no expert though). Also, it seems like the south of Aquvy is really cold (Shevat crash site... aka snow everywhere). Kind of the south pole of the Xenogears planet.
- Ventus (let's go with this... and South-East) : not much is said but I guess that it is a good place to live and grow vegetables and the likes. Though, based on the name and all the green forests, maybe the weather is a bit too rainy/windy.

Hey RD! I'm really sorry to hear that you haven't been feeling well lately. :< I hope you're able to get set on a path to getting better soon. Maybe working on this project will keep your mind focused and help get better?

As for the calendar year of the common people, if the Nisan faith is the most widespread, it was established 911 years ago if it's actually the year 9,999. I think that might be a good starting point. PW doesn't offer any specific information on any dates between 9080 and 6086. But if Ethos faith is involved, they might go by a date that was established closer to the time Solaris was founded (835 years prior to the start of the game).

I think having a year recognized by the people is a good thing to have, and only reference the fact that it's actually 9996 in gigantic, overarching narrations or plot points? And yeah, it's 2015 CE to us, but it's 3102 by the Hindu calendar, 1436 by the Muslim calendar, and 5776 by the Hebrew calendar. What year it *actually* is anyone's guess. (I spent a bunch of time trying to look up different ancient calendars, but wikipedia currently thinks humans as a species have been the same for 200,000 years and socially civilized for 50,000.)

Looking through, there doesn't seem to be any information on the length of the day or year, but people do seem to look the age they're described as, so I didn't really give it much thought. I imagine it can't be exactly the same as Earth's, because it's not Earth, but if I were to smudge something, I'd say the year might be 375 days instead of 365 and maybe the days are slightly shorter? A lot of timestamps on clocks and things in-game seem to use hour/minute/second, so I'm willing to believe the original calendar system may have been maintained up through the end of the Zeboim Era if Cain passed it down to the original generation of people birthed from Kadomony. Nothing's on metric time or month. I think from a dev perspective, reordering the configuration of time might have been a bit too much for them to do, worldbuilding-wise.

I don't know too much about weather stuff, but having each continent be indicative of its element is nifty! The continent Elru is on is mostly just grass and trees, but I was thinking maybe the grassy parts of it might be like some kind of sahara grassland? Taura's house is surrounded by a very deep jungle, so perhaps it might be a deeper denser woods than the Blackmoon Forest.

katimus_prime wrote:Hey RD!  I'm really sorry to hear that you haven't been feeling well lately.  :<  I hope you're able to get set on a path to getting better soon.  Maybe working on this project will keep your mind focused and help get better?

Thanks ! Yeah, I'm trying to get my mind off my anxiety problems (problems that turn me into a hypochondriac person at times... that's anxiety for you... it makes you think there is something more to it at each new symptom or because it won't go away or because you fear the consequences on certain organs) with different methods and creating/drawing/writing is one of them. But I also much avoid frustration (any project brings some and Xenogears is big and complex... and I want to do something I *and possibly other fans* would be happy with so this project is kind of challenging) so I'm being careful.

katimus_prime wrote:As for the calendar year of the common people, if the Nisan faith is the most widespread, it was established 911 years ago if it's actually the year 9,999.  I think that might be a good starting point.  PW doesn't offer any specific information on any dates between 9080 and 6086.  But if Ethos faith is involved, they might go by a date that was established closer to the time Solaris was founded (835 years prior to the start of the game).

Yeah, either a Nisan or Ethos calendar would be good. I'm leaning towards the Ethos because of Solaris and their world domination thing. I guess Nisan has its own calendar though. Either based on when Sophia reformed the sect or died (like Jesus did with judaism --> christianity in a way) or when Adorielle founded it (PW says that "the birth of the Nisan sect can be traced from almost 900 years ago to the present" and that "the Nisan sect founded by Adorielle was a stronger first rate religion throughout the world than in the present day"... indicating that the current Nisan religion is weaker... also, PW says this : "Nisan, having gathered people to their monasteries through missionaries, does not have a national organization with the machinery of government. This is the fundamental difference between them and Solaris' Church." ... so imo, it indicates that the Ethos is more popular *perfect to control the worldwide population* while Nisan is more low key... maybe it explains why Billy was ignorant about it... unless it was simply Stein/Stone limiting his knowledge). But considering how little the sisters knew about Sophia in the game, I have the feeling Solaris hid some of Nisan's history. So I don't think people remember Adorielle. So I guess a calendar based on Sophia's sect reforming or death would be the most probable.

katimus_prime wrote:Looking through, there doesn't seem to be any information on the length of the day or year, but people do seem to look the age they're described as, so I didn't really give it much thought.  I imagine it can't be exactly the same as Earth's, because it's not Earth, but if I were to smudge something, I'd say the year might be 375 days instead of 365 and maybe the days are slightly shorter?  A lot of timestamps on clocks and things in-game seem to use hour/minute/second, so I'm willing to believe the original calendar system may have been maintained up through the end of the Zeboim Era if Cain passed it down to the original generation of people birthed from Kadomony.  Nothing's on metric time or month.   I think from a dev perspective, reordering the configuration of time might have been a bit too much for them to do, worldbuilding-wise.

I was asking myself those questions because, well... in the game, they actually bothered to make up units of measurement. But it's a bit hard to figure out this thing. I'm doing some researchs but I'm no scientist. There are two pages in PW dedicated to the planet's locations and altitude but it's not enough to figure out the differences between earth and the Xenogears planet. I was under the impression that the Xenogears' planet is smaller than Earth actually. Maybe it doesn't mean anything but there is quote from the game that refers to the planet as "tiny" (Kim said this : "What's the purpose of fighting each other on such a tiny planet as this?"). Also, the moon seems bigger than ours (and always red/orange). Of course, there has been phenomenons where our moon seemed bigger but it's rare (and means trouble for people living near the sea, since the closer the moon is, the stronger the currents are).

Talking about units and stuff by the way... What do you think "G" stands for in the world of Xenogears ? Is it a reference to the Final Fantasy "Gil" currency ? And while I understand why there is usually one and only one currency in jRPGs and games in general (for conveniance), do you think a non video game version of Xenogears would change the currancy according to the various countries ? What do you think they would be ? Would "G" be the "dollar" equivalent (the present dominant currancy in the world) ?

Also, what do you think the Xenogears planet is called ? It was never given a specific name. Maybe they (the people living on it) simply refer it as "Earth"... even if it isn't. Maybe for Deus/Miang/Cain/the Gazel, it's "New Earth" or something like that. A temporary earth-like planet with simili-humans to grow until Deus can return to the real Earth.

katimus_prime wrote:I don't know too much about weather stuff, but having each continent be indicative of its element is nifty!  The continent Elru is on is mostly just grass and trees, but I was thinking maybe the grassy parts of it might be like some kind of sahara grassland?  Taura's house is surrounded by a very deep jungle, so perhaps it might be a deeper denser woods than the Blackmoon Forest.

Yep. Besides, PW indicates that Solaris has Fire, Water and Earth divisions... each assigned to Ignas, Aquvy and Terran respectively. There used to be a Wind division but it was "destroyed" when Elru got torched by id.
I also think it's kind of clever that 2 (and maybe more) huge wars happened on the Fire continent (don't know if it was done on purpose or not... but I like it).

EDIT :

At the moment, I'm working on character naming headcanons. Some characters in the game I want to give a first or last name they didn't get in canon. Like Alice, Timothy, Chief Lee, etc (kind of like Zack from FF7 who got his last name years after the original game in the compilation, can be weird but I ended up accepting the "Fair" last name)...
Well, I don't know what you'll think about those but here what's I came up with :

Alice and Dan : Lernberg or Lamberg (the second one is almost a pun). It means : compassionate, idealistic, generous, passionate, altruistic, resourceful, egotistical and fragile. And I liked it for sounding "jewish" in opposition with Elly's germanic "Van Houten". Plus, it doesn't sound too bad to me.

Their mother and father : I got Lisa for the mother. It's a form of Elizabeth. Comes from the hebrew name "Elisheba" and means "god is satisfaction". It also close to Lily, as in the flower (and Xenogears likes the flower imagery with the female characters). I throught about Lily for a while... but that's also probably because I've been reading the entire Harry Potter series not so long ago. For the father, I'm still unsure. The backstory I'm imagining for Alice and Dan's parents is that they were spiritual/healer people and that they both travelled the world together to help out victims of the war (and discover other cultures/religions along the way). And they got killed for it (maybe Solaris kidnapped them, we never know). It's not unlike what happened to Winry's parents in FMA. So Lahan's villagers saw this as a bad sign and reinforced their old traditional values. Then, Alice and Dan were raised by their aunt, in a way she considers fitting to Lahan's traditions while their favorite uncle (their father's brother) is doing a time consuming job (I made him the delivery man of the village).

Their aunt and uncle : I got Annie for the aunt. It came just like this when I was writing a scene between Lee and the aunt and I got attached to it. Annie sounds similar to "nanny" and it goes well for what she does for her niece and nephew. Also, in hebrew, Hannah means "favor" or "grace" and was an infertile woman given children by gods. I think it kind of works, considering Alice and Dan don't seem to have cousins and were adopted by their aunt and uncle. Also, I see Alice's aunt as pretty teacher-like, the strict lady who cares a great deal about proper education. But she has a good heart, cares for people's well being and serves as the current healer of the village (until Citan arrives). Since I plan to create a close relationship between Alice and Yui, I think it will also affect Annie's character (how would you react if the girl you raised like your own daughter started to get attached to a stranger who may remind her of her dead mom ?). For the uncle, I wanted a name that means "messenger" since he delivers letters. Maybe "Boden". In old french, it means "he who delivers the news" and in celtic, it means "shelter".

Chief Lee : Angus. While looking at what "Lee" means, turns out it's more european than asian. At least, the european etymology fits the character more (Lee means shelter/protection in old english). Angus means "one choice" in Irish. The name is Anglicized from the Gaelic forms Aonghus or Aonghas. In Celtic mythology, Aonghus was a god of love and youth. And I think it goes well with the chief, who, despite his age and position, can show a pretty youthful and frivolous side, judging on the few lines he had in the game. A lot of kings apparently wore this name so it goes well for the authority figure of Lahan.

Timothy's mother and father : for his dad, I've got George/Georg/Jorg/e. It means "farming man" in Greek. Timothy means "one who honors god" in Greek so I wanted to keep going with the greek etymology with his dad (besides, St Timothy's father WAS greek). For his mother, I picked Eunice... which was the mother of Saint Timothy. They're not too important (just friends to Alice's family and... well... farmers obviously) but I wanted them to have names. For a last name, I found Luker. At first, I had "Herdsman", which means "one employed in tending a herd of cattle". To be honest, I still consider it, ahah (it goes better with the name Timothy). I just through "Luker" (which means about the same as "herdsman") could be a fun StarWars joke.

And now, I'm realizing what I did by naming Timothy "herdsman" and Alice "Lamberg". Timothy being given Alice for a wife. The shepherd owning the lamb. But the shepherd is killed while the lamb escape her fate (well, in my comic, Alice lives). I didn't even do this on purpose. But it goes well with the bigger lamb/shepherd theme of the story.

That's all for now. What do you think ?

RadicalDreamer wrote:
- Grahf/Lacan was put to death by Roni and his people. Roni's personality became somber and harsher as the events of Episode 4 happened. But he was strong enough to build the beginning of a kingdom, hoping the world/his people would see better days.

This is pretty much what the game says and PW really did the story a disservice by "clarifying."

I agree with this headcanon.

Now mine...


Krelian is justifiably remembered by what remains of humanity as the worst scum ever, a figure even more feared and detested than Grahf.

Abel made Contact on the Eldridge. Most people think this any way as it's how the game presents it. It's more believable that a boy could wander into a room during a mass evacuation and panic than he could walk up to the ultimate source of power in the universe during a perfectly routine experiment on some random planet.

This was something I read in a fanfic but I liked it. Miang helped Lacan learn how to possess bodies. Granted, Miang's body swaps are entirely different from Grahf's but you gotta figure Lacan, unstable as he was, overcome by power and bitterness, can't just magically figure out everything on his own. He would need some help or tutelage at this point.

The old civilization that created Deus wiped itself out in war. It's thee only justification for why they never  came looking for the most powerful things in existence.