Yeah, but I'm more conflicted because I'm a Christian (from this world), as that is a parody of my faith.

Anyway, no biggie, I'm not holding it against you.

Xamusel said:

One of the players in my campaign is a Christian as well. She plays a Saint, and the version of the religion in Anima has been challenging to say the least. She studies it to use for what it is. As such, she's just trying to be a good Christian under a completely different lore, and doing an amazingly good job of it.

Hmm... what do ya know? I guess that I'm really not the only one then.

By the way, how much of the lore have you studied so far, anyway? I'd like to know what I can from reading the lore, but it would be fun to see what others have come up with for theories, anyway.

I have read the lore in the GMs rulebook, GMs Toolkit, and have been working on assimilating the contents of the Gaia book. However we are at a disadvantage being English, as we lack 3 books which contain not only rules, but tons of lore scattered throughout ( Dominus Exxet , Arcana Exxet , and They Walked Among Us ). I've noticed that many pieces of info are widely distributed throughout this material, and you have to have read all of it very closely to form an accurate picture. That is where I'm at with materials, so my theories are not that well-informed. However, I'm ok with developing my own version of an Anima Campaign, and if it has to diverge on certain factors of history or content, then so be it. We may never see all these books in English, so I'm not going to wait forever.

As far as actual speculation - follow this thread. Elric of Melnibone is probably the most educated on these subjects, as he is able to read the Spanish versions of these books and has ideas of his own, which hopefully he will share here.

Okay, I may as well follow the thread, hellgeist.

By the way, any ideas on fan stories being allowed?

TO XAMUSEL:

I understand your "scorn" as Christian, but you should also try consider things on the following optic:

Deities from other religions have been used (frequently) in fantasy setting...and as "parodies" (I prefer to say "variations") of the originals, of course. The Norrene gods, for instance, have been used here and again (in profundly altered forms) in various game/comix/anime/stuff. Simply put, the Anima world is a world entirely different from ours...a different dimension where names and deities are different and Christianity is something entirely different from christianity in our world, just like the cult of Tyr in the Forgotten Realms has NOTHING to do with Tyr's cult in OUR world (and yes there are still a few believers in the old norrene religion in Europe and the fact that they're few doesn't make their religion less "real" than anyone else). The same goes with Druids. Druids in OUR world (and beware, they STILL exist as a recognized cult), have nothing to share with Druids from the D&D rulebook or with the Lilium religion in Anima (which is the "Druidic-like faith"). Anima also has an altered version of Japanese Shintoism which is practiced in Vayra called Shukyokami, an altered version of the Norrene faith (practiced in Hauffman/Hendel/Goldar) called Aityr and an altered version of Zoroastrism (practiced by very few) called Oposium. Probably someone more expert on religions might reconnize similarities between other religions in the Anima settings and religions from our world. The world of Anima is a complex one, with many religions and some of them have names and aspects that resemble the religions from our world BUT they're not OUR world religions nor do they pretend to be so. There are guys called Mathew and girls called Elisabeth both in our world and in Anima world. It doesn't mean that Mathews and Elisabeths in Anima world are a "parody" of Mathews or Elisabeths in OUR world.

No offense mean, really, it's just to offer you a different point of view.

TO HELLGEIST:

We have a serious problems with timelines and other stuff in your interpretation.

Rah isn't Iscariot's son, which was Amon...he's his grandson...but that's absolutely inconsequential.

Now, getting to the real problems with your theory:

First, I suppose you don't own the Gaia sourcebook, otherwise you'd surely know what Rah's machine was built for...

you're confunding the two greatest wars in Gaia's history. The war made by Rah against all the world was called: The War of God. The War after which the Machine appeared (they initially thought it was a sort of epidemy transmutating people) is the War of Darkness. It was the war made by the Duk'Zarist led by Ghestalt Noah Orbatos against ALL other Races on the face of Gaia. It was way before the birth of Abel, right before the Era of Chaos, before Yehudah or Solomon Empires were born.

The Machine was stopped by intervention of unknown forces (supposedly Imperium+Technocracy+Illuminati, since the menace was sufficient to have them team-up) and the 5 Mothers were somehow shut-down (they're right now considered absolutely indestructible), but sometimes during history some of the Mothers have woken for brief times bringing about problems. Actually, after the activation of Rah's Machine it's more probable that the Mothers awake simply because of the Magic Syphon, since Magic is their nemesis (being completely mechanical entities, they simply cannot conceive it...).

The birth of The Machine remains a big bad mistery...building it would have required a technology like that of the powers in the shadows, but for them it seems it's unconvenient, although it might have been some "faulty weapon" which somehow turned against its creators. Otherwise, the Machine might be some ABSOLUTELY alien to the world (after all...the Gaia planet must be somehow put in a star system...put in a galaxy...put in a universe...and alien might exist there as they exist in other universes (at least in other fictional ones).

I don't take offense, Elric, I was just saying what I did because of personal beliefs.

Anyway, you seem to be one of the more well-versed people on the forum regarding Anima, so I have a request for you. Would you possibly help in creating a story with no profit in it whatsoever? I mean, it's a fan story, but I really wish to write this particular story before my creativity for it goes down the drain.

Of course, I don't know if there's any Private Message system on the site, so I had to put it here for now.

Elric of Melniboné said:

Ok, this was why I added my disclaimer regarding information about The Machine (creatures) as published in other sourcebooks. If they were created during the Duk'zarist Age of Darkness, then I agree, it would have nothing to do with Rah's Machine.

However, I don't see how or where Amon jumps into the lineage..

I am going on what I learned in the GM's section of the main rulebook, which should be a reliable outline. What I read there is that during the Chaos Era, the Powers of the Shadow had begun fighting amongst themselves, and defuse this by making a Pact never to interfere in the affairs of men in that way again. So they decide to install a control mechanism in the form of a savior who will allow them to play god over the humans.

The Christian religion is deployed into the human environment and completed through the acts of the Apostles: Iscariot obtains the 30 Pieces of Metal, betrays Christ, then he and the other Apostles tear down the walls of Solomon, thus ending the last vestiges of the Chaos Era (pg 228). It says nothing about any other descendents of Iscarot except Rah.

More detail is to be found in Chapter 21, where it reveals how Iscariot was furious at having been used by the Powers of the Shadow, hides in the Wake to study the 30 Pieces of Metal, and then begins construction of the Machine. However, he is not able to finish it, and cedes the work of his creation to his son.

The very next line (pg 251) it states that 200 years later Rah, his last descendent, begins the War of God with the Machine almost finished. His goal is the same as Iscariot's – to liberate man from their imprisonment (by the Powers of the Shadow). Strangely, in the same paragraph, it states that the Powers of the Shadow had made their pact only 100 years ago . Not 200. So this would put Rah directly in line as Iscariot's son: 100 years would easily cover the time span of – the Pact – the time of the Apostles - 30 years in the Wake – Rah growing up and almost finishing the Machine.

The Gaia book strongly hints that Rah's machine created/revived/powered up Elisabetta.

blah can't edit my post. Meant Eljared.

wizuriel said:

Wow, good call. Reading that section with this in mind made me wonder if the Machine might have somehow endowed Rah with insane amounts of power, but they were so intense that they split him in two.. Nemesis would be like the male part of the soul (animus), and Eljared would be like the female part (the anima).

Nemesis has killed dozens of Jurgand agents like they were corn stalks. That is truly godlike.

I would've worried if you meant Elisabetta instead of Eljared.

Alright, I have some ideas flowing through my head about a novel series that I wonder if I can write for the company, but I don't have any real idea if they'd accept it. I'm hoping to use the accepted lore to write it and such, but I'm unaware of all the details here, so bear with me here.

One idea is where the main character has stumbled across one of the 30 pieces of Black Metal, unintentionally getting the attention of the Imperium, among other groups. The main character is struggling to determine what is right to do in this case, but he (yes, a stereotype, but I couldn't think of anything else in time) is aided over the course of a few books (at least a trilogy, at most 6 books, middle ground is a Cycle) to give to the chosen group what they are demanding is to be handed over to them. At the very least, there's going to be a few different problems that arise because of the Black Metal, so that's to explain the length.

...I can't exactly explain all of my ideas at the moment, but I hope to get permission to write the books, if nothing else.

@hellgeist: I can actually see that happening. It is rather interesting.

Existence of Amon (son of Iscariot, father of Rah) is explained in Gaia sourcebook.

TO XAMUSEL:

I might be interested in helping you...besides I like writing stories a lot too and profit, at least for now, is not a concern, as far as my collaboration is mentioned in the produced work.

I strongly reccomend you get your hands on Gaia sourcebook, by the way, since it REALLY gives you a lot of important information about the setting and story, much more than in the core-book.

No problem there, I already have it, Elric.

Don't worry, I planned on giving you credit for the collaboration, anyway. I have a few other ideas that were flowing through my head that were giving me trouble, but I have a few things to go through before I can work on those ideas, including setting a clear and concise path for how this one idea is to work. The particular idea for this story goes along the lines of a massive crossover, but the world of Gaia is indeed involved, and massively at that.

The basic idea is that a manga character from the manga named after him (Naruto) gets himself thrown through the fabric of time and space into Gaia, at the year 976 when he's only 3 years old, and he winds up a member of the Imperium, tasked with finding all of the 30 Black Metal Pieces from wherever they wound up at. As we already know, one of them wound up in Lucanor's possession, but the rest of them... well, it's going to take a lot of work to find the rest of the pieces. Hence the idea of multiple worlds to travel to, where the pieces are located. Of course, there's more to this than just finding the pieces of metal, it's also involving fixing the worlds that he travels to that get ruined because of the influence of the metal.

I'm trying to figure out how many worlds he has to go to, but 20 is the minimum (other than his home world and Gaia), and it's going by increments of 20 up to 100 being the max (at least for me to decide how many he goes to). I hope to fix the details up before getting it to the point where he goes to the first of the undetermined worlds.

Interested?

Posted a question, rephrased it, then realized it was erroneous.

Carry on.

Ah, I see, hellgeist.

Sorry Xamusel, although the concept of your story seems somewhat interesting, I believe I can provide help to you only by giving you details about the Gaia setting, since...well...I'm completely ignorant about Naruto. I know of course something about the existence of this manga/anime and I vaguely have some information about the story, but since the story is far too long I decided long ago not to follow it (as far as manga, but also comix, are concerned I tend to prefer briefer stuff).

Now, since you summoned me...

Lucanor isn't the only "piece holder" in Gaia. There's another one, which came into possession of Lucanor, actually, BUT he placed it into one of the three Ecatondies Sigma (Zero) to reactivate it. The guy with the piece inside is this nice guy here:

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs40/f/2009/009/e/2/Anima__Hecatondies_Sigma_by_Wen_M.jpg

As for the rest, Lucanor and Zero are collaborating at the moment.

Then, there's a third piece which is in the hands of Adrien Delacroix, one of the two most prominent members of Black Sun, who's using it to develop his Resident Evil-like undead construct monstrosities.

A fourth piece was in Sylvania, home of the Sylvain...the whereabots of this piece are unknown, since I don't recall Nerelas (heir of Sylvania) holding it, but I might be mistaken.

I don't recall much about the other pieces, but probably if you look around you'll discover the location of a few more (I wouldn't be surprised if Mathew Ghaul had one, for example).

By the way, I don't think Lucanor is such a bad guy...he isn't in my mind-set anyway. He's only trying to see if he can muster power sufficient to challenge the Imperium (which is a monstruous organization controlling everyone on Gaia anyway...). Actually Rah wasn't such a bad guy either. He did what he did only to free humanity from those who were using it like cattle...and Lucanor is decisively much more "moderate" than Rah ever was.

I can understand that you don't have that much knowledge on Naruto, it is rather lengthy, I can attest to that.

Still, I can understand that Lucanor can come across more than the one, but I didn't know that he had a Hecatondies Sigma with him to put another one in it. When it boils down to it, though, that would mean that some of the stuff Naruto would have to find in Gaia. Still, it would be a great help in any event, because of the fact that Gaia is one of the main worlds that Naruto frequents his time in (the other one being his home world).

I'm not going to say that your help is unnecessary, in fact, quite the opposite. It is absolutely needed. I'm not the biggest expert on the history of Gaia, so I do need as much help as I can get.

Then there's the fact that Naruto travels a bit to ensure that nothing evil goes on, as well as trying to stop a great evil from occurring in his home world, and, as such, he's not able to properly rest for a long time. I hope to at least give him some excellent time in Gaia, including getting engaged to Elisabetta Barbados, even if that wasn't the smartest move he made.

This help you out? I'm not going to ask you for help with the Naruto info, that'll be my field to work in, okay?

I believe you can access my e-mail from my profile...we'd better contact each other privately. Like this we're spamming on the forum and I'm rather against it. Currently I'm running a campaign set in Gaia, so I have gathered tons of information about it. Besides I can (barely) understand Spanish, since I'm Italian, so I can access some information from the Spanish Forum. The collaboration is accepted, but let's continue talking about it privately.

Sorry to other forum users for this and a few previous posts which were unrelated to the topic.

Ah... I see.

Like what Elric said, I apologize, I didn't mean to spam.