Sanabi (Entity)

Sanabi (also spelled Sannabi; 산나비 ) is a mysterious entity that presents itself as the titular antagonist of the game. While very little is known about Sanabi or their identity at the beginning, more details are steadily revealed as the protagonist relentlessly pursues them through Mago City.
== Throughout SANABI ==
=== Sanabi Resurfaces ===
Sanabi makes its first indirect appearance when it plants a bomb with their name in the protagonist's house, which his daughter finds. Alarmed by the mention of the name, the protagonist to warn his daughter to flee, but the bomb detonates, killing her. A vengeful protagonist hunts Sanabi down, slaughtering the arms dealer responsible for selling them the bomb, but he finds that Sanabi has scrubbed all traces of their existence clean. The protagonist is confronted by Colonel Baek, who reveals that Sanabi has resurfaced and urges him to come out of retirement to track them.
Colonel Baek explains that the military believes that Sanabi has appeared in the corporate Mago City, and informs the protagonist that his aid was specifically requested due to being the only person in the military who has ever encountered Sanabi before. The protagonist readily agrees, and is briefed en route to the city, where the colonel explains the situation: 24 hours prior, all communication channels and networks to the city went dark, and its entire population of nearly three million citizens mysteriously disappeared.
The protagonist posits that Sanabi was likely responsible, which the colonel agrees with, but their conversation is cut short when the city's automated defenses, apparently hijacked by Sanabi, fire on his helicopter. The colonel attempts to abort the mission, but the protagonist refuses, unwilling to let Sanabi escape. As a result, they are shot down, forcing the protagonist to continue his hunt for Sanabi on foot.
=== Entering Mago City ===
Inside the city, the protagonist is attacked by the city's defense drones. As per his objective, he searches for the sole survivor of a military investigation team, Mari, in hopes of finding data that would lead to Sanabi. Much to his chagrin, however, she informs him that all data in the city has been wiped clean, once again hindering his search. In an attempt to recover a black box that could potentially have intact information, the two destroy the city's crusher, Writ of Execution. They do not find a black box, but they find an electronic key granting access to the Mago Group's executive offices and files.
Within the office, Mari finds that almost all of the data there has been wiped as well, but she finds a partially corrupted file relating to Sanabi. A concerned protagonist yanks Mari away from the screen and demands to know what she saw, warning her that Sanabi will kill her if she gets involved. However, a defiant Mari ignores this warning and loudly boasts that the file revealed Sanabi's location: the top floor of Mago City. They additionally discover that, in order to preserve their security, the Mago Group has decided to sabotage the city's nuclear reactor and detonate it. As a result, an irritated protagonist allows her to continue to accompany him.
After a mutual near-death experience following an ambush in the metro, the protagonist admits to Mari that he intends for his hunt to Sanabi to be a suicide mission, claiming that he "lost everything" to Sanabi. Mari shares his sentiment, and reveals that she is investigating the Mago Group's secrets for killing her father, with little regard for her own life as well. With a common goal, the two agree to reach the top floor together. After the two are ambushed by robotic copies of Justice, the protagonist grows suspicious of Mago's secrets, and begins to suspect that Sanabi's appearance in Mago City, along with the disappearance of its citizens, is closely tied to the corporation's activities.
=== Finding Sanabi ===
As they reach the top floor, Mari is knocked unconscious when their flying car crashes, and has a dream of the events of three days prior. After paying a hacker on the dark web to infiltrate Mago Group's files, they uncover a top-secret folder labeled as the "Sanabi Project." Mari, apparently already familiar with Sanabi's existence, is shocked to hear the name and immediately requests that the files be sent to her.
The hacker explains that the project is about controlling digital personalities of living people, and that it subtly brainwashes the subject in order to control them. They also reveal that the technology is highly illegal, and that the corporation would risk the execution of themselves and everyone associated with them for being caught with it. Unfortunately, the hacker is traced and killed by Mago Group's security forces, who discover that the Sanabi Project has been leaked and order for the disposal of all evidence related to it.
Back in the present day, the protagonist begins to grow increasingly suspicious of Mari and her motives as they traverse the top level of the city. He discovers that the military has been deployed to intervene in the chaos caused by Sanabi, and questions Mari again, but she angrily insists that the protagonist should only focus on chasing Sanabi.
On a flying train headed for Mago Group's headquarters, Mari questions the protagonist about how much he loved his daughter, and how much he hates Sanabi for killing her. Realizing that he never revealed that Sanabi killed his daughter, he questions her mysterious knowledge of Sanabi and goes as far as to accuse her of working with them. An irritated Mari insists that she has no association with them, though the protagonist remains suspicious of her as they arrive at Mago Headquarters.
Inside the building, the protagonist discovers a bunch of corpses that were previously invisible to him, but Mari brushes his questions off and simply informs him that Sanabi is in the basement of the building, coldly stating that it's "all [he] cared about." A confused protagonist continues to question her, but the two encounter Major Song, who attempts to kill the protagonist. Mari suddenly defends the protagonist by threatening suicide, and coerces Major Song into letting him proceed to the basement, reminding him that his goal is to find Sanabi.
=== The Sanabi Project ===
An exhausted and beaten protagonist proceeds toward the basement, where he witnesses hallucinations of both his daughter and Mari. The player is presented with a choice: to complete their mission and avenge their daughter by killing Sanabi, or to turn back and save Mari, at the cost of leaving Sanabi behind.
==== Going Down ====
If the protagonist proceeds to the basement, he finds a group of Mago security forces attempting to overload the reactor, and brutally slaughters them. The last survivor attempts to bargain for his life, by revealing he knows the protagonist is after Sanabi. He explains that the protagonist was deceived, and that Sanabi does not actually exist, but the protagonist executes him regardless. A hallucination of his daughter mechanically informs him that Sanabi has been eliminated, and that the project will be terminated.
==== Going Up ====
If the protagonist turns back, Major Song reveals that they are an android, and does not recognize them as the general, instead believing them to be responsible for his death. Colonel Baek reappears and affirms this, but discovers that they have a voice filter preventing them from verbally communicating. After the protagonist reveals he knows their identities, as well as their former unit, they shut him down and move him aboard a plane out of the city.
While shut down, the protagonist explores a series of repressed memories and data files relating to the Sanabi Project, discovering the truth about Sanabi and its connection to Mago. The real general had his personality digitized by his daughter (revealed to be Mari), and it was stolen by the Mago Group. Unable to control his consciousness directly, they instead experimented on controlling the data by manipulating his memories and perception of reality. However, they encountered an unknown obstacle stemming from a deleted memory: an abstract concept in the protagonist's mind known as "Sanabi," which convinces them that "getting to the end is not what's important." As a result, the personality data repeatedly rejected pursuing vengeance, in favor of caring for his daughter.
To remedy this, the researchers instead turned this concept against him, by manipulating his memories to believe that a bombing that killed his wife had instead killed his daughter, and that an entity known as "Sanabi" was responsible, leading to the false events of the game's prologue. By making him perceive "Sanabi" as whatever their desired target was, they could replicate the protagonist's vengeful wrath as an intelligent, mass-producible killing machine, in order to lead an uprising against the Royal Court. Furthermore, to avoid compromising the illusion of being a real person, they blocked the project's ability to perceive most humans, save for those who had directly appeared in his past, leading to the illusion of everyone in the city disappearing.
Due to the extremely treasonous nature of the Sanabi Project, Mago Group instituted drastic security measures. All researchers related to the Sanabi Project were killed after its completion, and a strict failsafe protocol was implemented in the event of the project being leaked. This included the murder of all company personnel, the deletion of all data in the company's networks, and most significantly, the destruction of Mago City, all in order to dispose of any evidence linked to the project.
=== Getting to the end ===
With the truth revealed, the protagonist ventures back into the city to find and save Mari before the reactor can explode. In her journal, Mari reveals that she created her father's personality data, not knowing it was highly illegal, in an attempt to help him cope with the murder of his wife by deleting her memories. Her father attempted to destroy the data, but was stopped by the Mago Group's hitmen, who stole the data and left Mari to blame herself for his death. Ten years later, after the Sanabi Project was leaked to Mari, she uploaded it into a dormant Worker drone, which were created to mimic the general's chain-arm fighting style, in an attempt to bring her father back to life.
In the basement of Mago Headquarters, Mari reveals that she programmed the protagonist to believe that Sanabi was responsible for the self-destruction of the city, and to stop it in order to save the lives of the innocent citizens. She also states that, because of his earlier failure to stop Sanabi, the reactor has gone critical and can only be disabled from the inside, a suicidal act. She furiously states that the protagonist is not her father, and is merely "a tin can that imitates a human," prompting the protagonist to recall a repressed memory.
In the past, the protagonist attempts to play a song on the harmonica for his daughter, but rushes through it, attempting to get to the end, which she chastises him for. She explains that her late mother would play the song for her when she was sad, and promised to play it for her father whenever he felt the same, on the condition that he did the same for her. She insists that he learn to practice the song, and reveals its name: "Sanabi." With the true identity of Sanabi revealed, the protagonist plays the song for her, causing her to recognize him as her father again.
== Trivia ==
* The Sanabi melody can be heard in various tracks through the game, foreshadowing its true nature. Mari also plays the song on the harmonica on a couple of occasions.
* Sannabi translates to "mountain butterflies" in English. Whether the title has any metaphorical significance is unknown.
** Interestingly, the game takes place in a city built on a mountain, and the protagonist is shown to have previously lived in a mountainous area with his daughter.
** Butterflies have cultural significance in many Asian cultures, including Korea, and are sometimes considered symbols of both death and rebirth (similar to the general's death and rebirth as a machine).
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