History of Sol Ciel

This is the history of the setting of Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, the region of Sol Ciel. However, this tells the history from the viewpoint of the inhabitants of Sol Ciel, so it could be biased against the other regions. Ar tonelico: A Reyvateil's Melody forums: Official Materials Collections Translation Project thread Ar tonelico: Official Materials Collection - History section, pages 64-71.
== The First Era ==
That was nothing but the proof of the love a single person felt for a single person.
The love a father felt for his daughter. A single Song. A single feeling. A single power...
=== Story of the Genesis ===
Everything 
started when a lone Moon Chanter discovered the substance known as 
Songstones. Having taken preference for his daughter Shurelia over his wife, he made an orgel for her using Songstones, which caused it to possess mysterious powers. Whenever it was played, it would release particles of light to the point it coated itself with them. Everyone could feel at a deep peace by just looking at the light it released. 
When father and daughter opened an orgel shop, they became greatly 
popular and the man ended immersing himself on research about the powers carried by the sounds at the invitation of his country. This caused him to remain in the collective memory of the people as the "Father of Sound Science".
His direct descendant Eleno was born about 90 years after all these events, and he was raised with the stories his parents told him about the great exploits his ancestor carried out. He started studying in order to make cutting-edge advances on Sound Science, and after researching day and night during for quite some time in the highest institute of education existing (the University) as a sound science researcher, the national research institute finally recognized his talents and scouted him. The work he was assigned was being the main planner for the expansion project for the amplification Tower "Ar tonelico", which was the leading edge in Sound Science. However, this sort of nationwide-scale work was something that went against his expectations. Thanks to this military-oriented investigation he was in disagreement with, Eleno became unable to see his family for days. His morale dropped down more and more every passing day, until the tragedy of his only daughter, Shurelia dying in an accident caused him to abandon the project altogether. The country then offered the despondent Eleno a certain project. It was the development of a humanoid mother brain that was completely synchronized to the Tower and could control it as if it were an 
extension of their own body. It was then that Eleno, who was working following the plan for creating the experimental floating continent [[[Wings of Horus]]], met the artificial lifeform Eolia that was slated to become the [Administrator] for Ar tonelico. That was an encounter that made him doubt his eyes. Eolia had the same exact appearance as his deceased daughter Shurelia. He called her [Shurelia] and loved her as if she was his real daughter. This ended having the result of Shurelia learning about feelings that were exceptional for the Reyvateils at the time, especially that of loving someone.
While [[[El Elemia]]] was no more than a small country in Sol Ciel, having the backing of Sound Science and Ar tonelico allowed it to rise to the top in the global scene in a few decades, though there were several countries that weren't pleased with this situation. One such country was the suzerain state of El Duel located in the region of Sol Cluster, which held subjectivity over the rest of the world. At the end of a long war they held with Sol Ciel, El Duel dispatched Teru Tribe troops to carry out subversive activities in Ar tonelico. They destroyed the Symphonic Power lines that were connected to the Grathnode Discs and provoked the Grathnode Inferia.
=== Important terms and incidents for this time period ===
==== Moon Chanters ====
Before Sound Science existed, the music was created with the purpose as serving as prayers. Said prayers were warding off evil, beckoning the rain, and 
bringing forth good crops. And by making their musical performances into
[festivals], the people received all sorts of power that would enrich their lives. The people built altars and temples in the places where the effects of these powers were stronger, and feared these areas as sacred grounds. Their knowledge and experiences were passed down for generations, and a small part of the people who were able to draw out power from the sounds came to be known as the [Moon Chanters], which were revered like the priests and priestesses of the Gods.
==== Ar tonelico ====
Ar tonelico means "The Only Divine Tree". It was created from the collaborative 
efforts of the humans and Teru, and it was a magical power amplification tower that distributed the [powers held by the sounds] to the people, and also granted them the blessings of the Songs' power by amplifying the powers in the sounds.
The Teru are a different race that possessed advanced technologies and also had learned to use magic, and even though they had conflicts with the humans, they soon came to cooperate with each other. Ultimately, the Teru provided their [magic] and the humans provided their [Sound Science], and they fused both elements with each other. The humans' scientific prowess alone made it impossible to construct Ar tonelico because it would need to put into motion several sorts of power that couldn't be explained by science alone, so therefore, about half of technicians involved were human while the other half were Teru.
==== Eleno's Daughter ====
At first, Eleno was allowed to go back home frequently from his work at the 
research facilities, but as time went by, he was allowed less and less to leave the facilities, which ultimately led him to be unable to see his beloved daughter, Shurelia for over a year. And then, Shurelia got killed by a security malfunction in the Tower, all because she just wanted to see the father she had been unable to contact for so long... The Tower at the time was beyond the humans' control, and it was due to this that malfunctions and operational mistakes with such a level of gravity continued repeating themselves. This incident drained Eleno of all his willpower and vitality.
==== The Powers of the Songstones ====
It's a fixed law that the music and the songs are converted into magical power 
through the Songstones. The higher the quality of the Songstone that is 
approached to the source of the song, the greater the magical power that will result from it, with the magical effects changing dependong on the type of melody and song. When the "Father of Sound Science" used for the first time a Songstone as an alloy, the Songstone absorbed the melody he had composed while thinking of her daughter and converted it into particles of light. Since Songstones release the magical power contained within themselves once its total amount has gone over their total capacity, they manifested magical power whenever the orgel's disc received the shock of the comb strumming it. And thanks to the research that was carried later on, the high-purity Songstone Crystals that could convert large amounts of magical power were born. These crystals were capable of releasing a fixed amount of magical power without having to take in account the power storage capacity, but this also made them 
quite dangerous, asi if they were ever broken, the magical power accumulated in them would be released all at once.
==== Grathnode and Parameno ====
When Songstone Crystals undergo their refinining process, their special 
characteristics are divided into [absorption] and [release]. The crystals that only have the special characteristic of absorption are known as [[[Parameno]]], while the ones that only have the special characteristic of release are called [[[Grathnode]]], and Ar tonelico is equipped with four enormous Grathnode Discs and four enormous Parameno Discs. The Parameno Discs receive the requests for magic (embedded in melodies and the like), which send them to the Quantizer (which carries out optimization processing), and then they are cleaned up from noise before being sent to the Grathnode Discs. Once the requests have reached the Grathnode Discs, there they are released as magic power. As that was the service form of Sound Science, the people could communicate with the Tower and become recipients for materialized magical power by singing into terminals. Furthermore, there also were high-grade Parameno Discs installed in an extremely access restricted area located in the Tower's center. That was the place where the small orgel the "Father of Sound Science" had made for his daughter was installed and treated as the power source that controlled the whole Tower, while the orgel itself just kept on playing its "pure melody".
====Disputes with Sol Cluster at the Far West====
Sol Cluster was composed by the suzerain state of El Duel and the 48 nations that were allied to it, and they all flatly refused the [Treaty for the Request of a Global Cooperation System] El Elemia had proposed. This served as the excuse for both nations to lock themselves into a state of cold war, and afterwards, El Elemia started pressing a small country that possessed abundant Songstones reserves to withdraw themselves from the Sol Cluster alliance, giving them their protection in exchange for supplying these Songstones as resources for Ar tonelico. Once this came out into the light, El Duel sent a considerable number of the Cluster Alliance Troops to Sol Ciel and started spreading noise posts called chaffs in a radius of approximately 100 km around Ar tonelico, rendering the long-distance stratum waves used by the Tower's weaponry useless. El Elemia then sent a torrent of powerful energies in the only direction the noise wouldn't jam it (toward the ground's surface), but the reaction of the planet's mantle with the energy they had sent provoked unexpected results. The land broke apart, and magma and magical sound power gushed forth from it, leaving enormous wounds on the land that came to be known as the "Seven Bloodstains". The damaged area was of several thousand kilometers in size, the scale of it being large enough that El Elemia itself entered a state of commotion after seeing this disaster.
====The Tower Administrator====
After the conflict was settled, discussions were held in El Elemia for methods to control the Tower, which still was beyond the humans' capability, and the one that was finally decided on was creating an [Administrator]: a lifeform that was completely synchronized with the Tower. Furthermore, the "Reyvateils" that were already under research by that point allowed to directly contact the Tower through singing Songs, so Eleno was saddled up with the most important task in this project, which was carrying out the neural hardwiring to the Tower on Eolia, one of the Reyvateils. In order to synchronize her with the entirety of the Tower, Eleno had to Install an absurd number of Parameno and Grathnode Crystals into her, which also brought her a great amount of suffering. The other two remaining Reyvateils were sent to the regions they were assigned to as Administrators for the other two Towers, which were still under construction at the time.
======Abilities and Weaknesses of the Reyvateils======
Reyvateils can further boost their Song Magic by taking Grathnode into their own bodies. However, this act forces them to suffer great damage. Inside the Reyvateils' bodies there exists a mechanism called the LEM (Life Extension Mechanism), which has as part of its functions carrying out a checksum that regulates the magical power flow between thmselves and the Tower. Given the Grathnode Crystals distort the evaluation standards used by that mechanism, they end sending more life energy than they would actually require, this excessive sending in the worst cases causing constant leaks and ruining their health.
=====Origins=====
The three Reyvateils created during the α tests for making an Administrator. As they are artificial life forms created through Sound Science, their physical composition is made up from materials equivalent to the base proteins found in the humans, but their root part (their Spiritual Standard Frequency or Soul) is made from sounds. Whenever they craft a Song and use it to release magic, the resources for it are supplied by Ar tonelico through the depths of their minds.
=====β Test=====
The Reyvateils have several faculties in which they are superior to the humans. It was for this reason that the government initiated the research program on Reyvateils as weapons: the [β Tests]. They mass-produced clones from the Origins and deployed them inside the Tower as battle personnel. While the individuals created for the β Tests were equipped with abilities equivalent even to that of the Origins, their power was inferior than that of their predecessors and their lifespans were shorter as well.
=====Hymmnos=====
There are two kinds of Songs that a Reyvateil can sing. These are the [Song Magic that receives and uses power from the Tower], and the [Songs for Controlling the Tower]. The former are the common attack and recovery magic that any Reyvateil is able to use. On the other hand, the latter are Songs that carry out system control actions such as rebooting the Tower, which is why a Reyvateil needs to be officially authenticated to sing them. The first authentication condition is possessing a [Hymn Code], the proof that the Reyvateil is officially registered in the Tower's database. The second one is having the authorization for singing that Hymmnos. So in order to increase the number of Hymmnos a Reyvateil can sing, Hymn Crystals must be used. By bringing out a Hymn Crystal before a Reyvateil and intoning the contract spell alongside her Hymn Code, that Reyvateil will be authorized to sing that [Hymmnos (Control Song)].
====Eleno and Shurelia====
Eleno called [Eolia] by the name of his beloved deceased daughter, and also showered her with the love he felt for her from the bottom of his heart while she was withstanding the pain from the neural hardwiring. Since Shurelia really liked playing inside the Tower with Eleno and she seemed especially comfortable in the areas close to the Tower's center, where the energy transmission routes that were fed directly by the [Orgel of Origins] were located, she really enjoyed these outings. Eleno then got permission to bring Shurelia to the Orgel of Origins' room. Once there, they found themselves in a small room made from rustic wood, where there was a disc-type orgel located behind multiple gears and shafts. This was the first time Shurelia felt the happiest she ever was and the first time she uttered a selfish wish: [I don't want to go back home]. Therefore, the two of them spent the whole day in that room, until dawn broke again. Eleno caressed Shurelia's face as she slept, and upon seeing how her face seemed to show her being the happiest he had ever seen her, he prayed from the bottom of his heart that the future would always continued bringing this kind of happiness to her. Two years went by since the neural hardwiring process commenced, and when Shurelia fully turned six years old, Eleno, who she started calling "Dad" at some point, gifted her with an orgel pendant. This pendant played the same melody the Orgel of Origin played, which his ancestor had composed as a birthday present for his own daughter. Shurelia hugged Eleno out from sheer happiness and started dancing to the melody's rhythm while asking him with a joyful expression "It looks well on me?" So they made the orgel play its melody afterwards whenever the time to carry out the neural hardwiring came again, which seemed to make the experience significantly more pleasant. Now Shurelia was saying with a smile [The hardwiring's really painful, but as long as you're here, Dad, I'll do my best to bear with it], it was clear they had truly become father and daughter.
====The Grathnode Inferia====
Even after the disputes with Sol Cluster at the far west had been settled, the amplification Tower of Ar tonelico was threatened with destruction many more times. However, it was exceedingly difficult to destroy this Tower that had become the source of all the magical power in the world due to possessing an absolute defense network. It was then that El Duel hatched a plan to silence the Tower and then take over it. Their strategy was the utilize the Teru living in El Duel, who had contributed heavily to the technological advancement of the world. The Teru possessed abilities like teleportation and telepathy, which made their incursion into the Tower's inner zones a simple matter. There were altogether 16 people, all of which had gained important training and knowledge, and which got dispatched to work in Ar tonelico. By destroying the Symphonic Power lines that were connected to the Grathnode Discs, they forced Ar tonelico into silence.
However, that was what initiated the tragedy. The Tower had become unable to emit magical power to the outside but kept producing that same power endlessly. Lacking any way to be released, the power went out of control and paralyzed the [Ardelberg Buffer Band] that protected the sensitive Grathnode Discs, and as if that wasn't enough, the Discs suffered from an overload due to sparks and atmospheric absorption. Ultimately the Grathnode Discs were smashed into pieces, and at the same time, sonic booms capable of shaking the whole world struck the surface. The released energy formed the plasma sea known as the [Blast Line], while the sonic booms shattered the land into pieces and formed the [Sea of Death]. This is the whole history of the great catastrophe that would come to be known as the "Grathnode Inferia" in the following years.
==The Second Era==
An age in which an unprecedented tragedy took place, and the skies and the land both disappeared from the world. However, the people still possessed the advanced technologies that existed prior to the great catastrophe, and pushed forward into building an even more more advanced civilization.
===The World After the Catastrophe===
The remaining people of Sol Ciel radicated themselves in the world above the Sea of Death, the [Wings of Horus], and built a new world upon it. Their new capital was christened as [Neo Elemia]. During the inauguration of the Supreme Council, Shurelia announced that a new Sound Science system called the "Silver Horn" would be designed to restore the function of converting the Songs into magical power the Tower possessed, so abundance would be brought back to the world.
With their scientific power greatly restored, the people started having the idea of rebooting Ar tonelico. And a certain day, monsters that gushed forth from an unknown place started attacking the people, their origins coming from the original purpose itself the Wings of Horus used to have: [being a floating continent where research on the evolution of life was to be carried out]. These abnormal beigns were nothing like anything they had ever seen before, and they were so strong the people fell before them without any ways to push them back. It was during this incident that Shurelia took a decision: she would officially announce the existence of the [Reyvateils], which were not known to the common citizen at the time, to the public. The Pureblooded Beta-Type Reyvateils she made then exterminated these abnormal beings. The people then started producing Reyvateils one after another and made them work in several fields, such as medicine, defense forces and lifesaving tasks. However, the people starting feeling a sense of crisis and wondered if the Reyvateils, with their superior abilities, wouldn't try to seize the entirety of the political power to themselves, which culminated into them creating Mir: the strongest Reyvateil in the Second Era who also lacked any feelings or will of her own. This indignated the Reyvateils, who then declared war on the humans.
Shurelia appealed to the people to initiate negotiations and try to solve this in a peaceful way, but the humans just arrested her when she arrived at the site where the negotiations were to take place and started applying a [process] to her in order to make her an obedient individual the same way Mir was. However, they made a miscalculation in their plans. While Mir truly lacked feelings when she was born, feelings started sprouting within her as time passed until the point her hatred toward the humans exploded. Mir seized control over all of the Silver Horn's functions and immediately initiated an attack on the humans, rescuing Shurelia from them. But after Shurelia was saved, she resolved to fight against Mir upon realizing she killed untold amounts of people by dropping the Right Wing of Horus. While she was able to seal Mir away thanks to the powers of the Teru girl Tastiella, Mir turned into the virus creature [Shadow] and continued her attacks. In order to seal off Mir's movements, Tastiella created the magical machine [Crescent Chronicle] by sacrificing her own body and the Reyvateil Lune started singing the [Chronicle Key], which finally put Shadow in a suspended state.
Calm had returned to the world, and so these tragedies would never repeat themselves, the humans and Teru who worked together to seal [Shadow] away decided upon and created a set of rules called the [Covenant of Elemia]. And while Shurelia pleaded to have the usage of Sound Science banned completely, she also established a new technology system called [Grathmeld].
===Important terms and incidents for this time period===
====In the Other Side of the Great Catastrophe====
During the Grathnode Inferia, Shurelia frantically tried to control Ar tonelico after it started its rampage. She secluded herself inside the Parameno Room (a soundproof chamber) and kept on singing without end.
However, since her hardwiring was incomplete and this made her unable to grasp the situation in the lower areas of the Tower, where the energy sent by the boosters was being discharged chaotically all over, she had no other option but to send that energy to the Grathnode Discs so it could get dispersed. However, even this method had a limit, so the Grathnode Discs shattered one after other. By the time Shurelia's stamina had been completely depleted, the energy flow had finally stopped. As soon as she thought "It ended... What a relief...", she collapsed on the arms of Rovar, one of the engineers that worked directly under Eleno. He saddled Shurelia up his back and started climbing the Tower. While Shurelia was still between conscious and unconscious, she muttered something: [Hey... Why do people... fight...?] Rovar's shoulder got completely wet afterwards. When Shurelia came to, Rovar could only explain to her in an emotionless voice about what happened between the time she fainted and now: that Eleno stayed in the lower areas of the Tower in an attempt to stop the boosters. Shurelia was devastated at this revelation, and she cried for three full days. Rovar stayed at her side during all that time, dedicating all his time to take care of her. When Shurelia started recovering to the point she started smiling faintly again, Rovar told her he had one request for her: [Please, come to the Supreme Council with me].
====The Supreme Council and the Peace Conference====
The Supremer Council was created as a place where the people that took refugee during the great catastrophe and the ones who were living in the Wings of Horus beforehand could hold discussions. Its first Chairman was Fropth Yivardi, who was the president at the time, and it had a total of 100 deputies. At first it carried out tasks such as finding the whereabouts of the responsibles behind the catastrophe, and while it was a place where discussions were quite pessimistic in tone, a speech carried out by a young man that served as a subordinate to the president during his days as a bureaucrat, Neath Legin, changed everything. He loudly encouraged everyone and brought to their attention that it would be more important if they could accelerate their region's restoration as much as possible, which made Rovar Lony, who was in the Council as a representative of the engineer corps, stand up and voice his support for Neath's words. And a certain day, after attending the Council's sessions multiple times, Shurelia took a decision and stood on the podium. She announced that she, who knew most of the Tower's systems had designed a new Sound Science system called the "Silver Horn", which would allow everyone to receive the magic services by singing directly and without any need for a terminal. [There are knowledge about the systems of Ar tonelico and a hardwiring completed in a 10% living within me. I have drafted these bueprints based off that knowledge, so if the people make this system with me according to them, I think we should be able to revive Sound Science upon this world... However, there is one request I must make about it. Please, never use this new form of the Sound Science's power to harm other people under any circumstances.] President Fropth applauded her words, which multiplied in a circular fashion around them until the whole Council building was filled by the sound of clapping hands. In that same moment and place, the president promised her that Sound Science would never be used for warfare and instead would be used for peaceful purposes. And thus, they started recruited the engineers that had taken refuge and the people that had studied the most recent theories in Sound Science, and the construction of the Silver Horn started.
====Shurelia's Melancholy====
Shurelia was friends with two of the deputies from the Council, and among them, the one she was starting to feel fondness for was the adventurer who served directly under President Fropth: Neath, even though he didn't consider Shurelia as anything but a younger sister, while the one who had actually fallen in love with her was the one in charge of the planning for the Sylva Horn: Rovar. Time went by, and after Neath became the second president, he decided to build an airport on the land that was filled with memories for the three of them: the Tail of Reminiscence, and after he gave his seat as president to his successor, he departed on a journey to the ends of the world. Given that the construction of that aiport was something Rovar and even Neath himself had been opposed to a long time, this came as a great shock to Shurelia, who was so in love with him, and decided she didn't want to see him for a long time. She was so angry that she didn't even want to say a single word to Neath the day he left Sol Ciel, and while not even she herself understood it right then, this was the first time her relationships with others carved a wound into her heart. Shurelia didn't lose the love she had for the people, but she didn't want to establish any sort of deep relationships with anyone else afterwards.
====How Shurelia and Tastiella Met====
When her feelings for Neath swelled so much that she couldn't continue repressing them, there were a few days days in which Shurelia suffered greatly, but for some reason she also spent them in happiness. Her heart gradually grew until it could fit these boundless feelings. She had taken many outings on her to the Tail of Reminiscence, but about half of were just days in which she just left her mind blank while she gazed at the Silver Horn. Shurelia had the job of designing all sorts of Sound Science systems day after day, but these last few days, the frantic pace they had been working at finally slowed down for a bit.
And a certain day, while she was lying down at the Tail of Reminisncene and blankly staring at the sky and the Horn, something blocked her sight. It was a member of the race called the [Teru]. The Teru was straddling a broom and said as she looked at her with eyes as thin as the ones of the rabbits: [Hey, Miss. Could you give me some food, if you don't mind...?]
Shurelia gave her the lunchbox where she was carrying her own lunch (I can live without needing to eat at all, but I still really liked making these lunchboxes and going on picnics with "dad" all these years ago). But as she thought that, Shurelia notice something: that while the Teru should always be accompanied by a small fairy, this particular Teru didn't have one. [Huh? Where is your fairy?] The Teru just spouted out in response to Shurelia's nonchalant words:
[Well, you know... I'm still in training, and I'm right now in the middle of searching for my partner... It looks like all the other kids could find theirs in about 30 days, but I've been traveling for 70 days, without eating or drinking anything, and I still haven't found mine... Looks like there's no one who wants to get emotionally attached to me, huh...?] The Teru stated while she continued furiously devouring the food. Shurelia muttered: "This girl seems to be a drop-out.". [Well then, that makes us the same, right?]
[Huh? What makes us?] The Teru was amazed again at Shurelia's nonchalant words. [The fact we haven't gotten a partner that would look at us. I'm Shurelia. And you?] [I-I'm Tastiella.] Tastiella remained in that place, talking to Shurelia for a while, but afterwards she said it was time to get going.
[Once I've found my partner and turned into an adult, I'll make sure to help you find your "partner", Shurelia!] Shurelia started feeling embarrassed right away and energetically shook her head. [I-it's fine! I don't mind it...! After all... I can still, umm... Meet him everyday!] [...?] Tastiella thought about what Shurelia had just said for a couple instants, and after finally understanding what she meant, she cracked a smile. [Aha! So you've already got a guy you like, huh!? That's great! Ahh, the springtime of life! Don't be shy around him! And if you do so, your sis Tastiella will make your dreams true! Remember, I'm a Teru after all!] [T-That's good enough... (And she became... My sis out of a sudden now...)] [Okay, it's settled! I'm gonna go and catch my partner right away! Ah, thanks for the lunch! I'm never gonna forget how you saved me! See you!] And Tastiella flew off while she was still talking to Shurelia. Shurelia could do nothing but see her off silently while her face was completely colored in red.
After several days, Tastiella reappeared with a flying dragon perched on her shoulder. Tastiella pressed Shurelia to tell her with which man she wanted her love to be realized, but Shurelia refused to reveal it. Instead, Shurelia told Tastiella that she might be able to grant her a wish of a different kind. Tastiella gave Shurelia a star-shaped musical instrument called a Pentangle and left after telling her that if she ever needed her, she just needed to play it.
====Mir's Birth====
Shurelia had taught the humans how to create the [Purebloood Beta-Types] so they could face the threat of the abnormal beings, but the way the Pureblooded Beta-Type population went off the charts made her feel a slight tinge of anxiety. She had asked them [Please, never use the power of Sound Science for warfare or violence], and leaving out the usage they had done of it to face the abnormal beings, the people had kept their promise. However, she was betrayed in a way she hadn't realized; that they had created a Reyvateil that had no volition or feelings of her own: Mir. When she learned about this, Shurelia was greatly shocked. Mir provided the people during the period known as the Second Era with the best living environment and lifestyle that had been known by that point. Thanks to her providing them with complete ammenities when it came to matters such as urban infrastructure administration and climate control, the people could enjoy lives filled with freedom. They praised Mir, but only as as [system], as a tool. And the people gradually came to see and treat the other lifeforms that were the same as her, the Reyvateils, in that same way. The root of this was the [fear] the humans held of the Reyvateils being superior lifeforms to them in all aspects.
====Reyvateil Control====
The Reyvateils gradually started demonstrating a violent rage toward the humans who had created Mir, which led the situation to degenerate into a war-like state between humans and Reyvateils. Battles repeated over and over between the [Oldtypes], Reyvateils who opposed the humans, and the [Newtypes], new emotionless Reyvateils commanded by Mir and that were controlled by the humans. However, the [Oltypes] had such a numerical advantage at the time that, even including the newly born Reyvateils that were being produced back then, the humans were still being pushed back. And then, the humans' representatives finally decided to implement a [Reyvateil Control] in the Silver Horn and place Mir as its controller. This wasn't done to bring about peace or to contribute to society in any form, as it was made solely to oppress the Reyvateils. However, there was something the humans never realized, which is that Mir was to them a failed experiment because as time passed, emotions gradually sprouted within her, which were pity for the members of her own race and hatred for the humans to the point of cold-headedness. Thanks to her distinct intellect and processing power, she could successfully conceal the fact that she started having emotions and thoughts of her own, and she just waited for the [time] to come. Almost immediately after she was made the Silver Horn's controller, Mir seized the control over the entirety of the Horn's functions. She also connected to Ar tonelico through the Silver Horn and finally commenced her rebellion against the humans.
====Mir's Rebellion====
The attack Mir carried out after she seized the Silver Horn was severe in extreme. The security facilities, the central administration and all the essential functions were stopped, the network was thrown into disarray and the people became unable to use magic power. Because the people had arrested Shurelia, who had been appealing for peace, and they intended to [process] her to make her into an obedient individual, Mir started off by attacking the research facility where Shurelia was being analyzed, so they never got to actually start working on her. When Shurelia woke up, her senses brought her a disgusting scene of utter destruction. Therefore, no words of gratitude came out from Shurelia's mouth. [Why... did something like this...?]
[You are me. I am you. My actions are your actions] Mir replied as she smiled: she had hacked into Ar tonelico's center through the Silver Horn and was speaking to Shurelia using a Song. It was a gentle Song, just like a lullaby being sung by a mother to her child. Instantly, Shurelia felt repulsion within herself, as if her own body was being invaded. She felt as if something had just gotten crushed, and the next instant, the right Wing of Horus collapsed into the Sea of Death. Shurelia was left dumbfounded, and then, she asked Mir with a sorrowful voice. [You are an ally of the humans... So why...?]
Shurelia took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. [There's no things like allies or enemies here!] Shurelia had gotten a glimpse at Mir's heart, and she had the feeling that Mir had gotten something precious stolen from her. [What... do you think the people's lives are!?] Mir just replied [What do the people think our "lives" are?] Shurelia replied back instantly [You have no right to be saying these words! How many people do you think lost their lives in the collapse from a moment ago!? It's true the people were trying to eliminate the right the Reyvateils had to live. But I believed... I believed that as long as we continued living together, someday we would come to understand each other! You have just eliminated these wishes yourself!!]
Shurelia had decided to delete Mir, who herself served as the control for the entirety of the world. However, Mir felt her intentions right away, and the war between them started. Shurelia attacked, and she and Mir tried to exterminate each other. By that point, Mir had already diverted most of the Tower's resources to herself, so she had gotten an endless life and energy that was on the same level as Shurelia. As Mir had a faster clock speed, Shurelia was at her wits' end and could only await her defeat at the rate things were going. But when her lifeforce was reaching its limits, she remembered how she met a certain girl.
[Call me whenever you need my help...]
Tastiella was there, sitting on her broom and with the same innocent face she always had on. She had received all the feelings Shurelia was feeling, and thus, Tastiella started singing a single Song. It was a Teru Song, which are said to be an extremely rare listen to anyone.
Mir gradually started changing into Grathnode Crystals. However, Mir remained calm during this whole process. And while she showed a final smile, she told them this:
[Shurelia. The feelings you have and the ones I have might seem different at a mere glance. However, you are me. And I am you, therefore, I will remove you, who is an unnecessary part of me. I will make you the same as me for sure...]
====Special A-Class Virus "Shadow"====
In the instant Mir was turned into Grathnode Crystals, she moved her Soulspace through the Silver Horn and transmigratted herself into a spiritual lifeform inside Ar tonelico. She became a virus parasiting the Tower and resumed her attacks. This information virus that Mir had transformed into came to be called [Shadow]. And Shurelia then set out to devise countermeasures against Shadow with the help of the Teru.
The simplest way to delete Shadow would have be completely cutting off the Symphonic Power used by the Tower. But if they had done so, the Wings of Horus would have fallen, and the climate and atmosphering pressure would have become unbearable for the people. Shutting down the Symphonic Power for even a single instant was impossible. Methods like searching and debugging weren't giving them good results in the slightest, and meanwhile, the Tower continued being hacked and the people getting attacked. No one was able to think up of any other countermeasures they could use. Tastiella opened her mouth while putting on a grim face.
[There's only one way! But... Shurelia, we'll become the ones who will have to shoulder the burden of protecting her seal until this world ends...]
And as a result, they created the [Crescent Chronicle].
====The Crescent Chronicle====
The magical machine Crescent Chronicle was the final collaboration between the humans and Teru. Even after having transmigratted herself into the Tower, Shadow was still connected to the Grathnode Crystal-encased Mir, which meant it was possible to hack Shadow through her physical body. The Crescent Chronicle was a vaccine system that accessed Mir's body, and by extension to Shadow, to then force a HALT (stop) operation over the virus. While it was designed by Tastiella and Shurelia, Shurelia was unable to comprehend the entirety of the system, so it essentially was as if Tastiella had designed it on her own.
And by sacrificing her own body, Tastiella became the program itself for this device. It was as if she had volunteered herself to be a sacrifice. However, someone had to shoulder this duty in order to pin Shadow down, as it continued moving at extremely high speeds within the Tower. Even many centuries afterward, she continued confronting Shadow inside the Crescent Chronicle.
====The Pureblooded β-Type "Lune"====
The one who was entrusted with the precious mission of being the singer for the Crescent Chronicle was [Lune], the Reyvateil that at the time was said to be the most powerful one after Mir. Lune accepted this duty and started singing within the Crescent Chronicle at fixed intervals. The Reyvateils that were given this duty were called [Star Singers]. However, Lune was Pureblooded Beta-Type Reyvateil: one that had a limited lifespan. And since the Crescent Chronicle singers were required to sing for eternity, over many eras and centuries, it was necessary for them to pass down their position to the next generation. Their succession was carried out by transferring over a [Hymmnos]. The successor Star Singer would download that Hymmnos: [Chronicle Key], and by singing that Song inside the Crescent Chronicle, they were able to carry out their duties. Lune's genes were preserved and were afterwards used at periodic intervals to create a new Lune.
Thanks to the Crescent Chronicle, Shadow's attacks stopped and peace returned to this land. What remained after these events concluded were a destroyed civilization, a continent that was dropped into the Sea of Death, and only a handful of humans and Reyvateiels. The engineers and the Teru people who collaborated to seal Shadow away then established a set of rules and wrote them down into a document called the [Covenant of Elemia] (-> P. 86), so these tragedies would never repeat themselves again.
====Shurelia versus Mir====
Shurelia didn't defeat Mir. By the end of the Second Era, the techniques and technologies used for producing Pureblooded Beta-Types had surpassed by far their equivalents that existed in the First Era. While their lifespans and their bodies' toughness didn't change almost in anything, other elements like their ability to access facilities like the Silver Horn and the processing cycle speed for their Cosmospheres had advanced in a substantial way. And Mir, who was said to be the pinnacle among them all, had finally surpassed Shurelia in the processing speed front. So in situations like they attempting to convey their will to the Tower at the same time, Mir would definitely have beaten her.
====A Warm Restart====
Due to the Reyvateil War and Mir's Rebellion, which came right after it, Sol Ciel lost the [Right Wing of Horus] alongside the lives of many people. These events created large wounds in Shurelia's heart. The betrayal of the people, the Reyvateils going berserk, the collapse of the world. But despite this, Shurelia still believed on the people's conscience, and in order to stabilize the world, she took a decision: she would rid the world of the [Songs] and the magical power of the Grathnodes. That the people had created the Reyvateils, that they confronted each other and that evil feelings sprouted within their hearts were all because they had too much of a great power at their disposal. That great power caused their hearts to grow delusional and provoked them to create two tragic conclusions already. Yes, this world that has lost its land, seas and even sky has no further margin to catch the blows from the power of the [Songs] any more.
Shurelia banned Sound Science and established a new system in exchange for it. It was a technology system called [Grathmeld] and it was distributed by the Silver Horn after its systems were rewritten.
==The Third Era==
A world that lost half of its floating continent during the Reyvateil War. The people lived clinging to the legacy of their precedessor civilization: the Wings of Horus and a Tower of Ar tonelico that was on the brink of collapsing.
===Story of the Reconstruction===
The survivors gradually established their own districts, each of them becoming similar to self-governing provinces. Of the self-governing districts, the largest one was the Nemo District, which was dedicated to agriculture and was located in the hills around the Tower. Given its ideal position and population count, the Nemo District gradually grew until it became the center of civilization. A certain day, a man and a woman came to visit the Nemo District's landlord. The man was called Gasaki, while the woman was called Reira. They showed the landlord several tools that possessed mysterious powers and told the landlord they wanted to spread them throughout the world, so they had come to him in search of investors. Houmei, the landlord at the time, consented to become their investor and financed the construction of a research facility for them in the city. A little time passed and no one saw Reira ever again, but Grathmeld spread throughout the world after these events and brought prosperity to the people. Even though the world gradually started recovering its abundance, the people in it didn't ever establish a proper [nation]. Instead, two organizations eventually came to possess a powerful authority in it: the corporation [Tenba] and the [El Elemia Church]. As for the Reyvateils, the Pureblooded Beta-Types had pretty much disappeared from the scene already, so whenever anyone referred to a [Reyvateil], they were practically referring to the human halfbloods that were known as Third Generations.
===Important terms and incidents for this time period===
====Melder====
This term refers to the people that make use of "Grathmeld", the techniques to create various kinds of magic items from the Grathnodes. They grant the powers of the Grathnodes, the so-called "granted magic" to several objects, making them useful for everyday life. While Grathmeld is mainly a technique researched and developed by the [Tenba] corporation, the Church also has its own unique recipes. While it can make anything from medicine to tools for flying in the sky, lately there have been rumors going around about a melder organization that is researching even techniques that have transcended Grathmeld itself. It is said that if these techniques are ever completed, it should be possible to escape from this limited world. However, these techniques are nothing more than the Sound Science that used to thrive so much back in the First Era.
====Structure of Grathmeld====
The world of Ar tonelico is controlled by a single artificial lifeform called [Shurelia]. She is a lifeform whose emotions exist with the Tower, so she is the Tower herself. However, the Grathnode Inferia took place while her linkage to the Tower was still incomplete, so she eagerly saved the world with a hardwiring and knowledge level of just a 10% of the one she was expected to have. She led all the people that was possible to save in the [Wings of Horus], the floating continent above the Sea of Death that served as a ground for the experiments on the evolution of life the government carried out in extreme secrecy. Civilization was revived afterward, but it was destroyed once again by the people's own mistakes. And Shurelia modified the Tower's program so they wouldn't be able to use its magic power directly, and in replacement she constructed a technology system that would allow them to use simplistic magic through the Grathnodes. The magic is invoked through the following structure: Shurelia uses the Silver Horn to read the spectre emitted by the Grathnodes to then convert it into magical power. The current residents of the Wings of Horus are oblivious to this truth and use Grathmeld while believing that the Grathnode technologies are magic they are invoking with their own hands.
===The Attack on Skuwat Village===
The Battle of Skuwat Village was a conflict that sparked between the troops of Bourd, who was running away after having kidnapped Misha from the Crescent Chronicle, and the Teru who chased him. Bourd's raid on the Crescent Chronicle was carried out under the orders of Bishop Falss from the Church of El Elemia, or better said, Kyle Clancy. While he was ordered to kill Misha, the [Star Singer] due to her being an obstacle to their Mir Ressurrection Plan, Bourd was charmed by Misha's great powers and thus decided to bring her back to Tenba alive. Skuwat Village got dragged into this whole incident and destroyed, Aurica's and Claire's houses were burned down, and Aurica's parents were mercilessly slaughtered.
=Refences=
Category:General Information
Category:Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia
Category:Sol Ciel