Sea of Souls

The Sea of Souls is a recurring location in the Persona series, linked to the collective unconscious. It is said that all souls come from the sea, and all souls will return to it when the person it belongs to dies.
==Appearances==
*Megami Ibunroku Persona / Persona: Location
*Persona 2: Innocent Sin: Location
*Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: Location
*Persona 3 FES: Location
*Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight: Location
*Persona -trinity soul-: Location
*Persona 4 Arena: Location (Elizabeth's Story Mode)
*Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight: Location
*Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Cameo
==Design==
The Sea of Souls appears at first glance to resemble outer space, though on closer inspection, the "stars" are actually human souls.
==Profile==
===Megami Ibunroku Persona===
After the protagonist and his allies returned to Maki Sonomura's dream world after Takahisa Kandori's defeat and freed the "Ideal Maki" from her despair, they contacted Philemon, who told them that the real Maki's soul was returning to the Sea of Souls prematurely and was calling out for the protagonist and her Ideal Self. The two journey through the Alaya Cavern and reach the Sea of Souls, where they find Maki waiting for them. The two attempt to convince the real Maki to abandon her nihilism, and she in turn leaves the compact that would allow them to face Pandora.
===Persona 2===
====Innocent Sin====
Credited as the Heart of Xibalba, the Sea of Souls is where Tatsuya Suou's party catches up to the Fuhrer, actually a guise of Nyarlathotep. While at first the party believes it to be outer space, Nyarlathotep appears and explains the nature of the sea, though he twists the meaning, instead saying that all souls come from and return to him. Although the party defeats him in both his Fuhrer and Great Father forms, he has the last laugh: using Maya Okamura and the Spear of Destiny to kill Maya Amano, fulfilling the Oracle of Maia. However, Philemon informs the party that in the Sea of Souls, they can use the power of Xibalba and the collective unconscious to undo Maya's death and recreate the world, at the cost of their memories. The party does so, though Tatsuya rebels against the thought of losing his memories at the last second, causing a paradox and setting up the events of Eternal Punishment.
====Eternal Punishment====
Tatsuya vaguely mentions the Sea of Souls at the end of the game when he tells Maya, Ulala, Katsuya and Baofu that "We are connected by this ocean. We can... meet again...".
===Persona 3 / Portable===
The during the awakening of the protagonist / female protagonist, their initial Persona Orpheus states they come from the Sea of Souls, as well as the other Personas that they summon afterwards.
===Persona 3 FES===
In The Answer, it is revealed that the protagonist has sacrificed himself in order to become the seal between Erebus and Nyx in the Sea of Souls.
===Persona -trinity soul-===
Ayane Komatsubara's ultimate goal is to merge with what she calls the whale of the Sea of Souls.
===Persona 4===
Ameno-sagiri described the Midnight Channel as part of the sea of unconsciousness that exists within human hearts.
===Persona 4 Arena===
The Malevolent Entity claims to have come from the sea of human souls.
In Elizabeth's story mode, Elizabeth encounters Erebus at the deepest part of the sea, a domain that existed before life took form and became sentient, where there is only "the darkness of death and the radiance of life." In order to prevent damaging the sea in their battle, Elizabeth teleports Erebus and herself to the Moon. After the events of the Grand Prix, Elizabeth returns to the sea, to where the Great Seal shielding Nyx is, where she has a revelation about what she learned during the Grand Prix and gains the Fool Arcana.
===Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth===
The Sea of Souls is indirectly referred to as the place where Chronos guides the souls of humans back to the sea. During the game, it is also said to be the birthplace of entities like Chronos, who were formed by humanity's ideas about higher beings controlling the workings of the world. The Reaper is revealed to also be an agent of divine providence, sent to places to exterminate threats that disrupt the natural order of the cosmos.
===Persona 4: Dancing All Night===
The Sea of Souls is directly referred to as the origin for the being Mikuratana-no-Kami, along with the location where she forged the Midnight Stage.
===Persona 5===
When the protagonist successfully negotiates with a Shadow to become his Persona, they remember they come from the sea of humanity's souls.
===Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight/Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight===
When the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad and Phantom Thieves of Hearts are summoned by Caroline & Justine and Elizabeth to dance for them, their audience is the Sea of Souls. 
===Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth===
The massive expanse in the background of the lowest floor of Enlil's domain set in the collective unconsciousness appears to be the Sea of Souls.
== Trivia ==
* Certain gods and demons who originate from the collective unconscious make comments which suggest that they have existed long before the physical world was created. It is ambiguous if this means the Sea of Souls and its contents exist outside the flow of time itself, or if the fact humans believed demons had existed so long ago (for example, creation deities would logically exist prior to the world) gave demons distortions in their cognitive perceptions of time, such as the backward telescoping effect (perceiving events as occurring even further back in time than they really do).
**In Persona 4 Golden, in one lecture, Mr. Edogawa makes a statement which might support either of these interpretations. He explains the collective unconscious as "時と場所を越えつながる" and "生まれた場所はおろか時をも越えて心をつなげている," both of which can be taken to mean the unconscious/heart is connected across or beyond time and place (in English, both descriptions are instead "surpassing time and place" and "transcending space and time"). As Edogawa's lectures are an interpretation of Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious being collectively inherited regardless of place of birth and time period, as well as how the Megami Tensei series generally describes timelessness with 超越 ("transcendence"; in verb form, to transcend), this suggests it is meant to be "connected across time and place," persisting through passage of time rather than existing outside.
==See Also==
* Expanse
Category:Persona
Category:Persona Locations
Category:Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Category:Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Category:Persona 3
Category:Persona 3 FES
Category:Persona -trinity soul-
Category:Persona 4
Category:Persona 4 Arena
Category:Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Category:Persona 5
Category:Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth