The Fall

250px|thumb|right|Cutscene of the Fall in Persona 3
The Fall is an event important to the story of Persona 3, also referred to as "The End." It refers to the complete and utter obliteration of humanity by Nyx.
== Appearances ==
*Persona 3 / FES / Portable / Reload
**Persona 3 (Manga)
**Persona 3 The Movie
==Profile==
===Persona 3===
The origin of the apocalyptic event began 10 years ago prior to the events of Persona 3. The acting leader of the Kirijo Group and Mitsuru Kirijo's grandfather, Kouetsu Kirijo was originally an altruistic man who initiated research on Shadows, studying their true nature in hopes of finding a way to utilize their power and create a time manipulation device. Instead, he and his scientists discovered the prophecy of the Fall, so they began a new project to gather shadows to summon powerful beings that would "save" humanity by obliterating them. Most of the scientists embraced the insane idea and managed to summon an entity known as Death, which would summon and awaken Nyx and destroy humanity. However, there were scientists who opposed the project. One such people was a lead scientist called Eiichiro Takeba, who separated Death into thirteen distinct Shadows and recorded a warning telling anyone not to hunt down and kill the rampaging Shadows. Said recording was later doctored by Shuji Ikutsuki and used in his favor. These entities would later go berserk, destroying the facilities, killed most of the scientists (including Mr. Takeba and grandfather Kirijo) and created the phenomena of the Dark Hour. To cover up for the incident, Gekkoukan High School was built on top of the experimental site, which would transform into Tartarus during the Dark Hour where anyone who stayed within the school for too much time will be trapped and likely killed off by hostile Shadows.
Death was eventually sealed within a young child by Aigis, and due to it being unable to reunite with the other Twelve Shadows roaming in the Dark Hour because of the protagonist moving out of Tatsumi Port Island, it remained dormant. When the protagonist returns to the Island city, the Shadows became active again. 
To counter this threat, Shuji Ikutsuki supposedly leads the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad into hunting the Twelve Arcana Shadows so they cannot reunite. In actuality, hunting the Shadows causes them to reunite into Death and Ikutsuki is actually tricking SEES into fulfilling the prophecy so he can rule over the remains of the world as a god, and attempts to use a brainwashed Aigis to kill the rest of SEES as "sacrifices" for Death's resurrection (In reality, not only Death was resurrected right after Arcana Hanged Man was slain, had the scenario Ikutsuki desired occur, he will likely die with the rest of humanity rather than becoming a God like he wants to). Thankfully, Ikutsuki's attempt to sacrifice SEES fails due to Mr. Kirijo's intervention and sacrifice and Aigis's loyalty towards the protagonist, and Ikutsuki commits suicide by falling off Tartarus. A few days later, the creature Ikutsuki tricked SEES into resurrecting manifests physically, taking the form of a boy named Ryoji Mochizuki who enrolls to Gekkoukan High School with his memories lost and spends time with SEES as an ordinary high school student for approximately a month. However, after Aigis engages him in a private confrontation at the Moonlight Bridge during the 1st of December, he regains his memories and reveals himself as the appriser, whose role is to summon Nyx and bring forth the complete extinction of mankind. He declares to SEES that the Fall is unstoppable and humanity will die off before next spring, and there is nothing they can do about it, but issues a mercy offer where if the protagonist kills off his physical body, all memories of the Fall will be permanently wiped, and everyone can die peacefully when Nyx inevitably eradicates humanity. The being gives them a single month to think it through before returning at January 31, 2009 to reconfirm.
During that day, Ryoji returns to Iwatodai Dorm to confirm if the protagonist accepts his deal as promised. If he does, Ryoji's physical body is killed and with the exception of Aigis, nobody has any recollection about anything related to the Fall, but destroying the Nyx Avatar's physical body does not stop it from summoning Nyx, so the Fall will happen anyway in due time. The party lives the rest of January and February as ordinary high-school students, but at the 5th of March, it is implied that every human being in the world is killed off by Nyx as the original prophecy stated.
However, if the protagonist decides to leave Ryoji alone, Ryoji will provide information to SEES about their upcoming confrontation before vanishing and resuming his duties as the Nyx Avatar, who awaits the party atop Tartarus at January 31, 2010 for a final confrontation and takes the form of a sinister, imposing humanoid creature that vaguely resembles Ryoji. Despite SEES defeats it, it still successfully summons Nyx to bring forth the Fall. This was thankfully stopped when the protagonist turns his life essence into the Great Seal and seal Nyx. With the protagonist's death and the sealing of Nyx, the Fall and the supposedly unavoidable extinction of mankind is successfully averted.
===Cult of Nyx===
There were a few people other than the dead Kirijo scientists who believe that the Fall is salvation. There was a group of Artificial Persona users known as Strega, consisted of leader Takaya Sakaki, alongside Jin Shirato and Chidori Yoshino who embraced the quick death brought forth by the Fall. It is implied that the horrific experimentation they suffered from the Kirijo group drastically reduced their lifespans and traumatized them, so they wanted the apocalyptic event to come and catch them in the crossfire and put them out of their misery.
During January, Takaya found a cult devoted to Nyx within Tatsumi Port Island. This heavily increases the number of people who embrace their inevitable death as salvation, drastically altering the entire city. Graffiti and posters begin to show up everywhere, and the number of people with Apathy Syndrome increases. People affiliated with the cult also will attempt to persuade the protagonist into joining and ushering in their beloved Nyx.
Around the middle of January, Junpei Iori will invite the protagonist out to Hagakure, saying that it is Akihiko's treat due to a little bet they had at Yakushima. When they arrive, Aigis will pull out a newspaper with the flap opened to the section on the new cult, which also contains a picture of the cult's high priest, who is identified as Takaya Sakaki. In the interview, Takaya claims that the world is in a state of turmoil, and that there is little chance for hope. He then claims that a magnificent being is the only salvation for humanity, which is identified as Nyx. Takaya then states that he has received a blessing from Nyx, and has learned of her divine power. He further manipulates the public by stating that there are also 'those who have been blessed by Nyx' that use this 'blessing' for their own selfish goals. The group deduces that Takaya is attempting to make the public hate SEES by stating that they are, in fact, the ones responsible for everything.
This is made even more extreme if the player talks to a male cultist in the strip mall. He will state that Nyx will deliver the virtuous and save the believers. He then adds poison to his words by saying that the members of SEES will suffer by Nyx's divine guidance.
During the Fall on January 31, those who embraced the prophecy seemingly explode into Shadows; it is unclear if these people recovered. Eventually, after Jin and Takaya were killed and the protagonist seals Nyx away, the Fall is halted, and the cult was presumably disbanded. 
=====Persona 3 Club Book=====
In the Q & A section the Fall is revealed to be the rejoining of both Nyx pieces (the Moon and her psyche) which would result in the Moon crashing to the Earth to reclaim the pieces of her psyche (shadows) from the seal within Earth's creatures making her whole again.
Category:Persona 3
Category:Persona 3 FES
Category:Persona 3 Portable